《God′s Eyes》 Chapter 1：Glossary[Updated] Chapter for fundamental knowledge about rankings and uncertain facts Human cultivation ranks 0-Novice 1-Adept 2-Expert 3-Master 5-Grandmagus 6-Lord 7-Sovereign ? Beast-ranking 0-Wild ¨C (1 to 5 stars) 1-Awakened 2-Evolved 3-Unblemished 4-Magical 5- Guardian 6- Lord 7- Monarch ? Lifestyle occupation ranking: Rank-0= Apprentice Rank-1= Beginner Rank-2= Basic Rank-3= Intermediate Rank-4= Advanced Rank-5= Master Rank-6= Grandmaster Rank-7= Saint Zone ranks One- to four-star Wild zone=Wild, Awakened, Evolved, Unblemished rank Magic zone= Magical and Guardian Rank Forbidden zone=everything above Rift ranking(average combat strength) -One- to four-star rift= Wild, Awakened, Evolved, Unblemished rank -FIve-star rift= Magical rank Hell= between Guardian&Lord rank Abyss= above Monarch rank Overall strength determined through: Soul 1. Soul energy 2. Soul size 3. Soul affinity/type -->Soulbond/Soulbeast Humans can form soulbonds with beasts, forming a connection and sharing their strength. This causes the beasts¡ä intelligence and other aspects to increase while humans receive a share of the beast''s strength while the percentage share is determined by the soul once awakened. Furthermore, the chances to get an elemental affinity from their soulbond(if it has a certain degree of control over the element) is certain --[[(Small spoiler) To prevent misunderstandings for the future¡ú It is healthier for the body and one''s mind to form a soulbond with a beast cub instead of a matured beast because one can slowly adjust to the increase in one''s strength while the beast cub grows concurrently with the master. Adding to the fact that it''s logically easier to tame an innocent and untained beast than a bloodthirsty beast and also the shared emotions, the psychical effect could be devastating. ¡ú You may think of it like this =While sparring with a friend you get injured. Because your soulbond feels the pain it went berserk, because it thinks it''s a life and death battle or simply because of its wild instincts. These instincts can¡ät be buried completely but still slightly lessened if you form a bond with a cub and teach it properly.]]-- -->Mana Core Mana is a mysterious energy that resides in every living being and the human body can increase its limits with it reinforcing the life force. The higher the amount of mana and its purity in the mana core the longer one can live and the stronger one would be. -->Physique Strengthened through constant mana tempering(mana core rank), special traits, or soulbond !![Required soul energy units to contract and control beasts] 1)Wild beast= 0.1-10 S.E.U(Soul energy units) 2)Awakened=11-100 S.E.U 3)Evolved= 101-499 S.E.U 4)Unblemished= 500-2000 S.E.U 5)Magical=2.000-10.000 S.E.U 6)Guardian= 10.000-100.000 S.E.U 7) Lord=100.000-(?) S.E.U 8)Monarch=1-10 Soul crystals!! (1 Soul crystals=? S.E.U) Example [Remark! Soul crystals can''t be used to increase S.E.U anymore! That means if someone possesses enough S.E.U to create 1 Soul Crystals, one can only use the remaining soul energy units to improve them further! Furthermore compressing a Soul crystal needs further requirements to be met!] Chapter 2：World Bridge-Prologue [Author''s note: If you don''t like Info-dumps, skip the first 1.5 Chapters <3] There was a single inhabitable planet called Argos, revolving around the humongous sun with dozens of gaseous planets filling the stellar system. The planet flourished until the intelligent bipedal race which called themselves humans entered the big picture. This intelligent race socialized, gathered up to survive, and advanced with the help of each other. Over hundreds of years, humanity was able to generate energy to mechanize, automate machines, and prospered. Humanity''s history was short compared to the history of the whole planet but they used up more limited natural resources than any other race ever did before. Argos was humongous but the population of the human race broke through the three-digit billions as if it was nothing and humanity''s living space reached its limits with its construction abilities after an additional hundred years. They had to leave the solar system to find new planets to continue their growth and advancement but it was easier said than done as the speed of light and theories weren¡ät easy to achieve which was one essential requirement to leave the solar system to explore new solar systems. Many humans even prayed to whoever god they wanted to, that something would change and they would make a breakthrough in space traveling. Years passed and a sudden meteor shower shocked humanity to the bones as the furthest planet on the same stellar system was pierced by them, shattering into millions of pieces without any effort. The meteor shower''s appearance and disappearance happened in an extremely short span of time but the most important known fact was, that the meteor shower came from outside the solar system without anyone noticing it. One could say humanity''s prayers were answered as scientists picked up a few remains of the meteorites which were made out of an unknown material never seen before. The meteors radiated cold but tranquil energy, causing the tense surrounding to release their tension subconsciously. This energy was much more powerful than any energy ever discovered by humanity and it was even stronger than nature''s laws as it made the meteorite float slightly in the air. Researching the meteorite, many things were found out. For example, the radiating energy from the meteorites could accelerate the growing speed of plants and animals around them. The scientists researching the meteorite felt more vigorous, slowly grew stronger and it even looked like their aging speed decelerated which made the other humans envious. One day, years after the first research about the meteorite began, cracks began to spread over the meteorite''s surface without any warning signs, and an unmeasurable amount of the still unknown energy began to condense into a blue shining liquid-like ball that peeled its outer stone skin and ascended into the sky. While most humans around the world were still working, nature felt a sudden fate-changing event and whole wildlife went silent. Only humans at the other side of the planet far away from the laboratory where the meteorites assembled didn''t feel anything. The blue shining ball with the accumulated mysterious energy continued its ascension until it reached a certain height, where it floated peril, without moving a single inch. All humans around the laboratory were anxious and horrified because of the unknown. It caused them goosebumps and they imagined dreadful scenarios without being able to do anything at all. Some humans with a weaker will started crying, while others hugged each other trying to find comfort and others could only stare into the sky with a blank mind, not being able to think straight. The liquid-ball seemed to get stronger, as a suction force spread around it while it¡äs size decreased over time. Distancing themselves from the suction force that seemed to get stronger over time, mankind could only look high into the sky. The amount of compressed energy inside this tennis ball-sized blue shining ball was huge enough to devastate at least half of the continent if not the whole planet. Time passed and the scientists suddenly noticed a surprising change within the blue shining ball, causing them to get even more nervous. Luckily the energy was floating tranquil and stable until it reached the size of a ping pong ball. The compressed energy was getting more and more unstable after reaching a certain threshold and it trembled violently, terrifying the surrounding humans. At this moment even the humans on the other side of Argos noticed that something was wrong and the whole livelihood of the planet tensed up, not being able to move freely. It was as if the planet itself was under a threat by the single little energy ball as nature was as quiet as never before in its history of billions of years. Space seemed to twist suddenly and blood-red cobweb-like cracks formed below the energy ball leading the energy ball to a more stable constitution. The more cracks appeared the less violently was the energy ball seemingly becoming more stabler and some humans sighed in relief Not only did these cracks appear close to the blue shining ball, rather these cracks appeared all around Argos, in the ocean, inside the jungle, underground, even high in the sky, almost everywhere one could think of. On one side they felt relieved that the blue shining energy ball didn''t explode while on the other side the red cracks didn''t seem to be something one wanted to have on one''s planet either. The cracks all over the planet grew in size until they reached a certain magnitude. Some were bigger while others were small in size but all of them had one particular fact in common. While its frame was blood-red space inside was pitch-black, without letting a single sunray lightening up the interior. It looked like the way to the abyss and it frightened the living beings around the cracks. Right at this moment one of the worst scenarios the scientists feared happened in front of them. The seemingly stable energy continued to compress itself causing it to explode. Astronomical amounts of mysterious energy were released causing the blood-red cracks to shake violently, twisting the space around additionally. Surprisingly the enormous amount of energy didn¡ät devastate the landscape, rather than that it enveloped the whole planet with its blue shining color before invading every living being and the planet itself until it reached the core. Not a single cell was spared and the whole planet jolted, creating earthquakes and tsunamis, volcano outbreaks, as it was invaded by the unknown energy. Unknowingly to humanity, Argos¡ä shackles from billions of years ago were released and its core was resurrected. The former pitch-black abyss like the inside of the blood-red cracks changed into hundreds of different colorful landscapes. While many of these landscapes looked beautiful with majestic mountains, lively forest, and clean oceans, the sight of other cracks wasn''t as joyful and beautiful as mankind thought a moment before. Hideous-looking creatures with razor-sharp teeth, thick scales, massive tails, and bloodthirst in their eyes stepped through a certain crack while various other dreadful beings entered Argos through the various cracks Bridges between different worlds appeared and Argos entered a new dark age of devastation and death. Chapter 3：Dead Eyes "Jason tell us about the chronicles right after the dark-age began!" a deep but somehow scholarly voice resounded inside the small classroom. A young 13-year-old boy stood up from his chair with a straight back facing the front without looking anywhere in particular, as he began to narrate the events from 300 years ago. "300 years ago the invasion of foreign races and wild beasts began because the mana outbreak that occurred during this time The mana outbreak created rifts to other planes that linked them with Argos for some reason we don¡ät know. In the beginning, humanity was unaware of the invasion of foreign races. They were still shocked by the mysterious energy explosion and the creation of blood-red cracks with landscapes behind them. Later on news about the appearance of tall, bulky and humanoid-like race with huge wings, ravenlike heads and medieval-looking weapons overshadowed the explosion of the overly compressed "mana" ball with the invasion of the unknown energy we now call [Mana] inside every living being to the essence including the planet. Unfortunately, humanity wasn''t prepared to fight back against an invasion of excessively terrifying existences and suffered huge losses. The [Corvi] race wasn¡ät the only invading race and many intelligent races entered Argos, transforming the planet into a battlefield between them, leaving humanity as cannon fodder for each other. Humanity tried to fight back but their weapons were completely useless against these foreign races, as they protected themselves with a membrane of mana. This mana membrane deflected bullets and even bombing was useless against them. Humanity suffered and had to withdraw to the smallest continent on Argos¡ä also called Canir with their surrounding Archipelago of around 40 small islands. Canir, where most humans are living now has the smallest amount of permanent rifts and the permanent rift, fortunately, connected none of the intelligent bipedal race planes with Argos. The only permanent rifts it had were worlds with beasts that invaded Argos quite often because of their wild instincts and desire to massacre humans. Even if they had everything they needed on their own side, these powerful beasts continued their attack not caring about the losses of humanity and even they themselves had to suffer once in a while. Meanwhile, the Archipelagos had a few more permanent rifts and a huge problem with the overpopulation of beasts. They didn¡ät receive much support from the main continent, as nobody was able to fight these existences head-on. Humanity lost more than 90% of its population that had not a single effective way to fight back except using fire against fire. It took them a long time but after years of experimenting and a huge amount of luck, humanity was able to handle mana more easily. Some could manipulate earth while others could control water as if it was the extensions of their arms. But humans don''t own an innate element they could use their mana with. Rather than a bane, it was a blessing in disguise. Maybe it was luck or destiny, as a young and courageous or more likely naive teenager saved the cub of an invading beast from getting killed. After the cub was saved, the youth was also almost abducted and killed by other humans because it was seen as a threat. This particular cub wanted to protect Its savior as it bit instinctively into the finger of the youth, subconsciously forming the so-called soulbond contract between each other with the appearance of bright shining light." Jason stopped for a second and took a few deep breaths before he continued his narration "The whole process about the first soulbond is described in a dozen-sided text but I will skip most of it." "Unknowingly to everyone else, the youth felt a connection between himself and the beast cub slowly building up and even more importantly, he felt a connection to a certain element. Using mana, he could feel the connection to the cub¡äs affinity and he was somehow even able to use it to a certain extent. Furthermore, after forming the contract the youth found out that his constitution increased to a certain extent and it continues to grow with its bound. Through the soulbond the contractor''s constitution would receive an amplification which influenced everything around the contractor. That was how mankind found out about the soul awakening and soulbond contracts. With this important find, the exploration of rifts to other planes with weaker beasts began. Many other things were additionally found out. For example, not every beast was compatible with each human but even so, they were desperately trying to gain strength. To find out if a human was compatible with other elements they created certain relics with the remains of artifacts from the battlefield of other races. As such, mankind could awaken ones¡ä soul, which would show what type of beast one could form a contract with in addition to the compatible affinity. Everyone wanted to form a contract with strong beasts but it was only obvious that these beasts wouldn''t just look at their cubs getting kidnapped. A war between beasts and humans started with the beasts on the winning side. Even if humanity was losing out, some cubs were still caught and more and more humans got to use their bounds¡ä elements. Humanity suffered many losses but they didn''t retreat without any gains. They grew stronger with each day passing, while the amplification of their soulbond¡äs increased the overall combat prowess of humanity by a large margin. While only around one billion humans were left, they grew stronger and stronger each day they absorbed the natural mana, Argos began to generate since the mana outbreak. Nature and mana worked together against humanity as plants, stimulated by mana began to grow more than ten times faster while the strength of animals increased, the more mana they absorb- This increased the reproduction ability in addition to the strengthened constitutions they received from mana. Evolving wasn¡ät a fantasy anymore and millions of new races emerged from wildlife and evolved plants were sometimes even able to achieve sentience while animals were able to acquire an element affinity. Humanity was forced to gather together in order to build a few fortress-like cities close together in order to survive without getting overwhelmed by beast tides. While the first rifts were the biggest problem at the beginning, the numbers of evolved wild beasts were getting more and more threatening, forcing humans to increase their military power more and more. On Canir 12 permanent rifts exist while some of them are.." *DING DANG DONG* "That''s enough for today, Jason, your reproduction was good." The school bell rang and the teacher left the classroom Jason was still standing there with his feeble build, patiently waiting for everyone to leave. He had short black hair and pretty facial features. If his hair were longer, many would mistake him for a girl. With his tender age of 13 years, he had still had some childish features but he wasn''t chubby as he didn''t eat much. His eyes however were Jason''s most special feature, as they looked like a dead fish without the slightest trace of life within. A fortune-teller predicted that his eyes were the most important asset in addition to his beautiful soul when he was born, however, that was only a dream for the young Jason at the moment, something unattainable one wanted to happen sometime in the future. Jason thought of it as a bad joke because he was born with malfunctioned optic nerves. His mother was said to have special eyes but he had never seen her obviously. She worked at a big and respected family, that was said to treat their workers as if they were part of their family. However, one day an evening a few years ago when his mother should have been already at home, a butler came over to their apartment with a tearful voice and something heavy in his hands, a briefcase The butler told him that his mother died during a spar between their family''s patriarch and another big clan''s heir. Apparently, there were some disputes during a party with multiple important personalities of large families involved, which resulted in the foreign heir getting disgraced and humiliated. The foreign heir was aware of the intimate bond between the servants and the Cerus family. As such he went on a rampage and it was said that more than ten servants died before he was finally stopped. It was a disaster and the whole party was immediately disbanded and the Cerus family was dismayed, filled with anger because of the deceased employees. Having money and the power to subdue small families like the Cerus-family, the opposite heir chose money to shut down the families who lost their loved ones. Not even the media dared to release any news about the accident that happened. The family-like employer knew about Jason''s situation and they offered some help but Jason couldn''t comprehend what happened as he was still a child without any experience of death. The butler gave Jason his condolence and laid down the briefcase next to Jason, where he would be able to reach it before he decided to leave the blind boy alone within the lonely apartment. He didn''t even know the name of his mother''s killer, because nobody answered his pleadings about the whereabouts of the murderer and only the family name of his mother''s employer was branded in his mind. ''Cerus'' He wasn¡ät even able to cry, as the wrath, frustration, agony, and sorrow were subdued deep within himself. But how could Jason hate the Cerus family as they treated his mother so well before the accident happened? His father was said to have been the chairman of a large company governed by the Federation, backed by his family and other authorities. Apparently, he wasn''t scared about anything at all, but that was a mistake. A feud with a certain family he got involved with caused the annihilation of his family and his companies destruction. Only he and his wife were left. His mental situation got worse as he became an alcoholic and gambler who lost a few hundred million credits, amassing a huge amount of debts. His mother told Jason, that she left his father before anything could happen when she noticed that she was pregnant with him. The story was clear, but Jason didn''t believe her story at all. The Cerus family took both of them in but Jason was suspicious because he had never heard anything else about his father before while only his mother knew who he was. Not a single picture was taken or stories told, but Jason didn''t suffer because of that as he didn¡ät need a father. His mother was everything he needed¡­. She was grateful for the Cerus family and decided to work for them with her special eyes. Who would have thought that her decision would kill her someday? Jason didn''t know what her eyes could do but apparently, they were special enough to bring up a child and herself. The Cerus family gave Jason an allowance and the opportunity to enter a decent middle school even after his mother died. For Jason however, this money wasn''t even close to replacing his mother who raised him up alone with much love even with his eyesight problems. He had nobody by his side and he was lonely in such a dangerous world. Chapter 4：Lonely youth Being blind and an orphan were Jason¡äs only disadvantages which many classmates used to make fun of him as he was intelligent, diligent, and ambitious, placing him above everyone else at every theoretical exam. His other senses were essentially refined and Jason could survive within Artes-city, he lived in. But in the age of martial arts and soulbonds, Jason was seen as a parasite, because he couldn''t even defend himself against the weakest ranked beast. He had to rely on others in order to survive once a beast breakout occurs. The only thing Jason had, were credits. However, credits were almost useless to him as he couldn''t do much with them. Jason''s living expenses were marginal as he had a cheap and smelly apartment and no appetite since years ago. He could probably live his whole life without lifting a finger, but that wasn''t what he wanted. Jason''s dearest wish was to see something and to work hard to prevent anyone making fun of him ever again. Another important thing he wanted was to find out who killed his mother. Jason wasn''t sure what he would do with this information but he wanted to know if this mysterious heir was apologetic to have killed someone''s loved ones or if he didn''t care at all about poor families'' losses. After that, he would think about what to do, even if it was something extremely dumb. Thinking about his mother made Jason extremely angry and frustration spread through his every cell in his body, as he remembered that his mother told him something important before she was murdered Due to her special eyes, she understood Jason¡äs situation somehow as she went through a similar situation. After testing a few things she told Jason, that he might be able to see sometime in the future. His optic nerves weren''t malfunctioning; rather there was a blockade preventing the transfer of information and energy from the brain to the eye and the opposite direction. Inside his eyeballs were empty marble-like orbs which were normally filled with mana like it was in his mother''s case. However, Jason''s were completely empty and thus he couldn''t see anything at all. When Jason was 4 years old he asked his mother why he couldn''t see and she told him that there was an empty and lonely marble behind each of his eyes. They wanted some friends and had tofill them with the shining particles that were present everywhere. She showed his son the flow of mana by inserting some of it into Jason and continued her explaining that the mana had to gather inside the marbles so they wouldn''t be unhappy anymore. When the marbles would be filled mana Jason would be able to see. The young Jason was determined to gather this mana inside the ''marbles'' inside his eye to make them happy again. Unknowingly Jason started to feel the mana around him extremely early on and he led it inside the marbles every day for hours over the course of years. In the beginning, he controlled it crudely into his eyes which would hurt a little bit and his mother supported him diligently. After the first few tries, Jason¡äs precision was getting better and better and he didn¡ät need his mother¡äs support anymore He was diligent and trusted his mother more than anyone else so he continued to lead the mana and fill the marbles inside his eyeballs for almost ten years now. Normally youths at the average age of 10 would slowly start feeling the flow of mana and start gathering it to strengthen themselves and improve the rank of their mana core to gather more of it and strengthen themselves. Every living being holds a mana core or something similar somewhere on their body while almost all humans had their mana core at the abdomen. While humans are born with a mana core, wild beasts have to form them over a long period of time until they reach the rank of a magical beast. The first few commonly known beast ranks are Wild-Awakened-Evolved-Unblemished-Magical. Wild beasts are extremely weak and comparable to the weakest rank of the human ranks also called Novice. Jason''s blindness which was his disadvantage had a disguised usage, as his other senses were exceptionally distinct. He began to feel mana at the tender age of four due to his mother¡äs story and the exceptional senses he had. Jason had a 6 years advantage over the average children to strengthen himself and improve his mana core but he used the mana he sensed to gather it somewhere else in order to to be able to see. His mana core rank was still at the lowest possible rank, also called the 1st Novice rank while his brethren were already around the 8th Novice rank and extremely close to the Adept rank which would enhance their mana core and strength multiple times. Almost 10 years passed and Jason never stopped using mana for something else as his eyes which made his body and mana core size weaker than everyone else around him. One¡äs control over mana and sensing ability was an indicator of how fast one would be able to increase the mana core ranking by absorbing and refining mana into it. After the Novice rank came the Adept rank and after that, the Expert rank followed suit. While the Novice rank was roughly comparable to wild beast ranks, the Adept and Expert ranks were slightly weaker compared to the awakened and evolved ranks because the strength of beasts increased slightly more than a human''s constitution. After 10 years of hard work, Jason noticed that the marbles inside his eyes were almost completely filled and it would only take a few days until he achieved his long-desired dream. His middle school days were also almost over as only a few weeks were left. At the end of middle school, everyone would get to form their first soulbond contract after they awoke their soul. The age of 13 to 14 years was the perfect time to awake one soul and after the soul-awakening finished, the hierarchy system began its work, dividing talented people and human trash in order to give prodigies a perfect nurturing Soul bounds were extremely important because one could get elemental abilities from them and even a part of their physical strength would be shared with the master according to the master''s soul. With a good soulbond, one could be stronger than an awakened beast while being at the Adept rank which was normally weaker than awakened ranked beasts. One would get tested about their soul energy, the size of one''s soul indicating the number of contracts one could form, and which type of soul one had or rather said the affinity the soul was drawn to. As previously mentioned not every human was compatible with each beast. There were a few different types of souls such as elemental souls with fire, water, earth, wind, and so on. Most elemental souls had only one element while some rarer ones had two elements. Prodigies had 3 or more while souls with up to 5 or more elements were called God¡äs Children. Having 5 elements also indicated that one could form a contract with at least five beasts as each element would accept at least one Beast. That however doesn¡ät mean that a single element could only hold one contract. But it was more likely that a single elemental soul was weaker than a soul with many elements. There were also physical souls that allowed humans to hold non-elemental beasts like goblins, orcs, trolls, minotaurs, and many more. Physical souls would increase the shared percentage of strength even more compared to elemental souls as non-elemental soulbonds wouldn¡ät provide any elemental ability. It could be double the amount or even more. The first contract one would form, was also said to be the most important one, as one would share one''s whole life with the soulbond. If it died, your soul would be partially destroyed while it would take a long time to regenerate. Getting a soulbond in middle school was important as the first contracted beast were either caught cubs, eggs, or younglings from beast breeders. The first soulbond contract would either be an egg or a very young cub as it was the easiest to gain their trust and improve one''s physique slowly as one would get stronger with the beast''s maturity. If Jason ranked first place in the C-grade city Artes, he was living in, he would have the chance to pick a beast as the first one which was what he wanted in the beginning. Furthermore, he would have the chance to enter a decent High-school, which was even more important. But this wasn''t easy as Artes city, Jason was living in and had more than 10 million citizens and almost 250 thousand middle school graduates this year due to the still increased benefits for giving birth since one would receive from the government. After the Cataclysm humanity lost 99% of its population but after the baby boom started around 50 years ago caused by the benefits the government distributed, the population reached officially more than 30 billion some time ago. The number was probably higher but the high death stroll, birth rate, and unknown numbers made the calculation more difficult. Jason lived on one of the smaller islands called Astrix which was already overpopulated by not only beasts but also humans as it was one of the smallest and cheapest islands to live on. Over 300 million humans lived on Astrix and the number was still growing. The island had 3 permanent rifts connecting it with other planets and planes. While one permanent rift was situated in the ocean close to the island the other two permanent rifts were connected to low-grade worlds with magical beasts as the strongest ranked beast. Canir was a huge continent compared to Astrix and the other islands, where most people lived on. It had enough space for humans but they were threatened by wildlife and it was impossible to live in the wilderness without the support of strong individuals but the most threatening known fact was, that there were many wars in recent years on Canir against the invading intelligent races that began to cross the ocean. On their home grounds and after 300 years of advancement, humanity was fortunately at least able to defend themselves on Canir. Some cities were huge and crowded due to their safety while lower graded cities were surrounded by low graded wild zones turning them into a safe victinity. Cities were protected by advanced defense measures like mana domes and it is difficult for beasts to invade these spheres without getting noticed by anyone. Nevertheless, nobody could ensure one¡äs safety outside a city as even the weakest wild zones were said to be overpopulated by wild-beasts. Not even the tiniest spot outside cities could be described as completely safe and most areas with dense and overgrowing wildlife were completely abandoned by humanity. Before the mana outbreak occurred almost every corner on the land was explored but now, not even half of Canir was explored while the islands had only a few large areas that were way too dangerous for the humans living there Jason wanted to be the first out of the bunch of middle school graduates but he would need to master the theoretical exam and the practical exam which was impossible for him to exceed in. The last test was also called the martial arts exam and it was Jason''s weakest grade as he was beaten up every time in school Receiving 0 points at the most important exam would be devastating and would result in him ending as one of the last ones to pick a beast to form a contract with and only a minuscule chance to enter a decent high school. But right now Jason didn''t care about these tests at all as he focused the mana around him to gather inside his eyeballs. Obtaining a decent soulbond was important but at the moment, his eyesight was even more important for Jason. He believed that it was the right decision to finish one step after another and even if Jason started to train his body and mana core right now, it would almost be useless to break into the second or third Novice rank as it was still way weaker than anyone else. But being able to see would change almost everything, which was what Jason believed and relied on. Going home the same way as every day with his cane in the left hand, Jason needed almost an hour to arrive at home, if one could call it that. It was a small room with a bed, a fridge, and it was connected to a small bathroom. The worst, however, was, that it smelled and it felt filthy but Jason felt like the same on his inside since his mother died so it was quite comfortable. Maybe he would lease a different apartment once he would be able to see, but that was something to think of later. Sitting down on the bed, Jason continued gathering mana inside his eyes like every day until late at night when his belly growled. Opening the fridge he found out that it was almost empty after feeling around the inside. Jason used the AI of his smartphone to deliver him some bread loaves, sausages, and so on. As it was set to arrive the next morning, Jason washed up and took his clothes off, and went into the bed to sleep. *A few days later* It was the weekend and Jason sat on his bet gathering the mana around him. He felt that today was the day he has waited for years and it was the first time for Jason to be excited again, as his heart thumped loudly. The ''marbles'' inside his eyeballs were filled to the brim and Jason''s eye and optic nerves began to itch uncontrollably, making him feel extremely uncomfortable. Suddenly it felt as if thousands of paper-thin but also razor-sharp needles penetrated his eyes and the optic nerves and blood began to flow out of his eyes. It almost looked like Jason was insane, as he cried out in pain with blood dripping out of his eyes. The pain was almost unbearable and Jason suffered pain he had never felt before but he had to endure it. He didn''t know how much time exactly passed but Jason felt extremely exhausted. His eyes which were previously closed due to the pain, slowly opened and Jason''s previous lifeless eyes were replaced by two brightly shining and vigorous golden eyes flickering in the darkness. Chapter 5：Seeing the unseen Opening his eyes slowly, the first thing Jason saw was an empty cracked wall that looked extremely filthy exactly as he expected. Jason didn''t know which color it was as he had never seen any color before but the color looked old and in some areas, it was puffed up. The room itself was in a single monotonous color while it looked like the room was smaller than he had imagined. Over the last few days, Jason researched a lot about humans'' senses with the help of his smartphone¡äs AI as he wanted to check out if his eyes worked properly after awakening them or not. He noticed that something was not normal as he could see something he estimated to be the mana flow which he previously only felt before. Jason was only sure, that it was the mana flow as he saw it flowing through him and the sensation he felt was the same Jason was the most familiar with. He was able to see the mana flow! That was something an average human couldn''t do.. at least that was what the AI told him. Full of excitement Jason stormed out of his room, ran down the stairs, and left the building as fast as possible, only to see that it was already dark outside, with a few lamps at the street, lightening the gloomy streets up. ''Is this darkness the night? It''s already so late?? How unfortunate¡­'' Jason thought visibly frustrated. He felt a little bit down because he couldn¡ät explore the city right now, but it didn¡ät matter, as he was able to see anyway. Jason was still able to walk through the city on the next day, as time was the thing he had more than enough. Looking at his phone and noticed a set of numbers in a white font. He couldn¡ät read the numbers but the AI told him the time. ''Yep, it''s already night!'' nevertheless, Jason was excited. It was the first time seeing anything and everything looked interesting. Jumping around like a small child, it was the first time in years that he was happy and without worries. He matured faster than most youths and Jason was already thinking like a responsible adult. The worries over his exams vanished by the sight of lights, buildings, and even his smartphone as he grew even more joyous. But he had to calm down, as it was already past midnight and he didn''t want to draw too much attention. Going back to his room he inspected every piece of furniture inside the building, but his finds were rather disappointing as the whole building looked old and was marked by the flow of time. There were only old-looking and tattered furniture. Even if it was new to Jason it still looked a little bit disgusting. Jason finally understood why the price for his room was so cheap in contrast to the other rooms he looked up with the help of his smartphone¡äs AI. He laid down on his bed and decided to search for landscapes and colors online, to understand which name was assigned for each color as he was way too excited to sleep right now. Hours passed and Jason fell into a deep sleep with a bright smile on his face. Waking up after a few hours of sleep Jason washed up, changed into a different set of clothes, and went outside with fast steps. Before sleeping he had looked up many landscapes and beasts to get to know what some of them looked like. Jason also looked up information about foreign races that invaded Argos 300 years ago and he was astounded to see their looks. A particular race jumped into Jason¡äs view with its height of four meters, four muscular legs, the lower body was covered in black scales, broad upper body was slightly different with all kinds of horrifying deformed faces plastering it. The head was the only thing comparable to human facial features but its eyes were that of a lizard, while a bone armor covered its six arms. Crystals stood out of its back which were the race''s mana storages. That was almost everything known by the public about this race other than its name This race was called Gallier and it was one of the most dangerous invading intelligent races as it harvested and recycled the corpses it killed. Luckily there weren''t many of them but Jason was still horrified and it was time for him to go to the toilet before he wanted to go outside. Going out for a walk inside the city, Jason primarily focused on the people around him with their either expensive or cheap-looking clothes, makeup, facial expressions, and many more details he could finally see. It was interesting to see the different compostures. Rich-looking people had a confident facial expression and a straight back while some poorer looking ones were going through the streets with a bent back their gaze focused on the concrete. Some people noticed his gaze and some avoided his eyes while others glared back at him. Jason noted that and he thought he should stop staring at them as their gazes were uncomfortable for him and Jason continued his walk until he arrived at a park. At least he thought it was a park as he saw a sign but obviously he couldn''t read it. With the help of the AI he found out what the sign said and it was a park as Jason thought. Looking around the park, Jason noticed that there weren''t many people within the park right now but everyone Jason saw had a beast nearby them. These beasts were probably their soul bounds and it was as if they were going for a walk or playing together. Most soulbound beasts he saw were rather cute and small looking like normal animals before the mana outbreak. There were many fluffy beasts and also a few beautiful looking ones. But one thing was uncertain for him. `Why were these beasts radiating different shining colors?` Most of the beasts didn¡ät radiate any color whereas some radiated a feeble black color. There were even some beasts radiating a slightly stronger light-grey color and Jason wondered whats going on. Jason even saw one or two beasts that had a dark green light enveloping them and these beasts were also looking stronger than the other ones without color or black and light-gray color radiating. Looking at the enveloping color hurt Jason''s eyes after a few minutes and the enveloped color vanished. Jason noticed that it took a toll on him if he wanted to look at the radiating colors. After these colors vanished with the incoming pain and Jason noted that the mana flow around him was suddenly more difficult to see. This wondered him ''Are these colors indicators for the beast''s strength or something else and why does it drain so much of my energy?'' He felt weak and it took him some time before he could see the mana flow again without any obstruction. Jason noticed that his eyes could infinitely look at the flow of mana as if it was normal while looking at the radiating colors of beasts drained some of his mana. It was as if his eyes had a passive effect to look at the mana flow while it was an active ''skill'' to see these colors like in a game. He had heard many things about games as listening to gaming broadcasts was interesting for quite some time until he noticed that he wasted too much of his time for it without gathering mana into his eyeballs. Jason tried this theory and noticed that it was really the case. Subconsciously, Jason could activate and deactivate his ability to see the radiating colors of beasts. The pain his eyes had to endure lessened noticeable and Jason replenished the lost energy with a constant supply of mana. His control over mana was superior compared to his peers because he had a proficiency of almost 10 years with precise movements in order to not hurt his eyes. Furthermore, his senses were extremely distinct, adding another reason for his superior mana control. One wrong move with his mana and he would have shattered the marble which he fortunately didn''t know. His mother only told him that he had to be careful and Jason had always listened to her. Seeing these soul bound beasts, Jason was reminded that there were only around 5 days left until the final exams and he decided to go home. There was a particular problem he noticed. Chapter 6：Keeping the secret If the news about his cured eyes came out before the exam began, he would be in more trouble than he previously thought of. Thinking about his cured eyes was delightful but on the other side Jason couldn''t read and once his eyes were exposed and found out that he could see, he had to write a normal written exam like everyone else, without the help of the AI¡äs saying what''s written down on the holographic screen. The problem was that Jason couldn''t read and write! He didn''t even know a single thing including the alphabet and had to learn it slowly. How should he be able to write down theories about the mana outbreak in a highly technical language? There was no way that Jason was able to learn how to read and write in a little bit more than 4 days including the important terms. So Jason made up his mind and decided to fake being blind until the exam ended or else he had to write the theoretical exam, which would end up with a devastating result, destroying his dream of attending at least the worst possible high-school. Another thing Jason could do was to ask the Cerus family for help, so he could reveal his eyes without worries but he didn''t want to do that, as he relied more than enough on this family. He would keep his eyes a secret until he finished middle school and would reveal his eyes when he entered high school which was still questionable for him. Many thoughts run through his mind `Will I be able to attend a school? What''s the use of attending the worst high-school in a C-grade city? Should I just start working somewhere?` Feeling tormented by his own questions, Jason sighed frustrated. As for resources high-schools provided, the most important reason for Jason would be to learn many martial art techniques and battle skills but thinking about the martial art techniques provided by C-grade cities or rather their worst high-schools, Jason could only frown deeply. `Is it really worth the effort?` Jason didn¡ät want to be a laborer as they were exploited and earned only enough to stay alive, as such not many occupations could be chosen by him if he only finished middle school. For now, Jason would have to do a few things. The most important thing was that he had to score 100% on the theoretical questions because he didn''t want to have his soul-awakening and pick a soulbond as the last student. While the soul-awakening score was unpredictable, Jason was sure that he would get zero points for combat technique and zero points for his Novice-1 mana core and miserable strength. The soul-awakening was on the same day when one would pick the soulbond which was the reason it wasn¡ät included in the exam results to decide the order to pick one''s soulbond. Even with a 100% theoretical score, Jason would be at most in the middle section but more likely in the lower section to pick a soulbond which annoyed him slightly. He didn¡ät want to be blind and Jason frowned thinking about the unfair world... It was good that his eyes were doing fine and they were even something special like his mother told him but seeing wouldn¡ät instantly solve all of his problems. Calming down, he continued his walking around and his mood changed completely as the skyscrapers around the park looked amazing and Jason marveled at almost everything. Going back home due to exhaustion Jason bought the beginner book for reading and writing most children would use. Jason used his old smartphone¡äs AI to tell him what he should do as Jason didn''t have someone to read it to him. The AI was somehow replacing his parents'' job of education. Hours passed and Jason''s brain smoked after completely learning how to read and write every letter. It wasn''t as easy as he had expected and it would take some time to fluently read books, write sentences and texts while applying the correct grammar without any misspellings. Jason was aware of this fact but he was also very happy. He believed that he would never be able to see and learn how to write as the years passed without sensing any progress in his eyes. Jason¡äs mother told him that it would only take a few years until his eyes would awaken but she was mistaken as it took almost ten years of utmost effort. Nevertheless, he was happy and gathered more mana to improve his mana core and physique which was more than necessary. *Next Morning* Waking up before his alarm, Jason washed up, brushed his teeth, and put on his school uniform. Taking out his cane and a bandage to cover up his eyes he left the building. Jason would have to lie about his eyes saying that he hurt them somehow to use the bandage as an aid and a means of coverage if someone asked. But nobody really cared about him that much so Jason would just play lowkey without drawing much attention on himself. It would wonder him if someone even asked why he used a bandage to cover his eyes, so he was quite relaxed. Putting on the bandage he wanted to test if he could see the mana flow through the thin bandage without revealing his golden eyes through it. And surprisingly it worked! Jason noticed, causing a radiant smile to appear on his face. The bandage was thick enough to cover his golden eyes but also sufficiently thin to see the mana flow. Jason wanted to know where the mana flow was thicker and where it was thinner to improve his gathering of mana somehow. It would be quite helpful to find some spots where the mana density was thicker as Jason didn¡ät have much time left to improve his mana core rank Taking off, Jason pulled out his cane while he was already wearing the bandage so people at his school would not notice anything off. An hour later Jason arrived at his school where nobody cared about him. He entered his classroom like every day before and sat down nonchalantly in the first row next to the window. Looking through the bandage around the classroom, Jason noticed the flow of mana around his classmates. Jason could see the outlines of everyone and he could tell which one of them was stronger in rank and magical power. However, he couldn¡ät really tell what rank they were, as his eyes told him only the differences in their mana core which indicated the distinction in strength. There was not a sign, telling him [8th Novice-rank] or something like that. Most Students in Jason''s classroom had the same amount of strength and he knew that most were at the 8th Novice rank so he could allocate the mana core level to a rank. There were a few stronger and weaker ones but the majority was at the 8th Novice rank which was the publicly known average for middle-grade graduates on Astrix and some of its surrounding islands. On average, youths began to sense the mana in their surrounding at the age of 10 while some would be able to sense it at a younger age like Jason. Youth with an average mana aptitude required slightly more than four years to increase their mana rank to the Adept rank. This was mostly because of the rough start everyone had to go through by learning how mana worked, what it could do, and how to handle it carefully, which was difficult for young children. Unfortunate children started to sense mana later than their peers, which is most probably an indicator of poorer compatibility with mana. There are many reasons why some humans gathered and absorbed mana faster than others, which would result in them reaching higher mana core ranks compared to their brethren at a younger age. These indicators were mostly divided into two main sections, namely called innate talent and trainable talent. The main indicator for every human¡äs mana gathering and absorbing speed is their mana control, which is trainable and one¡äs mana sensitivity, which was considered as an innate talent and almost impossible to improve. Jason was a negative irregular while a positive irregular was the guy next to him. Greg Fler was his name and he was already fourteen years old. His parents were merchants or more likely beast traders. They captured beasts for others and owned a decent number of assets and credits. It was even said that they¡äll be appointed as minor nobles for their meritious deeds. Comparing their strength, Jason noticed that Greg had more than multiple times the amount of strength and magical power compared to his classmates. He was most probably already at the Adept rank and thus the number one prodigy of their middle school. It was astonishing to see the huge difference from an adept rank mana core to a novice rank mana core. When middle-school started, Jason thought Greg was a little bit full of himself, as he defeated everyone with a single punch during the practical lessons but Jason didn''t have any animosity with him as Greg has never bullied him. Rather than that Greg seemed to be relatively friendly towards him and since they sat next to each other Jason had never been bullied again which made him curious. `Did Greg intervene?` Was what Jason questioned himself many times during the last few years. Normally it was said that the strong preyed on the weak, but Greg was a rather nice guy, even if he was a little bit dull. His grades weren''t that good but also not that bad. But instead of having good grades, he was like a monster in martial arts because he liked to fight way more than anything else. Jason wasn''t a good sparring partner and thus probably uninteresting for Greg. Only Jason¡äs grades were envied by Greg but different from others he didn¡ät do anything because of his envy. Wasn¡ät it rather childish to envy a blind one for his theoretical grade when he would fail miserably in every practical exam? Sometimes, Greg even asked Jason about some difficult things and Jason answered them before ignoring him again. Greg noticed Jason¡äs bandage but he didn''t really care about it. As the teacher entered the room after the bell rang and lessons started like every weekday. Nothing special happened during the theoretical lessons and Jason listened carefully while imagining how everything was written. While the school lessons were divided into theoretical and practical courses. Jason only attended the theoretical lessons because the teachers noticed was useless for him to have practical lessons after some time. The only thing he would do was running on a treadmill to build up some stamina and listening to the explanations of the martial art technique they learned, some tips, and the finest details of them. For Jason, today, everything was different than usual, because he could see the outlines of the instructor''s technical movements according to the martial arts description as most martial arts techniques were used with the support of mana enhancing certain body parts. Jason scanned the movements and devoured them, memorizing everything he saw. He would try some of them at home and he didn''t want to have any flaws during his practice. Other than this, nothing changed about Jason''s behavior. While walking home he always scanned the soulbond beasts he saw trying to figure out what the radiating colors indicated but there were almost no clues. Chapter 7：Exam The day of the Exam arrived faster than Jason expected but he successfully kept his cured eyes a secret, without anyone noticing him. Over the last few days, Jason improved his knowledge about everything he needed for the theoretical exam and he was confident in getting a perfect score. Jason has always been a smart boy with an unsatiable desire to learn more. To be more exact he hated it when he didn¡ät know something and once there is something he doesn¡ät know or is unsure about, this thought doesn¡ät leave his mind. Jason also trained the martial art sequence at home but it was only partially useful, as he would get beaten up during the exam, even if he tried his best because his mana core and the corresponding physique was too weak Pondering if he should just give up the sparring exam or not was still unanswered by himself. However, his reading and writing achievements made him proud as Jason was able to fluently read books and write some easier sentences. Technical language was still far away from him but Jason would just take one step after another. At least his secret was kept hidden and getting a full score for his theoretical exam was almost completely sure. Hoping to achieve a nice feat with his soul awakening, Jason was still slightly hopeful. Awakening his soul was even more important than his first soulbond as he could also reject an extremely bad soulbond if his soul was too extraordinary or his soul energy too high. If that was the case Jason had to ponder if he should loan money to purchase a good beast cub or egg at the beast pagoda. But after dreaming for a bit he realized, that it was very unlikely for his soul to be something special as the chances were marginal. Awakening a better soul wasn¡ät directly dependent on the parent''s genes but the chances to awaken a better soul were higher when one''s parents had decent souls. Jason didn¡ät know anything about his parent''s souls and he had never seen his mother''s soulbonds which was somewhat suspicious but every time the young Jason asked his mother about her soulbonds she seemed to be sad and deep in thoughts, so Jason didn¡ät ask her after some time. Nevertheless, Jason was still happy about his eyes getting cured and it distracted him from frustratingly thinking about his exam scored. He began to slowly understand what his eyes could do, even if it was still too complex for him to comprehend. There was only a theory forming in his head. After washing up and changing his clothes, Jason went the same way as every day. He was a little bit nervous but looking at the flow of mana calmed around him, eased his tension. Leaving the small apartment, Jason didn¡ät forget to put on the small bandage, before he took the cane with him. Arriving at the school ground an hour later, Jason was surprised about the loud noises he could hear. Most parents went to the school ground with their children to support them sincerely. There were a few thousand children with their parents crowding the school ground and it wasn¡ät easy for Jason to squeeze through, without seeing anything except the mana fluctuations and outlines. Looking at the outlines from the student''s parents through the bandages, Jason figured out that the strengths of every one were completely different. The mana flow Jason saw was also different from each adult and after thinking for a short moment he figured out why this was most likely the case. Apparently, every soulbond amplified and modifies one''s mana slightly, thus the stronger a soulbond beast is, the more distinct are the modifiers and the mana one can use. Jason could also see the modified mana which surprised him, as he could differentiate the different colors perfectly. He was able to see which adult had formed a contract with a wind ability beast, and so on. This fascinated him and Jason noticed again that his eyes were extremely special. Thinking about possible fights in the future, Jason would already know what his opponent''s abilities were. This thought delighted Jason and he kept looking through the crowd while walking towards the classroom. Each adult Jason saw, had formed a soulbond with at least one beast and accomplished a certain mana core rank. Thus these parents were extremely strong compared to their children, the middle-school graduates, and each adult without a soulbond. Probably only after binding a beast, some prodigies would be able to beat weaker adults with weak souls and soul bounds. But right now even a few hundred Jason''s wouldn''t be able to beat the weakest adult he saw throughout the crowd. Jason tried to ignore the parents and their cheering as he went into the empty classroom and sat down on his chair, slightly dejected. He missed his mother even more in such situations. A few minutes later the first classmates came into the classroom, hesitating. For most students in the recent era, the theoretical part was the hardest for them as they trained their muscles and mana a lot more compared to the quality time they used to learn. Jason was calm and composed as he waited for around 15 minutes until the classroom was filled. The last one who came in was Greg, who surprisingly greeted Jason, He even sincerely wished him good luck. This shocked Jason a little bit and he wished Greg also good luck after a short moment of hesitation. Jason had no time to think about Greg¡äs behavior, as the class teacher entered the room with a special appliance, he handed Jason. Jason noticed that the teacher gave him a special VR helmet which he immediately put on. The other students opened the holographic-screen on their tables and the exam papers appeared in front of them. In front of Jason was now the exact same exam papers his classmates had in front of them as the helmet could send the data into his mind like they were his eyeballs. It went directly into his mind, without the need of him to really see them, the data were enough to provide his brain with the rough pictures. This appliance was extremely expensive and the exact data sent would only stay in the user''s mind for a certain amount of time, before they slowly dissipated. Jason could hear the question by thinking about the number and answering would go the same way, thinking about the answer would be enough and his thoughts would be written down. It was as if the VR-device was only a translator for Jason who started his exam after putting it on. The questions ranged from human cities, beast-rankings, habitats, strengths, weaknesses, permanent rifts, temporary rifts, foreign races, strength indicators, common herbs and ores, soul awakening, beast evolutions, and many more theories about the rifts, Cataclysm and so on. While others struggled a lot answering the questions, Jason finished them one after another without thinking much. The only thing Jason did in his free time for the last 9+ years was listening to books and gathering mana for his eyes so it wasn''t that difficult for him to answer these simple questions. Jason didn¡ät even actively learn anything as he was good at remembering things after hearing them once. It wouldn''t be surprising for him if he could answer some high-school graduation tests so Jason finished up the exam early. While Jason already finished everything he needed until the afternoon, where the practical exam was scheduled, the other students clumsily answered all questions. As such, Jason left the classroom under the threatening glares of his classmates. Chapter 8：Breakthrough Outside the school building, Jason searched for a good spot as he sat down between a flourishing grass field with a few trees surrounding it. The reason he sat down there was, that Jason could see the slightly denser mana flow within the area. This was also probably why it looked so beautiful through normal eyes, but Jason didn''t care about the aesthetics right now as he felt that his mana core was close to breakthrough into the second level. Right now he was at the 1st Novice rank which is extremely bad compared to the average 8th Novice rank. Because his rank would also be tested and graded, Jason had to breakthrough until afternoon. But this wasn''t because he wanted to get more points, rather he wanted to get fewer points deducted. His classroom teacher told him a few days ago that the worst grade to get points would be the 4th Novice rank and each grade less would deduct 20 points. That meant Jason would get 60 points deducted because of his 1st Novice rank and that wasn''t something to be proud of. Each point more or rather less deducted were hundreds or even thousands of ranks up or down in the ranking and extremely important for him. Furthermore, it would look even worse for him as he wanted to apply for a decent high-school. Jason had to calm down before gathering and infusing mana into his core in order to prevent any instability so he waited for five minutes before he started to gather mana. Hours passed and unknowingly to Jason, Greg and many other students left the classroom to eat lunch and relax before the practical exam would begin. Greg saw Jason from far away sitting between some bushes and he came closer to take a look. It wondered him why Jason gathered mana so far away from the mana gathering platform but getting closer he noticed the reason `This mana density is worse than at home but it¡äs still a lot better than what the mana gathering platform provides¡­ How did he find this?` Greg was curious but he was distracted by his classmates calling his name. They weren¡ät his friends as Greg didn¡ät have any friends but his classmates still tried to befriend him for a long time since they found out about his parent''s business and fortune. Leaving Jason, Greg was still curious and he said to himself that he shouldn''t underestimate Jason even if he was blind. Jason meanwhile noticed someone getting closer to him but he didn''t feel any animosity so he didn¡ät disconnect his mana flow gathering as he was getting closer and closer to the barrier of the second level. He calculated that he had at least 2 hours left until the practical exam started and decided to abandon the practical examination if he wouldn''t break through until then. Having fewer points deducted was more important to him than getting a 0 in the practical exam or instead `not present` written down. This would look slightly worse for his applications but he didn''t care about that, as -60 points and 0 written down were even worse than -40 points and `not present` in his opinion. Unfortunately, he would get his rank tested today and wasn''t scheduled for a different day like the soul awakening, otherwise, he would have more time to break through his level. Before the soul-awakening, every student would get their total score tomorrow as an AI-controlled every exam and their queue number for visiting the Beast Pagoda. The Beast Pagoda was where the soul-awakening orbs stood which one had to use to properly awaken one''s soul and it was also a shop verified by the government for beast cubs and eggs. Almost everyone gets their soulbonds from the Beast Pagoda and working there gave many benefits including discounts, priority, and many more. Jason heard that even Greg, whose parents were professional beast merchants and captors would get his first soulbond from the beast pagoda as it was the traditional way. That was at least the rumor but Jason thought it was rather because Greg''s soul-awakening was random and his parents couldn¡ät catch hundreds or thousand different beasts of each rank and elemental ability, only for Greg to pick a single one. Two hours almost passed as Jason was fully enveloped with a white film of mana. A crack appeared that began to spread slowly and grow in size as Jason exhaled black mist. This black liquid-like mist he exhaled were his impurities and it looked extremely disgusting and reeked even worse. Unfortunately, Jason had no time to take a shower or to change his clothes, as it was already time for his practical exam. He stood up, took out his cane, and ''rushed'' to the gym. Meanwhile, the practical exam has already started as the students stood around a bunch of machines that would scan one''s DNA and blood samples to discover one''s health. This was important for most high schools as it was useless to spend important resources on ill people. Most people would see Jason as such a case but if his soul-awakening would be extremely good without further health issues, Jason could receive an invitation to some high-school with further help from high-personalities. In reality, it was rare for blind students to receive such treatment as they would need to have special traits or a God''s children soul, indicating one''s uniqueness to be worth the price. Also to receive such treatment one would have to sign a contract to work for the school or organization after finishing school for a certain number of years. Concluding the facts, it wasn''t worth it for Jason even if he was still blind. He heard enough stories about such cases and most naive middle-school graduates who needed help from others were rather poor and after signing the contract they were cured which was positive but only to get exploited on the battlefield after getting nourished. Jason wasn¡ät blind anymore so he didn¡ät even think about signing a contract if his soul would be unique. Youth after youth finished getting blood drawn out and tested and most of them were happy as they knew that they were healthy but like every year there were some unfortunate ones who thought they were healthy, only to find out that they had some disease detected which would harm the body later on. Almost every one of them was devastated and it looked like their soul left their body as they understood the meaning of this...kneeling on the ground, they cried out loud. Today should have been their best day but it came out that they would not only get a bad score but also that they had to suffer in the future because of their detected disease. While the students were tested Jason arrived at the door gasping for air. The teacher noticed him and called his name. "Jason you''re late. Come to me and let your DNA and blood be tested. If nothing is wrong you will get the full points even if you are blind." Jason was used to him getting seen as a blind mole or something like that but it still annoyed him that everyone said something like `even if you are blind` If he could, Jason would punch his teacher once or twice for each time such commentary came out of his mouth. After taking a few deep breaths he straightened his back and went slowly to the teacher while swinging his cane gently in the ground in front of him. Getting his blood tested it was found out that Jason was extremely healthy but slightly malnourished. There was nothing else wrong and Jason passed the test without any issues as malnutrition wasn''t seen as a disease. Eating more would solve this issue easily. Only a slight remark annoyed Jason slightly. ''Blind'' It was annoying but Jason could apply for a test in a few weeks to get his eyes tested. With a certificate, he would have this remark removed easily. Around half an hour later everyone finished the test while a handful of the few hundred students were soulless kneeling on the bottom with an open jaw. After the blood test ended the real practical exam started. Testing one''s speed, stamina, strength, martial arts technique demonstration, and a real spar. The average score would be the points for his practical exam. Jason was sure that he would get some points for his stamina but he wasn''t sure if his speed was fast enough to get points as he couldn''t run 100 meters straight without external help. Strength should be his worst field among these three while Jason wanted to try out if he could get some points with his martial arts technique show. Getting zero points for his weak strength and sparring straight out because he surrendered these exams some students and even the teacher were displeased. Jason however wanted to focus his mind on his stamina, speed, and martial arts technique right now. Some students with slight conception noticed that Jason didn''t forfeit the martial arts technique demonstration and wondered why this was the case. A few hours passed and every exam except the martial arts technique demonstration finished. Jason got two zeroes from the exams he forfeited, 40 points for his stamina and 10 points for his speed because he had to run like he was blind and his bad physique. Nevertheless, it was better than scoring zero points. Most students demonstrated one of the two martial arts technique sequences they learned at school which were the foundational federation martial arts while the other one was the basic close combat technique from the military: Azure feisty Ape. Many Students got average grades but their comprehension wasn''t outstanding and they made many mistakes which Jason saw through the mana flow. It was almost as if these students tried to mock martial arts but their score was still above 30 which wondered him. Jason pondered if he should reveal everything he comprehended as he saw the demonstration of his peers. Chapter 9：Exceeding expectations Jason came to a decision as it was his turn. Going up the stage with slow but steady steps, many students were displeased as most of them were exhausted and wanted to get home. "Trash, it''s useless. You can''t even see, how should you be able to demonstrate a decent sequence of a martial arts technique" "That''s true¡­ Don''t waste our time and come down." Jason didn''t care what they said and he waited for the examiner to give him the verbal signal to start. There were many examiners all around the hall and at least ten other students were also demonstrating their martial art sequence. Before the examiner could give the signal Jason lifted one of his hands into the direction of the students who insulted him with his middle finger up. He would never meet them again, so Jason decided to cut ties, without any regret. The whole gym was silent as it was kinda rude to do something like that and adding the situation Jason was currently in, directly in front of the teachers and the respectable examiners but Jason didn''t mind other people thinking bad about him. Flabbergasted the students who insulted Jason were flabbergasted. ''Wh-hat?? Who does he think he is??'' As these students wanted to throw a temper the examiner interrupted them with the starting signal as he ignored Jason''s rude behavior. There were always a few students disregarding him as an examiner and sometimes a few students would fight each other over minuscule things. Jason got into the Azure feisty Ape standard position with a smooth movement and began to start his understanding of the first sequence he learned. He moved around the small amount of mana inside his body following the mana channels close to his veins, enveloping his hands with a fractional film of mana without wasting a second. This alone was an astonishing feat because a certain accuracy and control over mana were needed to lead the mana to a certain body part and envelope it like a second skin. Jason meanwhile had to take care of his distribution of mana because the amount of mana he had at the moment was marginal. If his mana pool was larger, Jason was confident that he wouldn''t need to form a paper-thin skin-like membrane to cover his fists which took a decent amount of his focus. Moving around smoothly with his enveloped fists, following the moves described in the Azure feisty Ape description, Jason began to sweat slowly. The whole area around Jason was deadly silent except for the sound of his own movements as everyone was astonished by the exquisite sequence of movements Jason demonstrated. Even if Jason had never seen the sequence of the Azure feisty Ape technique, the first sequence was branded in his mind as he had watched it countless times over the last week. Almost nobody could understand how Jason was able to do it without seeing anything because it was illogical to know how to move if one didn''t see whether the sequence was wrongly applied or not. One move after another was perfectly executed without any mistakes and the whole show which looked like a mesmerizing dance ended after a single minute. This minute was over in an instant and still took an eternity. Jason was sweating buckets and his back was drenched with it but his smile radiated the gym. Demonstrating the Azure feisty Ape technique felt as if he achieved freedom. He couldn''t see through the bandages but it didn''t matter as his accurate and smooth movements made him feel ecstasy. His stored mana was completely dried up and Jason felt empty but this didn''t cover his happiness. The examiner looked at Jason slightly astonished, his eyes widened. He had often seen something like that but not from a blind 2nd Novice rank youth with a malnourished body. ''Does this student have an extreme sensitivity for mana?! Did he feel the mana flow when the instructor teaches his students and this youth remembered everything and executed it like that? Pretty good.'' He thought but he remained calm and said with a monotone voice "Exceeding requirements met:120 points" Everyone heard the sound of a stone dropping inside them as they heard the announcement. Greg got full marks with 100 points because his martial art technique was perfectly demonstrated but even he felt that Jason''s demonstration was slightly better than his own. At least Jason''s accuracy and control over mana were on a different level than his. Nevertheless, it was only a single sequence and nothing special if one worked hard on it, as the requirements were quite easy to meet. Jason himself was even more astonished than the others as he didn''t know if he did everything correctly. He had never personally seen the combat technique from the school''s instructor and only the outlines were seen by him. But he was happy that he got more points than he had expected. Coming back from his happiness he was again reminded that his average score was still bad. Calculating a bit he came to the result that he achieved 34/100 points on average which was much more than he expected. Adding the presumably 100/100 points from the theoretical exam his score was circulating around the average middle school graduate. Unfortunately for Jason, the next test instantly worsened his happiness as the teacher said "Now that everyone finished the practical exams we will scan your rank and rate you with points" The examiners stood up from their chair and gathered together while one old man said with a loud voice. "Everyone stay calm, please. There will be an uncomfortable feeling which will invade you but don¡ät fight against it. We will scan your mana core for a short moment and give points according to the guidelines." A weird and chilly pressure radiated out of the examiner and spread out with him as the center. Invading every student they began to shiver slightly before the chill left them. "Number 1 Aamin Arion 8th Novice rank - 60 points" "Number 2 Alina Arte 9th Novice rank- 80 points" "Number 3¡­.. "Number 158 Greg Fler- 2nd Adept rank- 140 points" "Number 2374 Jason Stella 2nd Novice rank¡­.- minus 40 points" As he heard the examiner''s voice he felt a sting in his heart. He knew about deducting points from before but it was more painful than he thought. His presumably 134/200 points were now 94/300. The last chance for him to get points was the soul awakening and Jason who was previously relatively happy with his score was now back down to earth. Everyone was exhausted and the examiner finished his distribution of points. Afterward, he ended the exams and excused himself without looking back. Jason meanwhile went back home slowly without caring for anybody around him. He didn''t even notice Greg''s gaze following him with his curiosity shining in his eyes. It was already evening when Jason arrived at his miniature apartment. Entering the room he went into the bathroom to shower and then he fell down into his bed falling into a deep sleep due to his exhaustion. Chapter 10：Shopping tour It was early in the morning when Jason woke up. Opening his eyes they shone with vigor as he rubbed them to dispel his tiredness. Entering the federation network, Jason accessed the middle-grade graduation site where he entered his serial number. Looking at the score he saw in front of him, Jason was stuck between multiple types of emotions. Happiness, sadness, and most importantly frustration. Jason received the score exactly as he thought he would. ''Theoretical Exam 100/100 Points Practical Exam 34/100 Points Blood test: Passed, Remark: Blind Mana Core: 2nd Novice rank -40/100 Points Soul awakening: ?/¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï'' It was annoying but Jason couldn''t change it anyway so he entered his mail section and saw a notification about the soul awakening ''Scheduled Soul awakening: Sunday 2. August 10:25 am'' Sighing, Jason noticed that the 2. August was still more than two weeks away and he wasn¡ät really sure what to do until then. The only thing he was able to do was gathering mana and integrating it into his mana core to improve his rank, as he wanted to be fully prepared for the day he would enter the beast pagoda. His theory was still constructing slowly and Jason was expectant to find out if he was correct. Fortunately, his soul-awakening wasn''t today which was a somewhat positive side-effect from his bad exam result, so there was more than enough time for him left. Jason was expectant but also a little bit scared because of the soul-awakening and the following choosing of his soulbond were the most important things every youth had to go through. He had enough money to purchase a so-so beast but he didn''t know how high his soul energy would be, so Jason stopped thinking about unnecessary things. Sitting on his bed and gathering mana until lunchtime Jason''s mana core was almost replenished. Somehow Jason felt that the time to replenish his mana was extremely long but he didn''t have any good circulation manuals with good explanations to speed up the process. Before he would get his soul-awakening done in two weeks, Jason wanted to change a few things which were previously unnecessary. He wanted to change into a decent-looking apartment, buy nutritious food, new clothes, and many more things. As it was still unknown what soulbond he would get, Jason had to wait with the leasing of a new apartment as the soulbond could be gigantic and thus too big for a small apartment. The possibility was small but still there and he didn¡ät want to waste time and money. Jason had a huge amount of Credits left but he wasn''t sure for how much most things were sold for as he was provided with his apartment for an extremely cheap price and he bought bread loaves, instant noodles, and snacks at the market with the help of his AI before he gained his eyesight. He had zero knowledge of how to handle his finances so Jason had to look up some things online. In the afternoon Jason finished writing a small list of things he wanted to purchase with an approximate price behind the article name on his phone. Because he didn''t want to purchase these things online, he went outside heading straight to the shopping district. Jason wanted to see everything around him and it was boring to sit inside the small smelly apartment the whole day without anyone''s company. He brought a bandage with him for emergencies, if someone from his class would appear but he believed they had more important things to do, than going on a shopping tour right now. They were probably thinking about the soul awakening and their future soulbond all the time or lamenting about their low exam scores. A few minutes after leaving his room, Jason entered a crowded street with many stalls on each side of it. Many kinds of stalls were there, including food stalls, clothing stalls, magical devices, stalls about mana resources, weapon stalls, alchemy stalls, and so on. Jason needed many new clothes, food and he wanted to buy a quantum bracelet that would replace his ancient-looking smartphone. His old phone was already extremely old but that wasn''t the reason Jason decided to buy a new one. The quantum bracelets had a better resistance that could even endure attacks from magical beasts, while his phone would probably be destroyed soon if it fell a few more times out of his pockets, which wasn¡ät an uncommon occurrence. Furthermore, during journeys through wild zones, Jason would have to be fast and flexible and his phone was too big and hard to allow such movements. This was only futuristic thinking but still important to think about. The quantum bracelet had also another special feature. Integrated with spatial storage the price skyrocket for quantum watches. Jason had enough credits left behind from his mother''s death insurance, the pay from his mother''s murderers, and his allowance from the Cerus family, so he would be able to purchase a quantum bracelet. Because of the integrated storage space, Jason wanted to purchase the quantum bracelet as the first thing. Going around for almost half an hour Jason stood in front of a 5 story building with a big quantum bracelet sign. The shop looked luxurious and Jason entered it through the door. An attendant greeted him before noticing Jason''s worn-off clothes, causing a frown to cover the attendant''s expression for a moment. "Hello Sir, are you here to purchase a quantum watch or bracelet, or did Sir maybe enter the wrong shop?" Jason felt the attendant''s gaze on him and remembered once again that he wore old, worn-off clothes. He understood the attendant''s question and didn''t harbor any ill feelings against him as he answered honestly. "I''m here to purchase a quantum bracelet. Can you recommend one with decent storage space and a high endurance that can handle attacks from magical beasts? You don''t have to ask if I have enough credits." He said the last sentence to avoid getting in an embarrassing or awkward situation and the attendant understood his meaning, even if he couldn''t decipher why this youth wore clothes like that if he was able to purchase a quantum bracelet Taking out a few quantum bracelets the attendant explained their capabilities with a few simple sentences including the price, storage size, and so on. From 10.000 to millions of credits everything was included and Jason who thought his huge fortune of slightly more than 500.000 credits was enough to purchase one of the best quantum watches, was more than a little bit astonished. The Black demonic bull318 quantum bracelet was made out of black iron and certain other materials. It could withstand a blow of a Black demonic bull which was a strength-type magical beast enhanced by a demonification and the storage space it had were 2500 cubic meters. The storage device was the most expensive part of the quantum bracelet as it needed to be made from a blacksmith master with the help of an inscription master and the core of a spatial type mana core. If Jason wanted he could get his storage space enlarged but that would cost even more and Jason didn¡ät need it at the moment. Spatial-type mana cores were rare and thus the storage space made up at least 60% of the price. Jason had to pay 199.999 credits which caused a sting in his heart but he made a transaction to the shop''s bank account before he changed his mind. The attendant was astonished that such a poor-looking youth had so many credits as his pay wasn''t even 1% of the youth''s payment. Most citizens were paid around 1500 Credits a month which was enough to feed the family and their smaller soulbonds with some low-graded food. They couldn''t purchase high nutrition food with this income but being alive in a C-grade city with 1500 Credits a month was almost a wonder. Jason''s expenditure was way lower because he didn''t eat much before and he never bought clothes and other things. He bought necessary things for his hygiene and health and lived in a smelly and hideous-looking room for 100 credits a month. In addition, he told himself to buy more high-nutrition food to fix his malnourished body and become stronger. The price was so cheap as the building was about to get demolished in a few years and it was situated in the vilest district inside the whole city. His expenditure was thus less than 200 Credits a month, so paying almost 200.000 was way too much for his small and tender heart to handle. Jason thought even if the expenditure hurt, it was required because he wanted to get stronger to adventure the wild-zones in order to gain some credits while thinking about his future. He would have to decide soon, whether he should attend a trashy school in Artes to learn more about martial arts and knowledge he already knew or gain credits by hunting weak beasts while improving oneself slowly. Chapter 11：Friend? After changing the data from his phone to the quantum bracelet, Jason put it on. It looked quite good and Jason scanned it with his eyes for a moment as it was really beautiful. Setting off to buy clothes and other necessities 2 hours passed and the sunset indicated the nightfall. Jason was at a hairdresser and he had already changed into some new clothes so he looked completely different from before. If someone from his former class walked past him, they wouldn''t be able to recognize Jason even if they looked at him throughout. Suddenly a voice call was transmitted to his quantum bracelet and Jason saw an unknown number. Slightly curious he accepted the call with a "Hello? Who is this?" A familiar voice answered him. "Hey here is Greg. I''m having my soul awakening in half an hour and I wanted to ask you if you want to spectate it. It might be weird to ask you this but I thought it might be helpful for you to sense how a soul-awakening works so you understand what you have to do when it''s your turn." Jason was astonished as he was never been called before and thinking that Greg wanted to help him was also slightly difficult for him to comprehend. But thinking about Greg, Jason noticed that Greg never treated him badly and he himself was also very curious how a soul awakening takes place so he accepted his invitation. "That would be great. I can be at the Beast Pagoda in less than 30 minutes. Please wait for me." Jason ended the call and ordered a shuttle which arrived a few minutes later. Entering the word ''Beast Pagoda'' an address appeared and the shuttle went off. Fifteen minutes later the shuttle arrived in front of the gigantic five-tiered pagoda which looked ancient. He had never seen a pagoda and didn''t know if this size was normal but it looked very expensive as he saw the mana flow radiating from the building materials. Thinking about the pagoda¡äs ancient appearance a sudden thought appeared in his mind and he searched through his storage space. Luckily he found a bandage which he put on before leaving the shuttle. Jason has almost made a huge mistake but luckily he thought about his eyes which he couldn''t reveal at the moment. He had to wait at least for a week or probably a little bit longer until his soul-awakening was before he could reveal his cured eyes so his theoretical exam would remain valid. Jason called Greg because he didn¡ät know where to go and less than two minutes later someone with a strong presence came outside. " Excuse me are you Mr. Stella? Master Greg is waiting for you" an old voice asked and Jason concluded that it was the butler from Greg It was quite weird to get called Mr.Stella by someone as he has never been called by his family name. Following behind the old man he was astonished about the butler''s strength. Comparing the butler''s strength to the parents he saw yesterday he concluded that the butler wasn''t normal either. He was questioning himself how rich and powerful Greg''s family business was, if their butler had already this kind of strength. Jason had an easy time following the butler as even stairs weren''t a problem because the materials inside this Pagoda radiated a certain amount of mana outlining it. After walking for a few minutes the butler stopped in front of a door with dense mana radiating out of it. In front of the door stood a few people and Jason detected Greg''s mana signature among them and a few stronger mana sources. Especially the two mana signatures next to Greg were special. He had never seen such a huge amount of mana anywhere and he opened his mouth slightly in shock. Seeing Jason looking towards his direction with an open jaw confirmed Greg''s theory about Jason''s sensitivity for mana. While stepping forward he greeted Jason who came closer. "Jason you''re here. How are you?....since when do you have new clothes and a new haircut?" Greg was a little bit astonished about Jason''s handsome look as he had never expected that a good-looking boy was behind such trashy clothes. He would never say this out loud but he looked after Jason many times in the past because he found Jason was nice and didn''t care about other people''s background. What Jason had long since forgotten was that he had helped Greg sometimes out with some remarks on how to learn certain things better. Greg wasn''t sociable and quite naive but he was sure Jason was a good guy which was also the reason he wanted to help him slightly with his soul awakening. Jason greeted Greg back and turned his head slightly in the direction of his presumed parents. "Hello, my name is Jason Stella. Am I right with my presumption that you are Mr. and Mrs. Fle?" Jason bowed lightly. Even before the mana outbreak, respectful greetings and manners were only important in some regions of Argos but they got more and more essential after the mana outbreak occurred with the coming rules of the jungle. Strong people could almost kill whoever they wanted outside the cities while the government protected the weak with their best efforts, even murder and rape happened inside the cities once in a while. Sometimes big families took care of the matter like it was the case with Jason¡äs mother and most weak people tended to be as respectful as possible and avoided the strong. As long as the government was weaker than these big families and clans, they had to partly rely on them to protect the majority against the wildlife and intelligent invading races. Fortunately, not many big families were of evil from their core and only a few members in some families were driven by their desire and bloodlust. It wasn¡ät that difficult to keep them under their control normally but once they fight against their control, some uncontrollable things are bound to happen. Greg however was slightly stunned "How do you know where my parents stand?!" Greg''s parents were curious about the boy in front of them. They saw a blind boy but they felt something strange about the area around his eyes. Nevertheless what surprised them the most was that Greg brought a friend over to his soul awakening. Greg was more of a troublemaker since elementary school than someone who made friends, so they have never seen one of his friends. Being curious, the 30 years old looking woman with a small build and silky brown hair stepped forward. "Hello Jason, my name is Gabriella Fler and I''m indeed Greg''s mother. I have never seen one of Greg''s friends so It''s nice to meet you." She said before chuckling. Jason found himself in a weird situation `Is Greg my friend?` But there was no time to think about that Greg''s father was apparently embarrassed and he pulled his wife back before introducing himself shortly. "Hello, my name is Mark Fler, Greg''s Father. Nice to meet you." His father''s introduction was slightly cold. Maybe he thought Jason wanted to befriend his son because of their money or Jason''s blindness could be the reason but he didn¡ät mind it. Remembering the mana core rank from the adults in front of the school grounds a day before, he noticed that this girl¡äs strength was one of the best. ''Greg has a sister? Or is that his girlfriend? Nevermind that, but why is she glaring at me like that??'' Before the conversation went further, the door with dense mana enveloping it opened slowly. Chapter 12：Heaven′s will soul awakening An old and haggard voice resounded "The next one can go inside." Jason didn''t even sense any mana radiating from the presumed old man, only a slight amount of mana could be detected by him. There was an eerie feeling and it was like a dragon was suppressed inside and his face paled slightly. A single thought appeared in his mind ''Wolf in sheep''s skin'' Greg entered the room behind the door first followed by his parents and his presumed sister. Jason was the last one to enter the room which''s mana density was incredible. Not only that was incredible, rather the size of the room couldn''t be described as huge because that would be too much of an underestimation. Jason couldn¡ät see anything through the bandage, except the radiating mana from the materials but even then he was unable to figure out the size. Estimating the height to be more than 30 meters Jason felt uncomfortable and tiny. A high-graded mana gathering formation was inscribed inside the room and Jason detected ten orbs on top of altars fitting in one''s hand attracting mana greedily. The presumed old man led Greg to one of the altars in the middle. His family and Jason stayed at the bottom of the altar while Greg was told to cut his hand slightly. Afterward, he placed the injured hand on top of the orb to activate the soul awakening. The moment Greg''s blood dripped on the orb Jason felt like he was on ecstasy as huge streams of multicolored mana gathered inside the orb. It didn''t stop as the mana continued to steam into the orb for a few minutes until the orb was filled to a certain degree. Thereafter the orb began to shine red in color and it projected a small white world with a size of 10 meters in diameter. Next to the white world another world suddenly appeared and this soul world looked completely different. While the white world had two huge mana streams in two different colors floating around, the other projected world was slightly bigger, had a thick red hue around it without any colorful mana streams floating within. Jason could feel these two worlds and he instantly understood that this was a double awakening. Two souls inside a single individual was a rare occurrence and even if the 10 diameters indicated that only a smaller number of soulbond contracts were possible, it was still above average. Next to Jason stood Greg''s parents while father mumbled "Hahaha my son as expected" His mother was teary. "Our family has good children" She began to cry and Jason thought it was a bit too much as he heard a sobbing next to him. The girl sobbed "Good job brother, you did it.." Jason was way too astonished to understand the situation and he took out a handkerchief he purchased previously as he went closer to the girl. She looked up to see the youth with bandaged eyes handing her a handkerchief. Accepting the handkerchief she wondered who this youth was as he had bandaged eyes while walking freely without his cane. She stopped sobbing and dried her wet cheeks. Jason turned back to the altar where Greg was still standing. He knew roughly how the ranking would look like for Greg¡äs case. The ranking was divided into zero to five stars while zero stars was the worst and five stars the best. Having zero stars means one is worse than the common folk and probably only able to form a single soulbond contract with a wild beast or maybe with some luck an awakened beast. While wild beasts are comparable to ancient animals and only slightly stronger, awakened beasts have the possibility to possess an ability like elemental affinities or body traits. Getting a one-star result in one''s soul-awakening means one is almost worthless to high-schools and one is only able to form a contract with probably one beast while this beast can¡ät be really strong. Two stars mean one is around the average and on average able to form a contract with at least two beasts more likely three beasts and a low- awakened beast as the first soulbond. Three stars were already a rare occurrences among soul awakening, while three and a half stars are called extraordinary. Most three stars are able to form at least 4 soulbonds, maybe even 5 while they¡äre more likely to form a late-awakened beast cub as the first soulbond. Four and five-star rankings are even rarer while four stars are called Heaven¡äs will and five stars are called God''s Child. Both of these soul rankings are exceptional and very few are able to awaken such souls because everything about them has to be exceptional including soul size, soul energy, and the type of soul. The old man lost focus for a quarter second before gathering his thoughts. He announced. "Greg Fler 14 years old 2nd Adept rank has successfully awoken a double soul. One soul has a diameter of 10 meters while the other one is 12 meters in diameter. Both souls can form three soul bounds while the physical soul might even be able to form a contract with a fourth weak beast. Adding both numbers together Greg is able to form a contract with 6 to 7 beasts. While the elements wind and thunder are drawn to one soul world the other soul world is a physical one that allows non-elemental monsters with strength, speed, tenacity, and so on as their forte to form a contract with Greg. This physical soul world would increase the shared amount from the soulbond to the master with the larger part focusing on the physique. Being able to form a contract with 6 to 7 beats is more than extraordinary while a double awakening is also rarely seen. But the most important factor is that your soul energy has already reached the red color, close to the light red color which means you can form a soulbond with a late evolved ranked beast. Adding every aspect together your potential are four stars which is also called Heaven''s will" The elder stated relatively calm. Among the few hundred thousand kids he had accompanied during his long life Greg could be placed among the top 1%. More than satisfied with his result Greg went down to his family which greeted him cheerfully. Everyone was relieved that Greg got a very good soul awakening and after getting a hug from his family Greg turned to Jason who gave him a thumbs up. Jason thought that it was the right thing to do and it made him more comfortable Greg suddenly asked "Jason, when is your soul awakening? Can I also watch it?" One''s soul was normally kept as a secret as it was one of the most important information about one. Greg would have four stars as his exam remark for his soul-awakening, nothing more or less but even that was already seen as a breach of privacy by most people. Jason thought for a second before replying while smiling lightly. "My soul awakening is on the 2. August at 10:25 am, you''re free to come. You also trusted me with that so it''s only fair." The old man who previously didn''t care about the examinee''s company saw Jason as he looked down from the altar and the man''s eyes widened in astonishment because he could see something through the bandages. Coming back to his senses he said out loud. "Brat if you want to have your soul awakening right now, you can come up." "Can I really?" Jason said impatiently while Greg smiled. However, Greg''s parents and his sister felt slightly confused as they knew how extremely difficult it was for them to have the old man supervising a soul awakening. It was only because Greg was among the best of the best with his exam results and a few months of persuasion until the old man gave in. Now this greedy and stubborn man let an unknown youth perform his soul awakening in front of him nonchalantly which was weird in their opinion. "Of course that''s okay. Come up!" After the old man said that Jason stepped up the stairs quickly to the others'' surprise. A blindfolded youth rushed up the stairs without tripping or even faltering straightforward with fast steps. Arriving before the cleaned orb the old man handed Jason a small knife which he would have to use to cut his hand slightly. But before Jason could cut himself the old man stopped him with his hands. "Brat, why are you hiding your eyes?" Chapter 13：Devastating Soul awakening! The old man¡äs voice was monotone and calm but Jason felt a slight threat within the voice and he instantly began to sweat. Jason didn¡ät know how this old man found out but he understood that his secret was exposed. Stuttering something "I-I was b-blind until last week¡­.b-but I awoke my eyes by gathering mana over a long time inside my eyes¡­.I-I kept this a secret to be able to w-w-write my theoretical exam with the VR appliance b-because I can''t write technical language well. " There was no way for Jason to resist the pressure of the old man as he was only 13 years old so it wasn¡ät that difficult to intimidate him with the small mana fluctuations. Listening to Jason''s explanation the old man understood his situation even if Jason overexaggerated the fact. But the old man noticed that Jason didn¡ät have a decent background otherwise this would not have been a problem. Nodding the old man said "Okay. It''s fine¡­ I will keep this a secret, but you have to do me a favor in return" Jason felt relieved and also slightly scared because owning a favor was always bad in his opinion. Continuing the old man said "You have to give me your contact information" "HMPPF?" Jason almost shouted out loud before quickly placing his empty hand above his mouth. "Don¡ät get me wrong, I don¡ät have any ulterior motives but now it''s your turn to have your soul awakening. Keep in mind that you can reveal your eyes soon but it would be better for you to have a talk with me before that''s going to happen, okay?" Jason could only nod still sweating but he had to focus on his soul-awakening right now so he cleared his mind as fast as possible. Greg¡äs family could only see the old man and Jason talking to each other and a minute passed until Jason moved again. Jason cut his hand lightly and blood ran down his arm while the injured hand slowly went closer to the orb which looked dangerous to him. Forgetting his anxiety he put the hand slowly on the orb which began to glow lightly as blood dripped on it. Inside him, he felt like something changed as his pores opened and within his mind, a small and colorful world began to construct around a grain-sized golden marble with mysterious inscriptions on it. First, the world was as small as a peanut but it began to grow bigger and bigger until his whole mind was filled with the world. Jason suddenly felt an aching in his head as the world inside his mind tried to grow even bigger while hitting the limits of his mind. The pain didn''t lessen; rather it increased and Jason began to cry out in pain as his bandage began to turn bloody red because his eyes began shedding blood. Jason¡äs hand didn''t lose grip on the soul-awakening orb but his legs gave in while Jason¡äs cry reached Greg''s family which was more than confused. Even the old man couldn¡ät understand the situation as the orb was still gathering mana from its surroundings. Greg was worried and he wanted to go up but he was held back by his father with a firm grip. Jason¡äs mind was in chaos as the small world broke through the limits of his mind while continuing to increase without meeting any obstacles. The orb finished gathering mana and its color changed before it began projecting Jason¡äs soul. First, the color of the orb was golden but the time was too short for anyone to notice it before it changed to green, which was the highest ever recorded color, indicating a vast amount of soul energy, then it changed to yellow, orange, light red, red, dark red and finally it ended at pitch black. While the colors changed Jason¡äs head felt as if it would explode any second but the changing color from green to yellow and further down the road lessened the pain while the world inside his mind expanded more and more. Jason wasn''t even able to figure out the size of the world as he had to focus on not losing his consciousness. After the color of the orb turned pitch black the world inside his mind stopped expanding but Jason felt its ambition to grow even more. Jason felt the frustration of his soul world and its incomplete status. The orb which was pitch-black left the audience speechless as they had never seen such a black color and finally the orb began to project Jason¡äs soul while Jason began to stabilize himself. Projecting Jason¡äs soul, another spectacle appeared in front of the audience as an unknown number of different kinds of colors filled the room with their bright shining color. The soul itself was apparently bigger than the whole room and only the old man could see its outer lines as he could see through the whole building. Flabbergasted the old man noticed that the whole Beast Pagoda area was shrouded in Jason¡äs soul world projection. But the most important fact about Jason¡äs soul was that it radiated a thick and dense golden hue overshadowing Greg¡äs red hue by worlds. Jason whose head was still hurting let go of the pitch-black orb before his legs gave in again. Because he stuttered "Is this pain normal?" the old man was thrown out of his thoughts. He had never seen something comparable to Jason¡äs soul and he wanted to take him as a disciple without any complaints as he saw the color of the orb Jason had used. `Wasn''t it green before????? Why is it black now? NOO...WHY?!` The old man was in disbelief. He thought he had finally found someone even better than God''s Children which were 5-star awakenings but the pitch-black color the orb radiated shattered his lifelong dream. Calming down he looked at Jason with pity and Greg¡äs family could understand him completely after seeing the pitch-black orb in front of Jason. Previously the old man had the gut feeling that this youth would be even more special than Greg and he gave out his contacts because of that but apparently, his gut feeling betrayed him. Before they could only see the huge and vast world projected by Jason¡äs soul but now they could clearly see the orb Greg¡äs father wasn''t sure if he should pity Jason or be happy as he didn''t want Jason to be more outstanding than his son but after thinking for a second he was embarrassed about his thought and it was definitely a pity that such a beautiful soul had such a weak soul-power. The orb¡äs color indicates the strength of one''s soul energy and how strong one''s soulbond could be at most. While Greg¡äs red, almost light red could form a contract with a stronger evolved beast nobody except the old man understood the pitch-black as black with slight red was normally the weakest possible. He wondered if the youth in front of him would even be able to endure the pain from a matured one-star wild beast which was by far the weakest possible rank a beast could get. Looking at Jason the old man announced "Young man you have a beautiful soul and I''m ashamed to say that I don''t know how many beasts you can tie to your soul in the future and I also don''t know what the golden hue represents which gives you 5 stars compared to a God''s children at the worst¡­. Unfortunately, your soul energy is the weakest ever recorded in history and it would be fortunate for you if you can form a bond with a one-star wild beast. That means you get zero stars for this section which is generous in my opinion. Your average would then be two and a half stars but I will only give you two stars as your soul energy is such a big disadvantage that it is almost impossible to overcome and even if you can do it, your pals won¡ät wait for you and the gap between each other will get only bigger." After saying this loud out he added on quietly. Chapter 14：Unique Eyes? Jason had to face the cruel reality but it was hard to accept. He felt as if his whole world shattered. He wasn''t that ambitious to get a heaven-defying soulbond as his first bond but a one-star wild beast????!!? Even the worst Novice ranks were able to defeat them and such a beast would become his livelong partner? Adept ranks were able to defeat the strongest five-star wild beast without much effort as their physique alone was much stronger than these beasts and now, Jason would only be able to form a soulbond with a newborn one-star wild beast at most?... He couldn''t believe his ears but somehow he knew that this wasn¡ät a lie and the cruel reality. The old man didn''t try to sugarcoat Jason¡äs situation as he had to overcome this crisis alone. He believed that this situation wasn¡ät the worst outcome at all as he had seen many youths with a soul that could only hold one soulbond in total with a soul energy only slightly stronger than Jason¡äs Having the advantage to possess many beasts with the disadvantage of an extremely weak beast as a starter was better than the former unfortunate ones. The old man was firmly convinced that the young man in front of him wasn''t ordinary as Jason¡äs eyes seemed to be special traits in his opinion. Otherwise, the old man couldn¡ät understand why there was so much mana assembled around his eye area. Changing the subject, everyone inside the room listened to him while Jason could only hear him faintly. "Let''s go to the beast hatchery where both of you can choose your first soulbond. While the old man said this Jason stood up and walked down the altar lifelessly. Greg saw this and ran to him asking "Hey dude, are you okay?" Obviously, Jason wasn''t doing fine but he forced a smile and said "Yeah of course." Jason wasn¡ät sure why Greg was worried about him but he didn¡ät care about that at the moment. The old man walked past the two youths who noticed him and followed quietly. Greg had to support Jason slightly while Greg¡äs family followed both of them rather quietly. His mother whispered "How unfortunate¡­ I¡äve never seen such a beautiful and large soul¡­.Honey, do you think he will be able to overcome the problem with his weak soul energy somehow? I can''t think of any good solution except forming a contract with a good potential soulbond or training the Heaven¡äs Hell technique for many years until it shows results. But finding a beast with potential one among one-star wild beasts is more unlikely than finding a needle in a haystack even for us and we can¡ät even help out during the whole beast selection process... Another one would be increasing his rank but this would also take a long time even with resources" The man answered after thinking for a short moment "Other than forming a contract with a high potential beast, ranking up and practicing the Heaven¡äs Hell technique over a long time, he would have to find high graded magical treasures which could increase one''s soul energy but other than being extremely rare they cost a fortune. I don''t think we would be able to afford one with our whole fortune even if our son had a soul like this youth has¡­ It''s a pity to lose a promising soul like that to such weak soul energy. If he works hard maybe he can form a second soulbond in a few years but honestly, I wouldn¡ät be confident in doing something like that." While Greg supported Jason, Jason¡äs mind was in his huge soul world the whole time. Other than being disappointed, Jason had to acknowledge the fact that his soul looked really beautiful and magnificent, while the golden color was able to calm him down as he looked around.... This however made his heart hurt even more because his soul energy was too weak and he wasn''t sure what to do with it... But he didn''t want to cry and rather than crying Jason wanted to find a solution to his problem. Crying wouldn¡ät help him but solving the problem. Releasing himself out of Greg¡äs support Jason straightened his back while thinking about solutions but there weren''t many. Purchasing a high-graded magical treasure was out of his options as they were way too expensive and forming a contract with a high potential one-star wild beast relied on his luck. But this place wasn''t as quiet as before and Jason who could only see slightly through the bandage because of his blood was astonished to see thousands of colors radiating from eggs and small beasts inside small landscapes filled with faint mana. His head began to ache again and Jason turned off his eyes effect which saw the radiating color of beasts. In the second he had activated the effect of his eyes Jason noticed that some beasts radiated a stronger color than others even if they were from the same race. `What does that mean?` was what Jason thought but he couldn''t find a solution. Thinking about the effect Jason looked around again without having his eyes activated. He stopped for a moment and after a short moment, he noticed the mana fluctuations of a wolf mother with five cubs next to her. That was at least what Jason could see from the mana flow and activating his eyes effect for a short moment he began to analyze the cubs thoroughly. The wolf gave birth to all five cubs but Jason noticed that the radiating color was different from two of them. While three cubs had the same color one was more distinct and denser but still the same color while another cub had a completely different color which was even denser compared to the previously mentioned wolf cub. Many thoughts run through Jason''s head as Greg and the old man notice his behavior. The old man explained "This is a blazing horned wolf mother with its five cubs. It''s an evolved ranked beast. Two cubs are slightly special while one has inherited a slightly superior bloodline the other cub underwent a mutation which made it stronger." Greg listened carefully as this information could be useful for his choice. " Can you show me which one sir thinks is the stronger one out of these two special cases? " Jason also listened but his question confused Greg while the old man smiled faintly The old man knew that Jason had special eyes since the beginning as he had seen many humans with special traits and he thought Jason had simple mana eyes which could see that one beast had slightly stronger mana radiating from it. A small stream of mana left his body and Jason saw a finger formed out of mana pointing at the cub with the superior bloodline. But Jason saw something different. His eyes or rather the radiating color told him that the mutated cub had a denser color and a "Why?" left his mouth without thinking. The old man was still calm and explained. "Having a superior bloodline indicates the high possibility to evolve into higher ranked beasts while having a mutation can backfire. Some mutations are powerful while other mutations are harmful to certain aspects. Furthermore, mutations can evolve when the cub grows stronger and in our case, the cub''s mutation is still in its initial phase while it¡äs not seen as a very good mutation it could further mutate in a bad way. " "Ahh" Jason and Greg exclaimed at the same time. Chapter 15：Creating a theory Walking around the enclosures and breeding stations with eggs inside, the old man provided mountains of information mainly focused on the characteristics of beast potentials and how to determine their strengths and weaknesses. Normally a beast-selection was different without information provided but the old man was generous because he liked the kids. One had to know that soulbond beasts would not only provide physical enhancements and access to affinity but also their wild instincts such as bloodlust and more. The characteristics of the physical enhancement depend on the soulbonds strength and also the soul''s type including the shared distribution. If one formed a soulbond with a bull one would get more strength while forming a bond with an agile beast would more likely enhance one¡äs tendons, flexibility, and other speed-related bodyparts before the focus would be on the rest. There were only a few beasts on the first floor of the breeding grounds which inhabited wild beasts, awakened, evolved beats, and a few unblemished beasts. Magical-ranked beasts were in the lower basement and probably extremely few in C-grade cities. Most awakened, evolved, and unblemished ranked cubs weren''t much stronger than wild beasts at the beginning but their growth was faster and it would be much harder to control them without a huge amount of soul energy which was required for higher-ranked beasts, otherwise, the soulbond could backfire and the beast would be able to either control the contractor, destroy one''s soul partly, or in the worst-case scenario even completely. Greg who didn''t have such problems could easily control a late evolved ranked beast as such he listened extremely carefully. One''s soul energy would grow with his first soulbond until it matured, evolved, or when a new soulbond contract was formed with another beast. It was unknown how large the shared amount was but roughly 3% to 10% of a beast''s growth were given to the masters which depended fully on one soul. While most souls only distributed 3% to 5%, some fortunate ones would get a share of 10% from one¡äs soulbond as their soul was generous. To put it simply, Greg''s soul energy was between 400-500, and forming a soulbound with a fully grown late evolved ranked beast would use up around 450. But an evolved ranked cub used up less than 450 soul energy at the beginning and only at the end it would need the previously mentioned 450 soul energy to get subdued. This growth would cause Greg''s soul energy to grow and mature in size while the cub matures equally. With a distribution of 10%, Greg would receive around 45 soul energy once his first soulbond matured under the requirement that the soul energy it needed were 450 units once its matured. That was another reason why one would form a soul bond with cubs or eggs in the beginning. It¡äs almost one of the most important reasons! Forming a deep connection with cubs is easier than trying to tame wild beasts who lived in freedom. When a beast mutated or evolved into a stronger existence many things can happen. Either the beast affects the master because the soul energy needed is too high causing the human to suffer unbearable permanent pain or the evolved beast shares more of its strength to the human forcing the sole power to increase which would also hurt but only temporarily. This happens rarely and it''s still unknown how this can be. To conclude, having a beast that can evolve is a double-edged sword in most cases. And here comes the previously mentioned connection back to the main topic. If one raised up a beast with a high possibility to evolve, a deep connection Is important and also much easier to form. Even if a soulbonds soul energy is larger than the master¡äs as long as it doesn¡ät want to break out of the soulbond contract with force, everything is fine. Once a beast with higher soul energy than the contractor revolts, the whole situation takes a dangerous turn. That¡äs why soul energy is so essential. Even if Jason formed a contract with a one-star wild beast with potential, it was unsure if this beast would stay with him or if it would break the contract and flee. Once his soul was damaged, it would take some time to regenerate the certain spot the previous soulbond occupied, while the innate soul energy remained. But this isn''t the only way to increase one''s soul energy. Rather than using magical treasures or relying on one''s soulbond one can train the soul energy with certain training methods. These were rather painful but many desperate people use them because their soul energy is weak. For them, an increase of one point in their soul energy would mean that they can bind a slightly stronger beast which might have a stronger potential. But most zero, one star, and even some two-star soul-awakening rankings would give up their wish to get stronger and achieve something because obstructions were programmed. In this case, the soul energy increases faster cause the increasing rate is based on percentage. Jason meanwhile had at most one point in soul energy, more likely even less which means he would suffer pain even if he formed a contract with a matured one-star wild beast so he had to start training with the special method soon to prevent permanent injuries. He already knew it but he still couldn''t believe his bad luck. After looking around for a few hours it was already late at night but Greg was still pondering which beast to pick as his first soulbond. Three evolved ranked cubs were among them and all of them had roughly the same dark-green radiating color while one looked marginal denser for Jason. These beasts were a wind attributed condor, a thunder attributed wolf, and a newborn lesser Orc. Jason didn''t mind which one he should pick out of them because they were roughly the same until he saw a non-elemental bull calf with a feeble but dense green color enveloping it. After looking at these thousand types of beasts Jason formed the theory that the colors he could see were the beast''s potential. A list had already formed in his mind over the last few hours beginning with color black, light-grey, dark-green, and finally green. There was only a single green radiating color from a beast but the radiated color was incomparable to dark green. The beasts Greg was pondered to choose had all the potential color dark green which was comparable to an unblemished beast While Black was comparable to awakened beasts, light-grey seemed to be the potential of evolved beasts. The green color Jason saw right now was different from the green he had seen on the other beast as it seemed to be weaker but when Jason saw it, it was quite marvelous to see as the radiating color moved around the bull calf vigorously. This green color seemed to be weak and feeble but at the same time it seemed strong and Jason wondered why this was the case. It looked almost excited and Jason was tempted to pull down his bandage but he behaved himself. He had still his blooded bandage on but the outlines of this calf were detailed as if he saw it with his normal eyes. Chapter 16：Intimidation Jason¡äs steps stopped and he risked exposing himself without any logical reason. But somehow he felt it was the right decision, even if he wasn¡ät sure why. "Greg¡­ Why don''t you form a soul contract with this bull calf?" Without any explanation, Jason asked the question not thinking about anything special. This sentence caused the old man to stop in his tracks as looked at the calf carefully. "This is only a normal mid-evolved ranked beast cub called reinforced horned bull. Its chances to evolve into a higher unblemished being is lower compared to the other three potential bonds of Greg. Contracting this beast would be a waste." Greg¡äs parents and his sister heard this and they nodded their heads, agreeing to the old man''s explanation, while Greg¡äs sister threw a threatening glance at Jason. Meanwhile, Greg looked at the reinforced horned bull calf, not knowing why Jason wanted him to pick this beast cub. While Greg went closer to the bull calf, Jason who stood next to him said out loud. "I think this bull calf is much better compared to the other three choices." There was no explanation or anything like that coming from Jason. In a quieter voice, he added to Greg. "You can pick whichever beast you want to pick because it''s your decision but don''t regret your decision later." Somehow what Jason said made Greg ponder. He wanted to pick the newborn lesser orc which would be bound to his physical soul. However, picking the non-elemental bull calf would make a difference of a whole rank as the lesser orc had the possibility to reach the unblemished rank with a certain amount of resources provided. Greg turned to Jason and questioned him "Why do you think this beast is better than the orc for example?" It was weird for Jason to say something like that, without giving a reason and Greg believed that Jason wouldn''t want to harm him, even if Greg didn¡ät know why he trusted Jason so much. Jason was in a tight spot because he still thought that he had to keep his eyes a secret as he remembered the old man¡äs words that his eyes could be revealed. Turning to the old man he asked him again to be certain. "Old man what you said earlier is still valid, right?" The old man was confused but he nodded his head "Yeah, well..it is." Turning back to Greg, Jason slowly loosened the bandage which was still full of blood and already dried up, causing an unpleasant feeling while taking the bandage off. His eyes were closed because of the sudden light invading them. After a short moment of adapting to the sudden stream of light, as Jason opened his bright golden shining eyes, looking straight into Greg¡äs eyes. "W-Whats with your eyes? You''re NOT blind???" Greg was astonished and his jaw dropped to the ground. He knew Jason many years long and his eyes looked like a dead fish every time he looked at him, making him feel uncomfortable, but now they were full of vigor and golden in color at that. It was the first time for Jason to see Greg and he had a muscular build with short brown hair and eyes with a frown destroying his facial features. ''If I can¡ät hide my eyes forever, I can just reveal a little but, right?'' Jason had to ponder how exactly he should put it, as he said. "I had to gather mana for a long time to reactivate them. There was some sort of problem previously I had to fix, causing me to forsake absorbing mana into my mana core. And my eyes are slightly special to add." Thinking for a second, Jason told "Back to the main topic. I recommended you this bull calf because my eyes tell me that it''s the right choice for you to do. In the end, it''s your decision to do what you think is right and don''t let anyone hinder you." Greg¡äs family only saw Jason taking off his bandage, Greg''s astonishment, and his loud voice. They didn''t know what was going on but they weren''t fond of this situation as they understood that Jason wanted Greg to pick the bull calf, which the old man said was weaker than the other three beast cubs. "I want the reinforced horned bull calf as my soulbond!" Hearing this Greg''s parents were dumbfounded while his sister shouted with anger "Brother, don''t be stupid¡­ what knowledge has this blind boy without any background we don''t have? Don''t be naive!!" She went closer to the two youths that still looked at each other, while Jason''s back was only five meters apart from her. Somehow she wanted to hit Jason really hard in his face as she grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back. This caused Jason to stumble backward, while he was forced to turn around Jason was completely attacked off guard, still looking towards Greg, as his shoulder was unexpectedly pulled back. The face of a gorgeous teenage girl with beautiful facial features, fair skin, big brown eyes, and long eyelashes entered his view, distracting him slightly. Meanwhile, the girl''s face changed completely from anger to astonishment before it changed to shock as she looked into the youth''s golden eyes with surprise shining within them. The golden eyes felt as if they were as deep as the abyss but full of vigor. Jason was a little bit angered as he didn¡ät like to get thrown around or touched by strangers. Staring into Jason¡äs eyes, the girl felt uncomfortable because it was as if she couldn¡ät hide anything from him. Looking into these eyes only a moment longer would be fatal and she would probably expose every secret she had without any hesitation and she backed off and loosened her grip, almost tripping. Greg who held Jason was a little bit confused. He understood his sister''s rage slightly, however, he had never seen her backing off from clashes. But right now looking into Jason''s eyes caused her to back off which was interesting. The old man was annoyed by Greg''s sister''s behavior and said "If you finished choosing your soulbond you can leave while I will help out Jason choosing his bond. Your parents can help you with the last steps as they aren''t difficult." Greg was disappointed that he wasn''t allowed to look for Jason''s soulbond but he had to accept the old man''s order. While Greg said goodbye to Jason, his sister looked suspiciously at him and Greg''s father looked somehow angry at Jason. The reinforced horned bull calf was brought to a different room by an attendant and Greg followed the staff with his family. Now, Jason and the old man were alone while the old man looked at Jason curious, Jason was slightly apprehensive. "Why are you so sure that the reinforced horned bull is better than the other cubs we have looked after? Is it really because of your eyes?" The old man was suspicious about him and also curious, while Jason got slightly nervous. If he really told him the theory about his eyes seeing the potential of beasts, Jason wasn''t sure what would happen so he made up a story. "I''m not sure what''s so special about my eyes but after seeing the bull calf I got the feeling that it is stronger than the other beasts Greg wanted to choose from. But to be honest, I could also be wrong and I told Greg that it''s his decision which beast to pick but I hope I''m not wrong. " Chapter 17：Searching for the perfect Partner Listening to Jason, the old man nodded after a moment before he said "Well, it''s okay. It doesn''t really matter to me if his soulbond is really stronger than the other cubs. But if it''s true, that your eyes are special, I think it might be better to keep it a secret, that you ''feel'' which beast has a stronger potential or ''feels'' stronger. Don''t tell the other youth anything except your trust in him is exceptionally high, because they don''t know that your eyes are special to such a degree. The only thing they know right now is that your eyes are golden. They don¡ät know anything about the degree of your special trait, which might be better!" Jason noticed the last sentence and got curious about the traits. "What is a trait? My late mother also told me something about traits but I forgot it." "Some humans are born with special traits. These traits are divided into physical traits, elemental traits, blessings, and so on... Traits are sometimes called mutations and they enhance certain body parts or even provide the chance to use elements abilities without having a suitable soulbond. Your eyes are considered a rare physical trait but I have never seen such intimidating golden eyes so I don''t know what trait it is but probably something comparable to [Mana eyes]" Jason listened to the old man carefully and he began to partially understand his mother''s reasoning. Previously his mother had only told him that regaining his eyesight would only take a few years because that was probably what she had to do due to her own special trait. This means his mother also possessed a special trait for her eyes, which made Jason curious. But Jason took almost ten years to regain his eyesight while his mother was getting more and more frustrated when he was younger. Before she died, his mother cried often, because of Jason''s inability to see. She got more and more desperate as he was her treasure, everything she had left. Thinking about his mother made Jason sad once again, but he was almost immediately distracted by the old man "Let''s go take a look after the one-star wild beast¡äs cub or egg. It''s already late and we don''t have many types of one-star wild beasts, to begin with." The old man turned in a certain direction and went off followed by Jason. After walking for 15 minutes they arrived at a small section with small canine and feline cubs and thousands of eggs. "Most one-star wild beasts are only contracted for their look, while some one-star wild beasts are trained to run errands. The most popular beasts are similar to ancient dogs, cats, eagles, and so on. You can take a look. In this generation, we don''t have any beasts with a superior bloodline or favorable mutations... I''m sorry. If you want to wait for a few months then there might be something new but getting a better bloodline or favorable mutations depends on luck. " Jason tried to listen to the old man while looking with his eyes'' ability after the beast cubs and egg but there wasn''t even a color radiating from more than 99% of these beasts. But some beasts had a weak black color which meant they had the chance to evolve into an awakened beast. Due to his unique soul, Jason could form a contract with every kind of beast and there weren''t any requirements he had to fulfill which was his only advantage as the number of beasts he could form a contract with was also high but not measurable. He was tempted to pick one of these black color radiating beasts solely to increase his soul energy, but he had to remain calm and think carefully about his decision. Was it useful to form a contract with hundreds of beasts only to increase his soul energy slightly, wouldn¡ät it be a waste of his Mana eyes ability??` In addition to that, the costs to feed the beasts would also be astronomical... Jason looked at every beast cub and egg carefully with his eyes'' ability and more than 20 minutes passed, before he was almost done with his inspection. Suddenly, he saw a weak but heavy and mighty, yet unfamiliar color beneath some larger eggs. Looking at the unfamiliar color caused his eyes to ache as his eyes felt as if they were stabbed by burning needles. Carefully moving the eggs on top away, he saw an egg that was at most half the size compared to the others on top of it. He was confused seeing this color and his perplexed expression attracted the old man''s attention, as Jason asked "What''s wrong with this small egg? Was it placed in the wrong breeding station or is this really the same species?" Looking at the egg, the old man typed something on his bracelet, before a holographic screen appeared in front of him. After reading it through for a few seconds he said "This egg is the same species as the others inside this breeding station but it underwent an adverse mutation that caused its size to shrink. Furthermore, the scan that was done said that its strength will be worse than a normal one-star wild beast because of and high possibility of the beast getting blindness and other illnesses once it hatches. Jason however smiled like he had found a peak graded magical treasure. The radiating color was weak but extremely heavy and dense and it was as if the beast inside the egg wanted to live against all odds. Looking at the old man with his bright golden eyes Jason said with confidence "I want this Snowflake Owl as my soulbond, please!! " Slightly surprised about Jason''s confidence he looked at the provided information again. With a slight frown, he asked "Are you sure?? You know that once your soulbond contract is done it''s over, right? If this adverse mutated snowflake Owl doesn''t evolve you won''t be able to pick another soulbond for a long time until you increased your soul energy. And there is also an extremely high chance that it will get blindness and other diseases once it hatches. You have to decide now otherwise I will register your soulbond to be this beast egg. " The old man tried to help Jason out but somehow he felt that his desire to get the snowflake owl increased. Jason stared at the old man and nodded his head while holding the small egg carefully "Yes please give me this snowflake owl!" Sighing the old man said "Ok...but you don''t have to pay the fee for this egg as it has an adverse mutation and nobody would want it either." It was already past 10 pm and the lights lightened up the room when Jason and the old man were standing at a table with the small beast egg placed on a cushion. Jason had a small knife in his hand and he had to cut his hand again to form a soulbond contract again. Entering the world inside his mind as the old man explained to him, Jason loosened a thread out of the soul-world leading it slowly and carefully to his left hand. After the soul thread entered his hand Jason cut the exact position with the knife and thick blood dropped down. But different than normal blood Jason noticed that the color of his blood was not only red but it had also the golden hue which his soul had. Dripping on the egg the blood began to boil and evaporate causing the snowflake owl egg to shine with weak white light. Jason felt a connection building up between him and the beast inside the egg which slowly intensifies. The whole process of a soulbond contract was relatively boring to look at but Jason was exhausted as it was difficult to loosen a thread out of one''s soul. Jason¡äs legs almost gave in but he had to remain standing. Looking at Jason, the old man was still unsure what to think about this boy. If his soul energy was only slightly better, every high-school would offer him a scholarship without thinking about his grades... Even Five-star Institutes from S-Grade Cities on Canir wouldn''t wait to offer him many benefits. Unfortunately, his soul energy is just too bad. He wanted to finish everything up and said impatiently. "You have my contacts, right? If something goes wrong just call me. Maybe I can help you. Just take the egg with you and keep it close to you. It will hatch in the next few days. As for the possible disease it can get¡­ you should consult a professional about ways to prevent that...we didn¡ät bother to do something like that...I have to go now, there are other things I have to do and you two have taken up too much time...Let''s go out." Walking out with the egg in his hands Jason smiled gently at it, not minding the old man. Jason ordered a shuttle and said politely goodbye to the old man. Going to the Beast Pagoda changed Jason¡äs life completely and there were many obstacles he had to overcome. Chapter 18：No Time! Holding the small beast egg in his hands he could feel the thumping of its heart. Because he was exhausted the only thing he was able to think of was sleeping, without considering his unhatched soulbond. His day was extremely long and Jason had completely used up the Mana he had gathered in the morning. His headache and he took off his clothes, only wearing underwear as he went into the bed in order to sleep with the beast-egg close to his heart. --- Waking up early in the morning, the first thing Jason did was looking at the beast egg that was still placed in his hand. Activating his eyes'' ability, he confirmed that yesterday wasn''t a dream as the beast egg radiated still the same dense but weak color as before. Washing up, he put on a set of newly purchased clothes, before Jason decided to replenish his mana. There were many ways to replenish one''s mana. The slowest would be resting, not doing anything as the body attracted marginal amounts of mana by itself. With this method, it would take Jason a few days to replenish his useless small storage of mana. The second method was much more efficient and sitting relaxed down while feeling the Mana flow slowly adjusting to it so that it would go through one. While this happened one could actively absorb the Mana. This method was the one Jason used and it took only two hours to replenish his mana completely thanks to his distinct mana sensitivity and control. However, the fastest method to replenish one''s mana was using mana stones but it was also the most expensive method, as mana stones were relatively rare and expensive. Since the dark age and the sudden outburst of mana, some rare stones, trees, ores, and many more things absorbed mana causing them to change innately. Some normal stones absorbed mana causing them to change into mana stones, with their density, quality, and quantity grading them. While this happened occasionally, sometimes the permanent and temporary rifts were known for their innately manaphil materials. This was also the reason rifts were seen as a blessing in disguise. Jason didn''t have enough money to use mana stones so wasteful and the method he used was more than good enough for him. There were also some other methods one could use to replenish mana faster like certain techniques but these were rare and only people from the higher society could obtain and learn them. Jason as one of the lowest in the chain of society could only dream about learning such a technique at the moment. Looking at his soulbond, he remembered that the old man said something about the snowflake owl having some problems with its mutation. Looking at the feeble radiating color of the beast egg he didn''t really listen to the old man¡äs advice, so he began to worry about his soulbond¡äs health for a moment. He immediately entered the federation network in order to look out for professional doctors with a specialty for beast illnesses. While the holographic screen from his bracelet opened, he noticed that he got a message from an unknown number. Opening the message, he saw that it was the old man''s number with the content of the message being a file about his soulbond. He was happy that he received the file about his soulbond as Jason was pondering if he should write a message to the old man because he needed to know what the exact problem was with his beast. Looking through the file Jason noticed that he couldn''t understand anything at all. There were some scales and numbers, measuring something but it looked like an alien language to him... Feeling useless Jason went online in order to continue his search for a professional. Even if it was Sunday, Jason had to know what''s wrong with his soulbond beast before it hatched. And the main issue was that it wouldn''t take long for eggs to hatch once they¡äre bound. Jason was told that it would at most take two days from now which wasn''t far away. There were so many things he had to purchase, like beast cub milk, food, training material for himself and his beast, and many more things, as he was completely unaware of what newly hatched owls would eat. Furthermore, his flat was way too small for a beast, even if it was only a small owl. The things he wanted to purchase required some space and he would have to lease a new apartment soon. Placing these thoughts in his mind he had to make a list, what to do first. The most important thing right now was to figure out how to prevent his soulbond beast to get any disease or other problems. Looking up a few sites, Jason found a reliable website with a professional that had a few certificates and theory papers about beastology, while most were about beast cubs including theories about birth disease and adverse mutations. Jason thanked his luck as he dialed the number shown on the website without hesitating for a second, as a young female receptionist answered his call. Talking with her for a few minutes Jason was feeling more and more frustrated as the receptionist wanted to make an appointment for a month later. How could he wait a month when the snowflake owl would hatch in two days?! He wanted to shout out loud, but that wouldn¡ät help out in his current situation, so Jason calmed down. Pressuring the receptionist a little bit, Jason sent even the file about his beast through the holographic screen, without waiting for an answer from her. Jason was about to beg the receptionist to give him five minutes as he heard a middle-aged voice in the background of the receptionist asking her, what''s wrong. The receptionist was still somehow calm as she was probably used to people like Jason when she answered the middle-aged man honestly what was going on. Jason couldn''t hear anything for a few minutes until he heard a quiet. "Interesting!" Then the middle-aged voice could be heard closer. "Young man if you have time you can come over in the afternoon at 5 pm. I will spare some of my time. You can follow the described way at our website in order to find my office. Don''t be late. I don''t like waiting!" He ended the call and one could only see the astonished Jason looking at an empty holographic screen. Then a smile emerged on his face as he was one step closer to his goal. Jason hoped that this doctor could help him out and he was about to jump around with the soulbond egg in his hand, as he noticed that it might be a bad idea. ** It was 1 pm when Jason finished replenishing his mana and after eating some small snacks he went out. Calling a shuttle, Jason wanted to visit a few apartments so he could escape from the filthy room that began to disgust him. The prices ranged from a few hundred credits to thousands of credits for the outskirts of a C-grade city. Once one wanted to purchase an apartment closer to the center the price would skyrocket as the center was the safest area with the most and best security. Jason''s district was one of the filthiest and most dangerous with the highest crime rate of the whole city and he didn''t want to live there longer than he had to. To move into a bigger apartment within a safer district, he would have to pay at least a few thousand credits per month. With around 300.000 Credits left, Jason was pondering what to do, as never knew when he would gain credits once again, or how much he had to purchase in the future. For most humans with soulbond beasts, their beasts could be considered the most expensive as some needed expensive meat or other nutrition to nurture and train them. Furthermore, taking combat training, magic classes, learning battle skills and other techniques with knowledgeable instructors was expensive. However, these expenditures could be avoided by attending a high-school, which was Jason¡äs goal. Resources that might increase the chances of an evolution and many more things one needed were also expensive and difficult to obtain without connections Driving around with a shuttle and looking for new apartment four hours passed in no time and Jason stood now in front of the address written down on the beast professionals website. Going inside he was greeted by the female receptionist he previously talked to. She showed him the way to the office and left afterward. Walking inside with slight hesitation, Jason was greeted by a middle-aged man with blond hair and eyes with a gentle smile. The man was tall but skinny and he radiated the aura of a neet which Jason didn''t mind. Rather than that, he felt more comfortable around people like that. Chapter 19：Solving Issue Seeing Jason, the man stood up, introducing himself first "Hello my name is James Gray, you must be the young man who made his first soulbond yesterday." "Hello my name is Jason Stella and it was me who called desperately this morning. I hope you can help me and my soulbond out." Jason said with little hope. "I already read through the file you sent me today and there are different problems the beast has to face. But I can''t be sure without scanning the beast myself as my equipment is more advanced. If you don''t mind, we shall make a test right away." James stood up and Jason followed without hesitation, holding the snowflake owl egg in his Jacket¡äs pocket. 3 rooms further, they entered a room with a huge amount of equipment, Jason didn''t know what they were used for. One particular machine stood out, as it was the biggest and black in color. It stood in the center and on an elevation was a cushion which was a dent in the middle looking like many eggs were already placed on it before. "Place the egg inside the cushion right in front of you, please. The test itself won''t take long." Jason did as instructed. After placing the egg he stepped back to see that a transparent bell-formed instrument slowly descended, covering the whole egg. A small red light came out of the top of it while a *piep* resounded in the room and it scanned the whole area inside the transparent bell a few times. Less than a minute passed and the test was already finished. The transparent bell was lifted and Jason took his beast egg again before looking at James intently Meanwhile, James was looking at the report on his quantum bracelet with shining eyes. "Ohh so it''s like that.. Interesting." After reading the report for five minutes James noticed Jason''s desperate look next to him, before he smiled lightly. Looking down at Jason''s small build, seeing his desperate expression, James felt weird. ''Why is this boy so desperate and going around here alone? Huh, what''s with his eyes? " Shaking his head to focus again James led Jason to the office where they sat down on a couch. Jason was impatient right now, so he asked straightforwardly. "What''s wrong with my soulbond and how can I help it? James sighed before he said. "Right now our knowledge about beasts, mutations, and evolutions is shallow and we can only make theories about most things. Reading both test files told me that your beast has a mutation. It¡äs unsure if it really is an adverse mutation to be honest. It is definitely true that without any countermeasures it will be hard to prevent birth defects and other issues, however, that does not necessarily have to be the case. I can''t give you a perfect solution for your beast¡äs problem but both files gave me some clues about the main issue. But to tell you beforehand, this is only my theory and not something thoroughly tested or acknowledged by the federation at the moment." Listening to the professionals'' reply, Jason¡äs heart felt heavier but a small rayof hope was still burning in him as he heard the theory. "Even if your soulbond is a one-star wild beast it needs a certain amount of nutrition and mana to survive. I think you got the beast egg from the Beast Pagoda which means tens of thousand beasts have to share the same amount of mana in a small space. Due to your beast''s mutation, the problem might be that it needs more mana to develop its body and mana core. One solution could be a large mana supply as it has a deficit. It needs more mana to grow and is so small in size because of the scarcity of mana. To solve this problem in a short time you would have to purchase mana stones. I don''t know if you have enough credits to do that but right now I can''t think of any other countermeasure before the beast hatches and it¡äs still unsure if this solution is 100% helpful. I¡äm sorry." Jason listened to James carefully and he wasn''t sure if he should be happy or sad. It was only a theory and not a 100% solution but it was still better than nothing. After asking a few additional questions, Jason left an hour later. He didn¡ät even have to pay something as Prof. Gray wanted to use the test files for his studies. He got Professor James Gray¡äs contact details as the prof was fascinated about the files he read previously, hoping that Jason¡äs beast would hatch healthy. Searching for mana stones online, he found out that even the smallest mana stone was extremely expensive. 50.000 Credits for a ping pong ball-sized grade-1 mana stone sounded horrifyingly expensive for Jason but after searching for more information he found out that the compressed mana inside such a small stone was already around the same amount as an unblemished beast. This surprised Jason but thinking about it, it wasn¡ät as illogical as he previously thought. An unblemished beast was comparable with a human Expert rank and to replenish his mana once a human expert would have to use up a whole ping pong ball-sized grade-1 mana stone. It was extremely expensive even for normal Expert ranks as hunting Unblemished beasts resulted often in injuries that had to be treated with expensive medications. Jason wanted to purchase three small mana stones but he had to set an address where to deliver the goods so before buying the mana stones Jason contacted the landlord from one of the apartments he visited today in order to sign a lease. The cost was 2500 credits per month and the area around it was safe while everything needed was close by. Signing the contract on his quantum bracelet he could instantly move in. There wasn''t anything at his old flat as he brought all the important things with him in his storage space. The new apartment was 55 square meters big with a bedroom, bathroom, living room, and a small kitchen inside. It looked small and comfy when Jason visited the apartment but he didn''t want to lease it instantly as he wasn''t sure how expensive his beast''s treatment would be. With a little bit less than 150.000 credits left after deducting 3 small mana stones, Jason had more than enough left to lease the small apartment for half a year. Finally purchasing the three small mana stones Jason set the destination from the parcel to his new address. Afterward, he wanted to stroll around in order to get to know his new neighborhood which he hasn¡ät done before. Jason was like a small child interested in everything as it wasn¡ät that long since he regained his eyesight and everything looked special to him. Smelling nice food from the nearby food stall Jason ordered a big pizza which he relished. He hadn''t eaten anything good and savory for years and it was the first time for him to eat pizza and Jason enjoyed eating it. The beast egg was inside a small bum bag close to Jason. After he finished the pizza, Jason''s belly was filled to the brim. He had never eaten so much before but he was happy and satisfied with his current life. It wasn¡ät that every problem he had, was solved, but rather in the beginning, his biggest issue was his sight. Afterward, his almost nonexistent soul energy seemed to be a huge problem and now his soulbond beast was having some issues. Jason hoped that the mana supply from the mana stones would be enough to solve his problems, which would solve each problem he had right now. He wasn''t scared that his new companion was useless as he had seen the dense color Jason had never seen before but the problem was that the color was feeble which caused him to hesitate when he saw it. But getting to know that he could probably solve his issue made him excited. After strolling for an hour Jason went home to his new apartment where he would continue learning how to write difficult words. Furthermore, he enjoyed reading the beastarium which was full of beast''s pictures, with their characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, rank, and many more information. It was almost midnight when Jason fell asleep with the beastarium holographic screen still open. Chapter 20：Preparations! It was 8 am when Jason woke up by a small movement in his hand. The hand holding his beast-egg shook slightly and Jason''s facial expression changed drastically. He was instantly fully awake and frowned deeply. "Buddy, can you wait please a day. You''ll have some problems when you hatch now. Please... okay?" Jason said and thought of it at the same time as sincerely as possible. Due to the connection between their souls the egg somehow understood what Jason said and stopped its movement. Jason felt the small owl''s impatience and desire to break out of its prison but it waited because it knew that once it hatched without getting help beforehand, many problems could occur. Snowflake owls were in fact not smart but the mutation Jason''s snowflake owl underwent was apparent everywhere. This was something Jason knew and he hoped that his soulbond would listen to him which it luckily did. Sighing in relief Jason looked on his bracelet if his parcel arrived. Seeing a notification saying that the parcel was ready to be delivered, Jason immediately requested it. Only a few minutes later Jason received another notification telling him that his parcel arrived. Opening the apartment door Jason saw a drone with a small package bound on it. The drone scanned Jason''s ID, loosened the package and flew away. There was not much time left for his soulbond to hatch and Jason opened the parcel without any delay before noticing the huge amount of mana inside the package. Jason was previously too focused on his beast but now by looking more concentrated, he saw a huge amount of mana inside the mana stones. Compared to the natural mana around the city, these three small mana stones were like a huge ocean concentrated in a small area. It was said that the mana inside cities was extremely thin and weak, whereby the wild zones were categorized by two factors. One factor was the amount and density of natural mana around the wild zone and another factor was the rank of the majority from the beasts inside the wild zone. The amount of mana Jason felt from the small three mana stones was roughly as much as the radiating mana from certain materials the Beast Pagoda used, astonishing him. Picking up the three mana stones Jason immediately felt a tickling sensation. He was tempted to absorb the Mana to strengthen himself but he resisted the urge, because there was someone who needed it more desperately. Jason laid the small egg down on a pillow and formed a triangle with the small mana stones around it. Each mana stone was in touch with the eggshell and Jason saw through his mana eyes that small threads of mana flowed into the egg. The whole egg was mantled with mana and it flowed inside the egg from all sides, absorbing it slowly. The egg stopped moving and Jason had now some time left to search for more information about snowflake owls and other things he didn¡ät know. He was unsure if his soulbonds mutation would change its eating habits or something like that, so he had to prepare all different kinds of food. Purchasing some vegetables, meat, and milk with different kinds of cub formulas Jason felt prepared. After he finished his purchase, Jason decided to look up some other information while laying on his bed. His knowledge was vast compared to his peers, but considering the fact that he couldn''t see previously, Jason lacked many things. He knew many beasts by their names, characteristics, and habits but he couldn''t classify them if he only saw a picture. Furthermore, his combat prowess was awful as he remembered the Azure feisty Ape martial art but only a single sequence at that. It was like Jason opened the book of a single page which he repeated one after another. The page''s content would provide him any information which he could apply straightforwardly. However, the issue would be, not understanding what the content means would be like studying without being able to apply the learned formula with marginal changes. Jason understood the Azure feisty Apes first sequence including the Mana flow inside his body but he had never fought with anyone before. His body was also on the weaker side as he was still malnourished and only a 2nd Novice rank. There were many things to overcome for Jason but he had to take one step at a time and the first thing he did was opening the holographic screen of his quantum watch to continue reading the beastarium. Rather than randomly looking at beasts and their characteristics, Jason chose the section about a one-star wild zone next to the Artes city. Wild zones range from one star to four stars while each rank represented one beast rank. One-star wild zones are mostly infested by wild-ranked beasts and two-star wild zones have mostly awakened beats. Above the wild zones were magic beast zones which don''t really matter to Jason right now as it was far away from him. One-star wild zones are also called training zones for most highschoolers as almost no human would be endangered while fighting against wild beasts. The youths of Jason''s age had on average the strength to defeat one-star awakened beasts because their rank was around the 8th Novice with a one-star awakened beast cub as soulbond on average which gave them some nice strength, increasing their combat prowess. With a slightly decent comprehension ability and decently learned combat techniques through good instructions, wild beasts would be an easy pie for them. But to learn about the characteristics of beasts and their bloodlust combined with their instincts one had to face their fear of dying. Killing a living organism was completely different than ordering meat or something comparable and fighting a life and death battle couldn''t be handled by every youth. Some people had no problem killing wild beasts while others fainted or peed their pants even if they had a big advantage in combat prowess. Jason however had a huge disadvantage against most wild beasts like his low rank, the non-existing amplification of his soulbond at the moment, and his lacking combat abilities. He wasn''t sure how high his amplification he would get from his soulbond in the future but even if his beautiful soul had an extraordinary high amplification it wouldn''t be useful as the snowflake owl was a one-star wild beast. Thinking about his shortcomings Jason frowned while he continued reading the beastarium. Chapter 21：Hatching! Thinking about his non-existent combat experience or knowledge, he opened the federation network. Jason searched for martial arts instructors and their prices only to find out that it was extremely expensive. Entering a high school would be cheaper than having a few lessons by these instructors but Jason''s final exam wasn''t good enough to enter a decent one. He could apply for his blindness remark to get removed but that wouldn''t solve his problem. Looking at his exam results at his profile Jason was slightly embarrassed ''Theoretical Exam 100/100 Points Practical Exam 34/100 Points Blood test: Passed, Remark: Blind Mana Core rank: 2nd Novice -40/100 Soul awakening: ¡ï¡ï /¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï'' His soul-awakening rating was also a bad joke. The old man was probably generous because nobody with his soul energy would get two stars as a rating. Or maybe the old man was too astonished about his soul world which blurred his mind. He had around 130.000 Credits left and he had to survive with this money for a certain amount of time until he could earn money himself. Hunters are well paid and even hunting wild beasts gave some credits as they infested the areas around cities and endangered them even with their low rank. Their population was way too large which is also the reason why one-star wild zones are used for middle-schools to train their students. The only good thing about these beasts was that their hide, tendons, claws, meat, and so on could be used by poor people. Average households would never buy clothes made out of wild-ranked beasts as the beast hide wasn''t comfortable to wear and didn''t look good enough, to begin with. There were only a few rare beasts with comfortable fur, wealthier households would purchase, which would in return increase the price for such beasts. Protection garments out of wild-ranked beasts were also useless as normal grade-1 weapons could slash through them like butter. Nevertheless, a wild beast carcass could get up to 25 Credits if one was extremely lucky, which was already a decent bounty for such weak beasts if one assumes that normal workers earned 1500 Credits per month on average, considering that they didn¡ät do anything special. Through Jason¡äs mind rattled many thoughts, while he researched Martial arts instructors. In the end, he found an interesting website with many martial arts video clips online from Martial Heaven. Martial Heaven is an online platform that was even approved by the federation. The Website provided online instructions about all kinds of martial art techniques including martial arts about every kind of element. After registering an account with his ID and inputting his rank and other information, a selection window popped up, where Jason could select the weapon he wanted to use. If he wanted to, Jason could even include what type of elemental affinity the martial techniques should focus on. Furthermore, Jason could also select his requirements and much more information. Registering at Martial Heaven cost 100 Credits a month which was a fair price because Jason saw a few hundred free Videos included in his membership. Looking through the Videos Jason found out that most of them were like tutorials leading to a playlist of pay to watch Videos. After that, Jason wanted to throw a fit but he was reminded again that most martial arts were uploaded by normal common people trying to make some pocket money while sharing their tips and tricks. Searching through some free videos Jason found a whole free playlist about a technique provided by the federation he was already familiar with. [Azure feisty Ape]. Looking at the first sequence Jason found out that he had remembered everything correctly but there was a small problem. Jason couldn¡ät clearly see the mana flow through the holographic screen. It felt somewhat blurred and focusing his eyes on the mana flow, his eyes began to hurt slightly. There wasn¡ät anything he could do about it so he just binge-watched the videos one after another without focusing his gaze at the mana flow. Even then Jason made huge progress by only seeing the instructions made by the middle-aged Instructor in front of the camera. `Seeing that is definitely better than solely surveying the mana flow" Jason thought and many hours passed unknown to him. He was still lying on his bed re-rewatching the Instructions about the Azure feisty ape technique when he heard a cracking next to him. The Mana stones that were previously thick dark blue color turned into brighter blue and looking at the amount of mana stored inside them Jason was astonished. More than half of the stored mana was used up and the egg began to shake violently, while small cracks started to appear on the shell. Jason¡äs mood heightened immediately, as the atmosphere turned delightful when the cracks deepened. The shell burst open, only to reveal a small puffed up owl chick with small tipsy eyes, looking at Jason with its black button-like eyes. After shacking of the remaining eggshells it looked at the mana stones before it toddled towards Jason as fast as it could, throwing itself into his embrace. Jason felt the owl chick¡äs happiness inside himself as they shared each other''s emotions, turning himself even more happy as he already was. Holding the fist-sized chick, Jason remembered that he had to give it a name. ''Is it a boy or a girl??'' Jason wasn''t sure which gender the owl cub belonged to as an thought was transmitted into his mind, telling him that the owl chick was a female. Thinking about a few female names, he told the little owl chick some of them, but Jason felt that she would reject each of them. If he had to be honest, his naming sense was horrible, probably even worse than the worst name generator humanity had. After a long time, Jason''s head began to hurt slightly and he subconsciously entered the soul world inside his mind. He saw a small feeble string struggling to stay strong between the snowflake owl''s soul print as Jason saw an illusionary forest, moon, and a cloaked archer hunting something. Connecting all together a single word appeared in his mind ''Artemis''. Without knowing what''s going on in his small soul world or how he could think of such a name the small owl chick chirped delighted and Jason felt that she liked this name. "So it''s Artemis." Jason thought smiling lovingly at his soulbond. The color she radiated was not as feeble as before and much stronger which made Jason even happier but he was still unable to decipher the color somehow. It felt as if each color was inside it but also somehow not. Luckily Jason found out about the mana deficit and Professor Gray''s theory was also valid so Jason had no reason to be sad. It was only afternoon, but Jason felt extremely exhausted while his whole body ached when he fell asleep while holding Artemis in his hand. Chapter 22：Practicing Martial arts It was early in the morning and the first sunlight entered his new apartment when a black-haired youth holding a small owl chick woke up. He rubbed his dreamy eyes with his empty hand when noticed something was in his other hand. Remembering what happened the day before Jason knew that it was his soulbond Artemis. Smiling happily, he looked at the sleeping owl. Jason wasn''t sure when she slept in but there was something particular in his room that changed overnight and this change surprised him a lot. The mana stones that were still shining feeble yesterday were now indistinguishable from normal stones. There was not a single trace of mana left inside them and Jason activated his eye, only to see that the radiating color of Artemis seemed to be stronger than the day before. From the outer appearance, Jason didn''t notice any difference, but its white plumage was shining brightly. Comparing Artemis with a normal snowflake owl chick, Artemis'' small size was the only noticeable thing that remained. Jason wasn''t sure how exactly evolutions or mutations worked but he trusted his eyes which told him that Artemis was a treasure. The only thing he had to find out was how to grind the potential out of her. He already came up with a theory in his mind. Jason had even read some theories about evolutions from beast creators and the development of mutations so there were more than enough things to try out But to test most theories, Jason needed more credits as they were either expensive and as if that was not enough, they seemed to be extremely dangerous, so Jason had to prepare himself. Hunting beasts is considered as one of the top-paid jobs and becoming a Hunter would solve Jason''s problems. However, first, he had to prepare himself mentally and physically. Considering his fighting strength right now, fighting a one-star wild beast after some martial arts practice shouldn''t be that difficult, maybe even hunting two-star wild beasts might be possible. The most important thing he had to do now was to train his body, solving his malnutrition by eating more, raising up Artemis, and practicing martial arts. Two out of the four matters were relatively easy and could be solved without any problems. Eating and training his body would be easy while he was still unsure about Artemis''s mutation or what she would have to eat. About martial arts practice, Jason decided to memorize the Azure feisty Ape technique and learn it, until he reached the techniques¡ä limit. He wasn''t sure if he could ask Greg to spar with him but after a second thought, he rejected this though as Greg was at the 2nd Adept ranked with a non-elemental soulbond that would most likely increase his physique tremendously. Jason wouldn''t be able to handle a single blow and it would be impossible to figure out the flaws in his technique while being K.Oed with a single hit. Disregarding this thought, Jason looked at the video clips of the Azure feisty Ape technique while he waited for Artemis to wake up. But even hours later she wouldn''t wake up and Jason got worried so he shook her slightly. Still being dreamy Artemis woke up with a bad temper and Jason was sorry for her. Jason was confused as newborns would normally be more active and he got more worried thinking about the possible illness she could have. Artemis transmitted one of her memories which displayed her absorbing the remaining mana inside the Mana stones and her falling asleep afterward. Seeing this memory Jason was astonished. It wasn''t common for wild-ranked beasts to be so intelligent and to be even able to transmit memories between each other was an astonishing feat. Sensing that everything was okay about Artemis, Jason calmed down slightly. He could also sense that Artemis was satiated as if she ate a whole titan pig alone, reassuring him in his worries about her food. Artemis was still sleepy but before she fell asleep a small white magic circle appeared below her, as she went inside Jason, appearing inside his soul world. Within the soul world, Artemis fell asleep peacefully. Jason stood up from his bed, walking around the apartment thinking about Artemis''s weird behavior. It was weird but everything was based on the mana stones and Jason had a bad premonition. He hoped his assumption was false, otherwise, he had to face some financial problems. ''Please don''t let her mutation be stimulated by mana or even worse a solely pure mana digestion...'' She wasn''t even a one-star wild beast at the moment and consumed three mana stones with the stored amount of mana, three human experts could store inside them or in other words 150.000 credits. And she hatched less than a day ago. Jason wasn''t sure how long she would sleep to digest these three small mana stones but there weren''t many credits left in his bank account! At most Jason would be able to purchase two mana stones. He sincerely hoped that Artemis would be able to eat other things with smaller amounts of mana. Jason would even buy higher-graded Beast meat to saturate Artemis but right now Jason was too frightened by the worst-case scenario. Feeling depressed Jason had to think of a way to earn more money, and the most efficient way for him would be hunting. As such, Jason decided to diligently train the Azure feisty Ape technique, before he would continue doing anything else. He moved away some furniture to make some space for him to train. Looking at one video at a time and repeating the same moves done by the Instructor over and over again. Repeating the few sequences the videos provided, Jason found out that he made some mistakes because it felt different than the first sequence, where he saw the instructor with his mana flow at school. Trying to find his flaws Jason started to record his practice. After each sequence, he looked at the recordings only to find out that his movements were completely misplaced. Figuring out the flaws after rewatching everything multiple times, Jason tried to fix them slowly. In the evening when the sun went down Jason laid on the ground full of sweat and not able to move with a satisfied expression blossomed on his face. His stomach growled and he ordered something to get delivered over his phone after he noticed that he hadn''t eaten anything over the whole day. He had completely memorized how the Azure feisty Ape technique should look and comparing his moves with his memories it was easy to pick out the flaws. But Jason didn''t know that his excellent eyesight played a huge role in finding the flaws as some of them were only marginal and difficult to spot. Even the marginal flaws played a big role in the whole picture. In the end, Jason learned the technique better and more efficiently than others. The only small problem he had with the second sequence was to reconstruct the perfect mana flow but his extraordinary senses, mana control and accuracy were actually very helpful here. Three days passed without much change and Jason was within his apartment the whole time. Artemis was still sleeping inside the soul world but the connections between both of them was still strong, lively and it felt like it grew more attached to each other every passing day Jason felt that Artemis was fine so he didn''t worry much about her. He focused on the Azure feisty Ape martial technique and after memorizing and practicing the first three sequences to a certain extent Jason noticed that the Instructor began to use different compatible weapons with the technique. Only a small modifier from the normal techniques has been done but unpleasantly it was connected to a different Playlist of videos which would cost credits But Jason was delighted as he was scared to face wild beasty with razor-sharp claws and teeth only with bare fists and the fee credits he had to pay was nothing compared to the importance Jason gave his own life. Chapter 23：Unique Bloodline Because he didn''t have any weapons at home, which lead Jason to look at what types of weapons were the most suitable to learn with the Azure feisty Ape technique. In the end, he found out that gauntlets and daggers were the most suitable for this technique. Jason was tempted to purchase gauntlets but he also wanted to get something sharp as his body was still too feeble to kill or heavily injure beasts with his fists or gauntlets alone. Only humans with a strong physique would use gauntlets or other blunt weapons and Jason was definitely not one of them. Looking at the online weapon store he found a few thousand types of daggers at every grade. Jason was overwhelmed with the supply but the price for most daggers wasn''t something he could handle, so he had to filter his research slightly. With a little bit more than 130.000 credits left, he could afford a grade-1 dagger which ranged from 20.000 to a few hundred thousand credits. After thinking for a few minutes, Jason understood that he had to buy a weapon sooner or later, as he would venture into the wild zone¡äs somewhen. Looking through the descriptions of a few dozen daggers within his price range Jason found something that attracted his attention. [Low Tier-1 Jade Iron Dagger] Jade Iron, tampered in the flames of a Two-star azure flame, able to pierce through mid-awakened ranked beasts. Price:30.000 Credits For a Tier-1 weapon in this price range to pierce through a mid awakened beast was extremely good. There were many grades for weapons and armors but the most commonly used ones were Tier-1 to Tier-3 while Tier 4 and 5 were already fairytales. Jason didn¡ät know a single human with a tier-4 or tier-5 weapon, as such he regarded them as legends. There were also mana and soul weapons which are special due to their certain effects. Mana weapons could enhance the weapon''s strength or amplify an element, while soul weapons would grow within the soul world until the material used for the soul weapon would reach its potential limitation. Soul weapons could resonate with their contractor and enhance one''s strength more than mana weapons if well nurtured. While normal graded weapons were already expensive, mana and soul weapons could only be purchased by rich merchants, nobles, higher-royalty, and big families. Soul weapons were more expensive than mana weapons because the materials needed were super rare and the ability to grow and adjust its strength with the master was extremely powerful. Each Tier could be divided into four segments indicating the capabilities within their grade also called Low, Mid, High, Peak. Low Tier-1 weapons are commonly only able to pierce the hide of weaker awakened beasts while Peak Tier-1 weapons can already pierce the skin of evolved beasts without focusing on weak spots. He wasn''t sure why the price for this dagger was so low but the website only allowed genuine transactions and would punish frauds harshly. Jason purchased the Low Tier-1 Jade Iron Dagger and was left with around 100.000 Credits. This would give him the chance to purchase two small mana stones if needed. The parcel with the dagger arrived around afternoon and Jason began to learn the Azure feisty Ape technique modified to use with Daggers. Four days later one could see a small but handsome youth running through the park sweating and slightly exhausted. Jason trained his body really hard the last few days and he ate a lot which resulted in him growing some muscles and gaining a little bit of weight. He was still malnourished but his physique got better with each day passing. Over the last week, his mana core was filled more and more with mana and in a few days at most, Jason would reach the requirements to break into the 3rd Novice rank. Artemis was still sleeping inside the soul world which made him slightly worried because it was already a week but sensing her health he knew that she was more than healthy. Inside his soul world, he inspected Artemis for a while when he noticed that the feeble color enveloping her was becoming denser. This was probably because of the Mana she absorbed. The absorbed mana was probably able to initiate the mutation that was previously backslashes but Jason wasn''t sure about that. During the last week, Jason chatted a lot with Greg which surprised him quite a bit. Greg messaged him the day after his soul-awakening and since then they became friends? Or at least chat-buddies. Greg¡äs parents had something against him because they thought Greg was persuaded to take a different first soulbond which wasn¡ät the case. Six days after Greg formed his soulbound contract with the reinforced horned bull, an advanced potential test found out that the non-elemental bull had a hidden bloodline that normal tests couldn¡ät find. This hidden bloodline was from a rare race called "Lesser Minotaur" race which also formed small societies and was almost like one of the foreign invading races except for its lack of intelligence. Greg persuaded his parents to let his soulbond get tested about his potential because he believed that Jason wouldn''t lie to him, even if Greg wasn¡ät completely sure why he did that They have never talked much with each other but Greg felt comfortable around Jason which wasn''t the case with his other ex-classmates as they liked his strength and background. In the beginning, he wasn''t sure why he believed Jason so much but after seeing his golden eyes Greg¡äs suspicion was completely shattered. After finding out about the reinforced horned bull''s hidden bloodline Greg¡äs family calmed down and they had a better view of Jason. But they were still suspicious as it could have been luck. How should a previously blind youth be able to find out something that normal tests couldn¡ät? They paid huge amounts of credits to let the reinforced horned bull calf tested its potential and it was only because of that, that they found out about its bloodline. Normally nobody would make a test about something like that without prior knowledge as it was a waste of credits and time. Nevertheless, they had to thank Jason as this bull calf was a much better first soulbond than every other beast he could have chosen in the C-Grade Beast Pagoda. Greg also informed Jason that he would move away in a few weeks into an A-grade City called Cyro City where he would attend one of the most prestigious high-schools. His parents knew some headteachers from the school and due to Greg¡äs exceptional exam result with his 4-star soul-awakening, it wouldn''t be a problem for him to attend the school. After receiving this information Jason was slightly shocked. He wasn''t sure if Greg was his friend but he was the only one at his age, who he chatted with. The information that Greg would move away, into one of the two A-grade cities on Astrix, caused Jason to feel sad and even jealous. School would start its first semester in mid-August and there were still 6 weeks left but Greg had to move in around four weeks. Jason wasn''t even sure if he could apply for a school in a C-grade city¡­ He felt that the gap between him and Greg would only widen as he would get high-ranked support from professional instructors and many resources to increase his rank, while Jason would be left behind. Even if Greg¡äs parents were still suspicious about Jason they had to thank him so they asked Greg to question him if he needed something. Jason didn''t expect that Greg¡äs parents wanted to thank him and he had to think for a while. He needed many things so he wasn''t entirely sure what to ask for but considering the dangers of lacking soul energy for example when Artemis would evolve, Jason got scared. "Greg I''ve thought of something." Jason started before he hesitantly asked "Can you ask your parents if they can get me permission to the Heaven''s Hell technique? My Credits and contributions are too low and I don''t know when I''ll be able to attend a high school or if this highschool has the permission to hand it over... " The Heaven''s Hell technique was a soul energy refining technique that would use up soul energy forcibly and replenished it continuously. To put it simply soul energy could be compared to a muscle. If one doesn¡ät use one¡äs muscles they would remain at their weakest possible without any change. However, using the muscle and exhausting it consistently would force the muscle to be tempered and strengthened. And this is where the importance of high soul energy came into the game. Having more soul energy means you have more muscles to strengthen this is harder but also results in higher benefits. Comparing Jason and Greg''s soul energy Jason would need to train a long time to increase his soul energy by one point as was an increase of 100% but for Greg with his soul energy slightly below 500, the increase of 1 point was equivalent to 0.2%. This was because the Heaven''s Hell technique followed the exponential growth principles and Greg had a better foundation while Jason started way behind him. But even if this was the case Jason had the chance to increase his soul energy with the Heaven''s Hell technique. Jason also consulted Greg about the Azure feisty Ape manual and some flaws he had as Jason wasn''t entirely sure of everything he did was correct. A few days passed and there was still no message from Greg, causing him to wonder if something happened. Maybe it was too rude for him to ask about the permission to use Heaven''s Hell? But that shouldn''t be the case as it was a civilian technique which everyone could use with enough credits and some contribution like hunting beasts or jobs like that. Jason wasn''t sure but he didn''t think too much about it, as he practiced the Azure feisty Ape technique with the dagger modification. Artemis was still in her deep slumber. His mana core reached almost its limit and Jason was close to the break-through into the 3 Novice stage which made him happy. Jason''s slim body became more muscly and his weight finally reached the common standards for a skinny youth. Suddenly Jason got a call while he was training with his dagger. Chapter 24：Unexpected Reward Jason accepted the call almost immediately as Greg''s face suddenly appearing within the holographic-screen. "Hey Jason, how are you doing?" Greg looked happy and Jason wondered what the cause was. "Hi Greg, I''m still practicing the Azure feisty Ape technique with the dagger modification. Why are you so happy?" Jason was curious so he asked straightforwardly. "Hehe, I have some news for you. Which one do you want to hear first? The good one or the super-duper extreme nice one?" It was weird to see Greg so happy as he seemed to have a rather cold personality previously. `Maybe this is his real character` Jason thought. "Well, maybe the good one first?" "Ohh boring... Well ok, then we go in this order. The good news is that I was able to receive the permission for your Heaven''s Hell technique. THE super-duper extreme nice news involves your bad grades... Hehehe. As you might know I''m going to move to Cyro-city and you might know that I don''t have many friends.. Furthermore, I know that you would love to go to high-school in order to learn more about martial arts, beasts, wild zones, and many more things. Also, the resources provided by high-school are much better which is probably also a reason for your wish to attend high-school, am I right? Throughout the last few days, I nagged my parents and told them that they owe you a favor because of their prejudice against you and my first soulbond with it¡äs lesser minotaur bloodline, so they gave me the permission to use our newly obtained nobility rights if you fulfill certain requirements. Isn''t that nice? Hahaha " Jason wasn''t sure what to think about Greg''s revelation. Receiving the Heaven''s Hell technique was something good, but what Greg wanted to tell him about the nobility rights was unknown. He wasn¡ät even sure what these rights were.. and since when was Greg a noble?!? Jason was way too confused and said dazedly "Hugh? What about your nobility right? I don''t know anything about the right of the nobles.. and what requirements? Explain please?!" Greg smiled proudly. "We know that you¡äre way too weak right now but the reason I want to use my nobility rights is pretty simple. You¡äll get to attend the affiliated school of the Vanguard school I¡äll attend. Isn''t that nice? I''m not a Nobel from birth but we have more assets and credits than most small nobles on Astrix and recently my mother was assigned as a minor noble because of her contributions to mankind which makes me a noble of the second generation. Through this, our family is able to allow someone, in this case, you, as a student for the affiliated school with my mother''s connections. You''ll be able to enter the school with that. Unfortunately, that wouldn''t save you from the rules of the Vanguard School which is the main school I¡äll attend. While I¡äll enter the main school, you will enter one of the affiliated schools of it. Now to the small issue. Many rich merchants already tried to pay nobles, so that these nobles would use their nobility''s right to take their children with them to the prestigious A-grade schools. The Vanguard school knows that and accepts them into the affiliated school during the first year. After a year without reaching the required strength, merit points, and other requirements, one will get thrown out immediately without caring about anyone¡äs nobility right and whatsoever. Furthermore, I had to promise my parents a few things so that they accepted you but that can¡ät be considered a problem. The main problem is that you have to pass their `small` test. If you pass their test you can go to Cyro-city with us and attend the Vanguard affiliated school, one of the most prestigious schools in Astrix, even with your bad practical exam results. Ahhhh, wait¡­ as for your exam results. You have to let your blindness remark get removed. Otherwise even the nobility right can''t help you apply for the school. My mother assumed that you have special trait eyes and if you get a special certification about that, you might get some extra credentials for your application." "Back to my parent''s test. Because they know your mana core''s rank and your former blindness, they were benevolent in my opinion and you only have to defeat either one awakened beast or five five-star wild beasts in 3 weeks, without using mana pistols, rifles, and so on. Isn''t that nice?" Jason was still confused about what was going on, but getting to know that he might be able to attend a prestigious school in an A-grade city heightened his mood. Even if he was at the bottom of the chain in this school, Jason would have better chances to soar into the sky. rather than staying within the C-grade city, without knowing for sure that he could attend a decent high school there. And his strength would be at the lowest chain everywhere so he didn¡ät really mind that at the moment. But to attend this school or even go to an A-grade city Jason had to rely on Greg¡äs family which wasn¡ät really what Jason wanted. Nevertheless, it was a great opportunity that would not come around every day and Jason thought of a saying. `Sometimes one had to take a step back before making a big jump.` Listening to the stated requirements Jason thought for a moment before he cursed Greg¡äs parents in his mind. He was pitifully weak, had almost zero combat prowess and his mana core rank was low to say it nicely. `Nice my foot!!!` If he put in enormous effort to defeat five-star wild beasts he should be able somehow to do it, but it would be extremely dangerous. Right now Jason felt confident to fight some weaker wild beasts as his understanding of the dagger-modified Azure feisty ape technique deepened. In 3 weeks Jason was confident to reach the 4th Novice stage and with some tricks, he might be able to fight against five-star wild beasts, which any sane youth would only dare to do at the 8th or 9th Novice stage with some company and good equipment. But fighting head-on with such a beast would be suicidal for Jason right now. Unfortunaltely his chances would only increase slightly through the next few weeks and he had to think of a plan to survive an attack against five-star wild beasts. Jason and Greg chatted for an hour as both were in a good mood while Jason was deep in thought. After the call ended, Jason continued to practice his martial art technique. Watching some other videos about the Azure feisty ape technique, Jason found out that the mastery of martial art technique was divided into different parts which also applies to weapon and elemental masteries. These dividers were called basic mastery, familiar mastery, experienced mastery, profound mastery, and perfect mastery. After the perfect mastery would be the combination of different techniques but not many did this as it would waste too much time. Following the description of the videos, Jason saw, he figured out that he had entered the basic mastery of the Azure feisty Ape technique. Nevertheless, Jason wasn''t sure how good this was as he had nobody to compare with. The only thing he knew was that the Azure feisty Ape was one of the weakest martial arts techniques of the federation, which was also the reason it was free for everyone. He understood that the next three weeks were extremely important for him in order to increase his combat prowess and experience by huntin weaker wild beasts before he dared to fight against five-star wild beasts. Jason had to face real beasts in order to get used to them. This was why Jason decided to head into the one-star wild zone next to the city, soon It was a plain, infested by many kinds of wild beasts and it was mainly used for Novice ranks to train there. These trainees were the most dangerous threat to them, as awakened beasts would be killed as soon as they were found inside the borders of a one-star wild zone to keep the new generation safe. Jason''s physique reached a normal degree and there were no signs of malnutrition seen, as muscles began to slowly covered his small body. He grew a few centimeters and was now 1.63 meters tall which was the common height for a 13 almost 14-year-old youth. Except for receiving the files about the Heaven''s Hell soul technique, nothing special happened and Jason finished his practice, went for a long jog in the park. Eating something he washed up and went into the bed with a satisfied smile on his face. Chapter 25：First Blood Waking up early in the morning, Jason opened his eyes slowly. Today he would leave the safety of the city for the first time in his life. He was expectant and scared at the same time. After washing up and eating a little bit, Jason called a shuttle which would drop him of at the oculist. He made an appointment after Greg told him about his remark. Today he would get his remark removed and maybe a special remark added. It was relatively easy to become his remark about blindness removed as it was obvious that he could see once again and the doctor would only have to send the information to the federation AI also called Aurora. Only half an hour passed and everything was over. The remark in his exam result was instantly removed which made Jason quite happy. The test he took right now was more complicated as it involved a few magic devices and the doctor could only detect that Jason had mana eyes but the test wasn''t accurate as the graph ran riot with the stage of his mana eyes remaining a mystery. Furthermore, Jason kept the special effect of his eyes a secret and a special remark was added to his exam results after some time ''Special remark : [Mana eyes]'' This made Jason quite happy and he left the office immediately after paying the 500-credit bill. It was more expensive than he had expected but Jason had to do it, so it didn''t really matter. Calling another shuttle Jason was brought to the outskirts of the city where the protection sphere was situated. Each city was constructed inside a protection sphere operated by mana which looked like a transparent dome. One could only go through this dome because it wasn''t in a solid-state. The dome was like an all-embracing wall that would let everything through. However, it would detect and eliminate foes as it could comprehend if the invading being was a human with criminal records or not, a soulbond or one of the few beasts used for errands that had either special emblems or specific mana fluctuations radiating from them, saying that this beast was a soulbond to detect. It was maintained by an AI which made everything possible. Otherwise, it would be quite hard to detect which humans were harmless and which ones were known for associating with terrorist organizations. But the dome used up a high amount of mana which was its downside. Scanning a few hundred kilometers around the city''s outskirts to prevent even the slightest accident was very energy-consuming. This was also partly the reason why higher graded cities were more expensive to live in than Artes-City, Jason lived in. They had stronger defenses, causing the prices for almost everything inside these cities to increase due to higher fees, taxes, and so on. That however wasn''t the biggest issue cities had to face as Beast tides occurred every now and then. Every few years thousands of beasts gathered together in order to charge through the lands. These beast tides were considered the most dangerous threat, humanity had to face after the dark ages began. Only now humanity really began to have a certain degree of control over the beast tides as hunters hunted down the high reproductive beasts nearby once they break through a certain threshold. This helped in order to prevent some beast tides from reaching their city. However, to protect the city, the security including the hunter-bureaus had to be well developed and armed. Jason entered the plains territory, while he shuttle drove closer to the transparent dome that came into his view. Due to his mana eyes, Jason could see the dome¡äs mana fluctuations. while normal humans could only see small reflections when they looked at the dome. The plains were vast and it was the first time for Jason to see so far because there was not a single construction obstructing his sight. Around a kilometer away from the dome, the shuttle stopped and Jason had to leave it after paying the fee. Walking closer to the dome, Jason noticed many youths were having a picnic, while their soulbonds strolled around, playing together. The closer he came to the dome the more youths Jason could see and he noticed that more and more youths wore armors, with weapons like bows, pistols, and so on around them. In this era, humanity modified all kinds of weapons to operate them with mana as it was the strongest energy one could use. Furthermore, mana was a high-quality resource that seemed to be unlimited. Some pistols operated by mana could instantly crush the skull of a strong beast but these weapons used up a lot of mana and were manufactured with rare materials. Even if Jason was allowed to use guns to defeat five-star wild beasts, he wouldn¡ät even able to buy the weakest pistol operated by mana as he had only around 100.000 Credits left. Ammunition was also expensive and killing wild beasts with them would end up in a huge loss. The youths Jason saw were probably training their skills and would only use their gun in life-threatening situations. He could also see some bigger groups of youths surrounding some middle-aged men and women. Looking at their uniforms, Jason concluded that even in the summer holidays some classes would make a trip to the wild zones to hone their martial art technique. Jason remembered that a year ago his class did the same thing over a whole week but he was just learning at home because of his blindness. The middle-aged men and women were teachers and they were strong enough to save their students in dangerous situations. Jason was now in front of the dome and touching it Jason felt the huge amount of mana flowing through him. Stepping through the dome Jason shuddered for a short moment before he was attacked by fresh air, Mana, and nature itself Comparing the amount of mana inside the dome with the outside, one could easily understand why the plains looked so different. Inside the dome, the plains looked relatively lifeless with small specks of flourished land, lively trees and bushes but the outside was completely different. For Jason, it looked like everything was alive. Mana was everywhere and there was not a single inch without it. Looking at the trees and bushes all around, Jason felt pure nature invading his pores. Jason felt happy seeing that and he wandered around the borders while holding his dagger firmly. He wasn''t completely on guard but his brain didn''t forget, that wild beasts could attack him any time. Nevertheless, the scenario surprised Jason and he was too astonished to focus on hunting for the moment. After half an hour Jason was able to focus on his mission once again. He noticed that he could see beasts from far away and he thought it was because of his special eyes as Jason was told during this morning''s test. His eyesight was extraordinary and so were his reflexes and other functions that included his eyes. Looking out for solo one-star wild beasts Jason noticed that most beasts moved in small groups of 3 to 5 beasts. This was somewhat annoying but even after walking around a whole hour, Jason couldn''t find smaller groups. Thus he decided to give it a try against the smallest one he could find. A group of three harmless herbivore one-star wild beasts called horned zebras was his target. They did not attack humans without any reason and eat grass so most hunters let them alife. Horned zebras were the weakest beasts on the plains, even before the ember rabbits, and were prayed by most carnivores. Nobody hunted them for credits because it was almost negligible for their credits and they were not used for training either as they were just too weak. He knew that the only advantage these horned zebras had was their speed as it was comparable to two-star wild beasts. More than 100 meters apart from the beasts Jason saw them grazing without noticing his silent approach. The plains were almost empty as there were not many hiding spots, so Jason had to be as silent as possible. A single noise and the horned zebras would notice him while Jason hoped that they wouldn''t turn around. Approximately 30 meters apart from them Jason''s adrenaline began to soar and he couldn''t hear anything because of his throbbing heart. Each step took an eternity and the moment he crossed the ten-meter range between him and the horned zebras they sensed something amiss. Turning around one of them saw a young human with something sharp in his hand. Noticing the danger encroaching it, one horned zebra cried out as it ran away causing the other horned zebras to startle, looking for danger in addition to the direction they had to run away. Jason knew that the 10-meter range was the furthest, he could go without being noticed as it was written in many books he read and common knowledge. Most beasts have good senses and could feel danger lurking around them. While the horned zebra cried out Jason had pushed himself as strong as possible from the ground with mana enveloping his lower body as support. He reached a striking speed before he appeared in front of one of the horned zebras without it being able to react accordingly. Jason could only see both horned zebras being startled before Jason pierced out with his Jade Iron dagger which was enveloped with a paper-thin mana membrane. Piercing through one of the horned zebras'' chest like butter, its eyes turned dim before it could even cry out in pain. Blood splattered on Jason¡äs face, as he shuttered for a second in fright, before he pulled out the dagger, causing another fountain of blood to spout out on him. His golden pupils brightened up as he gripped the other horned zebra¡äs mane with his free hand before it could escape from the shocking death of his comrade. Getting stabbed with the bloodied dagger, Jason killed the horned zebra with a clean strike. After the second horned zebra died, Jason pulled out the dagger once again and only now did Jason realize that he had killed living beings. Chapter 26：Accepting reality He was shocked about his own calmness and bloodthirstiness as it felt amazing to have the power over life and death. But only a second later Jason was frightened as he shuddered violently before vomiting his breakfast and other stomach fluids. His legs gave in and he looked shocked at the horned zebra corpses while his hands trembled. The hand around the dagger loosened up and it took him quite some time until he regained his senses. Jason heard some noises a little bit away from him which helped him distract himself before he saw that a two-star wild beast fanged coyote fought another two-star wild beast scaled wolf for a horned zebra corpse some distance away. He noticed that this was probably the corpse of the third horned zebra and Jason slowly began to understand that outside the dome the strong ruled while the weak can only hide in misery. Being at the bottom of the food chain, the horned zebras were considered prey of all carnivore beasts, while five star wild beasts were the strongest in this wild zone with the exception of humans. Before, Jason was also seen as a nuisance and useless because he was blind, even if his theoretical results were more than excellent. Everybody knew that knowledge was important but what is the use of it when you can''t survive against the weakest beast during beast tides or other accidents. Relying on others? Don''t kid yourself. There are only a few humans who care about strangers and even fewer with enough strength to help them. Jason started thinking and a sudden thought appeared in his head `The rules of the jungle don¡ät solely apply outside the dome.` Jason noticed that the whole society including the government and federation system was built according to one''s strength. The stronger one was, the higher was his or her position. Excluding the fact that some strong humans didn''t have any leading or managing abilities which made them useless as executives, humanity was still relatively well off, compared to 300 years ago Sometimes powerhouses understood their shortcomings, turning them to step back for more knowledgeable authorities but that wasn''t always the case and it was still unknown how safe laws were if one was weak. It was the same with his mother''s death. He received some credits but Jason doubted that the mysterious heir was punished for killing innocent humans. Jason understood one thing for sure. If he wanted to live his life without getting forced to do something he didn''t want to, Jason had to get stronger--fast. Without relying on somebody else that could throw him away any moment, Jason''s mindset changed slowly. Greg was a friend to Jason but he had to understand that he couldn''t believe everyone naively. If Greg was a bad person, he could use Jason as a marionette or even worse without receiving any punishment, as long as Greg¡äs family was powerful enough. Suppressing his disgust he stored the horned zebra corpse before looking at the fighting two-star wild beasts. Both were injured and it looked like they were evenly matched. Jason went closer as the scaled wolf leaned forward to end up below the coyote''s claw in order to bite into its abdomen while using its claws to rip the flesh apart. He saw this and began to rush towards the two which were a few dozen meters apart. His speed was slower than before because he didn''t use any mana to reinforce his lower body as he had used up a lot of it previously. There was only a little mana in his core left to make a quick stride. The coyote which was now heavily injured gripped the wolf with its front legs to bite in its shoulder while it used its hind legs to slash at the wolf''s lower body. Both were now heavily injured as the coyote that layed on the ground noticed a human behind the wolf. It shrieked out in fear but unfortunately was already too late and the wolf''s neck was already pierced by the bloodied dagger. But the dagger didn''t stop there, as the wolf''s neck was only an obstacle required to reach the coyote. Jason could see the beast''s fear which caused him to almost hesitate before the dagger penetrated the coyote''s chest. Both beasts died without much pain and Jason vomited some gastric fluids before he gathered himself. He felt still disgusted to kill a living being but the second time was much easier than the first time. It took him only a few seconds to regain his senses before he picked up the two two-star beast carcasses and the third horned zebra corpse which laid only a few meters away from the small battlefield as he looked out for a Tree which he climbed up. Not many beasts were able to climb up trees in this one-star wild stone except a few four and five-star wild beasts in the core areas. Jason was at the outskirts of the wild zone and extremely close to the dome but the dense mana he felt was perfectly fit for him to replenish his mana. It took him no time until his Mana was replenished. He had enough time to think about many things like his attitude towards beasts, how he fought, and which flaws he made during the short fight. The biggest problem was his mental state but this would only last for a few more fights until he made up his mind. Following this Jason went down the three and searched for more one-star beasts. He wanted to use the one-star wild beasts to clear his mind before he would try fighting two-star wild beasts. His dagger was sharp enough to penetrate all kinds of wild beasts and Jason focused his mana consumption on his lower body to look after his speed. Jason attacked another three small one-star wild beast groups but he killed only four beasts because one time he made a noise missing his timing while another try caused him to almost die as he was almost crushed by the one-star bison he attacked. But Jason found out something important. His eyes the closer a beast was to him the easier it was for Jason to predict where he would be attacked. It was still a theory but Jason found his eyes more and more interesting which made him curious. ''What special eyes did my mother have and are my eyes a mutation from her eyes or is there something else I don''t know about them? I doubt these eyes are normal mana eyes.'' But there wouldn''t be anyone to answer his questions so Jason had to disregard this thought. He had to find out everything by himself but that was okay for him. Calling a shuttle to take him home, Jason had to wait a few minutes. Gazing inside the storage space he saw seven one-star wild beast carcasses and two two-star carcasses. It was more than Jason expected for the first day and going through his fights while waiting for the shuttle to come he remembered many flaws. But for Jason, the whole day proceeded smoother than he previously thought as he was still uninjured and healthy. He expected to sustain some injuries but everything was fine. The shuttle arrived and Jason was in front of his apartment 40 minutes later. After ordering delivery Jason went inside the apartment to rectify his flaws. Battling with wild beasts was definitely different than training at home and after today Jason understood that he had to hone his technique with real combat experience. Otherwise, he would always stay behind others. Chapter 27：Artemis awakening Waking up early in the morning like every day, Jason washed up and changed into a new set of clothes. It was a set routine for him but somehow today felt different. Jason¡äs eye itched and his muscles ached while his whole body shivered. It was uncomfortable and slightly painful but Jason was still smiling as he felt something happening inside his soul world. Artemis was waking up and Jason thought his body aching was the result of her sharing some of her strength, even if it wasn''t much. Jason''s mana core grew almost one-third in size while his body went through a small change. After a soulbond was formed, it took a certain amount of time to strengthen the connection. This time was important as it allowed the master and the soulbond beast to get to know each other and after the connection was strengthened enough the beast would share some of its strength with the master. The shared amount was determined by one''s soul and this couldn''t be changed even if the soulbond beast wanted to give its contractor more strength or mana. While his body was in pain two things astonished Jason a lot. With a wingspan of 80 centimeters and a length of 30 centimeters, the snow-white Artemis looked almost like a normal snowflake owl except for her smaller stature and the fact that she previously digested pure mana. But the most surprising fact was that his mana core grew so much in size. According to normal standards, his mana core should only grow a little bit, at most 5% to 10% because one-star wild beasts don''t possess much mana but Jason''s mana core grew almost a third which was probably a shared amount of around 1/3. Jason was still only at the 2nd Novice rank close to the 3rd rank and his mana core was previously only at the same rank but now it was larger than that and comparable to 3rd Novice rank mana cores. Not only his mana core grew so much, but even Jason¡äs physique increased quite a lot. When his body stopped itching and the pain subsided, he could feel that his physique also increased slightly less than 1/3. The highest increase was however his body structure and Jason felt much lighter and more flexible. Thinking about the increase he was once again reminded that Artemis was an agile beast type which was the cause for his priority enhancement on speed, flexibility, and so on. Apparently, his soul would share around 1/3 of a beast''s strength/mana/soul energy to the contractor which was more than three times the best average of 10%, which was seen as exceptional. Seeing the shared amount was so big, Jason was happy that his soul was special even if his soul energy was weak. Considering the fact that he could grow slowly with Artemis, once she evolved his power would soar. Thinking about his soul he was reminded about the soul-awakening and it still felt that there was some space left and the previous feeling about his soul being incomplete confused him. After waking up, Artemis left the soul world and she appeared in front of Jason inside a white magic circle. She could already fly and flapped her wings to reach Jason''s shoulder where she sat down. After that, she rubbed her head at Jason''s cheek showering him with her love. While patting her Jason ate breakfast. Artemis wasn''t hungry and Jason felt that she was still full but to prepare himself for the worst case scenario Jason ordered another small mana stone for 50.000 Credits. From his whole fortune, only 50.000 Credits were left. It was 8 am when Jason went outside with Artemis on his shoulder. He called a shuttle, like always, and went on his way to the one-star wild zone. Before that Jason sold the carcasses of the seven beasts he killed, gaining him a huge fortune of 14 Credits. Keeping the carcasses would probably be better than selling them but Jason had no use for them at the moment and their body would only rot in his spatial storage. Without an integrated cooling system, meat and other food would only get bad inside the storage so it was better to sell it than wasting the beast''s death. Jason was really uncomfortable around crowds of people and he rushed out of the shop he sold the carcasses as soon as possible while avoiding eye contact with everyone. Artemis was looking at the beast corpses when Jason took them out but there was only marginal interest in them and nothing much for her as she was satiated. Continuing his journey Jason stepped through the dome once again 40 minutes later. Jason pondered if he should set up a tent for the next few days as he had to waste a lot of time driving back and forth. Adding the price for the shuttle each time, Jason decided to buy a tent and other necessities in the evening. Today he was much more comfortable to fight than the day before and his confidence reached a new high as his combat prowess increased due to fixing some of his flaws. He wanted to try fighting a two-star wild beast and looking around for two hours Jason found a solo two-star fanged coyote. Sneaking up to the fanged coyote Jason was much calmer than the day before but he was still noticed around 20 meters away from his prey and Jason changed his position into a sprint without hesitation. But he still didn''t use his mana as he had learned that the amount of mana he possessed was too small and could only hold out for a short moment. Wasting mana? Not with me! Even if his mana core increased in size the stored amount was still marginal compared to his average peers. Seeing Jason running up to it, the fanged coyote''s eye turned bloodthirsty. Charging at Jason with it full speed it was faster than the human. Pouncing at him, Jason was slightly astonished to see that his eyesight was better than the day before. But there was no time to think about that right now as the coyote''s claws were only a short distance apart from Jason''s chest. Seeing the attack clearly, Jason used a little bit of his mana to reinforce his feet and ankles and stopped within a minuscule amount of time causing the claw to miss its target. It wasn''t healthy to stop abruptly out of a full sprint for the ankles and feet but the mana-enhancement protected him from suffering serious injuries as he pierced out with his dagger, aiming at the shoulder. The dagger pierced easily into the coyote''s shoulder, only to stop slightly at the obstacle, also called bone. But with his grade-1 dagger, bones of a two-star wild beast were comparable to thin sticks, and the bone shattered without much resistance, killing the coyote. Jason''s hand was deep inside the dead coyote''s shoulder and even if he had made up his mind about killing beasts¡­that was too much. This situation was still disgusting and he had to use some force to pull out his hand with the dagger gripped firmly. Until now Artemis was still on Jason''s shoulder but after killing the coyote it jumped off and used its talons to open up its chest. Pulling out a pebble-sized black core that radiated some mana, Artemis picked it up and gulped it down. Magical beasts have mana cores while every beast below them has uncompleted cores. Wild beasts don''t even have a core and when they absorbed mana a black pebble would slowly form. The black color came from the impurities inside the incomplete mana core and they had to be removed before a beast could enter the next rank or another beast could eat the incomplete core of its prey Once a wild beast reached the awakened rank or evolved the core would slowly begin to begin form and it was called awakened core. The evolved beast finished forming the core while unblemished beasts refined their core and finally when a Beast reached the magical beast rank a complete mana core was formed. Humans were lucky as their mana core was formed since birth and they didn''t have to struggle like beasts. Chapter 28：Glutton Artemis gulped down the black pebble and looked at Jason with greedy eyes. It looked like she could eat these incomplete cores full of impurities without worries as she looked at Jason full of desire. He knew Artemis wasn''t hungry. However, she wanted to get some mana as she felt that eating more of this black pebble core would benefit her. After understanding that these impure cores weren''t harmful to her, he was relieved. So Jason decided that Artemis would get every incomplete core from the beasts he hunted as wild beast cores weren''t worth anything. He was quite happy to find out that she would eat these pebble cores because this was most likely the solution to his financial problem. Jason wouldn''t have to feed Artemis mana cores all the time as he could hunt beasts for her. Digesting pure mana would strengthen her whole body and maybe it could increase the limits of her race over time or force an evolution. Normally beasts can only digest a certain amount of foreign mana and strengthen themself until they reached a certain limit but apparently Artemis loved eating these pebbles and Jason continued his hunt happily. There was a theory about the relation of a beast''s potential to the amount of mana one could absorb and how it was related to the evolution of the beast. The theory said that higher potential equals to an acceptance of more Mana in one''s body while more mana equals to a higher percentage to evolve. But this theory was still not completely processed. --- In the evening one could see the happiest youth one had ever seen as he jumped around with a bright smile with a snow-white owl circling around him. Jason''s combat prowess increased over time and he hunted another three solo two-star wild beast and another group of two two-star beasts which he killed easily with his increased amount of mana. Fighting against two beasts was relatively difficult but Jason attacked the tendons of one beast causing it to slow down while he defeated the other beast with the help of the Glutton Artemis. Artemis continued eating the pebbles and Jason felt his body itching all the time while Artemis grew in strength. When the shuttle arrived Jason calmed down and Artemis vanished inside the magic circle she summoned. The magic circle was connected to his soul world and only he himself and his soulbounds could use it. After eating five two-star wild beast pebbles Artemis was completely filled with mana and she had to digest it so she went into the soul world in order to sleep. Jason thought it would probably be the same as the time when Artemis absorbed all the small mana stones but this time she would have to digest less than before. Remembering that he had bought another small mana stone he noticed that he had to keep it away from Artemis as she didn''t need it right now. Another thing Jason noticed was that Artemis was a greedy glutton as she didn''t know when to stop. He thought and felt after the third pebble core that she was full but she continued eating these cores as if they were snacks. Jason had to restrain her otherwise it could be problematic. Arriving at his apartment, Jason tried to fix the flaws he still had. Afterward, he used the quantum bracelet to purchase a tent, non-perishable food and other necessities to camp close to the dome. Furthermore, he bought a large mana-operated freezer which could hold a bunch of carcasses. He could even inject incomplete mana cores to operate the freezer which was convenient. The material of the freezer was cheap but the size of the freezer with over 300 cubic meters caused its price to reach 30.000 Credits. Jason''s funds were slowly dried up but there wasn''t much he had to buy after that and he thought the freezer was a good investment. Requesting the city AI if he could camp close to the one-star plain wild zone, it was accepted within 3 minutes. All parcels arrived after Jason finished showering and he put the content into his spatial storage. Then he set down with the Mana stone in his hand. He wanted to break through and now was the time for it. Normally he wouldn''t need the Mana stone for his breakthrough but the sudden increase in his mana core size due to Artemis shared strength forced him to stabilize everything first. Using the Mana in his surrounding and inside the Mana stone Jason enveloped himself with a thin mana layer before slowly absorbing everything. His mana core was filled to the limit and using the Mana he pulled out of the Mana stone to invade it, the Mana core began to grow slowly while black dots inside the core began to get pushed out. Hours passed and after a deep breath, Jason''s pores opened as a black mist was exhaled while his physique grew stronger, bright shining light enveloped him and his mana core stopped enlarging. Novice rank-3! Finally! The last few weeks were exhausting for Jason but it was exciting compared to the straight and boring 9+ years of him gathering mana inside the eyeballs. Previously Jason was extremely weak and he didn''t have any type of strength and everything was boring for him but now it was different. Getting stronger felt amazing and Jason felt almost addicted to the sensation of growing stronger. Sensing the increased strength inside him Jason smiled. After that he decided to open the Heaven''s Hell technique to read through it. Greg had sent him a copy before but only now had Jason enough time to read through it. There were many pages and the content was complex and written in technical language even for the first Level so Jason had quite some problems reading it at first. He had to re-read every page a few times until he understood it slightly. It would probably take a day or two until he remembered every detail but it was necessary for Jason before he would start training his soul as it was one of the most dangerous training methods one could practice. Even small issues could end with injuring his soul world while major issues could in the destruction of one''s soul world. But this won''t happen if Jason follows the descriptions written inside the manual. It was already late at night and Jason went into bed as he slept in after a short moment. --- Chapter 29：Mana-infused blood It was Artemis trying to cuddle with Jason and unknowingly she caused him to suffocate a little bit. Jason was fully awake now and he got out of his bed to notice that Artemis looked more lively and her plumage shimmered faintly. Only Jason noticed that her whole body was covered with lines of mana flowing through her whole body like blood. This astonished Jason and he wondered if Artemis blood fused with the digested mana since yesterday because the mana was moving around full of vigor and life. If that was the case Artemis''s strength would increase by a lot because every move she made would be naturally enhanced by mana. Even if that was the case Jason guesses that the amount of mana fused inside her blood would be almost negligible as it would boost the strength of Artemis by less than 0.001% at the moment and it was more than negligible. The lines of mana Jason saw were almost invisible and thinner than most threads but still there. Artemis jumped on Jason¡äs shoulder after he changed his clothes and both went outside. Jason was ready to sleep outside and to be honest, he was expectant to sleep on the plains under the sky even if it was inside the dome. 40 minutes later, Jason stepped through the dome again as his hunt began. Aside from eating a small lunch, he hunted the whole day until around 6 pm when the sun came down. Jason was pleasantly surprised about his teamwork with Artemis as it was much easier for him to take out two star wild beasts in groups of 2 to 3 with her. Artemis was a one-star wild beast but she seemed to be extremely smart, causing him to wonder if she would be able to defeat beasts on a higher rank than her own once she gained some combat experience, because most wild beasts were extremely dumb and driven by their instincts. While Artemis was a very good companion, Jason''s combat experience brought him huge results as he was tempted to fight a lone three-star wild beast. However, he disregarded this thought for now as he could still sense some minor flaws in his technique which he couldn''t really detect. A single fault could cost him his life. They hunted four groups over the day all in all 10 two-star wild beasts were killed by him. Most of his time was used up for searching small beast groups with weak combat prowess. Artemis was satiated after eating two two-star wild beast cores but she wanted to eat more which Jason interrupted instantly. He had to maintain the Mana-operated freezer and he wanted Artemis to not eat too much so she wouldn¡ät leave him for a good nap. Jason was still unsure how to calculate how much Artemis could digest in a few hours that they could hunt together while Artemis could grow along with Jason. Still, Jason knew that she could digest around 5 two-star wild beast cores in one night so eating five over the whole day should be fine for now. He could increase it later on but for now, giving her five two-star wild beast cores was the best solution for Artemis to grow stronger during the night. She had to accompany Jason during the day while earning combat experience, which led him to his previous solution He felt lonely since his mother died, even Greg who he hadn''t called previously was growing attached to him. Now with Artemis¡ä birth, he suffered a little bit, even though he knew she was with him during her slumber but she wasn''t really there in a materialistic way. His hunting skills increased each day and Jason hoped that he would be able to kill five star wild beasts in less than 3 weeks. Otherwise, he wouldn''t be able to enter an A-grade city let alone a school there. Jason used the remaining wild beast cores to maintain the Mana-operated freezer and it looked like the freezer could be operated for a day with his remaining five two-star wild beats cores. The best thing about the freezer was that even if Jason stored it inside his spatial storage, it would still work perfectly. One could say that the large freezer was comparable to a small integrated cooler and it was definitely cheaper. Jason practices his martial art under the clear night sky and it felt much better than train in a small apartment. After that, he took out a basin and poured water inside to wash up. When Jason finished cleaning himself, he opened the Heaven''s Hell manual and read it for a few hours before he went back inside the tent to sleep. He fell asleep soundly while Artemis digested her incomplete wild beast cores. --- During the next day, nothing special happened except his tries to hunt slightly bigger groups of at least 3 two-star wild beasts when he came back to his tent. He saw a few hundred luxurious mansion-sized tents erected and compared to his two-person tent they looked gigantic. Probably around 20 people could stand in such tents with enough space left to walk around. Jason began to wonder what was going on but he hoped that they would train inside the one-star plain wild zone as he had trouble avoiding so many beasts all the time. The one-star zone Jason entered every day was overpopulated by almost every kind of beast but the main problem was that the beasts gathered up in bigger groups instead of striving around alone. Jason had to avoid many beast groups and he was often way too close to get detected and attacked by them which was slightly scary. If these mansion-sized tents had trainees inside, they would most probably hunt huge numbers of wild beasts, decreasing his efforts to walk around inside the wild zone tremendously. Today he hunted 15 two-star wild beasts and he gave Artemis five of them while another 5 were used for the freezer before eating something and improving his martial arts. After an hour Jason stopped his practice and he took out the Heaven''s Hell manual to read it through. Another two hours passed and it was already dark while only a few lights and the stars lightened up the surrounding. Jason remembered now every crucial detail of the manuals first level and he readied himself to use the technique today. Chapter 30：Heaven′s Hell The first level of the Heaven''s Hell technique was simple compared to the following levels and it only used up a marginal amount of soul energy, even Jason could barely afford. While the first level indicated that one had around 0.1-9 soul energy units in numbers, the second level would need at least 10-49 soul energy to work properly, with a few additional requirements. Jason''s soul energy was close to non-existent and it was already fortunately that he could form a contract with a one-star wild beast cub. Now with his increased soul energy due to Artemis''s growth, his breakthrough, and the big overall share he received through his unique soul, Jason''s soul energy reached finally one unit, which was enough to control Artemis properly as his soulbond. Having the lowest required soul energy, Jason could only perform the Heaven''s Hell technique once before his soul had to replenish the soul energy over time. As such he had to be careful. Even if the first level was simple it could be extremely dangerous. He entered the soul world carefully where Jason met the sleeping Artemis. Walking around his own soul world was interesting and he hadn''t done it before because there were too many things he had to do. It was the first time for Jason and he looked around with shining eyes. All kinds of color could be seen floating around his soul world while a dense golden hue accompanied everything inside his soul. Looking down he could also see the golden hue enveloping him, causing Jason to feel refreshed and calm. There was not the slightest anxiety seen in his eyes. Looking around Jason got the feeling of a home. In this place, he was welcomed, which made him happy as he continued to walk through his soul world until he entered the center of it. There was a golden unstable liquid in the form of a ball that was floating slightly above Jason¡äs head. Everyone who underwent the soul-awakening had the same thing inside their soul, which was a mysterious liquid in various sizes. Meanwhile, the soul and the size of the liquid, surrounding the weird-looking ball, differentiated for each individual. The existence of the liquid ball was the same for everyone and it was the soul energy surrounding the so-called soul world core. Many also called it one''s soul but the commonly used name was soul world core. Around the soul world core was the soul energy attached in form of unstable liquid. The amount of soul energy within indicated the size of the core because it was normally stored within. While most cores had at least the size of a ping-pong ball, Jason was glad that he found his grain-sized soul world core within a rather short amount of time. His core didn¡ät have a particular form right now and there was only the mysterious liquid floating aimlessly around with the soul world core as the center. The soul world core was the starting point of each soul world and its life. Looking at the grain-sized soul world core, Jason was slightly embarrassed about his unique and fabulous soul world but useless soul energy. The golden hue around him began to shine faintly as he calmed down almost immediately, which Jason didn¡ät really notice. Remembering his main purpose to enter the soul world, Jason concentrated on the grain-sized soul world core. Opening the soul world core slightly Jason wanted to move the soul energy around. From the formless liquid, he created a wafer-thin thread which most humans wouldn¡ät even see except someone with his exceptional eyesight. The more soul energy Jason took out, the smaller the size of the liquid around the soul world core became. After his whole soul energy was taken from the liquid that enveloped his soul world core, Jason saw a golden-colored marble with an indescribable size as it was almost not visible, even for him. This almost invisible marble was his real soul world core and it was almost embarrassing, only to look at. This golden marble had mysterious inscriptions on it and it was his core while the liquid mass floating around it was unstable soul energy ejected by the core was produced by his first soulbond. The first step of the Heaven''s Hell technique was to draw out the unstable energy around the real soul world core with his mind to form a thread with the energy. This step wasn''t dangerous, instead, one needed to have a sensible and accurate control over soul energy. His soul energy thread was less than half a meter long and wafer-thin due to the very good innate control he had over mana. The first step was done in a relatively short time once Jason got the hang of how to handle soul energy. After that, one could see Jason sweating buckets inside his tent while gasping for air. He only sat down and nobody could imagine that he entered his soul world except the small golden hue shining around his head as an indicator. Inside his soul world, Jason made himself ready for the painful part as the unstable soul energy was now formed into a complete thread. He would have to pierce through the golden marble with his thread to inject the soul energy inside it to force a certain growth. Without a slight push, Jason''s soul energy wouldn''t increase and it was necessary for him to force himself through in order to do that. He had to aim at a certain spot to maximize the effect of the technique and it took him quite a long time to find the right spot as it was already difficult for him to even see the soul world core. Piercing into the marble with the thread, searing pain spread through his whole body as it felt like hellfire ignited inside him. It spread from his brain which felt as if it was roasted to his heart where it dispersed into the veins only for Jason to feel a searing pain all over his body. While he cried out in pain inside the soul world, one could see the liquid thread invading the golden marble blending into it after a certain amount of time. Jason had never felt such pain before and he continued to cry out loud, but he couldn¡ät leave the soul world as it could harm or even destroy his soul if he made a single fault. Until the whole wafer-thin thread completely blended into the golden marble, Jason had to endure the torture. An hour later the whole process was over and Jason left the soul world with the floating golden marble in the center, only to fall into a deep slumber caused by his exhaustion. ** Waking up by suffocation early in the morning was as unpleasant as before and Jason pushed the furball, also called Artemis away gently. Opening his eyes, he could see Artemis who looked at him as if he had betrayed her and Jason felt her range of emotions that were filled of sadness. Taking her into his embrace, her mood changed quickly. Looking at her plumage with his mana eye''s special ability activated, he saw that she had slightly more mana in her blood than a day before. If this continued, Artemis¡ä ability could reach the strength of a two-star wild beast while being a one-star wild beast in the future. Continuing this mind game Jason was expectant about her future growth and her evolution. Entering his soul world to look at the golden soul world core Jason noticed something unexpecting. Injecting the unstable foreign soul energy into his soul world core should only be done once a day because the replenishing effect would take a long time for the soul world core to push out the unstable energy. However, looking at the still unstable, formless liquid surrounding the marginal small golden marble Jason noticed that his whole soul energy was already replenished and expelled. A soul world core was like a generator and dialysis at the same time, producing a fixed amount of soul energy until its energy was used up. Refilling it with the expelled soul energy would activate the generator, cause it to once again expel the injected soul energy after cleansing and purifying it in order to make it more stable. Once the soul energy reached a certain size, purity, and degree of stability, the real process of the Heaven''s Hell technique would begin with the following levels Jason wasn''t even remotely close to meet a single requirement that was previously named but he was still astonished to see that his soul energy was replenished this fast. With this, he could already practice the Heaven''s Hell technique again. Normally it would take a whole day to have one''s soul energy replenished but Jason slept for less than 6 hours and his soul energy was already completely replenished. Thus Jason set down and repeated the same procedure as the day before. It took him 90 minutes and instead of less pain, this time it was even more painful but he didn''t faint. Washing up, he walked out of the tent into the open plains where he could see hundreds of youth gathering next to some strong looking middle-aged men and women Chapter 31：Innate Battle prodigies The youths, Jason could see in front of the dome looked like they were around twelve years old but the weapons and armor they wore indicated a certain degree of a wealth compared to Jason. He was poorer than he had ever been before but he didn''t mind that at all, as he had a unique soul, special mana eyes, and a beautiful soulbond. Venturing outside the dome into the one-star wild zone Jason with Artemis circling above him, he instantly met a group of four two-star scaled wolves that attacked Jason and Artemis. This was bad as one of the scales wolves looked bigger than the others. Upon activating his [Mana eyes] he saw that its core almost reached the three-star wild beast rank and the Mana it possessed was also slightly larger than the other three scaled wolves. His mana eyes detected some anomalies within the large wolf and Jason concluded that it might be a mutation or something like that, but he wasn¡ät sure. Jason was slightly worried but with Artemis as his support, he went into his fighting stance to welcome his enemies. Since Artemis grows stronger each day Jason''s physique, Mana core, and even his eyesight improved along with her and in this battle, his exceptional eyesight played a big role. The group of scaled Wolves formed a half circle and tried to surround him while Artemis attacked the scaled Wolves from behind to distract them. Once a wolf entered a certain range around him Jason attacked it, forcing it to step back, while Artemis used this chance to dive down on the retreating wolf to pierce her mana-infused claws into the scaled Wolves back. Without infusing mana into her claws she wouldn''t be able to pierce through the thick scales but with the Mana enhancement, she easily pierced into its back, injuring it lightly. Crying out in pain the wolf twisted its head to find the culprit but this was a mistake as it was still close to Jason''s range. Jason infused mana into his lower body to increase his speed while pushing himself off to the injured scaled wolf. The three other wolves didn''t mingle around and pounced at Jason but it was already too late as their comrade died with a dagger in its throat, because Jason used the perfect timing as he noticed it was the right moment to attack. This was because his eyes could tell with minuscule details, that the scaled wolf would turn around to Artemis and Jason used this to finish it off. After killing the scaled wolf, Jason used its body as a meat shield because the stronger scaled wolf was already behind him in the air, which Jason predicted. The scaled Wolf corpse was heavy but using a quarter of his mana was enough to enhance himself to throw the dead body at the pouncing wolf. Artemis was already in the air waiting for her next victim to fall into her trap as she supervised the battle while Jason attacked the bigger scaled wolf which was taken by surprise. Jason couldn''t attack its body directly as the dead wolf''s corpse was in his way but he pierced out with his dagger to cut through its paw. Jason and Artemis''s teamwork was exceptional and not many were able to build up such teamwork within the short amount of time they were together. One could say both were innately exceptionally connected and it was rare to see such observance and tacit agreement among each other in a battle four against two while being weaker strength-wise. There were still two uninjured scaled wolves charging at Jason and both were only around three meters apart from him, when they tried to surround him from two sites. Thinking that their normal tactic would work against Jason, they missed an important fact. He wasn''t alone! While both pounced at him at the same time, Artemis cried out, pointing out that the wolf behind Jason was also pouncing at him at the same time. Jason now knew that both were pouncing at him at the same time. Thus he ducked down and used another quarter of his mana to increase his speed to the highest he could hold out to jump straight to the front where the blind and injured wolf was still howling in pain, pitying itself without caring about the calamity it would face a second later. While the two uninjured wolves crashed into each other, Jason finished off the larger scaled wolf with a clean strike. Over the last few days, Jason discovered his fighting talent which came probably thanks to his good eyesight, while the ability to see the mana flow was relatively good, even if he didn¡ät have anyone to compare his combat prowess to. It was also way easier for him to detect where a beast would attack him and what its next move would be thanks to small but important details. The two remaining scaled wolves shook their heads in pain. Afterward, they looked at Jason furious, and seeing the dead leader they lost all remaining reasoning. Both charged straight at him and this was the most threatening thing that could happen to Jason, as he wasn''t able to defend against two beasts at the same time with a single dagger. Fortunately, Artemis was back into the air, diving down on one of the scaled wolves which saw the threat coming at it. Jason saw this, forcing the attacked scaled wolf to a difficult decision as he used his last remaining mana to charge at it. Now attacked by two threats at the same time it was overwhelmed and halted its charge, betraying the last comrade it had because it wasn¡ät sure what to do. Unfortunately, the scaled wolf''s instincts told it that it should run away, instead of charging at the duo in front of it. The betrayed scaled wolf didn¡ät know what happened but he saw the youth charging at its friend as it tried to help. However, it could only see the youth changing its course with a big stride towards the side. Artemis also stopped her attack after she saw the wolf halting its charge while Jason changed his course, turning his dagger downwards in order to stab into the wolf''s side twisting it while continuing his run. The wolf didn''t expect Jason¡äs speed to increase so much more and it was unaware of its injury as the legs gave in while liquid ran down its whole side. Its eyes became heavier with each moment passing and after enduring some pain it gave in to the slumber that awaited the wolf. Jason was exhausted as he hadn''t thought that he had to use all his mana in such a short time but his speed did not decrease as the halted wolf saw its last comrade die because of its fault. Enraged the scaled wolf attacked Jason only to end in the same situation as before. Artemis attacked the scaled wolf from above while Jason charged at it from the front. Thinking that Jason was the bigger threat it charged at Jason who rolled to the side while the enhanced talons of Artemis caused red stripes along the back of the wolf. Blood spurted out of the injury and it wouldn''t take long until it would lose enough blood to sustain a heavy injury. The scaled wolf was overwhelmed and didn''t exactly know what it should do once again Being in a desperate situation gives most living beings a boost in strength and the wolf''s speed increased slightly as it turned around to pounce at Jason who was still on the bottom about to get up Artemis was still flying up while the wolves'' speed accelerated to its highest possible as it saw a green light shimmer leaving Jason¡äs hand. There was nothing it could do as the Jade Iron dagger pierced in the wolf¡äs skull, killing the scaled wolf instantly. Jason wasn''t really good with dagger throwing but one couldn''t say it was difficult to aim at a large beast, five meters apart from one with a certain degree of calmness. And even if he hadn¡ät hit the skull, at least its chest would be pierced, slowing it down which would give him enough time to stand up. Taking a deep breath, Jason felt exhausted as he pulled out the dagger before pulling out the pebble-sized cores. Storing the beast carcasses away, Jason went inside the dome that was only around 200 meters away from him. Each time Jason replenished his mana, took less and less time as he was becoming more and more proficiency with the process, which was entirely different compared to him gathering mana inside his eyes. An hour later his mana was completely refreshed while his exhaustion was blown away. Wondering about his soul world core he entered the soul world to see that the core already expelled some unstable soul energy. Jason was now convinced that his soul was the best thing that could ever happen to him after getting back his eyesight. He calculated that 6 hours were more than enough for the soul energy to get completely expelled and he renewed his schedule slightly. Chapter 32：Ready to rumble Almost two weeks passed and only two days were left from his initial 3 weeks in order to kill five five-star wild beats or one awakened beast. Nothing special occurred during the last two weeks but most importantly was that Jason and Artemis'' strength increased quite a lot. Unexpectedly, Artemis broke her limit and entered the rank of a two-star wild beast, which shocked Jason extremely. The Mana she digested every day increased her physique, blood, and mana core. It was only a question of time until this would happen. He asked himself if Artemis could even evolve as she could even break her limit because of her mutation? Or was that something every beast could do with enough mana? But then...Why would his eyes tell him something about the potential of beasts? Was Artemis able to break through her shackles because of her superior digestion ability or because of the high amount of mana? Jason didn¡ät know and he couldn¡ät find an answer because he was also unable to tell what exactly Artemis'' potential was. The mutation Jason thought of was a complex one that involved some sort of gluttony and a stomach that could digest huge amounts of mana. But how could Jason be sure of that, as he had never heard of such a mutation? Furthermore, he wasn''t even sure if Artemis could eat something else? She has yet to eat something else other than the cores of wild beasts and mana stones. Her plumage shimmered more with each day passing and the amount of mana within her blood increased steadily. She should be able to pierce through the scales of the scaled wolf without enhancing them with mana. Jason however was still at the 3rd Novice rank while his mastery over the modified Azure feisty Ape technique reached the familiar mastery. His combat prowess soared and he learned how to use his mana more efficiently. He was even able to eradicate a small group of three-star wild beasts and lone four-star wild beasts with the help of Artemis. But that wasn''t everything as Jason used the Heaven''s Hell technique three times a day instead of one time a day which was pretty nice to increase his soul energy, purify and stabilize it. Due to the natural breakthrough of Artemis Jason got more shared soul energy, Mana, and his physique increased. Jason was happy that Artemis grew stronger and his mana core reached the size of a normal 5th Novice rank while his physique reached the 4th Novice rank standard However, the soul energy he needed to keep Artemis by his side or rather inside his soul world increased from the initial 1 unit to 2. Because of Jason''s fast soul energy replenishing and his utilization of the Heaven''s Hell technique three times a day, which was painful like nothing else he had ever felt, his soul energy reached almost the required amount of two. It was still enough to take a hold of Artemis but once she reached the three-star wild beast rank Jason would be in trouble as the soul energy requirement would be around 4. But there wasn''t anything he could do about it. He should work hard and practice the Heaven''s Hell technique as often as possible. With his increased soul energy or rather double amount from one to two, each practice would increase his soul energy double the amount than two weeks before. And this would only continue on his path. As long as his soul energy reached four, the Heaven''s Hell technique¡äs efficiency would result in a doubled increase compared to the time he only had a soul energy of 2 and a four times increase to the initial soul energy of one as everything worked exponentially. Jason discovered something and he would love to try the theory he began to develop but for him to try this he would need quite a bit of soul energy. Today he would hunt pairs of four-star wild beasts and if he could kill two or three of them without sustaining an injury, he would try assassinating five-star wild beasts. It was dangerous but what could he do? With enough safety measures and tactics that involved Artemis, he was confident in not dying against four-star wild beasts. There was no way for him to hunt an awakened beast as there was a huge difference in combat strength between wild beasts and awakened beasts. Once a beast reaches the awakened rank the possibility to awaken an ability appears. While some beasts don''t have a single ability, their physical traits increase a lot once they reach the awakened rank. If he was completely honest, Jason was extremely horrified to fight five star wild beasts while being at the lower levels of the novice rank. In the end, he had to face beasts that had at least double his strength and mana, Jason was confident in his control over mana, martial art proficiency, intelligence, and ability to marginally foretell where he was about to get attacked. Throughout the morning he looked for a spot with a few trees and bushes around in order to hide and surprise attack some small four-star beast groups. Suddenly he spotted an almost completely green bison walking around with its head held high. No beast dared to come too close to it as it grazed without caring about anything at all. Looking at the beast''s mana core, Jason found out something interesting. The aura around the beast was black which indicated its chances to reach the awakened rank but scanning the mana core, it looked like it was a black horned bison with an elemental mutation as the mana had green-colored traced within. It was extremely rare to see a wild beast having an elemental ability and the problem with wild beasts having an affinity was simply Huge amounts of mana had to be used in order to completely integrate the affinity to a wild stage beast¡äs body.. This caused the physique of these wild beasts to be weaker than their peers. Looking at the highly likely wind-elemental mutated black horned bison in front of him, Jason estimated that its physical strength should be around a normal three-star wild beast. Nevertheless having an elemental affinity caused it to be the strongest in its surrounding. If a normal five-star wild beast were to attack this bison, Jason didn''t even have to consider who the winner might be as the bison would probably use its element to shoot shards or blades out, easily killing the normal five-star wild beast. Having a weaker physique wouldn''t matter in this case as it was unnecessary to even use the physique to defeat its enemies. And with such a mutation, once the bison reached higher ranks the wind affinity would only become stronger while the disadvantage of having a weaker physique would diminishing slowly Thinking for a while, Jason decided that attacking the mutated bison might be the easiest way to kill a five-star wild beast as its guard was down due to its high confidence. Jason sent out Artemis to look after the mutated bison while he thought about multiple ways to come close to the bison, without drawing too much attention on himself. He thought of one solution, however, he didn''t like this idea because he had to use Artemis as bait. Calculating a few things he asked Artemis for her opinion, after which she replied confidently. Still worried, Artemis reassured him that she would be careful so he couldn''t do anything about that anymore. Chapter 33：Assassination Standing up within the bush, Jason made himself some space to dash out immediately when both would appear. Jason could sense Artemis¡ä astonishment. Afterward, he felt that she used large amounts of her mana to enhance her wings in order to accelerate her flying speed. Jason grew worried but he told himself that he had to remain calm as Artemis plumage could be seen from far away. She was at least 20 meters high in the sky, while below her Jason could see green bison pursuing her on the ground. The bison was enveloped by a light green mana, roaring enraged. Shooting out wind-blades towards Artemis, she had to use her utmost efforts to evade them, which was barely possible. Artemis threw stones at the bison and made fun of it, which made the bison extremely furious. Following and attacking the flying beast pleased the bison as it was reassured once again that it was the overlord in this area. It knew that the small beast could only endure the onslaught of wind blades for a few minutes at most before it would be exhausted. The small wind blades it used didn''t take much of its mana because of the bison''s mutation, which it instinctively figured out. Completely without a single thought of protecting itself, the bison stared at the sky, not looking at what happened in front of it as it bypassed a big green bush. Suddenly the bison felt a painful sting at its ride-side as it grew weaker when its legs couldn''t handle the bison''s weight anymore before it collapsed. Turning its head, the bison saw a long red stripe with white bones sticking out of its body, caused by a Jade green dagger that stuck on its hindleg. The bison''s whole side was torn apart, blood and organs spilling out of the huge laceration caused by the dagger. Crying out in pain once it saw a youth squeezed himself out of the bush, the bison felt enraged. With its last efforts, it gathered the remaining mana inside it to shoot out a wind blade. Jason was still completely on-guard against his first opponent with an elemental affinity. However he was still only barely able to evade the wind blade as the blade¡äs draft blew away his hair. Artemis dived down in rage after Jason was attacked, only to pierce into the bison''s eyes with its sharp talons. Immediately afterward, the weight of the white beast vanished once the bison died without taking revenge on any of its attackers. Jason was astonished that his plan worked out so easily, causing him to sigh in relief. The only thing that worried him was the fact that the wind blades were faster than he expected while Artemis was almost hit by some of them. Still, the bison was way too full of itself as it didn''t even notice Jason jumping out of the bush, tearing apart the bison¡äs whole side with his dagger. Sometimes even a hunter might be hunted, and one should never feel too safe anywhere. Jason ran to the dead body, only to see Artemis picking out the slightly green incomplete core which he instantly took out of her talons. The amount of mana inside this core was almost at the awakened rank and he didn''t want Artemis to eat this core. Otherwise who knows how long he had to wait for her to wake up. There was not much time left, as he had to hunt another four five-star wild beasts. However, he had to rely on Artemis for that. Artemis mana replenishing process was relatively fast while she sat on Jason''s shoulder. Jason strived around carefully to look out for some lone five-star wild beasts. His luck couldn¡ät be considered good as he walked around until afternoon, even neglecting his Heaven''s Hell practice, only to find nothing.... not a single solo five-star wild beast was in his sight. He saw many larger groups of youth within the mid and a few peak Novice ranks fighting a large group of five-star wild beasts. Finally! Jason''s luck paid off. Seeing a group of youths overwhelming a pack of five-star greater horned wolves Jason rejoiced. They split up and an injured wolf-headed his way. Jason was still approximately 100 meters away from the whole battle. He was delighted seeing that the youths pursued other wolves while the particular wolf who ran to him was alone. Deciding to hide behind a tree, he waited for the perfect moment to ambush the wolf. Seeing the wolf running past the tree, Jason gathered enough mana in order to push his speed to the limit in the shortest amount of time, thrusting out with his dagger, cutting through the unaware wolf''s neck. The whole assassination took less than a second and it was only possible because the wolf was foolishly running along the bush, not caring about any possible danger. Not knowing what happened, the wolf collapsed on the ground, with its eyes turning dim in a short amount of time. Storing the corpse without further delay, Jason vanished from the spot. Only half a minute later, a few youths found the spot where the greater horned wolf was killed, looking down at the green patch of grass that was stained with fresh blood. These youths were all at least a year younger than Jason, but they were already at the 8th Novice rank which indicated their strength. One youth, in particular, looked at the blood-stained grass patch. Jason was running far away with a big radiant smile on his face. Only three out of five beasts had to be hunted down and Jason had still time until two days later, when he had to meet Greg. He didn''t think that he would find a lone five-star wild beast until the evening which was only around two hours away. But even so, he continued his journey around the wild zone. Artemis circles around him in the air, looking out for possible targets. Suddenly, around half an hour later something that both of them didn''t expect happened. Above Artemis, the sky turned dark with a weird sensation approaching her, as she looked above, only to see a huge vulture diving down. Horrified, Artemis cried out and also dived down with a ninety-degree angle, only to evade the vultures'' talons by a hair length. Noticing Artemis¡ä feeling horrified, he heard her crying out as he looked above. The vulture was heavier and thus way faster with its dive than Artemis and Jason knew that the vulture would catch up to Artemis only a few moments later. He made up his mind and utilized the only thing he could think of. Gripping his dagger firmly, Jason pulled his arm back as he aimed with his other hand, following the trajectory with one finger. Injecting half of his mana into the arm that held the dagger, Jason threw the dagger with a loud shout. Jason knew he couldn''t instantly kill the vulture, causing him to aim at a biggest part of the vulture, that was the abdomen. But even so, he was still slightly off as the dagger pierced into the vulture¡äs wing. The impact from the flying dagger changed the course of the vulture dive. Noticing that, Artemis felt as if a stone was plucked from her small and tender heart as she continued her dive until she reached Jason. She looked extremely horrified as if she was completely out of her wits and Jason had the urge to cuddle her. However, he was unarmed and the vulture which landed slightly apart from them. With his mana eyes activated, he figured out that the Vulture was a five-star wild beast. Jason saw the dagger stuck deep into the vulture''s wing which made him sigh in relief as he had at least injured it slightly, causing its best advantage to discard. It couldn''t fly with the dagger in its wing but its razor-sharp beak and talons were still more than threatening to the unarmed Jason. Both Artemis and Jason were only faster than the injured vulture with some mana as enhancement but they shouldn''t underestimate their sole opponent, as the vulture''s physique and strength were still much higher than theirs. Because he had no weapon to defend himself, Jason had to envelop his hands with a thin layer of mana in order to prevent them from being cut off or seriously injured. Another major issue was that Jason that Artemis was injured! Chapter 34：Fighting with ones life at a thread Artemis was filled with adrenaline and couldn''t feel the pain at the moment but that would change as soon as their fight ended. They had to defeat the vulture as fast as possible so Jason could treat Artemis'' injury. Running away wouldn¡ät be feasible because the vulture was probably still faster than Jason. Trying it out would be suicidal. The vulture was around 10 meters away from him and Jason went slowly closer until he reached the distance of four meters. There he smoothly but exceptionally fast changed his stance, only to make a big stride forward, with his body leaning forward. After making a single stride, Jason sidestepped to avoid the incoming swing of the vulture''s uninjured wing while Artemis shrieked out from above. She dived down and made a riot, causing the vulture to feel distracted from the white beast''s shriek, as it turned its head upwards to welcome the diving beast. Surprisingly the attack didn''t come from above but from the front. He delivered a quick but impactful punch onto the vulture''s head. While one mana enveloped fist punched out, the other hand tried to take the Jade iron dagger out of its wing in order to make the following process easier for them. Unfortunately, the dagger didn''t completely loosen up. Shaking its head, the vulture was now injured as it could only see a blurry image. Due to the injury, the vulture was enraged and seeing the blurry youth only a step away from it, the vulture tried to hit it with its claws. Jason rolled away but he wasn''t completely uninjured as his back was grazed by the razor-sharp claws. Ignoring the pain Jason saw that the dagger began to loosen due to the vulture¡äs sudden movement and the additional gravity did its job, causing the dagger to fall out of the vulture''s wing. Seeing that, Jason first evaded the vulture''s beak, before suicidal jumping straight forward towards the dagger. The vulture didn''t expect that and turned around but it was distracted due to Artemis¡ä second dive, straight at its back. Her mana-infused talons weren''t even able to pierce through the vulture''s plumage. The vulture was still annoying but it decided to treat Artemis as a annoying Ant, not worth its attention. Focusing solely on Jason, however, was probably the vulture''s biggest mistake. While Jason reached his dagger, with the vulture pursuing him, Artemis used her wings to reach the vulture''s head that wasn''t covered by plumage. Using her whole reserves of mana on her claws, she pierced out with them. It wasn''t enough to heavily injure the vulture or even kill it but it cried out in pain, causing it to shake the whole body vigorously, which gave Jason enough time to pick up his dagger and stab out with it. Piercing into the vulture''s body, the plumage hindered the attack slightly but it still penetrated its defense and met fresh meat. Upon piercing through it, a painful cry resounded throughout the area caused by the vulture. Jason''s ears ached and he was tempted to cover them with his hands. Twisting the dagger the painful shriek became louder until it disappeared after a few moments. Sensing the life force within the vulture disappearing and the following result, its death, Jason fell on his butt as he was way too exhausted to do even stand firmly on the ground. The whole battle didn''t take a long time, at most 2 minutes, starting from the vulture''s surprise attack but his mind calculated hundreds of possibilities adding to the tension, Artemis injury and him being unarmed, exceeded Jason¡äs capabilities. His body was still fine except for the small injury on his back and blood was still flowing out of it. Getting up, Jason stored the vultures'' corpse away when Artemis gliding to him with some difficulties. After the battle, Artemis almost immediately felt the injury on her back, hindering her flying ability slightly. Placing herself on Jason''s shoulder and both left the wild-zone as fast as possible to avoid fighting anyone while being exhausted. 30 minutes later they entered the dome once again. The sun was going down while a little bit of sunlight combined with the light from the mansion-sized tents brightened up the surrounding. Many youths were sitting around a campfire talking to each other as Jason passed them without greeting anyone or even paying attention to them. Unknowingly to him, Jason was the person the youths talked about after seeing him entering the dome. His face looked beautiful, almost feminine if his detailed facial features wouldn¡ät say otherwise as the big golden eyes were illuminated by the surrounding lights, underlining Jason¡äs return. Jason''s black hair was disheveled and his clothes were tattered and dirty, giving him the appearance of a wild boy. Sensing his and Artemis mana, they found out that he was extremely weak even compared to them, with Jason radiating the mana of a 5th Novice rank and Artemis was obviously a two-star wild beast. The youths wondered if the golden-eyed boy looked like this because of a battle against a three-star wild beast and started laughing at him. How could they know that a quasi 5th Novice rank mana fluctuations were in reality, a 3rd Novice rank that fought suicidal against 3 five-star wild beasts and killed them even if the whole fighting process was full of tricks and hidden assassinations. These youths would only dare to do something like that when they reached the 8th or 9th Novice rank and even then only with superior weapons and armrors to protect themselves. Most of them would still be accompanied by a guard or some other teammates to help them out if they end up in an disadvantage. Entering his tent he put some medicine on Artemis and his wound while he bandaged his own wound he let Artemis'' wound uncovered. He wasn''t exactly sure how deep the wound was but the area of her injury was at a bad spot. As such he decided to give Artemis all the two-star cores he had accumulated in addition to the three five star wild beast cores he had left in order to accelerate the healing process of Artemis with the huge amount of mana she could digest. She would probably sleep a few days but it was still fine. Unfortunately, he had to kill another two five-star wild beasts until the day after tomorrow but he shouldn''t force Artemis into a fight with an injury, which could end up in devastating result. Artemis gulped down the cores before she went into the soul world to digest the overwhelming mana. Meanwhile, Jason ate some meat, and afterward, he also went into the soul world to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique before he washed up and slept. Chapter 35：Rescue After waking up early in the morning Jason had to think carefully about his plans for the next 30 hours. Without Artemis, his chances to hunt a five-star wild beast reduced drastically and Jason wasn¡ät confident to kill one with his current strength. His injury wasn¡ät deep and wouldn¡ät hinder his movements but his strength was the biggest problem, right at this moment. Thinking carefully, Jason decided to use the remaining energy inside the mana stone to force a breakthrough of his rank. Throughout the last two weeks, he had stabilized his mana core and in a week at most, he would be able to enter the 4th Novice rank naturally without issues but he didn''t have that time right now. The small mana stone Jason had still left was half-filled which was probably enough to force a breakthrough in his rank. After forcing a breakthrough his energy would be quite unstable for a while before he could advance again but it was his best option at the moment. Once he advances, his physique and mana core would grow in size and he would be one step closer to the strength of a five-star wild beast. Jason sat down, but before he would breakthrough he still followed his daily routine and entered the soul world to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique. Due to his determination to practice the soul technique three times a day his soul energy increased slowly but steadily and Jason was hopeful, that he would be able to get a soul energy of four before Artemis advanced again. Leaving the soul world, he took the mana stone in both hands before releasing the remaining stored mana at once. A small storm of thin mana enveloped Jason as his pores opened instinctively. Absorbing the whole mana in his surrounding greedily, Jason¡äs mana core ached and it looked quite bad as his eyes turned red when drops of blood sprinkled the sleeping bag he was sitting on. Blood flowed out of his orifices while his head turned red. The amount of mana he absorbed was almost too much for him to handle at the moment when the mana core forcefully accepted the mana and increased in size. The core however could only slowly enlarge its size while Jason had to endure the painful pressure for quite a long time. Fortunately, due to the enlargement of the Mana core, the pressure grew weaker over time and after an hour Jason could handle the pressure without any problems. His body was enveloped by a white cocoon and only when his mana core reached the 4th Novice rank, it slowly dissolved, while his physique also followed suit. Because of Artemis'' additional amplification, Jason had a mana core of a larger size and it was almost comparable to the 6th Novice rank while his physique was at the 5th Novice rank. He was still much weaker than average five-star wild beasts but his chances to kill one with a crafty assassination or some other tricks increased a lot. Eating a small breakfast, washing up, and changing his clothes, Jason left the tent and entered the one-star plains wild zone once again. The increase of one''s strength caused by the novice rank was minuscule but Jason still felt much stronger today. One could say that the wild beast and novice ranks were not even the beginning of one''s journey in the vast world as each increase in level gave only slight enhancements in strength. If Jason had a soulbond like Greg he would bash up all wild ranked beasts without any problems, but that wasn¡ät the case, unfortunately. Almost a month passed since Greg formed his soulbond and the bull calf was most likely almost matured, with its strength at the later awakened rank or first evolved rank. The amplification the bull provided to Greg was definitely a few times larger than Artemis enhancement, even if Greg¡äs soul would only give him 1% share. Even if Greg was at the 1st Novice rank with the enhancement of a strong soulbond like the reinforced horned bull, he would be able to easily crush numerous wild beasts with only his physique. But luckily Jason didn''t even think about that otherwise, he might be extremely frustrated and demotivated. Strolling around the wild zone with his dagger firmly gripped, Jason felt lonely. To avoid that, he focused even more on his surroundings. Many groups of youths were fighting large groups of beasts and Jason couldn''t find any solo five-star beasts, so he honed his dagger skills while fighting three- and four-star wild beasts. Until lunch, he hadn''t found a single five-star wild beast as he went back into the dome in order to practice his Heaven''s Hell technique. Finishing lunch, Jason went out again straight into the wild zone where he saw pack of 9 five-star greater horned wolves besieging a group of four youths that tried to get into the dome. Unfortunately, they were hindered by the Beasts. Before Jason did something unnecessary, he activated his mana eyes to look if the group could handle the situation or if they needed his help. Upon inspecting the youths he noticed that all of them were at the 7th Novice rank which was above average for their age and they should be able to handle one five-star Beast for each of them with their superior equipment and armor. However, Jason noticed something in particular. The equipment they wore was good but not extremely expensive and even while being outnumbered, nobody pulled out a gun to save themselves. Thinking about the situation they were in, Jason concluded that they didn''t own a mana gun or the ammunition was already used up so, he wanted to help them out. Maybe their martial art techniques were also not on par with the instinctive movements of a five-star wild beast but Jason wouldn¡ät just watch someone dying in front of him. His heart began to thump loudly as he himself knew that this decision was probably dumb due to his low rank, but he couldn''t just let his brethren die without even trying to help out. The wolves had almost surrounded the small youth group and a few already pounced at them when a black-haired golden-eyed youth appeared between two greater horned wolves that stood only two meters apart from each other. Jason had no time to hesitate as he used almost a quarter of his advanced mana to enhance his lower body. With his breathtaking speed, he appeared between two greater horned wolves that were unaware of his advancement. He enhanced his dagger with a layer of mana before stabbing out with it drawing a clean cut at one of the wolf''s throat before he pulled the dagger out with a smooth movement. Not a single noise except a loud thump left the dead wolf¡äs body as blood spurted out of its wound as the large body fell on the side. But this wasn''t all as Jason''s eyes brightened up when he spun around only to pierce the dagger into the bewildered greater horned wolf''s neck which caused a loud crack to resound through the whole battlefield. Because Jason enhanced his dagger with a layer of mana, the dagger''s sharpness and firmness were enhanced and definitely strong enough to pierce through the cervical spine without many difficulties. However, the battle was still not over as seven greater horned wolves were still alive. And only five of them were already in a battle with the youths while another one was jumping into the fray. But one greater horned wolf noticed that two of its brethren were missing when it heard two loud noises only a second ago. Turning around, it saw the two dead wolves and a youth standing only a few meters away from itself, rushing at it with a fast speed. Looking at the black-haired youth with blood-stains on his face, the wolf went immediately into a rage before it saw the youth''s deep golden glowing eyes. Its rage disspated almost immediately without leaving any trace of it behind as the wolf¡äs body began to shiver, looking into these cold golden eyes. The Wolf was intimidated and it felt as if the Grim Reaper knocked at its door welcoming it to the abyss. It wanted to retreat and run away from the youth as far as possible but before it could even turn around, the youth was only a meter apart from it. Jason noticed the wolves'' hesitation but he wasn''t sure why that was the case, as it was extremely unusual. Not caring about the situation, Jason used the newly obtained opening to slide under its stomach to avoid a sudden attack from its head. Its stomach was cleanly cut open and blood fountains and organs spilled out onto Jason who jumped up after wiping his face. He had used up more than half of his mana and he supervised the battle of the four youths and remaining six greater horned wolves to help out if needed. It was seen as immoral to kill the prey of another person and Jason provided only a little bit support. Only slightly more than six minutes later the last wolf was finally finished off. However before that happened Jason had already left the youths to pick up his three five-star wild beast corpses. He had killed them so they belonged to him, while the youths didn''t even think about taking them from him because they were grateful for his help. Jason wasn''t really good with social interactions and he left the youths after a short chat. The group of four youths mainly thanked Jason and they wanted to give him something in return but he declined politely before leaving the scene. Chapter 36：Time′s up Jason went into the dome again where he took out the five-star corpses to take out their incomplete cores before storing them again. After replenishing his mana he relaxed for a short time before he entered the wild zone again. It was only 1 pm and he had still roughly 24 hours left to improve his combat skills, experience and to earn a little pocket money, including cores for Artemis. While supervising the battle of the youth that were at least a year younger than him, Jason noticed that his combat abilities were already on par with them but still not good enough. His familiarity with the dagger was already decent while his innate combat ability was definitely above average. However, some things could only be learned through experience. Jason decided to hunt larger two-star wild beasts groups in order to improve his observance ability by another notch, even if it was already above average. Fighting against ten two-star wild beasts would be more difficult than fighting a small group of four-star wild beasts or a single five-star wild beast, except for their overwhelming strength. Jason had to be careful during his fights with either faction. * Hours passed and he sustained only some small cuts after being overwhelmed by numerous beasts but he prevented serious injuries by forming small layers of mana around the spot that were attacked. It was almost dark when he came back to his tent where Jason did his daily routine including the Heaven''s Hell technique. He was quite happy as he had accomplished his designated task faster than expected. After writing a short message to Greg he went into his sleeping bag and fell into a dreamless sleep. -- Before the first sunlight lightened up the plains, Jason was woken up by an overwhelming feeling of happiness when he felt something fluffy on his face. Knowing that it was Artemis he immediately opened his eyes and cuddled with her for a few minutes before he stood up. Her injury was already completely healed which made Jason happy. Furthermore, sensing the constant increase of mana inside her blood, Jason began to ponder if he should give her some more incomplete beast cores or not. He had many left but he wasn''t sure when he would be able to enter the wild zone again to farm more and there was a small problem. He had only around 20.000 credits left and many beast corpses to sell but with Artemis'' unsatiable hunger, Jason would need to have a talk with Greg later. Greg told him that school would start in around two weeks and Jason wasn''t exactly sure how long their trip to the designated city would take. Jason knew that they had to travel for quite some time to reach the A-grade city, because they avoided dangerous magic beast zones. The time they needed to travel from their c-grade city to Cyro would be at least 4 days with a decent vehicle. Maybe Jason could enter the wild zone for the remaining 10 days to hunt three and four-star beasts for their cores. Thinking about his shortage of money or more likely lack of incomplete cores, Jason entered the soul world to complete his Heaven''s Hell training before he went into the plains wild zone with Artemis circling above him. When it was 11 am Jason entered the dome again to dismantle his tent and store it away. Afterward, the previously ordered shuttle arrived, which Jason entered, with its final destination at the Fler family mansion. It would take around 40 minutes and decided to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique again as his soul energy was already replenished. The pain after practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique was still horrifying but somehow Jason grew used to it over the last two weeks. Arriving at the address Greg told him, Jason noticed that he entered the noble district which was directly next to the center area, where the government, important companies, the Beast Pagoda, and large shopping centers were situated. He saw huge yards with many exotic plants and flowers all around the district, causing Jason to feel astonished, as he could see mana radiating from some of these plants. Overall one could say that the yard radiated dense mana that was even better than the mana outside the dome within the one-star wild zone. The noble district wasn''t even remotely comparable to the outer areas of the city, as the Fler family''s yard had probably more than enough space to construct a few skyscrapers on it where tens of thousand tenants could live in. Looking around, Jason saw a three-story tall mansion in the center of the plot, built with white marble and many other exquisite materials. Calculating the prices of the materials and the cost for the plot including the unknown plants, Jason''s heart ached. For normal people, it wasn''t even possible to purchase a plot inside C-grade cities. One would need to have to be nobility or earned glory points, which were equivalent to humanities achievements in order to receive the permission to purchase land or larger property. While Jason admired the gigantic yard and the luxurious looking mansion, the doors were opened by a young long brown-haired girl who was probably slightly older than him. She looked at him with a slightly cold face which surprised Jason a little bit. Wearing a white summer dress, she looked incredibly beautiful but Jason knew who she was. It was Greg¡äs sister Malia and Jason sensed that she didn''t like him as she avoided to have eye contact with him while trying to look cool-headed. He wasn''t sure why she avoided him but she came slowly closer, gesturing him to follow her She didn''t even say hello and Jason thought back at the time of Greg''s soul-awakening when she had to step back with a terrified expression after looking into his eyes from a very close distance. `Nevermind...maybe she is shy or something like that.` Jason didn''t worry about it and he disregarded any ill-intention, as he wasn''t aware of the shock he brought Malia. Jason''s senses didn''t betray him as Malia was truly scared to look into his eyes. She remembered clearly how intimidated she was when she looked into his deep, cold golden eyes and Malia was scared to get devoured if she dared to look into them once again. But even so, she was too prideful to say something like that out loud, so she had to keep a calm expression in front of him. Jason followed Malia quietly and both of them didn¡ät say a single word which caused a awkward atmosphere around them. However, after entering the mansion, he was way too fascinated about the furniture and interior of the mansion that he completely disregarded the awkward atmosphere and Malia¡äs fear. They kept walking for some time until he saw a familiar youth sitting on a couch inside a huge living room. The whole living room was probably a few times bigger than a basketball court and Jason wondered why someone needed so much space. Seeing Jason, Greg jumped up as he walked fast but steady towards him. Jason noticed that Greg¡äs muscles became more apparent and firmer while he grew at least a few centimeters in size. One could say that Greg was already a walking bodybuilder and Jason admired his nice body one could see through the clothes. Not only did his rank increase from the 2nd Adept-rank to the 3rd Adept rank within a few weeks, but his mana core size also grew by a noticeable size. Greg was still at the lower levels of the Adept rank and not an Intermediate Adept but with his amplification from his soulbond, he would probably be on par with a average 4th Adept rank. That would be a great achievement and Jason felt happy for Greg. Calculating that the bull calf grew up to be a low evolved beast until now and shared around 5%-10% of its strength, if not more. As such it was only natural that Greg¡äs mana core would also grow. Evolved ranked beasts were comparable to human expert ranks and 5%-10% was already comparable to at least one more likely two adept levels. Taking another glance at Greg¡äs mana core, it was more likely that Greg received a 10%+ share which caused Jason to nod approving, as Greg¡äs soul gave him a good quote. But it was still not comparable to his own 30+% shared amount, he received from his still incomplete soul world. Greg saw Jason¡äs golden eyes shining lightly and when Jason said "Congratulations," he began to smile lightly. Loosening up their handshake, Greg looked directly into Jason''s eyes and Malia who saw this, tensed up subconsciously, thinking about the worst-case scenario which didn¡ät happen. Greg noticed a white fluffy ball on Jason''s shoulder that suddenly began to move. Opening her eyes, Artemis¡ä black button-like eyes gazed at Greg who stepped back surprised. Chapter 37：Artemis′ Pride Calming down, Greg sized up Artemis from head to talon, when his gaze returned back to Jason rather confused. "Jason is this your soulbond? A snowflake owl¡­? Isn''t that a little bit too weak??¡­" Somehow Greg felt disappointed. He hoped that Jason would find a good one-star wild beast to form a contract with, but snowflake owls were weak in their overall combat strength, while their speed was exceptional fast. In comparison to other one-star wild beasts, their strength was way too weak without even considering their non-existent potential. Jason understood Greg¡äs concern and he wanted to clarify the situation at least a little bit to him, when Artemis suddenly cried out visibly outraged, flapping her wings violently. How dared this small fellow antagonize her strength and beauty(?)¡­. "Calm down Artemis...He doesn''t mean it like that." Jason tried to calm Artemis down and it took him a few minutes before she squeezed herself back on his shoulder Greg didn''t care about Artemis'' outrage but Malia who was standing quietly behind noticed something, which shocked her. She couldn''t help but ask curiously "Can she understand human language? That''s not possible for one-star wild beasts!! Is her brain somehow mutated or something similar like that?" Coming closer to the two youths she even forgot to be wary of Jason as she had always been curious about beasts. Her family were well-known beast merchants and they also caught some beasts for other nobles in order to gain their favors, large sums of credits, or rare items, and it was important to know what kind of beasts were rare. Furthermore, it was necessary to figure how to detect advantageous and adverse mutations of beasts in the wilderness due to minute details. Potential was everything in this business and catching a beast with more potential would give them more credits, increasing their bounty. While her parents were really good at finding potential beasts, she wasn''t as good as her parents. Malia was only 16 years old and still learning a lot about beasts. There was more than enough time for her to catch up with her parent''s knowledge and seeing Jason¡äs soulbond, she had to grow curious. Jason was astonished and looked at Artemis asking himself if she learned human-language. But that shouldn''t be the case as there weren''t enough instances where Jason talked to someone in her presence. Artemis looked at Jason knowingly as she transmitted through the soulbond that she could understand the rough meaning of everything said because of their connection. Without Jason hearing the conversation, she wouldn''t understand anything at all Turning his head to Malia he answered her question while looking into her big brown eyes. "She can''t understand human language. Throughout our connection, she can comprehend the meaning of Greg¡äs word." Malia tensed up for a second when their eyes met but she noticed that his eyes weren''t intimidating this time. This caused her tension to loosen up slightly and she looked a little bit longer into Jason¡äs eyes that looked somewhat gentle and full of warmth now. `Beautiful` Blushing, she turned away her head slightly and continued questioning somehow shy "But she is still very intelligent and underwent an advantageous mutation, right?" Jason was standing between Malia and Greg and both looked at him full of expectations. Malia was curious and the red color of her cheeks receded slowly to her normally fair skin as she looked expectant at him while Greg also grew curious after listening to their conversation. Looking at Greg he began to defend Artemis with confidence, saying "First of all¡­ Greg, you might be right about normal snowflake owls but Artemis is special and not weak, okay? Your control over mana should be precise enough to sense the strength of wild beasts and novice ranks,or am I wrong? Shouldn''t that be the first thing to do when you meet someone new? And with that you should have already known that Artemis is a two-star wild beast!" Jason felt proud and at the same time like a teacher because neither Malia nor Greg had scanned Artemis mana fluctuations as both were sure about her being a weak one-star wild beast. Both were instantly embarrassed because their parents lectured them about the same thing before ''Never underestimate anyone¡­ never forget to find out who the person opposite you is and how strong he/she is...knowledge is power¡­.never let your guard down when you are with people you don''t trust 100%...and so on.'' But that was not the shocking part. What confused them the most was the last sentence Jason said and both immediately released some of their mana in order to scan Artemis thoroughly. "Huh? How?" "Unbelievable" Sensing Artemis mana fluctuations at the two-star wild beast rank caused both of them to look at Jason with an open jaw. In his opinion, both looked extremely foolish, causing him to smile lightly Jason felt Artemis''s confidence soaring and her pride overwhelmed his feeling as his facial features turned slowly into one of pride. It was the first time for Jason that he was influenced by the emotions of his soulbond. With pride it was fine, but was If this would happen with bloodlust or Lust? Jason wasn''t sure how he could handle it, while it was definitely something nice to share with positive emotions. Opening his mouth he turned to Malia. "Your name was Malia, right? I hope you don''t mind me calling you by your name. To get back to your question about her having an advantageous mutation. It''s pretty obvious that she unterwent a mutation or at least that she isn''t an ordinary snowflake owl but, to be honest, she was labeled as an adverse mutated snowflake owl with a high chance of being born with a disease like blindness and so on which was the reason she wasn''t noticed by others." "But as you can see she is healthy and even stronger than normal snowflake owls as her problem was fortunately rather easily solved." `Except her Gluttony` Jason sighed inwardly. Greg listened to Jason quietly thinking about something, while Malia was deep in thoughts scanning through Artemis as if she was a memory stick. It made Artemis feel uncomfortable and she hid behind Jason. Malia averted her gaze when she noticed that Jason finished his speech. Jason called her by her first name which she didn¡ät notice at first. During the mana outbreak, many cultures appeared and vanished, while some traditions were mixed with others. And one of society''s unlisted laws was to speak politely to prodigies and nobles, which included calling someone by the Family name. After she finished her deep thoughts, she only began to truly understand that a man, except her brother and father called her by her first name which hasn''t happened since her soul awakening and she was about to get angry when their eyes met. Her rage subsided and she couldn''t even think about becoming angry and she immediately changed the theme back to Artemis as a thought entered her mind. `Well...it''s fine¡­but wait!.` "Why did you pick an adverse mutated one-star beast? I saw your soul awakening and your chances to get another beast with your soul energy were minuscule in the short term. You might be lucky but wasn''t that too risky?" She was way too confused about the weird but good-looking youth in front of her, causing her to ask straightforwardly. Greg had the same thought and he also exclaimed loud, after hearing his sister talking about that. "Yeah!! Why did you pick an adverse labeled beast as your soulbond?? Wasn''t that too naive??" He roared out vigorously. "GREG!! You should be the last person to say something like that! Haven''t we already talked about that with you!! You''re the most foolish in our whole family¡­" The rage just came out of Malia as she noticed his brother talking about naivety while he himself picked a verified weaker beast as his soulbond just because Jason told him so. Luckily the non-elemental bull calf had a hidden and sealed bloodline of a lesser minotaur race which was a strong bipedal beast. Malia and her parents didn''t believe that Jason knew about that and only thought of this as a lucky encounter, as they scolded Greg a lot. Greg began to pout which looked extremely ugly and Jason thought that he would begin to sob any moment when Greg suddenly shouted out "How can you say that?!?!? TAURUS IS MUCH BETTER THAN YOUR FIRST SOULBOND...YOU''RE JUST JEALOUS!!!!" "GREG!!!" Malia turned red from rage. Jason thought it was funny to see the sibling pair clashing with each other and it took them quite a while before they calmed down... Malia and Greg had completely forgotten about Jason¡äs existence. When they saw him smiling happily at them they felt embarrassed. It had been a long time since he had been happy while being with others except for Artemis. Thinking about the last time he had been with others, Jason noticed that he never had a friend except his mother. `Are they my friends?` Scratching his head awkwardly, Jason was also slightly embarrassed. However, it would be more embarrassing if he asked them if they were his friends now so he avoided this question. Jason didn''t know what to say right now and the whole situation was awkward. Clearing his throat, he asked "Where are your parents? I have to show them that I''ve accomplished my task" He tried to change the subject with this and technically it was the only reason he came to the mansion. Somehow they changed subjects since the beginning without considering even the reason for them to talk about the main subject. Malia regained her senses before Greg and sat up with a straight back before saying seriously "They¡äre outside catching a certain magical beast but I''m not sure when they¡äll be back. I should only report your rank including soulbond and so on to them." Before Jason could say anything else, Malia looked into his eyes, without being scared anymore when she asked seriously. "Can you show me the five five star corpses or the awakened beast corpse, please? My mom told me to record everything to review it for herself." Chapter 38：Do you L-Lov..? Taking out the three greater horned wolf carcasses, the vulture carcass, and the mutated black horned bison carcass, Malia began her inspection carefully. Her mother told Malia that she had to be strict and careful because she wasn''t sure if Jason wouldn''t cheat. Purchasing a five-star wild beast carcass wasn''t difficult and the first thing Mali noticed upon starting the inspection was that four out of five carcasses were killed with a single strike. Only the vulture had a few more cuts and a larger wound at its wing. Looking at Jason she asked with a serious face but slightly hesitant. "You are only at the 4th Novice rank and you want me to believe that you defeated five five-star wild beasts?? According to the wounds, most wild beasts were killed with a single dagger thrust...I believe you don''t have any evidence that you killed them, right?" Greg¡äs eyes widened and he pulled himself from the bottom, he was still lying on. Standing up within a moment, he looked at Jason carefully "WOAH you''re already at the 4th Novice rank¡­ That''s pretty fast" Greg said while smiling at him. Malia looked at Greg as if he was the dumbest person she had ever seen and she about to throw a fist at him when Greg continued¡­ "Didn''t you break into the 2nd Novice rank on the exam day? You''re pretty fast...haha" She was way too confused to understand anything. How could an almost 14-year-old youth, only be at the 2nd Novice rank on the exam day? That meant Jason¡äs mana control and sensitivity should be awful as he should only be able to sense mana for a short time. However, considering the fact that he improved his level by two in such a short time told her that Jason was stuck at the first or second Novice rank due to a different reason. Jason noticed her perplexed gaze and her eyes turned almost into question marks as he answered her unspoken question. " I can sense mana since a long time ago but I couldn''t improve my mana core rank due to personal reasons. Only approximately a week before the exams started I was able to improve my mana core which results in my weak rank." Clearing his throat, Jason added "And you asked If I have some evidence...unfortunately not. The only thing I have is a small injury on my back from the vulture.. While I fought head-on with the vulture, the other four beasts were all ambushed by me with a grade-1 Jade Iron dagger." Finishing his explanation he took out his dagger that was still a little bit stained with blood from his morning hunt. Malia was deep in thoughts pondering what to do as she decided to let her thoughts out loud without holding back "To be honest I¡äm not sure if you''re really able to defeat a five-star wild beast, but the more confusing for me is the question, why exactly my parents try to help you to enter the affiliated school of the Vanguard school in Cyro city. They own you a favor but that could have been solved with Credits or through other ways¡­ My mother said something about your eyes and I understand her slightly as I feel something weird about them but considering your rank and your soulbond¡äs strength, it would be almost impossible for you to survive in any of the affiliated Vanguard schools. Furthermore, our reputation will be stained once other nobles find out that we let someone as weak as you into one of Astrix most prosperous schools." Malia said, feeling somehow unsettled. She didn¡ät think Jason was lying but assassinating a five-star wild beast shouldn¡ät be that easy for Jason and killing it with a single dagger thrust even less. Except his combat prowess was much higher than his rank... Considering what Jason¡äs background told her, he was extremely poor, without anyone that could teach him about martial arts and Malia didn¡ät know what to do. "I¡äll report everything to my mother and let her decide the matter, ok?" She ended her speech and tried to show her cold face but Jason and Greg noticed her being uncertain. Greg had always been uncomfortable with anyone except his own family since elementary school as many parents told their children to befriend him because of their parents'' business and wealth. In the beginning, everything was fine until one day when a boy clashed with Greg that the whole show was blown off. The boy who clashed with Greg told him that everyone was after his parent''s wealth and not a single friend of his was real. The young Greg didn''t believe it at first, but looking at the other children''s innocent faces that didn¡ät even try to deny it was devastating to the young Greg. Some of them even acknowledged this cruel fact without hesitation which changed his mind. Getting to know, that he was only befriended because of their own parents told them to, shocked him, causing his mental health to suffer. Greg faced with the cruel facts, couldn¡ät help but feel left alone since then. It took him a long time to even talk to his family as he blamed them for being rich. But what could his parents do about it? They moved into a different city where Greg entered middle school but he didn''t make a single friend. He became a loner that ignored everyone''s approach, seeing them as frauds before even getting to know them. After some time Greg noticed a blind youth sitting next to him in class, silently listening to the lectures, focusing solely on school. He didn¡ät mind envious classmates bullying him or treating him like trash because of his perfect grades. Somehow, Greg grew comfortable around Jason with time passing and he took care of the bullies while asking Jason for advice about certain subjects once in a while. Jason answered them diligently but he didn''t care about Greg¡äs existence more than necessary. This made Greg somewhat happy and he began to secretly see the blind youth as a friend while Jason himself wasn''t aware of that. Jason thought that it was a coincidence that his classmates stopped bullying him as Greg sat next to him in school. He answered Greg''s question because of gratitude towards him, but that was it. Malia thought about Greg¡äs situation, which was the reason for her wavering eyes as she was happy that her brother finally found a friend. Even if she wasn''t happy when Jason told Greg to pick a different soulbond, in the end it was fortunately that Greg listened to Jason, which was all that mattered. Their parents were also concerned about Greg and she hoped that they were as expectant about Jason as she was. It was the second time that Greg noticed something different about his sister and both times were about Jason so he drew his own conclusion. "WOAH sis!! Why are your eyes wavering...do you want Jason to follow us to school?? DO YOU L-LLo-v....." Before he could end his sentence a small ball of water blew Greg away a few meters. "You are embarrassing! It''s not like that, Idiot" ¡Ñ.¡Ñ Jason thought they were playing again so he didn''t mind their words. But upon noticing the strength of the small water ball, he was astonished and extremely terrified. This unstable-looking waterball had the strength to blow away a 3rd Adept rank with a physical first soulbond that was probably already at the low evolved stage, without much difficulty. "Malia, if your mother doesn¡ät believe me about my capabilities, can you ask her if I can hunt another five-star wild beast while recording it?" Jason smiled gently, trying to cover his insecurity. Greg''s sister looked feeble and beautiful but behind this facade was a ferocious monster and Jason was a little bit timid about her wrathful outbursts. Malia seemed to be at least at the Expert rank if not higher but he couldn''t really read her mana core rank as he had never seen something comparable. She seemed to have a higher mana core than the teachers he had seen so far but her parents and the old man were still a lot stronger. Jason still asked Malia for the small favor if her mother didn''t believe him. He wished to enter a high school in an A-Grade city as the mana density there should be multiple times higher, while instructors could help Jason with his martial arts. Many resources would be provided against school merit-points that wouldn¡ät be sold to commoners without any achievements or a vast amount of credits. Other than that, many other benefits could be gained through schools. Greg¡äs family was his only way, but there wasn''t anything he could do once his mother rejected him. Even so, Jason was already grateful for the opportunity he received as well as the permission to the Heaven¡äs Hell technique they gave him. If he was honest, Jason didn''t think he deserved this chance as he only told Greg to pick a different beast as the first soulbond out of his gut-feeling. He could see the radiating color of the bull but why should he care about someone he wasn''t even close with? Or were they close? Jason wasn¡ät sure about that¡­ social interactions were still new to him and he didn¡ät know when exactly one could call someone else acquaintance, friend, or even close friend. Jason stored the carcasses away after Malia finished her inspection. After that, she wrote a detailed report to her mother. Thinking that he should go home, Jason wanted to stand up, when Greg stopped him. Greg wanted to talk to him a little bit more about Cyro city, the vanguard school, and so on, so he stopped in his tracks. Hours passed and Jason left the Fler¡äs mansion after the three of them finished their talk. Getting to know more about the affiliated schools of the Vanguard school, Jason was at first excited and then he grew more and more serious until he once understood something. He was pitifully weak¡­ Chapter 39：Determination Greg told Jason many information about the Vanguard-associated schools. The Vanguard school itself was a huge school that accepted the best students all over the Astrix. It was seen as one of the three best schools on the Island and everyone wanted to enter it but only the best out of the best would receive this chance. One would need to have a high mana core rank, exceptional theoretical knowledge, and a high rating in one''s soul awakening. Malia was also a student in the Vanguard school. She was at home due to the summer vacations and Greg¡äs soul-awakening. While Greg¡äs mana core rank and theoretical knowledge exam were not up to the requirement, his four-star soul-awakening gave him some extra points causing his lack of theoretical knowledge and lower mana core rank to be neglected. Four-star soul awakenings were extremely rare and each year there would only be around 10 four-star soul awakenings on Astrix, which would already be considered a fortunate year. The Vanguard school accepted more than 10.000 Students each year and it was only normal for Greg to be accepted. Nevertheless, it surprised Jason that Greg¡äs mana core rank did not meet the requirement which means that he could only enter the school because of his high star-soul awakening. To enter one of the affiliated schools one had to reach the 3rd Adept rank, have extreme high exam results, at least a 2 1/2 star soul-awakening, or a two-star soul-awakening with at least one extraordinary good characteristic in one''s soul-awakening-either soul energy or a unique soul Jason wasn''t even close to meet one of these requirements except his soul awakening as his soul was the most unique soul ever awoken in his opinion. Even so, he didn''t want to expose that which means Jason met not a single requirement. His exam result was extremely bad because of his non-existent combat prowess at that time while his mana core rank would be called garbage compared to the requirement. Jason was a little bit frustrated and even if he was allowed to attend one of the affiliated schools because of the nobility rights Greg''s family obtained, he would be the weakest with a large gap between him and the second-worst student. He was grateful that the Fler family allowed him to study there but he felt too weak and pitiful at the moment. Jason left the shuttle he subconsciously entered after he went out of the mansion, continuing to brood over all kinds of things. He wasn''t even scared about being bullied, rather it was more likely that he would be thrown out of the school after the first year because of his grades, which hurt his almost non-existent pride. If one couldn''t accomplish the given assignments or get enough merit points by the end of the year one would be kicked out of the school which was Jason''s biggest problem. These assignments ranged from killing late awakened beasts as one of the easier assignments to gathering herbs in three- or four-star wild zones that have evolved and unblemished ranked beasts. Jason couldn''t even think about killing the weakest awakened beasts as they were a few times stronger than the strongest five-star wild beast. Assassinating an awakened beast would also be difficult as its instincts and reaction speed were much stronger compared to wild beasts. `Something has to change!` He told himself determined... Inside his apartment, Jason practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique before he came to a decision. He had to close the gap between him and the other students as fast as possible and Jason had two ways to accomplish this. Either he had to increase his mana core rank with the support of mana stones which would hasten up his advancement speed by a few times and stabilize the core afterward with certain medical solutions. Another path could be to increase Artemis rank in order to improve their combat prowess as Jason would receive 30% from Artemis strength amplified. Jason had another way to improve his strength but the chances of success were too minuscule. He could form contracts with a few one-star wild beasts with at least some potential and force their evolution, but this could hurt his soul world core if a soulbond rejected him or breaks out of the contract once the particular beast''s soul energy became higher than the contractors. It would be better for him to increase his soul energy slowly for the time being, while relying on Artemis who he trusted. Once he had some space left for another soulbond, he would search for one with high potential. The problem for the first two solutions however was what Jason didn''t have at the moment! Credits! With enough credits, Jason could purchase all necessary resources including beast cores for Artemis but unfortunately, he had only 20.000 credits left. He was already very happy about his current situation because Greg told him that he didn''t have to pay a single credit for accommodation or tuition fees as he would live with them. And their house was supposed to be close to both schools while the nobility rights they used included the tuition fees for him. As such Jason didn¡ät have to pay anything to get educated and to furthermore stay alive. Nobles could normally only use their nobility rights for their own child''s but this was changed since many nobles complained about it. One could use the nobility rule one time for every child they bear, not a single time more. Jason wasn''t sure why this nobility rule was so like that, but he didn''t mind it as he received benefits from it. One shouldn''t complain while receiving benefits! There was a way for Jason to earn many credits but this would mean he had to expose his secret which he didn''t want to do. At least not too many people should know about it! Making up his mind, he purchased a few things through his quantum bracelet emptying his whole fortune. Left behind was only a big `12` in his bank account and he forced to smile. The parcel would arrive the next morning. Jason washed and changed his clothes before feeding Artemis a few Beast cores. Lying inside the bed Jason was still thinking about some possibilities before the darkness swallowed him. --- Artemis woke up Jason as soon as she digested the beast cores which was earlier than expected. Frustrated about his loss of precious sleeping time Jason figured out that he had to give her a lot more cores so he could at least sleep a few hours a day. It was only 2 am but Artemis was awake and Jason didn''t want to sleep anymore, so he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique. He noticed that the more often he used this technique the faster he became with it. Everything went smoother and the pain he had to endure decreased. What astonished him the most was that the speed his soul energy replenished as it changed to a minuscule, almost not noticeable degree. At least that was what Jason felt but he wasn''t really sure about that. However, he noticed that the moment his soul energy increased or rather the moment his soul world core generated more soul energy his soul world also changed slightly. It was only minuscule and probably less than 0.0001% but he still felt it and the change took also place in the shared amount Artemis gave him and their soul connection. This made him happy but he cleared his mind and opened the holographic screen of his quantum bracelet. Requesting his parcel to arrive directly a drone arrived only 20 minutes later with a big parcel below. Opening the parcel, many items entered his view. Chapter 40：Preparing for the Hunt! Looking inside the parcel Jason began to smile. There were a few long ropes, some yellow potion, a syringe with some green liquid inside, an miniature cage with a red button on it, a few dozen arrows, an ungraded bow, and a weird-looking quiver. Taking out the bow he tried to pull the string. It was difficult but Jason would be able to pull the string back a few times in a row. The bow wasn''t made by a craftsman master, rather it was most likely manufactured by an apprentice but it was still fine as long as it did its job. When he purchased the bow it was certified as an ungraded bow able to penetrate three-star wild beast defenses and its price range was 8.000 credits which was fine because he could sell the bow later again. This was more than enough for his current plan. Looking at the other materials like the ungraded ropes, enlarging miniature cage, and the yellow ungraded paralysis potion followed by the green syringe, Jason thought that he was extremely smart. While the potions were already expensive, the most expensive was the enlarging miniature cage with an equal price to the bow he bought. The arrows in the parcel were simply made and nothing special so Jason stored them away immediately. Looking at the other items for some time he stored them away and decided to go to the archery centrum in the city with a shuttle. Using 10 out of his remaining 12 Credits he entered his shooting range where he could train his archery skills for 2 hours. It was early in the morning and nobody trained one''s archery skill at 2 am which was also the cause for the cheap renting price. Taking out his bow and arrows Jason had to get a feeling for his bow. The target was 20 meters away and it shouldn''t be a problem for him to hit it. Or so he thought¡­ Jason took more than four shots to hit the target for his first time even if it were the outer circles but after that, he began to get a feeling for the distance and the amount he had to pull back. After every five to ten shots, Jason had to stop for a moment to regain some stamina as it was harder to pull the string back each time. 2 hours passed without notice and Jason was notified to leave the shooting range. It was 4:30 am and he was about to leave for the plains wild zone when he noticed that he couldn''t even afford a shuttle right now. Thinking about a solution he thought about the beast corpses he had and he decided to go to the merchant shops because they were only a short walk away from the archery centrum. Walking for 30 minutes, Jason saw a big, luxurious-looking skyscraper with a golden koi as a sign. Entering the building through the large automatic front doors Jason was in a huge hall made out of marble and other exquisite materials. The hall was at least ten meters high and a few hundred square meters in size while four big pillars were situated in a square around the elevator which stood in the middle. Between each pillar was a reception and a large, weird-looking machine with a big holographic screen in front of it. Two options could be seen on the holographic screen, one labeled with `Sell` and another one with the label `Purchase`. Standing in front of the machine, Jason only knew roughly what to do as he had never done something like that before. Clicking on the sell option another few options appeared with the different ranks of beasts, from wild beast to evolved beast. Every day a few thousand beasts carcasses would be sold at the golden koi shop and they invented a weird-looking machine for the hunter without investing much time into aesthetics Operated by an AI the price for common beasts was integrated into the data and on rare beasts at the evolved stage could be more expensive than the registered price from the company. Jason clicked on wild beasts and a message appeared on the beast dealer he called it himself. It had a different name but Jason didn''t like High technology BetraMa(Beast trading Machine) V.3.7. Inserting the beast carcasses in small groups of five into the big mouth of the machine, they landed on a small table where they were scanned by the AI. The Holographic screen calculated the credits for each beast and it took around 10 minutes until Jason had inserted every beast carcass Because it was only 5 am the whole hall was empty without any workers as the usual working hours began at 7 am and Jason had enough time so he didn''t feel pressured by the crowds of humans which were normally inside this main hall. Jason was still relatively uncomfortable with huge crowds of people but he became better with small groups thanks to Greg and Malia. He was comfortable with them and Greg was also the one who told Jason that he could enter some shops before the regular opening hours to sell his carcasses. Looking at the list of beasts he noticed that there were more beasts carcasses than he thought. 153x ¡ï¡ï Wild beasts corpse¡ú 3 Credits/carcass 67x ¡ï¡ï¡ï Wild beasts corpse¡ú 7 Credits/carcass 24x ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï Wild beasts corpse¡ú 14 Credits/carcass 4x ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï Wild beasts corpse¡ú 21 Credits/carcass 1x ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï (Wind)Elemental mutated black horned bull corpse¡ú 100 Credits Putting his arm with the quantum bracelet inside the opening port on the holographic screen appeared a message again. [Transaction of 1448 Credits can be done immediately. Execute transaction? `Yes/No`] Jason was astonished about the price and clicked yes when received a notification on his bracelet that the transaction was done. He had never thought that he had hunted so many beasts but thinking about it, he hunted inside the plains wild zone for over three weeks around 12 hours a day. Thinking about his loot he took a look at his spatial storage and how many Beast cores he had left. There were no two and three-star cores, only a few four-star cores left behind while even the five-star cores were used up. Pondering if he should already purchase Beast cores, Jason decided to wait until the evening after looking if his plan worked or not. Calling a shuttle with his new fortune, Jason stood in front of the plains wild zone less than an hour later. Gazing at his messenger he hoped that Greg or Malia messaged him about their parents'' homecoming but there was nothing. He hoped that their parents would come back soon as he had to partly rely on them to execute his plan without exposing his secret but it didn''t matter at the moment. Entering the plains wild zone with the first sunlight he was expectant. With a bow in one hand and the quiver with the dagger secured at his belt while the dagger was inside an ugly-looking scabbard, Jason strolled around the wild zone. The quiver was filled with his arrows and they were coated with the paralysis potion. This paralyzing potion wasn''t strong but effective against weak wild beasts and Jason bought it exactly for this reason. Hours passed and Jason hasn¡ät hunted a single beast until he sighted something in the afternoon. A broad smile emerged on his face `Found you` Chapter 41：Lucky catch Jason looked at a large pack of two-star scaled wolves and smiled brightly. The pack had at least 15 scaled wolves but Jason only looked at a certain wolf which was larger compared to its brethren. Its scales looked tougher and they shined brighter but the most important fact was the color the scaled wolf radiated. While its brethren didn¡ät even radiate a color this one wolf, in particular, radiated a light-grey color and Jason knew from his own experience in the beast pagoda that this light-grey meant its potential was at the evolved rank. Jason had never imagined that he would find such a treasure in a one-star wild zone. Smiling from ear to ear, Jason took out an arrow and it was now time to hunt a large group of scaled wolves! He knew that his bow would only be able to shoot arrows that we''re able to pierce through the scales slightly but this would be enough as his arrows were coated in the paralysis potion he purchased previously. Jason was not a good archer as today was his first time to even hold a bow but after he noticed that his eyes remembered roughly the height he had to take to hit a target 20 meters away, he became confident. The pack of scaled wolves hadn''t noticed Jason until now and it was time for him to get closer. Luckily there were some bushes that were quite helpful for him to prevent him from getting detected before he even took action and Jason slowly approached the pack of wolves which were eating some beast corpses or something like that. Hiding behind the closest bush to the wolf pack Jason had to decide which wolf to attack first and he made up his mind after a short moment before he pulled back the bowstring with the coated arrow already laid on. *surr* A whir could be heard and the big wolf with the light-grey mana radiating felt a sting at its shoulder before it felt his body almost instantly numbing. Luckily these wolves were only two-star wild beasts and the paralysis potion was potent enough to numb the stronger wolf for a certain amount of time. Jason didn''t stop after shooting his first arrow and he shot another three arrows before he was even detected by the other wolves. 11 scaled wolves were still able to fight and they stormed at Jason with bloodthirsty eyes as this unknown enemy had attacked their brethren. They didn''t know what was going on with their brethren but it wasn''t anything good so they are naturally enraged. Without thinking they stormed at Jason who¡äs quiver and bow vanished into thin air. Taking out his dagger, there was already coated in a yellow liquid that dropped out of the scabbard. Jason only bought the liquid-proof scabbard for this scenario as there was no time for him to coat his dagger during the fight and he didn''t want to waste too much of his potion. With his dagger in his hand and a two-star Artemis high in the sky, Jason felt confident. Using a small amount of mana to enhance his lower body he increased his speed to a certain extent. It was marginal and without a movement technique this enhancement was extremely restricted, but it was still better than nothing. He could maintain this for around three minutes until his mana was dried out but these three minutes would be more than enough to kill 11 two-star wild beasts with the help of Artemis. While Jason spun around the group of two-star scaled wolves, he inflicted small injuries that were enough for the potent paralysis potion to activate and numb his opponents, Artemis finished off the paralyzed wolves before distracting the surviving wolves. Jason was only slightly slower than the scaled wolves but he was more flexible and had it much easier to make use of his body. Being bipedal was also advantageous and the whole battle was finished quickly while Artemis finished off each of the scaled wolves without leaving any of them alive even if they were unable to defend themselves which surprised Jason slightly. He didn''t think that Artemis was so cruel and Jason wanted to let them live. Artemis noticed his hesitation and transmitted an image of him getting pounced by one of these wolves once they regained control over their body. It was clear what she meant. These wolves wouldn''t leave Jason alive and be grateful for him letting them survive either. Rather it would end up the other way around and they would attack him to avenge their brethren or maybe to follow their wild instincts. Thinking about getting backstabbed by the ones he left alive Jason shuttered before he regained his focus. Looking at the scaled wolf in front of him the larger scaled wolf replied his gaze with wrath and rage which Jason to sigh as he took out a green syringe. Inside the syringe was a sleeping solution and he injected it into the wolf which was still unable to move freely. Jason had still around half of his mana reserves left and he wasn''t scared about getting attacked as he was relatively close to the dome and even if some beast attacked him, the potent paralysis potion was even slightly useful against four-star wild beasts. They would still be able to move but a feeling of numbness would hinder their movements slightly. Waiting for the sleeping solution to kick in, Jason took care of every scaled wolf corpse and finally the scaled wolf was tired and fell asleep. This sleeping solution was potent and would last a few hours even for five-star wild beasts so Jason wasn''t scared about getting attacked by the scaled wolf. Lifting up the large wolf body wasn''t easy but once its body was laid over Jason¡äs shoulder it was much easier for him to move. Using some mana to reinforce himself his steps got steadier and 30 minutes later he reached the dome. Before going through the dome he had to use the enlarging miniature cage he bought. Lying down the sleeping scaled wolf, he took out the miniature cage and pressed the red button before throwing the cage slightly in front of him. *clatter**clatter**clatter* After some loud rattle noises, Jason saw the miniature cage enlarging and it looked somehow extremely satisfying. Inserting some wild beast cores to recharge the cage he put the scaled wolf inside. Luckily the cage had some wheels below, otherwise, Jason wouldn''t be able to move around the cage and Jason entered the dome without it attacking the scaled wolf inside the cage. It was only fortunate that Jason bought this cage as it was a necessity for beast merchants and hunters who tried their luck with catching some beasts. Seeing these cages around one star wild zones wasn¡ät common and Jason attracted a lot of attention which made him feel uncomfortable. Jason didn''t mind others'' opinions but he still couldn''t handle many people''s gaze on him. While waiting for the special shuttle he heard many people talking about him "Isn''t that a scaled wolf inside the cage? Such a waste of time and credits¡­" "Does he think beasts with high potential are commonly found like candy in a candy-shop???" "Poor fellow...maybe he is desperate for money and thinks living wild beasts are worth a lot¡­" "Shouldn''t someone enlighten him about his misunderstanding... It''s too sad.." People were talking about him and most of them were youths while only a few middle-aged bodyguards were looking at him with conflicted thoughts. They were also naive but not as much as the black-haired youth in front of them. Jason tried his best to ignore the onlooking people and he rejoiced when the large shuttle that looked almost like a pick-up arrived. A metal arm lifted the cage into its loading area and Jason left the onlookers alone. While the shuttle was bringing him to the city, Jason looked if he got a message from Greg or Malia. Both had messaged him while their messages were different the main points were the same. While Malia¡äs messages were rather bad news, Greg asked him to come to their mansion as soon as possible while sugar-coating the reason with some nice words. Jason forced a smile and thought: `They rejected me?` Looking back at his catch he tired his best to think positively `At least I can do some business with them!` Chapter 42：Gut feeling It was 5 pm when Jason arrived in front of the Fler-mansion and he had to call Greg as he couldn''t lift the beast cage alone. Artemis was curled up on Jason''s shoulder and it looked like a fluffy ball was placed there, while they waited for Greg, who was confused why he had to come outside before he spotted a large cage next to Jason that waved at him. He noticed the scaled wolf inside the cage but somehow this confused him even more "Hey Jason, what are you doing here with this scaled wolf??" Jason predicted Greg¡äs confusion and said smiling mischievously "Hey Greg, to be honest, I¡äm not doing anything special with this scaled wolf. I only want to sell it to your parents, nothing else. Can you please help me bring the cage inside without killing the wolf?" Greg was rather dull and liked to fight more than brooding over something. As such he didn''t like to think too complicated and simply nodded. "I can bring the cage inside, no problem." Lifting the cage as if it was nothing special, Greg walked inside and left Jason who sighed and followed suit. In the end, Jason was again in the living room like the day before but now there were two cages, one cage which was his own with the sleeping scaled wolf inside while the other cage was at least five meters high and 8 meters in width and length. Inside this gigantic cage was a large green eagle with a length of around 3 meters inside. From its mana core, Jason noticed that the mana was a good amount larger than Malia¡äs, and activating his Mana eyes, he saw a green color he had seen once before, while Jason was also able to spot a completed mana core with one liquefied mana drop inside the core `Is that a magical beast?` The cage the eagle was inside was empowered by mana stones and Jason noticed mana flowing throughout the whole cage, reinforcing its toughness. After Jason saw the eagle he noticed two people sitting on the couch with strong but familiar mana cores. Seeing Greg¡äs parents, Jason immediately bowed slightly before saying "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Fler, nice meeting you again." Smiling while looking at them. Greg¡äs parents couldn''t see any sadness or frustration inside Jason¡äs golden shining eyes which wondered them slightly, as they told Malia to relly their message word by word. Gabriella, Greg¡äs mother gave him the signal to sit down before greeting him with a `Hello Jason` The whole couch surrounded a small glass table while Malia and Greg sat at the site, Jason was sitting right in front of the Fler parents, looking around awkwardly, while the Fler¡äs looked at Jason intensively. Jason placed Artemis on his lap where she continued her nap. Mrs. Fler opened her mouth first "Jason, I think you already figured out why we called you here, didn''t you?" She smiled apologetically but somehow there was something else in her eyes that was only noticed by him and Mr. Fler who knew about her feelings. `Is she sad or angry?` Jason wondered "Mr. and Mrs. Fler assume that I bought the five-star wild beast corpses. Following that scenario, this implies that I wanted to trick everyone here to get into a prosperous school in an A-grade city, right?" Jason guessed. He wasn''t really sad about this, as it would be weird for him to kill five star wild beasts so easily without getting help or buying these carcasses but Jason was still disappointed. Nevertheless, the chances to enter a school inside an A-grade city just gave too many benefits, as Jason could faintly understand their suspicion but he still had some hope left about this matter and he wanted to try showing them his combat prowess if needed. Gabriella was astounded about Jason¡äs calmness which gave him some extra points but she was still unsure how she should handle this situation. Did he really kill them, even though he doesn¡ät have any great martial art techniques or a remarkable mana core rank. And his soulbond is also extremely weak` "That''s true. I don''t believe a 4th Novice rank can kill a five-star wild beast with such clean cuts even if you assassinated them. That should not be possible without getting professional training and please don''t try to tell me your two-star wild beast soulbond was such great support that you were able to hunt them. That would make you even less credible in my eyes." Jason was still calm but he thought that Mrs. Fler was a little bit prejudiced... If someone with professional training could do something like that, why shouldn''t he be able to? And what''s wrong with his soulbond? Furrowing his brows, Gabriella thought her provocation made him angry which was her actual plan. It wasn''t like she hated Jason, but she had to find out who he was before she could do anything. She still remembered the time when Greg''s classmates befriended him only due to their parents'' order which caused huge damage to Greg''s mental health. As a mother, she didn''t want her son to feel something like that ever again so she had to be strict and kinda evil. Sensing the presumable sadness in her eyes, Jason remembered Malia''s concern and his gaze wandered to Greg. Tilting his head slightly as if he didn''t understand something Jason looked at Greg who also looked at him with question marks in his eyes. Returning his gaze to Mrs. Fler he said with all the confidence he could bring out. "I don''t think I need to explain myself, do I? If you don''t believe me why was there even such a task to begin at? I don''t need anyone¡äs charity and I don''t even want anyone to think that the things I did at the soul-awakening were sophisticated plans. Nobody here owes me a favor and I did these things on my own accord. If you don''t want me to follow you to Cyro-city just say so and don''t try to find other excuses. I killed these five-star wild beats with the help of my soulbond and I don''t really care about the opinions of others about this matter. " Ending his slightly furious monologue, Jason looked into Mrs. Fler''s eyes which were still quite difficult for him to read but he couldn''t back down. He changed the subject quickly before anyone could say anything. "I also came here for some business. Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Fler have already seen the beast cage Greg brought in. Today I was hunting inside the one-star plains wild zone and I found this two-star wild beast scaled wolf. I think many nobles, newly rich¡äs or merchants with weak soul energy would be interested in it." Forcing a smile Jason was still kinda angry but at least for business sake, he had to show a calm face. "Why should we be interested in a wild rank beast?" Mr. Fler said something for the first time and it was time for Jason to say something dumb to prevent his secret to get exposed. "My gut feeling says this beast¡äs potential is kinda good." Jason tried to show an innocent expression but it worked only partly as everyone looked at him a little bit weird. "Jason, are you fine? You don''t look good" Greg asked worriedly. He began to sweat slightly but he remained calm and waited for their parents to say something. Unnoticed by Jason, Mrs. Fler had gestured Malia to look at the cage and she was already in front of it with her quantum bracelet projecting a realistic scaled wolf next to the sleeping one with all of its characteristics written down in detail. She exclaimed excitedly "This scaled wolf is larger than normal ones and its scales are shining brightly. They are definitely tougher than the ones from normally scaled wolves." Before she continued slightly dejected "But other than that I can''t see anything special... I don''t think that this scaled wolf can reach the awakened rank" Mr. Fler opened his mouth again. "Without reaching the awakened rank at the least it''s almost useless to catch this scaled wolf even if it''s somewhat stronger as its brethren. Can you prove your gut feeling? There is no way for us to tell our clients that our gut feeling is enough reason that a certain beasts potential is good" Jason felt somewhat annoyed...why should he explain everything? He was about to get really angry as he noticed Mrs. Flers eyes and he hesitated for a moment ''Why is she looking at me like that, when she was the one provoking me? She is surely not concerned about me¡­ '' "Why don''t you take a test about its potential with the basic equipment you have here? Greg told me that here is everything one needed to make simple tests about potential. It would be easier for everyone if we finish it that way, wouldn''t it?" The Fler parents heard Jason¡äs reasoning and glared at Greg that be looked innocently at his parents `Our son betrayed us????` It was getting more and more difficult for them to hold up their show and both sighed before nodding their head. They suddenly changed their attitude by almost 180 degrees and Gabriella Fler smiled at Jason apologetically. "We can do that for sure¡­ and sorry for provoking you.. I hope you didn''t take it to your heart" Chapter 43：Lie-detecting ability Jason was slightly confused until he gathered his thoughts and concluded that he underwent a test. Greg was still looking innocently around not knowing what''s going on while Mr Fler stood up and went to the cage while saying. "My wife would have accepted you even if you weren''t able to defeat five-star wild beasts because of Greg. Figuring out your attitude and the possibility of you trying to exploit us was more important for us because we don¡ät want our son to get hurt! To be honest, we still can''t figure out what you really want or if you really want to befriend Greg but at least I know that you didn''t directly lie to us. I also hope that you don''t mind us testing you because we had already a few youths who befriended Greg and even Malia because of our wealth. Both Greg and Malia have excellent soul awakening and even high nobles and big family heirs try to sugar coat them but we haven''t seen a single sincere one At least you are telling the truth! They weren''t sincere and hurt our children''s feelings after betraying them. We don''t want to see our kids suffer if we can prevent it, maybe you can understand us to a certain degree. If you really killed five-star wild beasts with the help of your soulbond, then your combat prowess and teamwork should be pretty good considering the short amount of time both of you are together." Turning the subject, Mr. Fler continued "And seeing this scaled wolf, it should be a leader of a slightly bigger pack as they instinctively follow the strong. We can also make a test about the scaled wolves'' potential right now. It shouldn''t take too long" Finishing speaking Mr. Fler opened the small cage and took out the sleeping scaled wolf. After taking out a syringe to take some of its blood, he vanished from their sights. Jason¡äs eyes widened in shock as Mr Fler just disappeared from his sight, even his exceptional eyes could only see a blur where he stood before nothing was left behind. ''Did they accept me or not?'' he was still confused but asking would be a little bit too much and Jason decided to wait with his jaw open as Mr. Fleer''s speed was extremely fast Greg and Malia were accustomed to their father''s speed but Jason was still sitting there lost in thoughts. The whole situation was over so quickly and Jason was more than confused when he remembered something Mr. Fler said a moment ago. "Why does he know I didn''t lie?" Jason mumbled. Greg heard him and said proudly "My father has formed a contract with a mutated miniature Jade bat which is an extremely weak magical beast. Nevertheless, it¡äs hearing is exceptional and he probably listened to your heartbeat to detect if you lied" While Greg said that his mother looked dumbfounded at her son¡­. Shaking her head in disbelief she wondered where this naive stupidy came from. Was he really their child? Jason was also astonished that Greg revealed his father''s secrets and was slightly ashamed. Clearing his throat he wanted to explain Greg''s mistake to him as a small fist hit Greg on the back of his head, causing him to fall from the couch. "Ouchh... Why Malia?" Greg looked at his sister with sad eyes causing Malia to throw another fist that he evaded by rolling around on the ground "How can you be so stupid? You know that one shouldn''t reveal soulbonds and their characteristics including what the soulbond shared. And to add on its not even your own soulbond but your dad''s" Mrs. Fler looked at her daughter still dumbfounded but now it was because of Malia''s violence. She didn''t know how such a beautiful and delicate young girl could change so fast once her brother annoys her. ''Will she find a boyfriend'' thinking further she was shocked ''She wouldn''t beat her boyfriend up, right???'' Gabriella furrowed her brows, thinking about that. Meanwhile, Jason was smiling seeing both of them engaging in a small skirmish with each other and Artemis who had remained silently on Jason''s lap opened her eyes before she flapped her wings to soar into the air. Seeing the sibling pair engaged in a small battle, Artemis cried out and circled above then cheering them up. Looking at Jason''s soulbond circling above them, crying out sometimes which seems to be laughter, Mrs. Fler smiled lightly before averting her gaze to Jason, who looked at her kids with a gentle smile. Now she finally understood that Jason didn''t want any benefits from them and it would be a shame to leave him here while they left for good. Taking him with them shouldn¡ät be much of a problem. Even if his talent was bad, Greg and even her daughter who seems to be a cold-hearted girl in public could be themselves while Jason was there. They didn''t have to adjust their behavior to please Jason in any way. Jason looked at the siblings for some time before he looked at the big cage with the eagle inside. He wasn''t sure if he was allowed to ask about this but Jason didn''t think there would be much harm in it. "Was this eagle caught by Mr. and Mrs. Fler during the last few days?" Jason was curious about some things and Mrs. Fler noticed that and she averted her gaze to him. "This greater storm eagle is a magical beast and was caught by us two days ago and it will be our client''s next soulbond." Looking at the greater storm eagle, Jason wondered if forming a contract with a matured magical beast without future potential would be that good. If the client was only searching for a normal magical beast to get a combatant, the shared amount of strength and mana, it would be fine but there wouldn''t be any increase in the client''s soul energy and the chances that a wild magical beast would rampage without forming a deep connection through their soul was also not small. It was dangerous to form a contract with a matured magical beast and not worthwhile if the beast had no potential left. If a magical beast was a cub it would take some time to mature and with this time it would probably form a deeper connection with its master which would in most times be strong enough to prevent a rampage. That was added to the fact that cubs were easier to tame and raise. Trying to tame a mature wild magical beast? Good luck and have fun.:: Not only is the soul energy needed extraordinary large, but there is also the problem with the temper of matured beasts. Jason''s facial expressions were somehow complicated and he wasn''t sure if he should say something or not as it was not his business if the client wanted to form a dangerous matured magical beast that didn''t have the chance to improve in the future. Greg and Malia had stopped their brawl some time ago and they looked at Jason as his expression seemed to be uncomfortable. Gabriella noticed the same and she wasn''t sure why but she somehow wanted to ask what was wrong with this magical beast to make Jason change his expression like this. She knew that Jasons'' ''gut feeling'' he mentioned earlier was something else and grew curious about his opinion as Greg got a very strong first soulbond and apparently Jason''s first bond also seemed somewhat unique. Now if the scaled wolf he brought to them also had some potential, it would mean that it couldn''t be a coincidence anymore. She smiled lightly at Jason to encourage him while saying "It''s fine, just say whatever is on your mind" Jason pondered how to put it simple before replying "This magical beast''s potential is already completely used up. There is no potential left for it to reach the next rank. Contracting it, won''t give many benefits, rather it should be quite dangerous, right? Why should someone contract this beast?" Chapter 44：Grief and Agony [Spoiler/Author note: There is a lot of hypocrisy in this chapter for character-growth. Either bear with it or skip it :3] Mr. Fler looked calmly at Jason who once again looked at the big beast cage in the back. "Is this greater storm eagle really not used for breeding? Wouldn''t it be dangerous to form a contract with a wild magical beast without getting any real benefits from it except a small share of strength and mana? It is way too dangerous, even after considering the benefits. Waiting for a hatchling should be much easier. The only thing needed is time. The only real benefit I can really tell is that some nobles want to use this greater storm eagle for other purposes instead of forming a sincere soul contract.." It was silent for a short moment before Mrs. Fler Broke the silence Sighing, Mrs. Fler began her explanation... She didn''t really like the kind of situation they were now in and that Jason found out about the greater storm eagle¡äs real purpose, but it was almost exposed, so she could explain it at the least. "You¡äre smart Jason and It''s true that this magical beast won''t be used as a normal soulbond, but we didn¡ät lie that it will be used as a soulbond for our client. However, the reason is different than one would think." Gabriella hesitated for a moment before she continued. "To be honest it¡äs a pity because our client is a noble who involved himself with someone he shouldn''t have. Putting it simply, our client has accepted a soulbond life or death battle which is in a few days, because he was provoked or something like that... We don''t really know the exact reason our client caused to accept it but our client wasn''t aware of what kind of beast his opponent formed a contract with recently, which was his first big mistake. This client already has a greater storm eagle but its potential is infinitely close to reaching the next rank while his opponent has bound a beast that is already on a higher rank from Canir or some other island. We were only employed to catch a greater storm eagle as a `sacrifice` and it doesn''t matter how high its potential is¡­ It''s cheaper to sacrifice a part of one''s soul that can regenerate over time with a non-potential wild greater storm eagle than sacrificing a high potential greater storm eagle that has already been tamed..." Her eyes turned slightly wet and Jason felt that she was agitated. "We really hate this situation and despise everyone who uses beasts as if they are objects but unfortunately we cannot afford to displease our clients'' clan as they have many high-ranked individuals and wide connections, that could completely destroy our reputation within minutes, if not worse. Our only worth is that we are profound in catching beasts and our strength is decent, but unfortunately, we are only two and it''s easier to please big families than upsetting them. Both of us are ashamed about the situation and we are sorry for the greater storm eagle but we couldn''t find another way to please our client. And if we didn''t catch this greater storm eagle a different one would be caught by other captors but that shouldn''t be an excuse" Listening to Mrs. Fler¡äs explanation not only Jason was shocked, upset, and also slightly disgusted ¡­even Malia and Greg heard something like this for the first time. Their shock could perfectly be seen from their facial expression and Malia jumped up from the couch before looking at her mother disgustingly, before rushing out of the room. Greg didn¡ät know what to say but he still decided to stay up, before he also left the room without looking at Jason or his mother. And Jason sat there looking at Mrs. Fler and scratched his head in awkwardness: He was still able to remain relatively calm, even though he found it disgusting. But this disgust wasn¡ät directed at Mrs. Fler, rather than that it was concentrated on the oblivious behavior the noble¡äs displayed, playing with lives as if it was nothing. "Was it okay to say something like that in front of Greg and Malia?" He was slightly worried if he had destroyed their relationship but Gabriella only shook her head before replying with a sigh "That''s okay, It was time for them to face reality. To be honest we don''t like doing something like that and we prefer capturing beasts with high potential to see our client forming a contract with sincere feelings which makes us proud but sometimes situations like this can''t be prevented. I don''t want to make excuses but we wouldn''t do something like that if we weren''t forced to do it. Unfortunately, however, the reality is different and we can''t afford to upset any of the bigger clans and families, as we are too weak and probably only one of thousands of chess figures in front of them. Our rank is high without question but there are so many big families with huge amounts of resources on Astrix alone, that it isn''t uncommon for many individuals to reach our rank. I can understand if you''re disgusted by us or you don''t want to have to do anything with us anymore. You can decide that on your own." She said, sighing deeply and Jason could feel her being frustrated about the whole situation. Jason was thinking carefully.. He was still disgusted but since the beginning, Jason was more disgusted with the minds of most nobles and big clans. The strong rule the weak and this was even the case with Greg¡äs parents who Jason considered as extremely strong. He wasn''t sure which rank they were but he measured that they had to be at least at the Magus rank to catch a matured greater storm eagle without any issues and the liquefied mana drops inside their mana cores were also a fact, that spoke for this thought. Astrix wasn¡ät especially rich in resources, high-ranked rifts, or even many mana density regions compared to other bigger islands and the mainland of humanity, but it was also not the worst, and reaching the magus rank at the age of Greg¡äs parents could already be considered quite good. Jason thought about their situation and remembered his mother getting murdered by a mysterious heir without getting punished. Maybe he wasn''t even scolded and rage began to burn inside his heart against these filthy nobles that didn''t care about the victims and weaker humans, only because their life was easy without any obstacles. Looking into each other¡äs eyes, Gabriella saw tears on Jason¡äs cheek, while he opened his mouth. Agony and grief filled his voice that trembled. "I can understand you...but why is this world so unfair?... The strong can do whatever they want to do, without getting punished and the weak ones have to suffer, only to please others...The strong can throw a fit whenever they want and murder to their heart''s content¡­and nobody does anything against them...even my mother couldn''t avoid getting dragged into their business¡­" Tears streamed down his cheeks and Jason wanted to stand up leave the mansion as soon as possible to avoid the embarrassing situation, he dragged himself into. He looked down and covered his eyes before standing up. "I¡äm sorry, I¡äll go n¡­." before he could finish his sentence he felt two slender arms embraced him from the front. "It''s okay¡­ you can cry if you want..there is no need to suppress your feelings, all the time. You¡äll only hurt yourself like that.." Jason was only 13 years old and he had to shoulder a big burden with him being blind and the loss of his mother who he had relied on for his whole lifetime. Living alone in a dangerous world without a single person he could rely on was too much for him to handle and Jason let himself completely loose, crying bitterly. Mrs.Fler had already done a background check on Jason but she only knew that his mother died, because of an accident and obviously, the information she got was wrong and the truth kept a secret. His mother was killed by some noble and Gabrielly immediately understood Jason¡äs grief. The strong could do whatever they want without caring for anyone except the stronger and it was suffocating for the ones who had to endure the pain. Jason¡äs eyes got blurry and he continued to wail, while Artemis landed on Jason¡äs head, trying to console him with thick tears pouring down her plumage. Being connected to each other''s soul wasn''t always pleasing and Artemis felt Jason¡äs rage and agony, turning her field of emotions extremely chaotic. While Jason cried for a long time Mr.Fler was already back with the scaled wolf thrown over his shoulder and he stood behind a pillar with Greg and Malia who came back after calming down. They didn¡ät know what happened but seeing Jason cry in their mother''s embrace, they were more than a little bit confused. It took Jason some time until he stopped crying and Mrs.Fler let him out of her embrace, after reassuring, that Jason was fine Mr.Fler used this chance to intercept them without causing his wife to beat him up later. Clearing his throat he said out loud "I have the results of the scaled wolves basic potential test. It''s quite fascinating. " while trying to turn the situation normal once again Chapter 45：Gaining a Fortune Jason wiped away the tears on his cheek, before turning to Mr. Fler. Forcing a smile he said "That''s nice. I hope my gut feeling was correct" Mark wasn¡ät exactly sure what to say, as the situation was still awkward, as such he just did what he was supposed to do. "Indeed this scaled wolf is quite special among but I wonder how you figured it out. This scaled wolf is really special." As he put the sleeping scaled wolf back into the smaller cage. Sitting down next to Gabriella who also sat back on the couch he continued saying. "This scaled wolf underwent a mutation strengthening its mana core slightly compared to its brethren increasing its limitation to a five-star wild beast which is already good enough to sell it to a breeder but that''s not all because there is something else special about this scaled wolf. It''s not entirely sure but the scaled wolf is also in the development phase of its second mutation already and a fire ability seed is unexpectedly forming inside its mana core, creating a fire affinity. Following that, the potential test, scales, and measurements are also indicating that this scaled wolf has the potential to reach at least the mid-awakened stage, probably higher but we have to make some deeper tests to figure out more. Mark Fler was managing the whole beast trading and seeking out how to detect a beast''s potential while his wife was good at catching beasts and scheduling everything. Mrs. Fler began deciding their schedule for the next two weeks. "The holidays are over in two weeks and school will start right after. Jason, your application won''t take long but some time to adjust to an A-grade city is important for both you and Greg. We want to depart in five days and the trip will take around three days. If the profound test of the scaled wolf is finished before our departure, we can sell it through our connections for a good price. Otherwise, we can take it with us as our vehicle is large enough to take a few larger beast cages with us. But we can already estimate a price for the scaled wolf as its potential is quite promising and pay you the amount.." Jason listened carefully nodding all the time until the talk about credits began. "Oh.. is it really okay to pay me before the beast is even sold? And am I allowed to know how the price is calculated?" Thinking for a second she nodded her head before replying: "Well, I can obviously tell you how the price is calculated because it is not a secret and everyone can research it online but this includes only the price range provided by the government and not the price nobles would pay to get a better soulbond to supply their descendants. One would rather form a contract with a beast which naturally provides soul energy and still grows in strength than a beast with an already used up potential." Thinking for a moment, Gabriella continued "Some nobles have weak soul energy like you and they would rather form a contract with a matured two-star wild beast which has the high chance to grow into an awakened or maybe even evolved beast. Adding on the fact that it was already known which ability the scaled wolf would definitely get, the price would only soar higher. as this is one of the most important things one would have to reconsider when forming a soulbond with a high potential wild beast." There weren''t many problems with a beast awakening an elemental ability but once the contractor doesn¡ät have the compatible affinities from ones to it, their connections would go off the rails and only worsen. It wouldn''t completely destroy the connection between each other but even the amplification provided by this beast would worsen slightly. Sometimes there are beasts with multiple elements after evolving but only one of these abilities has to be in sync with the contractor which was in the scaled wolf¡äs case a fire soul affinity. "As for the payment, you can look at it like we purchase the scaled wolf from you with with a little higher price, than the government would provide and we continue to sell it through our channels. This would benefit both of us and we could maintain it like this for the future if you like it. If you don''t like it this way, you can sell the scaled wolf yourself to someone but I think my solution is more efficient for everyone. " Jason thought this was more than fair for both of them and he was expectant about the scaled wolf¡äs price. He had already suppressed his sadness from before and was totally focused on the situation in front of him. "I think that would be the best for both of us¡­.this might sound greedy but can we maybe calculate the price for a wild beast with the potential to reach the evolved rank? I¡äm pretty sure the test will tell the same. If I¡äm wrong, I will compensate Mr. and Mrs. Fler with everything you paid me" He was somehow in need of money as he couldn''t even compare slightly to his future classmates and right now his whole fortune was only around 1000 Credits which was nothing in comparison to each and everyone in an A-grade city but he was confident in the ability of his eyes and trusted them completely. Mr. and Mrs. Fler were astonished but there was no need to reject his proposal as the test results would be out in a few days and after that Jason would need to come back to them for their trip to the A-grade city, even if Jason¡äs gut-feeling was wrong. If he wanted to run away, nobody would hinder him as attending a prestigious school was much more valuable than some credits, one could gain by selling a wild best with an evolved rank potential. Mrs. Fler answered with a gentle smile as she saw Jason¡äs impatience and small sweat pearls running down his temples. "Of course, we can pay you the price for a wild beast with the potential of two rank ups including its mutation and the shaping of a fire seed inside its mana core. If its potential turns out to be worse you can pay us back the difference later on. But more importantly...You can call me Gabriella. I don''t like getting called Mrs. Fler. It sounds so distant and you''re a friend of my children." She knew he was short of money through the background check and that Greg had already explained to Jason about the average strength of his future classmates. Furthermore, she also knew something about Jason¡äs eyes as Greg told her what Jason said during the soul-awakening. She was aware that it should be a secret but Greg told her everything and he couldn''t keep a secret from her. Mr.Fler next to his wife also replied calm but also somehow emotionless. "If you want you can also call me Mark. There is no need to be overly polite." Jason began to smile and thanked both of them for their generosity to pay him without seeing the final result. He wasn''t sure if he could call both of them by their first name but he would try later on. Malia and Greg came out from behind the pillar and sat back down to the couch next to Jason with daggers in their eyes, piercing their parents. Mark didn¡ät know what happened but he had a faint premonition, while Gabriella tried talking to them with guilt in her voice. Jason took down Artemis from his head and put her down on his lap where she snuggled up against his hands. In front of Mark appeared a holographic screen and it looked like he tried to avoid getting stabbed with his children `glare of death` and tapped around a few times until a satisfying number appeared. "If we consider the scaled wolf as a matured two-star beast with the potential to reach the evolved rank, two rank ups, adding the price for a pre-establishment of a fire affinity....the price for this scaled wolf would be around 800.000 Credits if the government bought them. It''s extremely rare to see a wild beast with potential which is why the price is this high, high nobles would pay much more and my wife already said that we will offer more than the government. I think 1.000.000 Credits should be more than satisfying, won''t it?" Chapter 46：Shopping spree "WHAT?!?" Jason exclaimed and he was shocked about the number, as it was more than he had expected. "But don¡ät be fooled. 1.000.000 Credits might look like much but after considering the price for most resources, you will notice that it''s only a long number." Still, for Jason, this number was double the amount he had previously and if he continued catching beasts with potential, maybe he could be comparable to his future classmates at least in context to their wealth. But this would take much of his time, Jason could also use it in other ways.. as such he could only disregard this thought. After business was done, all of them talked for a few hours about their trip to Cyro City, until it was night and Jason declined their offer to eat dinner with them and decided to go home. Arriving at home deep at night, Jason didn''t forget to practice his Heaven''s Hell technique. He noticed that the replenishing process was going smoother and smoother and according to its stability and pureness, Jason was already able to meet the requirements of the second level but the amount of his soul energy was still not enough. All that was thanks to his unique soul, and both Artemis and Jason fell asleep happily with a big 1.000.000 written on his bank account. ----- Waking up due to Artemis jumped around on his belly, Jason straightened his back slowly and Artemis flapped happily with her wings. Jason always wondered if Artemis would just continue to grow stronger or if she should evolve as he noticed her mana core almost reaching the strength between a two-star and a three-star wild beast. The paper-thin mana flow in her body continued to thicken slowly but she didn''t grow anymore. Or that was at least what Jason thought, for the moment. Jason had many things to do and with his newly acquired fortune, he could begin his shopping. But before he would do that, Jason canceled his leasing contract for his apartment as it would be useless once he moved into an A-grade city. After that Jason got half of his already deposited money back which was more than he expected. With slightly more than one million credits Jason wanted to purchase quite a few things. Jason liked fighting with his dagger but he found out that once his only dagger was blown away by his opponent or thrown away by himself, he would be completely unarmed. He looked at quite a few websites and his luck didn''t betray him as he found a pair of tempered Jade Iron daggers at the mid-grade-1 from the same User he purchased his first untempered Jade Iron dagger from. Their price was more than reasonable with 160.000 Credits and Jason could even pierce through a late awakened beast hide with them. He also remembered the time he threw his dagger and he wanted to learn knife-throwing as it was easier to combine it with his dagger-orientated combat style than a bow. After thinking for a moment Jason bought a hundred low-grade 1 Coranit throwing knives. Their length was around 15 centimeters and the blade was 6 centimeters long, extremely thin but because of the innate characteristic of coranit it was still quite durable. Coranit was one of the most common ores and comparable to iron 300 years ago but it had slightly superior durability and mana conductivity. With enough mana injected these throwing knives would pierce through the hide of late-awakened beasts, but that wasn¡ät their purpose. One would more likely throw these knives in small openings or vital spots rather than good defended spots. Their price was 1.500 credits per throwing knife so another 150.000 credits were deducted from his decreasing fortune. In addition to the throwing knives, Jason also got a mechanical knife holder, which looked like a normal black box with two slots on the sides. On the sides, the knives would stick out and they would be replaced once taken out and around 50 knives in total could be inserted. Jason wondered how this was possible as 50 knives weren''t few and the box was described as 20 centimeters long, 5 centimeters width, and 3 centimeters in height¡­ Jason admired the sorting skills of this mechanized system as he estimated that not a single millimeter space was left behind. After purchasing the throwing knives, Jason decided to continue purchasing weapons and he looked at a graded bow. It looked decently and it was a small compact box which would be attached to his lower back without hindering his movements, while a single knife could be taken out from both sides. But he was quite shocked to notice the large difference between ungraded and graded bows. Considering his strength now and the fast increase in strength he expected, he decided to purchase a mid-grade-1 bow made out of a low-evolved strengthened elemental deer with fortified horns. Their tendons and horns were perfect materials to manufacture a bow with it. The price was 77.000 Credits and he purchased a bunch of reinforced arrows that would not shatter even upon hitting a steel wall for 27.000 Credits. It was astonishing to see that a bow made out of awakened beasts could be sold for so much as the evolved ranked elemental deer was only worth around 5.000 Credits at most. Calculating his expenses, Jason was shocked before he was reminded that he wasn''t even close to finishing his online shopping tour, but his credits were disappearing without notice. He needed some defensive garments and some new paralysis potions, a tranquilizer, a few enlarging miniature beast cages, mountains of beast cores for Artemis, and if there was still something left, he would look out for himself. At least a little bit would definitely be left for him as he had to eat and drive around with the shuttle. Deducting 1000 Credits for himself would be enough for that so Jason continued his purchase. After more than an hour, Jason¡äs whole fortune of 1.000.000 Credits was used up because the garment he bought was a low-grade-2 hide-armor that could adjust itself slightly to its wearer and defend against the physical attack of each kind of awakened beast and even mid-evolved beasts. Its price was horrifying 400.000 Credits but for Jason, his life was worth even more. Never would Jason imagine that the price was so cheap because it was already worn by someone, fixed a few times, and also one of the cheapest grade-2 garments. Jason was more than a little bit shocked to see the price tags of most garments and weapons as the rare materials were not even close to the prices most wanted for the finished product. He now understood why blacksmiths, runemasters, alchemists, and these other jobs were called rich powerful, and sometimes even greedy. But nobody knew that their expenses in their apprenticeship were more than horrifying as most works were failures and it would take a long time until one could call himself a blacksmith for example. Furthermore, it wasn''t easy to not stabilize the mana conductivity in most materials and use them to complete perfect weapons or garments. Comparing the price from his leather armor to the prices of most grade-2 or 3 weapons, Jason felt dizzy. While grade-1 weapons were comparable to awakened beasts, grade-2 equipment could already be compared with evolved and even unblemished beasts while grade-3 was something only Magus would be barely able to use and these equipment were manufacturers out of magical beast materials and the following beast ranks. Jason didn¡ät know a single person who owned grade-4 equipment on Astrix but he had heard about a Saint-Blacksmith who forged a grade-4 weapon for someone on Canir and Jason wondered, how many grade-4 weapons and armors existed. While normal graded weapons were already frustratingly expensive in Jason¡äs opinion, he also saw a few offers for magic and soul weapons, and his face couldn¡ät be described with words as he saw their price tags. Jason dreamed about owning a powerful soul weapon as he heard that some extraordinary materials could even enhance the effect of one''s soul and help each other symbiotically. But those were only legends from Canir and Jason wasn''t sure if something like that really existed. While he still had 190.000 Credits left but they were used up after he bought three low-grade-1 paralysis potions, a graded tranquilizer with 10 shots, and one big self-driving enlarging miniature beast cages. The most expensive was the graded tranquilizer but it was also one of the most important things he needed as it would be quite uncomfortable if a beast woke up while it was thrown over one''s shoulder. Jason had around 10.000 Credits left from his hunting trip and the canceled apartment but he wouldn''t buy Artemis beast cores as he had a few left and Jason wanted to test his new toys out once they arrived. It wouldn''t take long for his parcel to arrive and he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique to kill time. After that Jason made himself some space to practice his modified Azure feisty ape technique before the `long-awaited message came. Chapter 47：Unintentional Domination His parcel arrived and Jason sprinted to the door where he saw the drone with his packets below. After showing his ID and giving his sign, he took the heavy parcel inside and opened it expectant. It didn''t take long for Jason to completely change his attire and he wore his black leather garment which adjusted itself perfectly on his small build, while the small black automatic knife holder box was docket at the lower back of his leather garment. It was operated by mana but the amount needed was so marginal that Jason could easily fill it. Inserting 50 knives, a rattling could be heard with a metal sound before one knife after another vanished inside the small box. Filling the knife holder, the handles could be seen pointing out on each side. Jason also got some dagger sheats for his purchase and they were also black. His new daggers were gleaming with a jade green color and one was slightly curved while the other one was straight. The curved one was 28 centimeters in length while the straight one was 30 centimeters long. After admiring his new toys for a long time, his shuttle arrived and he went down not forgetting to store everything away. The shuttle would bring him to the plain one-star wild zone and Jason was already expectant how everything would take place with his new weapons. He was wearing all black while the green color of his daggers drew some attention to them but more importantly Jason''s golden eyes were the best attention seeker and he pondered if he should buy contact lenses for the future. Inside the shuttle, Jason had already requested to camp close to the plains wild zone again which was accepted immediately, and afterward, Jason began playing around with a throwing knife in his hand. He had seen many martial arts videos since he had regained his sight and apparently it was good to improve one''s hand mobility and flexibility while doing some tricks with a knife. Jason was quite clumsy and cut himself a few times but he could avoid more serious injuries as he simultaneously practices his control over mana by forming a small membrane over his hand. It was almost lunchtime when Jason arrived at his camping place and he set up his tent before practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique. He ate something afterward and stood up to enter the one-star wild zone. Jason wanted to train his knife throwing, but before that, he had to do something else Unknowingly to himself, Jason was still agitated about him crying in front of Greg''s mother and he had to let loose but this time in a different way. Artemis was circling above him and notified him about large beast groups. A certain large pack of two-star wild fanged coyotes drew his attention and he thought that he might even be able to learn knife throwing while settling his agitation. This thought might be cruel, but this world was not different as every individual aspired to get stronger. And Jason had to get stronger to survive in this world as even the proclaimed ''safe'' cities were also not what they seemed to be as his mother was unjustly killed without anyone getting punished. Jason wasn''t sure if he wanted revenge or justice, punishing the mysterious heir but he knew that it neither was possible currently except if he would get stronger to force the government to punish his mothers'' homicide. If nothing worked, Jason would just do it by himself... the government could f**k of in this case. One would normally not handle knife throwing like him and adjust the angle so that the knife would use the draft to hit the target with the same amount of force but Jason used his mana to brutely force his way through the slight drafts, even if it was only a small amount of mana. There were around 12 fanged coyotes charging at him, but noticing Jason''s enraged golden eyes flickering coldly, fear could be seen, filling their eyes as they tried to run away, only to notice that the predator behind them followed with fast strides. One coyote after another was attacked by flying knives, even if only half of them hit their target while even less hit vital spots. Jason continued running after them and five minutes later blood drenched his knives before he calmed down. It may be cruel but Jason''s mind relaxed after he had killed these 12 fanged coyotes. As every knife was injected with a marginal amount of mana, he could trace all of them. After 15 minutes all knives and corpses were picked up and Jason used another five minutes to clean the knives properly. Inserting them again, Jason was ready to continue his training. He wasn''t agitated anymore and could concentrate much better. Scanning each and every beast about their potential Jason couldn''t find a single wild beast with potential and he understood again, that wild beasts had the worst out of the worst potential. But he had to say his eyes were definitely superior and exceptional as he found Artemis with them and he was still unsure what she was as he couldn''t really figure out her color. It seemed blur and was comparable to the color he saw from humans..some kind of transparent color was it but Jason wasn¡ät sure. Hours passed and Jason was getting more and more proficient with throwing knives and after a few hundred throws, his accuracy became better and better. He didn''t even need to inject mana into them anymore as he could faintly sense how the drafts would adjust the knives during their flight. Jason was also getting more proficient with dual-wielding his daggers and the fights against most wild beasts finished rather unspectacular. He wasn''t fighting any five-star wild beast groups as he was still not completely confident in defeating them but with his good equipment, even four-star wild beast groups weren''t much of a difference compared to three-star wild beasts. Jason made up a small tactic to throw a few knives to injure his opponents before overwhelming them with his speed and dual-wielding. It was a rather dull plan but it worked fine. Facing five-star wild beasts wasn''t as scary as before with his good equipment because he threw knives at them to inflict injuries which would only worsen during the battle while retreating to stall more time. Jason was almost playing with these beasts and even five-star wild beasts like the greater horned wolf with their superior speed were no match against him throwing knives while backing off and Artemis¡ädistraction. Once he injured a beast, it would only increase his advantage if it moved around without caring about the injury is sustained. Because of the low intelligence of most wild beasts that were probably even below children in kindergarten, Jason had a nice time practicing. It was relatively relaxing even for Jason who was only at the 4th Novice rank. In normal cases, it is said that beasts at the same rank and level as a human should be stronger because the increase in one''s mana and physique is more present for beasts. And normally Jason should only be able to defeat a two-star wild beast according to his mana core rank. Including the amplification from Artemis, he would be able to face against a three-star wild beast. Considering the fact that the gap between each level or star is not that much at the novice and wild beats rank, it wouldn''t be impossible for him to defeat a wild beast at four-stars. But Jason could massacre through the groups of beasts as if it was nothing because he had also a weapon advantage and his keen observance made it almost impossible not to evade Beast attacks. Including his increasing combat experience, it seemed as if he could reign over the one-star wild zone without further ado. A beast had to be extraordinary fast to hit him as Jason''s eyes could foretell attacks to a certain extent. One could say that Jason learned how to fight extremely fast and his improvement with all kinds of weapons was terrifying, as he could notice the flaws during his battle and after each fight, he would collect his flaws and fix them during the next fight. Was that not possible, Jason would try solving the issue after entering the dome where he had enough time to slowly fix his mistakes with an indestructible determination. Chapter 48：Passive mana replenishing A day passed and Jason woke up full of energy while Artemis was happily flapping with her wings gazing at Jason with expectations. Jason had to feed her more and more incomplete wild beast cores every two to three days and he wondered if she had a limit, otherwise, he would run into bankruptcy once she needed more than Jason could provide. And there was also the question, what would happen when she absorbed more Mana than she could digest... Was that even possible? Or would she just digest it with a long hibernation? Would she evolve or just break her limits? Too many questions about Artemis were on Jason¡äs mind but also some questions about himself including his soul and eyes, but there were no answers no matter how hard he thought about it. One thing Jason was also very interested in, was answered two days ago when he was at the Fler mansion. Jason had a deep thirst for knowledge and he asked Gabriella and Mark Fler many questions about mana, beasts, how mana influences the environment and much more. During that, he felt enlightened many times and he found out something particular. There were techniques in this world to passively replenish one''s mana while breathing, walking, running, and so on. While there were multiple stages with the possibility to even gather mana during sleep, it was extremely difficult as one''s mind had to divide itself to do multiple jobs at the same time. But Jason wanted to try it. At least the easiest stage was something Jason was confident to achieve in... somehow..probably? Replenishing mana while walking around. Greg and Malia could already do it and they were also able to replenish their mana while running. They also told him about the difficulties one would have to face during learning how to passively replenish one''s mana. First, you had to be able to ''split'' your mind into different task fields or to say it simpler: Multitasking. While that alone was already relatively difficult one also had to have a certain degree of control over Mana which an average youth on Astrix would achieve after roughly 6 years. This wasn''t considered a problem for Jason as he had control over his mana for almost 10 years while his control was extremely sensitive since the beginning. He wasn''t sure if he could perform multi-tasking right off the bat but he could learn it. Jason wanted to walk right into a mana stream and stroll around inside to practice, walking and replenishing mana at the same time. Jason had to acknowledge, that he was definitely expectant about it but his mood was soured as he thought that Greg wasn''t considered a prodigy from his mana sensitivity, mana core rank or in Jason''s opinion top tier martial arts skills, rather it was that his soul was the most unique about Greg including his soulbond, and he could already replenish his mana even during some small spars. `Could everyone do that? Or was Greg underestimating his own sensibility?` Jason thought with a sour facial expression. If everyone was able to passively replenish his or her mana while running, Jason had to also do it to decrease his gap to them. Jason''s practice of the Heaven''s Hell technique wasn''t neglected and Jason felt that his soul was overjoyed every time he practices this technique as his soul world increased with his soul world core. This wasn''t a common case but some rare souls had the ability to grow to a certain degree. That was because their mind couldn''t handle the normal size of their soul world and the world had to adjust itself to prevent permanent injuries. Jason''s case however was different, but he wasn¡ät aware of that fact. His soul energy was extremely strong at the beginning but it was absorbed by his soul world before anyone could notice it except the old man who thought it was an illusion caused by his ambition. Once his soul energy grows stronger, his soul world would also enlarge. Jason shuddered as he was reminded about the pain he had to suffer during his soul-awakening. Walking around the camping area next to the one-star plains wild zone, Jason had to use up mana, so he could replenish it. After throwing a few knives injected with mana into a thick three, Jason tried to feel the mana while walking around. Because he was constantly on the move it was definitely slightly more difficult to feel the mana and his focus was sloppier but it was still not too difficult as his sensitivity with mana was excellent. The first step was done but the more difficult step was yet to come. Jason was now supposed to absorb the mana into his body and lead it through his mana channels to complete a whole cycle in order to annex it into his mana core. Only then would the mana be yours and part of your body. It was so difficult and Jason had to walk at a very slow pace to even start integration the mana into his mana core. He only walked subconsciously while focusing mostly on the whole mana replenishing process which wasn''t the correct way. It should have been the other way around and Jason asked himself if he would be able to do it the right way and more importantly when. He wasn''t sure how long Greg and Malia took to do it but he wouldn''t ask them about it because knowing it could be more disastrous than not knowing it. If they needed a long time, Jason would be too lazy and if they took a very short amount of time to perfect it, he would be discouraged. Artemis was flying around, exhausting herself, while trying to do the same as Jason. Commonly, beasts below the magical beast rank replenished their mana by eating other beasts or eating plants with mana in them or just by resting while magical beasts used mana for almost everything and had to replenish their mana continuously passively. While Artemis flew around she didn¡ät forget to look at Jason curiously from time to time and what Jason did look very exciting for her. Jason meanwhile drew lots of attention to himself as many youths questioned themself why this black-dressed youth walked around for hours without doing anything else. Even some middle-school teachers who went out to the one-star plains wild zone with their students didn''t know what Jason did as they couldn''t comprehend that Jason tried to passively absorb mana without using too much of his attention on this particular field. While some teachers instructed their students about Jason¡äs tries, they also told them that it was extremely difficult to learn how to passively gather and replenish mana while walking, running, or even fighting. There was one middle-school teacher who was extremely knowledgeable and he was holding a speech about the Mana gathering manual when Jason was walking past them. Jason¡äs pace slowed down by a notch and he heard the teacher saying something about the difficulties of passive mana gathering and replenishing without the help of manuals and detailed descriptions. Many difficult questions could be answered before one would even start learning how to passively gather mana and Jason asked himself why he didn''t know about that before he was reminded that he didn¡ät attend the trip to the one-star wild zone last year because of his blindness and phenomenal strength of a 1st Novice-rank without any combat prowess. Listening to the teacher for a minute, Jason also understood why he hadn''t heard anything about this manual, as one requirement to get permission for such a technique was attending a prestigious school, purchasing a copy with merit points, or one had to be a noble. Other than that, there was also the chance to get permission for the passive mana gathering manual would be human achievements. For Jason, the easiest way would be purchasing a copy with merit points from his future school but he had the premonition that it would be quite expensive and he decided to continue with his own try to learn how to passively gather and replenish his mana. Chapter 49：Destroyed Worldview Four days passed and Jason was excessively exhausted. He would at most sleep for 4 hours a day which was barely enough for someone who absorbed mana consistently but he wanted to learn how to replenish his mana passively before the trip began and it was necessary in his opinion. It was taxing on his body to practice the Heaven''s Hell manual three times a day for 30 minutes, practicing his knife-throwing skills and trying to learn the passive mana gathering technique without anyone''s help. He also wrote some messages to Greg and Malia, who added him, with questions and sometimes only to chat a little bit, which released his tension by a large margin. Because solely learning how to passively replenish his mana was boring but also taxing on his mind, Jason was also out, hunting wild beast cores for Artemis. His whole day was scheduled like a machine without many breaks except four hours of sleep and in total twenty minutes to eat. But today, changed Jason¡äs whole worldview, or rather his view on beasts, their ability to grow stronger, and the ability of his eyes. While Jason and Artemis¡ä combat strength didn¡ät rise at all, they got closer to the next star or level until they were infinitely close. Unknown to Jason and most other youth¡äs inside the one-star wild zone, a small number of a few hundred awakened beasts, from the two-star wild zone around the corner, tried to migrate between the borders of their two-star wild zone and this one-star wild zone at the beginning of the week and nobody knew, why that was the case. However more importantly was, that the hunters and teachers who slaughtered the awakened beasts after a few days to protect their precious students took the corpses with them, while they forgot something even more precious. The awakened beasts that tried to migrate into the one-star wild zones were lesser elemental foxes and there was something special about this race that made out a huge difference compared to normal fox¡äs For other fox races their mating season is at the beginning of the year while their offsprings are born two months later, but for lesser elemental foxes it''s different. Their mating season is situated between May and June which means that right now somewhere in this one-star wild zone could be a fox burrow with many lesser elemental fox cubs and an Idea formed in Jason¡äs mind It was common knowledge that foxes give birth to around 4 to 6 cubs¡­and there were a few hundred mature lesser elemental foxes that were killed during the last few days¡­ When Jason found that out, a tiny seed of greed began to grow inside him and it began to enlarge as he was in need of money, but he also felt somewhat sorry for the lesser elemental fox cubs, when he found a huge burrow hidden under a large tree, after searching for half a day for them. He could only find the burrow with the help of his Mana eyes and more importantly was, that a greater horned wolf was trying to break into it, probably because he sensed a large amount of mana, which these cubs already radiated. They were weak and their strength was comparable to one-star wild beasts but they had already condensed a higher incomplete mana core than the greater horned wolf possessed. Looking at the bloodlust the greater horned wolf radiated, Jason was perplexed... ` What¡äs wrong with this beast? Why does it seem so desperate?` He questioned himself as he looked at the greater-horned wolf, that looked like he was possessed. Previously he wondered why Artemis was able to break through her racial limits but he thought it was because of her mutation, but maybe it was really because she was able to absorb abnormal amounts of mana that helped her to improve her strength faster than normal beasts would do and the possibility to construct a mana core?! Jason had never seen a beast with a higher rank than it should have but once a beast evolved its racial limit would also increase and its maturing process would renew slightly. `Maybe the potential was only the limit a beast could achieve without having to overcome many difficulties? Were his thoughts about the potential and so on wrong?` Would that mean every beast had the chance to rank up or were the chances just too marginal to even care about???` Jason had heard that wild-beasts were unable to break through their limit as the amount of mana they could digest was marginal but that wasn¡ät the case for magical beasts. Even if their potential was locked at the magical beast rank, they could continue to strengthen themselves until they met their possible limit. Each magical beast had the chance to reach the peak-magical beast rank but reaching the following rank was unimaginably difficult. Jason asked himself if the greater storm eagle would be able to strengthen itself to reach the next rank if it had the time, or if it would remain at the magical beast rank without the slightest chance to rank up until its lifeforce diminished due to old age?? What would happen if this greater horned wolf killed all of the lesser elemental cubs inside this exceptional large burrow and absorbed all of their mana and digested their more developed incomplete awakened mana cores? Would it reach its limit and break into a new rank or remain at the five-star rank without the chance of breaking into a higher rank ever? But that wouldn''t make any sense because the greater horned wolf seemed to be obsessed with these awakened beast cubs¡­ While hundreds of questions appeared in his mind Jason took out three knives for each hand and threw them at the wolf, before he charged at the greater-horned wolf with his dagger unsheathed. While one three-hit their target, one of them injured the wolf greatly. But nonetheless, the five-star wolf was way too deep inside the burrow ravaging the entrance and at the same time deep in thoughts about the prey in front of it and it only noticed the pain, when it was already too late. A shadow covered the sunlight and a clean cut through the neck killed the obsessive greater-horned wolf. Only a moment later Artemis dived onto its body to take out its five-star wild beast core before Jason could do anything While Artemis gulped down the beast core a sudden thought appeared in Jason¡äs mind¡­. PURITY?? Maybe...purification...or talent? Maybe it could also mean that these beasts have a higher quality??? There were too many theories about beasts and evolutions, mutations, racial limits, and so on but Artemis danced out of line with her unique mutation. `Maybe she purifies the wild beast cores when she digests them and can thus strengthen herself without creating any limits, or her talent is greater compared to her brethren because of the mutation??` Standing still, while thinking, Jason was extremely lucky that no beasts could be seen nearby and a shocked expression appeared on his mind as thoughts ran wild. `Maybe these limits of beasts appear because their mana cores are full of impurities hindering them in increasing their strength¡­. If that is the case I can''t see the real potential of beasts, rather the purity of their mana core and their innate limit¡­ but that''s not their potential¡­ ` Minutes passed and the shock in Jason¡äs face was even more apparent... `What happens when one would give their soulbond items to purify their mana core??` Wild thoughts ran through Jason¡äs mind and most of them were total garbage, while some other thoughts could be described as useful. `Would they be able to increase their strength above the commonly known racial limits or would they maybe even evolve?` Jason didn''t know but he got goosebumps while thinking about this theory and the desire to test these theories slowly began to implant in his mind. Suddenly Jason could hear a loud and noisy yapping of young foxes in front of him, inside the burrow looking at him with their yearning eyes. Chapter 50：Mother Jason Below the tree, covered by thick roots, Jason could see the burrow with many different colored hand-sized fox cubs enveloped in a black-colored hue. There was enough space for him to squeeze through the densely packed roots after taking out the greater-horned wolf corpse, but not more. Because the burrow was below a tree, not much sunlight reached the bottom, but what Jason wondered, was something else. Inside the burrow were many tunnels leading somewhere and Jason could see lots of black lights at the end of them. There were probably a lot more fox cubs inside and Jason wondered how many lesser elemental fox cubs there were because he could already see a bunch of them in front of him. `Did all of the lesser elemental foxes gather together to give birth to their offsprings inside this big burrow? Why would they do that here and not in their territory? Did something happen there?.... I hope that''s the only group of beasts migrating¡­ ` Looking at all those lesser elemental fox cubs which could barely see, Jason grew sad. Their parents were killed by some humans because they were seen as a threat to the middle-school students who trained inside the one-star wild zone, even if they didn''t do anything wrong. Jason was sad but there wasn¡ät anything he could do about it. The world was built in a hierarchy where the strong reigns and the weak suffer and die. This was even more apparent outside the dome. Because he had to mature since he was young, his mindset was already in a better condition than other youths at his age and Jason didn¡ät know if other youths thought about killing living beings like he did but sometimes Jason couldn¡ät understand himself either. Four days ago he killed packs of low-star wild beasts without getting emotional but now he felt sad? His own mindset was still difficult to comprehend, even more for himself but the longer he faced reality, the more he tried to find a good balance for it. He didn''t want to kill each and every beast ruthlessly, but he wouldn''t shy away from killing matured beasts and other threatening predators. If he gained something from it, Jason would probably still do it but was that even right? Jason didn''t want to kill mother beasts with their cubs but other than these few exceptions, there weren''t many excuses to not kill them as the population of beasts increased more and more in recent years and it wouldn''t take long for another beast tide to pervade through Astrix. Most humans would probably think, Jason was too soft-hearted because beast cubs could also grow into terrifying existences and kill one in the future, but he didn¡ät really care about their opinion. The stronger one''s mana core was the less active was the beast''s reproduction ability. But Jason had to say to himself, even if it was hard to accept: If he didn''t kill these beasts to get stronger and more proficient with his martial arts, someday these beasts could kill him even if he didn''t like that fact. The numbers grew more and more and Jason was not confident to survive against a stampede, even if it were only wild beast-ranked individuals, which was hilarious. He couldn''t even outlive a high quantity of wild-ranked beasts, which were by far the weakest beasts¡­ while others killed hundreds or thousands of them with a single thought, Jason was conflicted to think about these cubs in front of him. But one thing was sure! He wouldn''t kill these cubs¡­ They had done nothing wrong and maybe they could act as cute soulbonds for someone and live a decent life. Apparently, they seemed to have been born a few days ago when their parents arrived and they wouldn¡ät survive without mother milk and it seemed like he had to act as fast as possible because they looked at him with hunger in their eyes. Before anything else, Jason had to bring these lesser elemental foxes outside. Taking out the big self-driving enlarging miniature beast cages, Jason pressed the red button and the miniature beast cage enlarged itself outside the burrow. After that, Jason empowered it with a decent amount of mana as he began to work. Fortunately for Jason was, that the fangs, claws, and elemental affinity of these beast cubs weren¡ät fully developed yet, otherwise this procedure would be a lot more dangerous. Taking out one hand-sized furball after another. Jason noticed that Artemis looked at him fascninates as more than two hours passed before he was finally done. Jason¡äs clothes were completely dirty as well as his hands and his whole face, while he estimated that there were over a hundred lesser elemental foxes that migrated but never had he thought that there were so many cubs. There were at least 150 lesser elemental foxes and Jason was shocked to see the 20 sq.m self-driving beast cage be so cramped¡­. Jason gulped and activated his mana eyes again to see if he forgot a fox cub. But Rather than that, he noticed the differentiating of black color radiating from these beasts. He could almost immediately figure out which beast had a better potential...or higher limit? Adding was he saw to his self-established theory that slowly formed in his mind, Jason thought that the parent genes of the cubs with denser color had to be stronger and it looked like that the kind of ability also played a role as blue-furred lesser elemental foxes had a gentle black color radiating while red-furred ones had vigorous color radiating like a flame. But that wasn''t everything as the amount of color radiating from them was dependent on their ability or so Jason thought. In the beginning, Jason took a look at two fox cubs from the same batch and one of their colors was denser and Jason thought that it was either that one beast inherited dominant genes or the fire ability which was slightly stronger. And again...too many questions began to torment his mind. But there was something else that Jason noticed. There were all kinds of wild beasts and they struggled when they saw Jason but after looking deep into his eyes, they completely stopped moving around and some even rubbed their heads at him. But he had to steel his heart¡­ He couldn''t raise up over 150 lesser elemental foxes due to many reasons. First of all, were wild beasts not allowed in any city except at the beast pagoda, for selling purposes or as soulbond. One had to have a license to sell them or form a contract with the beasts if one wanted to take with one. Jason was confident in his soul world but his soul energy rejected this thought immediately. It was kinda sad because they were so cute and Jason wanted to try out his Purity-theory. And the thought of having an army of powerful foxes behind him while riding on a large Artemis was pretty satisfying. Artemis sensed his thought and immediately rejected it because even if she grew, she wouldn''t want anyone to ride on her!!! Nobody is allowed to dirty her plumage!!!!! (>''o'')> The large self-driving beast cage was ready but before Jason started his trip back to his tent, he had to do something against the blinding effect of the sunlight to the foxes that could barely see and had never been in direct contact with the sun. Taking out a few sheets he bought for his bed, he threw them over the beast cage, blocking the sunlight before their trip back to the dome began. While Jason looked out for beasts sensing the awakened beast cubs and tried to take easy prey, Artemis'' job was much more difficult. Once in a while, a fox cub fell out of the beast cage as the bars were too far apart and she had to pick them up and place them back inside the cage. Chapter 51：How to explain... Entering the dome with a huge beast cage, covered in blue, black, and grey sheets attracted much attention and Jason felt slightly uncomfortable with their gazes, but it was definitely not as bad as in the beginning when he gained his eyesight. There wasn¡ät much time to think about others as he had to message the city AI as soon as possible, because Jason was worried about what would happen if a fox cub fell out of the beast cage inside the dome. He heard about such cases and they ended miserably most of the time, while it would be lucky if the defensive system ''defended'' the city only with simple magic enhanced gunshots. The AI requested Jason¡äs permission to access the beast cage where it scanned the fox cubs to count the number before it labeled them temporarily as harmless. Jason sighed in relief and ordered a special shuttle truck while waiting patiently with a pleased expression. While waiting, he opened his messenger and wrote a message to Greg, Malia, and even to their mother, Gabriella who also gave him her contacts for emergencies. There wasn''t much information in the message, only that Jason would come to the mansion with a beast cage. He wasn''t sure how to explain the situation right now and it would be easier to see, than trying to explain everything. Waiting for the special shuttle, Jason practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique. He also purchased some baby bottles, special milk from an evolved mutated cow with a formula for fox cubs online. It was relatively expensive and Jason had to use most of his reserved credits, but it was fine. These fox cubs should not suffer before it was decided what to do with them. The shuttle arrived and looked like an extra-large metallic pick-up with a broad loading area. Pulling out a metal arm, it lifted the beast cage carefully before it was placed on the selected area. There was still some space left on the loading area and Jason decided to sit there because he wanted to look after the fox cubs with Artemis, so they wouldn''t fall out or hurt themselves. While Jason looked out for the fox cubs, he tried to subconsciously gather and replenish his mana which worked much better compared to the beginning, even if it was still slightly sloppy. This caused him to be overjoyed and around 40 minutes later, Jason was once again in front of the Fler Mansion but this time Jason felt much more comfortable entering it while the self-driving beast cage was next to him. Artemis was sitting on his shoulder visibly exhausted, looking as if he was haunted by ghosts. She had to pick up so many fur-balls all the time and she didn''t want to do that anymore. These furballs could call themself fortunate because she didn¡ät enhance her talons with mana, which she would like to have done¡­. Every Member of the Fler family saw the large pick-up placing a huge beast cage down in front of their gates before it drove off and confusion could visibly be seen on their faces. They knew that Jason would come with a beast cage but it was covered with different colored sheets which was amusing in Greg¡äs opinion. Malia was only confused and questioned herself, which kind of wild beast in this area could be so large because her mind was fixated on Jason¡äs ability to find beasts with potential. Gabriella looked calmly on the outside but she was also thinking the same as Malia did and questioned herself if Jason¡äs ability to find potential beasts was just too exceptional. This caused her to frown because it was extremely rare to find wild beasts with good potential and she thinking that Jason only needed four days to catch another one could be considered more than good. But while the three of them looked interested and expectant, Mark heard the yelping of multiple young beasts. Jason and the beast cage were still relatively far away and only Mark could hear the yelpings inside the beast cage, because of his exceptional hearing due to his soulbond and a big question mark formed inside his mind. The squeaking sounded different and overlapped multiple folds that it was not easy to estimate the number solely by the sound, and a shocked expression appeared on his face as he vanished from his position, only to appear in front of Jason within a second. Looking at Jason, the confusion was still present as he asked "What happened and why are there so many cubs inside??" Jason was startled to see Mark appearing in front of him as the drone that brought his parcel sent him a notification, indicating its arrival. He had put in the address of the Fler mansion and Jason saw a drone lifting a huge parcel and rushed to it, ignoring Mark¡äs question. Accepting the parcel he stored it away without looking inside, before approaching Mark and the beast cage again. "I¡äll try to explain everything later, but we should take care of the cubs before, right?" Beast merchants had the responsibility to take care of beasts before selling them and nothing bad should happen to them during the period they are with them. Mark was still shocked and confused but he nodded his head while he led them to the backyard which was fenced tightly. The other three were astonished to see their dad and husband rushing next to Jason and afterward, leading him to the backyard where they took care of the beasts they captured. Following them after looking at each other, their perplexion was visible. Jason entered the fenced backyard and he could see multiple environmental settings with trees, sand, water, and even ice all around and one could say that their backyard was comparable to a Zoo without beasts, except the scaled wolf he caught a few days ago and the greater storm eagle inside a huge birdcage. Jason entered a small enclosure with trees all around and it was fenced like almost every small enclose he could see while the beast cage followed suit, like a dog. Once he and Mark entered it, the gate closed and Jason was able to remove the sheets. The trees could cover the sunlight with their shadow and it wouldn''t be too bright for the lesser elemental foxes but more importantly was, that they didn''t have to squeeze themselves inside the enclosure like they had to do within the beast cage. A few brave fox cubs pulled themselves together after hesitating for a moment and stood up, trying to leave the beast cage while stumbling around, looking nervously at Artemis, who was completely uninterested in their behavior. Once the first few cubs left the cage without getting thrown back, the other fox cubs began to rush out of the cramped beast cage with delight. It was an interesting sight for Jason who smiled faintly at the happy sight, and Mark was now even more confused, after seeing that they were lesser elemental fox cubs that were awakened beasts once matured and extremely difficult to find in their puppy state. Looking at Jason, he wondered what he did to catch so many newborn awakened beasts. They seemed to be not older than a few days which would be the perfect age to form a soulbond. It was said that the younger a beast the easier it was to form a contract as their mind was still in its development phase and they wouldn''t resist against a soulbond. Taming, raising, and training beasts from their birth was much easier than trying to change the wild instincts of a matured beast. `Once a beast fully matured, its instincts cannot be changed as easily manipulated as in the early days.` Mark could be considered as a rational human and also slightly greedy, causing him to see moving credits while looking at beasts and the combined number was also not small. There were many breeders who used wild, awakened, and evolved beasts but lesser elemental foxes were slightly special because their elemental ability is their strongest characteristic. Comparing its strength which was at the low- to mid-awakened rank with other beasts at the same rank, one could easily figure out that a lesser elemental fox had an exceptionally elemental ability comparable to high-evolved rank elemental affinities and some even had an elemental affinity of a low-evolved ranked beast. It was an advantageous calculation for most humans with lower soul energy to bind a beast with a higher affinity compared to other beasts at the same rank to enhance their combat prowess. Forming a contract with an awakened beast didn''t need that much soul energy and an elemental fox already had an elemental ability that was advantageous. There were many awakened beasts with an elemental ability but the majority of awakened beasts didn''t have an elemental ability and rather other abilities. Due to only being born a few days ago, their strength including soul energy was at its lowest while their mana core was already at the awakened rank but almost completely empty. It wouldn''t take long for them to mature with decent nutrition but more importantly was, that youths could form a contract with these cubs to increase their strength more slowly while adjusting to the feeling of a first soul contract. At t he same time their soul energy would also increase concurrently with the soulbond. These lesser elemental foxes were perfect for the first soulbond as most middle-school graduates with bad exam results were still getting tested and the soul energy of most students was around that of an awakened beast, or even higher. `The demand for beasts like the lesser elemental foxes was always high` Mark thought, smiling happily, it was weird that these fox cubs feared him, who concealed his mana core, while all of them approached Jason, trying to get close to him even if Jason had not even the slightest proficiency in covering his mana fluctuations. Furthermore, he was not from the same race which should deter the lesser elemental fox cubs but that was not the case. Jason''s heart ached and he was a little bit sad seeing these fox cubs... If he was able, he would just form a contract with every fox cub right now because he wouldn''t have a single disadvantage out of this. His soul had enough space but his soul energy was just too weak. Nevertheless, Jason told himself that he wouldn¡ät form a contract with any of these cubs if he couldn¡ät take all. It was just sad and Jason smiled dryly, while hundreds of fluffies attacked him with their tongues. Gabriella, Greg, and Malia couldn¡ät see Mark and Jason when all of them entered the backyard but when they sensed their mana or rather the mana fluctuations of over a hundred beasts they were instantly alarmed. Seeing over a hundred small fox cubs attack Jason while the beast cage was opened, their jaws dropped to the ground Chapter 52：Jason′s demand "Mark do something!!" Gabriella shouted worriedly before she noticed that these fox cubs didn''t attack Jason with dangerous attacks. Rather he would suffocate because so many small fluffy bodies buried him, causing Gabriella to look weirdly at the whole situation Malia saw these few dozen fox cubs and lost all of her rationality, closing her jaw that gaped wide open she sprinted to the gate of the enclosure and opened it quickly. Walking slowly to the pack of fox cubs that looked fearful at her, as if she was a monster trying to rip them apart. They sensed her mana fluctuations which were much more powerful than Jason¡äs. Hiding behind Jason, he felt like a meat shield while the fox cubs squeezed themselves behind him as well as possible. He decided to not care about his image in front of Jason anymore and went closer Jason saw the gaze from Malia and Greg and looked worriedly behind himself. `Will they survive these siblings? I don''t want to test it out!!` He stood up and briefly considered something before stating "Stop!! They haven''t eaten for god knows how long and they must be starving. Let¡äs feed them!" Without taking care of what Greg and Malia were doing, Jason pulled out the big parcel he got a few minutes ago and placed it down in front of him. While opening it an appealing scent filled the air and Jason was stunned for a short moment. Taking out the baby bottles, the special milk, and the fox cub formulas, Jason decided to read the description of the fox cub formula before continuing. He didn''t want to make a mistake! A minute passed and afterward, he asked the siblings where he could heat the milk. Around ten minutes later the milk was finished and Jason decided to begin feeding the fox cubs. Each of them could smell the attractive odor and it felt like the earth shuddered as over a hundred stomachs growled. Malia and Greg calmed down when they saw the greed for the milk in their eyes and sat down next to Jason, taking a prepared bottle to feed the lesser elemental fox cubes. Even Gabriella and Mark helped out because it would take too long otherwise and unfortunately, they didn¡ät have an automatic feeding machine for cubs. A whole hour passed until they were fed and everyone was exhausted because the fox cubs were way too noisy and annoying. After the lesser elemental fox cubs finished eating, they just cramped together and began to sleep. -- Now Jason didn''t know what to do and he had to ask Greg''s parents for help. Mark was the first one to say something he had already imagined in his mind. He wanted Jason to sell every cub to them which was Jason''s initial plan in the beginning but he could see a huge desire for money in Mark¡äs eyes, which frightened him at first. Jason didn''t want to negotiate very long and he made a simple requirement they had to fulfill before he would sell them the fox cubs. Because Jason liked these lesser elemental fox cubs in front of him a lot, he was heartbroken to sell them, but he couldn''t raise them up due to many reasons like them moving away, his scarcity of credits, expenditures, soul energy, and so on. His requirement was that the lesser elemental fox cubs were not allowed to be sold to all kinds of nobles and big families who treated their soulbond badly, all kinds of people with criminal records, and human trash with bad temper and behavior. "It would be the best that these fox cubs could get soulbonds of loving humans who treat their soulbond as a family member but I know that you can''t force it. Nevertheless, some records would be available for nobles and it''s known which big families, clans and so on treating their soulbond with respect and love" While Greg gave him a thumbs up, Malia and Gabriella looked at Jason with a gentle smile. As Malia noticed that she turned red and looked away at the fox cubs while Gabriella was surprised that she felt proud of Jason and she subconsciously began to treat him like a family member, even though she wasn¡ät sure why. Mark meanwhile was slightly frustrated. He didn''t really care about what happens to the soul beasts after he sold them, only a few families who tortured their soulbond could be seen as an exception because he found it disgusting and not logical. If he could decide where to sell these cubs, Mark''s would probably travel around the neighboring cities to sell them to big families for a satisfying price. But now more than half of his expected profit vanished instantly after Jason stated his requirement. Mark had to accept Jason¡äs requirement, otherwise, he wouldn¡ät gain a single credit while Jason could go to the government and sell the fox cubs below the average price with his requirement. Jason was happy to hear Mark agreeing to his demand and it felt like a heavy rock was pulled from his heart. The fox cubs couldn¡ät leave the enclosure and Mark began his calculation, he already began to write some messages to someone while Gabriella offered Jason to eat dinner with them, which he accepted this time. While the dishes weren¡ät anything special, the atmosphere was something he only knew from years ago, and Jason felt relaxed while eating with the Flers¡ä. He also noticed that Gabriella was the family''s alpha because Mark was still calculating and writing messages when everyone sat down to eat. A slap at the back of the head was enough and Mark turned off the holographic screen to sit down obediently. Jason smiled at this sight lightly and he felt happy. After they finished their dinner, Artemis who was curled up on his lap got up and demanded her own food. Taking out all of the wild beast cores he hunted, Artemis gulped them down and her stomach bulged slightly before she vanished inside the white magic circle only to appear inside his soul world. The Flers¡ä didn¡ät notice that Jason fed Artemis wild beast cores, otherwise, they would probably be astonished about it and would bombard him with questions. Jason wasn¡ät hiding anything from the Fler¡äs anymore and if they asked him, he would answer them honestly. He was tired of trying to cover the special abilities of his eyes and Artemis mutation. Hiding it even in front of the Fler¡äs would tire him out. In the end, the truth would come out. As such Jason decided that he would answer possible questions about his eyes if the Fler¡äs asked him. Weirdly enough, they didn¡ät ask anything and Jason was more than happy to notice that, thinking that they were considerate to his privacy After dinner was finished, Mark looked at a notification from his holographic screen. Frowning, he whispered something to his Gabriella who thought for a moment before standing up. She suddenly declared. "We have to change our schedule! Our client wrote to us that he needs the greater storm eagle in two days. Because our client''s position is on our way to Cyro city we''ll start our trip a little bit sooner. To arrive at the set date from our client, we will need to start our trip tomorrow, early in the morning. We will take the beasts with us and sell them either in the Jiro-City which is the B-grade city our client is in, or we just sell them in Cyro-city, our final destination. Both cities will have a large demand for the beast cubs with their high elemental abilities and we have some connection in both cities." Malia, Greg, and Jason were slightly astonished but there was nothing they could do about it and they nodded their head as a sign of agreement. Jason had nothing left behind, except his tent which was still standing nearby the dome, but fortunately, he could report it to the AI. The AI would call someone to remove the tent for a hefty sum but he had no intention to call a shuttle to drive there only to remove the tent and drive back. There was no time left for Jason to do that if his trip to Cyro-City would start tomorrow. He was expectant and happy at the same time! Chapter 53：Last preparations! Gabriella turned to Jason saying "You can sleep in the guestroom today because we¡äll depart before the sun arises." Mark gripped Greg to calm him down and turned to Jason with a serious face. "To prevent any problems, I would like to purchase the lesser elemental beast cubs from you before we set off tomorrow. I already counted them. Because you''ve stated your requirement, we will set up a proper contract, so you won''t need to be worried about anything." In front of Jason appeared a contract and Jason had only to sign it. The contract itself was pretty simple and the same as every beast contract, only a single requirement was stated from Jason, and the credits he would receive were also written on it. While Jason looked shocked, Greg whistled in amazement. Jason knew that he would gain many credits because the number of these lesser elemental fox cubs was high, they were also relatively rare to find, small in number, and their high natural powerful elemental ability caused the price to increase by a large margin, but this much was astonishing. Mark counted 164 fox cubs and each of them was roughly worth 100.000 Credits in his opinion¡­ ¡ä16.4 million credits` >O.o Jason was interested in this thread and liked it. After reading the comments and a few other threads that came out with the same result, he purchased a huge bulk of five-star wild beast cores. He asked himself if the ratio of 5 to 1 was the same for Artemis or not¡­. Maybe Artemis would be annoyed by his decision but he didn''t care about it. Jason didn''t want to waste much money in the beginning, because he wasn''t sure what kinds of expenditures might come to him. And even if. There were only 5000 five-star wild beast cores for 2 credits per core. There wasn¡ät much he could do wrong. Five five star wild beast cores were thus 10 Credits and a single awakened beast wild core was priced from 30 Credits up to a few hundred. Thinking about the difference Jason was tempted to purchase more wild beast cores but he could do that later on if his stock was coming to its end. Furthermore, Jason decided to purchase mana stones worth 1 million credits and 300 low-awakened ranked cores for 32 credits per core. He wanted to make a few tests with Artemis and he himself also wanted to improve his level and mana stones were the easiest way to enhance his mana core level. There were many other things he purchased for emergencies like a portable tent, long-lasting food, water, many clothes, including boots, kerosene, many potions, ropes, and so on. It was 10 pm when he finished everything and Jason went into bed after practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique. Chapter 54：Let′s go! Jason felt something on his head and unsurprisingly it was Artemis. Waking up he stroked her a few times, before entering his soul world to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique when he suddenly noticed that his soul world core has increased in size while the produced soul energy was much more than before. Looking at the amount, Jason estimated that his soul energy has reached a minor threshold of five units. The night before it was quite a distance away from five units and closer to four than five. Jason''s first thought was that Artemis broke into the three-star wild beast rank and he was right. This caused Jason to be overjoyed and his lips curled up. He hadn''t felt any difference from his body but maybe it was because he was still sleepy. Practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique, his soul energy was fast depleted and he left the soul world to look at Artemis. While Jason made himself ready, he felt the changes within his body. His body itched a little bit but it wasn''t unbearable so he tried to ignore it as well as possible. Compared to before, his mana core was already close to the 7th level while his physique was also at the threshold for the 6th level And his core was almost at its limit and close to a breakthrough so he would be able to level up soon. `And my strength also increased quite a lot including my mana core.. Hahaha, Artemis and my soul are so nice...` Jason was happy when he heard a knocking "Jason, are you awake? We have to go soon.. If you don''t answer me I''ll wake you up in 3..2..1.." Jason heard a teasing voice that was familiar but also unknown because this personality definitely wasn''t suitable for the person he imagined. "Stop that Greg.. I''m awake.. I''ll come down soon. Let me at least wash up and change my clothes." Leaving the room he was on his way down to the living when he met Malia who wore a revealing white nightgown out of silk and Jason¡äs eyes grew almost double in size seeing her revealing figure. `She is really beautiful!` Jason thought and gulped down his saliva Despite only being able to see slightly more than one month he was still able to distinguish between good-looking girls or women and beautiful ones¡­. There weren''t any feelings coming from Jason but he still admired his sight when Malia looked at him with tired eyes. Before she could greet him, she saw his gaze and looked down, only to see her revealing nightgown¡­ Crying out in surprise she immediately disappeared into her room, only to appear a moment later with some clothes on. Her cheeks were beet-red and she rushed down to the living room without taking a single glance at Jason. Jason could only silently follow her thinking that she looked really beautiful, without having any hard feeling. Rather than a potential lover or something like that, he thought of Malia as a friend. And Jason was way too young to think about something like that, to begin with. At least that was his opinion. Getting stronger was much more important for now! Going down to the living room, Jason noticed that everyone was already sitting at the table, waiting for him. He sat down and greeted everyone. He even noticed that a marginal amount of mana was radiating from some dishes which surprised him greatly as his eyes widened slightly. The whole breakfast was relatively quiet and only Gabriella asked Jason if Artemis, who sat on Jason''s shoulder was in need of food, which Jason declined politely. It was uncommon for beasts to be so excessively indigent and close to their contractor as Artemis called for many caresses from Jason. Most beasts would be close to their master but they would still prefer freedom than getting confined closely inside a house or being so excessively close to their master like Artemis. Greg''s first soulbond, the reinforced horned bull, for example, was already fully matured and at the mid-evolved rank. But the more important fact was, that the bull didn''t like houses and would avoid them if possible Getting reminded about food, he looked at his notifications after they finished breakfast and Jason requested for his parcel to get delivered immediately. He went out and took in his parcel which he stored away. Jason wanted to break into the 5th Novice rank as soon as possible but they would start their trip soon, so he had to wait until they started. Before their trip would start, they had some things to do. Jason saw a large armored truck appearing at the entrance of the mansion out of Mark¡äs storage device. The truck was covered in layers of metal and reinforced by magic circles and runes that shone brightly while the truck itself floated thanks to the magic anti-gravitational circles. It was a specially made truck for off-road purposes outside the dome and it would be pretty useful because the landscapes were uneven and full of obstacles. Jason estimated that the length of the truck was around 25 meters including the hovering trailer. While it was empowered by dense and thick mana, the easiest way to provide this would be mana stones. He didn''t even want to think about the price one had to pay to travel through the whole island and he decided to not care about it as he didn''t have to pay the price. While the greater storm eagle and the scaled wolf were already standing in front of the trailer, Jason thought that the fox cubs were probably getting fed before they would start their trip. Going to the backyard Jason saw a completely different beast cage next to his own. While it was bigger than his cage and had a slightly blue color, the mana radiating from it was no joke. The lower body was densely packed with bars, preventing the fox cubs to leave the cage. Jason inspected the beast cage intently and it looked like the whole beast cage was one entity. Such kind of beast cages were extremely rare and made out of special materials, while it had many different modifiers, including the densely packed bars modification that was activated at the moment. Inside the beast cage, Jason could see the fox cubs gathering around a big fancy machine. Out of this machine bottles stuck out and the lesser elemental fox cubs almost fought to suck at them. Apparently, the Flers bought an automatic feeding machine for cubs which included a heater and so on. It was operated by mana like almost everything and could easily feed 10 beast cubs at the same time. It was only 4:30 am when everything was loaded and checked twice, they entered the vehicle. The truck''s interior was spacious and looked futuristic and Greg, Malia, and Jason entered the back of it while Gabriella remained in the front with Mark who drove. Closing the door, Mark turned the engine on and they took off. *Above the City* An old man was floating in the sky, releasing a marginal amount of mana to defy gravitation, while an old but refined woman with silver hair stood next to him, huge green ivory wings spreading behind her. The old man was looking down and his gaze followed the treasure he had chosen inside the truck while a smile emerged on his face. Previously he considered Jason useless because his soul energy was extremely weak and almost equal to non-existent, followed by his almost neglectable mana core rank but seeing his actions over the course of the last few weeks, the old man was more and more astonished about the youth¡äs feats. Not only was the snowflake owl, he himself deemed as trash and useless, superior to all snowflake owl¡äs he had ever seen, able to break through its racial limit within a few weeks but also Jason¡äs weak soul energy could contain the snowflake owl, which meant his soul energy increased by a few folds After watching Jason for a few weeks, he was sure that his soul had to either amplify an enormous amount from the soulbond to the contractor, or something else was the crux. From his vast knowledge, the old man had accumulated over dozens of years, he knew that every soul was different, which included the soul energy, soul affinity, soul amplification, soul physical enhancement, and soul energy replenishing time. A 24 hours reproduction time for soul energy was only the researched average and it was different for every individual. "Is he really that precious?" the woman next to him questioned uncertainly. The old man¡äs smile widened and his decision to get Jason was now affirmed, after what he witnessed "I hope so! " He whispered while looking down. "Show me some more of your potential, Jason Stella!" the old man said as both of them vanished into thin air. Chapter 55：Speed! The truck was driving slowly, due to the speed limit inside the city but once they left the city it began to accelerate to a certain extent. It wasn¡ät extremely fast because they had to be careful of the surrounding humans who could run around here and there inside the dome. Nevertheless, it was still fast. After a few minutes, one could see the dome and the truck drove through the dome without getting obstructed in any kind of way. What then happened astonished Jason extremely, because Mark pressed a button on the mainboard causing the truck to ascend slightly. The advanced anti-gravitational magic-circles were shining brightly and Jason saw that they reached the limit of their ability when the hovering truck reached a height of around 3 meters. Next to Mark was a holographic screen with a detailed map of Astrix and a few large grey spots could be seen on it. The whole Island was divided into many different areas which were probably wild-zones. Each of these areas was marked with a certain amount of black stars and Jason thought that one star was probably the indicator for a one-star wild zone because they were driving through the one-star plains while the map said they drove through a are that was labeled with a single black star. Jason found it interesting as he looked through the whole map which was filled with many different kinds of landscapes. Mana was capable of many things and since the mana outbreak mana environments in some areas changed completely. It didn¡ät matter anymore where the equator was or how far away one is from the sun compared to other places, the temperature and environment were almost completely dependent on the surrounding mana and natural-born treasures. Magical treasures are able to change the whole environment with their radiating mana, even after the treasure was discovered and collected, the remains would cause the environment to continue transforming. It was still unknown how exactly the environment changed, but there were a few theories like it was with everything new. Astrix¡äs north was filled with many white spots while in the center of the island was a huge volcano. Jason knew that right now their position was relatively close to the ice fields but more east and they would travel closer to the volcano to enter Cyro city which was somehow between the volcano and the northern ice fields. But Jason was also astonished to see that except for the few empty areas, the strongest area was a single red star while one to four black stars represented the corespondent wild zone. He concluded that the strongest zones were thus a magical beast zone. Thinking about the empty gray areas, Jason concluded that stronger beasts must live there while humans didn''t dare or maybe cared to venture through it. While Jason was in thoughts about what kinds of beast could be higher than magical beasts, the hovering truck accelerated its speed to an astonishing speed. `Isn''t that too dangerous?!?!` But apparently, they flew a detour and avoided areas with huge hills, big rocks and certain types of trees. `With this speed, we still need two days until we arrive at Jiro city?? And Mark said they have to drive through the night¡­.` Malia and Greg didn''t mind the hovering trucks'' speed and absorbed mana from small mana stones or read some files on their holographic screen. Jason noticed that and decided to not mind the truck anymore and to absorb mana for himself. Taking out a mana stone Artemis noticed that and she tried to grab it, which Jason prevented. He took out five five-star wild beast cores and told her to eat them and digest them. If she was done he would give her an awakened beast core which made her happy and Jason wanted to test out if there was a difference in the conversion rate between her digestion because the amount of mana was the same for five five-star wild beast cores and a low-awakened beast core. Artemis was not satisfied with the wild beast''s cores and annoyed Jason, forcing him to give her the mana stone but he was resolute. A few minutes later Jason finally convinced Artemis and she gulped down the cores before she went into the soul world to digest them. Meanwhile, Jason made himself ready to absorb mana out of the mana stones. He hoped that he would be able to break into the 5th Novice-rank either today or the day after. Closing his eyes he loosened up a mana thread from the mana stone in his hand, leading it into him. After circling it through his mana channels, he inserted them in his mana core. Hours passed and unknown to Jason, it was already lunchtime. While the landscapes changed the truck drove through them like it was nothing. Not a single beast could be seen and this was probably because of the beast repellent used on the truck and its scary appearance. They only drove through one three-star wild zones and not a single beast could harm them if they were confident enough to try it. Surprisingly Artemis woke him up at 2 pm and she had already digested five five-star cores which were quite impressive. He had thought that she would at least need a day to digest them completely but not even half of the estimated time passed. Jason''s stomach grumbled and he decided to eat something. Everyone would eat something when they were hungry because the time needed to gather mana was more important and it could be quite serious to distract someone while absorbing it. A mistake could lead to serious injuries. This problem wouldn''t occur with Artemis because he already felt that she was awake before she annoyed him and Jason finished absorbing the mana cleanly. Jason was really astonished about the increased speed of his mana absorption rate with a mana stone and he felt that even if his mana core increased because of Artemis''s sudden rise in her level, he would be able to break through tomorrow. Before he ate something, he gave Artemis an awakened beast core and she gulped it down greedily. Jason wondered if Artemis would eat up all his stocks if he did not control her, seeing her not being satisfied with the single-core. Artemis entered his soul world dejected and Jason followed her to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique. After 20 minutes he was already done and left the soul world once again. Looking outside Jason noticed that the scenario changed slightly and to his left the whole area was filled with lush and blossoming plants and wildlife while the right side was rather scarce. Looking at the map Jason noticed that to his right side was a three-star wild zone next to a one-star magical winter field zone while to his left was a two-star zone next to a large swampland. He couldn''t distinguish many features because of the hovering trucks'' extreme speed but there was no way to miss certain enormous trees with a size of at least a hundred meters. Chapter 56：Secret rivalry After eating, Jason noticed that both Malia and Greg were still preoccupied with absorbing mana and Jason noticed that they haven''t moved since they started their trip. This astonished him extremely. Before, he thought that everything depends on one''s wealth in the end. Jason knew that both Greg and Malia were strong but previously his opinion about them was different and he thought that it was only because of their family''s wealth. They were really determined and Jason found himself much more motivated than before. Sitting down again, he absorbed the mana more greedily and the sky turned dark, while the interior of the hovering truck began to shine in a white light. Jason was breaking through and everyone noticed that the mana around Jason gathered forcefully with an incredible suction, slowing down Greg¡äs and Malia¡äs mana gathering greatly. They noticed that Jason was about to break through, finished their mana absorption, and looked at Jason without distracting him. Gabriella and Mark didn''t know that Jason only absorbed mana for almost two months yet, but Greg and Malia knew it and they were shocked to see Jason breaking through once again. Even if most people said the first steps are the easiest and fastest while increasing one''s mana core rank, this wasn''t necessarily the case without a certain degree of control. One needed to control the mana through all mana channels and inserting it afterward gently into the mana core and to do something like that took a lot of time and was very taxing to the body. While Greg¡äs sensitivity to mana wasn¡ät that high, Malia had a high sensitivity. Both began to sense mana at the age of 8 and Greg took half a year to reach the 2nd Novice rank while Malia needed 2 months to reach it. As they were really young it was even more taxing to their body to absorb mana for too long and the time to make a big circle through one''s mana channels was relatively long causing their growth to slow down a lot. For them, it seemed like Jason¡äs sensitivity and control over mana was extremely high even if his mana core rank was still below the average middle school graduates. Greg was jealous because his sensitivity was worse compared to Jason and Malia¡äs and he noticed more and more that he had no time to grow stronger if he didn¡ät want Jason to overthrow him in the future. Right now his only unique characteristic compared to his future classmates would be his soul and his first soulbond which would increase his combat prowess. Greg estimated that he would only be an average student in Cyro-City because of his low rank which frustrated him. Seeing Jason breaking through one shackle after another, while ha also had such a special mutated snowflake owl, Greg could only do a single thing! Work harder! He would never allow Jason to catch up to him!! At least he would give his best to prevent that. Greg decided that Jason would be his arch-rival, even if he was less than a small mouse before when he was blind¡­. Right now Jason looked like a fierce dragon to Greg, when he saw the white shining cocoon slowly dissipating and Jason¡äs golden eyes that opened slowly, gleaming with vigor, while his black hair fluttered lightly in the air thanks to a perfectly timed draft. Meanwhile, Malia had extremely complicated feelings. On one side she was astonished about Jason¡äs speed but her mother had already told her that Jason had mana eyes and that he was probably extremely sensitive to mana because of that. But after seeing Jason after the cocoon vanished, her heart fluttered slightly and she had to pinch herself to fall out of a trance. `He is more than 2 years younger than you!! What are you even thinking, you wench!!!` Shaking her head, she congratulated Jason, before she averted her gaze and took something out of her spatial storage to eat Everyone congratulated Jason and he smiled lightly before he scanned his own body again. Reaching the 5th Novice rank felt nice. His physique and mana core received both a nice push, while his mana core reached the size of a quasi 7th Novice, his physique broke into the 6th Novice rank thanks to the amplification provided by Artemis through their soulbond. There was a big difference between a mana pool of a 6th and a 7th Novice rank because it was a minor threshold one had to break before one could break into the level and Jason was about to weaken this limit once he reached the 6th Novice rank or Artemis reached the four-star wild beast rank. The limit other people had to face, would be easily weakened by him reaching the 6th Novice rank. Jason changed his clothes because they were full of filth and impurities and after he had changed, they talked for some time while eating lunch with a comfortable ambiance. Afterward, Jason entered his soul world only to notice that his soul energy has increased by a small amount. Smiling lightly, Jason knew that it was because his mana core increased rank increase. His physique also increased and his whole body improved because of his breakthrough. His soul energy was around 5.3 now if he were to estimate it, and Jason was getting more and more confident in himself because the worst thing about him was his low soul energy. But he was still not able to gather his courage to ask Greg how high his soul energy was because his starting point was much higher than his. Thinking solely about the soul energy provided by the reinforced bull, Jason gulped¡­ Thinking for a moment, Greg was estimated to have a soul energy of 450 while a mid-evolved beast has around ~~300. With a 10% share, Greg''s soul energy would increase by 30 only because of his soulbond.. Jason didn¡ät know if Greg practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique every day or not, but if he did, his soul energy might have reached something between 600-700 or even more¡­. He was barely holding his tears, thinking about that but he held them in and decided to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique as often as possible because he noticed that his soul energy production rate increased slightly, while his soul world was enlarged concurrently. Jason¡äs head was aching all the time but he was almost numb to the pain after such a long time which was somehow good and bad at the same time. Chapter 57：Jiro-City It was already late at night but Jason was still fully awake eager to absorb more mana. This condition was one of the advantages one would get by absorbing large amounts of mana. He decided to make a night shift and solidify his mana core to prevent any flaws in his foundation while waiting for Artemis to finish her digestion. He wanted to know exactly how much difference there was between five five-star wild beast cores and one of the lowest awakened beast cores. Maybe it would be helpful for the future. Furthermore, Jason wanted to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique as soon as his soul energy was reproduced. He continued absorbing mana out of mana stones and it was around 4 am when he was woken up by Artemis. She had digested the awakened core in slightly more than 13 hours which was around 3 hours longer than she needed for five five-star wild beast cores and Jason took notes about it. He had already bought many wild-ranked cores and would use them for Artemis, so he wasn''t disgruntled or anything like that after finding out that the awakened beast cores were roughly 30% better and the one who had to suffer was Artemis and not him, so he was a little bit sorry for her but that was it. She had to eat the wild-ranked cores for the time being and he would switch them out when the stock was used up, or the effect almost not strong enough anymore. Morning came and Jason was still absorbing mana. He had already used up three small mana stones and thus 150.000 Credits, which shocked him quite a bit. Jason didn¡ät know that he would have to use so many mana stones for a breakthrough into the 5th Novice rank and to solidify the foundation¡­ With the 17 small mana stones he had left, Jason would probably be unable to enter the 7th Novice stage as only using mana stones was unhealthy for the body. One would have to absorb a certain amount of naturally generated mana and not mana compressed into the stones, transmuted over the course of time. Jason didn''t want to absorb mana from mana stones during the remaining journey and he decided to read the beastarium while trying to improve his proficiency in passively gathering mana. He was able to do it after almost a week but his reading speed was really slow compared to before and Jason was only able to even read at his current speed because of his extraordinary eyes. Otherwise, he might even not read because a sloth would be faster. Every few hours Jason entered his soul world to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique and practicing this technique somehow grew to his heart because he could improve his soul energy because of it, even if it was painful. After practicing the technique three times they arrived at the borders of a large dome which radiated even denser and more formidable mana fluctuations. Looking through his mana eyes Jason noticed that the density of it was at least threefold the amount and he was astonished to see the walls of a large city. Normally one would ask why there were walls but Jiro-City was a B-grade City close to a few magical beast zones and the defenses of the dome couldn¡ät instantly kill batches of magical beasts once they attacked human shelters. That''s why gigantic and stupendous walls were built. Jiro city was often attacked by beast tides but the walls were always enough to stop these tides with the help of mankind''s artillery and other weapons. One could ask if it was even worthwhile to live in such a threatened city as it could always happen that the defensive measures would collapse but the answer was simple. YES! If one wanted to get stronger, one would have to enter more dangerous zones because of the thick mana, higher graded herbs and ores, and the possibility of natural-born treasures. It was said that even inside Jiro-city the density would be much higher and almost comparable to that of a two or maybe even three-star wild zone. Jason was already astonished about the mana density of a one-star wild zone and he was expected to visit Jiro-City even if he was slightly frustrated about the situation with the greater storm eagle. However, there wasn''t much he could do about it and he tried to think about the fox cubes which would find their new soul buddies soon. Mark had already a few people who contacted him about the forum post only high-quality beast merchants had access to and they were reliable sources, so the scaled wolf and more than half of the fox cubs were quasi sold. They could freely enter the city''s dome but there was a fee one had to pay each time one would enter the dome but the price was relatively okay with 500 Credits. If the same was to happen when he entered the dome of the C-grade City, Jason would cry a river because he didn''t have any money previously and it was more likely daylight robbery. But the dome had to be operated somehow and the fee was likely the main source of income for the operating of it, so nobody objected to the fee. Unfortunately for Mark was, however, that he had to pay the entrance fee for every unbound beast which was more than 150 beasts. 500 Credits were not much but the quantity made a difference. Once they entered the dome, the scenario changed slightly and Jason could see that the landscape was lusher and green more apparent than inside the c-grade city but it was still less wild than the zones outside the dome which was typical. Each magic dome was made out of materials which would absorb mana from its surrounding but that was the only way to provide enough energy to it as the dome was like a glutton. Entering through a futuristic-looking gate one could instantly see a huge difference compared to Artes city where they previously lived. The streets had more lanes while even a few flying shuttles could be seen and the skyscrapers were ridiculously high and Jason wondered why they didn''t collapse¡­ There was even a huge stadium-like shopping center with 30 floors which looked magnificent. Everything looked so expensive and Jason wondered how the poorest districts would look like. But after asking that, everyone looked at him with a perplexed expression, asking themselves why he would ask something like that. Compared to C-grade cities, the poorest districts were probably comparable to below-average districts but once one a household was too poor to sustain oneself a living in a B-grade city, one would rather move into a C- or D-grade city as most B-grade cities were used for companies, hunters, the government, above-average families, military training and so on to improve their mana core rank within the city and hunt outside the dome. Human society nowadays was cruel and once one couldn''t afford to live in a city, one would get passively removed with the next migration group...It was cruel but like that society had the thought that it would be easier to work hard. Once one would be able to reach a certain degree of strength or wealth, one would be able to move into a higher city and the other way around. Everyone in a B-grade city had a certain standard amount of wealth, strength, or other advantages, most citizens from C-grade cities didn¡ät have, except they wanted to live in a lower graded city due to personal reasons like it was the case with the Fler¡äs. They were wealthy enough to live within Cyro-city but due to Greg, they moved to a faraway C-grade city, in order for Greg to recover from his elementary grade trauma. Jason wasn''t sure what to think about what he heard, but even if he wanted to change something, he wouldn''t be able to. Chapter 58：Meeting the client Because they were already late, they immediately drove to their client who waited for them impatiently. Each of the three youths was uncomfortable with meeting the noble that treated soulbonds as objects and their faces showed it clearly. Gabriella had to remind them to show at least a calm or neutral facial expression in order to not upset them as they were one of the overlords of Jiro city. After a 30 minute drive through the city, they arrived in front of a huge wall with many guards and automatic mana turrets all over the walls. Next to a gigantic gate were at least 20 guards protecting it, Jason activated his mana eyes to inspect their mana cores. They seemed to be stronger than Malia''s but weaker Mark and Gabriellas which could already be considered relatively strong. To Jason everyone was strong so he didn''t even try to compare himself. But he still wondered why there were so many high-defensive measures ''What are they scared about and who did they offend or did they just build the wall and hire these guards for safety matters to save themselves once a Beast tide stormed the large wall.?'' Jason wasn''t sure but there was no answer he could think of right off the bat. While their hovering truck neared the wall, a notification popped up at the trucks mainboard and Mark had to tell his purpose to come to the mansion and who he was which included the verification of his ID Everything went well without issue and they drove through the gate unhindered. The garden was gigantic and had the size of multiple football fields, while many different buildings could be seen. There were stables, a building looking like a Colosseum, a small pagoda that continuously attracted large amounts of mana, many luxurious houses surrounding a magnificent, large mansion that stood next to a large sea with a beautiful landscape. "Is that a Village or what?!?" Greg exclaimed and even Mark and Gabriella were astonished about what they saw. When they went closer to the villa they could even see some fields with crops on them. It was really as if they were inside a village. Why? Nobody would be able to answer it, except their client. In front of the villa stood a fat middle-aged man and a slightly younger version of the fat man. Both saw the truck driving towards them and waited somehow patiently while the young man looked slightly anxious. The young man was probably Mark and Gabriella''s Client and the youths had to calm down themselves as anger raged within them and could be seen in their eyes. After the truck stopped, everyone went out and the middle-aged man greeted their guests. "Hello my esteemed quests, my name is Rodriquez Olier and I contacted you because of the greater storm eagle mission. I''m sorry to say that but we are short on time. May we skip the long chat and go directly into our business?" Mark and Gabriella expected that their Client was short on time and didn''t waste any of it. The greater storm eagle who was placed last into the trailer was taken out by a large metallic arm. While the middle-aged man kept talking to the Fler parents, the young fatty ran to the greater storm eagle viewing it with a weird smile. The chubby youth was probably 18 years old or maybe even older but his behavior was worse than most six-year-old children, causing everyone to look at him with despise. Greg, Malia, and Jason were disgusted as they previously still hoped that the noble was regretful about causing the greater storm eagle to die but apparently that wasn''t the case. When the fat youth looked into the trailer Jason had a bad premonition and right at the worst timing the fox cubs woke up and squeaked due to them being hungry. They struggled their way to the automatic feeding machine and began to eat. This could be seen by the fat youth and interest could be seen in his eyes as he mumbled "Lesser elemental fox cubs?" Jason stopped breathing for a moment and he wasn''t alone as the Fler siblings also sensed something wrong. The fat youth turned away from the eagle and looked vividly at the fox cubs. Averting his gaze his loud reached his father. "Dad, you said I should search for an awakened beast because my soul fits 4 larger beasts and a weaker one, right? I think I found a suitable beast for this spot. There are lesser elemental fox cubs inside the trailer." ''F**k'' was the word in everyone''s mind. While the middle-aged man''s attention was drawn to the trailer Gabriella looked slightly worried while Mark was still calm. "That''s true we have lesser elemental fox cubs in the trailer but I''ve already made a contract with the seller of these cubs and another one with the purchasers...so there is not a single one left to sell. ..I''m sorry" Mark was calm and explained everything while adding some made-up story to the truth which would add another layer of protection Having made two contracts was not worth the effort to pay for remuneration as for breach of a contract was normally 5 to 10 times the price of the beast. For two contracts the price would be 10 to 20 times more expensive. If Mark wanted to sell them for 200.000 one had to pay 2 to 4 million which normally wasn''t worth the effort. Adding another fact with a gentle reminder Mark drew the attention to a different subject "May we go back to our business? The soulbond needs time to consolidate, otherwise, your opponent might notice something wrong and we don¡ät want something like that to happen, right mister? Rodriquez turned back to Mark and said slightly frowning "Oh.Yes...Normally I wouldn''t back off against a measly contract breach but it''s certainly true that we are in a hurry...Let''s finish our business and part our ways.." Everyone sighed in their minds while the young fat man was a little bit sad but he didn''t mind that he couldn''t get a fox cub as his father would probably give him something even better later. Pouting a little bit, he was still noisy and Jason decided to close the trailer to prevent any fox cub sounds to reach the outside, which could attract the attention of the fat youth and his father once again. Rodriquez asked once again about the contract and the breach remuneration because he wanted to give his son another beast with a good elemental ability and lesser elemental foxes were relatively good for their mana core rank but Mark was firm in his rejection. "The contract with our salesperson was slightly special so it should be almost impossible to sell a beast for" Jason liked Mark more and more, even if he was greedy, he still wouldn''t break a contract which astonished him a little bit. He would probably be able to earn a few million from him if he was about to sell him a single fox cub only because of the remuneration¡­.. If Jason had to be honest, he saw the remuneration clause for the fox cubs but thought it was enough... 5 times the price¡­ That would only be one point three million credits for a single cub and Rodriquez tried to purchase the fox cub even if he knew that he had to pay a remuneration of 2 to 4 million at the least... After their deal was over, the Fler¡äs and Jason hurriedly said goodbye and left the slightly dejected fat middle-aged man with the chubby youth next to him, while the greater storm eagle stood behind. While they were on their way out, a red armored pickup drove by and Jason could see a young man sitting in the driver seat. His eyes were blood-red and Jason felt weird looking at him. The youth couldn''t see him but there was an eerie feeling around him when Jason saw him for a very short moment Chapter 58 - Holy White Bacuri Fruit Because Mark and Gabriella had to deliver the fox cubs to the beast merchants who messaged them a few days ago, the three youths decided to go shopping. The shopping centers and stalls in Jiro-City were much grander than the ones in Artes city and filled with many different things to buy which one couldn''t purchase in Artes city. Greg and Jason were astonished about the things they could purchase because it was the first time for Jason to be in a different city than Artes city and Greg was never in a shopping-street when he was younger and lived in Cyro-City. Malia was unbothered by most things one could purchase, except some clothes and exotic weapons attracted her attention, which Jason found funny. Jason had around 20 million credits and he wanted to use them to purchase mana stones and other things. When he arrived in Cyro-City he would have a week left before the school started and it was very important for him to increase his combat prowess until then, because of different reasons, including the student-rankings on the first day¡­ Because of that, he would have to improve his combat experience and combat skills. That¡äs why Jason wanted to enter a two-star wild zone when he arrived in Cyro city. To protect himself he wanted to purchase a mana gun or more exactly the ManaM9 with an effective firing range of 200 meters. With its black metallic color made out of black iron, a length of 217mm(8.5 in), and a barrel length of 125mm (4.9in) Jason would be able to handle it easily with one hand and Jason adored the exterior design causing him to purchase one. A common M9 pistol was a grade-1 Mana gun with its specialization being a pistol with weak recoil and a standard magazine size of 15 bullets. It could easily kill evolved beasts with a single shot inside a vital area and was as such extremely dangerous. But the most frightening aspect about this weapon was its price. 3.000.000 Credits with 4 filled magazines(common mana bullets) However, Jason still decided to purchase it as defensive measures, and furthermore, Jason bought another 300 common mana bullets and many other types of ammunition like armor-piercing bullets, explosive bullets, boat tails bullets, and more. Adding everything together, Jason¡äs bank account was reduced by around 4.000.000 Credits with a single purchase, causing a devastating expression to appear on his face. `My money!!` He sulked but this thought was fast replaced. Because he still had around 16 million credits left, Jason decided to use 4 million credits to purchase mana stones as an investment for himself. With 12 million credits and 97 small mana stones left, Jason was confident to reach the later-levels of the Novice rank, easily!! Jason even saw some soul weapons inside the shops but he was uninterested in them at the moment because he wasn''t able to afford them even if he feigned interest. Greg found a heavyweight vest which one could adjust to one''s needed weight to train. While Greg bought a heavyweight vest which he could adjust from 1kg to 3000 kg, Jason found this also interesting and he decided to purchase a heavyweight vest with an adjustable weight from 1 to 500kg. It was priced at 2 million credits and Jason had now only half of his fortune left. They continued their stroll when Jason saw something he didn''t think he could find in a previous stall. Jason¡äs knowledge was solid and vast compared to his peers, except for his lack in telling pictures to some beasts, which he was already catching up. When he saw a particular fruit of one stall with its mana fluctuations, Jason¡äs eyes bulged slightly and he went closer. Jason hadn''t seen many fruits radiating mana but this fruit even had a paper-thin black color radiating from it. This was something he had never seen and he wondered what was going on with this fruit. It was a Holy white bacuri which was a low-Class-1 fruit and its price was stated for 10 million credits. Malia and Greg noticed his gaze and Malia informed him about the fruit "The Holy white bacuri fruit is a rare fruit which can only be found in mana dense magic zones or permanent rifts, occasionally it is found in four-star wild zones but it is extremely rare. This fruit is able to completely dissolve one''s mana core shackles until one reaches the low-Adept rank. It is used by influencing heirs to increase their cultivation speed to a certain degree. Comparing their speed with the same amount of mana sensitivity and control, the one who used a Holy white bacuri fruit would be much faster to reach the levels fourth and seventh up to the Novice core limit. There would be no thresholds between the 3rd and 4th, and 6th and 7th level if one used the Holy white bacuri fruit and one could easily enter the Adept rank. Looking at this fruit, I''m sure that this is only one of the lowest-ranked Holy light bacuri fruits that exist, otherwise, its price would be much higher." The vendor listened to the youths talking and in the beginning, he was confident that one of these youths might purchase the Holy white bacuri fruit but after the young woman finished her small lesson, he began to sweat lightly¡­ It was true that this fruit was one of the worst possible ranks had and 10 million credits were probably a scam but he had to sell them because he was in a huge debt, so he tried his best to the fruit palatable "My dear customer...If you purchase this Holy white bacuri fruit for 10 million credits this grade-2 perennial neoxid box prevents the declining effect of Class-2 herbs for more than 5 years if it''s not opened consistently." Listening to the vendor Jason¡äs interest was picked. The fruit was already in a box and couldn¡ät release its magical effect but if Jason bought this fruit it would be without the perennial neoxid box. He didn''t want to purchase the holy white bacuri fruit for himself, rather it was to experiment with something once he got a new soulbond. Jason was way too curious and he had already researched for quite some time about the price for purifying items or fruits and the lowest price was around 25 million. This Holy white baruci fruit would probably be the cheapest purification fruit Jason would be able to get his hand on, at least for the time being, so he decided to purchase it. Receiving a grade-2 perennial neoxid box in addition to the holy white bacur fruit was also nice because it was worth 2 million credits alone. While Jason transferred 10 million credits, he was left with around 100.000 Credits. Malia and Greg were a little bit astonished about his purchase but they found it was still a good idea because Jason had no time left to break through the shackles and saving time was always good and a decent investment in one¡äs human capital. Right now Jason was just too weak and it would only hinder him to wait for a natural breakthrough. They didn¡ät know that Jason did not purchase the fruit for himself rather for his future beast but he wouldn''t say it out loud if nobody asked. Jason was also curious why there were shackles to the 4th and 7th level while the walls to a new rank were quite normal, he couldn¡ät understand the walls in between the ranks. One had to know that the ranking system was only established 200 years ago and there were still many theories out that the "mana-cultivation" system was wrong and should be revised. But there weren''t any proofs and theories alone were not good enough to cause a revision of an established system. Suddenly the three of them heard a loud siren resounding through the streets and a mechanical voice spreading right afterward. **Attention please, attention, please¡­ Due to some unforeseen reasons, a large number of beasts have stepped through the magical dome. They are now on their way to the city walls. Please stay calm and go to the closest shelter or into safe proximity. This is not a test. This is not a test! ** Chapter 59 - Lurking Danger Jason stored the perennial neoxid box with the Holy white bacuri inside away as they continued their shopping trip while his whole fortune was already used up except a small sum. It was already late afternoon and the youths were about to go back to the Fler parents when a loud siren sound voiced through the alley and the whole city. **Attention please, attention, please¡­ Due to some unforeseen reasons, a large number of beasts have stepped through the magical dome. They are now on their way to the city walls. Please stay calm and go to the closest shelter or into safe proximity. This is not a test. This is not a test! ** `Huh?` Jason, Malia, and Greg looked at each other, not sure what to do or where to go! Greg and Jason were never in such a situation and they hoped Malia was more proficient with such situations. The first one who came back down to earth was Malia and she opened the map of Jiro city and set a route to the closest shelter to them. But before they could even go, they heard loud roars from outside the city resounding through the streets as a black mass covered the sky from the side they were able to hear the roars. It was unknown what happened, but when they saw the huge black mass, they felt scared and it was as if black eyes threatened their whole existence. Once they recovered from their fright, they began to rush to the next shelter like thousands of thousands of humans did. The shopping alley was overflowed with humans and everyone charged in the same direction, not caring if they overrun anything. From the corner of his eyes, Jason could even see a young girl crying on the side alone and he wanted to help, when he was pushed away by an expert-ranked man, whose eyes were filled with fear. Not understanding, what''s going on, Jason was even slightly scared of getting overrun by higher-ranked humans, as their speed was faster than him. He would be left alone if Malia and Greg didn''t slow down for him, covering him slightly with their higher physique. It was ridiculous to see that even laborers and normal receptionists were faster than Jason and probably also stronger even if their combat experience was close to zero. While running many thoughts streamed through his mind ''Can the soldiers handle the beast tide? Why does everyone rely on others and don''t fight back even if their strength could be high enough to fight unblemished beasts?` and many more questions ran through his mind but the latter question tormented his mind more than any other of his questions. When they arrived in front of the shelter, the three youths could finally see humanity''s true nature because hundreds of humans stood in front of the already closed gates and they seemed scared to their bones... Hitting the closed gates while tears poured down their desperate faces. Shock could be seen in them and small kids gripped their parents firmly, not understanding what was going on... Greg was taken aback "Did they lock out everyone?? Is that some kind of bad joke?!" They also began to feel scared because at their rank it didn''t matter how strong they were, they couldn''t defeat tens of thousand beasts Malia was still relatively calm and looked at the people in front of the closed gates "Ahh, why is our race such trash?! To save ourselves we would sacrifice so much¡­" And Jason sensed the disgust in her voice, without blaming her feelings, as he could understand her feelings completely Apparently, the humans within the shelter closed the gates as soon as a certain number was inside and even if there was enough space left, they threw away their charity and love for their race and closed the gates, locking them firmly. The next shelter would be quite a distance away and Jason who was somehow calm because Artemis was by his side made a decision before Malia could even say anything. "We can either search for your parents or hide somewhere...I''m not sure which places are the best to hide but searching for your parents is more likely suicidal because we don''t know where exactly they are. Give them an emergency signal with your GPS activated and they can rescue us as soon as possible. If nothing major happens in their district, they will come to us." Malia looked at Jason a little bit astonished because he could remain calm despite a beast tide occurring right in front of them and she nodded approvingly. Every company or slightly larger shop had a safe room and they decided to hide in a small shop which took in a few people until it was filled. Once the door was closed a small group of boys and girls, probably first-grade middle schoolers began to cry because they couldn''t take the pressure. Jason was relatively calm because he had faced many beasts and was somewhat naive because he bought a pistol and was expectant to use it which irritated him. `Why am I expectant?!?! There are thousands of humans are dying each second?` Jason thought and his excitement died down within seconds. It was unknown if the armor-piercing bullets could penetrate unblemished ranked beasts but Jason was confident that they could at least hurt them with enough mana injected. Greg and Jason were not normal youths compared to other kids at the age of 13-14 because Jason matured faster due to his responsibilities and his disease while Greg matured slightly faster than others because he faced reality in elementary school in addition to his many battles against beasts, even though he still behaved like a child sometimes. It looked like Malia faced many beast tides because she was even calmer than Jason and before he had said something she had already send the emergency signal to her parents. Beast tides weren''t uncommon but mankind¡äs nature was unpredictable. It was unknown if the beast tide was even able to reach the outer district, maybe neither the inner district and people were already panicking this much? If everyone would be behaving like they were, humanity would have already gone extinct 300 years ago. While waiting for the soldiers to clear out the beast tide, Jason could still access the network with his quantum bracelet as he tried to relax by watching some martial art technique videos about the higher understanding of the Azure feisty Ape technique with the dual-dagger mastery modification. Previously he had only watched them with the single dagger mastery but now he changed his decision. While Jason watched the videos, trying to stay calm, he stayed on-guard. But even so, almost everyone looked at him oddly. `How could someone be so calm while a beast tide occurred? What''s wrong with this youth..and where can I get such contact lenses...they are so good looking.` The scared group of middle-aged men, women, and middle school students thought. Greg was still stiff but seeing Jason eased up his tension somewhat as he sat down next to him in order to watch some videos. Right now Greg was stronger than Jason in all aspects, soulbond, strength, mana core rank, and probably even more but Jason¡äs calmness caused Greg''s fear to die down and he wanted to be closer to him because he felt saver this way, which was completely illogical. Malia also sat down next to Jason but only because she thought Jason was putting on a facade. However, that wasn¡ät totally the case and Jason only hoped that the beast tide would end soon. Rather than putting on a facade, Jason was sure that magical beasts weren''t able to threaten a B-grade city¡­ At least they wouldn''t be able to completely annihilate it and even if they could, Jason wouldn''t be able to do anything against it. But the main problem Jason figured out was that the possibility that a few Guardian-ranked beasts which were the rank above magical beasts led this beast tide was high, because the roars Jason heard, were somewhat familiar. It felt as if Jason knew what kind of race caused the beast tide but he just couldn¡ät remember what it was. Furthermore, there seemed to be many different kinds of beasts Jason heard and they wouldn¡ät gather together just to attack the City without preying on each other if there was not something forcing them to attack Jiro-city. If Jason was not wrong, someone should have either picked up a magical treasure or stolen a guardian stage beast cub to cause such a disaster, otherwise, he couldn¡ät think of any reason for Guardian ranked beasts to attack a B-grade city, risking their lives for. Jason was way too confident in himself because his eyes were superior to others, his soul was unique if there was not his soul energy and his combat prowess was also quite good but even if he added everything together, he still couldn''t face the thread of such beasts at the moment, which frustrated him. Understanding the situation they were inside once again, Jason decided to create the best possible outcome with his current ability by doing something that not many heroic authorities would do. Watching Videos to calm down his surrounding!! Chapter 60 - Kill Or Getting Killed Minutes passed without any noises from outside the safe room until gunshots and bombing noises permeating through the streets. From the sound, it seemed like the beasts were still far away and probably not over the wall. But only two minutes later the first flying beasts could be seen observing the streets and diving onto their human preys, that weren¡ät able to find a place to hide. Hearing the pitiful sounds of humans crying out for help, their pained shouts mixed within the screeches of beasts, everyone felt ashamed and scared at the same time. Jason tried his best to ignore the sounds but after he finished skimming through a few tutorial videos, he decided to take a look outside. They were mainly four different kinds of beasts Jason could see in the sky. I)low/mid awakened beast¡ú Iron feathered hawk¡äs II)late awakened beast¡ú heavyweight vulture¡äs III) mid/late-evolved¡ú thunder eagle¡äs IV) low/mid unblemished¡ú winged wind centipede "Malia, Greg..what are the strongest ranked beasts you two can defeat once face solo or in a group, separately seen? Jason asked without looking at them. The beast tide didn''t seem normal and Jason had a bad premonition that this beast tide wouldn''t end without something huge happening. Greg and Malia also looked outside while Malia answered "I¡äm at the Initiate-Master rank and I can defeat low-unblemished ranked beasts up to two at once. With the help of my soulbonds, maybe five to six but that''s the most I can hold out." Defeating an unblemished beast while being at the same rank meant Malia¡äs soulbonds gave her a decent shared of strength so she could fight against them head-on. Killing beasts at the same rank is harder the further one walked down the path of cultivation because the gap between human ranks and beast ranks extends only further. While Jason was astonished about her strength, Greg also answered "I¡äm at the 3rd Adept rank and due to the physical enhancement of my soulbond, I can defeat a group of mid awakened beasts or two late awakened beasts at most. With Taurus, I can defeat a few low evolved beasts." Jason listened carefully and looked at the mana cores of everyone within the safety room but it looked like even if there was someone with decent strength, he or she wouldn''t be able to help because everyone looked like they were going to faint once a single beast entered the room. He wasn''t sure if a beast would enter this room but some beasts were extremely sensitive to smell and pheromones and due to the anxiety most people spread inside this room, it wouldn''t be a surprise if a beast was about to notice them soon. Minutes passed and Jason was still looking around attentively and to his shock, he could see the first beasts roaming through the streets¡­.The gunshot sounds could still be heard but a few beasts pushed through the defensive lines?? But according to their core strength, they didn''t look strong and Jason was confident to kill them with his Mana M9 pistol so he wasn''t really scared at the moment. Some good news however was that the flying beasts spread out, leaving the shopping street after they preyed on humans. There was also the possibility of them being shot down by some hunter but the important fact was that the more time passed the fewer flying beasts roamed around the sky. A full hour passed and more and more beasts could be seen in the shopping street. Unfortunately, a few shops were attacked and the people inside, massacred and torn apart mercilessly. Jason who was still confident in the beginning was feeling slightly complicated... Turning around he asked everyone about their strength or if someone possessed weapons to defend themselves because the situation seemed to go out of control slowly. Not a single one had a weapon and it was a disaster, only Greg and Malia had grade-two mana pistols that could kill unblemished beasts easily and hurt magical beasts or even kill them with some effort but it would take some time to do that. Jason was confused that not even the shop owner had a weapon but looking at him with his golden eyes, subconsciously spreading his intimidating aura, the shop owner began to look more and more guilty, and suddenly he gave in and told that he had a graded mana rifle to defend himself in the worst-case scenarios. Everyone looked at the shop owner in contempt because he lied to them to save himself, except Jason, Malia and Greg Could the shop owner know that Jason didn¡ät want to steal his mana rifle to save himself? Not really, he was just scared... To be honest, everyone would at first save oneself and then maybe some strangers, without risking one¡äs own life. Probably only the most loved family members would be saved before one would save oneself but that was most likely it. Jason asked if they had mana weapons only because of a single reason...once the beasts would rush into this shop, Jason would probably abandon the people inside there because he was the last who could protect someone. Being locked inside a small space with beasts was even worse than trying to survive outside. During the last hour, Gabriella sends everyone her emergency notification with the GPS and wrote that there were too many magical beasts, and if they abandoned their position, the whole defensive line would break-in, which was quite unfortunate. They could hold their position and push back the beasts slightly, but that was it. If something was to happen, she ordered the youths to send her another emergency signal and they would immediately disregard the cities safety for them. When Jason read this, he was taken aback but he nodded. He would also save his family instead of other people. Gabriella and Mark weren¡ät responsible for the life of the citizen, rather than that they would look out for Greg and Malia if something were to happen, which Jason agreed on. While Jason was thinking carefully about what to do, a low awakened beast began to sniff at the safety room gate, and everyone began to breathe fast, scared about the beast. Jason was most disdainful about their reaction. He could understand the middle-schoolers being scared about awakened beasts but please¡­ There were more than enough Advanced-Adepts and Experts ranked here. WHY are you scared about an awakened beast?!? SH*****ads?? If there wasn¡ät a beast tide occurring, Jason would most likely throw a fit right now, even if he didn¡ät like attention or talking to strangers... if one was strong enough to defend themself, fight for your life?! Because the low-awakened beasts'' action drew some attention to their shop, they had to do something. "Open the gate slightly for a short moment, so I can see its head" While the others were scared about Jason¡äs order, he took out one of his low-grade-1 knives. The others tried to hold back Jason when he suddenly turned around. They could see his anger-filled golden eyes flickering coldly which caused them to step back unconsciously, disregarding their thought of intercepting in Jason¡äs business. Malia was still amazed and even slightly scared about his eyes but she put up a small water wall between the three of them and the other people inside the safety room before Greg opened the gate with his vast strength. A moment later the gate closed again and the knife in Jason¡äs hand already vanished. Jason took a deep breath and he looked slightly exhausted because he had used up more than half of his mana in an instant to inject it into the knife in order to increase the flying speed and decrease the sound which worked perfectly fine. The low-awakened beast in front of the door collapsed lifelessly and Jason couldn''t even celebrate his first awakened beast kill because he had to replenish his mana as fast as possible. Time passed slowly and Jason had now completely replenished his mana while the situation outside was getting worse because the street was filled with beasts and more and more shops were getting attacked, dozens of humans getting killed every second Jason also noticed two new corpses in front of their shops while one was burned the other one was wet and Jason understood that it was Malia who killed them with her abilities, while he had replenished his mana. He was already aware of her fire and water soulbonds because he saw the transmuted mana inside her mana core. Even Malia looked slightly worried right now and it was only when she got another notification after the beast tide went on for more than 2 hours, that the tension eased up to a certain degree. The beast tide was almost over and the soldiers would clean up the rest of the city now. Afterward, each of the three youths got a message in their newly established group channel, that Gabriella and Mark were on their way. In 5 minutes at worst, would they be there and the three of them were about to cry out in joy when a majestic pair of lion-heads looked through the window and roared loud, before it spat fire out of its mouths, melting the shelter''s gate without any hindrance. Chapter 61 - 5 Minutes "Tiny two-headed amber Lion" Malia cried out in shock. "Tiny?!" Both Jason and Greg shouted. The red-furred Lion with flames enveloping its mane was at least three-meters high without considering its neck or heads¡­ While it bent down to spit out flames, Malia formed a thick wall of water to defend against the flames. Jason had to think for a moment before he remembered the tiny two-headed lion. It was already a magical beast and it looked like Malia was about to use up her whole mana pool to defend against a single usage of flames as the water wall was slowly being evaporated. Malia sweated heavily and it looked like she was on her limit as the flames suddenly stopped. The two-headed lion stopped spitting out flames and looked through the hole if its prey was already dead, only to see a small golden-eyed youth taking out a pistol, shooting at it. But the youth''s speed was way too slow for the lion and it closed its eyelid to prevent any injuries to its eyes. "F**k" Jason cursed and he lamented his speed but his move gave Greg enough time to pull out a mana grade-2 desert eagle (mana) equipped with armor-piercing bullets. When the tiny two-headed amber lion opened its eye again it was greeted by a batch of bullets, instantly piercing its eye. Unfortunately, the bullets missed the lion''s brain but one head was severely injured which was very fortunate, considering their situation. Right at the moment, the two-headed lion was about to spit out another batch of flames, Malia cried out with a few fragmentation grenades in her hand. She was sweating heavily and not a single speck of mana was left inside her. Considering the ways to injure the tiny two-headed amber lion, she could only think of the fragmentation grenades, she had, as they didn¡ät need mana to detonate. Jason was frightened and almost peed his pants as he looked at the bunch of grenades flying through the hole between the lions'' heads where they exploded, causing a loud stirr within the shopping street. While the injured head was severed, the other head was now spiked with metal alloy fragments and the tiny two-headed amber lion cried out in pain. There was only one problem! Because of the explosion, the gate was almost completely demolished and the two holes made by the lion''s flames were their smallest problem. While the lion seemed to be on its deathbed another few beasts noticed that and a group of evolved ranked hyenas stormed towards the dying lion killing it, while receiving heavy casualties with 10 hyenas getting burned, as they began feasting on the tiny two-headed amber lion that was still hanging on it¡äs life. Jason, Greg, and Malia knew that they had to remain calm now and not say anything because the more time passed, the better, when one of the middle-graders suddenly cried out in fright after he saw the hyenas killing, and tearing apart the lion carcass. `S***h**d` the three youth¡äs thought at the same time and Greg who wasn¡ät the smartest even though, that he couldn''t be compared to such a low IQ brick head. There were around 20 evolved thick-skinned hyenas with their specialty having a thick skin in front of them, gobbling down the lion meat. Jason¡äs normal bullets would be useless and he switched out the magazine to armor-piercing bullets as fast as he could while Greg shot at the hyenas who noticed the human group inside the torn safety room gate. The Lion corpse wouldn''t give them enough food and nutrition for all of them and humans were delicious snacks, causing around 10 hyenas to switch their attention to them. Malia wasn''t scared to fight them and she shot out five water jets which blew apart five hyenas without leaving much of their body in one piece. But this was the most she was able to do, as her legs gave in from mana overexertion. The hyenas cried in agony and everything that happened over the last minute attracted more and more attention, which could be considered the worst-case scenario. They had to hold out slightly less than 4 minutes but Malia¡äs mana pool was completely dried up and she could only use non-mana-operated weapons. Greg still had some reserves left and his desert eagle was shooting out bullets as if its magazine was infinite, killing one beast after another. More and more beasts were gathering close to the lion''s corpse and Jason could see its core which radiated loads of mana with liquid floating around the inside of the mana core, causing batches of beasts to gather nearby the magical ranked lion corpse. But fortunately, these beasts were preying on each other, observing the situation, waiting for the first beast to approach the lion''s mana core. Once the first beast approached the core, the others would follow suit. Instead of attacking the humans, Jason hoped that they would rather prey on each other in order to obtain the magical ranked corpse to improve their strength instead of them. A minute full of tension passed and Jason could swear that he smelled something fishy, when he turned around to see that there was a small puddle forming below an embarrassed girl. Throwing out a towel from his storage device, Jason decided to ignore their situation as he looked through the torn gate once again. Nothing happened in the meantime, but the beasts slowly began to understand that time was running out as they felt powerful humans approaching them slowly. When the first beast finally began to approach the magical beast core, the long-awaited massacre among them began. Hyenas, wolves, bison¡äs, lizards, horses, snakes, bufflewumps, foxes and so on tried to catch the magical ranked beast core but not a single one was able to get it, because each beast obstructed one another which also happened within the same race. Everyone inside the safety room was overjoyed and the tension from the people in the background eased slightly, while the three youths were still completely on guard, attentively looking outside. Two minutes passed and it wouldn''t be long until their rescue would come but suddenly the beasts decided to ignore each other and to rush to the beast core. While one beast after another was hunted down, a few were thrown away by brute force, and unfortunately for everyone, there was an unblemished beast that was thrown directly into the already torn gate blowing away Jason, Greg and Malia. Greg¡äs desert eagle was pushed out of his hand and now a tall stepwind wolf was on top of the torn gate that laid on the youths, while their backs hurt from the impact they received. Jason still had his pistol close to him but it would be useless against the stepwind wolf which was an unblemished ranked beast Only the torn gate was between the wolf and them. Malia couldn''t do anything because of her not-existent mana reserves, and moving alone was already extremely difficult, while Jason and Greg had nothing to defend themselves¡­ Jason felt pain in his leg and he knew he was injured but the pain caused him to stay awake. While the stepwind wolf shook its head around and groaned in pain, Jason looked around searching for the desert eagle, activating his mana eyes. And a moment later, Jason saw the desert eagle next to Malia who completely lost her composure as the stepwind wolf¡äs head came closer and closer to her with bloodlust filling its eyes. She tried to use her physical strength to push away the torn gate with the wolf on it, but it was useless as her energy was drained to the last drop. Right at the moment when the stepwind wolf¡äs mouth was above her face ready to kill Malia by biting off her head, she closed her eyes in fright. A loud *BANG* caused her eardrums to vibrate violently and liquid streaming on her face. `I¡äm not dead?` Malia wondered and his whole body was shaking in fright. Opening her eyes, she saw the stepwind wolf, with a large hole in its head and the light in its eyes diminishing slowly. Turning to the right she was Jason with Greg¡äs desert eagle in his hand smiling drily with his ashen face that was completely drained from mana before he groaned in pain "F****ng heavy¡­" Malia was still scared and powerless but she and Greg pushed away from the torn gate, only to see that soldiers arrived at the shopping street. Jason saw this and tried to get up. His left leg was injured and it seemed as if a sharp part from the torn gate had penetrated into it. By pushing away the torn gate, the wound teared up even more and it was difficult to walk without feeling pain but Malia looked worse because of her overuse of mana and including traumatizing situation she was in, a few seconds ago, she looked like a zombie that feasted on humans, with the wolf''s blood splattered on her face. When everyone got up, Greg looked like he was the most uninjured of the three of them and he was already able to smile naively, when he picked up the remaining parts of the "tiny" two-headed amber lion. Chapter 62 - Aftermath When Jason and Malia left the store supporting each other, Jason felt a draft next to him. Gabriella and Mark appeared in front of Malia scanning her from head to toe. "Oh, my baby!!! Are you fine? Does it hurt somewhere? Drink this healing reagent and let me take a look" Gabriella was extremely worried and Malia tried to calm down her mother, while Jason felt like an extra. He walked away because he didn''t want to interrupt them while he dragged his injured leg with him. His body was still filled with adrenaline and his heart thumbed loudly when he helped Greg to pick up the beast corpses they killed. It was a common rule that the hunters had the right on their prey''s corpse and whoever snatched it would be treated as immoral. This was not a law but most people would stick to this rule, however, there are always desperate people trying to gain some extra credits because of their debt or ignorance. Jason''s leg ached a lot and he decided to drink a grade-1 healing reagent but it was still kinda painful. When they were almost finished collecting the tiny two-headed amber lion¡äs body parts, Greg saw Jason¡äs leg for the first time and his eyes widened, a shocked expression was apparent on his face. "Yoo... J-Jason are you fine? You''re sure that you won''t bleed to death??.. Let¡äs go to mom, she can heal you?!?!" "I''m fi...n" Jason said when a sudden pain caused him to grit his teeth¡­ .. his sight blurred and his legs gave in, darkness enveloping him. "Jason!!!. MOOOOM!!" Gabriella was still worried about her daughter when she heard Greg¡äs voice, turning around she saw Greg holding up a blood-drained Jason with a large amount of blood below him creating a small puddle. "OH no!" Gabriella cried out and she appeared next to Jason while a tiny plant with thick but smooth vines, appeared on her left hand. Sprouting its smooth vines around Jason''s leg, a calming sensation spread through them, and one could smell a herbal aroma spreading from the vines. If Jason''s mana eyes were activated, he would be able to see healing magic for his first time. Gabriella''s first soulbond was a plant-type evolved ranked beast with a strong healing ability, which was rarely seen. But the effect wasn''t strong enough for Jason to regain his lost blood and she took out two different types of bottles. ¡úPeak Grade-2 Healing reagent to prevent Jason from losing more blood and regaining some vigor. ¡ú Grade-1 blood formation reagent to strengthen Jason''s blood and increase his blood-regeneration. The blood formation reagent was only a grade-1 potion because Jason couldn''t handle the effects of the grade-2 reagent and furthermore, Gabriella and Mark didn''t have a grade-2 blood formation reagent, to begin with, because it had to be made out of blood essence from rare beasts. Jason¡äs face regained some color but he was still not able to regain his consciousness. *Hours later* Jason wasn''t sure when he woke up but he felt refreshed and full of vigor when he opened up his eyes. He could see a large bedroom with expensive furniture around him and wondered where he was. Sitting up, Jason straightened his back and he felt still slightly exhausted when Artemis appeared in front of him within the familiar white magic circle. Crying out with worry and joy, she threw herself in his embrace. The whole beast tide, Jason forced her to stay within the soul world and she was extremely worried about him the whole time, but she would hinder Jason more than helping him during the beast tide, which frustrated her... Artemis could feel that Jason''s injury was fully healed, but she was still slightly worried bout his well-being Jason wanted to stay up while holding Artemis but he felt that his left leg felt slightly numb and was more difficult to move when he remembered his leg injury. Pulling down his pants, he saw that there wasn¡ät even a scrab, where he was previously injured, which wondered him. There was also no pain anymore but the numb feeling was still uncomfortable. Jason dragged himself out of the room and he entered the living room where he was greeted by the Fler''s. He was happy to see them fine and even Malia looked completely fine without the wolf blood on her face. Apparently, only Jason was seriously injured by the gate and pierced by a sharp part of the torn gate. If Malia or Greg were hit by the sharp part of the gate, they wouldn''t be as seriously injured as Jason, because their physique was much tougher and more resistant than Jason¡äs but that wasn¡ät exceptionally hard to accomplish Even if Jason felt much stronger than two months ago¡­ his strength was still at the bottom of the chain and almost everything could kill him. Mark heard Jason as first and he looked at him, asking "Hey little one, are you fine?" before he unwillingly added "You did a good job, thank you for saving my precious daughter" Malia had told her parents what happened and both were grateful for Jason. Mark wasn''t especially fond of Jason but he made extra points with his action today. Gabriella, Greg, and Malia stood up simultaneously and surrounded Jason, asking him about his injury, if it hurt, if he felt extremely numb, tired and so on. Jason answered the questions and sat down with Artemis still in his arm, when he asked the question he was the most curious about. "How bad is the situation in Jiro-City? Why did the Beast tide occur and how many casualties did we suffer?" Jason wasn''t a pessimist or optimist and facts spoke more words than anything else but he hoped that the situation in Jiro wasn''t as bad as he imagined when the beast tide occurred. Mark opened the news and read the statistics before he answered Jason "Overall the beast tide was mainly made up by evolved and unblemished beasts while a few hundred magical beasts appeared. The worst however was the appearance of a small Guardian beast minotaur tribe...they tore down the city wall and devastated the outer districts and we could only stall them. Not a single one of them were killed and they entered the noble district without caring about our attacks. Even though a few of our Grandmagus¡ä attacked them, the minotaur''s innate magic resistance is exceptional and they pushed us back with their physical strength. Fortunately for us and Jiro city was that rather than doing a killing-spree, they retreated after getting back what once belonged to them. It was only then when two of the berserk minotaurs calmed down and left without looking back. If you want to know the answer to why this beast tide occurred, this should be relatively easy when you know the characteristics of beasts. There are only two ways to cause a relative intelligent race, minotaurs to be precise, at the Guardian rank to go into its berserk mode where it loses almost all reasonings. 1) Mana overdraft 2) Upcoming annihilation 3) Cub abduction In my opinion, it''s the third reason and one of the nobles in Jiro-City probably stole a cub that was taken back by the Minotaur tribe. It is already extremely fortunate for these nobles to be still alive but the ones who had to pay the price were the citizens of Jiro-City. More than one million deaths are already noted ¡­ and there are still many more missing. About the situation in Jiro-City? The citizens are scared and panicking while the government tries to calm down the masses as well as possible. Looking at the streets and devastated districts with the destroyed buildings, including reinforced skyscrapers caused by the minotaurs'' physical enhanced charges¡­.the materialistic loss is extremely high. I¡äm glad that all of you survived and it''s fortunate that you only sustained a "small injury". Considering your weak physique and mana core rank it is already good that you survived the beast tide. To be honest¡­ it''s quite shameful to get informed that over 1 million people died¡­ This beast tide was made up of a few million beasts, but most humans are higher ranked and at least at the Expert rank, and its illogical that they died without being able to defend themselves¡­ While these citizens died, the military acted too slow and caused too many flying beasts to enter the city.. Concluding everything¡­ it¡äs dogs**t what happened here¡­.F**k" Jason listened carefully to Mark and he was rational talking about the whole situation until the end and with his last sentence he erupted and a small sound wave caused everyone''s hairs to blowback while their ears hurt. "HONEY!!!! WHAT DID I TELL YOU? CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS!!" Gabriella could only shout because she couldn''t hear anything and the whole situation turned quite awkward. The one who was the most hurt, was Artemis and she cried out and entered Jason¡äs soul world after glaring at Mark. Chapter 63 - Persuading To Lose More Money When Jason could hear something again, he asked where they were, what happened to the fox cubs and the scaled wolf. Gabriella reassured Jason, that everything was fine with the lesser elemental foxes and that all of them were sold. Previously Jason thought that Mark would only be able to sell half of the fox cubs but apparently, the beast merchant found quite a lot of middle-school graduates that were in a dire need of elemental beasts for their first contract, and the fox cubs came to the perfect timing, while the scaled wolf was the best of them. Mark only sold all of the fox cubs to this merchant because he received an additional large tip due to the large number of fox cubs. Jason hoped the fox cubs were fine and survived the beast tide but even if he knew, there wasn''t much he could change now, so he decided to change the subject. "When are we going to depart? Do we have to wait for something or can we continue our trip to Cyro-City tomorrow?" "We should be able to continue our trip tomorrow, but we can arrive a lot faster because we can change our vehicle to our high-speed flying shuttle! It will only take four hours with it because we fly almost straight through one- and two-star wild zones without flying beasts in a high altitude without any detours. Even if they were a few awakened beasts flying through the sky, they would be ripped apart, before they could see us." Gabriella said confidently with a hunch of pride behind covered in her words. "But shouldn''t you guys do something else first? You guys killed a magical beast and a few other rare beasts.. Even if the two-headed amber lion was ripped apart, the core and other important parts are still sellable and worth quite a lot. Greg¡äs storage space has an integrated perseverance function and Greg said the liver looked fine.. A few nobles would probably pay a mountain of credits to get the liver of a two-headed amber lion which is said to be one of the best as transplantation. Not forgetting the beast core¡­ Magical beast cores can be fed to one of your soulbonds and maybe their potential or fire ability can increase." Greg took out the magical beast core which was red in color and inside one could see a small flame vigorously moving around. Jason activated his mana eyes and he was overwhelmed by the huge compressed amount of mana inside the core¡­ `Is that a drop of mana liquid?` Jason thought and he was reminded of the first time he saw the mana core during the beast break-out. For humans, if they wanted to enter the Magus rank, they had to compress their mana as much as possible before converting it into liquid. This compression would first purify one''s mana core before it would metamorph one''s body. While the mana would be compressed, new space for even more mana would be left inside the mana core and it was said that the more mana was compressed into a liquid the stronger were ones attacks. Jason found the cultivation system quite weird. From Novice¡ú Adept¡ú Expert¡ú Master-rank one would increase the size of one''s mana core while expelling impurities. From then on one would convert the gaseous mana into liquid and reach the continuing rank called Magus. And from Jason¡äs knowledge, it was said that the more drops of mana liquid one possessed the higher was one''s level and rank¡ú To reach the rank of a Grandmagus one would only need 30% of his mana core filled with mana liquid and so on¡­. Converting mana into liquid was said to be extremely difficult because the focus and accuracy needed was more than most could do while the amount of mana was as much as a mountain, which was also the first point for most humans the first major obstacle¡ú Reaching the Magus rank. Before Jason had also wondered why these methods were divided like this and which rank came after Grandmagus, but there was no need for him to think about that now. The only thing he had to know was, that without resources, his speed would only slow down, and to get more resources, Jason had to enter dangerous wild zones or even forbidden zones, battle zones, and so on. Greg looked at Malia who gave him a signal with her eyes and Greg threw the Magical beast core to Jason who had a hard time catching the core because he was still deep in thoughts. "You can take it" Greg said and Malia approved his decision. Jason was dumbfounded but grateful and he didn''t reject the magical beast core. Asking Artemis if she could come out again, a white magical circle appeared before Jason and Artemis jumped out of it. Jason thought she would immediately jump to the magical beast core but the complete opposite happened when she distanced herself from the core with disapproval in her face¡­ "Do you not like this core??..." This was weird¡­ didn¡ät Artemis love mana the most? This magical ranked beast core had much more mana inside than a small mana stone but why did she back off? A weird kind of feeling was transmitted to his mind and Jason immediately understood. "Ehh¡­. is it possible to trade magical beast cores against other elements??" Jason asked with an apologetic expression. Apparently, Artemis wasn¡ät suitable for the fire elemental magical beast core and she hated this kind of mana¡­ she transmitted Jason a picture of an ice cube and the feeling of it and he understood what she wanted. "That''s possible but a fire magical beast core is one of the most common types and if you want to trade it with a different elemental type, you have to add at least the difference of the wanted core. But it''s more likely that you have to add quite a sum because rare cores are worth quite a lot." Mark was the first to answer but the answer was satisfying and one could see Jason frowning slightly¡­ "What core do you need? Maybe we can help somehow¡­ we killed a few magical beasts today and maybe the core you need is among them" Gabriella answered and hope flickered in Jason¡äs eyes, when he nodded with his head subconsciously. Right now Jason felt really shameful but if he could get an Ice elemental beast core. Maybe Artemis would even be able to evolve¡­ who knows?` Jason thought already thinking far ahead of the future before he calmed down "Is among the magical beasts an Ice elemental beast?" Jason asked with a small ray of hope. They were close to an ice magical zone and the chances that a magical beast with an Ice affinity invaded the city were not small, but beasts with an ice affinity were much rarer than one with a fire affinity so Jason wasn¡ät sure. "I think there was a fierce glacier bear among the beasts we¡­." "REALLY! Can we maybe trade the cores? I¡äll definitely pay the difference or more once I have the credits¡­. Please!!" Jason tried his best to make puppy eyes and Gabriella laughed while Mark sighed "There is no need for you to pay the difference. The ice elemental beast core is a thank you for saving our daughter" Mark said... If a greedy person gifted something, it meant he loves his daughter dearly and Jason smiled at Mark before he gave them the fire elemental beast core¡­ "Even If I saved Malia, I was also rescued in return... I don''t like owing favors..please accept the core and tell me the difference between the two cores price." Jason was adamant but Mark was also stubborn and in the end, they agreed that Jason didn¡ät have to pay the difference while they exchanged cores. Mark was astonished about himself¡­` Did I try to persuade Jason to give him my money??!?!` The ice elemental core was extremely cold and had the size of a small fist and Artemis jumped at the core and opened up her peak as much as possible squeezing the core down before Jason was able to do something, while everyone''s eyes widened in shock `She wouldn''t explode, right?` Was what everyone thought Chapter 64 - Evolution? Artemis'' belly bulged and she looked at Jason before a magic circle appeared below her and she appeared in his soul word. "WAITT! She won''t die right??? Why did she gulp down the magical ranked beast core now???!!? How should a three-star wild beast be able to digest such ferocious mana¡­.Let''s go to a professional, maybe she can receive some help, before its too late." Malia jumped up and Gabriella followed suit. After them, Greg also jumped up, following them and even Mark stood up while Jason was still sitting at the table. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING JASON??? Do you want your soulbond to die??" Malia shouted with anger in her voice and the others looked also concerned. "That''s not needed" Jason said calmly, before looking into his soul world where a white cocoon covered Artemis. He felt that she was fine and small snowflakes surrounded the white cocoon. Each step he took closer to her felt a few degrees colder and Jason distances himself once again. Jason decided to leave his soul world and he smiled, still sitting at the table with four pairs of eyes looking at him with various emotions "Not needed??" Greg was the first one to come back to his senses "Yeah..she can take it...I think she is evolving" Jason answered still smiling. There were a few facts leading Jason to his conclusion. 1st Artemis was wrapped in white shining light. ¡ú Every evolving beast did that. 2nd She gulped down a magical beast mana core which provided thousands of times the mana Artemis would need to survive and strengthening herself ¡úA certain amount of mana is needed to force an evolution in the beast''s genes without destroying her. ¡úJason thought that Artemis could digest as much mana as she wanted. 3rd Artemis cocoon was releasing a terrifying force while cold drafts and snowflakes surrounded it. ¡úsome evolutions caused the creation of an elemental affinity seed. "HUH?" Everyone was flabbergasted. ''Just like that Jason''s soulbond evolved? His wild beast could withstand such devastating and vigorous mana? Without causing pain to either soulbond or contractor?? "What the hell is your soulbond'' s mutation" Malia was the first to ask the obvious question which nobody could answer, not even Jason, and he lifted his arms with a helpless gesture. "I honestly don''t know but apparently she can digest as much mana as she wants to. And to add on, I can''t figure out her potential at all, even my gut feeling is telling me that something is going on. This wasn''t the case with each beast I caught and also not the case when I told Greg to pick his soulbond" It was better to be safe than dead or betrayed, so Jason told only what he was supposed to. Jason didn''t know that the Fler did already roughly know about his eyes capabilities while Gabriella and Mark already talked to each other about Jason''s mana eyes and what exactly they were. There were many unique things about Jason and now Artemis was added to the collection. (Special) Mana eyes, Unique soul(weak soul energy), and (Unique) Mutated snowflake owl. Jason was a mysterious character to them but he was gentle, friendly, loyal as he saved Malia even though he was seriously injured, and a friend of Greg and now apparently even Malia. They believed Jason wouldn''t betray them and the two of them decided to wait for Jason to tell them about his past or his eye''s special effect more in detail. After that the Fler''s sat down at the table once again, to discuss their schedule for the next day. When they dispersed, Jason went into his room to practice the Heaven'' Hell technique before he looked at Artemis for some time. Afterward, Jason watched multiple videos about the dual mastery modification of the Azure feisty Ape technique before he switched to the beastarium with its characteristic to look at certain areas with its residing beasts inside. Jason selected Cyro city as the main spot while the different wild zones were projected. He could select one and every beast inside this wild zone would be detailed except a few rare and dangerous ones without much information. Important for Jason was that there was no one-star wild zone which meant the weakest beast Jason could use to practice would be an awakened ranked beast. This caused Jason to frown deeply and he questioned himself if he would be able to defeat an awakened beast without Artemis as his support. Killing awakened beasts without Artemis¡ä help seemed impossible at the moment as combining his strength with his weapons and combat prowess was not enough. Today, Jason understood again that his strength had to increase much faster... Because he had already slept much, Jason decided to absorb mana throughout the night, and his determination to break into the next level as soon as possible was ignited. Injecting mana into his mana core consisted of simple steps. Sensing the mana in the surroundings and absorb it, before circling the foreign mana throughout the main mana channels within the body. Once a large circle was finished, the mana could be annexed and injected into the body The better one¡äs mana control, sensitivity, surrounding mana density, determination and focus was, the faster one could get stronger. The whole night passed and Jason only stopped circulating his mana to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique. With Jason''s understanding, Artemis would evolve into a low-awakened beast at the worst and the weakest awakened beast had soul energy of at least 11 Units. One-star beasts needed 1 unit, Two-star¡ú 2 units, Three-star¡ú 4 units, Four-star beasts--> 6 units, ¡ú Five-star beasts¡ú 10 units on average, while it varied for each race but a soul power of 11 would be the worst of the worst for an awakened beast to possess. Right now Jason¡äs soul energy was at around 5.4 while he got around 1.4 shared from Artemis. This meant his own soul energy was approximately 4 points after breaking through 4 levels of his mana core rank and painstakingly practicing Heaven''s Hell techniques first level three times a day for weeks. Based on the assumption that Artemis would evolve into a low-awakened ranked beast with soul energy of 11 and his shared amount of ?, Jason had to increase his own soul energy by at least 3.5 points. This was the best outcome not including the fact that Jason didn¡ät know when Artemis would finish her evolution. And his gut feeling told him that Artemis soul energy wouldn''t be 11 and rather higher¡­ Being in a contract with a soulbond with higher soul energy than oneself could end disastrously because they weren''t forced to obey the orders of their contractors. If a beast were to disregard the contractor''s will, everything could be endangered. A few years ago in the news, there was a report about a beast obtaining exceptionally high soul energy after evolving. Unfortunately, this beast killed its contractor and one could only say that raising high potential beasts since birth was better than raising a beast with high potential when it had already matured as its instincts were apparent and hard to control. Controlling beasts with lower soul energy was still possible, even though it could be difficult sometimes under the will of their wild instincts but one was powerless against beasts with higher soul energy. Nevertheless, Jason was confident, that Artemis wouldn¡ät hurt him, but playing everything save was still better. Determined to increase his overall capabilities, Jason finished his solidification in the morning, before he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique and went down to eat breakfast. Chapter 65 - One Incident After Another Everyone was already sitting at the table and fortunately, there wasn''t a nightgown accident with Malia this time, and the atmosphere was splendid. After eating breakfast, Jason followed the others outside the apartment, and it seemed as if they were at a big hotel. Jason didn''t have the desire to look where he was the day before, and only now did he notice that they were on a high floor of a skyscraper. They entered a glass elevator and Jason could see the demolished streets and buildings far away... Opening his quantum bracelets holographic screen he accessed the news about Jiro-City and the death list that seemed to be endless long¡­. 1.553.356 deaths and less than 1 million injured humans. Jiro-City had around 40 million citizens and was thus one of the biggest b-grade cities on Astrix while only Cyro- and Bengal-City were larger as A-grade City. Cyro-City had around 80 to 90 million citizens while Bengal-City had around 75 million citizens. The Capital of Astrix island was Cyro and this was also where the most prestigious schools were situated. While many schools were in Cyro city, which was also called the City of Rivalry by many, because not only the students had a deep sense of competition to reach the higher class ranking in order to gain more resources, rather the schools had a fierce rivalry against each other. While the Vanguard school was seen as one of the big three schools with its 6 affiliated schools, it wasn¡ät the biggest school among the big three and also not the strongest but balancing in-between these factors. What made up the Vanguard school was its foundation, which was deep and full of theoretical knowledge that was imprinted in the student''s mind. Their motto was "Knowledge is power", but unfortunately for Jason was, that his knowledge wasn¡ät that powerful and he could only curse in his mind about such a stupid motto. Many humans died over the last 24 hours and Jason felt sad about the incident but this was also one of the reasons his ambition to reach a higher mana core rank was only getting firmer. `Cowardly dying? F**K you beasts and nobles.. L**k my boots..I won''t die!!` Jason cursed out inwardly and he felt that his mind was getting more and more stable. Only a few minutes later, they arrived outside and Mark summoned a dark red sporty-looking limousine with a length of more than 6 meters in front of them. Somehow this limousine looked even more expensive than the hovering truck and Jason saw the mana radiating from the car and he immediately knew that it was made out of magical ranked beast remains at the worst. While stepping inside Jason was astonished about the futuristic interior and it looked very technologically advanced with a large screen in the front, a fridge at the side, and beverages inside. It was very spacious inside the limousine and sitting down felt extremely comfortable as Jason wondered if he would sleep in, once he stopped focusing as Jason was pushed inside. Looking around even Greg and Malia felt very relaxed and Gabriella had to smile when she saw Jason¡äs amazed face. "Jason, just that you know¡­ this peak grade-2 flying limousine was made out of ourazin-hoarding-metal-beasts which are rare magical beasts. Ourazin alone is already a precious metal but once hoarded by a metal-beast the purity and mana conductivity increased by a large margin. This causes the limousine to reach a much higher speed..And to be honest this car is our most treasured asset as well as the most expensive one...hehe¡­" "OHH...How expensive was it??" Jason listened and he was curious about the price. He knew that the Fler¡äs were rich but he wanted to know how expensive their most expensive asset was and Jason listened impatiently. "We paid with high-grade mana stones and other magical treasures but converted...It should be around 100 Star notes.." Jason looked dumbfounded and confused not knowing what Star notes were¡­. "Ohh..right¡­ you don''t know anything about Star notes. Credits are mostly used for smaller businesses while Star notes represent the more expensive currency. 100.000.000 Credits are equivalent to 1 Star note. So we paid 10 trillion Credits for this limousine" Above Jason, a wormhole opened and his soul vanished into thin air while he looked completely stupified at Gabriella¡­ "HUH? 10 trillion Credits????" Jason wasn''t able to close his mouth and Gabriella started to chuckle...She wanted to brag a little bit about her baby but she didn''t think Jason would react like this "Let''s go, honey!" She said and turned around to Mark who immediately started the engine. This morning, they applied for a flying permit from the AI which they easily received and now the Limousine began to ascend into the air. Jason was looking outside the window still dumbfounded when he was pressed into Greg by the sudden acceleration of the flying limousine. Nausea and the desire to vomit were Jason¡äs smallest problem right now because he was pressed on Greg which wasn¡ät really comfortable. Malia had formed a small membrane of mana around her and chuckled while Greg pushed Jason gentle away from him while laughing "Sorry you are not my type, bro" "YOU ARE ALSO NOT MY TYPE, MUSCLEHEAD!!" Jason shouted because he was embarrassed. HOW should he know that the limousine would reach such a terrifying speed. Jason wasn¡ät even able to determine where they exactly were as he could only barely made out the landscape outside the window. The only thing Jason could see was blurry colors of brown, green, white, and red, which wondered Jason.. `How fast is this car that I can¡ät see anything at all with my eyesight??` But thinking about the price Jason understood the situation completely¡­.The limousine had to be extremely fast but probably it was probably not very endurable with this speed because it looked like they made a big detour to avoid four-star zones and most three-star zones with many flying beasts. After trying to find a nice position to sit in, Jason decided to enter his soul world to run away from the awkward situation with Greg and Malia on each side next to him. Somehow Jason was always between two of them and it didn¡ät feel bad to be surrounded by friends. He forgot about the previous situation as fast as he forgot Malia¡äs nightgown incident as entered the soul world. His soul energy was at 5.4 units while the natural production of the whole energy took around 6 hours which was around four times faster than what most souls innately recovered over a whole day. Refining his soul energy, Jason felt that his soul world was insignificantly increasing in size and Jason was joyful. Before leaving, he looked at the white cocoon with snow floating around it with a gentle smile. Outside the soul world, Jason noticed something blue flying in his direction before he could figure out the situation he was in. While he was inside the soul world, the limousine made a generous curve which caused Greg and Jason which both entered the soul world to get pressed into Malia who was also in her soul world. Malia noticed something pressing on her chest and the first thing she saw, was a black-haired youth with closed eyes while her stupid brother was pressing Jason even more on her chest. Turning red out of shame and anger, two balls of water appeared, while one was big, the other one was slightly smaller. The big ball of water was shot into Greg''s face with a high velocity while the small ball was thrown into Jason¡äs face who opened his eyes right before the ball appeared. Jason only noticed his position was inappropriate before he was hit by the waterball. "ARGHHH" Jason and Greg cried out at the same time while holding their wet head. Chapter 66 - Arrival The next few hours were awkward and embarrassing and Jason tried to focus on his passive mana replenishing proficiency. Greg wasn''t aware of what happened and he took out a few mana stones to gather mana into his mana core. Hours passed and the flying car slowed down by a significant amount, which was noticed by everyone. Looking out of the window, a terrifying huge dome appeared surrounding a wall that was at least 400 meters high¡­. Jason couldn¡ät see the radiating mana from it as it was still too far away but he didn''t think the materials used to build such a glamorous white silver shining wall could be of a low grade. The materials would have to be at least able to defend against strength-type magical beasts, more probably Guardian-ranked beasts. Nobody could afford to slack off within a city with at least 80 million citizens and once their car entered the dome various requests were demanded. Everything was quickly finished by Mark because they were nobles and Jason was registered as one of their employees, making everything less difficult for Jason to enter the city. The flying cars'' speed decelerated even more and they had to use the driving mode once they reached a certain radius because it was not allowed to fly inside the city without special certification due to various reasons. It was not only shocking for Jason to see the gigantic size of Cyro city that was more than double the size of Jiro-City but every district looked more luxurious than the districts inside the c-grade city, he previously lived in. Driving on the 30 meters width main road, Jason looked around to see that everything was radiating mana, even the concrete below him. Mana with some kind of dots was radiated from it and Jason guessed it was a durability reagent inside the concrete, making it long-lasting, which was apparently quite common in higher graded cities. Jason couldn''t sense the mana of the city because they were sitting in the peak grade-2 flying car that hindered mana from leaking out of the car but also prevented mana from getting inside because it could obstruct one in gathering one¡äs mana, but he was able to see the mana streams and his eyes shined in a greedy light. Upon looking down Jason screamed out as he was forced to deactivate his mana eyes with blood pouring out of them due to the thing he saw. `OHHH HMY FFF**** LORD` "What is that??" "What''s wrong Jason? Are you not feeling well?" Malia and Greg asked while coming closer and Gabriella who heard Jason¡äs scream and the question turned around in astonishment "Can you see the natural mana vein below the city, Jason?" She asked not hiding her shock. "Natural mana vein?" Jason wiped away the bloody tears and looked at Gabriella confused "Yes¡­ Cyro-city is the Capital of Astrix city mainly because it was built on a natural mana vein which empowers the high-grade mana dome. This is attractive for humans and beasts at the same time, and normally many high-ranked beasts would attack this city because of its innate high mana density but the specialized high ranked beast repellent which we use on a daily basis, terrifies most higher-ranked beasts, while the beasts below the magical rank can''t even sense the mana vein at all. But even if these beasts aren''t scared by the repellent, you don''t have to be scared, because of the high mana density, many powerhouses reside here to defend the city with its citizens. Over the last 100 years since this city exists, there has not been one time where beasts broke through the wall in front of you. It looks like you can¡ät handle looking directly at the mana vein, which would be a considerable achievement, to begin with. Just try avoiding looking at it for now. Maybe you¡äll be able to look at it, once you get stronger, but for now don''t look at it, ok?" Gabriella seemed to be concerned about Jason¡äs health, as such he could only nod "Hmm...ok" Jason looked up and began using his mana eyes again because he was just too curious and without looking through the ground, everything should be fine. He wanted to know what these weird colors were Jason saw right next to the mana vein but he was too scared to try it again. But from his shallow experience he gained over the last few weeks, Jason thought that the color had to do something with a living being¡­ Until now Jason had only seen colors radiating from beasts and the Holy white baruci fruit! The main problem was that there were even colors among them, Jason had never seen before and goosebumps appeared all over his body while he tried hard to review the situation again. `Are these beasts or plants?...they weren''t moving and the mana looked calm but I couldn''t see it for a long time and it was very vague...ughh scary!!` Sighing, Jason decided to try it later again, when he increased his rank because now it would be comparable to a suicide. `Nice welcome present, thanks Cyro-City!!!` They continued driving for more than an hour until they reached the outer area of the noble district that seemed to look oddly `normal`. Many houses could be seen and they drove for a while along the street until they stopped at a three-story tall house with an unimpressive aura spreading out of it, compared to their previous house and the houses they saw before. The front yard was around 300 sq.m. large, while the interior looked exquisite but not exactly impressive. One could say this house was perfectly fit for a family of five with soulbonds because the backyard was 2000 sq.m. large with a big pond, combat area, and enough space for soulbonds to graze. There was also a large tree spending shadow for one and Jason immediately fell in love with this house. He didn''t like the previous Fler¡äs mansion, but this house looked like a real home to him, without wasting too much space. Greg was also in the backyard and a large transparent circle appeared in front of him with black outlines and a red hue spreading out of it. Suddenly a 2 ? meter tall dark brown bull with two thick and vicious-looking longhorns curved to the front appeared within, before charged to the green patch with loud steps. "It looks unimpressive, rights? Haha...If it wasn''t for the professional potential-test I probably would be thinking you were a fraud" Greg said, laughing lightly, but Jason could see something hidden deep in his eyes as he wondered what happened. "Well¡­ luckily you believed me... Now you only have to find a way to evolve Taurus and everyone is happy, right buddy?" Jason smiled brightly and looked at the smiling Greg¡­ There weren''t many words needed between them but there was something which annoyed him for quite some time since he got to know that the weakest wild zone in his surrounding had two-stars "Greg¡­ can you somehow help me increase my combat prowess? Maybe I need another martial art technique or just someone to train with but I don''t know how to increase my proficiency with the dual master modification the Azure feisty ape technique. Greg understood what Jason meant and gave him the signal to follow him. Jason wasn¡ät sure what was going on but he followed Greg without saying a word. They entered the small area designated for combat training and Greg got into position without changing his clothes or saying anything at all. Before Jason could even say anything Greg announced. "Ready?...3...2...1 GO!" Greg restricted his strength to Jason¡äs level but his speed seemed extremely fast, as Greg appeared in front of the unguarded Jason within a second. Evading Greg¡äs straight punch with a jump to the side Jason struggled to stay up fast enough when Greg¡äs kick into his stomach blew him away. Greg distanced himself from Jason again and stated emotionless "Stand up!" Jason stood up while lamenting in his mind `How can someone change his attitude so fast?!?!` Chapter 67 - Getting To Know The Soulbonds Quite some time passed and Jason¡äs face was filled with bumps and bruises when Greg explained his weaknesses. "To put it simple, your foundation is lacking because you practiced a tierless martial art without properly training your body. Even if your proficiency with the Azure feisty ape technique reached the third stage also called experienced mastery, once your body can''t follow your train of thoughts, you''re doomed. I can see in that your eyes can easily follow my movements and predict where I will hit you but your body is too slow with its more cumbersome movements. As a recommendation, I would give you the tip to change your martial art technique as the first thing to do. A modified technique is not as strong as an original, because some important sequences have to be changed to adjust a weaponless martial art into one with weapons. Later, I can look into our storage, if we have a gradeless basic foundation dual-dagger mastery martial arts technique, if not, we can purchase it. Furthermore you should use weights while training every muscle in your body! Try to maximize your workout..it may save your life later!" Jason was amazed about Greg¡äs seriousness which he hadn''t seen before and he nodded full of ambition even if his whole body hurt. During his spar with Greg, he noticed that he was really weak and his foundation couldn¡ät be considered good. Wondering how he had killed five-star wild beasts, Jason was thankful for his luck and other advantages. Furthermore, Jason noted that his body adjusted itself slowly while sparring with Greg and maybe if he continued to spar, he might be getting stronger really fast.. Unfortunately Greg was also behind others in his mana core rank which he had to catch up fast, so he wouldn''t have much time for Jason. "Thank you, GREG!" Jason said happily full of gratitude when he noticed a few strong mana fluctuations Turning around, he could see nine magic circles in front of Malia, Greg, and Gabriella In front of Malia appeared two magic circles, one large dark red flickering and a blue shining magic circle. Out of the blue shining magic circle appeared a miniature humanoid girl with wings on her back and blue hair, while out of the dark red flickering magic circle jumped a pitch-black colored horse with a dark red fire as its mane and. Above its hooves were also flames enveloping a small part of its legs and when Jason saw it¡äs eyes, he got goosebumps because they were pitchblack. `This fairy is cute and probably at the peak of the evolved rank but what the h**l is wrong with this horse?? Is that a Nightmare-horse? And it''s still at the unblemished rank only slightly apart from entering the magical rank? Not bad¡­....but still scary!!` Jason asked himself, shivering slightly when a few beasts jumped out of the magic circles in front of Mark. Mark had three magic circles in front of him while one was a small light-red one, a large red heat-hazed one, and a small faint green one that was even smaller than Artemis magic circle. Out of the small magic circle flew a small bat with its miniature stature. While its body was black, the eyes and ears were in a jade color and it looked around, listening to the sounds, before it jumped towards Mark. The small light-red magic circle summoned a red-colored monkey with a brown belly and a small amber-colored horn in the middle of the forehead, while a ten-meter-long python with a burning tale appeared inside the large red heat-hazed magic circle. `Mark¡äs first contracted beast was a peak awakened ranked amber horned monkey? And the other two are a magical ranked mutated miniature bad and a magical ranked Inferno-Python? WOAH!` Jason knew that Mark contracted good beasts but that his second soulbond was already a magical beast which was definitely above average on Astrix¡­ `Maybe he had to wait a long time until he got enough soul power to bind this magical beast! He is really patient¡­` But Jason knew that Mark had used up all his slots for his soulbonds and it looked like the potential of his bonds were already used up. Mark could only increase his strength by increasing his mana core rank and not by contracting another beast. Jason knew Gabriella was stronger than Mark and the four magic circles in front of her proved him right. There were two purple magic circles enveloped in lightning, while the other two magic circles looked somewhat gentle and nice. Out of the purple magic circles jumped a 15 meter long python and a large wolf enveloped in lightning. Jason was more expectant on the other two magic circles and a somehow familiar beast appeared inside the small white green-whitish magic circle. It was a plant looking like a bell while out of the larger whitish magic circle appeared a calm white curved horned sheep. Jason had heard about healing beasts and one of the more common ones was a sanctification bellflower which was a late evolved sentient plant that is also categorised into the beast section. The Wolf is also called Vicious Thunderwolf and is a late unblemished beast while the Thunderpython looked somehow similar to the Inferno-Python while both of them are at the magical rank. But Jason had not heard anything about the sheep he could see but he knew that Gabriella had an affinity to only two elements, healing and thunder. As such the sheep needed to have something to do with healing and Jason called it `Unveiling curved horned sheep`. It looked like this sheep had even the strongest mana core rank and it was most probably at the peak of the magical rank. While looking at the beasts appearing out of the magic circles and strolling around, Jason concluded one thing Malia¡äs soul power was extremely huge that she could form a bond with a peak-evolved beast as her first contract which was even a fairy¡­ This was extremely rare because not only are fairy rare, but also very willful with a high soul energy and great affinity. Furthermore, it could even reach the unblemished rank according to the color radiating from it. After that she contracted a second soul beast which was the Nightmare-horse in front of him. A Nightmare horse is a magical ranked beast and it needed a ton of soul energy to control. Jason was amazed to see Malia having two strong soulbond at her age. He wasn''t sure how many bonds she could form or how many elements she had as affinity but `Water and Fire` were 100% among them as he already saw the transmuted mana within her. Jason continued his conclusion with Mark and Gabriella. Mark¡äs soul had the affinity of fire with two beasts and maybe a physical soul with one beast, which was the miniature jade bat. Either this was the case or Mark¡äs second affinity had something to do with sound but Jason had never heard of something like that so he thought it might be a double soul-awakening with small-sized souls. Gabriella had space for four soulbonds and the affinity for thunder and healing that were both rare, while a healing ability was one of the rarest abilities and highly demanded in hospitals, prestigious schools with many combat injuries, and hunting groups even more so. Mark and Gabriella''s soulbonds looked like they were all at their racial limit and Jason wondered if there was a chance for them to evolve as his mana eyes didn''t seem to work properly since he thought about his purification theory. The only thing Jason knew was, that the radiating color he saw, was equivalent or even better than the newest potential tests developed by the best scientists. Online there were millions of threads about methods to force a evolution for beasts and Jason had also heard about occupations called beast developers or also called Beast Creators because they could force to evolve into a superior race with the right solution and ratio of magical ingredients/materials. These beast creators had some restrictions while evolving beasts but it was still possible for them to force an evolution while the beast had to stay within its tested potential. Beast creators were humans that knew a lot about beasts and their possible evolution paths. Someone might say it is easy to know about all that but rather than that it is extremely difficult to know which magical materials are needed to cause an evolution in addition to the ratio in order to prevent damaging the beast temporary or even permanent. After evaluating a beast''s potential, these creators would have to pick a suitable evolution path that was within its potential range. Concocting a special reagent with the researched magical ingredients could increase the chance for a beast to evolve but there were not many known recipes and only experimenting with beasts could provide more information. For these experiments, many beasts would be needed and it was easier for low ranked beasts to be experimented with than high ranked beasts. This was also the reason for the increased price for low-ranked beasts with high potential as some of them would be used by the government to test certain evolution reagents. These beasts creators had to work within the range of a beast''s potential and there was still not a single public known case where a beast broke into a higher rank without having the required potential. Jason tried to do his own research about these things but his access was limited to only a few online threads which didn''t need a special rank for access. Looking at the families overall soul-awakenings, Jason was amazed. Greg and Malia seemed to have much better soul awakenings than their parents but even theirs should be at 2 ? or 3 stars, which is a good amount above average. Each soulbond was happy to be outside and they ran around, played with each other or annoyed one another and everyone was happy looking at them. Chapter 68 - Dual It was dinner time and the soulbonds got their various kinds of Mana-based food. Jason had to wait for the others to finish feeding their soulbonds as such, he entered his soul world to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique diligently like every day. After he finished. the others were also done and the soulbonds stayed outside except the amber horned monkey that also liked to stay by Mark¡äs side. Eating a delicious meal inside Jason was deep in thought about what martial arts technique he should look for. Furthermore, he was pondering if he was even able to access a better one than the commonly known ones. Jason sighed and he didn''t notice that Greg was telling his family about Jason¡äs problem with his martial art technique or rather with his non-existent basic knowledge about fighting, except his natural traits like his good eyesight, reaction speed, and comprehension ability. Greg praised these traits but he was also strict with his lacking ability and fundamental holes Jason had to fill. If Jason knew more about the basics, he would be able to use many kinds of movements in combination with each other, rather than following the simple sequences from the Azure feisty Ape technique. The main problem was that Jason''s Azure feisty Ape technique was commonly used for close combat without weapons while he looked for the modified version which lacked many important things. This caused the potential of the technique to be stuck at the experienced mastery which was its limit and Jason didn''t know that at all. He was frustrated that his comprehension was becoming worse and worse because he couldn''t improve his proficiency of the modified Azure feisty Ape technique while he already reached the possible limits of it. Gabriella and Mark had all kinds of Tierless foundational weapon mastery techniques bought before their kids were born because they wanted to be prepared for their tutelage. But somehow it was useless in the end because Malia wasn''t using any weapons and managed to attack with her exquisite control over the fire and water affinity she gained, while Greg was relying on his physique and crude moves, rather than any elegant technique. They lamented about that for a long time as they purchased these techniques for a fortune but now it seems to come in handy. Gabriella looked into her large spatial storage when she threw out one book after another. In the beginning, Jason didn''t notice that books appeared on the table but once a small mountain was formed in front of him, he was immediately distracted from his thoughts and looked up. Looking at the manuals in front of him, he was confused. But reading their names, he became curious. ''Fundamental dagger guide, Fundamental dual-dagger guide, Fundamental archery guide, Fundamental close combat guide....., Basic body exercises, Basic mana exercise, Basic mana manipulation guide, Basic passive mana gathering guide, Basic combat stance manual, Rookie weapon mastery, Rookie dagger mastery¡­..` There were at least 50 books in front of Jason and each of them had interesting titles... Looking at Gabriella and Mark, Gabriella nodded while Mark grumbled "Use them" Mark was still slightly somewhat uncomfortable around Jason but he warmed up slowly and Jason jumped up joyful thanking them sincerely with small tears in his eyes. "Thank you, Aunt, Uncle!!...Oh...eh.I mea-...n..I''M SORRY!" Jason wasn¡ät aware of what he said in the beginning but noticing that he called the Fler¡äs, aunt, and uncle, he was immediately shocked about his stupidity. In this Era, it was inappropriate to call someone Uncle or Aunt without being blood relatives, related by marriage or Adopted, and it was seen as very rude by most people. Even if Jason could only think that it was rude because it was impolite and seen as an even more intimate way to call someone than by one''s first name. More important was that Jason had never called anyone intimately, except his mother as he began cursing himself. There was a short moment of silence in the whole room until Gabriella smiled brightly, shattering the awkwardness while chuckling heartily before she told Jason "I¡äve never been called Aunt¡­ It is nice to hear.. Just call me Aunty.. But if you want to do that you¡äve to remember that you are seen as a part of our family!! Since you called us Aunt and Uncle you have to take responsibility" She said while chuckling Mark was looking slightly frustrated at Jason before he turned to his wife with an odd gaze. `Can''t I also decide something important like that?!?! I¡äm also a part of this family!!!` But Mark could only think that when Greg jumped up and hugged Jason¡­ "Hahahaha I always wanted to have a younger brother!! You are now my younger brother whether you like it or not!" Even Malia who was still sitting smiled brightly showing him a piece sign as acknowledgment while the only positive thing Mark could think of was `At least he won''t pursue my precious princess! HAHA` A few tears poured down Jason¡äs cheek and Gabriella got up with a tissue to wipe them away. After she finished, she turned serious and ordered "Now that you are a part of our family, even without a proper bond, you have certain responsibilities!! School will start in 9 days and your foundation seems to be unstable. Today your task is to read through every manual on the table and to imprint them into your mind as well as possible. Until the end of the week, you have to know the smallest details of these manuals!! Decide on which weapon you want to master as your main weapon and we¡äll focus on this weapon to train you properly. We will prepare a workout for you and enough nutrition so you won''t be able to excuse yourself by slacking off. I heard you are intelligent and your theoretical exam was pretty good.. That''s nice but in Cryo-city it is slightly different. The tested questions were shallow and there were no questions that asked profound knowledge about worldly matters or even a single more in-depth question." Listening to Gabriella, Jason found it exciting to get a tight schedule because he was slightly at a loss. It wasn¡ät exactly healthy to gather mana for 24/7, only eating and practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique as an exception Previously Jason didn¡ät know what to do in the remaining 7+ days, because he was too weak to enter the two-star wild-zone alone and unable to improve his martial art skill. With the books in front of him, Jason knew what he should do. Storing them inside his bracelet he activated its special feature to scan them and display them at his holographic screen. Jason almost forgot to thank the Fler¡äs once again as he was too excited to read these 50 books, even if he knew that it was hard to archive. Gabriella smiled at the youth who ran out of the house into the backyard, while Mark opened his holographic screen "I¡äll plan his workout" he said. Malia and Greg looked at each other and wondered if Jason would be able to read through all 50 books today as each book had at least 50+ sites with difficult technical language. Only a few minutes later, Jason came back inside with a confused expression.... bombarding the Fler¡äs with questions and Malia decided to help Jason out while she would read her own manuals. Greg would be bored alone, so he decided to read through the advanced theories of the mana breakout which was the most boring subject in his opinion. The three of them leaned on a thick tree inside its shadow and silently read their book Chapter 69 - Strenuous Week During the following week, Jason found that practicing the pain-full Heaven''s Hell technique was one of the most relaxing things he could ever do, as the pain he received from injecting soul energy treads into his soul world core lessened by a large margin. His soul energy was getting more and more stable while the circulation of it was much easier due to the removed impurities. With Malia¡äs help, Jason imprinted the knowledge about all foundational and basic books into his mind as well as possible but it was still very difficult. His head ached almost all the time during the last week because of all the highly technical language inside them but it was still extremely practical. It was a tough decision but Jason decided to learn dual mastery of daggers as his main weapon for the moment because he was the most proficient with them right now as his combat experience was solely from fighting with daggers as main-weapon. That didn''t mean he neglected to practice knife throwing and archery training, rather than that, it was balanced out. While he trained them for half an hour each day, his training with the daggers was around two hours long. But that wasn''t even the hardest part through the last week because the most exhausting thing Jason did, was the high-intensity workout prepared by Mark, which allowed every muscle group in his body to be trained and tempered. He didn''t even know that some of these muscle groups existed until he had to train them. The main problem with that was however that there was not really much time given for Jason or his muscles to relax and regain strength. Doing the workout twice a day was too much under normal circumstances as it was recommended to be only done one time in two days because the muscles had to take a rest in normal cases. Eating high-nutrition food and medical baths increased the benefits of working out and decreases the chances of cramps and tearing muscles. This caused his small stature and feeble build to gain a lot of muscles and his weak body without fat turned into a more healthy state with the appearance of some muscles all over his body. Luckily Jason didn''t look like Greg and his body structure seemed to be more leaned to the athletic shape. He also grew a few centimeters as eating very nutritious food caused his neglected growing body to absorb the energy like Artemis, with gluttony and unrestrained. If Jason had to estimate his growth, he was probably around 1.67+ meters tall and the small amount of baby fat in his face was burnt away, leaving an almost chiseled face behind. Greg was envious of his looks which he showed obviously by beating him up during their spars. Their fights couldn¡ät be considered long but they were intense for Jason and he noticed huge improvements in his overall combat prowess while he got better in evading Greg¡äs attacks each day passing. Sometimes, Jason was even able to attack Greg but these attacks were always blocked and Jason was left behind with many bruises His whole day was scheduled by Gabriella, who he called Aunty Gab sometimes because she liked it. This however didn¡ät change the cruelty in her timetable ¡ú 5 am: Waking up ¡ú Breakfast ¡ú 3 hours Mana gathering ¡ú 8 am: Stamina training High-intensity workout ¡ú 9 am: Reading time including martial art technique manuals for 3 hours ¡ú Lunch ¡ú Sparring with Greg ~~30 minutes ¡ú Picking out flaws and training dagger master ¡ú Practicing dual-dagger mastery 2 hours ¡ú Knife throwing and Archery 1 hour ¡ú 5 pm second high-intensity workout ¡ú 6 pm medical bath ¡ú Dinner ¡úTime for himself to increase his knowledge, flaws, practice Heaven''s Hell technique or gather more mana(optional) Overall this schedule looked really nice for Jason but he had to squeeze in two additional times to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique which made his schedule really complicated and annoying but the results Jason could see were obvious. His soul energy increased to 6.2 while his physique was now truly at the 6th Novice rank. Previously his physical capabilities were at the 6th Novice rank while Jason¡äs true strength was far below but now it was entirely different. In addition to that his mana control increased consistently because the high-intensity workout included subconscious training and also an accurate control over mana due to certain exercises with the use of it. Jason also felt that his combat prowess increased by a lot and at the end of the week, he was even able to fight Greg for a few minutes before he was pushed to the ground. Taking into account that Greg trained martial art techniques for a few years and Jason only for a few weeks, this was an exciting achievement for him but it hurt Greg¡äs pride a lot as he thought of himself as an extremely good fighter. In the end, it caused Greg¡äs determination to soar higher, and his motivation to get stronger heightened because he felt that Jason was catching up too fast, even if he was still at the 5th Novice rank. Jason¡äs mana increased by a lot and his mana core was slowly getting stronger. It would only be a matter of time before he would reach the 6th Novice rank and Jason felt this wasn''t too far away. He was expectant for the following week and only the weekend was left for him to increase his strength as much as possible. There were many positive things Jason could think of but rather than being too excited, he was concerned if he would stain the Floors reputation with his weak strength. This was why Jason gave 150% and each day ended with him falling into a deep slumber due to exhaustion. One thing Jason could be extremely proud of was the vast increase in his knowledge. Absorbing the content of each book inside his mind, Jason wondered how far his capabilities could go on. One could say that his memories and reading ability worked together perfectly fine which allowed him to learn everything faster and easier than others. Gabriella told him that with each increase in level and rank, the body would change overall which included his brain. That means the higher his level and rank were, the smarter ones would be. This however didn¡ät mean each human was equal smart. Having a theoretical final exam result with full marks, Jason was still only at the 1st Novice rank while the other students at the 8th Novice rank or higher couldn''t do that even if they learned for a longer time. Most students didn¡ät focus on knowledge as much as he did but in his opinion, knowledge was the strongest might on Argos, followed by actual strength. Tactics, martial art techniques, technology, beast creators, alchemy, blacksmithing, and much more was invented and developed by smart people and not crude muscleheads who used their fists to smash each other''s heads. The weekend passed using the present schedule, and Jason fell into dreamless sleep midnight Sunday. Chapter 70 - Highschool Jason¡äs inner clock woke him up at 5 am, which he was already used to after the strenuous week he had gone through. That was because he wanted to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique as early as possible before reading some more. After everything was finished, he would eat breakfast and go into school for his first day. With his soul energy reaching 6.5 units, Jason was satisfied as it was increasing faster and faster with each day passing. Greg had already told him about Vanguard¡äs affiliated school''s average strength some time ago but rather than fully trusting him, Jason decided to make his own research in the morning. This was only possible because Jason received permission to enter the school website this morning where he could access the student''s basic profiles. Each student could enter the school website and set their profile to private causing their Mana core rank, age, and so on to be hidden but Jason would be able to see at least the average strength from some of his future classmates and seniors. After looking at the profiles of his future classmates, Jason began to frown deeply. Each of Vanguard¡äs six affiliated schools accepted more than 15.000 Students each year while the Vanguard school accepted at least 10.000 students. This meant the Vanguard school with its branches accepted 100.000 students which astonished Jason a lot. But after thinking for a while, Jason understood that each of Cyro''s schools accepted only the best students inside Astrix island except the ones who got accepted because of nobility rights or other hidden doors. Astrix Inhabitat around 300 million humans and each year around 10 million babies are born in the last few years. Considering the fact that most of them are born into poor families, their education is rather poor and they can¡ät be provided with decent resources to rank up their mana core or at least contract a good soulbond. These poor youths can be deducted from the 10 million due to their low chance to enter one of the big three schools in Cyro-City or their affiliated schools. There were always exceptions who fought against their forecast fate and demonstrated incredible results in their exams or awaken a unique soul with 3 stars or more. While there are many poor people out there, this was not everything as many youths can be raised with high-quality resources in order to establish an extremely high qualitative foundation. Jason was one of the lucky ones who entered one of the six affiliated schools through a hidden door but it looked like he wasn''t the only one. There were a few who looked like they didn¡ät meet the requirement even if Jason couldn''t see their soul-awakening. it looked like they got either a scholarship because of their soul-awakening or thanks to a noble who decided to support these kids due to whatever possible reason. Some nobles take in innocent children with great soul-awakenings to nurture them and make them into their slaves with a soul contract. A soul contract was a tricky subject within society. Once a soul contract is formed one cannot break it. If one were to break a soul contract, his/her soul will immediately shatter and one will lose the soul world, soulbonds, and each benefit from it. After that, you¡äll be only left with your mana core, without the ability to use affinities every again. It would be fortunate if one is able to defeat a beast on the same rank as them because the gap between beast and human strength increases once higher ranks are reached, Only soulbonds could shorten these gaps partially. With the amplification from soulbonds and the shared affinity, mankind was barely able to fight these beasts head-on. Only due to the soul-awakening and soulbonds, humanity could survive their whole annihilation more than 300 years ago. Nevertheless, Jason was still lamenting¡­ These hidden door students had stronger cultivation than him, even though the gap was not that much apart from him. He continued to look through the profiles, trying to find someone at his combat power. After skipping through a few hundred or maybe over thousand profiles later Jason concluded that the average strength was at the 4th or 5th Adept- rank which was the Intermediate-stage for the Adept rank, without anyone weaker than him. There were still many Adepts at the beginner stage but somehow they were admitted into the 6th affiliated school which was thick underlined by the school forum. At the Adept rank 1st to 3rd level is the beginner stage, 4th to 6th the Intermediate stage and 7th to 9th the advanced stage which would continue for the following ranks like Beginner Expert, Intermediate Expert and so on, while the smaller hurdles were called 1st Expert rank, 2nd Expert rank and so on. While most students were at the Intermediate-Adept rank, Jason was still at the 5th-Novice rank, even if he was infinitely close to the 6th Novice rank. This gap was extremely big and Jason wondered if someone would try to bully him because of that. He was determined to endure it for the time being because he was sure that there was no way for him to beat Intermediate-Adept ranks with the addition of their soulbonds shared strength. This frustrated him and Jason pondered if he should use the Holy white baruci fruit for himself or not, which he disregarded after some thought. Looking at the clock, he noticed that it was already 6:30 am and Jason jumped out of the bed to make a wake-up workout for 20 minutes. After that, Jason went into the bathroom to take a shower before he changed into his new prescribed school uniform which consisted of a white shirt, a dark blue blazer, a black tie, and dark blue trousers. The dark blue blazer was outlined with black color and one could see a golden brocaded open book, representing the vanguard symbol, embedded on his right chest. Above the book were small letters and weapons floating, symbolizing the power of knowledge and its equality to strength, which most schools and people were criticizing. Even though it was the vanguard school¡äs motto, Jason was sure that most students didn¡ät really care about it, as learning for theoretical things was not something many would want to do in their free time if one could absorb mana, hone martial art skills, or do other more important things at the same time. Jason wore the perfectly fitting uniform and it was hardly possible to say that he looked hideous, rather than that he looked incredibly handsome right now. His black hair had grown a little bit longer and he wanted to trim them on the sides a little bit while his hair in the front was already covering his eyes at some spots. But these golden eyes couldn''t really be covered as they shone through the thin hair. In the end, Jason received his haircut from Gabriella who did it for all her family members as she liked to do it. Because Gabriella did it, instead of Jason himself, he received a decent haircut and could be shown to the public once again. Looking into the mirror, Jason himself didn''t know what to say and Gabriella shrieked like a little girl seeing Jason. Mark and Greg were looking at him weirdly while Malia scanned Jason from head to toe thinking in her mind `Hehe...Finally, I have a handsome brother¡­.Am I allowed to boast with his looks? Kekeke` Over the last week, Malia had accepted Jason as her family member or rather as her brother. She completely threw away her fluttering heart, with the chance of getting such a cute and handsome brother. She found him handsome and all that... But he was too young for her and after making up her mind, she noticed that the incidents that occurred in the past were obviously embarrassing and not only because Jason was it. Malia convinced herself that she would react like that to every stranger and decided to cut the possibility to catch feelings for Jason completely. But it was easier said than done, as Jason was not only hardworking but also extremely handsome and smart. He was younger than her and she would at most generate feelings for him as she had for her brother, at least that was what she told herself. After eating breakfast everyone went for their own path, while Greg and Malia went to the central district to the Vanguard school, Jason took the path to the 6th affiliated school which was also seen as the weakest. Even the affiliated schools were classified among each other because there was a way to enter the main school while attending the affiliated schools. Everyone tried to enter the main school because of various reasons like the yearly tournament among the big three schools which awarded the best 100 with specific treasures. But that wasn''t all, the instructors of the affiliated schools were definitely good, but still a whole level below the ones of the main school, and the whole teaching was also build up differently. At least that was, what Jason had heard and some even called it "The difference between heaven and earth" which Jason found quite amusing. But he didn¡ät care about that at all, as the resources in terms of techniques he would receive in addition to knowledge were, what Jason really wanted to receive. He was additionally already fond of attending the worst affiliated school because it was probably a few million times better than the best C-grade high-schools and probably even B-grade high-schools Chapter 71 - Class 75 Because Jason didn''t have a soulbond he could ride, he had to order a shuttle. There were two different kinds of lanes inside Juro-City and Cyro-City, Jason saw. One kind was used by mana-operated vehicles like cars, trucks, motorcycles and they had a strict speed limit inside the city, while the other line was used by soulbonds as a means of transportation, even flying beasts could be used inside these lanes. These beast lanes didn''t have a speed limit because beasts had faster reflexes and could avoid each other much easier and so on and the width of the lanes was much larger than the one of the mechanical vehicle lanes. While Greg could ride on Taurus, Malia mounted her Nightmare-horse and their speed was extremely fast on their leveled surrounding. Most people inside higher graded cities would use their soulbonds as a means of transportation and it was much faster than riding a shuttle. However, Jason didn''t have the pleasure to ride a soulbond yet, and he had to be satisfied with a simple shuttle. The drive took more than 45 minutes until Jason stood in front of a gigantic fenced yard with a size of hundreds or maybe thousands of soccer fields. In the middle of the whole plot was a gigantic modern battleground arena with a height of more than 40 meters including 6 floors which was probably used for the students to fight against each other without getting obstructed. Each grade had around 15.000 students and each year would have a compound building for themselves. Jason couldn''t imagine being in the same year with 15.000 students being teached at the same time and apparently, he was wrong. When Jason entered the school grounds he had to verify his Identification. After that, he got notified which class he was in [Year-1 Class 75 Rank:225] Jason concluded that the new students were divided into 75 classes with around 200+- students and he thought that the classes were probably ranked after their strength but he could also be wrong with his assumption. That meant Jason was probably the weakest while more than 15.000 students were stronger than him. Rather than being scared, Jason felt more motivated after coming to his conclusion. The world was vast and Jason was the weakest at the moment! Wasn¡ät it exciting? He was overwhelmed by the amount of pressure he gave himself. Jason walked in the direction of his building with the help of the GPS while thinking about his future. He entered the building and only a few minutes were left before it was time for the first lesson to start. Right at 8:00 he entered his classroom that looked completely different compared to the middle school classes. Initially, Jason thought he would be in a common classroom like he was in middle school but Jason saw that the classroom was layered with many metallic shimmering tables and holographic screens of the newest technology inside them. This was how Jason thought university auditoriums would look like. Looking around the large room Jason saw all kinds of youths, both mal,e and female while the more astonishing aspects were the wide variations of people. All kinds of hair colors, frames, sizes, mana cores ranks, and modified mana could be seen by Jason. Apparently, Jason was the last, and when the front door close to the podium opened, everyone scampered to their tables, ther were numbered. Jason looked around and saw an empty seat in the last row at the corner with his number written down. He sat down and greeted his neighbor who responded to him with a slightly shy ''good morning''. A young man wearing glasses came inside with short golden hair, stylish clothes, and perfect body proportions. He looked like he was in his twenties but that didn''t mean he was inexperienced. While the girls admired his handsome looks, the boys looked envious at him while whispering about his build. The young man stood behind the podium and before he said something a huge wave of mana was released in order to suppress everyone inside the classroom, while nobody could react according to the unexpected attack. It was a surprise attack and nobody expected something like that as an introduction. Meanwhile, Jason scanned the teacher with his mana eyes and he was barely able to release a small mana membrane around himself which was immediately destroyed when he noticed mana violent mana fluctuations around his teacher. Except for Jason nobody was able to react fast enough. "My name is Till Greil and I''m the headteacher of Class Nr. 75 for this year. Right now if you were attacked by a mana wave with the intention to kill someone, everyone except Rank 225 died. Rank 225 you would be heavily injured but still alive. Congratulations¡­.well... being heavily injured is almost as fatal as being dead so EVERYONE failed! " Till Greil was decisive and ready to smash everyone with his words as they were enhanced with mana. Everyone looked at him with teary eyes because there was still mana around suppressing everyone pushing them onto the table in front of them. Some were even close to faint but fortunately before that happened, Till Greil released them. If they weren''t pressed on the table, they would have probably collapsed. "Stand UP! Greeting!" Till shouted While everyone was dumbfounded, they supported their bodies with their arms by pushing themselves from the table with all their might in order to stand up. After 5 minutes everyone was standing, while Jason''s back was drenched in sweat. If he hadn''t defended himself from the mana wave, Jason didn¡ät know if he would be able to stand right now and looking at the innocently smiling teacher, he shivered in fright. Then everyone greeted their teacher respectfully and afterward, they stayed quiet with a straight back. "The first thing I want to say is that you guys are hilarious...more than 50 of you used the back doors to enter this school and you think you''re able to survive with this puny strength of yours? Well, dream on...and for the others... Aren''t you all embarrassed to enter the weakest class in the sixth affiliated school?....I¡äll only say this one time...I won''t be nice to any of you and I expect each one of you to give 200% of your energy to rise in rank and defeat the other classes in one month when the class battles start!" While he said that everyone looked a little bit confused..what is next month? "Oh.. well... I forgot to tell you guys something.. As you might know, the resources schools have is limited¡­ To put my explanation simple. The higher our class is ranked the better the provided resources are with the exception of the solo rankings, which are not important at the moment. Our class gets the lowest resources and we are probably worse off than some b-grade school with the provided equipment¡­ aren''t you guys ashamed? If everyone works hard and strives for more strength we might be able to get more resources soon!! Next month is the first quarterly class battle. If we can defeat the 74. Class, we will change our class with them and thus also the resources. Our name will be 74 and theirs 75 if we defeat them... After that, we could continue until we are defeated. Each class has a single life to challenge classes but can also be challenged by each class." These class battles can be made up of soulbonds battles, knowledge tests, solo fights, group fights, class sieges, wild zone battles, and so on, so we have to work hard in the future. But the first-class battle will only be consistent with solo battles without one''s soulbond, as such we will focus on that. If anyone doesn''t want to achieve more with our class, I¡äll throw you into class 74 or somewhere else, because I don¡ät need cowards...But be aware...If I throw someone in class 74, who knows if you''re able to get any resources next month¡­" Jason was astonished because his teacher was really competitive, even if their class was the worst one...Maybe this was some kind of spirit for him to motivate the worst class or maybe something else but Jason didn''t care about it at all, as his teacher''s fighting spirit was definitely something good. He liked his teacher''s motivational speech and he had to restrain himself from jumping up to applaud him. Jason also wanted to get stronger by all means and thus he was happy to have a nice teacher "I don¡ät care about your rankings if you are rich or from the slums¡­ the only thing that matters to me is hard work and the fighting spirit we need to defeat the higher classes...I don¡ät accept lazy people! Well....that was it, but before we start the lessons, let''s begin with an introduction..Nr.1 please begin" Everyone introduced themself with their name, mana core rank, affinity rank, and age while a whole hour passed until it was Jason¡äs turn. Listening to the others, Jason found out that his class was almost equally split with physical soul beasts and elemental abilities. But everyone had one thing in common. Their mana core ranks were at least at the 1st Adept-rank, even for the shy boy who sat next to him. It was kinda weird that everyone was such a low rank and he remembered the time when he read the school information, that most students were at higher ranks and only a few thousand were below the required mana core rank. `Was it because their other abilities were especially strong or did they enter through the back door like him?` "Hello, my name is Jason Stella and I''m 14 years old, I don''t have any ability and I¡äm a 5th Novice rank close to the 6th" When Jason woke up today, he noticed that it was already mid-August and his birthday had already passed unknowingly... He had never celebrated it since his mother died and thus, Jason didn''t care about his birthday. Everyone listened to Jason and it was extremely difficult for them to hold in their laughter when they heard that Jason was only at the 5th-Novice rank¡­ When the first one couldn''t hold it anymore a whole wave started and everyone was laughing except his teacher. Jason didn''t care about it and looked calmly at his teacher who returned his gaze. With a finger snap enhanced with mana, everyone turned immediately silent and they felt as if their heart was getting heavier and heavier. "Don''t laugh at your classmates" their teacher calmly said but the only thought in their mind was `SCARY!!` "Do you have mana eyes?" Till Greil straightforwardly asked without caring about etiquette, as it was rude to ask about someone else''s traits and Jason was hesitating for a second before he gave the obvious answer everyone could conclude with a few information Chapter 72 - Starting Classes His eyes were pretty obvious because of their color and the golden luster around them. It wasn''t that much of a challenge to conclude that his eyes weren''t normal. "Yes" and with the single word which came out of Jason`s mouth, the class began to murmur among themselves which their teacher dispersed with another finger snap but now without mana. The students were already scared about him snapping and they turned immediately silent Straits were already extremely rare and probably only roughly 1 in 1 million had one. Traits could be inherited with a certain possibility and the ratio of trait holders increased slowly but mana eyes among these trait holders were especially rare. "Stage?" He asked calmly "What?" Jason was confused¡­ What did his teacher want to know? Jason didn¡ät know "I asked you what stage your mana eyes are?" Mr. Greil was extremely impatient and turned slightly louder while asking "Eh...I don''t know?" Jason replied hesitantly "OHH MY DEAR LORD!!" Mr. Greil wanted to curse but he had to remain at least a little bit of an image. Calming down, he explained it slowly "To put it extremely simply. Traits are divided into different stages. The higher the stage the greater are the trait''s overall effect. When you did your special trait test to get your remark you should have been tested about your eyesight, visible mana particles, other special abilities, and so on. Just tell me the stage, the doctor told you" Till Greil was impatient and he didn''t notice his extremely rude behavior which made Jason uncomfortable. Jason didn''t know his mana eyes stage and even if he did, he wouldn''t tell it to anyone except his closest friends and new family. The only certain thing Jason knew about his eyes, was that they were special and he could see something nobody else could "I don''t know the stage because I''m from a low-grade city without the required high technology and the equipment wasn¡ät able to tell me anything" Jason believed it was useless to lie right now and it wouldn''t be that much of a hassle, to tell the truth, because he was sure the tests provided in small cities would be many times worse than the ones in the higher graded cities. Mr. Greil listened to Jason and thought for a moment before he checked out Jason''s profile. ''C-grade city? That means at least stage 2...even if his mana core rank is bad, his eyesight, motion vision, and observance during combat should be quite good with the ability to read the mana flow of his opponents¡­'' He concluded this information and thought Jason could be quite good but one thing that bothered him was Jason''s low mana core rank even if he didn''t want to admit it. ''Is his mana sensitivity bad even if he can see the mana flow? I doubt it¡­ Maybe he is lazy?..No that can¡ät be true...his theoretical exam results were full marks...OH! his control over mana could be lacking¡­ That should be it!` Everyone was silent and carefully looking at their teacher in front of them. "Now that everyone has introduced themself¡­ we can finally start... To start the lesson we should look at the cultivation process or mana gathering prozess overall and how one can improve the speed in ranking up without harming one''s body¡­. There are multiple important characteristics, which are important to rank up fast. ¡ú Focus ¡ú Stamina/Endurance ¡ú Ambition ¡ú Mana control ¡ú Mana sensitivity These characteristics can be combined into two sections also called innate talent and trainable talent. While trainable talents are Stamina/Endurance, mana control, and focus, innate talents is the ambition to strive for more and one''s mana sensitivity. It is debatable for some people if ambition is an innate talent but in my opinion, it is, because the more ambitious you are, the better you want to be and it is extremely difficult to change one''s own ambition. If your ambition is only strong enough to survive on Astrix and build up a family with children, it makes you strive for less power than one who wants to take revenge on some big families or even the capability to enter and survive on Canir. While ambition is debatable, whether to call it trainable or innate talent, mana sensitivity isn¡ät, because every human is born with a certain degree of sensitivity and it is almost impossible to improve. There are a few drastic exceptions humanity tried like blinding someone to force the body into a state where it has to rely on its senses for dozens of years. Another way to improve one''s mana sensitivity would be high-graded magical treasures with the ability to improve the body''s senses but these treasures are rare to find even on Canir. These items are rarely sold if found and mostly used for oneself or given to a family member with bad mana sensitivity to increase the aptitude in mana gathering. I don''t think anyone of you would sell such a treasure, right? Wouldn''t that be a huge waste? To come back to the main topic. Trainable talents can be increased by making efforts and this is what we want to do for now. I want everyone to maximize one''s mana gathering and circling speed to cultivate faster. Right now our class is the worst in mana core rank and exam results but that doesn''t mean we are bad. Everyone entered this school, while millions of kids couldn''t enter it. Even those who are older than any of you gave it a try and some might have used the chance while being a year older than the others but still¡­ everyone that sits here right now, overshadowed millions of students!!!..keep that in mind!! We want to strive for more and keep going...Cultivate hard and reach the higher ranks to protect your loved ones and annihilate the foreign races!!" Everyone began to clap, even Jason, but he wondered why his teacher was emitting a fog of mana with killing intent inside it, surrounding his teacher as if he wanted to massacre the foreign races right at this moment if he could. Jason shuddered ass goosebumps spread all over his skin, before he continued to clap, which was somehow similar to group pressure. `At least he is ambitious to make us stronger` The detailed explanations about how to train one''s focus, endurance/stamina, and mana control took more than two hours and it seemed like their teacher was still not completely done when the bell to initiate a short break began. Mr.Greil said that they have ten minutes break to think about the injected knowledge as he left the room for the time being. While internalizing the new information in his mind, the other students stormed into smaller and bigger groups to gossip about their teacher or some students. Jason was one of the most talked topics, with his almost non-existent mana core rank compared to theirs and his unique mana eyes. Some even talked about his good looks but this was only the minority because the guys were envious and prevented the girls from talking about that. He was immediately an outcast but Jason didn''t even notice that while he realized many facts he didn''t know. Jason noted down that he had to employ his newfound knowledge as soon as he came home and without noticing, their teacher was already back. Unbeknownst to Jason, he was made an outcast and had even ignored a few students that called him because of ulterior reasons, like being an errand boy for them, unconsciously. This made these youths angry and they wanted to teach Jason a lesson, when the teacher came inside "Tch!! What bad timing" one of the youths in the first row exclaimed" He looked like a tough guy with more muscles in his head than brain mass but this youth was still a 5th Adept- rank. His mana core rank was above the average requirement to enter the affiliated school but his theoretical exam was devastating, causing him to end up in this class and that only with the help of his parents. In this class, many students had a decent mana core rank but they somehow ended up in the worst class. Either their exam results were extremely bad or their temper brought in minus points from the examinee, which was quite common. Or maybe their soul-awakening was not good enough for the better-affiliated schools or even the main school. Considering that even a 2.5-star rating was the worst to get accepted under normal circumstances, it wouldn''t be difficult to end up in Class 75. Brute force was everything some students knew but that was something they were proficient in. Jason was still unaware of everything and only when he sensed the familiar mana fluctuations of his teacher, he lost focus on his thoughts and looked up. Now was the first time Jason looked directly into his teacher''s mana core and it was shocking¡­ `Ohhh my god!! So much mana liquid?!?!` His Aunt and Uncle were not even close to the quantity of mana liquid inside his teacher. `Is he a Grandmagus?...or maybe even the rank above???? I believe the old man had similar vibes, even if his mana fluctuations were suppressed¡­Even if he is a Grandmagus, why should he degrade his status to teach a class at the 6th affiliated school of the Vanguard school? He could even apply for one of the higher positions inside this school or even the whole Astrix island?? ¡­..Weird¡­` Before Jason could continue his train of thoughts, Mr. Greil continued his lesson but now he was talking about the various kinds of herbs, fruits, trees one could find everywhere including their characteristics, rarity, how to pick, and so on. This lesson only took an hour and everyone received three book files send onto their quantum bracelets. ''How to find magical herbs, Healing herbs, and magic plants, Journey into the woods'' "Your homework is to finish these books by next week. We will write a test about them." While everyone was flabbergasted while looking at the large files inside their quantum bracelet and back to their teacher, he continued talking. "We have still more than enough time left. Today is a special day for everyone. You got to know each other at least slightly but the most important thing is that everyone should know the combat prowess of each other. I''ll give everyone four hours time to reach the most perfect combat form and after the time is up, we will have spars to renew our intern class ranks" The teacher finished and the class roared in fighting spirit Chapter 73 - Scaredy Almost nobody was satisfied with their own class-ranking, even the top because they wanted to enter the higher classes. Thinking about fighting each other in their own class was satisfying for them as they were itchy to release their tension. "Because everyone''s mana consumption will be huge. I''ll limit the battles to two. Everyone can choose one opponent while the same goes for inquiries. This is to prevent a group from fighting a single individual a few times in succession. Please choose your opponent now...first comes, first serves.` In front of everyone appeared a holographic screen with a name lif. While everyone was astonished, Jason immediately scanned through the list as he picked one name, after a moment. He didn¡ät want to compete against the top ranks of his class right now. It was still way to early for now, as such he picked number 224, who sat next to him with a mana core rank of a 1st Adept. There was nothing special about this youth and Jason thought that this would be the most likely opponent for him to beat. It was the most rational way for him to get out of this competition without getting beaten up too harshly. While he hoped that the boy next to him also picked him, a certain name with the corresponding number appeared next to Jason¡äs name¡­ `Nr.4 Leo Heart Mana core: 5th- Adept` Jason¡äs eyes widened and he was about to jump up, thinking it might be a mistake, when he saw a muscular boy looking at him with a sly smile, causing him to frown. Bullying?? Ok¡­ let''s play this game then¡­ Calming down everyone with a finger snap, Till Greil started, a timer in order to let everyone increase their combat capabilities to their limit. The time would be count down in four hours and it was an extremely long time to prepare for a fight. Jason knew that he was picked on by some musclebrain who wanted to mess with him and he jumped up from his chair to rush out of the classroom, drawing a lot of attention on him. "HAHAHA, does he think he can run away? If he doesn''t even dare to spar with his classmates, why is he even coming to this school" Leo Heart said while laughing heartily. The small group that gathered around him like hyenas was cackling, calling Jason "Coward", "Idiot", "Scaredy-cat", "Mud-head" and much more. Even Mr. Greil was confused about the sudden sprint Jason put off. He was about to become disappointed about the black-haired boy, thinking he might give up on the spar due to a small hurdle when his released mana sensed something in particular. "Disperse" the teacher just said, when he vanished from their sight. Mr. Greil followed Jason, who seemed to follow something until he entered the forest within the school grounds, that belonged to the third-grade students. Normally Jason wouldn''t be allowed to enter it but with Mr.Greil around, there wasn''t anyone obstructing him. Entering the forest, Jason followed solely where his eyes lead him to. as he rushed through the forest for almost ten minutes straight until he saw a small blue shining lake surrounded by lush trees. Above the lake was a thick exotic-looking stone arch, where dense and thick mana streamed through. Even Cyro City¡äs mana was at least 6 times denser compared to Artes city, but the whole lake in front of him looked like it had double the density. As if that wasn¡ät enough, Jason noticed a few things on top of the stone arch, that attracted his attention. The stone arch¡äs top was at least 30 meters in height and it looked massive, when Jason stood in front of it. However due to his curisocity, he decided to climb it up, even if it would take some time. Almost 30 minutes later, Jason somehow ended up at the top of the arch and the amount of mana he sensed there was even more than than at the bottom. Jason was happy to have climbed up the stone arch, as the mana density satisfied his demand. The closer he came to the thing that attracted his attention, the denser the amount of mana became, when he squeezed himself through some bushes. He entered a small biotop with many kinds of fruits that smelled aromatic with mana radiating from them. Through his manay eyes, Jason could even see colors enmantling these fruits! And not only black, but also some faint light-gray colors could be seen, shocking him extremely. Unbeknownst to himself, he turned extremely greedy, only to collect his thoughts after a moment. `Can I just harvest these fruits or do they belong to someone?` Jason thought as he was tempted to just pick them up, before running away. Thinking for a moment he considered that his mana fluctuations could be found here, turning him into the main-suspect, which wouldn¡ät be helpful. He would be kicked out of the school in the best case scenarios, so Jason used the quantum bracelet to write to his teacher.. `I found some magical fruits on top of a stone arch¡­ Can I pick them up or not?` He asked straightforward without writing anything else. "You may pick one¡­" A voice behind him suddenly said and Jason turned around slightly frightened, only to see his teacher with an odd expression. Jason was shocked to see his teacher behind him, but he only nodded his head as he looked at the fruits in front of him. Scanning through all of them, Jason picked the fruit with the thickest light-gray color. This was also the best fruit present and Mr.Greil noticed that with a deep frown. "Ughh¡­.This will be annoying to explain..` Mr.Greil lamented in his mind before he vanished again. Jason didn¡ät noticed him vanishing, because he took out his perennial neoxid box, where the holy white bacuri fruit was already inside. Squeezing in the "Siphon-agnus-castus flower" he picked up, the whole box was completely filled. Now, he was somewhat worried, that the magical effect of both plants might reduce like that, as they were squeezed slightly within the boxk, but this had to wait for now. Even if they were squeezed together, their effect wouldn¡ät decrease by much. Jason had still 3 ? hours left and he still had to run to the arena. As such 3 hours would be the limit, Jason could use to strengthen himself. Sitting down right above the thick mana stream between the flowers, he didn¡ät mind their existence. Jason took out a few mana stones, which he laid down in front of him in order to supply his mana absoption even more if necessary. Closing his eyes, he activated his mana sensibility to the limited capabilities. Jason could feel the whole wildlife around him with his senses alone which was amazing. It felt like his mana core was screaming for more mana as all his pores opened up, releasing excessive oils, before it began absorbing the mana in his surrounding under Jason¡äs lead. His control and mana sensitive were exceptional high and the mana streamed into his mana channels, filling them up within seconds. Jason made huge circles through his mana channels with the foreign mana before he injected it into his mana core. Asking himself why he even took out the mana stones, Jason felt weird as the mana from his surroundings was vast enough to overwhelm him, when all of his mana channels were flooded by mana. He almost lost his focus because of the overwhelmed quantity of mana but Jason could fix his focus after a moment, before he greedily circled the mana within him only to inject it into his mana core afterward. Previously, Jason thought he would need a few days before he would be able to break into the 6th Novice rank, but now he was confident in achieving this in an extremely short amount of time. Unbeknownst to himself, a translucent mana cocoon surrounded him, as Jason entered a state of complete focus. The mana in his surrounding was absorbed greedily while seconds...minutes...and a whole hour passed. Cracks could be heard within the cocoon and Jason opened his golden shining eyes, when he woke up from from his focuse state. Looking around, he noticed the dense mana cocoon around him as he decided to consolidate his newly advanced 6th Novice mana core immediately. before he would meassure the increasement of strenght. Mr. Greil¡äs task was to look after all students, however, seeing what Jason did right now, he even forgot that he was a teacher as he stared at the worst student in awe. `Who was this idiot, thinking that his mana control was bad?? ¡­ Why the hell is he only at the Novice rank????????` Till was even more confused than before.. With the abilities he saw, there was no way for Jason to be only at the novice rank¡­ He should be atl least at the expert stage with such capabilities... One could only see a handsome looking teacher with blond hair standing on a tree, looking dumbfounded at a mana cocoon for two more hours. *2 hours later* Jason secreted tons of a black smelly liquid as he took off his reeking clothes. Unfortunately that wasn¡ät enough for him to smell good once again, when Jason remembered that there was a lake below him. He was 30 meters above it but that wasn¡ät something to care about, as he glanced at the time. There were 20 minutes left to cleanse himself and arrive at the arena which was definitely not enough for him. Jumping down the stone arch naked, he was fortunate that nobody saw him. He landed with a loud smash and his back hurt as he landed in an uncomfortable position. Rushing out of the water, changing into a new set of clothes and running back to the arena, Jason didn''t even notice a small group of third-graders who noticed Jason¡äs whole incident. "Everyone saw that, right?" A small blue-haired girl asked with red cheeks. "Yep" A red-haired girl with a voluptuous chest said next to her, smiling weirdly "Me too me too" A small brown-haired youth said happily, as he jumped around amused. Chapter 74 - Crude And Cowardly? Jason ran with his highest possible speed while scanning through his own body. Never had Jason thought that he could breakthrough in a single hour and consolidate his mana core with the remaining two hours, which was extremely fast. The mana around the sea was like a paradise for him and Jason hoped he could come back there sometime in the future. After entering the 6th Novice rank, his mana core size broke through the 7th rank easily, while his physical strength was at the 6th rank infinite close to the 7th rank. Artemis was more of a mana beast than a physical contributor for Jason and his mana felt vigorous while swirling inside his body. When he landed inside the water, Jason entered his soul world for a second in order to look how much his soul energy improved by ranking up. Apparently, it increased by around 0.2 when he ranked up to the 6th Novice rank, which could be considered slightly above the commonly average. Arriving at the arena, only ten seconds were left as Jason stood there with wet hair and clothes. The clothes he put on got wet because Jason didn¡ät waste time to dry himself and clothes. His classmates began to laugh when they saw him running towards the arena completely wet. "Yoo...mud-head... Did you fail to drown yourself?" "Hahaha¡­.Idiot!!" "Did he fail in running away by swimming for a bit?" "Does swimming increase one¡äs courage?" Listening to his classmate''s words, he was dumbfounded. Why should he drown himself? And how can one fail in running away by swimming? Was this student''s brain out of mud or was he just simple dumb and clueless. Jason didn''t answer anyone as he stood in front of the teacher, who told him to change into a dry set of clothes after cleaning his body. Till knew that Jason jumped into the lake in order to clean himself and at the same moment to not waste any time, so he gave him some time to clean and dry himself. "Let''s start the matches. Jason can follow us after he changed into a new set of clothes." He said in order to change the attention towards the upcoming battles. When Jason arrived at the designated arena ten minutes later, there were already a few injured youths at the side with broken arms, cuts, and various elemental injuries but nobody seemed to be seriously injured. Next to the injured youths stood a 3-meter tall whiteish-golden furred wolf with two golden crystals grown on its forehead instead of horns. The wolf released a calming and purifying energy that could slowly heal the injured youths. Jason noticed that this wolf was a beast with either the light or holy affinity. While light abilities were inferior out of both of them but Jason couldn''t differentiate the affinities as he had never read either os their mana fluctuations. Additionally, Jason didn''t know what beast it was except its canine race as he had never seen this race within the beastarium. Looking around the arena, its construction was pretty simple with a few quadratic reinforced stone platforms as the sparring area while the platform could be surrounded by a cubic protection field if needed. This protection field could absorb all kinds of attacks below the Magus rank hindering them in leaving the combatant area and to prevent injuries among the spectators. However, for the first spars, this protection field was not activated so the teacher could save the two combatants if needed. Deflecting adept ranked attacks was not even worth lifting a finger for him. Releasing some mana was more than enough for Mr.Greil. Mr. Greil saw Jason and called him onto the platform with his seat neighbor as first spar. Standing opposite each other, both got into position while Jason scanned his classmate''s mana to find out what kind of elemental ability his opponent had, if there was one. However, Jason was lucky and Nr.224¡äs mana seemed normal, without any transmutation from elemental affinities as a small smile emerged on his face. His opponent thought it was somewaht weird for a 5th Novice rank to smile while fighting against someone 6 levels above. He thought Jason was overestimating his own capabiltiies and made himself ready to fight, entering a common battle stance. The teacher gave the starting signal and in Jason¡äs hand appeared two small knives, while his opponent used a longsword that looked extremely heavy. His opponent began to rush at him with a speed that surprised Jason. Calming down within a millisecond, Jason took one step forward before he changed his direction without delay in order to step backwards with large strides. Jason was happy on his inside while his smile froze on the outside causing his opponent to feel happy before their real clash even began. His opponent''s speed was fast but not fast enough to overwhelm Jason entirely, as he had to carry a heavy and cumbersome long sword with him, while Jason was almost empty-handed. This happiness of the longsword wielder vanished extremely fast as Jason, who wore the mechanical knife holder, began to throw knives at him. The accuracy Jason achieved over the last week, was exceptional, as such it was essential difficult for his opponent to deflect the throwing knives. First, he focused on his opponent''s legs, which his opponent deflected with much difficulty as his longsword was heavy and not smooth to handle, slowing him down by a large deggre only to widen the range between both of them. After throwing the sixth knife, Jason penetrated the longsword wielder¡äs defense and hit his shoulder, inflicting a light injury that would worsen over time as it would be constantly shifted. Moving to the left and right in order to avoid leaving the combat area, the spectators began to blame him for being a coward, which Jason didn''t even notice. He was too focused on his fight, when his opponent was suddenly only a meter away from him- With wrath in his eyes, the longsword wielder slashed at him. Jason was still completely calm and analysed the situation within a moment, as he used a quarter of his mana in order to enhance his legs. He bend down, only to jump into the tiger''s den straight to his opponents side. The swordwielder¡äs legs were already injured and his reflexes were much slower than Jason¡äs which gave him a excessive advantage. Before his opponent could do anything, Jason already pierced into both femoral veins, which is between the calves and lower thigh, with his throwing knives, causing his opponent to cry out in pain as he kneeled down unconsciously. Stopping the fight immediately, Jason was sure the fight was obviously over, as Nr. 224 was immediately brought next to the other injured students. Even though the disparity between both of their ranks was wide, Jason¡äs combat experience and choice of weapon was much better. Furthermore, Jason focused less on looking great or a prideful tactic. Surrounded by the light or holy energy, his blood congealed and the wound began to heal slowly. Looking at his opponent who looked like he was about to cry, Jason didn¡ät know what to think¡­ `I¡äm not too cruel, right?` as his facial expression turned unsightly. It was only now that he realized his other classmates looked at him with disgust as if the fight was sickening to them. "Scaredy-Cat ¡­ the only thing you can do is running away, HAHAHA...even if you beat your opponent, he was only nr 224. Don¡ät think you can do anything" "Running away and throwing knives¡­.everyone can do that¡­ your nothing special" A subordinate of Leo Heart said. "That was unfair!! How dare you run away" Some idiot lamented Jason could only now understand, what they were saying and their stupidty annoyed him extremely, before he turned to Mr.Greil who declared. "Jason Stella won the fight and is now Rank: 224. Anyone who says he won because he is scared or fights unfairly, can try to fight someone 6 levels above your own rank without using tricks.. I¡äll be waiting." Turning to Jason he said "Your fight was decent. Do you want to continue?" "I need ten minutes to replenish my mana. After that, I¡äm ready to fight" Jason honestly replied. It was way too important to replenish his mana right now. He was sure that he couldn''t beat a 5th Adept rank without giving his all, even then it would be quite difficult After listening to Jason, the teacher called up other students while he spectated their fight. Meanwhile he passively replenishing his mana, with mana stones laid next to him to accelerate the process. This was only possible because he trained for more than two weeks, how to passively do that while watching videos. It was most likely also thanks to the ardurous workout he underwent by Mark, that he was able to persist. Furthermore, the foundational guide about replenishing mana passively helped Jason a lot in order to basically understand what he had to do. He fixed the flaws he made when he learned how to passively replenish mana without relying on a guide and was able to replenish his mana passively after that. A few fights passed and his teacher noticed Jason spectating all fights without doing anything when he emanated a string of mana. Mr. Greil instantly noticed that Jason absorbed the mana in his surroundings in order to replenish his mana pool as he nodded his head in approval. It was a decent feat to be able to focus on the battle while replenishing ones mana. If he also knew that Jason learned to do that within a few weeks, partially without following a guide, Mr.Greil would probably be delighted and shocked at the same time. Ten minutes passed, when Jason¡äs mana pool was completely filled while Leo Heart already nagged the teacher to let them fight now, impatiently. "Ughh¡­ how annoying!! Up with both of you¡­ don¡ät kill each other.." Mr.Greil noticed that Leo was somehow a little bit bothered with Jason, even if he wasn''t sure why but he wanted to know how far above Jason was able to fight. Jason stood opposite Leo with a distance of around 50 meters as spiked gauntlets appeared around his hands, causing Jason to curse inwardly. The choice of weapon was definitely a disadvantage for him. Looking at Leo¡äs mana core, he noticed that the mana was slightly transmuted into a thin brownish color, indicating to Jason that he had an earth affinity. Jason was honest when he thought about his chances to win. `Ahh I don¡ät want to` he wailed, when the starting sound was initiated. Chapter 75 - Quickly Over Jason had never fought against anyone with an affinity except the wind bull but that wasn''t a real fight if one had to be honest. Leo shouted arrogantly "HAHA¡­ it''s better to be my errand boy than pissing me of¡­ don¡ät you think so, little maiden?" Jason was astonished that he was called maiden.. I know I''m handsome but bro¡­ I''m a boy..or maybe I¡äm also beautiful? Ahh, nevermind that!!` If he was honest, Jason was extremely narcissistic since he awoke his eyes. However, previously he wasn''t confident in his own body which was now different. Jason thought he was extremely good-looking but beautiful? The fight started and Jason was taken off guard, as he was still thinking about his handsomeness. This caused him to be unaware of the earth spikes that suddenly shot out of the platform, surrounding him as they pierced into his calves without giving him the chance to react. Crying out in pain, he couldn''t even break out of the earth spikes when Leo Heart appeared above him, with a devilish smile on his face as mana encased his gauntlet, causing them to shine brightly. Mr.Greil was about to end the battle when he saw something particular in Jason¡äs eyes that caused him to hesitate for a second `F**K¡­ don¡ät die little one!` He was a moment too late to save Jason as he saw Jason''s eyes piercing into Leo¡äs eyes which were fierce and full of anger before they suddenly turned blank. Leo collapsed on the ground, laying there as if he was knocked out by Jason, without him doing anything and the whole combat arena turned silent. Nobody knew what happened and one could only see Jason struggling to stay firmly on the ground while blood began to ooze out of his eyes like a small stream. *Seconds before* Leo didn''t want to kill Jason and he was suer of the fact that their teacher would prevent him in killing Jason, so he just attacked with all the anger he had stored inside him. Even if it wasn¡ät accumulated from Jason, he needed a punching bag right now and in front of him was the perfect victim. Jason noticed that something was off when the teacher didn''t stop the attack as Leo Hearts mana enhanced gauntlets were only some distance away from him. Using his fully stored mana and the amount accumulated within his eyes, he released the whole vast amount of mana at once through his eyes, while staring at Leo. Leo gazed into Jason''s eyes that seemed to tell him he was an ant in front of him when Jason¡äs eyes turned gigantic enveloping his whole existence. While they grew in size, Leo''s senses were completely sealed off as he felt like he was falling into a eerie and frightful darkness that seemed to be unlimited behind the golden luster of Jason¡äs eyes. It seemed as if he was imprisoned within the abyss and it was extremely frightening. This short moment felt like an eternity to Leo as he suddenly shuttered when he saw something particular gazing at him. He began to sweat heavily and he was forced to stumble backward with heavy steps before his eyes turned wet with fear spreading through his whole body. Suddenly the abyss in his mind vanished, releasing Leo back into reality when his brain registered the eternity that passed inside his mind within a millisecond. It couldn''t handle the shock and Leo collapsed in front of Jason on the ground. Jason didn¡ät know what exactly happened to Leo but he knew what his eyes were able to do, at least to a certain degree because the same happened when he was sparring with Greg. One time Jason was so annoyed by Greg, that he used up a small amount of mana inside his eyes while fighting with Greg. Suddenly Greg¡äs moves were somewhat slowed down and restricted. After a second, Greg was freed but that wasn¡ät the main fact. When that happened, Greg looked at Jason with shock when he told him that Jason¡äs eyes enveloped him somehow, welcoming him to an uncanny darkness, like an abyss. Greg didn''t want to experiment with this ability with him ever again, because the abyss, they named it, was too eerie. Jason wanted to test this ability with his whole amount of mana but there was no one to test it at. Now while fighting with Leo, he couldn''t think of a different way out of the sudden incident, and he was forced to use the [abyssal effect], he names it to end the whole battle before it even began. Jason was still standing but only due to the support of the earth spikes inside his calves. Otherwise, he would also collapse on the ground, as his mind felt sluggish. Mr. Greil shattered the earth spikes immediately and transported both of them close to his soulbond wolf that radiated the white light with its healing characteristics. Not only was their teacher shocked about what happened, but the whole class was also completely silent. It took everyone a few minutes to digest the whole battle before some of them gossiped with each other. Nobody asked a question, but everyone had the same one in their mind `What happened? ` Looking at their teacher, they noticed a similar confused expression telling them, that not even he knew what was going on. As such they remained silent, waiting for their teacher to do something. Once ge checked Jason¡äs injuries and Leo¡äs mind, he declared the outcome of the battle. "This battle was a tie. Next one please" Normally Jason would have won this fight as he was still standing when Leo was already unconscious lying on the bottom but this would mean Jason¡äs rank would change to the 4th, while Leo¡äs would decrease to the 224th. After changing the ranking like this, Jason would be probably tormented and bullied once he as a teacher wasn''t there, which he wanted to avoid. In the end, he decided to declare the fight as a tie. Jason was just too weak right now, even if his combat prowess seemed to be extremely strong for a new advanced 6th Novice rank. The fights continued but not many rankings changed and the whole class ranking battle ended with only a few slightly injured youths, while Jason lost his consciousness. Leo was also unconscious and the two of them seemed to have sustained the most serious injuries compared to the rest. Leo¡äs mind seemed to work fine and only sleep would be required to heal his psyche, while Mr. Greil thought the same about Jason¡äs case. Because of that, they were both brought to the infirmary.. * It was already afternoon when Jason woke up in an unknown room. Trying to stand up, he was astonished to notice, that his calves weren''t hurting or even numb. Next to his bed was another bed and Leo was sleeping on it with a stupid facial expression. If Jason was honest to himself, he didn¡ät know what to think about Leo. `Did he really want to kill me or was it an accident? Why didn¡ät Mr.Greil save me?` These thoughts ran through his head when the infirmary door opened with Mr.Greil walking inside, with a nurse following behind him. They noticed that Jason was already awake and standing firmly as Mr.Greil came closer. "Jason, I think I¡äve to apologize. I hesitated for a slight moment to save you, when I saw your eyes shining and it ended up in a mess because of me... Luckily nobody is heavily injured and I hope you won''t hold a grudge." He said sincerely. Jason noticed his genuity and accepted the apology. He didn''t hold a grudge because everything ended up somewhat fine, without him getting severely injured. Even if he would hold a grudge, to whom should he complain? His teacher was extremely strong and had probably an extremely high authority within Astrix. After accepting the apology, Jason decided to go home, as he had nothing to do within the school anymore. He even forgot to change his clothes when he called a shuttle as Jason was running around with his Jeans that were ripped at the calves. It was probably looking extremely funny, except for the bloodstains, one could see. When the shuttle arrived, he entered it and went inside the soul world in order to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique diligently. Because of his breakthrough in his mana core rank, his soul energy reached 6.7 and Jason was happily leading around the shapeless energy, injecting it inside the soul world core within 25 minutes. The shuttle arrived right when Jason finished his practice and he decided to practice the Heaven¡äs Hell technique everytime within the Shuttle, as it was a tranquil place while the timing seemed to fit perfectly. Entering the small house, he was now living with the Fler¡äs, Gabriella was the first one to see him as she greeted him with a smile. "Hello Jason, why are you so late¡­ how was your d-dAYYYY?" The last words were almost shrieked when she saw how Jason looked like. He wasn''t wearing his uniform, because they were stained by impurities and right now, Jason¡äs lower body looked like he had survived a massacre. The part below high tights was almost completely littered with blood and Gabriella noticed the holes inside his pants. She hurriedly ran over to him in order to inspect him for Injuries, when Jason told her that there was a small class ranking battle. "SMALL? You look like you went to the warzones??!?!?" She shouted and Jason was grateful for her worry but she was extremely loud, attracting the attention of the other family members who got curious about the dispute. When they saw Jason¡äs look, Greg and Malia immediately hurried over to inspect him neatly, before they noticed that he was fine. Jason was embarrassed about getting touched by multiple hands like that as he asked all of them if they could sit down to let him explain everything. As such they sat down before Jason began talking about the things that happened over the whole day, beginning with the lessons and his breakthrough. "WHAT!! You already broke into the 6th Novice rank!?!!" Greg cried out and Malia urged him to consolidate his mana core before ranking up, when Jason continued explaining, that he already consolidated his mana core after his breakthrough. "WHAT?!?!!" Now it was Malia to cry out loud and she looked as shocked as everyone else. Even if the 6th Novice rank was nothing special, especially for his age but consolidating his mana core within two hours was more than a little bit fast¡­ He finished the reproduction about the day neatly when he saw Gabriella and Malia fuming with anger "What kind of teacher is that, to neglect his student on the first day!!! I should call the principal and complain about him" Gabriella said and she was already opening her quantum bracelet when Jason calmed her down. Greg was quiet and feeling a little bit weird when he heard about Jason releasing his whole mana pool inside his eyes to activate the [Abyssal effect]. Being reminded about this, caused him to shutter in fright as he tried to change his thoughts. Jason wanted to go upside to wash his clothes when he was reminded about his Holy white baruci fruit which used up to much space as he turned to the Fler¡äs that were like a family to him. "Can I loan some credits from someone, please? I want to contract another soulbond" Jason innocently said while everyone looked a little bit confused "Huhh???" Chapter 76 - Apology? Jason was lying on his bed, looking at his bank account with a faint smile. [1.000.000 Credits] The Fler¡äs were uncertain what to think about Jason when he told them that he wanted to form another contract while Artemis was evolving. She would evolve into a higher species with a much higher demand for soul energy than before and now Jason wanted to bind another beast? Wasn¡ät he desperately accumulating soul energy in order to maintain a secure soulbond with Artemis? Nevertheless, Gabriella gave him the Credits. Seeing Jason¡äs determined and ambitious expression, right after he came back home from school, looking like he was beaten into a pulp, something must have happened to change his mind. Jason pondered for a long time if he should just contract a lot of soulbonds in order to receive the shared strength of hundreds of beasts while accumulating soul energy for a single beast with high potential, but it felt wrong. His soul world would probably able to do that because the information humanity had about soul-awakenings and soul worlds was, that one needed to have a two meters diameter soul world to hold at least an unblemished ranked beast. Some humans had a smaller soul world and could still hold at least a wild-ranked beast while Jason¡äs soul world was vast, able to handle a huge quantity of beasts. But that wasn''t what he wanted as he would rather focus on quality instead of quantity. However, after today¡äs fight, he finally noticed that his plan was naive. It was important for him to use all means to reach the strength of his classmates that were stronger than him in a head-on fight, by all means. Furthermore, Jason wanted to experiment with the Holy white bacuri fruit he obtained in Jiro-City, which was another reason for him to pick another soulbond. Previously Jason was anxious about picking another soulbond because he was uncertain about Artemis growing speed but even so Jason estimated that she would probably need more than one month to finish her evolution. In the meantime, Jason was confident to reach at least an innate soul energy of around ten with his rapid soul energy reproduction speed. Right now his soul energy was already around 6.7 units large, while 4 were used up by Artemis at the moment. His innate soul energy, after deducting Artemis shared soul energy from his soul world amplification, would be around 5.4 right now. Today¡äs fight changed his train of thoughts completely as he wanted to grow his soul energy as soon as possible to avoid getting beaten up. Since he awakened his eyes and finished the soul-awakening, Jason was never as close to deaths doors as today... If he hadn''t used his eyes [Abyss-Effect], he would be either heavily injured or maybe even dead. He wanted to use the holy white bacuri fruit for a non-potential beast to test out his purity theory. As such he made an appointment to enter Cyro-city¡äs Beast Pagoda first floor. Before Jason thought, he would have to wait at least a few weeks to enter the Beast Pagoda, but somehow the first floor of the beast pagoda had many free dates left which were completely different from the second, third, and following floors, that had a long queue. Thinking for a moment, Jason realized why this was the case. In his old hometown, there were all kinds of beasts below the magical beast rank on the same floor, while this wasn¡ät the case for Cyro- city. Here, every rank had its own floor and Jason obviously selected the wild beast floor which not many people in Cryo-city used for a soulbond. In Cyro-city it would be shameful to form a contract with a non-potential wild beast and the Beast Pagoda itself did not have strong wild beasts with a high-potential. Even if they had, these beasts would be immediately sold to some big families with unfortunate soul-awakenings, where their soul energy was just too week to contract higher-ranked beasts. Jason decided to select the appointment for tomorrow after school and he immediately notified the others with a short message, that they wouldn''t worry about him like today where he came back late. After that, Jason was still not tired and he opened one of the books he received today, which was about magical herbs and plants. It was relatively interesting and only after a few hours passed, Jason became tired. He decided to go to sleep, not without forgetting to become excited about going to school and picking his second soulbond. * Jason woke up a little bit later than normal and it was already 6 am. The first thing he did were his morning exercises before he washed up and going down to eat breakfast. Gabriella was placing the last dishes on the table when Jason arrived and it looked like Malia and Greg were either sleeping or washing up. They talked a little bit with each other but his Aunt didn''t ask him, what kind of beast he wanted to pick, which Jason found weird, as she should be curious about it. This was exactly the case and she wanted to know more about Jason¡äs sudden decision to pick another soulbond like, `Why now and not later?` or `how` this sudden change happened, but she didn''t want to ruin the atmosphere. Jason wasn''t sure what he would answer if she asked about what kind of beast he wanted to bind as he himself was unsure about that. Minutes passed and the siblings went down almost at the same time, greeting everyone heartily before they began eating breakfast as Mark arrived as the last one. Breakfast was the only meal everyone ate together and the mood was relaxing for the mind. Nobody asked Jason any questions even if they were curious and instead of asking him anything, Jason was curious about Greg¡äs first day in school. Apparently, Greg was in class 23 out of 50 and that was solely because of his soul-awakening. Greg¡äs ranking was in the middle area within his class, thanks to the high physical amplification he received from his soul world, which frustrated him, but there wasn''t anything he could do about it. He could only train hard in order to increase his ranking over time and Greg knew that his determination was more than enough to allow him that. His mana core rank was only at the 3rd Adept and almost all of his classmates were at the 7th Adept rank, which shocked even Malia. In her junior year, she was in class 5 with her 3 ? star soul-awakening while her mana core was 8th Adept and now everyone in class 23 should be almost at the same mana core rank as her? Wasn''t that too exaggerated? And if that was true, what about the classes above? Were there already 14-year-old experts? Malia was shocked about such talent because it would be extremely strenuous for 14-year old students to enter the expert rank as she herself only reached this rank when she was 14 years and three months old which was already considered extremely fast. She wouldn''t brag about her mana gathering and absorbing talent in public but she was extremely confident in it, thus it was much more shocking to her than anyone else. Jason was more astonished that Greg was ranked in the middle area of his class because mana core rank was the worst in class, even though his combat prowess was exceptional in combination with the physical boost because of the reinforced horned bull. Normally, Greg shouldn¡ät have such a high ranking and Jason wondered if either Greg¡äs talent towards martial arts were superior or if the classmates were just below average in fighting against humans. After eating breakfast, it was already 7:20 am and Jason changed into his second school uniform as his first set was still smelling awful. He sent it to a special cleaning company before the shuttle arrived that would bring him to school. It shuttle arrived at school when Jason finished practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique and there were a still few minutes left before school would start when he entered his classroom. Upon seeing Jason, everyone was silent causing him to hesitant slightly as over 200 pairs of eyes stared at him with question marks in their eyes and doubtful expressions. When he sat down, he saw Leo Heart walking up to him with a straight back, when Jason noticed that there wasn¡ät any anger or arrogance in his eyes left, as Leo cleared his throat "Hey, Jason...I think I have to apologize to you about yesterday...I was too impulsive and It wasn''t my intention to seriously injure or kill you. I thought the teacher would stop our fight before something happened but apparently, that wasn¡ät the case. I don¡ät what you did to me yesterday, but after I woke up, I could clearly think about many things while being reminded of the endless darkness I saw. Sorry again and let¡äs not hate each other, okay?" Leo turned around and sat down on his seat when their classmates looked at Leo in shock. Some of them were in the same middle-school as he was and it was extremely shocking to see him saying sorry. And this to the second last rank with a mana core of the 5th Novice rank?? Unbelievable?!?!? Wait!! 5th Novice rank¡­ some students released mana treads and scanned Jason¡äs core because they noticed something different 6th Novice rank!! He broke through?? When? Unbeknownst to them, Jason broke into the 6th Novice rank before the class ranking battles even began. But for Jason, it was relatively shocking to see that Leo was completely fine after he activated the [Abyss effect] of his eyes with his highest capabilities. `Leo was completely fine and he even fixed his bad attitude because of it? Weird...` he thought as it was weird. Jason asked himself once again, what exactly his eyes were as normal mana eyes couldn''t do things as his could do. But before he could continue the train of thoughts, Mr.Greil walked inside for today¡äs theoretical lessons were taught. Theoretical lessons were the most annoying thing for some muscle brains who only wanted to learn martial art techniques as they demonstrated their unwillingness. But Mr.Greil didn''t mind their attitude, as long as they didn¡ät interrupt the lessons with their noises. Time passed uncontrollably and it was already 4 pm when school was over. Jason learned many new things and his mind was like a sponge absorbing all information provided without distinguishing between important and useless information. On his lunch break, Jason practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique. Somehow he began talking to a few people in his class, about school lessons. as Jason''s knowledge was distinct, while even Leo came to them. He wasn''t sure what exactly happened but after being an outcast for a single day, Jason was surrounded by his classmates. If he knew that his eyes were partially responsible for this scenario as people felt comfortable around him, many more questions would torment his mind. Chapter 77 - Cyro Jason sat inside the shuttle on the way to the Beast Pagoda with excitement gleaming in his eyes. It felt as if hours passed and time seemed to have stopped when Jason finally arrived at his destination, only 25 minutes later. The beast pagoda was much grander than the one he was previously, and the Pagoda itself had seven layers, while two were used for hatching. As for the other five layers, beasts of all kinds of ranks inhabited them. While Jason was fascinated about the mana fluctuations he could feel and see all around, he walked slowly towards the large gate that was opened right after he stepped in front of it. There was an attendant waiting for him looking extremely happy seeing Jason, which wondered him slightly. What Jason didn''t know was, that this young attendant was responsible only for the first floor in his first few years and it has been some time since there was someone making an appointment for the first layer. The innate talent for soul-awakenings for most youths in Cyro-city was at least a soul energy of 11+ units which was enough to bind an awakened beast. Furthermore, even if one''s soul energy was less, one would rather practice the Heaven''s Hell technique for a few months in order to reach the threshold to venture directly to the Beast Pagoda¡äs second floor or form a soulbond with a potential beast caught by beast merchants as their service was faster and more reliable than the Beast Pagoda¡äs Jason walked through the opened gate and the attendant ran up to him. "Hello, Sir. I presume Mr. Stella, right?" The attendant greeted and asked hopefully. Jason answered with a nod as the attendant''s eyes lightened up. "Follow me please, Mr.Stella" The manor was large and more than 10 minutes passed until they reached the first floor with wild-ranked beasts inside. During these 10 minutes, the attendant asked various questions that were important for a soulbond, and Jason answered them as well as he was able to. One of the questions for example was what type of beast Jason wanted to form a soulbond with and what rank the beast should be at. This question was what Jason was unsure about. Right now, he had chosen a certain direction his soulbond should be, but he wasn''t sure what kind of species Cyro-City¡äs Beast Pagoda had and if Jason was able to form a contract with it. Right now he wanted to test the purity theory much more than anything else. To be safe and test the theory with the Holy white baruci fruit as safe as possible, Jason wanted to form a contract with a beast that possessed a high endurance. Unfortunately, Jason¡äs innate soul energy only allowed him to bind a beast below the four-star wild rank which hindered his plan to a certain degree. But forming a contract with a one-star wild beast was also not safe as Jason wasn¡ät sure if such a weak beast would be able to endure the torment energy of the Holy white bacuri fruit, which would most likely cleanse his new soulbond¡äs body. Even for humans eating this fruit was dangerous because it would forcibly wash out a certain mass of impurities and how could Jason know if a one-star wild beast could survive that? He was also unsure if a three-star wild beast could survive that, as Jason was unaware of how potent the holy white bacuri fruit¡äs cleansing effect was. As such he had to pick a beast with high endurance and certain survivabilities in order to get through the cleansing. In the end, Jason¡äs range of beasts he could choose became less with each criterion in his mind. He decided to restrict his selection to three-star wild beasts with his survivability and endurance. Telling the attendant the criteria Jason needed, the attendant wasn''t sure what to think of Jason, as the criterion named were somewhat familiar, causing him to be overly careful with his next words. "I don''t want to suspect any ill-intention from you, but purchasing a beast in the beast pagoda is solely intended for soulbonds and not to experiment with them" Jason wanted to experiment with this beast but he didn''t want to harm or kill it as the most important fact was, that he wanted to form a soulbond with this beast. Killing or crippling it would decrease his combat prowess in the end, if his soul wouldn¡ät be damaged in the process as the worst-case scenario. "You don''t have to worry about that. I can form a soulbond contract with the beast I choose in front of your eyes if that lessens your worries" Upon hearing his client saying this the attendant sighed in relief. He wasn''t working in the Beast Pagoda for a long time, but he had already seen many crazy people on the first floor trying to purchase wild beasts with ill-intensions. Hearing Jason saying that he would bind the beast in front of him, caused his slowly accumulating worries to vanish into thin air as nobody would hurt one''s own soul by killing or crippling the peculiar soulbond. Well, that was at least what the attendant thought. If he knew that Jason wanted to test feeding the soulbond a magical fruit that would cleanse one''s impurities forcibly, he would directly kick Jason out of the Beast Pagoda and blacklist him for his whole life. There were already many people trying something like that and the results were devastating, which Jason didn¡ät know. But these tests were neither seriously done or safely carried out. The magical fruits purchased were much more potent than the one Jason owned and god knows how the scientists tested this theory with the beasts. In Jason¡äs opinion, most experiments would probably feed the cleansing ingredient in the beast''s growth phase or maybe they were too weak in order to withstand the potent magical fruits. Jason had done a lot of research about the holy bacuri fruit and it was not only the worst magical cleansing fruit but his, in particular, was the weakest among the weakest that Jason found good. With a good soulbond, it should definitely be possible for a beast with high endurance and survivability to get through the cleansing process without receiving any injuries, while he would help out in every possible way. When he reached the wild beast floor, Jason immediately activated his mana eyes effect to scan through all kinds of beast potentials and mana purity, only to be disappointed. If there were some treasures, Jason would rather pick such beasts instead of experimenting with his second soulbond but not a single beast had a color radiating from it, which left Jason a little bit dejected. Now Jason was almost forced to experiment with his second soulbond but after thinking for a moment, he was still doing fine. If the worst situation occurred, Jason would just feed his soulbond with some small parts of the fruit instead of the whole fruit which would decrease its magical effect by a large margin. Nevertheless, this would be better than killing his soulbond, wouldn''t it? There was also the possibility that the cleansing effect was rejected by beasts, which Jason wasn''t sure if it was possible. Even so, it was definitely worth a try with a small piece of the fruit as an appetizer to test out the theory. As long as the amount was small enough, a high endurable beast shouldn¡ät die. Some time passed and Jason was slowly walking through the corridors, looking at each type of beast, leaving him disappointed There was not a single beast that met his requirements and more than two hours passed without him finding a decent beast. The Attendant became slightly nervous because the criteria Jason named were rather rare for wild beasts. Searching through the beast catalog, he couldn''t find a suitable beast either, when Jason suddenly asked "Where is the beast inside this enclosure?" Jason was about to continue his search when he saw an empty enclosure with a holographic picture showing the beast that attracted his attention. Upon seeing the holographic picture, the attendants'' eyes brightened up and his mood soared even higher than Jason¡äs when he quickly looked at the information about the particular beast. "Apparently the beast is giving birth, right now." The attendant reported and Jason¡äs eyes lit up. Previously he wanted to form a soulbond with an adult three-star wild beast and tame it if necessary, but raising up a newborn would be even better as he could easily tame it, while the soul connection between them would be much stronger without any worries about disobedience. Jason was in such a good mood that he ran up to the attendant, asking.t "Once the offsprings are born, can I immediately form a contract with one?" The attendant, surprised about Jason¡äs sudden eagerness, didn''t know what to say one had to wait a few days normally before one was allowed to contract a beast. If the beast he wanted to form a contract thought of Jason as his mother, it would be much easier to form an extremely deep connection with each other which was what everyone wanted. Thinking for a moment, the attendant remembered, that there was no law forbidding a beast to be sold directly after it was born. It was only seen a little bit immoral. As such the attendant called his superior to ask for permission. Upon seeing the attendant''s expression and hearing the superior shouting at him, Jason felt a little bit apologetic. The superior didn''t care about the life of wild-ranked beasts and gummed in anger, having to answer to such an idiotic question. Even if Jason felt sorry for the attendant, he was still happy to have his request approved. Maybe he would be able to change his plan with a newborn beast as his second soulbond, as he could feed it the cleansing holy white baruci fruit. If he divided it into marginal parts in addition to the innate characteristics from his future soulbond it should be possible. But for now, it could wait, as there was something more important. Now it was time for Jason to pick up his new partner! Chapter 78 - Second Soulbond A few minutes passed until Jason arrived at the floor where beasts gave birth or laid their eggs. He was impatient right now, and it took him another 10 minutes until they reached their final destination. In his mind, it took an eternity until he reached the breeding grounds of his future newborn soulbond as he activated his mana eyes. Jason saw that there was no color radiating from the beasts but he had already accepted that fact. There was already a rough plan constructing in his mind and he adjusted it to the soulbond he picked while the theory about purity was the main point Jason wanted to use. If the theory wouldn''t work, Jason had to make preparations and his mind rattled while thinking carefully about the options he had when he came closer and closer to the small newborn beasts. The attendant next to him noticed Jason''s impatience and said "Sir if you want to make a basic potential test to figure out which beast is the best to choose from, you have to wait at least 24 hours" "No, it''s fine!" Jason said with a resolute voice. He already saw that the potential or core purity was around the same and Jason couldn''t detect any differences. As such testing the potential and waiting for a whole day would be a waste of time and lessen the effect of the soulbond between each other. The attendant knew that forming a bond as soon as possible would be the best for their soulbond, but not even caring about the potential of your future companion was odd. Forming a soulbond with the chance of having the potential to reach higher ranks would be more important in his opinion But it was not his choice and the attendant told Jason to decide which one he wanted to pick. The beast mother was exhausted and sedated so she wouldn''t be able to do anything Even if she was awake, the attendant would prevent it from doing anything to Jason. Jason came closer to the newborn beasts and there were dozens of one centimeter long scorpions with a soft yellowish green exoskeleton in front of him. Right now they looked extremely weak and would probably even be killed by a small wind current but it was said that these Miniature Parascors in front of him had a potent, paralyzing poison that could even numb beasts at the same rank. Their strength was weak and the only strong characteristics of this kind of beast was its exceptional hard and endurable exoskeleton with the lethal poison. Jason chose the miniature Parascors as his second soulbond because of multiple reasons which included it being a three-star wild beast, its strong exoskeleton, and as a most important reason for Jason the scorpion''s natural occurrence of molting while growing up. This molting could change Jason''s plan to a certain extent because he wanted to give his soulbond some of the holy white bacuri fruit before the molding. Maybe with this, the cleansing of impurities could be naturally included in the molding. The possibility for this was slightly higher compared to other beasts without the ability to naturally mold and it was worth a try. Jason didn''t really care about which miniature Parascor to pick as he picked up one of them who sensed his presence. This particular miniature Parascor came closer with the thought that Jason was his mother in its mind. Once he had picked up one of the yellow-greenish miniature Parascors he stepped back and looked at the attendant like he was ready to go. "Can I pay now and form the soulbond contract or is there anything else I have to do?" The attendant looked at Jason not listening clearly "Hmm?.. No, I only have to fill the formula which says that one of the miniature Parascors was sold to you, so we can administer everything cleanly¡­ The only thing Sir has to do is to pay the fee for the beast which is slightly higher compared to normal beasts because it is rare and the beast gives birth only twice in its life at most. " The attendant explained and looking at Jason''s clothes he was sure Jason would be able to pay the price as he was still wearing his school uniform which told the attendant that Jason was a student at the prestigious Vanguard affiliated school. A holographic screen with a contract appeared in front of Jason and after reading through it he signed it. Jason had to pay 25.000 credits for the newborn miniature Parascors which was extremely high for a wild beast but apparently, it was extremely rare. The additional fee for purchasing a newborn beast was also high because the strengthened bond would help out their communication and teamwork. To Jason, these 25.000 credits weren''t too much if his purity theory worked. With his theory working out, the price for the beast would be negligible compared to the fortune he would need to afford for treasure which would cleanse one''s core. After the transaction was done, the attendant was still determined to see Jason forming his soulbond with the beast to avoid receiving complaints about neglecting his job and they left for a secluded room. Jason''s future soulbond was lying down because it was exhausted to be born less than an hour ago and once he entered the secluded room, he took out one of the knives he normally used to throw and stood there ready to cut the thumb of the hand holding the knife because inside his other hand was the small miniature Parascors. Before he cut his thumb, Jason entered his soul world and loosened up a thread of his soul which he led it carefully through his body into his thumb. Cutting his hand, dark red blood with a golden hue could be seen. Jason didn''t waste any time as a thick drop of blood shimmering in a golden hue fell on the Parascor draining it completely in blood. It felt an uncomfortable feeling before the soul thread invaded the Parascor before the unpleasant feeling vanished. Jason felt a connection getting built between him and the miniature Parascor while the small fellow in his hand trembled for a second before a small yellow-greenish magic circle appeared, with his new soulbond vanished inside him. It would probably take a few hours before the soulbond was perfectly established and it was best for contractor and beast to stay as close a possible for this period which was also the instinctive decision the newborn Parascor took. Seeing that the soulbond was finished, the attendant nodded his head. Filling out the formula a minute passed and the attendant guided Jason, who sweated slightly due to his soulbond outside without saying an additional word. It was the second time Jason formed a soulbond and it was still extremely difficult even if it was much easier than the first time. Jason wondered if he would ever get proficient in moving around his soul threads with time passing. For others it would be entirely useless because most people only had 2 to 5 soulbonds, but not for Jason. Jason and the attendant didn''t talk with each other and the only thing they said, was goodbye when he left the Beast Pagoda. The attendant didn''t really know what to think about the youth in front of him, because he contracted a three-star wild beast while being a student in one of the best schools on Astrix. Even if it was only the 6th affiliated Vanguard school, it was still among the top 20 high-schools on Astrix island, including the affiliated schools of the other two out of the big three. It was extremely uncommon and rather stupid for such a prodigious individual to form a contract with a wild beast without any potential. To be blunt, a wild-ranked beast was almost everywhere seen as trash or useless to form a contract with and most wild beasts were used as food for stronger bonds. There were only three apparent reasons to breed wild beast ¡úLivestock ¡úUsing for errands ¡úGetting an advantageous mutated wild beast with a high potential in order to sell for a lot of credits. Jason wouldn''t mind if the attendant found him weird but more importantly was that he could get home and some food because he was extremely hungry. Thinking about food, Jason was pondering what food to purchase for his new soulbond while waiting for the shuttle to arrive in front of the Beast Pagoda. When the shuttle arrived Jason finished his research about scorpion food and they ate almost everything small enough for them to eat. Sitting down inside the shuttle, he decided to purchase a batch of grade-1 mana fireflies with a small amount of mana causing them to illuminate the night sky. They were nutritious and easy for a small beast like a newborn miniature Parascor to eat and digest. Inside Cyro-City with the dense mana around, the growing phase of his second soulbond would probably take only two months at most while Jason wanted to increase its speed even more so, that the miniature Parascor would reach adulthood before the class battle began. Thereby he would use mana stones for that and the holy white bacuri fruit in addition. After deciding roughly what to do in the next few weeks, Jason practices the Heaven''s Hell technique inside the shuttle until he arrives at the Fler¡äs house. Chapter 79 - First Purification The first week of school passed and Mr. Greil did not teach any martial arts to his students. Instead, he focused on improving the mana absorbing aptitude of everyone slowly, which brought them many benefits, as almost everyone''s speed increased to a certain extent. Jason was the most astonishing student among the small-batch, as he picked the best spot with the thickest mana flow, every time they were supposed to gather mana, increasing his already astonishing mana absorbing speed even more. Because he was still unaccustomed to the mana flow inside Cyro-city that was already extremely dense, Jason had some problems to continuously absorb mana. It was taxing for him, to focus on gathering mana, circling it through his mana channels, and absorbing it into his mana core at the same time for over two hours straight. While the others were doing it slowly and steadily, Jason was becoming more and more greedy. He didn''t even need to use mana stones in order to increase the mana in his surroundings because he couldn''t even handle the mana around him. Thinking about the first day of school where he broke into the 6th Novice rank, Jason felt extremely motivated and determined. His mana absorbing speed increased thanks to him moving to an A-grade city with its high-density mana everything and now his full potential was awakening slowly. Others felt like he was a demon because Jason completely disregarded his surroundings as he absorbed all the mana greedily as if he was the center of the world. Becoming stronger was his ambition and he couldn''t take care of everyone in his surroundings, so they had to either step back or fight him for the spot. Not a single classmate of his dared to come closer to Jason than 3 meters to absorb mana as the mana around Jason was fully absorbed by him. As for fighting for the spot, first comes first serves was the rule implemented here, as fighting classmates was strongly forbidden with the exceptions of practical lessons and Class ranking battles. Even their teacher was astonished to see Jason absorbing the mana in the surrounding so fast and he wondered how a 6th Novice rank could be able to multitask so excessively, without having practiced a technique that improved his mind. Techniques to improve one''s mind and brain were extremely rare and only royalty or higher-ups would be able to practice such technique. Seeing Jason being able to gather and convert the mana so fast, Mr.Greil was extremely astonished. He himself could only do something like that when he reached the Expert rank as his mind was continuously refined with each breakthrough. Till Greil knew that Jason was somehow special but each day passing caused him to be more and more surprised about the young black-haired youth with his golden eyes. There were also other things Mr.Greil found weird. Jason came to school on Wednesday with a one-centimeter small yellow-greenish newborn miniature Parascor in his hair which was almost not noticeable, if he wasn¡ät continuously radiating some of his mana. After asking Jason about that, he just replied it''s his soulbond which caused him to be taken aback. A miniature Parascor was only a three-star wild beast once matured, and completely useless for Jason as he was already much stronger than most three-star wild beast. The amplification provided by the small three-star wild beast would be negligible. Mr.Greil concluded that Jason had a combat prowess of a peak five-star wild beast or one of the lowest awakened ranked beasts while being at the 6th Novice rank which was more than astonishing for someone without great backing. Maybe high nobles or children from the Kingdoms of Canir could do that but on the Archipelago, this was already seen as being a prodigy. That''s why it was even more astonishing for him to comprehend a reason, why Jason wasted precious place from his soul world on a beast without growing potential. For Till Greil, even evolved beasts were seen as useless because his soul energy was higher than 500 when he had his soul-awakening at the age of 14. He couldn''t even remotely understand Jason¡äs train of thoughts and was somehow disappointed about his promising student wasting his potential. Even if Jason didn''t need mana stones around him in order to absorb mana faster, he did it nevertheless because of a certain reason. His new soulbond, he named Scorpio, absorbed the pure mana around them greedily in order to strengthen itself, to accelerate the maturing process. There was a big difference between Artemis and Scorpio, Jason noticed. Artemis was able to absorb and digest as much mana as she wanted to, even if it should have been harmful to her, while Scorpio could only absorb a marginal amount of the mana stone before he had to stop as it was exhausting harmful to absorb to much of it. It was the last day of the week when Jason finished the practice of his Heaven¡äs Hell technique. Looking at Scorpio, he thought it was time for the first experiment. Scorpio was almost 2 centimeters at that time and it was time for his first molting. Ordering it to lie down on the table, Jason took out a graded syringe, that was used for magical fruits, nervously. Putting the syringe down, he took out the grade-2 perennial neoxid box with the two magical treasures inside. Taking out the Holy white bacuri fruit, he closed the box once again. Inside the holy white bacuri fruit was a certain juice, Jason wanted Scorpio to drink. There were multiple reasons for Jason¡äs decision. The most obvious reason was that the two-centimeter-long Scorpio wouldn''t be able to gulp down a fist-sized fruit while the second reason for Jason to do so, was that the juice within the fruit shone in the feeblest black he had ever seen, indicating its lower purity effect. He hoped that it would cause his second soulbond less pain. Piercing through the outer shell of the holy white bacuri fruit with the syringe, Jason filled the syringe up, before he took out a test tube, where the syringe¡äs content was emptied in. The Holy white bacuri fruit was now damaged and would decay faster than before. As such Jason filled the syringe another three times before he had three testing tubes completely filled. Storing the holy white bacuri fruit and other tools away, only one testing tube was left in Jason¡äs hand while the others were safely packed in a box with soft materials to provide the best protection inside the cooling freezer. The cooling freezer temperature was perfect for the testing tube to prevent the magical effect from decreasing too much over the next few days. Jason estimated that it would take less than two months for the holy white bacuri fruit to completely lose its cleansing effect even inside the grade-2 perennial neoxid box. In his opinion, this was more than enough time Scorpio would most likely require to finish the fruit. With each day the cleansing effect would lessen and Jason wasn''t even sure if the cleansing effect would still be strong enough in two months to cause his miniature Parascor to cleanse his core in the initial phase in order for it to reach the awakened rank. That was why Jason decided to fasten up the process. If today¡äs experiment would be successful, he would feed Scorpio with the holy white bacuri juice every day until he was large enough to eat small pieces of the fruit with more nutrition and the magical effect inside. Even if Scorpio¡äs race was called miniature Parascor, in the end, it was just a very small paralyzing scorpion. He would grow to a size of 10 centimeters with his initial race characteristics at least. However, Jason was sure its size wouldn¡ät remain at 10 centimeters at that time when it reached higher ranks. He was confident about this experiment on the outside but his whole being was worried on the inside when he ordered Scorpio to sit on his open palm. Picking up the syringe with his other hand, Jason filled it with some holy white bacuri juice before he dropped two drops into his palm, right in front of Scorpio. Jason didn¡ät dare to order Scorpio to drink the two drops in front of him as soulbonds couldn¡ät decline orders if their soul energy was weaker than their contractors. He knew that the instincts of beasts were particularly strange, once they saw something which benefited them, as he had seen with Artemis as she picked out the cores of beasts, before eating them without receiving an order from Jason. Scorpio crawled slowly towards the two drops, sniffing their aroma before he drank them up wholly, without leaving a single tiny bit. After that, he looked up to Jason greedily. At first, Jason felt weird, but he could sense that Scorpio asked for more, which made him extremely happy. Drop after drop was consumed by Scorpio and almost a whole test tube vanished in his tiny body, when Jason suddenly saw his small soulbond writhing in pain, throwing his body around. His mana eyes witnessed the whole process and his eyes widened with worry and pain due to their shared emotions. Jason felt suddenly apologetic about doing something so stupid as he fed Scorpio more and more potent holy white bacuri juice. His worry increased, even more, when Scorpio completely stopped moving after a few minutes of squirming around in pain. There was not a single mana fluctuation coming out from Scorpio and Jason was extremely worried. If he couldn''t feel that his soulbond was still alive, he would have been devastated, thinking that he had killed Scorpio. Only after half an hour passed, Jason noticed mana fluctuations spreading out from Scorpio as he began to flinch violently, forcefully expelling its outer shell which was yellow-greenish with thick black dots on it. Scorpio was now three centimeters long and Jason noticed that the exoskeleton turned slightly greener from its initial color. Inspecting its core, which was still at the one-star wild rank, Jason noticed that there was still no color radiating from it. The only thing Jason noticed was that the mana inside Scorpio was slightly stronger compared to before. `Did it work or not?` Jason didn¡ät know but it was obvious that Scorpio grew in strength, even if it was still a one-star. The color of its exoskeleton changed slightly after a single usage of the cleansing juice and it grew in size. There were small signs of Scorpio abandoning the path predetermined as a weak three-star miniature Parascor, leading it to a prosperous future. Chapter 80 - First Assignment Jason looked at Scorpio for a long time with a delighted expression. Even if it was not completely sure that his second soulbond could reach the awakened rank with the holy white bacuri fruit, there was at least some progress he was able to perceive. It was enough for him to say that his experiment was a success. Yet, he was still shocked about the pain transmitted by Scorpio. Nevertheless, Jason could sense Scorpio''s desire to get stronger and break out of its shell n order to reach a higher rank. Maybe this desire was inspired by Jason who wanted to become stronger by all means without backing down against anyone. Another reason could have been its innate desire to walk an individual path to the pinnacle without being held down from its racial limits. Jason wouldn''t know but it was definitely something good as he would rather nurture such an attitude than a lazy bun. Scorpio was only five days old but he already reached the middle realms of a one-star wild beast and Jason asked himself how long it would take it to reach three-stars. Fortunately, it was not only Scorpio that got stronger over the last five days since it was born but also Jason¡äs strength increased. Because of the vast efforts he took, Jason was already halfway through towards the 7th Novice rank. It would probably only take a week until he would be able to break through once again, which was exceptionally fast, adding the common hurdle between the 6th and 7th level. A day before, his whole body began to ache and Scorpio¡äs share was slowly converted towards Jason. This indicated that his mana core grew in size, his physique increased slightly while his soul energy also increased. Scorpio was more of a physical beast than a beast with a high amount of mana or an affinity, except its natural poison. As such Jason¡äs physique or rather the toughness of his skin, bones, flesh and so were tempered and refined. While his rank was at the 6th Novice stage, his mana core size which was already at the 7th level was getting closer to the 8th level while his physique reached the 7th level. Once Scorpio matured, his physique and mana core would be roughly at the same stage because Artemis gave him more mana than a physical enhancement while Scorpio was the complete opposite. While both his physique and Mana core size were at the 7th level, the biggest change came from his soul energy. Scorpio was still at the one-star rank and used up one soul energy while it provided ? point, which would increase with his soulbond maturing. As such, Jason¡äs soul energy was constantly increasing thanks to his soulbonds and his own efforts to refine his soul energy daily. Compared to the time he had only one soul energy, Jason¡äs daily increase in soul energy already surpassed his expectations by a lot due to him practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique three times. From Artemis, he obtains around 1.32 soul energy while Scorpio provides 0.33 right now, and only five days ago, Jason¡äs innate soul energy was around 5.38, altogether 6.7 without considering Scorpio. But now, Jason¡äs overall soul energy crossed already 7 units or more exactly 7.2 units. For most soul-awakenings, this would be a bad start but comparing 7.2 to his past, almost non-existent soul energy, it was a vast difference and delighted Jason. It was Sunday and Greg was at home, looking at the exercises they had to do. Jason wasn''t interested in Greg¡äs homework because he had already done his own homework. Furthermore, the exercises Greg had to do were not really worth his attention because he knew the answers. Even though Jason liked to obtain more knowledge, the information provided by his school were not really worth mentioning. Jason already knew most things as he had already read through most books before. Scorpio was playing inside Jason¡äs hair while Artemis was still evolving inside his soul world. Normally Scorpio would also be in the soul world but he was like Artemis and liked being physically close with Jason, which was slightly weird for a Scorpion with a venom-injecting barb, but Jason didn''t mind it. He had already been accidentally stung by Scorpio previously and noticed that he was immune to his poison. The sting itself wasn''t that deep because it was only playing with Jason and didn¡ät hurt much. Time passed and Jason helped out Greg with his homework only to become a sparring partner with Jason as he wanted to practice the foundational martial arts techniques. Greg suppressed his strength to one of 6th Novice rank and they began practicing all kinds of basic techniques. While Jason was nimble and used many different technique sequences, Greg was rather crude and rough as he used his tough physique to crush Jason in the past. But Jason knew all of that and was using that brute force to practice quick and lethal attacks with a wooden dagger, while Greg could use all kinds of weapons. And like Leo Heart, Greg used gloves. Somehow, Jason felt that gloves were popular weapons used by physical fighters. This however was really good for Jason who wanted to find out his flaws as they fought for 30 minutes until Jason had to give up with many bruises covering his whole body. Even if Greg suppressed his strength, he was still overwhelmed by his physique and innate battle strength. Greg learned better martial art techniques, furthermore, he was more proficient in fighting due to his few years more battle experience. Jason instead only began to see anything slightly over two months ago, which was his real starting point for the real world. He was able to perceive each of Greg¡äs moves but after some time he wasn¡ät able to evade the attacks anymore, and counterattacking wasn''t an option for him at the moment. He was still not experienced enough but he felt that he was getting closer and closer to Greg at the same rank and level. If Jason would learn some more techniques instead of the basics all the time, he might be able to evade Greg¡äs fast and lethal Tier-1 first martial art technique. But during the whole week, Jason went to school, there didn¡ät seem to be any signs of martial art training or new techniques for the students to learn which disappointed him somewhat, even if he was able to improve his mana absorbing speed by a lot. What was the use of having a high mana core rank when one couldn¡ät use the received strength to the fullest potential? With this thought, Jason continued with his daily workout just like that, before he continued reading the herb and magical plants books until Jason fully memorized them. Jason never forgot to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique three times a day as it was already imprinted in his bones. ** Entering the classroom the next day, there were already many of his classmates gossiping with each other as Jason heard one of the students saying something about an assignment. This attracted Jason¡äs curiosity but he couldn¡ät ask anyone, as the front door opened. Mr. Greil entered the room when he dropped the information everyone was waiting for, immediately after they greeted each other. "Some of you have already heard the news and the first school-assignment is out. Because I could decide which one to take, there will be some fun for everyone. Because I know everyone is longing to learn a new and mighty martial arts technique, I¡äll teach everyone that passes the assignment a martial arts technique for the remaining week. If someone can''t fulfill my demand, there will be no reward and he or she will be punished. That means the faster one submits the assignment the longer he or she can learn the chosen martial art technique from me. After this week is over, I¡äll never explain anything about the chosen technique again, except another assignment I gave out was finished and submitted on time" Mr. Greil said Somehow this sounded a little bit wishy-washy for everyone and it was difficult to understand their own teacher but the meaning was somewhat understandable. Submitting the given assignment as fast as possible would give one the chance to learn a new martial art technique from their teacher until this week was over. `Isn''t it the job of our teacher to teach us martial art techniques?!?` That was the thought in almost everyone''s mind but the next words struck everyone like a bolt of lightning. "If someone is wondering, I¡äm not talking about peak tierless or common tier 1 martial art techniques¡­ You¡äll be able to choose any technique I learned during my whole life, which includes some tier-3 techniques, special and unique techniques, also called skills by many. I think that should be encouraging enough, right?" The whole classroom was silent until a thunderstorm of roars and cheers resounded through the whole room, while Jason was only silently looking at his teacher `Tier-3 skills?? Who the f*** are you?? I don¡ät believe you''re a normal teacher¡­. ` Tier-3 techniques were considered the treasures from Astrix and they were even considered rare on Canir, causing Jason to suspect his teacher. `Talking about unique or special techniques?? Please... What are you doing on the Archipelagos.. Shouldn¡ät you be on Canir, leading some sect or staying inside a castle as a prince of one of the kingdoms?` Jason was more than dumbfounded and he wanted to question his teacher about it but he remained silent. The other students were all way too happy to hear something like that, to notice anything amiss. There were always exceptions, as a few smarter youths understood the meaning of a tier-3 technique. But their teacher wouldn''t just give them such a technique and the next sentence instantly soured the mood. "The first assignment for everyone will be to kill 10 beasts that are two stages above your rank. My requirements are simple. You have to do it with your own strength without the usage of mana guns, mana-, soul weapons, other instant killing weapons, or something similar I didn¡ät name. Soulbeats are not allowed for this assignment, so don''t use them. Teaming with other classmates is also forbidden. You have to hunt these beasts alone! Other than that you may use everything you want. You can trap beasts or try to assassinate them. I don''t care about that. Another requirement is that you have to record everything with the video braces I¡äll hand out. There is a button on the side and once it starts blinking, it will start recording. The device is already filled with mana and the battery can hold out for more than a week. For the first assignment, there won''t be a punishment but it will never as easy to receive bountiful rewards like today, EVER again. As such, give your best!" While video braces came flying to all students with the help of their teacher''s mana, everyone''s face looked sour. Defeating ten beasts two stages higher than oneself without a team or one''s soulbonds? Was their teacher kidding them? Each rank was divided into three stages and the levels 1st to 3rd counted as the beginner stage while 4th to 6th was the intermediate stage and the 7th to 9th was the advanced stage. That means if one was at the 3rd Adept rank like most students in this class, they would have to defeat a late awakened beast which was a vast difference in strength. If one could use their soulbond, this wouldn''t be considered problematic because most students that were accepted at this school had a late awakened beast as the worst soulbond, without considering Jason¡äs situation. Leo Heart for example was at the 5th Adept rank and he would have to defeat a low-Evolved beast¡­ how should he do that. It was definitely a huge challenge but even after getting to know that it was extremely difficult, the benefits one could receive were huge enough to give it a try. Without further ado, everyone began to rush out of the classroom after Mr.Greil finished his explanations. Only Jason was left behind in an empty classroom with his teacher. Mr.Greil noticed Jason looking at him when Jason asked. "Is it really okay for me to use everything except the weapons described, and a team?" He had a rough idea of what he should do but he wanted to ask before implementing them in his actions. "Do as you wish" He only said and Jason recorded it as evidence because he didn¡ät trust his own teacher before he walked out of the school with a faint smile on his face when he entered the online shop. Chapter 81 - Leaving The Dome Jason was only at the 6th Novice rank. As such two stages meant he would have to defeat low-awakened beasts as his assignment which made him somewhat happy. It was not because Jason was confident in defeating them in a head-on fight, or even while assassinating. Rather it was because low-awakened beasts were all over the two-star zones around Cyro-city and there was almost no end to their sheer number. Two hours passed and a drone arrived in front of the school gates with a parcel below it and Jason accepted it with his signature. Afterward, he called a shuttle, and only 90 minutes later, Jason stood in front of the dome''s border, wearing his grade-2 garment, the mechanical knife holder on the back, his bow in one hand, the quiver around him, and a belt with three yellow-green regents within them. Inside his parcel, he ordered previously, were two different kinds of items that used up most of his remaining savings. A dozen arrows with a small hole in the arrowhead and small capsules beside them, fitting inside perfectly. These capsules could be sealed with mana for a certain period of time before the seal would be released. The price for these arrows with the specially manufactured capsules beside were already expensive with a price of 150.000 Credits because the capsules were made out of a rare kind of dissolving material when injected with mana. However, the most expensive purchase were the three reagents hanging on his belt. The three reagents that were priced are around 120.000 Credits each. Inside these reagents was some kind of enhanced and extracted venom from various types of plant and beasts. It could almost instantly kill all kinds of wild-ranked beasts and would only need around 20 seconds to traverse through the body of an awakened beast. Even late-awakened beasts would be easily killed and it was said that this kind of potion could also kill evolved ranked beasts with enough time passing, as long as they entered their blood circulation. But the forte of this potion was its paralyzing effect rather than its lethal venom. Every beast at and below the low-unblemished rank wouldn¡ät be able to control its body, not feeling anything at all. All kinds of senses would be disrupted and there was not a single thing one could do, once paralyzed. This numbness would stay for five minutes for low-evolved ranked beasts and would kill all beasts below this rank easily while mid-evolved beasts had a small chance to survive the paralyzation with their high life force only to die at the lethal poison. Right now, Jason was calmly filling the dissolving capsules with the reagents. After having filled 12 of them, all of his reagents were used up with 360.000 credits vanishing into thin air. Sealing them with his mana would use up some of his stored mana but it was fine, as he placed the sealed capsules inside the arrowheads. After the capsules were safely packed into the arrowheads, Jason stored them inside his quiver with a mana stone on the bottom of the quiver in order to supply the capsules with mana to prevent any kinds of accidents. With 12 arrows, Jason knew that he was only allowed to miss two shots, which was somewhat thrilling. However, during the last two weeks, his archery skills improved quite a lot, even on moving targets thanks to his arduous training and effort. His Aunty gave him a membership card to the archery hall nearby and there were many kinds of unmoving and moving targets with certain missions to solve. It was like a game and the first level was easy with a single target, he had to hit within a range of 30 meters. While Jason continued playing through the `game`, the missions were getting more difficult with each level. It was only when he failed to hit fast-moving targets, that Jason had to stop to read the foundational archery guide with all kinds of information written inside. Furthermore, with the membership card he got, Jason could also ask the instructors working there for tips and they helped him to fix his flaws by telling him what he made wrong with small but efficient instructions. This caused Jason¡äs archery to reach a better mastery and somehow, he had already reached the Advanced-Adept levels with illusional beast targets with their speed almost comparable to evolved ranked beasts. In the end, it was only because of his exceptional eyesight, which made everything possible. The strength of his bow was way too weak to kill or even penetrate the hide of evolved ranked beasts and Jason wouldn''t be able to pull stronger bows with his strength for now. This meant, he was stuck at the Advanced-Adept level for good without being able to advance further. Hitting awakened ranked beasts with his archery skill shouldn¡ät be a problem and Jason was confident in receiving a premium reward. After Jason finished his preparations, he walked confidently through the dome, where he was instantly invaded by an overwhelming amount of mana. Jason knew this would happen because it was always like that when he left the dome but the sheer amount of mana almost forced him onto his knees. He underestimated the density and quality of mana that invaded him. It was extremely uncomfortable for him to be enveloped by the vigorous mana, as he forced himself to walk further away from the dome. Right now, Jason felt that the amount of mana was even thicker compared to the stone arch with the magical plants around, which shocked him. If Jason had such vast mana around him all the time, he would probably be already at the Adept rank. This caused him to feel a distinct desire to sit down and absorb the mana around him. However, Jason reminded himself that it was way too dangerous to do something like that within a two-star wild zone. One would only do something like that with comrades or guards around that would rescue the focused cultivator in order to prevent any issues. Jason saw many youths absorbing mana outside the dome, but almost all of them were protected by an expert or master-ranked bodyguards. If he had enough credits, he would probably do the same, as the amount of mana was extremely thick, and hiring a bodyguard to protect him might even be cheaper than high-graded mana stones. Thinking about this possibility, Jason smiled weirdly, as he continued his steps towards the two-star zone. Holding the bow in one hand with an arrow already nocked, Jason immediately disregarded his thought and began to focus on his mission. The arrow was already supplied with Jason¡äs mana all the time and his eyes perceived everything. Chapter 82 - Hunt The further Jason walked away from the dome, the less dense the mana around him became and Jason assumed that it was because the distance from the mana vein widened. But that was not important right now, as he had a mission to do. Jason wanted to finish his assignment and obtain the delicious rewards promised by their teacher. Activating the video brace to record everything, Jason was ready to kill some awakened beasts, even if it was not really by his own strength. And that was also why Jason asked his teacher if he really could use everything except instant killing weapons and other things like that. The Vanguard labeled knowledge as strength, as such one could interpret his tactic as strength without being narrow-minded. He wasn''t sure if the poison he bought was among the forbidden items, but the poison wouldn''t kill his prey instantly because they had a certain degree of resistance that would let them suffer for around half a minute if he didn''t hit their vital spots or killed them immediately. After around ten minutes Jason met the first small group of awakened beasts. There were four low-awakened ranked Goblin soldiers, which was the simplest kind of evolved basic goblins. Apparently, there seemed to be a small society of goblins in this two-star wild zone which Jason wasn''t aware of as he met one of their soldier troops. Two of them had small stone swords in their small hands, while another one had a spear while the one in the back had a bow in his hand. Jason estimated their size to be around one meter and their pointy ears and hideous grimace looked extremely disgusting with their light-green-colored skin. Before they could even see him, Jason had already sneaked up until he reached a distance of 70 meters, where he pulled back the bowstring and aimed at the archer. 70 meters was considered a large distance, even for Jason with his current strength, but the goblin soldiers were moving slowly, almost as if they didn''t move. It wouldn¡ät be impossible for him to estimate the perfect angle with his eyesight telling him how far his target was away. Loosening the string, Jason also released his mana transaction with the capsule as the arrow soared through the sky with a beautiful curve, before a dull *ploop* sound indicated him hitting one of the goblins. Shocked shrieks could be heard and the three goblin soldiers looked at their fallen comrade that was seemed to be alive, as it twitched. An arrow was stuck in its abdomen and the capsule almost immediately dissolved, releasing the lethal venom. While the Goblin soldiers looked around for the perpetrator, a whir could be heard and the spear-holding goblin soldier slumped down next to the archer, alive but already unable to move a single inch. Only then, the Goblin soldiers could see their enemy as they began to rush at Jason. A distance of 70 meters wouldn¡ät be crossed in one or two seconds at their rank and Jason took out normal arrows, he used to shoot at the Goblin soldiers in front of him. Goblins were one of the dumbest races that formed societies but to Jason, this Goblin soldier troupe looked even dumber than all kinds of beasts he fought with as they run straight onto him, without caring about their defensive at all. Their eyes were bloodshot and one arrow after another flew through the sky, piercing into their flesh and organs. While the first sword-holding soldier fell after being spiked by five arrows in its belly, the other one was only roughly 20 meters apart from Jason, when he noticed his last comrade''s death. Looking left and right, it was confused what happened, before a whir could be heard as the goblin soldier¡äs vision blurred, when a *plop* resounded through its head. The last arrow pierced into the goblin soldier''s skull, killing it immediately without causing much pain. Jason only shook his head, as he remembered fairy tales about the maliciousness of goblins and their crudeness. Dying at the hands of goblins like that would be embarrassing and being raped by them even more so, as Jason couldn¡ät even consider them as enemies for the weakest humans in his opinion. However, he could understand people being anxious, facing Goblin commanders, chiefs, Lords, or Kings as they were all said to be above Jason¡äs combat prowess by a huge margin with high wisdom at that. After picking up the Goblin soldier corpses, he continued his search before he found another Goblin troupe only an hour later. But this time, there were six of them while one was slightly larger than the rest. It had a large insignia tattooed on its head. `Ohh it''s a Mage apprentice?` Jason was astonished because it was extremely rare but this made him also slightly suspicious. `Since when are Goblin mage apprentices involved with goblin soldier troops? Aren¡ät they way too precious for such simple tasks, like hunting?` It wasn¡ät normal to have a mage apprentice at a hunting troupe within a two-star wild zone and Jason wasn''t sure why, but something seemed foul. But before he continued thinking about the strange situation, Jason wanted to finish his hunt and assignment. A mage apprentice was at least at the mid-awakened rank but it wasn''t difficult for Jason to kill it, because the mage apprentice goblin seemed way too confident. Like the previous group before, this troupe didn''t even imagine that it could be assassinated from a poisoned arrow, which however happened. Everything was over so fast and Jason had used up one poisoned arrow for each goblin soldier, even if it was something of a waste. If he was only a little bit stronger, Jason would face these Goblins head-on, but the difference of a whole rank was just too much for him to handle, once there was more than one opponent to face at the same time. Picking up the corpses, Jason noticed that the goblin mage apprentice was still not dead and only paralyzed by the lethal poison. Pulling out the arrow, he used the arrowhead to pierce through its throat, without hesitating for a single moment. For a race like the goblins, Jason wouldn''t be gracious, because this race was said to be one of the most vicious races 300 years ago and abducted many women in order to rape them. Goblins were even worse than rats from more than 300 years ago because they could bring viruses and infections from everywhere. They raped and abducted women, to increase their population before they would continue their onslaught and were seen as a living pest. Millions of humans died on their hands when the mana outbreak occurred and it was horrifying enough to think about it. Jason however was happy that his assignment was already finished and he sent the recorded video immediately to his teacher while he ran back to the dome. Chapter 83 - Where Is My Reward? Till was sitting over some documents inside his office, thinking about what to teach his students, after they noticed how weak they were because most wouldn¡ät reach the assigned quota. when he received a notification from one of his students. `Hmm? Its Jason...A video clip already? Has he already defeated one beast?...If I remember correctly he would have to defeat low-awakened beasts...Maybe.. he can reach the quota in a few days if he discovers some lone beasts within the two-star wild zone..His combat prowess was definitely top-notch during the ranking battle.` Till thought naively, while opening the video clip that was more than a few hours long. Luckily, Jason told him the rough time and Till was astonished to see that Jason messaged him two different times he should look at. `He already killed two beasts? That would be a very good achievement, considering that he has to fight against low-awakened beasts that are normally only found in groups!` But once Mr.Greil began to observe the fight, he immediately frowned deeply, because he could almost instantly tell that something was amiss with the arrows, Jason shot. His eyesight was exceptional due to his high mana core rank as they were constantly tempered and refined thanks to that. Furthermore, it was not really difficult to notice that something was wrong with Jason¡äs arrows. The first Goblin soldier Jason hit with his arrow couldn''t even move a tiny bit after a short moment, and it looked like the arrow was the cause, even though it only pierced into the goblin¡äs abdomen. Mr.Greil concluded that Jason used some kind of poison in order to incapacitate the Goblin soldier, which was a good and easy strategy against awakened beasts. This was one strategy Mr.Greil wanted his students to use once they noticed that it was impossible or extremely difficult to hunt beasts two stages above one''s rank. It was expensive but surviving in the wilderness was more important than paying some credits in his opinion. One could say many bad things about him but he wasn''t stingy if it protected him or satisfied his curiosity. If all of his students finished their assignment, he would teach all 225 students a tier-3 martial art skill. Not even the students from the Vanguard main school could say that they¡äve either learned a tier-3 skill, even knowing someone who learned such skills was rare on Astrix. Wasn¡ät this reward tempting enough for his students to question their own strength and capabilities? Facing the holographic video again, the other two goblins were sniped from a long distance with poisoned arrows, while the other two awakened ranked goblin soldiers had been spiked with normal arrows. As such Jason had already killed four low-awakened beasts within the first timestamp he provided Till. Looking at the second timestamp, Mr.Greil immediately sighted the Goblin mage apprentice within the group of another five goblin soldiers. `A mage apprentice in a soldier troupe in a two-star wild zone? What¡äs going on??` he was confused by the sight but continued to look at the battle, which seemed more like a massacre than an actual battle as Jason only used the poisoned arrows to paralyze or kill the goblin soldiers within a minute. After the video ended, Till was astonished to notice, that Jason already finished his assignment. However, that wasn''t important to him right now. `If a mage apprentice could be found in a normal hunting troupe of goblin soldiers, it would mean the goblin society is growing way too fast and is enlarging without anyone controlling it.` After he looked up the information of the particular two-star wild zone Jason killed the awakened ranked goblins in, Till found out that there was not a single society registered within Cyro-City¡äs log. This were essential bad news, causing him to have a bad premonition After further researches, he figured out that there was a recent uproar within the magical zone about many high-ranked Hobgoblin Warriors, Goblin mages, and goblin riders killing many hunters at the magus rank. That could mean the magical zone was used by a high-ranked Goblin chief or commander as a basement. Till sincerely hoped that there was no Goblin King on Astrix, but it was uncertain. A king could bestow certain abilities to their offsprings which would be quite annoying, even for him. There had been a few goblin kings in the past, but not a single one on Astrix and Till didn¡ät want to think about the worst-case scenario he imagined in his mind. Nevertheless, it was already extremely dangerous for his students who had to hunt beasts two stages above. Now with the appearance of goblin hunting groups with goblin mage apprentice¡äs within two-star wild zones, Till didn¡ät even dare to imagine what could happen within three-star wild zones. The most problematic fact about Goblins was their intelligence and ability to repopulate extremely fast. They were more intelligent than beasts at their rank and they always worked within a group. This caused Till to hesitate about what to do right now. At first, he sent the video clip about the mage apprentice to the City government and security that would strengthen the City defenses, in order to secure the protection of all citizens. The government would start their own investigation with a research-team about the whereabouts of the goblin base size and the society¡äs size. After informing his students, that it was dangerous outside the dome, he emphasized that their life was more important than the assignment. He would provide everyone with enough information about the sudden goblin eruption but that wouldn¡ät mean the assignment ended. Everyone could decide for themselves what to do and the assignment just became more difficult to pass. If one wanted to stay within the dome without even trying to finish the assignment, Till was sure that they wouldn''t be able to reach higher ranks as fear would hinder them in advance. Would they even be able to fight a life and death battle or would they wet their pants before they were killed by some beasts? Even so, Till had to remain calm as he looked at the answers which didn''t disappoint him. No one backed down, most likely because of the generous rewards one would obtain, and all students were still motivated. Unfortunately, there were already some students that sustained injuries while fighting higher staged beasts, but the death toll was still empty. Meanwhile, Jason was already back in school standing in front of his teacher''s office, when he knocked. However, nobody opened the door and Jason noticed that it was locked. `Where is Mr.Greil?!` He asked himself with doubt in his eyes, as he thought his own teacher might back-off from his promise. Even after ten minutes, nothing happened and Jason felt like he was ghosted (ignoring someone¡äs message intentionally) Only after twenty minutes passed, he received a message from his teacher `Wait! I¡äll be back soon.` Apparently, he had something important to do, and little did Jason know, that everything had to do with his finds. Almost every minute new news about Goblins appeared everywhere within the south area of Cyro-city as there were the most infested two-star zones with many goblin soldier troops appearing, slaying beasts while preying on weaker humans. Jason didn¡ät know anything about that as he sat in the empty classroom, not knowing what to do. `WHERE is my REWARD?` He could only cry out in his mind before he decided to feed Scorpio some holy white bacuri fruit juice his soulbond seemed to like before he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique. Scorpio gulped down another holy white bacuri fruit reagent after another before he began to absorb a tiny amount of pure mana out of the mana stone. Jason noticed something in particular about Scorpio and it seemed the amount he could absorb at once seemed to be slightly more than the day before. He was overjoyed and smiled gently at his small soulbond. Something changed about Scorpio and it was definitely good. Fortunately, Scorpio didn¡ät writhe in pain. It seemed as if the juice tasted good because Scorpio was longing for even more, which Jason gave him. After the last reagent was gulped down by Scorpio, the pain began to start once again and both of them seemed to have predicted that. The small scorpion wasn''t going to mold his exoskeleton now, but he spat out some tiny black clumps once in a while, which Jason didn''t notice. After he finished practicing, Jason decided to absorb some mana outside school. Time passed without him realizing it as it was already late afternoon. Jason finished his absorption, with a sour expression, when his teacher suddenly stood behind him. Looking at each other it was noticeable that Jason was slightly angry when his teacher just said. "Good job, boy...decide what technique you want to learn and I¡äll teach you" `He didn¡ät even say sorry for letting me wait for hours, without any explanation or a rough time when he would be back??` Jason fumed in anger on his inside, while his outer appearance stared coldly at his teacher when a holographic screen appeared in front of Jason, with hundreds of skills listed. A loud "WOAH" was the only thing that came out of Jason¡äs mouth as his mind comprehended what he saw when he looked at the sheer mass of martial art techniques on the holographic screen. `Special technique--Mana manipulation` `Transcendence silent death--Sword(Tier-3)¡ï¡ï¡ï` `Advanced Water manipulation (Tier-3)¡ï¡ï` `Special technique- Elemental fusion¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï` `Shadow steps (Tier-3) ¡ï¡ï¡ï` . ¡­ ... There were at least a dozen tier-3 skills with at least 3-4 special and unique techniques that could be seen by Jason at a glance. The techniques below were probably peak-tier-2 techniques and Jason wondered, how a normal teacher would have such a vast variety of techniques in his quantum bracelet. Furthermore, having permission to hand them out to normal students just like that? Who could do that?... Well.....Apparently his teacher!! Looking carefully through all books with their distinct description, most had even a rating behind them, indicating the difficulty to learn them. It looked like the advanced water manipulation would be the easiest to learn among the tier-3 techniques but Jason had neither a water affinity nor the motivation to learn such a technique. The elemental fusion picked his interest but this was mainly for his future, which was still far away when he possessed a few soulbonds with all kinds of affinities. If that happened, he could use all kinds of elements together in order to amplify his combat prowess. However, after reading a certain description, Jason was immediately curious about it. He was immediately overjoyed looking at this technique, as it seemed perfectly fit for him, even though the difficulty frightened him somewhat. `Unique technique- Splitting Mind ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï` Chapter 84 - Unique Technique [''Splitting Mind'' is a dangerous technique that focuses on refining the brain in order to divide the practitioner''s mind into a main area with the consciousness operating it normally, while the newly split sub-areas can be used unconsciously for certain tasks. Increases the brain¡äs capabilities due to its refinement, while lessening the burden of doing many different things at the same time Remark! Dangerous because the willpower needed to practice this technique is abnormal while doing a single mistake inside the brain can cripple one permanently!] Jason found this technique terrifying but also very exciting. He was always lamenting about the incapability of absorbing mana during the whole day and now this technique appeared in front of him? Was this fate? If he practiced this technique to build a single sub-area inside his mind, using the passive mana replenishing/absorbing technique for 24 hours seven days straight, without thinking about it, there wouldn¡ät be a single wasted minute to absorb mana. With this combination of two techniques, Jason was confident in increasing his rank extremely fast. Maybe he would be able to reach Greg''s rank in a few months like that, which ignited his determination even more. Greg would probably reach the 5th Adept rank in around three months, which was not excessively fast but also not slow. After learning how to absorb mana 24/7 Jason was also confident in achieving a similar feat. The only issue, he had to face, was the difficulty of the technique and Jason roughly knew that even Tier-1¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï techniques were difficult to comprehend for normal Humans below the magus ranks. Tier-2 techniques were mainly learned by magus ranks and above and Jason was sure that even the worst Tier-3 technique would be hard as hell to learn. And now a ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï unique technique was right in front of Jason, which was roughly equivalent to the most difficult Tier-3 techniques if not Blessed skills, that could only be learned by the most promising prodigies within humanity. Jason was unsure how the ranking was and he had only heard fairy tales about Blessed skills found in high-ranked rifts, which were humanity''s most treasured skills and techniques. To understand them, one is said to need Godlike comprehension and vast knowledge or something like that, but Jason didn''t really care about the fairy tales he heard. However, now it was astonishing to see a unique ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï in front of him. Till Greil noticed Jason¡äs curiosity and his uncertainty, what technique to pick which delighted him somehow. Some students would think that the assignment was over once they sent him the video clips but the real test was something else. Which technique was the best for them to pick in order to increase their combat prowess as fast as possible within the shortest amount of time! He knew that it was weird to have so many high-tiered techniques and some of his students might be suspicious about his background, but Til didn''t mind that right now because he was looking at Jason with interest Becoming interested in someone hadn¡ät happened for quite a long time which surprised him quite a lot. It reminded him about old times when he was studying on Canir while both, good but also bad memories surfaced in his mind. There was only one week left for his students to learn the techniques he provided which was an extremely short amount of time. It was also unknown if some students were even able to understand the content within their techniques in this period of time. He would teach his students other techniques soon enough, but now was the only time his students would be able to learn humanities top-tier martial art skills. What would the black-haired youth in front of him choose? Picking a Tier-3 technique with high difficulty would mean he thought much of himself, overestimating his capabilities while choosing a Tier-2 technique would be playing save but also somewhat disappointing in Till¡äs opinion. While Jason thought whether he should pick the `Splitting Mind` technique or not, he continued to search through the catalog of skills. Unfortunately, not a single technique was as exciting as the unique technique with its horrifying high difficulty. Till was expectantly looking at Jason while still thinking about the capabilities of the youth in front of him. He was extremely calm during the fight against a Low-Adept and was capable defeat such an opponent with his combat prowess and special trait eyes. Furthermore, he didn''t care what his classmates thought about him even if he fought a little bit dirty, which is the way to survive in the wilderness. His mana absorbing talent is very good even among the youths on Canir and it wouldn¡ät be long until he catches up to his peers¡­.but his soul-awakening ranking... Ugh...? He knew that Jason¡äs soul-awakening ranking was only two out of five stars which were at most slightly above average, when one looked at Astrix or the archipelagos in total. However, for students at the three big schools and their affiliated school on Astrix, this was seen as below average, if spoken nicely. On Canir? Even high schools from B-grade cities would laugh at him. Even worse was the miniature Parascor Jason recently soulbond and Till could only shake his head helplessly because he thought it was only a precious spot in Jason¡äs soul world that had been wasted, without using other means to improve it¡äs limit. He continued thinking about Jason and his other classmates in order to figure out how to increase their strength as fast as possible as he wanted to charge up the classes with them during the class battles in 3 weeks. Suddenly he was dragged out of his train of thoughts when he heard a sound next to him. It was Jason telling him what technique he wanted to learn from him for the next few days. "Teacher, I want to learn the Unique technique [Splitting Mind], please!" When Jason said that, he sounded confident but his teacher was only looking at him with an open jaw, disbelief gleaming in his eyes. "Are you sure??" Mr.Greil asked hesitantly. He would¡äve never believed that Jason would pick this technique. Previously he was pondering if he should even add this technique to the catalog or not but he decided to do that because he wanted to show them, how many varieties of techniques existed and not for someone to pick. He himself had practiced this technique to the peak of the second layer but that was it. Furthermore, it took him more than a dozen years to reach that threshold¡­ Till wasn''t someone that liked to talk about age but he wasn''t as young as one would imagine as his youthful years at the prime of his potential were already over a long time. He had only got the hang of this technique after utmost efforts after a long time passed. Now, this young 14-years-old boy wanted to learn this technique? Didn¡ät he read the description and the remark about the dangers?? "Yes, I''m sure" Till felt as if he was punched in his belly when Jason said that and it took him a few minutes before he got the hang of himself again. He was disappointed and Jason could see that when Till sent the file about the technique to him. Jason immediately received a notification and a file with the size of a few gigabytes appeared within his quantum bracelet.. `More than 8000 pages¡­.!!!` was the only thing Jason could see when he opened the technique manual. o.o The letters were written in an extremely small size which shocked Jason even more. `How long will it take to read this completely through?` Seeing Jason¡äs shocked expression, Mr.Greil smiled sadly thinking that it was an expensive lesson for Jason. Once Jason would find out how difficult a Unique ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï technique was to learn, he would probably regret his decision immediately. Trying to consult Jason, he said gently "You just need to read the introduction part for the first level. I¡äll teach you for the rest of the week and if you don¡ät understand a single thing after a week, I grant you the chance to change the technique with a low difficult tier-2 technique as a small punishment. This would be a special reward because you finished the assignment on the first day within such a short amount of time!" Mr. Greil thought he was extremely generous because Jason wouldn''t lose everything at once, as he could still learn a tier-2 technique. "That is not needed, Mr.Greil. I''ll persist and learn this technique, by all means!!" Jason sounded confident and looked ambitiously at Till which made his heart ache painfully. "Ugh¡­.ok¡­ you can go home now! Read the Introductory until tomorrow and write down words you can¡ät understand, if you have any questions, write them down. I¡äll answer them tomorrow, you just need to come to school like always and we''ll make individual lessons until your classmates arrive." Jason was extremely satisfied to have received such nice rewards for his first assignment as he rushed out of school with ambition and determination flickering in his eyes. Calling a shuttle, Jason practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique because he didn''t want to neglect it, before opening the Splitting Mind manual. Looking at the sheer page sizes from the Introduction, Jason''s face paled as he immediately knew that today would be a long night if he wouldn''t have to make a night shift. Once Jason started reading the introductory part, he thought it would be easy for him to read a few pages at once until he arrived at home because of his fast reading ability, but it was the complete opposite. He wasn''t even able to finish the first page when the shuttle stopped. Jason looked up with a frustrated facial expression and noticed that he was already at home. `What kind of bulls**t is that?????` Chapter 85 - You Understand That? More than half an hour passed when he used the shuttle in order to reach the house from school but not a single page was deciphered by him? Was that even the same language? Jason thought so but the problem was that too many difficult words prevented him from comprehending anything important. Reading around these difficult words was also not easy because they were required to understand something, causing him to frown. Jason walked inside the house with a disappointed expression as he was greeted by Greg who sat inside the living room, reading something while nobody else could be seen. Greg noticed Jason''s bad mood and they began a short conversation with him. Jason didn''t say anything about the splitting mind technique because he wanted to surprise Greg with his heavenly fast cultivation speed. However, reading through the splitting mind introductory¡äs first page did Jason understand that there was a huge wall hindering him in learning the technique. His shallow knowledge! Jason had never learned anything about the anatomy of the brain and now he wanted to try how to divide his mind into active main-area and passive but unconscious used sub-areas? Did he want to kill himself like that? The only thing Jason knew, was the fact that there were many thin mana channels within his brain maintaining, tempering, and speeding up the thinking process all the time. It was said that these thin mana channels were the reason why higher ranks would be able to think faster, process things better while their comprehension increased with the elevation of one''s level and rank. But Jason didn''t know if that was really true. When Greg and Jason finished their short conversation, he picked up a few sandwiches from the fridge to eat them as went into his room. Normally Jason would read some books about beasts, evolutions, and magical ingredients used to evolve beasts because these themes were the most interesting for him recently. But not today. Jason decided to go through the first few pages of the ''Splitting Mind'' technique without the intention of understanding everything directly because he only wanted to write down the words he didn''t know to start somewhere. Dozens of words were noted down and Jason searched them up in order to understand what was written on the first few pages. After getting to know the words he didn''t know previously, Jason understood the rough meaning written down once he re-read the pages multiple times. This continued for hours and Jason wasn''t even aware of what was going on, while two holographic screens lightened up the darkroom Jason sat in, with his golden eyes shimmered in the darkness. One screen showed the Splitting mind technique manual, while the other screen was a combination out of a dozen research pages with different main-focus points. Jason wasn''t even aware when the first sunlight entered his room as he was delighted to understanding roughly what some pages really meant. The brain was extremely mysterious and Jason was astonished to see that so many complex information about the brain had been found out by dozens of scientists. He would never be able to get to know something like that and Jason was extremely happy that there were many people explaining everything neatly to him. It was only when he felt a sudden pain in his right hand when Jason woke up from his enlightened and focused state. Scorpio pinched him with his stinger because the alarm clock annoyed him and one had to say that the alarm clock was truly annoying, even in Jason¡äs opinion. Looking at the time, he was shocked that it was already 7:20 am as he immediately ordered a shuttle, before he rushed into the bathroom to wash up as he changed into his uniform. Rushing out of the house, he ran past Gabriella and Mark who waved at him knowingly. They heard his alarm clock but both decided to ignore it, thinking Jason was sleeping soundly. Jason was working way too hard over the last few weeks and he had to replenish some energy. Sleeping was the best way to relax and replenish one''s energy causing the Fler¡äs to ignore his annoying alarm clock. Never would they have thought that Jason wasn''t sleeping but rather putting up a night shift. Had they known that, Gabriella would have forced Jason to sleep because she was already worried about his health. Sitting inside the shuttle, he needed some time to calm down while practicing the painful Heaven''s Hell technique was the best way for Jason to do that. Arriving at school, Jason had already finished his practice as he noticed that practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique was becoming easier with time passing and accumulated experience while his soul energy increased. Normally it should be the other way around but for Jason, it wasn''t like that due to his high soul energy replenishing process. Running inside the classroom, Jason was the only one there and he wondered when his classmates would finish their assignment because he didn''t think it was too much of a hassle to come to the same conclusion as him. But that was not necessarily the case because Jason was smart and diligent but more importantly weak, while he didn''t cower from using dirty tricks to finish his task. Maybe his classmates thought using poison would be unfair, forbidden or maybe they really wanted to fight against beasts two stages higher than their own rank alone, without even the slightest help from their soulbonds or others. Logical spoken, it would already be difficult to defeat a beast at the same stage as one was without the amplified strength from one¡äs soulbond because the strength of beasts and humans was not comparable. Only after being strengthened by the shared amount provided by their soulbond, humans would be able to fight beasts at the same stage head-on, but not against beasts two stages higher than their own strength. If someone¡äs first soulbond was a magical ranked beast that shared enough strength in order to fight late evolved beast while only being at the novice rank, why would this person go to a school on Astrix? There could also be someone with an essential strong physical soul that enhanced the physique multiple times or extremely rare high amplifying elemental soul¡äs that amplifies affinities by a large degree, but who do these people think they are? Some kind of protagonist? More likely a new candidate for stupid reincarnation... Instead of jumping in front of a truck, serve yourself as dinner for some starving beasts if these individuals wanted to die fast.... Jason was waiting for his teacher while looking at the class¡ä chat group where some students complained about the unfair assignment, causing Jason to shock his head. `Do they think rewards will fall from the sky without them doing anything?` These students could learn precious techniques as a reward and Jason was immediately disregarding the previous thought he had about his classmates...They were dumb and useless. He initially wanted to write into the group chat that they could use poison in order to solve their issue with evolved ranked beasts if they were questioning each other about how to deal with higher staged beasts and what one could do. However, the few classmates who wrote something in the chat group were only lamenting about the current situation, and Jason immediately understood that the students that tried their best were not wasting their time with such a useless chat group. It was exactly 8 am when Mr. Greil entered the classroom as he sat down in front of Jason. Jason was supposed to start his questions about the Splitting mind technique and there were still many things he couldn''t understand even after doing some research online. "Mr.Greil, can you explain the unconscious connection between the sub-areas of the brain in context to the significance of the mana channels flowing through the brain, their uses, benefits, and possible problems that could occur during the transformation of the brain while practicing the fir level of the splitting mind technique?" Till listened to Jason before his mouth twitched for a moment. He had thought Jason would ask a simple question for the beginning in order to explain certain words but the 14-year-old youth in front of him asked questions like that after reading the manual for a few hours? "Can you already understand the previous parts of the introductory!?!" He unconsciously blurred out. However, Jason just nodded his head at the astonished-looking teacher as he didn''t think it was something special. Since birth, Jason had a determined and ambitious personality. Otherwise, how would a four-year-old child be able to endure gathering mana particles inside his eye for almost ten years straight? After regaining his eyesight, his determination became even stronger and firmer. Learning and understanding the [Splitting Mind] technique was extremely important for Jason causing his mind to work with 200% speed during the whole night in order to comprehend anything at all. Luckily the mana in his mana pool was regenerating his energy and he could replenish the used-up mana while waiting for his teacher. Till was still suspicious about the student in front of him because Jason was asking a complex question that required a certain amount of understanding. As such he began to ask Jason questions about the Introduction of the splitting mind manual. However, to his surprise, Jason answered the questions with flying colors, leaving Till with a weird facial expression. `Ughhhh` Till was extremely jealous about Jason¡äs comprehension ability because he wasn¡ät able to do something like that when he was 14 years old. When he was 14 years old, he was already relatively mature but Jason was completely different as he had a weird aura around him seemingly like he was already matured, looking at the world differently than his peers. After he had calmed down to some degree, he decided to answer Jason''s questions with a mountain of details. Hours passed and Jason''s questions didn''t seem to find an end. Rather than ending, they seemed to become more complex and it looked like Jason was receiving enlightenment by his teacher''s explanations, causing only more questions to come up in his mind, even if they weren''t necessary for the splitting mind technique. Chapter 86 - First Level Over the rest of the week, nothing special happened, while the first students finished their assignment on the third day. They choose their desired rewards with gleaming eyes, while some other students sustained serious injuries. At the end of the week, around 40 students had come up with plans to kill beasts two stages higher than their own rank. While some of them assassinated their prey, others backstabbed fighting beasts and killed them like that or installed traps that would kill them. Weirdly enough, there were only a handful of students, that poisoned their targets as he did. Meanwhile, a few classmates were even able to fight beast two stages higher head-on. Upon looking closer, Jason noticed that their mana core was relatively low-ranked while their mana core size was extremely large. Furthermore, it looked like almost all of them were special assigned students with a scholarship or like Jason knew some nobles that used their nobility rights for them. Jason concluded that their first soulbond had to be an evolved beast or their soul was unique in some ways, but he didn''t really care about these people as he didn''t have enough time to understand his chosen technique completely. The last week was extremely important to him because he had to understand at least the first level before his teacher would stop answering his questions about the [Splitting Mind] technique. He hadn¡ät slept for a single minute over the last week while the only time he could relax was during the time he fed Scorpio with the holy white bacuri fruit juice and during the practice of the Heaven''s Hell technique. It was extremely tiring, but using mana stones to replenish his mana, Jason could his sleepless state without having too many issues. Seeing Scorpio scarfing down the first small pieces of the holy white bacuri fruit was astonishing to him, as his soulbond began to writhe in pain almost instantly. The astonishing fact was, however, once Scorpio stopped writhing in pain, he wanted to eat the next piece. If Jason didn¡ät stop Scorpio from eating the holy white bacuri fruit, he would be worried about his soulbond''s health. Maybe his soulbond would only be in pain for a short period after eating the holy white bacuri fruit wholly? Maybe not and Jason wasn¡ät sure about that, but safety first! Even so, Scorpio grew up to a length of 8 centimeters and it was infinitely close to reach the three-star wild beast rank which was its innate limit Jason thought it would have its second molting when it reached the three-star rank which wasn''t far away. But that wouldn¡ät mean Scorpio was matured once that happened... Jason found out that his purity theory was working as he began to notice the first faint, almost invisible strands of black lights radiating from Scorpio¡äs mana core a day ago, which caused him to be extremely joyous. His soul energy was increasing steadily and it wouldn''t be long until he would reach the threshold of 10 soul energy, which Jason longed for. The soul energy was already stable and purified enough in order to start practicing the second level of the Heaven¡äs Hell technique while the only requirement left was soul energy of 10 units. Jason was infinitely close to completely understand the first level of the splitting mind technique which would allow him to form the first sub-area inside his mind, which was his current goal. This would be the perfect time for him. Once he finished constructing the first sub-area, Jason would only need to assign the tasks to the sub-area and the task would be like playing an idle game, receiving the benefits from it, without lifting a single finger. Right now Jason sat in the classroom with the 40 other students who passed the assignment and Mr.Greil was walking around busily, answering everyone''s questions in a detailed manner. His other classmates were even worse of than Jason because most weren''t as persistent and determined as he was, even if they only took a Tier-3 technique with one- or two-star difficulty. While not a single one picked a special or unique technique, the students who had an elemental affinity took the particular advanced affinity book, while others preferred offensive techniques with their most skilled weapon. If everyone who finished their assignment worked hard through the next few weeks, their combat power would soar through multiple ranks, allowing them to fight beasts at least one stage higher than them head-on, without risking their lives with traps and other dirty tricks. At least that''s what Jason thought. He was still unsure why their teacher was so generous to them but apparently, he was either greedy to improve his student''s combat power to fight the other classes head-on, or he had some other reasons that he couldn¡ät comprehend with his available knowledge. The Splitting mind technique had various stages or levels and each one would enable his mind to construct an additional sub-area. While the first level was the easiest, the following were only becoming more difficult to understand and comprehend. But that was not even the worst. The brain was still a mystery for humanity and it was too dangerous and taxing for one''s mind to create too many sub-areas. Mr. Greil said that one should at most create two or three sub-areas because creating a fourth sub-area was not possible by the momentary means. What these means were, was unknown to Jason but he thought it might be the mana core rank or the degree of tempering one¡äs brain went through. Mr.Greil even told him that if he was able to create his first sub-area before reaching the Magus rank, he shouldn''t construct a second one before ranking up to the Magus if not the Grandmagus rank. Jason was only half-heartedly listening to this advice as he wanted to create two sub-areas as soon as possible due to his passive mana gathering technique and another theory that spun in his mind a long time ago. The permanent tempering of one''s soul world core! It was said that one can immediately use the produced soul energy ejected by the soul world core in order to inject it again into the soul world core by forming a chain or circle with the ejected soul energy. This could cause a continuous tempering of one''s soul world core. However, this would also cost a lot of focus and brought other issues. First, one had to be careful in order to make everything correct, as a fault during the soul energy injection could damage the soul. Furthermore, one would have to collect the ejected soul energy to form a thread before injecting it. All these procedures would take a lot of concentration. There was also the problem with the time soul energy needed to regenerate. Normally one would need 24 hours to completely eject one''s soul energy out of the core and with a soul energy of 100 units, one would only regenerate around 4.2 soul energy per hour. Forming a continuous chain of procedures would be entirely useless for someone with such a little soul energy. This was also useless for someone with soul energy of 1000 because the regeneration would be around 0.7 soul energy per minute. One would need to divide the focus on the necessary things one was doing while at the same time carefully form the ejected soul energy into threads, before injecting them at the right spot of the soul world core. Jason thought, once he created his second sub-area, he would use this area to continuously temper his soul energy because his regeneration time was a third compared to others which meant that he would regenerate almost 2.1 soul energy per minute while having a soul energy of 1000 units. He was almost daydreaming and lost focus for a moment before his eyes stared back at the splitting mind technique. It was already evening and everyone went home when Jason was still torturing his teacher with questions. Till was happy that Jason was so diligent and he was even more astonished about his student''s comprehension ability because, in a single week, Jason was able to almost completely understand the first level of the Splitting mind technique: Mind division Right now, Jason was asking the core questions and Till felt that after answering all questions, Jason might as well start creating his first sub-area. After the fourth day, Till noticed Jason¡äs extreme ambition and determination, which caused him to be astounded, and right now Jason looked like his desire to start practicing the first level was devouring him completely. Jason now knew what to do and how to construct his first sub-area, but there was one major problem, he had to face. With this in mind, Jason wanted to ask for some advice from his teacher, feeling slightly ashamed. Clearing his throat, he wasn''t sure how to start and Till noticed that as he was already aware of the problem, Jason faced. "You want to know how to gather enough mana in order to temper your brain, forcing it to split your consciousness without burdening or damaging it, while being at the Novice rank, right?" Jason¡äs eyes widened and he could only nod dejectedly. The thing that annoyed Jason the most wasn''t that practicing the first Level: Mind division would be extremely painful, which was kinda logic, but the information that he would need a vast amount of mana. There were even some rough calculations made, that discouraged Jason quite a lot. Someone at the magus rank or higher would have to inscribe a large mana gathering circle with the main ingredients being a non-elemental Guardian ranked mana core with more than 100 grade-3 mana stones stored within the circle at the worst. Even 100 grade-1 mana stones would cost 5 million credits but grade-3 mana stones? Purchasing a head-sized one with 5 million credits would already be a wonder. Jason wasn''t even remotely close to the magus rank and he researched about certain magical treasures protecting one''s brain during the tempering. Unfortunately, he couldn''t find anything within the official websites which left him somehow dejected and frustrated. His teacher was his last hope because he would know what Jason could do about it as his background seemed special. "Well...that¡äs kinda difficult with your capabilities¡­." Till started and Jason¡äs heart sunk into the ground before he continued. "Obtaining a non-elemental Guardian ranked mana core is easy and mana stones are rare and expensive but that''s it, a few hundred star-notes should do the job...the main issue is unfortunately something else. Considering your rank, you would need a high-grade magical treasure to protect your brain during the whole procedure. Such a treasure can¡ät be found on Astrix and is also exceptionally rare to find on Canir¡­." Jason felt his heart exploding, after trying so hard to understand the technique during the last week, his last hope was about to die when he heard his teacher mumbling. "Do I have something like that¡­.or at least something similar?..." Jason wished away the non-existing tears that might begin to pour down his cheeks as he waited patiently for his teacher to say something. Maybe he could help him¡­ Money can be earned but getting the hang of the treasure Jason required, was almost impossible for him to do with his current capabilities. After some time it looked like his teacher remembered something as he looked at him with a painful facial expression. "Can you endure pain? And I mean real pain...maybe you would wish to rather die than to survive¡­ but that won''t happen until you finished the designated task...." Chapter 87 - Devilish Valkyrie Jason immediately jumped up from his seat, shouting "Yes!!" Looking astonished at Jason¡äs enthusiasm, Till recalled a treasure he found a long time ago. Shuttering in fear, he wouldn¡ät even wish his arch-enemy to consume it. "I have a kind of fruit that can protect your life until you finish creating your sub-area. Unfortunately, it will cause devastating pain and you¡äll most likely wish to die to end the torture. Adding on the pain you¡äll have to endure because of the tempering and splitting of your brain, I¡äm not sure if you should do that in order to stay mentally fit. It not unlikely that your mental health will suffer if you don''t get crazy or similar to braindead." Now Jason hesitated for a second and he looked at his teacher with fear in his eyes. Nevertheless, he was resolute in his decision. Jason didn''t want to wait until he reached the Magus rank to establish his first sub-area. "At least, I now know there is a way to create my first sub-area if you would sell the treasure to me I would be grateful...Unfortunately, It''s very likely that I¡äll need a long time to gather enough star notes until I¡äve everything together in order to repay you." Till looked at his student and he liked the youth in front of him the most because of his personality and talent. `Why does he want to create his first sub-area so soon? Is it urgent?` It has been a long since someone awoke his curiosity and he wanted to make a decision only to lay out an bait in order to test Jason. "What if I provide you with everything you need to create your first sub-area?" He said nonchalantly Being hit off-guard, Jason was unsure what to say about this offer.. It was definitely tempting..but there were two unknown factors. 1)Why should his teacher do something like that 2)Can I handle the pain right now and are the benefits worth the pain? The latter factor could be answered with a definite YES¡­ gathering and absorbing mana for 24/7 would increase his cultivation speed multiple times, considering that subconsciously absorbing mana was only slightly less effective than actively doing it. But he would have more time to practice his martial art techniques in the meantime and could also increase his knowledge instead of absorbing mana for hours. Normally Jason absorbed mana for at least 3 hours a day and this could be completely discarded, while his cultivation speed would increase at the same time without doing anything at all. Wasn''t it just too beneficial? What was pain in contrast to that¡­ Jason¡äs will had to be strong enough to endure it to prevent it from going crazy, but that was all. He was still unsure why his teacher would offer him something like that but over the last two weeks, Jason could roughly form an understanding of his teacher''s character. He was hiding something big but he wasn''t hiding in particular, otherwise, he wouldn¡ät allow his students to learn tier-3 techniques which couldn¡ät be considered staying lowkey. The students would tell their parents and friends about it and it was easy to find out if one practiced a high-tiered martial art technique. Figuring out where they obtained such techniques would only be a matter of time then. That meant, he was definitely not a criminal. Till was also kind and patient towards his students and answered every one with great insights. The only problem was his strict teaching, while it only gave benefits to his students, he sounded rough. This however couldn¡ät cover up his generosity, which some couldn¡ät appreciate, as a few parents from students were complaining about the difficulty of the given assignment. Mr.Greil ignored them and there was not much one could do against it, but Jason found these students and their parents quite rude. `Trying to pressure my teacher with empty complaints? Piss off!!!!` Jason liked his teacher and he was confident in his gut feeling as he opened his mouth while looking at his teacher with determination. "I can endure it!!!" he shouted loudly. It was like Till could see through Jason''s train of thoughts. If he had the same chance at such a young age, he would probably do the same as Jason. He himself only created his first sub-area when he reached the Grandmagus rank and it was a vast difference to passively gather, absorb and transmute mana into liquid without doing anything at all. It was extremely slow but considering that converting mana into liquid was the taxing procedure, he also did actively, his mana core rank increased much faster than without the sub-area in his mind. He also liked Jason a lot and wanted to give him the choice to decide whether to give it a chance and risk his life or to wait until he reached the magus rank. As for getting paid...It was more likely that Jason would reach the magus rank before he would be able to amass the star notes needed for the magical treasure, mana stones, and the cheapest amongst the materials, the non-elemental guardian mana core altogether. "Okay...I should have everything with me right now, do you want to immediately start or do you want to wait until tomorrow?" "Right now please.!!" Jason was becoming impatient as he voiced his opinion out without hesitating anymore and he wasn¡ät sure if he would still do it, if he could reconsider his decision once again. As such he wanted to begin right now. "With your current control over mana, the whole process of creating a sub-area will take at least 24 hours, if not more¡­ You can still choose to decline my offer.. If you still want to do it, call your home and say that you¡äll stay at school for some days!.. If your done, come to my office." "I¡äll still do it. I call immediately!" Jason said not even thinking about the time his teacher told him. Even so, he was still shuttering in fright which couldn¡ät be hidden anymore. Calling the Flers, saying that he would stay in school for some days, everyone felt a little bit confused, but they wouldn''t ask Jason if he didn''t want to talk about the reason. Jason was already mature in their eyes and he knew what he was doing. Furthermore, they weren¡ät his real family and couldn¡ät force him to not stay out if he wanted to. After he was done, Jason went to his teacher''s office, where he suddenly saw an additional room behind the bookshelves, which astonished him slightly. Walking inside, he could see his teacher gracefully inscribing a 20-meter diameter large magic circle with a head-sized transparent marble floating in the center, 20 centimeters above the ground. Below it was a jade box with beautiful inscriptions on it and Jason concluded, that it was a box used for magical plants to prevent them from losing their effect upon getting plucked. The transparent marble had dark blue runes inscribed on it which were shining lightly. Upon hearing Jason coming inside, Till explained everything calmly. "Inside the jade box is the Devilish Valkyrie-shield fruit you¡äll have to eat before activating the magic circle. After eating you¡äll have to take the Overlord Behemoth mana core inside your hand, which will activate the mana gathering circle with the slightest injection of mana. You don''t have to immediately use up all the mana around you and even if you try, it''s impossible. The mana will stay inside the magic circle and you can slowly use it to refine your brain because the Devilish Valkyrie-shield fruit will protect you life, even if it is hellish painful. Just endure it and slowly temper your brain and split it after you¡äve rechecked that every step was done perfectly. You are not allowed to make a mistake, okay?! " Jason¡äs mind was blank...Devilish Valkyrie-shield fruit, Overlord Behemoth? What?! "Is the Overlord Behemoth a guardian ranked beast?" was the only thing he could ask, because his mana eyes told him, that the mana inside this core was almost completely liquefied. "It¡äs a Lord-ranked beast." was the only thing his teacher said and Jason figured out what the rank above Guardian was, which would normally delight him. But not now. Jason grew anxious, looking at the lord-ranked beast core telling himself hundreds of times, that he could endure it, while his whole body trembled. While being inside the magic circle, he couldn¡ät take Scorpio with him. Letting him stay outside, Jason lamented his second soulbonds will, as he was unwilling to enter the soul world with Artemis evolving inside. While Till was inscribing the Magic circle, Jason decided to feed Scorpio some pieces of the holy white bacuri fruit, because he would probably be unable to do so during the following day. After Scorpio ate two pieces, he writhed slightly, but it looked like the pain was becoming less, which made Jason happy. Furthermore, Jason calculated that Scorpio would have his second molting tomorrow while he was creating his sub-area. After Scorpio¡äs second molting was done, he would be at the three-star rank, and Jason was already expectant how long it would take for him to break through his racial limit because his potential showed signs of improving. It was now midnight and Till finished inscribing the magic circle on time, as he placed multiple magic stones at their designated area. Some magic stones had the size of a football while others were double the size and Jason wondered if that were really only grade-3 magic stones or already grade-4 magic stones due to the vast amount of mana he could see with his eyes, causing them to ache slightly, forcing Jason to close his eyes. He understood that the amount of mana inside the magic circle was extremely vast and only now was he fully aware of the seriousness of the situation.. But now Jason wouldn¡ät back out as he slowly walked inside the magic circle. Sitting down, he immediately began to sweat due to the mana fluctuations that pressured him. Opening the jade box in front of him, a sweet stench impregnated the whole room and the fruit he saw in front of him was silver in color, looking like a fat miniature shield while the outlines were somewhat blackish. If one looked closely, one would barely a cruel face behind the facade of the shield and Jason shuttered seeing that. This was however not the only thing that caused Jason to shudder in fear, but also the dense dark blue color, spreading from the fruit in his hand. Jason had never seen such a color but he was sure that it was not the color of a guardian rank and his hand holding the fruit began to tremble. Overcoming his anxiety, Jason put the whole fruit in his mouth before biting on it. Sweet juice filled his mouth and it was almost addicting to him as he wanted to savor the taste as he forced himself to gulp it down as fast as possible, because his teacher told him that the pain would begin roughly half a minute after taking the first bite. Taking the Lord-ranked mana core into his hands, Jason immediately activated the magic circle, as bright runes emerged from the magic circle. A small dome was forming around the magic circle as the mana stones slowly dissolved, creating a thick blue shining fog within. The fog was transforming in liquid and it seemed like it was raining inside the small dome when Till looked somewhat expectant at the scenario in front of him as he noticed the liquefied mana. `Did I put in too many grade-4 mana stones?` He wondered slightly worried. Chapter 88 - Surviving Thousand Deaths In the beginning, Jason didn¡ät feel any kind of pain at all, and he imagined that his teacher was exaggerating the effect of the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit when a small silver shining membrane enveloped him from inside-out. After he was completely enveloped and everything was sealed-off safely, his body began to itch lightly, which was only a little bit uncomfortable to Jason This itching became more apparent as only a few seconds passed it suddenly felt more like a knife was stabbed in every cell of his body. He couldn''t focus on refining his brain or splitting it due to the searing pain that became even worse over time. Not only felt his body as if he was stabbed continuously but also as if he was skinned alive, burned, drowned, his nails torn out, eyes ripped apart, his brain thrown into a mixer and additionally hundred different types of killing methods tortured him. Jason could have never imagined the pain would be that excessively "F***KKK" He cried out and bloody crimson tears began to pour out of his eyes, while Till saw everything from the outside worriedly. "FOCUS ON YOUR TASK!! THE PAIN WILL BE LESS LIKE THAT" but unfortunately, Jason couldn''t hear him at all. Half an hour passed and Jason had still not begun to refine his brain. Finally, after gathering his thoughts under the unimaginable pain, Jason forced the marginal-sized liquid he tried to control for an unknown time closer enough to his eyes, which he immediately absorbed. Jason knew that the pain would be extreme, but he imagined nothing like that. Fortunately, he was prepared. When he fought Leo, Jason found out that the pain of his earth spiked calves lessened, the moment he poured mana inside his eyes. It was only a quarter of a second or less, but right now liquefied mana was absorbed by his eye as the bloody tears lessened when a golden light radiated out of them, illuminating the whole magic circle. Till noticed Jason¡äs eyes brightening up while the light was illuminating, it seemed like the pain Jason had to endure, was lessened by a large degree, caused him to calm down slightly. `He can do it!` Jason¡äs pain eased up and even if it was still hellish painful, he could think calmy for the moment.. Continuing to absorb mana into his eyes, he only stopped after thinking it was more than enough to supply him for at least 24 hours. After that, Jason began to follow the Splitting Mind¡äs first level description carefully. His calm mind caused Jason to have full focus on the process of refining his mind and splitting it. Hours passed and the eased pain began to increase once again and Jason couldn''t really do anything against it. However now even with the increased pain, his mind was focusing on the refining process and stability. The first sunlight shone through the window and Til was still waiting for Jason both patiently and impatiently at the same time. He decided to tell the other teachers to look out for an instructor in order to teach some martial art techniques to his students over the next two days, without giving a reason for this decision. Leaving Jason alone would be irresponsible but that didn¡ät mean it was needed to tell anyone about Jason constructing the first sub-area from the splitting mind technique. If someone knew that, they would call him a devil, after finding out he gave out the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit to a novice rank, which was crazy. Maybe he would really be called a devil and hunted if something were to happen to Jason... Who knows, but that wasn''t important right now, because Jason was struggling and barely hanging on his focus due to the immense pain he had to endure. Time passed slowly and to Jason, it felt like he was about to die over and over again while only god could tell him how much time passed as it was an eternity to Jason. The only thing, Jason lead to hang on was his indestructible will to finish the creation of the first sub-area. An eternity passed and Jason finally finished refining his brain as he could feel his train of thoughts accelerate by leaps and bounds but more important right now was, that he could finally start the mind-splitting process. If his mind was a cake, he would now slice apart around 1/100 from it and construct an independent system out of it. This step was even more difficult than the first one, as the pain was becoming even more horrifying when Jason split apart his own mind. As he was about to lose his mind, the golden light in his eyes illuminated the magic circle once again, calming him down for a second before the pain reappeared slightly weakened. He unsure how many times passed but fixing the larger part of his split mind, before he could start constructing the sub-area was done somewhen as he relaxed. Because Jason relaxed, his tension loosened up and the horrifying pain he endured the whole time in a weakened state, reappeared immediately, causing Jason to cry out in shock and pain. `Shouldn''t it be done???? My task is finished?? HELLO VALKYRIE FRUIT?!?!` Jason could only lament and endure the pain, while he wasn''t sure what was going on. On the outside, almost 30 hours have passed and Till expected Jason to finish soon, which made him happy when he noticed Jason loosening his tension. A radiant smile appeared on his face before a horrifying cry could be heard with Jason shuttering in pain. `What is going on? Hasn¡ät he finished forming the sub-area??` He was as clueless as Jason, but his knowledge was vaster than Jason¡äs causing Till to conclude many theories within a short amount of time Seeing the liquefied mana floating around the mana circle, a bad feeling arose within him. Jason didn¡ät know what to do and he had to concentrate really hard in order to think of a solution while enduring the endless pain. `Is my task not finished, yet?` Was the only solution Jason could think of after some time and concluding the facts, he probably hat had to completely construct his sub-area before the pain would lessen...probably. He wasn''t exactly sure how to instruct his subconscious to practice the passive mana gathering and absorbing technique, because he wanted to do that after forming the sub-area. This however changed now as he had to experiment with all kinds of possibilities while he was dying a thousand deaths. An unknown amount of time passed with dozens of failed experiments before Jason finished a rough and crude construction of his passive mana gathering and absorbing technique, which immediately began to work. While mana was gathering and refined into his mana core, Jason felt the pain lessen by a marginal amount but even so, it was still apparent and tormenting his whole body. `Why is the pain still apparent?` Jason asked himself, not knowing what was going on. Did he do something wrong? He was unsure but other than the pain from the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit, there was no pain! Right now a long time must have passed and Jason had done everything possible to finished the task. He forced himself to open his eyes, he had forcefully closed after some time as Jason felt it was more easier to endure the pain when a golden light illuminated the room again for a second before it vanished once again. During this second, Jason could see Till standing right in front of the magic circle, looking at him worriedly. Jason knew that his teacher couldn¡ät save him. If he interrupted his task, the pain he was enduring right now would be permanent and thi was not something someone should endure permanently. Noticing Jason looking at him, Till¡äs mind was thinking with an overwhelming speed as he exalted some of his liquefied mana in order to write a word in the air. Jason could only read the first two letters, before the pain reappeared, forcing him to instinctively shut his eyes once again. ¡äMa?` What''s that? ARRRGHHH It hurts. Minutes passed and his sub-area was refining mana diligently while Jason didn¡ät know what to do right now when he thought for a moment. Ma? MANA?! What about the mana? Is that my task??? Why?! I don''t get it! But it didn¡ät sound unreasonable¡­ the more his passive mana gathering and refining technique absorbed, the less the pain became, even if it was almost not perceptible. At least he knew a new path to lessen the pain and Jason began to actively absorb the mana greedily while opening all his pores, which caused his pain only to increase. If that wasn''t working, Jason didn¡ät know what else he could do as he absorbed the mana with all his might, which couldn¡ät be said to be much. Hours passed and unknowingly, Jason broke easily through the 7th Novice rank. Another few hours passed and his mana core was already consolidated but his cultivation was still increasing more and more, while the liquefied mana in his surrounding didn''t seem to lessen by much. He would normally be overjoyed to increase his mana core rank but the pain caused him to almost lose his mind as Jason didn¡ät know how many thousands of deaths he already endured. The torture he endured began to slowly kill him from the inside, frightening Jason even more. It felt as if he was absorbing mana way too slow because he couldn''t endure the pain anymore after he broke smoothly into the 8th Novice rank without noticing it. Suddenly a thought reappeared in his mind when he was about to give up My EYES!!... With the appearance of his last ray of hope, Jason began to gather his mana inside his eyes, which began to release a golden, calming light inside the magic circle and the pain began to lessen around him. There was still a lot of mana but the pain was much easier to endure and Jason was about to cry out in joy. Instead of crying, Jason forced himself to focus on gathering mana inside his eyes which would be more helpful. The more liquefied mana gathered within his eyes, the less was the pain Jason received as he seemed to go almost crazy. The golden light cleansed his mind to a certain extent. While his recently constructed sub-area consolidated his 8th Novice rank mana core, Jason¡äs eyes greedily absorbed the surroundings mana. More than 60 hours passed since Jason began with the procedure of constructing his first sub-area when the pain completely vanished. Without the will to hold onto the lord-ranked mana core anymore, his grip loosened up. When the mana core fell to the ground, Jason¡äs wet eyes could only see his teacher running to him. Jason began to cry¡­ as he gripped his teacher''s clothes not letting him go, when his teacher held him into his embrace, with guilt shining in his eyes. Chapter 89 - I′m Sorry An unknown amount of time passed until Jason finally gathered his emotions slightly under his control. When he loosened up his firm grip from his teacher''s clothes, Jason could see tears in his teacher''s eyes which wondered him slightly A weak "I''m sorry" was the only thing Jason could hear and he wasn''t aware that his teacher was almost crying in front of him. Till didn¡ät know that such an accident would happen and the worst thing was that he wanted to be generous to Jason as a promising student. As such, Till placed many grade-4 mana stones into the magic circle without considering the dangers that might occur. He himself had once eaten a devilish valkyrie-shield fruit to finish a certain exercise, but he endured the pain only for 12 hours...He was multiple ranks higher than Jason and it wasn¡ät even remotely comparable. Still, he never wanted to feel like that ever again but now he foolishly gave such a fruit to his students, who endured such pain for 5 times the length he himself had to endure. He gave him the fruit which was the main cause for the exaggerated long time his dear student was tortured. Thinking about the pain Jason had to endure, Till embraced Jason again and he continuously apologized. "I¡äm sorry¡­.I¡äm so sorry¡­" Jason was still overwhelmed by his emotions and it took some time until his dried-up voice rang out. "It''s okay" Jason said faintly, and he roughly knew why his teacher was apologizing. He noticed the grade-4 mana stones and was thankfully for them before. Now, however, did Jason hate them more than anything else¡­ Nevertheless, Jason accepted his teacher''s offer and the devilish valkyrie fruit, after getting reminded about the dangers many times. Even if the last few days would be imprinted deep into his mind for his whole life, Jason finished constructing his first sub-area already and he was only a novice rank at that. Even so, right now It was not that comforting for him when Jason finally noticed a 10-centimeter long scorpion trying to climb up his clothes, struggling to reach Jason¡äs head. His teacher was loosening up the embrace and looked at Jason, taking a glance if his eyes were not dulled or if he was crazy through the unbearable pain he endured after finally regained control over his emotions. Staying up, he helped Jason, who was holding Scorpio, up Jason was mentally completely exhausted but he still noticed Scorpio¡äs lush green exoskeleton and wondered why it looked like that. Activating his eyes for a short moment, Jason noticed that Scorpio¡äs mana core was now radiating a denser black color as Till noticed him taking a look at his soulbond. "I have to say that your personality is really weird. You''re impatient and irritating. Wasn''t it a little bit too dangerous to feed your maturing soulbond a mana core cleansing fruit, even if it was the weakest possible one?" He questioned Jason while holding up his grade-2 perennial neoxid box that was empty. "Your soulbond somehow opened the box and ate everything when I was worried about you and it began to undergo a molting...Now it''s completely green and I can sense that it is slightly stronger than before." Jason scratched his head in embarrassment, but his will was completely used up, without him being able to tell a lie as he told Till that he considered almost everything within the purity theory and his own research. He also told his teacher how exactly he did what he did and how careful he was. "It could have been extremely dangerous for your soulbond and your soul...but nevermind.. It worked but I''m curious if you already knew it would work and someone told you that the theory was already proven, which could be considered a secret of the big clans, or if you just experimented with your own soul and your soulbond¡äs life, fool!" Till lectured Jason for a short moment before he noticed that he told his student, that the theory was already proven and a top-secret at that. Not many people on the Archipelago knew about the purity theory and its worth, while much more people were aware of it on Canir. But it was still cheaper to purchase a beast with potential than buy expensive core cleansing fruits. However, this was when Beast-creators came into play which interested Jason but Till wouldn''t answer him right now. Till was still embarrassed because he cried in front of his student while the whole situation they were in was getting awkward. Before Jason could say anything, Till told him that he should go home, sleep and regain his mental energy, before coming back when once he was ready. Almost 40 minutes later, Jason arrived at the Fler¡äs house, where he was greeted with warm hugs before he was pushed away gently as his clothes were full of impurities and reeked extremely bad. They wanted to know what happened but seeing Jason walking around like a living zombie, they let him go into his room, where he subconsciously took off his clothes before he fell into the bed. Jason had not slept long for the last 10 days when one included the time he needed to learn everything about the Splitting mind¡äs first level. Right now was the first time he smelled his bed once again and it felt like he was sucked into before the darkness devoured him as Jason closed his eyes. While sleeping, the pain he felt during the last three days resurfaced and Jason couldn''t wake up from the nightmare he lived through, even if he knew that he was sleeping. There was nothing Jason could do as his limbs were torn out, his eyes dug out, getting skinned alive and the only thing he was able to do was to cry. Jason was crying in pain and he was too scared about the pain when a golden light covered him, loosening his tension. His body shook violently and Jason was forcefully waken-up from the nightmare while his back was completely covered in cold sweat. Suddenly he felt the unimaginably vast amount of mana stored inside his eyes declining in a rapid pace as Jason sensed that the memories about the pain and torture he went through over the last days were becoming more distant and untouchable for him. It was as if his memories were stored away and locked and Jason suddenly felt too tired to comprehend what happened when he fell into a dreamless sleep. * He wasn''t sure how much time passed but it was already bright when he woke up and Jason felt somewhat weird, completely different from the time before he constructed his sub-area. He could still feel pain in his heart to a certain extent and how painful it was in addition to him wanting to die rather than enduring the pain for 60 hours. But somehow, Jason didn¡ät feel scared anymore. It strengthened him, rather than turning him weaker and Jason remembered that his eyes somehow woke him up from the nightmare before. Sensing the mana inside his eyes, he noticed that the vast liquefied mana was completely used up. He wasn''t sure how this could happen but he had the gut feeling that it had something to do with him not being scared about the pain and torture he endured, anymore. Meanwhile, Scorpio was lying next to him, transmitting his hunger to him¡­ Looking at the holographic screen of his quantum watch he was astonished to see that it was already Friday and he had slept for more than 24 hours. It was 10 am and he made himself ready to go to school, even if he would be late after feeding Scorpio some amber fireflies. He was the only one at home, right now and Jason wasn¡ät sure why but he didn¡ät want to be alone, which was the reason he was going. It was around 10:40 when his shuttle set off. During his drive to the school, he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique and he noticed that his Soul energy had already reached 9. Considering that Scorpio was now a three-star wild beast, he only had one soul energy left, which was not enough for either Artemis or Scorpio to increase to four-star wild beasts without Jason losing complete control over them. Jason was still astonished to see, that his soul energy reached 9 and it was also the first time for him to notice that his mana core had already reached the 8th Novice rank which shocked him. His physique and mana core size were still at the 8th Novice rank even after getting a 33% share from Artemis and Scorpio but they were indefinitely close to the 9th rank as Jason smiled lightly thinking about his two soulbonds. Jason was holding Scorpio all the time because he needed anyone to rely on at the moment before entering the school gates as he felt suddenly reluctant to enter the school grounds. After a few minutes, Jason stood in front of the arena, where he saw his classmates from far away. `They are practicing martial art techniques?` Jason wondered and he entered the arena, while Scorpio was placed on his shoulder in order to free his hands. Walking into the designated arena for his classmates someone noticed him walking in "OH!! It''s Jason!!" The first one said and all of his classmates turned around at once. Some students immediately started to gossip while looking at him while other students didn''t care about Jason¡äs absence at all. But a few of his classmates stopped their practice, running up to him, not caring about their instructors'' orders. Apparently, their teacher was also absent and doing something else, causing Instructor Brian to suddenly appear inside their classroom Monday morning. Nobody knew what was going on and they began to learn a Tier-1 martial art technique that could be used by almost all kinds of weapons. This caused the technique to lose some of its potential, making it into one of the weaker Tier-1 techniques. Nevertheless, the technique was still better than most tierless techniques and the students were quite happy to learn such a technique, which was not easy, as it was difficult to receive permission without relying on the school¡äs authority Brian knew that one of his students was absent for the whole week which caused the ambitious instructor to feel slightly angry. He wasn''t even told a reason why the second last student was absent and Instructor Brian unconsciously labeled him as someone lazy. It was already Friday, and only now he came to school, distracting his diligent classmates which caused him to become a little bit furious. "STUDENTS! GATHER TOGETHER" (Author note: Clich¨¦? :O) Chapter 90 - Condensed Killing When everyone gathered, Jason followed suit as they formed a semicircle around the Instructor. It was the first time for Jason to look at the Instructor with his brown hair and eyes, while his facial features couldn¡ät be considered handsome, at most average. He looked like he was around 30 years old but in the current era, nobody could really say how old one was from the outer appearance. Opening his mana eyes, Jason noticed that the Instructor was at the beginning of the magus rank with a few drops of liquefied mana inside his mana core, which was quite good. He wondered if this was the average strength from teachers in the Vanguard affiliated school or what exactly the average would be. Maybe only headteachers from the best classes were slightly stronger but still not at the Grandmagus rank, or were they? Jason didn¡ät know it but his guess was roughly right. Being at the Magus rank was considered the average strength for teachers from the affiliated schools, while Grandmagus ranks were advanced teachers for special courses at the main schools with an extremely high wage and exceptional rights, including privileges for the mana gathering platform that was connected to the mana vein and many more advantages. When everyone was gathered, Instructor Briann asked various questions about the Tier-1 Technique they learned through the whole week, called [Weaponry Knight]. The technique focused on close combat with swords, spears, axes, and all variant weapons of it, while daggers, archery, and other similar combat styles were more neglected. One could still use daggers with the Weaponry Knight technique, but the effect would most likely be a little bit worse compared to the formerly named weapons. While Jason listened to the Instructor and his classmates carefully and he noticed that his daggers were relatively long and almost comparable to short swords, which would mean he would be relatively compatible with the technique his other classmates learned during the whole week. Brian noticed Jason listening carefully which reduced his anger gradually, even if he was still slightly annoyed. He was a respected Instructor and known for his ambition to teach his students diligently, as long as they tried hard he would always help them. After he finished asking his students questions, he began to explain some important details as Brian turned to Jason who listened with sharp ears. Looking into each other''s eyes, Briann was astonished to see that Jason had golden eyes which were relatively uncommon and he almost immediately began to wonder if he had a special trait. After pondering for a moment, he asked the question he was curious about, even if some would think it was rude to ask their student. "Why were you not in class during the whole week? You missed important lessons and your classmates are far above you in terms of understanding the Weaponry Knight technique. Furthermore, it looks like your mana core is also the weakest among your classmates¡­ Your teacher told me you would not come back this week because of some circumstances but the class rankings will start in 10 days and you¡äll only slow down your classmates like that!" Jason frowned slightly and he would definitely not say the truth about what happened throughout his last week. Somehow Jason didn''t like their Instructor, as his eyes were unpleasant to look at. As such he was extremely annoyed and the anger pain accumulated within caused him to say "I slept" without anything else¡­ His classmates were also curious about what Jason did during the whole week, they used to comprehend the Weaponry Knight technique to their best capabilities. Figuring out that Jason slept, some almost fell to the ground as they leaned closer to Jason in order to hear his answer. Instructor Brian who was already slightly calmed down fumed in anger¡­ `He is lazy and only wants to slow down his classmates during the class battles? Why was he even accepted into schools? Are we so low now?!` This was what he thought as he stepped closer to Jason. "If you slept, you should have enough energy to spar with me, am I right?" With a calm facial expression but burning eyes, Jason noticed that he had probably made a mistake Jason could only sight as he nodded his head. Not even a minute passed and both stood opposite each other, while Instructor Brian was `generous` enough to provide Jason with an advantage of one level as he reduced his strength to the 7th Novice rank. When their Instructor said, he would reduce his strength to the 7th Novice rank, Jason¡äs classmates were confused. Wasn¡ät that a little bit unfair? Jason is only at the 6th Novice rank. Furthermore, he has less combat experience than a veterinarian hunter, while he unfamiliar with a Tiered combat technique. This was only until someone cried out in shock "8th Novice rank?!?!?! HOW?" One of the classmates who stood the closest to Jason shouted, as he scanned Jason¡äs mana core out of reflex. `Huh` Everyone''s eyes widened as they also released their mana to scan Jason¡äs mana core. The students began to either cry out in shock, rubbing their eyes, doubting their ability to determine the rank of a mana core, causing almost everyone to doubt their capabilities. In everyone''s memory, Jason was only at the 6th Novice rank a week before. How???? What did Jason do during the last week to in order increase his mana core rank by two levels?? Some of them saw Jason on Sunday and at this time, he was still at the 6th Novice rank, and right now they were looking at him with jealousy as they thought Jason received an heaven like treasure from his family, enabling him to increase his mana core in such a short amount of time. They didn''t know that Jason didn¡ät have any relatives left, except the Fler¡äs, who were obviously not related by blood with him. The Fler¡äs would¡äve never been able to purchase such a treasure. Even if they could, why would they do something like that for Jason? Wouldn''t they rather purchase something for their own children? Never would Jason¡äs classmates think that the whole week was more than a little bit horrifying for Jason and that he wanted to die thousands of times. He looked calm right now, but Jason noticed that his Instructor wanted to teach him a lesson, which was somehow like a clich¨¦, he had often heard about it when he listened to stories and fairy tales. Instructor Brian noticed the turmoil outside the combat ring, and he also heard them gossiping causing him to show an astonished expression. ¡äHuh? Did he increase his mana core rank by two levels in 5 days? Is he a pampered child??.. Well I just lecture him and afterward, he¡äll probably learn how to behave` When everyone got into position, Jason took out his two daggers from his storage as he got into the foundational stance for fights with dual-daggers. Brian noted that Jason¡äs stance was without any flaws as he nodded in approval, giving Jason secretly a few extra points in his mind. The fight started almost instantly and Jason bent down, enhancing his lower body with mana in order to enhance his speed to his maximum capabilities. He was still not familiar with the increase of mana he received after breaking into the 8th Novice rank and the additionally amplificated amount of strength from Scorpio, which caused Jason to be faster than he initially estimated. Both were only around 30 meters apart from each other and Jason¡äs explosive start, catapulted him closer by around 4 meters within a moment. Brian wouldn¡ät stay still, waiting for Jason without moving and both charged at each other. Only two seconds later, both were already in front of each other as Brian swung his tempered wooden longsword at Jason with a quick and precise movement, which Jason was barely able to avoid. He was slightly late to evade it perfectly and he had to use his dagger to divert the trajectory of Brian''s sword, when a sudden kick was initiated by him, causing Jason to almost lose his balance. With a jump to the side, he could avoid getting hit frontally but Jason¡äs leg was still slightly affected by the sudden kick. Meanwhile, Brian was astonished that the student in front of him was able to avoid his combined attack without that much difficulty as he thought Jason had never really fought a life and death battle. Without combat experience, Jason would have never been able to predict his attack and avoid it without sustaining a serious injury, as the succession of his attack was extremely smooth, without any wasted second. He had restricted his strength to the 7th Novice rank but suppressing his physically tempered body to such a low level was almost impossible and Brian estimated that even a 9th Novice or newly advanced Adept ranks would be unable to avoid his attack. Suddenly Jason¡äs mind went into some sort of bloodlust after receiving a hit from the Instructors kick. The pain he felt was not even nearly comparable to the torture he endured a few days ago, but somehow his mind thought this battle was rather a life and death fight than a spar when Jason stood up after a roll in order to prevent injuring himself from the side-jump. His gentle, sympathetic, and calm eyes that attracted and calmed down many classmates subconsciously changed completely, into some sort of cruel and almost fiendish eyes, without any trace of kindness. It was as if Jason¡äs golden eyes were filled with wrath and the pure desire to kill his opponent. Brian was distracted for a quarter second because he was thinking about his students'' quick thinking, when Jason appeared right behind him, without any notice. His hair stood up as he instinctively sensed a thick condensed aura of killing intent behind him, which would eradicate him if he wouldn¡ät do anything right now. Almost immediately Instructor Brian¡äs back was drenched in cold sweat. Fortunately enough, his senses were not restricted, otherwise, he would be dead without noticing what was going on. He had never felt like this and it seemed like he was going to die, if he didn''t do something as he immediately released the restrictions, as his whole suppressed might of a magus rank was released, blasting Jason into the protection mechanism of the combat arena. Jason regained his senses when he was pushed out of the protective sphere, which saved his life. Noticing there was something wrong with his mind, Jason felt the desire to kill Brian, after he received the Instructor¡äs hit. This hit caused the subdued anger to intensify, filling his mind, without leaving any trace of reluctance. This caused him to fear himself and he would have to tell his teacher as soon as possible in order to avoid accidents like that to happen ever again. `If his opponent wasn''t an instructor and one of his classmates, would he have killed them? ` Jason didn¡ät know and it scared him somehow. Chapter 91 - Weaponry Knight Brian was still sweating heavily, while his breathing was irregular. He was extremely shocked about what happened when he remembered that he was only sparring with a Novice ranked student. `F**K ...don''t be dead, kid!` he just thought when he turned around, only to see that Jason was safe and sound, looking around with a gentle smile, that seemed to be a little bit embarrassed. His classmates were shocked after witnessing Jason almost killing their instructor and they told themself to not provoke him ever again, even if they seemed to be stronger. If one looked closer, one could even see a small cut at Instructor Brian¡äs neck, that was healing within seconds. Brian ran up to Jason, inquiring about his health and how he felt. The pressure from a magus rank was nothing to joke about but Jason seemed oddly fine as he smiled at his teacher gently. `Did he really emit such a terrifying killing intent just a few seconds ago?` Brian shuddered, and he would have to ask the headteacher of this class about the incident. But even so, he had to approve Jason¡äs combat prowess. Even if he was only at the 8th-Novice rank, he believed with the dense killing intent he emitted, Jason would be able to frighten and surprise even some intermediate-Adept ranks without much combat experience. Wondering how Jason was able to condense such a thick and terrifying killing intent at such a young age, he immediately disregarded his previous opinion about the black-haired youth being a pampered child or even lazy. Looking at Jason, he wondered how terrifying he would become in the future. A few minutes passed and Jason took Scorpio back on his shoulder who watched Jason¡äs battle from the site. When Jason emitted his thick killing intent, Scorpio''s eyes also turned red and he was about to attack Jason¡äs opponent, even if it meant sacrificing his life. Luckily something like that didn¡ät happen and Jason was uninjured thanks to the protective measures from the combat arena. Otherwise, Jason would straight fly into the building walls and break some of his bones. At least that was considered as the best outcome. Every student began to gossip about the spar if one could call it that and it took some time before Instructor Brian had the situation under control. After his surroundings were silent, Brian decided to make teams of two to practice the Weaponry Knight¡äs technique. Because their numbers were not even, Brain also participated in the practice but apparently, nobody wanted to train with him, which left Jason and him alone. He was simple as he gazed into Jason''s eyes, which were filled with kindness, causing Brain to be slightly uncomfortable before he apologized about his mana outburst. "No problem, otherwise you would be dead right now" Jason said calmly, smiling gently and Brain shuttered about the youth¡äs calmness, thinking that the youth in front of him was weird. Never would Brain think that Jason endured thousands of deaths and he was now somehow used to thinking about death. It made even Jason himself uncomfortable. After Brain sent him the guide about the Tier-1 Weaponry Knight technique, he read the Introduction before Brain explained him all kinds of movements. Jason opened his mana eyes and he could perfectly see the flow of mana during the movements, causing his comprehension to soar to another level. After only a few tries, Jason understood the first sequence, and a few hours later his understanding was most likely deeper compared to the majority, which shocked Brain greatly. `A GENIUS!!` He thought and he would have to tell that to the Class teacher too after his lesson ended in order to nurture such a treasure. Even if Brian was only a normal Instructor and not in charge of any particular class, he was still someone who likes seeing someone from lower classes bash the rich and pampered students with a higher starting point. Jason¡äs background or his soul-awakening would have to be bad to enter the 75 class of the worst affiliated school and his mana core rank was also not that great. In the beginning, he thought that Jason¡äs background might still be supporting him and he found only out that Jason was an orphan after their spar. As such he wondered, how far Jason would be able to go in 10 days with his teachings and maybe the responsible teacher. ** It was Friday afternoon, after practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique inside the shuttle, Jason was reading the Weaponry Knight technique diligently. Meanwhile, Instructor Brian told everything that happened to Mr.Greil who got a little bit worried after hearing that Jason condensed one of a more advanced type of killing intent, almost killing Brian. `UGhh¡­ Why was I so stupid?! Can he handle it himself? Probably not if he is in a taxing fight..` But it was at least a good sign that Jason regained his normal demeanor after being hit a single time. `If Jason can control the killing intent, it might as well increase his combat prowess for the upcoming class battles.` Till also heard that Jason was exceptionally talented in his understanding of the Weaponry Knight technique, which didn¡ät really astonish him. Someone with Mana-eyes can easily read the mana flow. As such it''s much easier to learn techniques that involved the circulation of mana. Adding Jason¡äs exceptional comprehension ability and the formed killing intent, Till decided to help Jason out, with the control of Jason¡äs killing intent during the following week, while the other students would continue learning the Tier-1 Weaponry Knight technique. It was only possible for Jason to condense the killing intent because he endured multiple deaths which made Till feel extremely guilty but it could also be seen as an opportunity. Normally, it would take an extremely long time and thousands of arduous battles to condense a simple kind of killing intent. Jason¡äs killing intent was already condensed and extremely terrifying according to Brian, who also condensed a killing intent. Instructor Brian also said that his killing intent could be considered a joke if compared to Jason¡äs. He was also curious and worried about a prodigious student with a high battle talent and comprehension ability. They began to make plans about Jason¡äs progress. In the end, both decided to let Jason continue learning the Weaponry Knight technique in the morning, while the afternoon would be used to understand the killing intent and how to let it emerge and disappear within one¡äs control. Jason was still sitting at home reading through the Weaponry Knight manual and it looked like he could read, understand, and completely comprehend everything much faster compared to a week ago. Thinking back to the time where he refined his brain, Jason shuttered in fear. But even so, right now it looked like it was extremely beneficial. Not only, was his thinking ability much faster, but he could also read and memorize everything within a shorter time compared to before. Jason decided to test out his capacity while reading a few pages of the beastarium. In the end, he figured out that he only had to read the pages two or at most three times in order to completely memorize them. Additionally, a single page could be read within five minutes at most, including the fact, that some special abilities and characteristics were detailed described within these books. This feat alone could already be considered "Insane" and even if Jason was still anxious about the traumata, he received from the pain he endured, he was still alive and received many benefits. This included the continuous passively gathering and refining of mana without having to lift a single finger. Comparing his three-hour actively absorbing and refining of mana, with continuously doing it without doing anything, Jason estimated that absorbing the mana continuously brought him a cultivation speed increasement between three to four times, which was truly insane. When he was at home, Jason also tested how beneficial it would be to include his active mana gathering and absorbing. The result was satisfying and his mana gathering speed increased even more. In the end, Jason concluded that it wouldn¡ät be long until he would reach the same ranks as his classmates. He was extremely happy to have received so many benefits in exchange to endure endless pain. Right now only a small trauma was left, which caused the desire to kill his Instructor today due to the hit he received from him and Jason knew he had to fix that. Even so, Jason was confident that his decision was correct. If he wanted to get stronger, he would need to enhance his mana core rank as soon as possible and increase the strength of his soulbonds. The more time passed, the stronger Jason¡äs desire to reach higher ranks became. Almost every day, he thought about his mother and her getting killed four years ago and once he got stronger, he would question the Cerus family who the mysterious heir was that killed his mother. Once found out, he would do something, even if he was still unsure what¡­ Was the mysterious heir resenting his behavior or still behaving like a pampered child who could kill everyone he or maybe she wanted? Would he kill his mother¡äs murderer or not? But right now Jason couldn''t afford to get distracted. Instructor Brain showed him the first sequences for the Weaponry Knight technique. After reading through the first few hundred pages with a tempestuous speed, he searched for Greg who could spar with him. While Jason searched for Greg, he found Malia and Gabriella preparing dinner and it was only now that Jason noticed, that it was already dinner time. He decided to help out preparing dinner and to wait until dinner was over in order to ask Greg to spar with him. Jason wasn''t much of a talker but that was definitely not the case with Malia and her mother. Previously Jason thought Malia was rather cold but that was only her facade because she was gentle and kind. They talked with each other all the time and it was only when dinner was fully prepared that Mark and Greg came down. Once dinner was over, Jason almost dragged Greg to the courtyard with the combat arena. Normally Greg was titled as battle maniac but somehow it seemed as if Jason was going to dispute his title soon. Greg couldn¡ät accept that and he restricted his strength to the 6th Novice rank only to find out that Jason¡äs mana core reached the 8th Novice rank. "JASON?!!? 8th Novice rank¡­.?" Greg said while his mouth twitched violently¡­. `Wasn''t he just too fast??? Is he cheating??!?!` Chapter 92 - Heavens Hell 2nd Level It was somewhat difficult to explain what happened to Jason¡äs mana core and how he increased it by two levels in such a short amount of time but even more confusing for him was that the Fler¡äs didn¡ät ask him any questions, neither the siblings nor the parents. Unbeknownst to Jason, his teacher called Gabriella and Mark to explain the situation roughly in addition to his request, that they should call him if something were to happen to him. After Gabriella and Mark got to know what happened, they were extremely shocked and worried about Jason. Even Mark was worried about Jason as he grew slowly attached to him, which he would never say out loud. Malia heard her parents talking about Jason and she was even more shocked than her parents, to get to know about his situation, causing her to watch over him when he slept. It was only on Friday, that Mark and Gabriella had an appointment when Jason wrote them that he woke up in the morning and everyone sighed in relief. When he returned home from school everything seemed fine but they got another call from Till talking about his killing intent and the cause of it. The three of them were bewildered and also slightly scared about Jason¡äs health. Nevertheless, when Jason dragged out Greg to the combat grounds, everyone spectated the spar carefully. Jason¡äs teacher told him that it was still unknown when his killing intent would surface. As such, every battle or injury could be the cause and they were not only worried about Jason but also Greg¡äs health. But their worry was needless because the spar between Jason and Greg took place like always. There was only one important difference. Jason was using his daggers mantled with mana to dull them differently than before due to the knowledge about the Weaponry Knight technique imprinted into his refined mind. His whole demeanor changed compared to before and his attacks seemed to be more violent. Jason¡äs set of sequences was somehow different and Greg only noticed that he being overwhelmed over the course of their spar. He couldn''t even fight back on the same rank? This couldn¡ät be accepted and Greg decided to loosen up the restriction from the soulbonds amplification that enhanced his physique almost to the second-Adept rank within a second. His mana core restriction was also loosened up and reached barely the first-Adept rank. Greg¡äs grin was sly and what he said caused everyone to frown "Now it''s fair, right? We have the same mana core rank and both of us get the share of our soulbond...hahaha" He laughed and Jason was now the one being overwhelmed. It was still endurable and Jason was also beginning to grin `Finally` Jason only thought with a bright smile blossoming on his face. Previously it nagged Jason, that Greg restricted his strength so much in order to fight him head-on. He was still overwhelmed all the time but now, without the strength of his reinforced horned bull, Greg would be the one getting overwhelmed while fighting at the same rank. Jason was still unfamiliar with the Weaponry Knight technique, its sequences, and how to perfectly use them. As such his superior control over mana helped him to distribute his mana accurately without thinking much and Jason was able to adapt slowly while Greg pressured him. The mana-consumption of a Tier-1 technique was much more compared to tireless techniques and under normal circumstances, a Novice rank would only be able to use tiered techniques for two minutes at most. But right now more than four minutes passed and only now Jason was about to slow down in using the Weaponry Knight technique because he used up his mana. Greg had also problems providing enough mana for his tiered martial art technique and he could only sustain it because he was replenishing his mana with the passive mana replenishing technique. The only problem Greg had to go through, was that once he focused his mind too much on the mana replenishing process, Jason would immediately use his opening to attack him which distracted his focus greatly, causing his fighting style to become chaotic. In the end, Greg only won the spar because of his superior soulbond that gave him a decent boost for his mana core size and the enormous boost in his physique. This frustrated Greg much more than Jason who was panting heavily because of exhaustion with a radiant smile on his face, as he recalled some flaws during the practice and how to fix them. Jason looked at Greg with gleaming eyes while sweating out of every pore. Greg was frustrated about his fragile concentration during the fight and the smile on Jason¡äs face looked devilish to him, causing goosebumps to spread all over his skin. Even if his eyes only showed ambition and determination Greg had a bad premonition. "Let¡äs replenish our mana and continue!! Please, Greg?!" Jason looked at Greg with puppy eyes and the others who were worried about the two youths'' health, began to chuckle. Greg however frowned, but he couldn¡ät decline Jason pleading. The following week was intense for Jason and a few things happened. Scorpio was eating everything that came between its fangs and grew extremely fast. He reached the length of 13 centimeters and broke through his racial limit without any indicators that the maturing process would stop. Scorpio¡äs third molting happened on Saturday, completing his breakthrough into the four-star wild beast rank. He would now occupy 6 soul energies, while Scorpio strengthened Jason¡äs physical toughness and bone structure, which caused it to reach a physique comparable to a normal 9th Novice. His mana core size was infinitely close to the 9th rank and only a paper-thin space was left between both levels. Jason¡äs soul energy reached 10.3 units after Scorpio broke into the four-stars finally reaching the required amount to practice the second level of the Heaven''s Hell technique. He was only able to reach a soul energy of 10.3 units because Scorpio broke through and with Scorpio¡äs molting, Jason also broke through. Jason had never thought that after breaking into the 8th Novice rank, he would break into the 9th Novice rank so soon, but it was all thanks to the passive mana gathering and refining technique that continuously provided him with mana and absorbed it without doing anything at all. Adding on Jason¡äs determination to reach the 9th Novice rank before the class battles, he actively absorbed mana into his core, increasing his absorption speed even more. Jason had reached the 9th and last level of the Novice rank, which made him quite happy. It hadn''t been long since he started absorbing mana into his core and Jason felt overjoyed that he reached such a `high` rank in the meantime. Breaking into the Adept-rank would probably take a while because the obstacle between the ranks was much harder to overcome than the small hindrances on the 4th and 7th level of each rank. Jason had to gather and absorb the needed amount of mana until he reached the required amount to break through without problems which would take some time as he wanted to prevent the marginal possibility to injure his core due to a lack of mana. His physique was stronger than normal 9th Novice ranks but it was still not enough to overcome the gap between the Novice- and Adept- rank, while his mana core size was a little bit less impressive than his physique. Even so, it was still better than a normal 9th Novice rank with a weaker soulbond or even without one. It was Saturday evening when Jason re-read the second level of the Heaven¡äs Hell technique, also called Helix. From the name, one could almost immediately understand what one had to do but there were still many different kinds of paths one could take to improve the enhancement the soul energy could achieve. The most common way to practice the second level of the Heaven¡äs Hell technique was also the easiest and safest path. One would have to divide the soul energy equally into two parts and intertwine them with each other, forming a firm string that would be slightly thicker than the sole thread one would previously have. As such the pain while piercing and injecting the intertwined thread into the soul world core would be more painful than on the first level. More uncommon ways would be dividing the soul energy thread into more than two parts and intertwining them with each other, but the main problem would be that one would have to be extremely careful and `braid` the threads exactly, without making a mistake. Doing something wrong could be quite harmful to one¡äs soul as the faulty braid would be rejected by the soul world core and one would have to disentangle the whole thing. At the same time, one would need to focus on controlling all divided parts of the soul energy, because soul energy was like an eel squirming around. To hold control over two threads at the same time was already difficult and doing the same thing with multiple threads would require a lot of focus, exquisite control over soul energy, and much practice which would need a long time to acquire. Jason had exquisite control over his soul energy because he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique three times a day for slightly less than 3 months, which was comparable to others practicing it 9 months at the first level. But he wouldn''t be overconfident and just create multiple threads as he wanted to avoid possible pain and minimize it. In the end, Jason divided his soul energy into two equal parts and intertwined them with each other. Jason made the threads paper-thin to avoid pain even more. After he finished braiding the two soul energy threads with each other, he injected them into his pebble-sized soul world core. If he had to estimate the increase in pain, Jason would probably say it was double as painful as the first level but comparing it to the torture he endured slightly more than ten days ago, it was like a mosquito bite. It itched a little bit but that was it, which caused Jason to sigh in relief. The difference between the first and the second level of the Heaven''s Hell technique was almost immediately noticeable. The second level was probably around 50% better, probably slightly more and Jason wondered how much the difference would be with more threads braided together but that would wait until Jason was confident in not making a mistake while braiding. Chapter 93 - Class Jason woke up early in the morning, doing his workout before he washed and changed into the school uniform. It was Monday and today was the first day of the first Class battle. There weren''t many rules for the first-class battles and it was pretty simple. A class battle would consist of three rounds, The first round let the students fight the corresponding number of the opposite class. Once someone was kicked out of the combat arena or unable to continue fighting, it meant this student would be immediately kicked out. One could say it was the first K.O round. Following the first round in the second round, the lower-ranked class would be able to challenge their first opponent, while the third round allowed the higher-ranked class to challenge students. With that, one could prepare many different kinds of tactics in order to win the class battle. It was not only a battle of the physique but also the mind. Teachers wouldn¡ät be allowed to interfere with the class battle¡äs and it was forbidden for them to tell students which opponent they should pick. Learning tactics was important for future hunting sessions because one would probably enter a hunting squad. Communication and a certain degree of overall knowledge were important aspects to hunt in order to survive in the wilderness. Class 75 hadn¡ät learned anything about tactics since they entered high-school but their combat prowess increased by a lot. After the third round finished, the class with the most remaining students within the combat arena left would either stay at its rank if it was challenged or switch the class. Class 75 would fight Class 74 as first. If their class came out victorious, they would become class 74 and their path could continue. However, if class 74 won, the other class could continue its path onwards the other classes, while class 75 would remain exactly the same. While their class was fighting class74, Class 73 would be fighting against class 72, and so on. Each day, 6 classes would fight against each other. Under normal circumstances not many would change in class rankings would occur, with only a few exceptions. Because Class 75 had 25 students more than any other class, it would be unfair once the same rules applied for them as everyone else. With that in mind, 25 students wouldn¡ät be allowed to enter the class ranking. To make it fair the class voted for the students who should participate in each round of the class ranking. Normally one would pick the best 200 students, but not this year There were many irregular students in Class 75 which other classes wouldn¡ät know. Jason for example was one of them. He was number 224 but tied with Leo Heart who was number 4 from their class and his mana core rank increased as one of the only ones during the past few weeks. And not only once nor twice but three at that!! If one added the first day of school, Jason¡äs mana core rank increased by four levels throughout his school life, while others were about to breakthrough after some days. Jason almost defeated a magus ranked instructor while fighting at the same mana core rank and he forced the Instructor to release his restrictions. But he was not the only one who was special in this year''s worst class. Out of the 40 students that finished the hard assignment provided by their teacher, at least half of them were below Nr 150. Many weird students with a bad class ranking but some special features like exceptional soul-awakenings, high amplification, or special soulbonds with some kind of unique affinities existed. There was also one student with an exceptional comprehension that was probably as good as Jason''s or maybe even better. These were mostly special admission students who tended to avoid getting bullied or implicated in quarrels as they choose to stay behind in their ranking. It was more likely that they played low-key but that wouldn¡ät mean they cowered behind their classmates once the class battles would begin. There was also no use in ranking higher in their current class and it was only for show because the resources they received were mostly martial art techniques or time at the mana gathering circle. Higher classes would probably receive potions and other things that had to be distributed according to their rankings. But right now it was still useless to rank higher than their classmates. As such the class decided to let the special cases fight all three rounds while some dejected students who thought they were special got forced to decide whether not to fight at all or to switch with other students. Jason was now Nr.200 in his class ranking for the time being until the class''s battles would be over and he would be able to fight all rounds once he won the first one. He finished his breakfast as he went on his way towards school, while Greg and Malia used their soulbonds to ride to the main school. Inside the shuttle, Jason practiced the most common path Heaven¡äs Hell second level. When he was done, the shuttle arrived at the perfect moment and Jason left it after paying up. He walked inside the arena¡äs first floor where his classmates were already waiting on one side, while Jason could also see around two hundred pairs of eyes scanning them. Activating his mana eyes, Jason was somewhat astonished. Their mana core ranks were roughly the same as theirs. Not many of them had an elemental affinity mixed into their mana, which meant that they had formed a soulbond with a physical beast. This was good news because Jason''s biggest problem in fights were elemental attacks, which he noticed while fighting Leo. He was too easily distracted by his earth spikes and would be easily defeated if he wasn''t paying enough attention. Jason roughly knew who he wanted to fight in the first round which caused him to smile lightly. With his 9th Novice rank and the small increase in strength, he could defeat the low-Adept student that seemed to be the worst out of Class 74¡äs students. The difference between the peak of the Novice rank and the first Adept rank was large, around 30% to 50% but Jason was confident in his own capabilities. Jason could fight Greg head-on if he restricted his strength comparable to Jason¡äs. The only exception was the amplification from their soulbonds. Greg¡äs battle prowess was essential high but he was not the most intelligent in his family, causing Jason to fight with many tricks against Greg. But who would say something against that if they were to fight a life and death battle? Greg had an amazing soulbond which enhanced his physique by almost three levels when he restricted his strength to match Jason¡äs mana core. It was mostly thanks to his soul world¡äs physical amplification. Fighting someone like this head-on wouldn''t be that smart but luckily Greg¡äs speed wasn¡ät highly amplified thanks to the reinforced horned bull¡äs characteristics. He only reached the beginner-Adept rank which was why Jason could fight Greg. It didn''t take long for everyone to gather and the two classes were perfectly divided. Jason found it ridiculous to see that some were even glaring at each other with a competitive spirit. Nobody wanted to lose! Maybe there was a chance to enter the eyes of some higher-up teachers, once their godly combat prowess would be seen. But if they faced reality, not a single teacher with any decent authorities would watch class battles from the lowest classes of the weakest affiliated school. Wouldn''t that be a waste of time? Nobody could answer that and if someone attracted attention with their combat prowess or other capabilities, the headteachers or referees would report it to the higher-ups. Punctual with the school beginning, Mr.Greil walked inside the Arena¡äs first floor with a middle-aged average looking man next to him. Jason activated his mana eyes and noticed that this middle-aged man had only slightly more liquefied mana drops inside his mana core than Instructor Brian, but his mana core size looked even worse than the Instructors one. Class 74¡äs teacher was probably weaker than Instructor Brian which he found quite amusing. When the students saw their respective teachers walking into the large arena hall, everyone stopped talking with each other. Till was the first one to say something: "Today, we are going to have the first-class battle of our first graders. Everyone should be familiar with the rules. If nobody has any questions, we can immediately start!" Class 75 already knew that their teacher was impatient but their opponent was slightly astonished about this. Their teacher was always explaining everything two or three times until even the slow-witted students could understand everything, but Class 75¡äs teacher wouldn''t explain everything multiple times and start right off the bat. Because 200 battles would take place at the same time, they would use training weapons that were dulled and would release some kind of magical neon color to paint the targeted enemy once hit. Once a certain amount of paint was released on one opponent, the arena AI would appoint the combatant as `dead` The color would have a certain mana fluctuation which the AI would detect this fluctuation to determine if one was `seriously` injured, `unable` to continue the fight, or dead and the fight would end immediately. It would be a waste of credits to hire referees as it was easy to see how heavy one was injured by the amount of color released from the weapon and so on. Saving credits was important for everyone and referees were exaggerated for such trivial class battles. Probably only in a week or two when the fights become more interesting, lower-ranked classes would want to watch their peer''s battles in order to accumulate more experience through observations When that happened, the teachers would take place as referees while explaining the mistakes and flaws made during the battles to their own classes. Jason and the others would have to reach these higher-ranked classes first before they could use their own weapons, they were comfortable with. Everyone was ready to start as Jason went to arena 200 that was the furthest away from everyone. Holding two training daggers that were relatively well balanced and ten small knives, one could throw, Jason was ready to fight his opponent. And exactly like he predicted, the student Jason found the weakest was now standing opposite him, slightly hesitating when he entered his fighting stance. The only reason he was hesitating was because of Jason''s eyes that looked somehow cold, as if he was his prey, even if he was confident in defeating his opponent under normal circumstances. After getting to know that Jason was not even an Adept-rank, goosebumps appeared all over the student''s body, even though it was illogical. Jason went into his Weaponry Knight combat stance and waited for the starting signal without looking away from his opponent. "3...2¡­.1..: Start!" When Jason heard the starting signal, he took out a throwing knife in his hand while his opponent overcame himself, deciding to rush at his enemy with his short-sword in his hand, ready to cleave at Jason Chapter 94 - Are We Really So...? They were roughly 30 meters apart from each other and he could already detect flaws in his opponent''s defense? Jason felt dumbfounded, looking at his opponent. He covered his arm with a quarter of his mana to enhance the movement speed and strengthen his throw when five small throwing knives left Jason¡äs hand within two seconds. The first two knives were deflected by the average-looking youth in front of him, while the third hit the hand, holding the shortsword painting it in a neon color. As for the last two knives, one hit Jason¡äs opponent''s abdomen while the other one hit his chest. Jason felt weird seeing that... The whole battle was over before it even began and Jason was more than astonished because he thought his opponent would deflect all knives with ease. But his opponent was apparently not capable to do that and Jason had to stop his charge abruptly as the AI announced his victory. Jason didn¡ät know that since the beginning his opponent was hesitating to fight him, because of his cold and frightening eyes, causing him to lose the fight before it even started. Now Jason had to wait for his classmates to finish their battles as he looked around, only to see that Class 74 seemed to be extremely weak compared to his own class. It was extremely weird because only five minutes later, one could see an astonishing result. Out of 200 battles, Class 75 won 163 battles, which had never happened before. The remaining 37 fights were also not entirely won by Class 74 because the AI announced 11 battles as tied which meant that both students `died` Class 74 had only 26 students left and they looked around as if someone pranked them but there was no hidden camera and their classmates were splattered with neon-colored paint, indicating their `injuries`. Till was only smiling after he saw the result, while the average-looking teacher next to him was more than a little bit shocked. His eyes were widened and it was as if he saw a massacre. Turning Class 75¡äs teacher with astonishment, he asked to himself `Why is their combat prowess so high? Almost all of them seemed to train similar martial art techniques but it can¡ät be a Tiered technique already, can it? Aren''t we supposed to teach them these techniques in the second half of the year????` The average looking teacher stared at Till as if he was a traitor and Till returned the gaze with a simple "I didn''t cheat!" as if he read one''s mind. Thinking for a moment, it was really not cheating. The classes were supposed to learn tiered martial art techniques after half a year, but one was allowed to do it earlier. But that was not everything. Even if Class 75 learned a tiered martial art technique, his class should not lose so miserable. They were more than overwhelmed¡­.that was not a battle but a slaughter. What neither Jason nor the average-looking teacher knew was the pressure he gave off on their first day while fighting Leo Heart caused all students to give their best during the last two weeks. The students that were still slagging of changed their mind when Jason almost killed Instructor Brian, as they sensed Jason¡äs killing intent. This caused them to feel like they were suffocating seemingly supposed to be the next one to die. Combined with the assignment outside the city, all students of Class 75 came to the conclusion that they had to become stronger. To achieve that they would also need resources like more time within mana gathering circle or elemental stones to improve their proficiency with an affinity if they had one. Giving 150% during the last two weeks, everyone''s achievements were great, and unbeknownst to Jason, they worked hard to ascend into higher classes. Previously they were ridiculed and some of them even bullied because they¡äve entered the worst class. Not now they wouldn''t back off and fight with their sheer will if needed as Jason did. Other classes accepted their low rank and played according to the rules of the top few classes but why should they accept that? Their will was firm and they wanted to receive not only better resources but also recognition from the surroundings. Jason didn''t fight in the second round as the first 26 ranks fought it and unsurprisingly they crushed everything as their opponent''s will to win was completely shattered. Everyone was more than a little bit astonished about the whole course of battles. Class 75 was astonished about their strength or rather how weak their opponents were, while Class 74¡äs students or now demoted to Class 75 felt demotivated about being crushed so easily. The whole progress didn''t take longer than 25 minutes, including the replenishing of mana. Their teacher took out an emblem with the number 75 out of the pocket and pressed it into the empty hands of the average-looking teacher whose eyes resembled a lost soul. "Where is my emblem?" This threw the black-haired teacher completely from his chair as he shuttered slightly while taking an emblem with the number 74 out of the storage device. While handing out the emblem, he was lamenting about his bad teaching `If I had only taught my students a tiered martial art technique and not so much about tactics...ARGHHH` But even if the former 74th class had learned the same technique as them, Till wondered if they were as good as his students, who gave 150% after witnessing Jason¡äs strength and the brute strength and cruelty of beasts in the wilderness. A single-stage was already too much for most students to overcome and his assignment with defeating beasts two stages above one''s rank pushed them to their limits if not through! The new 75th Class rushed out of the arena, as their teacher was way too embarrassed to face the ridicule from the opposite class. Only five minutes later the whole floor was only occupied by the newly advanced 74th Class. Suddenly the first few students began to cheer out loud and the other students joined them joyously. Even Jason smiled while he remained silent. Till was watching everything from the site and he didn''t say anything about their cheering because they deserved it. It wouldn''t take long for them to get accustomed to their wins, as he believed in them and he almost forgot the reason why they were on Astrix, as he looked at his students. Being reminded about his Task, Till didn¡ät know how to feel as Jason could feel a sudden but almost not sensible disturbance behind him. The mana fluctuations were disturbed for a second and Jason turned around, only to see his teacher¡äs complex facial expression as he wondered what was going on. After five minutes passed, everyone was silent, as Till snapped with his fingers. Everyone had a trauma about their teachers snapping and it worked fine without mana enhancing the effect. "Everyone did a great job, but we are still far from achieving our goal, RIGHT?" He stopped for a second before everyone roared "YES" "There is still at least an hour left until the other classes finish their battle and replenished their mana. Let''s not waste our time and pick out the flaws I saw during the fights! Aren''t you guys embarrassed to still make so many mistakes with such a simple technique?? Not a single one reached the basic mastery except Jason and Seron. Don''t even dare to think that I couldn''t see the mistakes everyone did¡­.It''s a wonder that you guys won this battle!" Everyone thought they did a good job and after getting praised it was obvious for them that there was nothing bad to say but that was not the case. That praise was only a facade! `Are we really so bad?` But before they could begin to lament, they were matched up against each other while Till individually picked out one student at a time to fix his flaws. Jason wanted to improve his mastery over the Weaponry Knight technique, as such, he decided to take on Seron as his opponent. Seron Gier was at the 2nd Adept rank while his soul was only slightly bigger than common Adept ranks with amplification of more than one rank. This meant his soulbond was rather weak which caused Jason to have sympathy with him. Seron¡äs accomplishment with the Weaponry Knight technique was almost as well as his own mastery while Seron couldn''t see the mana flow and copy that. In the end, Jason had to accept that Seron¡äs comprehension ability was stronger than his own, which wondered him because his mind was enhanced a few times after he refined his brain. Jason wondered how that could be and another thing was weird about Seron. Seron¡äs mana was transmuted and different from normal mana, but Jason couldn''t detect what kind of affinity or ability it was that Seron received. This made Jason curious and he questioned himself, what kind of background Seron had because his clothes, accessories, and weapons were extremely expensive as Jason¡äs mana eyes detected that Seron owned a Soul-weapon. It was the first time for Jason to see a soul-thread from someone else but when Seron took out his weapon for the first time, he was extremely shocked as if he was hit by a bolt of lightning. A thread connecting both Seron and the longsword could be seen with his mana eyes, even if it was relatively thin and Jason became curious. Nobody else knew about this and his classmates probably thought Seron only owned an exquisite weapon but he knew the truth. Well maybe his teacher knew about it because he almost knew everything, but Jason couldn¡ät be sure about that. After Jason got to know that Seron had a soul-weapon, he concluded that his soulbond would probably not be a common one and also special. When that thought came into his mind, he pondered for a long time before questioning himself, if it was possible for soulbonds to enhance one''s brain, which could be answered with a definite YES. Why shouldn''t it be possible, if everything else could be amplified by soulbonds? Chapter 95 - Did He Just Copy Me? The former 75th Class was extremely disappointed in their opponents because they crushed all classes until the 70th with ease and the previous cheerful atmosphere was kinda weird. There wasn¡ät even astonishment anymore, only disappointment as they asked themselves if these class battles were only there in order for them to improve there to fix all of their flaws in the Weaponry Knight technique or seriously held for all classes to be more motivated and competitive. Jason fought more than three hours with Seron and improved his mastery extremely fast, while he was getting slightly overwhelmed by his opponent with his impressive movement sequences. The only thing he was able to do was to defend while retreating and at the same time, Jason could only search for openings with his mana eyes glued on Seron¡äs legs in order to comprehend what kind of technique he was using. After three hours, Jason had imprinted Seron¡äs mana usage into his brain, but he was neither sure what kind of technique Seron was using nor if he could copy this technique without reading the suitable manual. He was still looking relative fine, even if sweat poured down his back, but Seron looked at Jason as if he was seeing a demon¡­ `How can he keep up with me?.....WAIT! Is he also here for Master? No..that can¡ät be the reason..` While Seron and Jason¡äs mastery over the Weaponry Knight technique increased due to the pressure they gave each other, the other students were rather bored after training the Weaponry Knight technique for three hours straight while less than 20 were still determined to find their flaws. After crushing class 70, they achieved the rights to challenge class 69, but most students were not as cheerful as before. `Will we practice our technique for the whole week once again??` They already practiced the same technique for a week and now they should do the same, over and over again? Noo!!! Unfortunately, they missed an important fact. There has never been a master falling from the sky without putting in an effort. If they were not strong-willed enough to train a technique for two weeks straight, they could also quit learning how to fight seriously. Days passed and other than practicing his Heaven¡äs Hell technique, Jason battled against some weak-willed students, that had all heard about the famous 75th Class crushing all classes with ease. Jason would rather spar with Seron and copy his movement technique than defeating the lowest-ranked member of all classes. The only astonishing fact was that many classmates were achieving the basic mastery of the Weaponry Knight technique after tempering themself and carefully listening to their teachers'' advice. Other than practicing the Weaponry Knight technique, the 40 students that received tier-2 and tier-3 techniques from Mr.Greil practiced them in the meantime. Seeing these students training their techniques, the surrounding students looked at their classmates enviously, as the sheer might of these techniques demolished training dolls easily. Unfortunately higher tier techniques would take a toll on one¡äs body, as the required mana and body constitution were extremely high. They could at most form one attack following the technique description, either with their weapon or mana affinity. A certain girl that picked the advanced mana manipulation manual, which was a tier-3 grade technique, created a tidal wave during one of her battles, gushing the perplexed student out of the combat ring. After that spell, she was extremely exhausted but that didn''t matter as she won her round. He and Seron tempered each other and they got somewhat of friends, probably Fighting with each other for more than three hours on a daily basis told one many information while the personality could be easily found out during sparring for such a long time. While Jason knew that Seron was hiding someone, he seemed like a nice guy and Seron also liked Jason which caused them to become sparring partners. Unfortunately for Jason was, however, that Seron reached the 3rd Adept rank and could now overwhelm Jason more easily as the pressure he had to endure during their battles increased exceptionally which was also somewhat beneficial for Jason. Diamonds can only be polished under high pressure!!! It was only on Friday after they were promoted to class 55th, that the first big hurdles began to appear. The gap of mana core ranks increased by a lot, while their opponents had better soulbonds, indicating a higher amplification. Class 54 for example were their first hurdle with most students at the 3rd and some of the 4th Adept ranks were one to two ranks above their own average strength. Jason with his mana eyes activated could still easily defeat the weakest of each respective class but the second and third rounds were always more taxing. The battles became closer and it was more difficult to tell who would win while Till wondered how long they could continue their offensive after they charged through the 60th Class, which already astounded him. Increasing one''s combat prowess comparable to almost classes 20 ranks higher in a single month was definitely not easy but the ambition and determination his students showed, amazed him and he would definitely remember that. Jason had some memorable fights. One of them was against a wind affinity user that enhanced his speed, which was normally Jason¡äs best advantage. His opponent was a 3-Adept rank with an amplification for agility and a wind affinity which further provided him with an additional boost in speed. Jason couldn''t even throw his knives as they were immediately deflected by wind bullets. His Weaponry Knight mastery was already close to the familiar mastery thanks to Seron but it was not really helpful in this kind of situation Jason was in as his speed was just too low to reach his opponent. After defending for some time, Jason decided to try copying Seron¡äs technique, even if it was dangerous. That didn''t matter to Jason, because he hated losing more than anything else. As such he copied Seron¡äs movement technique, which he had imprinted into his mind after fighting with Seron for four days. Jason¡äs opponent suddenly noticed that he was becoming slower...NO? Jason¡äs speed increased and not only by a tiny bit. Using half of his remaining mana, which would constantly be replenished, Jason exerted Seron¡äs movement technique. His speed increased by almost 20% and after further increasing his lower body with mana in order to prevent sustaining any injuries, Jason decided to use every last mana particle inside him in order to follow the mana circulation of his copied movement technique. Jason¡äs speed further increased by 20% and he could barely fight head-on with his opponent because he was overwhelmed by the sudden increase of speed. It was still noticeable that Jason was slower, but his superior close combat technique overwhelmed the perplexed, and stupified wind ability user, as Jason bent down only to jump to the front in order to injure the wind users leg, When Jason¡äs opponent looked down, a projectile hit his chin, forcefully pushing his head back. A throwing knife hit him at the most unexpected moment, shocking him. Seron already finished his fight and decided to spectate Jason¡äs fierce fight as he noticed his sudden increase in speed. Somehow the technique Jason exerted seemed way too familiar to him as Jason poured his whole mana pool inside the skill, Seron cried out. "WHAT?!" before he quieted down immediately in order to not attract too much attention. Normally Seron was rather low-key and quiet so his scream still attracted some attention as the surrounding students looked at him before they saw that Jason won his fight unexpectedly. Even Till was astonished about Jason¡äs sudden boost in speed as he couldn¡ät remember that to have seen him learning or exerting a tiered movement skill. Jason was one of the last ones to finish his battle and Till spectated his whole battle. Over the whole course of the spar, it was obvious that Jason was on the losing side, even if he gave his everything but the sudden usage of a tiered movement skill shocked not only his opponent who was taken by surprise but also him even. And even more so, as he was more than a little bit familiar with this technique, as his eyes widened. The only thing he could sense was Seron screaming out and that Jason wasn¡ät able to use the whole potential of this technique, Looking at Seron, many different kinds of emotions and thoughts appeared in his mind but focusing on the present circumstances it was obvious that Seron was extremely shocked while looking at Jason. Seron was unable to think clearly and the thought that Jason could have copied his technique caused him to shudder violently. `Did he just copy me?`He thought desperately while thinking about the low possibility when a sudden memory reappeared in his mind `Didn¡ät Master say that Jason has mana eyes? Has he copied the flow of mana over the last few days? Is that even possible?` Thousands of thoughts ran through his mind but there was a simple solution for Seron to figure out whether Jason copied him or not. `Just ask him!!` He told himself and Jason was slowly walking out of the combat arena when Seron could see Jason¡äs pale face. "Jason! Are you okay?" Seron asked worriedly... he himself had trained his movement skill for multiple months until he reached his recent velocity, not even Jason was aware of. Jason was just forceful using the movement technique without any real understanding, which was quite dangerous. Till noticed Jaso¡äs condition and appeared in front of both students while taking out a low-grade energy replenishing reagent from his spatial storage. Pouring the content into Jason¡äs mouth, he immediately felt better. Jason could stand up again but he still felt exhausted as his body grumbled like he was starving for weeks. "Your body used up your stored nutrition to regenerate the life force it converted from the lack of mana. Don''t use techniques you don''t know, idiot!" Mr.Greil explained. After that, Jason starved down some food he had in his storage space while Seron was scanning his body for the whole time. Jason was embarrassed as he asked what''s going on when Seron almost exploded "Did you copy the floating sky movement technique?" Seron asked curiously and involuntarily he said the name of his movement technique, which he wasn''t supposed to do. "Ahh, that''s the name.. Sorry Seron..hehe... I didn''t know how to win otherwise." Chapter 96 - Master "Ahh, that''s the name.. Sorry Seron..hehe... I didn''t know how to win otherwise." That was a lie, but he couldn''t tell Seron that he was too scared to use his killing intent, which was still not easy to control. That was a matter of his pride, even if he didn¡ät have much. Seron looked suspicious at Jason and wondered how much of his families¡ä treasured Floating sky movement technique, he copied. Thinking back on the time he fought Jason, Seron concluded that he only made use of the most basic level of the floating sky technique without trying his utmost with it. Sighing in relief, he couldn¡ät help but jolt, thinking about the possibility of Jason copying more than that. Once his brother or even worse his father found out, it would be horrifying. Looking at Jason, who was still slightly with serious eyes, he had to do something. "Jason, I think we have to talk about the last battle and your ability to copy techniques by looking at the mana circulation." Till was still standing next to them and nodded his head while seriously looking at both of them. If Jason just copied every technique he wanted to, it could be extremely dangerous for his own health. But that was not everything, if he copied techniques from big clans, guilds, families, sects, kingdoms, and multiple other monstrous organizations, it was more likely that Jason would be killed in the future before he could grow. Who would give a stranger the most treasured techniques a family had which they only gave their most promising offspring or disciples as copying them was not easy with the secret inscription inside the manuals. These inscriptions had hidden meanings inside them in order to enlighten the reader. Nobody! and listening to Seron, Till was sure that Jason copied the special movement skill floating sky, even if it was rough and only in the pre-origin state. Before they continued their talk, they went to a separate room, while the others replenished their mana for the next Class battle. Till lectured Jason for quite some time and Seron tried persuading him to not use the floating sky skill anymore. But something seemed suspicious to Jason when TIll and Seron talked to him¡­ It seemed like both knew each other for longer than one month because Till explained things about the floating sky technique and its uniqueness in order to show him how dangerous it would be to continue learning it. Because the technique was so unique, Jason would like to learn it more in-depth but from Till¡äs explanation, it seemed like it was really dangerous. If this technique had similarities to other skills, Jason would have continued learning it, because he would still be able to say, he comprehended the additional sequences by himself. Till knew almost everything about the Floating sky movement technique and Jason was growing more and more suspicious. In the end, he accepted the fact that he was not allowed to use the floating sky skill, but Jason grew more curious about their relationship as he asked. "Are you two acquaintances?" Jason straightforwardly asked. While Till was about to create a story to cover the truth, Seron was only 14-years-old and still green behind his ears and acted naively in front of Jason "Yes, he is my master!" Seron acknowledged and before he looked at his master. Till was shocked about Seron¡äs naivety¡­. `Did I teach him wrong?` and upon seeing Till¡äs facial expression, Seron noticed that he did something wrong and an "Ohh" escaped his mouth. Jason only looked at Seron and then his teacher. He was only slightly astonished about this revelation because he concluded something similar, but it was still different than he had thought before. He was an emotional youth before but when it was important his rationality dominated his mind. Since he had refined his mind and overcome the torture from the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit, his train of thoughts had become much clearer and less emotional which helped him a lot. "Why are you two even here on Astrix? Shouldn¡ät Canir have a better environment to refine and absorb mana in order to increase one''s mana core according to the mana density? Both of you are not hiding from someone and openly showing off your soul weapon and hundreds of martial art skills, whether they are unique, special, or tier-3¡­ It doesn''t make sense that nobody is wondering about both of you, except me¡­." When Jason said soul-weapon both, Seron and his master were astonished because they hadn''t thought that he would be able to differentiate a normal graded sword from a soul-weapon, which was not easy. And wouldn''t most people think that rather than a soul- weapon, one would have a mana-weapon? The difference between normal graded weapons and mana weapons was the enhancement in sharpness, toughness, and some particular even had an amplification in elemental attacks. If one attacked an evolved beast with a grade-1 sword, this weapon would most likely break or if one was lucky get repelled. A low-grade-1 mana weapon would still be able to pierce through the defense of evolved beasts. With a wand, which was also a mana weapon, elemental attacks could be enhanced and a simple fireball, for example, could double in its might, once the wielder applied everything correctly. While mana weapons were already special, soul weapons were the same as mana-weapons with the addition of the connection with the wielder and the adjustment in strength. As such the wielder could handle the impact and mana consumption, while the soul-weapon would grow with its contractor. Soul weapons could not be used by other people, because these weapons were crafted and forged with the contractor¡äs soul in them. Not even reforging would extinguish the connection between both of them. Mana and soul weapons couldn¡ät be easily distinguished and it took many experts multiple years of arduous afford to learn certain eyesight techniques in order to be able to distinguish between both. As such, Till immediately adjusted his previous statement about Jason¡äs mana eyes in his mind, while Seron was looking at him with widened eyes and an opened jaw. This time, Till was the one to answer Jason¡äs question. He wouldn¡ät omit or skip many facts because he wanted to tell Jason about it even if he wouldn''t ask. He was curious about Jason, which was also the reason he helped him out with the Splitting mind technique. Maybe Jason could participate in his mission if he wanted. He was slightly clueless about how to begin so Till just started "How do I begin¡­? First of all, you are right about everything you said. We are not hiding and to be honest, both of us are Canir¡äs citizens and not from Astrix which you already figured out. I''m curious how you found out about Seron''s soul weapon but that''s not very important. There are multiple reasons we are here but it''s mainly for Seron to see how humans live within the Archipelago and the difference of strengths all around humanity''s territory. Compared to the citizens of Canir, the strength one can see here is almost laughable and humans have not suffered mana beast outbreaks, yet. That''s mainly because of the weak beasts we have here and Guardian-ranked beasts are already considered the stronger foes, which is a joke on Canir and the other mainlands. If a single powerhouse would enter the forbidden areas here, they could easily annihilate these foes and prevent Guardian-ranked beasts to appear, but why is nobody doing that? I don¡ät know if you care about that, but I want to enlighten you. The answer is simple... Guardian-ranked beasts are guarding magical treasures, which need multiple years in order to grow. Once these treasures are ripe these powerhouses come over to pluck them. Guardian-ranked beasts could be labeled as workers for these powerhouses, protecting these treasures until the stronger individuals come back to pluck them. As you may know, the strongest humans on Astrix are at the Grandmagus rank and only a few tens of thousand at that. Most Grandmagus on Astrix or the Archipelagos are old and one could say they¡äre retired. Youths with enough potential won''t stay on the small Islands, which are only used to exploit everyone. The gap between the future development of someone within the Archipelagos compared to citizens on Canir is vast. There are only a few things Canir and the Islands have in common. First, our origin is the same and we are all from the same race. Second, we all have the same enemies, which are the invading intelligent races and the beasts all over the wilderness, and third, every human underwent a soul-awakening and it''s still not known how to influence these awakenings in order to improve them. The awakening of a soul is not discriminating about humans origins, while the chances are only slightly higher to awaken better souls if one is from a great background, which might not even be true.... As for our mission "WAIT!!" Jason interrupted Till and upon looking into Jason¡äs eyes, which looked cold, he noticed that something was wrong. "You want me to say that millions of people have to die and suffer because some powerhouses want to keep their treasures for themself? Are they even humans? Why don''t they just clear a few islands for all humans, foster and fertilize some other islands to play gardener or something like that? Why do the weak have to suffer like that? Where is their humanity and kindness?" Luckily they were in a separate room, while Seron shuttered in fear, Till looked astonished at Jason¡äs condensed killing intent outbreak. `He really hates the rule of the jungle that much?` Till was raised up by loving families and the only time he really suffered was when he ate the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit while this memory was still imprinted into his mind. Seron was already familiar with some feeble killing intent, released from his master to show him how killing intent feels like, that he won''t be scared once he fought with bloodthirsty beasts or other human bandits. However, the killing intent Jason released was multiple times stronger and more condensed compared to the most basic killing-intent, his master demonstrated him. Taking a few steps back, cold sweat poured down his back as he fell on his but, while his eyes trembled. `Is that really Jason?¡ä Chapter 97 - Truth `Is that really Jason?` was the only thought in Serons mind, while he pulled himself further away from him. Jason¡äs golden eyes were ice cold and it felt like they were penetrating every pore inside his body as Till snapped with his mana enveloped fingers to distract Jason and Seron. "Jason calm down... It''s not like we are the perpetrator, right?" This single sentence calmed him down but he wanted to protest about this statement, as he knew that Till could kill Guardian-ranked beasts when Till answered his unspoken question. "What do you think happens, if I kill these Guardian-ranked beasts? I¡äm not suicidal, you know? Once I kill the protectors of the developing magical treasure, I¡äll be hunted for good. The Islands are somehow similar to the garden of some big families and they divided them amongst each other. You said you want to clear a few islands... Which one do you want to clear and what about the magical treasures on the other islands? Who receives what? What about the newly developing lush islands? Do the big families have to divide their own island after some samaritan offered their island for humans to live on? I can see that you hate the weak being used in order to strengthen the strong, but with your strength, you can''t do anything against it, even if you want. Even I am too weak, to fight against these big families, which is the sad truth. These families survived the mana outbreak and some of the ancestors are still alive. I¡äm 56 years old and my mana refinement and absorbing talent can be considered pretty good, but these old gramps and hags lived for 300 years¡­ Even if their aptitude is worse than mine, don¡ät you think they have some tricks hidden in their sleeves?" "To tell you the truth, I don''t really like how these big families treat people from the `lower` society, even if it is only a single noble rank. They even divided Canir according to their strength and almost everything is distributed by them, which is kinda gross. But don¡ät get me wrong¡­ not every big family, clan, sect, and so on is bad. You can tell from Astrix, that even if the hierarchy is horizontal and unfair, other Islands have it worse or even better. Belgra for example is one of the bigger islands with 400 million citizens and they have divided their island into 5 parts. While 2 parts are solely used for humans, it allows beasts below the unblemished rank to stay within their borders. It is relatively peaceful as pacifistic humans begin conversing with more intelligent beasts. Maybe they threatened them with their annihilation but it is nevertheless relatively peaceful in these 2 particular parts. While the remaining sections are still infested from beasts, there is still a better environment for humans, because only hunters, military, and trainees enter these three sections. One section has only beasts below the magical rank and the other two are infested by all kinds of beasts. The previously named peaceful parts are used for humans that don¡ät like to fight and try to live in harmony with others. They want to work hard to produce all kinds of devices, garments, equipment for hunters and so on rather than risking their lives to fight with beasts." Till looked extremely proud when he said all of that and a premonition emerged in Jason¡äs mind "Belgra belongs to your family, right?" Jason questioned with slight hesitation. Seron calmed down and looked at Jason fearfully, not knowing what to do, while Till¡äs proud expression vanished. He cleared his throat slightly embarrassed as he said "That''s partially true. The Greil and Gier family govern Belgra together and it was only because we are two large families with more peaceful thought than others, that we achieved peace within two parts on Belgra" Jason found out many information at once and he finally understood why Seron was so different compared to all of his other classmates. Furthermore, he figured out, why Till was so strong. Looking at Seron, he asked, "You didn''t fight me with your full strength, right?" Jason concluded this but there was still a ray of hope, that he was wrong. Seron was still scared about Jason¡äs previous killing-intent outbreak but upon looking into Jason¡äs eyes, his fear vanished and he only nodded his head after a short moment. "Damn" Jason cursed and Till roughly understood what youth in front of him meant. "To be honest, your combat prowess is above average but only if you look at Astrix¡äs common average and your current mana core rank. You¡äve already noticed during today¡äs battle, that you were completely overwhelmed, and only thanks to your exceptional observance and your ability to copy the floating sky technique allowed you to surprise your opponent. Considering your peers in Cyro city, your strength is barely average which includes only the students who go to high-school. I excluded heirs with home tutoring and so on because you¡äre probably unable to even hit them once, as they reached the expert stage with the help of certain magical plants and reagents, while only being slightly older than you." When he heard Till lecturing him about the average strength of Astrix alone, Jason frowned. He knew that his soulbonds were weak and his mana core rank was also below average in Cyro-city, but his combat prowess? He found himself pretty good considering the small number of techniques he had... Suddenly a thought emerged from his mind! "Mr. Greil! If I learn more martial art techniques similar to the floating sky movement technique, I can increase my combat prowess by a huge margin, right?" "Well only increasing the variety of your martial art techniques won¡ät be enough because your innate strength is too weak with the peak of the Novice rank at the age of 14... Considering, that I saw your aptitude for mana absorption multiple times, I can''t figure out why your mana core rank is still so low." Jason was a little bit dejected after finding out again that he was still weak, even if his strength increased by a lot when he was reminded that his teacher hadn¡ät told him the purpose of coming to the 6th affiliated Vanguard school on Astrix island. "Mr.Greil you wanted to tell me, why you and Seron came here on Astrix or rather Cyro-city!" Till had to think for a moment, what exactly to reply because he didn''t want to utter any secrets. Looking at Seron, he received a look, saying something like `I don¡ät mind`, as he started. "We have multiple reasons to come to Astrix and they have something to do with Cryo-city and Seron. I¡äm not sure how much I should tell you, but we will capture Seron¡äs second soulbond here, as soon as the time comes. The beast we are searching for is rare and only gives birth to offspring every few years but it is important to get this beast due to certain circumstances. Previously you said that the mana density should be much higher on Canir, but that''s only partially true. It¡äs rare to find such a stainless mana vein somewhere and outside the dome, the mana density is still roughly the same as on Canir. If you look at Seron, you might think it''s a lie, because of his low mana core rank, but he has his own reasons. Furthermore, I also wanted to teach a class once in my life and experiment, how fast I can improve the combat prowess of the worst class in the worst affiliated school...I was just curious hehe" Jason concluded that their main task was to wait for Seron¡äs second soulbond to be born as he nodded his head. Once that was over they would leave. Listening to the last part, Jason wondered if his teacher was really 56 years old or a child. Till decided to become a teacher, just because he wanted to and additionally he gave out extremely rare techniques only because he was curious? Weird!! Jason could roughly comprehend why Seron¡äs mana core was so weak compared to the average strength of Canir citizens¡­ After Jason looked at Seron¡äs mana core, he also had a good view on his constitution, which surprised him, as Seron¡äs mana channels seemed different than they should have. The transmuted mana in Seron, was straightening and smoothing the twisted and crumbled mana channels. As such, Jason thought that Seron formed a contract with a unique soulbond which were capable of healing damaged mana channels. That also meant Seron was only able to use mana after he contracted his first soulbond. Seron remained silent after Till said that he had his own reasons for his mana core rank but Jason could see the frustration in his eyes. He understood this frustration as his family was probably not happy about Seron¡äs mana channels which seemed to be almost crippled. He wasn''t sure if Seron had siblings, but even his peers were probably similar to bullies after noticing that they were stronger than him. But how should Jason know something like that as he wasn¡ät sure how competitive big clans were amongst each other. Seron hadn''t told him anything and Jason didn''t mind that either. He was only an acquaintance or maybe even a sparring partner to Seron but not someone, he knew for years. Trust had to be earned throughout a long friendship or important events, that showed one¡äs sincerety Chapter 98 - Final Placement During their talk, Jason found out that the two of them would only stay on Astrix until Seron¡äs second soulbond would hatch, which was roughly 4-6 months from now. Until then, both of them would stay in Cyro-City and play teacher and student, while Seron would improve his strength and mana core rank. Mr.Greil would most likely just continue playing teacher, because he asked Jason to keep their identity a secret. Jason didn''t mind that and getting to know how long the two of them would stay on Astrix gave him the chance to receive more benefits from them. Considering the fact that he already got a unique skill that was more difficult to obtain than most tier-3 techniques and equivalent to Blessed Skills without much effort made Jason expectant. The fact that Mr.Greil gave him resources worth multiple hundred star-notes was neglected by Jason because he had to endure 60 hours of pure torture which felt like years to him. It was not like he liked holding grudges but he saw the cultivation resources he received from his teacher to perform the first level of the splitting mind technique as compensation for the torture he endured because Mr.Greil informed him wrongly. Maybe this mindset was wrong, but there was nothing he could do against it. He was not an exceptional greedy person but after figuring out how important movement techniques were, he was obsessed with the thought of obtaining such a technique. "Teacher! Is there a way for me to receive tiered skills for movement, defense, attack, support, and so on without achieving a certain number of human glory points? I heard that schools give out missions and reward students with merit points. I think they''re called [Lace point] for the Vanguard-school... How can we obtain them? I need a movement technique as soon as possible to improve my strength!" Jason licked blood and he wanted to get stronger! Who cared about the big families with their wealth and prodigies from great backgrounds? He didn¡ät and the only thing he wanted was to get stronger in order to live free without anyone obstructing him. Furthermore, there was the hunch, that he might even be able to change something about humanity''s current obnoxious society, that disgusted him. While Jason was deep in thoughts, his teacher answered him, causing him to come back to his senses. "Ohh.I probably forgot to tell everyone that each promoted class rank will give you guys 2 lace points while each win after a streak of 10 will give out 5 lace points. Because you guys won against Class 54 which is 21 wins a row, 75 lace points will be added to your school profile. Lace points can be exchanged with credits, while one Lace point is worth around 20.000 Credits, but I don''t recommend you change them. You can¡ät change credits into Lace points and in my opinion they are worth much more, if you take a look at the school shop later." Sighing, their teacher added "It''s already a wonder that you guys came so far, but I think Class 53 will end the first-class battle for us. Class 53 has some quite unique students, while their teacher is sly. Nevertheless, everyone astonished me and it changed my view on Astrix top schools, quite a bit." Getting to know that they already obtained some lace points and Jason was quite pleased. Maybe he would be able to purchase a movement technique soon. It was now time for the three of them to leave because their battle against Class 53 would start soon. When Jason went into the combat arena, he could already see Class 53 with their teacher and the sight was quite shocking. Out of 200 students, more than half of them looked like bulldozers to Jason. Their sheer muscle mass was excessive and they didn''t look like bodybuilders but rather mountains of muscles. Jason questioned himself if they consumed steroids or other drugs to pump their muscles. Looking at their mana core, he was astonished to see, that their mana core was only at the 1st or 2nd Adept rank, while the size was slightly larger, probably between the 2nd and 3rd Adept rank, while there was no transmuted mana, which indicated that they formed a soulbond with a physical beast. Physical enhancing beasts amplify mana not as much as other beasts and seeing that their mana core size was two ranks above their initial rank, indicated that all of them formed contracts with evolved beasts. Their strength was probably the same strength as Greg¡äs with his reinforced horned bull. This shocked Jason but he wasn''t the only one because his classmates were looking at the 1.8+ meter tall human bulldozers like they were monsters. He wondered how so many of the same kind could be together in a class and it was only later that he found out that initially these large groups of bulky youths were placed in different classes. However, the teacher listened to their pleading and placed them together. All of these bulky youths came from the same city and it was rare to see so many youths from the same school having roughly the same amount of soul energy. To add another odd fact, they formed a contract with the exact same beast, that was a fierce mountain ape, an intermediate evolved beast. Apes are considered the perfect beasts to share physical strength because they enhance every body-part, while other beasts focus their amplification on a certain area and Jason immediately got a bad premonition. The battles started and the bulldozer youth¡äs eyes turned red as they entered some kind of berserk state, which was apparently an ability they inherited from their soulbond. It didn''t take long for Jason¡äs classmates to be defeated while only 90+ students were left standing after a single minute. Meanwhile, Jason fought with a water affinity user, that seemed to act rather defensively with a small shield around her. Sometimes she shot water bullets, but their strength was rather weak. Thanks to Jason¡äs exceptional eyesight he could avoid them very easily without much effort. Jason wasn''t concerned about his mana consumption while he pressured the female water practitioner whose mana core was extremely large compared to her physical strength. It wasn¡ät rare to see someone utilizing the passive mana replenishing technique and Jason was aware of that fact. As such he pressured his opponent even more and she had to concentrate on the fight against Jason fully in order to prevent getting overwhelmed within a second. Losing focus for a short moment would decide over victory and lose, which the water practitioner noticed after fighting Jason for a short time. Throwing knives would be easily deflected by a thin water-shield but she didn¡ät calculate her mana consumption into account which was a big mistake. After Jason threw all of his knives, he was already at advantage. He used a quarter of his mana to enhance his lower body and circled around her while stabbing and slashing with various angles and different velocities. Jason could have ended the battle sooner but he acted to save when the female water user could not continue fighting after four minutes passed. Coming out victorious, he left the combat arena, only to see that only slightly more than 40 classmates were left `alive`. Because they could decide who to fight, Jason looked around to find some weaker students of class 53 and he found another water user with a 2nd Adept mana core rank while its size seemed slightly smaller compared to his previous opponent. The female water user probably contracted a `better` soulbond which amplified more of her mana core size. While fighting, Jason found out that his opponent was not playing defensive while operating his water, rather he attacked Jason frontally, with an axe in his hand. Jason sneered, thinking about the stupidity of some students. `Fighting a daggers-wielder with a heavy axe? Okay¡­` Jason smiled on the inside as he predicted that the water affinity user would most likely try to prevent him from avoiding the axe with water bullets or some thin walls. WIthout many surprises, Jason¡äs prediction was correct, as a thin water wall erupted next to him, while he was a frontal attack from two water-bullet. His opponent was already about to turn to the left side, where he predicted Jason to jump to while pulling his axe back, as Jason did the exact opposite. The water wall next to him was roughly two or three centimeters thick and not even stable enough to block frontal attacks... It was only a bluff to pressure him and force Jason to make a sudden decision, causing him to jump straight into the attacking axe-wielder. But Jason was aware of his opponent''s scheme and additionally, that he most likely used up roughly half of his mana in order to erupt the water wall and shot 2 water bullets at the same time, which played into his hands, because the focus one had to use to do all of this at the same time was also not to be neglected. In his mind, Jason praised his opponent. However, that didn¡ät change his decision, as he sliced at the water wall before he jumped through it while getting a little bit wet. Water entered his eyes but he forced them to stay open, as he could see the blurry outlines of his opponent who probably looked at him quite shocked, with his axe already raised high. Throwing three knives in a row, the water user could deflect the first with another water bullet. However, his focus was completely in disarray as he had to lower his axe as fast as possible to deflect the remaining two knives that flew straight towards him. This gave Jason enough time to enhance his lower body and appear behind his opponent to `kill` him with ease, as he pierced into his neck which ended the whole battle. However, Jason was dissatisfied with his own speed after he remembered what kind of acceleration the floating sky techniques provided even at the most initial proficiency. Staring at Seron¡äs combat area he felt jealous. Seron was already done and seeing Jason¡äs look, caused him to smile dryly as he figured out why Jason looked so sad. In his opinion, it was completely understandable. He would probably feel the same and he felt a little bit guilty after indirectly taking away a treasure right in front of Jason¡äs nose. The third round was embarrassing as Jason was overwhelmed by a 3rd Adept rank with 5th Adept physique, while only eight students of Class 54 `survived` with one of them being Seron. The first Class battles ended for their Class after the first week but their achievements were nothing to be ashamed off. Chapter 99 - Weightless Steps Jason wasn''t all that sad that the class battle was over for them, rather than that he was expecting to do some missions in order to be able to purchase a tiered movement technique. He immediately entered the school website before he clicked on the section for lace points where many columns like a trading section, mission board, purchase, sell could be seen. What made him curious was the sell section because he might be able to sell something he owned. However, he became disappointed because the items the school would purchase were extremely rare and the price was below average in his opinion. Looking at the purchase section however was the complete opposite to him, as he was immediately dumbstruck. Thousands of manuals, magical plants, weapons, armors, accessories, and so on could be purchased, only the price seemed slightly high, compared to his 75 points. He wanted to know what types of tier-1 movement techniques he could purchase. Only around 100 techniques could be seen and even the cheapest of them would cost 500 Lace points... 10.000.000 Credits if converted but in the end it was probably more, considering that it''s harder to obtain Lace points. This frustrated Jason and he closed his holographic screen while his mood hit rock bottom. He had 75 points but even the worst Tier-1 technique was extremely expensive and wouldn¡ät satisfy his needs. * It was Friday afternoon and Jason was walking to the school gates to enter the shuttle with a sour facial expression indicating his frustration when Seron ran after him. "JASON!! Wait a moment!" Seron said and Jason stopped in his track, shaken out of his absentminded walk. "Hmm? Is something wrong?" Jason asked because Seron looked somehow serious and hesitant. Seron was similar to Greg and didn''t have many friends. He was extremely intelligent since young but his malfunctioned mana channels, caused him to be a disgrace to his family as he was seen as a nuisance. Sparring with Jason for a whole week was different and he felt accepted around him, even if he couldn¡ät show his true combat prowess all the time. Because Jason would hide his master¡äs secret and not train the floating sky movement technique anymore, Seron felt bad and he had a short discussion with his master about it. Clearing his throat he began "Jason! Thank you for covering our secret!! My master and I want to gift you something in order to say thank you¡­ you are not allowed to decline!! I don''t know what happened but master feels bad about something he apparently did to you and I feel also guilty because you felt the might of a secret movement technique. Now we force you to stop practicing it, must be frustrating. Our present will help you increase your combat prowess!! Maybe I don''t have to hold back next time hahaha" Seron¡äs silly laugh was annoying and he felt embarrassed as he sent him a file before running back to the school, leaving an astonished Jason alone. Received wasn''t sure what to do right now but he got a notification that his shuttle was waiting for him. Entering the shuttle, he opened the file sent from Seron. [Tier-1 Weightless Steps] `Huh?` Jason was astonished to see that Seron sent him a movement technique! Was Seron really sorry that he sent him the Tier-1 skill manual or was it his teacher''s guilty feelings? Jason didn''t know the reason but after finding out that Seron and his teacher came both from big families that governed an island with over 400 million citizens, he thought that a tier-1 skill might not be worth much for them. Nevertheless, Jason was still grateful for this opportunity. He thanked Seron sincerely and even wrote a message to his teacher in order to thank him sincerely. While the 14-year-old Seron seemed quite happy, Mr.Greil messaged him `It''s okay, you deserve it`, which confused Jason. It was not like Jason did something to deserve that, or did I? Without really thinking about his teacher''s answer, he messaged Seron. `If you need help with picking your second soulbond, I might be able to help you out. I¡äm pretty good at picking beasts with high potential.` There was not much meaning behind his words to Seron, who looked a little bit confused at the holographic screen, but to Jason, it was quite dangerous to tell anyone about his ability to distinguish between a beast''s mana core purity. At least until now, Jason had reviewed his mana eyes abilities over and over again but he couldn''t figure out their limits or what exactly they could do. Somehow, he innately knew roughly what they were supposed to do, but it was still difficult for him to comprehend it and express it into words or actions. In the end, he decided to stop thinking about his eyes'' ability with the conclusion that he could detect almost everything with them, including the purity of beasts which was probably their potential. Furthermore, Jason knew that without injecting mana into his eyes, he could intimidate opponents with them without even trying. Adding his released killing intent, even someone with a slightly higher mana core rank than him would be horrified by him. Remembering the battle against Leo Heart, Jason knew that his abyss effect was only the amplification of this intimidation effect thanks to mana, or at least that was what he thought. Jason was almost entirely clueless about his eyes and thinking about it frustrated him a lot. He was expectant to open the [Weightless Steps] manual to learn a movement technique that Jason was allowed to practice without anyone hindering him when his soul world began to shake slightly. Entering his soul world, he noticed that the thick cocoon around Artemis was slowly starting to become thinner as sweat drops began to appear on Jason¡äs forehead. `Darling!! I¡äm not ready yet!!!` He thought and from the diminishing speed he saw, Jason could estimate that Artemis would finish her evolution in one or at most two weeks. `F***` Was the only thought in his mind and he decided to read through the Weightless Steps manual later before he went closer to his soul world core. Over the whole week, Jason¡äs soul energy reached 11.1 units while he used up 10 for his soulbonds. Considering that Artemis would at least reach the awakened rank, he would have to speed up his increase of soul energy by a few folds, which was extremely annoying. But right now, he couldn''t be calm as he practiced the Heaven¡äs Hell technique with a normal helix formed by two strings. Without being able to calm down, practicing a higher difficulty of his Heaven¡äs Hell technique could be considered suicidal due to the dangers as Jason was rational enough to discard this stupid thought without looking back. He estimated that his soul energy increased by 0.1 or 0.2 daily right now which was astonishing, considering the fact that Jason¡äs innate soul energy was only 11.1 units right now. Normally others would need 3 days for that, but Jason¡äs insanely fast reproduction of soul energy was the cause for this astronomical speed. The increase of one''s soul energy was exponential instead of linear and Jason was confident that it would only take one week time, with his current speed to have a consistent increase of 0.2 soul energy per day. This meant in two weeks, Jason would be able to increase his soul energy to 13.2 at the worst. Deducting the soul energy used for Scorpio, he would have 7.2 soul energy for Artemis. If Artemis had a soul energy of 11 units at the bare minimum, Jason would receive an amplification of his own soul energy of 2.3. Calculating everything, Jason noticed that his soul energy would still be short of around 1.5 soul energy units. This calculation was the best-case scenario, including the fact that Scorpio could enter the five-star wild beast rank in the meantime and the high possibility for Artemis to have an innate soul energy of more than 11 units. Jason didn¡ät like his soulbonds reaching a higher soul energy than him because of the marginal chance, that they hated him, for whatever reason, causing them to break out of the soulbond contract or even worse. Everything was possible even if Jason was confident in the thick connection with his soulbonds. He adored them more than anything, even Greg who became his best friend over the last few weeks was not as important for Jason as his two little companions. Jason felt extremely pressured by Artemis'' surprise event and before he could continue his train of thought the shuttle arrived. Leaving the shuttle he decided to eat dinner with the Fler¡äs and everyone noticed that he was absent-minded, which happened quite often over the last few days. Greg wasn¡ät concerned about Jason as he had to think about his own combat prowess because their own Class battles also started. Only now understood the strength of his peers, which was nothing to scoff at, even if his combat experience was superior. Malia had it slightly easier but she would have to leave her home soon for an expedition mission from the school as one of her exams which made her somehow expectant and anxious at the same time. A single mistake could kill her and the whole expenditure team, which was quite some responsibility for a 16 year old kid. Gabriella and Mark looked at the youths with worry, but there was not really anything they could do to help them. Their own strength was at most above average, considering that both of them had entered the magus rank, but that was it. It was only that their beast capturing ability was superior to others which made them slightly famous and caused them to receive a noble title. But to real nobles, their title wasn''t worth anything because commoners couldn''t enter the real royal society according to their beliefs. Chapter 100 - Five After eating, Jason went to his room, where he decided to calm himself down by reading through the [Weightless Steps] manual. In the beginning, he was still thinking about his scarcity of soul energy but after reading the first few pages of the tiered movement skill in front of him, Jason felt like he was bewitched. To his surprise, the Weightless Steps skill seemed to be a sub-form of the Floating sky skill Jason had copied. Reading through the manual within a few hours, Jason was certain that he would be able to reach a terrifying speed with this skill, once he reached a certain degree of mastery with it. Maybe he would even be able to use the copied mana circulation with some modification into the `Weightless Steps` technique, but that had to wait for some time. First, Jason had to practice the original technique and he would have left to the combat area if his soul energy wasn''t close to being completely replenished Only around one hour was left according to his estimation. As such Jason, he to enter the video uploading platform Celetube to watch some videos. He was slightly embarrassed when he clicked on the videos... If anyone saw him right now, it was very likely that he would be laughed at. He was looking at brading videos because the Heaven¡äs Hell technique alone couldn''t give him the visible support in order to understand how to braid. Only the descriptions alone were way too complex for Jason to understand and comprehend as his hair was relatively short without him being able to practice brading. Jason watched multiple videos and even rewatched some to imprint the details into his mind when his soul energy was completely reproduced. Now, his concentration would have to do all the work as Jason steeled his heart before he entered the soul world. Only a short moment later, he stood in front of the stable floating soul world with the soul energy liquid buzzing around vigorously. Taking a deep breath he divided his soul energy into five equal sections. This alone took Jason already three minutes to forcefully calm down the vigorous soul energy that buzzed around. Luckily Jason¡äs mind was already refined and his will strong enough to hold out the strenuous work. Numbering the sections in his mind would help him keep the track of the whole process before he even began. The strand at the leftmost was his number 1 while the one next to it was number 2 until he reached section number 5. Jason placed the soul energy strand 1 over strand 2 and under strand 3, while strand 5 was placed over strand 4 and under strand 1. This was just the first step and Jason was already confused if he did the right thing but doubting himself would hurt him more than helping himself. Now the soul energy strand 1 was at the sideways angle, near strand 5. After passing strand 5 over strand 4 he passed it under strand 1. Jason smiled lightly seeing the ground fundament of a braid forming while sweat poured out of his pores. After foolishly smiling, Jason placed strand 2 over strand 3 and under strand 5. It looked like strand 5 was now the second to the left and Jason repeated the same basic process with strand 2, that he used at the beginning of the braiding. He made sure to pass a strand over first and under second, as it was said to be the pattern of the five-strand braid. After taking a deep breather, Jason felt mentally exhausted. He placed strand 4 over strand 1 and under strand 2 and it is now closest to strand 1 and strand 2. Moving strand 1 to strand 2, Jason made sure to weave strand 4 over and under. Jason continued this pattern until he reached the end of the soul energy strands and he wondered how the hell he finished it without failing a single time. (Author Note: Should be right xd) But somehow it worked and Jason smiled bitterly. It was much easier for him to control the single Five-Strand after he finished braiding. The soul energy five-strand helix was roughly 10 centimeters long but at least three-times thicker compared to the commonly used helix. His mind was racing and he could hear his heart thumping loud, while he forced himself to inject the five-strand helix into his soul world core. The pain of forcing a thick and more solid soul energy strand into his soul world core was multiple times more painful than the mosquito bite, the common helix gave him. It was a shorter process but definitely more painful. A few seconds passed before the searing pain in his mind lessened considerably, while Jason was forced out of the soul world. His whole concentration was used up and Jason was lying in his bead, sweating severely. The only thing he had to find out right now was how long the whole process took him. Gazing at the clock of his holographic screen around 90 minutes seemed to have passed, which was shorter than he expected for his first try. After getting to know that, Jason couldn''t control his body anymore as his mind entered the dreamworld it longed for. The sun was already up when Jason woke up. Looking at the clock it was already 9 am. It took him quite a while until he remembered what he did the day before at night. Once he remembered Jason immediately entered his soul world. Sensing the reproduced energy, Jason thought for a second before a smile appeared on his face. One single practice of the Heaven¡äs Hell technique brought him slightly more than 0.1 soul energy. Practicing the technique three times a day would give him at least 0.3 soul energy, and this was for the first week. Maybe he could push it up to 0.4 for the second week. If Artemis waited for two whole weeks, Jason¡äs soul energy would increase from 11.2 units he had now to 15.9, which was a huge difference. With the amplification from Artemis''s evolution, Jason was confident in reaching the needed requirement for a low-awakened beast. Jason could endure the pain from the five braided soul energy helix because of the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit¡äs torture. Comparing these pain of both was unnecessary as the result was obvious. Only Jason¡äs concentration would need time to adjust to controlling five strands at once but that would be fine after multiple tries. He was confident in doing so. Now with his completely reproduced soul energy, Jason wanted to practice the Five-strand braided helix once again. Slightly less than 90 minutes passed and Jason was again on his bed without enough strength to stand up. *Grumble* He was craving food but he was unable to stand up. It took him almost 20 minutes until he could barely stand. Staggering down, Greg greeted him, while Jason¡äs mind was solely focused on the fridge as he lamented about his empty spatial storage. Opening the fridge, Jason took out a few sausages and Jason sighted some toast next to the fridge and picked the whole package up. Jason scarfed down everything, while Greg looked at him with astonished eyes. `What''s wrong with him??` He thought when he remembered that he was about to practice his combat skills. "Hey Jason, let''s spar again!" Greg asked Jason, without letting him gulp down all the food he prepared. Jason was joyful about his successful second try in practicing one of the most difficult helix¡äs of the Heaven''s Hell technique¡äs second level and it was a feat to be proud of when Greg threw him out of his train of thoughts. Before he could even answer, he was dragged out by Greg, like he himself did only a few days before. It felt like a deja vu and Jason¡äs eyes looked longingly at the sausages and toasts that were still on the table, close, yet far away. But there was nothing, Jason could do about it and he was also expectant to test out his newly acquired movement skill. Maybe he could overwhelm Greg with it and win his first fight!!! But almost immediately after Jason thought that his mana eyes detected something different on Greg. "D-Did you break into the 4th- Adept rank?" Jason asked slightly hesitating. `What if he doesn''t restrict his mana core rank anymore?... Ahh nevermind that` Jason was comfortable with Greg and he believed his friend wouldn''t kill him or heavily injure him. From what Jason knew about Greg, he was rather guys with Fairplay principles who wanted to improve his technique rather than bullying the weaker opponent. As such, Jason was confident that Greg would at least restrict his mana core strength to the 9th Novice rank or at most the 1st Adept rank. "Ohh..haha... Yes, yesterday!" He said, not even trying to cover his pride expression. Suddenly the two boys saw Malia absorbing mana in the backyard with her soul beasts around her when Jason¡äs eyes detected yet again something. "G-Greg!!! Your sister also broke through... She is already at the 2nd Master rank...and only 16 years old. Woah... Her aptitude must be extremely good." Jason praised and he already forgot that he hadn''t praised Greg, who looked at his sister jealousy. He swore to himself, that he would be stronger than her in the future while thinking about the first soulbond that was better than Malia¡äs Laughing inwardly, Greg continued to drag Jason to the combat arena, before he could avert his gaze. Chapter 101 - Bilateral Progression Jason was astonished seeing that Malia had reached the 2nd Master rank which was definitely not something commonly seen at the young age of 16. Thinking about Malia''s feat, Jason scanned his own mana from the inside and found out that the passive mana gathering and absorbing technique was definitely working well as he would probably be able to break into the Adept rank in two weeks at most. He knew that the passive mana gathering technique he used was only a basic technique because everyone with enough credits would be able to purchase it. There were probably much better mana gathering and absorbing techniques out there but he just didn''t know of them. However, he didn''t mind that. Everything would come with time and Jason had more than enough time to nurture himself into someone nobody would dare look down on him if nothing huge happened before that. It didn''t take them long until both Jason and Greg stood inside the combat area and he quickly went into the small changing room with a shower inside in order to change his clothes. He decided to wear comfortable training clothes because he knew that his spar with Greg would stake some time. Furthermore, if he wanted to practice his newly acquired movement skill, the whole spar would be more taxing than normally. "I''ve learned a new combat technique during the last few days. Keep your guard up, Jason!" Greg said and Jason found it quite interesting that both of them would practice their newly acquired technique in this spar. While he would use his full strength, Greg restricted his strength to the 9th Novice rank while his soulbond was not suppressed. Both stood opposite each other with a 30-meter distance when their eyes suddenly met, which indicated the start of their battle. They sparred so many times with each other and there were no words needed to start their fight. Circulating his mana according to the ''Weightless Steps'' description, he could almost instantly feel that his body seemed lighter. It was relatively uncomfortable in the beginning but he was able to adjust to it pretty fast. As such Jason was the first one to take a step and it felt like his speed could increase by around 20% if he achieved the basic mastery of this technique. Jason¡äs increase of speed right off the bat was only around 10% when he rushed at Greg, who observed him carefully. Greg¡äs newly acquired technique was similar to Jason¡äs Weaponry Knight skill but more advanced while he used his technique in addition to the gloves he was familiar with. While Jason charged at Greg, both circulated their mana according to their peculiar technique. Jason¡äs increase in speed was not kept unnoticed by Greg and he was astonished by this fact. However, there was no time for him to admire Jason¡äs speed as a dagger was thrust to his right site. It was only a dulled dagger but it would still hurt, when Greg deflected the dagger thrust with a solid punch, while Jason felt the strong impact passing through the dagger. He was aware that it was bad to fight a glove-user with his daggers because his weapon could be more easily destroyed during the fight and Jason had to enhance his dagger with a small membrane of mama in order to prevent such an accident. But that wouldn''t stop him from practicing daggers as his main weapons for the moment, as he felt the most comfortable with them right now. Greg immediately went into a counteroffensive, using the short moment Jason was not guarded to deliver a straight punch. Jason predicted that and jumped to the site where he landed with a smooth roll. Not a single second was wasted as Jason immediately stood up. Greg and Jason knew each other''s combat style as Greg stood already behind Jason with another punch ready. It was obvious that both knew each other¡äs combat style and only new techniques or a complete change in one¡äs combat style could change this situation, as Jason used his Weightless Steps skill to the limits, without considering any possible issues. To evade Greg''s punch, he stepped forward with his body leaned closer to the ground. Greg was astonished that Jason took a step towards him instead of away when his other fist was already approaching Jason due to his instinctive way of acting when Jason¡äs dagger already touched Greg¡äs abdomen. The fight was instantly over and Greg stopped his fist mid-air before he stepped back a few meters. Both of them had a tacit agreement that once one was hit, the other one won the round. Jason was overjoyed that his speed was comparable to Greg¡äs speed, probably even better if he injected his whole mana pool into the technique as he grinned craftily at Greg, saying "1:0" Hearing this was extremely frustrating to Greg as he underestimated Jason¡äs speed. Furthermore, he was unaware that Jason learned a new movement technique, which astonished him a little bit. Jason had acquired two-tiered skills in such a short time, which was kinda uncommon even for the main Vanguard school as he wondered how Jason did that when he thought about his own achievements. But Greg wasn¡ät really displeased, he only lost because of the surprise attack and the next rounds would prove him!! "Again!!" Greg said confidently before both distanced themself until they reached a certain distance. "Go!" Both said at the same time and one could see a bright shining light in both youths eyes with a foolish smile blossomed on their faces. The spar between the two youths was becoming more and more violent as they adjusted their newly acquired technique to the combat style of their respective opponent. Each round was taking longer and longer to end, while they adjusted their combat style each fight in order to surprise attack each other. Hours passed and it was lunchtime when both were lying on the ground, panting heavily but still foolishly smiling. Both were proud due to the same reason. Previously both of their new techniques proficiency was horrible and comparable to non-existent, but right now it seemed that they were already nearing basic mastery, which was an astonishing feat. "10:6 ¡­. Hahaha, I won!!" Greg said with an exaggerated proud face, while Jason remained silent thinking, that Greg was not looking at the big picture. Previously Jason was unable to defeat Greg a single time, which changed now. After sparring with Seron and in addition to the newly acquired movement technique, Jason was able to overcome Greg¡äs overwhelming fighting style better than before. Jason was infinitely close to the basic mastery of the weightless step technique, as it neared an acceleration of 20%. After both washed up and changed into a clean set of clothes, 1 pm had already passed, when they sprinted to the dining table, where everyone was already waiting for them. Malia had seen them sparring with each other and didn¡ät want to disturb them as it looked like both of them were fighting with all their might, while trying to adjust their combat style to land a surprise attack. Furthermore, she noticed that both youths used new martial art techniques. Gaining insights was extremely difficult and she would rather let them starve instead of disrupting their enlightenment. Gabriella looked at them with a smile and gestured them to sit down, while Mark was looking at them without showing many emotions. Greg and Jason had used up too much energy during their fight which caused them to gobble down their lunch, a second fill before a third fill was eaten within a record-like speed. Looking at the two gluttons made the others smile weirdly, even Mark couldn¡ät cover his smile for a second before his emotions were hidden once again. After they finished their meal, Jason washed the dishes before he went into his room to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique with the five-braided helix again. This time it took only 85 minutes and nothing major happened. Jason was confident that he could reduce the Heaven''s Hell second level refining time to 60 minutes or probably even less as long as he practiced enough. It would give him more time to practice his martial art skills or read more books, which could be helpful in the future. Jason felt like a bookworm because he liked to read more and more after getting to know, that there were so many different types of magical plants, beasts, habitats, important characteristics, mutations of beasts caused by selection pressure, genetic mutations, rare ores, soul and Mana weapons, foreign intelligent races, information about souls in general and so many more things. His thirst for knowledge was almost limitless and he would spend at least six hours a day reading alone. This caused his knowledge to surpass his peers by a huge margin because they were mostly training their body, mana core, soulbonds or even playing around with their friends. However, that was only the case with average families, as superior and big families, clans, companies and so did not prioritize sole strength, because intelligence, craftiness, and other characteristics were at least as important as strength to them. While reading many books, Jason often read about Alchemist, Blacksmith, and Runemaster, and he found all three lifestyles-occupations extremely interesting. One could say that these lifestyle-occupations were almost as important as Beast creators. Unfortunately for Jason however was, that there was not much information about Beast creators in the book, he had access to, which caused him to be slightly dejected. Jason wondered, how it would be to have a lifestyle occupation like being a blacksmith, alchemists, runemaster, or even a Beast Creators. They were said to be some of the most profitable occupations, while their requirements were also extremely high in order to reach higher ranks. It was a long dream of his and reading through the School¡äs forum, he read a particular thread that interested him extremely. Chapter 102 - Blacksmith, Alchemist And Rune Master? From his mother, Jason heard many fairy tales about all kinds of godly weapons, indestructible armors, immortal reagents, Holy inscriptions, and terrifying beasts that could split the heavens and destroy mountains with a single breath. He would have never imagined that these fairy tales could be true but at least some truth was hidden in every lie and Jason was sure that some blacksmith-masters would be able to smith and manufacture mighty weapons, armors, and much more. He always admired the fairy tales about strong and magnificent heroes, saving the universe with their godly weapons and different than others, Jason was always sad that the craftsmen who forged the god-killing weapons were extras, almost negligible for the whole tale. Thinking about these occupations, Jason¡äs curiosity increased more and more. In the end, he decided to look online, searching for general information about lifestyle occupations and their requirements. Upon doing deeper researches, Jason found out that the requirements to learn either of the 3 basic lifestyle occupations were both easy and difficult at the same time to fulfill. The easier requirements Jason could fulfill were a peak-intermediate mana mastery and a certain mana sensitivity outside the body. Jason wasn''t exactly sure what peak intermediate mastery meant, but he was still confident that he had already reached that a long time ago, as even his teacher praised his mana control. Considering the fact that Mr.Greil was from a large family and additional from Canir, that praise was worth quite a bit, which caused Jason¡äs confidence about his control over mana to soar even higher. Another easy demand was one''s knowledge, which had to be deep in the lifestyle-occupation. For Blacksmithing that would be knowing everything about ores, ingots, heat, smelting process, tempering, quenching, sharpening, and so on. Jason could just read the required books and memorize them after a second or third re-read at most. This was only able because he refined his brain, otherwise he would have to read books more often to memorize them completely, which would be a hassle. But there was one main problem¡­ The costs!! Not only would purchasing the books of each of the three basic lifestyle occupations be extremely expensive, but some couldn''t even be purchased by commoners which was ridiculous in his opinion. Additionally, each of these three occupations would require one to learn everything from scrap which would require experimenting with many ores, herbs, mana stones/core, and so on. Materials were expensive and it would take a long time to even reach the 0th rank of the particular occupation, also called "Apprentice". Furthermore, there were not many teachers, instructing students, because they were either too expensive or would not teach students without gaining other benefits. This meant average or maybe even above average families wouldn''t be able to hire an alchemist for individual tutorings. It was easier for high-ranked schools to hire blacksmiths, alchemists, and runemasters because they were able to give them more benefits due to their good connections. And that was, where the school¡äs official thread came into play. Jason read that there would be a Rank 3 blacksmith, alchemist, and runemasters at school, giving lectures for a certain amount of time. Rank 3 lifestyle-occupations were also called Intermediate-Blacksmiths/Alchemists/Runemasters, while the ranking was as following. Rank 0: Apprentice, Rank 1: Beginner, Rank 2: Basic, Rank 3: Intermediate, and so on. Intermediate-Occupations could already produce Grade-2 Weapons, Reagents, and magic circles which could accumulate a vast amount of resources and credits. Being a Rank 3 would be considered the average for the Artisan-alliance which governs the three occupations, as the average member was at the 3rd Rank. There were many lower and higher ranked lifestyle-Artisans but most would be stuck at Rank-3 and never enter higher ranked due to their low determination, ambition, and most likely low control over mana. Rank 3 also meant for Blacksmiths that they would be able to craft mana weapons with the help of Runemasters, which was definitely nothing to scoff at and Jason wondered who their lectures would hold. But there was also a test one had to pass to enter the lectures of the three individuals. Their test would question one''s knowledge, control over mana, and even the aptitude with a practical test. Jason found blacksmithing and alchemy extremely interesting and after reading the description of inscriptions and runes, he fell in love with all three occupations, causing him to ponder for which test he should apply. He questioned himself for quite some time until he noticed a certain piece of information, causing his mood to heighten. Each of the tests was at a different time and wouldn¡ät overlap with each other. As such Jason could enter all of the tests which pleased him and maybe he would be able to pass at least one of the tests. If that happened, he would be able to get lectured by a Rank 3 Artisan. (Author note: I decided to combine the three occupations into Artisans once I need to name them at once) Jason happily registered himself for all three tests and each exam would start on Friday, while there was 4 hours time between each of them. After thinking for a moment, he concluded that they made this deliberately, so everyone could give each lifestyle-occupation a try. Once he had registered himself, he was notified what he should know for the theoretical test and a bunch of books was suggested for each of the occupations, with a link to download the files for free thanks to the Artisan-towers generosity. Jason laughed while thinking that his school was really evil. There were more than ten books for every occupation. Previously Jason thought that his school wanted to give each student a try for every occupation but applying for every lecture was suicidal, considering that each book had more than 600 pages. Each test would consist of more than 6000 pages, filled with knowledge, while all three tests had concluded more than 18.000 pages, which was a ridiculous number. But Jason was only smiling, with greed in his eyes. `Thank you for the free books!!` He thought in his mind as a sly smile appeared on his face. Jason was aware why it was so hard for average students to learn one of the basic lifestyle-occupations without a teacher, even if one had a high mana control and enough credits to purchase the herbs. Prescriptions, Experience from dozens of generations, and knowledge could only be acquired by the rich. Right now there were over 30 books Jason wouldn''t be able to acquire normally inside his quantum bracelet storage. Not being able to digest all the information provided? Don¡ät f**k with bookworm Jason!! There were still slightly more than 6 days left for him and if needed, he would just skip school. Before Jason decided to do something like that, he would message his teacher, which he did immediately after considering his chances. Mr.Greil was different from the normal teacher and Jason was aware of that. After explaining his situation to him, the only thing he got as an answer was. "Attend the morning lessons, because I¡äll be able to solve some unanswered questions. I''ll write you out for the afternoon lessons." This astonished Jason a little bit because even if Mr.Greil was not a real teacher, wasn''t he too chilled about his decision to pick all three tests? Wouldn¡ät he try to change his decision because it was dumb? But Till Greil wouldn''t do something like that as he knew that Jason was extremely mature for his age. As a teacher, he wanted Jason to figure out the limits of his ambition on his own. If he could pass all tests, that would only mean he is good enough to learn all occupations from their theories and not that he was talented in all of them. Knowing the basics of all occupations was a must for all offsprings from big families and Seron already knew most information, which however would not hinder him in acquiring new knowledge. Seron would also join the three tests and he would have to solve them with flying colors, as his master, Till would be disappointed if Seron would fail. But to be honest, this possibility was marginal low. It was only 3 pm when Jason opened the first book and he entered his particular kind of zone as he started to devour the content without caring for his surrounding. Time passed and it was 7 pm when he was shaken out of his zone-like state. Suddenly, he felt that someone picked him up as he was thrown over a muscle-packed shoulder and Jason immediately knew that it was Greg. "Jason, we called you a few times and you want to tell me that you couldn''t hear us because you read a book?!?! Don¡ät fool me!!" He said while Jason was still laying over his shoulder. When Greg entered the living room like this, Jason was immediately embarrassed about the situation, as everyone could see him like that. "Sorry!!! But let me down !!!!" Jason almost shouted and Greg put him down. Just as he was about to sit down, everyone began to laugh out loud as the sight was just too funny to look at. `Arghhh¡­ so embarrassing!!` Jason looked straight on his table without looking at anyone and he wouldn''t be able to look into someone''s eyes right now. It took everyone quite a while to calm down and dinner began with a few chuckles remaining. Jason had not looked up a single time and when dinner was over, he excused himself as soon as possible to run up into his room. Gabriella and Malia found this reaction cute, while Mark looked somehow disappointed? Jason had to calm down and looking at the holographic screen, he noticed that he had already read three books. He remembered almost all parts and rereading it another time would probably be enough to completely memorize them, which shocked him. Jason admired his own reading speed and memory as he silently thanked his teacher for the opportunity he received to refine his brain, even if it was extremely painful. Furthermore, his eyes were also important for this feat, as his reading speed was solely thanks to his eyesight and Jason also silently thanked his mother. After he calmed down, he practiced the Heaven''s Hell five-strand helix before he continued reading the large batch of books in his library. Chapter 103 - Superior Mana It was already Friday morning and Jason¡äs whole week was filled with reading, practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique, and sparring with Greg, while most of his time was occupied with the reading section. In only five days, Jason had completely read through all 30+ books, and the last day was used to completely memorize the last subtle details. Going to morning classes was extremely helpful as many questions tormented his mind but Mr. Greil answered them easily, helping him out a lot. Other than that, Jason''s mana core surprisingly reached almost the required mana to break through the Adept rank barrier which was a few days faster than expected but it would be quite helpful to break through into the Adept rank before Artemis finished her evolution. Breaking through into new mana core levels and ranks would enhance Jason''s body overall which included his soul, as it would also receive a small enhancement. It was said that Novice rank breakthroughs enhanced the soul energy by around 0.1 units, while Adept ranks would give a whole point for one''s soul energy. With that in mind, Jason entered his soul world to look at the already enlarged pebble-sized soul world core with magnificent shining runes on it. He already reached a soul energy of 13 units which was not far away from his required amount Artemis would probably require once she finished her evolution but Jason was still careful and diligently practiced the Heaven''s Hell¡äs second level three times a day without letting a single sitting out. There were a few times where Jason almost failed braiding his five-strand helix due to minuscule mistakes but he saved himself every time. After almost a week passed, he repeated the five-braided helix almost 20 times and watching braid videos almost every day caused his mind to comprehend and control everything much easier. It was still taxing but not as difficult to practice as before. Scorpio was another small issue. It looked like he wouldn''t take long until he would breakthrough into the five-star wild beast rank which needs between 8 to 10 soul energy. If both Scorpio and Artemis were about to draw more of his soul energy at once, only trouble would await Jason. But even if that were about to happen, Jason was relatively confident in his thick connections between him and his soulbonds. As long as he wouldn''t force them to attack others suicidal, Jason was confident to control them to a certain degree¡­ Even if he would force his soul beasts into a suicidal attack Jason wasn''t sure if Artemis or Scorpio would sacrifice themselves. However, that wasn''t something Jason wanted to figure out at all and he would never order them to do something like that either. Today would be the theoretical knowledge exams and a mana control test that was done to tell how high one¡äs mana mastery was. It didn''t matter for which of the three basic lifestyle-occupations one applied, the mana control test was the same for all three of them and could be done in one run. In order to receive the chance to take the theoretical knowledge tests, one would have to pass the mana mastery exam first. After passing the first test, he would be able to enter the theoretical exam, and passing the second test would allow Jason to enter the final exam, which tested the praxis, with nobody being proficient in it. Jason was confident in himself and because of that calmly walking into his classroom with the number 54 on it. Seeing the number, Jason smiled lightly before he looked around, only to see almost all of his classmates reading something on their holographic screen as a weird smile appeared on his face. His classmates didn¡ät seem to be the smartest students, but they still wanted to give the lifestyle-occupations a try, which he admired somehow. Jason saw Seron, who was sitting in front of his table with closed eyes. Upon sensing a pair of eyes looking at him, he opened his eyes and greeted Jason. He looked extremely calm and so was Jason as he greeted Seron back, before sitting down on his seat. Upon sitting down, the front door opened and Mr. Greil walked in with a head-sized marble in his hand. This marble would be used to test one''s control over mana and different lights would indicate a superior or subpar control over mana. There were three different tones of red which were equal to the Basic control over mana, while a lighter color indicated a better control. Orange was equal to an intermediate control over mana while yellow represented an Advanced control over mana. These three sections were not the only ones but it was difficult to see a higher mana control standard. With a light yellow(Peak-Advances) control over mana, one would most likely be able to enter the magus rank at a young age. The control over mana wasn¡ät the only factor to specify such a statement, but it was definitely an important one and most youths at the age of 14 with advanced control over mana would enter the magus rank sooner or later, as their potential was still developing. It wouldn''t be surprising if youths would increase their control over mana with hard work and Mr.Greil told them that almost everyone should be able to enter the Magus rank with enough hard work. Jason wasn''t so sure about that but if his teacher said that, there should be some credibility in this statement. Once the large mana testing orb was placed in the middle of the podium, the students greeted their teacher respectfully. "Today we¡äll test everyone''s control over mana. Almost all of you applied for one of the three occupations lectures and it is only obvious that you guys aren''t the only ones! This opportunity is rare to come by and the whole school was only able to afford two Rank-3 and one Rank-4 Artisan, which results in the following Every grade is allowed to apply for the lectures and this means, that more than everyone could have more than 30.000 rivals for the lecture spots. To ensure fairness, the higher grades need to have a higher degree of mana mastery while their knowledge has to be deeper. While grade-1 students need only to have a peak-Intermediate mana mastery, grade-2 and 3 need to have an advanced mana mastery. The difference in knowledge is also not that much because most students had never seen the books required to learn either of the lifestyle-occupations. Some students may ask why the required mana mastery is so high and the answer is pretty simple. If someone exceeded the lecturer''s expectations, they might invite someone to Cyro-city¡äs Artisan-tower, where one is able to learn more about the basic lifestyle-occupations. Without a certain degree of mana mastery, one will never reach higher ranks in these occupations and it is useless to nurture someone without future potential because it¡äs extremely expensive. I think I''ve talked enough!! Let''s start the testing according to the Class ranking! You all know your number, just queue up" Mr. Greil finished talking and everyone tried to digest the information before the top-student within their class went down to have his mana mastery tested. He was confident in himself, as he had already reached the 6-Adept rank while being 14 years. Not only was he the highest in mana core, but his strength was also superior to everyone else which his proud face clearly demonstrated. But after entering the inside of the mana testing orb with his senses, his facial expression was filled with shock and one could only look at the orange illuminated mana orb in front of him. "Mid-Intermediate: failed to enter the second round" Mr.Greil announced cruelly and the youth wanted to oppose his teacher''s decision when he sensed his teacher''s piercing gaze. "You don''t want to make space for your classmates?" He asked with a cold but emotionless voice. It was obvious to Till, that this youth used up a vast amount of mana stones solely to increase his mana core rank, without considering that it was equally important to absorb natures mana, due to its own characteristic. The mana within mana-stones was rough and it wouldn¡ät help out to absorb too much of it at a time, because one¡äs mana sensitivity and control were equally important. In the end, consistently absorbing natures mana might be less efficient but better for a long-term plan, as one¡äs mana control and sensitivity would increase consistently, while a short-absorbing-session with mana stones only gave minute benefits. The youth''s hair stood up and he immediately left the mana orb for his classmates, shuttering violently. This was only a demonstration to show everyone who wanted to oppose their teacher in order to figure out what happened and some hadn''t noticed what their teacher did. However, Jason knew what happened, as he frowned as their teacher released killing intent for such a trivial matter!! He found this cruel but he decided to ignore it, while waiting for his turn, without much interest for his classmates. There weren''t many in his class with an acceptable control over mana and most of them only reached the Intermediate-Adept rank while being 14 because of their parent''s resources and nothing else. Astonishing to Jason was also the fact, that some students had only peak-basic mana mastery which was extremely bad. This caused him to question the selection process to be accepted into this school. It was only when it was Seron¡äs turn, that Jason looked down to the podium with curiosity gleaming in his eyes, as he wanted to know how good Seron¡äs mana mastery was. A dark yellow light illuminated the mana orbs surrounding and Jason nodded his head, not forgetting that Seron could only feel the mana in his surroundings for a few months. Considering that fact, it was definitely a shocking feat for Seron to reach such a high mastery over mana within the given amount of time. In Jason¡äs opinion, Seron was the most promising student of class 54th, which was not really something to brag about, as their class was not filled with prodigies. More than ten minutes passed until it was Jason¡äs try and he stood in front of the mana orb, placing his hand on it without hesitation. It would be a lie if Till said, he wasn''t interested in figuring out Jason¡äs momentary mana mastery as Jason activated his mana eyes, while he sensed everything clearly. Combining the effect of him seeing everything and feeling it at the same time, he found dozens of entangled strings when he began to unfold them Seconds passed and there was still no color emitting from the mana orb. The more time passed, the less patient everyone became. The students began to shout that Jason should just leave the mana orb and that it was useless for him, because his mastery was too bad. Some ridiculed him while others tried to cheer him up but Jason couldn''t hear them at all. Till was also kinda confused as it wouldn''t normally take so long to test one''s mana mastery. More than a minute passed without anything happening and almost everyone''s mood was already the worst because they couldn''t enter the second round of the lecture selection while Jason increased their frustration even more, without doing anything. Suddenly a golden shimmering light illuminated the mana orb that was more than a few dozen times stronger and denser than the dark yellow light from Seron, which was the best mastery previously seen. Till was blinded by the sudden outburst of light was almost forced to close his eyes, as he looked at the mana orb. His eyes widened and he immediately knew that Jason had unfolded every entangled string within in less than two minutes!! It took him quite some time to clear his thoughts and in the meantime the golden light dissipated slowly, leaving Jason and his teacher next to him. Clearing his throat, Mr.Greil announced: "Superior mana mastery: Passed" Chapter 104 - Thug Jason barely opened his eyes when the classroom went into an uproar "Am I seeing things? What was that golden color?" "Superior mana mastery?? What the hell is that?!!!" "He obviously cheated!!! Let us stand there for some time too, we might as well be able to increase our mana mastery like that!" Some students shouted and Mr. Greil was unsure if he should just shut them up with force or let them bully Jason a little bit¡­ They were instinctively envious and Till couldn¡ät find fault with that. He was also jealous of Jason¡äs mana mastery!!! `How should a 14 year old youth be able to have such a high mana mastery!! And that was not even everything`...Jason¡äs overall aptitude to cultivating was superior, which he was also partially at fault, because he gave Jason the opportunity to create a sub-area in his mind in order to passively absorb mana continuously. Till wondered how long Jason would need to enter the Magus rank with such capabilities but thinking about that caused his heart to sting. A minute passed and TIll calmed down before he forced everyone to quiet down with an mana enveloped snap. "Quiet!!" He was already in a bad mood because of Jason but the babbling students in front of him frustrated him even more, causing killing intent to gush out accidentally. It was dead silent within a second and Jason could see tears in some weak-willed students'' eyes, which was kinda funny for him. He was still not sure what happened and wondered what a Superior-mana-mastery was, but sensing the atmosphere around him, it should be something good as he silently went to his seat, not minding the murderous glares of his classmates, with a bright smile on his face. In the end, Till announced the result, after the last student finished his mana mastery test. "Seron Gier and Jason Stella passed the test. You two will continue to test your theoretical knowledge soon. As for the others. I¡äll test everyone of you about the three occupations...Everyone who is not able to answer my tests, will be punished!! Don''t even dare to think that the school will gift you non-purchasable and extremely expensive books about the three basic lifestyle-occupations without considering someone trying to exploit the given opportunity. We all know that some students applied for all three lectures after finding out that rare books will be filed to you!!" In Class 54, only Jason and Seron passed the first test, which was a 1 in 100 ratio. Considering that their class was the worst in the beginning, and the first 20 to 30 classes already have some 7 Adept ranks, Jason concluded that in all grades together, at least 3000 students might have passed the first test. Around 7% passed the first test and the theoretical exam was said to seed out even more students. Considering that the most difficult exam would be the last test about one¡äs practical aptitude towards the particular lifestyle-occupation which involved mana sensibility, control, accuracy, patience, persistence, vast knowledge, and many more characteristics to be even able to produce even the easiest things. Jason was aware that it would be difficult to pass all three aptitude tests but he would at least give it a try. He was sure to pass the theoretical exams with flying colors, so he just went outside the class with Seron, after Mr.Greil finished his short lecture. Mr.Greill also went outside and led Seron and Jason to their first theoretical exam. While the knowledge about Inscription and runes was the first to be tested, alchemy followed suit and after that, blacksmithing came. Both students followed their teacher calmly and they entered a huge hall both of them had never been. It was the school¡äs assembly hall that was connected to all three schooling buildings and the sheer size could fit thousands of students. There was a white stage in the front with a ancient wooden podium highlighted in the middle, while many tables and chairs were placed all around the assembly hall. Their test would be in the assembly hall? Cheap!! Jason lamented in his mind but it was easier to survey the students like that with each table at least 2 meters apart from each other. Row after row of tables could be seen and many of their seniors were already waiting for the test to finally begin. They were probably eager to learn about the basic lifestyle-occupations as it was a rare opportunity to get known by some lower authorities of the Artisan-tower. With some luck they might even be able to learn one of the three occupations!! Jason and Seron were amongst the calmest youths inside the assembly hall as they sat down next to each other without saying a single word. Wishing each other luck would be useless as one''s luck was not tested. Only pure knowledge¡­ What was the use of luck in exams?? Jason didn''t know and neither did Seron. More than 20 minutes passed until the last group of students arrived at the assembly hall. The doors were closed and even if thousands of students sat there, waiting patiently, nobody said anything at all as it was deadly silent. Not much time passed until a brown-haired bulky man with a long beard entered the stage next to a blond-haired youth with blue eyes, thin glasses, and a long black robe with ancient-looking runes on it swirling around. Between both of them was a fair-skinned woman with black hair tied into a ponytail. She was busty and had nice curves perfectly fitting for her figure, causing some youths to droll. It took the youths quite some time to regain their senses and they sensed something was off as their foolish behaviour shocked themselves more than others. `She used a pheromone reagent? ` Jason questioned himself while his mana eyes saw a pinkish haze following the black-haired woman with every step she took. The busty woman was standing on the podium while the two men were standing next to it, clearly indicating that the woman had higher rank and authority. "Hello dear students!! My name is Antalia Sharon, I¡äm a Rank 4 Alchemist. It''s my honor to be here to test everyone''s knowledge about the three basic lifestyle-occupations and I hope we will find a few hidden gems to nurture in the future." She said with a light and gently smile, before she continued. "We know that some of you have applied for all three exams because it occurs quite often that students try to trick schools in order to gain more resources. But before that, I want to say, that we¡äll do the three exams right now in a row without wasting any time. Everyone that applied for all three lectures at once should be confident in their own ability, otherwise you guys wouldn''t have applied for all of them, right?" Antalia was still smiling but her eyes turned cold. "After a discussion with the principal, we decided to make a few changes in the exam. Everyone that applied for more than one lecture and without being able to pass the exams will have to pay the full price for the books they acquired. If that is not possible, their Lace points will be deducted according to the costs. With that, everyone that doesn''t pass and is not able to pay, will have to request a loan from the Artisan tower or the Vanguard school. This also applies to all students that didn''t pass the first round. They will also be tested about the theoretical knowledge. If they can¡ät pass the exams, they¡äll have to pay. As for the jokester, that applied for all three tests and fail all of them, nice try in working hard to repay the debt. Because we are a nice community, we decided to not charge a single credit for those that applied for two lectures and are capable to pass at least one while the students that applied for all three lectures have to pass at least two theoretical exams." The whole surrounding turned upside down and everyone began to lament about being conned. Some students even cursed the whole school, the artisan tower and so on. Jason''s lips curled up, thinking that the school and Artisan tower were frauds, as he clearly remembered the small written notice that costs could occur if one were to fail the exam. Apparently most students hadn''t seen this notice and it was somehow difficult for Jason to cover his smile. He had to hold his laughter in, when more and more students jumped up, cursing at the magus-ranked authorities in front of them. When the whole situation was about to escalate completely, Jason felt a familiar snap amplified with a dense amount of mana, causing a shocking wave spreading through the whole assembly hall that threw some students from their chairs. Jason and Seron predicted this scenario and used most of their mana to envelope themself, which saved them from being pushed from the chair. "QUIET!" Mr.Greil said with a cold, amplified voice, while he suddenly stood in front of the podium. "If you can¡ät even read, don¡ät even try to con others without expecting to be conned yourself. I think the Artisan tower and the school are lenient with their punishment or do you guys want to die or live with a destroyed mana core? I DON''T THINK SO?!" The assembly hall turned eerily quiet and the students that were blown away, went back to their place, with tears in their eyes. Considering that they jumped into a huge well of debt, once they wouldn''t be able to pass two out of three exams, some had already given up on trying, looking lifelessly in front of them. The busty ponytailed woman continued her speech with telling another few changes. "Normally every exam would take 4 hours but we changed it slightly. Everyone that only applied for one lecture will have 4 hours without any change, but the students that applied for two lectures will have 7, while the many of you that were eager to learn will have 9 hours time to finish all three exams." Many youths groaned in misery but due to the fear of being blown away by a mana shockwave, they didn''t do anything else than groan. "Receiving 60% right answers is enough to pass the second test and our Artisan tower will reward everyone that can pass with 90+% with a recipe suitable for the tested subject." When Jason heard this, he lifted his head and looked straight into the busty woman''s eyes, while she didn''t notice him. "We¡äve lowered the percentage to pass the test because the test is already extremely difficult for our students that learned for more than a month. I hope we¡äll have some students capable to pass the theoretical exam! Our Artisan tower is extremely generous if you make some effort!" She said full of enthusiasm, when she saw a raised hand within the last few rows. "Yeah¡­ Student with black hair and g-golden eyes? What is your question?" Everyone turned to the direction of the raised hand and only now did Jason notice that he had raised his hand. He was curious about a certain fact¡­ rewarding the one that makes effort could be understood in many ways¡­ Clearing his throat Jason asked in a loud slightly mana-amplified voice that was filled with confidence. "In my understanding, the Artisan tower thinks that nobody will pass all three tests, I might as well be wrong but what if someone passes all three exams with 100%? Can you give me some better rewards if that happens??" He asked with a tinge of greed glimmering in his eyes. Chapter 105 - The Knowledgable "Passing all exams with 100%?" Antalia looked at the golden-eyed youth in front of her with a ridiculing smile "Passing one exam with 100% is already extremely challenging for our best apprentices but passing all three without making a single mistake? Don¡ät make yourself a laughing stock with empty words. Learning for a single Artisan exam within one week is already though...Don¡ät overestimate your abilities!" Antalia said with a serious voice and she was obviously not pleased with Jason¡äs "But, WHAT IF I can do it?" Jason resolutely asked, without listening to her words. Seron also looked at Jason as if he was asking to get beaten up or punished. He would not receive any rewards because he wasn¡ät included in the statistics because he learned about the basic occupations since birth. Furthermore, he didn''t have the ambition to learn a lifestyle-occupations as his mana channels gave him enough work to do. Seron would probably receive a high score for all tests and one or two 100%, but being able to receive full marks for all exams would be even hard for him if a nasty question were to come up. Jason looked confident on the outside but nobody knew how his insides looked and if they knew he was as confident on his inside as he was on the outside they would be questioning his sanity. Even Till looked at Jason as if he was an idiot but Jason didn''t mind the onlookers. He was only looking at the fair-skinned busty woman who returned his gaze. She saw ambition, determination, and confidence in his eyes which caused her to gulp down her anger because it was obvious that Jason took this seriously. "If you can pass all three exams with 100%, I¡äll give you a copy of my "book of experiences". Inside this book, all recipes I¡äve learned are written down, including the things I¡äve gone through while brewing." Jason listened carefully but he wasn''t really sure how much of a reward her book of experience was. However, everyone sitting inside the assembly hall was shocked as they began to gossip. This told him, that it was definitely nothing cheap and if he knew that reagent recipes were extremely expensive, he would know that her reward was worth more than a few billion credits¡­ Not many Artisans would sell their occupational diary to others and if someone did, the prices would soar to the billions within seconds during an auction. Receiving first-hand experience was important as the basic lifestyle-occupations could be dangerous and reagent recipes couldn¡ät be purchased by everyone except grade-1 healing reagents. Jason knew for example that the price for paralyzing reagents were not expensive solely because of their material costs as their selling price would bring in more than 20 times the material costs in profit. These reagents were so expensive because of the astronomically high prices for regent recipes, the uncountable failure rate, and the investment one paid while learning the basics. Antalia looked at Jason with a proud face but she frowned when she noticed that the youth in front of her wasn''t even slightly impressed. Never would she know that Jason wasn''t aware that the book of experience from Rank 4 was worth a lot. She thought he ridiculed her indirectly which caused her to fume in anger. Provoked by his nonexistent reaction, she thoughtlessly blurted out anything she wanted without considering what she did. "In addition, I¡äll give you the chance to make a request at the Artisan tower in Cyro-City" However, when she noticed what she said, it was already too late and she could barely add "Under the condition that you pass all aptitude tests" Before the whole assembly hall went wild. With this being said, Jason¡äs curiosity was finally picked up `Making a request in the Artisan tower could mean almost anything, either crafting a mana gathering platform at home or crafting him mana or even a soul weapon but also a mysterious potion, if a high-ranked Artisan that was capable to fulfill the requirement was present`. He knew that the Cyro city Artisan tower had a Rank 5 Blacksmith that was said to be infinitely close to the 6th Rank. As such, he could craft Mid Grade-3 weapons and also mana and soul weapons but that was not was made Antalias'' statement so foolish. If she allowed him to make a request for almost everything, he could also ask for guidance from this Rank 5 blacksmith or even worse, asking him to take him as disciple and Antalia could only slap herself for being foolish and stupid. But what said, was said and it would harm the reputation of the Artisan-tower if she would take back her words, as she was representing the whole Artisan tower at this moment. `Arghhh I¡äm so stupid!!` she thought and Jason smiled lightly while asking himself what kind of things he could request at the Artisan tower. However, it would be extremely difficult to pass all three aptitude exams and Jason was aware of that fact. Till quieted down everyone with another snap and Antalia tried to not mind Jason anymore. Turning away she tapped on the holographic screen in front of her as a holographic screen appeared out of their tables, where one had to write down his or her data to enter the exams. After login in the exams immediately started and there was no time to waste Almost everyone''s credentials and financial status were on the line as nobody would ever want to graduate from school with debts. A silent pressure permeated through the whole assembly hall and everyone''s concentration heightened. Jason entered his data before looking at the first file which was about inscribing and runemasters overall. Only a few minutes passed and Antalia was looking through the rows of students and she saw many despaired youths. In her opinion the questions weren''t that hard, only the large section of topics to learn was more difficult including a few in-depth questions. Learning for the most basic exam like this would at most take 1 month but considering the time-span of one week, she hoped that at least a few good seedlings would be able to enter her eyes. Among the frowning youths, she saw one particular caused her to almost laugh in joy. Jason, the handsome youth that was so full of himself, was frowning when only a few minutes passed. She almost couldn''t contain her laughter and it took her a while to calm down. Upon inspecting Jason closer with mana amplified her eyes she noticed that Jason was neither sweating nor showing signs of being afraid to amass a huge amount of debts which wondered her. Seeing Jason writing down answers consistently, she thought that he was guessing the answer without thinking about the right answer. His answers were too fast for someone who had only a single week to memorize everything and she lost interest in Jason after a short amount of time. One could say Antalia was disappointed because she somehow hoped that she would find a hidden gem. Considering that she was forced to join as lecturer for the weakest affiliated Vanguard-school, she was in an unpleasant mood since the beginning and Jason caused her to feel slightly better. She wouldn''t really lose anything if she had to send Jason a copy of her book of experience. Furthermore sending such a file to a genius who learned for all three basic exams and could pass them with flying colors within a week wouldn''t be a bad trade to gain some trust. If his mana-mastery was extremely good and he could pass the alchemy aptitude test, she would immediately try to lure him as her disciple. With this, she might even be able to gain a decent amount of fame and reputation as a prodigy¡äs teacher. She had that dream for a decent amount of years already, like many other artisans, but the truth was that it never really worked out and if it did, higher-ranked artisans would lure their prodigious disciples over, saying that they nurtured them. Antalia had seen many cases like that and it was always sad to see gentle and innocent children drawn into the scheming of others Without anyone knowing, six hours passed and more than half of the students were still sitting in front of their exams with most of them showing desperate expressions. Some of them even began crying because they couldn''t answer most questions. Figured out that there was no way for them to pass the theoretical exam, their mind was devastated. This meant they had to pay back the costs of all filled books, which would amass to a huge fortune. Would they be able to pay everything back before they graduated from school by doing school-missions? Probably not! Most students that only picked a single lecture to attend had long since gone and it was not difficult to figure out if they passed or not due to their joyous mood, as most hadn¡ät fallen for the schools¡ä scheming. Jason was still writing his answers at a fast pace and it looked like his writing speed hadn¡ät changed since the beginning. Only a few minutes after the 6th hour passed, Jason sent the files to the AI. The AI would correct the exams within 5 minutes and he decided to lift his head in order to look out for the Rank 4 Alchemist¡äs reaction. After five minutes, Jason got a notification and the three exams were sent to him, but he didn¡ät look at his score and continued gazing towards the busty woman, who also received a notification. Every file that passed the exam would be sent to the head lecturer, which was in this case Antalia. Previously Ms.Sharon hadn¡ät looked at a single notification she got which left a few students wronged as they tried to show of their knowledge in front of the three Artisans. However, nobody didn¡ät care about that at all. But right after she got the last notification, she felt weird as if someone wanted something from her. It was uncomfortable and she felt naked in front of the unknown gaze. Turning around she saw Jason staring at her and when both looked into each other''s eyes, Jason smiled, while pointing at his own quantum watch. Antalia had a bad premonition rising up inside her as she immediately opened up the last notification she received, only to see something pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. [Jason Stela: Grade-1 Class:54 Rank:224 Basic-Alchemy apprentice Exam¡ú 100% Basic-Blacksmithing apprentice Exam¡ú 100% Basic-Runemaster apprentice Exam¡ú 100%] Her jaw hit the ground and a "What?!!" was screamed out unconsciously, waking up all students out of their focus. Jason liked her reaction and knew that he passed the exams with 100%, so he stood up and left the assembly hall, without minding Ms.Sharon¡äs burning eyes following her, even though they felt extremely unpleasant. Goosebumps spread over his skin and if Jason didn''t know better he would think that Antalia wanted him to take of his clothes and do something to him, as her burning eyes burned with desire. Her eyes followed the black haired youth, who looked no older than 14 as she questioned herself, how it was possible to learn for three basic apprentice exams at the same time within a week. To add on, Jason had used two hours for every exam which was one hour less than planned for every exam. Previously she scanned Jason¡äs mana core and now, this information combined with everything else was more shocking to her than seeing a Rank 5 Artisan. But never would she have known that Jason¡äs memory was so good because he refined his brain in order to split his mind. Without that, it would be impossible for Jason to score 100% in every exam. Rather than that, it would even be difficult for him to pass all exams at once, as the required knowledge consisted of a wide range. Chapter 106 - Breaking Through All Shackles Antalia was standing motionless on the stage, looking at the closed door which connected the assembly hall with the first-grader building. `Is it finally my time to shine as a teacher?` She asked herself when a creepy smile appeared on her face, scaring the two remaining men on the stage. Both the blacksmith and the runemaster, were only Rank 3 Artisans, while Antalia was not only younger but also more talented in alchemy. She had reached the 4th Rank and was said to be able to reach the 5th Rank within a few dozen years if she was able to reach certain requirements. While Antalia was thinking about Jason, he was already allowed to go home, because today¡äs schedule was only consistent with the Artisan apprentice exams. Passing them all, Jason had nothing else to do. Suddenly he felt his mana core shaking and sensing his insides, Jason noticed that the mana inside his core was raging violently, trying to break out of the Novice-rank shackles. It was uncomfortable and even hurt slightly, as the mana core resisted against the outburst of mana, forcing it to stay inside the core. He had still some mana stones left for the current situation and he took some of them out while searching for a tranquil place with a decent mana current. The pain inside his mana core intensified a little bit, however, it was still endurable and only five minutes passed when he had found the perfect place. Jason was at the outskirts of the forest which he entered on his first day and he clearly remembered that Mr.Greil told him that he was not allowed to go inside. He wasn''t sure why this was the case but he didn''t mind it. Even if he was able to venture inside, he wouldn''t as the mana flow he perceived was perfectly fit for his breakthrough. Breaking through would probably take a few hours even with the support of a few mana stones as Jason took out more mana stones which placed closely around whim, while a few remained in his hands in order to receive the optimal mana supply from them. If Jason was capable of creating an isolation mana circle, he wouldn''t need to take mana stones into his hand, and placing them on the mana circle would be more than enough. Everything could go smoother and faster but apparently, Jason wasn¡ät a runemaster and couldn¡ät inscribe mana circles or runes. As such it had to be done the old-fashioned and less efficient way. Jason relaxed his body and loosened up mana-threads from the mana stones in order to lead them into his body. His pores opened up subconsciously, as he greedily absorbed the mana from his surroundings and the small grade-1 mana stones around him and inside his hands. Doing a large circle with the gathered mana inside his channels, he absorbed them into his body, bringing his mana core almost to the brink of destruction. At least that was what it looked like. It didn''t take long until the mana core began to crumble slightly but before it completely cracked open. However before anything could happen, the mana inside his core filled up the gaps and caused the mana core to enlarge itself. Jason was completely enveloped in mana while his body was shimmering lightly due to it, causing his appearance to look even more stunning. Time passed slowly and cold sweat pearls drenched his back and forehead due to the excessive focus he endured. It was not excessively taxing to absorb mana but filling the gaps of his mana core all the time was not as easy as he thought in the beginning. More than four hours passed and it was already evening when Jason opened his eyes slowly. His eyes shimmered vigorously, and it seemed like golden flames were flickering inside, while the depth of them could not be determined anymore. This depth only appeared for a second before it vanished and Jason''s whole body scrunched when he was about to stand up. His clothes were dirtied with bloodstains, a black mass of reeking impurities and...skin?? When he broke through his old skin peeled off naturally, which was relatively uncommon but considering that his soulbond was a scorpion that also enhanced his skin by a considerable degree, it wouldn''t be that abnormal to peel off his old and weaker skin once he broke into a new rank. His new skin looked fair and one could see his veins without much difficulty. Without activating his mana eyes, Jason was even able to see his mana veins, which were interconnected to his veins, shining brightly as if a stream of stars flowed through them. Activating his mana eyes and using his senses at the same time, Jason carefully inspected his mana core rank at the Adept rank. His core was around 50% larger compared to before and Jason felt much stronger in every possible way. This feeling caused Jason to be overjoyed and he was now at the same mana core as the second weakest mana core rank in school, which would most likely cause an uproar the next time, anyone scanned through his mana core. It only took him slightly more than a month to conquer five levels and a whole rank, causing Jason to be extremely proud of himself. Not many could do that, even if he could only do so due to his teacher''s help. Jason changed his clothes inside a bush before rushing off to the school gates, with a happy smile on his face. Suddenly a red-haired girl with a voluptuous chest, a brown-haired youth, and a small blue-haired girl walked out of the forest and they had a certain thing in common. Their beed-red cheeks and gazes that followed the black-haired youth who looked somehow familiar to them Clearing her throat, the red-haired girl was the first one to gather her senses "Haven''t we seen him before...a-at the lake?" she said and thinking about the naked boy jumping down into the lake in the middle of the forest, everyone''s cheeks turned even redder if that was even possible. "P-Probably?" The brown-haired youth said shyly¡­ It had never been easy for him to talk to anyone except his two friends, and seeing a stranger naked, wasn''t something one would normally see, but they had seen his thing two times at that. Even if the blue-haired girl was tiny, her mind was shameless and she remembered the youth''s lower body part, which was the cause for her to turn red. Forcing her brain to change subjects, she stated. "But wasn''t that boy only at the 6th Novice rank previously? Hasn''t it only been slightly more than a month? How can he break into the Adept rank so fast?!?" Hearing that, her two pals were shocked as they hadn''t thought of that. This caused their minds to forget that the black-haired youth was naked a moment before and they began to wonder, how such a feat was even possible, as they could never do something like that. They were already third grades and at the peak-Expert rank but considering the constant rise of more prodigious youths each year, their feat was, unfortunately, nothing to be proud of, even if it was considered above average amongst their classmates. Jason didn¡ät know that the group of three saw him changing his clothes. If he did, nobody could be sure, how he would react, not even Jason himself. Meanwhile, Jason ran towards the gates and his speed seemed to have increased by at least 30%, probably even more. Thinking about that, he wondered how his future spars with Greg would be. Maye, he was even able to fight some awakened beasts head-on. Jason noticed that he was relatively short on money, even if his money wrecker, Artemis was evolving. After Artemis finished her evolution, she would demand even more food which would cause him to pay more credits to nurture her. He had still a few thousand wild-ranked cores left and he would force her to eat them first, but they wouldn''t be sufficient for a long time. In addition to his awakened beast cores, Jason hoped that he could provide her with food for a month. Thinking about credits, Jason was reminded about the magical treasure that emitted an light gray color. He only knew that it was a Siphon-agnus-castus flower and he was still not sure what exactly its effects were, as this particular flower wasn¡ät described in the books provided by his teacher and the Artisan-tower¡äs for the alchemy exam. Would Jason ever find out that his teacher was scolded for giving him the Siphon-agnus-castus flower? Even though Till was from a high family, that wouldn¡ät mean he could do whatever he wanted on someone else''s governed island and he had to reimburse them with something equally worthy. Jason also didn¡ät know that the Siphon-agnus-castus was a magical treasure used by Beast creators to increase the potential of nature, healing, and holy attributed beasts in addition to a few other materials. Something that could increase the potential of beasts was already rare but treasures that could increase the potential of rare and unique attributes like sentient plants, healing, and holy attributed beasts, was even more shocking. The Siphon-agnus-castus was said to be even able to give half-sentient plants the opportunity to fully awaken their sentient, causing them to create their incomplete core which would be similar to an invitation to the path of cultivation and mana absorption If Till would have known that before, he would have never allowed Jason to pick up such a precious treasure. In the end, he could only lament, as it would hurt his pride to ask Jason to give the Siphon-agnus-castus back, considering the possibility that it was already used up or sold. Chapter 107 - Annihilation It was Saturday morning and Jason woke up excitedly. Today he would enter a two-star wild zone again in order to test out his Adept-rank strength and hone his hunting skills which was a complete contrast to sparring with other humans, which were intelligent and used scheming instead of their wild instincts. Beasts relied on their instincts to fight and only a few rare beasts had the ability or intelligence to set up traps or use other kinds of tricks to kill or manipulate others. Considering that most of these beasts were at the magical rank or higher, Jason wouldn''t be scared to find such beasts in a two-star wild zone. The only thing Jason was worried about were the recent news about Goblins infesting the nearby wild zones with the info that their hunting groups became larger with time passing. Some online forums spread rumors about a Hobgoblin shaman gathering and breading goblins in order to attack Cyro City while others said a Goblin King was going to establish its Kingdom nearby. They''re still quite a lot of other rumors but considering the increase of goblins in the local areas, it was more feasible for the first two rumors to be true. Both of these existences were terrifying, not only because of their advanced combat abilities but also because their leadership and scheming were on par with humans if not higher due to their willingness to sacrifice thousands of their subordinates within a blink of one''s eyes. Goblins were terrifying existences. Their strength was rather weak but their ability to copulate made even rabbits envious while they are as tenacious as c.ockroaches. If one male Goblin survived, the whole race could blossom again which was terrifying, thinking back of the multiple tens of thousand men getting ripped apart by the small green monsters while women were taken away and raped to increase their population. Humanity gave their best to annihilate them but apparently, they were back to resist humanity once again. Jason found many Mission issues on the school mission board which was connected to the hunting association and government, as they issued most missions. The big three schools would also accept these missions and change the rewards to lace points which were much more valuable for students due to the wide variety of skills materials and other rare resources one couldn''t purchase outside school without having a certain authority. With this exchange, schools would still have a slight profit and it was a win-win situation for everyone. Seeing the rewards for Goblins were so high, Jason asked himself what exactly was going on. Searching through the issued mission, Jason found out that hunting 40 Goblin soldiers would reward 1 lace point while 5 lower Goblin mage apprentices, could also be exchanged for 1 lace point. It was extremely rare to see awakened ranked Elite or Mutated Goblins, let alone Hobgoblins, as they reached the evolved rank within a few days after birth. Hunting a single one of these would award 1-5 lace points which were 20.000 to 100.000 Credits. Considering the common price for awakened beasts between 50 and 500 Credits, the given rewards was definitely worth the effort. Goblins didn''t have anything valuable for humans and their worth would normally be at most around 100 Credits, while their equipment could even be worth more than their corpse. Jason was tempted and accepted the mission. It was only 5 am and he ordered a shuttle, which arrived after he finished his morning workout and washed up. Inside the shuttle, Jason didn¡ät forget to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique with his five-strand helix. Jason calculated that the increase of soul energy he received was around 2.5% each day which was a vast difference and solely because of him being able to practice it 3 times a day. Otherwise, the increase of soul energy would be slightly higher than 0.8% which was still high, but even possible for normal practitioners. For someone with 100 soul energy units, this increase would be with 0.8 soul energy per day and it would only heighten more and more. Jason wasn''t sure how much energy was needed to form a contract with a magical ranked beast, but he imagined it should be a vast amount and nothing to scoff at. When the shuttle arrived around a kilometer away from the dome, he finished his practice of the Heaven¡äs Hell technique. The city was so vast that the shuttle needed more than 90 minutes to arrive at the dome which was more than enough time for him to finish his soul energy practice. After Jason left the shuttle, he already wore his leather garment, the daggers were sheathed in his newly purchased scabbard that was attached at this thigh and the completely filled mechanic knife holder was stuck behind his lower back. The quiver was already attached to his belt and he was ready to receive some credits and lace points. Nevertheless, It would be a huge lie to say that Jason wasn''t at least a little bit frightened. But rather than feeling scared, he was more expectant to fight with beasts once again. Jason remembered the time, where he vomited and questioned himself about killing beasts but after killing hundreds of beasts and getting to know more about humanity''s history and their sacrifices to build relatively safe cities, he didn¡ät think like that anymore. With his current abilities and weapon, Jason could barely kill intermediate awakened beasts and only advanced beasts with weak defenses, because his throwing knives were at the lower-grade-1, while his bow was only at the mid-grade-1. His daggers could be considered slightly unique among the mid-grade-1 and they were able to easily penetrate the defenses of advanced awakened beasts but that was already the main function they had. Advanced awakened beasts would be much faster than Jason and it would be similar to a death sentence to attack them without a plan. Luckily Jason also bought a holder for his mana pistol and four magazines, which was attached to his belt and could be easily pulled out, once something unexpected happened. He had only loaded common bullets but these were more than enough to kill awakened beasts with ease, while even evolved beasts should have some problems from the impact. Jason expected his whole equipment once again while slowly walking up to the dome as he sighed deeply when he stepped through it. As expected, he was once again assaulted by the huge mana density behind the dome¡äs protection, overwhelming him. Adjusting to the sudden mana density change, Jason could see many youths absorbing mana directly behind the dome with bodyguards protecting them against beast attacks. He thought this was a clever way to save credits and nodded his head in agreement. Instead of hiring someone to construct a mana gathering platform at home, bodyguards at the expert or master ranks that could be hired to protect the new generation were much cheaper in contrast. There are mana advantages and disadvantages with everything and one would need to find a solution for oneself to figure out what was better. If Jason had the credits, he would rather hire a runemaster to construct a mana gathering platform at the Fler¡äs house to save the time needed to make a round trip to the dome and back. Walking through the two-star wild zone, it didn''t take long for Jason to sight the first Goblin hunter group. To his astonishment, Jason saw that compared to his trip a few weeks ago, this group seemed to have more than 30 goblin soldiers. Their weapons seemed to be better than before and it almost looked like they were from other hunters, which caused Jason to frown slightly. Some of these goblins had still old-looking stone weapons, but they looked sharper and tougher than a month ago with something disturbing radiating from them, while others had Jade iron- and other forged weapons. `Are there already Goblin runemaster and blacksmiths?` Jason asked himself. Even though most weapons looked rather crude they were not only forged but some stone-weapons had runes inscribed on them with a weird color on them. `Why are the higher-ups not doing anything against these Goblins? If they continue to multiply and grow even further, Cyro-city won''t be able to guarantee their citizen''s safety??` Fortunately for Jason was that he was more than 50 meters apart from them, as he distances himself a little bit. Looking at the group of Goblin soldiers in front of him, he was sure, that there were only a few archers, while not a single Goblin mage apprentice could be seen by Jason. His archery proficiency increased by a lot over the last month and Jason could already hit slower evolved ranked beasts in their head, even if they were repelled due to his previous weak pulling strength. But now that Jason¡äs strength increased to the Adept rank, he was confident in beating the shit out of the Goblin soldiers in front of him. Taking out his bow, he nocked the first arrow at the bowstring before he pulled it back, aiming at the Goblins a hundred meters away from him. *Surr* *Surr* *Surr* Three arrows flew out in rapid succession and Jason could only marvel at the accurate and smooth sequence he had perfectionated over the last few weeks. Not wasting any time, he lodged the next arrow to continue shooting them at a fast pace. The first arrow killed an archer by piercing through its skull, while the remaining two arrows shot hit another two Goblin-archers next to it, piercing its heart and abdomen. Before the Goblins were even able to notice the disaster approaching them, another volley of arrows killed two of their brethren. Not knowing what was going on, another batch of goblin soldiers fell and now all archers had been annihilated. The whole situation turned chaotic and the intelligence of the goblins was not high enough to immediately figure out where their hidden enemy was and it took another volley of arrows for them to find out Jason''s rough position. Only slightly more than 20 Goblins were able to continue fighting as they roared in anguish, while their eyes turned bloodthirsty. Charging at their sole enemy, Jason picked out five Goblins, before he decided to store away his bow. It was only now, that he started to feel the pressure of a quantitative disadvantage, as he pulled out multiple throwing knives to injure the raging goblins¡ä legs and joints to further decrease their combat prowess. Around 10 uninjured Goblins were left, when they reached Jason¡äs five-meter range, as he pulled out his two, tempered Jade iron daggers. Exerting the Weightless steps movement technique to its fullest with the Weaponry Knight technique at the same time, Jason leaned forwards and with a slight push, he stood in front of the first Goblin soldier that was shocked to see the human appearing in front of it, without it noticing. It thrust its long spear at him, but it was at a huge disadvantage because its opponent was already too close to fully utilize a spear, while Jason didn''t need to exert much strength to slice through the goblin''s throat. There was not much resistance and Jason disappeared from the dying¡äs Goblin side before a huge fountain of blood spurted out of the cut-open throat. Due to his amplified speed, Jason was much faster than the short-legged Goblins and they weren''t able to overwhelm him with their quantitative advantage either. As such, Jason gracefully moved through the group of Goblins and slaughtered them, while his golden eyes flickered full of life. Chapter 108 - Protection Pendant Jason took a few deep breathes to inhale some air as he was too tensed up during his close combat fight with the 10+ goblins. A single mistake could have ended his life and the goblins numeral advantage was extremely annoying. Not even normal beasts would form such big groups except a few herd beasts, but that was not as annoying as goblin groups as they worked together. Jason stored all Goblins and inspected some of their weapons only for him to figured out that most forged weapons seemed to be from hunters, while only a few were crudely forged from somebody else. What astonished Jason however was that the runes he found on the stone weapons were either rare or not listed in the books provided by the Artisan-tower. If these were unknown runes, Jason could make a huge fortune by selling them. But rather than that, it looked like they were probably only basic weapon strengthening runes, like sharpening, toughness, and so on with a few adjustments. Still! Jason was sure that not many runemasters knew these runes and maybe selling them could bring him some credits. Furthermore, he would save a few for himself to research them because Jason doubted that Goblins used rare materials to inscribe these runes. Maybe it was not required to use liquefied mana stones or higher ranked beast cores to inscribe runes! After storing everything away, Jason was sure that he could make a huge fortune by hunting Goblins, either by handing in missions for lace points or by selling their weapons. The only small problem was that some of Jason¡äs arrows couldn¡ät be found or broke when they penetrated the goblin''s bones. Jason had only around 100 arrows, after purchasing another batch a few weeks ago and he had never thought that he would end up with a shortage of arrows so soon. He had enough throwing knives and didn¡ät really bother the lost ones but he still picked up the ones he found as throwing away credits was extremely wasteful. Not wasting any time searching for the lost knives and arrows, Jason continued his hunt for Goblins. * Only half an hour passed until he found the next large group of Goblins and it wondered Jason, that he could barely see any other beasts, which was a good and bad sign at the same time. It seemed like the beasts were either hiding, already killed, or captured by Goblins which would be relatively bad, considering the fairy tales about Goblin-riders. The only good point for Jason was that he didn''t have to be that careful about approaching beasts than before, which didn''t mean he would lower his guard in any way. Scanning through the next group of Goblins, Jason noted that the group was slightly smaller than the one before while two larger mage apprentices could be identified among the group of hideous green beasts. Jason took out his bow once again. Pulling back the bowstring with an arrow nocked on it, he shot at the slightly larger Goblin-mage apprentice among the two of them. To play everything safe, Jason decided to shoot all three arrows at a single target, because he noticed weird mana fluctuations around the goblin mage apprentices through his mana eyes. It was not only that both Goblin mage apprentices reached the intermediate awakened rank, while one seemed larger, the mana fluctuations he perceived enveloped something. A bad premonition was slowly building up inside his mind, when the arrows smoothly left the bowstring. The arrows flew in a perfect curve at the goblin group that didn¡ät detect anything at all when the arrows pierce into the larger goblin mage apprentice¡­.or that was what Jason hoped for. Right before the arrows pierced into its target to kill it, a thick bright rune appeared in front of the arrow, illuminated the surrounding lightly deflecting the first arrow easily. Once the first arrow was deflected, Jason saw that the fluctuations he saw weakened while the second arrow caused the manifested rune to lose its luster completely. The last arrow ripped the rune apart and pierced into the goblin mage apprentice. The last arrow was the only one that hit the target and ripping apart the manifested rune, caused it to change its trajectory slightly. As such the arrow pierced into the large goblins abdomen, injuring it seriously, instead of killing it instantly with a hit into the head. It cried out in pain and the other goblin mage apprentice immediately took action. Looking around, while mana particles swirled around it. Due to the more superior intelligence of goblin mage apprentices compared to normal goblins, it detected Jason almost immediately, when another volley of arrows entered its view. When Jason saw the manifested rune, he immediately knew that his first attack wouldn¡ät kill the first goblin mage apprentice. As such he shot another volley of arrows at the same target to finish it off, before nocking another arrow on the bowstring. There were close to 20 goblins slightly more than 100 meters away from him and he was alone as Scorpio was too weak in order to support him. The first lethal target was killed and the only possible threat to him was the remaining goblin mage apprentice, as it would be able to use mana to attack with it. Jason only fired single arrows in fast succession now as his priority were the four archers. Seeing a single human attacking them. The remaining goblin mage apprentice ordered his troupe to attack him. His rapid firing speed increased even more, as the protection rune of the goblin mage apprentice that was still alive couldn¡ät be immediately destroyed. With him being uncovered it was also more important to kill as many opponents as possible, which amplified his archery skill thanks to the pressure. Before the goblins could begin their counteroffensive, Jason already killed the goblin archers, as a fireball came flying all the way towards him. Its speed was much slower than arrows but the explosiveness upon hitting a target would be great as Jason decided to abandon his current position, storing away his bow in order to make a smooth roll. The fireball didn¡ät hit its target and exploded without hurting anyone, except the plants in a small radius. Jason took out the throwing knives and charged at the goblin soldiers that were also rushing at him with wrath gleaming in their eyes. Right when the goblin mage apprentice wanted to shoot another fireball, it noticed that Jason was already among its brethren and it was forced to stop chanting its spell. But then a hideous smile appeared on its face as it saw Jason massacring its brethren when began to summon another fire-ball Jason thought that the goblin mage apprentice would not kill its brethren with a fireball and was overjoyed when he saw it canceling the spell. But only a few seconds later, he saw through his mana eyes that the goblin mage apprentice was gathering mana around it once again, which caused him to frown. From a corner of his eyes, Jason could see a red flame appearing within the goblin mage apprentice''s hand, forming into a ball that was double the size as before. When he noticed the goblin throwing the fireball, he immediately exerted the Weightless Steps movement technique to the limit as he rushed out of the densely packed area with the ten goblin soldier following his gaze with wrath and bloodlust in their eyes. They wanted to follow him when a fireball hit the center of their group, which wiped out their life without much difficulty, as the reeking smell of burned flesh, tormented his nostrils. Jason felt the fireball''s explosiveness and he was astonished that an intermediate goblin mage apprentice was able to form such a strong fireball. But looking at it, he noticed its exhaustion. Even the fluctuating mana around the area, where the mysterious protection rune seems to be placed was weaker than before and he estimated that the goblin mage apprentice absorbed some of the mana around this area. There were still three Goblin soldiers hanging on the life¡äs thread when Jason finished them off without regarding their pained cries. He was disgusted about the goblin¡äs cruelty amongst each other..killing its own brethren to assassinate a single human? Was it worth the sacrifices? Jason didn''t think so but for Goblins it could be and he didn''t want to think about this anymore as he approached the last goblin that was alive. The mage apprentice. It looked like the protection rune was still able to do something and Jason wondered if it would only deflect projectiles or not. However seeing that the goblin mage apprentice was without any combat strength left, Jason wasn¡ät all that scared about a counterattack. When he was only two meters apart from it, the goblin tried to attack him, but it was useless as Jason used throwing knives to pierce its joints, crippling it and destroying its last resistance. Apparently, the protection rune was engraved on a necklace and he had never seen the rune at all. However, the rune was only able to deflect projectiles and Jason killed the last goblin before picking up his spoils. Injecting mana into the almost completely depleted rune, it began to shine more vibrant and Jason¡äs whole stored amount of mana was used up. He estimated that the fully empowered rune should be able to block projectiles at the intermediate-awakened rank to prevent sniper or affinity-based enemies to assassinate them. Being able to inscribe various types of runes meant that the goblin runemaster¡äs knowledge was vast, even if the runes were low based ones, the material used for all of them seemed to be extremely cheap. Chapter 109 - Goblin Slayer With strong equipment and external help, humans were able to kill beasts at higher stages than their own, and thinking about the goblin¡äs equipment Jason encountered, he felt somewhat complicated. If goblins were able to produce protection pendants which could deflect projectiles and enhance simple stone weapons, what were they waiting for? Will they gather more strength until they could overwhelm Cyro city with their sheer number or was their plan grander? There has to be at least one extremely smart and knowledgeable goblin, considering that their society gifted the lower-ranked goblins, weapons and pendants with inscribed protection runes. ¡äAre they scheming something or what are they waiting for?` Jason thought and he couldn''t answer this question no matter how long he thought about it. The only thing that made Jason relatively satisfied was his mana core that was about to be completely consolidated. After fighting another few battles against smaller groups of tens of goblins, he felt his core being completely solidified because the passive mana gathering technique would take some time to finish the process. When it was lunchtime, Jason decided to go back inside the dome to practice his Heaven¡äs Hell technique. Furthermore, he sent his teacher pictures of the protection pendants and the runes inscribed on the amplified stone weapons. He wanted to be sure as he thought his teacher was the most knowledgeable person he knew and he remembered him inscribing a magic circle, which indicated his identity as a runemaster. if not even Mr.Greil knew about these inscriptions, something had to be wrong and for Jason, being safe was more important than sacrificing his life needlessly. After he finished his practice, there was still no message from his teacher and Jason decided to go back hunting some Goblins. Leaving the protection of the dome, Jason saw a few injured heavily hunting teams consisting of youths that were only slightly older than him, staggering to the dome¡äs protection. They looked terrified as if they escaped Grim-reaper by a hair and Jason wondered what scared them so much. He thought these youths were extremely dumb as they immediately stopped advancing once they entered the dome. The dome was only a transparent wall that let everything go through and if these groups of youths were pursued by beasts or Goblins, it would still take a few seconds until the dome¡äs AI could annihilate the threat. Projectiles wouldn''t be seen as threats to the city and elemental attacks or arrows and other long-range attacks could easily find their targets, even if beasts stopped in front of the dome. Jason¡äs mana eyes were always activated outside the dome and looking at the injured youths, he suddenly sensed that something was wrong with them. `Poison? Is this also the work of goblins?` Jason asked himself but his eyes only told him that the poison wasn¡ät lethal enough to kill someone at the Adept rank and could at most paralyze them. He had a certain innate resistance to poison due to Scorpio. As such the effect wouldn''t be that much of a threat to him, however, it was still worrisome. He continued his hunt, and after some time, Jason just decided to not use his bow and immediately sneak up to the goblins, as it was much faster that way due to the existence of goblin-mage apprentices that sacrificed their own brethren. The more goblins Jason killed, the easier it was for him to predict their movements. After killing the sixth large group of goblins, something began to change innately. It was already close evening and he noticed many Goblins using blast pipes with poison which was not exactly an advantage for them, as they fought Jason. Rather it would make his onslaught much easier and he lost count, how many goblins he slaughtered throughout the whole day. His golden eyes were flickering even more vigorously and the goblins that looked into his eyes were scared to the bones, causing them to step back as they shivered in fright. He hadn¡ät sustained many injuries and only a few small cuts and poisonous darts hit him. The poison was not entirely useless but the whole massacre was already over when he noticed the effect. Jason was about to pick up the goblin corpses when he senses mana fluctuations from behind. Exerting the weightless steps to the limits in addition to him covering his body in a mana membrane, Jason jumped to the side, rolling over a dead goblin corpse, squashing it. Only a moment later, he heard an explosion as three fireballs exploded where he previously stood. Turning to the direction where the three fireballs came from and Jason''s eyes widened in shock. Another six fireballs came flying towards him and he could only make a big jump backward while activating the protection rune on the pendant. A large rune manifested in front of Jason, and fortunately, only one head-sized fireball flew right into his direction, while the other five exploded in front of him, blowing him 2 meters away. Rolling on the ground, Jason forced himself to stand up without wasting any time when he noticed that the protection pendant¡äs mana was already used up and with his current remaining mana, he wouldn¡ät be able to activate it anymore. He had only a quarter of his mana left and looking at his enemies, Jason could only curse... There were 10 goblin mage apprentices standing in front of three adult human-sized goblins which were packed with muscles and razor-sharp fangs which stuck out from their jaw. Hobgoblins! Jason frowned and upon scanning their incomplete mana core, Jason could immediately tell that they were evolved ranked beasts! As if that was not enough, behind these Hobgoblins, stood more than one hundred Goblin soldiers as his skin was covered with goosebumps seeing his opponents. Jason thought that once such a horrifying scenario would appear in front of him, he would be scared shirtless but right now, he was terrifyingly calm. He sighed and told himself "In the end, the only good goblins are dead ones!" as he felt like the protagonist of a fairy tale he heard a long time ago when he pulled out his mana pistol. Jason''s eyes turned cold and killing intent gushed out of him when he switched his mana pistols magazine calmly to anti-magic bullets. Without caring about the eerie and bloodthirsty cries in front of him, his eyes began to flicker violently, giving the fear inside him not a tiny chance to overwhelm Jason¡äs thought. Pulling the trigger, a loud *BANG* resounded through the two-star wild zone and a protection rune manifested in front of a goblin mage apprentice. However, the rune was immediately destroyed as the goblin cried out in pain before its eyes turned dim. The anti-magic bullets were nothing special, but extremely expensive and only capable to destroy grade-1 runes, but it was more than enough to shatter the crude protection runes, in front of the goblin mage apprentices. Between its eyebrows, a tiny hole could be seen. Before the whole herd of goblins could even react, a volley of bang¡äs could be heard, before nine identical runes manifested in front of their respective wearer. They shattered without showing any signs of deflecting the bullets when all goblin mage apprentices collapsed lifelessly. While Jason changed his magazine into one with armor-piercing bullets, the goblins and hobgoblins were shocked and enraged at the same time. While hobgoblins had a higher position in their society, goblin mage apprentices were not something one could easily kill without attracting the wrath of their race. As such they began to charge at the lone enemy they faced while disregarding the thread his mysterious weapon possessed. Hobgoblins were more intelligent than normal goblins but not comparable to mage apprentices. This was also the reason why Jason killed the mage apprentices first. If they warned their brethren about the lethal thread from his mana pistol, how could Jason enjoy the scenario that occurred right in front of him? Three hobgoblins and over a hundred Goblins were charging at him, while Jason only smiled as if he lost sanity, as he emptied his magazine, before holstering his mana pistol again. After Jason holstered his pistol, the three hobgoblins noticed a searing pain spreading out from their chest, before blood poured down their chest and head, covering their eyes. Unbeknownst to them, an armor-piercing bullet pierced through their skull, exiting it without much resistance. They felt weaker and tried to wipe away the blood covering their eyes, but it was too difficult for them to lift their arms. Each step felt heavier and more difficult than a step before and they only noticed the goblin soldier overtaking them before they collapsed on the ground. Only a few moments later, their life force dissipated with dead corpses remaining. Sighing in relief because the most lethal threads were wiped out with the large number of cannon fodder left alive, Jason felt excited. `Finally, I can use this!!` Jason smiled slyly when he took out a cylindrical shaped crystal in the size of a baby-fist Injecting half of his remaining mana into the crystal, he threw it horizontally in the air before he crouched and closed his eyes and additionally covered them with his clothes. And this was not even enough as he could still see a bright light illuminating the already darkened sky. He heard an endless echo of cries and the light began to diminish slightly, causing him to jump up before he pulled out his daggers instinctively. Without wasting a single second, he rushed towards the mass of goblin soldiers, as a smile blossomed on his face. His smile widened as he saw that all goblins were covering their blood-leaking eyes, crying out in pain and anguish. The cylindrical-shaped crystal he threw into the air with his mana injected was a primal-luminous crystal, that was mainly used to illuminate streets with a marginal amount of mana injected. Injecting too much mana into this crystal would cause the inner structure to overdrive and cause a forceful reaction by the crystal. This reaction would cause a terrifying bright light to appear, which could cause even Expert ranks to be dazzled for a few minutes without being able to blind them completely. Looking straight into this light would cause awakened beasts and adept ranked humans to become dazzled for hours with a high chance of becoming blind, and Jason used this overdrive effect to blind the horde of goblins in front of him. He had never thought that all goblins would look into the primal-luminous crystal and he felt fortunate, even though he was confident in defeating a few sole uninjured goblin soldiers. As such he started his onslaught of goblins before he picked up the primal-luminous crystal that began to crackle lightly Picking up all corpses and the equipment, Jason asked himself, if goblins would tell nightmares about him if a single one of them escaped. This thought lightened up his mood and he left for the dome when everything was done. Entering the dome, Jason was suddenly bombardement with notifications. Outside the dome, there one couldn¡ät receive messages without a certain device that Jason didn¡ät have, as saw over a dozen messages from his teacher with most of them saying [Come back, immediately!] Chapter 110 - Winged Teacher? Jason was a little bit confused because Mr. Greil messaged him dozen times. However, only now could he respond to his teacher. [I was outside the dome until now. What''s wrong?] Jason asked, not knowing what exactly was going on. [Don''t leave the dome¡äs protection for the time being. Something is wrong with these Goblins and we still can''t figure out what.] [Fortunately, nothing happened to you and you haven''t met larger hunting groups. Students below the Expert rank are forbidden to leave the dome for the time being!] His teacher almost answered immediately and Jason asked himself how his teacher wrote the two messages within such a short time. Furthermore, Jason had never seen so many messages from his teacher which was also new. Jason thought about his encounters during the day and he wanted to know why exactly only Expert ranks were allowed to leave the domes protections, because in his opinion, without mana weapons or guns it would be extremely difficult to defeat the hordes of goblins with their set-up of goblin mage apprentices and Hobgoblin. Thinking about the last battle he immediately thought about the prismarine-luminous crystal and Jason''s heart fluttered lightly, without him knowing why. The crystal itself was extremely cheap with a price of 20.000 Credits considering its overwhelming effect. Jason had still a lot more of them but not many used them like he did because it could be quite dangerous. Most people would use the more expensive flash grenades which were made out of the same crystal in addition to other materials. But these grenades were much safer and flashed a certain area and not the whole surrounding. Furthermore, they didn''t have to be injected with mana as a small incomplete beast mana core could be inlaid to operate everything. He was still thinking about his fight with the goblin mage apprentices and the hobgoblins when he sent a message to his teacher unconsciously. Looking down Jason checked the content of his message and couldn''t help but smile wryly. [Why can Expert stages go out of the dome''s protection? Aren''t groups of hundreds of goblins or dozens of mage apprentices at once too much for them to handle? Or at least the evolved ranked hobgoblins inside two-star wild zones should be reason enough to forbid them to leave the dome¡­] Jason wouldn''t have sent the exact same content in his message like he did, but now it was already sent. However, his teacher''s answer was kinda weird. [What do you mean? Hundreds of Goblins? Dozens of mage apprentices and Hobgoblins?? Did you see them? Separated or together? All of that inside the two-star wild zone? Where are they now?] Jason was confused about his teacher''s reaction. All Incidents with the goblins were uncommon and definitely not normal but Jason concluded out of Mr.Greil¡äs reaction that there was more than that. He explained the situation with a simple message. [There was a huge group of hundreds of Goblin soldiers, led by three Hobgoblins and ten Goblin mage apprentices inside the two-star wild zone going somewhere. But I don''t really know where they wanted to go. They are dead, I shot them. As such this particular group shouldn¡ät be a problem anymore.] After sending the message, Jason waited for a moment before closing the holographic screen. It wouldn''t take long until his shuttle arrived and while waiting, Jason skimmed through his loot to calculate his rough gains. He killed three evolved ranked Hobgoblins that would give him approximately 3 or 4 Lace points each. Furthermore, he had killed 14 Goblin mage apprentice, rewarding him with 3 Lace points in total. Counting the numbers of goblin carcasses would be too much of a hassle for him and as such, he estimated that there were about 300 corpses inside his storage space giving him 7.5 lace points. He would have never thought that he was able to kill so many Goblins within one day or rather 12 hours and the last group was the main culprit for his gains. In addition to the vast number of corpses, Jason estimated that more than 70% of the goblins'' weapons were made out of tempered stone, with runes inscribed on them, that seemed to increase their sharpness and toughness. Jason couldn¡ät estimate a price for them, including the protection pendants, he picked up from the mage apprentice corpses. There were still many forged weapons. Most of them were crude and would probably end up as low grade-1 weapons. Due to Jason¡äs improved blacksmithing knowledge he achieved since he read the blacksmithing books required for the Basic blacksmith apprentice exam, Jason knew a lot about ores used to forge these weapons. It was Rhyolite ore, which was a rare grade-2 material and quite expensive. Seeing weapons made out of Rhyolite ore in the hands of Goblins, was a fascinating sight as it was quite uncommon and they could be used to reforge into a grade-2 weapon. Jason knew that these ores could be found in one of the permanent rifts on Astrix. The permanent rift was a lush, vast mountain range with many ores inside and a habitat for many unblemished ranked beasts. There are a few magical-ranked and lower-ranked beasts but mostly unblemished beasts dominated the mountain range plane. Its size was larger than Astrix and many mines were situated there, causing Jason to wonder how the Goblins were able to get their tiny hands on Rhyolite ore. `Did they mine them by themselves or have they ambushed merchants?` Jason couldn''t find an answer and he decided to not think about that right now. Considering the value of Rhyolite ore, Jason was confident in getting a good amount of Credits for it. There were also a few grade-1 weapons, that remained from killed hunter teams and Jason felt sour about that. This sourness however wouldn¡ät prevent him from selling these Weapons later on as he began to estimate their value. Before Jason could finish his train of thoughts, he felt a strong air current, blowing through his surroundings, and with a sudden boom, his teacher appeared in front of him. Looking at his teacher with widened eyes, it was impossible for him to not notice something in particular, which frightened Jason for a short moment. His teacher had white wings on his back?! `He isn''t from the winged race, right?` He questioned himself but shook his head in denial after remembering that his teacher said that he was from one of the big families. Not a tiny speck of mana fluctuations could be sensed by him before and his exceptional senses were useless against Till¡äs speed. If they were enemies, Jason could get killed without him noticing it which was scary. But seeing his teacher''s slightly worried face, Jason knew that he didn''t have to be on guard against him. He didn''t know what to say as his teacher picked him up, enveloping both of them in a thick film of mana. Before he knew what was going on, Mr.Greil¡äs white wings, which had tiny golden specks inside them, began to flap violently as they ascended into the air. Jason only noticed that his feet loosened their connection to the ground below him and suddenly they soared through the sky to the city. He couldn''t estimate how fast they flew through the sky, but looking around, Jason noticed that the surroundings looked slightly blurred. Turning his gaze to the ground, he saw a slightly larger black dot moving towards the dome''s directions. `Ohh? Is that the shuttle?¡ä He asked himself and its pace looked extremely slow compared to his current speed. The whole situation was awkward as Mr.Greil was holding Jason with a firm grip and Jason wanted to question his teacher what was going on, but he would have to wait for some time. It took them only two minutes before they reached the city. Upon reaching the city, Mr.Greil slowed down. Less than five minutes later Jason noticed that their speed decelerated even more as it looked like they were about to land. Suddenly, he noticed that they were above a school with a huge forest surrounding it almost completely. At least, that was what Jason thought as the outlines of it looked similar to their own school. But they didn''t land in front of the school buildings or behind the school gates, rather than that it seemed like their destination was somewhere within the forest. Trying to figure out where exactly they would land with his mana eyes activated he saw a small mana hue covering something deep inside the forest. However, even with his mana eyes activated, he couldn''t look through the mana veil at all. It was the first time for him that he was unable to see through something and he wondered what it was and if it was their destination which was very likely. And as expected, their destination was behind the veil of mana, he couldn¡ät see through. Descending slowly, their feet were the first that slipped through the veil without hindrance. Once his whole body went through, Jason¡äs eyes widened unconsciously. His mana eyes detected more than 10 terrifying mana fluctuations which were fully exposed while hundreds of weaker mana could also be sensed. Their mana fluctuations were weaker than his teacher¡äs but comparing their innate characteristics, his teacher''s mana fluctuations were gentle and kind. Jason couldn''t help but cry out in shock. "W-w-What are magical- and guardian-ranked beasts doing here?!" Chapter 111 - Sanctuary In front of Jason were at least 10 Guardian ranked beasts and hundreds of magical ranked beasts Dozens of different races could be seen inside the flourishing valley which had the size of multiple football fields and everything suddenly felt like a dream to Jason. It was as if he was in a completely unknown biotope. Pinching his cheek, he could feel pain, and only now did he slowly begin to grasp that everything was real. There were predators and preys lying next to each other and not a single beast attacked one another. Rather than that, it looked like they were peacefully living with each other right now if there was not a horrified glimpse in their eyes. Something seemed to have scared them out of their wits. Confused he looked at his teacher and Mr.Greil was about to say something when an old voice but wise voice behind him said "These beasts are searching asylum here and won''t hurt humans due to our temporary truce... All of that because of the Goblin King and his subordinates¡­ One could say for these beasts here, this is their Sanctuary and only place to retreat at the moment¡­" Turning around, Jason saw a white-haired old man with a long beard walking towards them with a crane in his hand supporting his lumbering steps. Wearing a white robe, Jason got the feeling that the old man seemed to have lived for a long time. But contradicting that, he also thought differently, as he activated his mana eyes. It was as if an electric current spread throughout his whole body and he couldn''t control himself anymore as he began to shiver violently. Jason was almost unable to speak a single word but he forced his mouth open and said "W-who are you?" Thanks to his mana eyes, he could see that this old man''s mana channels were slowly decaying thanks to an injury, but that was not important as the mana core Jason saw right now was larger than all mana cores he had ever seen and more importantly, was that a solidified prismarine-crystal could be stood firmly within his mana core. Even if this man seemed to be weak, a single exposure of the old man¡äs mana would probably kill Jason in an instant But the only thing that lessened Jason''s worry about the old man''s strength was that his mana core looked extremely unstable and cracks spread through it like cobwebs. Jason began to step back, unconsciously until he bumped into his teacher. He looked up with shocked eyes and saw his teacher''s calm and gentle expression reassured his safety, at least indirectly. The old man chuckled a little bit before he began to cough up blood. Apparently, he was extremely sick and would die soon and Jason felt bad about being scared of him. It took the old man some time before he calmed down as he looked into Jason¡äs eyes, saying: "Young brat, I¡äm the governor of Astrix and also Vanguard¡äs main school¡äs principal! My name is Matthew Drake, but call me old Drake. Little Till told me some stories about you. I¡äm sorry that he had to abduct you but it was important to bring you here. I hope you can accept my apology. Little TIll can explain everything about the Sanctuary later to you, but there is something else we have to do." From the first few sentences Jason heard from the old man in front of him, Matthew Drake seemed to be extremely polite and reasonable for someone from a big family... Thinking about it, he thought it was either his age or his living experience. There might as well be another reason but Jason didn''t care about that. The only thing important was that Old Drake had a reason to bring him here and it was obviously not for a simple introduction. They had something to do!? "Little Till said that you were out on the two-star wild zone and during your hunt, you found runes inscribed on weapons and pendants, is that right? Furthermore, before picking you up he also told me that higher-ranked beasts started entering the lower wild zones... Can you tell me everything, please? It¡äs very important!" Jason was still slightly perplexed that such a tycoon spoke politely to him and without thinking much he took out some inscribed stone weapons and two protection pendants before he began explaining everything that happened today. Both Mr.Greil and Old Drake listened carefully without interrupting him a single time and half an hour later, he finished his explanation with his killing spree of the hundred goblin soldiers. While listening to Jason, old Drake became curious about the young man¡äs combat prowess as his explanations were only based on facts without showing off or expressing anything with emotions. It was as if Jason was reading down a report that had nothing to do with him. Being able to stay calm in front of a numeral disadvantage with a few beasts a complete rank higher than oneself was definitely not something everyone was capable of. Even if Hobgoblins were only at the evolved rank and still easy to kill with mana guns, Old Drake gave him high credits for that. Till was also astonished that Jason could stay calm in such a perilous situation but he was already unable to predict his student. As such, he just accepted this fact and thought of ways to increase Jason¡äs strength, even more, to gain a prodigious asset for humanity against the foreign intelligent races. After that, Old Drake and Till inspected the runes on the weapons and pendants carefully, while old Drake furrowed his brows after a while, before saying something to his teacher. Jason decided to stay quiet after he finished his explanation and both his teacher and Old Drake began to talk wildly about certain facts, he could hardly imagine without understanding most of it. "These inscriptions are made out of low-rank beast cores and only of bad quality, but that doesn¡ät matter considering the fact that the Goblin King provides these weapons to their weakest combat force. It looks like he is using them as scouting and hunting groups at the same time. What scares me, is the fact that there are so many inscribed swords and furthermore these unknown runes on these pendants. We have never heard about projectile protection runes made out of beast cores and these are perfect to prevent long-distance assassinations. If the Goblin King can produce higher graded protection runes, we can forget our long-distance artillery advantage. We might as well be forced to fight them in close combat where their numerical advantage could threaten us!!" The old man explained calmly. Till sighed and added "That''s true but there is not much we can do about it. We don''t know where the Goblin King is or what rank he already entered. We already lost more than 10 Magus-ranked scouts which were proficient in concealing themselves and Grandmagus ranked individuals with stealth abilities are extremely rare on Astrix. If I were to search for the Goblin King, he might as well attack the city with his troops while stalling me¡­ That''s not something we can accept. And your Injury looks worse while your strength decreases with each day passing. I don''t even want to imagine how much time you have left, Old Drake! The Goblin King could already be a Lord-ranked beast while it has most likely intelligent subordinates because a single runemaster shouldn''t be able to inscribe runes for their massive number of lowly goblin soldiers that are on the awakened rank. The only good information Jason brought is that the weapons from the Hobgoblins were used by humans and self-made, which lets me think that their runemaster is only capable of inscribing low-grade runes. If we can¡ät search for the Goblin King, let''s just bomb the magical zone! We figured out the rough position of their settlement, let''s just annihilate it with a mana amplified hydrogen bomb!" Listening to his teacher, Jason''s eyes widened¡­ they wanted to bomb the magical zone, destroying it completely? Were these goblins really so dangerous? But wouldn''t that devastate the landscape while only killing all goblins below the magical ranked stage? This wouldn¡ät exterminate their root problem!! And this was exactly what the old man said. "You know that you can just kill these little ants with a wave of your hand, and I think you''re also aware that the main problem we face is the Goblin King with his direct subordinates. There might be more than dozens Guardian-ranked Goblins, otherwise, the beasts inside the valley wouldn''t be there hiding behind us humans, who they loathe, right? Till thought for a moment and stated the simplest solution. "Can¡ät you just request help on Canir? Once another Lord rank individual arrives, we will be able to obliterate the thread without sacrificing Cyro city or even the whole Island, right?" When the old man heard this, he frowned but he couldn''t deny the logic. Both Jason and Till heard the old man mumbling before a holographic screen appeared in front of him "How annoying... Please don''t send the annoying stinky brat" Old Drake almost pleaded and before writing a message to his Clan home, he informed the government about their "plan" [Stalling time until reinforcement arrives!] It was their simple plan and the government could rake their brains to figure out how to stall time as Old Drake had more than enough to do. Mr.Greil turned to Jason and indicated to him to distance themself a little bit to give Old Drake some privacy. But before Old Drake could even request for reinforcement he felt that someone or something intruded into his illusion-mana-shell magic circle without breaking it. Normal one could only enter this magic circle through a certain position or code but the intruder didn''t use anything like that. This meant the intruder was either more knowledgeable than him or a certain ability was the reason. A sudden voice was transmitted into his mind and his eyes widened in shock and confusion at the same time. ''How is he still alive? He survived that¡­ Impossible!'' Old Drake listened carefully to the voice and before Mr.Greil and Jason could distance themselves from Old Drake, he told them that he has something to do. Both Jason and Mr.Greil could see sweat forming on Old Drake¡äs forehead and his eyes looked extreme scared as he closed his holographic screen which had already connected to someone at Canir, where a blue-haired middle-aged man could be seen shouting something before he disappeared from their sight within seconds as nobody answered him. Jason was only astonished that the old man was still capable to run so fast even if it should be painful and he asked himself what was happening today... Chapter 112 - Fortified Soul Conjunction Till was as astonished as Jason, if not even more, as he knew old Drake since he was a small boy and he had never seen him being so scared. But right now nobody could answer their questions as Till told Jason "You did a good job here and according to your narration your combat prowess has probably increased quite a lot.. Congrats to your breakthrough! You''re finally an Adept-rank and not far behind the others anymore." Jason smiled lightly but his pride about the breakthrough into the Adept rank could wait for the time being. Suddenly remembered his teacher''s white golden striped wings and the Sanctuary they were inside. There were too many secrets and Jason didn¡ät know what was going on, as he only wanted to hand in the goblin corpses for lace points before he was abducted by his own teacher. Questions tormented his mind and he could only hope that his teacher would answer them "Mr.Greil can you maybe explain to me why you brought me here or maybe why you had wings on your back? Did you manifest them somehow or what are these? What¡äs the origin of this Valley? OR should I call it Sanctuary? Furthermore, I understand that Goblins are terrifying but are they so terrifying that not even Grandmagus ranked individuals are not capable of defeating them? Till himself was not exactly sure why he had to bring Jason here at this secret valley and he could only assume things. "I can''t say for sure why I had to bring you here, but it''s not like this valley is a secret among the higher authorities. Maybe it''s because the information you provided is extremely important to us because the situation with the Goblin King is going out of our hands. There is not really a different reason for me to bring you here because it doesn''t benefit you or anyone else. As for the sanctuary. It was established more than 100 years ago with a certain race that was about to be extinguished. Apparently a Lesser fire Wyvern attacked the treants territory and incinerated a whole magical zone. We are not sure why it did that but there could have been the appearance of a magical treasure, beneficial for it or something similar. More importantly is that the sentient trees inside the forest uprooted themselves and left the magical zone, trying to survive Upon uprooting, their strength began to diminish extremely fast and more and more beasts began to attack them, as they sensed a chance to increase their strength. Apparently Old Drake found the almost dead treants, bound one to himself due to their innate sturdiness and healing ability that was beneficial for him. In exchange he told the other treants to follow him. They were brought to the valley and rooted themselves inside the soil. Over the course of a century, more and more beasts began to seek asylum. Now around 40 magical ranked beasts and two guardian ranked beasts are living here under the condition that they let their offsprings form a contracts with humans or give up other benefits in exchange for their protection. Following that, the beasts were obviously enraged but they gave in under the pressure of being exiled. The only thing they wanted to do, was to decide who would be allowed to form a contract with their offspring." Jason listened carefully and roughly understood its meaning. `It seems like the Sanctuary is a win-win situation for all hm?` Old Drake probably lives until now because of the innate ability of the treants and as thanks, he let them life here. As for the other beasts they have to give up a tribute to stay there. Magical-ranked beasts were not as rare as Guardian-ranked beasts but on Asterix probably only a few tens of thousand have their habitats there while probably less than 100 Guardian-ranked beasts lived here. In the end, the Beast Pagoda and other hunters didn¡ät have many magical-ranked beasts while breeding them was extremely difficult because of their low fertility rate. And only now did Jason understand the threat of the Goblin King. The chances for it to be at the Lord rank were extremely high and if that was the case, it was possible for many Magical and Guardian ranked goblins to follow their king, which would be devastating. It was extremely important for Astrix survival to kill the Goblin King as soon as possible. Continuing with his train of thoughts, he wondered why Cyro city accepted so many Guardian and Magical ranked beings, even though they themselves had to face a dangerous threat. This question was easily answered by Till, who noticed Jason¡äs complex expression "In recent years, the new generations have better soul-awakenings than ever before and there are many youths and young men/women waiting for magical ranked beast cubs to form a contract with them. The cause of this sanctuary is more a breeding ground than for asylum and Old Drake gave every beast the chance to either give him something in exchange for letting them live here until the incident with the Goblin King is over, or he demanded their next offspring in order to obtain another beast for a soulbond contract. This might be cruel but during the last decade, some foreign races began to attack Canir, and we need to increase our quantity and quality of capable fighters, which includes better soulbonds. Our life is on the line!! You are still not aware of the strength, these foreign races can exert, but even the weakest of them have a better control over mana than most Master ranked humans. Our only advantage is that our population is large and we haven''t seen any of the intelligent races attacking us with a hundred thousand or more soldiers. If that was the case, I doubt that anyone would live in such peace as we do right now. Maybe this is because the biggest threat of most foreign intelligent races are the other foreign intelligent races, or something else? Who knows.. " Mr.Greil shrugged and it was obvious that he didn''t want to continue talking about the foreign intelligent races, as his eyes radiated cold killing intent, covering fear and sadness. Jason didn''t know much about these invading races, except that they were supposed to be extremely strong and they didn¡ät seem to act in large groups. It was only said that every individual of these races had to be kinda strong and innately tougher and more compatible with mana than humans. The only real advantage Jason knew the humans had, was their soul awakening and their inextinguishable will to live. Goblins were supposed to be tenacious and hazardous but humanity survived them as well. Their sheer will to live alone caused them to increase their mana core rank to an unimaginable height within 300 years, without any former knowledge about anything about mana control and absorption at all. But more importantly was the soul-awakening and its benefits. Not only could soulbonds be performed with every compatible living being but the amplified strength and shared affinity were also extremely helpful to strengthen humans combat prowess. And with the awakening of the soul, humans could at least prevent the intruders from invading Canir and the Archipelago¡äs around it. The next thing Mr.Greil said opened a new world to Jason and he finally began to understand why soul awakenings are so important. "Jason, have you ever heard something about [Fortified soul conjunction¡äs]?" Shaking his head, Jason¡äs interest was picked up, upon hearing a new term. "You might have noticed that the bond between you and your first soulbond is stronger compared to before, even if it is only by a small amount. Emotions, thoughts and even pictures can be transmitted and that''s not everything! Due to the connections between beast and human, they share everything and once a certain threshold is crossed, they know what the other one will do or even think, before you¡äre aware of it. Some humans have formed a soulbond more than a hundred years ago and these humans and beasts have survived and experienced thousands of battles without dying. The stronger a bond is the more in synchro are both contractor and soulbond. [Fortified Soul conjunction] means in this case, that the bond between human and beast is consolidated and stable enough to sacrifice oneself for each other. This doesn¡ät mean the forced loyalty between contractor or soulbond but rather a sincere bond from both sites. Most authorities consider this bond as thicker than blood and in my case, I would rather sacrifice myself than my radiant-star eagle or greater blessed wolf, which you already saw. Forming such a stable and consolidated bond is a longterm process one can only create while treating your soulbond as a family member if not better. There are some exceptions that can cause a Fortified soul conjunction, like sacrificing yourself for your soulbonds own good. Raising your soulbond since it was born for example decreases the period to form a fortified soul conjunction for example and many more methods like that exist. After having experienced hundreds of life and death battles you overcame together, you will notice the unstable connection between both of you becoming stabler and with more emotions transmitted to each other. While your beast will receive a large enhancement in intelligence, while you already saw the benefits for us humans. You¡äll notice that you have established a fortified soul conjunction once it happens. Now back to your main question. You asked if I manifested the radiant wings or what these were, right? And to tell you the truth, the wings you saw were my radiant star eagle¡äs wings. After having established a fortified soul conjunction with your beast, both your soulbond¡äs and your soul have an unbreakable connection with each other and the soul will fuse together. This means your soulbond and you are not two beings anymore but rather one being that can divide into two living forms!! Both of you will remain individual but at the same time, you¡äll fuse together! This fusion can be quite painful in the beginning but once everything is over, you might be able to transform your body into bodyparts of your soulbond. According to your soul amplification, you might be able to exert more strength than both individuals alone while being fused. For example if I transform my hands into an eagle talon, my strength will increase by more than 10% which is extremely high, considering that my physique and mana core rank are much higher than my radiant eagle¡äs rank. Furthermore, with my radiant-star eagle, I''m able to fly around after summoning its wings on my back, which shouldn''t be possible at my rank." Chapter 113 - Meeting And Old Acquaintance Jason nodded ambitiously and asked multiple questions about the limits of the fortified soul conjunction but Till had to be honest with Jason, as he explained that his limits were already filled by summoning his radiant-star eagle wings for 2 hours because his consolidation hadn''t been that long. This astonished Jason slightly and he wondered if the radiant star eagle was his teacher''s first soulbond. However, he wouldn''t ask that because he didn¡ät want to seem rude and it wouldn¡ät be that helpful to figure that out, because Till told him, that he was already older than 40 years. `40 years?` Jason estimated when Mr.Greil began to answer all questions As a teacher, Till didn¡ät feel bad answering dozens of questions from ambitious students that obviously liked to get to know more about everything, and time passed without them knowing. It was already 10 pm but Jason continued asking questions straightforwardly. But now his previously bright face was rather pale, as the answers he received became rather unpleasant to listen to. He asked his teacher about the recent incidents with goblins and why nobody did anything against them. Considering that he fought them already a month ago, there seemed to be something essentially wrong with either the Goblins or the government that acted too slow. But the answer worsened his mood "After you brought back the evidence about Goblin soldiers and Goblin mage apprentices striding through the two-star wild zone, almost everyone was shocked, this included us and the government. We immediately sent magus-ranked individuals to exterminate them and the surrounding wild zones were cleared within a day. The adjacent wild zones were already infested by Orclins and Hobgoblins at the evolved rank, Orc¡äs and Hobgoblin Warrior at the unblemished rank, and even Goblin Lords, Orc Warrior and Goblin mages which are existences that have already formed a complete mana core, turning them into magical ranked beasts. Orcs are higher existences and a rare path from Goblins, while their strength and endurance are not incomparable to Goblins, their reproduction phase is much longer. Most Orcs establish their own society but apparently not in this case. Orcs have a high mana resistance and strong physique which is kind of hard to deal with and to exterminate all threads out of the surrounding wild- and magical zones, we had to gather a large troupe of magus¡ä. Furthermore, the leader of the troupe was a Grandmagus rank. As such the extermination was possible, even if many magus¡äs suffered heavy injuries. We thought, that everything was over and didn¡ät expect a Goblin King hiding somewhere in the forbidden lands. Only when the Guardian-ranked beasts began to seek asylum from us, we got to know the information about the Goblin settlement in the forbidden lands. Even our Grandmagus ranked Captain can''t kill some of the Guardian-ranked beasts that sought asylum within the Sanctuary and due to that, we concluded that either hundreds of Guardian ranked Goblins established their settlement with their Goblin King only being at the peak Guardian rank or the Goblin King is already at the Lord Rank, which can be considered the worst-case scenario. A Lord rank being can immediately shatter Cyro-City¡äs walls without wasting any energy and without a Lord rank human protecting the whole city or rather Astrix we would have a big problem right now. But only when you sent me the images of the runes on the pendants, we figured out that the goblins could also supply their weakest force with weapons, which is a huge problem. If I were to fight the Goblin King, the city would be without protection because Old Drake is not able to fight anymore. Furthermore, there might be hundreds of Guardian-ranked Goblins Shamans, Mutated Goblin Lords, Goblin Magic Knights, or High-Orcs that would enter the city unhindered. If the military could stall the former guardian- and magical-ranked Goblins and Orcs, tens of millions of goblin soldiers and mage apprentices with their inscribed weapons would be able to attack the citizens unhindered. Even if the Goblin soldiers are barely at the awakened rank, if non-combatant civilians would fight them, the result would be obvious. Death! Cyro City has around 80 million citizens, while more than half of them were either too young and below the Expert rank or only at the Novice rank because they didn¡ät even start to sense mana. The military strength of Cyro city is around 1 million soldiers, which takes care of everything within the city, while less than 200.000 are at the Magus ranks. The Cyro-City has probably around 100.000 Magus ranked beings, which is not really much but still more than enough to defend against the magical ranked goblins. The main issue however is among the 100.000 Magus ranked beings, less than 1.000 are Grandmagus And among these 1.000 Grandmagus, more than 70% are old, sustained seriously injured, or have a disease. At most 500 Grandmagus are able to fight with most of their combat prowess but there are still at a disadvantage against the Guardian-ranked goblins, because humans are innately weaker than beasts. Without a Guardian-ranked soulbond or at least three to four powerful magical-ranked soulbonds at once, this gap is extremely difficult to overcome. Most Grandmagus have at most two or three magical ranked beasts contracted because the soul energy requirement for a Guardian ranked being is huge and one is only capable to bind if one possesses innate high soul energy since birth or didn¡ät contract many higher-ranked beasts for dozens of years to increase the soul energy with the Heaven''s Hell soul energy increasing technique or other techniques, that are less painful but also less efficient. To add, even magical ranked beasts are difficult to find and taming matured ones is even harder. To contract magical beasts one also needs a large amount of soul energy and it takes most humans years to accumulate it. Youths with a high talent migrate to Canir in order to obtain more resources with an additional higher mana density. As such not many should have a Guardian-ranked beast as their soulbond. That means two Grandmagus would have to fight a single Guardian-ranked opponent, bringing us into an even more disadvantage position due to the Goblin¡äs innate high numerical advantage. To survive, most humans would unleash their soul beasts to fight with them, and only with that, we could survive in our current situation but the casualties we had to suffer would be tremendous." Till ended his long speech and Jason looked at him with widened eyes. He wanted to tell Jason everything because he felt that this youth in front of him should know everything as he seemed mature and more rational than his peers. Seron also knew about the Goblin King¡äs threat but he was also unable to do anything. If worse comes to worst, he would just take Seron and leave Astrix, but he didn¡ät really want to let it come to the worst-case if possible. Jason was still shocked and he knew that Cyro-City had many strong beings but even if 1.000 Grandmagus seemed "grand", Jason figured out that the truth was different, and a slight tinge of fear spread through his body. `How long does the Goblin King need to set up his army and when will the massacre against each other start? Will our reinforcement arrive before that or is the Goblin King aware of his lack of time?` Too many questions rotated inside his mind when he heard a somewhat unfamiliar but also familiar voice behind him. "Brat! Don''t think too much or you¡äll get a headache. Cyro-city won''t fall!" It was an old voice and he was familiar with this voice, or not? Both Jason and Till turned around and when they saw an old man standing next to Old Drake their reactions were completely different. "Old Man" Jason said, confused and happy, while being reminded about his soul-awakening. It was the old man that was present when he had his soul-awakening! `But what is he doing here? Wasn''t he a higher-up from the Beast Pagoda in Artes city?` Jason wondered as he looked at Old Drake who stood behind the old man, slightly worried, which confused Jason even more. "M..Mr. Blair?.." TIll asked hesitantly not knowing what to do. "You¡äre alive?" He asked with his guard up, enveloping himself and Jason instantly, ready to pick his student up any moment to vanish once he sensed something wrong. "Little One¡­ don''t even try to run away...hehehe" The old man, apparently called Mr. Blair said, while releasing a vast and pure mana to shackle down Till, forcefully loosening his mana. He couldn''t move a single inch, while Jason only saw the vast and dense amount of mana through his mana eyes. Looking straight into the released mana core of Mr. Blair, which was completely sealed when they met for the first time at his soul-awakening, Jason¡äs eyes widened involuntarily with three words unconsciously escaping his mouth "solidified-prismarine-crystals" as he stumbled backwards and fell on his butt. Mr Blair looked at Jason with slight astonishment and interest could be seen in his eyes. `My prey!!` he thought, satisfied with what he figured out. Over the last weeks, Jason astonished him over and over again, while the most astonishing fact was, that he could remain calm in almost all situations, overcoming the trauma of being killed thousands of times without much difficulty, and even more important, Mr Blair could confirm his guess about Jason¡äs unique soul. His soul energy reproduction ability had to be superior because it was impossible for someone without a single unit of soul energy to suddenly have contracted two soulbonds, while both of them needed at least 4 to 6 units at the moment. From almost non-existent soul energy to a soul energy of at least 10 would take at least a half a year in common cases and Mr Blair grew even more curious about Jason. Unfortunately, there wasn¡ät the perfect timing for him to approach Jason, as he seemed to do fine. Mr Blair wanted to look after his achievements and figure out what he was about to do, once he solved one problem after another. He knew that Jason was innately an extremely good combatant, while his affinity to mana was superior, which included his senses, control, and so on but most importantly were Jason¡äs eyes and soul, that kept Mr Blair¡äs patience. "Yeah, I''m still alive and kicking. Little one!" He said looking fiercely at Till Greil before he smiled gently at Jason. He had found his treasure and would do everything he could to make him his! "I¡äll help you guys with the Goblin King, but first I want to talk with this brat!" He ordered without giving Till or Old Drake the chance to say anything at all. Chapter 114 - Clan Annihilation He went closer to Jason, who was obviously scared about the released mana which approached him, suffocating him due to the pressure when he couldn¡ät breath anymore "M-Ma-Maana..c...c...core!" His eyesight blurred and Jason couldn''t stay awake as he lost his consciousness. The old man noticed something wrong when Jason''s head turned red and he immediately concealed his mana when he heard the youth in front of him. "Oh¡­.Sorry!!!!" Mr.Blair said as he ran towards Jason, putting a hand on his chest and injecting a marginal amount of mana inside him, to operate his body normally. His released mana was nothing to make fun of and Jason was only an Adept rank... `That could have been embarrassing...Killing my treasure before he even accepted me!!` But Old Drake and Till looked at Mr Blair in shock ''He said sorry?!?? Is that really the Blair we know? He seems to have aged quite a bit but is that really Mr.Blair who annihilated the Shore clan because they abducted his wife? Why is he so worried about Jason?` Old Drake and Till looked at each other and the exact same thought appeared in their mind '' Is Jason their child?'' With this thought, their eyes widened in shock as their gaze turned back to Jason that still looked extremely pale with blood leaking out of his eyes and mouth while Mr. Blair was taking care of him. "It can''t be, right? Jason has mana eyes and not the unique body of Mrs. Blair!" Till whispered to Old Drake, who faintly nodded. "Rather than awakening an unknown special trait, one would more likely receive a special trait within the genetic predisposition." He acknowledged and they could only look at the two in front of them. It didn''t take long for Jason to regain his consciousness and the only thing he noticed was a gentle stream of mana circulating inside his body. Opening his eyes the blood around seemed to have already dried up. Looking at the old man in front of him, Jason was sure that it was the same man that was present at his soul-awakening. However, he was baffled about the old man¡äs strength and more importantly why was he here. "Who are you?" Jason questioned and he noticed that his teacher and Old Drake were obviously suspicious and worried because of the old man''s appearance. Jason thought he could see a faint trace of fear in their eyes but why should they be afraid of this old man even if he seemed extremely strong? Was he dangerous? "My Name is Shane Blair and you don''t have to be afraid of me. Just call me Shane for the time being. I''m not here to hurt you or anyone here, rather its the complete opposite." Turning to Old Drake he proposed "I obviously won''t kill the Goblin King because it will draw too much attention on me, but I can protect the city in the shadows. Your Lord ranked being will need at least a week to come over here to Astrix considering that they will use their fasted flying soulbonds without caring about its health. " Old Drake''s lips twitched and even if he didn''t want to admit it he had to acknowledge the fact. It was already hard to predict the thoughts of the Goblin King and if he decided to attack Cyro city before the reinforcement arrived, it would be too late, causing everyone¡äs death. He sighed and asked frustrated "What do you want?" Shane Blair raised his hand and pointed towards Jason making his stance clear. "Let me talk with him and you guys have to form an advanced soul contract with me, so that nobody will ever get to know about me being alive or that I¡äm on Astrix." An advanced soul contract was more serious than a `common` soul contract that could `only` destroy one''s soul once the contractor breached the contract The advanced soul contract was different and the soul would already start burning, once the contracted individual had the single thought of breaching the contract¡äs content. As such, it was impossible to betray someone, and additionally, if someone were to disregard the searing pain and continue with their thoughts of betraying the contract''s content, one would die while enduring unbearable pain. After thinking for a moment, Old Drake and Till accepted his proposal as it was not bad. They would have to lie to their surrounding as if Mr.Blair had never been there, but they wondered why Mr. Blair wanted to talk to Jason. Mr. Blair was cruel and bloodthirsty as long as someone thought of doing something against his woman but he had never intercepted in humanities issues or supported foreign intelligent races in any way. It also seemed like Jason had seen Shane Blair at least one time before, even though he wasn¡ät sure who exactly Shane was. Otherwise, he wouldn''t ask who he is, with such a confused expression. They were still hesitating what to do when Old Drake¡äs quantum bracelet began to inform him with dozens of notifications. He frowned and opened the holographic screen only to pale after seeing who these notifications were from and what they were about. Till Greil looked over and his face was almost immediately drained of blood and paperwhite. "We accept!!" Both shouted at the same time and even Jason could roughly comprehend what was going on because they accepted the old man¡äs or rather Shane¡äs offer after reading through the messages. Frowning, Jason had a bad premonition. Shane only smiled lightly and a transparent sheet with silver letters on it formed out of thin air and Jason noticed a thread coming out of Shane¡äs body supplying the transparent sheet with something? Jason had only once seen such a threat and it was when Seron took out his soul weapon. As such Jason concluded that this transparent sheet was formed out of soul energy and a marginal thread of Shane''s soul. Suddenly Jason noticed two additional treads coming out of his teacher and Old Drake¡äs respectively and they signed the transparent sheet with their name and soul. As such the contract was easily finished and Shane took out a large marble, that was filled with brimming and vigorously flickering mana, which shocked Jason. Multiple runes were inscribed on it and Shane gave the marble to his teacher while instructing "This multi magic device can tell you where the Goblin Lord currently is. Additionally, it can release a curse to weaken the Goblin King slightly and another function is the construction of a mana grade-3 dome that not even guardian-ranked beasts can break. Just fight within it and release the curse and you will be able to defeat the Goblin King if you''re not completely stupid, alright? If the mana inside is not enough, just finish the Goblin King by yourself. I don¡ät think you can¡ät even defeat a weakened Lord ranked beast, right?" Shane said when he turned to Jason as he said with a smile "Do you want to watch a large beast tide from close up?" He completely disregarded the existence of his teacher and Old Drake, while Jason nodded. Jason wasn¡ät sure if he should feel benevolence from the old man, because he saved him from the violent radiated mana or not because it was Shane¡äs own mana. It was obviously an accident and Jason knew this existence in front of him could kill everyone in this city without any problem. In the end, his curiosity about the old man in front of him won. He wanted to know why he was here or more likely about this man¡äs past and why it seemed like he was hiding in Astrix, even though he seemed so strong? From who was he hiding and what was going on? But Jason knew that the old man wanted to talk to him because Shane had already said that and now he was also expectant to spectate a high tier beast tide led by Goblins. There was no reason to reject Shane¡äs offer and the old man who was only an arm''s length away from him touched his shoulder when space twisted with both of them suddenly vanishing into thin air. While Till was shocked, Old Drake sneered "Show off¡­ he never changes" and a small smile appeared on his face. "If only your wife wasn''t abducted from the Shore family, you would have never annihilated their clan and the other big clans and families wouldn''t have pursued you¡­. Fleeing and Hiding all the time shouldn''t be considered living¡­. " Jason noticed the space around them twisting and suddenly both of them were standing above the city. He was enveloped by Shane¡äs thick mana he controlled and both stood in the air without caring about manifesting wings or anything similar to that. Shane could disregard the natural gravitation without summoning wings on his back or using abilities to float but only his mana alone was able to do that. This astonished Jason and he wondered, how strong Shane really was, as his identity seemed mysterious. He was also curious about the space portal he seemed to have manifested, which teleported them far away. However, there was no time for him to think about that when he noticed a green mass that began to slowly move towards the dome, while the darker green colors seemed to be faster, already making their first step through the dome. Jason and Shane could see everything from above and Shane tore open space, causing them to appear closer to the mass of green dots, that could now be identified as Goblins. Both were only 50 meters above them and the goblins were not able to sense or see them as they ran past them without caring that a terrifying existence like Shane stood above them "Let''s look at how the City guards handle the situation," Shane said, smiling lightly. He would only help in perilous situations in order to stay lowkey, while Till would have to kill the Goblin King. Chapter 115 - Goblin Jason was shocked to see so many Goblins and it seemed like there were a few million Goblin soldiers, which terrified him. He couldn''t even see the end of the masses while more goblins ran past them. Not even a minute passed and Jason was already unable to tell how many magical ranked Goblins he had seen but one thing was for sure. The magical and guardian-ranked Goblins and Orcs were running towards the city in disciplined order, dividing the masses into different groups. The other goblins below the magical rank were aimlessly running, without any sign of discipline. More important however was, that all of these higher ranked and disciplined Goblins had one thing in common. Jason perceived strong mana fluctuations comparable to magical ranked beasts'' innate mana around their necks. Looking around he noticed that not a single disciplined Goblin or Orc missed these mana fluctuations around their necks and they seemed somewhat familiar to him. ''Doesn¡ät it look quite similar to the projectile protection pendants the goblin mage apprentice had? Only much stronger in mana density and quality!` Shane looked at Jason and smiled lightly `Your eyes are pretty good, hm?` "Look out" he simply said and right at this moment, Jason could see missiles raining down from the sky, causing him to cry out in surprise when dozens of car-sized runes manifested above the goblin¡äs lightened up the sky, slowing down the missiles. Sensing that they touched something, the missiles exploded midair, burning the air, without killing a single Goblin. More shocking however was that the runes were still standing firmly in the air, while Jason focused on the mana within the pendants that summoned the runes. They were still strong enough to take on a few missiles, that could kill multiple unblemished beasts or a single magical ranked beast otherwise. Even Shane¡äs eyes widened slightly in surprise and he praised the runemasters silently. "To think that their runemaster can even produce mana projectile protection pendants that can hold out multiple grade-3 explosive missiles. Not bad!" This caused Jason to frown slightly when he heard that, as he looked at Shane with a complex expression. Shane noticed that and smiled. "It''s not like I want the Goblins to overwhelm us but their intelligence can¡ät be neglected and I don''t think anyone on Astrix is able to produce such complex runes with the same effect. Additionally, it seems to me that the materials to make these pendants are not that rare as tens of thousand Goblins wear them. The most difficult task was probably to completely fill them up with mana. To be honest, I investigated the Goblin King and his subordinates and they did a really good job in establishing such a decent society without being discovered. It may look like that the goblins only appear for a few months but they had to Inhabitat the forbidden lands much longer. The Goblin King¡äs patience and determination are admirable. At least in my opinion. You may have a different opinion but completely ignoring your enemy and labeling them as dumb, cruel, hideous or something like that should never happen. Once you underestimate your enemy, you¡äll die faster than you may think!!" Somehow Shane¡äs words seemed logical as it was indeed bad to ignore your enemies scheming, underestimating their intelligence. Apparently it the Goblin King was crafty and scheming, which Jason didn¡ät think of in the beginning Hundreds of runes manifested inside the sky, illuminating the area around them, while exploding missiles filled the air with the smell of burned flesh, as a few missiles pierced through protection runes. More missiles filled the sky and even more exploded in the sky, lightening the heaven in a red-orange hue. But only a few thousand goblins, hobgoblins and so were killed by missiles as the main force already entered the closer proximity of the city, while sniper shots could be heard. Unsurprisingly only the weaker goblins could be killed by them as the stronger force was protected by the protection pendants. The goblins protected each other with the pendants and once the protection pendants were completely used up with the manifested runes shattered, the goblins changed their position, letting the ones with filled pendants to the front to protect the larger mass. The city guards began to notice that shooting missiles was rather useless after some time passed when they began using elemental spells, which were similarly useless. Only a few spells that changed the environment or passively attacked the goblins were useful, without attacking them directly with fireballs, spikes, spears, and so on. Jason wanted to shout out in joy when he saw a few strong-looking individuals appearing on the city walls, while brown and blue mana transmuted mana circulated in their body. Within seconds, their complete mana pool was used up and the landscape began to change, within seconds. Clouds began to manifest high in the sky, while the ground was burst open with deep fissures ravaging the goblin''s lives, causing them to fall deep into their condemnation. Wondering why the city guards manifested clouds in the sky, he noticed a few more high-ranked humans appearing on the city wall, using up their mana to thickening the cloud. A few raindrops began to fall down from the clouds, and a rainstorm began. Before Jason could think about the use of these clouds, he perceived a Grandmagus rank human above the clouds thanks to his mana eyes. It seemed as if he was injecting his yellow-greenish mana into the clouds, while standing on top of a yellowish feathered eagle that looked extremely sick but also vigorous. The raindrops¡ä color changed and turned sick green-yellowish like the mana injected by the Grandmagus, while a reeking smell permeated the air. When that happened Shane¡äs lips curled up, as he said "Ahh, still as cruel as ever¡­ That we still use such methods to annihilate this kind of threat." Turning to Jason, he began to explain after noticing the black-haired youth¡äs confused expression. "You saw the dozen magus ranks creating the clouds with their water, wind, and fire affinity, right? In Addition to forming rain clouds, a Grandmagus injected his mana with his lethal poison affinity into the clouds. Once these infested water drops hit any being below the magical rank, they will die within a few minutes... This includes humans. There are a few wind and water magus¡äs that control everything but once they lose control, they could similarly kill most humans inside Cyro city. Nevertheless, it''s an old war strategy that was used for a long time and it looks like the protection runes don''t see the raindrops as a threat, maybe because they are too slow or something else, I¡äm not exactly sure about that. Cyro City resists this beast tide better than expected but even if they can easily kill millions of goblin soldiers with that, the biggest threats are still alive. Inspecting their equipment and weapons, it looks like most higher-ranked goblins had quite a bountiful hunting trip. Their weapons were mostly at the grade-2 rank, while some grade-3 weapons could even be seen. I wonder which rich hunting teams they hunted." Jason was interested in the war strategy utilized by humans but Shane seemed to admire the goblin side much more than the human side which wondered him somewhat. Shane approached the city-wall while enveloping them with a dark transmuted mana, that seemed to work similarly to a shadow cloak in the night. They were now above the City wall and Jason could see the Goblin mages releasing car-sized fireballs, earth spikes, wind blades, and much more spells that pierced into the city wall¡äs While the goblin soldiers in the back began to struggle due to the poison, the front soldiers were already feeling dizzy, which did not hinder them to continue their charge at the city wall. However, before they could even enter the city, they collapsed, struggling to stay alive. The magical and guardian-ranked Goblins roared out in rage when a particular High-Orc stood in front of the City walls. Upon inspecting it with his mana eyes, Jason¡äs eyes were filled with shock. "Runes!" he shouted and Shane followed Jason¡äs gaze as his eyes similarly widened. "Runes on his body?" Suddenly, one of the runes on the 3 meters tall brownish-green orc lit up, enlarge his whole body to 3.5 meters. Jason noticed that the orcs had a brown touch in his mana as earth spikes shot out of the ground spiking the city wall in an orderly manner, forming a cruel path towards the top. "Amplification rune?" Shane''s eyes opened in shock and both could only see the now 3.5 meters tall Guardian-ranked orc charging up the city wall greeting his opponents openly. In the Orc¡äs hand appeared a black five-meter-long greatsword that was stuffed and overlapped with hundreds of runes as it began to smile devilish. "Feel the wrath of my new invention. Overgeared Extinction!" The orc said in rough human language, as the black greatsword began to shine in a vibrant white light with all runes activating at the same time. Enlarging to a size of more than ten meters, the greatsword looked extremely horrifying with the vibrant white light lightening up the surrounding as the orc injected its whole pool of a peak guardian-rank beast into the sword before slashing down towards the city center¡äs direction, where everything the dome, management, government and everything else was situated. A hundred-meter long sword beam left the ten-meter long greatsword, which immediately lost its luster, shattering into thousand particles. Before the sword beam was to hit the center of the city it would have to wreak havoc in all the different districts that stood in its way. The mana released by the sword beam was so strong, that even the surrounding magus¡ä shivered in fear, forced to retreat a few steps in order to stay conscious, due to the killing intent injected into the sword beam. Some closer buildings began to vibrate violently, causing their windows to shatter. Some civilians that woke up due to the loud noises would only see the horrifying sword beam shooting past them. If not for the large distance between the sword beam and the civilians, they would either die due to the high pressure emitted by the sword beam or faint without being able to show much resistance. The Orc didn''t look after the sword beam he caused as he jumped down back to his comrades, trying to disappear without making many noises, when its movements were suddenly restricted, without being able to move a single inch. Noticing the space around him twisting, he suddenly appeared next to Jason, enveloped within tight shackles made out of mana. Jason looked extremely shocked at the Orc, that also looked surprised at Jason and only now he noticed that only the two of them were there! `Where is Shane?` Chapter 116 - Blocking A Sword ''Where is Shane?'' Jason wondered when he sensed the sword-beam shaking violently. The sword-beam released vast mana fluctuations trying to break out of an unknown invisible chain that restricted its speed which decelerated visibly until it suddenly stood still midair. Turning more unstable, the slower the sword beam became, Jason noticed that the mana fluctuations that couldn¡ät move freely anymore. Once it stopped moving, the sword beam turned violent, ravaging inside the invisible shackles. Suddenly Jason sensed a somewhat familiar mana, revealing itself in front of the sword beam, which began to slowly envelope it. While the sword beams surrounding were lightened up, the front was filled with darkness. Not a single speck of light was able to penetrate the dark hue and the blade beam couldn''t pierce it, as a small hand reached out of the darkness, firmly gripping the white shining blade beam. Jason''s eyes widened as it looked like the blade beam was shrieking out in fear, trying to wrest out of the hand''s grip. However, everything was in vain and the sword beam was slowly encased by darkness. From the outside, the only thing that could be seen, was the bright light around the sword beam was turning dimmer, while its struggle decreased over time. The pressure released by the darkness enveloped hand increased while the sword beam became weaker. Not much time passed until the hand began to exert more strength, causing the last resistance of the sword beam to break down as cracks appeared on its surface. More cracks formed on the sword beam''s surface while the mana fluctuations weakened further until the sword beam looked as if it was completely patterned with cobwebs. Exerting more strength onto the sword beam, the hand shattered it into smithereens, and the released mana fluctuations dissipated into all directions, brightening the sky without harming anyone. Behind the city walls, only the luminous crystals lightened up the darkness while the skyscrapers were completely dark, probably having lost their connection to the mana converter that empowered the districts. Thousands of civilians, as well as high-ranked guards, looked into the brightened sky. where the sword beam shattered, with shocked eyes as if they had seen a miracle. ''Was it a dream?'' That was a thought that appeared in their mind but the shocking pressure they had to endure with the killing intent that felt was so real, it couldn¡ät have been a dream... But there was nothing left behind and the unknown hand that reached out of the darkness, vanished without leaving a shred of evidence about the existence of both the sword beam and the hand behind. Jason and even the Orc who was chained were looking at the shattered sword beam when a sudden voice behind them said "Your sword beam was not bad. If you were stronger, you might even be able to seriously injure me with that!" Turning around, Jason saw Shane looking at his hand which had a shallow cut on it. `Did Shane destroy the sword beam only with his hand? And if he did that, such a small cut was everything the sword beam was capable of?` The Orc looked at the old man¡äs hand and shook could be seen in his eyes, as it began to shiver in fright, knowing that it wouldn¡ät be able to escape anymore. "H-how did you survive that, human? Even master would die facing my newest invention head-on!!" "Just shut up!" Shane said and he didn''t even want to exchange a single word with the High-Orc right now "If you want to die peacefully, you¡äll have to tell me all your secrets, otherwise you won''t die even if you want to, runemaster!" Turning to Jason, Shane said "This orc is the runemaster that produced probably all higher graded runes. With the information from it, we are able to increase our knowledge about runes by a large margin. We¡äll take him with us." Jason nodded his head, still somewhat flabbergasted and he decided not to say anything as he looked down at the city wall that was almost completely destroyed by elemental spells or physical attacks from the Goblins and Orcs. The poisonous rain was still pouring down outside the city and the whole landscape was filled with Goblin soldier corpses, bloated and with greenish spots all over their body. Some Goblin Soldiers were still standing and struggling to reach the city wall but not a single one survived long enough to enter the city. It took less than a few minutes until mountains of goblin corpses filled the area in front of the city wall, turning the whole atmosphere eerie as it looked like a mass grave. But the city wall was also not looking as if it was new construction with a few hundred holes destroying the prior aesthetic sight. Meanwhile, multiple muscular orcs that also had runes on their body shining brightly threw one punch after another, tearing down the city wall with an astonishing speed. In the back, multiple guardian- and magical-ranked goblin mages combined their mana to form a fireball the size of a detached house. Throwing the fireball, Jason looked worriedly at Shane who looked like he didn¡ät want to stop the fireball as it crashed into the city wall, tearing it apart. Humans cried out in pain, as they ignited, while others fell down the collapsing city wall, surviving while sustaining shallow injuries. Jason became worried, seeing thousands of magical and a few hundred guardian ranked goblin lords, mages, orcs, squeezing through the small torn apart city wall, trying to massacre Cyro city. Looking pleading at Shane, he could only helplessly reply, slightly annoyed "Why do you even have mana eyes, if you don''t use them? Can''t you see that all goblins and orcs that enter the city are injected with darkness transmuted mana, injuring their mana cores?" Do you want me to do everything alone? Am I some kind of welfare or what? If they can''t kill weakened guardian ranked orcs and goblins, they wouldn''t be able to protect this City which is above a large natural mana vein! Furthermore, I can''t reveal myself. So bear with it or kill them yourself, if you can!!" Jason nodded, with red cheeks¡­ He really didn¡ät notice that all Goblins and Orcs that entered the city wall had Shane¡äs darkness transmuted mana attached to them, attacking their mana core innately, weakening them tremendously and Jason could only complain about himself inwardly. This was only because he didn¡ät activate his mana eyes all the time, because it was taxing and scanning one¡äs cores was even more so. Jason had only occasionally activated his mana eyes to look at a few goblins and other beasts that interested him because he was in a beast breakout with millions of lower-ranked beasts while at least a few thousand were at the magical and guardian rank. The higher his mana core rank became, the easier it was for Jason to use his mana eyes. However, right now blood leaked out of his eyes as he wanted to reaffirm Shane''s declaration. Obviously, what Shane said wasn¡ät a lie and Jason grew even more curious about the old man he met at the Beast Pagoda in Artes-City for the first time, or rather Shane Blair, a being above the Lord rank? Who was he really and why was he hiding? Jason didn''t know anything about this individual next to him but he did not seem to have evil intentions, even if his teacher and Old Drake seemed to be scared of him. He was still looking at the battlefield of weakened goblins and orcs against humans with his mana eyes activated while they continued to bleed without the slightest hint of stopping. Somehow, for Jason the whole fight seemed stage as the humans were now obviously at an advantage as the inflicted darkness mana inside the goblins and orcs showed their true color, causing their strength to decrease by more than 30% instantly. Before the goblin''s strength decreased, Magus and Grandmagus ranked humans were overwhelmed and pressured by their opponents might, but this pressure lessened over time, causing the humans to be able to fight back turning over the fight to their advantage. It was unavoidable to secure the surroundings while magical and magus-ranked beings fought against each other without considering Guardian and Grandmagus ranked being. Cyro-City¡äs guards tried to draw the fights to the outside the city if possible or to the ghettos, which were already comparable to noble districts of D-grade cities if there was no other way to avoid fighting within the city walls. Nevertheless, houses were ripped apart by elemental attacks, Orcs charged towards their opponent, killing hundreds of innocent civilians without caring about them. More time passed and when Jason saw the first skyscraper collapsing, his eyes turned gloomy, as more than tens of thousand humans were most likely within. "F**k" Jason only said with grief in his voice, as he thought about Shane¡äs strength. However, Shane couldn''t do something without drawing attention to himself, and probably even blocking the sword beam was already considered too much, even if Jason didn¡ät know why the old man next to him had to avoid attracting a commotion. Sighing deeply, he could only helplessly see innocent citizens crying out in pain and anguish when the Magus and Grandmagus humans began to completely overwhelm their opponents. The outcome of the Goblin tide was already obvious and Jason lost his interest in the staged fight. He was sorry for the innocent lives that were lost and didn¡ät know what to do with his emotions, as he tried to change his train of thoughts. This caused him to look straight into Shane¡äs eyes with his golden shining eyes piercing into him, trying to find out more, while fresh blood poured down his cheeks. "Who are you?" Chapter 117 - Goblin King′s Death "Who are you?" Jason asked, not minding the trembling peak-guardian ranked Orc next to them tied up in thick mana chains. "Me? Hmm...I don''t think this is the proper timing to tell you about me and my life, right?" Shane stated as he added "Let''s talk after everything is finished. I''ll bring you back to your home and we can talk for the whole Sunday, alright Brat?" He asked and only now was Jason once again reminded that it was already 11 pm while the Goblin beast tide was still not completely over. The Goblin King was probably still alive, somewhere and the magical and guardian-ranked Goblins and Orcs were ravaging inside the city, even if they were already on the losing side with their lives on the line. Cyro-City would suffer a lot today but without Shane¡äs help, the whole city would be demolished or completely annihilated. Even now the transmuted darkness mana inside the beasts, weakening their mana cores, injuring them as long as time passed. Jason was curious about the darkness mana, Shane was using and it seemed like there were different kinds of darkness transmuted mana within him. On one side, Jason noticed the shadow affinity he already used, while on the other side curse mana coursed through his mana, which astonished Jason. Apparently having an affinity didn¡ät mean that all of us would be the same. If a beast had a stronger water affinity, one would also receive a stronger affinity compared to others. `What if a beast has an affinity to searing hot water, would I have the same affinity? It should be, right?` Jason asked in his mind and it seemed like he found out something new once again. Turning his attention back to the battle once again, Jason observer everything with his mana eyes to study the Combat techniques used by the Magus and Grandmagus¡äs. While the Goblins and Orcs relied mostly on their instincts, which was also quite interesting to observe. Nevertheless, just looking at them and the circulation of mana, gave Jason many insights on how to increase the mastery of his techniques. As such he gained many benefits while observing the fights that the human side seemed to win by a huge margin. Only a few dozen guardian-ranked goblins and orcs were left alive while some seriously injured magical-ranked goblin mages were throwing their last spells, demolishing a few buildings before they collapsed on the ground. It seemed like a whole district was put at risk and demolished in order to prevent the goblin army from killing their way throughout the whole city. With a few smaller buildings sticking out of the apocalyptic-looking landscape in front of Jason, he wondered how many innocent lives had been harvested with today¡äs incident. His saliva felt sour and Jason could only sigh in regret. `Why am I so slow in becoming stronger....?` What he saw, looked similar to the incident in Jiro city but much worse as hundreds of skyscrapers were completely overthrown and instead of standing high in the sky, they were flatly lying on the ground, while blood and human bodies could be seen everywhere. It shocked Jason quite a bit, as he could cope with the sight of death more easily compared to a few months before. Seeing the dead corpses of millions of goblins was shocking, but not something that caused him to throw up anymore. Jason was only sad that so many humans died needlessly. Once again the weakest layer that had to endure the grief in agony within the society, or rather Cyro-City. Once all Goblins and Orcs were taken care of, he thought Shane would bring them back to the hidden valley, as Shane opened another spatial tear in front of them. After the first two times, Jason could see the released mana from Shane more detailed, and it seemed like his mana had three main transmutations. Two different types of darkness transmuted his mana, a blue touch could be seen in his mana, probably indicating a water soulbond and a mix between, golden, yellow, and orange which proved Jason¡äs theory. Shane had a weak affinity to spatial magic and because of that, he could open spatial tears and move around however he wanted. Previously he thought it was because Shane was simply too powerful and could negate nature laws but that wasn''t the case and Shane could only partially do that because his mana was extremely strong. That was also the reason why he could float in the air without caring about falling down. His pure and dense mana was the cause! Shane used his spatial affinity multiple times in succession and it brought them to a completely different landscape that was filled with dense and flourishing forest. It was already dark and Jason couldn¡ät see much without his mana eyes. However, the mana currents he saw and sensed, were still inferior to the natural mana vein below Cyro-City while it was still extremely fine and pure, and Jason wondered where exactly they were His surroundings looked fresh while most trees were above 100 meters tall. Looking around with his mana eyes, Jason could see that everything was seemingly alive and the mana radiated from everything was moving around vigorously, when he suddenly saw an outburst of destructive mana from far away. Shane was flying straight towards this direction with Jason and the tied Orc dragged behind him. and the closer they came to the mana outbursts of two terrifying beings, Jason noticed more and more explosions. The flourishing landscapes looked devastated and trees, rocks, and rivers were overthrown and completely demolished. A huge crater with a radius of dozens of meters could be seen and the darkness suddenly lightened up in bright holy light when a sword beam soared through the sky, hitting something that was three times the size of the individual that fired the holy sword beam. Upon further inspection, Jason noticed that it was Till fighting an over-dimensional bipedal beast. Only now he could clearly observe the body of the presumed Lord-ranked Goblin King. The Goblin King was more than five-meters tall and had the proportions of a normal human. There were only a few things that were different to humans, which were its dark green color, the oversized arms, and the large hideous-looking head. Its head was double the size of normal proportionate humans while multiple runes could be seen on its forehead, razor-sharp black fangs pierced out of its jaw The Goblin King¡äs eyes were blood red, while Jason shuttered seeing them, as they released a deep and condensed killing-intent. The cranked nose was over proportional and the mana it radiated, ravaged the surrounding two meters. The Goblin King was bleeding out of multiple cuts but it looked extremely vigorous while Till seems to have been injured more heavily, as his leg seemed to have sustained serious burns. This astonished not only Jason but also Shane who looked confused at TIll, before his gaze turned to the Goblin King, weirdly. "Why is Little Till injured instead of the Goblin King? It should be the other way around?? And why is there a burn?" Jason heard Shane whispering and his mana eyes that were now constantly activated, even though it hurt noticed something odd. Jason wasn''t sure if that was the reason for the Goblin King to overwhelm Till, but he had to tell Shane in order to help his teacher. As such he tugged at Shane''s robe and before he even turned around to look at Jason whispered. "The Goblin King is not cursed...and he has a strong fire affinity!" Jason said and Shane¡äs eyes widened in surprise. TIll noticed the newcomers and shouted "THAT''S MY PREY" and before Shane was even able to do anything, he took out the orb Shane gave him and activated the mana dome. Jason already knew that TIll was prideful and it seemed that once Shane helped him, he wouldn''t be able to accept this. As such he announced his prey and activated the mana dome, which was completely useless against someone at Shane¡äs league. But Shane understood the meaning and decided to not intervene in their fight. If Till was about to die, he would help out, otherwise, Till could still activate the one-time use curse that was inscribed into the mana orb. Jason looked at the respective mana orbs before his attention changed to the two Lord-ranked individuals mana core. He noticed that TIll¡äs mana core seemed larger compared to the Goblin King¡äs, which indicated that he had more reserves and maybe even a stronger physique. However, because Goblins were normally non-elemental beasts with a higher physical enhancement, Till¡äs larger mana core didn¡ät say anything at all. Suddenly Jason sensed strong and familiar mana fluctuations from Till, which healed his burned leg within seconds. It was the Greater blessed wolf¡äs healing ability and after he healed himself, he changed his weapons, which astonished Jason. But after he saw what kind of weapon he took out, Jason understood what was going on. "Soul Weapon" Jason whispered and Shane could hear him and he widened his eyes `Are his mana eyes even capable to differentiate if its a mana- or soul-weapon?` he wondered but that could be found out later. A huge white spear with a golden blade could be seen in Till¡äs hand and Jason was sure it was a unique soul-weapon due to the connections between the contractor and the weapon, he could clearly see. It was much stronger than the connections between Seron¡äs weapon and Jason wondered what this could mean. But what astonished him, even more, was that once Till injected his mana inside the spear, it began to glow and amplify the injected holy light mana by a few times, purifying it further. Holy and Light energy were advantageous against everything evil beings and Goblins were said to be creatures created by evil due to their hideous and cruel nature. Upon noticing the holy light getting a few times stronger within a few seconds, the Goblin King felt slightly restless and it lifted its war axes, releasing a blue burning flame that soared into the sky before it enveloped him and his weapons that shone brightly. With this, Goblin King began to charge at Till. Within an instant, it had crossed a distance of more than a hundred meters and Jason could only see a blue blur, while he was able to feel the surrounding temperature rising by a few dozen degrees. Till also vanished from his spot and he was barely able to faintly perceive a white blur, charging through a dark green blur, before everything went that, with the white light that illuminated the devastated forest, vanishing, as a loud *THUMP* could be heard. Jason couldn¡ät see anything within the sudden darkness and his mana eyes could faintly perceive the Goblin King¡äs mana fluctuations dimming, while a deep hole pierced decorated its chest. Chapter 118 - War Spoils The Goblin King died after taking its last breath, while a deep cut could be seen on Till¡äs right shoulder, almost severing his arm. Blood spurted down the shoulder and Jason was worried that Till might die if he wouldn''t heal his wound soon but looking at his mana core, it seemed completely drained. As such, Till exerted his tiny amount of strength left behind, to take out a deep red vial from his storage space, which he gulped down at once. Jason sensed that Till¡äs drained mana pool was slowly regenerating and he immediately used this mana to heal the severe injury on the shoulder. With the effect of the potion, permanent injuries could be prevented, while he would only feel numb due to the regrowth and regeneration of his severed asturias, veins, and mana channels. The mana dome disappeared slowly and Shane went closer to the Goblin King in order to inspect its body. From the outside it looked like a `normal` Goblin King but he obviously had a mutation causing a strong fire affinity seed to manifest within the mana core. Blue flames were an advanced elemental affinity, not comparable to normal flames, from their heat and tenaciously seen. The Orc was looking at its dead master with shock and only now did it know that their conquest ended, before it really began. They had wasted so many years to create and nurture the protection pendants, strong weapons, and an army of Goblins, but everything was in vain. He couldn''t believe it and the previous resistance against the invisible shackles completely disappeared. Shane and Jason landed on the ground as Jason also began inspecting the Goblin King. However, he couldn¡ät detect anything special except the blue flame affinity seed within the mana core. The Goblin King¡äs war spoils belonged to Till and they weren''t allowed to take something, at least morally seen. It didn''t take Till long until he regained some of his strength. Slowly walking towards him and the Goblin King, a proud smile emerged on his face. The real fight was only a short exchange of blows but the adrenaline he felt during these few seconds was exceptional. Defeating a Low Lord rank alone without any help could be seen as a glorious feat, even if Jason knew that the Goblin King seemed to have only advanced to the Lord rank recently because the mana core was unstable and not consolidated. But that wasn''t important for anyone here. Defeating a Lord rank beast was probably more difficult than fighting two normal Lord-ranked humans at the same time, with the exception of them having contracted a Lord-ranked soulbond. Both Shane and Jason congratulated Till, but Shane''s congrats didn''t seem sincere after he found out that the Goblin Lord only reached the Lord- rank some time ago. Apparently, he was similar to a hypocrite in such things, while Jason sincerely congratulated Till¡äs amazing feat, which he accepted thankfully. Till stored the Goblin KIngs body inside his storage space which had an integrated cooler, to prevent the important alchemy ingredients from going bad. Almost everything from beasts at the magical rank or higher could be used as alchemy- and inscribing-ingredients, which meant that their bodies were worth a fortune. Nevertheless, a Lord being was worth even more and such an astronomical sum would probably not be purchased by anyone on Astrix, because it was just too valuable but useless for anyone here. After inspecting the war axes, Till exclaimed in surprise "Pseudo Mana weapons! Grade-3 at that!!" This caused even Shane to look at the war axes in surprise. Turning his gaze to the runemaster orc, a complicated expression could be seen on his face. Jason wasn¡ät sure what this exactly meant but he knew that grade-3 mana weapons were considered one of humanity''s strongest weapons, while Till told him one time that the beast grade-2 mana weapons would be able to pierce through guardian-ranked beast hide. From his knowledge, Jason deduced that the pseudo mana war axes at the 3rd grade were probably around the same strength as grade-4 weapons which were second to grade-3 mana and soul weapons. Till also told him one time that Grade-5 weapons were still researched and the materials required to create them were to though to heat up and forge with: Even using lord ranked bones could at most produce peak grade-3 weapons, which shocked Jason. Everything felt new to Jason and he could only listen to them in surprise. But Shane¡äs gaze was still focused on the orc and Jason thought about it for a moment before his expression turned unsightly as he said. "Was this Orc able to produce these pseudo mana weapons without any knowledge about mana weapons? Only with his own comprehension and experiments?" It had to be like that, because these war axes were too large for humans to handle, even if their weight could be neglected after reaching a certain physique. These war axes were obviously custom-made for the Goblin King¡äs large size. The material the war axes were made out of, also looked extremely beautiful according to his mana eyes, while its outer appearance looked shabby and crudely made. Additionally, it was forged and Jason wondered if there was a Rank-6 Goblin or Orc Blacksmith, capable of forging a treasure like the war axes, while the Orc in front of them inscribed the runes inside the oxidated ores....`Or did he do everything alone?` Jason noticed that Shane adverted his gaze and for a millisecond Jason could see a tinge of greed in his eyes as he asked Till "Little Till, you''re done here, right? Will you return to the city, right now?" Till thought, Shane was worried about the city and the humans living there. As such he told him that he was done and they could go back together. Surprisingly Shane declined his offer to go with Till as he dragged Jason, before the chained orc floated to them, as he twisted the space around them, vanishing into thin air once again. Till was still standing there with widened eyes and a confused facial expression. ''What''s with me?'' He lamented before summoning his white golden wings to soar straight in the dark night, towards the city After Shane used his spatial magic two times they appeared above an extremely dense forest with giants that were one thousand meters tall. Jason''s vision blurred and his stomach revolted against the continuous teleportations, as they finally arrived at their destination. It took him a few seconds in order to regain control over his body again and once that was done, Jason activated his mana eyes as he wanted to train them for continuous usage. Through his eyes, Jason could see the many different kinds of mana flows radiating from the different types of trees all around him and it was no wonder that the gigantic trees radiated the purest mana, as it looked like they were built around something, providing them with exceptionally strong mana. To Jason, it looked like the gigantic trees were the center of the forest with a single tree overshadowing all of them. Their roots were firmly rooted within the soil while a dense and excessively pure purple light could be seen radiating from down below. `Hmm? What is that? A magical treasure or maybe a beast?` Jason thought but he couldn¡ät clearly see where this purple light was radiating from, because he was overwhelmed by thousands of green and uncountable dark green, light-gray and black colors he perceived. "There are still so many goblins left?" Jason muttered and Shane also senses something, however, his senses were much stronger compared to Jason¡äs still undeveloped body. He knew that there were still quite a lot of goblins left behind but the main source was completely different. "No. Behind these mana suppressing trees are not that many Goblins anymore" He simply said and released his mana to split the trees in front of him apart, opening a path towards the dense forest. Shane had to acknowledge, that the Goblin King was really crafty, as he looked around curiously. What came into their sight, was a medieval town with thousands of small huts made out of wood, stone, and other resources that could be found in their surrounding. The astonishing fact however was, that the forest surrounded a cave entrance and was build around it, while many constructions could be seen inside and around the trees, with suspension bridges connecting everything together. Everything was intertwined with each other and it was extremely easy to lose the right path. Looking around, Jason wondered how long it would take to build such a town in the trees, which was not only connected with each other but also with the ground. Jason couldn¡ät see where the goblin''s basement ended, even if his eyesight was many folds better than his peers. He was able to see more than a hundred meters through the dense and lush forest but there was not a single sign of it ending. When he was about to go around to look, Jason noticed that he was still floating in the air and he asked Shane to let him down, to move around. Shane ignored his request, which caused him to lament a little bit before he heard a *surr* as an arrow was repelled from Shane¡äs mana membrane that enveloped Jason. His face was drained from all blood and Jason began to sweat heavily, before he looked down. There were still more than a hundred goblin soldiers and a few higher graded goblins that were shrieking in rage, as they did not accept anyone invading their territory. Shane waved with his hand horizontal while he released his mana with the darkness affinity utilized. A beam of scattered darkness with a length of more than 20 meters was descending towards the shocked goblins, who weren''t aware of what kind of existence they had offended. The last thing they saw was a pitch-black boomerang-like blade, killing them without differentiating between their ranks at all. After the goblins died, Shane smiled lightly to Jason, trying to calm him down, before he said "Let¡äs exterminate the goblins" and while he said that a dark magic circle appeared before him, with a black five-meter tall wolf emerging out of it. It was a peak-guardian-ranked beast without seeing anything odd about it, when blood-red eyes opened on its back, piercing through him. Goosebumps appeared on Jason¡äs body but that was not everything. More and more blood-red eyes opened all around the wolf''s body and they faced all directions, seeing everything around them without a single blind spot. Jason¡äs body tensed up as the wolf looked extremely ugly when Shane said smiling "Fuku! May your hunt be a fruitful one! Kill the Goblins to your heart''s content!" All of the wolf¡äs eyes were widened and Jason sensed something unfamiliar being released when he began to shudder involuntarily. "Brat, this is the bane of the thousand eyes wolf¡­ be careful. Once Fuku looks into someone''s eyes with murderous intent, you¡äll die faster than you can think. Everything below the magical rank will have its soul shattered before even being able to move around." Shane said lightly, and the lush and flourishing forest that was previously filled with birds chirping and Goblins crying out in their crude language, was now deadly silent, without anything daring to make a single sound Chapter 119 - Cruel Experiments Shane didn''t look after his soulbond anymore and flew through the dense forest towards the cavern entrance that was guarded by two guardian-ranked orcs and a goblin mage. They roared out in anger as soon as they saw the trio consistent of Jason, Shane, and the chained runemaster orc. Shane manifested a blade around his hand and shot out small darkness rays that pierced through the guards without wasting any time. Jason grew somewhat accustomed to Shane''s strength and the shock in his mind was drastically reduced each time he saw Shane using his mana. He remained calm and Shane noticed that. Smiling lightly, they descended into the cave. The cave entrance was ten meters high and around 30 width while crystals lightened up the interior. With the mana density inside the forbidden zones, they would be operated by the surrounding mana instead of mana stones. The interior of the cave was carved out and the tunnel that could be seen further ahead grew wider with the cave walls being round off. Shane was walking straight through the tunnel without losing his focus while his mana was released to prevent any kinds of surprises. Jason just followed him, looking around curiously as mana currents could be seen all over the place when they went closer towards the thick and more pure-looking purple light that was surrounded by large numbers of different colors. These colors were widely spread, and far in the back, Jason was able to see the cavern tunnel connecting with a large room. At least that was what Jason assumed because the end of the tunnel was brightened up by a firm wall of mana that was surrounded by small runes, brightening up the whole conjunction. Walking towards the bright end of the tunnel Jason was expectant to see the large cavern hall. Stepping through it, Shane shattered the firm mana wall without doing anything at all. He used his physique as a means of force to bend the mana wall and in the end to shatter it completely. The bright light from the runes dissipated and in front of Jason appeared a completely new world he had never expected to see inside the Goblin basement. Entering the hall, Jason could see thousands of cages placed one after each other, row after row, numbered in the thousands, as far as his eyes could see and inside these cages were all kinds of beasts looked up. The whole hall was thousands of meters in width and length, while its height was more than 30 meters. But what astonished Jason the most, was the locked up beasts¡ä behavior. They didn''t care a tiny bit about someone entering the halls and not the slightest sound came from them. All beasts were lying on the ground as if they were dead and only because of his mana eyes Jason could tell that all of them were alive. It seemed weird and Shane answered Jason¡äs question before he could even ask "I think all of these beasts are females....they were probably abducted and violated to raise the goblins¡ä population at an extremely fast speed. But it''s weird that even beasts that have a completely different genetic pool were abducted and they seem as weak-willed as the other beast¡­ Did they try to copulate even with these beasts?" Shane was also astonished but it was rather the fact that it seemed like the Goblins tried to copulate with every living female being they could abduct. There were flying beasts, like winged lions, hawks, eagles, but also beasts like rhinos, wolves, antelopes, and many more. They could even see a small artificial pond with marine beasts inside and Jason couldn''t even tell what race most of them were. It was truly shocking to see that and it wasn''t long until they could see the first human victims. Jason¡äs eyes widened in shock and he wanted to run up to them, as he could finally see the first women¡äs soulless eyes. `They lost their will to live` He thought sad as he continued to walk towards the cages that inhabited humans. There were dozens if not hundreds of such cages and Jason felt truly disgusted at the sight of these women. Their clothes were ripped apart and even flesh was torn out of. Seeing them, Jason thought that they were probably even unable to cry anymore. Who knew how many days or months they had to endure being violated...It was no wonder, that their will to life lessened, turning them into what they were now. Jason turned to Shane saying hesitantly "Can we save them now? Maybe it''s not too late??" Shane lived for a long time and was already accustomed to such cases but it was different in every case. "I''ll open the doors and everyone that has at least a tiny will to life left can go out. Let¡äs just ask those that stay behind, if they want to stay there or if we should release them from their suffering. After we went through the whole goblin basement you can send Till your coordinates, to send a rescue team for the ones that are still ''alive''." After saying that, he released his mana, and the locks that sealed the cages were burst open, causing the gates that locked up all humans to open up by themselves. Jason¡äs eyes widened. ''Releasing them from their suffering? Did he mean killing them?'' He swallowed his saliva and couldn''t think about doing something like that. Jason killed many beasts but it was different than killing humans, that weren''t even able to defend themselves anymore. Being unsure what to think about this scenario, Jason saw the first few women exerting all of their strength to stand up as they reeled out of the cages. Outside the cages, they could see Shane and Jason, causing their eyes to turn wet, which was previously unthinkable for them as tears poured down their cheeks. Before they could do anything, their strength left them, when they collapsed on the cold ground. Jason wanted to run to them but Shane held him back "You don''t know if these women got any kind of contagious disease from the Goblins or if they turned insane. Without being able to differentiate between friend and foe, they will attack and kill anything that is close to them in order to protect themselves¡­ Your just an Adept-rank¡­ keep that in mind" Halting in his track, Jason listened to Shane and his words seemed reliable. Some books told of numerous contagious infections caused by all kinds of beasts which caused Jason to shiver in fright. Shane was deep in thought and Jason looked at him expectantly, because he was still inexperienced with such situations and he wasn¡ät sure what to do, while an expert was standing next to him. Let¡äs the Veteran do the main Job! But Jason¡äs expectation was almost immediately disrupted. "Just ignore these women! After we finish our trip through the cave, you can call Till. And ignore my statement about releasing them from their suffering... That will take too long, let¡äs go!" "But?? What if they die? At least the ones that want to survive, should get the chance?!" Jason was shocked to hear Shane being so unbothered by his own race¡äs struggle to stay alive. Pondering for a moment, Shane said resolutely "Arghh...I forgot that you are still wet behind your ears¡­Because it¡äs your first time, I can compromise with you at least a little bit. If you want to call Till right now, he has to accept a condition of mine!" Jason could see greed gleaming in Shane¡äs eyes, which disgusted him a little but. Shane was extremely greedy, even if he tried to hide it and Jason could only faintly detect it in the beginning but it looked like this greed began to show more of its true nature the more time passed, causing Jason to feel disappointed with one of humanity¡äs most powerful individuals. But maybe Jason could figure out a good way to help both sides, Shane¡äs and the unfortunate women here! "What is your condition?" Jason asked hesitantly. "It¡äs simple... These rescue teams will not only save the female victims but probably also collect some of the beasts here, as many of them are rare and good to breed with! They have to pay 20% of the market price for these beasts! Additionally, 20% of all materials that will be found here, which I didn¡ät collect should be given to me in star notes or mana stones." Shane said with a sly smile on his face. Considering that these beasts were extremely weak-willed and on death doors, 20% were a huge price. There might even the chance, that they don¡ät even want to get offerings anymore due to the trauma they received. Jason found these 20% a little bit unreliable while the 20% for materials were more understandable. Furthermore, another problem appeared in his mind "I think the second clause is acceptable but I don''t think the first one will be accepted¡­ What if they accept in the beginning and don''t pay you later?" "I¡äm the strongest being here, right? They¡äll see what happens if they try to con me. As for the first clause, they should consider it as a protection fee. In the end, I saved the whole city, right?" Shane said and the whole conversation ended with his last words. Jason could only nod helplessly as a holographic screen appeared in front of him. Shane activated a special device which caused the reception to work as Jason called Till, who was already back in the city. Upon answering the call, Till was astonished about the information Jason provided him. He reluctantly accepted the conditions stated because he was aware of the fact that Shane saved the city as rumors of a black hand shattering a humongous blade beam were already spreading throughout the city. Old Drake who stood next to him also accepted his clauses and all sites were rather satisfied with the outcome of the Goblin tide, except the casualties and their family who suddenly lost their loved ones. But Till would have never known, that so many beasts were locked within the Goblin basement which would cost a fortune. After the conditions had been accepted, Jason send Till the coordinates, while Shane laughed out in joy. "Hahaha, I would have never been able to sell these beasts but now we are rich...hehe it''s always nice to save cities only to gain favors." Jason frowned and it was true. Shane could never be able to transport tens of thousand beasts from the forbidden lands to Cyro-city without attracting a commotion and neither could he sell them as he was not a beast merchant and nor legally on Astrix. But by using Jason as the medium, Shane could receive his fortune which made him happy. "Let¡äs go! We have still some time left until the rescue team arrives" Shane shouted as he picked up Jason before he rushed through the hall inside the next tunnel that led them to another hall. Chapter 120 - Looting Expert As they entered the second hall, Jason noticed that it was even bigger than the first hall where all the monsters were inside and by a large margin at that. It was a gigantic underground city with large compressed-stone compounds that were connected with wooden suspension bridges. In the middle of the underground city, one could see a huge natural water stream, separating a hundred-meter-high building that almost looked like the buildings made by higher nobles. At least similar valuable materials were used to build it and Jason could see mana radiating around the whole building. However, much more important was what he saw inside the building. Jason was still not extremely proficient with his mana eyes and he wasn''t able to look through too many stone layers or rather materials with larger amounts of mana inside. Nevertheless, Jason could see that multiple colors radiated from within the large compound, and these colors seemed somewhat different than the ones radiating from beasts. Not only were the colors rather weak but also extremely close next to each other and not moving. There was the chance that Jason''s instincts were wrong and these colors represented goblins or other sleeping beasts but he didn''t think the Goblin King would let goblin soldier or similar low-ranked beasts inside such a magnificent building as high ranked beast seemed to have at least some pride. Shane looked at the large building compound and turned to Jason with a crafty smile. "Let me be honest with you. The rescue team will need at most 20minutes to arrive. With you, I''ll be slowed down which means I can gather fewer treasures. There is not a single beast left inside the large building compound in front of us which means I can leave you alone, right? " He said and Jason wasn¡ät even able to say anything at all as Shane already vanished from his sight. ''Did he really leave me alone?'' Jason wondered and he had to acknowledge that Shane¡äs greed was almost obsessive in addition to his slightly cruel side he gave other humans. This caused him to think about Shane¡äs behavior towards himself, which was rather nice and gentle until now. `He also tried to explain me a lot, right?` He asked himself, not knowing how exactly he should think about Shane. These things confused him and Jason was unsure what Shane wanted from him. Previously he said that he wanted to talk to him but until now there hadn''t been a real discussion between both of them. He believed Shane''s statement that the magnificent building in front of him didn¡ät have any beasts as he predicted and seeing Shane''s vast mana core radiations appearing in front of something that radiated a purple hue, Jason concluded that these colors were either extremely potent and pure herbs or other valuable materials. Over the last few weeks, Jason questioned himself more about the ability of his eyes, and the more he thought about the colors he could see radiating from almost every living being except humans and Artemis, the less he really understood about his ability. Artemis'' color was somewhat disguised with him being unable to look through it and exactly the same case was with humans. Neither did humans radiate a certain color nor did they not radiate anything, causing Jason to feel weird and uncomfortable, as both scenarios at the same time should be impossible. Was their potential unlimited or the purity in humans and Artemis not fixed? In the end, it didn''t really matter what exactly the truth as both of his solutions would tell him roughly the same. ''The more distinct a color, the more valuable it is, furthermore the thickness and size of the colored hue could also be seen as a fact to determine the value.'' From his long-time observation, Jason could say that light-gray colors radiating meant that it was more valuable, stronger, or better in effect than the object that radiated a black hue. In addition to that Jason could also determine that two things of the same color could be better or worse while comparing both of them. The thicker, denser, or larger the same colored hue was compared to the other one, the better its effect or strength had to be. The only problem were rare items that didn¡ät radiate any color, as he had seen some mana weapons from the goblin raid a few hours ago, that didn¡ät radiate any color, even though they were extremely expensive and valuable But Jason didn¡ät have any time to think about something like that. With this knowledge in mind, he stepped through the building entrance. Looking around, Jason saw a huge entrance hall with four white pillars supporting the whole building. There were large stairs in a helix shape that would allow him to go upstairs, while a large door could be seen in every direction with unknown letters and symbols engraved above them on a sign. Jason was unsure where to go but seeing the speed at which Shane was collecting the valuable goods, he seemed to be a proficient looting expert. Each item or material Shane collected had the strongest colors radiating from them and Jason knew he wouldn''t be able to obtain anything extremely good. As such he used the same tactic as Goblins as he utilized his weightless step movement technique with his basic mastery to charge through the right door which had the weakest colors radiating from it, while they were extremely close next to each other with a high quantity! Jason wasn''t sure what it exactly was, but he had a small hunch and if he was right his need for credits would vanish into thin air. It was not like he was extremely greedy, but he knew that resources were important to increase his strength and combat prowess as quickly as possible. Without wealth, even with the best aptitude towards mana absorbing and refining, he would lose out. Considering Jason¡äs superior aptitude towards mana, he would be considered a genius everywhere else but he was still much worse compared to people with above-average aptitudes and a mountain of resources. If Jason didn¡ät know it before, he would have noticed it at the latest, when he used the [Splitting Mind] technique to refine a sub-area in his mind. Since then his absorption and refining of mana skyrocketed and combined with his mana aptitude he could be considered extremely talented. But creating his sub-area was only possible because of resources and Jason wanted to refine his second sub-area in the future while resources required to accomplish that were multiple times larger than for the first sub-area. For the first mind division, Till paid a few hundred star -notes for the mana stones, while he wasn¡ät sure about the price for a non-elemental Lord rank mana core. In the end, Jason couldn¡ät even imagine the value of a Devilish valkyrie-shield fruit, even though it was extremely painful, its efficiency was not to be neglected. This caused Jason a slight headache as he stormed through the hallway which was connected to many doors. But this didn''t cause him to look through all of them to inspect them, rather than that Jason had a certain target in his view with the most colors and mana fluctuations situated in a certain place, gathered together. Not even a full minute passed when Jason entered his desired room that was filled with a fragrant aroma streaming towards him. Taking a deep breather, Jason immediately felt more vigorous, and looking around, he noticed that he was inside a garden with many different kinds of herbs and fruits within. Each of these herbs and fruits radiated a certain color with the strongest being a single thin dark green colored herb, situated in the center. Dark green was the indicator for unblemished beasts, if what he saw was a beast but for plants, the colors were apparently slightly different. For example, the Siphon-agnus-castus Jason found could even be used to help beasts with the potential to reach the unblemished rank, to evolve, while the color it radiated was only light-gray which was comparable to the evolved rank. Jason was overjoyed because Shane seemed to be occupied with some extraordinary plants or other materials on the higher floors as the colors he saw up there were mostly green as he smiled lightly. `This trip is really fruitful for me... I have to thank Shane later for bringing me with him!` He thought as he began to pick the herbs in accordance to the theoretical knowledge he learned from the herb books he memorized. Jason tried not to injure these herbs, stems, and roots, to plant them again, as the fruits didn¡ät seem to be completely ripe yet. The only unfortunate thing for Jason was, that he couldn¡ät bring living beings inside his spatial storage as it was not good enough. As such Jason pondered what he should do, as some of these herbs, stems, and trunks were relatively large. He couldn¡ät just take out a large bag and run around with it, as all plants together would be multiple times his size and weight. Making a decision, Jason decided to use his mana to seal the unripe herbs, to cause a similar situation than death. It would decrease the efficiency of the herbs but Jason could live with that if he would be able to get all of them with him. Storing the sealed herbs away, Jason looked at the soil and noticed it was also radiating mana. As such he didn''t have to think long as he stored it away, leaving empty pots behind. Turning around, Jason noticed many necessary things used for gardening and he collected all of them, before leaving the completely cleared room in a rush. Looking at the time that seemed to disappear without him knowing, Jason noticed that there was only enough time for him to clear a few more rooms. However, an unknown emotion began to ignite within him, as he was about to become too greedy because he wanted to rush back to the main entrance into another hallway. He had already cleared the biggest room in these hallways while the quality of the materials in the other floors was much better compared to the remaining things, Jason could receive here. Trying to keep a cool mind, Jason decided to clear the rooms with the most herbs gathered at a single spot while impatiently making his way back to the main entrance. Almost 15 minutes passed and Jason was back to the main entrance, while his face was dirtied by the soil, he collected. Entering the next hallway, a burning heatwave flooded him. Chapter 121 - Origin Flame A minute before Jason entered the second door, he was pondering which one to choose. The left had definitely more treasures inside that radiated mana colors at once, but Jason¡äs was somehow drawn to enter the one in the middle. This caused Jason to have a slight headache but he just followed his gut feeling, as he didn''t want to regret anything afterward. His mana eyes were not absolute and there was the chance that something important could be amiss if he solely relied on them. The same could be said for Artemis in particular. She radiated a distinct color, but this couldn¡ät be seen through other colors and Jason was only lucky to have found her egg when she was extremely weak. Jason didn''t think extremely weak colors or mana radiations could be seen through the wall and in the end, he followed his gut feeling, only to get surprised by a heatwave flooding his face, as he opened the door to the middle hallway. `Forging room? Maybe this is the hallway used by their blacksmiths?` Jason knew that the Goblins had at least one or two high-ranked blacksmiths as some weapons were either custom-made or crudely forged by someone while weapons made by humans were not as ugly as the weapons he previously saw. Jason knew they didn¡ät have much time left before they would have to leave this place to prevent anyone from finding out that Shane was alive, which Jason still couldn¡ät understand. Nevertheless, he also had to be careful. If someone found out what kinds of treasures he found here, Jason was sure that many would be jealous of him and they definitely would want to steal it from him, as his strength was still not on par with adults. It would be extremely easy to steal anything from him, which was kinda problematic. Running through the hallway, Jason felt the heat increasing even more until he reached the last door where he was oddly drawn to. Opening the door without hesitation, he entered a large room with a smithy situated in the front. But what astonished Jason more, was that the smithy seemed to be completely filled with colors? Dozens of different types of ores could be seen inside chests in the corners of the room without radiating any colors However, the smithy, anvil and other necessities to forge could which could be seen by him radiated colors which was something new to him. `Even forged goods can release a colored hue?` He thought and this was one of the most shocking things that happened today, as it changed most things he previously thought about his mana eyes¡ä ability. He had never seen any reagent that radiated a color neither weapons nor garment except the soul weapons from Seron and Till. As such Jason wasn''t sure if he had seen wrong but the weapons from Seron and Till showed signs of radiating a colored hue, which was however suppressed in Seron¡äs case. Jason didn¡ät know why it was suppressed or if this was intentional, but after seeing all these colors radiating from the items in front of him, he was sure about one fact. `These things are worth a fortune!!!` Jason thought and it was the first time for him to feel his greed igniting within him. He wanted to become stronger as soon as possible and wealth was the best way to accomplish this. As such he collected all lighter items he could find while lifting the ores he saw with all his effort to store them inside his spatial storage. To store something in one''s spatial storage, one would only have to touch it. However, if it was still in touch with other items one didn¡ät want to store, like the building he was currently in. Otherwise, one could be able to mine all kinds of ore occurrences without much difficulty. Storing soil and so on was exactly the same. Jason had to pick it up to collect it, otherwise, he could also envelop it with his mana. Fortunately, he decided to preserve some of his mana, for scenarios like he was currently in. Almost five minutes passed when Jason had collected all ores, even though they didn¡ät radiate any color, as he identified them as rare ores, which caused him to be extremely overjoyed. After that, Jason tried to pick up the anvil, only for him to notice that its weight was probably more than a ton and forcing him to envelope it with his mana in order to store it away, which was definitely the easiest way. Unfortunately, Jason couldn¡ät envelop the whole forge with his mana and he would have to leave the smithy behind, when he looked around it once again, to see if he missed anything. His gut feeling told him that there was something important he missed, while his soul world shook slightly, which astonished him, as he approached the smithy. Suddenly overwhelming dizziness spread through his head as Jason¡äs soul world began to shake violently, causing him to stumble. `W-What is going on?` Jason was confused and he wasn''t able to regain control over his body as the balance inside him was completely interchanged. Not being able to stand firmly, he fell to the ground, holding his head in pain. The pain coming from his soul world astonished him and Jason wasn¡ät sure why his soul world was acting so violently, without any prior signs. `Has Artemis finished her evolution?` Was the only solution he could come up with but entering his soul world he noted that Artemis was still in her Evolution, which left a confused Jason behind. Leaving his soul world, the pain vanished as abruptly as it appeared. However, Jason was now left even more confused, which was apparent in his unsettled expression. As he was about to stand up, he noticed something weird inside the hearth of the forge. `A black crystal?` Jason wondered and with his mana eyes activated, it was apparent that this black crystal was nothing special, but his attention was drawn to it. Inside the black crystal one could see a small almost not distinguishable black fire flickering, trying to break out of its shell which was a bewitching sight. The fire had the size of his pinky finger¡äs fingertip and it looked kinda cute in Jason¡äs opinion. The more he looked at the flame, the more interesting it seemed and he decided to take the black crystal with him. Holding the black crystal carefully in his hand, Jason noticed, that the crystal gave out a cooling feeling, which wasn¡ät what he expected. Suddenly Jason¡äs soul world shock again, but this time his head didn''t hurt and he felt the insatiable desire of his soul world to obtain the black crystal in his hand and it seemed as if his soul world would devour it if he didn¡ät restrict it anymore `Is this black crystal something good for my soul world?` Jason questioned himself. Without restricting his soul world, Jason shockingly noticed, that a soul thread detached itself from within his soul world, coursing through his body until it reached his hand, which held the black crystal. `What do you want from me?` He was about to shout out but he could roughly sense what his soul world wanted from him. ''Binding the black crystal to myself? Does my soul world consider this crystal as a soulbond right now?'' Jason was unsure but before he could decide what to do, the soul thread tried to break through his skin in order to enter the black crystal, while the black crystal began to heat up without him noticing it. Within a second, Jason¡äs skin was burned and the soul thread left his hand shooting straight into the black crystal''s core, without listening to his orders. `HEYYY!! Aren''t you MY soul?¡­. Why are you doing things on your own...` Jason lamented as he began to feel a thin connection establishing itself between him and the black crystal. Right after the thin connection was constructed a tiny crack appeared on the black crystal and it didn''t take long until the crack spread through the whole crystal like a single cobweb. Jason was curious and slightly frightened at the same time because he wasn''t sure what was going on, as he gazed down at the crystal. The black flame inside the crystal began to vibrate, causing the black crystal shattered. The released pinky fingertip-sized black flame flickering in Jason¡äs hand, without hurting him at all, while the shattered crystal pieces were laying in his hand without any signs of mana fluctuations. With his mana eyes, Jason sensed that the flame in his hand was special if he hadn''t noticed that before. But before he could continue to look at the black flame in his hand, he noticed strong mana fluctuations behind him as Shane entered the space behind him. Shane could only see Jason¡äs back as he announced "Jason, let''s go! The rescue team is already close and within the first cavern hall. If we don¡ät want to stand out, we should go now." But Jason wasn''t moving a single step and it seemed as if he hadn''t heard Shane at all. Seconds passed without anyone moving and Shane felt that the current situation was slightly awkward. As such he called out Jason a few more times, but there was not a single sign of Jason noticing him, which was frustrating. It had been a long time since he was ignored by someone and his pride couldn¡ät accept that, as he walked towards Jason to lecture him once they left the Goblin settlement. `Hmm?` But only now did Shane notice something unusual about Jason, as he saw a black shattered crystal within his hands. Looking into Jason¡äs face, he could see a pained expression while sweat poured down his cheeks. Inside his golden eyes, one could see a tiny black flame flickering around vigorously filled with the desire to live. Shane noticed that Jason behaved weirdly as he saw a black flame flickering within his eyes. Touched Jason, Shane had a bad premonition, as he scanned through his body that was excessively hot, seemingly burning from the inside. Injecting his mana, he could feel the remains of something dangerous yet a blessing. "What the Hell? Is this brat blessed by heavens?... How did he find an Origin Flame?!" Shane shouted out flabbergasted before he used his spatial magic to teleport them away, with the Orc behind them. Chapter 122 - Baptism Jason only knew that his whole body was burning, while there was no way for him to run away from this hellish fire, streaming through his mana channels, veins, through his heart where it was distributed in all directions. It was unknown how much time passed, but he could only think about the pain he felt and him being unable to move a single inch. When his connection with the black flame was formed, it entered his soul world before it began to connect with his body. Not only was this flame connected to his soul, but it also burned through his body causing a metamorphosis to happen within him, as well as on the outside. Unknown to him, Jason was lying inside a king-sized bed, while an old but refined woman with silver hair stood next to Shane. While the woman looked worriedly at the heavy sweating, panting black-haired youth in front of her, Shane looked jealous at Jason. "How can he find an Origin Flame just like that?! What is such a treasure doing within the goblin settlement?" He grumbled and the woman next to him consulted him with a gentle slap on his shoulder. "It''s not like you can do anything with it, my old geezer, right?" She chuckled lightly before she returned her gaze to Jason. Shane sighed and he couldn¡ät say anything against her argument as it was true "Argh...If I only had a spot for another soulbond left.." Suddenly Jason cried out in pain and the room temperature increased by another two to three degrees. Black flames spurted out of him with a black, reeking mixture of impurities and old skin, which caused both the old woman and Shane to widen their eyes. "Dalia? You¡äve never heard about a black origin flame either, right?" Shane asked, and the old woman could only shake her head, curiosity gleaming in her eyes. Touching the flame with her hand, she sensed a terrifying heat that wanted to devour her, as she took it back after a few seconds. There was not a single burn on her hand and she seemed fine but her words shocked Shane a little bit "This is definitely not an average Origin flame... It should be at least a B-rank Origin flame... Maybe even A or S, but I''m not sure about that... Even if the Origin flame has only awakened a few hours ago, it¡äs might be comparable with matured D-Rank Origin flames, which underwent its first evolution." Doubts started to run through Shane¡äs head and he whispered quietly "Was the Goblin King supported by someone? Was it a human clan that wanted to reign over humanity or one of the foreign intelligent races? Handing out an unawakened A-rank Origin Flame should be impossible for a human and a waste of resources.¡­" Shane was unsure and only Dalia, his wife could hear him and she was as confused as Shane, maybe even more. Since they had to flee from Canir in order to hide because of her special physique, many things changed for humanity and even Shane began to change his attitude from trying to save everyone into someone rational who would sacrifice thousands of people to save millions in exchange. This caused her to feel dejected with her guilt accumulating. Shane only showed his emotions to her since many things happened in his past and it was only a few months ago, that he showed signs of taking interest in someone else. And it was apparently this black-haired youth in front of her who underwent the first baptism originated from having bound an unawakened Origin flame. Even if she knew that Shane only began o show interest in him because of his mana eyes and his soul-awakening, she was also aware, that his observances and interest began to increase the more time passed. She had the feeling that it was not only his dream that kept Shane on observing Jason. Dalia thought Shane could see himself in Jason, at least a little bit and she was happy seeing that. She couldn¡ät bear children due to her special physique and maybe Jason could replace her dream of having someone similar, but that was only a distant dream from her and would most likely remain something like that. A dream. First Jason would have to survive his baptism. Even for D-rank Origin flames, one had to be at least at the Expert rank to ensure one¡äs survival and Jason was only at the 1st Adept rank, while he underwent the baptism of an unknown ranked Origin flame. Jason seemed to be under constant pain and black blood oozed out of his pores and seven orifices while Dalia couldn¡ät look at this anymore when a lush and vibrant green magic circle appeared in front of her with another dark green magic circle next to it. Two 1.7 meter tall humanoid-looking trees appeared in front of her. One had shoulder long dark green vines representing her hair while the other one had blue hair, while a vibrant distinct green gem represented their eyes. Their bodies were similar to gorgeous women with voluptuous curves while barks covered their bodies except for the head and limbs as they looked around curiously. These two beasts were Dryads and if Jason saw them, he would be extremely astonished to see them. Dryads were thought to be extinct and seeing two of them and at such a high rank at that, was an extremely rare sight. Furthermore, their complexion was almost the same as humans which indicated a well-defined intelligence. This would cause Jason¡äs curiosity to soar even higher but unfortunately, Jason was burning in hell¡äs fire at the moment, oozing out black heaps of impurities while Shane wondered how much impurities more would be expelled from Jason. But his thoughts were not based on facts, logically seen a Baptism should only force out some impurities inside a body, but considering that Origin flames were even beneficial for Lord ranked humans, it was only obvious that Jason who was at the Adept rank would have to force out a huge mass of impurities. Furthermore, due to them not knowing what grade his black origin flame was, they could only estimate the baptism¡äs degree roughly. This whole scenario could be observed for hours, and Jason was filled with a huge pile of his own impurities, which were enveloped by mana and thrown somewhere else with Shane¡äs spatial magic. The two Dryads were using their mana to energize and regenerate Jason¡äs mana and support his mental state. It was only after a long time that he stopped roaring out in pain as the leaking blood lessened, leaving an exhausted youth, without any energy left behind Jason felt completely numb and hours passed without him even being able to open his eyes and it was only the constant supply with a cooling sensation that caused him to feel alive, as he was finally able to open his eyes after an eternity passed Jason didn''t know where he was and he could only remember that Shane appeared behind him and the black flame entering his soul world, causing chaos. His body began to heat up and he felt as if he was burning alive. But this burning sensation was already comparable to the pain he endured when he ate the Devilish-Valkyrie-shield fruit and Jason shuddered being reminded about the pain. Weirdly enough, he could remain much calmer this time, even after enduring this kind of pain once again, which was definitely not normal. Trying to move his body, Jason felt as if he was filled with energy to the brim. As such he decided to sit up straight before looking around curiously. The room he slept in was empty, without much furniture except the king-sized bed, while the walls seemed to be made out of high-grade wood because it seemed to be extremely refined. Jason didn''t even know how much time had passed since he formed a bond with the weird black flame. Looking at the date, Jason''s eyes widened in shock. ''It''s already Monday?!'' More than 30 hours had passed and Jason was unsure what the Fler¡äs would say about him being out once again. ''Maybe they don¡ät care?'' Jason thought, trying to reassure himself because he was not their child or relative, but it was hardly possible that this would happen and he went out of the bed. Firmly standing on the bottom, Jason felt like he was a newly born because his skin seemed to be much fairer than before and upon looking closer, it was almost transparent displaying his veins and even mana channels, that were directly joint with each other, clearly. Jason¡äs muscles were much firmer than before, while every cell inside his body was brimming with power. He punched out with his fists and he could see marginal air currents manifesting, which astonished him. Sensing throughout his whole body, Jason detected many differences inside his body. But more importantly was, that he could have never imagined that his body could be so clean from the inside as most impurities he sensed before had been exhaled. Furthermore, even his mana core was shining faintly, which astonished him. But that was not the most shocking matter. After inspecting his physique, he concluded that he had most likely reached the physique of a normal 4th Adept rank which astonished Jason, while his mana core increased also uniformly to the 4th Adept rank. ''Was all of this caused by the tiny black flame my soul desperately wanted to contract?'' Jason thought, doubting everything in the world, as he entered his soul world, where he could see the tiny flame flickering next to his soul world core. ''Why are you so close to my soul world core!?! Don¡ät you dare to do anything to my soul energy'' Jason thought and even if he was thankful for the metamorphosis he had undergone, he was still extremely suspicious of this tiny flame which caused him excessive pain Chapter 123 - Adonis Apparently, the black flame was not harmful to Jason¡äs soul world core, rather than that it seemed that the black flame could purify his soul energy further, while the soul energy that was the closest to the black flame looked more vibrant and shined brighter compared to the rest. Thus, Jason tried to use his connection with the black flame to order it below the soul world core and after a few motivating words, the flame slowly floated below the soul world core, purifying everything in a close range. Jason nodded in satisfaction and decided to leave the soul world after checking how much soul energy he had accumulated and how far Artemis'' evolution was. It seemed like Artemis would evolve at the end of the week which was fine as his soul energy had surprisingly reached 15 units. But what Jason also noticed was that the black flame used up 0.01 units of his soul energy which was more than a little bit suspicious. ''Was it considered as his soulbond or what the hell is this black flame?'' Leaving the soul world, Jason decided to test something out, because he noticed something particular inside the soul world Circulating his mana while looking at it with his mana eyes, his doubts were proven correct. `My mana transmuted and there is a slight touch of a black flame affinity within.` Thinking about this his expression brightened up `Have I also gained an affinity through this black flame?`Jason questioned and felt the connection through the black flame, he released some of his mana leading it to his hand, while activating the connection between the flame and him. A tiny black flame appeared in Jason¡äs head and he jumped up with a bright face. Due to the loss of concentration, the black flame immediately extinguished but that was not important right now. He gained his first affinity and it was the tiny black flame that made everything possible! `Hahahaha not only have I gained a fortune by gathering the herbs, but also another amazing soulbond with an affinity` Jason thought proudly before he remembered that his 3rd soulbond also needed soul energy and a frown appeared in his mind. `I can''t even provide enough soul energy for my two former soulbonds, how should I provide enough for the tiny flame?... Will it devour me, if I can¡ät provide enough energy?` He thought, causing the frown in his face to deepen even more. Dalia and Shane were sitting outside the room on the couch when they heard Jason waking up, causing Dalia to jump up. But before she could do anything, Shane held her back, calmly stating "Give him some time to adjust to everything." "Ahh.. yeah.." Dalia replied a little bit dejected. She wanted to look how Jason was feeling but Shane¡äs words also made sense. After a baptism one had to overcome the trauma about being burned alive before one was able to adjust to the increased strength and cleansed body. Both of them wouldn¡ät expect Jason to disregard the trauma about being burned inside-out, without the slightest hesitation. Meanwhile, Jason finished expecting his body and it was only now that a disgusting smell pierced into his nostrils, causing him to retch. His clothes were reeking disgustingly and the room he was inside was also smelling like someone stored garbage inside it for years. Changing his clothes alone would be useless and he searched for the bathroom, which he fortunately found after opening the second door. Taking of his clothes, Jason¡äs eyes widened. `Whoaa!` he thought looking at his chiseled abs in admiration. Never had he seen such abs and Jason decided to look into the mirror for the first time in the last few weeks. A tall black-haired youth with golden eyes could be seen. While his sites were still relatively short cut, his golden eyes were also the only indicator telling him, that he could see himself inside the mirror. A young man with a chiseled face and perfect proportions could be seen inside the mirror, causing Jason to question himself. `Is that really me?` Furthermore, Jason noticed that he grew a few centimeters. He was now over 1.7m tall and muscles covered his whole body, without obstructing his flexibility while he couldn¡ät see a tiny bit of baby fat in his face anymore. Nobody would believe him that he was only 14 years old and he himself would rather say he was 16 years old if not older. His fair skin underlined a feeble appearance with his beautiful facial features, while his distinct muscles told a different story. Wearing oversized clothes, Jason would look rather feeble but now, he didn¡ät doubt that he could be a model which caused his confidence to heighten to an extreme. Stepping inside the shower he turned on the water and only 30 minutes alter he left the shower with a fragrant smell. His innate smell was much better compared to before as all kinds of impurities were cleansed from his body. Outside the room, Dalia and Shane looked perplexed at each other when they heard the water turning on. `Hasn¡ät he only awoken like 20 minutes ago?` They asked themself confused and Dalia was even more shocked because the trauma she received from forming a soulbond with her Origin Flame was still apparent in her mind. It took her a few days to overcome the fear of burning alive and even longer before she allowed anything touching here in fear that it would hurt her, but Jason was showering like nothing happened after waking up for 20 minutes? When Jason finished showering, he changed into a new set of clothes and left the still reeking room in order to enter a comfy small living room with all kinds of old but mysterious-looking furniture around. He immediately spotted Shane and a woman next to him, who he suspected to be Shane¡äs wife and greeted them politely. "Are you fine Jason?" Shane asked and looked doubtfully at Jason. He knew about his experience with the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit but he was still astonished to see that Jason seemed fine, after receiving a similar experience. "Yes, thank you for your concern, Shane!" `Shane?` Dalia looked at his man, with a gleam in her eyes and a small smile appeared. Shane avoided his wife¡äs gaze and before he could say anything Dalia introduced herself "Hello Jason, My name is Dalia Blair and Shane is my husband. Just call me Dalia if you want." His prediction was correct and he smiled before he introduced himself politely "Hello Dalia, my name is Jason Stella. It¡äs an honor to meet you" "Ahh you don''t have to be so polite, Shane likes you, just be comfortable with us" Dalia said trying to avoid talking politely. She didn''t like talking politely because it reminded her of humanities¡ä social hierarchy, even thought it was courtesy. But Jason was rather astonished `Shane likes me? Why?` Averting his gaze to Shane, he didn¡ät seem to avoid him. "What my wife said is true, I like you but there are multiple reasons for that¡­. I know it¡äs already late and you haven¡ät been at home at the Fler¡äs for quite some time but I hope you have some time to talk with us. The Fler¡äs were worried about you but I called Little Till to tell them that you have important matters to attend, right now and everything should work out. You are probably curious about the black flame you formed a soulbond with and what happened in the last 30+ hours, right? Furthermore I want to talk to you about an important subject. But before I¡äll start a speech about things that don¡ät even interest you, ask every question you want. We will answer everything as detailed as possible" Shane said while smiling gently and Jason wondered how a single person could have so many personalities.. In Jason¡äs opinion Shane was rather cruel to strangers, while he looked lovingly at his wife and he was even kind to him, which also strange. Furthermore Shane seemed greedy, which seemed excessive yet not¡­ it was weird. Jason had too many questions in his mind and he wasn¡ät sure which one to pick so he just followed his gut feeling and began with his questions. "There is too much I want to know and I would like to listen to your story, but right now, its more important for me to know, what you want from me? I doubt you wanted to play samaritan or nice grandpa from nextdoor when you appeared inside the Sanctuary. Bringing me to see the whole Goblin beast tide was probably also because of that and giving me inconspicuous benefits by taking me with you to the Goblin basement, was probably also intentionally. From your eyes, I can tell that the incident with the Black flame was not planned. I don¡ät know if you regret it but you didn¡ät seem to have a prior look within the large goblin basement, if there was anything really important. Otherwise you would have picked it up before I could, right?" Jason finished his short speech and Dalia looked at Jason with a bright smile when she averted her gaze to Shane. Seeing Shane, she began to chuckle lightly, which caused the awkward situation to loosen up slightly. Shane didn¡ät expect Jason to discover so much "You got me, Brat.. I''ll explain everything¡­.where should I start.." Chapter 124 - [Information Shane pondered how to begin, but he wanted to keep it simple, so he just started straightforwardly. "You also want to know what I want, right? That''s extremely simple..You! I want you! Not your body or something like that but rather than everything else, I want your talent which includes your mana eyes special trait and inconspicuous soul-awakening. As you already know I''m far from being a samaritan but you¡äll also change once you figure out how the real world works. You are still too young to understand that. Bringing you out to the Goblin tide was for you to see the cruelty from both sides, beasts and humans and I think this was partially successful, don''t you think so? I intended to bribe you a little bit to achieve my goal but you already figured it out and it''s definitely true, that the incident with the Black Origin Flame was not planned. In the end, one could say you are extremely fortunate because I wouldn''t be able to make use of this Origin flame, even if I knew about it. Otherwise I would be really pissed. I think you already figured out that I''m kinda greedy and this is human nature and nothing to be ashamed of. Without resources, you won''t survive long enough on Argos or maybe even within some dangerous cities. Staying weak will only harm you in the future if you don¡ät want to back off against stronger ones." Shane finished and looked at Jason, waiting for questions but Shane¡äs answer only gave Jason more questions "Why do you need me? My soul energy is extremely weak and it will take years until I''m able to contract a magical ranked beast, let''s not talk about a higher-ranked beast. " He said, aware of his lie about the soul energy. Jason wouldn''t need a few years until he could contract a magical ranked beast. With his current increase of soul energy it wouldn''t take that long, because he received a ? amplification from his soulbonds which in return causes the demand of soul energy for every soulbond to lessen by ?. Furthermore with more soul energy and each practice with the Heaven''s Hell technique would increase his soul energy exponential. Additional to his exceptional soul energy replenishing rate, Jason was confident in Artemis'' continuous increase in strength "I noticed humanity''s curelity a long time ago and we are no better than beasts. However more important to me is, what exactly this Origin Flame is, that I apparently contracted?" Jason was aware of the cruelty this world created and humans'' inexhaustable greed to become stronger. They would probably sacrifice as many lives as they wanted to become stronger and Jason could only sigh while thinking about that. But with this thought in mind, he would rather think about the unknown Origin Flame in his soul world, that was bond to him "Before I can explain why I need you, It¡äs definitely better to tell you more about Origin Flames... But before that DONT F**K with me !! I know about your soul awakening. How dare you tell me that your soul energy is weak? You have at least a soul energy of ten and it''s increasing extremely fast. With your mutated snowflake owl, you might be able to have a magical ranked beast in a year at most! With your high soul energy reproduction, we can work hard to achieve the Five braided helix of the Heaven¡äs Hell technique for an additional boost in your soul energy training. Maybe we can boost your soul energy increase to around 1.5% each day after I get to know how fast your reproduction speed is." Shane said proudly. It was extremely hard for youngsters to achieve a five braided helix after having one soul only awoken for a few months but Jason¡äs next words shocked him "Well thank you for your concern about my soul energy but I''m already capable of practicing the five-braided soul energy helix without your help...Furthermore, the increase of soul energy is around 2.5% per day with my reproductive ability" Jason didn''t have a reason to lie, because Shane would get to know it sooner or later and there was nothing to hide. "See!! Only 2.5% in one.. ONE DAY? What did you say?" Shane thought he had misheard and previously he expected Jason to have a 0.5% increase of his soul energy in one day at most which would be considered ordinary for a common practice for Heaven''s Hell at the second level. Dalia¡äs eyes shined brightly and joy could be seen in her eyes but this was because of two reasons. It had been a long time for her to see Shane losing control over his voice and him acting so flabbergasted at the same time but also the achievements Jason accomplished without anyone''s help were a feat to be proud of. `Maybe he is really the treasure we searched for` She thought and continued smiling at Jason. Jason felt a bright smile piercing into him and he wasn''t even able to look to his right as he would only feel awkward seeing Dalia smiling so brightly at him. Shane took a moment to gather his thoughts before he continued with a slightly grim face "Just forget what I said about your soul energy... Just continue working hard, alright?! Let me explain to you what Origin flames are and why they are so special. As you may have noticed, the Origin Flame is connected to your soul like every other beast you formed a soulbond with, right? But their relation with each other is slightly different. Beasts can provide their contractor with a certain amplification in mana, physical strength, and some even an affinity, while they can also be summoned and used in combat. The amplification percentage is correlated to your soul, which you should be aware of. The Origin is completely different, from the moment they awaken, they provide their contractor with a baptism which will exhale a huge pile of impurities, which will in return increase one¡äs mana gathering, refining and absorption talent. Due to the exhaled impurities, there won''t be great obstacles while breaking through and you¡äll increase your mana core rank extremely fast. Furthermore, the baptism you underwent most likely provided you with a huge increase in your mana core''s size and strengthened your whole body. In addition to all of that. you¡äll look much better and the aging process will slow down to an extreme, as the impurities inside your body are washed away giving mana the chance to rejuvenate your cells much easier. Last but not least, you¡äll gain the affinity for the Origin Flame, which is most likely more powerful than most fire abilities from beasts. There are two disadvantages for Origin Flames, one is that the Origin Flame uses up a spot for soul beasts, that not many humans have left, once they find an Origin Flame. This is unfortunate but they can sell unawakened Origin flames for unimaginable prices because the baptism is just too valuable. Another disadvantage is at the same time an advantage. You have to nurture your Origin Flame with soul energy by letting it annex more of it. RIght now your Origin Flame shouldn''t be that large, while the soul energy it occupies is most likely less than 1 unit. It will increase in size and become stronger the more soul energy it annexed. Once your Origin Flame reaches a certain threshold, it will evolve into a higher grade, providing you with another baptism, which will cleanse another round of your impurities and strengthen your body. Origin Flames are divided into different Ranks from E- to S-rank , while their evolution grade is divided into Tiers. Right now your Origin flame is tierless and after the first evolution it would be called Tier-1 There are dozens of Origin Flames we found until now but the most common one is a common red Origin Flame, which is labeled as E-Rank, the impurity cleansing, strengthening, and strength of it, is not really great, but the ability to evolve makes it worthwhile for most humans to try to obtain even the worst one, while even old geezers want them to live longer and regain some of their youth. Higher ranked Origin Flames provide a qualitative higher baptism with a larger increase in all kinds of aspects." Shane ended giving Dalia the chance to say something. Trying to console Jason because she thought he was still shocked about being burned alive "Jason, you don''t have to be scared about the baptism as it will only happen once you want your flame to evolve after reaching its demands. If the first baptism was too scary for you, you can just leave the Origin flame behind, but you should keep in mind that the chances to obtain a Origin Flame are miniscule and probably less than 300 humans have one, while most of them have below-average ranks. This is because Origin flames only appear within the most concentrated volcanoes with a overwhelming amounts of mana, which can only be found in special rifts and on the main continent through unique incidents. It''s extremely difficult for flames to achieve sentient and create a crystal layer around their body to stay sentient. Without this crystal layer they would be flooded by the overwhelming mana currents and lava before they could even nurture themselves, which would take an uncountable amount of years without the support of soul energy." Saying all of this a silver flame appeared on her hand, floating around her hands as if the flame was playing with her and Jason activated his mana eyes out of curiosity. `Light-gray?` Jason saw the radiating color and wondered what that meant and his mind was rattling violently. "Miss Bl¡­" He sensed a glare from Dalia and corrected himself "Dalia, is this silver flame an Origin flame? If that''s the case, is it a tier-2 origin flame?" He was only guessing but seeing Dalia¡äs face, his guess seemed correct.`How does he know?` Before she could say anything Jason continued. "My eyes are special and I just guessed it. Please don¡ät mind my rudeness..I¡äm sorry.." Turning to Shane he continued asking questions "If I let my Origin flame occupy more soul energy, will there still be the shared amplification of soul energy from my soul world? Or is this occupied Soul energy completely used up? Furthermore, what is the rank of my black Origin flame? Apparently it has only awoken but my strength and mana core increased by a whole stage through the baptism¡­ It feels like the black flame affinity''s power is comparable to the strongest fire affinity from evolved ranked beasts." Previously, both Shane and Dalia thought they would overwhelm Jason with information but it seemed as if the youth in front of them could adapt faster than they themselves. The information Jason provided was more shocking than their information. Jason¡äs eyes could detect what tier Dalia¡äs origin flame was? The baptism provided Jason with a boost of a whole stage? Comparable to the strongest fire affinities from evolved ranked beasts directly after awakening¡­ This had to be a bad joke and Jason looked at Shane and Dalia expectantly, while they didn¡ät know what to think about the youth in front of them. Chapter 125 - Shane Brain′s Origin It took them a while before they regained their senses and Shane began to laugh out loud. "Hahaha You''re great!! You are really good!! Hahaha," and it took him a while before he regained his composure. Dalia was more composed and answered Jason after some time. "The soul energy you provide will not be completely used up, rather than that you can say that you¡äll still receive your normal soul amplification. If you provide your Origin Flame with 100 soul energy and your soul has a conversion ratio of 5% you receive five units back. As for your Origin flames rank¡­ To be completely honest, we don¡ät know that. Neither do we know where it came from¡­ I think you can agree with us that its illogical for such a treasure is in the smithy of a Lord-ranked Goblin King without receiving support from somewhere. Maybe they wanted to wait for something to use the Black origin flame and it could be possible that the Goblin King wanted to absorb it to break through its shackles, which is the most likely case as it already possessed a fire affinity. We also want to know who is behind all of this because supporting a Goblin King in devastating a human island is not beneficial for us. If foreign races were already able to infiltrate human territory without getting found out it would be bad, as such it was either someone else or we have a perilous time charging towards us. About your Origin Flame¡äs rank¡­. We are not sure but considering the pile of impurities you exhaled during the baptism and the increase in mana core size and physique it should be at least an A-rank maybe even S-rank but I don¡ät know about that, because I¡äve never heard about anyone possessing an S-rank Origin flame. This might also be because we are not connected to Canir for the last few decades, but that is a different story." Jason nodded and he wanted to find out much more, especially about Canir and their story "What about Canir? Why are you hiding here? And why are you not in touch with¡­" but he was interrupted by Shane. "Stop! Before you continue asking questions, we should tell our story to prevent unnecessary questions later on, alright?" He said and Jason nodded in anticipation. "This will only be a short summary, explaining everything in detail would take too long" Shane informed before he started. "I was born 250 years ago when the mana outbreak happened only slightly longer than 50 years, while humanity was still overwhelmed not only from the foreign intelligent races but also from all kinds of beasts invading Argos. Fortunately for me was only that I was born in Canir and my family had a few stronger powerhouses, defending us and the surrounding villages. Years passed and humanity began to reign supreme over Canir, while I strengthened myself by absorbing mana. While growing up, many things changed for humanity and one important factor was the existence of the soul-awakening orbs you already know and it was only because we stole one of these orbs from a foreign race, that we could research and duplicate it. We know that the foreign intelligent races don¡ät use this orb for a soul-awakening because we have never seen them using soulbonds, but these orbs are probably used for something else in their case, according to their genetic pool. However, this is only an assumption and doesn¡ät have to be the truth. After awakening my soul, my soul energy, which was considered extremely high at this time, caused many family members to back me with resources, to let me grow even faster. Being considered a prodigy felt good and I was extremely arrogant during this time, but that was only until my Family that established a small clan, was completely destroyed by a high-grade beast tide with Lord-ranked beings leading it. During that time, Lord-ranked humans were still a dram and without the help of other clans, my family was only able to send me away. Without being able to rely on anyone else and the feeling of betrayal from the other close-tied families, I worked hard to improve my strength. Not caring about anyone else, I became slightly crueler, but that was only until I met Dalia, 150 years ago. She brought me back to the right path and we fell in love, marrying only a few years later. Thanks to my strength, I was accepted into her family. Dalia with her special physique wasn''t able to bear a child which caused her family to disdain her behind her back. They wouldn''t dare to do that in front of her, because her special physique was helpful to them and additional her talent in Alchemy caused everyone to see her as perfect if there was not the child problem. Without bearing an offspring the patriarch disregarded Dalia''s existence more and I think it was around 70 years ago, when I was on a mission for the government, that Dalia was abducted from the Shore-clan that was after Dalia¡äs special physique. " Halting his story for a moment, Shane looked at Dalia before he averted his gaze to Jason to say "I¡äll let Dalia explain about her special physique later if she wishes to tell you her secret" "Back to my story: When I came back from my mission, I couldn''t find her and the patriarch told me that she voluntarily went to the Shore clan but knowing the Shore clan, I immediately understood that something was wrong. Arriving at the Shore manor, I found Dalia being forced to exert her special physique in exchange for her life-force, which obviously enraged me. Briefly summarized, I annihilated the Shore Clan, took Dalia back to her clan, where we were almost immediately kicked out by the enraged patriarch, cutting ties with us. It was not long until we were deemed as devils, rumored to be in an alliance with the foreign races, and other baseless rumors were spread. We fled and changed our appearance to a certain degree while hiding on different Islands. And more than 20 years ago, we decided to live here on Astrix, where we haven¡ät been found, at least until now." Shane finished and Jason looked at Shane doubtfully. `Was he really that lovingly to sacrifice everything for his wife?` He didn¡ät think of Shane like that and annihilating a large clan was definitely something only the cream of the crop of humanity would be able to do but there was something, Jason couldn''t get the hang on. "Why do you even need me? Do you want me to get stronger than these old geezers that can even force you to flee, to let you live openly? Furthermore, I don''t get what''s special about Dalia¡äs physique, the only thing I can see is a feeble light white radiating from her...It looks pure but I can''t understand that. " Jason found the information provided by Shane somehow lacking but maybe there were things he didn''t want to say and prying in their privacy was not something he initially wanted to do. Still, Dalia¡äs special physique made him curious and with his mana eyes, there was not really anything special except a white light radiating from her. This time Dalia began speaking, while she looked even more interested at Jason than before. His eyes were extremely precious and not `commonly` seen mana eyes! "My physique is special because of something we call purifying effect. I think you know what Beast Creators are, right? They can cause evolutions of beasts, as long as the evolution path is within their potential range. Maybe you have also heard about the purification theory, where a beast''s potential is forcefully raised by digesting magical treasures, cleansing the beast''s body from impurities, which in fact is the cause that increases their potential. High-grade treasures that can even cleanse impurities from magical or guardian-ranked beasts are extremely rare and my physique could be said to be such a treasure¡­" She hesitated for a moment before she continues...not many people knew about her secret "If I release my special physique, I can cleanse beasts and increase their potential to a certain extent In exchange, I¡äll have to either use a vast amount of resources that are even more expensive than the regular treasure, or I can use my life force. Using my life force, one year could be exchanged to cause a magical ranked beast to reach the potential of a guardian ranked beast. The Shore clan forced me to cleanse multiple magical ranked beasts and if they knew how exactly my special physique works, I would either be dead right now or so weak, that I wouldn''t be able to talk with you. I¡äve only once increased the potential of a Guardian beast to a Lord-ranked beast, but the demanded resources are way too large and a cleansing magical treasure might even be cheaper. Just like that, I¡äm not even sure how many years of my life I would have to waste to increase a beast''s potential to such an extent... " Jason¡äs eyes widened and he questioned himself `Can there be such a powerful body constitution?` But her next words shocked Jason even more. "Maybe you won''t believe me but my soul-awakening was the worst for my clan. I awoke with an affinity to wood and fire, with less than 3 soul energy units. At this time, sentient beasts with a wooden affinity like treants or dryads hadn''t been found yet and with my low soul energy, the Clan gave almost all of their wealth to obtain a B-Rank Silver Origin Flame. My special physique was probably also a reason to provide me with the Origin Flame, in order to increase my lifespan, which can then be burned up by my physique. Years passed and I married Shane but we still haven''t found a single sentient tree or something similar when Shane came back with a special treasure that should be able to cause mana-infested woods to awaken sentience. I used it on two half sentient branches instead of one large tree because my soul energy was still extremely small and furthermore, I had two soulbond spots left to be occupied. Without the will to fight, I wanted to receive two wooden affinity beasts. " Saying that she summoned her two guardian-ranked dryads that looked around curiously. "These are the two branches and due to my physique in addition to vast amounts of resources, I increased their potential and evolved them both into dryads" Jason was perplexed. This special physique of Dali was extremely precious but probably also extremely dangerous. He would never want to have such an obvious body trait because he didn''t think Dalia could completely suppress her physique to prevent anyone from finding out by sensing through her. ''Well... it''s not like my mana eyes are less obvious..'' While Jason was still deep in thoughts, Shane decided to lead the conversation again. "To be honest with you, I followed you since your soul-awakening and I made a background check to find out if you¡äre suitable for us and you exceeded my expectations and probably also Dalia''s. We don''t want you to fight f¨¹r us or something like that but rather than that it is more important for humanity to see a ray of hope. You may not be aware of your talent but alone your soul awakening is good enough to consider you as prodigious. It is unknown how many soulbonds you can contract and it looks like your soul energy will increase many folds in the next few months or years. I''m confident about your combat prowess and by combining these facts I think you can help humanity to unite or at least form a defensive line on Canir. You may not be aware of the dangers humanity has to face in the last few dozen years but even before we had to flee from Canir, more and more beasts invaded it from temporary materialized rifts while the intelligent races approached us on Canir. While everyone believes that humanity is united in the federation, that is only a facade. You already know that the Archipelago is divided among the big clans, families, and firms while the same could be said for Canir. In Canir most countries are reigned by a clan and instead of fighting together against the threat we should face together, they prey on each other to obtain more lands and resources. This is either done by scheming, crafty tricks, or even open battles, and even if a country would be annihilated due to the invasion of foreign races, I doubt that other clans would help. They would probably either wait until everyone is weakened before they would begin their own conquest and annihilation of foreign races. Considering the unimaginable potential of your soul awakening we think with our support you will be able to change something and in accordance with our research about you, we think you also want to change this society and it would only help the weaker ones if everyone worked together. Jason looked at Shane with a complex expression, before he subconsciously blurred out "Are you drunk?!" Chapter 126 - Deuce Hearing the reason why Shane wanted his talent Jason was a little bit flabbergasted ''They want to nurture me so I can unite humanity? Did they fall on their heads or was their isolation bad for their mental health?'' Jason was a rather gentle kid but he had never led anyone, rather than that he was a social-cripple who couldn''t even socialize in school. How should he change the mind of powerhouses comparable to Shane if he was like that? Even if he wasn''t fond of the society with its hierarchical system, it was only normal to let stronger ones lead weaker humans with the exception of a few wise men and women. The only thing that really shocked him was the enmity among humans and the big clans. They were already under a devastating threat and now Jason found out that humans additionally fought against each other? It sounded like a bad joke and Jason paled thinking about millions of humans that died needlessly because of that. Shane and Dalia noticed that and they couldn''t really do anything to help him understand the current situation. The most problematic was that the information they provided about Canir were already outdated and the threat from foreign races could have increased by a large margin ''But why me? Can¡ät they search for someone else? It¡äs not like I¡äm a saint or something like that.'' Jason needed some time to think their proposal through when a certain question nagged at him. "I have a question about the Goblin break out...Both of you are under the assumption that the Black Origin Flame can¡ät be from Astrix and is probably from someone supporting the Goblin King to reign over the island, right? Is it possible that another faction from the human race supported the Goblin King and provided it with enough resources, to nurture a runemaster, blacksmiths, and even an unawakened Origin Flame?" This question was essential for Jason to figure out what to do. Even if the chance was minuscule, it couldn¡ät be accepted that some humans could decide over more than 300 million lives only because of some small benefits. He knew that Seron and Till were good examples for descendants from big families and Jason also thought that not every big family would sacrifice humans to gain small benefits, but they were most likely the minority. Jason had read enough stories about humans to find out that they are greedy enough to sacrifice or murder others in order to gain wealth and power. Shane sighed while Dalia looked down, visibly sad. "In my opinion, this incident was most likely planned by a foreign race. However, Astrix is one of the furthest islands from the main continents with the foreign races situated on. As such I''m relatively sure that humans participated in this whole Goblin King issue. I can''t say for sure that one of the big families, clans, or companies participated, but the chance is definitely there. And to be honest, It wouldn''t be surprising." Shane said and Jason saw that his eyes gleamed in anger and frustration, as he was also a victim of the greed from the big clans. All of them wanted Dalia¡äs special physique and he wanted to protect her. As such he became a devil in humanity''s eyes, while the true devils lived among humans. He had to hide, while the others could continue with their hideous acts. Jason had already the bad premonition that humans were colluding with foreign races for a long time, but figuring out the truth was still appalling. More than ten minutes passed and he was still unable to gather his thoughts, while Dalia ordered the Dryads to release some of their fragrance to ease Jason¡äs mind. She was sorry for Jason because he was only 14 years old and they asked him to unite humanity. It seemed extremely wrong to force such a huge responsibility on him, but after searching for 70 years, Jason was the first one that seemed to have the potential needed to accomplish this task. His soul¡äs size was incredibly huge, his soul energy reproduction was fast and he could already practice the five-braided helix of the Heaven¡äs Hell technique. Additionally, his body was cleansed by an unknown, yet high-ranked Origin flame, Jason¡äs mana core rank would increase extremely fast and his combat prowess was superior to most peers without gaining any special instruction since a young age. They also found out that Jason¡äs knowledge was vast while his memory seemed extraordinary due to the fact, that he had already refined his brain, which Shane also observed. Having formed a sub-area at the age of 14 was also a feat, not many could accomplish. And in the end, Jason seemed extremely calm during important moments, while his determination was not ascertainable. Dalia wondered, how Shane found Jason, but he seemed to be their final solution! It was already lunchtime when Jason gathered his thoughts. After thinking for a long time, he came to the final decision, but another question in his mind should give the final drop to his answer. "This question might sound rude, but what can both of you provide me if I try my best in uniting humanity? There is not really much I''m lacking right now¡­ only time and I can purchase resources with the spoils I received from the Goblin King¡äs basement." Jason had now enough wealth to purchase a vast pile of resources, after selling the herbs and ores he collected. Was there even the need for him to promise the Blair¡äs to unite humanity, If he was not confident in leading anyone, or even achieving the required strength? Not really! In the end, Jason could only think of a few things, they could provide and he wanted to hear them saying it before he would tell them his decision. The two of them were prepared to answer this question and it was only obvious to ask that after they noticed that Jason got a fortune from the basement and in addition even an unknown ranked Origin Flame. "First of all, we don''t want to provide you with mana stones and other resources like that, because we think you shouldn''t completely rely on us. But that doesn''t mean we can''t give you anything. While I¡äm a Rank 7 Blacksmith and Rank 5 runemaster, Dalia is a Rank 7 Alchemist and Rank 6 Beast Creator, which is mainly because of her physique. We can teach you all lifestyle Artisan occupations and in addition the Beast creator occupation. Due to that, you can gain a fortune by selling your products later on. Our knowledge surpasses that of almost all humans, with the exception of a few old hag and gramps I know and it is extremely rare that someone at our age takes in multiple disciples. Both of us want to teach you everything, while Dalia can even help you with the control over Origin flame, which even fewer people can provide. And I doubt you believe, we don''t know any martial art techniques? Don¡ät forget that both of us hail from prosperous clans, even if mine has fallen a long time ago. I noticed that Little Till gave you the unique technique[Splitting Mind] after you''ve accomplished a mission...Let me be honest... I can give you more, once your body is ready...There is also the family heirloom from the Shore family, which is a Blessed graded technique that was found in a temporary manifested rift." Shane finished and Jason who wanted to remain calm, couldn''t help but sweat as his eyes shined with desire. `The cream of the crop..` Jason thought as he heard about the Artisan ranks of Shane and Dalia¡­ To be honest, this was already enough for him to accept their proposal... His desire to obtain more knowledge was insatiable and furthermore, he obtained the opportunity to learn exclusive and rare martial art techniques. As such he couldn''t contain himself anymore, even if Shane didn¡ät say what Jason wanted to hear. "REALLY?" He shouted and jumped up. "Can I learn everything?" The desire in Jason''s eyes shocked Shane and Dalia. Dalia smiled brightly and gently said "Of course you can¡­ " before adding " If you provide me with enough mana, I can even increase your soul beasts potential to a certain degree, if you want to." Now the words, Jason wanted to hear fell and he looked at Dalia seriously "Really?" and his voice grew even more excited Shane looked at Dalia with a blank gaze. `Does she like this brat that much` He wondered, as increasing the potential of beasts would hurt her, even with the required resources supplied. It wouldn¡ät shorten her lifespan but Dalia was sensible to pain and would avoid it if possible. "Hmm" Dalia nodded with a gentle smile. She noticed Shane¡äs gaze but decided to ignore it. Sighing, Shane turned back to Jason and warned him. "There are a few things you should know, once you decide to either accept or decline our proposal. If you decline it, you¡äll have to form an advance soul contract, that you have never seen or heard about us. Lying to us or thinking about breaking the contract will immediately kill you, but it is still better than torture, right? Accepting our proposal means that most big families will hunt you because learning from us makes you our disciple. The chances to die once that happens, are high, to put it simple. Furthermore, once you accept our proposal, don¡ät force Dalia to use her physique too often, it''s dangerous!" Jason already predicted that he would be hunted once he accepted the proposal stated by Shane but the last sentence caused Jason to look confused. "Is it really that dangerous to increase the potential of beasts?" He asked innocently, slightly worried about Dalia. She was extremely nice to Jason and could be considered a cute granny. Thinking that she would be in danger because if she increased beast potential would be frustrating. Shane was about to answer as Dalia interrupted "It is per se not dangerous, it only hurts and my body is sensitive to pain. I won''t die or receive permanent injuries" But Jason looked worried at Dalia and said "Can''t that be prevented?" Shane stated "It can be prevented but the resources required to upgrade a beast''s potential triple or increase by even more and thus It would be much easier to search for magical treasures with the same effect. Fortunately, Dalia won¡ät feel much pain to increase the potential of beasts below the magical rank. As such, after you accept our proposal, we immediately accept you as our disciple." Gritting his teeth Shane added "Once you have the required resources, Dalia can increase your soulbonds potential to the unblemished rank, without receiving many backslashes but after that, it¡äll be painful." Jason was already sure what to decide, but after hearing Dalia¡äs offer he was touched. "I don¡ät want the weak to suffer, but I can¡ät promise anything..." He hesitated because he was unsure if he would be able to do it. Furthermore, he was unsure what he wanted to do in the future and if accepting their proposal was even useful for him, as he had to shoulder a huge responsibility in this case. Looking up, Shane and Dalia looked at each other for a moment, before they nodded, accepting that Jason would have to give his best, as Jason was their best solution they found within the last 70 years. They weren¡ät even sure if they searched already for too long and it could already too late. Noticing their approval, Jason sighed in relief, as he said "Disciple greets Master Shane and Master Dalia¡­ it¡äs an honor to meet both of you" The whole atmosphere lifted up and Dalia¡äs smile was now even brighter, almost radiating the whole room while even Shane sighed in relief, showing a thin smile. Nobody would know what was going to happen in the future, but Jason¡äs decision to accept the "Deuce-Master", was the best choice he could have ever made. Chapter 127 - Death Knight Hours passed and it was almost evening when the three of them finished their conversation. Only now did Jason¡äs new masters understand his desire for knowledge because Jason asked hundreds of questions about almost everything. This included herbs, ores, their ranking, beasts, habitats, landscapes, temporary rifts and their connection with us, permanent rifts, and what the other side really was... Was there a whole planet on the other side or was it only a world fragment, plane, or something else? If it was a planet, where exactly was this planet situated? A whole different universe, only a few stellar-systems or multiple galaxies away. What about Argos...how strong are humans compared to the foreign races, what are the rankings after the Lord rank, and how many of such individuals existed? When was he able to learn forging, brewing, inscribing, and everything important to understand how to evolve beasts¡­..and so on¡­ Shane and Dalia looked extremely exhausted at Jason who was still spirited to ask more. Previously they weren''t sure if Jason would be able to learn even two Basic-Artisan occupations from them but now they didn''t have to hesitate for a second to answer such a simple question. If Jason wasn''t capable to learn two lifestyle-occupations... Nobody would and they gave Jason a memory stick with a few hundred book-files that were extremely large. Unfortunately, his quantum bracelet began to work slower once he received all files and Jason noticed that the memory storage was completely filled. Because he used external memory storage for the things from his new teachers, Jason had to purchase a better memory chip in order to access everything without attracting unwanted attention. The files were locked and only Jason¡äs fingerprint and iris scan could unlock them. Once he would purchase a new memory chip, he would also purchase a larger storage device that had an integrated cooler and a larger space with much more functions. It would be expensive but Jason could just sell a few ripened fruits, he had thrown into his storage. His whole storage of 2500 cubic meters was filled with all kinds of things and Jason wondered if he would still receive the Lace points from the goblin corpses because they were now completely annihilated. Thinking about it, Jason noticed that it was not really important as before, because he could obtain much more credits by selling the rune weapons and pendants to the Artisan tower, while the other things he received from the Goblin basement were even more valuable. Looking at the sealed herbs inside his storage device, Jason frowned which was noticed by Shane and Dalia. Over the last few hours, their relationship became much better and it was comparable to a real Master-Disciple relationship, while Jason had two knowledgeable teachers, that knew almost everything. After inquiring what was wrong, Jason stated the problem with the sealed herbs and that he couldn¡ät just plant them at the Fler¡äs home as they were too valuable and would attract much attention. The solution was much simpler than he expected as Dalia took out a miniature conservatory from her ring that was a spatial device specially made by Shane. The spatial device made by Shane couldn¡ät store beasts or rather sentient beasts, however, there was a section specially made for gardening, which Dalia loved. With this, Dalia was able to store pots with herbs and trees inside the spatial device, even though they were alive. With this, they would even grow within the specially made spatial ring, as the time flow continued normally. What Dalia gave Jason, was something similar. It was an adjustable miniature conservatory, which could grow in size and was originally 10000 sq. meters large, which was a shocking size to imagine. He couldn¡ät store it in his common spatial storage, but the conservatory was made out of rare metals and tempered glass and could even take hits from magical ranked beasts, without shattering. There was even a magical watery system, that only had to be supplied with enough water and mana stones in order to work for a long time. As such, Dalia gave it to Jason with a strengthened vine from one of the dryads to transform the conservatory into a pendant. The conservatory in its smallest form was only 3cm long 3cm in width and 0.5 cm in height, which was incredible and Shane looked at his masterwork with a proud face. Producing this conservatory took a great amount of effort and many spatial affinity mana cores had to be sacrificed to find out the collaboration between space, time, and life itself. Compressing living beings was seen as impossible but not knowing how it worked and spreading the rumor that it was not possible were two completely different matters, while Shane now knew how to do it. Giving such a precious present to Jason was a good way to gain his favor but if Dalia had gifted that to Jason a few hours ago, Shane would probably be furious. This, however, changed quickly after he found out Jason¡äs thirst for knowledge in all kinds of aspects which caused him to admire his new disciple a little bit. Dalia led Jason outside, where he noticed for the first time, that they were below a sea or lake. Jason could see a faint blur of a stone arch above the lake¡äs surface and it seemed somehow familiar¡­ Looking at Shane with a perplexed expression Dalia chuckled while saying. "Next time please don''t jump into the lake naked.." Hearing that, Jason immediately blushed and he knew where they were. ''6th affiliated Vanguard school, below the lake inside the forest...F**l'' and Jason could only cry on his inside, as he remembered the first day of school when he jumped into the lake, naked at that... "Now, enlarge the conservatory slightly and plant the herbs and trees. Sealing them away for too long will only damage them and decrease the efficiency of your plants." Following the descriptions from Dalia, Jason enlarged the conservatory, and only now did he notice how large it really was, even though he didn¡ät use the biggest size. Nevertheless, It still fits easily inside the dome surrounded hideout from his new Masters and he wondered how they managed to create this base underwater. Taking out the soil as first, he filled the niche to plant the trees and herbs inside. After the soil was used up, Jason took out one plant after another outside. Before, he wasn¡ät sure how beneficial his trip through the Goblin basement was, and only now could he see everything clearly. Alone from the herbs Jason gathered, there were 51 colored ones, while many colorless plants were simply thrown into his storage space. Even the colorless plants were rare and Jason wanted them to stay alive, as fresh ingredients were always more worth than ones that were harvested a few days ago. As such, Jason began to use his hands to plant all of the plants one by one. Shane would have never thought that Jason had gathered so many herbs within such a short amount of time and his suspicion about Jason¡äs mana eyes grew once again. "Jason we are considered as your masters now, right? I hope you don¡ät mind telling us about your mana eyes? " He simply asked and Shane was sure that Jason would answer everything because both he and Dalia told Jason their secrets. Jason didn''t even look up from working and answered without thinking about the consequences for a long time. "I don¡ät really know if I have mana eyes or something else, but I can see almost everything with them. For example that you have four different kinds of beasts contracted while two of them are darkness attributed, another one has a water affinity and your last soulbond has a spatial affinity. I can tell that because of the transmuted mana and the colors within the mana. Dalia¡äs mana is transmuted by her silver origin flame and the wooden affinity. Furthermore, my eyes have weird effects, one of them can roughly tell either the potential of beasts or the purify or their mana core, I¡äm not sure about that. There are different colors radiating from almost every beast and until now, I¡äve never seen a beast with a higher rank than the color I¡äve seen. Another effect of my eyes is that they can somehow Intimidate others once I¡äm angry. This only applies to beings below my own rank or unguarded humans. The last effect I know is called[Abyssal effect] and is caused by my killing intent in addition to supplying my eyes with more mana. I don¡ät know if Shane watched my spar against Leo, but if you did, the effects should be clear. I could almost defeat someone two stages above my rank with that. Unfortunately, I don''t really know anything about my eyes, and the information I provided are not proven or something like that. My eyesight increases exceptionally with my mana core rank increase and the same can be said for my trait. The stronger I get, the better I understand my `mana` eyes." Jason finished and he had almost finished planting all the trees and herbs when he looked up right into Shane¡äs doubtful eyes, as he noticed something weird ''Why did I tell them everything? Couldn¡ät I have hidden a few facts?..'' Sighing, Jason noticed that it was already too late, so he had to confidently charge through everything. "Should I prove some of my information somehow?" He simply asked without any sign of being agitated about getting doubted. "I believe you but can you still show me what exactly you meant with seeing the potential" Shane said and four beasts were summoned in front of the conservatory. In front of Shane appeared a hundred meter long and 2.5 diameter width blue scaled snake with sapphire eyes, next to a 20-centimeter long golden mouse with golden eyes. Jason felt chills when he saw the next beasts and at first, his gaze fell on the Bane of the thousand eyes wolf which he immediately avoided, only to look at a pitch-black armor with blue flames spewing out of the visor slits. Death personally could be perceived from this direction and Dalia told Jason to store away the conservatory before the herbs would wither and rot. The death aura radiating from this black armor was overwhelming and Dalia was worried about the well-being of the plants, which subsided after Jason adjusted the size of the conservatory. After Jason put on the conservatory necklace everything should be fine, as the material the conservatory was made of could prevent any outside auras infiltrating it, as long as it was not forcefully pushed in. "Please tell me what their potential is and their rank if possible" Shane said, looking carefully at Jason, whose eyes were now shining lightly. Jason saw a new color he had never seen before...wait! ''Didn¡ät the Goblin King also have this color?'' He asked himself and only now did he realize that it wasn¡ät only the blue flame that radiated from the Goblin King but also a Dark-blue hue indicating its potential. "The golden mouse is a magical ranked beast with a spatial affinity and your weakest soulbond. The Bane of the thousand eyes wolf is a mid-guardian-ranked beast, that reached its limits according to the potential I see, while the Water serpent probably has some dragon bloodline in it because its rank is at the peak of the Guardian rank while the potential should barely reach the Lord rank and that death radiating armor thing, which is probably a Death Knight, should be at the Lord rank while it¡äs potential is also used up. Only the Water serpent can grow slightly, while all other beasts have used their potential completely up" Jason finished and Shane could only nod helplessly. His assumptions were completely right, His soul energy was extremely high since he awoke his soul and with that, he had only formed soulbonds with high potential beasts, except the `Sly space-jumping mouse` as he needed a beast with a spatial affinity and this beast was considered one of the best, considering that he could only form a contract with a magical ranked beast at the highest due to his low affinity with the spatial attribute. "That''s great! With that, you don''t even have to use Dalia¡äs physique to contract a good soulbond!" Shane said, trying to hide his jealousy. It was already evening and Jason should go back to the Fler¡äs as they were probably worried about him, even if his Till called them. He received a pendant with golden runes inscribed from Shane, with which he could enter the underwater hideout if he was not there and Jason went back with millions of thoughts tormenting his mind. Too many things had happened in the last few days. Chapter 128 - Leave! Jason arrived at home, still disturbed by the thoughts rummaging in his mind. Too much happened during the last few days and Jason was barely able to concentrate enough to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique within the shuttle. But it was necessary because the time when Artemis¡ä evolution finished was approaching. Arriving at the Fler¡äs home late at night he silently entered the house only to be greeted by a bulldozer hugging him while slender arms squeezing through the thick arms, that enveloped his whole body. Greg and Malia were hugging him and behind them, Jason could see Gabriella and Mark. Gabriella looked at him worried but seeing that he was fine her tension eased up. Mark also sighed in relief when he saw that Jason was fine. He had been away for three days in a row without sending a single message, which was not normal for him. His teacher called them saying Jason was in an important breakthrough but it seemed weird to them as the timing was unfitting. What kind of breakthrough would take 3 days, at Jason¡äs mana core rank at that. Maybe if one wanted to break into the Magus rank a breakthrough could take so long, but that was definitely not something Jason could achieve soon. It took Jason more than three minutes until he was able to escape the siblings'' grasp and they began to calm down. "Where have you been for the last few days and what kind of breakthrough took you three days?" Greg asked curiously and Jason wondered what he meant. ''Did Till tell them that I had some kind of breakthrough?¡­ What should I tell them?` Jason wasn¡ät sure what to do and he decided to hide the truth in a small lie. "Rather than a breakthrough, I had some complications with my third soulbond. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, there was a mutated fire elemental hatchling, that was about to die and I formed a contract with it to prevent that¡­ Unfortunately, I underestimated the consumption of soul energy, caused by this mutated fire elemental, causing it to go overboard and almost out of control...The last few days were extremely exhausting but everything is fine now" Jason tried to explain without telling anything about his Origin Flame because Shane told him, that he should hide the Origin Flame¡äs existence as a secret. At least as long as it was possible. Shane said that he should just explain that he had a mutated fire elemental as soulbond if someone asked, as this was a possibility to gain a mutated fire elemental with a black flame as soulbond, even though it was rare. Releasing a small black flame on his hand, everyone looked at it with astonishment. Even Gabriella and Mark had never seen a black flame and it was bewitching to look into. A moment later, Jason closed his fist and the flame vanished into thin air. Gabriella came back to her senses and asked slightly worried, once she finished scanning Jason about his well-being. "But you are definitely okay, right? There is no internal injury within your body or soul??" To which Jason nodded. All of the Fler¡äs were nice and kind to him and Jason was happy to have met them and he felt bad lying to them. They talked for some time and Jason received a lot of information about the Goblin tide and where the Fler¡äs were during that time. Apparently, the Fler¡äs were at home sleeping or absorbing mana and they had only heard the beast tide alarm sound through the whole city and reports about a beast tide later. But only a few hours later everything was over and they hadn''t seen a single Goblin close to them. Nevertheless, there seemed to be more than 1 million victims from the ghettos or rather poorer districts where the Magus and Grandmagus rank fought their battle. After they finished talking, Jason went into his bed, which seemed to devour him, sending him into a deep sleep. *** It was 6 am when Jason felt stingers attacking him and it was Scorpio waking him up. Over the last few days, Scorpio was forced to stay inside the soul world against its will, which was mainly because Jason hunted Goblins that could kill Scorpio without any effort. After the Goblin tide and with his Baptism, Jason had no chance to do something for Scorpio and it could be said that it was lucky that soulbonds subsisted, while feeding on the contractor''s mana. It was less efficient than high-nutrition food with a large amount of mana but it was still enough to survive. Jason took out a lot of dried mana flies at the awakened stage and fed them to Scorpio. It seemed as if his second soulbond would soon reach the five-star wild rank and Jason hoped that this would happen after Artemis finished her evolution because the amount Artemis required was much more compared to Scorpio. Nevertheless, Jason had to increase his soul energy for all of his soulbonds, which included his Origin Flame, which still annexed only 0.01 units. * After doing his morning workout with some extra reps, Jason washed up, changed into his school uniform, and went down to eat breakfast, before he called his shuttle. Practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique inside the shuttle, Jason estimated that his soul energy reached 15.2 units and he was still some units away from the minimum required soul energy needed, even though he would receive some shared soul energy from Artemis. In the end, playing safe was important in this matter. His new masters, also called Deuce-Masters, told him that he should stay in school and continue to study as if nothing happened. Over the next month, he should read all books they sent him while he should at least understand the basics. Shane and Dalia knew about him attending the Basic-Artisan exams and this could be said to be a small mission from them. Thanks to his mana eyes, Jason was confident to pass these practical exams with flying colors. There was no reward or punishment at the moment but it was obvious that Jason would lose some of his master''s favor if he failed the first small mission. Arriving at school, Jason entered Class number 54 as he saw his classmates already sitting there. Looking at Jason, some of them were stupefied¡­ ''Has he done some plastic surgery over the weekend?'' ''Was he not in school because of his pain after the surgery?'' Were some thoughts of jealous youths, while the girls looked at Jason¡äs broad shoulders and his chiseled face as they could hardly contain themselves. They wanted to approach him and make him theirs. Right as the first girl was about to give it a try, Till entered the room causing the girl that took the first step to turn around with lightning speed before she sat down. Till noticed Jason¡äs attendance and was astonished ''How has his appearance changed so much over the last three days? His body seemed to be much more muscular and well versed for all types of movements...'' Enveloping Jason with his mana, Till figured out that his body seemed to be perfect for all kinds of landscapes, his muscles seemed flexible, strong, and tenacious. However, Till''s who already predicted something over the last few days could only sigh in regret. ''He really took him in as a disciple?'' Was his thoughts and he could only lament. Jason was really a promising child but having Shane as his master was definitely a double-edged sword. On one side, Shane could teach him his vast knowledge and piles of martial art techniques he knew, while on the other side, Jason could die faster than someone counting down from 3, once it was found out that he was Shane¡äs disciple. But there was nothing he could do as he started his lessons. After the mana breakout school was divided into theoretical and practical lessons. While theory subjects were taught in the morning the afternoon was filled with practical lessons like combat. Jason completely disregarded the theoretical subjects because he already knew everything that Till taught them at the moment, which was somehow disappointing. As such he opened the smallest file he received from Shane as he began to read it. Shane¡äs books were mostly about runes and Blacksmithing. Each Book contained knowledge about one particular processing step which had to be perfected While reading, Jason completely forgot that he was in school and he felt like he entered an extremely focused state. Time passed without him being aware of it and only when he sensed a strong mana fluctuation enveloping him, Jason looked up to see that he was still in school. Looking up, Jason noticed many of his classmates eyeing him while Till looked at him intently. "Mr. Stella, is my lesson boring for you?" Jason looked at Till slightly confused and only now did he understand that he undermined his teachers'' authority. "Mr. Greil your lesson is not boring, but I already know everything important for the next few months" Jason stated Eying Jason once again, Till had an idea as he retorted. "If my lesson is boring and you already know so much, please tell me what an Origin flame is including its advantages and disadvantages" ''Origin flame? Why that one¡­'' Jason thought and he began to sweat lightly, thinking that his teacher might have found out his secret, But his worry was without reason and Jason could calm down after a few seconds. "Origin Flames are flames that gain sentience deep inside volcanoes with concentrated mana around. They''re extremely rare and after gaining sentience, they create a crystal layer to not get washed away by the forceful energy in its surrounding[...] The price for an unawakened Origin flame is extremely expensive because one can form a soulbond with them before they awaken and in exchange for soul energy, initiating a baptism that will cleanse the body from impurities and increase one¡äs lifespan[...] There are two disadvantages for Origin Flames, one is that it uses up a spot within the soul world, which not many humans have once they find an unawakened origin flame. Another disadvantage is at the same time an advantage. One has to nurture the Origin Flame with soul energy by letting it occupy more units[...] Once an Origin Flame reaches a certain threshold, it will evolve into a higher Tier, providing the contractor with another baptism, which will cleanse another round of impurities and strengthen the body." Jason finished his long speech, while Till looked at Jason as if he was a monster. ''How can a high schooler answer this question? How does he know about Origin Flames?!'' Till was frustrated as he had thought that he could trick Jason out. However, it seemed as if it was the other way around and they looked at each other, and Till made a decision that caused an uproar in the whole classroom. "Jason, you don''t have to attend early classes anymore. Just read through all mandatory books and come to the afternoon classes. I don¡ät think it''s necessary for you to waste any time here with my theoretical lessons...Leave!" Till said with some might behind his words and Jason only smiled lightly as he bowed to his teacher before leaving the class while being eyed by 200+ pairs of eyes. Chapter 129 - Dont Even Think About Holding Back! There were still a few hours left before the combat classes would begin and Jason looked out for a quiet place to read his books. It was only around lunchtime when Scorpio began to sting him once again in order to throw Jason out of his focused reading. Scorpio was like a timer for him and every few hours he would either wake him up because he was bored or hungry. Looking at Scorpio, Jason thought that it would take probably only a few days until he reached the five-star wild beast rank, which should be fine, considering that Artemis would also finish her evolution soon. Giving Scorpio something to eat, Jason took out something for himself, before he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique. After that, it was already time for him to rush to the combat arena, where he found Seron and some of his classmates. Seron was also absent at the theoretical lessons, which was probably because of the same reason, Jason had. The subjects provided at the 6th affiliated Vanguard school for first graders were basics that could be learned within a few weeks, with some tiny bit of effort. Seeing Jason, Seron was shocked. Not only was he now taller than himself, but he also looked much better than by a few grades causing Seron¡äs jaw to drop. It seemed like Seron was still at the 3rd Adept rank and Jason began to smile. With Seron¡äs enhancement from his unknown soulbond, he should be able to reach the 4th Adept rank in both mana core size and physique, which meant that both Jason and Seron had now the same strength. When Jason was weaker in both, Seron could easily win while holding back which frustrated him a lot, but maybe it would be different today. They greeted each other and began to start a light conversation until all of their classmates arrived. Going inside, they went to their groups like always and waited for an Instructor or their teacher to arrive. But not Jason and Seron. Both of them went silently towards the combat arena, where they would have their spar. They didn¡ät want to wait for anyone as increasing the mastery of one¡äs martial arts techniques was mostly done under pressure during a fight. With this thought in mind, the AI started the countdown for their spar [3¡­.2¡­.1...Start!] Starting the fight, both Seron and Jason summoned their weapons at the same time before they executed their movement technique without hesitating for a moment. But Jason¡äs execution seemed slightly faster and only now did he really feel the difference between cleansed mana channels and impure mana channels that obstructed his mana circulation. Jason''s movement technique was slightly weaker but it seemed like his control over his technique skyrocket as his speed increased by almost 20%, which was much more than normally possible with the weightless steps technique at his current mastery It took them less than a breath to reach each other, while Jason''s daggers twirled around creating sparks at Seron''s sword that could barely evade the onslaught of multiple dagger strikes. Seron hadn''t expected Jason''s speed to reach such a degree and from the impact caused by his strikes, Seron could tell that Jason¡äs physique was not much worse than his own if not on par. Seeing a bright smile on Jason''s serious face, Seron disregarded everything his master told him when attending school on Astrix. ''Don''t attract too much attention. Hold back your strength. Hide your identity from anyone!` His identity was long known by Jason and fighting with him was just too satisfying and beneficial for himself, that he couldn''t help but release the shackles he put on himself. Exerting the Floating sky technique to his fullest potential, Seron¡äs speed skyrocketed while Jason noticed that Seron¡äs mana core increased slightly in size, while it became even more difficult to his strikes. Instead of overpowering Seron with his newly acquired strength, Jason took note, that Seron stopped holding back in order to fight with his whole strength. This caused his already bright smile to turn even wider. "Don¡ät even think about holding back" Jason shouted as his mana erupted, injecting even more in his movement technique in addition to his lower body. Jason seemed much slower than Seron but his choice of weapon was much better a close combat fight as he could nimbly attack while evading the slightly slower sword of Seron. But this didn¡ät mean Seron had no chance, rather than that, Jason was overpowered as Seron¡äs physique and mana core size reached the standards of common 5th Adepts infinitely close to the 6th. Under extreme pressure, Jason¡äs mind was thinking of multiple paths to find a way out of the barrage of slashes caused by Seron. Unfortunately, Seron¡äs technique seemed extremely precise utilized and once Jason found a flaw, Seron retreated immediately, when Jason slashed out with his dagger. Fighting Seron head-on was extremely difficult to and Jason¡äs lack of combat experience to fight any human head-on came into play. Neither Greg nor Seron fought him completely seriously until now and fighting Seron with all his might, it was apparent that Seron had a much wider variety of combat experience. But Jason¡äs will was much grander than anyone could think of while giving up was not something found in his vocabulary. As such his exceptional eyesight searched for a way to get out of this fight as he evaded all kinds of sword slashes, cleaves, and thrusts by a hair width to find a flaw in Sharon''s defensive. Minutes passed and both had used up a large margin of their mana... At least it seemed that way but Jason knew it better while the smile that stiffened during the fight blossomed once again. While Seron held back with his mana consumption while trying to focus on the passive mana replenishing technique which was too taxing, Jason¡äs mana pool was already replenished. The fight continued and Seron had to use some of his mana reserves inside his mana pool, causing Jason to use even more mana in his attacks. Jason¡äs speed increased further while his proficiency with the weightless step technique had already crossed the basic mastery and was on the way to the familiar mastery. Seron¡äs speed decreased due to the lack of mana and Jason¡äs speed increased at the same time. He thought it would be soon over when Seron¡äs mana exploded suddenly, refilling most of his mana instantly. With widened eyes, Jason couldn¡ät help but smile. ''Is that his soulbond¡äs effect? Not bad!'' he thought without thinking about the shock this caused in their surroundings. The spar between both of them took over ten minutes and the mana consumption of both was astronomical, while their fight even pressured the surrounding youths that sparred half-heartily. Till arrived shortly after the two youths began sparring and a frown could be seen on his face, seeing Seron giving his all, even revealing his soulbonds special inherited ability. ''Seron don''t procrastinate the fight¡­.Jason has almost infinitely mana with his current consumption¡­'' He sighed but Till had to say that it was shocking seeing Jason being able to defend against Seron for so long. If Seron was more proficient with daggers or other high-velocity weapons instead of the longsword, he would probably have won, but Seron liked fighting with longswords which was also why he received a longsword soul weapon from his father, when he awoke his soul, even though his mana channels were almost completely crippled. While Seron trained his body and sword martial art techniques without mana consumption since he was four, Jason lacked in combat experience and their fight demonstrated both of the youth''s determination to increase their strength while trying to find each other''s flaws. These flaws were fixed as soon as they were attacked and the comprehension ability both showcased was shocking to the surrounding students. Till smiled as he was once again reminded that it was a good choice to drag Seron to Astrix, even though it was initially only for his second soulbond¡­. Meeting Jason was probably much better than finding the second soulbond. Their fight dragged on for another ten minutes and both of them were sweating heavily. Jason¡äs mana replenishing lost slowly its effect as his consumption increased over time, while Seron had used his soulbond¡äs special effect multiple times in succession which seemed weird to Jason, as both distanced themselves from each other. Taking a few deep breathers, Seron warned "Look out! If you don¡ät want to injure yourself, better forfeit or use your whole mana to deflect my next attack!" With his mana eyes activated Jason noticed that Seron used up his whole mana pool in addition to two instant refills which seemed even more suspicious than before as a white-bluish loose membrane began to envelop his longsword. Circulating the mana in a certain path Seron pulled back his sword and was about to swing down when goosebumps spread all over Jason¡äs skin with the sensation of danger filling his mind. ''Oh s**t'' He cursed inwardly as he noticed that the mana membrane peeled off from the sword, shooting straight towards him. With a terrifying speed, that even Till astonished, Jason could only helplessly look at the sword ray shooting right into him, when he instinctively felt something in his soul-world shaking violently. He lifted his arm and a black flame appeared right before the sword ray pierced into Jason¡äs hand, as he released his whole mana pool at once. *BOOOM* Chapter 130 - Seron′s Mutated Soulbond *BOOOM* a thick cloud of dust was whirled up, enveloping the whole combat area while Till charged towards them, in order to see if Jason was fine because the black flame couldn¡ät be seen. Jason¡äs Black origin flame was as strong as a peak-evolved ranked fire affinity and destroying the sword ray wasn¡ät considered a problem for it. However, Jason had never used it before. As such he was only able to summon the flame in the last moment before the sword ray arrived. From the outside, it looked like Jason was about to block the sword ray with his hand, which was unimaginably stupid causing Till to charge towards them. If something were to happen, he would immediately throw Jason into a freezing capsule and give everything he could to keep him alive. However, right as the dust cloud vanished with Till standing where Jason should have been, he saw him right in front of Seron who looked down at Jason with widened eyes. After using his soulbond''s ability so many times in addition to his most threatening sword technique, Seron¡äs mana was completely used up, and seeing that Jason was completely fine was not something he could comprehend. He couldn''t even say anything before Jason stated "It''s my win today" with a bright smile on his face. Storing away the daggers in his hand, Jason supported Seron who was extremely exhausted to leave the combat area where they passed Till who looked at Jason with doubt. ''How is his strength so much stronger compared to three days ago? Seron''s sword-ray should have already reached the might of the evolved rank attack!'' It was obvious that Jason couldn''t destroy the sword ray with his bare hands, as such there had to be something different but Till couldn''t get the hang of it. Jason and Seron were supporting each other as they left the combat arena while their classmates looked at them with widened eyes and traces of shock underlining their obvious astonishment. Some of their classmates even dropped their weapons involuntarily while observing Seron and Jason¡äs intense spar. They sat down at a nearby bank inside the hall and didn''t talk for some time, not minding the onlookers. The silence was awkward but the questions that stirred in their heads could only be answered by revealing each other''s secrets and asking for something like that was not to be sought at. In the end, Jason decided to not as Seron about his soulbond, and rather than that a praise was appropriate as Seron''s soulbond was simple to cheaty During the whole fight, Seron had at least refilled his mana ten times while Jason had to reduce his mana consumption even if he had the passive mana gathering technique. Sighing, Jason said "Our spar was really nice and your soulbond¡äs ability was really unexpected!", trying to break the awkward silence and Seron replied earnestly: "It had been a really long time since I was able to fight any of my peers head-on without holding back but your mana replenishing caught me off-guard!" Hearing that Jason was a little bit confused. "Hasn''t Mr. Greil told you that I refined a sub-area inside my mind?" Jason said innocently while looking at Seron. "Y-you mean the Splitting mind techniques first level? You''ve done that?? Did you want to die?!" Seron shouted, jumping up from his seat, looking at Jason as if he was a stupefied monster. Refining his brain and splitting a small fracture from it to create a sub-area at the Adept rank...no! Probably even at the Novice rank? ''Maybe there is something wrong with Jason¡äs brain? Or did he just want to die...?'' Jason looked dumbfounded at Seron¡äs outburst of emotion and chuckled lightly... One could say that the Mind division he underwent was comparable to a death wish at his rank, but thanks to the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit, he survived, even though he almost became insane, ending up in a small trauma¡­ Thinking back on the danger he underwent, Jason shuddered, before he looked at Seron once again. "Well¡­ I¡äm doing fine, right? Due to the sub-area and the automatic passive mana replenishing process, I was able to defeat you in the end." He said with a sly smile which infuriated Seron. "That was only because Slimy was exhausted!" Seron¡äs tong slipped and he cursed himself inwardly. "Slimy? Is your soulbond a slime?" Jason asked curiously as he couldn¡ät imagine naming a soulbond Slimy except it was either slime or some other "slimy" beast. `I¡äm so stupid!` Seron thought but now Jason could find out what his soulbond was, once he researched a little bit. As such Seron decided to tell Jason the truth. Clearing his throat, he began "My soulbond is a mutated mana slime without any affinity. Rather than that because of the slime''s innate attributes, my malfunctioned mana channels could be fixed to a certain degree. Due to its mutation, I received the ability called [Mana Injection] which can immediately replenish my mana to a certain degree. Normally, I can use this ability only once a day but the mutated mana slime can store the usages to a certain degree. During our fight I used up too many stored [Mana Injections] at the same time, causing Slimy to end up extremely exhausted... It was unfortunate that I couldn¡ät win against you but what makes me more curious is the fact, how you defended against my sword ray!! This sword ray should have been at the evolved rank!" Seron explained before he decided to ask Jason, what he was curious about. Both of them already told each other a few secrets and Seron thought it was useless to hide the other less secretive things. Jason knew more about him than most people from his own clan, except his parents and siblings. While Jason¡äs knowledge was already relatively vast, he didn''t know that an ability like the [Mana Injection] existed, so he was astonished and a "cool" escaped from him accidentally. Seron looked at Jason before he began to laugh heartily. Thinking too hard, Seron had thought Jason could tell his secrets to other families, their own clan had enmity with in order to gain credits but looking into Jason''s eyes, he knew that there wouldn''t be a single problem to tell him the truth. Jason¡äs eyes seemed more trustworthy than his own close family, which was somehow scary but at the same time reassuring. Due to Sermon''s laugher, Jason was also infected by it and they began to laugh sincerely, causing their surroundings to look at them extremely weird with complex expressions. ''Are you two combat machines even aware, that we have combat lessons right now?'' And not long passed before Seron and Jason noticed that they were enveloped in thick mana and dragged through the hall until they arrived inside the Comat arena once again. "If you can laugh, honing your skills shouldn''t be a problem! Continue sparring!" Till said, trying to show a serious face, but both Seron and Jason noticed that Till was also amused by them and rather proud about their combat prowess. But Till¡äs next announcement, caused both Jason and Seron to frown deeply. "We will now make Team battles, as a small mission, each team that is capable of defeating Jason and Seron will receive 10 Lace points while surviving for 5 minutes will reward you with 5 Lace points" Suddenly the whole combat area turned into a bunch of hyenas eyeing Jason and Seron, that stood inside the combat arena not knowing what was going on. There was nothing to lose for their classmates as not a single lace point would be deducted and they began to queue up to fight Jason and Seron, with greed, overwhelming their emotions. There were only 5 to 10 Lace points they could obtain but converted it was still a fortune of 100.000 to 200.000 credits. Both he and Seron were confused about how their conversation turned into a battlefield against all of their classmates. However, Jason had not fought against many elemental affinities, as such, he was expectant to fight his classmates, that eyed them carefully. He himself was only at the 1st Adept rank but his strength and mana core was comparable to the common 4th Adept rank, as such not many of his classmates had an advantage in this field. After fighting Greg and Seron for weeks, his combat experience was much higher than before, even though there were quite a lot of unfamiliar abilities and affinities he had yet to come in contact with. Most classmates decided to wait for the first few rounds to finish until they would challenge Jason and Seron in order to prey them once they were exhausted. As such the exhaustion should overwhelm them after some battles because they would definitely not win over 100 spars in a row. Being able to accomplish something like that, would require a vast amount of energy, mana, and concentration, which could hardly be afforded at the Adept rank. Maybe one would be able to fight for a long time once one reached the magus rank or similar ranks, but at the Adept rank, one was still considered a drop in the ocean. But rather than feeling demotivated, a black fire burned within Jason¡äs golden eyes, unknowingly to everyone while the fighting spirit released by him filled the whole room, driving away Seron¡äs slight hesitation through the emergence of a fighting spirit, that was unknown to him. "Let¡äs go!" Jason calmly said as the first battle started. Chapter 131 - 2vs200+ Due to his fast mana replenishing speed, Jason decided to fully exert his weightless step movement technique, to charge at his two opponents, which was both at the 2nd Adept rank, in addition to the amplification of their beast, which increased their strength to common 3rd Adept ranks. Even though Jason was innately only at the 1st Adept rank, due to the baptism from the black Origin flame, his strength and mana core size were comparable to common 4th Adept ranks. As such he was stronger and faster than his first two opponents. Exerting weightless steps, his speed increased by 20%. Reflecting his opponent''s straight spear thrust with one dagger, he leaned even further towards the ground, before he appeared in front of the spear wielder. Jason could only see a shocked impression on his opponent''s face, as he cut through his neck with his dulled dagger. The spear wielder took one step back and his legs began to shiver, as they lost all strength, giving in. Jason didn''t care about his `death` opponent and he saw Seron attacking his opponent without using any mana, as Jason appeared behind the sword wielder, finishing him off. Right now it was more important to save as much mana as possible, at least for Seron, while Jason could use almost as much as he wanted, which frustrated Seron the most. His soulbond was already exhausted and couldn¡ät use anymore mana injections, while Jason could fight to his heart''s content with some marginal adjustments. He had to adjust his combat style much more than Jason and because of that, Jason¡äs fights seemed more proficient and elegant. It seemed as if Jason¡äs mana was without limit and both Seron and Jason looked fine finishing 20 spars in a row, only with some sweat pouring down their temples. Their classmates looked at them as if two Lord-rank beasts emerged in front of them and they wondered how these two freaks suddenly appeared in their Class without them knowing. Time passed and it was only when the 50th spar began, that Jason began to regulate his fighting style a little bit more while Seron was also visibly exhausted. Suddenly at the 51st spar, Leo Heart and another top ranker of their class entered the combat arena. With their 5th Adept mana core and physique in addition to their amplification, they were at the 6th and 7th Adept rank respectively and Jason frowned. "I¡äll take Urk" Jason said to Seron, who could only nod helplessly. Their combat prowess was extremely good compared to their mana core rank but even though that was the case, the difference in their mana core rank and physique was still apparent. In addition to that, they already fought 51 battles, if one included their own spar, which took most of their energy. Looking at Till, Seron could only lament in his heart. `What is your plan, master?!` he asked in his mind as the battle began. Leaning forward, Jason shot towards Urk, the student with a mana core size of a 7th Adept, as he released he a bright red flame that enveloped his whole arm. Urk obtained a fire affinity from a low-evolved beast and he was extremely proud of his strength. When he was placed in Class 75 his self-esteem seemed to be completely shattered, as he couldn¡ät comprehend this kind of unfairness. Thinking of himself as a prodigy, he didn¡ät even understand that his soul-awakening was more likely average with only 3 vacancies and a single affinity, towards fire. The only thing that was relatively good about his soul-awakening was his soul energy, but even that could barely count as meeting the requirements. With his rather high mana core rank, he was confident in defeating anyone in his class and even the classes above him, but now these two clowns in front of him stole the attention he wanted to obtain because of their single spar and the toy fights against 50 other pairs. Urk wanted to receive praises from his teacher and classmates, as such he went all out and the flames that enveloped his arm were flickering powerful with his desire. Jason knew that his opponent had a fire affinity, which was at the same time the reason for him to choose this opponent. In Urk¡äs hand was a longsword, one of the most common weapons used by most hunter¡äs and Jason¡äs smile widened, causing Urk to feel humiliated and even more enraged. Throwing a fireball without aiming carefully, Jason evaded it with a jump to the side which he completed with a roll to stand up directly. With his weightless steps, he was extremely nimble and could evade the relatively slow fireballs from Urk with ease, which enraged his opponent even more. As Jason was only five meters apart from Urk, he summoned a wall of fire in front of him, before he cleaved through his own firewall. The firewall should disguise his attack and this tactic worked under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, this was useless against Jason, who had his mana eyes activated during the whole spar. Seeing the longsword cleaving through the firewall, Jason evaded the attack by leaning infinitely close towards the bottom, not without stopping his charge forwards. The firewall was still standing, even though the upper part was cut and dissipating. Urk supplied the lower part of the firewall with mana because he wanted to have enough time, to get into his combat stance once again. How could he have known, that Jason didn¡ät care about the low-evolved ranked firewall, because he himself owned a black origin flame and was resistant to most flames that were weaker than his own. The firewall as obstacle was completely ignored and Jason charged through it while even his hair didn''t incinerate which was an astonishing fact before his dagger cut through Urk¡äs calves. Jason finished his smooth move with a half turn and a trust towards Urk''s neck, which `killed` him within seconds. Even though Jason knew this fight would be rather short, he was disappointed with Urk¡äs combat experience and stupid tactic, causing him to lament their school¡äs average strength. WIth some mana left within his mana core, Jason ignored the enraged piercing stare Urk threw towards him, as he charged towards Leo¡äs back, which was uncovered. Only when two meters distance was between Leo and him, Jason got discovered when an earth wall erected between them. Seron was fighting with Leo head-on, reserving some of his mana, when his fighting spirit suddenly ignited once again as he perceived Jason approaching them. He didn''t want to wait for Jason but right when he was about to charge at his opponent once again, Seron noticed that Leo erected an earth wall behind him and a bad premonition erected in his mind. "DON¡äT YOU DARE JASON!!" Seron shouted when he saw golden eyes flashing out of the right side of the wall, with his dagger ready to thrust towards Leo. Seron didn''t like Jason earning all the praises and he was only a few meters apart from his opponent. Activating his floating sky movement technique, he appeared in front of Leo without notice, and due to the pressure on two sides, Leo was completely overwhelmed as he covered himself with a thick membrane of earth. Unfortunately, this was relatively useless, as Seron activated his sword technique, cleaving apart the earth wall, before Jason appeared below Seron, trusting out with his dagger right into Leo¡äs chest, `killing` him. Jason and Seron won another battle and they smiled exhaustedly, even though Seron was pissed, which he displayed by punching Jason on his shoulder with some strength behind. "Don¡ät steal my prey" he said laughing lightly when they went back to the starting position. There were still more than 50 battles in front of them at least as long as everyone wanted to fight them, which they didn¡ät hope. After fighting against Leo and Urk, that were among the top 5 students within their class, the others were all rather demotivated and nobody wanted to fight them with the exception of the other top students that wanted to regain their reputation. Suddenly they saw Seron taking out two red-orange reagents. While he gulped down one, he gave Jason the other one, which caused them to doubt the fairness of this battle Lamenting to their teacher, the only response these top students received was: "Before you show me that you are capable of sparing more than 50 spars without taking a single energy replenishing reagent, you guys better stay quiet!" This statement caused the stirred-up mob to quiet down instantly, without anyone complaining about Jason and Seron anymore. Jason was glad to get an energy replenishing reagent from Seron, as he himself did not have any potions, which was somehow frustrating and had to be changed soon. Gulping down the liquid, his energy replenished extremely fast and he felt extremely vigorous in a matter of seconds. The same could be said for Seron and the top students looked at them with fear, even though their strength was higher compared to the two youths. Till saw this and said, "I increase the reward for defeating Seron and Jason to 100 Lace points while holding out for five minutes will be enough to obtain 50 Lace points." This statement caused many youths to look at Seron and Jason with even more greed than before and it didn¡ät matter if they lost, as long as they survived five minutes they could earn 50 lace points. With this small fortune, they would be able to purchase a new combat technique or similar rare items in a much shorter period. Entering the combat grounds one after another, Jason and Seron gave Till an annoyed stare. If glances could kill, Till would have died a few hundred times right at this moment. In the end, they could only sight as both made themselves ready to continue their spars. Chapter 132 - Artisan Tower It was already evening when the last spared were fought and Seron already gave Jason another two energy replenishing potions, as their fights seemed to become more exhausting after the rewards were increased. Both couldn¡ät even move anymore, even though their mind was still working on full speed, while they replicated the fights, they underwent, laying on the ground. Without the ability to move anymore, that was the only thing they could do as their mind was the only thing that seemed to work. Recreating their fights was one way to improve one¡äs combat experience and Jason thought the 100+ fights he went through today increased his observance and minuscule movement by a large margin, while he got the hang of his body after he received the baptism. Overall not only his strength increased thanks to the baptism, but also his mana circulation increased by a lot, which enhanced his techniques proficiency and even his passive mana replenishing and absorption which was done by his sub-area. This overjoyed Jason but he could barely force a smile on his face. Till released the other students from their torture and they could go home, while he picked up Jason and Seron as white golden manifested on his back. He brought both of them back home, while Seron was dropped off at a large mansion where a maid already waited for them. Seeing Seron¡äs dirty and disheveled appearance, without any strength left in his legs, she looked fearful at Till, before she dragged him inside. Jason looked at Till who was deep in thoughts and before Jason could say anything Till said. "I assume you are now Shane¡äs disciple... You don''t have to answer, but keep in mind that this decision is an extremely dangerous one. Consider that you could also pull in the Fler¡äs with your decision...Have you ever thought about that?" TIll said with a serious tone and Shane had completely forgotten that he could have drawn the Fler¡äs accidentally into the fray, causing his face to sour¡­ He had only thought about himself and didn''t know what he should do now. But everything was already done and he couldn''t really change it. The only thing that he could do was to ask his masters about this matter, as he didn''t want to see any of the Fler¡äs injured because of his misdeed. Jason nodded seriously before he barely opened his mouth, trying to change the subject. "What happened to the school mission and so on? Can I still receive some lace points for the Goblins and stone weapons with runes on them?" TIll looked at Jason with a perplexed expression ''You want to talk about that? Isn''t the protection of the Fler''s more important?'' But he disregarded this thought as he thought Jason had already asked Shane about this matter. As such he answered: "You¡äll still receive the same rewards as before, the only disadvantage is, that the stone weapons with runes on them are worth slightly less compared to before and the same can be said for the protection pendants. Nevertheless, you¡äll still receive a fortune for them because most runes inscribed on the stone weapons corroded thanks to the poisonous rain cloud, the guards summoned. You can go to the Artisan tower tomorrow and I doubt you¡äll be disappointed with what you get." Till thought for a moment and he remembered that the government still had to pay Shane his fee of 20% for all the materials they received from the Goblin basement. "Please tell Mr.Blair, that he should tell us where we should send the Star notes and credits towards...We received quite a lot thanks to him and fortunately, Cyro-city is still standing firmly, even though we had many casualties." "Ahh!" While they were flying, Jason also remembered that Shane had to receive his commission from the Goblin basement but he thought that sending it to his bank account like Shane wanted, was too suspicious. As such Jason thought for a moment and said "Give me the star notes and Credits in a spatial ring.. Ah and please don''t try to find his base. My eyes can see GPS devices and so on easier than others" Till nodded nonchalantly but he had to acknowledge that Jason was definitely not stupid. The fortune Shane would receive was humongous and even he had to say, that he was jealous about it, but there was nothing one could do. Shane Blair saved the whole Island in the end. Old Drake would have been killed and the whole city annihilated. Even though he was on Astrix, he could barely kill the Goblin King, and to be honest, he could only find him thanks to the device Mr.Blair lend him. Otherwise, the Goblin King would have probably strengthened himself even more "Mr. Greil? Can I receive my lace points also from you? I don¡ät want to go to school tomorrow morning and the Artisan tower is quite a distance away from school?" TIll was thrown out of his thought and he only nodded because there was no reason to decline Jason¡äs offer and only a minute later, he landed in front of the Fler¡äs house, where he dropped of Jason. They exchanged the goblin soldier, goblin mage apprentice and hobgoblin corpses one the street which was weirdly eyed by his neighbors before Jason received a notification on his quantum bracelet. His school profile was updated and Jason had now 100 lace points, which was nothing compared to the wealth that hung around his neck inside the conservatory causing him to smile dryly. His quantum bracelet was also completely overfilled with inscribed stone weapons and forging materials but he was reluctant to sell them forging materials because he would so learn how to forge soon enough The only thing that he didn''t really like was the extremely unsightly anvil that was heavier than anything he ever lifted. Jason said goodbye to Till who looked at him with an interested gleam in his eyes before he soared into the sky. Looking at Till who flew nimbly through the air, Jason also wanted to be able to fly as soon as possible when he went inside the house, thinking about flying around with a smile on his face. Jason greeted Gabriella and Mark who sat at the dinner table eating and he sat down with them to eat something. Apparently, Greg was absorbing mana as if he was obsessed, after Jason¡äs strength increased. Even Malia was overwhelmed by Jason¡äs skyrocketed strength, causing her to focus more on increasing her own strength instead of helping Jason out by answering questions all the time. As such Jason ate with Gabriella and Mark before he went upside to his room, where he carefully sat on his bed before practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique. Afterward, he felt extremely exhausted and after feeding Scorpio with his last remaining strength, Jason fell into a deep sleep. *** It was 8 am when Jason woke up by lovely stings that poked him and he could see Scorpio that looked at him intently while transmitting the desire to eat something. Feeding Scorpio and handing out a small mana stone which he could absorb partially, Jason inspected his soulbond as he noticed that his exoskeleton seemed to have grown more sturdy, while he reached a length of 16 centimeters. His incomplete mana core told Jason, that Scorpio would soon reach the five-star wild beast rank and Jason had a bad premonition that it would be at the same time when Artemis awoke and he immediately called a shuttle. Inside the shuttle, he would practice his Heaven¡äs Hell technique. But before the shuttle arrived, Jason worked out and washed up. Entering the shuttle and practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique, Jason noted, that his soul energy had increased to slightly above 15.4, which caused him to sigh in relief. If his increase in soul energy stayed the same, he would reach 16 units in his soul energy until Friday, which could be enough for both Artemis and Scorpio. At least Jason hoped so. Arriving at his destination, he could see a huge tower in front of him with the size of a few hundred meters, made out of tempered Ouea-glass and Alio-marble which were both grade-2 materials. Looking up, dizziness overcame him and he almost lost his balance. Barely being able to stand, he entered the Artisan tower, where he was immediately obstructed by the guard at the front gates, who controlled everyone. Apparently the Artisan tower had a few enemies and some desperate would try to bomb the tower, with whatever reason there may be and Jason found this a little bit exaggerated. But he had nothing to hide anymore and his quantum bracelet storage device was scanned, only for the guard to look at him with widened eyes, as he gave him the bracelet back with shivering hands. Apparently, he had seen the content of his storage device that was crammed with expensive ores, not many people would be able to afford and the extremely big anvil was an even more astonishing sight The guard made space for Jason, as he thought the black-haired youth in front of him could be the disciple of a high-ranked blacksmith or something like that. Avoiding offending people like Jason was always his top priority, otherwise, he might even lose his life if he did something wrong. Entering Cyro-cities Artisan-tower, Jason couldn¡ät help but exclaim as he looked around. The whole entrance hall was filled with dense mana and the sensation inside could be described as cooling and extremely relaxing. Walking towards the reception, Jason requested for an Inspector to value some of his materials and weapons. The receptionist looked at Jason¡äs ID he sent her and she could only look weirdly at the ID and the person in front of her. ''Is that picture old?WHAT? He is barely 14 years old?!` She doubted her eyes and looked at the picture of his holographic ID-picture and Jason in front of her, wondering what was going on. But noting that he was only 14 years old, she wondered what he would have to let someone inspecting it. Due to her working spirit, she wouldn''t allow any of her esteemed Inspectors to waste their time on something unworthy. As such a slight seed of prejudice formed in her mind, telling her that Jason didn¡ät have anything worthy with him because he wasn¡ät from a renewed family or clan, which would otherwise be pointed out on his ID. Meanwhile, Jason wondered, why the receptionist¡äs expression turned so serious within a second. "Before I can let you through to an Inspector, I have to see if the items you want to evaluate are worth the effort to call them. Please show me what you want to have inspected!!" She stated with a cold voice¡­ "Here?" Jason asked hesitantly and the receptionist laughed coldly in her mind, stating "Yes, please SIR!" "Okay¡­." without minding the receptionist''s attitude, Jason entered his quantum bracelet with his mind, and suddenly with a loud *BOOOM* a few tons heavy anvil fell on the ground, creating multiple cracks on the marble floor that was strengthened by toughness runes. "Ups¡­." Chapter 133 - Another Origin "Oops¡­" Jason said when he noticed the cracks appearing on the beautiful floor while the receptionist¡äs face paled within seconds as she saw the humongous-sized anvil landing on the floor, breaking it open. Not only was she pale, but even the people around the entrance hall were also alarmed at the appearance of the dark-blue titanic anvil appearing, and the guards at the entrance charged towards Jason, with their weapons unsheathed. "What happened here!?" the guard that let Jason through asked seriously glaring at Jason... Damaging the Artisan towers property was nothing to scoff at and it was obvious that this wasn¡ät an accident. Scratching the back of his head, Jason explained the situation roughly and the receptionist''s face grew even paler if that was even possible as her legs gave in, thinking about the possibility that she could be fired or even worse. Her eyes turned wet with tears pouring down her cheeks. ''Aren''t you a little bit over the top?'' Jason asked in his mind, and only now did he notice that he wasn''t flustered to be the center of attention anymore like it was when he gained his eyesight. ''Weird'' Jason told himself, but without giving him any time to think about it, a familiar woman entered his sight causing him to grew slightly excited. "Miss Sharon!!" He said happily, not knowing why he was so happy to see her. Jason just didn''t like this situation he was in right now and he had much more things to do than wasting time to explain the whole incident he was dragged in. "Oh...Jason Stella?" Antalia remembered the youth that topped all Basic-Artisan exams with flying colors even though he only learned for a week and a weird shining light appeared in her eyes. "What happened?" She inquired and Jason summarized what happened, which caused her to look at the receptionist weirdly. Antalia knew this receptionist for a few years and she was always extremely ambitious and from her knowledge, she roughly knew that the receptionist didn''t want to bother the Artisan¡äs inspections too much if it wasn''t necessary and most of the time she was right, but apparently not this time. Sighing Antalia said "It''s okay... Sarah just don¡ät be too ambitious next time, if something like that happens ever again, even I can¡ät help you out" before she ignored the crying receptionist on the ground, as she looked at Jason "Follow me" Turning around she walked toward the elevators and Jason had to quickly envelop the anvil with his mana before it was stored away. Afterward, he looked one last time back at the guards and the crying receptionist with slight pity in his eyes, before he rushed after Antalia. He wasn''t sure where exactly they were going, but he thought Antalia might bring him to an inspector which caused him to follow her. Entering the elevator, they descended towards the underground, and only a few seconds later the doors opened, revealing a massive white-silver shining hallway with dozens of doors leading to other rooms. With his mana eyes activated, Jason could see the mana fluctuations through the doors and there were all kinds of testing machines, smithies, brewing rooms, and rooms for runemasters to learn about inscribing. Antalia explained where they were and apparently the rooms above the surface were for Rank 2 and above Artisans, while Rank-0: Apprentice¡äs and Rank-1 Beginner had to stay below the surface. This was only so because there were just too many Rank-0 and Rank-1 Artisan to house them above the surface. Otherwise, the Artisan tower would need a height of more than a few thousand meters, which the current dome wouldn''t support. Antalia talked a lot and she seemed to be excessively proud of Cyry-City¡äs Artisan tower, causing Jason to suppress a chuckle. ''How funny it would be to tell her about my masters¡ä Artisan ranks'' Jason thought in his mind laughing inwardly. But Antalia looked extremely satisfied which Jason found it quite interesting, so he followed her to a seemingly ordinary room, they entered without knocking. Entering the room, Jason saw a middle-aged man hammering on a red shining ore, which began was shaped under the violent assaults of the hammer strikes, while black grains and impurities seemed to be expelled. The ingot cooled down extremely fast, while the middle-aged man released a red-orange flame from his hand, enveloping the chunk before it ignited once again. Continuing to strike the red shining ore until it was shaped a perfect chunk, Jason¡äs mana eyes were drawn to it, as he noticed something important. First, the red chunk, was a grade-3 fire affinity infused ore, called Hephaestit which was mainly used to manufacture fire affinity mana weapons, and the mana veins within the red chunk seemed to be partially cleansed to Jason, even though he wasn¡ät sure why it looked like this. Second, and the most shocking factor was, that right in front of him was a Tier-1 D-Rank Origin flame, which was said to be extremely rare¡­ ''Did Shane or Dalia lie to me?'' Jason wondered but then he remembered that not even Shane himself had one which meant it had to be rare. ''Who is that man?'' Giving it some thoughts, there couldn''t be many humans within on Astrix with such a valuable flame. ''Is that maybe Cyro-cities Rank-5 Blacksmith who is also the president of the Artisan tower?'' Was Antalia trying to bribe him or what was going on? Jason wondered and only know did the bulky middle-aged man notice his guests. "Oh Tali, what are you doing here? And who is that small boy?" He asked and Jason wondered `Tali? ` But hearing Antalia¡äs response, everything was immediately clear. "Dad! This is a student of the 6th affiliated Vanguard school who has passed all Basic-Artisan exams with 100%" Antalia said and somehow Jason thought there was a meaning behind her behaving like that However, he didn''t really care about that because he only wanted to make business today. "Hello, Sir...My name is Jason Stella and today I''m only here to conduct business with the Artisan tower" Jason said, explaining everything clearly without creating any misunderstanding, while glaring towards Ms.Sharon, without anyone saying anything. The middle-aged man seemed nice and he decided to ignore his daughters scheming as he greeted Jason friendly "Hello Jason, my name is Cheng Sharon and I¡äm the president of the Artisan tower and also the only Rank 5 Blacksmith we have here" Cheng¡äs smile seemed genuine and Jason shook his hand with a bright smile and Cheng could hardly contain to comment on his looks. "Pretty! Are you sure you''re a man?" He asked causing Jason to frown. Since the baptism, his skin seemed much smoother and if his facial features weren''t sharp, one would think he was a flat-chested woman which was not what he wanted. Looking at Cheng, he wondered why he didn''t look similar to him because Cheng¡äs skin was not as fair as his, but thinking about the difference of Ranks between their Origin flames, Jason conducted that a D-rank baptism was relatively weak and would only cleanse a small portion of impurities. But what wondered Cheng and his daughter was rather that Jason seemed unmoving with his comment that he was either the president of the Artisan tower or the only Rank 5 Blacksmith which was new to them. Normally everyone wanted to get closer to them once they found out that Cheng was the president or Antalia his daughter, but Jason frowned, which was refreshing in Cheng¡äs opinion as he began to laugh. While Cheng laughed, Antalia looked at Jason seriously and she couldn¡ät avoid asking. "Why are you not astonished about my dad?" And Jason¡äs answer caused Cheng¡äs laughing to immediately stop as it seemed to have been stuck in his throat. "I don¡ät think anyone else except the Artisan tower¡äs president and Rank 5 or probably almost Rank 6 Grandmaster Blacksmith should have an Origin flame on Astrix, right?" Both Antalia and Cheng looked at Jason with widened eyes as the existence of the Origin flame was their family secret and Jason could only chuckle, saying "If you expose your flame like that, it¡äs only normal for someone like me to notice an Origin flame" With that he meant his mana eyes but he continued without explaining "May we start our business?" Jason asked politely and Cheng subconsciously nodded his head without caring that he previously wanted to finish forging a mana weapon out of the Hephaestit chunk he had already prepared. "You are here to get some things inspected, right? If my daughter brought you to me, you must have something expensive with you. Show it to me, please!" Cheng was subconsciously already politely to Jason, who was only 14 years old, as it was not normal for a youth at his age to either knows about Origin flames or how to identify them. ''Maybe he is an heir from a different Island or even Canir? Who knows... anything could happen and its not like it''s the first time either'' Cheng thought while seizing up Jason once again. After receiving his baptism, Jason¡äs mind became more rational than before and he didn''t mind the attitude others give him as much as before. As such he entered his spatial device with his mind and threw out: 215 stone weapons with inscriptions on them, 60 iron weapons made out of rhyolite ore, 25 low and mid-grade-1 weapons that previously belonged to hunters, three peak grade-1 weapons from the hobgoblins, inside the large room, which was now littered with weapons. In Jason¡äs hand, one could see 15 protection pendants and with a smile he could barely draw the attention of the two Artisans in front of him. Antalia couldn''t get a grip over her emotions as almost the whole room was littered with weapons but it seemed as if there was something missing? Meanwhile, Cheng¡äs thoughts were completely different from his daughters ''Stone weapons with intact runes on them? There are definitely not from the Goblin siege! Almost all runes were destroyed by the corrosive rain...` as he faintly heard his daughter¡äs voice "Where is the anvil?" *BOOOM* Chapter 134 - High Suddenly a dark-blue anvil appeared out of nowhere, landing on the ground, almost cracking up the ground due to the immense weight it possessed. The anvil was large enough to reach Jason¡äs waist and radiated calm and tranquil mana. Luckily they were within a forging room which was required to hold out some weight, otherwise, Jason would have never taken out the heavy anvil again. He had already destroyed the entrance hall¡äs floor which made him already uncomfortable. Cheng, carefully inspected the stone weapons with runes on them, when he turned around in shock once he heard the loud particular sound generated by crashing on the floor, he immediately knew that it was something extremely valuable. But once he saw the anvil, his breathing stopped and he slowly staggered towards the anvil without saying a single word as sweat pearls appeared on his forehead. Antalia noticed her father''s weird behavior she had never seen before and frowned because she couldn''t really detect anything exceptional from the anvil. But Jason was pleasantly surprised after seeing Cheng¡äs behavior because Shane behaved similarly but more restrained before he told Jason what exactly the anvil was. After Shane told him what exactly the anvil was, Jason didn''t want to sell it anymore which Shane rejected. Shane said his anvil it better and Jason was in dire need of star notes to increase his cultivation faster. As such selling, the anvil would be much better, because Jason wouldn''t need it anyway. Before Cheng could say anything, he was once again shocked by Jason¡äs next words "That¡äs a pseudo-mana peak grade-3 cloud titanium anvil and it has the effect to calm the blacksmith''s mind, while additionally tempering the ingots shaped on it." Cheng¡äs legs almost gave in hearing that and looking at Jason''s calm expression, he wondered what kind of terrifying youth his daughter brought to him. `Tycoon!` was the only thought running through his mind, while his determination to obtain the cloud titanium anvil soared. He searched for new forging equipment for a long time and this anvil in front of him was one of the best things he could ever get the hand on, considering the connections he had throughout the Archipelago and some parts of Canir. There was only one extremely big issue¡­the price!! Cheng frowned deeply, as he knew that he didn¡ät have enough funds to purchase such a treasure, even though he had amassed a small fortune over the last few years. He paled slightly and looked at Jason uncertain. "I want all of it..but what about the price?" Cheng asked, hesitating slightly which caused Antalia to look at both Jason and Cheng taken aback. She wanted to boast about her father being the president of the Artisan tower, but now it seemed like her own father was trying to curry favor with Jason, a common student? This seemed extremely weird and shocked her to the core as her father was normally extremely prideful. Jason looked at Cheng and wasn''t sure what exactly to say...Shane hadn¡ät told him the price for the cloud titanium anvil which caused him now to frown. Cheng saw Jason¡äs frown and the sweat pearls on his temples thickened as he wanted the anvil in front of him, even if he had to take a loan. "10.000 Star notes? How about that??? But I don''t have enough on my hand right now... It will take some time to gather all of them¡­" Chen offered and Antalia cried out in shock "WHAAT!!!!!!", while Jason could only hardly contain his expression. He knew that Grade-3 weapons for example were worth a few hundred million credits, which was equivalent to a few star notes, and considering that the cloud titanium anvil was a pseudo-magic grade-3 object, Jason had thought he would probably get something between 300 to 500-star notes, which were more than enough for him. But 10.000-star notes¡­ that were 1 trillion credits and Jason¡äs eyes bulged unconsciously, thinking about this fortune and he could only look at Cheng with shock. "No" Jason could only faintly say which caused Cheng to look even more desperate. "How about 10.500-star notes? I don¡ät have more, even if I take a loan..." But Jason had to regain his senses before he could say "No, 10.000-star notes are more than enough, but can I exchange the star notes with other necessities?" Jason asked, also beginning to sweat... What was the use of a fortune, if he couldn''t purchase anything in bulk which was quite difficult as a common student. Considering this, Jason had to use Cheng as his sole connection to obtain things. Cheng¡äs tension slightly eased up "Yes, yes!! That''s definitely possible. Please state what you need¡­" But Jason''s mind was almost empty and he couldn''t really think of much, what he needed right off the bat when a few materials appeared in his mind. "I only need around 1000 Star notes, 50% Mana stones ranging from grade 1 to 3 in large quantities, a few of dark iron, jade iron, tanzanite, magic silver, star sand, a bunch of magical ranked mana cores from all kinds of elements, including spatial, light and darkness, grade-1 blood essences, a large quantity of Nightshade flowers, blaze maples, stonecrops, radiant twigs, Creola azaleas, mountain peony, hideous bee honey, .... And a ton grade-2 soil" Before Jason knew, he had already stated dozen of things he needed, and unconsciously Antalia, had opened up her holographic screen to write down all things he stated. Looking over the list, she began to frown deeply. These were all items used for Rank-0 to Rank-3 Artisans from all three occupations and gardeners. With this, she could only wonder what Jason wanted to do with so many materials. "Ah! And I would like to change the storage device of my quantum bracelet to a more advanced one which includes a larger storage device with a preservation function. I hope that is possible. If I ask for too much, I hope the rune inscribed weapons are enough to compensate for it." Jason tried to make a generous face but Antalia could only curse in her mind ''Ya!! DOn¡ät you think your a little bit over the top?!'' but before she could say anything her father showed a radiating smile and answered "DEAL!" while holding his hand out to shake Jason¡äs It didn''t take Cheng long to consider this deal, as he would never find such a treasure like a cloud titanium anvil ever again, except on Canir maybe... However, the prices there were even more devastating for such treasures because of the big families that tried to monopolize everything and he was even more glad that he could trade with a large number of low-grade materials, as the merchants he knew would give him a discount for bulk purchases. In the end, he would pay the most for the mana stones, as the merchant trading them gave the smallest discount. Thinking everything over, Cheng calculated that he would have to pay Jason at most 9.000 star notes which was a discount of 10%, and even if he would have to pay more, it would definitely be fine with him. Signing a contract, both Cheng and Jason seemed to be pleased with the outcome. Cheng obtained a pseudo-mana peak grade-3 anvil that increased his chances to enter the Grandmaster Blacksmith rank(6th) and Jason received a fortune worth of materials. Thinking about the herbs and plants he would receive soon, Jason decided to plant them into his conservatory in order to let them grow and stay fresh. Maybe he could even obtain some harvest from them, as Jason would at first learn how to forge from Shane, which was still a month or so away. Before he would learn how to forge, Shane told him that he had to memorize all the important aspects from the bulk of books he sent him. Only after some time passed, he would really start to forge and to learn that, he would require a mountain of materials as mastering anything could only learn how to forge out of failures. There has never been a master falling from the sky, except unfortunate cases that ended bloody. Before Jason would go to school, Cheng told him to follow him in order to change out his quantum bracelet¡äs storage device. Cheng manufactured a special quantum watch together with a fellow runemaster not long ago with a large storage device which he wanted to give it to Jason. The quantum bracelet was made out of peak grade-2 and low-grade-3 materials and completely black in color, while the storage device had a space of 100mx100mx10m which was 40 times the size of his former storage device. One could say that it was a present from Cheng to Jason and he thanked Cheng politely which shocked the Rank-5 blacksmith. ''Why is this youth so polite to a nobody like me? Does he not understand that I want to gain his favor?'' he thought without even considering that Jason''s background could be shallow. If Cheng knew that Jason was an orphan without any wealth, he would wonder how a treasure like a cloud titanium anvil got into his hands. With his newly obtained quantum bracelet, Jason left the Artisan tower after the configuration was done. Now, Jason was finally able to download all files sent by Shane and Dalia from his large memory stick. While waiting for the shuttle, he received a notification from Antalia with a weird emote behind that almost caused Jason to throw up. `Isn''t she a little bit too old to throw herself at a 14-year-old student?` Jason thought as he opened one book sent by Dalia and Shane. Chapter 135 - Scorpio Sitting inside the shuttle, Scorpio appeared in front of him, pleading for mana stones, which wondered Jason. Scorpio had only requested food until now, but Jason felt an itchy sensation coming from his small soulbond, causing him to feel expectant¡­ ''Is it already time?'' He wondered as he took a batch of small mana stones from his vast storage device. Cheng would need some time to gather all materials but to comfort Jason he already received a `small` batch mana stones and he asked himself if it was already enough for Dalia to enhance Scorpio''s potential but it was unlikely. But that could wait for some time, as Artemis'' evolution was more important than increasing Scorpio¡äs potential. Once Scorpio¡äs potential increased, he would look out for a suitable evolution path for his cute scorpion who laid on the grade-1 mana stones on his lap. Mana filled the whole shuttle and Scorpio absorbed everything greedily until they arrived in front of the school-gate. Carefully holding Scorpio and the mana stones with both hands, he left the shuttle without disturbing his soulbond''s mana absorption. Searching for a tranquil place, Jason sat down, leaning on a tree before placing Scorpio once again on his lap. Taking out some more mana stones, he began to absorb the mana inside them and his surrounding. He had a mountain of low/mid/high& peak grade-1 mana stones and lots of grade-2 and they were most likely more than enough for him to reach the master rank. They were worth a fortune but remembering Dalia¡äs words about the vast mana she required to enhance a beast''s potential, Jason ignored this mountain. Grade-1 and Grade-2 mana stones were pure and efficient enough for someone to reach the magus rank at a relatively fast pace, while grade-3 mana stones would be even purer and denser. Meanwhile, grade-4 mana stones couldn¡ät be used by someone below the magus rank under normal means, except if there were special occasions like the splitting mind technique, Jason had undergone with the mana isolation circle. Once the mana inside mana stones was released one had to either absorb it or it would slowly start to scatter and only because of the mana isolation circle, Jason was able to absorb everything. This however was extremely dangerous and only thanks to the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit, he survived. Remembering the pain, Jason shuddered involuntarily, before he distracted himself once again. Time passed and it was already lunchtime when he noticed that Scorpio was molting once again. The old green exoskeleton was slowly expelled while a darker and lusher shining exoskeleton could be seen. Inside the exoskeleton was a faint blue trace vibrantly gleaming, as if it was alive. Scorpio¡äs length increased to almost 18 centimeters and sensing through his incomplete mana core, Jason ensured that his soulbond reached the five-star rank. Its exoskeleton was tougher and larger compared to the previous one and Jason thought that Scorpio might grow a little bit more, considering that the size of the exoskeleton had enough space for slight growth. His own body expelled some old skin after his mana absorption finished, but overall not much changed, as he was already cleansed from most impurities. It would wonder him if there were many impurities inside his body until he reached the expert rank. But his skin grew slightly tougher, while his mana core and physique strengthened a tiny bit. However, compared to the amplification caused by the Black Origin flame, it was almost nothing. What Jason confused about his Origin flame, was that every time he saw an Origin flame, his own flickered vigorously, transmitting him the thought of insatiable hunger. Maybe his origin flame wanted to devour other origin flames but there was no way to test it out without searching for a different origin flame or experimenting with another one. Nevertheless, considering the dangers, Jason had to disregard this thought. It didn''t take long for Scorpio to regain its senses after the molting was completed and it jumped around joyful as its strength advanced further. It had the desire to help Jason out of a sticky situation and it grew stronger with each day passing after Jason received the Origin flame¡äs baptism. As such Scorpio wanted to grow even stronger and with the mana it absorbed, it would begin to plant a poison affinity seed, once it had accumulated enough. It roughly understood that Jason¡äs new master could enhance its strength somehow but right now it had already a good enough potential to reach the awakened stage. As such Scorpio wanted to gift Jason a poison affinity within his mana which meant that he wanted to create a poison affinity. Without knowing how long it would take, Scorpio clung onto a mana stone and continued absorbing it, without caring about Jason, who looked at Scorpio confused. ''Are you becoming greedy?'' Jason wondered, but it couldn¡ät be considered bad if his soulbond was ambitious. Even though Scorpio¡äs strength increment could be considered positive, the amount of soul energy it needed increased to 10 units, while Jason¡äs own soul energy was amplified to 16.75 units. If Artemis needed 11 soul energy, Jason had to increase his own soul energy by more than 2 units for her to barely fit inside. And even this as the worst-case scenario was not possible to achieve for Jason who could at most increase his soul energy by 1 unit until Friday evening. Because of that, he decided to disregard the possibility of increasing his soul energy to let Artemis fit into his soul world. Even though he did not have enough space for her, she would most likely still listen to his orders. The only issue was, that Jason couldn''t really store her inside his soul world without having enough soul energy and due to that, she would have to stay with him the whole time. He wasn''t sure how much her appearance would change and if it was even allowed for Artemis to come out of the soul world while he was in school, as she would most likely attract more attention than Scorpio, who sat on his shoulder, inside his pullover bag or hidden somewhere to not enter the soul world with the Artemi¡äs ice aura caused by her evolution, around. Thinking about that, he would have to inform Till about this and the problem would most likely be solved but it still bothered him that he didn''t have enough soul energy for Artemis causing him to sigh deeply. Jason took a bag out of his storage device with a large towel and a few additional mana stones. Placing the mana stones below the towel, he laid Scorpio on top of the towel in order to avoid any discomfort, when he carefully put on the bag. Walking slowly towards the combat arena, Jason continued reading. He figured out that his knowledge increased with each day passing, as Shane and Dalia¡äs wisdom and experience could only be called vast, which was definitely an underestimation. It didn''t take him long until he reached the combat arena and unsurprisingly he was one of the first to arrive, as there was still more than an hour left until combat classes would start. As such Jason sat down and practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique, to increase his soul energy by 0.1 unit with a single sitting. When Jason opened his eyes, he noticed that Seron sat next to him, while most classmates already arrived. Seeing Jason opening his eyes, Seron asked "Do you think we have to spar all the time with each other? Hopefully master has something else to do, otherwise, we will adapt to each other¡äs combat style and it will become boring, don¡ät you thing so?" Smiling slyly he added, "We need some stronger opponent with different combat styles...our classmates are too weak." And as if Till heard Seron talking to Jason, he walked into the combat arena next to the Instructor Brain, who taught them the `Weaponry Knight` technique. Looking around, Instructor Brain noticed Jason and upon inspecting his mana core, his eyes bulged and a trace of fear could be seen within them before he averted his gaze to the other students. "From today onwards, I¡äll be responsible for Class 54¡äs combat training. Due to the wide range of combat experience, the school decided to take the best combatants from every class in order to create a special combat class to further develop their respective combat prowess even more. Jason Stella and Seron Gier please follow Mr.Greil. He will be responsible for the special combat class!" After the Instructor finished his short speech, the whole class went into an uproar. While Jason and Seron looked at each other with bright smiles, the weaker students gossiped with each other about what the special combat lessons were. However, the loudest voices were the top students, who couldn¡ät accept this decision. ''Why weren''t they taken to the special combat classes?? They were the top students of their class?!?'' And before the combat arena went completely into a chaotic chicken nest, one could hear Till stating. "Right now only 2 students from every class will be selected to enter this lesson. If anyone of you has the courage to fight either Jason or Seron, please come out. Otherwise, scram and wait until next week, where anyone is allowed to challenge the 150 special combat class seats. In order to prevent too many students from challenging anyone, you¡äll have to pay 10 lace points to do so anyone. The 10 lace points will be deducted and not returned, winning or losing doesn''t matter, the reward for winning will be the permission to enter my special course while losing will punish you with a two-week ban from challenging anyone. Instructor Brian will proceed and explain everything to all of you." Chapter 136 - Big The top students felt betrayed about the school¡äs decision but there wasn''t anything for them to do because they had to acknowledge that Jason and Seron were too strong for them. At least for the moment and mainly because of their weird abilities, they still had to analyze. Jason and Seron looked at each other smiling brightly, when they heard that they would be able to spar with the strongest students from all classes. This could be considered an immense opportunity and Jason was even happier to have received such a pleasant privilege. Thinking back to the time where he was only a novice rank and extremely weak, Jason noticed that it hasn''t even been that long since he became strong enough to compare himself with his peers, and thinking about his current combat prowess, he could only smile. With a mana core rank of a 1st Adept, he could already defeat other classmates with a mana core rank of the 5th Adept rank, after adding the amplifications from soulbonds and in Jason¡äs case his baptism. Jason¡äs mana core size and physique reached the 4th Adept rank while he could still defeat 7th Adept ranks with his strategies, mana eyes, and his evolved ranked black fire affinity once someone underestimated him. Being underestimated was rather unlikely within the special combat classes and Jason was expectant to see how strong the other classes were. Following Till, Jason and Seron talked to each other and Seron estimated that most students had the strength that was comparable to theirs when they didn''t use their most powerful attack. The biggest problem in his opinion was the excessively powerful elemental affinities from evolved beasts and some even said that there was an unblemished beast soulbond within the 6th affiliated Vanguard school, which shocked Jason. Even though this student was said to have only a few soulbond spots it was already rare for someone to contract an unblemished beast as the first soulbond but Seron looked around unbothered. In Jason¡äs opinion, Seron¡äs behavior could only be described as nonchalant, as Seron told him, that his second Soulbond will be a rare guardian rank cub, which was even more shocking than getting to know that someone formed a contract with an unblemished beast. They trailed behind Till for five minutes until they arrived at the highest floor of the combat arena, where the other students were already waiting for them. Looking at the badges on their school uniform, one could see 74 different numbers in pairs and it seemed as if they were the last to arrive. Once they entered the combat arena, everyone immediately began to scan their mana core rank, before they smiled weirdly. ''A 1st-Adept rank and a 3rd Adept rank? Is that some kind of bad joke?'' they asked themselves upon inspecting Jason and Seron¡äs core, while Seron and Jason did exactly the same. Everyone except Jason could only see the mana core rank, while he could see everyone''s real strength behind them, forcing him to smile weirdly. While Seron saw mana core ranks between the 4th-7th Adept rank, Jason noticed that only around 30 students had a mana core size of a 5th Adept, while the strongest one¡äs seemed to have already reached a mana core size infinitely close to the Expert rank, which caused a wide gap between the strongest and second strongest, who had a mana core size infinitely close to the 9th Adept rank. Fortunately, there was only one of such existences and Jason immediately thought it had to be the students that bond an unblemished beast. Seeing Jason¡äs gaze remaining longer on her than on others, the slender girl with blond hair and blue eyes wasn''t sure what to think about him, except for one thing that was for sure. `HOT!!` She thought as her gaze remained on Jason, even though he averted his gaze to scan through the other students around her. Jason was astonished to see that the top student of class one was the blond girl with her slender build but her mana core size spoke more than a thousand words. Mixing themself among the 148 other students, Seron and Jason looked at Till who began his short speech. "Today, everyone here can be considered the best of the best among the combatants in our school''s first grade. Due to our negligence, the school didn''t establish a special combat class for the last few years to strengthen the new generations'' best warriors, but after the goblin tide occurred, all schools will start to focus more on enhancing the abilities of our combatants once again. This is the reason we founded the special combat class. In this special combat class, everyone will fight against each other and learn about all kinds of combat styles first hand, while we will focus on learning a variety of tiered techniques. The school will provide a large number of techniques in order for everyone here to increase their strength by a large margin, but don¡ät think everything is free! You¡äll only be able to learn these techniques as long as you remain in the special combat class, which means once someone who aspired to enter the special combat class defeats you, your permission to read the technique will immediately be removed. Some of you may question why we give out tiered martial art skills and the answer involves multiple reasons. First, we obviously want to strengthen the next generation to prevent any accident like the Goblin tide to happen ever again. We already suffered enough through the last few months with too many casualties during the beast tides, like it happened in Jiro- and Cyro-City. This could have been avoided and the government grants the schools a small fund to help out with increasing the future strength of Astrix. As for the second reason, the three big schools and the government decided to hold a tournament after the new year starts, which is only 100 days from now on. With this, the big three want to motivate everyone to strive for more, as the rewards can be considered huge, to simplify it. Among the rewards is a piece of peak grade-3 equipment, pseudo-mana low grade-3 equipment, and even soul weapons and armor, high-quality fruits to increase one''s soul energy, impurity cleansing fruits, and even some that increase the affinity towards a certain affinity. But that''s not it and there is much more, which has been provided by the Drake family to strengthen our newest generation! These items are not even commonly found on the other islands and one could say that some of these rewards are even rare on Canir! In total, 3000 students of every grade will be able to participate in the tournament, while 1000 spots belong to the Vanguard school. You all may think that every branch will have 150 spots, while the main school has 100 spots, according to the student ratio attending the schools, but that is completely wrong. Right now, only students from your own school can challenge you for the special class spot, but one month from now, even the other branches and the main school students will be able to challenge you. In order for everyone to understand the strength of the Vanguard main school''s first-graders. Right now, within the main school, more than 500 students have reached the 8th Adept rank and among them close to 100 students have reached the 9th Adept rank, while a few ascended to the Expert rank. Including their soulbonds, one could estimate that around 1000 students with a mana core size at the 9th Adept rank exist within the Vanguard school. 900 among these 1000 will challenge you if not even more and you¡äll have to either win or fight desperately in order to participate in the "Big-Three tournament". This may be shocking and to be honest, even I¡äm baffled because such high mana core ranks were rarely seen in the Archipelago when I was young. Humanities strength is increasing with each day passing, as Argo¡äs mana increases slowly and the resources it creates become more, increasing the chances for youth like all of you to ascend into higher realms in a shorter amount of time. What this means for everyone is clear, most of you are essentially too weak and in two months we want everyone to give their best to become stronger. If each of you wants to keep the spot within the special combat class, everyone has to give 150% for the next three months until the tournament starts. Everyone has been sent a special permission key to the quantum watches and bracelets, once you get challenged, a signal will be sent to you and both will have to meet up inside the school. The time one can get challenged is only within the combat class lessons, otherwise, it would be extremely difficult to find a time where one can meet up, and additionally, it would be unfair to send someone a challenge at 2 am, right? That¡äs mainly it¡­.Everyone is already granted permission to access all kinds of techniques, but keep in mind, that once thrown out of the special class, the access to these techniques will be locked until one can defeat someone else from the special class, retrieving their seat. Strive for more and keep becoming stronger, that is my wish for everyone and don''t let your butt kicked by someone else!!" Till ended and the whole surrounding seemed perilous quiet, while Jason and Seron looked at each other. Right now they could barely defeat someone at the 5th Adept rank with their soul world amplification and the main Vanguard school is said to have some powerhouses this year from all kinds of hidden clans and families and they owned strong techniques as heirlooms, like Seron¡äs family had. But this didn¡ät mean that both of them were discouraged. It was only a new challenge for them to show their determination and ambition which increased even more. Chapter 137 - Kneel Seron didn¡ät need any combat technique, as he was already his quantum bracelet was filled by hundreds of techniques he received from his family and only his weak mana core rank prevented him from learning them in-depth. But for Jason it was entirely different, he only had tierless foundation techniques, an all-rounder tier-1 weaponry knight technique, and the only special technique he had was weightless steps. As of now, Jason could only use Tier-1 techniques for a long-term fight, without injuring himself, which was the reason for him to pick two particular Tier-1 techniques for the beginning. [Transience Strike] a Tier-1 technique focusing on a single strike, to kill one''s enemy without much effort. [Hazardous-Assassin] another Tier-1 technique with multiple sequences used to deal heavy strike towards the enemy with two daggers. Both techniques he picked out increased his offensive and the only reason for him to do so was that he already knew shallow tierless defensive techniques, he never used during a fight. In the end, he used daggers to fight and it would be considered dumb to deflect blunt weapons and greatswords with a dagger. As such he wanted to focus on his speed and attack in order to prevent landing into the position to defend against anyone. It might be stupid, but for his current goal, it was the only path he could choose. After he found these two techniques, Jason also looked for an Archer technique and a peak-Tier-1 technique called [Spinning Arrow] jumped into his view. As the name suggested one could shoot spinning arrows that changed their trajectory within the air, due to a certain circulation of mana within the arrow and it was said to be a difficult Tier-1 technique. Downloading the three techniques, Jason seemed pleased and Seron asked him, if he wanted to learn the techniques now or if they should search for opponents to spar when a boy and the blond-haired female walked straight towards them, without caring about anyone around them. It almost looked like the combat arena belonged to them and that they were king and queen within the special combat class, which caused Jason to smile lightly. The boy with his brown hair and green eyes greeted them, while the blond-haired girl remained silent. "Hello, my name is Milo Derk and this is my classmate Bella Wol, we noticed that both of you belong to Class 54 which increased their class ranking by 21 grades and we liked to spar with our school''s celebrities." Milo said but Jason and Seron only looked at each other confused `Celebrities? Who?` before their attention turned back to the brown-haired youth, looking at him as if he was a degenerate. Seeing that the youths were confused and looked at him like that, Milo''s lips twitched lightly, which turned even worse when Bella next to him began to chuckle lightly before she asked. "Are both of you free to spar with us? According to your mana cores, it won¡ät take long until the two of you will be thrown out of the class. Let me see how tough the two of you are" She said, smiling full of fighting spirit. Apparently, she was similar to Jason, even though both of them didn''t know anything about each other. She was an orphan and raised up by a loving adoptive family. Even though they didn''t have much money, her adoptive father was a decent hunter and when she awoke her soul, he gave up everything to support her, causing her to end up in the 6th affiliated Vanguard school. She wanted to care for her family who adopted her and entering a good school was the best way to become stronger. With her high amount of soul energy and four soulbond spots, she was confident in defeating the two youths in front of her. It was said that class 54 was the most dangerous among all classes, because of two recently emerged freaks that defeated everyone within their whole class during a combat-lesson and she wanted to find out more about them. After she noticed that their mana core rank was extremely weak, she was immediately disappointed. Jason noticed that Bella was looking at them with a fighting spirit, but behind that, he could also faintly see traces of disappointment and even disgust which wondered him. Both Seron and Jason accepted their proposal and they went to the combat arena as one of the first among the 150 students within the combat arena and it wasn''t long until the first few began to gossip and even laugh at Jason and Seron because they dared to fight Class 1''s top 2 students, even though their opponents were multiple levels above them, which annoyed the two friends. Without him knowing, Jason''s pride he accumulated over the last two weeks was hurt at least as much as Seron¡äs who came from one of the big families. Over the last few weeks Jason increased his strength by a few times and even now there were still peers looking down on him which not only frustrated him but also a deep sense of anger began to emerge in his mind, which he never felt before. It had been a long time since Seron had been locked down upon and in the past, it was only his family that dared to look down on him but for peers that were only at the Adept rank to look down at him like that, was unacceptable and caused him to grit his teeth. He despised his own situation because he only began to absorb mana for a short time...if only his mana veins weren''t malfunctioned, he would have already reached the Expert rank and beat these idiots into a pulp, if they dared to look at him and Jason with ridicule and even disgust. His mind was about to enter a state comparable to a berserk mode when Jason tugged at his shoulder. Turning around with anger, he was about to explode trying to release his anger, when he gazed into Jason''s eyes¡­ Unconsciously stepping back, Seron could only be intimated by Jason¡äs cold eyes that radiated a faint trace of killing intent while the calmness within them seemed to be more dangerous than his own state. "Can you use your mana injection on other people?" Jason asked calmly and Seron only nodded subconsciously. ''Who the hell is her?'' Seron couldn¡ät help but think, still staring into Jason¡äs eyes. He had never seen someone comparable to Jason, except war veterans and old geezers that survived through thousand deaths by a thin thread, but the most important thing Jason had in common with them was the calmness they radiated. If he knew that Jason¡äs killing intent was his master¡äs fault thanks to the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit and torture he endured in addition to the baptism Jason underwent due to the Black Origin flame, which caused him to see everything much clearer, Seron wouldn¡ät know how to look at Jason. Nodding his head Jason thought for a moment until he said "If you can inject me with four or more mana injections immediately after the fight starts, we will show them who these idiots are laughing at" with his lips curling up into a cold smile. He didn''t have anything against Bella or Milo per se but an example had to be made to show everyone who they laughed at. Seeing Jason¡äs smile, Bella felt weird while Milo began to despise the two students in front of him, that had the weakest among the weakest mana core among all 150 special combat class students. They were about to start the countdown, when Jason turned around. "Mr. Greil, can you please supervise the battle and summon your Greater Blessed Wolf to prevent anyone from getting injured? We don''t want anyone to receive permanent injuries, right?" This sentence caused the surrounding to laugh out, as it seemed that Jason didn¡ät want to receive any injuries from the fight, but Till felt completely different with a bad premonition forming in his mind. He just couldn''t get the hang of Jason at all, which was the most dangerous thing that could happen when fighting someone. Jason was unpredictable which caused even Till to be slightly uncomfortable, as he summoned his white goldish furred wolf. Turning back to Bella and Milo, Jason saw Milo¡äs anger, and smiling at him with a radiating smile, caused him to feel even more enraged. It was as if his eyes said "I want to beat these two idiots into a pulp" Till ordered his soulbond to radiate his healing ability right off the bat because he felt that something was extremely odd and an uncomfortable feeling spread through his whole body when the countdown slowly began to resound through the combat arena "3¡­.2¡­1" When the countdown reached one, Jason stepped forward, while Seron placed both hands on Jason¡äs back in the center of his scapula, and while the mechanical voice exclaimed "Fight start" Seron immediately released four mana injections within a short succession, flooding Jason with a devastating and almost uncontrollable amount of mana, causing blood to pour out of his orifices. Meanwhile, Milo covered himself with his wind transmuted mana as he charged towards the two of them with bloodshot eyes and his two daggers in his hands, while Bella shot three water jets toward Jason and Seron. Not even a second passed until Jason injected all of the mana within him into his eyes while releasing his accumulated killing intent to the fullest potential within his eyes. Meanwhile, he also utilized the abyssal effect, whichs power was amplified by a few times thanks to his increase in mana core rank, baptism and four mana injections. "Kneel!" One could only faintly hear a quiet, yet overbearing voice coming from Jason, filling the whole combat room with a deep sense of death and the subconscious intention to follow his order. A few weak-willed students at the 4th Adept rank followed his order subconsciously, even though the order wasn¡ät directed at them, forcing them to kneel down on the ground. Fear spread through every cell within their body causing their instincts to take action without them noticing it and they couldn''t imagine how it would feel if this was directly ordered towards them. Chapter 138 - Worship& Fear Radiating a dense eerie and perilous hue around, Milo who was only a few meters apart from Jason began to hesitate for a quarter of a second which was enough for him to look straight into Jason''s golden-eyes that were filled with coldness and killing intent. Subconsciously, his attack stopped and his daggers fell to the ground lifelessly, as he stared into these deep eyes, falling deep into an abyss that was filled with nothing¡­. Suddenly Milo sensed something in the far distance that looked down on him seemingly comparing his whole existence to an ant. Noticing the sheer pressure radiating from the being, Milo¡äs eyes widened and tears poured down his cheeks, when he fell down on his knees, without the will to stand up once again, while his wet eyes turned lifeless. The water jets, flying towards Jason disintegrated into smithereens due to the sheer pressure radiated from Jason¡äs killing intent and mana, while Bella noticed that something was wrong when Jason''s eyes pierced right into her mind. This caused her to enter a deep black abyss like Milo, without anything except a weird but alarming and dangerous pressure radiated from within. Without noticing, she subconsciously fell onto the ground exactly like Milo, while her eyes remained dry, due to her distance towards Jason. Shivering violently, the frightening and uncomfortable sensation caused by the pressure completely shattered her will to fight Jason. She only dared to look at the bottom, not even daring to try looking into Jason''s eyes due to fear and a small trace of reverence emerged within her without her knowing. What happened a moment ago was deep imprinted into her mind, causing a deep fear against Jason to appear. Jason meanwhile receded his killing intent as his whole body grew weak, almost forcing him to collapse on the ground when Seron took a hold of him. "Can you inject another mana injection?" Jason¡äs weak voice could barely be heard by Seron, but he only nodded and injected Jason with mana. After receiving a full portion of mana, Jason immediately circulated around his body and partially into his aching eyes, Standing firmer on the ground below him, Jason looked around and sensed that almost everyone was looking at them, or rather him which was weirdly enough not as uncomfortable as a few months ago. The only problem was, that they looked at him as if he was a monster that cultivated itself a human body, trying to invade mankind. Nevertheless, behind the apparent fear these top students felt, there was also a deep sense of worship to the strong. Defeating the two top combatants from Class1 as a 1st Adept rank was definitely more than anyone of them could do. They already had problems overwhelming either common students one or two levels above them or stronger students with the same mana core size. Jason''s achievement broke their worldview completely and the only thing that reassured them was his exhaustion which could be clearly seen by everyone. While the classmates outside the sparring grounds looked at Jason with awe and fear, Milo and Bella had pale faces, while Milo fainted, Bella was still looking at Jason with fear as a quiet "S**T" could be heard. Since Bella entered the 6th affiliated Vanguard school, she never even looked at the students in lower classes and focused only on herself in order to become stronger in order to enter the main school, however, this black-haired youth in front of her should only be a 1st Adept rank from Class54, causing her to grit her teeth. She was terrified¡­If more youths like Jason existed, why did she even try to become stronger over the last few years... Bella mastered many tierless combat techniques, increased her mana core rank as fast as possible in order to earn some pocket money by hunting stronger beasts and after her soul-awakening, she was not only admitted to a branch of one of the best schools on Astrix, but even her soulbond was special. And now this feeble youth in front of her beat her within seconds by a single glance?! She couldn''t accept it! Trying to stand up, she pushed herself from the ground and was about to stand firmly on the ground, when her vision blurred, causing her to lose balance before she fell back to the ground. Till was already acting, when he felt the deep sense of killing intent in addition to Jason¡äs eyes'' ability, causing even him to hesitate for a millisecond. While rushing towards Milo and Bella, Till was deep in thoughts, thinking that Jason¡äs eyes couldn''t only be mana eyes¡­ ''Was his background a lie? Is he maybe¡­? No! Otherwise he would never accept Shane as his master!'' Till regarded Jason as mysterious, which he found uncomfortable, and even more so because his disciple and Jason seemed to have a proper friendship. Milo and Bella were taken out of the combat area by Till while Jason received help from Seron. Once they sat down, nobody dared to come closer to them while they were only looked at like zoo attractions. Jason decided to ignore his peers while Seron didn''t even notice them to begin with because he looked at his friend as confused as the others. Even though he stood behind Jason, rather than being invaded by Jason¡äs killing intent, Seron could only feel a hunch of awe when the mana inside Jason surged out from an unknown ability, which most likely came from Jason¡äs special trait. Because he didn''t want to inflict the killing intent into Seron, Jason could barely prevent it from surging into his friend behind him. This caused the overall killing intent to weaken slightly, but the results were even better than Jason expected. While Seron looked at Jason, he was thinking carefully about his eyes'' ability and how far he could go with them. Jason wanted to participate in the Big-Three tournament and receive all kinds of rewards, which was more than enough reason for him to have one or two tricks in his sleeves which would definitely not bad and his black Origin flame could be considered one, as it was already as strong as a mid/late-evolved fire affinity. But his eyes'' ability seems unstable, without injecting a little bit of killing intent into them. And killing intent couldn¡ät just appear like that, at least for now. There had to be even the slighted trigger point to cause a surge of killing intent accumulating within him, even if it was only something minuscule and he couldn¡ät control it perfectly with his will. Without enough mana, his eyes'' ability was also not strong enough and thinking about it, Jason estimated that he could barely intimidate someone at the same mana core rank or slightly above while creating a small seed of fear within them. To accomplish this, he had to inject all of his mana inside the ability, which would almost completely destroy his combat prowess, as fighting without mana was not the best thing one could do. It was a one-time attack and not something to attack multiple times. The greater blessed wolf healed Milo and Bella as well as possible, while Milo woke up after 10 minutes. Bella was already able to stand once again after a short recuperation time and looking towards Jason, a deep sense of anger could be seen within her eyes with a small hue of fear, covered deep in the back of her eyes. She had never feared anyone until now, as her mana aptitude was advanced and since her soul awakening a few months ago, she was revered as a prodigy. Now, however, she kissed the ground in front of another youth, that was seven levels below her to boot at. Milo woke up and looked around confused, not knowing what happened, when he spotted the black-haired youth with golden eyes and he seemed to be in deep thoughts. Cold sweat poured down his back and without caring for anything else, he rushed towards Jason, as his instincts told him. One had to know, that Milo''s instincts were extremely good and since he was young they always benefited him. He wasn''t particularly rich, but due to his instincts, he picked an evolved ranked beast with the potential to reach the magical rank, which made not only himself but also his family proud. In addition to his large number of soulbonds he can form, he had sometimes even found rare herbs within the wild-zone that were covered extremely well. One time, he even helped an old lady who fell on the ground while crossing the street. It was not only his instincts that caused him to help her but also his innately rather soft heart, while he looked rather crude and spoiled on the outside. Thanks to helping the old lady, he found out that she was the mother of a Grandmagus, who was extremely thankful for helping his mother. As such he gifted Milo something expensive. Since then he completely trusted his instincts. Appearing in front of Jason, the black-haired youth was thrown out of his thoughts as he looked up not knowing what Milo wanted from him. Even though Milo flinched when they looked into each other''s eyes, he bowed down deeply and shouted with all his might. "I`m sorry for provoking you two!" which caused an even more chaotic situation than Jason and Seron defeating Milo and Bella, as everyone thought it was more of a one-time thing due to the top students underestimating their opponents, even if the spar created a deep sense of fear within them. Everyone looked perplexed at Milo and Jason, while Bella turned around with widened eyes, shocked about what her friend said to Jason, not understanding what the hell Milo thought. Jason looked straight into Milo¡äs eyes that quivered and he could see sincerity, even though there seemed to be something else. As such he accepted Milo¡äs apology, because he wasn''t hurt, rather than that he beat him up. "It''s fine, if you want, you can sit down." He didn¡ät care about Milo at all but it was only weird, that he seemed to have accepted the abyss ability from his eyes rather easily, compared to Greg and Leo Hearth, which wondered him. Without further ado, Milo followed what Jason said and Seron¡äs thought seemed to turn even more complex noticing that. "Was he a king in his former life?" Chapter 139 - Artisan Jason was way too exhausted to continue sparring and nobody dared to come closer to them, even though Milo was looking around foolishly, while Bella looked at him like an idiot. There was nothing for Jason to do, except watching some spars in front of him, and while observing them he tried to passively gather mana while his sub-area did the same. He wanted to figure out if he could stack the passive technique¡äs effects and increase his mana gathering and absorbing like that. If that was possible, he could exert much more mana during a fight without worrying about his expenditures. Furthermore, he could increase his absorption effect without wasting much time and increase his mana core faster... Jason was already close to breaking into the 2nd Adept rank thanks to his cleansed body he received from the baptism and it would only need a few more days to reach the threshold. With the mana stones he received, he was confident in breaking through multiple times in the next 3 months until the Big Three tournament would start and the only thing he had to take care of was not to be seriously injured or something similar like that. It didn''t even matter if he would be thrown out of the special combat class for a few days which was not that unrealistic, considering that there were thousands of students alone in the 6th branch school. In the hope that rumors about him would spread, Jason had to defeat Milo and Bella in an extremely terrifying manner. He was confident that there were already rumors spreading around him, as the last 300 years were not only the age of the mana outbreak but also a time for technology to develop even further, thanks to the seemingly infinite mana supply. Other than watching spars, Jason figured out that from his combat experience alone, he was definitely more profound than them, with the only disadvantage being his non-existent proficiency with affinities and his own black origin flame¡äs affinity usage. This would give his classmates a large advantage, even though his combat prowess in every other aspect was better thanks to Greg and Seron¡äs constant help as sparring partners. He wasn''t sure what to do with Milo, but time would tell him and he didn¡ät want to waste time thinking about that for now. Before he went home, Jason decided to tell Mr.Greil about his situation with Artemis and requested permission to let her enter the school grounds and the combat arena because he had to enter the combat area everyday thanks to the special combat classes and the upcoming challenges. Till only nodded his head, without caring much about it because such a request wasn''t an exceptionally rare occurrence on Canir¡äs highschools before he messaged the principal of the affiliated school. While the principal only looked at the message with shock, both Jason and Till weren''t aware of what they did to the unfortunate principal, who had never seen such a case from a first-grader in his whole career. If Old Drake heard this, he would also be astonished about Jason¡äs soulbond evolving after a few months already, even though he was rather tolerant to shocking news, but fortunately, he was the principal of the main school. At the Fler¡äs, Jason saw Greg and Malia and both looked like they were beaten into a pulp, causing Jason to run towards them. Upon figuring out that they also entered the special combat classes of their grade, Jason began to laugh for a few minutes. Even though Jason laughed, he was extremely astonished to see Greg obtaining a spot in the special combat class, and it looked like he fought with all his might, which Jason admired. And only now did he also realize that Greg broke into the 4th Adept rank, which was probably thanks to the pressure he had to overcome during his fight, which was something to celebrate for. Considering Greg¡äs classmates'' average strength at the 7th Adept rank, the top students of his class should already be at the 9th Adept stage. Adding a low/mid evolved beast to his calculations, Jason calculated that Greg must have defeated someone with an Expert rank physique. ''How the hell did he win?'' Jason asked himself, but how should he know, that the reinforced horned bull unsealed a part of its hidden bloodline, enabling it to increase Greg¡äs physique by a few levels for a short amount of time. Only due to this [Berserk] skill, Greg called it later was it possible for him to barely enter the combat class ranking. *Meanwhile Jason¡äs thoughts* There was still the possibility that Greg¡äs class had only weak combatants or was filled with youths playing lowkey, but considering that it was the main school and checking Greg¡äs injuries, that looked extremely serious even after Gabrialla healed him, showed his will to enter the special combat classes. Jason could only nod in admiration as his view about Greg changed somewhat. Malia looked better than Greg but still injured, with her burned clothes and disheveled hair. Apparently, she also fought the top of her class to enter the special combat class, and considering that she was already in the top 10 classes, it was even more difficult for her, even though she was already at the Master rank as one of the only ones. Her being at the Master rank was also the reason that she barely defeated her opponents, as her combat prowess was rather bad compared to real prodigies in Astrix. Her mana aptitude was superior to others while her combat aptitude could have been better, which doesn¡ät really matter as she has a wide knowledge. Furthermore, nobody would ever force her to fight someone with a life or death battle, at least Jason hoped so. Having reached the Master rank at the age of 16, she would probably be able to compress her mana and create a drop of mana before she turns 20 years old which is definitely a great feat. The aptitude towards mana on Canir was not per se better than on the archipelagos, while only the big family clans and companies increased this aptitude ratio slightly, by inheriting their mana aptitude to their descendants. There were always exceptions, either positive or negative while both Jason and Malia could be said to be positive examples. After they talked with each other for some time, everyone went into their own room to absorb mana or to train outside, honing their combat techniques. Right now the most important thing for everyone was to increase their combat prowess and mana core rank to gain a good ranking on the Big-Three tournament if they were still able to take hold onto their spots, as the benefits were just too good. Jason wanted to break into the 2nd Adept rank before Friday or rather before Artemis finished her evolution and because of that, he took out a few mana stones to actively absorb mana, before he took Scorpio out of the bag with all the mana stones within. Some of the mana stones lost a little bit of their luster but Scorpio¡äs mana absorption rate was much slower than Artemis and his own, causing Jason to place Scorpio next to him before he began to absorb mana for the next few hours until he switched to the Heaven¡äs hell technique. After finishing the five-braided soul energy helix, Jason was once again awoken which leads him to absorb for another few hours mana. He knew that the practical Artisan exams would start tomorrow, but he wasn''t even the tiniest bit worried, as he knew the crux for most of the basic things to do thanks to the books he started to read. Jason hoped he would be allowed to forge a graded weapon instead of some basic things which were almost worthless. In addition to that, he was expecting what kinds of herbs he would receive to concoct a potion and what type of rune he would have to inscribe to pass the exams. But somehow, Jason had a bad feeling that he would be disappointed tomorrow. Reading the few dozen profound books with thousands of sites each in addition to Shane and Dalia¡äs teachings would probably be much more helpful than the Rank-3 and Rank-4 lectures he would be able to attend. Jason had two monsters as masters, after memorizing the books in his memory chip, he would finally be able to learn something from them and Dalia could maybe even increase Scorpio¡äs potential once they meet again. As of now, Jason was forbidden to contact them, as a kind of motivation or punishment, which he couldn''t really understand. The only exception was if something urgent happened or he finished memorizing all books. This was some kind of passive torture to him and he lamented about this a lot, before he washed up, changed his clothes, and went into bed. Waking up early in the morning once again thanks to Scorpio stinging him, Jason finished his morning workout, washed up, changed into his uniform, and ate something for breakfast when his shuttle arrived. Inside the shuttle, Jason practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique like always and noting that he reached soul energy of 17.1 units made him joyous, even though it wouldn''t be enough for Artemis. Inside school, he received the location for their practical test and it was in a small extra building that looked like a miniature artisan tower. However, in reality, it was probably only an exquisite warehouse as he noticed that the forges he could see were portable and quite advanced at that. The interior of the large hall, they were inside, was crude and if Jason was not wrong, nobody cared about this building as cobwebs and could be seen everywhere. Jason smiled weirdly as the contrast between the high-technology advanced forges and the whole building seemed to have an intentional effect. They tried to increase the Artisan tower''s reputation, even though some of their school''s teachers looked unpleased. Nevertheless, Jason didn''t care either way and he sat on his designated forge, patiently waiting for everyone to enter the room. One-by-one the examiners came inside and unsurprisingly it was the same blacksmith and runemaster he had seen before while Antalia stood in front of the once again, eyeing Jason with curiosity. This caused him to shudder and he decided to ignore the busty woman¡äs gazes, focusing on his forge, when he heard the task they had to accomplish Chapter 140 - Heart Of A Blacksmith The bulky middle-aged man was firmly standing on the ground with a straightened back, viewing over the students that looked at him expectantly awaiting a task to accomplish. "Dear students of the 6th affiliated Vanguard school, today are the Artisan exams, and I or rather we assume that not many of you have never forged, brewed, or inscribed anything in your life. If you have¡­.congrats but that doesn''t matter to us. The tasks we want to give all of you isn''t that difficult¡­ For the blacksmith exam, forge a weapon without completely destroying the ores mana conductivity. We don''t care about the weapons-grade, aesthetics, or anything else. The weapon only has to have a certain degree of mana conductivity and shouldn¡ät crumble under the pressure while cutting the meat of a low-wild beast. There is no time limit but if you want to participate in the other exams, you should not waste too much time, as we only test them today." Ending her short speech, Antalia and the runemaster said something else before they went up the stairs to the floor, where their test would be conducted. Jason sweated under the gaze Antalia threw at him and he felt extremely uncomfortable when he heard a number of loud bangs where the bulky man stood. Turning around, he could suddenly see all kinds of ores used to craft weapons, while not a single grade-2 ore could be seen. ''What kind of miracle do they want students to do with these high-quality forges?? Most students don¡ät even know how to operate a forge because the provided knowledge is so shallow...'' Jason wondered. Nevertheless, the ores were worth quite a lot and the students could take whatever piece they wanted. While the other students rushed forward, Jason activated his mana eyes to conduct a quick inspection of all kinds of ores in front of him. And unsurprisingly there were many ores with death mana veins inside them, indicating that the ore itself was dead and couldn¡ät be used for forge weapons that relied on mana conductivity to gain a certain toughness and sharpness. Smiling lightly, Jason noticed a few students picking the largest pieces of ores they could see and among them were dead ores, causing him to frown lightly. Sighing deeply, he looked for a familiar ore and when he found something, a small smile emerged on his face. ''Jade-Iron ore!...and a large amount at that'' While some of them were already dead, Jason picked out the best one, before he went back to his designated forge. Blacksmithing could be divided into many sections and they were as follows. The first step was only required if one was working with ores and it the step was called ''reduction'' , which was used to oxide the ore, obtaining the pure ingots. This step wasn¡ät that difficult, as Jason knew the exact heat Jade-Iron required to heat up. Too much heat would cause the mana veins to evaporate and die, while the ore itself would just melt. A low heat would be totally useless as the oxide wouldn''t react with the charcoal within the flame to create carbon dioxide, leaving behind the pure metal. Jason was quite sensible to heat thanks to his origin flame and he didn¡ät even need to look at the panel to know how hot it was when he stopped increasing the heat perfectly. Not more than a few minutes passed before Jason saw the mana veins within the jade iron ore turning slightly yellowish. Taking out the reduced jade iron ore with reinforced tongs, Jason noticed green sparks within the red heated-up ingot. Turning towards the hammer press, he used it instead of hammers to form a chunk of Jade Iron because he didn¡ät want to waste too much energy right off the bat. Carefully using his feet to activate the hammer press, he used the tongs to slowly form the desired shape of the chunk. Jason had used an especially large piece of Jade Iron ore because he knew the size would decrease by more than 50% until he had his desired chunk and without using more precious time, he couldn''t bear smelting more Jade-Iron ore. In the end, it wouldn''t even matter what kind of weapon he made, as long as it didn¡ät break while cutting some meat. As such Jason would just make a crude dagger and finish his assignment as soon as possible. Slowly forming the chunk, Jason was eyed from the side because other students thought he was dumb, using a hammer press to make a chunk without damaging the mana veins. However, these students forgot something important as they would have never thought that Jason did not only save much time but Jade-Iron was rather resilient towards a violent forming of its mana veins compared to other ingots, causing it to be the best material for beginners to use. Nevertheless, it was still rather uncommon to use a hammer press to preserve intact and undamaged mana veins, but in front of him stood one, and without wasting too much time he reheated the slightly formed chunk until it was close to the melting point, perfect for him to form it. Jason repeated this process a few times before a 15 centimeters long, five-centimeter width, and 1-centimeter thick chunk was finally formed. 1 centimeter was perfect for his task and he went directly to the second step. Heating up the Jade-Iron ingot once again, he placed the end of it on the anvil that stood in front of him, while the other end was gripped by the tongs. Taking out a rounding hammer, Jason hammered on the corners of the chunk to slowly form the end of the chunk into the shape of an knifepoint. The round side was supposed to be the back while the flat edge would become the cutting edge. Reheating and Shaping the jade iron chunk for a few times, Jason had to be careful as the chunk was not especially thick and could easily break, but fortunately, nothing like that happened. Leaving enough space for the tong to grip the end of the chunk, Jason looked at the piece of Jade-Iron with a satisfying smile. It looked better than expected and now he had to establish a blade. Heating up the chunk once again, he repeated rows of small taps with his hammer up the blade to narrow the Jade-Iron. Working on both sides, Jason prevented it from distorting which was also extremely important to maintain a good balance. Jason pondered if he should have a distal taper, which meant the blade gets thinner the closer one gets to the tip, but he decided against it because it wasn''t necessary for his task. The small dagger was almost finished and Jason reheated the jade iron chunk once again with sweat pearls forming on his face. Even though he was resistant to heat, it was still hot and his body wasn¡ät adjusted to the heat, causing him to sweat heavily. Looking around, he noticed that his classmates looked like they were dying within the flames as most school uniforms had already ignited, causing the examiner to jump into the fray. Jason had long since covered himself with a fire-resistant robe and face protection to prevent any kind of accident to occur, even though his fire resistance was superior than the flame in front of him. Heating up the grade-1 crilo-oil next to him to 50¡ãC, Jason took out the shaped dagger and adjusted some marginal flaws he didn''t like before he cooled down the hot jade iron ingot within the slightly heated up oil in front of him. Jason heard a sizzling and if he didn''t know what he was doing, he would be extremely scared but fortunately, the quenching succeeded. Water would have also worked but Jason wanted to go sure as rapidly cooling down the hit chunk of Jadeiron within oil prevented cracks to appear while quenching, which could happen using water. The chances were small but safety sure and after the dagger was cooled down to a certain degree, he took it out to reheat and quench it again before letting it slowly cool down in the air to temper it even more. Turning off everything, the flame disappeared and Jason turned away from the smithy to the working bench that stood next to him. Now it was time to sharpen the dagger to a certain extent and he placed the whetstone he found inside the smithy¡äs drawer into water until he couldn''t see any bubbles rising from it anymore, which was the perfect state, before he took it out, laying it on a towel. Placing the dagger on the whetstone he lifted the back of it by a 20-degree angle, causing the blade to touch the whetstone. Dragging the heel of the knife down and pressing the knife down to the whetstone, Jason had to completely focus on the blade. From the heel all the way to the tip in gliding motion going back and forth. One side then the other side and the only thing he had to worry about, would be keeping the 20-degree angle while maintaining the same amount of pressure on it. Once the whetstone dried up slightly, Jason applied some water on it before he finished sharpening it on the rougher side of the whetstone. Turning around the whetstone he watered the fine side and repeated the same process until Jason thought the knife was sharp enough. He wasn''t completely satisfied with his first product, but it looked better than he expected and if Jason knew that his whole procedure was observed by Shane, he would most likely have tried harder. Unfortunately, that wasn¡ät the case but Shane who hid inside the shadow of the building nodded his head in approval, while the Rank-3 Blacksmith noticed Jason walking towards him, with question marks in his eyes before his expression turned into astonishment when he saw the knife in Jason¡äs hand. Jason knew that he would pass this exam and he waited for the perplexed blacksmith to finish his examination before he went up to the second floor after he took back his first produced dagger. Chapter 141 - Prodigy? Only three hours passed since the exams started and there were still students of the first batch trying to accomplish their task. Noticing Jason walking up the second floor, the young rank-3 runemaster thought this black-haired youth in front of him was either too late or impatiently worked on the blacksmithing exam. Either way, it didn''t really matter and once Jason arrived in front of him, he could smell a faint smoke from him, answering his question where the youth came from. Looking at his ID, the runemaster noticed that Jason passed all three exams which caused him to look at the black-haired golden-eyed youth in front of him once again. Seeing the golden eyes gleaming with mana, the runemaster''s gut feeling told him, that it was a special trait, even if he wasn''t sure what kind of eye-trait. The most common special trait for eyes were mana eyes but he had never seen anyone with mana eyes, as such he had no idea what the youth in front of him had as a special trait. Previously Jason wanted to hide his mana eyes but with time passing, he found it unreasonable, as it would cause a big decrease in his development. Following that, he sat down on his designated place, where he found dozens of materials and necessities to work with. Jason was the most confident in rune inscribing due to his mana eyes because he read that the most difficult part in inscribing was sensing the mana around while one had to work with opened eyes. One would have to mold either an incomplete unblemished mana core or magical ranked mana cores to inscribe runes and the radiating mana from these materials could be labeled as vast, but this was only the case before they mold. The mana conductivity from mana cores was the most complex in every living being and without destroying that one had to be extremely careful with heating up the mana cores as every mana core had a differing molting temperature. In front of him were only incomplete unblemished mana cores and it was most likely to save some credits, while it was also the best for beginners to try inscribing. For this exam the Artisan-tower even provided the names from the beasts where the mana cores came from, to give the students the opportunity to use their knowledge, without the need to figure out the mana core¡äs origin. However, looking around, Jason could only smile dryly as he saw many students not knowing what they really did, while some were focused on their task. It was roughly the same as on the blacksmith exam, as some knew what they were doing, while others only tried out some things that seemed right, but on a completely wrong level, as they ignited the flames too high, used a wrong mixing ratio for the inscription mixture or if the first few steps were done correctly, they messed up with the inscription due to their lack of ability to sense the mana within the inscription solution. This last step was important as one could adjust the mana stream slightly to combine the inscribed runes with each other in order to create a usable rune. One could say, adjusting the mana flow within the inscription mixture was necessary and without it could only be described as lucky if the rune worked the way one wanted it to do. Jason smiled hearing small puffs from all around him and smoke clouds rising where the puffs were heard. It seemed that the tasks were the same for every artisan exam. `Produce something that works` or something like that and Jason had to inscribe whatever rune he wanted on anything he liked. Taking out the dagger he previously forged, Jason decided to inscribe a rune on it. Pondering for a moment, Jason decided to go with the most common inscription mixture without adding anything special into it to increase the amplification or duration time after mana was injected. `Simple is best!` was Jason¡äs thought for the three exams as he forged, brewed, and inscribed for the first time in his life. Weighing the ingredients, he placed the rest on the site, before he looked at the burner and the reagents. Taking the testing tubes, he disregarded the burner as he wanted to try something for himself. The burner in front of him could hardly maintain a stable temperature and would fluctuate slightly once in a while, which was not something any lifestyle-occupation wanted to work with. As such he opened his hand with a black flame appearing within. Seeing that, the runemaster''s eyes widened and he wondered how such a young youth found a mutated fire affinity, causing him to feel jealous, as mutated fire affinities were stronger than normal ones with some of them having special abilities. Jason attracted the runemaster¡äs attention, but even after noticing that, Jason ignored it and worked hard on his task. Thanks to the examiner providing him with the name of the beast-race the incomplete mana cores were from, he regulated his flame to the required temperature with tiny fluctuation as he took the incomplete mana core inside his hand while holding the black origin flame below. Holding both above the test tube, Jason worked rather crude right now, but the result was the only thing that mattered. Seeing what Jason did, the runemaster frowned and he wanted to lecture this student about aesthetics and the pride of runemasters when he saw that the incomplete unblemished mana core was already melting. It was faster than he expected and he initially thought the black-haired youth was only here to play Jokester but apparently, he seemed to briefly understand what to do. The incomplete mana core liquid poured into the test tube and once a certain amount was inside, Jason laid the core aside, before washing his hand that held the core. It was a little bit hot, but he was immune to his own flame and wouldn¡ät be burned through it. The black origin flame was still within his other hand, burning with a slightly lower temperature when he placed the test tube on top of the tripod which had a small hole within, perfectly able to hold it. Pouring a little bit normal water within the test tube in addition to some Luo-sand inside, Jason heated the test tube up before swirling around the sand within the water. Gleaming faintly, Jason knew the mana particle within the sand reacted with the water and Jason added three small pieces of lowest grade-1 herbs into the test tube while heating up his flame. Luo-sand was mostly used to combine the magical effect of certain ingredients together, as long as they were less reactive. With that, many simple potions and inscription solutions could be made and Jason used it because of that. Controlling the flame¡äs heat, Jason carefully inspected the reaction that happened, coloring the water slightly green. Leading the mana properties slightly, they reacted with each other and the water turned slightly more viscous with a faint aroma spreading out of the test tube. Extinguishing the flame, Jason sieved out the sand and drained the herbs in order to receive his thick herb solution in addition to his liquefied incomplete mana core in a different test tube. Right now, Jason was already at the last two steps and he ignited two flames in his hands to place them below the two tripods the test tubes stood within respectively. Controlling the head at the same temperature, Jason sweated heavily as he had never summoned multiple flames at the same time, neither had he controlled them like that. Once the content within the test tubes reached a certain temperature, Jason placed a flask in front of him, before he poured the content of both the molten incomplete core and the herb solution within it, creating a small puff as reaction. ''That''s unfortunate!'' The runemaster sighed deeply in regret, as he thought he had witnessed something special but the smoke that rose in front of the black-haired youth indicated a failure. `WAIT?!` His eyes widened as he saw that it was not black or grey smoke, rather than that it seemed to be more with ish with impurities inside and it seemed as if an illusion emerged in front of him. `How did he extract the impurities within the herbs?` He almost shouted but he could barely get a hang of himself, otherwise, his image would crumble to smithereens. Looking at Jason with widened eyes, only Shane, Dalia, and Jason himself knew what was going on. Jason''s black origin flame was like every origin flame only special in its rank. As such like every origin flame, it had the ability to cleanse not only the body but also herbs and ores from their impurities, which one could see right now. The mixture of the molten incomplete mana core and the herb solution mixed together perfectly as the mana particles reacted with each other, creating a purple solution that shone in a faint hue and radiated a calming aroma. One could think that Jason was brewing potions right now, but rather than that he was only mixing a solution for his inscriptions. Right now, even Shane¡äs eyes were widened as he looked at Jason weirdly. ''How can he learn so much without anyone teaching him?...Can I beat him up?'' He thought and this caused him to be slightly dejected as he wanted Jason only to learn everything theoretical to give his practical knowledge to him over time¡­ Looking at Jason, he took out a specially made ballpoint that was completely empty and not filled with anything. `What should I do with such a prodigy?` Shane sighed as he looked at Jason with envy The ballpoint¡äs size was more than 20 centimeters long which was unusual but filling carefully with the inscription solution he finished, Jason¡äs eyes cleaned There was still a lot of his inscription solution left which he stored away within the perennial neoxid box. Looking at his dagger, he pondered what kind of rune he should inscribe when a sudden thought appeared in his mind. Smiling, Jason thought ''Why not?'' before he started to inscribe familiar but also somewhat unfamiliar runes on the dagger¡äs surface. While the runemaster looked at the runes with a confused expression, as if he had never seen these runes, Shane was about to give Jason a beating. ''Is this also thanks to his mana eyes?!'' Shane lamented as he saw what rune Jason inscribed on his dagger. The goblin runemaster¡äs runes mankind had yet to be fully researched!! Chapter 142 - Allrounder Jason finished his inscription within 30 minutes and his knife had four additional sharpening runes on it, decorating the outer part of the blade. With this ''simple'' feat, Jason was already close on the way to learn how to create a mana weapon. The difference between normal weapons and mana weapons was mainly because of the materials used to forge high mana conductivity weapons, but also a high number of runes. These runes were much more powerful than the ones Jason inscribed but even so, he crafted a tierless weapon with runes on it. While injecting mana into the blade, Jason noticed that the runes began to glow slightly and a broad smile emerged on his face. While inscribing, it was not only important to led the mana veins within the inscription solution together, but also to inscribe the runes on the exact position where the weapons mana veins spread through It would be the best if runes were always inscribed on the most circulated parts and Jason did so. As such the runes and forged crude dagger could be almost compared to the worst graded weapons, even though its toughness and aesthetics were below average for graded weapons, while it would reach the required threshold in terms of sharpness. Smiling brightly, Jason walked towards the dumbfounded rank-3 runemaster, handing him the dagger. The runemaster carefully inspected the runes intently and only now did the somewhat familiar runes ring a bell in his mind. "Are these the runes used by the goblins?" the young runemaster asked Jason who only replied with a confident smile. "How?" Was the only thing the runemaster in front of Jason could ask as not even his master had fully researched the runes yet. They were not extremely complex, but only a few high authorities had their hands on the complete runes, while the young runemaster¡äs master only had a few destroyed ones, thanks to the acid rain. Looking at the black-haired youth in front of him, the young runemaster was somewhat scared. The crude dagger was obviously not bought somewhere. It looked like Jason passed the blacksmith exam which was nothing special per se but making an inscription solution was already extremely difficult while this black-haired youth made an almost perfect solution on his first try. If that was everything, the runemaster would already let Jason pass but he even inscribed them on a very good position with a high mana circulation? AMAZING! ''This youth...no young man in front of him is a treasure!!'' The runemaster thought and he tried to talk to him, but before that could happen, Jason took back his crude dagger and asked if he passed the exam. Nodding faintly, the runemaster could only hear Jason saying "Sorry for bothering you...have a nice day, I¡äll take the alchemy exam now!" and if Jason looked at the runemaster now, one could only see a jaw dropped to the ground. `Did he ignore me?` He thought, sulking slightly but somehow he didn¡ät dare to interrupt the black-haired young man..there was something weird about him. Shane, who sensed everything through the ground, frowned deeply because he understood that he had to change his plans in order to pressure Jason more once he wanted to learn how to forge, inscribe, brew, and so on. Praising Jason would probably not be acceptable in order for him to not become arrogant and full of himself and Shane was deep in thoughts, while Jason appeared on the third and last floor. Roughly 5 hours passed since the exams had started and Antalia was astonished to see Jason already appearing on the third floor. Seeing him walking towards her, she smiled brightly putting up a facade to cover her astonishment. "I''ve passed the first two exams. What should I do for the alchemy exam?" He asked nonchalantly and even though Anatlia was mentally prepared, she was still astonished that Jason really did it. Clearing her throat she managed to gain a moment in order to regain her almost revealed composure. "My task is the same as the first two. In order to pass the exam you have to concoct an effective potion without a backslash." Saying that, Jason turned around before he quietly said. "Thank¡äs for the favor you''ll owe me" Hearing that, Antalia finally remembered that she told Jason, if he passed the written exams with 100% and all practical artisan exams, she would give him the chance to request anything from the Artisan tower, and her expression fell into hell. Looking desperate at Jason, she had a bad premonition, that he would accomplish the exam rather easily. The inscription solution alone could be considered as an effective potion even though it was just a sub-category and if Antalia knew that Jason had already brewed his own inscription solution, her last ray of hope would be immediately shattered. The runemaster exam allowed students to use the worst inscribing mixture in order to pass the test because they focused their attention on the inscribing process rather than the mixture itself. Jason sat down on his designated place and he could see many different items and herbs in front of him on a large table. There were also many test tubes, the tripods, and the burner Jason wouldn''t use once again. But before he decided to create a potion, Jason was adamant about practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique in order to maximize his soul energy as soon as possible. Sitting down on the ground, he didn''t mind any onlookers and entered his soul world. Looking at Artemis cold snowflake cocoon, Jason smiled gently, before he left the soul world once again 85 minutes later, after braiding his five-strand helix and injecting it into his soul world core. The pain lessened consistently and Jason was becoming more proficient in braiding and holding a large amount of focus on different things, causing the practicing time to decrease slightly. Maybe he could decrease the time even more, but he was unsure how far that could go and a slight expectation built inside his mind. Standing up, Jason noticed that fewer students could be seen around him and they seemed to have passed while a few charred students with desperate expressions gazed at the ingredients in front of them. Some students even had puffed-up hair and Jason tried really hard to hold not laugh out loud. Calming himself down, after laughing for himself sometimes, Jason turned to the table and decided to do the simplest potion he knew. Taking out Luo-sand and four different gradeless herbs, Jason placed them in front of him, while he put aside the other unneeded herbs. Igniting the black origin flame once again in his hand, Jason placed it below the tripod. Filling a flask with a small amount of water, he placed it exactly in the center of the tripod, before Jason supplied it with the Luo-sand. The mana particles inside the sand reacted with the water, causing the sand to lose it¡äs faint luster. Gleaming weakly, the previous normal water was now infused with a slight amount of mana particles and once a certain heat was reached, Jason put in one herb after another not forgetting to follow the correct order. Some herbs could only react with the slowly concocted potion after the previous reactions took place without creating possible other reactions which might create another potion or completely waste it. As such he checked two times if he did everything correctly to avoid any minute mistakes Carefully putting the last herb inside the flask, the water turned slightly blue with a faint aroma spreading out from it. It was a calming feeling and upon smelling the aroma, Jason knew that it was time for the next step. Heating up his flame by a notch, a disgusting stench covered the faint aroma and Jason¡äs nose twitched. The impurities were slowly washed reacting with the sand instead of being exalted with a whiteish smoke cloud like it was the case with his inscription solution. This, however, was mainly because the impurities of the herbs and magical essence reacted with the liquefied unblemished ranked mana core, when he created the inscribing mixture. Upon a certain amount of impurities could be seen by the visible eye, without Jason using his mana eyes. Extinguishing the flame with a single thought, Jason placed a beaker in front of him with a sieve on top of it in order to divide the solution with the waste materials and impurities. Sieving it multiple times, Jason made sure to get rid of as many impurities as possible, but there were still small black dots he could only see thanks to his mana eyes. This caused Jason not only to question if every potion had impurities inside them which wouldn''t be that surprising but also how many impurities were within normal potions. Because of his black origin flame, he got rid of a lot of impurities that wouldn''t have been expelled normally and Jason decided that he would brew his own potions in the future. Looking at the faintly gleaming blue potion in the beaker, he filled three vials before the beaker was completely empty. Storing away two vials, Jason walked to Anatlia with his chest pushed out in bride thanks to his newly acquired pride which slowly accumulated. Following Jason¡äs steps, Antalia was not only put in a tied spot but also astonished by Jason¡äs calmness during the whole concoction process. It was as if he wasn¡ät even trying hard to secure the stableness from the potion during the concoction process. The mana control needed to lead the magical ingredients together was also not easy and one had a need to do multiple things at the same time which Jason innately couldn¡ät do. But due to his superior eyes, refined brain, the black origin flame¡äs baptism which enhanced everything about him, and his detailed knowledge about the exact concocting process of the gradeless calming potion allowed him to make it look as if he didn''t even try hard. In honesty, Jason was sweating heavily during the whole process and it was only that the sweat evaporated before Antalia noticed it. Remaining concentrated over the whole process of concocting the calming potions, Jason could finally sigh in relief as he handed Antalia one potion. Chapter 143 - Igniting The Desire To... The calming potion was one of the most common potions and it was as useful as an expensive calming tea. Drinking a potion, one would feel refreshed and the tension of one''s body would ease up. The potion was mostly used before important events and exams to calm down, increasing the activity of the mind passively. Being tensed up would cause students to be worse during exams and tests, while one would be able to think faster about a solution with calm composure after drinking the calming potion. Antalia inspected the potion carefully. Before she had already seen Jason using a black flame affinity instead of the burner, which she deemed as a mutated fire elemental being. But there was something she was suspicious of and inspecting the potion Antalia noticed that the potion was partially cleansed which was not something someone who brewed for the first time should be able to do. It was only a calming potion and extracting the impurities within wasn''t difficult even for proper rank-1 beginner alchemists but Antalia hadn''t seen Jason using any kind of method to extract impurities that would explain the purity of the calming potion in front of her. Uncertain she asked: "Does your mutated elemental being have the ability to cleanse ingredients to a certain extent" Antalia didn''t expect Jason to reveal his secret but she would combine the signs to herself upon seeing Jason''s reaction. However, surprisingly Jason answered her which she didn''t expect. "You could say so" Previously he was slightly nervous about how to explain the high purity of his inscribing mixture and potions but Antalia gave him the best answer he could choose. As such he took the opportunity and accepted her idea. Dalia told him that he could even expel impurities from ores but that would require lots of practice and was quite taxing to one¡äs body. Before it was safe to purify high-grade ores, Jason would have to reach the Magus rank or evolve his tierless origin flame, while grade-1 ores were an exception. The only problem was that neither Jason, Shane nor Dalia knew how much soul energy his black origin fame needed to evolve. Even Dalia''s silver origin flame needed a few hundred soul energy units and it was only a b-rank origin flame while Jason''s black one was at least one rank higher. While Antalia digested Jason¡äs answer, she wasn¡ät excessively shocked because she predicted this outcome but it was more like she was envious of Jason finding such a perfect soulbond for all Artisan occupations. Working with purified materials would result in a qualitative better product which would in return increase the price for the products. If Jason focused on his Artisan career, according to the talent she was, he would probably be able to reach at least her faster''s rank in one of the three occupations and a slightly lower rank in the rest. Maybe he could even soar higher if his ambition was high enough. Looking at Jason with twinkling stars, Antalia asked the question she wanted to ask for the last few days since he met her father. "Do you want to be my disciple? My father also said that he is interested in you, but he told me to not ask you anything regarding master-disciple relationships. I don¡ät care about what my father said and it''s probably nothing special to begin with. Maybe dad wants to ask you too if you want to be his disciple. Wouldn''t that be great?" Antalia was full of ambition and determined while her eyes gleamed in anticipation "Please think about my offer! I can provide you with a lot of information and resources and if you want, my dad and I can teach you all our knowledge together...Wouldn''t it be great to have a master who is almost a Rank-6 in terms of forging and smithing in addition to a future Rank 5 alchemist?" She said proudly not forgetting to show off her own and her dad¡äs talent, but Jason was only smiling faintly ''If you only knew..'' Jason thought and he could barely hold in his laughter. Before he shattered her joyous time, he asked if he passed the exam, which she affirmed eagerly. She only wanted to hear Jason approving her as master, but his next words shattered her dream immediately. "Ms. Sharon, thanks for this kind offer but I have to reject it. I have other plans. Please keep in mind that you owe me a request from the Artisan tower" Jason said before he took his calming potion back which he stored inside his storage device. Antalia looked at him with a flabbergasted and depressed expression, not knowing what she did wrong or rather why Jason should reject her generous offer and she was about to rebuke his rejection, when a unanimous feeling approached her, preventing her from saying anything. Jason noticed that and opened his mana eyes, only to see familiar mana fluctuations within the shadows, enveloping Antalia. Shane didn¡ät like the young busty woman next to Jason and after trying to lure his disciple over, he had to do something to release his anger, even though it was only a minuscule revelation. With a slight amount of mana released, Shane caused Antalia to be unable to move around or even speak. She wasn''t hurt in any way and only restricted. As such, Jason decided to let it go as he looked at Shane within the shadows before he turned towards the stairs he descended slowly. If Jason was honest, he felt extremely disappointed in today''s exams and even more so in his classmates. From the initial 30.000 students, less than 10.000 had the required mana aptitude while less than 2.000 made the cut for the theoretical exam as they were too lazy or untalented to learn. Even so, Jason hadn''t seen a single proper forged item, concocted potion, or inscribed rune and everything seemed crude. He wasn''t sure if it was his high standard or the extremely low standard for the artisan occupations, but he couldn''t help to sigh in regret. ''Maybe, the real talents already started with their forging or other lifestyle occupations some time ago? Why would they bother to show up at such a test, if they don¡ät need the lectures?'' Maybe Jason wouldn''t think so, if he didn''t have the knowledge from his masters, which increased his standards by a large margin but fortunately he got to know them, causing his high interest in all Basic-artisan occupations. Walking out of the slightly shabby building, Jason suddenly heard a voice below him. "Good job brat! I¡äve never thought that your first forged weapon and inscribed rune would come out this well. But don¡ät think too much of yourself!! You act way too slow and there were many flaws within your technique while the time you allocated for every step was also wrong. There is much for me and Dalia to do once you finish reading the books about everything theoretical.." Obviously, it saw Shane speaking and he praised Jason before he complained about him, causing Jason to cringe a little bit. But even so, Jason had to acknowledge that his first work was crude while it was still valuable for his practice experience. Jason knew that Shane only wanted to motivate him more, but he felt that Shane could use better words to make him strive for more. Nevertheless, after today, Jason¡äs desire for artisan-occupations increased, even the exams were boring. With his first try in the different occupations, he found out the perks from each of them. Jason found alchemy the easiest as of now due to its demand for focus and mana control, while forging took most of his time and strength. Inscribing was somewhat between the two other occupations Shane was inside Jason¡äs shadow and he wondered how that was possible ''Is this an ability? But from which soulbond? Definitely not from the Death-Knight and neither from the bane of the thousand eyes wolf...Did he study his Darkness affinity?...or is it something else? It can¡ät be a mixture between darkness and spatial affinity, right?'' Jason was extremely astonished and that was exactly what Shane wanted from his disciple. The desire to find out more about the world which changed completely after the mana outbreak. As long as Shane awoke this desire within Jason, his whole potential could erupt. In addition to the unimaginable potential of Jason¡äs black origin flame, he had Artemis, the evolving snowflake owl, whose potential was also unknown. Shane wondered how far Jason could go with enough time. Reaching his own rank shouldn''t be a problem as long as Jason survived and maybe humanity would even be able to fight to conquer their main continents once again. As long as mankind united, recapturing the other mainlands should be possible with enough time passing. Jason¡äs desire was still not completely awoken but his interest in all kinds of affinities heightened causing him to wonder what he could do with his own fire ability he received from the black origin flame. Abilities could be described as imprinted knowledge from soulbonds'' special traits, at least that was what the books, Shane and Dalia gave him, said Seron''s mutated slime was able to store high amounts of mana and release them with an explosive speed, which was in return the mana injection. As long as the mutated slime stored enough mana, Seron could even rival magus ranks with his vast amount of mana. But to store enough mana to rival a magus rank, while the mutated slime was at the evolved rank, would take some time and it wasn''t worth the effort one had to go through as one was still physically weaker and without liquefied mana which amplified one¡äs mana output by a large margin There was still much for Jason to learn and he talked with Shane for some time before they parted ways, as Jason went towards the forest to gather and refine mana. Chapter 144 - The Advantage Of Resources! It was already afternoon when Jason found a decent spot with a high mana flow within the forest. He wasn''t sure if he would be able to break through until the next day but Jason wanted to give it a try. The only thing he wanted to do in between was practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique. Taking out a bunch of grade-1 mana stones, Scorpio jumped around happily on his shoulder, before he leaped on his lap. Without delaying any further, Scorpio curled up and began absorbing the released mana. Looking at this, Jason smiled joyously and began to lose countless threads from the mana stones around him at the same time. Leading the mana within towards him in addition to the mana in his surrounding, a huge mass of foreign mana invaded his mana channels. Circulating the mana within his cleansed channels was much easier after undergoing the baptism but the sheer amount of mana that invaded him was also higher forcing him to focus completely on circulating the mana within him before he injected into his mana core to annex it. The feeling of circulating mana and annexing it into his mana core made Jason ecstasy and it was even better compared to the day. Sitting between trees within nature, absorbing nature''s mana besides the compressed mana within mana stones was refreshing and Jason felt immediately much more vigorous than before. Jason didn¡ät even know how much time passed and he only subconsciously noticed the sun going under. His initial plan was to practice the heaven¡äs hell technique now, but that was unimportant for Jason right now, as he felt his body being slowly filled up with the mana in his surroundings and the addicting feeling enveloping him, filling his eyes with desire. Instead of annexing the whole mana into his mana core, Jason also decided to fill up his mana eyes more, which he previously neglected. But that would change now. With his thousands of mana stones inside his spatial store, he had more than enough mana to fill his mana core and at the same time his eyes to a certain extent. Furthermore, it had only been a week since he entered the Adept rank and with his cleansed mana channels, his passive mana gathering technique caused his mana core to be filled extremely fast. It only took him a week to reach the barrier between the 1st and the 2nd Adept rank, which was extremely fast. Normally one would need roughly a few months to reach each of the first three Adept ranks, considering that one possessed an average mana aptitude. There were always differences between each individual and sometimes it would take longer or shorter. In addition to the mana aptitude, the amplification from beasts was also an important factor as one had to fill a much larger mana core caused by the soul world¡äs amplification increasing its size. The average of youths in mana core ranks was that one needed slightly more than three to four years from the novice to the adept rank as the beginning was the most difficult with exploring the meaning of mana, how it worked, and how to circulate it without damaging the mana channels, while the average age for children to sense mana was 10. Most children couldn¡ät understand the importance of mana, as such, they were rather lazy with their mana absorption until they regretted it someday. After one had entered the Adept rank, someone with an average mana aptitude would need roughly five years to enter the Expert rank. From then on their range of an average mana aptitude changed and it was unknown how long one would need. The amplification of soulbonds made exact researches almost impossible but it wondered Jason, that he only needed a week to almost completely fill his mana core at the 1st Adept rank with a size of a 4th Adept rank. Maybe it was only thanks to baptism, but Jason estimated that his next breakthrough would take much longer, considering that not only his mana core would increase in size thanks to him entering the 2nd Adept rank soon, but Artemis evolution also played a big role. Artemis'' evolution was still a mystery for Jason but he was already excitedly waiting for her to come back to him. Jason was still carefully circulating the mana within his mana channels and injected it into his mana core while time passed without him noticing that it was already dark outside. Only when the mana he absorbed from the outside lessened, Jason opened his eyes once again. The mana stones around him turned gray and couldn¡ät be differentiated from normal stones anymore. Looking around Jason¡äs perplexed expression told more than a thousand words as he had no idea that it was already dark outside. Messaging the Fler¡äs, he notified them, that he wouldn''t come back today because he believed that he would be able to break through into the 2nd Adept rank if he worked hard enough for the next few hours. Taking a glance at Scorpio, Jason saw with astonishment, that Scorpio¡äs exoskeletons gleamed faintly, and activating his mana eyes, he was taken aback to see an almost invisible small affinity seed being constructed ''This small fella is working hard, let¡äs also work hard!!'' Jason thought while he glanced at Scorpio. Taking out double the amount of grade-1 mana stones than before, Jason once again loosened up mana threads, leading them right into him. Groaning from the sudden surge of mana, he immediately began to sweat but with the help of his passive mana gathering and refining technique, actively absorbing the mana was much easier. As such he could take the sheer amount of mana rather after adjusting for a short moment before Jason once again lost track of time. Without him knowing, he had even completely forgotten to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique which was rather important. Overflowing with mana, his determination to absorb it increased even more, and Jason smoothly absorbed it into his mana core after he circulated it carefully through his mana veins. It was almost a single movement, without much time wasted and the suction force of Jason slowly accelerated. The mana in his surroundings began to enveloped him, separating him from the outside. Compressing around Jason, the mana looked like a cocoon upon closer inspection. While the cocoon grew in size, Jason greedily absorbed the mana from within, without feeling even a tiny bit tired. Hours passed and the sun began to ascend, shining on a paper-thin cocoon, which enveloped Jason. An even thinner membrane of impurities stuck to Jason''s clothes and it was mostly the impurities his body generated after the baptism. Opening his eyes slowly, Jason¡äs golden eyes flicked vigorously with a tiny black flame shimmering far in the back, demanding to grow stronger as it sensed more and more soul energy within Jason¡äs soul world core. Standing up, he noticed the thin film of impurities enveloping him. He didn¡ät take off his clothes but turned into a black burning torch in order to ignite the impurities on him which immediately incinerated like his clothes. With this, he wouldn''t have to wash up immediately. Looking at the quantum watch, he noticed a few messages and also the time. It was 5 am and Jason nodded his head. Inspecting his own body, he could only laugh out loud, still naked. He had reached the 2nd Adept rank only one week after he had entered the 1st Adept rank which could only be described as fast. Even though he noticed that his mana core wouldn''t be able to keep up with this speed, he was still extremely proud of his achievement. Inspecting the size of his mana core, Jason knew that he was infinitely close to the 5th Adept rank, while his physique was also extremely close to the 5th Adept rank. Scorpio woke up from its affinity seed construction because Jason threw him from his lap unconsciously. Seeing its master laughing while being naked was a funny sight and Scorpio transmitted what it saw to Jason. Struck by a lightning, he immediately stopped moving. Clothes appeared out of his spatial ring and he wore them, without caring about Scorpio¡äs weird sounds, trying to imitate a laugher in his mind. Ignoring Scorpio, Jason entered the soul world as nonchalant as possible. Around Artemis there was only a thin sheet of mana and snowflakes and Jason could faintly see Artemis¡ä outlines which didn''t seem to have changed that much. ''Soon!'' Jason thought happily, as he went closer to his soul world core, which increased by one unit thanks to him breaking into the 2nd Adept rank. With a soul energy of 18.2 units, Jason practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique within 84 minutes, increasing it once again by 0.1 units. It was already 6:30 am and before Jason did anything else, he replied to the messages from the Fler¡äs group chat. Everyone asked him why he stayed outside and only now did he reply that he cultivated through the night which eased the others'' worries a lot. It was not as if Jason was a relative of them but to the Fler¡äs he felt comfortable, even though he knew almost nothing about them. Jason knew that it might be foolish but his heart warmed up because they worried about him. Even Mark was worried since the incident about last time''s unannounced stay out was imprinted in his mind. After the incident happened, Mark researched about the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit and the extremely shallow information was devastating, causing him to feel sorry for Jason, who had to endure such a terrible thing. Mark also felt that Jason¡äs ambition and determination were incomparable with anyone he knew, even his daughter who was a genius, wasn''t that ambition to grow strong as Jason. As such, each unannounced stay out would worry not only Mark but all family members, even though they didn''t know what was going on. They tried to distract themselves by reading books, absorbing mana, and sparring with each other but it was only partially helpful. Sensing the Fler¡äs genuine love and caring for him, he felt honored and warm around his heart. He swore himself, that he would tell them more information the next time he would stay out, even though he couldn''t tell them everything as he would probably stay with Shane and Dalia sometimes. As such a slight tinge of guilt built up within Jason, before anything even happened. Suddenly Jason¡äs whole body cooled down and he shivered while his temperature decreased, visibly changing his appearance. The surroundings temperature plummed by a few degrees and a confused expression appeared on Jason¡äs face, as his soul world began to shake violently. "Little Princess, are you already done?" Jason thought with a bright smile on his ice-cold face. Chapter 145 - Chaotic Reunion Jason''s temperature further decreased, while Scorpio leaped away from him due to the unexpected cold. Entering his soul world, he gazed at Artemis'' hue which looked similar to her previous appearance. The only difference he immediately noticed was that she grew in size. However, he wasn''t sure how much, as the sizes in the soul world were not necessarily right and without any measurement. While the temperature around Jason plumbed further, he enveloped himself in a faint layer of flames in order to warm himself up. Even though Jason awaited Artemis'' evolution and arrival, she could have been a little bit more considerate!! Thinking that he increased the heat of his black origin flame and waited patiently for the snowflakes around Artemis to disappear slowly. Meanwhile, Scorpio didn¡ät know where to go, as he didn¡ät like the cold which caused him to detest entering the soul world as Artemis'' evolution decreased the temperature within. Now with Artemis, plumbing down the temperature around them, a magic circle appeared below Scorpio, as he appeared in the soul world. Charging as far away from the snowflakes, the temperature within the soul world was more acceptable for it compared to Jason¡äs surroundings. Jason noticed that and smiled faintly, without averting his focus from Artemis within the soul world, as a pure white magic circle appeared in front of Jason with the size of 80 centimeters in diameter. Fully leaving the soul world, Jason gazed shocked at the magic circle with a frown. `Don¡ät tell me¡­` Jason began to think as a gigantic white plumage appeared in front of him, leaving him with a shocked expression. *Creezch* Was the only thing Jason heard as a wave of emotion overwhelmed him while the pure white plumage attacked him. Jason knew it was Artemis but he was still shocked to see that not only had her size increased to a length of 1 meter from her tail feather to the head and a wingspan of 3 meters but also her eyes turned glacier-blue while two small pitch-black horns appeared above her eyes shocking him to the core. Artemis'' weight was now probably around 10kg but rather than seeing that as a problem, her plumage was extremely fluffy, suffocating Jason almost. Laughing out with a radiant smile, he was extremely happy to have Artemis next to him once again, after a whole month passed. It was a long time and he missed her dearly. Somehow, however, Jason was disappointed because her evolution was more unspectacular than he previously thought but before the disappointment could spread through his body, he was attacked by a searing pain which suddenly emerged within his whole body, mana core, and even soul world core. Everything seemed to burn and Jason cried out in pain, causing Artemis to look at him worriedly. Her evolution took so long because she wanted to take the most efficient way to increase her strength in order to help Jason out in getting stronger, causing her to digest the magical ranked mana core slowly, leading her genetic pool to change, but apparently, that wasn¡ät well thought out. Not only had Artemis evolved and amplified her strength, but she also created a more complete mana core in addition to an ice affinity seed within her mana core. Jason had to fight with the sudden connection of an affinity, that was the complete opposite of his already existing black origin flame, but also with his physique and mana core becoming stronger and enlarging thanks to his soul world¡äs amplification. If that was everything, he could endure it easily, but Artemis¡ä soul energy was much more than he had ever expected. Right now Jason was forced to enter his soul world because his soul world core was trembling violently because Artemis¡ä amplification of one-third of her strength caused the soul world core to get overwhelmed. Holding it together with all his might, Jason¡äs mind began to burn as his soul world core forcefully increased in size. Without knowing how much time passed, he was still sitting in his soul world, while Artemis wanted to follow him due to her worry. But it was impossible because Jason¡äs soul energy was too low to store her within his soul world, causing her to feel frustrated. She couldn''t do anything to help Jason out which was worse as she saw sweat pearl dropping from his temples. Wiping them away with her pure white feathered wings was the only thing Artemis could do right now as she waited patiently. Hours passed and the worry in Artemis'' glacier-blue eyes turned even more distinct when she noticed that Jason¡äs pale face. He seemed to be in pain and she couldn''t do anything to help, rather than that she was the cause of his pain which traumatized her somehow. Right now, Jason could barely hold the soul world core together in order for it to not shatter, and right after that happened, the soul world core slowly stabilized, causing Jason to sigh in relief. Unexpectedly his soul energy has increased to 46,7 units, which was an increase of 2.5 folds. Astonishing enough, Artemis evolved into a peak-awakened beast with a soul energy requirement of 90 units. Jason wasn''t even sure what kind of beast she was except her race being an owl. She had suddenly gained blue gleaming eyes, two horns on her head appeared and her size tripled. In addition to all of that, Artemis seemed to have gained a huge amount of infused mana in her blood, turning her even stronger. Even though her almost complete mana core had only the strength of a peak-awakened beast, Jason could see and feel that she might even be able to fight evolved beasts head-on with her affinity. ''WAIT!'' Jason shouted in his head, which felt as if it was mashed. ''She is about to construct an almost complete mana core? How?'' Jason bombarded himself with questions and it seemed like Artemis not only digested the core but also used the liquefied mana within the core to slowly establish her own mana core, enhancing it. ''Does that mean feeding Artemis more liquefied mana cores will cause her to meet the requirement as a magical beast?! After a single evolution?!'' He was not sure about this though, but Artemis'' evolution was just too chaotic and Jason wasn''t sure what to think of her...How was he so fortunate to meet her, and what exactly was her mutation? Jason didn¡ät know and his head still burned from the searing pain thanks to the soul world core almost shattering. Thinking about the possibility to complete Artemis mana core with a few magical beast mana cores seemed just too easy and he told himself to purchase a few magical ranked mana cores solely for the purpose to feed them Artemis. His soul world was still ravaging and when it ended, Jason left the soul world, where he could immediately notice Artemis looking at him with a gloomy and distressed expression. Jason felt her emotions but rather than being angry with her, he felt overjoyed that Artemis evolved into such a gorgeous existence which he showed her. The amplification he received from Artemis was still not complete, because his soul energy was not enough, but it was still much more than he thought. Thanks to her shared strength, Jason¡äs mana core size and physique had reached the 5th Adept rank with quite a bit of surplus. Artemis leaped towards Jason, attacking him with her plumage, while he caressed her. Looking at the time, Jason noticed that there was not that much time left for him as he stood up with slight difficulties. Unfortunately, he had to be present to the special combat class, but that didn''t mean he wasn''t allowed to be too late!! It was probably not allowed but Jason couldn''t care less right now. He found it unlikely that many would dare to challenge him this week, as only someone within the special combat class was allowed to do that for now. Only three days later once the new week began were students outside the special combat class allowed to challenge the students within the special class, as long as they had enough lace points. Furthermore, the challenge was only accepted within the special combat classes, as such every student had to be present in the afternoon from Monday next week on. Artemis had finished her evolution and Jason couldn''t care less about others right now. Sitting on the ground, he caressed her, while Artemis laid on his lap, filling it completely. ''I hope she won¡ät increase too much in size, otherwise, I won¡ät be able to take her with me all the time.'' Jason thought worried and Artemis heard him before she transmitted a thought that calmed him down. Apparently, she would grow in size, but she could adjust her size to her current size, which was the smallest form she was able to adjust to. As of now, it was also her largest size, as she was still a youngling in her new evolution, which shocked Jason. `Would she really be able to reach the magical rank without evolving another time?` Jason thought in his mind with a bright smile on his face. He missed her so much and finding out that she wouldn''t leave him in the near future for another evolution, caused him to be overjoyed. Chapter 146 - Why Is He So....weak? More than half an hour passed before Jason decided to stand up. The special combat class started a few minutes ago, but Jason straightened his back in a nonchalant manner before he turned into the combat arena''s direction. Artemis with her large body was squeezing herself on Jason¡äs shoulder and he tried to take a good look at her. Her plumage was pure white and, while the horns on her forehead were pitch-black in contrast. Considering her previous black eyes, Artemis had now blue eyes and the infused mana in her blood was much higher in purity compared to before. But her mana core was odd and Jason only knew that Artemis was at the peak-awakened rank while her soul energy requirement was at 90 units. From Artemis pure combat prowess, Jason thought she might be able to defeat low-evolved beasts thanks to her affinity in addition to the constant supply of mana that was infused into her blood. It was only weird, that Jason had never heard of a one-meter long owl race with blue piercing eyes and black horns. As such he didn¡ät really know anything about Artemis'' racial limits, except the things she transmitted him. From her ice affinity, Jason could tell that it was at least at the peak-awakened stage, which caused him to wonder if the ice affinity would grow with Artemis, or if that was the peak of her racial limit. The latter was rather unlikely and Jason smiled, feeling Artemis'' weight on his shoulder, while he walked towards the combat arena. Jason was more than half an hour late for the special combat class, which attracted some attention because he was the highlight of the first huge special combat class sparring. With his low mana core rank, he ''easily'' defeated the 6th affiliated Vanguard school top 2 first-graders, using his special trait eyes with the support of Seron Gier, who was also seen as a mystery by everyone. Seeing Jason walking into the combat arena with Artemis on his shoulder, everyone looked at him with variations of different expressions. Astonishment, anger, ambition, determination, fear, and multiple more. They were astonished to see Artemis on his should because they never saw such an owl race. Furthermore, it was normally forbidden to summon one¡äs soulbond out of the soul world during lessons, once they reached a certain height. Small soulbonds would not attract the attention of others or hinder them in any way but Artemis radiated a noble and elegant aura which attracted the attention of her surrounding subconsciously. Traces of anger could only be seen in the top students'' eyes and they couldn''t accept that the student with the weakest mana core rank of their special combat class was able to defeat their best student. This was unacceptable for them but even if that was the case, fear made up the majority of their emotions, causing them to not challenge Jason or Seron needlessly. They were scared to end like Milo and Bella. The slightly weaker special combat class students that would most likely be replaced in a month remembered Jason¡äs fight against someone seven levels above his own rank, motivating them while ambition and determination slowly accumulated within them. Without ambition and determination, they wouldn''t be able to reach higher mana core realms, as such they had to find someone they could look up to. Jason''s spar the day before was charismatic and dominating, causing them to feel a certain reverence towards Jason, filling them with their ambition and determination. When he walked down to the combat arena, he tried to test out his newly obtained ice affinity, but it was much harder than he expected. Nothing really worked the way he wanted and he could only lament that his fire origin flame affinity was much easier to handle. This was probably because the black Origin flame soulbond was at the same time his affinity, which would listen to his transmitted thought, while Jason had to learn more about the ice affinity he received from Artemis by himself. It seemed logical and Jason decided to train his ice and fire ability more in the future, as he could still see many areas of improvement everywhere. His affinities were strong enough for him to defeat someone with higher mana core ranks and his ice affinity was at the peak of the awakened rank, while his black fire affinity was at the mid/late-evolved rank. With that, he might even be able to defeat someone at the later adept ranks, as long as his proficiency with his affinities heightened, even though his mana core rank and physique were much weaker. Not everything depends on one''s physique and mana core rank, otherwise one wouldn''t learn tactics, knowledge about landscapes, weaknesses, and strengths of one''s enemies, and contracting soulbonds with strong affinities would become useless. Till noticed Jason being late, but he didn''t consider that as important after seeing Artemis on his shoulder. `What owl-beast is that?` He wondered because he had never seen an owl-like Jason¡äs soulbond, turning him curious. Jason walked towards him before he said "Mr. Greil, I¡äm sorry for being late, Artemis'' evolution finished this morning, and adjusting to her amplification turned out to take longer than expected." But instead of caring about that, Till noticed something else which astonished him. "You already broke into the second Adept rank?" he asked bewildered, clearly remembering that Jason broke into the Adept rank only a week ago. Nodding faintly, the surrounding students began to gossip, but it wasn''t even closely comparable to their teacher''s astonished face in addition to Seron who heard what his master asked. Scanning Jason¡äs mana core Seron¡äs eyes widened as he asked himself in shock, what kind of beast Jason was. `I need to work harder!` Seron thought, clearly remembering that Jason only broke into the Adept rank a week ago. The difference between the first and the second Adept rank was always seen as the first step into cultivation, as the difference between the Adept ranks began to widen, in addition to the soulbonds amplification. One could say that everyone followed a different path, considering what kind of beast they could contract and if they wanted to follow the path of a larger mana core size or a stronger physique. Some tried to maintain a sole mana core size increase with small physique enhancements from their soulbonds to use their affinity in a larger variation, while others focused more on their physique with all of their different paths, like agility, endurance, strength, and so on. Most parents told their children stories about wizards ruling the elements, warriors destroying mountains, and many more different paths one could take, as the number of soulbonds one could contract was numbered. Being an allrounder was extremely difficult with a low amount of space for soulbonds within one''s soul, as such it was better to be the best in a single field in order to defeat beasts and enemies in this way, while the soul-awakening could also prevent certain paths, by awakening a physical soul without being compatible with any element. There were always people following multiple strengthening paths thanks to their high soul energy and soulbond space, but Jason could be considered as an exception. If his soul energy was also vast in addition to his current soul, Jason would probably be the top of the Vanguard school of all grades, without even the need for anyone to reconsider it. After Jason finished talking to Till, who looked a little bit complicated at him, he saw Seron. Greeting each other, Jason introduced his first soulbond Artemis to Seron, who could only weirdly greet her back. ''Why is there a need to introduce his soulbond?'' Seron thought in his mind but he didn''t say it out loud, because some connections between soulbonds and their contractor were special, causing them to be like Jason. Challenging Seron to a fight, Jason wanted to figure out more about his ice affinity. Walking towards the combat area, Jason and Seron attracted a lot of unwanted attention, but there wasn''t much for them to do against it, as they were seen as the most threatening opponents in this whole special combat class, even though Jason was only at the 2nd Adept rank while Seron was at the 3rd Adept rank. Their physique and mana core size was roughly the same, with Jason being only slightly stronger after he received the amplification provided by Artemis. Jason was already halfway through towards the 6th Adept rank, while Seron was on point at the 5th Adept rank in both mana core size and physique, which wondered Jason. His soulbond was a slime without any enhancement in physique normally, but somehow he still increased his physique. But it didn¡ät really matter and Jason stood opposite Seron, who radiated a distinct fighting spirit. Waiting for the AI to start the spar, Jason already circulated mana within him, in order to test out his ice affinity, while Artemis sat on the bench, looking around with curiosity. When the signal rang out, Seron exerted his floating sky technique to the fullest as his speed accelerated from zero to 100% within a moment. This move was something Seron had thought of and previously his speed would only slowly increase but now with his explosive increase of speed, he would be able to overwhelm Jason. His eyesight was extraordinary and he could easily follow Seron''s path but the problem he had to face right now was different. ''How do I erect an ice wall or something like that?'' He asked himself with an odd expression as Seron appeared in front of him with his sword thrust forward. Releasing his ice affinity with all his might, the only thing that happened, was a large mass of crackling ice particles spreading out from his hand preventing anyone from seeing both Jason and Seron clashing with each other. Suddenly, the surrounding turned silent and the only thing that could be heard was the AI announcing. [Winner: Seron Gier] Everyone could only look at the ice mist in front of them weirdly. ''Why was Jason defeated so quickly? Why is he so weak? Was something wrong?'' Nobody could understand anything at all and even Seron who¡äs sword almost pierced Jason looked at him dumbfounded with question marks in his eyes. "Ups," Jason said with a childish smile as he looked at Seron "that was my fault!" Chapter 147 - Comprehending Ice Even though Jason expected his proficiency with the ice affinity to be garbage what happened was ridiculous. He wanted to erect an ice wall but what came out was an explosion of ice particles forming an ice cloud around the two of them. The only thing it was useful for, was to prevent anyone from seeing what happened inside but neither did it protect him from Seron''s sword nor could he do anything with it. Expecting to form at least a crude wall was a dream to him and only now did he understand why it was so hard for normally procured affinities to control and use. His origin flame was an exception and Jason relied on his experience from there only to be completely betrayed. Standing up slowly, he could feel more than one hundred pairs of eyes staring at him and they were full of ridicule and amusement. Jason, they praised, admired, and even feared for his fight the day before was defeated with a single strike, unable to do anything at all. Some even began to suspect that their sparring against Milo and Bella was fake if the eerie and monstrous killing intent Jason released wasn''t real. The whole situation turned awkward and some youths began to laugh, happy to see Jason being defeated, while others decided to mind their own business and train themselves in order to survive the next few months until the Big-Three tournament would start. Once Jason stood firmly on the ground, Seron gazed at him weirdly, not knowing what was going on. "Sorry, Seron... I wanted to test my newly obtained ice affinity and it seemed like I was too impatient. I would have never imagined that it would be this difficult to handle an affinity" Jason explained and Seron could only nod. He didn¡ät have an elemental affinity as of now, but his master told him that it was extremely difficult to learn an affinity and it will take some time to understand even the basics. Using an affinity the way one wanted was even more difficult and it would take even longer to learn how to handle one''s first affinity. Learning the second, third, or even more affinities would become much easier because one would roughly understand what to pay attention to. Jason wondered how long it would take him to learn how to handle the ice affinity and he was even more curious how the following affinities would work. From his knowledge about his soul world, it seemed as if he could be able form a contract with whatever beast he wanted to, without any exception. This could be considered good but the problem was, that Jason didn''t have enough time to learn every affinity. Circulating mana within his mana channels, Jason slowly activated his ice affinity with the desire to form an icicle and it seemed to work until his focus lessened while the frail constructed icicle fell to the ground shattering into thousand pieces. `This is really difficult` Jason thought as he ignored Seron who still stood next to him inside the combat arena. Trying out multiple different shapes with his ice affinity, Jason seemed to get the hang on it pretty fast and Artemis, who was shocked about her master being beaten landed on his shoulder. She transmitted him multiple thoughts, giving Jason tips on how to handle the ice-affinity and with her instructions, he could already form a stable icicle only 30 minutes later. Throwing it towards the ceiling its velocity seemed to be slow while the might behind his attack was already decent. But it shattered way too easily and wouldn''t even penetrate into thick skin, which bothered Jason. It wasn''t bad that his icicle shattered as it could deal additional damage but it should only shatter once he infiltrated his opponent''s body, creating much more lethal damage. Deep in thoughts, Jason completely lost track of time and Seron decided to leave him alone inside the combat arena, while Till picked him up to take him outside the arena with his mana enveloping him. Distracting Jason right now would be extremely bad as he seemed to have entered a fully focused state, where one''s comprehension heightened to a certain extent. Artemis still provided him with pictures, the feeling and thoughts and her input astonished Jason, as she had never used her ice affinity in front of him. Nevertheless, she seemed to be proficient with the ice affinity and Jason got the hang of the basics much faster than he estimated. While the other special combat class sets looked at him with ridicule and amusement, Seron and Milo were passionately fighting against each other. Milo overwhelmed Seron slightly due to his high mana core rank but Seron¡äs mana injections balanced the fight out, causing them to be in a stalemate. Hours passed and the special combat class was almost at the end when Artemis flew back to the bench with Jason waking up from his deep comprehension. He thought that using his ice ability all the time would improve his proficiency and his sub-area with the passive mana replenishing, was immensely helpful to provide him with enough mana to balance his consumption. Understanding the basics of his ice affinity thanks to Artemis'' guidance, Jason was once again ready and prepared to fight back with all his might. Walking towards Seron, his golden eyes had a whitish trace, as his ice affinity was used constantly, without wasting any mana. Feeling the ice affinity was one important aspect to learn how to control a newly obtained affinity. It was like Jason gained another set of muscles and learning how to move and use them was important. His surrounding was slightly cooler compared to the rest of the arena and his eyes spread a coldness, causing goosebumps to appear on students that looked straight into his eyes. Seron and Milo were still in a stalemate when they noticed Jason walking towards them. Seeing how confident Jason walked towards them, Seron immediately knew that he comprehended something important, while Milo was not exactly sure how to behave in front of Jason. His exceptional gut feeling still told him to follow Jason, but today''s fight was extremely embarrassing and Milo wasn¡ät sure if he should put his pride over the gut feeling. But seeing Jason''s confidence, Milo was sure that his gut feeling had to be true. Standing in front of Seron and Milo, Jason wanted to fight both of them at once, but if he was to do that, he would only be beaten up and it was better to avoid that for now, even if the pressure would help his combat prowess to soar. In the beginning, he wanted to fight Seron, but when he saw Milo''s wind affinity and speed, he changed his target to Milo. "Let''s fight, Milo!" Jason said before he nodded to Seron, who stepped back. It was not that Jason didn''t want to fight Seron, but he understood that Milo was the better training partner for now, while Seron and Milo couldn''t pressure the other party enough in order to squeeze out their potential. In Seron¡äs opinion, Jason was the best sparring partner for him, as his strength couldn¡ät be underestimated. A few weeks ago, he had to restrict his mana core and physique by a large margin but now he was able to fight Jason with all his might and special techniques he was only barely able to control. This could be considered a godly feat and Seron was even jealous of Jason''s fast increasing combat prowess, causing him to work even harder since he met Jason. Due to this, his mana absorption and refining speed accelerated by a large margin. Standing roughly 30 meters apart from each other, Jason gazed at Milo with his 7th Adept rank mana core. His physique and mana core size was already at the 9th Adept rank, indicating that he contracted an evolved beast which gave him his evolved ranked wind affinity. It surprised him that Milo and even Bella were only at the 6th affiliated school but it was most likely because of their background or something like that. The 6. Affiliated schools were only namely divided into weakest to strongest and it was only a coincidence that the 6th affiliated school was considered the weakest, which was mostly the case because the more students from average households with high potential went there. Nevertheless, there were still prodigious talents standing out from the common grounds, climbing up the social ladder with their mana aptitude and soul rating. It was rare but happened often enough to consider the first class of the 6th affiliated school comparable with the main Vanguard weaker classes. As such, defeating Class 1 was as if Jason defeated the main school''s weakest class, causing Jason to be extremely satisfied with his current results. Nevertheless, striving for more was a must for him and his unbending determination could be seen gleaming in his eyes, as he stared at Milo, while the AI started the countdown for their spar. Issuing the start of their fight, Milo immediately enveloped himself with a thick layer of wind transmuted mana, while he executed his wind affinity movement technique. Crossing a distance of 30 meters was nothing for him with his physique at the 9th Adept rank, in addition to exerting his movement technique to the fullest, while being enveloped with wind transmuted mana. Trying to attack Jason from the side Milo didn''t attack his opponent from the front when the surrounding temperature plumbed. Suddenly Jason¡äs body was covered by a thick ice wall that increased in size, directly shooting towards Milo. Chapter 148 - Ice And Fire Jason summoned a spiked wall that charged towards Milo who was proficient in dual-dagger, and the five-meter-tall spiked wall charging towards him, which was unexpected. In Jason¡äs view, this wall was extremely crude as it was just a lump of almost 30% of his mana reserves forced together into a single attack. Milo twisted his body and landed five meters apart from Jason, who looked at him, only to notice that the left and right sides were completely sealed off by ice walls giving Milo a single path left to attack. Straight towards Jason! What Milo didn''t know was that the walls, Jason manifested after using the large lump of ice to distract him, were only thin walls one was barely unable to see through. Nevertheless, through the pressure Milo gave himself, he didn''t even consider trying to break out of the encasement as he charged straight at Jason with his movement technique still exerted to the limit. Jason smiled lightly as the white tinge in his eyes was replaced by a black flame as he used another 30% of his mana to form six hand-sized fireballs he threw towards Milo one after another, slowing the shocked Milo down. Suddenly Jason vanished from Milo¡äs view right as the last two black fireballs flew simultaneously at him. Severing the two black fireballs, Milo was barely able to sense something rushing past him, as goosebumps spread all over his skin. Milo only felt a slight cooling sensation on his neck, as cold steel pressed on it, when the AI announced the result. [Victory, Jason Stella!] Everyone was astonished as Jason¡äs control over his ice affinity suddenly increased by leaps and bounds, ignoring the normal struggle everyone had to go through. But for Jason, he didn''t think that it was something special, as his brain was refined, increasing his capabilities to an extreme high, while Artemis guided him with the sensation and memories she seemed to have inherited when she evolved. Furthermore, looking closer, Jason¡äs ice affinity was still crude and not very detailed or refined, as the big, spiked ice wall was just a lump of mana pressed together by his ice affinity without a high resistance and at most capable to shock someone, while the other two walls that sealed of Milo¡äs path were almost thin enough to see through. Using his fire ability, Jason knew he couldn''t hide it anymore but this was only a small problem because he already showed his black origin flame at the Artisan practical exam. As such revealing the black fire affinity wouldn''t be considered so bad, even though Jason didn''t have a hidden trump that nobody knew left. This could be considered a minuscule issue but nothing really threatening, while his reputation in addition to his dominance was once again showcased. He had to do that in order for other classmates to fear him at least slightly once rumors would begin to spread. In order to not be challenged by every Tom and Jerry, Jason had to show his dominance and Milo was the best target for this, as he was the second strongest student at the 6th affiliated Vanguard school. In the end, he only won because Milo underestimated his ice affinity while he didn''t knew about his fire ability but that didn''t really matter right now, because more than hundred pairs of eyes stared at him with admiration, jealousy, fear, and also anger, as they couldn''t believe Milo lost once against Jason once again, indicating that the spar a day before wasn''t luck. Without the surprising aspect in his attack, Jason wouldn''t have been able to beat Milo with his own speed, because of the gap between someone with a physique and mana core size of a 5th Adept in comparison to someone with a physique and mana core size of a 9th Adept. The difference was vast but tactics and the perfect usage of affinities were apparently enough to overcome the difference to a certain degree. In a head-on spar, Jason would definitely lose with his current capabilities and he knew that but it didn''t change his crazy combat prowess to fight someone a few levels higher than himself. Initially, Jason was only a 2nd Adept rank but after obtaining the baptism from the black origin flame in addition to Artemis'' and Scorpio''s amplification through the soulbond, Jason¡äs physique and mana core size were already halfway on their path towards the 6th Adept rank, which was an amplification of almost 4 levels. Fighting someone four levels higher was already amazing but Jason was even able to fight Milo, who is initially only a 7th Adept rank, crossing a gap of 5 levels solely because of his soulbonds benefits as his black origin flame was also Jason''s soulbond. Seron hadn''t seen Jason using the black fire ability and he was shocked, while Antalia the rank-4 alchemist already informed Till about his students'' special fire affinity with the request to force him to enter the Artisan tower, which caused him to smile dryly. How could he force Jason into entering the Artisan tower, if he was Shane¡äs student?? A being with prismarine crystal formed into his mana pool, indicating that he already solidified some of his mana within it. In the end, this meant that Jason was the disciple of one of the most terrifying powerhouses of humanity, which was also called Sovereign rank, one rank above the Lord rank. TIll wasn''t sure how many human Sovereigns existed but there hasn''t been a single being that crossed this realm and entered the rank above, otherwise, this one being would most likely reign whole humanity, uniting, suppressing, or dominating it. Nevertheless, Till couldn¡ät force Jason into doing anything if he wanted to survive and live a peaceful life. As such he ignored the rank-4 alchemist¡äs request, while he read the message a few times. ''He can even cleanse the impurities within herbs and plants?.... Jason..who the hell are you?'' Till wasn''t sure what to think of Jason anymore, as he shocked him one time after another, while the most shocking was when he refined his brain and created a sub-area while being at the novice rank, even though he helped out a lot. It was extremely easy for Jason to control his fire ability as it worked perfectly fine with a single thought to his origin flame, while he had to instruct his ice affinity one step at a time, which slowed down the response to his wish by a small margin. While his black origin flame responded immediately, the ice affinity took roughly 2 seconds, which was way too long, considering that it could decide if someone lived or died, including his own life Jason was confident in increasing his proficiency with both his fire affinity and the ice affinity, while his ice affinity would need most of his focus. Taking away his dagger from Milo¡äs neck, he went outside, while the crowd of students looked after him. Jason went towards TIll, while Artemis landed on his shoulder. It was already late and it wouldn''t be long before the special combat class ended and Jason notified Till that he would leave before he walked out of the gym. Right now, Jason thought that he had too many things to do and not enough time for everything. He pondered what he should focus on the most, while other aspects had to be less prioritized. Jason had to practice his affinities to a certain extent, hone his newly obtained martial skills in addition to his old ones, and workout in order to stay fit. If that was everything, he would have already much to do but not only had he also the responsibility to read all the books about herbs, plants, ores, runes, forging, alchemy, and so on, for the time being. Furthermore, Jason also had to increase his soul energy in order for Artemis to enter his soul world which was the most comfortable place for every soulbond beast. Even without sleep, he would have a fully packed schedule and he could only frown displeased by how short a day was. Practicing the Heaven''s Hell skill three times a day, was a must which would already take more than 4 hours of his day, while honing his martial art techniques could be done in his afternoon class while sparring with all kinds of stronger special combat class students. Practicing with his affinity in the morning and reading books in the evening would most likely work out, while he could workout in the morning and before sleeping. With this tough timetable in his mind, Jason happily entered the shuttle in front of him with a pleased smile. Having a rough schedule was definitely better than not knowing what to do and Jason would start using this schedule for the future if nothing important came into his way. Inside the shuttle, he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique with his immense amount of soul energy, increasing his braiding and injecting time to increase to slightly more than 90 minutes. The shuttle had long arrived in front of the Fler¡äs house and Jason left it immediately after he finished up his practice. Fortunately, the shuttle service wouldn''t throw him out of the shuttle and it would only be paid more per minute he wasted. Credits weren''t a problem for him anymore and he entered the Fler¡äs mansion with Artemis on his shoulders, attracting everyone¡äs attention. Not only was it important for them that Artemis finished her evolution but also that Jason seemed fine, even though he looked a little bit dirty right now. Happily caressing Artemis, who transmitted her overjoyed emotions towards Jason, everyone looked at him with shock, as they sensed his mana core at the 2nd Adept rank. Gritting his teeth, Greg felt extremely jealous, while even Malia could only look at Jason with shock in her eyes. The whole Fler family had one thought in common as they saw Artemis'' evolution into an unknown race in addition to Jason¡äs extremely fast breakthrough rate. [Monsters] Chapter 149 - Progress Waking up early in the morning by a sharp stung in addition to suffocating within fluffy plumage could already be considered a part of Jason¡äs life as he opened his eyes slowly. Looking at Scorpio¡äs 30-centimeter long body while Artemis stood next to him, Jason smiled brightly. Not only increased Scorpio in size, but his exoskeleton''s blue stitch got deeper, while he already broke into the awakened rank it longed for tens of days. Artemis in front of Jason also increased slightly in size and was now 1.1 meters long while her wingspan reached a whooping length of 3.3 meters. But even more shocking was that she already broke into the early evolved rank a few days ago, shocking the Fler''s, Till, Seron, and even Jason himself. It has already been a whole month since Artemis finished her evolution and fortunately enough, there was not a single accident during that time. The only thing that Jason did was follow his strict schedule while accepting a few challenges from pseudo-powerful schoolmates of him within the special combat class lessons. It was more like practice for Jason, but even that was helpful, as such he couldn''t complain about receiving a few challenges. Nevertheless, rumors about his strength went viral and everyone in school knew about his feat, causing them to disregard the idea of challenging him, exactly like Jason planned. He prevented a huge hassle and could silently digest everything slowly. From honing skills, to increasing his proficiency with his affinities in addition to practicing Heaven''s Hell, everything went smoothly, which satisfied him. Jason was happy over the last 30 days as he could silently read all books about smithing, alchemy, runemaster and so on which was the goal he desired. But that wasn¡ät everything that happened. Jason never forgot to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique for a single time over the last 30 days, causing his soul energy to increase by leaps and bounds. But this was also thanks to Scorpio breaking into the awakened rank 10 days after Artemis finished her evolution. Scorpio reached its limit a few days later with 15 soul energy units, causing Jason to be even more motivated to meet Dalia once again. He wanted to increase Scorpio¡äs limit in order for it to evolve or breakthrough without an evolution if that was even possible. The most important reason for Jason to increase his soul energy by a few times was however, Artemis who provided him with a large increase in soul energy thanks to the amplification he received from his soul world. On the 20th day after Artemis finished her evolution, she broke suddenly into the low evolved rank after digesting dozens of beast mana cores Jason provided. With that, Artemis'' soul energy increased to 130 units, which once again increased Jason¡äs soul energy It was only on the 25th day that Jason¡äs soul world began to shake, for a while because it increased in size by a small margin, before he noticed that his bond with Artemis and Scorpio was strengthened as it seemed to be more solid. Trying to figure out the cause of it, the most simple answer could have been Jason¡äs soul energy reaching 100 units, which was a small threshold for one''s soul energy. Jason would have never thought that he would reach 100 soul energy units so soon and it was mostly thanks to Artemis that he achieved this feat. Nevertheless, he was still more than glad to have reached this threshold and multiple days passed. 28 days after he broke into the 2nd Adept rank, Jason broke silently into the 3rd Adept rank, without the need of absorbing mana by himself. It was solely thanks to the passive mana gathering and absorbing, that made it possible for him to achieve that, as Jason didn''t use a single second to absorb mana from mana stones. He had too many things to do at once and his mana core rank was the only thing he could passively increase without caring about it. As such Jason neglected it and only when he broke through, he noticed that 28 days passed. Breaking into the 3rd Adept rank without wasting a single second on gathering and refining mana after 28 days was extremely fast, even though it was rather slow for him if he actively absorbed it with more time. Nevertheless, Jason could do so much in the meantime, that his combat prowess increased by a huge margin, while his soul energy reached 116.2 units. Compared to before, this amount was extremely vast but it was still not enough for Artemis to fit in, as her required soul energy increased to 130 units, while Scorpio occupied 15 soul energy units. Without having nurtured the black origin flame with a single soul energy unit, it was still at 0.01 soul energy units. In total, Jason would need 145.01 soul energy units for Artemis to fit inside and it would still take some time for him to reach this threshold. But even so, he was already much closer to his desired goal. While most students with a high aptitude towards mana increased their mana core rank by at least one, some prodigious increased their rank by two ranks within a month due to their desire to become stronger, like Seron and even Greg, which was astonishing. These two individuals were so shocked about Jason''s achievements, that they could only work harder and strive for more in order to not get overrun by Jason who wasn¡ät aware of their competitive spirit against him. Jason was rather satisfied with Greg reaching the 6th Adept rank, which was an incredible accomplishment, considering that he broke into the 4th Adept rank around the corner when Jason broke into the 2nd Adept rank. As such he barely needed one month to break through two ranks, which was only possible thanks to him absorbing nature''s mana in addition to high-quality mana stones, day and night, without pausing for a long duration. Jason gifted Greg a few high-graded mana stones, as he had more than enough for them at the moment thanks to Chen Sharon visiting him one morning unannounced. This shocked the Fler¡äs and even more so after they found out that he broke into the 6th Blacksmith rank, which was also called Grandmaster Blacksmith as the first human on Astrix. When Chen came over to Jason¡äs house in order to give him all required materials he exchanged for the cloud titanium anvil which was a pseudo-magic grade-3 item previously. He was shocked to see that Jason lived in such a small house with a minor noble family and there wasn''t even the faintest smell of a smithy, telling Chen that Jason required the ore and other items he required for something else. But it wasn¡ät for Chen to doubt Jason''s behavior, as such, he went home after a short chat with Jason, without wasting too much of his time The black-haired youth with golden eyes was still a whole mystery for him and he would rather be careful instead of doing something stupid. After Jason received everything he asked Chen for, he wanted to gift all of the Fler¡äs a bunch of grade-3 mana stones because he was still in their debt but Gabriella and Mark declined shocked, saying that the three of them would need them more than them, as they doubted that they would be able to increase their mana core rank by a lot. And even if they could, the days with their best years with the highest potential were already over and it was better for the younger generation to use the limited amount of resources for themselves. As such Greg and Malia reluctantly accepted Jason¡äs gift. Malia reached the 2nd master rank, while Greg reached the 6th Adept rank and it was also because of his gift, that it was possible but more important was their desire to get stronger, as they noticed that Jason seemed to have met someone powerful that could nurture him. Otherwise, why would Jason have so many grade-3 mana stones spare? This shocked them and they could only frustratingly absorb mana day in and out, trying their best that Jason wouldn''t be able to overrun them someday. Greg''s physique was even tougher than Jason¡äs due to his physical soul amplification in addition to his mid-evolved soulbond Taurus. Even though Greg¡äs physique was stronger and tougher than Jason¡äs, he was faster and could use three affinities, thanks to Scorpio producing an awakened poison affinity, that was rather useless for right now. Nevertheless having an affinity was better than not having one and Jason was glad that Scorpio worked hard in order for him to receive more possibilities to fight against opponents. Unfortunately, an awakened poison affinity was rather useless for him at the moment, as his other two affinities were both at the evolved rank, causing much more lethal damage. With Jason advancing to the 3rd Adept rank in addition to Artemis and Scorpio¡äs breakthrough, Jason¡äs physique and mana core size reached the 7th Adept rank, turning him into a beast among the 3rd Adept ranks within the 6th affiliated school. It was still morning but today was very important as one month passed since the special combat class was established, allowing all affiliated schools and even the main school to challenge everyone within the special combat classes. Jason knew that the 6th affiliated school would most likely be seen as parasites from some nobles as he made himself ready to go to school earlier than he would normally go. Chapter 150 - First Wave After Jason worked out in the morning and washed up, he just ate a small breakfast, before he called the shuttle that drove him to school. Practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique, his soul energy increased almost by a whole unit causing him to grin widely, as he left the shuttle arrived in front of school. It was still early in the morning and previously he wanted to meet Shane and Dalia now, as he finished all required books, but he received a message from them, saying that he should come the day after, which soured Jason¡äs mood by a lot. The only contact he had with the two of them was the exchange of a spatial ring he received from Till with the commission from the goblin basement. Jason hoped they would talk at least for a few minutes but Shane only appeared in front of him, took the spatial ring, and disappeared, completely disregarding his existence, which frustrated him and made him extremely angry. And now, they wouldn''t even meet up with him? Were they really his masters? Jason was extremely infuriated but he had to calm down as the temperature around him fluctuated by increasing a few degrees before it plumbed almost to zero degrees within a single second. He forgot that he practiced with his fire and ice affinity by utilizing both of them all day long. With his outburst of emotions, the control over his affinities became unstable, causing them to be released, but fortunately, Jason was in the open and not somewhere inside. There was still some time left before the special combat class would start and today, Jason would have to work extremely hard, if he was to be challenged by some students from other affiliated schools. One couldn''t say that he was scared and rather than that, he felt motivated and even excited to show his progress to others. Over the last month, Jason¡äs proficiency with his ice affinity soared and reached the familiar proficiency, while his black origin flame reached the experienced mastery. With enough mana supplied, Jason was able to do almost everything he wanted with his black origin flame, while the control over his ice affinity was still relatively rough, even more so after Artemis broke into the low-evolved rank, as his ice affinity increased equally. The affinity seed would change if its strength increased or also decreased which was also possible if the contracted beast shattered its affinity or degenerated it by digesting a magical treasure with the exact opposite elemental affinity, which was a fire affinity in Artemis case, and the proficiency would in return lessen by a certain degree. As such, Jason would have to work hard to practice with both affinities, because was sure that they would increase in power with him. The black origin flame would evolve into a tier-1 origin flame somewhen in the future, while Artemis'' mana core was increasing steadily with her absorbing magical ranked mana cores. Artemis was able to digest a whole magical ranked mana core within a week and her strength increased after she digested the third one. The difference to before was, however, that Artemis didn¡ät have to go to sleep in order to digest the violent mana from the magical ranked cores which was a huge benefit. As such, Jason bought a bulk of magical ranked mana cores to provide enough for Artemis'' future development. The only thing that bothered Jason, was Scorpio¡äs mood after it noticed that it reached the racial cap in addition to the increased limit it received from eating the holy white bacuri fruit. This was devastating information for Scorpio and only after reassuring it, that Dalia was able to increase its potential, Scorpio calmed down. Practicing with the two affinities inside him, Artemis pressured herself a little bit by flying through the forest with a decent speed in order to train her reflexes, movement speed while she adjusted to her strength with every day passing. When it was lunchtime, Jason practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique smoothly in 70 minutes which was insanely fast, considering that his soul energy increased by a few times over the last few weeks. His soul energy was extremely pure and stable due to its multiple refinings every single day. Smiling lightly, Jason ate something before he went to the combat arena. Not even fifteen minutes passed before Jason saw a huge mass of students lingering in front of the combat arena, waiting for something or someone and a bad premonition build-up within Jason. Walking towards the combat arena, the students in front of the combat arena gazed at him hostile, before they noticed his uniform in addition to his 6th affiliated class 54 emblem. Seeing the emblem on Jason¡äs uniform, the surrounding youths stared at him like hyenas and he immediately understood the situation in front of him. Smiling brightly, he lifted his head and ignored the surrounding youths'' whole existence before he walked into the combat arena, through the students'' group. And when Jason finally entered the combat arena, the predicted reaction came into play, as he could hear multiple loud voices complaining, stirring up chaos. "What an a***ole¡­" "WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?" "Class 54? Let''s beat him up later!!" Jason could only smile at their reaction but he was rather disappointed as he hoped for a more chaotic reaction. Unfortunately, that didn''t happen and Jason had to be satisfied with the somewhat slacking reaction. Nevertheless, while walking through the masses of students, Jason noticed a few things which were interesting and anticlimactic at the same time. Jason knew that the 6th affiliated Vanguard school was one of the weakest and it was noticeable by comparing the mana core ranks from the other affiliated school to theirs, but somehow the students he saw in front of the combat arena seemed extremely weak? If he wasn''t wrong, there didn''t seem to be any of Vanguard''s main school students among them, while multiple other affiliated Vanguard schools could be seen. Nevertheless, most of them were at the 6th Adept rank, which was only one level above the average of their special combat class. There were also stronger students at the 7th Adept rank, but the amplification they received from their soul due to the soulbond they contracted seemed lacking, while Jason only saw a few 8th Adept ranks and not a single 9th Adept rank. Walking into their assigned combat ground, Jason saw Seron as the first one and his mana core at the 5th Adept rank could be seen brimming with energy. Seron''s rank increased by two levels over the past month but he was still at most on par with Jason''s combat prowess more likely even weaker as Jason held back with his most lethal affinity attacks while Serons did the same with his mana injections, even though he still used them. Jason''s increase in combat prowess was insane and Seron admired him for his persistence and endurance to hone his skills, train his proficiency and widen his horizon by reading for the whole day, which he couldn''t do before. Only after getting to know Jason, he began to understand what ambition and determination really meant, and seeing Jason¡äs fast progress, Seron didn''t want to be left behind, increasing his aptitude towards mana by a lot, as his ambition heightened. After greeting each other, Jason looked at Till, who nodded at him as he was the last one to arrive before he turned towards the whole group as he announced. "STUDENTS! Pay attention to everything in the next few hours... If any of you want to remain on their special combat class spot, be aware that you have to fight with all your might. A single step might immediately throw you off¡­." Turning to the closed combat arena door, he announced "AI, open the door and let the first wave begin!" and the doors opened slowly, revealing a group of hungry hyenas, also called students. Chapter 151 - Challenge The arena''s doors opened slowly and the students outside walked towards the 150 combat class students that stood around nervously, ambitious, or full of fighting spirit. However, all of them had something particular in common, they were expectant to the following challenges as the large mass of students that walked inside spread in order to look out for a suitable pray. Jason estimated that there were at least 400 students as of now and probably even more that would follow soon. Nevertheless even these 400 students were more than enough for everyone within the special combat class to fight two times with 100 students that had to fight three times if they were challenged. The only thing that prevented a large number of students to challenge a single special combat seat, was the recuperation period of 30 minutes after each challenge. With that and the knowledge that each special combat class lesson was scheduled for 4 hours, one could at most challenge a single student 7 times within a day. If a student was heavily injured within the previous fight it was only fair for the student to be healed and to receive some recuperation time, as weakening someone and letting the next one occupy the special combat challenger would take place otherwise. As such, the previously stated measure was taken to prevent students from paying others to plan out their own advancement into the special combat class in order to enter the Big-Three tournament two months later. While most students from the other affiliated schools walked in, Jason and Seron were talking with each other, not minding the gaze of everyone in their surroundings as a few students walked straight towards them with angered expressions, as they voiced out. "Aren''t you two a little bit relaxed for your shallow mana core rank? A 5th and a 3RD Adept rank dare to take the special combat class seats¡­." He was obviously enraged causing Jason and Seron to look at each other visibly confused as they returned their gaze back to the vexed students. It looked as if they didn''t mind their anger and as Jason and Seron were about to continue their chat a few students shouted out "I¡äll challenge you" and their voices rang out simultaneously. Jason looked at the students in front of them, nonchalantly saying "Just tell me who''s going first...as for the others...you guys should wait patiently" as he turned to Seron once again, who only nodded in agreement. The students were fuming in rage while their red heads were almost puffing in anger as a certain 1.8-meter tall youth walked out of the group. "I¡äll challenge you, goldie" The youth said and he obviously meant Jason with `goldie`, causing Jason to lift his eyebrows. He had never been called goldie by someone but from the tone of the youth''s voice, it was definitely not a compliment. Scanning his opponent''s mana core size with his mana eyes in addition to the transmuted mana, something particular jumped into his view, causing him to smile lightly. "What are you smiling at? Do you think it''s funny to lose your seat on the first day? HAHAHA" The tall youth said and Jason could only shake his head in denial. Somehow everything seemed like a clich¨¦ to Jason as he had read too many novels with his mother, causing him to cringe, every time he heard someone boasting about their strength. What if the tall youth was an 8th Adept rank? Was it important for Jason? Nope! "If you say so," Jason said, ignoring his provocation as he entered the combat ring, waiting for the tall youth to enter it. "Ready?" Jason asked impatiently before he activated the AI¡äs countdown when the youth nodded his head. Summoning a great battle-axe, the tall youth was already ready to charge at him, only waiting for the countdown to go down when Jason unsheathed his two daggers. Compared to before, Jason began to notice that he required new equipment to fight stronger beasts, as his current daggers were unable to penetrate through evolved ranked beast hide which was especially bad, as he was already at the 7th Adept rank from his mana core size and physique, while his mana core rank was only at the 3rd Adept rank. Seeing the great battle-axe in his opponent''s hands, Jason smiled as he also knew that his opponent didn''t own transmuted mana, indicating him having a physical soul, that solely enhanced his physique. As such, Jason calculated that his opponent had to have a low expert rank physique, which could bring him a huge problem if he was the same as a month ago. Jason fought often with Greg over the last month and even though Greg''s physique was at the 9th Adept rank, thanks to his high physical amplification from his soul, Jason figured out an essential weakness physical souls innately had. As long as one''s physique was much higher compared to the opponent''s physique, it was extremely easy to overwhelm one, but once one was able to fight back with either their physique or drag the fight on by using an elemental affinity, it would become extremely difficult for someone with a physical soul world to win against his opponent. Having an affinity was a huge advantage and so was a high physique, as long as one could overwhelm the opponent with it. Greg''s physique for example was weaker than Jason''s affinities and it was possible for him to dominate the fight with it. Additionally, Greg¡äs amplification from Taurus the reinforced horned bull was mostly towards strength and endurance instead of agility and the same type of physical amplification seemed to be in front of Jason right now. The youth in front of him was bulky and not even slightly athletic and it would wonder Jason if he could reach an astronomical speed. And even if the tall youth was faster than him, he still had his affinities left which increased his confidence by a huge margin. Smiling at his opponent, the tall youth could barely hold back himself, as the AI initiated the start of the spar, as he pushed himself from the ground with all the strength behind his low expert physique. The difference between both of them couldn¡ät be considered large and with a single push from the ground, the tall youth crossed the distance of a few meters. Even if Jason predicted the tall bulky youth to be fast, his speed astonished him.. Nevertheless, Jason remained extremely calm and if one were to scan him carefully, one would be able to see a tiny black flame within his right eye spreading a hellish heat, covered by the distinct golden color, while his left eye released a terrifying cold. Smiling at the charging youth with the battle-axe in his hands Jason¡äs eyes turned cold as he released his mana. Chapter 152 - Burning Icicles Releasing more than half of his mana at once, Jason¡äs eyes radiated a terrifying heat and cold at the same time as a dozen tiny black flames manifested around him. Shaping them into spikes, Jason enveloped them into mana icicles before his gazes turned to the tall youth who charged at him with his full speed. Doing multiple things at the same time was extremely difficult, even for Jason who refined his brain and was more proficient in multitasking than others, but he still froze the floor five meters in front of him, turning it into a completely smooth surface. This could be seen as a small obstacle but rather than doing it obviously, the focus of most students which included the tall bulky youth that charged at him, was mostly at the icicles with burning black flames within. Ice and fire were opposite elements and more than a little bit hostile to each other as the hot flame would melt ice and in return, the produced water would extinguish the flames. Seeing dozens of icicles enveloping a black flame, everyone was shocked as not a single drop of water fell to the ground, indicating a melting process as their eyes widened. Jason only smiled lightly, as this was one of his most recent achievements. As both of the affinities belonged to him, Jason could regulate them however he wanted with enough proficiency which included the heat of his black origin flame. More importantly, however, was that Jason could even set a rough timer for his black origin flame to explode with a terrifying heat, he didn''t know before. He still had to supply both the tiny flames and the icicles with mana, but the consumption was not that big, thanks to the flames'' low heat, with slowed down the melting process. Because the black origin flame was his soulbond, he could control it much easier than any affinity, and transmitting orders felt as if his black fire affinity didn''t have to be controlled by him but rather the origin flame within him. Ordering it to have an extremely low temperature within the icicles, everything seemed magical but at the same time, it was entirely useless and only decoration, if nothing changed. Smiling cunningly, Jason distracted the tall youth from the smooth ground in front of him, as he shot out two of his dozen black flame icicles at him. Now Jason''s timing had to be perfect, as he focused his attention on the two icicles he shoots towards the tall youth. The icicles'' speed wasn''t excessively fast but that wasn''t even their task, as such, it was entirely useless for them to reach a high velocity when they entered the range of one meter around the tall youth. Cleaving down with his battle-axe, Jason found the perfect timing, as he ordered the origin flame to increase the flame¡äs heat to the highest possible before he simultaneously changed to the ice affinity in order to force the icicles to explode in front of the tall youth. Thousands of ice splitters flew through the whole arena, covering the view of the tall youth as his axe cleaved down without hitting anything. Rather than that, the tall youth suddenly noticed, goosebumps covering his whole body as a terrifying heat spread from the position the exploded icicles previously exploded as a wall of fire could be seen only a few dozen centimeters away from him. The tall youth could only decelerate his steps in order to cleave at the firewall in front of him to charge towards his opponent or change his direction with his current speed, as two icicles to the tall youths left and right side appeared, exploding at an even closer range to him. The heat that spread through the combat arena approached him and burned the hair on his arm, as he cleaved down enraged. He couldn''t allow a 3rd Adept rank to play with him!!! Where was his pride?! The tall youth wanted to win more than anything but the current situation didn''t go as planned, causing him to frown deeply. Jason meanwhile continued to shoot the remaining six icicles at the position the former icicles with the black origin flames exploded in order to cover the view of the tall bulky youth for some more, as he exerted his weightless step technique to his fullest potential. Over the last month, his weightless step movement technique reached profound mastery and his speed increased by roughly 40% with it, as he charged at the black firewall that enveloped the tall bulky youth. Due to his mana eyes, he could perfectly see what was going on behind the black firewall and what he saw caused him to smile oddly. The tall youth cleaved at the firewall in front of him only to notice another batch of icicles exploding, exactly where he cleaved at, constructing another wall of fire. Completely enraged, the tall bulky youth pondered if he should just charge through the firewall, before he immediately disregarded the suicidal move, as he pulled his battle-axe back in order to cleave at all firewalls at the same time with a spinning cleave. Seeing this through the firewall, Jason smiled as he reached the tall youth¡äs side. Cleaving down, the tall youth severed the firewall, extinguishing them, as Jason canceled his mana supply completely at the same time before he enveloped his lower body with a mana membrane, while circulating it additionally in his lower body, exerting the weightless step once again. To fight with a battle-axe, every attack had to hit the target as the combat style with heavy weapons was mostly focused on inflicting heavy injuries with a single strike and not clashing with someone hundreds of times within a minute. As such, some time was required to pull back the heavy battle-axe and Jason used this period of time to charge at the unaware tall youth who looked straightforward, only to notice that Jason vanished from his previous position. Sensing something amiss, he wanted to pull back his battle-axe faster, as he pondered if he should abandon his weapon when something cold grazed his neck. [Victory, Jason Stella] could only be heard, when Jason¡äs dagger laid upon the tall youth''s neck, indicating his death sentence if this spar was a life and death fight. For Seron and other students of the 6th affiliated special combat class, Jason''s crafty tactics were already known to a certain extent, but they were still shocked to see the icicles enveloping his black fire affinity, which was something only someone with an extremely high fire affinity proficiency could do. They knew Jason fought mostly with tactics that were mostly focused on deception and other facts, causing them to lose even though they knew about it, but now complete strangers fought against him and they were unaware of Jason¡äs craftiness who overwhelmed his opponent with his strategy and high-affinity proficiency. Even though these students didn¡ät know how a 3rd Adept rank was able to enter the special combat class before, now they knew and they somehow pitied the 8th Adept rank that dared to fight Jason head-on. Everyone could roughly estimate that both of Jason¡äs affinities were most likely at the low-evolved rank, if not even higher, indicating him having formed a soulbond with two evolved beasts, which was shocking. Nobody would do something like that as wasting two spots for evolved beasts was extremely wasteful and they wondered why this black-haired youth with golden eyes did something like that, as a shocking idea formed in their minds. Chapter 153 - This Is Boring Many different terrifying ideas formed within the minds of the other affiliated students that observed Jason¡äs battle against the tall youth, as one silently mumbled to himself. "How large is his soul?" which everyone heard because the surrounding was dead-silent and the other youths all around wondered the same as they began to gossip amongst each other. "Do you think his physique and mana core size already reached the 6th Adept rank with two evolved ranked beasts as soulbond?" "What about his soul¡­ why is he even at the 6th affiliated school with an extremely large soul world in addition to contract two evolved ranked beasts indicating a soul energy of more than 200¡­ " "Are we some kind of joke or why is someone like this not at the main Vanguard school?" Jason took a few deep breaths in order to calm down his messy mind as it was extremely difficult to multitask so many things at the same time. Not only did he have to supply everything with his mana, but he also had to regulate the perfect timing for the icicles to explode, while exerting his weightless step in order to rush to the tall youths'' side, only for him to eliminate him at the perfect moment. The tall youth stared at him with shock, as Jason sheathed his daggers once again, only to smile apologetically towards the tall youth. "Sorry for the inconvenience. Next time don''t be so arrogant without having accumulated enough information about your opponent." Without trying to act arrogant, Jason added silently "You could have picked someone easier in order to obtain a special combat class spot" Ignoring the dumbfounded expression on the tall youth, he walked back to Seron, who congratulated him disgruntled. Seron was confident in his own strength, as he reached the physique and mana core size of a 7th Adept while being innately at the 5th Adept rank, which could already be considered good. In addition to that, he was also able to defeat someone with a physique and mana core size at the 9th Adept rank with enough mana injections, but Jason''s feat looked extremely easy from the outside. Even though Seron knew that it was an extremely difficult accomplishment, the elegance and fineness Jason showcased in addition to the astonishing feat of generating icicles with flames within was even more shocking and difficult at the same time. Seron''s fight mostly relied on his physique and the detailed usage of his mana to enhance his physique at certain body parts in order to ensure his victory against higher-ranked opponents, but his fights felt and looked rather shabby which wasn¡ät the case with Jason¡äs fights. As an heir of the Gier family, he had to hold on to the reputation of the family and fight gloriously but instead of that, he was on Astrix island, a small punny island, fighting against higher-ranked students while feeling like a beggar. It was extremely annoying and even more frustrating was Jason¡äs combat prowess that was comparable to his own if not even higher, while he was two whole levels lower than he himself. His desire to become stronger increased every time he saw Jason fight and Seron was even more motivated, as he received a challenge from a 7th Adept rank. Accepting the challenge, Seron''s fighting spirit soared and Jason felt the indestructible will to win from Seron, causing him to ignore the onlooking gazes that tried to see through him. Looking at the combat arena, where Seron was inside, Jason¡äs mana eyes scanned through the challenger as he noticed his mana core size at the 9th Adept rank, while he had a water affinity. Seron¡äs mana core size was at the 7th Adept rank but Jason doubted that Seron would lose as his mana sensitivity and minute details were extremely well defined in addition to his soulbonds affinity [mana injection] which were able to disregard the mana core size of his opponent. The only difference between Seron and his opponent was, that his opponent¡äs physique was most likely higher in addition to the water affinity. Among the most basic affinities, the water affinity was seen as the weakest followed by earth, wind, and fire, but Jason didn¡ät agree with such statements. Every affinity had its strengths and flaws and the wielder was the most problematic fact one had to consider when judging over the might of a certain affinity. For example, if Jason with a high comprehension would have a water affinity, he would practice it multiple hours a day to figure out all of its characteristics before he would try to find ways to attack his opponent with lethal attacks. Water affinities were seen as rather weak because of their lacking attack and defensive abilities compared to the fire and earth affinity, while a wind affinity could increase one''s speed by a large margin. Nevertheless, Jason liked the water affinity due to multiple reasons more than the earth affinity for example and he was expectant to see how Seron''s opponent would use his affinity in order to fight against Seron''s aggressive strategic advancement, causing a high amount of pressure, Jason already witnessed hundreds of times. When the AI initiated the start of the fight, Jason''s mana eyes noticed that Seron immediately injected himself with three mana injections as the mana fluctuations around Seron heightened to a devastating degree, as Seron¡äs sword began to glow white. ''Huh?'' Jason questioned in his mind as he noticed Seron''s special sword ray Seron used against him a month ago. This attack was at least at the evolved rank and Jason¡äs eyes widened in expectations to see how Seron¡äs opponent would defend against the blade ray, as he continued watching. While Seron gathered his mana within the sword, his opponent wasn''t standing idle as he manifested a five-meter-long spear out of thin air, with compressed mana, as he compressed it, even more, forcing it into shape. ''So a head-on clash, huh?'' he wondered. From Jason¡äs estimation, both attacks would disintegrate upon clashing with each other which meant the following sequences were equally important. However, one rather disappointing fact was, that Seron¡äs opponent had used more than half of his mana in order to form the compressed evolved ranked water spear, which was a waste of precious mana during a fight, while Seron only used his three mana injections, without a single drop of his own mana. Releasing his blade ray with a horizontal slash, Seron already noticed that the water spear of his opponent would most likely shatter his own sword ray causing him to frown lightly as the water spear shoot out with a terrifying velocity. Upon clashing with each other in the center of the combat arena, a loud *BOOM* resounded tin the surrounding, as a fog wall spread through the combat ring, covering everything within for the spectating students. Only Jason with his mana eyes could see what was happening within as he suddenly turned away from the arena in order to caress Artemis who nagged him all the time, demanding more pats. "This is boring" Jason mumbled, causing the surrounding students to look at him as if he was stupid. How could such a battle be boring, their attacks were magnificent and everyone was expecting what happened within. There was no way for them to know that Seron exerted his floating sky movement technique immediately after the fog spread through the small arena in order to finish off his opponent, who was already extremely exhausted. With his spear, the water affinity user tried to fight Seron with his physique, but due to Seron¡äs advantage with his whole mana pool and additional mana injections left, he could finish off his opponent rather easily. In the end, the water affinity user disappointed Jason, causing him to voice out his opinion. The AI issued the obvious outcome [Victory, Seron Gier] and Jason focused more on Artemis than the astonished youths around him that once again gossiped around. ''Are these students here to challenge us or play around and gossip? Do they believe this is some kind of vacation?'' Jason thought in his mind, not being able to comprehend the thoughts of his 14 to 15-year-old peers. Chapter 154 - Jump Into The Lake The first day with all Vanguard schools challenging each other went smoother than Jason thought and the `first wave` as their teacher called it, was extremely boring for him and Seron. At the end of the school day, both he and Seron were only challenged one time before the rest of the challengers separated themselves in order to find someone else to challenge. Jason¡äs combat prowess was unknown for them but his two elemental affinities hat to be at the evolved rank from two soulbonds in addition to his high proficiency with both of them. As such Jason was a bad pick for anyone without a perfect elemental advantage or a great physique in order to overwhelm Jason with that. Seron¡äs combat prowess was also odd but more easily to estimate than Jason¡äs as his physique seemed to be roughly at the 7th Adept rank. What made Seron¡äs combat prowess estimation extremely difficult was the mysterious mana fluctuations within his body which increased his presence in the combat arena. With that Seron seemed to have been able to produce an expert-ranked sword ray with enough mana reserves left in his mana pool to finish off his opponent within the thick fog that covered their sight. In the end, it was a better choice from the surrounding affiliated Vanguard schools to pick other students as their prey in order to obtain a special combat class spot. Without further ado, Jason and Seron were once again alone. Both of them were disappointed that nobody else challenged them but it was only logical to pick the easier targets before the stronger ones would venture to them and challenge them and it would most likely only take some time before that would happen. Jason predicted that the `first wave` was something like the beginning of the storm that allowed the first batch of students to challenge them because he hadn''t seen any student from the main school. It was rather boring, but Jason and Seron decided to observe the battles all around them in order to figure out if there was someone strong enough to threaten them but even that was somewhat disappointing after some time. As such, they decided to spar against each other without using their affinities and abilities, as their physique and mana core size were roughly at the same rank. Sparring against each other generated much more pressure as they knew each other''s combat style which forced both of them to adjust their own unqiue combat style once in a while in order to win the sparring. With that, both Jason and Seron adjusted their fighting style multiple times and increased their combat prowess slowly but steadily. It was 5 pm when their teacher sent all of them home and Artemis jumped back on his shoulder before they left the school grounds once again. Even though the first day of their all associated vanguard school challenges was rather disappointing, Jason was expectant towards the future and he knew that the true opponents would only come out in the later game if they couldn''t enter a special combat class seat within the main school. Obtaining a special combat class seat from the main vanguard school was only a matter of pride and not one seat within the affiliated school in addition to the main vanguard school had a single difference, neither advantage nor disadvantage. But even if Jason was expectant of the future challenges, what was really important for him right now, was meeting his teachers once again after more than a month passed. There were so many things he wanted to learn and his mind was filled with questions he asked himself when he read the masses of books. Furthermore, when he forged, brewed, and inscribed for the first time, Jason was extremely dissatisfied with his result, even though the examiners saw that completely different. Somehow, he thought of himself as a perfectionist with flaws. Sometimes he wanted to do everything perfectly without anything going wrong, while other times he was perfectly fine with doing the bare minimum. But the latter didn''t apply for the lifestyle occupations, blacksmithing, alchemy, and rune inscribing, which Jason found extremely interesting. From his first experience, he found out that it was extremely difficult to produce graded equipment as he could barely make something feasible but this difficulty fueled him with the desire for more. As such the day passed silently with Jason arriving at the Fler¡äs house where Greg sat on the couch with a frustrated and dejected expression, only to jump up enraged. Greg seemed injured and Jason figured out that his friend seemed to have been defeated during the first day of the special combat class lesson. Jason already predicted such an outcome and it was already a wonder, that he was able to take a hold on his seat for so long, when he figured out what the `first wave¡ä his teacher called it, really meant. Probably all top students challenged the seats of the special combat class from the main Vanguard school and Greg¡äs only advantage was the 9th Adept physique he received thanks to the high soul amplification from his mid-evolved soulbond. In the end, his physique and above-average combat prowess was the only thing he had and Jason predicted that a similar scenario he himself created while fighting against the tall bulky youth was produced. He couldn''t really help out Greg and he had to find his flaws himself, in order to fix them. In the end one could even say that Greg was extremely lucky because he had two soul worlds, giving him the opportunity to wield elements while reaching a terrifying amplification to his physique from non-elemental beasts. Deciding to ignore Greg¡äs chaotic emotions that changed between being angry and sulky, Jason went into his room in order to read the advanced beastarium, before he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique. After finishing his practice, Jason worked out, washed up, and continued reading for some time before he felt tired. Sleeping in, with Artemis next to him, Jason felt free, without any worries. ** Waking up early in the morning like everyday, Jason practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique, before he worked out once again. Washing up, Jason met Gabriella and Mark eating breakfast and he sat down with them after greeting them. Gabriella and Mark were talking about the special combat class challenges, about Malia still being one of the seats after getting challenged a few times, while Greg lost his seat to an elemental affinity user with a mana core size of an Expert rank. They involved Jason in their discussion by asking him multiple questions about the challenges within the 6th affiliated special combat class, but he couldn''t really tell much as he wasn''t actually observing many battles with great interest. Greg and Malia were still absorbing mana, while Jason decided to go to school earlier than normal. It was only 7 am, when he entered the school grounds and he immediately rushed towards the forest which only third-year students were allowed to venture in. Jason couldn¡ät really understand why this was the case, but he just decided to ignore this rule, as he saw a large stone arch above a blue shimmering lake. Without hesitating for a second, Jason covered his whole body in a mana membrane, before he jumped into the lake full of expectations, as his mana eyes detect something. Chapter 155 - What Happened To... Jason¡äs mana eyes detected the underground water dome with ease as he dived deeper into the small lake within the forest. Without him knowing, Shane and Dalia waited for him more since the early morning, equally expectant like Jason, to figure out how far they could go with Jason¡äs talent. Since Jason accepted their proposal to be their disciple to a certain degree, they were worried and expectant at the same time. If something happened to Jason, it would be devastating, while his future achievements could change everything, as long as they had enough time to groom him into a strong individual. It wasn¡ät that they were Saints, but this did not change their opinion about the unfairness within mankind¡äs territory and the dangerous threat coming from the other continents due to the foreign intelligent races. With Jason¡äs extremely vast soul world, he wouldn''t have any limits as long as his soul energy increased which was impossible not to happen as Jason injected the soul energy into the soul world core in order to strengthen its production rate. Some humans called this "soul energy training", while others simply said "muscles training", because they saw the soul world core as a muscle that had to be trained and strengthened. Jason almost reached the dome that was enveloped in hundreds or maybe even a thousand runes, as space next to him twisted with an old hand reaching out from within. Taken aback, Jason took a moment to notice the familiar mana fluctuations as he reached out for the hand, only to be transported a few meters further into the dome. Due to him being covered in mana, Jason''s clothes were still dry and he looked around the extremely large dome once again, before he saw two familiar faces standing behind him. Standing up, Jason greeted his masters with a radiant smile that was filled with joy, who also greeted him with a smile on their faces. Shane and Dalia wanted to go inside the small wooden house they built within the dome, as Jason stopped them in their tracks. "Master! Can we do something else first?" he asked causing Shane and Dalia to turn around with a slightly confused expression "Artemis, my first soulbond is still above...She didn''t want to dive into the water...Shane..Master, can you please take her down with your spatial ability?" Jason asked slightly hesitating, as his master could feel like an errand boy like that, but what wondered him was Dalia suddenly laughing out, while Shane looked at his wife betrayed. Tearing apart space, Artemis flew suddenly through the small portal that was created before she circled around within the dome¡äs borders, only to squeeze herself on Jason¡äs shoulder once again. Eyeing the two unfamiliar old humans in front of her, Artemis was extremely shocked to notice that she couldn''t feel a single mana particle, radiating from them, which had never happened to her over the last month. Transmitting her confusion to Jason, he could only smile weirdly, agreeing to her bewilderment. Not even he himself, with his mana eyes, could really detect much from his masters, except their mana core rank, without being able to identify what mana core size or how much liquefied or solid mana was within their mana core. The only thing Jason could tell for sure was that Shane was at the rank above the Lord-rank, as he already constructed a prismarine-crystal within his mana core, while Dalia was most likely at the lord stage, even though Jason couldn¡ät exactly tell. Jason knew that Shane was born more than 250 years ago while Dalia was most likely also 200 years old and with their vast knowledge and high mana core rank, they were most likely humanity''s cream of the crop. Nevertheless, they still had to flee from the rest of humans'' peak cultivators as they were similarly strong. Now, these two powerhouses wanted him to overrun old monsters that were 250 years old with his tender age of 14 years, which Jason found quite ridiculous. But even so, he was more astonished about Shane and Dalia¡äs reaction, when they saw Artemis. Coming closer without warning both stood suddenly in front of Jason and he could only stand silently, while Artemis felt her whole body being scanned. "Is that the snowflake owl???" Shane asked, not believing what he saw right now. Both of them knew that Jason¡äs soulbond was evolving, but what they saw right now was baffling to put it simply. Looking at Dalia, Shane could only ask "Do you know what race she is?", only to see Dalia shaking her head with gleaming eyes. Even though Shane¡äs knowledge was vast, Dalia was much more proficient in beast-logia, the knowledge about beasts. If Dalia didn¡ät know what kind of beast Artemis was, there was no point in asking anyone else on Astrix or any other Island. There were most likely only a dozen humans with a wider variety of knowledge about beasts than Dalia and seeing her shaking her head, Shane was shocked but at the same time proud. `I made the right choice by picking Jason as our disciple!!` Shane told himself as a big smile appeared on his face. Dalia turned to Jason with curiosity asking. "What ingredients and materials did you feed her to cause such an evolution? Wasn''t she a three-star wild beast before? To evolve from a three-star wild beast to a low-evolved ranked beast is not that easy, as low ranked beasts don¡ät own a high innate endurance towards foreign resources¡­" Jason noticed that Dalia¡äs eyes gleaned in curiosity and her desire to know more about Artemis'' evolution wonders him, but unfortunately he couldn''t really help out much, as he himself didn¡ät know how Artemis evolved like that. "She gulped down a magical ranked ice affinity magic core and began evolving without previous warning.. I¡äm also not sure why pitch-black horns grow out of her forehead or what exactly happened" Sensing the frustration in Jason''s eyes, Dalia¡äs curiosity died down as she nodded her head. "Well, it doesn''t matter, as long as everyone is healthy, right?" She said, trying to end the topic with that statement, while her heart hurt deeply because she wanted to figure out more about Artemis. Without further ado, they went inside in order to sit down at a wooden table that released a high amount of mana. Previously Jason thought that he would most likely get thrown into practice without wasting much time, but before they began, Dalia prepared tea for Jason, calming down the tension which had accumulated over the last few weeks, before they began to question Jason about various theoretical themes. This was solely done in order to figure out how much theoretical knowledge Jason memorized over the last month and if he could understand everything he read or if he just learned it without knowing what the words implied. To their surprise, Jason¡äs memory was excellent and he could name almost everything they wanted while his comprehension lacked behind, which was only obvious. It was already a wonder, that he could read more than a dozen books with multiple thousand sites of knowledge within a month and memorize the most important points just like that. Comprehension could follow with practical experiments and now, Shane and Dalia roughly understood how to start their teaching. Chapter 156 - Verbal Skirmish Jason figured out that his knowledge was on par with the questions but his understanding lacked behind and he wasn''t able to comprehend every situation stated by his masters, which was only reasonable. If he were able to answer everything after memorizing the content of the dozen books he read over the last month, why would he even need Shane and Dalia as his Artisan masters? It would be entirely useless and a waste of time. Nevertheless, his comprehension was good but there was just too much to reconsider with every lifestyle occupation. Jason understood the main points but concluding some facts was still extremely difficult due to his lack of practice. Dalia and Shane also figured that out and they decided to focus on these facts on his schedule. "Jason, you¡äve been reading books about theoretical knowledge over the last few weeks. It would be best if you can come to us every day to teach you more about practical knowledge from all basic-lifestyle occupations. We know that you don''t have to attend the early classes in school, as such it would be even better if you use your free time in the morning to come here." Shane said knowingly. Jason¡äs free time in the morning was mostly used to increase his proficiency with his affinities but it wouldn''t be a problem to reschedule his schedule in order to free his morning. As such, Jason nodded his head before a thought appeared in his mind. `Can I practice my black origin flame¡äs proficiency while brewing and refining materials?` He asked himself as he looked at Shane and Dalia, asking the same question. Dalia chuckled for a moment before she seriously answered "You can obviously practice the proficiency of your black origin flame while brewing inscription reagents and potions as the control and accuracy of your flame determines the cleansing effect of origin flames. A single degree difference can change the purity of your herbs and materials by a huge margin. Maintaining the perfect temperature is taxing and will consume a lot of your focus but with enough practice, you will be proficient with all of it." Saying so, Jason sighed in relief and he could use most of his remaining time to increase the proficiency of his ice affinity, as long as his fire affinity proficiency increased while learning more about the lifestyle occupations. Now it was Shane¡äs turn to say something, causing Jason to be slightly disgruntled "As you already know, I¡äve observed your performance at the school¡äs basic artisan exam and I have to say that you really found a good way to waste materials. Even a newborn would be able to forge a better dagger and inscribing it with runes in order for it to be barely able to reach an acceptable sharpness was the only thing you did almost well. I wonder if your black origin flame is a normal flame you dyed while trying to only make it look like a special origin flame or the real deal because the impurities you extracted were laughable. I could do better with normal flames and a decent purifying method and you want me to believe that you have a rare origin flame. If I didn''t know better, I would have believed that you tried to con us with your black origin flame!" Shane finished his speech and looked at Jason disappointed on the outside while he felt slightly sorry on the inside. He wanted Jason to feel provoked in order to awaken his motivation to work harder. It would also backfire but it seemed to work as he observed Jason¡äs change in his expression. Jason felt wronged and couldn¡ät understand Shane, as he only tried to pass the practical artisan exam and nothing more. Turning slightly red, Jason¡äs anger was apparent and he stood up saying "I can do better! Just give me another try and you¡äll see!! Furthermore, why are you even pulling me down without having me taught anything? The only things you provided were the books only a few days before the exam started. For me to be able to pass all three lifestyle occupation exams with a single try is already better than almost all of my classmates! I''ll do better!" Jason said slightly louder. He wasn¡ät dumb or naive to believe that Shane would praise him in order for him to grow lazy, but what he said right now was too much for him to endure because he gave his best over the last few weeks without slacking off for a single moment. It was tiring and hearing Shane¡äs speech provoked him, even though he knew that Shane solely said so in order to provoke him. Shane was astonished to see Jason¡äs outburst and he wanted to rebuke when Dalia sent him a voice transmission. `That was too much... Jason is still young and he always gives his best!!` Hearing this from his wife, Shane remembered that Jason was barely 14 years old, causing him to slap his own forehead. Shane didn¡ät see Jason as a teenager as he behaved differently most of the time and due to his height and well-developed body in addition to his mature face, he treated him like a young man subconsciously. This wasn''t particularly wrong but Shane forgot that it was important for children to receive praise once in a while, in order for them to understand that their hard work pays off. Sighing, Shane decided to step back as he cleared his throat. "I don''t want to undermine your achievement, but I know your capabilities and talent are much better than the products you delivered at the school artisan exam. As such I might have overreacted a little bit¡­ It''s only for your good and I want you to strive for the highest possible instead of playing lowkey in order to not attract the attention of stronger individuals. It might be true that you shouldn¡ät oppose the big clans for the time being but nobody on Astrix will be able to handle me. I want you to give your best each and every time you do something without having to hold back even a tiny bit." Listening to Shane, Jason calmed down as he figured out that his master only wanted the best for him. Having someone to rely on was not something Jason had for the last few years while his mother was not strong enough to protect him from being bullied or anything like that due to her duty at the Cerus family. As such, Shane¡äs words warmed his heart and Jason smiled at him. This made Shane uncomfortable while Dalia smiled at Jason brightly. Not being able to take this situation any longer, Shane changed the subject. "You don''t really have to show me your current capabilities as I could roughly estimate how far you can go at the moment. To show you how to handle forging, brewing, and inscribing, we want to demonstrate to you a perfect grade-1 weapon, potion, and inscription. Our confidence in your talent is high and due to your mana eyes, you¡äll be able to understand everything much easier than most students. Just imprint our knowledge in your mind and learn it. Maybe you can even improve it in the future...who knows?" Shane said with a slight tinge of pride in his voice, as he turned around towards the spiral staircase that led them downwards. Chapter 157 - Demonstration Jason was expecting to see how a perfect grade-1 product would look like and how much of a difference it would make, compared to normal grade-1 products. From his knowledge, Jason knew that perfect products would only be produced with a purity of less than 0.02 left within the cleansed ingredients one used. To accomplish that, origin flames were the easiest way and Jason wondered, if he would be able to forge or concoct such products in the near future or how long it would take for him to control his black origin flame perfectly, in order to make it possible. Following Shane with fast steps towards the basement, Jason noticed that there was a hallway with multiple rooms. Activating his mana eyes everything shone in bright colors, radiating a vast amount of mana, shocking Jason quite a bit. Comparing the basements radiating mana to the Artisan tower and Beast Pagoda, Jason didn¡ät doubt that the basement mana was a few times higher. Absorbing mana here would increase his cultivation speed by a few times but it would also most likely destroy the supply, the radiating mana distributed on the plants Jason perceived with his mana eyes within the rooms. Entering the room at the end of the hallway, a large smithy came into Jason¡äs view and the radiating mana and colors enveloping everything told him that the tools, anvil, and forge were of high quality and extremely valuable. Shane looked at the forge with pride and Jason figured out that everything within this room was his treasures, causing him to smile lightly. ''In the future, I''ll also have my own high-quality equipment!'' He told himself with a trace of ambition gleaming in his heart. Turning around, Shane looked into Jason''s eyes before he explained. "I¡äll show you a way to remove the impurities from ores with a certain slagging method that is mostly used for grade-1 materials because you are unable to solely use the Origin flame for the impurity extraction for the moment. Nevertheless, I believe your origin flame will still be helpful to decrease the difficulty of exhaling impurities within all materials which normal flames don¡ät provide. You will probably have a much easier time to learn how to perfectly purify materials than I had, but that is definitely an advantage!" Jason nodded his head and he concluded the same thing. If he used an impurity extraction method in addition to his black origin flame, he might be able to have an easier time perfectly purifying each type of ingredient. As such, Jason listened carefully, as Shane pulled a hammer and a large green shining ore out of his spatial ring. "We will work with normal Jade-iron ore for now... And the slagging method I mentioned earlier isn''t even that difficult for grade-1 materials, even though you have to be slightly careful to maintain the mana conductivity during the whole process." While heating up the forge, Shane explained and he continued working while explaining "As you already figured out within your first forging process, you extracted the jade-iron from your ore with a reduction. To put it simply, Jade-iron ore is extracted from its oxide, by heating it up with charcoal, limestones, and so on. They react with each other and you will receive Jade-iron. This Jade-iron will then react with the impurities of the ore in order to form slag, this slag mostly floats over the top of molten ingots, but that''s not the case every time, like it more than 300 years ago, before the mana outbreak happened. Due to the mana injected within everything, the slug can be suppressed within the molten ore, making it difficult to force it outside. In order to do that, you¡äll have to inject your own mana within the molten ingot and lead the impurities out of the molten Jade-iron. This process is extremely difficult for someone with bad mana sensitivity and control, but you shouldn''t have a problem with that. It will drain a lot of your mana to expel all impurities, which is the reason, everyone searches for origin flames because they can force the suppressed purities more easily out of reduced Jade-Iron for example The heat should increase consistently but never cross a certain temperature where the mana veins within the materials will be damaged. Your theoretical knowledge is large enough to figure out what temperatures you can go at the highest without damaging the mana veins, as such it shouldn''t be much of a problem, as long as your control is precise enough." The red shining green jade iron mold shone brightly in Jason''s eyes as his mana eyes were activated during the whole process and he could perfectly see the impurities or rather slag within the molten Jade-iron. It blocked the mana veins and forced them to change their path slightly, turning into a small detour, which decreased the efficiency. In the end, a forged weapon with fewer impurities would have a smother mana conductivity, which increased not only the mana circulation efficiency of the weapon but also the mana consumption and required time to fully empower the weapon, which could determine over life and death. Extracting them slowly, Shane wanted to show Jason how it worked, even though he could do it much faster due to his vast amount of mana and proficiency with perfectly purifying low-graded materials. Imprinting Shane''s words and the pictures he saw into his mind, Jason nodded his head, as he noticed something odd, the moment the molten jade iron expelled his last impurity. Not only was the molten jade iron shining which could be seen by one¡äs bare eyes, but Jason¡äs special mana eyes could also detect a faint black color radiating from the jade iron in front of him, shocking him extremely. But he couldn''t ask a question as Shane once again began his teaching, while he worked on the Jade-iron. "Now, we have perfectly purified jade-iron, the best of the best quality and you could immediately hammer it into a nice shape in order to forge a weapon. However, for now, I want you to learn how to perfectly purify ores in order to build a firm foundation." With that, Shane stopped talking, as he shaped the molten jade iron into a bar, which could be used in the future. Jason was more than confused by what he saw. He still listened to Shane, but the color radiating from the jade iron bar in front of him was tormenting his mind. ''Why is it radiating a color now? Because of the cleansed impurities? It has to be so, right?'' Jason knew he was right, but there was a nagging feeling within him, telling him that it could also be something different but also the same. His gut feeling told him that his eyes didn''t directly implement the purity of things but rather something above that which included the purity as a sub-category. But even then, Jason had not a single idea, what it could be and he only shook his head in denial, which was noticed by Shane. Thinking Jason thought it was impossible for him to do the same, he encouraged him with a few words. "Maybe your first few tries will end up as failure but that is normal." "`Failure is the mother of success, remember that Jason! Just keep working hard and you¡äll be able to do it" Chapter 158 - Failure Is The Mother Of Success Jason¡äs mind was somewhere else because he still thought about the color radiating from the Jade Iron bar in front of him, but Shane¡äs words made sense, and he doubted there would be someone who could do everything perfectly without failing a single time. Coming back to his sense, Jason considered it obvious that he would have to learn out of his mistakes, which he would definitely make in the future. Learning how to make a perfect jade iron bar was the first step Jason had to go in order to become a renowned Blacksmith. He wasn''t sure if he wanted to become a high-ranked blacksmith, alchemist, and runemaster, but it was definitely a huge advantage to know about all lifestyle occupations to a certain degree. The biggest advantage would be that being a high-ranked lifestyle Artisan could generate a lot of credits and star notes, as long as one was diligent, while his mana control would increase inevidently with his practice. Furthermore, Jason¡äs trust in weapons and protective garments made by someone else, he didn''t even know couldn¡ät be considered extraordinary high. If a weapon broke during a fight, death was the only outcome and this was not something Jason wanted to happen. Thanks to his mana eyes, he could see that his tempered jade iron daggers durability worsened with each day passing and it was only fortunately, that he didn''t have to go out and hunt beasts right now, otherwise he would purchase a few daggers in order to be rather safe than dead. But even so, the mid-grade-1 tempered daggers Jason was using at the moment, were not strong enough to pierce through the hide of peak awakened beasts even less evolved ranked beasts. As such, Jason would have to make himself a weapon as soon as possible, the higher its grade, the better. It was even possible to make a grade-2 weapon with grade-1 materials as long as it was purified enough, releasing 100% of the material''s potential. Furthermore, with runes inscribed on it, Jason would be able to improve the sharpness and endurance of his weapon, adding another layer towards the weapons he made by himself. In the end, Jason was confident in producing a pseudo mana weapon with jade iron ore, as long as he had enough time. With Jade Iron as sole ingredients, it was impossible to forge a mana weapon, while adding certain ores and other ingredients would allow him to forge a mana weapon, which was one of Jason¡äs dreams. Who wouldn''t want to forge a powerful weapon allowing him to increase his combat prowess by a large margin, turning the tides in a battle even though he would normally be considered weaker? Learning the path of a Blacksmith and runemaster were intertwined with each other as long as Jason wanted to manufacture a mana weapon by himself. One of Jason¡äs small dreams was to manufacture an extremely strong weapon, allowing him to shatter mountains like he had heard from fairy tales when he was young. What he was extremely curious about, were soul weapons and how exactly they were crafted and so on, but unfortunately, the theoretical books he received from Shane and Dalia weren''t much of a help for this theme. Jason thought Shane and Dalia wanted to wait with this information for later until he reached a certain threshold, which wasn¡ät that problematic. Even if he knew how to craft a soul weapon, he would still have to learn the basics. As such, Jason summoned a small mountain of Jade Iron ores which fell to the ground next to him. Lifting up a large piece, he went to the extinguished forge, while Shane stepped back without saying anything at all. Shane would just observe everything carefully and he decided to explain Jason¡äs mistakes after every failure. He calmed himself down before the black origin flame appeared within his hand. Leading the flame slowly towards the forge, Jason activated his mana eyes directly in order to follow every step he imprinted into his mind perfectly. At least that¡äs what Jason wanted to do, as he heated up the flame to the temperature that was required to mold the Jade Iron ore. Noticing the oxide reacting with the limestone within the forge, Jason took the reduced jade iron out of the forge, before he led his mana within the sizzling hot jade iron mold. Only a few seconds passed and he was already sweating buckets when he noticed that moving the impurities around was much more difficult than he previously imagined. Forcefully injecting his mana into the jade iron mold, Jason noticed that the difficulty increased further, the more time passed, while the mold cooled down. Jason was confused and only noticed that the jade iron was cooled down when he was unable to move the impurities by a single millimeter. Feeling extremely stupid, Jason cursed to himself ''The impurities can only be moved out of the ore, as long as it''s hot enough.'' Heating up the Jade-iron once again, Jason increased his origin flames temperature by a few degrees, as he injected his mana once again into the Jade-iron. This time it was much easier to lead the impurities out of the jade iron, as he once again increased the heat of his flame with ambition gleaming in his eyes. Unfortunately, Jason forgot to control his black origin flame and increased the temperature to high, immediately destroying the mana veins within the jade iron, turning it into scrap. Gazing at the scrap in front of him Jason frowned deeply, as he took out the next jade iron ore, giving it another try because he couldn¡ät accept his failure. Shane didn¡ät even correct Jason¡äs mistakes as he seemed to have noticed them by himself. Working with a lower temperature was possible but it would waste a high amount of mana due to the increased difficulty and even more so was it a waste of time. Meanwhile using a high temperature was much faster but the temperature wasn''t allowed to cross a certain range, otherwise, the ore would slowly due to the damaged mana veins. In the recent era, everything had mana, and forging a weapon with burned mana veins was even worse than forging a gradeless weapon, as the enhancement of mana within weapons kept them alive. Injecting mana into one¡äs weapons would not only enhance the weapon''s sharpness, endurance, toughness but even more important was the fact that a weapon with high mana conductivity could feel like an extension of the wielder''s body. Having a low mana conductivity meant in return, that one wouldn''t feel connected to the weapon, and the smoothness of all kinds of moves was restricted. Mana veins were everything and the purer they were, the higher was the enhancement from the injected mana which included the feeling of moving one¡äs body instead of a cold weapon used to kill. Jason was extremely fascinated by all the theoretical knowledge implanted into his mind and he wanted to get to know the feeling of a perfectly purified ingot while comparing it to a rough product in order to figure out more about the significance of purification, as it included everything Jason got to know over the last few months. Chapter 159 - Small Steps Hours passed and Jason¡äs clothes were completely drenched in sweat, as he gazed lovingly and with pride at the jade iron bar in front of him. He forgot how many times he failed to expel the impurities within the jade iron ore and only the small mountain of scrap to his left could tell Jason the answer. But he didn¡ät care about that as the jade iron bar in front of him shimmered lightly, revealing a faint black color, even if it was only barely visible. Shane looked at Jason oddly, as he questioned himself if Jason¡äs eyes were made for forging or if the Origin flame he possessed was the cause of his superiority in exhaling the impurities out of the jade iron bar. Inspecting the Jade iron bar in front of Jason, Shane was baffled to figure out that it was an almost perfectly purified jade iron bar, shocking him extremely. He was jealous of Jason¡äs mana eyes and origin flame but on the other side, it was a huge advantage for both of them, as Shane reduced the set time to teach Jason how to forge perfectly purified bars from all kinds of ores by a few months in an instant. Previously he was already sure that Jason would be much faster than him in learning how to perfectly purify bars, due to Jason¡äs mana eyes and origin flame, but he underestimated his disciple''s capabilities by a lot. If he knew that Jason could see every single particle of impurities within the ores, Shane would definitely be enraged and overly jealous, but fortunately, that wasn¡ät the case. Even Jason was astonished that he could control his flame relatively well after a few hours, as the temperature was relatively stable after experimenting some time. He decided to use a moderate temperature between the highest possible temperature to purify jade iron and the lowest possible temperature in order to have a small range for "accidents". More problematic than his control over the black origin flame was rather injecting his mana into the jade iron mold, expelling the impurities forcefully by leading them around without bumping into the mana veins, damaging them. The detour Jason had to take sometimes was through the whole bar and would take dozens of minutes which he had to concentrate on maintaining the perfect heat of his flame, in addition, to accurately leading around the impurities towards the surface. Even if the perfectly purified jade iron bar in front of him was his first success, Jason was lucky as the impurities were on the outside and not deep within the jade iron mold, like it was often the case with the other molds he tested. A single mistake would damage the mana veins, and decrease the efficiency of a perfect purification if it wouldn''t even destroy the mana veins within. In the beginning, Jason was extremely frustrated, but as time passed, he was becoming more relaxed, focused on the task in front of him, without caring about anyone¡äs existence. It was already lunchtime when Jason finished his first try and he initially wanted to continue practicing even more when he noticed Shane and Dalia behind him with Artemis further away standing on a table. He hadn''t even noticed that Artemis and Dalia followed them and Jason wondered why they were gazing at him so oddly, which was noticed by them. While Shane shook his head in denial, Dalia laughed, before she told Jason to change his clothes to make himself ready to go to school. Previously she wanted to teach him about alchemy and how to make perfect inscription solutions, but once she saw Jason¡äs determination while exhaling the impurities within the ores, Dalia was sure that Jason would do fine, even if she teaches him later. Socializing and being among peers was important in her opinion and She wanted Jason to live his youth as well as possible without any worries, even though they forced a huge responsibility on him. Jason could follow this responsibility later if he wanted to and it was no use to isolate him from his peers. Rather than that, it would most likely harm his growth and turn him less humane which was the last thing they wanted to do. The thing they wanted Jason to do was to lead humanity into a more prosperous time and in order to make that possible, he would need to have superior socializing skills and not social distancing. Jason himself didn''t even know what he wanted, but he just nodded his head. Artemis was extremely bored throughout the last few hours and spectating what Jason did wasn''t really helpful as he repeated the same thing over and over again. She couldn''t even enter Jason¡äs soul world because the soul energy she required was too high for Jason to handle and standing too close to him while he worked was also not helpful, even more than that, it was uncomfortable for her due to the heat she didn¡ät really like. When Jason glanced at the clock, he stored away his perfectly purified jade iron bar, before he left the forging room and entered a secluded room to change into a new set of clothes. Shane transported him out of the underwater bubble back to the surface and Artemis flew through the treetop to greet the fresh air and sun that shone on her white plumage. The sun¡äs heat wasn''t uncomfortable for Artemis, only the black flame Jason had, was, even though Artemis didn''t know why that was the case. There was an odd feeling that Jason¡äs black origin flame was the most dangerous existence she had ever felt. As such, Artemis told herself to either overpower the flame''s heat or flee as far as possible in order to never meet this flame ever again. Unfortunately, as both Artemis and the black origin flame were Jason¡äs soulbond, the latter option wasn''t possible and Artemis could only strengthen herself in order to ease her worry against the black origin flame Outside the small lake, Jason looked around if someone saw him jumping out of twisted space, but Shane had most likely done the same by releasing his mana, easing up his tension. Running towards the combat arena, Jason figured out that there were more students challenging them than a day before, while their strength increased only slightly. Unfortunately, there was still not a single student from the main school and most likely not many high-ranked students from the remaining affiliated schools, turning Jason¡äs mood slightly down. He wanted to have some exciting spars that would cause his adrenaline to soar, but it looked like he would only again be disappointed as not many high-ranked students would challenge him. There was still some time left before the special combat lesson would start and Jaso undecided to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique to increase his soul energy. Chapter 160 - High Proficiency It was already Friday when Jason once again entered the combat arena with hundreds of familiar students standing in front of it and he could only sigh disappointedly as something particular jumped into the corner of his eyes. A single individual among the more than one hundred students seemed to behave differently than everyone else and Jason''s mana eyes immediately detected that he was the real deal. This caused Jason''s sour mood to brighten up and he smiled lightly as he sat down next to Seron who gazed at him weirdly, wondering what was going on in his mind. Artemis sat on his shoulder like everyday which was already accepted by everyone around them but Jason¡äs composure changed during the last four days, causing the special combat class students to question what he was doing to have such a sudden change in his composure and temperament. Unbeknownst to Jason, his mana control heightened by a large margin while practicing to perfectly purify all kinds of ores for the last few mornings over multiple hours. It was not, that Jason¡äs temperament changed or something similar like that but the passive mana gathering from his sub-area he created from the unique splitting mind technique more than a month ago was the most apparent thing he changed. His passive mana gathering was solely following Jason¡äs orders and throughout the last few days, he changed the characteristics of his mana gathering slightly with his consistently improving mana control as foundation. With that, not only his mana gathering increased by a lot but also his ability to absorb mana into his mana core. Considering that his passive mana absorption was already relative fast, Jason was confident in breaking through the next mana core level within the next three weeks, without the need to absorb a single mana particle actively. Smiling brightly, Jason was proud of his sub-area within the mind he established when he was at the Novice rank, as he entered his soul world to take a look at everything. Unfortunately, Scorpio was still at the awakened rank with a soul energy of 15 units, as the opportunity to ask Dalia for a purity cleansing didn''t come due to Shane''s demand for Jason to solely focus on blacksmithing for the time being. Nevertheless, Scorpio didn''t leave the soul world because of its frustration and depression, shocking Jason, as he remembered his second soulbond as an active and a beast full of vigor. Due to this, it was only obvious what Jason would focus on in the following days, as he couldn''t accept Scorpio¡äs depression, even though he had to fight against Shane¡äs stubbornness. Scorpio was more important to him than Shane and it was the only right thing for Jason to ask Dalia if she could enhance his second soulbond¡äs purity, as long as he provided enough resources, which he possessed thanks to the pseudo-mana grade-3 anvil he sold some time ago. Other than Scorpio, the black origin flame was still flickering around without having gained a single soul energy unit, which displeased it by a lot, but Jason couldn''t afford to supply his third soulbond with soul energy, as long as Artemis couldn''t enter his soul world. Entering the soul world was extremely important for Artemis, even though Jason wasn''t sure why that was the case. Asking her couldn¡ät answer his questions and Jason could only obey disapproving about her behavior. As of now, his soul energy reached 129.6 units thanks to his five-braided soul energy helix, Jason inserted into his soul world core three times a day without missing a single opportunity. It would probably take some time for him to fulfill the requirements of all his three soulbonds at once which required around 145 soul energy units at the moment. However, in the end, he was getting closer with each day passing. Having reached the requirements to practice the third level of the Heaven¡äs Hell technique, Jason was still hesitant to practice it due to multiple reasons. First, his time was scarce and he couldn''t afford to give his Heaven¡äs Hell practice more of it and second, the focus he would have to provide was said to be multiple times more than before, even if Jason was not sure if this was even possible. In the end, he had to once again switch to the lower difficulty from the Heaven''s Hell technique and he wondered if that was even useful, as his current soul energy increasement could already be considered top-notch. This caused Jason to ponder for the last few days, but even so, he was still in a good mood with his current achievements. Shane was satisfied with his results he provided in the morning blacksmithing class and Jason even forgot to join the school''s artisan lectures he applied to in the beginning. In the end, the artisan lectures focused on the most basic methods to forge, brew, and inscribe runes which Jason already figured out thanks to the vast knowledge Shane, Dalia, and the large number of books provided him. As such it would be a waste of time for him to attend the artisan lectures and Jason wanted to focus on his perfect purified ores he hammered into bars for the time being. With three days passing since he purified his first jade iron bar, Jason was already much more proficient in it, as he was already aware of the most apparent facts he had to take care of. His control over mana, the mana sensitivity, accuracy, and even more so his control over the black origin flame were the most important aspects, immediately after the incredible capabilities of his mana eyes, Jason himself was astonished. In the end, his mana eyes helped him out to hasten up the whole process of perfectly purifying the jade iron ore with time passing and only three days later, Jason could already be considered proficient enough in purifying Jade iron bars from all of their impurities. Even though Jade iron ore was one of the most basic grade-1 ores and materials, it was still an astonishing feat Jason delivered, causing Shane and Dalia to feel extremely proud of Jason. Sitting next to Seron, both waited for the students to enter the combat arena, while Jason was still thinking about this one student that stood out according to his mana eyes. The other special combat class seats arrived only a few minutes after Jason but something seemed off to the two of them, as they heard some gossip. "Have you guys heard about the Vanguard-main-school dispatching their first students to figure out the strength of the affiliated schools?" a certain 7th Adept rank said. "Really? Why should they do something like that? It''s not like we are at war with them? Can¡ät they just openly challenge us, as we did it?" Another student said and he was apparently one of the other five affiliated vanguard schools that replaced one of their students. Nobody answered him and most students that were about to talk with him turned away from the later student, causing an awkward atmosphere to spread around the combat arena. Jason knew that the competitiveness among the students was high but seeing the later student being ignored was still somewhat weird. Wasn''t it normal to replace the weaker students? If someone didn''t like it, just fight back?! --Read Author''s notes please :D-- Chapter 161 - I Surrender To Jason, the two beast tides he experienced were still apparent and thanks to that, giving up was the last thing he would ever do. As long as he survived, Jason would stand up once again, even if it would hurt like hell. The official cultivation average of all humans was at the expert rank which included young, old, and ill people. Nevertheless, if humanity fought together, it would be impossible for the beasts on the islands to fight back against the sheer masses of high-ranked humans. Considering that not even some youths within the most prosperous school on Astrix dared to fight back against someone stronger than them indicated that humans would rather flee and save themselves instead of fighting against someone stronger. In Jason¡äs opinion, humans were extremely weak-willed and only thanks to strong-willed humans that dared to accept the heavy burden to lead humans, it was possible to survive the last 300 years after the mana breakout. But even so, there was not a single individual reigning over mankind but multiple clans and families ruling over their own territory, trying to take control over more land in every possible way. In the end that was also wrong in his opinion and it wasn¡ät a rare occurrence for Jason to think about Shane and Dalia¡äs words, which seemed to become more important, the more he thought about them. Even if Jason couldn''t see himself as someone who ruled others, there was a need for a firm pillar in order to eradicate the threat beasts, and foreign races presented before they would even be able to focus on the permanent and temporary rifts within humanity''s territories. As long as someone held everything together to a certain extent, the more threatening foreign threats could be eradicated. What happened after wasn¡ät important in Jason¡äs opinion as humanity should fight with their own problems with each other as long as they united against the foreign threats that were even more dangerous than their own race. Maybe his train of thoughts was completely wrong and it was more important to force humanity into a treaty, but even if that happened, would that really change the problematic roots? Not really, as the strong could do whatever they wanted to, and a mighty background could be considered a free pass for everything and Jason hated it. Even though he didn''t want to be some sort of Saint or even something remotely close, Shane and Dalia weren''t wrong with the thought of a single ruler or pillar, humanity desperately needed. While he was deep in thoughts, Seron was still looking around, chatting with Milo, who sat down next to the absent-minded Jason and it seemed like everything was normal like everyday as they didn¡ät mind Jason¡äs behavior. They already considered it as normal because he seemed to be often absent-minded thinking about something far ahead, leaving them alone in the dark present time. A few minutes passed and Jason only began to notice that something was amiss, as Seron hesitantly tipped on his shoulder. Coming back to his senses, Jason realized the situation he was in and it seemed like he was really out of luck when he noticed the youth in front of him. Sighing deeply he asked the inevitable question "Do you want to challenge me or one of my friends?" without showing any kind of emotion, even though his heart skipped a beat after he completely scanned through the opposite youth¡äs mana core. "If you''re Jason Stella, I want to challenge you!" The youth said, smiling proudly, as his short blue hair shimmered in the sunlight which shone through the windows. Seron, next to Jason wiggled around on his seat visibly uncomfortable and the youth stared at him with an arrogant smile which Seron could only accept reluctantly, as the youth turned around in order to walk towards the arena. A quiet "I forfeit!" resounded through the arena section they were in and the blue-haired youth stopped in his tracks, only to look back to Jason with a shocked expression as he asked "You what???" It was as if he couldn''t hear Jason completely and he doubted his ears. This annoyed Jason, as he knew his opposite clearly heard him. Grinding his teeth he could only repeat his sentence "I said, I FORFEIT, are you deaf?!" In the end, he wasn''t able to hold back as he added a slight provocation at the end of his sentence "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Visibly enraged, the blue-haired youth''s fair skin was suddenly enveloped in an extremely faint blue shimmering hue, as he stomped towards Jason, who could only look at the opposite youth as if he fell on his head immediately after birth. "I won''t repeat myself... You understood me!" Jason said as the surrounding students began to mock him due to his cowardice. ''If they only knew!'' He thought sighing. They didn¡ät know what mana core rank the blue-haired youth was as it seemed like he learned a high-tiered concealment technique. As such it was unknown what mana core rank the youth was. Nevertheless, to be able to obtain and learn a concealment technique, one¡äs background had to be high, even among nobles and Jason some slightly smarter students knew that. Estimating the number of distributed concealment techniques on Astrix, there were most likely in the two-digits, while this number was drastically reduced to a single digit, if one were to pick out the young generation. These students didn''t laugh at Jason and only silently agreed to his decision because it could become extremely dangerous. If they knew Jason could scan the mana core through the shallow concealment, their opinion might change but not with the current information Jason figured out about his opponent. There were a few things he noticed. First, he definitely knew Seron and his background, but that didn''t hold him back in mocking him. This indicated that the Gier family wouldn''t do anything against this blue-haired youth. The second important fact only Jason knew, was the blue-haired youth''s mana core rank in addition to his elemental affinity with the additional amplification towards the youth''s mana core size, which seemed to be extremely vast. Concluding the provided information together, Jason tried to figure out who the youth in front of him was, but there was no answer in his mind. Jason was still extremely calm, even though the youth in front of him tried to impress the surroundings with his overbearing voice. However unfortunately for the youth was that the overbearing voice was completely nullified through Jason''s golden eyes that shimmered lightly, reducing the mana within them by a minuscule amount, without him noticing. "Congrats on obtaining a special combat class seat!" Jason said as he pulled Seron away from the group that formed around them due to the turmoil that attracted everyone''s attention The blue-haired youth couldn''t believe what he saw and heard during the last minute, as he had never been treated like that and he was about to pursue Jason. Suddenly, Jason noticed a familiar mana fluctuation next from the other side of the combat arena, as he took a glance toward the direction. His eyes widened slightly and everything made sense. Without further ado, Jason turned around. "Is your family name Drake?" Chapter 162 - Drake "Is your family name Drake?" Jason wasn''t really good at beating around the bush and asked straight away without hesitating for a single moment, causing Seron to look at him taken aback. Seron was fine with being treated like that by Jason, but that was because they were friends and not strangers. However, the blue-haired youth was a complete stranger to Jason, yet decided to talk to him like he was a stupid monkey. Even the surrounding students were astonished by his behavior, as they could faintly perceive the blue-haired youth''s strength. Jason, however, didn''t mind that a single bit, as he looked straight inside the blue-haired youth''s blue shining eyes as if both were equally strong. "So, you know who I am?! How dare you treat me like that!" the blue-haired youth burst out, not minding his image, as he did a moment before. ''Why should I care about that? Idiot!'' Jason thought inwardly, no minding the blue-haired youth''s anger He was enraged right now as Jason who stood right in front of him was too much of a hassle for him. "Apparently I know your family name, but neither do I know why you''re really how nor am I aware who you are" Jason admitted before he turned around, in order to squeeze his way through the group that surrounded them, leaving the blue-haired youth alone. "Did he leave...just like that?" The blue-haired youth mumbled, and he began to wonder how someone without background dared to do something like that. However, at that moment, he remembered something his great grandfather told him when he arrived in Cyro-city. ''Max, I know your talent is terrifying but you shouldn¡ät attract the attention of certain individuals on Astrix, even if the island is governed by our family, alright? It would be best if you stay away from Jason Stella and his company` Unfortunately, his great grandfather''s words, which faintly hinted at Jason''s disguised background caused exactly the opposite, as Max became curious about Jason and who exactly he was. In the beginning, when he saw him, Max felt extremely disappointed as Jason¡äs mana core rank was barely at the 3rd Adept rank, which wasn''t even remotely close to his own rank. However, Jason¡äs behavior was interesting and ignited the lost curiosity in Max¡äs heart once again. `Why did gramps tell me something like that and what exactly is so special about Jason, that not even gramps says something to him? Not only is Seron, the cripple here in such a shabby school but he also seems to be his friend. Furthermore, he ignored me and doesn''t care about my existence at all?! Whole exactly is he?` Max¡äs curiosity heightened, and he decided to pursue Jason who dragged Seron behind him. The surrounding group of students made his place as the aura around him scared them away, as Max¡äs blueish gleaming fair skin underlined his outbursting anger. Seron felt still slightly uncomfortable but Jason¡äs confident and useless prideful words brought him back to his senses. As such he looked at his friend, wondering how he figured out that Max was from the Drake family and why he behaved like that, without even daring to accept Max''s challenge. Seron was sure that not a single special combat class seat of any class could handle Max¡äs strength, except the most powerful prodigies from the main school, but it was still not the best move to disregard his challenge and even retort like that. Even these might have a hard time against Max due to multiple reasons but to Seron it looked like Jason only figured out that Max was from the Drake family a few seconds ago. "Why did you drag me away? Don¡ät you know that offending Max will be bad?" Seron said worriedly and only now did Jason get to know that the blue-haired with blue eyes was called Max. "So his name is Max Drake...well it doesn''t matter! His attitude pissed me off!" Jason confessed with a weird smile when both of them heard something behind them. "I pissed you off!?! Why are you so full of yourself? Can''t I even challenge someone on Astrix? If everyone is as scared to fight anyone, like you obviously are, humanity would already be annihilated!" Max heard Jason talking about him and was even more enraged than before. He couldn¡ät really understand why Jason was treating him like that and felt treated unfairly. "I don¡ät know if you''re just behaving like a spoiled child or if you really are one, but why should I risk injuring myself by fighting against someone with a 3rd Expert mana core rank in addition to an unblemished soulbond at the worst. Should I continue and talk about your special trait right now, or can you just stop bothering me?" Halting his steps and turning his head, Jason wanted to finally have some peace. He was still exhausted from his morning blacksmithing exercises and Jason was not really someone who loved to be the main attraction in his surroundings. Thanks to Max, who needlessly tried to challenge him, even though he obviously knew the outcome, Jason could only come to the conclusion that Max wanted to provoke him or humiliate him by defeating him easily. But how could Max know that Jason knew about his mana core rank, he intentionally concealed? If that was everything Jason knew, Max wouldn''t be as surprised as he was right now, but Jason even figured out about his soulbond''s rank in addition to his physique, which not many people knew about. At most the big families, clans, companies, and some higher authorities on Canir knew about it, as it was an important secret weapon of his family. But now, nobody should have figured out about his strength just like that? Max couldn''t believe it and he glared at Seron as if he killed his whole family. "You revealed our family''s secret to someone like him?! Don''t you know about the silent treaty our families have?!!" Max shouted out, attracting the surroundings students'' attention once again. Noticing that, Jason stepped forward, trying to soothe the escalating situation "It''s not like that, relax....or everyone will know about your secret because you¡äll expose yourself and nobody here wants that, okay?" Max averted his gaze towards Jason, whose eyes were much calmer than before as he tried to provoke him. However, this didn''t change the fact, that he was still pissed off. Once Max calmed down to a certain degree, Jason was once again able to talk to him as he said "Old Drake is here....probably to look out for you, right? Should I ask him why you tried to challenge me intentionally, even though you''re not even a student from the main vanguard school?" Due to his good eyesight, Jason sighted something particular which seemed odd as both Max and Seron looked at him weirdly. "How did you figure that out? I could have been a Vanguard main school student like Seron is a student of the 6th affiliated school?" Looking at his clothes, Max couldn¡ät find anything amiss as he threw an asking glance towards Jason, trying to squeeze a question out of him. "I won¡ät tell you! Let''s go to Old Drake.." Jason simply said, killing the curiosity within Max, as a bad premonition formed in his mind. `Ughh...F**k!` Max could only think in his mind immediately forgetting how it was possible for his disguise to be discovered. Even Seron was unaware, what Jason noticed about Max''s outfit, but if Jason answered honestly, both would be left with more questions than before. That was because his mana eyes detected something interesting as it seemed like Max¡äs clothes were actually from an earth elemental affinity user, as his eyes perceived traces of earth transmuted mana lingering at the clothes. Chapter 163 - Heirs Burden Max wasn''t able to use his force in order to drag Jason away from his current path because too many students watched them. The only thing he was could do was to pray, that his great-grandfather wouldn''t beat the sh*t out of him, because he disregarded his good meant advice, some may even see as order. He was suspicious about Jason, as he seemed to know his great-grandfather which not many people on Astrix could claim, even fewer youths. This was weird, but Max couldn¡ät find a logical reason for this scenario, except that Jason¡äs background was forged. In the end, he convinced himself that Jason was from a large ancient clan because it was easier for him to comprehend that an ancient clan''s heir disregarded his authority than a nobody. Taking this scenario also as the reason for him to be acquainted with his great-grandfather, made it much easier for him to understand everything. Nodding his head, the misunderstanding Max formed, took a firm place within his mind as he followed Jason who was still dragging Seron behind him. Jason heard that Max, who followed him, turning noticeably quieter, even though he was still lamenting and cursing out from time to time. This wondered him, as he thought the annoying blue-haired brick-head might even use brute force to prevent him from walking towards Old Drake, which, however, didn''t happen. Walking towards Old Drake who stood next to Till with his hands crossed behind his back noticed Jason and Seron walking towards them, as he sensed an overly familiar mana fluctuation. Only a moment later, he saw Max, his great-grandson, and his eyebrows furrowed almost immediately causing Max to flinch. `I¡äm doomed` was the only thought in his mind, as he ran past Jason towards Old Drake. Seeing that, Jason smiled lightly as he appeared in front of his teacher. Max was unaware of what Jason might do, causing him to confess what he did. This was to prevent Jason from distorting the story in order to display him as a villain. However, Jason never wanted to tell Old Drake something unnecessary like that, to begin with. Rather than that, he played a small mind game with Max and he only wanted to inform Till about his forfeited match, as every student did so in order to keep the track of how many 6th affiliated students could hold their special combat class seats and for how long. Till, however, heard Max confessing everything to Old Drake and frowned, as he turned his gaze toward Jason with an obvious question in his mind. ''How did you annoy someone, without even knowing who he is? There is something called "holding back"'' But even so, he wouldn''t say something like that to Jason as he inwardly approved his behavior. It was completely unnecessary to challenge Jason for his special combat class seat in such a manner. Even more so because Max was not a Vanguard-school student to begin with. It was not only that but he was also neither a student of any school on Astrix nor some other islands but from Canir. And even there, Max was in one of the most prestigious schools which couldn''t even remotely be compared to the Vanguard school Noticing Till¡äs gaze, Jason almost chuckled as he declared confidently without being ashamed of his loss. "I¡äve lost my seat, should I challenge someone right off the bat or do I have to wait? Hearing that, Till¡äs questionable expression was immediately replaced with a faint smile as he said "Max isn''t even a student on Astrix, as such, you haven''t lost your seat!" he stated but Jason immediately rejected what his teacher said "Even though that might be the case, Max is stronger than me and he `defeated` me fairly. I won''t take this seat back." Turning towards Max, who seemed to endure Old Drake telling-off, Jason smiled. He was more than satisfied with this, as not a tiny speck from the previous overbearing appearance radiated from Max anymore. Meanwhile, Seron still felt uncomfortable, when Artemis landed on his head, releasing a small cry, seemingly trying to comfort him. He was still feeling weird seeing Max as his memories about the past tortured him somewhat. All slightly powerful families liked to compare their children to other descendants and due to his malfunctioned mana veins, he was quite often the topic of everyone''s conversation when it came to comparing their own children to others. This ashamed not only the Gier family but caused the heirs at Seron¡äs age to bully him often. Max with his superior physique and high mana sensitivity was the most recent prodigy the Drake family had and they were coincidentally at the same age with only a few months separating them. While Seron was seen as a weakling, comparing him to Max who was a prodigy, was definitely a painful reminder, with an unbearable sting piercing his heart, torturing him every single day. Max didn¡ät bully him but it felt even worse, as he seemed to have disregarded his whole existence, as if he was worthless. This could have happened subconsciously, but it was hard for Seron to bear. However, he wondered how Max even knew his name as they never talked to each other, which was suspicious. Jason waited for Old Drake to finish him telling off Max and when he turned back to them, both he and Seron greeted him politely. Through his mana eyes, he saw something that attracted his attention about Max It was roughly the same, Jason perceived more than a month ago within Dalia, but there was a vast difference between both of them, as he could see everything clearly within Max. He was unable to peek into Dalia and only due to her revelation, Jason was able to conclude what exactly he traced within her. Now, Jason could guarantee his train of thought through Max, if he were to answer some of his questions. Old Drake felt embarrassed about his great-grandson, who he searched throughout the whole morning, only to find him where he was definitely not supposed to be. As such, he talked with Jason for a few minutes and was about to go, when he heard something particular. "May I talk with Max for a second? I don''t know if I''m allowed to ask that but I''m curious about his constitution¡­.A..No forget that...it''s probably a family secret." Jason¡äs voice grew fainter the longer he talked as he only noticed what he said when the words left his mouth. Asking someone about special traits was as if someone asked Jason to reveal his soul world in addition to every ounce of information about it and extremely impolite. Till was about to drag Jason away from Old Drake when he noticed the old man¡äs widened eyes. "How do you know about his constitution?" He asked, visibly astonished as Jason pointed at his eyes. "I can see it" He revealed without hesitation and one could see it as an offer from him because he revealed something about his own trait, hoping to receive something in return. This might be dangerous, but Jason wanted to understand special physiques and constitutions better in order to know what he should pay attention to in the future. Till only now noticed the significance of Jason¡äs first words, as his eyes similarly widened, which was also the case with Seron and even Max, who knew nothing about him. `He can see it?` Max was visibly confused but seeing curiosity gleaming in his great-grandfather¡äs eyes, he remained silent. Chapter 164 - [Lord Of The Ocean] Old Drake forgot that Jason asked an impolite question and went closer towards him, causing the youths to feel uncomfortable. Noticing this, Till obstructed Old Drake¡äs way, gently reminding him, where they currently were. "This place is not the best for us to talk about something private like traits, right? It would be the best if we go to a more secluded place, like my office." Hearing that, Old Drake woke up from his stupor approach, as he noticed the situation they were in. It was as if he was an old pervert, causing him to feel ashamed when he nodded his head as a sign of agreement. Till notified other teachers that he had something important to do in order to replace him at the current special combat class, before the three youths, Till, Old Drake, and Artemis went into Till''s office inside the school building. Sitting down on the couch, Jason felt comfortable, even though Old Drake and Max stared at him like he was their prey, but he didn''t really mind that. Artemis landed on his shoulder, where she barely fitted on, as she returned his opponent''s gaze with her blue shining eyes. It was only known that the Old Drake and Max really noticed Artemis'' existence, which astonished them, as they didn''t know what type of beast she was. Max knew many beasts, but his experience within temporary, permanent rifts and other mainlands was shallow but that wasn''t the case for Old Drake who lived for more than 200 years and experienced more wonderful landscapes and hazardous battlefields than most humans could wish for. Pondering deeply, Old Drake couldn¡ät remember a remotely close race to Artemis, as her eyes and pitch-black horns were distinct features he had never seen. If it were only her white plumage in addition to blue almost aquamarine eyes, Old Drake could name a few races, but adding pitch-black horns, caused his knowledge to be entirely useless. Figuring out, that Jason not only had special eyes but also an unknown owl species as his soulbond, Max assured himself, that Jason was definitely from an ancient clan, while Old Drake thought that Shane might have caught it because he hadn''t seen Artemis before and didn''t know about her mutation. Jason knew that he couldn¡ät hide his eyes forever and fortunately, it was impossible to steal his special trait by transplanting his eyes, as it was a matter of the genetic model that unlocked special traits and supplemented them with energy. As such, transplanting his eyes was only possible if the opposite individual had an infinite close genetic model and the exact same mana fluctuations. Jason only knew this because humanity experimented with things like that, at least that was what Shane and Dalia told him, which he found extremely disgusting and frustrating. Thankfully, transplanting was impossible, otherwise, he would have to be afraid of everyone with a minuscule amount of power. Each and every special trait holder would be scared to lose their life in order to supplement others with special traits and one could say that luck was on the special trait holder''s side with the stated requirement. In the end, this meant Jason could reveal his eyes just like that, as they couldn¡ät be exploited like Dalia¡äs special physique. The only thing Jason would keep hidden partially was his ability to figure out how high a beast¡äs potential was, even though he already told the Fler¡äs his secret to a certain extent. After everyone sat down, the room was awkwardly silent, waiting for someone to start, while Till and Seron sat there in order to alleviate their curiosity. Because they were within the room, Old Drake and Max were slightly uncomfortable with any revelation but Jason began to talk, without minding anyone listening. "As everyone here might know, I have a special trait and it''s similar to mana eyes, that allows me to perceive the mana flow in the surrounding. In addition to that, I have an additional feature that allows my eyes to inflict a certain degree of fear within everyone below my mana core rank while the amount of mana required for someone at higher ranks is extremely huge and only possible with external support. Both Till and Seron should already know that, right? But that¡äs not all, my eyes can see through many things and it revealed Max¡äs disguise in addition to his mana core size, transmuted mana, and so on because his concealment is shallow. The reason why I asked both of you to reveal your secret was only for me to figure out something my eyes spotted which I¡äve never seen before. Apparently, my guess about Max having a special constitution was correct, but I would like to ask more questions if that is allowed? I hope this is possible because I revealed my own special trait to receive both of your trust as an exchange for your trust if that is feasible." What Jason stated was almost all true with the exception that he had never seen anyone with a constitution like Max, as he omitted everything about Dalia as even Old Drake and Till didn¡ät know about her at all. However, what he hadn''t expected were four pairs of dumbfounded eyes staring at him as if he was about to con them. "What''s wrong?" Jason was confused, as Seron who sat next to him sighed in frustration before he said. "The problem is!!... that you have most likely mutated mana eyes with an extremely advantageous mutation at that¡­. Being able to see through concealed mana cores and tell what kind of affinity someone has is more than a little bit overpowered, but you''re probably aware of that fact. Every time you fight someone for the first time, you''re at an advantage as long as you can see their mana core size in addition to his affinity. With this information, you can already estimate your opponent''s combat prowess and maybe even his or her strategy and now you''re asking us what''s wrong?!" Seron couldn¡ät accept this anymore¡­ he felt powerless next to Jason, whose background was shallow¡­. But even so, Jason was much more diligent and determined than everyone he ever saw, causing him to feel only jealous about his trait, without any ill-intention. Till knew more about Jason than anyone else but even he was astonished, while Old Drake and even more Max, were shocked to their cores. Jason meanwhile looked innocently between everyone who sat around the small table, as if what Seron said had nothing to do with him. Old Drake figured out that something had to be special about Jason in order to attract Shane¡äs attention, which would not happen lust like that. As such he estimated a few certain perks about the black-haired youth, which included the ability to see mana fluctuations. However, he underestimated Jason, causing him to feel shocked right now, while Max couldn''t even think straight. Unknowingly, his jaw dropped as he stared at Jason with shock. Previously, Jason was nothing but a beginner-Adept rank to him, but now he was extremely astonished. It took Old Drake a while to gather his thoughts before he decided to partially Jason, as it could be an advantage for their future, as he estimated the profits they might gain. Additionally, Max¡äs physique wasn''t that much of a secret on Canir and many high authorities knew about it. With Jason¡äs capabilities and background, it wouldn''t take long for him to reach Canir, and figuring out Max¡äs special trait couldn¡ät be considered a hassle with enough star notes. "You are right about Max¡äs special trait, he has a certain constitution or rather physique which gives him higher amiability towards the water affinity." He revealed and Jason nodded his head without showing any signs of being surprised as he already knew about that. "Does his physique has a special name and how did he obtain it?" Jason asked straightforwardly, not hiding his curiosity at all, causing Max to frown slightly, as Old Drake said. "Our Family called Max¡äs physique [Lord of the Ocean] because it leans towards the water amplification." Right when Old Drake was about to continue explaining Max¡äs physique, he was intercepted by a quiet voice. "So that''s what you call an amplification of 30%?" Jason mumbled quietly, but everyone around him could hear it, as the surroundings suddenly turned eerie and dangerously quiet, causing him to look up "Did I say something wrong?!" Chapter 165 - [Heavens Eyes] Sect The sudden silence confused Jason as he looked up into Old Drake''s eyes that shot knives into him, as goosebumps covered his whole body. "You can also tell that from your eyes?" Old Drake asked suspiciously, as he sighed deeply, when Jason nodded his head without saying anything further except a single word "Roughly" Old Drake decided to note down that Jason could become extremely dangerous to them in the future if he were to go down the wrong path. He knew Shane from his past and was sure that he wouldn''t teach Jason anything related to annihilating humanity or something like that. However, Shane was still someone dangerous in his eyes, because he even eradicated the Shore clan just like that, and Old Drake decided to observe Jason, as his special trait was just too much of a mystery. If he knew that his knowledge about Jason¡äs special trait wasn''t completed with the most important feature being left out, Old Drake would most likely either kill Jason or tie his relationship with Shane in order to bring Jason away from him. Fortunately, that wasn''t the case and Jason could stay with Shane and Dalia. Everyone was shocked except Jason, who was confused as they continued to talk with each other about the special traits. "What are the perks of the [Lord of the Ocean] physique? Are they capable of something else than reinforcing his mana output once he used them with his water affinity?" Jason asked precisely, allowing the surrounding to understand, that he could see much more than he already said. SIghing, Old Drake almost regretted having told Jason about Max¡äs physique as an Idea formed in his mind. "Can you see how exactly his physique is constructed, like what body parts mutated into a water affinity constitution?" he asked, causing Jason''s eyes to lighten up. Scanning through Max with his mana eyes once again, Jason noticed Max''s expression as he smiled lightly. Max felt extremely uncomfortable to be completely transparent for Jason¡äs eyes but there was nothing he could do about it, as his great-grandfather told Jason to tell him what he could see. "I already told you that his physique most likely amplifies Max¡äs affinity by 30% and it seems like his mana channels are completely enveloped with a thick blue membrane, which most likely caused the water physique. Other than that, I can only tell that his mana core is also enveloped with this blue membrane and if I were to say something, the surrounding transmuted mana particles of other elements seem to repulse him, while the water transmuted particles are attracted towards him. With this, one could conclude, that his physique only attracts normal and water transmutes mana, while it pushes away the rest. This is maybe over the top and only a theory but with this Max might be unable to form a contract with beasts that have a different affinity than water or non-elemental. It is only a thought of mine and might as well be completely wrong." Jason explained his theory and Old Drake nodded, while Max jumped up. "That¡äs why my father''s late wyrm''s offspring didn¡ät want to form a bond with me!! NOOOO!!" Max cried out loud and Seron rolled his eyes as it seemed ridiculous to him, that he was annoyed about his physiques requirement. In order to amplify his affinity by 30% was much more than he could ever wish for, as even some unblemished ranked water affinities might be on par with strong magical ranked affinities solely thanks to the provided amplification. Old Drake nodded his head as he mumbled "That''s why his mana absorbing and refining was faster close to the ocean" and Jason only heard it faintly, causing him to be even more interested in his physique. ''Shouldn''t they know something like that already? Isn''t that quite easy to figure out?'' Somehow Jason felt that the big families were either extremely stupid or just weird. Even if he was slightly jealous of a 30% amplification, Jason wouldn''t want to change with Max, as he would most likely only form a soulbond with water affinity beasts, which narrows his variety of attacks by a large degree. Nevertheless, it was still extremely powerful and Jason knew that Max could become a terrifying existence in the future, as long as his ambition and determination were strong enough to motivate him. His soul world was what made Jason feel good about not having a physique like Max, as his own variety would be much wider than him in the future. With a soul amplification of 33%, an unknown amount of possible soulbonds and affinities he could obtain, Jason felt that a physique forcing on someone a single elemental like that would narrow his opportunities, destroying his future partially. As such, Jason smiled weirdly when he heard Max lamenting about his physique for a second before Old Drake gave him a slap on the back of his head in order to calm him down. They continued to talk for around half an hour and the special combat class was still filled with students trying to challenge the seats when the five of them finished talking with each other. Rather than a talk of five, one could say that Jason and Old Drake discussed all kinds of possibilities with each other in order to figure out more about Max¡äs physique. With this, Jason could finally comprehend a few things. First, his mana eyes were definitely more powerful than normal mana eyes of all stages, while it was unknown what exactly its mutation was. One could say his eyes were a super rare limited edition, only one human had, satisfying Jason. The second thing he found out was that ancient clans with special traits existed, as Old Drake told him a few things about them. There were also sects that accepted only special trait users with the smallest sect with all members having special trait eyes, being called [Heaven¡äs Eyes]. It was unknown how many such sects existed but it was for sure, that the big families weren''t the only humans with powerhouses backing them, as some of them were almost killed after they offended ancient sects. This shocked Jason extremely but he was the only one within the room that was unaware of what happens to Canir, not like the others who lived there for a long time and were even raised on Canir. While the third and most important fact he comprehended was that he was now able to tell what kind of amplification a special physique could bring. In the beginning, Jason could only tell roughly as he only took a single glance at Max¡äs physique, but inspecting it for a bunch of minutes, opened up a firmly closed door for Jason, revealing information he could never think of. After they finished chatting with each other, everyone seemed satisfied while Seron and Max¡äs seemed to be roasted by the sheer amount of information they absorbed from Old Drake and Jason''s discussion. Till smiled weirdly at his disciple, shaking his head, as Old Drake glanced perplexed at Max. Jason didn''t mind either of them behaving like that, as the amount of information they received was really huge, he declared with confidence in his voice "Now that my curiosity is satisfied, I¡äll be reclaiming my special combat class seat!" Chapter 166 - Trust? Jason was already standing, ready to go back to the arena, where the other challenges were still ongoing, as Old Drake said something, causing him to hold in his tracks. "Jason, even if your background is amazing, it''s always better to be careful and more suspicious about everyone and everything than trusting anyone you get to know, only because you receive benefits from them. Humanity needs a brave new generation and you''re a promising grain that is about to blossom." As he finished, Old Drake stood up, before he walked out of the office after he told Max to do whatever he wanted to. Old Drake didn¡ät fear his great-grandson''s supreme ability to cause trouble anymore, as he already got to know Jason, which was his biggest fear. This meant Max could do whatever he wanted to, as long as he stayed on Astrix, without causing too much trouble, like demolishing Cyro-City. Even if he watched over Max, it would be useless, as such, he loosened the strings around him. Jason¡äs gaze followed Old Drake, as he was pondering what exactly he meant with his words. It was only obvious that he shouldn''t trust anyone, but did that mean he shouldn''t trust Shane at all? And what about Dalia...was she implicated in this mess or did everyone think she died already? Somehow, Jason felt suddenly worried, without knowing why, because he was sure that he could trust Dalia to a certain degree, while Shane felt like a locked book to him. There was something important hidden from him but Jason wasn''t sure what exactly it was. Previously he thought that his trust was hard to earn to the fullest and only thought that the Fler¡äs deserved some trust from him. Furthermore, he was still unsure about the dispute between the big families, clans, and his masters as he himself hadn''t seen anything from his own perspective, which would prove either his masters'' side wrong or the other clans and big families. It was easy to tell him all kinds of stories through their perspective while manipulating them slightly, in order to look better or maybe to let someone else look like the villain in the story, while someone else was it initially. In order to figure out whom he could fully trust, Jason would have to know everyone¡äs background in addition to Argos¡äs true history. In the end, Jason knew that he only trusted himself, Artemis, Scorpio, and his late Mother completely. He would die for them if it was needed to save either of them, while the Fler¡äs could be placed immediately after them. Seron was still young and more naive than he was and Jason wasn''t sure if he should trust him completely, as he could still be manipulated by his family, which was definitely a disadvantage. Till, Shane and Dalia were always nice to him and gifted him many things, like the opportunity to split his mind, which were in the end, however, rather painful. Furthermore, there was the chance to see the Goblin settlement and the opportunity to gain a huge fortune, which brought him the black origin flame. The most important aspect that caused Jason to trust Shane and Dalia more than Till was, however, that Dalia revealed her physique to him in addition to her offer to cleanse his beasts, which would harm her. WIth ill-intentions, she would have hidden a part of her capabilities in order to prevent any kind of pain. In the end, it was extremely difficult for Jason to figure out whom to trust and who he should label as suspicious, without further information. As such, Jason decided to think of ranking everyone roughly in order to figure out whom to trust more and which type of human should stay as suspicious in his opinion. He trusted his soulbonds¡ä to 100% because he raised them in addition to the common control one had over their soulbonds, as long as he possessed enough soul energy. Other than that, he didn''t trust anyone fully, even though the Fler¡äs were the closest behind his beloved soulbonds. After them, Shane and Dalia were the two he trusted the most after the Fler¡äs, while Till and other members within the big clans were still ranked as `suspicious`, which included Seron, even if he was ranked in-between his masters and Till. As for Shane and Dalia, as long as they didn¡ät force him to do anything he didn''t want to, which could additionally damage anyone around him, Jason would trust them as much as possible because his gut feeling told him it was the best thing to do. The others within the office were already standing and about to go when they noticed that Jason being deep in thoughts about Old Drake¡äs words which caused them to feel somewhat weird. While Max and Seron could only partially understand Old Drake¡äs words, Till knew exactly what he indicated. As such it was only obvious what Jason was thinking about as he gazed at him with a pondering expression. Right now, Jason¡äs potential was at its prime, and even more important for him should be how to increase his combat prowess, because the foreign races seemed to come closer towards Canir with each day passing. Unfortunately in Till¡äs opinion was only that Old Drake¡äs words were correct. Mankind was filled with greedy and hideous humans that would do whatever they could in order to strengthen themselves, even if it could hinder humanity''s advancement. Meanwhile, some humans even associated with foreign races in order to become stronger as they were promised mountains of resources, one could only dream of. It was even unknown which big clans associated with foreign races or if humanity could ever unite under the current circumstances. The good-meant words Old Drake spoke were definitely meant for Jason in order to overthink everything his new Master told him. In the end, it also included everything others said because the big families that governed the islands could also spread a twisted history. However, it was weird for Old Drake to say something like this, because it would inevidently cause Jason to suspect him too, which Till found weird. He also thought about Shane who he knew was alive, but he wasn''t sure if Dalia was still alive or not. Still, it was highly likely that she was still alive like Shane, as both of them vanished roughly at the same time. At least he sincerely hoped so. Jason came back to his senses and noticed Till¡äs complex expression that caused him to smile lightly, as he could roughly understand what his teacher thought. Shaking his head lightly, Artemis was troubled to stay on his shoulder, as he went out of the office immediately after Till, who was faster than him to jump out of his train of thoughts. Entering the combat arena only one minute later, Jason pondered who to pick as his opponent in order to regain his special combat class seat. During the whole week, the ranking changed a lot, which caused him to scan through all mana cores before he was able to make an unwise decision. He wasn''t sure whether he should feel proud or embarrassed about their 6th affiliated school¡äs strength, as most of their seats had been replaced by the other five associated schools. But even so, their strength was still better than initially expected and Jason couldn''t help but praise his classmates in his mind. After he scanned through all mana cores, Jason gained a rough understanding of everyone¡äs capabilities and now there seemed to be another problem. Which poor student should become his prey? Chapter 167 - Regaining His Seat Instead of going home, Max followed them towards the combat arena because he was now even more expectant to figure out more about Jason¡äs capabilities. Now, he wanted to see his combat prowess, as he wanted to see what a 3rd Adept rank could do against other higher-ranked Adepts with amplifications that could even allow some students to reach the physique of an average Expert rank. He didn¡ät know that Jason¡äs mana core size and physique were already at the 7th Adept stage which would astonish him slightly while Max was also unaware of Jason¡äs affinities. The only thing he could estimate was Artemis affinity and Jason¡äs inherited affinity through that, while he could only tell that Artemis was a low-evolved beast at the moment. But this wouldn¡ät mean she was already matured or how strong Jason¡äs soulbond could still grow. As such, Max''s curiosity was enormous and he wanted to see a satisfying fight. Otherwise, he wouldn''t leave the combat arena or force someone to spar with him in order to feel the excitement within him. Walking around, Jason pondered who to pick as his prey, as he could roughly estimate the average strength of everyone. As of now, it seemed as if most seats were occupied by students with a mana core size and physique of an 8th to 9th Adept, which was after their amplification from their soulbonds. With that in mind, Jason¡äs 7th Adept rank seemed weaker, but that was not something he was bothered about because he could roughly estimate everyone''s affinity rank and rough power outburst due to hundreds of tests with all kinds of students and provided information, he compared. As such, Jason wanted to try something new when he saw a water affinity user with a 9th Adept mana core size. His outer appearance was rather feeble and due to his water affinity, he estimated that his soulbond was at the mid-evolved rank, which was slightly higher than his ice affinity and on par with his fire affinity. Even so, Jason walked towards the feeble youth, who was weirdly enough avoided by everyone as he noticed three youths with a thick aura walking towards him. It hadn''t been long since he gained his seat and he didn''t want to lose it once again. As such he scanned through Jason and Seron¡äs mana core, only to notice that they weren''t a problem for him to defeat, as his eyes darkened. `Concealed?` The youth thought which caused him to have a bad premonition, as a concealment technique was either a sign of extreme wealth and power or that someone was at the magus rank, which the 14-year-old youth in front of him couldn¡ät be. As such it had to be the first reason and he readied himself to lose his seat, as the black-haired golden-eyed youth in front of the group began to talk. "I¡äll challenge you. That''s okay, right?" Jason asked nonchalantly, which surprised the water affinity user greatly. `The 3rd Adept rank wants to challenge me?` Looking dumbfounded at him, Jason took it as a `yes` before he walked past the feeble youth onto the combat platform. Since the last few weeks, Jason¡äs confidence soared and he wouldn''t accept anyone that disregarded him anymore, which was a rather bad attitude. As such, he decided to act according to his own desire, doing only what he wanted to. Figuring out, that Jason walked past the youth, without considering the possibility of him denying his challenge, the student with the water affinity was unsure what to think. ''Am I a pushover or what?!'' If he declined the fight, he would lose, as such, it was only logical that they would fight right now, but his opponent could have at least waited for his answer instead of ignoring him?! This frustrated him and he immediately summoned his blue shining spear, as he entered the combat arena. Right now, Jason was not even thinking about the youth in front of him, as he only gazed at the blue shining spear with a somewhat envious gaze. All weapons he currently possessed were useless to him but he was too stingy to purchase new ones because he could just forge new weapons for a much cheaper price, while Jason could even assure their quality because he would make them by himself. As such, his strongest cold weapon was his mid-grade-1 tempered Jade iron dagger, which could pierce through awakened beast hide at most. It was today that Jason lamented about his non-existent equipment in front of Shane, as he almost begged him to let him forge some weapons out of the dozen perfectly purified jade iron bars he already made by himself. Unfortunately, Shane was resolute in his decision to build up a perfect foundation for Jason, without accepting a major change in his plan. Jason meanwhile, felt extremely frustrated because of that, as his daggers were almost worn out and about to shatter, which Shane didn''t really care about, as long as he didn''t venture outside the dome, where he could be protected. The water affinity spear wielder noticed that Jason didn''t even look at him which infuriated him even more, as Jason heard the AI counting down from which brought him back to reality. His two daggers appeared within his hands as the AI initiated the start of their spar. Weirdly enough, Jason noticed a new form of affinity user, as the feeble spear-wielder enveloped himself with a thick armor of firmly compressed water, which astounded him a lot. Due to his water affinity being around the mid-evolved rank, the most compressed areas of the newly manifested water armor could defend against attacks at the same rank, which was extremely good against other opponents. Unfortunately, his opponent was none other than Jason, who had his mana eyes activated consistently for a few weeks. Sensing the mana circulation within the water armor, he could immediately tell, which areas the youth focused on the most and which areas were more unstable. It was unfortunate for his opponent, but Jason didn¡ät want to drag the fight longer than necessary, as he summoned ten fist-sized ice needles at once, which he threw towards the charging youth. WIth ten fist-sized ice needles, Jason targeted ten different areas that were all relatively unstable, as he began his own charge after executing the weightless steps technique in order to increase his speed by roughly 40%. Thanks to his high mastery at the profound stage, his weightless step movement technique reached an extremely high amplification in speed, causing Jason to be on par with his opponent''s speed. Jason estimated the mana consumption of the spear wielders'' water armor to be extremely high, which was also most likely the cause for the multiple unstable parts he perceived. With this in mind, Jason knew that his opponent would most likely be unable to manifest other techniques or water affinity attacks at the same time. As such, he obtained the chance to finish off his opponent faster than initially expected, as the spear wielder could barely deflect six ice needles at once while evading the other four. However, what he hadn''t expected was that the remaining ice needles exploded, with shards shooting into the unstable water armor, causing violent ripples to appear. Unbeknownst to him, Jason already summoned a black fireball, which he shot at the distracted youth, who could barely handle his own water armor at the moment. With the black fireball in front of him, he couldn''t focus too much on the water armor that was still rippling and about to disperse, as he pierced out with his blue shining spear towards the oncoming fireball. The black fireball exploding when it was split into two, Jason suddenly appeared next to the spear wielder, piercing into an unstable part of his water armor, which immediately dissolved. Not wasting a millisecond, Jason twisted his body in order to avoid the spear thrust that shot towards him, as he turned his free dagger midair in his hand, before piercing it into the spear wielder''s open chest, ending the battle. [Victory, Jason Stella] the AI declared and Jason¡äs opponent was fortunate enough that he dulled his daggers with mana before their fight began, otherwise he would be either dead or heavily injured. The spear wielder¡äs legs gave in as he collapsed on the ground with a shocked expression, not knowing how his opponent saw through his self-made technique¡äs flaw. Meanwhile, Jason left the combat arena after telling his opponent to focus more on quality instead of quantity Chapter 168 - Competition Between Masters Jason was already excited about what he was going to do this weekend! However, it was already Saturday afternoon, when he sat inside the smithing room, purifying all kinds of ores into perfect bars, like every single day. Yesterday after his rather easy victory, he reclaimed his special combat class seat before class ended. Immediately afterward, Max and Seron went their own ways, leaving Jason alone within the combat arena with the exception of Artemis. Apparently, both youths received a notification, after which their expression soured. Rushing out of the combat arena, Jason wondered why they were in such a hassle. `Did something happen with the big Families or maybe even something on Astrix?` he thought bewildered but there was nobody who could answer his question. As such, Jason decided to change his plan slightly, as he messaged the Fler¡äs that he wouldn''t come home for the weekend. He strived towards the small blue shining lake¡äs direction straight into the flourishing forest and only slightly more than 15 minutes later, Jason already stood in front of the lake with the exotic arch in the center. Spreading out his mana, Jason activated a certain rune below a tree trunk that was covered with another few runes to hide them. It was as if Jason rang a doorbell when a spatial portal suddenly appeared in front of him, where he immediately jumped through without considering if it was a trap or something similar. With Artemis squeezed on his shoulder, he stepped straight into Shane and Dalia¡äs hideout where he was greeted by a radiant smile on Dalia¡äs face, while Shane only smiled lightly. Seeing them smiling, Jason almost immediately disregarded his previous trust ranking, even though it was still weird for him, as Old Drake¡äs words lingered in his mind. Nevertheless, Jason¡äs mission right now was something else. He only wanted to improve his proficiency in perfectly cleansing ores in order to produce the most perfect grade-1 bars. Jason initially wanted to convince Shane to let him craft his first weapon, but he had a different plan, which he would utilize later. Somehow a whole day passed with him solely forging in order to purify iron ores perfectly, while he also ate and practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique. When Shane and Dalia noticed how often Jason practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique, they were baffled and asked him about his soul energy replenishing speed, which Jason answered honestly. There was no need to lie and telling them the truth about his 6hour replenishing process would not really hurt him in any way. However what Jason did not expect was their shock, as they looked at him with widened eyes. Previously Shane already estimated that his soul energy replenishing process should be faster than the average, but he thought it would at most double as fast as the average that most humans had. A replenishing process of 12 hours would already be seen as extremely fast and one wouldn''t even care about one¡äs starting soul energy with such a short replenishing time, as it would be better than high soul energy with time passing. Living for 200 years, one could practice the Heaven''s Hell technique exactly double as often as others, which would lead to a devastating gap in soul energy. When Jason finished another perfect purified jade iron bar, he noticed Dalia looking at him intently as she did for a few days now. Previously he wasn''t sure what she wanted from him, and he didn''t feel comfortable with asking her. As such he tried to ignore her staring at him, but her gaze became even more uncomfortable to endure with time passing. In the end, Jason turned to Dalia and asked "Master, can I help you somehow, or is something the matter?" Jason hesitated slightly, as Dalia was thrown out of her stubborn starring, only to look at Jason bewildered. Clearing her throat, she asked "Jason...previously I thought you would only forge for a few days before you would ask me what I was waiting for, but it had already been six days and there is still not the desired question I¡äm waiting for.. " Sighing deeply, Dalia continued frustrated "Didn¡ät you want to increase your soulbond¡äs potential? I told you that I can increase its potential with enough mana stones to supply and I¡äm certainly sure that you gained enough from the pseudo magic grade-3 anvil you¡äve sold, right? Why are you not asking me to help you? I feel useless right now because Shane is always bragging about your determination and achievements to perfectly purify ores into bars. Thinking you might be bored soon, I waited patiently but there is still nothing I taught you... Let me help you, okay? I¡äll feel better that way!" Hearing Dalia sounding almost desperate, Jason wondered to what degree, Shane and Dalia were competing with each other in order to let her emotion escalate like that¡­ He felt slightly weird, but it was as if a thick rock was thrown against his head when he remembered that he wanted to increase Scorpio¡äs potential as soon as possible. As such he smiled at Dalia with a shining smile, before he said "Yes, let''s do it!" With a loud voice. Shane was still standing next to them and staring at his wife with daggers'' piercing straight into her because he wanted Jason to continue forging. However, now that Jason was distracted, it would only end up in chaos, if he were to continue to forge without being completely focused on his task. As such, Shane could only step back and let Jason¡äs second soulbond have its potential increased which would take some time. Dalia walked out of the smithy, while Jason followed her with a bright smile after he extinguished his black origin flame and cleansed everything. Due to his mana eyes, Jason found the room, Dalia vanished into within only a few moments later, as he noticed something familiar on the ground of the large hall he entered. A large magic circle, that would dissolve mana stones and isolate everything from within the magic circle from the outside world. This circle was already familiar to Jason, as Till drew the same one in order to provide him enough mana when he refined his brain to establish his sub-area. It was a painful memory and he was slightly scared about this circle, as he knew that not a single mana particle could leave the field, as Dalia told him to summon Scorpio. Jason did as his master told him when his 30-centimeter long miniature Parascor appeared within the palm of his two hands. Gazing gently at him, Scorpio screeched out in joy, when he noticed Artemis sitting on his shoulder which annoyed it. Jason was unaware of it, but Artemis and Scorpio became somehow rivals in order to attract his attention, as both of them wanted to have him for themselves. However, Jason couldn¡ät be split and they had to share him with each other which didn¡ät satisfy either of them. Dalia gave him more instructions that Jason followed, as he placed Scorpio in the middle of the magic circle, where he should stay put. In addition to that, Jason took out more than half of his stored mana stones which Dalia noticed with a proud smile. ¡äHe really gained a fortune hmm?` She thought as she looked at Shane¡äs disgruntled expression that caused her to almost blur out in a laugh. `My greedy one¡­` Chapter 169 - [Beast Cleansing] Jason followed Dalia¡äs instructions and the magic circle was evenly filled with all kinds of mana stones while Scorpio remained in the center, gazing at him uncomfortably and confused. Trying to explain the situation, his soulbond only understood that it was going to become stronger, which made it naturally happy when Dalia appeared behind it. Jason left the magic circle in order to make some space for Dalia, as he stood next to Shane. "It would be the best if you look at everything carefully with your mana eyes fully utilized. You won''t be able to see something like that often." Shane said, not covering his proud expression, as he mumbled "I wonder how much this little Scorpion¡äs appearance will change." The last sentence wasn''t supposed to be said out loud, but it unintentionally slipped out, which Shane didn''t notice. But Jason heard him and he grew curious about the whole process his soulbond was about to went through. Even more so what exactly would happen to Scorpio, as he activated his mana eyes to their fullest capabilities in order to see everything clearly. Only a few seconds later, Dalia activated the 20 meters in diameter magic circle on the ground, as the large runes inscribed on it lightened up, forming a translucent dome around it. Meanwhile, the mana stones, graded from 1 to 4 began to dissolve with grade-1 and -2 mana stones manifesting a small fog. Meanwhile, the higher graded mana stones that dissolved, released liquefied mana, that either soared in the air through the surrounding fog or escaped towards the ground, where a small puddle manifested. However, this wasn¡ät what was really interesting in Jason¡äs eyes as his memories about the torture and the splitting mind technique were still apparent in his mind. Rather than that, more interesting to Jason was Dalia, who was surrounded by a radiating light, making her look as if she was a Saintess, almost forcing Jason to kneel down solely from the pressure that spread throughout the room. `What the hell is that?` He wondered excited and worried at the same time as Dalia¡äs whole body began to shine in a holy light that began to absorb the surrounding mana greedily, turning her bright, holy aura more distinct further increasing the pressure around her. The holy light released by her absorbed every single mana particle as it began to envelop Scorpio, who also began to brighten up. His green-blueish exoskeleton began to glow in a white, holy light, causing Jason to exclaim in astonishment. But that was not everything, as Scorpio was slowly lifted from the ground, only to ascend slightly above Dalia¡äs height, where the holy radiating light enveloped Scorpio completely before it seemed to manifest into a thick hue, which forcefully infiltrated him with sheer pressure, from every possible direction. Right at the moment, this happened, Jason felt a terrifying searing pain spreading out from his soul world towards Scorpio, as he faintly sensed something particular. The thick connection between both of them was strengthening with the holy radiant light infiltrated Scorpio, but Jason could only feel his soulbonds pain as a shocked expression appeared on his face. `Why didn¡ät they tell me that this whole procedure would be this painful for Scorpio?` Jason complained inwardly, as he looked at Shane as if they betrayed him, only to see Shane gazing at him knowingly. "Did you think, cleansing a beast¡äs mana core would be painless? That¡äs a free lesson for you. It would be better if you ask questions before you accept anything, wouldn''t it?" Shane explained and it was certainly not wrong, but he still felt betrayed, as he entered his soul world, without caring about the spectacle that was about to happen in front of him. Mentally gripping the soul world connection between both of them, Jason hoped that the stuff he learned from Shane and Dalia¡äs book was correct. Concentrating his entire focus on the connection between him and Scorpio, Jason began to slowly accept his soulbond completely, without caring about the possible backlash. The bond between them thickened slightly, with Jason''s face turning pale, as he started to breathe heavily. This caused the pain within Scorpio to be partially transferred to him, which was the reason for him to do something recklessly as he did right now. Roaring out in pain, Jason could immediately feel the holy radiating light infiltrating Scorpio, changing every cell in its body, while he accepted Scorpio¡äs burden, taking responsibility for everything that was about to happen. Seeing Jason roaring out in pain, Shane was confused, until he noticed blood pouring out of his disciple''s pores, worrying him a lot. Taking a closer look, he barely deciphered a golden hue around Jason¡äs head, which was his individual indicator that showed that he was within his soul world. `Is he accepting Scorpio¡äs pain?` Shane wondered with a shocked expression, asking himself how the hell his disciple could do something like that while both the contractor and soulbond knew each other less than three months. ''Is he trying to forcefully increase their connection in order to accept his soulbond''s pain?'' Speechlessly watching at his disciple bleeding out of all orifices, there wasn''t really much he could do, other than prepare potions for the aftermath. ''Is he reckless or just stupid?'' Starting with his preparations, Shane didn¡ät let Jason out of his eyes, as he complained about his disciple''s recklessness, while he was on the other side somewhat proud about Jason''s decision. Jason was similar to a double-edged sword, talented and definitely prodigy on one side while the other side was naive, reckless, and impatient. Sighing deeply, Shane wasn¡ät sure what to think about Jason anymore as he was just too mysterious to understand. Meanwhile, Jason endured the pain transferred from Scorpio without complaining a tiny bit, as he felt Scorpio¡äs sincere thanks, as it was much easier for it to endure the pain now. He wasn''t sure if Scorpio would die from shock if it were to endure the cleansing by and metamorphosis of its whole body by itself. Fortunately, Jason acted fast enough and decided to share Scorpio¡äs pain, as he would rather endure the pain by himself instead of forcing his soulbond to endure it alone. Even though Scorpio wanted to become stronger, it was innately Jason who planted the idea of becoming stronger into his soulbonds mind. As such, he had to take responsibility for everything that was about to happen. However what made Jason suspicious was that Scorpio went through a whole metamorphosis, as if his whole genetic model changed instead of a simple incomplete mana core cleansing. This was extremely suspect in Jason''s eyes but there was nothing he could change about it right now. Even so, he was sure that it had to be either a misunderstanding or a lack of communication between him and his masters. Other than that, Jason couldn''t comprehend another reason, why they shouldn''t have told him about the metamorphosis of his soulbond¡äs body in addition to the extreme pain a beast had to endure during the mana core cleansing. Jason wasn''t sure how much time passed, but the pain Scorpio transferred through him increased consistently, causing him to sweat heavily in the hope that the holy radiant light would finish the cleansing soon. Hours passed with the moon rising high in the sky only to be replaced by dawn before the holy radiating light seemed to lessen slightly with the searing pain decreasing consistently. Chapter 170 - Metamorphosis Regaining his senses, Jason left his soul world, where he was still stuck, only to figure out that he was laying inside a basin. The basin was filled with a strong medical solution that supplied him with nutrition and a calming sensation, while multiple high graded mana stones were placed around him additional supporting the provided nutrition supply, Looking down at him, Jason noticed dried blood on his chest and arms. However, rather than feeling weak, he felt extremely vigorous, full of energy, as he noticed Shane in the center of the magic circle, taking care of Dalia who looked similarly wrecked like he probably did. `Shit! What happened?!` Jason almost shouted out only to notice that he was unable to talk, with a screeching voice leaving his mouth. The vigorous energy within him, diminished slowly, replacing his energetic self with exhaustion. Looking at Dalia¡äs well-being, his mana eyes told him that she used up a lot of mana, while the whole mountain of mana stones crumbled, without a single tiny mana particle left. However what worried him even more right now, was that he couldn''t see Scorpio, who should be directly next to Dalia in the center of the magic circle. But there was nobody except his masters and it almost caused his heart to skip a beat, if he wasn''t assured that his second soulbond was alive due to their connection, which seemed to have consolidated. This shocked Jason quite a bit, but it was less important for him than figuring out Scorpio¡äs current well-being. His soul connection with Scorpio seemed to be unstable but already fortified, while his soul world was a mess, to put it simply. Jason¡äs soul world core increased in size, blurring his senses within the soul world, which worried him even more. Releasing his mana, Jason wanted to search for Scorpio as his mana eyes noticed something directly next to him. Following that, Jason heaved his body out of the basin, only to see Artemis sleeping next to him. Scorpio, an 80 centimeter long, Scorpion with razor-sharp claws was next to her, while his whole body was enveloped with an overlapping exoskeleton with dark green and blue shining parts. Sleeping next to Artemis, he seemed to have grown by almost three times in size, which shocked Jason, as he would have never imagined that something like that was about to happen, even if he imagined a small change. Scanning through his second soulbond with his mana eyes, the first thing that jumped straight into his view was the color radiating from it, as it was dark-green, indicating the potential of an unblemished beast. This caused Jason to frown lightly, as he couldn''t even imagine how the following mana core cleansing would be, as the first one was already that devastating to his soulbond, himself, and even Dalia. Now that he was standing, Jason cleansed himself, before he put on some clothes which Shane most likely took off, before he continued to inspect his soulbond, ignoring the searing pain inside his soul world, that continued to ravage its way throughout his body. If Jason was sure the searing pain within him was bad, he would probably panic, but he knew that his soul energy was forcefully increasing in size by a few units, which caused the pain. This was apparent, as he noticed Scorpio reaching the mid-awakened rank with a need of 60 soul energy units, amplifying his own soul energy by 15 units, thanks to his innate amplification of 1/3. Previously, Scorpio only needed 15 soul energy units, but that more than tripled just like that which shocked Jason slightly, as he only wanted to cleanse his soulbonds mana core from impurities. Instead, it seemed like Scorpio evolved in an incomplete form, as its exoskeleton showcased. This evolution was solely forced by the vast amount of mana and holy radiating light infiltrating him, changing his cells and it seemed like Dalia¡äs physique was the cause in addition to his soulbonds will to become stronger. Frowning, Jason wasn''t sure what to think of this incident, as everyone had to endure enormous pain due to the sudden metamorphosis. Suddenly he remembered Dalia¡äs pale face with dried blood covering her whole body, as he stood up to look out for her. Scorpio seemed fine, even though his evolution was only halfway finished which would complicate things somewhat, but it was nothing permanent, as he found Shane and Dalia once again. Rushing towards Dalia, Jason noticed that she seemed unconscious, as he gazed at Shane, asking in a quiet voice. "What the hell happened there? Scorpio would have died without me sharing his pain and why is Dalia unconscious? Is she fine?" But Shane seemed as if he hadn¡ät heard his question, as two magic circles appeared next to Dalai with the dryads appearing within them. Releasing their nature affinity mana and innate abilities to heal their contractor, Shane sighed in relief as he noticed Jason next to him. Realizing what Jason asked, Shane sighed deeply in order to calm down his torment emotions as he was about to shout at Jason, which would not even remotely help either of them. "Well¡­.I¡äm not entirely sure because something like that has never happened before, but it looks like the holy radiant light that was supposed to solely cleanse your small Scorpion''s mana core from impurities, caused a metamorphosis, changing its genetic model, enhancing it substantially. Obviously, your soulbond evolved into a higher being, or at least it tried to which increased its rank. As you might have noticed, Scorpio¡äs mana core is cleansed, but I doubt it can reach the magical rank with the utilized amount of mana stones, as most mana was most likely used for its evolution. Both the cleansing and the evolution happened simultaneously, causing this devastating situation. Fortunately, you forcefully transferred your soulbond¡äs pain towards yourself, because I doubt it would have survived otherwise. As for Dalia, she is fine and only unconscious because she tried to forcefully take the lead over her physique in order to change the trajectory of the holy radiant light to help out Scorpio. But that''s everything I know, Dalia should be able to tell you more, once she wakes up." Shane explained before he returned his gaze back to Dalia before he picked her up. "I think you should go home now. The last few hours were most likely extremely exhausting for both your mind and body. Take some rest and come back once you''re fine. Dalia will also need some rest." Opening a spatial portal for Jason, he added quietly "By the way, congratulations on forming a fortified soul conjunction with your second soulbond, Little Monster!" As he released his mana to throw Jason through the portal. Chapter 171 - Mysterious Beast Being thrown out of his masters¡ä hideout definitely felt bad and Jason wondered how his soulbonds were supposed to come to him, as they were also thrown through the spatial portal, which woke them up from their sweet dreams. Scorpio opened its drowsy eyes, only to see Jason smiling at him. Immediately fully awake, Scorpio jumped towards him in order to greet Jason, only to notice that it almost jumped too far. Feeling its increased strength, it was overjoyed as it rubbed its rough and slightly spiky exoskeleton at Jason. Artemis also woke up and noticed that her arch-enemy received Jason¡äs whole attention, which she couldn''t accept at all. Screeching out, she was about to grab Scorpio to throw it into the water as Jason caressed her plumage which caused her to stop almost instantly. A few minutes passed until his two soulbonds stepped back, freeing him from their imprisonment. Remembering Shane¡äs words about his fortified soul conjunction, Jason wanted to enter his soul world and figure everything out, as he felt a pain in his soul world. Apparently, both Artemis and Scorpio were fighting over his soul energy which ended with none of them receiving any of it. Jason himself had to divide his soul energy and he could give either one the majority of his soul energy. Right now, he had 150 soul energy units, thanks to Scorpio''s sudden metamorphosis and increase in strength, causing Jason to ponder how to divide it. However, Scorpio already owned and annexed 15 soul energy units of him. This meant that even if Artemis annexed the remaining soul energy units, Jason accumulated over the last weeks, it would be useless, as there was still not enough vacant soul energy units for her to be stored within his soul world once again. After entering the evolved stage, Artemis¡ä soul energy increased to 130 units, but unfortunately for her was that she was still maturing and growing stronger. Right now, her required soul energy increased to 140 units and it was still growing exceptionally fast, even though Jason only fed her the lowest possible mana unblemished and magical ranked mana cores once in a while, which she digested slowly. This didn''t cause her to feel less frustrated, which she showcased with a small blizzard enveloping her and Jason had to try his best in order to calm her down. Allowing Scorpio to annex 45 additional soul energy units, he immediately entered Jason¡äs soul world, where one could see a paper-thin manifested connection between both Jason and Scorpio. Jason already predicted that, but upon seeing that the connection was extremely thin, he began to wonder if he could fuse with Scorpio like Till did, with the same speed and degree. But even before he could continue his train of thoughts, Jason felt his whole body itching, as his strength began to amplify thanks to Scorpio''s shared strength through the soul world core. Normally it would take longer for the whole amplification from the soul world core to reach him in order to strengthen his physique and enlarge his mana core size but it seemed like the fortified soul conjunction caused the whole process to accelerate, which was good to know for the future. Feeling his skin becoming tougher, while his bones and flesh were strengthened, Jason understood that Scorpio¡äs evolution relied more on his endurance and exoskeleton rather than a mana strengthening or anything else, as his mana core size only increased by a small margin compared to the rest. He didn''t reach a higher rank through the amplification, but his physique became tougher, while his mana core size increased slightly. With his body still itching, Artemis squeezed herself on his shoulder in order to mark her territory, as he stood up in order to go home to the Fler¡äs house. The shuttle he called, arrived only five minutes later, as he entered it. Sitting inside it, Jason decided to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique with his newly increased soul energy. The single practice he did right now, increased his soul energy by roughly 1.2 units, which was extremely high and roughly 0.8% for each practice he did. As such, Jason felt confident in reaching a higher soul energy in order to store Artemis within his soul word, soon. It was already Sunday and almost lunchtime when he arrived at the Fler¡äs house. He was happy to see the Fler¡äs who looked at him with astonishment because they didn''t expect him to come home so soon. As such, they asked him if something happened, which Jason didn''t deny, as he told them that Scorpio would evolve soon and that it already underwent an incomplete evolution. Even if he lied to the Fler¡äs, the truth would be revealed sooner or later, as he couldn¡ät hide Scorpio''s existence and appearance forever because it would grow further with time passing. In the end, telling the truth was much easier than lying, but the Fler¡äs seemed to be extremely shocked about his revelation, as Greg asked with shining eyes. "Do you know a Beast-Creator?!?" Greg was almost shouting, which took him by surprise, but after thinking about it for a moment, he remembered that his friend had a reinforced horned bull, that could evolve as long as it had enough mana, the right valuable ingredients which had to be concocted into an evolution solution. The Fler¡äs were already searching for a Beast-creator since they found out about Greg¡äs soulbonds hidden bloodline and its additional potential but the requirements to even gain an appointment to see a Beast-Creator were already extremely harsh. In the end, it wasn''t even ensured if the Beast-creator could help them out or not. And even if he could help, they would have to search for the required materials and pay for them. Calculating everything together, the requirements to evolve a beast were extremely harsh, even though it would be worth every credit. Figuring out what Greg meant, Jason wasn''t sure what to say, as an Idea popped up in his mind. `From what I read in books, evolving a beast with a sealed higher bloodline in their body is the easiest for seasoned Beast-Creators. With enough information, Dalia should be able to tell me what materials the reinforced horned bull requires in order to evolve, as long as she knows about the Lesser Minotaur race. It should be feasible...or is that too much to ask? Let''s give it a try!` Clearing his throat, Jason pondered how he should begin as he said hesitantly. "I know a Beast-Creator but neither do I know what rank this beast-creator is or even his or her name. One could say, I accidentally met this beast-creator and he took a liking to Scorpio, as it noticed its potential. Maybe I can ask the Beast-Creator if he can help Taurus out in order to evolve, but I can¡ät promise anything for sure!" With some small lies attached, Jason couldn''t reveal his master''s existence because she was hiding from the public. As such, Jason decided to create a mysterious beast-creator, which would hopefully solve all of his problems. He couldn''t promise anything, but Greg and the Fler¡äs seemed to feel overjoyed by Jason¡äs simple words, even if he didn''t ensure anything at all, as he gave them a slight ray of hope that seemed to have almost vanished due to the harsh stated conditions, Astrix¡äs low-ranked Beast-Creators stated. Chapter 172 - [Fusion] After eating lunch with the overjoyed Fler¡äs, Jason went inside his room, in order to test out something he long since awaited. He wanted to fuse with his soulbond and try to manifest their body parts on him! Previously, Jason thought it was more likely that Artemis would be his first soulbond to form a fortified soul conjunction with him, but surprisingly Scorpio who still thought of Jason as his mother was the first one to fortify his connection with him. This was most likely thanks to Scorpio¡äs sincerity as Jason transferred the pain it had to endure to himself to protect it. Artemis was jealous of Scorpio¡äs achievement and wanted to have the same bond with Jason, but unfortunately, this would still take some time, even though the bond the two of them was already thick and unbreakable. Once Artemis'' connection with him fortified, it wouldn''t surprise Jason, if their bond would be thicker than the one he had with Scorpio. There was no particular evidence to prove that, but he just felt that it might be the case. As such, Jason anticipated his fortified soul conjunction with Artemis, as he entered the soul world, while Artemis laid on the bed, sulking. Within the soul world, Jason saw Scorpio running up to him. Touching Scorpio, he felt their thick bond, with the thin fortification connecting them, when he began to test out multiple things. His knowledge about soul fortification was minuscule or rather non-existent as he hadn''t read any books about it. The only things he knew about it were the words Till told him and it was nothing special. He wasn''t even sure, what exactly he should look out to manifest parts of Scorpio''s body on him `What exactly is a fortified soul conjunction` Jason asked himself, as he tried to remember Till¡äs word in addition to his own assumption. `A fortified soul conjunction is the extremely distinct connection between the contractor and its soulbond. Both can¡ät be separated anymore and can even be considered a single entity, which allows the contractor to fuse with his soulbond, manifesting its body parts, like wings, claws, and so on¡­` As he thought of these words, Jason was even more confused `Does this mean Scorpio exists within me and can¡ät live if I die? What about the other way around? Will I die if Scorpio dies? And to what degree can I manifest Scorpio¡äs body parts? He is only 80 centimeters, which means I can¡ät cover myself with his complete exoskeleton, or can I?... Can I even manifest anything except his exoskeleton? What about its claws and stinger? How do I manifest them? ` There were too many unanswered questions but nobody could answer them right now which forced him to answer them by himself. Trying to instruct Scorpio with a few things it should try, Jason left the soul world. Standing up, he waited for something to happen, as he initiated Scorpio to start the experiments. ¡­ .. . But nothing happened as minutes passed, which caused Jason to wonder if he made a major mistake. `Do I have to accept Scorpio as well? Like giving him permission?` Thinking this could be the solution, Jason tried to enter his soul world only partially, testing out if he could open a door between each other like this, but nothing happened. Suddenly, he noticed something within his mind, where the soul world was placed as a marginal-sized golden dot that could barely be discerned by Jason. Keeping his focus on the dot, Jason forcefully thought about opening a door between him and the soul world, as the dot began to increase in size, crushing the wall between contractor and soulbond. It was painful but bearable, as he entered the soul world to take a look at what happened right now. From within the soul world, he could only see Scorpio slowly approaching a large golden gate that suddenly appeared out of nowhere with a small open gap within it. And just like that, Scorpio vanished, as Jason¡äs whole body began to itch violently and it felt extremely weird, as his mana core increased in size, while his physique was strengthened. `What??` There was no pain like it was the case with every shared amplification from his soul-world and it felt more like he was infiltrated by something familiar and still strange. Leaving the soul world, Jason looked at himself with his mana eyes, while he scanned himself at the same time. He immediately figured out that his mana core size and physique received a boost to the 8th Adept rank and even further, while something particular resided within his mana core, which shocked him. Even if Jason didn¡ät know how Scorpio entered his mana core just like that because it was connected to everything in his body. `Is that how it works?` Jason asked himself, as felt that Scorpio could do whatever it wanted to within his body. `Has everyone such a high amplification like I do, or is this also thanks to my unique soul?`He didn¡ät know for sure, but it wasn''t important for the moment. Smiling dryly, Jason wanted to test out something particular, that might be able to increase his combat prowess by a few folds. Transmitting his thought to Scorpio within his mana core, while thinking about it at the same time, Jason felt his coccyx itching, as a searing pain spread through it. Suddenly his jeans bulge, as he heard a ripping sound. Running towards the mirror in his room, Jason felt something growing from his coccyx with an extremely slow speed, as he looked at the mirror in shock. "DAMN!" Jason exclaimed with an almost childish voice when he saw a green, blueish stinger growing out of his lower back, with a size of roughly half a meter. Even though it looked extremely cool, Jason immediately noted a downside. It took an extremely long time to fully grow and he thought it might have something to do with the paper thing fortified soul conjunction or because it was their first try. Trying to retract and extract the stinger multiple times, the growing speed increased slightly. But even so, it still took a long time and Jason concluded that it was because their bond was still not completely stable and the time they knew each other was also short. As such, Jason was confident that everything would become better with time passing. There were only two downsides with the Fusion ability, Jason almost immediately noticed. While being fused with Scorpio, the energy and nutrition demanded to grow the stinger seemed to be rather high, while Scorpio itself couldn''t fight next to him, during their fusion, which was kinda obvious. The stamina consumption was rather high, which meant he would have to limit its usage, if he didn''t have enough energy potions or high nutrition food, but that was definitely fine, for now. Playing around with his newly obtained ability to manifest Scorpio''s body parts on his own body, Jason noted down many things he was able to do with it, as multiple combat strategies appeared within his mind. Even so, less than half an hour passed until Jason fell onto the bed, without any energy left, as Scorpio departed from his mana core in order to return back to the soul world. With this in mind, Jason¡äs mana core size and physical strength plummeted to the mid 7th Adept rank like it was before. The questions in his mind did not decrease and rather than that, it seemed like they increased as he was curious about the golden gate and the requirements to establish a fortified soul conjunction. It was only Sunday afternoon, as Jason jumped up from his bed because he had too many things to do when he took out food to eat before he ran back out of the house past the Fler¡äs that didn''t even bother to ask where he was going anymore. Chapter 173 - Secret Forging Calling a shuttle, Jason felt restless due to the idea that formed in his head. Inwardly, he already apologized to Shane, as he would do something his master told him not to do in the meantime. However, Jason couldn''t wait anymore, as his daggers looked as if they would break anytime, which annoyed him extremely. How should be able to fight in the special combat class challenges without a personal weapon, he knew from the inside-out. It was still possible for him to use training weapons for the challenges, but it would be uncomfortable for him to handle, as most of these weapons were badly balanced and crudely forged. The same could be said for his tempered jade iron daggers, as the grip on his handle was not as comfortable as customized ones, which he could easily change now. Only 40 minutes later he arrived in front of the Artisan-tower which he entered after going through the Identity-check. Walking towards the reception, Jason saw someone familiar as he approached the woman that previously tried to make his way to an item appraiser more difficult. Upon seeing Jason walking towards her, she frowned as sweat pearls emerged, pouring down her temples. Trying to adjust her stance, she wanted to remain level-headed without indicating the anxiety that spread through her whole body. "Hello Sir, how may I help you out today?" She asked politely, without looking into his eyes in order to avoid anything that could annoy Jason. She had learned her lesson from last time and offending Jason could end up in a devastating accident. As such, she tried her best to do what Jason wanted, as long as it was within her possibilities. "Hello, I¡äd like to rent the best forging room for the next six hours if possible," Jason said, trying to sound nonchalant, as he noticed the women¡äs weird expression. "Is Sir aware of the fact that unregistered blacksmiths can only rent basic-forging rooms? If that isn''t enough I can only call a superior to request a special permission or Sir has to register within the Artisan tower and underwent the designated tests." The receptionist said hesitant, trying to sound as helpful as possible Hearing Jason sigh deeply, goosebumps covered her whole skin, which wondered Jason. "Well...Please call your superior if possible. Either of the Sharon¡äs should have high authority, right? Just tell them, Jason Stella, the youth that brought the cloud titanium anvil is there." Jason was still calm, even though the receptionist was astonished that he said "either of the Sharon''s" without any title, as it was impolite and rude. `How can he call our Artisan-tower president without his title?` She wondered but didn''t dare to say anything, as she was still afraid of him. She made a call directly towards the president''s secretary, who was even more astonished to receive such a call. But even if she was astonished, she decided to tell the president what happened, as she knew that the president could only reach the Grandmaster Blacksmith rank, which was called Rank-6 thanks to the cloud titanium anvil. This information was only known by a few important figures within the artisan tower and if the man at the reception was really the one he said he is, they shouldn¡ät offend him in any way. What astonished her, even more, was that when she told the president about the youth at the reception, he immediately jumped up to rush towards the reception, only to see Jason, with curiosity gleaming in his eyes. Jason noticed strong mana fluctuations approaching him fast, as Cheng appeared next to him, which astonished him a little bit. Greeting each other, they ignored the receptionist and other people in the surrounding, as Cheng immediately led him somewhere. "Do you want to trade, sell or purchase something?" Cheng asked, hoping to hear that Jason might sell something valuable once again, only to be surprised about Jason who shook his head, as he said "I want to rent a high-tier forging room in order to forge for the next few hours." Hearing this, Cheng was confused and he only nodded his head, until he noticed what Jason meant with his words. "What? You''re going to forge here? Why? Don''t you have a master with a forging room?" This shocked Cheng greatly and he felt a glimmer of hope igniting, only to be extinguished a second later. "My master doesn¡ät know I¡äm here, because he wouldn''t allow me to forge weapons now, because it''s too early...That''s why I need to rent a forging room here" Jason said, without really trying to hide anything. Cheng understood this, as he learned the basics longer than a year before he was even allowed to forge a weapon. However, there was a huge difference between Jason¡äs basics and the basics Cheng was thinking about, as he learned reduction and other methods of extraction ingots from ores and so on at first. Jason however, learned all of it through books and immediately started with perfectly cleansing ores while shaping them into bars. In the end, Jason¡äs way of learning things was completely different compared to the common path as his mana eyes and origin flame in addition to his almost perfect memory, he obtained through his brain refining, changed a lot. Thinking for a little bit, Cheng wanted to see Jason¡äs progress, as he was interested in the black-haired, golden-eyed youth in front of him. "You can use my private room at the top of the tower, or one of the high-ranked forging rooms underground free of charge, but can I observe your forging process? I''m kinda interested to see how your progress is.." Cheng sounded excited and Jason noticed that. However, Jason halted immediately in his steps, saying without hesitating for a single moment "That''s not possible!" If he let Cheng observe his forging process, his mana eye¡äs stage would be exposed. This wouldn''t be that bad per se, but the real problem would be his exposed black origin flame, which Jason didn''t want to show anyone right now. It was impossible to keep his origin flame as a secret forever, but with his current strength, it would be better to play rather lowkey. Cheng was taken aback to receive such a direct rejection, as he thought it wouldn''t be a problem for him to observe his forging technique. "Really?... Is there really no way for me to observe your forging technique?" He didn''t want to give up without trying it once more, as he looked into Jason''s eyes that looked as if he was pondering But what he heard shocked him even more. "It is possible for you to accompany me during my forging process, but only if you sign a soul contract with some extra paragraphs." "WHAT?!" Cheng couldn¡ät believe what he heard, but seeing Jason¡äs serious expression, he knew that the youth in front of him wasn''t joking a tiny bit. Seeing his seriousness about the matter, Cheng became even more curious about what Jason was hiding and he pondered if he should accept his demand or not. "You probably don''t want me to tell anyone what I¡äll see in the forging room, right? What exact extra paragraphs do you have in mind?" Chapter 174 - Quasi Jason was astonished to notice that Cheng was considering signing a soul contract with him, which he would have never imagined before. `Is he really that interested in my progress, or is it something else that attracted his attention?` he pondered and it might have been wrong for him to mention a soul contract that could have made Cheng curious. However, he already said so, and going back on his words could end up in a worse situation than letting the Artisan-tower president watch over his forging process after he signed the soul contract with him. Pondering for a second, Jason stated a few things he found important. "If you want to observe my forging process, you''re not allowed to tell anyone about it, which includes writing it down anywhere. Recording it and any other means to spread what you saw is also strictly forbidden. Furthermore, if anyone asked, you have never observed me forging anything within the Artisan tower. If the receptionist tells anyone about me trying to find a forging room, just tell them that you know me from your daughter and that you brought me to a forging room, because you took a liking to me. After a short chat I left, okay? Other than that, you should never try to find out who my master is or where I learned what I can do, alright? Ahh¡­ and additionally, everything we are talking about today will be kept a secret, forever!" Saying so, Jason released a thread of his soul, that was shaped into a piece of paper, as he wrote down the paragraphs he said before in an orderly manner. "If you agree to the previously stated things, please sign the contract and we can continue," Jason said, smiling brightly in order to lighten up the tension which builds up between both of them. He might be overbearing right now, but it was extremely important for him to not reveal his black origin flame at the moment, because he couldn''t protect himself, yet. Seeing Jason smile, released the tension accumulated within Cheng slightly, but the stated facts were more detailed than he thought, as he read through the almost transparent soul contract in front of him. They were slightly different than what Jason said, but the content was roughly the same. Everything stated, prevented him from leaking anything he would see and hear from Jason. Furthermore, it would be, as if he had never asked the youth in front of him to observe his forging process. As such, everything would be kept a secret from anybody. The only thing that annoyed him slightly was that it was a one-sided soul contract without any binding force towards Jason. Jason could also undo the soul contract if he wanted to, which was unlikely to happen. Pondering for a moment, Cheng noticed that he grew even more curious than before, as it was impossible for nothing special to happen if Jason tried too hard to keep everything a secret. As such, he signed the soul contract as his curiosity and impatience were the worst characteristics he had. After Cheng signed the contract, Jason sighed in relief, as it was the first time for him to do something like that. Small sweat pearls poured down his temples, but that was it and the tension between both of them almost immediately dissipated as they went towards Cheng¡äs private forging room on the highest floor. Walking towards the forging room, Jason noticed that there was not a single person who saw them, which wondered him quite a bit. Cheng noticed Jason looking around, as he explained to him. "There won''t be anyone who might see you, because the path towards my forging room is solely for me, because others distract me easily which is prevented like that. Sometimes an idea pops up in my head and I have to immediately try it out. After being multiple times distracted on my way towards the forging room, I told my secretary and everyone on the highest floor to keep the hallway towards my forging room free." Jason found this weird, but he only nodded his head as if he was agreeing to Cheng¡äs way of thinking, only to see enter the forging room, which was even larger than the one Shane had. But upon scanning through everything with his mana eyes, he felt disappointed. All tools, the force, smithy, and so on radiated a weaker color than he was already adjusted to all the time within Shane¡äs small and comfy forging room. Sighing deeply, Jason looked at Cheng with a piercing gaze as he asked "Can I begin now, or is there anything I should look after?" Seeing Jason so unbothered about the high-graded equipment he collected over the period of several dozen years felt upsetting, but he couldn''t say anything against him, as he estimated that Jason¡äs master was a higher-ranked Blacksmith than he was. "You can start whenever you want to, just treat everything here as if it belongs to you," Cheng said, as he saw Jason taking out dozens of basketball-sized jade iron ores. This was nothing special, but upon seeing a black flame igniting in Jason¡äs hand, the origin flame within him shrieked out in fear, before it floated as far as possible from the black flame Jason ignited while staying within Cheng¡äs soul world. `What is wrong?!?!` Cheng had never felt any emotion from his D-rank origin flame and now a deep sensation of fear and submission overwhelmed him. He didn''t know what was going on and roughly the same applied for Jason with an important contrast. His black origin flame transmitted him the desire to infiltrate Cheng in order to devour his origin flame, which worried Jason a little bit. Controlling it carefully, he began to perfectly cleanse the Jade iron ore after he extracted the ingot. Cheng took a few minutes to control his origin flame, as he roughly figured out why Jason didn''t want him to tell anyone about today''s happenings. `He also has an origin flame!!! And it has a much higher grade¡­ OMG...Isn''t he only 14 years old...HOW?!` Barely being able to think straight, Cheng couldn''t comprehend what exactly was going on, as his gaze returned back to Jason. Only to see Jason easily purifying the jade iron in front of him, as impurities and sludge were exhaled from the jade iron ingot just like that. There weren''t even many special hammer strikes Jason applied and Cheng only detected that Jason was using his mana extremely accurately in order to lead the impurities out of the jade iron bar, without hurting the mana conductivity. Upon seeing Jason exhaling the impurities within the jade-iron so easily, Cheng wondered if he was dreaming, when the black-haired youth suddenly began to strike the ingot into a rough dagger-like shape. Only now did Cheng realize something particular about the jade iron in Jason¡äs hand which caused him to blurt out "WHAT?!" before he regained his senses. `He can already perfectly cleanse a grade-1 ore? And in only 30 minutes at that¡­.Who is teaching this monster¡­.OMG If I could only tell someone¡­` Cheng regretted his decision to have signed the soul contract. Hours passed and Jason was fully focused on his forging process, and he even forgot that Cheng was present, when he took a look at the brightly green shining dagger in his hand that was 30 centimeters long and razor-sharp. Smiling while looking at his first well-done product, Jason saw the familiar faint black color radiating from it and he immediately knew that the dagger was already a top-grade-1 product which shocked him. It was only his second try to forge a weapon but his second try was already a few hundred times better than his first one, as he applied multiple newly acquired techniques in order to temper the blade better and produce a more aesthetic-looking dagger. While the backside of the dagger was shining in a dark green color, the sharp blade side had a lighter green thought and was sharpened extremely fine with an expensive whetstone. The handle was customized for himself and his right hand fitted almost perfectly into it, as he wrapped it into comfortable but tough evolved beast hide. Looking at the dagger in his hand once again, Jason felt that it was still not perfect for his first one, as he took out his perennial neoxid. There he firmly gripped the remaining inscription solution he had left from his runemaster basic exam, as he filled half of the content into the empty ballpoint that appeared in his hand. Cheng looked carefully at what Jason was doing all the time and the whole forging process went extremely smoothly as if the 14-years-old youth in front of him had been doing it for years. Immediately identifying the inscription solution in Jason¡äs hands, Cheng''s eyes widened as shock spread through his whole body. `Can he also inscribe runes on the dagger, without worsening the mana consumption which could destroy the whole blade? What monster did I found here¡­..WAIT!! Won¡ät his perfectly cleansed jade iron dagger be considered a quasi-Mana dagger if inscribed with suitable runes?` The more Cheng thought about what Jason did, the more shocked he became, as he noticed Jason smoothly inscribing two different kinds of runes on the dagger. It was the sharpness and toughness runes, Jason imprinted into his mind from the Goblin¡äs weapons. Finishing the process with his mana eyes activated all the time, he was satisfied with the result, as he injected mana into the blade, which brightened up with the runes gleaming in white light. ''He really manufactured a quasi-mana-dagger just like that, while only being 14 years old¡­` Cheng almost lost his reasoning, while looking at Jason who¡äs smile radiated the whole room in shock. Chapter 175 - True Meaning Of A Beast Cheng wasn''t sure what to think about Jason anymore, as the abilities he showcased couldn¡ät come from a normal 14-years-old youth that only began to learn any lifestyle occupation a few months ago. At least that''s what Antalia, his daughter told him when he asked her about Jason some time ago. This was because Jason¡äs knowledge he used to answer the artisan exam question were from the books about the basic lifestyle occupations the Artisan tower provided. Jason''s answers were almost solely from these books without any additional knowledge. As such, Cheng had to conclude that Jason¡äs knowledge was either only recently acquired or he intentionally tricked his daughter during the exam, which was more likely. `How long is he already learning the path of a blacksmith? And he is even an upcoming runemaster¡­. This youth is a Monster!!` Cheng looked at Jason slightly frightened, yet more jealous, as the capabilities of the youth in front of him were so much higher than his own, which was too shocking. However, Jason didn''t stop after the quasi-mana grade-1 dagger was finished, but rather than that, he took out another batch of jade iron ore, as he ignited his black origin flame once again. Forging another dagger, that was slightly curved and only 28 centimeters long for his sub-hand, he inscribed the same runes into it as he did with the first one. Holding up the finished product, Jason was perfectly satisfied with his result, even though his ambition told him to try forging a real mana weapon. However, to do so, Jason would have to mix certain ores with the perfectly purified Jade-iron and he wasn¡ät proficient in mixing an alloy while maintaining a high mana conductivity. The mana conductivity of real mana weapons had to be multiple times higher than the current daggers he crafted. However, even if that was the case, his quasi mana daggers were already able to pierce through evolved staged beast hide, which was more than enough for the moment. Maybe he could even inflict an injury through an unblemished beast hide as long as he injected enough mana, but it was unlikely. Having finished his hidden task, Jason wanted to go home, as he noticed Cheng looking at him almost lifelessly. Smiling lightly, Jason could only apologize for having wasted the artisan-tower president''s time, as he walked out of the forging room, after reminding Cheng about the soul contract once again. Cheng couldn¡ät even hear Jason, who already left the forging room silently, as he was lost in thoughts, thinking about this youngster''s capabilities. Regaining his senses after a long time, he only began to notice that there was nobody left with him, which left him a little bit disappointed, as he wanted to ask Jason way too many questions, which left him curious. Jason already sat within the shuttle practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique on his way to the Fler¡äs house. His soul energy felt energized and vigorous, which caused Jason to smile lightly, as he stepped out of the shuttle to enter the Fler¡äs house quietly because it was already past midnight. Everyone was either sleeping or absorbing mana and Jason didn''t want to bother anyone. As such, he went to his room with Artemis, who was squeezed on his shoulder. Jason wasn''t even aware of Artemis'' existence for the whole period since he arrived within the Artisan tower until he entered the shuttle and he had to listen to her complaining screeches for several dozen minutes until she finally calmed down. Washing up and changing his clothes, Jason slept soundly until he was woken up by Artemis quarreling about food the next morning. Jason already provided her unblemished and magical ranked mana cores which she digested extremely fast. This was rather bad news for his finances, as Jason wasn''t exactly sure how long he could hold out with the funds he received from the cloud titanium anvil he sold to Cheng. Most of the mana stones were already used up for Scorpio and the star notes were about to diminish slowly with his expenditures thanks to Artemis, even if it was barely noticeable. But even so, Jason shouldn''t have to worry about that too much, as he could sell perfectly purified ingots of all kinds of ores for multiple times the purchase price if he really were to go bankrupt. It was Monday morning and he practiced his Heaven¡äs Hell technique once again within the shuttle, as he arrived in front of the school gate. Even though Jason wasn''t sure if Dalia was fine or not, he wanted to look for her as he felt somewhat guilty because of what happened the day before. Arriving in front of the blue shining lake, Jason activated the covered rune, only to see the spatial portal appear at the same position as a day before. Artemis on his shoulder screeched out as he stepped through the portal into Shane and Dalia¡äs hideout. Seeing Shane in front of him with Dalia next to him, supported through Shane¡äs shoulder, Jason was immediately worried. Running towards them, he even forgot to greet them, as he blurred out "Master, how are you? Is everything okay? I¡äm so sorry about what happened...If I knew Scorpio would evolve during the mana core cleansing and cause such a chaotic and dangerous situation, I would have never asked you to help me out.." Jason sounded worried and continued to question her about her health, which caused her to smile weakly as she ruffled his hair. "Why are you so weak-willed? I offered my help and it''s not your fault. Rather than seeing it as something bad, shouldn''t we try to figure out what exactly happened? Isn''t it interesting that Scorpio began evolving without any materials which could help to initiate an evolution except the thick, condensed mana? Let¡äs both just take it as a lesson to prepare better for the next mana core cleansing. However, before that happens, Shane told me that Scorpio underwent an incomplete evolution! We have to evolve Scorpio in order to prevent possbile permanent injuries with the unknown possibility of a second evolution that could happen during the second cleansing. Scorpio has to finish his first evolution, which should be our first task for the next few days." Trying to stand firmly, she wavered for a moment, causing Shane to continue supporting Dalia as she continued "I heard you transferred the pain Scorpio had to endure to yourself, which saved its life. This was brave but also stupid. Please protect your own life before anyone else¡­. But Shane also told me you formed a fortified soul conjunction with your second soulbond because of that, which is an extremely rare opportunity. This can be considered a blessing in disguise, don''t you think so? " Dalia asked, but she didn''t even wait for Jason''s answer as she said "Can you please summon Scorpio? I want to figure out which evolution path he took or if it''s a new one?" Dalia¡äs voice sounded extremely curious and impatient, which wondered Jason slightly, while Shane sighed deeply. She was extremely excited, even though she felt weak, as Scorpio could have evolved into an unknown race as Artemis did. Seeing Artemis once again, her eyes glowed too, but unfortunately, she wouldn''t let Dalia come too close to her in order to test her throughout. It seemed as if Dalia could be compared to a sponge, as long as it had something to do with beasts, their habits, way of living, evolution paths, mutations, ingredients that could help beasts to evolve, their potential and so much more. Each theme was more interesting than another and Dalia¡äs knowledge about beasts was much higher than anything else, caused by her thirst to know everything about beasts. Neither Jason nor Shane knew where this thirst came from and both asked themselves if the true meaning of a beast creator was this incomprehensible thirst to understand more every cell within beasts. Chapter 176 - Favor Summoning Scorpio, Dalia walked toward it with small steps, while she received support from Shane. He couldn¡ät hinder her in doing whatever she wanted, as such Shane decided to be the pillar to support her, in every decision she took. There was nothing else he could do. "Ohh!!...Interesting¡­.but how? Is it thanks to the compressed mana, in addition, to forcefully cleansing its mana core, or is there something else the cause for this lightly shining sapphire-colored exoskeleton?...." Shane and Jason could only hear Dalia mumbling stuff to herself as she continued to inspect Scorpio while releasing her weakened mana in order to detect the minute details. Turning to Jason, she asked "Can I draw out some of its blood in order to make a more in-depth test? I¡äm already relatively sure what race your small soulbond is, but I could also be wrong with it having a unique variation mutation, which I want to find out." Nodding his head, Jason transmitted the thought to Scorpio, who looked at him as if he was betrayed, as a small syringe appeared in Dalia¡äs hand. Drawing out Scorpio¡äs blood, Jason just transmitted the pain his soulbond received to himself in order to lessen his soulbond¡äs thoughts about a betrayal. When Dalia was done, she turned to Jason or rather Artemis with the same desire and curiosity gleaming in her eyes. "Artemis...my dear cute princess¡­.Can I also have some of your blood?" Dalia asked, trying to suck up to her but everything was useless as Artemis screeched out, rejected the proposal without hesitating for a single second. She didn''t want anyone except Jason to touch her and drawing blood out of her was even less thinkable for her¡­ Jason smiled only at Artemis'' reaction and he knew that she didn''t like it, even though he was also curious about the test result Artemis could bring. The amount of mana within her blood increased substantially and if this continued for good, Artemis¡ä mana and blood would be completely fused, enhancing every body part, without her doing anything at all. With this, she would most likely even be able to defeat beasts stronger than her, as long as she didn¡ät have an innate disadvantage. But even if that was the case, Jason wouldn¡ät force Artemis to do a test, she didn''t want to. Dalia left Jason and Artemis with a dejected face, before she took out a small and compact testing machine, which would test Scorpio¡äs blood in order to find out similarities or contrast compared to certain other beasts. The test would take some time and Jason remembered Greg¡äs situation suddenly, as he voiced out his concern. Clearing his throat, he felt noticeably uncomfortable as he started "Master...I didn''t want to hide the fact that Scorpio evolved from the Fler''s, because it would be a hassle and Greg, a good friend of mine who helped me out to come to Cyro-City has a reinforced-horned bull, with a sealed Lesser Minotaur bloodline. Figuring out that I met a beast-creator, they asked me If I could ask you, the mysterious beast-creator I created if there was a way for you to help Greg¡äs soulbond to unseal his bloodline¡­ I also want to help him, but I''m not sure if you can or want to help out¡­" Dalia looked at him without any noticeable emotions which made Jason feel even more uncomfortable, as she said "Well..helping out your friend shouldn''t be a problem. If his non-elemental bull has a sealed bloodline, it won''t be that much of an issue to unseal it, as long it¡äs determination, pain-resistance, and the correct resources are provided. If you have the bull¡äs data, you can show them to me, and I¡äll tell you what ingredients I need to concoct the evolution solution, it will need. to evolve As long as they have the resources, I¡äll be able to concoct a potion or pellet in order to ignite the sealed bloodline. With that, the bull will have to endure endless pain like Scorpio did, as it will undergo a small transformation. The most important fact for this transformation will be the amount of mana in the surrounding. With enough mana, it might even finish its evolution directly, but the required amount is extremely vast, as you might have already noticed. As such, Greg and the Fler¡äs should already start to collect a mountain of mana stones in addition to the magical treasures, I¡äll name later. This will take a rather long time even for above-average households. In the end, a slow unsealing process should be easier but more painful for both Greg and his soulbond to endure. Even so, it''s the faster process, as the bull will metamorphosis and enter a maturity process once again, exactly like your two soulbonds" When Dalia finished, she looked at Jason, who showed multiple emotions at the same time. On one side, he was extremely happy for Greg to be able to evolve or rather unseal his soulbond¡äs bloodline, but if his friend had to endure the same pain as he did, it would be a devastating process. In the end, it could even harm Greg¡äs mental health, but Jason was confident in his friend''s endurance. As such, everything was fine, as he sent Dalia the newest data about Taurus, Greg¡äs soulbond. Reading through the data, an "Ohh" escaped her, as she read through the data slower, in order to memorize everything. Two minutes later, her gaze returned to Jason, as she said "Well... This will be easier than I thought...Your friend¡äs soulbond has already started to unseal its hidden bloodline, probably without even noticing it. As such, the required resources will be less while the ignition of its bloodline will be less painful, even though the metamorphosis will stay the same." Hearing this, Jason was astonished and he suddenly remembered the day, when the special combat classes started. `Was it then?` He asked himself, as he remembered that Greg was even capable of obtaining a special combat class seat within the main Vanguard school, even though he barely entered the 4th Adept rank that time. This had to be the answer and Jason felt enlightened after understanding the reasoning behind Greg¡äs special combat class seat ranking he accomplished in the beginning. Greg was most likely still unaware of this, as he was thrown out of the special combat class seat ranking and unable to retrieve it again. Jason was deep in thought and didn''t even hear a single *PIEEP*, that came from the small compact blood testing machine. Only when he heard Dalia exclaiming cheerfully, Jason looked up, only to see a holographic screen in front of his cheerful master. Shane was also astonished to see Dalia being so cheerful, even though he was weak, as she said "Jason, you''re really fortunate, I don''t really know exactly why or how Scorpio did it, but his evolution path is exceptional. If I¡äm not mistaken, Scorpio will evolve into a Radiant Sapphire Scorpion, which is a Magical ranked beast, if enough potential and resources are given...you''re truly fortunate!" "HUH?" Shane and Jason exclaimed at the same time as both couldn¡ät believe what happened right now. I created a Discord-Server with Artworks(coming soon), giveaways(coins), and the opportunity to chat with each other (link in the comments) Chapter 177 - Radiant Sapphire Scorpion Jason was astonished to figure out that Scorpio evolved straight into a beast that can reach the Magical rank, without any intermediate evolution. But there was something only he knew, which was the only thing that plummeted his mood slightly Even though Scorpio was only an Incomplete radiant-sapphire scorpion right now, it had the potential of an unblemished ranked beast. This meant, even if Scorpio evolved, it could at most reach the peak Unblemished rank, without having its mana core cleansed once again. Nevertheless, figuring out that his second soulbond already reached such a high evolution from it initially being a three-star wild miniature Parascor. Jason only fed it the holy-white bacuri fruit in order to enhance the potential to the awakened rank and now Scorpio already reached the potential of an Unblemished beast? He couldn''t believe what he saw and Dalia said, while his storage device had only a bunch of high-graded mana stones left. Dalia¡äs special constitution was extremely beneficial, but the resources it required were even more terrifying and Jason was unsure how long it would take for him to enhance Scorpio higher than his current potential, as the demanded mana only increased exponentially. But rather than focusing too much on that, Jason had other issues as collecting a huge amount of mana stones in order to cleanse Scorpio¡äs mana core even more. Doing so would be a waste of time for now and rather than doing that, Jason would have to collect funds in order to purchase the required materials to evolve Scorpio. Additionally, there was Artemis, who he had to feed magical ranked mana cores, which were also expensive. In the end, Jason was in a dire need of funds, and forging weapons would be the easiest way to provide him with that as he looked at Shane with his eyes that spread from dire need. Shane also figured out that Jason¡äs fortune would diminish extremely fast after the mana core cleansing, but figuring out that his disciple also had to provide his second soulbond with high-graded magical treasure would end up with a large hole in his little disciple''s wallet. Noticing Jason¡äs gaze, Shane only nodded lightly, before adverting his attention back to Dalia, who looked weak, yet energized. Thinking about ways to improve his financial issue, Jason also thought about the Big-Three tournament which rewarded the top students with many rare and more importantly, expensive magical treasures, he could batter or sell in order to receive the things he needed. Meanwhile, Scorpio felt uncomfortable because of Dalia¡äs gaze, as he ran back to Jason, only for a green-blueish magic circle to appear below it. Entering the soul world, Scorpio felt immediately better as the soul world was his home, that no stranger could infiltrate. The only problem he had inside the soul world was the terrifying and eerie aura, radiating from the Black Origin flame, causing Scorpio to feel weird and uncomfortable, the closer he came to it. As long as Scorpio maintained a certain distance to the Black flame in the center of the soul world, everything was fine and fortunately for him was that the soul world was vast, providing more than enough space to stay. It was still early in the morning and after Dalia¡äs curiosity was mostly satiated, she provided Jason with the materials required to unseal a non-elemental Magical ranked bloodline for the Fler¡äs to collect them. She didn''t care if others find out what ingredients exactly were needed to unseal Greg¡äs soulbonds bloodline, as the method to concoct everything together was only in her mind, while many other high-ranked beast-creators might use different approaches to unseal a non-elemental beast¡äs bloodline. Reading through the list Dalia sent him, Jason figured out that he knew most of these materials, but their price was astronomical due to their scarcity. `Well¡­ It seems as if the Fler¡äs have to suffer for some time now.` He thought while smiling dryly, as he noticed since a few weeks ago, that Mark and Gabriella were at home all the time, not minding to hunt or catch any beasts in order to gain credits. This would most likely change now as the Fler¡äs would have to work hard in order to provide Greg with some financial aid. If they didn¡ät provide any financial aid to Greg, it would take years for him to gather enough funds which would decrease his overall progress by a lot. Even with their help, it would probably take a few months to gather the funds. Suddenly, Jason noticed that he received another list from Dalia, and the content written inside the file were magical ingredients that were even more expensive, causing him to frown deeply. Sighing out, he immediately knew that the second list of magical ingredients was required for Scorpio to finish his evolution, instead of staying incomplete. From his initial 1000 star notes, Jason used 300 in order to purchase new self-cleaning clothes, magical ranked mana stones, and much more, while the mana stones he had were redacted to 5% from their prior mountain. Even so, it would still be enough for him to hasten up his cultivation process if wanted or for Scorpio to absorb it in order to strengthen itself for quite some time. As such, Jason wanted to use only 500 star-notes from his funds at most, in order to purchase the high-ranked magical ingredients, which was roughly half of what he most likely needed to obtain everything needed. As such, there was still a need of 500 star notes or 50.000.000.000 Credits. Thinking for quite some time, Jason wondered how much he could receive from a perfectly purified grade-1 bar or even a quasi-mana weapon, as he opened the online shop in order to start a small research. For one of his quasi-mana peak-grade-1 dagger, Jason could receive roughly 500.000 credits, due to its status as a quasi mana weapon. If it were a real mana weapon, its damage output and even more so the price would soar tenfold if not more. Calculating with his current capabilities, Jason could forge a quasi-mana grade-1 weapon rather easily within four hours without accident. But even so, Jason¡äs mood was extremely bad, as he continued his calculation `If I have to produce 10.000 weapons like my dagger, I¡äll need 40.000 hours or 1.666 days, without any sleep!!!!!` "NOOO!!" Jason cried out attracting Shane¡äs attention, as he saw his terrified gaze. Smiling knowingly, Jason immediately figured out that Shane felt with him, which didn¡ät mean he would supply him with financial aid. Rather than that, Shane wanted Jason to grow stronger faster and one had to fail in order to stand back up. Without failure there won''t be success and Shane was sure this challenge would be important for him to overcome. Jason could also take an easier path, by selling a large number of herbs and ore he stockpiled, but this would be too easy and hinder his future progress. As such, Shane didn''t say anything at all, while holding Dalia who was also aware of Jason¡äs current thoughts. Chapter 178 - Materializing Rift Even though it was still morning, Jason wanted to go into the forging room to perfectly purify as many jade iron bars as possible in order to craft a dagger, only to make some inscription solutions as soon as possible. However, before he could do so, the ground below them shook violently, while the lake above them became restless. His view blurred by the sudden appearance of high-density mana fluctuation that came out of nowhere from further away, as he looked up to Shane and Dalia, who seemed to be as shocked as he was. The fluctuation increased, even more, causing an indestructible pressure and Jason was barely able to turn towards the direction he sensed the fluctuations, as his mana eyes detected something extremely weird dozens of kilometers far away. Normally, he could barely see mana fluctuation one kilometer away from him and the only exception was the mana vein below Cyro-City as it was hundreds of kilometers below the city, while Jason could still see it. This was solely thanks to the massive amount of pure and compressed mana which shocked him initially. However, the bigger issue right now was, that Jason saw a small dot, dozen of kilometers away from his current position, enlarging, while the density he perceived seemed to grow thicker and thicker. "F**k" Jason blurted out and his masters noticed him looking straight towards the direction they discerned the mana fluctuations, as Shane sighed deeply before asking. "Can you see a ^blueish-black dot with an extremely thick mana density and high purity?" Jason wanted to answer and turn around but he was unable to look away from the current scenario that happened far away, as he only said "Yes...This dot is also enlarging", before he could once again hear a deep sigh. However, now both Shane and Dalia were sighing, which made Jason curious as he was about to ask when Shane said. "If my senses are not rusted due to my old age, these fluctuations and the black dot you can see is the manifestation of a temporary rift. Weird is only the position of the rift¡­.It''s in the central area of the outer district, exactly where the Goblins destroyed everything¡­." Hearing what Shane said, Jason was shocked, but his gaze was still drawn to the enlarging dot, which¡äs inner part seemed to contain a complex but bewitching effect. If this rift was above the five-star rating and a Hell-rated rift, Cyro-City might even face annihilation. As far as Jason knew, one-star rifts could only connect planes with an average combat prowess of wild stage beasts with many unranked and awakened beasts to Argos. In the end, the ratings from one- to four-star were exactly the same for both rifts and wild zones, while five-star rifts had magical ranked beasts as an average combat prowess with many unblemished and guardian ranked beasts habituating the planes, world, or whatever they were connected to. The main problem for Astrix¡äs overall situation would only appear, once a Hell-ranked temporary rift appeared. As for the highest-ranking for rifts, called abyss, Jason didn''t even want to imagine what kind of terrifying existences could habitat the other side of the rift. Hell-ranked rifts were innate different to the star ranks, as the average combat prowess was unknown, due to an equal number of Guardian- and Lord-ranked beings inside. If that was everything, humanity''s most promising prodigies could venture inside to make a huge fortune, but there was a certain problem. Within Hell-ranked rifts, there were even Monarch-ranked beings, that were equal or rather stronger than Sovereign-ranked humans, who solidified a prismarine crystal within their mana core. Jason only found out what the rank after the Lord-rank was after pestering his master for a long time. Additionally, he figured out that Shane was one of the most powerful beings, humanity had, while only a small number was more powerful than him several dozen years ago, before he had to flee. He was also not sure what the next rank could be called, but Shane was relatively sure that there has yet to be a new rank to be discovered with the construction of multiple prismarine crystals within the mana core. If even Hell-ranked rifts had Monarch-ranked beasts, what about Abyss-ranked rifts? Even Monarch-ranked beasts might as well be stronger than the most powerful humans due to the increasing gap in human''s innate strength to beast¡äs that naturally happened with the increase of one''s strength He didn''t even want to imagine what Abyss-ranked rifts could bring to humanity if such a rift appeared on Canir or on the Archipelago. As long as humans didn''t have multiple Lord or one Monarch ranked beast, their strength would remain weaker than the opposite beast. Shane also told him that there was one time a Monarch-ranked beast wreaked havoc on Canir and only thanks to the collaboration of multiple big families was it possible to force the Monarch-ranked individual to retreat. Jason was shocked when he heard this, but it was not difficult to understand that humanity was at the bottom of the food chain after the foreign intelligent races emerged, due to humanity''s inability to wield mana at that time. Thinking about the foreign intelligent races, Jason wondered how strong they truly were, as only a few individuals of several races invaded humanity at once, while he himself had never seen any of them in person. Due to his knowledge, Jason felt an unknown fear spreading through every cell in his body, as he noticed Shane calming down, which could only be advantageous for Astrix¡äs citizens. Hearing him sight in relief, Jason decided to avert his gaze from the materializing rift. Noticing his disciple looking at him, Shane began to explain. "The rift you can see is most likely only a four-star rift with unblemished beasts as its main combat prowess. However, I can¡ät be sure of that for now, because I''m too far away for me to perceive minute details. Let''s just hope I''m right, otherwise, Cyro-city will suffer too many casualties if the rift is a five-star At least Astrix will survive, as long as there won''t be a Hell-ranked temporary rift." Looking him straight into the eyes, Shane seemed curious about the temporary rift, as he announced "Let''s take a look. I can transport all of us there¡­" He didn''t even finish his words, as a large spatial portal appeared in front of them, with Shane grabbing Jason and Artemis with his released mana, while he coiled his arm around Dalia¡äs waist. "Let¡äs go!!" Chapter 179 - Restrictions Unaware of what would happen the next moment, Jason was dragged through the spatial portal with Artemis, as they appeared within a devastated area, not far from Cyro-City''s destroyed walls. There were many destroyed buildings around them with many areas without the slightest intact constructions, while a dense and compressed mana compound could be seen by everyone¡äs eyes in the sky, only ten meters above the ground. With his special mana eyes, Jason could immediately tell that the mana density was extremely high, which terrified him a little bit, as he hadn''t seen anything comparable from any kind of beast. Even the Goblin King¡äs compressed mana seemed to be an infant in comparison and he concluded that it was because constructing a connection with the other side, required a lot of mana. This mana connection was called world-bridge by many and Jason liked this name, even though the result was terrifying as the rift in front of him seemed to be at least at the four-star ranking, which meant the other side of the world-bridge had an unblemished beast as it¡äs average combat prowess, while many beasts would be at the magical rank. In the end, he thought even a four-star ranking could be devastating for Cyro-City because it was unknown how many beasts could suddenly emerge from the temporary rift if there would even be a single one to begin with. While Jason could only look at the materializing rift in awe, Shane enveloped all of them in a thick darkness coat that would envelop them in order to cover their whereabouts. Shane slowly approached the rift, while he and Dalia remained at their current position. According to his eyes, the whole mana density intensified as the purity increased, while the dot-shaped mana fluctuations tore apart space while increasing in size. The torn space looked completely different to Shane¡äs ability, as Jason could see a thick mana stream behind the dot-shaped construction building up slowly, as a landscape came into view. There was also something else within the infant-state rift, but Jason was unable to perceive was it was. He could only barely see three different colors, radiating from deep within the rift, a golden somewhat familiar color, a silver, mysterious color, and an eerie and perilous black color. Somehow, they looked like the purest form of affinities, he noticed within his soul world, but Jason was unsure of this fact, and wouldn''t dare to utter nonsense towards his masters, who looked extremely serious. While Shane inspected the materializing rift, other humans could be seen rushing towards the rift with a terrifying speed, while wings could be seen on their back, or lower bodies of agility-typed beasts. Scanning them with his mana eyes, Jason could tell that their strength was almost comparable to Till¡äs as he estimated that their strength might be still at the Grandmagus rank, infinitely close to the Lord rank. Fortunately, they couldn¡ät perceive them thanks to Shane¡äs thick darkness coat which enveloped them completely. While Shane inspected the materializing rift from a short distance, the Grandmagus''s that arrived a few seconds ago, decided to maintain a certain distance while taking out a few machines from their spatial rings in order to test the rift. More than a minute passed as Shane came back to them, when the Grandmagus ranked humans surrounded the rift with the oddly shaped machines in their hands, they activated. A weirdly shaped dome was constructed as Jason could visible see the runes within the dome, causing him to wonder what the hell these Grandmagus were doing, as Shane said "Let¡äs go back. I¡äve inspected the rift wholly and figured out the most important things. It''s definitely weird, but on the other side, it might even bring unforeseen treasures...who knows With this being said, Shane opened a spatial portal, where all of them went through, while Jason couldn''t take his gaze from the materializing gaze in front of him. There was something about it that attracted his attention but Jason wasn''t exactly sure what it was, as he stepped through Shane¡äs spatial portal, only to appear a few dozen kilometers away from the thick mana fluctuations. Jason was still unable to take his gaze from the mana fluctuations, as Shane¡äs voice could be heard behind him. "If you want to know more about the rift, you should at least look at me, while speaking, is that too much to ask demand you?" Shane said, almost lamenting about Jason¡äs behavior as he turned around without hesitation. Even if the materializing rift in front of him was bewitching and extreemly interesting, receiving information about it was much more important than just plainly looking at the whole materialization process. After noticing that, Jason¡äs whole attention was on him, Shane began to explain everything he comprehended within a short amount of time. "My previous estimation about the materializing rift is certainly correct, as the fluctuations are comparable to four-star rifts, I''ve seen often enough before. But there is something that makes me uncertain about the whole process. If my comprehension is not completely wrong, Magus-ranked humans or Magical-ranked beings will be unable to venture through the temporary rift, which will inevidently restrict the opportunities for either side by a huge margin. If neither humans at the Magus rank or Magical-ranked beasts can enter the opposite side, only unblemished-, master- or individuals below these ranks would be able to enter the temporary rift. Otherwise, it might be problematic for the space tunnel, the rift creates to maintain its stability, which is something beasts instinctively avoid, while we already had our own incidents with such cases. This would restrict both sides but it could also end up as an opportunity for us because the strongest foe to face on the other side of the four-star temporary rift should be magical ranked beasts that can be avoided through certain detours of high-density areas." Hearing this, Jason was astonished as he had never heard anything about restrictions from rifts, which caused him to look a little bit confused, which Shane noticed, as he calmly explained. "Jason, you might not be aware of the importance of restrictions, but humanity probably survived only thanks to them, as an Abyssal-ranked temporary rift appeared within Canir more than one century ago, shocking every single being on the continent due to the portal¡äs sheer size. Fortunately, only a few Monarch-ranked beasts were able to squeeze themselves through the rift''s restrictions, while humanity was barely able to get the hang of the calamity these individuals caused. Every rift has its own restrictions due to the accumulated mana it innately has and apparently Cyro-City is extremely lucky with the restrictions preventing any magical ranked beasts to emerge out of the portal, as some rare and terrifying existences might even be able to conceal themselves and venture through the city, without anyone noticing them until it would be too late. At the beginning of the mana outbreak, temporary rifts were one of the most devastating occurrences that could happen to humanity, and only now, we can roughly understand their rankings and restrictions. If Cyro-City were to be the center point of an abyss-ranked rift, we would immediately flee without looking back to Astrix ever again, because the dangers wouldn''t be worth the possible benefits. With this four-star rift, however, there might be a chance for some Master-ranked human prodigies to gain many benefits by venturing into the temporary rift, even if its definitely dangerous, which goes without question" Listening carefully to Shane, Jason¡äs curiosity about temporary rifts grew, as many ideas flashed in his mind, as he asked. "Is it suicidal for me to enter the four-star rift too? Or might I even gain a lot from it? What about the period the temporary right will open? Is there a way to figure out how long a temporary rift remains open to venture through?" Some questions that tormented his mind, blurred out of Jason without him realizing, as he looked at Shane with an expectant gaze, waiting to receive answers Chapter 180 - School Announcement Looking straight into Shane¡äs eyes, Jason was expectant to receive a pleasant answer however, unfortunately, he was left disappointed with Shane serious explaining "You shouldn¡ät even remotely think about entering a four-star rift with your current combat prowess. You''re simply too weak, and you can at most defeat weaker evolved ranked beasts thanks to your elemental affinity. However, their strength is multiple times higher than yours, while they can retort with their own affinity attacks! If you can''t defeat an unblemished beast, your life will be under a constant threat, without a high chance to survive. Trying to adventure through the rift for the sole reason to find treasures that will solve your financial problem is stupid and arrogant. Even fighting against beasts at the same rank, you shouldn''t be too full of yourself.. With your physique and mana core size, you¡äll be able to fight mid-awakened beasts easily, but without your affinity, even peak-awakened and the weakest evolved ranked beasts will tear you apart as if you''re a piece of paper." This was definitely not what Jason wanted to hear and his facial expression showed this, causing Shane and Dalia to smile dryly, as they could roughly understand their disciple''s reasoning. When Shane continued, Jason¡äs facial expression soured even more. "The four-star rift is only a temporary one which will dematerialize in a month from now on. Within a month you¡äll never be able to reach the required strength to survive on the other side. I¡äm sorry, but you won''t be able to use this opportunity!" Even though Jason was stubborn, it would be stupid for him to enter the rift just like that. But it still hurt his heart slightly, as he wanted to experience how the other side of the rift would look like. `Were there buildings from other civilized races, or only nature in its purest form? What kind of unknown magical treasures, beasts, herbs, ores, and mysterious things exist there? ` He wanted to know everything and reading books solely began to bore him, as it was a one-sided action without pushing his adrenaline higher. In the last weeks, he hadn''t left Cyro-City for a single time with the last adventure being his journey through the goblin settlement. He felt as if he was imprisoned within Cyro-City, even if he had more than enough tasks to focus on. If he continued everything according to his own plan by increasing his combat prowess as well as possible, without being hindered, he wouldn''t leave the dome for quite some time. But was that really what he wanted? If Jason was honest, he wasn''t sure what he wanted to do because it was obviously extremely dangerous in a place with unblemished ranked beast as the average combat strength Even so, Jason grew more curious about the other side, and he tried to find a solution to satiate his desire, without doing anything suicidal. For him, it felt like the last few weeks were just too one-sided with his affinity training, forging, Heaven''s Hell practice, and so on. There was an indestructible demotivation spreading slowly through every inch inside his body, planting inside his heart which only Jason could feel. Jason was sure, if there wasn''t a change in his schedule soon, he would go insane or maybe feel unmotivated to do anything at all. After discussing and explaining the incident about the sudden materializing rift with other facts that involved the rift''s appearance, Jason understood rifts much more. Because it was still early, he had more than enough time to cleanse other grade-1 ores into purified bars in order to become more proficient with the different types of cleansing processes with all kinds of ores, which was necessary to build a strong foundation. Time passed slowly and it was already lunchtime when he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique inside his soul world in order to increase his soul energy to 154.8 units. Thanks to Artemis and Scorpio¡äs high demand on soul energy, Jason was required to have 200 soul energy units in order to store both of his soulbonds inside his soul world, with an additional 0.01 soul energy unit for his black origin flame, which lustfully gazed at the vacant soul energy inside his soul world. His black origin flame was already extremely powerful without having annexed a single soul energy unit and Jason wanted to nourish it with soul energy. The only problem was that he wanted to take one step after another. If his black origin flame could enhance his physique and mana core size without a baptism, Jason would ponder what to do, but according to Dalia, the only time he would receive an increase in strength and mana core size would come with each baptism, while the flame¡äs capabilities would increase with the quantity of soul energy units it annexed. Thinking about his black origin flame, Jason remembered something he wanted to check, as he entered his soul world once again. Previously, he wasn''t sure if the black origin flame was comparable to a normal soulbond because it required a normal soulbond contract, but after checking what he wanted to figure out, Jason was astonished to see that the thin connection between him and the black origin flame became thicker, even if he already expected this outcome. His eyes widened and his mind was tormented with multiple questions, as a "huh?" escaped from him, which was noticed by Shane and Dalia due to their high mana core rank and exceptional senses. They would never distract their disciple during his soul energy refining process, but it seemed as if he was done, as they came closer to Jason. "What¡äs wrong Jason? Is there an obstacle or something, hindering you in your Heaven''s Hell practice, or has something else happened?" Dalia asked while Shane stood next to her equally curious, as Jason looked straight into Dalia¡äs eyes. Without trying to hide anything, Jason¡äs curiosity about a certain question filled his whole mind, overwhelming the other questions by a large margin. "Is it possible for an origin flame to establish a fortified soul conjunction?" He asked, because the connection between him and the origin flame became thicker, which indicated that not only the communication between them intensified but also their trust, which sounded weird to Jason. Nodding her head, Dalia pondered how to answer this question in order to satiate Jason¡äs curiosity, because his eyes seemed to pierce her with his thirst for knowledge. "Well...That''s difficult to answer...Yes, because the connection between the contractor and soulbond origin flame will be strengthened with the compatibility between both increased due to constant usage. At the same time, I want to answer this with a no, because even after using my silver origin flame for more than a hundred years, I wasn''t able to establish a fortified conjunction with it and I haven''t heard about a single human capable of doing something like that. Nobody knows if it is really possible, but according to our knowledge about the soul world and soulbonds'', it should be. Some tried to experiment with their origin flame in order to establish a fortified soul conjunction without any results. As such, humanity gave up on their experiments for the time being, until everything about the constant threat of foreign intelligent races and strong beasts, would lessen around them with a tranquil ground to continue experimenting. A few theorists think that the innate compatibility of one''s soul world towards the particular origin flame is important, while other theorists say that the constant usage of the origin flame would be the final solution." Jason nodded his head, after listening, as he remembered his soul world trembling when it perceived the existence of the unawakened black origin flame. `Was that a sign?` he wondered, but there was obviously no answer and he could only disregard this thought for the time being, as his quantum bracelet vibrated violently. Looking at his quantum bracelet, he noticed that it was only an announcement from the Vanguard, school, which he wanted to disregard, as he subtly glanced at the content. [School announcement: Special combat classes will be canceled for the next three days. Normal combat classes will be continued with the Special combat class seats joining them.] `Is that because of the four-star rift?` Jason asked himself, with the weird feeling that the next few days could change a lot for him. Chapter 181 - Opportunity Reading through the message, Jason was sure that the news about the sudden materializing rift already spread through Cyro-City. He couldn''t really comprehend what exactly the rift had to do with the special combat class and the need to cancel it for the next few days, but he would find out sooner or later. Because it was already time to go to school, Shane opened a spatial portal for him to leave the underwater hideout safely. Appearing in front of the blue shining lake, Jason turned towards the school¡äs direction, before he started to run in order to loosen up his muscles. While running, Jason tried circulating his mana through the body while utilizing his affinities at the same time. Doing so would make it easier for him to comprehend the best way to move around while circulating his mana and utilizing affinities at the same time. Learning this was important to increase his combat prowess in the future, as stopping in his tracks to utilize an affinity perfectly was a waste of time and could lead to serious injuries. Jason didn''t like wasting any potential or opportunities, which caused him to practice multitasking with many different actions at the same time for the remaining weeks. It was extremely difficult, but he slowly began to see the first results, because there was no need to stop running while utilizing his affinities anymore, even though his capabilities were still limited to a certain extent. Still, Jason was quite satisfied with his combat prowess that slowly increased with time passing. Thinking back on his strength four months ago, he felt even better, as he already began to overwhelm some of the stronger peers within his school. There was still a long way for him to go in order to be comparable with prodigies from either Astrix, another archipelago, or Canir, but Jason was more than confident in doing so, thanks to his unique soul and special eyes. Arriving at the combat arena, there were many students from all years in front of the door, gossiping with each other and he could hear that almost everyone talked about the canceled special combat class and rumors about a materializing rift. Jason was also curious about the other students'' opinions in the beginning, but this changed once he figured out that not a single one had any proven information. Furthermore, they exaggerated the facts they heard and Jason also noticed certain students uttering complete nonsense about the appearance of an Abyss-ranked rift. Even the most naive student understood that it was extremely unlikely if not impossible for an Abyss-ranked rift to appear within the dome without turning the whole island into a state of chaos. Furthermore, the amount of mana required to materialize such a rift would probably drain the complete mana vein below Cyro-City or maybe even Astrix completely without leaving a single mana particle behind. If there was a real threat to Cyro-City, there wouldn''t have been such a school announcement, as the normal combat classes wouldn¡ät go on just like that. While some students walked inside the combat arena towards their designated hall, Jason decided to do the same, because he couldn''t bear with the idiotic gossip he heard from the surrounding. Seeing his classmates, Jason smiled lightly, as it had been quite some time since he saw them, while Artemis attracted a lot of attention, causing the surrounding youths to gather around him. There were times that he disliked Artemis'' special appearance and right now was such a moment, as he didn''t want to attract unnecessary attention to himself. From further away he noticed his class¡äs top students glaring at him, while Leo didn¡ät look about Jason at all, because he also entered the special combat class as the only top student. He knew about Jason¡äs and Seron¡äs combat prowess which shocked him extremely but more than that, it strengthened his resolve to become stronger. This accelerated his mana absorption speed by a large margin, as he focused much more, allowing him to enter the 7th Adept rank after enduring the boring mana absorption and refining process for multiple hours a day. With his soulbond, his strength was comparable to an 8th Adept, almost a common 9th Adept rank, while his combat prowess was nothing to joke at. But even if that was the case, he wouldn''t dare to challenge Jason, because he noticed that this black-haired classmate with golden eyes was just too monstrous. With his elemental affinities, he could easily defeat individuals at the same rank, while Jason¡äs physique seemed to have reached the high adept rank, even though his mana core was barely at the 3rd Adept rank. Leo didn''t fear Jason, but there was a deep sensation of respect and admiration within him since he fought against Jason who activated the abyssal effect from his eyes on him. After escaping the perilous bewitching the abyssal effect caused, Leo was able to think much calmer, without accumulating too much rage, as his prior anger management was somewhat unstable and easier to burst out instead of him being able to calm down. Meanwhile, the other students gazed at Jason with disdain, as he was favored by their teacher in their opinion while the exact same applied for Seron. Before they could do anything, Mr.Greil arrived at their combat arena hall, causing the whole hall to quiet down within seconds, as everyone clearly remembered the terrifying mana amplified finger snaps. Suddenly, Jason noticed Seron appearing next to him with an expectant expression, causing him to wonder what exactly was about to happen. Clearing his throat, Till announced. "Hello, dear students of Class 54. It''s been a long time since I taught your combat class and I was told to do that for the next few days once again. But before that, everyone should be curious about the recent events and if there really is a materializing rift within Cyro-City, as the rumors said. The answer is simple: Yes there is, but we are fortunate enough because it is only a four-star rift with restrictions preventing individuals stronger than the Magus and magical rank to enter or leave the rift. This means Cyro-City won''t have to face another incident comparable to the goblin attack, as long as the military observes the rift. As all of you should already know because it''s common knowledge, most rifts that connect other plans to Igra have many treasures due to their thick and compressed mana on the other side. Some of you might want to give it a try on the other side. Keep in mind that your strength is nothing compared to the average combat prowess inside the four-star rift. Maybe the more powerful third-grade students will enter the four-star rift due to their high combat prowess, which allows them to kill unblemished beasts. If any of you wants to enter the rift, at least prepare enough defensive measures in order to survive against unblemished beasts with the possibility to flee from magical ranked beasts, but I won''t take any responsibility if anyone dies just like that. Furthermore, for these naive youths that want to enter the four-star rift with their puny strength, alone and unprepared. Please bear in mind that your parents raised you up with all their love. Don¡ät leave them just because of a few possible treasures. Staying alive is more important than a few treasures!" With Till ending his speech, Jason began to ponder¡­ `Should I really give the rift a try?? But alone it¡äs suicidal like Shane and Till already said¡­.Wait?` Alone?! Who said he was alone? With an idea popping up in his mind, Jason¡äs mind rattled and it was as if his brain was burning from all kinds of possible choices and paths he could take, as a certain idea began to establish itself in his mind. `It should be worth a try¡­.probably?` Jason told himself, as he perceived the opportunity that jumped into his lap. Chapter 182 - Bothering Jason was still unsure if he should really go according to his thought, as he thought about it for a few moments. If the rift didn¡ät have any restrictions that prevented anyone above the master rank to enter it, he would have asked the Flers if they wanted to enter the rift with him, as they were in a dire need of funds, while his mana eyes could detect mana fluctuations easily. With his ability, Jason was confident in finding high mana density areas with high-quality herbs, ores, and maybe even mana stone occurrences or magical treasures, if they weren''t guarded by special peak-magical ranked beasts, which the Fler''s couldn''t beat. Within a month, they could earn a fortune, however, unfortunately enough, the restriction prevented his plan to work, which caused him to take a rather naive and more dangerous path. But before he could take any actions, the combat class had yet to finish and Till already began to give out instructions according to the students'' martial art technique they were using. Till knew who used Tier-2 or even Tier-3 techniques, because he gave them out as the first assignment rewards. These students had an extremely bad proficiency in these techniques, but the power outburst behind was still much higher compared to a basic- or most likely even familiar-mastery from Tier-1 techniques. As such, Jason looked at their mana circulations, only to notice that the sheer volume of mana, they had to circulate exceeded everything he previously imagined. Furthermore, it seemed crude, rough, and completely wrong, which caused Jason to ponder if these students were even aware of what they were doing. He could only shake his head, which Seron noticed as he followed his gaze Seeing the top students, trying their best to impress others with their "powerful" and "elegant", yet complete crude performance, Seron could hardly contain his laughter. Both Jason and Seron chatted with each other and tried to distract their attention from the laughable tries of their classmates to impress their surroundings. Their behavior didn''t remain unnoticed by the others as all of them gave their best in order to improve their proficiency with the respective technique they were training, whether it was the Weaponry Knight or higher graded ones. Meanwhile, Jason and Seron weren¡ät even sparring or doing any sequences in order to figure out flaws in their techniques, which frustrated other students, while the jealousy and frustration within the top students slowly changed into anger because they couldn¡ät understand how such students could be labeled as stronger than them. But even after they finished talking, it didn''t look like they were practicing their martial art techniques, as Jason ran laps, doing other things at the same time which they couldn¡ät understand. while Seron searched for a cleaned spot to sit down, gathering and absorbing mana. `Can¡ät they just follow the norm and do what our teacher tells us to do?!` Some students thought and one brave yet stupid top ranker complained to Till. "Teacher, why aren''t you doing something against Seron and Jason? They are obviously not following your order and doing things they shouldn''t right now? Aren''t we supposed to practice our martial art techniques and improve ourselves instead of uselessly running around or absorbing mana?" Till didn¡ät want to bother about such stupid youths, as they weren¡ät aware of his disciple¡äs and Jason¡äs combat prowess. How should they know what the best for these two was? Till knew exactly how high Seron¡äs martial art proficiency with each technique was, while Jason¡äs weightless step technique already reached the profound mastery. Considering that after the profound mastery came to the final, perfect mastery, Jason reached almost the limit with the weightless step movement technique. As such, he had to either change his technique or adjust the mana circulation and description of the weightless step technique in order to increase his speed outburst after reaching the technique''s limit. Till wasn''t exactly sure how proficient Jason was with his other tiered techniques he obtained from the special combat class, but if he had to estimate, the Transience-Strike and Hazardous-Assassin techniques were most likely already at the familiar mastery. However, he wasn''t sure about the spinning arrow technique, as he had never seen Jason using his bow. Even so, the prior named techniques at the familiar-mastery were already higher than what most other average students were capable of, in slightly more than one month. According to his understanding, there were already a few students that reached the basic mastery of their particular tier-1 technique, while a familiar mastery could hardly be seen. Even less an experienced mastery. Until one student of Class 54 would reach a profound mastery or even perfect mastery with a single technique, a long time would pass. Averting his gaze to the student that asked him these stupid question, he felt annoyed as he said "Stop bothering me with such stupid questions. If you have anything against them, challenge them to a spar. But don''t come back to me crying, alright?" Hearing this, the student turned red in shame and anger, as he couldn¡ät understand his teacher anymore. Even the surrounding students were astonished to hear their teacher saying something like that to his students, as they stared at Till dumbfounded. However, Till didn''t mind them anymore, as he stared at Jason with slight interest gleaming in his eyes. `Seron...my poor disciple. You have to work harder if you don''t want to see the gap with Jason to widen further¡­. What a monster¡­` When he was 14 years old, he could hardly control his single affinity to the degree, Jason was handling both at the same time while running. Seeing Jason doing so, with the strenuous effort he employed, Till could only smile bitterly. He had never seen anyone as hard-working as Jason, as he didn¡ät seem to waste any time doing something stupid. He was either reading, practicing his martial art technique, improving his proficiency with his affinity, working out, sparing, practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique, or absorbing mana, even though it was not really required thanks to the existence of his split mind with his sub-area. This was a schedule, even big families wouldn¡ät force on their descendants, because it could end up with them revolting due to a lack of freedom. Meanwhile, Jason did everything voluntarily without anyone motivating him or doing anything to increase his ambition, which was innately extremely distinct. While Till thought about that, he noticed a few of the top students walking towards Jason, who was still running his laps, without bothering about anything at all. This was only until he saw a few students blocking his path. `Again?` He asked himself, as it felt like a dej¨¢-vu. However, instead of halting in his tracks with a frustrated expression, Jason continued to run, as a sly smile blossomed on his face with a blue light emerging within his golden eyes. The only thing he did to warn them, was to shout "Jump away or flee!", as a small ice path appeared in front of them, looking similar to a hillside, as Jason rushed over it in order to avoid the annoying pests below bothering him. Chapter 183 - Overdoing It Forming a thin slope right in front of his classmates, wasn''t really impressive, however talking and running over the hillside, while utilizing his affinity at the same time, felt already slightly taxing to him, as Jason felt annoyed by his peers. `Can¡ät they let me practice in peace? Don''t they have anything better to do than playing high-school bullies?` He thought before continuing to run laps. But even after he manifested a small hillside in front of his classmates, rather than figuring out that he didn¡ät want to have anything to do with them, they seemed to become more persistent. Not only were they once again standing in front of him, but now, they even activated their own affinities in order to obstruct his path. Stopping his tracks, the frustration, gathering within him was enough for multiple individuals at once. `Why is it always so annoying with pseudo-prodigies?` Jason thought, shaking his head. Till and the other students noticed Jason and the top students provoking him, which caused them to stop what they were doing, while even Seron was distracted from his mana gathering. Looking up, he noticed Jason standing in front of a small group, while the top 5 except Leo Heart could be seen. Seeing that, Jason smiled drily, as he looked around, only to see Leo shaking his head, pitying his classmates that made him into an outcast after he claimed a special combat class seat. He didn''t care about being an outcast in their class, but even if he did, he would pity the group that stood in front of Jason. "Can you guys please disappear from my sight and not obstruct my training?" Jason said not without expressing his mood through his facial expression which seemed to say `piss off!` A few months ago, he would have never imagined to ever act like that In front of others, but too many things happened to him, to continue acting as hesitant and uncertain like months ago. He matured a lot and finally began to comprehend what exactly reality meant to humanity, or rather how to survive on Argos and what exactly this indicated and demanded. The strong ate the weak and only strong individuals can live like they want, either protecting others or wrecking havoc amongst them. His gaze was already cold, without a single trace of kindness inside them, when he told the top students to vanish from his sight, causing his opposite classmates to step back simultaneously. However, due to their numerical advantage, they felt strong, which led them to act extremely stupid. "Your behavior and the privileges you receive from our teacher pisses us off, however, your attitude is the worst¡­ Who do you think you are?....I know who you are¡­ just a piece of s**t without any family left¡­ an Orphan..hah--ha.." In the beginning, Jason wanted to be reliant on the top students, but their representative ignited an unknown wrath within him. Utilizing his whole mana into his cold and emotionless eyes, Jason intentionally released his whole killing intent which he had never done before, as he could barely control a small part of it. Additionally, he used his mana eyes abyssal effect, when the whole surrounding turned eerie and deadly as if a single move would mean imminent dead The youth that spoke to Jason couldn''t even finish laughing, because it felt like his throat was squashed as he was looking straight into Jason¡äs gold eyes. Jason didn''t utter a single word, but even without, the top students did not dare to move a single inch, when their strength disappeared, causing their legs to give in. They could only feel terrified and were filled with a deep sensation of fright, as Jason''s eyes enveloped them, causing them to appear inside a ominous darkness. Not knowing where they were, only fear and a sinister pressure could be felt around them, as they sensed something from far away. Without being able to see the outline, they were sure that something was preying at them and that the presumed existence was barely held back by something. Feeling death approaching them, their mind couldn''t endure the pressure anymore, as everything went blank. Everyone was shocked about the sheer pressure, Jason radiated and a distinct fear could be seen in the students'' eyes, as they subconsciously stepped back from him, as far as possible. Even Till felt uncomfortable to be so close to Jason right now, as he wanted to stop him. When he tapped at Jason''s shoulder, he turned around only to look into each other''s eyes. Looking straight into each other''s eyes with a distance of less than a meter, Till could see the depth of his eyes, as something seemed to look down on him from far away as if he was not even worth a single glance. Suddenly, Till felt goosebumps enveloping his whole body when Jason¡äs eyes returned to their normal gentleness. Jason noticed that everything was over before it even began but he only stopped exerting the abyssal effect intertwined with his killing intent when TIll tapped his shoulder. Even though the classmate that spoke to him hadn''t said anything extremely provoking to him, which Jason hadn''t heard before, but he was just annoyed by their behavior and wanted to teach them a lesson. However, he also knew that he was frustrated about them talking about his family...If they said anything about his mother, he would have probably reacted even worse. He wasn''t sure how he would have acted in that case¡­ but the outcome would be devastating and Jason knew that for sure. Still looking at Till, Jason could only see the astonishment in his eyes, as he was most likely taken aback about his eyes'' ability intertwined with killing intent and probably about Jason¡äs extremely fast change from a possible mass murderer to his gentle self. Feeling uncomfortable, Jason squeezed himself out of Till¡äs grip, only for him to feel something landing on his shoulder. Artemis felt his outburst of emotions which affected her too, as her field of emotion was filled with the intention to kill for a moment. "Can you take care of them? I probably overdid it a little bit¡­" He said plainly to Till, who was thrown out of his trace, as he began to act without wasting any time. Summoning his soulbond, Till began to release a healing hue while his Greater Blesser wolf soulbond did the same. Jason was too annoyed in order to continue practicing multitasking his affinities while running and exerting the weightless step movement technique. As such, he just said "I¡äll go for today, I don¡ät think these normal combat classes will change anything for me", before Jason turned around, leaving his horrified and dumbfounded classmates alone. Before that, they also wondered how Jason was able to stay within the special combat class so long, but now everything changed. Chapter 184 - Let Me Be The Tracker It was only 2 pm when he left school and initially, Jason would either go back to the hideout inside the lake in order to increase his proficiency with the forging process of perfectly purified grade-1 bars or home to the Fler¡äs house. But not today! Jason was not sure if the plan that formed in his mind was either completely stupid or a prodigious piece of art, but he wanted to give it a try. As such, he ordered a shuttle, which brought him to the main Vanguard school within 40 minutes. While sitting inside the shuttle, Jason began to read the new batch of books he received from Shane and Dalia. He wasn''t sure how many books there were in total, but the sheer number of files was extremely vast, while in some of them were multiple books at once. This time, however, there was not only knowledge about the basic lifestyle occupations within the books, but it mostly focused on Beast-Creators, beast evolutions, beast habitats, characteristics, magical ingredients used for evolutions. This subject alone was already extremely deep but Jason also received a lot of knowledge about the foreign intelligent races, rifts, origin flames, special/unique soulbonds, affinities, and much more complex topics. These books were already categorized into different sections or comprehension fields in order to allow Jason to decide what to read, even if it might be hard to understand without the fundamental knowledge. In his masters¡ä opinion, he was an obsessive bookworm that had to read in order to feel satiated which was similar to Dalia¡äs behavior towards beast evolutions and her curiosity. However other than Dalia, Jason was also extremely talented in fighting, had a vast soul, unlike Dalia, while his talent towards the basic lifestyle occupations seemed to be also extremely high thanks to his special trait eyes and high mana sensitivity. Both Shane and Dalia were jealous and proud of Jason at the same time, as he might even be able to unite humanity under one banner, as long as he was nurtured long enough, without him dying. This could also end as a big mistake with Jason betraying them, but they believed his principles and trusted him naively, while he himself never promised anything in particular to his masters. He would just do whatever he believed was the right thing to do, even if that meant he would have to disregard his masters'' ideals. Walking towards the large Vanguard school gate, Jason saw an old man guarding the gate which wondered him. `What the hell? Is that really necessary?` he thought as he noticed that the old man was a Grandmagus rank, even though his mana core was not really amplified in any way. The old man noticed him and his uniform as he let him through without checking anything else, which astonished Jason quite a bit, as he suddenly felt his whole body being scanned through with his mana eyes perceiving something weird. His whole body felt as if it was searched through when he walked past the guardian. As for his mana eyes, they told him that the old man released a weird kind of transmuted mana, he had never seen before. But Jason was sure of one fact...this weird kind of mana could analyze his physique which not even his mana eyes were capable of. It was uncomfortable but getting to know that an ability to detect someone''s physical strength existed was extremely interesting for Jason. He could only see the difference of the mana core rank to the mana core size within other humans, while the old man was capable of scanning the mana core rank and at the same time his physique. Both could roughly estimate others'' soulbond¡äs strength with their abilities as long as they calculated with a certain soul amplification percentage. He could for example tell that the old man contracted at most three beasts at the unblemished rank or something similar to that. Maybe it was also a single magical ranked beast or something like that, but Jason was not sure. However, in the old guard''s opinion, Jason was more interesting, as it felt like he was at the 7th Adept rank according to his physique, while his mana core was at the 3rd Adept rank. A difference of four ranks at the adept rank could have multiple meanings. Either his soul amplification was extremely high, he either had an unblemished beast that enhanced all aspects, a physically enhancing soulbond, or multiple evolved/awakened beasts contracted, if he were to calculate with a soul world amplification of 10% as a rough average. Considering that the black-haired youth that walked past him wore the uniform from the 6th affiliated school not a single theory of his should be correct because the youth walking past him shouldn¡ät end up within an affiliated school. The old guardian wasn''t sure what to think about the black-haired youth as he continued to rake his brain about a logical reason for an individual with such weird soul amplification to stay at the 6th affiliated school. There was only one thing for sure. The owl which circled above Jason was only at the lower-evolved rank. `Is nobody aware of this kid, or what is going on here?` he thought, as he slumped back on his chair, trying to forget the black-haired youth. This whole work as guardian was unnecessary, to begin with as he was told to let students through the gates during the special combat class challenges, while he should only protect the school from terrorists or suspicious people. Even though the challenges were canceled for the next three days, he hadn¡ät received any other order that told him to prevent anyone from walking through the gate. Walking through the gate, Jason only had to confirm his ID and the reason for him to enter the Vanguard-Main school at the automatic system. If there was something wrong, the old guardian would either help him out, or if he were to do something bad, throw him out. But everything worked as it should, as the AI accepted his reason, which felt quite weird. He just wrote [Let me be the Tracker] without anything behind that as his reason, which was stupid yet the real reason for him to walk into the main Vanguard school. According to his knowledge, there had to be a forest somewhere with the school buildings relatively close by, which were his final destination. Running towards the center, Jason was confident that he would find the three school buildings for each year within a short amount of time and roughly 20 minutes passed until he found what he searched for. However, there was only one problem Jason noticed, as he stood in front of the three identical-looking school buildings, that were innately different from the 6th affiliated school¡äs constructions. Suddenly he remembered something, as he slapped his forehead as he exclaimed "I¡äm so stupid!" before he turned around to rush towards the combat arena he saw a few minutes early. Similar to his schedule, Malia and Greg also had their practical lessons in the afternoon, which meant that they were both in the combat arena instead of the school building. Jason was only searching for Malia as he remembered that she had to go on an expedition as one of the major exams to graduate from the Vanguard school. With this in mind. maybe Malia and her team wanted to make an expedition into the four-star rift which would perfectly fit into the required strength for their major exam, which ignited a tiny ray of hope within him. If his prediction was correct, he may even be able to convince them to let him join their expedition! Chapter 185 - Double Jason stood in front of the unique-looking combat arena that was more than 30 meters high with at least seven floors in total. `What now? Should I wait or just go inside?` He was unsure what exactly he should to now, he was at a loss... `Is Malia even inside?` Even if Jason went inside, he wouldn''t know at which floor or combat arena Malia was currently in. As such he decided to wait for Malia and maybe even Greg, if he were to appear in-between, outside. But Greg was not important for his plan and more of a hindrance, because he didn¡ähave a single essential characteristic that made him special for Master-ranked humans. Jason however was different, because of his mana eyes. He was confident to be a beneficial asset to an expedition team, as long as Malia and her team were to venture into the four-star rift which was about to finish materializing in a few days. While waiting, he predicted that the chance of Malia venturing into the four-star rifts was extremely high, as a temporary rift was said to have more treasures compared to permanent rifts. With Greg¡äs current situation and their lack of credits, Jason was sure that Malia would try her best to support her family with all her might. The only unknown factors were her teammates, because he wouldn''t know their need for treasures. If they were in a dire demand for credits or treasures, they would most likely venture into the four-star right in save proximities. However, this wouldn¡ät eradicate Jason¡äs biggest issue. `Will they even accept me? My combat prowess is not high enough and they probably won''t believe or rely on a stranger who tells them that he has a powerful ability which lets him track treasures and high-quality materials, just like that, right?` Jason thought, pondering what to do, as time slowly passed. There was not much he could do in order to convince Malia¡äs teammates to believe him, but the first important thing for him to do was to find out if they would venture into the four-star rift. If that was the case, he would have to convince Malia at first, which shouldn''t be that difficult, because she knew of his capabilities, before he would focus on persuading her team. It was almost 4pm, when school finally ended, as the first few students left the combat arena, visibly exhausted. All students wore the same school uniform and the biggest contrast Jason immediately perceive about the students he saw, was probably their behavior. Some seemed to be extraordinary confident, while others looked dejected with a few bruises covering the body and faces. Seeing that, Jason smiled lightly as he thought that some students antagonized the decision their teachers took about the special combat class seat like it was the case with him and Seron. There wasn''t any pity in his eyes and he was satisfied with such a result, as he did the same only more extreme. Once they learned their lesson, Jason was confident that they would either act more mature and become more motivated or they would act spoiled like small children, running to their parents while crying, which was extremely unlikely. Scanning through each student¡äs mana core, Jason wanted to figure out the current average strength from all grades within the main-vanguard school. However, somehow it was weird...Jason wasn''t sure if he should be disappointed with the mana core ranks and sizes he perceived or not, as the average strength of most first-graders seemed to be at the 8th Adept rank, with a few exceptional students, while all mana cores were enlarged by one level at the bare minimum. There was nobody at Max¡äs level or with a unique elemental affinity nor something similar to that which was somewhat disappointing, until he noticed a small group leaving the combat arena. Almost 10 students were in their group, while two of them were third-years, the others were four first and second years. But that was not the most important fact because their facial features seemed similar, causing Jason to predict that all of them were somewhat related and most likely either siblings or cousins¡­ According to his mana eyes, the four first years reached the 1st Expert rank according to their mana core rank, while the four second-year students reached the late-expert rank. But even more astonished was Jason about the two third-year students, as their mana core was higher than Malias, already at the 3rd Master rank, while they didn¡ät seem to be older than her. If he wasn''t wrong, Malia was already considered extremely talented due to her high mana sensitivity and control, but seeing two siblings that seemed to be around her age with a higher mana core rank, caused Jason to look at them baffled. Sensing their particular transmuted mana, Jason was even more reassured that all 10 of them were relatives and maybe not even from Astrix, as their particular transmuted mana was relatively rare on Astrix. All ten of them contracted a darkness affinity soulbond, causing their mana to be transmuted into a slightly darker color. `Are these maybe 10 exchange students?` Jason wondered, as he kept staring at the group of 10, which didn''t stay unnoticed by them. When they turned towards him, Jason didn¡ät even avert his gaze, as he continued to star at the ten similar looking youths in front of him. They were taken aback seeing him, as the black-haired youth with his golden eyes looked extremely handsome and pretty, which was a rare combination, but that was not all. On his shoulder sat a large pure-white owl with pitblack horns protruding out of her head and the ten of them never saw such a beast. While nine of them gazed at Artemis, one of the two third-year students stared at Jason, as she licked her lips which Jason noticed, creating an uncomfortable sensation. `Why am I looking so good?` Jason lamented in his mind, as the girl said something to her group which decided to turn their direction towards him. Sighing, he greeted the ten students politely, as the girl immediately started to shamelessly blur out. "Hey handsome, I¡äm Jennifer Daer...Do you have a girlfriend? Are you waiting for her or are you free? Wanna hang out with me?" Jennifer wasn¡ät ashamed of her straightforward approach a tiny bit, while the others around her could only sigh deeply in regret, as they thought they went towards Jason because of his soulbond. As the other third-year was about to say something, Jason heard someone from the site yelling his name "Jason!? What are you doing here?" and turning around with the ten students next to him, he could immediately see Malia running towards him, as she saw Jennifer and her group. "Oh? Jennifer, Theo¡­ why are you still here?" Malia said, stopping next to Jason. Theo, the other third-grader next to Jennifer was about to answer, as Jennifer blurted out "Ohh!!! Malia I didn¡ät knew you had such a handsome boyfriend..It''s a shame...tell me when you break up...hahaha" Hearing this, Malia blushed slightly, but Jason interrupted everyone''s thought without hesitating for a single moment, as he clarified. "Malia is more of a family to me, we are not together¡­ and I don''t want to hang out with you, sorry." Chapter 186 - Acceptance Hearing this, both Jennifer and Malia felt immediately hurt and dejected. While Jennifer had never been rejected, Malia predicted such an answer, but hearing Jason saying it without hesitation still hurt her deeply, more than expected. Previously she wasn''t aware of that, but it somehow hurt, even though she told herself to stop thinking about Jason. ¡äIdiot!` She complained inwardly, as she noticed Jennifer¡äs dumbfounded expression. Jason looked at Jennifer nonchalantly as if he talked about something normal and not a rejection. Suddenly Theo next to Jennifer began to laugh out loud, slapping her on the shoulder while teasing her, as Jason turned to Malia, who looked slightly depressed. He wasn''t sure what was going on, but he naively began to talk to her, as if nothing happened, after reassuring himself about her well-being "Malia, are you okay?" Seeing her nod, he began to talk about the reason why he came to the Vanguard main school, as he didn''t want to waste any time. "I heard you still have to do your expedition... Are you venturing into the four-star rift? If you do, can you take me with your team?" He said with a radiant smile and hearing Jason talking about the expedition, Malia, Jennifer and Theo were immediately attentive. Clearing her throat, Malia said seriously "Well...I haven''t talked about the expedition with my team, but Jennifer and Theo are also members of our team¡­ I would want to enter the expedition because of the high possibility to find expensive treasures which I need to help Greg. Nevertheless, I haven''t talked about this with my team, so I can¡ät tell you for sure...about joining our team...I don¡ät think your combat prowess is on par with us and protecting you would be a huge hindrance. I doubt that you don¡ät know that." Theo nodded his head, as he sensed that Jason¡äs mana core was barely at the 3rd Adept rank. ''Why should they increase the difficulty of their expedition by taking in a burden?'' Was what both Jennifer and Theo thought. Even though Jennifer was still frustrated about being rejected in such a straight and somewhat disrespectful manner, she was still able to think carefully. Jason was only a first-year and at the 3rd Adept rank, while the combat prowess within the four-star rift was around the unblemished rank. Even the beast below average would be able to kill Jason easily¡­ They didn''t plan to play babysitter while their life was on the line. Ensuring everyone¡äs safety throughout the expedition was the most important aspect of their mission while accomplishing the other parts, which included their task would be the second-highest priority. While the three of them were still thinking about Jason¡äs incapability, the other 8 youths, looked at the black-haired youth weirdly, as they noticed his calmness. It seemed as if he predicted such an answer and he was even smiling, while his golden eyes flickered brightly as if he was expectant. Averting his gaze to look at Malia, he asked, still smiling "Don¡ät you want to ensure your safety, while finding high-quality treasures? Have you forgotten about my eyes, Malia?" Jason tried to pick this path, as it was the easiest approach to attract everyone''s curiosity. Being able to ensure or even increase the survivability of their team, would change his chances completely and he had to advertise his capabilities perfectly in order to be accepted by them. While Jennifer and Theo were confused and curious at the same time, it seemed as if Malia was suddenly enlightened, when Jason finished speaking. "Oh!!!! True¡­ you can see the mana flow, even in a distance¡­ I completely forgot about that.. With this, we could avoid high mana density territories and search for high-quality ingredients without entering the most dangerous areas¡­. " Malia began to blur out, causing Jason¡äs smile to stiffen for a second until he regained his composure because he wanted to keep his mana eyes a secret weapon to convince the others completely. But looking at Jennifer and Theo, Jason wasn''t sure if that was even needed, as they stared at him with interest, without any prejudice about his combat prowess and incapability left. Malia was still talking to herself until she noticed that she said her thoughts out loud, and remembering that she blurred out Jason¡äs secret, caused her to look shocked at him. Laughing lightly, Jason reassured her that everything was fine, as he began his hopefully convincing speech towards Jennifer and Theo. "Please let me join your expedition team! I¡äll be a good Tracker because of my special trait!" he said, as he pointed at his golden eyes. "I have special mana eyes and as every mana eyes can do, they¡äre able to perceive the mana flow others can only sense. With this, I can not only see high mana-density areas which are more likely to Inhabitat magical ranked beasts but I can even detect mana fluctuations from beasts and other living beings. You guys can imagine how beneficial this can be. My eyesight is extraordinary and I can easily see mana fluctuations more than 500 meters away, at most 1 kilometer, if I supply them with some mana. With this advantage, we could easily hide from large unblemished beast groups or take a safer path within a cave, forest, or wherever. My combat prowess might be too weak in order to enter the four-star rift alone, but I can ensure everyone''s safety as long as you guys trust my statements. I''m confident that we can survive and collect lots of expensive treasures, as long as our preparations are well thought out." After remembering Jason¡äs special trait, Malia immediately accepted Jason joining their team without hesitation, while Jennifer and Theo looked at each other with a complicated expression. To them, Jason was a stranger, they saw for the first time in their lives. Even if his statement was correct, could they really trust their one and only life on him, just like that? The only thing causing them to not immediately decline his request was Malia. They were only exchange students that came to Astrix when the new year started, but Malia was reliable and trustworthy, not like many sly and tricky students they got to know during the short period they were here. Furthermore, Jason seemed extremely confident in his special trait, while it was unlikely that he wanted to die with Malia next to him, as they seemed to be close friends. Their gut feeling told them that the youth in front of them was trustworthy, but what worth had their gut-feeling once they were in a dangerous situation where they had to rely on Jason? Figuring out that there seemed to be a trust issue, Jason wanted to reveal more about his eyes, but it could also backfire, which caused him to stop. Pondering what to say, Jason felt distressed, as he wanted to enter the rift with them, almost desperately which Jennifer noticed. As such, she asked straightforwardly, not holding anything back. "If you tell me exactly why you want to join our team, I might accept your request!" Theo was still unsure what to do, as he heard his sister asking the exact same question he had in mind. Thinking for a second, what exactly he should tell, Jason stuck with the truth, as he summoned Scorpio who¡äs exoskeleton was dark green with a blue shining mixture. "To put it simply, I need credits¡­ My second soulbond accidentally evolved after absorbing a huge amount of mana, but unfortunately enough, the required materials to complete the evolution were not present. Because of that, I need to gather the required materials to finish his evolution. In the end, I¡äm not really patient, and hunting beasts, in order to accumulate hundreds of star-notes, would take way too long. I don¡ät know if the incomplete evolution will cause Scorpio pain or if it could even lead to permanent injuries, which would be terrifying!! As such I need credits and the appearance of the four-star rift is the perfect solution, don¡ät you think so?" Jason said honestly while hiding the most important facts, which was that he could beg his masters for funds in order to finish Scorpio''s evolution and that he wanted to enter the rift also because he was curious and expectant to see the wide world. Nodding her head, she could understand Jason¡äs concern, and her worry about him slacking off during their expedition slowly dissipated. "I accept your request!" She said smiling before she added "But I don''t accept your rejection!!" smiling boldly. Theo shook his head due to his sister¡äs behavior, as he said "I also accept your request¡­ It''s good to know that your soulbond is so important to you" Smiling, Theo decided to accept Jason because he thought someone who takes care of his soulbond while risking one''s life couldn''t be a bad and unreliable person. Another reason for him to accept Jason was that it was interesting to see a 14-year-old youth controlling two soulbonds even though not even half a year passed since the last soul-awakening period. Artemis was outside the soul world since the beginning, which led him to think that she might have evolved too, as it was weird for a normal contracted beast to take up too much soul energy in order to be forced to remain outside the soul world while remaining loyal and obedient. This led him to conclude that Jason¡äs background couldn¡ät be normal as it was extremely difficult to find Beast-Creators which were almost impossible to disregard for an advantageous evolution, like Jason''s soulbonds seemed to have underwent. Chapter 187 - Berserk Being accepted by the majority of Malia¡äs group was already something to be extremely proud of, which caused Jason to smiled brightly at them. At this moment, they heard another voice from behind and was familiar to Jason as he was immediately aware, who ran towards them "Sis¡­ Jason? What are you doing here?" Greg rushed towards them immediately after he saw the two of them with the ten exchange students from Tenebris island. One of the first years beat him up during their special combat class seat challenge, which was still apparent in his mind, as he stared at them threatening and at the same time cautiously. "Nothing special... I had something important to ask Malia and some of her classmates." Jason said, without adding his request to enter Malia¡äs expedition team, because Greg would most likely want to join too then. This would make everything more difficult, causing Jason to hide this fact until they were about to venture into the four-star rift. Jason decided to say goodbye to the ten related exchange students and Malia while talking to Greg in order to distract him from the reason he entered the main vanguard school. He shouldn''t become suspicious about anything and Jason could only hear Malia asking. "We haven''t decided whether to enter the four-star rift or not, but if you two can trust Jason¡äs capabilities enough, we should give it a try¡­ I''m confident that he is more than capable of securing our safety. If both of you have some issues trusting his abilities, you can test him in whatever way you two want. " Hearing this, Jason wrote Malia a message, which she opened, as her eyes widened before she added after clearing her throat. "It seems like Jason heard me talking right now¡­ I should relay that Jennifer has a peak-evolved beast as a soulbond with a darkness affinity, while Theo¡äs soulbond is either also at the peak-evolved rank or barely a low unblemished beast with a darkness affinity¡­. Quote:[This is a small present to show my sincerity for all ten of you...ps please tell me more about your soulbond choices because they seem to be the same?]...Well¡­ " Malia wasn''t sure what to say, as she had never seen or heard anything about any of the 10¡äs soulbonds which they kept a secret. As such, she was shocked to hear their rank, as she knew about Theo¡äs and Jennifer¡äs affinity. What exactly Jason meant with "sincerity for all then of you" was mysterious to her, but seeing a shocked expression appearing on all ten exchange students, caused her to be suspicious. The first thing she heard came from Theo who gathered his thoughts the fastest. "How did he know?? We have never shown him our soulbond or elemental affinity?.... Is that all because of his mana eyes?!!" He asked Malia, who could only nod, as she never talked with Jason about the exchange students. Jennifer pulled herself together, as a bright smile appeared on her face, as she almost shouted to Malia. "We have to venture into the four-star rift! Let¡äs convince Lux and Lin to let Jason join us!!" She roughly knew what Jason meant with "all ten of you" and it was obvious that the handsome youth with his golden eyes was not normal, as he could roughly tell the strength of her and Theo¡äs soulbond, even though it was slightly off. Theo had the same soulbond as she had and the only difference between both of them was that her brother¡äs soul amplified him slightly more than it was the case with her, as his soul world core was better. This annoyed her for a long time but Jason¡äs estimation was still roughly correct, which spoke bonds about his ability while it amplified his importance for their expedition, even though his combat prowess was slightly off. But if Jason was able to ensure their safety, was there even a need for a high combat prowess? Not really! Considering that their own strength would be more than enough to finish their exams, the three of them began to smile lightly, as Jennifer dialed a number on her phone. Malia did the same, dialing a number, as they began to discuss everything with their other two teammates. Meanwhile, Jason tasted the first ride on a soulbond, which was rather uncomfortable because he rode with Greg on the reinforced horned bull towards their home. The whole trip didn''t even take 20 minutes due to the shortcuts they could use, as Jason fell from Taurus back at the end. His butt ached and he told himself that he would never ride on Taurus again, even though he looked dejected about his behavior. Greg saw him and laughed lightly, as he told him seriously, almost sulking "Let¡äs spar later, okay? It has been a long time since we sparred¡­." Seeing Greg''s behaving like this, Jason almost vomited his earlier lunch, as he was unsure what to reply, causing him to nod silently. `Is he a baby or a student from one of the Big-Three main schools?` Sighing deeply, Jason wasn''t sure what to say, seeing Greg¡äs behavior. Walking inside the house, Mark and Gabriella couldn¡ät be seen and Greg just told him that they would leave for a few weeks because of some new hunting missions they received. Nodding, Jason predicted that something like that would happen soon, as he went into his room in order to change his clothes. Today he would give his best in order to win against Greg. Even so, he wondered how much Greg¡äs combat prowess increased and if he finally learned about his soulbond¡äs partially unlocked bloodline. Meeting in the combat arena, Artemis could be seen cleaning her plumage on the bench outside the combat arena and she didn''t care a tiny bit about their spar. Jason took out his self made daggers that gleamed lightly after he supplied them with mana, while Greg wore already his gloves As they stared into each other''s eyes the fight started and Jason was immediately left speechless, as he noticed Greg¡äs strength increased by a few levels. His initial mana core was only at the 6th Adept rank, while his soul¡äs amplification enhanced his mana core size by almost two levels, while his physique should have easily broken through the 8th Adept rank because Greg possessed a physical soul, or rather only a single soulbond which amplified his physique. But from what Jason perceived right now, Greg¡äs physique seemed to be even stronger, as he pushed himself from the ground, only to appear in front of Jason a moment later, with his skin seemingly burning in crimson red color. Shocked by what he perceived, Jason used his ice ability to push himself from his current position, as he instinctively erected a pillar of ice below his feet. Right as he was pushed away from his position, Jason heard the ice-pillar being shattered, as Greg turned around to rush towards the spot where he would land without wasting a second. Greg¡äs reaction speed and perception increased by a few folds which was unbelievable for Jason, as he summoned a black fireball which he threw to Greg while releasing a dense ice mist that began to envelop his surrounding with a fast pace. While Greg punched the black fireball without caring about any possible tricks, it exploded which covered his view completely. Black smoke emerged from the black fireball, only to be replaced by a thick white mist. Greg couldn''t see anything at all, even though his eyesight improved, as Jason continued to release the ice mist while using his mana eyes to see everything perfectly clear. `So Greg can already use his newly acquired technique¡­. Isn''t that some sort of [Berserk] ability?` Jason thought, astounded as he praised Greg¡äs new ability in his mind. Chapter 188 - Leave Of Absence Seeing everything clearly, Jason was aware that Greg would be able to perceive him too, if he only spread his mana far enough, which was what he wanted to test! Was Greg even able to think clearly with his Berserk ability utilized or was he completely under the control of his wild instinctive? Even though they sparred with each other, Jason was still curious about Greg¡äs ability. Due to this curiosity, he was almost immediately defeated within their first clash but fortunately enough, he could barely save himself, by pushing himself away, by erecting an ice pillar below him. Unfortunately was however only that his current mana consumption couldn¡ät be recovered with his passive mana gathering, while creating a large ice mist area around him. This meant he had to act faster, even if he didn''t want to rush too much. Normally a berserk ability had a short effective period which was not that long for lower ranked beasts like a mid-evolved reinforced horned bull. As such, Greg¡äs ability should wear off quickly. WIthin the ice mist, he manifested multiple smaller and larger icicles that could barely be seen within. At the same time, Greg tried to find him by forcefully charging through the fog, only to be pierced by differently sized icicles, from all sites. Nevertheless, Greg¡äs skin seemed to be even tougher than before and the shallow cuts caused by the smaller icicles were almost negligible. But Jason could only shake his head, disappointed because Greg¡äs control over the berserk skill was almost non-existent as he saw him furiously punching in every direction an icicle pierced him. Under normal circumstances, he would have already won their fight, because the icicle¡äs he created only hit non-vital areas and not areas, like his crotch, tendons, eyes, neck and so on which he would do in normal fights in order to kill his opponent as fast as possible. However, it seemed like Greg couldn¡ät control himself for the time being, which caused Jason to take his time within the ice mist, as he actively exerted the passive mana gathering technique, which increased the efficiency of his sub-area passive mana gathering by a large margin. In the end, two minutes passed until Greg¡äs skin turned paler, with his legs giving in. `3 minutes¡­ not bad` Jason thought as he ran towards Greg, who seemed to be extremely exhausted as if he would faint at any moment. Taking out an energizing potion, Jason handed one over to Greg, who gulped the content down without wasting a single moment. His pale face turned slightly more red as he admitted "Well¡­.maybe it was a bad plan to use my new ability without being able to control it" "Yep...At least you know now" Jason said without any surprise in his voice which confused Greg slightly. "You already know about Taurus¡ä ability?" He asked and Jason nodded as if it was nothing special.. `I haven''t told anyone about my ability yet?!? Only some students I fought with know about it, but even they don''t really understand my ability?` Jason only smiled, before he said "It doesn''t matter if I already knew it or not, more important for you should be to learn how to control this [Berserk] state-like ability, right?" Understanding that Greg¡äs ability increased his physical abilities and senses by a large margin, Jason felt jealous in the beginning, but losing his reasoning for a short duration with a backlash that exhausted Greg visibly, was not really something he wanted to have for himself. He was happy for Greg to have such an ability, but thinking clearly was much more important for him than a few level increase in strength for a few minutes. This duration would be longer once Greg¡äs soulbond would evolve, but even then, Jason wouldn''t want to have such an ability, without staying clear-minded. They spared only one round, but this single round was more than enough for both of them to figure out their flaws. While Greg¡äs flaw was obvious with his weak control over his ability, Jason noticed that he was still too unfocused before a fight began. He wasted too much time until he entered his mind and entered the battle-function, which could be extremely dangerous during the expedition with Malia or another journey Jason would have in the future. Thinking about this issue, some time passed until Malia came home with good news. Jason was accepted into their team and they decided to venture into the four-star rift at the end of the week, once it materialized completely. They wouldn''t be the first to step through the rift, because the government would check everything first before they would allow others through. In Jason¡äs opinion, this was only to secure the most powerful treasures for themself, if that was even possible with the restriction Cyro-City¡äs particular materializing four-star rift had. Only master-ranked individuals and below were able to step through the four-star rift and with this harsh restriction, it would be hardly possible to defeat magical ranked beasts, that guard high-grade treasures. Suddenly it felt as if a bolt of lightning hit him, as a certain thought entered his mind `Will this restriction apply for soulbonds within the soul world? If that¡äs not the case...Will there be a master rank with a magical ranked soulbond?` The chances for someone at the master rank to possess magical ranked beasts were low, but it was not impossible and he expected to see a few of these to enter the four-star rift! Jason himself was confident to increase his soul energy enough in order to hold magical ranked beasts while being at the master rank. With his current increase in soul energy, it wasn¡ät even considered a challenge. Considering the possibility of a magical ranked soulbond to enter the four-star rift, Jason felt uncomfortable, yet weirdly safe because humans would rather save other humans, while beasts would just attack him indiscriminately. However, Jason had a bad feeling and he wasn''t exactly sure where it came from, as the thought felt eerie and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, he was happy to hear that he could join Malia¡äs expedition team before he went into his room once again. * It was the next morning before 7 am when Jason entered Till¡äs office in order to request his leave of absence. This shocked his teacher a lot and he wanted to decline it when Jason calmly said. "I¡äll leave even if I don¡ät receive the leave of absence...please don¡ät even try to obstruct me." Sighing, Till had to accept Jason¡äs request. It wouldn''t matter, even if he didn''t accept his request to receive a leave of absence. There was no real reason to deny it then! After receiving his leave of absence, he decided to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique before he would have to overcome his most difficult challenge for today Only slightly more than an hour later, Jason left his soul world once again, while his soul energy reached 157.2 units. Walking slowly towards the forest that seemed to grow humongous large, Jason felt uncomfortable, because he was sure that he would have to either survive a tempest or endure silent torture from Shane and Dalia because they told him not to enter the four-star rift due to its dangers. Even if he disregarded their good-meant opinion, Jason would do whatever he found suitable because he was his own king. Chapter 189 - Gift?! Only a few minutes later, Jason stood in front of the familiar lake within the lush forest, when space in front of him twisted. He didn''t even need to activate the covered rune in order to notify Shane about his arrival, as he was already pulled through the manifesting spatial portal. Artemis looked after him, diving straight into the portal in order to follow her master. Looking at Shane and Dalia in confusion, Jason immediately noticed that something was off. "What''s wrong?" was the only thing he could ask, because there was not a single clue on his masters¡ä faces, telling him anything at all. Only one particular thing could create such a weird atmosphere. `Are they already aware of my decision?` Jason asked in his mind when Dalia said "Nothing special, but maybe you want to tell us something? Like something about the four-star rift and a leave of absence?" `How?` Jason¡äs mouth twitched and he didn''t know what exactly he should say, except the truth as he wondered how fast their connections were. Either Till called or messaged Shane, or they figured out this information from someone else But even if they already knew about his decision, he had to confront them directly, without any hesitation. "I wanted to tell you two about this today. I¡äll enter the four-star rift with the Fler¡äs oldest child and her team. Their combat prowess is roughly at the mid-Master rank and with their soulbonds, it shouldn''t be difficult to survive against medium-large groups of unblemished ranked beasts. With my mana eyes, we can even evade perilous areas and beast hordes, right? Everything should be fine, as long as nothing out of the ordinary happens. Furthermore, in order to rely on myself slightly, I¡äll purchase a mana storage device and a strong gun in addition to other items. " Jason tried to explain everything as if it was extremely easy and nothing special, but Shane and Dalia knew about rifts'' dangers much more than he did. However, seeing their disciple¡äs ambition and determination, they were sure of the fact that they couldn''t tell him his idea. This led them to sigh deeply, as they lamented about their decision to take a hot-headed and stubborn youth as their disciple. In the end, they had to ensure Jason¡äs survival, in every case, which was not possible thanks to the four-star rift¡äs restriction, preventing any of them to follow him secretly. With this, their options were extremely limited. The worst issue, however, was that Shane was messaged by Old Drake who wanted to figure out if Shane was insane to let his disciple enter the four-star rift. Not knowing what was going on, Shane was astonished that the normally calm Old Drake was so enraged until he finally understood what he meant. Being informed from someone else, that Jason would enter the four-star rift, and not from their own disciple who didn''t even consider discussing such an important decision with them, was extremely painful for their old, feeble heart. Shane and Dalia considered it fortunate that Old Drake was the Vanguard school''s principal, while he also governed Astrix island. If the former was not the case, Old Drake wouldn''t know about such a thing, as the destination of the third-year students'' expeditions was not something anyone else would get to know. Not only didn''t Jason talk to them about it before, but Shane also had to listen to Old Drake¡äs complaints about his reckless actions, without him being able to retort anything at all. After getting to know Jason¡äs special trait, Old Drake considered the black-haired youth as a prodigy on par with Max¡äs, and nurturing him would bring shocking benefits to humanity while acting recklessly might, as it seemed to be the case, could even kill him. If Jason were to die it would be a huge loss to humanity. From his vast knowledge about the current situation at the archipelago¡äs and Canir, Old Drake was sure that the newest generation of soul-awakened youths was the most powerful one that ever existed with an unimaginable number of special three-star and many four-star soul-awakenings. The current soul-awakening star rating was seen as useless by many big clans, with the exception of one and two stars, as they were considered below average or garbage. Only a few particular two 1/2-star soul-awakenings could be considered extremely outstanding with their vast soul energy but a small soul world or the complete opposite existed. Ordinary citizens didn''t know the devasting difference between two and two and a half star soul-awakening, because every examiner at the Beast Pagoda would label useless awoken souls with average characteristics at two stars, while a single unique and out of ordinary characteristic that might be able to change everything, was sometimes enough to rate a soul-awakening with two and a half stars. Every rating at three-stars and above would mean that the soul-awakening had either one extremely powerful five-star factor or a decent balance, while four-star soul-awakening indicated one unique factor with the rest being above average and they were called Heaven¡äs will soul awakenings As for five-star ratings, also called God¡äs Childs, their soul world¡äs size, soul energy, and other aspects had to be superior and extremely high rated. There were only a few of these individuals over the last 300 years and each of them was a powerhouse that could defeat anyone on their own rank with ease. Unfortunately, some of them were too full of themselves, causing them to lose their lives too early before humanity could benefit from them. If they were nurtured under safe proximity, humanity¡äs stance against the foreign races might have already been much better until now, but apparently, this was not the case. Old Drake was confident in the new generation but they had to be nurtured in order to fight against the foreign intelligent races. As for Jason¡äs irresponsible act to enter a four-star rift while being at the Adept rank, Old Drake could only see this as extremely naive and dumb, which caused him to act up in front of Shane, which he wouldn¡ät do under normal circumstances, as he was extremely weak thanks to his injury and nothing against Shane if he were to be enraged about his outburst. In the end, Shane even explained the situation to Old Drake, causing him to curse Jason¡äs personality. However, both of them were sure that they couldn''t force anything on the youngster if he didn''t want to. Jason was unsure what his masters were thinking of, as he and Artemis who sat on his shoulder stared at them, waiting awkwardly. A few minutes passed which felt extremely uncomfortable to him, as Shane sighed once again, before saying. "I don''t think we can prevent you from venturing into the four-star rift, which is definitely not a playground for any humans, but you should already know that...Yesterday Dalia and I prepared a few things for you, that might help you within the rift¡­ We have to upgrade your equipment to the best outcome... Furthermore, with a few tricks, we¡äll be able to ensure your safety to a certain degree¡­" Thinking for a moment, Shane took out a large parcel which landed in front of Jason¡äs feet, as he said "This is a present from both of us. I can explain everything later, take a look first" Jason wasn¡ät even listening to what Shane said, as he saw the different colors radiating from within the parcel, shocking him slightly. His mana eyes could already detect the outlines of what was inside, as his mind finally comprehended everything Shane said before. "These are gifts for me?" Jason exclaimed foolishly, not minding his masters frowning at him, as he estimated the price for everything within, solely by the radiating color he perceived. Opening the parcel, his eyes widened, and even Artemis was astonished to perceive something in particula Chapter 190 - Unique Mana Inspecting the items within the parcel, Jason figured out that almost everything within was what he perceived. There were many potions placed radiating a black and light-gray color inside a black leather belt. From his knowledge, Jason estimated that they were not only completely cleansed from purities but also the strongest potions, he could drink, without the possibility to injure himself accidentally. If he were to drink a high-grade potion, he might as well kill himself, because the potency of such potions would most likely burn his cells, causing his mana veins to explode or even overdraft his lifeforce. As such, perfectly purified grade-1 potions and the weakest purified grade-2 potions could be found inside the parcel, stacked upon each other with a few of them inside the black leather belt. With these potions, he might as well come back to life after barely evading death which was definitely a good sign. If his eyes were not seeing illusions, the amount of mana within these potions was much higher than higher grader potions by at least one to two small ranks. This caused him to look at the potions with lifted eyebrows, as he wondered how expensive they would be if he were to sell them. But his life was much more important than several hundred thousand credits and Jason would rather save the potions within the parcel for himself or even others if necessary, than selling them. Storing the potions away, a black-colored leather armor was revealed. Dense mana enveloped the black leather armor with golden outlines. but weirdly enough there was no color radiating from it. The only unique aspect about the leather armor were the golden inscribed runes on the golden outlines, connecting everything with each other, while the mana within shimmered brightly. Taking out the leather armor, Jason noticed that it weighed at least 50 kilograms which was uncommon for leather armors, as it was normally half of it for battle-oriented armors. Feeling the texture, hardness, and toughness, he was shocked as he figured out that this leather armor was a few times more endurable than his grade-2 leather armor. Clearing her throat Dalia said "Unfortunately both of us can''t manufacture leather armors. Due to the lack of time, we could only acquire a mana rank-2 leather armor. With enough mana supplied, it should be enough to protect yourself from all kinds of unblemished beast attacks and even some magical ranked beasts, as long as they don¡ät use corrosive or ice elemental attacks. The only downside is, that we cannot protect your whole body, but at least you''re somewhat protected with this armor. The required mana is not that high and thanks to the great connection of runes you can probably see with your mana eyes, you might be able to supply it for a few minutes. Nevertheless, for a 3rd Adept rank with a mana core size of a 7th Adept, it might still be a little bit too much, considering the possibility that you''re forced to supply your leather armor for a longer interval." He never thought that he might receive something from his masters because he disregarded their good-meant opinion too often, but receiving so many life-saving items was extremely helpful, as he took out the last item. It was a small, blue shining sphere with a black golden rope around it, turning it into a bracelet. The sphere radiated a thick dark green color that astonished him greatly, in the beginning. Over the last few minutes, as he inspected the former items, he was able to adjust his curiosity and excitement, as he glanced at the item in his trembling hands. Artemis was gazing at the mana-sphere like he did and both could perceive the vast amount of mana within, as their gaze averted back to Shane at the same time Noting that it was his time, Shane stepped forward as he explained "This is a slightly more unique mana-sphere, I forged yesterday. It''s a mana grade-3 item and as you might have already figured out, inside it is a vast amount of compressed mana. Right now it might be useless but you can supply the mana within this sphere into all kinds of objects while using it yourself might be a stupid idea because my and Dalia¡äs mana is stored within. Annexing someone else¡äs mana is not something you should try if you don''t want to die at the age of 14. As for Artemis¡­ either tell her to stop looking at the mana sphere like this or store it away. I don''t think she will be able to hold herself otherwise." Pondering for a moment, Shane opened his holographic screen, as he transfered Jason a particular file. Not caring if his disciple opened it, he said seriously "Over the next few days, we¡äll have a lot to do within the smithy! In order to use the unique mana-sphere correctly, you need to have the right weapons which can handle a large amount of mana, right? " Jason was confused and not sure what to do because he had to digest too much information at once. Concluding the information in his mind, he asked hesitantly "We¡äll craft a mana weapon for me, right?" Seeing Shane¡äs proud expression when he nodded his head vigorously, Jason''s eyes brightened up. To Jason, Shane seemed like a teenager at this moment, as he behaved like an adult and a child at the same time. Dalia was smiling lightly, as she was already accustomed to Shane¡äs weird behavior when both she and Jason followed him towards the smithy. While Shane already entered the smithy, Jason, Dalia, and Artemis were behind him, as Dalia said "The file you received is important for later. I don¡ät think you¡äll need it for the expedition because your mana fluctuations are faint and weaker compared to the rest of the expedition team. However, please read through it and learn it to a certain degree, okay? We want you to survive, alright?" Dalia said and in the beginning, she and Shane only wanted Jason to overcome his own limits by accumulating 500 star notes, by himself in order to be like a small stepping stone for his future progress. How could they have ever imagined that they caused their dear disciple to risk his life in order to procure the remaining star notes to complete his soulbond¡äs evolution? It had been a long time since they felt so dumb, which in the end caused them to equip Jason with all kinds of high-quality potions, a unique mana-sphere with all of their mana both of them absorbed over the whole day and the file they send him. Additionally, Shane wanted to help Jason to forge his own real mana weapon in order to use the mana-sphere completely. In the end, Shane would most likely forge the mana grade-1 weapon, with Jason supporting him, but this was more than enough to survive, as he wouldn''t even be able to handle a mana grade-2 weapon at the moment, even if his mana supply was more than enough. Previously they heard Jason stating that he wanted to purchase a mana gun which they hadn''t thought of and they immediately supported his decision. WIth the unique mana-sphere, he might even be able to handle one of the more powerful grade-2 mana guns, even though the recoil could be quite painful. After hearing that Shane would help him to forge a real mana weapon, Jason immediately forgot the file he received. Looking at his holographic screen, he only saw three bright words, which shocked him [Unique concealment technique] Chapter 191 - Forging A Real Mana Weapon Jason looked at Dalia visibly confused, after reading the title of the file he received, not knowing why his masters gave him such a rare technique. If his knowledge was not completely wrong or forged, only the highest authorities within the army, big families, their offsprings, and other individuals should have the ability to obtain a concealment technique. Humans at the magus and the ongoing ranks were able to conceal their mana fluctuations to a certain degree, however, the disguise was shallow and others would still be able to perceive the rank roughly, if one wanted to know it. But a concealment technique was somewhat different. As long as someone a few ranks higher than him wouldn''t try to figure out his exact mana core rank, Jason would be able to make sure that nobody would be able to read his mana core rank, with a few particular exceptions like he himself was, which could have positive and negative results. On one side, he wouldn''t be underestimated anymore because of his low mana core rank, while on the other side, the high amplification he received from his soul world and the baptism would be disguised. However, Jason was confused why ¨ºxactly Dalia and Shane gave him such a technique because with him practicing this technique, he would indirectly tell everyone that there was someone backing him up. With this, Shane and Dalia¡äs existence couldn¡ät be hidden forever and it was only a matter of time until Jason had to reveal everything. Was the current use of the concealment technique really large enough to risk something as important as Shane and Dalia¡äs existence to the whole world? Jason wasn''t sure about that and Dalia sensed his hesitation and insecurity about the technique he received as she could faintly understand his train of thoughts. "Don¡ät think too much about it, Jason...We don¡ät have to reveal ourselves directly and we didn''t plan to hide forever in the first place. More important to us, however, is your survival and we think this concealment technique might help you out if you were to be separated from your team, which could happen, even if its unlikely. In the end, only the possibility of someone backing you will be exposed and if the worst-case happens with someone forcing you to reveal who gave you the concealment technique...you can also lie!" Chuckling slightly to lift the tension around Jason, he stared at her weirdly "Lying? Like what? Saying someone else gave me the technique until someone finds out the truth?" He said jokingly, as Dalia nodded her head. "Exactly. If someone were to force you to tell who gave you the concealment technique, just tell them Old Drake or maybe even your teacher Till Greil gave it to you. It doesn''t really matter as long as your opponent believes you... In the end, I doubt that anyone will ask you about the origin of your technique and just see you as a powerful opponent from a big family or ancient clan. Furthermore, the equipment we already gave you is enough reason for others to think that you''re backed by someone!" Nodding slightly, Jason found her reasoning somewhat logical, yet completely off. However, it was probably not wrong that normal youths would ask him about who supports him because he could just ignore them, while only big families had to be taken care of extremely carefully. He was still unsure whether or not he would practice this technique for now, because his expedition team was unlikely to possess a concealment technique, while their mana fluctuations were much more distinct than his, attracting beasts. Even if others possessed a concealment technique, his innate mana fluctuations were already below-average with his mana core rank at the 3rd Adept rank. As such, he wouldn''t be hunted by any kind of high ranked beasts, because they instinctively only hunted beasts with strong mana fluctuations instead of someone with weak fluctuations like he currently had, with the sole exception being starving beasts. They stopped talking about the concealment technique as they entered the forging room, where Shane was already impatiently waiting for them. Without wasting any time, Shane threw a large Jade iron ore towards him, while instructing him to perfectly cleanse it, while maintaining the same temperature. Jason only glanced at the Jade iron ore in front of him and his mana eyes immediately told him that it was a very lively and precious piece because the mana veins within seemed to be alive, squirming around like chained worms. From the mana conductivity the single large jade iron ore had, Jason would already have more than enough to forge the two daggers he made secretly, but he didn''t say anything at all, as he started with his task. Perfectly purifying a jade iron bar was like child''s play to him, when he ignited his black origin flame in one hand before starting the oxidation process he was already more than a little familiar with it. Only half an hour passed, when he finished his perfect purifying, as a crudely shaped jade iron bar could be seen in front of him, shining in a green reddish light due to the heat within. Jason was told to maintain the heat, as he turned around to Shane in order to figure out what he should do next. Once Shane noticed that Jason was already done with his task, he took out a silver shining bar from the smithy which shone as if stars were imbedded into it. "Give me the Jade iron bar, now" Shane ordered him, as his mana enveloped the jade iron bar causing it to levitate before it floated towards him. "Heat up your flame by 50¡ãC and place it below the flame I extinguished." "Ignite a second flame and heat it up to 2000¡ãC if possible. Try to maintain the flame as long as possible! Dalia, please take out mana stones for Jason to replenish his mana pool, so he can supply the origin flame longer" Shane ordered and Dalia wanted to say that she could use her own origin flame when she remembered that everything Jason learned right now, would help his future growth. As such, she remained silent, while taking out a bunch of head-sized grade-1 mana stones. Jason felt that his mana consumption increased by a large margin because he had never increased his flame to 2000¡ãC and doing so now was extremely taxing. Unfortunately his master told him to maintain this astronomical heat, as he forced his whole potential out of him, while maintaining a low heat flame subconsciously. Passively replenishing his mana from his sub-area was helpful, but Jason was additionally forced to loosen up several mana treads from the mana stones, before he lead them into his body, while circulating it completely through his mana channels in order to prevent over-drafting his mana due to his high consumption. Jason didn''t even have much time to care what Shane was doing and he could only see from a side-glance, that the large bars within his master''s hand decreased in size as hitting on them, while slowly merging them together, creating an alloy. Suddenly he remembered a certain alloy made out of a silver-colored ore. `He merged a komatite bar with the jade iron? Won''t this create Jadetite?` He asked himself inside his mind while maintaining the head of both flames at the same time. Jadetite was considered one of the best grade-1 alloys due to its extremely high mana conductivity, which allowed astronomical amounts of mana to flow through it unhindered. Adding that both bars they used were perfectly purified, Jason was sure that the weapons produced out of this particular Jadedite bar in front of him would have to be extraordinary. After Shane finished the merging process smoothly as if he had done so thousands of times, Jason was allowed to extinguish one flame. Jason was told to maintain his flame, after increasing its temperature before Shane began the shaping process after he divided the Jadetite alloy into two equal parts. Their size decreased by more than 50%. Even after they were fully merged, the alloy was barely enough in order to forge two daggers for Jason, which was more than enough. Dalia leaned down to Jason who was completely exhausted as she held a potion in her hand "Take it, afterward you can take a good look at what exactly Shane is doing! You¡äll have to do the same in the future if you want to forge real mana weapons! Chapter 192 - Viridi Gulping down the potion Dalia handed him. Jason felt much more energetic than before. Stepping back, Artemis flapped her wings in order to ascend into the air, only to land on his shoulder. Feeling Jason¡äs exhaustion caused by the high mana-consumption his black origin flame required, she wanted to help him somehow, but there was no way to do so. But in his opinion, nothing bad happened, because he saw something miraculous in front of him, as the Jadetite alloy released dense mana fluctuation, while they innately absorbed quite a lot of mana. This natural mana absorption caused the Jadetite bar next to Shane to gleam in a distinct green color with silver lines in-between, while the whole bar was sprinkled with star-like dots. The color he perceived from the bar next to Shane was a faint, light-gray which was the second-lowest possible radiating color. However, Jason had never seen such a color radiating from any grade-1 weapon, which caused him to look at the bar in awe, while Shane was shaping the other portion. A few hours passed and Shane was finally done when Dalia handed him a purple glowing mixture with an empty black pen that looked extremely exquisite and expensive as golden runes shimmered on it. Smiling lightly, Shane poured half of the purple glowing mixture into the empty pen, as he injected his mana into it, manifesting the golden shining runes. Jason wasn''t sure what was about to happen but he was sure that the black pen with golden runes couldn¡ät be something ordinary as the complex runes he saw, released a mysterious pressure. It was as if these runes existed since ancient times when Shane began to inscribe the first few runes on the 30cm long dagger that looked like a wolf in a sheep''s coat due to its beautiful appearance. The green, silver-lined starlight blade looked razor-sharp even though it was paper-thin while Jason was sure that he could kill everything without much effort. Watching Shane¡äs procedure, Jason was in awe as he had never seen some of these runes and he was sure that the inscription mixture Dalia concocted was also nothing ordinary. Altogether, Jason was extremely shocked until he noticed a certain motion of Shane that seemed to be off. "Stop! Master...I think you have to be one to two millimeters higher in order to inscribe the rune right on the crossroad of mana veins." Jason shouted out, causing Dalia to look at him weirdly before she turned to Shane, who was visibly embarrassed. He followed Jason¡äs order and corrected his slight mistake that would have decreased the daggers output by almost 10%, as the distinct crossroad of mana veins was the most important component of the dagger he inscribed right now. Clearing his throat, he confessed ashamedly. "It has been a long time since I tried to create a flawless mana grade-1 weapon with such faint mana veins within. Jason, you can help me with your mana eyes if. Tell me where exactly most mana veins are situated and where they overlap." Jason wasn''t sure how much of a difference the thickness between grade-1 and grade-2 mana veins was, but without constant practicing, he was sure that losing the edge on perceiving feeble mana veins would happen quite easily. As such he stepped forward and pointed out the most distinct and overlapping spots of mana veins while Shane inscribed the runes on the shown spots, without considering that Jason could have done something wrong. If Jason were to tell him a wrong spot, he would have to shoulder the consequences by himself, as the weapons'' strength wouldn''t be top-notch anymore. More than 30 minutes passed when Shane finished inscribing both daggers with all kinds of runes. Handing the finished product to Jason without any kind of celebration, he looked proud, yet with complex feelings at the youth in front of him. Shane never needed any help from someone younger than him in order to obtain the best results according to his estimation. However, in the last few dozen years, he didn''t have much time to practice his forging skills as they were hiding, while the times he forged were mostly used for high-grade items and weapons whose mana veins were easier to notice by him, not as weak and feeble as a grade-1 material. Jason didn''t think much about Shane¡äs small issue as he could somehow understand that Shane couldn¡ät sense extremely thin mana veins as good as a few dozen years ago, as he was more proficient with inscribing runes on higher graded items and weapons. Holding the daggers in his hands, Jason felt immediately comfortable with their grip, as if they were perfectly accustomed to his demands. A radiant smile emerged on his face as he could barely hold back shouting out in joy when he injected his mana into them. The mana grade-1 Jadetite daggers brightened up, while the purple runes on it gleamed vigorously, as Jason¡äs mana decreased with an extremely fast pace. Controlling his mana consumption the daggers'' brightness increased or decreased when Jason heard a small humming sound as if they wanted to talk to him. `What!?` Jason thought shocked as he felt the blades vibrating violently causing him to inject more mana into them until they calmed down. It seemed as if the blades sharpened themselves with him injecting mana into them, as the reflection he could see become more and more detailed, without any visible flaw. "Their perfect¡­" Jason mumbled as he injected his whole mana pool into the blade in addition to the small unique mana sphere, he transferred some mana within the unique mana sphere bracelet into it, causing a white-purplish film to envelope the daggers wholly. The daggers seemed to grow in size as the main straight dagger enlarged by more than five centimeters, while the curved dagger seemed to manifest a second blade. Trying to test out the maximum capabilities of his daggers, it felt like the required mana were extremely large because and multiple times the size of Jason¡äs current mana pool. `A whole mid-Master rank mana pool?` Jason estimated silently, as the mana Jadetite daggers began to scream out with a *shing* telling him that their limit. Inspecting the daggers with the lowest possible mana supply, he thought these daggers looked like emeralds streaming within the starlight, as silver lines streaked through the dense green color, given them a magnificent touch. The higher his mana supply was the grander the Jadetite daggers looked like and Jason was struck in awe, as a name appeared within his mind. "Viridi-Starstream?" Chapter 193 - Heavens Hell Third Level Jason was sure that his naming sense could be considered the worst of the worst, but somehow he felt that it was not a bad name for his daggers and he smiled at them like a small child that received a toy to play around with. After he was done staring at it for a while, it was already after lunchtime and the three of them decided to regenerate their used-up energy by eating a small meal, even though Shane and Dalia didn¡ät have to eat for several weeks or even months in order to survive. The mana they absorbed gave them more than enough energy to live healthy, without any issues, but this didn¡ät mean they couldn''t eat something delicious. While Dalia prepared something for lunch, Jason decided to practice the Heaven¡äs Hell technique once again, as he entered his soul world. Looking at his soul energy of 157.2 units, he smiled lightly, as he remembered something extremely important he forgot because his schedule was so loaded. Suddenly a thought stroke him like a lightning bolt, as he thought about the Heaven''s Hell technique `I can already practice the third Heaven¡äs Hell level?! How could I forget that?` He asked himself, lamenting about his stupidity because it could increase his soul energy even more than the five-braid helix he currently used. Even if he was not sure how much of a difference it would be because he already used one of the highest possible second-level helixes which gave him an increase of 0.8% per usage. But if the description of the Heaven¡äs Hell manual weren''t wrong, it had to be a beneficial increase, otherwise, nobody would practice the third level and skip it completely. Thinking for a moment, even a difference of 0.1% would be a vast difference for Jason, because he would be able to have an increase of more than 0.3% thanks to his extremely fast soul energy reproduction process that was four times faster than the average soul had. Unfortunately, he could barely use his extraordinary fast replenishing speed to his advantage, because he practiced the Heaven¡äs Hell technique three times a day with each practice taking longer than an hour. If he were to do a continuous circle of his Heaven¡äs Hell practice, as he wished to do, the real effect of his soul world¡äs unique replenishing effect could be showcased. But until he could even think of doing something like this, he had to increase his soul energy to a much higher degree while the creation of his second sub-area was still far away. Jason didn¡ät want to endure such torture ever again like it was the case with his first sub-area and finding enough resources for his currently two soulbonds alone, was already problematic enough. He couldn''t even provide himself with a high number of mana stones or magical treasures that could enhance his physique, mana absorption rate, or anything like that. As such, the plan to create a second sub-area with the mind-splitting technique he had in addition to developing a continuous circle to use the reproduced soul energy immediately after it was expelled, were thrown back into a corner of his mind. When the time comes, he would come back to this idea, but not now! Having already read through the whole Heaven¡äs Hell technique¡äs manual, Jason knew what he had to do now. Considering that he had already practiced the Heaven¡äs Hell five-braid helix for quite some time and even three times a day at that. Jason was extremely confident in his focus and soul energy control that was superior to a few weeks ago. As such the easiest structure of the Heaven¡äs Hell third level should be easily accomplished by him without much pressure, as he remembered that the third level was called [Drill]. The reason was simple and it was to create a drill that would form a tiny hole inside the soul world core only to inject the soul energy. Because the soul world core had to regenerate the damage caused by the drill, it had to use up a lot of Jason¡äs energy while strengthening the soul world core''s ''muscle''. Even though his energy consumption would increase because of that, Jason was confident in negating this effect by eating a massive quantity of food or maybe just some qualitative food, which would cost him a fortune. The nutrition would be converted into a mysterious energy thanks to the unknown and primordial looking runes inscribed on his soul world core and humanity didn''t even know how it worked or why this process happened. Jason was curious about his soul world core and even more so about the runes carved into it, but he couldn''t just take it out in order to inspect it with his mana eyes...unfortunately! In the end, he could only follow the descriptions from the Heaven¡äs Hell technique because he received many benefits from it. He was not really a fan of following anyone or anything stupidly without asking how it worked, but with his shallow knowledge, there was no way to figure out how exactly his own body worked, while humanity as a whole didn''t know anything useful about the soul world core at all. The only thing they were sure of, was that it saved humanity from their annihilation, and even if many theories about the soul world core were published, proving them could only be described as extremely difficult. Creating a drill with his soul energy threads wasn''t really difficult but the real challenge came when Jason had to rotate the combined soul energy threads in order to create a working and sharp tip with which he wanted to pierce into his own soul world core. `Why am I even doing something as stupid as this?` He lamented in his mind, as he patiently constructed the unmoving, thin drill without making it too broad in order to reduce the damage and pain he had to endure. Rotating it with all his willpower focused on it, the drill moved violently, trembling as it approached his soul world core before a screeching sound could be heard when it pierced in the soul world core''s outer layer, exactly at the position he aimed for. In order to minimize the damage, Jason looked for the area with the fewest primordial runes as he pierced into it, causing a sting in his head that slowly spread through his whole body. Goosebumps covered his skin but the pain was less than he initially thought, as the five-braid helix seemed to have hurt more when he injected it into his soul world core the first time. Finishing the process smoothly, Jason was confused as it seemed way too easy, while the most difficult step should have been the rotating process, he mastered it relatively smooth thanks to his high soul energy control However, only after finishing the process, as he left the soul world, overwhelming fatigue enveloped Jason''s whole body. With a growling stomach, Jason could barely stand up, as he dragged himself towards the kitchen, where Shane and Dalia were silently preparing the meal. Noticing someone approaching them from behind, they immediately knew it was Jason because there couldn¡ät be anyone else in their hideout. However seeing Jason¡äs weakened expression and hearing his grumbling stomach, their expression turned to confusion, before both of them laughed out loud, ignoring his pitiful situation completely. "Please¡­.give me some food. I''m so hungry..." Jason could only say, as his legs gave in, without the strength to come back up once again Chapter 194 - Are You Ready? Jason saw multiple different dishes on the table when he finally gathered his strength to lift his body in order to sit down on the chair in front of him. He would have never believed that the Heaven''s Hell''s third level wouldn''t be painful but rather extremely energy-consuming, requiring an astronomical amount of nutrition which were converted into energy at that. In order to compensate for this, he knew for sure that the previous rather scarce amount of food he normally ate, wouldn''t be enough. All dishes radiated a large amount of mana and when the three started to eat, Jason felt his energy replenishing extremely fast, while the mana entering his body circulated vigorously in his mana veins. Not only was the food delicious but also extremely beneficial for him. As such he ate for half an hour without saying anything until his stomach felt as if it would explode any moment. Satisfied with the result, Jason wanted to stand up in order to wash the dishes, as Shane used his mana to lift the plates and clean them with a single motion before they were magically placed into the shelf. Not knowing what exactly he should do now, Jason messaged Malia to tell him, when their journey into the four-star rift would begin. He didn''t receive an immediate answer and it was most likely because she was still in school, attending her practical class. As such, Jason had to think of other ways to figure out what he could do in order to be perfectly prepared. Shane and Dalia gave him several advices which he wanted to use to be fully prepared, as he opened the holographic screen of his quantum bracelet in order to search for multiple items. In the beginning, he wanted to purchase a mana grade-1 bow with tempered high mana conductivity arrows, but he wouldn''t be able to kill unblemished beasts like this, forcing him to disregard this plan immediately. As for soul weapons, Jason decided to ignore purchasing such things, because he wanted to make them by himself for a much cheaper price, as he would be fully aware of his soul-weapon/armor''s capabilities, while a soul weapon that adjusted itself to Jason''s current strength was not something he needed. In the end, he just purchased a mountain of preservable dishes, which he would throw into the preserving section of his storage device, while the most important purchases he made were made for Scorpio and Artemis in order to feed them nutritious food. A few weeks ago, he forced Artemis to eat the remaining Wild and Awakened beast cores he purchased weeks ago, only to receive a deprecating gaze, even though she listened to him. Jason figured out that she wouldn''t be satisfied with any incomplete mana cores below the unblemished rank, while ice elemental magical ranked complete mana cores were her loved and favorite delicacy she could digest without being forced to enter hibernation to digest everything. Purchasing a bunch of magical ranked mana cores and many different kinds of poisoned meat for Scorpio, were his preparations for his soulbonds food. He wasn''t sure what exactly happened with Scorpio, but after he underwent the incomplete evolution, he wanted to improve his poison affinity and demanded poisonous meat to eat, which caused him to feel weird, yet extremely proud, because his soulbond was adamant in becoming stronger. Scorpio wasn''t capable of communicating with him in human language but their fortified soul conjunction enabled Jason to understand everything his second soulbond wanted to tell him. This ability was extremely beneficial and he wondered when Artemis would finish her fortified soul conjunction because they were already together for a few months while he raised her up from the moment she hatched as one of the weakest possible wild ranked beasts to the present. However, Jason had the bad premonition that Artemis would always nag with him, only that he would finally understand her once their fortified soul conjunction was established, which was not really something he looked forward to. In the end, he was extremely impatient with her forming a fortified soul conjunction only after being together for several months, while others required several dozen years to do the same as he did with Scorpio in a short period. Nevertheless, Jason was rather excited because he wanted to test so many things out. When he was done with his purchase for his soulbonds'' food, and other miscellaneous items, Jason looked out for a better mana gun that he wanted to purchase in order to protect himself at least slightly once they ventured into the four-star rift. Thanks to the unique mana sphere bracelet Shane gifted him, Jason would be able to supply more than enough mana in order to fire a grade-2 gun, several hundred times without issue. The only small problem he registered was the immense recoil, grade-2 guns had, which could even shatter his shoulder if he were to purchase a gun he couldn''t handle. As such, Jason had to search for a pistol without much recoil, while it should still be powerful enough to use armor-piercing and other types of bullets, allowing him to kill unblemished beasts. Time passed slowly, as Shane and Dalia decided to retreat in order to let him alone when he finally found something interesting. [Mana grade-2 Five SeveN- 4 Magazines] Price: 1 Star-note/100.000.000 Credits [Only for today!!] Sighing deeply, Jason knew that the price was rather high, compared to other grade-2 weapons. However, being able to construct a grade-2 mana gun without much recoil was mostly bough for the younger generation in order to protect themselves. As such, Jason had to bear with the price, as he paid 1.2 Star notes for the pistol with a large variety of bullets. Sighing deeply, he told himself that he had to search for a bunch of treasures in order to compensate for his expenditures today. The food he purchased for himself, Scorpio, and Artemis were already worth 1 Star-note while Artemis'' portion was the most expensive, due to her high demand. In the end in addition to the miscellaneous items, food expenditures and the grade-2 mana operated Five-SeveN Jason purchased was worth 10 star notes, with the miscellaneous items being the most expensive with 8 star notes... From his whole fortune, this was less than 5%, but Jason didn¡ät have a stable income for now and because of that, he wanted to act more economically. But his life was more important and if Shane or Dalia didn¡ät gift him such precious treasures like the unique mana grade-1 daggers, potions, and high-quality mana-grade-2 leather armor, Jason¡äs expenses would be graver. It was already 5 pm, when he finished everything, as he ordered the parcel to arrive the Fler¡äs home, where he would go now. He still wanted to discuss with Malia what exactly was going on now and when they would enter the four-star rift when he received a message from her. "The rift will be completely materialized tomorrow and we¡äll be able to enter it on Friday. Come home first and we¡äll talk about the rest later, okay?" Reading her messages, he was already expectant what would happen in the next few weeks, as Shane teleported him out of their hideout. * It was Friday morning when Jason and Malia were impatiently gulping down their breakfast. While a single plate with a toast and a sausage could be seen in front of Malia, Jason devoured one plate after another with a satisfied expression, causing her to unintentionally laugh out. Releasing her tension, Greg could be seen walking down the stairs, as he stared daggers at them because they would leave him alone. Not even his parents were at home, which annoyed him a lot. When he heard that Jason was allowed to join his sister¡äs expedition team, he wanted to join too, only to be immediately rejected, which felt like a heavy slap. In the beginning, Greg couldn¡ät understand his sister''s reason until he was almost forced to acknowledge that his best friend''s ability was just too beneficial. Sighing deeply, Greg couldn''t do anything against their decision, when he stared at Jason, who seemed to be extremely calm on the outside as he gobbled down his breakfast. "Jason, Why are you eating so much since the last few days? Are you scared to enter your first rift?" He tried to tease, as Malia looked worried to Jason, thinking that he might disguise his insecurity by eating so much over the last few days. "Are you ready?" She asked hesitantly, only to receive a slight nod from Jason, when he finished his meal Chapter 195 - Is This Rift A Single...? Over the last few days, Jason tried to improve his combat prowess as well as possible, while practicing the Heaven''s Hell third level which ravished most of his energy, he had to replenish. Scorpio and Artemis¡ä demand for soul energy increased once again, causing Jason to frown, even though it should be seen as a good sign. On one side it was definitely an advantage because higher soul energy indicated that their innate strength increased, while the negligible disadvantage was Artemis, who Jason couldn¡ät store within his soul world. His soul energy reached 185 units, while Artemis'' demand increased from 140 to 155 units. Scorpio annexed ten more units, totaling his soul energy demand to 70 units, and the Black origin flame was still desiring Jason¡äs soul energy with its measly 0.01 unit without being allowed to take any. Due to his exponential increase in soul energy Jason received, he was confident to take over the demanded soul energy from his soulbonds, if he had enough time. Right now he was merely 40.01 soul energy units away from his goal. Jason looked at Malia with confidence, without showing any sign of worries, while Malia seemed a little bit hesitant about her expedition into an unknown four-star rift that barely opened for the public. The public didn''t really know anything about the four-star rift, but what she got to know from her teachers shocked her a little bit. Because the principal knew that Jason and other promising students requested an absence of leave from school due to their mandatory expedition, Old Drake decided to hand out an information sheet to all teams. As such, Malia and her team were already aware of what they would have to face after entering the rift. On one side it was shocking while on the other side, it was something they had never heard before which ignited a deep sense of curiosity within them. Jason was unaware of the information sheet due to Malia¡äs negligence but it wouldn''t really change anything for him. In the end, his expectations couldn¡ät be any higher than they already were and he felt like a small child waiting to receive candies. Rather than worrying needlessly, Jason tested out everything with the Viridi-Starstream daggers which felt like they were extensions of his body. Due to this new sensation he received from his daggers, martial art techniques improved by leaps and bounds, which astonished him a lot. He didn''t reach a higher mastery, but his moves became smoother, while his mana circulation in accordance with the daggers felt much easier than it already was. Over the last few days, Shane and Dalia used their whole mana to fill his unique mana sphere bracelet to the brim, shocking both Artemis and Jason extremely. If he were able to use this mana for himself, Jason wouldn''t have the need for mana stones until he would reach the master rank at the bare minimum, while Artemis'' desire to absorb his bracelet increased more with each day passing. Even though he didn''t doubt Artemis'' ability to absorb stranger¡äs mana at all but Jason didn''t want to test it right now, as he would need the mana for himself. Furthermore, he didn''t want Artemis to take a long hibernation once again, while he had to fight for himself in order to sustain his soulbond¡äs luxurious life. When they finished their breakfast, the two of them washed up, before Malia summoned her Nightmare horse that was still at the unblemished rank, gazing at Jason with disgust. `What have I done to you?` He thought in his mind, as Malia told him to sit behind her. The Nightmare-horse didn''t seem to like this, but she had to obey Malia thanks to the soulbond. Jumping on the horse''s back, Jason felt a burning sensation immediately below, him as it ignited a small flame, where he sat. It hurt only for a moment until Malia noticed his pained expression, as she laughed out "Stop teasing him, alright?" Malia said chuckling before they began their short journey through the city. Not even 20 minutes passed until they entered the devasted area where rubble and destroyed skyscrapers could still be seen all over the place. Jason held Malia¡äs waist firmly in order to stay safe on the Nightmare-horse¡äs back, with his mana eyes activated, gazing straight towards the large ring-shaped compressed mana that released distinct golden, black and silver colors From further away, he couldn''t really detect anything at all, but the closer they came, the more detailed the colors turned out causing him to look shocked at what he saw. Previously, he thought the golden, black, and silver colors might have been certain elements, causing the rift to materialize. Apparently, this was not essentially wrong, but the most important fact he could roughly assume was what caused these elements to suddenly appear which created the rift. If his mana eyes didn''t play him any tricks, he could faintly perceive all kinds of mysterious, complex runes around the ring-shaped rift, that were connected with each other. `Can only I see them?` Jason asked himself, as he could finally see the rift with his bare eyes once buildings didn¡ät obstruct his view anymore. However, thinking for a moment, he figured out that others might not be able to see them, because he himself couldn''t see them, once he suppressed his mana eyes to the bare minimum. These runes shone in a black, golden, and silver color, but they were completely different compared to normal runes, due to multiple reasons. The runes were the most complex ones he had ever seen and one had to say that Jason saw many complex runes inside Shane¡äs forging-room. If Shane labeled a pseudo mana grade-3 anvil as average, he had to have a better one and in Jason''s opinion, his master had either a pseudo-mana grade-4 anvil or a normal grade-4 anvil, from what his mana eyes told him. As such, Jason was aware of what grade-4 runes looked like. However, they seemed to become child''s play against the terrifying and profound pressure he perceived from the runes, only he could see. Malia was unaware of Jason¡äs shock, as her only thoughts were focused on him holding her waist firmly, causing her to blush, even though she didn''t want to. However the closer they came to the rift, the more hesitant she became, as the mana density and pressure began to overwhelm her, while her thoughts changed. Looking back, she noticed Jason staring straight at the rift, with shock, fear, and curiosity gleaming in them, as she figured out that he most likely used his mana eyes to inspect the rift thoroughly. Once they arrived at the security check that was more than one kilometer away from the rift, they stopped and descended from the Nightmare horse that returned into Malia¡äs soul world, after it glared at Jason fiercely. However, Jason didn''t even notice this, as his focus didn¡ät leave the rift for a single moment, due to the profoundness of the runes he perceived. `Are these runes inscribed out of transmuted mana or has the world gathered particular mana particles something to do with this?` Jason wasn''t sure about that, but it seemed like the runes were made by someone or something because they were accurately lined up and connected with each other and he began to doubt that their Argos, their planet could do something like this. ''Is this normal?'' When he noticed that he had to verify his identity, Jason was thrown out of his thoughts and he finished everything as fast as he could. Once done, Malia led him to her team while Jason tried to burn at least one profound rune into his mind. However, this feat alone was already extremely difficult, due to the hundreds of connected affinity transmuted mana strings that were thick, thin, long, short, intertwined with each other, and sometimes even fused with the other affinity runes. `Is this rift a single rune?` He almost shouted out in shock, as Malia dragged him out of his thoughts. "We are there!" She whispered a little bit annoyed about Jason spacing out all the time. Chapter 196 - Queasy Feeling Dragged out of his thoughts, Jason looked around, only to see the Daer siblings waiting for them. Next to them stood two other youths who looked proud and visibly annoyed because they had to wait for him and Malia. Both youths were roughly as tall as he was, with a height of slightly more than 1.7m, while one of the youths was even smaller than him. The smaller student had thin eyes, a slightly brown-yellowish skin color, while his hair was black. Staring at Jason with his brown eyes, he didn''t know where exactly he should look. Jason had never seen anyone with such a skin color as almost all citizens on Astrix had rather fair skin, not like the small youth in front of him. However, with his facial features, it didn''t look bad and Jason smiled at the youth, trying to make a good first impression before he averted his gaze to the taller youth whose hair was also black while his eyes looked extremely eerie due to their brown, almost black color. The taller youth¡äs facial features were nothing special, while his skin was pale, almost paper-white, and could be ranked as average or maybe slightly above average at most. Malia greeted everyone before she started to introduce every team member to Jason and vice versa. While the taller almost black-eyed youth¡äs name was Lux Jul, the smaller youth¡äs name was Lin Yoa. After everyone got to know each other, Malia¡äs team started to explain everything to him, while Jason was still scanning through everyone¡äs mana core once again in order to figure out their team''s rough combat prowess. While the Daer siblings had roughly a mana core size of a 4th Master rank, Theo¡äs was slightly larger. Lin had the weakest mana core at the 1st Master rank, while his soulbond seemed to amplify it to the 3rd Master rank, which indicates that his soulbond is at least at the mid-unblemished rank, if not at the later-unblemished rank, considering that he only contracted one soulbond, with a high amplification from his soul world core. Lin¡äs mana was transmuted into a lush green-brownish mixture which was typical for wood and nature affinities, that were rather rare. As such, Jason concluded that he contracted some sort of sentient, plant, tree, or something similar, like Dalia did, while Jason wasn''t sure what kind of beast it was. Malia was still at the 2nd Master rank, but due to her having contracted two soulbonds at a high rank, she had the second-largest mana core size of all four of them. However, Lux Jul was a huge contrast to the four of them, causing Jason to feel extremely uncomfortable when he inspected his mana core. According to his mana core, he was at the 3rd Master rank, while his mana core size reached the 6th Master rank, which was already extremely strong and would indicate that Lux contracted a magical ranked beast. However thanks to Jason¡äs exceptional eyesight, his mana eyes could identify that Lux¡äs mana had multiple different transmutations, while all of them belonged to the same branch, causing goosebumps to cover him unintentionally... He had only once felt such a transmuted mana and it was Shane¡äs¡­ Even though his master¡äs transmutation was much denser, it was the transmutation his master''s Death-Knight caused. Lux had a darkness affinity or rather it seemed like he only possessed a Death affinity, which was a branch of the darkness affinity. This caused Jason to pity Lux slightly, however, this was most likely not needed, because he seemed to do well even without any other affinity, because he contracted multiple death affinity beasts already, indicating a large soul world, while his soul energy had to be equally high. However, the feeling Jason got about Lux was weird, and staring at him was even more uncomfortable as if he was looking at something dead yet alive¡­ He wasn''t sure how to describe his thoughts, as Malia tugged at his clothes, dragging him back to the real world. "Did you even listen to our explanations? If you make a mistake it might kill all of us!" Malia lectured him, as Jason apologized, causing the others to frown. Lux however noticed Jason¡äs gaze with interest as a small, yet eerie smile blossomed on his pale face. Summarizing everything important, Malia glared at him, forcing Jason to repeat everything she said which he did unwillingly before they took out their weapons and other equipment they wanted to prepare before stepping through the rift, even though it was completely useless, as the rift was protected by the government. However, the youths felt better if they were fully prepared for everything and Jason just decided to tag along. The rift was still a few hundred meters away from them, but it was better to be safe than sorry as beasts from the other side of the temporary rift could also appear in front of them without anyone noticing. Once everyone was done with changing their stuff, Jason decided to take a look at the others, only to notice that not a single one of them used a mana weapon or -armor, except himself. This attracted some attention because everyone could sense the mana fluctuations radiating from his daggers and leather armor. While Theo and Jennifer wondered why someone with such high-grade equipment had to venture into a dangerous four-star rift while being at the Adept rank in order to secure expensive treasures to evolve his soulbond, Lux and Lin labeled Jason as someone rich with the need of an adrenaline rush. However, the only one who was really astonished was Malia, as she seized Jason up from close before she whispered. "Where did you get this equipment? These things are extremely expensive...Weren''t you poor when we first met? How?" But Jason just shrugged his shoulders, telling her that he obtained them legally and that he would tell her later after they returned from the four-star rift. Malia could only lament in her mind and she would remember Jason¡äs word and nag him later! Artemis was still squeezed on his shoulder, attracting some attention from Jason¡äs expedition team, but she remained silent which led to the result that nobody said anything about her existence. Jason felt slightly uncomfortable because Artemis was the only summoned beast at the moment, as they suddenly stood in front of the rift, barely one hundred meters away from it. Even though he felt uncomfortable with his soulbond as the only summoned beast, he couldn''t help but praise the magnificent runes he perceived with his mana eyes. Jason couldn¡ät understand them even a tiny bit, but he still tried to imprint them into his mind, which didn''t seem to work well. This caused Jason to feel slightly dejected, as his surroundings began to attract quite a lot of mana from their surroundings, causing him to turn around. Looking down towards the ground, Jason estimated to see a total of four large magic circles in front of everyone. The only exception was Lux as three green-whitish magic circle appeared in front of him, summoning bipedal, humanoid beasts, which immediately filled their surrounding with the stench of death ''Damn¡­ where did he get these beasts from?!'' Jason asked himself, as the surrounding turned uncanny. Chapter 197 - What The Hell Is Going On? While Jason was correct with his assumption about the Daer siblings soulbonds, as both of them summoned a peak-evolved ranked Shadow panther with a dark green color radiating from them, Lin summoned a five-meter tall treant whose roots, branches, and twigs were shaped into limbs in order to walk around freely. It looked somewhat hideous and crude but seemed to be efficient enough in order to walk around, even though it was slow. Malia only summoned her Nightmare-horse, without even thinking about summoning her water fairy, but this did not change the surrounding atmosphere. Lux¡äs soulbonds were the reason for him to feel uncomfortable and even the other expedition members felt slightly uneasy. This was mainly because Lux summoned three unblemished ranked Skeletons with blue flames burning in their eye sockets, as they released their eerie death affinity without restraining it a tiny bit. Through his mana eyes, Jason could tell that they reached their potential limit, but everything about the Skeletons felt weird. While one was a Skeleton Warrior, with a broadsword in its hand, another one was an Elite Skeleton Archer, while the last one seemed to be a Skeleton Assassin with a smaller build. However, all of them looked like human skeletons, which was the cause for him to feel so uncomfortable. The radiating death mana wasn¡ät the real cause for him to feel weird and awkward, but because he knew how Skeleton''s were created thanks to his master''s knowledge. ''Did he create them by himself or are the skeletons from rifts with an innate death domain?'' Jason asked himself, knowing that creating a human undead was only possible by using a corpse whose soul has yet to leave its body. Sealing the soul and using certain magical ingredients, one could create a Skeleton, without any intelligence and memories about their past. Jason¡äs knowledge was not perfect, but he remembered that strengthening or evolving such Skeletons was not possible because the mana core would stagnate once the owner died. As such, Lux¡äs three skeletons were all undead humans at the Master rank, which caused him to shudder. Everyone noticed that and the others could only smile sadly because their first time with Lux¡äs soulbonds was even more uncomfortable. They were also somewhat disgusted about Lux¡äs decision to form a soulbond with former humans whose soul had been sealed within their mana core, but they could hardly do anything against it. Lux didn''t care if anyone had prejudices against him and they were free to think whatever they wanted about his soulbonds. It was his own business what soulbonds he would form a contract with and not anyone else''s. If he wanted to survive he would have to form a soulbond with a beast that had a death affinity and only thanks to his family''s utmost efforts, was he able to receive a few Skeleton from a death domain. Human Skeletons weren''t per se the best choice but they were the strongest beasts he obtained, causing him to bind them even though he was looked at like a psychopath. In the end, he would do anything in order to become stronger, without caring what others thought about him, even if he had to socialize to a certain degree in order to graduate from school, as the expedition was mandatory for everyone. It was not really difficult to remain friendly with others, however, this changed almost immediately once they figured out what his soulbonds were. Without bothering about anyone he just wanted to become stronger in order to reign over himself and not some big clans, who valued their citizen less than some magical treasures! When Jason saw the other members'' pitying gaze towards him and slight disgust disguised behind, he understood that they already knew about Lux¡äs soulbonds. As such he could faintly comprehend that the black-eyed youth probably didn''t do anything wrong, as he convinced himself that Lux received the Skeletons from a death domain, even if he wasn''t sure about the truth. In the end, Jason didn¡ät dare to ask, because he felt uncomfortable doing so. ''If Lux did something wrong, the government should already know about it..probably?'' Malia sensed the whole situation turning awkward when she said "Let''s go earn some credits! We have no time to waste" while trying to sound euphoric. Nodding their head, they began to approach the rift with their 8 soulbonds next to them. There were still a few demolished constructions in their way until they were finally able to see the rift complete, causing everyone to marvel at its sheer size. Jason was still bewitched by the seemingly invisible runes within the blue shining liquid, but his attention was drawn to the hundreds of students and young men and women at the Master rank, standing in a queue waiting for their turn to venture into the rift. "So many want to enter the rift?.... Will we even obtain anything at all, if the numbers increase further?" Jennifer said with worry when they noticed that some young men and women were already at the peak of the Master rank with their late-unblemished soulbonds next to them. The others were also confused because they never ventured into a newly materialized rift and didn¡ät expect such a massive crowd of people trying to become rich. Some of them already ventured into a permanent low-star rift but it was not even closely comparable to the current situation, which also astonished Jason. However, his astonishment was not devoted to the mass of humans, but rather their soulbonds, as many rare beasts were among them, even though their potential seemed to be used up. From Canines to Felines, Flying beasts, Snakes, Bison to Spirits, Elementals, Velociraptors, and much more, every kind of beast seemed to pop up in his view, causing Jason to imprint their affinities, individual mana channel distribution, and potential in his mind. More than an hour passed until they were barely halfway through their queue, while Jason completely forgot about the queasy feeling he had about Lux, as his soulbonds were rather ordinary compared to some other unique ones he observed. He wasn''t even aware that so many different kinds of beasts existed on Astrix and Jason kept wondering if some of them were imported from other islands or even Canir. It felt like a new world opened up to him and everything was somehow thanks to the materializing rift which released thick mana currents, suppressing its surrounding. From his detailed research about all beasts he saw, Jason could tell that there wasn''t yet a single Magical ranked beast until now, while peak unblemished ranked beasts seemed to be more ordinary and the reason for this was quite simple in his opinion. While it was already extremely difficult for humans to compress their mana into the first liquefied mana drop, the same applied for beasts, only that they had to follow their instincts to do something like that. As such it was even said that some beasts with a potential allowing them to barely enter the magical rank, wouldn¡ät necessarily mean that they would ever reach this rank. In the end, Jason felt rather disappointed that he didn¡ät see any magical ranked beast, which was only because he wanted to observe if the rift¡äs restriction would repel it or not. Normally that should be the case but within the soul world, everything could change and Jason was curious to figure that out. Nevertheless, until it was their turn, he couldn''t see a single magical ranked beast could, and he immediately felt disappointed as he approached the rift. Sensing the pressure descending on him, Jason felt as if he was about to suffocate when he enveloped himself with a small membrane of mana. The guards that protected the City and the rift at the same time eyed him weirdly, wondering why an Adept rank would venture into a four-star rift, which distracted them from their duty. Jason didn¡ät care about being eyed like this anymore because almost everyone during the whole interval before they entered the rifts proximity eyed him like he was suicidal or extremely stupid. Everyone took a deep breath before they crossed the rift and it felt like space twisted around them when everything went black around them. Meanwhile, Jason felt like Shane used his spatial teleportation with the addition of an unimaginable weird and uncomfortable, yet interesting feeling as time and space in front of him twisted. Through his mana eyes, he saw the black color representing an unknown affinity, the golden color indicating the space affinity, and the silver color which most likely represented time transmuted mana swirling around them, while everyone around him collapsed. ''What the hell is going on?!'' Chapter 198 - Ancient Ruins?! Jason was still fully awake, while his golden eyes shimmered within the seemingly endless darkness, preventing him from collapsing on the ground with an unknown yet unyielding will, he never felt before. Forced to stay awake, the only thing he could do was to reassure that his comrades were still alive, which was the case according to the flickering mana fluctuations he perceived. But even if that was the case, Jason was unsure what exactly happened to him, when the eternal darkness vanished, with thousands of bright shining stars emerging in his surroundings. Without knowing, goosebumps covered his whole body and he even forgot to breathe by the sight in front of him. The stars next to him vanished as soon as their group crossed them and Jason wondered if their speed was too fast, as he saw that they passed a terrifying humongous blue planet, while feeling that something about the planet was familiar¡­ ''Is that mana?!'' Jason was shocked, as had never felt such strong mana fluctuations from Argos, even though he was much closer to its core when he stood on the ground, compared to the blue planet that was an unknown, yet long distance away from him. ''What is going on here?'' he wondered as his golden eyes began to lose their luster once they crossed the huge planet, causing him to collapse next to his comrades. ** Nobody knew how much time passed when all of them regained their consciousness, laying inside a small tent, while one of them seemed to be absent. Jason awoke at first but the things he saw before shocked him extremely, as he began to question everything he previously thought to know. ''What exactly are rifts? Where do they bring us and what the hell was this tremendous large planet?'' The more time passed, the fewer answers he obtained while even more questions appeared in his mind¡­ ''It doesn''t seem like anyone else saw the same things as I did, right? Not even Shane told me about the millions of stars and the huge blue planet within this transportation "tunnel"¡­He didn''t even tell me anything about the runes stabilizing the rift, as if he is incapable to see them¡­. Did the foreign races create them or are they accidentally manifested? What about the blue planet? Do the foreign races know about it or is that also something they don''t know about?'' Jason understood that he didn''t understand anything at all, which was extremely unpleasant souring his mood. After their group was thrown out of the four-star rift, they were brought into the infirmary by the government workers on the other side of the rift in order to look after them and if necessary supply them with IVs and other medicaments. Once it was clear that nothing went wrong with their transportation to the other side of the rift, their expedition group was transferred into a small tent. Not long after they were moved, Jason woke up. When he couldn¡ät take the torture his mind created as he was unable to answer the questions, he Jason went outside the tent. While Malia and her classmates knew where they would land, Jason was still not sure where exactly the four-star rift brought them. With his mana eyes constantly activated, he already figured out that the mana in their surroundings was much higher than inside Cyro-City which was thinned out because of the dome¡äs high mana demand. If his estimation was correct, they were currently inside an area, that had a mana density comparable to a common four-star wild zone, causing his passive mana absorbing technique to hasten up. With his current passive absorption speed, Jason was confident to reach the 4th Adept rank in 10 days without actively absorbing any mana at all, causing him to smile lightly. ''How fast would my ranks improve inside the blue planet?'' He asked himself, sighing deeply as he looked around with interest gleaming in his eyes. It was cold where they were and from his perspective, their own and many other tents had to be built on a highland plateau. Behind them was a large mountain, piercing through the clouds, while Jason noticed that the rift was in front of the hillside, barely on the highland plateau. If the rift manifested a few meters behind it would have been inside the hillside, which would create many unforeseen difficulties for everyone venturing into it. Walking around, Jason suddenly heard a familiar screeching behind him with Artemis struggling to fly towards him, as he sighed slightly, patiently waiting for her. Artemis never left him since she finished her evolution, which was not really advantageous in Jason''s opinion because they fought every time he wanted to take a shower or go to the toilet. Forcing her to stay out of the bathroom was difficult, but Jason didn''t want to be eyed the whole time while enduring her naggin was acceptable for him in exchange for some peace. During their journey through the rift, she also lost her consciousness, however, because Jason¡äs soul energy was too small, she wasn¡ät forcefully sent back into his soul world like it happened with the other expedition members'' soulbonds. From this fact and the obvious fact that not only their expedition group but all humans summoned their soulbonds, which were most likely also forcefully send back to their master''s soul world, he could decipher that this four-star rift they entered was definitely nothing ordinary. Otherwise, why would everyone waste their time and energy in order to summon their soulbonds before they entered the rift only for them to collapse and be forcefully sent back? ''Does that mean losing consciousness is not a common occurrence during a teleportation through the rift?'' Jason wondered, but his brain was still filled with other questions, causing him to disregard everything, as Artemis dived towards his shoulder, where she landed, only to rub her head at Jason''s. Everything about their current situation was weird, but it seemed like the government didn''t care about it, which also meant that it was most likely not as uncommon as he thought. Shrugging his shoulder, Jason told himself that it might be because of the restriction as he couldn''t think of another reason with his current knowledge. This would not explain the reason for him to stay conscious during the teleportation and the existence of the colossal blue planet, but his shallow answer was better than nothing at all. Walking towards the other side of the rift he noticed that the highland plateau, that was situated on a mountain-ring, surrounded a huge valley with lush trees piercing through the clouds, covering smaller trees, while a large sky-blue gleaming cascade could be seen on his right, creating a large river within the valley, flowing through a complex of multiple magnificent buildings ''Wait?!'' Right as Jason was about to continue to look through the valley which seemed to be filled with extremely dense mana, he noticed that something was off. In the center of the valley, he could clearly perceive an astronomical amount of mana while magnificent building complexes made out of an unknown material pierced through the ground attracting his attention, even though they were covered by different trees. ''Are these ancient ruins?!'' Jason wondered as he remembered many documents about rifts, saying something about extinct intelligent races, allowing humanity to use their intact remains to develop their technology worth hundreds of years further ahead. At the same time, some big families and clans received ''blessed'' martial art techniques from ancient ruins, which was the reason for their strength to soar. Smiling brightly, Jason wasn''t disappointed with what he saw, as his golden eyes gleamed brightly. Chapter 199 - Safe Vs Risk Even though Jason was unsure if the valley and the surrounding mountain ring were only a small dimension, something similar like that or if there was something behind the mountain ring, he couldn''t help but be amazed by what he saw. The mana density he saw while looking down from the plateau was thick and looked like it was stored within the valley. From the high mana-concentrated valley center area towards the outskirts, it was easy for Jason to perceive that even the outskirts had a mana density comparable to normal four-star wild zones. Within the center, Jason saw magnificent yet obsolescent building complexes which were labeled as Ancient ruins. As such it was most likely the place with most treasures, as long as the ruins were not completely looted. Even a single advanced mana device might help humanity to develop their technology further and was as such extremely valuable. However, the only issue Jason and the other members had to face would be quite difficult to overcome. Not only would the competition with all other humans be high, with some young men and women at the peak Master rank infinitely close to compressing their first drop of liquefied mana, but even more problematic would be the magical-ranked beasts. If his prediction was not wrong, the whole central area had to be the habitat of hundreds if not several thousand magical ranked beasts, which, which was even rare to have on Astrix. Jason couldn¡ät be sure of this fact, but due to the mana density he barely saw in the central area that was dozens of kilometers away from him, told him so. In the end, his mana eyes could only barely perceive the mana fluctuation so far away because of his elevated position with nothing with mana fluctuations obstructing his sight, as it would blur everything behind. As such it was possible and the only problem he told himself was that he had to convince his teammates to disregard the existence of the ancient ruins for the time being. It would be useless for them to sacrifice their time and most likely even their life in order to obtain nothing due to the high competition. Their plateau was protected by many soldiers at the peak of the Master rank while they installed many traps and a long-range mana fluctuation radar in order to prevent any kinds of incidents. Artemis could fly around because she was not detected by the long-range mana fluctuation radar due to her being a soulbond, but some ambitious hunter might see her as a rare beast and try to shoot her down, which Jason wanted to prevent. Forced to stay squeezed on Jason¡äs shoulder, Artemis wasn''t sure if she should feel happy or not, because she wanted to fly around freely as the mana fluctuations she sensed and absorbed caused her to be more energetic. A full hour passed and Jason was still seizing up the whole valley, trying to figure out a good location for them to venture first, as he noticed that someone approached him from behind. Turning around, he saw Malia and the rest of the expedition team, who were still pale, looking at him with curiosity and astonishment. "What is your trick be so sturdy at your mana core rank? How long have you been unconscious?" Theo asked, astonished about Jason¡äs well-being. When they woke up, all of them thought that Jason was still in the infirmary because of a possible injury, because their own head felt as if it would explode any moment. But when they arrived at the infirmary, they couldn''t see him, which caused Malia to panic for a moment, when one of the protectors remembered Jason because of his golden eyes and low mana core rank. Seeing that Jason was fine, looking down into the valley as if nothing happened, Malia was relieved, while the others weren''t sure if they should be glad or jealous. Lux didn''t really care about Jason¡äs well-being and was considered the strongest out of their team, which was the cause for him to feel the lightest headache, but even if that was the case, seeing that Jason, who was two whole stages below him, completely fine was not something he should underestimate. Noting that Jason was an extraordinary, yet interesting irregular, Lux decided to observe Jason for the time being. "I don¡ät know when I woke up, but it has probably been...like an hour or so? Have you guys seen the ancient ruins?" Jason answered honestly but he wasn''t aware that everyone except him already knew about the ancient ruins. As such he was disappointed with their reaction when Malia said. "We already knew about the ancient ruins from before... But I don''t really think we should waste our time venturing into the center!" Hearing this, Jason nodded his head in approval, when he noticed Jennifer and Lin shaking their head. "If we find an unknown mana device, we can earn tens of thousand star-notes, as long as its working to a certain extent!! With a high technology mana device, it might even be hundreds of thousand-star notes! Shouldn''t we at least give the ancient ruins a try??" Lin said with excitement in his eyes, which caused Jason to feel slightly astonished. ''I expected Jennifer to be impatient, naive, and maybe greedy, but Lin is the same?!'' This was unexpected but Jennifer agreed to what Lin said, causing their group to end up in a controversial opinion. While he and Malia wanted to be safe, Lin and Jennifer seemed to like taking a risky, almost suicidal path, as long as they obtain a vast fortune. Lux and Theo remained silent, but Jason got the feeling that Theo was more on their side because he seemed to be a rather careful guy. However, Lux was labeled as irregular in Jason¡äs opinion, and even looking at him felt still somewhat uncomfortable, even though he tried to tell himself that the black-eyed youth received his soulbonds from a death domain. In the end, Lux felt unapproachable and distant, as if he didn''t care about any worldly matter, which was completely different from Jason¡äs way of thinking. He didn''t say anything at all and only when Theo stated his opinion, Lux decided to adjust himself, agreeing. "It''s too dangerous to venture into the central area of the valley where the ancient ruins are situated. There are most likely many magical ranked beasts and the competition amongst the others who also came with us through the four-star rift is too large. Furthermore, it''s not even assured that we can find something there! Let¡äs descend and look out for treasures on the outskirts. We have a task to accomplish if you guys didn''t forget that already!" Before they ventured into the four-star rift, Jason figured out that Malia and her expedition team had to collect a sum of a few billion credits in order to accomplish their mission. In the end, the task allowed only beast corpses and magical treasures, ores, herbs, and so on while prohibiting any lifestyle occupation to help out by forging, concocting, or inscribing runes. As such, they had to hunt treasures and beasts for the next few weeks. The other nodded, while Jason suddenly remembered an important piece of information they had to acquire. Clearing his throat he asked his team, that was about to descend the highland plateau. "How many days will the rift even remain open and how long should we remain here?" Chapter 200 - First Encounter After asking one of the government workers in charge, their small group found out that the rift would stay stable enough to venture through unhindered for approximately 25 more days. Once this period passed, it would turn unstable with the forceful gathered mana slowly being released before it would dissipate. As such their group decided to venture out for 20 days before they would come back with five days as a buffer if something were to happen. Descending the mountain the highland plateau, they were currently at was situated took a few hours, while it was a little bit strange that not a single beast could be seen by them. They didn''t summon their soulbonds during that time and only Artemis flew around, observing the whole situation, in order to reassure a safe trip towards the valley. Jason¡äs mana Five-SeveN was already holstered with armor-breaking bullets in his magazines, while his Viridi-Starstream daggers were safely sheathed. In the beginning, he was pondering if he should sheat them in a scabbard or not, but Malia demonstrated to him that taking weapons out from the storage device took slightly longer than unsheathing them. This short interval could already decide over his life, which he didn''t want to challenge. Potions and other items were still better protected within his storage device, but even if that was the case, Jason took out a few potions, which he placed into his customized belt for potions because of the same reason as his daggers. The throwing knives couldn¡ät be used by him anymore because their grade was too low and he didn''t have any time to make new ones. Even if he did, his throwing strength would have been too low to make a big difference. The same applied for a bow and Jason decided to be a perfect tracker, while he would also rely on his dagger if necessary. Once they reached a less steep hillside, they could finally carefully enter the valley¡äs outskirt, while the area around them turned from the gray stone field with a few lush bushes greener with a fresh and lush grass field greeting them. Life began to blossom and the whole scenario around them changed once they entered the valley, with large trees, wide bushes, and the chirping from birds reaching them. Everyone except Lux summoned their soulbonds because they determined that it would be better not to attract too much commission for the time being. Death-affinities were extremely rare and most beasts weren''t able to suppress their transmuted mana radiating from them while exactly that was the case with the Lux¡äs Skeletons. Wild beasts would react completely differently when they sensed their soulbonds, compared to perceiving the mana flucutations of undead beings because most beasts would at first take care of these beasts as their priority, disregarding anything else in their surroundings. This had some reasons but the most important was that death transmuted mana destroyed their surrounding landscape turning it infertile. At the same time, every living being was innately hostile towards undead beings, causing even the most hated arch-enemies to create an alliance against the same innate enemy. In the end, Lux was extremely unlucky, even though his mana core size was the largest among the whole team because he would never be able to freely handle his soulbonds without being regarded as the most hated enemy. Surrounding Jason, as the weakest in their expedition team, everyone unsheathed their weapons. While Jennifer used a peak-grade-2 bow, Lin used daggers and throwing knives. Theo used a peak-grade 2 longsword and Lux unsheathed two short swords that were only slightly larger than his long Viridi-Starstream daggers. However, what astonished Jason, was that Malia took out a wand from her storage device. Wands were always mana weapons and from the mana fluctuations he saw, Jason was sure that it was a mana grade-1 wand that had to be extremely expensive. Wands were much more expensive than normal mana weapons because of their ability to amplify elemental attacks to a certain extent. With Malia¡äs fire affinity at the unblemished rank and the water affinity at the peak of the evolved rank, she would be able to defeat a few unblemished beasts at once. Even a group of unblemished beasts shouldn''t be much of a problem, as long as she had enough mana to sustain her elemental attacks. ''Why didn''t she use the wand in Jiro-City?'' Jason suddenly asked himself, but there could be multiple reasons to answer this. As such he would ask later because they had more important things to do at the moment. As their Tracker, he was supposed to tell the expedition group where to go, even though he wasn''t exactly sure what his group wanted to do at first. "Should we explore everything within a safe proximity or take a look at what beasts habitat in the more secured areas in order to walk around more freely to find more treasures?" Jason asked in order to figure out what his team wanted He was not the leader of their group and upon looking closer, it seemed as if nobody leads their group which was not really good. If they were in great danger, who knows what would happen, and without anyone¡äs backbone holding everyone together, the whole group could end up separated. Jennifer looked at her brother, as if she wanted him to speak, while both Malia and Lin behaved like they wanted to say something too. "Let¡äs do both at the same time. We can take a look at most beasts while exploring the outskirts, right?" Lux, who didn''t say a word previously asked and nobody wanted to rebuke him, due to the eerie feeling around him. Jason only nodded his head, as he told them which path they should follow before he roughly described what kinds of beasts he would perceive or rather how many beasts were gathered in one spot with their mana core rank included. In addition, he could also tell his team their elemental affinity, but Jason didn''t want to expose everything he could do at the moment. Most beasts would openly reveal their elemental affinity either from their fur/skin/hide color or even before their fight began in order to intimate their opponents. As such it was unnecessary for Jason to reveal all his secrets, as they approached a small group of heavy armored mountain bears next to another group of green windwalker bears. These two groups lived in different small groups but weren''t hostile to each other. Apparently, they even divided their meat with the other group as Jason noticed them ripping apart a large ten-meter tall forest guardian at the peak-unblemished rank. Jason had never seen any of these three races in front of him but he was astonished to notice that the two bear groups that were at the low/mid unblemished ranks were able to defeat a forest guardian at the peak-unblemished rank. The forest guardian looked similar to a moose, which wondered Jason slightly because what he remembered about them was different, but the faint, almost completely dissipated mana fluctuations he saw were exactly what he read from a forest guardian, that was said to be a bipedal beast. Nevertheless, the bear groups they approached would make a good harvest, either for their hide, claws, or even their organs to concoct special potions, which attracted everyone¡äs attention. Suddenly, the Nightmare-horse''s black flames flickered, attracting the attention of a certain bear, as it roared out, causing the remaining heavy armored mountain and windwalker bears to turn around. Glaring at each other, Jason wondered if his decision to venture into a four-star rift was so smart, as he quickly unholstered his Five-SeveN. Chapter 201 - Teamwork Vs Bashing With eight beasts in front of them, four heavy armored mountain bears, and four green windwalker bears in total All of the bears in front of them were at the low/mid unblemished rank and the green windwalker bears possessed a strong wind affinity, turning their body slimmer, causing them to be faster, while the heavy armored mountain bears didn''t have an affinity, while their constitution was comparable to heavy tanks. While Jason decided to step back with Artemis on his shoulder, Lux summoned his small skeleton unit causing the attention to switch to him... One could even say that the death transmuted mana radiating from the skeletons was an advantage in this case because it forcefully attracted all bears to charge towards them. It was as if they taunted them, causing Jason to nod in admiration before he stepped back another few steps. ''Is that their strategy?'' He wondered, as he saw the nightmare horse and Malia attacking the bears with long-range elemental spells, while Jennifer did the same with her bow Meanwhile, the Shadow panthers seemed to vanish within the surrounding shadows while Lin and his treant soulbond controlled the vines and roots all around in order to hinder the eight unblemished bears'' charge towards them. Uprooting several meter long roots that were tight wide, they coiled around the bears'' legs, only to be ripped apart by the massive strength behind the bears'' charge, which fortunately slowed them down by a small margin. Meanwhile, Lux prepared himself, circulating the mana within him in order to activate his movement technique when he ordered the skeleton archer to shoot the bears'' vital spots, while the warrior was supposed to stall time. Lux and the Skeleton assassin charged forward passing the warrior and it seemed as if they were faster than the heavy armored mountain bears causing the two of them to evade their attacks easily. Theo decided to take care of the green windwalker bears, with Jennifer and their two peak-evolved Shadow panthers'' help. Because the bears'' attention was focused on the undead beings, the others had a very easy time surviving, while Malia and her nightmare horse shot dozens of fireballs one after another on a single heavy armored mountain bears, that was shaken out of the bewitching hostile feeling against the undead being in front of him, as it smelled burning flesh with searing pain passing through its whole body. Looking down, multiple holes with burned flesh and bones sticking out could be seen, which caused the injured bear to widen its eyes as its strength slowly dissipating, when a compressed water jet pierced one of the holes within its chest. Slowing down, the other seven bears continued to charge, while their brethren made its last steps, looking longingly at its compared that were still alive¡­ ''Isn''t she consuming too much mana?'' Jason wondered as he continued to observe the whole battle, which seemed to proceed extremely weirdly. If Jason wasn''t a complete fool, it seemed like Lux didn''t care a tiny bit about his soulbonds, because the Skeleton Warrior and Archer were beating up and their bone limbs ripped apart, while he focused on a single opponent with the Skeleton Assassin next to him. However, Jason noticed something new and it seemed as if the Skeleton warrior and archer that were ripped apart didn''t lose a single bit of their mana fluctuations, while their core still shone brightly, as his eyes widened. ''Are Undead beings immortal?'' He wondered and the mana core with the sealed soul within had to be the reason, because of the vast mana fluctuation, held everything forceful together. While three bears bashed up the two Skeletons, Jennifer already shot multiple arrows, injuring the bears'' knees, which slowed them down, while Lin used his affinity together with his treant in order to decrease their speed further by uprooting more thick roots that coiled around their feet, chaining them up. At the same time, Theo stood behind one of the green windwalker bears with his longsword pulled back, cleaving down, severing one limb without much obstruction, as the Shadow panthers stealthily approached the unaware bears before they pounce at them to inflicting more injuries at their already seriously injured legs. With their legs almost completely crippled, the heavy armored mountain bears could barely do anything against the expedition team with their numerical advantage, as the green windwalker bears summoned a strong draft around them, with dozens of wind spears manifesting around them, which they shot out, without caring about anything at all. Barely evading one wind spear that flew towards him, Jason was fortunate that he could perceive the mana fluctuation before anyone else thanks to his mana eyes. Meanwhile, Lin¡äs treant was pierced by a few spears, while the others evaded or deflected the spears. A treant could survive something like that without problems due to its exceptional regeneration ability and the whole battle ended a minute later with Theo severing the last green windwalker bear''s head. The only casualties they faced were the Skeleton warrior and archer, while they radiated their thick death transmuted mana, attracting their bones that laid all around the small battlefield. Jason noticed a few bite marks on the bones that gathered around the Skeleton''s mana core, as they were drawn back to their original position. ''Won¡ät their combat prowess decrease if the bite marks deepen further if they don''t heal?'' He wondered as he noticed the dense death mana within the Skeleton mana core enveloping the damaged bones as if they wanted to heal them. Suddenly, he perceived tiny changes and the bone marks seem to regenerate slowly, which caused him to look at the bite marks more intently. ''Interesting!'' While the others stored the bear corpses in their spatial rings, Jason continued to observe the skeletons'' healing process, before he noticed Malia standing next to him. "It''s creepy, right?" She said slightly disgusted before she noticed Jason shaking his head. "It''s really interesting!! How can they heal so fast!?" He said, wondering about the fast healing process these skeletons accomplished solely through their mana core. Lux stood not far from them and heard Jason, and what the youth said, caused him to lift his eyebrows because it was the first time for someone to say something like this when they saw his skeletons'' healing process. Most students and even teachers at his school were disgusted by this ability and they found his fighting style even cruder because he sacrificed his slower skeletons in order to finish his opponents. However, there was not really a perfect way to use the Skeleton warrior in a better way, because its innate intelligence is restricted to the bare minimum while controlling them perfectly to allow them to use martial art techniques was too taxing. As such he used a sacrifice tactic almost every time he fought, with the skeleton warrior as the tank, his archer as a means to slow down his opponent while he and the skeleton assassin would take care of the rest. In addition, the constant radiating death mana would always attract the hostility of beasts, causing other tactics to be useless, as long as he didn''t have enough soulbonds to take care of larger beast tides. Jason found the tactic used by Lux, crude but efficient, as long as his soulbonds survived because undead¡äs couldn''t feel pain which was also an important factor within the plan. But he was more astonished about the others teamwork, as everyone focused their attacks on vital points in order to slow down the bears'' charge, while the vines and roots seemingly ended the fight. Without being able to move freely, the bears could be compared to training puppets or targets causing Jason to feel almost pity for them. Chapter 202 - Outskirts When the group of six gathered, Jason wondered how everyone''s distribution would look like. The only thing their small group really clarified was that everyone would receive shares according to their contribution. As such, he doubted that he would obtain anything from any beast they killed, even though he would be the reason for the expedition team to prevent meeting any large groups or stronger beasts if possible. If he didn''t need their protection, Jason would have already retaliated, but that was unfortunately the case. However, once he found a treasure, he would obtain a piece of the cake. In the end, Jason¡äs plan did not rely on his team¡äs share and he wanted to do something else if possible. But to do this, he had to know more about his surroundings, while Artemis next to him was slightly problematic. While waiting for his soul energy to reach Artemis'' demand in order to let her rest inside his soul world, he had to wait which was extremely frustrating, because relying on strangers and Malia was not something Jason liked. Unfortunately, he couldn¡ät change this matter for now and was forced to do exactly what he didn¡ät want to do. Trusting strangers with his life on the line! What if there was a dispute about some treasures or how to distribute them? Did everyone trust each other so much to think that they wouldn''t be betrayed? In the last few months, Jason already witnessed two large beast tides and humanity¡äs selfishness, which was not something to be proud of and it caused him to be more careful with his demands. But only after Old Drake¡äs words he understood that he acted naively in telling others about his mana eyes with its special characteristics. Right now, he had Shane to rely on but what if other big clans from Canir were to search him because of his ability to detect high-potential beasts? Could Shane really save him from every danger around him? Definitely not and Jason wanted to become stronger, the faster the better and he could only do so, by venturing through the valley, alone at best without Artemis or anyone else. This was only thanks to the concealment technique he memorized throughout the last few days and Jason was already able to suppress his mana fluctuations to a certain degree, while some at his rank or one stage above should not be able to clearly determine his strength if they were to focus on him. With this, he could at least walk through the outskirts of the valley, without any unblemished beast caring about his existence. Why would an unblemished beast care about a living being with weak mana fluctuations at the Adept/awakened rank? If these beasts were not starving for months, everything should be fine! Once their group decided where to go, Lin walked towards the torn apart forest guardian with a sad expression as he said. "If only my second soulbond would be a forest guardian¡­" sighing, he stored it away, before he turned back to the expedition group, that silently nodded its head. Forest Guardians were special existences and their most special feature was its mana core. They lived within a small society with less than ten individuals while their race, form, size, and potential varied, with most forest guardians being humanoid beasts with veins, leaves, and moss covering them, while they had thick horns on their forehead. Most of them looked elegant, but that was less important because their mana core could be described to be life itself Not only was their mana core extremely complex and with thin intersections connected, but the transmuted mana within its mana core was able to regenerate severed limbs, diseases, and severe injuries. Alone through this ability, forest guardians were seen as extremely valuable soulbonds not many humans had, while newborn forest guardians were an even rarer sight, because of their low fertility rate. In the end, Jason also wanted such a soulbond, because a healing ability was always helpful, but the main issue was, that his soul energy was too low, while he had more than enough soulbonds to take care of for the moment. If nothing serious would happen, Scorpio would finish his evolution soon, while Artemis would become even stronger without him knowing what rank her current race could reach. ''Well, I can think of these problems later¡­'' Jason told himself, as he led their small expedition team around the outskirts close to their plateau, while carefully avoiding larger beast groups. They made a lunch break to ease their tension, in which Jason practiced the Heaven''s Hell third level, increasing his soul energy by a large margin, while the others absorbed mana, ate something, or talked about the ancient ruins. Fighting many smaller beast groups, Jason began to notice an important synergy between a few members. While Jennifer and Theo trusted each other completely, Lin seemed to be the one who was the closest to Lux. Malia was friendly with all of them but somehow Jason thought she was alone, causing him to walk towards her in order to talk with her. He trusted Malia the most from their group and from their small dispute earlier at the highland plateau, he also knew that Jennifer and Lin were rather greedy, while Theo acted level-headed. The only one he couldn¡ät understand at all was Lux, who went along with everything the others said as if it had nothing to do with him. It was uncomfortable to look into his eyes, but when Jason stared into them intently, there was a feeling more than discomfort within him, as if Lux was hiding or suppressing something. When it was late at night, Jason searched for a good spot to build their tents as the distance between the plateau to their current position increased quite a lot. Jason doubted that anyone would sleep with such a high mana density around them which was perfect to absorb mana, as they divided their expedition team into three groups of two In a rotation system, every group would have to do night duty in order to ensure everyone''s safety. The Daer siblings were group one while Lin and Lux as the second group. Jason was fine with Malia in his group and couldn''t find any problem with that, while Malia seemed slightly nervous. ''Is it her first time doing something like that?'' Jason wondered, without understanding a young girl''s feelings at all. In the evening, before eating dinner, he practiced one again the Heaven''s Hell technique, before he began to feast on the dishes in front of him. Everyone ate together in order to thicken their relationship but seeing Jason eating so fast, seemingly without chewing, the group became restless with the thought that they would have to absorb mana with an empty stomach. Not eating anything for a few days or a week was not important at the Master rank but everyone liked to eat delicious meals causing them to glare at Jason who looked like he wasted precious, tasty food without savoring it at all. Time slowly passed and everyone finished their dinner, while Jason took out more and more cold dishes from his spatial device to continue eating, as his stomach rumbled. ''Is he still hungry?!'' Everyone looked at Jason in shock, while he ate one dish after another until he was finally satiated. While everyone was shocked, Lux asked "Are you practicing the third level of the Heaven¡äs Hell technique?" without any meaning, behind which Jason only nodded his head. Finally understanding the reason for Jason¡äs appetite, everyone nodded their head, before their eyes widened "Wasn''t your soul-awakening only a few months ago? How can your soul energy already be so pure and condensed to endure being formed into a drill!?" Jennifer exclaimed excitedly while approaching Jason extremely close, causing him to gulp before sweat began to form on his temples. Chapter 203 - Treasure Seeing that Jennifer approached him, Jason turned towards her but he would have never thought that she would barely stop coming closer when their faces were only around 20 centimeters apart from each other. Blushing slightly, Jason¡äs eyes were distracted by the tight combat suit she wore, clearly showing her voluptuous chest. ''What is wrong with me?!'' He thought as he shook his head before clearing his throat in order to stall more time to make up a decent lie. "When I had my soul-awakening, my soul energy was already pure and tough, the more time passed, the purer and endurable it became. I think my soul world core is the reason for this" Even though his lie was not the best he could make up, Jason was still distracted by Jennifer, who looked curiously at him without even thinking to distance herself again. Taking a deep breath, Jason noticed Malia next to him glaring at him as if she wanted to murder him any moment. "What?" he mumbled but Malia only answered him with a "Hmpff!" before she turned around. ''???'' He couldn¡ät understand Malia at all when he heard Jennifer cracking up before she stood to walk back to her brother. ?!?! Sighing deeply, Jason decided to absorb mana for the rest of the day until it was their group''s turn for the night duty. He didn''t really like to absorb mana actively because he could do many other things in the meantime but with the surrounding dense mana, Jason couldn¡ät waste such an opportunity. Sitting down in his tent, he instinctively felt the mana around him before he began to slowly absorb it. With time passing, he increased his absorption speed in order to figure out his current limits with Artemis absorbing the magical ranked mana core while sleeping on his lap. ** Jason was unsure how much time passed, but he felt much more vigorous than before, as he noticed that he was already halfway through the 3rd Adept rank, which astonished him. ''One week?'' He guessed when he noticed Theo approaching his tent after he barely finished his Heaven¡äs Hell technique practice. Sensing that Jason was already awake, Theo mumbled "It''s your turn" before he went to Malia¡äs tent to tell her the same. Walking out of the tent, he woke up Artemis, who squeezed herself on his shoulder before rubbing her head at his. Afterward, she soared into the sky when he left the tent. It was Saturday, early in the morning with 19 planned days left for their expedition and today was the first day, they would truly begin. Taking out a huge number of dishes, Jason sat down on a tree trunk, not far away from the tent, as he began to eat. Not long after, Malia sat down next to him, while maintaining a certain distance, as she greeted him hesitantly. She was unsure what to say and let it be in order to say nothing wrong, which could have made their relationship even worse. Even though Malia told herself that she didn''t want to have any romantic feeling for Jason, it was not that easy, because he was good-looking, hard-working, and determined to become stronger while his golden eyes bewitched her additionally. But she knew by looking at Jason, that he regarded her as a good friend or even family, definitely not as love-interest, which hurt her more than she thought and even more when she noticed his behavior when Jennifer approached him. "So annoying¡­" She mumbled subconsciously, causing Jason to look at her with a confused expression, causing her to return his gaze slightly taken aback. "Ahh, nothing... I was just thinking about something annoying... Don¡ät mind me. Let''s just do our night duty and wake up the others in a few hours. We have a lot to do in the next few days!" She hurriedly said, without taking a single breath between her sentences. This led to Jason smiling lightly because he hadn''t seen Malia so flabbergasted for some time as he answered with a simple "Ok". After this, Malia began to passively absorb mana while staying vigilant and Jason finished his large breakfast feast before he also actively utilized the passive mana absorption technique. With this, his sub-area passive mana absorption efficiency increased and he couldn''t help but praise his own mana absorption speed. With his mana eyes still activated, there was almost no way for normal beasts to approach them, as long as they weren''t able to completely conceal their mana fluctuations and it was extremely helpful to observe their surroundings, while at the same time utilizing the passive mana absorption technique. With time slowly passing, the first sunray lightened up the valley, as Jason and Malia decided to wake up everyone before they dismantled their tents. After everyone at breakfast and washed up, the others went back into their tent, while Jason and Malia were already finished with everything. Waring their armors and the weapons attached at their proper place, Jason stared at Malia¡äs wand in order to figure out its composition. He knew that manufacturing wands wasn''t done by any basic lifestyle occupation but the requirements for a Wand-maker were all three basic lifestyle occupations at once, even though the proficiency didn''t have to be extremely high. In the end, three individuals with each proficient in one field also called forging, concocting, and inscribing would work together to manufacture wands. The only issue was that everything had to be in perfect harmony which was slightly difficult with three different individuals working together. Even so, it was still possible and most likely easier than finding a Wand-maker proficient in all three basic occupations. ''Once I know how they''re manufactured, I can make them myself... But how long will it take before Shane or Dalia will show me the more advanced occupations?!'' Jason wondered when he saw that everyone was already ready to go. Leading everyone through the outskirts, their distance to the highland plateau increased further, while Jason perceived larger beast groups and even a few magical ranked beasts than before. It was already afternoon almost evening when Jason noticed something particular that attracted his attention. Halting his steps, the others looked at him in confusion as they perceived his mouth curling slightly up. "What''s wrong?" Malia asked, to which Jason answered. "If I¡äm not wrong, there is a high-quality plant in front of us which is about to ripen" but only a moment later, his prior bright expression darkened as he quietly voiced out. "There are two low-Magical ranked beasts lurking around the plant...But if I¡äm not wrong, they barely entered the magical rank with one or two mana drops at most¡­" Saying so, everyone''s expression darkened similar to Jason¡äs as they hoped to receive their first treasure to earn more credits. Over the last few hours, their small group encountered a bunch of beasts with all kinds of elemental affinities, while physical, non-elemental beast seemed to become a rare sight the further they ventured. However, the number of treasures Jason perceived was in the single-digit range and they were always protected by a bunch of magical ranked beasts. Suddenly Lux from behind suggested "You said they barely entered the magical rank, right? Should we give it a try? If we work together we can do it by killing one through an assassination" Jennifer¡äs and Lin¡äs expression brightened up, while Jason¡äs dark expression turned odd. ''Are they really that desperate for credits? We are talking about magical ranked beasts?!'' Chapter 204 - Naivety Jason only remembered his fight against the Tiny two-headed amber lion with Malia and Greg, while thinking carefully about their current situation. ''Well it was not that much of a challenge to defeat it with three people, right? Shouldn''t it be possible with us six?'' But upon thinking about it more in-depth, the prior fight against the tiny two-headed amber lion, Jason also remembered that it only had a single drop of mana within its core which indicated it having reached the magical rank a few days before. Meanwhile, the magical herb Jason saw was guarded by two magical ranked beasts that had two and three mana drops, which was not much more, however, there were two beasts, which was the bigger issue. ''Can we win against them?'' He asked himself when he noticed the determination and greed flickering in Lin, Jennifer, and even Lux¡äs eyes. Sighing deeply, Theo said "We can try it ¡­ in the worst case, we have to use our weapons to injure them and flee. At least we shouldn''t die from newly advanced magical ranked beasts" Right as he said so, both Theo and Jennifer took out grade-2 mana desert eagles, similar to Greg''s weapon. However, theirs were stronger with a mightier recoil, while they similarly used up more mana. While Greg could only injure the tiny two-headed amber lion because its head was almost severed due to Malia¡äs fragmentation grenades, Jason was sure that the two guns within the Daer siblings'' hands wouldn''t be much help against magical ranked beasts with a high defense. The only real question was if the two magical ranked beasts had thick defenses or not as the barely advanced tiny two-headed amber lion had a rather shallow defense. If Jason were to decide whether or not they would fight against the two magical ranked beasts to obtain the almost ripe magical herb, he would definitely object, but unfortunately, they didn''t have any leader and voted. As such Jason could only helplessly shake his head because even if the remaining votes objected to give the fight a try, it would end in a tie. With Theo accepting Lux¡äs suggestion, Malia and his votes were useless and they immediately began to prepare a plan to fight against the two magical ranked beasts. Before that, Jason and Jennifer went closer towards the two beasts'' position to find out what beast races they would have to face and their affinity, which Jason already knew. Even though he couldn¡ät clearly identify what kind of beasts they were, the mana fluctuations circulating through their bodies already told him what he should expect, while he clearly perceived their affinity. The beasts in front of them, behind a large protruded stone, definitely snaked with one having a wind affinity while the other one had a fire affinity. Once he and Jennifer, who was also able to see further than others due to a certain technique, enhancing her eyes, sneaked around the large portruted stone stealthily, two roughly twenty meter long Crystal horned pythons came into their view. Jason thought that that was normal and nothing special, but Jennifer seemed shocked, as she exclaimed "Elemental affinity mutation" once she saw the Crystal horned pythons scale color that was commonly more leaned towards grey. While he could see their elemental affinity and potential, Jason was rather inexperienced with mutations and only because Jennifer knew Crystal horned pythons, which were normally at the unblemished rank, she could immediately tell, that they mutated. She seemed shocked but Jason didn''t really care about this, as he glanced at the almost ripe plant behind the two pythons, which radiated a faint light-gray color. This was nothing special per se but Jason knew of the plant in front of him and immediately figured out that it was a peak-grade-2 herb normally that was universally useful for potions/ Inscribing solutions and even low-evolution serums. "A rios folium Yarrow?" Jennifer exclaimed, forcing Jason to shut her mouth with his hand, as he glared at her. ''Am I the 14-year-old Adept rank or is she?!'' Jason wondered as he indicated her to walk back. However, while walking back, he was reminded by what he perceived with his mana eyes far away from the rios folium Yarrow that covered his eyesight due to its mana fluctuations in the beginning. ''What were all this rigid transmuted mana fluctuations? There were even colors radiating from some of them! But even so, they were too weak and too large in number to be beasts normal beasts within the four-star rift... Otherwise, Malia and the others would have already said something like this, right? Am I becoming paranoid?!'' Jason was confused but before he could continue to torment his mind, they returned to their group. Jennifer reported everything she saw with shock and greed at the same time, while Jason could only shake his head. ''Will we really try this?'' He wondered as the others began to prepare a tactic to kill the two Crystal horned pythons with an elemental mutation. Due to their team''s weaker rank and physique, a magical ranked beast with a wind affinity was much worse to fight than a fire ability, because wind elemental attacks were much stronger and faster on a larger distance, while the wind crystal horned python could envelope itself in order to become faster As such, they had to kill it first and the fire elemental crystal horned python afterward. Fire affinities had the strongest area of effects attack and damage output for basic elements, but at the Master rank, every elemental attack at the magical rank could kill them, which decreased the fire affinity slightly. The only issue their group had to face, was to prevent the python from spewing out flames or using other large scale attacks, while their assasination on the wind crystal horned python had to be perfect. Jason didn''t intervene in their discussion and helplessly shock his head in denial while inspecting his Five-SeveN which he most likely had to use later with his predicament about this whole situation in mind. He was sure that the fight would end up in a devastating loss, because the crystal horned python¡äs defense was extremely thick while he also had a bad feeling about their affinity mutations and why they seemed to be so common throughout the whole valley. Almost every beast they met had an elemental affinity and he knew some of them, which caused him to understand that something within the valley was able to trigger beast mutations, even if he didn¡ät know what or how that was possible. What he previously saw could have been important for this, but when Jason noticed that his team finished their preparations, he saw that only Malia¡äs Nightmare horse and Lin¡äs treant were summoned, with the others soulbonds being withdrawn into their bodies. From what Jason heard, their plan heavily relied on luck or rather perfect timing with a tinge of luck, which was not really that much of a difference in his opinion. Slowly approaching the large protruding stone, Jason noticed that both crystal horned pythons slithered on the ground at a relatively large distance from each other which was the only positive thing he noticed. Reaching the distance of 100 meters, they stopped because they didn¡ät know how advanced the two magical ranked pythons'' senses were. Not wanting to be discovered before their attack, Jennifer slowly nocked a pitch-black arrow on the bowstring as she looked at Malia, who nodded, before injecting a vast amount of mana into it. The black arrow began to gleam lightly due to the darkness mana injected, while black-silver runes began to lighten up, creating a thick, pointy layer around the arrow. Meanwhile, Malia used her wand in order to manifest a five-meter long water spear which she compressed to less than half its former size, as sweat pearls formed on her head, indicating the immense focus she had to use up in order to maintain the compressed spear, as she aimed at the green-scaled Crystal horned python, waiting patiently. Time seemed to have stopped, with every second turning into eternity, when Jennifer released her pitch-black arrow, with Malia¡äs compressed water spear following behind. Jason was astonished about their teamwork because he immediately noticed that both aimed at the exact same position when the wind crystal horned python turned around. Noticing two dangerous objects enveloped in thick mana approaching it, the wind crystal horned python roared out enraged while it radiated thick tides of mana, pushing Jason a few steps away from his current position, even though he stood more than 100 meters away from it. Chapter 205 - Betrayal While being forced to step back, Jason instinctively unholstered his Five-SeveN, but his gaze didn''t leave the Wind crystal horned python for a single moment. Using most of its mana to create a compressed gust of wind, the arrow¡äs trajectory was slightly averted, causing it to pierce into the python¡äs long body, while the water spear¡äs velocity decreased, barely tearing out a few scales, missing the targeted area. None of them expected the wind crystal-horned python¡äs reaction to being so fast as it instinctively saved its own life, even though it had to use up most of its mana. But even without mana, its physique alone was terrifying enough to threaten them, while the red crystal horned python noticed its companion getting surprised attacked, which caused it to spew a bunch of fireballs towards the small group of humans it immediately perceived. "Fuck!" Everyone exclaimed, while Lin and his treant used up more than half of their mana in order to erect a large wall of roots, which barely protected them. Burning through the wall of roots, everyone could hardly avoid the fireballs, which would have burned them alive, as they turned around to run, without hesitating for a single second. It was already hard to imagine the five of them defeating one completely healthy magical ranked python with its thick scales, but with the failed assassination, their chances to kill both magical was almost non-existent. To add on, Malia and Jennifer were forced to use up most of their mana, while Lin¡äs reserves were also negligible. With everyone running away, Jason noticed an essential mistake he and their team didn''t calculate while thinking about all kinds of possible issues that might occur if their assassination were to fail. ''I¡äm too slow!!'' gritting his teeth, he noticed that he forgot one of the most important things he should have thought of. How should someone with a 7th Adept physique be able to reach the same speed as a Master rank? It was impossible and Jason bit on his lips, as he circulated all of his mana into the weightless steps technique, before ordering Artemis to fly into the sky. Transmitting a thought to Scorpio within his soul world, he immediately felt that his second soulbond entered his mana core, enhancing his physique to the 8th Adept rank, which increased his speed by another notch. But even so, the distance between him and his team increased further, while he didn''t even dare to imagine how close the magical ranked pythons were as he already felt death approaching him from behind. Suddenly Jason saw that everyone in front of him unholstered their mana weapons, as they turned their heads, only for their eyes to widen, as they noticed him falling behind. Malia was even more shocked, to see so far Jason behind their team because she completely forgot about him, as she holstered her pistol again, only to see Lin and Lux pointing their weapons towards Jason¡äs direction. Meanwhile, Jennifer¡äs eyes widened while Theo gritted his teeth, only to holster his pistol again, as Jason heard him shouting. "Don¡ät shoot!! You may hit Jason!!!" Jason¡äs heart felt warm for a second because Malia, Jennifer, and Theo were considered about him, which was however not really helpful if nothing were to change in the next few seconds. But seeing Lux and Lin¡äs eyes gleaming, he immediately knew that Theo¡äs words were worthless towards them, while his mana eyes barely perceived their guns being supplied with mana. ''F**K!'' Jason cursed in his mind, thinking about all kinds of ways to survive either a barrage of bullets in front of him or the threat of two magical ranked pythons from behind him. ''Why the hell did I even come here?'' He asked himself, lamenting his stupid decision, as a sudden item he purchased came into his mind. But before he could even do something, Jason saw Lux smiling slyly, as his face turned extremely hideous, causing him to shiver involuntarily, as he instinctively enveloped himself with a thick mana membrane. Additionally, he instinctively summoned Scorpio''s exoskeleton that barely reached the late-awakened rank. *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* Not even a second later, an unimaginable impact flung him back and he could barely hear Malia cry out "NOOOO!!!" A single bullet pierced straight through his mana membrane and Scorpio¡äs exoskeleton which barely decreased its velocity only to be halted by the mana grade-2 black leather armor, which began to drain his almost empty mana further, only for Jason to supply it subconsciously with the mana within the mana sphere bracelet. The golden runes brightened up and Jason¡äs sight blurred, while his abdomen felt as if he was shot by a bazooka, as he fell into a bunch of bushes, Crashing into the ground, he spits out blood, as he tried to breathe, which was hardly possible. Not being able to breathe freely due to the impact his abdomen endured, he reminded himself that there were still two magical ranked beasts pursuing them, as his gaze turned toward his right side, where he saw the two crystal horned python¡äs mana fluctuation that seemed to have split up. The weak mana fluctuation which most likely belonged to the wind affinity python seemed to approach him slowly and Jason sensed its unstable fluctuation indicating a severe injury, which was the only good point he could perceive from his current predicament he was in, as it further slowed down its speed. ''At least Malia will only have to face one of them, right?'' He told himself worrying about her for a moment, before his gaze turned cold, as he thought of Lin and Lux which sacrificed him, even though he was already about to die. ''These F*ckers` Jason thought, but before he could continue to curse inwardly, he would have to survive. Taking a deep breather once it was possible, he took out a football-sized globe from his spatial device. ''Please work!!'' Jason pleaded as he led the mana within his mana sphere bracelet into it, causing it to brighten up before he felt the heat in his surroundings increasing. Hurriedly standing up, the noises he made attracted the wind crystal horned python, that was still more than 20 meters away from it. Snapping out, the distance between the two of them decreased within a single moment, shocking Jason, who threw the heating up globe straight towards the python who opened its mouth, causing the hot globe to enter it unintentionally. ''YES!'' He shouted inwardly, as his lips curled upwards, due to the unpredicted, yet fortunate development of the whole fight, if one could even call it like that. Without further ado, Jason¡äs coccyx began to itch, as a 60-centimeter long stinger grew out of it with which he used to push himself from the ground in order to reach a tree branch above him. The crystal horned python was astonished by the sudden growth of an additional limb from its prey which caused it to hesitate for a millisecond which was enough for Jason, to exert his weightless step technique once again, to jump from one branch to another. ''Please don''t let me miss the branch now, alright?'' Jason pleaded inwardly, because he never did something like that before, as he calmed himself down as well as possible, while the crystal horned snake coiled itself around the tree he was currently on, only to break it with its brute force. This caused a thick fountain of blood to ooze out of the serious injury Malia and Jennifer created which in return led the python to change its strategy¡­ "Fortunately you''re already out of mana and injured, right? If your fire elemental friend were to pursue me, I would be dead by now¡­ Thanks for choosing me and sorry, but you¡äll die now" Jason said, as the countdown he imagined in his mind turned to 0. Using the mana within his mana sphere bracelet, he supplied his mana grade-2 leather armor to the brim, while he reproduced Scorpio¡äs skeleton forcefully with the usage of nutrition and his remaining mana inside his mana core. Once his leather armor was supplied, he forcefully ejected a large amount of mana only to barely control it in front of him, constructing a crude shield, as the wind crystal horned python¡äs eyes turned red with its body inflating, before it exploded, devastating the surrounding landscape. *BOOM* "F**K" Chapter 206 - Charade --[Others Pov¡äs]-- *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* "NOOOOO!!!" Malia cried out in shock when she finally realized that her own team shot Jason, only for them to save their own life. Her eyes turned wet, as she stopped in her tracks when she saw Jason getting hurled in a bunch of bushes before the two magical ranked pythons split up in order to pursue all of them at once. Suddenly a jolt dragged her out of the train of thoughts she was in and looking up she saw Jennifer dragging her further ahead, with shock gleaming in her eyes. ''Did Lux or Lin kill Jason?!'' was the only thought in Jennifer''s mind and the trust she had towards them was immediately shattered, replacing it with fear. ''Would they also sacrifice us, as they did it with Jason?!'' Theo was even more taken aback than Jennifer as he stopped for a moment, to turn around, only to face Lin with a straight punch in his face. "Bastard!" He shouted out, before running towards Jennifer and Malia, which were not far away from his current position. Lux continued to run, passing Lin who still laid on the ground with blood dripping out of his nostrils. Malia couldn''t even think clearly anymore, while her soulbond neighed next to her, which she barely noticed. Theo didn''t think for long as he lifted Malia only to throw her on top of the Nightmare horse before they rushed forward. Taking a few high-grade tear-gases, illusionary-, poison- and other grenades from their storage devices, Theo and Jennifer used their remaining mana to ignite all of them before throwing them to the front. Activating when they passed them, the two hoped that the red crystal horned python would be distracted, while Theo had barely time to think about Jason, who was alone inside the four-star rift, pursued by a magical ranked beast, while they could work together in order to survive. ''I can¡ät call that working together....'' Theo thought, sighing deeply, as he remembered Lux and Lin shooting towards Jason, without hesitating for a single second, causing goosebumps to spread all over his body. "F**k!" he exclaimed, which was heard by Jennifer next to him who was similarly frustrated not only about Jason who was most likely dead, but also that her own team killed him without faltering at all. Lin gathered himself, while his mind was working on 150%, as his soulbond finally reappeared in his soul world when he decided to follow Lux who was already further ahead. He couldn''t rely on Lux, but both of them shot at Jason, which led him to think that they were alike. They would both sacrifice others in order to survive while the Daer siblings and Malia wouldn''t do something like this at all. If he were to remain with them, they would probably exile him which was even worse than staying with Lux who was by far the strongest out of their group. With the whole lot of grenades covering the surrounding, two groups formed out of the previous unites expedition team on the second day of their mission. Lux noticed Lin following him, which didn''t bother him at all, because his complete plan was destroyed thanks to the prior accident which caused him to sigh in regret¡­ ''Well...in the end, it doesn''t really matter...Let''s begin the harvest a few days earlier!!'' Thinking about Lin, his expression brightened up, as a cruel smile appeared on his face, as his facial expression turned extremely unsightly and cruel. ''You¡äll be my first testing object'' Adjusting his direction to run further from the others, Lux¡äs speed increased in order to widen the distance with the others while his cruel expression turned even worse as he was finally able to put aside the disguise he was forced to maintain over the last few months. With this, his whole presence changed, while a thick aura of death enveloping him, as he summoned the three unblemished skeletons, with four undead low evolved ranked canine beasts next to them. "GET HIM!" Turning around, Lux stared straight into Lin¡äs eyes that were instinctively filled with a distinct fear he never felt before, as he shrieked out in fear. ''Pitch-b..black?!'' Lin thought shocked, as he saw Lux''s eyes that didn''t have any trace of brown or even white left....there was nothing at all! Barely summoning his treant, Lin was immediately enveloped in the distinct reeking death mana radiating from the small mass of undead that charged at him with a terrifying speed, as the Skeleton warrior took on the treant head-on with the four mid evolved canine undead beasts supporting it. Meanwhile, the Skeleton Archer and Assassin faced Lin, who shivered in Terror, as multiple arrows flew straight towards him, which he blocked with his own daggers, as the Skeleton Assassin appeared in front of him. Exchanging a few blows, they were equally powerful, and with his martial art techniques exerted, he slowly began to take over the advantage, as he tensed up when he noticed something appearing behind him, as his body stiffened, with a fountain of blood spurting out of a deep, bloody cut that suddenly appeared on Lin''s throat. "Don¡ät forget that I¡äm still there. Be honored that I allowed you to be my first creation!" These were the last words Lin heard, from behind, before his eyes dimmed, with his remaining life force leaving his body. With Lin¡äs death, the treant screamed out in anguish, as it went berserk, shattering the mid evolved canine skeletons, before rushing towards Lin¡äs body. "You''re still alive? Let''s change that!" Lux said, without averting his gaze from Lin, as all of his seven soulbonds charged at the treant at the same time, ripping it apart, without showing any mercy to the treant that suffered physically but even more so mentally, as the soulbond contract had been severed. Looking at Lin''s corpse, Lux smiled brightly and if his prior expedition teammate were to see him, they would be horrified, asking themself, how someone was able to change so much within a few minutes. ** Meanwhile, the Daer siblings and Malia on top of the Nightmare horse continued to run through the forest, with their only goal to run further away from the Fire elemental crystal horned python, they could still hear further behind them, roaring in rage and pain due to the high-grade grenades which caused several different types of pain and other effects. Malia meanwhile, was comparable to a lifeless person because she was still thinking about Jason, without any intention to come out of her trance, while Theo threw grenade after grenade throughout the forest, trying to distract the fire elemental crystal horned python even further. Suddenly far away from their current position, they heard an extremely loud explosion, after which the fire elemental crystal horned python''s stiffened before it halted its pursuit only to look back in shock. Theo noticed their chance as their speed increased further in order to widen the distance between them and the python, only to notice that their pursuer ignored them to slighter towards the direction where the explosion sound came from. ''Please be alive¡­.'' Malia hoped, with tears streaming down her cheeks as she sat on her Nightmare-horse, barely being able to stay seated. Chapter 207 - Deaths Door --[Jason¡äs Pov]-- Blasted away by the huge shockwave the explosion caused, Jason¡äs body smashed into a large tree, where his short fly through the air was forcefully halted. *Crack* Jason could only hear a faint crack from his upper back, as searing pain spread throughout his whole body, as he fell on the ground, barely able to stay conscious. ''Sh*t...I can''t stand up¡­.. This explosion was huge...It should be dead, right?'' Forcefully smiling, he tried to stand up, only to notice that it was not impossible, when his energy left him, which forced him to slump down on the ground before he collapsed. Artemis who observed everything from above, dived down towards him, worriedly checking if he was fine. Through their thick soul connection, she figured out that Jason¡äs right shoulder was broken, which worried her as she noticed a few broken potions within the belt next to three intact potions with different colors. She didn''t know what they could do, but having seen Jason and other students using them occasionally to replenish their mana, hasten up their regeneration process, and calm down from excessive stress, she carefully took them out with her talons of the belt before crudely opening the lid with her beak. Overturning Jason on his back with the help of her horns, Artemis noticed his deathly pale face without any blood circulation within it at all, causing her to act even faster, as she picked up the intact potion with her beak up while trying to shed too much of its liquid before she stood on his chest. Carefully tilting her head, the liquid within the potion dripped into Jason¡äs mouth that was barely opened, while more than half of it streamed along his cheeks. After the first potion was emptied, Artemis checked her connection with Jason once again, and once she figuring out that his life was not in danger anymore, she averted her gaze to see his pale face that looked slightly rosier, she felt immediate relief. Taking the next two potions out, Artemis slowly poured them out above Jason¡äs mouth. After each intact potion was emptied, she didn''t know what else to do in order to help him, as she remembered from Jason¡äs memories that a smooth mana circulation was one of the most important things for first-aid help with the highest priority being healing reagents. As such, Artemis tried to access Jason¡äs mana circulation, which was hardly possible, because his mana core was completely dried up, while the passive mana circulation of his sub-area barely helped him in his current situation. Because Jason had barely any mana left, Artemis tried to inject him with her ice transmuted mana, in order to circulate it within him to hasten up his recuperation process which however decreased the temperature of his body by a few degrees. Suddenly the green-blueish, torn exoskeleton vanished, with an equal colored mana circle appearing next to Artemis, only to see Scorpio emerging from it. Even though the exoskeleton around Jason was completely torn apart before it dissolved when his little soulbond left the mana core. However, Scorpio seemed completely fit, while his outer appearance looked shredded and the cause of this was that Jason used his last remaining mana and nutrition within his body in order to save his second soulbonds life, while forcefully ejecting a large wall of mana from the mana sphere bracelet before the explosion occurred. Scorpio¡äs mana core was still filled and it did exactly the same as Artemis, by injecting its mana into Jason, to hasten up his regenerating process. If Jason knew of his two soulbonds trying to circulate their ice and poison transmuted mana within his mana veins, he would prevent them with any costs, because they could kill him this way which his naive soulbonds weren''t aware of. Suddenly Jason began to wrath in pain, while he was still unconscious, which caused both Artemis and Scorpio to notice that something was wrong, as they halted with their mana injection and circulation, as Jason¡äs body began to heat up, increasing the surrounding temperature by a few degrees With this warmth, his pain eased up, as Jason''s mana veins began to accept Artemis and Scorpio¡äs mana because it was suddenly cleansed from their cold and lethal poison. Unbeknownst to the two soulbonds and Jason, who was still unconscious, the black origin flame sensed the perilous situation its contractor was in, causing it to leave the soul world by instinct only to spread its flame throughout Jason¡äs body, cleansing him from the dangerous transmuted mana while soothing his pain. Artemis sensed the black origin flame¡äs existence within Jason, which caused her to hesitate for a moment before remembering that Jason was still in danger, she approached the heated-up body in order to inject her mana once again, while Scorpio did the same. A few minutes passed, with the three soulbonds working together in harmony in order to save Jason¡äs life, while their surrounding atmosphere changed between heat, cold, and a poisonous touch. Jason was completely dried up from mana and nutrition because he also had to replenish Scorpio¡äs destroyed exoskeleton multiple times at once, causing him to feel extremely exhausted when he woke up from a dream that seemed to take an eternity. With his golden eyes wide open, he noticed that he was not in his bed at the Fler¡äs house because he stared through a bunch of lush leaves into a blue sky with clouds partially blocking sun rays brightening up the area around him. His body felt as if someone shook it heavily while burning, freezing and poisoning him at the same time and trying to stand up, Jason wanted to push himself from the ground with his hands, only to notice his right hand giving in. "ARGH!!" Jason shouted out, as a searing pain circulated through his right shoulder, causing him to remember everything that happened before he lost his consciousness. `Is everyone okay?` he immediately asked himself as he looked around, only to notice Scorpio and Artemis sleeping soundly next to him. Scorpio¡äs exoskeleton was partially torn apart but he seemed fine, even though his mana was completely dried up. Suddenly, Jason noticed that Artemis¡ä mana was also completely dried up and he predicted something, which was related to his dream. "Thanks¡­" He said, picking up Artemis to hold her in his arm while summoning a green-blueish mana circle in which Scorpio vanished "You two did a good job" When he said that, he felt his soul world suddenly increasing by a few degrees, causing Jason to enter it subconsciously, where he saw his black origin flame flickering violently. Thinking back of his dream, with him heating up, almost as if he was burning, Jason figured out that it was most likely not a dream but rather reality. "Thank you too" Looking around his soul world, he noticed something particular. Not only thickened his soul connection with the black origin flame but somehow Artemis'' soul connection seemed somewhat similar to Scorpio¡äs only that it was thicker. ''We already established a fortified soul conjunction?!?'' He noticed, shocked, as he remembered that he barely knew Scorpio and Artemis for a few months. ''How can I build another fortified soul conjunction this fast? Is it because I raised them or why am I faster than others by dozens of years? Even Till took years to form a fortified soul conjunction with his radiant star eagle?'' Pondering about these questions, Jason didn¡ät know a particular answer, but he was almost sure that an important fact for his thick connection with his soulbonds was his soul world. ''I know that my soul world is special, but is that really the reason? It can''t possibly be....'' Another few unsure factors could be his personality as he cared about all of them, while he wanted them to become stronger, or simply that he was like their mother while he would sacrifice his lives for them if it was required, which his soulbonds already figured out. Leaving his soul world, Jason stood up with great difficulties, while his right shoulder hurt like hell, as his body began to shiver. ''Can¡ät I have some time to recuperate?'' he thought while turning around, where his mana eyes perceived the fire elemental crystal horned python slithering towards his direction. Even if the crystal horned python was still extremely far away, with his current condition, he could hardly run away, as cold sweat poured down his back. Chapter 208 - Greetings....mother Wolf!? Cursing in his mind, Jason didn''t have any time to waste, as he turned into the exact opposite direction from the fire elemental python, while Artemis was still sleeping soundly in his arm, slowing him down, while his shoulder burned like hell, due to Artemis'' weight. "Artemis¡­. Can¡ät you wake up? Please?? It''s already painful to even run with my shoulder¡­." he quietly pleaded, but his words couldn¡ät be heard by Artemis, as she continued to sleep soundly. Sighing deeply, Jason exerted his weightless step movement technique while gritting his teeth to endure his pain spreading from his shoulder. His current position was definitely not suitable to run away from any high-ranked beast but there was one thing he could do for sure with his current capabilities! Hiding! ''With Artemis low mana fluctuations caused by overexerting her mana and my used up mana, it should be quite difficult to perceive us...If I use the concealment technique I learned in addition it will be even more difficult...right?'' He was still extremely tired, powerless and his whole body ached because he smashed into the tree thanks to the overwhelming explosion a few minutes ago, but forcing himself to stay awake Jason had to find a better place to hide. Rushing past a few lush trees and bushes, Jason suddenly halted his steps, before he turned around in order to squeeze himself through a particular bush as his mana eyes perceived something. It was extremely risky because it could either save him or cause his death, as he saw a large hole behind the bush which he entered without hesitating anymore. With his mana eyes, he perceived faint mana fluctuations radiating from something he estimated to be a hole, while further below he sensed weak fluctuations that came most likely from awakened beasts. However, even though the mana radiating from them was extremely weak, the radiating color Jason perceived was a thick green indicating the potential of a magical ranked beast, which was the reason for him to jump into the hole. Even though the fire elemental crystal horned python was a magical ranked beast, it barely reached this rank thanks to it undergoing a mutation and it would never challenge other magical ranked beasts if it was not necessary because it was suicidal. After jumping into the hole he identified as a den, Jason felt his shoulder burning even more than before, while Artemis was forcefully woken up from her slumber. Looking around, he suddenly saw three small dark-green furred wolf cubs in front of him, gazing at him confused, as they expected their parents to come back. Smiling lightly, Jason used all his remaining mana to supply his golden eyes with it while trying to show that he didn''t want to harm them. Bewitched by his golden eyes the dark green-furred wolf cubs, he identified as tornado wolf cubs didn''t make a single sound as they approached him quietly. ''Thank you!!'' He told himself, as he exerted the concealment technique, he barely knew in order to suppress his mana fluctuations even more. Seeing the magical-ranked python halting in its track, his heart thumped loudly as he stopped to breathe. ''Just go!'' Jason shouted in his mind as the crystal horned python slowly slithered away from the bush he squeezed through. Sighing in relief, he didn''t even notice the three furballs sniffing at him in interest. Stroking them subconsciously, Jason was still looking through the soil with his mana eyes in order to figure out when to leave the Wolf den he jumped in a few seconds ago. Suddenly he heard Artemis screeching out, which surprised him. Turning around to her worriedly, he saw her quarreling with the tornado wolf cubs, which were currently at the awakened rank because she also wanted to be stroked. Averting his gaze towards his left hand, Jason noticed that he stroked one of the wolf cubs, while the others also wanted to be cuddled causing them to approach his other hand. Trying to lift it, Jason felt extremely uncomfortable and it was almost impossible to do without him feeling an almost unbearable aching coming from his broken shoulder, which caused him to inspect his current situation closer. Scanning through his own body, he sighed in relief, as he took out a handful of glimmering potions. Gulped down the potions after a short moment, Jason immediately felt the effect, invigorating his body while at the same time supplementing him with necessary nutrition. Because of the tornado wolf cubs'' gentle behavior, Jason forgot that they would be magical ranked beasts once they reached maturity, and even more important was that they had parents that would come back soon. However, Jason seemed to be completely oblivious to this fact. After gulping down the potions, Jason took out a few dishes to eat because he felt extremely hungry, almost as if he were to starve any moment if he wouldn''t eat immediately. Unfortunately, he was interrupted by three dark green bodies and a pure white Artemis jumping towards the food he took out from his storage device, as the four beasts landed on his chest, throwing him on the back. Shouting out in pain, his heavy chest was immediately freed from the four beasts'' weight, as Jason glared at all of them. ''Are all of you my soul bonds now or what?! Can''t your parents feed you?? Artemis is already a glutton and too much for me to handle.'' Sighing deeply, Jason couldn''t help but feel slightly regretful, that he even entered the Wolf den. Nevertheless, he had to acknowledge that surviving the crystal horned python''s wrath would have been much more of a hassle. Nodding his head, he took out a few dishes because the puppy eyes of the tornado wolf cubs made him weak. "You three helped me to survive¡­ let me give you a reward, okay?" Jason said as he took out a few raw steaks he purchased in Cyro-City in order to make a BBQ on their journey through the four-star rift when they had time and the opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, the whole expedition was now somewhat chaotic, and instead of grilling and eating the steaks by himself, he could also feed them to the wolf cubs, who saved his life, even if they weren''t aware of the effect the cubs and their parents'' smell had. Feeding the three tornado wolf cubs, Artemis stared daggers at him, causing him to chuckle lightly, as he took out another steak and a magical ranked mana core at the same time to let her decide what she wanted to eat. Taking the steak with her beak, Jason stored the magical ranked mana core away, as he took out convenience food which he heated up slightly with his black origin flame before he scarfed down one plate after another. After a few plates, he took out a few more steaks to give them the wolf cubs and Artemis, and when Jason was done eating, he felt full of energy thanks to the food he ate and the potions'' effects. The pain in his shoulder already lessened slightly, even though it was still extremely painful. Trying to stand up, Jason suddenly noticed four furballs laying on his lap and legs. "Am I a bed or something like that?!" he mumbled as his body stiffened when killing intent enveloped his whole body. Turning his head, he saw two, three-meter tall dark-green furred wolves entering the Wolf den, only to bare their teeth at the sight of him, while both released their killing intent towards him. "Oh..F**K...Greetings mother wolf¡­." Chapter 209 - Escaped Seeing the two adult Tornado wolves at the magical rank in front of him, cold sweat poured down his back, while their killing intent tried to inflict fear within Jason. Gulping down his saliva, he took a glance at the sleeping cubs and Artemis as an idea appeared in his mind! ''Should I....No...I can''t...Even if I do so it would be useless'' Shaking his head, Jason immediately disregarded the idea of kidnapping one of the tornado wolf cubs in order to survive, because it would end up in bad blood with each other, which was not what both of them most likely wanted, and it was unsure if he would even survive his current dilemma like this. Thinking about all kinds of solutions, Jason¡äs head seemed to smoke and in the end, there was no perfect solution for his current situation. He was too slow to flee from two magical ranked beasts and not strong enough to fight them. Abducting the sleeping tornado cubs would only worsen the situation long-term while he would maybe survive for a short time. However, the worst was that Artemis just continued to sleep, as if the killing intent around them was nothing, while his back was completely drenched in cold sweat. Within a second, Jason used his newly established fortified soul conjunction with Artemis to forcefully wake her up, which was retorted with an annoying screeching from her, as she opened her eyes. Standing up, she looked around, only to see the adult Tornado wolves radiating a dense killing-intent in front of them, which shocked her, as she stepped back, only to bump into Jason. "Now your awake, hmm?" Jason said as a joke, trying to ease up the tension around them while staring at the adult Tornado wolves that didn''t move a single inch. They were equally shocked to see two low-ranked beings infiltrating their den, which not a single beast around them ever dared to do because they wouldn''t be able to endure the wrath of two magical ranked beasts at the same time. As such the current situation was uncommon while the mother tornado wolf was only glad that nothing happened to her cubs, who seemed to sleep next to the bipedal being, without being on guard against possible attacks. From the Tornado wolf''s perspective, this could only have a few certain reasons¡­ either her cubs were manipulated, tricked by an illusion, sedated from poison or there was no threat from the beings that infiltrated the den. After scanning through her cubs'' mana cores, she couldn''t detect any poison, while the first two reasons were quite difficult to figure out. But even so, the wolf mother felt relieved, causing her to decrease the killing intent she released by a large margin, allowing Jason to take a deep breath. ''They won''t attack me with the cubs next to me, right?'' Jason figured out and this was most likely the only positive aspect in his current position. Suddenly an idea formed in his mind, as he remembered something important about mother-beast instincts and that they knew if their cub was in danger. As such, Jason tried to go all in. Slowly grabbing one of the wolf cubs with his hand, he could only hear two loud growls in front of him, as the killing intent increased once again. However, Jason couldn''t care less at the moment, because his shoulder burned like fire, as he picked one of the tornado wolf cubs up from his leg in order to lay it next to his leg to free it. The other two cubs laid across his other leg and he did the same with the two of them. Yawning, one of the tornado wolf cubs seemed to wake up, only to fall back into a deep slumber, which caused Jason to smile lightly. ''They don''t even know that I''m about to die huh? At least some emotional support would be nice.'' He lamented while maintaining his smile until both legs were finally freed. Meanwhile, Artemis couldn''t really do anything to help because her talons were too sharp to grab the tornado wolf, which would hurt them and wake them up, even if she dulled them. As such, Jason had to do everything by himself, and after his legs were free, he changed his current position, only to hear the growling next to him becoming louder. The adult Tornado wolf approached him, causing goosebumps to spread all over his body, while he tried to be as genuine as possible. He didn''t want to hear the tornado cubs and picking them up once again to lay them carefully in front of him, he caressed them one after another which caused them to turn on their back, revealing their belly towards him. Caressing it, Jason suddenly sensed Artemis'' jealousy, as she approached him from behind, demanding carcasses. Frowning, Jason couldn''t help but mumble "Are you a diva or something like that? We might be torn apart any moment and you want to be caressed?", before he noticed that he could freely breathe, without any killing intent enveloping him and Artemis. ''Huh?'' Looking at the two matured Tornado wolves, he noticed that their gaze turned less hostile and Jason stepped back from the three cubs in order to give their parents time to inspect them to figure out if there were any injuries. If his knowledge was not completely wrong, the intelligence of beasts at the magical rank was not worse than that of average adults and Jason relied on this information in order to survive. Furthermore showing too much fear would worsen his situation, even if he couldn''t help himself in the beginning, because he was too flustered. As such, he thought about multiple magical ranked beasts'' habits, and only a minority hunted for fun, while most of them only killed beasts in order to protect their children, territory, or eat something. Before he utilized his plan, he saw the male tornado wolf dragging a large beast corpse into the den, while the thick scent of blood permeated the air, telling Jason that they had more than enough food for the time being. Slowly retreating, Artemis finally noticed how serious their situation was, as she similarly stepped back. After inspecting their cubs, the mother tornado wolf''s gaze averted back to Jason and Artemis, before she picked up two cubs with her maw before the other tornado wolf took the remaining cub. ''Can we go?'' Jason thought, as Artemis suddenly flapped with her wings, landing on his right shoulder, causing him to almost shout out in pain. "YOU!!" Gnashing his teeth, he held out his left arm for Artemis to step it, before she slowly paddled towards his left shoulder while expressing her being sorry through the fortified soul conjunction. Stepping slowly back, he wanted to prevent doing any sound, and only when the two of them left the Wolf den for good, Jason sighed in relief, before looking around if anything dangerous was nearby them. To Artemis, he instructed "Stay with me for now...I don''t know if there are any flying beasts around us...We lost our team and are without anyone who is capable enough to defeat unblemished beasts¡­" Thinking about all kinds of possibilities, Jason¡äs shoulder that still hurt like hell with each step he took was the only thing that forcefully held him back from being lost in thought because he had to find a good hideout in order to recuperate. The forest was too dangerous because he could see high mana fluctuations from everywhere and was as such not a good place for him to recuperate from his injury. Suddenly he remembered something ''Wasn''t there something with low mana fluctuation far behind the flower, nearby the hillside where our assassination failed?'' Jason wondered and if his memory was not completely wrong, he couldn''t see any high-graded mana fluctuations from there. He didn''t feel comfortable about the place, but Jason felt that it was the only area that was remotely safe if anything within the four-star rift could be called like this. Chapter 210 - Cave Looking around, he tried to find similar areas like the one he previously saw nearby the mutated crystal horned pythons habitat because he wanted to avoid being too close with other high-ranked beasts. Scanning everything with his mana eyes, he could perceive many mana fluctuations from unblemished beasts and even magical ranked beasts around him, which caused Jason to feel overwhelmed by the sensation of being extremely weak. He hadn''t felt this for quite some time because he became one of the strongest in his school, but now his whole existence was on the line. A single mistake and everything was over. Jason knew that and he decided to search for the best path back to the mutated crystal horned python¡äs habitat, because of two important facts. First, the wind elemental python was dead, blown into smithereens, while the second reason was that not a single high-ranked beast should be there because the fire elemental crystal horned python was still searching for him, and he hadn''t seen any other beasts in the surrounding. He saw the crystal horned python slithering past the Wolf den without coming back and it would most likely take some time before it would give up its pursuit, which caused Jason to feel like a ray of hope emerged within him. As long as he found a safe area to recuperate and increase his soul energy in order to store Artemis, everything would become much easier for him. With the fortified soul conjunction, his survival rate would increase further and the ray of hope within Jason widened slightly. While finding his way back to the crystal python habitat, he looked out for other hideouts that might be even safer than the one he presumed to find but there was nothing, which soured Jason¡äs mood slightly. ''At least it will be better than sleeping inside the forest without anyone on night duty, right?'' He thought as he noticed the sun descending slowly. Hastening up his steps, Jason¡äs mana eyes were working at full speed, trying to maintain a perfect observance, while giving his best to avoid any kinds of high-ranked beasts. Half an hour later, he finally reached the large stone that protrudes out of the ground, with a smile emerging on his face, as he noticed that the ripen plant was still there without any signs of other beasts or even the fire elemental crystal horned python in his surrounding. For a short moment, he felt his greed emerging from deep within him, as he looked at the almost ripen plant in front of him, which he immediately suppressed. Even if he wanted to, it would be suicidal to take the ripen plant with him now, because the python would be able to detect his scent once he picked up the herb, which would additionally release spores, attaching to his clothes. As such, Jason disregarded this opportunity, because he didn''t want to provoke the crystal horned python needlessly, as he walked towards the uncountable number of colors he saw thanks to his mana eyes. ''They have to be ores, materials, or something like that, right?'' He asked himself because these colors radiating around pointy-shaped things hadn''t moved for the time he fled from the python pair, which was already some time ago. As such it had to be inanimate objects, which enlightened him, causing his steps to hasten up even more. The closer he came, the more colors he perceived, while the mana fluctuations around there seemed to be high and low at the same time. However, this wasn''t the main point, because almost all of these mana fluctuations contained elemental transmuted mana, which made him curious. Even though his shoulder hurt like hell while walking, Jason increased his speed even further, while Artemis decided to fly a few meters above him due to the uncomfortable sensation she had to endure with Jason¡äs fast strides, as she was forced to remain squeezed on his shoulder. But even Artemis was attracted to some of these mana fluctuations, causing her to subconsciously fly towards them, only for her to see something she hated the most. When Jason squeezed himself through the last bush that obstructed his view, he saw a huge hillside with a large cavern entrance in front of him, which was Artemis'' reason to look so frustrated. As a flying beast, the thing she hated the most was having her freedom restricted. She didn''t mind staying within Jason''s soul world for weeks, which was already boring, but when she was outside she wanted to soar through the sky. Even the Wolf den was already too much for her and now Jason had to enter a cavern? Artemis didn''t like it, which she transmitted to Jason, who could only smile apologetically. "Well.. either come with me or stay outside. You know I can¡ät order you, but please know that everything outside the cavern is extremely dangerous." He only said, trying to put on a disguise as if he didn''t care about Artemis'' choice while entering the cavern entrance with careful steps. His mana eyes distracted him extremely, with colors ranging from black to dark-green and all kinds of mana fluctuations from thin to thick, low- to high-quality, and so on. It was almost painful and if he wasn''t proficient with enduring pain through his eyes, Jason would have already deactivated his mana eyes, which could end up devastating, once he missed something dangerous. He was in a four-star rift and everything could kill him and he was aware of this fact. A little bit pain was nothing if he wanted to survive here and he only noticed Artemis following him, as she intentionally landed on his right shoulder, which caused Jason to grit his teeth in pain in order to prevent crying out loudly. After she was satisfied, she immediately changed towards his left shoulder, where she stayed as if nothing happened. ''She really became a diva?'' Jason thought, suppressing the desire to lecture her because his full attention was required somewhere else. Walking deeper into the cave, he noticed tunnels at the end of the entrance, leading in four different directions. Two tunnels were extremely large with a height of more than ten meters while the remaining outer tunnels had a height of three meters at most. This difference might be important for him to decide which path to choose because most high-ranked beasts were rather large. But this didn''t apply for all of them and the mutated crystal horned python was one example, while he already saw more than enough smaller magical ranked beasts within the valley. As such it didn''t really matter which tunnel he took. All of them radiated dense mana, with hundreds of colored pointy-shaped things further down the tunnels. The only advantageous fact Jason made overjoyed was that he couldn''t see a single moving beast further below with his mana eyes, while he saw many rare colors through the soil, shocking him. ''Where the hell did I land?'' He wondered, as his sight was obstructed due to the absence of a light source. Holding out his left hand, Artemis immediately figured out what he wanted to do, causing her to screech out in anger, as a black flame appeared in it, lightening up the surrounding. Clearly seeing his surroundings it was the first time for Jason to see something like this, as he saw one of the objects that radiated a color protruding out of the soil. ''Is that a crystal?'' Chapter 211 - Elemental Crystal Cave Jason clearly saw a red crystal protruding out of the ground, which radiated a faint light-gray color, and at the same time, fire elemental transmuted mana which astonished him a little bit. ''Why does this crystal look soo familiar?'' He wondered, and approaching the red crystal radiating faint fire transmuted. mana, Jason remembered something he read and saw in many different books from Shane and Dalia. They were mostly about the three basic lifestyle occupations but also in Beast creations and in even more theses Dalia handed him out. "Is that a fire elemental crystal?" Jason mumbled as he squatted down in order to touch the red crystal. Once his left hand touched the crystal, he immediately felt a vigorous wave of fire elemental mana invading him, causing slight pain when it entered his mana veins. Releasing his black origin flame within himself, the pain substituted before he released the crystal from his hand. ''Interesting!... If all the things with colors I see within the cave are elemental crystals, I¡äm within an elemental crystal cave, huh?'' He thought while smiling silly¡­ If Jason was really within an elemental crystal cave, his financial issue would immediately vanish as long as he excavated a decent amount of them. Now the only question tormenting him, how he should mine them... Taking a look inside his storage device, Jason was sure that he purchased quite a lot of things, but he couldn¡ät remember having bought a pickaxe. Upon sensing a bunch of tools thrown into the corner of his storage device, Jason took them out one after another with a small ray of hope emerging within him. ''That¡äs a sickle, an ax¡­..a shovel!....a hoe? Why did I buy a hoe? Oh!! I really bought a pickaxe!!'' Taking out a pickaxe, Jason¡äs smile radiated the surrounding, as Artemis jumped from his shoulder in order to give him some space, while Jason tried to move his shoulder in order to test out his current capabilities His shoulder hurt like hell, but he wanted to extract at least this one crystal in front of him because he was curious about it. If he could satiate his curiosity by enduring a little bit of pain, he would definitely accept it. Furthermore, it wouldn''t take long, because the crystal had only the size of his fist. As such after two to three painful swings with his low-grade-1 pickaxe the crystal was already in his left hand, while he sealed it in order to prevent it from releasing transmuted mana into his body. Looking at the red gleaming crystal, Jason tried to remember the advantages elemental crystals had, and the first fact that jumped into his mind, was their capability to strengthen affinities. With pure elemental crystals, beasts and even humans could increase their affinity to a certain extent, while it was mostly used for beasts to strengthen their affinity because they would innately share it with their contractor. The extent for elemental crystals to strengthen affinities was restricted to the amount of mana and its purity. If the purity within was less than the innate purity of the beast''s transmuted mana which wanted to enhance its affinity, it wouldn''t work, while comprehending a higher-ranked affinity by solely absorbing a purer transmuted mana was extremely difficult with some theorists even saying that it might be dangerous. It was said that there was even the possibility to deteriorate the affinity by comprehending something innately wrong, even though the possibility was extremely low. ''Ah!!'' Suddenly Jason remembered the main reason for the elemental crystals'' price which was not low, to begin with. The reason was that one could even concoct potions with them, while it was also possible to forge weapons with elemental crystals, and inscribe runes with a certain ratio of crushed elemental crystals within the inscribing mixture would allow one to use a foreign affinity to a certain extent. Like this one could disguise runes within the ground, by using crushed earth elemental crystals or create traps with a variety of elemental runes. But more importantly, were the concocted potions and Jason faintly remembered a certain Beast creation book, stating that some potions to evolve beasts had to be concocted with elemental transmuted mana. Thinking about this statement, Jason tried to remember more paragraphs like this and after a short while, he could already faintly remember a few theses, paragraphs, and even potions stating the same. ''Aren''t some wands also made out of elemental crystals...or was it a similar material?'' Jason wondered as he remembered a special perk of some wands, allowing someone without a single affinity, to use weak affinities. Even one of the stated perks, he remembered about the elemental crystals would be worth a fortune, while the elemental crystals in front of him had all these advantages. Jason¡äs mood immediately skyrocketed and he decided to strive deeper into the elemental crystal cave, while his mana eyes observed everything in order to figure out where the supposed elemental crystals were and at the same time to see if any beast approached him. Weirdly enough, he couldn''t see any beast at all, and the further he went into the cave, the more elemental crystals he found, protruding out of the ground, ceiling, and walls. ''Is it finally my time?'' Jason thought overjoyed, as he turned around to figure out if something from above entered, only for his eyes to widen in extreme shock. "What the hell is that?" He exclaimed, which resounded throughout the cave, as he saw hundreds of beasts flooding the cavern entrance, he walked in a few hours ago. However what wondered him was, that presumed prey and predator charged into the cavern at the same time seemingly without caring about each other¡äs existence at all. ''What did I enter?!'' Yet, even after asking himself the same question multiple times there was no answer and Jason went deeper into the cave to further increase the distance to the beast at the entrance. Every few painful steps he took, Jason turned around without halting his steps for a single second in order to check what happened above. ''They stopped?'' he wondered, as he noticed something even weirder. ''These beasts excavate the crystals?!?'' With a shocked expression, Jason saw hundreds of beasts occupying the cavern entrance and even the four different tunnels in order to dig out the elemental crystals, without going deeper into the cave. ''Why don''t they come down?'' He wondered as the walls around him began to shake violently, startling him, Artemis, and the beasts from above. Noticing that the beasts from above charged out of the cave, Jason had a bad premonition, however, even after a few seconds passed, there was not a single beast that accidentally entered the depths of the cave as he did, and he finally figured out what was going on, as two of the four the tunnels above him collapsed. ''Is that an earthquake?! Why now?'' Jason lamented as he remembered Shane lecturing him that he should always know his surroundings which included the landscape with its perks. Cursing in his mind, Jason exclaimed angrily "How the hell should I know where exactly tectonic plates are situated?!" Chapter 212 - Calming Pain Everything around him shook violently, and there was nothing to grip in order to stay firmly, causing him to fall on the ground, where searing pain spread out from his shoulder. Shouting out in pain, Jason cursed his decision to venture into the four-star rift more than ever. ''Why am I so uselessly stubborn?!'' But in the end, there was no use in lamenting about his choice, because it already happened and lamenting about the past was useless. In order to enhance his body, he ordered Scorpio to enter his mana core once again, causing him to reach the physique of an 8th Adept rank. With this, he could endure a little bit more force as a few rocks loosened up from the ceiling, falling onto him and Artemis. Enveloping himself in a tattered exoskeleton out of his coccyx grew a 60-centimeter long stinger, piercing straight towards the rock falling onto him. Shattering the rock, Jason sighed in relief as dirt fell straight into his eyes, forcing him to close them. ''F**k'' Cursing out, Jason used his senses to perceive stones, rocks, and loose soil falling onto him, while he unsheathed his Viridi-Starstream daggers. Even if there were no beasts around him, large rocks and exploding elemental crystals could still harm or even kill him if he was not careful. The presumed earthquake took still a long time and the pain in his shoulder increased further, while Jason decided to let his eyes closed in order to prevent more fine dust, dirt, or whatsoever from entering them. His mana senses were still able to perceive everything around him clearly because he was already accustomed to it since he was young. When he couldn''t see anything at all, he relied on himself to survive in a city without much support for orphans or rather disabled children like him at all. After his mother died, he forcefully used his 1st Novice rank mana in order to perceive his surrounding as far as possible, which was extremely taxing Thinking about his mother, Jason felt melancholic, sad, and angry at the same time, because he neither knew who killed his mother, how she looked like, other than her photo and her voice began to slowly disappear from his memories. Being reminded about that, his mana fluctuations became unstable and filled with anger, causing his perception to become unclear. ''Why did she have to die?!.. Cerus-family...I''ll be coming soon. If you don''t answe...r!!'' He thought in anger, as a large rock fell on his shoulder, causing the already unbearable pain to increase further. "ARGHH!" Jason shouted out, as he calmed down..''I can think of that later¡­Let''s survive first'' Telling this to himself, an eternity or rather one minute passed until the presumed earthquake stopped. ''That was a long one....?'' Jason thought while cold sweat drenched his already completely wet clothes, thanks to the pain and complete focus he overcame. Opening his eyes, he noticed Artemis next to him looking at him accusingly while her whole plumage was dirtied, which annoyed her. Jason didn''t care about his soulbond being dirty at the moment, as he took out a few potions which he emptied without wasting any time, which caused his aching shoulder to feel slightly better. Taking out a small bowl and water, he placed it in front of Artemis saying "Drink first and then you can wash up, alright?" Which she answered by turning away from him like she was about to say "Hmpff!" Sighing, Jason decided to ignore her for the time being, as he looked around if something important changed in his current situation. One of the most important issues was the question of the cave collapsed completely, locking him inside or if he could venture out once he wanted. If he was imprisoned, it wouldn''t be that much of a problem, because it would prevent other beasts from invading his current position, but there would be only one extremely terrifying issue. Once he was completely sealed within the cave without any oxygen supply, his chances to survive would be limited. However, this issue could be relatively easily solved, because he could either use his physique to clear a path outside thanks to the tools he had, use fireballs to make a crude path, or use a few grenades within his storage device. As such, Jason was still rather calm, as he activated his mana eyes in order to figure out the situation above. Fortunately, even the soil radiated faint traces of mana, allowing him to see where less mana was which showed the tunnels. Upon observing everything carefully, Jason noticed that he could even see the paths leading everywhere which shocked him because it was as if he used an X-ray vision. It somehow creeped him out, but he was still glad as he noticed that more than enough paths that lead to his current position were free, even though they were partially spilled by rubble. With an intact oxygen supply, Jason decided to take a good rest, because he was already too exhausted to either eat something or look around for a more comfortable position to rest. Leaning at the wall, he closed his dead-tired eyes and fell asleep, while Artemis cleaned her plumage not without forgetting to glare at Jason. ** Waking up, Jason wasn''t sure how many hours passed, as he cleaned himself within a basin he took out with the water he stored in his storage device. Taking out a clean set of clothes, Jason exhausted himself by changing them, without hurting his shoulder too much, and gritting his teeth was barely helpful. He changed into a completely new set of clothes with the exception being his mana grade-2 leather armor which was important for him to survive. Without it, Jason felt naked and unguarded and somehow he somehow survived the whole incident the day before, thanks to it. Checking his soul world, Scorpio seemed to have entered it once again and upon looking closer, his exoskeleton seemed to repair itself slowly, which wondered him. ''Is that an effect from the soul world or is that normal?'' Either way Jason was unsure what the reason was, but it was definitely advantageous and made him happy. His soul energy was already completely replenished and without being able to take a look at his quantum bracelet, Jason was unable to tell the time. As such, he wanted to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique in order to improve his soul energy and at the same time to keep the track of time, because his soul energy was fully replenished every five to six hours. In the end, Jason wanted to stay longer within the cave, because it was the only safe place he found and it could even benefit him extremely, due to the high quantity of qualitative good elemental crystals. He was not sure how vast the elemental crystal cave was but from what his mana eyes perceived, it was shocking. To add on, Jason had to recuperate his broken shoulder which still hurt like hell. ''One step after another!'' He told himself while approaching the soul world core within himself. Practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique, Jason felt his tension loosening slowly, while the familiar pain spread through his body, calming him down. The last 24 hours were just too much for him to handle, and the calming pain released everything at once, while Artemis eyed him weird, because Jason smiled while she felt the pain searing through his body. ''Is he broken?'''' Chapter 213 - Breathtaking Speed After practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique, Jason felt much better, and standing up, his shoulder seemed to hurt less compared to before. ''Is it because of the tension?'' He wondered, but moving the shoulder slightly reminded him of the pain. ''Maybe 6 days?'' Jason predicted and thinking about the remaining time their expedition team planned to remain within the four-star rift, he estimated that he had between 19 to 24 days left until the rift would close. ''No time to stress myself, right? I shouldn''t be that far from the highland plateau.'' Thinking about the remaining time, Jason calmed himself down and the most important thing, for now, was to heal his broken shoulder with all kinds of potions, nutrition, and mana supplying the recuperation process. Pondering what he should do first, he decided to eat something, because his stomach was already revolting against the emptiness inside it. It was only fortunate for him that he purchased so much food and taking out one plate after another, Artemis approached him in order to receive a mana core. Handing out an incomplete unblemished beast core, she stared daggers at him, which Jason ignored knowingly, by focusing on his own food. Screeching out, she revolted but there was no need for Artemis to digest complete mana cores from beasts, because the digestion time was roughly the same, while she would only have to eat more incomplete unblemished ranked cores at once in order to balance the mana scarcity out. Jason knew why Artemis wanted a magical ranked mana core and it was most likely because liquefied mana was extremely helpful for her, however, he forgot to purchase a large number of such cores, while a bulk of unblemished ranked beast cores waited for Artemis to devour them. He obtained the unblemished ranked beast cores from Cheng when he sold the pseudo-mana grade-3 anvil and Artemis had to eat them, either now or later. As such he could only act ignorant and once he finished his large breakfast, Jason decided to actively absorb mana, as a faint smile emerged on his face. The surrounding mana was extremely dense and somehow even more so after the earthquake which most likely dug out some crystals which laid around him. Initially, Jason wanted to collect all mana- and elemental crystals before starting to absorb mana, but he wanted to recuperate a little bit more before straining his broken shoulder even more than he already did. He was already scared that the burden his broken shoulder had to endure the day before was too large to handle and permanent injuries would be the worst-case scenario, for now, which Jason didn''t even want to imagine. Still smiling with the dense mana streams around him, Jason opened his pores without hesitation, as he created a large suction force within him, greedily accepting everything in his surrounding, without differentiating between transmuted mana or neutral mana. This could be seen as foolish, but from his previous experience, Jason was sure that the black origin flame within him, could cleanse the harmful transmuted mana, expelling it if necessary. There was no secured proof to this, but his strengthened soul connection with the origin flame told him so subconsciously. If he couldn''t even trust his own soulbonds, who could he trust? Trusting his gut feeling, he just began to do as he thought, without considering that it might be a mistake. With time passing, Jason felt all kinds of transmuted mana infiltrating his mana veins, while his whole body was heated up by the black origin flame, cleansing everything instinctively. Meanwhile, the pain in his shoulder soothed with him circulating mana through his shoulder''s mana veins. ** Five whole days passed and Jason sat on the ground with a thick mana cocoon stripped in different colors enveloping him. Absorbing mana greedily, his mana core creaked loudly, as Artemis looked curious towards his direction. Circulating the mana through his mana veins, his mana core enlarged slightly, while his physique toughened. Expelling a black reeking liquid, Jason slowly opened his golden eyes which flickered vigorously. The colored cocoon slowly dissipated with Jason stopping his absorption and he stood up, only to notice that his shoulder was already completely recuperated from his previous injury. "Faster than I expected" he mumbled joyously, while slowly moving his shoulder around to test if anything felt uncomfortable. Figuring out that everything was fine, he looked at Artemis with a smile emerging on his face as he said "I finally did it!" Not only did he break into the 4th Adept rank after painstakingly absorbing mana over five days, but he also practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique three times a day, which increased his soul energy by a large margin. Before breaking through, Jason''s soul energy reached 239,74 units, while Artemis'' requirement increased to 165 units as her strength increased once again, while Scorpio''s soul energy demand increased to 75 units. With this and his black origin flame''s negligible 0.01 soul energy demand, Jason required 240.01 units in order to take Artemis into his soul world. After breaking through, his soul energy increased by one unit and with him reaching 240.74 soul energy units, he could finally take Artemis back into his soul world once again. It had been a long time and finally, it was done, which made both Jason and Artemis happy, as they smiled foolishly, at least Jason felt like Artemis smiled. Artemis was happy because she could flee from the narrow cave she loathed, while Jason was expectant to figure out more about the fortified soul conjunction and how much his strength would increase by taking her into his mana core instead of Scorpio. With a large, white magic circle appearing below Artemis, she screeched out one more time before vanishing from his sight only to emerge within his soul world. Feeling Artemis within him, Jason smiled lightly and he similarly entered the soul world to take a look at his three soulbonds. Scorpio grew slightly in size while his exoskeleton was already fully healed from the previous torn state, Jason caused. The black origin flame was still below his soul world core, purifying and toughening everything, while its demand for soul energy increased even more with time passing. Now that Artemis was finally back within the soul world, Jason feared his black origin flame''s demand, because he wasn''t sure how greedy it would become with time passing. But before he would give his black Origin flame a single soul energy unit, he would save some for safety matters, because Scorpio''s evolution might happen a short time after he leaves the four-star rift, while there was also the possibility of him finding a high potential beast. If that was the case, the worst thing that could happen was the lack of soul energy, which was not something Jason wanted to experience ever. Soaring through his soul world, Artemis screeched out in joy, as Jason noticed something weird. ''Was my soul world always so large?'' He never really estimated the size of his soul world but weirdly enough it felt larger than before, causing him to look around confused. ''And why does everything here seem so vibrant and full of energy?'' Chapter 214 - Limitations Seizing up his own soul world felt weird because Jason wasn''t even aware of what his soul world really looked like. Everything was enveloped in a golden hue and an uncountable number of elements floated around the world, which he was already aware of while he didn''t even know what some of them meant. Jason knew that elemental variations and so on existed, but he never heard of someone having a few rarer elements in their soul world. Maybe it was confidential or a private matter that nobody reveleat this, but it was the first time for him to feel weird looking at his own soul world. ''What the hell is this? Or what am I?'' Jason asked¡­ He was curious about himself, Not only did he possess special eyes but also an extremely unique soul world which was definitely not normal. He wasn''t scared of himself, but he was aware that some classmates feared him and his abilities, even though he did nothing to hurt them intentionally. Even if his soul world made him curious, there was nothing for him to do at the moment, because he could neither ask his masters or anyone else. And he was unsure if they could even help him, as his gaze followed a mana flow that looked similar to magma, causing him to shake his head. ''One step after another!'' He told himself, as he left his soul world, to tell Artemis when she should enter his mana core through the gigantic golden gate that was the connection between the soul world and his mana core. Standing up within the cave, Jason scanned through his body to take a look, only for him to notice that his physique and mana core size almost reached the peak of the 8th Adept rank, which was more than he expected. The baptism he received was only extremely powerful when he was at the early Adept ranks, increasing his mana core and physique by three levels, while the effect lessened the higher levels and ranks he reached. But even if that was the case, achieving a mana core size and physical amplification of four levels was extremely large, which Jason would never achieve solely from Scorpio and the black Origin flame''s baptism. ''Did I finally receive Artemis'' whole amplification?'' Jason wondered. Before Artemis'' amplification was drastically reduced, because he couldn''t take her inside his soul world while the soul energy he possessed was too shallow, but this small problem was fortunately not there anymore. Smiling, Jason wondered how much his strength would increase if Scorpio were to enter his mana core in order to fuse with him. But even more interesting would be Artemis'' fortified soul conjunction, because Jason was now fully connected to both Artemis and Scorpio, even though Scorpio''s fortified soul conjunction was thinner compared to Artemis''. Waiting for Artemis to fly through the gigantic golden gate, he expected a sudden change within himself any moment. However, even after five minutes passed nothing happened and Jason was about to enter the soul world, as Artemis transmitted him a teasing laugh, causing Jason to frown deeply. ''Hahahah...fuu-nn..y'' He thought, before his sight blurred for a short moment, as Artemis finally entered his mana core, causing a tidal wave of energy to spread through his whole body, shaking him violently. "S**t" Jason shouted out through his gritted teeth, as his legs gave in, by the overwhelmingly large amount of mana that entered his body unhindered. Around his mana core, appeared an illusionary enlarged mana core, which indicated Artemis'' increase he could receive from her, while his physique was forcefully amplified by 100% instead of her normal ? strengthening which astonished him. He never thought that Artemis amplification would be so tough to endure, but thinking that she was roughly at the 2nd Evolved rank explained everything. Receiving a 100% amplification meant that her whole strength was converted to him, increasing his mana core and physique immediately to the 2nd Expert rank, before it began to slow down at the 3rd Expert rank. Artemis 100% amplification could be compared to a power boost, but Jason couldn''t feel any happiness as his pores involuntarily opened, with blood oozing out of his orifices and pores, without stopping. Taking a look within his mana core, Jason only saw Artemis jumping around happily, curiously looking at everything, while he tried to find a way to decrease her amplification which burdened his body too much. ''Sweety¡­.can you somehow decrease your amplification? My body can''t take your full strength!'' Transmitting the thought to Artemis, she halted her steps before trying to restrict her amplification, as she felt his pain. However, it seemed as if she couldn''t do it and Jason entered the soul world in order to take a look at the golden gate. Maybe there was something to restrict Artemis amplification. Looking at the gaze, his eyes widened, as a faint smile appeared on his face. ''Jackpot!'' The gigantic golden was fully opened once a beast entered his mana core and with Scorpio fully converting its strength to Jason, there was no problem, while Artemis was in a completely different league. Maybe this would also change, but Scorpio was barely at the late-awakened rank which was somewhat close to his current strength, while Artemis was almost several levels above him. Increasing his physique from the 8th Adept rank to the 3rd Expert rank, suddenly without any warning was not something his body could handle, and Jason began to close the gigantic golden gate, leaving only a small opening. Leaving the soul world, Jason immediately noticed that his body was freed from the heavy pressure, as he could move around freely once again. Artemis amplification was restricted to roughly 34% which was barely more than he would initially receive, causing him to wonder what exactly this golden gate within his soul world was. Subconsciously opening the golden gate further, Jason felt his physique and the illusionary mana core around his own increasing. Testing it for more than ten minutes, he already felt exhausted, but a bright smile appeared on his face. "So the 1st Expert is my limit, huh?" Mumbling, while he averted his attention back to Artemis, connection. With a smile on his face, he transmitted Artemis his thoughts, as he himself imagined her wings to manifest on his back, as his shoulder blades began to itch, with 1.5 meter long wings slowly developing. ''Fortunately, I took off my leather armor'' Jason thought sweating heavily due to the focused mana circulation in addition to the fast decreasing nutrition he had to use up to develop them. Once Artemis'' wings were manifested on his back, Jason felt extremely exhausted, but he didn''t want to end it here, as he tried to flap with them, only to notice that they were completely asynchronous. Losing balance, he fell on the ground with his face first. ''It''s even harder than controlling Scorpion''s stinger!'' Jason noticed and controlling Scorpio''s exoskeleton and stinger took him already some time, while his small scorpion soulbond supported him for the whole time, helping him out. Without Scorpio helping him out to control everything, Jason would already be dead by now, because even manifesting the stinger within an extremely short amount of time was impossible for him alone. With enough practice it would be possible, but not now! Sighing, Jason noticed that he had too many things to take care of while increasing the proficiency with his affinities and fortified soul conjunction were definitely one of the most important things. There was only one disadvantage he noticed about the fortified soul conjunction and he wasn''t sure what exactly the reason for this was. ''My mana core is limited to a single beast with a fortified soul conjunction?'' Chapter 215 - Everything Is MINE! It was impossible for Scorpio to walk through the golden gate, while Artemis occupied his mana core, which was somewhat regretful because he was excited to fuse with all of them in order to become a mutant-like existence. The only thing that wondered him was that his gut feeling told him that the whole limitations of his gigantic golden gate were neither difficult to understand nor complex at once, leading him to become even more confused than he initially was. But even if his gut feeling gave him such a feeling, there was nothing for him to do which would change the current situation and he couldn''t fuse with both Scorpio and Artemis at the same. Considering his combat prowess, it would be the best to let Scorpio occupy his mana core while fighting with Artemis next to him, but if he were to fight alone in the ''Big-Three tournament'', he might as well use his fortified soul conjunction. ''But if I use it, everything will be exposed, huh?'' Jason thought but thinking that he didn''t have to summon his soulbonds body parts, it could also stay hidden under the disguise that his soulbonds became stronger. Nodding his head lightly, Jason decided to focus on the present, while trying to flap with the white wings at the same time. In the end, it didn''t work as planned and Artemis within his mana core had to guide him slowly in order for Jason to understand everything. But even after the explanations, it was hardly possible for him to flap synchronized with his wings, as he sighed in frustration. Suddenly he felt his wings flapping vigorously, as Artemis controlled them inside the mana core, only for Jason to notice that he was too heavy to even ascend a single centimeter. ''In the worst-case scenario, Artemis might as well fly while I fight in the sky, huh?'' Jason thought before he began to chuckle lightly while visualizing a magnificent fight in the sky against some vicious beasts. Shaking his head, Jason knew that Artemis had to become larger and more powerful in order for him to manifest stronger wings, while his own strength was not enough for him to handle it. Maybe he could already float if Artemis were to amplify him with her complete strength which instead of a smaller part, which he had to restrict in order to barely endure her being inside his mana core. Experimenting many different things with Artemis and Scorpio, like the time they needed to switch their position within the mana core and to manifest smaller or larger body parts. The biggest difference for Jason was the time he required to manifest a foreign body part was much higher compared to his soulbonds supporting him within the mana core, as they obviously knew how their own body worked. While testing out many things with his soulbonds, he never neglected to replenish the high demand of nutrition and mana in order to manifest everything and after two hours passed, his whole body revolted against taking another bite of the dishes he stored within his spatial ring inside the preservation segment. As such, Jason was forcefully interrupted to experiment and he could only sigh and store the dishes away once again. ''Aren''t there any high-nutrition dishes in my storage device?'' He wondered but Jason couldn''t remember to have bought either high-nutrition dishes or supplements. Regretting this decision, he would have to force himself to continue to eat the preserved dishes for the next two weeks, if he were to remain within the elemental crystal cave before venturing out. Jason already made a rough plan of what to do and his plan involved staying within the elemental crystal cave for another week at the bare minimum. His demand for star notes was frustratingly high and with his own expenditures added to his soulbonds'' expensive demands, Jason could only make a rough plan to achieve the best outcome, without being locked within the four-star rift, or whatever would happen if he were to remain within the rift after it closed. He already collected lots of elemental crystals and if his memories and perception were not completely in disarray, the elemental crystal cave should have all four types of elemental crystals. Elemental crystals were classified into four sections also called, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Unique! Basic elemental crystals were crystals with wind, fire, water, and earth transmuted mana Intermediate element crystals had ice, metal, lightning, and many more elemental transmutations, while Advanced elemental crystals transmutations like wood, darkness, and light. Unique elements weren''t necessarily better and valuable like the poison element, but other crystals had an astronomical price because of their blood, nature, fiendish, holy, and other unique elements. The nature element was similar to the wood element but much superior. While the wood element barely controlled woods, nature controlled plants, wood, sentient plants, and if strong enough even beasts with a strong bond to nature. To think that all four different crystal sections ranging from a rather cheap price to an astronomical height could be found within the elemental crystal cave made Jason curious about the origin of it, while his greed and joy overlapped. Over the last few days, not a single beast dared to venture into the cave because the memories about the earthquake were still apparent in their mind, while Jason also didn''t perceive a single human being coming closer to them. At least that was what his eyes perceived but he might as well miss something, while he absorbed mana. It was not like he observed everything consistently but he was still relatively careful because almost everything within the four-star rift might kill him. As such, Jason stood up in order to start his journey through the cave, collecting the protruding and loosened crystals he could even see without his mana eyes activated. Gathering one crystal after another, he sealed them in order to prevent the elemental crystals from leaking mana, while at the same time scanning through their complex mana veins in order to figure out how they were composed. Since he began to forge, Jason was interested in all kinds of materials and how they were composed, while it was even more interesting to see how ores acted when they were heated up, because the mana veins seemed to come alive. Even if he was interested in testing it out right now, Jason didn''t want to waste any precious crystal until he amassed a large enough fortune. Without him noticing, he already went deeper into the cave, while the crystals occurrences around him increased. Not only increased the number of elemental crystals around him, but they also released denser mana fluctuation, which caused Jason to smile brightly. If he had to estimate the cave''s value, Jason''s brain would most likely melt because what he saw within the tunnel was barely the tip of the iceberg, while the crystals his mana eyes perceived through the ground were much more in number and mana density. But there were still a few that wondered him. ''Why is there not a single beast excavating these crystals? It doesn''t seem to be dangerous and the earthquake as the sole reason sounds somewhat unreasonable¡­Furthermore, I can''t believe the government doesn''t know anything about the elemental crystal cave? It''s barely a one to a two-day trip away from the highland plateau... Is there something wrong with the cave, which I haven''t noticed? It''s really weird to see all four elemental crystal classifications at once because it is said to be rare to find an elemental crystal cave with a single attribute forming crystals over the course of hundreds of years with the surrounding transmuted mana, even less multiple types of elemental crystals at once with all kinds of elements.'' Chapter 216 - Hidden Dangers Without being able to answer the questions in his mind, Jason averted his attention to more important things. Collecting the elemental crystals while excavating some with his grade-1 pickaxe, Jason quickly noticed that the common pickaxe was quite useless which forced him to envelop it with a thin mana membrane in order to prevent it from breaking. Fortunately, his passive mana absorption balanced out his consumption and he could calmly mine the surrounding elemental crystals. Time passed without him realizing, while Jason''s soul energy was once again replenished. Practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique, he couldn''t help but smile joyously, as he noticed that his soul energy increased by almost three units with a single practice. An increase of 1.2% for a single practice was not much for someone with barely 1 soul energy unit, but for Jason whose soul energy increased to 240.7, 1.2% was a huge advantage. Even more so, because he could practice the Heaven''s Hell technique three times a day. Considering that his soul energy reached barely 1 unit slightly more than four months ago, Jason couldn''t help but laugh. ''I came pretty far already, huh?'' He thought while continuing to mine the elemental crystals. The further the cave went, the more crystals occurrences appeared in the tunnel around him but there was a weird sensation enveloping him, that caused his body to itch. However, his mana eyes couldn''t detect anything at all, as he let his guard down. Without wasting time, Jason forced himself to eat enough food in order to supplement his body with nutrition, while the Heaven''s Hell practice in addition to the labor drained his energy quite a lot. Taking a look into his storage device, he smiled but it was somewhat weird. ''Has already so much time passed? Where are all the crystals from?'' Jason asked himself, as his sight blurred for a second before he entered his soul world. ''My soul energy has already replenished?'' He wondered¡­'' Hasn''t it been an hour at most?'' Unbeknownst to Jason more than six hours passed and it was already late at night, while his soul energy was fully replenished. Shaking his head, the blurry sensation disappeared before he decided to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique once again. Leaving his soul world once again, Jason opened his eyes, as he noticed that his sight dimmed while his senses were restricted. "Huh?!" without knowing what happened, he felt his body becoming slower, while he couldn''t even feel the ground below him. ''What is going on?!'' Jason was about to panic, as he forcefully tried to circulate his mana through his veins in order to release the tension, only for him to notice that his senses turned even more sluggish while circulating mana within him. "F**K!" Exclaiming quietly, he had to figure out what was going on. Trying to remember what changed during the last few hours, he raked his mind while visualizing the last few hours. ''My mana eyes couldn''t detect anything at all, but my senses are suppressed while circulating mana through my body makes everything worse...'' Unsure what to do, he suddenly remembered something his masters always told him! ''Don''t rely on your mana eyes too much! The world is vast and you can''t think that your eyes will always be the answer!'' With this in mind, he thought ''Does this mean that there has to be something around here without mana fluctuations and that it even reacts with mana and hastens the suppressing process¡­.'' Thinking about all kinds of possibilities, it had to be something poisonous that invaded his body, and Jason couldn''t expel it by circulating mana through the mana veins because it turned the situation even worse. Trying to find a solution, Jason could only remember his black origin flame cleansing the transmuted poison and ice mana from his soulbonds, as he summoned it from his soul world. Before, his black origin flame did everything by itself, but now it didn''t seem to act, which wondered Jason. ''Is the black origin flame only instinctively acting because it sensed transmuted mana?'' Jason wondered as he decided to take the risk when he manifested the flame within his body. In order to not kill himself or even damage anything within him, the flame couldn''t be too hot otherwise he could destroy his own cells which would be counterproductive. Without knowing what exactly invaded him, Jason could only hope as he spread the black origin flame throughout his whole body, which caused him to start sweating immediately, as his whole body heated up. Even if the sensation of his whole body burning from the inside was uncomfortable, Jason noticed his sight clearing slightly, while his other senses became more distinct. Sighing deeply, Jason was still unsure what caused his suppressed senses or where it came from, as he perceived something particular within his sweat thanks to his eyesight. Within his sweat was an almost invisible yellow-greenish liquid, and Jason began to wonder what exactly it was. ''Is that poison?...but where does this come from?'' Jason asked himself as he couldn''t remember to have ever seen something like that and looking at the ceiling, he couldn''t see any liquid dropping down, which caused him to wonder what else it could be. "OH!?" Jason exclaimed with a sudden Idea ''It couldn''t be solid, but what if the liquefied poisonous substance was gaseous before?'' After this though, he focused on his eyesight, without his mana eyes activated on the surrounding, only for him to find nothing at all. Averting his gaze, he suddenly noticed a blue shining crystal, that was different from the other he saw above. However, upon closer inspection, Jason noticed that it was exactly the same crystal¡­ ''Wasn''t there a faint yellow-greenish hue within the crystal?'' Turning around he decided to focus on the crystals and suddenly as if a lightning strike hit him, he exclaimed overjoyed "FOUND YA!" But suddenly his mood plummeted, as he shut his mouth, sealing it completely when he noticed what he was doing. Concluding the facts he gathered, Jason figured out that the whole deeper layers seemed to be filled with an extremely faint yellow-greenish hue which was hardly noticeable by looking at the soil around him. Fortunately, the elemental crystals around him shone brightly in all kinds of colors, helping him to figure out the main issue. ''If even I could hardly perceive it with my exceptional eyesight, how can others see it?'' Jason wondered and it was the second time for him that his mana eyes were completely useless. The first time was his mana eyes missing the existence of the black origin flame and the second time could have killed him as his mana eyes couldn''t perceive the poisonous air around him. Suddenly Jason panicked slightly, causing the black origin flame within him to fluctuate lightly, as he noticed that he was deep inside an elemental crystal cave that was filled with poisonous gas. ''Is that the reason most beasts don''t dare to venture deeper into the elemental cave?'' He asked himself, trying to remain calm, after acknowledging that his black origin flame saved his life once again. ''I really have to nurture it later!!'' Jason swore to himself, as he slowly circulated the black origin flame through his body, without leaving any cell out. Jason didn''t know the area of effect the mysterious poison had which was the reason for him to act so over cautiously by cleansing everything within his body. It wouldn''t purify his body but only cleanse his body from poison, disadvantageous transmuted mana, and most likely drugs, which could be labeled as poison. Trying to stay rational, Jason began to smile lightly, once he estimated his current situation. ''Because I only began to feel slightly blurry when I entered the deeper layers of the cave, the poison can only be further down. With the current density of poison, I can easily handle it passively, without wasting too much focus on it!.'' ''As long as my black origin flame can handle it, the whole cave will be mine, because there is no other living being except me!!'' Chapter 217 - Jinx With the black origin flame manifested within him, Jason could easily endure the mysterious poisonous fog, whose origin was still unknown, while his journey through the elemental crystal cave continued. He didn''t venture much deeper into the cave''s depths because the poison''s density increased, while the mountain of elemental crystals within his storage device amassed. Jason was sure that he had more than enough funds for Scorpio''s evolution and probably even a surplus, which caused him to feel extremely great, while he could barely estimate the current date, without knowing what time it is. ''Has it already been six days?'' Jason wondered when he entered his soul world in order to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique once again. He wasn''t sure why, but he couldn''t comfortably sleep in the cave, leading him to barely sleep only one time after he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique, and he woke up with his soul energy fully replenished. Thanks to the dense mana around him he didn''t really feel tired and instead of solely mining elemental crystals, Jason also absorbed mana actively not missing a single time to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique three to four times a day. Because he only slept a short amount of time and in order to have a rough track of time, Jason was forced to use up his soul energy as soon as it was replenished. With his soul world''s soul energy replenishing speed of slightly less than 6 hours, he could practice the Heaven''s Hell technique three to four times a day. The most time-consuming in this case was, however, that his practice required a whole hour until it was completed, while he had to eat a huge feast every time. Regretting that he forgot to buy high-nutrition food, Jason could only force himself to eat low-nutrition food on mass, even if his stomach and mind revolted against him eating one dish after another, seemingly without stopping. In the end, everything was worth the effort, with his soul energy increasing to 316.2 units, while Artemis'' demand increased by another 10 units. With this, Jason was overjoyed to have a surplus of soul energy, which would most likely be used up once Scorpio finished his evolution. But even if that was the case, he was sure that the same scenario as it happened with Artemis wouldn''t happen because he learned out of his prior mistakes. Having Artemis around him for more than a month was not necessarily bad, but it had its disadvantages. The last six days were quite boring for Jason and he couldn''t do much, except absorbing mana, mining crystals, practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique, or doing a full-body workout and everything he did brought him benefits. His mana core was already filled by a quarter and if he were to focus on absorbing the mana within the elemental crystal cave for the remaining 8 days, Jason was confident to breakthrough. But that was not necessary, because he was already confident in his current strength and even if he were to use the next week to breakthrough, it was more important for him to find his way towards the highland plateau. Initially, he only wanted to recuperate his broken shoulder, but the cave''s value convinced him to stay here for the last six days. However, what he saw at the cavern entrance told him that other humans entered the cave a few hours ago, searching for ways towards the deeper layer, which frustrated Jason quite a bit. He wanted everything for himself, but being greedy would only bring him more problems than benefits. As such, Jason had to find a path towards the surface, without being found, otherwise, he wasn''t sure what the small group that entered the cave would do with him. He was sure that they would question him if he already mined something and demand him to hand it over, which was not something Jason would ever want to do. Humans were innately self-centered, at least since the mana breakout and only a few wouldn''t care about Jason''s fortune, without eying him with greed. Because of that, he had to remain unseen. Jason''s big advantage was his mana eyes that could see all tunnels and where they lead to, while it was hardly possible for anything to remain unnoticed, as long as it released mana. One such unnoticed, manaless thing was the mysterious poison at the deeper parts of the case, while Jason was unsure if anyone concealing their mana core could remain hidden from him. Thinking back on the time, he saw through Max Drake''s concealed mana core, Jason was sure that it would be hard for any living being to remain hidden from him, as long as he focused on anything around him. Nevertheless, his previous confidence about the superiority of his mana eyes diminished with the existence of the mana-less poisonous fog and he couldn''t trust them fully anymore as he also looked through everything with his normal eyes. Without concentrating on the mana flow, Jason could see everything normally and extremely clear and he searched for a path towards the surface without being found out. Suddenly, he heard something behind him, and thinking that neither Scorpio nor Artemis were outside the soul world, Jason turned around as fast as he could. With his mana eyes still activated, Jason couldn''t perceive any fluctuations at all, as soil crumbled down the wall his attention was fixated on. His eyes widened in shock, as he thought that another earthquake might happen, only to see that not a single pebble crumbled from other walls, except the one he stared at in the beginning. Suddenly a grey lizard head pierced through the wall he looked at, shoving away the earth thanks to its flat head. Jason''s eyes widened with a sudden thought filling his whole mind ''I can''t see its mana fluctuations!! Did I jinx it?!'' Looking shocked at the Lizard showing through the wall, he immediately began to gather multiple pieces of information. ''I can''t see its mana fluctuation but without the earth wall between the lizard...no is that a Drake?...Nevermind¡­ without the wall, I can barely perceive a dark-green color, which means this Drake might be at the unblemished rank, right??'' Circulating more mana into his eyes, Jason tried everything to see through the Drake in front of it, which was hardly possible. From its appearance, the drake looked like a lizard with long, scaled limbs, while its spine was filled with protrusions. The drake''s color was a plain grey, while its protrusions and claws were pitch-black, but Jason didn''t care about its look at all. ''Why can''t I see your mana rank and fluctuations?! What is special about you???'' He almost shouted, because the jinx he inclined to himself shattered his whole confidence over his mana eyes. But what was even worse, was that even more Drakes without any mana fluctuations emerged out of the crumbling wall in front of Jason, causing him to step back, while subconsciously concealing his mana core as well as possible. Retreating as far as possible without making a sound, Jason could barely see the grey untraceable Drakes anymore and he had never heard of any Drake with a flat skull, allowing it to excavate tunnels underground, while it can conceal its mana core completely. Seeing that every single one of the untraceable Drakes had the same ability, even the smaller ones in the back, Jason concluded that it was an innate ability, they received when they were born, which was not less shocking. There was no need for Jason to remain at the lower layers of the cave and he slowly retreated further towards the surface. Without his mana eyes being able to ensure him that he was not pursued by someone, he felt naked and insecure... Upon noticing this, he felt weird ''To what extent did I rely on my mana eyes?!?'' Chapter 218 - Death Without his mana eyes ensuring his safety, Jason ascended the elemental crystal cave slowly, while trying to understand what happened. ''For instance...My mana eyes are not perfect, even though I can see quite a lot, they''re not capable of perceiving everything...In the end, it''s pretty rare to see something without any mana fluctuations at all but that doesn''t mean I can rely on my mana eyes to 100%...F*ck!! What am I even doing?! This untraceable Drake seems to be a beast underground and they''re most likely unable to find me. Without mana fluctuations, their senses should be worse than other beasts¡­I think?'' Thinking about all of this, Jason couldn''t help but sigh inwardly, not without forgetting to activate his mana eyes in order to know where the small human group from above would be, even if he couldn''t trust them fully anymore, they still helped him. Their small group was far away from his and Jason took only tunnels that wouldn''t overlap with the others, as he perceived something particular, causing goosebumps to spread all over his skin. ''Why now?'' Jason wondered as he saw a mass of humans at the Master rank entering the elemental crystals cavern entrance. Without knowing if any of these groups came from the government or if they''re all hunters venturing into the four-star rift in order to gain something, Jason had to acknowledge that he was in a tricky situation. But what was even worse, was that the large human group stayed at the entrance, without doing much. At least that was what Jason could perceive and he estimated that they established a small camp in order to stay at the cavern entrance for the time being, which caused him a great headache. ''Walking past them like a passerby won''t work, huh?'' he asked himself, and even without anyone answering, Jason knew the answer. With his current mana core rank, he could be considered as a pushover at most, which wasn''t really how Jason imagined his trip inside the elemental crystal cave to end. If at least Malia was with him, he wouldn''t feel so powerless. Suddenly Jason recalled Lin and Lux who shot at the magical ranked python without caring about his life at all. ''Or did Lux aim at me?'' Jason wondered while Lux''s smile appeared in his memory once again. ''I hope Malia is fine¡­.'' He thought....feeling guilty that he convinced Malia to enter the four-star rift. Malia and the Fler''s were the only humans he could trust the most while Shane and Dalia were ranked immediately after them. Even if Jason trusted his masters to a certain extent, he wasn''t sure if they only used him for their goals or not. It was unlikely, but he would probably need some more time to figure out everything for himself. As such, he couldn''t give his full trust to them, at least for now. If something happened to Malia, Jason wouldn''t be able to face the Fler''s and even less Greg, as a small trace of guilt filled his mind. However, even if he felt slightly guilty, it was not as if he forced anyone of the expedition team to enter the materialized four-star rift within Cyro-City. In the end, everyone decided for themselves and nobody was forced, which relieved Jason''s sense of guilt a tiny bit. Jason still sincerely hoped that she was fine and healthy, but he was likely to face more threatening situations than her, alone from the vast gap of strength between the two of them. Looking back every now and then in order to figure out if an Untraceable Drake, Jason called them, followed him, he could only be glad that this was not the case. Meanwhile, Jason continued to approach the cave''s upper layers, while he became slightly nervous. After two hours, the presumed human camp was fully established and smaller groups ventured into the four tunnels, only to find a few collapsed paths. As such, they were forced to free them, without worsening the situation within the cave. This would most likely take some time and was the only thing Jason found slightly advantageous. Due to the construction work, these groups had to do, the number of groups venturing deeper into the cave decreased by a large margin. ''Oh!'' After another hour passed, Jason was already quite close to the other groups, when he noticed that the first group that arrived inside the cave, met one of the many small groups that had to split up. But only, now, upon looking closer, Jason noticed something important, his mana eyes couldn''t perceive before when he was deep within the cave, as his eyes widened involuntarily. ''The first small group included only one human, with three¡­.undead human-like beings?!! Is that LUX??'' Previously his mana eyes couldn''t perceive the transmuted mana, because he was too far away from them while his mana eyes'' accuracy was altered by the surrounding mana. There were thousands of tons of soil between them and each grain, pebble, crystal, and so on released mana fluctuations. As such, it was only normal for his mana eyes to see not everything through soil far away. But sensing that Lux was nearby him, caused him to frown, while his eyes turned slightly red in anger. However, even if Jason was extremely angry and Lux, there was something important he couldn''t deny at all. ''How did his strength increase this much in such a short time?'' Jason wondered, as his eyes widened in shock, and he rubbed them subconsciously. Even after rubbing them several times, Jason thought he was in a dream, as he saw ten undead unblemished ranked beasts with dozens of undead evolved ranked beasts emerging next to him. "WHAT?!" He exclaimed and he could now see 13 undead unblemished ranked human-shaped beings standing next to dozens of undead evolved ranked beasts¡­ ''How?.. The soul energy to contract so many beasts is vast¡­..At least 10.000 units...but...how did he suddenly obtain so many undead beings??'' Jason didn''t know what exactly to think anymore, as he remembered the remaining expedition team members looking around pitifully. ''Did I misunderstand everything?! But isn''t an undead awakening, banned in the government?... Why did he suddenly reveal so many undead soulbonds? With 10.000 soul energy units, he could contract a late-magical ranked beast or almost a guardian ranked beast¡­. Why so many lower-ranked beasts and why now?'' Without seeing how large Lux''s mana core exactly was, Jason couldn''t tell for sure if Lux used a forbidden undead awakening ceremony in order to obtain more soulbonds, but from his former inspection, Jason was almost sure that Lux shouldn''t have had so many soulbonds when they ventured into the four-star rift. Furthermore, from the rarity of intact, high-ranked undead beings, Jason concluded that something was extremely foul!! ''What the hell is going on?!'' Jason subconsciously halted his steps, as he focused his attention on the battle that broke out above him, causing loud noises to resounded throughout the whole cave. What was even more shocking, was the thick dense aura seeping through the cave, reaching Jason. Retching a few times, Jason''s body adjusted to the thick dense aura, as he perceived multiple condensed elemental attacks thrown towards the small skeleton army, that accepted them, as if they were nothing, barely pushing them back a few meters. The number of undead beings overwhelmed the small human group and their summoned soulbonds and Jason witnessed his first murder, even though it was through the soil and quite a distance away... ''F**k!'' He exclaimed and his sour mood plummeted further, as he barely perceived something within Lux''s hands that glowed like the blood elemental crystals he picked up before, only much more condensed and with a death-aura intertwining within. Chapter 219 - Undead Awakening Seeing the sphere-shaped item through the ground within Lux''s hand, Jason frowned, because he never heard from such an item, which didn''t lessen the bad premonition that formed in his mind. Subconsciously, he went closer towards Lux''s tunnel while the small human group was already lying on the ground, with their mana fluctuations dissipating. Frowning, Jason would have never imagined witnessing something like this through his mana eyes. Even if he knew that humans were greedy and selfish, Jason thought that he would have some time before he would witness his first murder from a human. However, after having seen humanity''s nature during two beast tides and thousands of dying humans and even more beasts, Jason wasn''t really that shocked about death anymore. In the end, Jason also survived the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit which brought him immense pain, while his mind matured with time passing. The worst thing however was that Lux approached the dead bodies, with the blood sphere in his hand, as the released death-aura it spread intensified, causing Jason to halt his steps once again. The death-aura spread through the whole cave, and Jason involuntarily trembled, as he felt his insides invaded by it when he carefully averted his gaze in order to look at the other split groups with a small trace of hope left. Jason was aware that he wouldn''t be able to survive if he were to encounter Lux or even the weakest of his soulbonds without using any other means to protect his life. Without him knowing, he already unholstered his mana grade-2 Five-SeveN with anti-mana bullets loaded. With his pistol in one hand, Jason felt immediately more secure, as he would at least be able to defeat the undead evolved beasts, as long as they didn''t overwhelm him with their numbers. In order to eliminate an undead being, one had to destroy their core, which was their only weakness, because they could heal over the course of time by supplying mana towards the damaged areas. Thanks to his exceptional eyesight, Jason was sure that it wouldn''t take long for him to hit a mana core, even if it was surrounded by a bone cage, which was quite common among undead beings, with only a few particular exceptions. It was slightly problematic that he didn''t practice much with any gun because he didn''t want to waste his credits before, but in the end, Jason told himself that it would be more difficult to not hit something that was only a few meters away from him. Trying to find excuses to release his tension, Jason noticed that many groups began to gather, while their path was directed towards Lux. ''Is that really so clever?'' He asked himself, as he wondered why Lux did something so reckless without considering the possibility of more groups venturing into the elemental crystal cave. The smaller groups gathered into groups of 10 to 20 individuals but this only caused Jason to frown slightly because this number was nothing against the small undead army. Without knowing what to do, Jason''s attention was attracted to the blood-sphere he saw within Lux''s hands as it released a dense amount of death transmuted mana which infiltrated the corpses on the ground. Suddenly he saw four soul worlds'' manifesting above the corpses, while an intense suction force within the blood-sphere absorbed them greedily before it released an eerie, dark-green colored liquid which floated towards the corpses once again. Piercing into their mana cores, Jason exclaimed involuntarily, as the dead cores without any fluctuations began to release faint death mana, which slowly intensified. ''He is really able to awaken undead beings!! Where the hell is this treasure from if he can even seal souls with it?'' The government didn''t have any forbidden undead awakening techniques, according to his knowledge, and this undead blood-soul sphere, Jason renamed it, was also not a treasure someone on Astrix would possess under normal circumstances. ''Why are so many things suddenly happening on Astrix? Aren''t there too many incidents, I''m involved in?!'' Since his soul-awakening, too much happened, and Jason felt, as if he was blessed and cursed at the same time, because he found good things in the bad, while unfortunate things seemed to tail him. ''Two beast tides and now Lux becoming insane, can''t I have my peace?'' Lamenting in his mind, Jason noticed the three dead corpses, slowly standing up. While their moves were rather slow and crude, their mana core was definitely still at the low-unblemished rank. Cutting his hand and dropping a drop of blood connection with a soul thread connected on top of the newly awakened undead humans, Lux seemed to have contracted three new soulbonds, which led Jason to frown deeply ''How much soul energy has he?!... I just hope that his soul world''s amplification is low..otherwise, everyone within the four-star rift is in danger!!'' Without being sure how much soul energy Lux had left, Jason could only take the worst-case scenario which meant that not only his soul world should be extremely large but also his soul-energy and that he accumulated it over the course of three years. ''Maybe his soul energy reproduction is similar to mine, his innate soul energy was high...or..'' Gasping, a sudden idea appeared in his mind, shocking him. ''What if he doesn''t need as much soul energy for undead beings than others for regular soulbonds? Could that be the case? Is the soul energy demand for undead lower? Or is it because of the undead blood-soul sphere?'' He didn''t want to think about it and the worst-case scenario shocked him more than expected, as he made a quick calculation according to a 10% soul world amplification. If it was even possible, Jason''s eyes widened even further, as he mumbled "Peak Master? Please don''t let him have a mana core size and physique at the Magus rank¡­." As long as his calculations were even partially correct, every human being within and around the elemental crystal cave would be in danger and his whole body was covered in goosebumps. Even if Jason was not a Saint, he couldn''t allow the large, gathered human groups to encounter Lux due to multiple reasons. One of the reasons was that they would most likely fall into Lux''s trap, because it was irrational to kill a small human group, by creating such a commotion and it was most likely his plan, to attract the attention of his surrounding. In a narrow cave, Lux could either use the numbers to overwhelm his opponents, preventing them from fleeing or he would distract them with his undead army while slaughtering them with his high combat prowess. If Lux''s army of undead soulbonds increased even further, Jason doubted that the highland plateau would be safe from his grasp. With several dozen soulbonds, Lux was already at a devastating advantage, causing Jason to look around in order to find the closest human group to him, as he exerted the weightless steps technique to his current limit while ordering Scorpio to enter his mana core. If he were to surprise the human group he approached, they would most likely attack him instinctively, which was the reason for him to let Scorpio enter his mana core. The death-aura within the cave remained the same, while Jason entered the tunnel, where he saw more than 20 humans, wearing the same clothes, with guns and rifles in their hands. Approaching them, he tried to attract their attention, without shouting, which could be heard throughout the whole cave. "Hey! Yes...you government protectors!!" Suddenly the group in front of him turned around with their weapons aimed at him, causing Jason to gulp involuntarily. ''Why is the government always like this?!'' He lamented in his mind, as a young, yet tall woman with shoulder-length, blond hair stepped forward. "Who are you and what are your plans!?" She said in an overbearing manner, causing Jason to roll his eyes. Chapter 220 - Terror! "Who are you and what are your plans!?" The tall woman said. ''What plan? I''m trying to help you, idiots!'' Sighing, Jason ignored the guns aimed at him as well as possible in order to introduce himself. "Hello, my name is Jason Stella and if I were you guys, I wouldn''t approach the center of the death-aura.." The tall woman noticed that Jason hinted something but she was still suspicious about the youth in front of him, as she scanned his mana core, which increased her suspicion even more. "What is a 4th Adept rank even doing in a four-star rift?!" She said, almost as if she was looking down at him when she released her mana fluctuations, but Jason was not really impressed by her aura, because he already felt Shane''s, which was true terror. "Does that matter right now?" Jason almost shouted before he continued slightly calmer. "I saw a young man performing a forbidden undead awakening with my own eyes and he has several dozen undead soulbonds¡­.If this and the other groups want to die, just follow the death-aura and await your own death!" Hearing what Jason said, was roughly what the rumors told her about the recent incidents with more and more undead beings appearing from everywhere. ''Is it true, what this young boy says?'' She pondered when she noticed something was Jason said, causing her eyes to turn cold. "How do you know that we are not the only group? Better answer honestly!!" Seizing Jason from head to toe, he didn''t seem like a normal youth, because he could remain extremely calm while a dozen guns aimed at him. His eyes also seemed to be uncommon, but other than that, the youth in front of her looked like he wanted to help them, even if she was unsure why she thought so. Somehow, Jason''s eyes seemed to convince her. Shaking her head, she had to remain rational! After Jason heard the tall woman saying so, small sweat pearls formed on his temples, as he tried to make up a slightly reasonable lie. "Haven''t you guys established a small camp at the cavern entrance?! Because of you guys, I couldn''t leave the cave unnoticed! I only came out because of this dude performing a forbidden undead awakening...It would only be a disadvantage for myself if he can awake even more undead beings with all of your corpses!" Trying to sound sincere and somewhat honest, Jason was unsure what else to say when he saw the tall woman ordering her group to lower the guns, his tension eased up to a certain degree. The tall woman''s voice turned slightly gentler as she said. "Can you tell me what exactly you saw? Don''t let anything out" She said before saying "My name is Aylin Uli, nice to meet you..I guess?" Aylin heard many rumors about undead beings around the area here but she was ordered to venture into the elemental crystal cave they found a few days ago with her team and other workers in order to excavate the valuable crystals for the next few days and not to kill a traitor! But even if that was her task, the existence of someone killing humans to perform an undead awakening was even more important. While listening to Jason''s explanation, which was slightly altered in order to hide his mana eyes'' abilities as well as possible, Aylin and her group''s mood plummeted immediately. Activating a special device, she tried to message the other groups, however, unfortunately, they didn''t answer her calls, which caused her mood to hit rock bottom. Turning towards her group, she gritted her teeth, before ordering "We have to face this Necromancer!! The other groups don''t know how severe the situation is...we can''t let them die!" Saying so, everyone''s expression turned serious, as they turned towards the center of the death-aura. Jason could only look at them baffled because he was ignored on one side, while on the other side a small ray of hope emerged within him. ''There are still good people, huh?'' He previously believed that the government was filled with evil, greedy and selfish humans, but apparently, he was wrong. A faint smile appeared on his face, as he run-up to Aylin to say. "I believe you already know about undead beings, but they can regenerate every injury and don''t feel pain. Only by destroying their mana core, they''ll be destroyed. Don''t hesitate and use all kinds of weapons without holding back...otherwise, you guys will die...I doubt that the Necromancer, or how you called him came here without a plan." Hearing Jason following them for some time, Aylin listened to his words, which seemed reasonable. Turning to him, she smiled lightly, saying "Thank you! Take care of yourself, okay?" He was slightly confused that they didn''t bother about him, but it was probably only reasonable because they had something more important to do. The only thing he couldn''t understand was, why other people trusted him so easily, or was that only his imagination? But even if they did, Jason was sincere as he hoped that they would be able to capture or maybe even kill Lux, because the threat was just too big, as he said. "I hope everyone of you will survive!" But right as he said so, Jason got the feeling, that something was wrong, seeing the large group venturing towards Lux. But even if he wanted to change their mind, Jason doubted that he would be capable of doing so and the only thing he could do, was to hope for their survival. While stepping back, his mana eyes noticed that many groups approached Lux and if his estimation was not completely wrong, all of them would encounter him roughly at the same time which was definitely advantageous. If Aylin were to lead the attack, maybe they could defeat Lux, because she knew more about their enemy than the other groups. With this thought in his mind, Jason continued his way towards the cave entrance, where only a few workers were left at the collapsed tunnels, freeing them slowly. The camp was almost empty and only a few peak Master ranked individuals protected the entrance from beasts or other humans invading them, while their guard towards the entrance was negligible. With this, Jason would be able to leave the cave rather easily, as long as his timing was right. Arriving at the cavern entrance, there were only a few hundred meters, parting him from the surface, as an ominous, eerie and extremely dangerous feeling approached him. Turning around in shock, Jason''s mana eyes perceived that all humans groups and Lux met up with each other and that a fight should have started because the fluctuations of the undead beings and other humans intertwined with each other as if they were in close combat. This caused him to frown, as he hoped that they were able to fight the undead beings from further away. However, there were still more than 100 humans and all of them summoned their soulbonds, giving them a large numerical advantage, which turned the tides. Nevertheless, the ominous feeling approaching Jason intensified, as he saw Lux standing in the middle of the battlefield with a black marble in his hand, releasing a terrifying amount of mana. "F**K!" Jason exclaimed, without caring if anyone heard him, as he exerted his weightless steps movement technique in order to rush out of the cave, while he amplified his voice with mana in order to shout "Immediately leave the cave if you guys want to survive!!" Right at this moment, a devastating amount of mana pushed Jason from his feet and he immediately manifested Scorpio''s exoskeleton, while he supplied his mana grade-2 leather armor with the mana inside his mana-sphere bracelet. Standing up, he saw many workers rushing out of the tunnels, not knowing what was going on, while the terrifying amount of mana intensified, while only Jason could see what was going on within the cave''s depths. With a shocked expression, he only saw the black marble accumulating more mana before it floated above Lux. Enveloping him in a black-colored cocoon, Jason''s premonition worsened, as he stood up once again in order to rush out of the cave. Suddenly the whole cave shook violently, as a *BOOM* which almost tore apart Jason''s eardrums resounded through the cave. The whole cave began to crumble while he was still more than 100 meters apart from the entrance. Chapter 221 - Sinister Plan Forcefully circulating more mana through his lower body in order to enhance his weightless step technique, allowed him to break through his current limit for a short period. His body ached and Jason had to grit his teeth to endure it, as he saw the bright sun rays shining through the entrance, which was barely several dozen meters away from him. Next to him, he could see a few horrified workers running past him with their mana core and physique at the Maser-rank, as the first sun rays shone on his fair skin. Pressing his eyes together, Jason felt uncomfortable with the sun rays shining on him because he hadn''t seen any sunlight for almost two weeks. But this didn''t matter for now, because the shockwave caused by the monstrous explosion threw him through the air into a bunch of thorny bushes. Groaning, Jason was glad that he decided to have Scorpio occupy his mana core because the thorns couldn''t pierce through the exoskeleton. Trying to stand up, he immediately felt dense death mana enveloping him, causing him to frown, as he forced his eyes open. Dazzled by the sunlight, Jason could barely see something, but upon looking through the ground at the rough position where the explosion happened, he could only gasp. ''Nobody¡­.'' His eyes widened involuntarily and upon focusing his attention on his mana eyes, he noticed that not a single being survived, not even Lux''s undead soulbonds because he couldn''t perceive any mana fluctuations from them anymore. There was only one fluctuating mana core, causing a terrified grimace to appear on his face. ''He is still alive?!'' Lux seemed to be alive, but Jason wondered why he would cause such a big explosion, which killed every single of his soulbonds. ''Was that planned?'' He wondered and until now, Lux seemed to have plan everything and Jason doubted that this was not within his estimations. Otherwise, there wouldn''t be a reason for him to wait for the larger groups of humans which hunted him. He would have approached them one after another to increase the number of his small undead army. The black cocoon around Lux slowly dissipated and Jason''s eyes were drawn to him. He didn''t even care about the chaos around him, with several dozen injured humans crying out in pain and agony while a thick death-aura permeated through the air. Apparently, the area around Lux turned relatively spacious, because Jason saw him walking towards what was left from the humans that died, with the undead blood-soul sphere in his hand. Frowning, he suddenly saw over a hundred soul worlds emerging, as the blood-soul sphere lightened up before it absorbed them slowly. ''What is he doing? Shouldn''t even the bones be shattered into smithereens by the explosion? Is it even possible to resurrect all of them?'' He wondered, with disgust spreading over his face. But what Jason saw next, caused him to frown, before his expression changed to one of astonishment, followed by shock. ''That is possible?!'' Next to Lux emerged a tall human-shaped being emerged, which he estimated to be roughly a low-unblemished being, while the color he perceived was a faint green, indicating the potential of a magical ranked beast. Because Lux could only contract beings with a death affinity, Jason was shocked to see an undead with the possibility to increase its strength, which he never heard before. But that was not it, as the undead blood-soul sphere that gathered the soul worlds before, expelled a faint compressed liquid drop, which floated towards the undead being next to Lux. The mysterious liquid drop enveloped the undead being''s mana core, which began to shine brightly before it began to absorb it. Neither its mana core rank nor anything like that changed, but thanks to his special ability, he noticed the faint color enveloping the undead becoming denser before it slowly turned into a faint purple. ''It increased its potential!? What the hell is this undead being and this undead blood-soul sphere¡­ Where did he get them from?!'' Jason was extremely shocked when he noticed someone dragging him away from the bush he was still standing in. "Are you insane!! Run away!!" Jason faintly heard as he looked up to see a young man in his 20s holding his arm in order to force him to run away from the cave. His facial features were above average but the terrified expression worsened his looks. But who would care about something like this in such a situation? Remembering that he barely survived the explosion created by Lux, Jason gathered his senses to say "Thanks", before he loosened the young man''s grasp around his wrist. Even if the young man wanted to help him more, he noticed that the black-haired youth''s speed couldn''t keep up with a Master-rank physique, which slowed both down. The young man was still terrified, but he decided to help Jason, even if it wasn''t necessary, which caused him to feel gratitude towards the young man. After the young man saw that Jason came back to his senses, he nodded his head, before wishing him good luck, as he rushed after his own group. ''Well, it''s better than nothing, huh?'' Jason thought as he noticed the group of Master-ranked workers running around like crazy hens, without a set goal. He wasn''t sure why he could remain relatively calm right now, but somehow Jason''s mindset began to think of all kinds of things. It was extremely problematic to see Lux having the capabilities to increase his soulbond''s potential by absorbing soul worlds from humans. Seeing how reckless Lux acted in order to achieve his goal, which was still unknown to Jason, he felt scared and nervous. But even if he felt emotionally unstable right now, his mind was working at an unimaginable speed. ''He won''t attack the highland plateau immediately, because his soulbond is barely at the unblemished rank, even though its potential is extremely high...His whole army should be eradicated, which means he has to replenish them...As such he will most likely hunt small groups of beasts or humans...Beasts are said to be harder to resurrect, but that doesn''t mean the same applies for Lux, as he is in the possession of this weird sphere...The only good thing is, that he can''t leave the four-star rift, just like that¡­ otherwise he will be caught and tortured in order to find out his secrets¡­'' Thinking about all of this, Jason remembered the explosion and his extremely aggressive behavior, as a sudden thought appeared in his mind. ''Does he even want to leave the four-star rift? Has he a different way out?... wait... let''s think for a moment¡­.Without any support, he shouldn''t be able to get his hands on the undead blood-soul sphere, and neither should any human, even the big families on Canir...Does this means he obtained it from someone else...maybe a foreign intelligent race?!¡­ Have they a way to bring him back Lux back, if he wouldn''t enter the rift? We don''t know much about temporary or even permanent rifts, but that doesn''t mean it had to be the same for other races¡­'' There was no answer to his train of thoughts and he could only assume things. However, one fact was sure! Someone backed up Lux, which was extremely scary, considering that he was also a human, who emotionlessly massacred others in order to achieve his goal. The main issue was also that Lux could be said to be invincible within the four-star rift, as long as his weird soulbond reached the magical rank within the next few days, which would be extremely bad. As such, Jason decided to immediately rush back to the highland plateau in order to report what happened, while he was still unsure what to do after that. ''It''s probably the best to just leave, huh?'' Chapter 222 - Valley Even if he wanted to rush back with his highest speed, he was still in a four-star rift filled with unblemished and magical ranked beasts, which hindered his advancement greatly. Additionally, their expedition team already took two days in order to reach his current position, how long would he take alone, while evading other beasts? Three to four days were already fast and there would be no time for him to make reports or anything like that, because he was just too slow. Currently, his surroundings were freed from any kind of beasts thanks to the explosion and death-aura permeating the air, but it wouldn''t stay like this. Jason was quite sure where he had to go first and he also remembered what kinds of beasts he saw before, which helped him to figure out the best path to the highland plateau. He could also venture along the mountain-ring because he would end up at his final destination either way, but this brought dangers. The issue with the mountain ring were flying beasts at the mountainside that might prey on him, which was not something Jason wanted. As such, he decided to venture through the forest''s outskirts while staying nearby the mountain-ring. With his mana eyes supporting him, it was hardly a problem to avoid any kind of beasts, while his mind was still tormented by hundreds of questions and theories about Lux''s behavior. The only difference was that now, Jason was forced to add irregulars, as he thought about the untraceable Drake''s he encountered deeper within the elemental crystal cave. Digesting that his mana eyes weren''t perfect, was already hard for him, but his curiosity overwhelmed the bitter sensation because he never heard of an ability that could completely conceal mana fluctuation, and he couldn''t remember such a beast in Shane and Dalia''s advanced beastarium. If he had such a beast, Jason could venture through the four-star rift with much more confidence, because its ability would most likely be inherited to him, allowing his mana core to be completely concealed which was even more advanced than the concealment technique, Shane gave him. Meanwhile, Jason figured out that not a single beast seemed to care about his whole existence at all, because of his shallow mana core rank they didn''t even saw him as a threat which made it possible for him to stop exerting the concealment technique. Instead, he passively absorbed and refined mana in addition to his sub-area which did the same, while remaining focused on his task. Scorpio still occupied his mana core, while its exoskeleton enveloped him, in order to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Even if he avoided all kinds of beast groups, there were times, larger packs traveled through the forest, running past him as he crawled on trees to hide, while other times, he was dragged into a territorial fight, as he passed two hostile beast groups. Without knowing how he even survived, Jason was glad to have a mana grade-2 leather armor, which was consistently supplied with the mana from his mana sphere bracelet. Even if he was accidentally attacked by some fighting beast groups, as wind blades, earth spikes and all kinds of elemental passed him by a hair, Jason couldn''t help but look at most beasts in awe. Comparing the variety of beasts within the four-star rift to Astrix, it was as if one would compare a lake to the ocean. Each beast within the four-star rift seemed to be unique and if it was within Jason''s possibility, he would capture all of them and bind them, which was unfortunately not possible. Since he encountered the untraceable Drake''s, Jason paid much more attention to other beasts'' abilities, and to his astonishment, they seemed to be much more helpful than he initially thought. From regeneration to psychokinetic, Jason saw everything, and considering that he merely saw unblemished ranked beast fights, he was even more astonished because they devastated the surrounding more than the Magical ranked goblins that attacked Cyro-City. There were multiple times, he was subconsciously forced to stop breathing because he was so shocked about the unblemished beast''s capabilities. Remembering how their expedition teams fought against other beasts, the battles he witnessed now, were much better to look at and involved a much higher combat prowess and affinity proficiency. ''Were we just fortunate, to have encountered weaker beasts, or are such beasts rare?'' He wondered and if he were to estimate some unique beasts'' combat prowess, Jason wouldn''t hesitate to say that they would be able to defeat beasts that were ranked higher than they. For beasts, this was already a decent feat, while their combat prowess also relied on the type of beast they were fighting. In most cases, canine beasts would be stronger than others, less combat relying on beasts, like mice, even if they had a higher mana core rank. However, it was still incomparable to what he witnessed, and Jason hurried away, as soon as he figured out which side would win, in order to not get dragged into other beasts'' business. Four days passed and his surroundings turned noisier than before, when he saw a few tents high on the highland plateau, while many adventurers and government workers seemed to rush from one place to another. ''Are they preparing for Lux''s arrival or what happened?'' He wondered while ascending the mountainside with slow steps. Over the last four days, Jason passively absorbed mana and refined it, while he additionally practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique, when his surrounding was partially secure because he was ignored by most beasts, which wondered him. But even if he was curious about why he was ignored by these beasts, he wouldn''t forcefully try to figure out the answer with his life on the line. As such, he decided to do the same as the beasts and ignore them, except when he noticed unique beasts that attracted his curiosity. In the end, four days passed and he barely slept during the night, where he couldn''t walk around due to the bad sight, forcing him to halt his steps. It didn''t take him long to arrive at the highland plateau and once he saw all kinds of tents, Jason was astonished to see that the plateau was even more crowded than he initially expected. ''What are these people doing? Can''t they decide whether to leave the rift or not?'' When he saw them entering a large tent one after another, creating even more confusion.. "JASON!!!" He suddenly heard someone shouting next to him, and turning to his right, he noticed Malia charging up to him, with the Daer-siblings following her. Jason suddenly frowned, seeing her so haggard and thin, as if she lost all her weight over the last few days, causing him to wonder, what the hell happened to her. Hiving Jason a firm hug, she began to cry, confusing him even more, as he heard "I''m so glad that your still alive!", which warmed his heart..as he patted her head while saying "It''s fine, I''m alive and stronger than ever before...hehe" He still didn''t understand everything, but he was glad to see that the others were fine, as he smiled ligthly. Chapter 223 - Shocking News! Not trying to attract too much attention from their surroundings, the four of them went into their tent, while Malia continued to cling onto Jason as if she would never let him go anymore which caused him to frown lightly. But he felt it would be worse to get out of her grasp right now and as such, he decided to let her do as she wanted for the time being. Jennifer and Theo looked at him, not knowing what to think because it was an astonishing feat to have survived the pursuit of a Magical ranked beast while being at the lower Adept rank. Furthermore, almost two weeks passed since then and Jason looked like he didn''t sustain a single injury, which was relieving. Thinking about Lin and Lux''s betrayal, both of them frowned and Theo sighed, as they entered the tent. Once they were inside, the four of them sat down, before he gently loosened Malia''s firm grip on his arm, because it began to hurt due to his weaker physique. After he was freed again, Malia looked at him, as if she had been betrayed and Jason pondered for a moment, before he summoned Artemis. ''Can you consult her? You like carcasses, right? And you like Malia...please help me...okay?'' He transmitted to her and Artemis looked at him like she was disgusted before she saw Malia''s appearance. Noticing that she didn''t feel good, Artemis decided to do as Jason said, as she screeched, before landing on Malia''s lap. Seeing Artemis, Malia smiled faintly, before she began to caress her. Suddenly the tent turned silent, and nobody knew how to begin their conversation, because both parties wanted to know what happened with the other. Jennifer was about to break the silence when Theo interrupted her. "Jason, I''m glad that you survived. You might not want to hear this question, but are you okay with telling us what happened after Lux and Lin shoot at you?" Theo was more of a straightforward guy, even though he was rather quiet and Jason liked this because he would be more honest as a straightforward guy. He didn''t really have to hide anything and began to tell what happened, from his escape to him meeting the tornado wolves and everything that happened within the elemental crystal cave. He left out unnecessary information and the extent of his mana eyes, but the three of them were astonished to hear what Jason went through, while they did nothing special at all. Jason not only survived many perilous situations, but he also broke into the 4th Adept rank. However, it was only, when he began to talk about Lux, that the surrounding became eerie quiet, with the Daer siblings and Malia stopping in their tracks, not moving at all, as if time stopped. Without sensing their discomfort, Jason continued and told everything, without letting anything out, even the explosion and Lux''s resurrecting the humans he killed. "F**K" Theo exclaimed, while Jennifer jumped up from her chair, kicking it over. "This bast*rd! Not only did he betray us, but he also colluded with foreign races?! Where else should he get a resurrection technique from! I should have killed him when I had the chance...ARGH!!" Jennifer''s outburst astonished Jason slightly, but he could understand her somehow. From the looks of it, Malia and the Daer-siblings didn''t know anything about Lux''s evil side, even if they knew that he had undead human skeletons as his soulbond. Thinking that he obtained them from a death domain was easier to accept for them, than thinking that Lux resurrected them himself, and Jason thought that their first thought was most likely even the case. ''He should have obtained the resurrection technique later...Otherwise, the government would have noticed that something was off, even more so because Lux is a student at the Vanguard main school, right? Old Drake probably did background research...or not?'' Jason was not sure how Old Drake handled Astrix and the Vanguard main-school, but from what he figured out about the old man, was that he acted rather carefully, which led him to think that he made a research about all students. But considering that thousands of students existed, the research about all of them should be less detail-oriented and more focused on the mass. ''Still, he should have done it, right? A death affinity is rare¡­'' Jason reassured himself and decided to change the topic as he started to tell the others about his small journey through the Valley, which released their tension slightly. Even if there were additional perilous situations, the story he told sounded rather relaxing as if it was nothing special, which caused Theo to smile lightly. While explaining, the others noticed that Jason was fascinated by all kinds of beasts and that he admired many of them due to their high combat prowess, unique abilities, and strong affinities. After Jason finished his side what happened during the last two weeks, he looked at the others with a faint smile, saying. "Well...in the end, it was a nice adventure, even if it was dangerous... Now that I told my side of the story, I also want to hear yours!... Ah and I already forgot to ask, but where is Lin? Didn''t he run away with you? I should lecture him a little bit about his little betrayal!" Hearing Jason saying so, Theo''s mouth twitched, and Jennifer looked weirdly, as Malia''s weak voice next to him said. "Lin is probably dead. When we split up, he ran away with Lux. If you haven''t seen the two of them together, Lin should be either alone within the four-star rift or dead...I prefer the last" Nodding his head lightly, Jason thought that Malia''s grudge against Lin was even deeper than his own because he didn''t really bother thinking about Lin over the last two weeks as he had more than enough things to do by himself. "Well...I don''t think any of us could have ever imagined that Lin or Lux would act so despicable and sacrifice a weaker expedition member, just to stall more time...But even so, it would be unfortunate if Lin died¡­ His wood affinity could have been a valuable asset for humanity." Theo said, disgusted by his two classmates, he previously saw as his companions, before he continued. "Compared to your last two weeks, ours were less dangerous, because we rushed back to the highland plateau. Initially, we wanted to wait for any news about you for some days and leave afterward, but Malia wouldn''t go, which forced us to stay there too. Jennifer and I just hunted a few unblemished beasts in order to complete our expedition task, but that was everything slightly exciting. We heard lots of news about a bunch of humans going amok, which shocked everyone at the plateau and the majority of news were about the undead beings and a small army of undead killing beasts and humans at the same time. Over the last few days, there are more news about it and it seems like Lux is on his way to the highland plateau, or rather the four-star rift. Considering that the four-star rift is only stable for another seven days, I doubt that Lux will come here without a plan. Maybe we should leave, now that you''re back? It''s just too dangerous here because it''s not only Lux who suddenly went on a killing spree but also another bunch of crazy humans at the peak of the unblemished rank and their combat prowess suddenly soared. Not a single human within the four-star rift will stand a chance against them¡­" Jason didn''t really need to stay within the four-star rift and nodded his head when he heard what Theo said, but it was still somewhat shocking for him to figure out that Lux was not the only one turning their back to humanity.. ''How far did the foreign races infiltrate into our society?'' He wondered as he said. "The earlier we leave the better, right? Chapter 224 - Fortress Once they decided to leave, everyone picked up their stuff, while Artemis went back into Jason''s soul world. Without wasting any time, he was about to go straight to the rift, when he was held back by Theo. Looking at him in confusion, he pointed towards the large medical tent next to the rift, explaining "We have to be tested before we''re allowed to enter the rift. It won''t take that long and it''s just a simple blood test and another small examination to measure your brainwaves." Halting in his tracks, Jason was confused for a moment, before he understood the meaning of such a test, as he asked to make sure that his train of thoughts was correct. "Do we have to undergo these tests because it is unknown if the valley has foreign, harmful viruses or diseases? But what about the brain waves?... Are they done to figure out if parasites enter our body as a host to control us or something like that?" Jason remembered having heard something similar, but he was not sure if his memory was correct. Theo only nodded his head, smiling lightly as he said. "Yes, there are just too many unknown viruses, spreading disease and even more hostile, yet crafty beasts within the rifts, which makes everything slightly more complicated." Because of that, the four of them had to line up in order to be examined before they were allowed to go back to Argos. The examination itself wouldn''t take long, but they had to wait for a few hours in the queue to enter the large tent. In the meantime, Jason scanned through everyone''s mana core, before he averted his attention to the passive mana gathering technique. When it was their turn, his brain waves were scanned, his body searched through for certain signs of a disease or an injury from a beast to figure out if bacteria or viruses were transferred to him before his blood was tested. Jason was neither bitten by any beast nor seriously injured at the moment because his broken shoulder was already completely healed. His blood test and brain waves were also in the normal standards, which allowed him to step through the rift. Waiting for the others, they also seemed fine and the four of them stepped through the four-star rift, ending the expedition. This time, Jason wanted to stay conscious without fainting during their teleport back to Argos and he calmed down to focus on his entire being, as the space around him twisted as it happened the first time. The other fainted, while his eyes shone brightly in the seemingly infinite darkness which was brightened up by bright shining stars around him. The vast blue planet appeared in his sight once again, but this time instead of staring blankly at it, Jason tried to inspect it more in detail. Like ancient globes of Argos indicated, this blue planet in front of him was similarly filled with a majority of water. There were many large continents, islands, but the biggest contrast between Argos and the blue planet in front of him was that the blue planet had huge areas with single landscapes that slowly changed, while even a single island on Argos had multiple environments at once. At least, Jason presumed them to be landscapes or rather different environmental areas, because he could see white-colored areas, most likely indicating a mountain range or ice/snowfields and so on, while the majority of the continents were filled with a dark-green and bluish-green color which looked extremely distinct, even from far away. But there were also black, brown, and even red areas, causing him to frown. "Is that a volcano or corroded environment?" Comparing Argos and the blue planet, the blue planet seemed to be less chaotic, which couldn''t be said for Canir or any island of the archipelagos that were extremely chaotic from their enviroments, caused by the emerging of natural treasures with transmuted mana. ''Is this planet better in handling the natural mana? How? Isn''t the emergence of natural treasures a coincidence?.... Is there someone or something controlling everything?'' Jason assumed just anything that jumped into his mind and there was no sure answer but his own thoughts astonished him because they were abstruse and without any proof. It was just his imagination and time seemed to pass without him knowing and his complete attention was on the blue planet they passed. Even if Jason was able to stay conscious longer than before, in the end, his mind trembled as he fainted on the ground, without being able to continue his inspection. ** Waking up, Jason found himself in a tent again and it felt like a deja-vu when he sensed that the mana fluctuations around him were fainter compared to the four-star rift. ''Ah...we are already back and I still collapsed¡­'' He thought while lamenting about his weak will before he stood up slowly. His head ached slightly, but it was not as uncomfortable as expected. Looking at Malia and the Daer-siblings laying inside the beds next to his, he pondered what to do, as he took out a piece of paper and wrote a short message, which he laid next to Malia''s bed. ''They should find it immediately, right? It''s better than nothing!'' Jason thought and he couldn''t waste too much time waiting for the others. In the end, nobody except him knew exactly how devastating Lux''s capabilities became and that he seemed to have no limit, thanks to the undead blood-soul sphere, with its unknown abilities. Leaving the tent, all of them slept in, the sunset greeted him, telling him that it was already evening. ''Does a single trip through the rift take so long, or is the day and night circle somewhat shifted or even reversed?'' Not knowing the answer, Jason decided to disregard this thought for now, because it was not that important, as he looked around in order to figure out where exactly he was. From his distance to the four-star rift, Jason was sure that he was still within the secured area around it, but what he saw in front of him took him by surprise. ''They build such a thing in just three weeks?'' Looking up, he saw humongous walls with all kinds of long-range warfare situated on top, shocking him, as he decided to search for guardians in order to figure out what was going on. Opening his quantum bracelet, a holographic screen emerged in front of him, with hundreds of messages in it, which he however ignored. Most of them were from the Fler''s, asking about their well-being and that they should answer their calls once they returned. This told Jason that Cyro-City already knew about the dangers within the four-star rift and it was apparently also the reason for such a large fortress to be built in such a short period. His first thought was that it was extremely quickly built, but with his mana eyes and rational thinking, Jason concluded that it was built in four days at most, with the help of high-ranked affinities. But even so, it still looked better than he expected from such a huge, yet quickly built fortress. The first thing he did was messaging Shane and Dalia before he decided to message Seron and the Fler''s about his well-being. After that, he immediately called Till, because he was the strongest being within Cyro-City if one excluded Dalia and Shane, who lived illegally in Astrix and hidden from the big families. His call was still connecting to Till, as he noticed familiar mana fluctuations next to him approaching him with an astronomical velocity, as he hung up the call. Waving, he smiled lightly when Till with his white-golden wings, looking at him impatiently. "Jason! It''s nice that you''re fine, but can I bother you for a second? Old Drake and I would like to talk to you about Lux!!" Sensing Till''s impatience and urge to talk to him in private with Old Drake in addition to Lux''s name, Jason figured out what everything was about and when he nodded lightly, Till picked him up without asking for permission, as he soared in the air without wasting a single second. Noticing this, Jason felt that Lux and the blood-soul sphere were not the worst things, Astrix had to take care of, which caused him to frown lightly, as he wondered what exactly could have happened. Chapter 225 - Imminent Threat Suddenly taken away by Till, without any time to really think about what was going on, Jason could only look around, as they entered the area within the gigantic fortress around the four-star rift, which allowed him to see it from above. The fortress''s size was more monstrous than he initially expected and surrounded the whole district that has been destroyed during the Goblin tide, which was weird. ''Is that really necessary?'' Jason wondered as Till landed in front of a large, mansion-sized, automatic constructing tent. Till entered it and Jason followed behind, without asking anything or wasting more time, while he was still astonished by what he saw from the inside. Apparently, Old Drake and the higher authorities within Cryo-City were pressed, which he conducted from their mana core rank. ''Not bad!'' Jason almost exclaimed as he saw their mana core size, indicating at least one beast at the Guardian rank or multiple magical ranked beasts. In the center of the tent was a large table, which was surrounded by more than a dozen old men and women, discussing loudly with each other. ''Is Lux''s threat really that big?'' He wondered again, as he estimated that Lux''s combat prowess was at most at the Magus rank after the soul world amplification. In that case, he shouldn''t be a problem to them and while they approached the small group of old men and women, Old Drake saw Jason, which caused him to jump up. "Jason, you''re awake! I''m sorry to bother you immediately after you woke up, but can you please help us out once again? Some workers at the elemental crystal cave told me that a golden-eyed youth was present, when the explosion happened, which released a death aura. I don''t know anyone else except you, who has golden eyes and looks like the worker described¡­ Can you help us out, please? We need to know what happened and where this death-aura came from." Hearing what Old Drake said, Jason wondered who could have seen him, as he remembered the worker who dragged him out of the bush when he was deep in thoughts, which caused his expression to ease up. "So the only reason for me to be dragged here is to answer this question, or is there more?" He asked hesitantly, not minding that he wasn''t polite right now. "Well...if you know more, it would be helpful if you share your knowledge with us¡­" Old Drake said, knowing that Jason''s mana eyes might be exposed with that. Pondering for a moment, what Jason said enraged the old men and women at the Grandmagus rank around the table. "If you want to hear everything, only Mr.Greil and Mr.Drake are allowed to be present!" Trying to put in as much confidence as possible in his voice, he could already hear thunderous, enraged voices revering through the large tent, and he twitched involuntarily. He was suddenly enveloped by more than ten Grandmagus'' mana fluctuations, scanning through him, before they used their radiating mana to suppress him to show their dominance. ''Why are all oldies the same?'' Jason asked himself, while his body was pressed to the ground, when Till suddenly released his Lord rank mana core mana fluctuations, in order to sever the pressure on him. Old Drake who was known as a calm man, sounded annoyed, as he said "Out, all of you!! What is wrong with all of you to release your tension on a 14 years old youth!! Are you guys bored or simply insane?" Looking between Till, who was the youngest out of the older generation, yet the strongest, and Old Drake, they could only suppress their frustration and back off. Glaring at Jason, they left the tent, before he revealed a confused expression as he mumbled. "Did I kill their descendants or why are they so angry?" Till heard this and smiled at him lightly before he said. "It''s not like that, but everyone feels powerless with the current situation and their frustration is killing them. There are too many accidences in the last few months, from the beast tide in Jiro-City, to the appearance of the Goblin King and now the appearance of the four-star rift, which is more like a curse than a blessing which we initially expected. To put it simply, the news we already gathered from the government workers and Hunters that entered the four-star rift, we can only assume that either one race or multiple foreign races at once lured or even manipulated promising humans in order to take them to their side with special techniques or a large amount of wealth and cultivation resources." Jason tried to digest what TIll said and it was certainly true that too many accidents happened in the last few months, at least compared to the years before, before TIll continued "Now that only we three are left, can you explain everything?" Nodding his head, Jason began to explain everything about Lux, with his sole exception, that he saw his soulbond''s color that indicated its potential changing when it absorbed the mysterious liquid drop. From him being shot, to what he noticed about Lux within the elemental crystal cave, nothing was let out, and when he began to talk about the undead blood-soul sphere with its unique, yet eerie ability, Old Drake gasped, while Till''s eyes turned cold, as he spits out the words "Shadow walker!", which caused Jason to look at him confused. In the end, he decided to finish his story, before Old Drake or Till would ask anything which he would explain later, and their expression turned grave. After he finished, the whole tent was eerie silent for a few minutes, before Old Drake gathered his senses once again. Sighing, he explained to Jason. "I think we have a bigger problem than we initially expected...Jason..you have probably heard from some foreign races and to put it simply this undead blood-soul sphere you called it, is a special resurrection crystal. However, even worse is that it can even absorb souls and improve the potential of undead beings it resurrected¡­. From what I know, such crystals are extremely rare and under normal circumstances, not something the Shadow walker would give a human to lure him to their side. The only exception I can imagine is, that Lux''s soul world is better than we knew of, while he most likely signed a harsh advanced soul contract with them¡­ In the end, this means that they can''t let Lux die or be captured, because of his possession over the resurrection crystal and talent¡­" Old Drake suddenly turned completely silent, before Jason could barely hear him mumbling¡­"They will come and save him" Gulping, Jason suddenly perceived an outburst of mana from Till, as he felt his entire being enveloped by a terrifying killing intent. Staring in Till''s eyes, they were filled with wrath, guilt, and sadness. Fortunately, the killing intent and mana weren''t directed at him and didn''t put any pressure on him, even if his mind was filled with the desire to kill. It took Till some time before he calmed down slightly, to regain control over his senses and emotions. Taking a few deep breaths, he said. "We know now, that Lux should be backed by the Shadow walker race, but what about other hunters who massacred humans by suddenly gaining a huge increase in their combat prowess...Is there more than one race threatening us once again?" Hearing this, Jason was also confused¡­ humans were already at the bottom of the food chain compared to the other races who could annihilate them with ease... "Why don''t they just eradicate us and play weird games? Are they doing so to have fun or is there a grander plan behind it?" Not knowing what to do, Jason just asked out loud, what he thought, and Old Drake and Till looked at him weirdly. "Didn''t Shane explain their reason to do this, already?" Old Drake asked, baffled before two familiar voices resounded behind Jason. "Old Drake, don''t manipulate my disciple" "Don''t talk bad about Shane, I''m also here!" Turning around, Jason saw a spatial tear behind him, with Shane and Dalia emerging out of it before they glared at Jason as if he did something wrong. He was happy to see them, but it seemed as if the opposite was not the case which soured his mood further. Chapter 226 - Canir, A Breeding Ground? Jason was right in-between his masters, Till and Old Drake, which made him extremely uncomfortable until he heard Till exclaiming overjoyed. "Aunt Dalia, your still alive!!!" Hearing this, visibly confused Jason, as he lifted his eyebrows. ''Aunt?'' Looking between the four around him, he couldn''t help but feel negligible, as Dalia approached him in order to look if he was fine. Noticing how much mana was left in the unique mana sphere, she stared daggers at him, lecturing. "What did you do to use up so much mana in less than three weeks?!", which caused him to sweat heavily¡­. Not knowing what to say, he looked pleading at Shane, who approached him too, and sensing the remaining mana within the unique mana sphere, he said reassuringly. "At least you''re alive, huh? I would hunt you down if you died within the four-star rift!!" He added, and it sounded like a threat, which caused Jason to shudder, as Shane turned to Old Drake and Till, he said. "I think you guys need my help again, or am I wrong? We listened to what Jason said and even a single Shadow walker would be enough to cause a calamity on Astrix, even more, multiple race envoys trying to save their new toys¡­" Jason knew almost nothing about the combat prowess of foreign races, only that they were extremely strong compared to humans, but hearing that a single individual would be enough to cause a calamity on Astrix, was still shocking. ''Does that mean, a single Shadow walker is already at the Lord rank?'' He wondered, but he didn''t dare to ask, as he turned to Shane. "Master, can you tell me what Old Drake meant with the reason for the other races to not annihilate us, in order to habitat Canir or the Archipelago?" Shane was about to turn around when Dalia answered Jason''s question, instead of Shane. "To put it simply, it''s because of humanity''s peculiar soul-awakening, at least we think so. We have never seen other races summoning or binding beasts and our theory is that other races want to learn more about humans by letting us live on Canir and the Archipelago. They envy our soul world and what benefits they bring us, whether it is a companion, our soul world''s amplification, or our affinities, we can obtain by contracting beasts.. We think the foreign races made some sort of treaty with each other to let us in peace, well... partially, while only interfering by luring over promising youths, as it apparently happened with Lux. In the end, these foreign races are still fighting against each other, while we''re only seen as onlookers, nothing more or less. Maybe they see Canir and the Archipelago as some sort of breeding ground, while they pick out our prodigies for their own gains? Who knows? In the end, we know almost nothing about these foreign races and it is impossible to figure out their true goal, without asking them, which is quite problematic, because we basically can''t understand their language." Dalia said and Jason tried to understand everything, while all pieces slowly gathered together creating a greater picture. "So these foreign races use advanced soul contracts to slave promising humans in order to make them into some sort of super soldiers? But why did Lux for example remain on Canir or the Archipelago even after he performed the advanced soul contract?..... Is that some sort of plan to search for more potential human super soldiers while staying hidden?" Jason wasn''t even sure what he said, but after thinking about it, he was shocked, as Old Drake affirmed his suspicion. "That''s exactly what we think is happening. Whether it is good or bad, we are still alive and humanity could be said to have some freedom, at least to a certain degree. The only advantageous aspect is that the big clans and their descendants were disregarded by most foreign races because they never send a stronger being than someone at the sovereign rank to be a envoy. There might as well be a different reason for that, but if there is, I don''t know it. This also indicates that beings above the sovereign rank are either not common in these races or that they''re probably occupied with fighting against others on the mainlands or on their own side of the permanent rift. In the end, like Dalia already said, we know almost nothing about the foreign races, if they came from the same place or if the rifts brought them together." Shocked about the revealed information he got to know, Jason sighed deeply, before he mumbled "So....we are only livestock for the foreign races?... Not even worth their higher authorities'' attention...Canir is our breeding place, huh?" Jason felt suddenly extremely enraged, useless and his eyes gleamed lightly, calming him down, as he took a deep breath. Looking at his Masters, he asked resolutely. "Is there a way for us to fight against the Shadow walker in order to capture Lux? I guess claiming and researching the resurrection crystal is the government''s priority, and after that capturing the traitors?" Pondering for a moment, Jason added. "Does anyone know what happens if more than one foreign race comes to Cyro-City? Will the City even overcome such a threat?" If multiple sovereign ranks were to save their human subordinates, Jason didn''t doubt for a second, that a massacre would happen, because the foreign races were hostile to each other which caused him to frown. On one side it was definitely an advantage that the foreign races were hostile to each other but on the other side, this hostility could also be the cause for Cyro-City to end up eradicated after today. Old Drake and Till looked extremely bad and the gravity of their problem slowly approached everyone, while Dalia looked at Shane. Shane noticed that and sighed before he hesitantly said. "In the end, the government has to forget about the resurrection crystal, because stronger Shadow walkers would come if they''re unable to retrieve it. If only a single foreign race, at the Sovereign rank were to appear, I might be able to protect the city to a certain degree, but killing the Shadow walker would result in us obtaining the resurrection crystal which is not something we can handle. As such, I can''t kill the Shadow walker either way and in the end, the shadow walker might even protect Lux with its life, because it is seen as less valuable as Lux. This means that I have to let Lux and the Shadow walker leave, without obstructing them. In the end, if they don''t attack the city, everything should be fine¡­" Taking a deep breath, the main issue came now into play "The only problem is, the possibility of multiple races appearing and them trying to obstruct each other. They don''t care about us at all and only the humans they contracted are barely worthy enough for them to look at. In the end, they would most likely fight with each other and devastate the whole City¡­" Looking at Old Drake, he seriously said. "Cyro-City should have an underground shelter as a capital, right? Send the citizens down...There is no need to cover this issue and saving their lives is more important than anything else!" Old Drake had already his holographic screen opened and messaged his subordinates, who immediately took actions, as a loud siren voiced through the whole city **Attention please, attention, please¡­ Due to some unforeseen reasons, every citizen is requested to immediately search for the next entrance towards the underground shelter. Please stay calm and follow the soldiers'' instructions! This is not a test! ** Turning to Jason, Shane looked at him, as if he was about to give Jason a beating, which caused him to tremble for a second. "And you! Why are you always so reckless? You ventured through the four-star rift alone, huh? Almost killed multiple times and barely surviving the explosion caused by your ''trustworthy'' expedition member, Lux? That was definitely a ''magnificent'' choice your expedition team made by choosing this traitor.." Before a faint smile emerged on his face, calming him down. "At least you''re still alive...But look what happens here again¡­ your youth is more exciting than mine was¡­ You''ll already see a foreign race and sovereign''s fighting...haha" Trying to ease up everyone''s tension, Shane tried to be funny, but the heavy atmosphere remained, causing the situation to turn awkward. The atmosphere within the tent turned awkward with everyone feeling weird, as Jason couldn''t help as he chuckled lightly, saying. "Master, you''re really bad at changing the atmosphere¡­ You should improve that after you brought everyone alive out of this situation!" Chapter 227 - Tension It was still unsure when either Lux or someone from a foreign race would arrive, but everyone felt restless, and Jason tried to ease up their tension, which only partially helped. Even if they were restless, in the end, they couldn''t change the situation they were currently in, and feeling scared, anxious, or nervous wouldn''t help them to overcome the approaching threat. Weirdly enough, instead of being filled with fear, Jason was somehow able to remain sober, which was not something anyone should expect from a 14-years old youth. ''If multiple races appear, even Shane is powerless and the whole City might be demolished, what can I, an Adept rank do against it?'' He thought while sighing deeply. Looking at his masters he asked. "Should I also enter the underground shelter or remain on the surface somewhere more secure?" Shane pondered for a moment, and Dalia used this period to answer his question. "Stay next to me, with my strength, I''m the best protection you can rely on at the moment, after Shane of course." While Shane, Dalia, and Jason were talking, Old Drake and Till used the time to message Max and Seron in order to call the two to them. Old Drake couldn''t use mana and his physique, thanks to his injury anymore, but Till could protect Max, who was one of the most important descendants the Drake family had over decades, while Seron was Till''s disciple and furthermore from a big family. In the end, Till had to protect both of them, otherwise, the two youths might die in the sovereigns'' crossfire or something worse. Looking at Jason and Dalia for a moment, Shane pondered what he could do in order to secure their protection, without attracting too much attention. Taking out a few items, that were enveloped in all kinds of colors, Jason was astonished to see what he presumed to be Shane''s treasure trove. Almost all items Shane took out were marbles with all kinds of runes inscribed on them, while a few particular runes stood out because their composition was similar to the rune the four-star rift was made of, even if it was only to an almost negligible degree. ''Is that a rune made out of pure transmuted mana?'' He wondered, without being able to ask because Shane began to speak. "These items have my mana stored within and can release either one-time protection shields or single attacks at the sovereign rank. They''re extremely precious and made out of expensive items, but that doesn''t matter now, right? Don''t try to attract too much attention once the foreign races appear and only use these items if you can''t stay hidden anymore. Even if I doubt that these races will bother about any of us and at most take care of their mission, it''s always better to be prepared, remember that Jason!" Nodding his head, Jason found it logical to be prepared for all kinds of scenarios and when Dalia took out a small dice with unique runes on each side, he was immediately interested in it thanks to its distinct mana fluctuations. "We''ll use the untraceable dice once the slightest sign of any foreign race emerges and stay within the protection field. Just take care of yourself, Shane, alright?" Suddenly Till came over, with an uncomfortable expression as he asked. "Aunt Dalia, is it possible if my disciple and Old Drake''s descendant stay with you? I know that it''s rude to ask, after what the big families caused everyone, but the children are not responsible for that, right? I want them to survive, even if I have to protect them with my life, if necessary!! They won''t be a burden! I promise¡­" Till seemed desperate and with every second passing, Jason could see his discomfort deepening, as Dalia sighed deeply before she nodded. "I know that you and the kids are not responsible for what their ancestors did...They can naturally stay with me... It''s only unfortunate that we can''t hide on Astrix anymore, once this is over¡­" Hearing this, Jason''s eyes widened, and only now did he understand what it meant for Shane to reveal himself, once he was forced to reveal himself. ''They have to flee again!... Wait?! Doesn''t that mean that I have to flee with them?'' Comprehending the meaning, behind her words, Jason was shocked, as he heard Shane talking to Old Drake. "Once this is over, let us have a good talk, ok? The other big families and clans will most likely search for me on Astrix, and it''s only obvious that we have to migrate to somewhere else¡­This is not really a problem per se, but we can''t take Jason with us, because it would be suspicious, if we and Jason disappear at the same time, right?" Sighing deeply, Shane and Old Drake looked at each other, knowingly and Jason felt as if the whole world rotated without him, which was the case. ''I''ll be left alone, again?'' He thought frustrated, as he heard Old Drake saying. "Well, that''s less of a problem... Just tell me where you migrate to and if we continue with the Big-three tournament and he reaches a high placement, I can send him wherever I want, labeling him as an exchange student and even if the Big-Three tournament doesn''t occur, I can still send him away after a month or so¡­.Don''t think too far and take care of the next big step" Hearing what Old Drake said, felt reassured, and he sighed in relief, thinking that he might not be abandoned, and it was as if a heavy rock suppressing his heart, crumbled when he perceived a gleaming in Old Drake''s eyes for a quarter of a second, which made him uncomfortable. However, before he could even think about this, another thought emerged in his mind ''Wait?! Doesn''t that mean I still have to leave the Fler''s?'' Noticing this, Jason felt shocked, as he subconsciously took a step back. Dalia noticed his emotional rollercoaster, as she knowingly patted his shoulder. Life was not a playground but a battlefield of emotion, sometimes full of joy, yet also grief, agony, and much more complex than one might think. Trying to steel his heart, the first thing they had to do, was to survive the next few days, and Jason messaged the Fler''s a few clues he received from Old Drake in order to search for the best protected are within the underground shelter in order to stay alive if the worst-case scenario occurred. Everyone messaged him hundreds of messages in their small group chat about his whereabouts and well-being, but he remained silent, not knowing what to do with the torment of emotions, raging in his heart. Sighing, he gritted his teeth and thought ''I have to thank them properly, once everything is over!'' ** The next four days were nerve-wracking, with all citizens entering the underground shelter, not without forgetting to complain, while even the Magus and Grandmagus ranks entered them. The underground shelter was considered a large-scale base, manufactured out of peak grade-3 materials and high-grade runes, that had to be constantly supplied in order to protect the individuals within from all kinds of attack below the sovereign rank. It would even withstand sovereign rank attacks, but the mana consumption was devastating, which forced all 80 million citizens to circulate their mana inside the underground shelter in order to supply it for a week. Over the last few days, only Till, Old Drake, Shane, Dalia, and the three kids remained on the surface, waiting for the last hunters and governmental workers to step through the rift, before they were sent to the underground shelter. To ease their tension, the three kids sparred with each other, but they couldn''t completely focus on that because their train of thought was somewhere else. However, that didn''t mean that Jason neglected his Heaven''s Hell- or affinity-/martial art practice. With his soul energy crossing the threshold of 400 units, he was already satisfied, while Artemis and Scorpio''s demand for soul energy increased only by a small margin. It was the already last day before the four-star rift would become unstable when everyone felt that something huge was about to happen Early in the morning, everyone above the surface suddenly noticed an astronomical amount of mana erupting far away from the city, while the four-star rift trembled violently, with four badly beaten up humans emerging out of it. Suddenly, as if the erupting mana from far away was not enough, Jason''s mana eyes perceived that the erupted mana were initially two intertwining mana sources, which indicated two beings fighting against each other. However, his attention was distracted, because of a four-meter-tall door made out of pure darkness mana which suddenly manifested close to the rift, as a three-meter tall humanoid-being with ruby-colored eyes and darkness enveloping it, stepped through it Everything went chaotic and Jason could only hear, Shane taking a deep breath, as he mumbled "F*CK", before he saw Dalia and Till''s ashen white face. Chapter 228 - Envoys It was already astonishing for Jason to notice that Lux and the three other humans emerged out of the four-star rift without fainting, which was something he couldn''t do. However, the erupting mana from far away and the three-meter-tall darkness enveloped being with ruby-colored eyes, were even more shocking to Jason, who subconsciously took a step back. He was not alone, because Max and Seron''s eyes also widened as they shivered and retreated in fear. ''Each of them is stronger than Shane..'' Jason thought, with cold sweat pouring down his back. Shane paled when he sensed the erupting mana and decided to change to plan B. If there was only one race that would take away Lux and the others, Shane would show himself, while demonstrating his combat prowess in order to show that he could fight the Shadow walker if something were to happen, but their whole plan was immediately shattered. Not only were there three different races in total, but Shane was weaker than each of them, solely from the mana fluctuations they perceived. As such, all of them decided to hide, hoping for the best outcome. Shane would only come out if the worst-case scenario wasn''t something they could prevent anymore, but it was questionable if that was even helpful... Jason''s mana eyes flickered, and he began to seize the humans up that left the four-star rift. The four humans in front of him had a mana core at the Master rank, but their mana cores'' size was extremely enlarged. All of them radiated a dense fighting spirit, and it seemed as if they fought each other, which was a good sign in Jason''s opinion. While Lux released his death aura, the man next to him was enveloped in a dense water membrane, in order to prevent being burned from the bulky, tall man next to him, who was enveloped in a thick fire film. Jason noticed that the flames were not only on his skin but also within the young man, which was shocking because he knew how difficult it was to not burn with flames within the body. But more shocking was the woman on the right, who had the fewest injuries, while she released a pink hue, while darkness enveloped her partially. After emerging out of the rift, it began to shock slightly and slowly dissipated which was faster than estimated, and once the four-meter tall darkness door manifested, both humans with water and affinity stepped back in fear, while Lux and the sole women stepped forward. Kneeling down, the two of them greeted the Shadow walker, that stepped out of the door, only to look disgustingly at the two lowly humans. Upon scanning his mana core, Jason paled, ''He has multiple solidified prismarine-crystals?'' "Aestiar lowria mulka!!" a hoarse voice could be heard and suddenly Jason''s eyes trembled violently, as he felt something within trembling in rage. ''Huh? What is going on?'' He wondered as the two intertwining mana sources smashed next to the Shadow walker into the ground, creating a several dozen meter deep crater. "The Ganasia and Deepsea scion race?" Dalia mumbled, with Shane nodding his head faintly "Maybe we are fortunate?" Jason and the two other youths were confused and began to shiver, when the shockwave caused by the two beings crashing into the ground, creating a ten-meter deep crater. ''These two also have multiple solidified prismarine crystals?'' He thought, biting his lips nervously. ''That''s bad!'' Jason and the others who were as far as possible from the rift''s location, without leaving it out of their eyes seized up the newly arrived foreign races. Seeing the two races, the two young men rushed towards them, before kneeling down. Similar to the Shadow walker, they seemed disgusted at the sight of the humans, but they still had to follow their masters'' orders. Seizing the two beings, Jason noticed that the presumed Deepsea scion was the two-meter tall bipedal fish-like race, with its pointy face, extremely long limbs, dark-blue scales all over its body, and white fins protruding out of the back. However, the main feature of the Deepsea scion seemed to be its extremely dense and distinct affinity, which astonished Jason, causing him to gulp involuntarily, as he averted his gaze to the five-meter tall bipedal being, he presumed to be the Ganasia race The presumed Ganasia was enveloped with fire, like the human kneeling in front of him, while its hair was replaced by flames. Its bulky physique underlined its size and Jason thought it looked like a blazing giant. It had a single long horn protruding out of the center of its forehead, and the Ganasia''s facial features were extremely crude, but the most similar to humans, among the three races, Jason saw, while a long tail with a razor-sharp blade as its tip, could be seen. Right now, the main task was to figure out how the relationship between the three races was but apparently, this was less of a problem because the Ganasia and Deepsea scion stared daggers at each other, with killing intent leaking from them, as the Shadow walker ordered something in an overbearing manner. However, Jason and the others couldn''t understand it because the Shadow walker spoke in an unknown language. "Liura mijud ouirar!!". Suddenly, when he heard these words, Jason''s eyes, or rather his entire being began to shake violently, as his body groaned, while his eyes shone even brighter, gathering an astronomical amount of mana, without Jason being able to do anything against it. "Jason, stop it! How can you absorb mana now?!" Dalia said slightly desperate, but seeing Jason''s pained expression, she immediately knew that something was wrong. "Oiula aidur chidarau!" the five-meter-tall Ganasia answered to the Shadow walker, causing the pain within Jason to increase further. "Yreal wiasu shilar kilara yletaou meliar?"(Yreal, why are you here in this lower-world?) the Deepsea scion said to the shadow walker, causing Jason''s eyes to widen, while blood dark red blood oozed out of them. With him absorbing an astronomical amount of mana, the other thought that their position might be discovered, but everything seemed fine, because the races began to start a debate amongst each other, as Jason groaned in pain, lying on the ground, gritting his teeth in order to not shout out. Holding his head, not only his eyes seemed to burn, but his mind was suddenly flooded with letters and words, he never heard before. Lying on the ground, Jason could still hear the three races talking to each other quite calmly with loud voices "I''m just taking care of my new toys" the shadow walker, Yreal answered, and without Jason knowing why, he could roughly understand him, as the Ganasia sneered "Aren''t you the younger generation''s prodigy? How do you have time for toys?" Before Yreal could even answer, Jason almost cried out in pain, as more and more knowledge was forcefully imprinted through his eyes into his mind. Without knowing what happened, he only perceived something deep within him shaking violently, which transmitted to him what he had to know. It took Jason quite a while before he regained control over his body, with the pain easing up when he noticed that the conversation between the three races turned louder and more aggressive. Suddenly, the Deepsea scion enveloped the young man next to him, before he pushed himself from the ground, only to appear hundreds of meters away. The Ganasia swiftly picked up the bulky human, before he enlarged his body, with dense flickering on his body, as he pushed himself from the ground to appear in the opposite direction of the deepsea scion, a few hundred meters away, leaving a large crater behind. "You two are quite lucky huh? But you guys should know that we are now in war with each other, right? And all of us at that? That''s quite a coincidence...Unfortunately, I was told to eradicate all potential threats and if you want to nurture both of them, I can''t let any of you go, sorry....well I''m not really sorry about that, to be honest!" The Shadow walker said, smiling ecstasy and Jason clearly understood him, without any pain tormenting him, which shocked him greatly, as he subconsciously retreated several steps. Standing up from the ground, his head was completely read, while dried blood was splattered on it, when he looked at the three races ''What the hell happened to me? The others can''t understand the three races, right?'' Chapter 229 - Destructive Battle Looking at the others around him, Jason was sure of two facts. One was that the others couldn''t even remotely comprehend what was going on because their faces were ashen pale, fully tensed up, and awaited the three present races'' arbitrary attacks on the city, due to their evil nature. The other fact was that Jason perceived Shane''s dense fear, which he would have never expected, even if it was not something out of ordinary. Suddenly, three massive mana bursts revered through the whole city, shattering glasses as they pierced into Jason and his small group who were the only humans left above the surface. Luckily they were protected within the protection field, not like the rubble, stones, and trees that flew through the air as if they were nothing at all. Without moving an inch, the small group tried to stay as unnoticeable as possible, which was hardly possible because Jason attracted an astronomical amount of mana a moment before, while the mana fluctuations radiating from the protection field were also distinct However, the Deepsea scion and Ganasia envoys couldn''t care less, because the Shadow walker in front of them was stronger than both of them, which was definitely a bad sign. If he went all out, the two of them would definitely die. But even worse was that they had to protect their masters'' new toys, which they wanted to nurture into ultimate soldiers in order to let them conquer other planets and fight other hostile races. For these races, humans with their soul-awakening had the highest possibility to become stronger than most ordinary races by using peculiar methods, as long as their soul was large and strong enough. As such, they let most humans alive, without caring about their fights against each other, as it would only make them stronger. In the end, they didn''t want to die and if they lost their masters'' toys, it would hardly be possible to survive or live in peace. Humans didn''t know anything about this, except the few individuals that were picked up from them, and they couldn''t tell their own brethren, even if they wanted to, thanks to the advanced soul contract, they were forced to sign. Looking at the erupting mana, Jason and the other youths could hardly breathe, while Old Drake was also having problems, due to his injury. His masters and Till seemed to be fine if one were to disregard the fear spreading through their whole body. Suddenly, Lux and the darkness enveloped woman were picked up by the Shadow walker''s mana and thrown through the pitch-black darkness door without being able to utter a single sound. With this, Jason suddenly felt like the Shadow walker smiled at the other two races, even if one couldn''t see a difference within the envoy''s expression because he was completely enveloped in darkness. "F**k" Shane uttered, and Jason couldn''t describe it better. If a fight were to start right now, the Shadow walker didn''t have to hold back in order to protect his newly acquired human soldiers, while the Deepsea scion and Ganasia envoys were forced to hold back, protecting the humans next to them. Otherwise, their own mana output might crush them accidentally, if they were to fight with all their might. Taking one step forward, the Shadow walker''s darkness enshrouding thickened, as he released more of its almost black transmuted darkness mana. Lifting an arm, it said: "Let''s have some fun, my friends! It has been long since I killed any of your two races...Let me taste this feeling once again!" Not wasting a moment, the whole sky was filled with thousands of shadow spears and blades, following the two foreign races'' with its ruby-colored eyes, when the Shadow walker envoy began to send out its first wave of spears with a loud *boom* clearly indicating its lightning-fast speed. Jason couldn''t even perceive the shadow spears and blades accelerating before they pierced into the ground, where the Ganasia and Deepsea scion envoys previously stood, creating several dozen meter deep holes, as the ground shook violently. Erupting with their fire physique and water affinity, the air around the Ganasia and Deepsea Scion race crackled, while the surrounding mana seemed to scream in anguish. The mana around the three races became more distinct but Jason noticed the two young men behind the envoys, breathing heavily, because the mana around them seemed to seal off the oxygen supply. Even if Jason sweated heavily, he was shocked to see such a fast attack from the Shadow walker, who stood calmly at the same position as before. "Let me see how fast you two can run!" Jason heard when the shadow spears within the sky shot at the two foreign races, that were barely able to avoid them. This was however not possible, without increasing their mana output, as the surrounding they charged past, was crushed under the high pressure, creating large fissures. To Cyro-City''s misfortune, the shadow spears didn''t distinguish between living beings and inanimate construction, which caused several hundred skyscrapers to collapse, with dozens of spears piercing through them, as if they were butter. In Jason''s opinion, this was the less problematic issue they had to face, because the shadow spears piercing into the ground, creating a more threatening problem when he noticed that they pierced through the underground shelter''s protection as if it was made out of rotten wood. "Oh shit!" he subconsciously exclaimed, as Shane turned towards him worried, and seeing that Jason looked through the ground roughly where the underground shelter was supposed to be, he frowned deeply. ''A simple attack like that can pierce through the underground shelter, which even I can''t do without using my full power?'' Looking at the Shadow walker, Shane''s fear intensified. Forcing himself to avert his attention back to the battlefield, Jason noticed several bloody holes on the Ganasia envoy''s large body, as he seemed to take out a weird device. The same device could be seen within the Deepsea scion''s hands, and astonishing enough, a high-quality holographic image appeared in front of both, while they continued to avoid the shadow spears. In front of the two envoys, another one of their race appeared, and seeing that their envoys were injured and exhausted, they seemed to look around, only to see the Shadow walker who continued to manifest thousands of shadow spears in the air, without stopping. Sighing, the 8-meter tall Ganasia, with dark red flames protruding out of his whole body ordered "Just ignore the human we choose and survive, otherwise both of you will die...I can''t believe the Shadow walkers send Yreal on a lower planet.." While the same scenario could be seen in front of the Deepsea scion, with a presumed female of their kind sighing "Survive even if you have to team up with the Ganasia envoy for the time being...We can solve everything else later!" Both holographic images dissipated, with Jason sighing, as he mumbled. "Chaos descends¡­" And with that being said, the Ganasia and Deepsea scion looked at each other, and with a faint nod, they released their whole mana, crushing the humans behind them, causing their head to turn, read with blood oozing out of their orifices, before their head exploded, with brain mass splattering everywhere. Everyone released their full combat prowess now, causing the surrounding to stand still, as if time stopped ticking, while fissures littered the ground. To Jason and the others, it seemed as if the Ganasia and Deepsea scion would work together in order to fight against the Shadow walker, which was the sole good decision they could make when the Shadow walker suddenly said. "This is too boring..let me fetch another one to make it fairer" before he surprisingly switched to the human language with a crude and rough voice issuing "Come out, punny human at the sovereign rank or how your ''glorious race'' calls this stage... Play with us¡­" Averting their gaze, the three foreign races looked at them, with an astronomical amount of mana scanning through all of them one after another. Suddenly the mana, scanning them flickered violently, with all three races involuntarily taking a step back, as their eyes or what was supposed to be their eyes widened in shock. Trembling, Jason could only faintly hear the Shadow walker whispering. "Why the hell is a bastard from the Celestia race doing here?" Chapter 230 - Taking The Secret To Death "What is a bastard from the Celestia race doing here?" Jason understood, and his eyes widened involuntarily. ''Celestia race? What is that? And who is the bastard they''re talking about?'' However, even if he asked himself that, Jason could instinctively tell that they talked about him. This was also because the released mana which scanned him had the highest density among all of them, yet he was treated the most carefully as if he was made out of porcelain. Initially, the three races would probably start their fight directly, but the Shadow walker wanted to have more fun, which caused it to call out Shane, only to notice Jason standing behind him. The Ganasia and Deepsea scion convoys were as shocked as the Shadow walker to see someone from the Celestia race, but not only because their population was extremely scarce. It was rather because the Celestia being, they perceived in front of them, was obviously a halfling, with the other half being from the human race at that. They momentarily forgot that they were supposed to fight against each other in a life or death battle, as they eyed Jason with interest and greed. As if they were one individuum, all of them mumbled at the same time "The Celestia race can procreate with humans?!", and Jason, who was barely able to get a hold of his senses, perceived the greed in their eyes turning more distinct, gazing at him like a treasure and miracle. It was as if their eyes shouted out. ''If the Celestia race learned secrets to procreate with humans, why shouldn''t we be able to do the same?'' Without knowing what was going on, Jason felt something within his body revolting, as his legs gave in, as the mana fluctuations that enveloped him were retraced. Shane took a glance at him, confused about the overly cautious mana fluctuations around Jason, but there was nothing he could do, as he said with all the confidence he could accumulate. "I''ll be back!" After saying so, Dalia gathered her senses to shout, while her eyes turned wet "Take care of yourself!!" Jason meanwhile remained silent, without saying anything as his whole being turned eerie tranquil, which confused the others around him because they were filled with a deep sensation of fear that encroached them. However, what they didn''t notice was that he was eyed by the three powerhouses as if they wanted to devour him. Shane flew towards them slowly, which led the Shadow walker to turn away from Jason, as he said to the other two envoys. "Aren''t we fortunate to have figured out such a precious secret? Haha¡­" From one moment to another, the atmosphere turned perilous and eerie with the Shadow walker issuing seriously with its voice turning cold. "Unfortunately, I can''t let the two of you alive, and report this to your superiors, otherwise it might become a hassle." Saying so, the fully released transmuted mana intensified, turning completely black, before Yreal, the Shadow walker began to move, pushing himself from the ground which created a gigantic fissure. Shane who barely arrived nearby the three foreign race envoys was immediately flung away by the dense mana outburst, without him being able to do anything, as Yreals, arms enlarged, turning into claws, slashing at the Ganasia convoy, whose eyes widened. The Ganasia envoy turned into a living torch, with a thick twenty-meter-tall flame emerging from him, while his hand turned into a fist before he punched out. Turning the whole surrounding to a barren land, everything was demolished with craters and fissures filling the ground when the Shadow walkers claw and Ganasia''s fist clashed. Jason and the others who were a few kilometers away were also flung away, with the protection field cracking which forced Dalia to take out one of Shane''s devices which she immediately activated in order to reinforce the protection field. While Max and Seron could barely stay conscious due to the vast released mana around them, they took a while to stand up after they reclaimed control over their shivering body, while Jason didn''t dare to avert his gaze from the fight a single moment. Clashing with each other, the Deepsea scion envoy appeared behind Yreal with a large trident enveloped in its natural completely azure-colored mana which was mercilessly pierced into the Shadow walker''s back, only to notice that Yreal already vanished. Barely stopping his thrust, the Deesea scion prevented piercing the trident into the Ganasia. Turning around, Yreal''s ruby eyes emerged from the darkness that enveloped the surrounding, only to laugh out. "Is that all? That''s funny...I think it''s time to end this charade!" Yreal said as he noticed a large compressed darkness beam appearing next to him. Trying to use his innate ability, Yreal suddenly noticed that the space around him was restricted, preventing him from immediately jumping into the darkness which enshrouded him, and the surrounding several meters, forcing him to turn towards the darkness beam. Only now did he notice the human which he called out, before his ruby-colored eyes shimmered in joy, as he lifted his arm, with a four-meter-long dark blue sword manifesting in it, as he quietly said. "Not bad for a human¡­" Slashing out with his sword, he created a small compressed sword beam with its darkness mana, shattering Shane''s beam to smithereens, as if it was a toy. Shane''s smile froze, as he noticed the terrifying velocity the Shadow walker''s darkness beam approaching him had, and he could barely take a step to the side in order to avoid being split, as a blood fountain splattered on his face. "SHANEE!!" "MASTER!" Dalia and Jason shouted out in shock, wanting to help Shane, whose severed arm flew through the air, as he vanished into a spatial gate, only to appear next to his arm. Storing his arm away, Shane used his spatial affinity to seal the wound on his shoulder, for the time being, which it to stop bleeding. Not trying to think about the pain Shane gritted his teeth, as he took out a bunch of potions with his remaining hand. Fortunately, while he sealed the Shadow walker''s space for a second, the Ganasia and Deepsea scion used this moment in order to charge at Yreal. Using their affinity to their full capabilities without withholding holding back a tiny bit of their combat prowess, they used their most powerful attack to annihilate the threat in front of them. While the Ganasia''s fist was enveloped in a dark blue flame, burning his own high fire-resistant skin, the Deepsea scion''s hand turned into an indestructible bright shining blue blade, as they encountered Yreal, the Shadow walker. Sensing the sudden outburst of mana, Yreal turned around and was about to vanish into the darkness once again, as Shane used every last mana particle within him to seal the space in his surrounding for another moment. Noticing the space around him being sealed once again, it was the first time in an eternity that Yreal felt pressure, causing its ruby eyes to gleam brightly. However, surprisingly he did nothing to defend against the burning fist and the indestructible azure-colored blade, as they pierced into him, with red-blackish blood oozing out of the hole, the two convoys created. A bright smile emerged on the exhausted Ganasia, Deepsea scion, and even Shane who slowly slumped on the ground with a satisfied "It''s over" escaping the Ganasia envoy''s mouth. Pulling out their fist and flat hand, the two envoys were glad to have survived, as Yreal began to laugh out loud. "Hahahaha...This was really funny...haha...You three worked really hard together, huh? Hahaha...however it wasn''t a lie to say that it''s over!" Yreal''s ruby eyes turned cold as they suddenly released a terrifying, overbearing crimson-red hue, with the darkness enveloping him and the surrounding several hundred meters turning black-reddish before the two envoys in front of him noticed the blood leaking from their wounds being sucked in the black-reddish darkness. With each drop being sucked in, Yreal felt more energetic as his wound started to regenerate, when he said "To force me in using my inheritance ability, not bad¡­ the three of you can be proud...even if I doubt there will be much time left to celebrate this achievement!" The suction force increased, with the envoys'' corpses shrinking, and they were even unable to move anymore because they used up their whole mana, while Yreal used his remaining mana to hold them in place. Wrinkles spread all over their bodies, while their body shrunk further, with bones protruding out of their skin before their eyes dimmed. Just like that, two foreign races died, as if it was nothing special at all. "That was tasty!" Retracing the weird black-reddish darkness into his body, Yreal turned his attention to Jason for a second, before his gaze turned to Shane, who laid far away on the ground, barely able to stay conscious. Appearing in front of Shane, he sounded somewhat sad "What a waste to kill a human, like you...If I had only found you earlier, you could have been such a magnificent soldier" Pulling back his large, dark blue sword, he slashed out, without holding back. Chapter 231 - Owning A Favor "NOOOO!!" Dalia cried, and Till was unable to hold her back anymore, as Jason from behind suddenly shouted out "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" , with an astronomical amount of mana erupting around him. In his hands, one could see all devices, Shane previously gave him in order to protect himself by attacking if necessary, and when the Shadow walker released his weird ability, Jason sensed that he had to use them, which caused him to start preparing everything beforehand. Now, however, Dalia was in his way, which was extremely bad but fortunately enough, she didn''t completely lose control over herself and jumped to the side, with three black, crude, and unstable manifested sword rays shooting past her, with a strong draft brushing her hair. Yreal slashed out with his sword, without enhancing himself or the sword with mana, only to notice three unstable sword rays preventing him from killing the already dying human in front of him. He was already exhausted and weakened because he couldn''t use his inheritance ability often at his current cultivation rank because it was very taxing when Yreal looked up to figure out who attacked him. Staring into Jason''s eyes, a faintly smile emerged on his face as he seemed to think about something for a second before he pulled his sword back. Stepping back, the dark-blue sword disappeared, as Yreal said to Jason in the mysterious and unknown language "You owe me a favor, Celestia halfling!" Sighing, he mumbled to himself, "Why does he have to be a Celestia halfling?...Abducting a different halfling wouldn''t be as bad as a Celestia¡­" before he turned around, disregarding everything. Taking a few more steps, the Shadow walker manifested the familiar four-meter-tall darkness door in front of him. Jason felt relieved and even if he wasn''t sure if he understood everything correctly or what exactly was going on, he felt obliged to shout out "Thanks!" in human language. This caused the Shadow walker to turn around before he nodded his head, only to vanish within the darkness door, which dissipated a moment later. After the darkness door vanished, Jason''s felt as if his energy was completely drained and his legs gave in, when the whole perilous atmosphere with the humongous amount of mana vanished as if it never existed. However, he was not the only one, because everyone else was exactly the same, while Dalia forced herself to rush towards Shane. Summoning her Driads, she appeared next to Shane, with tears streaming down her cheeks, as she released her mana in order to heal him, while the Driads did the same. It seemed as if Shane had not a single trace of mana left inside his body, while the spatial seal around his severed arm couldn''t be maintained anymore. Jason never saw Dalia crying or Shane looking being so weak and seeing this, he slowly began to comprehend what happened a moment ago, with goosebumps covering his whole body. Figuring out that he and the others barely escaped death, he took a few deep breaths, before he hurried to Shane, only to see Dalia forcing him to stay awake to gulp down multiple potions at once. He was worried about Shane, but there was nothing for him to do, as he asked Dalia if he could help in any way. Meanwhile, Dalia already stopped crying and only sobbed lightly after she injected her mana into him in addition to her healing ability, as she noticed that he would survive this. "You bastard!!" She shouted at Shane with a weak voice, who could only smile faintly, as Dalia averted her gaze to Jason. "Please call over Till and ask him if he can help me transport Shane to our hideout...While I use my healing ability, I can''t do anything else.:." Saying so, Jason rushed to Till, who took care of Seron and Max because they looked as if they would die any moment when he turned around. Looking into Jason''s eyes, Till was shocked ''How can he be fine after witnessing such a shocking fight? It was incomparable to the warzones on the main continents, but still¡­.Freak!'' Running towards Till, Jason explained everything as he nodded his head, with his wings manifesting on his back. Carefully picking up Shane, the three vanished, leaving the three youths and Old Drake alone. Old Drake coughed out blood, but other than that he seemed to be fine, which Jason couldn''t really understand because his mana core was on the brink of breaking. ''Is his physique the cause?'' He wondered, but even if that was the case, he wouldn''t lament, because it was a good sign that Old Drake was fine. Looking at his friend Seron and Max, who had problems breathing and taking care of their emotions, he felt weird. ''Why am I so calm? Shouldn''t I be the most shocked among all?'' He wondered as he saw Old Drake approaching the two dead foreign race envoys. Ignoring his peers'' problems, Jason followed Old Drake, only to hear him mumbling. "Do we have to clear after the Shadow walker? Their master will probably send someone over¡­.huh?" Noticing Jason next to him, Old Drake was confused, because he thought the three youths would take some time to gather themselves, which was obviously not the case. Jason''s eyes gleamed brightly and Old Drake wondered, who exactly this youth was to act so nonchalantly only a few minutes after the whole city was on the brink of destruction. Looking around, he could only sight, thinking about the costs to repair everything, as he hoped that the citizens in the underground shelter were fine. Hearing what Old Drake said, Jason asked. "Do we have to face another attack from the Ganasia and Deepsea scion race, when they send someone over?" Right now, instead of bothering about something he could think about later, Jason wanted to know the more important facts first. Pondering for a moment, Old Drake shook his head, before he exclaimed calmly. "That probably won''t happen. They''ll most likely only take their envoys'' corpses and order someone to answer what exactly happened. However, they should already be aware about that. It wouldn''t be beneficial for them to attack us, because it would only hinder their plans to nurture more high potential superhumans, or whatever they want to do with us." Sighing he silently added "It might be disgusting, but there is nothing we can change about our current position." Nodding his head, Jason was still unable to get the hang of humanity''s current position, when he remembered the foreign races talking about their new Toys and lower world. ''If we are the foreign races'' toys and this is a lower world, are we considered their livestock or something similar like that?....about the lower world part¡­.is the blue planet I saw a higher world or what?... Why is everything so annoying right now?'' Jason fumed in anger because he was the only one who understood the foreign races and in the end, nobody could help him answering any question, except other races. However, where the hell could he find other races that would answer him willfully, without trying to do anything to him? From the Shadow walker''s words, Jason comprehended that something about him should be special because he called him Celestia halfling while pronouncing halfling as if it was extremely unique. If he heard correctly, the Shadow walker also said something about a secret to the other two dead envoys, and thinking that it might be about him, Jason was frustrated because he wanted to know what secret the secret was that they figured out, or if it had something to do with him being labeled a halflling. Trying to recall all kinds of memories in his brain, he had to give up, because he couldn''t remember a race called Celestia and even less something about halflings. Chapter 232 - Celestia Thinking about the Shadow walker and him getting called a Celestia bastard and halfling, Jason wondered, if what the foreign race said was true or not. In the end, they only spoke in their own language which he could understand, without knowing if what he understood was even right, while all three of them seemed to be curious about the origin of his existence, which caused goosebumps to spread all over his body, only by thinking about it. Ever since he had been born, Jason felt different than his peers, because his senses were extremely refined, which was however obvious because of his blindness, but even after he gained his eyesight, he was always astonished about his achievements. Whether it was his vast memory, his high endurance towards pain, innate combat talent, and even more so his high mana mastery, control, sensitivity, and so on. "What am I?" Jason suddenly mumbled while biting his lip in frustration, which caused Old Drake to turn away from the two foreign race envoys, to look at him as he lifted his eyebrow in confusion. Without knowing what exactly the black-haired youth in front of him meant, he simply said. "You are a good boy, don''t forget that!!" With that being said, Old Drake stored the two dead envoys'' corpses away, before he called someone on the holographic screen that manifested in front of him. Averting his gaze to Jason once again, he said while smiling lightly. "I have to go, please beat some senses into Little Max and Seron, so they can go and take care of themselves." Looking weirdly at Old Drake, Jason couldn''t help but smile, with his tension loosening up. ''He is a really weird one¡­'' He thought before turning to Seron and Max who still couldn''t get the hang of themselves. Summoning Artemis and Scorpio from his soul world, he ordered them to take care of the two youths, while he tried to collect his senses too. ''Let''s just assume that the Shadow walker didn''t lie...if I''m really a Celestia halfling, even if I don''t know what that is, who among my parents is from the Celestia race then?? My mother never told me anything about my father, but she had unique eyes and I don''t know their ability! Furthermore, she never showed me her soulbonds...But...she wouldn''t have died then, right? The slight trace of fear, I perceived from the Shadow walker as he talked about the Celestia race is definitely not something a human heir could kill just like that¡­'' Sighing, Jason didn''t know what right or wrong way, as he continued his train of thoughts, even if it was painful to think about his mother. ''If it''s not my mother, Is it, my unknown father, then? Was everything about him a lie? About him being in debt and an alcoholic? All of that? But why did mom lie to me? Couldn''t she have stayed with my father then? Or how the hell did they even meet? How could I have even been born?! Wait!! Is that even important now??'' Stopping his train of thought, he averted his attention to something else that was more important for him right now! His individual unique characteristics!! Thinking about his unique characteristics, Jason could immediately name his special eyes, unique soul world, superior mana aptitude, high memorizing ability, and most likely even combat awareness. From his knowledge, all foreign races had a high combat prowess with a better mana mastery than most humans with only a few exceptions, while they shouldn''t have soulbonds, because they have never been seen. But not being able to see something doesn''t mean it didn''t exist. ''If I''m really a halfling from a foreign race¡­.are all of my unique traits common in this Celestia race?!'' Jason suddenly began to doubt his own life and uniqueness and he silently stood inside a ten-meter deep crater, not knowing what to think about. ''Am I just something commonly found in their race? Nothing special at all?'' Looking down at himself, he lifted his flat hand, only to slap himself firmly in order to get back to his senses. *Slap* With mana enveloping his flat hand, he slapped himself firmly, only for Artemis and Scorpio to charge towards him worriedly. Transmitting their confusion, Jason could only smile weirdly, as he said "I''m fine¡­ It was only a subtle live crisis every youth goes through" He couldn''t be sure of that fact, but he just said so in order to reassure his soulbonds, that everything was fine, as he thought about Shane. ''He will be fine, right?'' Worrying about his master was normal but Jason couldn''t help but think about his own situation because there was no way for him to help his master at the moment. Taking a few deep breaths, Jason arranged his thoughts. ''Even if my father were to be a Celestia, my mother had unique eyes, which means that my eyes are most likely a combination of both genetic models, right? If I consider the Celestia race as superior to humans, which is most likely the case, I probably inherited my mother''s unique eyes, only for them to be further amplified by the Celestia race genes?'' This might be far-fetched from Jason, but he had to arrange his thoughts somehow and without knowing anything about the Celestia race, this was the only way he could think of right of the bat. As such, Jason decided to divide his unique traits into two sections, which he labeled [Human] and [Celestia]. ''I can almost say for sure, that my combat awareness and mana aptitude are innately high, which means I most likely inherited them? My high memory and comprehension abilities are probably the same, huh? Well¡­ considering that I refined a sub-area, I can at least partially say that It was my own achievement..'' Thinking about how to divide his unique traits, Jason started to feel slightly better. Even if the Celestia race was something he never heard before, he always felt weird that almost everything was much easier for him than others. Jason was still unable to completely comprehend or accept that he should be a halfling from another race, but thinking about his extremely large soul world and special eyes, he doubted that there was an easier answer than him being from another race, at least partially. ''Wait?! My soul world!? Is my soul world so large because of myself, or because of the assumed Celestia genes?¡­and what about the fortified soul conjunction with my soulbonds? Is the connection to my soulbond so firm, because of my origin? This Shadow walker envoy called Yreal was already extremely strong and the other envoys said that he was a prodigy from the younger generation¡­ how strong is the Celestia race if even a prodigy at such a high level was scared to do something to me, a presumed halfling?!'' Pondering, Jason couldn''t answer the question about his soul world completely, and he decided to take everything about his eyes and soul world as a fusion between his humans and presumed Celestia race genes. Looking into the sky, Jason noticed that it was still early in the morning, when a cold draft brushed past his face, as he thought ''We live on a single continent on Argos and the foreign races call the whole planet a lower world, huh? It seems like there are many things for me to see...If I''m half Celestia it doesn''t change anything, right?...there is still the other half¡­'' Even if he continued to think about the Celestia race with their possibility to have a vast soul world that allowed them to contract beasts like him, Jason was right now a normal human around his brethren. There weren''t many skyscrapers left standing and many collapsed, and surprisingly the Artisan tower was still standing firmly. Ordering his soulbonds to attack Seron and Max once again, they seemed to finally gather their senses, as they looked at Jason with remaining traces of fear within them. Both were shocked and Max asked him "How can you remain so calm, after witnessing the battle of four sovereigns...didn''t you feel death enveloping every cell in your body?" But Jason just looked at him quietly, before he said somewhat frustrated, about his incapability to fight. "Did your anxiety help you to prevent their fight? In the end, we can''t do anything against such powerhouses, even if we wanted to... How beneficial was being afraid to you?¡­" Mumbling he added "Furthermore, I doubt that the foreign races were normal sovereign ranked beings, at least the Shadow walker" which caused the two youths to halt their moves. Sighing, Jason dragged them on their feet, because he didn''t want to waste more time standing within the battlefield that was filled with hundreds of craters and fissures, as he asked himself something that was not even remotely close to his previous topic. Looking at the two big family heirs, he said "Will the government repair everything fast enough to prevent their citizens from migrating to other cities?" Seron thought Jason might ask something different about the foreign races or something else, but asking about the time required to repair Cyro-City? What was wrong with Jason¡­ did his brain malfunction witnessing the devastating fight? This caused him to laugh out, as he looked at Jason bewildered. "You are really differently built than we¡­ How can you bother thinking about something like this after you witnessed powerhouses fighting against each other...It would make more sense if you asked more about the foreign races that appeared, or something similar. Who except you would think about the time required to repair Cyro-City...It''s not even that this is the most important to do right now" Hearing this, Jason felt extremely stupid, as he scratched his head before he remembered the underground shelter being pierced. "The Fler''s!" He shouted out, as he gripped Seron''s shoulders firmly! "Where is the entrance for the underground shelter!!" Chapter 233 - Dont Go!! Searching for the entrance of the underground shelter, Jason could already see a small number of humans with a higher mana core rank leaving it, as he activated his mana eyes to search for the Fler''s mana fluctuations. Jason spent months with them and he was clearly aware how their mana fluctuations looked like. His two soulbonds were already back inside his soul world in order to prevent anyone from misunderstanding the beast''s appearance, which might create a sudden attack that would kill them. Time passed slowly and he was still unable to find the four Fler''s, which increased his anxiety further as he already was extremely nervous thanks to Shane''s injury. Jason was still unsure what he should think about the appearance of the three foreign race convoys, but it definitely changed his whole life due to multiple reasons. Not only did he found out that he might be a halfling from another race, but Shane was also forced to reveal himself, which would force his masters to flee once again. This was what he couldn''t really comprehend because, except for him and Dalia, only four others saw him, which was not a large number. ''Do they really have to flee, only because of that?'' He wondered, but thinking that the Drake family patriarch would most likely demand a report about what happened, Jason began to slowly comprehend how significant it was for Shane and Dalia to leave Astrix. ''In the end, Old Drake and Till can''t possibly disguise everything...This means that the chance of Shane and Dalia being discovered on Astrix is exponentially rising...They really have to go soon, huh?'' However, right now, Jason couldn''t complain about this in his mind, when he perceived multiple familiar mana fluctuations, as he exerted his weightless step technique to charge towards the Fler''s who emerged out of the underground shelter entrance. Malia''s appearance was still haggard, but she gained some weight and looked much better than before and Jason smiled brightly when he appeared in front of the family of four. Gabriella and Mark noticed someone charging at them at first and seeing familiar golden eyes with pitch-black hair, their sour mood immediately brightened up. Being underground for multiple days was extremely exhausting and taxing to their mentally, even more so when the underground shelter shook violently with dozens of highly compressed shadow needles piercing through it. This caused a mass-panic and it was still unknown how many humans had been overrun, which increased the panic further. It was as if everyone went insane, with everyone at a higher mana core rank, trying to calm down the whole situation, which was partially successful. With holes piercing the underground shelter walls and runes, the mana isolation runes were damaged, which caused the eerie and perilous mana of multiple sources intertwined with killing intent to infiltrate the shelter. This was definitely not something good and several thousand weak-willed citizens with a low mana core rank collapsed on the ground. In the end, it was unknown how many humans died, but a few facts were sure. Each and every human within the underground shelter began to understand what exactly desperation was and the sensation of being pitifully weak. They relied on being protected, but now, even the most powerful defenses, the capital of Astrix possessed were completely useless against the beings that attacked them. The Fler''s were extremely worried about their own life, but also about Jason, who was on the surface, facing the erupting mana and killing intent head-on and not like them, only passively. Finally, when they were allowed to leave the underground shelter, they noticed how wrecked the City looked, which caused them to wonder if it was even secure to remain here. Jason himself was also extremely confused that Cyro-City looked like someone played with the whole city because there were only a bunch of large buildings left standing firmly on the ground, while smaller building complexes had it slightly better. ''The envoys didn''t even focus on attacking the city and it already looks like this¡­'' Seeing this, Jason could only sigh deeply, but instead of being dissatisfied, he was happy that the Fler''s were fine, as everyone rushed towards him, giving him a firm hug. Even Mark, who looked emotionless to Jason, hugged him, while Gabriella began to sob lightly, mumbling "I''m glad that you''re fine!!" Jason smiled brightly, even if it was uncomfortable to be firmly hugged by two magus ranks who didn''t reduce their strength by much, almost breaking his bones, as he groaned in pain. Noticing the situation, Mark and Gabriella let go, while Greg and Malia didn''t distance themselves from him, which looked weird from the other citizens'' perspectives. Jason was already 1.75 meter tall, which was above average, but Greg was still taller and much bulkier than him, while Malia''s haggard and small physique seemed to squeeze Jason completely out. ''Can''t they be more gentle?!'' Jason lamented, as he barely voiced out an "I need some space please", which caused Greg to let go of him, while Malia only reluctantly loosened her grip around Jason. Taking a deep breath, the five of them noticed that they barely left the entrance of the underground shelter, disrupting a smooth flow of humans. As such, they began to walk through the demolished city, with slow steps as everyone explained what exactly happened over the last few weeks because Jason was curious about that and it would distract him from other thoughts. Malia already explained her side of the story, shocking the other three Fler''s, and they also felt angry, and anxious about Jason. But in the end, he was fine, which was everything that counted. Two hours passed and it was almost lunchtime when he finished explaining what exactly happened within the four-star rift. After that, he was questioning why he didn''t enter the underground shelter, which Jason answered mostly honestly. "I was with my homeroom teacher and the mysterious beast-creator I already told you about. It was relative secure there and as everyone can see, I''m healthy and energetic..haha" In the end, he didn''t lie, even if he had to leave out a few things. Suddenly, he remembered that he had to leave the Fler''s soon, even if he wasn''t sure when exactly it would be. Pondering if he should tell them now or not, Jason figured out that if he wouldn''t tell them now, that he would most likely drag it on, until the day of his departure. "I don''t know how I should put this now¡­.but the mysterious beast creator wants to be my master. However, he won''t remain on Astrix...I--" "NOO!" Malia suddenly shouted almost immediately after she heard the first words, cludging on his clothes, forcing him to halt his steps, which caused Gabriella and Mark to look at her weirdly ''Has he already seduced my princess?'' Mark asked himself, glaring at Jason, who looked even more confused than the other. "You can''t go!!!" She firmly said, when Greg loosened her grip gently, as he looked at Jason seriously. "Are you sure, about following this Beast-Creator? Can you trust him? If not, just stay here or search for other opportunities...It shouldn''t be that hard with your talent, even if I don''t like telling you this¡­.You are a prodigy! If you''re not sure that you can fully trust this mysterious beast creator, don''t be fooled!" Looking into Greg''s eyes, Jason was shocked...Behind the seriousness, he perceived that his friend was fighting with himself. Jason himself felt as if someone tightened his throat because he couldn''t say anything at all, with Greg and Malia looking at him like this, because they were his first true friends¡­ ''I really have to leave them, huh?'' He wondered as a single tear poured down his cheeks. Suddenly Mark interrupted them, as he said "Hey, you three!! Don''t be so melancholic, Jason is still here, or am I wrong?!" Turning to Jason, he continued "You can still decide later, just know, that all of us will always be a part of your life! Gabriella and I met many wonderful people and in the end, we also had to part ways because everyone''s path is different. It might be painful, but leaving Astrix for some time doesn''t mean the contact between the three of you is severed¡­.You can always call or message each other in your free time! Just weigh the advantages and disadvantages you''ll have to face if you leave with this mysterious Beast-Creator and then decide! Don''t let others manipulate your own decision!" Jason felt sudden warmth around his heart, because everyone was worried about him, like a real family, as Gabriella said "We will always be there for you, but I hope you can at least stay with us a little bit longer...It would become extremely quiet without you there.." Chapter 234 - Leaving Jason felt comfortable around the Fler''s but in the end, he knew that remaining next to them for his whole life was not what he wanted. It would hinder his own progress and in the end, it might even endanger them. Since he heard the Shadow walker talking about him like he was a treasure, Jason felt that he couldn''t remain with the Fler''s and using the mysterious beast creator as his excuse was the best idea that jumped into his mind. ''Am I also using Shane and Dalia as an excuse for myself?'' He wondered and thinking about it, Jason figured out that it was partially true. Without knowing what dangers his presumed existence as a halfling could bring, Jason didn''t want to drag the Fler''s who were extremely weak compared to the foreign races into his business. ''I should also explain my situation to Dalia and Shane and let them decide if they want to face the possible dangers with me or if they want to search for someone else to help them to drag humanity out of their imprisonment on Canir... Lying to them, won''t help any of us, even if I don''t know how they might react...'' Sighing, Jason felt extremely uncomfortable about the possible outcome with his masters'' talk he had to conduct, better sooner than later. Spending time with the Fler''s, the five of them quietly walked through the destroyed city towards their house, only to notice a large hole in their backyard. The small house was still standing firmly, which caused everyone to be elevated, as they went inside to make something to eat as if nothing happened. With the live news about Cyro-City opened on a holographic screen, everyone sat around the table, careful listening, while eating. Gabriella picked out high-grade beast meat with much nutrition in it because she heard that Jason ate several dozen dishes during each break inside the four-star rift, which caused her to chuckle lightly, as she was reminded when Malia told her this. Everyone of them had high nutrition demand, but she never thought that Jason wouldn''t know about this somewhat unique feature from the Heaven''s Hell technique''s third level. She was always astonished about his wide knowledge, however, this caused her to be even more astonished about him not knowing something so simple. Furthermore, making such a trivial mistake like purchasing a huge bulk of low nutrition dishes, was something she expected from a fool and not from Jason. ''I always forget that he is only 14 years old, huh?'' She thought inwardly and it was obvious that the black-haired youth in front of her didn''t know everything, which would be extremely weird. After eating the high-quality meat, Jason felt as if he ascended into heaven because he never ate something so delicious. Savoring the taste, he already felt full after two servings, which caused him to grin widely. ''I definitely have to purchase high-nutrition meat...If I eat these low-nutrition dishes ever again, I''ll have to vomit for several days if not worse¡­'' With a small smile blossoming, the Fler''s also felt satisfied with what they saw. However, everyone''s smile froze, hearing about Cyro-City''s damages, how many citizens were now homeless, and the predicted number of casualties from the life broadcast. Around 20 million citizens turned homeless and the citizens were dissatisfied with how the government handled the situation, while they also lamented about the taxes they paid them for several years, without caring about the dangers they escaped, and Jason felt immediately angered. "F*cking Idiot!" He mumbled, which caused Gabriella to look at him weirdly. She was aware that most citizens over-exaggerated the situation, but they lost their home, which allowed them to be enraged, at least to a certain degree. Mark also noticed Jason''s quiet exclamation and said "You have to consider that most citizens have been protected for their whole life, and for them, it looks like the government is at fault for the last two accidents, which includes the Goblin siege. They don''t care that the government couldn''t act better and if the underground shelter didn''t exist, these 20 million citizens would not only be homeless but also dead by now¡­ They don''t care how expensive the construction of such a shelter is because they only see their taxes being taken away. In the end, they never faced any real threats head-on which is most likely the biggest issue humanity has to change somehow. Without each and every human knowing how dangerous the Argos really is, there will always be some imperious ones, thinking that they can demand whatever they want. Somehow, it seems as if the government is too generous in this aspect, while it neglects other important ones, which is definitely stupid!" Hearing what Mark said, Jason didn''t know how to feel. From the experience, he gained over the last few months, which started with his journeys through the wild zones, the two beast tides, his adventurous expedition through the four-star rift, and the foreign race arrival a few hours ago, Jason matured a lot. At least that was what he thought. This also allowed Jason to think much clearer about the current situation. On one side, the weak humans, were not only selfish but also weak, even though their physique and mana core rank was much higher than most youths, which would prevent many perilous situations if they started to practice combat techniques. Jiro-City''s accident for example wouldn''t have killed more than one million citizens, but definitely less than 100.000 if every citizen had been proficient in fighting against beasts. Sighing deeply, Mark''s last sentence, created a mark in Jason''s heard "Too generous and neglecting...huh?" Jason said while thinking about his late mother. ''Why did you leave me here alone? This whole sh*t that currently happens to me is too much for me to comprehend!.... Not only am I presumed to be a halfling, but humanity is also full of shitty individuals...Is the Celestia race''s personality better or even worse? Is worse even possible?'' He wondered frustrated. After everyone finished their meal, he fed Artemis a high liquefied magical ranked mana core, she jumped up in joy, before vanishing in the pure-white magic circle that brought her into the soul world. Scorpio ate almost everything and Jason took out poisoned meat, which Scorpio seemed to love eating in order to comprehend more about the composition of all kinds of poison. The poisoned meat was not only full of poison but also high in nutrition and mana, which was everything Scorpio needed to increase his strength. In the end, his expenses were extremely high, but it was more than fine to Jason, who also earned a lot by feeding his soul bonds with expensive food. It strengthened them and accelerate their maturity process, which would in return amplify his strength even further, due to his high soul world amplification. Furthermore, there was the fortified soul conjunction that saved his life multiple times. Furthermore, he wanted his soulbonds to feel good and if better food could bring them happiness, why not? It was already afternoon and Jason finished his Heaven''s Hell practice to calm himself down. He decided to go to his masters'' hideout in order to figure out how Shane felt and when exactly they wanted to leave. Jason couldn''t call any shuttles right now, and sighing deeply, he ordered Artemis to enter his mana core to amplify his strength to his current limit which was the peak of the 1st Expert rank, as he exerted the weightless steps technique to charge towards the school. Taking a few shortcuts, Jason appeared in front of the school gates slightly more than 90 minutes later, and taking a deep breath, he continued his short trip towards the lake within the forest. Upon arriving, Jason wondered how he should enter it, as his mana eyes perceived a thick hole within the dome''s protection rune, damaging it, while water streamed into his masters'' hideous. Enveloping himself with a mana membrane, he jumped into the lake, and diving down, he squeezed himself through the hole that was most likely created by the Shadow walker''s shadow spears. Entering the dome, he noticed that the water within the dome was flushed out after some time, which made him slightly curious about the runes or technology used to do something like that, as he perceived Shane''s weak mana fluctuations. Rushing into the small hut, he pushed open the wooden door, only to see Dalia taking care of Shane''s arm that was previously severed. His eyes widened and Jason noticed that Shane''s arm was already reattached to him. Staring at him with a weak and almost lifeless gaze, Shane said. "Jason, is that you? Sorry...I can''t really see anything right now, I--" "Shane!! You are not allowed to talk! Let me!" Dalia interrupted Shane mercilessly, before she turned to Jason with a weak smile, clearly showing her exhaustion. "Hello Jason, you''re earlier than I thought...I hope the Fler''s are fine, but I guess they are, right? As for Shane, his senses are suppressed in order to let his body recuperate the severed bones, flesh, veins, and arteries...He probably won''t be able to stay awake for long." Staring straight into Jason''s eyes, she continued "It''s good that you''re already here, otherwise, Shane wouldn''t be able to see you for some time...Because you''re already here, we should talk about our future steps, don''t you think so? I think you already heard us talking about leaving Astrix before the envoys arrived, am I right?" Nodding his head, Jason returned her gaze, as he gathered all his courage to hesitantly say "Yes I heard about all of that, but I also have to say something important to both of you" Chapter 235 - Decision Jason looked at his masters who returned his gaze as both sites waited for the other part to say something. Shane and Dalia were unaware of what Jason wanted to say while he wanted to wait for his masters to tell them what they wanted to do. The whole situation turned awkward with nobody saying something, as Dalia said "Jason you can start. You said you have something important to tell both of us? If we start talking, Shane might already sleep once we finish. Go on!" Supporting him with an encouraging smile and hand sign, Jason took a deep breath, as he said straightforwardly without holding anything back. "To be completely honest, I could roughly understand what the foreign races talked about. When the envoys arrived, my whole body felt as if it would burst apart, while my soul world and my eyes itched and trembled violently." In the end, it was better for him to take one step at a time, and he looked towards Dalia and Shane, who remained silent, without a single change in their expression, as if they knew that he wanted to continue. "When the Shadow walker envoy called out Shane, he stopped in his track for a second, right? After that he said something and scanned through all of us, can you two remember that?" Nodding their head, Dalia became suddenly anxious, while Shane''s exhaustion subsided as if he had to hear what Jason was going to say. Taking two deep breaths to calm himself down, he announced. "The Shadow walker said that there is a bastard from the Celestia race and afterward all of them inspected me extremely carefully as if I was made out of porcelain or glass. They also continued to gaze at me weirdly, and right now I don''t know what is going on¡­" The room they were inside was suddenly eerie silent and Jason couldn''t even look at Shane and Dalia, because he didn''t know what to do. ''Was it the right thing to tell them everything?'' Jason wondered, but reassuring himself, he was sure that telling someone would ease the tension building up within him. Furthermore, there was the possibility of the Shadow walkers returning in order to search for him, while other races could also figure out his presumed origin, even if he could still not completely accept that he was not a full-fledged human. However, in the end, Jason told himself, that he was Jason Stella and nobody else...what should his race matter?! If Shane and Dalia were to push him away and reject him as their Disciple for such a thing, Jason could only accept it. Suddenly he heard someone approaching him and Jason looked up, only to see Dalia smiling at him, as she ruffled his hair gently. "So you want to tell us that you think you''re the halfling? With you here, there are always new surprises, huh? Don''t be so tensed up, you are still the same Jason we know, or not?" Hearing what Dalia said, Jason felt touched and he immediately nodded his head vigorously, as his eyes turned slightly red. He didn''t want to cry and prevented the worst-case scenario, as Shane faintly said. "You''re a good boy, don''t let this thing hinder your path...I can''t say much for now, but you are one of the most honest, caring, and diligent youth I ever saw! In the end, our origin doesn''t matter, what matters is what we do with it. Don''t create a hindrance for yourself by thinking too complex and give your best" Finishing his speech, Shane''s eyes trembled and Dalia said "Just sleep Shane! I''ll take care of the rest!" Smiling she also added "It won''t be the last time you''ll see him...It will just take some time!!" Hearing Dalia saying so, Shane smiled lightly, before saying "See you soon, Jason!", before closing his eyes to recuperate from his severe injury. Jason and Dalia left the small room in order to give Shane some peace, as Dalia curiously asked. "Can you explain to me what exactly happened, when the envoys from the foreign races arrived? So you can understand them somehow? Just like that? What exactly did they say?!" Astonished about Dalia''s calmness when she just found out that he could be from another race, at least half, Jason smiled lightly. ''Is that their experience with surprising news or am I the weird one?'' He began to wonder before he started to explan everything that happened this morning from his perspective. Listening carefully, Dalia''s eyes widened, with a shocked expression, that turned confused and then frustrated. "So...the main point for them to let us exist on Canir...is really to nurture superhumans or whatever they want to call it? And we live in a lower world at that?.... What does that even mean? To get to know that we are really only considered the other races livestock is more frustrating than expected...." Comprehending what Jason said, she added "If they call Argos a lower world or planet, there must be more than one planet with Argos being one of the worst...Can we even fight against other races?!?" Jason didn''t know what to answer because he was also unsure of that and it was unknown how strong the foreign races they knew really were. The only proven fact was that they could send sovereign ranks to the lower planet, without creating chaos in their defenses, which indicated their superiority compared to humanity''s current powerhouses. Suddenly Dalia, jumped from the chair she sat on, as she remembered what Jason said "Didn''t you say that they eyed you weirdly as if they were greedy or something like that?" Nodding his head, he roughly understood what she was going to say "Doesn''t that indicate that your existence as assumed halfling is special? Are they normally unable to procreate with humans? What use could it have for them?!" This was also what Jason asked himself as he said the only plausible reason, he could imagine. "Maybe it''s because of the soul awakening? At least this is what makes us humans special, right?" Looking at Jason with shock, she exclaimed. "That has to be it!! Your soul world is not only vast, but your soul energy also replenished much faster than everyone I know¡­ As if that was not enough, you can form soulbond contracts with all or almost all affinities¡­" Jason nodded his head lightly feeling weird, even if he wasn''t sure if that was really the truth. ''Why can Dalia accept me being a halfling from another race better than I?!'' This was the thought squirming in his mind because he was still not able to accept this fact. But understanding the reason for the other races to let humans survive and how valuable the information about Jason''s existence as a halfling to the foreign races was, Dalia went suddenly completely silent, as she mumbled to herself. "If other races figure this out, we may have to face an even bigger crisis than the last 300 years¡­The Shadow walker race won''t spread this information¡­ right?" Not being able to answer this question, Jason could only remain silent, as Dalia looked at him once again, forcing herself to smile lightly. "Let''s change the subject¡­ this is too heavy for now, don''t you think so?" Nodding his head, Jason assumed that Dalia wanted to talk with him about the rough departure date his masters had to go in order to remain safe from the other big families. Pricking his ears, he hoped that the two of them would remain on Astrix as long as possible, but what Dalia said, immediately crushed his small hope into smithereens. "I don''t want to lie to you, Jason¡­ Shane is extremely weak and it will most likely only take a few days for the Drake family and their reinforcement to arrive on Astrix. Because of Shane''s injury, we can''t use his spatial affinity, which would make everything less complicated. As such, the two of us decided to depart tomorrow. I''ll take care of everything, but the sooner we go the better!" Jason looked at Dalia complicated because he could understand her reasoning on one side, while his selfishness didn''t like this idea, as he subconsciously uttered "What about me? And my teaching?" He was still only 14-years-old and even if he acted mature most of the time, there were still times, he was unable to suppress his immaturity, which caused Dalia to smile gently at him. "Haven''t you heard Old Drake and Shane talking before? I don''t know if the Big-Three tournament is still happening, but Old Drake said that he''ll send you to another island or even Canir, as an exchange student. That means it will take less than two months until we can see each other again, alright?" Turning serious she added. "You can''t always rely on us or others¡­.It''s impossible for us to be always there for you and I doubt that you can''t take care of yourself! The journey you experienced through the four-star rift told me that you can!" "In the end, we are still there and we won''t let you stay on Astrix just like that...We prepared more than enough tasks and there are still goodbye presents from us!" Chapter 236 - Completing The Unfinished Chuckling lightly, Dalia decided to wait for Jason''s response only to see his eyes gleaming brightly. ''Presents are always welcome, huh?'' She thought with a gentle smile, as she took out a small ring "This is a spatial ring and it works similar to your storage device. The only difference is that you can bind it to your individual mana fluctuations to prevent others from using it. It''s spacious and inside are all kinds of books for basic lifestyle occupations, Beast-Creators, about Canir, the foreign races, and almost all books we retrieved from the Shore clan which Shane annihilated. These books are compact in a single memory drive and you can insert it into your holographic transmitter. As for the remaining things inside, Shane prepared a present for you over the last few weeks which he initially wanted to give you once you forged your first mana weapon by yourself. The circumstances are unfortunate but in the end, it was fortunate for Shane to prepare the gift." Handing Jason the ring, he inspected it, before putting the ring on his finger. Inserting the ring with his mana fluctuations, he saw how humongous space within was, as he noticed a small memory drive next to a large forge?! "Is that a portable forge?!" He exclaimed, looking at Dalia who returned his gaze slightly dejected "Is that everything you see?" She said and hearing this, he averted his attention back to the content within the spatial ring, as he noticed all necessary tools to brew, forge, and even rune inscribing, with beautiful inscriptions on an empty ballpen. A radiating smile blossomed on his face when Dalia continued "Except for the lifestyle occupations, there is also a messenger crystal within the spatial ring that immediately connects you with us. The messenger crystal can only be used a few times, before crumbling. We have to leave everything behind, which includes our old quantum bracelets and you will only be able to reach us through the crystal!" Nodding his head, Jason turned more serious, after the joy subsided slightly "So I should only message you if it''s unavoidable." However, Dalia didn''t stop speaking, as she said "Not only Shane prepared a gift, but I also prepared one...Over the last few weeks, I forced Shane to bother Old Drake and Till to purchase a few ingredients and I already finished the evolution solution for Scorpio, with a small extra, which will most likely make the two of you happy! You don''t have to give me any star-notes or similar valuables, just accept it, okay?" Jason felt warm around his heart once again, and hugged Dalia for a short moment before he sincerely said "Thank you" Shane was sleeping right now, otherwise, he would also thank him, because he didn''t expect his masters to be so generous towards him, which was unexpected. In the end, he thought that masters would only teach their disciples without anything else, which however didn''t seem to be the case. "Don''t thank me. This is what we are supposed to do as your teachers! Unfortunately, I can''t help you out by unsealing your friend''s soulbond''s lesser minotaur bloodline, but I wrote down the exact prescription for you. In the end, it shouldn''t be that difficult for you to make it, because unsealing a bloodline is one of the easiest tasks as a Beast-Creator" Nodding his head that ached painfully because too many things happened over the whole day and the only thing he could do after such an arduous day, was simply nodding. "Because I''ll leave with Shane as soon as possible, should we finish Scoprio''s evolution now?" Dalia asked with interest gleaming in her eyes. She never evolved a miniature Parascor into a Radiant Sapphire Scorpion, which was obvious, because such an evolution was simply illogical and irrational, solely because of the vast gap in strength. However, Scorpio, Jason''s second soulbond seemed to be extremely tough and thanks to her increasing its potential forcefully, she involuntarily forced an evolution. In the end, it almost killed Jason, Scorpio, and herself, which was not something to brag about, but it worked out which was everything that counted. Jason''s rumbling head was immediately freed and enthusiasm overwhelmed his tiredness, as he jumped up to say. "Yes, please!! Let''s immediately finish Scorpio''s evolution!" Running down the spiral staircase, Jason left Dalia alone, who looked after him with a smiled ''He is still young after all!'' Entering the hideout''s underground, he had to predict which room they would use and with his mana eyes fully utilized, he immediately went into the room to his right. The other rooms were either used for inscribing, brewing, forging, or enhancing a beast''s potential. Looking around the room he entered, Jason saw a large mana circle on the ground that seemed essentially more complex than the mana isolation mana circle, causing his curiosity to ignite almost immediately. While waiting for Dalia to arrive, Jason summoned both of his soulbonds. Artemis who heard what Dalia said about Scorpio''s evolution wanted to watch everything, while Scorpio was already expectant. Rushing towards the center of the complex mana circle, it stared at the closed door, waiting for Dalia to arrive. With this sight, Jason began to chuckle while Artemis also seemed to make a similar sound, which astonished him. ''Are my soulbonds becoming more human-like? Is that because of the fortified soulbond?'' Even if that was the case, it wasn''t a bad sign rather than that it might even lighten the tension, he felt, when he thought about his possible origin and the complexity of the world. Dalia slowly entered the room, without hurrying much, when she noticed that Scorpio was already ready, waiting for her, with Jason standing in the corner while Artemis squeezed on his shoulder. The space on Jason''s shoulder became less with each day passing and Artemis seemed to have grown to a length of 1.2m while her wingspan most likely reached more than 3.5 meters. Fortunately, she could adjust her size slightly, but for the moment, Jason didn''t see any use in her doing so. As such, she stayed in her normal size. Dalia smiled lightly seeing that everyone was so expectant, as she approached Scorpio, while she took out a beaker that gleamed in an ocean blue color. To Jason, it looked like small stars twinkled inside the solution, while his eyes widened. The solution Dalia prepared gleamed in a distinct green color and Jason''s expectations soared, as he remembered his master saying something about an "extra" she mixed in the solution. Filling the room with a sweet aroma Scorpio was immediately drawn to the beaker in Dalia''s hand as he wanted to approach her. However, Dalia instructed Scorpio to step back, as she pulled out a mountain of mana stones of all kinds of sizes. ''All of them are grade-3 mana stones?!'' Jason noticed slightly taken aback, as he noticed Dalia taking out peculiar items. Thanks to his mana eyes he immediately recognized them as ingredients with various poisonous attributes, which caused him to ponder for a moment. Seeing that Dalia took out poison attributed items, they had to be a necessity for Scorpio''s evolution and Jason followed suit as he took out all poison transmuted elemental crystals he mined within the four-star rift. Looking at Jason taking out a mountain of poison elemental crystals, her eyes widened, before she remembered that her disciple seemed to have told them that he mined elemental crystals in a cave. ''There were also poison elemental crystals?'' She wondered, inwardly praising Jason''s luck, as she appeared in front of Scorpio, with the beaker still in her hand. Using her mana to envelope the evolution solution, it began to float out of the beaker, slowly approaching Scorpio who greedily stared at the floating evolution solution. If Jason didn''t force Scorpio with their thick fortified soul conjunction to remain still-standing, he would have already jumped towards the floating liquid, as it slowly formed into a single large liquid ball in front of Scorpio. Indicating him to drink everything, Scorpio didn''t hesitate for a single second, as he greedily gulped down everything, without leaving a single drop, before he returned to the center of the mana circle. Dalia walked towards Jason, leaving the mana circle, which was immediately activated, as both Scorpio and Jason felt a searing heat ravaging through their body. Smiling weirdly, Jason finally figured out the first disadvantage of the fortified soul conjunction ''Sharing all pain!'' Chapter 237 - Soaring Strength Thanks to the fortified soul conjunction between him and Scorpio, Jason could accept a majority of his soulbond''s pain, while a small margin was immediately transferred towards him. The evolution solution was extremely potent which was most likely not only because it was used to finish Scoprio''s evolution, but also because Dalia added a small extra, which probably caused it to have the green hue around it, only he could see. Feeling the searing pain Scorpio endured in order to fully change his genetic model and metamorphose into a different race, which is essentially superior to the initial minotaur Parascor, Jason felt expectant. He was unaware how much of a change it would be, because he only witnessed an evolution from Artemis, that was completely out of ordinary, and one could say that Scorpio''s evolution was the first real evolution he witnessed. As such, he couldn''t help but be anxious and expectant which led him to transfer more than half of Scorpio''s pain towards him. Gnashing his teeth, Artemis immediately noticed what Jason did, causing her to feel equally anxious, as she flew away from his shoulder to leave him some space. Scorpio meanwhile writhed in pain, throwing his body around, trying to end the unbearable pain, as Dalia calmly instructed Jason. "Tell Scorpio to circulate the mana through his veins. With that, the evolution solution will be faster digested and show its effects earlier. The whole evolution will take less time and the pain will lessen drastically!" Even if Jason couldn''t completely understand Dalia, because the pain overwhelmed his senses, he understands "Scorpio" and "mana circulation", and he immediately transmitted Scorpio what Dalia said. Following his Jason''s instructions, Scorpio slowly began to circulate his mana through his body, while at the same absorbing the surrounding dense fog of mana that had traces of poisonous transmuted mana within them. Compared to the isolation and mana gathering magic circles, the circle Scorpio stood within, slowly dissolved the poison attributed ingredients and grade-3 mana stones, which allowed everyone within to use their time in order to adjust to the slowly increasing dissolving rate. However, since Scorpio''s potential increased to that of an unblemished beast, its previous lost ambition and determination, which was caused by the inability to become stronger, was ignited once again and stronger than ever before. Jason knew of that and smiled lightly while looking at Scorpio, with searing pain ravaging through his whole body, as he faintly said. "You can do it!" Greedily absorbing the whole mana in his surroundings, he was slowly enveloped in a thick cocoon of mana, preventing anyone from the outside to peek at the evolution process. Time slowly passed and Jason noticed that the pain he had to endure lessened by a noticeable degree, as he sighed in relief. Somehow, he felt as if he had to go through too much pain in the last few months, which was extremely frustrating. The only good sign was that he was already numb to the pain caused by the Heaven''s Hell technique, otherwise, he might have already gone insane. Unsure how much time passed, Jason only noticed that Dalia placed a few dishes next to him, which he ate silently, without averting his attention from the white-greenish cocoon around Scorpio. Feeling that his soulbond became stronger with each second passing, Jason couldn''t help but smile, and finally, after an eternity, the cocoon''s mana was completely digested by Scorpio, whose outline could be seen from the outside. Even if Jason was already sure that Scorpio would change somehow, his eyes still widened unintentionally, as he asked himself if the Scorpion in the center of the magic circle was really his small, cute Scoprio¡­ Alone from the outlines, Scorpio''s 80-centimeter long body enlarged manyfold, and it wouldn''t wonder Jason if he was already 2 meters long, with an equal long tail and stinger. Gulping down his saliva, the cocoon was fully absorbed, with the magic circle deactivating by itself, as Jason rushed towards Scorpio in order to take a clear look at his newly evolved soulbond. The most shocking was not Scoprio''s size, or the sapphire blue color shining on his new exoskeleton it built, but the green color radiating from his entire being, telling Jason, that it''s potential increased to that of a magical ranked beast. ''What did Dalia mix into the evolution solution to further increase his potential?'' He wondered, as Scorpio slowly opened his eyes, allowing Jason to see radiant sapphire-blue eyes. With his second soulbond evolving into a 2 meter long Scorpion, its bright, blue gleaming exoskeleton, razor-sharp claws, and its long stinger, that looked extremely perilous, Jason couldn''t help but exclaim "Woahh!" Suddenly, his soul world began to shake slightly, while his body began to tremble, which Jason tried to ignore because he was already aware of where this pain came from. After Scorpio finished its evolution, his strength increased by a large margin, and thanks to Jason''s high soul world amplification, his soul energy, physique, and mana core were further enhanced. While ignoring the searing pain within his body and soul world, Jason inspected Scorpio in detail, while Artemis landed on its Exoskeleton to greet him happily. Artemis and Scorpio definitely had a weird bond. On one side they were arch-enemies trying to attract Jason''s attention, but on the other side, they were both his soulbonds and as such on the same side, which caused them to establish a genuine friendship with each other. Inspecting Scorpio''s mana core, Jason immediately noticed that he already reached the mid-levels of the evolved rank, about to reach the higher levels, which was even higher than Artemis was. Dalia appeared next to Jason, and looking at Scorpio, she said. "Your soulbond is great! Not only did it absorb every single mana particle inside the mana circle, but also all varieties of poisonous attributed ingredients. If I''m not wrong its poison will become extremely lethal once adjusted to its current race. If he established a poison affinity, Scorpio''s poison might as well become even more lethal! Once it matures, you will have a really great companion by your side!" Hearing Dalia saying so, Jason tried to feel the poison affinity Scorpio long since established as he began to smile lightly when he perceived that even Scoprio''s poison affinity evolved, gleaming in a sick green-blueish color. ''Also mid-evolved?'' Jason wondered, and it was most likely similar to Artemis'' case with both of them slowly adjusting their affinity to their rank which was completely different to other beast younglings whose inherited affinity was immediately at their racial limits. But how could Jason complain as he already had three powerful soulbonds, he contracted in only half a year after his soul awakening? If someone else were to know this, they would either label him as an idiot, wasting precious soul energy and space within his soul world, or as a genius. He was still unaware how late it was, but the pain he endured from Scorpio''s amplification, lessened, until it completely substituted, causing him to explore his own, newly advanced strength. ''What?!'' Punching out with his fist, Jason felt that he was roughly as strong when Artemis occupied his mana core, which allowed him to reach the 1st Expert rank. ''Is my physique already at the 1st Expert rank!?'' Jason wondered taken aback, but considering that his amplification was ?, while Scorpio reached the mid-evolved rank with an extremely high endurance that was comparable to some high-evolved beasts, he couldn''t help but smile. While Jason''s physique already reached the 1st Expert rank, his mana core size was infinitely close to breaking into the 1st Expert rank, at the peak of the 9th Adept rank. However, in the end, his mana core was barely at the 4th Adept rank and the amplifications he received were too high, to tell others that he only contracted two or rather three evolved beasts, while he had to label his black origin flame as an evolved beast in case someone asked. Feeling his strength, Jason knew that he had to increase his mana core rank throughout the next few weeks, otherwise his strength would attract too much, unwanted attention, while some may even question his soul world''s size, unique effects, the amplification he received, and so on. For now, he wanted to avoid such a hassle, and trying to change his train of thoughts, he entered his soul world in order to take a look, how high his soul energy increased. Knowing that Scorpio reached the mid-evolved rank, Jason already estimated his current soul energy units, but seeing them was completely different, with a vibrant smile emerging on his face. ''An increase of more than 70 units, huh?'' He thought astonished as soul energy reached 486 units, with Scorpio''s demanded soul energy, increasing to 300 units. In the end, Jason was glad that he prevented his black origin flame from annexing his soul energy because now, he could barely fit Artemis and Scorpio within his soul, as he had only 16 soul energy units left, which he could use freely. Without knowing how fast both Artemis and Scorpio would mature, Jason could only apologetic look at his black origin flame, which was still banned from annexing a single soul energy unit. Chapter 238 - Jasons Wealth Initially, Dalia and Shane wanted to leave Astrix as soon as possible, but both agreed that it was important to finish Scoprio''s evolution first in order to look if something went wrong, which might temporary or even permanent damage either Scorpio or in the worst case Jason''s soul world As such, Dalia finished everything cleanly, after collecting the valuable equipment within their hideout. Looking at Jason who curiously inspected Scorpio''s new evolution, with Artemis circling around them, she couldn''t help but feel a little bit sad, as she cleared her throat to announce. "Congratulation on Scorpio''s evolution to a Radiant Sapphire Scorpion!" Hearing Dalia congratulating him, Jason looked up, only to see her somewhat sad expression, which caused him to understand the situation almost immediately. Standing up, he hesitantly asked "It''s time for the two of you to depart, right?" which she answered with a simple nod. "Initially we wanted to depart earlier, but we thought that completing Scoprio''s evolution was equally important, and now it''s already Sunday morning. We should depart now as Old Drake''s reinforcement should arrive soon" Jason could only nod, without trying to cover his sadness, as he gave her a firm hug, to which she responded by hugging him too. In the end, Shane and Dalia were both important to him, and they taught and gifted him a lot, allowing him to become stronger at an extremely fast pace. Furthermore, the two of them were extremely nice to him, without trying to exploit his ability by forcing him to sign a soul contract or something like that as they genuinely tried to strengthen him, even if they had their own reason to do so. Making him mankind''s pillar to unite them was their initial plan, but neither Shane nor Dalia could have ever imagined that they would be so attached to Jason, in such a short period at that. As such, parting ways was not that easy, but there was not much the three of them could do, as Dalia led Jason outside the hideout through a secret path so that he didn''t have to swim against the water current. Jason''s soulbonds were both already back inside his soul world and he continued to test his strength, only for him to notice that his current physique was already on par with Vanguard''s main school without him having to utilize his fortified soul conjunction at all. Smiling brightly, Jason felt extremely satisfied with the achievements over the last 6 months and it felt like his journey had just begun. Leaving the secret path, Dalia stayed behind, waving him, while Jason felt melancholic because he was able to reach his current height not only due to his own strength but also thanks to Till, and his two masters Shane and Dalia. Without them, he would never have obtained his black origin flame and even less the fortune to increase Scorpio''s potential. Scorpio would most likely still be at the lower awakened stage, with Jason searching for treasures that allowed humans and beasts to cleanse their mana cores from impurities. Both Scorpio and Artemis had now complete mana cores which meant that they were officially able to enter the magical rank and Jason couldn''t be more satisfied with this result, as he utilized his weightless steps movement technique in order to figure out how fast he currently was. Without having to use Artemis to reach a physique at the 1st Expert rank, Jason was forced to slowly adjust to the strength he obtained, while smiling brightly on his way through the destroyed city. It was Sunday, early in the morning, but he could still see many people removing the rubble all over the city, while some smaller building complexes seemed to be under repair. The government seemed to work faster than Jason initially expected and if they continued to work at this pace, without wasting too much time, he wondered how long it would take to completely repair and reconstruct Cyro-City. ''Probably before the Big-Three tournament will begin, huh?... Wait?! Will the big-three tournament even happen?'' Wondering about this, Jason began to doubt that the government will do anything to stop the Big-three tournament from taking place. In the end, it would differ the attention from the recent accidents within Cyro-City towards the younger generations tournament, which was definitely something the government would support. As such, Jason didn''t think too much about it, until he arrived at the Fler''s small house slightly less than 90 minutes later. It was still early and he doubted that any of the Fler''s would be awake, as he entered the house, only to see that everyone was awake, eating or reading something. Seeing Jason, they greeted him heartily, to which he responded with a bright smile, as he asked everyone why they were already awake because it was not common for all of them to be together at such early hours. But hearing that the recent incidents caused the Fler''s to work harder in order to strengthen themselves, because they didn''t want to rely too much on the government and others, astonished him, even if he acknowledged their thoughts. Previously, Gabriella and Mark were rather lazy with their mana absorption, but apparently, that would change now, as Greg rushed towards him impatiently. "Jason!! Is the mysterious Beast-Creator still there? If that''s the case, how long?? It will take some time to procure all ingredients for Taurus evolution because they''re extremely expensive. However, the Beast-Creator you know is the only one that might be able to help me in the next few months¡­.The secretary from Astrix''s Beast-Creator declined our issue.." Greg was visibly desperate and frustrated, which was understandable, because his soulbond had high potential, yet it was useless if the reinforced horned bull''s bloodline remained sealed! Listening to what Greg said, he smiled lightly, thinking ''The mysterious Beast-Creator is probably already far away, but I''m still there!!'' Clearing his thought, Jason thought for a moment what to answer before he simply said. "According to what the mysterious Beast-Creator said, he will remain on Astrix, until the Big-Three tournament finishes, at least if it takes place...I don''t know more than that....but can you even gather the ingredients until then?" In the end, he could only create the evolution- or rather unsealing solution for Taurus, as long as he was on Astrix because it would be relatively difficult for him to make the solution and send it over a long distance. This was solely the case because such solutions would go bad extremely fast, with them losing more of their magical effect with each day passing. Hearing that there were at most two months left in order to accumulate enough wealth and procure the required ingredients, the expression of all Fler''s soured immediately. If everything went well, they could accumulate enough wealth at this time, but purchasing all items in this period would take at least another month, which was too long. Noticing their sour mood, Jason pondered for a moment, before he looked at Greg seriously, saying "If you need funds, I can give you enough to purchase the required ingredients" Hearing this, Greg and the others furrowed their brows, wondering where Jason would get so many star-notes from. Only Malia''s expression didn''t change, because she roughly understood that Jason shouldn''t be as poor as he was six months ago when they first meet, because he wore extremely expensive equipment when they entered the four-star rift. Noticing Greg and the Fler parents'' suspicion, he used the same excuse as before once again. "I accepted the Beast-Creator as my master and he gave me some pocket money...It should be more than enough to purchase all ingredients for the evolution solution!" Smiling brightly, everyone looked at him weirdly, wondering what exactly was going on in Jason''s head, as Greg sighed deeply, asking him uncertainty and hesitantly. "Is it really fine with you to lend me so many star-notes?" Jason didn''t say anything and only nodded his head, while he maintained his bright smile, causing Greg to smile lightly, as he thanked him. Chapter 239 - Drake Family Patriarch The Fler''s were overjoyed about Jason''s offer, and only Greg seemed to hesitate because he didn''t want to exploit his best friend. Yet, Jason didn''t hesitate, as he tried to find a compromise "If you feel uncomfortable, you can just pay me back later...You can take it as a loan, but it doesn''t really matter!" In the end, he felt extremely thankful to the Fler''s because they brought him to Cyro-City, which was one of the most important decisions he could ever take. Otherwise, he might still be with the unevolved Artemis in Artes-city, where he grew up. As such, he felt more comfortable in thanking the Fler''s sincerely and giving them enough funds to purchase the required ingredients to concoct the evolution solution for the reinforced horned bull''s, Taurus. "How many star-notes do you need?" Jason asked, without waiting for Greg to accept his compromise. Greg was still baffled and looked blankly at him, without answering, as Mark glanced at Jason with a light smile, saying "We still lack around 300 star notes to purchase everything...Are you sure that you want to lend us such a large sum? Don''t you have to go soon, if you accepted the mysterious Beast-Creator as your master?" Noticing that even Mark, who was initially extremely greedy, acted so carefully around such a large amount of money, Jason couldn''t help but look weirdly at all of them. "It will help Greg to become stronger, right? And I already said that there is no need in paying me back. If you all are really so adamant in repaying me then¡­" Pondering for a moment, a sudden idea popped up in his head. Smiling brightly. Jason turned towards Greg as he said. "If you really want to repay me, you just have to enter a high ranking in the Big-Three tournament, if it takes place! I''m pretty sure that my master wants me to apply in order to see my combat prowess. As such I will probably stay until it finishes. To pay me back, you just have to either win a reward or gather enough funds until I depart! You don''t seem extremely confident in achieving the latter, as such do the first. Do you think you can handle it?!" Hearing what Jason said, Greg furrowed his brows, until a sudden thought emerged, as he mumbled. "If Taurus unseals his hidden bloodline before the Tournament starts, I''m sure that I can control the Berserk ability better¡­.Furthermore, I will become much stronger through my soul world''s amplification, right?" Listening to Greg''s mumbling, Jason smiled because it was exactly what he thought. Taurus'' evolution would be somewhat different to Artemis and Scorpio''s because his two soulbonds were initially Wild ranked beasts without an extraordinary high endurance and sturdy body constitution, which caused them to have a slower maturing process after their evolution. In the end, they also had to adjust to their sudden increase of strength, slowly over time, without being able to mature as fast as other beasts that had a high racial limit since they were born. However, Taurus already reached the mid-evolved stage and would most likely enter the low-unblemished rank, once it unsealed its hidden bloodline in addition to enough mana stones to supply the evolution into a Lesser Minotaur. Malia was now also smiling when she noticed how crafty Jason''s plan was. If Greg wanted to pay him back, he had to enter the top ranks at the Big-Three tournament and to be able to accomplish this feat, Greg would be forced to become stronger in the shortest amount of time. Not only would his soulbond have to evolve and unleash its complete hidden bloodline, but Greg would have to break through at least one rank, at the best even two, which was only possible with enough mana stones, provided nutrition. Even if Greg was already close to the 7th Adept rank it would be difficult to break into the 7th Adept rank straight into the 8th within slightly more than a single month. Looking into Jason''s eyes, they seemed to gleam brightly and Malia began to wonder how far he wanted to bring her brother. Averting her gaze, she suddenly noticed Greg''s eyes flickering in determination as his gaze turned firm, which Malia never saw before. Even Mark and Gabriella were astonished about Greg''s sudden change in demeanor, as he spread a sudden energetic aura when he approached Jason who continued to smile at him. Holding out his hand, Greg announced proudly"I promise you that I will enter the ranking within the Big-Three tournament and pay you back!!" Gazing at Greg''s large hand, Jason held out his own hand, shaking Greg''s. With this, Jason immediately knew that he would have another strong competitor for the Big-Three tournament, which made him happy. ''Maybe Seron will also surprise me?'' Jason thought, thinking about his classmate and friend who should be weaker than him, considering that they were already equally strong, before Scorpio''s evolution finished. Loosening their grip, he immediately entered his storage device, as he took out 320 star notes, saying "Use these 20 extra star notes to purchase cultivation resources and mana stones for Taurus evolution...you two will definitely need them" Even if Jason still had some mana stones left, he wanted to use them for himself. As such, giving Greg more star notes would most likely motivate him even further to become stronger in order to reach a better ranking in the tournament. Because he came back, while the Fler''s were having breakfast, everything turned chaotic, but after a few minutes to calm down, the five of them sat around the table to eat breakfast. It had been long for Jason to eat breakfast with all Fler family members and it was tranquil and peaceful, even though the whole city was still devastated with tens of thousand citizens complaining about how stupid the government acted. Even if someone didn''t adore the government, one could say that the arrival of the foreign race envoys was something humanity couldn''t fight against, without them being able to truly fight against, even if they wanted to. Jason was also aware that the Shadow walker he saw, was able to annihilate mankind if he wanted to, while others only thought he might be at the peak sovereign rank. Sighing deeply, he wasn''t sure what to think about such humans, as he remembered Shane and Dalia telling him to be a support pillar for humanity. ''Why should I do something like this if everyone were to behave like that? What do they expect me to do...By the looks of it, humans accept everything as long as they can live relatively peacefully, while they start complaining once a single big incident happens¡­ Meanwhile, minor incidents are either completely ignored or pushed away, as long as it doesn''t have anything to do with them'' After figuring out that he might only be a human halfling, Jason began to question their behavior deeper. The biggest contrast he noticed was, that he hated it to be controlled, while most humans seem to like living like this. In the end, this was most likely only his personality and nothing specific from his ancestry, but it was still frustrating. After they finished breakfast, the remaining Sunday was rather unspectacular, with Jason transferring his belongings to his spatial ring, which had a slightly faster response and interaction interval compared to his storage device. Other than that, he took a look at the memory-drive he received from his masters, only for him to find out that inside were also a massive number of martial art techniques, ranging from Tier-1 to Tier-3, with unique and special skills, while he even noticed two blessed skills within. Blessed skills were the most powerful skills humanity ever found and only the powerful families and clans had such skills, which the most likely found in ancient ruins within rifts. At least, that was what everyone said when the question of the origin of these techniques came up. Practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique three times, his soul world shook lightly, increasing in size as Jason noticed that he broke through 500 soul energy units, which caused him to feel overjoyed. Waking up the next day, Jason was shocked to hear from the news that the Drake family''s patriarch arrived on Astrix with other powerhouses following him, to calm down the civilians and at the same time to prevent the worst-case scenario once the Ganasia and Deepsea scion race would take back the envoys'' corpses. But Jason''s train of thoughts was completely different because the only thing he could do right now was to sigh in relief, as he thought out his masters. ''Fortunately, Dalia and Shane left yesterday¡­'' Chapter 240 - They Cant See Me! While the Fler''s didn''t seem to care about the appearance of the Drake family patriarch, because they were occupied with searching for the necessary ingredients in order to concoct the evolution solution, Jason was curious about the patriarch''s strength and if he was stronger than Shane. Furthermore, he also wanted to know how strong the group following the patriarch was, however, that wouldn''t mean that Jason wanted to rush mindlessly towards Old Drake in order to satiate his curiosity. There were too many uncertain factors, he had to calculate and in the end, it was useless to figure it out. What was the use of him knowing if Shane or the Drake family patriarch was stronger? Shane was not here, and even seriously injured and there was no way for him to do anything if something were to happen. As such, Jason decided to mind his own business. Taking out a bunch of mana stones within his small room, he absorbed and refined the mana within, only to stop in order to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique, as another day passed. It was Tuesday, but there were still no news from school, when it would start again or what exactly would happen to the Big-Three tournament, which didn''t really interest Jason. In a few hours the sun would rise, as Jason took out a few high nutrition dishes, he purchased in a bulk online, only to store them within the preservation segment inside his storage device. Without the mandatory special combat class lessons, Jason was pondering, how he should schedule his time and the most important factor that he should improve, for now, his concoction proficiency and Beast-Creator knowledge. How should he concoct the beast unsealing evolution solution for Taurus, if he made only two potions until now, while one of them was an inscribing solution? It would be embarrassing, if he were to lend Greg a huge number of funds, only to damage or destroy them by testing out how to concoct the correct solution. Without being confident about the whole process, Jason wouldn''t dare to start concocting Greg''s potion, and as such he would have to practice a lot. Changing his previous morning blacksmithing period with an alchemy and concocting lesson, everything should work out perfectly and it wouldn''t even hinder his practice with the black origin flame. Rather than that, he would have to be even more careful with his flame''s heat while concocting because the temperature range was extremely small if he didn''t want to destroy or lessen the herbs'' efficiency. Because it was still early in the morning, Jason couldn''t start immediately because he didn''t want to wake up everyone. However, with the high-nutrition dishes already in front of him, he wanted to test out his current strength with both of his soulbonds occupying his mana core, one after another. Practicing extracting and retracting foreign body parts was extremely difficult and practice was what he needed the most in order to increase his proficiency and speed to envelop himself with a blue shining exoskeleton or manifesting a long blue stinger out of his coccyx. After Scorpio finished his evolution, it became more difficult to control everything smoothly, with the biggest reason for it being the large amplification he received. After his physique was strengthened, Jason''s endurance increased consistently and he was now able to increase his strength to the 4th Expert rank with a soulbond occupying his mana core. However, with Scorpio occupying his mana core, he was already able to reach the 6th Expert rank, which was not something he could handle for now. As such, Jason was forced to do the exact same as he did with Artemis before. Restricting the amplification, which would also suppress the perfect fusion. Jason only noticed this by chance, as he perceived the vast difference when Artemis occupied his mana core. His physique and mana core size were amplified to the 3rd Expert rank, without the need to suppress anything and it was much easier for both Jason and Artemis to manifest Artemis'' wings on his back, within several moments. The connection between them was not capped or suppressed at all and with this information, Jason had to change his overall plans slightly. Increasing his mana core rank became an even more important goal, he had to prioritize. When everyone was up, they ate together and Jason was about to tell the Fler''s that he wanted to build a small space to learn alchemy as the mysterious beast-creator advised him, when he received a call. It was Till and answering the call, Jason figured out that the Drake patriarch and his small group wanted to meet him in order to figure out more information about the incident with the foreign races. In order to calm down Jason, who already began to worry, Till explained that Max and Seron were also there. Apparently, the Drake family patriarch already figured out about Shane''s existence, who was not very pleased to hear that a Shane hide on Astrix. However, because Shane saved Cyro City from total devastation, he wouldn''t further investigate it, according to Till''s Intel. In the end, that was only what he said and without a soul contract, preventing anyone from lying about certain subjects, nobody could be sure about the exact truth because lying was something humans were proficient in. After hearing what the Drake family patriarch said, Jason felt that it was suspicious, but if he were to reject the patriarch''s invitation, it would only be even more suspicious, which he wanted to prevent in any way. It was already weird for a nobody like him to be next to Seron and Max, who were protected by Shane, Dalia, and Till at the same time, as they were the most powerful beings on Astrix island at that time. Without wanting to be suspicious or attract unwanted attention, Jason could only helplessly accept the invitation, and Till told him that he would come over soon to bring him to the patriarch. ''What a hassle'' Jason thought inwardly frowning lightly while trying to remember what exactly happened at that time and what to say, if weird, personal questions were to come up. Explaining the Fler''s the rough situation, they could only nod, as Jason walked out of the house, only to see Till diving towards him, as his wings flapped vigorously. Greeting each other, Till picked him up, as they ascended into the sky. Looking around, Jason felt that he should try flying around with Artemis wings manifested. At least in the future, without anyone being able to bother him, about how it was possible for a 14-years old youth to have established a fortified soul conjunction. Considering that he could already utilize her complete strength as a fortified soul conjunction, inside his mana core, it should be possible for him to fly, or at least hover for a short time. Inside his own world, Jason couldn''t even hear what Till said, and only when he heard something particular, he involuntarily trembled as he shouted out "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?!" Trying to overwhelm the wind pressure with his voice, while his body continued to shiver, without him being able to stop. Till looked down towards him as he repeated the exact same words again, as Jason''s eyes widened, as he tried his best to meander out of Till''s grasp, with a deep sensation of fear igniting within him. "Let me go!!" Jason shouted out loud, confusing Till even more, as he slowed down his pace, to look more clearly at Jason who still tried to get out of his firm grasp. "What is wrong with you?!? I just told you that the Ganasia and Deepsea scion race will most likely arrive today in order to take back their brethren''s corpses ...It''s not like they will attack the city again¡­.Don''t you know that they are extremely conservative and traditional with their deceased? There were already several similar incidents and the foreign races never attacked us when they came to get the corpses¡­" Jason''s eyes suddenly began to shine brightly, calming him down to a certain degree, which didn''t mean that the fear within him extinguished as he blurted out. "They can''t see me!! Otherwise, Cyro city might as well be destroyed!! Of course, he couldn''t be sure of this assumption, but in the end, the Shadow walker was firm in his action to kill the other envoys in order to prevent anyone from figuring out Jason''s existence. As such, it might as well be possible that the Ganasia and Deepsea scion would do the same once they saw him, which would mean that they would try to kill each other in order to prevent the other party from leaking the secret. But Jason''s fear came more from the possibility that these two races ignored the danger, which held back the Shadow walker from abducting him, causing them to abduct him in order to experiment with him. Everything was possible and either of the possibilities was extremely bad, causing him to try everything to writhe out of Till''s grasp. Till meanwhile, was still extremely confused, but seeing his desperate attempt to escape only to prevent the foreign races from seeing him, even if they were currently high in the sky, which would mean the youth''s death, made him realize the seriousness of Jason''s words. Chapter 241 - Sacrifice To Become Stronger Floating in the air with Till''s manifested wings flapping once in a while, Jason still tried to wriggle out of his firm grasp. However, noticing that Till didn''t seem to loosen his grip even a tiny bit, Jason was forced to give up, as he tried to face him head-on. "If the foreign races arrive when I''m with the Drake family patriarch, everything might be destroyed, with millions of innocent lives being eradicated!?" Compared to Jason''s fearful expression, Till face showed a cold, yet confused expression when he heard ''foreign races''. He was on bad terms with them due to multiple reasons and Jason behaved suspiciously, which caused him to doubt what the youth in his arms said But, even if Jason''s behavior was weird, Cyro-City, or rather Astrix overall, couldn''t take any unnecessary risks right now. As such, Till had to gather more intel. Slowly descending to the ground, they landed inside a lush park within the City''s core area. Loosening his grip around Jason, Till indicated him to sit down, as he asked the obvious question with a firm and serious voice. "Why are you saying something like this? Is there something important you didn''t tell anyone yet?! Jason was about to tell Till everything when he suddenly remembered various occasions when Till released his killing intent and anger towards foreign races, and he halted for a moment as he pondered what to do ''Maybe I shouldn''t tell him that I could be a halfling?!'' Think about what to say, Jason tried to figure out the easiest path, as he hesitantly said. "I don''t know how to put it, but when the three foreign races came to Cyro city a few days ago, there was the time when Shane was called out by the Shadow walker, right? After that, they halted in their tracks and gazed towards me. When they scanned through me it was extremely weird as if they wanted to do something to me¡­ However, in the end, the Shadow walker killed only the two foreign races and didn''t kill, Shane, after I attacked him with three darkness rays, right? In the end, it seemed as if the Shadow walker said something to me in his language. However, without being able to speak this foreign language, I couldn''t understand it, yet somehow my sixth sense told me that there was more behind this and I''m only unable to comprehend it!" Sighing inwardly, Jason was sure that he picked a relatively good reason, that the foreign races shouldn''t see him for now, or at least until he figured out more. Even if he might have said too much, Till should already be aware of most of it, so Jason decided that it was not too bad to remind Till about everything once again. Cyro-City already faced too many problems, and challenging their luck was not something the Drake family could take head-on at the moment. Even less, because they were unaware at what rank the approaching foreign races were. Till was still suspicious about Jason, but hearing his reason, he nodded his head, because he already felt extremely weird, that the Shadow walker, which was a race commonly known for their cruelty and merciless slaughter, let go of Shane, without killing him. Furthermore, he didn''t do anything to Jason who tried to assassinate him, and after combining the facts about Jason feeling weird, about the foreign races'' gaze, Till tried to comprehend a reason. Looking at Jason, Till also remembered that Jason unintentionally absorbed a massive amount of mana from his surroundings without being able to do anything against it. Because the absorbed mana was immediately circulated into his eyes, Till was led to the conclusion that the foreign races were most likely interested in Jason''s unique mana eyes, with their special abilities. ''Are his eyes that much of an advantage, even for the foreign races?'' He asked himself, but without more information, there was nothing he could do about it, as he sighed lightly. Opening the holographic screen on his quantum bracelet, he called someone. "What is it, Little Greil? Is the small boy misbehaving? Should I call someone over to drag him to me?" Hearing a tranquil, yet somewhat eerie voice, Jason''s eyes quivered for a second, before he was able to control himself, as Till said. "Sir Drake, this is not necessary. I''m next to him right now but he is about to break through and forcing him out of his breakthrough might result in a damaged mana core¡­.If Sir is fine with it, I''ll wait for Jason to finish everything before I bring him over. Damaging our blossoming prodigies will only harm our already weakened population.." Till didn''t want to sound rude, but he tried to figure out a reason to have some time in order to comprehend what Jason told him before he would explain everything to the Drake family''s patriarch... Knowing the patriarch since he was young, Till knew that he would either kill or subdue dubious humans with high potential under a harsh soul contract in order to secure his overlord position, while at the same time ensuring new powerhouses below him. Till didn''t want that Jason to be forced in signing a soul contract that would turn him into the patriarch''s slave with multiple shackles forcing him into submission. In the end, there was also the possibility that Jason would be killed if he was to reject the soul contract, which forced Till to lie to the patriarch or to find a simple solution to everything, without turning Jason into someone suspicious. The small youth in front of him was just too innocent, yet extremely talented to let him be shackled down by someone. "Well...I''m not fond of waiting, but you''re right...I would be blamed if a prodigy were to injure his mana core while breaking through, only to appear in front of me...Place a few high-grade mana stones next to him to hasten up the process! The sooner he arrives, the faster I can leave this place! You know that I still have to suppress my new soulbond after that happened!!" After he finished speaking, the Drake family patriarch hung up, which caused Jason to frown, when he heard the last sentence. Jason''s eyes seemingly asked ''What exactly happened with his soulbond?'' Till noticed this, as he smiled lightly with frustration, pain, and sadness shimmering in his eyes. "I see that you''re confused, but let me tell you one thing! Never ignite the Drake family''s.. or rather all big families'' greed!! Never! At least if you want to live in comfort¡­." Looking at Till, Jason was now more confused than before, as he unintentionally asked. "Why?" Looking into the treetop, Till explained silently "Roughly twenty years ago, the Drake family were able to get their hands on an Ice Dragon egg, by stealing it from the mother Dragon that killed probably several dozen Lord stages and heavily injured three sovereign ranks. Jael Drake, the Drake family patriarch, however, didn''t have enough space for another soulbond left in his soul world, while a dragon is said to take more space than normal beasts. As such Dragons are also labeled as higher beings, like some other beasts with the same characteristics, like a larger soul world demand, high mana affinity, strong physique, and extremely powerful affinity. To come back to the main topic, Jael Drake killed every single of his soulbonds, severely damaging his soul world, only to contract the Ice dragon egg two years ago. He could only heal his damaged soul world by utilizing the Drake family''s enormous funds and their ability to procure unique ingredients, able to slowly force his soul world to recuperate from its severe injuries.... Just listen to my advice and don''t ignite the Big families, ancient clans, and all other hidden powerhouses'' greed, without being able to protect yourself...okay?" Till seemed to be sad and frustrated that someone treated their own soulbonds as if they were mere tools, which was entirely different from how Till treated his soulbonds, because he was them as a part of his family, which was different than how some other big families treated their soulbonds. Jason was also taken aback, by the Drake family patriarch''s behavior, and from the voice call, he also figured out that he was not able to completely control the Ice Dragon, as of now. ''Killing his own soulbonds, after living with them for several decades, if not even a century or two¡­.I have to be careful¡­'' Before, Jason didn''t take the big families'' greed seriously, but that changed after he heard that the Drake family patriarch killed his own soulbonds to receive more benefits, which was comparable to tearing out his own limbs, only to receive something, which was disgusting, yet it seemed to have benefited him a lot. Nevertheless, it was fortunate for him to have to meet Till because he seemed to be entirely different from the other big families, even if he still belonged to them. From his knowledge, the Greil and Gier family were considered the most peaceful big families who also think that increasing their territory is a useless waste of human lives, which Jason completely supported. However, Jason knew that he had too many secrets that might ignite someone''s greed, which caused him to feel naked all of a sudden when he perceived familiar, yet unknown mana fluctuations from far away. These mana fluctuations belonged to the Ganasia and the Deepsea scion race, and he immediately figured that out because of their complex structure, Jason saw thanks to his mana eyes, and he felt extremely fortunate that they didn''t seem to fight with each other, as they approached Cyro-City with a fast past. Chapter 242 - Reminiscence Fortunately, the two foreign races seemed to fly through different areas of the city, without releasing any mana fluctuations to scan through their surroundings, which was probably because they didn''t want to bother about the weak humans below them. However, from the normal citizens'' perspective, two humongous sources of mana flew through the sky, indicating powerful, not officially announced beings, which shocked them greatly, as they ran away in fear if their legs allowed them to. Some citizens collapsed on the ground, while others shivered in fear when the unsuppressed thick, pressure radiating from the mana fluctuations brushed past them. Sighing deeply, Jason felt fortunate that the Ganasia and Deepsea scion race envoys didn''t fly past them, and Till had to lie if he said that it was unfortunate. He was still trying to comprehend Jason''s words, while Jason thought about the Drake family patriarch and that he was not someone he could take on lightly. As such, he had to be careful what to say, while revealing that he was Shane and Dalia''s disciple could be compared to a death sentence. Trying to make up his mind, Jason decided to ask Till, what exactly he should reveal and what to leave out. To this, Till remained calm, as he just said to tell what happened within the four-star rift, while exchanging the information about his unique mana sphere bracelet with him utilizing mana stones. When Jason heard this, he looked at his bracelet and took it off, in order to store it within his spatial ring, which he also took off in order to put it into his pockets. As such, nobody should lead to a suspicious background, when he remembered his necklace with the miniature conservatory attached. Taking it off, Jason figured out that he couldn''t store it within his spatial ring. With a spatial ring and a conservatory on him, he felt suspicious, which led him to ask Till if they could go back to the Fler''s house for the moment. Thinking for a moment, Till also thought that hiding all suspicious items far away would be the best way to look ordinary. The only things Jason transferred to his storage device were his weapons, some food, and mana stones if someone were to ask anything about it, which was unlikely. Arriving at the Fler''s house once again, they were confused about his early arrival, but seeing him storming into his room and leaving it a moment later, they couldn''t help but feel that something was odd. However, Jason already left the house, with Till waiting for him, as he continued to tell Jason what he should leave out from his experience within the four-star rift. Till was also not aware of all facts, but from what he knew, Jason could only survive thanks to his master''s well-prepared defense measures, which included his mana- grade-2 leather armor. In the end, nobody would really care how exactly he survived inside the four-star rift because the patriarch would most likely only want to know who the traitors within the four-star rift were, while additional intel would gladly be accepted. With Jason leaving the four-star rift, Till would take over the explanation, because he took him to the two of them, immediately after Jason woke up. Afterward, Jason should just behave innocent and as if he was overwhelmed by the situation happening in front of him at that time. "In the end, you can just say, that Shane and Dalia are strangers and you thought that the two of them were distant friends of Old Drake or me, trying to help Cyro-City to overcome the threat of three foreign races." Nodding his head, Jason also thought of the same scenario, while he forgot the accessories he received from his masters which would definitely make him suspicious. As such, he was glad to have asked Till about his opinion, otherwise, it could have become problematic. Slowly flying towards the park once again, both seemed to be deep in their own world, thinking about all kinds of things, when two overshadowing screams resounded throughout the whole city, filling every living being with the deep sensation of agony, pain, sadness, and immense anger. These screams turned into cries, that didn''t seem to stop anytime soon, as Till was forced to halt his steps. Jason''s eyes suddenly turned wet, without him intentionally thinking about anything sad, with the cries permeating the air around the city with its entire being, infiltrating Jason''s deepest core, digging out all kinds of frustrating, sad, and other situations where his whole body was filled with anger. From his childhood, where he was bullied, his mothers'' death, the thought of her killer, the Cerus family behaving as if they cared while doing nothing seriously to help him, to the pain he went through over the last six months¡­.all of that was suddenly brought to the surface, which caused Jason to cry, with thick tears pouring down his cheeks. ''What the hell is happening'' Trying to gather his senses, Jason noticed that he was unable to do so, as he averted his gaze to Till, who was trying to sit calmly on the bench, with red eyes and tears pouring down his cheeks. Sighing deeply, Till tried to prevent Jason from seeing his tears, as he said with sorrow in his voice "Please tell me exactly what you can see in the foreign race envoys'' direction.." Figuring out that Till wanted to remain strong in front of him, Jason did as instructed, with all kinds of emotions surging to the surface, filling almost his entire mind, which made it more difficult to see something through his wet eyes, as his sight blurred. ''What is this sensation?'' Jason never felt like this before and it was abnormal that he and even Till weren''t able to control their emotions at the same time, as he stared towards the City''s core area. There, he could see five presumed sovereign ranks, with three of them radiating extremely strong mana fluctuations. However, that was not the most important thing, Jason perceived because the mana enveloping the two foreign races was fully released, surging through their surroundings without differentiating between high-grade materials, soil. Fortunately, nobody else was immediately next to them, otherwise, every single living being at the lower ranks would have been crushed, by the erupting mana, which flickered violently as it spread further. The fluctuations thinned out the further it spread, but what Jason saw and felt coming from these radiating mana fluctuations, were pure emotions. His senses became much clearer when he noticed that, as he thought, not without showing a confused expression. ''These emotions radiate from the foreign races? Are they mourning their deceased?!'' Jason was extremely confused, as Till behind him explained. "We call this explosion of emotions within the mana ''reminiscence-ceremony'' because the exact same phenomenon happens, every time the foreign races come to our Islands or even Canir to take the deceased back...However, the envoys never change in their facial expressions, which is a weird contrast." Still overwhelmed by the feelings that came back to the surface, he mumbled "They cry inwardly and release their emotions within the mana¡­.", which was heard by Till, who could only nod his head, as he sighed. "They also express humane emotions...huh?" Not knowing what to answer, Jason felt also extremely weird, but there was no pity in his wet eyes, because the foreign race envoys that died, didn''t care a tiny bit about mankind and how many died because of them too. Rather than that, he noticed that his tears started to dry up, as he steeled his heart, thinking about the chaos that overcame humanity because of the foreign races, that behaved as if everything belonged to them. They were definitely stronger than humans, but even if that was the case, humanity was still alive and didn''t cease to exist. Chapter 243 - Meeting Till seemed to be extremely shocked about the fact that the foreign races expressed their emotions to such a degree. Humanity already expected something like this, but having the theory proven, felt weird. Meanwhile, Jason wasn''t sure what he expected from Till, but it was definitely not that he would be shocked about the fact that living beings had emotions. Was that not something commonly known? The reminiscence-ceremony was just the way foreign races expressing their emotions, even if the extent was extremely humongous. As such, Jason couldn''t help but acknowledge that the foreign races didn''t seem to be as simple as humanity declared them. Comparing his knowledge about the foreign races from a week ago, right now, Jason felt as if his knowledge was much more profound. However, that was not everything, because Jason also became extremely interested in the foreign races. If his knowledge was not fundamentally wrong, the foreign races were seen as a smaller problem for humanity compared to the terrifying beasts, when the mana outbreak occurred. In the end, the foreign races forced humanity to stay on Canir and the archipelago, without whipping them out or pursuing them further. This in addition to the facts about the foreign races'' individual schemings, attacks, or abduction and manipulation of humans were most likely the only thing they did to intervene in humanity''s growth. ''But why would they bother to nurture the Goblin King then?'' Jason suddenly remembered. Considering, that the Goblin King had a rare blue fire affinity mutation, it was only obvious that the black origin flame would be used to further enhance the Goblin King''s mutation and affinity, but the real question was already stated in this case. ''Is there even a reason for such a drastic measure?'' He genuinely began to wonder. Thinking about every piece of information he had, Jason could only conclude a few scenarios. The first scenario was that the foreign races divided mankind''s territory amongst themselves in order to prevent any clashes with each other in order to prevent clashes with each other. However, Jason ignored this conclusion almost immediately, thinking about the time, where the three foreign race envoys talked to each other, with the Shadow walker saying that they were already in the war. As such, Jason thought the second scenario might be the most possible one. The second scenario was that some big families were able to communicate with foreign races. With this, they probably struck a deal, that was most likely, about the destruction of the Drake family''s island, and maybe even more than that in exchange for anything valuable. ''But, in this case, what is valuable enough for the foreign races to exchange it with the black origin flame??'' Thinking about this, Jason couldn''t find an answer right off the bat, until he remembered the most likely reason for humanity to stay alive, even though they were much weaker in comparison. To the foreign races, the soul-awakening humans undergo was probably the most valuable thing humans could offer. ''Did some big families offer humans with a high soul-awakening star rating as exchange?'' Without being sure about his assumption, Jason didn''t dare to utter it, but the more he thought about it the more likely his assumption seemed to become. ''What a bulls*it!'' Jason almost exclaimed, with Till seated next to him. The two of them minded their own business and Jason didn''t want to continue his train of thoughts, which led him to open a book about alchemy he downloaded some time ago. Fortunately, his emotions calmed down without any other disturbances, while it seemed as if the foreign races remained with the three other sovereign-ranked humans. One of them was the patriarch, while the other two were most likely just his followers, and considering that they were not the sole sovereigns in their family, clan, or whatever, Jason could estimate the rough number of sovereign ranks humanity had. In the end, even if Shane was a sovereign rank, his soulbonds were not extraordinary good, while his growth during the last several decades was greatly hindered, almost nullified, because he was forced to stay hidden. This meant that Shane''s superior strength was less powerful, against the assumed number of 300 sovereign ranks humanity had altogether. Maybe there were more but Jason thought that 500 sovereigns were the highest he could imagine, with a handful of them being stronger than that, either infinitely close to the next rank or barely broken through. However, Jason couldn''t know that and he just decided to not bother about uncertain facts, as long as possible. Reading for a few hours, Till suddenly stood up, with the two foreign races ascending into the air. Jason noticed Till and looked towards the foreign races, and after they left Cyro-City, the two of them waited for an additional half an hour, before Till picked him up in order to fly towards the patriarch. Approaching Cyro-city''s center, Jason felt extremely uncomfortable, and landing in front of a large tower, exactly in the center, didn''t help him out. Rather than that, he began to eye the large tower, with the magic device that controlled the dome installed at the top, trying to calm himself down. Entering the building, Jason noticed a large number of government workers hurrying from one place to another, while their expressions were still saddened by the astronomical amount of emotions that invaded them. Not wanting to experience the reminiscence ceremony from such a short distance, as the government workers, Jason was already glad that they were far away from the center at that time. Entering the elevator, the two of them were brought to the highest floor, where Jason also perceived the three sovereigns, with Old Drake, Max, and Seron arriving. ''They''re also questioned?'' Jason wondered and it seemed logical to not only ask him but also the others, as he remembered that Till already told him this, which caused him to sigh in relief. Arriving at the top, they entered a single room, with a spiral staircase leading towards the mana-dome application. The room was surrounded by thick, mana-tempered glass and allowed one to look down, as Jason finally dared to look at the six persons in front of him. Approaching them, a middle-aged man with dark blue hair, radiating a perilous, yet also somewhat gentle aura turned around, staring straight into his eyes. He didn''t even show any emotions, as he nonchalantly asked "You''re the boy with mana eyes?" The patriarch Jael Drake spoke to him, in a cold, yet demanding voice, and Jason felt uncomfortable being looked down on by him. Gathering his courage, he continued to stare into the patriarch''s eyes, saying "Yes Sir, my name is Jason Stella." Jason was intrigued about the patriarch''s strength and decided to take a look at his mana core, which was hardly possible before due to the vast difference. However, from a distance of a few meters, Jason could tell, that Jael Drake had three solidified prismarine-crystals consolidated inside his mana core, which was one more than Shane had, while his mana core was additionally enlarged by roughly 15% The patriarch had only an ice affinity, but it seemed to be an extremely strong one, and from Till, he knew that it hailed from the Ice Dragon, that was probably a Low Monarch ranked beast, or something comparable in order to enlarge the patriarch''s mana core by 15%. More shocking was, however, that the patriarch''s mana was completely transmuted and it seemed as if it was completely different from anyone else he ever saw and much more distinct and powerful at that. Jason was extremely shocked, but he forced himself to suppress his emotion, as he thought ''Is his cultivation method different, or was this caused after contracting the Ice Dragon?'' Averting his gaze lightly, without trying to attract any suspicion he glanced at the two sovereigns behind, as he noticed that both of them had a single solidified prismarine crystal, that seemed to be extremely crude and on the brink of breaking, while their soulbonds didn''t seem to amplify their mana core by much. If Shane was in his top form, he would definitely be able to defeat the two sovereigns behind the patriarch, without much effort, which caused a faint smile to emerge on his face. Jael Drake noticed this as he noticed Jason gazing at his subordinates, with interest gleaming in his eyes. "Is something interesting about the two behind me?" Saying this without any emotions, Jason couldn''t help but be taken aback, as he tried to answer, without revealing what exactly he could see. "Sir, please don''t misunderstand...I was just curious about their strength because I can faintly see their mana fluctuations, while I''m unfortunately unable to see through the firm concealing behind Sir''s mana" Sucking up to others was extremely annoying, but Jason couldn''t reveal the extent of his mana eyes, which would bring him many problems. Even revealing that he could perceive the sovereign''s ranks behind the patriarch might already be too much. However, Jael Drake seemed to be disappointed about his revelation, as he averted his attention to Old Drake. "Didn''t you say that his eyes are superior to all mana eyes you ever saw? This is disappointing...Even if he saw Max''s physique, without being able to see through my perfect concealment, this is useless against the foreign races¡­" Chapter 244 - Useless Trash It seemed like the patriarch lost his interest in Jason, which almost caused him to shout out in joy if he was not surveilled by a few powerhouses around him. As such, he had to put on a charade with him looking to the ground. He hated to behave like this, to the core, but he had to endure it for now until he would become strong enough to defend himself! Old Drake was discussing things with the patriarch, calling Jason a prodigy, while the patriarch retorted with him barely being at the 4th Adept rank, which was not even remotely considered as prodigious for a 14 years old youth, even if he was from Astrix. In comparison, he even named Seron, who was crippled, until six months ago. Smiling inwardly, Jason couldn''t help but voice out in his mind ''I also started with my journey six months ago and I''m stronger than Seron...What crap is he talking about, without having gathered any information?'' However, instead of being sad about his negligence, Jason was extremely happy. Seron and Max stood suddenly next to him, as they inquired about his well-being, while Seron also asked about the Fler''s. Telling them that everything was fine, Seron sighed in relief, while Max just stood silently next to the two of them, not saying anything at all. He was visibly uncomfortable, and Jason noticed him eyeing the patriarch once in a while. Seron also noticed it, as he said "Are you still uncomfortable around your father? Well, to be honest, that''s nothing surprising." After the two overcame the arrival of the foreign race envoys, Seron and Max became much closer as both of them were happy to have survived a calamity. Over the last three days, they talked about all kinds of things, and Max cleared some misunderstandings about their childhood and that he was told by his family to treat him badly, in order to humiliate the Gier family. Without knowing what exactly anything like that meant, when they were young, Max just followed the given order, without thinking about what he did. Seron felt still uncomfortable about his childhood, but he was not someone who liked to hold grudges and after surviving the last week, he was just glad to have someone to talk to. While one topic was the foreign races, the main subject was Jason, both were curious what exactly his eyes were and how strong he was, with his two affinities, he already showcased. Seron was not much more knowledgeable than Max about Jason, so the two of them just concluded a few facts. As Seron remembering that Jason had not only Artemis, an unknown beast with a fire affinity as his soulbond, but also a small scorpion, he couldn''t help but question Jason''s soul world, whether it was its size or how many soul energy units he had. To the two youths, Jason was a mystery, but Seron liked him a lot, while Max didn''t seem to hate him, because he treated him like a common human, without having a bias or something due to his status. It felt good to be treated like a normal youth, even if he behaved arrogantly, Jason retorted, instead of backing down, which was the common reaction he received. They continued to talk for some time, until the patriarch turned back to them, coldly demanding "Show me your soul-awakening star rating!" Jason didn''t know what Old Drake said to the Drake family patriarch, but he seemed to be slightly angered with his impatience shown all over his face. Not minding what exactly was going on, he opened his quantum bracelet and searched for the official certificate he got sent from the Beast Pagoda. [Soul awakening: ¡ï¡ï out of ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï] It was clearly written, that his soul-awakening was below average from the basic factors that were assessed, also called Soul world size and the soul energy units upon his soul-awakening. Looking at his soul-awakening rating, the patriarch frowned, as he turned around, almost growling. "Old man!! Even though you lived longer than I did, with a high contribution to our family, who the hell do you want to fool, by telling me that this useless trash is a prodigy?! Even if his battle awareness, comprehension ability, and even mana aptitude were superior, with a two-star soul-awakening rating, he will only be able to fight against foreign races at a lower rank, due to their high innate physique and larger mana core size?!" Old Drake was equally astonished because he heard about Jason''s soul-awakening for the first time, and his attempt to lure Jason over to their own family, shattered immediately, as he frowned deeply. ''Why did Shane and Dalia accept Jason as their disciple, with such a soul-awakening?!?'' Frowning, when he was called useless trash, Jason would have loved to jump up and beat the Drake family patriarch into a pulp, but that was obviously not possible. Furthermore, he wanted to continue to live, which caused him to grit his teeth and endure everything as of now. However, while everyone else was displeased and disappointed with Jason''s soul-awakening rating, Till, who already knew about it, was almost unable to suppress his smile, while Seron and Max looked at Jason in astonishment. Looking at them he couldn''t help but smile apologetic, because he roughly knew what caused them to look at him like this. "My current soulbonds, are almost my limit" It was a lie, but because Seron already saw him with Scorpio and Artemis, while there was still an unknown fire beast, Jason had no other choice. In the end, Seron was naive and innocent, while Max was a stranger to him, who only knew about his two mid-evolved affinities. Having two soulbonds at the age of 14 was already unique and rarely seen but three? That''s a whole different league. Jason thought that both Seron and Max might think with his lie, that his soulbonds had vast potential, leading him in contracting them, but after saying that he almost met his limits, his soul world''s potential would be used up, once all of them reached their own racial and potential limits. Normally one would be rather careful with deciding their soulbonds, which caused both Seron and Max to "misunderstand" Jason''s prior behavior as negligent thanks to a large soul world. Hearing his lie, they felt suspicious, but the soul-awakening ranking wouldn''t be wrong, because it was even acknowledged by the Beast Pagoda, which was a serious organization that was acknowledged by all powerhouses. Jason could also demand a re-assessing, but there was no need for him to do so because it wouldn''t benefit him in any way. Rather than that, it would most likely cause devastating damage to him, if the Drake family patriarch were to find out about his soul world''s capabilities. Old Drake''s expression soured, after figuring out his soul-awakening star rating and Jason felt weird about the old man who seemed to be desperately trying to force him over to their side, as Jael Drake turned towards the two still standing sovereigns announcing. "This is such a waste of time...we''ll depart now!" Turning to Max, he casually said "Either stay or come with us." Sighing, Max pondered for a moment, when he asked Seron "You''re only here for your second soulbond, right? Message me after you contracted it. I''ll fight you then!" Smiling lightly, he followed his father and the two sovereigns behind, after saying goodbye to Old Drake. Till meanwhile, was completely ignored, and he wondered what happened, that the Drake family patriarch didn''t even bother to ask Jason about what happened within the four-star rift. ''Suspicious!'' It was definitely weird, but even more so was Old Drake''s desperate behavior, trying to lure Jason over to their side, even if it meant to force him into a soul contract, once he attracted the patriarch''s attention. Jason was even more displeased about Old Drake''s behavior and he completely ignored his whole existence, as he turned to Till, asking "I''m probably done here? Why did they even bother to ask me to come over, if I''m only going to be insulted, without asking anything about the four-star rift?!" Sighing deeply, Till just said "I think you''re done...and to be honest, I have no idea what happened right now. If that helps you in any way..." Jason didn''t even bother asking Till if he could bring him back, as he walked towards the elevator, after briefly saying goodbye to Seron. Calling a shuttle, his mind was filled with a deep sensation of betrayal and anger towards Old Drake, who would have most likely sold him out, immediately after Shane and Dalia fled. The only positive aspect was, that Shane forced a soul contract on Old Drake, preventing him from telling the patriarch anything about Shane at all, which included Dalia and him being their disciple. Sighing deeply, a sudden thought shocked him greatly ''Can I even trust Old Drake with sending me somewhere else as an exchange student... What if he tells other families about Shane and Dalia''s whereabouts, even if he were to die..?! Chapter 245 - Scheming Inside the elevator, Jason was fuming in anger, as he thought about Old Drake''s behavior, without knowing why exactly the old man acted like this. ''He would have really sold me as a slave, huh?'' Concluding the Intel Till told him and adding Old Drake''s desperate tries to tie him to the Drake family, even if that meant he would be forced into signing a harsh soul contract, that would make him no different than a slave, Jason couldn''t believe what happened. ''Fortunately, my soul-awakening star rating was so bad!!'' Sighing in relief, he immediately thought about Shane and Dalia''s situation and their trust in Old Drake¡­. ''This is bad! If they tell Old Drake where they want to set up their new hideout, It might as well end devastating for all three of us¡­Is it even safe to remain on Astrix now that I know about Old Drake''s scheming?!'' Figuring out the main problem, Jason felt extremely uncomfortable to continue staying on Astrix, at least as long as Old Drake was able to monitor his steps. ''This is so creepy!!'' Thinking about the possibility of Old Drake kidnapping or doing something similar in order to have him inside his grasp, Jason couldn''t help but feel disgusted, as the elevator arrived on the first floor. Leaving the elevator, he was more than glad that Till seemed to be different because he warned him to stay lowkey and not to reveal too much about himself, while at the same time warning him about the Drake family''s patriarchs greed and cautiousness against even the slightest suspicious prodigies. Thinking about this, Jason was extremely thankful to Till, and entering the shuttle he ordered, Jason continued to think about what he should do, once he calmed down from his chaotic mix of emotions inside his. ''When I arrive at the Fler''s I should immediately message Dalia and Shane! Even if I only have a few calls in total, this is too important to neglect!'' Making up his mind, Jason could only sigh, as he analyzed what exactly happened. If he didn''t understand everything completely wrong, Old Drake should have praised him a lot which caused the patriarch to become interested in Jason. Even if this alone was not the problem. Jason doubted that Old Drake was not aware of his own descendant''s behavior towards all kinds of prodigies¡­ He didn''t even want to imagine what would have happened if the whole capabilities of his mana eyes and soul world had been exposed. ''I would be either dead or enslaved, huh?'' Jason thought, with goosebumps covering his whole body, as he finally understood what kind of calamity he escaped from. Arriving at the Fler''s, it was already lunchtime and everyone sat down to eat, as they greeted him. However, instead of eating together with the Fler''s, Jason excused himself and went into his room, because telling Dalia and Shane what happened without further ado was much more important for now. Taking out his spatial ring and the conservatory necklace, Jason wore everything in the designated position, before he took out the messenger crystal and his unique mana sphere bracelet from his spatial ring, which he also wore at his right wrist. Looking at the messenger crystal, he injected mana into it, activating the extremely complex set of runes on it, with a faint, almost invisible thread shooting into the sky, through the rooftop. Seeing this, he was sure that it was only thanks to his mana eyes, that he could even notice the thin thread. Staring through the ceiling, Jason''s mana eyes perceived a similar state to a radar, trying to sense the opposite messenger crystal, and he finally understood what exactly the runes were. The runes on the messenger crystal were a combination of a sender and a receiver, but even if it seemed simple, in order to inscribe such fused runes with two usages at the same time, was extremely difficult. Suddenly Jason heard a faint crackling, and after a few moments, he could finally hear a familiar voice, as Dalia, worriedly asked "What''s wrong Jason!? It hasn''t even been that long and you already made a mess?" It seemed as if Dalia wanted to ease her own tension with the last sentence when she heard Jason''s calm, yet somewhat frustrated voice. "Hello Master¡­I didn''t do a mess, but it seemed as if Old Drake is not as trustworthy, as we imagined him to be!" Explaining everything to her, Dalia was more shocked than Jason himself, and it was most likely because she knew him for two centuries. She would have never thought that Old Drake might acknowledge the Drake family''s patriarch''s system to subdue promising youths in signing a soul contract. But not only did it seem that Old Drake accepted that, but he passively tried to hint the Drake family patriarch into forcing Jason to sign such a contract, which would make him no less than a slave. Shocked about the revelation, Dalia wasn''t sure what to think about one of the only allies, she trusted almost completely, and she felt speechless. Figuring out, that she was unable to speak for a moment, Jason used this time to ask her what he should do or if their plan had to be adjusted. "Should I leave Astrix right now, or wait for some time?! I don''t think we can trust Old Drake about your new hideout, or even which island the two of you want to retreat to¡­And to be honest, I feel uncomfortable with Old Drake around..." After Jason said so, Dalia remained completely silent, and apparently, she needed some time to think of a solution, when she answered after half a minute. "You shouldn''t leave Astrix for now¡­It would be extremely suspicious and there is no way for you to flee with your current capabilities. Shane is also asleep and it will take at least a month until he recuperated most of his combat prowess... How about you join the Big-Three tournament, and behave as if this morning with the patriarch and Old Drake never happened? I will also continue to stay in contact with him, and once he sends you to the island I name as our new hideout, Shane will come and take you. At least, if he recuperated enough to use his spatial portals multiple times in succession, otherwise, you would have to wait until everything is prepared! If you were to vanish from the other school, you were sent as an exchange student, it might cause a commotion, but Old Drake wouldn''t know where exactly we would bring you!" Thinking about this plan, Jason couldn''t help but say frustrated. "So, in conclusion, it''s a "Stay put and behave tactic until I leave the Drake families territory as an exchange student?" Somehow he could only frown as he could visualize Dalia nodding her head on the other side of the connection, as she said "Yes, at least roughly. If Old Drake wants to send you somewhere else, just send another message, and Shane will wreck-havoc on Astrix and bring you over, even if he has to create a massacre. But this is not likely if the Drake family patriarch left with his sovereign ranked subordinates. Don''t worry too much and behave like you always do¡­ I doubt that Old Drake can do much after the patriarch rejected you. The only thing you should be careful of is the Big-Three tournament! Maybe Old Drake wants to record it and send everything to the patriarch, in order to prove that you''re worth his attention!" Nodding his head, Dalia''s word made sense, and even more so the last sentence¡­ Without being able to understand what exactly Old Drake thought, he might as well try to record or even stream the tournament in order to show the patriarch his results. Even if others may think that Jason had few chances to reach the later rounds of the tournament, with his current strength, he might already be able to fight the ''prodigies'' from the Big-Three schools, at least if he were to expose every trick in his sleeves. ''I should remain rather low profile, huh?'' Thinking about this, Jason nodded because it was the best he could do for now. There was still slightly more than a month until the tournament started, and with three different tournaments for each year, it would take at least a month to finish or even enter the later rounds. As such, Jason was sure that he would improve a lot when he noticed the messenger crystal''s signal weakening. Suddenly Dalia said "Have you already found the two Blessed technique manuals in your spatial rings? They''re the originals but unfortunately, the Shore and Blair clans could only translate it to a marginal degree. Shane can''t use his deceased family''s blessed technique and wanted to give it to you because he thought that it might be useful. With your black origin flame, the translated part of the blessed technique Shane received from the Shore family might be beneficial for you! If not, it''s also not a problem, we can look at it later. Take care of yourself and don''t make any trouble, at least until we can protect you, alright?" Taken aback about what Dalia just told him, Jason couldn''t even comprehend what happened, as he faintly uttered a "Bye", before the bright complex rune on the messenger crystal diminished. Shaking his head, Jason was taken aback, as he began to wonder what exactly happened, as he scratched the back of his head. ''Why are my masters so weird...am I also like them?!'' Chapter 246 - Revamped Cultivation Jason continued to look at the messenger crystal, without averting his gaze, as he thought about Dalia''s words. ''Did she say two Blessed martial art techniques? Aren''t blessed techniques from rifts or other foreign races? How could they even translate that?! And why the hell did they give me the original and not only the translated parts??? Why are my masters so na?ve? I could just betray them if I wanted to¡­.'' The most shocking to Jason was the trust his masters gave him, without him having done anything to earn it. Did he receive gifts, knowledge, and even two original blessed techniques from his teachers, just like that? In the end, he was their disciple without question, yet he was neither forced into a soul contract to stay loyal to them or anything like that. Shaking his head Jason didn''t know what to think about his masters'' mindset, as he tried to remember what he knew about blessed techniques. Blessed techniques hailed from other races, that were either extinct and humanity found the remains in ancient ruins within rifts, or the other foreign race gave humans such techniques, after making a deal, which was not unlikely, after considering what he got to know over the last few weeks. Alone from Seron''s [Floating Sky] blessed movement technique, Jason knew how valuable blessed techniques were, and thinking that the Floating sky technique was most likely also only partially translated, his curiosity soared immediately. Throwing the messenger crystal into his spatial ring, he immediately searched for the two blessed techniques, only to find them hidden within the basic lifestyle occupation tools. Taking the two manuals out, Jason immediately perceived strong and distinct mana fluctuations radiating from the expensive parchment as he carefully inspected the ancient-looking manuals. Reading the unknown language, Jason felt it was somewhat familiar, as he continued to read the words below with a light frown emerging at the same time. [Ancient Hellfire-tribunal] Opening the first page, Jason''s frown deepened as he compared the translations to the weird, yet aesthetic written letter above. ''That''s wrong?!'' From the translations, he figured out that the blessed technique was said to be some sort of technique that increases one fire resistance while it should stimulate fire transmuted mana within the body to circulate smoother, without any hindrance. With this, someone who cultivated the Shore''s blessed technique should be able to cultivate faster in hot places with fire transmuted mana, as long as they had a fire affinity which was a requirement to even practice the technique in the first place. However, Jason felt that the translations were somewhat lacking and it was extremely weird, as his head began to ache, with something deep within him forcefully shaking. His eyes and soul world suddenly trembled and Jason noticed that it was similar to the time, he began to understand what the foreign races said. However, in order to do something like this, he thought that he would need an astronomical amount of mana once again. Nevertheless, thinking about Old Drake who might send someone to monitor him, Jason was forced to remain lowkey, forcing him to take out a bunch of high-grade mana stones in order to absorb them instead of going outside to gather natural mana. Even without Jason doing anything at all, once he took out a bunch of mana stones, his body seemed to work by itself, as it greedily absorbed the mana in his surroundings, only to gather deep within him, where he perceived a weird presence emerging. Closing his eyes, Jason tried to explore his own body, as he seemed to see the outlines of a tall man, whose aura overshadowed everything. These outlines grew with the amount of mana injected, until it reached a height of multiple hundred meters before everything was released at once, with the overshadowing aura, spreading through his whole body, causing him to groan in pain. However, compared to the first time he felt this, the second time was much gentler, with his brain aching for barely several seconds before he could once again see the outlines of the tall man standing straight in front of him. Jason was unable to perceive anything else, as he heard an extremely quiet "I have let you two down¡­", before the outlines, dissipated into thin air as if they never existed. Opening his eyes, he was extremely confused, but with his head aching, and his automatic mana absorbing decreasing, when his soul world stopped trembling, and he couldn''t help but ask inwardly. ''Who the hell was that?!.... I think I''m slowly going to become insane¡­'' Trying to distract himself, he averted his attention back to the manual in front of him, when he noticed something shocked. "I can read it?!" Seeing that, he exclaimed out loud, before he closed his mouth immediately, as his eyes widened. ''How the hell can I read the letters in the unknown language?! Were the outlines not an Illusion?? What did it say? ''Let you two down¡­?... Now don''t tell me that it was my father?!'' Looking at the manual in his hands, Jason couldn''t understand what was going on and he just started to assume everything possible. How should his father be able to enter his body?! Considering that his mother told him, that she never told his father, that she was pregnant, in addition to the foreign races shocked expressions, who normally don''t express their feeling this way, Jason doubted that the Celestia race would let go a half Celestia, half-human baby, if they knew about his existence... At least that was what Jason thought because the foreign races seemed to be extremely shocked about his existence, which seemed to be special. As such he concluded that his father really didn''t know anything about him, which made everything even more implausible. How should his father even know that he existed, if his mother left him before he was born? Jason couldn''t answer this question at all, but the fact that he was suddenly able to read the foreign language could only be seen as extremely beneficial because the translations seemed to be almost completely wrong while only a marginal part of the whole manual was translated. Trying to ignore the outlines he previously saw within him, Jason smiled as he read the technique''s title once again. [Terra-Intermediate--Netherworld''s fort] It was completely different from the translations, and what made him curious, was the first two words [Terra-Intermediate], because the ''Intermediate'' mankind used was often utilized in order to further divide a technique''s grade further or someone''s cultivation progress within their current mana core rank. If Jason was not wrong with his assumption, this Terra should be the technique''s grade in front of him, further divided into Intermediate, which might be the same intermediate, humanity used as in Basic-Intermediate-Advanced. However, the bigger question was now, if the [Terra] grade was ''good'' or bad for him¡­ There might as well be many more different grades, Jason was just not aware of and understanding that was not simply to digest. If even the technique name on the cover could tell him so much information, Jason wondered what he could figure out if he were to read through the whole technique. Taking a deep breath, he opened the manual once again and started to read. Entering a state of full-concentration, hours passed with Jason''s facial expressions changing from astonishment and interest to shock with a slight trace of curiosity, until it ended with a mix of a devastated expression and the desire to figure out even more. The sun rose, shining straight on Jason''s eyes, as he closed the manual, even if he only read the introduction with the requirements and ''basic information.'' However, even this was already too much for him, as he thought shocked. ''Everything was completely wrong?!'' Apparently, the manual was one of the most commonly used techniques in order to refine the body and belonged to a race called [Calydar]. There was not much information about the race, and the only thing Jason could get to know about it was that there were two different types of the Calydar race, while both of them had a strong fire-affinity, which was the most important requirement to refine their body. The technique was also divided into two different approaches in order to refine the Calydar-race''s body. A basic path for their less intelligent and four-legged offspring, that seemed to be the most commonly used path for Calydars, indicating that they had more four-legged individuals, while there was also a more advanced path for more intelligent, bipedal Calydars with an extremely high mana sensitivity and aptitude. Jason couldn''t really do anything with this information but what really mattered was the stated requirement for each body refining stage, which shocked him greatly. Comparing mankind''s cultivation knowledge with a race that was assumed to have gone extinct, Jason couldn''t help but shake his head, trying to prevent the shock within him from spreading further. ''Isn''t it ridiculous?! Thinking that we were about to reach the summit with our strength, only to see a larger mountain behind¡­'' ''I already assumed that our cultivation system and maybe even that the physical advancement with each increase in rank might be slightly off, but getting to know, that humanity was completely wrong...'' Jason was unsure how to digest everything and he decided to write everything important down in order to comprehend the vast information he got to know over the last day. Massaging his temples, he murmured "Soo¡­to put it simply, the foreign races are innately only slightly stronger than humans and are unable to defeat beasts at the same stage under normal circumstances? By refining their physique with a technique like the Netherworld''s fort, I have in front of me, they acquired a physique equally strong to beasts at the same stage as they are? Furthermore, mankind''s cultivation system is completely wrong? They call the Novice, Adept, Expert, and Master rank just Mortal stage¡­or also the gaseous state of mana within the mana core, which is continuously growing¡­ After that, they have the Lique-stage, which consists of the compressing process from the gaseous mana into liquid, until the mana core is filled with enough liquefied mana drops in order to enter the next stage. As such the Lique-stage is a combination of the Magus, Grandmagus, and Lord ranks¡­ The third stage is called the ''Prismar''-stage, after the process of solidifying prismarine-crystals within the mana core. This stage includes the sovereign rank and the following ranks, humanity would have to create first, once someone reached it. Maybe there is already someone, thinking about how to call the rank above the sovereign rank..." As if it was not shocking enough, that the third stage for the foreign races consisted of humanity''s strongest powerhouses and even more, Jason also figured out how the fourth stage was called, as he mumbled to himself. "Fusing the soul every living being awakes at a certain age, with the mana core by creating a Sona seed, one would enter the Ascendion-state, which is said to take centuries, under bad circumstances until the seed blossoms" Raking his head, Jason couldn''t help but feel overwhelmed, with the provided information, while even the summary bothered him. Chapter 247 - Netherworlds Fort Five days passed with a new week starting when the Big-Three school''s announced that they would continue with their lessons, while they also reassured that the Big-Three tournament would start one month from the new week on. However, Jason didn''t care about anything like this at all, because the only thing he spent the last five days on was trying to understand the two blessed, or rather Terra graded techniques, which included the ''casual'' information in the introduction part of what exactly the technique could do. While the Netherworld''s fort technique he read at first was a Terra-Intermediate technique, the other technique, which came probably from Shane''s family clan, was called Darkness proselytism and was a Terra-Basic technique. With this, Jason''s assumption about the further grading of techniques was proven, but this didn''t help him much, because the combined information of both techniques were still too shocking for him. Other than reading and trying to understand both techniques for five days straight, Jason barely ate and slept, and he only practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique in order to distract him slightly. His soul energy reached 636 units which was his sole reason to be slightly joyous, while the intel he gathered was a complete contrast. Not only was it apparently true that Argos was a lower planet, due to its recent awakening of Mana, but there was an unimaginable number of such planets, which indicated that humans were not only extremely weak but nothing special at all like they always imagined... With this knowledge, it was obvious that there must also be a gigantic number of foreign races, that humanity was unaware of. But even worse was that the known foreign races were barely either the younger generation or seen as average subordinates, comparable to a butler or slaves from mankind''s perspective. Among the lower planets, Argos was also called an Infant, because the planet core re-awoke its dead mana heart due to the unknown meteorites that entered their stellar system. Unfortunately, there were no further information about something like this which Jason found frustrating because he was curious how Argos awoke its natural mana, which changed everything for humanity. However, this didn''t change the fact that mankind would have some problems if they became too strong because the foreign races from the higher planets or even the older, lower planets would try to restrict humanity''s growth in order to maintain their livestock for possible strong soldiers. After figuring out that it was possible for the foreign races to strengthen their body in order to fight beasts head-on, without the need for strong affinities or even soul beasts, which was the way how humanity survived the last three centuries, he could only estimate how strong a human would become if they practiced a body refining technique in addition to being able to contract beasts that would amplify both physique and the mana core size to a certain degree. ''Is that humanity''s real strength?'' Suddenly goosebumps covered his whole body at this thought, and initially, he wanted to message Dalia and Shane about this, when he remembered that the messenger crystal had only a few calls left, which had to be used for emergencies. He was unsure how many calls in total he had, so it was better to restrain himself from calling his masters. One could say that his gathered intel was important, but comparing it to a life and death situation, it might be better to put it back in his priorities, without harming anyone. In the end, humanity didn''t know the information he acquired for over three centuries without going extinct, which was already more than enough to tell him that he could wait another month. While the Netherworld''s fort was a body refining technique, the eradicated Blair family clan''s technique, Darkness proselytism was used by a race with a strong darkness affinity in order to transmute neutral mana into darkness mana. However, the density described was extremely thick and distinct, not comparable to the transmuted mana humans received by contracting a soulbond with an affinity. There was only one problem, which was only described in a few sentences, because it was unimportant for most foreign races, with the most important information being. [This technique is unusable for races with one or multiple additional affinities other than a darkness affinity!!] After reading this, Jason felt sad for a moment, because he was unable to use it either way, until he noticed that he didn''t even have a darkness affinity, which caused him to smile lightly about his own stupidity. ''Well, it doesn''t matter then, huh?'' Jason thought because he already possessed three different affinities when he was reminded about the Drake family patriarch''s transmuted mana ''Was that another reason for him to kill his soulbonds? That he only possesses a single affinity in order to practice a Terra ranked technique?'' The more Jason thought about it the more likely it became, causing him to frown. ''So the Drake family either colluded with foreign races or made a deal with them?'' He imagined because it was unlikely that the Drake family found an Ice-Dragon egg and coincidentally their blessed technique was compatible with the ice-affinity¡­ It could have been a fortunate coincidence, but after Old Drake''s behavior, Jason decided to not trust anyone from the Drake family anymore, while at the same time thinking the worst-case scenario about them. Like this, he wouldn''t be shocked if anything special happened, or if something unpredictable would be revealed. Nodding his head, Jason took another glance at the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique, pondering if he should practice the technique or not. The requirements were ''simple'', because there were two paths with the advanced path for bipedal races like he himself was as a human, which fitted perfectly, while the other requirements were a large mana supply, nutrition, and a high-quality fire affinity. Unsure what exactly a high-quality fire affinity was, Jason, estimated that his Origin flame could be considered one, or at the least, it should be extremely close to one. However, there was one thing, Jason was unsure of. Inside the Terra-Intermediate technique, there was written that the body refining technique would not only refine his body but also renew his cells, adjusting them to adapt to extremely high temperatures. In the end, Jason never heard of a human using a body refining technique which was quite problematic, because he had three different affinities from three different soulbonds, and if his refined physique would clash when he wanted to use other affinities, it would be extremely bad. There was no remark about the Netherworld''s forte technique being unable to practice if one possessed multiple affinities at once, as it was the case with the Darkness proselytism technique. But the biggest contrast between the two techniques, Jason noticed, was that the Darkness proselytism technique seemed to be used by multiple races, at least according to the introduction part, while the Netherworld''s forte was customized for the Calydar race. This was a huge difference and it could mean that he might even be unable to practice the Netherworld''s forte technique, without obstructing other paths, as he thought about what Dalia told him about the technique, which was not really much. She only told him that his black origin flame might be helpful, but the most important fact was that she didn''t warn him about any possible danger. This couldn''t be taken as evidence or something similar to that, but it at least hinted to him, that the translations which were practiced by the eradicated Shore clan didn''t create any disadvantages. Pondering for some time, Jason felt somewhat bewitched by the possible advantage a refined physique could bring him, compared to other humans and even foreign races. In the end, humanity seemed to be stronger than most other races, as long as they had good soul-awakening with a decent body refining technique, which was an essential difference compared to what mankind thought about themselves. They might even be able to fight against the foreign races if more humans learned about body refining. Unfortunately, it would be counterproductive for Jason if he were to write down the whole Netherworld''s forte technique, because once humanity started to learn it, other foreign races would notice this and eradicate any kind of possible threats, before anything worse happens. As such, he had to remain calm and stay low profile in order to prevent foreign races from finding him. ''So¡­there is now another reason for foreign races to pursue me? Quite ridiculous, if someone were to ask me¡­'' Still staring at the body refining manual in front of him, Jason decided to give the Netherworld''s forte a try, because the Shore family also survived, even if they were annihilated by his master¡­ ''In the end, I can test my affinities after every single refining session¡­!'' He thought, trying to reassure himself that he could just stop practicing the technique, once a marginal amount of discomfort would emerge when using a different affinity. Taking a look at the time, he opened his quantum bracelet and used some of his remaining star notes in order to purchase medical solutions with a high amount of nutrition. Even if they were extremely expensive and normally only used by old or extremely sick people, Jason needed a large quantity of nutrition. Unfortunately, humanity was not prepared for a body refining technique that demanded high nutrition, while the only technique that required nutrition was the Heaven''s Hell technique. However, the difference between the two techniques was that the Heaven''s Hell technique could be supplemented after practicing, if necessary, while body refining required a constant supply of nutrition, at least during the whole practice session. In the end, the required nutrition was also much larger if one were to compare both techniques. It was as if one tried to compare a small sea with an ocean, and Jason felt already the huge burden he had to face once again, even after he accumulated a vast fortune thanks to the elemental crystals. ''I need to improve my basic lifestyle occupations to earn more money¡­.otherwise, I will be poor, before the Big-Three tournament even finishes!!'' Chapter 248 - Initial Purchasing a large number of grade-2 mana stones and high-quality medical solutions for two-star notes, Jason wanted to test the waters first, before he would invest more into refining his physique completely. The majority of his current investment of two-star notes was in mana stones, which he needed either way while he didn''t use much money to purchase the medical solutions. Because the delivery service would require some time, Jason worked out and went outside the house for the first time in several days, where he noticed Greg practicing a martial art technique. Smiling lightly, he noticed that his friend seemed to have improved once again, because he entered the 7th Adept rank, even if it was still unstable. Seeing Jason, the two greeted each other, before they sparred for an hour, until Jason''s package finally arrived, as he received a notification on his quantum bracelet. While Jason seemed to be totally fine, Greg laid on the ground, with extreme difficulties to breath, as he looked at his friend in shock ''How can his physique already reach the Expert rank! Just wait until Taurus evolves...then I''m going to beat you once again!!'' In the end, Greg was easily defeated, because his physique was slightly lower than Jason''s, even if it was already infinitely close to the 1st Expert rank. With his Berserk ability, he could fight Jason rather easy head-on and even overwhelm him, but he couldn''t suppress the wild instinct and charged mindlessly at his opponent, once he sustained even the slightest injury. If Jason didn''t have any affinities, Greg might be able to win, but in the end, two affinities at the mid-evolved rank and Jason''s strong physique overwhelmed him, which led Greg to lose miserably. Sulking for a moment, he regained his senses, as he swore to himself, that he would work hard in order to not fall back, even if he was already sure of the fact that Jason would soar extremely fast. Greg was extremely bothered by that fact and also jealous, but there was nothing to change, because Jason''s talent and determination were hard to achieve, even if he already worked extremely hard, Jason seemed to work multiple times harder. Jason rushed towards the street, where the drone descended, only to scan his ID, before it soared back into the sky after the package was delivered. Storing everything inside his spatial ring, he rushed back to his room, where he took out a large basin, which he filled with water that he warmed up by igniting his black origin flame to a certain degree. Not being able to hold back his impatience, Jason pulled out a medical solution, which he immediately dissolved in the warm water, before a thick aromatic scent permeated the air inside his room. ''Should I have bought an isolation magic circle?'' He asked himself, noticing a faint colored hue filling the air, as he shook his head. It would cost too much to purchase a portable isolation magic circle, without considering the necessary supply of mana, while inscribing it by himself was still a far-fetched dream, because his proficiency with runes and mana circles, could be considered as non-existent. He inscribed only two runes until now, and they were extremely crude, not even worth mentioning in his opinion. As such, he disregarded the possibility of inscribing runes by himself for the moment, until he would have accumulated enough practice. ''When will I even start learning how to inscribe?'' Jason thought because he couldn''t take any time with rune inscribing for now due to the necessary practice he required to concoct the Lesser Minotaur bloodline unsealing potion in roughly one month if the ingredients were to arrive on time. Thinking about this, Jason turned slightly nervous, but this wouldn''t help him a tiny bit, and focusing on his current task would be much more important than anything else! Currently, he didn''t have to go to school, because he was thrown out of the special combat class, due to him applying for a leave of absence, while the theoretical lessons were also not mandatory for him anymore. As such, Jason was able to focus on himself to the fullest, which included the body refining which he was about to practice for the first time, as he pulled out a mountain of mana stones, which he laid around the basin. ''More is always better, right?'' Smiling lightly, he took out the remaining medical solutions, which he laid on a small table next to the basin. If he required more nutrition, Jason could just take one of the medical solutions from the table, without the need to leave the basin, which might interrupt his concentration. Rephrasing the first steps he learned completely, Jason took off his clothes, before he slowly descended into the basin. Only his head protruded out of the water surface, and he immediately felt his temperature rising, as his pores instinctively opened in order to accept the nutrition within the medical solution. Knowing what to do, Jason visualized every single step in his mind before he started the Netherworld''s fort Initial body refining phase. In order to truly start refining his body, Jason would have to slowly adjust his feeble body to the changes, until he could truly start by tempering and refining his whole physique. This adjusting phase was also called [Initial phase] because it was the phase everyone had to go through as if it was the origin of the whole body refining process. With a serious expression, Jason started to loosen up several dozen threads from the mana stones around him. Leading them to him, he felt mana surging inside his entire body, filling every single cell within him. However the same happened with the nutrition in his body and it seemed as if they were competing against each other, which caused his body to itch slightly. Igniting the origin flame in his body, the already thickened soul connection inside his soul world glimmered lightly, and it seemed as if the black flame screamed out in joy, as it occupied Jason''s entire being, with feeble flames. ''Will this be enough?'' He began to worry because he already felt that his black origin flame was unable to occupy his whole body while increasing the flame''s temperature at the same time, with its current capabilities. Pondering for a moment, Jason was sure that his black origin flame would be powerful and durable enough in order to test the Netherworld''s forte technique''s efficiency and dangers. In the end, he would have to see how good it worked and if practicing the technique would cause any obstacles for his other affinities before he would even start to inspect the technique''s efficiency in depth. Slowly exerting the Netherworld''s forte technique according to the described way, Jason immediately felt a colossal surge of the nutrition and mana within his body, which forced him to groan, as his whole body roared out as if it was a fierce beast. "UGH!!!" Lifting his hand out of the basin, he could barely grip the medical solutions on the table, before he threw all of them into the basin while releasing the mana within the all mana stones around him. Biting his lips, Jason could only lament about his stinginess, even though he knew that the Initial phase was said to require the most nutrition, due to the body''s lack of high-quality nutrition in normal cases. However, the described requirements were still lower than what Jason bought when he suddenly remembered that he was a completely different race in a different environment. Calling himself stupid several times because he didn''t think about such a basic thing, as he remembered that the Calydar race had a higher innate physique which already included better food, a better environment, and many other reasons, that could have prevented Jason''s form his idiotic stingy purchase. However, in the end, with all medical solutions dissolved inside the warm water, that slowly heated up due to the black origin flame, which seemed to scream in joy to finally be allowed to exert its fullest strength, everything worked out fine. Continuing to exert the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique, Jason gritted his teeth, until he sensed that some cells within his body began to change, and with his eyes wide open, he could perceive an extremely faint red, blazing hue around it. With this, he stopped exerting the body refining technique, with his black origin flame entering Jason''s soul world once again, as he switched between all three affinities he currently possessed in order to see if there was any problem. However, to Jason''s fortune, there seemed to be no problem for now, and rather than that, his black origin flame circulated smoother through his body to an almost invisible degree. Jason wouldn''t have noticed this, if the changed cells that gleamed in a faint blazing hue, didn''t brighten up when the black origin flame circulated exactly through the specific area where the changed cells were situated. Without being able to suppress there was only one thought in his mind. ''Let''s hasten up the process!'', as he finally told his black origin flame what he wanted to do for long "You''re allowed to feast only my soul energy! Annex every single vacant soul energy unit!!" Chapter 249 - Alchemy To Go Greedily devouring the vacant soul energy units inside his soul world, the black origin flame flickered vibrant, as it began to grow in size. From the small, thin fingertip-sized flame in his soul world, it reached the size of Jason''s fist, which caused him to smile weirdly, as it was nothing compared to the flame''s size if he supplied it with his whole mana. However, once the black origin flame annexed his soul energy, it immediately left the soul world on its own as if it wanted to demonstrate to Jason that it would work hard in order to receive more benefits from him. Wanting to continue, he suddenly noticed that his soul energy neither increased nor that his mana core size nor his physique were amplified in any way. But being reminded about what Dalia told him, an origin flame was different from other soulbonds because it wouldn''t amplify the host''s strength in a normal, more common way. Rather than that, origin flames were known for their baptism, which would increase the physique, enlarge the mana core, while cleansing the body from impurities at the same time. In the end, such a baptism was worth much more than a simple soulbond, that would amplify one''s strength and mana core size once bound. The only slight downside was, that Jason didn''t know when his black origin flame would evolve into a Tier-1 origin flame, after annexing an unknown amount of soul energy units. It was only fortunate that he received some sort of discount to evolve his origin flame if what Dalia said was true because the required soul energy to initiate an evolution would decrease according to the amplification the host''s soul world core provided. At least that was how it worked for Dalia, even if Jason was unsure how she calculated it. Deciding to trust Dalia''s words, he thought that even if it was wrong, it wouldn''t really hurt him, because it was unknown how much soul energy units his black origin flame required to evolve either way. With his soul world core amplification of ?, Jason could be satisfied either way and there was nothing to complain, as the enlarged black origin flame occupied every single cell in his body, before it churned up, transmitting the thought of determination and ambition towards him. ''It really is a sentient flame...huh?'' He began to wonder, and even more so, because Jason never felt so many emotions transmitted from his black origin flame, that was quiet almost all the time. Exerting the Netherworld''s fort technique, his body was overwhelmed by both nutrition and mana once again, forcefully trying to destroy, renew and recuperate his cells, which was extremely painful in the beginning. However, confusing enough, with his black origin flame increasing its temperature, Jason felt a soothing warmth surging through his body, and the pain was replaced by a peaceful and relaxing feeling, he never felt before. It was definitely not normal that he didn''t feel any pain because his body was being destroyed and repaired all over again, which should hurt in his opinion, but nothing like that was the case. Instinctively, Jason thought that something was wrong, but he couldn''t stop, as he received a reassuring signal transmitted from his origin flame, telling him that he should worry less. Apparently, it was his black origin flame that prevented him from feeling pain, by soothing the whole body refining process, instead of intensifying the pain, like it was described in the manual. This ability was apparently something the black origin flame had and Jason was unsure if it was the same ability as the one he got to know within the four-star rift, where his black origin flame helped him out in order to reform the transmuted mana into neutral mana, without any issues. Either way, it was definitely beneficial and he would never complain about something advantageous, as he opened his eyes, once the supplied nutrition and mana were completely used up. Standing up within the basin, he tried to feel the changes within his body, only to notice that his physique seemed to be more refined. If he were to compare his previous physique to the slight changes he underwent, Jason would most likely think of it, as if his prior body was a raw ore, that was slowly heated up, in order to extract the impurities and slug in order to temper and refine it, slowly creating a tougher, more endurable and powerful weapon. Right now, he was barely in the Initial phase, but he doubted that he could leave this phase before he entered the Lique-state or also called Magus stage for humans, by compressing and liquefying his mana. Jason was still unsure how to call the stages in his mind, but right now he was in humanity''s territory that couldn''t understand the revamped cultivation ranks, causing him to utilize the old names, at least for now. In order to enter the first body refining stage of the Netherworld''s fort technique, he would have to build the foundation which was the initial phase, he already started to establish in his body. However, the manual said that one would have to strengthen the mana core which builds a flawed physique. This flawed or also ''raw'' physique could be refined by a body refining technique. This told Jason that he had to continue increasing his mana core rank to be barely eligible to refine his physique, even if he was unsure how exactly it would work with the amplified physical strength humans received from their soulbonds. It was interesting and his curiosity ignited because he wanted to know if he could enter the first body refining stage even before entering the master rank if his soulbonds amplified his physique by such a high degree, which was a possible theory. Nevertheless, this was something for the future, and rather than thinking too far ahead, Jason decided to think about the present issues. There were two issues or rather main tasks he had to take care of. First, he wanted to increase his physique further, while experimenting if it was possible for him to continue practicing the Netherworld''s fort without obstructing his other affinities, which still seemed to work perfectly fine. At least that was the case for now. Building a strong physique by refining his body would cost a fortune, which he noticed after his first body refining attempt, and he could only frown at this thought. Fortunately, he still had some funds left, and in the worst-case scenario, he would have to use his lifestyle occupations in order to solve his problem, which was something he wanted to do either way as it led to his second issue. The second issue was relatively simple, yet complicated because he had to learn how to concoct a bloodline unsealing potion in a month or at most two, without having any prior experience with doing something like this. It was unfortunate, but he wouldn''t be able to accumulate much practical experience about the concocting process for Beast-Creator evolution solutions, due to the high costs of the ingredients. In the end, the only advantageous fact was that Dalia gave him her personal diary about her experiments and experience in concocting, which she accumulated over two centuries. Furthermore, she told him that concocting a bloodline unsealing potion was one of the easiest evolution solutions to produce, which was the reason for him to remain calm. Additionally, Dalia explained that practicing concocting the most difficult grade-1 potions should have roughly the same difficulty. As such, his goal was to learn to concoct several of the most difficult grade-1 potions perfectly, within a month! Thinking about his financial problem, Jason was sure that concocting the most difficult grade-1 potions, perfectly without a single trace of impurities left would bring him a fortune, at least he hoped so. Thanks to the trip to the Goblin settlement and him selling the cloud titanium anvil, Jason already possessed the required ingredients for almost all grade-1 potions, inscribing solutions, and ores to forge weapons, while he also received a large number of grade-2 ingredients which were completely disregarded by him, seen as unimportant for his current circumstances. Pondering for a moment, where he might receive a discount for a large bulk of mana stones and medical solutions, he immediately disregarded Old Drake as an option, while Till might be suspicious about him, which was also not what he wanted. Jason was still not sure how to handle TIll, who seemed to hate all foreign races to the core, which was noticeable due to him releasing a faint killing intent with dense wrath intertwined when he talked about foreign races. Without wanting to risk anything, he suddenly remembered someone who could help him, as he called the Artisan tower president Cheng! While talking, Cheng seemed to be confused, but in exchange for star notes and also elemental crystals which he revealed, the Rank-6 Blacksmith couldn''t help but feel overjoyed, accepting the deal of supplying the youth with all grades of mana stones and medical solutions, in order to receive a fixed ratio of elemental crystals and star notes, that seemed to be less worthy in the artisan''s opinion. Smiling lightly, Jason was glad to have accepted the Artisan tower president''s contact details, after he forged with him last time, as it decreased many burdens. ''Now I''ll only have to set up my alchemy room, huh?'' He thought, wondering how he should explain everything to the Fler''s However, weirdly enough, his request was accepted without him being asked anything. To the Fler''s it seemed that it was the most obvious thing to do, because he had been accepted as a disciple from a Beast-Creator. Both Beast-Creator''s and Alchemist''s had to concoct potions, while Alchemy was more focused on quantity, cheaper yet more efficient potions that everyone could purchase and use, Beast Creators focused on quality, complex and expensive potions with prices ranging from several hundred star-notes to millions that would be used for the sole purpose of forcing soulbonds to evolve into higher beings. Another difference was that Beast Creators were still rarely seen and not many were able to take on this occupation because a single mistake might lead to death, while researches about possible evolution paths and required ingredients could take several decades. In the end, Beast-Creators were seen as some godlike figures from some humans, because they could change the fate of beasts by evolving them, changing them completely. Meanwhile, Alchemists were also in high regards, but there were many more of them, at least for the first few ranks, because the required mana sensitivity, accuracy, and control were much lower than a Beast-Creator''s, who would have to clash against dangerous transmuted mana particles and almost sentient plants in some cases in order to refine them to concoct an evolution solution. As such, it was only rational for the Fler''s to think that Jason would have to practice concocting cheaper potions first before he would start improving until his master allowed him to create evolution solutions. Chapter 250 - Satisfaction Enveloped by a white cocoon, one could hear a faint crackling sound within Jason, as his mana core broke through into the next level, finally reaching the 6th Adept rank. Slowly dissipating, the white cocoon revealed Jason, whose hair fluttered lightly, as he opened his golden eyes that gleamed vibrantly. One month passed and there were only a few days left before the new year, but this didn''t bother him much because it was nothing special for him as he inspected his strength. Not only did he decided to actively cultivate for one to two hours daily, but he also broke into the 5th and now finally even the 6th Adept rank, which was mainly thanks to his cleansed mana core, mana veins ambition, and aptitude towards mana. However, this couldn''t make him excited anymore, because he was still an infant in the eyes of foreign races, thanks to him being at the Mid-Mortal stage, which they most likely called his current rank. This was frustrating, but also motivating because he wanted to increase his strength faster than ever before, which caused him to sleep even less than before. During the last month, Jason refined his body every day for several hours in the morning, which caused his physique to reach an unthinkable degree, shocking him greatly. To think that he might ever be able to fight peak awakened beasts head-on without using a tiny bit of mana was already shocking enough and Jason was sure that he could already fight evolved ranked beasts by using mana, without the need to rely on his affinities. He couldn''t even imagine how strong he might already be, considering that each of his soulbonds became much stronger, with the black origin flame overrunning the others. Because he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique three times a day, Jason''s soul energy increased by several times, reaching the shocking number of 1900 units, while Artemis required 250, which was the lowest among his three soulbonds. Scorpio however, required only 350 soul energy units, and the Black origin flame was allowed to annex a total of 499 soul energy units. In the end, Jason couldn''t allow his origin flame to annex more, because he was quite sure that his black fire affinity would reach the unblemished rank, which might create suspicion amongst the higher-ups in the Big-Three tournament. He still had to remain rather low profile, and even if the tournament started, Jason was unsure if he could show every single trump card he had, without creating trouble for himself, which wouldn''t be possible in his opinion. However, in the end, Jason decided to think about this later on, once he figured out if Old Drake had a plan to forcefully drag him away from Shane and Dalia, and if he had a plan, what exactly it was. After refining his body in the morning, Jason continued to read books about Alchemy, the concoction process, Beast creation, Dalia''s diary, and much more until he felt that it was enough for the day. This was extremely important because Jason noticed after the first day practicing Alchemy seriously, by experimenting with all kinds of different more or less difficult potions, that it was not as easy as it initially seemed. Meanwhile, his unique eyes were extremely helpful, while the same could be said for his superior mana mastery and memory for every single step he had to take care of. However, in the end, it was not something Jason could learn in a few days, which brought him back to the ground because his confidence and pride seemed to soar way too high, as he thought that he had to be better than everybody due to the possibility of him being a Celestia-halfling. As such Jason began to subconsciously compare himself to foreign races, which pressured him a lot, and he was unable to prevent it anymore. On one side it was extremely beneficial for his cultivation and even body refining process, while it hindered his concoction process, where he required as much focus as possible. Jason already lost count in how often he failed to concoct potions, because he wanted to produce perfect purified potions, without impurities left behind, which increased the difficulty by a large margin. In the end, he could only strive forward, trying to learn out of his mistakes in order to prevent repeating the same mistakes one after another, which was his final goal. After slightly less than one month, Jason was finally able to create his first perfect peak grade-1 potion, even if it was only a fluke. Thinking that concocting the Lesser Minotaur bloodline unsealing evolution solution was easier, Jason couldn''t help but sigh in relief. ''Give me one...maybe two weeks and I''m confident in concocting the evolution solution!!'' Jason thought, not without being proud about his current achievements. He was unsure how many explosions he caused or how often the Fler''s rushed towards him because they thought something might have happened to him, causing Jason to feel slightly embarrassed, as he thought about it. However, rather than thinking about his failed products, Jason decided to focus on his achievements over the last month. His physique improved greatly, while he was even able to do something Rank-1 Alchemists can barely do after several years. Even though he was lucky, his mana eyes, high mana sensitivity control, and even more the black origin flame he owned were the major reasons for his great achievement. But more than that, his soul energy shocked Jason the most, because he would have never thought that he might reach such a high soul energy merely seven months, after his soul-awakening. With 900 vacant soul energy units, he wondered what he could do with it because it was already enough to contract a peak-unblemished beast. However, contracting a new soulbond now would be counterproductive, because it would amplify his physique and mana core size by a large margin, creating too much suspicion about his soul-awakening star rating, which was barely at two stars and as such below average. Rather than focusing on contracting another soulbond, Jason was rather curious about something completely different, which he wanted to do sooner rather than later! ''I need my second sub-area!'' Jason thought, because the idea of creating an endless cycle in order to increase his soul energy, was something he long since thought about. Even more so, because the needed time to practice the Heaven''s hell technique increased the more soul energy units he had. One could say that Jason''s complaint was luxury, which was the case, but he didn''t have enough time to do everything he wanted to and was even forced to neglect his martial art skills and both ice and poison affinity practice in order to reach such high soul energy, without hindering his alchemy and body refining. It was a luxurious hassle, but still, something he could take care of, if he were to create his second sub-area with the help of the splitting mind technique he also continued to read. In the end, Jason couldn''t continue with his negligence towards his martial art techniques, even if he were to practice the Heaven''s hell technique fewer as he felt uncomfortable by continuing with his current path. ''If I can''t take everything at once I''ll just take one step after another!!'' Even if he were to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique only one or two times a day, while exchanging the other practices with him honing his martial art skills and affinity proficiency practice, it would benefit him extremely. Determined about his decision, Jason felt that he should sell a few potions, in order to increase his funds once again, because he only had 280 star-notes left from his initial 330, after deducting the funds he loaned Greg. This meant, he paid 50 star notes in the month he started to refine his body, which was way too high, considering that he would have to continue refining his body, even if the extent would be significantly lower than the month before, where he established his first tiny foundation. After establishing a marginal foundation, he could slowly continue to refine his body, without the fear of a possible deteriorating process, which was a possible outcome, if one were to disregard a small starting foundation in the Initial phase, that would still take a long time to complete. Pondering for some time, Jason was unsure if he should walk straight into the Artisan tower in order to sell the potions, by telling that his master made them and that it was his task to sell them, as it was unlikely that a 14-year-old child was capable of concocting purified grade-1 potions, even if they were not perfectly purified. Alone the fact that he was already able to concoct grade-1 potions at his tender age, without neglecting his mana gathering or combat prowess was extremely uncommon and could be said to be a genius talent. However, Jason didn''t dare to think like this, because he still continued to compare himself to other foreign races, even if he was not sure, what stage they could reach if one were to compare their age with each other. Thinking about this, he was always reminded about the Shadow walker who was said to be a prodigy from the younger generation, which was an unclear term. Without knowing, to what extent the Shadow walker was considered a prodigy, how old he was, and how old the "younger-" generation was. In the end, Jason could only estimate and assume things, which was not helpful and only caused him to be frustrated. Chapter 251 - Customized Soul World Jason decided to focus on his alchemy progress, martial art techniques, and affinity practice until the tournament would finally start, while he also told himself multiple times to only practice the Heaven''s Hell technique if he had enough time left. As such, instead of focusing on his soul energy, Jason decided to adjust himself to his physique that was already comparable to normal 2nd Expert ranks. There was still a difference towards evolved ranked beasts, but he estimated that it wouldn''t be long until his physique was refined to such a degree in order to fight evolved beasts head-on, without the usage of mana, which would probably shock most citizen on Astrix, because it was unheard that a normal youth who was only at the Adept rank was able to defeat evolved beasts without using mana at all. Without being a prodigy or someone from a big family who learned martial art techniques since their childhood, it was unlikely to be able to do something similar to that. There were exceptions with one of them having a high-quality, physical soul world, which would allow one to attain a strong physique without an extremely high-ranked soulbond at the mid/late unblemished rank. Smiling foolishly, the whole week passed silently and Jason''s body felt much lighter compared to before, which caused him to accidentally crush Greg while sparring because his physique was neither further refined nor had they the same unrefined physical rank. This shocked not only Greg but also Malia who watched the whole fight if one could even call it a fight because it was more like Jason beat her brother into a pulp without much difficulty. Suppressing his strength, Jason and Greg fought against each other head-on while honing their respective martial art skill. However, compared to before, Jason was somewhat dissatisfied with this, which led him to suppress his strength further in order to feel pressure pushing him down before he exerted his martial art techniques while at the same time trying to use his affinities. Since Scorpio and Artemis established their fortified soul conjunction with him, Jason felt, as if it was much easier to control their affinities, which was advantageous in order to have a shorter reaction interval, while everything was even better with his Black origin flame. His black origin flame affinity was considered his soulbond per se and instructing it what to do was immediately executed, without a slight disruption, while his partially refined physique further supported fire affinities, accelerating its circulation to a certain degree, decreasing the interval between his short order and execution by a large margin. Being overwhelmed by Greg felt extremely beneficial in accordance to his proficiency which soared, even if Greg looked at him annoyed and frustrated when Jason suppressed himself further. As if that was not enough, Jason also started to bother Malia about spars, because he knew that she was extremely strong with her 3rd Master mana core rank, which she entered during the last month. She was less proficient in close combat, yet she liked to fight long-range with her wand and two affinities, which she clearly showed Jason. In the end, both her rank and proficiency with the water and fire affinity were extremely high, and firing simple water jets and fireballs at Jason was already difficult and tiring to evade. However, with this, a sudden thought emerged in his mind and Jason continued to bother Malia that she should give her best to hit him, while he started to exert his weightless steps technique to its limits, without caring about anything else. At the same time, he instructed his black origin flame to start an experiment with all kinds of movements in order to figure out possible ways to further increase his speed. Since he had to run away from two magical ranked crystal horned pythons, Jason felt the urgency to attain a high velocity, in order to either flee or if he was at an advantage, he could even attack with his high speed, before the opponent was able to react could react. Only a single week passed between him concocting his first perfect purified grade-1 potion and new year, yet he was able to manufacture ten more perfect potions, while his remaining several dozen potions he concocted were relatively close to perfectly purified. But even more important was, that there were only three failed products which further decreased his failure rate by a large margin. This was a great leap in his success rate and Jason felt extremely satisfied with his current progress when he heard that the ingredients would arrive a few days after new year, causing him to feel slightly disturbed. It was not, as if he felt incapable of concocting the easiest evolution solution, but the pressure from the possible failure weighed heavy on him. But even if he felt the pressure from the news about the arrival of the required ingredients for Taurus'' bloodline unsealing potion, Jason felt exactly the same pressure, radiating from his surroundings and everything that happened throughout the last few months. Figuring out that he might be a half Celestia was only the tip of the iceberg, while the revamped cultivation ranks and knowing that humanity was only comparable to livestock for the foreign races was even difficult to digest. But as if that was not enough, Jason was unsure how he should behave if he were to see Old Drake again, while he remained in contact with Seron and even Till. Apparently, the two of them would also leave Astrix, once their mission was finished and Seron already told him that their task was to capture his second soulbond, which was a Guardian-ranked cub, which caused Jason to praise his na?ve friend inwardly. Seron was extremely na?ve in his opinion, even if he was bullied for being a cripple and so on, he remained optimistic which was a good point, while his naive belief in humanity''s kindness was weird, compared to the fact, that he was the descendant of one of the big clans, that reigned an island. However, in the end, Jason wouldn''t be able to change his friend''s mindset, even if he wanted to, which was however not the case, because he had more than enough work to do with himself. Nevertheless, even if there was more than enough for him to do, today, on new year''s eve, he was told by the Fler''s that he should take a break, at least for one day. In the beginning, Jason wanted to reject their proposal, but after they told him, that it was important to relax and have fun for some time, he just nodded his head. He was extremely exhausted from trying to improve everything at once over the whole day, almost without any sleep or a single day he skipped to practice anything at all. As such, Jason took off his first day since half a year in order to talk with the Fler''s about all kinds of things, which included their school life, the upcoming tournament, and much more, before they started to eat. As everyone summoned their soulbonds, Jason also released Artemis and Scorpio for the first time in a while, which caused Artemis to screech out in joy, while Scorpio did the same. The only difference between the two was, that one was an over two-meter long Scorpion that sounded rather cruel and horrifying, while Artemis was a 1.2-meter long owl with fluffy plumage and a gentler voice. It was also the first time for the Fler''s to see Scorpio after his evolution and the Fler''s were shocked to see that the small miniature Parascors changed to such a shocking degree. Noticing the joy radiating from Artemis and Scorpio because they were finally allowed to leave the soul world, Jason felt bad and he began to wonder how boring it would be to stay within the soul world for over a month without anything to do, except using their soul connection with Jason to communicate with him and see through his eyes, which was only possible thanks to the fortified soul conjunction. "Is there a way to change the soul world into a more comfortable and maybe even fun place?" Jason mumbled to himself, when Mark, who already warmed up to him, suddenly said. "Of course that''s possible, but the required soul energy is extremely high while the benefits are almost nil. You are still young and you need the vacant soul energy in order to contract more, stronger soulbonds, which is why I recommend you to not change too much within your soul world for now! " Hearing what Mark said, Jason averted his gaze, as he asked with curiosity gleaming in his eyes. "How can I change the interior of my soul world?!" Maybe he already read it somewhere or his masters told him, but he just couldn''t remember, however, when he heard Mark telling him that it brought him nil benefits to change the interior of his soul world, Jason immediately knew that his masters wouldn''t tell him something without any benefits. "It is a rather counterproductive measure, but you can even bind objects to your soul and let them enter your soul world in order to decorate or change the interior. Like this Gabriella and I started to gather soul energy in order to contract all kinds of plants, trees, bushes, even stones, and so on to create a comfortable environment for our contracted soulbonds, because we don''t call them out often. As such, they don''t think it''s boring or uncomfortable within the soul world, and staying within may even be more comfortable for them instead of being summoned out of it! However, we only started with this process, after our soul world''s space was completely occupied by beasts, which allowed us to save soul energy units to bind other stuff to customize our soul world!" Listening carefully, Jason was immediately interested in the information Mark told him. ''Does that mean I can customize my own soul world?! I don''t even know how large my soul world currently is, because it''s consistently increasing in size with the increase of soul energy units, and now, Mark tells me that I can bind normal trees and so on to plant into my soul world?!'' If Jason were to say, that he was not shocked, it would definitely be a lie, and Gabriella noticed that, as she said "Even if creating a comfortable habitat for your soulbonds is important later on in order to thicken your bond with each other, the required soul energy is extremely large. For example, to bind a single, common large flux-oak tree, I had to accumulate several thousand soul energy, while it also required a large amount of nutritious soil, which I also had to bind to my soul world. In the end, you would have to build your own ecosystem inside your soul world, which is extremely difficult, to put it simply. Just imagine the difficulty of raising a tree in a completely empty area, without any nutrition, sun rays for the tree to utilize photosynthesis, and you would also need water! You have to provide everything, otherwise, the living beings you bind to your soul world will die, and even if it won''t damage your soul world, you would have wasted the used soul energy to bind the tree. Please don''t act carelessly and think about your priorities!" Gabriella''s words caused Jason''s curiosity to die down almost immediately because he couldn''t imagine a way to customize his world while supplying everything with their required needs to survive, except if he were to use stones and other objects that were not alive, to begin with. ''In the end, I also don''t have any soul energy to spare¡­who knows, when I need it?'' He thought, before promising his soulbonds inwardly, that he will take them out more often from now on! Even if it might take years for him to build his own small customized world, knowing that something like this was possible, ignited his interest. Chapter 252 - New Year Jason was always curious to figure out new things and hearing about the possibility to customize his soul world, he was intrigued, even if it may take a while before he would be able to do something like this. Mark said that there was no benefit in it, but Jason felt different because Gabriella said that it may thicken the soul connection between him and his soulbonds, which was definitely a huge advantage! Because he already formed two fortified soul conjunctions with a different thick connection, Jason was fully aware of the positive aspect of a thicker soul connection had, even if it may not seem much from others'' perspectives. Alone the difference in manifesting his soulbonds body parts when they occupied his mana core was more than enough to tell him, that a thicker soul connection was important, while the same seemed to apply for affinities. Apparently, not only his own proficiency towards the utilized affinity was important, but also the soul connection to the soulbond that provided the affinity, which was something Jason figured out only recently. As such, a small difference in the thickness of the soul connection between each other may even result in barely surviving a dreadful encounter or dying by a hair length, which Jason obviously wanted to avoid. Noting down the possibility to customize his soul world, Jason felt satisfied, as the Fler''s changed the subject, and Gabriella asked the three what they planned to achieve during the next year. Mark and Gabriella looked at the three youths with interest, wondering what their goals were, and hearing this question, Jason began to ponder because he never really thought about that. ''What do I want to achieve throughout the next year¡­..?'' Without being sure what he wanted to achieve, Jason decided to hear out what Greg and Malia wanted to accomplish before, but even that didn''t really seem to help him out. "I want to break into the Master stage, be the strongest 15-year-old on Astrix with Taurus'' help, before going to Canir to widen my horizon and search for my second soulbond!" Hearing this, Jason couldn''t help but smile, because it was roughly the same goal, he initially picked out for himself, before his whole worldview was shattered with the arrival of the foreign races and him being able to decipher the universal language all races seemed to use. The knowledge he received from the two blessed or rather Terra grade manuals, was too shocking and Jason was not sure If traveling to Canir could be labeled as ''widening one''s horizon'' Averting his gaze towards Malia, she seemed to hesitate, as she uncertainly said "I want to break into the Magus rank before the end of the year", which caused the remaining Fler family members to halt in their tracks for a moment before they nodded. It was good to be ambitious, even though it would be difficult to break through six levels in the Master rank and compress the gaseous mana into a liquid drop in only one year because it took a huge amount of effort to do the latter. If it was before, Jason would tell that this was extremely difficult to achieve, but thinking for some time, he figured out that the plan he formed in his mind was even more ridiculous, the more he thought about it, which caused him to smile lightly. Still pondering for a moment, if he should say it or now, Jason lifted his head before he seriously said "I want to break into the low-Lique state¡­eh Magus rank until the end of the year!" Saying this, Jason stopped saying anything else, while the Fler''s seemed to behave as if time itself stopped, as they neither moved nor said anything at all. Suddenly a loud "HUH? You want what?!" voice through the room, and it was Greg who was completely stupefied about his best friend''s announcement. It would already be extremely difficult for Malia who wanted to reach the Magus rank before the age of 18, but now, Jason wanted to do the same when he was 15 years and several months old?! This shocked the Fler''s extremely and even if Jason would receive a lot of support from his mysterious master, he accepted, it would still be a miracle because he was currently barely at the 6th Adept rank. He would have to break through three more levels in the adept rank before he was eligible to break into the expert rank and then Jason wanted to break through two additional ranks in order to become a Magus by compressing and liquefying his mana? If it were someone else, the Fler''s would label him as someone insane, without a single trace of sanity left inside his brain, but it was Jason who announced It, which complicated everything somehow. Looking into his eyes, there was not a single tinge of a joke in his eyes and he was obviously completely serious about this, causing everyone to be utterly shocked. ''Maybe he fell on his head during the last month? Or maybe it was already inside the four-star rift?!'' They thought, and Jason couldn''t help but think that their mindset was right. In the end, he himself found it unlikely that he would be able to liquefy his mana into a mana drop, but it was a goal he set himself and he wanted to achieve it. Even if it was not likely that he would achieve that, there was something else he was confident in achieving! He definitely wanted to reach the combat prowess of a Low-Lique state, which was equivalent to a human Magus. With his newly acquired body refining manual, his high soul world core amplification he received from his soulbonds that had yet to mature, high mana aptitude, and comprehension ability, Jason was sure to reach at least a high combat prowess during the next year. If his estimation was not completely off, Scorpio would completely mature during the next year, reaching the Magical beast rank, while Artemis should also reach the magical rank, even if Jason was unsure if this was already her matured state. Meanwhile, his black origin flame would most likely reach the required amount of soul energy units allowing it to evolve into a Tier-1 Origin flame. This would also give Jason the chance for his second baptism, further cleansing his body from impurities, while at the same time strengthening his mana veins, physique and enlarge his mana core. There were more than enough factors playing into his hands, and Jason wanted to accept and digest everything greedily in order to become strong enough to cope up with the foreign races or particular nasty and disgusting humans. Even if it was not enough for Jason to reach the Low-Lique or Magus state, it was a good starting point, allowing him to be one of the strongest amongst his peers, if there was even a human at the age of 15 or 16, who was capable of achieving the same feat However in order to attain this feat, he had to leave Astrix island as soon as possible, and it was already fortunate that the Big-Three tournament had only 3000 participants for each year. As such, it would take one month in the worst-case scenario, which Jason wanted to use to increase his physique, mana core size, and soul energy to a certain degree, without attracting too much suspicion. In the end, he was still unsure if he should use the messenger crystal in order to figure out if he should win the Big-Three tournament if possible or if holding back and reaching a lower rank to make it seem as if he was weaker¡­ But this was something, Jason would think of later because it was already new year''s eve, and thinking too much about possible schemings Old Drake prepared would only depress him, which was definitely nothing that should be. After the Fler''s calmed down slightly, they continued to talk about all kinds of things, before they switched to playing board games, which seemed to be a tradition in the Fler family. Never having played something like this, Jason felt that some board games required extremely high strategic thinking, while others heavily relied on luck, which was not something he adored. New year''s eve passed quietly, without another incident, and they celebrated it joyously while the same applied for many families, all over Canir and the Archipelago. Chapter 253 - Ingredients! Three days passed since new year''s eve when Greg was notified that the last ingredients required to concoct his soulbonds evolution solution arrived, which caused the Fler''s to be overjoyed while Jason rubbed his hands in both excitement and nervousity at the same time. Throughout the last three days, he prolonged his practice with all kinds of extremely difficult grade-1 potions and didn''t fail a single time, while his purification process increased in proficiency thanks to him being able to handle his flame much more precisely than before. This was also thanks to the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique he practiced, but mostly because his bond with the black origin flame thickened, while it seemed at the same time that his origin flame received an amplification in its intelligence, which was weird to notice. If it was comparable with a restless newborn, it was now rather quiet and curious at everything around it. With his current proficiency he attained thanks to his seemingly perfect vision, black origin flame, and sensitivity towards mana, Jason was sure that he would be able to concoct the bloodline unsealing potion without any problems, even if he wouldn''t dare to cleanse the ingredients from impurities in order to avoid even the slightest issue. In the end, it was Greg''s ingredients and not his, even though he lent him the funds. As such he had to be rather careful and even more so because they were expensive and rare. It would take a few weeks in order for a new batch of the required ingredients to arrive if he were to make a mistake, which was not something Jason could afford with his limited time. Even so, he was confident in himself and now, he just had to figure out where exactly he should concoct the potion. Concocting the potion at the Fler''s wouldn''t be extremely smart, because they would see him, and get to know that he was able to concoct a bloodline unsealing solution, was not something Jason wanted. Even if he trusted them completely, there was no way for him to reassure their safety, if he were to tell them everything he figured out, because it was still possible that they accidentally revealed something, after they parted ways. Thinking that they might end up in a perilous situation with a simple slip of their tongue, Jason didn''t want to force his own burden on them, which caused him to think of a different place to concoct the bloodline unsealing solution. ''There is only the Artisan tower, right?'' Thinking about the possibilities, Jason couldn''t help but feel weird, because the Artisan tower seemed to have almost monopolized the whole market for all basic lifestyle occupations on Astrix, with a few exceptional individuals as exceptions. Nodding his head, Jason decided to go to the Artisan tower, as soon as the ingredients arrived and there was nothing else to think about, because it was not even something special for youths to experiment with the lifestyle occupations in a Basic-concoction, forging or inscribing room. As such, he wouldn''t attract too much attention if he were to ask for a Basic-room, as long as he was allowed to rent one, which was probably not that much of a problem, as he knew Cheng, while a Basic concoction room was not even considered special, to begin with. If he didn''t want to drag the Fler''s into his problems, he would rather stay at their house without wasting more than two hours solely for the traveling purpose. In the end, Jason told himself that he could as well read something or practice the Heaven''s Hell technique within the shuttle, which caused him to not think too much about this insignificant issue if one could even call it that. The whole morning passed without anything special happening, while the Fler''s strolled around restlessly without being able to calm down. It looked like they couldn''t even practice a martial art technique or absorb mana from the outside, because they were so nervous, while Jason could only look at the four weirdly. They also asked him multiple times if it was really fine with his teacher to immediately concoct the bloodline unsealing solution, to which he only nodded his head, without answering as he already did so several dozen times. With Artemis and Scorpio outside the soul world during the whole day, Jason leaned on Scorpio''s body, in the backyard when he read all kinds of books, with Artemis laying on top of Scorpio once she was tired from flying through the sky. When Greg received a notification, everyone except Jason and his two soulbonds jumped up, with radiant smiles on their faces as they rushed towards the street, where they could see a small drone carefully descending with a heavy package below it. Accepting the package, Jason noticed that the parcel itself was nothing special while the small boxes within radiated a cooling sensation, telling everyone that there were multiple perennial boxes within. Without wasting any time, Greg picked up the parcel and carefully approached Jason, only to hesitate for a second, because doubts filled his mind. ''Everything will be fine, right? Why am I suddenly so nervous?! Taurus will finally completely unseal his bloodline and will evolve into a Lesser Minotaur!!'' Reassuring himself, he held out the parcel towards Jason, who stood up in order to store the parcel, as he noticed Greg''s hesitation. Smiling, he confidently said "Don''t worry! At the end of the day, you''ll have the bloodline unsealing solution in your own hands." Hearing this, Greg''s tension slightly eased up, as Jason wanted to store the ingredients into his storage device. ''Huh?'' Noticing that it didn''t work, he averted his attention from Greg to the parcel, only to see strong mana fluctuations coming from the ingredients, telling him that they were plucked only several days ago, without hurting their roots, which was extremely beneficial because it preserved their effect. Smiling lightly, he took out a bag, where he put in the several perennial boxes, before he gazed at the other materials within, nodding his head, as he stored them within the storage device of his quantum bracelet. Looking at Greg and the Fler''s, he said "I''ll be going now!" "Be careful!" everyone said, causing him to frown lightly, because one could put it into two different ways, with either him being careful to not injure himself or that he should be careful in order to prevent damaging the Ingredients While sitting inside the shuttle, Jason thought about many things and one of them was, if Taurus, Greg''s reinforced horned bull soulbond would be able to finish its evolution before the Big-Three tournament started, which was only two days away. However, in the end, it was unlikely, because the evolution alone would most likely take longer than 24 hours, considering that Taurus'' evolution would take as long as Scorpio''s, even if that was hardly possible. One beast was barely at the awakened rank, while the other was a mid-evolved ranked beast, to begin with. As such, it might be possible for Greg to enter the tournament, while he had to adjust to the newly gained strength, which would most likely increase over the duration of the whole tournament, even if Jason couldn''t be sure of this. Once the shuttle arrived, Jason couldn''t help but feel his heartbeat increasing, as he went through the security check, that eyed him weirdly, as they scanned his bag, only to perceive a cooling sensation from the multiple boxes within, while the scan told them, that high-grade herbs and plants were inside. Ignoring their gazes, he continued to approach the reception in order to rent an alchemy room, when he saw the same receptionist as always. She also noticed him and immediately adjusted her demeanor and politely inquired if she should request a high-blacksmith room because she remembered the same request last time Jason arrived. However, hearing that Jason wanted to rent a basic-alchemy room, she couldn''t help but eye him with doubt, as she nodded her head in order to follow the common procedures. Once everything was finished, he received the number for his alchemy room, as he walked to the elevator with high expectations. Chapter 254 - Bloodline Unsealing Potion It was only lunchtime when Jason finally entered the alchemy he rented and looking at the whole room, he couldn''t help but sigh deeply. The tools only released a minuscule amount of mana, while the room itself felt as if it was constructed with mana drained materials, causing him to lament lightly. However, there was more than enough space for him to take out his own tools and equipment which radiated dense mana, as they were made out of high-quality ingredients that passively supported and amplified the whole concocting process. It was only a small support, but it was definitely better than nothing, which was the case with the tools within the Basic-alchemy room. Placing the perennial boxes next to each other on the table in front of him, with the other ingredients behind, Jason sorted everything in the correct order which would make the whole brewing process much easier. He didn''t even have to open up the perennial boxes because he could see the herbs outlines thanks to his eyes, allowing them to remain their high quality until the very last moment. There were not many herbs and ingredients required, with pure neutral magic crystal shards being the cheapest out of them. Meanwhile, the most expensive ingredient which was also the most important and main ingredient was the Crimson nebulus zanghe, even if it was only a baby-fist-sized plant. It released a dense blood-hue and Jason couldn''t help but admire such a plant because it could generate such a thick blood-hue, which was something he never saw before. Taking a few deep breaths, he placed multiple test tubes in front of him, with two beaks and a beaker next to them. In front of him were two tripods with a small hole in the center and igniting a flame in each hand, he ordered his black origin flame to let them slowly float below the tripod before they adjusted their temperature. Controlling the temperature, Jason was more than happy to have the black origin flame because maintaining the temperature of two flames at the same time, was not as difficult as before and he didn''t even want to imagine how frustrating it would be with normal flames. Taking out one of his Viridi-Starstream daggers, he cleansed it with his mana in order to prevent anything unwanted to obstruct the final result. Placing the dagger not even half a meter away from him, Jason focuses on the ingredients next to him, as he took out the third tripod from his spatial ring, which he placed to his left. With the beaker placed on top of it, he filled it with water and he manifested a third flame at a low temperature, which he placed below the third tripod. Heating up the water, he took out the mana crystal shards and put them into the water, before he threw in several dozen grams of Gloar-sand into the warmed-up water, causing a reaction between the grade-2 sand and the mana crystal shards. Slowly increasing the temperature of the third flame, Jason averted his attention in order to place a test tube within the two remaining tripods, before filling them with water and Luo-sand in addition to fewer neutral crystal shards, before he added fire elemental crystal shards into the left test tube and ice elemental crystal shards. Seeing that it began to react with the Luo-sand, Jason perceived that the water released faint transmuted mana fluctuations, which was exactly what he wanted. Sieving out the reduced Luo-sand without any mana fluctuations left and the mana drained crystal shards, he obtained two-colored flask tubes, one radiating a faint heat with a faint crimson color, while the other radiated a faint cold, while its color slowly changed into a faint blue. The flame below the faintly blue test tube was extremely low, barely heating up the cold, creating a repulsive reaction, as he immediately took out the perennial box with the ice affinity, arctic glacier orchid. Tearing out the pedals, which were the cause for the orchid''s ice affinity, he carefully placed them into the test tube, before he increased the heat for three seconds to an extremely high temperature, before he completely extinguished the flame. Seeing the orchid petals brightening up, Jason knew that he didn''t make a mistake, as it was the natural reaction of the arctic glacier orchid to release cold, cooling, and high-nutrition mana upon being ''attacked'' by sun rays or high temperature. Noticing this, Jason couldn''t help but smile, as he averted his attention back to the beaker, whose content reacted already with each other. Sieving out the mana drained crystal shards and Gloar-sand, one could feel a dense mana flow within the mana-infused water. Taking out the crimson nebulus zanghe, Jason noticed that the whole plant seemed alive, which caused him to sigh deeply, as he pierced straight into its center with the dagger that laid next to him only a moment ago, killing the semi-sentient plant, without trying to subdue it, which would bring much more benefits to the whole evolution solution he concocted. However, without any prior practice, Jason couldn''t waste any time by experimenting with how to subdue a semi-sentient plant, which was the reason for him to take out and cleanse his dagger. With the dead crimson nebulus zanghe inside the beaker, Jason increased the heat of the third flame consistently, adjusting it to the high temperature required to drain all nutrition and even the bloody hue out of the plant, forcefully causing a reaction with the thick mana infused water. When the third flame reached the required temperature and he noticed that it maintained the heat, without fluctuating, Jason couldn''t help but wipe away the sweat pearls forming on his forehead. Averting his attention to the two test tubes, Jason took out a fire attributed ingredient called, blazing ocean lotus, which he cut into several dozen small pieces before throwing it into the red test tube. Seeing it reacting, Jason couldn''t help but avert his gaze towards the cold test tube whose ice transmuted mana-infused water thickened, as his attention reverted back to the crimson nebulus zanghe. It seemed as if everything worked fine and the ingredients he used didn''t really try to fight against their fate as Dalia told him that it was possible. Now he only had to wait for the main component and two subcomponents to finish transmuting, training the nutrition, mana, and medical effect out of the herbs. However, that was still not everything, as Jason took out a fourth tripod, which he ignited with another flame, increasing the number of flames he had to control to three again, as the ice transmuted test tube didn''t require any heat. Filling one beak with water, Luo sand, and mana crystal shards, they reacted with each other once again, before he sieved everything. Taking out multiple herbs out of the remaining perennial boxes, Jason carefully put them into the beak. Seeing first reactions his timing had to be almost perfect and waiting patiently, he put in the next herb, before the reactions caused by the two herbs within started to release an aromatic smell, telling him that he had to put in the remaining herbs at once. Glancing at the time, the two test tubes and the beaker, Jason knew that it was almost time, as he sieved the drained herbs out of the two test tubes, before he placed the last beak, where the red test tube was situated on. With the black origin flame below heating up the glass, he averted his attention to sieve the drained herbs out of the two test tubes, before he carefully filled the content of both, revolting transmuted mana infused water sources, into the beak. Hearing a small *puff* with red-blueish smoke raising up, Jason sighed once again, before he waited a moment in order to see the reactions. Noticing that everything was fine, he averted his attention to the small beak he filled with several herbs, as he sieved the mana drained herbs out. Now there was only the crimson nebulus zanghe left and Jason noticed that it was almost completely drained, as he took it out because the thick blood aura released by the dense mana infused water was more than enough for his purpose. Sieving the crimson nebulus zanghe out and laying it aside, he put in the content of the thick solution created from the several herbs into the large beaker, before swirling it around carefully. Seeing the wanted reaction of the two different solutions reacting with each other, an aromatic scent filled with a thick bloody touch could be smelled. Averting his attention once again, he had only two different solutions left, and now, he had to be careful with putting the fiery-ice solution in the crimson nebulus zanghe bloodline solution. With his mana eyes utilized to the limit, Jason observed every little reaction, which caused him to hasten slow down the whole mixing process.. .. . Finally, more than fifteen minutes later, it was done, and Jason''s legs almost gave in, because it was more difficult than he imagined before, even if the worst-case scenario with complete sentient herbs trying to revolt didn''t happen, which caused him to sigh in relief. In the end, the whole evolution solution remained carefully put into two vials, which Jason immediately stored away in order to stay safe, as he looked at the chaos he created. The whole alchemy room looked like it was a pigsty to beg with and Dalia would most likely lecture him for hours, that such a mess was not acceptable. However, Jason couldn''t care less at the moment, because he created his first evolution solution, even if it was barely one of the easiest without him intentionally purifying it a tiny bit. Nevertheless, because of his origin flame''s innate ability, all ingredients had been refined and purified to a marginal degree, even if it didn''t change anything at the radiating color, because there was none to start with. This was the sole point he was dissatisfied with because he wanted to purify everything, but the overwhelming emotions that overcame him by creating an evolution solution turned everything less important, which even Artemis and Scorpio who remained in his soul world, overjoyed. Chapter 255 - Unsealed Bloodline! Cleaning up the mess he created, Jason couldn''t wait to rush to the Fler''s, who were probably also waiting for his arrival impatiently. He was also expecting how exactly the reinforced horned bull would change, after digesting the evolution solution, in addition to a large supply of mana stones. Thinking about this, Jason halted in his tracks for a moment, as he suddenly asked himself. ''Have the Fler''s even purchased enough mana stones?!'' Shaking his head, he doubted that the Fler''s disregarded the importance mana stones had towards a beast''s evolution and even bloodline unsealing. In the end, with a high mana supply, the reinforced horned bull might even directly metamorph without the need to evolve over a longer period like it was the case with Artemis. It would be much better for Greg, if his soulbond evolved like Scorpio, which was more likely, due to the fact that both used evolution solutions, while Artemis had to process everything by herself, without any support, backing her. As such, Jason rushed out of the Artisan tower once again, leaving the cleaned basic-alchemy room. Inside the shuttle, he gazed out of the window, only to see that the sun already disappeared, to which he could only sigh ''The lifestyle occupations are all too time-consuming¡­'' It was not that Jason didn''t want to learn all four lifestyle occupations his masters could teach, but his time was limited and if he wanted to make his goal about reaching the Ligue-state before the end of the new year, there was no time to practice all of them at once. Even if a single day was 48 hours long, Jason would rather focus on other aspects than practice four lifestyle occupations at once. Thinking about it, he thought that learning two lifestyle occupations to a higher degree and the others at a lower proficiency would already be the limit when he remembered the basis practice as a blacksmith, which he had yet to continue. Within the shuttle, Jason had more than enough time to think about everything that was about to happen soon, as the Big-Three tournament would start two days later. Still pondering, how much he should reveal about himself, he concluded that his fortified soul conjunctions would attract everyone''s attention, because it was even uncommon to see something like that, from someone at the age of 30, even less from young men and women in their 20s. Explaining how he achieved a fortified soul conjunction, barely seven months after his soul-awakening, was not possible, because Jason was also not sure how he achieved such a terrifying feat in such a short period. Nevertheless, it happened and Jason was the last who would complain about something that benefited him. As such, there was nothing bad about it, while hiding the fact of his fortified soul conjunction wouldn''t be much of a problem. Meanwhile, his physical strength compared to the average Expert stage was extremely high, as it already reached the 3rd Expert rank, even though it only barely crossed it. As such, Jason could fight against an average 3rd Expert rank just with his physique, which was terrifying enough, and he wondered if this would happen to be the case in the first-year Big-Three tournaments. At least it was not highly likely, without adding the amplification of Astrix''s most prodigious soul-awakenings. With their soulbond''s share, enhancing their mana core size and physique, Jason was extremely sure that quite a few students would be able to reach the same strength he currently possessed. This excluded however the fact that he was barely a 6th Adept rank with three soulbonds at that. Arriving at the Fler''s, Jason immediately jumped out of the shuttle, after paying, only to rush towards the house, without halting his step to bother about taking his shoes off, as his excitement ignited. He already knew how an evolution would be like, but he couldn''t really focus on the whole process, because he shared Scorpio''s pain at the same time, preventing him from noticing minute details that he wanted to note down now! Inside the house, however, Jason couldn''t see any of the Fler''s which puzzled him, as he looked around with his mana eyes fully utilized, only to see all four mana cores with their mana fluctuating restless, which caused him to go outside, where he was almost immediately surrounded and heartily greeted by the others. Noticing this, Jason smiled weirdly, as he took out the two bloodline unsealing solutions, which he placed in Greg''s trembling hands, who was barely able to control his mixed emotions of excitement and anxiety. Taking a glance behind Greg, he noticed that the Fler''s purchased a one-time mana isolation parchment, with a mountain of grade-2 mana stones next surrounding it. Scanning through the mana stones, Jason wondered if this was really enough, and estimating everything, he concluded, that it might be enough to unseal the bloodline with some extra. Jason doubted that the extra would be enough to forcefully metamorphose the four-legged bull into a bipedal Lesser Minotaur, which caused him to show a slightly worried expression, and Malia noticed this. She was still skinny, but she looked much healthier compared to her haggard look, when they left the four-star rift. Staring at Jason, she asked unsure what he was worried about "What''s wrong Jason? Is there a problem with the evolution potion or something else we forgot?!" Nobody of the Fler''s ever evolved one of their soulbonds, while their knowledge about Beast-Creators and the requirements for an evolution was shallow, to put it simple. As such, Jason whose soulbonds already underwent an evolution, while he was a Beast-Creators disciple to add on, was much more knowledgeable in this field as each of them. His age didn''t matter to any of them at this point, as Jason noticed everyone''s expression, filled with worry and hope at the same time. Clearing his throat he explained "There is nothing wrong with the evolution solution, and the mana isolation magic circle seems fine. However, I''m not sure if Taurus will be able to metamorphose with the supplied mana stones¡­There might be too few of them to achieve that. Nevertheless, it''s definitely enough to unseal his bloodline completely, even if the rest has to be adjusted over time. In the end, that''s only my guess.`` Hearing this, Mark and Gabriella looked at each other, before they sighed in relief, as they emptied their whole stored grade-3 mana stones into the mana stones mountain, with Malia and Greg following their parents'' steps. Perceiving the sheer amount of mana in front of him, Jason estimated that it should be more than enough, as he nodded his head towards Greg. Everyone except Greg stepped back, leaving him some space, as he summoned Taurus next to him, who roughly understood what was about to happen. Activating the one-time isolation magic circle on the parchment, a bright white light emerged, creating a dome with a radius of roughly 20 meters in diameter, as Taurus approached the parchment, halting its tracks above. Everyone noticed Greg''s shaking hand, as he opened the first vial with the evolution solution, before he approached his soulbond. His trembling hand worsened, as he fed the vial to Taurus, who sensed that the content within the vials benefited it a lot. Greedily gulping down the first potion, it started pawing with his hooves indicating Greg to calm down and give it the content of the remaining vial calmy. After Taurus gulped down the content of the last evolution solution, Greg immediately left the dome, only to see Taurus, roaring out, as it loosened the threads of all mana stones around it at once, which caused them to solve at once. With the mana stones dissolving, gaseous and liquefied mana was released, creating thick fog, which enveloped the reinforced horned bull, whose skin began to turn red. The veins below Taurus'' skin began to bulge, protruding out of the thick bull hide, as its eyes turned completely red, without any white left. Greg felt suddenly scared, as his eyes turned similarly red, as he roared out, causing the Fler''s to approach him worriedly. Looking at Greg, Jason who was the most familiar with his friend''s [Berserk] ability noticed that he entered the same state. Thinking for a moment, it looked like Greg was about to go rampage, only to be held back by his father, as Jason approached his friend. Using brute force, he knocked his friend out with a single punch, only to be eyed weirdly by his family Shrugging his shoulders, Jason calmly said. "It''s better this way. He won''t even feel his soulbonds pain and we can simply observe everything without the need to look after Greg in the Berserk state." Noticing how Jason reacted felt weird to the Fler''s because they thought that the two youths were best friends, only to see Jason knocking out their son without any hesitation. Gabriella was the most shocked because she never saw Jason using violence like this, which was incomparable to the time the two youths sparred with each other. Looking at him with widened eyes, Jason felt similarly weird, because he never thought that Greg would be forced to enter the Berserk state while his soulbond evolved, even less that he had to knock Greg out. Shaking his head, Jason decided to focus on the reinforced horned bull''s evolution, who was already completely enveloped by the thick mana fog. Only the bright gleaming red color could be faintly perceived through the fog, radiating a perilous aura, causing Jason to look even more intense at the whole process. Hours passed and the sun rose, when Greg finally woke up, only to see that his soulbond was still evolving, even if he already felt a devastating difference inside him, causing him to mumble in disbelief. "Taurus'' bloodline is already completely unsealed, he reached the low-unblemished rank and it''s still not done?!" Chapter 256 - Last Chance! The magic circle was still shining brightly, while the mana within was almost completely absorbed by Taurus, whose bloodline was now completely unleashed. Its skin changed into a red color while its muscles thickened, almost bursting out. Over the last few hours, Jason and the rest observed the process, only for him to stop in-between to practice his Heaven''s Hell technique once it was clear that nothing bad should happen if he were to avert his attention for some time. Even if it was not excessively important for him to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique as arduous as he did before, it would benefit him later, which was what he wanted. As such, he didn''t skip a single day, even though he was forced to reduce the number of times he could practice because it took him over two hours to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique now. This was after his proficiency increase which decreased the required time already and solely thanks to his soul energy that increased to more than 2000 units, which caused the whole construction of a drill made out of multiple threads and the following procedure to take much longer. If he were to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique three times a day, it would take more than six hours, which was currently too long. However, now that he finished Taurus'' bloodline solution, he could finally decrease his alchemy practice a little bit, allowing him to practice his other martial art techniques and proficiencies for a longer period. While Greg was knocked out, he suddenly began to groan out in pain, telling Jason that the real process of the metamorphosis started, as Greg received an overall boost in his physique, which was higher compared to what others would receive as his friend possessed a physically attributed soul world. Averting his gaze, to look at Taurus, Jason perceived that it was slowly transforming from a four-legged beast to a bipedal beast, which was a substantial change, considering that the bull never walked on two legs. Seeing this, he smiled and thought that it was definitely a good decision to add more mana stones in order to supply the metamorphosis. It was already lunchtime when Jason received a notification on his quantum bracelet. Jason reduced his contact to anyone else except the Fler''s drastically, because he had too many things to do and didn''t even think of messaging anyone else, while the same most likely applied to Seron, who sent him a message. [Hey Jason! Didn''t you want to enter the Big-Three tournament?! I know that you''re busy absorbing mana and so on, but are you not aware that today is the last chance for you to enter the special combat class seat? Or have you forgotten that your leave of absence took away your special combat class seat? Either way, come to school if you want to enter the Big-Three tournament¡­] Reading the message, Jason involuntarily slapped his own forehead, as a quiet "F**k" slipped out of his mouth, causing Mark to look at him weirdly. Standing up, he told Mark that he had to go to school before he took another glance at the evolving bull. Everything seemed fine and there was no need for him to observe everything anymore. As such, he ordered a shuttle and waited for some time, before it arrived in order to bring him straight to school. Meanwhile, he chatted a little bit with Seron about all kinds of things that happened in the meantime, until he finally saw the school gates. Rushing into the small colosseum, the first thing he did was to search for Seron, before he scanned through the mana cores of all present special combat class seats. From their mana core rank, Jason immediately figured out that his opponents would be at the 9th Adept rank, while several 8th Adept ranks who received stronger amplifications from their soul world core and soulbonds were also present There were also several 1st Expert ranks, but only one 2nd Expert rank, and that was Bella. However, in the end, the average strength he perceived after adding their soulbonds amplification, was roughly a mana core size at the 2nd Expert stage. Estimating their physical strength to be roughly on par with that rank, Jason couldn''t help but smile, as he already achieved a higher physique, while he was also further refined his physique. Furthermore, his physique gave him an additional boost for his fire affinity in his circulation pace, mana outburst, and sensitivity which allowed his black origin flame to act even more accurately. This was also the reason for his confidence when he concocted the bloodline unsealing solution, as his flame''s temperature was one of the most important factors. Finally, after roughly five minutes, he found Seron, who was talking to Milo. Waving them, they also noticed him, and with his mana eyes fully utilized, he noticed that Milo broke into the 1st Expert rank, while his amplification allowed him to barely reach the 2nd Expert rank in his mana core''s size. Meanwhile, Seron''s mana core seemed to have reached the 7th Adept rank, almost at the 8th rank, according to his perception, while the amplification from his mutated mana slime, increased his mana core size to the 9th Adept rank. Even if Seron''s martial art techniques were extremely powerful with his high proficiency, it surprised Jason that he could maintain his special combat class seat, as he was the weakest amongst all, if one were to consider only the mana core rank and physical strength. However, after adding Seron''s unique soulbond, his situation changed slightly because he had much more mana than anyone else and could erupt with more mana and over a long duration at that which was not the case with his opponents. Nevertheless, there was a limit on how many times he could use his smile ability [Mana injection], and if he were to be challenged a few times in succession with a short break in-between the fights, his friend''s situation would still look bad. As such, Jason could only praise his friend inwardly, as they talked to each other a little bit. Apparently, Milo and Seron became friends over the month he was not present, which Jason found extremely good because Seron didn''t have any other friend than him on Astrix. When he remained at the Fler''s for over a month, without messaging Seron at all, Jason felt somewhat guilty, even though he didn''t do anything wrong, but fortunately enough, Milo became Seron''s friend. Greeting each other, they talked with each other for roughly half an hour, before Jason prepared himself to take on a special combat class seat. There were all types of affinities Jason perceived and he wanted to fight all of them in order to find out more about the individual combat style they created, which either boosted their weaponry with an affinity or even completely relied on their affinity. Nevertheless, thinking about it, this thought was stupid, because his curiosity mostly relied on the fight he saw from the foreign races. They fought with high-quality affinities, while either relying on them or adjusting them to their combat style, and it was only obvious that the difference between the foreign races at the Prismar-stage and humans at the Mortal stage was completely different. In the end, Jason walked to one of the students that had a mana core at the 1st Expert rank and a fire affinity, that was most likely at the lower evolved rank. The youth''s mana core size was only amplified by a small margin, which was not even worth mentioning in his opinion, and Jason challenged him, before walking straight towards the combat arena, noticeably bored. Seeing this, the youth Jason challenge was frustrated and slightly angered, which caused him to rush after him. Once the AI initiated the fight, a shortsword appeared in the youth''s hand which he immediately enveloped with a thick mana membrane before igniting it in flames. With a burning sword, he rushed at Jason who looked at him unbothered, without moving a single inch, as he lifted his hand. As if Jason himself burned, a faint red flickering hue enveloped him, as dozen black fireballs manifested around him, and the youth that charged at him to hesitate for a moment, as he perceived the searing heat, that radiated from Jason. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to continue charging, as Jason shot the fireballs one after another towards the youth, who could barely evade a few of them in succession before his arm was streaked by the last fireball, burning his hair and skin until it finally flew past him. Enduring the pain, spreading through his whole body, the youth thought that Jason was done for good, as he noticed that another dozen fireballs of the same caliber had been manifested around the golden-eyed youth in front of him. "Holy sh*t!!" Crying out in shock, Jason could only smile apologetic, as he fired a few fireballs, before extinguishing the remaining, only for him to unsheathe his Viridi-Starstream daggers in order to finish his opponent for good. Less than a minute passed before the AI announced the winner, and Jason stepped back, only to see the youth holding back his tears, as he stared at him in anger. ''What a weakling¡­'' Jason thought, thinking that the slight burn wouldn''t even kill him because he didn''t even fully utilize his fire affinity and comparing the pain to his broken shoulder and other multiple occasions where he had to endure unbearable pain, he couldn''t help but think that the youth in front of him was nothing but a weakling. Suddenly, he noticed a familiar voice behind him, with the youth in front of him being enveloped by a faint, milky-hued aura, healing his injuries. "Jason, you''re late! Couldn''t you have been a little bit more considerate to your poor fellow student?" Turning around, Jason saw Till, and he smiled lightly to greet his teacher with a short, yet polite "Hello Mr.Greil" Noticing this, Till frowned lightly, but shaking his head, it was most likely better for them to behave like normal teacher and students in school, as he said "You finally decided to come and reclaim your seat to attend the Big-Three tournament tomorrow? Is that your final choice?" Hearing what his teacher said, Jason immediately knew what he meant, as he nodded his head with determination flickering in his eyes. Chapter 257 - Earth Dragon?! Claiming a seat for the Big-Three tournament which would start already the day after, Jason was satisfied with his achievement, even though he might have acted a little bit harsh. For his opponent to maintain his seat with a low-evolved fire affinity and only a 1st Expert mana core rank until now, he should have been proficient with his martial art technique. However, it seemed like Jason''s onslaught of black, peak-evolved fireballs might have been too much, as he manifested two dozen of them within a few seconds, without a large interval between. If an average person were to do this, they would most likely require more time to circulate the mana inside their body to manifest fireballs around them, while the whole process all ogether would also take slightly longer. As such, even Seron, who was already aware of his friend''s high proficiency with his affinities, was slightly taken aback because he couldn''t have imagined that Jason would be able to increase his accuracy to shoot the fireballs exactly at the same spot, while trying to maintain a dozen fireballs at the, without any signs of instability. There weren''t many students, challenging each other as it was the last day, as such a few noticed Jason''s fight against the fire ability user, only to overwhelm him by simply shooting two dozen fireballs in succession at the poor 1st Expert rank, who could only lament having met Jason. His clothes were burned, showing his burned skin below, and the youth had to suppress his tears, while Jason didn''t give him more attention than required. Without knowing the capabilities of his opponent, Jason''s opponent charged at him, not caring that he remained extremely calm, even though his mana core was only at the 6th Adept rank. This alone should have been enough to tell the 1st Expert rank to remain level-headed without mindlessly charging at him, taking Jason as a pushover. Today''s fight would most likely be a good lesson for the youth and it would have been a waste of time for him to enter the Big-Three tournament if he were to act similarly reckless there. Thinking about the Big-Three tournament, Jason felt excited, even if Old Drake forcefully plummeted this excitement, because it was unsure what exactly he planned. Since a month ago, where Old Drake told Till to take him to the mana dome tower, where they met the Drake family patriarch, Jason and Old Drake didn''t talk to each other, because there was simply no reason for either of them. But this caused Jason to feel even more insecure about his current position because Shane was injured, and it wouldn''t be considered unlikely for Old Drake to scheme something in the shadows, as he already tried to draw the patriarch''s attention to him before. As such, Jason could only sigh deeply, thinking that it was time for him to call Shane and Dalia once again to figure out what exactly his masters could do at the moment, and what exactly he was supposed to do. In the end, this was the best solution, because communicating with each other could solve many issues, with his masters raking their brains to secure his safety. Jason didn''t like relying on his masters, but apparently, there didn''t seem to be another way, other than fleeing out of the Drake family''s clutches while hiding somewhere until he was strong enough, which would take years, without being able to act freely as his current circumstances were not favorable. While the special combat class continued, there were only a few students left, and in the end there nothing special that happened anymore. Seron also told him that the beast he wanted as soulbond would soon lay its egg, after several dozen years, which caused Jason to wonder what kind of beast his friend would contract. However, even after asking, Seron only showed him a knowing smile, as he said "You''ll see soon enough!", as Jason offered to help his friend to pick a good beast, due to his mana eyes. "As you know, I can see mana fluctuations, and if there are several offsprings it might be possible for me to tell you which of them is the best to form a soulbond contract with, even if I cannot promise anything." Knowing that what he said was the truth, even if the reason was different, Jason made a one-time offer to Seron because he helped him a lot to improve his martial art techniques, and even gifted him the weightless steps movement technique, which he utilized a lot. As such, he wanted to thank Seron properly, who looked at him, pondering, as Till who stood close to them said "You can come with us, and it''s not really dangerous...maybe a little bit intimidating, but Seron will only benefit from it, right? Till knew that Jason''s potential was limitless and after figuring out that the golden-eyed youth contracted not only Artemis, a beast labeled as trash, a miniature Parascors, and even a mutated black flame, while maintaining an extraordinary high combat prowess which seemed to become better with each day passing, Till couldn''t help but feel happy, when Jason told Seron, that he could help him to figure out which soulbond he should choose. This, however, meant that there were multiple offsprings, which was extremely rare, as the beast Seron wanted to bind had an extremely low fertility rate, even among its rank. After Till said so, Seron only nodded his head, as a vibrant smile emerged on his face, which caused Jason to smile weirdly. "Now that master allowed you to come with me, I can tell you what kind of beast I''ll contract! It''s an Earth Dragon! Isn''t that cool?" Hearing this, Jason''s smile stiffened for a moment before he blinked several times without saying anything for a moment. "An...Earth Dragon??" He asked to reassure what Seron said, and seeing him nodding his head, vigorously, Jason couldn''t help but sigh... "Aren''t Earth Dragons extremely extinct on Canir and even rare to find in permanent rifts all around our territory? Even though they are only at the peak-Guardian rank, their affinity is on an entirely different league, compared to others on their rank...WAIT?! Do you want to tell me that you have enough soul energy units to bind a Guardian-ranked beast? A PEAK guardian ranked Dragon at that?!" Perceiving what exactly Seron told him right now, he could barely hold himself together¡­ While a magical ranked beast already required between 2.000 to 10.000 soul energy units, a Guardian ranked beast required 10.000 to 100.000 soul energy units, which was not something a 14-year-old youth should be able to bind, until the age of 17 or 18, considering that Seron''s soul energy was high since his soul-awakening. However, hearing Seron''s words, he couldn''t help but feel weird. ''Normally one would accumulate soul energy units for years in order to reach something Seron achieved in¡­.7 or so months?'' Looking at his friend in shock, Seron already figured out what exactly his friend wanted to tell him, as Till behind him intercepted their discussion. "Jason you don''t have to be so shocked. Even though Seron''s soul energy was high since his soul awakening, because he hails from a big family, he was allowed to awake his soul a few months prior to you, even more so, because Seron had to tent his malfunction. In the end, the Earth Dragon we''ll pick up will still remain in its egg for several months up to one year, maybe even two in order to grow healthy, if Seron contracts it before it grows up in its shell. As such, his soul energy can slowly be adjusted!" Staring daggers at his teacher, because he was not even allowed to speak for himself, Seron told Jason. "When I awoke my soul roughly 9 months ago, I had roughly 1000 soul energy units, which is already extremely high, and even without practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique, I could have contracted a mid-unblemished beast, or a magical ranked beast in its juvenile stage while practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique. However, I had to bind a mutated mana slime, because it was necessary to tend my malfunctioned mana veins which allowed me slowly accumulated more soul energy in order to prepare for a powerful second soul bond. Currently, my soul energy is at 20.000 units and each practice with the Heaven''s Hell technique, takes up to six hours, if not longer...Unfortunately, I can''t neglect my other practice, otherwise, I would practice the Heaven''s Hell technique every day. Nevertheless, with my current soul energy units and the long period an Earth Dragon requires to hatch even after I bind it, I should be able to reach its requirements" Hearing this, Jason couldn''t help but feel astonished, as he wondered why his friend took up such a difficult path in order to contract an Earth Dragon, which would take even more soul energy units than a normal beast because it was labeled a mythical beast, with terrifying strength, before it even hatched. Thinking about the reason, he finally remembered that the situation was similar to his and Artemis'' because his soulbond with her had been extremely thick since the beginning. Remembering this, Seron probably planned to act as if he was his future second soul bond''s mother or something similar to that in order to establish a thicker bond. His eyes widened and Jason could only praise Seron''s decision inwardly, even if there would be many obstacles, the benefits would still overweight the effort! The two of them continued to talk to each other about all kinds of other topics, once Jason digested the news about Seron''s second soulbond''s choice and the special combat class ended, without anyone else challenging the two of them as they went home. Milo who talked to Seron earlier was occupied with Bella who nagged him for spending too much time with Seron, which caused him to excuse himself shortly after Jason arrived. Apparently, they were a couple, which was somewhat entertaining for Jason, who thought that they suited each other. All of them were excited about the tournament that would start the next day, and Jason''s worry about Old Drake seemed to have vanished, as he entered the shuttle he ordered before. Chapter 258 - Test Of Strength! Jason started to read the advanced beastarium inside the shuttle, and he couldn''t help but think about Seron''s second soulbond choice as he began to wonder what kind of beast he would contract next to increase his combat prowess in the most efficient way. There were many abilities and affinities he was interested in, and a soulbond that could heal him was one of the best he could take, while a soulbond that could initiate a crowd control ability wouldn''t be bad either. But after pondering for a while, there were also other abilities he might need in perilous situations. ''The concealment ability, which the untraceable Drakes have seems to be extremely good...If a beast with a similar ability at an even higher rank exists, it would be terrifying and even better for me to bind! Other than that, Shane''s ability to summon spatial portals is also nothing to scoff at and extremely terrifying. Furthermore, I never know what might happen, and having other abilities like night vision or being able to breathe underwater are also essential, right?!'' Listing a few affinities and suitable abilities, Jason couldn''t help but sigh, because there were just too many things he wanted to get right of the bat, and his patience seemed negligible. If he had enough soul energy units, it wouldn''t be much of a problem because it would be simpler to search for beasts with high potential, but unfortunately enough, this was not the case right now. Before searching for a fourth soulbond, Jason wanted to have accumulated enough soul energy units to supply his black origin flame, and his other two soulbonds. After that, he wouldn''t be content with beasts that had a low potential, which meant that he might have to search for stronger beast offsprings in dangerous areas, which required him to be stronger than he currently was. As such, he could only sigh deeply, as he continued to read the beastarium until he arrived at the Fler''s house. It was already dark outside, yet Jason heard loud noises from the backyard which was lightened up, and attracted his attention, as he activated his mana eyes, while slowly approaching the area, where the small combat grounds were situated. There, he could see someone with an unstable amplified mana core that increased by multiple levels in size, fighting against a 3rd Master rank. Concluding was he saw, it had to be Greg and Malia sparring with each other, as he finally saw them when he walked around the corner. Monitoring their spar, Malia was obviously holding back, while trying to pressure Greg in order to adjust to his new strength and to consolidate his mana core at the same time. Even if Greg''s mana core rank was only at the 7th Adept rank, his mana core size increase by such a large degree, that he was almost comparable to average 1st Expert ranks, while his physique received a much higher amplification as Greg''s soulbond and soul world were based on the physique. As such, Jason estimated his physical strength to be comparable to an average 2nd Expert rank, without the need to use his Berserk ability, which most likely also received a boost. Smiling lightly, he observed the whole spar, only to notice that Malia was unable to perfectly adjust herself to Greg in order to force him to use his whole strength, while she accidentally used too much strength in some clashes. After five minutes, the spar was already over, and Malia noticed that Jason observed their battle, which caused her to charge up to him, as she sighed in relief "It''s your turn!!" Malia said with a faint smile on her lips before a radiant smile emerged, as she disappeared inside the house. Looking after Malia who left the two youths alone, he couldn''t help but smile dryly, as his attention turned towards Greg who still stood in the combat arena with gleaming eyes. "I''ll change my clothes and then we can spar, alright?" Jason said, without being able to hold back his own excitement. It looked like Taurus finished its transformation, even if it was unable to reach its racial limits, and its mana core rank remained at the Low-unblemished rank, this was already enough for Greg to receive the large amplification from his soul world. However, more important was that Taurus was not a reinforced horned bull anymore, but that it evolved into a Lesser Minotaur, even if it was still not matured. Nevertheless, Jason was still stronger than Greg, as his soul amplified him a much higher share than his friend received, which allowed him to attain the physical strength of an average 3rd Expert, after refining his body with the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique. As for his mana core size, it was much larger than Greg''s even if he was one level higher than Jason, but this was not something that mattered to the two youths right now. Jason wouldn''t hold back even a little bit because he wanted to force his friend to use his Berserk ability, as he was extremely curious about the changes Greg''s ability received, even if it might end with someone sustaining minor injuries. In his opinion, a real spar required at least a few bruises and not holding back to come out of the spar unscathed. Outside the dome, something like this wouldn''t happen either, why should they have to suppress their strength within a spar then? After changing into a combat suit, Jason halted his steps opposite Greg, barely forty meters apart, as they shouted "Go!" almost exactly at the same time, before charging at each other. Greg was still using his gloves, while Jason unsheathed his pseudo-mana grade-1 daggers, because using his ViridiStarstream weapons after supplying them with too much mana might not only slash through Greg''s gloves but also bones, muscles, and so on, which was not necessary. As such, his self-made daggers were the best choice. Exerting the weightless steps movement technique at the profound mastery, Jason''s speed increased by roughly 40%, as he summoned multiple icicles around him at the same time, Shooting them towards Greg, who easily shattered them with high-velocity punches, while exerting his [Emperor Ape] martial art technique, both felt excited, which they could see in each other''s face. Summoning more icicles of various sizes, Jason shot all of them at once towards Greg who was barely five meters away from him as he further circulated a large amount of mana within his lower body to increase his speed by a small margin. Crossing the distance of five-meter in a moment, Greg, who was already overwhelmed by the sheer number of icicles, barely perceived him, as all of his hair on his body stiffened when he noticed the coldness in Jason''s eyes. Greg didn''t hesitate for another moment, and he utilized his [Berserk] skill which increased his strength by almost 80%, as his whole body enlarged. Issuing a loud roar, he shattered the icicles shooting towards him into smitherness. Jason, who was barely half a meter away from Greg, about to slash at his calves noticed Greg''s change, which caused him to feel threatened. Trying to retreat, Greg''s speed increased by a large margin, as he kicked out at Jason, blasting him away several meters because he was unable to avoid the attack at all. Knowing that it was still not over, Jason pushed himself from the ground, not wasting a single second, as he already felt something gigantic behind him. Goosebumps covered his whole body, as he used a quarter of his mana in order to erect a thick, compressed ice wall. Charging away from the ice wall, with his weightless steps technique exerted to the limits, Jason could only hear metal crashing in the ice wall, creating a large hole within the thick wall before several more holes followed, one after another. ''Is he still unable to control his berserk-state?'' Jason began to wonder while taking deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. ''Even if his physique is extremely terrifying in this state, without being able to think reasonably, it''s still the same as before!'' With this in his mind, Jason released his ice affinity slowly, enveloping the whole combat arena with white fog, while his mana eyes still perceived his friend perfectly and he knew exactly where Greg was. He sincerely hoped that Greg would be able to get the hang of himself in order to show him his true strength because his physical strength reached a terrifying heigh and Jason was only able to do something against it, thanks to the affinities he currently had. However, if his ice affinity was already enough to win against Greg, his opponents at the Big-Three tournament should be able to do the same! Staring at his inflated friend, Jason stood on-guard, without missing a single minute detail, while slowly walking around the combat arena, as his eyes brightened up when he noticed that Greg who threw around an ice block before, calmed down, without the need to come out of the Berserk state. Perceiving the mana fluctuation he released, Jason stepped back in order to figure out how high Greg''s mana sensitivity and control currently were and if his released mana fluctuations could cover the whole area. After several seconds, Jason nodded his head, when Greg was unable to expand his fluctuations further, as Jason severed the connection to his ice affinity and the mist, which would slowly dissipate, as he fully exerted his weightless step technique, before at Greg who stood around motionless, fully concentrated on scanning his surroundings. Manifesting a dozen black fireballs around him, the mist revealed Jason, when he already appeared in front of Greg, who could barely open his bloodshot eyes, as he issued a loud "F*ck!" Chapter 259 - Do Whatever You Want! After utilizing the Berserk ability Greg inherited from the Lesser Minotaur, his physique was stronger than Jason''s by a large margin, and only by using multiple affinities, Jason was able to fight Greg head-on. However, due to Greg''s low proficiency with his Berserk ability, Jason was at an advantage as he noticed that Greg was forced to stay motionless within the mist in order to release his mana. Thanks to that he figured out that Greg''s control over his ability was still unstable, even if it was much better compared to before. Appearing in front of Greg with his body leaned forward, as they stared at each other with a serious expression. Jason released all dozen, fist-sized black fireballs at once in order to attack Greg''s vital spots, without aiming at his head. In the worst case, his friend would receive a few burns, and shooting a peak-evolved ranked fireball at his friend''s head would be considered overkill because they only sparred with each other. Not even bothering if the fight was over or not, Jason pushed himself from the ground with his weightless steps technique fully utilized, as he switched from Greg''s front to his backside, when the fireballs exploded, creating a large smoke screen which covered his disappearance. Unable to see each other under normal circumstances gave Jason many benefits thanks to his mana eyes and his seemingly perfect vision. As such, he even perceived how light Greg''s injuries were thanks to his disrupted mana in the areas his fireball hit as he pierced with both daggers into Greg''s calves, without thinking about dulling them at all. If Greg wanted to learn how to control his Berserk ability, he had to remain level-headed even after sustaining light and severe injuries, which Jason wanted to force right now. Being able to finish off Greg, Jason decided to back off after inflicting two rather light injuries, as he released thick mist once again fully guarded against possible counterattacks. However, this time, he also concealed his mana fluctuations to a certain degree, with the help of his concealment technique. Monitoring how Greg behaved and desperately tried to control his own body while being in the Berserk state was not something Jason liked to see, but if he wanted to help his friend, this was necessary. Yet, after seeing that his friend was unable to control himself after Jason injured him, he could only sigh, as he actively supported his passive mana gathering technique, while his sub-area in his mind did the same. With this, he could replenish his mana faster than it was used up in order to manifest the thick mist surrounding him. Their spar ended after barely five minutes when Greg''s berserk state began to recede, releasing him from his suffering, as he slumped on the ground, taking deep breaths. Jason meanwhile stopped utilizing his ice affinity, before he walked towards Greg when the mist began to dissipate. Looking at each other, Greg gnashed his teeth as he frustratingly acknowledged. "I''m still unable to control my berserk state!..F*ck!!" However, Jason perceived the whole situation differently, as he said reassuringly. "Don''t be so frustrated! It has only been a few hours since you received the enhanced version of your Berserk ability from Taurus, and it''s already quite good that you could control yourself to such a high degree! If you think back to the time when you used your Berserk ability for the first time against me, you''ll notice that your proficiency increased by a lot! If you work hard, a few weeks will be more than enough to further improve your control, and then you''ll be extremely powerful and maybe even the strongest first-year on Astrix? Who knows?" Reassuring and motivating Greg was what he needed right now in order to stay motivated and the two talked to each other while Jason supported Greg to walk inside towards Gabriella who looked shocked at her son, whose calves were pierced by a sharp object, while his skin was partially burned. Staring daggers at Jason, he didn''t know what to say, when Greg came to his rescue, as he explained how this helped him out in order to control his Berserk state. Thinking about this, Gabriella could only sight and think that it was better if Jason attacked her son without killing him in order to improve his control over his abilities, which might save his life in the future when something dangerous might happen, instead of someone else torturing him, even if she hated to see her son being injured more than anything. It hurt her heart deeply, but she knew that it was important to become stronger in a world that was reigned by the strong. After bringing Greg to Gabriella, Jason took a shower and changed into a clean set of clothes before he returned to his room, where he took out the messenger crystal he hasn''t used for over a month, where he told Dalia everything about Old Drake and the Drake patriarch. Injecting mana into the messenger crystal, he called his masters once again, because he had to figure out if they had any instructions for him, or that he should just hold back during the tournament in order to stay low profile. After the runes brightened up, they manifested and Jason had to wait for several minutes before he finally heard Shane''s voice "Hello, Jason? What''s going on? How are you doing?" Being able to hear Shane who sounded healthy without pain in his voice, Jason sighed in relief, as he began to talk with his master about the main issue he noticed for the "Hello Master, I''m doing fine. I hope your reattached arm is completely healed and that you''re back at your top form! However, I called today for a different reason¡­As you two may know, I''ll enter the Big-Three tournament which will start tomorrow, but to be honest I''m not sure how much strength I should use! I''m already aware of the fact that the established fortified soul conjunctions with my soulbonds shouldn''t be revealed, but other than that I''m not sure! My physique is currently comparable to an average 3rd Expert rank, while my affinities reached the mid/late evolved rank¡­ I know that this is not really something special on Canir, if I were to compare myself to prodigies there, but it''s still relatively uncommon for someone without any backing. If there was not the issue with Old Drake, I wouldn''t really bother about this, but because I feel so uncomfortable, I decided to call you two!" Hearing the urgency, worry, and slight frustration In Jason''s voice, Shane couldn''t help but smile drily through the messenger crystal, while Dalia approached him from behind. She also listened to what Jason said and they already discussed multiple scenarios with each other, as Shane said reassuringly. "Just do whatever you want to do! You don''t even have to hold back if you find an opponent you genuinely want to beat! Just ignore the older generation and the others who bother you! We thought of multiple ways to get you out of Astrix, if Old Drake tries to scheme against us!" After Shane finished, Dalia from behind shouted "In the worst case, you can just fake your death! We are proficient in doing something like this¡­hehe! Otherwise, Shane will use force to get you out of there! His spatial affinity never betrayed us! Don''t worry little one! Shane is healthy, even though he still didn''t recuperate completely. We already prepared something large for the Drake family patriarch, if he were to come for you¡­hehe...It might be cruel, but everyone will receive what they sowed." Hearing his masters speak, Jason was once again taken aback as he noticed that the two seemed to have several personalities because they were sometimes extremely serious, and then suddenly childish, when it came to forging or Beasto-creator''s. However, in his opinion, Dalia only wanted to ease his tension because she noticed his anxiety. In the end, it was only obvious for him to feel nervous, considering that there might be a Sovereign rank after him, who was said to have a full-fledged dragon as his soulbond. Worse was, however, that the Drake family patriarch was stronger than Shane according to the mana core size and number of solidified prismarine-crystals within their mana core. This didn''t necessarily mean that Shane was weaker, but it was definitely a disadvantage, as his soulbonds were also weaker than a sovereign-ranked dragon. Additionally, the Drake family patriarch had high-quality transmuted. Smiling through the messenger crystal, Jason was thankful that his masters allowed him to go all out if he wanted to, as he suddenly remembered something he wanted to tell them! ''I almost forgot it!?'' He said to himself, slapping his forehead. Chapter 260 - Retorting His Master Hearing a thumb slap through the messenger crystal, both Dalia and Shane were confused, which caused them to simultaneously blurted out "Jason! Are you alright?!" Noticing that he was still in a call with his masters, Jason told them that he was fine before he decided to reveal everything about the two Terra-grade manuals his masters gave him to study. Not knowing where to start, Jason chooses to let his masters know the facts, straight without holding back "I have something else to tell the two of you, which has nothing to do with the Big-Three tournament...When Dalia told me that I received the two original Terra...eh...blessed manuals, I first started to read the translations and I noticed that something was off because it seemed like the translations were somewhat off. As such, I remembered that I could understand the foreign races talking to each other, and even though I don''t know why, I started to look at the original text. In the end, I was once again overwhelmed by pain, with many streaming inside me, but that''s not important right now!! More important is, that I was able to read the original text within the techniques that hail from other races! " Jason took a few deep breaths, as he noticed the silence on the other side, which caused him to wonder if there was something wrong with the transmission when Shane faintly uttered"What?!.... Wait...continue¡­.." It was probably shocking for them to figure out that he was able to read the manuals'' original texts, and Jason understood their concern as he continued. "The two blessed techniques, like we called it previously are called ''Terra-Intermediate--Netherworld''s forte'' and ''Terra-Basic--Darkness proselytism''. As such, their grade is not called blessed, but Terra and the Darkness proselytism technique allows someone with a single darkness affinity to transmute one''s mana in darkness mana with certain unique effects that might awaken during the process. Unfortunately, someone with multiple affinities can''t practice it, and it''s harmful to anyone who wants to use multiple affinities while practicing this technique if they were to disregard the well-meant advice, written over several pages. Meanwhile, the Netherworld''s forte technique is a body refining technique, that allows foreign races to strengthen and refine their body which allows them to be as strong as beasts at the same rank! In the Netherworld''s fort introduction part, it was clearly written that almost all races are innately weaker than foreign beasts, and comparing their strength to humans, they should be slightly stronger, at most, with a few exceptions. However, due to their body refining techniques, they can fight against beasts head-on without the need to rely on their quantity to fight Monarch-ranked beasts for example, as humanity was forced to do so¡­ I also studied the introduction of both Terra-grade techniques and have to say, that the intel I received is terrifying, beca--" "STOP!" Shane suddenly shouted in anger, and it was obvious that he was uncomfortable with what he heard "Can you please not throw the information at us as if we would understand everything immediately!! Even if we''re old, what you''re talking about is new..and shocking¡­please be more considerate!! Shane felt as if his whole world was shattered with the information Jason already told, and he didn''t seem to have even started! However, he had to stop his disciple for a moment, as he noticed Dalia''s shaking hand resting on his shoulder, smiling lightly as he saw both fear and excitement gleaming in her eyes. Both didn''t know what the hell was going on, but hearing that the foreign races were not innately much stronger than humans was good to hear, while Jason''s current intel already scared Dalia, because she didn''t want to hear what was coming now because she could already estimate where his words were going to... Holding her hand, Shane forced himself to calm down, as he asked his disciple "So, you want to tell us that the foreign races are innately weaker than beasts and that the body refining technique, or whatever it is called, is the reason for their strong physique?" Shane seemed to have gathered his senses to a certain degree as Jason answered slowly. "Yes, that''s exactly the case and I can also prove the efficiency of the body refining technique. By practicing the Netherworld''s forte technique with an astronomical amount of mana stones and nutrition, I was able to refine my physique to a certain degree but I noticed that this doesn''t work for the amplification I received from my soulbonds, which is a slight downside. As such, my physique which should only be at the 6th Adept rank due to my mana core rank became stronger and more endurable. Adding the amplifications I receive from the soul world core and my soulbonds, I should be able to fight low-evolved beasts head-on soon, without using any mana! Isn''t that great?!" Jason was really excited about the things he found out when he heard Dalia shouting through the messenger crystal. "DO YOU WANT TO KILL YOURSELF!?!?" Hearing this caused him to stumble back, until he fell on his bed, as he looked at the messenger crystal in shock. ''Why is she shouting so loud? I was careful!'' Calming down, she added "Jason! Why are you always acting so reckless¡­ couldn''t you have waited for us or at least discussed something important like this?! What if this body refining technique was harmful to your body?! You could have permanently damaged your whole body and maybe even your soul world? You don''t know anything about the technique and practicing it without any preparations is plain stupid!!" Frowning, Jason found that Dalia exaggerated a little bit, as he retorted "The Shore family also practiced this technique, and they didn''t even do it right! Yet, they were still considered a big clan, even if they were one of the weaker ones...I read through the body refining technique multiple times and only practiced it for a short period in order to figure out if there was an issue. After each session, I carefully observed my whole body and tested if there was anything amiss, with either my affinities, movement, health or mana circulation. I understand that I could have called you two to figure out more together, but I don''t even know how many times a messenger crystal can be used before breaking because the two of you didn''t tell me that! Should I have asked Till or Old Drake how often a messenger crystal can be used?! If I did that, I could''ve just given them my messenger crystal, because it would become entirely useless¡­" Even if he was aware that he acted recklessly, his masters were not entirely without fault. If he called them because of every single problem, the messenger crystal would have already crumbled, without him being able to discuss how to handle the issue with Old Drake at the Big-Three tournament. As such, he had to be careful with each call he made, as he heard Dalia sighing deeply. "I''m sorry Jason...somehow I couldn''t help myself...Maybe the information you already said is too much for me to digest...So you refined your physique with the body refining technique? If you''re feeling good that''s fine. Hearing that you can almost fight against low-evolved beasts without the usage of mana is amazing! We have to test this further, once you arrive at our new hideout." Shane at the other side of the messenger crystal looked at Dalia, worried because it has been a long time since she was unable to control her emotions, as he rubbed her back gently. "Jason, is there anything else you want to tell us? Please be considerate to us!!" Shane said, still looking at Dalia. However, Jason was still unaware of the shock he created within his masters, and being considerate was not his strength, as he just continued to lay down the facts he figured out. "Both techniques have the same mana core ranking system, while they also wrote about lower planets and that their number is unimaginably vast. Meanwhile, if I''m not wrong, the introductory part also labeled Argos as an infant among the lower planets. The cultivation system description and the part about the planets were only a few sentences inside the whole introduction but Isn''t that interesting!? Apparently, what we separated in three to four ranks is only considered a single stage according to the foreign race mana core ranking! Their Mortal stage is consistent with our Novice-Adept-Expert and Master rank, while their second stage is labeled Ligue state starts at the magus rank with the compression and liquefaction of the first drop of mana and¡­" "JASON!" Shane shouted once again, causing Jason to frown, as he innocently, yet slightly annoyed asked "What?!" "I told you to be considerate!?!? Since when is revamping our complete system and indicating that humans are less insignificant than we already imagined, considerate?! Argos is an infant among the lower planets?! An unimaginable vast number of lower planets?!" Shane shouted, without being able to hold back anymore, as his disciple seemed to have become denser since they parted ways Hearing Shane shouting at him, he thought for a moment, as he subconsciously uttered an "Oh...true!" Dalia behind Shane still shivered slightly as she tried to tell Jason to not mind her husband. "Don''t mind Shane...It''s just too much for us to understand, that we are considered insignificant by the other races...We already knew that the gap between us and them was wide, but the revamped mana core ranking system you talked about is¡­..just too much.." Listening carefully to Dalia, Jason''s eyes widened, as it seemed that she sobbed, which caused him to feel guilty and uncomfortable about his density when he noticed the runes on the messenger crystal flickering. Shane seemed to notice the same, as he told Jason, as calm as possible, trying to suppress his shaking voice "Give your best at the Big-Three tournament and don''t let anyone beat you up! When I take you to our new hideout, we''ll have to talk about all the things you got to know from the two blessed...or Terra?-grade techniques...Don''t message us for now because we can''t be sure if someone else might accidentally connect to our frequency if the Drake family patriarch were to appear to watch the Big-Three tournament¡­" Chapter 261 - Observance Their call ended abruptly as the messenger crystal began to crumble a little bit, and Jason was sure that it would only hold out at most one or two more calls. However worse was the turmoil of emotions he created within his masters, which he didn''t expect. ''Should I have waited until we meet in person?!'' Thinking about this, Jason could only lament that he was sometimes extremely dense, in the worst possible situations at that. It didn''t matter how intelligent Jason thought he was if he acted so dense in front of others¡­. Sighing deeply, he decided to calm down by refining his body before he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique. After washing up, Jason slept, expectant what would happen the next day, as the tournament would start. He was still not sure what exactly his masters planned, but it was already enough for him to know that they were confident to rescue him from the Drake family patriarch''s grasp. That was if he were to appear, which Jason estimated to be unlikely because last time was already a waste of time according to the Drake family patriarch''s words. As such, Jason could just give his best without holding back, which caused him to smile foolishly. Sleeping soundly, he woke up several hours later, when he heard that Scorpio and Artemis quarreled with each other. When Artemis told him that his soul world was boring to stay in for a long duration, Jason decided to let them out as long as possible. This meant that they could stay outside when he was at the Fler''s or when he meets up with his masters once again, as walking with them through the city was not really what he or his soulbonds imagined to do. Getting out of the bed, he stretched his body before caressing his two soulbonds. Working out, and washing up, Jason felt extremely invigorated as he changed into a clean set of clothes before walking down to the Fler''s that were already eating. Greg and Malia looked like they were nervous, while they only noticed his excitement. He wanted to have a few good fights and the Big-Three tournament would allow him to see how strong he was compared to his peers, which was something he wanted to figure out. In the end, Jason would only fight against his strongest peers on Astrix, without considering any other islands, or even Canir. Nevertheless, it was already enough for him to roughly estimate his strength, which was exactly what he wanted! As such, he greeted the four sitting in front of their breakfast overjoyed, as he sat down with them. Taking out a few high-nutrition dishes, he bought in bulk as he needed the nutrition for his Heaven''s Hell practice, Jason ate them with a faint smile on his face. However compared to the Fler''s his hunger was still much higher and Jason noticed that his demand for nutrition increased after he practiced the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique, which was however not out of his expectations. Talking with each other, Jason noticed that even though Greg was nervous, whose confidence increased by a large margin after Taurus evolved into a Lesser Minotaur, which benefited both of them greatly. Smiling lightly, the five of them decided to go to Cyro-City''s main arena together, which was situated in the center of the city and used for the Big-Three tournament. The Big-Three tournament had been split into three different segments in order to group the students, and that surprised Jason in the beginning. The first few rounds of the tournament would be held at the same time because it would be difficult to cope with the sheer number of contestants and scheduled period, the government wanted the tournament to take place. As such, each of the three tournaments, also called Basic-, Intermediate-, Advanced- tournament or to make it easy, first-year-, second-year- and third-year-tournament was split into different sections. With the first rounds at the same time, they would only take a few days, while the rounds afterward would be scheduled over the course of the day. While the Basic-tournament would be held in the morning, the Intermediate-tournament would start after lunch, with the Advanced tournament in the evening. This was only, because the first few rounds were less entertaining, while the latter could be completely different and more thrilling. However, even if the three Big-Three tournaments were divided in the morning, after lunch, and evening section, most citizens would only take a look at the Advanced tournament in the evening because the students'' combat prowess was much higher, indicating a more spectacular fight. Jason didn''t really bother if anyone were to watch his fights in the beginning but that changed slightly when he remembered that the Drake family patriarch could see his fights. It was unlikely but still possible and Jason decided to believe Shane, who told him that he would take care of everything, even if he would feel extremely useless, as a damsel in distress. Once they finished their breakfast, everyone started their preparations before Mark took out their limousine, which Jason already got to know in Jiro city. The limousine was extremely fast and luxurious, but compared to a few months ago, he couldn''t help but chuckle lightly, as he remembered his naivety and non-existent knowledge he had at that time. So many things changed over the course of several months and he was only about to start his journey! Smiling, Jason entered the limousine followed by the others before they started their short trip to Cyro-City''s arena. Arriving in front of the arena, they got out of the hovering limousine as they looked up to the glamorous, yet seemingly profound and tall building which didn''t was different from the surrounding building complexes, but Jason could immediately tell a big difference. The materials used to build the arena radiated thick mana fluctuations and even a faint green-pinkish hue was released from the whole building. Trying to figure out what this hue meant, Jason and the Fler''s immediately felt a vigorous sensation enveloping and infiltrating them, as they entered the arena. Forced to halt their steps for a second, his eyes widened, as he wondered if this vigorous and energizing sensation was caused by the green-pinkish hue his mana eyes perceived. ''Can I also see something like this?'' He wondered, and it really seemed to be the case that he could even the unique effects some materials innately had. Figuring this out, Jason felt slightly overwhelmed but it was nevertheless something extremely good. As such, he shook his head and followed the Fler''s who already walked ahead. Splitting up, Malia went to the third floor, while he and Greg had to enter the first floor in order to compete against 3000 other youths. Gabriella and Mark followed Malia at first, as they wanted to see how she would fare and to support her by cheering, while Greg had Jason to support him. Entering the arena, both Greg and Jason noticed that more than 1000 youths were already present, split up in their own groups, glaring at each other as if they were arch-enemies. ''Are they gonna kill each other or what?'' Jason asked himself, as a few youths suddenly glared at him when he noticed that his mana core was scanned. While a minority began to laugh out, there were more youths who continued to look at him and Greg carefully. The latter reaction was uncommon for Jason to receive, but it was exactly the same reaction he would have if he were to see a 6th Adept rank in the Big-Three tournament hall! If two youths with a 6th and 7th Adept mana core rank were able to get a seat for the Big-Three tournament, they couldn''t be taken lightly because they had to defeat other students that were at least at the 9th Adept rank, more likely even 1st Expert rank. As such, their combat prowess, experience, martial art techniques, and most likely even soulbonds had to be extraordinary. While they were carefully seized up by several hundred pairs of eyes, only a few dozen laughed out after figuring out their mana core rank, and Jason immediately knew that these few dozen would underestimate him, which was beneficial in his opinion. In the end, they would figure out that he was not someone to laugh at after he beat them up, and somehow deep within, Jason hoped that he would be matched against one of the few dozen students who laughed. It was still early and there was more than enough time left until the tournament would start which caused Jason and Greg to sit down in order to prepare their equipment when he noticed that Seron and Milo approached them. Greeting each other, he introduced Greg to the two and vice versa, before the group of four began to talk lightly with each other without minding the others. Jason was still relaxed because he doubted that anyone in the first few rounds would become a serious threat to him, which caused the others around him to release their tension subconsciously. Chapter 262 - First Round Once the first arena floor was filled with all 3.000 first-year students, Till arrived at the podium with a few teachers next to him, which caused Jason to look up weirdly. ''Why is he everywhere?!'' With a light snap of his fingers which he enveloped with mana, the whole floor turned quiet within a single moment, as Till stepped forward. "Hello dear students from the three big schools, my name is Till Greil and I''m the Vanguard school''s representative for the Basic-tournament. First, before anything else, I want to congratulate everyone to have come this far by defeating dozens of other students in order to claim a tournament seat. However, this doesn''t mean that any of you is something special and there are still 2999 other students that came so far, and only the Top 25 will receive any rewards." Stopping for a moment to take a deep breath, he continued. "Without wasting any time, I''ll announce the rules for the first round! As everyone should know, the Big Three tournament is a combat-oriented tournament, without any additional rounds to seed out students by testing their mana mastery or martial art proficiency. As such, the three schools decided to divide the 3000 participants into groups of 30 because the first floor has exactly 100 arenas, which perfectly fits our purpose. After everyone is divided into groups, the AI will schedule the fights, with every student fighting against another. To put it more simply, everyone will have 29 fights and in the end, the four students with the most wins will enter the second round which will follow a simple. K.O system. After we reach the top 100, the schedule will change with the Basic Big Three tournament held in the morning, but until we enter this phase, a few days will pass!" After Till finished explaining the first round and what followed afterward, another teacher that looked somewhat annoyed, came forward, replacing Till on the podium, as he said, quietly seemingly without emotions. "Mr. Greil already explained everything important for the tournament, but there is something else everyone should be aware of. Every arena will be monitored by the AI, which means that it will also record all fights. This is only to figure out if anyone used unfair means, like guns, grenades, poison that doesn''t come from an affinity, or other similar means! Killing is obviously forbidden and intentionally crippling your opponent too. If someone breaks these simple rules the punishment will be severe but fair, from being exiled to imprisonment or even forced to enter a soul contract with the victim, forcing the perpetrator to become the victims'' slave, which allows him or her to do everything with you whatever he or she wants!." Hearing what the teacher, who found it apparently useless to introduce himself, said, Jason nodded his head, as he already imagined such rules, while hearing what he said about the soul contract was something new to him. However, thinking about it, this didn''t seem to be bad! If someone were to permanently injure his mana core, the perpetrator might even be forced to serve him for his whole lifetime. With this, the possibility for someone to intentionally heavily or even permanently injuring someone decreased drastically! It was not a bad plan to prevent such cases, even if they might still happen if someone were to provoke his or her opponent too much. In the end, the rules were extremely simple, while the whole tournament schematics felt like they were thought of a few minutes before. Shrugging his shoulder, Jason ignored the last teacher who said something about healing the injured students and so on, as the notification about his scheduled fights arrived at his inbox. Opening the message, a small holographic screen manifested in front of him, with all fights of his group listen down while his own name was underlined and easy to find, Looking through the schedule, Jason figured out that the whole first round would take around three days, which included the weekend. The only issue he had with this, was that he couldn''t refine his body with others looking at him because exposing the body refining technique was not something humanity or even he could handle right now, as foreign races might as well annihilate him and everyone who saw him refining his body. As such, Jason thought of things he could do, during the times he had to wait an hour or so for his next fight to start. The schedule spanned from 8 am to 8 pm which meant that he would have to be in the arena for 12 hours, every day, for the next three days! He could refine his body in the evening at the Fler''s, which was not problematic, and thinking that he might as well absorb mana, hone his skills or improve his proficiency with his affinities while waiting, Jason disregarded the issues he thought of. Looking at the schedule, Jason also noticed, that he was the first to fight, which caused him to smile lightly, as he sheathed his pseudo mana grade-1 daggers he made himself in the scabbards instead of the Viridi-Starstream daggers, as they would attract too much attention. The same applied to his leather armor, as he simply wore his normal grade-2 leather armor instead of the mana grade-2 leather armor. In the end, it was not a problem to fight with his mana grade-1 Viridi-Starstream daggers, but the other things might attract others too much for the first few days. Jason also decided against wearing his spatial ring, mana sphere bracelet, and conservatory necklace, even if they didn''t release any mana fluctuations and looked like normal accessories. As long as nobody with an extremely high mana core rank and distinct senses scanned through these items, nobody would detect them, but he decided to be more careful, as he had a bad feeling that the Drake family patriarch might appear suddenly. If he were to find that he owned three extremely valuable items which he shouldn''t have under normal circumstances, Jason would either die or be forced to immediately sign a soul contract in the worst-case scenario. Jason liked to be alive and not restricted, which caused him to act more carefully at this point. He also told himself that he had to store these items at home, with the exception of his daggers in order to be safe. With his current combat prowess, he could already attract too much attention which was neither beneficial nor an extreme disadvantage currently, as long as Old Drake didn''t bother him. Finally being able to fight against his first opponent, Jason excitedly entered the 100th arena, which was the number of the group he was scheduled in. Looking around he searched for his opponent, as a 1.8-meter tall youth entered with an athletic body entered the arena, and perceiving his mana core and transmutation, Jason could not help but act carefully His first opponent was a 1st Expert rank, whose mana core size increase only marginally, reaching a state infinitely close to the 2nd Expert rank. However, he didn''t have transmuted mana, which told Jason, that his opponent had a physical soulbond without a transmutation in his mana. As such, he couldn''t really estimate how strong his opponent''s physique would be. Nevertheless, if his mana core size increased by almost one rank, his physique should definitely enter the 2nd Expert rank, more likely his 3rd Expert rank and Jason only smiled lightly, which his opponent perceived. "Why are you smiling? Shouldn''t you despair right now? You''re barely a 6th Adept rank and with my strength, I can crush you, before you can even unsheath your daggers!" The athletic-looking youth said, causing Jason to lift his right eyebrow, as he eyed his opponent as if he was extremely stupid. Right as he was about to open his mouth to retort something, he decided against it. Sighing, Jason could only lament about his mana core rank, because he was underestimated too often. But, rather than feeling down, it seemed as if the youth in front of him was one of the few dozens who laughed at him, and an evil smile emerged on his face. "Please guide me, idiot!" Somehow, he couldn''t help but say that, right before the AI started the countdown. Seeing his opponent''s face turning red, Jason chuckled lightly before he went into his fighting stance, as the AI ended the countdown, initiating their fight. Unsheathing his daggers, Jason rushed towards his opponent, without wasting a single thought of utilizing his affinity as he exerted his weightless step technique to the limits, increasing his speed by roughly 40% only to accelerate further by circulating his mana into the lower body, he almost crossed half the arena in a second. His opponent didn''t remain idle, as he also unsheathed two daggers before charging towards Jason with his own movement technique fully exerted. However, the youth''s eyes suddenly widened, when he noticed that Jason already emerged in front of him with a much higher velocity than he ever reached until now. ''F*ck!!'' Chapter 263 - Interesting Fellow Even without an affinity, Jason''s physique alone was already stronger than his opponent''s, who only realized this, as they clashed upon each other. Being able to overwhelm his opponent with his physique alone while only having a 6th Adept mana core rank was extremely terrifying and clearly indicates that the soul world amplifications Jason received were horrifyingly high, or that he might even have multiple strong soulbonds. However, neither Jason nor the athletic youth in front of him bothered about this at the moment, as Jason slashed out with his daggers multiple times in succession, as his velocity increased, only for the youth in front to barely deflect him while retreating. He was not even able to continue his charge, while Jason was forced to slow down in order to accurately slash at his opponent''s vital spots. ''He is slower than I expected?!'' Jason suddenly figured out before he decided to end the charade, as he exerted his weightless steps technique once again while leaning forward to evade his opponent''s slash, as he emerged behind him. Piercing his daggers into the athletic youth''s calves and other vital spots, Jason twisted his body in order to kick him firmly, which pushed the youth two meters away, as he slumped on the ground. Trying to stand up, the youth cried out in pain thanks to the several cuts Jason inflicted, as he felt cold metal on his neck, and his eyes trembled involuntarily. [Victory, Jason Stella!] the AI announced, and only then did Jason retrace his dagger. Cleaning them from his opponent''s blood, he sheathed them before walking out of the arena, without bothering to care about the youth on the ground who stared at him in fear. ''How can a 6th Adept rank be so terrifying?!'' He asked himself in shock, without being able to understand what was going on, as he was enveloped with a healing sensation from the medic team that was hired to take care of the injured students. Sitting down on the bench, Jason decided to ignore the strange gazes locked on him, as he used his mana eyes in order to figure out everyone''s mana core rank and their amplification. With this, nobody could hide his or her affinity from Jason as well as their mana core amplification, which helped him to figure out what student in his group he could see as a pushover and who he should be careful about. However, in the end, the 100th group he was placed in, couldn''t be described as extraordinarily powerful, with only two stronger students in it, who Jason was already expectant to fight Their mana core rank was at the 2nd Expert rank and one of them received an amplification, which allowed him to reach a 3rd Expert rank mana core size, close to the 4th Expert rank, while the other student had a slightly lower amplification, who similarly reached a mana core size at the 3rd Expert rank Meanwhile, Jason''s physique and mana core size were barely at the 3rd Expert rank, which was already shocking enough, yet still slightly lower than the two youths''. As such, he couldn''t help but feel overjoyed with his opponents, which he expressed with a bright smile. The other students around him were astonished about his combat prowess and some of them started to think that he had a physical soul because his physical amplification was extremely high. Some other students, however, added an affinity into their calculations when they saw Jason because they already started their research about some students before the tournament even started, as they heard many rumors. News about a student with an extremely low mana core rank yet high combat prowess spread far and the diligent researching students already figured out about his two affinities! In the end, they found his combat prowess shocking and asked themselves if they were able to fight him head-on after estimating his physique to be on par with an average 3rd Expert rank. The next rounds passed quickly and Jason who initially wanted to observe a few fights, decided against it, as he actively used his passive mana replenishing technique in addition to his two known affinities at the same time. He already expected that some students would know about his fire and ice affinities, which caused him to reveal this fact if someone were to seize his mana fluctuations right now. Circulating both his fire and ice affinity at the same time through his body, Jason tried to find a state where he could utilize them because they innately repulse each other, which was not something he wanted for his affinities, as it might be disadvantageous for his future fights. As such, he practiced with his two repulsing affinities within his body and after several weeks of hard work, it seemed to work much better and more efficiently than before. With this, his combat prowess increased by a small margin, which overjoyed him. Since Scorpio finished his evolution, Jason also experimented with the advanced poison affinity, but it was harder to cope with it than expected because he had to understand the composition of the poison he wanted to use, as Scorpio knew multiple different types of poison which he integrated with his poison affinity when establishing an affinity seed and enhancing it. This was extremely advantageous because he could utilize different poison''s with all kinds of perks and usages, even though it was not easy to understand everything at once, due to the complex composition of the different types of poison Scorpio integrated. In the end, Jason decided to turn his poison affinity into his hidden trump card simply because he had no other affinity to hide, while he wouldn''t use his fortified soul conjunction if it was not necessary. If he were to win against the two strongest opponents in his group, Jason was sure, that there were no other opponents he couldn''t face before entering the top 100 because these two were already the cream of the crop. A 14-year-old 2nd Expert rank was extremely terrifying and not something everyone was capable to reach at such a young age. The two youths in his group that were so powerful probably received lots of cultivation resources from their family, which indicated a certain degree of wealth. However, Jason didn''t really care about this, and he was just excited to fight them. More than 6 hours passed until Jason barely finished his 6th battle, as he noticed that he had a two-hour break, which allowed him to barely practice his Heaven''s Hell technique, which he choose to do after reassuring that he didn''t see anything wrong in his schedule. Taking out a huge bulk of dishes after the practice, which took barely less than two hours, he forcefully stuffed the high-nutrition dishes into his mouth in order to replenish his used-up nutrition to fight decently. But even if he were to fight with an empty stomach, his next opponent was none of the two strong youths in his group. Jason wasn''t even forced to utilize any of his affinities, as his physical strength, combat experience, and martial art techniques were more than enough to cope with everyone until now. The two youths, which Jason labeled as the strongest in his group were both from the Miral academy and apparently friends. Without caring about anyone else, they just wanted to compete against each other, which was however disrupted by Jason''s appearance because they figured out that he was as strong as them, if not even stronger, which shocked them as they already knew that their strength was comparable to the Top-students from all three Big-schools. Above them, there were only a handful of students from the Miral academy, who were stronger than them, and if they had to estimate their combat prowess with the other 3000 tournament participants, they were sure to enter the Top 50 if not Top 25. Nevertheless, the youth that stuffed food into his mouth as if they were small candies had a powerful aura around him, which caused the two friends to feel threatened. Looking at each other, they smiled drily, as one of them said lightly "I think we have to add an irregular in our calculations...It looks like he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique for two hours if the golden hue around his head is his soul world''s signature sign. Considering that he is eating a bulk of high-nutritious dishes right now, immediately after his practice means that he is most likely already at the 3rd Level of the Heaven''s Hell technique¡­ His soul energy should be higher than we imagined if he took two hours to practice the third level, yet he doesn''t sweat which means he is already proficient in it!" Nodding his head, the tall youth next to him could not help but praise his friend''s perceptions, as he smiled foolishly, without caring about his friend''s detailed analysis. "I hope so! With such an interesting guy in our group, we won''t be bored!" Chapter 264 - Tactics Jason was in a hurry to stuff his mouth with food, as he was notified to enter the combat ground. Sighing, he stored the dishes away, not without finishing the chicken drumstick he was already begun to eat as he stood up in order to enter the combat arena, where a 1st Expert rank was already waiting for him. His opponent''s soul world amplification was not even large and prevented him from attaining a mana core size of a 2nd Expert rank, which caused Jason to smile lightly, while he also perceived an ice transmutation within his mana. Comparing his mana affinity to his opponent''s Jason estimated that his affinity''s rank was either on par or a little bit stronger, and the desire to test it out was ignited within him. As such, Jason didn''t even bother to unsheath his dagger for the moment because he wanted to fully focus on attacking with ice attacks. Seeing this, his opponent was confused for a quarter of a second before he unsheathed his longsword when the AI initiated the start of their fight. Utilizing his ice affinity, he immediately attacked Jason with several ice icicles, as he charged towards him with his movement technique fully exerted. Meanwhile, Jason who was fully focused on his ice affinity manifested several dozen fist-sized icicles around him, which he shot in bunches towards his opponent. Aiming accurately, the icicles his opponent shot towards him were targeted by his own, and the icicles that clashed upon each other shattered while the remaining icicles flew towards the longsword-wielding youth. ''What?! He also has an ice affinity?!'' The youth thought shocked, as he adjusted his broad longsword so that his vital points were protected before he continued his charge after noticing that the onslaught of icicles ended abruptly. However, instead of being able to rush forward, the youth who couldn''t see Jason for only two seconds was now looking straight into a firm ice wall that suddenly erected in front of him. Not being able to figure out where Jason was, he could only release his mana to find out his rough position as he perceived several dozen icicles shooting towards him. Trying to deflect them, the youth couldn''t help but feel taken aback about Jason''s proficiency with the ice affinity, as he couldn''t maintain and shoot several dozen icicles at once, after erecting a thick ice wall as if it was nothing special. Several seconds passed and the storm of icicles didn''t seem to cease, while his body already began to hurt due to the several dozen shards that pierced strafed his hands and arms. Gritting his teeth, he erected a large wall in front of him which would deflect the icicles, giving him a short moment to take a deep breath, as his whole body began to tremble involuntarily, as he felt something behind him. Before he could even turn around or do anything, he felt something sharp faintly piercing into his back, as the AI announced. [Victory, Jason Stella!] Firmly grasping the ice dagger Jason manifested in his hand, it shattered as he turned around to return to his seat. Because he was always weaker than his former opponents several months ago, he had to figure out other ways to win his fights and one of them was tricking his opponent with illusions or misplaced information. As he became stronger, Jason didn''t bother about these tricks, others labeled as petty, but if he were to be honest, it was much better to use petty tricks than using too much of his precious mana. For instance, if he were to fight a huge pack of beasts at the low evolved rank, Jason would either have to use his complete mana and exhaust himself beyond measure to survive or use tricks, which might allow him to regain some of his energy in order to advance or retreat if more opponents were to appear. In the end, fighting with his head was not something petty but more like well-thought fights, where he used his mind to overwhelm his opponent. Thanks to his passive mana gathering, he could easily replenish his mana consumption when he manifested several dozens of small icicles in a short interval, while the only large mana consumption was the ice wall he erected in order to confuse his opponent and led him to think, that Jason wanted to prevent him from fighting head-on because he didn''t even unsheath his daggers as he did the fights before. After that, shooting another large badge of icicles at the longsword wielder was the reason for him to be completely focused on defending, while Jason''s existence had been forgotten for a short moment. Once Jason noticed that his opponent also erected an ice wall, he could only smile, because Jason already stood behind him, barely a dozen meters away. Exerting his weightless step technique to his limit, he manifested a sharp ice shard in his hand, that was enough to finish his opponent who took a deep breath. In the end, his tactic was not even complex, yet his opponent couldn''t handle it, which disappointed Jason a little bit because he had much more to experiment with. However, if not more was required to finish off the first-year students, he could also just stop wasting his breath and wait until stronger opponents were to appear with which he might test the dozens of ideas in his mind. Seated, Jason continued to think of multiple possible tactics in order to win fights where he might not have an innate advantage thanks to his large mana core seize and physique. But thinking for some time, he could only shake his head, because it was unlikely to see many students with a mana core size or physique at the 4th Expert rank, even if there might be a handful of them. Looking up, he averted his gaze towards the two strongest youths who also stared at him curiously, as he smiled lightly. ''Maybe they''ll be more satisfying to fight?'' Jason began to wonder, slightly excited, as he smiled at the two youths whose expression stiffed for a second before they forced a light smile on their lips. Turning away, he started to absorb mana while continuing to practice his affinities, until the first day of the tournament was finally over. Jason won all 10 fights without any serious issue and walking towards Greg, he noticed that his friend seemed to be overjoyed, yet he seemed to have sustained multiple bruises all over his body, which caused him to lift his eyebrows. "How did it go?" He asked, to which Greg only answered. "Good, but I need much more practice!" Saying so, Jason noticed that Greg''s eyes glimmered brightly, and he could only smile when he heard his friend''s answer. ''If he continues like this, Greg might even turn into a freak, huh?'' However, rather than feeling any pressure, Jason was glad to hear this, because he wanted to fight against Greg by using his whole strength as it might as well be their last spar, which was not unlikely. Shane would bring him away from Astrix and it was unknown when they would meet each other again. Thinking about this, Jason''s mood plummeted slightly, as the two of them met up with Malia, who looked like she won most of her fights without any serious injury, while Gabriella and Mark showed a proud expression. As such, everyone seemed to have made it quite far until now, without losing too many fights, which was definitely a good sign. If the second and third day continued like this, Greg and Malia might as well enter the top 400, without any issue, while Jason was confident enough in his strength to reach the next round. The only thing that caused him to hesitate lightly, was that the AI recorded every flight, and Jason felt somewhat unwell because of that, even if Shane told him that he would definitely bring him out of Astrix. Arriving with the Fler''s at home, they ate dinner, before Jason went into his room in order to refine his body. He wanted to further improve his physique, even though he felt his body refining progress began to slow down, the stronger it became. Furthermore, from what he noticed, humans seemed to be only capable of refining their physique according to their mana core rank, which means that Jason would only be able to refine his physique to the 6th Adept rank, which was the exact same rank his mana core was currently at. He was not exactly sure why this was the case, but he thought that it might be because the foreign races didn''t have soulbonds and couldn''t bind them, which led them to ignore adjusting any body refining technique to humans. Another reason might be that the soul world amplification every human received for their mana core size and physique were impossible to refine further because it was their soulbonds shared strength and not innately their own. Thinking about these possibilities, Jason dived down into the warm basin to refine his body, fully focused on the process. Chapter 265 - Recalculation The second day of the Big-Three tournament was nothing special for Jason, who was rather dissatisfied about the tournament''s difficulty. Only a few were strong enough to fight him head-on and even some that seemed to be stronger than him according to their mana core size, which he found exciting, while the rewards one could obtain from the Big-Three tournament was another factor that motivated Jason to give his best. As such, he also wanted to receive a reward which led him to defeat all his 10 opponents on the second day without too much effort. At the same time, he tried to improve his combat style with his daggers and affinities in accordance. Other than practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique in the morning before he and the Fler''s entered Cyro-City''s arena, Jason began to actively absorb mana more often than before, as his soul energy was high enough at the moment. During his short break between each fight, he continued to practice multitasking his affinities and circulating mana within his body, which was seen by the two youths from the Miral academy who eyed him the day before. Meanwhile, Jason also figured out their names, which were York and Lore. Apparently, both were from the Miral main school and within the Top-10 in the first year which caused him to become even more expectant than he already was. Their fight would only start the next day and it felt like the second tournament day didn''t end at all. When it was finally the third day, Jason also noticed that Greg and Malia were also much stronger than their peers than he initially expected because they won all matches on the second day, which he could only praise. However the most difficult would be the last day, because everyone who fought was desperate to win, which would inevidently lead to injuries, due to student''s greed and determination to enter the next round in order to obtain rewards as long as they''re able to enter the Top-25. This was easier said than done, as Jason knew that the average students'' combat prowess was between the 1st and 2nd Expert rank, which could already be labeled as powerful if one considered that the first-year students were around 14 years old. But what astonished him more was that Seron stepped back from the tournament on the third day, which caused a small commotion in his group, as his opponents won their matches without doing anything. If that was everything, Jason wouldn''t give Seron''s decision too much attention, but even Till decided to let someone else replace him as the first-year tournament representative, which told him that something happened. ''Is the Earth Dragon finally laying its egg?'' Jason began to wonder, as he asked himself how long a Dragon would need to lay and the time for it to hatch under normal circumstances. In the end, there was no other solution for their sudden disappearance, if one were to disregard the worst-case scenarios that something might have happened with their family or something similar. However, this caused Jason to feel somehow disappointed because he thought that the two wanted to take him with them in order to choose a better soulbond for Seron if there were multiple eggs at once. Other than that, he also began to ask himself how many Earth-Dragon lived on Astrix and where the hell they were, because he never heard from any dragons on the island at all. Instead of complaining, Jason could only accept Till and Seron''s decision to not take him with them, and maybe they would still ask him for their help, but there was nothing he could do about it. After defeating his first five opponents on the third day of the first round, Jason entered the arena for the sixth time, when he saw York, who was the first-year student from the Miral academy, he was expecting to fight, entering the arena. He was smaller than his friend Lore, while his amplification was also slightly lower in comparison, which only allowed him to reach the 3rd Expert rank in his mana core size. With a wind affinity, that was either at the peak evolved or low unblemished rank, York was probably the strongest opponent he fought until now when both gazed at each other seriously. His opponent used two shortswords that were barely longer than his daggers and instead of using the pseudo mana grade-1 daggers he forged by himself, Jason decided to replace them with his Viridi-Starstream dagger, with which he was more proficient in, as they laid perfectly in his hand. The Virid-Starstream daggers felt like extensions of his arm and this feature was extremely beneficial to use with his martial art techniques in accordance. Smiling at his opponent, York could sense the faint mana fluctuations from Jason shining daggers, as he gulped down his saliva, thinking ''He is going all out huh?'' Yet, rather than becoming nervous, York smiled brightly, as his erupting mana intensified with his mana circulation accelerating, as the AI initiated the start of their battle. Enveloping himself in a thick wind mana membrane, he pushed himself from the ground, while exerting his movement technique, as a strong draft from behind accelerated his speed further. York''s eyes turned green and Jason was taken aback for a short second, as he involuntarily thought ''Is that an ability or already a fortified soul conjunction?!'' However, not being able to think further about his opponent''s weird appearance, which was comparable to that of a human tempest, Jason exerted the weightless steps technique to his highest capabilities, as he retreated while testing the waters with several dozen small icicles which he threw towards York. Using different icicles of size and velocity, they crashed into the thick green mana membrane that was additionally enveloped in a gust, only to shatter into smitherness, with a bare minimum of impact remaining. Seeing this, Jason was immediately reminded of the water affinity user that used his affinity to construct unstable armor, which was a joke against what he saw in front of him because he couldn''t see a single flaw in the wind armor''s mana. The only apparent thing he noticed was that the armor was not thick enough to take on an onslaught of several hundred icicles, which was hardly required as York stood already in front of him, radiating with fighting spirit as he smiled brightly. ''Not bad!'' Jason thought and he had to acknowledge that he underestimated his opponent because he didn''t expect such a weird ability or soul conjunction which allowed his opponent to reach a higher velocity than he had, while his armor nullified his high-quantity low mana consumption tactic completely. Jason had to recalculate everything as his whole mindset was wrong from the beginning because he underestimated his opponents too much, while arrogantly thinking that he could easily destroy everyone. Looking straight into his opponent''s emerald-colored eyes that had not a tiny trace of white left, Jason couldn''t help but feel excited, as he erupted with his mana, without holding back anymore. Utilizing his black origin flame, Jason turned into a black burning torch without wasting a single moment on creating a complex armor like his opponent, as his Viridi-Starstream daggers began to shine in its lush green-silvery color, that was enveloped in thick black glowing flames. Seeing the sudden change in Jason''s appearance and even demeanor that happened in a single moment, York was taken aback for a moment, as he felt as if he was attacked by a foreign race, due to the overbearing mana fluctuations coming from the black origin flame which seemingly wanted to devour his whole existence. Jason''s bright, golden eyes were the only things York could see right now, as he perceived his opponent''s fighting spirit overshadowing his. ''F*ck!'' Chapter 266 - Fighting Spirit Looking into York''s eyes, Jason was full of excitement as he was finally able to go all out, while he could also test his new physique with its perks which not only decreased his mana consumption by a small degree but also enhanced his circulation speed and output with his fire affinity. Until now, there was no chance for him to test his fire affinity with the Netherworld''s forte body refining results, which he wanted to test now because his opponent seemed to be perfectly fit for this. While he was like a black burning torch with his golden eyes charging towards his opponent, York was enveloped in a thick wind membrane, with a gust surrounding him, while his eyes were emerald in color without any white remaining. Without the need to hold back, Jason couldn''t help but feel fortunate, as he increased the temperature around him by a few degrees when he slashed out with his burning Viridi-Stardream daggers. Forced out of his advance, York was only able to barely twist his body and deflect the daggers with his own as he noticed that the black flame burned his thick membrane, where it strafed him. Frowning deeply, York jumped back a few meters, only to notice that Jason''s mana fluctuation didn''t seem to lessen to the slightest, which caused him to frown as he thought. ''Does his soulbond also have an ability to decrease his fire affinity''s mana consumption...and why is his flame black?!'' However, there was nobody to answer his question, and it was useless to bother thinking about the questions in his mind as York decided to fully focus on the fight in front of him instead of possible answers to his questions when he led his mana towards the armor''s damaged areas in order to repair them. His mana consumption by manifesting the windbreaker armor was not much, but repairing it was, due to its complexity, and he could only lament about Jason''s black flame, which he underestimated. However, not only was York astonished but also Jason because he was obviously slower than his opponent. Yet, seeing his opponents insanely fast mana circulation thanks to his eyes, Jason couldn''t help but praise his opponent inwardly. Exerting the weightless steps technique, Jason''s speed increased by 40%, which was still lower than his opponent''s, as he noticed that York continued to retreat in order to repair his damaged armor. ''He relies on his armor and is careful....how about I do this?'' Jason thought as a vibrant smile emerged on his face, which looked devilish and cruel behind the black flames that enveloped him. Using his fire affinity, he created a sudden, yet compressed flame behind his back and lower body in order to push himself further ahead, allowing him to appear in front of York, who was astonished about Jason''s sudden increased velocity, as he lashed out at him to stall more time. Deflecting the dagger with his own, they clashed several dozen times, when Jason suddenly shot a fireball from his chest towards his opponent, who didn''t expect the sudden interception of their close combat fight. Even if he tried to create a wind blade or something similar in order to defend against the fireball, their distance was less than half a meter which didn''t even give him enough time to breathe freely, as the black fireball, smashed into his chest, burning the wind armor without any hindrance. York was knocked away several meters, where he crashed into the ground. With his mana eyes activated, Jason concluded that the fight was already over, as he extinguished the flames around him. Taking a deep breath, he was about to retreat and wait for the AI to determine his victory, as he sensed dozen unstable mana fluctuations coming from York''s position. With several dozen wind blades manifesting above his opponent, Jason could only sigh deeply because the wind blades were not even something he should be afraid of without any affinity. After his black origin flame pierced into his opponent''s chest, without being disrupted by any resistence, it also shook York''s mana core heavily, which required at least a few minutes to recuperate even slightly for him to be able to use mana under normal circumstances. However, the several dozen wind blades above his opponent who still laid on the ground indicated that something was either wrong or that he ignored his mana core''s pain, which was not something one should do if it was not a life-threatening situation. Without further ado, all several dozen wind blades shot towards Jason, who could only shake his head, as he used his remaining mana in order to construct a half-circle-shaped wall in front of him. This was solely because Jason was unsure how high his opponent''s wind ability proficiency was as it was possible to control wind blades freely in a certain range around the wielder. But other than building a half-circle-shaped wall, he didn''t bother to build a complete dome or something similar around him because it was impossible for York to control his affinity to this extent, at least currently with his mana core shaking violently. His mana eyes only perceived the situation through the mana wall and it astonished Jason that York tried to stand up, while the wind blades pierced inside the ice wall, as he finally collapsed on the ground. York''s mana core seemed to groan and even change its shape which was bad and the medic team had to act fast to prevent permanent damages as Jason shouted towards them before the AI even announced his win. However, the medic team who witnessed the whole fight also noticed that something was off after Jason extinguished his flames before his victory was even official. As such, they appeared in front of York only a moment later as they carefully picked him up to lay him on a hovering stretcher with healing currents enveloping him. Jason looked at York for a moment, as he walked out of the arena, saying "Good fight, I like your fighting spirit, but your health should be more important than a single win in the Big-Three tournament, right? It''s not like we entered the K.O rounds¡­" Hearing this, York couldn''t help but frown as he gnashed his teeth, while Lore rushed towards his friend, only to hear Jason''s words, as he retorted angrily. "You may not see this as important, but everyone has their own dignity, right?!" Seeing the tall youth retorting him foolishly, Jason looked at him for a short moment, as he pondered for a second only to shrug his shoulder. "Maybe, but staying alive is still more important than one''s dignity.." Once he said this, Jason ignored the tall brown-haired youth who still glared at him, before he averted his gaze in order to check his friend and how he was doing. In the end, Jason didn''t care about dignity or something like this, because he simply wanted to survive to become stronger, but he could somehow understand the two youths'' train of thought. If he could prevent it in any way, Jason would give his all in order to win because losing was not something anyone really liked. However, there was a big difference in fighting a life and death battle against beasts, foreign races, or whatever than a simple tournament fight in its first round at that, which wouldn''t even give York a disadvantage after he lost. He was still the third strongest in their group which made him eligible to enter the K.O rounds. Instead of forcing himself too much which could lead to permanently damaging his mana core, evidently throwing him out of the tournament, York could learn out of his mistakes and search for a way to counter his fire affinity. Unfortunately enough, it seemed like he was the only one who looked at it long-term as the two youths didn''t care about that at all. Shaking his head, Jason went back to his seat, where he replenished his mana, before visualizing his fight against York in his head in order to figure out his flaws and what he could fix. Chapter 267 - Useless Pride There weren''t any threatening opponents except Lore left and Jason hoped that the last fight he had to attend would turn out as an adrenaline rush. His fight against York was already slightly intense and beneficial, but there was no need for him to use all affinities, whether it was one after another, at once or even overlapping, like the blazing icicles he started to experiment with months ago. After defeating York, his other opponents were scared of him, which led them to fight halfheartedly, allowing Jason to save much trouble, even though it caused him to feel disappointed in his opponent''s willpower. He already entered the top 400 and it was not even necessary for Jason or Lore to fight against each other, but Lore''s fighting spirit was almost impossible to overlook as he glared dagger at him every once in a while. It was annoying and there was not even a good reason to do so, and in the end, Jason just decided to ignore it because there was no better way to handle this, except to beat the crap out of him. Knowing what elemental affinity Lore had was already advantageous for him because he could prepare a few plans against him, if necessary. Unfortunately or maybe even fortunately enough, Jason was sure that he would need a few plans against Lore because he had an earth affinity that was most likely at the unblemished rank. Lore''s defenses would be much sturdier than his, while his fire affinity would hardly be efficient against an earth affinity, while the same applied to his ice affinity. There were only a few things he could try out with these two affinities and Jason couldn''t help but feel gratitude towards his superior eyes'' ability to tell him almost everything about his opponents, which allowed him to enter the arena with ease. Standing opposite Lore, he felt his anger, and he could only sigh deeply, lamenting about every student''s useless pride, once someone said anything bad against them. In the end, Jason didn''t think that he said anything wrong, because York almost permanently damaged his mana core which would turn him into a cripple. Nobody wanted to end up as a cripple in the current era, where one would be thrown away like garbage or even worse. As such, he only wanted to help out, but if the other side didn''t accept his sincerity, it was also fine with Jason. Nevertheless, Jason somehow wanted to demonstrate to Lore what despair was and how valuable their pride, dignity, or whatever was. Staring into each other''s eyes, Jason wanted to beat his opponent up but also fight a magnificent fight, but after pondering what was more important to him, he could only chuckle lightly. ''I''ll crush him for good!'' Grasping his final decision firmly, he would give his everything. Seeing Jason chuckling to himself, ignited Lore''s unfounded rage as his words stung deep in his heart as he knew the truth deep within him. However, in the end, he didn''t want to accept the truth simply because his pride was the only thing Lore could maintain in the Miral academy by avoiding fighting the students that were stronger than him. With the Big-Three tournament, he wanted to change the tides and show everyone that he was also strong which, however, didn''t bother Jason at all as he defeated his opponents one after another in a simple manner without any elegant techniques. He just fought straightforwardly and somehow, in Lore''s perspective, in an overbearing manner which was unbearable for him. When the AI finally initiated the start of their fight Lore immediately summoned a broadsword and was about to charge at Jason while shooting earth spikes towards him, as he suddenly noticed an extremely large ice mountain emerging in front of him. Jason who stood on top of the mountain of ice smiled faintly towards the ground, as he released his mana while utilizing his affinities. Thick mist enveloped Jason''s whole body, slowly descending towards the ground where Lore stood. Jumping towards Jason, Lore pushed himself from the ground, while constructing an earth pillar below him, throwing him into the air to accelerate his speed. In the air, he immediately sensed several strong mana fluctuations in front of him with dozens of fireballs shooting towards him. Within a moment, Lore manifested a thick earth shield in front of him before he noticed something heavy falling on the shield, as he was flung into the arena grounds, where he had to take a deep breath in order to realize what happened. ''Did he just jump in my earth shield?'' He wondered, but seeing Jason standing at the exact same position for the whole fight that began merely ten seconds ago, this couldn''t be the answer, as he noticed a large block of ice next to him. "Did you like my present?" Jason teased from above, as he accelerated the pace with which he released the mist, only to see Lore fuming in anger, as he rushed towards the mountain of ice, where he used his longsword to slash at it while releasing his earth affinity to protect himself. ''He can''t fight in the air?'' Jason asked himself, and considering that an unblemished ranked affinity would evidently require more mana to be utilized, he could think that his opponent used his affinity too careless, without considering his expenses. In the end, Lore''s tactic was not stupid, because the mountain of ice was rather shallow constructed and not strong enough to hold out his several dozen slashes. There was only one thing he didn''t seem to care about, which caused Jason to smile, as he said apologetically. "I''m sorry to interrupt you, but this fight is over" Snapping with his finger, one could only see Lore staggering as he looked at Jason with widened eyes. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!?" However, instead of an answer, Jason just shrugged his shoulders, before his golden eyes gleamed in a faint green light. Barely being able to see through the mist, that continued to thicken, Lore was unable to find Jason''s outlines, while his golden shining eyes were the only thing he perceived. Seeing his golden eyes gleaming in a green light for a quarter of a second, his heart seemed to stop beating, as his sight blurred. Gritting his teeth, Lore circulated mana through his body only to notice that his blurred sight became even worse, while his mind turned fuzzy. ''What?!?'' He asked himself in shock, and with every earth spike and spear he forcefully manifested and shot towards Jason''s presumed location, breathing became more difficult and it was hardly possible for him to even stand on the ground. Without the ice mountain next to him, he used to support himself, Lore would have already collapsed and Jason couldn''t help but praise his opponent inwardly. ''He endures it much longer than I estimated...not bad, even if it''s completely useless.'' Smiling brightly, his experiment worked out perfectly fine and this was only thanks to Scorpio, who digested the poison elemental crystals he mined inside the four-star rift. These crystals were the reason for his near-death experience inside the elemental crystal cave due to the maneless poison in the air that became even stronger, once he circulated mana through his body. Thanks to Scorpio absorbing, digesting, and comprehending everything about the poison elemental crystals which were extremely rare, it was able to allow Jason to reproduce almost the same poison for his affinity, which was extremely beneficial. By intertwining his poison affinity inside the mist he released, Lore couldn''t detect anything at all, while his snap was just for show as if he activated something, which was however not the case. In the end, his finger snap was just a trick and nothing more than that. Time passed slowly, and when Lore seemed to be close to collapsing on the ground, barely hanging on his consciousness, Jason stopped releasing his poisonous mist, before he jumped down to the ground. Approaching his opponent who kneeled on the ground barely being able to sense anything around him, Jason couldn''t help but shake his head, as he called for the medic team. Leaning down towards Lore, he only whispered "If that''s how much your pride is worth, I don''t need it!" It would be a lie if Jason said that he didn''t feel slightly bad to have crushed his opponent but he was sure that if someone else were to do the same to him, he would rethink a lot and try to learn out of his mistakes to become stronger. Giving up was not something in his own vocabulary and he would overcome everything if necessary! Chapter 268 - Last Week He may have sounded like a rude as*hole but that was nothing he could bother about, as he left the arena once the AI announced his victory. Instead of being prideful, he could have noticed that something was wrong from the beginning of their fight because Jason was unable to release traceless poison like he got to was forced to overcome in the elemental crystal cave. However, instead of acting carefully or even slightly observant, Lore just charged ahead in anger which caused his defeat. Sighing, Jason hoped that his other opponents would be more level-headed because otherwise, the whole tournament for the first years could only be considered as a bad joke. Once his last fight was over, he was finally allowed to leave the arena, where he met up with Greg, who seemed to have gained a few new bruises, while his mana fluctuations were still stable. Giving him a thumbs-up, the two youths laughed with each other before they met up with the other Fler''s who smiled proudly. Driving home and eating together, Jason pondered how exactly he should bid farewell to the Fler''s because he had the bad premonition that his departure wouldn''t be smooth. As such, he just took the opportunity at the dinner table. Clearing his throat, he said "My master contacted me and told me that our departure might be sudden¡­ In case we can''t bid farewell, I just wanted to thank all of you for taking me in for the last few months...Without this, I wouldn''t have been able to enter Cyro-City and the Vanguard academy which brought me many benefits. But even more so, I gained new friends and something as close as a real family... In the end, I would have never imagined that I will leave Astrix so soon and miss someone here..." Saying this, Jason was unsure what else he could add as he looked up, only to see that everyone''s mood soured to the degree, that they stared at him with wet eyes. Malia had tears in her eyes and Greg suddenly asked "So you don''t know when you have to depart? It could be tomorrow or maybe even after the tournament?" Shaking his head, Jason added "It''s probably next week but definitely before the tournament ends¡­ At least It feels like it will be like this" The previous joyous mood plummeted completely and everyone felt suddenly heavy, without being able to say anything to Jason, as Mark jumped up from his chair to say "Being depressed won''t help! Just enjoy the next few days and leave good memories behind!" With these words, he eased up the tension to a certain extent before Malia began to sob, as she forced herself to say "Let''s h-have some fun!" Even if it didn''t sound genuine with her sobbing, everyone knew what Malia meant. With this thought in their mind, Jason told himself to practice less during the next few days, in order to use his free time to spend it with the Fler''s. Other than that, he already entered the basic Big-Three tournaments Top 400, which was a simple K.O round. This meant once he was defeated the whole tournament was over. As simple as it was, everyone would give their best in order to win the next few rounds, while Jason was already asking himself, when exactly the Drake family patriarch would appear, even if he hoped that it would be never. It was not that he was completely sure that this might happen but he just felt it in his gut and until now, his gut feeling was relatively good. *** Waking up early in the morning, he went out of the bed as he saw Artemis laying next to him on the bed, while Scorpio laid on the bottom next to his bed. Smiling lightly, he woke them up gently as he took Scorpio into his soul world to leave the room without destroying everything. Releasing him once again, Scorpio just laid down behind Jason''s chair at the dining table, with Artemis on top of it. The Fler''s eyed this weirdly but didn''t say anything about it because everyone had their own weird connection to their soulbonds with their unique demands. Once they finished breakfast, Jason and the Fler''s drove towards the arena like the last three days, however, today would be different because the tournament would be separated into three sections. Because the K.O rounds were rather short, without the need for every single student to fight against everyone, one after another, only 200 fights were required to decide the Top 200. With the first-year Big-Three tournament held in the morning, the whole arena would be free to use, which meant that one could immediately finish the whole tournament in a single day if one were to use multiple combat arenas at once. However, this was not what the government wanted and they decided to stretch the K.O rounds over the whole week, in order to distract the citizens from the recent happenings in Cyro-city. Thus, the first K.O round would use five arenas take the morning with every single battle live broadcasted in Astrix. With this, not only would the citizens from Cyro-city be distracted, but students all over the island would figure out the youngest generation''s strength, which was also exciting. Other students would be able to compare their strength to Astrix''s strongest youths which might motivate them to strive for more and become stronger. Jason however, found this simply annoying, because he didn''t want that the tournament would be spread over the whole week, but on the other side, it was probably not dumb to allow students to recuperate from possible injuries and analyze their opponents'' weaknesses in the meantime. Looking at the schedule, Greg was one of the first to fight, while he was somewhere in the middle. As for Malia, her turn was in the evening because she was a student in her third year which had their tournament in the evening. Broadcasting all fights from the three tournaments would also help to show Astrix''s citizens how superior the Big-Three schools'' teachings were compared to other schools because one would see apparent improvements. This was also used in order to promote their own school, which Jason noticed, and he could only acknowledge this type of promotion inwardly. There was still no news from his masters, but he didn''t worry about this right now because he watched Greg''s fight against a 1st Expert rank with an earth affinity. Both students'' physical strength were roughly the same, but Greg was at an apparent disadvantage because he was incapable to wield an affinity without a suitable soulbond. As such, he was forced to use his Berserk ability, even if he wanted to hide it for longer, which allowed him to surprise attack his opponent, who could only manifest a thick earth wall in front of him, that was however shattered into smithereens through Greg''s brute force. However, what Jason saw caused him to smile, because even if it looked like Greg couldn''t control himself, his eyes were still clear without his wild instincts disturbing him. With this in mind, it was clear that Greg was much more proficient in controlling himself and after overwhelming his opponent thanks to his berserk ability which allowed him to increase his physical strength for several minutes by multiple levels. Afterward, they watched the other matches that were in-between Greg''s and his simply because it would be a waste of time to just leave right now, as it was already his turn after a few more rounds. Entering the combat arena, he heard Malia, Mark, and Gabriella cheering for him, while Greg could only shake his head because of his family''s behavior as he was the only one who was aware of Jason''s strength. Greg wasn''t even sure if Jason showed him his full combat strength but instead of asking himself too many times, he would try to force Jason to use everything he had up to his sleeves when it was their turn to fight against each other. From the tournament'' schedule, they knew that their turn to fight against each other would be in the Top-25, which would be four days later. Not knowing if Jason would be there at this time, Greg felt restless, because he wanted to have one last final fight against his best friend, not knowing when they would ever meet again. Looking at Jason''s opponent, Greg''s eyes suddenly widened, as he blurted out "Ugh...this will be ugly¡­" Opposite Jason, there stood a busty girl in revealing clothes, smiling seductively at Jason, who only frowned deeply, as he asked "Aren''t you a little bit too young to be clothed like a h*e?" Chapter 269 - Seduction Stiffening, the girl in front of him wanted to throw a fit, but she calmed herself down in a matter of seconds as she said "I can wear whatever I want!" Nodding his head, Jason had to acknowledge that this was certainly true, yet, upon inspecting her mana, he immediately figured out why she wore such clothes. Her transmuted mana looked exactly like the hue he perceived around Antalia Sharon, the Rank-4 alchemist when he first met her at the basic artisan exam. ''An affinity that has something to do with seduction or lust?'' He aksed himself and it was certainly interesting how many affinities existed, and it would have been a lie if he were to say that he was not interested in figuring out more about her affinity or rather all rare affinities because he wanted to know which affinity he should try to obtain next. Thinking about the voluptuous girl''s affinity, he continued to stare at her, which was noticed by almost everyone who looked at his fight which included the broadcast throughout Astrix island. In only a few seconds, he turned to Astrix''s pervert, without him knowing. ''Is this affinity based on the scent, hormones, or a simple kind of mind control?'' Jason started to wonder as he finally heard the AI, that initiated the start of their fight. However, rather than doing anything special, he just unsheathed his daggers slowly while looking at his opponent in order to figure out what she would do with her affinity as it could hardly be used to attack him directly. With this in mind, Jason was sure to be capable of inquiring more about her affinity, as her strength should be lower than his own because his physical strength was comparable to an average 3rd Expert rank while her mana core size was infinitely close to the 2nd Expert rank. It was obvious that she contracted a beast with an affinity due to her transmuted mana which also indicated a physical amplification from her soul world that was lower compared to non-elemental beasts that were contracted by pure physical soul worlds. Estimating her physical strength to be at most on par with a peak 2nd Expert which was already a generous assumption, Jason would still be stronger. However, what he had to pay attention to was her affinity and that he shouldn''t neglect it as it could become the reason for his defeat. Carefully inspecting what the girl in front of him did, Jason remained motionless as he continued to stare at her intently. From the surrounding he was called all kinds of naughty names and portrayed as something evil, while even Malia frowned, killing him inside her mind when she noticed that his eyes were fully focused and not filled with lust. Sighing in relief, she took back the bad words she called him in her mind, as she focused on the fight once again. The voluptuous girl in front of Jason smiled at his reaction or rather that his eyes followed her every move intently as she released her seduction affinity in a wide radius around him while trying to maintain her mana consumption. If she were to extend her seduction affinity too far, her mana consumption would skyrocket and a good radius was between five to ten meters around her, which she did, and it was only when she approached Jason, he figured out what exactly her seduction affinity could do. ''Soo my hormones are in disarray while my thoughts will be constantly drawn to her?'' He comprehended, and if he were to be honest, this ability was extremely powerful if used correctly with a slightly stronger effect. However, someone with a strong will or an affinity to work counter hers would immediately leave his opponent unguarded and unaware of how to defend against her attackers, which Jason noticed by her crude movement. Yet, rather than doing anything against her approach, Jason awaited her as he wanted to figure out if his hormones and wild thoughts would intensify the closer she came, which happened exactly as he predicted. Inwardly nodding his head, he couldn''t really estimate how powerful this affinity might become in the future if correctly used, and maybe it would even improve further. Unfortunately for the voluptuous girl was, however not someone extremely proficient with her affinity yet, and Jason could easily disregard his desire and wild thoughts as his golden eyes shone lightly, dispelling everything. Even without this ability, he was sure to be able to cope with the voluptuous girls'' mind-controlling affinity that was intertwined with hormones, as she was not proficient in using it perfectly. Waiting for the girl to arrive two meters in front of him, Jason only saw that she unsheathed a small dagger, which she wanted to use to pierce at him to win as he suddenly exerted his weightless steps technique, accelerating towards her, only to pierce out with his Viridi-Starstream daggers, overwhelming the shocked girl, he unintentionally threw to the ground. [Victory, Jason Stella] the AI announced, with the surrounding youths and parents looking at him dumbfounded, while a few citizens who watched his fight over the live broadcast were astonished about his sudden movement after acting as if he was bewitched by his opponent. Looking at the girl, he held out his hand in order to help her up, as he said "Don''t rely too much on your affinity, there are still many flaws in it, and it''s easy to leave the bewitched state¡­" After he helped the girl up, he turned around to walk towards the Fler''s who greeted him cheerfully, while Greg could only shake his head because Jason defeated one of the main Vanguard school''s most powerful affinity users just like that. It was extremely difficult to leave her seduction once enveloped and infiltrated by it, but Jason looked like he was completely unaffected, defeating her as if she was a middle-schooler, which was annoying. Sighing deeply, Greg couldn''t help but feel more excited and restless to fight Jason with his whole strength. Once Jason was done, the Fler''s drove home and spend their time together because Malia''s fight would be at the end of the day and after a few hours, they ate lunch together before Jason practiced his Heaven''s Hell technique. With his high increase in soul energy after each practice, he couldn''t help but feel satisfied with the Heaven''s Hell technique as he walked back to the Fler''s who similarly practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique. Playing games, Jason used this time to improve his multitasking ability as he utilized his three affinities at once, played the game, and tried to circulate mana through his body at once, which caused him to sweat heavily. Seeing Jason''s efforts to become stronger even while playing games, Gabriella and Mark couldn''t help but sigh deeply, as the youth in front of them seemed to be unable to relax even a tiny bit. However, now even Malia changed her attitude and used both her affinities while circulating mana at the same time and additionally she even manifested a fire and water ball which she shaped into all kinds of forms, which Jason couldn''t do. Even if his mana sensitivity and control were high enough, multitasking was still something relatively new to him and he would need some time to manifest his three affinities, shape them while circulating mana through his body and do something else at the same time. In the end, he was not far from Malia''s standard in multitasking which bothered her, because she practiced extremely hard in order to achieve this after multiple years. Furthermore, she focused on this field of expertise during her combat. Jason however, looked like a natural, who could do everything without much problem, even if seemed to walk one of the most difficult paths for his combat expertise. From the Fler''s perspective, Jason wanted to become someone who was capable of wielding multiple weapons and at the same time all affinities, which was definitely over the top and it was questionable if it was even useful to learn multiple weapons, as his dagger mastery was already extremely high. Comparing Greg and Malia with Jason, it was obvious who worked the hardest in order to improve, as Jason turned from a nobody in Artes city to someone who was able to defeat the most powerful first-years in the best schools on Astrix within half a year. His talent was also superior to anyone the Fler''s ever saw and it was only a matter of time for great personalities like a Beast-Creator to set his eyes on him. Even if it was sad to know that Jason would leave them soon, Gabriella and Mark were happy also for him. In the evening, when it was time for Malia''s fight, the five of them drove towards the arena, and cheering Malia up, she won her fight against a wind ability user, that at the 1st Master rank. Using her wand in order to defend herself with her water affinity and attack with fireballs, spears, and waterjets, she overwhelmed her opponent without much problems, who could only lament inwardly. After what happened to Jason in the four-star rift, she focused more on her own strength as she noticed that her combat experience and prowess were too shallow which led her to improve by leaps and bounds over the last few weeks. Jason meanwhile couldn''t help but praise Malia when she returned which caused her to smile brightly before they returned back to the house where they talked about their fights and who they should be careful of. Chapter 270 - Top 100 The next day, Greg and Jason quickly finished their match in the Top 200, which was scheduled at the same time, only to go back home afterward. The two youths were astonished that their opponents couldn''t even fight against them head-on after Greg used his berserk ability, while Jason overwhelmed his opponent who had a water affinity with his ice and fire affinities. In the end, he didn''t want to expose too much of his poison affinity because it was one of the only trump cards he had left, except the fortified soul conjunctions with his soulbonds. Some students that watched his fight against Lore understood that something was wrong during their fight, yet, they couldn''t comprehend what exactly it was because they weren''t close enough to inspect the mist, while none of them possessed a special trait similar to his mana eyes. As such, Jason felt partially assured that nobody knew about his peak evolved ranked poison affinity, which was definitely an advantage. It was better to have a trump up to his sleeves than nothing, exposing everything he had. After the two friends won their fights, only Malia had to win against her opponent in the Top 200, however, unfortunately, she was placed against a youth who contracted his first soulbond only recently. Before their fight, the youth was laughed at because of his small soul energy, only to shock everyone at the Big-Three tournament because he contracted his first soulbond after two years, which was a rare mid-magical ranked Titanium Elephant that required more than 5.000 soul energy units. It had a rare and powerful metal affinity, which was also the youth''s sole affinity he could contract, while his soul energy was small. Without being able to find a beast at the lower ranks with a metal affinity, he was forced to be patient. However, in the end, he found a suitable soulbond while his soul energy barely reached the demands. From one of the worst students in his school, he returned as the strongest, thanks to the high soul world core''s amplification he received from the Titanium Elephant Malia''s fire affinity was not strong enough to burn through the thick metals her opponent manifested, even if her Nightmare horse was about to reach the magical rank soon it was still not enough. Feeling disappointed in herself, she couldn''t help but be sulky during the whole evening, only to see Greg and Jason chatting with each other happily, when it was dinner time. Staring dagger at the two dense youths, she couldn''t help but feel helpless. While Malia sulked, Greg and Jason were somewhat expectant about the Top 100 because it was extremely unlikely that anyone who entered the Top 100 would be a pushover. The Top 100 fights would also be held one after another without using five arenas at once in order to broadcast every single fight one after another live, demonstrating to Astrix island''s citizens how powerful the three big schools and their most powerful youths were. Jason was one of the only students who entered the top 100 while being in one of the affiliated schools which was looked at with curiosity. However, he didn''t really think much about it because it was not important from which school he came from but rather how strong he was. In the end, the most powerful youths ended up within the big three main schools but only because their mana core rank and soul-awakening were superior to others. There were obviously also youths who were weak even though their starting point was higher due to a better soul-awakening or better background with more resources, yet Jason was a perfect example which clearly indicated that having a good soul-awakening or background was not everything. At least it looked like this from the outside because nobody could have known that Jason had the best soul-awakening out of all students within the Big-Three tournament as well as a backing which however didn''t bring him a lot of resources he could use to absorb mana. His masters'' teachings were different and maybe not seen as the best way to improve his strength in a short period, yet they were extremely beneficial for his long-term progress, which was exactly what he wanted. As such, he couldn''t lament about this at all, and Jason was also expectant to see his masters again, which would only take several more days. It was only Wednesday when the Top 100 started, and both Greg and Jason were happy to enter the arena, while Jason estimated how many more days the tournament would take. With the Top 50 and 25 being held the day after, Jason thought that the remaining fights which included the final would take place on Friday. In the end, the whole tournament would be over only one week after it began, which was neither short nor long. Somehow, it seemed to be the perfect time to calm down Astrix- or even more Cryo-City''s citizens from the recent happenings that still lingered in their minds. However, instead of being happy that the tournament would be over in two days, Jason felt that the next day would be extremely important for him and maybe even dangerous, even if there was no indicator about something like this. Inside the arena, Jason suddenly noticed that there were many more students seated around the arena, divided into their classes, with a teacher standing in front of them, which caused him to smile lightly. ''Are they using the Top 100 battles to show good and bad examples of combat techniques, combat experience, battle awareness, usage of affinities, and so on?'' He asked himself and it was most likely the case as he noticed hundreds of classes seated around the arena, staring at their teachers and the youths in the spotlight, which were the 100 remaining first-year tournament participants. Seeing the other students staring intently at the Top 100 in awe, Jason couldn''t help but feel weird, because they were classmates or at least peers, yet there was already such a large gap in order to be seen as a role model from some students. Without wasting more time, Jason prepared himself for his fight, which was scheduled somewhere in the middle of the 50 Top-100 fights, as he washed his weapons once again, before sharpening them neatly, not looking at the fights in front of him. Some time passed until a few students and even teachers noticed him minding his own business, which was badly received from the students, only to hear their teachers lecturing their students. "This student with the lowest mana core rank and black hair who prepares his weapons is extremely clever! My dear students, remember to not only perceive the obvious! This youth is extremely calm and carefully prepares his weapons... but why exactly is he so calm?! The answer is relatively easy after a closer inspection! Even though his mana core rank is extremely low, he is able to fight against his much stronger peers. Thus, his combat strength has to be high too and he calms himself down by being perfectly prepared for the fight without looking at the fights in front of him, which might even disrupt his calmness and tense him up. This would evidently decrease his combat prowess because a calm body and mind are extremely important in order to release one''s fullest combat prowess! As such don''t complain or curse this youth and try to see the bigger picture he follows!" Hearing this, the teacher showed a proud expression, while his youths exclaimed in shock "So it was like this?" "I never expected that this is also possible!!" "He is almost like a veteran...wow!" "This is the gap between us average students and a real prodigy?!" Upon hearing what the teacher said and his students'' answers, Jason almost choked on his saliva because he didn''t really think about anything as he started preparing his equipment and it was only because he neglected it that he had to do it now¡­ But in the end, he didn''t want to destroy the teacher''s illusion as he continued to prepare himself as if nothing happened. Once he was done, he sheathed his daggers, before he put on his normal grade-2 leather armor. Afterward, he watched the remaining battles, with slight interest, while talking with Greg about their combat prowess and tactics before it was his turn to fight. Entering the combat arena, he immediately saw youth in front of him with a lean physique. From his outer appearance, he didn''t look like anything special and Jason seized up his opponent with his mana eyes, as he exclaimed inwardly ''What is that?!'' Chapter 271 - Blade Tempest The youth in front of him didn''t look special in any way, but the purple-pinkish transmuted mana he saw within the youth seemed weird, as Jason never saw such transmuted mana. His mana eyes could only work perfectly fine if he knew all affinities and the color of its transmutation. However, right now, the only thing Jason knew for sure, was that the youth in front of him was at the 1st Expert rank, while his mana core size was at the 3rd Expert rank, which indicated that he contracted a soulbond which was either at the peak-evolved rank if the youth in front of him possessed a soul world with a slightly higher amplification than the average had, or that his soulbond was a low-unblemished beast. Either way, it wouldn''t make a huge difference, because it was not essential for Jason to know, who was still trying to think what exactly his opponent''s affinity was. In the end, he never saw this affinity and would have to fight against his opponent without knowing what to be careful about, which was not something he had to do for quite a while. Met with the unexpected situation, Jason was overly cautious, as the AI initiated the start of their fight. Unsheathing his dagger he prepared himself to be attacked only to see that his opponent didn''t move at all, only to took out a wand. ''Ugh, they''re going all-in now, huh?'' Jason thought, disgrudgently as he waited for several more seconds in which nothing happened before he manifested a few icicles towards the lean youth. The youth in front of him still didn''t move from his position, yet he lifted his arm with the wand in it as his eyes suddenly glowed in a purple-pinkish hue. Without further ado, the icicles that previously shot towards the youth changed their trajectory, which caused Jason''s eyes to widen for a second as he slowly began to understand his opponent''s affinity. ''Is it psychokinesis?!'' He asked himself baffled about what he saw as he noticed that the lean youth''s affinity enveloped his icicles only to move them away without making it too obvious. Thinking about the possibility of his opponent having a psychokinesis affinity, Jason''s eyes brightened up because this was something he also wanted to obtain in the future. As such, he wanted to test out his opponent''s limits as he summoned two dozen icicles which he shot towards his opponent, who simply swung his wand when his eyes glowed up in a purple-pinkish hue once again, changing the trajectory of his icicles. ''Does he use the wand as a means to distract me?'' Jason concluded because the wand itself didn''t seem important for the youth in order to change the icicles'' trajectory, and it was most likely only used to reduce his mana consumption. Looking at how easy his opponent changed his icicles trajectory, Jason wanted to increase the difficulty by another notch as he manifested two dozen icicles and additional two dozen fireballs, which he threw towards the lean youth, who smiled lightly. ''If he can easily change the fireballs'' trajectory, who can also burn through mana to a certain extent, his psychokinesis is really powerful'' He thought, with a single sweat pearl pouring down his temple, as he witnessed the lean youth''s smile stiffening for a moment when he figured out how threatening the fireballs really were. Nevertheless, he was still able to change their trajectory, even if it was slightly more difficult, which was noticed by Jason. With this conclusion, it was obvious what Jason should do now as he already prepared to manifest several dozen fireballs in his mind simply because his mana consumption was much lower than his opponents, while he could easily replenish them without the need to even think about the passive mana gathering technique, thanks to his sub-area within his mind. Smiling brightly, Jason decided to ignore this option for now because of a relatively simple reason. He was curious about the psychokinesis affinity and how his opponent would change the tide and attack him. As such, Jason continued to manifest icicles in order to attack the lean youth without being too obvious about the advantage he figured out. Their fight continued and another minute elapsed until Jason could finally hear an enraged shout after enduring an onslaught of almost 100 icicles, when the lean youth took a dozen swords out of his storage device, before exerting his affinity to levitate them in the air. In the beginning, the lean youth-only wanted to test the waters, but he could have never imagined that his opponent would be so frustrating, which was unexpecting. However, instead of retorting the onslaught of icicles, he wanted to endure it by minimizing his mana consumption until the golden-eyed youth''s mana was drastically reduced, yet even after a minute, this didn''t seem to happen which was extremely annoying and frustrating from the lean youth''s perspective. As such, he changed from his defensive standpoint and started a counteroffensive with a dozen grade-1 swords he could barely control by using his whole focus, mana sensitivity, and control. His whole body was groaning because the mana consumption was devastating and if he were to estimate how long he was able to attack with such a high mana consumption, 30 seconds was probably the most he might take out by draining his mana core completely. Nevertheless, 30 seconds were more than enough, as he ordered the swords to shoot at Jason who was smiling brightly at the sight of 12 swords attacking him at the same time. ''His affinity''s proficiency, mana control, and sensitivity must be extraordinary!'' Jason thought as he observed his opponent''s mana fluctuations intently and controlling swords seemed to be more difficult than his low mana consumption fireballs and icicles before he averted his attention towards the sword that was about to pierce into his flesh. Exerting the weightless steps technique to his current limitations, he additionally circulated mana through his body before twisting his body in order to deflect the advancing swords as he additionally manifested an ice wall on his right and left to forcefully halt another batch of swords. There were still two swords that shot towards him from above, which he couldn''t deflect with his ice affinity or daggers, as he barely manifested a spear of fire above him which he shot towards the two swords. Clashing upon each other, one sword immediately turned into scrap, while the other continued its approach, piercing into Jason''s shoulder which sustained a deep cut, and he could only prevent the worst by a hair length. Gritting his thought because of the pain, Jason thought that his control over two affinities at the same time, exerting a martial art technique and circulating mana in his body at the same time, was still not good enough. As such, he decided to stop with the fancy attacks and decided to change back to his rather rough and crude fighting style which suited him much more, as he injected mana into his Viridi-Starstream daggers, only to slash at the swords'' broadside to shatter them with brute force. The swords his opponent purchased couldn''t even be considered well forged because all of them had tiny flaws within them, while their mana conductivity was at most average. ''With perfect purified grade-1 weapons, his attacks would not only be much faster and stronger, but I wouldn''t be able to destroy them so easily¡­'' Sighing, Jason found many weaknesses inside his opponent''s attacks as he slashed towards the swords'' flaws to shatter them, only for the lean youth to hurriedly retract them. Gulping down his saliva, the lean youth was astonished that Jason was able to cope up with his swords that easily, but he had still more than 15 seconds left to use a dozen swords to attack at the same time. With this in mind, the lean youth threw out a batch of razor-sharp blades from his storage device, which he controls with his affinity. A dozen blades that were sharpened on all sides levitated in front of him, as he obstructed them to spin, only to shot them towards Jason. ''That''s definitely dangerous!'' He only thought, and it was obvious what would happen if he were to be unable to evade or deflect the spinning blade tempest in front of him. Taking a deep breath, he exerted the weightless steps technique before charging towards the spinning blades that shot towards him. Manifesting a dozen icicles after another, he shot them towards the blades, which were slowed down, as Jason used his Viridi-Starstream daggers to slash at the two rotating blades in front of him to forcefully avert their trajectory which broke one apart while receiving a light cut from the shattered parts. Not halting in his tracks for a single second, Jason ignored the remaining spinning blades as he appeared in front of the lean youth, who made a huge mistake because he didn''t calculate his forceful advancement into his plans. Slashing out with his sharpened daggers, Jason ''killed'' his opponent, as the AI announced his victory. Chapter 272 - Forceful Advancement Understanding how his opponent''s psychokinesis affinity worked with the help of his mana eyes and several small experiments, Jason was sure that the affinity was definitely powerful, yet tricky to control. As such, he could just charge ahead forcefully, changing two spinning blades'' trajectory without many difficulties, defeating his opponent. Walking out of the arena, he approached the Fler''s and sat down next to them before he tended his wound at the shoulder, while Gabriella used her healing ability to help him. Circulating his mana in addition to Gabriella''s healing and recuperation potions, Jason''s wound already started to heal after a few seconds, which was certainly good. Fortunately enough, the wound on his shoulder was nothing major and would only need some time to heal, without creating a hindrance for his fights on the next day. Replenishing his mana, Jason only heard Greg next to him mumbling. "You only lead your opponent around and still sustained an injury¡­" Upon hearing this, he couldn''t help but smile because Greg''s words were certainly true and if he simply threw several dozen fireballs towards his opponent, the fight would have been over in a matter of seconds, if the psychokinesis affinity his opponent used was not good enough to change the fireballs'' trajectory without consuming too much mana, which was most likely the case. Controlling objects from far away was highly likely to require much mana and in the end, everyone with a high mana core rank was able to move around objects to a certain extent. As such, the psychokinesis affinity had to be something more unique, otherwise, it would be entirely useless to contract a soulbond with such an affinity! While Jason continued to think about his opponent, it was already Greg''s turn. His opponent had a mana core size of a 3rd Expert rank, while he had an earth affinity, that was most likely at the peak evolved rank. Initially, Jason wondered why he seemed to be one of the only first-year students with multiple affinities, but after thinking about it for some time, it seemed logical. Just because his soul world was unimaginably large, it didn''t mean that others'' soul worlds were equally large. It was already above average and considered rare to be able to contract five soulbonds, and with this fact, other students would be reluctant to contract a soulbond below the magical rank. For some influential students, even a common magical ranked beast would be considered foolish to contract because everyone wanted to reap the most benefits with their soulbond. In the end, most soulbond contracts would be formed with rare and unique beasts which had either mutated affinities or strong abilities, one could inherit. This only included prodigies or wealthy families because such beasts were not only rare to find, but it was even more difficult to capture their offsprings or if necessary the matured beasts. Thinking about this, Jason could only praise his own soul world because it was superior to every soul world he ever heard about, which caused him to wonder once again if his soul world was only so special because he was presumed to be a half-Celestia. But there was no reason for him to think more about this because there was no answer for now. It was better to watch Greg''s fight which started with his opponent shooting several earth spikes at Greg, who only punched at them, wearing his gloves. Being forced to retreat multiple steps because of the impact, it was obvious that the elemental affinity was stronger than Greg''s physique, which was nothing surprising. Noticing that Greg didn''t utilize an affinity, the earth affinity user smirked as he manifested a dozen earth spikes which he shoots at him in succession, only to force Greg to retreat further. Gritting his teeth, Greg pondered what he should do and without an affinity or higher velocity, he wouldn''t be able to evade the earth spiked that were as fast as Jason''s icicles, he couldn''t evade too. As such, Greg used his trump from the beginning and his skin turned red when his body enlarged, with his eyes turning red without losing their clarity. Receiving a high amplification in his physical strength, Greg was able to evade the earth spikes without much difficulty. However, rather than doing so, he just punched at the incoming spikes, as if they were nothing, shattering them into smitherness. Exerting his movement technique, he pushed himself from the ground, creating tiny cracks below him as his speed accelerated. Appearing in front of his opponent, who was shocked about the sudden change in Greg''s demeanor and appearance he used his whole remaining mana in order to manifest a thick earth wall in front of him as he retreated several steps. With the thick wall in front of him, the youth took a deep breath when he suddenly heard thumb noises. *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* The whole arena resounded in several loud explosion-like noises, and Jason couldn''t help but smile weirdly as he perceived that Greg forced himself a way through the thick earth wall that was rather crudely manifested without compressing it in order to create a stronger defense. Everyone looked at the match in awe, as a two-meter-tall Greg broke through the whole several meter thick earth wall as if it was nothing. Swiping away the dirt of his face in order to see clearly, Jason saw Greg smiling, as he continued his charge to his opponent, who gulped down his saliva, as his eyes quivered in fear. Punching his opponent with all his might, Greg''s hurled him out of the arena that was more than a dozen meters away, where the earth affinity user remained lying on the ground, without even trying to stand up. Hearing him gasping for air with difficulties, everyone sighed in relief as it meant that he was still alive. The AI announced the winner, and Greg''s body shrank as he stepped out of the combat arena, where he looked at Jason who sat on his seat, giving him a thumbs up. Returning him a peace sign, the two youths smiled foolishly, as both the Fler''s and Jason stood up to walk towards Greg. Talking with each other, they didn''t even bother to continue monitoring the tournament, because their time together was running out. Instead of watching the tournament, everyone wanted to spend more time with Jason as they would separate soon Arriving at home, they ate something, played games, and talked about all kinds of things. Jason also tried to hint at the Fler''s multiple things about foreign races, and how overbearing some big families might be if Greg or Malia were to become too strong. However, he felt as if they didn''t even hear him at all or maybe they didn''t want to, while Greg only looked at him, pondering about his words as if they were an alien language. When Jason saw this, he wondered if he spoke in the universal language, the foreign races used, but nobody looked at him like Greg did, which told him that his friend was just confused. In the end, he was reluctant to tell them everything because even his masters who were aware of most facts, were shocked about the truth, which told Jason, that it would be even more horrifying for normal citizen, who was not even able to enter the Lique-stage by compressing their mina into liquefied mana drops. Sighing deeply, he only shook his head as he spent the whole day with the Fler''s as they didn''t have to go back to the arena because Malia lost the day before, which was not even that bad, considering their current circumstances. It was already evening, when his quantum bracelet vibrates violently, which caused everyone to look at his wrist, as a holographic screen appeared in front of him. Surprisingly it was Seron who called him and answering the call, he only heard him hesitantly asking "Jason? Here is Seron, are you at home right now?" Chapter 273 - Impatience Hearing Seron asking, if he was at home, Jason immediately answered. "Yes, I''m with the Fler''s right now, did something happen?" He was sure that nothing shocking happened because Seron sounded neither enraged, flustered, or anxious, but only hesitant which was why he still asked to be sure. After hearing that Jason was at home, Seron sighed in relief as he asked with a firm voice. "Nothing bad happened, it''s rather the contrary! The only problem is that I''m somehow in a hurry...do you have time right now, or may I come to you to discuss something?" Asking this, Jason averted his attention to the Fler''s who heard everything as Mark nodded his head saying, "There is no problem if he comes and it sounds important, so don''t bother about us." Seron heard Mark saying this and quickly thanked him as he hung up the call before the doorbell rang only a moment later. Noticing this, everyone was astonished, only for Gabriella to chuckle lightly as she said. "What a cute boy...haha" Even Mark smiled lightly, while Jason walked towards the door, which he opened where Seron stood looking at him as if he was about to pounce at him. "Come in!" He quickly said before his friend would pounce at him as he stepped aside. Taking off his shoes, Seron walked inside the house, where he found the Fler''s eating dinner, and he quickly apologized for interrupting their dinner time. Seeing his polite behavior, Gabriella couldn''t help but smile as she reassured him that it was fine and that he could talk with Jason about the important matters. Hearing this, he quickly grabbed Jason and asked him where his room was. Being dragged to his own room, he tried to figure out the reason for Seron''s behavior, and he was relatively sure that it had something to do with his second soulbond, an earth dragon! Inside his room, Seron just sat down on the chair that stood close to the bed, where Jason sat down, waiting for his friend to start with his important matter. However, seeing that Seron turned from his impatience to uncertainty, Jason was forced to start. "What exactly do you want to talk about, Seron? It has probably something to do with the Earth Dragon that laid an egg, right?" Hearing this, Seron only nodded his head, before he took a deep breath, as he said "The situation with the Earth Dragons'' is more difficult than we imagined. You probably don''t know about this, but they live below Cryo-City nearby the mana vein, where they have enough mana to survive, procreate, and even become stronger until they reach their racial limit..." Jason''s eyes widened when he heard Seron''s words¡­'' so these Earth-Dragons are right¡­.below us?'' He thought, gulping down his saliva when Seron continued. "It was roughly a century ago when the first few Sovereigns saved the last Earth-Dragons on Canir before they were almost annihilated by Ancient Behemoths and other strong races that desired the Earth-Dragon''s blood which is apparently beneficial for these beasts or something like this. Obviously, many big clans also wanted to either subdue the Earth-Dragons and force them into a soulbond contract or even kill them to receive valuable ingredients from their carcass. However, instead of using either of these solutions, the Earth Dragons tried to make a deal with a few big clans, demanding to stay alive, without being forced into a soulbond contract, while at the same time receiving a certain degree of safety from other beasts that might hunt them. The few big clans accepted this deal, but only under the condition that their offsprings were allowed to be contracted as soulbonds. Obviously, the earth dragons didn''t accept this and would rather die than forcing their own children to submit to a soulbond contract only for them to stay alive. As such, both sides were somehow forced to find terms everyone found profitable, otherwise, the big clans would just kill the earth dragons, without bothering about their conditions, which they were aware of. In the end, the Earth Dragons agreed that their offspring could be contracted, as long as they were willing to. Before hatching, the ''unborn'' earth dragons are already able to faintly communicate with their parents, when they''re still inside the egg and if they''re not completely against the thought of forming a soulbond contract, descendants of the big families who made the deal with the earth dragons were allowed to approach their nest. This soulbond contract allowed earth dragons to adventure throughout the Canir, next to their new master, and even if they were in a similar situation to being enslaved, they were still more secure and free compared to being forced to live underground in order to stay alive due to the apparent threat from all kinds of lord or even higher ranked beasts that desire their faint dragon bloodline." Nodding his head, Jason was deep in thoughts as Seron spoke and he found it weird that the earth dragons just remained underground without even bothering to come up, even if it might be dangerous. ''Are they also scared of us humans?'' However, thinking about this, Jason felt somewhat disappointed because he always imagined Dragons to be beasts with a lot of pride that didn''t allow anyone to suppress them and that they would fight against anyone damaging their pride. Maybe it was only the Earth Dragons that allowed themselves to be subdued like this, almost as if humans were breeding them underground, as a sudden thought emerged within him. ''If the Ice Dragon, the Drake family patriarch forcefully contracted, acted so repulsive, why are the Earth Dragons so different? Not only is their racial limit a difference of two whole ranks, but their demeanor is also like black and white..completely different¡­.Could the purity of their bloodline or something like that be the reason? Other than that, I can''t imagine a reason for Dragons to be so prideless¡­'' Jason heard a lot about Dragons, whether they were eastern or western dragons like Shane and Dalia called them, but all of them had a few particular things in common. They were extremely strong compared to their mana core rank, while their affinity was also superior, allowing them to fight even beasts with a stronger mana core rank. However, from their demeanor, Dragons were labeled as greedy and prideful, which was the reason for Jason to think that the purity of the earth dragons'' bloodline might be low or thinned out. Seron was still not done talking and Jason could only sigh as his friend didn''t seem to end his speech. "Over the last two years, the remaining earth dragons laid five earth dragon eggs, which is more than they laid over the last several decades together! Isn''t that amazing? Nevertheless more surprisingly is that three of them want to form a contract with humans! Right now the Gier family is the first one that is allowed to pick a new soulbond because there is not a single descendant from the Drake family who is able to form a soulbond contract with an earth affinity beast. As such, I can choose my second soulbond out of three earth dragon eggs! Over the last few days, I already went towards the earth dragons and took a look, but even Till is unable to tell me which one of them is the best choice to pick, while he could only tell me that one of the eggs seems to have slightly lower mana fluctuations, and both of us immediately thought about you! I don''t want to make the wrong decision and wanted to request your help to tell me which earth dragon egg is the best for me to figure out if I should follow my gut feeling, or continue to ponder like I''m currently doing!" Listening carefully, Jason was glad that his friend finally finished his speech, as he sighed deeply. There was no reason for him to decline his friend''s request, and Jason nodded his head, as he said "I can definitely help you out, but how long does it take? I have my tournament matches tomorrow early in the morning and have to be back by then" The tournament itself was not really important, but he also wanted to have his last fight against Greg, which was what really mattered to Jason and also the reason for him to ask Seron this. "If we take the shaft, one trip to the mana vein will probably take 3 hours and then, we still have to walk for two hours through the tunnels¡­." Mumbling this, Seron averted his attention back to Jason as he reluctantly said with disappointment in his voice. "If you really want to attend the tournament tomorrow, by all means, we can only postpone the trip to the earth dragons to tomorrow after your tournament rounds in the morning" It was obvious that Seron was disappointed, but he wouldn''t just neglect his won wishes to please others as his friendship with Greg was more important to him than Seron''s Chapter 274 - One Not only was Jason sure that tomorrow would be his last fight against Greg, but his gut feeling told him that the next day would be extremely important for his future. One wrong step might lead to him having a devastating future, while several other steps could lead to a bright future. It was an extremely weird feeling inside him, but there was not really anything he could do to prevent the next day, without suppressing his own desires. Shane told him to go all out if he wanted to and he might as well do so once it was necessary. Seron looked at Jason somewhat disappointed and he wanted to ask him if he really had to attend the tournament the next day or why it was even so important. However, after staring into his friend''s determined eyes, Seron knew that asking him that was completely useless. Sighing deeply, he just said with a hanging shoulder and a sad expression covering his previous impatient and overjoyed mood. "Let''s meet tomorrow once your two fights are over, okay?" Jason only nodded his head and he noticed Seron''s frustration which he could also understand, as he smiled lightly. As such, he lead Seron, who didn''t want to bother him anymore, out of the house after they finished their short discussion. Sighing once again, Seron looked at him with a pitiful gaze, as he turned around only to say "See you tomorrow¡­" Stepping out of the house, the Fler''s noticed Seron''s sour mood, which was entirely different from his previous demeanor and made them curious what exactly happened between Jason and his friend. However, they didn''t want to infiltrate their private business and only gazed intently at Jason who was uncomfortable, as he just explained. "Seron wanted my help with something, but I had to postpone his request because of the tournament tomorrow. Maybe I would have accepted it if Greg and I wouldn''t be fighting against each other tomorrow, but it''s probably the last time we''re able to fight against each other for a long time, so I don''t want to miss out on that!" Malia and Greg''s mood immediately plummeted with Jason''s last sentence, even if they were already aware of the fact Jason said. Everyone felt that tomorrow or at most the day after their ways would separate and they could understand why Jason decided against helping his friend right now, even if he might be displeased about Jason''s decision. "I''ll still help him, but only after I fight Greg and it might take some time until I''m back. Probably either at night or the next day in the morning...probably" Hearing this, Malia''s lips twitched as she hesitantly asked "So It could also be that you''re completely gone after you and Greg fought against each other because your master tells you to depart once you helped Seron?!?" Pondering for a moment, he nodded his head "It''s possible, yeah" Sighing deeply, Gabriella stood up and announced "Let''s have some fun for the next few hours! Sleep is something for the weak!" Hearing this, Greg immediately jumped overjoyed, shouting "Yes, let''s do that!!", while Malia rubbed her wet eyes with a faint "hmm" Jason and Mark also nodded their head and the five of them spent the whole night talking, playing, and having fun until it was time for them to drive towards the arena for the next two tournament rounds. It was Thursday and the Big-Three tournament was slowly approaching the final with the Top 50 and Top 25 round being held. Both Jason and Greg were still fit even though they didn''t sleep, while Jason''s mana was over quilling with energy because he passively gathered mana in addition to his sub-area which did the same. Smiling brightly, he felt full of power and ready to fight against his opponent in the Top 50 and afterward Greg, which he already anticipated. In the end, Jason didn''t even think about his first opponent because he felt confident in defeating everyone with his current strength except Greg if he were to exclude his fortified soul conjunction. Astrix''s young elite was already powerful and it would have been a lie if Jason said that he looked down on them. However, it was still a fact that his current combat prowess was incomparable to several months ago, where he was not even able to attend a normal high school. Thinking about this, he smiled lightly as he and the Fler''s sat down on their seats, waiting for the two youth''s turn to fight against their first opponent. Only half an hour after the tournament''s Top 50 round began it was Greg''s turn, and he entered the arena filled with confidence, staring at his opponent, who had a bulky physique, telling Greg that his opponent might also have a physical soul, as he had. Jason''s mana eyes confirmed Greg''s thought, which he however didn''t knew because he already stood in the arena. ''He doesn''t have transmuted but is almost at the 3rd Expert rank with his soul''s amplification...So his physique should be at the 4th Expert rank or even higher..'' Concluding the facts, Jason couldn''t help but smile slightly as he already roughly figured out what exactly his friend wanted to do. As such, he simply waited and anticipated the fight that started in front of him. Without further ado, Greg and his opponent charged at each other with mana circulating in their body. Their velocity was already fast enough to be on par with low evolved beasts and Jason was sure that they might even be able to fight against weaker evolved beasts with their body alone which was not bad at their age. However, while charging at his opponent, Greg''s body turned red as his physique inflated, releasing hot steam as he appeared before the shocked bulky youth, that didn''t expect the change in his opponent to be so devastating. Not only did his body inflate, but he also released the desire to defeat his opponent on an extremely advanced level, which made it almost comparable to bloodlust. Jason''s eyes also widened when he noticed this, and he could only see Greg punching his petrified opponent''s abdomen which caused him to be flung away several dozen meters, where he landed on the ground, crying out in pain. Gulping down his saliva, Jason looked at Greg before he averted his gaze to the youth that laid on the ground with disrupted and chaotic mana fluctuations radiation from him. ''Maybe this will be even more difficult than I estimated¡­'' Jason suddenly thought, estimating his friend''s physique to be comparable to an average 7th Expert rank when he activated his physique. Blinking several times, he couldn''t help but feel astonished because even with his fortified soul conjunction, Jason was sure that his body could only handle a physique at the 6th Expert rank, even if Scorpio might be able to increase his strength further. If he wanted to fight his friend head-on with his physique, he would have to go beyond his current limit and injure himself to a certain degree, which was not really what he wanted to do. As such, Jason concluded that not only might he be forced to let one of his soulbonds enter his mana core to increase his strength, but that he would also be forced to reveal all three affinities with their most powerful attacks. However, instead of feeling down, hearing that his friend became extremely strong was something Jason felt happy about. Without being able to go all out, he was forced to either hold back and defeat his opponents or flee from stronger opponents if he couldn''t defeat them even after using everything he had. As if that was not enough, Greg''s eyes looked crystal clear which meant that he was able to fully control his body instead of his instincts. This fact was one the most important for Jason to conclude that his fight against Greg would be amazing, pushing the two youths'' adrenaline to the top. While the medic team rushed towards the youth laying on the ground, writhing in pain, Greg extinguished his berserk ability because he was only able to use it for a bunch of minutes each day, as he sat down next to Jason, as if nothing special happened at all. The two youths were extremely nonchalant right now and didn''t even talk about Greg''s fight and one could only feel their dense fighting spirit being released, indicating their desire to fight, which caused Malia, Gabriella, and Mark''s eyes to widen slightly. They worried about the two youths'' well-being if they were to go all out, however, instead of holding them back, they supported their decision because it was the last fight they would have together and it would have to be a magnificent fight for the two to be able to separate without feeling bad. Chapter 275 - Pity There was not much time between Greg''s fight and Jason''s and only two matches later, Jason and a feeble-looking girl with thick glasses entered the arena. However, instead of underestimating her, he was sure that she was one of the strongest out of the remaining students because her mana core size already reached the average of a 5th Expert rank even though her mana core was barely at the 2nd Expert rank. Jason didn''t know her name, but that didn''t really matter because he didn''t want to waste too much thinking about unnecessary things, as he only glanced at her mana core in order to figure out her affinity and her soulbonds rank. ''Mid-Unblemished¡­.Wood or vine affinity?'' He began to wonder because the transmutation he perceived from the girl was somewhat similar to Lin''s who he went into the four-star rift with. Jason knew that Lin was probably dead and lamenting about this youth''s choice to shoot at him in order to save himself was also not something he would do because it was a waste of time in which he could to other more important things. As such, he saw everything rather rational, and comparing the two transmuted mana flows with each other, Jason could tell that the girl had a similar, yet different affinity than Lin. But rather than being scared because she had most likely an unblemished beast as her soulbond, Jason felt a little bit bad about it. This had multiple reasons and the simplest was, that her physique should be at the 2nd Expert without receiving a high amplification from her soul world which was the most common for nature, wood, and other similar affinities. As such, the only small issue should be her affinity, but after thinking for a short moment, he concluded that it was unfortunate for the female student to be matched against him right now. When they stood opposite each other, Jason smiled at her lightly, but the girl in front of him looked extremely serious which caused him to lift his right eyebrow. With the AI initiating the start of their match, the girl immediately manifested several tight thick vines that grew out of her hands, only to pierce into the ground where they dug themselves through. Seeing this, Jason nodded his head as he manifested several icicles in front of him which he shot at the girl, who immediately manifested a thick vine wall in front of her. Shattering on the vine wall, the icicles froze a few vines, only to be replaced by another batch of vines. Perceiving what she was doing, Jason''s smiled widened before he summoned multiple black fireballs around him. Throwing them one after another at the exact same spot, they burned through the vine wall, only to arrive in front of his opponent, where he allowed them to explode. Thinking that it might be over in a short moment, he let his guard down for a quarter of a second when his mana eyes perceived something below him as he instinctively exerted the weightless steps technique to his highest capabilities, only to jump to the side. At the spot he was previously on, several thorny vines pierced out of the ground, only to lash out in every direction until they received new instructions. Without further ado, the vines suddenly stiffened as they pierced into Jason''s direction, where he retreated to. ''Huh? My fireballs didn''t work?'' Jason asked himself before he unsheathed his Viridi-Starstream daggers in order to sever the vines that lashed out at him. Even if his opponent''s ability was at the unblemished rank, manifesting several tight thick, and several dozen meter long veins at that rank would waste too much mana, which was also the reason for Jason to be able to cut the veins rather easily. After the vines were finally severed, Jason averted his attention back to the girl who was suddenly enveloped in a thick red flower bud, which caused him to widen his eyes. ''Did she just summon her soulbond or is that an ability?!'' He asked himself astonished, but after thinking about it for a moment, it couldn''t have been a soulbond because the AI didn''t say anything about it which would have been the case otherwise. As such, the girl in front of him used her soulbonds ability which seemed to counter his fire ability. ''This ability is extremely useful and suitable with such an affinity!'' Jason praised inwardly, but his smile didn''t leave his lips for a single second. With the weightless steps technique still exerted, Jason charged towards his opponent, as he manifested multiple icicles around him which he shot all at the vine wall and the flower enveloping and at the same time protecting the young girl. Smiling brightly, his opponent could almost immediately tell that something was wrong, as she looked at the icicles that shattered without much effort once they came in touch with anything. There was not even the need to protect herself against these icicles, but what came after shocked her extremely as green fog permeated the air where the icicles exploded Once the poison that permeated the air came in contact with the vines, they almost immediately began to corrode, with their life force diminishing at a visible pace as they shrunk in size. The female student''s eyes widened and she started to supply more mana into her vines, only to see that her mana consumption was higher than the benefits she obtained. Severing her contact with the vines, she summoned new ones with the use of her ability which used up more mana but made them more resistant to fire and other elemental affinities. However, what she didn''t notice was that not only did Jason throw out several dozen poisonous icicles at his opponent and the surrounding, but he himself already released a thick green mist, which was one of his newest achievements. His poisonous fog was extremely corrosive with a paralyzing trait added, allowing him to incapacitate opponents without killing them. At most, he would hurt them a lot and injure them by corroding their skin, but instead of killing them, it would only paralyze others which was exactly what he wanted to achieve for several reasons. Not only was it extremely useful for his current fight, where he was not allowed to kill someone, but also for other things. Jason also wanted to figure out ways to capture beasts with high potential to either tame them before contracting or even to sell them, if he was extremely short on money. It was not like he loved this way to make profits, and it was only something he would do if he could find no other way to earn funds for something he desperately needed without enough time to slowly accumulate the required money by other means. However, other than that, Jason could also change the composition of his poison affinity with Scorpio''s help who always tried to comprehend more about its affinity. In the end, he could only look at his opponent in pity because the female student he was fighting wouldn''t have it easy for the next few minutes. This was partially his fault as it was extremely difficult to control Scorpio''s poison affinity with the poison''s complex composition, while at the same time releasing his ice affinity with a feeble ice layer around the fog in order to throw poisonous icicles at his opponent, without shattering them before. Almost the whole combat ground was filled with green poisonous fog and only a thin barrier, the AI erected prevented it from leaking outside as the monitoring youths, teachers, and even several honorable citizens who were allowed to watch the fight heard the young girl shrieking out in pain, filling the whole arena with terror. [Victory, Jason Stella] Chapter 276 - If Hes Here, What About... [Victory, Jason Stella] Immediately after Jason heard this message from the AI, he stopped releasing the poisonous fog, as he enveloped the writhing and crying girl in front of him in a thick layer of ice in order to prevent the more corrosive poison from injuring her skin while at the same time cooling her down. Even if she could be healed later, the pain she had to go through was not something everyone could overcome just like that and she might even end up with small trauma. He didn''t feel anything from his own poison and even foreign poison should be less effective against him thanks to Scorpio''s hard work to comprehend and compose all kinds of poison while he was inside the soul world. Looking at the girl in front of him, Jason felt suddenly extremely bad because he was still unable to perfectly control his poison affinity, and to add on, the poison he released was required to have a high corrosive effect thanks to the vines covering her completely. Sighing deeply, he felt a strong gust of wind around him, as the poisonous fog was dissolved, with him and the ice-layered girl being revealed. The medic team was shocked to see the girl''s appearance and glared at Jason, who could only glance at the girl apologetically as he released her out of the small ice layer he manifested around her. Releasing multiple healing currents from their affinity, the medic team ignored Jason''s whole existence when they infused her multiple potions with all kinds of colors, after smearing a lotion on her corroded skin. Walking out of the arena, he was glared at by almost all students, teachers, and citizens around him, as even the Fler''s looked at him weirdly. Greg gulped down his saliva, as he asked. "Will you do the same against me?!" Hearing this, and noticing Greg''s hesitation, Jason couldn''t help but smirk as he teased. "So you want to beat me up with your berserk ability, while I can''t even release some poison?! I didn''t know that you were such a feeble youth? Should I go and purchase some baby powder and wipes, so you can release everything without any problems?" Frowning, Greg didn''t even know what to say, as he tried to comprehend what exactly Jason meant with baby powder and wipes?! ''Release everything without any problems?!.... Is he comparing me to a baby right now!?'' Making his own conclusion, Greg glared at his friend, as he gritted his teeth, as he said "I''ll take you down, even if you use everything you have!" When Greg said these words, Jason smiled and he also hoped that he could use everything up to his sleeves. After a short while, Jason''s defeated opponent was carried out of the arena and the tournament continued as if nothing happened. Almost two more hours passed until the Top 50 round was completed with the last 25 participants remaining, and a short break in order to recuperate was made before the next round would start. Talking with the Fler''s, Jason suddenly noticed Seron approaching him from far away, with a familiar youth next to him. Seeing the blue-haired youth next to Seron, Jason involuntarily stiffened as his eyes widened in shock. ''Max Drake?! Why is he here??'' Max Drake''s appearance itself was not something he should be afraid of but what his appearance on Astrix included was obvious¡­ More than a month ago, Max left with the Drake family patriarch to Canir, but with him being in front of him, this could only mean that the Drake family patriarch or someone below him was there! Goosebumps covered his whole body and he could hardly contain himself, as Seron saw him. Waving his trembling hand, as if nothing special happened, Malia noticed his anxiety and a trace of fear in his eyes, which was something she never saw in his eyes, even when Lux shot at him inside the four-star rift. This caused her to feel immediately uncomfortable, as she also stiffened slightly because it couldn''t be something positive. Approaching the Fler''s and Jason, Seron with Max next to them greeted everyone politely, while Seron was somewhat disappointed in Jason. However, he understood that he couldn''t force his friend into doing something he didn''t want, and in the end, it wouldn''t be a disadvantage for him, even if he was forced to wait a little bit longer. The chance that Jason could help him to pick the better, earth dragon egg was there and Seron couldn''t just disregard this opportunity. Gripping it firmly was better than doing something wrong. It was also surprising for Seron that Max arrived in front of his house late at the previous night, and it was fortunate that he was at home, otherwise, Max would have to stay somewhere else. However, what was even weirder was Till''s reaction, because his eyes widened slightly, as he saw Max before he started to ask him weird questions, like "Where his father was?" and "who came with you to Astrix?". Not being able to comprehend what exactly Till wanted to figure out, Seron could only ask his master, who decided to not answer for the moment. Taking a few deep breaths, Jason''s golden eyes shimmered vibrantly as he began to calm down slowly. Introducing everyone to Max, he seized him up with, and he couldn''t help but feel awestruck as he noticed that Max''s mana core already entered the 6th Expert rank, while his soul world amplified his mana core size to the 9th Expert rank. Jason was already aware that Max''s formed a soulbond contract with an unblemished beast, but he was still astonished to see that his mana core size increased by such a large margin. His mana was also transmuted to a high degree, which indicated a high water affinity, which caused Jason to estimate that Max''s soulbond was a beast that solely focused on its water affinity which innately possesses a high amount of mana. Even if Jason couldn''t be sure of that fact, he just hoped so because otherwise, Max''s soul world would amplify his physique and mana core to the same degree as Jason''s. Shaking his head, he looked at Max who returned his gaze with a faint smile, as he said "Hello Jason!" Hearing this, Jason couldn''t help but feel taken aback for a moment because the blue-haired youth in front of him seemed to be completely changed from his prior arrogant behavior, and Max noticed this, as he said. "After the arrival of the three envoys, many things changed¡­.just don''t ask about it, alright?" Somehow, Max''s seemed pitiful to Jason right now because there was a distinct pain in his eyes, which caused him to think about the possible reason for this. ''What could''ve changed his demeanor to such a degree and at the same time inflict so much pain, that it''s still apparent in his eyes?!'' However, even after pondering about it for some time, Jason could only imagine that it had something to do with the three envoys, which Max already said and probably his behavior at this time, which was rather anxious. ''Maybe his father forced him to do something, to become less anxious if something like this were about to happen again?'' But without any evidence, it wouldn''t be right to conclude anything, as such he decided to focus on the more important things! Still looking at Max, Jason straightforwardly asked. "Your father should be busy, right? How did you come here? It should be pretty far to come here just like that without any reason, right?" Max''s lips twitched for a second before he answered "My Grandpa wanted to see me and my father told me to take his subordinates with¡­.Now that I think about it, Grandpa wanted to talk to you after he received a message from my father...But you were right, he is pretty busy and couldn''t come here!" After he finished his speech, Max still added an extremely silent "fortunately" before he looked at Jason for a moment. Hearing that Old Drake wanted to see him, Jason could hardly contain his facial expression, but rather than feeling down, he felt good because the Drake family patriarch was not present, and instead his subordinates. Even if they were sovereigns, Jason doubted that they were stronger than Shane, when he suddenly thought about his master''s injury, which decreased his combat prowess by a large margin. Chapter 277 - Threatened Trying to find an excuse to reject Old Drake''s ''invitation'', Jason couldn''t help but sigh as he knew that it was impossible without looking suspicious. Nodding his head, he asked Max where exactly Old Drake was before he stood up from his seat. Separating from the Fler''s to talk to Old Drake, Max decided to lead him, with Seron accompanying the two youths. Jason looked calm on the outside, but his inside was chaotic, with thousands of thoughts tormenting him. ''Will Shane be there if I need him?! Should I call him once I''m alone? What is this bullsh*t? Can''t I have my peace please?!?'' Cursing inside his mind for some time, they already arrived in front of a large high-graded wooden door that released dense mana currents. However, this couldn''t distract Jason''s firm gaze which already perceived one almost broken mana core, Till''s familiar mana fluctuations at the Lord rank, and two sovereign ranked mana cores with a single somewhat crude shaped prismarine crystal which was somewhat calming, even if his heart skipped a beat. ''Two Lords would have been even better'' Jason couldn''t help but think for a second, but it was only obvious that not everything could go according to his desire. As such, the three youths entered the room where Max walked towards Old Drake while Seron halted his steps next to Till. To Jason, it felt as if they wanted to interrogate him or maybe even worse, however, Till''s faint smile assured him to a certain degree as he tried to calm down. Clearing his throat, Jason straightforwardly asked, without trying to waste any time. "Old Drake, is there a specific reason for me to come here? I think I''m interrupting something..." Glancing at the two sovereign ranks that stood nearby Old Drake, Jason couldn''t help but feel uncomfortable under their stares that seemed to threaten him. Gulping down his saliva, he averted his attention back to Old Drake, who answered him calmly. "That''s not the problem Jason, rather than that, we talked about you! I watched your fights and asked the patriarch to come over and see your magnificent combat prowess. Unfortunately enough, he couldn''t come because there seems to be a small issue he has to solve, however, instead he was generous enough to send over his subordinates, which are able to determine your strength!" When Old Drake finished talking, Jason felt that his bad premonition came true, as his fear intensified, as he asked to be sure. "....And what exactly¡­.does that have to do with me being called here?" He was already aware of the answer, but Jason had to be sure, even if he didn''t want to hear the obvious answer. Old Drake started to smile at Jason innocently, as he said "I think you already know what the Drake family patriarch wants. In order to defend ourselves against the foreign races, we need to strengthen our clan strength, and what would be better than nurturing prodigies? Obviously, the Drake family patriarch won''t nurture anybody and also not without being assured about their loyalty. The outcome is obvious, right? If you want to receive the Drake family''s resources, you need to sign a soul contract with the Drake family patriarch or someone he trusts!" Sighing deeply, Jason couldn''t help but shudder as his premonition came true, as he looked at Old Drake, asked sarcastically "What if I don''t want to receive the ''glorious'' change to receive the Drake family''s resources?" He was extremely pissed at Old Drake, who looked at him as if everything he did was for Jason''s own good without feeling remotely bad about what he was doing right now. ''Hypocrite!'' Jason cursed inwardly, as one of the sovereigns next to Old Drake suddenly exploded. "A peasant like you without any background should feel thankful to be even able to talk to the Drake family and after showing this puny combat prowess which barely meets the requirements you want to decline such an opportunity? Are you f*cking kidding me?" Releasing some of his mana with killing intent to envelop Jason, his eyes turned cold as he added. "If you don''t accept the offer the Drake family gives you, you might as well be our enemy, and I think it''s obvious what happens if we capture an enemy! You''ll die!!" Intensifying the killing intent, Jason could barely breathe, and there was nothing he could do as Old Drake lifted his finger, telling the sovereign rank to calm down. Jason was released from the killing intent that almost killed him, as he slumped to the ground, barely being able to breathe, as Till appeared next to Jason to look, if he was fine, with healing currents enveloping him. "These bastards¡­" Till was surprised to hear what Old Drake said, and it was as if he changed completely and Old Drake''s gentle expression turned cold. Old Drake was known as gentle and kind but he would only behave like this if he could gain something from such behavior. Max, who stood next to his grandfather a moment ago, retreated several steps when he realized what was going on. Not believing it, he looked around the room, only to see Seron''s shocked expression, which also seemed to say ''What is going on here?'' Both youths didn''t know what happened and it felt as if they were thrown out of their own playground into the cruel reality within seconds. They neither imagined that the Drake family would force prodigious youths into a soul contract nor that they were so overbearing, threatening Jason with his death. Max averted his gaze from Jason to the two Drake family subordinates that came with him. While the one that almost killed Jason was still enraged, Max could see deep pain and pity glimmering in the other middle-aged man''s eyes, telling him that Jason was not the first one to be forced into submission. Yet, he was still unable to believe that this happened in front of him. Taking deep breaths he tried to calm down, as he saw Jason standing up with his golden eyes turned extremely cold without any trace of warmth and kindness left. Looking at Old Drake, Jason couldn''t help but hold back anymore, as he said "Is that the only reason I was asked to come here, or is there even something important you wanted to say?" Hearing this, Old Drake smiled, as the sovereign rank was about to release his killing intent once again in order to kill Jason cruelly after tormenting him for a while, only to be held back by Old Drake. Smiling brightly, Old Drake looked more like a devil than a human to Jason, as he said. "Young boy you''re really interesting due to multiple reasons and you know that, or am I wrong? Your soul-awakening rating is a bad joke, otherwise, how would you be able to contract three mid to peak evolved ranked beasts at your age...However, other than that your eyes and combat prowess are what I''m really interested in, while your personality is pleasing to my eyes¡­.hahaha. If I could, I would just force you into submission right now without wasting a single second, unfortunately, I''m not allowed and neither is now the perfect timing." Frowning, Jason was unsure what exactly Old Drake meant, as Till stood up next to him, looking serious at Old Drake as he said. "If you were to force Jason into submission right now or even kill him, it would create bad blood between the Drake family with the Greil- and Gier family because we still need him!" Old Drake who was astonished about this revelation, and lifted his eyebrow as he said in a cold, yet overbearing voice "Why exactly do you need Jason? This has nothing to do with the Greil and Gier family! Don''t involve yourself in our family''s business only because of a single youth! I don''t think you can take the responsibility to start a war, or am I wrong?? Next to Old Drake, the enraged sovereign rank once again released his mana fluctuations to underline the spoken words, however, instead of being forced to retreat, Till''s eyes turned cold, as he said. "You are budding into our business if you force Jason into submission right now, and I give a sh*t whether I have the responsibility to wage a war or not, but I don''t think you should mess with the direct heir of the Gier family and me, the Greil''s patriarch second son! Once we finish our business you can do whatever you want! We already have an agreement with the Drake family patriarch about our business and I don''t think YOU are eligible to take the responsibility to start a war against us only because you''re impatient!" Jason''s heart felt warm when he heard Till''s words, even if he might be after his own benefits, but this didn''t matter for the moment as he could breathe more freely without the fear of being forced into submission or killed right now. When Till finished his words, the sovereign rank next to Old Drake almost immediately retraced his killing intent, as Old Drake sighed deeply, mumbling "Jael never said that he should be forced into submission immediately, right? What else did he say¡­." As if he remembered something Old Drake averted his gaze back to Jason, as their eyes met. "The Drake family patriarch told me to offer you a better soul contract if you win against the strongest youth on Astrix...That should be Greg Fler, whom you''re fighting soon¡­" Hearing this Jason frowned deeply, as Old Drake added, smiling craftily. "Because I like your attitude and strength, I might even be able to offer you a better contract than that! That is under the condition that you defeat Greg Fler in the Top 25 and your next opponent in the Top 13 tomorrow!" ''Huh?'' Jason thought, and he couldn''t really understand Old Drake''s reasoning for this. ''What is so special about the Top 13 and why does he even bother to give me the possibility to receive a better contract...it''s not like I can do anything against it either way, except dying¡­.'' Seeing Jason''s suspicious face, Old Drake''s hideous smile widened, as he said while laughing cruelly "Your opponent in the Top 13 will be Max! Isn''t that interesting?!" Chapter 278 - Despair "Your opponent in the Top 13 will be Max! Isn''t that interesting?!" Hearing this, Jason''s frown deepened as he averted his gaze towards Max whose expression was filled with shock, which caused him to wonder how the blue-haired youth even survived on Canir until now. ''Does he even know anything about his clan or family?!'' Jason asked inwardly to himself. If he were, to be honest, a soul contract was nothing bad per se because it could also be a simple contract, preventing party B to become hostile to party A. A soul contract could also state that the contracted person was not allowed to have contact with certain other clans or foreign races. In the end, a soul contract was not something Jason was afraid of, but the clauses stated within because they might be devastating and extremely restricting, like Till already told him. Jason concluded that the big families handled their soul contracts differently, while it was highly likely that one clause would be to stay loyal to party A''s big clan or something similar to that. Another thing, Jason imagined, was that foreign races were unable to form a soul contract with such individuals that pledged loyalty to the big families which caused these races to disregard these humans'' whole existence. This thought was extremely important and thinking about it, Jason found that it was most likely the only reason for foreign races to ignore the big families without trying to lure them over. Instead of that, they would more likely try to convince them to work together by giving them presents to earn their trust before they would be able to do anything else. In the end, he also began to wonder how many big clans were backed by foreign races and if that was also the reason for the war between the different countries. ''Did the foreign races intervene in our business, trying to build a monarchy from a single big clan in order to nurture more prodigious youths for themselves'' With this thought, Jason also concluded that everything could turn extremely nasty and chaotic, once a single big clan attained a big advantage over the others clans because the different foreign races wouldn''t just let this slide without doing anything against it. Sighing deeply, he shook his head as he continued to stare at Max, only to see that his expression worsened, filled with shock and even despair, which confused Jason. Seeing this and also Seron''s expression, he felt that it was weird that both youths were so naive, when he finally remembered, that the three of them were only 14 to 15 years old, and he could only sigh deeply. ''Having a joyous childhood was never something I expected to receive but isn''t that too much right now?'' Feeling that the odds were against him, Jason''s mood soured, and he was only glad that Till stood by his side, helping him to a certain extent, without waging war against the Drake family. Old Drake in front of him seemed to have finished his speech and he seemed extremely confident, which was either because he thought that Jason, Shane, and Dalia didn''t have any contact with each other or that Shane''s injury restricted his combat prowess so that the two sovereigns next to him would be strong enough to take care of him. There were also other possibilities, but without the Drake family patriarch here, Old Drake seemed to be just too confident, which was definitely weird. Other than that, his sudden change in attitude frustrated Jason because he initially thought that Old Drake was someone kind, he could trust. Apparently, that was not the case and when Old Drake told him that he could go, to fight against Greg, Jason simply turned around. Walking towards the large door, goosebumps covered his whole body as cold sweat run down his back when he felt Old Drake''s creepy stare on him. Gulping down his saliva, he opened the door in order to leave the room. It was not long after he left the room, that Jason suddenly began to exert his weightless steps technique to rush towards the bathroom that was close to the arena to prevent attracting too much attention. If Old Drake or one of the sovereigns were to monitor him, it might look like he was anxious or even in despair which might even cause him to vomit. Jason didn''t have to vomit but he felt anxious and uncomfortable as he called his masters through the messenger crystals, disregarding the possibility of someone else entering its frequency. The runes on the crystal brightened up and Jason waited anxiously for his masters to accept his call, and to hear their reassuring voices¡­ However, seconds passed¡­. Half a minute elapsed¡­ Even after two minutes, there was no answer, as the manifested rune diminished. The messenger crystal began to crumble and was barely held together by the runes on it. With this, Jason knew that he had only one call left as he bit his lips with a seed of fear planting inside his heart. Making the last call on the messenger crystal, Jason bit his lips so hard that they began to bleed and he could only look at the crystal that turned into tiny pebbles after two minutes passed without anyone answering him. The mana fluctuations released by the messenger crystal were extremely faint and not something to anyone should notice, but Jason felt like he was about to go insane because there was nobody he could rely on as a sudden thought filled his mind. ''Nobody will save me!!¡­. Will I end up as a slave?'' With this thought filling his mind, Jason didn''t know what to do anymore when he heard Greg talking to someone outside and he seemed extremely confused. "H-Hello Sir? What is that? I don''t want to buy anything, sorry! I''m only searching for my friend¡­.huh? He is on the toilet?... How do you know that? I should give him that?.... Who are you? W-Wait!!" Hearing his friend''s voice, Jason forced himself to calm down as he took a few deep breaths. Even if it was only partially helpful, he didn''t want his friend to see him like this right now. Right now, Jason looked like he was about to go insane with his bloodshot golden eyes and blood running down his lips. Looking to his right sight, he suddenly jumped up when he perceived Greg''s familiar mana core with their particular fluctuations. However more important to Jason, who crashed open the door as he charged out of the bathroom, was the overly familiar mana fluctuations he noticed from the person Greg talked to. ''Shane!!!'' Running into Greg, Jason was about to rush after Shane only for Greg to obstruct his path, and before he could push his friend away, Shane''s concealed mana core disappeared inside a crowd of students, teachers, and citizens whose mana fluctuations overlapped, preventing Jason from seeing anything beyond clearly. Even if he couldn''t see Shane, Jason was still relieved with his whole accumulated frustration, anxiety, and fear dissipating within a single moment, as Greg shook his body violently. "Jason...JASON!!! What is wrong with you? We have to fight now! You were almost too late...Are you...okay?" Trying to figure out what was going on with his friend, Greg only saw the big contrast between his lips where blood still dripped from and his bloodshot eyes that gleamed brightly as if he was overjoyed which looked weird in contrast. Jason, who remembered that Greg was next to him, noticed a paper in his hand as he immediately asked obtrusive about it. "I heard you talking to someone outside the bathroom. Is that piece of paper for me?" Blinking several times, Greg shook his head, before he handed over the paper, as he said "Yeah there was an old man that handed me this paper, saying that it was for you...he also said that I can find you inside the bathroom...Weird, right?" Smiling lightly, Jason immediately opened the piece of paper only to see two simple sentences written on it. "I''ll take care of everything! Don''t dare to slack off!!" Chapter 279 - All-out Smiling at the message, Jason had to suppress his emotions, otherwise, he might as well cry in front of Greg, which wouldn''t be pleasing for both of them. As such, he closed the piece of paper again, before he stored it away in his storage device. Looking at Greg, a radiant smile emerged on his face as he said "Are you ready to fight me?" After he released his whole tension, Jason couldn''t suppress his joy anymore because he would neither have to die if he were to reject the Drake family''s offer nor accept it, being forced into submission. If that was not something to be happy about, there was still the fact that Shane was already here and that he was about to fight against Greg. Before that, he was still anxious if he could go all out, but now it was a completely different matter because Shane was there. Furthermore fighting against Greg with all his might after he became stronger was something he wanted to do. Even more so after Greg''s soulbond evolved and him being able to control the inherited Berserk ability! Hearing Jason''s words, Greg couldn''t help but also smile at him as both of them turned in the direction of the arena which they approached with slow, yet steady steps. Looking back one more time, Jason was unable to find Shane, but that didn''t matter anymore as they finally entered the arena that seemed to be more crowded than it initially was. There were several thousand students with their teachers like before but now the number of citizens watching the matches increased by a large margin, which caused Jason to smile lightly as he thought that their Top 25 from the first-year students would most likely become the most exciting match to look at for the whole tournament. Greg was also in awe, seeing that so many people would look at his fight but rather than feeling insecure, there was a confident smile on his face. It was almost too late for them to enter the arena and a few citizens already started to complain when everyone saw the two youths laughing with each other as they entered the arena. Seeing this, there was one simple thought in everyone''s mind, souring their mood and dimming their expectations when one citizen spoke out what everyone was thinking about. "These two youths are obviously good friends...can they even fight properly against each other? They''ll most likely hold back if it looks too dangerous¡­.how disappointing!!" This citizen''s voice was so loud, that even Greg and Jason were able to hear it, which caused them to halt their steps, only to stare at the citizen in front of them as Jason mumbled. "This is not something an old man with a mana core rank at the master rank should say. Just focus on yourself and don''t bother other people...Just look and see!" Rolling his eyes, Jason entered the arena, not bothering that he was looked at with widened eyes, and the man who said everyone''s thought out loud, slumped back on his seat, dumbfounded. Gritting his teeth, he couldn''t say anything against this youth''s undeniable truth because everyone started to look at him amused¡­. He was incapable to compress his mana into a liquefied drop of mana even at his age, which was embarrassing. Comparing himself to young prodigies was as if one compared trash with a raw diamond. Forcing himself to not jump up, curse, and charge at the youth, the man was sure that the security would beat him into a pulp if he were to be noticed in a bad way one more time. Gulping down his saliva, he remained silent, while enduring the amused gazes on him, that seemed to laugh at him. Jason didn''t mind this disruption, as he stood inside the combat arena, waiting for Greg, who also regained his senses. Standing opposite each other at a distance of roughly forty meters, the two youths smiled as they released their fighting spirit. Their demeanor changed almost immediately and from the viewers'' perspective, it looked like both youths neither knew each other nor laughed together only a moment ago and they were solely focused on their fight, which the AI started. Without wasting any time, Jason already ordered Scorpio to enter his mana core, creating a faint dark green-blueish layer around his mana core, enlarging it, while his physique was strengthened. Right now, his body could barely handle the sudden amplification from the fortified soul conjunction to the 6th Expert rank in both mana core size and physical strength. However, that was already enough for Greg to notice a major change in Jason''s demeanor and mana fluctuations that seemed to ravage vigorously inside his body. Gulping down his saliva, he also activated his Berserk ability, after the AI initiated the start of their fight. Jason''s mana fluctuations ravaged through his body, yet his outer appearance didn''t change, while Greg''s body enlarged with his skin turning red as his eyes turned bloodshot. The sudden change in both youths only a quarter of a second after their match started, shocked everyone, when both exerted their movement technique to their highest capabilities, only to take out their weapons while charging at each other. Aware that his physical strength was lower than Greg''s and that he had a slight disadvantage with his weapon choice, Jason couldn''t help but feel ecstatic, when he felt the mana ravaging in his body. He never really fought against someone with the fortified soul conjunction fully utilized and it was the first time for him to feel so much mana inside him if one were to disregard the mana sphere bracelet which he could only use for external means. It was not something he could feel within himself and with this thought, his daggers appeared inside his hands with several dozen blazing icicles manifesting around him. Shooting all of them towards Greg, who used his brute force to shatter the icicle with black flames flickering inside, he got to feel what it meant to disregard Jason''s black origin flame. Once the icicles shattered, the black flames within erupted with searing heat burning Greg''s hair and skin below when he already emerged in front of Jason to greet him with an onslaught of fast punches. Jason''s physique was lower than Greg''s but he could use three affinities which should normally be enough to completely overwhelm his opponent. However, Greg was different, because he already knew how strong Jason''s elemental attacks were with the sole exception of the poison affinity. Evading the first few punches, Greg forced him to retreat, as Jason gritted his teeth to summon multiple icicles and fireballs which he shot towards his friend without regarding if he would sustain heavy injuries or not. Crying out in pain, Greg suddenly lifted Jason into the air, completely ignoring the cuts he sustained from Jason''s daggers when he threw him through the arena. Being thrown through the air, Jason couldn''t help to smile because his excitement overwhelmed him only to crash into the ground. Coughing up some blood, he forced himself to stand up without wasting any time. Barely wiping away the blood before staring at Greg who seemed to be in a worse situation than he was. His enlarged body had multiple light cuts and holes in it which he sustained through Jason''s dagger trusts and icicles, while his burned skin looked even worse. Meanwhile, Jason sustained more internal injuries through the impact in Greg''s punches, which shook his whole body and internal organs. If he didn''t know better, Jason would be sure that he had some broken ribs. Nevertheless, the two youths smiled at each other excitedly, as if they were playing around, which caused everyone around to look at the youths in shock. ''Who the hell said that these two were good friends?! Aren''t they arch-enemies in their final battle to decide who can survive and who will have to die?!'' Everyone thought and the man who complained out loud, turned even quieter than before if that was even possible as his eyes equally widened. ''What are these youths?! Monsters??'' However, neither of the two couldn''t help themselves because they didn''t even realize their own injuries. After he was thrown through the air, Jason lost grip around his daggers and they were too far away for him to reach right now when Greg started to exert his movement technique once again. Ignoring that he didn''t have a weapon left, he exerted his weightless steps technique to the limit, only to notice that he could still inject more of his mana into it, which he did without hesitation. His mana consumption increased by a large margin and Jason knew that he wouldn''t be able to supply the weightless steps technique that seemed to have advanced to the perfect mastery for longer than two minutes at most, even after his mana core size enlarged to the 6th Expert rank. Nevertheless, two minutes would be more than enough because he doubted that Greg could sustain his berserk ability for much longer. As such, he used everything up to his sleeves to charge at Greg with his perfect mastery of the weightless steps technique fully utilized. Jason''s speed increased by another 15%, increasing his velocity by a total of 60%, only to emerge below Greg who was now slower by a small margin than he was. Dealing out several punches, Jason evaded every single one of Greg''s punches as Greg suddenly kicked at Jason''s body which was leaned forward. Seeing this, he twisted his body into an uncomfortable angle to barely avoid the attack. At the same time, he manifested a compressed ice shard, shaped into a sharp blade, which he pierced into Greg''s back of the knee with all his might. Crying out in pain, Greg''s leg gave in as Jason noticed something with shock which caused his eyes to quiver slightly. Not only, turned his friend''s eyes crimson red without a single trace of white left, but his whole remaining mana was instantly used up, enlarging Greg''s body, when he turned his steaming, red head towards Jason. ''Damn¡­'' Chapter 280 - Silence Seeing how Greg''s whole demeanor changed into that of a ferocious beast, Jason frowned as he pushed himself away with all his might, only to notice that his leg was firmly grasped by Greg. He was lifted high in the air and couldn''t help but think that his friend lost all his reasoning when he saw his eyes, which led Jason to disregarded the possibility of injuring his Greg when he pierced out with the ice dagger towards his friend''s arm without holding back. Normally this would have been enough to pierce through Greg''s skin into his flesh, only to be forcefully halted at his bones, however, now Jason''s ice blade shatters when he barely grazed Greg''s skin. His eyes widened involuntarily, with a shocking thought revering through his mind. ''Did his physique increase to the Master rank?!?'' This should have been impossible, even if Greg''s berserk ability was extremely powerful, increasing his strength by over a dozen levels was not something a normal body could take. And after seeing that Greg''s skin burst open with blood pouring out, Jason understood that his friend released his whole mana and everything inside him at once in order to fight for a few more seconds, even if he lost all reasoning. Trying to find a way out of Greg''s firm grasp, Jason knew that he either had to survive the next few seconds by defending against his powerful punches or that he would have to counterattack. Taking a deep breath, he involuntarily shivered as Greg''s punch approached him with a terrifying might and velocity. Sensing the strength behind his friend''s punch, he ordered Scorpio to completely release its amplification by fully opening the golden gate between his soul world and mana core. Just like that Jason''s strength increased once again, reaching the combat prowess of an average 8th Expert rank in both physical strength and mana core size. Additionally, he manifested Scorpio''s exoskeleton around him with the two-meter-long stinger growing out of his coccyx. Greg still lifted him into the air with his leg in his hand only to swing down his arm, bashing Jason into the ground before Greg punched into his abdomen, which created cracks in the combat arena below Jason. With his sight blurring, Jason was barely able to stay conscious, and he forced himself to use all his remaining mana in addition to Scorpio''s to compress his poison affinity inside the stinger behind him which snapped out, piercing into Greg''s burst open skin. Jason felt as if he was about to faint any moment if the pain in his abdomen wouldn''t lessen, when he noticed Greg''s crimson red eyes, revealing his brown eyes before he collapsed. [Victory, Jason Stella!] Hearing this, Jason was about to faint, and only the thought that entering an unconscious state might be extremely disadvantageous, with Old Drake and so on around, forced him to stay conscious even if it was extremely uncomfortable. Several seconds passed until he was able to lift himself from the ground. Being able to barely balance himself as he loosened up the stinger that was still pierced inside Greg''s wound. Taking out multiple potions at once, Jason gulped them down without hesitation, and feeling the pain substituting by a small margin, he was finally able to breathe more freely again. Looking down at him, he noticed a gaping hole in his azure blue exoskeleton armor, which caused him to gulp. ''Would I be dead without Scorpio''s exoskeleton?'' He asked himself, shocked, before realizing that Greg was truly unable to get a hold of himself after his Berserk ability seemed to have gone out of control by using up everything within his friend. Thinking about his friend, he immediately looked out for Greg who laid on the ground, almost as if he was dead and Jason would have been extremely shocked if he didn''t have his mana eyes that told him that Greg just overexerted almost everything inside his body, which forced him into the state he was currently in. Turning him around, he took out another batch of potions which Jason forcefully inserted in Greg''s mouth when the medic team arrived next to him. Shocked about Greg''s situation, they immediately released their healing abilities and particular affinities to soothe his pain. Yet, they couldn''t help themselves to eye Jason weirdly. Noticing this, he couldn''t help but smile lightly, and once he figured out that Scorpio''s exoskeleton and stinger were still manifested, Jason retraced them once again. Looking around, he noticed that the whole arena was eerie silent, without a single noise disrupting the silence, and he could see various emotions in their eyes, like shock, jealousy, and fear. The citizens that were shocked thought that Jason was a foreign race, while the others that were shocked and jealous, most likely knew what Jason''s appearance indicated. He was able to manifest his soulbond''s exoskeleton and stinger!! However, even if nobody could immediately digest that he had a fortified soul conjunction with his soulbond at such a young age, both youths that fought in front of them less than a minute ago showed a ridiculous high combat prowess, considering that both of them had yet to reach the Expert rank. From common knowledge, everyone knew that it was easier to break through multiple levels at the lower mana core ranks with the help of soulbonds, and most citizens were not even astonished to see a student being able to defeat someone with a higher mana core rank. However, the previous fights were a joke compared to the one that happened right in front of them. Jason knew that it was not the smarted move from him to reveal his fortified soul conjunction with Scorpio, yet he felt that it was necessary in order to survive against Greg, who couldn''t control himself anymore. As such, it was not something he could avoid and it was already enough for him to know that Shane was here, otherwise, he would have a huge problem by now. Looking towards the direction where the office he was previously in was, Jason could perceive both sovereigns mana fluctuations flickering violently as if they were excited while Old Drake''s mana core was about to break, which Jason hoped to happen deep within him. Shaking his head, he would be unable to change anything for now and it was only fortunate that the two sovereigns or Drake wouldn''t force him into signing a soul contract immediately, which would have been quite bad. In the end, it was a good decision that he offered Seron his help in figuring out which earth dragon egg had the highest potential. This gave him, or rather Shane, more time to get him out of the Drake family''s clutches because he wouldn''t be able to do that alone, and he would have to ask for help either way. Maybe, the only thing he could have done alone would be concealing his mana core, while trying to run as far as possible before entering the closest restricted rift, preventing anyone too powerful from pursuing him. However, there were too many flaws in this plan and in the end, Jason found that it was only something he could rely on if he were to be completely alone without anyone to rely on, which was not the case. This was his fortune and Jason told himself that he had to repay Till and his two masters for this, even if it might take a while. After picking up his two daggers, he followed the medic team that carried Greg out of the arena inside the infirmary, like Malia, Gabriella and Mark appeared next to him. The three were also extremely shocked about the two youths'' match against each other because it was simple as if two strangers were fighting a life and death battle, which created a slight tension between Jason and the three. Nevertheless, after seeing that Jason was extremely worried, this tension almost immediately disappeared and the Fler''s told themselves that the two youths just wanted to fight without holding back, even if it ended brutally. Inside the Infirmary, Greg was quickly examined and healed by multiple healing abilities and potions. Seeing blood rushing through his ashen-pale face, caused everyone to sigh in relief as it turned rosier. He was still unconscious but his breathing turned more regular, and Jason smiled lightly, when he suddenly heard Till''s voice behind him, as the Infirmary''s door opened. "Jason, I don''t want to bother you and the Fler''s but we should talk!" Chapter 281 - Proposal Hearing Till behind him, Jason flinched and turned around only to see Till''s serious expression. Seron stood next to him looking at Jason, not knowing what to think about his friend. Jason could see a trace of fear in Seron''s eyes and he couldn''t really help but feel that his friendship with Seron was not as thick as he previously imagined because the gap between them seemed to widen. However, this thought was almost immediately disregarded, when he heard Seron next to Till quietly lamenting "So he never had to go all out against me?" Smiling lightly, he looked at Gabriella and Mark who indicated to him that they were fine and that he could go before he walked out of the Infirmary with Till and Seron in front of him. They didn''t say anything for several minutes before they entered a small room, which the two entered, only for Jason to inspect everything clearly with his mana eyes. There was nobody except Till and Seron inside the room which was reassuring, but Jason also told himself that it was possible for others to have a complete mana concealment ability, as he already witnessed something like this from the untraceable Drakes within the four-star rift. As such, he carefully entered the small room with simple furniture inside, while Till and Seron already sat on the couch, waiting for him to come inside. Seeing Jason''s acting too vigilant, Till said "There is no need to be afraid of us. Rather than that I or more likely we want to help you if we can." Once Till said this, Jason''s tension loosened up slightly as he approached the couth opposite Till and Seron, where he sat down. Looking at the two in front of him, Jason was unsure what they expected from him or if he should say something first when Till suddenly started. "To be honest, I''m shocked that you already formed a fortified soul conjunction with your soulbond, at such a young age and only slightly more than 6 months after your soul-awakening. Furthermore, from the exoskeleton''s appearance and the miniature Parascors I saw before, I assume that they''re the same and that it evolved into a powerful being at that, am I right? You are always good for a surprise, but I don''t think that your decision to reveal your fortified soul conjunction in front of two sovereign ranks and Old Drake was good. Let me be blunt with you! If you don''t want to be forced into submission by the Drake family''s harsh soul contract, there are only three ways for you to take! The first one would be that Shane appears in the next few hours, and takes you away, even if he has to use brute force. However, I don''t know how much he recuperated from his injury, while I''m sure that Old Drake should have a plan against this scenario, at least if his mind is not completely filled with his greed yet. The second way I can see is that you ask me and Seron for your help! It might create an unfavorable relationship with the Drake family, but the Drake family patriarch wouldn''t dare to wage war against the Gier and Greil family at the same time, only because we took you in! However, for our clans to do something like this, you would have to be worth the efforts, but I definitely think that you''re worth it! Your combat prowess, mana aptitude, soul world, and mana eyes are exceptional! Furthermore, seeing that you were able to form a fortified soul conjunction in barely a few months, our clans'' elders would definitely want to lure you in. There would only be one small issue, which would be that you would have to form a soul contract with both of our clans, even if the clauses wouldn''t shackle you down as with the Drake family''s soul contract, they would still prevent you from attacking any of our families'' descendants or even the possibility that you might collude with foreign races¡­ If you can''t cope with either of the previous two ways, the third one might sound stupid, but there are more than enough prodigies who would rather take the third path than being forced into submission, which wouldn''t be better than being a slave. The third way you could take would be taking your own life, if everything else doesn''t work out! Fleeing from the Drake family without anyone helping you is not something you can do, even less with two sovereign ranks chasing you." Ending his short speech, which was also an offer, Till started seriously inside Jason''s eyes, waiting for an answer. Jason only gulped down his saliva, and even if he was sure that the first choice or way, how Till labeled it, was what he would take in the end, he felt gratitude towards Till, who offered him the second choice. However, in the end, Jason knew that he couldn''t take the second choice, and that was not because he had to sign a soul contract. The reason for him to be unable to accept the contract Till stated would be the last clause he named without thinking much about it. Jason was called a Celestia halfling bye the Shadow walker, Yreal some time ago, and if that was really the case, how could he not work together with foreign races as he himself was one in this case. With his current progress, it was impossible for him to stagnate at the lower cultivation ranks, which might allow him to leave Argos in the future. When that happened, he might have to work with other races together because Jason doubted that every single foreign race was bad. Even the Ganasia and Deepsea Scion race, humanity labeled as terrifying monsters were filled with agony when one of their brethren died. As such, Jason would have a small problem if he still didn''t hear anything from Shane. Fortunately enough, this already happened and Jason looked at Till with sincerity gleaming in his eyes as he thanked him properly. Standing up he even bowed to Till and also Seron, who looked at him astonished as he didn''t expect to receive Jason''s thanks, which embarrassed him. Till nodded his head, accepting Jason''s decision and he wished him good luck inwardly, when they changed their topic towards the next task they had to do. Because it was Seron''s mission to choose his second soulbond, Till didn''t intervene, and he only sat back after telling his disciple to start. Clearing his throat, Seron''s expression turned serious and excited, as he simply said. "If you don''t have anything else to do anymore, we should immediately depart to the shaft that brings us to the mana vein!" Hearing this, Till almost choke on the water he was drinking and he could only shake his head as he hoped that Seron would explain more. However, thinking about it for a moment, the explanation could also be done later, once they entered the shaft. Smiling lightly, Jason thought about Seron''s word for a moment, as he remembered something. "I need to stop at the Fler''s house. There are still things I might need!" Nodding his head, Seron didn''t sound disappointed, and rather than that, he urged Till that they should depart as soon as possible. Sighing deeply, Till couldn''t help but feel like a shuttle replacement, because Seron wanted him to bring them from one spot to another. Glaring at his disciple, Seron apologized immediately before they walked out of the arena. Meanwhile, old Drake and the two sovereigns surveilled Jason for the whole time and they didn''t notice anything suspicious because they were unable to hear Till''s words. Yet, they were excited after seeing that Jason was able to establish a fortified soul conjunction while being so young which was definitely special and allowed him to reach extreme heights without being forced to have an extremely high mana attitude to be worth their effort to force him into submission. As such, they wanted to force Jason in signing the Drake family soul contract, only to be forcefully halted, when Till and Seron appeared inside the Infirmary right before they were about to act. Seeing that the heirs of two big families surrounded Jason, it was impossible for them to act as the two sovereign ranks, suddenly felt something vibrating in their pockets. Astonished, they took out the emergency messenger crystal they received from the Drake family''s headquarters. Answering the incoming call, the runes on the crystal manifested above them as they heard a pained voice, pleading for help and the words. "Ice Dragon¡­.through the rift¡­..wrecks havoc..." Chapter 282 - Price For Your Betrayal Hearing this, the two sovereign ranks immediately jumped up, as the quieter sovereign suddenly shouted. "Ian is that you?! What is going on...HELLO!? Where are you, we''ll come immediately!" However, the last thing Old Drake and the two sovereign ranks heard was a thunderous roar which revered through the messenger crystal, shaking the whole room, and the person on the other side of the messenger crystal crying out in pain before the signal broke off. Their body stiffened when they heard the thunderous roar and the sovereign ranks were about to rush towards their headquarter when Old Drake suddenly said. "Don''t! It could be a trap and your current task is something else!!!" Halting in their tracks, the two sovereign ranks stared at Old Drake as if he was insane and they were about to disregard his words only remembered the Drake family patriarch''s words, telling them to remain on Astrix by any means. Gnashing their teeth, they didn''t know what to do because it was obvious that something bad happened on Canir, where the Drake family''s headquarters was situated. However, in the end, they still decided to disregard Old Drake''s words because it was useless for them to remain on Astrix if the whole Drake family were to be annihilated by the Ice Dragon or whatever attacked them right now. Their current intel was minuscule and the only thing they knew was something about an Ice Dragon whose roar they also heard in addition to the rumored intel that the dragon seemed to have escaped through a rift, and that it wreaked havoc. With this, the two sovereigns who were always by their master''s side concluded that it had to be the Drake family patriarch''s soulbond''s mother, searching for its hatchling. It was only weird that the Dragon mother was able to venture through the rift because they knew that the rift had certain restrictions which should prevent the Dragon mother from passing through it. However, after thinking for a moment, more than 20 years passed, and even if traveling through a restricted rift was life-threatening, mankind had yet to be explored what would happen if one were to disregard this restriction, by stepping through it without caring about one''s own life. By the looks of it, the Ice Dragon mother took 20 years to venture through the rift, driven by insanity to find her child, even if it meant that she might die. In the end, this was a dramatic story, but neither Old Drake nor the two sovereigns bothered about the Ice Dragon mother''s feelings, and it was more important to figure out what they could do to help the Drake family. Was it better to stay on Astrix to subdue a single new subordinate or to support the headquarters from their annihilation? It was not even worth considering the answer because it was obviously the latter as the first option was only important if the clan continued to exist. As such, the two sovereigns were about to rush out of the room they were currently in with Old Drake standing further away when an eerie feeling encroached on the three. Suddenly, space twisted, and the two sovereigns disappeared from Old Drake''s sight, whose eyes widened involuntarily, trying to comprehend what was about to happen. Goosebumps covered him, as he slowly started to comprehend what was going on when a small spatial portal emerged in front of him with two severed heads rolling out of the portal. Thick blood was still spilling out of the severed head, and the two sovereign ranks'' facial expressions were filled with terror, as Old Drake grit his teeth, shouting out in wrath. "SHANEE!!!" Only then, the spatial portal enlarged with the two sovereign ranks remaining bodies falling through it, only for an Old man with ice-cold eyes to emerge afterward With a bloodshot longsword in his hand, he smiled cruelly, as he said. "Hello, Drake, long time no see, you f*cking bastard!" Hearing this, Old Drake frowned but rather than feeling enraged, a deep sensation of fear enveloped him causing him to subconsciously retreated several steps, only to bump into the wall behind him. "Oh...are you afraid now, or is this also a disguise?" Shane asked, without showing any emotions, as he looked at the two dead sovereign ranks below him, sighing deeply. "It''s such a waste to kill such precious humans, but weren''t they too weak for sovereigns?" Shane didn''t know why, but it was way too easy to kill the two sovereign ranks because he could just open a spatial tear to forcefully transport them to him, only to execute them with a darkness blade crescent. However, it was obvious that the two dead corpses in front of him were sovereign ranks because he could clearly sense their prismarine-crystal inside their mana core, even if it was crudely made, without taking their time to make a more refined prismarine crystal. Taking another glance at their mana core, Shane also noticed that their core seemed weird as if it was barely being held together, which caused him to eye Old Drake curiously. "The Drake family found a way to forcefully advance Lord rank to the Sovereign rank? Good job, I guess? Unfortunately, it''s useless...!" Smiling lightly, Shane couldn''t help but feel that everything went a little bit out of control, as he saw Old Drake''s thunderstruck expression. "What? Can''t you speak anymore because you''re too shocked to see me here?" Blinking with his eyes several times, Old Drake was barely able to open his mouth, when he asked the most important question whose answer he couldn''t grasp over the last two minutes, because everything was just too much of a coincidence to be called one. "What exactly have you done?!!?" Old Drake was shocked, and it was not only because Shane killed the two sovereign ranks just like that, without batting an eyelid, but rather that he was sure that the thunderous roar he heard through the messenger crystal belonged to a true Dragon and not something faked by Shane, which was the most shocking for him. ''Did he do anything to help the Ice Dragon to find its hatchling, or how could these two incidents happen as if they were matched perfectly?!'' Other than asking this himself, Old Drake was already acquainted with Shane''s ice-cold gaze he saw in his eyes right now, which caused him to gulp down his saliva as he was reminded at the time Shane annihilated the whole Shore family to rescue Dalia. ''Is Jason that important for Shane, to go this far?...'' Without being able to retreat further, Old Drake was forced to see Shane leaning down as he took the sovereign''s storage devices that were attached to their quantum bracelet and their Spatial rings at the same time. Placing them in a small pouch, Shane averted his gaze towards Old Drake once again before he approached him slowly. "What have I done?... Nothing special at all...There was just someone nice who told me where I can find the restricted rift where the Drake family patriarch got the unhatched Ice Dragon from. After that, I took a look and noticed something particular, which was quite helpful. In the end, the Dragon mother took 20 years to venture through the rift and the only issue was that she couldn''t enter Argos. By removing the small issue she had to face, the Ice Dragon mother emerged out of the restricted rift¡­.isn''t that amazing?? The restrictions placed on the rifts can be cleared under certain conditions!!...But this is not important right now. Fortunately, the Ice Dragon mother was weakened which allowed me to have a nice talk with her, and I think you can imagine the rest. I hope your clan and the whole family liked my present!!" Smiling cruelly at Old Drake, he couldn''t help but stutter in fear because he knew that Shane seemed to turn insane when someone tries to hurt his loved ones. Previously, Old Drake thought that it was only Dalia, Shane would do everything to save, but apparently, Jason seemed to be just as important to Shane as Dalia, which caused him to gulp down his saliva before he stuttered. "Y-You are insane!! How dare you betray humanity!! Do you even know how many innocent humans you''ll kill with this?!" However, Shane was completely unimpressed by Old Drake''s words "Oh, the Ice Dragon won''t attack anyone, except the Drake family, their headquarter, and whoever attacks her first. The soul contract I did is enough to reassure me that¡­.but you don''t even bother about innocent human lives, why are you a hypocrite now?!" Shane''s smile widened as he continued "Where is your confidence from before? Why don''t you repeat the words you told Jason? Do you think I''m a joke?!.... HOW DARE YOU betray Dalia and me after we have known each other for two centuries¡­.Was this whole relationship worth nothing for you?" Halting his steps, Shane stood right in front of Old Drake, who began to shiver involuntarily by the killing intent intertwined with Shane''s mana fluctuations that suppressed him. "Didn''t you know that there is a price to pay for betraying me?!" Chapter 283 - Two Choices Meanwhile, Jason, Till, and Seron appeared at the Fler''s home. Rushing inside the house, Jason immediately went towards his room, where he took his belongings that he stored there. Wearing his spatial ring, the conservatory necklace, and mana sphere bracelet, he immediately felt much safer than before. Leaving the house again, he approached Till and Seron, without knowing what was going on inside Cyro-City''s arena where Old Drake, the two beheaded sovereign ranks, and Shane were inside. In the beginning, nobody inside the arena sensed something wrong, but when the dense killing intent that was intertwined with a massive amount of mana, leaked from the small room, Shane and Old Drake were inside, everyone''s body stiffened without being able to move even a single inch. While Jason, Till, and Seron entered the shaft that brought them to the mana vein, not knowing that something major happened, Shan''s hand firmly grasped Old Drake''s neck, pressing him into the wall behind, which already began to show signs of breaking apart. Lifting him up, Shane''s eyes were filled with the desire to kill Old Drake, as he asked with a chilling voice. "Why did you even betray us at times like these? Aren''t you digging your own grave like that? Was everything we''ve gone through over the last 200 years a lie? What happened!?" Barely being able to breathe, Old Drake almost began to laugh if that would have been possible, after hearing what Shane said. Smirking lightly, Old Drake tried to open his mouth, as he said. "Y-You are the r-real hypocrite! Are you just innocent or naive to think that you can save humanity by being kind to everyone like you were over the last 200 years¡­ didn''t you learn what it brought you 50 years ago?!" Gritting his teeth, Shane knew exactly what Old Drake meant and it was obviously the truth, otherwise, both he and Dalia wouldn''t be forced to flee from Canir without anyone really trying to stand by their side. There were a few families that tried to help him somehow, but they would never dare to fight against an alliance of more than 10 big families which was established with the sole purpose of pursuing him and ending his life. However, in the end, he and Dalia still survived, even if the last several dozen years could hardly be described as a free life. Nevertheless, this should have had nothing to do with Old Drake''s betrayal and tightening the grapes around his neck, Shane''s eyes turned colder, as he said "Even if I''m a hypocrite this doesn''t mean that you can just act however you please! It''s not like Jason has anything to do with this if you have a problem with my mindset!!" Suddenly, Shane noticed a distinct gleaming in Old Drake''s eyes which seemed to overwhelm him, forcing himself to smile, even if he was unable to breathe, as he said with difficulties "You¡­.should be more¡­.than...aware, how precious¡­..Jason''s talent is¡­.With him...the Drake family¡­.would not only reign over¡­Canir¡­..but we could even fight against¡­.the foreign races¡­.instead of being their underlings and fodder¡­." ''That gave him enough reason to betray us?!?!'' Hearing this, Shane was once again reminded about Jason''s words, the last time they talked with each other over the messenger crystal. His disciple, with his tender age of 14-years, had to explain to them that mankind was not only on the bottom of the food chain but the same applied to the whole planet... Argos was only considered an Infant planet next to an unimaginable number of other worlds that inhabit intelligent life. Even though their planet was at the bottom of the food chain, how should Old Drake understand how weak mankind was if he only saw the small picture without knowing how insignificant they really were. Old Drake didn''t even know that their planet was only one small planet in a universe with the possibility of millions of similar planets. Sighing, Shane''s anger lessened as he was reminded about the Shadow walker with his terrifying strength and that he was barely considered a prodigy from the younger generation. Loosening his firm grasp around Old Drake, Shane pondered what he should do with Old Drake because it was obvious that he couldn''t be trusted anymore. ''F*ck!...'' Gnashing his teeth, he was sure that if he were to disappear right now, everything would become even worse. Old Drake would be able to explain over multiple detours to avoid their already existing soul contract''s punishment that he killed the two sovereigns in order to take Jason away. Jason was considered one of the most talented youths Old Drake saw in his whole, long life and it was clear to Shane that Old Drake wanted to help his family to soar even higher, even if he had to walk down the wrong path. There was not much for Shane to do, as he tried to find multiple ways out of his current situation, without causing the worst-case scenarios for him, Dalia, and most importantly Jason. He and Dalia were currently fine, without the need to venture out in order to become much stronger because their potential was mostly used up. Without a path to rejuvenate their whole body, or renew their cells completely to ignite more potential, Shane was sure that he could at most enter a higher rank with the help of a high amount of resources instead of solely absorbing mana to strengthen himself. To rely on resources was not something good, yet it was the only path he could take to become stronger, while Dalia''s potential was still high as she took better care of herself. Additionally, she also possessed an origin flame, preventing her potential to diminish too fast. Sighing deeply, Shane knew that there was no perfect way out of their current situation, except killing Old Drake. If Old Drake and the two sovereigns died, nobody would know who killed him, except the Darkness mana that lingered around the severed sovereign rank heads. This drastically reduced the number of perpetrators because the number of people who could kill a forcefully advanced sovereign rank with a single sword strike could be counted with two hands. However, what was even more problematic for Shane was, if he let Old Drake survive, even if they were in the same room, indicating that he was reluctant to kill Old Drake. This would only mean that the perpetrator and Old Drake were good acquaintances and if someone were to conclude the facts, Shane would be found out. As such, killing Old Drake was the best thing he could do, when he thought about something. Glaring at his old former friend, Shane coldly announced the two choices he could think of in order to prevent any disadvantages for Jason. "There are two choices I can give you! The first one is obvious and I''ll kill you immediately without causing too much pain. However, the second option will force you to sign an advanced contract, preventing you from doing anything against me, Dalia, Jason, and everyone around him. You won''t even be able to talk about them or think anything bad, as it will cause you unbearable pain. Furthermore, we will create a story, telling that the two beheaded sovereign ranks behind me heard the news about the Ice Dragon mother and immediately rushed back, disregarding your instructions, like it was the case. However, they weren''t killed and you don''t know what happened with them, when someone masked appeared in front of you, subduing you, preventing you from talking or doing anything against the younger generation. I know what your and the two sovereigns'' task was and you will just say that you were forced to send all students that entered the Top 50 of all three Big-Three tournament participants away, as exchange students at that! With this scenario, Jason''s disappearance wouldn''t be too obvious, even if it can''t be hidden completely¡­. Think carefully about what you choose¡­. I only give you the second choice because we have known each other for more than two centuries!" Staring straight into Old Drake''s eyes, Shane could visibly see how the old man raked his mind, as he tried to figure out what he should choose. Most people would think that the second option was much better, but with the advanced soul contract, he would be incapable of doing anything against the clauses stated in it at all. Furthermore, sending away 150 top students, even if it was only for the purpose of a short student exchange was not only difficult but could also end disastrously with them remaining on the Island or even Canir, where he would have to send them. There was also the Drake family patriarch''s wrath he had to endure and it would barely be any help that he was the Drake family''s ancestor. In the end, the current patriarch was the person Old Drake feared the most and he wouldn''t be able to endure his wrath, as he shivered violently. A deep sensation of fear could be seen gleaming in Old Drake eyes before his gaze turned firm, as he said. "Just kill me¡­." Chapter 284 - Rest In Peace! "Just kill me¡­." Old Drake''s gaze was firm, but Shane could see fear spreading through his whole body, and his legs began to shiver in fright. It would have been a lie to say that Shane didn''t expect this, however, even if that was the case, he was still frustrated. Not only did Old Drake betray both him and Dalia, but he also tried to force Jason into signing a soul contract with the Drake family that was known for having soul contracts with cruel and harsh clauses. If Jason were to sign such a contract, he would be shackled until he would die without being able to get out of the contract as it not only bound him to a single individual like it was the case with normal soul contracts. Rather, he would become the whole Drake family clan''s slave, with the sole priority being the person who contracted him. Thinking about this, Shane''s wrath ignited once again and even if Old Drake was an old acquaintance, there were two things he would never accept as long as he was alive and able to retaliate. The first thing he couldn''t accept was being betrayed and the second was someone trying to hurt or scheme against his loved ones! Shane was still unsure if he had such feelings for Jason, but he was definitely attached to him and considered Jason already as his family, even if they weren''t related by blood or overly close to each other. It was just a special feeling Shane had, and the desire to protect Jason from all evil. As such, he didn''t want to see Jason being forced into submission by anyone and would do anything to help him. He knew that Jason didn''t promise him anything per se, but Shane knew for sure that the young youth was exceptionally talented with a good personality. Giving Old Drake the possibility to choose between two options was already the most Shane could do. He was generous enough and not known for being hesitant against his foes. Standing in front of Old Drake, he couldn''t help but sigh once again, as he lifted him from the ground where the old man slumped down due to the pressure coming from Shane''s compressed killing intent that was intertwined with his mana. Holding Old Drake in the air with one arm, he pierced out with his other hand which firmly grasped his sword. Staring straight into Old Drake''s eyes that widened involuntarily, Shane only mumbled. "Rest in peace¡­" Seeing his old acquaintance''s eyes dimming with each second passing, it was impossible not to feel melancholic. They fought together against hundreds of foes, and Shane would have never thought that it might end like this. When Old Drake''s eyes turned lifeless, Shane retraced his sword before he stored it away inside his spatial ring, to let Old Drake''s dead body lean against the wall behind him. Closing his lifeless eyes, Shane only wished that their paths wouldn''t have crossed if something like this could be avoided. Reminded about their past, where they took missions together and lived a more peaceful life, Shane couldn''t help but think that mankind would have to overcome many perilous situations in the next several years, because the number of accidents increased by several times over the last few years, where he hid from everyone. ''Is it finally time to go all in?'' Shane asked himself, thinking about Jason''s talent. His gaze became as he averted his attention from Old Drake, once he picked up his spatial ring and Storage device. He only did so because it might slightly avert the Drake family''s attention if they were to investigate Old Drake''s death. After turning around, he noticed the two beheaded sovereign ranks in front of him, and Shane began to wonder, how exactly they forcefully advanced to the Sovereign rank, as their combat prowess was much lower than what a normal sovereign would normally reach, even after one barely broke through. Sighing deeply, he had to dispose of the evidence. Thus, he stored the sovereign corpses inside his spatial ring, before he shattered the ground below him, where one could see blood sprinkled on it. Shane used his spatial ability and spatial ring together in order to store everything that was in touch with the sovereign ranks'' blood away. Once he cleared the crime scene, Shane let go of the remaining marble stones and other materials the ground was made of, that fell towards the lower floor, where they smashed into the ground. Seeing this, he once against scanned through the whole room in order to figure out if there was anything he had to do, except disposing of the sovereign corpses to make it look like they left Old Drake to help out at the Drake family headquarters, where the Ice Dragon mother was probably still wreaking havoc. His plan was not perfect, but definitely better than nothing, considering that he acted rashly, led by his emotions. Most people would think that he was too crude, harsh, or even a monster but after the mana breakout, Argos changed essentially and his decisiveness and other ''cruel traits were important to survive. Centuries ago, Shane was also young and naive, only to see his whole clan being eradicated without anyone helping him or his family. Rather than that, the surrounding families looked at everything with satisfaction in their eyes as if they loved to see their strongest rival being annihilated. Through this, Shane was driven out of their territory while the other families started a war to figure out who has the right to annex the destroyed Blair clan''s lands, once they took care of the high-ranked beast that continued to wreak havoc until its last breath. At that time tens of thousand humans had been killed by the beast and it was only after a long time that the alliance of big families around the Blair clan territory acted. Witnessing this changed Shane''s behavior completely and he became more rational and cold-hearted towards others with only a few exceptions. One of the exceptions was Old Drake who he killed. Knowing that he betrayed him only to get his hands on Jason because of his talent and special trait, Shane could only shake his head as he opened a spatial portal in front of him to disappear from the crime scene, after taking another glance at Old Drake''s dead body that leaned against the cracked wall. As Shane vanished, the killing intent intertwined with his mana also dissipated, releasing everyone inside the arena from the suppression. Being able to breathe more freely again, everyone was glad to have survived the terrifying mana fluctuations that suppressed and would have almost killed all humans inside the arena below the Grandmagus-rank, if the mana suppression had been focused on them The Fler''s were also shocked, sitting inside the infirmary, with goosebumps covering their whole body, as they looked at each other. "W-What was that?" Malia asked, still not sure how she survived, as she looked at her parents who didn''t know what was going on, as they noticed that Greg opened his eyes. Looking towards the ceiling, Greg couldn''t help but feel empty inside as he mumbled "Let''s meet again, Jason¡­." Hearing this, the others were shocked, and their expression turned into utter confusion, not knowing what Greg meant with his words. Greg was also unsure why he felt that he wouldn''t be able to meet Jason for a long time, but being woken up by the killing intent intertwined with somewhat familiar mana fluctuations led him to understand something important. The whole day was already extremely chaotic, but the Old man who gave him a piece of paper, telling him to give it to Jason, was currently the most apparent in his mind. And comparing the concealed almost negligible mana fluctuations radiating from the Old man he saw to the killing intent intertwined mana that awoke him, Greg knew that these two were the same! Concluding everything together, Greg assumed that the old man he met was the mysterious Beast-Creator who accepted Jason as a disciple. Releasing such terrifying mana fluctuations, indicated several things, with one of them being that Jason''s master was at an extremely powerful. Meanwhile, another fact Greg could tell from the suddenly released killing intent intertwined in mana was that Jason''s master was extremely enraged because of something, leading him to think that something must have gone wrong. Hoping that Jason was fine, Greg wanted to stand up and message Jason, only to figure out that he was unable to move a single inch. Noticing this, Gabriella completely forgot the killing intent that infiltrated her whole body a short while ago as she jumped up, to assure her son that everything would be fine. "Don''t be afraid! You just exceeded your physical limit and overexerted your mana...You won''t be able to move for a few days, but afterwards, there won''t be an issue¡­" Barely seeing his mother from the corner of his eyes, Greg couldn''t help but feel sad, as he forced himself to ask. "Jason already disappeared¡­.am I right?" Chapter 285 - Mana Vein Hearing Greg''s words, Malia wanted to reassure her brother that he only sorted out his things with his friend, Seron, and nothing else However, after seeing sadness gleaming in Greg''s eyes, she couldn''t say so as she suddenly asked herself, if Jason would even return before they would separate. "W-Will he come back?.... He only went out with his friend¡­." Mumbling this, Gabriella and Mark also felt that their paths already separated and that it was unlikely to meet Jason for a long time, even if they were unsure why exactly both felt like this. Nobody said anything and the whole infirmary turned quiet when they heard a sudden announcement. There has been a crime inside the Arena! Nobody is allowed to leave Cryo-City''s arena for the time being. The guards are eligible to use violence against everyone misbehaving or violating the given orders! This is not a drill...I repeat...This is not a drill!> Hearing this, everyone was shocked, but thinking about the killing intent intertwined with mana, it was plausible that something out of ordinary happened. It was illogical that someone released such terrifying mana fluctuations solely to drink coffee with someone else. *A few minutes earlier* Max Drake was surrounded by several high-ranked guards still pondering about his ancestor''s words, how he acted when while talking to Jason, and he didn''t know what to think about all of that. ''Wasn''t that too much?!'' He thought, thinking that it was fine to ask someone to sign a soul contract as long as the other side agreed to it. However, forcing Jason into signing a soul contract that was similar to enslaving him, and threatening him to die if he were to reject their offer was not something he imagined to happen in their territory. He only wanted to observe the Big-Three tournament and fight against Seron and Jason who he felt more comfortable around after they survived the three foreign envoys'' arrival in Cyro-City. Suddenly, the whole arena shock before it was completely enveloped in killing intent intertwined in mana, suppressing him completely. Barely being able to look up, he noticed that not even his Grandmagus ranked guards were able to stand firmly on the ground. Max''s eyes widened and he wanted to fight against the pressure, only to notice that he was powerless against it, forcing him to bear with it like everyone else. Unsure what exactly was going on, he thought that it might either be a sudden foreign race attack, or someone from a different big clan trying to scare Astrix citizens. However, knowing that two sovereign ranks were on Astrix, Max was still able to remain calm, thinking that everything would end soon. At least that was what he hoped for when he suddenly sensed a bad premonition emerging in his mind. Max was unsure what exactly was going on but everything that happened during the last few days seemed to be too much of a coincidence. Not only did Old Drake''s behavior change but his father also send two of his closest subordinates with him to Astrix, which was also weird. An uncomfortable feeling enveloped him and he could only hope that his premonition was wrong. Several minutes passed until the pressure around everyone inside the Arena disappeared as if it never existed. However, instead of sighing in relief, Max forced himself to stand up as he rushed towards the office, he was previously at with Old Drake, the sovereigns, Till, and the others. A few guards followed him with heavy steps, unsure what their young master wanted to do right now and why exactly he acted so weird, as they sensed something weird from the room, Max was about to go in. Instinctively unsheathing their weapons, the guards followed Max inside the room, only to notice a large hole in the ground before them when they noticed their young master''s shocked expression, as he slumped to the ground, whimpering "No¡­.NOOO!!!" The guards immediately figured out that something was wrong and averted their gaze from Max and the large hole in the middle of the room, as they found Old Drake''s dead body leaning against a cracked wall. Their eyes widened and the guards immediately jumped above the hole to figure out what was going on, as they noticed a deep cut in his abdomen, made by a sharp weapon. Blood was still spilling out of it, slowly forming a puddle below Old Drake''s dead body. Gulping, they didn''t know what to do, and only shock was apparent in their mind as one of the guards subconsciously muttered "He...is dead¡­" Turning around, they only noticed Max trying to stand up, with shivering legs as tears streamed down his cheeks. Jumping above the hole, he slowly approached Old Drake, lifting his trembling hand to touch his ancestor''s cold face. Gritting his teeth, Max could hardly contain himself, and the stream of tears didn''t cease for a long time, when he turned towards one guard, instructing him to immediately seal the arena. "Why¡­.WHY did this happen?" Max asked himself repeatedly, and he couldn''t even think clearly as his question changed fundamentally. His expression twisted, and he furiously growled out "WHO DID THIS??" Old Drake was the only one in his family Max really liked except his mother because he was kind and caring towards him. He never pressured him to become stronger and it was extremely shocking to see that he had been murdered. Just like that, his life ended and Max was unable to comprehend why someone would do something like that to Old Drake. Despair, wrath, and agony filled Max''s entire being and he was unable to hold anything back as his blue eyes turned bloodshot, when he released all emotions that accumulated within him. He promised himself to find his ancestor''s murderer, even if he had to become one himself! ** Meanwhile, Jason, Till, and Seron were already on their way towards the mana vein, not knowing what happened on the surface, as they Seron explained to Jason everything he had to know. "I already told you that we have a pact with the Earth Dragons and that I can choose one of the three eggs to form my soulbond contract with, right?" Nodding his head, Jason was already aware of this fact, even if he was still unable to fully understand if the Earth Dragons had a backbone or if their pride was worthless. "Okay...what else should you know¡­.Ah! Even if we formed a pact with the Earth Dragon''s they don''t really adore humans which is not something surprising. Just don''t bother them too much and everything should be fine. Other than that, you should also know that only the big families are allowed to form a soulbond contract with the Earth Dragons. This means that even if one of the earth dragon eggs wants to form a soulbond with you, you''re not allowed to do so, otherwise, the other big families might start acting. In that case, it''s not unlikely that other big families would force you into submission, and as you should know that is not something anyone wants, or am I wrong? In the end, there is not really much you have to do, and it would be great if you would just tell me, which one of the two earth dragon eggs with higher mana fluctuations I should choose." Seron seemed to be extremely happy and he was impatiently waiting to finally arrive at the mana vein, which Jason''s mana eyes clearly perceived. His eyes still hurt when he looked directly into the mana vein, but it was less painful than several months ago when he and the Fler''s arrived in Cyro-City. Right now Jason could already look into the mana vein and his eyes didn''t start bleeding as he started to absorb the mana around him slowly which became denser and purer with each meter they came closer to the mana vein. His eyes began to gleam brightly, and instead of absorbing everything inside his mana core, Jason decided to let the passive mana gathering technique within his sub-area absorb mana inside his mana core, while he actively absorbed mana into his eyes that seemed to have unlimited storage space for mana. If he had to estimate it, Jason was sure that he could break through multiple levels in a month and it wouldn''t even be unlikely to assume that he might enter the Expert rank in only one month with the sheer mass of dense and pure mana he perceived around the outer parts of the mana vein. Seron was still chatting as if he hadn''t talked with anyone for several centuries and that he was now in dire need of someone to talk to, but neither Jason nor Till really listened to him. While Jason was fully concentrated on his surrounding, and everything he could perceive with his mana eyes, Till''s train of thoughts was completely different as he asked himself how he could help Jason to prevent Old Drake or someone else to enslave him with a harsh soul contract, if Shane wouldn''t appear to rescue his disciple. However, seeing Jason''s calm expression, Till thought that the youth and Shane are probably capable enough to soul everything alone, without his help. Thinking about this caused him to smile lightly, as it would truly be a waste to force Jason into submission, shackling down his potential. Almost three hours passed when they arrived at the bottom of the shaft, and only now was Jason able to see how devastating the mana vein truly was, as his eyes longed for the astronomical mass of mana in front of him. Chapter 286 - Slumber Jason was neither able to see through the mana vein nor could he estimate how large the whole vein was. However, one thing was for sure! He wouldn''t even be able to absorb the whole mana vein with his current absorption speed, even if he had several hundred years. Furthermore, the mana density and purity were shocking, which allowed Jason''s absorption and refining speed to increase by a small margin. Looking around in shock, he couldn''t help but passively absorb mana without wasting a single second. Jason''s eyes itched and his instincts told him that he had to absorb as much mana as possible inside his eyes if it was possible, and there was not really something preventing him to do so. Even if his mana core could be filled by a small margin, Jason felt that it was more important to absorb as much pure mana inside his eyes, which he started to initiate as he followed Till and Seron. Seron was extremely excited and barely able to suppress his emotions which Till and Jason noticed, and both couldn''t help but smile, even if Till''s train of thoughts still lingered around Jason, even if it was highly likely that nothing bad would happen. In the end, he couldn''t help but hope that Shane would come and rescue his disciple, but if the worst-case occurred, he would have to do something, otherwise, not only one of the most talented prodigies he ever saw would be forced into submission by the Drake family, but it would also destroy the eliquirium between all big families once Jason would be nurtured, which was not something Till wanted. If the latter happened, Jason would be a target for all big families and it was not unlikely to be assassinated or openly murdered. Till was not even sure why exactly the other big families acted so hostile against prodigies that signed a soul contract with any other big family, but there seemed to be something important about it. The only reasons he could imagine were that it destroyed the eliquirium between all big families on Canir, but on the other side, Till thought that a talented prodigy might even be able to change the tides against the foreign races, which was the reason for him to be so confused. In the end, the balance between all big families was exactly what held mankind back. It also allowed the foreign races to suppress the big family without any problems. If they worked together and nurtured the most talented youth of all families, they could soar much higher and maybe even start to revolt against the foreign races! Sighing deeply, he looked at Jason, who looked interested as he noticed that the golden-eyed youth absorbed the mana in his surrounding greedily. However, instead of annexing the mana normal with a whole circulation through his body before it would enter his mana core, Jason simply absorbed the mana inside his eyes which Till could only eye weirdly. ''Even if he is talented, Jason is still a weirdo and a mystery¡­..'' Jason meanwhile didn''t notice that Till stared at him and neither did he perceive Seron''s behavior because he solely focused on his surroundings that were filled with several dozen outlines. These outlines were enveloped in all kinds of colors, telling him that there was something valuable all around him. While he presumed most of these enveloped outlines to be ingredients or other magical treasures, there were also a few smaller and larger outlines, moving around with a shocking speed. Somehow, Jason felt both comfortable and uncomfortable in the narrow tunnel they currently walking along in order to enter the Earth Dragon''s territory as he perceived several dense purple colors in front of him, with a handful of faint blue enveloped beings further away. Estimating them to be either extremely old Earth Dragons that broke into the Lord or other Earth Dragons that had the potential to barely enter the Lord rank, Jason couldn''t help but feel that some Earth Dragons were truly powerful. However, this was not what caused him to be truly shocked and uncomfortable because he had Till Greil next to him who was already at the Lord stage at his age of barely 56 years. To be able to enter the Lord rank at such a young age, Till required lots of resources and a terrifying talent. Thus Jason didn''t think that the Earth Dragons below the surface would be a huge problem for him to handle. Other than that, the Earth Dragons had a pact with the big families, and as long as nobody breached it, everything would be fine. To break their pact, all Earth Dragons that lived around there would be severely injured, making it impossible for them to fight against Till head-on. Nevertheless, it was better to be careful than too arrogant which Jason already noticed firsthand, several times. As such, he continued to look around carefully, when his eyes widened slightly as his jaw dropped to the ground. Only now with his mana eyes being supplied by dense, pure mana could he gaze inside the mana vein. It was barely a tiny gap he could see, but there was a terrifying, dense, yet suppressed azure color flickering inside the mana vein with a trace of silver mixed in between. ''What the hell is that?!'' He thought shocked, halting his steps to solely focus on the existence within the mana vein. However, the more he looked at the mana vein, the more painful it became and Jason could only avert his gaze after several moments when he saw several dark blue hues at the mana vein junctions far away from azure, silver colored being. Till noticed that Jason stopped walking and seeing his expression, he was immediately alarmed as he was aware that Jason''s mana eyes were extremely terrifying. "What is going on Jason? Can you see something odd?" Shaking his head by Till''s question in order to get back to his senses, he smiled lightly, as he asked "The mana vein has existed since the mana outbreak, right? Has there ever been a problem with it?" Hearing this, Till pondered for a moment, as he shook his head, denying his latter question. "As far as I know the mana vein existed since the mana outbreak, but there has never been an issue. Rather than that, it has always been extremely beneficial for everyone on Astrix because it allowed Cyro-City''s citizens to absorb much more mana than other Islands'' capitals because everyone is forced to use the magic dome. Thanks to the mana vein, Astrix''s strongest youngest generation is always gathered around Cyro-City which is an additional perk for the Drake family. The sole disadvantages are beast tides, like the Goblin siege that happened not long ago, if we were to disregard the foreign races that could appear everywhere just like that, which happened often enough." Listening carefully, Jason deducted, that nobody knew about the terrifying existence which most likely hibernated inside the mana vein for 300 years. He never saw such colors from a living being or something manufactured, and the only rough assumption Jason could do, was that the Azure color belonged to the Monarch rank, which was roughly comparable to the sovereign rank, while the silver color was something he couldn''t get the hang on. ''Is that the color for the potential above the Monarch/Sovereign rank?!'' He wondered and thought about it for a moment, it had to be the case which shocked him. If the hibernating beast were to wake up, not only Astrix''s citizen but humanity altogether would perish. Chapter 287 - Ferocious Thinking that the hibernating beast could wake up every moment, Jason couldn''t help but gulp down his saliva before he regained his senses. ''It probably won''t wake up just like that, otherwise, it would have already because of the Goblin King or multiple appearances from the foreign races.'' Reassuring himself, Jason was able to calm down, as he just told Till that there was nothing major to worry about and that he only saw a few strong mana fluctuations which astonished him. Hearing this, Till was unsure whether to laugh or cry because he didn''t know how strong the ''strong mana fluctuations'' Jason talked about were. ''I doubt that Jason sees my mana fluctuation as strong since he perceived the fluctuations from sovereign ranks and the foreign races¡­.Doesn''t that mean that he saw mana fluctuations on par with a sovereign rank?!?!'' With this conclusion, Till couldn''t help but gulp as his gaze followed Jason who remained calm as if nothing happened. Seeing this, he could only think that his conclusion was wrong, otherwise, the young youth in front of him wouldn''t be able to remain so calm. Telling himself this inwardly, Till was able to maintain a neutral expression, as Seron called them over because he was already far ahead waiting impatiently. Walking towards Seron, Jason was still thinking about the hibernating beast, trying to distract himself by further increasing his mana absorption. His eyes seemed like a black hole, accepting mana without limit and Jason felt that he might even be able to absorb the whole mana vein inside his eyes if he only had enough time. It sounded ridiculous to himself, but somehow, he was sure that it might work and he even felt as if his eyes wanted him to do exactly that. However, he disregarded this desire within him, and silently followed Till and Seron, when they approached a 30-meter tall black door with several hundred complicated runes inscribed on it. Seeing the runes, Jason could only name a few of them while he never saw such complex conjunctions between runes inside the books he read, as his curiosity was ignited. Unfortunately, before he could even memorize a single rune, the large door was already pushed open by Till, with an odd odor permeating the air almost immediately. ''What is that?!'' Jason began to wonder and he found the odor he smelled familiar yet completely strange. Pondering about it, he couldn''t really figure out what it was, except that it was something he already smelled somewhere else. Suddenly he saw Seron and even Till taking out high-quality gas masks, and Jason almost immediately figured out what exactly the odd odor was. ''They use sedating poison to calm down the Earth Dragons?!'' Feeling disgusted, Jason was unsure what to think about that. He already understood that it was necessary to contract soulbonds in order to survive on Argos after the mana outbreak, and he could also accept the Beast Pagoda because they seemed to care about the beasts they sold to humans. Otherwise, Jason wouldn''t have been questioned so much about his reason to purchase a newly hatched Miniature Parascors, but permanently using sedating poison to calm down the Earth Dragons was not something one would normally do with the others after making a deal. Furthermore, he doubted that the sedating poison was strong enough to permanently sedate the Earth Dragons, who most likely already established a certain degree of poison resistance after more than a century passed. Shaking his head, he only saw Seron holding out a gas mask to him, but Jason only glanced at his friend whose whole head was covered as he shook his head. Using his black origin flame, he covered his lower part of the head with the black origin flame ordering it to purify the air when he inhaled it. Normally flames would use up most oxygen before he could even inhale it, but his black origin flame supplied itself thanks to the soul energy, allowing it to have a small mana pool within it, while Jason''s mana was the second mana supply. It didn''t even need any oxygen, to begin with, thanks to its special composition, otherwise, it would have already been extinguished when it was enveloped in the black crystalline layer before Jason bound it. Seeing that Jason didn''t want to take the mask, Seron only shrugged his shoulder, while his eyes seemed to widen slightly, as Jason''s appearance changed to somewhat evil-looking. The lower part of his head was covered by a thin black flame that seemed to be extremely stable, while his golden eyes shone brightly. The black origin flame didn''t even flicker and one would need to look multiple times to figure out that it was a burning flame covering him. Jason didn''t think of himself as a Saint or even something close to that, but he didn''t like how the big families treated some humans that were weaker than them, while the same could be applied for beasts, even those at the peak guardian rank, which almost caused him to chuckle. ''Treating other humans and all kinds of beasts as livestock, huh?....If they only know how the foreign races think of humanity¡­wait...don''t the big families know that already?'' Thinking about this, Jason felt much better and he didn''t know why, but he found that most big families were rotten to the core as he noticed that Till also looked like he was uncomfortable when he looked at Jason. Sighing, he couldn''t help but say "Jason, I know what you think, and there is no excuse for any of that, but mankind would do everything to survive. Anyone would try every single way to survive, or am I wrong? In the end, all beasts except those that are bound are dangerous. If we were to lower our guard, who could reassure us that we would survive? In the wild zones, beasts and humans kill each other on a daily basis and you know that! Don''t try to think too hard about the world''s unfairness, alright? It''s not worth the effort..." Hearing Till''s words, Seron looked at his teacher for a moment, before he continued to walk ahead, leaving Jason alone, who was pondering over Till''s words ''Am I a hypocrite then?'' Jason suddenly began to wonder, but he still found it wrong to torture the Earth Dragons if it was not necessary, which however seemed to be the case, according to Till''s words. But even so, this doesn''t necessarily mean that it was the truth! He didn''t have anything against killing beasts in the wild zones or inside the rift because it was normal to kill each other there, as the law of the jungle applied in these areas. However, torturing possible soulbonds and other beasts without the need to do so was simply cruel and Jason wouldn''t change his mind-set only because Till told him that it was a necessary means. ''If that''s the case, then is slavery also a necessary mean? Don''t f*ck with me?!'' Jason was sure that Till Greil was nice, but hearing what he said right changed his opinion about him slightly, and he wouldn''t let anyone else change his mindset without proof. Following the others, Jason was still in his train of thoughts, trying to figure out if he was a hypocrite or if something about his mindset was wrong when he heard several thunderous roars revering through the whole small hall the three of them entered. From the roars alone, Jason could figure out that the Earth Dragons were furious and definitely not beasts one could label as tamed or something even remotely close to that as he thought that it was most likely better for the big families to use sedating poison if the current ferocious and enraged roars were already in a calmed state. Gulping down his saliva, he saw Till and Seron walking ahead, with several, more than ten-meter long brown-reddish scaled lizards shooting towards them. The wingless Earth Dragons that could also be compared to gigantic, superior lizards suddenly stopped in front of the two and only roared threatening at Till and Seron. Seeing what happened in front of him told Jason that it was probably necessary to sedate the Earth Dragons because he didn''t want to see how they behaved in their normal state as the calm state was already more than enough for him to handle. Hesitating, he had to gather all courage within him to walk towards Till and Seron who stopped at the end of the large hall, waiting for him, as they saw Jason approaching them, as they saw something odd. If they didn''t wear a gas mask both would rub their eyes, at what they saw as the two exclaimed at the same time "Huh?!'' Chapter 288 - Transmission Jason just walked through the whole hall, with slow and careful steps. However, what caused both Till and Seron to widen their eyes was that the Earth Dragons didn''t roar at him in rage, trying to intimate him. They didn''t even dare to approach him which was even weirder when Jason''s steps became firmer and steadier as he figured out that he was not in danger. Looking around he noticed more than a dozen peak-Guardian ranked Earth Dragons staring at him as if they were confused, while their brown-reddish scales shimmered lightly. Seeing that they didn''t approach him Jason couldn''t help but feel weird and staring deep into their eyes, he could see traces of both reluctance and confusion within them. When he reached the end of the hall, where Till and Seron waited for him, he perceived their confusion. However, instead of saying something, Jason only shrugged his shoulders because he was also unsure what was going on. After he noticed the Dragon''s gazes it was weird because he reminded about the large pack of fox cubs and even the tornado wolf cubs that were overly friendly to him. At that time, his eyes were using up a small amount of mana, and thinking about that, Jason tried to assume several things. Either he had an innate amity with all kinds of beasts, which seemed illogical because he already fought several hundred beasts who wanted to tear him apart. Other than that, there was also the possibility that his eyes turned him more reliable, trustworthy, or something similar to that. This would at least explain partially, why the cubs foolishly trusted him, without trying to kill or flee from him. Yet, the mature, more than ten meters tall peak-Guardian-ranked Earth Dragons were something completely different to low-ranked cubs, and Jason began to ask himself what exactly the reason for this was. He was unable to find the right answer and only his mana eyes which he still filled with dense and pure mana might be able to help him find the answer. Suddenly, an extremely stupid and suicidal idea established in his head. Instead of listening to his gut-feeling which told him to disregard this idea, Jason felt the desire to test it out. While Till and Seron stood several meters away from the three large brown-reddish Earth Dragon eggs, there were three matured Earth Dragons behind them, growling at the two as if they wanted to protect their eggs. Seeing this, Jason began to doubt that the unhatched Earth Dragons really accepted to become soulbonds. Nevertheless, without trying to bother about this, Jason approached the three eggs with the presumed Earth Dragon mothers behind, ignoring Till and Seron''s tries to hold him back when he passed them. Both Till and Seron wouldn''t dare to act hastily inside the Earth Dragon lair because Till was not confident in defeating more than a dozen Earth Dragons alone while protecting the two youths, even if the sedating poison decreased the dragons'' combat prowess. Shocked about Jason''s impetuous behavior, he wanted to rush towards the golden-eyed youth, when he noticed that the three Dragon mothers stopped their aggressive growling. They only gazed at Jason, uncertain what to do as he didn''t seem to be hostile to them. Yet, when Seron who acted impatient wanted to move, one of the Dragon mother''s immediately roared out with mana amplifying her roar. Suppressed by the terrifying roar, Seron''s legs began to shiver as they gave in, only to look up to see that Jason seemed to be completely unbothered by it. ''Was that roar only directed at me?...WHY?!'' Seron felt that Jason being favored by the Earth Dragons was unfair. Seeing that his friend continued to approach them, without being stopped, he felt jealous, envyious and also anger accumulating within him. Without knowing what he did wrong or why Jason was better in the Earth Dragons'' eyes, Seron could only suppress his emotions and curse inwardly. Jason, who was completely unaware of his friend''s train of thoughts and complicated emotions, stood already in front of the Earth Dragon eggs. The Dragon mothers didn''t try to hinder him as he continued to step forward, passing the eggs, which he completely disregarded. He was not sure what he wanted to see, but one question Jason wanted to find an answer to, was crystal clear in his mind. ''What is the connection between the lesser elemental fox cubs, the tornado wolf cubs, and the Earth Dragon to act so placid towards me?'' Before, Jason only thought that it was because the cubs'' wild instincts and sense of danger were weakly developed but this changed after he noticed the Earth Dragons'' behavior. ''If I compare the three encounters with each other¡­.is there something uniform?'' Halting his steps several meters in front of the largest Dragon mother. Looking up, he squinted his eyes to figure out the reason for their behavior, and weirdly enough, Jason knew for sure that they wouldn''t attack him because his instincts told him so. It was obvious that his current behavior was not only suspicious but also suicidal to Seron and Till. To Jason, however, it felt like he would find out something important if he were to further investigate this situation. Staring straight in each other''s eyes, Jason''s golden eyes shimmered brightly. He noticed that he used up a large amount of the mana which he absorbed throughout the whole trip towards the mana vein and the Earth Dragon''s territory. However, instead of lamenting about this, his eyes widened as the Earth Dragon lowered its head, to the ground. Its head had roughly the same height as Jason and he gulped down his saliva as he took two steps forward, lifting his hand carefully. Suddenly, Till and Seron shouted out behind him, but Jason was not able to hear anything when his hand came in touch with the Earth Dragon mother''s head. Without a warning, his mind was immediately flooded with foreign memories, emotions, and thoughts¡­causing a great headache. Stepping back in shock, the Earth Dragon lifted its head once again, and Jason didn''t know what was going on, with a single thought lingering in his mind. ''This f*cking bullsh*t!'' Turning around, he could only try to cope with the flood of emotions and new memories, as he walked back to TIll and Seron, with unsteady steps, holding his head in pain. After that happened, Jason didn''t speak a single word but he could see envy in Seron''s eyes which was not something he expected. However, after thinking about it for a short moment, it was plausible. Patting his friend''s shoulder was the only thing he could do while trying to arrange everything inside his mind. He was not sure if he could control the strange emotions ravaging within him if he were to say something right now, so he remained quiet. Meanwhile, Till only stared at Jason and the decision to prevent the Drake family from forcing the youth in front of him into submission became firmer. ''Is that what the foreign races saw within him?'' He thought shocked about the possible issues mankind might face because of Jason. Even if he didn''t acknowledge it, Jason was not only someone he would call extremely talented, but he also seemed to be dangerous if anyone were to get him into their hands, whether it was mankind or a foreign race. Suddenly, goosebumps covered his whole body and he was only glad that Jason was a good boy, which however also led him to disregard the option to kill him to prevent any further issues. Chapter 289 - Choice While Till was in his own world of thoughts, Jason led Seron towards the three Earth Dragon eggs. The Earth Dragon mothers meanwhile, didn''t do anything against their approach which mostly relied on Jason, as Seron''s ravaging emotions slowly subsided when he was finally reminded about He was still envious of Jason, but rather than holding a grudge, Seron was now happy to have brought his friend towards the Earth Dragon territory. The last time he could only take a look at the three Earth Dragon eggs, and it took him already several hours to approach the eggs, even less to touch or inspect them. However, now that Jason was next to him, a few seconds were more than enough to appear in front of the Earth Dragon eggs. This was already extremely nice and Seron looked carefully at the three eggs as he released faint mana fluctuations to scan the three eggs, when the three Earth Dragon mothers growled out in unison. Seeing this, he held himself back and waited patiently, as he looked at Jason who seemed to be deep in thoughts. Jason was able to walk back and forth in front of the Earth Dragons without problems, which caused Seron to subconsciously rely on his friend. Yet, instead of doing anything to determine which out of the three eggs was the best for him to form a soulbond contract with, Jason looked like he was in his own world. This was exactly the case because he was still trying to understand the memories, thought,s and emotions within himself that belonged to the Earth Dragon mother he touched. Even if he couldn''t comprehend everything, one thing was for sure. Earth Dragons were able to transmit thoughts towards humans, allowing them to understand certain things better, without the need for a soulbond contract or being able to speak the same language. Jason was not sure if that ability belonged to the Earth Dragons alone or if every high-ranked beast was able to do something similar, once they attained a certain degree of intelligence or what exactly the requirements were to do something like that. The memories in his mind spanned from several centuries, even before they arrived on Argos, which shocked Jason. From what he could comprehend out of the transmitted memories and emotions, was that the Earth Dragons once inhabited a different world, where their race was already persecuted and killed which forced them to enter Argos through the rift that was appeared in front of them. After living several decades in peace, they were once again persecuted until they found humankind who they thought to be reliable as they promised a paradise in exchange for the possibility to form a soulbond contract, as long as their offsprings were willing. Still unwillingly, they accepted as they didn''t know another way out, only to be forced to live below underground without a way out. Not only did humanity betray them, but they also used poison to weaken them and their offsprings, which passively forced the offsprings to accept a soulbond contract in order to get out of the hell, mankind called paradise. ¡­ From these memories and the coherent emotions, Jason felt once again disgusted and now that he understood how the Earth Dragons felt, he couldn''t help but think that humanity went down the wrong path. Humanity seemed to have found the right way to achieve a high ratio of soulbond contract to new Earth Dragon eggs, however, in Jason''s opinion, it could have been much better. If the Earth Dragons lived in a true paradise, they might not even have a hatred against humanity, which would allow the offspring to hear better stories from their parents. This could lead to an even higher number of Earth Dragon eggs that were willing to accept a soulbond contract while it might even be possible that the Earth Dragons were more eager to reproduce if they were to live in a paradise as their offspring wouldn''t have to live in a poisoned lair, underground. Shaking his head, Jason began to wonder why humanity acted that way and the only reason he could imagine was mankinds'' innate fear from the strong. If the Earth Dragons were to rebel one time, Astrix might as well be eradicated and it seemed like they didn''t want to take this risk. It has been a long time since he questioned his own and humanity''s mindset to this extent, but somehow it seemed wrong. Even if that was the case, Jason thought that he figured out why exactly the Earth Dragons were not hostile towards him even if he was not distinguishable from a common human. At least that was what he thought in the beginning, and that only foreign races saw something that allowed them to link him to the Celestia race. If he did not misinterpret the Earth Dragons'' memories, emotions and thoughts, his aura was special and incomparable to humans. Apparently, his aura radiated benevolence, kindness, and other emotions that established faint amity towards the Earth-Dragon. But that was not everything because his eyes spread the same aura, only much denser and purer, finalizing the amity with the suffering Earth Dragons who longed for a ray of hope. Jason could roughly understand all of this, and he was also in the opinion that the big families treated the Earth Dragons too harshly. However, even if he wanted to, there was nothing he could do about it. If he was able to rescue the Earth Dragons, what would happen afterward? They would only be hunted by other beasts, humanity, and probably even foreign races again. Nothing would change and this was also crystal clear to the Earth Dragons. He was not even sure if he wanted to help the Earth Dragons because they established a grudge against humanity and releasing them from the underground territory was comparable to killing millions of innocent citizens. As such, Jason could only look at the Earth Dragon and shake his head lightly, while trying to say. ''Try to endure it longer¡­'' It was not that he was adamant in rescuing everyone, or even in damaging humanity''s growth by helping the Earth Dragons, but Jason just felt that the way humans handled most situations after the mana outbreak was completely wrong. If he was able to change something, even if it only meant to build a proper relationship with the Earth Dragons and humans, why shouldn''t he try to help? However, in order to do something like this, he would have to become much stronger, and it would be the best, if he was stronger than all big families. Jason was aware that his existence as half human and half Celestia was something that shouldn''t exist and until some time ago, he felt that he belonged to the human race and that everything they did should be the only behavior he should take care of. But humanity was not alone and in addition to an unknown number of foreign intelligence races, there were also intelligent beasts that didn''t massacre everyone just like that. The Tornado wolf mother inside the four-star rift didn''t kill him and only wanted to rescue her offsprings. Combining all facts, Jason was unable to say that all beasts were vicious and ferocious. If that was the case, it was impossible to say that humans were not monsters. Everything was much more complicated than he expected and Jason knew that it would be extremely difficult to change humanity''s mindset about some beasts, even if he already heard from Till that their big family has a treaty with the Dryad race which sought asylum on their island. However, from fairy tales, humanity was already more likely to establish amity with Dryads rather than Dragons, who were seen as ferocious and bloodthirsty. Jason was still looking into the largest Earth Dragon mother''s eyes and felt like it understood him as it retreated three steps, allowing Seron to make his choice. The other Earth Dragons looked at it in shock, only to do the same reluctantly. Thinking that Seron belonged to Jason, who might help them sometime in the future, they accepted the youth as their offspring''s possible soulbond partner. When Jason saw their behavior, he felt slightly bad but there were more than enough problems he had to take care of for now, and couldn''t just amass everything. In the end, everything had to be done one step after another, and overestimating his capabilities would lead to his death. Obviously, dead people can''t help anyone nor can they figure out what to do with peaceful beasts and mankind. Sighing deeply, Jason''s mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts and he could only lament to have followed Seron to the Earth Dragons as his whole mindset was once again about to crumble as he said to his friend. "You can choose among the three eggs" Seron averted his gaze towards Jason confused, as he whispered uncertainly "Didn''t you want to help me find the best one?!? Chapter 290 - Compatibility Seeing how Seron behaved, Jason couldn''t help but feel weird. Even if it was true that he wanted to support Seron in his choice, it was not as if he would pick his friend''s soulbond just like that. There was also the possibility that the Earth Dragon egg with the best potential would be worse for Sero because their compatibility might be bad. In the end, the potential of a beast was just an indicator for the limits of its mana core rank, which could even be enhanced later on. Thus, Jason thought that it was more important for Seron to trust his gut feeling to choose the Earth Dragon egg he felt the most compatible with as it might help him to build a fortified soul conjunction faster than with the eggs. In the end, this was something Shane and Malia told him when he asked them what he should pay attention to if he were to pick a new soulbond. When they answered, Jason was first a little bit astonished but their answer seemed to be at least partially true because he already witnessed this to a certain extent by himself. He was unsure if his gut-feeling helped him to pick either Artemis, Scorpio, or the black origin flame, but that might be the case even if it would remain a mystery for now. To put a simply, Jason felt that he had a high compatibility with all of his soulbonds and it might be because of this, that he was able to form a fortified soul conjunction at such a young age. As such, he just took a glance at the three mana eggs and noticed to his astonishment that the egg with the lowest mana fluctuations among the three had the highest potential with faint dark-blue strands intertwined in the thick purple color that enveloped the egg. For more, visit novelpub[.]com Seeing this, Jason was about to say that the left Earth Dragon egg had the highest potential as he averted his gaze towards Seron who looked at him with expectations after he noticed that Jason inspected the eggs with his mana eyes. "To put it simply, each of the three Earth Dragon eggs is a suitable pick for you and there is no need to hesitate. Remember that your gut feeling, positive and negative feelings towards one of the eggs could help you to pick the most suitable for you! I won''t tell you which one you should choose, because it is your decision and not anyone else''s. You will have to live with the choice you make, for the rest of your life!" Hearing this, Seron looked at him with squinted eyes as he didn''t expect his friend to lecture him. He only wanted to receive help in choosing his second soulbond and not this kind of ''support''. Sighing deeply, he turned towards Till, who could only grin brightly from further away as the Earth Dragons didn''t allow him to come closer to their eggs. "You know that Jason said the same as I did before! Trust your gut feeling and you will most likely receive the best outcome." Till was glad to have brought Jason with them to the Earth Dragon territory because it made everything much easier and they didn''t need to put in so much effort to even approach the eggs as it was the case before. For more, visit novelpub[.]com Now that Jason also lectured Seron about his gut-feeling and what his innermost emotions towards each egg told him, Till couldn''t help but smile. Noticing that Till repeated the same he already did the last time they entered the Earth Dragon territory, Seron could only frown as he inwardly cursed both his master and Jason for a short while before he averted his attention towards the eggs. Inspecting all of them carefully, he was not exactly sure what he should feel or do because it was not necessary for his first soulbond which he received from his father to recuperate from his malfunctioned mana veins and nothing else. This changed now completely because he wanted to bind his first real soulbond with which he would have to fight side by side for the rest of their lives. As such, Seron slowly began to understand what the others wanted to explain to him, and he immediately disregarded the curses which still lingered in his mind. Trying to figure out what egg he should choose, more than an hour passed until he could finally feel something that Seron presumed to be the emotions his master and Jason were talking about. However, the Earth Dragon egg the emotions filled with amity came from, was the one with the weakest mana fluctuations. Looking intently at this egg, Jason couldn''t refrain from smiling, as he said "Is that your choice or does one of the other Earth Dragon eggs give you the same feeling?" Subconsciously shaking his head, both Till and Jason could tell that Seron made his choice and even if Till felt slightly astonished that his disciple''s choice was the egg with the weakest mana fluctuations, the difference was not large and wouldn''t make a major difference once it matured. Having chosen his second soulbond, Seron reassured himself that it was the best choice as his gut feeling also told him so, while the amity between them was already established without the need of a soulbond contract. As such, Jason readied himself, as he approached the Earth Dragon egg he chose. The Earth Dragon mothers saw this and took the other two eggs away in order to bring them to the most secure place in their small lair while the last Earth Dragon mother remained, spending as much time with her offspring as possible. Taking out a small knife from his storage device, Seron cut his hand, while trying to ignore the Earth Dragon mother''s growling before he loosened up a thread from his soul which he led through his body towards his bleeding hand. Laying his hand on top of the eggshell, sweat pearls formed on his forehead as he took a deep breath when the soul thread invaded the Earth Dragon egg. Shaking slightly, the egg didn''t show any other signs and only Jason could see how the soul thread spread through the whole shell before it began to approach the being inside the egg. Only 15 minutes passed until the whole process was done, but Seron was fully drenched in his own sweat, while his face turned from a rosy-red to a paper-white, which alarmed Till, who approached Seron even though the Dragon mother was growling. When Till reached Seron''s side, he could barely look at him, before he smiled lightly, as he said. "I did it!" After he muttered these words, Seron fainted as the Earth Dragon egg in front of him vanished inside a large brown-reddish mana circle that appeared below it. Entering Seron''s soul world, Jason began to ask himself how long it would take before the Earth Dragon would hatch, as the Earth Dragon mother next to them roared out with mana amplifying it. However, instead of an aggressive, intimidating roar, it was more like a cry in anguish and sorrow as the sheer mass of emotions within the roar infiltrated Jason, Till, and the unconscious Seron, who flinched. Suddenly, Jason felt the sadness deep within him erupting, and he subconsciously thought about his mother, while Till didn''t seem to be in a better condition. Seeing this, Jason could only hear Till curse quietly. "Can''t I be spared from this bullshit, at least once?" Hearing this from Till was weird to Jason because he didn''t think that he was such a vulgar man but he felt the same as the Earth Dragon Mother''s cry in anguish was only slightly less impactful reminiscence-ceremony from the foreign races. Chapter 291 - Disposing Trash Once the Dragon mother roared out in anguish, the other Earth Dragons joined, which intensified everything and worsened Till''s already sour mood further. Not wasting any more time, he picked up Seron before he walked out of the Earth Dragon lair, without looking back another time. Till only stopped his steps when he reached the door separating the tunnel they walked through with the Earth Dragon territory. Waiting for Jason, who followed Till because he also didn''t want to endure something similar to the reminiscence-ceremony another time. Still, even if they were only shortly exposed to the Dragons'' cry of anguish, Jason felt somewhat bad for them as they were imprisoned and their children were deprived which was a bad combination. However, without being able to change something, he would rather think about himself first before doing anything impossible. Thus, his train of thoughts subconsciously averted towards his mother because the scenarios with the Earth Dragon mother being forcefully separated from her offspring was similar to his case. It was the other way around and his mother was killed, but it felt somewhat similar to Jason, who thought the first time for a long time about his mother. Being busy was on one side helpful in order to avert his attention from bad memories but on the other side, it was also disadvantageous because he began to forget small things about her, such as how her voice sounded and what they did together. In the end, he was still blind when he lost her, and he never saw her through his own eyes. The only thing he had was a picture of her. She was gorgeous, had a slender figure and long black hair, but the most important was that Jason saw her eye color for the first time when he regained his eyesight, which was one of the things he was the most curious about. While his eyes had a distinct golden color, his mother''s eyes were azure-blue with a light silver strand in them which was a rare color for normal mana eyes, which Jason figured out after talking with Shane and Dalia about his unique eyes. Apparently, mana eyes didn''t have an innate color per se because of their many grades and different mutations. However, most ''common'' mana eyes are said to be dark-blue while ''rare'' mana eyes are said to be azure-colored. Even so, this didn''t really help Jason and he could only comprehend that his mother''s eyes were similarly unique to his, which was however even more confusing to him. Gnashing his teeth, he couldn''t help but think ''How did she even die with such special eyes...she should have been at a higher rank than I am currently at and would definitely be able to figure out if someone were to attack her, by reading their mana fluctuations?!'' Everything seemed illogical and Jason was unable to understand how she died and he only remembered that she had always been weak since he was young. At least, that was how she sounded. With this, he could only think that there had to be something else she never told him and there were definitely a few missing pieces that hindered him in understanding the whole big picture. ''What am I missing?!'' Jason asked himself while following Till who carried Seron on his back. However, in the end, his mother was dead and he didn''t really know anything about his father, who was presumed to be from the Celestia race. ''What bullsh*t'' Jason almost shouted out loud, barely being able to hold it inside, as a question he always wanted to get the answer formed in his mind. ''Why is everything so complicated?! Who the hell is my father and why did they separate? Even if I''m half Celestia, they''re just strangers to me! Should I search for my father and interrogate him?!... But...what would that bring?'' Tormenting himself with his train of thought, Jason couldn''t help but feel frustrated and sad, as he continued to curse his mother''s killer inwardly which he already did several million times over the last six years since she was killed. ''I will definitely find you, even if I have to turn the world upside down!!'' Filled with anger, Jason initially wanted to remain in his own train of thoughts, when Till suddenly said. For more, visit novelpub[.]com "Jason, thanks for helping Seron today! Let me tell you this. If Shane, because of whatever reason, can''t come, I''ll try to take care of everything, alright?" Trying to take care of his emotions, he could only nod thankfully by Till''s words because he genuinely seemed to care about him. However, Jason doubted that this would also be the case if he were to tell him that he might be a halfling from another foreign race, considering that Till''s wrath towards the foreign races seemed deep. ''Did he lose someone to the foreign races?'' Looking at Till in pity, whose expression only showed calmness after he took off the gas mask but Jason perceived something else in his eyes which was similar to the time when the reminiscence-ceremony invaded them, forcing their suppressed emotions out. Sighing deeply, Jason thought that everyone had their own nemesis and bad memories. While Till seemed to hate all foreign races without distinguishing between them, Jason noticed that he was also not really different because he had an extremely bad prejudice against the big families and prosperous families. In the end, both Till and his attitude might be wrong, but they were still eligible because humanity never met kind and peaceful foreign races, if Jason''s knowledge was not wrong, while his prejudice changed only slightly thanks to Till who hailed from one of the big clans. He was also unsure about Seron because he was loyal and kind under normal circumstances but emotionally unstable and at the same time naive, and trusted everyone. Follow current novels on novelpub[.]com Thus it was not difficult to manipulate him. At least, that was how he thought of Seron and he might be wrong, but from the last months they were together, it became only more apparent that Seron was exactly how he imagined him to be. Seron''s envy and jealousy when he could walk towards the Earth Dragons unhindered was also another evidence for his assumption and Jason could only shake his head at that. Till noticed that Jason was not in the best mood and he felt exactly the same which caused both to remain silent until they finally reached the shaft, which lead them outside the narrow tunnel. Looking at the being inside the mana vein for a long time, Jason couldn''t help but feel intimidated because his gut feeling told him that this beast was even stronger than the Shadow walker, Yrael which was the strongest being he got to know until now. Inside the shaft, the elevator inside ascended slowly, and nobody said anything at all, as the two remained in their own thoughts while Seron was still unconscious. Now that he finished helping Seron with his second soulbond, Jason wanted to meet up with Shane and in the best case bid farewell to the Fler''s before parting ways. There was also something else he was adamant to do, but this could wait until he met the Fler family. However, before Jason could even continue with this thought, he sensed that the space around them began to twist as a spatial portal opened a few meters above them through which Shane emerged. Descending on the moving ascending platform Jason and Till stood, both immediately noticed that something happened as they saw Shane''s expression that was extremely bad. Before Jason could even say something, Shane approached him with a faint smile. "Hey Jason, it''s good to see that you''re fine! Sorry that it took so long, but I had to dispose of some trash before coming." Chapter 292 - Vanishing "Hey Jason, it''s good to see that you''re fine! Sorry that it took so long, but I had to dispose of some trash before coming." Hearing this, both Till and Jason frowned because they could already imagine what this could mean. Additionally, there were tiny bloodstains on Shane''s clothes, that spoke more than 1000 words and Jason couldn''t help but to ask himself what happened during the last few hours, they were underground. However, before he could ask something, Till rushed forward with Seron on his back as he asked. "What happened?!? Did you encounter the two Drake family sovereign ranks?.... Please don''t tell me¡­" Smiling lightly, Shane didn''t answer Till''s question but it seemed obvious what happened, even if Jason and Till were not there. Without thinking too much about Till, Jason noticed that his master seemed to be sad or frustrated, which was not something he expected to see right now. Frowning slightly, he could only imagine what happened, when Shane averted his attention to him as he said "I''ll explain everything but you don''t have to be afraid of being pursued anymore...At least for now.." Looking at Till, Shane felt slightly uneasy as he asked himself if Till would also betray him and Jason. Maybe he would expose them later! It was not important for him to be exposed as Old Drake''s murderer, but it was something else if Jason were to be implicated in the mess he caused thanks to his anger outburst. As such, Shane couldn''t help but sigh as he cursed his bad emotional control when it came to Dalia and apparently also Jason because he completely disregarded the plan he and Dalia made. Rushing straight to Old Drake might have been naive and stupid but Shane wanted to figure out why his old acquaintance betrayed the two of them, only for him to notice that Jason''s talent was the reason. It might have been a shallow reason for others, but Shane was fully aware of his disciple''s talent which forced him to execute Old Drake after he rejected a harsher soul contract. However, right now, it was still something different to execute Till just like that because he never betrayed them, and rather than that, Shane figured out that he helped them a lot. Sighing deeply, Shane understood that he should have rather waited for Jason to arrive on the surface before bringing him away. However, in the end, this would be a waste of precious time because Till could easily comprehend that he was Old Drake''s murderer either way. Explaining everything that happened to Till and Jason, while Seron was still unconscious, Shane underlined Old Drake''s reason for his betrayal in order to show Till what exactly the reason for everything was. Hearing that Shane killed Old Drake, both Till and Jason''s eyes widened in shock, even if they roughly estimated that this happened. Jason''s emotions were not really affected by that and he was only shocked about his master''s decisiveness, while Till couldn''t help but tremble for a short moment before he tried to regain his senses. Looking at Shane, he was unsure what to say as his mouth opened and clothes several times only to blurted out with a sigh. "That''s bad¡­." Till just said after some time, and looking at Shane with a firm expression, he just expressed what he was currently thinking. "Soo, by telling me this, you probably want me to remain silent about this incident? Because I know that the two of you are in a master-disciple relationship would allow me to conclude that you killed Old Drake either way, right? Once Jason disappeared, this would turn even more suspicious and Jason would also be persecuted by some big families¡­.Well, maybe not because there are only a few big families that loath you enough to pursued you through the islands if you were to appear ever again¡­.In the end, the Drake family is most likely the big family that hates you the most by now. If they were to find out that Jason became your disciple, the Drake family would probably send out spies or envoys through the islands to search for him because nurturing someone while hiding is unlikely to happen and furthermore extremely difficult. Concluding everything, it would only be a matter of time until Jason would be found and where the disciple is, a master can''t be far away¡­" Carefully listening to Till, Jason was astonished that he could comprehend all of that just like that in such a short amount of time. However, in the end, what his former teacher said was certainly true and Jason felt that everything became much more complicated than it was before. Even if his short-term issues were eradicated, the long-term problems caused by Shane might as well be worse. TIll was still shocked that Old Drake, which he knew since he was a small kid, was dead and that Shane was the murderer. He heard many heroic stories about the two of them, their might and friendship, that turned into rivalry, only to end up in a bloodbath after more than two centuries. Shane could only hope that Till was reasonable and that he also liked Jason, which might be helpful to persuade the young heir to remain silent. Not knowing what exactly he should think of the whole situation, Till''s mood soured and his eyes turned sad. Yet, even if Old Drake''s death was tragic, Till couldn''t help but think that Old Drake overestimated his capabilities and that his greed overwhelmed him when he figured out how precious Jason was. Old Drake was definitely aware of the dangers because he also knew that Shane, who eliminated a whole big family in order to rescue his wife, was his master, which indicated that Jason was important to him. Disregarding this meant that he was fully aware of the dangers, yet he chose to act how he did and he reaped what he sowed. It was harsh, but Till would have also tried his best to help out Jason and they were not even in a master-disciple relationship or something even remotely close to that. In the end, he would have only acted in order to assure that his own and Seron''s clans wouldn''t receive any disadvantages through this while his amity towards Jason played a huge role too. Furthermore, Till hated how the Drake family treated their prodigies comparable to slaves which would have been the final reason for him to help out Jason. As such, he could only sigh and think that he wouldn''t do anything to help the Drake family, whom he didn''t favor a tiny bit. It was tragic that two sovereign ranks and Old Drake died, but in the end, Till didn''t receive any disadvantages through this and rather than that, it might benefit his family, who was already anxious about the Drake family''s sudden advancement in powerful sovereign ranks. Nodding his head, Till looked straight into Shane''s eyes before he sighed deeply "I won''t tell the Drake family anything about your and Jason''s relationship, and I never saw you here¡­.Jason just parted ways with us when we arrived at the surface and I don''t know any suspect that might have something to do with Old Drake''s death¡­.that should be enough, right?" Jason was still overwhelmed by everything that happened right now and he couldn''t even speak at all because Shane and Till started to make up a simple story in order to reassure his safety. Seeing this, he felt warm around his heart, but since Old Drake betrayed them, Jason felt as if a small clump manifested around his heart, preventing him from trusting anyone except his masters'' who demonstrated their trust to him more than enough. Only a few minutes, Shane and Till finished their conversation as Shane approached Jason, telling him that it was time to part ways with Till. Bidding farewell, Jason felt a little bit sad because Seron was still unconscious but there was nothing he could do about that. There was no time to waste and Shane couldn''t say for sure how long it would take for reinforcement to arrive while it would also be bad if someone sighted them. As such, Shane grasped Jason''s shoulder firmly, as he manifested a spatial portal behind them, through with he jumped. Jason could only see Till waving at him with an uneasy expression as they finally parted their ways. Chapter 293 - To The Cerus Family! Emerging outside the city within a dense forest, Jason took a deep breath as he looked at Shane who returning his gaze "What?" Shane simply asked, but when he heard Jason''s next words, he could only frown. "Are you okay, master?" Jason understood that it must have been extremely difficult to kill his acquaintance who he probably even considered a friend for a long time, and in the end, he was the reason for this. As such, Jason couldn''t help but feel bad even if it was not his fault that Old Drake chooses to betray them, which was the reason for him to ask his master if he was doing okay. Seeing him sighing, Jason''s guilt intensified before he heard Shane saying. "In the end, this has nothing to do with you and was something between Old Drake and me. Both of us fought against each other quite often, until he received a serious injury that almost broke his mana core. It was then when he began to change and if I had been a little bit more careful, I would have noticed that he wanted to have you in his grasp¡­" Shane''s eyes turned serious, as he explained. "In a world that is ruled by the strong, you will never be able to know for sure whom you can trust fully...Only a soul contract might be able to reassure you that!" Hearing this, Jason nodded his head but he felt weird by his master''s words because they didn''t force him into a soul contract when they accepted him as a disciple. Knowing what his disciple was thinking about, Shane forced himself to grin. "Right now you''re wondering why we didn''t demand a soul contract from you, right? Well, in the end, the reason is quite simple. By becoming our disciple you are already deemed to be pursued by other big families because I eradicated the Shore family. Now that I killed Old Drake, the Drake family will probably actively search for me and once someone finds out that you''re my disciple, they will hunt you which is much easier than hunting me. Even if we don''t have a soul contract, right now you are forced to rely on me and Dalia which is much more important than a soul contract because it is highly likely that you will trust us more this way. In the future, you might as well betray us but if that were to happen, other big families would never know if they could trust you even a tiny bit without a detailed soul contract. As such, you would either be forced into submission by a big family, everywhere deemed as untrustworthy and suspicious, or directly pursued because of your high potential." Jason''s eyes widened when he heard Shane explaining everything, and he couldn''t help but praise his masters'' craftiness inwardly as their train of thought was certainly true. Right now, he relied on his masters, and betraying them would be comparable to crippling himself as the big families would definitely force him into submission. He never thought about betraying his masters but he felt a little bit annoyed that their reason for not demanding a soul contract was only their scheming and not amity towards him. Shane could only smile lightly when he saw Jason''s expression as he added. "We also liked your determination, unbreakable will to become stronger, and attitude towards others, which were definitely also a reason for not demanding a soul contract from you" Smiling when he heard these words, Jason was satisfied even if he knew that Shane only added the last sentence to please him. They were still in the forest and Shane wanted to continue their journey towards their new hideout that was situated far away, when Jason suddenly asked. "Is it possible for us to enter the Fler''s house for a moment? I want to write a short message to them¡­.and if it''s not too much, I would like to go somewhere else too¡­" Pondering for a moment, Shane thought that the first request was not too much and would at most take a few moments when he began to wonder what the second request might be. "If it doesn''t take too long it''s fine, but where do you want to go?" Smiling faintly, Jason''s eyes turned suddenly cold and melancholic which wondered Shane who lifted an eyebrow by this sight, when his disciple said. "I want to make a stop at the Cerus family mansion in Artes city!" "Huh?" Shane subconsciously blurted out, when he remembered that Jason came from Artes city, but he still didn''t know what he wanted to do with the Cerus family. Seeing that his master was confused, Jason decided to reveal that his mother was employed in the Cerus family when he was younger and that she was killed there when a mysterious young family''s heir went on a rampage after being defeated by the older Cerus family heir. Hearing this for the first time, Shane was astonished and he slowly understood what Jason wanted to figure out at the Cerus mansion. It was unknown when they would return to Astrix and it looked like Jason was finally ready to get to know who killed his mother. However, when Shane heard this, there was something else that bothered him. ''If an heir from another clan or family dares to kill the Cerus family''s servants during an event or party without anyone doing something against him, while at the same time preventing the news from spreading outside, it might be more problematic than Jason thinks¡­.Reporter are greedy hyenas and if it were to be a small family feud, the news would have already spread but the mysterious clan seems to be influential'' In the end, Shane decided against telling Jason what he assumed as he only nodded his head, agreeing to his disciple''s second request. Shane also said that he can help to interrogate the Cerus family if they were to be stubborn as long as both disguised themselves. Hearing this, Jason was thankful for this offer which he accepted without hesitation. Manifesting a spatial portal, both emerged within the Fler''s house, where Jason immediately searched for a piece of paper and a pen, which was extremely difficult because both were rarely used in their current era. Pondering what he should write, he decided to keep it simple instead of melancholic or dramatic. Chapter 294 - Blood Sect Shane and Jason emerged out of the spatial portal that manifested in the air above a small, yet familiar city. Sighing deeply, Jason was fully aware that they already arrived in Artes city, when he pointed towards the largest mansion inside the noble district without saying anything else. The spatial portal shifted its position and they stepped through it once again, after putting on a disguise. Shane decided to wear a silver mask that looked similar to a fox while Jason received a pitch-black devilish-looking mask from Shane which he wore. Taking out black robes, nobody would know who exactly they were, as they emerged in front of the large Cerus family mansion. There were a few families that decided to live reclusive because they didn''t want to compete with other families for authority positions. In most cases, they were not confident to defeat them, even if some of those reclusive families had a few strong individuals. The Cerus family was one of them and they were more peaceful than others, yet they were also said to have powerful offsprings with high mana sensitivity and control. Nevertheless, this was something neither Jason nor Shane were interested in as they slowly descended towards the mansion. In the beginning, both discussed how they should make their entrance, and instead of listening to Shane who wanted to amplify his voice and call the Cerus family out, Jason liked to start everything rather low-key before showing their might at once to overwhelm the other side. Either way, both ways would work out and Shane decided that they would just knock on the Cerus family mansion door as Jason wanted. *Knock* *Knock* *Knock* Knocking on the door three times should have been more than enough and the strength Shane utilized should have been more than enough to wake up everyone in the house, if that was even necessary because there was still more than enough time left before it was midnight. Through his mana eyes, Jason could perfectly perceive what turmoil his master caused with his knocking, and his faintly released mana fluctuations as he saw someone rushing towards the door in a hurried manner. Slowly opening the wooden door an old man with white hair came into their view, wearing a servant uniform, telling Shane and Jason that he was the Cerus family''s butler. Seeing two masked presumed men standing in front of the door, the butler''s hands couldn''t help but tremble for a short moment, when Shane''s mana fluctuations enveloped the old butler, whose mana core was barely at the master rank. Reaching the master rank was nothing special, even less if it was an old man who could live several hundred years with such a mana core rank. However, the butler would still be stronger than Jason, who could only smile slightly below his pitch-black mask when he noticed this. "H-Hello... Sirs? How can the Cerus family help you?...." The butler asked only hesitantly and it was not hard to perceive that he was scared which was not really astonishing because Shane''s mana fluctuations were on a completely different level than everything he should have ever felt during his whole lifetime. Looking at the silver fox masked men whose mana fluctuations were terrifying, the butler tried to calm down as he patiently waited for an answer, only for Jason to reveal their intention instead of Shane. "We want to speak to the Cerus family head for a moment!" He didn''t request to talk to the family head but it sounded more like an order and the Old butler could only rake his head what was going on because the young voice behind the pitch-black mask seemed to belong to a youth who seemed to be from an influential family if he was accompanied by a powerful guardian. At least that was what the old butler comprehended from the two masked mens'' behavior and Jason''s attitude. Excusing himself while stuttering, the old butler rushed through the whole house as he entered a certain room, where a middle-aged man with short brown hair was seated inside a mana-gathering magic circle. The middle-aged man already finished off his cultivation when he sensed that something was going on below. At least the revealed terrifying mana fluctuations that almost ripped him out of his mana absorption state which could have ended up rather dangerously were nothing he could take lightly. Thus he, Mirga Cerus, the Cerus'' family head was already slightly annoyed but he knew that the other party that arrived was much stronger than him which forced him to act politely without rejecting their request as it was not possible. If the two masked men wanted to meet him, they could also use force and Mirga was glad that they refrained from doing so, which substituted his anger as he ordered his butler to lead them inside his office. Entering the mansion, Jason was not really surprised to see valuable furniture that was made out of relatively expensive woods and other materials. However, considering that they were currently in a C-grade city, the Mansion with everything inside was probably worth more than the whole apartment district with several dozen skyscrapers'' situated next to each other. Shaking his head, Jason told himself that his reason to come over here was not to blame others or do something stupid. ''I will inquire about my mother''s murderer and leave, that''s it!'' He repeated several times in his head as they finally entered the Cerus family head''s office where they were already awaited. Migra Cerus was slightly taller than Shane and Jason, but his aura was much weaker than Shane''s which created the effect that Shane was taller and mightier even if that was not the case. As such, Migra could only eye the silver fox masked man carefully and it was not difficult to spot that he was nervous. Nobody wanted to waste any time and without bothering about an introduction, Jason asked straightforwardly. "Mr. Cerus, I don''t want to beat around the bush and waste each other''s time. Today, we are here to inquire more about a certain accident that occurred roughly six and a half years ago! If my intel is not wrong, the Cerus family held a banquet with a few sparrings afterwards to demonstrate your son''s combat prowess. What happened that one of the spars went out of control which lead to the death of several servants after the defeated side wreaked havoc. Who was the culprit?" Without telling who they were or even showing the desire to reveal a single clue about their identity, Jason allowed the Cerus family head to imagine all kinds of things, which could help him to figure out more. It was not really necessary to do something like this, but both Shane and Jason didn''t bother to think about a new identity they could use to tell who they were because it was useless to do something like this in the first place. Nevertheless, Jason''s small scheme seemed to work because almost immediately after the family-head heard Jason''s words, his eyes widened and he became more nervous than he already was a moment before. "I-I don''t know what Sir means¡­.there did not happen anything over the last few years! You may even ask our butler or other servants! If something like this were to happen, we would be devastated because we treat our employees with love." Saying these words, the old butler behind them immediately nodded his head in order to show that the family head''s words were indeed the truth. However, how should they know that Jason was fully aware of their lies, which caused him to feel disgusted when Shane released his water affinity for the first time. A small water ball manifested in his hand which swirled around his hand before he shot it towards the family head without hesitation. It was impossible for the Cerus family head to evade the water ball that had a shocking velocity. Yet, instead of being flung away, the water ball enlarged when it crashed into his body, only to envelope him completely. Sealed inside a water bubble, the Cerus family head couldn''t breathe anymore and thanks to the water bubble''s pressure which Shane adjusted however he wanted, Jason averted his attention towards the butler. Both Shane and Jason expected the family head to lie about the incident that happened more than 6 years ago which was the reason for Shane demonstrating that they don''t accept being lied to. Shane was also using his water affinity for a certain reason because they wanted to prevent any possible connections between the incident on Cyro-city and what was about to happen in Artes-city as it might even help someone to comprehend that Jason was Old Drake murderer''s disciple or something similar to that. The old butler stared at his master in shock when Jason asked him coldly "What happened 6 and a half years ago?! Tell me the truth if you don''t want your master to die or see yourself end in an even worse state!!" Jason didn''t even need to release his mana because his killing intent that was subconsciously released was already enough to show the old butler that their current situation was grave. It was either tell the truth or die! Kneeling down, the old butler began to beg for his life as he revealed "There was such an incident! Yes, Yes!! Please don''t kill me and my master !! I will tell everything I know" Nodding his head, Jason was satisfied with this result and Shane severed his connection to the water affinity which caused the water bubble to burst open. Taking a few deep breaths, the Cerus family head immediately changed his attitude because he figured out that someone should have told the two masked men in front of him that something happened, as he hastily said. "Please forgive me my lies!! The other family forced us to never reveal anything about the accident!" Sighing, Jason and Shane didn''t want to remain at the Cerus family for too long, as they told the family head to explain everything without letting out a single detail. ** Less than 20 minutes later, Shane and Jason left the Cerus mansion, and their minds were filled with confusion, frustration, and also shock. The Cerus family head said that he didn''t know the other clans'' name, and only told them that a young red-haired and eyed youth suddenly appeared during their banquet, challenging the Cerus family heir''s strongest descendant who broke into the Grandmagus stage at the age of 170 years, which was also the reason for the whole banquet to be held in the first place. The family head''s son barely defeated the other youth who was apparently in his 20s and already at the Magus rank, when he enveloped himself in a red hue that felt like a beast''s bloodlust state, as he wreaked havoc by killing several servants before he disappeared with his accompaniment. Hearing this shocked Jason but his frustration was visible as he couldn''t even figure out his mother''s murderer''s name, as he heard Shane mumbling "Was it the Blood sect?!" Chapter 295 - Ravaging Jumping through several spatial portals, Shane and Jason appeared somewhere deep inside a large and lush forest, when Shane turned around, with a sour expression. "Jason, I don''t know how to say it in a comforting manner. As such, I''ll be blunt, alright?" Jason, who already heard Shane mumbling "Blood sect" before, only nodded his head, hoping that his master might be able to help him figure out who killed his mother as he was unable to get to know it without help which bothered and frustrated him extremely. The more time passed, the harder it would become to find out who murdered his mother and Jason knew that he was already late with his first approach to obtain more information after more than 6 years passed. However, unfortunately enough, he couldn''t do much before because he had neither someone backing him up nor the strength to do something by himself. Additionally, Jason was unsure how long it would take for him to return to Astrix which meant that it was his first and most likely last try to figure out more about his mother. That was, at least on Astrix. If the Cerus family didn''t know more, it was impossible for someone else on Astrix to know much more, except if the mysterious heir lived on this island, which was however very unlikely. In order to fight a Grandmagus rank while being at the Magus rank and only in his 20s, his mother''s murderer must belong to a large family clan who coincidentally encountered the banquet and wanted to have some fun. However, he probably didn''t expect to lose his challenge which caused him to wreak havoc. Thinking about this possibility Jason bit his lips as he subconsciously released his killing intent which intensified when his train of thoughts continued. Yet, after hearing Shane''s words, he listened intently because he was his last ray of hope to find out more without the need to overturn humanity "To put it simply¡­ the young man who murdered your mother is most likely from the ''Blood sect'' which is an ancient, hidden sect on Canir¡­ When I last encountered members of this sect, they were definitely on par with the big families according to their cultivation rank and combat prowess. With this in mind, you would have to fight against the Blood sect if you want to take revenge on your mother''s murderer. Normally it wouldn''t be that much of a hassle, but this mysterious youth seems to have been one of their prodigies who awoke their sects to inherit bloodlust ability." Even if it was not pleasing to hear whom he had to fight in the future in order to find his mother''s murderer, Jason was glad to have a set destination that was entirely different from searching for a needle in a haystack. Nevertheless, Jason didn''t feel like smiling right now as it was quite obvious that the blood sect prodigy killed his mother because he felt like it. It was not an accident or even remotely close to that and the small bubble of lies he formed in his mind to protect himself burst open, and he could only gnash his teeth in anger as he turned towards Shane. Sighing deeply, he felt both angry and sad when Shane reassured him "Let''s go meet Dalia. She is already waiting for you. Afterward, you can keep getting stronger and do as you please!" Nodding his head, the two of them vanished inside the spatial portal that manifested behind them, only to repeat the same step several hundred times before they finally arrived at their destination. **[Canir, Drake family headquarter (A few hours earlier)]** A thunderous roar resounded throughout the whole Drake family country, as a several hundred-meter-long sky-blue colored Dragon dived down towards the Drake family headquarter, completely disregarding the existence of the surrounding cities. Manifesting a blizzard, the surrounding landscape froze within seconds as the first weaker humans, living in the Drake headquarters, died by freezing to death. Most descendants and disciples of the Drake family survived as they were close to more powerful beings who enveloped them with thick mana membranes to protect themselves and the surrounding humans. Shocked by their sight, they could barely act in time as they rushed towards the family''s underground shelter in order to protect the weaker, as the Ice Dragon mother landed on the large pagoda. After making a pact with Shane to emerge out of the rift where she was stuck for the last 20 years, she was full of wrath towards the Drake family who abducted her baby. As such she shattered everything in her surroundings which belonged to this spiteful family without caring who was innocent or guilty. In her opinion, everyone who colluded with this family was guilty and only because she was forced to refrain from destroying the whole Drake family kingdom through the soul contract she formed with Shane, did she only destroy the headquarters. She was also forbidden to attack others who didn''t attack her first when everything was about to be over which she only reluctantly accepted. However, in order to rescue her small baby, she would do everything and at least she was able to destroy the Drake family on her search for her baby. Intensifying the blizzard''s might, everything around her was frozen, while even humans at the Lord stage had problems protecting themselves, let alone others. Now that they were also forced to enter the underground shelter that was the only secure place for now, the Ice Dragon mother that looked like a gigantic lizard with humongous wings on her back perceived stronger mana fluctuations appearing around her. Her strength was comparable to a Mid-Monarch rank beast, which was nothing special for an Ice Dragon, and on her side of the rift, she was seen as a rather weak Dragon with a lower bloodline. This was also the reason for her to live near the rift which led to her egg being stolen and now that she emerged in Canir, she finally noticed that she was not the weakest. Nevertheless, even if it was exciting for the Ice Dragon mother to feel like she was strong compared to others, her goal was still the same and she would do everything if she could just retrieve her small baby. Several sovereign ranks suddenly approached her, yet she fought against them without any issue. They were extremely weak compared to her current weakened state which was weird, but rather than being displeased, the Ice Dragon mother exterminated the sovereign ranks mercilessly. Extending her mana fluctuations she searched for her offspring, only to roar out in shock when familiar mana fluctuations appeared in her range. It was the man''s mana fluctuations who abducted her egg intertwined with her eggs mana fluctuations!?! Still not being able to realize what was going on, the Ice Dragon mother could only see Jael Drake flying towards her, his face full of anger, as a colossal-sized sky blue magic circle appeared on the ground, within an Ice Dragon that was smaller than the Ice Dragon mother emerged from it. Smiling cruelly, Jael who was full of anger could barely feel pleased by the sight of mother and daughter reuniting, as he ordered his soulbond "ATTACK HER!" The Drake family patriarch''s soul world shook violently as his soulbond tried to reject the order only for it to be forced into submission through the soulbond contract. With thick tears pouring down the smaller Ice Dragon''s cheeks, it roared out as a warning as she swung with her wings, to ascend in the air where her mother was already waiting for her baby. However, what the Ice Dragon mother didn''t expect, was to be attacked by her own flesh and blood with several more sovereign ranks supporting her attack. Chapter 296 - A Mothers Love ''WHYYY!?!'' The Ice Dragon mother thought as she roared out, not being able to understand what happened to her small baby, that suddenly started to attack her. Not only was this the case but the smaller Ice Dragon''s eyes turned dull as if it gave up on resisting or even living if the soulbond contract didn''t force it to stay alive. Seeing this was devastating for the Ice Dragon mother who couldn''t believe what the last 20 years had done to her small baby. She was not sure what to expect to see in the beginning but right now she thought that living like this, subdued by a vicious man was even worse than dying. Using her superior physical strength, the Ice Dragon mother pushed her daughter who already arrived in front of her away without injuring her in order to charge towards the vicious man with her offspring''s transmuted mana intertwined in his own. There were several more sovereign ranks next to him, but she didn''t care about them at all. Accumulated mana in her maw, she shot an ice beam towards her opponents to create a chaotic situation when she arrived in front of the first sovereign rank which she grasped with her claw, only to mash it without much effort. Even if she was only at the Mid-Monarch rank, her physical strength, ice affinity, and mana control were even superior to common late-Monarch ranks because she was a Dragon and would have already killed everyone around her if she was not in a weakened state. Nevertheless, she was still the strongest being present, while the vicious being that subdued her offspring and her small baby itself were the ones that were the closest to her own combat prowess. The smaller Ice Dragon had already entered the Low-Monarch rank, while Jael Drake was currently considered a Late-Sovereign rank with his three consolidated prismarine crystals inside his mana core. Yet, he was still weaker than the Ice Dragon mother in her weakened state, even if it was only by a small margin. The Drake family patriarch noticed this which forced him to use something he would have never thought to have to use so early, against a mere beast at that. Gritting his teeth, Jael Drake couldn''t accept that his mighty kingdom could go extinct, caused by the emergence of the Ice Dragon mother and his headquarters '' destruction. While he instructed his subordinates to gather around him, Jael ordered the small Ice Dragon to distract her mother for one minute which it did reluctantly, not being able to obstruct her master''s words. With a thunderous roar, the small Ice Dragon emerged in front of her mother as she shot an Ice beam at a close distance, which the Ice Dragon mother couldn''t evade. Roaring out in pain, the Ice Dragon mother knew that she had to do something, however, she was still hesitant to injure her small baby as she wanted to save her from the vicious man''s grasp. Time slowly passed with the two Ice Dragons clashing upon each other, they seemed to be intertwined with each other, fighting ferociously. That was at least what it looked like in the beginning, but after time passed it was obvious that the larger Ice Dragon was not fighting back against the smaller Ice Dragon who was forced to fight against her mother with all her might, as she bite in her mother''s back, ripping out her scales and flesh, revealing crimson red blood as the Ice Dragon mother roared out in pain. One minute passed and only now did the Ice Dragon mother notice that something was wrong as her surrounding mana was incomparably low compared to a minute before. Feeling an extremely strong suction force close to her, she looked towards the vicious man, who was holding a silver spear in his hand with complex sky blue runes inscribed on it, as her eyes widened in shock. ''Infant Elemental Runes!!'' The runes began to glow and manifested above the inscription, enveloping the whole white spear which started to vibrate as it ascended into the air. Filled with the complete mana cores of a dozen sovereign ranks and their soulbonds that stood behind their masters, visibly exhausted and on the brink of collapsing, Jael Drake''s pale face showed a cruel smile as he lifted his hand. Having bound the soul weapon ''Sky frost Spear'' which Jael Drake received from the foreign race he was in a contact with, the Drake family patriarch could control it to his heart''s content. Seeing that the Ice Dragon mother tried to flee, satisfaction filled his whole body and when he swung his arm down, the Sky frost spear shoot forward with a loud *boom* which caused cracks in the frozen ground several meters below it. Jael was not able to control the Sky frost Spear for a long time because his mana was currently not strong enough while his ice affinity proficiency was also lacking, preventing a perfect control over the spear. Nevertheless, right now, he felt as if nobody on Canir was able to defeat him, which included the few old monstrous humans who survived the mana outbreak and strived for more strength If Jason were to see the Sky frost Spear, he would be extremely shocked as not only the weapon itself was extraordinary but the inscriptions too. The sky blue inscriptions were made by an ice affinity in addition to several rare ingredients, but the most important was that the sky blue runes looked similar, yet less profound than the rift''s large-scale rune, which was the most shocking inscription he ever saw until now. Accelerating further, the Sky frost Spear broke through the sound barrier as it pierced into the Ice Dragon mother''s shoulder, only to penetrate through its whole shoulder without much resistance. A thick fountain of blood poured out of the wound and the Ice Dragon mother had to forcefully close the wound with her Ice affinity in order to stay awake. Averting her attention to the Sky frost Spear which still flew through the sky, its mana fluctuations lessened visibly which showed its huge mana consumption, giving the Ice Dragon mother hope to survive as the smaller Ice Dragon suddenly emerged below it, shooting towards her. Luning out desperately, the small Ice Dragon tried to kill her own mother, even if she tried her best to prevent doing so. In the end, it was impossible to go against the soulbond contract. As such, she tore apart her mother, who could only envelop her own child in a thick mana membrane with every single ounce of mana she had left within her after she noticed that the Sky frost spear didn''t seem to hesitate to pierce through both of them. Jael''s eyes were bloodshot and he didn''t care about anything except the Ice Dragon mother''s death, as he shouted, releasing all his wrath towards the large Ice Dragon. "DIE YOU WORM!!" Using up every single drop of mana within, the Sky frost spear turned around and shot towards the Ice Dragon mother, piercing through its chest, straight inside the heart which continued to beat even after a hole appeared. Piercing out of the Ice Dragon mother''s body, the Syk frost spear continued its advance, not slowing down a tiny bit as it reached the smaller Ice Dragon''s shoulder which was also pierced through. The Sky frost spear''s advance almost cut off the small Ice Dragon''s front leg, only for it to be protected by the thick mana membrane her mother used to protect her child. Meanwhile, the Ice Dragon mother''s life force dissipated extremely fast and she was unable to continue flying as it crashed into the ground, without being able to move a single inch. There was only a weak, painful screeching coming from the Ice Dragon mother as it looked towards her child with her last breath to see if she was still alive. The small ice Dragon''s eyes were full of life now, but filled with pain, sadness and tears poured down her cheeks as she saw its mother dying in front of her¡­ Jael Drake smiled brightly and was overjoyed to have finally exterminated such a colossal threat as he retracted his weapon, only to look around as he saw that everything was destroyed. Even the underground shelter should have sustained damages during the fight which meant that his whole clan was on the brink of destruction, which caused him to grit his teeth in anger. Suddenly an idea formed in his head and his sour mood lifted slightly as he thought about Astrix island and Old Drake who told him about several prodigies and the Big-Three tournament. "Let''s replace our fallen comrades first!!" **** Far away, Shane jumped up from the chair he sat on when he sensed that his soul contract with the Ice Dragon mother dissipated, indicating its death ''Jael was able to kill it?!'' Chapter 297 - Aftermath Several days passed and the news about the destruction of the Drake family headquarter was already known throughout Canir and the Archipelago. Everyone knew about it, but nobody dared to say or do anything as the news also reported about the death of the attacking Ice Dragon and that the Drake family patriarch bound a similar-looking Ice Dragon as his soulbond. In order to kill a Mid-Monarch ranked Dragon whose strength was even stronger than that of an ''average'' peak-Sovereign rank with its superior affinity and physical strength, the Drake family must have an extremely powerful trump card, which prevented the surrounding Kingdoms from starting a war. Even if the number of high-ranked casualties was enormous, up to several tens of thousands, it didn''t seem like the Drake family weakened in any way as the patriarch finally revealed his whole strength that was hidden before. Previously, he wanted to remain lowkey without attracting too much attention until he was finally able to overwhelm everyone, but that changed now substantially. His whole demeanor changed and it was as if the Drake family patriarch has gone insane the day after the Ice Dragon accident happened. This was however intensified when he heard about Old Drake''s death and his two sovereign ranks'' disappearance, which felt as if it was too much of a coincidence to be even considered one. The only person left on Astrix he could rely on to a certain degree was his own son, who was barely at the Expert rank which was not strong enough. As such he went over to Astrix by himself because it was too dangerous to send other sovereigns over to handle the possible dangers on the small island. He couldn''t be sure who killed his ancestor but there was definitely something wrong. Yet, even after trying to investigate what happened, it was only clear that his ancestor''s murderer was someone with a darkness affinity and that this individual had a strong combat strength according to the killing intent that was intertwined with mana, which everyone felt. Unfortunately, not even Till Greil knew what happened because he was below the surface with Seron to pick his second soulbond and the Drake family patriarch could only suppress his anger and wrath towards the mysterious person. Trying to remain level-headed was not possible anymore and Jael Drake decided to use all his means to recuperate his clan''s weakened combat power by all means. With this in mind, the Drake family patriarch took all participants of the Big-Three tournament that reached the Top 100 and offered to take them under his wing. Astonished about this offer, most students also heard about what happened to the Drake family''s headquarter and sensed the opportunity to change their designated destiny as they accepted the Drake family patriarch''s offer without knowing what their decision would mean for their future. Almost all prodigies from Astrix, even if they were not in school anymore received an offer to come over to the Drake Kingdom in addition to a large number of high-grade mana stones, martial art techniques, and much more. The whole Kingdom started to search for youths with a high soul-awakening and a decent mana aptitude, making them eligible to join the Drake family side as he had his means to forcefully advance their mana core if enough resources were available. Using all his means, Jael Drake sold the deceased Ice Dragon carcass to influential alchemists, blacksmiths, and even Beast Creators who gathered around him in order to procure the Dragon''s scales, flesh, tendons, blood, and bones as every single ounce of it was extremely valuable. Through this, he could finance everything necessary to rebuild not only his headquarters but it was also enough to slowly recuperate from his clan''s weakened state. The only thing he required was manpower, more finances which he would acquire in the future and the most important, time! In the end, the Drake family patriarch didn''t even bother thinking that anyone would reject his offer because it was too tempting for everyone, which included the most influential clans on Astrix Rather than rejecting his offer, there were more than enough families that pleaded the Drake family soldiers to take their sons and daughters with them to open their path towards a better life, which was however ignored in most cases. Nevertheless, this didn''t mean that everyone was satisfied with what happened on Astrix and a few families and even influential clans tried to flee from Astrix towards other Islands to seek asylum because they could already estimate what was about to happen to their talented children and other descendants once they were to accept the Drake clan''s offer. The Fler''s were one of these families and it was Greg who was adamant about leaving Astrix because he didn''t want to accept the Drake family''s offer after he got to know that the mana intertwined killing intent came from Old Drake''s murderer. Adding the fact that Jason behaved weirdly, desperate, and as if he was done with his life when before their tournament fight, Greg comprehended that not only was the mysterious Beast Creator, Old Drake''s murderer but that something bad happened to Jason that his master acted like this. With this in mind, Greg knew that the Drake family, clan, and whole Kingdom were not something he ever wanted to have any relation with! Yet, before the Fler''s could even flee, Drake clan soldiers arrived at their doors, inviting them inside the large bus that waited at the front door. Nobody knew what was going on, but when Greg reluctantly accepted the ''invitation'' because he could hardly reject it, he and his family who had to enter the bus saw all Top 25 participants of the Big-Three tournament from all three years in addition to their family. This created a bad premonition in the Fler''s mind and they knew that something bad was going to happen. Arriving in front of Cyro-City''s arena, they were ordered to enter the first floor, where they saw a middle-aged man with a perilous and slightly crazy aura radiating from him. It was Jael Drake the Drake family patriarch, who started with a short speech. However, instead of listening, Greg''s mind was filled with other thoughts because his gut feeling told him that he had to escape, which was unfortunately not possible. His parents and Malia were taken to the second floor while only the youths that entered the Top 25 in the Big-Three tournament listened to Jael Drake''s speech in which he praised his own kingdom before giving them an exclusive offer to become his direct underlings in addition to a large amount of resources. Nevertheless, after reading through the whole soul contract which Jael Drake manifested in front of all 73 Students, some students'' eyes widened in greed before they turned serious. From a joyous expression, their mood soured when they saw the soul contract''s final clauses turning them into the Drake family''s marionettes which was comparable to being enslaved. A turmoil started but the Drake family patriarch ignored them as a cruel smile emerged on his face. Snapping with his fingers a high-quality video call of the second floor was projected behind him. The students turned immediately quiet seeing their family behind the Drake family patriarch because they were tied up and gagged which caused even some students to cry out in shock. Greg gritted his teeth when he saw this but exclaiming now could end up in the worst possible way as he noticed the patriarch''s gaze remaining on the noisiest students. Pointing at a youth, he emotionlessly asked "You! Will you sign the contract? I''ll ask only once!!" The youth, Jael Drake spoke to began to shiver as he perceived the patriarch''s mana fluctuations and aura around him, as he could only stutter "C-Can''t we¡­.m-ake a c-c-compromise? I- I want to b-e free!" Disregarding the youth''s fear, Jael erupted with his mana as he shouted "YES OR NO?" "Y-Ye..NOooooo!" The youth subconsciously shouted before he held his hand before his mouth, shocked about what he subconsciously said. Hearing this, the Drake family patriarch didn''t seem to be bothered, as he ordered "Execute his family!" Just like that, his parents and small sister were beheaded by the Drake soldiers without showing any sight of hesitation, as the youth shouted out in shock as he retreated several steps with trembling legs. "nooo¡­.w-why¡­.Mother...Father!!! Aella!!" Tears poured down his cheeks as his sadness turned into rage and one could only see him utilizing his water affinity with which he manifested a compressed water blade, only to dissipate into thin air before it could even be shot towards Jael Drake who enveloped the youth with his mana. Increasing the pressure around the youth slowly, everyone could witness how he slowly died, not being able to breathe only to be freed for three seconds before the suppression intensified once again. With the youth''s death, the whole floor turned eerie silent and nobody dared to voice their opinion. The youths'' faces were paper-white and only their expression showed how devastated and desperate they felt within them. Greg, who already felt that something was wrong, was now completely sure that today would become the worst day of his life as he stared at his parents who only shook their heads, trying to tell him not to sign the soul contract. However, how could he not sign the contract, if his parents and Malia, who he loved dearly were about to die in front of him only because of his selfish thoughts? Even if he knew that the contract was comparable to being enslaved, Greg could only gnash his teeth in fear and anger, as he loosened up a thread from his soul in order to sign the contract. ''I''m sorry Mom, Dad, Malia¡­...Jason...I hope you''ll continue to be stronger than me, otherwise, I don''t know what is going to happen if we ever encounter each other again¡­'' Chapter 298 - Terebrean One could see a young man swinging a large, heavy-looking hammer with swift and mighty strikes on a heated up jade-colored ingot that had silver stars shining within it. Next to the jadetite ingot, a large black flame flickered vigorously, releasing a calming aura, while the young man with golden eyes smiled at the ingot in front of him with a proud expression on his face. ''Finally!'' Jason thought as he took a deep breath before he continued with his forging process in order to forge his first perfectly refined mana grade-1 weapon without anyone''s help. Three months passed since he left Astrix to escape from the Drake family, and there were many shocking and horrifying news Jason and his masters heard. Knowing that Astrix underwent a substantial change, Jason felt uncomfortable during the first month after he left with Shane because he didn''t know what happened to Greg and the Fler''s. However, after figuring out that almost all youths with potential were ''invited'' to become a part of the Drake clan, he was fully aware what should have happened to Greg, if he didn''t decide to choose death over a soul contract. This caused Jason''s wrath towards the Drake family patriarch to increase and he could only hope that the whole Fler family was still alive. When he got to know this, Jason''s concentration and focus on absorbing mana was disrupted and his masters had to help him to get back on the right path as he was slowly drifting away. Telling him that he could only rescue his friend if he were to become much stronger, Jason''s worsening concentration became firmer once again and instead of solely focusing on finding his mother''s murderer who most likely hailed from the Blood sect, he might be able Greg and the Fler''s alive if he were to become much stronger. With this thought, Jason''s mana absorption heightened because he had a set goal he could follow now and no time to waste. Now, after three months of hard work, he was finally able to forge his first perfectly purified mana grade-1 weapon which was extremely good in order to build a solid foundation which would also help him to create a good financial basis because mana grade-1 weapons and armors were worth much more than even good grade-2 equipment. With the perfect basic lifestyle occupation foundation Jason slowly established over the last three months, he was able to perfectly concoct all kinds of grade-1 potions which included potions that had a similar difficulty to the bloodline unsealing solution he concocted for Greg''s soulbond. Furthermore, he was finally able to use several different inscribing solutions which were extremely beneficial in order to build a perfect weapon. They were still incomparable to his Viridi-Starstream daggers, but time and experience would allow him to create even better weapons than his master. Jason was confident to achieve this! Their current location was somewhat dangerous, yet his masters told him that one of the most unlikely places to stay was probably the safest for them to be. As such, they entered the Lion den as his masters bought a small plot inside a B-Grade city on Terebrean, which was another small Island. Terebrean was governed by the Jual family and their clan was also one of the big clans that reigned over mankind. However, it was ridiculous in Jason''s opinion that the Jual clan had ties with the Drake family, even after knowing what happened because the Jual clan called themselves righteous and undiscriminating. This might be true in some cases but only if one possessed talent which was the most important aspect to receive justice and proper treatment from the Jual clan. They divided their society into untalented people who could at most do labor, work as low salary workers or somewhere else where it was difficult to reach greater wealth, semi-talented people that received better treatment, talented people who were treated like nobles even if they hailed from the poorest possible districts and real prodigies, which was the cream of the crop. These ''real prodigies'' received excellent treatment and were seen as blessed children. They also received a large number of resources and had everything they needed. Through this treatment, the talented and prodigious youths were passively tied to the Jual clan, and if they wanted to receive even more benefits they had to enter their clan, which required a soul contract that was not as harsh as the one from the Drake clan. It would still be extremely difficult to betray the Jual clan which was exactly what the soul contract was important for. As such, they were discriminating and definitely not righteous. Nevertheless, Jason was glad that the clan''s territory they entered didn''t force others to sign harsh soul contracts and it was somewhat reassuring. However, it was undeniable that they still had some ties with the Drake family which was not great to know. After Jason arrived at Shane and Dalia''s plot with a small house standing firmly on top of it which they purchased, he was astonished that the two didn''t bother to hide their appearance when his two masters showed him something special he would have never expected. Dalia enveloped herself and Shane in her silver origin flame and Jason immediately noticed that something changed about her flame''s appearance as it was much more vigorous than before in addition to small stars glimmering within it. Furthermore, its color intensified and Jason could tell from the enveloping color that her silver origin flame evolved from a Tier-2 flame to a Tier-3 origin flame. After Dalia retraced her silver-colored origin flame again, Jason was so shocked to see his master''s that he almost fell on his butt while retreating. Their whole facial structure changed and they looked completely different compared to before. After his masters dyed their hair, even he couldn''t say for sure that his masters were in front of him as long as he didn''t look at their familiar mana fluctuations. With this newly acquired ability Dalia''s, which allowed her to change the face structure by adjusting their facial features, everything changed and they didn''t have to hide anymore. Jason didn''t want to change his facial feature because it wouldn''t be really helpful due to several reasons. From influential families and clans, only Till, Seron, Max, and the Drake family patriarch knew him, while he was not even sure about the latter because he didn''t seem to have bothered about Jason''s existence that much. Other than the two youths and Till nobody knew what he looked like and more than that, his most impactful feature were his golden eyes which he couldn''t hide even by using contact lenses. He already tried out multiple different contact lenses but his golden eyes always shone through which was frustrating and interesting to figure out. However, this was less of a problem because Terebrean was an Island known for their unique eye colors which lessened his eyes'' impact. This was another reason for his masters to decide that they would live on this Island for the time being until Jason was strong enough to enter the real battlefield which was Canir. If he were to make trouble on Canir now, it would almost be comparable to a death sentence and it was better to be careful than dead. Without being distracted by school, the Big-Three tournament or anyone like Old Drake bothering him, Jason had much more time to become stronger over the last three month in which he did not only establish a great basic lifestyle occupation foundation. Many things changed and not only to him but also his soulbonds! Chapter 299 - Evolution Requirements During the last three months, Jason neither neglected his mana absorption, further reduced his Heaven''s Hell practice to receive more soul energy units, his body refining with the Netherworld''s fort technique nor his martial art and affinity practice. Thus, his whole day was filled to the brim and it was only fortunate that he could passively absorb mana which however didn''t mean that he forgot to actively absorb mana as it was much more efficient. In the end, Jason just slept less, at most three hours a day which was also already considered long for him in the recent days. He just didn''t feel the need for more sleep and felt vigorous enough to work for days with the nutrition and mana inside him. After he reunited with both Shane and Dalia, they started to experiment with the Terra-Intermediate body refining technique, Netherworld''s fort, and Dalia purchased bulks of nutritious food, medical baths, and mana stones to do so. As such his finances were still relatively high and Jason was happy to have such great masters who supported him in any way even after they found out that he might be from a foreign race. However, they didn''t change even a tiny bit in their behavior which caused Jason to feel gratitude towards them as this was one of the things he feared by revealing his highly likely origin. The only thing that changed was their teachings because they felt the urgency to force Jason to release his full potential that might still be within him as a foreign race. Additionally, there was also the issue with the foreign races, Argos planet being one of the weakest planets among an unknown number of others that might even be in the millions, and mankind as a problem itself. If they figured out everything Jason told them from someone else without having met him, Shane and Dalia would most likely end up in despair which was fortunately not the case. Somehow without them knowing their small disciple turned into their ray of hope because his talent and demeanor were great and allowed them to nurture him thoroughly. Through this, Jason was able to reach the 2nd Expert rank without much issue and by only absorbing mana for a few hours every day which was not that much. Nevertheless, with his mana core rank alone and the further body refining he underwent, he would already be able to fight low-evolved beasts only with his physique alone without the need to receive amplification from his soulbonds for it. This overjoyed Jason but more shocking was that his combat prowess was much higher than a 2nd Expert after receiving his soulbonds amplifications because all three soulbonds wreaked the peak-Unblemished rank after three months. While Scorpio''s required soul energy increased to roughly 1900 units, Artemis'' required now around 1970 soul energy units and was extremely close to reaching the magical rank, once she compressed her first mana drop. Her strength increased faster than Scorpio''s because she could digest mana cores directly without the need to absorb the mana out of normal food that had many unnecessary things inside. Mana cores had also fewer impurities and there was much more mana inside them than in high-grade beast meat which Scorpio ate. Even if his masters gave him resources to nurture himself, they were not enough to feed Artemis and Scorpio which forced him to purchase the expensive food. Through this, his fortune decreased to 50 Star notes over the last three months and the expenses would only grow if he wanted to maintain the accelerated maturing process he initiated by giving them expensive food. The only unfortunate thing that was also fortunately on the other side was that Scorpio would soon reach his racial limit as a Radiant Sapphire Scorpion which would mean that his food expenses wouldn''t rise anymore. However, this was rather bad in Jason''s opinion because he would rather pay a lot for food and see his soulbond becoming stronger than having to pay exactly the same, knowing that his soulbond''s strength was stagnating. This lead Jason to ponder if he should search for items to increase his potential at least a small margin which was harder than he initially thought because he would require something that could forcefully expel the impurities within a beast that already had the potential to reach the magical rank. Thus, he just decided to not do it because it was more important for Scorpio and Artemis to reach the magical rank by compressing their first liquefied drop of mana which was only the starting point to enter the Lique state. Sighing deeply it was obvious that this step would take longer than a few days to achieve and Jason would rather give his soulbonds enough time to reach the Lique state than to pressure them. In the end, he had more than enough time to wait patiently and it would be useless to force his soulbonds in doing something under huge pressure as it could damage their core or create internal injuries which was something Jason wanted to prevent by any means. Nevertheless, there was something else he was still unsure of because neither he, Shane nor Dalia knew anything about it. After adjusting the black origin flame''s soul energy, increased strength in its fire affinity, and accuracy with more annexed soul energy, it finally reached a soul energy of 2000 units. Under normal circumstances, origin flames would have already evolved at that point but that was not the case with his black origin flame that seemed to have no desire to annex more soul energy units than it currently had. The flame''s strength already reached the peak-unblemished rank and Jason could perfectly adjust the flame''s temperature however he wanted, without many issues or obstructions. His Netherworld''s fort''s body refining helped him out with this while his soul connection with the black origin flame seemed to slowly fortify which overjoyed Jason and it would only be a matter of time before this would happen. Nevertheless, a fortified soul conjunction with an origin flame was not something humanity ever heard of, or openly announced so nobody knew anything about it, and it was also weird for his greedy origin flame to reject the possibility to annex more soul energy units. With this in mind, he and his masters estimated that 2000 soul energy units were most likely its first requirement to evolve into a Tier-1 origin flame. This scenario was rare because not only were 2000 soul energy units an extremely high amount for an origin flame to evolve for its first time but his black origin flame was weird, to begin with. Instead of stagnating at its rank, the black origin flame''s affinity strength increased consequently once the amount of annexed soul energy units increased. As such, Shane and Dalia were not even that shocked about the fact that Jason''s origin flame had more requirements other than a large number of soul energy units. Unfortunately, nobody knew exactly what the requirements were and only Jason would be able to figure it out when his black-origin flame told him so. The only thing Jason knew was that Dalia''s words about the discount according to the soul world''s amplification were most likely true as he felt a weird sensation coming from his black flame. Thanks to his soul world amplification of 33%, it looked like the black origin flame''s initial requirement of 3000 soul energy units to evolve for the first time had been reduced to 2000 soul energy. Figuring out that Dalia''s words were true was already reassuring but it was also frustrating and annoying on the other side. If his prior experience was not wrong, his black origin flame''s strength would have increased to the magical rank by crossing 2000 soul energy units which was now however obstructed and somewhat a small disadvantage. Nevertheless, he couldn''t do anything against it and instead of being frustrated and bothered about this fact, he thought that it was more important to find out the other requirements to evolve his black-origin flame. Chapter 300 - Boundary There was no need for Jason to be in a hurry for anything at the moment and instead he wanted to build a steady foundation to open his path to the Magus rank or also called Lique state. His finances were neither extremely good or bad and it was somewhat in-between. However, thanks to his firm consolidation of the basics about the three basic lifestyle occupations, Jason could already be called a Rank-2 Blacksmith and Alchemist, while rune inscribing was the only occupation Jason lagged behind, even if he was close to reaching the Rank-2 standard. As for his ability to purify ingredients for either of these occupations, they were superior thanks to his constant practice over the last three months. Having reached Rank-2 in blacksmithing meant that he could forge basic grade-2 equipment, that was less difficult to produce than mana weapons which were one requirement to reach the 3rd Rank. The same applied for potions, only that the difficulty to concoct the most difficult potions was almost on par with the forging process of mana weapons. Thus, Jason was already extremely well versed for his young age of 14 years and slightly more than 6 months. Over the last three months, many things changed but he just didn''t have time to think carefully about them because he was adamant about becoming stronger, only to notice something major that might become an extremely big issue in the future. While his soul energy increased to 13.500 units which was extremely satisfying to see, Jason couldn''t be happy about it for the moment. This was not because his soul energy was too high or low for him to bind a new soulbond but rather that he noticed a small issue with his body. Right now, his mana core rank was barely at the 2nd Expert rank which was already extremely good for his age and nothing to complain about. However, after adding his soulbonds shared strength which he received thanks to his soul world amplification of 33%, Jason''s mana core size and physical strength reached the same as an average 2nd Master rank had. Under normal circumstances, nobody would even dare to be dissatisfied about this but there were two issues colluding with each other in order to create one huge issue for Jason''s future. The first issue was that his mana core size was as large as an average 2nd Master''s mana core which increased the required time for his mana core to be completely filled. As such, it would take much longer to break into the 3rd Expert rank, as it would require as much mana as an average 2nd Master required to break into the 3rd Master rank. With this in mind, Jason''s initial plan to break into the Magus rank in the next nine months was for naught while it wouldn''t be an issue to reach the combat prowess of a Magus rank thanks to his soul world''s high amplifications. Most of his peers would curse Jason because he complained about something everyone wanted to achieve. Nevertheless, the second issue was similar to the first, only worse in Jason''s opinion. After his soulbonds'' maturity process accelerated, he slowly noticed that something was going on with his body and that it was not definitely something bad! His physical strength reached the 2nd Master rank, while his mana core was barely at the 2nd Expert rank which was a difference of a whole rank. In the beginning, it overjoyed Jason to see that he became so much stronger in such a short amount of time only to feel that his body began to ache more often without him doing anything that could cause such pain. This pain spread throughout his whole body and didn''t disappear easily and only refining his body slowly soothed the pain. However, it didn''t take long for this painful sensation to come back, even if it was easier to bear after the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique. When he told this issue to Shane and Dalia, they were astonished and worried but only until Dalia remembered a legend about certain youths with a five-star soul-awakening which allowed him to be called God''s child. The legend was not something well known among normal citizens and only a few big clans knew about it because it was more like a horror story than something heroic. Remembering the story, Dalia found that it was suitable to Jason''s situation, even if he had it much better than the youth in the legend. Apparently, there was a youth with an extremely strong soul world core a long time ago which allowed him to form a soulbond contract with a Guardian-ranked beast cub right off the bat after his soul-awakening when he was barely 14 years old. When his family heard this, they were overjoyed and immediately began to search for the strongest and most suitable beast in order to nurture the youth in the best possible way. Until the youth formed his first soulbond contract, his mana core already reached the Expert rank thanks to his high mana aptitude and the time his family needed to find a good soulbond for him. The whole family was ecstasy about their descendants'' soul-awakening and impatiently pushed him in performing the soulbond contract on the day they brought back the most suitable guardian-rank beast cub. In the beginning, everything was perfect without any issues and the prodigious youth with his soulbond began to establish a proper soul connection. However, with time passing, the guardian-ranked beast cub began to grow and the youth''s constitution began to worsen. Not only did the youth''s mana core size and physical strength increase thanks to the beast cub''s maturity process, but the family also accelerated its growing speed by feeding it with high-quality food. One morning, only a few months after the youth formed his first soulbond contract, when the guardian rank beast cub reached almost maturity, the youth''s family found his lifeless corpse inside the bed, where he laid with a pained expression, a burst open mana core and blood pouring out of his pores and orifices. In the beginning, everyone thought that it was an assassination but after examining the youth''s corpse, one found out that there was neither poison within him nor did anyone else touch him. Rather than that, there were millions of tiny scars within his body, telling that something within the youth killed him over a long process. When Dalia told this story, Shane also seemed to remember to have heard this story, and only Jason looked around in confusion before his eyes widened in shock when he began to compare the youth''s situation to his own. Both Shane and Dalia also understood what was going on as Shane averted his attention towards Jason only to say "You better stop thinking about binding another soulbond for the time being!!" Nodding his head subconsciously, Jason couldn''t but summarize the main issue all three of them seemed to have understood. "So to put it simple, if my soulbonds become much stronger than I am currently, I might as well die like this youth because of the high amplifications I receive from my soul world, which¡­.my mana core or body cannot bear?!" Pondering about the story and Jason''s words the room turned completely silent and only Artemis and Scorpio who were next to him looked around, not understanding what exactly was going on. They could understand the words thanks to the fortified soul conjunction with Jason which became thicker over the last three months, but comprehending what exactly everything meant was still not easy. A rough, possible idea formed in Dalia''s head as he uncertainly said "Maybe the mana core and the physical strength one receives from the mana core advancement comparable to a bowl or maybe a vessel? You said that refining your physique helped you, right? Refining your body might as well help you refine the vessel and allow you to receive a higher amplification from your soulbonds? As such, you might as well say that the vessel is frail and you enlarge and refine it by advancing your mana core rank and the corresponding physical strength. If that''s the case, refining your innate physical strength without your soulbonds'' strength included might as well be considered a second strengthening process. Now, you can fill the vessel that has been strengthened! Your soulbonds'' shared strength which you receive through your high soul world amplification is comparable to water or whatever liquid you want to fill inside the vessel. More importantly, is however that the vessel is neither indestructible nor a limitless hole! It has its boundaries which you have to strengthen..." Chapter 301 - Facing The Problem Head-on The more she spoke, the more sense it made to Dalia as she began to smile lightly, forgetting that her disciple''s situation was exactly what she described. She just continued to speak without looking at Shane and Jason who looked at her with a complicated expression. "To summarize what I said in context to our small issue, Jason seems to reach his vessel''s limit soon, if his soulbonds continue to become stronger at that pace. More problematic is, however, that you can''t really increase your mana core rank as fast as Artemis and Scorpio become stronger thanks to your large mana core size¡­" Trying to think of a solution, Dalia pondered for a long time, only to look into Jason''s golden eyes that shimmered brightly, showing his uncertainty. "If your soul world wouldn''t be that large, allowing you to bind several dozen more soulbonds, this would be less of an issue and I would just tell you to focus on your current soulbonds. Once Scorpio reaches his racial limit it would be much easier for you to slowly change the tides by focusing on strengthening your physique with the Netherworld''s fort technique. At the same time, you could absorb mana and increase your mana core rank. Both absorbing mana and refining your body would strengthen and enlarge your vessel by a large margin, allowing you to bind another soulbond...somewhen in the future, if Artemis'' increase in strength does not accelerate further¡­ However, your soul world is too great to waste it just like that, which is the main issue!" Dalia sighed deeply and finished speaking before he started to enter her own world of thoughts, trying to figure out a solution, while Shane and Jason did the same. ''So I''m already at a problematic state because I can feel pain and my ''vessel'' can barely bear it? Maybe, I can barely reach the 3rd or 4th Master rank with my soul world''s amplification before exploding or dying because of the pain which will only worsen¡­.is that what Dalia meant?'' Suddenly Shane shook Jason''s body weekly because he was in his own world as Shane said firmly "You shouldn''t think about getting a new soulbond and it would be better if you decrease your soulbonds food''s quality and quantity so that their maturity process will take as long as possible. Didn''t you say that both of them should be close to reaching the threshold to be eligible to compress their first mana drop? Tell them that they''re not allowed to do so!! Otherwise, with the vast difference between an unblemished- and magical ranked beast''s strength, you''ll certainly die! Your soul world''s amplification is much higher than most youth''s, probably several times that and you shouldn''t underestimate the problem you''ll have to face!!!" Hearing the urgency in Shane''s voice, Jason could only nod his head. He was already aware that he had to face some problems but thinking that all of them originated from his soul world''s high amplification was hilarious. In the beginning, the amplification of 33% he received saved him more often than he wanted to acknowledge, and now it was his doom and biggest issue. When Artemis and Scorpio heard ''decrease your soulbonds food''s quality and quantity'' they were immediately shocked because they could comprehend what this meant. Both were about to go rampage, only to hear Shane''s last words "You''ll die!" which immediately replaced their anger with worry and confusion. Transmitting these emotions to Jason, he was glad to have established a fortified soul conjunction as it made everything much easier for him. Explaining the whole scenario as simply as possible without hiding anything important, Jason and his masters could see Artemis and Scorpio''s shock visibly. Artemis screeched out in shock and fluttered violently with her wings, while Scorpio''s sounds were similar yet at a higher frequency as his whole 3.5-meter long body rattled. Over the last three months, both of his soulbonds not only became stronger but also larger. Artemis'' length increased to 1.8 meters with a wingspan of 5 meters if she didn''t adjust her size to a length of 1 meter and a wingspan of 3.4 meters which she was able to do since evolving, while Scorpio''s body length increased to roughly 3.5 meters. His width was not much, was more than 2 meters and he could barely fit inside the small house Shane and Dalia bought. Scorpio was always forced to enter Jason''s soul world when they were to enter or leave a room before he could leave once again to appear next to Jason once again. This was annoying but still better than isolating Scorpio which would give Artemis a reason to ridicule him even more. They were still rivals to gain Jason''s attention but knowing that they were also somehow the cause for Jason to feel so much pain, which they perceived through their fortified soul conjunction caused them to behave without creating a ruckus. Without any issue, the two accepted Shane''s word without even thinking about it as long as it would help Jason to feel less pain. Seeing this, Jason was thankful that his soulbonds were considerate, otherwise, if they wouldn''t listen it would backfire and they would end up injured just like he did, which was not something either of them wanted to do. It was good that it was easy to convince his soulbonds to change their eating habit which allowed Jason to give less high-quality food with much mana in it to Scorpio and incomplete mana cores to Artemis. In the end, they were unable to enter the magical rank without trying to compress mana drops which would take lots of effort and time. With this in mind, Jason would have enough time to find a way to solve his current issue. There might be multiple solutions for his problem but he had to find the most efficient one which wouldn''t turn into another burden later on. However, this was easier said than done because Jason could only think of one short-term solution after thinking about it for a long time. And even with this one solution in his mind, Jason was unable to say how soon he might be able to achieve this! While Dalia and Shane already discussed all kinds of solution, he also heard Dalia saying the same thing he had in mind "If Jason is able to evolve his black origin flame, his physique and mana core will be cleansed from impurities and enhanced! This enhancement doesn''t come from the soul world amplification and changes the physique itself, which should strengthen Jason''s body." Averting her attention to Jason, she asked "Do you know if your body refining includes the first baptism you received? It should because the baptism strengthens your body and mana core while cleansing it from impurities¡­." Because he was still in the earlier Initial-phase of the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique, Jason couldn''t really prove if Dalia''s words were true but he was sure that his black origin flame''s baptism was different from his soul world''s amplification. Dalia probably felt the same from her own experience and she would know better than anyone else if the origin flame enhanced her body and mana core directly or if it was the same amplification one received from a normal soulbond because she already underwent multiple baptisms. Meanwhile, he only received one baptism and Shane never received one which was probably the reason for him to be so skeptical. "It should but I can''t say for sure¡­.Either way, this is the only solution I can think of right now...Other than that, I have really no idea how I might be able to solve the issue with my vessel without receiving any disadvantages. However, there is still the problem that I don''t know what other requirements my origin flame needs to evolve, which is the only issue with this solution... I wouldn''t even care if my soul world''s amplification was much lower if it would allow me to bind multiple more soulbonds!" Dalia nodded when Jason said these words and added "At least we now have a rough idea of how we can fix your problem to a certain extent without creating more trouble. If your soulbonds don''t break into the magical rank accidentally which is not really possible and we search for a solution while you diligently absorb mana and refine your body, everything should be fine¡­" Knowing that his master tried to reassure him, Jason was thankful to Dalia, even if it was not really extremely helpful because he was still worried. Suddenly, Dalia and Jason heard Shane who was deep in his own world mumbling. "Lower soul world amplification? What about a curse?" Chapter 302 - Solution: Curse? "Lower soul world amplification? What about a curse?" Both Jason and Dalia were not sure if they heard what Shane said correctly because it seemed extremely weird. The room turned quiet again and only when Shane noticed this, he looked up only to look into two dumbfounded faces. "A curse?" Dalia asked, frowning. She already heard a few things about curses and knew a little bit about it, but curses mostly focused on cursing one''s mana core, body, the environment, or something similar to that. However, after hearing Shane''s next words, Dalia knew that he implied something different Scratching the back of his head, Shane could only say what was on his mind "As you two may know, my soulbond, the bane of the thousand eyes wolf is a cursed wolf and through this, I was forced to research more about curses to prevent that it would curse anyone except my targets. It might be difficult to cope with but a curse to lower one''s soul world amplification should exist somewhere! There are all kinds of curses we don''t know about and I doubt that something like this doesn''t exist!" Dalia couldn''t help but lift her eyebrow at Shane''s words because it seemed ridiculous to curse oneself to lower one''s soul world amplification as she averted her gaze towards Jason. Jason''s eyes shimmered brightly and his lips curled upwards when he said "A curse to lower my soul world amplification would probably be the best to solve my issue regarding the high transferred strength from my Artemis and Scorpio. This would also allow me to strengthen my vessel at a faster pace and bind more soulbonds without the fear of breaking apart! But there are also a few issues regarding this solution!" Blinking several times, Dalia began to ask herself if the two men in front of her were sincere with their opinion towards curses when she heard Jason''s next words. "There are two issues with curses I can see right now. The first one would be that I don''t know how to receive a curse, and the second would be the question about how I can determine what area I want to have curses or in my case how I can only curse my soul world core''s high amplification! I know that it might only be a thoughtless idea, but it''s worth a try as long as we can be certain about the two issues with curses! Fortunately, I have more than enough time left because my soulbonds won''t become much stronger anymore without breaking into the Magus rank or rather enter the Lique-state by compressing their mana into the first mana drop! By absorbing mana and breaking through the next levels, I might as well enlarge my vessel and strengthen it once again by refining my body in accordance to my mana core rank!" Sighing, Dalia was glad that Jason didn''t completely lose his mind, and that he was still thinking more rationally while her own husband, Shane''s thoughts seemed to go down the completely wrong path. He was still deep in thought as he took out a large book from the new quantum bracelet he acquired in Terebrean. In the end, getting a new quantum bracelet was not difficult because one could just purchase one. However, more problematic was the creation of a new ID if one lost his quantum bracelet and memory at the same time. If nobody searched for this individual with amnesia, the government would issue a temporary ID to get citizenship on the Island or even Canir, where it was also possible for something like this to occur. There was always the possibility to lose memories after being injured by a powerful beast or even manipulated which was why everyone would be tested after one stated to have amnesia. Shane and Dalia acted like they had amnesia and entered the B-grade city they were currently inside with Shane''s heavy injuries and Dalia''s haggard appearance to show that something major happened to them. Their mana fluctuation revealed that they were stronger than a normal citizen and they could apply for citizenship without issue after making up a story that they defeated guardian ranked beast and that they sustained their heavy injuries through that. In the end, they lost their memories and their quantum bracelets broke which allowed the government to think that their story was true and that it had to be a strong guardian-ranked beast with an ability that is based on one''s mentality. As such, it was not problematic for them to receive temporary citizenship, only for Jason to enter a different city, to make it less suspicious as he had the same ''issue'' as his masters. Making up a story that he ran away from an unblemished beast with a mental affinity, his acting skills allowed him to receive citizenship faster than anyone. Now his name was Jason Laere while Shane and Dalia''s family was now Biar. It would only be temporary until they claimed to have regained their memory in order to receive their old identity back but until that happened, a long time might as well pass. As such, the three remained rather lowkey and Shane took Jason over to the B-grade city, where they purchased a house with their temporary citizenship once everything was cleared. Money and strength could give one everything within cities and Jason''s masters had both of those which was the sole reason to allow them to purchase a house without permanent citizenship or ID. Now that Shane sat on a chair in front of Dalia and Jason with a thick and old looking book in his hand, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit excited because he hoped that his master would find a perfect curse for him, which sounded stupid and weird to himself. However, thinking about a curse, his question still remained and he looked at Dalia who was also looking at Shane but with a rather complex expression as he asked. "Dalia? Can you explain to me everything about curses because I don''t really know much about them? In the Vanguard school, something like that was never a topic and I''ve only read it one time in one of the books I received from you¡­" Being able to distract herself from Shane who acted like he was searching for something grand even though he wanted to curse his own disciple, Dalia couldn''t be more than happy as she turned towards Jason to answer his question. "To be honest, mankind doesn''t know much about curses and I can''t really say for sure that everything we know is true, which you can probably already estimate. Just think about our wrong cultivation system, the existence of an unknown number of more planets just like Argos, and the difference in our knowledge about the foreign races. However, according to our knowledge and what we found out until now, there are all kinds of beasts, plants, and even inanimate materials that harbor curses and even blessings! While curses have an evil nature and try to create destruction, horror, and all kinds of negative emotions and scenarios, blessings are the complete opposite because they''re innately good and helpful for mankind to have. Blessed or cursed inanimate materials are said to be less powerful than living beings but we don''t know if that is really true. Nevertheless, there are many legends about blessed beings and how powerful one became by forming a soul contract with one, which even included a strengthened mana core, higher mana absorption rate, and much more. However, such beings are extremely rare and Shane took several decades to find a guardian-ranked cursed wolf even if he could have bound a lord rank beast at that time. Because he is stubborn and wanted to experiment with something, he was adamant in binding the bane of thousand eyes wolf which was in the end not a bad decision even if it could have transferred the curse towards Shane¡­" Glaring at Shane for a moment, she cleared her throat to start once again "Back to the main topic! You probably know that we can inherit a beast''s affinity and there is also a low chance to inherit an ability from the contracted soulbond if it possesses one. The same applies to curses and blessings which is the reason for everyone to search for blessed animate beings. Other than that, it is also possible for cursed beings to forcefully curse others even if it''s less powerful than an inherited curse one receives through a soul connection, and the same applies for blessings!" Chapter 303 - Focus Jason only nodded his head after hearing Dalia''s words and even if he was slightly confused, everything was much easier to understand than before. "So to put it simple, a curse is just a negative ability or effect I''ll receive through a cursed beast. The potency of a cursed soulbond is also much stronger as it would be if a ''normal'' cursed being curses me? It''s like the cursed being gives me a part of the curse and with the cursed soulbond I receive the whole curse?" Smiling lightly, Dalia nodded as she said "That''s roughly it and there are only a few exceptions where cursed soulbonds beings don''t share their curse with their master. Shane is one of them and the curse on his bane of thousand eyes wolf is probably the reason. Not only has the wolf literally thousands of eyes but they also have the ability to kill lower-ranked beings by simply looking into each other''s eyes if this is desired. As such, Shane''s soulbond''s curse only changed its body structure and eyes'' ability. To put it simply, one might even say that the bane of thousand eyes wolf is only a pseuod-cursed being because it has no negative effects or misfortune lingering around, which it could transfer to Shane." Halting for a moment, Dalia pondered how to put it as she explained "In the end, you would need a true cursed being and it would probably be the best if you bind it as your soulbond in order to receive the strengthened curse. Otherwise, if you find the perfect curse and receive it without binding the cursed being, the curse will only be temporary which might backfire in your circumstances!" Only now did Jason realize that there were still many things he didn''t know which even humanity was aware of. Searching for a cursed beast and binding it which only lowered his soul world''s amplification would be perfect but how high were the chances for something like this to exist? Furthermore, binding a cursed being was extremely dangerous and there were too many uncertain factors one had to think of! The only positive aspect was that other humans might have encountered cursed beasts and wrote something about it in an online thread. Such form threads were either about them bragging to have defeated such a being, that they survived an ambush, or maybe even to warn others about the terrifying curse the cursed being they found harbored. As such, it might be possible for them to find out something in a shorter time than they expected! However, Jason would still try to enlarge and strengthen his vessel before trying his luck with a curse that might bring him more disadvantages than benefits if he were to make a single mistake. Right now, he was not only responsible for his own life, but also Artemis'', Scorpio''s, and even the black origin flame''s, who seemed to become more like a living being with time passing. Thus, he couldn''t act recklessly and allow his soulbonds to be endangered through a curse. It would have been something else for Jason if he were to be alone but that was not the case! With this in mind, he stood up to receive his masters'' attention before he made his stance clear. "I think a curse might be a good second option if enlarging and strengthening my vessel doesn''t work, but I don''t want to be responsible for injuring my soulbonds'' which they could receive through the curse! With this in mind, I would only form a soul contract with a cursed being once I know more about the curse it harbors and that It won''t cause any problems to my soulbonds!" Seeing how firm Jason was with his decision, Shane and Dalia couldn''t help but smile because it was the only right decision to take instead of acting rashly as he did before when he entered the four-star rift. Suddenly Shane felt weird with the book about curses in his hand while he was already pondering if he should search for curses online too ''Why was I so expectant?!'' He suddenly asked himself before he shook his head. Clearing his throat, Shane wanted to say something to be distracted from his embarrassing behavior "That''s a good decision and in my opinion, it should definitely take a long time until you might even be able to find clues about a cursed being that suits your needs! There might be a few cursed beings that curse someone and create a weakened state but this might as well come from several other reasons instead of a decreased soul world amplification. For instance, it could be a curse, slowing down one''s mana output, circulation, sensitivity or much more. As such, I will start investigating thoroughly and tell you once I know more. However, I''m sure that you will need a suitable cursed being to live freely, without the fear of breaking apart any moment because of your vessel. As for you, it would be good if you can continue increasing your soul energy while absorbing mana and refining your body. Most cursed beings are at least Magical-ranked beasts, more likely even at the Guardian rank. Even if the latter wouldn''t be the best for you, it''s still better than a Lord stage cursed beast or even worse... If it''s the worst, we can just dig our own grave because I''m not strong enough to defeat a cursed Monarch ranked being¡­ Even a Lord rank cursed being with a powerful curse might be difficult to defeat, even less catch. And then you would need to have enough soul energy to bind it which would take a long time. Fortunately, your soul energy replenishing process is quite fast and it wouldn''t take years for you to reach the required soul energy. However, the things I stated are only the worst possible outcome and the most fortunate would be a cursed cub or low-ranked plant. Either way, don''t think too much about it and let me take care of it, alright? Just focus on your body refining and mana core rank!" Nodding his head, Jason wanted to do exactly what Shane told him and focus on the other things he had to take care of. Right now, the pain within him was still endurable and not even comparable to the Heaven''s Hell technique''s pain, even less the Devilish Valkyrie-shield fruit he had to eat in order to survive refining his mind and splitting it afterward. He only had to be more careful if the pain would increase! One major goal he wanted to achieve this year was reaching the combat prowess of a Low-Lique state but that was not everything. Currently, Jason had to waste way too much time practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique every day and he wanted to change this issue this year, the sooner the better. Only thinking that a single sitting took more than 3 hours was already a horrifying thought and with this in mind, Jason wanted to change something substantially! After testing several things with his sub-area within his mind Jason figured out that he was already ready to establish his second sub-area as long as he had enough resources and something protecting his brain from the possibility of being damaged. This would cost a fortune and Jason was way too poor to start right off the bat. Unfortunately, his masters'' already told him that they wouldn''t support another suicide act like they already did when he ventured inside the four-star rift, telling him that he was responsible for himself if something bad were to happen. Jason knew that his masters only did so that he acted more independent and responsible but his mind was already set on refining his brain once again to divide it and establish another small sub-area. He also tested out if it was better to create an endless cycle to strengthen his soul world core and obtain more soul energy in his first sub-area instead of continuously absorbing mana passively, and he figured out that the latter was slightly more efficient. From an endless soul energy cycle, that used his high replenishing, Jason would receive a 1.5% increase in his soul energy in one day which was comparable to slightly more than one sitting in the Heaven''s Hell technique''s third level. This was not something grand but this endless soul energy cycle would be able to increase his soul energy units by 1.5% every day without lifting a single finger or having to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique which would require more time the higher his soul energy became! However, his passive mana absorption was still slightly better in his current circumstances. The three hours he would save with the endless soul energy cycle inside his sub-area instead of the passive mana absorption cycle wouldn''t be enough for him to receive mana in return if he were to absorb mana in this period! In the future, when the practice period for the Heaven''s Hell technique increased, it would be useful but Jason hoped that he already established his second sub-area at that time. Now, he only needed an enormous fortune which caused him to look at the mana grade-1 Jadetite sword he forged only a few hours ago as his lips curled upwards. Chapter 304 - Shop There were a lot of things Jason wanted to do but almost everything required lots of funds which he had to acquire first. It was only fortunate that his masters supported him until now with his body refining resources and a small amount of high-grade mana stones to help him while he consolidated his foundation with the three basic lifestyle occupations at the same time. Adding his expenses for food that were horrifyingly high until he explained to his soulbonds that it was better for them to eat less and lower mana dense food to prevent him from breaking apart, he didn''t have much star notes anymore! As such, his only high expenses, for now, were the body refining process because the required nutrition and mana couldn''t be supplied by cheap products. Other than that, his mana absorption didn''t necessarily need mana stones, only if he wanted to break through faster, which was exactly what he was supposed to do right now in order to enlarge and strengthen his vessel to accommodate stronger or even more soulbonds. Keeping that in mind, Jason was sure that his masters would still continue to support him. However, to make him independent they also restricted their support line to a bare minimum which prevented him from utilizing everything he could if he were to have enough resources. After his talk about the vessel and his issues, they offered to increase their support only for Jason to reluctantly accept it to a certain degree. He didn''t want to rely too much on his masters and it was only because he feared that his body might tear apart that he accepted their offer. With an increased mana and nutrition supply, he would have more than enough resources to stay hidden, inside their small house for several weeks if not months. But that was not what Jason wanted to do because if he were to do that at his mana core rank, his combat prowess would decrease by a large margin thanks to his rusting martial art practice! It was already difficult for him to stay hidden for the last three months without going out to hunt beasts or do anything to perfectly adjust his body to his new strength which was not good. Even if all of his combat techniques reached the perfect mastery, Jason was sure that his current combat experience and prowess were nothing special. Furthermore, after thinking about it for a while, he noticed that his soulbonds'' combat experience was either shallow or non-existent which caused him to frown deeply. Artemis only fought next to him for the first few weeks before they departed to Cyro-City with a small detour through Jiro-City and Scorpio didn''t even have any combat experience, to begin with. He only monitored his master''s fights through his eyes after their fortified soul conjunction was formed and that was it. With this thought in mind. Jason could only estimate that his soulbonds had an extremely weak combat prowess, even if their mana core already reached the peak of the unblemished rank. It would already be considered a miracle if they were able to defeat late-Unblemished ranked beasts without any help which caused him to frown, only by thinking about the possibility. If their combat experience was shallow, then it might even cause issues when Jason allowed them to occupy his mana core to use their body parts. Being able to use their manifested parts on his body, Jason couldn''t help but feel restless because it wouldn''t need much to cause a big accident if they were to move instinctively during a fight, depriving him of control over their body parts! As such, Jason talked about this small problem with his masters who told him that they already have a solution for this issue, that was not really one. However before they wanted to initiate their plan, Shane and Dalia told him that he should just take care of his own plan. He didn''t plan anything special yet but it was roughly one month ago when an idea formed in his head, which would allow him to earn funds without much difficulty. For this, he purchased a small Shop inside the inner parts of the City and re-designed it completely, without caring about the expenses. His shop was only 100 sq. meters large and didn''t look great in the beginning, only to change completely after he changed out the wallpaper and furniture to make it look more exquisite. There were also a few other shops inside the B-grade city they resided in but if one were to compare their looks, Jason''s small shop was only lacking in goods, employees, and a suitable name! Inside his spatial ring, there were several hundred perfect purified forged bars, grade-1 potions, and inscribing solutions he could sell. Other than that there were also several dozen pseudo-mana grade-1 weapons and low-grade-2 potions that were also perfectly purified. The purified forged bars alone should be enough of an attraction for potential customers because it was not easy for lower-ranked blacksmiths to produce something like this, while higher-ranked blacksmiths wouldn''t even bother about forging perfectly purified grade-1 bars. They would immediately purify grade-2 bars and use them to create mana weapons which was not wrong the wrong path to earn profit. However, for low-ranked blacksmiths, it would be quite difficult to perfectly purify ores before they reached a certain threshold which made such a thing unnecessary. Nevertheless, if such bars were found online, many low-ranked blacksmiths would flock around the shop that sold them, only to see if they might be able to learn something by inspecting such a bar. It was also highly likely for such blacksmiths to purchase purified bars to try breaking through their current shackles in their forging process as it would be slightly less difficult that way. With this in mind, Jason was already confident to earn a lot as long as he could provide enough resources while the other potions and inscription solutions he had would similarly attract customers. In the end, blacksmiths who came over to his shop for the purified bars would evidently notice the perfect purified potions which would either cause them to purchase some for themselves or to start gossiping about his shop which was the sort of he wanted. Right now, his stockpile was relatively large, but once it was used up, he would have to regulate everything, which was however not something he had to bother about right now. More importantly than that was that he also created an online shop, registered his shop under the name ''Golden Soul'' which was something that jumped straight in his thoughts when he pondered about his shop''s name. Additionally, he went to many different sites to look out for employees. Seeing that it was more difficult than he initially expected, Jason just created a request on all websites he found, which stated the salary he would give and his requirements. His salary was generous with 6000 Credits which was four times that what normal employees earned inside a C-grade city and Jason was sure that it was more than enough to attract a few employees. However, his requirements were quite harsh because he demanded a soul contract with a few clauses that prevented his employees from stealing from him, betraying him in any way, or having bias or prejudice against any customer. This was not something special in Jason''s opinion but he was still unsure if he might be able to get three employees which was the number he found perfect for his small shop. It was not important if they were strong enough to throw a customer with ill-intention out because he also installed a protection system for his shop. Once everything was done, Jason couldn''t help but look at his funds in shock because there were only 3 star-notes from his initially 50 left behind. Chapter 305 - Shes My Employee Now that he had to wait for someone to become his employee before he could open the Golden-Soul shop, Jason couldn''t help but feel satisfied with its appearance even if it might be a little bit small compared to other shops. In his opinion, it was more important to have a high-quality shop that might be smaller than others than owning a large shop with low-quality items but a high quantity. Since he began concocting himself, his whole mindset about potions changed because he couldn''t believe that he drank low-quality potions with many impurities inside them. It was disgusting to even think about the impurities he could see inside normal potions, which was only possible thanks to his increased mana core rank and the proportional strengthening of his eyes every breakthrough gave him. Jason didn''t even want to know how many people had issues breaking into the magus grade because they used too many potions. The thought was already enough to let him shiver lightly. Thankfully, he could purify potions perfectly now and if he required help, Dalia was there to help him out. She even showed him how to mass-produce potions, which was extremely difficult but quite helpful if he wanted to supply the Shop without hiring someone else to provide more goods. Initially, Dalia only demonstrated this technique to him, so that he could increase his proficiency in concocting without the need to jump from peak-grade-1 potions to grade-2 potions as the cost for the ingredients would increase by a large margin. Furthermore, the profit would be higher with a huge bulk of peak-grade-1 potions than a few grade-2 potions, which was the most important reason to mass-produce lower-ranked potions! As such, with the technique she showed him, Jason would be able to increase his proficiency by a lot without the need to waste too many funds which seemed to be one of the biggest issues her disciples had to face. At least, that was after seeing his expression every time he talked about credits and star notes. On the other side, she was still unable to understand Jason fully because he was adamant in earning his own fortune, which was the reason for him to reject most offers to give him an allowance and even more resources. While Dalia was pressuring Jason to accept everything she gave him, Shane was rather reluctant in doing so because he was not only greedy and stingy but it was also important to become independent and not a spoiled child. Under their current circumstances, it was unavoidable for Jason to required their support but if they gave him too much, he might take it for granted which was not something Shane wanted to support. As such, they had to find a compromise! The compromise they figured out was that they gave him a certain amount of resources that would help Jason to become stronger with an accelerated pace, but not enough to help him skyrocketed in his mana core rank and body refining. However, in the end, this compromise was also nullified when Shane and Dalia heard about Jason''s pain and the reason for it being his weak body and high soul world amplification. Even if they didn''t want to spoil Jason, his life was more important which both Shane and Dalia agreed on without the need to even think about it. Both were still glad that Jason wanted to be able to achieve everything without their help but it was more important to fix his issue which all three of them knew. After accepting their proposal, Jason sat inside his still closed shop, impatiently waiting to receive an answer from his job s that were all over the different websites he visited before as he decided to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique to distract himself. Three hours later his soul energy increased by more than 160 units after a single sitting which caused Jason to smile lightly, thinking about the first few months after his soul-awakening where it was already extremely difficult for him to receive one soul energy unit. Sighing deeply, it was as if several years passed since that time, even though it had only been 9 months. So much changed and the most important to Jason was that he could finally see and that his peers couldn''t trample on him as if he was an ant. Once he left his soul world, Artemis followed him and only Scorpio had to stay back because of his large size of more than 3.5 meters in length. Jason was sorry for him but only Artemis could adjust her size to a 1-meter long owl even if she already grew to a size of 3 meters under normal circumstances. He didn''t know how it worked but it was definitely an advantage and it would be stupid to complain about it. Suddenly, he heard a commotion outside the shop which attracted his attention. Looking through the window, he saw a small group of men riding on their canine soulbonds, pursuing a girl around his age, embracing something emerald-green colored. However, what his mana eyes perceived was something completely different which caused him to rush out of the shop as he summoned Scorpio without hesitation. Taking out the pitch-black mask he received from Shane several months he put it on before he exerted his concealment technique to disguise his low mana core rank. From his mana eyes, he figured out that the canine soulbonds were at the mid-unblemished rank, while the small group of men pursuing the girl on the canine beasts, were at the Master rank. Seeing this, Jason was confident in defeating them with his soulbonds'' help, otherwise, he might be beaten up if he were to help. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn''t just help anyone who needed help if it could make his own life worse, but from the things he perceived through his mana eyes, there was not even the need to ponder whether to help or not which was also the reason for him to act so fast. The girl who desperately ran away from the group of men was already crying because of her helpless situation when she saw something from the corner of her eye which ignited a small ray of hope within her. Meanwhile, Jason and Artemis used their ice affinity together to manifest a huge wall between the young girl and her pursuer, before he shouted "Come here, fast!!" Hearing this, the young girl that was around Jason''s age changed her direction without thinking much about possible dangers because her current situation couldn''t become worse. She was only astonished to hear such a youthful voice from the black-masked man with his two exotic-looking soulbonds behind. Artemis was currently in her large form and swung her wings to levitate in the air several meters above the ground where Scorpio with his equally large body was situated. They looked powerful and she sensed that the man behind the youthful voice was her only way out of her current situation without losing everything. Rushing towards Jason, Emily, the young girl already began to shout helplessly "Please help me! I''ll do everything you want if you can help me!! PLEASEE!!" Seeing how desperate the young girl was, Jason figured out that the group of men he obstructed for a very short time were either behind the small emerald crystal she embraced or her body. With her long black hair, green eyes, long eyelashes, and slender body, she was definitely considered beautiful. However, what Jason was more interested in was the crystal inside her hands because his mana eyes saw something, others might not be able to see without looking at it more intently. Nodding his head, Emily sighed in relief and thanked him multiple times, when she noticed that the small group of men who pursued her noticed her, the black-masked man and his two exotic-looking soulbonds in front of her. Seeing this, they ordered their canine soulbonds to approach the black-masked man carefully because they couldn''t sense his mana fluctuations or mana core rank which either indicated that he was a Magus rank or had a concealment technique. In the end, either one would be bad which was the reason for them to be more careful with their next steps as their leader said "Hello Sir, the young girl behind you is my niece and ran away from home. We don''t want to bother Sir more than necessary and only need to take her back with us" Emily was trembling behind Jason, who also noticed this because she tucked his robe in fear that he would believe their words. Thinking about a good answer for a moment, he smiled behind his mask when he said "How can that be true? She''s my employee and never talked about such a weird-looking uncle!" Chapter 306 - Slave Market Hearing what Jason said, the group of men on their canine soulbonds were astonished about his youthful voice which told them that Jason was most likely not even at the magus rank. Additionally, they couldn''t believe that Jason straight out lied to them about Emily being his employee. He seemed to hail from an influential family which was able to acquire a concealment technique, but his confidence when he lied was still somewhat baffling to them. They were sure of the fact that nobody cared about Emily because her family was already dead while the orphanage she was sent to was not any better than trying to survive alone in a world after the mana breakout. Jason was also considered an orphan but he never wanted to go to an orphanage because they would take away all remaining belongings of the deceased, leaving the orphan with nothing except the things they wore. When his mother died, he was often requested to go to the orphanage which Jason always declined because he didn''t need their hypocritical help, which was however the case for other youths that couldn''t live independent at such a young age, whether it was because of fear, uncertainty or that they were manipulated and lured over. The leader of the small group made two steps forward and summoned a longsword in his hand as he threatening said "Don''t you dare to lie to me you little f*cker!! I know that you''re lying, who the hell do you think you are?!" Smiling behind his mask, Jason couldn''t help but feel amused before he nonchalantly said "Oh? I thought it was common sense to start lying if the other side starts the conversation with a big lie too? Otherwise, please explain to me why this girl has the most basic quantum bracelet for orphans?" Jason never understood why orphans had to give away their original quantum bracelet only to receive the most basic one which couldn''t even use access federation network to purchase anything or to look at videos on certain streaming platforms like Starstream and so on. Orphans didn''t receive good education and combat techniques to learn how to defend themselves either as long as they resided inside an orphanage. There were more things about orphanages that were rumored to be vicious or unfair for the orphans but Jason was not sure if they were true. Either way, in his opinion the girl behind him was interested because it seemed that the emerald-green colored crystal in her hand still belonged to her. There had to be something more which Jason just didn''t know but he was curious about it and wanted to figure it out. Hearing the black-masked youth''s answer, the small group leader''s lips twitched before he said "We have no bad blood between each other and only want to retrieve the girl because she escaped us! Do we have to create a feud with each other over such a small thing? You don''t know with whom you''re messing with!!" To Jason, this sounded more like a threat than an offer which caused him to shrug his shoulder when he said "I was only on transit and saw something that bothered me about you guys, so I decided to help. As for whom I''m messing with...why should I care? It should be you guys who are afraid to mess with me because you don''t know who you''re messing with! Creating a feud with me will cause a huge loss, more than losing out on the little girl behind me. That, I can promise!!" Ending his short announcement to the group of young men, he released his killing intent towards the small group as his cold golden eyes shimmered through the black mask turning the atmosphere eerie. Gulping down their saliva, the group of men behind their leader became nervous while the same applied for the canine soulbonds who could only look at Artemis and Scorpio nervously, knowing that they could die any second if a battle between them would start. Gritting his teeth, the leader knew that the black-masked youth was not someone they could mess with easily and that Jason''s words shouldn''t be wrong. At least from the overbearing aura that radiated from him, while the black-masked youth''s soulbonds seemed to be a rare race and a powerful one at that too. However, even if they turned around and left without the girl, there was another issue they would have to face that seemed to be similarly problematic to offend the black-masked youth. "If we come back to our master without the girl, we will be punished! 2 Star notes and she''ll belong to you!" When Jason heard these words, he didn''t know what to say at first before he regained his senses. "2 Star notes? Why? Shouldn''t she belong to nobody...as a free human?..." He was completely unaware about what was going on right now and could only look at the leader opposite him with a baffled expression that was fortunately covered by the black mask he was wearing. However, hearing Jason''s question, the leader could only laugh out loud before he said "Free human? If this little girl behind you didn''t escape us, she would already be enslaved and not a troublemaker anymore. If you want her, hand over 2 Star notes, otherwise, we can only try to take her with force. Bear in mind that if you want to continue living here, paying us will be less troublesome." ''Enslaved? 2 Star-notes? If I want to continue living here, paying is less troublesome?!.... What is going on here??'' Pondering for a moment, a horrifying premonition began to form in his mind, when he realized what the small group leader''s words meant. ''A slave merchant....or maybe even market?'' This was the most likely answer and Jason could only shake his head, thinking that Terebrean didn''t seem to be nice to orphans as he sighed. He was already aware of their ranking system, but it shocked him that the Jual family even allowed enslavement. At least that was what Jason comprehended from the leader''s words ''If you want to continue living here,...'' Maybe it could also be only one city and that he coincidentally entered this particular city where the slave market was situated, but how much of a coincidence would that be? Shaking his head, Jason decided that it might be better to stay lowkey and not to kill potential underlings of the B-grade cities'' slave market that might even have connections throughout Terebrean. As such, he took out two-star notes, enveloped them in mana, and threw them towards the leader, who smiled slightly at him. However, Jason''s next words caused him to frown "Now that the girl behind me belongs to me, don''t even dare to appear in front of her again, otherwise, I''ll kill all of you." Turning around towards the girl, he wanted to reassure her that there was not another matter he had to be careful of. "Did anyone force you to sign a soul contract or did you ever sign one with someone voluntarily?" Emily was still under shock to have witnessed the last few hours that were full of terror because her other peers from the orphanage were forced into signing a soul contract. She could only escape because one of the slave merchants neglected his work which caused her to end up in the current situation. Shaking her head, Jason noticed that she still shivered, but he didn''t know what to do to reassure her that everything was fine because a calming pat on her shoulder might end up scaring her more than helping out. If she had been violated this would be even worse and it was only fortunate that her clothes seemed to be perfectly fine with the sole exception of them being dirty and smelly. Now that the group of men that pursued the girl received their money, they turned around and disappeared without saying anything else. Nothing special happened which caused Jason to lift his eyebrow because he expected to be blackmailed or something like that. ''Is it over now?'' Chapter 307 - Planting False Evidence When the men on the canine soulbonds disappeared, Emily''s legs gave in as she slumped on the ground without enough energy left to stand up again. She also stopped shivering which was a good sign and Jason wanted to help her up. As such he held out his hand when he suddenly thought that she could be scared of men, which caused him to hesitate for a moment. However, Emily already tried her best to grasp his hand to stand up again, before she began to thank him several dozen times in succession. "Thank you! I''m so thankful to you! Thank you very much¡­." Hearing all of this, Jason lifted his hand to indicate to her that she should stop, which she did without hesitation. "Well I don''t know how to start, but let me introduce myself first. My name is Jason Laere. Nice to meet you!" Taking off his mask, Emily saw his face for the first time, and she could hardly contain her shock because Jason seemed to be not older than she was. "H-how old are you?!" She subconsciously asked without introducing herself first. However, instead of saying anything at all, Jason just walked inside his small shop, while Artemis adjusted her size to squeeze on his shoulder. Scorpio was forced to enter his soul world, and only Emily was left on the street looking after Jason with confusion before she followed him after a moment. She was still scared about what happened and it was difficult for her to trust anyone, now that she figured out that others might enslave her and do whatever they wanted to do with her. This thought alone was enough to create a distinct fear within her. However, she still forced herself to follow Jason inside the shop because she owed him a huge favor for rescuing her and there was nowhere she could go either way. She had no money, family, or anyone to help her, which caused her to sigh deeply as she felt anxious about her future intensified. Entering the small shop, Emily was astonished at how exquisite it looked like and she only noticed Jason again, when he halted his steps in front of the counter. Increasing her pace, she appeared behind him, only to remember that she didn''t introduce herself yet. "I forgot to tell you my name... I''m Emily!" Jason was still doing something at the counter and Emily could only see his broad back. Before she only saw the side of his face, but when he turned around after he was done with everything, Emily immediately noticed his golden eyes that shimmered brightly. "So beautiful!" She said subconsciously which caused Jason to lift his eyebrow as he said with a faint smile on his lips "You often speak without thinking, huh?" Under normal circumstances this would be seen as an Insult but hearing these words from Jason who smiled at her, Emily didn''t think that it was meant as an insult. Rather than that, he just looked as if he wanted to know if he was right with his assumption or not. Nodding her head, she didn''t say anything else, still embracing the emerald-green colored crystal around her. Seeing this, he also noticed that she stopped shivering completely, even if Emily still seemed to be uncomfortable. As such Jason just smiled when he asked "If it''s not too much to ask, can you explain to me more about the slave market, or what you ran away and how you ended up there? Is that something legal on Terebrean or just a thing here, in this city?" Emily was still hesitant but hearing Jason''s words she understood that he was most likely a foreigner who intervened in her trouble, without knowing if her pursuit was entitled or not. This caused her to feel more secure around the youth in front of her because it seemed that he genuinely wanted to help her out of trouble without receiving any benefits as she couldn''t see any lust in his golden eyes, which was different from the other men she was inside the slave market before she fled. "I''m not sure about other cities but the slave market seems to be legal here...The government said that they implemented a new system to punish criminals by enslaving them. However, it is weird that not only murderers, and other criminals, but also ordinary citizens and orphans, end up enslaved. According to the orphanage I lived in, everyone with a good enough soul-awakening and mana aptitude should be exempt from being enslaved which leads everyone to absorb mana as if ouelife depends on it, which is not necessarily wrong." Emily sighed deeply, and Jason could see pain in her eyes when she continued. "Apparently, even if we reach a certain mana core rank until the age of 15, Slave merchants will come, take us and enslave us, saying that we are thieves. Even if we retaliated, there is nothing for us to do because the orphanage didn''t take all of our belongings away. As you can see, I''m holding an emerald-green colored crystal in my hand and that was the only thing the orphanage left me after taking my family''s other belongings. Now, they say that I stole the crystal I received from my parents before they died to turn me into a criminal¡­." Hearing her words, Jason felt disgusted as he summarized everything in his mind ''If Emily''s words are right, the government knows about the slave market inside the city...I doubt that it''s only one city but it would be better that way...Furthermore, they enslave not only real criminals but also turn innocent orphans and normal citizens into criminals to increase the number of slaves? Why does someone even need slaves? They''re even more expensive to purchase than employees cost over several dozen years... Isn''t that similar to the Drake family''s harsh soul contracts? If someone has even a little bit of talent, they might be worth being purchased and trained into soldiers to build a small army?'' With this thought, he remembered how much Emily was worth even without an enslavement contract, which indicated that her soul awakening and mana aptitude should be quite high. There was also the possibility that the small group''s leader exploited him, but from Jason''s perspective that was unlikely because the leader didn''t even hesitate to say the price which was only possible if he knew it beforehand. Maybe he was also quick-witted, however, Jason doubted that. When he thought about the Drake family''s way to create his own loyal army, Jason couldn''t help but think that it was extremely beneficial for himself, while it was terrifying for his underlings because they were enslaved, which was not a good way to live. However, now that Emily stood in front of him, with the unique emerald-green colored crystal in her hand, he suddenly wanted to build his own faction. This thought was something he never had because he had more than enough things to take care of about himself. But after witnessing how the Drake and now apparently also the Jual family treated their own citizens, Jason couldn''t help but think that it might be a good idea to form a faction to change the tides. Mankind seemed to have more problems than he initially expected and Jason could only sigh deeply, thinking that it would have been so much better if his vessel was larger and reinforced so that he could become stronger even faster without the need to care about his high soul world amplification and other issues. Jason was furious about how the weaker were treated and it reminded him about the Blood-sect heir that killed his mother without any reason. He subconsciously released his killing intent and Emily stepped back in fear, only for Jason to calm down a few moments later. ''I''m a little bit too easy emotionally triggered in the last few days....'' He thought confused about himself. Apologizing, he looked directly into Emily''s green eyes, before he asked "You have nowhere to go, right? Do you want to work for me?" Chapter 308 - Emerald Crystal "You want me to work for you? Why?" Suspicion filled Emily''s mind because they neither knew each other really nor did she receive any special education except going to middle school. After the mana outbreak, high schools became more important as they taught martial art skills, and thanks to that, tuition fees also increased manifold. As such, an orphan like her could have never entered even a bad high school without any credits. Even normal citizens had problems procuring enough credits to allow their children to enter a high school. Jason also knew what it meant to be an orphan and could roughly understand her struggles, even if he had it much easier thanks to meeting the Fler''s, the existence of his mana eyes and multiple more advantageous events. However, exactly because he knew what it meant to be an orphan, he wanted to give Emily a small opportunity to change her future. If he could help to improve someone''s life with a few credits, why shouldn''t he help? Furthermore, it was not like he wouldn''t receive anything from it because Emily would still be his employee, working for her salary. Considering that he demanded a soul contract to prevent betrayals and discriminating behavior to some customers, Jason was sure that he would come out of this deal with more profit while at the same time helping the young girl in front of her. "There is no apparent reason. I just need employees and you need to make a living now that you''re free!" Jason didn''t want to bother too much about this and neither expected to get the 2 Star notes he spent to ''purchase'' Emily back. However, what he didn''t expect was that Emily who seemed to be somewhat naive and innocent confronted him "I don''t even understand why you spent 2 Star notes to help me out before and now you want to employ me instead of making me your slave?" These words caused Jason to lift his eyebrow as he asked "Do you want to be enslaved?" Shaking her head in denial without hesitation after she heard his words, Emily couldn''t help but feel conflicted. She didn''t want to be enslaved, but in her opinion, she wasn''t even worth 1 Star notes, which caused her to bit on her lips in frustration. Neither did she possess anything valuable nor was her education great. Only her soul-awakening and mana aptitude were somewhat decent, yet, nothing comparable to Terebrean''s prodigies. Jason noticed that something was wrong with Emily and thought that her mindset could be somewhat different than his because enslavement was not something far-fetched in the B-grade city they currently resided in. As such, without waiting for Emily to say something, he continued to speak nonchalantly "I don''t know what exactly your issue is, but if you''re bothered about the 2 Star notes, you should just work hard enough to let me earn more than that? In the end, it was my choice to pay for your freedom or however you want to call it. Furthermore, I don''t want to enslave you. The only thing I want right now is to employ you and sign a normal soul contract with you, without any harsh clauses. As you might be unaware of what you even have to do after I employed you, it''s pretty simple. Sell the items in this shop according to the prices I set and take care of the customers. I''ll also give you a few handbooks about your occupation and during the weekend you can memorize everything. Starting from Monday, the ''Golden-Soul'' shop will open and start selling goods. However, you don''t have to give out any special service to anyone and if someone demands anything like that, just tell them that we have a camera and other more dangerous defensive mechanisms inside the shop." Nodding her head, Emily couldn''t help but smile weirdly and feel nervous because she was unable to believe that she was lucky enough to encounter Jason, who sincerely wanted to help her. Jason not only rescued her from the slave merchants'' subordinates but also gave her the opportunity to remain free and work as his employee. Seeing that Emily nodded her head, Jason manifested a soul contract made out of a soul thread he led outside his body before he started to write down the clauses he already stated previously. He just wanted to prevent anyone from betraying him, having any bias, discriminating against others, behaving like monkeys and so on. To put it simple, Jason searched for kind and loyal employees, which however didn''t mean that they had to cope with unfriendly customers. This was something he couldn''t accept and rather than trying to retain such customers, Jason would rather lose out on the profit and have a professional and great atmosphere in his shop! Once the contract was done, Emily read through it once as she dre a soul tread out of her soul world. Jason thought that she would sign it immediately only to see her adding a clause, which was only possible if it didn''t demand anything from Party A who set up the soul contract. This confused Jason, but he waited patiently to see what clause she added to the soul contract, only to smile lightly. [I, Emily, will be thankful for everything I received until I die! I will repay everything!] Only a moment later, Emily signed the contract before she slumped on the ground, exhausted. To Jason, it looked like she used her soul the first time in her life which shouldn''t have been the case because she could control her soul energy better than others, which was something he didn''t expect. However, she also didn''t possess an amplification in her mana core size or transmuted mana! "Now that everything is done, take these handbooks and read through them. Here are also a few mana stones that you can sell for credits to purchase a new quantum bracelet so that I can transfer your salary to it next time. With the remaining credits, you can look for a small apartment to live in!" Handing her a few small books he purchased for himself to learn more about doing business and how to handle a shop, with a few small grade-1 mana stones he didn''t use anymore, Emily''s eyes gleamed brightly because she never received anything since she was forced to enter the orphanage. Jason was still pondering whether or not he should mind the Slave market for now because he had already more than enough enemies to face, and there were even more things he had to take care of to be even eligible to become stronger. Right now, he couldn''t even fully utilize his soul world without breaking apart. How should he be able to offend the whole Jual clan, if their family was behind the Slave market? In his opinion, it would be extremely difficult to establish a slave market inside a city without anyone from the government noticing, which was apparently even the other side around, as the government seemed to have established it. This also included that the Jual clan member, who governed Terebrean, was in this mess. Even if Jason was not a fan of enslavement or anything even remotely close to that, he couldn''t just charge ahead and reform several big families only because he wanted to. However, understanding that there are multiple big families who treat their citizens not better than trash and force them into doing things they didn''t want to, Jason wondered how the whole situation looked in other islands or even Kingdoms on Canir. ''Not every big clan and family will be like them¡­.probably?'' Shaking his head to come back out of his train of thoughts, Jason looked at Emily who already started reading inside a handbook he gave her as he said "Don''t you want to contract a soulbond? I noticed that you have good control over your soul energy which means that you practice with it diligently. Knowing this, you should have amassed a lot of soul energy units, even if you might not practice the Heaven''s Hell technique. Just by following the crudest principle of soul energy enhancement, by forcefully inserting the soul energy inside the soul world core, for several months should barely allow you to reach your current soul energy control!" Averting her gaze from the book to Jason, Emily didn''t know what exactly she should say and she decided to remain simple as she frustratingly said "I don''t have any credits to purchase a soulbond as an orphan!" Hearing this, he could only smile before he said "And what about the emerald crystal or rather egg in your hand?" Chapter 309 - Did You Make Trouble Again? Jason was unsure if he would have rescued Emily under normal circumstances only to satiate his marginal sense of justice. At least not as long as he didn''t know who he might offend, which could bring huge problems. However, there was another reason for him to rescue her. Not only did he need an employee but with what he saw, the thought of forming a faction that only appeared in his mind several minutes ago increased manifold. The Emerald-green colored crystal in Emily''s hand which she seemed to have received from her parents before they died, harbored a beast! Jason was unsure why the beast inside didn''t hatch and at the same time why nobody noticed that the emerald crystal was not what it seemed to be. It was an egg instead of a normal crystal. Hearing this, Emily was astonished as her eyes widened as she looked at the Emerald colored crystal in her hand "What do you mean by that? How can that be an egg? The orphanage deemed it useless and didn''t take it from me because of that. Furthermore, I have had this crystal since I was little, how could it not have hatched until now if it were to be an egg?!" Without wanting to say too much about his mana eyes, Jason just tried to convince her one more time before he would let it go. Forcing someone was not something he wanted to do, even less with someone he wanted to work for him and maybe even to establish a faction with! "If you have a wind affinity, soul energy units in the four-digit range, if possible not in the lower four-digit range, and enough space for a soulbond, you might as well try it out. There is no harm in trying, right?" Smiling at her, Jason tried to encourage her, because this choice might change her whole future. If Emily would bind the beast inside the emerald-colored egg, it was possible for her to become strong as long as she received enough resources to absorb mana and breakthrough her current shackles with her new soulbond! Through his mana eyes, he perceived a strong and distinct purple color, which meant that the unhatched beast had the potential of a strong Guardian-ranked beast!! This meant if she contracted the Guardian-ranked beast at her current mana core rank that was at the 1st Expert rank, her strength would increase a lot. To be able to reach the 1st Expert rank at the age of 15 without cultivation resources indicated to Jason that Emily was ambitious, diligent and someone with talent! She might have absorbed mana over the whole day because she didn''t have to refine her soul energy for several hours like he had to or practice any martial art techniques as she didn''t possess any, but by nurturing her, Emily was bound to become strong if she didn''t give up! Hearing Jason''s words, she began to ask herself if there was even a reason not to try out what he said. She always felt that the Emerald crystal from her parents was something special but was only to get the hang of it. Jason''s calm attitude and confidence showed her that he knew something she was unaware off and instead of hesitating as she did since becoming an orphan, Emily gathered all her courage, inhaled deeply before she cut her finger with a dagger, Jason handed her. Loosening up a thread from her soul, Emily led it through her arm to the cut finger, which she held on top of the Emerald-green colored egg that was placed in her other hand. Once the soul thread enveloped the egg completely, Emily shrieked out and a joyous expression formed on her face, telling Jason that she finally figured out what the Emerald "crystal" really was. Only two minutes passed until the soul connection was established and the emerald-colored egg vanished inside her soul through the magic circle that manifested below it. However, what happened afterward caused Jason to frown because Emily lost consciousness before she started to sweat heavily. Rushing towards her, he felt a searing heat from her as he asked himself "Was that too much from me? First the soul contract and now a Guardian-ranked egg as first soulbond¡­." Scratching the back of his head, Jason decides that it might be better to consult Dalia about it. ''She won''t have the same issue as I have with my vessel, right?'' Slapping his forehead, he could only curse inwardly because he was once again too impatient. Artemis who sat on his shoulder screeched out when Jason carried Emily out of the shop which he locked, before doing anything else. It was only Friday and there was more than enough time for him to contract another employee until Monday, when he wanted to open the Shop for everyone. However, right now, Artemis seemed to be annoyed by Jason''s request because he asked her to let him and Emily fly on her. She rejected this request almost immediately and when he asked Artemis to enter his mana core to manifest her wings on his back she rejected it once again. Frowning deeply, Jason was not sure what his soulbond wanted and he didn''t have any time to waste because Emily''s current situation was not something he could neither determine nor heal as a normal recuperation potion seemed to be useless. In the end, he could barely force Artemis to enlarge and grasp his shoulders with her talons to bring them to his master''s house in a few minutes. It was a vast difference to use shuttles or a soulbond as a means to transport someone because the pathway for soulbonds had many shortcuts, and it was even better for flying beasts. Jason could also use his fortified soul conjunction everywhere as long as he wore a mask because it would be hard to determine his age while he wears a mask. His voice was the only clear indicator to tell others that he was still a youth and not even in his 20s. Once Artemis carefully descended in front of their house, Jason sprinted towards the door with Emily in his arms. Rushing inside, he carefully placed Emily on the couch before he started to call for Dalia several times. However, before Dalia appeared, Shane already stood next to him and Jason could clearly see his master''s frown when he saw a young, unconscious girl laying on the couch. "What is this girl doing here?" He asked, barely averting his gaze to Jason who could only smile innocently, when they heard Dalia arriving behind them. "Jason! What trouble did you make again?" Upon seeing a heavy sweating girl laying on the couch, Dalia pushed away Shane and Jason to take a closer look, as she looked at Jason in confusion "She is extremely weak, exhausted, and has overtaxed her soul... Didn''t you go to the shop? How did you meet her?" There was no need to omit anything and Jason explained everything clearly, Upon hearing what happened to Emily and how Jason behaved, both Dalia and Shane couldn''t help but smile at Jason''s action even if his reason to save her in the first place was not exactly why they were proud of him. However, getting to know that there was a slave market inside the B-grade city they lived in which might even be supported by the Jual clan, Shane and Dalia couldn''t help but frown. "Under normal circumstances, the Jual clan would never retort to enslaving others. Their system to grade people might be wrong but that doesn''t mean they enslave others...Did something change while we were hiding?" Shane said, not knowing what was going on and both he and Dalia hadn''t heard about the slave market before, because they didn''t go out needlessly. Instead, they prepared everything for Jason''s arrival after they fled to Terebrean. Before that, they hid on Astrix for several decades and didn''t actively try to figure out news from other islands or Canir. Rather than trying to figure out more information about other islands, they tried to stay alive by all means and look out for potential prodigies which allowed them to encounter Jason! However, it looked like many things changed in these decades because both Shane and Dalia were in the opinion that a slave market didn''t exist on Terebrean before! Chapter 310 - Stay While Dalia summoned her two Dryad soulbonds who started to tend Emily and ease the pain caused by her soul overutilization, Shane and Jason started to discuss the main issues that came with the Slave market. "I don''t really care about criminals and it doesn''t even matter if they die, but to frame innocent citizens and orphans is definitely wrong. With this, we can also say for sure that their reason to enslave others is not only to create a replaceable workforce but probably also to oppress normal citizens and orphans with the slightest potential, turning them into their combat force. At least that''s what I assume. On the other hand, it might also be possible that beautiful women, girls, or handsome men and youths will be enslaved and turned into slaves to satiate the more prosperous nobles and merchants'' desires!" Shane didn''t need a long time to summarize everything as simple as it was before he started to summarize the Jual Clan''s possible gains from the Slave market "Not only will everyone with a high potential that crossed a certain threshold be enslaved with the possible reason to build an army, but because nobody with talent is able to retaliate, there won''t be a riot against the slave market either! If someone dares to start a rebellion, they might even be killed if they can''t defend themselves against someone stronger than them. Furthermore, through the profits that come from selling slaves for whatever reason, the Jual clan is able to acquire more cultivation resources for their descendants, which allows them to become stronger in a shorter period than others!" Once Shane finished, Jason could only sigh deeply as he mumbled "Why is everyone so fixated on enslaving others?!" When Shane heard this, he could only sigh and explain it to his disciple, even if he was sure that Jason was already aware of the reason. "Enslaving someone prevents needless trouble and fear of being betrayed, creates huge profits and can even be used to force someone to do things they wouldn''t do under normal circumstances. Once you''re forced into submission, the only way to dissolve a soul contract is the superior contractor''s death. At least under the assumption that the soul contract doesn''t state that you have to stay loyal and submissive to a whole family or clan which is, for example, the case in the Drake clan''s soul contract! In that case, the whole clan has to be annihilated to forcefully nullify the soul contract!" Nodding his head, Jason could tell that a soul contract made everything easier because he also used a soul contract for Emily. However, his soul contract was completely different and only demanded her to stay loyal to the Golden-Soul shop and to remain kind to customers. There was nothing excessively cruel or anything like that, while he can''t even change anything inside the soul contract if Emily prevents him from doing so because he didn''t label himself as ''superior'' in the contract. The only thing he clearly stated was that Emily was his employee, but that was it. Sighing deeply, he averted his gaze to Artemis, whom he caressed, only for Scorpio with his large body to demand caresses too. Fortunately, their living room was large enough for Scorpio to be summoned, otherwise, there would be a hellfire of curses inside his mind, stating that he favors Artemis. This would be extremely bad and Jason continued to caress his two soulbonds that were extremely clingy and indigent as he saw that Dalia helped up Emily, who could barely open her eyes. After regaining her consciousness, Emily found herself in a foreign room, before a blond-haired middle-aged woman stared at her and the only thing she heard was a sigh of relief from that woman. Forcing herself to sit up, she looked through the room, where she saw Jason talking with a middle-aged man with black hair and his two soulbonds extremely close to him, quarreling with each other about Jason''s attention. Seeing that Emily was awake, Jason wanted to stand up, only for Artemis and Scorpio to restrain him, which caused him to frown. "Hello!? Let me move please?!" Trying to use force, Jason could only lament that his soulbonds were stronger than him, by several levels at that. Being forced to remain seated, he told Emily reassuringly. "Emily, It''s good that you''re conscious again. You don''t have to be afraid of anyone here. Just tell us if anything hurts! Dalia might be able to help you!" Smiling drily, Emily was overwhelmed with her current situation as she noticed two Dryads standing next to her, using their healing ability to soothe the pain inside her. After taking a few deep breaths she was able to calm down as she began to understand what happened. "Did you bring me here because I fainted?" She hesitantly asked, unsure if she misunderstood anything wrong or if Jason was really worried about her well-being, only to see him nodding his head "Yeah, I didn''t know what was going on with you and thought that bringing you to my home would be the best solution. I couldn''t just leave someone unconscious in my shop, right?" Trying to ease the tension inside the living room, Jason added the last sentence, which was however not the best decision as he noticed Dalia''s glaring gaze. However, Emily didn''t even notice that and smiled lightly, mumbling "Thank you¡­" Hearing how sincerely she thanked Jason for doing what he was supposed to do after burdening her with a soul contract and then convincing her to contract a soulbond at the Guardian-rank, Dalia couldn''t help but embrace Emily, who was taken by surprise. Jason and Shane were also astonished about Dalia''s sudden behavior but thinking that Emily was an orphan who didn''t receive much love in her childhood after her parents passed away, they could somehow understand why Dalia acted like that. Emily was unsure what to do and only sat on the couch stiffly as she looked outside the window only to see that it was already sunset. Trying to leave Dalia''s embrace, she suddenly stood up with trembling legs and hurriedly said "The shops will close soon, I have to go, otherwise, I can''t exchange the mana stones with credits and look for a place to sleep!!" Without looking back, she wanted to rush outside the house, when Shane suddenly said "Do you even have enough credits for a shuttle, or do you want to run for several hours only to find out that the shops are already closed?" Hearing this, Emily halted in her tracks and one could visible see how her mind tried to figure out a solution for her issue to find a sleeping place as Dalia said "She can stay here!" "Huh? STAY here or sleep here for today?" Shane almost immediately blurted out without caring that Emily who they were talking about was only a few meters away from them, trembling when she heard Shane''s words. "Staying of course? Her first soulbond is a Guardian-ranked beast and if she were to have a high soul world amplification, Jason would have killed her someone, when he convinced her to form a soulbond contract with such a soulbond?! Or have you forgotten that Jason''s situation is already problematic with two Unblemished beasts as soulbonds?! If you don''t want to take your disciples responsibility I will take it!!" Turning around with an "hmpf", Jason could only hear her faintly mumbling "Furthermore, she is cute!" It was certainly true, that he convinced her into forming a soulbond but it was not like he forced her and Jason thought that Dalia only said this as a reason to let Emily stay with them. Whether it was pity because Emily was an orphan, motherly feelings as a mother or something else didn''t seem to matter to Dalia who approached Emily who still trembled from Shane''s words to console her. Patting Shane''s shoulder, Jason only said "Good luck" before he stood up, using force to push away Scorpio''s large head, to look into Emily''s teary eyes as he said "If you don''t want to stay here, nobody will force you but you should at least sleep here for today. You can change your quantum bracelet tomorrow so I can transfer you credits. However, if you decide to stay here, let me just tell you that this decision could be one of the best or the worst choices you might ever take in your whole life, changing your whole future!" Chapter 311 - Blurred Memory "Don''t scare her like that!!" Dalia said, staring daggers at him. However, Jason could only shrug his shoulders, thinking that his words were certainly true. If the Drake family were to find out that they lived here, he might personally come over and torture everyone who was connected to them, not because Shane killed Old Drake, but more likely because of the Ice Dragon mother he send over. In the end, the Ice Dragon killed the Drake clan''s major combat force which forced the patriarch to act accordingly to not lose out to the other Kingdoms. Unfortunately, Shane unintentionally dragged innocent prodigies from Astrix island in their dispute because the Drake family patriarch forcefully subdued them to replace his clan''s lost combat power. He might have to nurture most youths but with enough time, the Drake family would come out stronger than ever before which worried Jason. Every action caused a certain reaction and in his opinion, Shane didn''t seem to bother thinking about the big picture because he was either worried about Jason being subdued or something similar to that. However, through this, Jason felt somewhat guilty and he would definitely try his best to fix this mess in the future. Nevertheless, to make something like that even possible, he would have to become stronger than the Drake family patriarch who had most likely a deal with foreign races, allowing him to completely transmute his mana. Adding more unknown trumps, Jason estimated that he had to become much stronger than a normal Sovereign rank with three solidified prismarine-crystals within his mana core. Comparing it to the revamped cultivation system, he obtained from the Terra manuals, Jason would have to leave the Mortal stage, break into the Lique stage, and once his whole mana core was liquefied, he could start creating his first solidified prismarine-crystal to enter the Prismar stage. After that, it would be the best solution if he was able to create four solidified prismarine crystals before he might be able to face whole big clans without the need to fear being pursued like Shane and Dalia because he was strong enough to retaliate. Jason didn''t even want to think how long it might take for him to enter the Prismar stage under his current circumstances because his mana core rank was several times larger than a normal Expert rank thanks to his high soul world amplification that seemed to be a blessing and a curse at the same time. His high soul world amplification allowed him to become much stronger than others but at the same time prevented him from break through in his mana core rank. This would only mean that he had to rely on his soulbonds strength which was nothing bad per se. However, once he received a curse or would be forced to enter a state where he was under a similar condition, which might temporarily decrease or completely nullify his soul world amplification, he would be powerless! Furthermore, his vessel would break, once his soulbonds became too strong for him to handle their soul world amplified strength. Sighing deeply, Jason didn''t know what Dalia was exactly thinking to throw an outsider inside the Wolf den....but who was he to complain? As long as Emily remained silent, nothing would happen and revolting against Dalia was probably the worst he could do. Her outer appearance was quiet but Jason knew that she could become furious which was not something he would ever want to see again. With that in mind, he couldn''t but tease "Okay master, do as you wish but please remain level-headed!" Turning around to Shane, he asked "I don''t want to drag everything on longer, can you bring me to the abandoned lands and take me back...on Sunday evening?" Shane was also uncomfortable with Dalia''s sudden change in behavior but there was even less he could do against his wife because he knew her better than anyone else. Once she decided on doing something, there was nothing in the world holding her back except death, which brought back painful memories, that included many betrayals and deaths. He didn''t want to think about that anymore and shook his head before he looked at Jason only to nod his head. Opening a spatial portal behind him, Shane just said "The area I picked should be good for you to forge if you have the desire to do so. There shouldn''t be many strong beasts around there. Your two clingy soulbonds should be more than enough to fend them off and gain some combat experience. Right now they can''t even be considered proper peak-Unblemished ranked beasts because of their shallow combat experience. Probably even mid-Unblemished beasts with superior combat experience and a good affinity proficiency could kill them!" Jason smiled lightly, thanking his master before he took one last glance at Emily, only to say with a bright smile "Even if you''re overwhelmed right now, don''t forget that you have to work from Monday on! Furthermore, read the handbooks I gave you" Jumping through the spatial portal with the Viridi-Starstream dagger set in his hands, Artemis flew after him while Scorpio required some time to turn around without destroying everything in the living room before he also rushed towards the spatial portal. Once the three vanished, the whole living room seemed to enlarge several times as Scorpio, who used up the most space, was not there anymore and Shane could only sigh deeply. "What a troublemaker¡­.he can''t even control his soulbonds. Why are they even so indigent?!" Averting his attention to Dalia, who was talking to Emily, completely ignoring that Jason disappeared and his words, Shane couldn''t help but feel lost in his own home as a thought appeared in his mind ''Should I have just followed Jason? The Abandoned lands are probably more interesting and less hurting than being ignored in my own home...'' Pondering what he should do, Shane opened a holographic screen on his quantum bracelet, and at the same time he took out the book about all curses in order to find a suitable curse to lower Jason''s soul world amplification without touching anything else. Hours passed and Emily finally calmed down, only to fall asleep in the guest room, when Shane suddenly jumped up from the chair which Dalia who was seated next to him noticed. "What is it, Shane? Did you find something?!" Dalia knew what Shane was searching for and seeing that he jumped up from his chair had to mean something good. However, seeing the complicated expression on his face didn''t seem to mean anything good. "Is it something bad?" She asked, waiting for an answer, only for Shane to sit down with a sigh. "Do you remember something about the Mythic Garden? The name is written here and I''m sure that I was there already, but I can''t seem to remember...everything about it....feels blurry? Almost as if something prevents me from remembering¡­" When Dalia heard the name "Mythic Garden" she remember something about it but it was weird and she felt exactly the same like Shane. "I also recall something¡­.but it''s only a faint memory¡­.Wasn''t it considered a sacred place?!.... But why?!" Holding his head with both hands, Shane tried everything to clear his memories because of the words written inside the book that said [Mythic Garden-Land of the Blessed and Cursed] Chapter 312 - Abandoned Lands Emerging outside the spatial portal, Jason was enveloped in a reeking stench that tried to forcefully infiltrate him, within a matter of seconds. Manifesting the black origin flame around his face, he could breathe freely without any disturbance and the reeking stench slowly dissipated. Looking around, there was a huge mountain on Jason''s left while the right side was a large plain. Starting to look around, he couldn''t help but smile as he said "These are the Abandoned lands on Terebrean?" The Abandoned lands were places humanity gave up to construct city''s on, or even nearby. As for the reason, it was pretty simple. The surrounding environment released a reeking, poisonous stench that harmed humans greatly as long as they didn''t prepare anything to protect themselves from it. Jason for example could just filter the air with his black origin flame, but doing something similar with millions of people in a single city was not feasible and would be expensive, nullifying possible profits almost immediately. There might be a few groups of hunters around the Abandoned lands that spanned over the western part of Terebrean, however, it would be rare to encounter anyone. This was not only because Shane brought him to a deserted part of the Abandoned lands but he and Shane were both sure that there were not many ways to counter the poisonous air. Normal gas masks would start corroding, while the same would happen to other materials and only living beings wouldn''t have to face the same issue. Jason''s skin wouldn''t start corroding just like that but he would start feeling a burning sensation spreading through his whole body before the poison would slowly start paralyzing his organs until they would start malfunctioning. After that, Jason would die slowly, fully aware of what was happening to him. Fortunately, however, he had the black origin flame. After testing that everything worked according to his expectations several weeks ago, with Shane next to him, he could finally enter the Abandoned lands alone. Turning around he could see Artemis, in her large form, flying through the air, while Scorpio followed him with loud noises. Both shared their excitement with Jason through their fortified soul conjunction and he couldn''t help but smile when he sensed that. It was already evening and there was not much light left to brighten the surroundings so Jason decided to look out for a better place to construct a small resting place with a tent and a campfire. Meanwhile, Scorpio and Artemis could do whatever they wanted as long as they didn''t run too far away to help Jason, a strong beast was to attack him, which he couldn''t handle alone. Right now, they were inside a territory which released mana fluctuations turning it in a wild zone between three- and four-stars, which told Jason that only Evolved and Unblemished ranked beasts should inhabit this area. However, this didn''t mean that there might not be wild, awakened or even magical ranked beasts because there was nobody controlling the abandoned lands as it was the case around cities. It was extremely important to control the surrounding wild zones from cities to oppress strong beasts that might turn into a threat, while nobody cared about what happened inside the Abandoned lands. There might be a few mercenaries hired every now and then to take a look at the strongest beasts around there, but that was already the most one would do. Jason was unsure if that was the best way to ensure Terebrean''s safety because the same tactic didn''t seem to work on Astrix as the Goblin King was able to build a large base without anyone knowing until the number of accidents with Goblins reached a certain threshold. As such, it was crystal clear to Jason that ''a few mercenaries every now and then'' was not the best strategy to take care of threats in unsafe areas. But who was he to complain about it? In the end, this strategy would most likely be the reason for many casualties if there were to be a beast outbreak in the future, but also cost a huge fortune that could have been prevented with hunting units inside the Abandoned lands or other areas. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t even say for sure that there was something extremely dangerous in the abandoned lands, and interpreting too much into nothing serious was not something he would do needlessly. After he found a great spot to construct his tent with few beasts around, which he saw thanks to his mana eyes, he halted in his steps and showed both Artemis and Scorpio where he would stay for the time being. Transmitting to him that they understood him, Jason finished building the tent and making a small campfire within ten minutes. Sitting on a mattress he took out of his spatial ring, he started to wonder if there might be some treasures in the Abandoned lands that would be worth enough to venture through them. However, after thinking about it for some time, the natural poisonous mana shouldn''t be able to create any treasures, other than poison transmuted mana treasures. They might be helpful for Scorpio but his soulbond was not even allowed to become much stronger than it currently was because of his feeble vessel which couldn''t even take two soulbonds and a small baptism. Sighing deeply, Jason was sure that he had more than enough to do during the next two days in which Scorpio and Artemis would start to increase their combat experience to become proper peak-Unblemished beasts. If that was everything, they could have also gone to a nearby three-star wild zone only to change to a four-star wild zone, later on, once his two soulbonds got the hang on their current combat prowess and what flaws they should fix first. The most apparent reason for him to enter the Abandoned lands was to become stronger while fighting next to his soulbonds, or having one inside his mana core to fight with his other soulbond next to him. Not only did his soulbonds never fight next to each other or even alone for much, but Jason also understood that he had to build up greater teamwork while fighting with his soulbonds against other beasts, and also with one soulbond inside his mana core. There were only a few instances he was able to use his fortified soul conjunction truly. Even if he could manifest his soulbond''s body parts inside the B-grade city they were currently living in, as long as he wore a mask or other means to disguise himself, it was still different from being able to go all out while fighting. Inside the four-star rift Scorpio''s exoskeleton protected him from greater harm and probably from dying while his stinger helped him out to defeat Greg in the Big-Three tournament. However, he never really tried to attack with his dagger and the stinger at the same time. There were so many tactics he wanted to test and the most important thing Jason wanted to try was flying through the air and fighting a flying beast up there! The latter might require some time but it was important for him to become proficient in every expertise, otherwise, he and his soulbonds might die in the future only because of such a mistake! Chapter 313 - Reckless He had slightly more than two days before Shane would bring him back because he had to take care of the Golden-Soul shop before everything would become much smoother, allowing him to leave the shop to his employees As such. Jason decided that it would be best if he were to stay awake until Monday. Considering that his mana core size was already at the Master rank, this was nothing special and Jason was even confident in staying awake for more than a week without feeling tired at all! With that in mind, he took out a large basin, filled it with water before he heated it up by utilizing his fire affinity. After that was done, a few mana stones and a purple glowing medical solution manifested in his hands. Covering the area around the basin with mana stones and dissolving the medical solution, Jason was ready to practice the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique for the next few hours before he would start absorbing mana until it was morning. He was able to see almost everything through his mana eyes, however, since he encountered the maneless poisonous fog and the untraceable Drake''s, Jason was more reluctant in relying on his mana eyes alone. As such he didn''t want to risk his life without reason and instead Jason became slightly more careful. This was mainly thanks to the various experiences he encountered inside the four-star rift. If he was able to turn back time and be able to decide once again whether or not he would venture inside the four-star rift, Jason couldn''t say for sure what he would pick right now. The experiences he gathered inside the rift were at least equally important to the pain he had to bear. Being betrayed and seeing that there were still proper humans that cared about each other was also something he never wanted to forget because this was one reason for Jason to still hold hope for humanity. If he had not encountered the small group of kind humans inside the elemental crystal cave which tried to rescue their comrades from Lux and his undead soulbonds, Jason would have only bad memories about mankind. The Jual- and Drake-clan couldn''t be considered role models and Jason never encountered anyone else from the Gier or Greil except Seron and Till. Thus, he couldn''t really tell how everyone treated their citizens. With this thought in mind, Jason decided that his experience inside the rift was important, which he couldn''t just forget. Exerting the Netherworld''s fort technique, the black origin flame manifested within Jason to spread through his whole body while keeping a low temperature. Over the last several months since he started to practice the Netherworld''s fort technique, this step was always the same and didn''t change much within his body anymore. However, the area where he established his body refining foundation by destroying, renewing, and recuperating his cells with the help of the Netherworld''s fort technique, was slowly being refined and expanding. Jason was still in the Initial-phase of the body refining technique but the small refined area was slowly growing, demanding more mana and nutrition from him to accelerate the whole process, allowing him to become stronger. When he sensed that his body could take more nutrition and mana to refine his physique, Jason couldn''t be happier. Refining his body would refine and also enlarge his vessel by a small margin, allowing his soulbonds to reach the peak of the Unblemished rank without any worry. Since Artemis and Scorpio found out that Jason was in danger because of them, they tried their best to restrain themselves to become stronger, even if it was only a minuscule amount, in fear that it might hurt Jason. However, now that his body refining would accelerate, his two soulbonds could become stronger without many hindrances, as long as they didn''t compress their mana to form mana drops in order to enter the magical rank. If that were to happen right now, there were several possible outcomes, and him writhing in unbearable pain was probably one of the better ones. Artemis and Scorpio knew that they shouldn''t break into the magical rank. They would absorb more mana to smoothly enter the magical rank, once Jason was confident in taking their increased strength head-on. After he finished his body refining, Jason also practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique before he started to absorb the mana from his surroundings with a few additional mana stones around him to further accelerate his mana absorption speed. When it was morning, Jason stretched his body, before he cleaned his tent. Washing up and changing into a clean set of clothes, he waited for his soulbonds to return from their hunting trip as Artemis transmitted Jason the way to their current position. Initially, he wanted that his soulbonds come to him, but after he used his fortified soul conjunction to see through Artemis'' eyes, he could only deeply before storing everything in his spatial ring to depart. Exerting the weightless steps technique at the perfect mastery, Jason''s speed increased by 60%, allowing him to arrive in front of his two soulbonds only slightly more than 15 minutes later. Scorpio''s exoskeleton was filled with bumps and blood leaked from several injuries, while Artemis'' pure white plumage was dirtied. She sustained injuries too. They were lighter but what confused Jason the most was that even her pitch-black horns had blood on them. "What did you two do? It''s not bad to be confident but wasn''t that a little bit much?" He just blurted out, when he saw that the plain in front of him was littered with beast corpses. From their incomplete mana core, Jason could tell that they were low Unblemished ranked beasts with a few evolved ranked beasts among them. However, they seemed to belong to one single race which told Jason that they were one large group which his two soulbonds ambushed. ''Did I teach them how to be so reckless?!'' Jason couldn''t help but ask himself as he took a look around. From the destroyed landscape around him, he could also tell that Artemis went rampage with her ice affinity, obstructing the majority of beasts to approach Scorpio. Meanwhile, Scorpio seemed to have picked out one corpse after another to sting them with his poisonous stinger, which he turned more lethal by adding his poison affinity. Furthermore, he also halved several beasts with his razor-sharp claws, turning the whole battlefield into a poodle of blood with spilled organs. Sighing deeply, Jason could tell that they tried to coordinate their attacks but in the end, it didn''t seem to have worked out as they wanted. At least that was what Jason figured out once he saw that Artemis was full of dirt with blood from one of the beasts on her horn, which probably happened when she had to rescue Scorpio from the low-Unblemished ranked beasts'' stampede. Even then, Scorpio looked no better than the time Jason had to use its exoskeleton to protect himself from the explosion he forcefully created inside the four-star rift to kill the wind crystal horned python. Comprehending what happened on the small battlefield in addition to his two soulbonds'' memories which they reluctantly transmitted to him after he requested it, Jason finally knew where he had to start with his training. ''Coordination!'' Chapter 314 - Coordination Jason tried to think of ways to improve Artemis and Scorpio''s coordination when he remembered how high their current combat prowess was. ''They''re neither weak nor extremely strong among Unblemished beasts, but they''re trying to work together to fight against the large horde of beasts...somehow it worked out¡­'' Their coordination, however, was still extremely bad which he had to improve. Rather than that, it could be said that they would need to establish a better, synchronized coordination. It was fortunate for Jason that he has only two soulbonds right now because it wouldn''t be too much of a hassle to create an acceptable coordination between the both. If he were to add himself in this calculation, all three had to work together in order to prevent obstructing each other, survive at all costs, and become even stronger by fighting. As such, after storing away all corpses inside his spatial ring''s area for preserved goods. Once that was done, he ignored Artemis'' demand to be washed. If they were to venture into a place that was even more dangerous than the abandoned lands, Artemis would have to be able to accept her dirty plumage. Otherwise, she might lower her guard when Jason washed her while the same could happen to him. Furthermore, it would be weird to wash Artemis after every single small battle, considering that all of them would end as it happened in his soulbonds'' first skirmish. Walking through the plains, they encountered many different beast races, but almost all of them had either something to do with poison, whether it was that they innately had poison or a poison affinity. There were also other beasts, with all kinds of affinities, however, all of them had to have faint poison resistance. Other than that, there were also flying beasts that were unaffected by the poisonous soil and poisonous reeking stench radiating from it, until they had to land on the ground. While walking around, Jason started to experiment with his two soulbonds to figure out how long it would need for either of them to enter his mana core when they were summoned outside the soul world. After several tries, it was clear that Artemis required slightly less time than Scorpio which was probably thanks to her slightly thicker fortified soul conjunction which allowed her to enter his soul world faster. This was interesting to know, but before he could continue with other experiments he was interested in, the three of them encountered a suitable group they could prey on. More than 100 meters away from them was a large group of Rotten Triceratops grazing innocently. Rotten Triceratops were heavy and large four-legged beasts with a head that was shaped similar to a shield, protecting them from most frontal attacks. Three horns protruded out of their head with one small, yet razor-sharp one above its nose while two long horns erected above its eyes. From Jason''s knowledge, Triceratops were already an ancient beast race that lived a long, long time ago on Argos, only to return when rifts opened which revived many extinct races. However, even if some fanatics were happy about this outcome, Jason didn''t really care. He could only acknowledge that these triceratopses looked great if they were not rotting right now, as they missed large chunks of flesh in some areas, revealing their rib cages and large bones. Jason wanted to try out something new which led him to instruct his soulbonds to enter the soul world before Artemis entered his mana core to manifest her wings. With large, wings manifesting behind him, he ascended more than 100 meters into the air before he carefully approached the rotten Triceratopses not without neglecting to look if something were to surprise attack him from behind. Fortunately, nothing like that seemed to happen and the Triceratops were still grazing, indicating that they had neither heard nor seen him. Once he was above them, Jason dived down towards them, with Artemis'' wings pressed on his shoulder blades, only to open them when he was barely 10 meters above the ground. Through his acceleration, he was forced to descend further and he reached the height of five meters when he was able to slow down slightly. Summoning the new weapon he forged not long ago into his hand, Scorpio emerged in the air next to him, only to crash into the ground, barely two meters away from the closest rotten Triceratops which noticed its danger slightly to late. Scorpio pierced out with its stinger while at the same time using its claws to inflict cuts in his opponent''s thick hide. Meanwhile, Jason dissolved Artemis'' wings, allowing her to leave the Mana core as she emerged next to him, while he fell down to the ground. With his newly forged light longsword in hand, Jason injected mana into it before enveloping it with black, violent flickering flames. Slashing out at the first rotten Triceratops, he immediately noticed that its horns were extremely durable and they seemed to be even harder than his mana grade-1 longsword. This caused Jason to smile as he exerted the weightless steps technique with its perfect mastery fully, to increase his speed by 60%. Leaning forward Jason tried to rush past the rotten Triceratops, only to notice that he was still slower than it, which caused him to frown. Forced to retreat because the Triceratops thrust its horns towards him, Jason had to think of a different way to approach his opponent that was only a low Unblemished beast. Using his ice affinity to erect a small wall in front of him to distract the rotten Triceratops, Jason created small cracks below him in the soil when he pushed his feet from the ground to speed up in order to leave his current position. While the rotten Triceratops couldn''t see him, it didn''t remain idle and charged towards the ice-wall which it shattered without much resistance only to see Jason from the corner of its eye, slashing at it with a faint smile on his face. Most beasts would never think that anybody would stealthily attack or even use tricks to defeat their opponent because they wouldn''t do that either. However, this was mostly because of these beasts'' intelligence that was still lower than humans and their instinctive way to fight against others head-on without trying to think of a better way to fight. According to his masters, there were not many beasts that tried to use tricks to defeat their opponents. Rather than that, they would die while fighting or try to flee from someone who was noticeably stronger than themselves. There were a few beasts that were intelligent enough to fight head-on and use tricks at the same time, while it was even possible for intelligent beasts to coordinate lower-ranked beasts with their wisdom. Something similar to that was the reason for the Goblins to gather under a higher-ranked, evolved being like the Goblin King that was stronger and more intelligent than them. However, the rotten Triceratops neither had a leader to instruct them nor a high-intelligence to figure out if someone was scheming or trying to do something else. This was also the reason for Jason''s small ice wall trick to work out better than he initially expected as the rotten Triceratops'' side was now open, completely unguarded as he slashed out with his mana injected longsword that was still enveloped with his black origin flame''s black flames. Chapter 315 - Visualizing The Issue Without much resistance, the black flames burned through the rotten Triceratops'' thick hide, inflicting a serious injury. Smiling brightly, Jason used up more mana to unleash the black origin flame inside the rotten Triceratops'' body, which cried out in pain, when it noticed what was going on. The surrounding poisonous stench overlapped with the burning fragrance and the remaining Triceratopses averted their attention to Jason and their dying brethren as they roared out in anger. They were about to charge to Jason when they noticed that it was not possible because they themselves were struggling to stay alive. Artemis and Scorpio''s attacks were much stronger than Jason''s, who could only fight against mid-Unblemished ranked beasts at most, with the help of his affinities. His physique was only refined by a small degree while his mana core size reached that of an average 2nd Master rank, however, unfortunately, beasts were still innately stronger. This made it much more difficult for Jason to fight against Unblemished beasts because they were not only physically stronger but also more durable and faster than him. It was not a huge difference, making it impossible for him to overcome but Jason was already struggling to fight against a single rotten Triceratops, while Artemis and Scorpio were facing multiple at once. However, their physical strength was superior to the rotten Triceratops, allowing Scorpio to Slaughter his ways through his opponents, while Artemis flew across the battlefield, shooting out several dozen compressed ice shards almost every second without pausing. Artemis targeted the rotten Triceratops'' vital spots while Scorpio killed everything, seemingly without any effort. Even if the other Triceratops wanted to rescue their brethren that were dying under unbearable pain, caused by the black origin flame within it, they were unable to do so. After Jason''s opponent has been burned from the inside, it collapsed lifelessly on the ground. Turning around, Jason could observe the whole fight, if one were to call it like that, much better. He knew that he much was weaker than his soulbonds but his combat experience was higher than theirs, yet, more oriented in fighting against other humans than beasts. The last time he fought other beasts were Goblins several months ago if one were to disregard everything that happened inside the four-star rift where he was running away and not fighting against anything. Nevertheless, he saw many beasts fighting against each other inside the four-star rift which allowed him to see different combat styles from the beast races. They were mostly focused on their instincts and Jason wanted to use this knowledge to help his soulbonds to use their instincts and at the same time their intelligence to increase their combat prowess manifold! He continued to observe his soulbonds'' behavior during the fight, how they acted under pressure, get to know their attack patterns, and see if they utilized everything they could or if held back their strength needlessly. The whole battle ended ten minutes later and Scorpio received a few more dents in its exoskeleton while its stinger has been pierced by one of the rotten Triceratops extremely hard horns, causing it to bleed, while Artemis was exhausted after using up all her mana to weaken all opponents. She didn''t attack them directly in a close combat fight but rather focused on her affinity and how she could support Scorpio in defeating the Triceratopses. Furthermore, she was also worried about Jason and how he was doing, only to see that he observed their fight after he finished his sole opponent, which caused her to work much harder. Now that both were exhausted, Jason approached them, sighing as he said "That should have been much better than your last fight, but what would happen if another beast group were to be attracted by the loud noises? Could both of you continue to fight with your current condition?" They couldn''t understand the human language, yet, but through their soul connection, they perfectly understood everything Jason said. However, instead of receiving several praises like they expected, they were lectured which caused both Artemis and Scorpio to feel downhearted. Nevertheless, they noticed that Jason wasn''t mad or anything like that and that he wanted to help them. At least that was what they sensed through their connection with him. Unfortunately, they couldn''t directly comprehend what Jason meant with his words, which lead Jason to transmit three pictures he visualized to them. One picture was their current, exhausted, and injured appearance, while the second was a visualization of more than 100 unblemished beasts attacking them. The third picture showed the result of Artemis and Scorpio fighting against the second beast horde, which was their possible death in a life-threatening fight. Even if the rotten Triceratopses had an extremely sturdy skull with razor-sharp horns that could even pierce through weak protected areas of peak-Unblemished beasts, in the end, they were only low-Unblemished ranked beasts. With that in mind, Artemis shouldn''t have to use up her whole stored mana and Scorpio''s injuries should be fewer. Through Scorpio''s current condition, with his stinger pierced through, his combat prowess would decrease by a large degree, making the next fights even more difficult. Understanding this after clarifying everything through more visualized images, Jason''s soulbonds finally knew what exactly he was trying to tell them. They began to comprehend what exactly they had to focus on too. Fighting efficiently without sustaining a single injury! When he saw this, Jason couldn''t help but smile and he took out recuperation potions which he poured into Artemis and Scorpio''s mouth. Feeling that his soulbonds'' pain lessened after a few moments, he turned around to the battlefield to store away all rotten Triceratops corpses. Their rotten flesh might not be worth much but their skull would only need small adjustments before one could sell them as shields. Furthermore one could either cut their horns from the skull to grind a weapon out of it or create a spiky shield that might even work as a means to attack. Other than that, one was able to create a sturdy leather armor with their hide and Jason was sure that their bones and blood could be used to concoct some potions! As such, their body was valuable and Jason wouldn''t just walk away from the beast carcasses he and his soulbonds killed. If he killed something, he should at least use their body to earn something out of it. Otherwise, he would have killed without reason. Once he came back to Artemis and Scorpio, they looked much better but instead of continuing their coordination training, Jason decided that it would be better to let both recuperate in his soul world for some time. Inside a soul world, a soulbonds recuperation would accelerate manifold and an injury that would take several days to heal would be fine after a single day. Artemis was only exhausted and would be fine in less than an hour as long as she replenished her used-up mana, while Scorpio''s exoskeleton would also be completely healed after two hours at most. However, his pierced-through stinger would probably require one day which obstructed Jason''s initial plan. After thinking about it, Jason thought that he could also consider this as an opportunity for Scorpio to use his other means to attack because he hadn''t seen him using his affinity or much mana during the whole skirmish against the large group of rotten Triceratops! With that in mind, he smiled slyly once both his soulbonds were inside his soul world to recuperate their condition to a certain degree before Jason would throw them out again. Chapter 316 - Using All Means After having seen Artemis and Scorpio''s battle, Jason not only knew that their coordination was lacking but also that they weren''t fighting with all their might. It was not that they didn''t fight half-heartedly but they subconsciously held back by not using every they could. Scorpio only used his stinger, and claws to fight against the rotten Triceratops, while he didn''t utilize his affinity or even mana to enhance his body. Jason used his poison affinity more versatile than Scorpio which shouldn''t be the case. He was already able to manifest several different kinds of poisonous fogs, and even poisonous shards by enveloping any kind of poison desired into a layer of mana. It was much easier to do the same with a faint layer of ice surrounding the poison within because one didn''t have to continuously supply mana to a poison icicle as it was the case with a normal poisonous shard. However, it was still possible with enough effort and Jason was sure that he could improve this type of attack more to reduce the mana consumption and increase the lethality further as long as he had time Meanwhile, Artemis only utilized her affinity and didn''t seem to bother about using her body to enter close combat as long as it was not necessary to survive. This meant that not only Scorpio held back while fighting, but also Artemis whose blood was mana-infused which allowed her to be slightly stronger than normal peak-Unblemished beasts under normal circumstances. With that in mind, Jason couldn''t help but think that he had to force them to use everything in their means to fight against other beasts or even humans which might happen in the future. He was not a fan of this thought but it would happen sooner or later. As such he had to be prepared for everything which included improving his soulbonds'' combat strength. Searching for a good place to rest, Jason passively absorbing mana while he observed everything with his mana eyes. Additionally, he looked around if there was anything around that didn''t release any mana which would also be counted as a threat by him before he knew what exactly it was that he couldn''t detect through his mana eyes. Since he encountered manaless poison and even a beast he couldn''t detect with his mana eyes, Jason started to act more careful with his mana eyes. He didn''t trust them completely anymore! This was unfortunate but definitely a necessary step to stay alive after he noticed how much he relied on them. He could only say that if it was fortunate for him to notice this early enough, otherwise, he might already be dead by now. Only half an hour passed before Artemis emerged out of the pure-white mana circle that manifested next to him. Adjusting her size, Artemis squeezed herself on Jason''s shoulder, where she rubbed her dirty head at his. Caressing her while continuing to walk around, he noticed that her mana replenished extremely fast as her mana core was already filled by three-quarters. Squeezed on his shoulder, she continued to absorb mana passively, which she already learned to do a while ago. It was nothing special for beasts that had the potential to reach the magical rank because absorbing mana from the surrounding was one of the requirements to maintain one''s life as a magical ranked beast that required it, but Artemis was still somewhat unique in this field. Not only did she learn how to passively absorb mana shortly after she finished her evolution, but her conversion from natural mana to ice transmuted mana was extremely fast which allowed her passive mana absorption to accelerate by a small margin. Scorpio was also able to passively absorb mana, but he only learned it several days before their departure to the abandoned lands. His passive mana absorption speed was also noticeably slower than Artemis'' because his conversion from natural mana to poison transmuted mana was also slower. This was also one of the reasons for Scorpio to pay more attention to his physical state instead of mana. His control was lower than Artemis'', and he also knew that his racial limit was not far away for him to reach. When he first figured out that Artemis, his rival, had a higher potential than he had, Scorpio immediately complained with loud noises and a vulgar outbreak of words he didn''t even knew the meaning about. At that time, Jason was sure that a fortified soul conjunction was not established to act like this with each other. However, it hurt him somehow to see how Scorpio felt, knowing that its potential was lower than Artemis'', but that was not because of the apparent reason. Jason felt hurt because Scorpio didn''t seem to appreciate how much effort and pain he and Dalia had to endure to allow Scorpio to reach his current strength and this thought hurt extremely. Somehow he felt the desire to tell everything, Dalia, in order to share his pain but Jason felt like his master would feel even more betrayed about that because she was so happy to see that Scorpio became stronger, considering that he started as a Miniature Parascors. Scorpio was definitely greedy but it couldn''t be considered bad because one would think that it was a positive trait as long as one was ambitious enough to strive for more. However, unfortunately enough, Scorpio seemed to be in a slump at the moment which was why Jason had to think of a way for it to leave this hell hole of a slump for good. Less than an hour later, he found the perfect place to initiate his plan, with several small beast groups, consisting of 3 to 7 beasts that were at the low-Unblemished rank in the surrounding area. Smiling lightly, Artemis on his shoulder noticed that something was off which caused her to flee from Jason''s grasp as she ascended into the air where she remained, gazing at him with her ice blue eyes. Summoning Scorpio, whose stinger was still not fully healed he transmitted his soulbonds his plan. [Artemis, you are not allowed to use your affinity for long-range attacks. You have mana-infused blood and your talons are sharp enough to pierce through low-Unblemished ranked beast hide. Furthermore, you can use your affinity much more versatile. There is no need for you to attack with icicles all the same if you don''t want to drain your mana every single fight. Scorpio, you are not allowed to rely on your physical strength alone. Your task is to constantly use your mana and affinity. It is good that you have great stamina and that you can fight other beasts head-on with your physical strength alone, but you have enough mana to prevent the injuries you sustained during the last two fights and your poison affinity is also not only an accessory or something I use alone, but it''s innately yours! You already saw how I used the poison affinity and I doubt that your proficiency should be worse!] When he finished with his Instructions, Jason could only hear reluctant and frustrated screeches from Artemis and Scorpio directly transmitted into his mind. However, Jason just ignored their pleading and shouted "Go go!", which was heard by the closest, small beast group that turned towards them with bloodshot eyes before they charged towards the three of them. Chapter 317 - Ive Never Seen Her Like That Observing the battle of Artemis and Scorpio against the small group of low-Unblemished ranked Elemental Lions, Jason could tell that his previous instructions were harsh but definitely helpful. While Scorpio was struggling to use his mana and poison affinity in his fight except relying on his high physical strength, Artemis continued to try using her ice affinity as much as possible, even in close combat. However, she also used her claws, beak, and horns to fights, which Jason noticed with a satisfied nod. In the end, both were struggling to change their combat style but it was much better than Jason expected. As such, he couldn''t help but smile at his soulbonds'' whose attitude changed after they noticed how narrow-minded their previous combat style was. It was much easier to defeat their opponents after getting the hang of it! Once the first group of Elemental Lions was taken care of without anyone sustaining any serious injuries, Artemis and Scorpio were told to continue with their training under the same conditions as before which they did without any hesitation. ** It was already Sunday evening when Jason ended their short two-day training trip to the abandoned lands. Artemis and Scorpio''s combat experience heightened and both changed their combat style drastically compared to Saturday morning, where they were still stuck in common fighting patterns. Nevertheless, Jason knew that they still required a lot more practice and he would have to come to the Abandoned lands or similar training grounds once he had free time. With that in mind, he tried to figure out what else he could teach them in order to increase their combat prowess. Unfortunately, there was not too much because he was not a beast and couldn''t understand Artemis or Scorpio''s wild instincts at all. Adding the fact that he himself was not overly proficient in fighting beasts, Jason could only hint at the most obvious flaws he noticed by observing them intently. Other than that, Jason told them to figure out their greatest weakness alone and to work on them once they were back at his masters'' backyard or outside the dome, where they wouldn''t destroy anything valuable. Walking around the abandoned lands, waiting for Shane to pick him up again, Jason pondered about something else he noticed. His mana core size was already comparable to that of an average 2nd Master which was one whole rank above his mana core rank that was at the 2nd Expert rank. This would have been advantageous in many cases but he wanted to break through at a fast pace over the next few months, which was hardly possible, if he had to fill his Expert rank mana core with the amount, an average 2nd Master rank would normally require to breakthrough. Right now, his mana core was 20% refined and Jason noticed that he would still need 3 weeks to enter the 3rd Expert rank. Under normal circumstances, such a feat was already considered good because someone with an average mana aptitude would need much longer than 10 years to enter the Master rank after entering the Expert rank. Even someone with an above-average mana aptitude would need 10 years, while humans with a great mana aptitude required around three to five years. For example, Malia Fler, broke into the Master stage when she turned 16 years old. She began to sense mana at the age of 8 years and didn''t need a long time to enter the Adept rank at the age of 10. Slowly adjusting to the sensation of mana, she required 3 years to enter the Expert rank, only for her to need 3 more years to enter the Master rank. Under normal circumstances, Malia wouldn''t have needed 3 years to enter the Master rank but her mana mastery was still increasing in her puberty, which increased her mana absorption by a large margin. However, she also contracted two soulbonds in quick succession. Through the soul world amplification Malia received at the age of 14, she had to fill up a mana core that was larger in size than her current rank. At the time she contracted her first soulbond, she was at the 4th Expert rank which caused her breakthrough speed to slow down. However, she didn''t mind that and continued as if nothing happened which was probably the best mindset one could have towards absorbing mana. Jason was similar, yet different. His mana core size increased by a whole rank and every time he could break through, someone else with the same mana attitude as him, would be able to a breakthrough while being a whole stage above him. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t complain about his high soul world amplification because it rescued him many times and was one of the biggest reasons for him to reach his current strength. As such, he had to find a way to increase his absorption speed to enlarge his vessel, strengthen it, and keep up with his soulbonds increase of strength to not fall behind too much. Not long after Jason finished his train of thoughts, space twisted nearby him and Shane emerged out of it. Grinning foolishly, Jason said teasingly "You''re finally here, Master?" Frowning at Jason''s words, Shane answered, his mood visibly bad. "I can also go if you don''t want to be brought back!" "No No!!" Jason hurriedly said before Scorpio disappeared inside the magic circle below him to appear in his soul world. Artemis shrunk in size and landed on Jason''s shoulder and everyone was ready to depart, while Jason only hoped that his master wouldn''t hold a grudge against him because he only wanted to tease him a little bit. Suddenly he remembered that Emily was probably still at their house, which caused mixed emotions to emerge within him as he asked "What happened to Emily? Does Dalia still want to take her in?" Sighing deeply, Shane could only shrug his shoulders. "It''s extremely weird...Let''s go back and you can take a look for yourself!" This didn''t sound really good to Jason but he only nodded his head before they walked through the spatial portal Shane manifested to appear inside their house. Looking around, there didn''t seem to be any changes when Shane said "Just follow the noises" Only now did he hear two feminine voices having a dispute about something, which caused Jason to frown, when he followed his master''s advice. Following the noises, he arrived in front of the room that was directly next to his. Knocking at the door, the voices within immediately quieted down. Noticing this, Jason only said "I''m coming inside!" before he opened the door. "Noo!!" was the only thing Jason heard when he saw Dalia trying to force a bunch of dresses on Emily, who stood only a few meters away from Jason. Emily was only wearing a skirt and a thin white blouse, which she tried to take off when she noticed Jason standing in the door-frame. Closing the door almost immediately, he turned around where he saw Shane throwing a sly smile at him. "You already knew that this would happen, right?!" Jason asked, trying to remain level-headed while cursing his master from within. However, instead of answering his question, Shane just shrugged his shoulder before he seriously said "Dalia''s behavior is still weird! I''ve never seen her like that¡­" Chapter 318 - I Dont Want To Be A Burden Suddenly, Shane started to list complaints about the last two days with the most important one that Dalia began to ignore him because she focused more on Emily who she spoiled like a small princess. Not only did she receive several dresses, but also more than one hundred new sets of clothes, which caused Jason to look at Shane with widened eyes. "I have less than 10 sets of clothes" He mumbled not knowing why someone should need 100 sets of clothes. Sighing deeply, Jason continued to listen to Shane''s complaints which didn''t seem to stop anytime soon, when he heard. "Dalia trusts her too much and unconditionally at that! We don''t even know if everything Emily said is true... I told Dalia that we should make a soul contract with Emily which prevents her from temporarily lying to anyone, but Dalia almost threw me out of the house!! Can you beleive that?" Suddenly the door behind Jason was ripped open when he turned around to see Dalia glaring daggers at him. "Why didn''t you wait for someone to open the door? Did you never learn to be considerate?!?" She was almost shouting and Jason could almost immediately tell that Dalia was different compared to before. However, in his opinion, this didn''t allow her to act like she was currently doing. "I knocked and nobody answered. As such I just opened the door. It''s not like you could have said ''Wait a moment''. That''s not too much to ask for, right?" Halting in her tracks, Dalia didn''t know what to answer and she had to acknolwedge her disciple''s words. Still, she couldn''t just accept it, that Jason saw something he shouldn''t have! Behind Dalia, Emily, who had a completely red head, appeared, wearing all of her clothes again, looking at Jason for a moment before she averted her gaze. Tucking at Dalia''s robe, she faintly said "It was my fault and not Jason''s¡­." Turning around to Emily, Dalia smiled gently as Jason suddenly asked "Is Emily now officially living here?" Dalia didn''t even answer directly and only nodded her head, which caused him to frown. "If that''s the case, shouldn''t we at least form a soul contract that prevents lying for the next few hours to ask her questions?! Why haven''t you done so until now? Isn''t it too dangerous to let a stranger live with us?" Looking at Emily, he just said "I hope you understand that and won''t take it offensive. It would be weirder to trust someone without knowing him or her before, right?" Emily just nodded her head and was about to say that she could sign a soul contract to show her innocence, when Dalia, next to her erupted. "We didn''t force you to sign a soul contract to figure more about you either! What you are doing is almost abuse!!" When Dalia said this, Jason couldn''t help but glance at Shane who only shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what happened to his wife who behaved like a hypocrite. Jason felt weird that his master behaved like this and he sized her up with his mana eyes, only to see that nothing was amiss. ''Did something happen to her head?'' He suddenly began to thought, but only her behavior changed and nothing else, so it shouldn''t be something major. At least that was what both Jason and Shane thought when they glanced at Dalia in confusion. Trying to remain calm, Jason said "I was not asked to sign a soul contract to answer honestly because you two already knew everything. But I don''t really think that''s something surprising after the two of you stalked me for several months, right? I doubt that you know much about Emily and neither do you know if everything is true! Furthermore, we are currently in a completely different situation than before, or am I wrong?!" Looking at Emily with a faint smile, he apologized "Again...that''s nothing against you, Shane and I just don''t know you good enough to think that it would be a great idea to let you live here without knowing anything about you!" Emily could understand Jason''s reasoning fully and she would probably be reluctant to let a stranger live in her house too. Even more so after the things she heard during their discussion, which sound like she unintentionally entered a Lion den. However, to her, it was more important that Jason rescued her from being enslaved while Dalia was extremely kind to her without demanding anything in return. She didn''t mind living somewhere dangerous as long as she could be helpful to those who helped her. Additionally, Shane didn''t seem to be a bad person, even if he looked at her suspiciously which was, however, not surprising. At least if one considered, how much of a coincidence everything was and how much Dalia seemed to have changed because of Emily''s sudden appearance. Dalia was about to retort Jason''s words when Emily next to her said "I''ll sign a soul contract, preventing me from lying to any of you temporarily or even permanently. Furthermore, if it''s required, I can even sign a nondisclosure agreement to avoid accidentally revealing something important to others!... I know that I''m a hassle and if that is not enough, I can also leave the house and be a normal employee at the Golden-Soul shop, if necessary..." When she finished her words, Emily''s expression turned sad and even Shane couldn''t help but feel pity for her. Nobody knew how hard her life in the orphanage was but seeing how considerate she was, Jason and Shane couldn''t help but rethink their suspicion. Emily didn''t want to become a burden to someone and was happy to be accepted into someone''s house, and they didn''t even demand anything grand in return. She could also understand Shane and Jason''s suspicion and rather than thinking that this was weird, Dalia''s excessive kindness and how she was treated by her was weirder, even if it didn''t make her feel uncomfortable. Shane cleared his throat and said "You don''t have to leave if everything with the temporary soul contract goes well. Just keep in mind that it might be dangerous to stay with us! I can tell that you already understand that we are different from others, but keep in mind that slave merchants are not the biggest problem you have to face as long as you stay next to us!" He was still uncomfortable with his wife''s behavior, but Shane also knew that Dalia wanted to have a child for centuries, a girl at that. As such, he thought that she might want Emily to become her daughter. This thought lingered in Shane''s head for two days when Dalia accepted Emily just like that into the house without taking any precautions. ''Maybe the last 50 years in isolation were too much for her?... Even if it might turn into a mistake to accept Emily into our house or family just like that, forcing her to leave would only worsen Dalia''s mood or maybe even make her depressed, right?'' Shane didn''t really care much about Emily if he were to be honest, and he only wanted Dalia and Jason to be as safe as possible. In that case, Emily was an irregular factor that might endanger their safety, which caused Shane to doubt everything about her since Jason brought her inside. However, seeing how happy Dalia was, felt good and bad at the same time because he couldn''t ask Emily to leave the house anymore. ''If I pay enough attention to her, everything should be fine, even if she has an ulterior intention¡­.I guess'' Shane told himself when he saw Jason adding two new clauses to his already existing soul contract with Emily. Chapter 319 - Advertisement The clauses Jason added to the soul contract which he had already formed with Emily were that she was neither allowed to lie to him nor to his masters when they demanded to know the truth about something. Furthermore, he also added a non-disclosure clause preventing Emily from accidentally revealing any secrets she will get to know while staying with them. This also included that she shouldn''t talk about anything that might make Jason and his masters look like they were suspicious. Emily was fine with the new contract and accepted it without any hesitation, while Dalia seemed to feel a little bit vexed. Jason tried to ignore this and eyed his master weirdly, asking himself if she was desperate to have another female in the house because he and Shane were too frustrating or if it was because of something else. How should he have known that Dalia felt an innate connection to Emily which even she herself couldn''t understand? When Jason carried her inside the house, Dalia was not excessively interested in her. She only wanted to tend her wounds and nothing else! But after some time after she got to know what happened to Emily and how she escaped, that she was an orphan for almost all her life and Dalia couldn''t help but size her up again at that time. After that, everything was over and she subconsciously decided that she would take in Emily, even if Shane or Jason were to disagree. In the end, both Shane and Jason seemed to accept her easier than Dalia expected and the only issue she had was their suspicion about her which was why they demanded a soul contract to prevent her from revealing any secrets or that she could even lie to them if they were to demand to know the truth about something. However, after thinking about it for a moment, Dalia couldn''t help but think that the two were not entirely wrong. She figured out that acting too rash and thoughtless was not the best solution because of their particular situation and it was obvious that nobody knew who exactly Emily was and if her story was the entire truth. Now that everything was finished, Jason stepped back allowing Shane to ask Emily the questions he had in mind to determine if she was trustworthy and loyal or not. Jason had something else to take care of for now and left the other three. He entered his room, where he opened the holographic screen of his quantum bracelet. Jason received several messages from various people that want to become employees from the Golden-Soul shop, which was what he hoped for. After reading through all messages he received, there were only a few he was truly interested in because most answers to his request were only [Hello Mr.Laera, I want to become your employee! Let me work hard and earn you a huge fortune!] The meaning of such an answer was obvious, which was that they wanted to please him and nothing else. On one side, someone with such an attitude was in most cases easier to handle than uncommunicative people. However, there were still messages Jason liked more because they were either extremely confident in themselves or overestimated their capabilities which was hilarious to read. One example for such a message was from a young man, at least that was what Jason assumed after seeing his profile picture, who wrote. [Mr Laera, I would like to become a useful asset to the Golden-Soul shop, but I won''t sign a soul contract with such a low salary! I know my worth and I won''t accept being restricted with that kind of salary!] Either the young man called Silas Loa was too full of himself or he was the perfect candidate for his shop because he wanted confident employees who could throw out wicked customers. Right now, it was already Sunday, late in the evening, but Jason still messaged the young men what exactly he expected to receive as salary, and how exactly he was worth that amount. Once he sent a message to Silas Loa, Jason switched to another website that was used to advertise shops before starting to write an application. In the beginning, it would be difficult to get any customers and he was fully aware of that. However, once the first few customers arrived, the Golden-Soul shop with its high purity goods would start attracting a larger mass. For this, he would only need to get a few customers first, which was why he paid 1 million credits to be advertised through the whole B-grade city for three days straight. If he were to advertise his shop more, it might be too much and the other shops inside the B-grade city might turn against him, which was not something he wanted. Furthermore, he had only a limited amount of goods for now because he could neither mass produce anything yet, nor did he have any extremely unique weapons or other forged goods. Jason had several hundred perfectly purified bars made out of Jade-Iron, other grade-1 ores and even a few grade-2 ores that were slightly easier to purify than normal grade-2 ores. Furthermore, he was confident in mass-producing potions soon, to provide more, even if he already had quite a large stockpile of potions. The only good he was truly lacking right now were forged weapons because it required the most time to forge them. While waiting to receive an answer from Silas Loa, who was the only applicant he found truly interesting, Jason decided to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique to increase his amount of soul energy units. Once he was done, it was already midnight, when he received a notification, which caused him to chuckle lightly. [How about 30,000 Credits? For that sum, I would also sign a soul contract!] ''30,000 credits? It''s not like that is a great sum, considering that I can hunt it in less than an hour through a single Unblemished ranked beast¡­.If he''s worth that sum, why not?'' After getting to know that most humans were either too frightened or weak-willed to fight against beasts, Jason began to understand the worth of hunters and how rich they were compared to normal citizens. For Jason, 30,000 credits a month was nothing, but for others, it was enough to live luxurious for several months or even half a year. Thinking about credits, he remembered that he had several hundred Unblemished ranked beast corpses in his spatial ring with many of them having rare materials. Thus, he wouldn''t have a shortage of money to pay his employees, which allowed him to pay them more than he initially planned as long as they worked hard. Furthermore, he would have to take care of Emily if his masters would make him responsible for her, which was something he didn''t want to happen. Jason hoped that this would not be the case but he had a premonition about it and could only hope that he was wrong. After messaging Silas Loa that he was fine with giving him such a ''high'' salary if he worked hard enough in addition to the time and place he should arrive the next day, Jason washed up and went into his bed, where Scorpio was already laying with half its body and Artemis immediately next to it. Sighing deeply, Jason began to wonder why exactly his soulbonds were too clingy and indigent compared to every single other soulbond he got to know over the last few months. ''Is that because of me or only their normal behavior?'' He asked himself, but it was not like he would receive an answer to that. Laying down in his bed, he didn''t need much time to fall into a deep dreamless slumber. Chapter 320 - Golden It was barely 5 am when Jason woke up. Stretching his body, he rubbed his drowsy eye only to see that both Artemis and Scorpio were still sleeping. Smiling at them, he got out of the bed quietly before he washed up and changed into a neat set of clothes. When he would enter the Golden-Soul shop, Jason would wear a mask to retain his secret identity. This was not really necessary according to Shane and Dalia, but his masters didn''t take into consideration that he wouldn''t be taken seriously as a youth which Jason already figured out. Nobody would think that he was not even 15 years old because of his mature aura and looks. However, at the same time, nobody would believe that he was in his 20s either. As such it was better to conceal his mana core and wear a mask inside his own shop which would show everyone that he was either the heir from an influential family or a larger clan, trying to become independent. There were also several more assumptions, others might take but none of them would think that he was a young teenager without any real backing if one were to deduct his masters who shouldn''t walk around, drawing attention to them. Otherwise, it might backlash which was not something either of them wanted. After he was done, Jason walked down to the kitchen to eat something for breakfast, only to see that Emily was already there, cooking. Seeing that Jason was already awake, she smiled lightly, unsure how to behave with him. The atmosphere turned slightly awkward for Emily who didn''t know what to do as she saw that Jason took out a few dishes from his spatial ring, which caused her to exclaim "Noo! Dont!!" Hearing this, Jason lifted his head in confusion to look at Emily who was holding her hand out, trying to stop him from eating. "I''m cooking for everyone right now! Why don''t you wait?" Lifting an eyebrow, Jason stood up to take a closer look to figure out what exactly Emily was cooking. It smelled delicious and he didn''t have anything against eating it, but there was something that bothered Jason. "Emily, I don''t know if you already know that, but what you''re cooking is not even enough to satiate me, even less Shane or Dalia who should have an even higher demand for nutrition. Well, that is at least if they don''t supply it through something else. Furthermore, I''m not sure if you know that but even if you live here now, the Golden-Soul shop is about to open this morning and you''re still considered my employee" Weakly nodding her head, Emily faintly asked "Is that really not enough for everyone to be saturated? And of course, I know that I''m still your employee, when do you want to depart?" Emily''s green eyes turned gloomy after Jason told her that the food she made was not enough, and Jason couldn''t help but smile as he explained "If you would cook with higher-graded ingredients and not with Unblemished ranked beast meat, it might be enough...I think?.... I''ll depart at 6 because I have to explain the other employee everything about the Shop and sign the soul contract with him." Nodding her head, Emily still felt awkward with Jason, and even more so after she recalled that he saw her only wearing her underwear and a skirt the day before. Her cheeks turned red and she didn''t know what to say when she heard him say "How are you and your soulbond feeling? Did anything change or did nothing happen with the emerald-green egg during the last two days?" Jason didn''t really feel uncomfortable, but that was mostly because Shane reassured him that the story she told was the truth and that she doesn''t have any ill intentions. Other than that, Jason could easily understand from the beginning, who he was comfortable with and whom not because of the faint aura they released. He was not sure if everyone was the same in that, but he was always relatively good at detecting whom he could rely on and who he should stay away from. However, that was not something certain which he only figured out after Old Drake betrayed them. This was also the reason for him to be so adamant in asking Emily if she could sign a soul contract that prevented her betrayal and that she could lie to him and his masters. Her faint aura made it clear to Jason that she was someone kind and gentle, but being safe with a soul contract was still better. "Nothing special changed about the emerald-green egg, except that I can barely feel something inside. I don''t know why it is like that but maybe the beast inside is only awakening or even being born after I contracted it...At least that was what Aunt Dalia said and Uncle Shane assumes the same" ''Aunt and Uncle? I guess their current appearance is suitable to be called aunt and uncle'' Chuckling lightly, Jason nodded his head before saying "As long as everything is fine, it''s good!" Jason decided to not eat anything for now, and that it might be better to wait for Shane and Dalia for now as he continued to talk with Emily. He still wanted to figure out how much she learned during the last two days and if she was ready to work inside the Golden-Soul shop. Almost half an hour passed and Emily finished making breakfast when Shane and Dalia entered the kitchen. "Oh? You two were already awake?" Dalia said with a bright smile, only for Jason to see a faint gleaming in her eyes, telling him that his masters already knew that he and Emily were here. "Let''s eat, Jason has to take care of his shop from today onwards" Shane said before looking at Jason. Everyone nodded their head and the four of them set the table before they ate breakfast. Once Emily''s dishes that were as tasty as they smelled were eaten up after a few minutes, Jason was forced to take out several more dishes which he ate, ignoring Dalia who glared daggers at him. She even mumbled that he was ''rude'', only for Emily to hastily intervene "Jason already explained to me that I should cook with higher-grade ingredients if I want everyone to be saturated. If he is still hungry, he should eat more¡­" Nodding his head, Jason just continued to eat, ignoring Dalia who was not satisfied with this result as he heard her grumbling. "I''ll go and purchase better ingredients!" Shane just shook his head and decided to ignore his wife too. Once Jason was done, he washed the dishes before entering his room where Artemis and Scorpio were still sleeping. Calling them back into his soul world, where they could continue to sleep, Jason walked outside again, before his shuttle arrived. As long as Artemis was sleeping, he couldn''t call her into his mana core or manifest her wings, which was slightly annoying but nothing he could change without waking her up. As such, he would rather call a shuttle and drive towards the Golden-Soul shop. After he entered the shuttle, Jason noticed that Emily rushed behind him to enter the shuttle too, saying while gasping for air "Don''t forget your employee!" Chapter 321 - Plan While Jason and Emily were brought to the Golden-Soul shop, he asked her multiple questions to figure out if she knew everything noteworthy about the tasks she had to do. It didn''t take long for them to arrive and they got out of the shuttle, while Jason pondered about a few things. ''Emily is able to learn quite fast and it shouldn''t be a problem to give her more responsibilities once the shop is more popular. If that''s possible, I can work on myself without any issue! It''s about time that I start forging low-grade-2 weapons either way and it would be perfect to sell them inside the shop and online.'' Right now, Jason''s biggest priority was strengthening his mana core rank and refining his body in order to strengthen his vessel. However, he also had to earn more funds because his masters told him so. They increased his monthly cultivation resources which included medical solutions that had lots of nutrition in them, which was already a huge gain for him. Nevertheless, Jason was sure that he wasn''t earning enough to pay for his own expenses at the moment and that was bothersome. Either way, he could only take one step at a time. That was exactly what he was doing right now and he was confident that it wouldn''t take long for his shop to become popular. On one side he didn''t have many goods but on the other side, they were also not cheap which would repulse poor customers. His shop was more focused on quality for every single good and quantity, which was good and bad at the same time. If he focused on both quality and quantity, his sales would probably skyrocket in a few days, but that was not something he had to care about now. Right as he was about to enter the shop, he saw a young man waiting in front of the door, impatiently. From his facial features, Jason could immediately tell that it was Silas Loa, whose profile picture he already saw. As such, he just entered the Golden-Soul shop before asking his future employee to follow him. Silas, however, was astonished to hear Jason''s voice behind the pitch-black mask which he put on before getting out of the shuttle. Jason''s voice was that of a young man or more likely even a teenager which was not something Silas expected to hear. However, after trying to inspect his new employer''s, he had to acknowledge that the black masked young man was not someone ordinary because he concealed his mana core completely. Not a tiny trace of mana fluctuations left his body and one might even think that Jason was someone who never absorbed mana in his whole life. Shaking his head, Silas followed Jason quickly, only to enter a chilled room. Taking a look around while ignoring the temperature inside the room, Silas could tell that the shop might be new but its potential was great. Alone the face that Jason cooled the room to prevent the exhibited potions from going bad was something inexperienced shops might forget, when they first open. It was common sense but some shop-owners were still hopeless. Seeing that, Silas was sure that his new employer knew what he was doing, when he saw the name tags and prices of all goods inside the shop. His eyes widened but it was not because of the expensive prices but rather the names written on the tags. "150.000 Credits?...Perfect purified Jade-Iron bar?!?" Subconsciously he just blurted out everything he read on the tags, which caused Jason to smile lightly behind his mask as he said "I think you''re fine with the common employment soul contract, right? Your salary is fixed on 30.000 Credits per month and the other clauses should already be clear. If not, you can read them once again¡­ If you don''t like to work for me anymore, the soul contract will remain but slowly delete all clauses except the non-disclosure agreement in it, alright? Furthermore, you have to resign a month in advance. If that''s not possible because of a serious injury or illness, the soul contract will immediately inform me. Other than that, there is nothing special, but I can promise you that there is a good chance of a bonus if you work hard and sell enough goods." Hearing what Jason said, Silas nodded his head without being able to think clearly as Jason loosened a thread from his soul to manifest the desired soul contract in front of him in a matter of seconds. When Silas saw this, he was astonished because his old employers required several minutes for something the black masked youth could do in less than half a minute. Seeing that, he felt even more confident to have picked the right employer and Silas signed the employment soul contract after reading through it two times. Once that was done, Silas took a deep breath before he regained his composure. In his whole life, he already signed multiple soul contracts and right now it was not as taxing as the first time. Jason took out a perfectly purified calming potion which he handed Silas, so that he could remain calm and at the same time soothe his soul world''s toll. Accepting the potion thankfully, he only noticed how expensive the potion was after he finished gulping down every single drop inside it. ''That were 50,000 Credits!'' The calming potion Jason gave his new employee was only a grade-1 potion but after it was perfectly purified, its value and effectiveness were better than most normal grade-2 potions. After considering this, Jason thought that he was still extremely nice with his price because he could also double all prices inside his shop and still have enough customers. That was if they knew about the difficulties to create perfect purified goods! Nevertheless, his plan was something else for now! First, he didn''t really want to scare away poorer customers who didn''t know about his prices, but Jason knew that this would happen either way. As such, he genuinely hoped that news of a <> would spread through the whole city! This would be perfect for his Golden-Soul shop and an even better than the one he applied for online! With such rumors spreading, interested blacksmiths and probably even merchants would start looking out for his shop, only to figure out that the rumors were true. However, for them, it was not "extremely expensive" but more likely a cheap price, considering that one could forge mana weapons with perfect purified bars. At least if one was able to create an alloy that was suitable to be forged into a mana weapon. Other than that, wealthy hunters and other slightly larger families might look out for the perfectly purified potions because they were extremely useful. Not only were they more effective than normal grade-1 potions, but being purified from all impurities also meant that one could gulp down several million potions without having any problems with one''s mana circulation and absorption. This in particular was the biggest issue with normal, impure potions, and the reason why nobody really liked to purchase them, if it was not necessary. After drinking to many impure potions, the accumulated impurities would start to obstruct the mana absorption and circulation by a minuscule degree, which would only increase, the more potions one had to use! In the end, this might even turn out as the reason to be unable to breakthrough another mana core rank. If the Golden-Soul shop became well-known after the first week he would start increasing the price by a small margin, otherwise, he would have to wait for another week. This wouldn''t cause a commotion because he already had a "Sale" label on his shop, telling everyone that his price wouldn''t remain like it currently was forever! Chapter 322 - Ranting Jason was confident that his current plan was good enough to bring in a huge fortune. That was if he provided enough goods to sell. It was not even that he was too full of himself but with his prices and the quality of his goods, it would be extremely weird if he would come out with a small profit or even a loss at the end of the month. There were only two things he had to take care of for now. Attract customers and prevent offending too many shops! Jason thought that the first one was not hard to come by as long as his shop''s goods retained their good quality. Meanwhile, the second thing he had to pay attention to, was not that easy to cope with because it was evident that he would offend a few shops in the long run. Some shops might not notice that anything was off in the beginning but once the Golden-Soul shop started to attract too much attention, customers would rather come to his shop than others. This would reduce other shops'' profits drastically and Jason was sure that some of them would try to slander him in any possible way. However, that was bound to happen and Jason didn''t really bother about it for now. Instead, he would rather focus on the most important things for now; gathering popularity! It was already 8 am when Jason finished explaining everything important to Emily and Silas who eyed the prices for everything in awe and shock before their attention was drawn to Jason. After he told them that the ''expensive'' prices they saw were already discounted and thus on sale, both couldn''t contain themselves anymore and exclaimed in astonishment. However, after that was done, Jason took out his ''exclusive'' items, consisting of several dozen pseudo-mana grade-1 weapons and one mana-grade-1 Jadetide longsword. If one were to look closer at the weapons, it wouldn''t be difficult to come to the conclusion that each weapon was made by one blacksmith as every single one of them had the same flaws in them. These flaws were minuscule and one could tell that every weapon was slightly better than the one before because there were fewer flaws in them. The last four pseudo-mana grade-1 weapons were infinitely close to real mana-grade-1 weapons and it was only because of a small fluke in the forging process, that they were still considered pseudo-mana weapons. Nevertheless, their price was still much higher than the pseudo-mana grade-1 dagger-set Jason forged on his first try to make mana-grade-1 weapons. In the end, all weapons he forged used perfectly purified bars which increased their mana circulation and ignited the materials'' full potential. This prevented them from breaking to fast and becoming dull. As such, Shane''s mana-grade-1 longsword was worth 4,000,000 Credits which was comparable to the price of a well forged high-grade-2 weapon. Yet, its price was still the average for common mana-grade-1 weapons. Exhibiting the sword as his main attraction, Jason was sure that a few blacksmiths that might pass his shop would notice its value and start questioning who forged it. These blacksmiths would either ask about the person who forged it to figure out the blacksmiths secret to create a mana-grade-1 weapon without a single flaw in its mana conductivity, or they would try to see if it was possible to lure such a blacksmith to their side. There were many blacksmiths trying to oppose the Artisan tower due to multiple reasons, but the biggest obstacle against a riot against the Artisan tower were their connections and the number of prodigies they had under them. Once Jason was done, he looked at Emily and Silas, whose eyes were shining brightly, which caused him to grin as he said "You two don''t have to be too euphoric right now. We don''t even have customers yet. To be honest, I doubt that anything special will happen today. Just take it easy. Absorb mana or practice the Heaven''s Hell technique until a customer comes in. I don''t think that they will remain inside the shop for long and they might even curse us about the prices. But please remember to remain kind and courteous! If my estimation is not wrong, in around four days, the first few real customers might come by." Hearing this, Emily and Silas looked at him in confusion, not knowing what exactly he tried to imply. ** Only three days later, the two finally understood what Jason meant with his words. There were many people who were interested in the Golden-Soul shop when it opened, but almost all of them cursed Jason, Emily, and Silas for being greedy or insane. This was because they put such high prices for potions and forged bars, one could normally purchase for a tenth of the Golden-Soul shop''s price. Even the pseudo-magic weapons and mana weapon''s price were too high according to these ''wise'' citizens who labeled Jason as fraud. Some of them even said that they would report him to the government. Hearing this, Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly behind his mask because these ''wise'' citizens were nothing but pushovers after he released his killing intent before saying "If Sir doesn''t plan to purchase anything and has the intention to rant or curse me, Sir might as well leave my shop! NOW!" Most citizens were astonished about him releasing killing intent, only because they were cursing a little bit inside his shop. However, even after they heard that he asked them to leave, some citizens were reluctant and continued to curse about his exorbitant prices. Using his physical strength of a 2nd Master rank, he picked these pushovers who were not proficient in fighting but also at the Master rank. Showing his strength and decisiveness from the beginning, everyone understood that the Golden-Soul shop was not something they could take on just like that. Their mana core rank might be on par with Jason''s but the citizen were not completely stupid and understood that Jason had a high combat awareness. Instead of actively cursing him, after getting to know how Jason acted with his ''dear'' customers, most of them complained about his shop to the government. After these ''wise'' citizens which Jason threw out exaggerated the facts about the Golden-Soul shop to the government, they immediately send someone over to take a proper look. Jason, who was astonished that the citizens acted like that after ranting inside his shop, couldn''t help but shrug his shoulders when he saw a middle-aged man with short cut black hair and a short beard walking inside the shop. The man wore the government''s standardized uniforms, which the Jual family gave every single government worker according to their rank, with emblems embedded on it according to their specialization. Seeing the emblem of a hammer striking on an anvil with four stars below, Jason couldn''t help but think that the frustrating citizens played into his hands. This emblem meant that the middle-aged man in front of him was an Advanced Blacksmith, commonly known as Rank-4 Blacksmith! ''This will be easier than I previously thought!'' Jason thought confidently as he saw that the government worker looked around his shop, without saying anything. He didn''t even greet Jason as the owner and just inspected everything clearly. When Emily and Silas saw the government worker, they were astonished and became nervous. After calming them down with reassuring words, Jason decided that it was time to approach the middle-aged man, who noticed him. "Hello Sir, how can I help you? Are you searching for something specific or just looking around?" Trying to figure out Jason''s mana core rank, the middle-aged man was astonished to sense that he couldn''t see through it at all. He was already at the Magus rank and still couldn''t see through the black-masked man with a youthful voice? Smiling lightly, the middle-aged man decided to disregard the citizens'' complaints that were obviously exaggerated and faulty as he introduced himself. "Hello, I''m Berg Brae and I came here to investigate the Golden-Soul shop to figure out if it will tarnish our city''s reputation. However, after seeing the goods'' prices, I can say for sure that they''re definitely not shady or too expensive like reported. I can tell that they''re perfectly purified which is not something one can find often in our small B-grade city! Rather than continuing a baseless investigation, I would like to purchase 100x perfect purified Jade-Iron bars and 50x energy replenishing potions! If that''s possible." ''Even as a Rank-4 Blacksmith, I''m still unable to perfectly purify grade-1 Jade-Iron bars to such an extent! Maybe I can learn something from that and further improve my capabilities¡­ Even if I can''t comprehend anything out of it, I might as well use them myself to forge a weapon and make a huge profit or give it to my disciple!" Jason just nodded his head as he said with a faint smile on his face. "That would be 17,500,000 Credits. Thanks for being our first big Customer and I apologize for creating such a ruckus¡­" __________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________ Chapter 323 - Miraculous Medicine "First big customer? There hasn''t been anyone, yet?" Berg asked, wondering how that was even possible as he transferred 17.5 Million credits to Jason''s bank account that was connected to his quantum bracelet. The person who invented quantum bracelets ensured that nobody could hack the bank accounts that were created when a new quantum bracelet was manufactured. One can only look into someone else''s bank account by having the owner''s permission or forcefully taking away the owner''s quantum bracelet. However, with the latter option, it was not possible to transfer credits from one account to another because the owner''s unique mana fluctuations are required to transfer credits. Adding multiple owners was possible but it would require the very first person to authorize everything. When Jason heard Berg Brae''s question, he couldn''t help but grin behind his mask before he honestly answered "Yes, Sir is my first big customer. There were other lower-ranked blacksmiths, but upon hearing the citizens outside talking bad about me, they probably didn''t dare to enter the shop. Maybe they feared to be conned by me or that the citizens averted their useless hate or whatever it is that they have against the Golden-Soul shop towards them. They''re probably laughing right now, thinking that Sir will arrest me for whatever reason. I don''t even think that they even questioned if my prices were justified or not, maybe they have anger management issues or seek a pushover they can blame for something bad." Right now, Jason tried to build up amity with the government worker to figure out more about the city''s problems because he noticed that the citizens behaved very odd. It was normal for poor people to be jealous of the rich which also included shops daring to exhibit expensive items, but from what he saw, the citizens'' behavior was over the top. Some of them stood already for three days in front of his shop, only to disappear when the shop closed. The next morning, they were already there, waiting for him and his employees to arrive before the shop opened. Jason was not sure what was going on, but he had the premonition that someone had his hands in this mess, whether it was someone ordering the citizen to stir trouble. There was also the possibility that these citizens searched for someone they could release their stress on because something bothered them within the city. However, he was not sure what could cause such a ruckus. Seeing how Berg flinched for a quarter of a second, Jason knew that he was on the right way, which was neither good nor bad. Clearing his throat Berg said as a big sweat pearl run down his temples. "I''ll take care of this problem. Once the government clarifies that your shop is legitimate and without any improper goods or prices, there shouldn''t be more issues¡­ I''ll also tell the Artisan tower and Hunter association that I found a shop selling perfectly purified grade-1 bars, potions, and mana weapons! I hope that is enough to show the government''s sincerity" If Jason didn''t wear his mask right now, everyone looking at him would see his furrowed eyebrows. His expression didn''t look good either, after he heard what the government worker said. Nevertheless, Jason nodded his head. Without further ado, Berg bid Jason farewell after he received his goods, before reassuring him again that he will take care of the matter. Walking back to Emily and Silas who were nervously waiting for him to say something, Jason couldn''t help but ask himself quietly "Is it normal for the government to act so courteous when someone complains about the citizens'' behavior?... He will take care of the matter? What matter? Holding back the citizens who seemed to have started a siege on my shop?" Emily and Silas both heard what Jason mumbled to himself and Emily could only helplessly look at him because she didn''t know anything about the real world as she was always nearby the orphanage, absorbing mana. However, Silas answered the question Jason asked after hesitating for a moment. "I don''t know why the citizens in front of the Golden-Soul shop seem to target you or the shop itself, but it hasn''t been that long since many things changed within the city. I''m not sure if that''s what you mean Sir, but there are a bunch of rumors going around the city. They might be exaggerated or even wrong but maybe they can help you." Turning to Silas, Jason indicated him to speak, which he did after a short moment to decide where to start. "I heard from three rumors around the city quite often but I can''t say if one of them is true or if all of them are wrong because every single rumor seems weird. The first rumor is about the Slave market and says that the Jual clan allied with foreign races to experiment with us, poor citizens, to make them stronger. Apparently, mankinds'' ability to contract beasts is unique to our race and other races want to create a being that has the foreign races'' strength and mana aptitude and humans'' unique ability to bind beasts and receive an amplification in strength. However, I doubt that this is the case, otherwise, we would have noticed something odd, right? I have never seen someone from a foreign race either... It''s hard to believe that this could be true! The second rumor says something about citizens being kidnapped, only to return after several days. After returning they''re said to have turned into completely different individuals and from what I saw, these citizens looked like they were addicted to drugs! This is more likely because Terebrean had lots of problems with drugs over the last few decades. At least that is what my parents told me. The third rumor I heard from citizens is that the Jual clan created a powerful potion or medicine, which allows the consumer to enhance his or her mana attitude for a certain period. Apparently, this ''miraculous medicine'' how most citizens name it, cannot be found on the market and only the government or slave market distributes it. To be honest, I''m not sure whether this rumor is true or not because I heard about it only a few times, and all of these citizens were former drug addicts... Unfortunately, I don''t know more about these rumors, otherwise, I would tell you more. Maybe one of them is true and the citizens have a reason to act like they''re currently doing?" Carefully listening to Silas'' words, Jason pondered for a moment, trying to figure out what these rumors could mean and if there was truth behind them when he heard Emily mumbling. "Didn''t the slave merchants say something from test objects?" Hearing this, Jason''s mind was rattling, trying to figure out what exactly was going on with the city and maybe even the whole Island, Terebrean. However, in the end, all clues came to one conclusion. ''The Jual Clan is also messing with the island they''re governing! If there are so many rumors going around, all of them could be true. At least to a certain extent! If that''s the case, The Jual Clan is allying with a foreign race, experimenting with humans, trying to find a way to create the most powerful humans. The ''miraculous medicine'' or how it''s called might as well be something from the foreign race, the Jual clan is allied with! If that''s the case, the drug-addicted citizens that were could have something to do with the experiments about the miraculous medicine, which could also be a drug?'' Jason entered his own world of thoughts and with each minute passing, the possibilities turned only worse which was definitely not good. Even the best possible outcome was extremely bad in his opinion, and mankind seemed to be even messier than he initially thought if that was even the case. ''Why didn''t Shane and Dalia retreat to a nicer island which is governed by one of the kinder big families?!'' He thought for a moment before disregarding this idea because it was obvious where the Drake clan would search for Shane and Dalia''s whereabouts first. Hiding in the enemy''s territory seemed to work out the best and his masters'' could even live above the surface right now without the need to hide below a lake! This was great, but at the same time, Jason couldn''t help but feel that everything was only becoming worse, the more time passed. Retaining his senses, he looked at Emily and Silas who waited for him to do anything as he said "Let''s go back to work, we should get more customers soon!" His two employees were disappointed that he told them what he thought about the rumors. However, there was nothing they could do except doing as he ordered. Going back to work, they first refilled the shelves where Jason took out the goods for Berg''s large purchase. Chapter 324 - Acting As Ears Only a few hours after Berg left the Golden-Soul shop, a few more low-ranked blacksmiths came and purchased a bunch of perfectly purified grade-1 bars. A short while later, young hunters entered his shop, taking a look at the perfectly purified potions. After inspecting them thoroughly, they purchased a small variety of potions before leaving, without saying much. However, Jason felt weird when he looked at some of them because of their jittery movements. From the young hunters'' facial expressions, they seemed to look serious and like common customers, but Jason''s mana eyes perceived that their mana veins and mana core were craving for something. At least that was how he interpreted what he saw. This was weird, but it was hardly possible to walk up to them and ask about what he saw. ** Once it was evening, Jason closed the shop and Silas went on his own way, while he and Emily called a shuttle. Under normal circumstances, he would manifest Artemis'' wings on his back and everything would be fine. However, after she heard that Jason had to carry Emily, Artemis rejected his request to enter the mana core so that he could manifest her wings. This forced Jason to either run home or use the shuttle. ''Why are my soulbonds so different to everyone except me?...'' He asked himself, wondering if others forced their soulbonds to behave them or if they innately listened to their master''s words. Either way, his soulbonds were not only clingy and indigent but also easily annoyed by small things and acted however they wanted to, which frustrated Jason. Furthermore, they seemed to like holding a grudge, which he noticed after they returned from the abandoned lands. Inside the shuttle, Jason decided to ask what Emily thought about the rumors. Unfortunately, she didn''t know what to say and the only thing she said was what she heard from the slave merchant she escaped. Other than that, she didn''t say much. Emily thought she would say something wrong, otherwise, which she wanted to prevent. Sighing deeply at her reluctance, Jason was unsure what he would do with Emily if she were to act the same with customers, which was fortunately not the case. When it came to customers she could explain everything well, and Jason was astonished how much she learned during a single weekend because her attitude, acting, and explanations were perfect. ''Well...It doesn''t really matter if she has no opinion about it. Nevertheless, I should inform Shane and Dalia what might be going on in Terebrean.'' Not even half an hour later, the shuttle arrived in front of their house, which they entered without further ado. Inside the house, they smelled a delicious fragrance permeating the air, telling them that someone, most likely Dalia, cooked dinner. Walking towards the dining room they saw that everything was already prepared, while Shane was sitting in front of the dining table, waiting patiently. Seeing them, he smiled lightly saying that Dalia was almost done with her preparations. Only a few minutes later everything was set and they started to eat dinner while Emily explained what happened today. Hearing that the same citizens as the day before came to siege upon the Golden-Soul shop, Shane and Dalia furrowed their brows only to see Jason eating dinner in a relaxed manner like it had nothing to do with him. Once Emily finished with her short explanation, they couldn''t help but look over to Jason, who they wanted to explain everything more clearly. Emily''s story was short and she didn''t really go into the necessary details to figure out what really happened, which was different from Jason''s explanations as he liked to go into details. Seeing their confused expressions, Jason just said "I''ll explain everything later, but there might be a highly addictive cultivation drug on Terebrean, made by foreign races or something similar." After he said so, he continued to eat, satiating his hunger which frustrated his masters. Half an hour later, when everyone was done, he explained everything more thoroughly without letting out any important information. The rumors were not important for either of them to conclude that something was wrong. Suspicious was the way some citizens acted, the government worker attitude, and hunters'' behavior. Combining the facts, it was almost impossible to deny that either one of the known rumors was true or that all rumors told the truth to a certain extent. Instead of being overly shocked, Shane and Dalia''s mood just plummeted and Jason could understand them somewhat. Everything that happened on Astrix island over the last few months was already shocking and disgusting in their opinion, but it seemed as if they were pursued by misfortune. After looking at Emily for a short moment, Shane said "If the addictive cultivation drug really exists, the slave market''s importance is many times higher than we thought. The chance that they want to build a huge army of powerful, addicted slaves would be extremely high! This is even worse than the Drake clan''s doing..." Jason, who didn''t think that far yet because he was still asking himself if his assumption with the cultivation drug was really true, couldn''t help but nod his head. After that, the dining room turned silent, and only when Dalia said something several minutes later, the weird atmosphere filling the room began to dissipate. "Jason, Emily! Don''t try to involve yourselves in the slave market or with anyone who might have something to do with the cultivation drug. That is if it really exists! Even if it doesn''t exist, please don''t create too much trouble! The two of you are still too weak to do anything against anyone powerful!" Averting her attention to Emily she just said "You just formed your first soulbond and it will take a long time before you''re strong enough to adjust to a Guardian-ranked beast''s shared strength. Furthermore, it''s your first soulbond and your mana core is barely at the lower Expert rank." Turning to Jason after she finished lecturing Emily, who stared at Dalia confused, Dalia seriously said "Don''t bother about any possible drugs, addictive medicines, the slave market or anything like that...alright?! Try to focus on yourself... Once you''re strong enough you can change everything you don''t like. At least if you feel like it! But that''s not something you should be concerned about for now¡­" Jason was already aware of that and just nodded his head, knowing that Dalia was concerned about him and how he might act once he figured out more. "I don''t plan on doing anything but I told Emily and my other employee Silas that they should tell me every rumor they''re hearing inside the Golden-Soul shop. That shouldn''t be too much, right?" Sighing, Dalia just agreed without bothering to say anything against Jason anymore. She could only look at Shane with a helpless expression. However, Shane was not really helpful because his eyes gleamed brightly at Jason''s words when he said with enthusiasm. "If you told your employees to act as your ears, that means you plan on leaving the Shop to them from now on, right?! Should we continue our forging training?" When Dalia heard this, she just slapped her own forehead out of a reflex, while Emily looked at Shane in astonishment. ''He is just like a small child...'' Jason meanwhile, smiled as he said "I have to forge lots of perfectly purified grade-1 bars for now. Afterwards, I want to exhibit perfectly purified grade-2 bars from various ores. As such it would be perfect if we could deepen my foundation and advance to the next step. Additionally, I want to forge grade-2 weapons." Turning towards Dalia, he also added with a smile on his lips "I also want to learn how to mass-produce grade-1 potions before I want to concoct complexer grade-2 potions" Chapter 325 - Fleeing From His Wife Instead of taking care of the shop, where he could only absorb mana when nobody required his help, Jason had more things to take care of. One was that he couldn''t let his stockpile of goods decrease. He had to refill them. Without being able to do that, he might have a scarcity of goods sooner than he estimated. As such, Jason decided to end the sale once the new week started. The exhibited weapons were never on sale and he only had to increase the price for the perfectly purified goods. His perfectly purified grade-1 bars were now priced at 250.000 Credits while he doubled the price for peak-grade-1 potions to 100.000 Credits. With this increment, only stronger hunters or rich heirs inside the B-grade city would enter his shop and purchase something. However, that was what he planned since the beginning. As such it was better if he increased the price as soon as possible before someone became too accustomed to the old prices! With that in mind, the week passed, without anything serious happening. His shop''s sales on Friday increased and Jason sold all, several hundred Unblemished-ranked beast corpses for 20 million credits too. After that, he started to forge perfect purified grade-1 bars at an extremely fast pace which he could only do thanks to his strengthened black origin flame and high proficiency he attained after doing the exact same procedure for several months. While forging, he was also passively absorbing mana, while the sub-area inside his mind was doing the same. Jason was glad to have been able to split his mind into the main area and one sub-area because it helped him a lot, even if it was a painful memory lingering in his mind. However, there was no gain without pain in the cultivation world because almost everything hurt somehow. Practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique was painful and under normal circumstances, the same applied for body refining. Fortunately enough, he had the black origin flame which helped him to soothe pain instead of spreading pain through his whole body during the body refining process. This made Jason happy and he was thankful to have obtained such a unique treasure, without much effort. During the weekend Shane brought him to the abandoned lands once again, where Artemis and Scorpio were told to hunt other beasts without sustaining injuries. While his two soulbonds were following his instructions and slowly improving their combat experience, Jason took out his portable forge from the spatial ring after he found a good position to set up his open forging place. Shane decided to remain next to Jason to take a look at his forging process and at the same time to prevent other beasts or other things to distract him from forging. Creating perfectly purified grade-2 bars was not easy and being distracted during the process was not great as it might be the cause for the bar''s mana veins to get damaged. But that was not Shane''s sole reason to follow Jason in the abandoned lands. Not only did he want to see his disciple''s progress and how to help him to improve in a matter of a few days. He also wanted to escape from Dalia who started to spoil Emily with cultivation resources. Dalia began to teach Emily about all kinds of things that she didn''t know before too. The orphanage neglected their duty and didn''t taught the orphans very well. Escaping from the two women, Shane was glad to be with Jason whom he could teach in his rough manner without the need to bear Dalia''s complaints later. In the end, Jason was sure that he didn''t need Shane for the current procedures he was doing but Jason also felt pity for him, even if he was not sure why exactly. Nevertheless, he only perfectly purified the grade-2 ores that were the most common and easiest to shape and purify with his black-origin flame. As such, there was no need for Shane to explain everything to him and he would only need his help in the weapon forging process. After forging his first mana weapon, Jason thought a lot about what he could improve and with Shane''s help he finished three more mana weapons until the weekend was over. Other than forging, he also practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique at least once a day absorbed mana, and refined his physique. In his breaks, he searched and gathered the carcasses of several hundred beasts which Artemis and Scorpio killed, only to notice that there were still not many mid-Unblemished ranked beasts among them. However, compared to a week before, his two soulbonds didn''t sustain any serious injuries and there were only a few shallow cuts that already stopped bleeding. Thus, Jason couldn''t be dissatisfied with the result as he caressed Artemis and Scorpio after all corpses were stored inside his spatial ring. In the beginning, Jason asked himself if someone would notice that he was hunting beasts inside the abandoned lands, but Shane only said that the abandoned lands were at least a quarter of the whole island and that there were beasts in abundance. Nobody would even notice that so many beasts died in a few days. The only good thing about the abandoned lands was that they was a border between the beast- human territory if one were to call either of them like that. Humans couldn''t live in the abandoned lands while most beasts were able to survive there. For them, it was probably even more dangerous to live close to cities than inside the abandoned lands. As such, Jason could only nod his head and think that the rules of the jungle applied in the abandoned lands. He felt like a hypocrite as he thought about the Earth Dragons right now, but there was something substantially different in his mind. His mindset told him that it was fine to hunt beasts openly in order to defend himself or even to make a profit out of it. On the other side, he felt that torturing beasts were something entirely different. It was just cruel and unnecessary. Either one subdued or killed a beast to obtain something, but torturing needlessly felt wrong to Jason. He knew that others called him a gullible, stupid hypocrite but that was not something he bothered about after witnessing how placid wild beasts like the tornado wolf mother and Earth Dragons could be. This might be because of his benevolent and kind aura which he released according to the Earth Dragon mother''s transmitted memories, but that was exactly why Jason acted slightly differently to beasts than other humans. Shaking his head, Jason regained his composure before he continued to listen to Shane''s short lecture about things he could improve after they arrived at home again. Shane didn''t even bother to search for Dalia because he was sure that she was with Emily and both he and Jason just sat down on the couch, while Scorpio laid next to them, sleeping, with Artemis on his head barely able to stay awake. The last two days were even more exhausting than a week before because they had to use all their means to fight other beasts. Driven by their desire to become stronger which they inherited from Jason through the fortified soul conjunction, both gave their best without holding back anymore. Now that it was Sunday, late in the night, their remaining energy hit rock bottom and the only thing they wanted to do was to sleep. Jason was still fully awake, and carefully listening to Shane''s words that seemed to sound more serious than they normally did "I''m not sure if you felt uncomfortable inside the abandoned lands or if there was something else bothering you, but your control over the black origin flame was not stable and sometimes it felt like you might even lose control over your flame! Chapter 326 - Churned Soul Energy After carefully listening to Shane, who lectured him, Jason could only nod his head because he could feel that problems with his black origin flame occurred. "I''m also unsure what is going on with my black origin flame, but I can say for sure that it has nothing to do with me being uncomfortable inside the abandoned lands or something like that. Rather than that, I felt like my black-origin flame was revolting against itself, which is weird. I can tell that something about it will change soon but I can''t say for sure, what exactly it will be! It might be that the black origin flame is about to meet one criterion for its evolution into a Tier-1 origin flame, but I''m not sure about that." Taking a deep breath, Jason pondered what else could be the reason for his black origin flame behaving weirdly. However, instead of making assumptions, he wanted to figure out the real reason, which shouldn''t be much of a challenge. Shane only noticed that Jason entered his soul world when a faint golden hue began to envelop his head, which was Jason''s individual indicator that he entered his soul world. As such he thought that his disciple was trying to get to know his flame''s issues which was a good start. An origin flame was different from a normal flame because it not only had unique abilities but could also become stronger and grow as long as it was able to annex more soul energy. Other than that, Dalia had explained to Shane that origin flames would become sentient at a certain point and that every single one of them had an individual personality and unique character traits. Unfortunately, Shane didn''t have an origin flame and couldn''t really understand how a flame could be sentient and what it might feel like to have a flame with an individual personality, which sounded ridiculous on his head. ''I''m that case, aren''t origin flames just unique elemental beings?'' Thinking about that, he was not even sure how different fire elemental beings were compared to origin flames, because both were sentient. The biggest difference of an origin flame was most likely its unique abilities and special function to act as a soulbond with limitless potential. As such, Shane started to see an origin flame as something similar to a superior elemental being without knowing if that was right or wrong. Inside his soul world, Jason was instantly greeted by a warm heat wave coming from the center, where his origin flame was situated. Approaching the center, he could see how thick his soul connection with the black origin flame became. Standing before it, Jason noticed that it floated towards him in its slow play to play around, seeking his attention. This felt like a deja vu and Jason asked himself if it learned that from Artemis and Scorpio. However, before he could think more about his black origin flame''s behavior, Jason noticed something which excited him. Unknowingly, the black origin flame started to construct a fortified soul conjunction that looked extremely crude and unstable. Nevertheless, the fortified soul conjunction was already a good starting point for him to start with his investigation as it was the most likely reason for his black origin flame to act weirdly. Compared to the long gaseous thread that represents his soul connection with the origin flame, the fortified soul conjunction was, minuscule in size and not even 1/100th of their soul connection''s whole length. This was rather uncommon because a fortified soul conjunction was commonly known for evenly spreading along or around the soul connection. Jason thought that it was probably something unique to origin flames and decided that he would ask Dalia if there was something he couldn''t understand. However, after the vigorous black flames bumped into him inside his soul world, he suddenly started to understand what it desired and for what reason! "You need soul energy to establish a fortified soul connection with me? Is that why the first try failed and looks like this?" Jason asked in astonishment. Carefully looking at his origin flame, he felt like his words were exactly what it wanted to tell him. As such, he just said "You are allowed to annex soul energy from me, but not every vacant soul energy unit within me. Use only what you need, nothing more! I still have to increase my soul energy for other purposes and we don''t want to work counterproductive, right?" Hearing what Jason said, the black origin flame flickered overjoyed before it floated back to the center of his soul world where the soul world core and expelled soul energy was situated. Without any hesitation it absorbed 200 soul energy units which it burned within its flame, decreasing his total amount of soul energy by 200 units as if they never existed. Seeing that his soul energy decreased from 16,000 units to 15,800 units, Jason couldn''t help but feel a sting in his heart because these 200 soul energy units were his hard work for one day. Sighing deeply, he hoped that it was worth the effort, only to notice that the black origin flame began to work on their fortified soul conjunction. The crude and unstable part was already about to be reconstructed which was extremely interesting and the only thing he began to ask himself was about how much soul energy units establishing the fortified soul conjunction required. However, this was not something he could estimate just like that because he didn''t know how long his 200 soul energy units could be used for. Waiting for his black origin soul to finish the first part was also not something Jason wanted to do as it might take a long time. It already took almost 3 days to construct the unstable and crude fortified soul conjunction. Thus, Jason decided that it was not necessary to figure out how much soul energy it would cost to complete the fortified soul conjunction as long as he had enough soul energy. Leaving the soul world after taking one more glance at his hard-working origin flame, Jason started to explain everything to his master, who could only look at him with squinted eyes, not knowing whether to celebrate or beat him up. "To put it simply, your origin flame tried to establish a fortified soul conjunction but couldn''t absorb and ''burn''(?) your soul energy to create a proper one. Through this, your control over the black origin flame was slacking off during the last few days. Now that you allowed it to absorb your soul energy, it started to work again... Once it is done, you will have your third fortified soul conjunction?" Nodding his head without any meaning, Jason also blurted out "I also feel like creating the fortified soul conjunction could solve my problem with the black origin flame''s evolution!" Taking a deep breath, Shane felt the desire to beat up Jason. Only the thought about Dalia''s shocked expression could calm him down as he awaited her reaction. ''Is there something special about him that attracts his soulbonds? Even the black origin flame wants to form a fortified soul conjunction with him. It had only been a few months after Jason contracted it... Dalia will hate that!!!" Chapter 327 - Shared Without further ado, Shane picked up Jason to look out for Dalia, who should be somewhere in the house with Emily because it was already late at night. Looking through all the rooms in his small house, he was still unable to find her, which caused him to wonder where his wife went when Jason said that both were outside, lying on a chair, not doing anything at all. Seeing this through his mana eyes, Jason couldn''t help but feel as if both Dalia and Emily were enjoying their free time while he and Shane were working hard. This caused his overjoyed mood to plummet by a small margin because he hoped that Emily would be as hard-working as he was. However, Jason only thought so because of his own selfishness as the thought build a faction in the future was apparent in his mind. He felt that Emily was the perfect first member because of several reasons. Not only is her mana aptitude high, but her first soulbond was a Guardian-ranked beast. As such, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit bitter for a short while before he told himself that they were only recuperating after working hard. At least Jason tried to convince himself that it had been like this. Shane was still carrying around Jason in one hand, which was weird, and only when they left the house, did Shane put him down. Artemis followed them by flying behind both while Scorpio returned to the soul world only to appear next to Jason, outside the house. Dalia and Emily noticed them already some time ago and Emily wanted to greet them, only for Dalia to hold her back, saying that everything was fine and that they would come over once they were done. As such, they waited patiently for more than half an hour, which was much longer than Dalia expected. However, once Shane and Jason appeared outside, both Dalia and Emily could see Shane''s satisfied expression and Jason looking at them as if he was about to ask ''Are you two in a vacation resort?'' The latter didn''t really bother Dalia much and she only smiled gently at Jason. Worse was Shane''s satisfied expression because that was exactly the same expression he had on his face when he was about to tell her something shocking. This caused Dalia''s gentle smile to stiffen, while Emily sat up hurriedly. She was about to stand up when Shane said that it was not necessary and that she should just stay seated if she didn''t want to stand around awkwardly. Emily was still not sure how to behave in front of Shane and he was aware of that because he felt similar. As such, it was better for either of them to prevent acting awkwardly with each other. Reverting his attention back to Dalia, his smile widened when he began to explain everything about Jason''s situation to Dalia. After he finished his short summary, Dalia couldn''t help but blink several times. "Huh?" She blurted out subconsciously before Dalia shot up from the chair after she realized what Shane said "WHAT?!" Averting her gaze to Jason who couldn''t help but smile innocently as if the whole conversation had nothing to do with him, Dalia felt the desire to beat her disciple up igniting from deep within her. "So you want to tell me that your black origin flame is about to construct a fortified soul conjunction and that this might as well be one of the criteria for it to evolve?" Taking a few deep breaths to calm down she cleared her mind before saying "So....you want to tell me that your origin flame requires a fortified soul conjunction for its first evolution¡­?" Dalia was unsure what hurt her more¡­.that Jason was about to establish a fortified soul conjunction with his origin flame which she couldn''t even do after more than a century or that his black origin flame required a fortified soul conjunction to evolve... Slumping back on the lounger she lied on before, Dalia sighed deeply before glaring at Shane "That''s why I hate seeing you with this expression!!!" Smiling innocently, Shane tried to act as if he didn''t know what was going on, when Dalia decided to ignore him to look at Jason once again. "Do you have enough soul energy or is it necessary for you to adjust your schedule to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique more often again?" This was a question Jason also asked himself and he was not sure what exactly the answer was. Right now he had almost 10,000 vacant soul energy units but Jason couldn''t say how many soul energy units the construction of the fortified soul conjunction would require. Furthermore, he was also unsure if the black origin flame was able to utilize more soul energy in one day than he could regenerate. As such, he just said "I should have more than enough soul energy units. I can take care of my schedule myself, but I think you should be more worried about Emily rather than me. She contracted a Guardian-ranked beast which required at least 10,000 soul energy. If I''m not wrong, the emerald-colored egg will turn into a Mid-Guardian ranked beast, if not something stronger!" Hearing this, Emily flinched, only to look at Jason with pain in her eyes as she said "I already practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique 3 times in two days! It hurts so much and I can''t do more than that either way¡­." ''Her soul world''s soul energy replenishing process is faster than the average, that''s good!'' Jason just thought before he smiled at Emily, saying "That''s good then, once it hatches you should treat your soulbond as if it''s your own child. That''s a precaution for the possibility that your soul energy is not high enough once it reached maturity!" After he said so, Jason excused himself before he entered the house again. Once he entered his room, he couldn''t help but take a few deep breaths as he clenched his teeth. ''Why is it so damn painful?!'' He asked himself, holding his chest, knowing that the reason for it was his origin flame establishing the fortified soul conjunction with him. He never expected that this procedure could hurt him so much when Artemis and Scorpio emerged next to him. Approaching him, they touched him faintly before Jason noticed that the pain was drastically reduced by almost 2/3. Not only could he take on his soulbonds'' pain because of his fortified soul conjunction with both Artemis and Scorpio but it also worked the other way around, which they demonstrated to him. Artemis took ? of his pain and Scorpio did the same, which allowed Jason to breathe much easier. Thanking his soulbonds, Jason caressed them for a while before he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique. After that, he absorbed mana for a few hours before it was already for Emily to return to the shop. Giving her the goods he produced during the last week, she nodded her head. Emily also asked him if she could go absorb mana in the backroom if there weren''t too many customers, which Jason accepted. He already hinted several times that she should focus on her mana core rank and soul energy for now before anything else. As such, Jason couldn''t help but feel glad when she asked him that question, which indicated to him that she was starting to understand what she had to take care of . Chapter 328 - Pandemonium Two weeks passed since the black origin flame started to establish the fortified soul conjunction with him and it used up around 6,000 soul energy units to finish this project which caused almost unbearable pain. Jason''s body was burning from the insides every single day¡­.at least it felt like that to him, even if he knew that it was phantom pain transmitted from the burned soul energy and the construction of the fortified soul conjunction. He never heard of a beast or sentient being that burned soul energy to do something like that, which felt weird to Jason.. However, more astonishing was that establishing the fortified soul conjunction took the black origin flame only two weeks and 6,000 soul energy units which was the amount his three soulbonds required...together. It was sad to see that his hard work was burned, but it had a use which was more important! As such, Jason was still satisfied, even if his soul energy decreased to 13,500 units after the two weeks passed. In his opinion was his effort definitely worth the benefits he would obtain through the fortified soul conjunction. With that in mind, there was no way for him to feel disappointed or even frustrated with his decreased soul energy units. Shortly before the fortified soul conjunction was established, Jason broke into the 3rd Expert rank, enlarging his vessel by a small margin. At the same time, it decreased the negligible amount of pain his soulbonds'' amplified strength caused. During the last two weeks, he couldn''t feel the pain of his vessel that was at its limits because the black origin flame made a mess with his soul world and mind. However, it was still better to be careful about every possibility! Only thanks to Artemis and Scorpio that transferred a majority of his pain, to themselves, could Jason get the hang of himself and focus on his other tasks which were absorbing mana, refining his body, forging, and concocting potions en masse. Forging bars and concocting potions was fortunately not restricted due to the construction of the fortified soul conjunction which would have been quite bad because his shop was making huge profits. There was not even a change after he increased the prices as they were still considered fair. If a blacksmith forged a single pseudo-mana grade-1 weapon out of a perfectly purified Jade-Iron bar for 250,000 Credits, one could make a profit of more than 250,000 Credits. This included only blacksmiths that could barely forge pseudo-mana weapons and not veteran blacksmiths. Veteran blacksmiths were able to rake a huge profit from his cheap goods. Purchasing a perfectly purified komatite bar in addition to the Jade-Iron bar, one was able to make Jadetite, which could be used to forge a mana weapon. A mana weapon that was forged by a proper blacksmith could be sold with a 10-fold profit compared to the price the Golden-Soul shop demanded for purified bars. Blacksmiths wouldn''t have to bother about perfectly purifying ores which was the most difficult to do, perfectly. It was not much of a problem to purify ores up to 80%, but above that, it became more difficult and time-consuming. The latter was also the reason for most blacksmiths to pick more expensive ores that didn''t have to be purified to forge a mana weapon. As such, many blacksmiths demanded his goods, while the same applied for Hunters, influential families, clans, and merchants who wanted to purchase not only his perfectly purified bars but also potions to use them for themselves or sell them to other cities. Once Jason found this out, he made an announcement limiting the purchasable number of goods for a single person to a certain number to prevent this. This caused a small commotion but after he said that he might as well increase the prices, everything quieted down. He had already issues providing enough grade-1 potions and bars for his shop and he still had to improve every single day. During the last two weeks, he started to purify his first few grade-2 ores and it worked better than estimated. That was until he reached a purity of 90%. After that, it was much more difficult to draw out the small pieces of impurity from the ore because they were in a complex situation or sometimes even enveloped by the ore''s mana veins. When that happened, he had to be even more careful and in most cases, he failed miserably. However, this motivated Jason rather than disappointing him! Working hard, it was one day, when Jason began to ask himself how foreign races ranked their weapons. There was no information provided about this inside the two Terra-grade manuals that were in his possession, and he couldn''t really figure it out without asking someone. But who could he ask such a thing? Someone from a foreign race? That would be suicidal! As such, Jason just told himself that the cultivation ranking was also used to grade weapons. After his fortified soul conjunction was finally completed, Jason was hopeful that his black origin flame would finally evolve. However, that didn''t seem to be the case and the only thing that changed was that he and the black origin flame were closely tied to each other. Jason could use his black fire affinity much better than before and his accuracy in determining heat increased by a large margin. Thanks to that, he was able to start mass-producing potions much better because he had to use between 9 to 15 flames at the same temperature and time to accomplish this. To mass-produce potions, one could either use a large cauldron or an oversized, rectangular beaker. He chose to use the latter which required more flames to be used at once because everything had to be heated equally and not a minuscule fluctuation in its temperature was allowed. Otherwise, the ingredients might deteriorate! One flame could have been enough for that, but the center, where the flame would be situated, would be more heated up than the outer areas. As such, Jason decided to go all-in as he wanted to receive the best results. With a huge beaker that was 40cm in length, more than 20cm in width, and almost 20cm in height, he was confident in concocting more than a hundred potions at once as long as he didn''t do a single mistake. This was also the biggest issue he had at hand! One mistake and everything would be for naught! However, Dalia told him to practice mass concoction of grade-1 potions at least once before he would start concocting more complex grade-2 potions because the latter was only slightly more difficult but the ingredients price was different, by a lot. If Jason had to estimate it, he could mass concoct grade-1 potions one time to have the same costs as concocting 10 more complex low-grade-2 potions. The ratio was 1:10 under normal circumstances and Jason began to ask himself why he shouldn''t directly concoct grade-2 potions. He could concoct 10 times a grade-2 potion or mass concocting one time when Dalia explained to him that he not only had to refill his stockpile of grade-1 potions but that he could also vary the difficulty of mass-concocting by purifying it more or less. If that was not motivating enough, Dalia also revealed that he could earn much more from mass-producing high-quality grade-1 potions than a few grade-2 potions Grade-2 potions were more sensible and she wanted Jason to learn everything one step after another. In the end, he couldn''t complain about it because he wanted to mass-concoct grade-1 potions either way. As such he only nodded his head when Dalia said this. With his fortified soul conjunction, Jason was confident in mass-concocting without many issues as he summoned 12 small black flames that had the exact same temperature. However, before he could even start with anything, his body ignited in black flames without warning while his black origin flame was doing nothing at all to initiate such a phenomenon. It was not painful, but Jason was still shocked to see this as he received a transmitted thought from the origin flame ''Soul energy!'' "It still wants MORE soul energy? Do you want to suck me dry???" Was the only thing Shane could mumble visibly uncomfortable that he couldn''t increase his soul energy for other purposes. Chapter 329 - Demanding Flame Right now, he was unable to start concocting because he was a living torch which would definitely disrupt his task at hand. As such, he decided to stop everything as he turned around to Dalia who looked at him with lifted eyebrows wondering what he was doing "I doubt that this is your doing¡­ is something going on with your black origin flame?" She asked, trying to analyze the situation without showing that she was nervous that Jason was going to shock her by revealing something again. She hoped that it was nothing special and that Jason would stop shocking her and Shane so often because it started to make them jealous. Furthermore, most things he revealed were rather bad, like the revelation that mankind were ants in the eyes of foreign races and that their planet was considered a small one among an unimaginable number of planets which caused Dalia to fell innately averse to Jason''s news. Scratching the back of his head, Jason said "Apparently this is not the black origin flame''s doing and it only tried to tell me that it wants more soul energy. However, it seems that the origin flame can''t annex more soul energy and it already established the fortified soul conjunction¡­" Looking at Jason, Dalia could only sigh as she said "Maybe there is something else the black origin flame wants to do with your soul energy?" ''Something else?'' He asked himself before he entered his soul world once again. Carefully inspecting his origin flame that continued to demand soul energy in a restless manner, Jason couldn''t find anything odd when it suddenly transmitted him another thought. ''Soul energy...MANA!'' He was still astonished that the origin flame could transmit him thoughts, shortly after they established a fortified soul conjunction. however, the second thought about ''Mana'' was even weirder than the first one in his opinion. Tilting his head, he couldn''t help but sigh as he allowed his black origin flame to use 10 soul energy units to its desire. However, what he saw afterwards, made him frown deeply because the ten soul energy units the black origin flame loosened were carefully embedded on 10 different positions in their fortified soul conjunction. They began to glow lightly and other than that, nothing seemed to have changed. At this moment, he received a call which caused him to leave his soul world to look for who it was. ''Emily? Why is she calling me?'' Starting to wonder why Emily was calling him which never happened before, he just accepted the call "Hello, Emily? Is something wrong with the shop?" He just asked, before Emily started to blurt out "No No, everything is fine with the shop, but Silas and I heard something from a small group of Slave merchants who came into the shop a few minutes ago. We didn''t understand everything, but it seems that they were talking about a medicine used to increase one''s cultivation temporarily. But that is not everything! As we already assumed, this cultivation medicine is highly addictive. Other than that they talked about something called Mythic Garden, where they got a certain ingredient to make the addictive cultivation medicine. I don''t know what this Mythic Garden is, but the slave merchants were adamant about hiring people to go there again. That''s already everything... The Golden-Soul shop is doing extremely well too! I''m not sure if this information was useful but we now know that the rumor about addictive medicine is true! Isn''t that great?" Jason could already imagine that Emily was smiling proudly right now, which caused him to feel weird. The news he heard was not really great and a huge contrast to the enthusiasm Emily showed him. Dalia who heard Emily talking was astonished to hear something overly familiar when Jason mumbled "Mythic Garden? Never heard of that...but it has to be an important place if that place has the ingredients to produce the cultivation drugs! If it were to be a normal place, mankind would also know more about it...If it''s just a garden, maybe foreign races brought seeds or plants to exchange them for something with the Jual clan? However, that is unlikely to be the case if you or Silas understood the slave merchants'' intention to go ''there'' again, correctly. Otherwise, they might as well ask someone to deliver the ingredients to them!... Could it be something else? Like a dangerous underground zone or maybe even a rift?" Trying to comprehend what exactly the slave merchant''s words indicated, he suddenly heard Dalia behind him mumbling "It''s a rift..." Turning around, Jason exclaimed "You know the place called Mythic Garden?" However, seeing that Dalia looked at him in astonishment, asking "Did I say something?" Jason couldn''t help but stare at his master weirdly. "You said that it''s a rift when I tried to figure out what the Mythic Garden could be!" He said, trying to remain calm, only to see that Dalia was still looking at him in confusion "I did?" Suddenly she seemed to remember something important as she jumped up from the chair she sat on. "I did! The Mythic Garden is a permanent rift which is hidden by the Jual clan!!" Taken aback by Dalia''s sudden behavior, Jason couldn''t help but look at her intently. Emily had already hung up long ago because there were many customers inside the Golden-Soul shop she and Silas had to take care of at the moment. This allowed Jason to focus on Dalia completely without anyone distracting them as she said. "I don''t know what''s going on but Shane and I know what the Mythic Garden is but we can''t remember it clearly. When you said that it was a rift, I could suddenly remember something but now, everything is blurry again! I said that the Mythic Garden is a rift, governed by the Jual clan, right?" Jason just nodded his head, still not able to fully comprehend what was going on when Dalia said "Shane read something about the Mythic Garden. It is described as the Land of the Cursed and Blessed which is why we wanted to figure out more about it. Other than that I can''t really say more. Shane was inside the rift once according to his blurry memories but he was young at that time.¡­ I¡­ don''t think that I was inside the rift¡­ probably? " Looking at Dalia who was not sure what else she remembered as Jason said "My memories are still clear, so there can''t be something wrong with the name alone¡­ Curses are said to be versatile and if the description of the Mythic Garden is already so unique with ''cursed and blessed'' in it, there might as well be a curse preventing someone from remembering things about the Mythic Garden?" Dalia''s eyes widened when she heard how Jason comprehended Shane and her issue when she remembered that this was the same they comprehended when they were younger. She was just unable to recall it before, as she exclaimed. "That''s it! The Mythic Garden should have a curse, blurring out memories about its existence and what happened inside...but that would mean that I was also inside? I don''t even have blurry memories about being inside the Mythic Garden, yet I can''t remember anything about it?!" Shrugging his shoulders, Jason was not some godly figure who knew everything as he said "Maybe you were close to the rift and it''s the rift''s curse? Either way..." However, before Jason could say anything else, he felt extremely weak as his whole body was drained of mana as he mumbled "What...is...going on?" Suddenly he heard the black origin transmitting him the thought ''MANAAAA'' several times in succession which led him to enter his soul world, where he saw that his mana was transported to the black origin flame through their newly established fortified conjunction. ''What are you doing?!'' Chapter 330 - Greed ''What are you doing?!'' Jason hurriedly transmitting to the black origin flame. However, it only answered with the same three words it transmitted to him before. ''Soul energy¡­.MANAAA'' This was not really helpful and Jason couldn''t help but sit down on the chair nearby him because his complete mana was drained. To find out what the black origin flame was doing, he entered his soul world where Jason saw their fortified soul conjunction. Intently staring at the fortified soul conjunction, Jason''s eyes widened when he perceived that the faintly glowing 10 soul energy units around became dimmer. However, that was not the astonishing part because he could see his mana flowing through the fortified soul conjunction towards the black origin flame that absorbed everything greedily ''What...or Why is it doing that?'' The question about what could be answered without any issue because the black origin flame seemed to have established a unique type of fortified soul conjunction that could transfer his mana to it as long as the fortified soul conjunction was empowered by soul energy. Yet, Jason was unable to figure out the answer to his last question as he approached the center of his soul world where he found the black origin flame flickering vigorously below the soul world core. He calmed down upon seeing this and decided to look at everything level-headed. Otherwise, he might make a mistake, even if Jason was not sure what exactly he could do wrong right now. Nevertheless, he felt that it was better to be careful right now. Seizing up the black origin flame, nothing about its appearance seemed to have changed which was what Jason imagined to happen. Rather than that, his eyes widened, when he saw that the small mana pool it had deep within the flame, was slowly transforming. To achieve that, it used Jason''s mana he got drawn out. ''What is going on?'' Taking another step closer, Jason was only a few steps away from the black origin flame as his mana eyes inspected every little detail. ''It does resemble a¡­.mana core, right?'' He asked himself, thinking that his assumption was right. Staring at the black origin flame in curiosity, Jason couldn''t help but ask. "Little fella, are you constructing a mana core with my mana?" Unfortunately, the black origin flame couldn''t answer him directly and transmitted him the word ''MANAAA'' several times in succession as a means to answer him in a different way. It was definitely not bad that it wanted to construct a mana core, but Jason knew that his replenishing speed was slower than what the fortified soul conjunction drew out of him. This was not great at all! Running around while one''s mana was drained could be considered extremely exhausting. Jason was already feeling tired without mana because he never really took a long break. His schedule was filled with things he had to do! As such he relied on the energizing feeling of his mana which was currently not there. Turning his attention to the fortified soul conjunction, he started to try out a few things to see if he could adjust the pace the fortified soul conjunction could draw out his mana. In the next 20 minutes, Jason test almost everything to accomplish this feat, only to notice that the answer was extremely easy to find. After he drew five out of ten soul energy units from the fortified soul conjunction away, Jason perceived that the transfer speed decelerated by a large a margin. Once that happened, he sighed in relief before he started to adjust the pace his mana was drawn out further. If his replenishing speed was slightly higher than the amount of mana the fortified soul conjunction would draw out, Jason wouldn''t be harmed in any way. Additionally, the black origin flame could construct its mana core without any issue. It would take a long time but time that was not something Jason lacked right now. Immediately after he finished adjusting everything, he senses the black origin flame transmitting to him the thought ''MANAAA'' several times. Even if it was annoying, Jason tried to ignore it in the beginning until he decided to threaten his third soulbond with a simple, yet impactful sentence. ''If you continue to behave like this, I''m not gonna give you a single soul energy unit or any mana ever again!!'' After that, the black origin flame quieted down in an instant. Thus, Jason left the soul world after he was done, only to see that the black flames around him dissipated. However, the chair below him was smoking which caused Jason to jump up before he used his ice affinity to cool down the chair again. Staring at Dalia apologetically, she only sighed before asking "What was going on?" Smiling drily, he answered with a particular gleaming in his eyes, with which Dalia was already familiar. "The fortified soul conjunction between me and the black origin flame is able to transfer mana to it by using soul energy as a means to empower the transfer. With the mana it receives, the black origin flame constructs a mana core! Fascinating, right?" Jason grinned after he explained what was going on when he heard Dalia shaking her head. "I don''t know whether I should whether I should be shocked about anything you''re saying ever again....or not!" Tilting his head in confusion, he was unsure what exactly his master meant when he recalled that almost everything he said to his masters has been shocking. It was not always positive and in his opinion rather disadvantageous for mankind or his masters. At least in most cases After he remembered all the scenarios where he shocked his masters, Jason couldn''t help but feel that Dalia''s reaction was genuine. Jason wouldn''t be able to be shocked all the time too, and one would grow accustomed to that faster than one might think. "Were you able to take care of your small mana shortage issue? Did you have to adjust something about the fortified soul conjunction or was it the black origin flame that is in control of the mana transfer pace?" Even if Dalia was not that shocked about Jason''s revelations anymore, she was still curious and asked him how he got the hang of his problem. She was still hopeful to establish a fortified soul conjunction with her silver origin flame too someday in the future and once that happened, Dalia would be prepared thanks to her disciple explaining everything in a detailed manner. It was unknown when or if she was able to reach such a possibility in her future, but Dalia thought that there was still a ray of hope left for her. She could clearly feel that her origin flame was trying to do something for a few decades and it was just lacking something particular! After Jason finished his explanation, he turned back to the large beaker that was still standing there, undamaged before he made a few tests with his flame''s affinity There didn''t seem to be an issue and Jason stretched his body that was slowly replenishing the used-up mana. Actively absorbing mana in addition to the passive mana gathering technique in his sub-area, his mana core was filled in a matter of a few minutes. Standing in front of the large beaker, he summoned 12 small black flames with the exact same temperature before he instructed them to float below the beaker to heat the water inside. Taking out the ingredients required to mass-concoct the desired peak-grade-1 potions he had in mind, Jason smiled lightly before he began the concocting procedure. Chapter 331 - How To Find The... Three days later, it was Monday morning and a new week started as Jason completed his practice with the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique. Getting out of the basin, he dried his toned body before he entered his soul world to take a look at what the black origin flame was currently doing. However, there was nothing special that changed over the last few days. The black origin flame was currently working hard to construct its mana core as it did for the past days too. After his soulbonds reached the peak of the Unblemished rank which caused their demand for soul energy to increase to 2,000 units, Jason could easily strengthen his vessel by absorbing mana and refining his body. Artemis and Scorpio won''t be able to become stronger without liquefying their mana anymore which was exactly what Jason wanted. This allowed the faint pain within him to disappear, which was liberating. Unfortunately, this didn''t solve the issues Jason had with the high amplification which he received from all his soulbonds thanks to his superior soul world. Once the black origin flame evolved into a Tier-1 Origin flame, the baptism Jason would receive could postpone his issue a little bit. It might as well be enough to allow both Artemis and Scorpio to enter the Magical rank without issue. But, this would only be the beginning! If his vessel''s pace in enlarging and being strengthened was slower than his soulbonds'' increase in strength, everything would be for naught! As such, Jason became interested in the Mythic Garden, Dalia was talking about. Furthermore, after he and Dalia told Shane everything they ''figured'' out about the Mythic Garden, with it possibly being a rift that might be cursed to blur everyone''s memories about what happened inside the rift and where exactly it was situated, Shane couldn''t keep down his excitement anymore. Over the last few weeks, he was becoming restless and frustrated because he was unable to find clues about suitable cursed beasts for Jason''s or the whereabouts of the Mythic Garden that might solve all their issues at once. Now that he knew that it was most likely a hidden rift governed by the Jual clan, Shane could start searching in a specific field. They had to find out where the rift was, enter it if possible, and search for a suitable cursed beast that Jason could bind without creating more or even bigger problems. With that in mind, Shane was overjoyed and immediately started to write down everything to not forget it before he began with his research. As it was Monday, Jason decided to look at how the Golden-Soul shop was doing. After he limited the number of goods for everyone, his sales neither decreased nor went up. The merchants who initially wanted to purchase everything inside his shop were enraged and abandoned him while the hunters and blacksmiths inside the B-grade cities purchased everything normally. Jason was also trying his best to figure out how to find the Mythic Garden. Thus, he decided that his shop was the best way to do so. With a little bit of scheming, he was confident in getting to know more about it. Inside the shop, Jason waited for slave merchants, youths from influential families, or other higher authorities that might know more. However, even after waiting for the whole day, nobody at this league seemed to enter his shop and only a few blacksmiths and hunters purchased goods. He didn''t want to waste any precious time and decided to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique and absorbed mana in the meantime. It was only shortly before the Golden-Soul shop would close for the day when he noticed two young blacksmith apprentices entering his shop while releasing particular confidence, Jason was already familiar with. Seeing this, he couldn''t suppress a smile that was covered by the mask he always wore inside the shop. Finally! Listening carefully to their words, while patiently waiting behind the counter, Jason heard that they seemed to be top students from one of the best schools on Terebrean. They were in their third year and after trying to remember where their school was, Jason figured out that it was one of the schools, in the A-grade city that was nearby. ''Are these two students here for a short visit or do they have a task?'' He asked himself, but after thinking about it for a moment, he decided that it was not important for him. Instead, he could finally start with the simple plan he thought of before. Disappearing behind shelves, he took off his mask before he opened his shop''s door, acting as if he entered it just now. Taking a look around as if he was searching for something, Jason ''found'' the two youths who looked at him weirdly because they couldn''t sense any mana fluctuations from him. Normally, they wouldn''t bother about someone like Jason, without any mana fluctuation but he was a youth, just like them, probably even younger. Yet, his confidence and the aura enveloping him were on a completely different league. They were almost 17 years old and at the 4th Master rank, but they felt intimated by Jason, who looked at them for a moment before he approached them. His golden eyes sized up the two youths, who felt like he was going to devour them with his glance alone before Jason said nonchalantly "Hello, sorry to bother the two of you, but I saw that you two wear the Aerda-school''s emblem. My name is Jason and I was invited to Terebrean because of the Mythic Garden. Unfortunately, I can''t seem to remember more about it and everything is blurry. I only remember that it was a rift or something like that and that it''s extremely important...The person who invited me told me to either ask top students or teachers from A-grade schools or the government if my memories about it were blurred, but I''ve lost my way. If it''s not too much of a hassle, can you two help me out?" By handing out a few pieces of information that could prove his knowledge about the Mythic Garden. At the same time indirectly saying that the two youths in front of him looked like they were top students of the Aerda school, to give them the feeling that they were superior to they were. This was a small trick which Jason tried to use to figure out more information about the Mythic Garden. This plan was nothing special, but he could adjust it to everyone who looked like they might know something. However, what he didn''t expect was that his plan directly worked, as the smaller youth with black-haired exclaimed in astonishment "You were invited to the Mythic Garden?? Are you serious¡­.so.... you''re not only from an influential family but also talented...how nice that must be¡­" The black-haired youth thought that Jason was from an influential family because he had a concealment technique that could cover his mana fluctuations completely. Jason only smiled at his exclamation, while the other youth with brown hair seems to be much more serious. However, even the brown-haired youth couldn''t help but show a proud facial expression at Jason''s words as he said "We can definitely help you, Jason! It''s normal that your memories are a little bit blurry about the Mythic Garden, but you will have fewer problems as a citizen from Terebrean which you don''t seem to be. But that''s fine and you won''t have any long-term issues! If you were invited to the Mythic Garden, which is a permanent rift, governed by the Jual clan as you might still remember, you can go to the Government-assessment hall which is situated in the center of the city to report your arrival. Maybe they''ll ask you to be tested again, but that shouldn''t be a problem as long as you tell them that you want the "Hidden-prodigy" assessment. After the assessment of your soul, mana aptitude, combat prowess, and so on, you will probably receive more information about the Mythic Garden. However, we don''t know what they might be. Maybe you will also receive a date for the next expedition in the Mythic Garden! I hope that my explanation helped you in somehow!" Once the youth finished his explanation, Jason nodded his head and thanked him before leaving the Golden-Soul shop. Calling Emily, he said that he would leave for now before he hung up to call his masters to inform them about what he found out. ''Wasn''t that too easy? Is the Mythic Garden really considered something special or is everything for show?'' However, Jason couldn''t know that his first question about asking ''top students and teachers from A-grade schools'' or the government was precisely these people who know something about the Mythic Garden. It was not much, but more than enough for Jason to smile brightly. Chapter 332 - What Now? Jason was unaware of how fortunate he was with the question which he asked the two students from the Aerda school who were also blacksmith apprentices. The Mythic Garden was considered a national treasure from the Jual Clan that was only open for a few clans and families who have an alliance with the Jual clan. Nevertheless, there were also other clans, companies and so on that were invited to enter the Mythic Garden upon being invited. This was the Jual clan''s scheming to lure these clans and companies into the alliance after they understood how precious the Mythic Garden was, allowing the Jual clan to demand valuable goods in return for the opportunity to enter the Mythic Garden! If Jason had asked something different or not concealed his mana core and fluctuations, he would probably be laughed at by the two students before they would have reported him. He was unsure why one was required to make the ''Hidden-Prodigy'' assessment but from the looks of it one required to have a monstrous talent. It was probably considered bad if normal citizens or too many people figured out too much about the Mythic Garden because of the astronomical value it had. After he got to know what he wanted to figure out, Jason pondered what he should do now. There was no need for him to think too long because it was definitely better to tell his masters every little detail he found out. Jason called them instead of going to their house due to a simple reason. If his masters'' were in the same opinion as him, Jason would immediately make the ''Hidden-Prodigy'' assessment! Their knowledge about the Mythic Garden was still shallow to put it simply. If he were to finish the ''Hidden-Prodigy'' assessment, they might receive more information. This was definitely necessary, and the only downside was that he would have to reveal himself. However, this was not really something he and his masters'' were worried about because his new ID as Jason Laere made him two years older. As such he was now 16 years and roughly 7 months old according to his new Identity. With that, his combat prowess of a Master rank at the 2nd level was at most, above average. Accessing his quantum bracelet, a holographic screen manifested in front of him as he video-called his masters. They answered the call without any expectations but when they saw Jason grinning at them like he found a magical treasure at the Monarch rank, both immediately knew that something good had happened. "I found out a few things about the Mythic Garden!" Jason said without adding any more than that as he waited for his masters to reply His grin turned into a sly smile when his masters didn''t respond to him because they waited for Jason to continue speaking. When they noticed that Jason didn''t answer Dalia remained silent while Shane became annoyed. "Hurry up, tell us, or do you want to talk to us by staying silent?" Jason chuckled for a few seconds because he found himself extremely funny before he turned serious "I didn''t find out much, but it seems like the Mythic Garden is known by youths with great potential, influential families, and clans. However, their information is probably only shallow and not much, at least if I understood everything correctly. The Mythic Garden is a permanent ''hidden'' rift, governed by the Jual clan which we already figured out, but they also let other youths and families inside the rift as long as they have a great talent. I''m not sure why that is the case, but the person whom I got the information from also told me about a ''Hidden-Prodigy'' assessment that is required to enter the Mythic Garden. One has to have a great result in this assessment to receive more information about everything which only someone who enters the hidden rift get to know. Furthermore, I''ll receive a date when the ''expedition'' into the Mythic Garden would start the next time, even if I don''t really know what that means. If possible I would request to be tested by the government to receive more information but I''m not really sure how smart it would be to expose my soul in that assessment." When Jason finished his explanation, he looked at his masters, carefully inspecting their reaction, only to see that they didn''t react in any particular way. They just looked at him with a faint smile on their lips before Dalia said "How did you even figure that out in such a short amount of time? It hasn''t even been a whole day since you went to the Golden-Soul shop!" Dalia was curious about how exactly Jason managed something Shane was unable to do, which forced her to suppress laughing out when she saw a vein protruding on Shane''s temples. Meanwhile, Shane tried to stay calm, not show any signs of being frustrated that Jason was much more efficient than him. In the end, he sighed deeply after his disciple answered Dalia''s question. "I asked two third-year students from the Aerda-school which is a school in the A-grade city next to ours, about it. To put it simply, I concealed my mana core and all fluctuations tried to put on a confident look, and asked a question while revealing a few information about the Mythic Garden that only a few people should know. I also said that I was invited and that my guide told me to ask top-students from A-grade schools or the government about the Mythic Garden if my memories turn blurry. After scanning the youths'' mana core that were already at the Master rank while being in the third year, I figured out that they must be top-students or at least close to that level which led me to ask them about more. Fortunately, they didn''t seem suspicious about my question and they explained everything I just said without any doubts." Showing his masters a peace sign, both Shane and Dalia couldn''t suppress a sigh because their student''s approach to figure out more information could have also gone the wrong way. Fortunately, everything went well and they found out more information about the Mythic Garden. However, Jason''s worry about exposing his soul was definitely justified. He once manifested his whole soul world outside and it was gigantic. Maybe even this was an underestimation but there was not really something they could compare it with. Nevertheless, more problematic than his soul world''s size was the golden color and hundreds of colors floating through his soul world, indicating that his soul world was not something ordinary, even for youths that had a 4-star soul awakening. If he were to reveal his soul world''s size, color, and the affinities he could contract, nobody would care about his soul energy replenishing speed or the amplification he received because he could contract hundreds of soul beasts. In the end, Jason could build his own small army which was a scary thought, that was not possible through the high soul world amplification he received. Fortunately, Shane was still enthusiastic as he said "You might not know this, but you can also regulate how much of your soul world you want to manifest as long as you practice the concealment technique a little bit. This is a trick people with a four-star soul-awakening like to use, if necessary. Just come back first and test manifesting a small part of your soul world. It''s not even difficult and you can probably learn how to do this in a few hours or at most two days!" Chapter 333 - Hidden Prodigy Assessement Less than a day passed since he found out more about the Mythic Garden and Shane explained everything necessary to know about how he can conceal his soul world. In the beginning, Jason imagined it to be extremely difficult, but it was not different from concealing his mana core. The only difference was that he leaked a little bit of his soul world instead of concealing it completely. He was even able to conceal the affinities that floated within his soul world from being manifested which was definitely an advantage. As such, after he got the hang of concealing his soul world partially, Jason couldn''t help but become impatient as he rushed towards the Government-assessment hall that was situated in the center of the city. Upon entering the large building whose walls radiated thick mana currents, he approached the reception without any hesitation. The receptionist who saw a youth with black hair and golden eyes that were full of confidence walking toward him couldn''t help but think frustratingly ''Another one?'' He sighed deeply and Jason wasn''t even required to say anything as the receptionist asked with a faint, fake smile "Hello Sir, I assume you''re here for the Hidden-Prodigy assessment, or am I wrong?" Hearing this, Jason couldn''t help but lift his brow. It seemed like the receptionist asked this question several thousand times. His gaze showed how bored and annoyed he was which was a big difference from his faint, faked smile. However, that was not something Jason cared about as he said "Yes, that''s true. I want to make an appointment for the Hidden-Prodigy assessment!" Looking into Jason''s eyes that radiated pure kindness at the moment, the receptionist shook his head before he said "There is no need for an appointment. It won''t take long either way! Please verify your identity first, if Sir wants to do the assessment immediately!" ''Won''t take long?'' Jason asked inwardly, but this was good because he wouldn''t want to be observed and tested for several hours either. As such he nodded his head and showed him the new Identity he received, before he simply said "Great, where should I go?" The receptionist who was talking to him before informed his colleague that he was testing Jason now before he stood up "Just follow me." Following the receptionist, as he said, they entered an elevator that brought them to a lower floor, underground that was humongous in size and completely white. In the center of the room were two orbs, which Jason was already familiar with. One of them was the soul-awakening orb that could also be used as a tool to assess someone''s soul world later and the other orb''s name was unknown to Jason. However, it was the same orb used by Till to determine one''s control over mana and the accuracy. The height of the floor they entered was more than 20 meters and Jason asked himself if he should just fill the whole room with his soul world to get a good grade, when the receptionist said. "Let''s not waste too much time, alright? We will start with the martial art proficiency assessment! Please demonstrate two of your martial art techniques. The AI will determine your proficiency and grade you according to your age." Hearing this, Jason could tell that he had to give his best because he was 16 years old according to his new Identity instead of 14. Smiling lightly, he began to wonder if his proficiency with the martial art technique he learned was good for a 16-year-old youth. He was sure that he would be considered a comprehension prodigy with his real age, but two more years of training could make a great difference. As such, Jason pondered for a moment which martial art technique he should demonstrate. In the end, the answer was easy and not something he would normally ponder about. He just had to show the two techniques he was the most proficient in! ''Why am I suddenly so nervous?'' Jason asked himself, knowing that there was not really a need to be nervous. He was confident that even if his martial art proficiency was not considered prodigious as a 16-year-old youth, he would be able to get bonus points for the other exams. With that in mind, Jason started to run circles through the room before he started to exert the weightless steps technique which increased his speed by roughly 60%. From one corner to another he barely needed a second and pushing using the walls to push himself away as a means to not crash into the wall, Jason ran a whole circle. Without waiting for the AI or the receptionist to say anything Jason decided that it would be better for him to demonstrate another Tier-1 he had a perfect mastery instead of one of the Tier-2 techniques he began to learn some time ago. Taking out the Viridi-Starstream dagger from his spatial ring, he switched into the basic combat stance of the Transience-Strike martial art technique he learned a long time before he exerted it. Circulating a large amount of mana through his body while showing sequence after sequence, his short show only took one minute before he halted in his tracks. One sweat pearl poured down his temples as he heard the AI''s announcement [Peak-Tier-1 Movement technique detected, Perfect Mastery, Grade: Above-average] [High-Tier-1 close combat technique, Perfect Mastery, Grade: Average(+)] Hearing this, Jason could only nod his head, thinking that the assessment might be more difficult than he expected ''Only real prodigies will probably be able to enter the Mythic Garden, right? At least it looks like that to me'' He thought before he turned towards the receptionist who looked like he wanted to abandon Jason right off the bat. "Should we continue with the next tests or does Sir wants to know how exactly the AI made the assessment?" It was as if the receptionist was already accustomed to youths complaining about their martial art proficiency result which caused Jason to smile lightly as he confidently said "Not really, I''m good to go with that result. We should continue, I want to read the information about the Mythic Garden as soon as possible!" Lifting an eyebrow, the receptionist began to wonder how the youth in front of him was so confident after his martial art proficiency test result was between average and above average. However, he couldn''t be bothered about that and just nodded his head before saying "Next, we will test Sir''s mana accuracy, sensitivity, and control! Please take the left orb right in front of you into one or two hands, and untie as many mana threads inside it within one minute. This test will start immediately after Sir touches the orb!" Nodding, Jason approached the left orb without hesitation because his mana eyes already detected the main issue with the mana threads within the orb as he touched it with one hand. Inserting his mana to move the mana threads and untie them, 50 seconds passed before Jason stepped back. "Sir, you have 10 seconds left." The receptionist said without sounding too hurried about it because he thought that Jason encountered the main issue of this test when the AI announced. [Mana mastery test was successfully solved in 51 seconds. Grade: Superior!] Jason smiled seeing the receptionist''s reaction who showed a proper reaction for the first time as he looked at him in astonishment. Even if he wanted to, Jason couldn''t suppress himself as he said with a faint grin on his face "Should we move to the soul assessment?" Chapter 334 - Not Enough? After the receptionist shook his head to regain his senses, he nodded before saying "Yes, let''s move to the soul assessment. Touch the soul-awakening orb right next to the mana mastery orb and try to manifest your soul world. It''s not difficult and shouldn''t take long." When the receptionist finished speaking, Jason walked towards the soul-awakening orb before he focused on exerting the concealment technique on his soul world, which revealed his mana fluctuations at the 2nd Master rank, while his mana core rank of a 3rd Expert was still hidden. Taking a deep breath, he laid his on the orb right in front of him, before manifesting his soul world at the same time. The soul-awakening orb started to glow in a black-reddish color which began to change slowly to a dark-red, red, lighted, orange, yellow, green until it finally stopped when it glowed in a sky-blue color. Meanwhile, his soul world filled the whole room that was more than 20 meters in width, length, and height. A faint golden color permeated the whole room, in which he manifested his soul world. Three different colored, complex masses floated through the room. These three colored masses were a black flame, a sky-blue ice-shard, and liquefied poison, exactly these affinities Jason already contracted. Jason not only concealed his soul world''s size and affinities but also the dense gold color that could be seen within his whole soul world. Right now, it was only a faint golden color, but this was still enough to shock the receptionist greatly. It has been a long time since he saw that a real prodigy did the assessment in their small City. Normally prodigies were either in the greater schools inside A-grade cities or from Influential families and clans who could order to receive a personal assessment at their home. However, Jason was one of the few prodigies he assessed in his whole life and the receptionist couldn''t help but feel jealous when the AI announced [Soul world detected! Scan completed! 4-Star soul awakening[Heaven''s Will]-- Grade: Superior!] Jason was satisfied with this result and retracted his soul world again. He was sure that he was considered a prodigy with two ''Superior'' grades, even if his martial art proficiency was average to above average according to his fake age on his new Identity. As such, he looked at the receptionist with a faint smile, asking if he did well enough. While the receptionist tried to gather his senses, he manifested the holographic screen of the room they were currently inside, when the AI suddenly announced. [Hidden-Prodigy assessment concluded! Does the examinee want to add something unique about him? If not, the rating will hereby be not enough to pass the assessment!] Both Jason and even the receptionist listened to the AI''s voice confused as they mumbled "Not enough?" Looking at Jason, the receptionist said "I''m sorry Sir, but under normal circumstances, the given grades should be enough to pass the assessment! Please let me take a look at it for a moment to find the issue. Other than that, I can''t do anymore because the Jual family sees it as mandatory for every prodigy to pass the Hidden-Prodigy assessment before they''re allowed to receive more information about the Mythic Garden!" Nodding his head faintly, Jason began to wonder what was going on because he was confident in being considered a prodigy with his soul world and mana mastery that were both superior. Having a soul awakening at the [Heaven''s Will] should already be enough to be considered a prodigy but his mana mastery was also extremely high. ''What do I have to do to pass this test? How many will even be able to pass this test, if I''m already failing with a 4-star soul-awakening...?'' It was only obvious for him to be confused when the receptionist suddenly asked. "I''m sorry to ask this but is Sir''s mana core rank below the Master rank? The AI says something like this but I can only sense Sir''s mana fluctuation at the 2nd Master rank right now. Considering that Sir has a superior mana mastery, the system deducted lots of points because of the examinee''s faint determination and ambition to reach a higher rank. Sir is already 16 years and almost 7 months old, which means that mana fluctuations at the 2nd Master rank with a superior mana mastery are nothing special. Deducting the amplification of the body and mana core through possible soulbonds, the AI determines that Sir''s mana core rank is below the Master rank! If that is correct, Sir has to either reveal something else that is considered special by the AI. Otherwise, Sir would have to accept the AI''s decision which would mean that the Hidden-Prodigy assessment was a failure." Trying to understand what happened, Jason could only sigh when he remembered that his mana core''s concealment had been partially released during the short period which he required to conceal his soul world. In that short interval, the AI should have detected his mana fluctuations and started to make calculations, which led it to conclude that his mana core rank was not as high as it seemed to be. However, it was still astonishing for Jason to hear that the system deducted points for his ''laziness'' and him not being determined or ambitious to reach a higher mana core rank. This was ridiculous but he had to acknowledge that his fake age of 16 years and 7 months would probably indicate that he was rather lazy, considering that he had a superior mana mastery. Nevertheless, it was clear to Jason that he wouldn''t receive more information about the Mythic Garden if he were to fail the Hidden-Prodigy assessment just like that. As such he had to think of certain things he could show the AI to give him some more extra points. With that in mind, Jason thought that showing that he had 3 affinities might be worse because he would indirectly show that the system''s calculated mana core rank was even lower than it expected. "System I would like to add something to my assessment''s final rating!" He said, waiting for the system to say something which it did after a few moments. [Please proceed examinee!] Initially, he didn''t want to reveal his strength to such an extent. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it. The Hidden-Prodigy assessment was the best way for him to receive more information about the Mythic Garden. Allowing Scorpio to enter his mana core, he manifested his carapace on one of his arms before he told the system. "I''m about to consolidate a fortified soul conjunction with my soulbond! Is that enough to cross the threshold for the assessment or do I have to hurt me and my soulbond to manifest more of my soulbond''s body?" Jason was reluctant to show both the AI and receptionist that he established a complete fortified soul conjunction with Scorpio which was the reason for him to make it look like he was just about to establish one! This would give him less bonus points, but establishing a fortified soul conjunction at the age of 16 to 17 years was still nothing to scoff at! Chapter 335 - [Land Of The Blessed And Cursed] When Jason revealed his ''almost'' established fortified soul conjunction with his soulbond, the receptionist couldn''t remain professional anymore as he exclaimed. "Woah!! How??" Normally he would ignore this question and shrug his shoulders but Jason de died against it when he said, with a small lie mixed within. "It''s my first soulbond and I contracted it almost directly after it was born! After experiencing many life-threatening situations for more than 3 years we just... naturally formed a fortified soul conjunction. To be honest I was also astonished about it!" The receptionist nodded his head and was about to ask another question when the AI announced [Fortified soul conjunction has been detected! Extra points will be added. Threshold reached to pass the ''Hidden-Prodigy'' assessment! Hereby the examinee will be allowed to enter the Mythic Garden during the next 12 days before he/she has to undergo the assessment once again! The necessary information about the Mythic Garden will be sent to examinee [Jason Laere]''s quantum bracelet! Date to enter the Mythic Garden can be found from every government hall in Terebrean and the Jual country.] ''Yes!'' Jason shouted inwardly, trying to suppress the sour feeling within him because he had to reveal his fortified soul conjunction with one of his soulbonds. The AI would probably record the whole assessment and send the result to higher authorities that had something to do with the Mythic Garden rift. He didn''t receive the perfect outcome but it was definitely better than nothing. Furthermore, revealing that he ''almost'' established a fortified soul conjunction was not really that much of an issue as long as he didn''t encounter families and clans like the Drakes! The Jual family seemed to enslave people, but only those without power, backing, or terrifying talents, which was good for Jason. ''It''s done now either way! I shouldn''t just accept what I did and continue to strive forward!'' He told himself with determination flickering in his eyes when he asked the receptionist. "Do I have to read through everything I will be sent, or is there a way to get a short summary about all information?" Smiling lightly, Jason wanted to figure out more about the ''date'' the AI was talking about before, when the receptionist said. "I''m sorry to say this, but we examiners don''t receive any information about the Mythic Garden. However, I can figure out when the next expedition will start. The position of the hidden rift will be revealed a week earlier and sent to Sir''s quantum bracelet too!" Jason could only nod his head, thinking that it was better than nothing if he received the date for the next expedition. ''If it''s an expedition, does that mean there is a certain period to enter the Mythic Garden rift? Otherwise, one could enter and leave it whenever one wants to.'' He had often heard from permanent rifts that were only opened for a few months every year and the Mythic Garden might be similar in that case. However, there was no need to think about it anymore because he received a notification on his quantum bracelet with a file that had several large documents inside it. Nevertheless, Jason wanted to find out the date for the next expedition first, before anything else. They left the large white room used for the Hidden-Prodigy assessment and entered the elevator that brought them back to the surface level. The receptionist returned back to his seat behind the reception where his colleague was still seated. It looked like he didn''t move a single inch during the last few minutes which Jason noticed with a faint smile. He walked towards the reception where the receptionist was already searching for the date on which the Mythic Garden would open for everyone who passed the assessment. "There is no exact date yet, but according to the provided information, the Mythic Garden rift should open¡­ early June. As such Sir should receive a notification about the exact date and position at the end of May. I hope my service was good enough and that there was nothing making Sir feel uncomfortable! " ''Early June? That means I have more than 2 months to become stronger?'' Jason thought before he began to wonder what kind of rift the Mythic Garden was. ''Just don''t let it be above a four-star rift!'' He pleaded before he told the receptionist that everything was good before turning around to walk out of the Government-assessment hall. Before doing anything else, he called his masters to tell them that he would come home to share what happened. After that, they could read through the Mythic Garden file to find out more about the rift, its strength, and what they should be aware of! As such, Jason departed quickly before he called a shuttle to leave the city''s center quietly. Less than half an hour later, he arrived in front of their small house where Jason got out of the shuttle. Shane and Dalia perceived his arrival almost immediately as if they were waiting for him when they opened the door at the entrance at the exact moment Jason stood in front of it. "Come in and summarize everything before we take a look at the Mythic Garden file!" Shane said hurriedly, without being able to stay patient. Dalia was able to refrain herself more than Shane and sighed when she saw how he acted. Meanwhile, Emily was either working or absorbing mana inside the Golden-Soul shop if the number of customers was not too much for Silas to take care of alone. Meanwhile, Jason could understand his master''s impatience because he felt exactly the same. As such, they sat down on the couch before Jason summarized everything that happened in a few sentences. He also told his masters'' that he revealed his fortified soul conjunction to a certain extent, but they weren''t really worried about that. In the end, they could still protect Jason as long as he didn''t enter a restricted rift, which was what both Shane and Dalia imagined the Mythic Garden rift to be. However, considering that their disciple became much stronger since he came out of the four-star rift, they remained calm and unbothered. After Jason finished his summary, Shane told him to open the Mythic Garden files, not even giving Jason enough time to breathe freely. Revealing the content of the first file, the words that jumped into their view were [Land of the Blessed and Cursed] with which Shane and Dalia were already familiar. The next information were things they already knew about, only that their blurry memories prevented them from clearly seeing and remembering everything. Jason and his masters were already aware that the Mythic Garden was a permanent rift, but new to them was that it was not only a four-star rift but also with several restrictions on it! Not only was there a curse preventing memories from within the rift to stay intact, which caused the blurry sensation, but there was a restriction according to one''s age that was 20 years. Everyone at and below the age of 20 could enter the Mythic Garden. It doesn''t matter which mana core rank they have and only their age is important for the rift. Other than that, one was able to enter and leave the rift for 6months in the whole year. It looked like early June was when the Mythic Garden rift would open again, for a period of 6 months. According to the restrictions they could see in the first file, the Jual family made a good decision with the Hidden-Prodigy assessment! There would only be young and powerful prodigies able to enter the Mythic Garden rift due to the age restriction. However, what shocked all of them was the death rate which was also written inside the first file, underlined and thickly written in red color. Death rate[80%] Chapter 336 - Drop In The Ocean Death rate[80%] "Huh?" Jason exclaimed perplexed, not knowing whether his eyes were working properly or not. "A Death rate of 80%? Is that a mistake or why else would young men and women at and below the age of 20 enter the Mythic Garden with such a high death rate?..." However, after averting his gaze to his masters, Jason figured out that they were more composed than him hearing this information. Seeing this, he adjusted his train of thoughts and thought about it in a more detailed matter ''If the Mythic Garden restricts everyone above the age of 20 from entering it, the highest mana core rank to enter should be at the lower Magus rank, or rather Lowest Lique stage. To Achieve this, one needs to have a great mana aptitude. In comparison, the beasts inside a four-star rift can be at the peak- Magical rank which is much stronger. The average strength of a four-star rift is at the Unblemished rank which is something I can already defeat alone. At least the weaker Unblemished beasts... With Artemis and Scorpio even peak-Unblemished beasts shouldn''t be an issue. Others should have peak-Unblemished soulbonds too...So why exactly is the death rate so high? Are the beasts at the Magus rank the biggest issue or is there something else¡­?'' Dalia noticed that Jason was deep in thoughts, probably thinking about the reason for the high death rate. When she saw him frowning deeply, Dalia decided to intervene. Jason might be able to come to his own conclusion in a while but Dalia thought that it was more important to figure out what her disciple wanted to do. "The Death rate inside the four-star rift shouldn''t be so high, and it''s just to intimidate weak-willed prodigies. However, that doesn''t mean that you can ignore the death rate because it''s also a warning! There is an age restriction that doesn''t concern you but you should consider that the Mythic Garden is known as the Land of the Blessed and Cursed. If you were to encounter an Unblemished beast with a strong curse, it might even be able to defeat you. Even after you attained a combat prowess of a magus rank! Cursed beings should be the reason for such a high death rate and if I were, to be honest, even humans themselves might be the reason for such a shocking death rate. Imagine you find a beast with an extremely strong blessing, everyone sought out! What do you think would happen if someone else were to see you catching this beast? I doubt that others would say ''Congratulations. You are really lucky. Have fun with your blessed beast... I''m so jealous of you!''. Rather, they would try to hinder you in binding the blessed beast or even kill you mercilessly. I''m not sure if you already knew it but you should know that beasts that have been contracted for less than 2 weeks will be expelled from the soul world if the master dies! This is not a certain event, but it happened often enough. There were many times that humans acted worse than wild beasts when they saw a suitable blessed beast for themselves. They would even rip apart their own family and friends for a beast with a strong blessing!" Nodding his head, Jason found everything his master said plausible. He would probably come to the same conclusion after he thought longer about it, but Dalia looked at him impatiently which made him feel uncomfortable. "Is there something wrong?" He only asked before Jason suddenly got an idea! "Do you look at me like that because you don''t want me to enter the Mythic Garden?" He could already imagine that Dalia didn''t want him to enter the Mythic Garden rift because it was a four-star rift similar to the rift inside Cyro-City which he entered before. Several months passed since then and Jason''s strength increased by a large margin so that he and his soulbonds were able to fight against a large group of Unblemished ranked beasts! As such, entering Cyro-City''s four-star rift wouldn''t be an issue anymore, which was however something completely different to the Mythic Garden. ''Do I have to enter another rift so soon...?'' He asked himself with a frustrated expression before he looked at Shane who was also deep in thoughts. However, Jason was not even able to ask Shane something when Dalia said "To be honest, I don''t want you to enter the Mythic-Garden because it is way too dangerous. Even more than a normal four-star rift! Comparing your current situation with that of several months ago, I would rather let you enter a four-star rift at the Adept rank than to allow you to enter the Mythic Garden¡­." He could understand Dalia completely because he himself didn''t want to enter the Mythic Garden either, considering that there were not only strong beasts but also humans from all kinds of influential backgrounds that would do everything in order to procure what they desired! Scratching the back of his head, he could finally ask Shane what he wanted to know. "Master, how high are the chances that we will be able to find a suitable cursed beast for me if I don''t enter the Mythic Garden? In comparison how much higher might be the chances if I were to enter the Mythic Garden¡­?" Shane, thrown out of his thoughts looked at Jason as he asked "I think it''s okay for me to be blunt, right?" Hearing this, Jason could only frown lightly as he nodded faintly "If you don''t enter the Mythic Garden, your chances to find a perfectly suitable beast that doesn''t curse anything else but your soul world amplification are infinitely close to zero! There are not many cursed beasts on Argos, to begin with, and to find a perfectly suitable is more difficult than searching for a needle in a haystack. It might be comparable to searching for a certain drop of water in the ocean. On the other hand, if you don''t care about other traits being weakened, the chances are slightly higher but still close to 0. You''ll have to search for several years if not decades to find a suitable beast. That is if you are lucky! During this time, your soulbonds would have to restrict their growth almost all the time and you wouldn''t be able to contract a new soulbond for a long time because your vessel is already too feeble to accommodate two beasts! Your soul world''s amplification is just too strong! Your chances will increase by at least 10-times if not 100-times if you were to enter the Mythic Garden. I can''t tell you why because my memories are blurred but I feel like the Mythic Garden contains various types of blessed and cursed beings. One of them should definitely suit you to a certain degree, even if it is not perfect. In my opinion, finding a perfect suitable cursed beast is not feasible, and if you were to find one, it can only be inside the Mythic Garden! It might be dangerous but you don''t really have many options. You could also slow down your soulbonds'' growth and never allow them to become stronger so that your mana core rank can slowly catch up. However, I doubt that you want to slow down your soulbonds'' growth or change something else. In the end, it wouldn''t be helpful either because binding another soulbond would worse your situation once again. This would be an endless, vicious cycle! If I''m not wrong, your highest priority is to become much stronger and find your mother''s murderer. The Blood sect is not something you should take lightly. Nevertheless, it is still your choice and we won''t intervene in your choice!" Chapter 337 - Plot The Mythic Garden would be dangerous for Jason to enter, that was evident. However, he was in a dire need to curse his soul world core''s high amplification in order to weaken his soulbonds'' share of strength which he received. While his soul world was colossal in size with all kinds of possible affinities which was extremely good, Jason''s soul world''s high soul amplification was the only advantage that began to turn into a disadvantage. If he wanted to contract more beasts in the future, he would have to enlarge and strengthen his vessel which was not easy because his soulbonds were currently growing much faster than his vessel was. It hasn''t been long since the pain caused by his soulbonds'' transferred strength lessened before it finally diminished completely. As such, he didn''t feel any pain from his vessel which could however change at any moment, if he were to allow Artemis or Scorpio to break into the Magical beast rank. They were currently gathering mana but Jason was sure that they would liquefy their mana and enter the magical rank before he would be able to reinforce his vessel enough to cope with the large share of strength he would receive from a magical ranked beast. With his current soul amplification, he received 33% of his soulbonds'' strength unconditionally. A magical ranked beast''s strength is a few times higher than that of a peak-Unblemished beast under normal circumstances which would cause Jason''s mana core size and physique to increase by a few levels if Artemis or Scorpio were to compress their mana in mana drops right now! Jason couldn''t cope with that and neither did he want to restrict his soulbonds. Furthermore, he wanted to obtain more soulbonds in the future in order to claim more affinities. At the same time, he could build a small, loyal army of soulbonds which was also great. As such, Jason thought that it would be the right decision for him to enter the Mythic Garden. He was still reluctant but it seemed to be the path he had to take to not break apart or slow down his desire to become stronger. Sighing deeply, Jason subconsciously mumbled. "How much stronger can I become in two months?" Right now his strength was almost at the 3rd Master rank which was definitely not enough to survive inside the Mythic Garden for six months, if he were to remain inside the rift for the whole interval it was open in order to find a suitable cursed soulbond! "If my black origin flame evolves before the two months end, the second baptism would solve many problems¡­" Jason thought out loud before looking at his masters who waited for his answer. "It might be dangerous, but I don''t think I can wait longer, if I don''t want to restrict my soulbonds from breaking into the magical rank, to prevent me from ripping me apart, for too long, Furthermore, If I don''t enter the Mythic Garden this year, I would have to do it next year, at last, to find a suitable soulbond because Artemis and Scorpio''s strength has to increase again! I don''t want to live with the constant threat of being ripped apart by my own soulbonds because of my soul world core''s high amplification! To prevent dying I''ll have to increase my strength and both Artemis and Scorpio''s combat prowess as much as possible in the next months. If the black origin flame doesn''t evolve during these two months, it will most likely evolve when I''m inside the Mythic Garden. That is, if there is no further requirement the black origin flame might need to fulfill to evolve. The baptism I''ll receive at that time will make me stronger once again, increasing my chances to survive by a large margin. I know it might be dangerous to receive the baptism in an open, unknown rift but I can''t really force the black origin flame to evolve when I want it to!" When Shane and Dalia heard his answer, Dalia could only sigh deeply while Shane nodded his head in approval before he asked. "In that case, what exactly are your goals for the next two months? Do you want to refine your physique and absorb mana for two months straight or do you want to focus on increasing your soulbonds combat prowess?" His reason to ask this question was simple, yet important. Shane wanted to figure out what exactly Jason wanted to focus on for the next two months to see how efficient his plan was and what he might miss out on. Jason didn''t expect Shane to ask him that question immediately after he chose to enter the Mythic Garden. This caused him to stand in front of his masters without any plan. He thought about it for a moment before saying "I''ll have to provide the black origin flame with mana and soul energy during the next two months so that it can create the mana core which will probably enable it to evolve. Meanwhile, my shop is still open but I don''t know if I can supply enough goods during the next two months so it might be better to change something there. Maybe it would be better to limit the supply to a certain amount of perfectly purified bars and potions for each day. I obviously need to refine my body and absorb mana in the next two months. Furthermore, I need to exert the Heaven''s Hell technique at least once a day to make up for the soul energy the black energy used up. I also don''t know how many soul energy units the cursed beast I want to form a contract with might require which is another reason for me to increase my soul energy beforehand! Other than that, I want to continue forging and concocting because it does not only allow me to earn lots of credits but I can also create my own stockpile of potions and weapons for the Mythic Garden! Forging and concocting is also a good exercise to calm my mind and increase my proficiency with the black origin flame affinity. Come to think of it, I also need to increase my proficiency with the ice and poison affinity¡­ The most time-consuming is practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique. As such, I probably won''t be able to do that inside the Mythic Garden. At least if I''m not in a completely safe area which I will probably not find quickly. As such it would be best if I were to use the ''Splitting Mind'' technique in order to create my second sub-area. I would like to establish a passive soul energy refining cycle to increase my soul energy without the need to actively practice it! Meanwhile, I need Artemis and Scorpio to increase their combat prowess because they are still lacking!" While Dalia fell into a deep silence, Shane mumbled "I forgot that you already have a sub-area right? It would be your second one¡­.This would be extremely expensive and the dangers you have to face without a fruit similar to the devilish-valkyrie-shield fruit you used the first time would be much higher." Jason nodded his head too as he said "If I can''t refine my mind and create my second sub-area now, I''ll just do it later. I think It would be best if I were to do it as early as possible but it''s not like I can''t wait. I don''t have enough funds either way!" Dalia looked at Jason for a moment before she averted her attention to Shane when she got an idea, who also looked at her as if he wanted to prevent her from saying anything. "Don''t you still have the three storage rings and storage devices from the two fake sovereigns ranks and Old Drake?" Sweat pearls to run down Shane''s back and he tried to ignore Dalia''s gaze when he faintly said "No! I don''t have them anymore! I probably threw them away!!" Chapter 338 - Promise Shane tried his best to not look towards Dalia, who was staring at him intently. "Are you sure that you don''t have them anymore? If I search and find them, they''re mine. Don''t dare to lie to me!!" Not only Shane flinched when he heard this but Jason, who had nothing to do with this mess suddenly stiffened as goosebumps covered his body. "Don''t search! I know where they are¡­ What do you want to do with them¡­?" Shane hurriedly asked, furrowing his brows. Jason had already a rough understanding of Dalia''s behavior and assumed that she wanted to help him with establishing his second sub-area. He also knew that his masters had more than enough star notes, mana stones, and so on to acquire everything necessary, but that didn''t mean he would ask them to get everything without giving them anything in return. Unfortunately, he had nothing to return, and thus, Jason didn''t want to bother to ask his masters to receive even more resources. Right now, his Golden-Soul shop was doing excellent and earning more than one star-note per day. Once he was able to upgrade his goods to grade-2 potions and perfectly purified bars, his gains would increase manifolds. Thanks to that, he was confident in acquiring enough resources to build his second sub-area in no time. There was only one slightly larger problem! Where to acquire an object similar to the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit? However, even if Jason was aware of where he could obtain such a brain-protecting object, he also knew that he wouldn''t have enough star notes to purchase something like that. Mana stones were already expensive, however, they were still much cheaper compared to magical treasures. This was a fact everyone knew and Jason could only sight at this thought. Dalia was aware that Jason didn''t want to receive their help all the time without giving them anything in return which forced her to think of a solution to satisfy everyone equally. This also included Shane, whose stingy personality was slowly re-emerging. "Let''s just take a look if we can find a magical treasure that protects one''s brain...Why are you so nervous Shane? It''s not like I will take everything from you as long as you don''t lie to me!" Shane signed in relief and nodded his head before he released his mana to enveloped the whole house. Only a moment later, three spatial rings and storage devices floated towards the group of three. He retracted the mana fluctuations after the spatial ring and storage devices landed on the small table that stood in front of them as he said. "I destroyed the mana fluctuation imprints a while ago but couldn''t take a look inside yet." Fortunately, Shane calmed down again fast and he turned serious after thinking that Jason would definitely need something to protect his brain to establish a second sub-area with the mind-splitting technique. It was not mandatory but at the same time, it was much better to protect one''s brain while doing such a difficult task like splitting one''s mind! ''Is it normal for a disciple to be so expensive?'' He began to ask himself, sulking inwardly before he looked at Jason and Dalia. "Let''s take a look inside the spatial rings first and check out if there is something Jason could use to protect his brain." Jason just nodded his head, thinking that he would pay his masters everything back once he was able to when he took one spatial ring and storage device into his hand. Inserting mana into the spatial ring first, Jason''s mind entered its small dimension where he saw a mana-grade-3 longsword, a small mountain of high-grade mana-stones, many sets of clothes, a few miscellaneous items, partially purified grade-3 potions, and a few sealed herbs. Everything was worth a little fortune, but there was nothing inside the spatial ring Jason needed to establish his second sub-area, except the mana stones. As such, he laid the spatial ring back before he took one of the storage devices that laid in front of him. Inserting his mana into it, Jason entered a small dimension with a slightly longer delay. Unfortunately, he couldn''t find what he searched for and exited the small dimension once again. Laying down the storage device, he sighed as he said "I would be a lie if I were to say that they''re poor and the content inside the spatial ring and storage device is worth more than ten thousand star notes, but I didn''t even see one expensive high-grade herb." This was Jason''s conclusion and from the looks of it, Shane and Dalia couldn''t find anything either. As such, Dalia turned to Jason with a firm expression as she said "We know that you won''t be able to acquire a brain-protecting treasure, and we know each other long enough that you don''t like things without giving anything in return which already happened before. However, we have other things to take care of too and you can''t just forge or concoct all day long to acquire enough funds for everything during the next two months, right? How about we take care of the brain-protecting treasure and you try to get enough funds for mana stones. At the same time, you should focus on all other aspects you want to improve until you enter the Mythic Garden. If you don''t like everything for granted, pay us back in the future! With that, I don''t mean that you should give us star notes¡­.Maybe you are bothered that you never did anything good for us, but we...or at least I don''t mind that. Just think of it as if you owe us one or multiple favors if you want!" Before Jason could say anything, Shane erupted as he said "What do you mean ''at least I don''t mind that''?? Being careful with finances is also important and knowing that Jason doesn''t like to get everything gifted, I intentionally didn''t offer him the same things you did!!!" Jason smiled when he saw his masters quarreling with each other and thinking about Dalia''s offer carefully, he thought that it was definitely beneficial to have such great masters. "I accept the offer and will pack everything back! Once I''m strong enough I can protect both of you from the big clans and take care of everything!" He gave his masters a promise to protect them and that he would pay them back everything, once he was able to. How should he have known that the future would be much more chaotic and difficult to deal with than he expected it to be? When Shane and Dalia heard that Jason wants to protect them in the future a faint smile emerged on their face, but deep within their eyes, one could also see sadness. It seemed as if his masters knew something Jason was unaware of. While he was trying to sound confident as he voiced out his promise, Shane and Dalia looked into each other''s eyes while thinking the same about their young disciple. ''He is still too young and naive.... He has yet to see how treacherous mankind really is!'' After living for several centuries, Jason''s masters knew that dangerous times approached them at a rapid pace and that it was only a matter of time before mankind''s true colors would be revealed. This premonition Shane and Dalia had only worsened over the last few months with the appearance of a Goblin King that was about to be nurtured by an extremely powerful origin flame, the emergence of a four-star rift inside Cyro-City, the fight of three foreign races, and knowing that the Drake family was not only backed by a foreign race but also oppressing his territory since his clan''s headquarter was destroyed. If that was everything, they would already be worried, but the Jual family seemed to be as malicious as the Drake family. ''How long will it take for mankind''s war, led by the foreign races in the shadows, to start?'' Chapter 339 - Restless Jason was completely oblivious to the dangers that were about to pass through Canir and the Archipelago, but his masters weren''t! If they wanted to make the best out of their current situation, they would either have to become stronger by themselves, which would take decades with their diminishing potential, or nurture someone who was able to change the tides. Their small disciple was the most talented youth they had ever seen in their whole life and it would only be a matter of time until he would become stronger than anyone else. However, time was what they were lacking! As such, Shane and Dalia tried many different tactics to give Jason more resources every now and then. After they figured out that Jason was about to establish his second sub-area, Dalia wanted to give him more resources openly, without demanding anything in exchange. It might sound dumb to others, however, Jason accepted the resources only in exchange for handing out favors because he felt that it was necessary. He didn''t know why exactly he felt like this and couldn''t describe his feelings either, however, Jason knew deep down within him that every little help he receives was necessary. As such, he accepted their offer to acquire a brain protection treasure with which he could refine his brain before splitting it once again. Taking a deep breath, Jason pondered about the most efficient way he could take to improve his overall combat prowess in addition to his soulbonds, in merely two months at that. "Should I stay inside the abandoned lands for two months?" Jason mumbled to himself, which was heard by Shane who said "That''s probably the best for your soublonds in order to strengthen their perception and combat awareness. Your own progress shouldn''t slow down there either...Maybe Dalia or I should protect you or I can summon one of my soulbonds to act as your bodyguard. With that, you shouldn''t have any problems in the abandoned lands! The only thing we would have to take care of might be that you would need to have enough cultivation resources and that we can transport the goods you forge and concoct from the abandoned lands to your little Golden-Soul shop." Dalia also nodded her head and Jason smiled, thinking that everything was concluded as Shane suddenly asked "Do you want to go immediately?" Hearing this, Jason couldn''t even think of suppressing laughing out loud. It seemed as if he was not the only impatient person and when Shane noticed Dalia glaring at him, he just said "If he starts with everything right off the bat, he has a few hours longer to improve his strength!" This sounded logical but both Jason and Dalia knew that making preparations was also important to work efficiently. As such, Jason shook his head before he said "I want to make some preparations first before going to the abandoned lands again. With enough preparations, I wouldn''t need to stop cultivating at all and everything will be much smoother that way." Shane nodded his head, smiling drily "Just take the content of one spatial ring and we''ll purchase a few high-grade medical solutions. That way you shouldn''t need to make any preparations, right? There is not much you need either way. Maybe a few miscellaneous items, food, and other necessities, but the cultivation resources should be the most important." Jason didn''t really understand why Shane became so impatient...It was so sudden but he also felt the urge to depart as soon as possible. Since they found out more about the Mythic Garden, and that the Jual clan was behind the mysterious addictive cultivation drug, Jason and his masters felt restless. Thus, Jason nodded his head without saying anything else before he transferred a bunch of high-grade mana stones out of one of the three spatial rings into his own. Taking a look into his spatial ring to see if he had enough food for himself and specialized food for his soulbonds, Jason was ready to depart as he said "I''m probably only lacking in more medical solutions. Other than that, I should have everything I need to depart directly." Dalia could only sight at the two men''s behavior when she said "I''ll stay here and take care of Emily¡­.Her soulbond will also hatch soon and she will need every little help one can give her. I just hope that her soul amplification is not too high¡­" Shane and Jason nodded their head before Shane manifested a spatial portal in front of him through which he jumped without wasting another second. Jason followed suit and they emerged above the abandoned lands only a few more jumps through spatial portals later. Enveloped by Shane''s mana, Jason was able to levitate and he manifested Artemis'' wings to fly through the sky before descending to the ground. Searching for a good area to stay for the next two months didn''t take that long because Shane simply terraformed a place to make it the most suitable and comfortable for him to stay. At the same time, it was a good place for Jason to absorb mana, refine his body inside a basin with the help of the Netherworld''s fort technique, increase his proficiency with his affinities. Maybe it was even suitable to learn a new martial art technique which might come in handy inside the Mythic Garden. Setting up everything necessary, Jason was glad that Shane followed him who suddenly said with a sly smile. "Now that we have two months, I''ll coordinate your training and show you how terrifying I can''t be!" He sounded happy and wicked at the same time which caused Jason to furrowed his brows as he thought ''His training won''t kill me, right?'' *[2 months later]* Jason was not sure what he expected from Shane''s training, but that he was even too tired to sleep soundly was enough for him to understand that it was on a completely different league than the training he underwent before. Almost two months passed and Jason couldn''t help but feel relieved that it was finally over. He was currently laying on the ground, giving his utmost efforts to breathe while Shane stood above him in sparing clothes as he said "Is that already everything you can do? We only spared a little bit, and you already look worse than an undead being! However, not only Jason was exhausted but also Artemis and Scorpio laid next to him on the ground, giving their best efforts to stay alive. ''Ugh, why did I even follow Shane?'' Jason asked himself for a moment before disregarding this thought. Thanks to his master''s efforts, he felt that his, Artemis and Scorpio''s combat prowess and perception heightened by a large margin which was the reason they even departed to the abandoned lands. During the last two months, he sparred with Shane almost every day while his soulbonds were out hunting Unblemished beasts, trying to adjust themselves to their strength, which was easier said than done. Only in the last few days, Jason and his soulbonds began to fight against Shane together, only to be beaten into a pulp every single time. Shane only stopped the spar when he noticed that they could be seriously injured or after sensing that the recuperation process might take longer than a day. Other than that, Jason tried to improve his proficiency with the three affinities he possessed. He even learned a new martial art technique, called [Devious Swordmaster]. It was a Tier-2 technique that focused on swift attacks and the utilization of faints to distort the opponent''s perception. The best weapon to use this technique with was a light longsword which was also the weapon Jason was practicing with during the last two months. After he figured out that daggers had their limits, Jason tried to find other solutions to fight someone without having to lose out on speed. Searching for a few martial art techniques he was interested in, he also found the [Devious Swordmaster] technique which recommended a light longsword. Thus Jason forged himself a pseudo-grade-2 longsword after the two months passed, which was a feat he never imagined to achieve in such a short time. However, Shane''s detailed explanations, his accurate control over mana, the help of his black origin flame''s innate traits, and the existence of his mana eyes allowed him to succeed. Jason didn''t even know how many times he failed, but in the end, he forged a light pseudo-grade-2 longsword which filled him with pride. Unfortunately, this pride was easily smashed after Shane demonstrated to him how weak he and his soulbonds were as he used only one hand to defeat them without much effort. Furthermore, it looked like Shane was happy to see his pride being shattered which was even worse for Jason to see!! Chapter 340 - Meeting Point It was only obvious that Shane could defeat Jason and his soulbonds with his overwhelming strength. This felt even worse when he adjusted his strength to be on par with a peak-Master rank because his combat awareness, experience, and also proficiency in martial art techniques were in a completely different league than Jason''s. Nevertheless, Jason learned a lot thanks to Shane''s sparring and his [Devious Swordmaster] technique was already approaching the familiar mastery that came immediately after the basic mastery. Thanks to his mana eyes and Shane demonstrating the Tier-2 martial art technique in detail, Jason didn''t have any problems while practicing it. He was also able to fix his flaws shortly after Shane pointed them out. Other than sparring with each other, Shane decided that it was time for him to teach Jason about blacksmithing more in-depth. Not only was it important for him to learn more about blacksmithing and every little process of it but Shane was also able to demonstrate everything. This helped Jason a lot to see the tiniest details he would have to pay attention to. Through this, Jason was able to forge a pseudo-mana grade-2 weapon after only two months which was a shocking achievement. Jason knew that the pseudo-mana grade-2 light longsword was not even close to perfection but it was already better than the Viridi-Starstream dagger-set he possessed. The light longsword in his possession was sharp enough to pierce through the hide of every magical ranked beast as long as he was able to supply it with enough mana which was probably the biggest downside of his current situation. Two months passed and Jason absorbed mana for several hours daily, which included the liquefied mana from grade-3 mana stones which he placed around him to accelerate his mana absorption. This should have accelerated his speed further, considering that his mana mastery was superior while the same applied for his aptitude, he should have been able to break through several levels. Unfortunately, this only included youths that were at the Expert rank after receiving their soulbonds share of strength. Jason was on a whole different league with his mana core size that reached the 3rd Master rank while his mana core rank increased by only one level in a duration of two months. Under normal circumstances, this was a very good achievement for most youths. However, Jason was not satisfied with it because he knew that he could do much better. His whole body was craving for Mana, but something was holding him back!! Whether it was the amount or pureness of mana around him, his current mana absorption speed which increased only slowly, or something else, Jason could only accept his situation as it currently was. Attaining a mana core of the 4th Expert rank at the age of 14 years and almost 9 months was nothing special but his soul world''s amplifications not only slowed down his breakthrough speed but on the other side, it allowed him to be much stronger than his mana core rank too! As such, Jason told himself that he shouldn''t be too disappointed with himself because it was unlikely that many youths at his age were able to have a mana core size comparable to that of an average 3rd Master rank!. While his mana core rank was still bothering him slightly, his body refining process accelerated and Jason noticed that the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique was slowly reaching the first quarter of the Initial phase. This might sound weak and like nothing special but the Initial phase of the Netherworld''s fort technique could only be completed when he left the Mortal stage by compressing his mana into the first liquefied drop of mana! As such, he had to reach the Magus rank or also called Lique stage, which would take a while. That was if his soul amplification would stay so high without being cursed and weakened. During the last two months, Jason didn''t neglect to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique either! He was unable to practice very often because his time was tightly scheduled but Shane told him that he should reach a certain amount of soul energy units before he could switch to doing other, more important things. In the end, Jason would need enough soul energy to bind a new soulbond, however, after figuring out that the Mythic Garden was only a four-star rift, the possibility of finding a suitable cursed beast among Guardian ranked beasts that shouldn''t exist in four-star rifts in the first place, was almost zero! Thus, he required 10,000 vacant soul energy units if he were to find a suitable cursed being at the peak Magical rank. That was, if he cursed beings were not similar to mythical beasts that required more soul energy units, which was something Jason was unaware of. Even Shane was unsure about this fact because his bane of thousand eyes wolf was just a pseudo-cursed beast. It didn''t demand more soul energy units than a common Guardian-ranked beast would! Unfortunately, he would have to defeat and catch such a suitable cursed beast first before binding it and Jason was sure that he would be unable to defeat a peak-Magical ranked beast. Even low-magus ranked beasts with strong curses would be able to defeat him and his soublonds without much difficulty, which was frustrating but the bitter truth. The Golden-Soul shop''s profits increased manifold after Jason began to exhibit perfectly purified grade-2 bars, potions, and weapons. Thanks to that, his shop became much more popular and only two months later Jason''s wealth increase to 700 Star notes which would have been enough to purchase a lot of mana stones. Taking the mana stones he had still left into account, Jason was confident to refine his brain and create a second sub-area by splitting his mind as long as nothing went wrong. To his misfortune, neither Shane nor Dalia were able to procure a brain protection treasure which gave Jason two choices. The first one was that he would still refine his brain, which would cripple him permanently if he were to make a small mistake, while the second choice would be to postpone refining his brain until he was able to acquire a brain protection treasure! Taking the first choice would be extremely dangerous which might cripple him or cause his death, while the second choice would slow evidently become a small thorn in his eyes because he wanted to establish his second sub-area. Jason wanted to create a continuous circle in his soul world core with which he could increase his soul energy without practicing the Heaven''s Hell technique. This would save him a lot of time which he could use more efficiently. However, after thinking about it, Jason found it unreasonable to take the first option because his current soul energy was already enough to take on a peak-magical ranked beast! He had 22,000 Soul energy units, while 16,000 of them were still vacant! After he decided to take the second option, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit frustrated. However, he took only for a short time to notice that his black origin flame already constructed three-fourths of its mana core. This caused his frustration to dissipate almost immediately. It would only take a few weeks until the mana core was finally constructed and when that happened, the black origin flame would hopefully evolve! This was good to hear because it was right before his final departure to the Mythic Garden which would happen soon. Jason had already received a notification about their assigned meeting point, which was a C-grade city called Asgar. He was nervous and didn''t know what would happen, but on the other side, Jason also knew that his life was on the line which caused him to calm down extremely fast. On the 1st of June, Shane brought him to Asgar before he wished Jason good luck, threatening him that he would be hunted if he were to die inside the Mythic Garden. "Even if it''s very important for you to find a suitable cursed beast, don''t act suicidal! You have only one life!" Jason was aware of this fact, however, this was not really helpful. In the end, he would have to give his all in order to procure a suitable cursed beast in order to survive in the first place. His life was definitely the most important but risking a little but to might not be the wrong decision in some situations. Chapter 341 - Arrogant After Jason was lectured by Shane, he manifested a spatial portal behind him through which he walked to disappear from Jason''s sight. Taking a deep breath, Jason was sure that entering the Mythic Garden was something he had to do! It might be a four-star rift like the one he entered in Cyro-City with lots of cursed and blessed beasts, but this time, he was better prepared. Furthermore, he had his three soulbonds by his side and became much stronger! As such, Jason was confident that his chances to survive were not worse compared to other prodigies! In the worst-case scenario, he would have to manifest Scorpio''s exoskeleton to defend himself or Artemis'' wings to run away at a faster pace! If that was not enough, he told himself that exceeding his body''s limits for a short while would be okay. This would allow him to reach the strength and speed of a peak Master rank by allowing of his soulbond to enter his mana core to use their whole strength to amplify his own! Right now, he had to suppress the amplification he received when Artemis or Scorpio entered his mana core because his body would tear apart otherwise. A few seconds might be okay and not life-threatening but enduring the whole amplification of a peak Unblemished beast longer than a minute would definitely cause major injuries! Following the guide which he received from the AI, to find the exact position to the meeting point, Jason required only half an hour before he entered a small, unimpressive-looking building. From the outside, it looked as if it would fall apart any moment but Jason knew better than anyone else that this would never happen. His mana eyes were continuously activated for a few months and he could easily detect that the building''s structure was firmer than every Artisan tower he saw before. The materials used to build the small house in front of him were imbued with mana and extremely expensive which caused Jason to hesitate for a short moment before he opened the door to enter it. There were also several other things Jason noticed, like the large number of participants that already seemed to wait for something in the basement. However, that was not important for him because he could see something else that shocked him greatly. Below the small crowd of people, there was a huge magic circle that was probably made out of inscription mixtures that had milled spatial affinity transmuted mana cores in them. At least that was what Jason assumed when he saw the faint golden color within the magic circle. It was incomparable to the gigantic, majestic rune that manifested the four-star rift in Cyro-City that was made out of pure transmuted mana or something similar to that. Nevertheless, the magic circle was still extremely complex and caused Jason to be interested in it. Yet, after he entered the building, he was stopped by a tall, bulky man who seemed to be the guardian of the place he was about to enter. Inspecting his mana core, Jason couldn''t help but exclaim quietly because the guard was a sovereign rank with one solidified prismarine crystal inside his mana core. ''The Mythic Garden should be more important than we assumed it to be'' Jason concluded without any other reason than the guard he saw in front of him. Showing the guardian his ID and the certificate that he passed the Hidden-Prodigy assessment which Jason received from the AI a few days before, he was let through without any further questions. There was no elevator that brought him to the basement but stairs leading downwards. While walking down the stairs slowly, Jason carefully investigated every single mana core he could see in the basement and the amplification they received. Additionally, he could look at their transmuted mana and roughly estimate their soulbonds'' strength which was definitely advantageous for Jason who would meet other, real prodigies for the first time. However, Jason felt that everything he perceived right now was weird, because only a few individuals out of the small crowd he perceived could be considered powerful and real prodigies, considering that they were below 20 years old. There was nobody with a Grandmagus ranked mana core which indicated to Jason that everyone in the basement was below 20 years old and that there was currently no supervisor taking care of the young men and women. ''Doesn''t that mean that the influential clans and families sent their descendants to the Mythic Garden, even if they''re not prodigies? Is that not a little bit too dangerous?'' He estimated but it was not like Jason would mind it if that was really the case because it was their own choice. It was already dangerous enough for prodigies to enter the Mythic Garden, but it should be suicidal for others. Thanks to his preparations, Jason was at least confident in running away from a low-magical ranked beast while he should be able to avoid everything else with his mana eyes. Over the last few months, his eyesight increased by a large margin and it was not even difficult for him to sense stronger mana fluctuations over a distance up to 1,000 meters! As such, he would perceive everything dangerous early enough as long as it wasn''t in his blind spot! After he investigated the average strength of all young prodigies inside the basement which he entered at this movement, Jason concluded that the average strength should be around the peak of the Master rank! There were a few exceptions with the strength of a low-Magus and also a few that were at the mid-Master rank, but other than that, there was nothing special. He perceived a few unique affinities but unfortunately, there was nobody with a unique constitution, which he had hoped for. Since he met Dalia and Max Drake, Jason always wanted to see what factors were similar and different in the corresponding constitution. Unfortunately, that was not possible and he had yet to find a third person with a unique constitution! Nothing of that was important right now because Jason entered the large hall in the basement in which the large crowd of young prodigies was currently inside. However, what he saw there made him wonder if he was in the wrong place or not. As such he took a glance at his quantum bracelet''s holographic screen which pointed at the place he was currently inside and Jason could only frown. The basement he had entered looked like a small event hall used for higher authorities to celebrate something. It was decorated glamorously and there were several tables filled with food. "Is that a banquet?" He subconsciously blurted out before his attention was drawn to the young men and women that wore Suits, Dresses, and similar clothes one would wear for a formal event. ''Are we here to enter the Mythic Garden or to hold a banquet?'' Jason was utterly dumbfounded, not knowing what the hell was going on. His arrival began to attract the formerly dressed, young women''s attention because he was handsome and had a toned physique. Yet, rather than feeling good, Jason could only curse inwardly because he wore everything to enter the Mythic Garden, which included his mana-grade-2 leather armor and the fact that his pseudo-grade-2 light longsword was sheathed in the scabbard which Shane made for him a while ago. Jason knew that he was not bad-looking right now but the large contrast between wearing combat armors and formal clothes for a banquet was still apparent. He was pondering what to do right now when he noticed one of the young men who were in the center of their group staring at him intently before he approached him. The young man had broad shoulders and an athletic physique, while his blond hair and blue eyes highlighted his mature facial features. However, his gaze was cold as he asked arrogantly. "What the hell do you think you''re doing here? If you want to hunt beasts go to the Wild zones, but don''t interfere in our banquet!" "This is really a banquet?!?" Jason thought in shock, ignoring the young man''s arrogant tone, only to notice that he blurted it out loud. Scratching the head of his back, Jason couldn''t help but feel that he was truly at the wrong place. However, recalling the exact position of the place he had to go, the spatial transmuted magic circle and the sovereign ranked guardian, Jason was confident to be at the right place! Chapter 342 - Scheming Jason didn''t think that there would be a banquet in the basement of the shabby-looking building he entered. However, after taking a proper look around the room, it was hard to tell whether the young men and women he saw were about to venture into the Mythic Garde or if it was a banquet of the younger generation. His confusion was clearly visible but the young man with blond hair didn''t seem to bother about this as he said "I doubt that you belong here! It might be better if you go on your own accord, otherwise, I, Suo Jual, will make you go!" ''Suo Jual? Never heard of that name¡­.wait! The Jual clan? He is a descendant of the Jual clan? Ugh...how annoying" Sizing up Suo Jual, Jason could tell that he was arrogant and that it was not only because his family''s clan is one of the big families. His mana core rank was already at the low-Magus rank which meant that he liquefied the mana within his mana core in at least one drop of mana. Additionally, his mana was transmuted in two elements, indicating that he had two soulbonds that amplified his strength further. It was obvious to Jason that he was weaker, which was however because Suo looked like he was almost 20 years old. As such, Jason tried to remain calm, not to act hot-tempered which might create an unfortunate situation inside the Mythic Garden or even here, in the basement. "If this is the meeting point to enter the Mythic Garden, I''m at the right place. I didn''t want to disturb your banquet and only desire to enter the Mythic Garden, nothing else. Don''t bother about me. I''ll take care of my own business further away, have fun!" Having said so, Jason turned around as he was about to go in the corner of the room to take care of himself when he heard steps behind him. Suo Jual suddenly said annoyed "I didn''t allow you to enter the Mythic Garden yet! Also, I didn''t end our conversation!" Sighing, Jason turned his head to see Suo from the corner of his eye "I didn''t ask you if I can enter the Mythic Garden either. With that in mind, I don''t need your permission. You don''t even know which clan I belong to, but you could have figured out that I passed the Hidden-Prodigy assessment, otherwise, how would I have found this place without knowing that there would be a banquet! You don''t need to end our conversation because I did so to avoid an embarrassing situation for you. Shouldn''t you be a little bit more mature? Aren''t you much older than I am too? You''ll only humiliate yourself if you''re proud enough to make use of your name and strength to bash someone who''s several years younger than you are. That''s just childish. Please go on with your banquet and we can go our own paths, peacfully...." Jason finished his short lecture and walked away without caring about the awkward silence behind him. Only when he sat down on a chair, Jason found in the corner of the room could he see that Suo was still glaring at him, threateningly. ''What is wrong with this dude?'' Suo was thinking, not understanding how Jason could remain so calm when he indicated that he might prevent him from entering the Mythic Garden. This was not something he was allowed to do because his permission was not high enough to create a feud with another clan. At least without a proper reason. The black-haired youth with golden hair did not only passed the Hidden-Prodigy assessment but his mana core was fully concealed which was an indicator that Jason belonged to a strong clan. Suo was not sure which clan Jason belonged to but it was obvious to him that the clan was not something he could take lightly. When he saw Jason''s golden eyes that turned cold after he stopped him from walking away, Suo felt an eerie sensation enveloping him. ''I will have to observe him!'' He told himself before he put on a bright smile as he turned around to the other guests that would enter the Mythic Garden with him. "What a rascal..hahaha¡­.He looks extremely young too! Maybe the Mythic Garden will help him to become more mature and careful! Let''s eat something..." Suo decided that he would just ignore what happened during the last five minutes, and instead of souring his mood, he would try to get to know more about his other guests. In the end, he wanted them to turn into his tools, not only for the period inside the Mythic Garden but also afterward! Right now, most smaller clans and families needed something to increase their strength drastically and the Mythic Garden gave them the perfect opportunity! It might allow their descendants to become much stronger than the older generation had ever been before! If only one of them was able to find and bind a blessed beast, their potential might increase manifold, giving them the chance to change their fate. With this thought, many clans, families, and companies tried to make ties with the Jual clan. Suo, who knew about that, allowed a few clans and families to enter the Mythic Garden under the condition that the descendants that would enter the Mythic Garden had to obey him throughout the whole period of six months. In the beginning, this condition was frowned upon but after these clans and families thought about it, they accepted Suo''s request, thinking that their descendants might be able to create an opportunity in which they could form a soulbond contract with a blessed beast. To create a small group with many loyal underlings, Suo traveled to Terebrean because his younger brother, who was more talented than he was, established his own small group of real prodigies on Canir. It was frustrating and angering to know that his younger brother was considered more important to the Jual Clan. That was solely because of his talent, which forced Suo to step back every single time his brother wanted something he had. Now, Suo wanted to change everything by searching and binding a blessed being with a powerful blessing, allowing him to become more important than his brother! While Suo was trying to get to know everyone to figure out the most efficient way to act as a large group inside the Mythic Garden, Jason minded his own business like he said. Utilizing his three affinities at once, Jason couldn''t help but feel at ease when a small black flame, a compressed ice shard, and liquefied poison manifested in his hand. The liquefied poison was like water, which he could control in any way he wanted. Jason was resistant to all poisons which he could manifest, thanks to Scorpio''s hard work to comprehend the composition of different types of poison. While playing around with his three affinities, Jason''s high proficiency and control were clearly demonstrated, which caused a few young men and women who saw that from the corner of their eye to avert their attention to him. Seeing that a few guests looked towards the corner of the room, more guests turned around to look at Jason with interest gleaming in their eyes. Suo also noticed that Jason had three affinities that he could control accurately. ''Not only is his control accurate but the three affinities are extremely stable too. He has to be very proficient with them!... I should stay vigilant against him!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 343 - Underground Island? Less than an hour passed before all guests had arrived. After everyone was present, the sovereign ranked guard entered the room, before he announced "We will depart now, please stay in the center of the magic circle that will manifest any moment! The teleportation magic circle brings us close to the Mythic Garden rift!" A moment after the sovereign rank said that a large white magic circle with golden stripes intertwined within manifested, enveloping the whole room. As told, the young men and women walked to the center of the magic circle where they had to remain, standing closely next to each other. Jason was on the outmost layer and was glared at by a few young men who stood next to him. He tried his best to ignore them but it was still annoying to Jason that he was looked at with hostility without having done anything wrong. Sighing deeply, he could only see the sovereign rank releasing his mana to insert it into the magic circle they were currently standing inside. The magic circle released a white light with faint traces of golden color in it, dazzling the young prodigies. Jason was forced to close his eyes like everyone else when the space around them twisted. He was overly familiar with this sensation and didn''t think much about it, but upon sensing the unstable mana fluctuations from the young men and women next to him, Jason couldn''t help but think that the ''prodigies'' that had been invited were nothing but pushovers. If this was really the case, the high death would be easier to explain than Jason expected but this wouldn''t be advantageous in all situations. There was still the possibility that he required help inside the Mythic Garden which would force him to search for allies. However, if everyone is a pushover, easily scared by nothing serious, it might be better to stay alone to avoid unnecessary burdens. Fortunately, there were only a few unstable mana fluctuations and most were relatively stable which caused Jason to disregard his earlier thought. He didn''t want to search for allies inside the Mythic Garden but he couldn''t be sure that he would never need some in the long duration of six months they might spend there! The Mythic Garden was open for six months but that didn''t mean that he had to stay inside for such a long period! Only the fact that they were teleporting to a place, Jason and more importantly Shane didn''t know, was a little downside. Even if he wanted to, Jason would be unable to ask Shane to take him home. At least, if Shane didn''t know his exact coordinates or where the place they would enter was located. Suddenly Jason felt that his surroundings changed a few seconds after the space around them twisted. The bright white-golden light began to dissipate, revealing several hundred young men and women that stood only a few hundred meters away in front of a small stage where a middle-aged woman was standing, holding a speech. She released a tranquil aura, had long blond hair and had a slender body. This was not really important to Jason because the two solidified prismarine crystals his mana eyes perceived in addition to a third prismarine crystal that was currently being established inside her mana core spoke volumes about her strength. ''Is she the Jual clan''s head?'' He asked inwardly, only to avert his attention from the woman on the stage and crowd in front of her to take a look at where they currently stood. It was bright and Jason could see everything clearly. Apparently, they were currently on a small island with the Mythic Garden rift, that gathered mana from the surrounding, manifested in the center. Jason was interested in the Mythic Garden rift but there was something else that attracted his attention. ''The island is relatively small and I can''t see any other islands, but why do I feel like there is something odd about the surrounding area?'' The water around them was tranquil, not moving a little inch, even less making waves, while the blue sky didn''t have a single cloud. Suddenly, while Jason stared at the sky, his mana eyes perceived something weird! ''Why is the sky releasing mana fluctuations? There''re also different colors enveloping it? And why is there something above the sky??'' Attracted from these weird facts, Jason couldn''t help but scan everything around him more intently. While everyone walked out of the teleportation circle after a moment of hesitation, Jason only followed suit after the sovereign rank guardian instructed him to do so. Subconsciously walking towards the stage, following the crowd, his expression began to worsen, when he almost blurted out ''Are we underground?!'' In the beginning, this thought was only an assumption which he wanted to disregard a moment after he thought about it, however, upon looking closer at the sky, Jason could tell that there was something wrong. ''It really is a face sky!'' Jason thought and his eyes widened in astonishment. He was unsure whether it was the work of the Jual clan, but if that was the case, there had to be a proper reason for that. ''Do they want to hide the exact position of the Mythic Garden that much? Is it really that valuable?'' Jason thought that the Jual clan''s careful behavior indicated that the Mythic Garden was even more important than he and his masters thought in the beginning. With that in mind, he hoped so. However, more importantly, would be that this importance stemmed from the blessed and cursed beings inside it because that was why he was here! The only thing he wanted to do in the Mythic Garden was to obtain a cursed being that could weaken his soul world amplification and nothing else! After he achieved his goal, there was no need for him to stay inside the Mythic Garden anymore. However, only now did Jason start doubting whether he could depart from the small underground island he and several hundred if not more than a thousand young prodigies were currently on. ''Maybe I''ll have to stay inside the Mythic Garden longer than expected? By the looks of it, I can only enter and leave this small underground island through the teleportation magic circles¡­ '' This fact was something he and his masters didn''t expect. They expected that the Jual Clan would have a few tricks to hide the exact location of the Mythic Garden rift but to think that it manifested on a small ''island'' in a see underground was ridiculous. Taking a short glance at his quantum bracelet, Jason noticed that there was no connection which he already expected. Scratching the back of his head, he began to wonder if they were still on Terebrean or not. ''The teleportation circle didn''t use an enormous amount of mana to bring us to this small island. But does that really mean we are still on Terebrean? We could be below the ocean too¡­. As such I wouldn''t even be able to dig through the ground to find a way out without relying on something. The ceiling looks thick too and I can''t see through it, but who knows how far below the surface we are!'' With that thought, Jason averted his attention back to the middle-aged woman on the stage who was currently explaining something when the island shook slightly as the rift in the center screeched out. Its six-month-long hibernation ended and the rift was slowly awakening! __________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________ Chapter 344 - Reason Everyone''s attention was drawn to the rift''s direction and the tense atmosphere slowly turned into expectancy and joy. ''This rift is different from the four-star rift I entered in Cyro-City!'' Jason thought almost immediately. It was still only one, big and complex rune, but the rift in front of him didn''t look like it was manmade! There was no proof for this assumption but Jason could tell that the big and complex rune looked a little bit cruder as if time and nature changed it to allow the rift to take its current form. There were still the three major affinities in a golden, silver, and distinct black color which his mana eyes perceived in the Cyro-City''s rift but the Mythic Garden rift had even more colors intertwined in the gigantic rune. While the other young men and women were impatiently waiting for the rift to awaken completely, allowing them to enter the Mythic Garden, Jason wanted to comprehend the rift''s rune that was a few hundred meters away from him. The middle-aged woman finished her speech quickly, only to notice that nobody was listening to her anymore which made her angry. However, she could also understand the young generations'' excitement which allowed her to calm down quickly as she allowed them to approach the rift. The Mythic Garden was extremely important to the Jual clan, but creating bonds and relationships with other big families, clans, companies, and Hunter teams was even more important! If the Jual clan were to enter the Mythic Garden alone, they would have more resources for themselves, but at the time also more problems on Canir than they currently had. Right now, everything was going according to their plan and Yvonne Jual, the second head of the Jual clan couldn''t help but think that her idea to publicly reveal the Mythic Garden for real prodigies might have worked out. This year, there were many more young men and women that would enter the Mythic Rift, and one reason for this was the Hidden-Prodigy assessment! Another reason was that her descendants showed their ambition to establish their own connections which the Jual clan allowed. It was not difficult to tie small families and clans to them, by using the Mythic Garden as one of the most valuable resources because one received the opportunity to search and bind a blessed being, which might change one''s fate! One could say that the Jual clan was one of the most influential big clans and everything was thanks to the Mythic Garden which caused even other big families to work hard to establish amity with their clan. While the large crowd, made up of more than a thousand young prodigies that approached the Mythic Garden rift with gleaming eyes, Jason was walking extremely slow to prevent missing out on a single detail if he were to focus too much on his surroundings. As such, he was still nearby the stage, when everyone else was already waiting for the rift to awaken fully so that they could enter it. They were pushing each other and one could feel that the previous expectant and joyous atmosphere was slowly turning back to a tense and even hostile atmosphere when the first young men and women started to curse each other. Yvonne Jual couldn''t help but sigh deeply at this sight because it was mankind''s greed that caused such behavior. However, she was unable to deny that her own personality was filled with less greed. Rather than that, she noticed that her mind became even greedier after she encountered a foreign race that wanted to make a deal with her whole clan. After hearing how insignificant mankind really was, she couldn''t help but become greedier in order to make the best out of their situation. Some might say that she was evil and taking the wrong path but why should she care about that? Looking at the crowd of young prodigies in front of the rift that would need a few more minutes to awake, she tried to see if there was someone special who attracted her interest, when she saw a black-haired youth with golden eyes behind the crowd of impatient youths. While the majority tried to enter the Mythic Garden as fast as possible, there was only a minority who remained calm, standing further away from the crowd to avoid unnecessary trouble. Jason was one of them, but what made Yvonne Jual curious was his low mana core rank! She could easily see through Jason''s concealment technique that was more complex than what most young men and women could achieve after several years, indicating that his proficiency with the concealment technique was superior. However, this was useless in front of Yvonne who saw that Jason''s mana core rank was barely at the 4th Expert. ''What is someone like this youth doing here?'' She asked herself in confusion, not knowing whether this was a bad joke or not. The golden-eyed youth looked young to her, but his mature aura and calmness were a huge contrast to his obvious low mana core rank. ''How can he remain so calm? Does he not know that the death rate inside the Mythic Garden is 80%, considering that one reached the peak-Master rank?.... Wait? He doesn''t seem to be one of the invited youths...How did he pass the Hidden-Prodigy assessment with such a low mana core rank?'' Her curiosity was ignited which caused her to manifest the quantum bracelet''s holographic screen in front of her before she opened the document with every passed Hidden-Prodigy assessment. "Where are you?" Yvonne mumbled, which was looked at with interest from the sovereign-ranked guard that appeared next to her. It was the same guard who looked at Jason''s ID in Asgar. In the beginning, he didn''t really bother about this youth which led him to not scan through his mana core on Asgar. However, upon seeing how the second-head behaved after glancing at Jason, he became interested too. Seeing through his concealment, he couldn''t hide his astonishment. "That''s weird....he is definitely too old to be considered a prodigy with such a low mana core rank." Yvonne couldn''t find Jason on the file and only when she heard Louis word''s as she stared at him "Do you know the golden-eyed youth?" The sovereign ranked guard, called Louis shook his head "I was assigned to the teleportation circle on Asgar, where Suo was. This youth, called Jason Laere was also there and he should be around 16 years and a few months old! However, the AI allowed him to enter the Mythic Garden... which means something about him should be special...I guess?" Yvonne nodded her head as she searched for Jason''s name which she found without much difficulty. "Martial art proficiency above average(-)? That''s low...but...his mana mastery is superior? He is clearly at the Expert rank? OH? A Heaven''s will soul awakening? Interesting!" Her curiosity and suspicion turned into interest and she stared daggers at Jason, who was suddenly covered in goosebumps while trying to comprehend the Mythic Garden rift''s rune. Turning around, he saw that the middle-aged woman looked at him intently which made him uncomfortable. Taking a deep breath he tried to ignore her when he suddenly heard an astonished exclamation "WHAT a fortified soul conjunction???" This caused Jason to flinch involuntarily as he began to wonder if they were talking about him. The voice who exclaimed out loud belonged to a female and the middle-aged woman who looked at him before was the most likely to be the culprit. He became nervous and an uncomfortable sensation approached him which caused him to stiffen involuntarily. ''I should depart as soon as possible!'' Jason was unable to focus on the big, complex rune in front of him anymore and he sighed in relief when he saw that the Mythic Garden rift awoke completely. Everyone who saw this tried to push each other to be the first to step through the rift and Jason knew that it would take some time before it was his turn. But how should he know if he had enough time to enter the rift if the middle-aged woman were to follow him. Taking a short glance at what was going on behind, Jason noticed that the woman smiled at him which caused him to feel uncomfortable as he thought that it would be best to depart right now. ''If I can''t enter the rift through the ground, let''s take another way!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 345 - Cursed Planet Jason wasn''t sure what the middle-aged woman wanted to do with him now that she seemed to have figured out that he established a fortified soul conjunction with ''one'' soulbond at the age of ''16''. However, to him, it was clear that this achievement was impressive, and instead of wasting too much time, Jason decided to depart as soon as possible. With that in mind, he utilized his ice affinity and released enough mana at once to create thick mist, enveloping the area three meters around him in a single moment. He was already at the end of the crowd and many young men and women noticed the thick mist at the end of the crowd when someone with black hair, a pitch-black mask, and white wings shot into the air. After Jason put on a mask he ordered Artemis to enter his mana core to manifest her wings before he shot into the air, ignoring the crowd on the ground as he flapped with the white wings on his back vigorously. A moment later he flew past the crowd below him, only to stop for a quarter of a second in front of the gigantic gate. Turning around, he saw that the middle-aged woman far in the back didn''t act which allowed him to sigh in relief when he entered the rift carefully. ''I shouldn''t faint again, right?'' He suddenly asked himself when the space around him began to twist. Jason retracted Artemis'' wings again before his eyes felt like someone blindfolded him. ''That''s what should happen!'' He told himself knowingly after he asked his masters how traveling through a rift should normally feel like. Apparently one would feel blindfolded or dazzled, preventing one from seeing anything. However, Jason had a different idea right now which he wanted to test as he released the mana stored in his eyes faintly. Normally one had only one mana storage which was one''s mana core, but there were certain mutations humans might undergo through certain events. This allowed the creation of another storage, while there were also multiple races mankind knew of, that had several mana storages. Their main storage was the mana core and the other mana storages were frail and in most cases on the outside of one''s body, where they were easier to destroy. Jason knew that but he never assumed that his mana eyes were something he obtained entirely from his Celestia half. That was because mana eyes always had a small mana storage! At least according to the information, he read about mana eyes online. He didn''t think that this information was wrong and the only thing Jason assumed to have obtained from the Celestia race was a slight enhancement in his eyes capabilities. This wouldn''t explain why the Shadow Walker and other foreign races were so afraid of the Celestia race when he encountered them in Cyro-City, but Jason didn''t think it was necessary to bother about something like that right now. Maybe there was something else, like the amiable aura the earth dragons sensed from him, but Jason didn''t know if that was something the Celestia race had innately! By releasing mana within his eyes, they began to glow lightly as the blindfolded sensation seemed to dissipate slowly, revealing millions of stars with which he was already familiar. ''The rift in Cyro-City was exactly the same! Wait...it''s not!'' Turning towards the right, he saw something far away in front of him that was entirely different from the blue planet he saw before. There was still a gigantic planet, but the one he saw right now was much smaller in size compared to the blue planet while the mana fluctuations he perceived were also different! Jason was not sure why he felt so, but the green planet with large blue stripes within seemed to release a distinct aura with which he was already familiar too. At least that was what Jason thought and trying to remember what exactly the familiar aura was, he could only think that it was similar to that of Shane''s soulbond, the bane of a thousand eyes wolf! However, on the other side, the aura Jason was currently exposed to was much stronger, which caused him to conclude that the world he saw from far away might be their destination. ''If the rifts connect us to different planets, why is there even a need to label them with ''one- to four- star'', Hell- or Abyssal- ranked rafts? Wouldn''t what I see right now also mean that we don''t enter a small, sealed dimension on the other side of the rift but a complete world that inhabits all kinds of terrifying existences? At least by perceiving the mana fluctuations from the green and blue planet I saw before, I can tell that Argos'' mana fluctuations are insignificant! Then¡­.why didn''t mankind encounter stronger beasts than the rifts'' rank indicates?'' Jason was curious and confused about this because he couldn''t answer this question. Nevertheless, it was evident that the rift connected Argos with the green planet which he could see. Thus, Jason assumed the distinct aura around it was probably the reason for how his masters'' memories to be blurred. It should be a curse, enveloping the whole planet which caused Jason to feel a little bit weird. Fortunately, there didn''t seem to be any effect yet and Jason thanked his mana eyes inwardly. They were unique and definitely not ordinary mana eyes. Jason couldn''t help but feel that it was extremely fortunate for him to be born with them! It might have been a long, and painful time until he gained eyesight and the ability to see mana fluctuations, but Jason was sure that his blind childhood taught him a lot! As such, he had no hard feelings about his past, and he already forgot who his bullies were. Only his mother''s death was something that made Jason feel powerless about his past. However, before his mood soured further, he felt a strong surge around him as Jason was already thrown out of the rift. He stopped releasing mana into his eyes because the blindfolded sensation stopped as the smell of iron permeated the air. Jason''s guard was immediately up and he unsheathed his light longsword instinctively as he saw a huge ferocious two-horn rhinoceros carcass with several small holes in it. Behind the first corpse were multiple more which caused Jason to lift his eyebrow when he saw a young man with blond hair. He had light attributed mana which he used to envelop the spear he wielded, massacring the horde of Mid-Unblemished ranked ferocious two-horn rhinoceros. The young man''s mana core was at the peak-Master rank and released a lot of mana at once which caused Jason to wonder how he can handle such a high mana consumption. Inspecting him with his mana eyes, Jason could tell that the blond-haired youth was not simple. Rather than that, the blond-haired youth seemed to be fortunate because it looked like he had a way to refine his body the same way Jason could. The only difference was that the youth''s body refining of the Initial-phase was almost completed and that the light affinity he utilized was his sole affinity. As such, refining his body with a light attribute was even more efficient. ''If he has a body refining technique, this youth must belong to a big clan that has most likely a treaty with a foreign race, or his family found it in an ancient ruin¡­'' The latter option was more unlikely, but it was not impossible. At least that was what Jason thought until he saw the youth''s face, which caused him to remember someone who looked similar ''Could this youth be the younger brother of Suo Jual? If that''s the case, it''s evident where this youth got the body refining manual from!.... Let''s go first!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 346 - Failed Ambush Jason was not sure whether the youth from the Jual family was arrogant as his brother or not but that it didn''t really matter to him because he wanted to venture through the Mythic Garden alone, either way. There was no need for him to rely on others like it was the case in Cyro-City''s rift. He was confident in his own strength and his mana eyes'' capabilities which allowed him to depart in the opposite direction where the youth from the Jual family was currently creating a massacre. Artemis and Scorpio were expectant to leave the soul world and join Jason on his journey but he rejected their request for the moment because there was an ominous feeling approaching him. ''That''s not a good start!'' He told himself, looking around in vigilance. This thought was not really helpful for him and would normally be the reason for most people to panic, but weirdly enough, Jason felt extremely calm. He began to supply mana into his eyes again to enhance his eyesight, allowing him to see everything around him clearly. Nothing with the thinnest mana fluctuations could escape him anymore! As such, he was able to immediately perceive the outlines of a large panther that approached him silently from a bush that was located behind him. Thanks to his mana eyes, Jason could not only see the panther''s outlines but also its mana core rank at the peak-Unblemished rank. Furthermore, the panther had a faint aura around its mana core! This aura was the reason for him to feel uncomfortable and Jason assumed that it was most likely a curse, even if it might be an extremely weak one. The panther didn''t have any transmuted mana and instead of waiting for it to appear in front of him, Jason waited for the perfect time before he told Artemis and Scorpio to emerge from the soul world, at the exact same time. Meanwhile, Jason used his fortified soul conjunction with the black origin flame to unleash it, allowing it to enter his mana core for the first time. There was no physical or mana amplification, yet because the black origin flame didn''t have a physical body or a mana core, But Jason was still able to use the black flame he received as affinity unhindered without any restrictions. Enveloping the light longsword in his hand with small, but extremely hot and compressed flames, Jason was confident that they were strong enough to injure the panther. Exerting the weightless steps movement technique at the perfect mastery to increase his speed by 60%, he shot forward, following Artemis, who was in her large form, and Scorpio to attack the cursed panther. One might think that he was a little bit over the top by going all out with his attack but Jason never fought against a cursed being and he was also unaware about which curse the panther harbored. As such it was better to go all out and stay vigilant all the time! The cursed panther who imagined that it had found an easy prey to hunt was suddenly overwhelmed and attacked by three opponents at once. Furthermore, two of them seemed to be as strong as it was while the third being that was initially its prey turned out to have a powerful trump. However, instead of panicking, the panther released its own trump as it unleashed its aura, which filled an area of a few meters around them within a single moment. Jason perceived this and he could tell that his, Artemis, and Scorpio''s strength decreased by roughly 2% in all aspects. This might not be a devastating difference, but the area which the cursed panther filled with its curse was a radius of around 15 meters. ''If the cursed panther were to fight several hundred slightly weaker opponents with a partner, this curse would be extremely strong!'' Jason concluded before he vanished behind Artemis, who released thick mist, while Scorpio manifested several small liquefied balls of corroding poison which he threw towards the cursed panther. The cursed panther avoided these poisonous balls without much effort when it noticed that both Artemis and Jason vanished from its sight as the mist enlarged. Suddenly several dozen icicles shot out of the mist, creating pressure on the cursed panther who could barely avoid the majority of attacks. A few icicles targeting the panther hit it, but the damage caused was negligible as Artemis who ascended into the air when it released the ice mist dived down straight to the cursed panther. Manifesting several, sharper and compressed icicles, the panther immediately knew that the owl was the biggest threat as several more poisonous balls flew towards it. Evading them with nimble steps, the cursed panther suddenly sensed that its paws were burning which forced it to look down, only to see that the ground was littered with the corrosive poison, sizzling on the ground. The pressure increased multiple times when it noticed that and the panther used the majority of its mana to unleash the whole curse it harbored, decreasing everyone''s strength by another 1%. However, what the panther already forgot was Jason''s existence! He suddenly emerged behind the panther with the light longsword that was enveloped in a glowing black flame in one hand, executing the [Devious Swordmaster] technique to his fullest capabilities, swiftly piercing through the cursed panther''s abdomen. The resistance Jason felt was less than he expected as the black origin flame burned through the panther''s fur, flesh, and organs without much difficulty. Twisting the light longsword within the cursed panther before pulling it out, Jason retreated several steps to merge with the ice mist that enveloped the whole area around them as several newly manifested, compressed icicles pierced into the injured panther. The cursed panther was already roaring out in unbearable pain and about to die when it was hit with Scorpio''s liquified poison which he threw beforehand, sizzling through the panther''s skin. Only a moment later, the panther''s curse erupted once again before it completely vanished as it slumped to the ground taking its last few breaths. When the short, but intense fight was finally over, Jason took a deep breath before he approached the cursed panther after he was sure that it was really dead. This was quite easy thanks to his mana eyes that could perceive all mana fluctuations and determine if the mana core was still intact, or also ''alive''. After inspecting the cursed panther for a short moment, Jason was sure that the curse it harbored was not something that would be transferred by touching the corpse. Storing the carcass inside his spatial ring, he began to wonder how powerful the panther''s curse would have been if it acted as a supporting character for a stronger beast. A weakened state of 2%-to-3% was not something major, but the area of effect the panther''s curse had was extremely large considering that a panther was an agile beast! It could jump into the fray and leave without injury as long as it was careful, level-headed, and didn''t encounter a well-coordinated team like Jason and his soulbonds became after they trained hard. The curse might have been a weaker one, but it was still astonishing that the first living beast he encountered was a cursed being. This told Jason that the Mythic Garden was the perfect place for him to search for his next soulbond! His chances were still extremely low, but they increased manifold compared to solely searching for a suitable cursed beast on Argos! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 347 - Gigantic Forest Jason was carefully walking through the small plain area around the rift, with Artemis and Scorpio next to him. There weren''t many beasts around but it was obvious that they were strong according to the mana core rank and distinct transmuted mana most of them had. From the looks of it, there were only a few large groups of beasts around the rift, through which he and the others entered, and not a single, stronger magical ranked beast. Furthermore, Jason couldn''t find another cursed being, even less a blessed one which was however not something that bothered him. In the end, he wouldn''t bind a blessed beast or sentient plant either way. As such, Jason could ignore them to prevent anyone from annoying him, if one were to find him looking at a blessed beast that others would want to contract as their soulbond. Rather than that, it was Jason''s plan to get his hands on a suitable cursed beast! He was not even really interested in finding treasures inside the Mythic Garden. There was only one other thing Jason wanted to figure out, which he could only do inside the Mythic Garden. ''What ingredients are the slave merchants searching for in order to produce the addictive cultivation drug?'' If his employee had heard correctly, the slave merchants and most likely also the Jual clan had to acquire something within the Mythic Garden to produce the addictive cultivation drug which increased one''s mana absorption for a short period. Maybe it could also enhance other traits that helped in absorbing and annexing more mana but Jason wouldn''t know because he could only use the information he had. As such, Jason gave himself several tasks which he wanted to accomplish within the Mythic Garden. The first task he wanted to solve was to find a suitable cursed beast and it was evidently Jason''s highest priority. Meanwhile, the second task was not really something he could control because he wanted the black origin flame to evolve within the Mythic Garden. This would not only give him the opportunity to undergo a second baptism, enhancing him physically and enlarging his mana core size, but it would also allow Jason to enhance the black flame affinity to the magical rank. Through a baptism, his vessel would be enlarged and strengthened, which was a first step towards being able to allow Artemis and Scorpio to compress their mana into liquid, creating drops of mana. However, on the other side, the baptism he would undergo would inevitably enlarge his mana core''s size making it more difficult to break through another level or even rank. It was a blessing and at the same time a curse because he wanted to enter the Lique-state liquefying his mana before entering the Prismar state by creating solidified prismarine-crystals in his mana core. Unfortunately, Jason felt like that might take a little bit longer than he expected as long as his soulbonds continued to become stronger. At the same time, he wanted to bind more beasts to his soul to become even stronger with multiple affinities which he wanted to utilize. Jason had yet to find a perfect balance between increasing his mana core rank and allowing his soulbonds to become stronger, which was not an easy feat to accomplish. He could only give his best for now! As for the third and last task he had given himself, Jason wanted to figure out what ingredients the Jual Clan and slave merchants used to create the addictive cultivation drug. The last task was the lowest in his priorities but at the same time, it might be extremely important to know for the future. In the end, the second task was not something he had to solve, but the black origin flame, while the first task relied on his luck and efficiency to search through all kinds of cursed beings Jason could find. Thus, Jason was able to try solving task three while he being occupied with finding a suitable cursed soulbond. Leaving the small plain area, Jason, Artemis, and Scorpio entered a large forest with a large variety of trees around. The space between each gigantic tree he saw was vast, allowing his soulbonds to fly and walk freely without any obstructions. Every tree released distinct mana currents and there were even a few unique trees releasing a faint black or light gray color. Jason''s mana eyes perceived every little detail in his surroundings but he couldn''t find any beasts he was interested in. In the next few hours, Jason entered the gigantic forest''s deeper proximity and he encountered two more cursed beasts and one blessed beast. However, they fled almost immediately after seeing him and his soulbond which was not surprising because the cursed and blessed beats he encountered were at the low/mid Unblemished rank. When the cursed beasts fled from him, Jason pondered for a moment if he should pursue them or not. In the end, he didn''t pursue them because they, fortunately, cursed him for a short period which allowed him to determine that these beasts didn''t harbor the curse he was looking for. Nevertheless, the curses he saw until now were not that bad to have as a soulbond, either! The cursed Panther that was his first opponent with a curse had an area of effect curse which might be extremely powerful as long as the curse wouldn''t affect certain individuals. Jason was interested in finding out more about other curses and blessings but he didn''t have the necessary knowledge to start his own detailed research and neither did he have enough time. During the last few hours, Jason could also see a few small groups of young prodigies venturing through the forest but their behavior was somewhat weird because they seemed to have a determined destination. However, at the same time, it looked like they had no goal! He didn''t know what was going on but it was definitely something weird. Without a set destination he could go wherever he wanted to as long as there weren''t too many dangers nearby. Jason avoided the areas with magical ranked beasts with the help of his mana eyes for the time being because he was not confident in defeating multiple magical ranked beasts with his, Artemis, and Scorpio''s current combat prowess. He was relatively sure that defeating a single low- magical ranked beast would be possible but that was already it! The difference between a peak-Unblemished beast and a newly advanced Magical ranked beast was already entered enough to show Jason that he shouldn''t act too rashly. Nevertheless, his curiosity was picked when he saw that multiple groups with varying sizes rushed towards the same direction which was the center of the forest. Following that, there were a lot larger groups of beasts approaching the forest''s center and Jason couldn''t help but feel like a huge, chaotic battlefield would start soon. This was sooner than Jason initially expected and he followed the last group of beasts he saw after ordering Artemis and Scorpio to enter his soul world. Exerting the weightless steps technique and concealing his mana core, Jason was able to follow the group of shadow lynxes he saw without any issues. After three hours, the shadow lynxes began to slow down which told Jason that they finally reached their goal when his mana eyes were overwhelmed from the sheer mass of colors enveloping a certain area inside the gigantic forest''s core. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 348 - Bloody Nightmare There was a small cave in the center of the forest with several thousand unique-looking flowers surrounding it. While the cave didn''t look like anything special, Jason could tell that there was something powerful within. He assumed that there was something gigantic inside the cave, which he could tell from the humongous-sized green color, enveloping a large being. At least that was what his mana eyes perceived, however, that was not all! Behind the humongous-sized being, Jason''s mana eyes perceived several hundred large, egg-shaped beings that were enveloped by a green hue. They were most likely stuck to the large being and Jason predicted that they were eggs from the large being that was most likely at the mid/late magical rank. Thanks to his mana eyes, he was able to perceive that the being had two different transmutations in its mana at the same time. One of them was probably a poison affinity while the second, affinity it had should be a darkness affinity whose transmutation in mana looked weird to Jason. He never saw a transmutation like that before and it was complex but also perceptible through the whole forest''s center. This transmutation permeated the whole air around them and Jason was immediately reminded about the cursed panther with its area of effect curse. Retreating several steps, he could only look at the several thousand flowers around the cave that permeated the air with a distinct fragrance that clouded the senses. Jason knew this flower, which was known for being very rare and its potency. The Bloody nightmare flower was a grade-2 flower that clouds one''s senses while at the same time releasing attracting all kinds of beings. Thanks to the latter fact many massacres occurred in the past when humans were drawn to a certain area with several thousand beasts who were also drawn to the flower. Normally, there would only be a few of these flowers at once and Jason had never heard about several thousand bloody nightmare flowers at the same position which was weird. The blood nightmare had its name for being the root cause for thousands of bloody massacres for all lower-ranked beings because it was not only hard to understand what was going on, but also to retain clear senses. Weirdly enough, Jason didn''t feel anything and the only thing he noticed was that his mana eyes demanded slightly more mana when he approached the forest. Furthermore, the black origin flame that was still in his mana core spread through his body with a very low temperature to prevent injuring Jason, which he found weird in the beginning. Now, however, did he finally understand why his eyes and the black origin flame acted like this. They supported him to retain his senses and stay clear-minded! This made Jason feel much better but at the same time it caused him to wonder how he didn''t notice that something was wrong. ''Until the black origin flame acted, I should have noticed something...did my eyes suppress everything? But then...how would my eyes be able to do something like that?'' Jason had no answer but that was not important right now. His mana eyes perceived that the bloody nightmare flower''s fragrance disappeared as if it had never existed. This happened exactly at the moment when the unknown colossal being inside the cave unleashed the potency of the curse it harbored. The only thing Jason felt was that emotions like anger and wrath erupted within him which almost caused him to enter a frenzy. However, before that could happen he inserted more mana inside his mana eyes whose glowing intensified. His emotions were suppressed and Jason was glad that his mana eyes were very unique and powerful. They allowed him to control his emotions rather easily as long as it was not as intense as the reminiscence-ceremony from the intelligent foreign races! Taking a deep breath, only now was he able to see that the center area of the forest was filled with several thousand beasts and more than one hundred human prodigies. Everyone''s eyes were bloodshot and filled with wrath, while only he and one particular group remained unaffected. Jason was interested in the unaffected group and wanted to know how they were able to retain their senses and emotions. Unfortunately, there was not enough time for him to figure out more about this group because the beasts all around began to attack each other, creating a bloody battlefield. The average strength was at the peak-Unblemished rank but there were still multiple individuals at the magical rank that slaughtered their way mercilessly through the larger beast groups. This caused Jason to gulp down his saliva as he noticed that two frenzied beast groups, that were fighting with each other, got closer to him. As such, he switched the black origin flame that was still inside his mana core out for Artemis in order to manifest her wings on his back. After that, he soared in the air to look out for a better location to stay. Jason wanted to take a secure spot on one of the larger tree branches. Looking up he could see several suitable ones which caused him to approach the closest without hesitation. However, before he could even come close to the branch, his mana eye''s perceived hair-thin threads taut above the forest''s center. If that was everything, Jason wouldn''t be worried but these threads had been intertwined with poison transmuted mana, turning them into lethal traps. Slashing at them with his pseudo-mana-grade-2 light longsword, he was astonished to figure out that he couldn''t sever them. Additionally, they were sticky which forced Jason to use all his strength to separate his longsword with the sticky, poisonous thread. In the end, he had to use the black origin flame''s compressed flame that was extremely hot for several seconds to free his light longsword. When Jason noticed this, he couldn''t help but have a bad premonition. ''If the cursed, colossal beast inside the cave is not only powerful enough to control the bloody nightmare flowers but is also the being that creates such strong, sticky and poisonous threads to...prevent flying beasts from approaching the forest''s center?.... It should be extremely dangerous!!'' Jason couldn''t be sure about his assumption but the odds that he was right were high. He predicted the beast within the cave to be a strong, cursed spider that laid eggs recently and that it required a large amount of food. Seeing how the spider taut several, hair-thin, but strong and poisonous threads between the large trees, Jason could also assume that there were even stronger flying beasts inside the Mythic Garden! These flying beasts might as well be weaker, but if that were to be the case, the spider inside the forest center''s cave would have taut the threads for a different reason. Like preventing other beasts from eating the bloody nightmare flowers. Either way, Jason was sure that he was too weak to do anything and he could only monitor the massacre that occurred below him while sitting down on the branch which he had freed from the spider''s threads. ''The next month within the Mythic Garden might be more dangerous and interesting than I expected!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 349 - Crimson-death Hell Spider Below him, a massacre was occurring and Jason was unsure whether he should retreat or continue to watch everything from his current position. It might be dangerous but his curiosity about finding out, exactly, what kind of beast caused such a bloody battlefied was much higher than he expected it to be. There were so many beasts inside the forest''s center, fighting against each other right now, that Jason didn''t even know where he should look. From his point of view, the cave with the presumed cursed spider was what he should pay most attention to because the most threatening existence was inside there. Other than that, there were also a few magical ranked beasts that Jason perceived as dangerous. However, the most dangerous was the large group of frenzy human prodigies who summoned their soulbonds. They might not have the highest combat prowess but they had a numerical advantage. Almost every young man or woman Jason saw had two soulbonds and from more than several dozen frenzy humans, almost 200 soulbonds jumped into the fray, trying to help their masters. It was a weird sight, but mankind seemed to be at an advantage on this battlefield which allowed Jason to remember that having a soulbond was extremely advantageous for everyone. There were too many advantages, while one''s soul world amplification was only one of them. Another one was that humans would have a numerical advantage if the same number of beings would fight against each other because soulbonds belonged to the contractor! Unfortunately, the frenzy young prodigies were unable to control themselves, how should they be able to control their soulbonds? It was impossible and the large human group lost their advantage in less than five minutes. Meanwhile, the small group that was unaffected stood further away in the distance, avoiding being dragged into the fight. One young woman within the group was staring at Jason with interest which didn''t remain unnoticed. However, Jason couldn''t care less because he thought that the woman noticed him manifesting Artemis'' white wings which caused her interest. As such, it was not surprising for others to be surprised because the Mythic Garden rift restricted beings above the age of 20 to step through it. Thus, everyone had to be at the age of 20 or below which allowed the young woman to figure out that Jason established a fortified soul conjunction with one of his soulbonds at a young age, which enabled him to manifest his soulbond''s wings. While the young women stared at him, the other members of the group watched the massacre in front of them intently as if they were searching for something. ''Do they want to find a beast to form a contract with?... It doesn''t seem like that... They could have entered the forest''s center because of the bloody nightmare flowers!¡­. Or maybe because of the spider or whatever beast there is inside the cave!'' The latter was unlikely and Jason was relatively sure that the unaffected human group didn''t know what they would have to face if they were to do something stupid which would attract the spider''s wrath. However, that was not something he should be afraid of! It wouldn''t be his fault if they died because of their own stupidity. Nevertheless, it caused Jason to feel a little bit sour as he thought about it which caused him to hope that nothing major would happen. Meanwhile, he completely forgot that a calamity had already happened to several dozen young prodigies who were either dead by now or still in a frenzy, fighting against other frenzied beasts with all their might. Barely ten minutes after the massacre had started, initiated by the spider''s curse, one couldn''t see the brown soil anymore! The ground was littered in blood, organs, and corpses, leaving nothing but death behind. This sight was not appetizing and Jason felt that the combination from the bloody nightmare''s fragrance in addition to the spider''s curse was extremely dangerous and lethal. What astonished him was not only that several thousand beasts died but that only a handful of beasts were alive when everything was over. Furthermore, these beasts looked like they were about to die any moment which told Jason that the whole nightmare was over. ''Will the spider come out to eat now?'' He asked himself and Jason thought that his assumption should be correct when he saw that the small group of young prodigies began to approach the forest''s core once again. They remained at a long distance during the whole battle to avoid any unnecessary trouble, only to approach the spider''s lair at the worst possible timing. Jason''s mana eyes perceived that the gigantic being, he assumed to be a spider, began to move at the moment at which an unaffected group of prodigies started to approach the bloody nightmare flowers. ''It''s nice that this group likes to pluck flowers, but isn''t their timing the worst?'' Trying to sound optimistic, Jason noticed that he was extremely bad with such a thing. As such he couldn''t help but sigh as he manifested a large icicle on which he carved one word before he shot it towards the small group of humans. ''That''s all I can do!'' He told himself because it was certainly the truth. What else except trying should he do? Jason was sure that most wouldn''t even do what he was currently trying because they didn''t care about others'' lives. The word on the large icicle was "RUN", if that was not enough to warn someone, he didn''t know what else he should do to warn them The icicle flew with fast velocity towards the woman that stared at him before, piercing in the soil two meters before her. This caused their small group to tense up as they unsheathed their weapons before they began to search for the culprit. Instead of looking at the word ''RUN'', he carved into the icicle, the group was searching for him! ''What now?'' Jason asked himself as he saw that the spider was about to arrive at the cavern entrance. Suddenly an idea formed in his mind which he would normally disregard. However, he thought that trying to help was something he should at least try as long as he didn''t receive any disadvantages from it. As such, he utilized his black flame affinity while fully focussing on what he was about to do. Three flames appeared above him with each flame spelling one letter, forming the word "R.U.N". After that he shot another icicle at the small group who found his position, only to see the word above his head. First, they were confused before they began to sense that something in their surrounding was wrong. However, before they were able to run away, Jason''s mana eyes perceived that the curse enveloping the whole forest''s center intensified, which caused everyone in the small group to stiffen. After that, he could see several hair-thin threads shooting out of the cave towards the group before they were enveloped by the threads and dragged to the cavern entrance. Everything happened so suddenly and the small group was about to use all their strength to get rid of the threads that enveloped them when their strength dissipated. They were unable to do anything and Jason could only sigh deeply when he saw that the spider''s poison that was intertwined in its threads began to spread through everyone''s bodies. Only then could he see the large being which shot out the poisonous, sticky threads as it left the cavern entrance with a sac of small handball-sized eggs on its large back. ''Is that a Hell Spider?'' Jason was shocked about what he saw. A Hellspider was seen as one of the most threatening spiders at the magical rank and not something he should encounter just like that because they were seen as extinct. However, the gigantic spider in front of him didn''t look like a normal Hell Spider who had a black, dark red body. The Hellspider in front of him had weird, crimson-colored symbols embedded all over its body. These tattoo-like symbols were glowing in a faint hue and Jason didn''t need to think long to determine that these tattoos were the spider''s curse! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 350 - Colossal Battle Jason was dumbstruck by the gigantic Hell Spider''s appearance because he didn''t know that their looks could be so different. However, then he remembered that curses were able to change the cursed being''s appearance. As such he didn''t pay that little detail anymore interest. Instead, Jason stared at the small group that was slowly drawn towards the cursed Hell Spider, with complex emotions filling his mind. He didn''t know who they were and he was too weak to help them too, but Jason felt bad to let them die just like that. If there was something he could do about it, he would most likely do it, but there was nothing Jason could think of. Jason couldn''t even perceive any strong mana fluctuations around him when he felt a strong gust of wind passing him. He was almost pushed from the tree branch he was standing on and could barely grasp it to remain on the branch as he looked through the treetop with his mana eyes fully utilized. There was a flying beast whose outlines were similar to that of a gigantic songbird which caused Jason''s eyes to widen. ''Will the hunter become the hunted?'' He could only think as he stared at the gigantic songbird. The songbird''s mana core was at the same rank as the Cursed Hell spider''s and it had an extremely strong wind affinity. At least that was what Jason could tell because the transmuted mana it had was a distinct emerald green that was stronger than most mana wind transmutations he had ever seen before. The songbird didn''t waste any time and manifested several dozen, five-meter-long emerald-colored crescent wind blades which it shot through the treetops of the gigantic trees, cutting through them without any resistance. The wood that fell on the ground dragged down the tugged threads which caused a domino effect, demolishing the forest''s center in a matter of seconds. Jason noticed everything from further away and couldn''t help but awe the songbird''s strength as it opened its beak to issue a pleasing, yet destructive sound that reverberated through the whole forest. However, instead of feeling relaxed, light-hearted, or anything like that, shock was clearly visible on Jason''s face as he held his ears that began to bleed. ''What is that thing??'' He could only think terrified, trying to hold his balance to prevent falling from the tree. If he didn''t know better, Jason would be sure that his eardrums had been damaged which was fortunately not the case because he enveloped his ears with a thick membrane of mana which he had drawn out of the unique mana sphere bracelet Shane and Dalia had filled to the brim before he departed. Thanks to the unique mana sphere bracelet and the fact that his mana eyes perceived that something was wrong, he could protect his eardrums from bursting. Unfortunately for the small group that was already in danger, they couldn''t protect themselves. In addition to the poison that spread through their body, their eardrums burst open and they lost consciousness. Before, Jason wanted to save the small group because they were fellow humans and the fact that they could remain unaffected from the bloody nightmare flower and faintly released curse which the Hell Spider radiated. However, that changed substantially because Jason had to save his own life first. The distance between the cursed Hell spider and the extremely strong songbird was several hundred meters. But this didn''t make a difference to either of them as the songbird manifested another batch of several dozen, five-meter-long emerald crescent wind blades which it shot towards the surrounding trees to cut them. Without his mana eyes, Jason wouldn''t know why the songbird cut the surrounding trees before doing anything else, but because he had them Jason could only nod his head approvingly. The tree he was standing on was also cut, but this was something he had already expected after he saw that the first few trees had been cut. He could tell that the songbird was trying to prevent being entrapped by the sticky cobwebs that were everywhere, which was probably the only thing it was afraid of. As such, Jason used Artemis'' wings to carefully descend to the ground as he searched for a better position to observe the fight. It might be stupid of him to do that but he couldn''t help but feel excited watching strong magical ranked beings fight against each other. Furthermore, they seemed to be on the stronger side and Jason thought that they might be stronger than some Guardian ranked beasts. At least their combat experience, affinity, and curse were superior to every magical ranked beast he had seen until now! The Guardian ranked Goblins whom he witnessed fighting against Grandmagus ranks looked extremely crude in its fighting style compared to the songbird and Hell Spider''s capabilities. While the songbird destroyed the surrounding trees and sticky, poisonous cobwebs, the cursed Hell Spider didn''t remain idle. It cut the thread around the small group of humans that would die either way if nobody were to change before it retraced its curse. This caused Jason to frown because it was weird to see, only for his mana eyes to perceive that the Hell Spider was gathering the curse inside its body before shooting it out towards the songbird that was the curses sole target. ''WHAT? Does that mean the Hell Spider can not only curse a large area but also compress its curse to focus on a single target???'' Seeing that something like that was possible astounded Jason who couldn''t help but feel a trace of fear within him when he saw how dangerous the Mythic Garden really was. The death rate of 80% was not just for show and it was clearer than ever that this rate might even be an underestimation. Focusing the songbird as the curse''s sole target, the Hell Spider was able to distort the songbird''s senses to a certain degree as it stopped flapping with its wings for a short moment. Using this moment, the cursed Hell Spider shoots out a thick, sticky thread that was intertwined with mana to accelerate its pace and make it more endurable towards the songbird that could barely perceive what was happening. Utilizing a majority of its mana, the songbird manifested one, compressed wind spear that glowed in a bright emerald color as it was shot towards the reinforced, sticky and poisonous thread. Clashing with each other, neither the thread nor the wind spear seemed to have an advantage that gave the Songbird barely enough time to regain its senses. Flapping with its wings, the songbird noticed that its mind was still chaotic, but it was better than a moment before. Monitoring the fight, Jason figured out that the songbird was slightly stronger than the Hell Spider which balanced its disadvantage out thanks to the curse it harbored. The songbird manifested another batch of several dozen wind blades which it shot at the Hell Spider instead of the surrounding trees. It was the first time for the songbird to attack the Hell Spider directly and Jason began to wonder if the wind blades it shot out were strong enough to inflict serious injuries. Jason doubted it and exactly as assumed, the wind blades inflicted only small injuries. However, what happened afterwards astonished Jason because the songbird controlled one of the several dozen wind blades it shot at once, in order to target the Hell Spider''s back where its sac of eggs was located. The cursed Hell-Spider noticed this and used every means to evade the wind blade. Unfortunately, it was too slow by a small margin and the wind blade pierced several eggs at once, destroying them without any resistance. When the Hell Spider sensed that some of its offsprings had been killed, it erupted with all its mana while the glowing symbols embedded on its body seemed to burn, intensifying the curse that targeted the songbird. ''Now..this will be really ugly¡­.'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 351 - No Other Choice Hell Spiders were deemed as extinct and didn''t harbor a curse but the ''Crimson-death'' Hell Spider, as Jason called it, was much stronger with its curse because it distorted the enemy''s senses. This curse could even forcefully erupt anger and wrath within its opponents, preventing them to retain a calm mind. However, now that the Crimson-death Hell Spider witnessed how some of its offsprings had been killed, the curse''s full might had been unleashed. At least that was how Jason''s mana eyes perceived it and he couldn''t help but feel that the fight between the Hell Spider and wind affinity songbird was about to become really ugly. The songbird was already weakened through the distorted senses and erupting emotions from the curse earlier. Now that the curse was fully unleashed, solely targeting it, the songbird''s combat prowess decreased by a large margin within a moment. It tried to fly at a higher altitude but that was too difficult to maintain which would force it to retreat several dozen meters. Both sides wanted to continue their fight and it seemed like there had already existed a feud between these two, even if Jason was unable to tell if it was just how he felt or if this assumption was really accurate. While the songbird manifested another few batches of wind blades, the Crimson-death Hell Spider enveloped the sac of eggs with several layers of its cobwebs before it charged forward to draw near the opponent it wanted to kill by any means. It was not difficult to see that the songbird was weakened, yet it was still determined to defeat the Crimson-death Hell Spider which led it to come closer too. Unfortunately, its distorted senses were the cause of this because the level-headed songbird would have never acted like this in normal circumstances. The poisonous, sticky cobwebs were its nemesis and they couldn''t hit the songbird properly as long as it maintained a certain distance. Shooting out the crescent wind blades it manifested a moment ago, they inflicted several shallow injuries to the Crimson-death Hell Spider that was out of control after its offsprings had died. The Hell Spider sustained many external injuries while drawing closer, and the songbird''s mind was completely out of control Both had been weakened to a certain degree and Jason noticed that they distanced themselves by a few hundred meters which gave him the opportunity to act! Jason was not a Saint but he hoped that helping the small group that was still alive might give him some benefits. On the other side, he felt bad leaving them like this! He was not familiar with the Mythic Garden too and others should know much more than he did. As such it was not impossible to get to know more information from the small group if he was able to bring them away. When the Crimson-death Hell Spider shot a huge net made out of its poisonous sticky threads towards the songbird before jumping into the sky to full suit, Jason took this opportunity to utilize Artemis manifested wings to dive towards the ground. Averting his angle by a small margin he landed in the middle of the bloody battlefield where the unconscious group laid. Only the young woman that looked at him previously was barely conscious but Jason would be astonished if she was able to see or sense anything at all because her face was paperwhite without a trace of color left. Taking out a few potions he forcefully injected them into each member of the small group before he used the compressed black flame to cut the sticky, poisonous thread slowly. After the thread was cut, Jason noticed a different problem. The sticky threads stuck to their clothes! He was unable to loosen them and burning the whole thread would definitely take too long. As such Jason mumbled an apology before he took off the young men and women''s outer layer of clothes. The group that consisted of two young men and two women was quickly taken care of because it was not really difficult to take off their clothes. Once that was done, Jason saw two spatial rings and one storage device nearby the group. He overlooked the dead youths that laid immediately next to them and picked up the spatial rings and storage device, thinking that they might belong to the half-nacked group in front of him. Putting them inside his pockets, Jason was now facing another issue. ''How can I carry four people at once?'' Jason thought about summoning Scorpio but he was too slow and Artemis could only carry two at once which would leave him two more to carry by himself. His speed was already slower than Artemis'' and he wanted to have her inside his mana core to evade possible incoming attacks while carrying the others. With that in mind, Jason decided to test something out as he told Artemis that she should focus on manifesting her talons where his feet were. He did the same and a moment later, Jason felt that his feet enlarged as pain spread through them. His boots burst open, revealing talons where his feet were previously which caused him to smile oddly. ''I never imagined that I would have to do that¡­ it feels weirder than manifesting wings on my back, a stinger at my coccyx or Scorpio''s exoskeleton.'' Jason assumed that it was like that because he never transformed something about his own body to ''exchange'' it with one of his soul bond''s body parts. It was interesting, a new sensation and slightly uncomfortable but there was something else he had to take care of for now. He was not sure how long the Crimson-death Hell Spider would be away! Thus Jason picked up the two women to carry them under his arms while he used his talons to grab the two young men''s pants. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn''t matter whom he carried with what but the two girls wore a one-piece leather armor which made it extremely difficult for Jason to find a spot to grasp with his talons after he had taken off their leather armor. Fortunately, the two men wore different clothes which allowed Jason to take off their leather armor while still being able to grasp somewhere without injuring them further. Thus, Jason was able to carry one person with each limb as he flew off to look out for a place to tend the small group''s wounds. Jason utilized his mana eyes to their full extent, searching for a tranquil place without any strong beasts in the surrounding. Only ten minutes later Jason landed on a thick branch off a large tree where he put down the four poisoned young prodigies. Searching for a good resting spot was easier than he thought but that was most likely because the massacre in the forest''s center killed larger groups of Unblemished beasts in the surrounding area. Nevertheless, Jason wanted to distance himself from the forest''s center as far as possible before landing. Taking a deep breath after he laid down everyone on the tree branch that was more than two meters thick, Jason dissipated Artemis'' talons while he decided to retract her wings to press them on his shoulder blades, thinking that he might need them soon. Before anything else, he took out a few clothes from his spatial ring which he laid on top of the young women because they were the most likely to scream after waking up. He would also feel weird if he were to be in their situation. Half naked with a masked man that had white wings, standing in front of them! What a nice way to traumatize other people. Sighing deeply, he noticed that the young woman from before was still conscious which astonish him a little bit as he heard a faint "Thank you¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 352 - Doctor Jason Jason was astonished that the young woman was still conscious after the poison spread so far through her body. Under normal circumstances, the supersonic attack from the songbird that was amplified with its wind affinity should have finished her off, but that was obviously not the case. From the looks of it, she was also not the strongest among the group of four. However, what Jason thought to be extremely weird was how two Peak-Master ranks and two Low-Magus ranks could be defeated so easily after he saw them acting so carefully when the massacre began. ''Did they become too greedy or was my assumption that they were unaffected by the bloody nightmare flower''s fragrance and Crimson-death Hell Spider''s curse completely wrong?'' Jason had no idea but in the end, it was not important. The young woman''s thank you was already enough for him to think that rescuing them was worth it. She knew that he wanted to help them from the beginning when he shot an icicle towards them. In the end, not many would help them in such a dangerous situation, even less someone who was much weaker than they were. It was astonishing to see that Jason was able to establish a fortified soul conjunction but more shocking was the fact that he remained completely unaffected by everything that happened in the forest''s center. From the bloody nightmare flowers to the Crimson-death Hell spider''s appearance whose curse was the reason for the small group''s life-threatening situation. Initially, they wanted to pluck bloody nightmare flowers to earn a huge fortune because they were in high demand because their price increased manifold compared to a few years before! This was also the reason for them to be unaffected by the flowers'' fragrance as they made preparations to counter its effect, only to run straight into one of the strongest beings inside the Mythic Garden. After the young woman thanked Jason, she finally lost her consciousness, leaving Jason, who was clueless about what to do, alone. ''The most efficient antidotes I have are purified mid-grade-2 potions¡­Will that be enough to dissolve the poison within their body?'' He asked himself unsurely, not knowing whether he could save them for good or if he had to take other measures. Taking the purified antidotes out of his spatial ring, he infused them to the four unconscious men and women before he injected a little bit of his mana inside them to increase their mana circulation. If the antidote was potent enough, it would start showing its effect after a short moment, however, if that was not the case, Jason was accelerated the poison''s spreading speed right now. Weirdly enough, the antidote seemed to be as potent as the poison was creating a balanced state. As such, the situation didn''t become better or worse. It was just stagnating. Unfortunately, the poison had already spread through the young prodigies'' whole body which meant that he was too late if he couldn''t find another way to help them. Jason didn''t have a stronger antidote left and there was only one method that might help them, which was however something he had never tested out before. ''I can insert the black origin forcefully in their body and cleanse the body from the poison! ...It should be possible...I think¡­maybe?'' He had never done something like that and was unsure if other bodies would repulse the black origin flame or if it might even worsen the situation. ''If I don''t do anything, they''ll die either way¡­!!'' Thinking that he was the only one who could help them, he could only give his best. If that was not enough, there was no hope left for them! It was odd, but Jason felt motivated by this thought and he squatted down in front of the youth that was the closest to dying. Manifesting the black origin flame in his hand, he instructed it, while reminding it to be careful¡­ With his help and the black origin flame''s accurate control, everything should work out as long as they were careful. At least that was what Jason thought when he inserted the black origin carefully inside the youth in front of him. He flinched for a short moment before his whole body relaxed which caused Jason''s eyes to widen in astonishment because he thought that the youth died. However, that was fortunately not the case and he was still breathing. Weirdly enough, his breathing was also much calmer than before! ''Is that the soothing effect of my origin flame? Or does it feel good to have something warm within him right now?'' There were too many unknown factors but there was no time for Jason to ponder about every little detail which caused him to take a deep breath. Focusing with his mana eyes on the youth''s body, Jason was able to see many areas with unstable mana fluctuations and writhing mana which had a high possibility to stem from the poison inside the youth. As such, Jason lead the black origin flame whose temperature was extremely low through the youth''s body while paying attention that nothing changed for the worse. Everywhere the black origin flame passed through Jason could see an infinitesimal amount of green liquid pouring out of his pores that had been forcefully opened. Intertwined with the green liquid, the youth''s body extracted an infinitesimal amount of impurities which astonished Shane for a short moment before he focused on his main task again. Less than ten minutes later, he was already done and the youth''s skin was filled with a paper-thin layer of green liquid that had tiny traces of impurities within. Jason was interested in the impurities which the black origin expelled from the youth''s body but he had to tend three more poisoned patients. 40 minutes later, Jason slumped on the ground and thick sweat pearls poured down his back that was already completely drenched in sweat. ''Finally done!'' He could only think as he stared at the group of four that looked relaxed and at ease. They were still unconscious but that was probably because they had to recuperate from the exhaustion caused by the poison''s damages It could also originate from their burst eardrums which were however not something Jason was able to tend with his capabilities. He did everything he could and there was nothing else for him to do. During his treatment, Jason noticed two things that he found interesting too! The first one was that his black origin flame was apparently able to cleanse purities from others than himself! Even if the effect was negligible, Jason was sure that it would be useful in the future. ''Maybe this ability will become stronger after the black origin flame evolves into a Tier-1 Origin flame?'' Jason was already expecting to learn more about his third soulbond and maybe he wouldn''t have to rely on Dalia to cleanse his soul bond''s body from purities to increase their potential anymore? This was an uncertain factor and Jason asked himself once again how such a precious origin flame landed on Astrix inside the Goblin King''s hideout ''There are still too many things I don''t understand!'' While he was deep in thoughts more than half an hour passed, until the young youth he tended first, woke up, exhausted and with drowsy eyes. However, when he turned around, he suddenly noticed that his female companions were half-naked which washed away his drowsiness in a single moment. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 353 - Favor Jason noticed that the youth regained his consciousness and looked at him to see if the poison inflicted any severe injuries or if the black origin flame expelled the poison before something serious could happen. The latter seemed to be the case and Jason smiled faintly towards the youngest member of the small group he rescued. He seemed to be energetic when he sat up a few moments after waking up when he saw that the two women in his group were half-naked. However, before he could do anything he saw Jason wearing a mask that covered his face and white wings spreading from his back. As such, the youth couldn''t help but hesitate for a moment. Nevertheless, he was worried about his colleagues and tried to shout out loud "What did you do to them??" Unfortunately, the youth didn''t notice that he had no energy left within him which turned the loud shout into a quiet exclamation. It was not a surprise to feel weird about the sudden situation, in which the small group of four young prodigies was currently. They escaped death without knowing how because they were unconscious, only to wake up in front of a masked, winged man, and all of them were half-naked at that. "I carried all of you away from the cursed Hell Spider when it was distracted and I tried to expel the poison inside your bodies." Jason''s answer was simple but the youth in front of him didn''t expect someone to become a Samaritan inside the Mythic Garden rift which was the reason for him to straightforwardly ask "What do you want from us in return??" At this question, Jason couldn''t help but grin faintly. It was not like he wanted to demand anything grand from them, but after thinking about it for a moment, there was something he had to acquire! "The only thing I need is to get to know more about the Mythic Garden. There are so many dangerous beasts which I didn''t expect to see here¡­ Furthermore most of them are cursed beings. As such acquiring information has the most value for me right now!" The youth was still suspicious about the masked man, but upon looking down at himself and at the others, he could tell that Jason dispelled the poison within them because a thin layer of inactive poisonous liquid and faint traces of impurities pressed on their body. In the end, it was difficult to carry four bodies at the same time while it should have been even harder to expel the poison within them. As such the youth lowered his guard as he was about to give Jason what he wanted when the remaining members of his group woke up. Jason decided to take a few steps back to let them talk with each other while observing them in order to see if there was anything wrong with them and how much strength they had left to see if he could separate from them again. Before that, Jason tried to figure out to whom the spatial rings and the storage device he picked up belonged only to see that everyone in their group was still wearing their spatial rings and quantum bracelets. ''Huh?'' Upon seeing this, Jason couldn''t help but feel weird. ''Did I just accidentally steal something from the dead?'' This wasn''t something uncommon but not exactly what Jason wanted to do when he rescued the group of four. Scratching the back of his head, Jason couldn''t help but smile weirdly, covered behind his mask, thinking that he would take the content of the spatial rings and storage device. ''It might have been an accident, but they don''t need the stuff within anymore because they''re dead. As such I can use them!'' Jason also pondered whether he should return to the forest''s center to pick up the remaining spatial rings and storage devices. However, in the end, he decided against it because it was too dangerous. He couldn''t be sure when the Crimson-death Hell Spider would return which would be fatal! Staring at the group of four in front of him, he couldn''t help but think that they were way too relaxed after escaping death by a hair breadth. Shaking his head, Jason decided that it would be time for him to depart after knowing that they were fine. "Sorry to disturb this reunion but if there is nothing else, I''ll depart!" The four team members turned around at once. Only now did the youth remember that Jason was still there as he quickly said. "I still haven''t answered your question! We don''t know much about the Mythic Garden because we were sent by our families to this place without getting to know everything. It''s obvious that we were supposed to make ties with the Jual family, but I think everyone sends here has the same task! The only thing we could prepare for was to gather bloody nightmare flowers. Other than that we received enough information about one place with a few blessed beasts. I don''t think it would be too much to ask for if you want to know the place with blessed beasts as thanks for rescuing us!" While the other young man and the older young woman looked at him in suspicion because they didn''t know what happened after they lost consciousness, the younger woman who was conscious for the longest time was relaxed when she approved the other youth''s proposal. In the end, everyone accepted it, but what Jason said next baffled them a little bit "Rather than a place with blessed beasts, I would love to find a place with many cursed beasts...like a lot!" Jason understood the reason for most clans to send their prodigies to the Mythic Garden, and it was not only to make ties with the Jual Clan. These clans and larger families wanted their descendants to bind a blessed beast and apparently also to pluck bloody nightmare flowers that seemed to have a greater value than he expected them to have. ''If prodigies from larger families and clans were asked to pluck flowers, their worth has to be enormous...but they''re only grade-2 ingredients and I can''t think of an extremely expensive potion one can concoct out of bloody nightmare flowers¡­'' This was definitely weird because Jason was sure that his knowledge about the basic lifestyle occupation was wide and firm. As such, he couldn''t help but feel a doubt arising when he heard that the small group of young prodigies that stood in front of him was asked to pluck the nightmare flowers that weren''t even worth close to one star note. The young men and women were astonished about Jason''s demand. It was weird to ask for the location with many cursed beasts which caused them to remain silent for a moment when the young woman that had stared at him the whole time said. "There is a place I was told to avoid because there are too many cursed beasts¡­ but there are also extremely strong beasts among them so I recommend avoiding this area too" She explained where he had to go, or rather where he shouldn''t venture into. Yet, Jason couldn''t help but feel happy because the place the young woman guided him to seemed to be a reclusive area. This would make things much easier for him because there wouldn''t be many other young prodigies! Jason was about to depart when he noticed that they were at a high altitude as he asked. "You guys don''t need my help to descend to the ground, right?" Hearing this question, the young women who put on a new set of clothes after they washed away the thin layer of poison and impurities couldn''t help but chuckle as the older one said "We don''t need a babysitter. You just found us at a bad timing¡­" Nodding his head Jason spread his wings when he suddenly asked "How much are the bloody nightmare flowers even worth, if your families and clans requested you to pluck them? I thought they were not even worth 500,000 Credits?" The oldest young men who heard this couldn''t help but sigh "If they were only worth 500,000 Credits, we wouldn''t even take a single step closer to the center of the forest, than necessary! That price is already old. It hasn''t been that long but the demand for bloody nightmare flowers increased manifold and each flower is worth several million credits according to their quality!" This was astonishing and somehow not surprising to Jason who assumed something. After he heard the young man''s answer, Jason nodded his head and thanked them before wishing them a fruitful remaining time within the Mythic Garden before he jumped down the tree branch to depart. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 354 - Poor Deceased Diving down the tree, Jason opened his white wings slowly in order to change his trajectory slightly without decelerating too much. Flying through the gigantic forest, with his mana eyes fully utilized, he couldn''t help but think that everything within the Mythic Garden seemed to be expensive. Every tree he had perceived released dense mana fluctuations while some of them started to release a faint color, telling Jason that they were valuable. While this color indicated a living being''s potential, it seemed to show the quality of inanimate things! At least that was what Jason comprehended from looking at the difference between all kinds of inanimate objects, materials, and trees. This assumption had turned more logical after he started to concoct and forge because everything perfectly purified released a faint color if the raw material didn''t release a color. Jason couldn''t think of a different answer and even if it was wrong, his current comprehension was enough to understand that objects with denser, or stronger colors were, in most cases, more valuable. However, that was not important for now because there were other things he had to do instead of cutting trees or something similar to that. There were still two spatial rings and one storage device in his pockets with content inside which he wanted to transfer to his own spatial ring. Other than that, Jason pondered whether he should search for the reclusive place with cursed beasts, right off the bat, or if it was better to wait until the black origin flame finished constructing its mana core. He was not even sure if the black origin flame would evolve into a Tier-1 origin flame immediately after the mana core was established because it was always demanding to devour other origin flames. This could mean that the black origin flame would have to devour another origin flame before it was able to evolve. If that were to be the case, his whole plan would be trampled upon! Jason could only hope that the black origin flame was a little bit more considerate towards him. He didn''t even know where he should start to search if he needed an origin flame to nurture the black origin flame. Fortunately, the chances that the first evolution required another origin flame to be initiated were extremely small and Jason betted that it was not required. As such, he decided to wait until the black origin flame finished constructing its mana core, before it would hopefully evolve, which would allow Jason to receive his second baptism. After his second baptism, Jason would become much stronger than before and the reclusive area with cursed beasts wouldn''t be as dangerous as it currently was to him. With that in mind, he wanted to find a good and secure place in which he could stay for the next few weeks. If his assumption was right, it would take around two weeks before the black origin flame''s mana core would be completed. At the same time, Jason''s mana core would enter the 5th Expert rank too. This was something he wanted to reach before his mana core size would be enlarged through the baptism he''ll receive once the black origin flame evolved. Several hours passed and Jason''s mood plummeted because he couldn''t find a single area without strong cursed beings around. He encountered a few blessed beasts and their strength had been more terrifying than he had expected. Somehow, to Jason, a blessing was similar to the superiority of dragons and equal mythic beasts. The blessing they received allowed them to become much stronger than most other beasts with the same mana core rank. The stronger the blessing they received was, the more powerful they would become and it was not exaggerated to say that some blessed beings might be stronger than an earth dragon at the same rank! Now that he searched for a secured place for several hours, Jason couldn''t help but think of a different solution. He was at the outskirts of the gigantic forest right next to a large mountain range when a sudden idea formed in his head. ''If I can''t find a good hiding spot, I''ll make my own!'' With that in mind, he dived down before landing in front of a large tree where he summoned Scorpio. After that, Jason took a reinforced shovel out of his spatial ring before he started to dig a small hole behind a green bush that released a fragrant smell. The bush was right next to the tree and hid the hole he was digging right now. Scorpio helped him digging and it didn''t take long before a small hole was made. After that, he started to dig until he reached a position extremely close to the gigantic tree''s center where he could absorb its radiating mana, which was exactly what he wanted. However, he was still not done because he told Scorpio to dig another entrance which he could use as a means to escape if a beast or someone else were to find his self-made hiding spot. The tree he picked out was perfect because it had many small and larger bushes close to it which made it possible for Jason and Scorpio to create a small burrow with two entrances. Both were well hidden and Jason was confident that larger beasts were unable to enter it while smaller beasts were in most cases weaker. There were many exceptions but it was not his intention to prevent everything from entering the place either way. Jason''s plan was to absorb mana for the next few weeks and depart afterwards. There was no need to live in the small burrow he dug with Scorpio. After everything was done, Scorpio entered Jason''s soul world once again and Artemis left his mana core too. Now that he was done with everything, the first thing that had to be done was to check out the two spatial rings and the storage device that were still in his pockets. Everyone with a spatial ring should have a certain amount of wealth in it, otherwise, Jason wouldn''t know why they even owned a spatial ring which caused him to pick up the storage device as his first target to check through. As expected, the registered mana fluctuations inside the storage device diminished and Jason was able to access it with his own mana fluctuations. Upon taking a closer look inside the storage device, he couldn''t help but feel that his masters were extremely generous to him. ''Was this person''s family poor?'' Jason asked inwardly, confused why there was nothing really valuable except a mana-grade-2 weapon, lots of mana stones, and miscellaneous items. The number of mana stones was decent but it was not really something praiseworthy for Jason who began to notice that he had become greedy after his masters'' increased their support in nurturing him. However, Jason was sure that he could accumulate the resources within the storage device within a single month even without his masters'' help! He would have to rely on his lifestyle occupation skills, but that was exactly was supposed to do! Transferring everything into his spatial ring, he threw the empty storage device in the corner of the burrow before he looked at the two spatial rings, hoping that the loot was better. Instead of wasting more time, Jason accessed both at the same time and transferred the mana stones and everything else that was uninteresting to him inside his spatial ring. Other than a few miscellaneous items, cultivation resources, and weapons that were cleared out of the spatial rings, there was only one book left in one of the spatial rings which attracted Jason''s interest. It was not common to see physical books in this era and Jason took it out of the spatial ring before he laid the two empty spatial rings aside. "A handwritten book about the Mythic Garden?" Jason exclaimed, confused and happy at the same time as he opened it without any hesitation. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 355 - Most Terrifying Beasts He didn''t think that he would obtain a handwritten book about the Mythic Garden, just like that. It was not as if he did anything to gain it and one could say that the book was thrown towards him. Jason thought that it was weird to have a handwritten book about the Mythic Garden, however, it was even weirder that the owner of this book had died in the gigantic forest''s center as if he didn''t know about its dangers. Reading through the first few pages of the book, Jason could immediately tell that the book was the real deal which caused him to become even more suspicious about the dead owner''s behavior. ''The gigantic forest is known as the'' Forest of Slaughter, Takra'' and everything written inside the first few pages clearly show its dangers!!.. In that case¡­.why the hell did the owner of this book die? Did he receive it from his clan or family just before he departed or was this person too confident about his/her abilities which caused him or her to disregard reading the book?'' Jason knew that he wouldn''t be able to figure out the answer and it was not as if it mattered to him. He just felt that the book was not used properly which Jason decided to change ''Thanks for giving me such a treasure'' He thought inwardly, thanking the dead person for gifting him something so precious. Reading through the thick book, several hours had passed before Jason realized as a loud howling resounded through the Takra, the forest of Slaughter. ''Could that have been the Demonic Three-Eyed Wolf?'' He asked himself, as he turned a few pages back, where the image of a pitch-black wolf with three eyes was drawn. Its third eye was horizontal and had tiny purple lines similar to runes around it, which could kill someone within a moment as long as the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf injected enough mana into it. It was unable to kill someone at the same rank or above, but it was still possible to inflict a lot of internal pain, or even cripple someone''s tendons, burst open eyes or inflict other, severe injuries to its opponent. The book about the Mythic Garden was filled with all kinds of beasts one should avoid or contract as soulbond if possible. Everything written within the book was extremely interesting to Jason who didn''t know anything about the beasts inside the Mythic Garden. As such he gained lots of information in a short time thanks to the handwritten book which he completely read through after another several hours had passed. He skipped most blessed beasts that were labeled as ''beneficial to bind'' because he was not searching for a blessed beast as his soulbond. Instead, he was more interested in the label ''experimental to bind with -Might be advantageous'' which told Jason that there were already a few people that tried to bind cursed beasts like his master, only that Shane bound a pseudo-cursed beast. Apparently, there were only two outcomes one could receive after binding a cursed beast. Either one would be weakened to a certain degree but able to curse others with the inherited curse one would receive, or one would receive a strengthened curse without being able to curse others with it. In the former outcome, one could be called a cursed being oneself because one was able to direct curses at others intentionally as the Crimson-death Hell Spider or the cursed panther could do. Meanwhile, the latter was extremely bad in most cases and would result in a major decrease in one''s combat prowess. Even killing one''s cursed soulbond was not helpful anymore because one would not only harbor the curse but it would have spread through one''s whole body! When Jason read that, he was once again reassured that he couldn''t take his mission lightly. He had to find a perfect soulbond or he would have to live with the consequences. The handwritten book about the Mythic Garden had many cursed beasts and sentient plants inside it. Additionally, it had a list of the most terrifying ranked beings that habitated the Mythic Carden to which the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf belonged to. Its strength was above a common Guardian-ranked beast even though it was only at the peak-Magical rank. And that was without using its third eye! Other than the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf, there were other cursed beats like the Dark Satyr, Boneflame centipede, deathbed flower, and a Petrification serpent. All of them had their own peculiar curses that made them stronger than they already were but the Petrification serpent seemed to be the most feared and at the same time searched beast for young prodigies. While other cursed beasts'' curses were extremely powerful and feared by everyone, the Petrification serpent seemed to be slightly different. It was said that the Petrification serpent harbored two curses at once. One curse was that it could create a temporary weakening effect on other beings that could vary between 5%-30%. This was already shocking but worse was that the weakening effect was worse on humans. Apparently, this curse was very versatile and nobody knew exactly how it worked, which was extremely bad considering that one would fight against a beast that might reduce your strength by a quarter! If that was all, the petrification serpent wouldn''t have been considered as an extremely annoying opponent, However, the second curse was the petrification curse as the serpent''s name indicated. It could petrify opponents that were at a lower rank than it was while foes at the same rank would start to petrify as long as the petrification serpent utilized enough mana to overwhelm the natural resistance of its foes. Higher ranked foes wouldn''t be petrified but they would have small problems moving around because their condition would be similar to being paralyzed to a certain extent. Combining these two curses, the petrification serpent was extremely powerful. If one were to be at a higher rank than the petrification serpent, the weakening curse could change this while the petrification curse might be enough to finish a higher-ranked opponent before it was able to attack! Jason could also understand why everyone wanted such a beast as a soulbond. It was relatively simple! If one were able to harbor both curses in one''s body while being able to release them at other opponents, one might be able to fight the same way as the petrification serpent. Sometimes one might not even have to move to come out of a fight victorious! However, even if this would have been perfect, it was a fact that the petrification serpent was considered to be within the Top 3 of the strongest beasts that inhabited the Mythic Garden. Its mana core rank might only be at the peak-Magical rank which seems to be the highest beast rank within the Mythic Garden, however, the petrification serpent was a physically oriented beast! One could say that the petrification serpent was able to defeat all peak-Magical ranked beasts solely with its body. Jason didn''t even doubt that it was able to defeat Guardian ranked beasts only through its physical strength too! At least that was according to a few certain tales the handwritten book told about the petrification serpent. Reading the tales about the petrification serpent being able to fight four of the most terrifying beasts inside the Mythic Garden at once were frightening, but Jason felt like he wanted to see how it looked like. The Crimson-Death Hell Spider was already considered an extremely strong beast within the Mythic Garden, but it was still weaker than the most powerful beings in the book''s ranking. This clearly showed how terrifying the strongest beasts were. Weirdly enough, Jason noticed that the Top 10 of the most terrifying beasts were perfectly balanced with 5 blessed beings and 5 cursed beings. ''That shouldn''t be right...It''s probably forged.... but whatever'' The names of some blessed beings sounded ridiculous and he doubted that they belonged in the most ''terrifying'' ranking. ''Silver-eyed rabbit'' and ''Millennium Cotton-sheep'' didn''t really sound like terrifying beasts but the tales Jason read about them were completely different. [Choked by cotton] [Bewitched by eyes and suicided] Other than that, Jason figured out that the silver-eyed rabbit seemed to harbo a blessing which allowed it to foretell the future to a certain extent. That was in addition to its affinity which made it extremely strong and also popular for everyone who searched for a powerful, blessed beast as soulbond. However, Jason knew that nobody would be able to get their hands on such a beast under with mankind''s current capabilities! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 356 - Complete Mana Core Catching one of the most terrifying ranked beasts within the Mythic Garden was not easy, at least not as long as the rifts'' age restriction acted as a limiter for one''s cultivation rank. Humanity''s prodigies at and below the age of 20 could at the most break into the Magus-rank or the starting line of the Ligue stage. After liquefying their mana, everyone''s progress would differentiate, but most prodigies would take more than two decades to enter the Grandmagus rank! However, even if one were to reach the Grandmagus rank at the age of 20, Jason doubted that he or she would be powerful enough to catch the silver-eyed rabbit or any beast of that caliber. That was because they were no ordinary beasts and simply too strong! Shaking his head, Jason could tell that the list about the most terrifying beasts was just a warning and not something one could consider catching. Meanwhile, the important information about possible soulbonds was about other beasts at the Unblemished and low-Magical rank. Their blessings and curses were weaker than the ones from the most terrifying ranked beasts but that was not surprising to Jason who had already begun to comprehend how exactly the Mythic Garden was constructed. According to what he understood, the strongest beasts were overlords from certain areas while the weaker beasts could be considered their underlings. There were probably also zones between the territory of two overlords that would be counted as barriers were other strong beasts, like the Crimson-death Hell Spider and wind elemental songbird, lived. Jason was not sure if that was the case but he assumpted it to be because the handwritten book about the Mythic Garden hinted that his thought was correct. That was also the reason why the book warned of all overlord beasts because one of them could be in every area one might enter! As such it was better to know all beasts in order to prevent acting in certain ways to attract the attention of some of the stronger beasts. All of that made it more difficult for Jason and every other human to catch and contract a new soulbond because some beasts that cried in despair when they were caught, could ignite some beasts'' wrath, even if they might be each other''s prey or even predator. Mankind never understood a few things about beasts and one thing was that beasts hated being bound to someone else. This might even cause that the greatest arch-enemies to help each other and to defeat the human who wanted to bind one of them. Jason could tell that almost every beast hated to be restricted in their freedom, which was something he understood too. He felt also apologetic to his soulbonds that he couldn''t provide a better soul world with his current capabilities because he was unable to customize his soul world as of now. Only after he reached a higher amount of soul energy would he be able to customize everything to a certain degree, but until he was able to do so, time would pass. Most humans didn''t care about customizing their soul world because they found it useless but soulbonds would feel more comfortable within the soul world after it was customized. As such, Jason understood how these beasts might feel, even if it made everything harder for him and other humans. On the other hand, Jason had already imagined how he would feel if he were to find a perfectly suitable soulbond, but then, suddenly, right before he was about to bind it, a small horde of beasts or even one of the overlord was to appear in front of him. How devastating would that be? Jason didn''t even want to imagine it and he just shook his head. ''The petrification serpent''s weakening effect seems interesting but even if it would be suitable for me to bind, how would I bind one of the strongest, cursed peak-Magical ranked beasts?'' Smiling lightly, Jason decided that it was more important for him to focus on transferring mana to the black origin flame so that it could finish constructing its mana core. As such, he closed the handwritten book about the Mythic Garden which he already finished reading through once before he decided to focus on his own mana absorption. Taking out a few mana stones in addition to accelerating everything, Jason closed his eyes before loosening mana threads from every mana stone in his surroundings before he inserted them into his body. ** More than two weeks had passed in the blink of an eye and Jason''s mana core broke through as it reached the 5th Expert rank. This was as expected and not surprising and Jason didn''t pay much attention to his breakthrough. That was because shortly after that the black origin flame had notified him that it was about to finish constructing the mana core within it. However, what surprised him was that the black origin flame''s thoughts were not only much clearer than before but also that he sensed its joy and fear at the same time. ''Is constructing a mana core something to be afraid of?'' Jason asked inwardly and after asking his soulbonds, he figured out that he forgot something extremely important which he already knew long before. Every beast with a completed mana core was able to reach the magical rank but one couldn''t reach the magical rank incomplete mana core! As such, it was something essential to be qualified to liquefy one''s mana. This itself was not something to be afraid of but what came with this information was different. ''Is the black origin flame even able to absorb its own mana and how does it liquefy the gaseous mana it absorbs? It doesn''t have the required organs...or does it?'' Jason was suddenly wondering how Elementals, which seemed to be similar to the sentient origin flame, were liquefying their mana. The only plausible solution was that their mana core was special which led him to inquire how his black origin flame was thinking of doing something similar. Its answer made Jason happy and afraid at the same time, which was exactly how the black origin was feeling. In the end, this was completely understandable! The black origin had informed him that it would evolve into a Tier-1 flame, which was joyous news. This evolution would fuse the mana core it had created with the black origin flame and transform the mana core which made it possible for it to liquefy mana to drops. Initially, Jason thought that this was extremely good news, but after the black origin flame had informed him that it had to feel pain for the first time in its life, Jason''s mood soured. For someone who had never felt pain, it would definitely be extremely painful even if one would just prick one''s finger with a needle. As such, Jason decided that he would transfer the majority of its pain to himself which was possible thanks to the fortified soul conjunction they established. However, worse was that the black origin flame seemed to think that the pain it had to endure would be extremely painful. Jason could only frown when he heard that. As if that was not enough, he knew that he would receive his baptism immediately after the black origin flame would evolve into a Tier-1 Origin flame. This meant that he would have no time to rest and if his estimation was right, the next few days might be extremely painful and exhausting. After he saw that the black origin flame''s mana core was completed, Jason took a deep breath ''I guess the torture can begin now¡­'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 357 - Life On The Line It was unknown as to what had happened but Jason didn''t even remember how exactly the black origin flame had evolved into a Tier-1 black origin flame! After he had accepted its pain that was stronger than he had expected, Artemis and Scorpio had utilized their own fortified soul conjunction which they had with him to take the pain he had transferred from the black origin flame to himself. Once that happened, the pain he felt lightened, but at the same time Jason could feel that something about the black origin flame began to change as his sight blurred. What happened after that was unknown and he was unable to remember much. Time seemed to pass slowly and when he had regained his senses, the black origin flame had completed the fusion with the mana core. At the same time the fusion happened, the black origin flame''s mana core changed slightly which allowed it to liquefy mana to drops. However, what happened afterward shocked Jason greatly. The moment he regained his senses, huge pain overflowed his body because the baptism had already begun! Jason was glad that nothing went wrong with the evolution of the black origin flame, but he would have loved to witness everything! It was obvious that Jason had underestimated the potency of the black origin flame which caused the current pain he was had to endure. The black origin flame that was currently cleansing everything inside Jason''s body wanted to slow down, however, Jason ordered it to continue without holding back. Meanwhile, Artemis and Scorpio tried to transfer Jason''s pain to them to share and lessen the pain he had to endure. Astonishing enough, sharing the pain during the baptism seemed to be impossible which would have shocked Jason if he was able to think clearly. However, that was not possible because of the pain that spread throughout his whole body, igniting his mana veins, arteries, blood cells, bones, skin, and mana core. Everything within Jason was burning and he was sure that the pain he was enduring right now was equal if not worse to the time he refined his mind. The pain caused by the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit was already terrifying but the second baptism he was undergoing felt even worse. Jason''s pores opened and a terrible reeking black mass of impurities oozed out of them, but that was not important to Jason right now. He was only trying to endure the pain and prevent crying out once again because he could already feel that he attracted the attention of other beasts which was not something he wanted to do. Jason was defenseless and he would be the first to die if anything were to approach him and he could only rely on Artemis and Scorpio if something were to happen. However, Jason hoped that his soulbonds wouldn''t have to protect him. More than two days had already passed and the baptism was still not complete. The whole ground was littered with bad reeking impurities and if Shane or Dalia were to see the sheer mass of impurities, they would be shocked and ask if Jason''s whole body had been completely purified from impurities. This was not the case, and one could only wonder how many impurities the human body had within in order to release enough impurities to fill the whole burrow Jason sat inside. After two days, Jason didn''t feel as overwhelmed by the pain he had to endure as in the beginning, which didn''t mean that it was not extremely painful. If he were to be even a little bit less strong-willed, it was unknown what would have happened to his sanity. Fortunately enough this was not something Jason had to be afraid of and he was already able to smile brightly while enduring the consistent pain which the black origin flame unleashed when he noticed that the baptism was refining his mana veins throughout. After his whole physique had been cleansed, strengthened, and refined, the black origin flame began to cleanse Jason''s mana core which the baptism forcefully enlarged. This worried Jason a little bit, but after his own and Dalia''s assumption, that a baptism was different than a soul world amplification was proven correctly, Jason couldn''t help but feel relieved because his vessel was enlarging before it would be strengthened. He didn''t have to be afraid of his vessel breaking after receiving the baptism which was a large stride forwards. Nevertheless, Jason knew that his baptism was still not over, even if he was already at the last few steps that were about refining his mana veins, brain, eyes, and other senses! The last step of the baptism was said to be the one that made everyone feel the most uncomfortable because a single mistake could lead to a devastating disability. However, Jason was not afraid that something like that would happen. He was supposed to endure the pain and nothing else. His trust towards the black origin was enough to allow it to take control of the full baptism which other owners of origin flames might not allow in fear of sustaining injuries. However, what Jason didn''t expect was that roughly six hours after the final step of his second baptism was initiated, a large number of ''Putrefaction rats'' which was a beast at the low-Unblemished rank were to rush towards Jason''s position. They had been attracted by the reeking stench of impurities and wanted to devour them and Jason, who was completely oblivious to the fact that his life was on the line. He was currently gritting his teeth to endure the purification of the mana veins inside his eye. After the mana veins within his eyes would have been purified, his other senses were the last area that had to be purified before the pain he endured over several days would be over. Only a few hours were left and Jason was already expecting to figure out how much stronger he became, when Artemis and Scorpio, who left the soul world several days ago because they were bored to stay inside the soul world for too long, informed him about a large horde of putrefaction rats that rushed directly towards his direction. They couldn''t tell if the rats targeted him but there were several thousand of them at once which was not something they would be able to take on lightly. Nevertheless, it wouldn''t be surprising if a handful among several thousand rats were to accidentally fall into the cavern entrances, Jason and Scorpio dug, which would most likely result in a bloody mess. As such, without waiting for Jason to respond to her, Artemis used her affinity to forcefully close the cavern entrance by creating a thick layer of ice within it. She left a tiny hole, barely enough to supply Jason with enough oxygen, preventing him from suffocating in the burrow they had dug. Jason knew that something had happened, but he couldn''t focus on the transmitted messages from both Artemis and Scorpio because the pain distorted all of his senses. Unfortunately, the black origin flame couldn''t stop the baptism now, because it would leave behind his eyes half purified which might result in a huge backlash, injuring them seriously. As such, instead of stopping, they accelerated and the black origin flame started to purify all his other senses immediately after Jason gave it the permission to do so. Even if the black origin flame didn''t do this, purifying and refining his eyes was the task that took the longest. This was also the reason for the black origin flame to start purifying his other senses at the same time.; to save time! As such, Jason could only wait until his baptism was completed before he was ready to depart. Fortunately, the putrefaction rats were only at the low-Unblemished rank which gave Jason enough hope that his soulbonds would be able to survive if the worst-case scenario were to appear. While Artemis circled above the first sealed entrance, Scorpio retreated a little bit to prevent being run down by the mass of rats. If the putrefaction rats were to act weird both would immediately act which was something they hoped to be an unnecessary worry! Unfortunately, this was not the case and the first putrefaction rats in the stop slowed down at the first sealed cavern entrance to start digging through the ice. Jason noticed the uncomfortable and frustrating emotions from both Artemis and Scorpio as their mana erupted in order to attack the mass of several thousand putrefaction rats. They had to defend Jason, even if they had to sacrifice their lives! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 358 - Blind Vs. Army Seconds felt like hours, minutes like weeks, and Jason''s confidence in Artemis and Scorpio''s survival had begun to turn into worry and fear. He couldn''t see them because his eyes were shut as the black origin flame was currently doing its utmost efforts to refine the mana veins in his eyes. Nevertheless, even if he couldn''t see anything, Jason perceived everything through the fortified soul conjunction he had established with Artemis and Scorpio. As such, he was able to tell that their fight above the surface was slowly changing for the worse. From overpowering the putrefaction rats with their physical strength and affinity utilization, it began to change into an exhausting slaughter. There were so many putrefaction rats that killing one made enough space for two more to replace their dead brethren. Artemis was not in a problematic spot because she was able to fly above them, killing the rats with tiny icicles that didn''t need too much mana to be manifested. Nevertheless, she was forced to enter close combat in order to prevent rats from entering the burrow where Jason was currently located. They had already begun to dig through the thick layer of ice Artemis had manifested above the small entrance and her small, low mana-consuming icicles had become too inefficient to stop the large mass of rats. As such, she did not only have to enter close combat but she manifested icicles around her which she shot towards the rats that were everywhere. Meanwhile, Scorpio was neither in a worse nor better situation than he had been since the beginning. His body was larger and a much easier target to attack for the putrefaction rats but his poison affinity and Mana utilization made it possible for Scorpio to defeat the majority of beasts around him. Unfortunately, Scorpio''s mana consumption was much higher than he had expected and the mass of putrefaction rats seemed to increase further. Almost a whole hour had passed until Jason was unable to take it anymore. Both Artemis and Scorpio''s mana cores were completely drained from mana and their strength decreasing with each second passing. Yet, they still fought with all their might in order to protect Jason. Almost every soft part of Scorpio''s body was torn apart and he was barely staying alive because he thought about the fact that Jason might be ripped apart because of his negligence. Artemis'' magnificent and white plumage turned crimson red from all the blood splattered on her which was something that had never happened to her. However, she also continued to fight, ignoring the pain spreading through her whole body. Both killed several thousand putrefaction rats in total and not a single one was able to pass through the cavern entrance to kill Jason who was unable to move during the last hour. However, that had changed now! The baptism was still not over and the black origin flame was also not done with his eyes, but Jason felt that he could finally move again! Enduring the pain within his eyes that was also the last body part that had to receive the baptism, he jumped up, while his eyes remained closed. Gritting his teeth he used his superb senses and mana fluctuations to sense where the entrances were as he rushed up to one of them. Taking out the Viridi-Starstream dagger-set from his spatial ring, Jason felt that his entire being was churning with wrath towards the putrefaction rats. Circulating mana through his body, he perceived how powerful he had become as he crushed the ice Artemis had manifested to seal the cavern entrance. A reeking stench of iron permeated the air but Jason couldn''t care less as he ordered both Scorpio and Artemis to enter his soul world as soon as possible. They wanted to object to him, fearing that he might die once they left him but Jason used his soulbond contract to force them to obey his orders. Reluctant, Artemis and Scorpio could only do as Jason ordered as they used their last energy to approach him. Once both reached a certain range around him they could enter Jason''s soul world which they did. After he felt that they entered his soul world safely, Jason sighed in relief before he turned serious again. ''I should be at the 7th Master rank with Artemis and Scorpio''s amplification¡­.That''s enough!'' Before, Jason was unsure whether he was strong enough to fight against the putrefaction rats without using Artemis or Scorpio to enter his mana core, but that was fortunately not necessary. Thankfully, his soulbonds could recuperate much faster inside his soul world and he wouldn''t have to give them any more burden to take on. Jumping out of the cavern entrance, he was immediately greeted by several putrefaction rats which he felt by using his mana fluctuations to scan his surroundings which was something he could already do instinctively. He had been blind for the majority of his life! How else would he have survived the dangerous world, without anyone to rely on, if he were to be unable to use his mana fluctuations to sense his surroundings? When his mother was still alive, this was less of a problem but after she was murdered, Jason had to take care of himself without burdening other people in his surrounding. As such his mana perception was superior to almost everyone he knew and being forced to fight blind was not something he feared as he did before, when he was still younger. Now, he was much stronger and not at the bottom of the food chain where he had to use every ounce of mana he gathered to insert it into his eyes in order to awaken them! Jason was confident to fight back, which he showed by piercing out with both Viridi-Starstream daggers. Cutting the first putrefaction rats in two halves, Jason used a large margin of mana stored within him to explosively unleash thick, cold mist that enveloped him and a radius of five meters a moment later before the mist began to spread further. He could have used a poisonous mist too, but there were two reasons why he didn''t do so. The first one was that the putrefaction rats had a mild poison resistance which Scorpio transmitted to him after he had figured that out during the hour he had fought desperately against them. Another factor for Jason to not use the poisonous fog was its immense mana consumption. Using two fused affinities at the same time, at a large range was not something he could handle right now. He was unaware of how many putrefaction rats there were still left in the surrounding area after all! Jason was already confused why so many putrefaction rats tried to enter his self-made burrow because they were just too many of them to make it look like a coincidence. ''The impurities I expelled during the baptism might have attracted the putrefaction rats but that doesn''t mean that it was the reason for them to leave their habitat...I guess?'' There was no reason to think about it for now, but Jason was still full of doubts as he slashed, stabbed, and cleaved towards several dozen putrefaction rats that tried to find him with all their means. After he listened to his soulbonds'' transmitted thoughts, he was fully aware of how the putrefaction rats acted and it was only a matter of time before he finished them off. These rats might be at a numerical advantage, but their mana fluctuations were extremely crude and their control over mana was worse than that of a 10-year-old youth who had begun to sense mana for less than a month! As such, the putrefaction rats were not only considered blind because of the mist but also unable to sense anything in their surroundings. The only thing they could do was to listen to their surroundings'' noises. However, this was also not simple because Jason kept a few putrefaction rats alive after inflicting deep gashes into their body before he kicked them into all kinds of directions where they laid on the ground, screaming their last few breaths out. This distracted the putrefaction rats that tried to remain calm could only smell that the cold mist which permeated the whole surrounding area had traces of a decayed iron stench in it, which made them nervous. Jason was confident that he was able to massacre every single putrefaction rat, even with his current condition couldn''t be considered perfect! He was blind and had to endure a lot of pain through the baptism that was still continuing, however, Jason was still at an advantage because of his superior combat prowess and experience! More than ten minutes passed and the number of putrefaction rats diminished at a rapid pace as his speed accelerated further. After being able to see something for several months it was somewhat uncomfortable to be forced to fight blind. It decreased his combat prowess by a small margin, but he was still powerful after he had undergone the baptism. However, after another long and arduous hour had passed, Jason heard a loud scream amplified by mana from behind. He was able to sense that the mist in the surrounding area dissipated, which only left a small area filled with mist around Jason behind. His mana fluctuations were unable to perceive anything further than 50 meters but Jason could tell that something strong had followed the putrefaction rats which caused Jason to frown deeply. Nothing worked according to his plan and it was frustrating! ''Can''t I have my peace...please??'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 359 - Baptized Eyes Jason sensed the putrefaction rats'' fear from their mana fluctuations and he could immediately tell that the amplified roar which probably stemmed from a peak-Unblemished or Magical ranked beats was an enemy. ''If they were pursued why did the putrefaction rats try to kill me, Artemis and Scorpio? From their bloodthirsty aura, it''s obvious that they weren''t in a rush. Furthermore, the whole fight against them takes already longer than two hours! Did this unknown beast hear our noises that attracted its attention?.... I''m really out of luck today! '' The black origin flame transmitted him the thought that the baptism would be completed in a few minutes at most. However, this was the only good news because Jason had to ask himself seriously if he could even survive for that long! His strength was too shallow to fight against a beast that might have already begun to liquefy the mana within its mana core. As such he could only use everything up to his sleeves to retain a certain distance towards the unknown enemies before he was able to open his eyes again. Releasing a large amount of mist at once, Jason exerted the weightless steps movement technique to retreat quickly while avoiding the putrefaction rats that jumped towards him suicidal. Jason knew the rough direction of the unknown opponent but that was already everything he knew, which was definitely not much. From the mana fluctuations he perceived from the beast after everything had calmed down, Jason could tell that it was either a newly advanced Magical rank beast, also called Lique stage beast, or that it was about to liquefy its first drop. Sighing deeply, Jason stored the Viridi-Starstream daggers away before grasping one putrefaction rat after another to throw them towards the direction he assumed the unknown opponent to be. Only a moment later, he heard another mana amplified voice which caused his ears to ache as he used mana to protect them from sustaining any injuries. After that, he had to focus on releasing more mana while retreating further, without caring where exactly he was going. Jason was still able to perceive his surroundings and as long as putrefaction rats were between him and the unknown opponent that seemed to be aggressive, yet small if he didn''t hear wrongly, everything would be fine. Two minutes had passed and the unknown enemy was still far away from Jason as he had heard many loud squeaking noises that were amplified by mana. This seemed to be the unknown beast''s most used way to attack which was good to know for Jason. As long as he could protect his ears and avoid the soundwaves or whatever the unknown beast attacked with, he would be fine! Rather than wasting his time attacking, Jason wanted to survive and tend his soulbonds wounds! They were already extremely exhausted and he could feel their pain that was equal to his own which was not something either of them had wanted to endure. However, what annoyed him the most were the putrefaction rats because they tried to cling to his leg, bite into it and rip his flesh out. Jason couldn''t understand why they weren''t trying to run away from the unknown opponent, but it was clear that something was extremely weird. Only a moment later he heard the crunching sounds of breaking bones multiple times from further away. Suddenly he perceived strong mana fluctuations shooting towards him and Jason could immediately tell that it was the unknown opponents'' shockwave attack. He was able to barely evade the attack by twisting his body into an uncomfortable angle. After that, Jason sensed that the beast was about to attack him with its small body when it entered the range of his mana released mana fluctuations that was a radius of 50 meters. Creating a thick wall of ice in front of him, Jason used the tree behind him to push himself into the air, straight towards the ice wall which he had erected Using this ice wall he pushed himself from it again. Lifting his arms he grasped the tree branch above him before he pulled himself up. Running along the tree branch he could only hear the unknown beast using several sound waves to attack him. While the first two missed him by a large distance, the third missed him by a hairbreadth. Unfortunately, Jason was not able to avoid the fourth soundwave which hit his back. He was fortunate enough to have enveloped his body with a thick layer of mana which he had drawn out of the mana sphere bracelet only a moment before. Crushing into the ground, Jason felt the putrefaction rats jumping on top of him, trying to bite through the mana membrane enveloping him. Shouting out, he released a thick layer of highly corrosive poison that was barely efficient against the putrefaction rats who jumped back in astonishment. They didn''t expect the bipedal being to have the same affinity as the gigantic sapphire-blue scorpion. Jason used this moment of astonishment, to push himself from the ground as he received the black origin flame''s notification that the baptism has been completed. A radiant smile emerged on his face as he ordered the black origin flame to enter his mana core which it did without hesitation. Black churning flames enveloped Jason within a moment and he didn''t even perceive that a tiny trace of a golden color was intertwined in the black flame as he opened his golden eyes which were filled with coldness, anger, and the intention to eradicate everyone obstructing his path. ''You little f*ckers!! I''ve had enough'' This was the only thing he thought as his voice that sounded calm, yet overbearing and cold resounded through the surrounding area. "Die!" Jason''s killing intent was fully unleashed through his eyes as he supplied them with mana which made them glow faintly. The putrefaction rats who were about to attack Jason once again, stiffened and the same seemed to happen to the other putrefaction rats that stared at him in fear. If they were able to, they would flee, as far as possible, but they were unable to move a single inch when they sensed an ominous being infiltrating their body and mind. Eternal darkness enveloped them and the putrefaction rats'' eyes turned pitch-black without a single trace of white left before they began to attack each other. Suddenly, Jason felt as if he were about to collapse on the ground as the terrifying aura around him vanished in an instant as he noticed what was going on. When he opened his eyes, Jason felt weird and he couldn''t explain what had happened in words. If there were a word to describe everything he felt at that moment, it would probably be; almighty! However, that sensation vanished faster than one could even blink with one''s eyes and Jason could only perceive how the putrefaction beasts continued to massacre each other, even after their eyes regained their normal color. Turning around, towards the unknown beast that stared at him in hesitation, not knowing what to do, Jason could only smile lightly as he mumbled. "A f*cking oversized weasel tried to kill me? You annoyed me long enough!!" His entire being was filled with wrath, thinking that the Gigantic vociferous weasel that was in front of him might have been the reason for the putrefaction rats to attack him, Artemis and Scorpio, which was, however, not the case. Nevertheless, Jason''s mind was filled with anger and he was unable to extinguish it. The simple thought that the low-Lique stage beast in front of him might have been the cause for his soulbonds'' pain made his blood boil. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 360 - Might Of An Tier-1 Origin Flame Nobody could stop Jason anymore and even his soulbonds that tried to stop him from doing something stupid remained unheard. Taking out the pseudo-mana grade-2 light longsword from his spatial ring, Jason used a large amount of mana from the mana sphere bracelet to insert it into the blade that began to shine brightly. Unleashing his newly evolved Tier-1 Origin flame, Jason enveloped the light longsword with it, increasing its lethality by another layer. The Gigantic vociferous weasel in front of him was still shocked about Jason''s eyes, thinking that he was one of the cursed beings it encountered during its life in the Mythic Garden. Pondering whether it should escape or attack Jason, the gigantic vociferous weasel was only able to answer this question when Jason had already pushed his feet from the ground. He exerted the perfect mastery weightless steps technique to accelerate his speed by 60%. While Jason''s mana circulation increased by a large margin after his mana veins had been cleansed from most impurities, Jason was confident in accelerating his speed further. Circulating mana through his whole body, his speed and endurance increased and he appeared before the gigantic vociferous weasel that was about to run away, shocked by Jason''s sudden change. However, Jason couldn''t care less about what his opponent was trying to do as his cold, bright golden gleaming eyes caused it to stiffen for a quarter of a second. Jason used this moment to exert the Devous Swordmaster martial art technique as he pierced out with the pseudo-mana grade-2 light longsword that was glowing brightly. The gigantic vociferus weasel wanted to defend itself by attacking Jason with a soundwave, however, what nobody had expected was that the flame enveloping the light longsword burned through the shockwave that was manifested by amplifying the weasel''s voice with compressed mana. The black origin flame''s strength attained that of a low-Lique stage and after evolving, it seemed to be easier for it to burn through mana, at least to a certain degree. Deflecting the mana amplified shockwave, the trajectory of his first attack was averted and Jason drew out more mana from the mana sphere bracelet to envelope his body in order to prevent the gigantic vociferous weasel from killing him with a single attack, only to see that it was not attacking anymore him anymore. Not minding that, Jason pierced out with his light longsword once again, straight through the gigantic vociferous weasel''s large body that had the size of a large dog. The black origin flame drained his remaining mana at a rapid pace which made him wonder what was going on as his mana eyes perceived that the gigantic vociferous weasel was still trying to fight against its evident end. It enveloped Jason''s light longsword with its own mana, the moment the sword pierced into its body to prevent it from penetrating deeper. However, after evolving into a TIer-1 origin flame, the black origin flame''s ability to negate mana increased manifold which Jason had already noticed The amount of mana it demanded also increased. However, every single trace of mana he had to supply was worth the effect he received This caused him to unleash his remaining mana at once, burning through the gigantic vociferous weasel''s thick mana layer around his sword. Just like that, a loud sizzling noise began to resound through Jason''s ears. The weasel''s whole body began to smoke and its last tries to change its evident fate resounded through the whole forest as it amplified its pained voice. Only a few moments later when Jason''s mana core was drained from mana, the gigantic vociferous weasel''s eyes dimmed before they turned lifeless. Its body went limp and Jason pulled out the light longsword before he slumped to the ground, completely exhausted. The putrefaction rats were dead, killed by each other and Jason had defeated his first Lique Stage beast while his mana core size and physique were at the 7th Master rank. This was something crazy, but he also knew that it was probably a one-time occurrence as the gigantic vociferous weasel seemed to have just finished its breakthrough. At least that was what he could perceive through his mana eyes. The drop of mana within the weasel''s mana core was infinitesimal, but that didn''t mean one could underestimate such an opponent. Fortunately, the black origin flame''s capabilities increased by a large margin after it had evolved into a Tier-1 origin flame. Not only was the baptism it allowed Jason to receive extremely beneficial but the origin flame''s ability to nullify mana increased too! If the black origin flame wanted to, it could pierce through manga-based attacks that were lower than its current strength that was at the beginning of the Lique stage. For others, it would be at the magical rank, but Jason decided to take on the revamped cultivation system for himself. He had to face the fact that mankind''s cultivation system was not realistic either way! As such he might as well accept it! Jason was exhausted because had undergone several days of torture, and now that he was completely drained from mana, his tiredness was noticeable. However, he couldn''t sleep right now because the noises and massacre he had created had a high probability to attract even stronger beasts. The gigantic vociferous weasel was already more than enough for Jason to handle with great difficulties and he was unable to fight another strong beast. As such he used the replenished mana which he received from the passive mana gathering cycle that was established in his sub-area to exert the weightless steps technique after he had stored the gigantic vociferous weasel''s carcass away. Running off, Jason searched for a good place to hide for the next few hours in which he wanted to tend his soulbonds wounds, take a short nap and cleanse his body from all impurities. The black origin flame which continued to stay inside his mana core and enveloped his whole body was flickering joyously. It was even able to cleanse his exhaustion to a minuscule degree. Only then, did Jason notice the faint traces of a golden color within the black flames! ''What is that?'' Jason didn''t know why the black flames had suddenly strands of a golden color within after it had evolution but there was no time to think about that for now. The highest priority was to find a secure place to take care of Artemis and Scorpio who seemed to have overcome the most dangerous period. From the look of it, the soul world was a greater means to heal soulbonds, than it was said to be. But that was reassuring. However, this didn''t mean that he wanted his soulbonds to feel pain. As such, after he had found a relatively good place, without many strong beasts in the surrounding, Jason summoned both Artemis and Scorpio who jumped towards him without caring about the pain they felt. The black origin flame retracted its flames quickly, otherwise, the reunion would have ended with a rather painful memory. After Artemis and Scorpio had calmed down, freeing Jason, he poured a few potions into their mouth which made them feel better once a few seconds had passed. Not minding their reluctance to part ways again, Jason summoned their magic circles to bring them back to the soul world where their wounds healed much faster. After that, he took a short glance at the black origin flame which left his mana core to enter his soul world again. ''Aren''t these golden traces similar to my soul world''s color?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 361 - Quality Enhancement After he had tended his soulbonds'' wounds to a certain degree, Jason wanted to rest after the last few, long days were finally over. He was still in the gigantic forest''s outskirts close to the mountain range next to it. Nevertheless, his distance to the area with the massacred putrefaction rats was quite a distance away. As such he climbed up a large tree and decided to rest for the next few hours. There was no other beast in his surroundings and even if there were, he was able to conceal his mana core continuously by now, which was extremely beneficial. Thanks to that, other beasts wouldn''t be able to detect him easily. This allowed him to fall asleep without any worries. ** Several hours passed before Jason was awoken by his soulbonds that demanded to eat something. He felt that his mana core was already completely replenished thanks to his passive mana gathering and his tiredness was washed away. As such he climbed down the tree he was on to summon Artemis and Scorpio who looked like they were had been badly beaten up. Nevertheless, their appearance was already much better compared to a few hours ago. With that in mind, Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly as he took out his soulbonds'' food from his spatial ring. After that he caressed them a lot, thanking them for their hard work which caused the black origin flame to emerge from his soul world as it transmitted a thought that was supposed to mean something like ''What about me then???'' Grinning lightly Jason thought that caressing the black origin flame was not really possible because it didn''t possess a body and he could only stare at the compressed fist-sized flame which floated in front of him. "You did a good job too!" Jason said to the black origin flame, while Artemis and Scorpio eyed the flame with suspicion. Artemis hadn''t been on good terms with the black origin flame but that was solely because of the instinctive repulsive feelings it got from everything that had to do with flames. It terrified her, and she was not sure why this was the case. However, Artemis also knew that the black origin flame saved Jason''s life multiple times. As such she forced herself to suppress the feelings she had towards the black flame as she noticed the golden traces within the flame. Scorpio seemed to notice the same and both began to transmit Jason several thoughts in succession, causing a slight headache. They asked why the black flame suddenly had golden traces within them, and how it became so much stronger. The former was something he was unable to answered too but the latter was interesting. ''The black origin flame''s mana fluctuations are restricted right now and the origin flame doesn''t show any signs of being stronger from its outer appearance...so how exactly are Artemis and Scorpio able to determine that the black origin flame became stronger?'' It was obvious that the liquefied drop of mana inside its mana core was a major factor in their statement, but Jason was wondering if there was another reason for them to act like they were currently doing. After asking them about that, Jason found out that they sensed that the black origin flame''s aura changed substantially. This was something he had overlooked. After he took a proper look at the black origin flame''s aura, Jason had to acknowledge that it had definitely changed a little bit! Nobody knew why the black flame had traces of a golden color within them and he could only assume that it had something to do with his soul world. Jason was unsure if that was the case but it was definitely possible! After he had fed Artemis and Scorpio he requested them to remain inside his soul world until they fully recuperated as the soul world''s healing ability was superb. The black origin flame followed Artemis and Scorpio, leaving Jason who was already in his own train of thoughts. Now that he had received his baptism and that the black origin flame evolved into a Tier-1 origin flame, Jason''s strength skyrocketed immediately. After the baptism, his mana core size and physical strength increased to that of an average 1st to 2nd level Master rank, while his mana core rank was only that of a 5th Expert. This was already extremely beneficial because the baptism enlarged and strengthened his vessel instead of burdening it. As such his vessel received a major upgrade thanks to the baptism. With his soulbonds'' amplification of 33% which he received due to his soul world''s superiority, Jason''s mana core size and physical strength increased to that of a 7th Master rank! However, that was not everything because Jason was sure that his vessel could cope with the burden he would receive if one of his soulbonds, other than the black origin flame that didn''t amplify anything, were to enter his mana core. The fortified soul conjunction would allow him to reach the innate phase of the Lique-state or also close to that of a Magus rank if Artemis or Scorpio were to unleash their whole strength amplification after entering his mana core. It was still June and Jason''s combat prowess had already reached that of a newly advanced Magus rank, and it would have been a lie if he were to say that it was not shocking. ''With that kind of upgrade in my combat prowess, the Mythic Garden won''t be as dangerous as it had been before¡­.at least I won''t be a pushover!'' Adding the fact that the Tier-1 origin flame''s mana nullifying ability had become much stronger, Jason couldn''t help but be satisfied with his current combat prowess. He was still unsure how high the black origin flame''s limits as a Tier-1 origin flame were, but it was evident that its ability to nullify mana was extraordinary. Furthermore, Jason felt that its other ability to purify things was also upgraded as it should have been! From what he perceived, Jason could tell that the purification ability''s might, doubled at the bare minimum. With that in mind, he wanted to purify a grade-1 Jade-Iron ore and take a look if he could expel more impurities from living beings which it could apparently already do before it evolved! That was if his eyes were not playing tricks to him during the time he had expelled the poison from the small group of young men and women he had saved a few days prior. There were so many mysterious things about the black origin flame that Jason couldn''t help but ask himself once again how such a precious treasure appeared on Astrix. Now that he rested enough, he wanted to continue searching for a suitable cursed soulbond. Jason recalled the reclusive area the woman, who he had rescued, told him and he thought that it was worth a try. The area she was walking about had also been marked as extremely dangerous from the handwritten book about the Mythic Garden which indicated to Jason that he might be able to find what he was searching for there! Due to Artemis'' injury, he couldn''t ask her to enter his mana core to manifest her wings which forced him to remain on the ground. This was not necessarily something bad but Jason knew that he would have to take many detours to enter the reclusive area with all kinds of cursed beings inside because he was restricted to take one of the few existing paths to enter it! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 362 - Re-encounter Running through the Mythic Garden while the weightless steps movement technique had been fully exerted, Jason was able to cross a large distance in a short amount of time. Adding the fact that he was able to continuously conceal his mana core, he didn''t encounter a single beast. This was also thanks to his mana eyes and Jason didn''t have any issues with other young prodigies obstructing him in any way either! Thanks to the young woman''s detailed guide with the exact location where he had to vent through in order to enter the reclusive area of the Mythic Garden, only a few hours had passed before Jason arrived in the adjacent area. Looking around, he searched for the path through the mountain range which he approached. Jason was not sure if it was the same mountain range he had seen before but it was definitely far away from the area he dug the burrow below the gigantic tree. As such it didn''t really matter and if it were to be the same mountain range, the reclusive area would be larger than he assumed it to be. Almost half a day passed before Jason found a path through the mountain range which was only possible because of his mana eyes, otherwise, it would have taken much longer. They perceived tiny mana fluctuations extremely well which allowed him to predict where hollow areas were and where a path through the whole mountain could be. After his mana eyes had been refined, his eyesight increased by a few times too! This allowed Jason to not only see further and more in detail, but the mana fluctuations became more vibrant too! If there was nothing covering the mana fluctuations, Jason was confident to see these fluctuations over a distance of more than 1,000 meters, detailed at that! As such, Jason entered the narrow, hidden path which he had found, carefully. Even if his mana eyes were almost perfect, Jason was still uncomfortable with the thought of encountering beasts similar to the Untraceable Drakes that his mana eyes couldn''t perceive through their completely concealed mana cores and mana fluctuations. However, this didn''t hinder him from walking through the narrow path with fast strides. He was still careful but Jason was also aware of the fact that maneless beasts or beings that could conceal their mana completely were very rare. If he were to act slow and overly cautious on every occasion, he would waste too much time, too many times. The narrow path was filled with strong mana currents and Jason felt energetic, absorbing them while walking through the path for more than three hours before he saw a bright light at the end of the path. Refraining from rushing towards the entrance to the reclusive area, Jason used his mana eyes to see how the surrounding area looked like. This was important to see whether the area he would enter was placid or currently filled with ferocious beasts, tearing each other apart. Surprisingly, what his mana eyes perceived was weird. Not only was the area littered with several dozen dying beasts at the late-Unblemished rank but there were still more than a hundred beasts fighting against a small group of humans and beasts. ''Should I take a look?'' He asked inwardly, not knowing what exactly he should do right now. However, Jason had to leave through the narrow path either way! As such it might be better to encounter a small group of humans! It was not like everyone in contract with the Jual family would be bad because the group he encountered prior to them didn''t seem hostile either! Jason entered Mythic Garden''s reclusive area with his pseudo-mana grade-2 light longsword unsheathed, ready to fight at any time. He knew that it might be unnecessary but it was still better to be on the safe side than dead. Dazzled through the light, his eyes required a few seconds before they adjust to the bright sunlight that was a strong contrast to the dark, narrow path. Taking a look around, he saw that the surrounding area was a large jungle with many tropical-looking trees, bushes, and plants. Everything released strong mana fluctuations and Jason was sure that there was not a single, cheap bush or plant around him. The mana in his surroundings was also much denser and purified to a certain extent which astonished him a little bit. However, before he could awe the reclusive area further, Jason noticed that the small group of humans with their soulbonds seemed to be in a prickly situation. This was because they were fighting against a large group of Thunderstorm horses at the late-Unblemished rank. There were even two Magical ranked Thunderstorm horses that fought against the only Lowest Lique stage in their group! Fortunately, she also had a Lowest Lique stage soulbond, which was equivalent to the low-Magical rank that was fighting with her against the two lowest Lique stage thunderstorm horses. Their fight was on equal terms and nobody was overwhelming anyone which caused the fight to stagnate. Unfortunately, this couldn''t be said for the other young prodigies who were at the peak-Master rank, fighting against more than 100 late-Unblemished thunderstorm horses at once. Out of the four youths at the peak-Master rank, there was only one who was able to fight against the Thunderstorm horses head-on. Rather than that, one could even say that he was stronger than them, while the other three youths were being overwhelming which caused the youth with blond hair and blue eyes to fight against everyone alone. Staring at this youth, he noticed a shocking familiarity that was proven correct when he noticed that this youth was the one he had already encountered after he entered the Mythic Garden. His light affinity was amplified by his physique that had been refined and only now did Jason realize that there was a small beast on his shoulder. It was a white meerkat with faint blue stripes on it. This meerkat was at the initial phase of the Lique stage which it showed by manifesting thin, compressed needles of light it shot towards the thunderstorm horses. They were unable to evade the needles of light that pierced through them without any resistance. After Jason saw this, he was confident that the small human group would come out victorious without any issue. This was, as long as the thunderstorm horses at the lowest Lique stage were unable to overwhelm and kill the young female prodigy that was also at the Lique stage. In the end, the only disadvantage the small human group had was to face or evade over a hundred attacks, manifested out of the thunderstorm horses'' thunder affinity. While three out of four peak-Master ranks were overwhelmed and injured the same happened to their soulbonds that were weaker than Jason expected. Only the blond-haired youth with the light affinity was balancing out the other''s seemingly shallow strength. However, Jason also noticed that this youth was unable to use versatile attacks which one might use against multiple opponents at once. The meerkat was restrained to manifest light needles, spears, and other means to attack single individuals one after another, while the youth with his light affinity was proficient in using his spear. ''Is that the light affinities'' disadvantage?'' Jason asked inwardly when he saw the young woman at the Lowest Lique stage was injured by two compressed thunder strikes. This would change the tides of the fight completely and Jason couldn''t help but sigh as he took the pitch-black mask he received from Shane out of the spatial ring. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 363 - Three Clowns The black origin flame had entered his mana core and he utilized it to envelope himself in a faint layer, thinking that it might negate the thunder horses attacks by a small degree. Jason was still not profound in the black origin flame''s new ability to nullify mana which he wanted to change! Testing out things would help a lot and it was not like he had to use a lot of mana for his experiment. Thanks to the fortified soul conjunction he had with the black origin flame and the fact that it entered his mana core gave Jason several perks. His mana consumption while using the black origin flame''s inherited black flame affinity would be minuscule. Furthermore, Jason''s mana circulation was already superb before, thanks to his Innate talent, the first baptism he received, and the Netherworld''s fort body refining he underwent. Nevertheless, this superb mana circulation increased by a large margin after Jason received his second baptism. As such he didn''t even have to think properly about what he wanted the black flame to do! Jason was several hundred meters away from the fight and he knew that throwing several dozen black flame spears would require too much mana. That was if he wanted them to retain their shape and fly in a straight line. ''I should have purchased a better bow¡­'' He lamented inwardly, calling himself names to have forgotten to practice Archery thinking that using elemental attacks as a means to fight over a long distance would be good enough. He had a mid-grade-1 bow with reinforced arrows inside his spatial ring, but throwing icicles would be more efficient in both velocity and impact. If he were to exert all of his strength, Jason was confident to use a mana-grade-2 bow which he could use to shoot high-velocity and impactful arrows. However, he neither had such a bow nor arrows he might use. As such he had to use a different tactic. Exerting the weightless steps movement technique to accelerate his speed by 60%, Jason also manifested several tiny and compressed black flames which he enveloped in a thick ice layer. It had been some time since he used blazing icicles to fight against someone else, but that didn''t mean he never practiced and developed them. While the black flame within the icicles was at a low temperature that begun to slowly heat up, Jason shot them towards the horde of thunderstorm horses at a wide-angle. After the burning icicles shot towards the thunderstorm horses, his connection with them was severed which caused the icicles to melt naturally However, this procedure was slow enough to allow the icicles to descend straight into the most crowded areas of thunderstorm horses as they burst open. The black flames that were barely held together by the thick, compressed ice around them erupted with the mana Jason had used to manifest them. Large explosions resounded through the surrounding area and Jason perceived that everything he wanted to achieve with this attack had happened! More than a dozen thunderstorm horses had been injured from the black flame, that had the strength to injure a Lowest Lique stage if used properly, decreasing their combat prowess by a large margin. Nevertheless, even more important was the fact that the explosion within the thunderstorm horse''s center distracted them from the other young prodigies, creating a mass-panic. The two thunderstorm horses'' leaders wanted to refrain their group from separating when another batch of explosions occurred within the crowd of thunderstorm horses. Jason''s mana consumption with such attacks was negligible which caused him to be overjoyed. His sub-area''s passive mana absorption allowed him to attack as much as he wanted if he were to refrain from using attacks that used up too much mana. The small blazing icicles he used weren''t such high mana consumption attacks and they were unable to injure anyone badly as long as he didn''t hit someone with it directly. If he used more mana to create the blazing icicles it would be different, but there was no need to do that! As such, Jason rushed towards the three peak-Master ranks that were astonished about the sudden interference of an unknown individual which caused them to look around. Seeing this, Jason couldn''t help but frown because they were as distracted as the thunderstorm horses, which was not what he wanted to do! Instead of killing the panicking thunderstorm horses, they searched for him. Only the blond-haired light affinity user, who had to belong to a big family, if not the Jual clan because of the evident fact that he refined his physique, started to kill the thunderstorm horses by thrusting his spear at them at a fast speed. Meanwhile, the lowest Lique stage meerkat manifested several light needles one after another to kill the distracted beasts as soon as possible. When Jason reached the three young prodigies that stared at him in awe, he couldn''t help but sigh as he passed them to start slaughtering the remaining thunderstorm horses. Meanwhile, the light affinity user who saw him, nodded his head with a faint smile before he rushed towards his teammate at the lowest Lique stage who was fighting against the two thunderstorm horse leaders. He didn''t enter close combat but utilized his affinity as the meerkat did to attack them through a long distance. The battle''s tides changed once more and only four minutes passed when Jason was done slaughtering the remaining thunderstorm horses. Looking around, he saw that everyone survived which was a good sign. The two lowest Lique stage thunderstorm horses were still alive, but instead of fighting against the light affinity user, the young woman, and their two lowest Lique stage soulbonds, they intended to flee. With several dozen light injuries covering their body and the situation of their brethren, both thunderstorm horse leaders were fully aware of the fact that they could die any moment. That was if they were to remain around the bipedal beings that entered their territory! However, before they could even do anything, two black fireballs that had the size of the horses'' heads flew towards them, hitting their back. The thunderstorm horses released instinctively electric currents around the area that was hit by the black fireball which caused the fireballs to explode. With a pained neighing, the two thunderstorm horses lost all energy as they slumped to the ground, where they continued to bray in pain. Ignoring their pain, the blond-haired youth manifested two large, yet compressed light spears which he shot towards each of the thunderstorm horses. Piercing their chest, the thunderstorm horses'' bright, vivid eyes dimmed in an instant. Jason, who had thrown the two black fireballs after he had finished the injured late-Unblemished with the help of the black origin flame''s superior strength approached the small group who had gathered around the dead lowest Lique stage thunderstorm horses. Upon seeing him, the three youths stared at him in suspicion without lowering their guard. When Jason saw this he couldn''t help but smile lightly behind the pitch-black mask because the three youths who were distracted in the earlier fight were now on guard against him. "If I wanted to do something against any of you, I could have waited for the thunderstorm horses to do the job. Furthermore, I could have killed you, three clowns, when you guys stared at me in awe the moment I rushed to the thunderstorm horses!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 364 - How Is That Unlucky?? "CLOWNS??" Hearing this, the three young men at the peak-Master rank glared at Jason threateningly. It looked like they wanted to tear him apart, only to be held back when they remembered that Jason had saved their life. The blond-haired youth was the youngest in their group of five, but at the same time, he was also considered the most important. He chuckled for a moment when he heard how Jason called his three team members whom he found within the Mythic Garden. After that, he turned serious again. "Hello, my name is Milan Jual and I would like to thank you for helping us out! I''m not sure if we would have come out unscathed without your help!" Jason nodded his head, seemingly unbothered about Milan hailing from the Jual clan as he said "That''s no problem, I just entered the reclusive area and would have to fight against the thunderstorm horses either way. As such it was beneficial for me too." ''Looking at his appearance and behavior, he should be more amiable than Suo Jual¡­. But why is he inside the Mythic Garden with such a weird team constellation? Shouldn''t he be able to form a stronger team?'' The only acceptable teammate would be the young woman who was able to fight against two Lowest Lique stage beasts that liquefied a few drops of mana. Meanwhile, the three young men might be strong outside the Mythic Garden, but their lack of real combat experience was evident and rather disadvantageous! It looked like they focused on increasing their mana core rank for several years without going out to hunt strong beasts. However, Jason couldn''t be sure about that because he was unaware of these young men''s past. Thus, he decided to be blunt as he asked "Did you five form a team after entering the Mythic Garden?" Tath Jason asked this question surprised Milan and the rest because it was not something one would ask under normal circumstances. The young woman was able to answer the fastest as she said. "We met on the way to the reclusive area and decided to team up!" Averting his gaze to Milan after he heard this, the blond-haired youth could only look at Jason, who was still wearing the pitch-black mask, with confusion. ''What does he want from me?'' Milan noticed that Jason was powerful, despite being at a lower mana core rank than all of them had! His combat awareness and the black flame''s strength were superior. Adding the fact that his mana core was sealed to an almost perfect degree indicated to Milan that Jason might be the perfect 6th member of their group. "I was separated from my group because we encountered a boneflame centipede¡­ I''m just glad that I survived that! It might be sudden, but if you want to join our team, we could need your strength!" Jason was wondering why Milan wanted him in his team when he heard his offer and it could have been because he saved them and that they lacked more combat strength. However, on the other side, there was also the possibility that he could betray them. ''Wait! If they''re a newly formed team, everyone might betray each other at some point... A single valuable treasure might be enough to wreak havoc among their team''s trust!'' He never had the intention to join a team from the beginning which caused him to shake his head as he said "I''m not a team player and I might reduce your combat prowess by jumping straight into the fray, obstructing you guys in some way!" Milan nodded his head understanding that he shouldn''t try to coax Jason into joining their team if he was against it from the beginning. It might create a bad balance between all members and Milan couldn''t help but sigh. "If there is something else we can help you with, just ask! We have to thank you for saving our lives..or at least saving us from receiving serious injuries!" The three young men who glared at Jason before nodded their heads reluctantly, thinking that the young masked man was their live savior. As such, they owed him a favor, which was also what the young woman thought. She knew that it would have been unfavorable for her if Milan were to be a little bit later to support her in fighting against the thunderstorm horses with liquefied mana drops in their mana core. When Jason heard this, he remembered a few beasts which he saw in the handwritten book about the Mythic Garden. "In that case, do you know where the dead-eye centipedes'' habitat is?" Jason was unsure what to think about Milan because he hailed from the Jual clan, but it didn''t look like he was a bad guy. At least that was what he could tell from seeing how he behaved and what his gut said! He was still hesitant to let new people close to him since the incident with Old Drake, but Jason was also aware that Old Drake was much older than most humans. With that in mind, he also saw more than most people would ever do in their life and this might have changed his behavior slowly. Milan looked like a bright guy, which might be because of his refined body that released a faint light affinity aura. When the small group Jason helped out heard his question they were a little bit dumbfounded. One of the three young men at the peak-Master rank couldn''t help but ask "What do you want from Dead-eye centipedes? They''re blind and beasts between the Awakened and Unblemished rank! Their curse might weaken someone a little bit but their corpse is worthless compared to other beasts inside the Mythic Garden. They don''t even have an affinity to make them valuable as a soulbond either!" Jason smiled behind his mask when he saw their reaction and the young man''s words were certainly true. However, the Dead-eye centipedes'' curse was something he wanted to investigate. Their curse was similar to being weakened. Some stories within the handwritten book about the Mythic Garden were about the dead-eye centipede''s curse weakening someone''s entire being which would have been the same as the cursed panther Jason saw before. Yet, other stories about the same curse written in the book told that only the soul would be cursed and not the entire being. The latter was more interesting to Jason because he was searching for a soul world curse and not a curse that would weaken his entire being. He didn''t want to see his entire soul world being weakened, but if the worst case scenario would occur, it was better than nothing. At least he wouldn''t receive any major disadvantages through that. Maybe his soul world would decrease in size, but that was not really something Jason was afraid of. His soul world was still increasing in size with each additional soul energy unit Jason obtained, thus he was confident that seeing his soul world being cursed wouldn''t be the worst. Milan, who pondered for a moment after hearing his question couldn''t help but wonder why Jason wanted to find the dead-eye centipedes. ''He might be one of those weird freaks who wants to bind a cursed being to see if these curses can be transferred to other¡­.or he knows about the mana vein!!'' The latter option was more likely and Milan decided to be straightforward again "Don''t put it wrong, but we will enter the Dead-eye centipedes'' territory. There is a small mana vein below the area their habitat should be, which you might already be aware of! I don''t want to push you into joining our team but it would be better for either of us if you join us. Alone, you won''t be able to find the Mana vein! Furthermore, this year the small mana vein should resurface! This is something that hadn''t happened for a few years where it had only been partially revealed. I don''t know if you understand the dangers of the Mythic Garden well, but I think if you saw it to a certain extent, you should be able to imagine how the area around a resurfaced mana vein should look like¡­ The surface will be flooded by the strongest beings within the reclusive area. Furthermore, I doubt that we are the only ones who want to gain benefits from the mythic vein too!" When Milan finished his short speech, Jason couldn''t help but mumble in confusion. "There is a mana vein where the Dead-eye centipedes'' habitat is? Why am I so unlucky...." When everyone heard this, they couldn''t help but eye Jason, who was still wearing the pitch-black mask weirdly and their thought was in unison ''How is that unlucky???'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 365 - Teaming Up Jason didn''t know anything about a small mana vein in the Mythic Garden! Not even the handwritten book said anything about it. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t help but think that it was unfortunate, considering that his plan was something else. If the small mana vein resurfaced, which meant that it was exposed to everyone, many strong beasts as Milan had already said, would appear in the surrounding territories! Not only was a large-scale battle likely to occur, but Jason might be unable to enter the closer proximity of the Dead-eye centipedes. That was if they were to survive against the stampede of more powerful beings. He didn''t bother about the looks he received right now, and Jason had entered his own train of thought when Milan approached him. "I don''t know what you mean with unlucky¡­.but if your only goal is to find Dead-eye centipedes, you should join our team. As you might know, our family governs the Mythic Garden for a very long time and we know it better than anyone else. Thus, I''m aware of a few paths below the surface that might allow us to enter the closer range of the small mana vein. This would also include the surrounding area of the Dead-eye centipedes. In the end, the Dead-eye centipedes lived below the surface, so you might as well join us directly, look out for whatever you''re searching for, and reap the benefits of an exposed mana vein with us!" Milan told himself to not coax Jason into joining their team, but somehow he was doing the exact opposite which he had noticed only now. Smiling drily, he couldn''t help but think that something about Jason told him that he might need them. As such, he subconsciously tried to coax the black-masked youth into coming with them. When Jason heard what Milan said, he began to wonder why they needed him, but thinking about the three young men''s combat prowess, it was not really difficult to understand Milan''s reasoning. Even if they were to approach the mana vein from below the surface, there would be strong beasts. There should be fewer but these few beasts should be enough to be considered a major threat! However, Jason was also aware of the fact that a small mana vein might give him a huge opportunity. If the Dead-eye centipedes were suitable as his soulbond to a certain degree, he might as well avert his priority to something else before focusing on searching for a soulbond that suited him perfectly. That way, he would have the dead-eye centipedes as Plan B! Once he was stronger, it might be possible for Artemis or Scorpio to enter the Magical or rather Lique stage which was how Jason decided to call all ranks from now on. There was no need for him to think of everything like mankind was still doing because he was already aware of the devastating truth. While humans had several ranks for every little thing, other races used one stage to name three to four ranks in mankind''s ranking system at once. Jason knew that mankind''s cultivation system would be revamped sooner or later and it was better if he faced reality every single day instead of postponing this thought. With that in mind, Jason thought that entering the Lique stage or rather attaining a combat prowess on par with a Lique stage beast was the most important task he had at hand. That was after he investigated if the Dead-eye centipede''s curse was suitable to decrease his soul world''s amplification! If it was possible to absorb mana from an exposed mana vein for several months, Jason might as well breakthrough several times, to enlarge and strengthen his vessel at the same time. After that, he would have lots of new opportunities to use. Reaching the combat prowess of an average human at the Lowest Lique stage wouldn''t be a dream anymore! There was no need for Jason to hesitate! The only thing he did to reassure that his decision was not wrong was to inspect everyone''s mana core, size, and transmuted mana again. Jason did this to figure out how safe it was to travel with the group of five. While the three young men at the peak-Master rank had been distracted by his arrival before, it didn''t truly determine how strong they were. The fact that they survived facing more than a hundred thunder strikes at a time spoke volumes about their true capabilities! Being distracted might have been caused by a different external factor. After sizing everyone''s mana core up, Jason notices something he didn''t expect. From what he could tell, Milan was younger than Suo by at least one or two years. While Suo was already at the Lowest Lique stage with a few liquefied drops of mana, Milan seemed to have just started liquefying his mana too! There was an infinitesimal drop of mana in his mana core which Jason had been unable to see in the beginning. Only by standing calmly, without moving a single inch could his mana eyes perceive this. As such, their team consisted of three peak-Master ranks, Milan who would enter the Lique stage soon, and one at the lowest Lique stage. This was not the best composition but Jason thought that it was much better than entering the surrounding area with the mana vein around without anyone''s support. After understanding this, Jason accepted Milan''s offer, thinking that it might be better to join someone who knew more about the Mythic Garden than he did. Once everything was decided, they separated to gather all thunderstorm horses. Jason collected some inside his spatial ring before he transferred them to Milan, who said that he could take them. However, instead of taking something that didn''t belong to him, Jason wanted to fight for his own resources. Milan couldn''t help but think that the young man behind the black mask was sincere and genuinely kind which was something hard to find in influential families. Everyone was overly confident in their own strength and behaved like this. It was hard to find someone down-to-earth in big families, even less if one''s parents tried to influence someone in a certain way. After his high mana mastery and soul-awakening had been found out, Milan''s parents tried to coax him into socializing with all kinds of heirs from big families. However, Milan didn''t like to put on a facade which was the reason for him to avoid certain events where he was supposed to meet up with a few particular families. He knew that his own clan was not the best and Milan was also aware of the fact that they had a small slave market on Terebrean, but little did he know about the true, dark side of his clan! Jason, however, was strong and genuine. He didn''t put up a facade, and even if he wore a mask to hide his identity, one could tell that he was powerful with someone strong backing him from the shadows. As such, Milan thought that it might be a great idea to create amity with Jason within the Mythic Garden. His parents told him to make a few ties with influential families and big clans, but that was not what he wanted to do. ''If I were to say that I created amity with one big family...it might be enough...I guess? At least it''s better than nothing!'' With that in mind, Milan, who was previously rather reluctant to say anything, started to speak about all kinds of things with Jason and the rest. This confused the other four members of their team because Milan had yet to talk to them, but they didn''t say anything. Instead, they listened to Jason who was asking many things about the Mythic Garden, while focusing on cursed beasts, their habitats perks, and much more useful information about them. This caused everyone to conclude that the young man behind the black mask was truly one of the freaks who tried to find a suitable cursed beast to form a contract with. It was not something common, but neither extremely uncommon among big families. There were many unfortunate descendants that had to use other means in order to show their true value, even if that meant that they had to sign a contract with a cursed beast! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 366 - Joining The Fray According to Milan Jual''s information, there were lots of cursed beasts that had a weakening curse. This made Jason extremely happy and he couldn''t help but smile brightly. His smile was hidden behind the mask and nobody could see it, otherwise, the others would be able to comprehend his entire plan! Milan had also said that a weakening curse was among the most common ones within the Mythic Garden which was extremely weird for Jason to hear. Not only were there only a few cursed beasts on Canir and the Archipelago but these curses had a wide area of effect too! Under normal circumstances, it was rare to find different beasts with the same curse which was the reason for Jason, Shane, and Dalia to be so anxious about finding a perfect soulbond for Jason. Milan''s information was more detailed than the one written within the book about the Mythic Garden he had obtained not long ago. Nevertheless, he was unable to figure out which of those beasts that harbored a weakening curse was perfectly suited towards him. As long as the curse was directed to his soul world and not his physique or mana core, everything would be perfect. The only issue was that Jason couldn''t tell whether a soul world curse would weaken the fortified soul conjunction he had with his three soulbonds or not. It''s also possible that his affinities'' strength would be drastically reduced through a soul world curse. There were also other traits of his soul world that could be reduced and weakened by a large margin with such a curse. Yet, the most important trait Jason paid attention to was the fortified soul conjunction, which was the connection he had to his soulbonds and the fact that his soulbonds'' inherited their affinity to him! Other than that, Jason didn''t mind his soul worlds'' size deflating or his soul energy replenishing speed decelerating if he were to be cursed. Jason and Milan had a good time talking to each other while the remaining four team members remained quiet. They were unsure whether to join their discussion or not. Both Jason and Milan talked about the Mythic Garden the most, which was something the others had also information about. Their information might be incomparable to Milan''s but Jason seemed to be oblivious to most facts. As such, they thought that it might be better to join their discussion after a while. Thus, nobody realizes that they were already in the adjacent area close to the exposed, small mama vein. Suddenly Jason halted in his tracks when his mana eyes perceived the enormous mana fluctuations stemming from ahead of them. "I don''t think we should go further ahead¡­ Where is the path towards the underground tunnels?" Jason didn''t want to expose everything about him, and he found it unnecessary to show that he had mana eyes right off the bat. Wondering why Jason was suddenly so vigilant, the others looked at their surroundings only to notice that they hadn''t met a single best for over an hour. If that were everything it wouldn''t be much of an issue but the sounds they could hear from further ahead were enough to tell them that Jason was right. They might be unable to see something through the maze of giant tropical trees and bushes but that didn''t mean they couldn''t hear and sense anything. Taking a look at his surrounding, Milan said "We shouldn''t be far from the cavern entrance...However, once we step inside everyone has to be vigilant. It would be the best for all of us if we mark the path we will take too! I was told that there are several thousand tunnels in total. Most of them might be deeper underground but we should still try to take the right tunnel that leads us towards the small mana vein! Otherwise, it''s likely that we get lost!" It was not surprising that there were many tunnels in the cavern entrance they would enter and it would be weirder if there was only one path, leading directly towards the exposed mana vein. As such, the others nodded nervously, not being able to suppress their anxiety. This anxiety stemmed from the fact that they would enter one of the most dangerous areas within the Mythic Garden, at least under the current circumstances as the exposed mana vein would attract lots of beasts. Other than that, taking one or multiple wrong tunnels could be their doom. Ending up lost in a cave with thousands of tunnels was nothing to scoff at. Milan smiled knowingly when he looked at his team only to notice that Jason, who still wore the black mask, was extremely calm. He stood in front of them like a statue, not moving at all when he asked "Can we go now? It would be worse to stay here doing nothing! We are exposed to every beast that might want to enter the underground cave, where a few strong beasts should already be!" Somehow, Jason''s words were enough to calm down the four nervous team members and Milan could tell that there was something unique about the young man behind the black mask. ''His aura is unique and calming¡­.which family could he belong to? I doubt that he belongs to the Melar family...he has a fire affinity after all¡­.The Lazor family?... That''s also unlikely...He is way too nice to hail from them and not arrogant at all¡­.'' While Milan tried to figure out which family, clan, or influential background Jason came from, he began walking towards the direction in which the cavern entrance was situated. They couldn''t find any beasts on their way which made them believe that everyone wanted to receive benefits from the small mana vein. Joining the fray seemed to be ordinary in that case! This was surprising, yet, it shouldn''t be because everyone, whether it was human or beast, tried their utmost efforts to reap the most benefits through magical treasures and high-density mana areas. In the end, nobody wanted to fall short of others, and being weaker than another beast would mean the weaker beast''s death! As such one had to grasp every single opportunity! Beasts were much more desperate than humans to reap benefits because most young prodigies within the Mythic Garden received enough resources from their families to attain a certain threshold before they were requested to earn their own resources. This threshold was reached when the expenditures increased to such a high degree that it would become a burden for the big families to nurture several hundred descendants at once. It didn''t take long for Milan, Jason, and the rest of their team to arrive inside a small valley that had a few gigantic, tropical trees within. While Jason was astonished about the mana currents and color radiating from the large trees, Milan and the others were looking out for the cavern entrance that was hidden from one''s bare eyes. Jason would be able to find the entrance easily, but he was distracted by his surroundings. He didn''t even start looking out for the entrance which was eyed oddly. ''He didn''t come to the Mythic Garden to create some nice memories, right? This is not like a resort where you can do vacations¡­'' The others thought and only Milan stared at Jason more intently, asking himself what Jason was trying to see in his surroundings. After a few minutes, Jason regained his composure and the first thing he did was to look out for his team members that were still searching for the cavern entrance that other young prodigies from the Jual clan had hidden by using several mechanisms. One of the mechanics the youths were searching for was an illusion rune that was supplied from the surrounding mana. However, when Jason took one look at the valley, he was able to tell, almost immediately, where the entrance they were searching for, was situated. As such he approached said location without hesitation. Standing in front of the entrance he touched the flourishing grass, only to notice that he was unable to grasp it. ''As expected, an illusion rune...It''s a complex one too. I guess this rune had been previously inscribed somewhere and pulled off through an inscription transfer device, or maybe rune? Either way, it had to be expensive!'' Staring at the illusion rune with interest, he shouted "I found it!" Attracted by this, the other rushed towards him, only to see Jason playing around with the illusion, projected by the rune. Milan was happy that they finally found the entrance to the underground tunnels which allowed them to join the fray with the other beasts and young prodigies. Rather than that, they were at a small advantage with other young prodigies because they didn''t have to face or avoid as many super-strong beasts as they would have! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 367 - This Idiot Again! Stepping through the illusion, they entered a darkness enshrouded cave in which nobody was able to see anything. Even Jason was unable to see much, only the mana fluctuations around him could be perceived. However, that was not important because Jason had his black flame affinity which could lighten up the surrounding area. Yet, this was not necessary because Milan manifested several bulbs of light around everyone to brighten up their surroundings. Taking a glance around, one could tell that the cave was nothing special. There were no elemental crystals or any kind of ores within the walls. However, that was not surprising given the fact that this cave seemed to be used quite often. One thing that interested Jason was the fact that the large cavern hall they entered first, looked like it was created after a huge fight. This was not shocking, but it interested Jason as it indicated that there might be stronger beasts inside the cave than they initially expected. Reminded of the most terrifying beasts within the Mythic Garden, there were three beasts that could live below the surface. At least he couldn''t think off more. However, it was still possible for more beasts to enter the underground cave with its thousands of tunnels. Jason felt neither uncomfortable nor overly comfortable after he thought about the possibility of multiple strong beasts habituating below the surface because it was obvious. Right now, everything was extremely dangerous and it would be suspicious if they could approach the small mana vein without encountering a single beast. Slowly stepping through the large first cavern hall, Milan found something that caused him to frown which the others also noticed. Approaching him, they found a small piece of fabric and footprints. There was nothing special about the fabric, and the only thing Jason saw through his mana eyes were mana fluctuations. The piece of fabric was made out of expensive, high-grade beast fur that had a fire and wind affinity, while the mana fluctuations Jason perceived were somewhat familiar. They reminded him about a certain person which caused him to blurt out "Isn''t that from the arrogant idiot?" However, immediately after he said these words, Jason looked at Milan, hoping that the latter didn''t hear him, which was, unfortunately, the case. "You know my brother?" Milan asked, confused, not sure where Jason, whom they knew nothing about, could have encountered his brother. Scratching the back of his head, Jason decided to remain honest as he said "I met him in Asgar, which is a small city on Terebrean. That was right before we were teleported to the small island where the rift is situated...Let''s say our encounter was not pleasing and it looked like I was interrupting their banquet." Milan just nodded his head, not saying much about it as he turned around before he announced. "My older brother should be here too, and it is highly likely that he has a large group with him. We are not on good terms but I doubt that Suo will do anything against us¡­ at least not if someone witnesses it!" Jason lifted his eyebrow when he heard how Milan talked about his brother. ''These family feuds are really crazy¡­'' He was unsure whether it had something to do with having a higher talent or being the heir of a clan, but Jason could tell that most big families had many issues. Without saying anything else, Milan continued to walk towards the end of the first cavern hall where they found ten different-sized tunnels. In front of the tunnel that was the most on the left side, they found another piece of fabric from Suo Jual. Yet, instead of taking that tunnel, Milan cursed at his brother before he took the second tunnel from the left side in the center. Meanwhile, Jason marked down every path they took. More than two hours passed and they went through four more tunnels among several choices before they entered a large hall once again. During the last two hours, they hadn''t encountered any beasts and even Jason began to become a little bit nervous. Everyone was wondering if all beasts rushed towards the exposed mana vein, and only after they entered the large hall after two hours did they encounter their first beasts. However, more surprising than seeing that several hundred centipedes fought next to gigantic ants, was the fact that their opponents were more than a hundred humans with their soulbonds. Jason remained calm when he saw this and sized up every mana core he could see within two minutes. He didn''t bother about researching everything more detailed and the most important was how much of a difference the two sides'' combat prowess was. In the beginning, before Jason entered the Mythic Garden, he thought that there would at most be a few prodigies at the Lowest Lique stage by liquefying their mana into drops, but that didn''t seem to be the case. There were a few terrifying prodigies at the Lowest Lique stage, shredding the masses of centipedes and ants as if they were nothing at all. "More than 10 people at the Lique stage?" Jason mumbled, only to notice that Milan looked at him in confusion which caused him to add "I meant Magus rank¡­" Milan nodded his head, thinking that Jason''s clan might be used to different names for each mana core stage which was not uncommon for certain ancient clans. This caused Milan to comprehend that Jason belonged to one of the few ancient clans on Canir. However, from Jason''s words, Milan could also tell that Jason was unaware of the combat prowess and pace most big families increased their mana core rank. "Most prodigies at the Magus rank should be from big families. I think Suo gathered them around him to build a strong combat unit in order to approach the small mana vein without many casualties...I should know a few of them. Maybe we can team up with my brother''s group if we help now?" Jason found this idea reasonable but he doubted that they could help a lot because the fight was almost over. Among the hundreds of centipedes and gigantic ants, there were only a few Lowest Lique stage beasts left. Nevertheless, they approached the large group of fighting prodigies at a fast pace when Jason suddenly noticed something digging through the ground at a shocking speed. "WATCH OUT, BELOW!" From what his mana eyes perceived, the beast, that was most likely a centipede with multiple drops of liquefied mana within its mana core focused on one particular youth. This youth with a large, athletic build had black hair with purple stripes in them. His mana core rank was at the Lowest Lique stage and he was currently manifesting several bolts of lightning to tear apart multiple opponents at once. Thes lightning bolts were extremely powerful and Jason couldn''t help but acknowledge that lightning and thunder affinities, which were slighty different, had the most explosive strength. However, that didn''t change the fact that the youth was currently targeted by the centipede that was on par with a Mid-Magical ranked beast. From the looks of it, humans liked to differentiate a beast''s strength much more than other races because the centipedes'' stage would remain being called Lowest Lique stage until it was at the late Magical or even peak Magical rank. This was one thought in Jason''s mind but he had no time to think about it because he thought that the youth with the lighting affinity would be killed any moment. Yet, before anything could happen, a black-furred panther with a purple horn above its head and thick electric currents enveloping its whole body, jumped out of the fray of centipedes it was about to rip apart. The horned lightning panther had heard Jason''s voice and noticed that something was wrong from below its master''s position. As such it turned around and grasped its master with its maw before it accelerated its speed further. Only a moment later, after the youth was pushed away from the position he stood for a while did the ground burst open, revealing a huge centipede that roared out in wrath, enveloping the whole cavern hall into a thick hue that was filled with all kinds of emotions. "A centipede with an emotion disorder curse?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 368 - Turning A Curse Into A Blessing! Everyone inside the large hall was affected by the emotion disorder curse radiating from the large centipede that almost killed the youth with a lightning affinity. Yet, Jason was the only one who seemed to be unaffected as his eyes shone in a bright golden color, only to be covered by the mask he wore. Averting his gaze to take a look around, Jason tried to see if there was someone else who was unaffected, or with a weaker effect. However, that didn''t seem to be the case and one could see crying youths fighting against the centipedes, whose eyes seemed to be completely dead, and gigantic ants in all kinds of colors. These ants had all types of affinities and didn''t harbor a curse. This was different from the centipedes he saw as they were the Dead-eye centipedes he was looking for. Instead of wasting too much time, Jason decided to intervene in their fight because he wanted to help out. At the same time, he could find out if the Dead-eye centipede''s curse was what he was searching for. Summoning the pseudo-mana grade-2 light longsword, he inserted enough mana to sharpen it. Exerting the weightless steps technique at the perfect mastery, Jason''s speed increased by 60% as he emerged in front of the first Dead-eye centipede that was about to maw at one of the crying prodigies. ''Their willpower is truly the worst'' Jason thought, seeing how many prodigies'' combat prowess decreased drastically after they had been influenced by the emotion disorder curse. Only half of the present prodigies were able to retain most of their combat prowess which was definitely not a lot! Considering that they were the cream of the crop from the prodigies that went inside the Mythic Garden this was ridiculous. ''It''s not like I should complain about it...I don''t even know how potent the curse is..'' He told to himself as he pierced out with his light longsword, using the Devious Swordmaster technique. His attack had a high velocity and was lethal, piercing through the Dead-eye centipede''s dead eye, killing the low Unblemished ranked beast without any resistance. After that he turned around, only to sense that several curses had been directed at him. Jason''s body stiffened for a quarter second before he regained his composure as he jumped back, evading one of the ant''s pincers that were about to cut him in half. ''They''re only at the low Unblemished rank, but their combined attack is lethal...I didn''t expect that the Dead-eye centipedes curse can be overlapped...They should also be able to curse multiple targets, considering that everyone seems to be influenced by several weakening curses!'' While retreating, Jason took a look at the curse he received and what exactly had been cursed several times. Unfortunately, his entire being had been cursed! While his soul world amplification was reduced to around 30%, while his other traits had also been reduced by 10%. Adding several layers at once, Jason noticed that the weakening curse could at most weaken a single individual by slightly less than 30% which was the accumulation of three weakening curses at once. Sighing deeply, Jason couldn''t help but feel sad that the Dead-eye centipedes were not the kind of weakening curse beast he was looking for. Utilizing the black origin flame that had entered his mana core, Jason ignited his lights longsword as he cut the ants that tried to overwhelm him with their number, in two halves. Slashing and stabbing, his sword killed every single foe that approached, him without any hesitation. Around ten minutes passed when Jason''s whole body and mask were littered with blood. Sighing deeply, he manifested a mask made out of the black origin flame around his face before he took off the former pitch-black mask which he stored away. Revealing his golden eyes that were enveloped by an unmoving black flame, Jason looked like a mixture between a holy and devilish being. Slashing at the Mid-unblemished ranked beast in front of him, he suddenly perceived a flash of lightning shooting past his head, piercing through several Ants that were about to manifest fireballs in order to shoot them at him. Turning around, Jason wanted to thank the youth that used the lightning affinity when his eyes widened. Instinctively he manifested several dozen icicles at once as he shot them towards the athletic build youth who saved him only a moment before. He was not even able to exclaim as the icicles shot past the youth, killing a large Dead-eyed centipede that shot out of the ground the moment the black-haired youth with purple stripes was distracted. Only a moment after, the horned lightning panther shot past his master towards the centipede that already died a moment ago before it averted its angle to shoot towards the Lowest Lique stage centipede with multiple drops of mana in its mana core. Most Lique stage soulbonds focused on the emotional disorder curse centipedes because it was the most dangerous threat for everyone around them, while the young prodigies focused on killing the Dead-eye centipedes that lowered their combat prowess by a large margin. Subconsciously Jason and the lightning ability user approached each other and Jason couldn''t help but shout "Let''s team up for a moment, alright?" The youth who shouldn''t be older than 18 years old nodded his head as he said "I''m Isga Maldor, thanks for saving me twice, let''s keep up our cooperation!" Smiling lightly at Jason, he couldn''t help but feel intimated by the golden-eyed youth''s ability to control his black flame. However that was not everything and it seemed like most beasts at the Low-Unblemished rank tried to avoid fighting against him which was uncommon in the Mythic Garden, where every beast tried to kill humans by all means. It was as if humans were the common enemy of every single kind of beast within the Mythic Garden which was also the reason for the Dead-eyed centipedes to team up with the gigantic elemental ants. Jason sized up Isga for the first time as he remembered that the Maldor family was one of the families that had a big clan below them as he saw something wondrous. ''Did he bind a cursed beast?'' He was unsure whether Isga was cursed by too many Dead-eye centipedes or if he harbored a curse himself. However, from what he could tell after having sized up Isga''s mana core, was that he had two soulbonds. One of them was the horned lightning panther while the other one was unknown. His mana core rank was at the Lowest Lique stage and he had just one liquefied drop of mana. Every single new liquefied drop of mana was precious and made a huge difference in one''s combat prowess. That was also why the emotion disorder cursed centipede with multiple drops of liquefied mana was so powerful! It was able to fight against several soulbonds that had only one drop of liquefied mana within them. Only the horned lightning panther with three drops of liquefied mana within its mana core was somewhat of a threat. Adding the advantage of having a lightning ability that could create lightning spears with high speed and damage output, the horned lightning panther was able to change the tides of the battle by supporting the other Lowest Lique stage soulbonds. Less than 20 minutes later the whole battle was over and both Jason and Isga hadn''t sustain any injuries. They were also the only ones that were unaffected or rather almost completely unaffected by the emotion disorder curse. After every beast was defeated, the temporary effect of the weakening curse began to diminish and Jason could breathe freely again. However, he didn''t extinguish the black flame that served as a mask to hide his facial features. Jason only did so because Milan told him that they should team up with Suo''s group. As such it was better to hide his face for now. At least until he figured out if Suo would throw him out of the group once he were to find out who he was. Staring at Isga, whom he teamed up with for a short time, Jason couldn''t help but feel that he found someone who knew how to fight. Maybe his standards were too low because he was only accustomed to the standards of Astrix''s schools'' combat proficiency. This began to change, now that he had witnessed how Isga fought, and both could tell that it was good to fight with the other person next to him. Even if they didn''t know each other for years, they felt that they could rely on each other during a fight which was a rare occurrence. "You haven''t said your name yet! Isga suddenly said and Jason could only smile oddly as he said "Ah sorry, my name is Jason!" However, before he could think anymore, he blurted out what he was curious about "Are you cursed?" Isga''s eyes widened at this question as he saw Jason''s golden eyes that released a faint golden glow ''Are these mana eyes?'' "I''m cursed, yes! I bound a cursed beast and received its curse, but it''s more like a blessing to me!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 369 - Soul World Cores Loophole! Jason just nodded his head, after Isga had revealed that he was cursed without saying anything else ''So he really is cursed?'' However, after thinking about it for a moment, he was still unable to understand how a curse could become a blessing. ''Was he in a similar situation like I am in right now?'' Seeing how confused Jason was, Isga thought that having bound a cursed beast was nothing he held as a secret. Furthermore, his prior constitution was also well known. A little bit of research would be enough to find out his situation As such, he decided to make it a little bit easier for Jason, so that he didn''t have to be so confused "To be honest, my soul-awakening was quite shocking. On one side I have a double-soul awakening with two large souls which is phenomenal but both souls don''t give me a single percentage of my soulbonds'' strength. That means my two soul worlds'' amplification is 0%. As such, my soul awakening was both good and bad at the same time. My father already had the same issue and was deemed useless, however, he made lots of research and it was last year when he told me to enter the Mythic Garden to contract a cursed beast called ''Debilitation Centaur''. It curses one''s soul worlds'' amplification, decreasing it by roughly 10%. However, interesting is the fact that if one reaches a soul world amplification below 0% it stays positive! A soul world amplification can never be below 0%. As such my father told me to give the Debilitation Centaur a try, which was exactly what I did. Instead of decreasing, my soul world amplification rose from 0% to 10% which turned the curse into a blessing! There are some other means one has to pay attention to, but I''m quite fortunate." When he heard this ridiculous story, Jason couldn''t help but think that Isga was trying to fool him. Yet, Jason could see his mana core and the transmutation he received. Everything in Isga was a little bit different than it would normally be which made his story a little bit less suspicious. Nevertheless, even if Isga lied to him, it was not worth being angered about, and instead of labeling his story as stupid, Jason became interested in the Debilitation Centaur''s. "So you said that the Debilitation Centaur''s curse''s only effect is to decrease one''s soul world amplification by 10%...isn''t that weak? Furthermore, how did your father find such a loophole in the soul world core? Isn''t it way too complex?" It was obvious that one would feel weird after hearing such a ridiculous story, but Isga couldn''t help but think that Jason believed him more than other strangers would normally do after they heard his story for the first time. "The Debilitation Centaurs are certainly not the strongest beasts, but they like to roam around in horde''s which makes it more difficult to act against them. However, what is more interesting, that their curse seems to vary for every race. On humans, this weakening curse affects one''s soul world amplification, while it might weaken other beast''s affinities. As for how my father found out about the Debilitation Centaurs...he is a little bit¡­.special and I would say his mindset is even more so...but he is a good father, so I guess it''s fine to have some flaws." Jason just nodded his head, not realizing that he missed something very important when he noticed that Milan approached them asking if he was fine when he saw Isga. Greeting each other friendly, Jason noticed that both of them seemed to be friends as Milan asked Isga "Did all of you team up with Sou in exchange for something special, or was it an unconditional team up in order to approach the exposed mana vein?" Isga smiled slyly as he answered "How could Suo demand something from us in exchange for helping him approaching the small mana vein. He can be glad that our only condition to team up with him was to be able to enter the mana vein too. He guides us and we fight, that''s it!" This answer was enough to overjoy Milan as he said "Alright, with that we don''t have to be afraid about getting rejected and thrown out of the cave from Suo!" "You two are still on bad terms?" Isga asked when he heard what Milan said. Milan just shrugged his should at this question, and Isga decided that this was answer enough for him as he looked at Jason "Don''t you feel uncomfortable with your black flame mask? It''s not like we will do anything against you after seeing your face!" Jason thought about for a moment and shook his head "I don''t feel uncomfortable with that mask and neither do I know what Suo Jual will do if he sees me. I burst his banquet a little bit.." Laughing out loud, Isga slapped on Jason''s shoulder as he said "Let''s go over and clear this problem. If he wants to do anything against you I''ll help you out. You saved me after all, right?" Everyone was collecting the beast corpses as Isga, Milan, Jason and the rest of their group approached Suo, who stood around, observing everything. Seeing his brother, Suo couldn''t help but frown, however, he remained quiet because there was nothing he could say against his appearance inside the underground tunnels. Milan became the direct heir of their family after all...talent reigned supreme immediately after strength, and Milan''s talent was higher than his, which Suo had to accept even if he didn''t want to. However, when he saw Jason who had exintquished the black flame mask around him, Suo couldn''t help but stare daggers at him. ''Does he want to steal my show again?!'' Suo Jual was known for holding grudges which was the reason for Isga to approach Suo when he heard what Jason had done. It was not even a major issue but Suo was also a petty person which one could easily see by looking at his facial expression when he saw that Jason walked next to Isga and Milan. "What is a loser like you doing here? Just go back to Terebrean and leave us, real prodigies alone!!" Suo shouted towards Jason over a distance of more than ten meters. His voice was loud enough to be heard by everyone in the cavern hall, attracting everyone''s attention. Isga began to wonder how much Suo''s pride must have been hurt for him to call Jason out like that. Jason was surrounded by him and Milan after all! Furthermore, from the looks of it did Jason should also belong to a strong clan, like all of them! Otherwise, he wouldn''t have been able to conceal his mana core, have such a high proficiency with the black flame affinity he could control as if he was born with it and Jason would have been unable to control his emotions while the emotion disorder curse had been active. Isga expected Jason to call Suo out too, but to his astonishment, Jason was doing nothing like that. He just said "Hello Suo Jual, what I''m doing here is pretty obvious, right? Trying to find a secure path towards the exposed mana vein! As for going back to Terebrean...no thanks, I would rather stay inside the Mythic Garden for now and look how you real prodigies cope with the dangers of cursed beasts" Because he extinguished the black flame mask already, everyone could see his radiant smile that seemed to mock Suo. Suo wanted to beat up Jason and was about to rush towards him when Isga stepped forward "Think carefully about what you are doing to my friend! He saved my life and you should know that my family takes favors seriously! Furthermore, I doubt that your brother would let you do something to Jason either!" After Isga said so, Milan took a step forward and his entire being radiated confidence. His eyes were cold as he said "We will join your team, I heard that you don''t have a soul contract or agreement with the other big families that joined you. If you don''t want me to join I can also use my right as the direct heir and order you. However, I think that''s not necessary, right? As for Jason, don''t touch him!" Milan hadn''t seen how Jason looked before and if he were, to be honest, Jason''s facial features and the way he acted were worlds apart. His fair skin made him look like a teenager, while his physique and behavior were comparable to that of someone in their 20s. Suo looked at Isga and his younger brother Milan as if they were idiots, but that was not something he could say to his own family''s direct heir and another big family''s talented descendant. Furthermore, there were more than one hundred other prodigies his loud voice attracted. As such he was unable to say anything against Isga and Milan. Gritting his teeth, he could only glare at Jason as he whispered so that only Jason and the others could understand Suo. "Trash doesn''t belong here¡­ be happy that you have someone to back you, otherwise, I would beat you up!!" Jason didn''t know what exactly he had done to Suo, but he was sure that Isga and Milan''s behavior added fuel to his already sour mood. Sighing deeply, Jason didn''t think that he had to back off against Suo, just because he hailed from the Jual clan as he said "You are much older than I am, you know that, right? Give me 3 months and you won''t act like that towards me again!" Circulating mana into his golden eyes, they began to glow faintly as Jason released his killing intent through them. His golden eyes turned cold as he said "Don''t think you are something special, because of your background¡­.There is always something stronger and you are currently just crawling at the bottom, like an ant!" Jason''s killing intent targeted only Suo, whose face was suddenly filled with horror, but Isga and Milan who stood next to Jason were also affected by his weird attack that seemed to come from his eyes and Jason''s killing intent. Nobody was sure whether Jason''s words were meant serious. However, thinking that he was sure to defeat Suo in only three months sounded interesting. However, nobody could have expected that the future wouldn''t be as easy as one would think. Everything about the Mythic Garden and Argos was more complex than one might think, and a storm was slowly approaching everyone. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 370 - Thrown Into The Cold Water Staring at Jason with interest and newfound respect, both Isga and Milan couldn''t help but think that the golden-eyed youth was more mysterious than they initially thought. Only a few seconds later, Jason''s whole behavior changed from his cold and ''ready to start a slaughter'' behavior to someone with a kind smile as he thanked Isga and Milan for their help. He knew that they just fueled Suo''s anger but on the other side they also helped him in not getting thrown out of the underground cave. This was already helpful enough for Jason to think highly of the two young men that were only a few years older than he was. They ignored Suo whose eyes were still filled with confusion and a trace of fear as they turned around to walk towards Isga''s other friends. However, before that, Jason couldn''t help but stare at Isga''s transmuted mana once again as he remembered something he missed out on when he listened to his explanation. Slapping his forehead, Jason suddenly mumbled "Soul amplification curse!!" Isga who heard this lifted his eyebrow and said "What''s wrong about a cursed soul amplification?" He had just told Jason about his soulbond having a soul amplification curse which caused him to feel as if Jason was talking to him. However, after a moment he noticed that Jason was just talking to himself which made him feel embarrassed. Suddenly Jason turned towards Isga as he asked "You said that you contracted the Debilitation Centaur last year inside the Mythic Garden, right? There was also a large horde of them? If it''s possible, can you tell me where the area they''re living in? Their versatile curse sounds interesting!" Isga didn''t expect Jason to be interested in weakening curses when Milan suddenly exclaimed "OH!! You asked me about weakening curses too, didn''t you? We encountered the Dead-eye centipedes only a few moments ago, were they what you were looking for?" Milan was still astonished about Jason''s appearance and he couldn''t even remotely understand why he wore a mask during the whole time. Jason scratched the back of his head and tried to think of what he should answer as he said "Someone in my family has a huge problem with his high soul amplification... It may sound weird but he has to bind a cursed beast that curses only his soul world amplification! If he didn''t have a large soul world with many spots left, we would say that he should just cope with it, but his body is almost breaking apart...." Isga and Milan were astonished to hear this but they didn''t seem to be too shocked about it as Milan said "So it''s like the fairy tale ''Cursed prodigy?''" Jason never heard about this story but Isga seemed to understand what Milan meant "You mean the young prodigy who had a five-star soul-awakening with a high soul amplification. He bound a Guardian ranked beast as his first soulbond if I don''t recall it wrong, right?" When he heard this, Jason understood that they meant the same story that Dalia had told him "It''s similar to that fairy tale, yes. Unfortunately, its reality in that case¡­" Isga and Milan turned serious seeing how Jason''s expression changed "Alright¡­.let''s think about all kinds of cursed beasts that could be suitable for you relative¡­.A Dead-Eye centipede.... is not suitable because it curses everything and the curse is not strong enough for one''s soul amplification to make a big difference¡­" Milan said, pondering what else there could be as Isga said "The Debilitation Centaur should be a good pick, it only curses the soul world amplification, by 10% at that...10% are enough..right?" When he began speaking, Isga was confident that reducing one''s soul amplification by 10% should be more than enough, only to see Jason thinking about his words seriously. It looked like he was not sure whether it was enough or not which caused Isga to ask curiously "How...high is your relative''s soul amplification...if I''m allowed to ask" Isga didn''t know why, but he suddenly felt like he had to ask politely which Jason and Milan noticed with a faint smile. Because it concerned himself and not someone else, which would have been something different, Jason could stay honest. "If we talk about the perfect outcome, around 15%-20% would be the best. Nevertheless, I think 10% would already be more than enough! However, what concerns me is the possibility that the Debilitation Centaurs could have already been annihilated after you contracted one! One year has passed since then and it''s not like I can say for sure that I can catch one...Are there other beasts similar to the Debilitation Centaur?" Milan suddenly shouted out "One-eyed rat!! You can easily catch a one-eyed rat! They''re at the evolved rank but their curse is extremely strong. This curse affects the soul world''s size, the replenishing pace, and soul world amplification, but it''s 20%, which is what you''re searching for! At least if your relative can live with a 20% smaller soul world and 20% slower soul energy replenishing pace!" Isga nodded his head as he added "There is also the petrification serpent, but that''s a beast in a completely different league... Its weakening curse should be the same as the Debilitation Centaurs because it is also weakening others according to their race! However, to contract, even less catch one to take outside the Mythic Garden, you would have to be at the peak Grandmagus rank!" Intently listening to the two young men''s words Jason could felt their sincerity which caused him to smile as he suddenly thought of something which caused him to blurt out. "Even if I were able to catch one of those beasts, will the Jual clan let me go, just like that? During the time I lived in Terebrea, which was not long, I heard many rumors about fabricating evidence to enslave talented youths from lower societies. There are even rumors saying that the Jual clan has firm ties with foreign races. According to these rumors, the Jual clan tried to use these innocent slaves to create super soldiers by using addictive cultivation drugs that are said to increase someone''s mana absorption temporarily! Will they let me get away from the small island where the Mythic Garden rift is situated if I were to bring out a cursed beast?" Jason had a reason to act like this and it was mainly to shock Milan who seemed to be unaware of his clan''s schemings. In the end, he couldn''t be sure if his assumption about the fact that Milan might be oblivious to his clan''s behavior, but in his opinion, it was worth a try! He already witnessed the same with Max Drake and the Drake family. However instead of allowing his family to manipulate and convince Milan that the Jual clan was doing everything for the bigger picture; to help the majority by sacrificing the minority, Jason wanted to drop Milan in the cold water. Exactly as expected, one could see Milan''s shocked expression while Isga seemed to be aware of everything which astonished Jason a little bit as it was somewhat unexpected. "Jason, you don''t have to be afraid of that. The Jual clan might be on the wrong track right now, but Milan will definitely change that once he''ll be the patriarch!" Seeing how confident Isga was about Milan''s attitude allowed Jason to comprehend a lot. Furthermore, Isga had also said that the Jual clan was on the wrong track, which meant that Isga, and most likely his family were also against the Jual clan''s methods! This was something extremely good as Milan''s quiet and somewhat quivering voice was heard by Isga and Jason, who were the only ones left in their group, as the other four left them to take care of the beast corpses. "Does that mean...what Jason said is true???? " Isga, who was more level-headed than Jason expected noticed that Milan''s whole worldview was about to crumble. However, instead of consoling Milan, he could only sigh deeply as he said "I don''t know how you didn''t notice anything about that....where do you think you received your body refining technique from? Isn''t it weird that your family has coincidentally ''found'' a light affinity body refining technique? A pretty strong one at that too! If you still don''t believe me, or ''us'' you can ask Jason where he received his body refining technique from!" ''Oi!! Do you to throw me into the same heap of trash as the Jual clan??'' Jason thought inwardly as he stared at Milan who was visibly shocked. It was obvious that his physique had been refined because it was hardly possible to create such a perfect, unmoving black flame mask without a fortified soul conjunction or fire affinity refined body. Yet, Jason had both, but that was not something anyone knew about. As such Isga assumed Jason to have a refined physique which was also correct! "Well, to be honest, my body refining technique belongs to an extinct race, and our family found it in ancient ruins. However, we have another Terra...eh...blessed graded technique which we received from foreign races...I don''t like it but what can I do? I''m too weak right now to do anything either way!" He had to lie a little bit in order to make Milan believe that the Jual clan was trash as he added "If you can''t accept the truth yet, visit Terebrean without your family or clan...one week... no...one day should be enough before you understand that we didn''t lie to you" One might think that Jason was a little bit too harsh on Milan, who was a kind and gentle young man. However, Jason wanted that Milan maintained this attitude and not that his family started to manipulate him. He was already 17 years old and Jason doubted that his family would wait much longer before guiding him into their family''s ''secrets''. As such it was better for Milan to be aware of everything and it would be even greater if he were to see everything for himself instead of listening to others. Trying to regain his composure, Milan could only desperately say "Ok...I will visit Terebrean soon¡­.I hope you two were just making a joke about my family¡­.I really hope that''s the case¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 371 - Scream From Within! "I''m so sorry for exposing everything just like that¡­ I was just worried about my own position and didn''t think about whom I was talking to...I''m truly sorry!" Jason was not really sorry but he gave his best to make it seem like this. While Milan just mumbled that it was better that way, Isga stared into Jason''s eyes that didn''t show any signs of being sorry. This told Isga that Jason was slyer than he imagined ''I didn''t know that Milan was unaware of his family''s business...however, it looked like Jason was aware of that¡­.weird¡­ Who is that guy?'' However, Isga didn''t think that it was bad for Milan to get to know that his family was currently taking the wrong path. Not only was the Jual clan allying with foreign races, in order to receive certain cultivation and body refining manuals, which is something almost all big families and clans were doing, but in exchange, the foreign races get their hands on innocent people. Isga was not a hypocrite and he knew that the Meldor family, to which he belonged, was also colluding with foreign races. But it was different than the Jual clan who seemed to have obtained the recipe to create an addictive cultivation drug from foreign races too. The Meldor family gave up on true criminals in exchange for all kinds of manuals. Some may say that this is not better than handing out innocent people, but Isga had a different opinion there. Furthermore, what made Isga wonder was the fact that Milan was unaware of everything. Neither did he know about fabricated evidence which is used to enslave innocent and in most cases, strong, young talents from the lower society layer nor did he know about the addictive cultivation drug. From the looks of it, he was also not aware of the fact that his body refining technique belonged to exactly these foreign races. Maybe he wanted to avoid every responsibility as well as possible but that was not something Milan could do for his entire life. He had to face everything head-on or perish! As such, Isga said with a calm and soothing voice "Don''t take it too much to your heart Milan! It''s not like you are responsible for your clan''s behavior. In the end, every big family has to collude with the foreign races in order to prevent being destroyed by other big clans. If one clan doesn''t have a pact with foreign races, all other clans would prey on it as the manuals provided by foreign races are superior to everything mankind can acquire! Even the manuals within ancient ruins should be worse than those we obtain from living foreign races. They''re alive, at least and this has a reason, which should be the superior techniques!" When Jason heard what Isga was saying, he couldn''t help but frown, thinking that it was never fine to exchange someone of his own race to receive manuals from the foreign races. On the other side, he had to acknowledge that it would be somewhat difficult for other clans to fight against someone with a refined physique head-on. The difference would only widen the stronger one became. Jason felt that he was already stronger than most of those so-called prodigies that entered the Mythic Garden, solely because of his great physique! It was only refined up to the 4th Expert rank, but he was already stronger than most 7th Expert ranks solely from his physique if one were to disregard the baptisms and amplifications he received! However, there was still a large difference between Isga''s clan, who colluded with foreign races a few times to receive a few manuals before severing contacts as well as possible, which was what Jason imagined them to do, compared to the Jual clan who seemed to have become too greedy to receive more resources. It was likely that they tried to become the overlords of Canir and reign mankind. Jason couldn''t help but think that the Jual clan might be as problematic as the Drake family if not worse, which was something he already expected, yet didn''t want to accept. It was frustrating to see something like this and Jason began to wonder if there was at least one big clan that treated everyone fairly. In his opinion, treating prodigies better than others was not bad because prodigies had to protect the weak, untalented humans in the future. However, that also had its limitations! Milan felt slightly better after he heard Isga''s words, even if it was hard to digest what his family had been doing for the last few years. ''What has our clan turned into?'' He began to wonder as they arrived in front of Isga''s other friends that ventured into the Mythic garden. Some of them knew Milan and became acquainted with him a long time ago during multiple occasions where the big families and clans made events to celebrate all kinds of things. Sometimes, there were also small tournaments to determine who the strongest prodigy in their generation was. As such, they approached Milan and talked to him which distracted the frustrated youth. This lifted his sour mood and both Isga and Jason couldn''t help but think that Milan was strong enough to overcome this obstacle. "I know what you did there...It might have been harsh but I guess it was better for Milan to understand everything sooner rather than too late!" Isga suddenly said which caused Jason to flinch before he nodded his head. "I can partially understand why big families tend to think that they need the foreign races to advance, but this way of thinking won''t work forever. Right now we are not a threat to these races, but once we become too strong, they become too greedy or need something, they will stop toying with us, which is what they''re doing by trading their manuals with the big families¡­ We should be prepared for the worst and stay independent¡­.that is at least what I think, and I hope that your clan didn''t establish a soul contract with the foreign races, saying that they will support each other in war or something like owing a favor to the foreign race. The latter would be bad as it meant that the foreign races could order your clan to do everything¡­. However, that is not my business and it shouldn''t concern me¡­. Unfortunately, I already saw too much in the last few months and it''s more shocking than expected¡­" Jason ended his short speech, leaving Isga with a confused expression behind ''We have a soul contract with the foreign races, but it doesn''t state something like waging war against other humans¡­.WAIT..F*ck!'' Isga realized that Jason''s words made sense as he recalled their soul contract''s exact words [In the event of an ambush from other foreign races, the ''Thudra'' race will help out the Meldor clan under the condition that the combined forces don''t halt before the other party is completely annihilated!] In the beginning, everyone of their clan was overjoyed when they signed the soul contract with such a beneficial clause, but Jason''s words allowed Isga to think everything more skeptical as he mumbled. "Don''t halt before the other party is completely annihilated¡­.What if one individual of the foreign race attacks us with their human allies¡­?" He thought that their clan had always been one of the smartest, but thinking about that one clause was already devastating for Isga. They never accepted anything else, only manuals in exchange for the worst of the worst criminals, and they rejected many soul contracts, only to be led by greed as they received many benefits from said soul contracts which they signed, thinking that they could exploit the Thudra race. Both Jason and Isga needed some time for themselves to think about everything. While Isga tried to think of a solution to get his clan out of the frustrating situation, Jason''s thoughts didn''t linger on the big families, or the prodigies he could see all around him. Rather than that, he decided to focus on his main task for now. Thinking of finding, testing, and contracting one of the cursed beasts Isga and Milan named! There were three beasts whose curse suited his demands, which was much more than he expected. Only two among these three were feasible to catch and contract, but Jason couldn''t help but feel that the third beast might have something for him. He was unsure why he thought like that, but everything within him screamed towards him trying to tell him that he shouldn''t contract the Debilitation Centaur or one-eyed rat! Instead, Jason should focus on the petrification serpent, according to his gut feeling that told him so. Yet, this sounded ridiculous to him as he could barely estimate how strong that beast was! Something like that never happened to him before and it was as if his entire being was speaking towards him, which was creepy. The closest occurrence to what he sensed right now was the time his soul world found the black origin flame which his mana eyes couldn''t perceive. This event was exactly what caused Jason to think that there might be something he overlooked. ''It''s not like I''m in a hurry right now...If I absorb lots of mana within the mana vein for a few months, I can either try to catch a Debilitation Centaur or One-eyed rat. That is if I can''t find something else!'' Jason was suddenly dragged out of his train of thoughts when he heard Suo, who had already calmed down, shouting that they would venture deeper into the cave. Apparently, it wouldn''t take too long for them to arrive nearby the mana vein as long as they took the correct path towards one of the frustrated halls that were connected to the mana vein. There was nobody who was not confident in their strength, but everyone respected Suo''s choice that was more level-headed than Jason estimated it to be. There were too many strong beasts within the Mythic Garden and there was a reason for such a high death rate! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 372 - Exposed From the looks of it, Suo seemed to be able to think calmer than Jason expected. That was after their small incident that occurred barely a few minutes prior. Jason was unsure if he had to fight against Suo in three months because that was just something he said without any meaning. However, if Suo challenged him in three months, he wouldn''t back off. Instead, Jason was confident to reach a combat prowess comparable to that of a peak-Master rank, without the need to let a soulbond occupy his mana core! That way he would be weaker than Suo, but it was not like he relied on his common combat prowess for anything either way. In the worst case, Jason was confident that he would be able to fight Suo head-on by using his fortified soul conjunction and black origin flame. As such, he was unbothered by Suo''s anger towards him. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t help but think that Suo might be smarter than he estimated him to be! ''Was he just fooling around before? Or is that his personality?... Like having a serious attitude but being hot-tempered?'' He didn''t know about that and decided to not mind it for now as he followed Isga and Milan, both astonished about the information Jason hinted at. Meanwhile, the light affinity meerkat and horned lightning panther, that were both beasts at the Lowest Lique state, couldn''t help but eye their masters weirdly, not knowing what to do as their gaze turned towards Jason. They stared at him as if they wanted to say ''You caused this mess, fix it!'' Sighing deeply, Jason decided that it was best if he were to talk to them in order to distract them from thinking too much about their clans. "I didn''t ask that yet, but how old are both of you?" This was a simple question but it was enough to drag Isga and Milan out of their trains of thought. "I''m 18 years old and Milan is still 17 years old," Isga said before returning the same question "You two must have a great mana aptitude, considering that you''ve already liquefied a drop of mana and Milan will also enter the Liq-.... Magus rank at or below the age of 18. That''s great!" He didn''t answer Isga''s question because he was suddenly reminded about Malia, who was younger than both Milan and Isga. However, she wanted to enter the Lique stage before this year was over. Jason knew that this was unlikely for her to achieve this year, even more so after he had heard about what happened to Astrix. He still didn''t know what happened to any of the Fler''s and if they were safe¡­ However, he could feel that they were still alive, which was the most important thing for now! Isga and Milan couldn''t help but feel a little bit proud about their mana aptitude which caused them to brag for a moment as Isga asked Jason about his age once again. Not actively listening to his new friend, he just answered "I''ll turn 15 in a few months." While he continued thinking about Greg, Malia, and the Fler parents, Milan suddenly exclaimed. "You...are WHAT?!" Drawn out of his train of thoughts, he began to wonder what was going on when he recalled what he subconsciously said. ''My stupid mouth!'' He cursed inwardly before thinking of a lie as he said "I mean 17¡­." Unfortunately, his try to fix the mess he created was ignored because Isga, who stared at him intently, detected his lie. "You have yet to turn¡­.15? How?" Jason was glad that there was nobody else around them because he dragged them further away when he wanted to distract them from thinking about their clan. Nevertheless, the fact that he exposed himself so easily was embarrassing and if his masters were to find out what kind of pushover he was, they would laugh at him, at least Shane. "Let''s say that I''m younger than both of you...and that my mana aptitude is especially high. Further--" Before Jason was able to finish his sentence, Isga suddenly intervened "You don''t have a relative with an extremely high soul world amplification, right? That''s you! Otherwise, why would someone who is not even 15-years-old try to enter the Mythic Garden, instead of waiting two more years? With your strength, it would be stupid to enter the Mythic Garden. However, in two years you would be much stronger¡­.The only reason for your family, clan, or whatever you have as backing to allow you to enter the Mythic Garden right now, would be to find a cursed soulbond! It''s similar to my case last year with the Debilitation Centaur¡­.just a little bit more shocking!" ''Why is Isga so quick-witted?'' Jason lamented before he nodded his head. There was no need to lie right now and instead, he could clear the mess he created for good. ''At least they''re distracted now¡­.'' Clearing his throat Jason said "It''s true that I don''t have a relative with a high soul world amplification, and it''s also correct that my soul world amplification is high¡­ I hope that nobody will tell anyone about my age because it might complicate everything. It''s not that I have to hide my age but it''s better that way if you two can understand that¡­ I can''t wait to bind a weakening cursed soulbond because my body is already on the brink of tearing apart and I can barely restrain it because my soulbonds'' don''t enter the L-...Magical rank!" For a few days, he was uncomfortable with calling beasts at the Lowest Lique stage, Magical ranked beasts, while the same applied for humans. It felt weird, but it was not as important as the situation he was currently inside. "it''s true that you wouldn''t be taken seriously even though your talent should be extremely high and superior to most prodigies here¡­ but having a combat prowess comparable to that of a peak-Master, if now newly advanced Magical ranked beats while being younger than 15¡­ That''s truly shocking¡­ Either way, I have no reason to tell anyone about it " Isga said and Milan nodded his head before adding "I won''t tell anyone about it too¡­ that might be out of context but how high is your soul amplification that you already need to curse it at the age of 15??" Without a reason to lie to both Isga and Milan anymore, Jason decided that it was fine to let the others into one of his secrets. "My soul world amplification is roughly 33%. My mana core rank is at the Expert rank, which is not extremely unique at my age, but I have two peak-Unblemished ranked soulbonds!" "33%!!" They already expected his soul world amplification to be high, but it was much more than they expected. Yet, Isga was able to retain calmer than Milan as he mumbled "That''s why the Debilitation Centaur''s curse is too weak¡­" Jason nodded his head, feeling like he made some friends, even though they only got to know each other for a short period. This was because both Isga and Milan seemed genuine when they talked and reacted which was also the reason he told them about his secret. It might have been an accident that he revealed his age, but it was definitely better to expose the rest before turning into a mysterious young man that attracted everyone''s curiosity more! Not knowing something is sometimes worse than knowing something shocking! While the three continued to talk with each other about all kinds of things, their main topic remained Jason''s high soul world amplification. Isga and Milan weren''t even jealous about Jason''s soul world amplification because they heard the fairy tale about the ''Cursed prodigy'' way too often. Rather than feeling jealous, they pitied Jason to a certain extent. He lived with the constant threat of tearing apart which was mentally taxing. It might be advantageous at some point in the future, but for that to happen, several decades had to pass until Jason''s soul world reached its limit. For that to happen it had to be filled with soulbonds that reached their racial limit, without a single space left for another soulbond. However, Isga and Milan could tell that Jason had a major reason to look out for a strong soul world amplification curse which was probably his soul world''s size and the possible affinities he should be able to bind. Following Suo and his small group of close subordinates that walked around as if they were Mythic Garden''s overlords, Isga and Milan tried their best to think of multiple more possible cursed soulbonds for Jason after he told them that his soul world was larger than they might expect. Jason only revealed this after they asked and both Isga and Milan felt that Jason''s sincerity to let them into their secret, despite not knowing each other for a long time was worth helping him to their best extent. Thankful for their help, Jason told himself that he had to remember this favor to repay it once they needed him too! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 373 - Potentialless Walking through several dozen cavern tunnels for multiple hours, they encountered several more beast groups. Fortunately, none of them was strong enough against the force of more than one hundred prodigies with their soulbonds. Most soulbonds were already at the Lowest Lique stage which was not surprising, given the fact that these prodigies hailed from strong families. As such it was not a difficult task to catch a beast at the lowest Lique stage beast or abduct a cub. However, what astonished Jason was the fact that most prodigies didn''t fight with their soulbond! Rather than that, they forced their soulbonds to utilized their affinity without thinking that it was required to let them fight in close combat. After Jason sized up everyone''s mana core in a detailed manner, he concluded that most prodigies had a combat prowess close to that of a Lowest Lique stage or had crossed this combat prowess already. Jason noticed this unbothered and he was only attracted by some affinities he had never seen before. There was even someone with a blue wind affinity which he found extremely interesting. Unfortunately, Jason was unable to approach this person because she was surrounded by several underlings and pursuers. Seeing that, he couldn''t help but stay away from her even if the young woman''s elemental affinity was interesting. During the fights against multiple beast groups, Jason found out that Milan and Isga were a well-matched team. This told him that they had already fought together, probably multiple times. Adding Jason, who was good at adjusting himself into their team, the three massacred their way through the opponents. This allowed the other prodigies who were also holding themselves greatly against their opponent, to break through. There were only a few powerful beasts that required the help of several Lowest Liques stage soulbonds and humans who worked together. However, what made everyone doubt was the fact that there has yet to be a Low Lique stage beast, or also called late Magical ranked beast. Rather than that, there were only a few Mid-Magical ranked beasts that appeared and none of them harbored a curse. Yet, the closer the group of prodigies came to their final destination, the more noises they could hear! These noises echoed through the whole cavern complex which told everyone that there were powerful beasts fighting against each other. In the beginning, these noises didn''t cause much ruckus within the group of prodigies and they were able to remain calm until they deciphered the sounds of three particular beasts. "F*ck!" Milan suddenly said as his face paled. Jason was wondering what shocked Milan so much and averting his gaze he saw that everyone''s face was as white as paper. His mana eyes were fully utilized and he knew what was going on far ahead, several hundred meters in front of them. A few minutes earlier he had injected more mana into his mana eyes which allowed him to see mana fluctuations and details in the distance better. As such, Jason was fully aware of what happened nearby the mana vein whose dense mana currents distracted his mana eyes from the beasts'' mana fluctuations in the surrounding area. However, he was still able to decipher all beasts before anyone else, thus he not astonished when Isga suddenly said "I understand why the Boneflame Centipede and maybe even somehow why the petrification serpent is below the surface, but what the hell is the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf doing here???" Nobody was able to answer Isga''s question because everyone was wondering about the same thing as their expression soured. Only Jason was able to remain calm What he currently saw was favorable in multiple ways. First, he figured out that they were close to the mana vein which was definitely a good sign. On the other side, there were so many beasts Jason could see and all of them were trying to approach the mana vein to receive more benefits. This allowed him to see the second advantageous fact. Not only were the Boneflame Centipede, the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf, and the petrification serpent fighting against each other with all their might. But there were also several Crimson-death Hell Spiders and other strong cursed Low Lique stage beasts. Thus, Jason could say without any doubt that there was a huge massacre happening. Furthermore, the number of dead bodies littering the ground was already enormous. However, there were still other things Jason noticed as his eyes squinted for a moment before he smiled lightly. He stepped towards the end of the cavern hall, before entering the tunnel next to the one that would have brought them to the mana vein without waiting for Suo or anyone else to say anything as he saw something attracting his attention. The only problem was that he couldn''t see it perfectly, and that was after he injected more mana into his mana eyes! Unfortunately, Isga and Milan noticed his departure and regained their composure before they rushed towards Jason to hold him back. "What the hell are you doing??" Jason had already forgotten that he was inside the cave with Isga, Milan, and more than one hundred more prodigies. Scratching the back of his head he plainly said "Don''t you hear that the noises are mostly filled with pain and not as vigorously as they should be? If my guess is not wrong, there should be many strong beasts fighting against each other and I doubt that the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf or any other beast will be strong enough to fight against several hundreds of thousands of Mid-Magical ranked beasts¡­" Jason was aware that he exposed a lot of information right now, but he didn''t say the most important. Not only was every beast he perceived with his mana eyes, injured, which included the three most terrifying beasts but the potential indication colors enveloping the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf, Boneflame Centipede and petrification serpent were extremely weird! The Demonic Three-eyed Wolf had a dark blue color enveloping it, while the Boneflame Centipede was enveloped by the thick purple color. This told Jason that they were an extremely strong beast with the potential to reach the Guardian or even Lord rank which was comparable to the Mid and Late Lique stage. However, more confusing was why nobody even thought about encountering a Guardian ranked beast. Everyone was worried about the most terrifying cursed, peak-Magical ranked beasts, but that was it! Ignoring Isga and Milan who were thinking about his words, Jason asked "Why are there no Guardian ranked beasts inside the Mythic Garden?" Distracted from thinking about what Jason said before, Milan subconsciously answered "There had never been a beast above the peak-Magical ranked inside the Mythic Garden. Maybe it''s a restriction?" When Jason heard this, he was confused because he was reminded about the green planet he saw just a few weeks before, when he had stepped through the Mythic Garden rift. ''Isn''t the Mythic Garden a whole planet? How can the whole planet be restricted...?'' He began to wonder, confused about what Milan said. Jason was unsure whether his assumption was right or wrong but it was clear that Milan didn''t think that there had been a single Guardian-ranked beast before. As such, his mana eyes were either wrong or there was something wrong with the Mythic Garden. ''Does it not only restrict who steps through the rift but also how strong one can become inside a certain area, which is the Mythic Garden itself? That''s...good, I guess?'' Jason was glad that it seemed to be impossible to become stronger than a certain rank because he wouldn''t have to face stronger opponents than the three beasts at the most terrifying beast ranking. Furthermore, all of them were at the Low Lique stage which meant that Jason had a chance to fight them in a year or so. However, if he were to consider his growth, the Mythic Garden might expel him for being too strong. That was if he would be able to enter it a year from now. This was not his plan, but nobody could say what would happen in the future. Nevertheless, the most shocking was neither the information that there was an advancement restriction for beasts at the Low-Lique stage nor the fact that the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf had the potential to reach the late Lique stage or also called Lord stage. Rather, it was the petrification serpent with two particular facts! He saw the petrification serpent''s strong man fluctuations which he had only seen two times in his whole life. Not only was Jason completely unable to see its true color, but there was also the fact that he could see several different mana fluctuations within the petrification serpent''s body. They were still alive and close to each other, the size of one''s fist. ''The petrification serpent is about to lay its eggs!!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 374 - Just Like Artemis! When Jason perceived the two dozen living beings within the petrification serpent''s body, he began to wonder if the serpent ate some beasts alive. However, after Jason saw that the fist-sized beasts'' mana fluctuations were similar to the petrification serpent and that he couldn''t perceive the most eggs'' color that enveloped them, he couldn''t help but feel shocked. ''They don''t have a color, enveloping them, just like Artemis and the black origin flame!'' While the black origin flame didn''t have any potential to start with, Jason was unable to tell what Artemis'' potential was as the color enveloping her was something between every color and colorless. It was as if there were some kinds of fluctuations around her, trying to tell him something, but that was it. Seeing the same ''color'' around the petrification serpent and some of her future offspring, Jason couldn''t help but feel excited as he began to walk through the tunnel, ignoring Isga and Milan behind him. Meanwhile, Suo was able to regain his composure and he had started to convince a few prodigies to approach the mana vein, even though it would be extremely dangerous. Motivated by the benefits they could obtain, Suo and his group went inside a different tunnel as Jason picked "Dumb Fool" Suo just said, loud enough for everyone to hear. However, Jason who heard Suo too didn''t bother about the Jual clan''s descendant, thinking that he was way too annoying and immature. Instead, he inserted more mana into his eyes, thinking that it might be helpful to perceive more from the huge battlefield that occurred around the exposed mana vein. The path he took might have been the wrong one to enter the cavern hall that led him towards the mana vein, but Jason could tell that this was the dumbest thing one could do right now. At least if one was not suicidal! As such, he took a tunnel that led him to the outer branches of the exposed mana vein were only a few, weak beasts tried to gain benefits. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t even think about absorbing mana right now, because there were too many thoughts rummaging in his head. ''Why is the petrification serpent enveloped by the same mysterious color and why is the same color only around a few of its eggs? Is that some kind of rare occurrence? But then, what does the mysterious color mean? If what I assumed to be was not wrong it would mean having an unlimited potential...but...wait? Milan said that the Mythic Garden restricts one''s mana core advancement to a certain extent. This was to prevent every living being inside the Mythic Garden to reach the Guardian rank or rather the state between Low and Mid Lique stage.'' Pondering about all kinds of things, Jason was unsure whether he should be happy or not to have figured out something so precious because his desire to bind the petrification serpent intensified. ''If and only if my assumption is correct with the color indicating a beast to have an unlimited potential, the petrification serpent should be the most suitable soulbond for me...that is if its curse is exactly like Isga has told me.'' Jason knew that there could always be some mistakes and exaggerated facts when one told someone else a story. From what Jason understood was Isga never directly targeted by the petrification serpent''s weakening curse. As such he could only tell what others said. As such, Jason tried to figure out what exactly the petrification serpent''s curse was which led him to turn Suo and his group into the first guinea pigs for his experiment. From the mana fluctuations and the enlarged mana core size, Jason could easily tell whether Suo and the other members of his group would receive a soul weakening curse or an entire weakening once they were targeted by the petrification serpent. Isga and Milan followed Jason, worried about his behavior as they saw him staring through the wall with a radiant smile on his face. This caused Milan to look at Jason with a weird expression when Isga began to comprehend that Jason''s easier words didn''t hail from what Jason saw but from what his mana eyes perceived. ''He really does have mana eyes...Mana eyes, a great mana attitude, and a terrifyingly strong soul-awakening¡­.Who...or what are you?'' Since he encountered Jason, Isga couldn''t help but become more and more curious about the golden-eyed youth. It was already rare for Isga to be curious about someone, but Jason was completely out of the ordinary! He not only made Isga curious but he was also drawn in by Jason''s weird aura which caused him to rub his eyes as he saw his bright shining, golden eyes. ''He is still a human¡­.right?'' Isga began to wonder suddenly, without any reason to doubt that Jason was a human. While Milan tried to make sense out of Jason''s behavior, Isga began to wonder what Jason was exactly looking at. It could have either been the mana vein, the beasts fighting nearby the mana vein, or seeing Suo run into his inevitable death. Suddenly, Milan made a step forward as he wanted to approach Jason to figure out if there was something where his new friend was looking at when he kicked a small stone. This distracted Jason lightly as he averted his gaze from the petrification serpent that was exactly like Artemis was. He couldn''t help but feel enlightened and happy, even though his mood plummet at the frustrating thought that he was unable to form a soulbond contract with the petrification serpent. "How often do cursed magical ranked beasts lay eggs?" Jason suddenly asked which caused Milan to halt in his tracks. Looking at Jason in confusion, both Isga and Milan didn''t know what they should say to that. It took them a while before Isga was finally able to say something after he thought about a possible solution "Probably once every few decades? Maybe only once every century? However, if you add the Mythic Garden''s weird restriction into account, it might be even less than that! ''So it''s extremely rare¡­.But what about the Crimson-death Hell Spider then? Isn''t that too much of a coincidence?'' Jason began to wonder, only for Milan to add "If you''re talking about the Mythic Garden, there are certain periods in which most beasts bear offsprings¡­.it should be...in like a dozen years or so? Maybe even longer than that...During that period, even more, prodigies want to enter the Mythic garden! Everyone wants to try catching the offspring of one of the most terrifying beasts...Just imagine...binding one of the strongest blessed beings inside the Mythic Garden...or in your case the petrification serpent!" Jason couldn''t help but smile at this thought as he said "Yeah...how lucky that would be, right?" After he received the answer he wanted, Jason turned back towards the direction where the mana vein and terrifying battlefield was as he stared at the petrification serpent. ''Even if you bear your offsprings, I won''t be able to get one...right?'' Jason thought, as he witnessed how the petrification serpent used both curses it harbored to not only weaken its opponents but also curse them with its petrification curse. This curse paralyzed Lowest Lique stage beasts to a certain degree and turned beasts below the Lowest Lique stage into stone statues. From what his mana eyes perceived, the petrification serpent''s curse was not what he was searching for! This disappointed Jason for a short moment, even if he was awestruck by its combat prowess until he recalled that Isga told him that the petrification serpent''s weakening curse was like the Debilitation Centaur''s curse, variating with the different races it cursed. Suddenly, when he remembered that, Jason couldn''t help but think ''Even if humans receive a soul amplification curse...what will happen to me? Am I counted as a human, a mutant, or a Celestia???'' This was something Jason didn''t think about in the beginning because he forgot that he was a halfling and only a human to 50%. He was only able to calm down when he saw Suo and his followers entering the cavern hall, where they almost immediately encountered the petrification serpent close to them. Staring into each other''s eyes, Suo''s whole soul world amplification vanished, as the Petrification released its weakening curse before its gold-brownish eyes seemed to envelop Suo''s entire being. He was already at the Lowest Lique stage but he couldn''t help but feel that his entire being was paralyzed. When Jason saw this through the wall, his worries about the fact that he was not an entire human vanished as he mumbled "It really has a soul world amplification curse...an extremely strong one at that¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 375 - Abandoned Staring through the wall, Jason wanted to watch the whole event that occurred within the underground hall next to the mana vein as the tension seemed to increase with every moment passing. Suo''s soul world amplification had been completely nullified through the petrification serpent''s weakening curse! Adding the petrification curse the petrification serpent utilized to target Suo, his body was also unable to move a single inch. This sensation remained only for a short while because the petrification serpent averted its gaze to the other young prodigies with which it did the exact same. In the end, the weakening curse would be in effect for several hours while the petrification curse would either wear off after a few seconds or remain permanent. The latter would only happen if one was too weak, unable to prevent being petrified by the petrification curse. In that case, the curse would remain forever! Targeting multiple several hundred targets at once with its weakening curse, the petrification serpent had to use up a large margin of its stored mana. Adding the mana consumption while fighting against other, strong and cursed beasts in addition to the fact that it had to protect the eggs within her body, by not letting itself be hit at or injured at certain areas, the petrification serpent was slowly becoming weaker. The shallow injuries on its body increased and Jason could tell that it was at a huge disadvantage! Only its petrification curse was preventing any beast from approaching it too close as it didn''t consume much mana. One could compare the petrification curse to a mutation to the petrification serpent''s eyes. It was not exactly that but the petrification serpent''s petrification curse was similar to Jason''s mana eyes at a certain point. His mana eyes had a passive effect to see the mana flow, consistently. Furthermore, there were multiple effects Jason could use with his mana eyes like the [abyss effect] and the ability to perceive different colors enveloping animate and inanimate things, showing their potential and quality. Through these multiple abilities, Jason was able to comprehend that his unique mana eyes were similar to the petrification curse that cursed the petrification serpent''s eyes. There was also a weakened curse that was passively released, while the real weakening curse had to be actively activated. When Jason saw this he became even more interested in the petrification serpent, only to shake his head when he saw how fast, strong, and ferocious it was. The petrification serpent had already sustained severe injuries next to the shallow wounds, but it was still able to fight against two of the most terrifying ranked beasts in the Mythic Garden and a few additional Lowest Lique stage beasts. They were fighting against each other, but from Jason''s perspective, it looked like most beasts were targeting the petrification serpent. This was not really surprising because the petrification serpent''s weakening curse was extremely strong and it was even able to take on the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf''s destructive curse with a blink of its eyes. It was as if the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf''s destructive curse was nothing against the petrification serpent that began to wreak havoc once it noticed that its situation began to worsen. Suo and his team were still standing between the tunnel they had emerged from a few minutes before and the cavern hall, not knowing what they should do against such terrifying beasts. It was not that there were only three terrifying beasts, but also several Crimson-death Hell spiders and more than three hundred other cursed Lowest Lique stage beasts with a few dozen liquefied mana drops. At that sight, one couldn''t help but be scared! The surrounding area of the small, exposed mana vein was just too terrifying and Jason was sure that he wouldn''t approach the exposed mana vein directly. After more than ten minutes passed, the petrification serpent''s combat prowess had drastically decreased, and it was most likely scared that the eggs within it might be damaged if it were to continue fighting, that it started to retreat. Escaping through a tunnel, the petrification serpent didn''t even notice that it slithered past Suo and his team which it had cursed only a few minutes prior. Meanwhile, Suo and the others'' stiffened as the petrification serpent used the tunnel they had come from. Suddenly someone among Suo''s group mumbled "Isn''t it going to encounter the others we left in the cavern hall?" Suo couldn''t help but nod his head, but rather than caring about the others he thought that their own situation was not favorable and his eyes began to quiver in fear. When the petrification serpent began to flee, the beasts that attacked it started to pursue it, only to halt when the petrification serpent had brushed past Suo and the others. Escaping from the cavern hall everyone wanted to remain to absorb the thick and pure mana radiating from the exposed mana vein, the other beasts couldn''t help but feel that they had to defeat the uninjured, energetic newly arrived opponents, first. As such, several dozen beasts roared out, showing their desire to attack Suo and his team as they charged towards them. Everyone''s legs trembled for a moment and Suo was the first to regain his composure. However, instead of helping the others, he turned towards the cavern tunnel which the petrification serpent had used as he started to run into it, abandoning his other team members. When Jason saw this he couldn''t help but frown, but if he were to be honest, it was not like this reaction was surprising as it came from Suo, whom he found to be extremely sly. While the trembling prodigies tried to regain their composure in order to run away from several dozen Low Lique stage beasts, Jason only saw how they were torn apart which caused him to sigh deeply. Averting his gaze towards the hall where the remaining young prodigies were still inside, he couldn''t help but hope that the petrification serpent would continue fleeing instead of wasting its time by killing everyone in the cavern hall it was about to emerge in. The young prodigies in said cavern hall heard that something was wrong and unsheathed their weapons. However, when they saw the petrification serpent that had sustained hundreds of light and a few severe injuries, the young prodigies couldn''t help but shiver for a moment. Everyone''s soul world amplification vanished in the blink of an eye as the petrification serpent brushed past them. It ignored their whole existence because it thought that multiple cursed Low and Lowest ranked Lique stage beasts were pursuing it. As such, every second was precious. When Jason saw this he sighed in relief before he turned around to Isga and Milan who were looking in the direction of the entrance hall they left a few minutes ago. "Nothing happened there. The petrification serpent fled from the battlefield because there were too many strong beasts targeting it. However, it didn''t injure a single prodigy cause it was too occupied with its own business" Smiling lightly, Jason could see that Isga and Milan were confused before they sighed in relief. Once he had said this, Jason decided that it was time for him to look out for a path towards the outer branches of the exposed mana vein. He could already tell that the huge and terrifying battlefield with Lowest and Low Lique stage beasts, that cursed each other with all kinds of horrific curses, was about to come to an end. Every beast inside the surrounding area of the exposed mana vein was injured and Jason began to wonder if the remaining young prodigies will be able to take care of everything when he saw that multiple more, new, uninjured beasts arrived. "That''s bad fortune," He mumbled when he saw this. However, even worse was that the young prodigies who heard all kinds of painful roars and screamed echoing through the cavern hall were sure of the fact that it was finally their time to shine. Rushing through the cavern tunnel from which Suo emerged, everything turned into a chaotic situation filled with fear, greed as Jason lost interest in the others. "Will you two come with me to look out for a reclusive and secure area where we can absorb mana from one branch of the exposed mana vein??" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 376 - Small Mana Vein Isga and Milan didn''t expect Jason to be so confident about finding a branch of the exposed mana vein, in a reclusive area at that. While Milan was not sure where Jason got this confidence from, Isga began to wonder if Jason saw something through his mana eyes. However, even if Jason was not sure where to go in order to find the place he was looking for, Milan knew this place, from several maps he had studied, like his own home. As such both agreed to Jason''s proposal before they set off, not minding what exactly was going on behind them. Everyone was on their own and it was not their responsibility to take care of the descendants of the other families! Milan tried to recall where they had to head to in order to find a place similar to that Jason described. As such he was in his own train of thoughts while following Jason, who knew where they had to go. All of this was thanks to his mana eyes and a large amount of mana he inserted into them. When Milan saw what paths Jason took to walk through the cavern halls and tunnels as if he had been living inside the cave, he couldn''t help but be shocked. Isga thought that Milan''s pride might be hurt by that thought that explaining the situation might not be the worst, considering that Jason was too much of an unknown factor. He was extremely mysterious and Isga was curious about which family he hailed from. "His eyes don''t seem like common mana eyes¡­ I think they are pretty strong ones too!" When Milan heard this he could barely refrain from exclaiming loudly as Jason entered the next cavern tunnel. This explained a lot to Milan, and he understood that Jason didn''t even have to think if they were going down the right path or not because he knew it! Nevertheless, more than an hour passed had before the group of three emerged in a cavern hall that had the site of a Basketball court. There were only two tunnels leading towards this particular cavern hall and the one they took was one of them. Satisfied about the cavern hall he entered, Jason turned around to Isga and Milan who looked at him with a faint smile. They already noticed that the mana density and purity was much higher inside the basketball court-sized hall they entered as Milan said "I don''t know this place...is this hall new or why was it not drawn into the maps I''ve studied?" Milan was curious about why he didn''t know anything about this place, but in the end, it didn''t really matter to their current situation. More importantly, was that Jason''s mana eyes lead them to a branch of the exposed mana vein and that there was not a single beast around! Meanwhile, the young prodigies and Suo had regained their composure after they calmed down from the chaotic situation they had encountered after the petrification serpent escaped from the exposed mana vein and the big cavern hall which they entered now. Several thousand corpses littered the ground and there was not a single Low Lique stage beast left which astonished but also overjoyed the young prodigies. They would have to give up on the mana vein if there were to be powerful beasts left behind. However, their number of Low Liquest stage beast corpses was zero which told everyone that not a single of the most terrifying ranked beasts within the Mythic Garden died. The prodigies, led by their greed, started to collect the beast carcasses and only half an hour had passed before the whole cave was cleansed from corpses. After that, they wanted to approach the mana vein as close as possible only to notice that there were multiple beasts right next to the mana vein, absorbing its mana. In the beginning, these beasts, that reaped the benefits for arriving as the last on the battlefield, didn''t bother about the young prodigies. At least until they approached them which caused the beasts to open their eyes as they roared out and charged at the prodigies that summoned their soulbonds. However, before they were even able to clash with each other, several beasts had emerged from the surrounding tunnels which caused both the beasts near to the mana vein and young prodigies around, to stiffen. ''We are f*cked!'' Was what everyone had in their mind as one of the descendants from a larger family suddenly said "Let''s not think about the mana vein anymore! We have to survive in order to become stronger! Let''s retreat first¡­.." Everyone was reluctant to retreat but the sheer number of beasts that arrived in the gigantic cavern hall, which was lightened by the mana vein, was enough to indicate their inevitable death if they were to force their way towards the mana vein. In the end, they couldn''t be sure that there wouldn''t be other beasts that wanted to reap benefits from the exposed mana vein which would obstruct them in absorbing mana too. As such, they decided to charge through a certain tunnel without many beasts before caring about how to leave the underground maze they entered. "Suo...you guide us again!" A bulky young man ordered, not caring about the fact that Suo belonged to the Jual clan anymore. After they saw their comrades'' corpses and how Suo acted after he encountered them, the young prodigies that remained in the prior hall before, couldn''t help but despise him. It was obvious what had happened and knowing that Suo abandoned his team members in order to save his own skin was something they couldn''t accept. At least not from a descendant of a big family and the leader of their group at that! Suo, however, couldn''t care less what others thought about him because he was already glad to have survived the onslaught of beasts that caused his prior team''s death. As such, he accepted the bulky youth''s behavior for the moment. Time would tell who would live longer and whose hypocrisy would kill one, sooner or later! Jason knew that something like that would happen to the other prodigies if they were to think that the exposed mana vein belonged to them alone. There were several tens of thousands of beasts that wanted to reap benefits from the exposed mana vein, only to die! It was only obvious that the stronger beasts wanted to be as close as possible to the mana vein, which would mean that they had to find a way to the underground. The exposed mana vein was called like this as the short period where a mana vein would release its excessive mana would be exposed to the surrounding. This would influence several hundred kilometers around the mana vein which means that being close to the mana vein was enough to reap benefits. These benefits would evidently be fewer the further one''s distance to the mana vein was. As such, Jason, Isga, and Milan could have remained at the cavern entrance, absorbing mana while reaping benefits from the mana vein as the mana there was already denser and purer than further away. However, mankind was greedy and Jason was no exception. Nevertheless, he had his greed under control which was the reason for him to use both his greed and mana eyes to find the most suitable position to absorb mana! As desired, Jason found a reclusive and secure cavern hall right next to a branch of the mana vein which was similar to being right next to the mana vein itself. Jason''s passive mana absorption accelerated by several times and he couldn''t help but think that absorbing mana right here would be perfect for him to break through mana ranks. "If I stay here for several months...I might be able to liquefy my first drop of mana!" Milan exclaimed in joy while Isga nodded his head adding "I might be able to create my second drop of mana...maybe even a third if I can enter a fully focused state...that''s great!" Both were happy and Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly as he summoned both Artemis and Scorpio. They were still looking like they were beaten up harshly which soured Jason''s great mood as he took several perfectly purified potions out of his spatial ring which he infused into his soulbonds'' mouth. When Isga and Milan saw how Jason''s soulbonds looked like, they couldn''t help but frown, but seeing how Jason treated them, their frown turned to a faint smile "You already encountered a few problems inside the Mythic Garden before you met us, right?" Milan asked as he offered Jason a few higher-graded potions Declining the offer by telling Milan that his potions were perfectly purified he added "There were a few problems...but I think my soulbonds became stronger through this hardship¡­" Averting his gaze from this soulbonds to Isga and Milan he said "We should absorb mana for several months, right? Our soulbonds should be better guards than we are...they can absorb mana and pay attention to the surroundings at the same time. That''s fine with you two, right?" Everyone nodded their head and their plan was set in stone. With two Lowest Lique stages and two peak-Unblemished ranked beasts, there shouldn''t occur many issues within the reclusive cave hall they were currently inside. As such, everyone began to make preparations to start absorbing mana for several months... __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 377 - Advancement Almost 4 months later the basketball court-sized cavern hall was filled with thick mana currents, permeating the air with dense and purified mana. Suddenly, Jason, Isga, and their soulbonds were flabbergasted by Milan''s overjoyed shout. "I did it! YEAHH!" Barely being able to prevent disrupting the mana flow within their bodies in order to deter injuring their mana veins or mana core, Jason and Isga took a while to stop absorbing mana as they turned to Milan "Congratulations! You''re only 17-years old and you''ve already liquefied your first drop of mana!" Jason said and Isga added "It took you a while but once you know how to liquefy mana drops, it will become much easier! Maybe you can become like Uncle Till Greil and enter the Lord stage in your 50s!" When Jason heard this, he almost blurted out ''You know Till?'', but fortunately he was able to refrain himself from doing so. According to his estimation, the Mythic Garden rift would remain open for slightly more than 40 days, which meant that they absorbed mana for less than four months. This was perfect and allowed Jason to search for his perfect soulbond for good. He felt refreshed and much more powerful than months before while the same applied to everyone within the cavern hall. It was sad that they had to leave now, but everyone had things to take care of within the Mythic Garden. While Milan entered the Lowest Lique stage by liquefying his first drop of mana, Isga was able to create his third drop of mana. He was able to absorb enough mana to start liquefying the fourth drop of mana and started the liquefaction process thanks to the enormous amount of mana within the branch of the mana vein that was exposed to them. It would take some time but Isga was confident that it would take a few weeks at most! Since he had liquefied his third drop of mana, he figured out that the liquefication process was much easier than he had initially thought. As such his cultivation progress would accelerate! Both Milan and Isga''s soulbonds received equal benefits, allowing them to liquefy two drops of mana. Jason and his soulbonds were completely contrary to the others. Artemis and Scorpio had stored lots of mana, allowing them to reach the highest degree of the peak-Unblemished rank. This meant that not only their mana core was filled to the brim with dense and pure mana but that their mana channels were also flooded with mana. While this was about to hurt Scorpio, Artemis used the excessive mana to refine her blood that was already infused with mana. Thanks to that, her strength increased even though her mana core rank didn''t change. Jason was worried about Scorpio for some time, but after he saw that he was fine, Jason could take care of his own matters in relief. In the end, Jason''s strength seemed to have changed the most. While Isga didn''t have a body refining technique, Milan had one. However, it looked like Milan focused on liquefying his first drop of mana which was exactly what he should do. Yet, Jason did not only absorbed mana but also refined his physique with the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique. Once in a while, he practiced the Heaven''s Hell technique too. It took him several hours, but somehow, it calmed him down. As such it was not bad for him to change his routine once in a while. Thanks to that his soul energy reached 30,000 units which Jason wanted to leave for his next soulbond. Nevertheless, he thought that having 20,000 vacant soul energy units would be enough. As all three of his soulbonds required around 2000 soul energy units each, he had 4,000 soul energy units left to use which he initially wanted to give the black origin flame. Shocking enough, Jason noticed that something substantially about the black origin flame changed. Under normal circumstances allowing a beast to annex one soul energy unit would allow a soul-bound beast to take one soul energy unit. Yet, the black origin flame had to annex four energy units to ''possess'' one soul energy unit. When Jason noticed this weird behavior which he couldn''t understand in the beginning, and he had to look at it in a detailed manner. What he didn''t expect to see was that the black origin flame burned three soul energy units with its flame to nurture itself in order to be able to take hold of one more soul energy unit. This was something he never heard about, however, unfortunately, there was nothing he could change about it. It was not like he was able to force Solaris, which was how he named the black origin flame after it had begun to complain that Artemis and Scorpio had names and it didn''t, to not burn the soul energy it annexed. In the end, it had to burn three soul energy units in order to annex one more. This means to increase Solaris''s soul energy by 1,000 units it had to burn 3,000 units. As such Jason had to give the black origin flame, Solaris 4,0000 soul energy units to increase its power output. When Jason noticed this, he was a little bit frustrated about the outcome because his origin flame seemed to burn and destroy much more soul energy than it could obtain. However, in order to nurture the black origin flame which would also increase the black origin flame''s strength, Jason had to accept the deal. Annexing 4,000 soul energy units, burning 3,000 of them, and taking over the remaining 1,000 soul energy units, the black origin flame, Solaris was now Jason''s strongest soulbond with 3,002 soul energy units. Its affinity with all combined abilities was strong enough to face foes with strong mana based attacks. During these last months, Jason''s mana core broke into the 1st Master rank which was a lot faster than he expected. This allowed him to reach a mana core size of a 3rd Master rank without any amplification as the two baptisms he had received from Solaris were very useful. Adding his amplification''s Jason''s mana core reached the size of an average 9th Master while his physique was even stronger. Thanks to the fact that he was able to refine his physique inside the cavern hall that was filled with dense and pure mana, his body refining progress accelerated by a large margin too! Everyone was slowly packing up their stuff and Jason began to wonder how high his limit was currently. ''If Artemis or Scorpio enters my mana core I should be comparable to a newly advanced Lowest Lique stage¡­. Adding my three affinities and the refined physique...I should be strong enough to fight normal Lowest Lique stage beasts too...I think'' Jason''s advancement was extremely fast and he was able to reach the goal of attaining the combat prowess of a Lowest Lique stage at the end of the month without any issues. His prior goal to liquefy his mana before the end of the year might have been a little bit too much but it was always good to be ambitious. Furthermore, Jason was confident that his progress would accelerate by a large margin as soon as contracted a soul amplifying cursed beast! After everyone was done packing, Milan, Isga and Jason left the cavern hall with the light meerkat, horned lightning panther, and Scorpio following behind. Artemis didn''t want to walk through the narrow tunnels, thus she entered Jason''s soul world without hesitation. "What are your plans after we''re out of the cave?" Jason asked both Isga and Milan, who had to think about it for a moment. "I''ll probably search for a few treasures, and suitable blessed beasts" Isga said without a real goal left. He was not as desperate as Jason to find a suitable soulbond. He just wanted to adventure through the Mythic Garden a little bit while reaping a few benefits. Meanwhile, Milan''s thought seemed to be a little bit more in-depth as he answered "Initially, my family told me to overshadow my brother and make me look like I''m more capable than him...but after what you two told me, I don''t know if that''s something I want to do¡­.Maybe I search for a few other big families and ask them about how the Jual clan really acts. Currently, It looks like everyone wants me not to know anything, but I might be able to change that...at least to a certain degree¡­ Even if I''m unable to find out more...I want to thank both of you for being honest...I still hope, somehow, that you two lied to me, but I see no reason for you to do so¡­" Jason couldn''t help but smile apologetically as comforted him by slapping on his shoulders "Let''s get out of the cave first and then you can find out more about your family." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 378 - Why Is That Thing Here? It took them almost half a day to leave the underground, maze-like cave and everyone was glad when they were able to breathe fresh air again. On their way outside, Jason noticed that there were still fighting beasts in the surrounding area of the exposed mana vein. This told him that his plan to look for a branch of the mana vein had been the most reliable because they didn''t encounter a single group of beasts. Thanks to that, everyone was able to focus on becoming stronger without being distracted. The moment they had stepped through the illusion rune, a pure white magic circle manifested on the ground as Artemis emerged out of it. Soaring into the air Jason was able to sense her joy which caused him to smile. "Where are you going first?" Isga asked, curious about which cursed beast Jason wanted to search for first. This was something Jason was pondering about too. On one side he was sure that the Debilitation Centaur''s curse, which would decrease his soul world''s amplification by 10, was too weak. However, on the other hand, there was also the point that Isga said that the Debilitation Centaur''s curse depended on the targeted being''s race. This was the same curse the petrification serpent had, only that the Debilitation Centaur''s curse should be considered a lower-ranked curse. From what Jason perceived when he saw that the petrification serpent weakened Suo and his team with its curse it was impossible to be a simple 10% decrease in one''s soul amplification! It might be a race occurrence with normal soul awakenings but Jason doubted that the prodigies around Suo had all a soul world amplification of 10%. This was if one were to consider that the average of a soul world amplification was between 5% to 10%. In that case, one might think that not many would have a soul world amplification above 10% but the average for prodigies was slightly different because their soul-awakening was on average better than that of others. With parents from big families that had high-graded Soul-awakenings, descendants were more likely to receive strong soul worlds too! As such the normal soul world amplification for prodigies was likely to be between 8% to 15% Most prodigies with a soul world amplification of 15% had either a four-star soul-awakening or maybe even 4.5 stars. Jason hadn''t heard of anyone with a five-star soul-awakening yet, except the one from the fairy tale Dalia had told him. He had yet to meet someone with such a high soul-weakening ranking by himself! However, without a strong mana aptitude, even the best soul-awakening would end up disastrous. Jason had a superior mana aptitude but even he had problems thanks to his soul awakening. His vessel was not enlarging and being reinforced as fast as he could bind a new soulbond! This was problematic and the reason for this was either that his soul world amplification was too high or that his mana absorption was not on par with his soul awakening! Jason didn''t think that the latter was the case because he hailed from a foreign race. Furthermore, the Celestia race seemed to be feared by other foreign races too! As such his mana absorption rate should be much higher than it currently was. If he were to be able to absorb more mana than nature was releasing, he would still not be enough to be on par with foreign races. Argos was a just new planet that had awoken its mana, and it was still weak, slowly becoming stronger with each year passing. This told Jason that the other existing planets had much more mana than humans had, which made everything just worse. His train of thought was focused on escaping Argos and he was already thinking of the big picture. This caused him to wonder why his mana absorption was so weak. If someone else were to hear Jason''s thoughts, they would either try to beat him up or cry in the corner of a room. However, Jason''s thinking was already in a completely different league than others''. He might be weaker than the majority of clans and families, but his advancement speed was faster than theirs! As long as he had everything under control and his soul world amplification was adjusted, Jason was confident to become stronger at a rapid pace. The only thing he required was time. Right now he had enough of that, but who could reassure him that this wouldn''t change? Nobody! This meant that Jason had to become stronger as fast as possible. There might be times when he had some peace but to maintain this state one would have to work hard! After he told Isga and Milan that he would go to the flatlands inside the Mythic Garden, where the Debilitation Centaurs'' habitat was, they bid each other farewell before they took their own paths towards their designated goal. Only five minutes after they separated, Jason had ordered Artemis and Scorpio to enter his soul world. While Artemis entered his mana core, he took out the pitch-black mask which he had already cleaned. Putting on the mask, he manifested Artemis'' wings on his back before she ascended in the air. His altitude remained low but flying through the air was much faster than running, even more so after he and Artemis strengthened each other. Artemis was only at the peak Unblemished rank and Jason''s mana core size was at the peak-Master rank, however, once Artemis entered his mana core, they strengthened each other. This strengthened Artemis'' wings allowing Jason with Artemis'' wings manifested to be slightly faster than Artemis could fly. At least if their weight had been the same as Artemis'' which was unfortunately not the case. Artemis was still lighter than Jason, even in her enlarged form. This meant that the speed plummeted slightly. Nevertheless, Jason was still much faster compared to running through the forest with the weightless steps technique exerted. Furthermore, there were no beasts he could see all around him. Every single time his mana eyes perceived something he changed his altitude which was enough to avoid other beasts that were unable to sense his minuscule mana fluctuations. Being able to conceal his mana core was one of the most efficient techniques mankind created and Jason was still wondering if mankind made their own techniques by adjusting foreign race techniques. At least that was what he imagined after thinking about the mind splitting and concealment technique. They were so powerful, yet, created by mankind which was something one would never expect from a race living on a newly mana awakened planet. While Jason was suspicious about these two techniques, the Heaven''s Hell technique was something else. Other races couldn''t even bind beasts which was exactly what made mankind such a valuable resource for those foreign races. As such, mankind couldn''t have adjusted a foreign race''s technique to increase one''s soul energy because something like that shouldn''t exist in the first place! While he was deep in thoughts, Jason had already left the reclusive area of the Mythic Garden. He could simply fly in-between two small hills, passing devilish mountain goats that targeted him with their curse before manifesting several hundred icicles which they shot at him. Their curse was not strong, but he was still baffled as he used a large margin of mana to erect a shield out of black flames half a meter behind him. This protected him from the majority of attacks, and the other icicles didn''t hit him. After this incident had occured he continued to fly away, ignoring the devilish mountain goats which one couldn''t see within the thick snow layers. Jason continued to fly for a few more hours before the curse he was targeted with had worn off. He was not even sure what kind of curse the devilish mountain goats harbored, and the only reason Jason could think about was that his mana eyes used up a small margin of mana to negate the curse he received. This told Jason that it was most likely a curse about one''s mind or emotions. These were the only options he could tell because he didn''t know anything else which would trigger his mana eye''s passive negating ability. When he had entered the flatlands, he found many flying beasts in the sky which forced him to descend to the ground. From the looks of it, he would be more secure on the ground. At least as long as he was inside the flatlands. Searching for the Debilitation Centaurs'' shouldn''t be too difficult because Isga told him that they were a large horde of them. As such he started to look out for them with expectations filling his mind. It was only half an hour later that he saw a large horde of horses that had a humanoid upper body rushing towards him. This made him almost exclaim in joy until he saw something he never expected to see in the flatlands. "Why the hell is that thing here??" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 379 - Instable Curse The Demonic Three-eyed Wolf seemed to pursue and hunt the horde of Debilitation Centaurs! This astonished Jason a lot because he didn''t expect to see the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf here. ''Was it forced to retreat that far from the reclusive area??'' It was not like he flew through the whole Mythic Garden rift, but the distance he crossed was definitely not short. Even more so if one were to add the fact that his flying speed was faster than what most Lowest Lique stage beasts could cross in the same amount of time if they were to utilize their highest speed. There were many hindrances spanning over several dozen kilometers which he crossed by flying over or passing them, and now he should face the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf? However, after observing how much wrath the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf had accumulated during the last few months he didn''t see it, Jason could tell that something had happened. Either that or the fight against the petrification serpent was so devastating to the Demonic Three-eyed wolf''s pride that it had started to hate everything that had similarities to it. This would include its curses and the Debilitation Centaurs harbored a curse that was similar if not the same as the petrification serpent harbored! Jason felt bitter when he saw how the Debilitation Centaurs were torn apart because he wanted to test to see how strong their curse was on him, a halfling of the human and Celestia race. Unfortunately, it didn''t seem like he would get the chance to do that as the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf''s wrath seemed to be endless. From the looks of it, it would only stop after the whole race was annihilated. Retreating several dozen meters, Jason knew that he was unable to approach the Demonic Three-eyed wolf and Debilitation Centaurs as he had heard too many shocking stories about the Demonic Three-eyed wolf''s destruction curse. Furthermore, he had also seen it himself inside the underground cave when he was nearby the exposed mana vein. It may have been by utilizing his mana eyes but it was more than enough for Jason to understand the destruction curse''s lethality. Right now the Demonic Three-eyed wolf refrained from using the curse as it was most likely saving up on mana if a stronger beast were to appear. Instead, it used its superior physical strength and darkness affinity to wreak havoc in the Debilitation Centaurs'' horde. Meanwhile, the Debilitation Centaurs had begun to split up, trying to escape in every direction except behind them as death awaited them there! Splitting up was the best choice they could have done and Jason had to acknowledge that. Unfortunately was only the fact that the majority of Debilitation Centaurs escaped in his direction! Because the Debilitation Centaurs had split up, the Demonic Three-eyed wolf targeted a specific direction too. Unsurprisingly it took the direction where most preys were headed to. Jason couldn''t help but exclaim "SH*T!" before he turned around to exert the weightless steps technique, accelerating his speed by 60%. Fortunately, the Debilitation Centaurs were only at the Low- and Mid- Unblemished rank which made it possible for Jason to increase the distance between them, while the Demonic Three-Eyed wolf could easily catch up to every single Debilitation Centaur. In no time, they were slaughtered and torn apart, when Jason felt a curse targeting him. Goosebumps covered his whole body, thinking that it might be the Demonic Three-Eyed wolf''s destruction curse, only to notice that his speed had declined. After that, it accelerated again only to decelerate further. Jason found that it was weird and turning around, he witnessed how the last Debilitation Centaur that runs in his direction was torn apart. However, only a moment later, his mana eyes were able to perceive how the Centaur''s curse had been utilized. This told Jason that he was currently targeted by the Centaur''s race-individual weakening curse which gave him the opportunity to see if and how much his soul world amplification had been decreased. Nevertheless, surviving was his highest priority right now, yet, Jason couldn''t help but size up his own body for a short moment. Less than two seconds had passed, and a faint smile emerged on his face when he noticed that him being a Celestia didn''t seem to matter much. The race-specific curse he was targeted with decreased his soul world amplification by 3-10%. This was extremely good but also weird at the same time because neither Isga nor Milan told him anything about an inconstant decline in one''s soul world amplification while being cursed. As such, after trying to comprehend what was going on, Jason decided that the curse he had been targeted and the fact that his soul world was unique might be the cause for the soul world amplification weakening curse to move between 3-10%. Another reason was that Jason belonged to two races at once which could have created a misconception for the curse. It might be possible that the curse would weaken him by 3% if he were to be from the Celestia race, while the same applied for the human race with a weakening of the human race''s soul world amplification by 10%. But that was not something he could easily figure out and Jason couldn''t help but wonder if the Debilitation Centaurs'' curse was reliable for him, or if he should search for other cursed beasts to form a soulbond contract with. However, more important for Jason, was the fact that a Low Lique stage beast with an extremely strong curse was several hundred meters behind him! He could only hope that the Demonic Three-eyed wolf''s wrath towards the Debilitation Centaurs was large enough to disregard his own existence. Otherwise, he wouldn''t be able to escape his inevitable death. He didn''t even dare to look back or breathe too loud as he rushed straight ahead, feeling as if he was enveloped by death itself. Seconds¡­.a minute¡­.five minutes had passed and the Demonic Three-Eyed Wolf had not reached him yet! This gave Jason the courage to take a look behind where he saw nothing except the wide flatlands. Sighing in relief, he felt as if he won the lottery. However, this didn''t mean that he could slow down! The Demonic Three-eyed wolf could still follow his scent which led Jason to manifest Artemis'' wings before he ascended into the air. Even if it was dangerous to remain in the air on the flatlands Jason was sure that there has yet to be an existence like the Demonic Three-eyed wolf in the flatlands'' sky! More than half an hour passed and Jason didn''t encounter a single beast which was mainly thanks to his mana eyes. Nevertheless, he felt weird because the number of beasts he encountered was fewer than he expected. ''Were there a few beasts like the Demonic Three-eyed wolf, wreaking havoc, or were all beasts trying to approach the exposed mana vein, which caused them to migrate to the adjacent areas?.... Or is it something else?'' Jason tried to get the hand of the situation he might have to face when his mana eyes perceived something that made him ponder for a moment. There was a group of 10 young men and women surrounding a golden horned lion that had barely advanced to the Lowest Lique stage. From the looks of it, the group of humans was much stronger than the golden-horned lion, but instead of killing it, more than 10 soulbonds tried their utmost efforts to inflict small injuries, targeting the lion''s vital spots. ''Are they trying to catch the golden-horned lion? Ohh? Is that a blessing?!'' Seeing how the golden-horned lion''s horn glowed up, which allowed it to release more mana for a short interval allowed Jason to understand that the golden-horned lion was a blessed beast and that the group of humans was trying to catch it. After the lion was caught, it was likely to be forced in forming a soulbond contract. Under normal circumstances, Jason wouldn''t bother about the young men and women, but he wanted to know what happened in the flatlands. There were just too few beasts, and only a few Lowest Lique stage beasts he saw through his mana eyes. As such he descended before he retraced Artemis'' wings as he ran towards the group of young men and women. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 380 - Tension Jason was aware that it wouldn''t be best if he were to approach the small group of young prodigies right now because the tension around them was enormous. They had to pay attention to the golden-horned lion after all! Not only were they supposed to prevent injuring it too seriously but it was also important that it wasn''t allowed to injure their own soulbonds or comrades! Other than that, the surrounding area was dangerous and stronger beasts could arrive at any moment too. Yet, until now, nothing happened and everything went according to their plan. But who could reassure them that it would stay like this? Even after Jason was aware of all of that, he did not bother to hide his existence and the fact that he approached them. He was still wearing the pitch-black mask and his mana core was concealed which were alarming factors to the person in charge of paying attention to the surroundings. The young man In charge of that task issued a warning to their group whose tension intensified visibly. However, before anyone in their group could do something, Jason had already halted in his tracks. He was around 100 meters away from the group of young prodigies and would wait until they finished their current hunt before doing anything else. This worsened the group''s tension further as they assumed Jason was going to attack them once they were off-guard or finished their hunt, which would allow the unknown, mysterious masked prodigy which they assumed Jason to be, to attack them. Their group might be large but their combat prowess was not the highest if one were to compare them to real prodigies from big clans. In the end, their family owed the Jual clan a big favor to give them the opportunity to enter the Mythic Garden. They entered the Mythic Garden overconfident only to notice that their strength was shallow which was devastating. From their dream to contract Mid-Magical ranked beasts with strong blessings, the only beast they caught was the golden-horned lion they were currently surrounding. After more than four months, this was the first and probably also the last blessed beast they were to catch. It was embarrassing, considering that they were a group of 10 young prodigies that wanted to get one blessed beast for each of them, but there was nothing they could do about it. This was also one reason which caused their tension to increase by a large margin! They wanted to increase their talents and combat prowess during their whole six-month-long journey through the Mythic Garden, which was even more devastating than they had been told. Jason''s strength was unknown to them and their vigilance was the cause for the entire catching process to be postponed by more than two hours. The whole process looked like a charade to Jason but on the other side, he was able to perceive the small group''s tension. ''Aren''t they too much? They have several beasts that entered the Lowest Lique stage not long ago! Shouldn''t they be more confident? How could I be able to fight against more than 20 opponents with a higher mana core rank than me..at once at that? Did they forget the rift''s age restriction?'' Considering that someone above the age of 20 was unable to venture through the rift, there shouldn''t be such tension because of a single individual. Under normal circumstances, someone at this age should have 2 soulbonds at most! Adding the fact that beasts at a certain cultivation rank are prevented from being inside the Mythic Garden, they shouldn''t be too afraid. The strongest beast Jason could have was a Low Lique stage beast. However, even he hadn''t seen such a soulbond from any of the young prodigies he fought next to. Maybe some descendants of influential clans were hiding their soulbonds but that was not something Jason could say for sure! Because Jason was aware of the group''s tension, he decided to wait until one of them contracted the golden-horned lion that laid unconscious and tied up next to them. From the beginning, he couldn''t help but expect a large discussion to break out when the group caught the golden-horned lion to decide who the blessed beast should belong to. However, on the contrary, Jason witnessed how everyone stepped back to give a young woman some space. Approaching the unconscious golden-horned lion she led a tread of her soul towards her hand which she had cut. Around 20 minutes later the golden-horned lion was bound by the young woman as a magic circle appeared below it. The lion entered the woman''s soul world which was the signal Jason waited for. Walking towards the group that was still tensed up, Jason couldn''t help but suppress laughing out. It was fortunate that he wore a mask, otherwise, he would enrage the group of young prodigies. Nevertheless, in order to prevent a misunderstanding or accident to occur, Jason said out loud "Don''t bother too much about me, I just wanted to ask one or two questions, if that''s fine with all of you! The golden-horned lion is not a beast I''m interested in either!" The tension substituted by a small margin after the small group heard what Jason said. They were unsure whether his words were trustworthy or not. However, that was not something that concerned Jason when one young man in their group stepped forward to speak for his group. "Hello, I apologize if this sounds rude but we wouldn''t feel comfortable if you were to come closer. You are a stranger and we have seen many betrayals during the last few months. We will listen to your questions but I hope that you can understand our cautiousness!" Jason nodded his head, fully understanding why the young men and women were so vigilant against him. He was a stranger with a concealed mana core and wore a mask to disguise his identity too. As such he just asked straightforwardly "I ventured through the flatlands and noticed that there were only a few beasts. According to my information, the flatlands should be the most populated area within the Mythic Garden. Do any of you know why that is the case?" ''You waited several hours to ask us that?'' Was what everyone in the small group of young men and women asked themselves. Yet, they didn''t voice out their question as to the young man who spoke to Jason earlier "We are not sure about the reason for that, but it should have had something to do with the amount of mana in the adjacent areas that is slowly but consistently increasing. Furthermore, we heard lots of loud sounds of different beasts during the last few days...That means there could be a few stronger beasts slaughtering a few groups of beasts!" Nodding his head, Jason already estimated that to be the case before he asked the second question "Ok, thanks. How about one-eyed rats? Did you guys encounter such beasts in the surrounding areas?" This question caused the young prodigies to tense up as the young man hesitantly said "Yeah...we encountered them...but they were pursued by the Demonic Three-eyed wolf not long ago...Its destructive curse killed three friends of ours¡­" "The Demonic Three-eyed Wolf hunted the one-eyed rats too?" Jason mumbled subconsciously which caused the young man to unintentionally blurt out as he had a bad premonition "What does that mean...too?" Lifting his head to look at the young man, Jason couldn''t help but sigh as he said "I encountered the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf today...probably a few hours before I found you guys...It hunted the Debilitation Centaur horde" "Doesn''t that mean it is close to us???" Everyone exclaimed loudly as thunderous roars echoed through the surrounding landscapes. "Looks like it¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 381 - Nullified Jason was still able to remain calm, knowing that there was no other strong beast around thanks to his mana eyes. However, that wasn''t the case for the other young prodigies whose tension was already high from hunting the golden-horned lion and Jason''s sudden appearance. It was even worse after they had heard that the Demonic Three-eyed wolf could be nearby as they had already witnessed its terrifying strength. As such they panicked a little bit until the young man, that had stepped forward to talk to Jason before, announced. "Let''s depart, right now! There is no time to waste!!" When Jason saw this he couldn''t help but suppress chuckling, thinking that they didn''t even know where he saw the Demonic Three-eyed wolf. Only half a minute later he had still not received a question where exactly the beast was sighted before which caused him to frown as he saw that the young prodigies ignored him, departing straight into the direction he came from. Clearing his throat he said "I would head the opposite way if I were you guys. At least if you don''t feel like being killed by a destructive curse" After he said so, Jason exerted the weightless steps technique before he rushed towards a completely different direction, on his way to search for the possible survivors of the Demonic Three-eyed wolf''s massacre. However, instead of looking for the Debilitation Centaurs'', Jason wanted to find the one-eyed rats that seemed to have faced the same fate as the Debilitation Centaurs. It was unfortunate for those races and also Jason as he had planned to find out more about their curses in order to pick the most suitable soulbond for him. Nevertheless, there was nothing he could change about the past. This thought allowed him to retain his calmness as he ignored the young men and women''s gaze that followed him. ** More than a month had passed and one could see Jason fighting against a Lowest Lique stage Thunderstrike bull which he had encountered on his way towards the rift. During the last month, Jason had found himself in several dozen life-threatening situations one after another, all caused by the aftermaths of the exposed mana vein that seemed to turn every beast into a ferocious and mana-greedy being. After he sustained several dozen injuries, he couldn''t help himself but allow Scorpio to liquefy his first drop of mana. Jason was sure that he could take Scorpio''s amplification without much issues as his mana absorption was slower and the fact that Scorpio had a potential limit at the Lowest Lique stage. He could only liquefy around 20 drops of mana which was a rough estimation Jason did. However, this made it possible for Jason to allow Scorpio''s advancement into the Lique stage, which Artemis didn''t want to accept. Yet, after Jason explained that it was only because Scorpio would reach his potential limit soon, which meant that Jason wouldn''t have any problems giving Scorpio the opportunity to become stronger, Artemis accepted it. Her mana absorption and potential were unparalleled according to her own ''words'' and Jason could just nod his head, accepting everything she tried to implement with the things she said. After he encountered the group of young prodigies, everything went downhill and the only upside was that his mana core rank had reached the 2nd Master rank, while his mana core size should be comparable to that of a Lowest Lique stage! This was not important to Jason, who just wanted to increase his defensive capabilities by allowing Scorpio to break into the Lique stage. By manifesting his exoskeleton Jason''s defense would become much stronger, while the stinger could be utilized to attack an unguarded opponent. Unfortunately, even after he had received the 2nd baptism, Jason could tell that his vessel was still not strong enough. He was confident in taking on Scorpio''s whole soul world amplification, which indicated that his vessel was strong enough for the time being, however, this was only for the time being. The worst opponent of his soul world amplification had yet to come. Artemis was something he couldn''t take lightly and her advancement was rapid as long as she received enough high-quality food! Even if that was not the case, allowing her to absorb as much mana from the surrounding area as she wanted was already enough, allowing her to reach a mana absorption rate that was higher than Scorpio''s by a few times. Jason couldn''t take this lightly and he knew that allowing her to advance into the Lique stage would slow his own progress drastically. That was because his mana core size would be enlarged every single time, any of his soulbonds became stronger, increasing the demanded mana Jason had to accumulate to break to a new level!! This was annoying and if possible, he wouldn''t have allowed Scorpio to advance to the Lique stage. Unfortunately, the Mythic Garden had become more dangerous with each day passing and he had yet to pick the cursed beast he wanted to take as soulbond. There were three cursed beasts that had a suitable soul amplification curse, which Jason was confident to catch and bind to himself. Both the one-eyed rat and Debilitation Centaurs'' survived, even if their population was decimated. This was however not tragic to Jason who only needed one of those to bind to his soul. While the one-eyed rat''s curse was stronger, its curse didn''t vary and was straight at 20% decrease, while the Debilitation Centaur''s curse was inconsistent between 3%-10% which made Jason curious about it. The third suitable cursed beast he found was a small three-tailed panther that seemed to be a variation evolution from the weakening curse panther which he encountered on his first day, immediately after he arrived in the Mythic Garden. Almost 6 months had passed since then and Jason had become more powerful which allowed him to be able to catch the variation evolution of the weakening cursed panther. To Jason''s bad fortune was the small three-tailed panther''s curse not up to the one-eyed rat''s 20% weakening or the interesting inconsistent weakening curse of the Debilitation Centaurs. In the end, it was just the best looking and most powerful, thanks to it being at the Lowest Lique stage with a purple-colored hue enveloping it This was the potential of a beast, Jason was able to see and it indicated that the three-tailed panther was able to reach the Low Liques stage which was the best among all three. Adding its darkness affinity and the fact that it is harboring a 10% soul world amplification curse, he would probably pick this beast as his next soulbond. There was also a fourth cursed beast that was considered the best out of the three he named prior. In the end, Jason would love to catch and bind the fourth one... Unfortunately, it was too strong and not something Jason could fight against, yet. Because of that, Jason couldn''t help himself and thought that he should have the Debilitation Centaur as his next soulbond, use its curse for the time being to lighten the burden on his vessel to a certain extent before coming back to the Mythic Garden a year later. However, this was just a dream which Jason shattered before it infested his mind. It was unlikely for him to come back to the Mythic Garden in a year due to multiple factors. One of them was the fact that his strength might be out of the Mythic Garden''s restrictions threshold while another one was the fact that the woman that was at the sovereign rank and probably the matriarch from the Jual clan In that case, the three-tailed panther would be the best choice, if he wanted to retain a high soul world amplification. Around 20% would be a large soul world amplification but not something the most terrifying human prodigies didn''t have. Otherwise, he would have to take the one-eyed rat whose curse would reduce his soul amplification to 13%. This would be comparable to that of above-average prodigies from big families, yet still in their normal range. While Jason pondered about what he should choose, he didn''t even realize the alarming amount of mana that was suddenly unleashed several kilometers away from him. It was not only extremely dense and pure but enveloped by complex emotions and the desire for blood. This bloodlust infested every living being which caused them to go riot, attacking everything in their surrounding. Only minutes later did Jason hear the stamping of several hundred beasts and numerous voices echoing through the surrounding area. Distracted from his thoughts he turned around, only to see several hundred humans riding on Lowest Lique stage beasts, that had varying mana drops ranging from one to several dozen within them, towards him. The strongest beast Jason was able to identify in this short moment had around 40 drops of mana within its mana core In mankind''s terms, one to 40 mana drops meant that a beast''s strength ranged from the 1st Magical rank up to the 4th Magical rank. A beast would enter the 5th Magical rank from the 50th drops of mana. As such every 10 drops of mana, a beast would have an increase of one level in the Magical rank. This was the same for the Magus rank and it would only change from the Grandmagus and Guardian rank as the number of liquefied mana drops required to advance a level would increase by a large margin! They ignored Jason''s entire existence and rushed past him while only a few gave him an apologetic smile at most. There were two things Jason perceived after he had instinctively inserted mana into his eyes, enhancing their sight. Not only was he able to see the horrific mana fluctuations intertwined with bloodlust, but Jasn could tell from which beast the bloodlust intertwined mana fluctuations radiated from. The color enveloping this beast was rare to see and from the outlines he perceived, Jason couldn''t help curse out. Only a moment later he had already manifested Artemis'' wing before he used a large margin of mana to circulate through his wings. Turning around he flew towards the huge group of young prodigies whose speed was much slower than his due to the second thing he perceived. ''Nobody has an enlarged mana core which means that their soul world amplification is nullified...and even their soulbonds strength has been reduced by a quarter...how terrifying! Taking a deep breath he utilized the mana he inserted into Artemis'' wings perfectly. Additionally he user the whole amplification of 100% from her due to the fact that she was currently inside his mana core to use his fastest speed. This was enough to rush past every human prodigy riding on their soulbond until he reached the front. Suddenly, his attention was drawn to the young man, who was the master of the beast with 40 drops of mana. "What are you d---..." However, before he could even finish his sentence, Jason felt as if his whole body was overwhelmed by a sudden tiredness, as his soul amplification had been completely nullified!! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 382 - Fate Changing Fruit Scorpio''s amplification of 33% hit suddenly rock bottom with a big 0% while Artemis'' amplification that has been raised to 100% due to the fact that she resided in his mana core was halved. This shocked Jason greatly and his speed was barely comparable to an average 8th Master rank thanks to the fact that his mana core rank was at the 2nd Master rank and enlarged by a small margin from both baptisms he had received from Solaris. ''Urgh¡­what the hell is going on. Why is the petrification serpent in a berserk state and how is its curse so strong???'' Jason lamented, not knowing how he should keep with the pace everyone else was rushing past him! Suddenly he felt a huge hand grasping his waist as he was lifted on top of a large, fiery sabertooth tiger where two men were already seated. "You are always good for a surprise Jason! I didn''t expect to see you here, with a fortified soul conjunction at that" Turning around, the young man who grasped him said. "ISGA?" Jason exclaimed, both shocked and happy to see his friend while the person in front of Isga just lifted his hand saying "You''re welcome" Artemis'' wings dissipated in order to make himself more space as he made himself comfortable on the mount after taking a few deep breaths. He couldn''t even say ''thank you'' yet, but the young man, that had to be the master of the fiery sabertooth tiger, didn''t bother about that. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t help but say thank you, knowing that he would die any moment if he were to be rejected from staying on the sabertooth tiger. The petrification serpent''s body shot out of the forest revealing its bloodshot eyes that began to glow in a faint brown-goldish light as the weakest Lowest Lique stage beasts had begun to slow down. They had been paralyzed and Jason couldn''t help but sigh, knowing that they would die any moment as he averted his gaze. Looking forward his attention was drawn to the young man that was mounted on a beast called Hurricane Carnosauria. Carnosaurias belonged to one of the extinct races that reappeared after the mana outbreak. This Dinosaur had been long since extinct and reappeared so suddenly. However, this was not important to Jason or anyone around because the Hurricane Carnosauria was the fastest soulbond. Other than that it was also the strongest with the most liquefied mana drops inside its mana core. But this was also not important for Jason right now because he stared through the young man riding on the Hurricane Carnosauria as he cursed. "Why did this idiot steal one of the petrification serpent''s eggs???" Isga and the young man in front of him stiffened when Jason said this. "What did you say?? WHO?" Isga''s voice turned ice-cold which was something Jason hadn''t seen from his new friend before. "Eh...the young man on the Hurricane Carnosauria...didn''t you two know that? Why are you all even in this large group? This doesn''t look like a picnic to me?" While Isga was fuming in anger, the young man in the front explained the situation to Jason calmly. "First of all, my name is Yune Shiabi, and I''m from the Shiabi clan. You should know about it, right? Even if you don''t, it doesn''t matter. What you should know is that every few dozen years, the Mythic Garden gives birth to a fruit called ''Fate changing carado'' There are multiple things you can do with the fruit but the most important effect of it is that you can re-awaken your soul if you eat the fruit whole. However, this is not what we were supposed to do. In the end, Canir''s most prominent alchemist was able to mass-produce a potion called "Soul enhancing"-potion after he had gotten his hands on this fruit the last time it emerged. There had been around 100 potions concocted and every single one of them was worth a huge fortune which some influential families have procured over centuries¡­ Either way, the effect of such a potion is extremely potent and allows the person who drinks it to change his or her fate completely. From a three-star soul awakening to a four or even 4.5-star soul awakening, everything was possible as long as you were talented enough! I think you can already imagine what we were supposed to do...and that was definitely not to steal the petrification serpent''s precious egg, causing it to enter a berserk state¡­ That bastard from the Wirad family will get to know what it means to be besieged by several big clans once I get out of here...this f*cking son of a b*tch" In the beginning, Yune''s explanation was calm, but it turned more and more violent which caused Jason to gulp down his saliva ''I guess the Wirad clan will have a¡­.large problem soon¡­'' Jason saw that this young man from the Wirad family was trying his best to hide the small egg that was placed in the pouch that hung on his belt. However, his mana eyes perceived everything which included the mysterious color enveloping the petrification serpent''s egg. ''If the petrification serpent wouldn''t be behind us, I would give everything to get my hands on that egg¡­.'' He had started to daydream once again, only to be interrupted by his soul that began to revolt against the petrification serpent''s curse. Shaking violently, the soul amplification curse began to change from a decrease of 50% to 40%, down to 10% before it shot up again. It was as if his world and the soul amplification curse were clashing, trying to find out who the strongest is. This allowed Jason to understand that not his origin as a Celestia halfling had been the main source for the Debilitation Centaur''s curse to be inconsistent. Rather than that, it was his soul world core fighting against the foreign object which the curse targeting him, was! However, in that case, Jason couldn''t say for sure whether his soul was influenced by the Celestia DNA he received. The same was now occurring with the petrification serpent''s race-specific weakening curse! As such, he tried to get the hang of himself as he mumbled to Isga and Yune "Should we change our direction and drift away from the Hurricane Carnosauria? In that case, we wouldn''t be targeted by the petrification serpent!" Jason''s idea was logical and the best way out of their tricky situation. Unfortunately, this would mean sacrificing everyone else which was something Yune didn''T want to do. He rejected Jason''s idea when Isga mumbled once he calmed down a little bit. "If we''re able to get rid of this son of a b*tch from the Wirad family, there shouldn''t be a problem. The petrification serpent would get its offspring back and get revenge too...But that would be difficult too because the Wirad family would not only complain to the person who caused their descendant''s death but probably declare war. In the end, you can only see the petrification serpent''s egg, right? You have no other evidence we could use to justify getting rid of that bast*rd¡­." Somehow, Jason was glad that Isga was able to analyze everything level-headed but his words were somewhat vulgar which was not like he got to know him in the Mythic Garden. Suddenly, he got an idea as he asked "Is the fiery sabertooth tiger able to run faster? Maybe even take over the Hurricane Carnosauria...Just for a few seconds?" Yune pondered for a moment before he shook his head. "We won''t even come close to the Hurricane Carnosauria¡­" Using his mana eyes, he tried to find something that could help them because the petrification serpent was approaching them at a rapid pace. Suddenly his gaze strafed past Yune before it returned to the young man in front of him. Thinking about what he should say, Jason got an idea "Yune...didn''t you say that you come from the Shaibi clan? In that case, it wouldn''t be surprising if you have a spatial affinity soulbond, right? When Yune heard this, he was astonished for a moment before he nodded his head which caused Jason to question him further. "In that case, you should be able to open a spatial gate too¡­ at least I think, or is that not the case? If you can, how far is the distance? Can you create a small gate a few meters in front of the Hurricane Carnosauria?" Understanding what Jason wanted to implement, Yune had to bring him back to reality as he said "I might be able to create a spatial gate in front of the Hurricane Carnosauria but it wouldn''t be large enough for the whole Carnosauria to fit through. This would shatter the portal, and make everything useless." However, Jason couldn''t help but turn serious as he asked "Who said that the Hurricane Carnosauria should fit through the spatial gate if I''m enough?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 383 - Desperation Isga who listened intently to Yune and Jason''s discussion couldn''t help but exclaim "What the hell do you want to do? Don''t forget that we are all cursed by the soul amplification curse¡­.you know that you can''t rely on that? With your current strength, you shouldn''t be able to steal the petrification serpent egg from someone at the Lowest Lique stage without any soul world amplifications! Jason felt good to see how worried Isga was, when he said "I should be able to negate the soul amplification curse for a short moment...with the fortified soul conjunction I have and the strength I receive through it, my combat prowess should be on par with the young man from the Wirad family¡­. Taking him by surprise, everything should be good...I guess?" Both Isga and Yune couldn''t help but turn around to Jason to look at him, thinking that he was too full of himself. It may be something special that he was able to suppress the soul amplification curse but this caused them to wonder why he wanted to risk his life for strangers. After Jason would get his hands on the petrification serpent egg, what would he do? Approach the petrification serpent and tell her that he got his hands on the egg in order to bring it back? Most beasts with liquefied mana were intelligent but to what degree would a Low Lique stage beast be able to stay calm and think rationally, even more so if it was about their offspring? The petrification serpent was in a berserk state which told everyone that it was implausible to expect rational thinking. Jason was definitely not a saint and he wouldn''t do something suicidal like that under normal circumstances. It was also not something he wanted to do either, but Jason perceived something which changed his stance. Saving the prodigies that wanted to obtain the fate-changing carado fruit, might even be a disadvantage to him because Jason could tell from which family some of them belonged. From rumors and secured information he had received through his masters, he could roughly estimate which family was good and what family was bad. However, in the end, almost all big families, clans, and even companies had something to do with the foreign races and human trafficking! Most of them decided to only use criminals to trade with, but Jason was still not sure what to think about this. As such, rather than doing something suicidal to save others he didn''t even know, Jason followed his instincts. Those instincts in addition to what his mana eyes perceived told him that he had to get his hands on the petrification serpent egg that was in the hands of the young man from the Wirad family. While his instincts were screaming out their desire to secure the egg, his mana eyes were able to perceive a thick aura enveloping the petrification serpent egg. This was not the strange, unknown, and mysterious color Jason could also perceive but rather the unhatched petrification serpent''s desperation and hopelessness it released. Astonished about this, Jason couldn''t help but look at it more intently. It was similar to the Earth Dragons and foreign races who were able to release emotion intertwined mana, only that the beast in front of him was still unhatched. Yet, it was already desperate enough to exhaust itself by doing something it shouldn''t be able to do. Jason could only assume that the unhatched petrification serpent was aware of its fate if the bipedal beast that abducted it were to be able to escape from its mother''s pursuit. However, this was not enough to convince Jason to do something as suicidal as ambushing two Lowest Lique stage beings that were much stronger than him, just to retrieve the petrification serpent egg. The young man might be on par with Jason''s strength if he were to take him by surprise but the Hurricane Carnosauria was something Jason couldn''t take lightly. Even after it was targeted by the weakening curse, its strength was still manifold higher than Jason''s. The final factors that caused Jason to change his attitude was a combination of everyone''s desperation, which was the smallest reason for him to act like that More important was the desperate aura around the petrification serpent suddenly targeted Jason, who was more than several dozen meters away from it! While the petrification serpent mother was still around 300 meters away from the slowest Lowest Lique stage beast it was pursuing, the fiery sabertooth tiger Jason sat on was in the center of the whole group, around 50 to 100 away from the Hurricane Carnosauria. When Jason sensed that the unhatched petrification serpent seemed to undergo a substantial change which caused its aura to be released in a radius of around ten meters, he was already astonished. However, seeing that it began to concentrate its aura on a single target which he seemed to be, Jason couldn''t help but feel shocked. After he was enveloped by the unknown aura the unhatched beast had released, Jason felt weird and uncomfortable, but at the same time energetic, thinking that he should help out. In the end, he felt that the unhatched petrification serpent wanted to tell him something, and he was just unable to understand what was going on. Nevertheless, Jason was able to tell that nothing would happen to him if he were to retrieve the petrification serpent. There was nothing reassuring in this thought and just his own instincts that told him to help after he had been enveloped by the weird, desperate aura. ''Did the unhatched petrification serpent target me with its weird aura because of the same reason as the Earth Dragons? They said that he was enveloped by something, which they had also called aura.'' This aura seemed to turn him into a more trustworthy person and Jason couldn''t help but think that this might be the reason for the unhatched petrification serpent to rely on him. ''Or did it choose me because of something else?'' Jason didn''t know why the unhatched petrification serpent had chosen him as its target, but he could tell that it was better if he were to do something instead of sitting around. He and everyone else would die if that were to be the case, and Jason loved to live which was unsurprising. "F*ck it! Let''s do it...Yune, can you create a spatial gate behind me and the other, connected gate around five meters in front of the Hurricane Carnosauria...maybe one meter to its left...that is if you can do that accurately while we''re running on that pace...Isga, I''ll change my position in a moment. Can you use your whole force to push me through the gate with all your might? After I manifested my soulbond''s wings I should be able to take a stance, allowing you to push my feet¡­" Both Isga and Yune were pondering for a moment when Isga suddenly asked "Are we...like seriously considering this?" However, Yune couldn''t help but say "It''s not the worst plan...to be honest, as long as the petrification serpent mother retrieves its egg, nothing should happen...The only problem would be how to deliver the egg without breaking it! It might be more endurable than other eggs due to the durable eggshell it should have, but throwing it through the air wouldn''t be the best decision either." After he said so, Yune smiled lightly at Jason, with gratitude glimmering in his eyes Yune seemed to have accepted the plan without further ado, which caused Jason to look at him weirdly ''Is he even weirder than I am? Does he think I do that to help everyone?'' "Let me take care of the delivery too, just don''t bother about me and leave once I retrieved the petrification serpent egg. There is no need to involve more people than necessary." When Jason said that, he felt slightly guilty to deceive Yune with the last words he said, as they were utter garbage. After a few seconds passed Yune and Isga nodded their head, accepting Jason''s tactic, if one were to call it like that. The petrification serpent mother was now only 200 meters away from the slower lowest Lique stage beasts. Time was ticking and the three prepared themselves quickly. Jason manifested one of the Viridi-Starstream daggers in his hand while leaving the other hand empty while Yune took a few deep breaths. Isga rolled up his sleeves as he tested a few motions on how to throw Jason to receive the most efficient outcome. After that, Artemis'' wings manifested on Jason''s back which he laid close on his back as he asked. "Is everyone ready?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 384 - Winged Thief Isga was still unable to understand why Jason would do something as suicidal as retrieving the petrification serpent''s egg and delivering it back to its mother too! The former was still something he could understand if he were to think about it carefully, over a long period, but the latter was definitely ununderstandable. However, if Jason wanted to do it, he could at least give his utmost effort to provide Jason with the best support. That was at least what Isga thought. As such he tried out multiple movements to figure out how to push Jason, and when he saw how Jason positioned himself, he couldn''t help but think that his new, yet, suicidal friend knew what he was doing. Taking the stance Jason took in addition to the strength he could utilize to push him into account, Isha was able to predict how fast Jason would be. Yune gave them the sign that he was ready which intensified the tension around them within a moment. Isga''s finger itched while Jason took a deep breath to calm down. Counting down from three, Yune manifested the spatial gates at the exact position Jason wanted them to be once the countdown had finally reached zero. At the same time, Isga used the majority of mana that was left inside his mana core to circulate it through his arms. This enhanced his strength and Isga pushed Jason with all his might. Meanwhile, Jason used a large amount of mana to insert them into Artemis'' wings that were still tightly folded on his back. Meanwhile, Jason''s soul world core used all its might to suppress the petrification serpent''s soul amplification curse for one second. This allowed Jason''s strength to soar by several levels at once! In less than a quarter of a second, he was already pushed through the spatial gate as he emerged on the other side of it, facing the more than six-meter tall Hurricane Carnosauria that was baffled about the suddenly manifested spatial gate, only for a winged human to shot through it. Not even a full second passed when Jason shot past the Hurricane Carnosauria that couldn''t react in time. The young man from the Wirad family was even more baffled than his soulbond as he exclaimed in shock, only to see a mana weapon glimmering in the masked, winged human''s hand! He wanted to unsheathe his longsword to defend against the oncoming attacks as Jason emerged on the young man''s side. At that moment, Jason sliced the Viridi-Starstream dagger across the young man''s waist, cutting off the pouch on his belt. Additionally, he inflicted a small cut that was however not something that mattered to Jason. He had wanted to retrieve the unhatched petrification serpent, nothing more or less! Opening Artemis'' wings after he had grasped the cut pouch that was about to fall from the ground, he soared into the air before anyone was able to react. All of that happened in one second and once that second had passed, Jason felt how the soul amplification curse backlashed. The soul world core was unable to hold back the curse that was seen as a foe, decreasing his combat prowess once again. After he got his hands on the unhatched petrification serpent, Jason was unsure what he should do next. He was currently more than 30 meters in the air, looking after the large group of several hundred prodigies mounted on their soulbonds. Averting his attention to the petrification serpent whose bloodlust intertwined mana was targeting Jason; the beings with its offspring in his hands. Shivering, Jason had the sole desire to run away as far as possible when the unhatched petrification serpent that was still in its egg, began to release a soothing aura that was targeted its mother and Jason. While Jason''s fear began to dissipate, he could feel that the horrifyingly high pressure of the bloodlust intertwined mana reduced drastically. Unbeknownst to himself, Jason caressed the petrification serpent egg as it was already an instinct for Jason to caress everything that released any kind of aura towards him. This was something Artemis and Scorpio became proficient in as they demanded to be caressed almost all the time. When the unhatched petrification serpent that was connected to its shell felt this, its soothing aura changed to joy which was the complete opposite to the desperation it had released only moments ago. The moment, the petrification serpent mother noticed this, it retraced its bloodlust-intertwined mana was retraced, confusion spreading through its entire being. Jason was also confused because he felt such intense emotions within him originating from his soulbonds that were currently cursing the unhatched petrification serpent as it was caressed and they weren''t. Even Solaris, the black origin flame felt like Artemis and Scorpio. It may be unable to be caressed like Jason''s other soulbonds but after it sensed how much attention Artemis and Scorpio had received, it wanted to have the same amount of attention than they had! All of that only began to happen after Solaris evolved into a Tier-1 flame, which allowed it to become a true sentient being. Jason, whose tension was on a completely different level couldn''t help but frown. Suddenly he sensed several wind blades flying towards him at a rapid pace. Distracted by his soulbonds'' nagging and the unhatched petrification serpent''s joyous aura that was directed towards him, Jason was unable to notice them early enough. Thus he was unable to evade them properly! The most he could do, was to instinctively release a thick wall of black flame as they were the affinity he was the most proficient with. Using every trace of mana left within him, the black flame wall was extremely thick and compressed, burning the mana that held the wind blades together! However, two out of the batch of several wind blades made a big curve around the wall of flames! Their trajectory had been changed mid-air, but they were still controlled to a certain degree, allowing them to shoot towards Jason. Piercing through his wings, they were almost severed and Jason had to dissolve them to prevent any major injuries that Artemis could obtain. Even if he was sorry for Artemis'' who screamed out in pain, he couldn''t help but care about his own situation right now as he fell to the ground from an altitude that was more than 30 meters. Suddenly he saw multiple more wind blades shooting towards him and his eyes widened involuntarily. While he tried to evade the wind blades earlier, the pitch-black mask loosened up, revealing his face to the petrification serpent mother that couldn''t help but eye Jason weirdly for a quarter of a second. However, Jason couldn''t care less about anything except the wind blades that shoot towards him as he switched out Artemis, who was still in his mana core, with Scorpio. Only a moment later, his whole body was enveloped in a thick sapphire blue exoskeleton that looked like he was wearing a full-body armor. Even his head was included as a thick and long stinger grew out of his coccyx. Scorpio''s mana core was barely at the Lowest Lique stage but his defense capabilities were nothing to scoff at. Nevertheless, the several wind blades that shot towards him pierced into Scorpio''s exoskeleton and it was as if they targeted exactly the same area. The young prodigy from the Wirad family seemed to have high proficiency with the wind affinity that was almost at the Low Lique stage which allowed him to control the wind blades accurately. When Jason noticed this, he cursed out loud before he curled up his body, protecting the petrification serpent instinctively. At the same time, he accessed the mana sphere bracelet which he was still wearing to draw out as much mana as he could handle right now. Enveloping himself with the mana Shane and Dalia stored within, a thick cocoon formed, protecting him from the high-velocity wind blades that shoot towards him. Just a moment later, he crashed into the ground, forming a small pit. Now that he was enveloped in a mana cocoon Jason knew that he was fine for the next few seconds which caused him to take a short glance to see how injured Artemis was. In the beginning, he thought that her wings might have been severed but that was fortunately not the case. Adding the fact that the body parts manifested through the fortified soul conjunction weren''t exactly the same as the original, Jason could only sigh in relief. A small part of the injury the replica sustained would be transmitted to the original, which was something nobody knew the reason about, but that was everything that would happen! As such Artemis seemed to be fine, even if her wings were hurting, while Scorpio''s exoskeleton had a deep cut in the back. Jason knew that one of the wind blades pierced into his back too! Its might was fortunately drastically decreased by Scorpio''s exoskeleton, the mana-grade-2 leather armor he was wearing and the fact that Jason explosively released the mana sphere''s mana, everything was fine. Now that Jason laid on the ground, without a single trace of mana left, while most of his energy was used up to manifest Artemis and Scorpio''s body parts, he could only take a look at the petrification serpent egg which he embraced tightly. It released a worried and fearful aura as Jason''s attention was diverted to the direction in which the petrification serpent was previously at. However, instead of being 200 meters apart from him, the petrification serpent mother had already appeared right in front of him as it opened its huge mouth as if it wanted to devour the cocoon enveloping Jason and the petrification serpent egg. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 385 - Gathering Of The Strongest Jason was astonished to see that the petrification serpent wanted to devour them, but somehow he wasn''t scared. There was no killing intent radiating from it and rather than that, Jason felt a sense of gratitude emerging within him. This was weird because he shouldn''t feel like that for anything, only to notice that this feeling stemmed from the petrification serpent mother that took the cocoon, enveloping him and the unhatched petrification serpent, into its maw. Supplying the cocoon with more mana to prevent anything unpredicted to happen, Jason noticed multiple emotions flooding him. Most of them were from the petrification serpent mother that thanked him, while the unhatched petrification serpent tried to figure out more about Jason, who was completely different from the bipedal beast that had abducted it. Jason was also different from what its mother told the unhatched petrification serpent about those bad bipedal beasts. He didn''t have any bad intentions and his aura was drawing the unhatched petrification serpent towards Jason which caused it to release its aura towards its mother as if it was trying to communicate. Thanks to his mana eyes that perceived everything with mana around him, Jason could tell that their way to communicate with each other was unique, yet extremely efficient as they didn''t have to use any noises. Somehow, he was extremely calm and not a tiny bit worried that something might happen to him. Subconsciously he continued to caress the black egg while the petrification serpent turned around, halting its pursuit. Slithering back, the young prodigies, who continued to ride away from the petrification serpent as far as possible, sighed in relief. Meanwhile, Yune glared at the bastard of the Wirad family who had attacked and almost killed Jason. In the end, Jason who was not only young and with a high mastery to absorb mana but had also fortified soul conjunctions with his soulbonds, ended up in the petrification serpent''s stomach. He wanted to kill this bastard so badly but he couldn''t do that because there were witnesses. With the possibility of waging a war, Yune was unable to do as he pleased, only to see that Isga was oddly calm. "Hey, Isga? Wasn''t your friend killed right now, how the hell are you so calm?? Shouldn''t you be enraged or at least a little bit sad about your friend''s fate¡­.?" However, Isga''s answer baffled him as he calmly said "You know what?... I don''t think he is dead¡­ I saw the same thing you did but why do I feel like he is still alive? Even weirder is that my instincts tell me that he will return stronger than he already is¡­" Yune couldn''t even remotely comprehend what was going on with his friend, but instead of bothering Isga about this, he could only sigh deeply, hoping that his words were true and that Jason didn''t die through someone like Fae Wirad. "Alright, let''s hope that he survived!" Two hours passed and Jason thinned the mana around the cocoon in order to use his mana eyes to figure out where they were heading to. There were only 8 days left before the Mythic Garden rift would close and it would be bad if he were to be unable to leave it. It was not like it would be devastating and the cause for his inevitable death, but it would interrupt the plan he and his masters had made up. In the end, he had to do a few things on Argos which he couldn''t do inside the Mythic Garden, and waiting for another six months wouldn''t be helpful either! On the other hand, it might be great for him to increase his strength to a great extent if he were to stay inside the Mythic Garden too. Nevertheless, his plan, for now, was to survive, leave the area in which the petrification serpent was currently inside and search for a suitable cursed beast to form a soulbond contract with. He had already formed a great bond with the petrification serpent egg which he was currently caressing in his hand, but Jason doubted that its mother would allow it to leave with him. Furthermore, Jason couldn''t even say for sure that the unhatched petrification serpent felt the same about that bond as he did. This thought was quickly interrupted by the things his mana eyes perceived from the surroundings which the petrification serpent mother had entered. Goosebumps covered his body and the only thing that allowed him to remain calm was the fact that he had manifested Scorpio''s exoskeleton in addition to the fact that he was currently inside the petrification serpent''s mouth. ''I have to stay calm now...I''m inside one of the strongest beasts within the Mythic Garden and even multiple Low Lique stage beasts shouldn''t be enough to kill it...I guess? But WHY are there more than a dozen cursed and blessed Low Lique stage beasts in front of us???'' Jason was unsure what was going on, but he could feel the petrification serpent mother''s shock, telling him that this encounter was definitely not something it planned out before!! ''Am I haunted by bad luck?'' Jason began to wonder as the petrification serpent mother dug a small pit with its head before it laid down the cocoon, without anyone noticing it. Unsure about what would happen now, he couldn''t help but feel that something extremely bad was about to happen. He terminated the supply of mana from his mana sphere and the cocoon enveloping him and the petrification serpent egg began to dissipate. Jason was immediately vigilant against everything because his mana eyes perceived the outline and familiar mana fluctuations of the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf. As such, he had to be careful of beasts and possible curses. Looking around, he noticed that the area he was inside was not only filled with thick mana currents but that it also looked like the intersection of several environments. On his left, Jason saw a mountain, while the gigantic forest he was already familiar with was right next to it. However, there was also a swamp next to the mountain and right next to the swamp were flatlands. Other than that, there was also a forest with smaller trees, a flower plain with small hills, a jungle, and a forest whose outer appearance indicated that the whole area was dead. ''Why did the petrification serpent bring us to the center of the Mythic Garden...at least I guess it''s the center...More important than that is however the question of why exactly the petrification serpent is so astonished to see the other overlords here? Is that something odd? Unsure whether he should wait for the petrification serpent that slithered away from him and its unhatched offspring, releasing a weird aura that seemed like it wanted to bid farewell, or that he should run away as far as possible, taking the petrification serpent egg with him. At least that was how Jason tried to interpret it. He was unsure whether his translation was corret or not! Meanwhile, the petrification serpent egg was releasing an enormous amount of emotions at once which it wanted to target its mother, that was not there anymore. As such, Jason was targeted with the emotions as he was the being the unhatched petrification serpent egg was the closest too. This was at least what Jason thought when he suddenly remembered that there should be more petrification serpent eggs. Initially, he didn''t understand why the petrification serpent mother approached Mythic Garden''s center, but after he thought about the other eggs it had, Jason began to wonder if they were in a nest at the center. ''Is the center some sort of place to give birth and raise one''s offsprings?'' He asked, not sure if his assumption made sense or not. However, it was a fact that the petrifaction serpent slithered towards several of the most terrifying ranked beasts of the Mythic Garden, who were waiting for something. They were unmoving and not fighting against each other and Jason couldn''t help but curse quietly as he tried to calm down the unhatched petrification serpent that began to shake in his hands. He remembered what the earth dragon transmitted about his aura and eyes as he inserted mana into them before his eyes were trained on the egg in front of him. Thinking about something nice and not the petrification serpent''s death that seemed to be inevitable, and a desperate attempt to rescue the remaining eggs, his eyes began to glow faintly. This glow enveloped the unhatched petrification serpent''s egg gently, calming it down, halting the forced hatching process it was about to initiate. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 386 - Inevitable Fate After the petrification serpent egg stopped shaking, Jason continued to stare at it with his glowing golden eyes until the complex set of emotions within the unhatched petrification serpent''s aura began to calm down. Jason was unsure if talking to it was helping but he felt like doing so. Once he saw that everything seemed fine, Jason could finally avert his attention from the petrification serpent egg to the more important, and dangerous Mythic Garden center area. Since he was distracted before, Jason didn''t notice what happened when the petrification serpent entered the center, but from the looks of it, there had yet to start a fight. This astonished Jason a little but it allowed him to hope that the assumption he had was wrong. The distance from his location to the center was several hundred meters, enough to stay hidden as long as his mana core was concealed and the petrification serpent egg in his hands didn''t act up. Looking towards the center, Jason perceived the outlines of the Demonic Three-eyed Wolf, the Boneflame centipede, and a humanoid being with horns and the lower part of a goat, also called Satyr. This was most likely the Dark Satyr! There were also a few more beasts he couldn''t perfectly decipher left, but from the information he had read within the handwritten Mythic Garden book, there were probably the deathbed flower, the Silver eyed rabbit, the Millennium cotton shep, the winged fortune tiger, and the draconic fate Hawk. Even one or two of those beats Jason saw would be enough to be a threat to the petrification serpent mother that had already exhausted itself by releasing the bloodlust intertwined mana for a long period. Jason was also sure that the petrification serpent egg hadn''t been laid for a long time which might be an additional factor for the petrification serpent mother''s exhaustion. However, even though the current situation looked perilous, Jason couldn''t just leave with the petrification serpent egg. At least not until he saw that the petrification serpent would be attacked by the present Low Lique stage beasts that harbored all kinds of curses and blessings. It was not like he didn''t want to run away as far as possible but then, Jason had to take the egg in his hands with him because he was unable to abandon it. He might have not known the unhatched petrification serpent for more than three hours but this short period was already enough for him to decide that he wanted it to face reality. This might sound dumb even for Jason because the petrification serpent has yet to hatch but its intelligence seemed to be on par with beasts that had liquefied their mana already. As such Jason knew that running away would be worse for the unhatched petrification serpent as it might never find out whether its mother survived or died. Being unaware of its mother''s fate would be worse than knowing that it died and Jason could only sigh deeply as he mumbled. "Once the situation turns too dangerous, I''ll run away... just that you know!" He was not even sure if the unhatched petrification serpent was able to understand him to some extent as it shouldn''t be the case, but unbeknownst to himself, Jason spoke in the universal language of all foreign races. This allowed the petrification serpent inside the egg to understand the rough meaning of Jason''s words. What he didn''t know was that not only every foreign race could speak the universal language but that also all beasts were able to roughly understand words spoken in the universal language too! Seeing how calm the unhatched petrification egg turned, Jason couldn''t help but feel that his words had some kind of effect. He told himself that the calmness he radiated had to be the reason for it to calm down before he focused his full intention on the center of the Mythic Garden where the tension seemed to intensify. When he saw this, Jason couldn''t help but grit his thought as the climax of tension had been reached, which caused every present beast to unleash their entire mana and abilities. The surrounding landscape vibrated and it felt as if every leaf, blade of grass, and tree began to move from the sheer mass of mana those beasts had released. The fight had yet to start but Jason could already tell that it was over when he saw how terrifying the unleashed mana that was intertwined with all kinds of blessings and curses. There were only a few beasts in front of Jason that possessed an affinity, but that was not necessary because he would never underestimate a beast that was able to release such a huge amount of mana at once. In fact, he was able to tell that they had yet to go all out! Subconsciously, he took a few steps back when he saw that the blessed beings utilized their blessing to the fullest extent while the cursed beasts targeted the petrification serpent as their sole target with the curses they harbored. Gritting his teeth, Jason could only say sorry, when he took a few more steps back until he saw how the weakening curse on him dissipated into thin air as the petrification serpent unleashed everything it could to overload the curses it harbored. At least that was what he assumed to happen because he was unable to explain what his mana eyes perceived. The petrification serpent''s weakening curse decreased each of the surrounding beasts'' combat prowess by roughly 30% which shocked Jason a lot. However, overloading the curse was not something that came without backlash and Jason perceived that the petrification serpent mother''s mana fluctuation became unstable. ''Did it already exhaust its whole mana?'' He began to wonder as the black scaled egg in his hand began to release its sadness within the aura it released. ''You can also tell¡­.right?'' Jason was unable to ask this out loud but he could tell that the unhatched petrification serpent could sense that its mother would inevitably die during the next few minutes. It was unknown why exactly the strongest beasts of the Mythic Garden established an alliance against the petrification serpent but Jason thought that a dozen eggs it laid had to be the biggest input. A single petrification serpent was already considered terrifying to each of the strongest beasts, but a dozen of them meant their imminent death! That was if they were to allow those eggs to hatch and grow to the same combat prowess its mother had! They were unable to accept this outcome and thus decided to enter the center of the Mythic Garden where they encountered the other beasts. Instead of attacking each other, they had formed a silent agreement that was starting to show its true color. Without a single sign, all beasts attacked the petrification serpent at the same time, overwhelming it within a few minutes. The weakening curse showed its effect, allowing the petrification serpent to seriously injure the Silver-eyed rabbit and boneflame centipede, but that was already the most it could do against the onslaught of several of the strongest Mythic Garden beasts. When Jason perceived that the fight was more like a desperate means of the petrification serpent to inflict a few injuries in order to slither towards a certain location, he could hardly suppress cursing out. Instead, he said "Sorry" in the universal language before he turned around in the opposite direction of the center. Exerting the weightless steps technique he escaped from Mythic Garden''s center, preventing any of those present Low Lique stage beasts from perceiving that he had been there... __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 387 - Will You Come With Me? Almost a whole day had passed since Jason had run away from Mythic Garden''s center but he was not even remotely close to the rift or surrounding area of it. Owing to the fact that Artemis'' wings were badly injured and recuperating slowly, he had to remain on the ground, where many obstacles and strong beasts forced him to take long detours. Adding that the unhatched petrification serpent was releasing its frustration, sadness, and agony with its aura throughout those 24 hours, many beasts had been attracted to him. This forced Jason to fight or run away before those stronger beasts were unable to find him anymore. In the end, he was not even sure what he should do with the petrification serpent egg which he embraced. It would be the biggest lie he ever told anyone, if he were to say that he didn''t want to contract the petrification serpent as his soulbond, however, Jason was unsure if this was something it would even accept willingly. He could also force it but that was not something Jason wanted to do as he wanted to create a fortified soul conjunction with every beast he was to bind. After he had witnessed how powerful a fortified soul conjunction was, Jason couldn''t help but think that he had to have one for every beast he bound to his soul world. Furthermore, he couldn''t help but be curious how exactly curses would be affected by a fortified soul conjunction. However, in the end, this was not important to the petrification serpent egg. If it wanted to take revenge on the other beasts, Jason would most likely be unable to bind it as his soulbond. He was not even sure whether he would become too strong in the next six months or if the Jual clan would change something in their assessment, preventing strangers from entering the Mythic Garden ever again. As such, he wouldn''t be able to promise the unmatched petrification serpent to take revenge on its mother for its entire life! Binding a beast that would regret not being able to take revenge on its mother''s murderer would be bad, to put it simply. At least if that was what the petrification serpent planned! There was also the possibility that beasts like the petrification serpent thought differently about revenge because it was normal for beasts to prey on each other. With that in mind, Jason couldn''t help but feel a small ray of hope emerging within him. It might be weird to feel like this, shortly after an unhatched beast lost its mother, but Jason''s own situation was not great either. He had at most one week left before the Mythic Garden rift would close for six months and Jason didn''t want to stay inside the rift any longer. That was if he were to be honest with himself. If possible, he would bind a suitably cursed beast and rush back to the underground island. Jason was seriously pondering whether the Mythic Garden or the Jual clan was more dangerous to him, and in the end, he decided that he should try to find a way outside the underground island as quietly as possible. He remembered which teleportation circle the sovereign-ranked guardian had used and his mana eyes perceived also the ''secret'' passcode that was intertwined into the magic circle. As such, he was confident in leaving the underground island secretly as long as the remaining mana inside the magic sphere was enough to empower the transportation circle. However, this was not something Jason should be bothered about right now. There was a large horde of cursed Mid-unblemished beasts in front of him, staring at the petrification serpent egg inside his left hand. This caused him to frown, as he began to wonder if the egg in his hand was valuable to those Longhorn jackals that attacked and cursed him with a weak destructive curse. This curse was a weaker version of the Demonic Three-eyed wolf''s horrific destructive curse, however, instead of being able to injure someone badly, it created illusionary pain if the opponent was stronger than the Longhorn jackals. After being targeted by around 100 of those weak, destructive curses, his entire being was overwhelmed by illusionary pain. Gritting his teeth he unsheathed the light longsword with his free hand as he charged towards the Longhorn jackals. His lips curled upwards as he manifested two large liquefied balls of poison which he threw towards the center of the longhorn Jackal''s horde. However, instead of maintaining the shape of a ball, Jason forced them to burst open in the most crowded area. The corrosive poison splattered everywhere, hitting several dozen longhorn jackals that cried out in pain, as Jason emerged in front of the first opponent. He had yet to dissolve Scorpio''s exoskeleton and his stinger, which he did not do because he wanted to increase his pace with Scorpio''s entire soul amplification. Using the stinger as a third means to attack next to his elemental attacks and the light longsword he pierced through the first longhorn jackal''s head, everything went much smoother than he expected. The only issue was that he had to pay attention to the petrification serpent egg in his hand as he was shaken wildly. He twisted his body several times, evading the longhorn Jackals'' longhorns that were almost half a meter long. In the end, the Jackals had the size of a horse foal, were black in color with white-yellowish longhorns on their forehead. It looked ridiculous but Jason took them seriously even if their strength was only comparable to Mid-Unblemished beasts. He was much stronger but he shouldn''t take the large horde in front of him lightly which might kill him if he were to do a wrong move. Then minutes later, Jason stood in a field of sizzling soil and corpses while the manifested stinger and his light longsword were drenched in crimson-colored blood. The petrification serpent egg was releasing emotions, Jason couldn''t decipher. However, instead of thinking too much about it, he continued to walk towards the direction he presumed the rift to be located. Three hours later his mana eyes were able to perceive the outlines of the big, complex rune that created the rift. Nevertheless, he didn''t rush towards the rift which he wanted to do in order to leave the Mythic Garden. Instead, he looked at the petrification serpent as he said "I will leave this place soon and it''s unlikely that I can come back in the future. If you want, you can come with me as one of my companions! I won''t force you but your chances to survive inside the Mythic Garden without being nurtured and protected by your mother are small. Furthermore, you won''t be able to become strong enough to take revenge on your mother''s murderer because they might hunt you down once you''re expose ¡­" Jason said nothing but the harsh truth. It might be harmful to the petrification serpent if it was able to understand his words, but in the end, it was better to know the truth than living oblivious to it. Noticing that the petrification serpent didn''t understand anything, Jason pondered what could have been different to the time it was able to comprehend his words, which caused him to speak in the universal language out of instinct. After that, the petrification serpent released several complex emotions within its aura, which Jason could hardly separate. They were so complex intertwined with each other and overlapping that he decided to not mind it for the time being. Instead, he walked towards the rift that was still quite a distance away from him. When he entered the plain are around the rift he was able to see many young human prodigies talking to each other which caused him to cover his face because he didn''t want to be seen by the wind affinity used from which he stole the egg. As such he turned around to distance himself a little bit again when he remembered that the young man from the Wirad family shouldn''t have seen his face. However, in that case, there was still the egg in his hand which was something he shouldn''t openly show someone else in order to prevent greed from igniting within them. When he saw that the unhatched petrification serpent retraced its complex emotion, indicating to Jason that it calmed down, he couldn''t help but ask hopefully. "What''s your choice, little one? Will you come with me?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 388 - Leaving The Mythic Garden Jason understood that the unhatched petrification serpent had problems understanding him, but when he released his soul thread to show it, the language barrier between them didn''t matter anymore. The petrification serpent within the black egg understood instinctively what Jason wanted to do, yet, it was unsure what exactly it wanted. Revenge? Freedom? Aventuring? In the end, the unhatched petrification serpent had yet to hatch and it couldn''t be considered an overly intelligent beast because it was still developing. The petrification serpent mother laid the eggs a few days prior and the unhatched petrification serpent couldn''t understand the meaning of most things. To put it simply, it didn''t think about revenge right now but it was only filled with sadness. Nevertheless, more than three hours passed before Jason received something similar to an answer. Shaking lightly, the egg in his hands released an aura whose meaning he couldn''t understand. However, before he was even able to ask anything else, Jason''s mana eyes perceived an astronomical amount of mana arising nearby the horizon. This mana stemmed from multiple beasts and Jason was already familiar with them which caused him to disregard everything as he said "I don''t know if you accepted me but I''ll have to do this to survive. Don''t release your aura when you want to remain inside the Mythic Garden and target me with it if you want to come with me¡­.But HURRY UP!" Jason was unsure if his assumption was correct but if what he received was correct most terrifying ranked beasts that killed the petrification serpent mother were now hunting the small unhatched petrification serpent. The egg was in his hands and if he didn''t hurry up and escaped he would be dead too. As such he gave the petrification serpent one last chance. While he exerted the weightless steps technique to rush towards the rift whose surrounding area Jason left to prevent attracting too much of a commotion, he sensed that the unhatched petrification serpent targeted him with its aura. Taking this as permission, Jason released a thick tread from his soul which he smoothly moved through his body before he used Scorpio''s exoskeleton to cut his free hand at a sharp edge. After that, he dissolved the exoskeleton subconsciously as he used his free hand to cover the greenish-black egg with which he started to form a soulbond. The pace at which the soulbond contract was formed was too slow and Jason panicked for a short moment when he noticed how high the most terrifying ranked beasts'' pace was. Appearing inside the plain area where he saw many students talking to each other he could only do two things. The first thing he did was to accelerate the pace at which the soulbond contract was formed by forcefully injecting more of his soul into the petrification serpent egg. This wouldn''t cause any major injuries but a slightly uncomfortable sensation until the contract was completed ''One minute¡­.that should be fine!'' Meanwhile, the second thing he could do to prevent a massacre nearby the rift to happen was to shout out loud "There are several of the most terrifying ranked beasts running towards the rift!!!" Jason amplified his voice with mana, and there was nothing else that had to be said. Even if Jason lied, the other young prodigies who had heard him, only doubted him for a few seconds before they perceived how fast he was running towards the rift. He looked like he was extremely stressed, running for his life which gave the young prodigies Jason had already run past enough reason to pack up their stuff within a few seconds. Exerting their own movement technique, they followed Jason while most of them were even able to overtake him, thanks to their high mana core rank. However, Jason didn''t bother about that because he had to finish forming the soulbond contract before he would be able to pass through the rift. He felt uncomfortable with others seeing that he had the egg of a petrification serpent in his hand and it would only be worse if someone outside the Mythic Garden were to see this. While he could fight against everyone inside the Mythic Garden if he were to be desperate enough, on Argos there were too many strong humans he couldn''t fight yet. Jason might only be 15 years yet, but he was able to fight prodigies at the age of 20. That was under extreme condition, but Jason was confident that he could do it! As such he would only need enough time to become strong enough to face even stronger opponents. Unfortunately, he couldn''t disappear from the sight of the underground island just like that which he had hoped for because he felt that the 6 months he and the other prodigies had spent within the Mythic Garden changed a lot on the Archipelago and Canir. Only half a minute passed when Jason slowed down because there were only 100 meters between him and the rift that could save him from the most terrifying ranked beasts that were about to charge out of the small forest he had walked through a minute ago. "I''m sorry little one!" Was the only thing he could say as he unleashed his soul world''s full might, forcing its way through the soul thread Jason had loosened in order to form a bond with the unhatched petrification serpent that began to shake violently. Meanwhile, Jason was able to see the outlines of the Demoni Three-eyed Wolf behind those of a two-meter-tall rabbit which he assumed to be the silver-eyed rabbit. Accelerating his pace again, he could hear the first prodigies screaming out in shock when they saw that Jason''s words were true and that he didn''t lie about the fact that some of the most terrifying ranked beasts were headed towards them. The Demonic Three-eyed WOlf targeted a few prodigies with its curse, which was unable to kill anyone due to the enhanced weakening curse it was still targeted with, even after the petrification serpent mother had died. As such, Jason sighed in relief, thankful that he wouldn''t die just by being targeted from the Demonic Three-eyed wolf''s destructive curse. Increasing his pace again, Jason charged ahead and he appeared right in front of the rift when the unhatched petrification serpent egg entered his soul world. At this moment, he stepped through the rift while noticing that the petrification serpent''s curse began to reach out to his soul world core, infesting it. Inside the rift, Jason''s eyes were blindfolded once again but instead of inserting mana into his mana eyes to dissipate those blindfolds, he focused on his soul world which he entered mentally. There, he saw Artemis, Scorpio, and Solaris staring at the egg that was right next to the soul world core, releasing its curse towards the core. This caused the soul world core to retaliate and the same scenario that happened with the prior curse he was targeted, occurred once again. His soul world shock and the soul world core was trying to push away the curse that tried to establish a new shelter within the core. Before, Jason was just targeted by a curse, but this changed completely now that he had formed a soulbond contract with the said cursed beast. It would be extremely difficult up to impossible to revolt against the race specific weakening curse which the petrification serpent harbored. Jason was unsure how much time passed but he could tell that something about his soul world core changed substantially. Suddenly, Jason''s eyes began to hurt and the only thing he sensed from the soul world core was the fact that 10,000 soul energy units had been consumed by it to create something. Unfortunately, he was unable to see it because the pain spreading through his eyes was tormenting him. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 389 - Infiltration? War? Jason didn''t expect the curses, which the unhatched petrification serpent inherited to him would take effect almost immediately. This was unpredicted but at the same time good to occur right now instead of an even worse timing, like in front of the woman from the Jual clan! If that were to happen, Jason would need to have a huge amount of luck or the best acting he could deliver to anyone doubting him. Initially, he had planned to investigate the things he could see within the rift itself, like the large green planet or the curse enveloping it, but that became insignificant. Right now, he had to endure the race specific weakening curse transforming his soul world core while the petrification curse wreaked havoc within his mana eyes, trying to change something too. Jason knew that the petrification curse he inherits from the unhatched petrification serpent would be advantageous. Thus he could easily endure the pain, but Jason was unsure if his soul world core was strong enough to overcome the weakening curse. Something changed about the soul world core and Jason only felt that it had absorbed 10,000 soul energy units to do something, yet, he was unable to figure out what exactly it was. This was not only annoying but the pain in his eyes prevented him from doing anything further. An unknown amount of time passed before Jason had been expelled from the rift while the pain in his eyes had intensified. Meanwhile, his soul world core transmitted illusionary pain towards him which was spread through his entire body. When he left the rift, Jason had to rely on the mana fluctuations to scan everything in his surrounding. His strength was still unrestrained and comparable to someone who had barely advanced to the Lowest Lique stage. From his mana fluctuations, Jason perceived that there were many shocked and shivering young prodigies next to him which allowed him to comprehend that they had escaped death closer than initially expected. However, Jason didn''t think that it was as close as the others thought. The situation was not desperate enough to shiver and behave like pushovers. At least not if one was arrogant enough to call themselves prodigies. Walking around the young men and women that laid on the ground, gasping for air, happy to have survived, he could hear a familiar voice echoing through the whole underground island. "What the hell is our family doing? MOM!! Explain to me what I''ve heard about the slave market and don''t even try to fool me!!" It was Milan and from his voice, one could tell that he was furious. On one side, Jason was happy to see this, but on the other hand, he found this act extremely foolish and naive. Yet, what astonished him was the other familiar voice he heard. "Calm down Milan! Let''s wait for Suo and then I''ll bring you away!! You don''t even know what happened here during the last six months...I will explain everything later, alright? Just calm down!" It was the voice of the woman, who he assumed to be the vice-head or matriarch of the Jual Clan, the person that had called him out for having a fortified soul conjunction! "HOW can I calm down right now? Not only did nobody in our clan tell me what was going on but I had to hear this from someone I just got to know? If he didn''t ask something about the slave marked by accident, I would have never heard anything about it! When would you have told me about it?? WHEN?" Suddenly, right about the time he wanted to advance the discussion with his mother that everyone on the island could hear through the sheer volume he spoke out of anger, Milan sensed that his legs gave in. A moment later, he felt a hand around his shoulder holding him with force which would have been uncomfortable if he didn''t felt the overly familiar mana fluctuations of Jason. Looking towards Jason whose eyes were closed, thick drops of blood leaking from them, he could only exclaim "Jason! What the hell happened with you?" Holding his ear with the free hand, Jason couldn''t help but say in a quieter voice "Hey Milan...I think you shouldn''t be so loud right now" Smiling lightly he whispered "At least not if you don''t want to humiliate your mother in front of a hundred descendants from all kinds of influential families and clans." Jason went all-in right now! Instead of running away from the Jual-clan, acting as if he had something to hide, he had chosen the exact opposite path that should work out too. He might have something against the Jual clan''s attitude towards their weaker citizens and the fact that they enslaved humans, but that was something Jason had to set aside for now! When he heard that the woman who had called him out before was Milan''s mother, Jason couldn''t help but rejoice. If everything worked out, he would be able to come out of the underground island unscathed! Turning towards the woman with two solidified and a third, almost constructed prismarine crystal within her mana core, Jason bowed lightly before introducing himself. "Hello, my name is Jason and I was the person who accidentally revealed the slave market to Milan while I was with him and Isga inside the Mythic Garden. I''m sorry, but I guess it''s better that he knows now, right?" Jason was unable to see the woman, who Milan quietly introduced as Yvonne Jual, because his eyes were still aching as if they were burning in hell''s fire. The only advantage that prevented him from screaming out in pain was his high resistance to pain and the fact that Solaris, the Tier-1 black origin flame enveloped his eyeballs with its flames, soothing the pain. It was an uncomfortable feeling but seemed to help a little bit. From the outside, it looked weird too because the dried blood around his eyes highlighted the black flames that could be seen through Jason''s eyelids. However, instead of showing interested in this, Yvonne Jual size-up Jason as she said "Weren''t you the young man with the fortified soul conjunction? In 6 months...you increase your mana core rank from the 4th Expert rank to the 2nd Master rank...not bad...but not something someone with a superior talent should be proud about. At least not if you are the one who actively absorbed mana with Milan and Isga at one branch of the exposed mana vein¡­" When Jason heard this, he thought that Milan had told his mother everything. As such he couldn''t help but turn around to Milan as he quietly mumbled to himself "Are you a mama''s boy?" Shaking his head, Jason was glad that Milan didn''t say anything about his age, when he heard him retorting his mother "What are you saying mom? His mana absorption rate is amazing, it''s just that---...." Before Milan could even finish his sentence he saw a fist, he hadn''t seen coming, emerged right before his eyes as Jason lightly said with a faint smile on his face "Do you want to pick a fight?" He was obviously joking but Milan was shocked that he was unable to see the fist that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Meanwhile, Yvonne who saw everything much slower could tell that Jason''s physical strength was already on par with her son who had said that he advanced to the Magus rank. That meant Jason''s mana core rank was not his entire strength. As such she scanned his mana fluctuations, only to sense that they were also on par with her son''s. "Soul amplification?" She just mumbled which caused Jason to stiffen. The pain in his eyes increased and Jason could also feel that the soul world core was about to merge with the curse it inherited after the soulbond contract with the petrification serpent egg had been completed. If his strength were to suddenly plummet in front of Yvonne Jual and Milan at that, he would have lots of things to explain or quite a few problems at hand. As such he straightened his back as he said "I need to go back now. I need to report my arrival!" This was neither entirely true nor false but he had to say it like this to tell Yvonne that someone was waiting for him, most likely a big family or hidden, ancient clan. At least that was the most logical explanation for Jason''s high strength. Yvonne who thought exactly what Jason wanted her to think pondered for a moment as she said "Just tell me where you have to go...If you''re a friend of Milan, I shouldn''t allow you to leave alone...at least not right now!" This confused both Jason and Milan "What is that about ''right now''? Did something happen?" "Jason, if you''re in a hurry you can leave, just go to Louis and tell him where you want to go, but it would be best for you to stay here for the next few days and leave with all of us at once¡­ I don''t want to scare you, but it looks like we are facing an infiltration of foreign races right now!!" "WHAT?!" Jason shouted out loud which attracted the attention of the surrounding young men and women that tried to get the hang of themselves. He quieted down in an instant and could only think about the Shadow walkers as Yvonne sighed "It''s pretty obvious for all clans that foreign races collude every clan to have a stable supply of humans which they want to turn into some sort of super humans or experiment with them. At least that is what we have been doing, but if I were to be honest, I''m not sure what they''re doing with the people we are sending over. In the end, we are insignificant and if we can become a little bit more important by colluding with the foreign races to stand up against them in the future, some people have to be sacrificed too!" ''And those people are the weak, right?.... But...does she truly understand how insignificant our race...or even Argos is?'' Jason didn''t say anything but he was able to understand how Yvonne thought according to her attitude and how she acted which included the fact that she was not even a little bit suspicious about his identity. She was probably even aware that his identity for Terebrean as "Jason Laere" was faked, but that didn''t seem to bother her. Instead, she explained and proved several things he and his masters only assumed to be correct. However, the thought that they could defeat those foreign races that supplied them with a minuscule part of their own resources, was absurd, if one were to put it nicely. "Unfortunately, some foreign race''s tactics seemed to have changed and several races, that mainly included the alliance around the Shadow walkers. We have already encountered more than a hundred Shadow walkers and every single one of them is as strong as I am, if not stronger...The worst, however, is the fact that they don''t seem to care about maintaining a good relationship with us anymore because they started to abduct prodigies from big clans too!! This has never happened and mankind is about to establish a large alliance and wage war to protect our offsprings!" When Jason heard this, he couldn''t help but blurt out "What bullshit...wage war against those who see our race as mere toys...great idea!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 390 - Misconception Yvonne was astonished about how vulgar Jason''s words suddenly became. "Bullshit?" She was about to lecture him that it was important to retaliate now that the foreign races started to infiltrate mankind''s territory when Jason''s words echoed in her mind. "Toys..? That''s something new. I''ve heard livestock or resource but we''ve never been called toys" Jason felt Yvonne''s stare on him while her anger seemed to be substituted with questions. This caused him to ask bluntly "I don''t want to be too brisk but Mrs. Jual, you said that our race is insignificant, right? However, at the same time you''re talking about fighting back with the resources we receive through the foreign races... Don''t you think that they know what they''re doing and expect this reaction? The resources they hand out in exchange for getting their hands on a constant supply of humans should be negligible or even worthless to them¡­ Let me ask you two questions. What do you know about the insignificance of our race?... And what would you say if I tell you that it''s even worse than you might think?" Jason''s reason to ask those questions was not to let Yvonne Jual have a reality check or allow her to receive more information about other planets than Argos. Rather than that he wanted to see how she would react and what she was going to do once he told her something she would never accept to believe. He had failed to accomplish the third task which he had given himself during the last few months; getting to know what ingredients were needed to create the addictive cultivation drug. However, that was not necessarily bad! From the looks of it, Yvonne Jual was not a completely bad person and Jason could tell that she was different from Jael Drake. At least to some extent... She cared about her two sons and even offered Jason to bring him away once everyone left the underground island. This was something he didn''t predict beforehand and it made him a little bit curious about more things. He wouldn''t accept her offer but Jason could figure out quite a few things if he were to talk with Yvonne for some time. Unfortunately, before the Jual clan matriarch could say something, someone rushed out of the crowd of young prodigies that were about to leave, charging straigth into Jason and Milan. Jason, whose mana fluctuations were fully expanded, noticed this and took a step aside. Thus Isga, who was overjoyed to see Jason, crashed into Milan. Both laid on the ground but Isga stood up hurriedly as he shouted. "Jason!! You are alive! That''s great.. But how and what is wrong with your eyes? Where is the petrification serpent now? Did the other most terrifying ranked beasts pursue you because of the petrification serpent''s egg scent that lingers on you?" At that moment, Jason had never been as frustrated to have become friends with someone like Milan and Isga as he was right now. How could their timing be so bad...every single time at that? This was not the first time and Jason felt that it wouldn''t be the last time either. While Jason was lamenting about Isga because he revealed too many things that not everyone on the underground island was supposed to hear, he was astonished that he didn''t hear Milan asking him about what had happened. Isga had already started to tell the story from the moment he encountered Jason who had manifested white wings on his back at that time. His storytelling ability was superb and Jason who was dragged out of his thoughts couldn''t help but listen intently until he remembered that he was exposing that he had survived the last incident with the petrification serpent egg in his hands. However, it was already too late and if he were to intercept Isga, everything would become much more complicated than it had become. As such he thought of a good story to explain how exactly he had survived. When Isga explained that everything was Fae Wirad''s fault as he had stolen the petrification serpent''s egg, Yvonne and Milan became angry. Milan was angry because his friends had almost died while Yvonne Jual''s anger stemmed from the fact that their family''s reputation could have suffered if there had been an incident inside the Mythic Garden. The death rate of 80% was a clear sign that the Mythic Garden was dangerous, but she encountered more than enough families spreading false rumors that her clan killed their prodigies within the Mythic Garden! If those prodigies that had been searching for the fate-changing fruit died at once, the Jual clan would have suffered a lot. As such, she was glad that Jason, Isga, and Yune had solved the problems from occurring. However, what astonished her were two facts. One fact was that Jason had obviously established two fortified conjunctions. This was something she understood when Isga continued with his story as he explained how Jason protected himself with the sapphire-colored exoskeleton he summoned after the white wings had almost been cut. The second fact was also the most important point! Jason was still alive after the petrification serpent mother devoured him!! It was likely that she only put him into her mouth to take care of her egg, but the fact that the petrification serpent mother didn''t release her mana kill Jason shocked Yvonne a little bit. According to the information they gathered for more than a century, something like that had never happened! The same could be said for protecting a beast egg, with one''s body while the mother beast saw them being attacked by another human. As such Yvonne couldn''t tell if that was something similar to gratitude from the petrification serpent, to have saved its offspring, or if Jason survived because he was special, which was pretty obvious. Not only was his name obviously faked, but, somehow, Yvonne Jual thought that his whole Hidde-Prodigy assessment was planned and that not even his age was correct. His soul-awakening should have been higher than a common 4-star rating too, which was not less shocking. However, Jason''s strength was on par with her own son while Jason''s mana core rank was one whole rank below Milan''s too! Clearing her throat, Yvonne was not sure what to say because something like the scenario she had heard about had never happened to her. Not only was Jason extremely mysterious and from an unknown background but it looks like he knows more about the strength foreign races have and the human race''s insignificance. Recalling Jason''s words ''What if I tell you that it''s even worse than you might think?'', she couldn''t help but contemplate asking him for more information. Suddenly, Jason noticed that the pain his soul world core caused him began to dissipate which was extremely bad. Under normal circumstances he would be glad to feel less pain, but not if he couldn''t tell what kind of reaction he would receive from others if they were to find out that he bound the petrification serpent egg to him. Averting his head to Yvonne Jual, he suddenly said "How can I leave the underground island? If it''s possible I would go back to Asga again!" Milan and Isga were astonished that Jason wanted to leave so quickly and it was only when they saw a thick sweat pearl running down his temples, their astonishment turned into confusion. "Are your eyes hurting too much? How did you even hurt them? Will you go back to your family to heal them?" Milan suddenly asked which caused Jason to extinguish the black flame around his eyes. The petrification curse within his eyes was unleashed and small drops of blood poured out of the corner of his eyes before Solaris ignited the flames again. This took less than a second and Jason began to wonder if he would have already bleed out without Solaris''s help. After seeing Jason''s state, everyone''s doubt was cleared. Even though Yvonne became curious about the healing flame Jason seemed to have contracted as his soulbond, she understood the situation. ''He has two fortified soul conjunctions from a winged beast and one with an exoskeleton...and now a flame that has a healing or maybe recuperating ability? He can''t be 17 years old...otherwise, nothing would make sense!!'' As such, instead of answering Jason''s question immediately, she asked him about his age. The moment she asked this she noticed that Jason avoided her which was expected and Milan was about to say something only to stop himself. This caused Yvonne to lift her eyes, confused that Milan, who told her every little detail about everything that occurred to him which he had always done since he was a small child. "I''m younger than my ID says, that should be enough, right?" Smiling lightly, Jason openly said that his identity was faked which reassured Yvonne in her thought that the youth in front of her belonged to an ancient clan. Some stricter ancient clans didn''t like it if their prodigies revealed their information because of multiple reasons. Either they wanted to have their peace, protect others connected to them or it had a different, deeper meaning. In the end, this was not important to Yvonne, and only one''s combat prowess was important! Yvonne sighed after this and decided to let Jason off her hook. There was no need to pressure someone from the younger generation and there was only one thing she wanted to know from him. "I can activate the transportation magic circle that brings you back to Asga, but can you answer one last question?" Nodding his head, Jason couldn''t help but feel that he knew what bothered Yvonne and her question was similar to the one he expected. "What did you want to tell me when you said that mankind might be less insignificant than I think? Our planet is one among a few dozen and only awoke a few centuries ago, while other planets are a few centuries to one millennium older, is there more?" When Jason heard this he couldn''t help but laugh out loud, which confused everyone around them. "That''s probably what your trusted allies from the foreign races told you, right? Never heard something so ridiculous! I think you wouldn''t even come close to the truth if you add a few zeroes to everything you said!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 391 - Are You A Zombie? Jason didn''t plan to reveal everything he knew to the others but he couldn''t help but feel like the foreign races were truly perfect at playing push-and-pull. First, the foreign races acted as if they were barely strong enough to be on par with the strongest human powerhouses in order to make trading agreements with them, and now they thought it was necessary to lie that badly? Were they trying to be considerate? What crap!! However, in the end, he had to acknowledge that the foreign race''s behavior was extremely smart which included the way they had played the big clans. Those foreign races even divided the human race amongst each other without creating a war on Argos. That was at least as long as nobody started to be greedy! Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t help but think that everyone was too naive, thinking that their gains from the trading agreement with the foreign races were enough to start a riot against the foreign races. At most, those big clans that colluded with the foreign races were business partners, more likely their underlings. Right now Jason could reveal almost everything without being looked at suspiciously which was all thanks to Yvonne, who was firmly convinced that Jason hailed from an ancient clan. Furthermore, she thought that he might be one of their most talented, young prodigies. This would also explain why he knew more information. According to what she knew, the ancient clans were more knowledgeable than most big clans in almost every aspect. She was not sure about their combat strength but in her opinion, they should be stronger too! The sole reason for those ancient clans to be unbothered about reigning Canir and the Archipelago was probably the fact that governing humans was seen as a hassle, wasting too much precious time that could have been used to absorb mana. "100x times...So several hundred planets and hundreds of millennia...shouldn''t that mean that they''re much stronger than what they show us? We are at the sovereign rank after around three centuries...what.." Yvonne was visibly shocked but Isga and Milan didn''t fare better than her. Instead, they looked even worse. Jason perceived everything through his mana fluctuations that scanned the whole area around him and couldn''t help but slap his two friends back with all his might. With a loud smack that echoed through the surrounding, Isga and Milan screamed out as Jason said "How about you two calm down? What happens to you guys after I depart? If I hear you guys slack off, just because of the things I told you, I''ll tear you apart! Or even worse...make fun of you guys!" Smiling lightly to ease the tension that had accumulated within Isga and Milan during the past few minutes, they looked at each other while rubbing the sore spot Jason had hit, before laughing out loud. Jason felt good right now because he sensed that Isga and Milan were real friends, however, he couldn''t even enjoy it as he sensed that the race individual weakening curse, which the soul world core had inherited from the unhatched petrification serpent, was showing signs of its effect. His smile vanished while the petrification curse in his eyes intensified. Holding his head with his hands, blood started to poor out of them again. "Can..we depart please?" Jason had yet to say how his eyes had been so badly injured but that was not important right now. Isga and Milan tried to help Jason, only to feel that their body stiffened as if something electrocuted them when they touched their friend. This was weird but they ignored this weird sensation and gave their best to help Jason out. Suddenly, Yvonne picked up Jason, who was baffled for a short moment. "Asga, right? Let''s go!" After taking the first steps she mumbled, slightly embarrassed that she had to ask this "That might be the worst time to ask this but Milan never lied to me because of someone else, and he doesn''t have many friends, so give him your contact details, please?" Even though the pain in his eyes increased Jason was still able to understand what Yvonne said ''Is that motherly love? Weird...She said ''please'' too...That''s unexpected'' He told himself quietly as he answered "I already gave them my contacts, I''ll save them in the other quantum bracelet too¡­" Instead of ''new'' quantum bracelet Jason said ''other'' in order to maintain his identity as an assumed descendant of an ancient family. Yvonne Jual sighed in relief before she rushed towards the transportation circle which she activated by injecting her mana "I know your situation is not really the best, and I would accommodate you to your clan, but I want to wait for my other son to come out of the rift...from what I heard earlier, the rift is too dangerous and I don''t feel comfortable¡­" Jason nodded his head before he heard Isga and Milan bidding farewell to him too. In the end, he could only shake his head and think that both were way too nice. What would happen if they would end up as enemies? Was that even something they imagined? Jason didn''t know but he knew that some big clans had been tricked into signing problematic soul contracts that forced them to follow the foreign race they were contracted with into war, if necessary. Their contracts might be shallow too, but nobody except those who signed them knew about the truth! According to what Yvonne told them, war was exactly what the big clans were trying to start against the Shadow walker and their alliance! Jason was also relatively sure that the Shadow walker and other races that belonged to their alliance came to Canir because of his existence. ''As long as one halfling can be born, it is possible to breed more!!'' Was probably what the shadow walker race thought and Jason was not sure whether this made sense or not. It might be possible, but such an existence should have been known. There could also be the sole exception of accidentally encountering a suitable race whose genetics were not too far apart, allowing a halfling''s birth. But that wouldn''t make sense either because humans were compared to toys while the Celestia race was obviously much stronger than the Shadow Walker race as they feared them! In that sense, their genetic pool should be far apart and this assumption Jason did, should have been wrong too. That was if he didn''t miss an important fact that might change everything! The teleportation magic circle Yvonne had activated manifested around Jason, teleporting him back to Asga where his mana fluctuations couldn''t sense anyone''s existence. However, in order to be sure that nobody was around, he released poisonous mist which would force others that might be inside the room to move or protect themselves. He would be able to hear the sound of corroding clothes too. As such, he could be relatively sure that there was nobody inside the room he was currently in as he opened his eyes by force. It was still hurting and the flames enveloping his eyes were obstructing his sight, but he was able to take out his quantum bracelet and message his masters that he had returned. After that, he closed his eyes again, extinguished the thick poisonous mist and left the room before he walked outside the small, shabby house as if nothing happened. Once he was far away from the house to feel safe, he opened his eyes to call a shuttle that brought him to the dome right next to a one-star wild zone. This took less than 20 minutes and Jason was relatively sure that Shane would be there soon. As such he forced his eyes to remain open before he exerted the weightless steps technique to accelerate his speed by 60%. Running through the dome wall and one-star wild-zone his mana eyes perceived familiar mana fluctuations which caused Jason to smile, even though everything was painful. His eyes felt like they were pierced by several thousand needles from the inside and outside, while his soul world core unleashed the race specific weakening curse, drastically reducing his soul amplification to 0%. Overwhelmed by the sudden exhaustion that was his body''s reaction to the sudden weakened state, Jason was barely able to see that Shane appeared before him. "Wow¡­Jason..are you a Zombie?" After that he was unable to stay conscious as he fainted with a smile on his face. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 392 - Curse Regulation An unknown amount of time flew by before Jason woke up inside the large and soft bed that was placed in his small, but comfortable room. He felt still exhausted and Jason knew that this sensation wouldn''t disappear within the next few days. This was because his whole soul amplification had been nullified by the race specific weakening curse! Jason''s eyes weren''t hurting anymore and he could take a look around, trying to figure out where his masters were. Getting out of the bed he noticed the dried blood below his eyes, thus he washed up and changed into a clean set of clothes. ''I can sense that the petrification curse has set its roots within my eyes, while my soul world core seems to harbor the race specific weakening curse...but what did the soul world core do with 10,000 units of my soul energy?'' Even if he was still exhausted and felt like he could sleep for several days, getting to know what exactly was going on with his body was important. Looking inside the mirror, Jason noticed that nothing about his eyes or appearance seemed to have changed. However, what was different from before was that his eyesight seemed to have improved again. Other than that, he couldn''t help but feel the desire to test out the petrification curse he had inherited from the unhatched petrification serpent that was completely silent. From the look of it, Jason could compare this state similar to human behavior of denying a traumatic event before one would have to accept it slowly. This assumption might as well be wrong but it was not really important right now because Artemis, Scorpio, and even Solaris were next to the egg, consoling the petrification serpent. They weren''t next to him to demand carcasses but were taking care of their new member of their family! As such, Jason could take care of his own things for now and he was about to leave the soul world when he noticed the changes about his soul world core. Approaching it, he was unable to tell what the change of his soul world core was aiming at. There were two new, larger runes carved onto the soul world core that was already filled with all kinds of mysterious runes and carvings. Yet, what made those two carvings special was the fact that the race specific weakening curse had been transferred within those runes. Lifting his hand he touched them lightly with the tip of his fingers as a stream of information flooded his mind. It was as if he received incomplete notes about how to use those two runes properly. The only issue was that these notes were ''incomplete'' and lots of information were missing. Apparently, his soul world core absorbed 10,000 soul energy units, when the petrification serpent''s weakening curse had been inherited to the core, recording everything that happened afterwards to the smallest detail. This astonished Jason and he couldn''t help but think that his soul world core was amazing as he began to skim through the memories which the notes transplanted to him. From what he understood, the two runes were similar to a deceive that regulated specific things. It was as if those two runes were a controller with two possible settings. One rune was currently glowing in a faint, dark green almost black color while the other new rune had neither the curse transferred from the soul world core nor was it glowing! However, this was something he had already expected after he digested the recorded information within the notes. Only one set could be activated at a time and the number of possible settings was unknown to Jason. It felt like those two runes representing the possible sections were only the bare minimum, while he had yet to configure the second, empty rune! Jason was not sure how he could configure the second rune but that was not something he had to find out within the next few minutes. After he found out that his soul world''s amplification didn''t have to remain nullified, Jason was relieved. He had already imagined the worst of the worst and thought that he had made a huge mistake. However, the curse he had inherited was a race specific weakening curse that didn''t have the constant decreasement which he had noticed when the petrification serpent had cursed him before. This allowed him to stay calm from the beginning. It would be weird if the curse changed substantially after he inherited it! Furthermore, from what Isga told him, a soul world amplification curse was stagnant. Yet, Jason knew that he was different! He was neither a human nor from the Celestia race but a halfling! This was probably why he had been so confident that he wouldn''t receive the petrification serpent''s full curse. That his soul world core was able to hold against all kinds of curses that targeted the soul world amplification even before binding a cursed beast to his soul, allowed him to be confident enough that the soul world core would be able to negate the curse for a short period. With that thought in mind, he was fine with training how to manually negate the amplification curse to a certain extent, which was fortunately not necessary. His soul world core made it much easier for him to handle everything, and the only thing he had to do was to fill the second rune with the desired characteristics of the race specific weakening curse and select his choice. In that sense, Jason began to wonder how often he would be able to change the settings or if that was something he could do whenever he wanted. However, after he perceived something else about his soul world core that had changed, Jason knew that the latter was not something he could do. The weakening curse within the soul world core was surrounded by a small translucent marble with one small, faint glowing rune engraved in it This rune was slowly enlarging and the glow was becoming more vibrant, but from what Jason perceived with his great eyesight, the pace was negligible. From the looks of it, this marble was what the two runes controlled which meant that the curse that was currently stored within the small marble was activated as Jason had already noted. ''Does that mean I need to wait until the rune engraved on the marble has stored enough energy to enlarge itself again? Only then will I be able to use a different setting? Isn''t that a little bit too harsh¡­.will this pace even accelerate if I become stronger or is the period the same until the day I die??'' Jason couldn''t help but feel that he had been conned, which stemmed mainly from the fact that it should take half a year before he would be able to use a different setting. This meant that he had to wait half a year to change from his nullified amplification state to a different one. ''At least I can absorb mana much faster now...the difference between having a mana core size of a lowest Lique stage or a mana core size of an average 4th Master is enormous! My combat prowess might have decreased drastically, but who said that I have to fight someone in the next few months?'' Telling this to himself, Jason decided that he would use the next six months to break through as many levels as possible while continuing to practice the body refining technique, Netherworld''s fort! Thinking about the things he wanted to do, he suddenly recalled the splitting mind technique. Thus, he rushed outside his room, not minding the exhaustion that weakened his body further. He searched for his masters to tell them everything that had happened to him before he wanted to ask them if they had been able to procure a brain-protection treasure as they promised. Furthermore, there were also other things he was curious about, like what had happened to Canir and if the big clans were really going to wage war against the foreign races that infiltrated Canir with a much higher number than they normally did. Jason was not sure how smart this was because the Shadow Walker and their allied forces were likely to have formed a soul contract with other big families that would have to start fighting against the other big clans in the worst-case scenario. Other than that, there was also his worry that the Shadow Walker sent out their forces to take care of mankind! If the basic instruction within the Terra-grade manuals Jason possessed was already talking about the four stages, Mortal, Lique, Prismar, and Ascendion as if they were nothing special, for an extinct race at that, he didn''t want to find out what kind of combat prowess races like the Shadow Walker''s warriors could attain! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 393 - Isnt That Cheating? When he found his masters, who were currently observing Emily''s concocting process of a potion, Jason couldn''t help but be interested. It was unsurprising that Dalia taught Emily, whom she treated like a princess, how to concoct, but Jason was curious about how she was faring. Emily was unable to purify the potions she was currently concocting but there was no mistake, at most something negligible that wouldn''t make a difference to the potion''s efficiency. Concocting a grade-1 potion after learning how to concoct for half a year was not bad, considering that Emily didn''t have a superior mana mastery, mana eyes to perceive the mana flow perfectly or an origin flame which made everything easier; she was truly fast! Jason was a unique case with several advantages that made even his masters jealous, thus, Dalia was glad that she was able to teach Emily at a normal pace. She took Emily in as her second disciple because her ambition and determination to become stronger were truly shocking. After the Golden-Soul shop reduced their exhibited goods drastically, the number of customers became fewer too. As such, Emily didn''t have to come to the shop, which was something Dalia had decided. Focusing on becoming stronger, Emily''s mana core rank increased to the 7th Expert rank while the emerald-colored egg she had bound finally hatched. It took a long time, but the hatched beast was a Lesser typhoon Roc, which astonished both Dalia and Shane. Rocs were seen as extremely powerful beasts, superior to eagles, and labeled as Overlord of the Sky. Only Dragons and other mythical beings were comparable to a Roc. It was said that only a few Rocs had ever been seen on Argos but when someone saw them demonstrating their strength, it had always been terrifying and devastating to their surroundings. As such, everyone was overjoyed after the Lesser typhoon Roc hatched, only for Dalia to freak out when she remembered that Emily''s vessel would hardly be strong enough to receive the amplification of a mythical beast at the Guardian stage. In that case, it was a blessing in disguise when Emily told Dalia and Shane how much of a soul amplification she received from the Lesser typhoon Roc. Emily was unable to tell the exact number, but comparing the increase her mana core size received to the rank the lesser typhoon roc had, they could estimate that Emily''s amplification was about 5%. This was not much, but perfect for Emily, who was unlikely to face any problems with a bursting vessel in the future! As such, the pressure on her lifted because her mana absorption wouldn''t be slowed down like it was the case with Jason. She would have to tell her soulbond to halt its advancement before entering the Lique stage but that was not really an issue. Furthermore, she would be able to increase her mana core rank quickly once her soulbond halted its own advancement due to the large difference of a 5% soul amplification with a single soulbond to that of a 33% soul amplification with two soulbonds. ** Less than 20 minutes had passed before Emily finished concocting the potion: Wiping away the sweat on her forehead, she turned around to Dalia, only to see that Jason stood in the doorframe. "Jason! You''re awake!" She shouted out with a smile on her face, which confused Jason a lot ''Why are you so happy??'' Turning around, Shane and Dalia saw that Jason stood behind them, but instead of being overjoyed, their expression was a little bit sad. "You...were supposed to lower your soul amplification...not nullify it¡­." Shane said as his lips curled downwards. Meanwhile, Dalia gave him a hug saying "It was probably hard on you, huh?" ''What the hell is going on with them?'' Jason was utterly dumbfounded about their behavior, but thinking about it for a short moment he understood it. Initially, they wanted to decrease his soul amplification to around 10%-15% and knowing that a curse was stagnant, both Shane and Dalia were sure that Jason did something he shouldn''t have. However, thinking that he would have never bound a cursed beast without proper reasoning, it had probably been a necessity to survive. Yet, Jason was still happy as he said teasingly "Even if my soul amplification would be nullified, it could be cursed to increase it again, which is however not necessary" With this Jason was talking about Isga''s case. He used the Debilitation Centaur''s soul amplification curse to increase his amplification from 0 to 10% as it was impossible to have a negative soul amplification. At least that was what Isga''s father found out. Jason''s soul amplification was a different case and in the beginning, he had even thought that his soul amplification would be decreased by 50% as it was the case with Artemis'' 100% soul amplification when she was inside his mana core. This would, under normal circumstances, mean that his soul amplification should hit 0% from 33% and then ''decreased'' to 17% which would have been perfect. However, it seemed like weakening an existing amplification below 0% was not possible and Isga''s case with a soul amplification of 0% was something rarely seen. Smiling at his masters because they were worried about this, Jason could only wave his hand, indicating that they shouldn''t be so worried! "I think it would be better if I explain what happened inside the Mythic Garden. After that, everything will be much clearer and It will be easier to demonstrate what is going on...After that, I need an explanation about the Shadow Walker''s infiltration and what other races I have to pay attention to!" When they saw how serious and confident Jason was, his masters couldn''t help but feel that he had matured a lot during the last six months! Meanwhile, Emily couldn''t help but think that Jason''s current combat prowess was probably only a little bit higher than her own, which made her extremely happy. She worked so hard during the last few months to become stronger with the goal to defeat Jason. Emily was not sure why that was one of her goals when she started to practice mana, but he had saved her and she wanted to repay this debt by all means! Other than that, Dalia and Shane were praising her a lot, but deep within her, Emily knew that her own talent was nothing compared to Jason''s. Otherwise, Dalia and Shane would be astonished to see her improving so fast, which did not happen. Through this, she felt the need to become stronger at a rapid pace, increasing manifold, only to see that Jason had already returned. He had reached the mana core rank of a 2nd Master even though he was barely 15 years old, and this was without adding the high soul amplification he previously had into account. They entered the living room and sat down. Dalia took out a few freshly cooked dishes which were left from their lunch and placed them in front of Jason, who eyed them with desire. Devouring every single dish Dalia took out of her storage ring, the others could only stare at him wondrous as Jason revealed the fact that he didn''t eat much throughout the last six months. There hadn''t been enough time or safe places where he could have cooked something, while the other dishes he brought to the Mythic Garden had to be rationed. But that was not important because the surrounding mana and the nutrition he obtained through the medical solutions were more than enough to stay alive. Rather than that, he was full of energy within the Mythic Garden, which was the most important point that changed compared to now. After explaining every little detail to his masters and Emily, three hours had passed. "That''s...Is that good? Or bad?" Dalia mumbled when Shane thought ''Should we lecture him for being too full of himself or praise him for achieving such a great feat?'' Jason could tell that his masters were contemplating about something after they heard his story which caused him to smile drily. Meanwhile, Emily could only stare at him with doubt "So...the origin flame evolved and your mana core has the size of an average 4th Master rank even without a single amplification? Now your soul world core can also switch between the percentage your soul world amplification is decreased? That''s cheating!!" Emily had hoped to catch up to Jason, who was even younger than she was...but now this goal moved far into the distance. This was frustrating and it was difficult not to see how baffled Shane and Dalia were about this revelation. The pride she had built up in the last six months was instantly shattered, but instead of being discouraged, or holding a grudge against Jason, she couldn''t help but feel even more motivated. Furthermore, from Jason''s explanation, she could imagine how hard he had worked and the final results were obvious! As such, she didn''t feel that Jason was more like a role model, who had saved her, than someone she should hold a grudge against. Suddenly after Jason had explained everything about the curse and his soul world core, that was able to switch between two different settings to curse his amplification, he said "If possible I want to create my second sub-area with the mind splitting technique as soon as possible. After that, It would be best for me to go into solitary cultivation at a secure place with a huge amount of mana¡­" It looked like Jason had already made a plan to utilize his current state perfectly when Shane asked "You want to return to Astrix, or more likely Cyro-City and make use of the huge mana vein?" With a sly smile on his, Jason gave Shane a thumbs up, showing that this was exactly what he planned to do when Dalia said "We found a suitable fruit to protect your brain, but are you sure that you want to go to the Drake family''s territory after what happened? You haven''t heard what happened during the last few months! Everything is in chaos thanks to the Shadow Walker''s, their alliance, and how a few big clans started to act suddenly, right?¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 394 - Confusion Jason was not really astonished to hear that Canir and the Archipelagos changed substantially after Yvonne had explained everything. It was one thing that the Shadow walker and a few other foreign races appeared which Jason assumed to be his fault to some extent, but that the majority of big clans expected to stand a chance against those foreign races was ridiculous. One or two Shadow walkers with seven or eight solidified prismarine crystals should be enough to annihilate mankind! ''Is it even necessary for them to send their powerhouses?'' This was something Jason was unsure about but he couldn''t help but feel that it was frustrating. After Jason had explained everything that happened during the last few months, both Shane and Dalia''s mood became better which was clearly visible. As such, they started talking about what happened on Canir and the Archipelago while he was inside the Mythic Garden. One hour later, Jason couldn''t help but scratch the back of his head in confusion as he mumbled "It''s neither great nor bad...why is it so confusing?" Everything Shane and Dalia told him seemed to be extremely confusing and Jason took a while to get the hang of everything. Apparently, three foreign races invaded Canir and the surrounding islands with more than one hundred individuals in total. Namely, those foreign races were the Shadow Walkers, Doom Crawls, and Virady. The majority of invaders were Shadow Walkers that had around three solidified prismarine crystals in their mana core. This was equal to the cultivation rank of mankind''s powerhouses! However, every Shadow walker had a refined physique that enhanced the Shadow or Darkness affinity they were born with by a large margin. Not only was their affinity comparable to that of mythical beasts at the same stage, but they learned how to utilize their affinities much better than humans did. In the end, the body refining techniques mankind obtain by trading with foreign races were the most basic which was something all foreign races did intentionally in order to prevent mankind from becoming too strong. This was one of the few things they had agreed on doing and Jason had already expected something like that. Even his Netherworld''s forte technique was worse than the technique Milan had obtained. This meant that the highest Terra technique foreign races exchanged with humanity were probably at the Terra-advanced grade. It also meant that the foreign races should have stronger techniques than those. At the same time, it also suggested that foreign races didn''t fear handing out certain techniques and guides. If one were to think logically about the provided intel, it would be better for the big clans to combine their forces and build an indestructible fortress. That was if something like that could exist and stay strong against the forces of stronger races! It was embarrassing but humanity was considered nothing but a mere toy for most foreign races and it was already a wonder that mankind had been able to retaliate against those foreign races for such a long time! This caused Jason to wonder if he missed something important. Not only had the infiltrating foreign races abducted several hundred children, but it was uncommon and weird that the vast majority of them were normal citizens. Were they unable to figure out which human children were talented, blessed with a good mana aptitude, and high-star soul awakening? If it was like that, everything would make sense but in that case, Jason would suspect that their intelligence was below that of mankind. ''Maybe the Shadow walkers think that one''s affinity is important to procreate with humans?'' That could be the case and Jason could only think that the Shadow Walkers were experimenting with a few things. Most of the abducted humans had also been young women which told Jason that they were trying to impregnate women instead of getting impregnated. However, it was not like it should work either way because the Shadow walkers'' genetic pool was likely to be the furthest away from that of humans. At least among all three races that were currently infiltrating Canir and the Archipelago. While Shadow Walkers were a darkness-, or in some rare cases, shadow attributed race whose only similarity to humans was the humanoid outer appearance, there was nothing else that was even remotely similar to the human race! At least that was what Jason knew. Meanwhile, the Doom Crawl and Virady race had at least a physical body which was something Jason was not sure about the Shadow Walkers. Doom Crawls were humanoid beings too, with dark purple-colored skin, two arms on each side, and a total of four eyes. They were commonly five meters tall with a bulky physique that highlighted their height. This made them already interesting to Jason, but more importantly was that they were a foreign race without a single affinity. Yet, their physical strength was extremely strong and superior to most foreign races! They''re able to fight on par with other races that possessed affinities without any other means than their physique which clearly demostrated how powerful Doom Crawls were. Doom Crawls had horns protruding out of their forehead and according to the information mankind could gather, those Doom Crawls with two horns were stronger than the one-horned Doom Crawls, while the size of their horns seemed to be an indicator for their combat prowess too. Yet, the most important fact about them, which was also the reason they were named ''Doom'' was that they harbored a curse! Even if Jason found all of that intriguing, he was still doubting if the Doom Crawls were able to procreate with humans or not. However, the most likely candidate to procreate with humans was the Virady race because they''re almost completely the same as humans, whether it was their appearance or size. Only their red, golden, or amber-colored eyes in addition to their mostly white to silver-colored hair were what made them different from humans. Viradys had paler skin than most humans but more important than that was their innate desire to drink blood which made them comparable to Vampires. Vampires were bloodsuckers, at least if the things Jason heard from fairy tales were true. It made him believe that a humanoid race similar to those vampires existed. Was that a sign that the Virady race was the same as the Vampires from Argos'' nightmare-like fairy tales? Somehow, to Jason, this was not impossible to imagine. Many beasts that had been deemed as extinct or about which had been written in fairy tales re-appeared after the mana outbreak when the rifts manifested! However, in the end, Jason was not scared about the infiltration of the Virady, Doom Crawls, or even Shadow Walkers, simply because there were only a few of them. According to Shane''s intel, the number of foreign races was becoming less too. This indicated that they had found enough humans that had a suitable soul-awakening according to their affinity or whatever criteria the foreign races had selected to abduct humans. It was unlikely that Jason would be found under normal circumstances. That was at least as long as he remained hidden for the time being, which was exactly what he wanted to do, even if there hadn''t been the foreign race''s infiltration, to begin with! What worried Jason was that it didn''t look like the big clans were about to stop gearing up. Shane even told him that the heads of more than 20 big clans were holding a large gathering! As someone who had nothing to do with those big clans, this gathering looked suspicious. At the same applied this made Jason understand how big the desire to retaliate and fight against the foreign races was, even if the direct threat hailing from them was already dimming! The number of infiltrating foreign races was already dwindling, so why would the big clans start to fight against them, risking being eradicated? Instead, they could protect their prodigies by hiding them for the time being, sending them to secure locations or into solitary cultivation, instead of allowing them to roam around as if everything was perfectly fine! The big clans'' decisions were irrational and weird, and even Shane and Dalia were unable to explain Jason, what exactly was going on. There was obviously something wrong, and the bad premonition he was feeling intensified when Jason heard, who the person that suggested waging war against the foreign races was. It was Jael Drake, who was labeled as one of the strongest humans since he had been able to slay an Ice Dragon at the Mid Monarch rank! The number of Sovereign ranks was not exactly large and there had yet to be a handful of humans at the Mid-Sovereign rank. Nevertheless, Jael Drake, who had yet to reach the Mid-Sovereign had been able to slaughter a Mid-Monarch ranked Ice Dragon which was something nobody except him could do! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 395 - Overthrown Island Nobody was unsure whether it was true that only Jael was strong enough to do a feat as he did, but the number of humans who were capable enough to do that could be counted at one''s hand. Most of those were probably the leader of ancient clans and blessed with great soul-awakenings, a superior mana aptitude, or even in possession of a special trait. However, Jael had nothing of that! His soul-awakening was only above average among the big families, at most, while his mana aptitude was great, yet not superior. Instead of a trait, he had a unique soulbond that gave him an extremely strong ice affinity, that was as strong as its mother''s while the cultivation manual to transmute his mana to that of ice mana was extremely precious. He had only obtained this manual that was labeled as a "Heaven" grade and the ''Sky frost Spear'' that had pure elemental runes engraved into it by signing a complex, yet beneficial soul contract with the My?ldra race, he had encountered inside the rift where he had abducted the Ice Dragon egg. With blue skin, curved horns protruding out of the side of their head, sky blue eyes, and scales covering their upper body, they seemed like a ferocious race which they were! The My?ldra race was extremely powerful and even the youngest generation was as strong as humanity''s strongest powerhouse which everyone noticed as one of those younglings that looked similar to a young man, manifested a thirty meter long icicle which it shot towards one of Jael''s men, killing him in an instant. This shocked Jael and his underlings greatly and they were about to die when the My?ldra race youngling stopped attacking when Jual and everyone else released their soulbonds to fight next to them. The My?ldra race''s leader was astonished and both sides withered the chance to obtain benefits from the other party which caused them to create a complex and lengthy soul contract that was supposed to exploit the other side. However, how should Jael have known that he was subtly influenced by everything he had obtained from the My?ldra race, slowly twisting his mind, manipulating him, turning him into a marionette without him realising? Jael Drake was still of the opinion that everything he did was for his own benefits and that it was his superior intelligence that allowed him to exploit a mighty race. Yet, both the manual and spear were meant to influence his mind in the direction the My?ldra race wanted. While the manual was changing Jael''s mana transmutation, it also changed the instinctive repulsive behavior every living being had against certain abilities, runes, and curses. The Sky frost spear was powerful, yet, also extremely dangerous if wrongly used which was exactly what the Drake patriarch did. There was one particular rune engraved inside the spear, one that was not allowed to activate while using the Sky frost spear. Without being aware of this, Jael Drake activated all of its runes every single time he fought with the Sky frost spear, which released an effect, changing the mental state of the spear wielder over time It was similar to a slow acting curse, one could hardly find without the necessary knowledge that humanity didn''t have. As such, everytime the My?ldra race exchanged goods with Jael Drake, they tested how far the curse had progressed, only to wait for the perfect timing to initiate their plan. When they heard that other foreign races started to infiltrate Argos, the individuals that were assigned to said plan sensed their chance, which was how the current situation occurred. However, nobody was aware of what happened to Jael Drake and why exactly he had changed by 360 degrees during the last few months. The vast majority thought that he turned insane after the Ice Dragon attacked the Drake clan''s headquarters. Furthermore, it was unsure why Jael Drake had turned Astrix, the island he governed into some sort of prison, but one thing was sure; living on Astrix as a prodigy was unthinkable because all of them had been taken to Canir! Meanwhile, the untalented remained on Astrix, acting as if nothing happened, trying to continue living their life peacefully. But, was that even possible? Only the weak, injured, or old and untalented remained on Astrix, drastically decreasing the average combat prowess on the small island. Every single city was understaffed and the number of guards was a tenth of what it had been before Jael Drake cleansed Astrix from everyone talented. This allowed beasts to roam through all zones without anyone being able to hold them back from leaving their designated wild zone as it had been the case before. Magical and Guardian ranked beasts noticed that something had changed too. The same applied to those beasts inside the Sanctum that was situated in Cyro-City. In the end, it didn''t require much intelligence to notice that not a single human was outside the dome, searching for beasts they could hunt. As such, those beasts within the large zones they had inhabited for a long time ventured outside. Slowly, Astrix turned chaotic and it was only when the first horde of Unblemished ranked beasts pursued by a magical ranked beast, accidentally entered the Dome that everything had begun to change from a bad state to the worst possible! Not only did the Drake clan abduct everyone with talent, leaving those weak and untalented behind, but he didn''t show any mercy at all as he had ordered his underlings to take Astrix''s resources away too! In the end, the Drake family abandoned the entire Island they had governed, leaving it to the weak and all kinds of beasts that started to create a massacre inside the cities that were unable to maintain the dome''s defensive measures that required a huge amount of mana to supply them consistently. Only six months had passed, but the whole Island had already been overthrown and only a few cities had been able to avoid the worst-case due to the dome''s defenses that worked properly there. This was only owing to a few old, yet prominent merchants that used up their stockpiled mana stones to supply the dome with enough mana to protect them for the next few months, if not years if necessary. After that, they would have to face their inevitable death the merchants had barely postponed. When Jason heard this, he couldn''t help but feel that Jael Drake was truly insane! But other than that, it also made him wonder why not a single big clan wanted to claim Astrix island for themselves. Only when Shane explained the situation clearly, Jason began to understand the reason for the big clans'' behavior. The major reason for not helping the citizens on Astrix was the fact that the benefits one could obtain on Astrix had become insignificant. What use was an empty island with destroyed cities and a population of a few, untalented citizens that used up a large quantity of star-notes without giving anything in return? If one were to send help, one would have to send several Lord ranks because several humans at the Grandmagus rank wouldn''t be enough to cope with the dangers on Astrix anymore! Furthermore, the earth dragons that had waited angsty for several months, only to notice that there was not a single young human taking away the two remaining earth dragon eggs, began to understand that something was wrong too. It was dangerous, but they had to figure out what was going on. This led one of the bravest earth dragons to return to the surface in the same way they had taken more than a century ago when they had been forced to enter the underground hall. After it was clear that not a single human was left, the earth dragon called its brethren that were shocked about the news. Time passed slowly and the earth dragons turned into Astrix''s overlords, free from mankind''s reigns. The soul contract they had signed never mentioned a case like that and only stated that they would be hunted if they were to return to the surface. However, who was going to punish them, now that nobody governed Astrix anymore? Sending out several Lord ranks would be dangerous after the Earth Dragons regained their complete combat prowess too. As such the dangers and expenses to reclaim Astrix were not worth the benefits one could obtain. The only benefit most big clans could see was the large mana vein, but that was everything valuable left on Astrix! Rather than gaining something, it was more likely to bring losses! Jason could understand their reasoning to some extent. If they had to send one of their few sovereign ranks, who knew what would happen in those dangerous times that were about to start. From the looks of it, big clans didn''t seem to trust each other anymore and even the gathering should be a charade lead by several foreign races that remained in the shadows. It was the sad truth, but Jason had to acknowledge that it was not feasible to reclaim and save those who had survived on Astrix until now. At least not right now! Even though some hunters wanted to help, they wouldn''t dare to venture to Astrix, in fear that they might be abducted from the Drake family that could return suddenly, without notice, forcing them into signing an enslavement-like soul contract, or to die! In times like these, nobody knew what was going on and Jason was sure that not even the big clans could get the hang of the whole, big picture! Maybe, something would change in the next months, but Jason doubted it. Reality was cruel, but those without powers or connections could only accept their fate or fight against it with all their might! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 396 - Using Ones Disadvantage As Advantage Humanity was still not at its worst as the mana outbreak and emergence of the rifts more than three centuries ago were far worse, but right now, nobody felt secure or protected anymore. Not even the big families were able to announce that they were confident in their own strength right now which was something that had rarely occurred. From the beginning, those families had the best capabilities and fewest casualties compared to the untalented citizens or unfortunate clans that had to face beasts much stronger than they were. In the end, Jason couldn''t help but feel that the situation they currently faced had been worsened due to the Drake clan''s actions. Abandoning Astrix was one point, but suggesting to wage war and announce a gathering even though most invaders of foreign races had already left Canir was suspicious! If one were to think about it, this could only be a trap and Jason doubted that the other big clans were unaware of that too. Adding the fact that the Drake clan was unlikely to intend fighting against all big clans at once, alone at that, Jason was sure that the foreign clan supporting Jael Drake planed something too However, the same should apply to the other foreign races! That was if they were able to comprehend what Jael Drake and the foreign race supporting him were planning to do! This was highly likely and Jason began to wonder when the charade would be uncovered, revealing everyones'' real intention and the races behind them. Yet, more importantly for Jason were two points. He was not allowed to be found because he had yet to find a way to conceal the fact that he was a halfling from the Celestia race while the other point was that he had to become stronger, as fast as possible! The former point was something Jason had no idea about how to solve. Not only was there a weird aura around him according to the transmitted thoughts he had received from the earth dragon, but apparently his eyes were similar yet not as distinct as his aura. As such he had to find a way to conceal his aura too! Otherwise, he would have to face a few foreign races and their possible wrath, greed, or jealousy! Nobody could promise him that other races would react similarly to the Shadow Walker. Thus, concealing his aura was important too! Other than that, he had yet to create his second sub-area and reach the Lique stage! Furthermore, Jason allowed both Artemis and Scorpio to advance their strength now that he didn''t receive a single percentage from his soul amplification anymore. He could exploit his weakened state like this. At the same time advance his mana core rank, once he had found a great location to absorb a lot of mana without being interrupted by other races or someone else. The large mana vein below Cyro-City was even more alluring than it had been before because the only living beings that could attack him there, were beasts. There was a beast whose potential colors he had never seen before but it had been hibernating for three centuries, meaning that there shouldn''t be an issue with that! As such, instead of staying on Terebrean inside the small city Shane and Dalia owned a house, he decided to use his nullified amplification to the fullest extent. Turning to Dalia he asked "If it''s not too much of a hurry, can I use the mind splitting technique...like right now? I know that I woke up only a few hours ago but I don''t think that I should waste too much time. Even more so after hearing what is currently happening on Canir and other Archipelagos!" Both Dalia and Shane expected that something similar to that would happen while Emily was also similar to Jason. She felt extremely weak, like a pushover, and wanted to become stronger as soon as possible. However, she didn''t dare to refine her brain because Dalia and Shane had yet to acquire another brain protection treasure. If they hadn''t promised Jason that they would be able to procure the brain protection treasure for his second sub-are they would have given the one they were able to obtain to Emily. Yet, Jason was the most talented with a great soul awakening, superior mana aptitude, and even more important, a great mindset. Adding his soulbonds potential, it was difficult to compare to Jason, which was what Emily understood fully. Furthermore, once Jason was strong enough, he could protect the people around him and prevent a war between humans to break out. This wouldn''t mean he would be able to fight against the foreign races, but Jason was sure that most stronger individuals of foreign races had something better to do than fighting against each other to procure a few more soldiers, or whatever humans had been used for by them. Thinking back to the time where the three foreign races appeared in Cyro-City, it was obvious how astonished the Ganasia and Deepsea Scion race envoys had been when they saw the Shadow walker who was said to be a prodigy from the younger generation. Thus, one could say that it was more likely to send lower-ranked individuals to Argos as long as nothing special happened. On the other hand, once the first stronger individual from a foreign race was sent over, other races would follow soon, which was definitely not something mankind wanted to witness. In the end, Emily couldn''t do anything against those foreign races because she was way too slow in accumulating mana and becoming stronger, while Jason seemed different than her! As such, she remained quiet and followed her master, Shane, and Jason without saying anything. Barely ten minutes later, Jason stood within a large magic circle that was intertwined with multiple mana isolation-, a mana vortex- and dissolution runes. Those runes were supposed to dissolve all mana stones, gather the mana in the center of the room and isolate everything that happened from the outside. Meanwhile, the mana isolation rune was also supposed to prevent mana from leaving the magic circle and Jason felt like he had to face a Deja-v¨´ right now. However, instead of being scared, he knew what he was supposed to do and there was nothing that could hinder him in following his dream and desire to become stronger. Taking revenge on his mother was one goal, but rescuing the whole Fler family and protecting everyone else who was important to him was even more important. Once everything would be over, he might be able to venture to other planets and see how strong other races truly were but that was something for the future and nothing he should think about right now. With the small jade-enveloped box in his hands, Jason approached the magic circle''s center while Shane threw out a huge bulk of mana stones to fill the whole magic circle at once. "That should be more than enough. Give your best and finish it quickly. I can''t promise if the isolation runes are perfect because I had to intertwine everything, making one rune out of all of them! As such faint mana fluctuations might leak, alright?" Jason nodded his head, understanding that they might be exposed if he were to take too long. Taking out the fruit, called "Ascor brain merua protecto", Jason noticed that it was not enveloped in a particular color or the mysterious color Artemis and the unhatched petrification serpent were enveloped with. This indicated that the fruit didn''t have a great quality! However, from the looks of it, its mana fluctuations and everything Jason saw within the fruit spoke for the opposite. This allowed Jason to tell that the quality might not be perfect but that its grade was extremely high. Gobbling down the tennis ball-sized fruit in three bites, Jason sat down as he activated the large magic circle at once. Manifesting around him, Jason was able to perceive the magic circle''s capabilities and the Ascor brain merua proteco fruit''s effect directly. Enveloped by a thick gree membrane, his brain was protected and seemingly even recuperating without the need for Jason to do anything. As such he could take a deep breath as he began to absorb the dissolved mana that was drawn to the vortex that manifested within the large mana vortex rune Shane inscribed into the center of the magic circle. Jason didn''t ask his soulbonds to do anything, but before he had started to refine his brain, Artemis, Scorpio and even Solaris accessed their fortified soul conjunction with him to transfer Jason''s pain. When he sensed this, he couldn''t help but feel the warmth rising in his heart as he started to exert the mind splitting technique according to its described way! Endless pain spread through his brain as it was refined, but only a moment later, Jason could hear his soulbonds screaming out in pain while his pain had been reduced drastically! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 397 - One Step At A Time Jason stiffened when he felt searing pain that had already been reduced to a quarter of what it should be, spreading through his body It was shocking how painful refining his second sub-are was but comparing it to the first time where he had yet to establish a fortified soul conjunction with any of his soulbonds, Jason didn''t feel like he should be complaining. The first time was much more painful, which mainly stemmed from the fact that he had to eat the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit that caused greater pain than the brain refinement did. This was now different because the brain-protection fruit he ate did nothing but protect and recuperate his brain, preventing any type of serious damage to his brain. As such, he suppressed the pain and tried to ignore it as well as possible before he focused on the task at hand. First, Jason had to refine his brain before he had to split up a small part of it. After that, he could decide for what he wanted to use the second sub-area that could do almost everything passively. That was if the process was not too taxing to do passively. Jason was not sure if it would affect each other, but having two sub-areas with different tasks shouldn''t repulse each other. At least Shane told him so. While the first sub-area would stay like it was, the second sub-area wouldn''t be able to use the whole capabilities the first sub-area had. This was also the reason why most descendants of big clans established only one sub-area or at most two in order to create a passive mana gathering cycle and a soul energy increment cycle. In the end, this was exactly what Jason wanted to do too. Even if his soul energy would only increase by 1% per day, it would generate a huge amount of soul energy units as time passed. In several months he should be able to increase his soul energy by 1,000 units a day and Jason couldn''t help but feel like most patriarchs had several million vacant soul energy units without any use for them. This was mainly because they were unable to catch and form a contract with a stronger beast and the fact that their soul world was fully occupied. The latter was less of a problem, but the former was problematic because it would take some time before mankind would reach higher ranks, allowing them to catch and restrict stronger beasts. Little did he know that everyone was accumulating soul energy desperately! Jason had fewer problems than those humans because he was now in possession of three soulbonds without potential, while Scorpio''s potential was restricted. Yet, after Solaris evolved into a Tier-1 Origin flame, it should be able to purify Scorpio''s body from a small amount of impurities. However, they had to test out if this was truly possible, or else, Scorpio might be injured while experimenting, which was not something Jason wanted to see. Solaris, Artemis, and the unhatched petrification serpent didn''t have any potential, or rather Jason felt like he was unable to see it, which was exactly the same with humans and those foreign races. They had the same mysterious hue around them, even though it was a little bit different to his soulbonds'' hue! ** Several hours had passed since Jason had started to refine his brain while his soulbonds endured Jason''s pain with him. "I expected him to scream out in pain or suffer more. It''s good that he looks fine!" Shane said, visibly relieved that Jason didn''t have to endure too much pain as Dalia said. "You forgot that he has multiple fortified soul conjunctions, right? He and his soulbonds share the pain amongst each other, otherwise, he would definitely despair right now...The creation of the first sub-are is nothing in comparison to the second one...If he didn''t have such a firm bond with his soulbonds and fortified soul conjunctions, I wouldn''t have allowed him to create his second sub-area!" Shane could only nod his head when Dalia said this, while Emily flinched every time Jason''s lips twitched in pain. "Do I have to endure that pain too?" She mumbled, thinking that it might be more painful to become stronger than she had expected. "Not really...with enough time I coul have concocted a unique potion called ''pain nullifying potion''. The person who drinks this potion won''t feel any pain for an entire weak and is much stronger than some painkillers! On the contrary, one would have problems absorbing mana for a whole month.... Jason is not only enduring the pain without such a potion but the pace at which he processes everything is much faster than one would normally refine his brain. At least under normal circumstances if one wanted to avoid enduring too much pain at once¡­.I think he is afraid of Shane''s warning about the leaking mana. Jason prevents mana from leaking by absorbing it as fast as possible. As such the mana has not a single moment to search for an area to escape!" After Dalia explained everything, Emily signed in relief before her respect for Jason skyrocketed as she realized what her master had said. ''He absorbs the mana, preventing it from leaking out of a mana isolation magic circle? And why didn''t he ask Dalia to concoct him a pain nullifying potion? Does he think that''s wasting time or...maybe he thinks that has no time left!'' Staring at Jason, who was sweating profusely, not knowing what kind of determination and ambition one needed, to attain firm willpower as Jason had, Emily couldn''t help but be in awe. ** 24 hours had passed since Jason started to refine his brain when he was finally done with this step. Now he had to split his mind which was equally painful if not even more. Taking a deep breath he followed the splitting mind technique''s guide and split a small part of his mind to create the second sub-area while screaming out in pain. Meanwhile, his soul world was filled with screams, and Jason couldn''t help but sever the connection with his soulbonds, taking on the remaining pain by himself. There were only a few minutes he had to endure everything and Jason didn''t want his soulbonds to receive trauma from the pain he had to endure. As such he had decided to bear the pain alone, only to notice how horrific it was and his scream intensified. Barely able to retain his consciousness, 30 minutes passed until Jason''s second sub-area was finally constructed. His mind didn''t receive any kind of backlashes which was great, but he felt extremely exhausted as he slumped on the ground where Jason laid down. After he had finished establishing his second sub-area, Jason''s consciousness remained fully awake, yet, his body had entered a weakened state. Looking at the ceiling he felt extremely tired, yet energized at the same time as the remaining mana that was gathering in the mana vortex rune above him was absorbed by his mana eyes whose desire for mana increased with every day passing. Jason couldn''t explain what exactly his mana eyes were but they were definitely something unique and he didn''t even realize that they were able to absorb mana slowly without him doing anything. The mana his first sub-area absorbed increased as the gathered mana was directly transferred to his mana eyes. His mana eyes released a faint golden glow which was the cause for the passive mana gathering to accelerate until the last trace of mana was fully absorbed into his mana eyes. He was not sure what was going on, but it was definitely not something bad, considering that he could passively absorb lots of mana into his mana eyes as long as he could do something else actively. As such it shouldn''t be problematic. ''Now... let''s see how I can create the continuous soul energy cycle to receive the best result before taking the next step!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 398 - Soul Energy Cycle After he finished creating his second sub-area Jason intended to rest for a few hours, only to notice that he was unable to do so. His mind was rattling with things he had left to do before resting which was not only annoying but also painful. He had barely refined his brain and now his mind was already working as if it was a machine. Creating the continuous soul energy cycle was easier said than done because he had only 16,000 soul energy units left after the soul world core absorbed 10,000 units to record everything about the race specific weakening curse it was forced to harbor. At the same time, the soul energy units that were left unused out of the bunch of 10,000 units had been used up to create the curse controlling marble. This was just what Jason had comprehended from the information he had received. It was more likely that he was wrong but to make everything easier to understand, he told himself that it was as he was assuming. Maybe the soul world core obtained the necessary energy, to create the two new runes and the marble that was able to contain, activate and restrain the curse, from somewhere else, like using his life force or his nutrition, mana, energy, and soul energy altogether. However, there was no way to prove any of those theories. It was already over either way, and the important point was that he had only 16,000 soul energy units left. Other than that, the unhatched petrification serpent''s curse was adjustable, which was interesting to know! The latter was less important for the continuous soul energy cycle he was currently creating but the former was crucial in this case! One needed a certain amount of soul energy units to construct a properly working continuous soul energy cycle which one''s sub-area could control without any problems. For example, the passive mana gathering technique was simple. It created a small vortex that absorbed the surrounding mana before leading it through one''s upper body''s mana veins. This was only one circle and was already enough to annex the absorbed mana. After that, it would be stored inside the mana core that one was supposed to nurture! In the end, there were two, at most three steps necessary. First, create a small vortex to absorb mana! Second, lead the absorbed mana through the mana veins until it has been annexed. Third, store the annexed mana into the mana core. This was everything, but the second step was already considered extremely difficult for a ''passive'' technique one''s sub-area was barely capable to achieve. If Jason were to establish the passive mana gathering technique in his second sub-area this wouldn''t work properly owing to the fact that the first sub-area was the strongest. Splitting one''s mind divided a small part, at the size of around 1%-to-3% of one''s mind, if one were to put it in numbers. During the cultivation process, one receives an overall enhancement in every characteristic for every level and rank one breaks through. This would mean that one''s mind would also receive this enhancement. The splitted mind was included in this enhancement as well as the main-area was! While the first sub-area split 3% of one''s mind, if one were to put it in numbers, the second-sub area was said to split 2% out of the remaining main area of one''s mind. After that, this part would become smaller with every sub-area one could obtain. Thus, the first sub-area was always stronger and more capable of doing something greater than the second, third, fourth, and so on! As such, only the first sub-area was efficient and strong enough to follow the slightly more complex steps of the passive mana gathering. Shaking his head, Jason had to disregard using the first sub-area to create the continuous soul energy cycle which would result in having a higher increment of soul energy per day. This effect would be created due to the first sub-area''s higher capabilities compared to establishing the continuous soul energy cycle in the second sub-area. With that in mind, he created the continuous soul energy cycle in the second sub-area while testing if 16,000 soul energy units were enough to do so. Under normal circumstances, one would need close to 50,000 soul energy units to do something like this, however, Jason''s soul energy replenishing speed was four times faster than the average of all recorded soul-awakenings had. Compared to others, whose soul energy required 24 hours to replenish fully, his soul energy was fully replenished after 6 hours which made a huge difference. Because of this advancement he had, Jason was not required to have 50,000 soul energy units, neither 25,000 nor 16,000 soul energy units. In the end, he had enough soul energy units to create a common continuous soul energy cycle that was at the same time the only soul energy cycle one could establish in one''s second sub-area. After Jason had completed every step, the soul energy cycle would follow the instructions he gave the sub-area, and as long as he didn''t instruct the sub-area wrong, increasing his soul energy by around 0.8%-1% per day should work perfectly. A moment later, he forced himself to stand up before he took a look inside his soul world, where he glanced at the soul energy circle that was in fact the cycle he created. There was one entrance and one exit for his soul energy and it was an endless cycle he created. With a faint smile on his lips, he turned around to look at Artemis, Scorpio, and Solaris who seemed to be exhausted. Looking at Artemis, Jason did only now remember that her wings had been heavily injured before he left the Mythic Garden. Approaching Artemis he took a look at her wings that seemed to be fine when he sensed that everyone craved for his attention. Artemis rubbed her head at Jason, Scorpio used his stinger and pincer to tug and poke him, while Solaris floated around him happily. Only the unhatched petrification serpent remained unmoving and it was at the same exact position at which it had been after it had formed the soulbond contract with Jason and entered his soul world. He didn''t have much to say about this, but he decided to ignore his other three soulbonds for a moment to approach the unmoving egg. "You can take all the time you need to overcome your agony. But don''t suppress your emotions, we are a family now! If you feel like it, release your aura however you want, nobody will judge you, even less inside my soul world. Otherwise, I''ll ignore them for a month or two...hehe." Jason tried to get through to the petrification serpent, but he didn''t receive an answer. But that was not something he wanted to accomplish in the first place. What he wanted to do was to show the petrification serpent, that he and his soulbonds wouldn''t treat it badly and that it could release all kinds of emotions it suppressed. They were a family now and shouldn''t have to hide something in front of each other. After he had told the unhatched petrification serpent what he had wanted to, Jason turned around to Artemis, Scorpio, and Solaris who stared at him in shock. ''No caresses¡­.and no teasing?'' Was what they seemed to think and Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly. "As long as you don''t tease the petrification serpent in its current state, all of you will get your caresses! Just treat it like you treat each other¡­" However, when he thought about the latter part he quickly added "Forget the last part...just treat the petrification serpent as you treat me rather than treating it like you treat each other!!" He knew that Artemis and Scorpio were more like rivals while Solaris had been avoided by both Artemis and Scorpio. It had only been a few months since Solaris had been accepted by Artemis and Scorpio. This was mainly because it had helped and rescued Jason a few times, indicating that it was on their side and not as evil and destructive as their instincts told them. As such, Jason thought that it would be much better if his three soulbonds treated their new family member better than they had treated each other in the beginning. Thinking about it, Jason thought that their start was difficult, but time tied his soulbonds closer to each other and Jason knew that he couldn''t live without them anymore! After he took care of everyone within his soul world he decided to leave it for the time being because he had something else to take care of. Jason walked out of the magic circle towards his masters and Emily as he said "I don''t know what exactly all of you planned to do, but I would like to make a trip to Astrix''s large mana vein for the next few months. After breaking into the Lique stage, I''ll feel more comfortable. I don''t know why but I can sense something essential will changes when I liquefy my mana, but I can''t grasp what it might be!" He was not sure what exactly might change, but his entire being released the desire to break into the Lique stage and Jason couldn''t tell why. The only clear fact was that right now was the best period to break into the Lique stage, at a place with lots of mana that not a single human would enter right now! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 399 - Return It would be a lie if Shane and Dalia were to say that hiding on Astrix was a stupid idea and Jason''s plan could be considered quite clever. Not only Jason, with his nullified soul amplification could profit bye entering Astrix''s large mana vein, but Emily with a 5% soul amplification and her Lesser typhoon roc that had yet to reach the Awakened rank would receive astronomical benefits too. In half a year, she should be able to reach the 1st Master rank at the bare minimum. Rather than that, it was more likely that she could reach an even higher mana core rank as long as the lesser typhoon roc tried to suppress its advancement to the Lique stage. Six months were only an example which Jason had stated because that was how long it would need for the curse controlling marble within his soul world core to be recharged. After that, it was possible to change the settings of his course to switch in and activate the adjusted curse. Jason had yet to think carefully about what adjustments he wanted to take, but before he could think about that, he had to take every little detail into account and that was only possible when he was about to reach the Lique stage. Adjusting anything before liquefying his mana would be a waste of time and thus, Jason set himself a new goal. Reach the Lique stage in six months. This goal would mean that he had to give up on his previous goal which he had told the Fler''s, breaking into the Lique stage before the end of the year. This was a beautiful goal but unfortunately his high soul amplification was a huge obstacle to achieve his goal. He had already reached the combat prowess of the Lowest Lique stage for a short time, but that was in the past. Now that his soul amplification had been nullified, his combat prowess was unknown. His physical strength and mana core size were comparable to that of a 4th Master ranks but adding the three affinities his soulbonds inherited to him, his strength reached an unknown degree. In the end, each of his affinities had reached the strength of the Lowest Lique stage too! After his soul amplification had been nullified Jason found it useless to restrict his soulbonds or rather Artemis advancement to the Lique stage As such Artemis had started to liquefy the mana she had already stored in her mana core in order to create one drop of mana. Under normal circumstances, this would take some time but even Scorpio reached the Lowest Liques stage quickly because he had already created his mana core and had stored enough mana to liquefy into the first drop of mana! Solaris was slightly different because he was Jason''s soulbond that caused the most chaos while creating its mana core. Meanwhile, the unhatched petrification serpent shouldn''t have any problems creating its mana core because the color enveloping it was similar if not the same as Artemis''! Furthermore, the petrification serpent mother was at the Low Lique stage and there shouldn''t be any problems with his newest soulbond. At least if one were to focus on its talent and racial potential. The only uncertain factor about the unhatched petrification serpent was whether it would be able to overcome its mother''s death, shortly after it had been kidnapped. If it were to think that the petrification serpent''s mother''s death was caused because of its abduction, the unhatched petrification serpent was likely to have to face a few issues. Jason knew that it was different, but he would have to wait patiently before intervening in his fourth soulbonds trauma. Forcing anything on the unhatched beast was not what he was supposed to do and might even worsen the situation! After pondering about it for a bit, both Shane and Dalia found Jason''s idea even better than they initially thought. They wouldn''t have to be afraid to have a scarcity of mana around them but on the other hand, the sheer mass of medical solutions they required would be devastating. However, that was not considered a problem for Shane, Dalia, or even Jason because they had more than enough funds to purchase everything they wanted. Suddenly Shane said "I purchased a few special ores and other materials too! During the next few months, I had planned to teach you how to forge a proper soul weapon! However, now that your black origin flame...I mean Solaris evolved into a Tier-1 flame and its purity ability improved...we might as well advance further and improve a different aspect too! I think Dalia''s opinion is the same. Your conservatory''s water tank should be empty soon but you can use the herbs and plants inside to concoct higher-ranked potions! If my estimation is not wrong, we can hasten up our plans by a few months, maybe even a year. That is if Solaris'' purification ability and proficiency over the flame reaches the degree you told us about! As such we could teach you and Emily everything about the lifestyle occupation. We handed Emily the translation of the Netherworld''s fort technique you made too and we tried to figure out if we could adjust it somehow, but, unfortunately enough, we can''t change the fire affinity requirement. However, that should be fine. That only means Emily will focus more on absorbing mana while you have to focus on both absorbing mana and refining your body." ''Why is he talking so much? Is it because he can teach me about forging again?'' Jason asked himself with a faint smile on his face before he averted his gaze to Dalia, who threw a faint smile towards him. "Let''s go! You told us about a hibernating beast, but if the worst-case scenario occurs and it wakes up, we should notice this early enough...I guess? In that case, Shane will bring us away in the fastest way. Other than that we can''t do much...at least not with the foreign races invading humanity territories as they please¡­" ''To think that I hear something like that from master..our situation is really...not that great?'' Emily thought when she recalled how wise and knowledgeable her master normally was. However, she just said "I would like to go too. Right now, every place seems to be dangerous...From what I heard, all beasts that had been forced to live underground re-emerged to the surface. Doesn''t that mean there are only a few beasts near the mana vein?" Emily was not entirely wrong with her assumption, yet, most beasts would rather stay near the mana vein than distancing themselves from it by returning to the surface. As such, she was not right either. There were a few beasts that reached their racial limit and felt uncomfortable living underground, like the earth dragons as an example. Both facts, having reached their racial limit and being uncomfortable living underground were good reasons to re-emerged to the surface! Dalia explained this to Emily who could only nod her head as she said "So...there should be a few strong beasts nearby the mana vein..will we be fine?" Shane just smiled and said yes to which Jason added inwardly ''As long as that hibernating beast with the azure-silver hue around doesn''t wake up'' "Let''s purchase everything we need and depart as soon as possible. Staying on Terebrean shouldn''t be that safe anymore too. During the last months, I saw three invaders from the Virady race flying over our small city¡­ They might search through the smaller cities soon!" Everyone nodded their head and Jason was already about to purchase high-grade medical solutions when he saw multiple notifications from Silas, his employee. "F*ck, I completely forgot about him!" He knew that his shop had been doing fine, even without a high supply of goods which he had to restrict due to his departure to the Mythic Garden, but Silas had been working hard during the last few months and paid according to the stated salary. However, now that Jason was about to leave Terebrean for a longer time, Silas would end up unemployed! He felt bad about that as he saw that Silas requested the termination of their contract. Sighing deeply, Jason responded to the message that was already several days ago. [You did a good job! Thank you very much! Check your bank account, there is a small bonus for you. Never give up and work hard to accomplish whatever you dream of!] Even if the message sounded a little bit too much, Jason was genuinely thankful to Silas and instead of writing an empty message without much meaning to his ex-employee, Jason sent him 10,000,000 credits. Since his shop had opened, Jason earned more than 1,000 star notes and it was mostly thanks to Silas who worked hard to attract more customers. As such, he couldn''t help but give him a bonus of more than 30,000% of his normal salary. For Jason, this was not an exorbitant number but Silas was shocked when he had seen this message the day after Jason messaged him. He had been poor since his birth, forced to work hard but now after he met Jason who treated him justly he gave him a huge bonus because he resigned? This felt weird and Silas couldn''t help but feel guilty, which caused him to message Jason once again. However, after that day he had never heard from him ever again! *[Above Cyro-City, Astrix]* Two days had passed since Jason, his masters and Emily decided to depart to Astrix in order to enter the closer proximity of the large mana vein. Emerging outside the spatial portal, the first thing they smelled was a foul stench permeating the air as Emily screamed out in fright! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 400 - Once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity Standing within the city that had been destroyed after the beasts inside the sanctuary broke out, Jason couldn''t help but sigh. Looking through the destroyed streets that were littered with dead corpses and beasts feasting on them, he heard Emily vomiting her breakfast next to him. Jason didn''t felt good, seeing so many dead corpses either but he was definitely better off than Emily. She didn''t seem to have control over her body anymore and the only thing Jason could do was to pat her back. Because Shane was not sure how dangerous it would be to create a spatial portal right next to the mana vein, whose coordination he didn''t have too, they decided to take another way. Instead of using spatial portals, they would descend the shaft. It was easier and attracted less attention. It was not like Shane or Dalia had to be careful of any Lique stage beast in their surroundings but those hidden beasts at the Prismar stage with solidified prismarine crystals might turn into annoying opponents once attracted. Jason had perceived only one of such dangerous beasts in the surrounding area of the mana vein, but that was already several months ago and many things had changed. As such, several hours had passed before they had found and descended the shaft that led them to the base. After that, they had to search for a path that would lead them closer to the mana vein without attracting too much attention. That was not as difficult as everyone expected because Jason''s mana eyes were able to see through everything much better after he had started to absorb the dense and pure mana released from the mana vein. As such it didn''t take a long time before they found a suitable area where they would stay for the next few months. There were only a few beasts in their surroundings and even less to pay attention to. Jason was already excited and without wasting any time, his pores opened as he began to absorb the mana radiating from the mana vein greedily. Sensing how dense and pure the mana he absorbed was, he couldn''t help but smile brightly as he summoned his soulbonds so that they could make use of the mana too! Artemis and Scorpio were familiar with a mana vein, even if it was one at a lower level, it made them scream out in joy as they knew how beneficial it was. Meanwhile, Solaris was able to make use of the fact that it had already annexed 3,000 soul energy units as it started to absorb mana too. This was something it had to do in order to make use of its mana core, and instead of using Jason''s mana as it had always done, Solaris was able to gather mana for itself now! Meanwhile, even the unhatched petrification serpent was not completely unaffected by the mana vein''s mana that started to enveloped and infiltrates the small green-blackish egg. When Jason saw that everyone was affected by the mana vein, he couldn''t help but smile as he said "Let''s give our best during the next few months!" **[6 months later]** Half a year had passed since Jason, his masters and Emily entered the nearby areas of the large mana vein as a gigantic stream of mana was suddnely drawn out of it. Without warning the enormous amount of mana within shot towards Jason and the others, who were suddenly forced out of their concentrated mana absorption state. Only Jason, who was already enveloped in a faint membrane of the purest mana, didn''t move a single inch, while everyone else, who was woken up, retreated subconsciously a few dozen meters from their prior position. Even Shane and Dalia couldn''t help but retreat without being aware of it as they sensed the aura Jason was releasing. "He is breaking through!" Shane mumbled as he retreated further. Jason''s aura suddenly changed from that of extreme calmness and focus to that of an almighty being that was able to destroy everything in its surrounding with the snap of its finger. The aura was white in color, and intertwined with something divine, yet, it vanished as soon as it had appeared. Everyone who felt this couldn''t help but be shocked as their body began to tremble. However, this shock did not only stem from the fact that Jason''s aura changed for a moment into something unfathomable, but rather that everyone was suddenly kneeling. Nobody was excluded, even Shane or Jason''s soulbonds had to kneel down as if they were instinctively submissive to the aura Jason had released for a short moment. However, before anyone could take a closer look at the aura, it had already vanished. Instead of thinking that this was something bad, everyone sighed in relief. This almighty aura traces of a white, holy hue within it but it was incomparable, to Dalia''s constitution. If Dalia''s aura, which she released while purifying beasts, was already holy, then Jason''s aura was that of a true God, suppressing everything in its surrounding. This aura was a mixture between, a bright white hue, a golden color, and a distinct, silver color that was comparable to a starlight stream. It looked magnificent but the pressure it released pervaded the area several kilometers around him before it had been retracted. Nevertheless, it had woken up every single beast in their surrounding. The mighty hibernating beast had been able to perceive the aura too, waking it up. However, instead of fury or anger, it felt fear instilled within it, only to notice that the aura was retracted. After that, it couldn''t help but stare at the direction from which it felt the aura as it saw something it had never expected to see. ''The primal awakening of one''s bloodline? But...isn''t...that a¡­?'' One could hardly comprehend what the being, that was situated in the core of the mana vein was thinking off, but shock revered through its entire being as it understood what kind of being had its primal awakening next to him. ''A halfling from a superior or ancient race...here? How?'' The beast was unaware of what happened during the last three hundred years but it was sure that someone like the halfling it saw shouldn''t exist. Neither on Argos nor anywhere else! Nevertheless, instead of attacking or fleeing from Jason as it initially wanted to do, it sensed that Jason''s strength was insignificant. As such, without pondering about it, the beast manifested a spatial portal below Jason, who appeared next to the beast only a moment later. The spatial affinity was one of the beast''s affinities and it did everything without much issues. Jason was completely oblivious to what happened and the only thing he noticed, was that the mana in his surroundings increased manifold while he couldn''t even tell if there were any impurities within the mana he absorbed. His eyes were closed and he didn''t bother to look at the surrounding mana more intently to determine its purity, yet, Jason could tell that his location had changed. Nevertheless, instead of being afraid, the surrounding mana seemed to tell him that everything was fine. Had he known that he absorbed mana right next to a ten-meter-tall being that looked like a mixture of a bear and an owl, he wouldn''t feel like this. The complete body structure was that of a bear while Its appearance was that of an owl. But that was not even what one should be afraid of, because the most terrifying aspect was the fact that it had solidified nine prismarine crystals. Furthermore, it seemed that three of those prismarine crystals were about to be enveloped by one, larger and refined membrane ''Now, release the aura of higher comprehension!! The surrounding mana should be more than enough!'' The bearowl thought as it was reminded of its childhood where it had seen the primal awakening of a being from a grand race. The aura this being had released during its awakening was useful for all kinds of beasts, allowing them to gain insights or even to break through their current shackles. This was exactly what the bearowl wanted to receive from Jason in exchange for bringing him to the mana vein''s central area that possessed the densest and purest mana. Meanwhile, Shane and the others were shocked that Jason vanished just like that and the only fact that caused his masters to retain level-headed was that Artemis, Scorpio, Solaris, and even Petri, the small petrification serpent that had hatched not long ago, remained calm as if nothing had or would happen to Jason. The only thing that bothered them was the point that the being that brought Jason away, wanted to exploit him or rather the primal awakening of his bloodline! Jason''s soulbonds noticed that something essential about Jason was about to change and that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most beasts to be close to him. However, this didn''t include those beasts connected to Jason because they received all kinds of benefits that he was about to release subconsciously, within his aura. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 401 - Collapsing Seal Even if Jason was unaware of what was going on, the mana in his surroundings streamed towards him at a rapid race, actively supporting the completion of the liquefaction process of his first drop of mana! After six months his cultivation rank had increased from the 2nd Master rank to the Lowest Lique stage with one liquefied drop of mana in his mana core which was extremely fast even among those prodigies that had a superior mana aptitude. Everything was thanks to the Solaris baptism which had cleansed Jason''s body from a large amount of impurities and Petri''s race specific weakening curse that had nullified his soul world''s amplification! Adding that he was able to absorb mana at one of the best possible locations; the large mana vein below Cyro-City, Jason would have been disappointed in his mana aptitude if he were to take longer to liquefy his first mana drop. He had done a few other things in the meantime, like refining his physique or improving his forging skills, but that was still negligible to the time he employed to absorb mana. Jason hadn''t even slept and instead absorbed mana which was possible thanks to the density and purity the mana vein''s mana had. However, what Jason wondered after he had liquefied his first drop mana was that nothing out of the ordinary had changed. That was until he realized that something within his mana core began to change. Under normal circumstances, he would feel a substantial increase in his combat prowess and an accelerated mana absorption rate after breaking into the Lique stage. But, Jason could tell that this was not the only thing that would change about him! Once every trace of mana he had inside his mana core was about to be liquefied into the first drop of mana, Jason noticed that it was still not enough! This forced him to liquefy the mana he was absorbing from his surroundings to fuse with the slowly shaping first drop of mana. His mana core was too small to create the first drop of mana, which was extremely weird when he thought about it. One wouldn''t be required to have a particular size of one''s mana core to create a drop of mana under normal circumstances, yet, this was exactly the case and Jason was forced to postpone his breakthrough for several days. Every time he thought that he had completed the process of liquefying the first drop of mana, the almighty aura in his surrounding had resurfaced telling Jason that the amount of mana was still far from being enough. He was able to sense this aura too and despite radiating from it, Jason felt like this aura didn''t belong to him! Rather than that, it was as if that aura belonged to someone else who was trying to guide him! However, Jason was unable to comprehend what the aura or the being that controlled this almighty aura wanted from him. Only a month later, by using the amount of mana one would normally require to liquefy three drops of mana, Jason was finally able to enter the Lowest Lique stage with one highly compressed drop of mana. It was compressed and had the exact same size the mana drops of others had, but there were faint golden-silverish strands Jason was able to see within the drop of mana. This was one sign telling him that his liquefied mana was special. Yet, after thinking about it for a moment, this only told him that he had to absorb three times the amount of mana others required to liquefy one drop of mana. This would have shocked Jason under normal circumstances if he didn''t feel that the first drop of mana he liquefied had opened the gates of his true potential. It was as if a seal he had lived with for his whole life, began to collapse, yet he had been unaware that such a seal had even existed inside him! Jason was about to open his eyes and turn to his masters because he thought that they were still nearby him when he sensed something about his mana core was slowly starting to change again. Not only did the seal on his start to collapse, but there was also the faint, yet a familiar imprint of someone''s mana fluctuations within him that had been revealed. Suddenly, as if he was pulled somewhere else, he appeared within a white room he had never seen before. However, due to his perception, Jason could tell that this was not real and similar to the state when his mind entered his soul world. As such he comprehended that he was still in Astrix, while his soul or mind had been dragged somewhere else. A moment later, he saw that someone manifested inside the room and Jason could almost immediately tell that it was the same being that had visited him twice already. However, this time he could not only see the outlines of this being but the entire person behind the blurred face. It remained silent and Jason couldn''t tell what he was looking at as he blurted out "You are not a human right?" From the outer appearance, the being who Jason assumed to be from the Celestia race and his father at that, looked exactly like a human! He had fair skin and distinct facial features, while his long silver hair cascading down his broad back and silver eyes gleamed lightly, radiating something powerful which Jason was unable to decipher. Nevertheless, what he could tell was that the glowing, white silverish mark, Jason labeled as stigma, around the Celestias'' right eye, was unique and extremely powerful! However, the white silverish stigma didn''t end at the Celestia''s right eye. Jason assumed that it was spanned over his whole back, where he could see several white-silverish glowing rings. It was as if those rings were spurting out of the Celestia''s back, yet they had not direct materiel connection. They had several tens if not hundreds of thousand infinitesimals runes inscribed on them and Jason could barely perceive them owing to his exceptional eyesight. Other than that, Jason was also able to perceive that the rings were not something external but that they belonged to the body. This was something he could tell from the firm connection his eyes saw. Only the runes were something that didn''t belong innately to the rings. They had been engraved on the rings, and intertwined with each other, turning them into one entity! Jason was unable to describe what those runes were and most of them shimmered in a faint light, while others were not utilized right now. He was shocked about what he perceived in such a short moment, yet, his mind was eerily calm. Those rings didn''t overlap either and worked together, amplifying each other and they threw a faint shimmer on the man that hailed from the Celestia race, who smiled at him gently. "You are exactly like your mother, she asked the same question¡­" Hearing this, Jason stiffened for a moment when the Celestia continued. "This might sound like an excuse, but I feel like I have to say this! I only found out about your existence some time ago...you...remember that time? First things first, we won''t have much time to talk this time either because my mana imprint on you is extremely weak. This is probably because the imprint was supposed to be on your mother and not on you...but your birth might have changed that¡­ You look healthy which is good, and I would love to come over to your world and talk with you for some time, but that is simply not possible. Not only would your world implode from the pressure I release, but the world bridges connected to your world are too weak to endure my strength. Furthermore, our race is currently facing some minor problems and I won''t be able to leave anytime soon! But let''s not talk about that. First, I want to apologize to you and your mother...It has been more than 50 years since your mother, with her beautiful eyes, appeared in front of the palace. The foreign race that brought her wanted to use your mother as some sort of tribute, or if you want to pick it like that, they wanted to sacrifice her. Her eyes picked my interest and one thing led to another until one of the youngest members of our small race became jealous about her eyes that can be said to be even superior to our race''s eyes! Almost killed, I could barely rescue your mother, but this didn''t include her soul world, or whatever humans call it. One day, she became very sick and we thought that your mother would die. However, it was only a few days later that she had suddenly disappeared and nobody was able to find her. You should know the rest better than I do, but I guess that she became sick due to her pregnancy...I don''t even want to imagine how painful it must have been as a human to bear the child from the Celestia race!" At that moment, Jason''s mind was rattling, and the information he received was too much for him to digest at once. "Stop! Why are you even telling me this? Do you want to make me feel guilty about being born, about the fact that my mother had always been sick before she ...." Jason was unable to think rationally when he heard what the Celestia, who was indirectly telling him that he was his father, had said at the end. However, his father just shook his head as he said with a sad expression "I just wanted to explain you that your birth is something miraculous...we from the Celestia race are already few in number and there are only a few newborn Celestia''s every few tens of thousand years! There had never been a halfling either, which means that you are one of a kind! I was able to peek into your memory and I saw what happened. If possible I would just destroy the whole blood clan, but that will be your task! However, never allow your wrath and agony to overwhelm you!! After I found you and the planet you live on, I figured out why other races decided to focus more on an Infant-stage planet. That''s because of your existence as halfing, one from the Celestia race at that!! To put it simply, the future of the human race will be extremely difficult and it''s bound to be filled with obstacles. However, the biggest problem is that your progress is way too slow! If you don''t start to use your full potential, you will never be able to protect anyone! Break through your limits!! You have yet to reach the true starting point of a real Cultivator! You can''t even control what has been given to you yet!! Once you''re capable of doing so, come and find me, the Celestia race will welcome you at anytime!" Jason could somewhat understand what his father seemed to tell him, but at the same time he didn''t tell him anything he didn''t know as his father said "Son, my name is Yaldra...Celestia Yaldra, I hope we will meet again when your next awakening is near...now, focus on your primal awakening and make the best out of it. Don''t reject the blood of a Celestia that streams through your veins but accept it, otherwise, you might be too weak to protect the ones you love! Other than that, do however you please, but control your emotions! The Celestia race is not a race that hesitates! We storm forward and get our hands on what we desire!! See you and don''t die!!" Before Jason was even able to react, the white room around him dissipated as a white-silverish hue enveloped his mana core, spreading through his entire being, filling his entire being with energy as his desire for mana had been fully unleashed. "What a nut head!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 402 - Awakening From his skin to the tendons, eyes, bones, mana core, mana vein, and even his soul world core, everything was enveloped in the white-silverish glow that shone brightly. Jason''s body began to release the white-silverish glow, filling the surrounding area where only he and the Owl-bear were left. However, that was not everything as his four soulbonds began to shine in the same glow! It was dimmer but Artemis, Scorpio, Solaris, and Petri felt that something about them was to change. Meanwhile, Jason was still sitting in the center of the mana vein, attracting huge streams of mana that began to flow towards him at a rapid pace. It was eager to enter his mana core and mana eyes, whose desire and demands to absorb more mana more increased manifold. Their desire turned into unparalleled height and Jason couldn''t even ask himself how he should be able to saturate this desire! The sheer mass of mana that weighed on him suppressed Jason who was unable to move a single inch. After he had forced his eye to open, which released a dense golden glow that had begun to intertwine with the white silverish glow, the weight seemed to have become lighter, but it was still difficult to move. It was not as uncomfortable as before when his mana eyes began to act on their own accord out of the sudden. The golden-silverish color that had small white-colored traces within began to envelop Jason tightly. This allowed the mana that had already been attracted by the white-silverish mana to enter his body and act according to Jason''s intention. Shocked about the fact that the golden-silverish hue could move around the mana in his surroundings and even within his body, Jason compared it to an extension of his own body. Unfortunately, he couldn''t find a different word to explain what he sensed right now! It felt similar to the time when he summons his soulbonds body part through the fortified soul conjunction, with the sole difference that the golden-silverish hue belonged to him alone. Suddenly, the amount of mana streaming inside his mana core and mana eyes increased drastically as Jason heard a loud roar next to him. This roar didn''t feel like it stemmed from his soulbonds or a beast that was about to attack but more likely from a beast that was overjoyed or filled with pride because it had achieved something. However, Jason who had been unaware of anything in his surroundings, used his sheer willpower to open his eyes, only to look into compressed mana and the eyes of a bear-shaped existence that had the appearance of an owl. Yet, instead of being scared, Jason could instinctively tell that the Owl-bear, which was the name he called it, had been using the white-silverish glow that filled the small cavern hall, in which they were. From the looks of it, the Owl-bear was about to break into the rank above the Monarch rank, and Jason could already see a large, slowly rotating crystal enveloping three of its 9 solidified prismarine crystals. Feeling its joy, Jason couldn''t help but smile, as he took a deep breath before he followed the words, the Celestia Yaldra, his father had told him. After talking with his father for a few minutes, Jason was unsure what exactly he should think of him, but one thing was sure! He had loved his mother and the longing gaze in Yaldra''s face was something that Jason couldn''t forget. As such he was finally ready to accept the bloodline of the Celestia race which he had tried to deny by any means. This didn''t mean that he would neglect the fact that he was a human, one with extremely precious mana eyes at that. From what he sensed earlier, the golden glow his eyes had released belonged to him while the white-silverish glow was something he had yet to accept entirely. Doing this would mean he accepted and acknowledged his Celestia bloodline. But, instead of forcing the white-silverish hue to accept him, which would indirectly indicate that he had to be accepted and not that he accepted his bloodline, Jason decided to take the most radical way he could think of. Thus, he didn''t try to control and retract the while-silverish hue! Jason used the huge stream of mana around him to insert it control it carefully, inserting it into his eyes. The golden glow around him intensified as it began to enlarge, overwhelming the white-silverish glow in his surroundings. But that was not where it stopped! The golden glow began to annex everything in its surrounding, from every particle of mana to the white-silverish color, everything had been suppressed and taken over by the golden glow. Using the mana it annexed within a moment to enlarge further, the whole mana vein began to glow in a dense golden-silverish light with faint, white stripes squirming inside it. The golden light seemed to be more dominant until Jason was able to perceive that the white-silverish light seemed to retaliate. While he tried to focus his mind on both what happened in his surroundings and trying to control the amount of mana his mana core was absorbing, Jason could tell that a huge fight was about to start within him! It was not that his human part was being dominant, trying to fight against the Celestia race''s inheritance he was about to accept for the first time in his life. Rather than that, it was more like both the human and the Celestia part of his genetics, were trying to get to know each other. The only aspect the golden glow that stemmed from his eyes had forced was the encounter between both sides of the same coin. One could say that his mana eyes were the only part about Jason that belonged to both races, the human and Celestia race. Even though Jason knew that his mother had unique eyes, even without his father telling him about their past, his eyes were something else, more unique than his mother''s! As such, he had thought that he could use his unique mana eyes to annex everything, forcing it to stay together and get to know the other side of the coin. After the Owl-bear perceived the golden-silverish hue, it began to shiver in fright, sensing that something huge was about to happen. It had already reached the Low-Prismar stage a while ago and didn''t have to use Jason''s aura as a means to comprehend the following cultivation aspects. As such it decided that it was finally time to leave the crowded area. Yet, after deciding that it wanted to leave, it sensed that the surrounding area was completely filled with the golden-silverish hue that seemed to restrict its spatial affinity for the time being. Forcing its way through the spatial restriction that was not especially strong at Jason''s current capabilities, the Owl-bear opened a spatial portal through which it stepped. However, that it appeared right next to Shane, Dalia, Emily, and the batch of soulbonds that was absorbing the surrounding mana to break through their current shackles had been an accident! What they didn''t expect was that their mana absorption race increased by a large margin when the golden hue, something they had only seen from Jason before, had begun to envelop the entire mana vein. Nobody expected the sudden appearance of a beast that was several times stronger than Shane, yet, instead of attacking them, the Owl-bear stared at Artemis, Scorpio, Solaris, and Petri in shock before it manifested a spatial portal below them. This spatial portal threw them straight to Jason, leaving behind his shocked masters and Emily. After that, the Owl-bear left the mana vein by manifesting another spatial portal. "What the hell happened?" Shane mumbled, barely being able to perceive that they escaped death by a hair''s breadth. There was nobody who could answer his question. If someone were to tell him that this was a gift from the Owl-bear, to Jason, who had made it possible for the beast to break through the shackles of the rank it was already stagnating for the last three centuries, he would probably call this person insane. Despite his disbelief, this was exactly what had happened and Jason, who was still trying to find the balance between his two heritages that tried to have the upper hand. This was important as it decided Jason''s future path and which heritage would become more important for Jason''s future development. Nevertheless, using the golden glow his eyes released, fighting against each other had become impossible, forcing them to accept each other at a slow and steady pace. Jason''s origin as a human and Celestia had yet to accept each other completely, as the golden glow had already annexed every little trace of the white-silverish glow, before they started to intertwine, fusing into one entity. The golden color was slowly marked with white stripes that spanned through the whole area it had enveloped, while the silver gleaming color intertwined with the golden color turning into something he had never seen before. If Jason did describe what his mana eyes perceived, it would be the aurora lights in three colors at once; gold and silver as main colors while the white marks highlighted the rest. He had already noticed that his soulbonds appeared next to him, but they were currently using the humongous quantity of mana in order to fuse the white-silverish stigma that had manifested on their body with it. When Jason saw this, he was confused for a moment, however, it was definitely not something bad as he sensed that his soulbonds became much stronger through it. As such he was able to continue with what he was supposed to do to complete his awakening as he retraced the golden-silverish hue, with white marks spanned through it, at a rapid pace. ''Now...to the painful part!!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 403 - Methamorphosis In the beginning, Jason didn''t feel anything special, but the moment the golden-silverish hue had been completely retracted into his eyes, they began to hurt as if they were ripped apart. His entire being had been enveloped by the white-silverish light before the golden glow had annexed it and Jason was able to perceive that he would undergo a metamorphosis. The white-silverish glow he had annexed and retraced into his eyes was suddenly released, spreading through his eyes. While the pain in his eyes began to intensify, Jason forced himself to release the majority of it in order to instinctively envelop his skin, tendons, eyes, bones, organs, mana core, mana vein, soul world core, and every single cell in his body with it. The golden-silverish glow listened to his every command without any reluctance, but instead of releasing a large margin of the golden-silverish color, everything had been unleashed at once. However, Jason didn''t worry about that because it felt natural as if it was the correct path he had to take! The quality and quantity of the golden-silverish hue within and around his eyes were several times higher than it was in every other area too. At that moment, the white stigma on his soulbonds'' body began to glow up as it began to change, influenced by the transformation of Jason''s aura that had been manifested through the primal awakening! A faint golden-silverish color enveloped the white stigma, trying to be embedded within it. This was advantageous because it indicated a certain degree of acceptance of the Celestia race''s heritage! The instinctive acceptance was mainly based on the fact that the awakening Celestia bloodline perceived the one trait about the human race that was superior to the Celestia race! Mankind''s soul-awakening and the fact that they could bind strong beasts to their soul! However, if there was one aspect the awakened Celestia bloodline had to base the willingness to accept the human heritage, it would be the fact that Jason''s soul-awakening was the result of both the human- and Celestia-race''s inheritance, exactly like Jason''s unique mana eyes! Unfortunately, this acceptance of his soulbonds and soul world didn''t reduce the pain Jason was feeling, even by a tiny bit. Instead, his eyes and soul were what ached the most! At the same time, he felt the pain of his soulbonds as the white stigma, which had traces of golden and silver colors embedded on it, fused with their body. Yet, instead of being able to take care of his soulbonds, Jason felt the need to survive his own metamorphosis first, which was more than fusing with a small stigma! As such he had to focus on himself while trying to bear with the pain that intensified with every passing second The mana the golden glow had annexed within the silver light was rapidly used up and Jason was left without any reserve of mana as the golden-silverish glow enveloping his body intensified again. Suddenly the surrounding mana that had stopped moving for a few seconds were swirling around and to Jason, it was as if the surrounding mana was a small child that had been praised by its mother. At a shocking velocity, a compressed, dense, and purified stream of mana shot towards Jason whose golden-silverish hue that looked like a paper-thin membrane that was tightly stuck to his body, absorbed everything. The amount of mana he had absorbed was multiple times that of his masters together and his whole body desire for more did not decrease, instead, it increased! It was only the tip of the iceberg and Jason noticed that his entire being couldn''t think of anything else but mana! Jason was completely unaware about how much time passed, but he knew that his soulbonds had already fused with the stigma, his primal awakening inherited them, several days, if not weeks ago! He lost the track of time and the only thing he was able to sense was that his physique became stronger, while his mana core had enlarged in size! Meanwhile, his soul world had changed substantially too! It had increased several times in size, the golden hue inside it had turned to golden-silverish light while every single affinity the soul world had awoken became more vibrant. At the same time, the fortified soul conjunction Jason had formed with Artemis, Scorpio and Solaris became thickened and received an additional change which Jason had yet to find out, while his bond with Petri, the newly hatched petrification serpent, became stronger with every single day passing. After Petri had overcome his trauma with the help of his other soulbonds, he became more active, yet he remained close to anyone around him. Petri had yet to do something entirely alone and Jason was fully aware of that. However, he couldn''t pay attention to this right now, because he felt that his metamorphosis was about to be completed. There was only the final step left which was to fuse with the stigma that had formed above his right eye. Jason assumed that it was similar to that of his father which would mean that it didn''t look hideous. Yet, after he was able to think about it, the pain he had felt subsided, he couldn''t help but worry about the stigma''s appearance. ''If I walk around, openly showing my stigma, I might as well execute myself right now!'' He told himself inwardly. Only sometime later, he recalled what his father had said about his capabilities and that he was unable to control what he had been given. Thinking about the aura that indicated him as the descendant of someone from the Celestia race, Jason couldn''t help but wonder if it was possible for him to disguise both this aura and the stigma he had yet to fuse with. ''Foreign races can sense my aura either way..that means it doesn''t make that much of a difference if I fuse with the stigma too...It might attract more attention but I should be able to cover it once I learned more about the Celestia race! I can''t stop my awakening anymore either way! Let''s advance straight ahead!!'' Using his surrounding mana that seemed to be waiting to be utilized as a means for Jason to fuse with the stigma. However, what Jason didn''t expect was to notice that the merging process had already been completed a few seconds later. The only thing he perceived was a large stream of mana being infused in the stigma that had been engraved above his right eyebrow. After that, there was a short sting he barely felt before the whole process had already been completed. ''Huh? Is that the grand finale?'' Jason asked himself somewhat disappointed when he began to sense that his whole body which had been transformed during the last few weeks connected to each other. Every single cell, that had once belonged only to the human race, accepted the refinement and awakening of the Celestia race''s blood, embracing and strengthening each other. This did only happen after the stigma whose manifestation was the last step of the primal awakening, merged with his body. It stretched from the base of his nose, spread above his right eyebrow, down to the corner of his right eye, creating a shape similar to a reversed, white glowing wing that had faint golden and silver colored stripes mixed within the white glow. After everything was concluded, the golden-silverish hue that had enveloped Jason during the whole metamorphosis dissipated, leaving behind a minority of it which Jason could retrace without problems. Too many things about his body changed and one could even say that Jason himself had changed completely! There was not one part of his body that hadn''t transformed! He was not sure how much time had passed, but after looking at his soulbonds, he knew that it must have been quite some time. The best indicator to tell how much time passed was Petri, who had hatched right before he started with the liquefaction process of his mana. At that time, he was a small, 20 centimeters long green-scaled serpent with brown-goldish colored eyes, However, now he had already reached three meters in size and Jason doubted that this was something that could happen in three days time!! Taking a look around Jason could tell that he was in the core of the mana vein with his soulbonds that had worked hard. Smiling lightly he caressed all of them, only to sense that their stigma began to lighten up when he touched them. At the same time, his own stigma began to glow lightly too, and he was able to sense everything his soulbonds sensed! This didn''t indicate their emotions which were something Jason could already sense before, but every little detail about his soulbond''s bodies was perceivable by Jason and vice versa¡­ It was undeniable that this was scary but Jason thought that this new feature might help to purify Scorpio''s mana core and body with Solaris'' help! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 404 - Your Eyes!! Because he was not sure how much time had passed, Jason assumed that it was best for them to leave the core area of the mana vein as soon as possible. His masters were probably worried about his well-being but this was not the reason for Jason to hurry up. After the primal awakening of the Celestia bloodline had been completed, Jason felt an ominous feeling approaching him. It was as if something huge was or had already happened! From what his soulbonds transmitted to him afterwards, Jason comprehended that the golden-silverish'' aura could be sensed over a long distance too! If the glow, released by his primal awakening could be perceived throughout the whole mana vein, how far was the radius others could sense his aura during the bloodline awakening? He was not sure, but it had to be a vast range. Adding the factor that he estimated some races to have superior senses than humans had, Jason couldn''t help but start sweating. Jason thought about retracing his soulbonds to the soul world and a moment later they had already disappeared as their stigma began to glow. This astonished him for a moment, but at the same time, it made him happy. It seemed that the stigma''s Jason and his soulbonds had received through the primal awakening of his bloodline allowed him to control his soulbonds much faster. At the same time they didn''t require to use a magic circle to leave or enter the soul world anymore. This would save some time and Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly. Nevertheless, he didn''t want to waste anymore time as he told Artemis to enter his mana core. Right now, he had only one drop of mana, but this drop was special as it had faint golden and silver traces intertwined within. However, that was not the important point! The drop of mana was compressed and consumed as much mana as required to liquefy three common drops of mana. This meant that he would be superior to everyone at the same rank than he was because his drop of mana required more mana to be liquefied at once, which meant he received a greater enhancement from every single drop of mana he liquefied! At the same time it slowed down his breakthrough progress by a large margin. Shaking his head to prevent any complaints in his mind to surface, Jason noticed that Artemis had already entered his mana core before he manifested her wings. From the soul amplification of 100% which he would obtain from any soulbond within his mana core under normal circumstances, he received only 50%, thanks to Petri''s race individual weakening curse he had obtained several months ago. Yet, those 50% were enough to increase his strength by around 20 drops of liquefied mana, which indicated that Artemis had already liquefied 40 drops of mana. ''She had around...25 drops of mana after 6 months...and she was suddenly transported to the mana vein core from the Owl-bear somewhat in the middle of my awakening..? How much time passed?...3 months? Maybe 2 months?'' Jason was confused about how much time had passed since his awakening. This was extremely important to determine how dangerous their situation was or if something bad had happened. There was also the possibility that his primal awakening was unnoticed by anyone because Astrix was relatively far away from other islands. Nevertheless, it was always better to be careful about such things! The Shadow Walker might have left without doing anything to him, but that didn''t mean other races would do the same! As such Jason who had already manifested Artemis'' wings flew through the narrow cavern tunnel his mana eyes perceived perfectly down to the finest detail. He was not even required to slow down his speed that was shockingly fast as he appeared in front of his masters, Emily, and her soulbond, which had already grown to a 6 meter long green feathered roc, in less than an hour. Upon appearing in front of them, Jason had reduced his flying speed drastically by adjusting the position of his wings as he landed in front of his masters. "Are you finally done?" Shane teased light, trying to cover his shock, when he saw the reserved wing shaped stigma above his head. A moment later he saw Jason''s eyes which caused him to exclaim. "Your¡­?" Shane started only for Emily to shout out in shock "JASON!! What happened to you??" When Jason''s mature face and tone physique had been handsome and pleasing to look at before, he looked now like a mix between gorgeous, handsome, yet powerful. The faint aura radiating from him showed his strength which was something that Jason couldn''t control yet, and Emily couldn''t help but stare at him in shock. Other than growing to a height of 1.85 meters, Jason could tell that lots of things about him had changed and it was nothing special that they were astonished. He felt the same after all! His skin was more refined than before and he could tell that his leaking mana fluctuations in addition to the stigma above his right eye should be shocking. As such he smiled brightly as he pointed at the stigma. "Don''t worry, the stigma is something I obtained when I liquefied my mana...It caused the awakening of my bloodline, but let''s talk about that later. We should depart as soon as possible! I don''t know how much time passed but other races might have sensed my awakening!" Even if Jason''s words sounded like he was in a hurry, his whole demeanor was calm and his shoulders that looked like they had become broader were completely relaxed. There was no tension within Jason and he felt better than he had ever felt in his entire life! His mana eyes received the biggest improvement after the awakening and Jason was still trying to figure out its limits. But one thing he noticed was the fact that he could filter out certain mana flicutations by simply thinking about it. At the same time, his mana core''s size was much larger than it had been before, even without receiving any soul amplifications. While the Mortal stage was seen as the enlargement process in one''s mana core''s size for most foreign races, this was different for the human race! There wouldn''t be anymore augmentions in one''s mana core''s size for common races, and the exceptions were peculiar. At least if one were to exclude bloodline awakenings that happened with most stronger races whose newborns couldn''t handle the fully awakened bloodline after they had been born. Unsealing their bloodline slowly allowed them to slowly adjust to the increased strength they would receive. Those enhancements were in physical strength and their mana core''s size. However, humans were completely different, because their mana core size could increase continuously as long as their soulbond didn''t have a limited potential, or one''s soul was too small to bind more soulbonds. This meant that humans were able to attain a larger mana core size than foreign races, as long as their soul world was large enough and they had suitable beasts to bind to their soul! In that sense, Jason was extremely unique and one of a kind! After merging with the Celestia bloodline that had awakened, Jason sensed that he could unseal his bloodline at a steady pace once he was strong enough to handle it. At the same time he had to be careful of possible surrounding dangers and the fact that he required a terrifying high amount of mana! When he had his next awakening, Jason estimated that the mana vein would either be devoured by him or that this might not even be enough to supply his second bloodline awakening! The thought that this might be the case shocked him greatly, but even more astonishing was the fact that he could expand his mana core''s size more than everyone else did! Not only did he have the perks of being from an extremely strong race, whom he didn''t know anything about, but Jason had also mankind''s sole perk; a soul world! If Jason utilized everything properly, he could turn into a monstrous existence that might displease other races. He had to be careful about everything and decided that it would be best to test out how to disguise his stigma and the aura enveloping him. Both were factors that could endanger him and everyone around him which was something Jason wanted to avoid at all costs. However, before he was able to test out if the concealment technique he had practiced was something he could combine with other aspects to conceal everything pointing out that he had the blood of the Celestia race within him, someone interrupted him. It was Dalia who jolted him out of his train of thoughts by using her fingers to snap at Jason''s forehead. "What?..Sorry, I was in my own train of thoughts...there are so many things that changed so suddenly and everything about my body feels new." Dalia smiled lightly, covering the worried glint in her eyes, when Jason saw himself in her own eyes as she said "Your eye color changed!" Jason, who could also see this in Dalia''s eyes, couldn''t believe what he saw because he didn''t expect his eye color to change so suddenly. Furthermore, he didn''t feel anything special about his pupils that could have caused them to change their color so suddenly. Before, he was already considered a unique case with high distinct golden colored eyes, but when he took out his light longsword, he utilized as a mirror to see himself, Jason couldn''t help but mumble "What is that bullsh*t??" Turning his head to his masters he asked "Why do I have a mixture of golden and silver colored eyes now?? What is that?? They''re just...weird now and definitely not something one would label a ''normal'' trait¡­" Jason began to panic a little bit which caused his masters and Emily to smile lighty. A moment earlier, they saw how calm and calculative Jason was about the dangers that might approach them. This made them wonder if his whole demeanor changed after he had undergone his awakening, but that didn''t seem to be the case. Nobody knew why exactly his eye color changed, to such a exotic color at that, but it had definitely something to do with his awakening as Emily recalled something which caused her to say "I''m not sure if I saw everything correctly...but..in the beginning when we sensed that Jason''s awakening started, the mana vein was enveloped in a...white-silverish hue or glow and only when we sensed strong mana fluctuations from the mana vein''s core did a golden hue envelop and devour everything...That is at least what I saw...I''m not sure if I my words make sense...but couldn''t that be the main reason for your eye color to change?" Jason averted his attention to Emily, and her words made somewhat sense because he recalled what happened after the golden glow he had released from his eyes devoured everything in its surrounding. "I retraced the golden-silverish aura into my eyes....Thinking about it, it was always weird that i had golden eyes because my mother had silver eyes like the Celestia race has too...but in that sense her eyes were called superior to theirs too¡­" Jason''s mind was rattling, however, in the end, he was unable to get the hang on everything right off the bat as Dalia said "It''s nice that you want to figure out what exactly happened with you, but didn''t you tell us that we should leave as soon as possible? Let''s go first, talk about everything what happened and then we can brainstorm about every issue we have to face, alright?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 405 - Younger Generation? Jason was glad that Dalia was in their small group because Shane was way too excited due to his bloodline awakening, which caused Jason to smile oddly, while Emily was extremely confused. After he had shocked Dalia with the high quantity of existing planets that inhabited intelligent life and the fact that their whole system about the ranking of one''s mana core was baseless and different from the foreign races, Dalia was forced to adapt which she did great. As such, she was much calmer in tricky situations. That was after she had understood everything that Jason had told them before, which included the Terra grade manuals and the fact that only ''weak'' individuals from those foreign races were sent over to Argos. She had been shocked for a long time but after overcoming everything, Dalia knew that doing their best was everything they could do! What else should they do? Hide in the corner of a small island as they used to do, or give up everything they had achieved over centuries? That was in the past and since she encountered Jason, Dalia knew that she had to nurture him! This nurturing was not only based on how to become stronger or even her alchemy and beast creator knowledge! She was aware of Jason''s kindness and the fact that he wanted to help others despite saying that he was not a Saint or something like that were important traits! It was also obvious that he was not normal from the beginning, at least she could tell that something about Jason was essentially different from other humans. Whether it was his talent, the fact that he could create a firm bond with his soulbonds immediately after he formed a soulbond contract with them, or his unique traits, like his soul awakening that was shockingly high, the fact that he had very unique mana eyes, in the end, everything pointed out that Jason was special. This was also why it wasn''t that much of a surprise to her that Jason was a halfling from another race. Instead of discriminating against Jason because of that fact, she wanted to help him stay on the right track and not to lose himself in thinking that he might not belong to Argos. Mankind was in a dire need of someone strong enough to make initiate a change but Dalia thought that Jason required humans too, even if it was just to learn how cruel or nice reality could be. With that in mind, she taught him that rescuing others might not seem like much to him but for those people he saved, it was their entire life! As long as she could maintain Jason''s good personality without anything shattering it into smithereens, he would become someone great, more like a Saint than a Devil. Even if half of his genetics belonged to a different race, as long as his heart was on the right spot everything would be fine. Shane calmed down the excitement within not long after he saw Dalia''s serious expression as he said "Let''s depart to Canir!" Jason who was deep in thoughts again thought that he hadn''t heard his master correctly and he looked at Shane with confusion "Canir, wouldn''t it be better to rest for a few days and talk about everything to understand what''s currently happening on Canir? Furthermore, I can''t hide my stigma and Celestia characteristic aura right now! It would be suicidal for me to enter Canir right now!!" When Shane heard this he shook his head before he told Jason what he had missed out on in the last 8 months which they had spent near the mana vein without any obstructions. That was, if one were to leave out the weird bearl-owl mutant existence that abducted Jason and afterward even his soulbonds. This Owl-bear, without giving it a proper name, was terrifying and its strength was much higher than Shane''s, however, even if that was the case, nobody had perceived killing intent from it. Rather than that, it seemed more like an overjoyed beast that received benefits worth several hundred years of luck. Nobody could know that the Owl-bear had previously estimated that it would take more than 700 years before its hibernation would be over, indicating its breakthrough to the second, large threshold of the Primar stage! "You might now be aware of this because you were too focused on increasing your mana core rank and body refining progress, but I left the mana vein a few times to take a look at the other islands. At the same time, I could take a glimpse at the newsfeed of my quantum bracelet, or what remained from the newsfeed...and it looks bad¡­ If you can''t cover your Celestia aura or stigma yet, we should depart to Canir instead of anywhere else. The other islands are either attacked by humans that accepted the foreign race''s soul contract which allowed them to be nurtured with greater cultivation resources, martial art techniques, and cultivation techniques than we have on Argos. But if the existence of those humans that have been nurtured by the foreign races were to be the only issue, it wouldn''t be so bad. More problematic is the fact that the big clan gathering turned into a massacre, exactly as we had expected. Jael Drake and the race he is colluding with, initiated an attack, the moment all big clans that wanted to attend the gathering had arrived. This was earlier than everyone had expected! Not being able to retaliate directly, more than 6 leaders of those big clans died, before their reinforcement arrived. The reinforcement was obviously other foreign races that had planned to wait for the perfect moment to ambush the leaders of the big clans and the forces they had hidden too! In the end, everything turned out to be extremely complicated and I don''t even know how many people have been killed since then¡­ From the looks of it, there are currently around 7 foreign races attacking each other, but there could also be more and I have no idea how it could escalate to such an extent...They use humans and their territory as shields. The most ridiculous fact, however, is that those foreign races have only sent a few sovereign ranks, or Prismar stages how you would call them. The rest are all at the Lique stage, and they don''t even have a large number of mana drops liquefied...As if they allowed their younger generation to decide which race will be allowed to reign over mankind¡­" Jason was astonished, but not really shocked about what he heard, as he mumbled "The gathering was around the time we departed...so slightly less than 8 months since the war or whatever we should call this chaos began?" He tried to get the hang of what exactly they should do as he mumbled "If the stronger individuals from those foreign races want to avoid waging war on their planets, which might eradicate their whole race, they have to use the younger generation¡­.furthermore those stronger individuals shouldn''t be able to enter Argos...the rifts are not stable enough to withstand their strength...at least that should be the reason for other races to send their people at the Prismar stage as strongest envoys to Argos¡­" When Shane and Dalia heard this they nodded, slightly confused for a quarter of a second as Shane said "It would be stupid for those foreign races to wage war against other races that might be as strong if not stronger than themselves. Adding the sheer number of foreign races that have access to Argos, there might be more than the seven I''m aware of, maybe they''re many hidden in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to reap the most benefits. And mankind''s soul awakening with our soul world should be those benefits! If someone were to demand mankind as their own asset, war would be the only logical reaction. That is if our soul awakening is as important to those races as we think it is. With that being said, they had to collude with those big clans to create a small, hidden force that might be able to reign over mankind without anyone knowing. At the same time, we can say for sure, that the strongest beings they might send would be at the peak of the Low- Prismar stage with several more solidified prismarine crystals than mankind has! At least if we didn''t miss important information yet! As for the younger generation of the foreign races, they''re either sent out as reinforcement for the big clans, or foreign races thought that they were strong enough to take care of mankind?" Dalia nodded her head at Shane''s words while Jason thought about them for a moment before he wanted to add something, only for Emily to blurt out. "But Jason said that the Lique stage is not even considered to be the beginning of one''s cultivation path..why should they send out their untrained people? Couldn''t there be a different reason? Maybe what Jason said with the younger generation makes sense and they let them decide who is allowed to stay on Argos or has to leave, or maybe who can remain on Argo as a sole foreign race? But...why does it feel weird to send out untrained people? With their strength, their Lique stage people should be around our age? Maybe a little bit older or younger, but that''s not what matters! Doesn''t it feel more...like a trainings camp and we are the reward?" Jason knew that Emily was clever and quick-witted but he didn''t expect her to say something like that. She had yet to fully understand what exactly those other races planned and the fact that Jason was a halfling from another race was not easy to digest. However, she felt that Jason was nice and not someone from those evil foreign races that made everyone''s life worse. "Trainings camp?" Dalia mumbled, unsure what she should think about this possibility as Jason said "Let''s be blunt...this is not unlikely. Some races might join this chaotic war because they want their younger generation to become more proficient in real combat. Maybe this could even be a sign for the younger generation to learn the other foreign race''s real strength. Sacrificing weaker soldiers to train veterans might also be a good purpose for races with a high population and great reproduction ability! At the same time, there might be other races that have another goal, which is to claim mankind as their own. After that, they could use us as a means to strengthen themselves. This, however, would also mean that there could be a third faction to join the fray. Those races that don''t like mankind will be controlled by other races. It''s not highly likely but if a single race can''t have us as their sole asset, either nobody is allowed to have us or everyone together¡­.that is at least what the third faction that might join the fray could think¡­" Shane listened intently about what Jason and Emily comprehended and he couldn''t help but smile as he mumbled "Doesn''t that mean the only races we have to be careful about are those belonging to the first faction, thus every race that colludes with our race?" However, when Shane had said this, Jason added "And mankind itself..." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 406 - Loophole Scratching the back of his head, Shane couldn''t believe that Jason and Emily''s comprehension allowed them to understand their whole situation much better he could. ''Am I thinking too traditional, or too much focus on our planet? How come I was unable to comprehend that?'' Shane lamented inwardly which Dalia noticed. "Don''t be like this, Shane. We lived for centuries on Argos without knowing what exactly was truly going on! Emily is quick-witted and able to adjust quickly to the current situation...As for Jason...you know him!" He understood that Dalia wanted to console him, but somehow, Shane didn''t feel like it was really helpful. In the end, he already had a hard time accepting that mankind''s mana core ranks were just the construction of the foundation and that they had yet to enter the real cultivation progress. It was painful and embarrassing to think that they had a chance against those foreign races in the first place. With that in mind, every single death caused by those foreign races had been unnecessary and something that could have been prevented. A single human was worth nothing to them and it was humanity''s quantity and soul-awakening that made them special. But that was also only the case because of the soul-awakenings. If mankind would have been unable to bind beasts to their soul and become stronger through this, nobody would have bothered about them and it was exactly because of this unique trait that such a devastating war was happening right now. Shane was not sure how many humans died but he was aware of the fact that waiting a few centuries for mankind''s population to recuperate, from the losses they had and would receive during this war, was nothing to them. He felt powerless and extremely useless as he stared into Jason''s golden, silver mixed eyes that were filled with the desire to do something against those foreign races. It was a clear fact that Jason had never received something great from mankind. He had been bullied for being blind, lost his mother to one of the ancient clan''s descendants, and was almost forced into an enslavement soul contract by one of the big clans. His life had been hard, but despite that, he never stopped working hard to become stronger while his faith in humanity never ceased to exist. Shane felt genuinely thankful to have met such a great disciple and he didn''t care a tiny bit about the fact that he was not a pure human, but a halfling. "Let''s go now, if my intel is not wrong, the Shandra country has the lowest numbers of battles with foreign races. If possible I would like to forge a few things too¡­.I just need a few weeks...no even days would already be enough if everything works out¡­" Shane continued to stare into Jason''s eyes as he said "In those weeks you should be able to finish the Infant-phase of your Netherworld''s forte body refining technique, right? At the same time, you could learn how to control your stigma too¡­.it''s even easier to see than the aura you release...I don''t know if foreign races were able to perceive the same aura I perceive right now, but it''s definitely something normal humans shouldn''t have under normal circumstances!" Jason was not sure what exactly Shane wanted to forge, but a period of a few months should be more than enough to finish everything his master stated "I need roughly one week to complete my body refining foundation...my bloodline awakening changed a few things about my physique but there shouldn''t be any issues with that! About concealing my stigma and the aura¡­..I''ll give my best to fix this issue as soon as possible, otherwise, I won''t be able to walk around freely, either way! And that''s not what I want." Shane smiled lightly as he manifested a spatial portal impatiently. "In that case...should we depart now?" Dalia had been talking to Emily when Shane was fixated on Jason, calmly exclaiming her disciple what they had to do for the next few weeks in which Shane and Jason were doing their own things. Emily just nodded her head half-heartedly, distracted by the new information Shane had shared before she averted her attention to the Lesser typhoon Roc that laid next to her. ''You have to become stronger...as fast as possible!!'' Everyone was ready to depart in a matter of a few minutes, and Jason took only a short glance inside his soul world before he jumped through the spatial portal while manifesting Artemis'' wings once again. He appeared above the surface on Astrix, and took a look around before he thought ''I should probably wait a little bit longer until I release Petri''s race specific weakening curse, right?'' What Jason had noticed about the curse his soul world core harbored after he bound Petri to his soul, was that he was unable to use the race specific weakening curse if his soul world core was utilizing it! Either he had to stop using the race specific weakening curse for himself in order to curse other targets, or Petri had to curse them, which was not much of a problem, but slightly annoying, if one were to think about it more intently. It was definitely not an advantage but it was not much of a hassle either. If he could actively use the weakening curse on other targets, it was highly likely that he would be strong enough to defeat stronger opponents without the need to rely on Petri to use the curse, instead of doing so personally. However, this was just a thought he had in mind while thinking about the perfect timing to change the degree to which his soul amplification should be. Right now he had just entered the Lique stage with one drop of mana. However, this one drop was unique and required the amount of mana, three drops of liquefied mana would normally require to be liquefied. This was something, he thought to be the Celestia bloodline''s unique trait. On one hand, he would have to use more mana to liquefy one drop of mana, but on the other hand, his foundation would be much stronger than anyone else''s. Once his already large mana core was filled with mana drops, it would be difficult to use up his mana which was extremely beneficial. That was if he didn''t learn any new, more mana-consuming techniques or stronger affinities that used up more mana! However, what allowed him to be truly confident in his own strength was the fact that the primal awakening increased his physical strength drastically too! His physique should be equally strong as someone who liquefied around 80 drops of mana, if not more, and he had yet to complete the infant phase of the Netherworld''s fort technique! This would give him an additional boost in his physical strength and Jason began to wonder how strong he would become after his physique reached the first stage. ''I should be able to fight against someone at the Grandmagus stage, right?'' If Jason didn''t misunderstand humanity''s mana core ranking system which said that every 10 drops of liquefied mana indicated a new level at the Magus rank, while the 100th liquefied drop of mana allowed one to be called a Grandmagus! After that, every 100 drops of mana were a new level within the Grandmagus rank before one would enter the Lord rank with the 1,000th drop of mana. This might not look like much but most ''common'' prodigies required 6 months to liquefy one drop of mana. That was without using any cultivation resources and at the beginning, when one was not proficient in liquefying mana. As such one could say that liquefying another drop of mana after two to three months would be a decent goal to achieve. But even then it would take 250 years to enter the 1st Lord rank. Fortunately, one''s mana absorption rate would increase with each level and rank one would pass, while the same applied to one''s control over mana, which allowed those prodigies to become faster after liquefying a few dozen drops of mana. This meant most humans that were labeled normal prodigies could enter the Lord rank after around 150 years. That was if they received resources to absorb mana without interrupting their cultivation too often and for too long! Jason didn''t even want to think about something so cruel. Fortunately, his mana veins, his control over mana, perception, the amount of mana he could absorb, almost everything improved insignificantly. Now, Jason would have more problems finding places that would allow him to absorb enough mana without the need to use too many additional cultivation resources. While they were traveling with the help of Shane''s spatial affinity with which he manifested several hundred up to a few thousand spatial portals to reach Canir in a matter of hours, Jason''s mind was focused on the soul world. After the primal awakening, everything, including his soul world changed completely. This included that his soul amplification increased too! It was not only his world that received an augmentation but also his soul amplification, the connection to his soulbonds, and the soul energy recuperation process! Jason was not sure about how high his current soul amplification was, but if he were to estimate, it should be around 40%. This means that if he were to deactivate the race specific weakening curse within him right now, he would receive a 40% amplification from every soulbond he had! ''Scorpio has reached his racial limit with 20 liquefied drops of mana, Artemis has already accumulated 40 drops of mana, the drops of mana Solaris created won''t give me an amplification and Petri has yet to enter the Lique stage.'' Jason''s mana core size would increase by a lot, but this wouldn''t intervene in his liquefaction process as it didn''t matter how large his mana core was to liquefy mana, it was only important to determine how mana drops of mana Jason could store. On the other hand, only his vessel might have some problems with the physical amplification of 40% he could receive. Maybe not now, because he had already created a large gap between his vessel''s maximum limits, which increased after he had undergone the primal awakening of the Celestia bloodline, but he was unsure how exactly he would fare in the future. "But...I can adjust the curse...to what degree I want...doesn''t that mean I could decrease the curse further than I initially planned as long as I''m confident to bear with the increased soul world amplification for the next 6 months?" Jason sensed that he found a loophole he hadn''t seen before and couldn''t help but smile while Emily was looking weirdly at him ''Did he become insane after awakening? How can he smile right now..?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 407 - Control It didn''t take long before they arrive on Canir, but Shane''s entire mana core was dried up, even though it had been passively replenished. After manifesting spatial portals for several hours this was only obvious and Jason began to wonder why exactly he tried so hard to arrive on Canir so soon. It was not like they would have any problems if they had to do a short break to allow Shane to replenish his entire mana core. In the end, it Jason found it disadvantageous that Shane''s mana was completely used up. If someone from a foreign race with a solidified prismarine crystals would arrive, nobody would be able to fight against it, while the same applied for hostile humans. However, Jason thought that Shane had something in mind by rushing towards Canir so hurriedly while Dalia didn''t say anything against it either. As such they should have made a plan or at least a rough idea about what they should do. "Let me rest for 10 minutes and we can continue" Shane said and Jason''s prior thought seemed to be both somewhat wrong but right at the same time. While Shane told them to take a short break, Jason looked around to see where exactly they were. He assumed that the coast was nearby while their exact position was inside a small cave that had a small pond within. This pond had a small tunnel at the base and probably lead to the ocean Jason''s mana eyes perceived. Despite living on an Island since young, he had yet to see the ocean because it was labeled as extremely dangerous and at the same time as nothing special. His whole life, Jason had lived in Artes city before he moved to Cyro-City. Even by moving from Astrix island to Terebrean, Jason didn''t really notice the ocean that had been below him while they had used lots of spatial portals. Today was the first time he could see the ocean to a certain extent, but that was also on because of his mana eyes. Before, when they were traveling through the spatial portals he had been deep in thoughts but now this was not the case and he could use his mana eyes to take a proper look outside. At least that was what he tried to look at. His mana eyes couldn''t look through solid materials and the caver was surrounded by rocks. Thus he was barely able to perceive all kinds of mana fluctuations, the fact that the whole ocean was infused with mana. At the same time, there were thousands if not tens of thousand beasts his mana eyes perceived and they had all kinds of hues enveloping them, while their affinities were mostly based on elements they could use within the water. This was probably an evolutional thing because of natural selection and the fact that fire affinities wouldn''t help a beast to survive in the deep ocean that was filled with even more terrifying beasts than Canir and the Archipelago. Thinking about it, a fire affinity might not be useless, but it would have to be extraordinarily strong or have unique traits that allowed flames to burn within the water. While looking through the cave, which was probably not only near the coast but more like between the coast and the ocean, the stigma above his right eye began to glow faintly. Absorbing mana from the surrounding, Jason began to notice that his sight became more detailed. The mana fluctuations he had perceived faintly before became more vibrant while the mana fluctuations that had already been distinct, seemed to become visible to his bare eyes and he had to rub them to see if he was not hallucinating. It felt like he could truly see everything that was infused with mana which included multiple beasts whose outlines he had only perceived before. Their scales were faintly visible and most fishes he saw were nothing special as a six-meter-long, camouflaged fish shot out of the darkness below, devouring a few fishes out of the small swam a moment later. This six-meter-long fish had a thin body, dark scales, and a distinct darkness transmutation in its mana. However, Jason didn''t care about any of those beasts because he could truly see it, even though there was a wall and more than 500 meters between them. If that was not shocking, Jason did not know what shock truly means. Thus he explained his situation to the others, who could only look at him in confusion. Nobody said anything for some time before Dalia hesitated for a moment when she said "I don''t know if this could be the case but your mana eyes had always been great and you were able to see mana fluctuations easily, right? Now, after your primal awakening, this should have been augmented a few times. You also said that the stigma began to absorb mana and that everything became even more vibrant, which means that this could be the reason you can ''visualize'' everything you perceive...To put it simply, every living being has its own mana fluctuations¡­ That is something we know. As such you could also say that the mana fluctuations are a living being''s identity! Your mana eyes might be able to decipher the information hidden within the mana fluctuation...maybe? "So, It might be possible to tell information like one''s appearance from a living being''s mana fluctuations... But that would mean I know how to read the information subconsciously while deciphering them...how is that possible? Is that the stigma''s doing?... But why would it do something like that? That doesn''t make sense because the stigma feels more like an augmentation...Maybe my eyes that have been augmented through the activated stigma are able to read and transfer that information?" Jason was again deep in thoughts. During the last few hours, he had already enough time to think about what the stigma can be used for. In the end, Jason realized that it had multiple purposes but all of them had something in common. The stigma augmented almost everything around mana. When his stigma had been absorbing mana it started to augment his mana absorption rate, the mana circulation speed, his mana eyes'' overall capabilities. Other than that it also increased the mana output Jason could release at once which would also increase his affinity''s strength by a large margin. This was already extremely powerful, but this was not everything! When Shane told them to rest for some time, his soulbonds emerged next to Jason without using the magic circles that would have normally been used to leave a soul world. This was another perk and his soulbonds wanted to experiment much more with the stigma too. They had already figured out that by using the stigma, they could see everything within the other individual they came in touch with. Jason assumed this to be another perk of the stigma and not his mana eyes because his soulbonds were able to see everything inside each other too! However, the most shocking fact Jason''s soulbonds figured out was that their affinities would be enhanced while the stigma had been activated too! It was not a high augmentation but more than enough to demonstrate how powerful the stigma they had obtained through Jason''s primal Celestia bloodline awakening. He had known that liquefying his mana to mana drops would allow him to undergo a drastic change, but the metamorphosis he had gone through was on a completely different level than he had expected. Not only was it extremely shocking but Jason was also aware that it might be extremely dangerous if someone were to find out that he and his soulbonds had those stigmas. Jason was not sure how many races had such stigmas but he could tell that they were powerful and not something every race should have. Otherwise, the Shadow walker, Ganesia and Deepsea scion race would have had them too! While Dalia and Shane were still pondering about Jason''s words, he suddenly said "I''m not sure how safe it is to enter a city right now¡­.I have yet to learn how to control my Celestia aura, and the stigma seems to be stronger and more unique than I expected. To learn more about it, which is a necessary step to conceal or retract it somehow, I''ll probably need a few weeks¡­" Both Shane and Dalia nodded their heads, while Emily was taking care of her Lesser typhoon Roc that was as needy as Artemis and his other soulbonds were. "We know that, but there is something I need, and I don''t think she will give it to me without seeing you...It''s difficult to explain but I can promise that everything will be helpful to you¡­ I know that you''re uncomfortable by going out without being able to control your body, but can you trust me, please?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 408 - [Old One], Haepha Jason didn''t expect that Shane needed something from someone, and it sounded even weirder to Shane that this person had to see him in order to hand over the things Shane required. He was missing lots of information right now, but the fact that Shane asked him to trust his decision, and that he said ''please'' made Jason''s stance clear. Until now, he hadn''t done anything great for his masters, who had supported him to their fullest capabilities. As such he should at least trust them. That was the bare minimum he could do. Since Old Drake''s betrayal, Jason had problems trusting other people, but what kind of life would he live if he were to never trust anyone in his entire life again? That sounded unfavorable and extremely uncomfortable. Living a life where you can''t trust anyone would be annoying and frustrating. In the end, he would have to rely on others sometimes too. To put it simply, he had already relied on Shane and Dalia quite often. As such he told himself that trusting his masters was the bare minimum he could return to them! Smiling at him, Jason could help but say "Alright, let''s go then...but, I guess you won''t tell me what you exactly you need from this person, right?" Jason was curious about what Shane might need from someone else, but seeing that his master tried his best to avoid talking about what exactly he required and for what reason, he couldn''t help but feel that Shane was still somewhat childish. It was not like he was never serious, which he definitely was, but sometimes Shane was overly excited or acted like a small child. In the beginning, Jason had thought that Shane was cold and distant, but after getting to know his master, he could tell that it was only an outer layer something Shane put on to disguise his true behavior. This was not necessarily bad because there were many people that would ridicule Shane for his behavior if he were to openly reveal it, instead of acting differently in front of people he trusted. Opponents wouldn''t take him seriously too and some people might even take this chance in order to use their knowledge against Shane! After Shane heard what Jason said he couldn''t suppress his smile anymore as he teasingly said "Obviously...I won''t tell you what I need from this person! But I would recommend you to wear a mask until we enter the city. It might be a little bit annoying to enter the dome without an ID, because everything turned upside down since war started. But it should be fine as long as I can reach her!" Jason somehow understood what Shane implied. Everyone without an ID should be labeled as an invader from another world at this point and he couldn''t help but become doubtful when he heard ''as long as I can reach her''. This told Jason that his master had yet to get in contact with the woman he needed something and he couldn''t help but ask "If...let''s just say IF you can''t reach this woman, what should we do?" Smiling drily, Jason could see how his master was unable to say anything to this as Dalia intervened "She will answer. At least if she didn''t die, which is something that shouldn''t happen¡­ If I were to guess, she will be the last amongst our generation to die...and that''s not even an exaggeration because I doubt that anything or anyone can take her down!" When he heard this, Shane became interested in this woman, but he was unable to ask, knowing that he wouldn''t receive an answer either way. As such he just nodded his head when Shane told them that he had stored enough mana. However, before they departed, he took out a crimson colored messenger crystal that was already starting to crumble, before Shane inserted mana into it. When the messenger crystal had been activated, less than half a minute passed before they heard a voice that was both young, yet old. "Lil'' Shane? You''re still alive? That''s good to hear! I don''t think you used one of the messenger crystal''s uses just to chat with me, right? What do you want??" Jason was unable to tell whether the woman, Shane had called, was nice or not. She seemed to be glad that Shane survived but didn''t want to talk about other things. At the same time, the woman said ''Lil'' Shane'' which indicated that the woman was much older than Shane was. ''Is she one of the old ones?'' Everyone who had survived the mana outbreak and was still alive was labeled as ''Old One''. Even if had only been three to four centuries which was a long period for humans, it was nothing for foreign races who had a heritage of several thousand years at the bare minimum. Jason was not even sure how old younger races were, but it would be a surprise if he were to hear that a race younger than the human race existed. In the end, 300 to 400 years was nothing and Jason was fully aware of this. Even his masters should know this and it would be more astonishing if mankind''s old ones were unaware of the fact that their titles were nothing but empty words. "Hey Haepha, I''m still alive as you can hear! We''ll come over in a few minutes, there is someone I want to introduce to you¡­!" "Don''t you mean there is something you need from me? You wouldn''t come over in those chaotic times mankind is facing if there were nothing you need!! Furthermore, the Drake clan is still searching for you! Besides that, it was not bad to hide in the Lion den. I heard a lot about you! Astrix would be one of the last places I would have searched for you!" Apparently, the woman was called Haepha and Jason could tell that she was straightforward and didn''t really like the hesitation Shane was currently showcasing as Jason mumbled "Why are they jumbling back and forth? Doesn''t that waste more time than explaining everything neatly?" He didn''t notice that his voice was too loud and Shane turned around to Jason, glaring at him as if he had killed someone as Haepha, the woman Shane had been talking to said with a faint trace of joy in her voice. "Who is that greenhorn that a moment ago? I doubt that he is your son, but It should be the ''someone'' you wanted to introduce to me...Well, he is not wrong, let''s not waste too much time and come over, I''ll talk to the City Lord and tell him that a small group I''m acquainted with will arrive soon." After she said that her voice changed and Jason could tell that she was about to speak to him as Haepha said "I know that our short chat seems weird for you, but you have to know that there are foreign races who can change their voice...I was trying to figure out whether it''s the real Shane or not. You might not be aware of this, but most foreign races are no laughing matter!" Shane nodded his head faintly, even though he doubted Haepha''s words a little, while Dalia remained silent, thinking that Haepha and Shane were missing something as Jason blurted out Dalia''s exact thoughts. "I might not know much about most races, but I know that the red messenger crystal Shane activated can only be accessed with Shane''s individual mana fluctuations which he should have imprinted into the crystal before the runes had been engraved¡­. There might be races, able to change their voice but I doubt that they can replicate Shane''s mana fluctuations perfectly¡­ On the other hand, there is always the possibility of Shane being used a the host of a parasitic race, so I guess it''s not wrong to be careful...He could also be abducted, tortured, and forced to activate the messenger crystal, but the efforts to do the latter are...vast to put it simple terms. But I apologize if my words sounded rude, I did not plan to voice out my thoughts... It was an accident and I hope Ms. Haepha can accept my apology!" When he had started to blurt out his thoughts, Jason had yet to notice that he might have overdone it. As such he apologized in the end, hoping that he could prevent making Haepha angry. However, instead of doing so, she sounded extremely calm as she said "Come over Shane, I want to see this youth! You wanted to introduce him to me either way!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 409 - Antiquarian Jason was unsure whether the woman called Haepha was angry or not, but what he knew for sure was that something except her age made Shane respect her a lot. As such he told himself that there had to be something unique about the woman who wanted to see him. They had planned to meet her either way, as such it was not a problem and Shane told Haepha that they would arrive in less than ten minutes. After that, the runes inscribed on the red messenger crystal began to diminish while Haepha said "I''ve already messaged the City lord about your arrival! Just hurry up. I don''t like to wait!" Hanging up the call, Haepha who looked like she was in her early 30s sat down on the chair she previously sat on as she looked through the small antiquity shop she had. ''Why does he want to come over now? And who is this youth? His knowledge about foreign races and the messenger crystal is not something he can easily procure...Did Shane teach him all of that?'' Haepha was a tall woman with a height of around 1.83 meters with soulderlong red hair and deep, brown eyes, who couldn''t help but feel that Shane''s arrival might be more interesting than she initially thought. When the call ended, Shane and the others decided to eat something small, which they hadn''t done for a very long time before they departed. Using numerous spatial portals, they arrived in front of a large city that was enveloped in a complex mana dome that Jason had never seen before. Emily was also astonished because she could sense the difference between the dome''s one Terebrean and the one in front of her. Andra, the city in front of them was only a B-grade city but it was much grander than the B-grade cities Jason had seen before. This was one of the differences in Canir. Every city was large and had a population in the millions. However, that was not everything! The mana density and purity were much higher compared to Terebrean and Astrix. It was still lower compared to the center area of the mana vein below Cyro-city, but Jason could tell that he was able to absorb much more mana than he would be able to on the Archipelago. One could say that this was the most important reason for all prodigious talents to leave the Archipelago, both the surrounding mana''s quality and quantity were much higher on Canir than any Island. Astrix'' mana vein was the sole difference, but even that was incomparable as long as one didn''t stay right next to it! As such, Canir was great to nurture new talents compared to the small Islands. Nevertheless, Jason was not impressed by the naturally generated mana anymore because he knew that his own mana absorption rate amplified by the activated stigma would become higher compared to what the mana in his surroundings could provide. When they arrived in front of Andra''s dome, they descended to the ground before the small group of four walked through the thin, translucent wall of the dome. Only half a minute after they had passed through the Dome, several humans at the Lord ranked had already appeared in front of them as one man stepped forward while looking at the quantum bracelet where a tall red-haired woman was projected. "Are those four the guests you mentioned?" He asked Haepha who was in a projected video call with the middle-aged man. Haepha who saw that there were two adults and two teenagers among the group couldn''t help but wonder if that were Shane, Dalia, and two disciples or if there were coincidentally others who had arrived at a bad timing. Both Shane and Dalia''s appearance had changed completely, after Dalia''s flame had the capabilities to change the facial features of someone to a certain extent. Furthermore, they had dyed their hair and without any proper signs that they were really Shane and Dalia he had known for a very long time. If she were in front of them she would be able to tell them apart within a second, but the City lord told her that it would be better to remain within the shop she was currently at. This was only because some foreign races had a hostility to her as she did massacre lots of people from all kinds of foreign races during the last few months! It would be problematic for Andra''s citizens if foreign races were to find out that Haepha lived there which caused the City lord to request her to stay behind. As such, she could only stare at the masked youth that was eyed with doubt and a slight trace of confusion by the Lord ranked guards that protected the city right now. Last but not least, there was a young girl with green hair in their group, and the middle-aged woman, Haepha, assumed to be Dalia dragged the young girl behind her. ''Did she become a mother?...No, her constitution wouldn''t allow that...are those some motherly feelings?'' Suddenly Shane manifested his three affinities while Dalia manifested her silver origin flame and the nature affinity she had was released too. With that Haepha could tell that they were Shane and Dalia. It wouldn''t be too much of a coincidence to have the same affinities as Shane had but for the same to happen with Dalia''s nature affinity and silver origin flame was unlikely. Origin flames were already rare but Haeoha had only once seen a silver one and that was Dalia''s! "Yes, they''re my guests!" Haepha said to the man at the Lord rank before ending the call. Shane and Dali knew that Haepha was unable to tell who they were without sensing their mana fluctuations. However, it surprised them that she didn''t come to them directly, which was something Shane expected because Haephe had always been impatient and someone who wanted to avoid too much attnetion! As such, they had to release their affinities with which Haepha was familiar. When clearing their identity was solved, the Lord-ranked guards returned, while the man who had talked to them for a moment before leading their small group to a small, inconspicuous looking shop. After that, he left too, only to turn around for a moment as he looked at Jason who wore a mask to cover his stigma. Unfortunately, his was not enough to disguise the terrifying, yet majestic aura enveloping Jason. ''He should have barely entered the Magus rank...how can it be that my colleagues and I felt threatened by him¡­?'' The young man couldn''t get the hang of what he perceived and the only thing he was sure about was that the youth was a real prodigy. It was unknown how old Jason was because one couldn''t see the face behind his mask, but from the appearance, one could roughly estimate that he was in his 20s. He had only one drop of mana which the Lord-ranked guards perceived by scanning through his concealed mana core, but that was not what mattered. They, Lord-ranked guards, were already afraid of such a youth..how could that be? Jason and the other''s didn''t realize the guards'' suspicion and Shane didn''t care about anything like that as his hands began to sweat heavily ''I hope she still has what I need....'' He thought inwardly as he entered the small antiquary shop, while Dalia, Jason, and Emily followed behind. After the four of them had entered the small shop, they approached the counter where Haepha was already seated, waiting impatiently as her gaze was involuntarily drawn to Jason. When she saw Jason, she couldn''t help but blurt out. "What the hell did you bring me here? How can someone with one drop of mana release such an aura? Are you playing with me, Shane??" Shane who had expected a similar reaction couldn''t help but shake his head as he stared at Haepha when he said "I''m not playing with anyone right now and it has been a very long time since I''ve been as serious as I''m right now. Please tell me that you''re still hoarding all kinds of rare materials...Is the Mayrod Soul wood still with you?" Haepha, who was still looking at Jason, trying to investigate every little detail about the young man that stood in front of her, barely heard what Shane said "I wouldn''t be called Haepha if I wouldn''t collect rare antiquities anymore, right? But for what do you need the Mayrod Soul wood?...wait, what do you need??" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 410 - Soul Weapon Jason was not sure if he had ever heard of the Mayrod Soul wood, but he knew from Shane''s teaching and the large variety of books he had read that almost every item that had ''Soul'' in its name was rare and good to create soul weapons, -armors or -accessories with. As such he was a little bit astonished when he heard his master asking Haepha about the Mayrod Soul wood. Even Haepha seemed to be a little bit astonished which was something Jason hadn''t expected from an Old one as she said "Nobody should be able to control Mayrod soul wood with their soul?? You know how hard it is to nurture it...without being able to control and nurture the Mayrod soul wood it''s almost worthless and less durable than a simple branch from an oak wood!!" ''There is something like that?'' Jason asked himself inwardly as his interest was ignited. "The Mayrod Soul wood is not the only material I need from you! If you have a few kilograms of Yvaldranite ore and Affanyr ore, it would be perfect!" "You!! What the hell do you want to forge? Can your soul take it? Your soul''s world is already occupied and there is no space left. The Mayrod Soul wood can''t be nurtured without occupying a large part of your soul world...I don''t even doubt that you have enough soul energy for a soul-grade weapon forged out of those three materials...but do you want to slay the big clans after nurturing a newborn soul weapon?" When Jason heard Haepha talking about soul weapons he was reminded about the last few months where Shane had talked a lot about soul weapons. However, from Jason''s perspective, even though Shane liked talking about soul weapons, he had yet to teach anything about that to Jason. During the last few months, Jason had absorbed lots of mana, refined his physique and his soul energy had reached 150,000 units, thanks to the continuous soul energy cycle he had established within his second sub-area. Other than that, Shane told him to improve his foundation of blacksmithing, thus Jason learned how to perfectly refine all kinds of grade-2. He also began to purify grade-3 ores which was not as difficult as Jason had imagined it. It was definitely not easy but after Solaris had evolved to a Tier-1 origin flame, it was able to sense how high its temperature was allowed to increase before it would injure mana veins. He had to learn how to perfectly purify grade-3 ores but Shane was confident that Jason was capable enough to do it. After Jason had explained what exactly had happened to him during the primal awakening of his bloodline in addition to the overall advancement his whole body had gone through, Shane could hardly contain his excitement. Now that Shane had also heard how great the augmentation of Jason''s stigma was, Shane was reassured that nothing with his plan could go wrong. There was a reason for him to teach Jason only the basics to purify ores during the last few months and everything was going better than he initially expected. The only issue was if Haepha had the items he wanted or not Mayrod Soul wood was the perfect material to use as a handle for a soul weapon, It was light, but durable like titanium as long as it was nurtured well. Meanwhile, an alloy made out of Yvaldranite and Affanyr was the cream of the crop, that would allow Shane to forge one of the best weapons humanity had ever forged until now! While Yvaldranite ore was known for their mana veins'' high mana sensitivity, if perfectly purified and used properly, a blade made out of this ore could attain a horrifying high sharpness and durability with mana circulated through it! On the other hand, Affanyr ore was an extremely rare grade-3 as Yvalranite or that was often used to forge weapons for someone who liked to use their affinity as it augmented affinities to a certain degree. Merging Yvaldranite and Affanyr that were both labeled as extremely hard to come by, extremely difficult to purify, and extremely difficult to forge into great weapons, without damaging some of their mana veins which would reduce their capabilities drastically, was extremely difficult. However, at the same time, it would allow those peak-grade-3 ores to become something extremely powerful! This was for sure and a fact that was already obvious for the impure alloy! If Jason was able to purify it to a certain extent, the Yvaldranyr alloy made out of Yvaldranite and Affanyr would become something unparalleled. At least if one were the exclude weapons made from foreign races. Nevertheless, Haepha who was able to comprehend what Shane wanted to do, couldn''t help but think that Shane''s thoughts were not completely thought through! Yet, Shane shook his head when he heard Haepha''s lecture as he pushed his chest out before he proudly said "I don''t want to forge a soul-weapon for myself, but the young man next to me, my disciple, Jason Stella!" Jason had not expected anything and had only secretly hoped that the materials his master wanted to procure were for him, but when he heard that what he was hoping for was true, Jason was unable to suppress his smile anymore. He wore a mask either way but when Haepha blurted out a shocked "WHAT?", Jason couldn''t help but look at her in confusion. "Shane!! You should know how much of a burden a normal low ranked soul weapon has to one''s soul, but you want to forge this youth a soul weapon made out of Mayrod Soul wood, and Yvaldranyr alloy...did you hit your head while you''ve been hiding?? Even if...Jason, right? Even..if Jason seems talented, while the aura around him shows that he is someone special, how could you even think about handing him a weapon with so many potential dangers? That is if you''re even able to forge it!!" Shane, and Dalia, who was aware of what Shane wanted to do, from the beginning, were aware of the dangers a powerful soul weapon could bring forth, but Jason was different and not someone one should underestimate. Suddenly, Haepha averted her attention from Shane back to Jason, whom she stared daggers at before she asked "I don''t know if you''re aware of this fact, but soul weapons made out of one of those three items are already powerful and extremely dangerous for one''s soul! That is if your soul can''t cope with the burden such a weapon brings forth. However, combining the Mayrod Soul wood will occupy a large space within your soul world, and the possibility that it will annex your soul energy is not small either! At your age, you won''t have enough soul energy units left as long as you can bind even one more beast to your soul! Meanwhile, Yvaldranyr alloy made out of Yvaldranite ore and Affanyr ore increases the necessary used ''soul'' materials'' demand for more soul energy and an even larger piece of your soul world! It might have to occupy the area for three, maybe even four soulbonds could use!" Jason was happy about the free lecture Haepha gave him, but it was...somehow unnecessary to hear all of that. At least for him! His soul world was large enough and his current soul energy had reached around 150,000 units. He had yet to continue nurturing Solaris, but that could wait for some time. At least until he reached a higher soul energy unit with which he would receive several thousand soul energy units from the continuous soul energy cycle per day. Using some of the soul energy units from those few thousand, his growth wouldn''t stagnate nor decrease. Instead, the exponential growth would be slightly less. However, that was something Jason could accept. As such, when Haepha said that a soul weapon would be nurtured by occupying his soul energy, he was fine as long as nothing would be burned. Solaris was already enough to make him annoy him by absorbing three soul energy units in order to occupy the fourth soul energy unit. This meant that instead of 1,000 soul energy units, Solaris required 4,000 soul energy units to increase the number of soul energy units it occupied by 1,000. "As long as soul weapons don''t destroy my soul energy or hinder the annexed soul energy units from being used with a soul energy strengthening technique, like the Heaven''s Hell technique, I''m fine with it!" Haepha looked at Jason when she heard his words as she wanted to add that one''s physique would have to cope with the burden too when Shane suddenly said "Jason, just take your mask off...why are you playing around like that??" ''I didn''t play around but couldn''t find the right timing yet!!'' He lamented inwardly while talking of the pitch-black mask, revealing his golden-silverish glowing eyes and the white glowing stigma above his right eyes that had thin golden and silver strands within. "Is that a trait?...Huh?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 411 - Confidence When Haepha had perceived Jason''s aura she was already suspicious about him, but seeing the stigma that glowed faintly, she could hardly contain herself. Foreign races were able to determine that he was not a pure human right off the bat but that was different for humans. They had never seen the unleashed aura from someone of the Celestia race and a stigma of a foreign race in their entire life. As Jason heard that Haepha asked him if he had a trait without showing any signs of noticing that something was, he was sure that he was not in danger. This didn''t mean that Haepha wouldn''t kill, attack, or do anything like that to him, which was still an existing possibility, but more thanks to the fact that even an ''Old one'' was unable to tell whether he was a halfling, from a foreign race or a human with a unique trait. However, there was only one problem with the latter point. If Jason had to count his visible ''unique'' traits, there were three in total. His Celestia aura, the stigma that glowed faintly, and his golden-silver shining eyes! If he had only one of those traits, everything would be fine, maybe even two out of those three would be fine, but Jason had yet to hear from a human with three advantageous, foreign traits! There were already prodigies with two strong traits but those traits were very different too and not like Jason''s. As such he could only smile lightly when Haepha had asked if he had a trait. He trusted his masters and took a deep breath before he said "I''m sorry for my earlier rude behavior when Ms and my master were talking about. My name is Jason Stella and I''m a human...with the blood from a foreign race flowing through me!" Bowing lightly he showed Haepha that he didn''t harbor any ill-intentions, but Jason also expected to be eyed disgustingly or maybe even cursed at, when he heard a deep sigh from the middle-aged woman with red hair. "That''s your surprise Shane? How is someone like that called? Human mixling? Mutant? Halfling?...Probably Halfling, right?" Haepha seemed to take this news relatively lightly, only for Jason to perceive that her eyes seemed to be a little bit distracted. "I prefer being called by my name...Jason. That should be feasible, right? It''s not like I was able to choose to be born as a halfling. Furthermore, I have never spoken to my father in person. To be honest, It hasn''t been that long since I found out what exactly I am and I would be thankful if I can be treated like you would treat any human...if that''s possible" Jason was unsure how he should talk to someone he had never met before while knowing that she knew of his biggest secret. At least he would call it like that. There was nothing he wanted to hide as much as the fact that he was a halfling. That might originate from the fact that humans and all foreign races he had encountered and heard from were hostile to each other. As such it couldn''t be a great opening to reveal his true identity right after he got to know someone new. Right now, the situation was a little bit different but that was because he trusted Shane. He had told Jason that everything would be okay, and that was exactly what was going on. There was no problem with his revelation, and it took Haepha less than a minute before she got the hang of herself once again. She wanted to ask Jason lots of questions, but before Haepha could do so, she noticed how uncomfortable Jason was. As such, she averted her attention to Shane as she asked "So you want to forge a soul weapon for this youngster here? If he has the blood of a foreign race within him, his physical strength and mana sensitivity should be much higher...that''s already good, but how about his affinities and soul world...wait! Does he even have a soul world?" It was impossible to overlook that she was extremely interested in Jason, who had noticed that she avoided asking him questions when she saw how uncomfortable he was in the situation he was currently in. After he saw this, he could only slap his cheeks, which was heard through the whole small shop, attracting everyone''s attention. Taking a deep breath, he calmed down before he couldn''t help but smile drily as he said "I''m ready to answer your questions, thanks for being so considerate!" Haepha didn''t expect Jason to be so polite which was rare to see amongst prodigies, to which the young black-haired youth definitely belonged. She was unsure how old he was but she doubted that he had passed the age of 18 years! Suddenly Dalia pointed at Jason''s hair as she said "Jason! You have a grey¡­ no, two silver strands in your hair!!" When Jason heard this, he felt weird for a moment, however, he didn''t panic as Shane or the others had expected. Rather than that, he turned towards one of the shelves where all kinds of antiquity were placed inside. Some of them were shining brightly and he was able to see his mirrored appearance within the unknown, metallic objects. "Oh! There really are some silver-colored strands...at least this change won''t make anyone more suspicious about my heritage.." Smiling lightly he turned back to the others that stared at him weirdly as he smiled "It''s not like my looks are disfigured because of a few silver-colored strands in my black hair, right??" Scratching the back of his head, he turned to Shane as he asked "Was my blacksmith practice with the purification of grade-3 ores because of the soul weapon you want to forge? Now that my bloodline has awakened, I should be able to purify almost all grade-3 ores perfectly. That is if both Solaris and I won''t be pressured by time!" He had already been confident in himself, but now that he awakened the Celestia bloodline, everything about himself had been augmented to a previously unimaginable degree! It wouldn''t even wonder Jason if Solaris'' abilities had been strengthened by the stigma it had engraved on its mana core! However, when Haepha heard what Jason said she could help but eye Jason and Shane weirdly. Shane didn''t seem to say anything and just nodded his head to which Jason remained silent and it looked like they had a silent agreement about what Jason had said before. Because Haepha couldn''t understand why Shane allowed a youngster to reduce superior grade-3 ores, which was even more difficult to forge with than peak-grade-3 ores, to ingots, even less purify them, she had to voice out her concerns. "I should have a few kilograms of Yvaldranite- and Affanyr ore left, but it should be barely enough to forge two longswords...at most! It''s clear what I want to say, right? There will only be two tries for both and these ores are extremely sensitive to the surrounding heat and mana! Two mistakes and everything will be for naught! Not even I can confidently say that I''m able to purify them more than halfway through, let alone perfectly purifying them, why are you so confident??" It was obvious why she was so confused. According to the news she heard, her blacksmithing capabilities were the best within mankind and she had already forged many grade-4 weapons! Yet, she was not confident in perfectly purifying Yvaldranite or Affanyr ore. At least not if she had only two attempts. If it were a dozen, Haepha would be confident to find one good ore, whose complex mana veins didn''t overlap, hindering impurities from being expelled. However, even if she would find a perfect ore, she would rather stop after purifying either of those ores at 70% because it was too risky! Yet, Shane only gazed at Jason who shrugged his shoulders. "Solaris'' control over its flame and the accuracy of maintaining the flame''s temperature should be perfect as long as it doesn''t go¡­.above 4000¡ãC? I don''t think we have to talk about my eyes, right? The only thing I have to pay attention to is that the impurities won''t touch or even injure the mana veins. My control over mana is much higher than before, but I''m not sure to what extent it has increased. If I can''t even purify those grade-3 ores with my mana eyes, an origin flame, and my mana perception, I might as well stop comparing myself to other foreign races! Two attempts! Give me one and I''ll show you what I''m capable of after undergoing the primal awakening of the Celestia bloodline!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 412 - Unknown, Mysterious Race Shane had the same opinion as Jason. He had already been able to purify a common grade-3 ore, to some extent after Solaris, the black origin flame had evolved! As such, now that his mana eyes, mana perception and control received a substantial increase in their capabilities, Jason should be able to purify Yvaldranite- and Affanyr ore. Adding the fact that Jason and his soulbonds obtained a stigma through the primal Celestia bloodline awakening, which enhanced every aspect that had to do with mana! With that being said, Shane would be disappointed in his disciple if he were to fail. It sounded ridiculous after thinking about it, but Shane couldn''t see Jason as a youth anymore. Jason''s blacksmith capabilities were already higher than his own...and he had learned how to forge for more than 200 years, while his disciple had just started!! Shane was extremely envious about almost everything Jason had, whether it was his talent, his eyes, or his magnificent soul, however, instead of loathing his disciple because of that, Shane gave his best to help Jason to become stronger. The dangers humanity had to face in the next few years would be numerous and chaotic but Shane was confident that Jason played an important, if not the most important role to solve everything. Yet, in order to face those who were stronger than Jason, he would have to be stronger. Shane couldn''t help much to improve Jason''s mana absorption and he was unable to support him in many other things. There was only one exception! He should forge one of the strongest, if not the most powerful weapon ever made by humans for Jason! This would increase his combat prowess drastically. Adding that Shane wanted to forge a soul weapon for Jason, it would grow with his disciple''s increase of strength and maybe even exceed its limits. Under normal circumstances, soul weapons were bound to their material limitations, but that was not the case with all of them! There were a few exceptions and Shane wanted to apply all of them at once! If the materials used were perfectly refined, a material would receive a huge, qualitative leap in its characteristics. Meanwhile, if one''s soul was integrated into the whole forging process, from the beginning to the end, the soul weapon would adjust itself perfectly to the wielder. Other than that, there had also been the possibility that nurturing a soul- weapon/armor/accessory might create a mutation, forcefully increasing the weapon''s quality and material limit by a small margin! For the latter part, the first case about perfectly refined materials had to apply too! As such it was important to purify the used ores, perfectly! Adding the Mayrod Soul wood that was considered the strongest, yet very dangerous material to produce a soul weapon with, Shane was confident that Jason would receive a huge increase in his combat prowess. That was if everything worked according to the plan he had in mind since the Big clan gathering had been announced. Every kingdom was filled with war and one could say that the Shandra country that was governed by the Shiabi clan was the most peaceful right now. There were only a few other big clans that were able to hold up against the onslaught of foreign races. However, this was because there was an unknown race supporting the Shiabi clan. Shane hadn''t heard anything about that race and neither had anyone else, except those who belonged to the Shiabi clan. Everyone remained silent and nobody knew how many individuals from the unknown foreign race resided within the Shandra country or what their true plan was. The only certain fact was that Shandra country''s citizens were safe and Shane was sure that this had something to do with the unknown race and the fact that the Shiabi clan was in contact with them! Nevertheless, Shane and Dalia felt that the situation within the Shandra country was completely different from every other country and it was like the mysterious foreign race was genuinely helping the Shaibi clan. If that was truly the case, there had to be something important the Shiabi clan possessed which nobody knew about. Furthermore, it shouldn''t have anything to do with human trafficking or something similar to that. This was important because Shane and Dalia had carefully thought about every single step they were taking. It was already a difficult decision to decide which country on Canir they should visit, stay or even support once forging the soul weapon was done. In the end, there were multiple big clans, Shane wanted to support because they had been good to him when he was pursued by the alliance of other big clans, however, he was unertain whether they were still like before or if something about them had changed! There were too many unknown factors about the soul contracts some big clans had formed with the foreign races and it wouldn''t be surprising if some clans had been forced to wage war against other races. As such, the Shandra country seemed to be the most reliable one right now and Shane felt like supporting the Shiabi clan that had already received support from a mysterious race might be the best way. The Shiabi clan had defended Shane and even tried to protect him to a certain degree, at the time he had been pursued. One could say that many facts pointed towards helping the Shiabi clan but on the other hand, there could always be ill-intentions behind goodwill! Turning to Haepha, Shane couldn''t help but shrug his shoulders as he said "You''ve heard Jason, if he is confident, why shouldn''t he try it. I won''t be able to purify it perfectly, but that doesn''t mean he is unable to perfect purify them!" Jason smiled, inwardly thanking his master''s trust as he thought ''In the end, these materials are just goods mankind was able to procure. That means they''re already limited in their capabilities from the get-go. There might be ores and materials we call grade-3 and grade-4, but I doubt that they''re something special to foreign races. It might be enough to forge a great weapon for someone at the Prismar stage but that should already be it!'' When Haepha saw how confident both Shane and Jason were while Dalia was more interested in the surrounding antiquaries, she couldn''t help but feel that something was going wrong. Looking at the only normal member of their small group, Haepha stared at Emily, who was not sure how difficult Shane and Jason''s plan really was. She had already concocted grade-1 potions, but according to what Dalia, her master, had said, concocting and blacksmithing are somewhat different. Something like soul potions didn''t exist! Because of that, Emily was unable to understand how difficult it would be to forge a soul grade-3 weapon. From her knowledge, she could understand how difficult creating grade-1 goods was in comparison to grade-3 goods but that was already it. Thus she remained silent and didn''t say anything while listening carefully. Haepha had to look between every member of the small group that was consistent of four members only to sigh deeply. "Alright, it''s not like I''ll lose anything if I sell you the Mayrod Soul wood, Yvaldranite- and Affanyr ore, but I have a condition! If you want to purchase those three items I want an explanation of what a primal awakening really is and everything included! It might as well be easier to summarize your life because I don''t get how someone like you, Jason, was unheard of before! " __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 413 - Tricky Deal Shane had already expected that there would be an additional condition if they were to purchase all three materials, so he was not surprised. They were extremely rare and procuring them had probably taken several decades! The reason for this was because both ores were extremely rare and their occurrences were small. Furthermore, the location at which they could be found was a particular, high-ranked rift. Those rifts were extremely dangerous with several Monarch ranked beasts roaming around too. Meanwhile, the ore occurrences were protected by even stronger beasts. This means that acquiring a few kilograms of Yvaldranite and Affanyr ore was already a difficult task! At the same time, acquiring Mayrod Soul wood might seem somewhat easier, but the beasts protecting the Mayrod Soul trees were strong too. However, they didn''t attack someone at a physical level but their opponent''s mind and soul! As such Shane was glad that the condition Haepha had stated was something so simple. In the past, her demands were extremely high, and most big clans or old ones did only reluctantly visit her to purchase something when they were truly desperate. Looking at Jason, Shane could only say that it was his decision, whether or not he would tell Haepha his story. After he had thought about it, Jason decided that Haepha had already found out most of his secrets, like him being a halfling from the Celestia race, that he had mana eyes or that he possessed an origin flame. The latter was something she had found out when Jason had spoken to Shane, thus he thought that he might as well reveal everything if they received enough benefits from it. Until now, Haepha had remained calm about everything she had heard and seen during the last few minutes, which told Jason that she was either thinking about something or that she didn''t mind that he was not entirely from the human race. In the end, this didn''t matter because everything he had heard during the last few minutes pointed towards the fact that the soul weapon Shane wanted to forge him would be extremely powerful. Yet, to create this powerful soul weapon, they required the three ingredients Shane had previously stated! As such, Jason started to summarize his own story, without telling too much or too little information. He didn''t explicitly say that he had encountered his father or every detail about his mana eyes, but the sheer mass of uncommon things that had happened to Jason was already enough for Haepha to say. "Are you sure that you''re not an Old One?" There were too many things that had happened to Jason in such a short time, but if she were to be honest, the most shocking was Jason''s current age, his soul world, and the fact that his combat prowess might be on par with a Grandmagus. After she had heard everything Haepha took some time to digest everything, which included the fact that foreign races used body refining techniques, that there was an unimaginable high number of planets that were more advanced than Argos, and that their cultivation system was not a little bit wrong, but completely! A few minutes had passed and Haepha had remained at the exact same position, before she turned around, moved to the counter, as she took out a peculiar spatial ring. Inserting her mana into the spatial ring, large ore lumps in two different colors and a black-colored piece of wood landed on the counter as she said. "Thanks for telling me your story, Jason¡­Shane, you''ll cover the bill, right? You know that my payment is different from others, right?¡­" Jason didn''t listen to Haepha and instead stared at the ore lumps and the piece of wood. Yvaldranite ore was black in color while the Affanyr ore was silverish in color with faint strands of the rainbow colors intertwined within She smiled at Shane lightly before she showed him a number ''10'' which caused Shane to explain "10...you want 10??" Jason was not sure what that meant but when Dalia heard how Shane exclaimed, she had to say "10 unconditional favors...are a lot¡­" After he had heard Dalia, Jason began to understand that Haepha''s payment would be unconditional favors, instead of star notes. This was nothing surprising because the price for the three materials that stood on the counter should be extremely high if Jason didn''t misunderstand everything. "3 favors for each ore and 4 for the Mayrod soul wood!" Haepha said with a faint smile on her lips. She knew how important those items were for Shane, and at the same time, she felt that Dalia and Jason wanted to obtain them too. It was obvious because strong weapons were sometimes enough to let someone survive dangerous circumstances, which was even more important in the current times they would have to face. In the end, it was not even sure if everyone survived the war which the foreign races and a few big clans had initiated, but that was also the reason Haepha wanted to make use of everything she could. ''She is a true businesswoman!'' Jason thought inwardly, thinking that she didn''t give her friends any discounts while knowing how important the three ingredients were to Shane and everyone else. Suddenly he recalled how Haepha had said that the ores she had were enough for two attempts of a perfect refinement. As such he subconsciously blurted out. "If I perfectly refine all the ores and we return what''s not required, we shouldn''t have to pay much, right? At least not if you''re not confident to perfectly refine the Yvaldranite and Affanyr ore as you said!" Shane hadn''t thought that this was feasible because he didn''t want Jason to exhaust himself too much during the purification process. He would had to insert a thread of his soul during the entire purification process of the ores to receive the best outcome during the following process after all! In the end, everything was slightly more difficult than Jason might expect and Shane was not sure whether or not this was a good deal. However, Haepha nodded her head after she thought about Jason''s words for a moment as she said with a faint smile "If you return me perfectly purified ingots of the Yvaldranite and Affanyr ore, you won''t have to pay anything, it''s more likely that I''ll have to pay up!" Jason was glad to hear that as he thought ''They''re just grade-3 ores...it will be fine...I hope!!'' ** Several hours flew by and Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly as he looked at Solaris. Both his and Solaris'' stigmas were glowing brightly as the black flame spread through the first Yvaldranite. After Shane had accepted the price for 10 unconditional favors if Jason were to be unable to perfectly purify all ores that were currently laid out in front of him, they had entered the basement of the antiquary shop. One could see a large room with Haepha''s smithy placed in the center, and even without his mana eyes activated, Jason could tell that Shane''s smithy paled in comparison to Haepha''s. Only a short while later, they had already started to prepare everything necessary. While Dalia left them to enter a different room in which she could take out her alchemy tools in order to concoct the most suitable and best inscription solution she was capable of concocting. Inscribing the right runes into a soul weapon was even more important than doing the same with mana weapons. In the end, a soul weapon was connected to one''s soul and faulty runes inscribed on something that belonged to oneself as an entity was not something anyone wanted to face. As such, the right inscription serum was the first step to do everything properly. Emily left with Dalia and only Shane, Haepha and Jason remained. However, Shane and Jason didn''t even notice Haepha, who observed them keenly, because they were fully focused on their task at hand. While Shane began with the reduction process of the ores, Jason would purify the reduced ores before he would shape them into bars. After that was done, it would be Shane''s task to create an alloy out of the two ingots, shape the weapon, and inscribe the runes that were able to take the forged weapon''s highest potential into them. Once that was done, he had to cool it down, take care of the weapon with different surface treatments and finish the whole forging process by sharpening the blade Meanwhile, Jason had to supply all three ingredients, they used to forge the soul weapon with his soul imprint. At the same time, they should already be connected to him from the beginning. This meant that Jason had to loosen a soul thread during the purification process in order to allow the purified ingot to become acquaintances with his soul imprint. At the same time, Jason had already supplied the Mayrod Soul wood with his soul imprint and soul threat since they had started. One could say that this was one of the most important steps. The handle that would be made out of the Mayrod Soul wood was to become his connection to the rest of the weapon. As such it had to have the firmest connection with him! In the end, several hours had already passed before Jason had even started with the purification process of the ores! Shane''s preparations and the fact that he wanted to reduce all ores before Jason started with the purification process took so long. Meanwhile, the Mayrod Soul wood had already begun to glow faintly, indicating that the connection between it and Jason was about to be established. If Jason were to pay attention to the Mayrod Soul wood closely, he would have been able to see the infinitesimal golden and silver threads within the faint glow. However, his entire focus was on Solaris and the reduced Yvaldranite ore he had already purified halfway through! In one way, it was not as difficult as Jason had expected it to be, but just when he thought about that, the soul imprint he had inserted into the Yvaldranite ore was rejected!! It looked like the ore was alive and Jason''s eyes widened when he inserted more mana into his mana eyes to figure out what was going on. "Huh? What is that??" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 414 - Dont Even Ask Jason couldn''t tell if the things he perceived within the Yvaldranite ore should happen or if it was something out of the ordinary, but the paper-thin mana threads he had already cleansed from all purities began to push away his soul imprint. This was weird and Jason had to focus on sustaining the soul thread he was controlling to maintain the soul imprint. At the same time, he had to take care of Solaris, the purification process, and that the impurities wouldn''t injure anything else. Suddenly, the stigma on Solaris'' mana core and above his right eye began to fluctuate as Jason''s Celestia aura began to envelop the soul threads firmly. The Celestia aura forced its way through the Yvaldranite ore inside the soul imprint which it enveloped. After splitting up a small part of its aura, it had been retraced by Jason who was astonished about the sudden behavior his aura showed. However, after that, a small part of his Celestia aura remained on his soul imprint, Jason could tell that the Yvaldranite ore submitted to him. It had stopped trying to push away the soul imprint, and instead, it began to approach the soul imprint carefully, trying to stay around it. This was something Jason didn''t expect, but he had already been aware of the fact that his aura could be intimidating, and that was before he had undergone the primal Celestia bloodline awakening! As such he figured out that he could try doing the same with the Mayrod Soul wood he tried to force into submission with his soul imprint for the last few hours. He had already nurtured it a little bit and it had begun to accept him slowly, but from what Jason estimated, the time required to control it perfectly wouldn''t be short and take at least several days, if not more. This was way too long and instead of hesitating what to do, Jason told Solaris to halt in its tracks for a moment as Jason averted his attention from the ore that was placed right in front of him to the Mayrod Soul wood. Focusing on his aura, thick sweat pearls poured down his back as released it towards the small, black-colored piece of wood in front of him. After he had targeted it with his aura, Jason forced his way through the wood until he was in its center where he had left his soul imprint that was faint and almost not visible. Jason split up a small part of his aura in order to leave it within the soul imprint that turned more vibrant with a faint luster around it. ''Nice!!'' He was glad that it seemed to have worked out and instead of several days, the submission process would take a few hours at most. As such he had more than enough time left to perfectly purify every reduced ore that laid in front of him. ''Let''s finish what I need first before purifying the remaining two lumps as a payment!'' When he told this to himself, Jason''s motivation arose which was noticeable as his aura had been fully unleashed. Jason was unaware of this, but the small smithy he was working inside was filled with a faint golden and silver mixed luster which his aura was radiating. At the same time, the ores in front of Jason seemed to scream, willing to be purified and used by him. When Jason felt their mana fluctuations which he compared to the desire to be purified and used, he was unable to help himself as he smiled brightly. He didn''t waste more time to think about what exactly was going on and there was no time for him to wonder what Shane or Haepha were thinking about the weird behavior all ores unfolded. Both Shane and Haepha were currently dumbfounded, looking at Jason as if he was some sort of monster as Shane noticed that Haepha was about to approach. However, he could only show a confused expression showing how he felt inwardly "Don''t even ask me¡­.I don''t know what''s going on...He already told you that his bloodline awakening occurred just a few days ago!!" Haepha didn''t seem to accept this and felt the need to ask him, only to notice that she had bit her lips with too much force. She had just wanted to calm herself down by biting her lips, however, it looked like it made everything worse as her mind went riot. ''He is only 16 years old¡­.how can Jason perfectly purify superior grade-3 ores without issues. It looks like the only problem he has to face is the issue about demonstrating the purified ore that the soul imprint is at the upper hand! Do his capabilities originate from the fact that he is a halfling from a foreign race, or is it really true that grade-3 materials are worse than we expected them to be?... If we were to compare the cultivation system Jason told me about, grade-3 materials would be on par with the..peak-Lique, or lowest Prismar stage?'' The Prisma stage was the third stage in the foreign races'' cultivation system and Jason had already told them, that the first three stages were seen as some sort of foundation in order to enter the fourth stage, that was called Ascension stage, where one would merge one''s soul with the mana core. Other than that, even Jason didn''t know what stages there might exist, however, he had already told the others, and Haepha that there was a high possibility that several more stages existed. If mankind was already able to enter the Low-Prismar stage after less than four centuries, how strong were other races? With that in mind, Haepha couldn''t help but think that Jason who had undergone the bloodline awakening shouldn''t have many problems to become stronger. ''Why does that annoy me so much?'' She wondered, only to see both joy and jealousy glimmering in Shane''s eyes. This told her that he must feel even worse than she was currently doing. ** Jason''s entire being was enveloped in a thick aura brightening up the whole room as he gazed at the Affanyr ingot he had perfectly purified before he extinguished Solaris'' flame. Several hours had passed and his task was finally over. Retracing the aura he had released during the whole purification process he felt that the remaining strength that had been within him was suddenly drained. Stumbling backward, he could barely hold himself at the table that stood behind him. Wiping away the sweat that had formed on his forehead, Jason couldn''t help but think that he did a very good job as he turned to Shane, who had already calmed down. "Good Job, let me do the rest!" Shane said while approaching him. "You can rest now, just continue to infuse your soul threats within the Yvaldranite- and Affanyr ingot while I merge them to a Yvaldranyr alloy. Other than that, you''ll have to pay attention to the Mayrod Soul wood too!" Jason smiled lightly when he heard what exactly Shane understood by ''resting'' while saying that he had to pay attention to three things at once. Fortunately, that was not very difficult anymore because his aura lingered within all three materials'' soul imprints which passively attracted the soul treads he had released. As such, Jason couldn''t help but close his eyes for a few minutes. Too many things had happened and he had yet to find time to release the tension in his body that had undergone too many changes during the last few months. He felt exhausted and couldn''t move anymore as he slumped on the chair he had barely taken out of his spatial ring. Just like that, the glow around his stigma faded away. Left behind was only a mark that looked similar to a white-colored reversed wing with faint silver and golden colored strands within. Haepha, who noticed this thought that the stigma looked like a unique tattoo and nothing special at all. However, what astonished her more was the fact that Jason''s aura had vanished too. It was as if he changed from the working state to a state where he could rest without the need to utilize everything and the only task Jason''s body actively did was to control the soul threads he released. He might be unable to sleep while doing so, but he could rest, which was enough for him at the moment. Unfortunately, he heard Haepha approaching him and knew that his short rest had already ended. Yet, instead of saying much, she just told him what she was currently seeing and perceiving. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn''t do so, but Jason had told her that he was unable to control anything about the Celestial bloodline he had inherited. Jason had already been astonished about the fact that he was able to control what his aura should do, which helped him quite a lot during the ores'' purification process. As such, when he heard what Haepha told him, Jason was confused for a moment before he thought about what had changed compared to before. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 415 - Byakur The most obvious change Jason perceived was his exhaustion. This was only obvious and from the way, he was currently feeling, his body could be compared to a machine that worked on power saving mode. ''So...how can I decide whether I want to work at full speed or in the power saving mode right now...?'' He asked himself, with the desire to move. However, even after he had heard what Haepha said and that he asked himself how everything worked, Jason was unable to overcome his exhaustion. While sustaining everything necessary with his soul treads, a few more hours flew by before Jason was unable to stay awake anymore. Several months had passed without Jason being able to sleep properly and the metamorphosis he had undergone had drained him from all energy that was left within him. Yet, he had forced himself to stay awake, to not rest for a single moment, only to find a secure location where nobody would be able to find and hunt them. Whether it were foreign races or other humans, Jason was not sure if he was seen as a threat from both sides or not. Even if he was not seen as a threat, he was aware of the fact that Argos was currently filled with war and chaos. Everything could happen and Jason had wanted to rest once they had found a tranquil place. Unfortunately, this plan was interrupted by Shane''s determination to start forging his soul weapon before he had found time to rest. As such, Jason, who had already been exhausted, used every ounce of energy and mana he had left within in order to perfectly purify each of the ores that had been in front of him. During that time he had exceeded his limits which strained his whole body that had to rest now. ** He was not sure how much time had passed, but Jason was suddenly laying inside a large, soft bed. The fatigue on his body had been washed away and Jason felt as if he had been reborn, and the only was his upper body that was weighed down by something. Right when he was about to get out of the bed, he noticed that Scorpio stared at him from the bottom of the bed, while Solaris floated above him. Meanwhile, Artemis and Petri laid inside the bed. The three-meter-long snake used up most of the space within the bed, while Artemis tried to push him away without making too much of a commotion. When Jason saw all of that, he began to ask himself whether he was in a circus or not. It was a funny sight to see how his four soulbonds interacted with each other, but the remaining space he had left on the bed was not much. This became even more apparent when his soulbonds noticed that he was awake as they approached him, the closer the better. Because he couldn''t cope with this obsessive attitude of his soulbonds right now, Jason used his stigma and soul world in unison to make himself some space. A moment after he utilized his stigma with the soul world in unison, his soulbonds disappeared as they emerged within the soul world. This was an extremely useful way in order to summon and return his soulbonds within the shortest interval. Yet, instead of feeling happy, Jason tried to get the hang of his stigma as he concentrated on it. ''Deactivate yourself!'' he lamented inwardly, however, nothing seemed to have changed and Jason could only sigh. His mood was neither extremely good nor bad right now because he was wondering about too many things at once. ''Where are my masters? What happened to the soul weapon master has forged? How can I control my bloodline? What should be our next step? Is there a plan, or should we prepare one?'' While he thought about everything possible, Jason changed his clothes that had been drenched in sweat before he walked outside the room he had been inside. He was still not sure where exactly he was but with his mana eyes, Jason found his masters, Emily and Haepha without further ado. They were downstairs, inside the backyard of the large mansion he was currently inside. Jason thought that it was Haepha''s mansion which would explain the expensive materials with which the mansion had been built. At the same time, he was already aware of the fact that Haepha had five solidified prismarine crystals within her mana core. This meant that she was the strongest or rather highest-ranked human he had encountered until now. While he walked downstairs, Jason tried to experiment with his aura that seemed to have changed a lot since he had fallen asleep. Instead of feeling like something that didn''t belong to his body, the aura enveloping him was now freely controllable. At the same time, Jason could tell now, that the aura seemed to belong to him now! It was as if the aura had been remains of the wild Celestia bloodline that didn''t want to accept Jason''s human bloodline, only to be tamed after being strained to the limits during the purification process of the Yvaldranite and Affanyr ores. Now that he was able to retract the aura completely, one huge problem turned out to be easily solved. As such there was only the small issue with the glowing stigma he had yet to solve. However, Jason was confident in his own capabilities and a few days should be more than enough to solve this issue too! He had almost reached the backyard where everyone was when he realized that his soulbonds tried to gain his attention for quite some time. They were lamenting about something and Jason didn''t understand what they were trying to tell him. That was until his consciousness had entered the soul world! Right in the center of his soul world, Jason was able to see a sword that seemed to be a mixture between a scimitar and a broad longsword. It was rotating around its own axis as if it wanted to show everyone that it was perfect from every possible angle. Subconsciously, Jason''s consciousness had already emerged in front of the long scimitar that had one thin, razor-sharp edge. The handle was 20 centimeters in length, black in color which had to originate from the Mayrod Soul wood''s color and multiple tiny, black colored runes had been engraved on it. The one-edged blade was also black in color, with silver-colored strands that looked similar to mana veins, spreading through the whole blade. It was around 85 centimeters long and had two large silver-colored runes inscribed on it with several hundred small runes connecting to each other, building one large rune with two center points. Both center points were the exact position Jason''s soul imprints were situated. The fact that both large and complex runes were inscribed at this position, indicated that most mana veins were located in this area. Jason wanted to grasp the long scimitar with his hands which forced him to leave the soul word. With his consciousness, he could touch anything, thus he summoned the long scimitar, which was the soul weapon Shane had forged for him. When the black-colored scimitar had been taken out of the soul world, it released strong mana currents, and the moment Jason''s hand came in touch with it, he knew that it was extremely powerful. Holding it in front of himself, he could tell that it was perfectly balanced, while the slightly curved blade was perfectly suited for his fighting style. At the same time, the weapon weighed only five kilograms which was extremely light, compared to most weapons forged out of ores within the rifts. However, this light weight didn''t mean that it was weaker or less durable than other weapons. Rather than that, Jason was confident in its ability to cut through most grade-2 weapons without any issues. If he had enough mana, the long scimitar should even be able to demolish all kinds of grade-3 weapons! In the end, Jason was unable to see the soul weapon''s limitations, and swinging it around, he could tell that it was not a mere weapon to slaughter but an extension to his arm, something that belonged to himself. It was as if he and the scimitar were one entity! Jason was not sure why Shane forged a long scimitar for him, but he found that it was the perfect weapon for him. There was nothing better than the soul weapon he had in his hand. While he was swinging the scimitar as a sudden thought, that did not belong to him, emerged in his mind ''Byakur'' He was unable to tell what this word meant but the moment he left the mansion to enter the backyard the thought resurfaced in his mind again which caused him to mumble it. "Byakur" At that moment, he mumbled this word, all several hundred runes inscribed on the long scimitar began to erupt at once, releasing a certain emotion, shocking Jason and the others who noticed that he woke up some time ago. ''Joy?'' Looking at the sword that released pure joy, Jason couldn''t help but ask "Are...you Byakur?" At the same time, Jason thought was transmitted to the scimitar, he could feel someone else''s joy spreading through his body. With this, Jason was able to tell that the long scimitar''s name was Byakur and the fact that his soul weapon was like a sentient being after it had been perfectly purified and imprinted with a minuscule part of his soul! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 416 - Tell Me What You Need He was not sure if becoming sentient was something common for soul weapons, but Jason noticed that Byakur could barely transmit emotions and not think actively. There had only been one transmitted word, which was its name! Other than that, Jason could only feel its joy, which slowly substituted, replaced by emptiness. ''Weird¡­'' he could only think, unsure whether his assumption about Byakur being a sentient soul weapon or not. "Maybe, it was a once in a lifetime occurrence because it had awoken?'' Because he was unable to tell what was going with his soul weapon, Jason could only look at his masters and Haepha who were looking at him. "You''re awake?" Dalia said with a faint smile as Haepha jumped up from the chair she sat on. "Did the soul weapon just release joy?" She asked without waiting for Jason to speak up as she had already appeared in front of him. Taking a look at Byakur, she could only scratch the back of her head "No..that''s not it¡­" She had hoped that Jason''s soul weapon had awoken sentience but that didn''t seem to be the case. "Pseudo-sentience?...or is it something like Artificial intelligence? ...No, that doesn''t make sense either¡­" Haepha was aware of the fact that imprinting inanimate materials and objects with one''s soul was as if one would split a minuscule part of it. This part would be transplanted into the desired object and as long as it didn''t repulse the soul imprint it would gain something out of it. Those gains were in most cases a firmer connection with both the wielder and the weapon or that the soul imprint allowed a weapon to act by itself for a short moment. However, there hadn''t been something like sentience awakening caused by a soul imprint yet. The most, there were certain abilities a soul weapon would attain after binding with one''s soul. "Can I test something?" Haepha asked before asking if Jason could hand over his weapon for a short moment. Not sure what Haepha wanted to test out, he nodded his head as he was about to hand her Byakur. Yet, what Jason did not expect to happen, was that Byakur tried to push away Haepha with faint mana currents it suddenly released. It was as if it wanted to stay with Jason and nobody else. Haepha expected that because this repulsive behavior of soul weapons was not an unique characteristic. Trying to insert her mana into Byakur she noticed that it was not possible, which was also to be expected. All of that was not worth being surprised about and she took a look at the runes that were still activated, trying to find a connection between them and the weird sensation she had received from the scimitar a moment earlier. Haepha handed Byakur back to Jason, who tried to insert mana into it in order to get to know his new weapon. It was something completely different from what he had used before. From daggers that were his first weapons, he had switched to a thin, light, longsword and now he had a broad longsword, scimitar mixture of a weapon in front of him. Byakur was still light, but other than that his new weapon was completely different in comparison to his other weapons. Those differences were advantageous and if Jason had to say one disadvantage about Byakur, it would be its length. However, just when Jason thought about that, he noticed that the amount of mana he was supplying to Byakur intensified as it demanded more than it did in the beginning. Only a moment later, one of the large runes and the three soul imprints that originated from the three raw materials he had imprinted, began to glow faintly. The rune had been manifested and Jason noticed that Byakur''s size was decreasing. This astonished him greatly and he couldn''t even hear what the others around him were saying as his complete focus was on Baykur and the fact that he had no idea what he was currently doing. Just as he thought that the weapon should have the same size as his daggers, Jason perceived that Byakur''s size changed within a moment. It had used up a large margin of mana that Jason had injected into it, but that was not a problem. Instead, Jason smiled brightly as he saw that his soul weapon had such a unique ability before he noticed that Haepha had already gone back to his masters. They didn''t seem to care much about his soul weapon''s ability which Jason found weird as it was a huge contrast to Haepha''s behavior when Byakur released its joy. ''Is it normal for high-grade soul weapons to have abilities like that?'' He asked himself, only for Shane to clear his doubts. "From your expression, I can tell that you''re confused right now. The ability to adjust its size had been manually added. You can see the manifested rune in the center of the weapon? It was a little bit frustrating to inscribe this rune while combining them with all those other runes, but its effect is great, isn''t it?" Jason could only nod his head, not sure why he had never heard of such a rune. He had become too confident in himself after being able to perfectly purify grade-3 ores, only to find out that his knowledge has yet to catch up with his forging ability. Yet, when he thought about that, this was also not necessarily the truth. The only task he was able to accomplish at a high degree, was purifying ores, and this was something he would have been unable to do without his mana eyes and Solaris! As such, without unique factors, his blacksmithing skill might be superb but not as great as everyone estimated them to be! Just at that moment, Jason heard that Haepha had been talking to him as he understood her last words "...that''s because of the perfect purified ingots you''ve returned as payment. As such I''m in your debt instead of the other way around. If I were to forge a weapon with the Yvaldranite and Affanyr ingots you purified, I should be able to create something extremely powerful, maybe even a grade-4 weapon? It will definitely not be as well as your soul weapon, but still more than enough to make a huge profit. That is if I were to desire wealth¡­ I''m in your debt! Tell me what you need and I''ll give it to you!" Jason didn''t expect to hear something like that and could only look at Haepha in confusion as he remembered the other ingots he had perfectly refined to. ''I can request something from her?... But what do I need right now?'' Jason was sure what he needed right now, however, it was not like Haepha could give him time. Time was something Jason required a lot! He wanted to improve his strength after all. Other than that, he had everything he needed! After his bloodline awakening, Jason was sure that he would need a new weapon, as the pseudo-mana grade-2 light longsword wouldn''t be strong enough to cope with him for a long time. If he were to think about it, a pseudo-mana grade-2 weapon should be able to cope with him up to the Mid Lique stage that was comparable to the late Grandmagus rank. Until he would reach this kind of combat prowess and mana to insert into a weapon, some time would have to pass. Yet, after he received a new weapon, Jason was sure that he would be able to use it until he had attained the Mid Prismar stage! As such, he couldn''t help but mumble "I just want to rest for one day before refining my physique¡­" Suddenly he got an Idea as he added "How about you give Shane and Dalia something? I''ve never thanked them for taking me as their disciple, this could be considered a small gift!" When Shane heard this he couldn''t help but smile lightly thinking that Jason was just unable to tell what he needed right now while Dalia smiled brightly. At the same time, it seemed like Haepha had an idea as she said "I will give both Shane and Dalia one item they desire if you spar against me! It''s not important whether you''ll win against me after I''ve adjusted my strength. Your only task is to spar with me. Doesn''t that sound nice?" She wanted to find out multiple things by sparring with Jason which included Jason''s strength as a halfling, who had undergone a bloodline awakening. At the same time, Haepha wanted to see how powerful Jason''s new weapon was. Jason would never decline a spar against an Old one because he might be able to learn lots of things he was unaware of before. However, he couldn''t help but think that he should be unable to control his aura during the sparring, which would mean that others might notice him. After he explained the problem he thought off, Haepha took out a small cube before saying "With this, you won''t have to worry about anyone!" With that being said, Jason accepted Haepha''s request to fight. He had yet to find out how strong he was too! _____________ *Supreme release September notice* Golden ticket ranking Top 10= 3 chps daily Top 5 = 4 chps daily __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 417 - Overdoing It! Since he had awoken his bloodline, Jason had yet to find someone to spar with, and Haepha gave him the best possible way to do so. As such he could hardly decline her offer, even if she were to give him nothing in return. Shane and Dalia were only looking at their disciple who had begun to smile brightly at the thought of fighting against Haepha. This caused them to frown a little bit as Emily blurted out. "He looks like a battle maniac!" This seemed to be the case and Jason''s masters couldn''t help but think that Jason was really similar to a battle maniac! Jason didn''t hear what Emily said, but if he had heard her it would be difficult to deny the bitter truth. He liked to fight others and compare his strength to them! Absorbing mana made him happy and the sensation of becoming stronger was addicting! When Haepha heard that Jason accepted her proposal she walked down the terrace before turning to the left where a simple, yet large empty area could be seen. She placed the cube that was still in her hand on the ground before activating it. After that, a thin translucent membrane enveloped the empty space Haepha entered. Jason, who saw all of that, couldn''t help but become interested in the cube. However, he was more expectant to spar against Haepha and he followed her quickly. He wasn''t wearing his combat clothes, but they could hardly protect him from attacks of a Prismar stage with four small, solidified prismarine crystals either way! As such it was useless to think about wearing combat armor and Jason went into a combat stance without thinking too much about the possible injuries he could sustain in this fight. They were currently in an isolated area and Jason knew that he could give his all to fight against Haepha. Nevertheless, he didn''t plan to unseal the race specific weakening curse that nullified his soul world''s amplification. With that in mind, he was currently fighting with his own capabilities without relying on his soulbonds strength to become stronger! Jason had been thinking about the fact that he could adjust the race specific weakening curse his soul world core was harboring. This meant that he could attain a soul amplification between 0% as the lowest possible or a soul amplification of 40% which was what his soul world would share with him under normal circumstances. Initially, his soul world amplification was at 33% but after he had undergone his primal bloodline awakening, it had increased to 40%. At least that was what he estimated his soul amplification to have increased to as he was unable to tell precisely. ''My vessel won''t have any problems with the mana core''s size, but that''s not the case with my physique...I have two physically attributed soulbonds, Scorpio and Petri and I don''t know how much my advanced Vessel can take¡­'' With that in mind, Jason thought that it might be the best way to use the fact that he could unseal the curse on his soul amplification whenever he wanted to. Once he loosened the restriction on the curse that nullified his soul amplification, he would be able to increase his strength drastically! In combat stance, Jason waited for Haepha to initiate the start of the battle which she did a moment later. However, instead of rushing forward, Haesha remained at the exact same position she was already standing without bothering about entering a defensive stance or anything like that. ''She won''t restrict her strength?'' Was the only thought in Jason''s mind before he exerted the weightless steps technique as he rushed ahead. At the same time, he circulated mana through his body to enhance it overall, while inserting some of it into Bakur, increasing its sharpness and durability. Jason had yet to figure out which rune was responsible for what effect, only to see that Byakur was instinctively exerting every rune he wanted to utilize! ''Is that one perk of owning a soul weapon?'' He asked himself before he decided to postpone this thought for later. Right now he wanted to give his best to figure out how strong he had become. Only a moment after he rushed ahead, Jason had already crossed the short distance of 50 meters between him and Haepha as he slashed out at her. However, even before Byakur touched Haepha, Jason sensed danger approaching him, which caused him to halt abruptly. Jason didn''t even continue the attack he had initiated as he jumped backward, only to see a whip, enveloped my electric currents shooting towards him. Gritting his teeth, he twisted his body, barely evading the whip that was about to hit him as he perceived that the attack was not over yet. The whip was moving freely, attacking him from all sides while Haepha was merely holding the handle of the whip, inserting mana into it. There was nothing else she did, only inserting mana with her affinity utilized inside the whip. She didn''t even have to move an inch, and one could see a faint smile emerging on her lips. Jason was currently trying his best to evade the whip that was moving around like a snake until his mana eyes perceived something that could be helpful! While evading and deflecting the whip attacks that were around the Low Lique stage with around 90 drops of mana, Jason''s strength reached a combat prowess of the Lique stage with around 80 drops of mana. The difference was not much but enough to hinder Jason from attacking. Yet, she was using an affinity that was roughly at the lowest lique stage with fewer mana drops, while Jason didn''t use anything except his physical strength and a little bit mana. This was already a good sign and without wasting anymore time he utilized several trumps he had up to his sleeves. First, he unleashed thick, compressed mist that enveloped the area around Jason a moment later. After that, Haepha would have been forced to pay attention to the mana fluctuations she perceived from him. This allowed Jason to tell that her full focus was on him. Only a moment later, he had already terminated the connection to the ice affinity which he had utilized for a quarter of a second. Rushing out of the mist, he used subtle movements to evade the following whip attacking as his eyes and Haepha''s meet. At this moment, Jason noticed that it was his chance to counterattack. Using a majority of mana that was stored within his mana core to insert it into his mana eyes, he activates their [Abyssal] effect at the same time. Furthermore, he utilized Petri''s petrification curse, his eyes harbored thanks to his soulbond inheriting him the curse, for the first time since he had obtained them. Merging every means to attack Haepha mentally, Jason added his killing intent, which created a powerful attack that exceeded Jason''s capabilities. It wasn''t painful, but Jason noticed that using a large margin of mana to insert it into his eyes, utilizing the abyssal ability of his mana eyes, exerting the petrification curse, only to merge it into one attack with his killing intent was a little bit over the top. However, this was just the case for someone at the lower rank than he was. His opponent was a Prismar stage with four solidified prismarine crystals after all! As such Jason was unable to hold back. What astonished him, was that Haepha, who had been unmoving a moment before, had to take one step back as she accidentally released more mana into the whip than she had intended to do. She had been surprised by Jason''s eyes that turned into something ancient, if not primordial, seemingly with the desire to devour her entire being. This surprise caused her to be unable to restrict her strength as she was already doing, and her whips attack reached the strength and speed of a 2nd rank Grandmagus at around 200 drops of mana. It was fortunate that she had only been surprised for a short moment, otherwise, her attack''s strength would have been much higher. Jason was already in front of Haepha after she had regained her composure after being surprised by him and about to slash at her when he sensed that the whip''s pace increased by a large margin. It was easy to tell that he was unable to attack Haepha while evading the whip that was enveloped in electric currents. As such he had to make a decision. However, instead of stopping his attack, Jason continued to advance at Haepha while he told Solaris to use both its own and his remaining mana to manifest a compressed fireball behind his back. Shooting out the fireball, it encountered the black whip a second later. It exploded, decreasing Haepha''s control over the whip further as the mana it was suddenly enveloped with was burning. Meanwhile, the exploding fireball pushed Jason further ahead, increasing the impact Byakur could execute as Haepha lifted her arm to deflect its attack. When Jason saw this he couldn''t help but think ''That''s everything I can force out of her?'' _____________ *Supreme release September notice* Golden ticket ranking Top 10= 3 chps daily Top 5 = 4 chps daily __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 418 - Well Deserved Rest Jason knew that he couldn''t do anything against Haepha''s high defense. But to see that she deflected the attack of the razor-sharp Byakur that was additionally empowered with mana was frustrating. As such while being pushed forward through the explosion that occurred behind him, Jason executed his entire force, only for his aura to erupt. Enveloping Byakur, it began to glow lightly while the soul imprints began to shine brightly activating the runes inscribed into the entire weapon. Normally Jason would have to insert more mana into the soul weapon to activate all runes, but it looked like his aura had finally turned from the Celestia aura he had before that of his own, a being forced to walk the path of someone from the human- and the Celestia race! As his aura was fully unleashed Haepha couldn''t help but lift her eyebrows as she enveloped the arm she had lifted to block Jason''s attack with a faint mana membrane. Byakur was enveloped tightly in a mixture of white, silver and a golden membrane. Nobody could tell what color was more vibrant, but all seemed to be important, visible at once, yet somehow not. However, this was still not enough to injure Haepha who blocked everything with a small layer of mana enveloping arm. After that, the fight turned into a still stand as Jason noticed that the whip Haepha had controlled slowed down drastically as it touched Jason''s back. He had thought that Solaris'' mana nullifying ability would have been able to severe Haepha''s connection to the whip she had used to attack him. Unfortunately, that didn''t seem to be the case and it looked like he lost the sparring for good. However, the moment he retracted Byakur and Haepha retraced the mana around her arm, Jason could see a faint scratch. There was hardly visible and the shallow scratch was not even deep enough to hope that it would start bleeding, but Jason was unable to suppress his joy as he shouted out "YES!" A moment earlier he had been extremely serious and ready to give his best to defeat Haepha, only to shout out in joy a moment later. This confused Haepha more than anyone else who was already familiar with Jason''s weird range of emotions. She followed Jason''s gaze that was trained on her arm and when she saw the faint scratch where Jason hat hit her, Haepha couldn''t help but say "That''s unexpected!" Though, instead of being disappointed, she felt that Jason would already be considered extremely powerful if he were to be below 25 years old, let alone being 16 years old! Haepha was unable to suppress a smile as she saw how Jason, who could hardly control the sweat pouring down his temples, laughed out in joy. ''It''s good that he can be happy in such perilous times'' When she was at her age, there had yet to be the mana outbreak, but after the meteorite shower that came out of nowhere, exploded, creating thousands of temporary and permanent rifts, everything had changed. Now that she had lived for several centuries, she knew how hard it was to stay positive in times filled with war, and Haepha sincerely hoped that Jason would be able to stay like this. Nothing should happen to him or the people around him because it would inevitably change everything about the way he acted right now. From what she understood, Jason was already aware of the dangers lurking around them, and he looked like he had already worked hard before the foreign races began to openly wage war. Clapping into her hands she said "Now both your masters can demand something from me! Anything and any time!" Jason, who had been happy before, couldn''t help but look at Haepha seriously for a moment before he smiled brightly as he thanked her. It was very beneficial to have two favors in total and Jason couldn''t help but hope that his masters would use their favor well! However, neither Shane nor Dalia required anything right now. As such, they simply said that they would save the favor for later. Shane had already obtained everything he wanted from Haepha which were the expensive items they required to forge Jason''s soul weapon, while Dalia was pondering about what she should ask for her favor. "I''m not sure what your plan for the next months is, but I think resting for some time might be good too. At least as long as it''s still possible. Even if it might only be a few days, a few hours or a week, resting is very important for the body and one''s mind!" Haepha said this, recalling that Jason wanted to rest for at least one day. Everyone accepted this proposal because it was noticeable how worn-out their small group was. Shane and Dalia paid attention to everything around Emily and Jason when they were at the large mana vein, and at the same time, they continued to forge and concoct many goods for future purposes. They had already prepared lots of things one might require for the war because they couldn''t evade it forever! Meanwhile, Emily had never been so tired in her live, while the sheer mass of mana she had absorbed, overwhelmed her. She was also 16 years old and had never learned many things because she was an orphan. As such she had to overcome many obstacles others at her age didn''t have to face anymore. With that in mind, she worked relentlessly, as hard as Jason who didn''t have any rest for more than a year. Within the Mythic Garden, he had undergone many obstacles, while his body had undergone lots of changes since then. A baptism, Petri''s curse and the fact that his Celestia bloodline had been unsealed to a certain degree were very taxing to his body and mind! Even if he worked hard, Jason was the last one to complain about resting for a few days. While resting he could refine his physique after all! Jason didn''t feel any pain while refining his body which should happen under normal circumstances. However, thanks to the soothing flame Solaris had, refining his body turned into something he liked to do! With that in mind, they rested at Haepha''s house for an entire month before they heard news about a foreign race that had suddenly decided to infiltrate the Shandra country. Other than the foreign race, there were humans that had transformed, and their bodies had transformed tremendously. They didn''t look different than a foreign race anymore, and one wouldn''t have been able to tell that they had been humans, if there was not the apparent fact that they had soulbonds! The humans that followed the foreign race called Ifrytor, had their body filled with crimson-colored marks that looked similar to Jason''s stigma. However, the biggest difference was that those marks were not gleaming but shedding blood, indicating that the human body tried to repel the marks and everything that belonged to it. Nevertheless, these marks and the extraordinary flames of the humans that belonged to the Ifrytor race had, made them extremely strong. Their initial combat prowess was estimated to be at the Lowest Lique rank with more than 20 drops of mana liquefied, however, their strength was on par with someone at the Lowest Lique stage and less than 80 drops of mana! The mysterious race that had protected Shandra country''s territory had revealed themselves to fight against the Ifrytor race and Ifry, which was the name some citizens gave the transformed humans, but the numerical disadvantage was too high! ''It''s time to leave?'' Jason thought reluctant before he extinguished the stigma''s glow, turning it into a mark that looked similar to a tattoo of a reversed wing. Instead of doing nothing, Jason could tell that he had become unable to rest for more than three days. He was restless and felt useless, while his desire to do something was increasing by the second. As such he started to work hard after resting for three days, in which he had refined his physique too. Two days later, Jason finished the infant phase of the Netherworld fort technique which allowed him to enter the first stage, which increased his physical strength by a large margin, comparable to the enhancement one would receive from 10 drops of liquefied mana Other than that, Jason was able to liquefy three drops of mana that had golden and silver strands within them. His mana absorption rate was extraordinary since he had accepted his blood as a Celestia to a certain extent and Jason could only lament about the low amount of mana Canir had. If someone else were to hear this, they would probably beat him into a pulp or curse at him. Yet, Jason couldn''t help but think that liquefying three drops of his slightly more unique mana drops that were three times more compressed, was nothing special. He had to become much stronger, as fast as possible and the strength of a Grandmagus rank which he had attained was still not enough for him! _____________ *Supreme release September notice* Golden ticket ranking Top 10= 3 chps daily Top 5 = 4 chps daily __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 419 - Joining War It was obvious how dangerous the current times were and Jason couldn''t help but feel that he had to figure out more about those foreign races and the Ifry. There was no way that the Ifrytor was the only race that targeted the Shandra country, otherwise, there had to be a good reason for this. As such, it was obvious how important it was to acquire more information. While his strength had advanced, the same applied to his soulbonds that had become much stronger. The sole exception was Solaris because Jason restricted its growth by not supplying any soul energy to it. His current soul energy had already reached more than 200,000 units, but Jason was still not happy about that! As such, if it was not necessary, Jason would refrain from nurturing Solaris for the time being! Meanwhile, Jason couldn''t tell how many soul energy units Byakur annexed because the way the soul weapon occupied his soul energy units was completely different than his soulbonds did. While Jason perceived a connection between annexed soul energy and the soulbond that annexed it, this was not the case with Byakur who seemed to annex soul energy, yet somehow, not! It was not a major problem but Jason found it odd and it was always better to be prepared for every scenario, otherwise, he might run into trouble before he knew it. Being prepared was always good which was another reason for him to not nurture Solaris with the vacant soul energy units he had accumulated! Jason was currently standing inside the backyard practicing the Devious Swordmaster martial art technique and he couldn''t help but reveal a confident smile. The Tier-2 martial art technique reached the familiar mastery and broke into the experience mastery within a single month. This showed how much of an advantage his advanced bloodline, refined brain and a perfectly compatible sword had in order to increase one''s comprehension. It wouldn''t be long before he would be able to reach profound mastery if his pace remained the same. Less than 24 hours had passed since Shane had told everyone about the news of the Ifrytor race infiltrating the Shandra country and the final preparations were concluded. Emily was the weakest member of their group and her mana core rank was barely at the 6th Master rank. This was already a great achievement for someone who has yet to turn 17 years old, however, she had absorbed mana next to a large mana vein for almost 8 months. If she was not even able to reach the 6th Master rank in such a long time under such a great environment, she could have just given up on herself. Nevertheless, even if Emily was the weakest, the Lesser typhoon Roc had finally liquefied 30 drops of mana. This meant that their combined strength would be enough to fight against most Lowest Lique stage beasts, though she should evade foreign races and most transformed humans if possible. ''Transformed human'' was a new term used by most common humans when they saw someone whose appearance is different to theirs. It was created when the first few humans that looked different appeared next to the foreign races. There were many humans that had been lured to the foreign races'' sides and almost every single one of them had reached a much higher combat prowess than they previously had. Transforming brought them many benefits and even if they knew that their body couldn''t take the metamorphosis, or serum that had been injected into them, most of them were confident that their body would be able to assimilate to the substance soon! When Jason and the others departed, leaving behind Haepha, who said that she had to do something, it didn''t take them long before they encountered the first small group of Ifrytor and Ifry! They were traveling at a high altitude without using Shane''s spatial affinity because foreign races with a higher combat prowess might be able to detect Shane''s mana fluctuation and pursue them. However, Jason doubted that it was safer to fly through the air because Shane was using mana to run through the air. He was one of the few people who didn''t want to tame a flying beast, thinking that it was useless, while Dalia was in a similar situation, only that she had been unable to bind many soulbonds. At the same time, her possibilities were restricted due to the affinities she had awoken. Only Jason and Emily had flying beasts, however, there was still the difference that Jason was using his fortified soul conjunction with Artemis to fly while Emily had to sit on the ten-meter-long Lesser typhoon Roc. The first thing Shane had wanted to do when he saw the first group of Ifrytor and Ifry was to attack and kill them, only to be held back by Dalia and Jason at the same time. Dalia thought that it was not wise to reveal his mana fluctuation and killing intent to obvious. A stronger Ifrytors might be nearby and Jason''s mana eyes which he had consistently supplied with mana could suddenly perceive lots of mana fluctuations further in the back. There seemed to be a battlefield and the Ifrytor and Ifry seemed to be on their way towards the battlefield in order to act as reinforcement. Unfortunately, they had to encounter Jason, his masters, and Emily before. "There is a battlefield ahead, I''ll take care of the Ifrytors and Ifry here, you guys can already go ahead and take a look. There should a few at the late Lique stage, but the strongest mana fluctuations I perceived were at the peak Lique stage and nobody should have consolidated a prismarine crystal yet." Smiling lightly, he turned towards the Ifrytor and Jason couldn''t tell why, but Solaris had begun to act weirdly. He was not sure what was going on but it had definitely something to do with the Ifryr. At least that was what he comprehended after seeing the flames enveloping the transformed humans. The flames were completely different from normal fire affinities, yet also different from origin flames, and Jason couldn''t help but feel that he had to investigate it further. Shane noticed that something pricked Jason''s interest but instead of saying anything he just nodded his head. Jason became much stronger throughout the last two years they knew each other and it was obvious that he was able to take care of himself. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have been able to survive venturing into two rifts that would have killed everyone at Jason''s mana core rank! Dalia left Jason only reluctantly, but after she sensed the mana fluctuations of the Ifrytors and Ifrys that were almost a distance of one kilometer away from them she nodded her head. "Be careful and don''t lower your guard! Some of them were once humans, but remember one thing¡­.They won''t hesitate a single moment to kill you too!" Jason nodded his head, while Emily didn''t say anything. She was scared that he had to enter war. At the age of almost 17 years with a puny strength that had yet to reach the standards of an average magus rank!! What was she even doing right now? Approaching a battlefield of foreign races and humans that had liquefied their mana, manifesting attacks that destroyed their surrounding landscape? Good Idea!! She was only able to stay confident because Shane and Dalia were next to her, while Jason was much stronger than one could think! Staring towards the Ifrytor and Ifry, Jason couldn''t help but take a deep breath before he pressed Artemis'' wings on his back, adjusting his angle to dive towards his first life-and-death battle against a foreign race and humans! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 420 - Demonstrating Real Power! While he approached the small group of Ifrytor and Ifry, Jason scanned through their mana cores in order to detect the rough number of liquefied drops of mana they had. At the same time, he estimated how much their physique had been enhanced as it should have a similar enhancement according to his opponents'' mana cores size! Summoning Byakur within a single thought, he had already emerged above the lowest-ranked Ifry that had around 10 drops of mana liquefied within his mana core. As such, his first opponent was not a threat to Jason, whose strength had already reached the Low Lique stage with a physique comparable to 120 drops of mana. After he had added Artemis amplification of 50% instead of 100% which he received because she was currently within his mana core, Jason was much stronger than any of the Ifrytor and Ifry in front of him. They had noticed him the moment he had summoned Byakur, but it was already too late to save their comrade. Jason knew that he was about to kill a human as he slashed out with Byakur which he had further sharpened by injecting mana into it. However, when he saw the Ifry''s face, Jason could tell that Dalia''s words were certainly true. If he didn''t kill these monsters that could hardly be called humans, they would tear him apart without any hesitation! With a clean slash, Jason severed the head of his first opponent. His gaze followed the flying head which caused him to look at it disgustingly for a moment. Throughout his entire life, he had killed hundreds if not a few thousand of beasts, but it was his first time to execute a human. Jason had expected that he would feel much worse than he was currently doing. He felt a little bit disgusted, but that feeling was quickly washed away as Solaris who was in his soul world shook wildly, telling him that he wants to be summoned. It was unknown exactly what the black origin flame wanted but from the flames he had perceived around the Ifrys, Jason could estimate what it desired. As such he summoned Solaris into his hand before he threw it straight towards the severed body before he averted his attention to his other opponents. Solaris had subconsciously dragged him out of the disgust he had felt for a short moment. Because of that, he was able to think much clearer right now and Jason had to thank Solaris once everything was done. From the resistance he sensed through his soul connection with Byakur, Jason was able to tell that the first opponent that had around 10 drops of mana was much stronger in his physical strength. At the same time, his mana eyes'' that perceived everything in his surroundings easily, identified that the flames lingering on and within the Ifry were being nurtured by devouring life force! ''Is the Ifrytor race using humans to nurture those flames and to fight for them...they''re basically meat shields and food, completely unaware of it! '' When Jason noticed this, he couldn''t help but eye the Ifrytor race differently because they were much smarter than their appearance made him believe. They were humanoid like most races Jason had encountered until now, but their lower part was in a gaseous state. At the same time, their two-meter tall, bulky upper body was embedded with several dozen crimson colored, glowing stigmas that looked similar yet extremely crude and useless to Jason. From what his mana eyes perceived, Jason could tell that the crimson-colored stigmas had been inscribed on the Ifrytors bodies and they were a bad fake to a real stigma. The advancement their stigma transmitted to their mana circulation and affinity usage was insignificant compared to what Jason could unfold by using his stigma to the fullest. Even though it was useless, Jason couldn''t help but think that the Ifrytor race should feel what true power was! Yet, instead of showing it obviously, he barely hinted at his capabilities by utilizing his mana eyes''s abyssal ability in addition to the petrification curse he harbored. His silver-golden colored eyes were enveloped in a halo of serpent pupils that began to glow brightly before everyone who had been staring at him had been paralyzed for a short moment The lowest Lique stage Ifry with less than 50 drops of liquefied mana within their cores even started to petrify slowly, shocking everyone around them. At the same time, Jason exerted the weightless steps technique to his fullest capabilities while retracting Artemis'' wings. While he was doing so, he told Artemis to leave his mana core to allow Scorpio to enter his mana core. Manifesting Scorpio''s sapphire-colored exoskeleton around him he didn''t forget about the two-meter-long stinger that pierced out to the closest Ifrytor to it. Jason knew that Scorpio''s exoskeleton was not the best choice against the Ifrytor and Ifry''s flame that were much stronger than Scorpio because he had already reached his racial limit at 20 drops of liquefied mana. However, Jason didn''t plan to defend against his opponents at all as he had already appeared as his next victim. His speed had already accelerated by 60% and Jason continued to circulate mana through his body in order to increase his speed further. Before he knew it, the next three Ifryr and two Ifrytor had been killed by Byakur. With Byakur, Jason didn''t feel much resistance as long as he provided with enough mana. Jason noticed that he had taken away several lives within a few moments, but it didn''t feel different compared to the beasts he had already killed. In the end, they were living beings too and Jason had decided that it was time for them to die! Otherwise, others, his friends, masters, or even he himself had to die at their hands too. Jason had never felt that the rules of the jungle were that close to him, and he could tell that his opponents were aware of this too. They also noticed that Jason, who hadn''t looked like someone extremely strong, massacred his way through their whole group that was strong enough to kill a human at the Low Lique stage with over a hundred drops of liquefied mana! It was obvious that Jason would kill them all, but what wondered the Ifrytor was the fact that the unknown being, that was able to summon wings and a sapphire-colored armor, had killed all former humans except one. They hadn''t even been able to summon their soulbonds until now because the summoning process took too long. That was only the case without fortified soul conjunction or in Jason''s case both a fortified soul conjunction and the fact that his stigma allowed his soulbonds to be summoned without delay. The last Ifry that had survived Jason''s onslaught until now, summoned his soulbond that was at the Lowest Lique stage with more than 80 drops of liquefied mana. It was a huge bear that was glad in flames that attacked Jason only reluctantly after being forced by its master. Jason didn''t even bother about the bear because he had to evade several streams of turbulent flames that seemed to be alive. Those flames came from the weird, yet enhanced version of those flames the last Ifry and his death companions had. They were much stronger and Jason could tell that his assumption about humans being used as a meat shield and a resource to nurture the flames he saw. On one side it was interesting but on the other hand, it was disgusting, and the most ridiculous fact was that those flames were not even comparable to common origin flames! Even the E-grade origin flame, the president of the Artisan tower, in Cryo-City, had, was much better in comparison! It was hilarious to think that one had to nurture these weird flames in order to be worse than the worst possible origin flames. However, Jason couldn''t tell how many of those flames existed and to what extend they could be nurtured. As such it was possible for them to be even better than estimated, one was to think based on quantity instead of quality! Yet, Jason couldn''t help but think that he might have to show them how a real flame looked like. With that in mind, Jason halted abruptly in his tracks, avoiding several fire whips at once before he turned towards the black origin flame. Solaris had already devoured the remains of the weird flame that had attracted it and was ready to return. It had devoured the weird flame, but this shouldn''t have been that much of a surprise if Jason were to recall how the black origin flame had acted with origin flames. The Ifrytor race''s flames were somewhat similar, yet weaker than origin flames and Jason estimated them to be beneficial for Solaris to devour and absorb. When he reached the range at which he could retract Solaris within his soul world again, he did so without hesitation before he switched out Scorpio, who was still within his mana core with Solaris. This forcefully disintegrated the sapphire collored exoskeleton, only to be replaced by Solaris'' black flames that erupted within a single moment. Enveloped by those black flames, Jason''s golden-silver-colored eyes shone through them as if he was about to devour them entirely. The five-meter-tall bear that was enveloped with flames stiffened, only to hear its master ordering it to continue attacking, which the bear was forced to do. However, before anything could happen, Jason activated his stigma while Solaris did the same. The black flames were pressed tightly against Jason''s body, as the stigma glowed faintly through the thin layer of flames. His eyes were doing exactly the same and Byakur which he grasped tightly began to release currents of killing intent before Jason charged ahead at the frightened Ifrytor, Ifry, and his soulbond. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 421 - Solaris Greed There were only five Ifrytor and one Ifry with his soulbond left but Jason had to remain vigilant! Before, he had killed the weaker opponents which had different now. The last five Ifrytor had liquefied between 50 to 100 drops of mana and their physical enhancement should make the strongest of them more powerful than Jason was currently. Yet, instead of feeling threatened, Jason couldn''t help but smile as he looked at his opponents that tried to figure out what they should do. He was already rushing ahead but instead of attacking the Ifrytor or the last Ifry. Jason took care of the largest foe first. It was not that important but the five-meter-tall bear prevented him from seeing everything behind him clearly. As such, Jason jumped towards its head when he emerged a meter in front of the large bear. He slashed out with Byakur, which was enveloped in a thin, yet compressed membrane of Solaris'' flames. At the same time, its runes to sharpen and increase the lethality of the blade had been activated by inserting mana in Byakur. The bear tried to use its huge paw to smash Jason in the ground but its attempt was futile because it had been too late by a quarter of a second! Jason was already in front of its head as the paw slashed through empty air! Cleaving out with Byakur, Jason felt that an immense might had been released from it as the compressed black flame that was tightly laid around Byakur unleashed their might. With loud sizzling noises, Byakur slashed through the large bear''s neck without any resistance. From the way it looked, spectators might question whether the large bear had been a Lique stage beast with 80 drops of liquefied mana or an Unblemished beast. It was a highly physically attributed beast with a strong defense, but everything this looked insignificant in front of Byakur that was razor-sharp and the ominous black flame Jason was able to control to his heart''s content! Jason hadn''t expected that Baykur would be this sharp with Solaris'' flames that augmented its lethality while nullifying some of the mana the bear had been circulating at the location he had been targeting. Nevertheless, Jason was fully aware that the fight had yet to end and there were still five Ifrytor and one Ifry left. Though his opponents were scared out of their wits when they had figured out that the black flame was not only a unique flame, like theirs but an origin flame, Jason wanted to finish the fight as soon as possible. The weightless steps still exerted at the perfect mastery, Jason''s speed that had already accelerated by 60%, increased further as he circulated even more mana through his body. A moment after he had slashed at the large bear which caused a severe injury that would kill it within the next few seconds, Jason had already pushed himself from its body to continue his slaughter. Targeting the closest Ifrytor that was next to him, Jason emerged in front of it as five whip of fire lashed out at him. The weakest whip had the strength of a Lowest Lique with 50 drops of liquefied mana and Jason had to face four more, stronger whip attacks too. This pressured him a little bit, but when he sensed Solaris'' confidence, Jason couldn''t help but smile. Both his and Solaris'' stigma were fully unleashed and it was the first time they noticed how great of an advantage the stigma turned out to be! Solaris, who was currently in his mana core and Jason seemed to fuse further and it felt like the function of manifesting one''s body part had increased by a huge margin. By using less than a quarter of his mana, Jason was able to summon huge flames that flickered in the surrounding five meters burning everything with Solaris unfolding its might. The mana nullification, augmented by the stigma, burned through the fire whips, decreasing their strength drastically. This allowed Jason to evade them as he slashed out at the closest Ifrytor that had already begun to burn. With one trust of Byakur, he ended the Ifrytor''s life before he had changed his direction without looking back. The weakened whips lashed out at the position he stood a moment earlier, burning long stripes on their already dead brethren''s carcass. With only five opponents were left, Jason was confident to win, however, it was not his plan to kill everyone. As such, the moment he emerged in front of the last Ifry that slashed at him with the long broadsword in his hand, Jason couldn''t help but use Byakur, amplified by Solaris'' flames, in order to scrap the weapon in its hands. After he had scraped the sword of his opponent, Jason moved Byakur smoothly around in order to utilize all his strength to strike the Ifry''s head with Byakur''s handle. A thump sound echoed through the surroundings as the Ifry''s eyes turned white. However, now Jason had been forced to push him away in order to prevent both him and the Ifry from being lashed at by the remaining four Ifrytors whips. He planned to let the last and strongest Ifry alive because he might be able to get more information out of him!! It would be weird if a weaker Ifry knew more information than the strongest one of their group, and Jason was confident that he would be able to figure out intel that might be useful for later! Jason tried to do the same with the Ifrytors which was his reason to take care of the weakest opponents at the beginning of the fight. This might have been a mistake, but after he had knocked out the last Ifry, the remaining four Ifrytor didn''t seem like a huge problem anymore. They were charging at him, even though he could see fear gleaning their bloodshot eyes, and Jason couldn''t help but feel that they were more humane than the Ifry might have ever been! Humans would also try to dominate everything weaker than themselves, only to fear the stronger! As such, he couldn''t help but sigh deeply before he exerted the weightless steps technique again. He utilized the petrification curse in order to forcefully halt the Ifrytors in advancing further. At that moment, their movements were interrupted and Jason who could move freely was able to pierce Byakur through the closest Ifrytor before the others had pierced with their weapons at him. However, what they didn''t expect was that Solaris'' huge flame that enveloped Jason and his surroundings was able to dominate their own flames! This meant that they couldn''t fully control and unleash their flame''s capabilities which gave them another disadvantage. As such within the following minute, Jason was able to exhibit the advantages he had in order to overwhelm the last four Ifrytor. Using his eyes to instill fear and paralyze them to use the short moment their attack was interrupted in order to use Solaris, who was dominating the other flames, despite being weaker than them. By simply looking at the strength of their flames, Solaris was less developed and weaker. However, it was a Tier-1 origin flame, augmenting Byakur, while nullifying and burning everything in their surrounding that had something to do with mana. This excluded Jason and Byakur because all of them were connected to Jason, and his soul that was one entity with the soul bound black origin flame, Solaris! Thus, after Jason had killed the third Ifrytor, he didn''t hesitate a moment to slash at the last and strongest opponent with 100 drops of liquefied mana in its core, in order to damage its mana core. With a damaged mana core, the Ifrytor wouldn''t die and the degree Jason had damaged its mana core was not severe, barely enough to prevent it from utilizing too much of its mana. Now that the fight was over and everyone except the strongest Ifry and Ifrytor had been killed, Jason couldn''t help but sigh deeply when he looked around. He was aware that he had overwhelmed his opponents, but the fight felt extremely weird to him. ''Some of them should have been much stronger than me? Why are they so weak compared to the Shadow walker? It''s not only the difference in their mana core rank but mostly combat awareness, combat prowess, and experience. It almost feels like they''re younglings, gathering their first combat experience, but that can''t be, right? That would be way too reckless¡­'' While Jason was already deep in thoughts, confused about how he was able to defeat his opponents, that should have been much stronger, so easily, Solaris had already left his mana core. It appeared next to Jason and rushed ahead to the dead corpses that showed signs of being burned from the inside. However, this was not Solaris doing but the weird flames the Ifry harbored. Meanwhile, the same, yet advanced flame could be found within the Ifrytor. Solaris didn''t care about either of that and it split up its body in order to devour every single weird, but also interesting flame that was about to dissipate! Only after some time did Jason notice that something was going on with Solaris as he turned around to see huge black flames burning the dead Ifrytor and Ifry carcasses while a distinct sensation of greed had been directly transmitted to Jason. "Solaris, what are you even doing right now?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 422 - Suicidal Training Camp? Jason was sure that Solaris was absorbing the weird flames that had been nurtured by life force, but he has yet to figure out what the use was. However, he had to take care of the unconscious Ifrytor and Ifry too. Before anything else, Jason had damaged the Ifry''s mana core too, preventing any possible accidents to happen. After that, he wanted to look out for their storage devices or spatial rings! There was something he wanted to figure out without asking them. As such, it was easier to look at the spatial ring without being forced to intimate or even torture them. It was still confusing to Jason that he didn''t feel much by killing the Ifry, which were in fact transformed humans but after the initial disgust, there was nothing he had to worry about. This made him neither too comfortable nor uncomfortable and it could be described as a weird balance. As such he had decided that it was not something he should pay too much attention to, and he should rather look out for spatial devices! Not even a minute passed and he found two spatial rings on the unconscious Ifrytor and one on the Ifry, only to notice that he was unable to access them. ''It''s interesting to see that they use spatial rings too, but I should have expected that I won''t be able to access them'' Jason knew that the IFrytor and Ifry''s mana fluctuations were imprinted into the spatial rings and it would be weird for someone else to be able to access them. With that in mind he turned towards the burning corpses that caused a disgusting stench to permeate the air. ''Their spatial rings should be accessible and with some useful information!'' Because he was unaffected by Solaris'' flames, Jason could act without being restricted. As such, less than 10 minutes had passed before Jason had gathered 11 spatial rings. At the same time, Solaris had already finished absorbing the unknown flame, Jason had called pseudo-origin flames. This was not their name but he was sure that he would figure out the truth soon. Skimming through the 11 spatial rings whose mana fluctuation imprints had dissipated with their owner''s death, Jason couldn''t help but frown. ''They''re not...necessarily poor, but that''s just in comparison to humans... Was my assumption right, and they''re common soldiers that attempt to gather their first combat experience??'' Within the spatial rings, there was a total of several tens of thousand mana stones, but compared to the wealth real, human prodigies possessed, the average of all 11 spatial rings he had found shouldn''t be much more than they had! Other than a few additional cultivation resources, Jason assumed to be used for body refinement, or to nurture their flame, every Ifrytor and Ifry possessed the same cultivation manual! This cultivation manual was a unique body refining technique called Creato''s hellflame. From that, Jason could tell that this technique had something to do with the flames his opponents had harbored. He looked through the first few pages of the introductory part. It was advantageous that he was a halfling from the Celestia race and not a pure human because he understood everything written inside the body refining manual. However, Jason could only shake his head when he was done reading because he could tell that the Creato''s hellflame body refining technique was even worse than his. Jason had already expected that the Netherworld''s forte technique was bad because it increased his physical strength equal to 10 drops of liquefied mana after he had entered the first stage. This was less than Jason had hoped to receive, but from what he read the increase of one''s physical strength after completing the infant phase was less than 5 drops of liquefied mana! The Creato flame that would be created and nurtured within one''s body by using the Creato''s hellflame body refining technique was only suitable to the Ifrytor race and other races would receive severe backlashes, even if it would seem different in the beginning! When Jason read this, he could tell that his assumption about the Creato flame within the transformed humans was not entirely correct. The Ifrytor race didn''t nurture the Creato flames within humans to use them for themselves, but it was more likely that the Ifry were the test objects, with which the Ifrytor had tried out a few things. However, when he read further, this didn''T seem to be correct too, because Creato flame''s could devour each other and nurture themselves through this. ''It''s as if the Ifrytor race wants to experiments with humans while reaping benefits!'' Because he didn''t want to continue misinterpreting the situation, Jason decided that his last assumption was correct until he got to know the truth. After that, he transferred the content of all 11 spatial rings into his own before he laid them aside. Once he was done, Jason manifested Artemis'' wings after she had entered his mana core before he soared into the sky. There was no need to waste any more time and Jason could tell that it was better to depart as soon as possible. Who could know when stronger reinforcement might arrive? Jason couldn''t perceive anyone in the surrounding two kilometers, but nobody could reassure him that there was nobody with a spatial affinity. He had to manifest Artemis'' talons once again and grasped the unconscious Ifrytor and Ifry tightly without bothering about being too careful. While flying, his thoughts lingered around the possibility, Emily had already issued a while before! "They''re definitely poor, even if it looks like a lot for us, and their combat experience was almost non-existent...Does that mean Emily was right? Do some races plan to use our planet as a training ground? Isn''t that almost as if they''re damaging themselves? From what I can tell, most foreign races on Argos are roughly equal in their combat prowess...." Jason mumbled all kinds of possibilities that appeared in his mind, and there was only one solution that made sense to him. "There are three groups consist of the races that want to enslave humans, take them for themselves, without sharing, and those who want to prevent a single race from being able to reign over humans. Meanwhile, the third faction seems to be a hellish training camp with a high death rate. That would, however, indicate that their death didn''t matter to the whole race, while the benefits had to be much higher in comparison!" It was not difficult to tell that those three factions were a bad combination because all races amongst these three factions would attack each other, and Jason doubted that they bothered about a few million if not a billion casualties. They should be aware of mankind''s ability to procreate fast, while several hundred years were nothing to those races. As such, Jason could only hope that the foreign races wouldn''t send out their elite and strong powerhouses to Argos Instead, they should send their common soldiers, or those that were in training to become the elite of their race! It was difficult to figure out the real reason for every race to appear and wage war against everyone on Argos, but Jason could tell that he was slowly approaching the truth. This should have made him happy, but from what he could tell, the truth was nothing to be happy about! After he flew towards the location where Shane and the others were, he extinguished his stigma''s glow before he descended. The whole battle was already over and Jason could see many humans gathering spatial rings without bothering about the people from a foreign race that stood next to them. Descending slowly, it was not difficult to notice his approach. If his masters and Emily weren''t next to a middle-aged man who was talking with them, Jason would have been a little bit nervous. Yet, because he could tell that the foreign race he saw was the mysterious race that had teamed up with the Shiabi clan, Jason was able to stay calm. At the same time, his masters'' calmness helped him to maintain this state and Jason landed on the ground after he loosened the grasp around the Ifrytor and Ifry. Artemis'' talons and wings disintegrated and Jason could only see that everyone eyed him with vigilance until they noticed that he was a human with a fortified soul conjunction. This was however not less weird because Jason looked like he was not even 20 years old. Fortunately, Jason didn''t care about their curious and envious gazes as he dragged the two unconscious people behind him. When Shane noticed him, Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly "I''m done and brought two presents with me!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 423 - Ariyor Jason was still astonished by how mysterious the unknown race looked, but he tried to not show his surprise as he stood in front of his masters. There was a middle-aged man next to them with several thousand liquefied drops of mana within his mana core. This indicated that he was at the Lord rank, as one required thousand liquefied drops for every level of the Lord rank. Yet, if one were to look at it closely, the unknown race''s strength was much higher. Their number was smaller in comparison, but Jason could tell that the quantity of liquefied mana, their silver affinity with which Jason was unfamiliar with and their physical strength was much higher. In the end, one of those from the unknown race should be able to fight against five to ten humans at once, probably even more! This came mainly from the fact that Jason perceived their aura, which was filled with killing intent from the fight they had overcome. Killing intent couldn''t be established without having fought hundreds of life-or-death battles or overcoming hundreds, if not thousands of deaths under unique circumstances. As such, the unknown race that supported the Shiabi clan had to be proficient in fighting, which was also his biggest reason to look at their race''s combat prowess so highly. "They''re called Ariyor" Shane said when he saw Jason staring at the foreign race. The Ariyor race was mostly shaped like any bipedal beast, with two legs and arms, yet there were also four-legged individuals. Seeing this was not really surprising for Jason. He already knew that something like this was possible with some races. This was because Netherworld''s fort body refining technique had already informed him about a race with two-legged and four-legged individuals. Though Jason doubted that the Ariyor race''s four-legged individuals were weaker than the humanoid Ariyor, it was possible. Nevertheless, what astonished Jason more was that their body was completely made out of silver liquid which caused him to blurt out "Quicksilver?" Their silver liquid had exactly the same color as the Ariyor''s affinity had and Jason couldn''t help but feel that both affinity and the liquid they were made out of were the same materials; quicksilver! When the middle-aged man that had been talking to Shane and Dalia heard this, he sized Jason up for the first time since he arrived. Behind him were an unconscious Ifrytor and Ifry that had both a damaged mana core. Nevertheless, one could still determine that the number of liquefied drops of mana within the Ifrytor exceeded 100. ''How strong is this youth? This youngster fought against a Ifrytor with 100 drops of liquefied mana and he is unscathed? Did someone help him? His rank shouldn''t be high enough to defeat the Ifry and Ifrytor!'' The middle-aged man couldn''t answer a single question he had in mind which felt weird, however, after seeing that the young man was acquainted with the strong man that helped them out, he had nothing left to say. Thus, he turned back Shane as he said. "Thank you for helping us out. The number of our casualties decreased drastically due to your intervention. If it''s not too much trouble, I would like to invite Sir to follow us to the Shiabi clan! At least if Sir doesn''t feel uncomfortable with the Ariyor race comes along...They build a small camp at our headquarters¡­" When Jason heard how the middle-aged man talked, he couldn''t help but frown deeply. ''He doesn''t seem to like the Ariyor race...is that because of the prejudice of foreign races or is there something wrong with them?'' Jason couldn''t tell for sure and instead of listening to the middle-aged man that was at the Late Lique stage, he looked around to see if there was something interesting. Solaris attempted to leave his soul world but instead of allowing it to leave it, Jason had to suppress the origin flame from trying to absorb the remains of the Creato flames that had yet to dissipate. He didn''t feel any difference within Solaris but it had transmitted him the thought that absorbing more flames would be very beneficial for it to use. As such, he couldn''t help but ponder for a moment, thinking that he would have to publicly reveal that Solaris was an origin flame if he were to release it right now. This would be annoying, but from what he understood, everyone had their own, bigger problems right now!! There was a huge war devastating Canir, causing the death of humans every second! However, before he, or rather Solaris did something it was not supposed to do, Jason decided that it was better to ask the middle-aged man about it. He seemed to be the leader of their group, with the most authority, if one were to leave out the Ariyor. They were unlikely to allow being ordered around by someone with a weaker combat prowess and stance than they had, let alone other humans. The Ariyor-race seemed to help the Shiabi clan and not the other way around! But Jason wanted to be sure which led him to ask, only to be frowned upon. "You want to use the Ifrytor and Ifrys'' carcasses?...To burn them at that? Why?" Jason didn''t want to answer but he couldn''t help but feel that it was necessary "My flame is slightly unique and I can tell that it will be beneficial for it!" After the middle-aged man heard this, he shrugged his shoulders as if he didn''t care about the carcasses of the foreign races. Jason accepted this as a ''do whatever you want'' sign and turned around in order to walk towards the center of the battlefield. While walking, he could hear a few Ariyor talking with each other, and he was able to understand everything! They might not be aware of the fact, but Jason was able to understand the universal language all races seem to speak. This allowed him to hear their discussion, which sounded more like they were lamenting about their current situation. "Is it really necessary to protect those humans? This planet is so disgusting and its scarcity of mana feels like I''m walking through sullied lands¡­" One of the Ariyor that had the shape of a four-legged beast said "Calm down! You know that we need them if we want to continue fighting against the Doom Crawls! Their curse is too harmful to us¡­" The three-meter tall humanoid Ariyor, Jason passed by, said "But we could¡­" "STOP! Don''t even think of proposing that we should just take away what we need and run away! We have our own pride! Furthermore, there is the pact we signed with the Shiabi clan! Cope with it! The curse cleansing ability is something we can''t live without while waging war with a cursed race!! You recall my brother''s appearance, right? Completely black!!! It was already a miracle that he survived and the curse cleansing ability of the Shaibi clan saved him!" What Jason heard astonished him, and he wanted to figure out much more. However, in order to do so, he would have to reveal that he was able to speak in the universal language. As such, he had to suppress himself. Standing in the center of the battlefield, he summoned Solaris, who immediately split up in several dozen tiny flames before the shot towards all directions, infesting the Ifrytor and Ifrys'' bodies, devouring the small traces of the Creato flames that were left behind. The members of the Shiabi clan had already eyed him weirdly since he had demonstrated that he had a fortified soul conjunction with a flying beast. Now that he released a weird, black flame that split up before it infested the bodies of their deceased foes. How could they not think that this was weird? Something felt odd to them, but most people couldn''t get the hang of it as one of them shouted out "The black flame is devouring the last traces of the Ifrytor and Ifrys'' flames!! What kind of demonic flame is that??" When Jason heard this, he couldn''t help but shake his head as he mumbled "Demonic? More like the purest flame you guys will ever see in your life¡­" However, nobody except the two individuals from the Ariyor race he had passed earlier, heard him. Yet, they couldn''t really understand what he was saying because of the language barrier between them! Nevertheless, what they could tell for sure was the fact that the black-haired young-looking human that had golden-silverish eyes was not ordinary, while the same could be said for the flame within his hand. Solaris had split of several dozen small flames from it to devour the Creato flames while controlling everything neatly. Floating around Jason''s hand he smiled lightly because Solaris behaved similarly to a small child that didn''t want their parent to go working. Suddenly, he noticed someone from the Ariyor race approaching him who asked him in broken human language. "Is that a true origin flame?" Jason lifted his eyebrows when he heard that the Ariyor spoke to him in human language because that was not something he expected a Late Lique stage Ariyor to be able to do, however someone had to translate what humans and Ariyor were speaking about, otherwise, it would be difficult to create a soul contract, pact or whatever treaty one planed to sign with each other. As such, Jason couldn''t help as he smiled lightly before he said in human language "Yes, it''s an origin flame!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 424 - Shiabi Clan When the human-like Ariyor heard this, the liquefied body that seemed to be made out of something similar to quicksilver created ripples before it turned around to leave again. At the same time, it began to speak in the universal language "Where did a human get such a high-ranked origin flame from?" The humanoid Ariyor''s voice was neither loud nor quiet, thus many Ariyor could hear what their brethren, who was one of the highest-ranked in their small group, said! "Origin flame? A high-ranked one at that?" "Aren''t those able to cleanse impurities, soothe curses, and pain?" "This puny planet shouldn''t have any origin flame yet! Did this youth get them by using the world bridge to enter one of the volcanic worlds? No, he would have burned alive¡­" "High ranked Origin flames are extremely rare to find for common or higher races, but even grand races have problems with that¡­" Jason figured out that he had accidentally created turmoil within the Ariyor race''s group, but instead of being worried about anything, he was able to figure out a lot of new information he was unaware of before! It was obvious that mankind''s and the Ariyor race''s standards of a ''high-ranked'' origin flame were different. As such, he could tell that Solaris was even rare within foreign races, which might be different with D- or E- rank origin flames. Maybe even Dalia''s origin flame was not rare, but Jason doubted that this was the case! Her clan should have obtained a relatively rare one for her, even if it was unclear how exactly they were able to pay the price for something all foreign races found valuable. If he were to take the Creato flames in comparison, their capabilities were at the F, at most E-rank origin flame. For most humans, this was already great because one could create the Creato flame out of one''s own body! Yet, the technique utilized to do something like that was not really special and Jason doubted that it was anything special. That was if one were to look at it rationally. Every single one of the inexperienced Ifrytor and Ifry had such a technique and it wouldn''t be a surprise if every single individual of them had one! Other than that, Jason figured out that there seemed to be a ranking for foreign races. He was not sure about the proper requirements one had to cross in order to be called a ''Common'', ''Higher'' or ''Grand'' race, but it was a good indicator for Jason to tell which race he had to pay attention to! From the Ariyor race''s shock, Jason thought that their race was at most a higher-ranked race and not a ''Grand'' one, but that was not important right now. Half an hour had passed since Solaris had split up its body when the prior thin flames that had turned into thick, vivid flames, returned. Merging with Solaris'' main body, he could tell that something about was to change, yet he was not exactly sure what. However, exactly as Jason had already assumed, Solaris began to demand more soul energy units from him! It also transmitted him the thought that its demand was not as high as it would be normally because it was able to use a small part of the Creato flame to nurture its mana core. But this was even weirder for Jasson because he had initially thought that Solaris would nurture itself with the Creato flame it had devoured. ''Is there something you want to enhance?'' He asked himself while transmitting this thought, only to receive no answer in return. Thus, he could only shrug his shoulders and allow Solaris to take a few soul energy units in order to let him see what degree its demand for soul energy decreased to! Yet, before Jason could take a proper look, he saw that his masters and Emily walked towards him as Shane said "The Shiabi clan and Ariyor will depart now. Let''s go with them! We should be able to receive more information from the Shaibi clan than we could acquire from anyone else around!" Nodding his head, Jason looked around the battlefield one last time before he followed his masters. The group of the Shaibi clan and the Ariyor race divided themselves into those who could fly through the sky and the other side that was unable. The Ariyor race was able to fly through the sky, without the need to rely on a specific mana core rank or other external means. The only thing they had to do was utilizing their affinity which allowed them to control their whole quicksilver liquid body. Jason found this interesting, but also a little bit confusing because it didn''t really make sense to him. However, when Jason saw through his mana eyes how much mana they had to exert and how precise their control over the silver affinity was, he had to acknowledge that the Ariyor race was somewhat unique! Maybe there were multiple races with similar predicaments on Canir right now, but Jason hoped that their combat prowess and combat experience were not as high as the Ariyor''s! Though there was one somewhat bad information which he had heard before but he did not really understand them. ''What is the cleanse cursing ability they had been talking about and how devastating must being cursed as an Ariyor be if their whole body turns black? Wouldn''t that mean their quicksilver body would be infested, or is it something different? Either way, the most important information is the fact that the Ariyor race is at war with the Doom Crawls!! If they were to encounter each other on Canir, the current, rather calm situation within the Shandra country would turn awry!!'' Jason couldn''t help but think that everything had become more complicated than it had already been before! As such, instead of following most members back to the Shiabi clan by foot, he manifested Artemis'' wing to fly next to the Ariyor race. There were a few humans that had fortified soul conjunctions too, but they didn''t want to fly around without the others around them. They felt weird and uncomfortable around the Ariyor race which was not something surprising for most humans as they had never encountered a foreign race before. The recent times were the beginning of something new all over Canir and Jason predicted that mankind and the whole planet would never be the same as they had been before! As such, Jason decided to fly within the Ariyor race''s group instead of lingering around them which was eyed weirdly by both humans and the Ariyo race. Neither expected him to fly with the Ariyor instead of using a soulbond to mount in order to rush over the plains they were currently on. It was weird for the others but Jason didn''t care about that at all. He heard a few Ariyor gossiping with each other about him, and Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly, which he tried to suppress. Unfortunately, this was more difficult than he had expected and it was necessary for him to cover his mouth with one hand. At the same time, he took a look at Solaris within the soul world, trying to figure out what it was going to do. However, what he noticed brought forth more questions than it answered. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 425 - Standpoint The number of soul energy units Solaris had annexed was 10,000. This was the threshold a magical rank beast could take on the most. However, Solaris was neither a beast, had limited potential, nor was the magical rank relevant for Jason and his soulbonds anymore! Important was just the fact that Solaris had burned around 15,000 soul energy units and annexed 7,000 units, which decreased Jason''s soul energy units to slightly more than 210,000. There was still more than enough left, but what confused Jason was that he was able to perceive the Creato flame within Solaris! This was weird and he began to ask himself what this could mean as Solaris had already answered everything with a simple transmitted thought. [You can learn how to steal life force as long as you absorb enough Creato flames? Ugh...I hope you mean from beasts you evade and not from me¡­] Jason was sure that Solaris wouldn''t try to drain his life force, but the thought was scary and he couldn''t help but visualize it. He shivered for a short moment which the surrounding Ariyor noticed, but Jason was still deep in thought, thinking about what Solaris transmitted him. ''Doesn''t that mean Solaris can learn other flame''s abilities? That''s great! But...also somewhat weird...wouldn''t it be more logical to augment the already existing abilities instead of stealing other flame''s abilities?'' There was also the fact that Solaris had explained to him. Apparently, It would need several thousand more Creato flame in order to learn the ability that would allow Solaris to drain one''s life force! At the same time, Solaris even requested him to search for more Ifrytor and Ifry to kill them, so that it could absorb their flames the moment they died! Jason didn''t answer this but instead, he changed the topic. [Try enhancing your mana nullification ability first...Or the purification ability. It''s good to have many abilities, but if your fire''s strength is not enough to invade the inner parts of your opponents, a life force draining ability is not that great. Purifying is great for support and non-combat purposes while nullifying mana is superb and you know that!] Solaris was already extremely strong and the affinity Jason used the most and it would be great if Solaris would obtain a life force draining ability, but in his opinion, the mana nullification ability would still be stronger. Nullifying mana could be used for both attacking and defending and Jason was sure that this was the most important; being versatile, efficient, and powerful!. Thus, he had transmitted those words to Solaris, who had quieted down. After that, Jason decided to focus on his surroundings and the Ariyor race that was around him. They were not far from the Shiabi clan''s headquarters but he wanted to figure out everything about the Ariyor race as soon as possible. "This human is weird¡­" "Why does he stare at us like that??" "Does he know other foreign races, or why is he not affected while staying around us? We should be the first foreign race he meets, at least with such a large number...Or did he already fought next to foreign races in Argos'' war?" Unfortunately, Jason didn''t hear any new, useful information and the Ariyor race had just begun gossiping with each other. Only one hour later, did he finally hear something interesting. "Don''t you think that most races exaggerate a little bit? I''m aware of the value the human race holds, but they''re not strong enough to be on par with grand races...even with their soul-awakening and the fact that they receive an amplification from the beasts they tame! At most, a few with an extremely high soul-awakening might be on par, but nurturing them won''t bring any race enough benefits!" It was a humanoid Ariyor who had asked this, and a heated debate seemed to start because of his words. "Exaggerate? There should be around 20 common races and more than 6 higher races who joined this war! That''s not exaggerating the value of the human-races value but it''s insane! Most of those common races desire the threshold of a higher race and humans have enough potential to achieve that! At least if they were to enter the right environment. With enough resources, a suitable body refining technique, and strong beasts they can tame, one can transform a human into a powerhouse! At least for most common race''s standards! And I was just talking about individuals from the human race with an above-average soul awakening! I think you can imagine what extent high soul-awakenings might allow a human to reach!" The four-legged beast Ariyor that had said this, looked to the ground, trying to find someone to make an example off as Jason flew past it. "Just take the winged human as an example! Compared to the other humans, he is extremely young but you should have seen that he arrived with an unconscious Ifrytor that had liquefied 100 drops of mana! He has yet to get into an environment with more mana than the scarce lands we are currently on. Despite that, he attained such a high combat prowess! If nurtured properly, he should be able to become as strong as we are, a higher-ranked race!!" Immediately afterward, the large humanoid Ariyor that had spoken to Jason before answered the first, suspicious Ariyor''s question too "Most common races are desperate, and the higher-ranked races are just trying to prevent them from becoming too strong. They fear being conquered too! There is a balance between those races that want to take the human race''s soul-awakening ability for themselves. The others that want to prevent that from happening at all costs! At the same time, there is the Ifrytor race and other races, whether it''s a common or higher one, with a huge numerical advantage. They want to create Elite warriors from their common soldiers! Our stance is different from everyone else''s but they''re aware of that, which is why most races try to avoid itus. To put it simply, we might be one of the strongest races that joined this war, if one were to exclude the My?ldra and...Doom Crawls, who can fight against us because of their curse''s advantage. However, there are also many races that desperately fight for their survival. They''re threatened to be conquered by other races on a daily basis and upon seeing the human race''s soul-awakening potential, it is obvious why so many races began joining this war! It''s relatively quiet right now, but we''ll never know when this might change!!" Jason was flooded with information which caused a light headache, but he was glad that he was able to understand the universal language! ''So it''s like that? I should be missing lots of important information, but if I understood everything correctly, the foreign races are divided into three sections as we already expected. But 26 foreign races on Canir¡­ isn''t that a little bit over the top?? Are they so desperate, greedy or do they value humans that much?'' The more answers he received, the more questions flooded his mind, and Jason couldn''t help but think that it was extremely weird. Their discussion continued and Jason''s mind was overflowing with information when they had finally arrived in front of the Shabi clan headquarter! ''Thank goodness!'' He mumbled before diving towards his masters and Emily. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 426 - Terminated They had arrived at the Shiabi clan and the Ariyor that had separated from the rest returned to their own camp. At the same time, the captured Ifrytor and Ifry were left with a guard to figure out more information. There was no need to ask why they had entered Argos because it was a useless piece of information, but more importantly was the number of Ifrytor and Ifry, their average strength, how strong the strongest Ifrytor was, and what kind of strategy they pursued. All of that was important and Jason expected that the Shiabi clan was able to receive some information. He was curious about the curse cleansing ability and his assumption that curses were more lethal on the Ariyor race than others. However, Jason was sure that he would get to know everything soon enough. Walking through the large yard the Shiabi clan headquarter had, he looked around and noticed several things that pricked his interest. The number of strong humans was much more than he had expected them to be, while the variety of elemental transmutations Jason perceived within most humans was wider than it should be for a single clan. It was said that most clans had two, at most three common elements they focused on! This originated from the fact that the body refining techniques the clans had were focused on those elementals. At the same time, the main family branch''s descendants had mostly those two to three affinities when they had undergone the soul-awakening. Yet, what Jason perceived were too many different affinities and more importantly, too many physiques that had been refined with different body refining techniques! "The Shiabi clan shelters other big clans?" Jason mumbled, which was heard by Shane, who nodded his head. "That''s right. They''re multiple big clans that decided to depart to the Shandra clan after they had been attacked and overwhelmed by an alliance of multiple big clans and the reinforcement from the foreign races they''re contracted with! This alliance is also the biggest problem the Shandra country will have to face according to the captain of the combat unit we''ve been talking to!" Jason didn''t say anything to that because it was expected that some common foreign races would establish an alliance. If they were unable to get their hands on the human race alone, dividing them with a few other races, they''re in a peace agreement which would make everything easier. As long as races that were hostile towards them didn''t receive anything from this war, those races were fine with everything. In the end, Jason was sure that multiple alliances of foreign common races existed. Even those that wanted to gain nothing but combat experience would have to use this tactic to prevent being overwhelmed and annihilated. Otherwise, their common combat units would be annihilated without gaining anything, and it was obvious how great of an effect this would bring forth. It was useless and a waste of time, as such Jason assumed that all common races had or would establish an alliance with each other. They had to fight against the higher races too and a high numerical advantage was sometimes great enough to outweigh pure quality!. Less than 10 minutes had passed when Jason, his masters, and Emily had entered the Shiabi clan''s main hall that looked like a huge ball hall. There was nothing special inside and Jason was sure that the Shiabi clan had already taken away everything special in order to prevent anyone from taking anything away. This might sound petty, but it was better to use all means to prevent a chaotic situation within their own rows! What would happen if a young, yet greedy youth were to steal something because it looked beneficial for himself? There was no need to bother about something like that as long as everything overly valuable was taken away. Jason could see the remains of objects with very strong mana fluctuations and he assumed most of them to be weapons! ''Maybe they''ve taken the weapons away to use them during the war too.'' Everything was possible and it was great to have strong weapons in a way that might take a very long time. Nobody could foretell what the next few years would bring, and Jason was glad that the Shiabi clan did not hold back from utilizing their heirlooms or treasured weapons. Suddenly, Jason saw three, familiar young men walking through the clan hall with an unfamiliar girl next to them. This caused him to smile involuntarily as he shouted out "Milan, Isga, Yune, hello!" Artemis'' wings were still folded on his back, but he lifted one in order to show the three young men, who he had encountered within the Mythic Garden, where he was. The group of four was astonished to hear someone shouting the three young men''s names through the clan hall as it was frowned down upon if someone shouted in a clan hall. However, when the three young men saw Jason, they were astonished for a short moment before they had already approached him with fast strides. "Jason! How are you doing? But..why are you here, is your clan not doing well either?" Yune, who was one of the descendants from the Shiabi family, asked, not able to cover his worry. They had sheltered lots of big clans and Yune was not sure how good it would be to accept another big clan, or even an ancient clan to seek asylum within their headquarters. There were too many disputes with each other that Yune''s head was aching if he just thought about it! However, when Yune saw that Jason shook his head, Yune was relieved. "Not really, I, my masters and another disciple of one of my masters were in the Shandra country. We though that it might be the best to inquire more intel about the recent happenings around the war. At the same time, it might not be the worst idea to help out a little bit, right?" Jason smiled, but he was wondering about the fact that the clan Isga and more importantly Milan belonged to were there. They might still be in a soul contract with the foreign races after all! From what he could tell, the Jual clan was the bigger problem, which was mainly because he had no idea what kind of soul contract the Maldor clan had signed with the foreign race they had colluded with! This caused him to eye his two friends for a short moment before Isga, who noticed Jason''s vigilance smiled weirdly. "You don''t have to be worried about our clans or the foreign race we had been colluded with. We severed all soul contracts by receiving severe punishment. Fortunately, our clan heads didn''t include every clan member within the soul contracts we had with the Larzor race. Otherwise, not only the patriarch, vice-patriarch and a few higher authorities would have been punished, but all of us! Nevertheless, the punishment was lighter than expected and almost all big clans could sever the soul contracts with the foreign races without many issues...They almost died, but that was something we could prevent! It was almost as if those races would have never imagined that the big clans would terminate the soul contract!" When Jason heard this his smile widened while Shane and Dalia lifted their eyebrow because they began to wonder what kind of punishment the higher authorities of the Maldor clan had received. However, when he thought about the clan heads being punished, Jason was involuntarily drawn to Milan. Clearing his throat, he could only say "What about your mother?" Instead of beating around the bush, Jason would rather tear open a wound and ask straightforwardly, which was exactly what he had done. Yet, differently than expected, Milan just said "Both her soul and mana core have been badly injured, but with the right treatment and resources, she will get better!" He said this, with an almost emotionless voice which was a big contrast to the Milan he got to know within the Mythic Garden. ''If it''s not his mother, what has happened to him?'' Nevertheless, Jason didn''t feel any pity towards Milan''s mother because she was one of the members that had supported enslavement. However, before Jason could ask, the girl that was together with the others, ignored the atmosphere that was about to turn bad as she stepped forward and introduced herself. "Hello my name is Arya Melar, that''s a nice tattoo you have there! The fortified soul conjunction with your flying soulbond seems to be strong too, but why do you look so young?? How old are you??" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 427 - Exposing Jason could only smile when he saw how curious the pretty woman, with her long and slender legs brown hair, eyes, and pretty features, was "Hello Arya, nice to meet you, my name is Jason. You''re right, I''m not that old!" After that, he turned back to his friends, ignoring Arya''s question about his age. He had no intention to talk with Arya because he was more curious about what had happened to his friends during the last few months. Nine months had passed since then and lots of events should have happened. They had liquefied a few more drops of mana, but compared to his advancement, theirs was almost negligible. Even if their advancement speed was fast, Jason was even faster in liquefying the compressed liquefied drops of mana than his friends could liquefy common drops of mana. Nevertheless, the first thing he did was to introduce his masters and Emily to everyone before Shane and would talk to the Shiabi clan''s patriarch, proposing their support. At that moment, the middle-aged man, who was the captain of the earlier combat unit, Jason''s masters and Emily had encountered, entered the clan hall, Jason noticed something weird. He stopped chatting with his friends for a moment as his attention was drawn to the middle-aged man who started to talk with the patriarch that had just entered the clan hall from a different entrance. After half a minute, both the patriarch and the middle-aged man looked in their direction which led Jason to retrace Artemis'' wings before they disintegrated as Artemis left his mana core. ''What''s going on?'' Jason was confused for a short moment before he noticed that the middle-aged man rushed towards them, followed by the Shiabi clan''s patriarch. He looked at Yune for a moment, astonished to see him and his friends next to a black haired youth and his presumed masters. A few seconds passed and the whole group stared at the Shiabi clan patriarch, who had already scanned through everyone''s mana core, as he turned towards Shane and Dalia. He was unable to see through their mana core which was interested and not something he encountered often "Greetings, I don''t think we''re acquainted with each other. I''m the Shiabi clan patriarch, Myrl Shaibi, and want to sincerely thank Sir and Madame for helping our combat unit. This reduced the number of casualties drastically! Unfortunately, I''m sorry to say this, but I would like to request something... The Ifrytor and Ifry regained their consciousness, and we were about to question them. Unfortunately, both said that they would only talk if the person who caught them is present! I hope this is not too much of a request but I hope Sir or Madame can follow me. This is very important and we might be able to procure important information!" When Shane and Dalia heard this, they looked at each other a little dumbfounded before they turned to Jason, who remained unmoved as Emily began to laugh out loud. This was unexpected, however, Jason had to suppress his laughter too. The Shaibi clan patriarch thought that Shane or Dalia had caught the Ifrytor and Ifry, while it was in fact Jason, who had done so. Unfortunately, Emily''s laughter was inappropriate for such a serious topic which was the reason for Jason to suppress laughing out. As such, she was eyed weirdly, and it was only when Dalia covered her disciple''s mouth with her own hand that Emily notices that something was wrong. Shane and the captain of the combat unit were about to clear the misunderstanding when Jason had already stepped forward as he said "I caught them, not my masters. Where do I have to go?" Milan, Isga, and Yune were astonished when they heard that Jason had caught an Ifrytor and Ifry, but both Milan and Isga thought that Jason''s high soul amplification might be what made it possible for him to achieve this feat. If they would have known that Jason was currently walking around without receiving any amplification in his strength, they wouldn''t believe a single word about him being able to catch someone from a foreign race. The middle-aged captain was about to say something, only to be intercepted by the Shaibi clan''s patriarch. "But...the Ifrytor has already liquefied 100 drops of mana, and entered the Grandmagus rank! You have liquefied four drops of mana! Don''t lie to me! I don''t like being played around!" Myrl turned back to Shane and Dalia, still in the opinion that one of them had caught the Ifrytor and Ifry, only for Shane to say "I''m sorry to say this, but my disciple really caught them¡­" At that time, the captain of the combat unit was finally able to speak up as he said "Patriarch! I was just about to say this...This youngster was the one who caught both the Ifrytor and Ifry...and they want to see him." After that, he whispered "Even the Ifrytor wants to speak, but only with this young man and a translator of the Ariyor race..." The only ones who were able to retain calm were Jason, his masters, and Emily, while the Shiabi clan patriarch, Yune, and the others stared at Jason in shock. "You¡­defeated a Grandmagus rank Ifrytor¡­? When we left the Mythic Garden you''ve been at the Master rank¡­" Milan mumbled while Isga and Yune couldn''t help but silently agree. Arya who had just met Jason stared at him with the same thought lingering in her mind as everyone else. ''How can someone with 4 drops of liquefied mana defeat a Grandmagus with 100 drops? Someone from a foreign race at that!!'' It was hard to comprehend as Shane, who wanted to calm down everyone, said "My disciple has strong soulbonds that enhance his physical strength greatly. His soul awakening was great too. The number of liquefied drops of mana might be important for others but not for someone with a good soul awakening. There are other ways to augment one''s strength, right? A fortified soul conjunction for example! " Shane wanted to protect Jason by revealing the secrets that had already been exposed to others. As long as his identity as someone with the blood of the Celestia race remained hidden, everything was fine! He would even retort to exposing his real identity as Shane Blair if it was required. This might not be problematic as long as he remained within the Shiabi clan, but there were too many clans that hated him, for whatever reason they had. In the end, Shane couldn''t even explain why most big clans loathed him. The only thing he did was to annihilate one clan. He didn''t even massacre the descendants of the big clans that had been at the Shore clan headquarters at that time! This would have been a good reason for him to be pursued by a greater number of big clans but Shane didn''t do anything to them! Myrl just nodded his head and decided to think about the youth''s talent later as he said "The Ifrytor and Ifry are locked in a small prison which the Ariyor race has constructed. You don''t have to be worried about anything. Someone from the Ariyor race will meet you there and translate everything you and the Ifrytor say. Other than that, it would be great if you can figure out some information from the Ifry too. Like how they have been contacted by the Ifrytor race and what kinds of benefits they''ve received in return!" Jason nodded his head, ignoring the shocked expressions his friends had as he said "I''m ready! If there is nothing else to do, I can meet the Ifrytor and Ifry immediately!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 428 - Suicide Standing in front of a large, yet, ordinary-looking set of cages, Jason looked around before he saw the Ifrytor and Ifry he had caught. They were in different cages that were placed right next to each other and were being locked up. An Ariyor was taking care of them right now, using its silver affinity before it took out handcuffs from the spatial ring it had. After enveloping the handcuffs with the quicksilver it had manifested, the Ariyor sealed the Ifrytor and Ifry''s already damaged mana core by cuffing their hands with the unique-looking handcuffs. From the appearance, both the cages and handcuffs looked very ordinary, but Jason knew that this was not the case. The materials used for everything were extremely precious by mankind''s standards and he doubted that one could produce handcuffs or a cage as the ones he saw in front of him with the materials one could find on Argos. Furthermore, Jason was able to perceive hundreds of tiny runes inscribed within the innermost parts of the cages and handcuffs. Seeing all of that, he felt safe and his previous thought about the Ifrytor and Ifry trying to take revenge on him with a hidden trump had almost completely dispersed. The Ariyor that had taken care of the prisoners stepped out of the cage until it saw Jason waiting nearby. It didn''t know how to speak human language, as such the Ariyor spoke slowly in the universal language, hoping that it could be roughly understood. "Wait here! Fasro will be here soon!" It lifted its liquefied hand and gave him the sign that he should wait and Jason nodded his head faintly after seeing this. He had understood the Ariyor but that didn''t mean he could just start speaking in the universal language. "Ah...ok, thanks" Only five minutes later, Jason perceived the strong mana fluctuation from someone flying towards him. He turned around and lifted his head in order to look into the sky, where a three-meter tall Ariyor could be seen. It was probably the Ariyor called Fasro and Jason didn''t need long to inspects his mana core. He had six solidified prismarine crystals and was probably one of or the strongest Ariyor that was present. Jason was unsure what the highest mana core rank was in order to jump through the world bridges that were called rifts by humans. He had seen a few Prismar stage individuals but Fasro''s mana core rank was even higher than the Shadow walker he had encountered a long time ago. It had almost been two years since that day and Jason didn''t even notice that so much time had passed! Being busy with all kinds of tasks was definitely one of the biggest reasons for this. Another reason would be that absorbing mana allows one to lose the track of time during the fully focused state of one''s mana absorption. Taking a deep breath, Jason greeted Fasro, the Ariyor, who was diving towards him, in human language. "Hello Sir, my name Is Jason Stella. Nice to meet you!" The moment Fasro arrived on the ground, he was greeted by a human that looked extremely young for the human race''s standards. This led him to scan through the youth''s mana core, which was large in size. However, the young man had only four drops of liquefied mana which caused him to ask. "Are you sure that you''ve defeated the Ifrytor and Ifry?" Jason, who had expected that he would be asked this question, summoned Solaris. It released its whole strength at once before burning down within a moment, and Jason didn''t have to say anything as the Ariyor said "You were the human with the high-ranked origin flame, I see!...This has nothing to do with the later investigation of the Ifrytor and Ifry, but do you mind telling me how you obtained this origin flame? I guess you can tell that the black origin flame is not ordinary, and there shouldn''t be a flame like that on Argos. Even on our worlds, there might only be one such flame in several thousand years, and that would already be fortunate!" When Jason had heard this, he was astonished for a moment, because Solaris was rarer than he had expected. "One high-ranked origin flame, every few thousand years on several planets?... To be honest, I found Solaris in its crystal-state on a small Island called Astrix. At that time I was in the hideout of a mutated, Lord-ranked Goblin King with a strong fire ability. If I were to guess, I would say that it was someone from a foreign race, who provided the black origin flame crystal, trying to make the Goblin King stronger?" Jason finished answering and wiped away the sweat that had formed on his forehead ''Luckily, I said Lord rank and not late Lique¡­'' "Goblin King...I doubt that a real Goblin King arrived on Argos, otherwise the whole planet would have been destroyed by now!" After Fasro had said that in the human language he had switched to the universal language as he mumbled to himself "Rather than a Goblin King, it might have been one of its descendants? That''s more likely as they can procure multiple affinities...but who would try to nurture a Goblin King''s descendant with a high-ranked origin flame? On a planet without an extremely low-density of mana at that¡­" Jason was astonished about what he heard, but his expression didn''t move an inch as he asked "Shall we interrogate the Ifrytor and Ifry first? If Sir wants to, we can talk about other things later. I''m very interested in the Ariyor race, other races, and the worlds Sir has been talking about!" Fasro felt that Jason was different from other humans because he was not instinctively repulsive, angry, or even disgusted by their race, which was made up of a liquefied mass of special quicksilver. There were only a few humans that had been able to talk freely with the Ariyo race, without the need to hold back or think too much about the words they spoke. In the end, mankind''s current stance, and the fact that the Ariyor race helped the Shaibi clan because they had a soulbond with a cleanse curse ability, were good reasons for their behavior. Additionally, there was the instinctive disgust most humans had against foreign races because of the past. If one were to add that the Ariyor race was a liquid race, whose only similar trait was the human appearance some of the Ariyor race had! Yet, the young youth, whose appearance seemed to be unique among his race too, was behaving as if there was no difference between him being a human and that he was talking to an Ariyor right now. His eyes were gleaming brightly and he had a faint smile on his lips. "Just call me Fasro, and if you want, I can bring you to someone more knowledgeable than me. She can tell you a lot more than I can!" This was something, Jason didn''t expect, but it made him happy and he said "Thank you, that would be great!" After their short introduction was finally done, Jason entered the first cage in which the Ifry sat inside, while Fasro went inside the cage with the Ifrytor inside. "I brought the human you wanted to see, now tell me where your hideout is!!" Fasro said with a cold voice as he released quicksilver from his hands that enveloped the Ifrytor who was staring at the Ariyo with killing intent leaking from his eyes. "You disgusting mass of shit, let''s see how long you''ll feel like your race and this puny human clan will have the upper hand!! We shall give you a surprise for bringing the human with you...It''s just unfortunate that your race is too full of itself! Did you really think the Kalasdra cages and handcuffs would be enough to hinder us in taking revenge?" Jason had heard the words which the Ifrytor had shouted out and only a moment later, he could see a faint, yet cruel smile in the Ifry''s face, who stared at him. "F*ck!" It was not difficult to connect the clues the Ifrytor''s words and Ifry''s expression showcased. At the same time, he saw this, his mana eyes perceived how a tiny, red drop that looked similar to liquefied drops of mana, yet crimson-red in color, entered the Ifry''s mana core. A chain-reaction was caused and the mana core within the Ifry began to heat up within the next few seconds as he said "Good-bye...FOOL!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 429 - Torrential Energy "Good-bye...FOOL!" The moment the Ifry had said this, Jason had already started to move. Yet, instead of rushing back to leave the cage, he pushed himself forward as Solaris had already entered his mana core. Releasing his entire stored mana in addition to Solaris'' mana at once, huge, yet, highly compressed flames shot out of Jason''s hand that had pierced through the Ifry''s chest straight into its mana core. The Ifry''s mana core was also the place where the Creato flame, that was about to erupt, was located. The Creato flame had absorbed the Ifry''s life force that was not sealed and it was unable to devour the high quantity of nutritions it received, at once. As such, it was about to unleash its full might, when Jason''s hand had pierced through the Ifry''s chest, straight into the mana core, that was already damaged and about to crumble. "Devour everything!!" Jason shouted and Solaris, whose greed had been revealed, screamed out in joy as the crumbling mana core had already been fully enveloped by the black origin flames. A moment later, they infiltrated every little space of the mana core, and the Creator flame that was being overwhelmed and suppressed. However, it was still not enough to prevent the Creato flame from imploding, which it was about to happen at any moment, when Jason forced Solars, who reject Jason''s plan, to utilize the devoured energy to enhance its mana nullification ability! As such, within the next few moments, the suppressed Creato flame that was about to be unleashed had been fully repressed, while Solaris devoured it without showing any mercy. The smile one the Ifry had stiffened the moment Jason had pierced through its chest, knowing that its suicidal attack had been useless. Yet, before it was able to do anything the Ifry''s eyes had turned dim. Solaris was still devouring the Creato flame until the very last strand. Meanwhile, the surrounding temperature had increased significantly and Fasro, who had also understood what the Ifrytor had said, was about to charge outside the other cage to help Jason, only to notice that it was not necessary. ''How does he have so much mana? Didn''t he have only 4 drops of liquefied mana in his core? And is that a mana nullification ability, the black origin flame has?'' Fasro was astonished about both Jason and Solaris. Jason had more mana than the Ariyor race had with the same amount of liquefied drops of mana, while the black origin flame was something he had yet to fully comprehend. Nevertheless, it was great that Jason had survived and that was everything that counted! He was talented, and it would worsen the relationship between the Ariyor race and Shiabi clan if a great talent would die because of their negligence! As such, Fasro was glad to see that the black origin flame devoured the enormous energy that had been released from the Ifry''s mana core. Yet, Jason was not as happy as Fasro because he felt that the torrential energy Solaris absorbed was wreaking havoc within its mana core. Solaris transmitted him that everything was fine, but Jason could tell that this was not exactly the case. The torrential energy was not even made out of flames, but a weird energy that was similar to mana, yet, completely different! Jason was unable to comprehend it and he could only estimate that it had something to do with the drop of lifeforce he had seen before! Suddenly, Petri, who was able to sense everything as Artemis and Scorpio could too, transmitted Jason a weird thought. ''Why would Petri want to absorb the torrential energy? He has barely liquefied three drops of mana! How should he be able to endure such compressed energy waves??'' It was unknown how Petri was so sure that the life force that had been forcefully liquefied was beneficial for him. However, Jason could tell that his youngest soulbond was confident. As such, he released Petri, who had already reached the length of six meters and the width of Jason''s tights. He had ordered Solaris to divide the torrential energy from the Creato flame it had already devoured. Only pure energy was left behind! Solaris had already left Jason''s mana core and appeared in front of Petri, whose eyes were gleaming in greed as he opened his maw widely. A moment later, the energy Solaris couldn''t contain was released and the blood-red drop of compressed life force emerged. Its size had shrunk a little bit, but the Creato flame had been unable to make use of the complete life force it had been provided with. The moment the blood-red drop of liquefied life force emerged from Solaris, Petri lunged towards it and devoured it without hesitation. Only seconds later the drop of life force dissolved and Petri''s whole body began to heat up. However, what happened afterward was astonishing. The torrential energy that had been ravaging in Solari''s mana core was becoming calm as it spread through Petri''s body. Jason was not sure what happened, but Petri told him that he had to hibernate for some time to digest the energy it had absorbed. At the same time, a faint, white hue had begun to envelop Petri, and Jason could only stare at his youngest soulbond flabbergasted. ''Is Petri evolving??'' He had seen the same scenario already once, and it had been Artemis, his first soulbond, who had already broken through her racial limits at that time, only to evolve at an unexpected time. The same seemed to happen with Petri, but Jason was not sure what exactly the life force could be used for, when Fasro had already appeared behind him. "You humans are certainly special. This soulbond is lucky too! To think that it could absorb the pure life force of several dozen individuals from the Ascron race¡­.but why was that within the Ifry¡­" Jason didn''t understand what Fasro, who had turned to the Ifrytor, had said "What did the Ifrytor race to the Ascron race?? Why is there a compressed life force of several dozen Ascron within such an insignificant existence as the ifry was??" Fasro was visibly shocked, but the same could be said about the Ifrytor. "H-How...HOWW did you survive that??" The Ifrytor was enraged and not sure what was going on as Jason, who had taken Petri and Solaris within his soul world, turned towards it. His eyes were eerily cold as he walked outside the cage to enter the Ifrytor''s cage. Fasro followed suit, not sure what Jason was about to do as he saw a long scimitar appearing within Jason''s hand. However, before he could even do anything, Jason had already slashed at the Ifrytor, severing one of his arms as he asked "What is that energy and why was it within the Ifry??" He could barely refrain from speaking in the universal language and it was only when Fasro translated Jason''s words, that the Ifrytor who was screaming out in pain understood him. Nevertheless, it didn''t answer anything and was about to mock Jason, as their eyes met. Jason''s killing intent was fully released within his eyes while the golden-silverish eyes had been activated by the energy stored within the separate mana storage. With his killing intent release, his mana eyes abyssal ability utilized, and the petrification curse activated, the Ifrytor that was about to mock him, turned quiet in an instant as Jason repeated his question. There was no translation required because the Ifrytor knew what Jason wanted to know.. "We...abducted several hundred Ascron and draw out their life force while barely keeping them alive!" Jason didn''t know what race the Ascrons were, but he was sure that Fasro would tell him if he asked. After the Ifrytor had answered, Jason didn''t wait for Fasro to translate everything as he asked "Where is your hideout and how many of you are there??" Once the question had been translated, Jason noticed that the mana within his eyes began to be used up to fast, and it would only be a few seconds before it would be fully used up. As such he slashed out with Byakur again, severing the last limb the Ifrytor had left. While screaming in pain he shouted out. "Yasl?rn caves¡­.SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 430 - Comparison "Several hundred thousand?" Jason mumbled as he retraced his killing intent before Baykur vanished. It had entered Jason''s soul world and rested there, while Jason looked at Fasro who was not sure what to think about what had happened right now. However, before he would start to comprehend everything he had heard, Fasro rushed towards the Ifrytor whose arms had been severed. He enveloped the Ifrytor''s two stumps that remained with his mana to seal them before he turned to Jason. "Good Job...I guess? We now know their hideout and the number. That''s great...but the Ascron race is too pitiful¡­ They''re too many races after them ...." Jason tilted his head at these words as he asked "This might be a far-fetched assumption, but is the Ascron race a race with vibrant life force or physical strength? Cause I don''t understand why Petri, the petrification serpent you''ve seen earlier, wanted to absorb their compressed life force¡­" Fasro was already in his own thoughts when he heard Jason as he nodded his head. "The Ascron race is known for their high physical strength that stems from their unparalleled life force, however, they''re unable to absorb mana under normal circumstances, and even after adjusting themselves by using unique techniques, their progress is only slow. If they could enhance their life force instead of the mana core within them, they wouldn''t be a common race, but at least a Grand race...What a pity that they have yet to find a way to strengthen their life force without relocating their origin planet!" It was interesting to hear something new, and Jason couldn''t help but think about the new possibility he had heard. "Enhance one''s life force? That would be entirely different from the path of absorbing mana¡­ Lifeforce should be considered as something innate while mana can be absorbed, and released at will." Fasro nodded his head as he said "The most powerful Ascron learned how to handle mana too, but It can be said that they''re mutants of their race! They''re barely able to amplify their physique or certain body parts with it." However, just as Fasro had said this, he noticed how weird their current situation was. Jason had just survived a suicidal attack that should have killed him under normal circumstances, before he had released all his anger at the Ifrytor by severing his arms, only to make up theories as if nothing had happened. Furthermore, Jason seemed to accept the fact that a different energy than mana existed too easily. With this in mind, Fasro had an idea as he baited Jason, who was currently deep in thought, trying to make sense out of the information he received. "Did you know that mankind''s cultivation system is completely wrong? The seven stages your race has are only three large stages in our cultivation system, namely the Mortal, Lique, and Prisma stage. To put it more simply, your race has yet to reach the 8th and 9th stage that would be included in the Prisma stage too!" Jason didn''t listen carefully at Fasro''s words and just said "I know that we''re weak and you forgot to mention that those three stages are just the beginning. It''s ridiculous how proud we are of ourselves, isn''t it?" Suddenly, Jason noticed to whom he was talking and his body stiffened as he looked at Fasro whose liquefied body was also turned towards him. He could just smile oddly as he scratched the back of his head. "Oops¡­" Fasro had assumed that Jason knew more than he had exposed, but to hear that he was fully aware of the universal race cultivation system astonished him a little bit. Yet, before he could say anything, Jason hurriedly said "I was taught a little bit of the universal language and read the information I just said from a body refining manual of an extinct race!" ''Taught a little bit of the universal language? Does that include speaking?'' "In that case, can you understand me?" Fasro asked in the universal language and Jason, who understood the Ariyors scheming acted as if he tried to translate everything in his mind before he nodded his head. Jason had already messed up everything, and it was important to cover his mistake without showing that he could perfectly understand and read the universal language. This was important, at least for now! It was interesting to hear that a human had tried to learn the universal language, but not really something surprising. Even the Shiabi clan patriarch was able to speak and understand a little bit of the universal language. It made everything easier after all! As such, Fasro didn''t ask Jason anything else. Instead, he began to think about the information the Ifrytor had revealed. "Yasl?rn caves..where are they? And how could the Ifrytor race bring several hundred thousand of their race? Are they trying to decimate their own army?" It was also possible that their population increased by such a large degree, that losing hundreds of thousand Ifrytor wouldn''t be important anymore. ''Maybe nurturing bloodthirsty elite troupes has become more important for them? It could also be possible that they''re searching for a suitable human as a host of a Creato flame... '' When Fasro thought about that he stared at Jason, who was most likely a candidate to act as the host of a Creato flame. However, only a moment later did he shook his head, thinking that the high-ranked origin flame would simply devour the Creato seed before it would be able to bloom. ''He works hard and carefully. Despite his age and him being a human, he is strong but not arrogant...that''s admirable! Our younger generation should be like him¡­.'' Jason was currently thinking about cultivating one''s life force and how it might be, but, at the same time, a different thought appeared in his mind. ''I wonder how old most Ariyor are when they reach the Lique and Prismar stage!'' Since he had figured out that the universal cultivation system was completely different compared to that mankind used, Jason had begun to compare himself to other races in every possible way. As such, he couldn''t help but feel that he had to ask Fasro as he was alone with him, if one were to ignore the Ifrytor that had fainted. "I don''t know if this question is considered rude, but how old is the average Ariyor when they liquefied their first drop of mana, and the first solidified prismarine crystal? What about prodigies?" It was not really a surprise that Jason asked such a question and it would be weird if he was not curious about the strength of other races. He had to figure out how talented he was in comparison after all! "The average Ariyor enters the Lique stage at the age of 14 and solidifies their first prismarine crystal before the age of 40!" The shock, Fasro expected to see didn''t come true, and Jason was just intently listening, waiting to receive more information. "Our prodigies enter the Lique stage at the age of 8 and solidify their first prismarine crystal before the age of 16!" This astonished Jason a lot, and his eyes widened as he suddenly thought about multiple factors which he listed unintentionally. "Higher race, greater mana density and purity, more and greater resources and better cultivation manuals...I''m not faring as bad as expected" Listing the factors he was or had been lacking, Jason felt much better. If he were to add that he was unable to absorb mana for himself until he was almost 14 years old, the facts Fasro had just listed didn''t seem to be that great. As such he smiled at Fasro as he thanked him properly. ''Who cares if I enter the Prismar stage at the age of 16 or in my 20s? Argos mana will hinder me in absorbing mana, either way!'' Jason''s biggest disadvantage was neither that he had to insert mana into his eyes for several years nor the fact that his bloodline had just awoken. It was also not important that he would require better cultivation techniques in the future, but more the fact that Argos'' mana was too scarce and impure for Jason to absorb properly! His mana absorption had increased and to use this advantage properly, he would have to use up a huge amount of resources, while other races would receive the same amount of mana from their surroundings! Nevertheless, instead of feeling discouraged, Jason was glad that the prodigies of a higher race were already so great. He assumed that Fasro had spoken about the best prodigies their race had, and Jason couldn''t help but become excited. "When will I be able to spar against true prodigies from other races?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 431 - Sibling Pack "When will I be able to spar against real prodigies from other races?" Jason smiled when he said that and Fasro could tell that Jason was sincere. As such he couldn''t help but say "You can meet Midra, the knowledgeable Ariyor I was talking about, later. She and her sister-disciple came together and they''re taught by one of our race''s Elders! You could say that they''re geniuses, but Midra might be a little bit too strong for you. Maybe you can spar with Ysla, she is 10 years old and might be a little bit childish, but her strength should already be above yours! She has liquefied around 150 drops of mana, so you could give it a try because your eyes, the origin flame you possess, and your combat experience might balance your weaker physical strength and mana output!" Jason was a little bit astonished that the Ariyor race brought a ten-year-old Ariyor to a planet with low mana density and purity where a huge war had devastated everything. It seemed a little bit irresponsible, however, on the other side, the young Ariyor might be able to learn lots of important things at a young age too. Nevertheless, Jason was of the opinion that the dangers were too high compared to the gains and he could only stare at Fasro with complex emotions. ''Well, it''s their decision!'' That was Jason''s final thought before he nodded his head as he said with a faint smile "After we report the information the Ifrytor revealed, I would like to meet Midra and Ysla, if possible!" Jason wanted to inquire much more information about other races, the Ariyor race and much more about other themes! He was only missing someone who was knowledgeable enough and could tell him everything he wanted to know. After that was settled, Fasro and Jason returned to the Shiabi clan patriarch, who was already waiting for them impatiently. They explained everything necessary, and when they had finished, the patriarch clenched his fists as he asked once again, "You said...several hundred thousand Ifrytor are in the Yasl?rn caves?..." Jason just nodded his head and his masters that had stayed with the Shiabi patriarch for the last few minutes looked at him with a meaningful gleaming in their eyes. It was not difficult to perceive that he had used up every single trace of mana within his body, and hearing what happened in the short time, they hadn''t been with Jason caused them to frown! He saw this but tried to ignore their glaring eyes and simply showed that he was perfectly fine. After the report was finished, Jason explained to his master quickly what they hadn''t reported to the Shiabi clan patriarch before he left with Fasro. Shane and Dalia looked after him, while Emily had appeared from behind mumbling "Why does this scene seem so sad? As if Jason has become independent!" When Dalia heard this, she couldn''t help but become completely quiet as Shane said "His blacksmithing capabilities exceeded mine, and if I were to be honest, I never taught him much about martial art technique or anything else either...At most I motivated him to work a little bit harder if that was even needed!" Dalia nodded her head when Shane said that as she said "I couldn''t even teach him about beast creators...He is never there to give him lessons either way¡­" Somehow, the situation had turned for the worst and Emily was cursing herself about the deep mental wounds she had inflicted. ''Why am I so stupid...read the situation before saying something so idiotic!'' Jason didn''t notice anything about his masters'' state and if he were to know about their thoughts, he would immediately disagree. He was thankful for everything they had done. His masters gave him the opportunity to become who he was right now, and he likes his current self. As such, there was nothing he could complain about, and if there wouldn''t be a war right now, Jason would be even happier! Only a few minutes passed before Jason landed in the center of the Ariyor race''s camp where he was eyed from all sides. Artemis'' wing which he had used to follow Fasro''s high speed dispersed and he utilized his mana eyes in order to check out how many Ariyor the camp inhabited and how high their average mana core stage was. Most Ariyor seemed to be at the peak Lique or Lowest Prisma stage, which was not surprising after Jason had heard how young most them should be. If Fasro didn''t lie to him, most Ariyor around him should be 50 years old or younger! This was great to know, but also somewhat frightening because his masters had already lived for more than two centuries, yet their strength was almost negligible against those of the Ariyor! Looking around, he senses a few hostile aura''s radiating from a few Ariyor, which surprised him a little bit. It was nothing noteworthy to be glared at or even looked at with hostility, but what astonished Jason was the fact that he could see the hostile aura instead of sensing it! ''Is that some new, or maybe upgraded ability my eyes received after the primal awakening of my bloodline?'' Jason was not sure about that, but it was definitely advantageous because he was able to imprint the mana fluctuations of everyone who released hostility towards him! This was a great feature his mana eyes had received, but Jason felt that it was nothing permanent. He was not sure why, but his gut feeling told him so. As such he thought that it was not a new ability he was supposed to receive yet and an external means should have temporarily unlocked it. ''Has something happened to me during the last few hours?'' Yet, except the fact that he was almost obliterated by an Ifry that had tried to explode his mana core, nothing should have changed. ''It can''t be the compressed drop of life force, right? I wasn''t even in touch with that!'' He had followed Fasro for the whole time and entered a small, high technology advanced looking tent where he could see two Ariyor floating around. The Ariyor with around 150 liquefied drops of mana, Jason assumed to be Ysla, lamented. "Everything here is boring and I can''t even absorb the surrounding mana...it''s way too disgusting with all the impurities within! It might even deteriorate my cultivation foundation¡­." However, the moment Fasro entered the room, the female Ariyor''s mood heightened as she shouted out "Brother, you''re back! Where have you been so long? Shouldn''t the interrogating take a few minutes at most??...Oh? Who''s that?" Jason now began to partially understand why Ysla, the 10-years-old Ariyor, had been following the Ariyor race to the Argos. Fasro, her brother, was probably supposed to train her, or something like that. Yet, after the Ariyor, he assumed to be Midra said "Mother has messaged us and explained what we should do with the Ifrytor and the other common races. If you''ve received important information, report to her first!" ''Mother? Is Argos some sort of family resort?'' Jason was a little bit confused, and Fasro noticed that as he said "I''m sorry Jason. I forgot to tell you that Midra and Ysla are my sisters and the Elder I''ve talked about is our mother, Mlasd!" He just nodded wondering what he should use with the information about Fasro''s mother''s name. In the end, Jason had already expected that Fasro was not someone normal because he was able to speak human tongue fluently, and his knowledge about other races seemed to be vast too! "It''s okay, but I guess you''re one of the prodigies you were talking about earlier too, right?" Jason smiled lightly and Fasro could only say "My sisters are more talented in the ways of cultivation, but my strong characteristics are useful for different tasks!" This made Jason curious, but before he could ask, Ysla who stood next to Fasro mumbled "Why is such a weak human doing here? He just entered the Lique stage!" This caused Jason to blink with his eyes as he averted his attention from Fasro to his little sister as a sly smile appeared on his face "Do you want to see how weak I am?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 432 - Exchange Of Information "Do you want to see how weak I am?" Fasro knew that Jason wanted to spar with someone strong from a foreign race, but at the same time, he knew his little sister the best. As such, he had to intervene before anything could escalate "You''ve just used up your entire mana. Replenish it first and then you two may fight!" This sounded logical and Jason, who was already ready to fight calmed down before he stared at the mana fluctuations radiating from Ysla. ''She doesn''t show any signs of hatred within her mana fluctuation. Was I just seeing things earlier?..Oh, what''s that?'' Jason couldn''t see any emotions intertwined in Ysla''s mana, however, what he could perceive was her fighting spirit. She was eager to fight and have some fun, even if that meant that she had to overwhelm someone with her strength of 150 liquefied drops of mana! According to what Jason had understood, absorbing mana on Argos was not good for the Ariyor race and rather bad. This was interesting. ''Are the impurities within the naturally generated mana the cause for humans to have such a slow advancement process in their mana core? At least it could be possible considering the amount of impurities a mana core absorbs throughout years of absorbing the surrounding mana!'' It was not an unlikely theory he had in mind but it was still interesting to know that humans might have a better mana absorption talent than one would think! With purer mana, humans should be able to increase their mana core rank much faster, and breaking into the Lique stage wouldn''t be too problematic, even for the most common citizens. Nevertheless, pure mana was not something they could acquire, just because they wanted to have it! Argos'' mana was becoming stronger with each day passing, and it would take an eon until the world core''s limitation to increase its naturally generated mana would be reached. After Jason had calmed down from his excitement, he introduced himself to Ysla and Midra before his gaze remained on Midra. "Your brother said that you''re more knowledgeable than he is. Is that correct?" He bluntly asked, not minding the proper etiquette most humans showed other foreign races. In Jason''s opinion, the Ariyor race wouldn''t be on Canir, or protect the Shiabi clan, if they didn''t receive lots of benefits from them. These benefits originated from the fact that the Shiabi clan had a soulbond with a curse cleansing ability and Jason was interested to figure out why exactly this ability was so useful, or even rare, that the Ariyor clan sent out so many young prodigies of their race! Midra looked at her brother for a short moment before nodding her head that was made up from quicksilver. Jason was sure others would feel weird around the Ariyor race, without another human next to them, but that was not the case for him. The only difference they had was their looks, but that didn''t make them less interesting for Jason. His mana eyes detected everything within the Ariyor race and with the information, Fasro had provided him, Jason assumed something. As such, he turned to Fasro as he mumbled "Are you the oldest child of your family?" This might not be important for others, but he wanted to know why Fasro said that Midra was the most knowledgeable Ariyor in their camp! "I am the oldest, but I was taught differently than my sisters. The Ariyor race is similar to mankind in that case! Most male Ariyor are taught martial art techniques, how to wage war, what there is to know about other races, blacksmithing, inscribing runes and magic circles, and so on. Meanwhile, different from the human race where one''s gender doesn''t determine if someone is superior to the other, female Ariyor are superior to the males! Their comprehension is better in most cases, while the same applies to their mana absorption. There are a few more points, but I think you get what I mean!" Fasro said everything in the universal language because he found it easier to talk in that language instead of the human tongue, and Midra looked at her brother weirdly when she heard Jason. "I think I got that, yes" He spoke in perfect universal language without missing a single pronunciation which was exactly what Fasro wanted to show Midra, who was also interested in other races. She had learned many languages, but the human tongue was the most difficult to speak amongst all languages she had studied! As such, she didn''t like to speak in it! But now that she saw Jason, and that he was able to speak in the universal language, her interest increased manifolds! Thus, her little hesitance when Fasro had entered their tent with a human, receded and she began to speak with Jason. Several hours had passed in which Jason got to know much more information. Yet, what he had been unable to ask was information about the Celestia race. He had hoped that their name would fall during his chat with Midra, but that didn''t happen. Nevertheless, he received a vast amount of information and his head was brimming with all kinds of new things he got to know. Apparently, as Jason had assumed, the universal cultivation ranking was not only utilized for someone''s mana core rank, but also to grade weapons, materials, potions, and so on. This was interesting and easy to understand for everyone. Other than that, he got to know more bout the foreign races that had invaded Argos, their current stance within their worlds, their average strength, and much more information. He didn''t really understand the names of the cultivation stages she was talking about because Midra''s excitement caused her to speak extremely fast. In the end, Jason had procured new information, before he was even able to ask something about the previously mentioned facts he had received. Yet, instead of asking Midra about the cultivation stages more in detail, this could wait. He had yet to break into the Prisma stage that was said to be the most arduous and longest step in constructing one''s foundation. Even prodigies of other races are said to require more than 50 years to achieve this step while it would already be an extraordinary achievement to break into the Ascendion stage before the age of 100 years! This was not something higher races could attain easily, and even Grand races would take long to break into the Ascendion stage! However, what were 100 years, if one was able to reach a stage, mankind wouldn''t even reach in the next few millennia! It was already difficult for them to solidify one small prismarine crystal, and they had yet to find out that after solidifying nine prismarine crystals, one had to envelop three small crystals with one rotating large crystal! Jason had already known this because of the Owl-bear he had encountered within the large mana vein several months ago, but that was not the case with mankind, who was oblivious to their insignificance. After several hours had passed his mana core was finally filled with mana, and he had to find a way to distract himself from the information his mind had yet to digest! Thus, he turned towards Ysla, who was extremely bored and not interested in the exchange of information between him and Midra. "I''m ready to fight! Do you want to spar?" His question was simple, but the fighting spirit he suddenly showed had been such a sudden change within Jason, that it astonished Ysla and even Midra, who had wanted to talk or with Jason. She had received lots of information about the human race from Midra and wanted to receive more. However, after thinking about it, she could only think that Jason was probably overflowing with the information he didn''t understand. As such, she held back, as Ysla jumped up. "Finally!! Let''s go!" She didn''t know why, but despite Jason''s low quantity of liquefied drops of mana, Ysla thought that he might not be as weak as she had initially estimated him to be. As such, she wanted to use her whole strength in order to fight Jason, who was thinking of a way to prevent Ysla from overwhelming him with her brute force! ''I have to make use of my combat experience! She is several years younger than I am and doesn''t have any, or not much combat experience!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 433 - Brute Force Vs. Experience Inside the Ariyor race''s camp, there was a huge combat training ground and Jason entered it, next to Fraso and his sisters. Ysla was drawn between being excited and bored thinking that her spar with Jason could either turn into an interesting match or become utter humiliation for the young human. The only thoughts that prevented Ysla to think that it might be the latter were Jason''s confidence, her brother''s words, and the fact that she perceived something about Jason that was not ordinary. The number of liquefied drops or mana within Jason''s mana core shouldn''t be the biggest indicator for his combat prowess! In the end, she could only wait and see, how exactly their spar would turn out. When they had arrived in the area that was used for sparrings, Jason''s arrival attracted some attention. He was the first human that was allowed to enter the combat grounds of the Ariyor race. However, nobody said anything because Jason was with Fasro and the rest. They were the children of one of their race''s Elders and eligible to take someone from a different race with them. Nevertheless, it was uncommon for them to do so, and the present Ariyor had mixed feelings about Jason. He walked around with confidence, but his mana core rank spoke volumes. At least that was what the Ariyor could see and they began to gossip with each other. Jason ignored the gossip around him and halted in his tracks when Fasro told them that they could spar at the open field in front of them. He and Ysla prepared themselves for the spar before they walked away from each other. After they had reached a distance of around 100 meters, both went into their respective combat stance before Fasro started with the countdown. Jason took a deep breath and the moment the spar with Ysla started, he exerted the weightless steps technique at the perfect mastery to accelerate his pace instantly. He charged forward and manifested several icicles which he shot at Ysla, who had already used her affinity to create multiple quicksilver spears. His icicles and the quicksilver spear clashed with each other and as expected, the quicksilver spears shattered the icicles into smitherness before they advanced towards Jason. Yet, instead of halting his steps or evading the quicksilver spears which would slow his speed tremendously, Jason summoned Artemis'' wings on his back which he spread open. His feet left the ground and only one swing with Artemis'' wings was required to avoid the quicksilver spears that brushed past him. A moment later Jason exchanged Artemis, who was inside his mana core, with Solaris before he enveloped his body with its flames. This astonished Ysla a little bit and she was unsure what the wings and black flame were. Both felt extremely weird. Her inexperience was revealed and she panicked a little bit which allowed Jason to approach her closer. He shot several compressed fireballs manifested from Solaris'' affinity that had reached the prowess of 100 drops of liquefied mana towards her At that moment Ysla regained her senses, but instead of trying to perceive what the fireballs were made of, she created another batch of quicksilver spears. After shooting them out they clashed with each other. However, contrary to Ysla''s expectations, her quicksilver spears disintegrated while the compressed fireballs exploded, creating a smokescreen that covered both sides. At that moment, Jason concealed his mana core completely while perceiving everything through his mana eyes. Meanwhile, Ysla couldn''t see anything and the mana fluctuations she released were barely enough to perceive Jason''s rough position. Unfortunately, it had already been too late and Jason emerged out of the smokescreen with several more compressed fireballs that flew towards Ysla. From the previous clash, she knew that Jason''s fire ability was weird but powerful. It could weaken her quicksilver spears'' strength by a large margin, and both the quicksilver spears and fireballs turned into equally strong forces. As such she had to retort to a different tactic, which led her to erect a huge quicksilver wall between the two of them At that moment, Jason''s mana eyes perceived tiny fluctuations within the quicksilver wall and a quarter of a second later, Byakur manifested in his hand as he trusted it out. Byakur, who was a part of him, was instantly enveloped with a thin, compressed layer of Solaris'' black flame. It pierced through the quicksilver wall, right through the unstable fluctuations, severing them. This led to a chain reaction caused by Solaris'' mana nullification and the whole quicksilver wall collapsed. Jason, who had already seen this coming, jumped through the collapsing quicksilver wall as he activated his mana eyes'' abyssal effect and the petrification curse which he intertwined with his killing-intent that leaked from his eyes. He was fully aware that he was not allowed Ysla to regain her composure for a single moment. His combat awareness and experience were much higher than hers, but the simple quicksilver spears she had created easily, were strong enough to destroy Jason''s strongest attacks. The compressed fireballs he could manifest were his strongest attack, simply because Solaris had become the strongest out of his soulbonds. Adding the fact that he did not receive the soul amplification of a single soulbond, he was bound to be weaker than Ysla. This was frustrating because he was confident to defeat her if he were only a little bit stronger. Nevertheless, his overlapping attack through his mana eyes showed a slight effect, which allowed him to gain the upper hand. Combat experience and one''s perception were significant factors to decide over victory or defeat. However, Ysla, whose body stiffened when Jason''s eyes seemed to be about to devour her entire being, unleashed every ounce of strength, astonishing Fraso, and Midra, who perceived this. "She is forced to use her whole strength?" Midra mumbled, not sure what was going on with her little sister as Jason manifested several dozen compressed, black fireballs around him. Thanks to Solaris residing within his mana core and the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique, he was able to summon a large number of compressed fireballs in succession. His mana consumption was not too high either and it didn''t take long before more than one hundred fireballs had already crashed into Ysla, burning through the mana she had released. There was no way for Jason to approach Ysla because the mana overwhelmed his! This would turn into a huge disadvantage for him. As such, he had to use Solaris'' flame, until the stored mana would have been used up. At the same time, Ysla, who felt threatened for the first time in her life, couldn''t help as she used every trick she had up to her sleeves. Thus, she used a secret technique that merged her body with her affinity for a short moment as a huge quicksilver beam shot out of her abdomen area. Jason, whose mana eyes had already perceived that something was wrong, tried to evade the high-velocity quicksilver beam that was much stronger than someone with 150 liquefied drops of mana should be able to generate. Despite that, he knew that he would be too slow, and Jason could tell that death was approaching him at a rapid pace. As such he was about to unseal his soul amplification curse in order to survive as Fasro had already appeared in front of him. He lifted his liquefied hand and blocked the huge quicksilver beam that was about to obliterate Jason as he said "Good Job humans! You''ve forced my sister to use her whole strength. Not bad!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 434 - Secret Technique Jason knew that he had only survived Ysla''s attack because Fasro had protected him. As such he thanked him properly before he stared at Ysla. Midra had appeared next to her and it looked like Ysla was going to be lectured. "I know that you want to win, but this was a friendly spar against someone with FOUR liquefied drops of mana!! How did you even think about using our secret technique?? Do you know that not even someone at the same rank would survive this? I''ll have to report this to my mother, otherwise, we won''t know when you will act impulsively again!!" Jason heard everything and couldn''t help but smile drily. He had already felt that he wouldn''t be able to survive the compressed quicksilver beam attack, but hearing the same from Midra felt weird. ''Secret technique....'' It was interesting to figure out that something like secret techniques existed and from what Jason had sensed, Ysla''s attack was comparable to an attack from someone between 200 and 250 liquefied drops of mana! This means that the secret technique unleashed a single attack that was 1/3 stronger than her normal capabilities were! Jason was not sure where this extra power came from, but after starting at Ysla with his mana eyes he was able to guess something. ''Is it Life force again?'' From the looks of it, Ysla''s mana core that was enveloped by quicksilver had lost some of its luster, and Jason began to wonder if that had something to do with life force. He knew that a mana core would lose its luster once one was severely injured, the mana core itself had been damaged, or one was dead! Thus, there was something new Jason had to figure out. ''Is the main purpose of secret technique to exceed one''s limitations and create one, lethal attack? Maybe the latter part is only about Ysla''s secret technique, but the former should be the case for most secret techniques!'' From the talk he had with Midra, Jason knew that there were more techniques than he had initially expected. Even the types of grades were many more than he had expected. It was obvious that the Terra grade was the bottom line for most techniques. However, they were not divided into three segments as he had expected. Rather, they were five namely, Basic-Intermediate-Advanced-Peak-Superior. As if that was not enough, these Terra grade techniques were mainly utilized by common and some higher races, while there were also two more grades for technique, Midra was aware of. The next highest grade for certain cultivation and martial art technique was the Heaven grade, followed by the Luna grade. However, even the Ariyor race, one of the higher races, had yet to procure a Basic Luna grade technique!! Most races were of the opinion that Terra-grade techniques said that one was a common race, while Heaven-grade techniques would make a race into a higher race! Jason didn''t care about any of that because he had yet to procure something better than a Terra-Intermediate technique. His body refinement state was not great, but it was better than nothing! Nevertheless, Jason thought that it would take some time before he would be able to acquire a better technique that was suitable for himself. Furthermore, the Netherworld''s fort technique was the best he could use right now because it lessened his mana consumption and increased his control over the black affinity, Solaris had inherited to him! This was very advantageous, and Jason, who was still standing behind Fasro, didn''t even notice that he was eyed oddly. The surrounding Ariyor wanted to see how Ysla, who was deemed as a little prodigy, would overwhelm Jason. Yet, everything they could see made them believe that Jason was at the upper hand and that Ysla had to resort to her last, final trump card in order to turn the tables! She had only won because of her secret technique, and everyone was aware of this. As such, Jason, who was deemed as someone weak because of his four drops of liquefied mana, turned into one of the most talented humans they had seen until now! After the spar was concluded, Fasro had brought Jason back to the Shiabi clan headquarters because Ysla''s mood had worsened. It had been long since she had been lectured by her sister and according to her, Jason was at fault for everything! Knowing that Ysla was only 10 years old, Jason didn''t hold a grudge, and instead, he said that he would go return to his masters. Fasro nodded his head, saying that this would probably be the best they could do for now before he accompanied Jason. There was no reason to do so, but Fasro was curious about Jason''s hidden trumps. He was also quite proficient in fighting as his combat awareness and quick thinking were great. His mana absorption rate should be fast too, at least if his senses didn''t perceive Jason''s earlier state wrong. After Jason had used up his stored amount of mana in order to survive the Ifry''s suicidal attack, his entire being seemed to have screamed for more mana. From the looks of it, Jason was proficient in passively absorbing mana, and the only issue he had was the amount of mana in his surroundings. Fasro could see the exact same right now. Jason''s surroundings were void of mana because he had already absorbed everything. ''If he actively absorbs mana, he would need many Lique grade mana stones...I wonder how high the limits of his absorption rate are!'' With that in mind and the words he recalled having said to Jason about their prodigies cultivation stage according to their age, Fasro couldn''t help but ask "I''m curious...how many drops of liquefied mana can you create in one month? That is if you have enough mana in the surroundings and enter a fully concentrated state? I know you won''t be able to tell me the exact number, but what is your assumption?" Jason didn''t expect to hear such a question and he had to think about it for some time. ''How should I know that...with the stigma fully utilized...It should be much higher than actively doing so, but I can''t even actively absorb mana because the mana in my surroundings is way too low for the needs I have¡­'' He was unable to figure out the stigma''s limitations because the surrounding mana is not dense and pure enough. As such, he could only say what he had already figured out, which was the assumption without utilizing the stigma! "In a fully concentrated state, with enough mana, I should be able to create around 10 drops of mana...I think?" This was fewer than Fasro expected, but if he knew that Jason was not talking about common drops of mana, but his unique liquefied drops of mana that required three times more mana than common ones. Furthermore, Jason was still adjusting to the liquefication process! After Fasro had asked this question, they became silent again. When they had arrived above the Shiabi clan headquarters, Fasro bid farewell before he had returned. Jason dived down to the headquarters, without attracting too much attention, and it didn''t take long before he found his masters. This was thanks to his mana eyes. Once he said his masters the most important information Midra had told him, Jason began to look out for Yune and the others. They had told him about their plan to scout for other humans that were strong enough to fight against the foreign races. Gathering those would increase their combat strength by a large margin, and it might even help to create a small protected zone on Canir. This zone would be the Shandra country and Yune, Milan and Isga felt that it was necessary to start somewhere before expanding when the time had come. His three friends had yet to hear the news about the number of Ifrytor that was somewhere nearby, but Jason was about to do that. After that, he doubted that Yune and the others would continue with their plan because it would be more important to take care of the Ifrytor. Jason was confident in his own combat strength, but once there was a large number of opponents with more than 100 drops of liquefied mana, he would become incapable of fighting all at once! This was not the case with a high number of Ifrytor with less than 100 drops of liquefied mana, because their fire''s ability would be nullified, or even absorbed from Solaris! As such, he might as well be labeled as invincible if he were to fight against those Ifrytor! However, when he had found Yune and the others, he couldn''t help but gulp. "What the hell happened with you guys? You didn''t bathe in blood...right?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 435 - Plan? Yune, Milan, and Isga were littered in blood and shallow cuts that had almost been healed. Meanwhile, Arya looked like she was drained of all her energy, which told Jason that she had to use her healing affinity quite often. He was not sure what exactly her affinity could do, but he had already seen a similar affinity to hers. This was the healing affinity he was talking about, and by looking at the shallow cuts on his friends, his assumption should have been correct. "We...just fought a little bit against someone at the Grandmagus rank...if I can even call it like that..." Yune said slightly hesitating as he looked into Jason''s eyes. Since he and the others had figured out that Jason was able to fight head-on against an Ifrytor that had liquefied 100 drops of mana, their confidence as prodigies from big clans had been shattered. This was only obvious and Jason would have felt exactly the same if he were to be in his friends'' situations. His advancement had just been too fast, which was all thanks to the fact that he had undergone the first primal awakening of his Celestia bloodline! If he were to tell them that his soul amplification was currently nullified and that he was able to unseal this nullified state to receive a soul amplification of around 40%, they would probably try to beat him up. As such, Jason simply smiled when he saw their gazes before he said "Let''s go somewhere quiet, I''ve to tell you a little information about the Ifrytor race!" Thus, 15 minutes had passed and Jason finished his short report after they had found a quiet place. Everyone felt uncomfortable with the sheer quantity of information about the Ifrytor race that seemed to be hiding in the Yasl?rn caves, and Yune couldn''t help but ask. "If their number is already that much, what are they even waiting for? The Yasl?rn caves are barely behind Shandra country''s borders and I doubt that they''re too weak to overwhelm the whole country! Even the Ariyor should have problems in facing so many Ifrytor at once...That is if the Ifrytor race has brought some of their stronger individuals!" Isga, Milan, and Arya nodded their heads, while Jason couldn''t help but smile when he heard ''stronger individuals''. Even for a common race, the Prismar stage shouldn''t be too difficult to reach and Jason assumed that the Ifrytor race''s Prismar stages were either average Ifrytor within their 100s or younger prodigies below that age! Nevertheless, Yune''s question was not without reason. Jason had yet to find out the reason for the Ifrytor race to hide within the Yasl?rn caves instead of attacking the Shandra country directly. They could either be waiting for more reinforcement, for the best timing to attack, or to ambush other foreign races once they wanted to attack the Shandra country. In the end, all possibilities were open and it was just a matter of time until they would be able to figure out the truth. After Yune had asked this question, everyone became silent before they had begun to plan something to ease the Shiabi clan''s current situation. Several hours had passed and a new day had begun when they finished constructing their plan. "Should we really propose this plan to the Shaibi clan and your masters, Jason?" Everyone was uncertain, and even Jason was not sure if their plan was suicidal or clever. There were multiple plans they had thought about, but the one they wanted to propose to the Shiabi clan patriarch and his masters, or more likely Shane, was the simplest, yet also most efficient. It was easy and not difficult to understand. Jason and the others wanted to use Shane''s and others'' spatial affinity to jump to the border of different countries which they wanted to enter with small groups. After entering those countries that were the most likely to have strong families and clans that resisted to the foreign races'' schemings, they wanted to convince them to gather in the Shandra country. From then on, they wanted to create a large army to fight against the hostile foreign races, while trying to save as many innocent citizens and clans as possible! There were several big clans that had been completely submitted to foreign races and this was something Yune and the others wanted to resolve too! Jason was not sure if that was even possible, considering that it was highly likely that the foreign races forced the highest authorities of those clans to sign certain soul contracts, but he just agreed to it. Their plan was worth a try, but at the same time, it was extremely dangerous for those teams that were to invade the other countries! Not only would they have to pay attention to the surrounding foreign races, but even the stronger clans and families they wanted to save, might betray them! As such, it was more likely that the Shiabi clan patriarch and even Shane rejected their plan. However, before they were even able to present their plans, everyone received several notifications on their quantum bracelet, which led Jason to look at the other''s holographic screen that appeared in front of them. Jason had destroyed his quantum bracelet when they left Terebrean and now he had to lean in towards Arya, who sat next to him, to see something. Arya felt weird when she sensed that, but upon noticing that Jason didn''t have a quantum bracelet around his wrists, she calmed down as she moved the holographic screen a little bit. [Strong mana fluctuations have been perceived near the border between the Shandra country and the Drake kingdom! Everyone unable to fight against foreign races, please evacuate, to the rest, please gather in front of the headquarters. It''s highly likely that a large-scale battle will occur!] When Jason read this, he mumbled "The border to the Drake Kingdom?...The Shandra country is next to the Drake kingdom??? What kind of bad luck is that??" ''I doubt the Drake family patriarch wants to come over¡­.I guess. He shouldn''t know about the fact that I or Shane are here too!'' Jason felt uncomfortable with everything that had even remotely to do with the Drake family, clan, and patriarch! He had yet to find out what happened to Greg, Malia, and the Fler parents, and how they were doing. His gut feeling told him that they were still alive, but Jason was also aware of the fact that Greg should have been forced into a soul contract with the whole Drake family. The same might have happened with Malia, and the only thing that Jason could hope for right now was that neither of them would belong to those ''strong mana fluctuations'' the notification informed them. As such, Jason hurried up and rushed to the location they should gather. If he were to encounter Greg or Malia, which was unlikely, yet possible, he might be able to defeat them, without killing either of them. This was not the best solution, but the only one Jason could think of. What else should he do? Abduct Greg and Malia, which might result in them being forced to kill themselves, as it might be demanded in one of the many harsh clauses the soul contract they''ve signed might state? He obviously didn''t want them to die and it would be better to search for the best solution instead of doing something that might endanger them. Nevertheless, Jason thought that the possibility of encountering Greg and Malia was small. Rather than encountering them, there should be something different that approached them from the Drake kingdom''s border. However, the moment Jason had appeared at the meeting point he heard that another notification had arrived. "There are lots of strong mana fluctuations coming from the Yasl?rn caves too!! Are the Ifrytor race also attacking us??" "Oh shit!" Jason mumbled subconsciously as he noticed that the Ariyor arrived. They dived down and Fasro, Midra, and Ysla approached him as Fasro explained to Jason the situation they''ve to face! "The Ifrytor attacked with a small number of several thousand soldiers, nothing more! Meanwhile, the My?ldra race, which colludes with the Drake family, according to the Shiabi clan''s patriarch, seems to take the Shandra country more seriously. Their number, in addition to the humans next to them, is more than 40,000!" Jason just nodded his head, not sure what Fasro expected him to say as he got an idea "What is the average strength of both sides?" Fasro wanted to hear a different question, but what Jason asked was fine too. As such he answered "The Ifrytor has only utilized a few Prismar stages, while most of the Lique stages have around 100 drops of liquefied mana within them! Meanwhile, not a single individual within the My?ldra''s army has that kind of strength. The weakest should have around 150 drops of liquefied mana inside their mana core with the vast majority being stronger!" Even though that was bad news, Jason was glad that the Drake clan''s army had only individuals above the Low Lique stage! This meant Greg and Malia were definitely not among them!! As such he sighed in relief before he said confidently "I can take care of every single Ifrytor below a mana core filled with 100 drops of liquefied mana! As long as I don''t have to face other, stronger Ifrytor, I''ll be good to go!" Fasro noticed how confident Jason was as he said "Alright, I''ll tell the Shaibi clan patriarch that a few Ariyor and you will be enough to take care of the Ifrytor''s army!" "Huh?!..." Jason eyed Fasro weirdly as his eyes widened ''Was that what I said?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 436 - Suicide Squad Jason was not sure if he had heard Fasro right, but when he saw how he approached the Shaibi clan patriarch, Jason couldn''t help but think that this was a bad joke. He followed Fasro and tried to eavesdrop, which caused his mood to plummet. "We need to focus on the My?ldra race''s army. They''re another higher race and among the stronger ones at that! The Ifrytor''s army doesn''t have anyone at and above the Mana core rank with six solidified prismarine crystals! I, five more of Ariyors, and Jason will take care of the Ifrytor army. Once we''re done, I''ll bring the other Ariyors as reinforcement. Until then, Midra will take the lead of the Ariyor group. Please consult her about the My?ldra race''s army. Our small suicide squad will have to go now!" Fasro sounded like he was ordering the Shiabi clan patriarch, which was exactly what was going on! Jason noticed this and could only bit his lower lips before he rushed forward as he said "If you guys let me die against an Ifrytor with more than 100 drops of liquefied drops of mana, I''ll curse all of you!!" He was not sure how strong the My?ldra race was, but considering that Fasro was reluctant to employ himself, Jason and only five more Ariyor to the Ifrytor race''s army made his stance clear. The Ifrytor race is a joke against the My?ldra race! Even though Jason felt overwhelmed, he understood the importance of employing as many troops as possible against the My?ldra race! ''A strong higher ranked race¡­'' It was a bad sign to hear that the Drake family was backed up from a strong higher ranked race, but worse was that Jason was not even sure if there was another stronger higher ranked race or not! Even if there was, would that be a good sign or bad? He was unsure about that and Jason was only glad that someone at the Ascension stage was unable to enter Argos easily. This was the only good news he had heard from Midra after he had asked her about it. Apparently, the world bridges, as the rifts were called, were still in an unstable state and wouldn''t allow anyone at a higher stage than the Low Prismar Stage to enter Argos! That was at least for now and Midra had also explained that it was highly likely that some world bridges might be different. Mankind had already reported about abyssal ranked rifts, and the knowledge about what kind of beasts emerged out of those world bridges proved that stronger races might emerge on Argos, in the near future at that! It didn''t even have to be in the future and the only requirement for a stronger race to emerge on Argos was a stable world bridge! This didn''t sound great and Jason was already glad that grand races didn''t seem to care about their race! Other than that, there was also the possibility that they couldn''t enter Argos without risking their youngest offsprings'' lives. If they were even faster at absorbing mana than higher races which was evident, their average Prismar stages were less than 40 years old, while prodigies would be around Ysla''s age. Without combat experience, even their high mana core rank wouldn''t bring any benefits and there might even be many offsprings of grand races that would die needlessly. Jason found that the risks did not outweigh the benefits and he could only hope that his assumption was correct. Nevertheless, even the common and higher ranked races that had already appeared on Argos were more than enough to cause a huge headache. Fasro didn''t say anything to Jason''s words, but the Shaibi clan patriarch could only look at him. At the same time, Shane and Dalia had appeared next to Jason as Shane said "You won''t die against those Ifrytor, alright?" With these simple words being said he turned towards Fasro "We''ll join the fight against the M?yldra race''s army. Don''t let Jason die. He''s very important to mankind!" "I can see that. We''ll take care of him!" Fasro''s words were simple but the weight they carried was huge and Shane could only smile lightly, thinking that the Ariyor in front of him was sincere. What Myrl Shiabi, the patriarch, who could only look between Shane and Fasro, heard confused him and he was unsure what to say ''Important to mankind? Isn''t he exaggerating a little bit because Jason is his disciple?'' It looked like Myrl was still unaware of Shane''s real identity, which was something that wondered about both Shane and Dalia. They had spent lots of years in their young time together, and Shane looked exactly like his younger self! There might be little adjustment in his facial features, caused by Dalia''s silver origin flame, but other than that, Shane looked the same! If they knew that Myrl knew that Shane had appeared in front of him since the beginning, both Shane and Dalia would have felt embarrassed to even doubt their friends'' sincerity. Myrl knew about Shane and Dalia, but he was also aware that speaking to them like old friends might attract unwanted attention. Right now, their identity might be deemed as unimportant, but all of them knew that there were still many problems revolving around Shane. He might be unaware of most facts, but Shane should have already noticed that something was off. ''If I had only stopped your massacre of the entire Shore clan, the other big clans'' prodigies wouldn''t have killed either¡­.You know that you''re a victim of his schemings too!!'' Nobody knew of the Shaibi clan patriarch''s thoughts and there was no time for him to think too much about Shane either. His country had to face the attacks of two foreign races at the same time! After Shane and Dalia had appeared in front of him, Jason talked to them for a minute before he rushed after Fasro, who had already left him to gather the remaining Ariyor that would accompany them. Fasro knew that fighting an entire army of several thousand Ifrytor might be too much for six Ariyor and a human to face. Yet, taking one or two more Ariyor with him wouldn''t make a large difference for the Ifrytor army. Rather than that, it would weaken their combat prowess against the My?ldra race''s army that had around 40,000 individuals. Every single Ariyor was required on that side, to prevent as many casualties as possible. Fasro was also unsure what exactly the Ifrytor race was trying to achieve by sending a small part of their entire army that consisted of several hundred thousand Ifrytor and Ifry but there was something wrong about it! This doubt increase further after he received the intel that the Ifrytor race''s small army of several thousand Ifrytor and Ifry had on average around 100 liquefied drops of mana within their mana core! ''It''s probably a distraction from something...but why are they retorting to such a petty trick? Or do they think that we don''t know about their huge army? Is their plan to show how ''weak'' they''re, only to reveal their whole strength as a means to surprise us?'' Despite sounding ridiculous, and suicidal, Fasro''s assumption was correct. Nobody would have expected that one of their own race would betray the Ifrytor, let alone to someone with four liquefied drops of mana within his mana core! Jason''s mana eyes, combined with utilizing every means to intimidate his foe were too frightening, and Jason had already demonstrated this often enough. However, even he had been astonished how efficient his mana eyes, in combination with killing intent, the abyssal ability, and the petrification curse were! It was the perfect combination and nobody was able to deny this. Once everything was concluded, Fasro, the five Ariyor he had selected, and Jason departed without wasting any more time. Jason had summoned Artemis'' wings and the others were able to fly through the air. As such, their speed was much faster than the Ifrytor that had to remain at the ground due to their inability to fly at a high altitude with their cultivation stage! Only seven hours had passed when Jason and the six Ariyor saw several thousand red dots far in the distance as Fasro said "We''ll prepare our ambush, just stay guarded and take care of the Lowest Lique stage Ifrytor and Ifry! You don''t have to pay attention to the rest! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 437 - Gates Of Hell Less than ten minutes later, Jason stood in front of several thousand Ifrytors and Ifrys that stared at him as if he was insane. Jason assumed that they wondered whether he was going to attempt suicide or if he was playing around. However, before Jason, the Ifrytor or Ifry were able to do anything, a huge magic circle began to manifest around them on the ground. It was silver in color and Jason immediately knew that it was the Ariyor''s quicksilver affinity. At the same time, the humongous-sized magic circle was manifesting, the Ifrytor and Ifry began to notice that something was wrong. Yet, before they could react silver, quicksilver spikes shot out of the suddenly manifested magic circle. There were several thousand of them and Jason was utterly dumbfounded because he was also standing inside the quicksilver magic circle!! Fortunately, the quicksilver spears that shot out of the magic circle didn''t seem to target him, instead, they focused on the most powerful Ifrytors and Ifrys. Every single Ifrytor at the Prismar stage had been pierced by several hundred quicksilver spears in a matter of seconds, while the remaining quicksilver spears shot towards the Ifrytor and Ifry at the late and mid Lique stage! When Jason saw this, he began to wonder whether he was even required, or if the six Ariyor were able to take care of everything by themselves. However, when his mana eyes perceived the Ariyor, that hid in the thicket of the surrounding trees and bushes, Jason knew that this question was needless. ''Rather than them being able to do everything by themselves, they''ve not only exhausted their complete mana core but also used up... some of their life force, I think?'' Jason could tell from their dimmed mana core, that the Ariyors had used up some of their life force. At least he assumed that to be the case. This caused him to wonder whether life force was replenishable or not. By the looks of it, this should be possible because the Ariyor race seemed to like using their life force during a fight. Jason was not exactly sure what the quicksilver magic circle in front of him was, but he began to think that it was another secret technique. This secret technique seemed to use up the user''s mana and life force in order to create a magic circle that attacks the most powerful opponents one after another. If they were a few more Ariyor with them, Jason was confident that his presence would be useless. Only then did he recall Fasro''s words about that they required every single Ariyor while fighting against the My?ldra race''s army. ''Is that why he wanted to take me to the Ifrytor race''s battlefield?'' Jason had been unsure why Fasro took him to the Ifrytor battlefield, but everything seemed to make sense now! There were still several thousand Ifrytor left, but not a single Prismar stage nor Ifrytors and Ifrys with more than 150 drops of liquefied mana! [I''m sorry, we couldn''t take care of more¡­.there were a few unruly Ifrytor that required more mana than I estimated¡­] Jason was not sure how, but he heard Fasro''s voice in his head. Unfortunately, he was unable to think about how the voice transmission with Fasro had worked. There were several thousand Ifrytor and Ifry he had to take care of, after all!! He retraced Artemis'' wings while he was still in mid-air and allowed Solaris, who was already screaming out in greed, to enter his mana core. The Creato flames that had been released by the thousand corpses of Ifrytor and Ifry that were at a higher mana core stage than Jason attracted Solaris'' full attention. Jason sensed and felt this which led him to allow Solaris to enter his mana core while he was still in mid-air. Just like that, huge black flames sprouted out of his back, and a faint smile emerged on Jason''s face as he noticed that his experiment seemed to have worked out. While the amount of soul energy Solaris possessed increased, its flame''s capabilities increased too. As such, Solaris learned how its flames had to be formed and adjusted in order to replicate Artemis'' wings. The black origin flame was hard working and tried the same with several more body parts of Jason''s other soulbonds. Only Artemis'' wings worked for now, but that was more than Jason had expected. With black burning flames sprouting out of his back, Jason''s appearance began to turn into that of a ferocious beast that had crawled out of hell itself. He began to descend to the ground at a slow pace, and at the same time, Jason''s whole body was slowly being enveloped by compressed black flames. Only his eyes and the palms of his hands were void of flames until Byakur appeared in one hand. Jason''s soul weapon was enveloped by Solaris'' black flames in an instant. However, the moment both Solaris and Jason activated their stigma that began to shine brightly within a moment, Jason''s appearance began to change once again. He lifted his free hand and released more than a thousand, fingertip-sized black flames that floated towards the Ifrytor and Ifry corpses where they began to absorb the Creator flame. However, nobody could care less about that right now. Every single pair of eyes was trained on Jason, who was still descending to the ground. His manner was relaxed and he released an eerie tranquility as if what happened next had nothing to do with him. Jason himself was not even sure what was going on, but he felt that his connection with Solaris had deepened to a frightening degree. Before, they had already felt extremely close, but right now it was as if he and Solaris turned into one entity! At the same time, Jason could sense that there was something in a deep slumber within Solaris'' deepest parts!! Fasro and the five Ariyor who saw Jason from further away were unable to control their silver liquefied body that began to vibrate as Fasro mumbled. "How...can he look like the Princes of Hell?" If the Ifrytor and Ifry that had survived the onslaught of several tens of thousand quicksilver swords had not been scared already, this would have changed now at the latest. Jason''s mana consumption was lower than he had estimated, and from the experience, he had already gained by fighting against the Ifrytor and Ifry, Jason knew that Solaris could sustain itself without the need to rely on him. That was if it could absorb a few Creato flames. As such, Jason didn''t want to waste much more time. Nevertheless, this didn''t hinder him in increasing the supply of mana he gave Solaris, who seemed to try to do something. While supplying Solaris with more mana, Jason didn''t even realize, that the translucent frames of a gigantic gate could be seen from behind him. They were enveloped in Solaris'' black flames, however, weirdly enough, the gate''s interior was completely empty. Yet, everyone who saw the outlines of the gates couldn''t help feel that their life was on the line. "What kind of origin flame¡­..is that???" Fasro mumbled while forcing himself to stop retreating. The Ifrytor and Ifry that stood in front of him were frozen on their spot and unable to move at the sight of the gate that manifested in front of them. It released an eerie aura and only when the gate had begun to dissipate, was anyone able to breathe again. Jason sensed that Solaris'' strength was increasing with every second passing as the black flames it had split up began to absorb the deceased''s Creato flames! It received only a few percent from them directly, while the rest would be supplied after the merging process with the tiny flames. However, both Jason and Solaris could tell that the absorbed Creato flames would make a huge impact on the origin flame''s future strength and abilities. This was something they had expected, but the final outcome was grander than either of them could have ever thought about. The entire surrounding was filled with black flames that flickered vibrantly, turning the proximity into a piece of land that had turned into hell itself! Jason took a deep breath before he took the first step as the Solaris'' wings flapped once, pushing him towards the first batch of scared Ifrytor and Ifry''s! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 438 - God Of Slaughter In an instant, Jason had already emerged in front of the closest Ifrytor and before it could even react, Byakur had already been sliced past it. Blood and organs spilled out of the large wound Jason had instilled, but he didn''t even look if the Ifrytor was about to die when he had already rushed past the Ifrytor. Only a fingertip-sized black flame left Jason''s body as it floated towards the Ifrytor''s severe cut that would kill it in the next few seconds. Everyone thought that Jason was already using his whole strength, when he suddenly began to exert the weightless steps technique, increasing his already fast pace by 60%. As his speed increased he had to increase the speed at which he was wielding Baykur too. Just like that, a few seconds had passed before the first few Ifrytor had already died at his hand. The path behind him was littered with corpses and each corpse had a small black flame lingering on them, devouring the Creato flame that would dissipate soon. Only after a few seconds had passed and the first dozen Ifrytor been killed, did they realize that their life was on the line! Utilizing the Creato flame, the Ifrytor and Ifry started to attack Jason with all kinds of attacks. Whether it were fire whips, balls, spears, or even firewalls trying to hinder him in his advance, every means was utilized to attack and defend against Jason''s advancement. However, when he saw this, Jason could only smile slyly. He didn''t even defend against the attacks that shot towards him, instead, he accepted them unconditionally. Only a few attacks were strong enough to pierce through the compressed, tightly laid-on armor made up of Solaris'' black flames. They nullified every attack below the strength comparable to 100 liquefied drops of mana and even absorbed some of the mana from within As such, Jason''s mana began to replenish instead of decreasing which lowered the already bad morale of the Ifrytor and Ifry! Yet, Jason couldn''t care less, and the only problematic enemies he could perceive were the several dozen Ifrytor with around 150 drops of liquefied mana within their mana core. The only thing he could do against them was to utilize his advantage of fighting alone against several thousand enemies. If they couldn''t see or attack him without killing their own brethren, Jason doubted that they would attack him. Even if they would, despite his utmost efforts to merge into a large group of Ifrytor and Ifry, Jason was sure that he would still survive, In the worst-case scenario, he was still able to unseal the race individual weakening curse that nullified his high soul amplification! As such, the state he was currently in, couldn''t be called his peak and Jason was fully aware of this fact! Less than three minutes had passed, when Shane had already massacred over 100 Ifrytor and Ifry. At that time, the Ifry and Ifrytor noticed that they were unable to win against Jason if nothing were to change. They felt that his mana fluctuations and everything else about Jason were still as powerful as it had been three minutes ago, and it was unsure how high Jason''s stamina was. Maybe he was able to fight light this for several hours? The Ifrytor and Ifry didn''t know. Furthermore, there should be a combat unit from the Ariyor race nearby. Otherwise, the quicksilver magic circle from the beginning couldn''t have manifested and utilized to kill the strongest Ifrytor and Ifry that were present. They had to change something!! It was not long after this thought emerged within the Ifrytor''s mind and the best decision they could think of was brutal but the most efficient way to get rid of Jason! Overclocking the Creato flame with their own and the Ascron race''s lifeforce that was stored within every single Ifry to nurture the Creato flame! Not even five minutes had passed since the fight had started, when Jason began to notice that the Ifrytor and Ifry retreated as far as possible. At the same time, he could tell that Solaris wanted to advance further, increase its strength and become an unparalleled existence. However, that was easier said than done because Jason was unable to give Solaris'' every single vacant soul energy he had within his body. His other soulbonds required some of it too! As such, instead of allowing Solaris to increase its soul energy and become stronger without a qualitative increment, Jason told it to start creating the life force absorption ability! This was important because his mana eyes perceived that there was a compressed, blood-red drop of lifeforce within every single Ifry! The drop of compressed lifeforce belonged to the Ascron race and Jason was already aware of the lethality of this life force drop combined with the Creato flame. Solaris had to create the life force absorption ability too, otherwise, he doubted that he would come out victorious from this huge battlefield he was in! Jason was aware of the fact that the Ifry could detonate themselves whenever they wanted, and it was already fortunate the not a single Ifrytor seemed to have the Ascron race''s life force within their body! It would be the worst if several thousand opponents in whose center he stood, would think that he was too much of a threat. This might even lead everyone to sacrifice their life to kill Jason. Fortunately, this couldn''t happen and Jason felt even calmer than he had been in the beginning. He slashed, sliced, and thrust out with Byakur that felt like an extension of his arm. At the same time, more and more fingertip-sized black flames littered the whole battlefield. They began to nurture themselves, and the moment they had completed their task, they began to return to Jason, or rather Solaris! It was unknown how much time had passed, but the whole battlefield had become spooky and an eerie atmosphere permeated the air! Jason was still using his whole strength, without a minute decrease in his combat prowess as he killed one Ifrytor and Ifry after another. He had lost count in how many lives he had reaped, but from the sheer number of black flames that floated towards him and Solaris, Jason could tell that it was not a small number! Even if Jason''s mind was calm, it was the second time he killed former humans and individuals from a different race. If someone else were to know this, they would question how he was able to stay so calm, but Jason''s whole mind was tranquil. Nothing interrupted his train of thoughts and the only thing on his mind was Solaris'' advancement. In the end, he had created the Life force absorption ability faster than previously assumed. However, this originated from the fact that Solaris had been able to devour more powerful Creato flames than before! The deceased Prismar-, Late and Mid Lique stage Ifrytor and Ifry had more powerful Creato flames than the Low and Lowest Lique stage opponents Jason was currently facing. Nevertheless, Solaris devoured everything in its way, which allowed it to duplicate the Life force absorption ability. Jason was not sure how exactly it worked, but he could tell that it would be helpful to survive the fight that had been ongoing for quite some time. Suddenly, his mana eyes perceived something, he had already expected to happen quite some time. Unfortunately, they had been too slow and reluctant to do that before, and their only opportunity had elapsed! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 439 - Annihilation Jason''s mana eyes perceived that every Ifry in his surroundings drew the compressed liquefied drop of lifeforce towards their mana core. However, instead of panicking when he saw this, Jason rushed towards the closest Ifry that was about to pounce at him, trying to hold him down. The Ifry''s strength was high, but it was not strong enough to keep hold of Jason, who had already pierced out with Byakur. Yet, instead of distancing himself from the Ifry that was about to explode, Jason twisted Baykur within the Ifry''s body before he pulled it out. At the same time, his empty hand shot inside the deep wound he had instilled right next to the Ifry''s mana core. When his hand that was completely enveloped in Solari''s black flame entered the Ifry''s body he immediately grasped its mana core before tearing it out. At the same time, he activated Solari''s new life force absorption ability while telling it to devour the Creato flame at once. Jason had already done a similar tactic before, while an Ifry tried to sacrifice its own life to take him with it! However, right now, he was much cruder and showing off his capabilities because he wanted the Ifrytor and Ifry''s morale to plummet further! He wanted them to fear him, not being able to execute their fullest capabilities to make his fight easier! This was sort of a tactic which he wanted to test out as it was something he hadn''t tried out often before. His plan seemed to work perfectly, as Jason crushed the first mana core in his hand, revealing dense drops of mana that began to pour down his wrist. Other than the liquefied mana, there was also the Creato flame that levitated in Jason''s hand. However, it didn''t take long before it was enveloped and devoured by Soalris'' black flames. Only a few moments were required to finish the deed. At the same time, Jason felt the blood-red lifeforce drop falling on his hand, as he could hear a sizzling sound. Only a second later his hand began to each extremely. Fortunately, this pain dissipated when Solaris absorbed the drop of lifeforce that was about to burn into his hand. He didn''t waste anymore time and repeated the procedure he had already finished with the first Ifry, only to notice that the other Ifry had already appeared right next to him. This would have pressured Jason under normal circumstances, but Solaris had gained the ability to create wings some time ago. As such, he couldn''t waste this opportunity! Jason inserted more mana into his soulbond''s manifested wings before he pushed his feet from the ground. He soared into the sky, escaping the Ifry''s grasp and Jason could only see their terrified expressions that seemed to say ''Will our sacrifice be completely meaningless?'' This was something, Jason would have answered with a resolute ''YES''. The Ifry were in fact transformed humans and Jason had not even the tiniest respect for them. It was as if they had sold their soul to the Ifrytor race and Jason was sure that the Ifry didn''t care a single bit about the number of humans they had already killed. However, that was only if they survived today! Jason didn''t plan to let anyone survive and he wanted to annihilate the whole Ifrytor army he was facing! At that moment, several Ifry that were ordered to sacrifice themselves while holding Jason down exploded. The Creato flame within their mana core was unable to cope with the quantity and quality of the Ascron race''s compressed lifeforce. Jason understood this problem completely because Solaris was currently trying to absorb the drop of lifeforce it had taken into its mana core too! The sheer energy within the small drop of life force was enormous and Jason began to wonder how many drops Solaris could absorb. However, when he heard Solaris transmitted thought, his worry was washed away as he mumbled "Annex as much soul energy as you want!" Solaris had transmitted to Jason that the life force was able to nurture it as well as the soul energy it would have to burn, could! This meant that as long as Solaris was nurtured by lifeforce drop, it was not required to destroy Jason''s soul energy! In the end, this kind of trick was not something he could use all the time, and it felt as if it was something Solaris could only do a few times. By allowing Solaris to annex soul energy, Jason increased its strength by a large margin. It became continuously stronger and once the explosion caused by the suicidal Ifry had been colluded, Jason dived towards the ground, straight into the most crowded area thathad the most Ifrys. ''Let''s devour a few more lifeforce drops!'' ** It was unknown how much time had passed but the sun was already setting. Jason was gasping for air, and unable to stand properly as Fasro and the other Ariyor appeared next to him. Solaris'' black flames that had enveloped him during the whole time had been retracted because neither Solaris nor Jason were able to cope with the huge mana consumption the black flames had by releasing its fullest capabilities! ''Solaris has already reached its limit for today?'' Jason thought while trying to make sense of everything. He didn''t even remember how his massacre had ended and the only thing he could tell for sure was that he had annihilated the entire Ifrytor and Ifry army! Jason''s whole body pained and he knew that he had reached his limit, while Solaris, whose soul energy had increased to around 200,000 units. This meant that it had annexed every single vacant soul energy unit within Jason! At the same, it meant that Solaris'' flame''s strength had increased to the Late Lique or 1st Lord stage! Soulbonds at the Lord rank required between 100,001 to 10 Million soul energy units! This stemmed from the fact that every breakthrough within the Lord rank was 1,000 new liquefied drops of mana! As such, soulbonds at the Lique stage had to annex between 2,001 to 10 Millions soul energy units to be under control! Once a beast broke to the Prismar stage, everything would change, but that was not something Jason had to think about now. ''Late Lique stage¡­'' Thinking that Solaris'' strength had increased significantly, Jason was overjoyed, but at the same time, he was fully aware of the fact that his control over Solaris had decreased significantly. At the same time, the black flames mana consumption had increased drastically! As such, he was unable to play around with the Solaris'' flames as it had been possible before! In order to do that, he would have to increase the number of liquefied drops of mana within his mana core by a large margin! Nevertheless, while fighting against the Ifrytor and Ifry, he was completely fine. This was mainly because Solaris absorbed mana from the Ifrytor and Ifry''s attacks. Exactly the same applied to the small fingertip-sized flames that had absorbed every Creato flame around him, which included its mana too! ''While fighting against Ifrytor and Ifry, I can utilize Solaris however I want, but I''ll have to change my combat style for other opponents!'' Jason was fully aware of what kinds of disadvantages an overly powerful ability would bring; the loss of control and a much higher mana consumption! However, in the end, this was just something he had to adjust himself to, and it couldn''t be considered a disadvantage! Solaris had become stronger after all! Fasro and the others had appeared next to him, but nobody said anything. In the beginning, Fasro had been worried that Jason would be severely injured. He and the other Ariyor made the huge mistake and underestimated their mana consumption and the number of high-ranked Ifrytor among the small army they had faced. Because of that, Jason had to face Ifrytor and Ifry with 150 drops of liquefied mana! However, instead of receiving a few injuries, or even a shallow cut, Jason was completely unscathed!! ''His strength increased while fighting against the Ifrytor...his origin flame absorbed the Creato flames of the deceased!!'' Meanwhile, the other Ariyor, who didn''t know anything about Jason before couldn''t help but feel scared. In their opinion, the human race was extremely weak which was the reason they required their help. Yet, from the massacre they had seen, this thought seemed to turn into a bad joke! To everyone who had seen the massacre of one person against several thousand opponents, it was clear that Jason was not an opponent one could take lightly. After the battle was over, Jason was extremely exhausted and it didn''t take long until he was unable to stay awake anymore. As such, he fell over, only to be caught by Fasro, who said "You''ve done great¡­ much better than we did. You''ve even fixed our mistake.." *[Yasl?rn Caves]* A huge, six-meter-tall Ifrytor with dark red burning flames enveloping his body was sitting on a small throne, looking down on the scouts he had employed to look after the Ariyor race and My?ldra race''s army. He did not expect them to return to their hideout and the leader of the Ifrytor race was about to lecture and punish them when he perceived their fear. This alarmed the Ifrytor and he immediately inquired "What happened??" Like that, every single Ifrytor and Ifry got to know about Jason, his capabilities, and the fact that he had a high-grade origin flame that had attained the same ability as the Creato flame''s! Not only that was the case, but the scouts even said that the origin flame''s strength increased, the longer the whole skirmish, if one was able to call it like that, lasted! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 440 - Discovered When Jason woke up he didn''t take long to notice that he was lying inside a large and comfortable bed. Yet, instead of resting a little bit longer which his body and mind needed, Jason got out of the bed. He was in a hurry because he was not sure how long he had slept! What if something happened to his masters while they fought on the Shaibi clan''s side against the My?ldra''s army! Jason had a bad premonition and he couldn''t tell why, but something was bothering him! As such he rushed outside the unknown room he had slept inside. Rushing through the floor he entered, Jason used his mana eyes to perceive everything in the surrounding area. There were only a few people around him, but he could tell that they had a low mana core rank. When he saw the first servant in front of him, Jason rushed towards the young maid, who seemed astonished that he was already awake. "Good Morning young Lord, how are you feeling? We were told that you would be asleep for a few more days..." Yet, Jason didn''t even listen as he started to ask multiple questions in succession. "How long have I slept? What exactly happened on the battlefield against the My?ldra army?? Do you know where my masters are???" Jason was not even sure if the young maid knew who his masters were, but he couldn''t help but be worried about them. However, after the young maid answered him, he was able to calm down. "Young Lord has slept for four days, and the My?ldra race retreated after the first clashes! The whole fight took less than three hours. Young Lord and the Ariyor were the last ones to return from the battlefield. About Young Lord''s masters, Sir and Madame Blair are currently dinning with the Shaibi clan patriarch. They seem to be old acquaintances!" After Jason had heard the young maid''s words, he thanked her before rushing off. Only then did he realize that the young maid was staring intently at him. This caused him to look down, and he noticed why she had been staring at him. Jason was only wearing underwear right now! As such, he took a new set of clothes out of his spatial ring before he put it on, only to rush ahead. ''The maid called me young lord and seems to know about Shane and Dalia! Has their identity been discovered??'' Because of this thought, Jason couldn''t help but worry. The moment Jason left the large mansion he had slept inside, he manifested Artemis'' wings. Soaring into the sky, he took a proper look in his surroundings, only to figure out that he was in the noble district of the Shaibi clan''s headquarters. Apparently, the whole clan was constructed like a small city, and Jason had been oblivious to this fact. To him, it was not important whether the Shiabi clan headquarters was like a city, town, or only a single building. It didn''t matter, and more important was to figure out whether Shane and Dalia''s identity has been discovered or not!! He circulated a large amount of mana through his whole body, which included Artemis'' wings as he flew ahead. Only five minutes later he had already appeared in front of the patriarch''s dining hall. There were several guards protecting the gates of the dining hall, which was something entirely useless in Jason''s opinion. Their strength was not even at the Prismar stage and both Shane and the Shaibi clan patriarch were much stronger than them! Jason would have had problems forcing his way through the guards, but the moment they saw him they bowed deeply towards him. This astonished him a little bit and the fact that they let him through the gates told him that everyone knew something he was oblivious to. However, the moment he entered the dining hall that was filled with several dozen humans, Jason couldn''t help but feel weird. His friends, masters, Emily, and many people with high-ranked mana cores were present. That was not all because there were also a few Ariyor, namely Midra, Fasro, and Ysla! Jason had already been aware of who he would encounter within the dining hall because his mana eyes revealed this fact, but he was still astonished. They were simply dining as if nothing had happened during the last few days and the fact that Jason appeared in front of them with disarranged clothes seemed to be the only incident that was out of the ordinary! When Jason saw how everyone was eating so unbothered, he unintentionally said "What kind of bullsh*t is that? I hope this is a bad dream¡­" Jason''s voice was loud enough to be heard by everyone. Both Shane and Dalia couldn''t help but stiffen for a moment before they glared at their disciple. The Shiabi clan''s patriarch smiled lightly and he was about to say something as Fasro exclaimed "You''re already awake? Our healer estimated that you would need another week to replenish your energy, mana, and mental state!!" He sounded astonished, and when Jason heard this, he averted his attention from his masters to Fasro and his two siblings as he said "My Origin flame is special as you might know. My mental state didn''t receive a backlash or anything like that!" It was possible for everyone to receive deep mental injuries when one fought for several hours while utilizing one''s full combat prowess the entire time. However, Jason was still fine, if he were to ignore his exhaustion. In his opinion eating enough and resting a little bit should be the solution to this problem. Nevertheless, Jason didn''t care about this issue right now. He wanted to know what happened on the battlefield against the My?ldra race. He stared at Shane, who could only scratch the back of his head as he said with a faint smile "I think you''ve already guessed it, but my identity has been exposed¡­" Shane wanted to continue explaining something as Jason intervened "Why are you even smiling right now? The My?ldra race colludes with the Drake family and I doubt that the Drake family patriarch will stay idle when he hears about your existence here?? And now everyone is dining here as if nothing had happened? Why does that seem wrong to me?" However, Dalia couldn''t help but defend Shane when she heard Jason''s words. "Jason, calm down first! We know that you''re worried about us, but it has already happened. We can''t turn back time, right? Instead of being bothered about what has happened, let''s take care of the present and future! Our Identity has been exposed, but the M?ldra race has retreated which gives us a small advantage! Furthermore, we heard what you''ve done. Great Job, we are proud of you!" Jason wanted to explode once again, but when he heard Dalia''s words, he couldn''t help but quiet down. Only a moment later, Shane pulled back the empty chair next to him as he said "You should be hungry, eat something first. We were about to discuss our next steps and only stopped by to eat something" He was a little bit embarrassed about his outburst, but nobody seemed to mind that. Everyone could tell that Jason had been worried about his masters, which was a good trait. With that in mind, the situation didn''t turn awkward. Jason sat down next to Shane to dine with them. Jason was still feeling a little bit exhausted and weak, but when Solaris told him that it could help, his interest was ignited. As such Solaris and Artemis changed the position within the mana core and the black origin flame emerged within his body. It swept through his entire body within a single moment, and Jason felt invigorated. This astonished him and he began to question how Solaris was capable of doing something like this. ''Is that your new life force absorption ability??'' Jason transmitted to Solaris, who seemed to answer him with a nod. At least that was how Jason perceived Solaris'' answer to be. From the looks of it, Solaris was able to transfer the life force it could absorb to Jason. They were bound to each other and the fortified soul conjunction should have been the reason for this to be possible. This new ability was a great asset, but both Artemis and Scorpio seemed to be displeased. They were jealous about the fact that Solaris was able to become so much stronger in such a short amount of time, and that Jason focused on using Solaris instead of them too! Their whole existence seemed to have turned insignificant to Jason. At least that was how they felt, and they had yet to find a solution about how they could change this problem! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 441 - Counteroffensive It didn''t take long before everyone was done eating and Shane gave Jason a short summary about what had happened. Apparently, there had been a few older subordinates of the Drake family within the My?ldra army. When Shane revealed his spatial affinity, darkness affinity, and soulbonds in order to rescue and support multiple Ariyor and members of the Shibia clan, his identity had been exposed! According to Shane''s explanation, the My?ldra army had received a notification from a messenger crystal in which they probably obtained new orders. After that, the forces retreated. If their intel was not wrong, an alliance of multiple races had tried to attack the Drake family while the My?ldra army, consisting of 40,000 My?ldra and humans had left the Kingdom. This would explain everything. At the same time, it opened an opportunity for the Shiabi clan to initiate a counteroffensive! Jason had the same opinion about a counteroffensive, but rather than attacking the My?ldra race, he found it better to attack and eliminate the Ifrytor race! "If I''m not wrong, the Ifrytor race doesn''t have an arch-enemy that joined the war on Argos, right? However, they''re still several hundred thousand individuals! A single, good-timed attack with all their might is more than enough to eradicate the entire Shandra country. And that includes if the Ariyor race acts as a pillar of support!" Everyone nodded their head and it was obvious that Jason''s explanation made sense. The My?ldra army with 40,000 soldiers was already enough to bring forth chaos. If the Ifrytor race would have used their whole army of several thousand Ifrytor and Ifry instead of a few thousand, the entire country would have been devastated by now!" Fasro, who had listened carefully, translated everything to Ysla, and Midra, who was unable to understand a few more complex words. Midra understood what Jason wanted to do, but that didn''t mean she felt that it was a good idea. Instead of bothering Fasro to translate everything, she started to speak to Jason in the universal language. "Jason, your idea is not bad in its essence, but we are less than 4,000 Ariyor that have reached the Low Prismar stage, with around six to seven solidified prismarine crystals. We can''t even estimate the Ifrytor''s strength, even less how many we might be up to fight against. Humans are under normal circumstances weaker than the Ifrytor race, which means that a single, higher-ranked human would have to fight against an Ifrytor. There are several hundred thousand Ifrytor and Ifry we have to face, and the Yasl?rn caves are a place we have never been to. That means the Ifrytor race has not only a numerical advantage but it also knows the landscape much better than we do!" Jason understood what Midra wanted to say, and her words were certainly true. He pondered about her reasons and tried to find a solution to them as he answered in the universal language. "What about the secret technique Fasro and the other Ariyor had been using against the Ifrytor and Ifry before? Can''t we use this technique with all Ariyor at the same time? It should be more than enough to finish off the strongest Ifrytor. After that, only Lique stage Ifrytor and Ifry should be left. I might as well be wrong, but shouldn''t this be worth thinking about? Other than that, we might as well blow up the entire Yasl?rn cave and force the Ifrytor and Ifry who hide inside, to come out. In that case, we would gain an advantage!" Shane and Dalia looked at Jason as if he had gone insane because he revealed that he was able to speak in the universal language. However, instead of saying anything, they tried to regain their composure as the Shiabi clan patriarch couldn''t help but ask Jason. "You know how to speak in the universal language? Who taught you?" He was curious about that because he had an extremely hard time learning the universal language. Meanwhile, Jason''s pronunciations sounded smoother than his. Yet, instead of answering directly, Jason just said "My masters gave me their blessed techniques and I used the given translations within the manuals to decipher what letter belongs to which word. After that, I''ve tried to learn how to speak it, and it didn''t take long to figure it out. To put it simply, my masters taught me!" It was not a complete lie, because Jason learned how to write and read the universal language because his masters gave him the two Terra-grade manuals he possessed! He learned how to speak and understand the universal language differently, but that was not important right now! Midra thought about Jason''s words, and even she had to acknowledge that the perfect timing for a counteroffensive was right now! Her doubts began to diminish when Jason said that they could detonate the entire Yasl?rn cave, while the former point with the secret technique was unreliable. "We can''t use the secret technique because only a few Ariyors are able to learn it! Otherwise, your first plan would have been a possibility. It would have forced every single Ariyor into a state of weakness for a short period, but this shouldn''t have been a problem. In that sense, we can think about how we could create the most devastating attack on the Ifrytor race without sustaining a single casualty!" Jason''s plan was plain and he didn''t even think about it more intently before. He had just said everything in his mind without thinking about it! If everyone were to act like that, it was not unlikely to create one, great plan. However, other than his ideas, the others seemed reluctant to say something. While his masters, the Aryiro siblings, and the Shiabi clan patriarch turned silent, pondering about all kinds of ways to make the most out of their current situation, the others hesitated to say something. That was most likely because they feared to say something that might sound perfect in the beginning, only to be completely wrong in the end. With a wrong plan, their entire army might as well be ambushed and annihilated! As such, three days had passed, before the scouts which the Shiabi clan patriarch had sent out returned with great news! "The Yasl?rn caves harbor less than 300,000 different mana fluctuations of living beings! Deducting the number of mana fluctuations that are completely different to those of the Ifrytor and Ifry, there are less than 200,000 opponents!" This was great to know, and everyone was happy that the ''several hundred thousand'' turned out to be 200,000 and not even close to the 500,000+ which was the number that everyone had expected. The news seemed to be reliable because the scout had even made a video of everything he had seen on the mana fluctuation radar he had received from the Ariyor race. Despite knowing that the number was only 200,000 Ifrytor and Ifry, Jason felt that something was odd. ''Why would the Ifrytor I tortured reveal instinctively, driven by fear, that they had several hundred thousand members if it''s less than 200,000? Shouldn''t it have been more like a hundred thousand in that case?'' Jason felt a bad premonition, but the stated facts proved that his doubts were wrong. Even in the surrounding areas, there were no news or even mana fluctuations from other Ifrytor and Ifry. This lead even Jason to believe that they might have overestimated the Ifrytor''s intel about several thousand Ifrytor and Ifry! *Never in his dreams would Jason have imagined that the decision they were about to take, would be one of the biggest regrets in his entire life...* __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 442 - Deceived After they had heard the intel that less than 200,000 Ifrytor and Ifry were hiding within the Yasl?rn caves, everyone felt at ease. Even Midra, who was worried about what they should do, was of the opinion that they should attack as long as their timing was good. It was not as perfect as it would have been three days ago, but after they had figured out that the Yasl?rn caves did only Inhabitat 200,000 Ifrytor at most, it was much better than having perfect timing without any intel about the number of opponents! Thus, even Jason, who had a bad premonition deep within him, found that they should give it a try. He held from saying anything about attacking as he had done before and his masters had noticed this. They had asked him about what was going on, but not even Jason was sure what had caused the bad premonition. As such he could only say that he felt weird about the Ifrytor and the Intel of the Ifrytor he had tortured. Nevertheless, after the scouts had returned with recorded information, not even Jason could say anything about it. Every single area in the surrounding was void of an Ifrytor and Ifry, and only the Yasl?rn caves were filled with them. Shane and Dalia understood his worry to a certain extent, but there had yet to be a single clue that his bad premonition could be true. This told them that Jason was just too overcautious, and when he had said that he didn''t want to participate in the attack everyone had carefully created to cope with the large number of Ifrytor, the others were astonished. Jason was essential for their plan to succeed because he was able to use Solaris'' mana nullifying and life force absorption ability, and now, he didn''t want to participate? He was frowned upon by the Ariyor and the extra marks he received from them had decreased drastically because of his decision. Even Shane and Dalia felt a little bit weird, and everyone was trying to convince him to attend the attack. There was only Emily, who didn''t say anything because she could tell that Jason felt bad about not wanting to participate in the surprise attack! According to her understanding of Jason, there should be something wrong, but nobody except her seemed to notice or care about this. In the end, after several hours had passed, Jason reluctantly accepted their proposal. They said that they would just enter the Yasl?rn caves shortly and that he had to take care of the lowest Lique stage Ifrytor and Ifry, nothing more or less! This was not problematic and it was barely the end of the day when they had departed. The morning sun shone on the face of more than 100,000 Soldiers at the Lique stage that had mounted their mounts or flew through the sky as Jason did. However, there were still a few thousand Ariyor next to him in addition to humans at the Prismar stage. The number of solidified prismarine crystals they had inside their mana core was at three or below, and Jason could only hope that the Ariyor were able to take care of everyone stronger! He was not sure how late it was when they had arrived nearby the Yasl?rn caves, but that w Their distance was still far enough for Jason to be unable to see anything clearly with his mana eyes, and the only thing he could outline were several tens thousand bipedal beings, that were most likely Ifry! He had yet to find a single Ifrytor but that was not what he tried to perceive right now! "They''re really less than 200,000 opponents¡­" Jason had tried to use his mana eyes to see something odd in the surrounding areas for the last two hours. But, he had yet to find something that seemed to be wrong!! ''Did I become too cautious?'' He wondered, and it didn''t pass much time before the Ariyor and others had finished their final preparations. They didn''t want to attract too much attention, which was the reason for them to use simple high-mana density bombs, instead of large-scale bombs that would destroy the Yasl?rn caves completely. By utilizing the Shaibi clan members'' and Shane''s spatial affinity, this shouldn''t be much of a problem and two dozen high-mana density bombs should be enough to eradicate the largest masses of Ifrytor. That was if they didn''t notice the ambush early, and to countermeasures against it! There was nothing like a perfect plan because it was always possible for unforeseen things to happen. A plan might seem perfect if he was employed perfectly, but trusting a plan, just because one thought that it''s perfect was imbecility! Nevertheless, Jason had to acknowledge that the plan they employed was not bad. When they had arrived in front of the Yasl?rn caves, the members with a spatial affinity released their mana fluctuations as small spatial portals appeared in front of them. This should have been noticed by the Ifrytor and Ifry, but it had already been too late to do something because the high-mana density bombs had already ignited and thrown through the spatial portals. Only a moment later, the ground below them shook as two dozen explosions that came from the Yasl?rn caves, resounded through the surroundings. At the same time, Jason''s mana eyes perceived how tens of thousand Ifry had been obliterated in an instant. Yet, instead of feeling gleeful or overjoyed, Jason couldn''t help but stare through the ground, with his mana eyes full utilized as he tried to make sense of the mess he perceived within the Yasl?rn cave. ''What am I missing?'' Jason was not sure what he missed, but it was definitely something important. Unfortunately, before he could even think about it, the first humans and Ariyors at the Prismar stage had already jumped through the spatial portal. The others followed suit, and only a few hundred people remained in front of the Yasl?rn cave as it was Jason''s turn. He looked at Shane, Dalia, and Emily before he forced himself to smile lightly. "I''ll be back soon!" After that Jason, had stepped through the spatial portal, and three more soldiers followed him closely. However, suddenly as the fourth soldier was about to step through the spatial portal, he noticed that there was some resistance. Exactly the same occurred with the other spatial portals that began to disperse out of a sudden. At that moment, shock spread through Shane''s entire being as he mumbled. "They...sealed the Yasl?rn caves space!!" At that time, shock spread through everyone as Fasro, who stood next to Midra and the Shiabi clan patriarch couldn''t help but blurt out "Have...we been deceived??" This thought resounded through everyone''s mind as Emily began to shiver. "Jason...is inside the Yasl?rn cave!!" Only a few moments later, huge streams of mana and an astronomical heat could be perceived from the Yasl?rn caves, and everyone who had already fought against the Ifrytor and Ifry once knew exactly what was happening! "The Ifry sacrificed the life force within them to overload the Creato flames!!!!" Every single moment that had passed, more and more streams of mana could be sensed and the heat increased further, shocking everyone. If even those above the surface felt the unbearable heat, how could anyone within the Yasl?rn cave come out unscathed? At that moment, the earth shook once again, however, instead of light vibrations as it had been when the high-mana density bombs exploded, it felt more like an earthquake now! This forced everyone to retreat as Shane, Dalia, and Emily''s faces paled, recalling everything about Jason''s bad premonition... "What have we done...Jason¡­.please survive!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 443 - Wheel Of Fate The moment Jason emerged out of the spatial portal, he immediately sensed that something was wrong. His surrounding was void of a single Ifrytor or Ifry because he and the others had emerged in the area where the high-mana density bombs exploded. Nevertheless, when Jason entered the Yasl?rn caves, he could tell that several hundred pairs of eyes stared at him. At the same time, it felt like a complex mix of emotions consistent with anger, sadness, and fear was mixed in the beings that stared at him. This caused goosebumps to cover his entire body as Jason''s premonition intensified Only a moment later, he heard an Ifry saying "F*ck...he really did come¡­!" Turning around, Jason saw the several hundred Ifry that stared at him. Ignoring everyone else, his mana eyes perceived that something within their soul had been ignited. ''Is that the soul contract they''ve with the Ifrytor? Is it activating itself?'' He wondered, only to notice that not a single Ifrytor had been seen insdie the Yasl?rn cave. Looking around the Yasl?rn cave in a hurry, Jason figured out what had bothered him before. There was not a single Ifrytor whether alive or dead, and every single out of the remaining 100,000+ opponents were Ifry!! Jason''s bad premonition seemed to burn within him and it was not difficult for him to predict what was about to happen. However, before he was able to do anything, Jason heard several Ifry crying out in a weird noise, attracting the attention of every single Ifry that was present in the Yasl?rn cave. Through his mana eyes, Jason noticed that every single Ifry was rushing towards the cavern hall he was inside. Because of that, he wanted to leave the Yasl?rn cave as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the moment he turned around, Jason noticed that the spatial portals were dispering. "F*ck!" He mumbled as he grit his teeth. Others might not know what exactly the Ifry were about to do, but for Jason, it was not difficult to decipher that the Ifrytor had deceived them, without much difficulty at that! ''Will they sacrifice almost 200,000 Ifry, only to kill a few humans and Ariyor???'' He wondered, only to recall what one of the Ifry had said '' ''He really did come''...does that mean...they just want to get rid of me??'' Jason was not sure whether he put himself too highly in the Ifrytor''s regards, or it his assumption was on point. Yet, when he looked around, trying to find a path to escape, Jason perceived that the surrounding Ifrys were staring at him. Not only that, but they had begun to charge at him with fear glimmering in their eyes. Their Creato flame was fully unleashed and Jason had to take Solaris into his mana core in order to envelop himself with a thick layer of black flames. Those flames deflected most fire elemental-based attacks and he was able to calm down a little bit. Unfortunately, this short moment of calmness was interrupted, when he saw how everyone next to him had been killed without being able to retaliate. There were even two men at the peak Lique stage that had been killed and Jason couldn''t help but gulp nervously. However, instead of backing off, he unleashed Solaris'' entire strength, without caring for the high mana consumption as both his and Solaris'' stigma had been activated. They glowed up and Solaris merged with Jason. Black flames sprouted out of Jason''s back and he summoned Byakur as he slashed out at the first Ifry that had emerged in front of him. The former humans didn''t even summon their soulbonds which was weird, but Jason couldn''t care less about this as he utilized every little trace of strength within him to kill his opponents. There were still more than 100,000 Ifry left and Jason was not sure if he could survive the ongoing onslaught of peak-Lique, let alone Low-Prismar stage Ifry!! Fortunately, the first few Ifry were killed within seconds, which gave him the opportunity to take a deep breath. However, at that moment, fear filled his golden-silverish eyes as the black flames enveloping him began to flicker violently. ''They''re really bound to sacrifice themselves to kill me???'' The fight between him and the higher-ranked Ifry had yet to start when the first few Ifry at the Low-Lique stage began to sacrifice their and the Ascron''s life force within them to nurture the Creato flame. It would overclock within seconds and explode, killing everyone in the surrounding area! However, that was not the worst Jason was perceiving!! The worst was that every single Ifry was slowly beginning to sacrifice their life, and everything seemed to be because of him! At their last moment, they stared at Jason, whose eyes were filled with desperation and fear! What else should he feel, while being inside a cave that was filled with more than 100,000 Ifry that sacrificed their own life, only to kill him?? His mana eyes perceived a huge stream of mana and heat gathering within the Ifrys and Jason knew that he was about to panic. He felt death approaching him and couldn''t find a way to escape the torment energies that were about to be unleashed through the Ifry''s suicidal explosion. Fortunately, Solaris and his other soulbonds were able to calm him down in a few moments as he could already see how Solaris had enveloped every single Ifry in his surroundings! It did this to absorb their mana and life force, trying to strengthen itself as fast as possible in order to survive the next minute by all means. At that moment Jason realized that he had yet to die! He was still alive and not dead, why should he give up already! Only after he had given his all, Jason would allow himself to become desperate. As such, with that in mind, he made use of the few seconds time he had until the first Ifrys were about to explode in order to devour as many Creator flames and drops of compressed life force as possible. Yet, instead of targeting the Low-Lique Ifry which Solaris'' flames took care of, Jason slashed Byakur at the weakened Peak-Lique and Low-Prismar stage Ifrys that were weakened due to the life force that had left their body before he tore out their mana cores. They were burning and the sheer energy within them caused Jason to feel goosebumps all over his body. Nevertheless, Solaris absorbed everything greedily and when there were only a few moments left before the first Ifry exploded, Jason ascended to the cavern hall''s ceiling with terrific speed. As he had reached the ceiling, Jason slashed at it several dozen times in rapid succession before a small hole, barely enough to contain a single person, was built. ''Please, let it work¡­'' He squeezed himself into the hole before he ordered Solaris to retraced the wings on his back. Instead, it should construct a small drill to dig deeper into the cavern wall. At the same time, Jason released compressed flames in front of him, trying to negate the unbearable heat that had already filled the entire surrounding. It was barely of any use and Jason was not sure how long he was able to endure it as Solaris notified him that it was unable to make use of the life force it had absorbed! The sheer quantity and quality of energy radiating from the compressed drops of life force shouldn''t have been enough to empower Solaris for the next few hours. This notification was extremely bad and Jason was not sure how he would survive the explosions that were about to occur at any moment. As such, he used his last resort and lifted the curse on his nullified soul world amplification, unleashing its full capabilities of 40%! This increased his strength and mana core size by the amount of 27 drops of liquefied mana within an instant. It was not much, no less to survive the torment energies wreaking havoc within with cavern hall, but it was better than nothing. Jason''s entire being shocked as the first explosions resounded through the cavern hall. They didn''t reach him yet, but the sheer number of explosions that followed suit, shocked the whole cave and it didn''t take much more for it to collapse. If Jason were, to be honest, it would be the best if the cave would collapse. The falling stones and other objects could block the majority of the torment energies. Unfortunately, this didn''t happen and Jason''s mana eyes perceived how the horrifying energies permeated the whole cave, obliterating everything in its way! When Jason saw how every living being was being killed, without being able to retaliate, he knew that he was the next one to die! Not even Solaris'' flames were strong enough to even weaken the torment energy within the explosions and Jason''s eyes widened in fear ''Is that how I die?'' However, instead of giving up on his life, Jason released his aura as a Celestia in addition to his stigma to their fullest, not holding back a single trace. His mana core was almost dried of mana in an instant and Jason was not sure if that was enough to survive when something inside his soul world changed. Scorpio, who had felt the most useless among Jason''s soulbonds, began to transform out of a sudden. It sensed that its time had finally come, the first time it might be useful for its master that had raised and trained him with all his love and capabilities. There had never been a time, Scorpio didn''t want to be with Jason and the time they had spent together was always filled with excitement and fun. Yet, the moment Scorpio sensed Jason''s perilous situation, that he was about to die any moment if nothing were to change, filled Scorpio with fear and desperation. At that moment he revealed these emotions, Scorpio was able to feel everything about the soul world and Jason''s entire being. The Celestia aura enveloped Scorpio and his stigma began to burn in a dazzling glow. It was as if a voice asked him, whether he would sacrifice his own life to save Jason or not! This voice was an illusion and not real. It was solely Scorpio''s mind that played him a trick as it felt like a huge amount of information filing its mind. Scorpio was not sure what was going on, except for the fact that he was able to change Jason''s fate, to protect him from the oncoming dangers! At that moment, Scorpio''s solidified soul conjunction with Jason ignited and it seemed to burn when Scorpio forced its way through Jason''s entire being in order to do two particular things! First, Scorpio forced Solaris to leave Jason''s mana core. And at exactly the same moment he forced Solaris'' to transfer every little trace of life force and energy it had absorbed to him! Jason could barely perceive what happened! When he noticed it, Jason was about to stop Scorpio''s reckless behavior as the large body of Scorpio had already emerged in front of Jason. At the same time, the explosions had reached him, burning through everything. Scorpio''s entire being was shining in a bright golden light that felt like Jason''s Celestia aura! His exoskeleton had changed from its sapphire color to that of a golden-silverish-colored exoskeleton. The erupting Creato flames were not solely targeting Jason, but there was one fact he, Scorpio, and his other soulbonds were aware of. Without Scorpio, all of them would have already died! He had sealed the hole Jason and Solaris had created, taking on the entire impact of 100,000 exploding Ifry''s at once. At that moment, Jason and the others felt horrific pain coming forth from Scorpio and they were about to share his pain as something unexpected happened. Scorpio severed the soul conjunction with Jason the moment Solaris had transferred the last trace of energy it had absorbed to him! In the end, Scorpio was fully aware of what was about to happen to him, after he left the soul world! He was about to die, in order to protect those that raised, loved, and protected him! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 444 - Loss Jason was unable to move or do anything to rescue Scorpio, who was bearing the terrific pain without issuing a single noise. Artemis was screaming out in fright and desperation, knowing what Scorpio, her rival, but also her family, was doing. She wanted to help him out, support Scorpio, prevent him from being forced to endure everything alone, and protect both Jason and Scorpio! However, Jason had already sealed his entire soul world with gritted teeth. His eyes were filled with tears as Scorpio''s exoskeleton that had turned golden began to show the first signs of cracking. "Nooo¡­." He was not sure what to do, and his train of thoughts had become a whole mess. Nothing Jason thought of seemed to be helpful and he could barely take out a few high-grade potions from his spatial ring as he wanted to pour them into Scorpio''s mouth. Yet, before he was even able to open the vials, the potions'' content had already evaporated. Not even tears streamed down his cheeks as he began to stare at Scorpio who released his happiness as he had always done. "How can you be happy right now???" Jason shouted as he felt a heatwave streaming through the tiny openings, Scorpio couldn''t cover. Not even Jason''s his resistance to heat was able to endure the sheer might of several tens of thousand overclocked Creato flames that imploded. Jason felt that his skin was burning as if it was melting. But that didn''t matter to him as he noticed that the cracks on Scorpio''s exoskeleton deepened. The explosion didn''t even last half a minute before it dissipated, but Jason''s entire body had been burned. Yet, at the same time, his Celestia aura that had enveloped him, protected Jason from most major injuries. Nevertheless, despite the unbearable pain he felt as his burned skin that adhered at the molten stones around him was torn apart, Jason could only think about one thing. ''Please be alive!!'' Jason could only see Scorpio''s front and he was not sure how the majority of his body was looking like. However, what Jason was seeing in front of him was already more than enough for him to be frightened. Only a few moments after the explosions had stopped, the gravitational force pulled Scorpio from the ceiling as he fell to the ground. When Jason saw this, he didn''t care about his own safety as he jumped after his dear soulbond. Solaris, who barely noticed this had to enter Jason''s mana core to manifest tiny wings with the last traces of strength it had left. The wings barely slowed down Jason''s speed, but he was still faster than Scorpio as he grasped his pincer. With a loud scream, Jason utilized every last trace of mana, his Celestia aura, and the stigma as the wings out of blacks wings enlarged to a wingspan of several dozen meters for a short moment. This decelerated their falling speed and they landed gently on the ground before Solaris'' wings disappeared. Artemis was still screaming in fright and the soul world''s seal had subconsciously been lifted as she had already emerged next to Jason and Scorpio. In the beginning, Jason had been unable to see how Scorpio''s backside looked like, however, the moment when he saw finally saw it, he was barely able to contain himself as tears streamed down his burned cheeks. His entire being looked extremely hideous right now because almost everything about Jason had been burned, yet, Scorpio looked even worse. While Jason had still a little bit of unscathed skin left in some areas, his spatial ring and other extremely high-grade objects were seemingly unscathed. However, was that really what mattered to Jason, who saw that Scorpio''s entire backside had been obliterated? There was barely his small head and frontside left! His legs began to shiver and Jason could barely take a step towards Scorpio as he touched his little soulbond''s head that was already limp. He caressed him gently and said under tears "Why did you do that? My little Scorpio...we...would have...survived¡­.somehow. You shouldn''t have sacrificed yourself like that...WHYYY???" Jason was unable to accept Scorpio''s death and Artemis, who had never lost anyone close to her, was the same. She tried to lift Scorpio''s limp head, trying to support him to stand up, to regain his vigor, but everything Artemis tried was for naught. Time passed slowly and Artemis was slowly starting to digest what had happened when she looked at Jason, who was still caressing Scorpio. He was crying and trying to find a solution on how everyone of them could have survived. However, in the end, there was not a single path that could have been taken differently, except listening to his gut feeling and not participating in the Yasl?rn caves'' ambush! It was his fault for... "You''ve rescued all of us¡­..good job my little one! I''m p-...proud of you!" Jason knew that Scorpio was unable to hear him, but he felt like he had to tell his loved soulbond that he had done well. If possible Jason would have done everything to prevent Scorpio''s death, but there was nothing he could do to change what had passed. He began to curse himself for not trusting his gut feeling, for following the others inside the Yasl?rn cave, for not treating Scorpio as he had deserved, for being too weak to protect those he wanted to protect... Scorpio, with the lowest potential, had to protect him with his life so that Jason could survive. Gritting his teeth, his Celestia aura erupted as faint traces of a blood-red color intertwined with it. Yet, before anything else happened. Jason stood up without lifting his gaze from Scorpio as he heard the reminiscence of Scorpio''s last thoughts lingering in his head. ''Was I finally useful for master?'' This caused all emotions that were about to be suppressed into Jason to resurface and he began to cry bitterly, with Artemis doing the same next to him. Solaris, who felt emotions like sadness and frustration for the first time in its life, was unable to cry. However, its revelation of anguish was different as it released the torment emotions it had accumulated. ** It was unknown how much time flew by when Jason''s tears had ceased that determination could be seen in his teary eyes. "Never...NEVER will I allow a soulbond of mine to sacrifice their life to save mine!!" Nobody knew how the future would fare, but Jason would give his utmost efforts to become stronger, as fast as possible in order to prevent anyone from being able to save him because he would protect himself now! During the time that had passed, the Celestia aura that had faint traces of a blood-red color within them had reverted to the familiar golden-silverish color as it enveloped Jason, soothing his wounds and the pain caused by the burned skin. Suddenly, Jason''s stigma and that of his soulbonds began to ignite, while Scorpio''s stigma ignited one last time. At that time, Jason felt that the injury Scorpio''s death had caused to the soul world was healing at a rapid pace. Somehow, unaware of the reason for this sensation, Jason could also instinctively tell that he had to do something else. ''The¡­.soul world core wants... Scorpio?'' His entire being was still filled with agony, but it was slowly substituted by the thought of the culprit that deceived them. "Ifrytor!!" The Ifrytor race had tricked them, and fled! Not only did they enter Canir to use it as training grounds for their soldiers to earn experience, but they had also sacrificed 200,000 Ifry to ambush him. This was the main cause for Scorpio''s death and when Jason began to understand this, wrath began to devour him. The only thing that calmed himself down was the thought of his soul world core merging with Scorpio, whose stigma was slowly diminishing. Within a moment, he had calmed down as Jason instinctively lifted his hand to touch Scorpio''s stigma. He caressed it, while lamenting about his stupidity for trusting others'' opinions about the dangers of the Yasl?rn caves more than his gut feeling. This was something he shouldn''t have done. Jason was already missing Scorpio and the pain in his heart began to widen. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 445 - Never Be Apart Scorpio had died, and everyone had to accept this fact even if it was hard. However, that didn''t mean they would be apart from each other! When Jason came in contact with Scorpio''s stigma, his damaged body appeared inside the soul world, right below the soul world core that began to shine in a bright light. While Scorpio''s golden body began to disintegrate, the energy particles that manifested out of the disintegrating body began to inscribe something within the soul world core that had the size of a tennis ball! The emblem of a golden-colored Scorpion was engraved on the soul world core, while the remaining energy merged with the damaged soul world, healing it. Jason was not sure why, but he felt emotional when he saw that Scorpio had been engraved on his soul world core. This feeling worsened, even more, when he felt how the connection to his poison affinity had been severed. Only Scorpio''s poison resistance remained because Jason''s body had already merged with it for a long time. Artemis had entered the soul world to witness everything, but this didn''t console her even a little bit. She was still filled with agony and sadness about Scorpio''s death, but at the same time, her anger towards the Ifrytor race, the main culprit for Scorpio''s sacrifice, intensified. Jason was staring at his soul world core for a long time, and it was only when the cave around him seemed to collapse that he regained his senses. His eyes seemed to have lost some of their liveliness and Jason didn''t even bother to hasten his steps as he searched his way out of the Yasl?rn caves. This was unproblematic through his mana eyes, and the only thing that kept him from fainting on the spot due to his exhaustion and his will of life that seemed to dissipate, was because Scorpio had sacrificed his life for him. He had also merged with his soul world core. Because of that, they would never be apart! It was somewhat comforting, even if it didn''t make anything better... He was feeling guilty about the fact that others were able to convince him to enter the Yasl?rn caves despite his gut feeling! At the same time, he wanted to eradicate the Ifrytor race more and more, with each second that passed. "If this whole war is only a training camp for you, let me return the favor in the future! I will show you what true horror is!!" Jason knew that he was still far away from taking revenge, but the remaining Ifrytor that were still on Argos was a good means to start. There was also the descendant of the Blood sect he had yet to find, but even to defeat such an insignificant clan, he was too weak! "I''ll take revenge for both of you...Mom...Scorpio!" Once again, someone, who was precious to him, had been taken away without being able to do anything against it! This caused Jason''s mind to be filled with the thought of taking revenge and wrath. His kind and gentle Celestia aura began to change from the golden-silverish aura that had already been tainted by a faint blood-red hue to a denser crimson color that intensified the further Jason''s wrath and thoughts of revenge deepened. *[At the same time on a supermaximum sized planet]* Inside a white palace that was located on a ginormous mountain, far away from all kinds of living beings, lived a small race with a few thousand individuals. Everything was peaceful and the dense energies that were attracted to the white palace, which released powerful currents of divine energy. Suddenly, one of the beings habituating the white palace was forcefully drawn out of his cultivation as his silver eyes widened in shock. It was Yaldra, Jason''s father and a being from the Celestia race, who couldn''t help but feel weird as he sensed something unfamiliar being transferred to him. The connection he was barely able to maintain with his son, Jason, was transmitting signs of breaking apart. Yaldra was able to feel Jason''s emotions that were filled with agony, rage, and the distinct desire to kill by all means! ''Is that his human blood?'' He tried to exert the connection he had with Jason to tell him to stop, to calm down because he was going down the wrong path. However, he was unable to reach Jason, and worry began to fill his mind. "Fight against the desire to kill...otherwise, it might be too late!!" ** Meanwhile, Jason didn''t notice anything that happened, and he barely perceived that his Celestia aura''s color was slowly changing. He simply thought that it was something normal that the Celestia aura would change according to one''s thoughts and emotions. Thus, Jason didn''t mind it! When he had left the Yasl?rn caves, they had collapsed, but Jason didn''t even realise this. The only thing he was able to do was to take out a coat from his spatial ring as it had begun to rain. The heavy raindrops ached on his burned skin, but Jason could only barely feel them. He was not sure how far he had walked or how much time had passed when he sensed strong mana fluctuations from above him. His mana eyes had already detected them before and Jason knew that it was not a hostile race which was enough for him to ignore their entire existence. Jason did not even bother to take a closer look to see whether it were human scouts of his allies or maybe even the Drake family. He just walked ahead straight towards the direction of the Shaibi clan headquarters. In the end, he was glad that nobody took notice of him for the time being because he was able to digest what had happened. ''Scorpio...is really dead¡­'' This was the most difficult to accept for Jason and Artemis that had just begun to notice, how important Scorpio was to them. They never expected to be separated from each other, let alone that one of them might die one day! Jason was not sure when it was, but he sensed that the humans he had seen earlier had returned, with humans that had familiar fluctuations, next to them. Yet, instead of feeling relieved or anything like that, Jason''s eyes that were eerily dim averted their attention from the humans that were in fact his masters and Emily, before he continued his path towards the Shaibi clan. Jason''s Celestia was also released without being suppressed. Because of that, both Shane and Dalia immediately knew that something was wrong! "Not only does he not care about suppressing his aura, but it''s also entirely different than it had been before!" Shane summarized what everyone was noticing and the two scouts that were supposed to search for survivors of the incident of the Yasl?rn cave during the last few days were shocked to see Jason. However, from the description of the amount of liquefied mana drops within Jason''s mana core and his aura that was manifold times stronger than his mana core indicated, they had easily deciphered who they had found! Jason had been the sole survivor they had found, and it was great that the young man, the person everyone hoped to survive, had survived! Yet, something seemed to be wrong which was the reason for the two scouts to return to the Shaibi clan''s headquarter to report Jason''s survival! They had returned with his masters, but even they seemed to be unsure what to do. Emily, who was not sure what Shane and Dalia were waiting for, had ordered her soulbond to dive towards Jason, who didn''t seem to care about anything. At that moment, through the heavy rain, Jason''s raincoat slipped from his head. When the Lesser typhoon roc wing generated currents of wind, the coat that was barely laid on his naked body fell on the ground, revealing Jason''s entire being. At that time, Emily had already appeared in front of Jason, whom she could see completely. However, instead of feeling embarrassed because she was able to see everything about Jason, only shock and fright could be seen in her eyes as she screamed out! The others that were flying at a higher altitude could only see Jason''s head, but that was already enough for both Shane and Dalia to turn worried as they approached him as fast as possible! Emily''s scream resounded through the surroundings and the moment Dalia saw Jason, she could barely hold back from screaming out too as Shane, whose eyes were widened in shock couldn''t help but say "How...are you still alive looking like that?... Are you even alive?" Jason''s eyes seemed lifeless and his entire body had been burned. There was not a single inch of unscathed skin left! They had been exhilarated that Jason had survived before, but now, they just wondered how Jason was able to survive with injuries like that! Two days had already passed since the Ifry''s self-detonation, after all!! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 446 - Acceptance Two months had passed since the incident at the Yasl?rn caves, and there was no news about the appearance of a single Ifrytor. It was new years eve, but nobody had the intention to celebrate it. The entire year had been one terrifying incident after another, without signs of good news! Rather than becoming better, the whole situation on Canir seemed to have worsened the more time passed! After the incident at the Yasl?rn caves that killed every participant except one person, who behaved as if he was dead from the inside, the Drake family had approached the Shiabi clan headquarters. Within the group that approached them, Jael Drake, the Drake family patriarch had been present too! Everyone knew that this was bad, however, instead of demanding, or attacking the Shiabi clan, Jael Drake just said a few words. "Shane Blair! I know that you''re here! Don''t try to hide from me. Answer me just one question honestly! Otherwise, I''ll destroy the whole Shandra country during the next few days!!" Because it was already known that Shane''s existence had been exposed, there was no need for him to hide anymore. As such he revealed himself and flew into the air to answer Jael Drake''s next question "Did you kill my ancestor?" It was a simple question and the answer was obvious to both sides, yet Jael Drake wanted to go sure about this fact. After Shane had answered the question honestly with a simple, yet heavy "Yes", the small but powerful group behind Jael Drake turned around as he had said "Prepare yourself for the new year because it will be your last! Everything you''ve witnessed this year will become even worse than you could have ever imagined and you will lose everyone dear to you!!! That is a promise!" When Jael Drake had finished his threat, he left Shane and the Shiabi clan''s headquarters once again, while the atmosphere had become heavy. Shane had only two people he held dearly, while there was another one who was about to become important to him. Dalia was his wife and he would do everything for her, and her disciple Emily was someone, Shane was slowly becoming attached to. However, Jason was as important to Shane as Dalia, and it was painful to see how much he had suffered during the last two months. It felt as if Jason was dead from the inside, and he had yet to overcome the sorrow and agony of Scorpio''s death. Some humans might not be able to understand how Jason was feeling. But everyone who had established a fortified soul conjunction with a soulbond they had raised since their birth, only to see it die in front of them, knew how much Jason suffered! If that was everything, it would have already been enough to feel as if one''s world was about to collapse, but Jason had to witness his soulbond sacrificing its life while bearing a tremendous amount of pain! In the end, nobody, except Jason himself, was able to overcome this sorrow of his. It didn''t take long for him to change into the moveless statue he had become after he had returned to the Shiabi clan headquarters. His physical wounds and burned skin might have already healed but that was not everything. The biggest wound he had sustained was within his heart! His burned skin healed, while Jason''s hair grew back at a rapid pace, but the wound within his heart didn''t seem to close, instead, it widened! Jason had felt exactly the same when his mother has died, and it took him a long time to continue with his life as if nothing had happened. Isga and his other friends tried to console him, but they were not sure what to say. They never had to face a similar problem as Jason, and only Shane was able to tell him a story of his. He had undergone a similar situation. It might have been less cruel, but every single time one lost someone dear, it was something painful. As the best tipp, Shane said to overcome a loss was to stand up, to become stronger, and to never let anyone dear to one die, ever again! Thanks to that, and the others'' efforts to console him, Jason had been able to get the hang of himself. Nevertheless, he neither talked nor did something with the others. Rather than that, his only thoughts were focused on becoming stronger, and Artemis, who was forced to go through the same pain as Jason, was doing the exactly same. By using up huge bulks of mana stones and nutrition solutions Jason could purchase from the Shiabi clan, he had been able to become much stronger. In the end, he didn''t even care about concealing his stigma from the Ariyor race or Shiabi clan anymore. Jason was just focusing on becoming stronger. By utilizing the stigma with its fullest capabilities, he had been able to absorb much more mana than he would have been under normal circumstances! At the same time, his liquefaction process accelerated drastically. In the beginning, nobody noticed anything about Jason''s high mana absorption rate, but when the quantity of mana he could absorb had started to reach the threshold of the Ariyor race, the people living nearby him, started to become curious. Yet, they held themselves back in order to give Jason some space to cope with the pain in his own way! However, that was only until Jason''s mana absorption outweighed that of prodigies of the Ariyor race! It seemed like Jason was only missing high-quality mana stones! Fasro and the other Ariyosr had yet to enter the hall Jason had received from the Shiabi clan patriarch to cultivate without being disturbed from his surroundings. They were curious and wanted to figure out what was going on with Jason, but at the same time, they didn''t want to be rude, or even worse, interrupt his cultivation process! Instead, they took out high-grade mana stones of a great quality which they laid down in front of the door to Jason''s hall. This was how the Ariyor showed their condolences about the loss he had to process and overcome. Normally, other races wouldn''t understand the bond between humans and their soulbonds, but after Shane had explained it in simple terms, everyone began to comprehend the importance of soulbonds and how firm the relationship between both humans and their soulbonds could become. It was not that everyone was close to their soulbonds, but Shane had also explained what exactly a ''fortified soul conjunction'' meant! If one were to say that it was just a firm connection between a master and their soulbond, it would be an underestimation! In the end, it was more like master and soulbond started to become part of one entity! It was impossible to call them multiple individuals anymore, but we''re slowly turning into one entity! With that in mind, a part of Jason had just died and the Ariyor could hardly process how painful this had to be! Yet, when they had wanted to return to their camp, Fascro, his sisters, and a few other Ariyors that wanted to give their condolences to Jason saw him leaving his cultivation room to bring the mana stones inside. At that moment, they sensed his overwhelming aura and his golden-silverish stigma that glimmered brightly. Everyone present stiffened at that moment, and their mind was unable to comprehend what was going on! "J-Jason...are you really...a human??" Yet, at that time, Jason didn''t seem to have heard Fasro who had asked him a question, as he had turned around to continue cultivating. Even though the Ariyors that had been present wanted to figure out more from Jason, they had seen his eyes that seemed to be more dead than alive! As such, they knew that it was useless to ask him any questions. This led them to avert their attention to Jason''s masters, Shane and Dalia who should know more about Jason than they did! Unfortunately, neither Shane nor Dalia said anything about Jason''s origin when they had asked him. Instead, they asked in return. "Can''t you guys tell which race he comes from? Other races were able to do that!" With this, Shane and Dalia meant the Shadow Walker, Deepsea Scion, and Ganasia that had perceived Jason''s aura before! Yet, when they had heard Midra''s answer, worry overcame them. "I''ve never perceived an aura like this! His stigma is genuine and naturally awakened, which means that he hails from an extremely strong race, but this aura¡­.It''s gentle, kind and full of, yet thirsting for blood, revenge, to kill and eradicate everything that stands in its way!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 447 - Forced Maturing Since the day Shane and Dalia had heard about Jason''s aura, they had been worrying about him. However, that seemed to be unfounded as he emerged outside the cultivation room on new year''s eve. ''I used up everything I''ve accumulated..'' Jason thought while grinding his teeth. Canir''s mana was just too scarce and the number of cultivation resources he had felt insignificant, almost non-existent! If it had been possible, Jason would have absorbed mana for several more months! Unfortunately, this was not possible, instead, he had to acquire more resources now! While the number of unique liquefied drops of mana that were three times more compressed than normal ones increased from 4 to 20 within two months, his physical strength had increased even more! Meanwhile, Artemis was starting to digest Low Lique stage mana cores which helped her to liquefy her 70th drop of mana! Solaris didn''t advance further, and Petri was still evolving within his soul world! Jason''s soul energy had also increased to around 290,000 soul energy units, but that was not something he paid much attention to right now! He didn''t have to practice the Heaven''s Hell technique anymore and his soul energy would passively increase as long as he didn''t allow Solaris to devour it. The moment Jason emerged from the cultivation room, he inquired about the news of the Ifrytor race, only to find out that not a single piece of information was known. This caused him to clench his fist. Jason was about to procure more cultivation resources when he heard about the incident with the Drake family patriarch. He figured out that nothing had happened since then, but Jason was still worried about his masters. The threat they had received was more like a warning if he understood everything correctly, but this was exactly what caused him to be worried! Why should the Drake family patriarch warn them? Was it to instill fear, or was there something more important behind their warning? He was not sure about this and the only thing Jason was able to feel was that his will to live began to resurface. When he heard that his masters were in danger, Jason felt emotions other than hate and anger within him, and Jason told himself that he wouldn''t allow them to die! If it was necessary, he would even burn his life force! Until now, he never gave them anything back, which he wanted to change slowly. If he was able to protect them, why shouldn''t he do so? Right now, Jason assumed that his strength was comparable to that of someone with 200 drops of liquefied mana! If he were to add Solaris'' strong flames and other means to enhance his combat prowess, it would be even higher than that! In the end, Jason had 20 drops of compressed liquefied drops of mana that were as strong as 60 drops of common liquefied drops of mana, while his primal awakening had increased his strength by roughly 80 drops of mana. Additionally, his refined physique had received a boost in his physical strength equal to 15 drops of liquefied mana! Meanwhile, his soul world''s amplification of 40% had been released since the incident at the Yasl?rn caves, which meant that he received a share of Artemis and Petri''s strength. Jason missed Scorpio a lot, but he had slowly begun to digest that his dear soulbond had truly died. This didn''t make the situation better, and the guilt-trap within him was still seemingly burning him from the inside. The severed fortified soul conjunction had also been devoured by his soul world and the only remains of Scorpio were that he had been engraved within his soul world core. Jason was still not as lively and happy as before because he had been thrown into the cruel reality once again, but he had realized that avoiding Scorpio''s death as he had done with his mother''s murder during his childhood, was impossible. It was only when he met his masters that Jason could take a deep breath again. Yet, the moment, Dalia, who didn''t care about anything hugged him, the whole confidence about his acceptance of Scorpio''s death had been washed away again. "I know that you''re still not over it. Cry as much as you want and then...take care of those Ifrytor''s once we find them!!" Even though Dalia''s words hit the bullseye, Jason was unable to cry anymore. Instead of behaving like the child, everyone ought to be once, he decided to become different. He had mourned long enough and it was time to face reality! The situation on Argos was about to worsen and the tension increased with every day passing. Furthermore, the number of foreign races that participated in the Great Argos war seemed to have increased, while their numbers were constantly increasing too! As such, Jason couldn''t just mourn and be distracted, at least not if he wanted to protect others! Scorpio had died because he had been too weak, and Jason wouldn''t accept seeing this a second time! *-Had Jason known how perilous and dark the future was about to become, he would have never thought about fighting back with his current strength. Instead, he would have fled along with everyone close to him!-* After Dalia released him from her embrace, Jason announced that he required more cultivation resources and that he would join the other hunting groups! Every single individual of a foreign race had a spatial ring and the content within was more than enough to provide him with enough resources to cultivate for several days without being forced to restrict himself! With that in mind, he wanted to adjust himself to his newly gained strength, increase his combat experience against foreign races, and most importantly, show those foreign races that mankind was not just a pushover with whom they could do however they pleased! Shane and Dalia knew that they were unable to hold him back, even if they wanted to. It looked like Jason''s unbending desire had been released at once, and it was the first time for them to perceive Jason''s aura in a detailed manner. "Is...that was what they were talking about?" Dalia mumbled, not sure what to think about the aura she perceived. Yet, before anything else could happen, Fasro and his sisters stormed into the room, Jason and the others were inside, followed by Isga and the rest. When everyone heard that Jason left the cultivation room for good, Isga and Jason''s other friends, whom he hadn''t talked to for some time, rushed towards him, while Fasro and his sisters were curious about his real identity. Jason''s aura, stigma, and mana absorption rate were just too unique to ignore! The moment Jason saw everyone he just nodded his head to greet them, without showing his smile as he would have usually done. His surroundings were also void of the calming and gentle aura he was usually releasing and filled all kinds of emotions. This caused Yune, Isga, and Milan to look at Jason in confusion while Arya, who had nothing to do with Jason personally could only stare at him. ''His tattoo is glowing¡­?'' Jason was not even bothered about concealing the fact that he had genes from another race because humans couldn''t differentiate transformed humans with a halfling as he was. It was only when Shane and Dalia told him that he should prevent attracting too much attention that he reluctantly retraced his aura and stigma''s glow. After that , he turned to Fasro because it was obvious what he wanted to know. Yet, despite liking Fasro and the Ariyor, Jason couldn''t help but think that there was no need to answer them honestly. As such he simply told Fasro "What you think is probably right, but I won''t go into detail. I don''t know how it''s possible either, so I would appreciate it if you guys could remain silent about it. At least, if the Ariyor clan doesn''t want other races to find out everything, which would lead to them sending out troops to the Shandra country, right? It''s not only the Shiabi clan or other big clans that would suffer through this, but also the Ariyor race, otherwise, there wouldn''t be so many Ariyor trying to protect the curse cleansing soulbond, right?" Jason''s words were fierce and completely different from how he normally acted. This told everyone that he had yet to regain his old self if that was even possible after what had happened to him! Fasro couldn''t help but sigh deeply as he translated Jason''s words to Ysla, who was the most curious about Jason. After that he said "Jason, just know that we don''t plan to harm anyone here. Once you''re ready and feel like sharing your secret, the Ariyor race, or I will lend you my time!" Once Fasro had said that he turned around and left the room as Jason said in the universal language "Thank you for your understanding" Shane and Dalia couldn''t help but sigh when they saw how Jason acted "The situation we wanted to postpone at all costs has happened...He is forced to accept his fate and mature¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 448 - [Bonus ]Support [Author note-I just wanted to thank everyone for their great support during the last few months. You are the best readers! :D] "Are you sure about entering close combat against the four common races alliance''s army?" Fasro asked, not sure what to think about Jason''s idea. Two days had passed since new year and Jason had just renewed his knowledge about Canir''s situation. Right now there were several small alliances that caused huge problems, however, the biggest problem was that the Drake family colluded with the My?ldra race and another race! They had formed a small alliance with the Burance race that was another higher race with their combat specialty being their Ice and Water affinity! Yet, instead of acting passively, Jason wanted to attack the four-race alliance of the Doom Crawl, Thudra, Ganasia, and Mildar race. He seemed to be confident to fight against the Doom Crawls while saying that the Ariyor should pay attention to the other races! Jason only said so because the four races were currently conquering the adjacent areas to the Shandra country. As such, they had to help the other big families, and even foreign races, if they were to receive benefits from that! It was also that the Ariyor race was unable to fight against the Doom Crawls, but from the provided information, the Doom Crawls were not too many. Nevertheless, Jason didn''t trust a single piece of information anymore! He had learned the cruel truth about false or not throughout investigated information and didn''t want to have a second incident similar to that in the Yasl?rn caves! "We have gathered five big clans and it would be disadvantageous if we were to hide from every single opponent! Instead, we should try to help each other by defeating the worst opponents first! There are other races that won''t be able to win against the alliances, let alone against the Drake family that colludes with the My?ldra and Burane race! Right now, a big change is happening on Argos, and if we don''t want to be at a disadvantage, we should utilize everything we can!" Everyone was aware of the fact that the war on Argos had entered the most important phase! At least that was what one could decipher by the news they had received. Three races had already fled from Argos because their loss was evident, and several more races were about to follow suit. They were barely holding onto the last ray of hope, trying to establish a large alliance with every race that was about to face a devastating defeat on Argos. However, that was easier said than done, because most of those races were far apart from each other and some had a complicated past! As such, there had to be a race that could combine those weak and almost destroyed races, which was in fact the Ariyor race! This was what Jason wanted them to become, but Fasro was not sure whether this was a good idea or not. Yet, Jason''s next words were nothing but the cruel truth. "Neither the Shandra country nor the Ariyor race are strong enough to fight against the Drake alliance! They have two higher races as support and the My?ldra race is even stronger than the Ariyor race, right? That means if everyone wants to persist stagnating in this stupid behavior, we might as well give up!" There was no need for Jason to hold back anymore. He didn''t like the fact that everyone was trying to act reserved while facing the combined attack of multiple stronger races. Even with five big clans and the Ariyor race, they were barely strong enough to fight against the four-race alliance that consisted of common races. This might be a great feat, but what use was that if they were unable to defeat two higher races and the Drake family together? Jason spoke nothing but the truth and Midra, who could barely understand what he had said began to speak with Fasro in the universal language. Only Jason understood them, but Midra was aware of this fact. As such he was able to hear that she was supporting him. She didn''t like to team up with common races whose army was on the verge of extinction. Nevertheless, this was the best idea they had, and making use of right was not that bad! At least until something else changed. There were also common races among them that wanted to enslave mankind, but one could take care of them after the biggest threats had been taken care of! That was logical and much better than trying to fight without reinforcement. "Alright, let''s think of a plan to make use of your idea, and if it''s feasible we should employ it!" After Fasro agreed, the others Jason had already convinced about his idea before sighed in relief. Shane and Dalia had been unsure about his idea to search for more reinforcement among the foreign races, but it was logical. They had more powerhouses than mankind had, which meant that foreign races were a better reinforcement than other big families and clans! The five big clans they had gathered were barely enough to fight against a single fully armed common race according to the Ariyor race and Jason thought that this was already exaggerated! In the end, only the Doom Crawls might be suitable opponents for the five big clans, because their only advantage was their strong physique. The weak curse Doom Crawls harbored didn''t affect the human body much. As such, the big clans and Ariyor race had to show their combat prowess while fighting against the small four-race alliance instead of other races! If there were no major problems, the other races in the Shandra country''s surroundings would accept teaming up with the Ariyor race as they were a higher race and strong enough to defeat multiple common races at once. At least that was what one would see, and those foreign races, Jason wanted to target with this indirect advertisement of the big clans and Ariyor''s strength would be dazzled by misplaced information. Jason didn''t care what would happen to those races but he needed them to help everyone else to survive! ** Only one day had passed and the plan was already fully set up when the news of the small four-race alliance attacking another race and big family reached the Shandra country. The Shaibi clan and Ariyor had already been fully prepared and by utilizing the fastest soulbonds and the Shaibi clan''s spatial affinities, a large part of their employed army was able to leave the Shandra country and arrive in front of the battlefield less than 2 hours later! Jason was among this part, and the first thing he did upon arrival was to supply his mana eyes with more mana than usual. He wanted to see everything in his surroundings without missing a single piece of information. This had already happened to him once, and it ended devastatingly. As such he was more careful about certain things than he had been before. Artemis'' wings were manifested on his back and the soul amplification he received from Artemis, who was currently within his mana core was 100% With that in mind, Jason knew that he was able to fight against every opponent at the Low Lique stage. That was if they didn''t have more than 300 liquefied drops of mana within their mana core! He wouldn''t hold back anymore, which had become much easier than it was initially! Since Fasro and the other Ariyor had been asking about his background, he had acquired more knowledge about himself too! Apparently, his Celestia aura was not the same as it had been before. Something intertwined within it made it impossible for others to detect that he was a halfling with Celestia blood! Only his stigma revealed that he hailed from an extremely strong race! Midra had told him that a genuine stigma one would receive during the primal bloodline awakening was rare, even more so among grand races! Most grand races would receive their first stigma during their second bloodline awakening, thus Jason''s situation was slightly unique. ''F*ck it. I''ll just hold back a little bit with my stigma, and go all out with the rest!!'' He told himself as he manifested Solaris'' black flames around his head, with a compressed layer above his stigma, preventing anyone from seeing him. His heart was filled with hatred and the desire to unleash his agony and wrath which he had suppressed during the last few months, was unleashed at once. Chapter 449 - Black Destructive Beam Jason and the rest of the army were behind the small four-race alliance, and they had only been noticed when it was already too late. There was no need for Jason to conceal his mana core until because they had reached the last rows of the Doom Crawls which was the race he and the other big clans were supposed to target. It was only when Byakur appeared in Jason''s hand that the first Doom Crawl noticed an ominous feeling enveloping it. Barely a second later, Jason had already pierced through the first Doom Crawl''s chest. Twisting Baykur within its chest, he split a part of Solaris from his body as he ordered it to absorb the Doom Crawls life force. At the same time, Shane flapped with his wings in order to soar a few meters into the air as he held out his emtpy hand. He moved his fingers and it looked like he was holding an invisible ball as he manifested an unmoving compressed flame. Only a moment later, the compressed flame''s temperature intensified as Jason threw it towards the most crowded area. Jason had compressed the black flame to such a high degree, that it would inflate normally. However, in order to prevent this from happening he enveloped it in a faint mana membrane that was about to burn out at any moment. The moment the compressed ball of fire burned the membrane holding it together, it exploded, devastating the areas in a five-meter radius around it. Yet, instead of slacking off, Jason had already manifested several hundred icicles which he shot towards the Lowest Lique stage Doom Crawls that were trying to start a counteroffensive against the huge crowd of humans that attacked them out of nowhere. Artemis'' icicles were unable to kill a single opponent, but it was more than enough to distract, or even injure most Doom Crawls. It was not long after that Jason dived towards the next Doom Crawls. Though before he was able to massacre a path through the Doom Crawls with less than 200 liquefied drops of mana, a Doom Crawl with 300 drops of mana within its mana core appeared in front of him. "You''re dead meat!" Is shouted out in the universal language and Jason only retorted "We''ll see who''ll be dead first!" At that moment, he released the entire transformed Celestia aura and his stigma began to glow brightly. However, instead of attacking directly, Jason exerted Petri''s race-specific weakening for the first time since he had obtained it! Only a moment later, the Doom Crawl''s hideous expression worsened as its pace decreased drastically. ''Physical strength weakening?'' Jason thought with a faint smile on his face as he exerted the weightless steps technique which increased his speed by 60%. After the Doom Crawl''s physical strength had been weakened, Jason was not only at an advantage with his affinities, but his physical strength was not weaker anymore! As such, he could use his high combat experience and affinities to his heart''s content. Less than two minutes later the confident Doom Crawl with 300 drops of liquefied mana within its mana core had already died. Those who witnessed this were scared to face Jason, while the stronger Doom Crawls tried to advance towards him in order to take care of the biggest issue. He was a dangerous opponent, others might take lightly because of the low number of liquefied drops of mana within his mana core. This was dangerous and could be compared to tricking one''s mind, which was the reason for the stronger Doom Crawls to focus on him. Yet, this caused them to be distracted and the big families used this out to kill exactly those Doom Crawls. Jason was not sure how high their numerical advantage was, but the Doom Crawls seemed to balance everything out through their extreme pyhsical strength. He needed around two minutes to defeat a stronger Doom Crawl while using Petri''s curse. His combat experience and the black fire affinity that was already on par with late Lique ranked affinities were unique too. Unfortunately, Jason was unable to utilize Solaris'' affinity however he wanted because he didn''t have an efficient way to replenish his mana if he were to use Solaris'' entire strength. The mana consumption was simply too high and Jason had to pay attention to this! If Canir''s naturally generated mana had been a few times higher, this wouldn''t be a problem and Jason would have been confident in defeating most opponents in his proximity. The only advantage Solaris could utilize was to absorb other''s lifeforce. Yet, this didn''t give much mana to Solaris and instead, it served a different purpose! Petri was still evolving, however, when it sensed the Doom Crawls curse that was intertwined with their life force, it transmitted its desire to absorb their life force! Jason was not sure whether Petri was an endless hole, demanding more and more lifeforce without showing any result or if it was truly beneficial to strengthen the petrification serpent. Fortunately, it was not problematic to test it out! Solaris had to absorb some of the dead Doom Crawls'' life force in order to draw out a minuscule amount of mana from it, either way. As such it might as well drain them completely! The other big clans that fought nearby facing Doom Crawls had more problems against those that were equally strong than they were. Fortunately enough, the big clans were at a numerical advantage, which allowed them to fight against their opponents head-on. There was nobody who was much stronger than another as several huge explosions resounded through the surrounding area. Since they had arrived, not even 10 minutes had past but the tides of the battle had already shifted. This was mainly thanks to the Ariyor race that utilized their quicksilver affinity to overwhelm the basic races. They were able to retaliate but it was obvious how vast the difference between common and higher races was. Their combat prowess and experience were already enough to allow Jason to perceive this. However, the way most Ariyor were able to utilize their affinity was superior to every being he had ever seen using affinities. Since the first time Jason saw them fighting, he was intrigued about the wide variety of attacks they could execute. It was not only complex but also extremely powerful. This was also where he received the idea to create the detonating black ball of fire! Yet, when he recalled how Ysla had shot a beam of compressed quicksilver at him, Jason couldn''t help but feel that he should try out something similar. His mana eyes had imprinted every single move of mana Ysla had executed during that time after all! Solaris knew exactly what Jason wanted to accomplish after he had transmitted his memories to it. However, to Jason''s astonishment, Solaris told him that he should point with his index finger towards a Doom Crawl. After he had followed Solaris'' instructions, Jason felt how it began to take control over the black flame affinity as it led it through his body towards Jason''s index finger. Only a moment later, when it reached the tip of his finger, Solaris accumulated a large amount of mana before he ignited a tiny, yet highly compressed flame manifested in front of Jason''s index finger. Seconds later, when a large amount of mana had been stored within his index finger, everything was released at once. When the stored mana had been released Jason''s entire index finger felt as if it was breaking multiple times owing to the terrific high impact. However, when he saw how he shot out a highly compressed beam of mana that was completely intertwined with Solaris'' black flames, Jason couldn''t help but fall in awe. ''Isn''t this attack similar to a laser gun? Just several dozen times more powerful?'' The moment Jason shot out the black fire beam, a shockwave spread out from him! Two Doom Crawls that stood nearby each other had been pierced by the black fire beam before its might decreased drastically. Even though the beam''s might had decreased, it was only barely unable to kill the third Doom Crawl that had already a small hole in its chest. At that moment everyone whether it was friend or foe stared at Jason, who held his index finger that seemed to be burned and broken, in shock. He had to utilize a decent amount of mana, but with the thoughts and ideas that had begun to implant themselves into Jason''s mind, he couldn''t care less about the pain as he mumbled. "That''s it!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 450 - Natural Fighter Nobody knew what Jason was thinking except himself. From his expression, however, one could tell that it was something great for his allies and dangerous for his opponents! Yet, Jason was oblivious to everything as he thought about the fact that mankind had been trying to advance in its technology section for a long time. ''I''ve already fought with different pistols...would this work too?'' There was an idea in his mind and he was eager to test it out soon. However, before he would be able to return and start testing out multiple things that were on his mind, they had to defeat the army of the small four-race alliance. Jason was not sure how many opponents there were, but his confidence increased when he thought about his ideas as he subconsciously blurted out. "We should finish this quickly, otherwise, I might forget some ideas!!" Jason was restless and excitement filled him for the first time since Scorpio had sacrificed his life to protect him! The Doom Crawls noticed the threat coming from Jason, but before they could do something to him, he had already disappeared from the spot he stood only a moment ago. Circulating mana through his entire body, Jason''s speed accelerated by a small margin while the weightless steps technique he had already fully utilized increased it further. His mana consumption was large, yet, by storing a few high-grade mana stones within his belt and pockets, his passive mana gathering was strong enough to balance his mana consumption! Thanks to fully utilizing his stigma, not only the passive mana gathering but also circulating and annexing it within his mana core were much faster than it had ever been. As such, he had to replace the used up mana stones with new ones every few minutes. In the meantime, he picked up a few spatial rings from the deceased Doom Crawls to replenish his used up stockpile of mana stones. The whole battlefield was littered with corpses and Jason sensed that the surrounding area began to tense up more with time passing. Everyone perceived death lurking around them which was also the turning point of most battles! Who would be able to overcome the pressure weighing on them to defeat their opponents that were thirsting for blood? The more time passed the more intense this pressure would become and real war veterans or natural calm fighters would show their true worth. Most individuals from foreign races that had yet to reach the Prismar stage were neither war veterans nor natural fighters which allowed the more experienced, yet weaker humans to gain the upper hand. It was only a small advantage, but the whole battle changed from a standstill towards the big families'' favor, while the Ariyor race had already been more experienced than the majority of the four-race alliance army since the beginning! Yet, Jason was different from that. While being pressured, his combat prowess seemed to increase when his speed, which was already faster than most Doom Crawls he fought, accelerated further. If they were to notice that Jason was still adjusting himself to the Celestia bloodline and the full capabilities his stigma and the Celestia aura brought forth, everyone would be even more astonished than they already were. Right now, everyone was just thinking that Jason was a great natural fighter, who was able to utilize other''s tension to his advantage while adjusting to the given situations as well as possible. In the end, Jason couldn''t help but feel that he was not as weak as he had imagined. Trying to adjust to his Celestia bloodline was not everything he had to do because there were also his enhanced mana eyes, Petri''s two curses, and Byakur, whose limit Jason had yet to figure out! Fighting for several hours against a different race than the Ifrytor, Jason learned many new things. At the same time, Artemis tried to help him as well as possible from the inside of his mana core which she occupied. Controlling the wings on Jason''s back, she was able to adjust them perfectly to his advantage. Their fortified soul conjunction had already been deepened for a long time, but Jason never had the opportunity to really fight with Artemis in his mana core. At least not for a long time, and when he fought against other beasts with Artemis, it was more like he overwhelmed them with his strength. It was never a dangerous fight in which he was not stronger, ending in a head-on encounter or a fight in which he had to be fully concentrated on his opponent''s movements. As Jason tested out everything possible during his fight, he also tried to adjust the black flame beams in order to turn them into highly compressed laser guns that didn''t require too much mana. It was not easy, but thanks to Solaris, who knew more about its flames than anyone else, Jason was able to continue his tests. He wouldn''t have been able to shoot out short lasers that were similar to bullets. Their trajectory didn''t change for several hundred meters and by adjusting everything to his preferences, Jason was able to figure out the required mana to create black fire bullets according to his opponents'' quantity of liquefied drops of mana and defensive measures! It was more like a long-range tool, and Jason''s finger broke one after another due to the impact, but he didn''t even feel the pain as his excitement overwhelmed every other sensation within his body. This was a bad sign and even Jason was aware of this. However, he was unable to take control over this excitement that spread through his entire body. ''Who the hell needs a bow or crossbow to fight long range if one can have Solaris'' extreme compressed black fire bullets?'' The only disadvantage was that their impact broke his fingers and that the time required to load enough mana for one shot after another was too long! Yet, instead of being discouraged by this, Jason made one last test before he would divert his attention back to the opponents he was fighting. Leading five compressed strings of mana into each finger of his free hand he wanted to see whether it was possible to shoot five black fire bullets at once. From the logical point of view, this should be possible, but Jason was fully aware that it took much longer than shooting one bullet after another. As such he waited for the perfect moment before he shot the five bullets at a Doom Crawls that was about to reach an Ariyor whose mana core was heavily injured after fighting several opponents at the same mana core stage at once. While the black fire bullets left his hand, he could feel his hand bursting open, and the pain he was unable to feel prior flooded him at once. Gritting his teeth, he rushed towards the Ariyor while Solaris summoned a small flame within his injured hand. At the same time, Artemis enveloped the outside of his hand with a thick layer of ice to prevent worse from happening. Jason could only smile weirdly thinking that his soulbonds had become overprotective since Scorpio had died. However, he couldn''t be angry at them, instead, Jason thanked both Artemis and Solaris for their support. However, this didn''t mean that he could slack off! The five black fire bullets that had pierced a large hole into the Doom Crawl with more than 400 drops of liquefied mana in his mana core didn''t die! He was only injured, not even severely at that! Nevertheless, Jason''s mana eyes perceived something else which he hadn''t noticed before! The black fire bullets were mainly created out of Solaris'' black flames with the ability to nullify mana and absorb life force that were intertwined in the bullets he had created! This means that the bullets that were a part of Solaris'' being! Astonishing enough, they began to burn the Doom Crawl, whose body they couldn''t pierce through, from the inside! Jason thought that this was great to know and even better for the plan he wanted to implement in the future! Nevertheless, he couldn''t slack off and had already emerged next to the Doom Crawl that had been forced to retreat several steps due to the impact of five black fire bullets! At the same time, the Doom Crawl''s strength began to decrease by a minuscule degree every few seconds. Only then did Jason notice that Solaris'' flame was able to kill everything as long as it was able to enter their body! The black origin flame''s only requirement was to be at a higher stage than the being it wanted to burn! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 451 - Everything At Once Jason knew that he had no time to waste because the Doom Crawl he was faced was much stronger than he thought it would be. He utilized his mana eyes'' abyss ability and Petri''s petrification curse in order to intimidate the Doom Crawl for a short moment. At the same time, he exerted the race specific weakening curse to its fullest extent by using a majority of his stored mana. This weekend the Doom Crawl''s physical strength by a large margin. Only a moment later, Jason''s stigma and the transmuted Celestia aura were fully unleashed as he used up every little trace of mana within his mana core to enveloped Byakur with Solaris'' compressed black flames. By utilizing every trump he had, at once, Jason was able to take on the Doom Crawl by surprise. It had already been astonished that Jason''s long-range attack could injure it, but at the same time, the Doom Crawl had thought that it took a large margin of Jason''s mana! This was the biggest mistake it had made as it was caused by underestimating Jason''s strength, just because he was a human! Jason never expected that nobody was able to perceive that he was a halfling and not a pure human being, but this was great to know! The stigma didn''t release any particular mana fluctuations that would allow anyone to figure out that he was a foreign race. It was only the glow and how the stigma''s look that would attract some attention, while Jason''s Celestia aura had been transmuted, preventing anyone from determining that he was a halfling from the Celestia race. One might figure out that his aura was not that of a human, but in order to comprehend this, one had to look everything up from closer! Thus, only when Jason had emerged right in front of the Doom Crawl, did it understand in what kind of dangerous situation as a faint "Halfling?" escaped its mouth. However, before the Doom Crawl could say anything else, Jason had already cut through its neck, targeting the area with the fewest mana currents that protected it! After that, the Doom Crawl screamed out in pain before it tried to push Jason away. Yet, instead of allowing the Doom Crawl to touch him, Jason jumped back, only to look at the dying Doom Crawl without any pity. When its body went limp he took its spatial ring before he picked up the injured Ariyor after reassuring that he was fine. Having used up all of his mana, Jason felt extremely exhausted. Instead of joining the fray to continue fighting, he decided to take care of the injured Ariyors and humans while collecting every single dead corpse. He didn''t distinguish between humans, Ariyors, or one of the four races they were currently fighting. Jason had multiple reasons to do so, but the biggest reason was that he wanted to take the humans and Ariyor with him in order to give them a proper funeral while collecting the four race''s corpses was much easier than taking their spatial ring with him. This was because the corpse would vanish inside his spatial ring, while the other race''s spatial rings would fall on the ground or be drawn to Jason. The latter was only possible because he used some of his replenished mana to envelop the spatial rings to pull them towards him. He just stored them inside a large pouch that hung on his belt without caring what he might find inside the spatial rings. At the same time, he brought the injured Ariyor and humans back to the quickly established infirmary Jason found in the back of the battlefield. The infirmary was already overflowing and Jason wanted to help out, however, he was more a burden than a great help with his capabilities. There was nothing he could do except rescue everyone that had been injured. At the same time, he tried to avoid fighting against others as his whole body was aching from having used every trump at once! This was not something he should do lightly and it was better to recuperate instead of overestimating his strength once again. With that in mind, several hours passed before the battle had ended with a more shocking result than expected! The Lyran race that had been overwhelmed by the small four-race alliance was able to retaliate when the Ariyor race and five big clans had ambushed the alliance! This allowed the Lyran and the Greil clan to fight against a smaller number of opponents at once. The more time passed the more obvious the disadvantage of the small four-race alliance and their morale began to plummet. In the end, they had overestimated their own capabilities, only because they had been an army of 500,000 members! It was unknown if there were other more armies of the small four-race alliance, but Jason and the others were confident that they had inflicted major damages to the small alliance! What Jason had not known was that they had just rescued the Greil clan, from which Till Greil hailed! This astonished him a little bit and Jason wondered whether Till or maybe even Seron was there! With the number of spatial rings in his large pouch, Jason was sure that he wouldn''t have to pay attention to collecting more cultivation resources. However, that was not important right now. He wanted to figure out whether Till Greil or Seron Gier was in the Greil clan! As such he manifested Artemis'' wings on his back and flew towards the Greil clan headquarters that looked more like ruins than the magnificent building complex it should have been before! While flying towards the Greil headquarters, Jason extinguished Solaris'' flames around his head. Jason retraced his Celestia aura and the glow on his stigma too which allowed him to look like a normal youth. That was if one were to disregard his natural confidence, the masses of blood that had drenched his combat clothes, and the fact that his stigma looked like a large golden-silverish-colored tattoo! It didn''t take long before he had arrived within the destroyed building complex as he took a look around. He could see many injured humans and there was a foreign race he had never seen before. The Lyran race were bipedal beings that looked similar to humans, just that their entire being was glowing in a faint white glow. Other than that, there was a faint halo around the Lyran race''s head, and from the outer appearance, they looked extremely strong. However, Jason could easily decipher that they were at most on par with the Ifrytor race that was among the weakest foreign races Jason had encountered until now! If his assumption was not wrong, the Lyran race was even weaker than the Ifrytor race, because their number was much lower compared to the Ifrytors. This might be wrong, but Jason had other things to take care of, and he didn''t want to bother thinking about the Ifrytor race! As such he activated his mana eyes in order to search for familiar mana fluctuations. He found Fasro and Shane''s mana fluctuations but other than that he was unable to perceive anyone else he knew. That was until five minutes had passed and the last combat unit of the Greil family returned. Jason''s eyes lit up as he perceived familiar mana fluctuations and he couldn''t help but shout "Teacher!....TIll!!" He waved to Till, who was confused when he saw Jason. ''Do I know him?... WAIT? IS THAT JASON???'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 452 - Desperation If Till had been unable to sense Jason''s mana fluctuations, he wouldn''t have recognized him at all! It seemed as if everything about Jason had changed. Except for his mana fluctuations, only the golden-colored eyes that were mixed with a little bit silver were similar to how he had looked before. Nevertheless, Till Greil couldn''t help but dive towards Jason before he disintegrated the wings on his back as he hesitantly asked "You...are Jason, right?" When Jason heard this, he couldn''t help but smile as he said "Obviously, I''m Jason! Who else could I be? How are you doing, and where is Seron? Is everything fine with him and his family too?" Till was glad that it was really Jason, who stood in front of him, however, the question he was asking caused him to ponder for a moment. "You can already see that I''m alive, but that''s everything I can proudly say...the whole clan seems to be on the brink of destruction and not even the Lyran race is able to overcome the attack of the small four-race alliance! About Seron, he shouldn''t have too many problems, and it would be weird if he were dead. The Gier family told him to return right before the war broke out, but I haven''t heard any bad news about the Gier clan! Rather than that, they seem to have established a large army with all human powerhouses that survived until now! Are you with the Shaibi clan? Shane should be here too then! He should be careful with the Drake clan! They''re becoming crueler the more time passes... it''s just disgusting!" Jason had heard about the Gier family''s army, but he hadn''t been sure about Seron''s whereabouts at that time. However, when he heard Till''s warning against the Drake family, his lips twitched. "Jael Drake has already visited the Shandra country once and knows that Shane is not only alive but also that he has killed Old Drake¡­" Till''s eyes widened for a moment before he mumbled "That''s bad...the Drake clan and My?ldra race are not to be taken lightly¡­" Only a moment later he said with little confidence "I shouldn''t worry too much, Shane will be fine...but I would like to meet and talk with him if possible" Jason could tell that Till tried to hide something from him, but instead of pressuring him to tell him everything, Jason remained silent. He just nodded his head and summoned Artemis'' wings before he soared into the air to fly towards Shane and Fasro. Till followed him without hesitation while thinking that something about Jason had changed. ''His whole demeanor is different compared to two years ago! Did he lose his youthfulness or did something else happen to him?'' It was not uncommon for someone to change, even less if one was thrown into a war with multiple foreign races that tried to reign over mankind. In the end, the human race was only seen as a tool to become stronger and everyone whether one was young or old, strong or weak, began to understand this! Humanity was just too weak!! Nevertheless, when Till inspected Jason''s mana core, he couldn''t help but feel shocked as he exclaimed "There are 20 drops of liquefied mana within your mana core!! Aren''t you just 16 years old..maybe a few months older??" Even though Jason would have felt proud under normal circumstances, he couldn''t help but think that he was still not strong enough. Otherwise, Scorpio wouldn''t have to sacrifice his life to save him! "It''s still not enough" Jason thus answered, and Till noticed a glint of sorrow within Jason''s eyes. As such he decided that it was better to stay silent instead of saying something wrong if he had not already done that! Once Jason had brought Till to Shane, who stood next to the Greil family patriarch, one of the strongest Lyran and Fasro, he wanted to leave. However, Fasro and Shane told him that he should listen to everything which caused the Lyran and Greil family patriarch to eye him. "I don''t think it is necessary for someone as weak as this young human to listen to our important discussion" The Lyran said, and Jason could tell that he had something against humans or just him as a person. Yet, instead of telling Jason that he should leave as the Greil patriarch and Lyran were expecting, Fasro turned to the Lyran as he said "I think you should apologize! Without this ''weak and young human'' you and every other Lyran, no less human would be dead by now! He proposed to save all of you after all!" Jason acted as if he was not listening, but he couldn''t help but think that Fasro was exaggerating the facts a little bit. Nevertheless, both the Lyran and Greil patriarch understood the meaning behind Fasro''s words and turned quiet. They didn''t thank Jason, but he could tell that their view of him had changed within a single moment. After that they had released their mana fluctuations in order to figure out more about his strength, only to see that he had barely 20 drops of liquefied mana within his mana core. "Weak...as expected.." The Lyran mumbled subconsciously, while the Greil patriarch''s reaction was the complete opposite as he exclaimed. "How old are you???" Till, who had already occupied Shane in order to talk with him heard his ancestor exclaiming which caused a faint smile to emerge on his lips as he said "He is not even 17 years old!" The Greil patriarch eyed Jason in shock and was about to say something, when Jason''s mana eyes perceived strong mana ripples. His calm demeanor changed within a single moment, and he supplied more mana into his eyes as he saw that someone within the crowd of injured and exhausted humans took out something from his spatial ring. Only a moment later Jason sensed an astronomical amount of mana surging into the item that had been taken out, supplemented by the surrounding mana stones which the middle-aged man had taken out. It was a rocket launcher, with terrific impact! The sheer amount of mana that was compressed within the rocket launcher was shocking, but the moment Jason had noticed that something was wrong he had already ordered Solaris'' to help him create compressed, high-temperature flames in front of every single finger of his hands. At the same time, he had already created ten threads of mana which he led to each finger. He even ignored his injured hand that had barely started to heal after he had gulped down several potions and spread a healing solution over it. It was unknown whether the others could react fast enough, but Jason was sure that he was the first one to notice that something was wrong as his mana eyes made this possible. The others had only been astonished when Jason''s demeanor changed suddenly, only to notice a middle-aged man behind them cried out. "CAN''T YOU FOREIGN RACES LEAVE US ALONEE????" It was a cry in despair which was something, every citizen felt in the recent era of death and war. However, uncommon was the fact that everyone sensed a sudden, enormous amount of mana gathering at one place as Jason pushed aside Fasro, who was targeted by the middle-aged man that had begun to cry when he pulled the trigger. There was no time for Jason to wonder what was going on because the ammunition within the rocket launcher that was filled with the entire gathered mana had been released at once. "Oh F*ck!!" He could barely exclaim, when he instinctively unleashed his stigma and Celestia aura, knowing that it would be impossible to face the rocket that shot towards him at a shockingly high velocity. At that moment, Artemis transferred every trace of mana towards Jason, while Solaris made use of it! Just a second later, Jason lifted his hands to the height of his chest and the moment his wrists came in touch with each other, he fired 10 compressed black fire bullets at once. Suddenly, without him realizing it, a huge black flame shell had formed within the palms of his hands. It was shot towards the rocket as a huge explosion and the devastation of the surrounding followed suit. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 453 - You Belong To Me Now! Jason panted heavily and flinched when he felt that all bones in his hands were breaking. This happened a moment after he had shot out the 10 black fire bullets, followed by the large black fire shell Solaris'' had instinctively created out of Artemis'' mana. Fortunately enough, all of his attacks had been enough to destroy the rocket launcher''s attack, whose strength was on par with someone at the late Lique stage! His mana eyes had perceived that the middle-aged man who tried to kill Fasro with the ambush had yet to enter the Lique stage which was probably the reason for everyone to be off guard against him. However, Jason found the whole situation to be extremely weird, and instead of paying attention to his hands that had gone limp, he utilized Artemis'' wings in order to catapult himself towards the middle-aged man that was still crying. "D-Did...I kill it??" Jason heard him mumbling, however, there was neither happiness nor joy in his voice. Only a moment after Jason had reacted, the others who had already solidified prismarine crystals began to move. It was astonishing that Jason had been faster than them, at least for those who were unaware of his mana eyes. Thanks to the mana ripples he had sensed before anything had even happened, Jason could act much faster than the rest. This had, most likely, also saved the middle-aged man''s life because Jason had already emerged in front of him. His golden-silverish eyes that had been supplied with a faint trace of mana stared straight into the man''s eyes that were filled with fear, desperation, the desire to live, to not be suppressed. Jason was not sure if he understood the glint in the man''s eyes correctly, but he was unable to perceive any anger or the intent to kill anyone. This was weird, but when he was able to sense the middle-aged man''s sorrow and his trembling hands whose grip around the rocket launcher had loosened, Jason couldn''t help but sigh. In the end, Jason was overly familiar with the sorrow the middle-aged man radiated because he had been the same only two months ago. ''Does he want to take revenge on the foreign races for taking someone he loved dearly?'' At the moment he thought this, Shane, the Greil family patriarch, and Fasro had already emerged next to Shane with their mana fully utilized, ready to kill the assassin. However, just as they were to take the middle-aged man''s life, Jason took a step forward, hindering the others in their approach as he said "Stop" His voice was quiet and without much willpower, but everyone was able to hear Jason. Not sure why he would tell them to stop, they instinctively halted in their tracks before their mana was retracted. Only a moment later, Till, who had been slightly slower than the rest had emerged next to Shane, only to look at Jason''s hands. "Ugh...that looks painful¡­." He just said before he summoned his soulbond. The greater blessed wolf that emerged next to Till immediately started to release its holy light affinity that begun to envelop Jason''s hand. Jason, who had ignored the pain in his hands with his utmost efforts, couldn''t help but sigh as he looked at them for the first time. "My body is just too weak to bear the full impact of the black fire bullets, no less the black fire rocket¡­" He was just mumbling all kinds of words, but nobody was able to tell why Jason was so easily distracted. His back faced the middle-aged man, whose legs had already given up as he began to cry bitterly. When Jason noticed this he had tried to ignore it as well as possible, but this was not feasible, because the Lyran targeted the middle-aged man with his killing intent. "Can you stop that, please? It''s not like you''ve been attacked or injured, right?" If the leader of the Lyran race had been fast enough to defend the rocket, Jason would have accepted his anger, but Fasro had been targeted by the middle-aged man and he had stopped the attack. As such there was no need for the Lyran to act like this. Jason''s words caused the Lyran to stiffen for a moment and he was about to retort how a lowly being like Jason dared to have such an attitude towards him when he saw his bright glowing stigma. The stigma above Jason''s right eye was glowing brightly and it had begun to connect itself to his Celestial aura that had loosened some of the blood-red hue. As such, the Lyran was able to tell that Jason was definitely not a normal human being! "You...You are not a--" However, before the Lyran could say anything, Fasro had already shut his mouth as he mumbled "Say another word and the race he hails from will obliterate your whole race, planet, and everyone close to you!" Fasro was just saying this because he had no idea whether the other race of Jason''s heritage knew about his existence, if they were to do something to take care of him, or if he had simply been abandoned as a halfling. The latter was unlikely because mankind''s soul-awakening was among the best possible soul-awakenings a race could have! Awakening a strong soul world in the soul-awakening process allowed humans to become even stronger than prodigies from higher races. That was under the condition that their environment was suitable and the surrounding mana not as scarce as it was on Argos! As such, Fasro was sure that the last reason he had in mind was extremely unlikely, while the former was also not likely to be the cause for him to live on Argos! There had to be something else, but Fasro could tell that Jason was as ignorant to the truth as he was! While Fasro and the others were deep in thoughts, trying to figure out what had happened and how they had been unable to perceive the ambush on them, Jason only stared at the crying middle-aged man and the rocket launcher next to him. He had never seen such a high-technology advanced weapon empowered by mana and made from human hands, and the only similar tools were the soul-awakening orb, the mana mastery orb, and the dome. Without minding that the man was crying Jason simply asked "Did you manufacture the rocket launcher by yourself?" Because he felt that the middle-aged mana didn''t want to kill anyone, Jason tried to ignore the fact that Fasro, or in fact he himself had almost been blown into smithereens. In the end, he was still alive and there might as well be the chance to make us of the middle-aged man''s assassination. Yet, this was only possible, if he had manufactured the rocket launcher, otherwise, the middle-aged man had nothing that could help Jason out. Solaris'' highly compressed black fire bullets were extremely lethal and they didn''t even require a huge amount of mana if properly controlled and adjusted according to his opponent''s strength. The crying man thought he was about to die and had already accepted his fate, when he heard that Jason was speaking to him. He was not even sure whether he even wanted to live or not since his life had been turned upside down since the foreign races had invaded Canir, and killed almost everyone from his family. Only his sister was left... However, somehow, Jason''s question caused his tears to cease after he had acknowledged being the manufacturer of the mana empowered rocket launcher. "In that case, you belong to me now!..." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 454 - Insane "In that case, you belong to me now!..." When the middle-aged man and the others around Jason heard his words, they were baffled and even Shane wanted to intervene. But when he saw determination glimmering in his disciple''s eyes, Shane knew that he would be unable to change Jason''s decision. "Huh...but why...and how? Don''t you want to kill me? I nearly killed you...and look at your hands¡­!!!" The middle-aged man was unable to understand anything. Instead of the harsh punishment he had expected to receive, Jason just smiled at him as he said "If you are really the creator of these rocket launchers, I want you to work for me! If you don''t feel like it, just apologize by helping me out once or twice! At least you almost killed me..or rather Fasro!" Fasro wouldn''t have died, but Jason didn''t want to destroy the man''s illusion. Despite the pain in his hands, he couldn''t help but feel pity. Ten minutes had passed and the chaotic situation began to ease as Jason had some time to speak with the middle-aged man, whose name was Mike Asdra, alone. The others stepped back giving them some space, yet, they didn''t retreat fully because Mike had just attacked Fasro, who had saved the Greil clan and whole kingdom from the small four-race alliance! Who knew whether he would do something like this again! He called himself a simple man who had just wanted to create better weapons that could be used by other citizens without a great mana aptitude or high mana core rank! Mike had initially begun to manufacture weapons like rocket launchers and certain types of pistols in order to protect citizens from humans with ill-intentions and ferocious beasts that might invade cities and protected areas during a beast tide! How could he have known that a war was about to start! Mike had also told Jason that his wife had the most knowledge about mana devices and that he had only learned a little bit in order to create mana guns and other similar devices. Unfortunately, she and Mike''s daughter had been killed shortly after the war of the foreign races had begun, from an individual of a foreign race at that. As such Mike began to hate foreign races and he could barely accept the Lyran race because they tried to protect the Grier family and kingdom! In the end, he had attacked Fasro, thinking that he belonged to one of the four races of the small four-race alliance! As such it was a big misunderstanding caused by the terror the Ariyor race''s appearance and mana fluctuations caused to Mike''s mental health that was already unstable! This caused Jason to sigh in relief because it might be better to save Mike than kill him, because of the mistake he had made! Mike was still not sure what Jason wanted to do when he recalled how he had defended against the rocket launchers attack that was on par with a Lord rank ranked elemental attack! "I¡­might say something rude now, but do you want me to manufacture a rocket launcher for you too? If I''m not wrong, your hands are unable to bear the impact of the compressed mana you release at once, in a single direction...If that''s the case¡­.I''m...not sure if I can do that¡­" It was not difficult to comprehend what Jason wanted from him and Mike''s guess was spot on. If he were to be able to shoot the black fire bullets out of a rocket launcher, rifle, or to be more precise a small pistol, his fingers wouldn''t have to bear the impact as the weapon''s materials would have to do so! However, what Jason had not expected was that Mike was reluctant to help him. He had almost killed him after all! "Is there a particular reason why you cannot, or maybe why you don''t like to help me?" Jason tried to figure out Mike''s issue, but there was not really a solution to it. Meanwhile, the male from the Lyran race tried to speak to Fascro in the universal language. He wanted to figure out what Jason was or from which race he belonged. Yet, instead of answering, Fasro could only sigh "You should know the answer for yourself. My knowledge about this youth''s situation might be broader than yours but he is also a mystery to me! But let me repeat myself. If you don''t want anything to happen to your race, or anyone close to you, I can just give you a tip; stay away from Jason, or don''t spread any information about him!" Fasro was not sure why he had even answered the Lyran race, but he felt like he was about to expose Jason''s secret right off the bat. Jason had just retraced his stigma''s glow and the aura around him, and it was not difficult to perceive how exhausted he was! He had deflected an attack at the late Lique stage after all! This was something that had shocked Fasro and the others greatly, but it was more embarrassing that Jason''s reaction had been faster than theirs. Fasro knew that he wouldn''t have died, or even received a severe injury after getting hit by the rocket that had been launched at him, yet, Jason had given his best to protect him. It might have been unnecessary, but Fasro could tell that Jason would protect others despite being at a disadvantage. As such, Fasro felt like he had to help out Jason to a certain extent too! Only a few more minutes had passed before Jason and Mike came to a conclusion. Mike had been unable to decide whether he wanted to help Jason because he was not sure whether Jason would use the weapons he created against humans as he might have been manipulated by other foreign races, or if he were to use those weapons against humanity''s enemies. Jason found this reasonable and at the same time a little bit ridiculous, he had just fought against the small four-race alliance with his life on the line after all! There was also another reason for Mike to be unsure whether he was capable of creating a useful weapon for Jason or not. He didn''t know anything about Jason''s capabilities, strength, the weapon he wanted to have manufactured, and so on. As such he had said that he was not sure about it. Unfortunately, even after speaking with Jason, Mike was unable to tell whether or not he was able to manufacture the weapons as Jason wanted! ''His fire''s ability is constantly becoming stronger, and he wants a gun he can handle with one hand? At the same time, this weapon should be able to shoot out attacks on the same level as someone at the Sovereign rank? How is he supposed to handle the recoil and what the hell is he trying to do?'' Mike had already been confused why Jason did not kill him yet, but from the looks of it, Jason''s mental state was even worse than his own! ''He is definitely insane! How should I create the weapons he wants?'' "Can you handle it?" Yet, when Mike looked into Jason''s eyes that glimmered with ambition and determination, he couldn''t help but gulp. ''He is definitely serious about every single word he has said!!'' "I¡­.I''ll give it a try¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 455 - Manufracturing Two weeks had passed since the five big clans and the Ariyor race had defeated the small four-race alliance. They had rescued the Lyran race and the Greil clan, whom they brought to the Shandra country. During the last two weeks, Jason''s strength increased by a small margin, with three new liquefied drops of mana. Other than that, Petri had received the life force Solaris had absorbed which thickened the white evolution cocoon around his body. The cocoon enlarged, but Jason was aware that this was just Petri increasing in size. He felt that Petri''s curses were changing too, and it was more difficult to utilize them during the metamorphosis they seem to undergo. However, it was still possible, and Jason practiced his martial art skills while utilizing every means he had at hand to become stronger. Since he had barely defeated the Doom Crawl that had 400 drops of liquefied mana in its mana core, Jason had become more careful about the utilization of all of his abilities at once. He had to, otherwise, it was likely that he had to suffer a lot! A single mistake could decide over life and death! Thus, Jason wanted to be perfectly prepared, knowing what he could do, and what he had to pay attention to. Nevertheless, he had stopped practicing the Devious Swordmaster martial art technique because he noticed that it was filled with flaws. It sounded ridiculous to himself, but the Tier-2 martial art technique had become child''s play to him. At least that was how it felt since he had awoken the Celestia race''s bloodline within him. The only technique he wanted to improve was the weightless steps technique which was probably because it was the cloned, yet flawed version of the Grier family''s Floating sky movement technique! This movement technique was a technique belonging to a foreign race and more profound than any technique the human race had ever made. Unfortunately, Jason did not get his hand on this technique, and there was only one sequence he remembered about it. Nevertheless, the last two weeks were extremely interesting for Jason in other aspects too! He had forged lots of different alloys and all kinds of small objects he had never heard about before. Yet, they seemed to be important in order to help Mike in manufacturing the weapons according to Jason''s needs! There were many things Mike had to pay attention to, however, the most important was the amount of force it could execute. After Jason had explained how he shot the black fire bullets and that it was essential for him to involve his black fire affinity into every single of his bullets! There was no need for him to use ammunition, but Mike told him that it would reduce his mana consumption. At the same time, this made everything easier about adjusting the amount of utilized mana according to his opponent''s strength as he would use unitary bullets that were customized for him. Mike had manufactured two weapons for him and both were desert eagles. One of them was black in color, looking like a normal desert eagle if one were to disregard the numerical runes inscribed on it while strong mana currents radiating from the desert eagle''s materials! Meanwhile, the other desert eagle had a wider barrel than the first one and was red in color. The number of runes inscribed on it was higher while the mana currents radiating from it were denser. In the beginning, Jason was not sure what exactly the difference between those weapons had been, but the results by testing both desert eagles out were shocking! The black desert eagle used the smaller bullets that required less mana than the second type of large, armor-piercing bullets the red desert eagle could utilize. While summoning a compressed black flame at the barrel''s mouth, he inserted some mana into the desert eagle''s ammunition before shooting them out. Because he had already faintly utilized Solaris'' black flame affinity while filling the ammunition with mana, the compressed black flame at the mouth of the barrel ignited the ammunition that was enveloped in a faint membrane of mana. While manufacturing the desert eagles and ammo for them, Mike and Jason had to plan out several scenarios and it was the most important to prevent any accidents from occurring. However, what they hadn''t expected was that they created devastating weapons that were strong enough to kill most opponents Jason would have to face in the near future. While he could use Kumo, how he called the black desert eagle, in order to shoot several times in succession, without the need to use up too much mana, Degar, the red desert eagle, was for the stubborn opponents with high defense capabilities! Both weapons were made out of the best materials Jason could procure from the big clans and he just had to exchange mana stones or body refinement techniques with some translations within them. He translated them by himself which allowed him to receive huge amounts of resources and everything else he required in exchange for the translations! To most big clans it didn''t even matter how compatible their descendants were to those body refinement manuals. This was because everyone had started to become desperate and Jason''s translated body refinement manuals were a safe path to become a little bit stronger within a short period! If there hadn''t been a war, Jason would have refrained from translating the body refining manuals he found within the spatial rings of the deceased foreign races, but mankind''s stance against the Drake clan and M?lydra race was worse than he had initially expected. Furthermore, nobody knew that he had translated the manuals because there were only a few that knew about his capabilities! He had just used the Ariyor race to find a scapegoat for his lie and everything else had been perfectly fine! Two weeks had passed and the M?lydra race alliance had already annihilated three more big clans and races on their conquest through Canir! Weirdly enough, it seemed like the My?ldra race wanted to save Shane, the six big clans, the Ariyor race, and now the Lyran race for the end! This gave them enough time to prepare themselves which was the weird point! Why would the My?ldra race even allow this? The only somewhat feasible answer was that Jael Drake wanted to take Shane and the rest down when their last ray of hope had been extinguished. However, how could Jael Drake, who had been manipulated by the My?ldra race comprehend that this decision was what would make him suffer even more! Standing on the shooting range he took a look at the two types of ammo Mike had already manufactured for him. One type of ammo was for Kumo to use in order to shoot several bullets in short succession without losing out strength that was comparable to a mid Lique stage, while the other ammo required a huge amount of mana, however, it was strong enough to pierce through materials that were said to be as strong as a Lord rank, or late Lique stage would be. Right now, Jason was unable to use both weapons for too long because his mana consumption was still too high, but the sheer impact caused by the desert eagles was enough to be astonished. The bullets he used would be enveloped in Solaris'' black flames, immediately after they left the barrel. Burning through the mana membrane surrounding the ammunition, Jason and Mike had only perceived that the bullet pierced into its target before it had exploded! This had astonished both, but Jason''s mana eyes had perceived what had happened! The moment after the bullets pierced into the target, the mana weakened mana membrane that had been burned by Solaris'' flame had completely vanished. This caused a chain reaction and the used ingredients to construct the desert eagle''s ammo inflated and exploded! Literally everything about those two desert eagles was expensive, but the price was definitely worth the results he obtained. Manufacturing the weapons took the longest, but even the ammunition was not easy to produce. As such Jason was told to be careful when using it. However, how should Mike have known that Jason was not known for being careful or stingy when it came to fighting against his opponents! If it was helpful, Jason would use hundreds of bullets in order to attack and kill his enemies as long as he was able to survive or rescue someone! This was just how he was. Despite being seen as extremely young and weak, Jason knew better than anyone else that the number of liquefied drops of mana within one''s mana core was only one of several indicators to determine one''s strength! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 456 - Hopeless Everyone had returned to the Shiabi clan headquarters that was slowly becoming too small to accommodate six big clans and two foreign races! As such, they had to expand their camps a little bit. However, other things had to be taken care of! While Jason had begun to translate the body refining manuals, he noticed a few things he had not realized earlier. Excluding the information about some races, there was also information about those that were eligible to learn the manuals he translated and those that were not compatible with the techniques! As such, he was able to tell that the Ifrytor''s body refining technique was not incompatible with humans as long as one was unable to procure life force through other means. This was interesting, but even more so was the fact that the Doom Crawls had a neutral physical body refinement technique! It was compatible with everyone which was interesting to know, and one was fortunately not required to be cursed. With that in mind, Jason had begun to translate and copy his translations at a rapid pace. If it was possible to strengthen everyone equal to a few drops of liquefied mana, this would be a great achievement. As such, the price for his translated body refinement techniques began to decrease and he had even requested help. He wanted to hire someone copying his translated parts word by word. They had to be bound by an advanced soul contract because Jason didn''t want that his identity would be exposed, but that was no problem. As such, with the manufacturing process of his weapon, the translation of body refinement manuals, forging, absorption of mana, refinement of his physique, and adjustment of his body to every single ability he had, Jason did not sleep a single minute. However, that was not required and instead of doing something needless, Jason was determined to make use of every minute of the day! Unfortunately, this was not enough to accomplish everything he had wanted to before news about the army from a small four-race alliance arrived in the Shandra country. Initially, Jason and the others had thought that they annihilated the Doom Crawls, Thudra race, Ganasia race, and Malidar race! Yet, that didn''t seem to be the case and the army they had defeated had to be a small part of those that had fled! Nevertheless, the news about the army of the small four race was not enough to shock Jason and the rest! Instead, it was the news about the Drake clan, My?ldra- and Burane race suppressing and annexing multiple big clans and races! This was the worst that could happen and the whole Drake alliance seemed to have become a huge army with millions of soldiers! Most of them were humans at the Lique stage, but they were not considered a threat! The real threat were the foreign races at the Prismar stage! Even though the Ariyor race was superior to the most common and even higher races because of their combat experience and prowess, there were too many opponents and the My?ldra race was even stronger than them! As such, the Ariyor race''s morale plummeted while everyone started to become desperate. Jason had even heard some Ariyor that started to debate whether they should retreat to their own world or not. It was only obvious that they valued their life as every living being would. Because of that Jason was able to understand that the benefits the Ariyor race obtained from the Shiabi clan were not worth the death of several tens of thousand Ariyors! Yet, Jason was still able to see a ray of hope! That was at least until Fasro had approached him as he said "I..don''t know what you want to hear right now, but it''s a fact that we can''t win against the Drake alliance! Even though we have six big clans and two foreign races, this would be barely enough to fight against the My?ldra race and Drake family! We, the Ariyor race, and the Lyran race might be strong enough to face the My?ldra race together, but what about the Drake family? Are the six weakened big clans strong enough to fight them head-on? According to the information we obtained, the M?lydra race utilized every means to support the Drake family and their equipment is on par with the Elite units of common races! Furthermore, they have practiced Terra-Advanced body refining techniques to a high degree which means that they had prepared everything for a long time. In the beginning, we were still hopeful that we might be able to help the Shiabi clan, but this war has already been lost!! ...If you want we can take you and everyone important around you with us...but I don''t think the Ariyor race will stay much longer on Argos!" Fasro''s words struck Jason like thunder, and his last ray of hope seemed to shatter into smitherness. Jason''s mind repeated the words one after another, several times before he was able to look at Fasro as he said "So...there is really no hope for Argos left?" He had already felt that the My?ldra race would be extremely difficult to defeat, but Jason never wanted to accept that their chances were that bad. It had hit everyone hard, when news about the Drake family and the My?ldra race colluding with another higher race, but the fact that this small alliance had even begun to suppress and annex the other races that tried to reign over Argos was shocking. This was out of everyone''s expectations and nobody of the Ariyor race would have thought that this might happen. The My?ldra race was arrogant and didn''t title themselves as the strongest higher race only to accept the help of weaker races. Because of that, the Ariyor race had already been confused that they colluded with the Burane race, which was deemed as weaker than the My?ldra race. Nevertheless, the Burane race was still a higher race and not one of the common races they had annexed! This should have been a disgrace to the My?ldra race and not something they would normally do in order to conquer a lowly planet that had yet to awaken its mana heart for millennia! There had to be an instance that caused the My?ldra race to change their mind about their behavior, but neither Jason nor the Ariyor race knew what kind of situation could have created this mind-changing behavior! Jason felt gratitude towards Fasro because of his great offer. However, he was sure that his masters wouldn''t follow him to the Ariyor race''s world! Furthermore, Jason did not plan to leave them for now. He didn''t want to lose someone important to him anymore, even if that meant that he had to become a Devil, massacring millions of living beings! Solaris was his chance to become stronger and by utilizing enough mana, absorbing its opponents'' life force, and digesting it, he might increase his chances to survive. Nevertheless, they would remain infinitely close to 0! Jason was fully aware of this and he was torn back and forth as he reluctantly asked. "When¡­. Are you and the Ariyors departing? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 457 - Will You Be Okay? Fasro gave Jason one week to think about what he wanted to do, and even that was already a lot. If it was up to him and his siblings, they would have already departed, however, their mother, one of the Ariyor race''s elders had decided against this. It seemed that their mother had yet to give up on Argos. There could be something that made her confident in Argos'' future, but nobody living on Argos was able to see that yet! But, without knowing what exactly this could be, everyone''s morale had begun to plummet. Even if the Ariyor race had not announced their departure to the six big clans, it was clear that mankind''s situation became worse with each passing day. Two days had passed and Shane, who had departed a few days earlier in order to figure out something, had returned with the first good news! "The Gier clan and most ancient clans and sects have come to a consensus! They want to team up against the Drake alliance! We have been asked to merge our alliance with theirs, and I think this might be the best we can do for now!" When Shane had said so at the meeting in which the six big clans, the Lyran and Ariyor race and a few others, including Jason were present. Shane''s news sounded good, but Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit uncomfortable with Shane''s gaze that brushed past him way too often. It seemed as if Shane was trying to make eye contact with him while avoiding him at the same time. There had to be something wrong, and when the big clans inquired about the names and numbers of the big clans, ancient clans, and sects that colluded with the Gier family, Jason''s eyes turned cold. "The Blood sect?" Jason had refrained from speaking at the meetings with the six big clans in order to avoid attracting too much attention, but he had subconsciously blurted out what he had on his mind. Fortunately, he was able to calm down before he said more and his ice-cold eyes that leaked killing intent reverted back to their normal state. Jason ignored the other big clan heads that looked at him annoyed, as he stared at Shane, who looked at him apologetically as he nodded his head faintly. Yet, instead of seeing complex emotions that caused Jason to be torn back and forth, he just smiled. This caused Shane to feel as if something bad were about to happen, but he remained silent. ''Finally, I can search for my mother''s murderer!!'' It was obvious that killing someone who was important to the Blood sect in the current times would be the stupidest thing he could do, however, being able to figure out more about his mother''s murderer was important. Until now, he only knew that he hailed from the Blood sect and that he had a race inherited ability from the blood sect too! Furthermore, he knew that his strength should be roughly at the low Lique stage with approximately 100 or more drops of liquefied mana in his mana core! It might as well be higher, but Jason didn''t think that the man he was searching for was stronger than he was! Excitement could be seen in Jason''s eyes and his Celestia aura leaked subconsciously. At the same time, the blood-red color that had receded backlashed, and Fasro, Midra, and the representative of the Lyran race noticed this with a tinge of fear in their eyes. As such, Fasro quickly said intervened before something unpredicted was about to happen "If we were to collide with the Gier family, there should be a temporary truce with everyone...I think the Drake alliance is the biggest issue everyone has to face right now! The other feuds can be solved after that, right?" Shane lifted his eyebrow when Fasro said this, and from the way the Ariyors and Lyran had looked at Jason before, it was as if they were able to sense something, he was unable to perceive! However, before he was able to think about this some more, the Shiabi patriarch suddenly asked "Does that mean that the Ariyor race won''t depart? You said ''we'' after all!" This caused Fasro''s whole liquefied body to stop moving for a quarter of a second as he said "If the chances to face the Drake alliance are not close to zero and we receive the order to stay here, we will do so! Other than that, I won''t promise anything, and I guess the same applies for the Lyran race, but that''s not something I can or will decide!" The representative of the Lyran race just nodded his head and didn''t say anything while eying Jason with the corner of his eye. When Jason noticed this, he retracted his Celestia aura almost immediately before he acted as if nothing had happened. Nevertheless, his mind was still filled with the thought of his mother''s murderer and the fact that mankind was about to create a huge army in order to fight the Drake alliance! The Gier clan''s alliance was consistent with more than 10 big clans, the majority of ancient clans and sects, and a few common races that had decided to support the human race if they were to make a deal. This deal was similar to those soul contracts that already existed. However, compared to before, it was not a forced agreement and one that benefited both sides! Those common races demanded to receive the humanity''s criminals that received the death sentence because of the crimes they had committed, and exchanged those with low-grade manuals and resources! Furthermore, the contract they were to sign was not forced and could be severed from both sides without the need to pay attention to a punishment! There was almost nobody that bothered about the lives of those that were sentenced to death either way, and even Jason had to acknowledge that he didn''t care about what would happen to them as long as they were guilty. As such, he didn''t say anything to the Gier alliance''s behavior. Instead, he sensed that the combined forces of the Gier clan''s alliance and the Shaibi clan''s alliance might be able to take care of the Drake alliance. That was at least if the only higher race were to be the My?ldra race! The Ariyor race had not much information about the Burance-race, but they knew was enough to frustrate everyone! Apparently, their cultivation talent was not that great, but that was balanced out by their strong ice and water affinity. Meanwhile, their combat prowess was said to be high too! When Fasro had listened to every piece of information he had received, he was could tell that the chances to fight against the Drake alliance were not zero anymore. Their combined forces should be enough to fight head-on with the suppressed big clans, common forieng races, the Drake family, and even the My?ldra race. However, the Burane race was a different matter! There was no information about their number and strength. It was as if they were the hidden forces of the Drake alliance. Thus, they had to estimate their strength and number which meant that they had to exaggerate. This was to prevent underestimating their opponent. In the end, the discussion took several hours, but Jason had already stopped listening to it after he had heard the news about the Blood sect. As such, he had only realized that it was over when everyone stood up to spread the next steps they were about to take to their clans! At this moment, he saw that Shane approached him with a faint smile as he saw Jason''s eyes that were emotionless. When Shane perceived thsi, he couldn''t help but forget the final decision the big clans and two foreign races had found as he asked "Will you be okay? I mean...you''ll have to encounter and probably live near the sect of your mother''s murderer after all...." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 458 - Moving "Will you be okay? I mean...you''ll have to encounter and probably live near the sect of your mother''s murderer after all...." Jason wanted to nod his head, but he couldn''t do so. It just felt wrong. "To be honest, I don''t know. Even if humanity''s situation is extremely bad right now¡­.I might be unable to hold back¡­ As long as I find out who my mother''s murderer is, I might trail and take care of him...but I guess that this would cause more chaos than it might benefit me!" He sighed before looking at his master who seemed unfazed. "You can do whatever you want, but I hope you can take care of this after the war has ended¡­ At least mankind''s future is on the line" Jason didn''t say anything and it felt as if he hadn''t heard Shane, but he knew that Jason was fully aware of the importance the next few months had to mankind''s future! "When will we depart?" He asked after a minute of silence, and Shane, who was about to leave answered "In the evening after everyone packed up their equipment. Bring Mike and the others too! We might need their help!" Jason knew that Shane was speaking about the fact that Mike manufactured his ammunition while the others he mentioned were probably the stuff he had hired to copy the translated body refining manuals. He hadn''t realized how important it was to translate and copy the Doom Crawls body refining manual before the big clans had started to request the Ariyor race to provide more of them. Their ''requests'' felt more like desperate pleadings and when Fasro had to ask Jason what he had done, Jason was forced to reveal that he had used the Ariyor race to cover his ability to read in the universal language. Fasro didn''t mind that, and instead, he told Jason that he could continue to do so. The fact that everyone''s combat prowess would increase during the next weeks was extremely beneficial to everyone, except the Drake alliance, who were their enemies. It might only be a small margin, but that could already be a deciding factor in the entire war! As such it was a great idea to distribute the neutral body refining manual of the Doom Crawls because it was suitable for everyone, without exception! Thus, Jason was able to earn lots of mana stones and materials from the big families that had only a few body refining manuals for their most talented descendants. Thanks to that he wouldn''t have problems absorbing mana to his heart''s content, and it was only when Jason realized that he shouldn''t reveal the glowing stigma to attract the attention of even more races that he became serious. "The Ariyor and Lyran race are aware of my secret...at least to a certain extent...Will it really matter whether or not I''ll reveal the stigma or not?" At that moment, he remembered what common races had signed the unconditional contract with the Gier clan alliance as his eyes widened. He realized something that caused him to be dumbfounded. "Wait...how can that be possible? The Shadow walkers decided to combine their forces with us? Weren''t they the reason why everything had begun in the first place?? Are we really that desperate?" This confused Jason a lot, but there was nothing to do about it. In the end, mankind''s situation was just too tricky and dangerous. Even if they didn''t like or even hated the races they combined their forces with, there was no other way out of their miserable situation. As such everyone had to accept the Shadow walker race as their comrades. It might be only temporary but everyone had to calm down and stay level-headed. Otherwise, the grain of hope some humans were able to perceive would disappear before it could blossom. Jason didn''t feel like there was much hope in their current situation. That was at least the case after Fasro had explained in a detailed manner how high their chances were. Without the Burane race, they might be able to fight the Drake alliance on par, but the unknown factors about the mysterious race were just too many! As such, Fasro had told him that he shouldn''t be too hopeful. Instead, he should be prepared for the worst-case scenario! In the evening, the six big clans and two foreign races departed, and it took the slowest almost two days before their soulbonds which they rode arrived in the complex of several dozen camps. Every big clan and race had their own camp in order to prevent creating any disturbances, and Jason couldn''t help but think that this was great for the overall situation, but disadvantageous for his own plan. Even if he did not plan to kill his mother''s murderer directly, he had wanted to find him as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this didn''t seem to be as easy as he had expected. As such he had to be patient and wait for the perfect moment to occur. ''At least I can absorb mana while revealing my stigma and the Celestia aura in our camp!'' With that thought in mind, Jason was able to remain calm. After every big clan of the Shiabi alliance had arrived, the two forces started to prepare a grand meeting with every important authority. Both Shane and Dalia were invited too, which meant that their hidden identity had been figured out by everyone. However, that was not problematic and Dalia used her silver origin flame to revert the changes she had done within her and Shane''s faces. As such, everyone would be able to tell who they were, as long as one lived for more than 50 years. This was because their faces had spread in the news after Shane had annihilated the Shore clan. Jason didn''t really think that this was important because they had other things to take care of. He had wanted to use his freetime during the grand meeting in order to meet up with Mike and the others whom he had hired to copy the Doom Crawls body refining manual. But, before he knew what was going on, Midra and Ysla had appeared in front of him. Jason was not sure what was going on, but Midra told him that he had to attend the grand meeting too. Initially, he didn''t want to do so, however, one simple sentence convinced him to attend the meeting! "The Ifrytor race has been suppressed and annexed by the Drake alliance! If you want to claim your opponent to take revenge, you''ll have to do that today!" Jason was not sure why Midra had told him this, but he was glad that she did as his bloodlust and the desire to kill the Ifrytor intensified. His Celestia aura had leaked for a second and for a quarter of this second, it had been fully intertwined with the blood-red color that bothered every foreign race. ''What kind of race can change one''s aura according to their exposed emotions?'' Midra wondered as she stared at Jason''s aura that had manifested as fast as it had vanished. Because it was a formal meeting, Jason had to change his clothes which took only a few minutes. After that, he manifested Artemis'' wings before he followed Midra and Ysla. They attended the grand meeting too, and it was only when Jason saw that the center of the camps was a huge building complex, he knew where the meeting would be held. With his mana eyes activated he was able to perceive every little detail within the building complex as more than a hundred mana cores came into his sight. ''So..those are the important people that might be able to change mankind''s future?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 459 - Stand-off His mana eyes could only perceive a few mana cores that were at the Lique stage. Other than that everyone was at the Prismar stage. Because of that, it was obvious that the majority of big clans had brought their highest authorities to the grand meeting. If Jason was not wrong, every big clans'' patriarch should be there, in addition to some important guests. Shane was strong but unfortunately not powerful enough to be on par with the big clans that had more than 50 years to absorb mana while he had to escape from a few clans'' pursuit. Furthermore, they weren''t deemed as important enough to attend the grand meeting. As such, they were considered anomalies, and it was only because of the special stance they had in a few big clans that Jason''s masters had been allowed to attend the meeting. However, Jason shouldn''t have thought too much about the reasoning of his masters attending the grand meeting because he entered the hall at which the grand meeting was held completely unprepared. He had only changed into a set of formal clothes and couldn''t even comb through his short hair that had only regrown a little bit. Nevertheless, his appearance was still superior to the majority of guests, and there should only be a few that looked better than him. This would be mainly because they wore better clothes or had a better hairstyle, but Jason couldn''t care less. His already good appearance had further improved after the primal Celestia bloodline awakening, and there was no need to hide his looks. Yet, instead of attracting the attention of the others through his looks, Jason received the most attention due to the fact that he entered the grand meeting with two individuals from the Ariyor race. Fasro had requested to postpone the meeting for a few minutes and the reason was none other than Jason! As such, everyone stared at him. His golden-silverish eyes and the tattoo above his right eye highlighted his appearance further, making him interesting. Other than his appearance, most clans and sect patriarchs and matriarchs focused on investigating his combat prowess. "More than 20 liquefied drops of mana and he should be less than 20 years old, not bad I guess!" There was only one comment, and it was loud to be heard by everyone. Except for this comment, nobody dared to say anything and it was only when Shane pointed at the chair next to him that Jason had also stopped investigating everyone''s exact combat prowess. At the same time, he had wanted to figure out who the Blood sect patriarch was. He had to investigate his arch enemy''s strongest force after all! Jason took the seat next to Shane and the Shiabi clan patriarch, who smiled lightly before he averted his attention back to the grand meeting. There were only a few gazes that stayed on him after his mana core rank had been evaluated. However, those that looked at him were more interested in other things than his mana core rank! Only one gaze bothered Jason extremely. It was that of a middle-aged man with brown hair, a mana core with three solidified prismarine crystals, and transmuted mana that looked similar to that he had seen during the big-three school tournament! ''A psychokinesis affinity?'' He mumbled inwardly before he stared straight into the middle-aged man''s silver eyes that seemed to try figuring out every single detail about his entire existence. At that moment, goosebumps covered his body and Jason instantly knew what the person sitting on the other side of the huge table was doing! ''He is scanning my mana core''s size and fluctuations!'' Jason was able to notice this pretty easily because the mana fluctuations around one''s eyes were, under normal circumstances, balanced and similar to the rest of the body. However, mana eyes were naturally attracting mana, accumulating more mana around the eyes than the remaining body. Adding the fact that the person opposite him was evidently utilizing more of his mana to circulate it through his eyes told Jason that a person similar to himself was sitting in front of him! The said person was as astonished as Jason had been, because Nathan Silver, who was the leader of the [Heaven''s Eyes] sect had never seen anyone with eyes like Jason had. ''They should be at an even higher grade as my superior grade mana eyes are!'' Until now, there had only been three people with greater mana eyes than he had and Nathan couldn''t believe that he encountered the fourth person! A trace of the guild could be seen in his silver eyes, but this dispersed quickly as he told himself that everything had been a necessary deed. Jason noticed that something with the silver-eyed person was different from others as his mana eyes seemed to have undergone an adverse metamorphosis. At least that was what Jason was able to tell when he saw the tiny mana veins within the middle-aged man''s mana eyes that were thicker than others. This might as well have been an attempt to strengthen his mana eyes, but Jason was relatively sure that something must have gone wrong. However, before he and Nathan could continue staring at each other, Jason saw something out of the corner of his eyes that attracted him. The grand meeting might have already started but Jason was sure that nobody would bother about his existence, let alone ask him about his opinion. That didn''t mean he would refrain from voicing out his opinion if the other big clans were trying to do something foolish. Yet, this shouldn''t happen because there was a reason for the big clans to survive the mana outbreak and other incidents! "I''ll only claim the Ifrytor at and below the Late-Lique stage!!" He mumbled towards himself which was heard by both Shane and the Shiabi clan patriarch. This caused both of them to look at him and Shane could only shake his head thinking that his disciple was unreasonable. The Shiabi clan patriarch recalled Jason''s behavior after the Ifrytor had tricked them, and it was only obvious that Jason wanted to take revenge! However, it looks like he was overestimating himself! Nevertheless, instead of saying something, the Shiabi clan patriarch remained silent. He decided to pay attention to the grand meeting and what Jason would do once the topic about the coming war''s distribution of clans and whom they were supposed to fight, would begin. This was probably one of the most important topics the grand meeting would cover because it was highly likely that the big clans that were supposed to fight against the common foreign races and Drake clan were to receive the most casualties than others. Meanwhile, the big clans that would fight against other suppressed big clans wouldn''t have such an issue because their casualties should be much lower in comparison. The suppressed big clans were already weakened and their morale was also low! As such it was likely that every big clan wanted to fight against them. Jason was aware of this and it was obvious that the discussion was the first hurdle for Argos'' alliance to overcome! There were also other topics one had to solve, but almost all of them were about the big battle that would happen soon! It was not difficult to listen to everyone intently and Jason was trying to find the best solution to the biggest problems they had to face right now! These problems were the Burane race and the plummeted morale originating from their mysterious existence! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 460 - Grand Meeting There were many Old Ones that attended the grand meeting, trying to use their knowledge in order to figure out a solution to the biggest problem; the Burane race. Even though the My?ldra race was said to be stronger, neither the common races in the Argos alliance nor the Ariyor race was sure about this fast. There was much more intel about the My?ldra race and this was exactly what made them into less dangerous opponents than the unknown Burance race! Everyone was aware of this but nobody could tell how to solve this issue of the unknown. Thus, more than one hour has already passed without a single answer to one of the many topics they had wanted to talk about. This told Jason that the entire grand meeting would be a long and arduous event. However, instead of being discouraged or frustrated by this, Jason decided that it was beneficial to make a well thought decision rather than being impatient! Most people attending the grand meeting were in the same opinion, but the person Jason had begun to eye for some time was already leaking some of his bloodlust. ''The accumulated bloodlust in his body is already manifesting, just what kind of ability allows that?'' Jason was sure that the person he eyed was the Blood sects patriarch but what he saw through his mana eyes confused him greatly! It astonished him that he was able to remain so calm in front of the Blood set patriarch, but he was glad about that. There wouldn''t have been many problems otherwise. The accumulated bloodlust, or at least that was what Jason thought it to be inside the Blood sect patriarch seemed to be alive. However, more important was that the bloodlust was enhancing the Blood sect patriarch''s mana core that was about to solidify the fourth prismarine crystal. This enhancement accelerates the mana circulation and output of the Blood sect patriarch''s mana core, allowing him to use his blood-red transmuted mana faster and with greater efficiency. Additionally, his whole body had been refined as even his bones, tendons and the rest of his body released a faint bloody aura. It was not long after that the Blood sect patriarch noticed Jason which caused him to stare straight into his eyes. His hair and eyes were red in color and somehow, the Blood sect patriarch looked somewhat familiar to him. ''Where have I seen him?'' Jason wondered as he tilted his head, continuing to stare into the Blood sect patriarch''s eyes. ''What is wrong with this youth? Am I that Interesting?'' Jason tried to figure out where he had seen the Blood sect patriarch, whose name was Daniel Kler. Meanwhile, Daniel Kler was trying to understand why the black-haired youth with silver strands stared at him. Yet, before both were able to find an answer to their questions, the Grand meeting had switched from rather boring topics to the main topic everyone was here for, today! "I would like to propose a plan in which I have already chosen the big clans and the opponents they should face. This plan was made from a neutral stance and according to the big clans'' main affinities!" A middle-aged man, who Jason had never seen said with a loud and clear voice. Jason expected the other big clans to reject the plan before it had been proposed, but on the contrary of his expectations, everyone remained silent. This allowed him to understand that the middle-aged man that stood up, was someone with great achievements because he was definitely not strong! He had barely solidified his first prismarine crystal and Jason could tell that he didn''t have any soulbonds as he had neither an enlarged mana core nor any transmutation in his mana! Nevertheless, everyone remained quiet which astonished Jason more. As he was about to ask Shane, who sat next to him, he only received a finger sign, telling Jason to stay quiet. Before he was even able to react, the middle-aged man began to lay down his plan. His explanation was slow, yet detailed and filled with wisdom about every single big clan and ancient sect! Other than that, Jason figured out that the middle-aged man''s knowledge about the foreign races was much broader than that of any other human he had met until now! This was interesting and showed clearly that the middle-aged man was not to take lightly. There were things he was unable to understand about the middle-aged man, but his plan seemed reasonable. It covered the basics and after adjusting it a little bit, there shouldn''t be any problems! Thanks to the detailed explanations, Jason was able to acquire lots of information about every single big clan, such as their combat prowess, number, affinities, and whether they had body refinement techniques or not. When the middle-aged man had begun to talk about body refinement techniques, he had stopped for a minute. "Someone told me that a neutral body refinement technique that is translated is spreading through the big clans that had belonged to the Shiabi alliance! If possible it would be best to increase the number of copies and allow everyone to refine their physique! Every ounce of strength can determine whether one will survive or die! The same goes for the timing. The sooner we will be able to receive those copies, the further one will be able to refine everyone''s body!" As the middle-aged man had finished his words, he diverted his attention towards Fasro, and his sister, who sat next to the Shiabi clan patriarch. Fasro was already aware that everyone thought that the Ariyor race had translated the neutral body refinement technique of the Doom Crawls. However, that was not the truth and he couldn''t just say agree without consulting Jason. Thus he sent him a quick voice transmission, only he and Jason were able to hear. [If you''re fine with handing out the copies, I''ll accept it. If not, I''ll just decline the proposal. They can''t do anything against it either way. If they were to attack us right now, it would worsen the situation even more! Just give me your answer by nodding or shaking your head] When Jason heard this he smiled faintly, yet, instead of answering by moving his head, he had a different idea. Barely lifting his finger, Jason made the hand sign for ''exchange'' which he had learned some time ago. It was Midra who had told him a few things about the universal language and their perks of being usable for every race, whether they were blind or deaf! As such, he had learned a few signs for the worst-case scenario. Because he was unable to make the hand sign for ''money'', he did instead that for ''exchange''. Fasro barely noticed Jason''s hand sign before he answered the middle-aged man. "Everything our race does has to receive an equivalent exchange, and we won''t hand our goods without something in return. Otherwise, it would be similar to a charity event, and that''s definitely not why the Ariyor race is here!" After Fasro had made his statement, an uproar resounded through the entire hall. Yet, after thinking about it for a moment, the Ariyor''s words were true. They had only come to Argos to take care of the Shiabi clan. If they had wanted to, it wouldn''t be difficult to kidnap the master of the curse cleansing ability before returning to their origin planet. Because of that, it was evident that the Ariyor race wouldn''t receive any benefits by being generous. Thus, most people were able to refrain themselves, while only a few continued to voice out their anger. Other big clan heads were thinking of copying the neutral body refinement technique by themselves once they were to procure one. However, unbeknownst to them, this was more difficult than they could have ever expected! If it were to be as easy as they assumed it to be, nobody would purchase the neutral body refinement techniques from Jason! As such, there had to be a trick, and only Jason knew about it. There was a small trick he had employed to prevent this, and even the Fasro had been astonished when he had heard about this! Meanwhile, the middle-aged man had just lifted his eyebrow, looking at Fasro as if he had seen something he expected and at the same time something that was unexpected. ''Did the Ariyor just listen to the youth''s hand sign??'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 461 - Opinion Merl Arths, the middle-aged man felt as if he was missing out on something important. This made him think about what had happened for a few seconds before he cleared his throat. Everyone quieted down at that moment, intently listening. "It is only obvious that we should exchange the body refinement manuals with something valuable! But, I think this discussion should be held with the person who translated the neutral body refinement manual, right?" Jason almost flinched and he could barely contain himself as he noticed that Merl''s eyes brushed past him. A glint of interest could be seen within them and Jason understood that his hand sign had been too obvious. Nevertheless, the middle-aged man didn''t point him out which caused Jason to sigh inwardly. He was relieved, and it was Fasro who had to act accordingly. "I don''t think that the person who translated the body refinement manual will have a problem meeting you. At least if nobody else is present. This person wants to remain anonymous after all!" When he heard this, Merl just nodded his head knowingly. ''The Ariyor has no idea what the youth wants, but at least he protects him. Not bad! But why is he doing that?'' There should be a proper reason for the representative of the Ariyor race to act like that, and Merl had just noticed that he was staring at Fasro for a few seconds. Shaking his head, he said "Alright, just tell me when and I''ll tell you where!" After that, Merl Arths returned the attention back to the main topic that was about distributing their army''s force! Unfortunately, there were more problems than initially expected. In the beginning, everything worked perfectly fine, only to become chaotic once the talk about the common foreign races that were suppressed began. Nobody wanted to face them, and those big clans and ancient sects that were assigned to fight them were visibly enraged. "Do you want to eradicate us?" "Is your final plan to kill all of us? How should even a single member of my clan survive with this suicidal plan???" "Mr Arths, I think this plan is too biased and does not include what happens once the war is over! Everything should return to the good old system! From the looks of it, most of the big clans that have to face other suppressed and weakened big clans have connections with you! This could be meaningless, but from what I can perceive, the aftermath of the Great Argos war will eradicate many of those big clans and sects you''ve labeled a nuisance for a long time. For example, how should two clans, with one of them being MY clan, be able to take care of the Ifrytor race?? We''ve been weakened and there are more than 250,000 Ifrytor and Ifry which my clan would have to face. Don''t tell me that you think my clan will be strong enough to face them just because we have a water and earth affinity!!" Before, Jason had not been interested in the whole conversation about the distribution of the Argos alliance''s army. That was at least until a middle-aged woman with shoulder-long blue hair began to voice out her complaints about the fact that her clan would have to face the Ifrytor race. This caused his interest to be pricked and Jason began to listen carefully. Shane noticed this and sighed deeply, but he held himself back from saying anything. Meanwhile, Merl Arths, who had expected to be blamed for setting up a plan that seemed to be biased even though it wasn''t, remained silent. He was just staring into the middle-aged woman''s eyes for a few seconds before he said. "So you want to tell me that the two biggest clans with the most advantageous affinities and soulbonds are too weak to fight against a single common race? They''re having a numerical disadvantage even without counting your soulbonds. Let''s leave out the obvious fact that the Ifrytor race and the Ifrys fire affinity should be much weaker against you, your soulbonds, and the entire clan you represent!! Let''s also ignore the existence of your strongest soulbond and a few other soulbonds your clan members have, alright? Otherwise, you might think I''m trying to blackmail you!" Jason had to smile when he heard how the middle-aged man played around with the matriarch of a big clan. He was unsure what clan she belonged to, but from what Jason had heard, it should be one of the stronger ones. ''Does she want to avoid responsibility, or maybe that her clans could suffer more casualties by fighting against the Ifrytor race?'' It was unknown whether Jason''s assumption was correct or if there was another reason, but it was evident that the middle-aged woman''s clan was trying to avoid facing the Ifrytor clan. Jason understood this partially, at least if he were to think rationally, however, his mind was already infested with the thought of taking revenge on Scorpio''s death! As such, he didn''t even notice that he had subconsciously mumbled "If you don''t dare to fight the Ifrytor race, let me handle the weaker Ifrytors and Ifry!!" When Jason had said so, the whole room was coincidentally silent and it was only when Shane pushed him slightly from the side that Jason was drawn out of his train of thoughts. He looked at his master in confusion, not knowing what he had said which Shane noticed. "You said your thoughts out loud¡­" "OH¡­.oops!" Jason said without being sorry at all. He wanted to defeat the Ifrytor alone, if possible, but Jason was fully aware of his own capabilities and limitations! Even those enemies at the Mid Lique stage were already too much for him to handle, and there was no way he could obliterate an entire army with such enemies! Jason might have received a large increment in his combat prowess thanks to the two weapons he had received! However, his words had sounded more like an insult to those two clans he had wanted to offer his help to. The vast majority of the Ifrytor race was at the Liqee stage below 1000 drops of liquefied mana and Jason wanted to take care of all of them, alone at that?? Was he overestimating his own capabilities or simply trying to make fun of the two big clans that had been told to defeat the Ifrytor race alone. If Jason was strong enough to accomplish this feat, what would become of the two big clans'' reputation? The middle-aged woman had been complaining about the fact that her clan was set up against the Ifrytor race, and she knew that her clan was not strong enough to fight against the Ifrytor, whether it was alone or with another big clan. In the end, the Ifrytors fire ability was weird and much stronger than Merl Arths had made it! Furthermore every race, even the weakest had a refined physique which made them stronger than humans at the same rank was. Almost every big clan, sect, and even smaller family had to suffer for more than a year since the Great Argos war had begun, thus their strength was drastically reduced! Despite that, it was humiliating to think that a youth that looked younger than 20 years old was confident to defeat tens of thousands of opponents while they had to cower and combine their forces with other big clans to be only remotely as confident as Jason seemed to be. However, in the end, the confidence Jason released was what caused everyone to be hesitant to question whether he was joking or seriously considering defeating an entire army! "Maybe the Great Argos war caused the youth to lose his sanity? He has less than 30 drops of liquefied mana in his mana core! How should he be able to defeat Peak-Grandmagus ranks??" It was normal to think like that, but only a young woman dared to voice out her opinion about Jason''s confidence that was unfounded according to his mana core rank. Yet, instead of being annoyed by the young woman, who had said what was on her mind, Jason just smiled before he said "If you want to find out whether I will be strong enough to fight against the Ifrytor or not, why don''t you act as the test object?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 462 - It Wont Take Long "You will enter the Lord rank in a few months, right? This would mean that I should be much weaker than you. If I have lost my sanity and be as weak as you say, let''s figure out the truth after the Grand meeting!" Jason hadn''t said much during the Grand Meeting yet, and it was only now that he attracted the other big clan- and ancient sect leaders'' attention! Others would rather hold back and refrain from being too arrogant in front of the powerhouses that were present. But that was not all because the opponents they had to face multiple foreign intelligent races but also several big clans! As such, the atmosphere had already been tensed up and nobody wanted to take any risks. This was exactly why Jason''s confidence caused everyone to be a little bit astonished as Merl Arths said "Take care of your matters after the grand meeting and don''t interrupt it! If your words are true and you are strong enough to defeat the Ifrytor at the Magus and Grandmagus rank, there would still be a small issue for you. You are only one person and there are tens of thousand Ifrytors you would face at once! Can you reassure everyone that not a single one of them would escape your grasp, destroying the entire plan I made up? That''s probably not the case, thus I marked the Ifrytor race as the Nua and Eara clan''s target. If you have something against my decision give me a proper reason, or wait until the Grand meeting has ended before you propose a proper plan to the Nua and Eara clan!" Jason understood what Merl Arths wanted to say, but he found that the middle-aged man was a little bit too inflexible. "I''m not here to drink tea and waste my time either. It''s not like everyone accepted the plan. In the end, it is much better for the army heads'' to know about the entire plan so that everyone knows everything. Otherwise, who knows what might happen? I don''t want to be in the crossfire of someone else''s attack, only because I didn''t know about their plans¡­" He wanted to continue voicing out his opinion, but unfortunately, Shane prevented him from doing so by covering his mouth. "Shut it, please! What you''re doing right now is not really helpful¡­" Squinting his eyes as he heard Shane''s words, Jason was not sure what the hell was going on. ''Isn''t the grand meeting supposed to learn about the clans and sects in order to figure out the best plan to fight against the Drake alliance? Am I completely oblivious to what is going on, or does this look more like most clans have already accepted the plan without doubtings its efficiency?'' Jason just shook his head, thinking that there was something odd about the entire grand meeting when he heard a few ancient sects voicing out their opinion too. "Why are we not combining our forces and face each clan and sect on their own? This separation is rather disadvantageous because some clans have more members at the Magus and Grandmagus rank than others. At the same time, everyones'' soul awakening is unique and it would be useless to send someone with a high-ranked soulbond with a water affinity to face a race with an innate thunder affinity. Even without looking at everything in a less detailed manner, I can pick out several dozen cases where descendants have awoken a strong soul with different compatible affinities than the entire clan or sect has! Do you want to sacrifice them just like that? Without asking whether the plan you set up is really as good as you make it??" It was the Blood sect patriarch who had said this, and once he had finished his last sentence, he kept staring at Jason. This made him uncomfortable and Jason tried to divert his attention to Merl Arths, only to notice that he was also looking at him. Clearing his throat he scratched the back of his head with cold eyes piercing at Jason before he said with a loud voice "I had yet to reveal my plan completely and the information I laid out was just the foundation. Because we''ve been interrupted, I couldn''t point out the issue you''ve just mentioned!" After that, almost a whole day had passed and Merl Arths pointed out the issue with the different suitable affinities. At the same time, the entire meeting was allowed to voice out their issues and how one could fix them. They had also created an Elite unit with the most powerful humans of every big clan, while only the clan and sect heads had been excluded because they had to lead their people! Jason hadn''t said anything since he had voiced out his opinion which was mostly because Shane had told him to stay quiet. Meanwhile, the Shiabi clan patriarch had glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes, but Jason was unable to figure out why exactly he did so. What Jason found great was the fact that Merl Arths didn''t think that he had intentionally voiced out his opinion to offend him, which hadn''t been his intention, to begin with! Rather than that, Jason had just wanted to help and bring the best result out of the plan he thought to be lacking something. Though, in the end, Jason could tell that he was too impatient and foolish. As such he felt a little bit embarrassed, only to hear Merl Arths ending the Grand meeting by saying. "Now that we''ve solved most issues, let''s find out whether we can change the strategy which the Nua and Eara clan made to prevent as many casualties as possible! Golden-silverish eyes youth, are you ready to demonstrate whether or not you are insane and was as Dala Nua has said?" Merl Arths eyes were glimmering in curiosity instead of anger, but Jason found this scarier than the other way around! Once he had taken a deep breath he nodded his head before saying "Right here or outside?" Under normal circumstances fighting outside would be better for him because he would be able to utilize the landscape to his advantage. However, that was not the case if he were to face the young woman called Dala Nua, who had voiced her opinion about his ''overconfident'' and ''insane'' behavior. The young woman had a water affinity at the Mid-Lique stage and her body had been refined with a water-based body refining technique too. As such she was stronger than most descendants of big clans at her age, otherwise, she wouldn''t be eligible to attend the Grand Meeting in the first place! If Jason was honest, he was not confident to defeat her, owing to her affinity advantage! Solaris'' was a pure flame and there was no need to determine whether a fire or water affinity at the same rank was stronger! However, what allowed Jason to calm down was the fact that Solaris'' had multiple abilities while its strength was also higher than Dala Nua''s water affinity! As such Jason was able to stand up calmly when Merl Arths said "Let''s go outside. Afterward, you can speak with the Nua and Eara clan heads to figure out a plan before telling us everything at the next and hopefully last meeting" There was a hidden meaning behind Merl''s words and almost everyone was able to decipher them ''He thinks that the youth with golden-silverish eyes will defeat Dala despite their gap of more than 900 drops of liquefied mana??'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 463 - Might Of Guns When Dala Nua and the Nua clan matriarch heard what Merl Arths said, they were immediately enraged and frustrated. Dala wanted to voice out her anger, but the matriarch was able to refrain her from doing so. "Calm down and demonstrate to them that this youth is nothing but an ant! Defeat him in an overwhelming manner and everything will be fine!" Meanwhile, Jason didn''t really bother about the middle-aged man''s words, instead, he had already summoned his two desert eagles, Kumo and Degar before he holstered them quickly. Dala, who was already annoyed and glaring at the Merl Arths didn''t notice that something about Jason''s appearance had changed. Nevertheless, there were many clan heads that saw his weapons and the mana currents the material they had been made, released! This astonished them a little bit increasing their interest. However, it was only when they noticed that the weapons'' mana storage had already been filled, that everyone began to realize why Jason was confident to be strong enough to defeat Ifrytors at the Low Lique stage! ''Even though he might be able to kill one or two Grandmagus ranks with the amount of mana stored within both weapons, that''s already everything!'' Nobody knew Kumo and Degar''s real worth, except Jason and Mike, who was still working relentlessly to manufacture more ammo. This caused Jason to think that he shouldn''t waste too many bullets while fighting against Dala. ''Six of the common bullets for Kumo and one from Degar should be more than enough. If that''s not the case, even hundreds of bullets wouldn''t make me look better'' Now that he had made his decision, Jason and the others were already outside the gigantic hall in which the grand meeting had been held. Shane and Dalia were walking next to him, but instead of lecturing him, both thought that Jason was old enough to know whether he did something wrong or not. For others, Jason might look like he had reached the age of 20 for some clan heads, but almost nobody knew that he was in fact not even 17 years old! Nevertheless, his masters were in the opinion that Jason was much better off being independent than relying on either of them. He was more mature, and scheming than they were either way! This was something Jason seemed to have learned even without his masters'' help, and somehow it was both reassuring because he could pay attention to himself, but also sad because of the same reason! Merl Arths who walked in front of everyone halted his steps when they had reached an open area without any camps obstructing the fight. "In the next three minutes you guys can prepare yourself. After that, distance yourself 200 meters. Then I''ll start a countdown. Nobody should be killed, or heavily injured, understood?" Jason just nodded his head before he walked towards the open field that was in fact the arena Merl had chosen. It might look like he was too full of himself because he wasn''t preparing anything, but Jason could only sigh inwardly. Since the incident of the Yasl?rn caves, he had yet to procure an armor. The only protection device he had was the mana sphere bracelet that was filled with Shane and Dalia''s mana! He should have purchased a simple armor, but Jason had noticed that not even grade-3 armors were something to his liking and a waste of money. They were at most, comparable to other protection devices at the late-, or if manufactured perfectly, peak- Lique stage! Yet, despite being powerful enough to protect him from most attacks, Jason felt like common armors were not something he needed. Mana and soul equipment was what he wanted, at a high grade at best, but he had yet to find anything suitable! Jason might as well forge one for himself, or hire someone to customize him a mana-grade-3 leather armor, but he had been unable to find someone like this within the Shiabi clan alliance until now! Now that he was in the middle of more than a dozen clans and sects, Jason was confident to find the best person to manufacture the desired armor he was looking for. Nevertheless, Dala and most clan heads looked at Jason with disdain, thinking that he was overestimating his capabilities, and there were only Shane and Dalia who sighed deeply. At that moment, Merl Arths appeared next to them as he asked "Does your disciple not have a armor?" Shane was astonished to see Merl Arths appearing next to him, but the next question caused him to stiffen. "I doubt that you taught this youth..Jason was his name, I think, how to read the universal language of the foriegn races¡­. And neither their hand signs, right?" Jason had already explained what kind of excuse he wanted to use if someone were to ask Shane whether he had taught Jason the universal language or not, but there was never something about sign language. Clearing his throat, Shane just said "Shane taught himself both the written language of the foreign races and the hand signs. He read multiple partially translated blessed martial art techniques and learned reading the universal language. As for the hand signs, that''s something he started to learn only recently. The Ariyor race is fond of Jason and handed him a book with hand signs and to learn how to speak the universal language too!" Shane thought that his answer was okay. It was nothing special, but Merl seemed to have accepted his answer. After that he had already averted his attention back to Jason, and Dala before walking towards the open field. "Is everyone ready?" He simply asked only to see that both contestants nodded their heads. Only a moment later Merl started the countdown. The moment the spar between Dala and Jason started, huge amounts of mana had been released on both sides. Dala manifested several dozen aqua jets right before she shot them at the same moment, only to manifest one huge spear of compressed mana immediately afterward. She wanted to throw the spear of water at the location Jason would jump to in order to evade the aqua jets. However, what she hadn''t expected was that everything in front of her had changed within the moment she had focused on manifesting the compressed water spear! Jason had already been aware of Dala''s strength, but he had not expected that her proficiency with the affinity was so high! Within a single moment, she had almost defeated him, if he had not allowed Solaris to enter his mana core before the spar had begun. When his mana eyes had detected the strong mana currents circulating through Dala''s body, he could immediately tell that she had wanted to finish the entire battle quickly. As such he changed his tactic as thick black flames sprouted from his back. Only a moment later, the flames stiffened for a second after they had turned into a replica of Artemis'' wings. The flames were still flickering wildly afterward, but the wings in its entire shape were unmoving, allowing Jason to shot into the sky before the aqua jets he had been targeted with, hit him. Not even a quarter of a second later, Jason enveloped his entire body in Solaris'' flames before he unleashed the Celestia aura, his stigma, the petrification curse, his mana eyes'' abyssal ability and the race specific weakening curse, to the fullest. At the same time, his hands had already reached the holsters of Kumo and Degar which he was wearing consistently. Momentarily stunned by the sheer quantity of curses and abilities weighing her down, Dala could barely perceive Jason''s eyes through the black flames. They were cold and the moment she perceived the black and crimson red guns within his hands, was when she instinctively released the compressed water spear that had yet to be fully constructed. Under normal circumstances she would have required one, at most two more seconds to release her strongest attack in order to show her superiority, only to notice that she had underestimated Jason. The unfinished compressed water spear shot towards Jason, who had shocked Dala by soaring into the air with his entire body being enveloped in flames and wings sprouting out of his back. Meanwhile, Jason summoned two compressed black flames with golden strands within, in front of Kumo and Degar''s barrel. At the same time the mana stored inside them was slowly being activated and swirling within the mana storage as Jason accessed it. When he saw the incomplete water spear shooting towards him, Jason knew that it was a life-threatening attack, yet instead of wasting any time, he lifted Degar that had the stronger impact. Pulling the trigger, Jason felt that the entire amount of mana that had been stored inside Degar was used up at once, filling the armor-piercing bullet that shot out of the barrel, leaving behind a huge impact on Jason''s arm. The impact didn''t break his arm and Jason could only see the compressed flame at the top of the barrel enveloping the armor-piercing bullet before it clashed with the water spear. Nobody expected a miracle to happen, and the affinity advantage was on Dala''s side. However, contrary to everyone''s predictions, Jason''s AP bullet pierced through the water spear that could barely slow down its advancement before it continued its advance. Meanwhile, Jason didn''t waste any time, as he lifted Kumo to shoot the six bullets he had promised to shoot, at Dala, who was shocked beyond measurement. A faint "How?" was everything one could hear before a painful cry could be heard as a total of seven thump sounds resounded in the eerily silent proximity. Blood splattered and Jason holstered his weapons again as he mumbled in astonishment. "The armor-piercing bullets are even better than expected. The amount of mana I''ve stored was less than half of the mana I can store within my mana core!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 464 - Time The impact caused by shooting Degar was enormous but his arm felt only numb for a few seconds. Meanwhile, Jason was able to figure out that Kumo and the common bullets he used were enough to injure someone with a physique at the mid Lique stage! Dala was his test object, and Jason couldn''t help but feel ridiculous that he had been worried about fighting her before. ''With Kumo and Degar, I should be able to defeat even stronger opponents!'' However, before he was able to think further ahead, reality struck him. ''If my opponents are faster, with more powerful affinities, it will be too dangerous and I might as well die before I''m able to unholster them!'' His mana consumption by shooting Kumo was much lower than he had expected and by comparing the amount of stored mana that had been used up and what he had utilized before Mike had manufactured his weapons, Jason couldn''t help but smile. Shooting entire bullets manifested out of mana and Solaris'' black flame through his fingers was a lot more difficult and had a higher mana consumption. It was more painful, and the strength accumulated within the desert eagles was much higher compared to his fingers! To put it simply, using Kumo and Degar was the perfect means in order to defeat opponents that were stronger than he was. Jason knew that he had to stay vigilant, but in his opinion, fighting against the Ifrytor race in an open field wouldn''t be as dangerous as it had been within the Yasl?rn caves. Recalling the incident in which Scorpio died was still painful, and Jason doubted that this would ever change. Nevertheless, the thought of being able to take revenge allowed him to soothe his pain and guilt, replacing it with anger and the desire to kill. After he had defeated Dala who was writhing in pain as her legs had been shot a total of five-time, while each arm was pierced by one of Kumo''s bullets, Jason retraced his Celestia aura and the stigma''s glow before descending to the ground. Everything around him was eerily silent, and nobody dared to move, trying to digest what had happened in the entire fight that had taken less than five seconds to be concluded. "Is there nobody with a healing ability? I have already extinguished the flames that were about to spread through her entire body and she won''t have any permanent injuries¡­.but I don''t think that she notices this¡­" Only a moment after Jason had said so, the Nua clan matriarch emerged next to Jason and Dala who laid on the ground crying in pain. Utilizing her water affinity, the matriarch manifested a ball of water within her hand which she slowly inserted into the wound Jason''s desert eagles have caused. Less than half a minute passed before a few bullet shells protruded out of the wounds followed by the matriarch''s water that began to enveloped the wounds, sealing them to some extent. After that, she called out for someone asking for help. Jason had been unable to understand a name but he saw that a young woman with solidified two prismarine crystals stepped forward. She released her mana and Jason''s mana eyes immediately perceived that her mana was unique, with great healing characteristics. As such, he retreated a few steps before leaving the open field as he turned towards Merl Arths. "That''s enough to demonstrate my strength, right? I''ll deal with the Ifrytor below 1000 drops of liquefied mana, and the others can take care of the stronger Ifrytor and the runaways!" With that being said, Jason wanted to leave the grand meeting to focus on absorbing more mana! He had to increase his strength as much as possible before he would encounter the Ifrytor race. At the same time, it was important to further improve his accuracy with Degar and Kumo. He also wanted to see if there was a way to improve his physique to the extent at which his arm wouldn''t go numb while shooting Degar. Otherwise, Jason would have to wait too long before he was able to fire Degar a second time. This was something he had to improve quickly in order to prevent incidents from occurring. As such, Jason didn''t plan to slack off! However, Merl Arths seemed to have a different idea as he mumbled "So you don''t want to discuss your payment for the translations of the neutral body refinement manuals?" When Jason heard this he halted in his tracks only to let out a sigh. "Was my hand sign that obvious?" Merl just nodded his head without saying anything else as he sized Jason up once again. He might have expected Jason to defeat Dala because his gut feeling told him so, but it was a different matter about how easy he took care of her. It felt as if the number of liquefied drops of mana within her mana core was not higher by 900 but equal or even lower than Jason''s! "You could say so. But let''s not talk about the hand signs but about business. However, before that¡­. is your black flame an origin flame??" Jason did not expect Merl Arths to ask him this question right off the bat because it was something nobody else had to know. It was simply his private matter! As such, this question had nothing to do with the business they were about to conduct and Jason decided that he did not have to answer this question. "Maybe it is an origin flame, maybe a flame similar to that of the Ifrytor race, but it could also be a mutated fire affinity from one of my soulbonds. Just choose the answer you like the most." Merl merely smiled lightly when he heard Jason''s answer before he said "Alright. If that''s the case, let''s talk about business first. Follow me!" While most big clan and sect leaders thought that Merl Arths wanted to figure out more about the guns and weird fire affinity Jason utilized, Shane and Dalia knew that there was more than one could see at first glance. The fact that he was the translator of the neutral body refinement manual of the Doom Crawls was not special to Jason''s masters. However, it was something completely different than their gut feeling suddenly told them that something huge was about to happen that caused them to feel uncomfortable. Jason seemed to advance and make ties with other bigshots even without their help and both Shane and Dalia couldn''t help but feel that this was great! Initially, they had been sad, but since they had encountered Jael Drake, and they had seen how cold his eyes were, without a single trace of empathy, their mind had changed. Before they wanted to help Jason to grow with them, now, however, both Shane and Dalia wanted that Jason was able to live and become stronger even if it was without them! They would use their utmost efforts to nurture Jason with everything they had, but not only did Jason advance extremely fast, but their time seemed to be running out too! ''Will we be able to witness Jason''s peak, or will we be the reason for his doom?'' To Dalia and Shane, it was clear that Jason''s mental state had suffered a lot when he had lost Scorpio. It was only then that they recalled that their disciple was young and inexperienced with death, and how easy a loved one might die. ''He will overcome it...right?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 465 - Signs Jason and Merl Arths were able to leave the open field without any issue, and it were only Shane and Dalia who looked after them with a faint smile on their lips. The other big clan heads had approached the Nua clan matriarch and Dala who had stopped crying. "The skin and flesh have been pierced by the black bullets as if they were made out of butter! Only the bones that seemed to have sustained cracks, could barely stop the bullets'' advancement... Meanwhile, the bullet that was shot out of the red desert eagle pierced through the thigh! This attack was on par with a mid Lord rank!!" Everyone was astonished about how powerful Jason''s guns were, only for the Blood sect patriarch that had approached Dala too, to say "It''s not only the weapon but the black flame that was able to burn through the compressed water spear''s mana. The flame should have a mana burning effect or something similar to that!" Nodding their head, the big clan heads understood this too as one of them said "Didn''t this youth also say that he extinguished the flames and that Dala won''t sustain any permanent injuries? Doesn''t that mean the flame would have burned its way through Dala until she was to die? Is the black flame capable of sustaining itself through mana?" While some big clan and sect leaders began to analyze Jason''s guns and how he was able to exhibit such a devastating strength while having less than 30 drops of liquefied mana, others decided to listen carefully. Jason''s fire affinity was already interesting but even more so was the fact that a simple gun was strong enough to kill one of the big clan''s prodigies. "If every citizen were to possess such guns, what would happen to our rights to reign over them? Wouldn''t they start retaliating? They''re strong enough to defeat one of the big clans prodigies without the need for a high mana core rank after all!!" If Jason were to hear this, he would be enraged, but fortunately, this was not the case. "Your worry is groundless. This youth is unique, and it''s already a wonder that he was able to handle the impact and mana consumption of those guns with so few drops of mana inside his core. If I''m not wrong, the black flame enveloping the bullets made them so dangerous! Fortunately, he is on our side and against the Ifrytor race he will definitely be the trump we need!" It was the Eara clan patriarch who said this, and even the Nua clan matriarch who heard this could only faintly nod her head. She was infuriated about her disciple being injured and humiliated but in the end, it was evident that Jason''s strength was much higher than anyone, except Merl Arths had expected! "He will definitely be an important asset against the Ifrytor¡­ he might be able to prevent many casualties too..." Having accepted the bitter truth, the Nua clan matriarch had said her stance reluctantly, while looking at Dala who was still in pain. Through the pain she felt, her eyes were quivering lightly as she mumbled "What a monster!!!" As the Eara clan patriarch had said, it was fortunate to have Jason on their side because he would bring forth many benefits. However, what would happen, once the Great Argos war was about to end? Would Jason turn into their opponent or was it possible to lure him to their side? Nobody was sure of that, and for the next few steps that were important for their race''s survival, it was not important either. Nevertheless, every head of the big clans and sects decided to remember the youth, with the name Jason Stella! When everyone dispersed, there were only a few left behind, as someone appeared next to Shane and Dalia who were about to leave too. "Shane, Dalia, please wait a moment!" It was the Gier family clan patriarch who was an acquaintance and on friendly terms with Jason''s masters! Astonished about being called out Shane and Dalia looked at the Gier family patriarch who had told them to wait. Was there something they had forgotten? That was not the case but the Gier family patriarch''s next words caused Jason''s masters to look at the patriarch in confusion because he asked a question they had not expected. "Is Jason Stella the same Jason, who became friends with Seron in Cyro City, around two years ago?" Shane had completely forgotten about Seron and that he was a descendant of the Gier clan, but Dalia was already answering the Gier family patriarch''s question. "Yes, Seron and Jason were friends. At least until they went their separate ways!" After that, they talked for a few minutes before the Gier family patriarch bid Shane and Dalia farewell. "This was weird¡­ Why does he care so much about the friendship between Seron and Jason? Is he already planning something?" Shane wondered quietly. However, Dalia shook her head as she said "It''s more about figuring out whether Jason will become a threat to his clan after the war ends. It is unlikely for Jason to attack his friend''s clan as long as they didn''t do anything fundamentally wrong! If I''m not wrong, Jason attracted way too much attention today, and everyone has noticed his existence now! Even if nobody knows about his real identity, his current combat prowess is already frightening enough. Or what would you think if a youth below the age of 17 years can defeat one of the most prodigious children of a big clan? Dala is already in her 40s and has almost reached the Lord rank! For mankind''s standards, this is extremely fast! There are only a few exceptions but they''re true monsters..." Suddenly, just as Dalia was about to continue speaking, the ground began to tremble, and everyone sensed that something was huge was about to happen as an enormous amount of mana had been released at once. The pressure in the surrounding area intensified, and everyone tried to perceive what was going on. However, what nobody knew was that not only the earth around the Argos alliance''s camps was trembling, but that Argos itself was shaking! Far away, inside the barren lands of Canir, a world bridge was forcefully established. It was unknown how long it took before it was completely, but the amount of mana it absorbed was tremendous. Just when the world bridge had been completed, one could see more than a hundred beings at the Prismar stage with a total of nine solidified prismarine crystals emerged from within! Every being of the mysterious, humanoid race was beautiful. They had pointed ears, were enveloped in a faint gust of wind that brushed past their long hair, and their emerald-colored eyes highlighted their fair pale skin color. "Elvyrs! Spread out and search for Celestia Yaldra''s son! If he dies or even worse, becomes an Infernal Celestia, our whole race won''t be able to face the consequences!" Only a moment later, dense currents of wind enveloped the individuals of Elvyr race that had just forcefully established a world bridge. All of that had only been possible with the help of Jason''s father, who had ordered them to take care of their son! What Yaldra had felt during the last few weeks made him worry! This was also the reason for him to send someone to Argos because he couldn''t go by himself. Celestia Yladra was too powerful to come even close to the planet at the infant phase, let alone pass through the world bridge that couldn''t handle his might. Every living being on Argos noticed that something huge had just happened, but the soil below them had stopped trembling as soon as it had begun. Only the mana fluctuations on Canir remained as the last evidence of what had just happened. At that moment, Jason, who was currently inside a small office with Merl Arths, felt that something great but also devastating was about to occur in the next few hours! The trembling earth and sudden increase of the surroundings mana density were not worrisome, but Jason''s entire being felt as if it was trying to tell him that something good had happened. Yet, at the same time, Jason could tell that this good sign he felt would bring forth something devastating, doom itself! Every action had a reaction and Jason was fully aware of this. In the end, he didn''t care about what kind of good thing had happened and what exactly the reason for the intensified mana in his surroundings was. His heart was thumping heavily and Jason could barely conduct his business with Merl Arths, who was distracted by the incident. ''Why does it feel like I''m missing something? What is going on?'' Jason thought inwardly, his worry clearly visible. Both felt distracted by their own thoughts and they wanted to finish everything quickly before they separated their ways without wasting any more time! ''Why do I feel so suppressed? Is it because of the Blood moon today? I doubt so....let''s hope we won''t have to face even more problems than we already have¡­'' How could anyone know that not only the strongest highest race had set their feet on Argos, but also that the race that had previously been hiding in the shadows was about to make their first, devastating move! _____________ *Supreme release September notice* Golden ticket ranking Top 10= 3 chps daily Top 5 = 4 chps daily __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 466 - Blood Eclipse When Jason left Merl Arths'' office, an oppressive feeling began to weigh him down. It was not as if someone utilized mana or their aura to oppress him, but Jason''s gut feeling was telling him that something was about to happen, and it was worsen than it had been with the Yasl?rn caves! This caused Jason to be vigilant about everything. As such, he rushed towards Shane and Dalia as fast as possible. His mana eyes were fully utilized but he was unable to detect anything odd. Inside the camp, he, his masters, and Emily resided, nothing bad seemed to have happened. The only thing that had changed was that everyone had left their large, mansion-sized tents to take a look at what happened outside. Nobody knew what was going on, but similar to Jason, everyone could tell that something had changed. When Jason was nearby their tent, his mana eyes perceived that his masters were healthy and full of vigor which was everything that counted. Emily was also present, but Jason cared more about his masters if he had to be completely honest. The moment he entered the tent, Shane and Dalia looked at him in confusion because his hair was disheveled and a sweat pearl was poured down his temples. "What happened Jason? Is there something wrong with Argos or did something else occur? Did you already finish talking to Merl Arths, or did you just return because of the earthquake?" Dalia seemed worried about Jason, and he could just sigh in relief when he saw this. ''They''re still fine!'' Smiling at his masters he said "Nothing happened. I was just worried that the earthquake might have been a bad sign¡­ I finished my business with Merl Arths and he already handed me mana stones in exchange for a few translated neutral body refining manuals!" Seeing that his masters were fine was the only important thing for Jason. He didn''t even bother that the deal with Merl Arths was not as profitable as he had wanted it to be. Shane and Dalia were not sure what was going on with Jason, but they tried to calm him down. "Today we will have a blood moon! This will allow you to absorb mana at a much faster pace. Let''s calm down and absorb mana in order to become stronger. The faster you become stronger, the better, am I right?" Jason just nodded his head and entered his room in the mansion-sized tent. He didn''t want to worry his masters too much. Thus Jason decided that he would absorb as much mana as possible today! ''I''ll liquefy my 24th drop of mana today and absorb more mana during the Blood moon!'' After he made his decision, Jason tried to focus on the task at hand, but it was more difficult than he imagined it to be. His gut feeling told him that something was about to happen, and it took him almost 10 hours before he had liquefied his 24th drop of liquefied mana. Only then did Jason rush to his masters telling them that they had to be careful before he asked them if it was not better to stay inside the Ariyor race''s camp. This astonished Shane and Dalia, and they noticed that something was wrong with Jason. However, instead of accepting his offer, they simply told him that if something were to happen in the Shiabi clan camp, the Ariyor race wouldn''t be able to help them either. Jason and his masters knew that this was not the entire truth, but instead of forcing them to do something against their will, Jason knew that his masters were old enough to make their own decision. Nevertheless, his heart began to thump wildly and he decided to fly towards the Ariyor race''s camp to ask Fasro and Midra if they were fine with spending a few days with him and his masters. This might be selfish of him, but that was the least worrisome for Jason right now! The number of camps the Argos alliance had was large and Jason took more than five minutes to cross half the distance. He had barely reached the center where the grand meeting had been held earlier as every single feather on Artemis'' wings stiffened. In the beginning, he hadn''t noticed anything, and it was only now that he saw the blood moon''s light shining on him. Suddenly, Jason smelled an overly familiar fragrance that caused him to widen his eyes. The scent of iron permeated the air! Goosebumps covered Jason''s body and he instinctively supplied his eyes with more mana before he seized up everything in his surroundings. At that moment, what he saw caused cold sweat to run down his back. His body was unable to move and Jason was just levitating in the air. Only after a few seconds was he barely able to access his spatial ring. A small stick that looked similar to fireworks appeared in his hand that trembled lightly. Jason was unable to divert his gaze from the terror he witnessed, but he knew that he had to warn everyone about what was happening. Within a few moments, everything had changed and it was as if he was caught in a nightmare, only to use exert his strength to slap his cheeks. This allowed him to move again and Jason manifested a fingertip-sized flame to ignite the firework before he threw it into the air using all his might. The last step was unnecessary but Jason knew that he had no time to waste. He didn''t even care about the Ariyor race''s camp anymore and the only thing Jason felt was the need to return to his masters ''Please be safe!!'' Jason prayed inwardly, hoping that nothing had happened. What Jason had seen earlier were that several dozen beings of an unknown race infiltrating the tents of the surrounding camps his mana eyes were able to perceive. However, worse was that those unknown beings with a water and ice affinity, Jason assumed to be the unknown Burance race, were extremely strong! Even the weakest invader he had seen had five solidified prismarine crystals! This means that they were stronger than even the strongest human was!! Jason knew that the Ariyor and Lyran race had stronger powerhouses, but he didn''t think that the Burane race was targeting the foreign races right now! Instead, the leader and other higher authorities of the big clans and sects should be the targets of the unknown Burane race! It was unknown whether Shane and Dalia were included in this section, but knowing that Jael Drake was a cruel man, Jason couldn''t help but become worried. ''Why did I have to leave the tent????'' Gritting his teeth, Jason couldn''t help but think that his timing had been the worst possible. Without caring about anything else, Jason released his entire Celestia aura and stigma at once, enhancing his body and mana circulation by a large margin At the same time, he circulated a large amount of mana through Artemis'' wings, accelerating his speed further. His aura spread through the surrounding, attracting the attention of the Burane race assassins. Yet, instead of halting in their tracks and pursuing Jason which he had expected, they started to increase the pace at which they hunted! "How can someone that has already awakened a stigma enter this planet? Are the restrictions not working???" The leader of the Burane race''s assassins, who saw Jason, spoke in a small device. Worry could be seen in his eyes, but the reply he received was unpleasing. "A stigma? The Elvyr race emerged from the world bridge that has been forcefully awakened, but none of them should be able to form a natural stigma! Don''t try to make up excuses and kill every clan and sect leader you can find! The more the merrier!" Just at that moment, the Burane race leader heard a voice that was filled with wrath "Don''t forget to kill Shane and Dalia Blair too!! They''re also on the list!!" While the screams of dying people filled the surrounding area, Jason became more desperate with every passing second. His gut feeling had been proven correct almost every time and the same was the case this time as well! ''Why didn''t you two listen to me??'' Blaming anyone was useless, but he couldn''t help himself. Jason''s mind was filled with terror trying to figure out what was going on, while his hope was slowly dimming with the sight below him. His mana eyes made him see everything and he witnessed how dozens of the most powerful humans were massacred. Each camp Jason flew past with his highest possible speed looked worse than the one before and the adrenaline rushing through his veins made it impossible for him to hear anything around him The moment he reached the Shiabi clan camp, his eyes were instinctively drawn to their tent. At that moment, his mana eyes perceived the mana fluctuations of a Burance race assassin with six solidified prismarine crystals within! However, even worse was that he perceived how his master''s life force was decreasing at a rapid pace! Something had happened and without being able to think about anything, Jason dived towards his masters'' tent, not caring about his own safety at all! Unbeknownst to himself, his golden-silverish eyes had turned crimson and there was not even a single trace of white left in his eyeball! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 467 - Halo Jason''s golden-silverish eyes had turned crimson for a quarter of a second before they had reverted back to his initial eye color as he released the stigma that began to glow brightly, to an extent he had never done before! It was painful, but Jason simply ignored the pain. His glowing stigma began to merge with Jason''s aura, but he didn''t notice anything about that. Artemis'' wings dissipated, replaced by Solaris'' replicated wings the moment they had switched out the place within his mana core. Kumo and Degar had already been unholstered, at the same time Jason had charged inside the tent. At that moment, the sight in front of him changed everything. Jason''s eyes and Celestia aura had turned from the golden-silverish color to utter darkness for a moment as he shouted out. "SHANE, DALIA!!!" What he saw shocked him greatly and Solaris'' black flames that had enveloped him tightly, erupted, burning down the entire tent. Both Shane and Dalia''s abdomen had been pierced by several icicles whose cold began to spread through their entire body. Jason''s mind was blank for a moment before he regained his senses, realizing what was going on. He shot towards the Burane race assassin that was about to end his masters, with a terrific high speed he could have only dreamed of a minute ago. Pulling the trigger of both Kumo and Degar, bullets shot out one after another, while Jason ignored the impact and toll his arms had to endure. Despite being desperate enough to strain his stigma and fully releasing his Celestia aura, Jason felt that his attacks were still too weak! This was exactly the case and the Burane race''s assassin didn''t even have to erupt a thick membrane of mana because the bullets were simply deflected as they hit its mana enveloped skin. When Jason had appeared right next to the assassin, the desert eagles had already vanished into Jason''s spatial ring as Byakur had appeared in his hand. At that moment, he utilized everything at once, the race specific weakening curse, the petrification curse, his mana eyes'' abyssal ability, his stigma''s full capabilities, and the intimidating effect of his Celestia aura. Byakur was supplied with a vast majority of his mana, while Solaris'' flame was enveloping it tightly. Suddenly driven by desperation and the desire to rescue his masters, every means to attack the Assassin to protect his masters merged into one attack. At that moment, the golden glow that had already been present in everything involving Jason was gathering at one place! This caused a chain reaction, leading to the deepest part of Jason''s body where he had never been before. It was dark but warm, and Jason felt like he could perceive something, something he shouldn''t have seen yet. There were thousands of locks, sealing something, hiding it from Jason''s sight, and there was only one lock that had been opened, revealing a tiny fraction of something he couldn''t grasp! Driven by his desperation, and fear to lose his master, his mind stared blankly at one particular lock that released the dense currents of the desire to protect everyone, even if this would mean one had to annihilate an entire race! The lock, Jason was looking at was pitch-black, and a complete opposite to the vast majority of other locks that were white in color, gleaming lightly in a holy hue. The moment Jason thought the lock, it fell to the ground, he was suctioned out of the deepest part of his body, bringing him back to reality. Suddenly everything seemed to change. Solaris'' faint traces of a golden color it had received when it evolved into a Tier-1 origin flame had begun to overwhelm the black of Solaris'' flame, devouring everything around it! It was only then when Jason noticed that he had unsealed his Celestia bloodline for a short time, overdriving his body, burning the life force within him only to turn into a crude replica of a divine being, suppressing everything in his surrounding. A gigantic golden-silverish halo manifested behind him, brightening up the Argos alliance''s entire camp, attracting the attention of every single Burane assassin in the proximity, weighing every foe down. But was that really everything, the pitch-black lock had released? The assassin who had ignored Jason turned around in shock, only to see that Jason''s entire being seemed to have enlarged several times. The golden-silverish halo was spread through by crimson-colored strands, and it was only when Jason lifted Byakur that it was vibrating owing to the sheer power it harbored that the Burane race assassin had begun to move. [You will be tortured for three centuries and killed if you return without fulfilling your mission!] This was the only thought that flashed through the Burane assassin''s mind at that moment. Fleeing might be possible despite Jason''s overwhelming appearance, yet, fighting against him was suicidal! Nevertheless, dying while facing invincible opponents might as well be better than being tortured and killed afterward! However, even better would be fleeing after finishing his mission! As such, the Burane race''s assassin smiled lightly as he unleashed the entire mana of a Prismar stage with six small solidified prismarine crystals. Only a moment later several hundred icicles had been conjured in the surrounding area, swirling around intimidatingly. More than three dozen were shot towards Shane and Malia who were already deadly injured, unable to defend against the incoming attacks. Jason sensed this, and he disappeared from the location he stood earlier, only to re-appeared in front of his masters manifesting a huge wall made out of golden flames in front of him. The flames were extremely hot and the metal holding together the burned-down tent was slowly melting. Meanwhile, the icicles that had been one-meter-long disintegrated the moment they came in touch with the golden flames. Suddenly Jason''s entire body began to crack and he knew that his skin had burst open, while his bones, tendons, muscles, and everything else was about to break apart too. The strength he had lend was too strong for his weak physique to handle, and Jason was fully aware of this. However, he couldn''t allow anyone to kill his masters after what had happened with Scorpio! Jason was not even sure how he had been able to unseal the power of a true Celestia for a short amount of time, but he knew that his body was not yet ready. Nevertheless, he couldn''t give up now, and instead, he forcefully unleashed his entire enhanced mana absorption rate while every single mana stone within his spatial ring was thrown out by Jason. ''Three seconds¡­.give me three seconds!!'' He shouted inwardly, hoping that his body would be able to endure everything for the next three seconds. Only a moment after the mana stones had left Jason''s spatial ring his mana absorption absorbed them at a rapid pace, and a terrifying suctioning force absorbed everything greedily. Jason''s strength skyrocketed, but the thought of his masters that were dying was still present in his mind, tormenting it. They were already heavily injured and deep within him, Jason could tell that the Burane race''s ice affinity was something special, something deadly! As such, his wrath towards the assassin increased to an unfathomable extent. At the same time, Jason began to hate himself for being weak, insignificant even after he had given his best to increase his combat prowess within the short amount of time he had been given It looked like he was about to break his promise to never lose someone he loved, again, and Jason didn''t want to accept this! He had already been unable to rescue Scorpio, losing his masters would tear him apart! At that thought, Jason''s holy halo that had manifested behind his back brightened up even more. Yet, exactly at the same time, his body that was enveloped in a thick golden-silverish hue was overwhelmed by a crimson red hue that spread through Jason''s entire being. The halo''s shape of a holy ring began to change and if Jason were to see himself, he would think that he was somewhat of a fiendish and holy being right now. It was as if the halo was trapped between the holy and fiendish state, but Jason couldn''t care less about that. Once the golden wall of fire had been disintegrated, the Burane race''s assassin was able to see how much Jason''s entire being had changed within a single moment. This caused him to retreat instinctively, only to sense that he was unable to move. One of Jason''s eyes had turned crimson red for a short moment, while the paralyzing curse he had utilized showed its true might. Seemingly without moving, Jason appeared in front of the Burane race''s assassin as he slashed out with Byakur. The Burane race assassin might have six small solidified prismarine crystals in his mana core, but the strength Jason had released at this moment was powerful enough to kill every being at the low Prismar stage! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 468 - Farewell After Jason had sliced apart the Burane race''s assassin, his entire energy was drained and he coughed out blood. Neither his aura nor his stigma were glowing anymore and Jason felt weaker than he had ever been. Even when Jason had not started to accumulate mana inside his mana core and was malnourished, he had been more powerful than he was right now. His legs were shaking heavily, but Jason forced himself to stand firmly on the ground. He was unable to see anything clearly because his eyes were blurry, and Jason could barely lift his trembling hand that was drenched with his own blood. Just like that Artemis emerged from the soul world. Yet, instead of taking care of Jason, she had grasped the assassin''s corpse with her talons to throw him around. Meanwhile, Jason ignored what Artemis did as he turned towards his masters that looked at him with a faint smile. Their faces were ashen-pale and blood poured out of their wounds. "You''ve become strong, brat!" Shane''s voice was weak and Jason could barely hear it as tears poured down his cheeks. Both Shane and Dalia were dying and Jason wanted to rush out of the burned tent to bring help when Dalia used her utmost efforts to say "Don''t go...Please¡­.stay with us...during...our last moments¡­" Hearing these words caused Jason to stiffen while he gritted his teeth as his legs gave in. He held his masters'' hands with his trembling hands, not minding anything that happened around him as he said "I''m sorry¡­.everything''s my fault...all of that wouldn''t have happened if I hadn''t been with born!!!" Because the Shadow walker had found him and his unique existence as a halfling, everyone had to suffer!! Not only did war break out, but Scorpio died, and now even his masters would die!! Guilt about what happened gathered within him and Jason could barely breathe properly as Dalia mumbled. "Silly, Jael Drake...would have attacked somewhen...even without you¡­Nobody is guilty to be born! We...have to apologize...about Scorpio...if we hadn''t..." These last words seemed to have consumed Dalia''s last energy and Jason''s mana eyes began to malfunction because there was no mana left within Jason. The last thing he perceived was that the icicles that had pierced through his masters had already frozen most of their organs. Jason wanted to use Solaris'' flame that had returned to its black color in order to heat up those organs, but when Shane saw this through his blurred, and heavy eyes he said "Brat, there is...no use! Let us go...our time..has come¡­" While Shane seemed to have some life left in his eyes, Dalia''s eyes turned dimmer by the second and the last words she said were. "Shane, I love you¡­.Jason...don''t be too sad. You''ve made...us..pro-ud¡­" After that three magic circles appeared on the ground around Dalia as her body stiffened before it went limp. The Dryads had given their utmost efforts to leave Dalia''s soul world the moment she had been injured, but even after Jason had defeated the Burane race''s assassin, Dalia prevented them from doing anything. There was only one thing Dalia could do for her soulbonds before dying which was releasing them. Even though they hadn''t been able to help at the end, Dalia had loved them dearly, and she would never allow them to die with her! Shane had also released his soulbonds and Jason, who witnessed everything couldn''t help but grit his teeth, as he laid Dalia''s hand above Shane''s. Solaris who had been within Jason''s soul world forced its way out as if appeared in front of the silver origin flame that levitated next to Dalia. At the sight of the black origin flame, it began to tremble, floating behind the Dryads that were kneeling next to Dalia. When Jason saw this, he instructed Solaris to stop everything it was about to do before his focus returned to Dalia, who had just left them, and Shane, who was currently fighting with himself to say something. "Jason¡­.you are strong...but not everyone...is like you...please, if possible, help those who need you...don''t abandon mankind...We love you!.... Survive by all means!!" A moment later Jason could see that Shane''s life force had been drained as his body went limp. He was about to cry out and let his emotions free when he sensed dozens of extremely strong mana fluctuations above him. Lifting his face that was smudged by his own blood and tears, Jason saw more than a hundred beings with nine small solidified prismarine crystals in his mana core. Only a moment later, the backlash of having unsealed the Celestia bloodline flooded Jason and he lost consciousness as he fainted right next to Shane and Dalia''s corpse, while their soulbonds were voicing out their agony. At the same time, Jason''s Celestia aura and his stigma that seemed to have disappeared should have reverted back to its flawless golden-silverish color. However, this did not happen, and the dark crimson color had spread through Shane''s entire being, infesting the Celestia bloodline. Unconscious, Jason was unable to notice anything around him, and he could only tell that his wrath towards certain foreign races and himself was intensifying. Nobody deserves to be treated as the foreign races treated Argos and every living being on it. At the same time, despite his body having entered a state similar to hibernation, his mind was still active, replicating everything that had happened during the last 17 years of his life. Every single second from his birth to up to today. What was the reason for humanity end like that, why did everything happen as it did? Who was at fault? Was it Jason for being born as a halfling, or was it something else? Why was his first friend Greg, and his family, whom he thought to be a second family of his, forced into a soul contract by Jael Drake? Why did Scorpio and his masters have to die? Was his weak strength the cause for everything to happen or something else? Everything had begun with the appearance of the world bridges and the fact that the Shadow walker had seen Jason, a halfling. Witnessing the past once again, Jason felt as if he was being torn apart, by guilt, wrath, agony, and the question about what he should do in the future. Was it better for everyone if he would just disappear, never return as if he had never existed in the first place, or would this worsen the situation? Other than his mother, he had lost Scorpio and his masters whom he had loved more than he wanted to acknowledge. His masters had supported him in every decision he made and this support was unconditional. They never asked him for anything in return, and it was only shortly before Shane died that he asked Jason to not abandon mankind. But...was that even possible...was there salvation for mankind? ** Jason was still unconscious and didn''t even notice that Fasro, had appeared above the burned-down tent. He looked at Jason, who seemed to have escaped death by a hair''s breadth. At the same time, he looked at the 100 unmoving Elvyrs who seemed to be waiting for something. ''Why is the Evlyr race here? Do they want to join the war on Argos, or did something else happen?'' However, even more important for Fasro was the fact that he sensed a divine being''s halo within the camp! The enormous aura it had released had weakened every single assassin of the Burane race! The aura had come from the place he was currently levitating, but the only thing Fasro could see was a halved Burane assassin, Jason, his dead masters, and several soulbonds. At that moment, the silver origin flame that was levitating in front of Solaris had made a decision. It followed the last wish of its master and allowed the black origin flame that released the desire to devour it. Jason didn''t notice this, but Fasro''s eyes widened at this sight. However, the faint mana fluctuations lingering around Jason were even more shocking as Fasro realized that the young man was the most likely candidate to have released the divine aura. Subconsciously he eyed the Elvyrs that were still not moving, seemingly waiting for something as one of them said "This youth¡­.is he Celestia Yaldra''s son? But...his aura¡­" The leader of the Elvyr couldn''t help but sigh while staring at Jason, who was unconscious as he said "I know...his aura shows the first signs of turning into an Infernal Celestia¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 469 - [Bonus ]Why Is All Of This Happening... [Author note: Thanks for everyone''s support! Let''s enter the top 10 of the golden ticket ranking ;D] Jason was not sure how much time had passed, but he woke up in a soft bed. Opening his eyes, one could see traces a dark-crimson color mixed within the former golden-silverish eyes. He could barely lift his arm that was extremely heavy, and only by feeling his sore body and mana veins that were almost bursting apart did Jason realize that the memories he recalled were not a nightmare but reality! A faint calming fragrance permeated the room, but Jason''s expression remained stiff without showing any emotions. Without waiting too long, he got out of the bed, only to notice that his entire body was bandaged and rubbed in some sort of ointment. It was uncomfortable to move, but Jason simply disregarded the soreness and aching within his body. His mind was solely focused on his masters and that they had died in front of his eyes. ''I was not strong enough...again¡­'' He simply thought before he left the room he had rested for an unknown amount of time. Jason did not even realize where he was and the only thing he cared about was to see his masters body. He had yet to bid them farewell, only to notice that his sight blurred. Tears began to pour down his cheeks while his facial expression remained stoic, unmoving as if he was emotionless, only showing his sadness by crying. Others who saw Jason wanted to approach him in order to figure out what he was doing outside his chamber with lethal injuries as he had, only to be held back by other, more sensible people. Not even Yune, Milan, or Isga, who had seen him, dared to approach him. Since he had lost Scorpio, Jason had already changed. He had distanced himself from them, fearing that he might get too close to them, only to lose even more people would hold dearly! Isga''s parents were still alive, and the same applied for Yune''s and Milan''s. Though they had been heavily injured, they barely survived thanks to the unknown halo that released a mixture between a golden, silver, and dark-crimson color that had weakened the Burane race assassins! After that, an unknown race''s embassy had appeared and nobody knew what was going on. Yet, the Ariyor race was extremely respectful to them, thus the new race that had called themselves Elvyr had to be strong. Apparently, the Elvyr race was on good terms with the Ariyor race too! This was everything that counted because they couldn''t face another strong race, even less in their current state that had been weakened drastically! The Argos alliance''s morale had hit rock bottom and hope was too far away to grasp. Meanwhile, Jason followed his instincts and what his mana eyes showed him in a detailed manner to walk ahead. In the end, he had reached a small graveyard that was decorated with the big clans'' utmost efforts in order to honor those that had been assassinated by the Burane race. It looked beautiful despite the conditions the Argos alliance was currently in, but Jason couldn''t help but feel reluctant as he found the last traces of his masters'' familiar mana fluctuations below the graveyard that had their names written on them. He was still unable to believe that they had died, and it was only when he sensed a hand on his shoulder that Jason looked up. It was Emily, whom Dalia had taken in as her family and disciple. Jason hadn''t thought about Emily for a single second and it was only now that he saw her ragged appearance. She seemed to have been crying for several days as Jason asked weakly. "How long have I been unconscious?" Emily was not sure how she was feeling right now. She had nobody left except her soulbond after her master had died, while Jason had fallen into a hibernation-like state. Was she angry at Jason? No...It was not his fault... He had almost sacrificed his life, trying to rescue both Shane and Dalia too She was just sad about her own weakness and the fact that she had been unable to help her master and Shane during the most crucial time when they would have needed help for the first time! Instead of helping, she had been more like a burden. Shane had barely been able to manifest a spatial portal to teleport Emily outside the tent, as far as possible from the most dangerous area just before the Burane race''s assassin had sealed the surrounding space! As such, Emily felt chained by her own guilt. This was not only because of her master and Shane but also because Jason had almost sacrificed his own life in order to save his masters, while she had been unable to do anything. Rather, she had stiffened the moment the Blood eclipse, how everyone called the Burane race''s assassination, had occurred. Emily had been unable to move or do anything, and the strength she had accumulated to help Jason and her master were rendered useless, insignificant in the face of the foreign race''s attack. Thus, she had lived in seclusion for the last month, without meeting anyone, only relying on the Lesser typhoon roc. Yet, something unexpected had happened to her because of her soulbond. In the end, what had happened to Emily was not important at the moment as she stared into Jason''s emotionless and seemingly dead eyes that scared her owing to the color of his eyes that had changed once again. "One month¡­.you were asleep for one month¡­" After she had said so, Emily took out three spatial rings that had been inside her pockets during the entire last month. "Take them...The spatial rings have all the belongings from Shane, Dalia, and the assassin from the Burane race you''ve killed¡­" Under normal circumstances, Emily had the right to receive a part of Dalia''s belongings because she was her disciple too. But she didn''t even think about taking something as everything should be given to Jason. She didn''t even deserve anything because the only thing Emily had done was wasting precious resources and time which Jason could have spent with his masters! ''One month¡­'' Jason thought, not caring about anything else Emily had just said. His legs were still shaky and he had yet to recuperate from the internal injuries caused by forcefully unleashing his bloodline. However, instead of thinking about the future, what would happen to Argos and mankind, Jason could only think of the past and what had happened right before the Blood eclispe. Jason had focused on becoming stronger every single day, yet it had been worthless because he couldn''t save those that had been important to him. There was always something stronger than Jason was and incident after incident occurred since he had gained his eyesight. "Why is all of that happening¡­" Jason mumbled as sadness overcame him. Scorpio was dead, his master now too...who else would die??? His mind turned blank and he mindlessly stared at his masters'' graves in front of him. Meanwhile, Emily pushed the three spatial rings into Jason''s hand that grasped them subconsciously. Afterward, she remained silent and waited for Jason to finish bidding his last farewell to his masters. It was cruel, but she knew that there were people waiting for Jason. Not only his friends, or Fasro and his siblings from the Ariyor race, but also the embassy of the Elvyr race! According to one of the Elvyr that had learned the human language in two days, they had come to this meager planet because of none other than Jason! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 470 - Infernal Celestia It was surprising for everyone to hear that the Elvyr race, which was known for being the strongest highest race, had forcefully opened a world bridge to Argos. The planet was worthless to them, after all! However, it looked like Jason''s existence was worth the efforts to do something as painstakingly as creating a world bridge that allowed being at the Prismar stage with nine small solidified prismarine crystals to step through it! This had astonished many, including Fasro and the other Ariyor, but there seemed to be something more important which the Elvyr race''s embassy was hiding from them! They didn''t bother to explain anything but Fasro thought that he was able to see a glint of fear and reverence in the Elvyrs'' eyes when they spoke about Jason. ''Do they know more about Jason? Maybe even his real origin?'' This intrigued Fasro, but he knew that it was unlikely for the Elvyrs to reveal more information. However, what had been even more astonishing was the fact that the Evlyr race seemed to be curious about Emily too! Nobody had expected this, yet, contrary to everyone''s expectations, Emily''s soulbond and not the girl herself was what interested them. According to the translator of the Elvyrs embassy, all kinds of rocs were seen as sacred beasts by the Elvyr race. They were not only extremely rare to find, but also said to be on the brink of extinction! It was unknown how there could be a roc with the poorest bloodline on Argos, but their interest in Emily, who was the master of the roc increased consistently. Their knowledge about rocs was vast and it was only a matter of time before they tried to lure in Emily, who had the same innate affinities as the Elvyr race; A wind affinity. Emily had never heard about the Elvyr race and neither did she think great of foreign races because they were wreaking havoc on the Archipelago and Canir. Yet, the Elvyr, who had spoken to her in the human tongue, offered an advanced soul contract that prevented it from lying, otherwise, it would die immediately. This made Emily curious about why exactly the Elvyr race wanted to use such extents, only to lure her in. However, to think that their purpose was solely to take the roc back to their race''s origin planet, to groom and nurture it, was something Emily couldn''t understand. She was unable to grasp how important her soulbond could be, to a race whose strength was something she was unable to even imagine at that. It was weird, yet the offer she received, allowed her to escape from Argos! Her talent was also not bad, and she began to wonder if it was her fate to leave mankind, that had never been good to her, in the first place. Only Jason, Shane, and her master, Dalia had helped her unconditionally, but now only Jason was left. As such, she had wanted to stay by Jason''s side to support him mentally. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done and there was no way for Emily to break through the wall Jason had erected around his heart. Nobody would be able to tell what Jason was feeling, except he himself and his soulbonds! Meanwhile, Jason had subconsciously entered his soul world, where he saw that Solaris devoured something. Jason''s eyes widened and his anger erupted when he saw that it was the silver origin flame, he had forbidden Solaris to eat. Solaris, who had noticed Jason''s appearance quickly transmitted several thoughts towards its master before something worse could happen. The black origin flame had never felt as fearful as by the sight of Jason and it was glad when his anger dissipated as quickly as it had emerged. "The silver origin flame allowed you to devour it? Dalia''s last present? What kind of bullshit is that?" Jason couldn''t grasp the situation at all, and it was as if his entire being was frozen in place. Since his master had died, his thoughts were chaotic and he had been unable to understand anything around him. There was just emptiness in his mind and a new deep hole in his heart! It was only when Solaris transmitted that devouring the silver origin flame was extremely beneficial, enhancing its purification ability while adding a new, unknown ability that Jason looked at Solaris again. ''Solaris inherits the silver origin flame''s disguising ability?'' This was good and, but he couldn''t help but just nod his head without any vigor as he left the soul world once again. At the same time, he had ignored Artemis, who had approached Jason, trying to console him. She hadn''t been close with Shane and Dalia, but Artemis was fully aware of how important they had been to Jason. Thus, she left the soul world with Jason, emerging in her small form in order to stay by his side or to be precisely squeezed on his shoulder. While Jason had been mindlessly staring at the graves in front of him, Fasro, Midra and a few members of the embassy had arrived in front of the graveyard. They didn''t enter it in order to respect the deceased and remained at the same position they''ve been standing for more than two hours before Jason and Emily left. Emily saw that the Elvyrs and Ariyor were waiting for Jason and took a step back, allowing Jason to encounter them first. One of the Evlyr stepped forward introducing himself in the human tongue "Hello Jason Stella, my name is Lusan Ars. It might sound sudden, but we have been assigned to bring you to someone. If you are fine with it, we will depart as soon as possible." This should have been astonished Jason, but he simply stared at the Elvyr with his eyes that had become a mixture of golden-silverish and dark-crimson-colored. Clearing his throat, Jason answered in the universal language "I don''t need anyone to bring me somewhere. My father asked for me, am I right? If the Elvyr race does not want to support the human race in defending their planet against the Drake alliance, it might be better for you to leave this planet. I have something to take care of and I won''t leave Argos before everything is finished! Even then, I won''t meet my father, simply because I don''t feel the need to do so. My current state shouldn''t be something my father''s race would accept, at least I can feel that it would be like this. With that being said, I''ll reject going back!" Emily was unable to understand Jason, but she could tell that he said something important because the tension around them increased. Meanwhile, the small group of the Elvyr embassy was unable to understand what exactly held Jason on Argos. He had the chance to meet his father, a Celestia, who could simply nurture him without any issues after all! They were divine beings after all! At the same time, they could also understand Jason''s decision to a certain extent. His current state was extremely bad, considering that the Celestia had told them to take care of Jason, preventing him from becoming an Infernal Celestia. As such, they didn''t know what exactly they should do right now. "Your state is really not the best...but your father could help you, otherwise you might end up as an Infernal Celestia!!" While Jason began to wonder what an Infernal Celestia was, Fasro''s eyes widened as he turned towards Jason "You are a halfling from the CELESTIA race???" Jason didn''t expect Fasro to be so loud, but he just nodded his head, not denying anything before he turned back to Lusan. "My current state is not that different from before. There is only the bloodlust and the intent to kill that is forcefully spreading through my Celestia bloodline. However, feeling like this after what had happened should be normal as a human...shouldn''t it? Furthermore, I don''t think about abandoning my other half, just because my father wants to see me! I won''t abandon mankind...that''s the least I can do¡­" His expression worsened and his expression changed for the first time, turning sad before he said "If your embassy wants to return without having achieved your mission, you may return. But I will die during the next months because the majority of big clan heads have been killed. Otherwise, I would appreciate the Elvyr race embassy''s help!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 471 - Negotiation It was not like Jason adored mankind or would give his life for them, but his masters had always wanted him to help find back to the right path! Shane''s last words were also about mankind and that he shouldn''t abandon them. As such, in order to honor and repay the debt Jason thought to own his masters, he wanted to become what both Shane and Dalia wished him to be. That was to become someone who protected the weak and helped mankind surviving the Great Argos war, and the tumultuous future that laid ahead! Jason was not even sure how many innocent people have died during the last two years and the number was likely to be in the billions. The situation on Canir should already be dangerous, but what about the Archipelago? Were the islands able to defend themselves, or did all of them become desolate as it happened with Astrix? He sincerely hoped that this was not the case, and Jason couldn''t help but feel restless. Yet, Jason was aware that the Burane race''s assassination was just considered as the first attack of the Drake alliance! The number of foreign races on Argos was unknown, but it was evident that their young prodigies'' numbers were minuscule. Furthermore, the Elvyr race embassy might have the smallest number, but their cultivation rank was the highest, by far! Jason had only seen the Owl-bear that was even stronger than the Elvyr race embassy, however, that was because it had broken through thanks to his primal bloodline awakening. The Owl-bear had resided on Argos since the mana awakening and emerged from one of the first temporary world bridges that were a lot more stable than the permanent world bridge through which the Elvyr race had emerged! This was because there was a distinct difference between a temporary -and a permanent world bridge, which was in fact the time they were destined to remain intact. Yet, Jason''s mind was focused on something different. The Owl-bear''s appearance might be interesting under normal circumstances, but there were more important things to take care of right now! The few Evlyrs that had waited for him looked at Jason emotionlessly as if he hadn''t said anything. This was not the case at all, and he was fully aware of this as his mana eyes were able to detect faint fluctuations connecting the Evlyrs with each other. ''Are they transmitting their thoughts through the mana currents?'' Jason wondered which led him to release a paper-thin thread of mana. He controlled it and lead it towards Fasro with a slow, yet, steady pace. It was only when his mana thread came in contact with Fasro that he issued a faint [Hello?] within his mind. Fasro''s liquefied quicksilver body suddenly jolted and he turned towards Jason as if he was in shock he made exactly the same as Jason did, only much faster. A paper-thin thread of mana shot towards Jason as Fasro asked [You have already learned how to use voice transmission? Since when?"] Fasro had been in shock way too often during the last few hours, and it was already too much for him to digest that Jason was a halfling from the Celestia race! He had never heard something so ridiculous but Jason was the living evidence that nobody tried to fool him. Nevertheless, Fasro knew about Jason''s capabilities and how strong he was if one were to exclude the fact that Jason seemed to be able to unleash his bloodline for a few seconds as it happened during the Blood eclipse. As such, he knew that Jason had been unable to execute voice transmission before! [Just now. It''s extremely beneficial and nobody can listen to our conversation without revealing one''s mana fluctuations! Quite convenient!] With that being said, Jason severed the connection to Fasro but instead of waiting for the Elvyrs to come to a conclusion, he decided to intercept their secret conversation. He controlled his paper-thin mana thread precisely and cut in their conversation which allowed him to hear. [Celestia Yaldra said we shouldn''t force his son to follow us! As such, we can simply record what the youth said and leave. There is no need for us to create hostility with the Burane and My?ldra race! We might be stronger, but that doesn''t mean we should offend every single weaker race...] This sounded logical, and instead of eavesdropping any further, which was not something Jason had planned to do, he simply transmitted what he wanted to say [Sorry for joining the conversation just like that, but I wanted to remind all of you that you can simply speak to me. I don''t care about my background, heritage, or anything like that. If the embassy of the Elvyr race doesn''t want to help, that''s fine too. I don''t really know my father, but I can tell that offending two higher races is insignificant if a Celestia were to owe your race a favor! Yet, if you guys were to leave me behind in a death zone like Argos, wouldn''t that make Celestia Yaldra angry? Furthermore, there is not a single foreign race that had been able to emerge on Argos with the same cultivation stage as the Elvyr race embassy has! As such a single Evlyr with nine small solidified prismarine crystals should be stronger than the army of several common races, or a few dozen powerhouses from the higher races!] Jason knew that he was playing with words but at the same time he could tell that it was necessary to receive the Elvyr race embassy''s help. What he had said was not even a lie, and he was sure that his father must have offered something in return for their help, otherwise, it wouldn''t make any sense! As such, Jason thought that he could as well exploit this and make use of every possibility. The entire human race was on the brink of extinction, or facing lifelong enslavement, either way! After he had finished his words, the paper-thin thread of mana dispersed, and Jason felt extremely weak out of a sudden. He almost puked blood and tasted the smell of iron on his tongue. ''I need at least two or three months to recuperate completely¡­fuck!'' He thought, sighing deeply as he perceived that the faint mana fluctuations of the Evlyrs had been severed. After that the Elvyr, Jason presumed to be the leader of their embassy, stepped forward. "We can help you, but there is one condition you have to fulfill!" Before, Jason expected that the Elvyr race would try to leave, thinking that the benefits were not enough to outweigh the dangers of offending two higher races. However, this seemed to have changed after Jason''s short dialogue that sounded logical in the embassy''s opinion. Nevertheless, in the past, there had been stronger races that promised the Elvyr race something, only to have been lied to! In the end, they had been exploited while saying that they were lucky that they had not been annihilated. This was labeled as their reward and the same happened with many races, which was something Jason couldn''t know. As such, he simply nodded his head when he heard that the Elvyr race had a condition, thinking that it was something common to happen, only to squint his eyes at the exact content of the condition. "You will have to sign a soul contract with the Elvyr race, with one clause stating that you owe us a favor that is equal to your life! At the same time, only Celestia Yaldra will be able to dissolve your favor by signing a soul contract that he owes us a little favor!" Jason was not sure whether the Elvyr had thought about this in detail, and it might be due to his inexperience, or that he had not been prepared to help the human race in fighting against two higher races. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t help but smile, thinking that he had gone insane as he asked "Don''t you think that will enrage my father...at least the part ''equal to your life''? Have you ever considered that your words might cause your entire race''s annihilation?" He never assumed his father to be a good father or anything like that, but what Jason could tell was that his father was a prideful being, which was to be expected from a race that was consistent with divine beings! Would his father really allow the Elvyr race to force him to do something that might tarnish his reputation? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 472 - The Tides Have Changed "Don''t you think that will enrage my father...at least the part ''equal to your life''? Have you ever considered that your words might cause your entire race''s annihilation?" When the Elvyrs heard this, their eyes widened for a moment, and Jason''s assumption about their inexperience and ignorance was evidently proven correct. As such, Jason turned serious as he said "I can understand the reason for demanding something like this from me, but I can''t promise anything about my father because I have never really met him. The only thing I can promise and sign in a soul contract is that I will return the favor I owe. Other than that, I won''t sign a contract saying that I owe you a favor equal to my life or anything like that. Take it or leave, but understand that your decision might as well decide over the future of your entire race! Be responsible about the decision you will take and live with the consequences!" At that moment, Lusan, who was only 25 years old and still considered a child in his race, couldn''t help but think that Jason was like their race''s elders. Despite being younger, Jason had experienced much more than Lusan, let alone the other Elvyrs that followed Lusan to Argos. The Elvyr embassy was trained in combat, but their diplomatic skills had yet to be developed. In the end, it was the Elvyr race''s higher authorities'' fault to think that the mission, Celestia Yaldra had given them, would be easy to solve. Not sure what to do, Lusan tried to think of the best solution that allowed them to reap the most benefits without possibly endangering his entire race. Whether it was creating hostility with two higher races or displeasing, if not enraging a being from the Celestia race, Lusan wanted to avoid both scenarios at the same time. Unfortunately, he had to accept that this was more difficult, maybe even impossible to achieve! Neither Jason nor Fasro said anything while Lusan and the Elvyrs were pondering about the best possible solution. Yet, Fasro stared at Jason with interest, thinking that he had utilized his intel greatly, pressing the inexperienced Elvyr prodigy, who was likely to lead his first important mission on a different planet. As such, it was only obvious that Lusan wanted to get the best possible result as it would most likely be evaluated by the higher-ups, and his teachers! When 20 minutes had passed Jason suddenly said. "If you don''t want to support us, just because I adjusted the soul contract a little bit, that''s fine too, but please make a decision. There are many preparations for the oncoming large-scale war to make and I''m not sure whether mankind will survive this!" After Jason had said this, he looked at Fasro for a minute before he forced a small smile on his lips. Jason was relatively sure what the Ariyor race would do if the Elvyr embassy were to leave instead of supporting the human race. The chances that the employed Ariyors would remain on Argos were nill under the current circumstances, and Jason was fully aware of this! As such, Lusan, who was under a lot of pressure from every possible side, would have to accept Jason''s condition, otherwise, mankind''s situation would only worsen. That was something, everyone knew except the Elvyr race. Fortunately, the young Elvyr had not expected Jason to act like he was currently doing, thus he said "Alright, we will help out! The soul contract will simply state that you owe us a favor and we don''t even mention Celestia Yaldra. At the same time, we will only stay for half a year, at most!!" Jason couldn''t suppress a faint smile, despite the short time interval the Lusan gave him. This was a great opportunity and it was only a moment later that a voice transmission from Fasro reached him [You are quite witted! I think you''ve already sensed it, but now that the tides have changed, the Ariyor race will also stay for half a year too!] Despite the worst time mankind was currently facing and Jason''s days that were filled with agony and despair, he was able to grasp the faint ray of hope he found right in front of him. With the help of the Ariyor race and 100 Elvyrs that had nine small solidified prismarine crystals in their mana core, mankind seemed to have gained the upper hand for the first time since the Great Argos war had started! At least the casualties caused by the Blood eclipse weren''t as severely damaging to their combat force as before anymore, and the problem that the Argos alliance had to face two higher races at once had been balanced out. It was even better than that, and Jason assumed that Lusan and the others would be able to take care of their opponents without too many problems, despite the numerical disadvantage! Jason nodded towards Lusan who was waiting for his reaction, as he held out his hand. "We can set up the soul contract whenever you want. But don''t think of adding any weird favors! Simple favors have their limits too!" He knew to some extent how soul contracts worked. His knowledge about them was not perfect, by far, but Jason knew that a simple favor was not something that could be directly forced upon someone else. It would still be his free will whether or not he would help the Elvyr in the future, at lest to some extent. A favor with certain clauses added was similar to a wish, he would have to fulfill once spoken out! As such, Jason remained vigilant which was something Fasro praised inwardly. ''It''s a wonder that he can stay so calm and think everything completely through despite recently having lost someone close to him!'' Even Jason was astonished that he was able to stay calm, not thinking about anything except a path to drag mankind out of their current pathetic state! Maybe it was because his masters'' last wish was to help and protect the weak and to not abandon mankind. However, it could also be something completely different, yet, Jason was unable to tell what exactly it was that caused him to strive forward. The thought about never losing anyone ever again sounded ridiculous to him, and the same applied to becoming stronger in order to protect those he loved. Both were thoughts he had in his mind since Scorpio had died and Jason had given his utmost efforts to become stronger, only to notice that it had been useless. Not even his unleashed bloodline had been enough to protect his masters as it had already been too late at that time, and Jason started to question himself more than ever. ''If there is always someone stronger taking something from others...Is there even someone who tries to protect and take care of the weak? What is the meaning of life if everyone can be taken away in a single moment by those who are greedy or jealous of someone else''s strength and abilities?'' Jason was aware that his thoughts were one-sided and that he should have included the fact that he had killed thousands of opponents in the last three years. But even then, the rule of the strongest applied everywhere and Jason was unable to think of a way to make the human race''s soul awakenings less attractive to other races. "Is it not possible to close all world bridges, to prevent anyone from intruding Argos¡­.?" Jason mumbled, subconsciously without any meaning as he heard Fasro next to him. "If you''re strong enough and able to wield elemental runes, you can do that, but that''s not something for someone at the Prismar-, let alone the Lique stage to deal with!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 473 - Resolve ''Wield elemental runes¡­?'' While Jason had never heard about them, he understood that elemental runes were most likely the runes manifested out of the purest of transmuted mana he had already seen before. There might as well be other ingredients required, but Jason didn''t know anything about that. However, instead of asking about the origin of elemental runes and what exactly they were, Jason wanted to set up the soul contract with Lusan first, and finish everything else. Emily had told him he was unconscious for one month, and the number of liquefied drops of mana inside his mana core had increased to 28 thanks to his passive mana gathering within his sub-area. It was as if the passive mana gathering in his sub-area had been upgraded since he had unleashed his entire Celestia bloodline, and the same could be said about his soul energy increment cycle! Both processes hadn''t truly changed, and it was more like the sub areas themselves had been reinforced, allowing them to alter slightly. This enhancement was only small and Jason knew that it would have a bigger effect if his entire bloodline had been fully unsealed. Nevertheless, it felt like his partial unsealed bloodline was finally completely accepted by every cell of his body, which meant that his sub-area was included. Thus, the processes inside the sub-area had been accelerated, and his soul energy increment cycle was able to increase his soul energy units by 1.5% instead of 1% a day! This was great, but the number of soul energy units he received was unfortunately still not enough to turn Solaris into an invincible origin flame that was stronger than every opponent he would have to face! However, what caused Jason to be a little disappointed was Artemis'' current advancement. Her strength increased slower than his own, which was contrary to their earlier days, and Jason thought that he should feed her higher-ranked mana cores. Even if he was thinking about doing so, there were not many beasts around the Argos alliance, and nobody cared about collecting them right now! Rather than collecting them, they would be utilized to forge weapons or strong armors! As such, Jason could only feed Artemis with mana stones which she could also digest. ''I''ll have to procure more mana stones¡­.I''ve used up every single one I had after all!'' He was not sure how long it took before the soul contract with the Elvyr race was finally set up, and Jason was glad that he only owed their race a small favor. Despite that, he was a halfling of the Celestia race and a small favor from a Celestia was worth far more than Jason could have imagined at that time! Only when they had finished the soul contract did Lusan do something Jason didn''t expect. He averted his attention to Emily as he asked "Did you decide whether you''ll depart with us?.... From the way I can tell, you want to give the lesser typhoon roc the best possible nourishment but there something seems to hold you back on Argos!" Jason heard the Elvyr''s offer for the first time, but instead of being happy or disappointed, he simply looked at Emily without showing any emotions. He was not even sure what Emily was to him, and the only thing Jason was confident about was the fact that Emily had been loyal to Dalia, who had been her master. This was enough for Jason, thus he looked at Emily, who seemed to be reluctant to answer, without saying anything. "I..I''m still in debt to someone¡­" She simply said, and Lusan, the only Elvyr able to understand her smiled because he thought that this was the only reason that held her back. "If it''s a debt, we can pay for it! The human race should be in a dire need of funds, weapons, or to be precise...everything! As such, resources shouldn''t be a problem, and we can pay the debt, which will allow you to follow us to our planet once we depart!" Emily was thankful for this offer, but she could only shake her head as she said "It''s not a debt about something materialistic, but I owe my life to someone¡­" When Lusan heard this he frowned, as Jason suddenly said "You mean the soul contract that you will be thankful to me for your entire life? Is that what''s holding you back?" She just nodded while looking to the ground. "You know that I did everything on my own accord, and the same applied to my masters...They would never want you to be restricted, neither do I! Just do what your want to do. That''s the best Dalia could have wished for..." "But..I want to help you¡­.it''s just that I''m too weak¡­!" Emily sounded desperate and her voice was seemingly in pain. This astonished Jason and only now did he realize there were other people who had lost someone close to them because they were too weak too! In the end, she had spent even more time with Dalia than he did, and Jason couldn''t help but call himself selfish. He had thought that only he lost someone he had loved, but that was not the case and it had happened to everyone around him too! There were so many humans that had died during the last two years, and Jason could only sigh deeply as he overcame himself "It''s not your fault to be weak...neither is it mine to be too weak either...That''s just how it is...we will have to strive for more and continue to advance to ending the Great Argos war and preventing it from ever happening again!" Somehow, his words gave Jason the vigor he seemed to have lost before. Even though he was weak, if he were to give up, he could have also died during the Blood eclipse! What difference would that make? Was giving up even an option? There were still people he wanted to protect¡­ Even if his masters had died, would they want him to give up, at the most crucial time? If he were to give up his life, they would be disappointed because they had wanted him to stay alive! Jason knew this, and it gave him a little bit strength, thinking that he shouldn''t throw away his life like that! There were still humans that were much weaker than he was, in an even worse state, filled with desperation, struggling to stay alive even if it was only one more day! He recalled the situation on Astrix that was devastating and began to ask himself, what he had been doing until now. ''There are weak and untalented citizens struggling to survive, overcoming everything with their utmost efforts, and here I am...cursing my own weakness, despite being stronger than the vast majority of all of them¡­'' Even without unleashing his entire bloodline, which was something Jason didn''t know how it worked, his strength was comparable to that of the average person at the low Lique stage with 200 drops of liquefied mana inside their mana core. Other than that, there were still his new weapons that had allowed him to defeat Dana, who had almost 1000 mana drops, and it had not even been a difficult fight! Jason''s resolve to stop complaining and work for his beliefs became firmer again, and he told himself that he would give his utmost efforts to make Scorpio and his masters proud of him! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 474 - Soulbonds After everything was completed, they went their own way. Emily was not sure where to go right now, pondering whether she should follow Jason, only to realize that it might be inappropriate for them to stay in a single tent together. Furthermore, Jason wanted to focus on recuperating from his weakened state which was something everyone said to be the most important right now. Even if the Elvyr embassy had decided to reinforce the Argos alliance, this didn''t mean that the rest were allowed to slack off. There were only 100 young Elvyr after all, and even their strength would be depleted at one point! As such, Jason, who didn''t want to rely on anyone to survive, either way, felt like he had to recuperate as fast as possible while strengthening himself. The further and quicker, the better! With that thought in mind, he grasped the three spatial rings that had belonged to his masters and the Burane race''s assassin. He was reluctant to look at his masters'' spatial rings thinking that it was too soon, however, thinking about the dangers he and the entire Argos alliance would have to face soon, Jason overcame his inner shadows and accessed all spatial rings at once before he transferred the content into his own spatial ring. The Burane race assassin''s spatial ring was larger than he had expected and the content inside was more promising than he could have imagined before. ''To think that Assassins take their entire belongings with them. Wasn''t that too arrogant?'' Jason couldn''t smile, even at the sight of several tens of thousand high-grade mana stones, several weapons that had powerful runes inscribed in them, and much more. There were even potions and other vials that radiated a stronger aura than the medical solutions mankind was able to produce. As such, owing to his mana eyes, Jason was able to determine that they were high-grade nutrition solutions! Other than that, there were several other things that had been transferred into his own spatial ring that was overflowing with things. Thus, he decided to put on his masters'' large spatial rings. Jason was unable to throw them away, either way. With that in mind, he might as well make use of them! Jason started to distribute the content of his overflowing spatial ring in the three spatial rings he was now wearing One spatial ring was used to store all cultivation resources, while the others would be used for his auxiliary occupations, their tools, ingredients, and the masses of books his masters had collected throughout their life. Other than that, all kinds of weapons he didn''t use would be safely stored in this spatial ring too! Meanwhile, the last spatial ring was the one, Jason stored beast or even foreign races carcasses, food, and equipment he was currently using! The manuals he obtained were simply stored in the second spatial ring, and Jason would either discard or simply burn the ones he had duplications from. ''Well, maybe I can need them for later...'' He thought, choosing to continued storing them inside the spatial ring. There was still more than enough space and it wouldn''t hurt to store a few manuals more or less. "At least I can recuperate and absorb as much mana as I want without the need to adjust my mana absorption!" Jason mumbled, thinking that the number of high-grade mana stones was more than enough for him to cultivate for a few months. Now the only thing he had to do was to find the new tent he had been given. This was not difficult and took him less than 30 minutes. It was only a small tent, yet the interior looked like a huge apartment that would allow Jason to scatter a large number of mana stones within. However, this was not possible, because he saw two, almost two-meter tall dryads standing in the center of the tent, waiting for something, or rather someone. Jason was unsure what had happened to his masters'' soulbonds other than the silver origin flame. Yet, seeing the two dryads caused him to smile faintly, while a pained glint could be seen in his eyes. Shane''s soulbonds seemed to have disappeared, however, Dalia''s dryads had remained, waiting for Jason. He was not sure what they wanted, but Jason knew that they were not looking for a new master! Binding one''s soul to someone was a unique process and the Dryads had a fortified soul conjunction with Dalia according to his information. As such it should have been extremely painful that Dalia died. Maybe it was even worse than it had been for Jason! Jason knew how it felt to lose a soulbond that had a thick fortified soul conjunction with him. What he felt, the emptiness and the guilt had caused him to doubt whether he wanted to contract new soulbonds or not. It was unlikely that this would stay because he knew that his soul world was destined to bind living beings. At least that''s what he felt and Jason had to prepare himself mentally for such a case! Suddenly, the dryads in front of him began to released their mana that was intertwined in their natural healing traits. It enveloped Jason, who had just entered the tent, and he was able to feel how his body was slowly being invigorated. His mana veins and the mana core were still in a bad condition, but other than that, his entire body began to heal from the millions of tiny wounds that had been caused by unleashing the Celestia bloodline. Come to think of it, Jason began to wonder if that was truly his entire strength, once he was to become a Celestia, or if there was something else behind the fact that he was a halfling of the Celestia race. Even though he knew nothing about the Celestia race, he knew his body the best. The strength he had released was something his body could barely contain. This caused Jason to question whether he had subconsciously released as much of his Celestia bloodline as his body could handle, or if there was more behind! Seeking the truth was important, but Jason was also aware of the fact that questioning the Ariyor or Evlyr race shouldn''t be as helpful as he was secretly hoping. Midra, whom he had already talked to before had answered many questions, yet at the same time, every answer she gave led to multiple questions. Jason''s foundation was firm, but that was only the case if he were to take the human race''s knowledge into account. In the perspective of other races, he required a complete rebooting and the input of information the youngest children received! However, Jason didn''t worry about this because Midra told him that he was pretty fast in memorizing and understanding everything. As such, he could focus on the dryads that were trying to accelerate his recuperation process. Jason was not sure why they were doing so, but he assumed that they were the remains of Dalia''s consciousness telling the dryads to heal him. At least that was the only reason he could think of, and considering that the dryads had a firm bond with Dalia, this was not unlikely either! He didn''t say anything to the dryads and simply nodded his head before he scattered a large batch of mana stones in his tent, allowing the dryads to increase their mana consumption. At the same time, Artemis emerged on his shoulder before she jumped into the small bulk of mana stones. Devouring a few, she disappeared again, and Jason could only shake his head. "Greedy fella" He mumbled with a faint smile on his lips. However, only a moment later he turned serious as he sat down in the center of the room where no mana stones were placed. Once he had thanked the Dryads for their help, he took a deep breath before he initiated the healing process of his mana veins and the mana core. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 475 - Calm Before The Storm Recuperating from his weakened state took less than two weeks owing to the Dryads'' seemingly inexhaustible energy they had utilized to tend Jason. After that, another month had passed and he hadn''t even realized that the Dryads had vanished! Jason had expected that this would happen, but he was still sad. Now, the only thing reminding him of his masters were his memories, their lifestyle occupation tools, Byakur, his mana sphere, and the minimized conservatory, that had long since been watered. When Jason awoke after cultivating for more than a month in which he had used every means to increase his mana absorption rate, he flew towards the nearby river to fill the water tank of his minimized conservatory. Artemis'' wings had increased in size and their wingspan was more than 12 meters if unfolded completely. Her entire length had increased to more than 4 meters and Jason was glad that she was able to switch between her small form and the large state. Otherwise, he would have quite some problems squeezing her on his broad shoulders. Since the Blood eclipse, two and a half months had passed and it was already summer. It had already been around two years since Argos was overthrown by the foreign races but mankind had yet to be defeated! However, what astonished everyone was that nothing had happened since the Blood eclipse! Not even a single foreign race was seen fighting against each other, and even the news about the islands in the archipelago was too good to be true. This state was known as the calm before the storm, and the expected storm was said to be the worst possible! If Jason''s thoughts were not completely wrong, there would only be one last, yet, gigantic fight of the Argos alliance against the Drake alliance! What would happen afterward was an unknown and blank future. Nobody knew whether the foreign races would leave Argos, or only Canir, if the Argos alliance were to come out victorious, while the worst case was the Drake alliance''s victory. At the same time, Jason couldn''t be sure how useful the Elvyr embassy would be if they came out victorious. Would they support mankind to rebuild the destroyed cities and everything else until the six months they''ve promised to support mankind elapsed, or would they simply leave? Even if the war would be over that didn''t mean all problems would magically vanish into thin air. As such, Jason could only hope that the issues were not as problematic as visualized them. Despite that, his strength had increased by a large margin too! While Artemis had liquefied her 100th drop of mana, Jason''s had been able to liquefy his 38th drop of mana, which was an increase of 10 drops in the last one and a half months. At the same time, his liquefied mana drops were more compressed than the others and had the amount of mana others would require for three drops of mana within them. Thus, solely from the number of mana drops within his mana core, Jason''s strength reached the threshold that other prodigies with more than 100 drops of liquefied mana in their core had! Other than that, his physique had been further enhanced. While his primal bloodline awakening had enhanced his physique by around 80 drops of mana, he received a strengthening in his physical strength from the Netherworlds fort technique equal to 21 drops of liquefied mana. Meanwhile, his soul world''s amplification increased the size of his mana core and strengthened his physique further. In the end, Jason''s pure strength was comparable to that of someone with more than 250 drops of liquefied mana in their mana core! This was without him utilizing his stigma that was the main reason for his high mana absorption rate, the Celestia aura, his mana eyes, the curses he had, Solaris'' powerful ability, or his weapons! To put it simply, Jason was the most powerful human prodigy, who was soon to become 17 years old! His strength had increased so rapidly that not even his friends had been unable to cope with him! Thus, he was subconsciously drifting away from his friends, in fear that they would be implicated in his mess, and in the end be killed too. Their strength was insignificant to the foreign races'' most basic soldiers, and they were unable to face a single opponent! After he had filled the water tank, Jason decided to take a look at Mike, and how much ammunition he had manufactured. It was more than Jason expected, and only then did he find out that the young citizens he had hired to copy the neutral body refinement manual, had continued to work during the last two and a half months. The copies had been sold to Merl Arths and the exchanged goods were brought to Mike, who became popular as Jason''s weapon manufacturer. Others had asked him to manufacturer a weapon for them to, but Mike simply said that Jason''s situation was special and that it was better to focus on the youth''s weapons and ammunition. He stated certain requirements that had to be fulfilled before he would manufacturer a gun for those who want it. Unfortunately, only a few fulfilled the requirements, yet Mike had also told everyone clearly that Jason would remain the top priority to manufacturer weapons and ammunition for. Thus, Merl Arths had sent the ores and other goods that had been used in exchange for the neutral body refinement techniques to Mike, who gladly used everything he could grasp! When Jason received the astronomical number of mana stones and other goods, Mike didn''t need, he couldn''t help but smile drily, thinking that it was much easier to make money by selling copies of the translated refinement manuals than expected. However, what wondered him, even more, was the fact that nobody tried to copy his copies and sell or distribute them! This was something Jason had expected to happen after some time, but nobody seemed to have figured out what exactly he had done to the translated manuals! As such, he lowered the price for the copies further, while paying his copywriters more to work even harder. Exploiting either side for too long would be bad and not what he should focus on. Furthermore, the more powerhouses refined a stronger physique, the less pressure he would have on the battlefield. As such, it was a win-win situation, and Jason could only hope that everyone was diligently increasing their strength as he did. Mike had asked him whether he was able to increase his flame''s strength further before the Blood eclipse had happened. It was only three months later that Jason had returned to Mike, who had painstakingly tried to increase the impact of his weapons and the bullets he was manufacturing for Jason''s desert eagles! Jason''s soul energy had reached around 840,000 units which was extremely high, considering that he was only 17 years old. Even this that, Jason was still not content. If Solaris were to absorb all of that, without being nurtured by the Ifrytor''s Creato flames, its soul energy would only increase by 150,000. The highest known soul energy for beasts at the peak of the Lique stage was 10 million units! Thus, Jason didn''t bother distributing a single soul energy unit to Solaris as it would burn three units in order to annex a single one! This was too wasteful and instead of bothering about increasing Solaris'' strength right now, it was much better if he were to do that while devouring the Ifrytor''s life force and Creato flame! Petri, who had already been evolving for several months now, was still not done and it looked as if the petrification serpent was waiting for something. At the same time, Petri had transferred lots of mana from Jason''s mana core into his own, and Jason could only hear a faint voice transmission complaining about the lack of life force he provided. With that in mind, it was obvious that Petri required Solaris to absorb life force for him, while Solaris itself had to absorb the Creato flames to nurture its mana core, allowing more soul energy to inhabit it. The black origin flame was still too difficult for Jason to comprehend, and he was always wondering how much of a miracle it must have been to find Solaris! Nevertheless, the complexity of his palm-sized flame was what made Jason believe that there are more secrets left behind on Argos than one might think! Otherwise, how would it be possible for Solaris to appear on a newly awakened planet, in an unawakened state at that! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 476 - News Because he had been absorbing mana for more than a month, Jason hadn''t heard many news from the surrounding. It was only when Mike gave him a new type of ammunition for Kumo and Degar, that he had also heard new information about Argos'' current situation. The bullets he received were called ''Dark blazing death bullets'' which forced Jason to use his entire willpower to not laugh out loud. He didn''t want to be rude to Mike, who had given his best to manufacture a new type of bullet that was perfectly suited for extremely high temperatures. Most runes would be activated once mana was inserted into a bullet, but not the Blazing bullets, how Jason decided to name them for himself. The Blazing bullets'' runes would only be activated once the temperature around and within the bullet had reached a certain threshold. Yet, this activation was said to be a sudden outburst of the accumulated mana at once. As such, the impact was much higher in comparison to the other bullets he used. Unfortunately, in order to activate all inscribed runes, the heat had to reach an astronomical high degree, which was the reason for Mike to ask Jason about his fire affinity''s development capabilities. Jason, who had been unaware of this, couldn''t help but think greatly about Mike''s insights. As long as Solaris'' was growing and becoming stronger, he would be able to use the blazing bullets'' entire mightiness that was already exceptional in its current state! The amount of mana he had to utilize was smaller than the armor-piercing bullets, yet, increasing the black flame''s temperature to its highest possible increased the total mana consumption once again. Thus, he could use both the blazing bullets and armor-piercing bullets to take care of every opponent at and below 1000 drops of liquefied mana in their mana core! Even without his guns, opponents with 500 drops of liquefied mana in their mana core, shouldn''t be problematic for Jason if he were to utilize every means. This excluded unleashing his Celestia bloodline which was extremely dangerous, and Jason felt that his body would tear apart if he were to do the same once again. In the end, he didn''t even know how to repeat the same step, either way! His body had already been exhausted during the last two years because he had never been able to relax and take a few weeks off in order to recuperate completely, and one could say that releasing his Celestia bloodline gave Jason''s body the last kick. Nevertheless, Jason tried to stay positive, telling himself that everything could only become better. Right now, it felt as if his mood was slowly becoming improving, but his thoughts were still lingering around Scorpio and his masters, how they had died, and what their last thoughts and words were. It was devastating, and comparable to his mothers death. "After everything is over, I will take care of one matter after another¡­" First, the Drake family should be destroyed. Afterward, he would take care of his mother''s murderer! The foreign races that caused all of this could wait and Jason knew that the only thing he required was patience and strength! Jason was not sure whether he wanted to take revenge on the entire My?ldra race, but the direct culprits were the Ifrytor and Burane race. They should learn what terror, fear, and agony truly were!! Jason wanted them to feel as desperate and empty as he had felt when Scorpio and his masters had died. At that moment, his stigma and Celestia aura that had recuperated from being overexerted were glowing in a falling dark-crimson color. Lusan and Fasro, who were looking for Jason, and had just come from his tent where he couldn''t be found, noticed this. "Found him!" Fasro said while Lusan frowned "He shouldn''t do that...why is he provoking a metamorphosis like this?...." Fasro was unable to comprehend what Lusan meant, and even Lusan''s understanding about what he saw was not great. He knew only partially what exactly he was talking about. The information he had obtained from his master, who had directly been instructed and informed about everything necessary by Celestia Yaldra''s subordinate, was shallow. Even his master was not exactly sure how one could prevent turning into an Infernal Celestia! It was not even sure what exactly this meant to the Celestia race, or if it had any consequences. Was it really important to control one''s emotion to such a precise extent? That was what Lusan had thought in the beginning, but only now was he able to comprehend that Jason might be more dangerous than one could think. ''I hope he won''t go insane, berserk or something like this¡­'' When Jason noticed familiar mana fluctuations above him, he retraced his aura and stigma that had stabilized as greeted them politely. Both Fasro and Lusan saw Jason for the first time after he had gone into seclusion to recuperate from his injury that was severe enough to make even the higher races tremble. Yet, now that one and a half month had passed since then, they couldn''t help but stare at Jason for a moment as Lusan mumbled "I thought he would take longer to simply tend to his injuries...who could have thought that he could also absorb mana at the same time¡­ Did he really just undergo the primal bloodline awakening??" Fasro could only nod, and despite not knowing much about the Celestia race, whose strength was unfathomable for higher races to even imagine, he couldn''t help but think that Jason''s recuperation was too fast. Nevertheless, he didn''t say anything about that and greeted Jason before informing him about the movements of a large army at the center of Canir! At the same time, Fasro mentioned that the oceans surrounding Canir had begun to move as if something within was awakening from its deep slumber. When Jason heard this, he couldn''t help but voice out his confusion "Does that mean there could be a beast at the Mid, if not Late Prismar stage??" The Owl-bear was already a beast that could change the life of every being inhabiting Argos, but now there was something else in the ocean? Was that a bad joke? "To be honest, we don''t know, but it''s not unlikely. Fortunately, most Prismar stage beasts that flee to newly awakened planets are mostly placid and desire peace¡­" ''How reassuring¡­'' Jason thought sarcastically. "With that being said, before something worse can happen, the Great Argos war should have ended. Otherwise, if there really is a peak Prismar stage beast inside the oceans of Argos, it will probably start acting once its peaceful life has been disturbed! The Drake alliance should have noticed the same, which is the reason for them to act so suddenly¡­" Jason listened carefully and once he digested all of it, he simply said "That means, the entire Great Argos war will come to an end with one gigantic battle which we have already expected?... Both sides will have to go all-out, whether it is to survive and force most hostile foreign races to retreat, or be conquered by the Drake alliance¡­" It was not difficult to comprehend that the worst period of the Great Argos war was about to start, and Jason could hardly control his trembling hands. He was not only nervous but wrath could be seen in his eyes only to be overwhelmed by his excitement to take revenge on those that had taken the lives of those that had been important to him! His pupils'' outlines turned crimson, while the golden-silverish color remained the same, and Lusan could only hope that this change was everything that would happen to Jason, otherwise, Celestia Yaldra might as well obliterate him. After all, he didn''t prevent Jason from turning into an Infernal Celstia, and supported them in waging war... ''Am I really doing the right thing?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 477 - Moving Out A few days flew by and everyone had prepared themselves for the last devastating battle of the Great Argos war! There was nobody who could prevent being scared or nervous about the unknown future that was right in front of them. Nevertheless, mankind''s situation was not as bad as it was ought to be after the Blood eclipse. This was all thanks to the Elvyr race''s embassy with their high mana core rank that was much higher than the mana core rank of the other foreign races. As long as they had enough mana, their strength should be enough to defeat every possible opponent of the Drake alliance. The only unknown factor was about how much mana they would have to use to fight against the Burane race, how versatile their combat styles were due to their young age and whether the unknown beast inside the ocean, whose existence had been confirmed, would act up! While the others were extremely nervous, Jason decided to spend some more time with friends in order to calm himself down. Even though they wanted to help, they didn''t join the last battle because their death would be certain. On one side they were jealous of Jason because he was able to defend himself, however, on the other hand, he had lost so much despite being strong, that it was wondrous how Jason was still able to have enough strength to stand back up. In the end, Yune, Milan, and Isga hadn''t lost anyone during the last two years in which their parents had severed the soul contract with the foreign races, and even the Blood eclipse brushed past them too! This was fortunate, but it didn''t mean that nothing was to happen to them in the future. The number of casualties was destined to be in the millions, and there had yet to be a side at the upper hand. If someone would have a much higher combat prowess, it was not unlikely for the other side to give up, but as if it was destined, both sides were evaluated as equally strong. As such, the only way to figure out which side was the strongest was to go on the battlefield! Yune, Milan, and Isga decided that they would console Jason if he were to be in fright or desperate. However, he didn''t need to be consoled or motivated to fight against the Drake alliance, instead, he told his friends something important. "Once the Great Argos war is over, you guys should tell your parents and the entire clan to stop colluding with foreign races. Furthermore, it would be better for the slave market to never appear again!" From Jason''s behavior, they noticed that he was serious. Thus, the others just nodded despite knowing that their authority, inside the big clan they hailed from, was currently insignificant. Milan was likely to become the next patriarch of the Jule clan, but that was only the case if he were to be strong and retain his great potential. Nevertheless, everyone felt the need to agree with Jason because they knew that it was important. Furthermore, they could tell from his stance, that these words were more like a warning, and not a request! Jason had changed since losing his dear soulbond and masters, thus the three friends knew what he would do if the big clans wouldn''t listen to him. He might not be strong enough right now, but who knew how long it would take for Jason to become strong enough to face the heads of the big clans and sects? The rumors labeled Jason as someone god-like, able to defeat a big clan prodigy who had almost broken into the Lord rank with barely 20 drops of liquefied mana in his mana core! There were only a few people that believed this rumor, but Yune, Isga, and Milan were one of the few people that did. This was also because of their parents that told them the truth about the incident, thus they knew that Jason was not only the gentle and calm youth he had been before! He had overcome many threats and his mindset had forcefully been altered. At that moment, an announcement resounded through all camps. "Attention please! Attention please! Everyone who will join the big clans and sects on the battlefield, please gather in your assigned groups! The Argos alliance will depart in two hours! Dying is no option, only surviving and never stop striving for more!" Jason smiled lightly when he heard the message as he mumbled "Surviving and never stop striving for more...is that so¡­" After that, he stood up from the chair he had been sitting before he bid farewell to his friends. They wished him good luck before they dispersed too in order to search for their family whom they wanted to wish good luck too. When he left the tent, Jason manifested Artemis'' wings on his back as he flew towards the direction of the Nua and Eara clans'' meeting point. Less than half an hour passed before he arrived and Artemis'' wings dispersed as she appeared right next to him. Her stigma was spreading on the surface of her pitch-black horns, highlighting them even more. However, nobody was paying attention to Artemis, who was in her small form, squeezed on Jason''s shoulder. Rather than that, everyone was busy paying attention to themselves, trying to disperse the fear within them, while taking a last glance at their weapons. Everyone knew their task and so did Jason. As such he didn''t approach anyone, and simply waited while eating high-nutritious food. He didn''t know when he would be able to eat for the next time, as such, it was better to have eaten his fill. It was only when he had eaten several plates of premade food that he had stored in his spatial rings that Jason decided to look out for the Nua clan matriarch. Apparently, she had survived the Blood eclipse which was not the case for the Eara clan''s patriarch, and some of their clan members at the Prismar stage. This was unfortunate, however, it was great that the rest of the clan didn''t separate, but that they continued to fight against the Drake alliance! Only a few minutes passed before his mana eyes found the familiar mana fluctuations of the Nua clan matriarch. However, when he saw how many higher authorities were standing around her, asking all kinds of questions, Jason couldn''t help but sigh. Since many big clan heads, their representatives and lots of higher authorities of big clans and sects had been killed, it has become more difficult to have everything under control. This was clearly noticeable right before their departure, and instead of increasing the Nua clan matriarch''s pressure further, Jason decided that it was enough for him to know that he had to take care of every single Ifrytro and Ifry with less than 1000 drops of liquefied mana in their mana core. He might have to rely on the others to protect him from those at the late Lique- and Prismar stage, but Jason knew that everyone was fully aware of this. Not only was this announced several times, but Jason seemed to have turned into the most important asset against the IFrytor and Ifry race since he had demonstrated how powerful he and his weapons, Kumo and Degar, were. Other than that there were many big clan heads that knew from which direction the divine light, which had saved many humans when the Blood eclipse occurred, came from. As such, they assumed that it might have been Jason who caused this divine light to appear as the Elvyr race''s embassy seemed to be focusing their attention on him too! These were only assumptions, but connecting all dots allowed me to understand that Jason was not as simple as one thought! Jason didn''t even know how fast time passed, as everything had been settled. However, what astonished him greatly was the fact that four Prismar stages had been deployed to stay by his side. This was something unexpected and it was only when one of the bodyguards next to him told him that the Nua clan matriarch said that Jason''s fire ability and weapons were too important to lose that he understood what the matriarch was trying to achieve. ''Am I turning into some sort of asset?'' Jason was teasing himself, but despite doing so, he had realized that the matriarch was able to overcome the pressure weighing her down, much better than he had expected! She could think rationally, and determine that Jason was important to protect against the Ifrytor, even if she probably disliked him for defeating Dala Nua in front of everyone. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 478 - Encounter Jason was not sure how large the Argos alliance''s army was and neither did he know the exact number of opponents they had to face. However, what he was fully aware of was that the number on both sides was in the millions! With Artemis'' wings, he flew towards the final destination at which they were to face off the Drake alliance, and Jason couldn''t help but gulp when he saw the massive crowd of humans and foreign races all around him. He knew that most of them wouldn''t survive the next few days, and this thought was scary. Yet, in order to remain free, not being shackled down from the Drake clan and foreign races that would treat them worse than trash, everyone was going to give their utmost efforts to fight and defeat the Drake alliance, even if that meant sacrificing themselves. There might be big clans, sects, and ancient clans that had been suppressed and annexed by the My?ldra race, and even citizens that had been forced to obey the Drake family with a soul contract. Unfortunately, one couldn''t pay much attention to them because a single moment of hesitation could directly lead to death! Jason was fully aware of this and his mind lingered around Greg and the Fler''s as he was flying in the sky. ''Two years have passed...Greg might have barely reached the Lique stage, and Malia should have broken into the Lique stage too...but their strength should still be weak. Allowing them to participate in the last large-scale battle should be a burden to everyone, instead of reinforcement!'' This was Jason''s last hope! Being a burden during a fight meant that they were better of by not participating at all! In the best case, the entire Fler family was still alive, and both Greg and Malia were currently trained to become the replacement of those powerhouses that would die today. He sincerely hoped that this was the case because there was nothing else Jason was able to do for them right now. Even if he encountered them, would he be able to save them? They had been enslaved, and it was unknown what kind of clauses the Drake family''s soul contracts had. Thus, trying to help might as well cause the complete opposite effect, and worsen their situation. A few hours had already passed since they had departed, but there was still no sign of the Drake alliance''s army. The more time passed, the deeper spread everyone''s fear of the unknown. It had already spread throughout their entire body, but unbeknownst to the majority, there were a few that could barely contain themself from excitement. Amongst them, was every member of the blood sect who was able to increase their strength by absorbing the blood of those they had killed. This allowed them to nurture the innate affinity of those fortunate ones that had been able to awaken the blood sect''s specific blood affinity through unknown means, while the others were cultivating a bloodlust accumulation technique they had procured a long time ago. During the last few hours that had passed, Jason''s mana eyes evaluated every single member of the Blood sect and those that had awakened or inherited the blood affinity that was innately connected to them. Even with his mana eyes, Jason couldn''t tell whether the blood affinity was something some humans of the Blood sect had innately awakened, or if it was something their body annexed when they had inherited the blood affinity from one of their soulbonds. Both scenarios would be extremely weird, and something Jason had never heard before. However, rather than focusing on this, Jason''s eyes were trained on a small number of young men that seemed to have the innate blood affinity! Out of the information he had received from the Cerus family, his mother''s murderer didn''t even have liquefied 100 drops of mana more than 7 years ago! Even if the blood sect was known for their ridiculously high pace at which they liquefied drops of mana, which should stem from the fact that they absorbed the energy and mana from their opponents, Jason doubted that someone with less than 100 drops of liquefied mana had broken into the Prismar stage in only 7 years! Even 1000 drops of liquefied mana were difficult to liquefy in a matter of 7 years under normal circumstances, but normal was something that couldn''t be used in one sentence with the blood sect! They were everything but normal! As such, Jason had been able to achieve what he was unable to do prior; He narrowed down the suspects that might have killed his mother! Right now might not be the time to take revenge, or even find his mother''s murderer, but Jason had been unable to hold himself back from narrowing down the suspects. It was the perfect timing after all! He was not about to start a war in his own rows, and his revenge could be postponed for days, weeks, months, or even years if necessary! As long as he would be able to get his revenge and let others feel how he had felt from losing those he had loved, everything was fine with him. Jason was aware that this might be the wrong approach, but did that really matter anymore? Nobody cared if they took the lives of his loved ones, why should he do then? With that thought, Jason continued to do what he wanted to as he had already prepared everything for the large-scale battle against the Drake alliance. Byakur was still resting in Jason''s soul world, while both desert eagles, Kumo and Degar, were holstered. The only thing that had changed was that Mike had attached one small storage device the size of a small marble to each desert eagle. Inside those storage devices were magazines filled with ammunition which allowed Jason to simply store the used-up magazines before he could replace them with magazines that were filled! This was the easiest way to use his guns consistently, and only a large amount of mana was required. Fortunately, this wouldn''t be a problem because Solaris would not only devour the Ifrytor race''s life force but also the Creato flame and a part of their mana core that would nurture Solaris, and replenish the mana he had used up! Petri was still not awake and it would take a while for him to finish his evolution owing to the fact that it required more compressed life force. Jason was unable to procure it under normal means, and one could say that Solaris'' new ability was miraculous enough to change this, while the Ifrytor race was the livestock he was about to reap! Nothing except taking revenge on causing Scorpio''s death was left in his mind when he thought about the Ifrytor race, and his golden silverish eyes that were outlined by a glowing crimson color were glowing brightly, releasing his killing intent. When they had departed, the moon had illuminated the dark and ominous surrounding area, only to be replaced by bright sunlights as several hours had passed when the first signs of the ginormous Drake alliance army came into his sight. The sunrise was magnificent and everyone savored every moment of it before they would have to fight for their freedom and right to stay alive! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 479 - Accumulation Both sides had a grand plan to counter each other, but unbeknownst to the Drake alliance, a new race had decided to help the Argos alliance. It was unknown how exactly the Argos alliance had made contact with the Elvyr race, but it was a fact that 100 Elvyr were flying through in the sky, and their mana core rank was the highest amongst everyone! This was out of their expectations and the Drake alliance''s plan, which was simply to overwhelm everyone with their superior strength while preventing being tied down in a fight against big clans with advantageous affinities, had been destroyed. Since the Burane race had sent assassins to take care of the big clan heads and their highest authorities, not much seemed to have changed. However, this was not the case, and it was only fortunate that the assassins had returned to share their experience with the divine aura. Thus, the unexpected scenario the Drake alliance had to face was not as problematic as it was ought to be. The closer the two armies were, the more movements were visible to one''s eyes. Every big clan was slowly moving, trying to find their assigned opponents in order to take the most efficient path to fight and kill. Yet, the Drake alliance noticed this too, which made them move around too. This was deemed as unnecessary by the Burane race, who just wanted to face the 100 members of the Elvyr race. In the end, the small number of the My?ldra race had to warn the Burane race about the dangers of the Elvyr race, even more so their high mana core! However, this couldn''t stop the Burane race that was known for being patient when it was not required while being impatient, violent, and suicidal during the most crucial times. Despite their impatience, the My?ldra race could only shrug their shoulders, thinking that the two higher races were the only opponents they had to take care of. Meanwhile, their numbers and the average combat strength were much higher than that of the Ariyor and Elvyr race. Thus, the Burane race''s confidence was not unfounded and had proper reasoning. In the end, it was only a small war on an Infant planet that had yet to cross the threshold of having awoken for a whole millennium! As such, worrying too much might be a waste of time, despite the small number of Prismar stage soldiers their race had sent as reinforcement. All of them were still training soldiers, but that was the case with almost every race that had entered Argos, otherwise, their strength would have already crossed the threshold to enter the planet in the first place! While the races and big clans within both armies were moving around, trying to find the best position to fight against their assigned target, Jason was advancing straightforwardly, without paying attention to how the Ifrytor race was moving. He was observing the entire battlefield intently, trying to enter it at the best possible timing without attracting too much attention. Jason knew that this was impossible in a long-term project, but it would already be enough if his arrival could be unnoticed for a few minutes. When the first element attacks were shot over the distance of more than a kilometer, millions of beings perceived this as the sign for the battle to start As such, they began to circulate mana through their body at the same moment. While Jason''s mana eyes were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of mana fluctuations it was perceiving at a single moment, he tried to make use of every means to find and approach the biggest crowd with the most Ifrytor at the low Lique stage! This was less of a problem than Jason had expected because the Ifrytor race was combining their Creato flame in order to attack stronger opponents than they could handle along and under normal circumstances. Jason''s survival was not known by the Ifrytor race, thus he didn''t use Solaris right off the bat. Rather than doing something obvious, Jason wanted to be within the Ifrytor race''s masses before he would start taking his revenge! That being said, he started to circulate mana through his body and Artemis'' wings before he dived towards the ground as the battle began. Unholstering Kumo, he shot several bullets in short succession with a small, black compressed flame at the tip of the barrel. Within seconds, Solaris'' flames had entered the body of four Ifrytor with less than 200 drops of liquefied mana in their mana core. Yet, instead of killing them at once, Jason hadn''t aimed at the Ifrytors'' vital point, lightly injured them. This allowed the trace of Solaris'' flame that had entered their body to devour them from within them. Their mana, life force, and Creato flame were being devoured, and there was nothing they could to do extinguish the black flame inside them. They were simply too weak to do anything! After the first magazine was emptied, Jason quickly replaced it. Yet, instead of rushing forward without a particular aim, he was able to remain cold-headed. His entire being was screaming for revenge, but he had to stay alive to take revenge! This was the basic requirement and Jason was fully aware of this! Nevertheless, without wasting too much time, he had already reached the center of the battlefield. His feet touched the ground and Artemis'' wings disintegrated. Even so, she remained inside his mana core, and her amplification enhanced Jason, whose combat prowess had reached that comparable of someone with 300 liquefied drops of mana within his mana core. As such, instead of focusing on taking care of every Ifrytor and Ifry at once, Jason decided that he would start building a foundation for the late game. Without enough mana and energy to maintain Solaris'' flame and the necessary supply of mana Kumo and Degar required to be shot properly, Jason''s plan would be for naught. Due to that, he had to accumulate enough victims to accumulate energy during the first half an hour before he could unleash his strength and Solaris'' combat prowess. This was the mistake he had ignored when he first fought against the Ifrytor race! He had simply not cared about his mana consumption while fighting against the Ifrytor race. It had only worked because he didn''t have a Kumo or Degar who required more mana at that time, and Byakur was the only weapon he had been using. Paying attention to his mana consumption against several tens if not more than a hundred thousand opponents was important, and Jason knew that he shouldn''t overestimate his own capabilities too much! With that being said, Jason had unsheathed Byakur whose black tip he had enveloped in a faint layer of Solaris'' black flame. Thus every single time Byakur''s pierced through the skin and flesh of an opponent, a fraction of Solaris would detach from the blade''s tip to enter his opponent''s body to devour the being from the inside. During the following minutes, Jason was eyed weirdly by his bodyguards because he didn''t kill his opponents with the razor-sharp blade he had. Instead, he was only inflicting minor injuries at the bare minimum, while telling them to ignore the Ifrytor and Ifry he had already been targeted. It was only after a total of ten minutes had passed that the bodyguards at the Prismar stage began to notice that something about the Ifrytor and Ifry Jason had targeted was changing. Jason was already aware of this as Solaris had informed him in time. Thus he returned Byakur back into his soul world, A moment later he had already unholstered Kumo and pulled the trigger four times. The bullets shattered the head of the targeted Ifrytors at the Low-Lique stage without showing any signs of resistence. Only a moment later, thick black flames seeped out of their body, and Jason held out his hand as Solaris manifested inside his palm. The black origin flame created a vortex suctioning in all black flames that had been exposed allowing it to grow by a small margin. Solaris'' entire mana core was overflowing with mana and life force, which it separated. The Life force was immediately transferred to Petri, while the mana Solaris had devoured was shared with Jason. At the same time, Solaris was making use of the Creato flame it had devoured to nurture itself. When Solaris had devoured the surrounding black flames, Artemis left Jason''s mana core, while Solaris replaced her. Jason''s eyes turned pitch black for a quarter of a second before it was reverted to the golden-silverish color with crimson outlines as he mumbled "That should be enough!" His entire mana erupted and Solaris was unleashed in its entire strength. At the same moment, Jason revealed his Celestia aura that was swept through with the desire to kill every single Ifrytor, turning it into a mix of a golden-silver and crimson color! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 480 - Consequences Gigantic black wings with a wingspan of over 10 meters sprouted out of Jason''s back before a thick layer of black flames enshrouded him tightly. There was not a single inch without black flames around Jason''s body, however, instead of looking like a burning torch, Jason''s current appearance was more like a black armored, winged warrior. It was eerie and Jason looked several times more dangerous than he did before. Nobody in the surroundings was able to suppress their primal instincts as they retreated a few steps, but Jason was not yet done! His Celestia aura and the stigma Jason had unleashed to its highest capabilities were slowly merging with the black flame wings and armor instead of radiating in the surroundings. Solaris was influenced by his aura, the stigma''s glow that ignited its own stigma, and Jason''s desire to kill. The entire surrounding area seemed to change, and Jason, who was aiming with Kumo at the closest Ifrytor, didn''t even notice anything. He simply shot at his arch-enemies while the aura that seemed to further change from that of a common Celestia, continued to merge with Solaris. At that moment, Jason noticed that his wings were being enhanced, while high skin-tight armor made out of Solaris'' flames was glowing in a faint crimson, golden-silverish hue. However, instead of paying attention to this, he perceived that his mana circulation increased, while Solaris'' capabilities seemed to have received an amplification too. Other than that, Jason did only now release his mana absorption to the fulled which was strong enough to gather the entire mana in his surroundings, obstructing others in replenishing their mana. Less than two minutes had passed since the Infernal Celestia aura, which was how Jason labeled the mixture of crimson, golden, and silver color, had begun to merge with Solaris. Every single second that passed caused a tiny change, and his anger, agony, and desire to kill everyone who had taken someone Jason had loved, intensified. Since he could remember, he had always been forced to suppress his emotions, to endure everything, to accept everyone''s harsh treatment and the fact that he was destined to be weaker than others. Suddenly, when his Internal Celestia aura, both stigma, Solaris and Jason had seemingly merged together, something essentially changed. Mana from the entire battlefield that spanned several kilometers was drawn towards Jason without warning as an infernal aura swept through the rows of soldiers. His body absorbed them mana in a single moment before it was instinctively released in the area behind his wings. Jason was unable to tell what was going on, but his body was covered in goosebumps and turned ice-cold despite the searing hot black flames enveloping him. Yet, instead of feeling uncomfortable by being drained of his mana, Jason felt as if he had become almighty. It was completely different from the time he had unleashed his Celestia bloodline, but it was not necessarily weaker! From Jason''s perspective, it was as if his unleashed emotions allowed him to reach heights he had never attained in his entire life, to gain the strength he had been unable to grasp before. Out of his instincts, he holstered Kumo only to manifest Byakur in front of him a moment later as if it had waited for him. It was vibrating seemingly excitedly and the moment Jason''s hand grasped its hilt firmly, Jason felt like Byakur had merged with him. The Infernal Celestia intertwined black flames circulated through Baykur, igniting every rune inscribed on the blade''s surface as it began to glow faintly before enlarging at a slow yet steady pace. At the same time, the astronomical amount of mana that enveloped and infiltrated Jason was greedily being absorbed. In a matter of seconds, the entire battlefield was permeated with the desire to kill which was nothing uncommon, however, everyone was instinctively halting in their tracks as they had sensed the infernal aura. The battle of millions of beings had stopped at once, with everyone''s attention being drawn to the gigantic stream of mana that was forcefully accumulated in the battlefield of the Nua and Eara clan and Ifrytor race! At that moment, the higher races that had been fighting against each other began to tremble in fear. Their perception was several times higher than anyone else''s and some could see through the flood of mana. "F*ck, what is going on?" Thousands of people exclaimed. "There is...one being from the¡­.I don''t know the race¡­I''m sorry!" The My?ldra with the highest perception reported to their leader while showing a complex set of emotions. "Is there another race joining the fray?...But...what kind of race could that be?? There are ginormous gates manifesting behind that being too¡­" Suddenly the leader of the My?ldra and Burane race looked at each other in shock as they mumbled before their gaze was drawn back to Jason''s direction, or to be precise what was emerging behind Jason! "Replicas of the Gates of Hell?! How??? A Superior or even Ancient race wouldn''t send their newborn to Argos to play around¡­.right?" While the higher races of the Drake alliance were filled with despair of the unknown, Lusan and the rest of the Elvyr embassy''s faces was turning paper-white. "Let alone reward, Celestia Yaldra will kill us¡­" Even Fasro, who had already seen Jason''s manifestation of the gates of hell, which he had unleashed only once, couldn''t help but gulp in fear. "How can there be such a huge difference...it is as if I''m standing right in front of the original gates of hell...weren''t they only illusionary before, and mere means to intimidate his opponents¡­" Ginormous gates, the width of more than two dozen meters and several times that in height began to manifest behind Jason, who noticed that something deep within him was about to change substantially. Suddenly, at that moment, the imprint inside Jason''s body which Celestia Yaldra, his father had employed to message him during his primal Celestia bloodline awakening, began to glow brightly. A divine, silver hue spread from it, enveloping Jason, whose mind went blank, the Gates of Hell and everything that belonged to him at once as a voice he was familiar with was transmitted inside his mind. [Jason!!! Please stop!! If you continue to allow your wrath and sorrow to spread and accumulate within your body, you will turn into an Infernal Celestia! The Gates of Hell you''ve summoned is one sign of becoming one! You might be unaware of this, but the Celestia race is different from other race, and more special...If you become an Infernal Celestia, you will be consumed by your anger and wrath, by the desire to kill everything around you¡­.and this won''t stop after you take revenge on everyone who took something from you! Your entire being will be corrupted and you will start slaughtering everything! From eradicating nations, planets, even entire races, only to try suppressing the insatiable desire to kill more as it will only grow¡­ We are too far apart right now and I can''t give you my entire support, but overcome your wrath and agony. Find a different way to solve it, instead of allowing it to accumulate within you! I don''t intend to hold you back from taking revenge, but once you turn into an Infernal Celestia, everyone will start hunting you! Your entire existence would become too dangerous to be ignored and stay alive!] At that moment, Jason was shaken heavily, and he noticed that the imprint of his father was slowly disintegrating, while the connection was becoming dimmer with each second passing [There is not much time left...Fortunately, I was able to send a fraction of my aura to you! Make use of it, and remember one thing! You might not be a pure Celestia, but exactly this could bring forth many problems, but also opportunities! The human race seems to be easily manipulated by emotions, but don''t let them manipulate your mind. Instead, learn how to manipulate your emotions! With that, there might not be a problem about becoming an Infernal Celestia, even if you summon the real Gates of Hell! Once your eyes turn completely crimson or worse, black, you know that everything you''ve painstakingly achieved, and fought for was for naught! ...I don''t think we will be able to meet each other during your next bloodline awakening, or sometime soon...From the looks of it, there are many things you will have to solve and accomplish before you might want to come home¡­ Take care of yourself...and don''t let our first meeting outside our mind become our last. Neither I nor your mother would want that!] Jason''s entire being shook as his blank mind was once again filled with the desire to kill, his wrath and agony that had been accumulated for years as he cried out. However, instead of going along the desire to kill, his wrath and agony, Jason forcefully absorbed the entire silver hue left behind by his father. It was a soothing sensation and Jason''s entire anger, wrath, and agony were released into Byakur that acted instinctively. At the same time, the stream of mana Jason''s had subconsciously attracted to manifest replicas of the Gates of Hell began to disperse. The outlines of the Gates of Hell that were closed and locked by a huge, black lock were dissipating, leaving behind nothing but a vast amount of unused mana. Just like that, the entire bloodlust and eerie sensation spread through the entire battlefield. However, Jason had yet to release everything his accumulated and corrupting anger, wrath, and sorrow as his golden-silverish eyes began to radiate the surrounding radius of several dozen meters. Mana began to stream towards Jason at a rapid pace, and he instinctively inserted every little trace of it towards Byakur who was enveloped by a thick layer of black flames. It began to enlarge, and more than two minutes had passed, without anyone moving, as Byakur''s length had reached a few dozen meters. At that moment, everyone in the surroundings sensed that death was approaching them, only to see that Jason pulled back Byakur before he brandished it, creating a massive crescent sword beam that shot towards the Drake alliance''s army! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 481 - Mixed Heritage All of Jason''s negative emotions whether it was wrath, anger, or agony had been released into the crescent sword beam that was empowered by a tremendous amount of mana. He had to gasp for air, and his sight blurred as a single tear poured down his cheeks. The emotions that had devoured his entire being were released through his father''s divine silver aura, and his Infernal Celestia aura began to revert to the Celestia aura he had before. Nevertheless, the outlines of Jason''s pupils were still crimson. Yet, his entire focus was on the crescent sword blade he had shot at the Drake alliance''s army. Several tens of thousand beings had been killed in an instant, ripped apart, and nobody, whether they were at the Lique or Prismar stage, was strong enough to survive the attack! Evading was the only option, however, that was only possible if their trembling legs allowed them to move. Yet, instead of being able to move, they could only look at the massive crescent sword blade that shot towards them. At that moment, the armor and wings around Jason dispersed into tens of thousand of tiny flames that descended to the ground, entering the body of those that had been killed. It looked ominous, but Jason knew that it was Solaris'' way to absorb mana, the remaining life force that was about to evaporate, and more importantly, the Creato flames stemming from the Ifrytors the crescent sword beam had killed. However, at the same time, Jason, who was unable to stay firmly on the ground after what had happened, could barely see anything in front of him. Everyone looked at Jason in shock, and it was only a moment later that his body began to tremble and it was on the brink of collapsing. He could barely stay conscious as he sensed a light gust of wind behind him only to hear Lusan''s familiar, yet trembling and frightened voice. "W-Were...you able to prevent turning into an Infernal Celestia?" Lusan seemed to be afraid of Jason, even more so after what he had seen, but Jason only nodded his head. "My father helped me...I need to take a short break...otherwise, I don''t know what will happen¡­" Lusan assumed that the silver, divine aura was what had allowed Shane to prevent turning into an Infernal Celestia, yet, he didn''t know how it was possible for the divine aura to manifest out of nowhere. ''If Celestia Yaldra was able to transfer some of his aura to Jason, shouldn''t it be possible to do more than simply acting in the worst-case¡­.or is there more behind it?'' Nevertheless, Lusan was still dumbfounded about the fact that Jason had been able to summon a replica of the Gates of Hell. However, even more astonishing that the massive crescent sword beam Jason had manifested had killed more than 200,000 opponents, ranging from the Low Lique stage to the Lowest Prismar stage! It was obvious that Jason didn''t aim at a certain area of the battlefield which would have killed many more opponents, but it was as if he had been unable to move a single inch after his weapon had been brandished. As such, Lusan took away Jason while shouting towards his subordinates "We have an advantage now!! ATTACK! Don''t show any mercy!" There was not a single living being unaffected by the miraculous event that happened and it was only when Lusan had ordered his own people to attack that the halted battle continued. Compared to a few minutes earlier, the Drake alliance''s morale had plummeted drastically. The cause was none other than the replicas of the Gates of Hell that had appeared and the silver divine aura that had prevented the Gates of Hell from fully emerging. However, nobody had been aware that mankind, if not the whole planet would have more problems than a few races fighting about the reigns of Argos and the inhabiting humans! The Gates of Hell had their name not without reason, and once opened, hell would descend! Replicas were weaker and had many restrictions in comparison to the originals, but that didn''t mean it was less dangerous to Argos, which was in fact a planet in its Infant stage! Meanwhile, Jason felt as if millions of thoughts, ideas, and questions emerged in his mind, only to figure out that he was as clueless as before. Maybe it was even worse than that! Despite being extremely exhausted, Jason suppressed the desire to fall asleep because he knew that he would enter a comatose state in which he would sleep for several days! He was still responsible for helping the others in defeating the Ifrytor race! Little did he know that his massive crescent blade had annihilated almost half of the Ifrytor race''s army at once. Jason was aware that he would have never been able to summon the replica of the Gates of Hell nor such a powerful Crescent sword beam. That was at least under normal circumstances, and he began to recall what exactly had happened on the battlefield. ''My mind went blank for a second before I unleashed Solaris'' entire combat prowess, my aura and stigma...did that unleash my wrath and anger, or was it something else??'' Since his mother had died, he was bullied because of his blindness and there had never been a time he was strong enough to defend himself. It was only when he gained his eyesight that this was possible. However, from what he could tell, everything around him had begun to worsen since that day. Not only were there multiple incidents, and in the end, a war of more than a dozen races broke out on Argos! The emotions of humans were easier to manipulate...and Jason recalled his father''s words that he shouldn''t let them manipulate him. Instead, he should take control of his emotions...With that, he might even be able to control even the Gates of Hell Even though Jason had heard what his father had said, he was unable to grasp the complete meaning of every word. Were his words literally meant or was there something hidden within the long speech he held? Jason didn''t know, but what he could tell was the fact that the Celestia race''s emotions should be more difficult to manipulate, otherwise, his father wouldn''t have said something about the part of Jason that has human blood. ''Advantages and disadvantages¡­.'' He mumbled inwardly as Lusan left him after being sure that Jason was fine. The Elvyr had brought him to the camp that had been constructed for the injured soldiers or those that required rest from fighting too long. Yet, Jason and the high number of medics that had soulbonds with healing abilities were the only ones inside the camp right now. Nobody dared to approach Jason after what they had sensed, and from the view of it, his physical state seemed to be fine. ''As an Infernal Celestia, I would be unable to control my emotions... they would be corrupted and manipulated me?.. I would be hunted by every living being...but that shouldn''t mean I''m not allowed to be angry, sad, or infuriated by something...I suppose? Earlier, this was fine too!'' Jason knew that the problems with controlling his emotions had only started occurring after Scorpio had died. This had become worse over time and reached its peak when his masters had died. But, to think that his emotions were about to devour and corrupt him, turning him into a blood thirsting being was something Jason couldn''t grasp. ''How can I even control my emotions instead of allowing them to control me...what exactly does that even mean? If something bad happens, I''m sad, and the same applies for happiness, anger, and so on...there is nothing I can do about that¡­'' However, just like that, Jason also recalled his father saying something about releasing his anger, wrath, and sorrow instead of allowing it to accumulate. "Is the Celestia race a more emotional race than I thought? If they expose their emotions all the time, instead of concealing them, they should be deemed as honest, blunt and straightforward...right?" Jason was mumbling to himself, and it was not like he was trying to find a direct solution to his problem. He was already glad that he didn''t feel much of all negative emotions he had released at once thanks to his father''s silver divine hue. Unbeknownst to himself, Jason had accepted his father to a certain extent because he had helped him. At the same time, he could tell that Celestia Yaldra had been worried about him, which was another reason for Jason to think that his father might have been better than he had been in his childhood memories! ''Can I release my emotions as I did before...in an attack, without anyone''s help, or is that something I need a great amount of mana and someone''s guidance?'' In the end, everything that occurred resulted in his terrific high mana absorption that had suddenly been revealed when the entire battlefield turned into an area void of mana. Jason was still not sure what his future would look like, but he could tell that his mixed heritage as a human and Celestia would be interesting, and even more dangerous than he thought! How could Jason that his heritage was grander but even more dangerous and devastating than anyone could have ever expected? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 482 - Contribution Time flew by and it was only when the number of heavily injured people that were sent back to the camp increased that Jason thought it was time for him to enter the battlefield once again. Solaris had already informed him that it had absorbed the life force, mana, and Creato flames of those the massive crescent blade beam had killed. As such, Jason wouldn''t have any problems supplying Petri with life force to accelerate his evolution, while Solaris could annex more soul energy as it had nurtured its mana core and everything revolving around it. There was also enough mana to utilize Kumo and Degar for a long duration, which allowed Jason to allow Artemis to occupy his mana core instead of Solaris. For the time being, he wanted to prevent attracting too much unwanted attention. Solaris'' full-body armor and black wings were such a mean, and it was better to be more careful than he had been before. The Drake alliance should be wary of him right now. Thus, Jason decided to utilize Artemis'' wings and Kumo as the only means to fight for now. Other than that, he decided to use Artemis'' ice affinity while Solaris'' black flame would only be manifested at the tip of Kumo''s barrel. If there were opponents too strong for Jason to handle, he would either retreat or simply unholster Degar with which he was confident to kill someone with more than 1000 drops of liquefied mana. Nevertheless, Jason''s reluctance to enter the battlefield in fright that he might cause another incident, or turn into an Infernal Celestia, was apparent. Yet, even if that was the case, Jason knew that everyone was using their utmost efforts to protect Argos from being conquered by the Drake alliance to remain free and unrestrained. Nobody knew what exactly would happen afterward, but it was evident that the Drake alliance was not good for Argos, let alone mankind. Jason was aware of this, however, he thought that even some big clans and ancient sects had issues with treating their citizens well. Choosing a bad outcome was better than the worst possible because it was still better and Jason was confident that he could fulfill his masters'' wish much easier if the Argos alliance were to be victorious! Taking a deep breath, Jason decided to suppress his aura and stigma as he circulated a large amount of mana through body and Artemis'' wings before he flew off. Not even three minutes had passed before he had entered the battlefield that was littered with blood, spilled organs, and dead bodies. This sight was among the worst one could see during any war, but Jason, who was inserting a large amount of mana into his eyes to look out for Solaris'' remnants simply ignored them. It was difficult, but his mind seemed to be filtering out everything negative since he had fired the crescent sword blade. While searching the nurtured flames of Solaris, Jason had unholstered Kumo which he used to shoot several humans from other big clans, without mercy. His heart was cold and to Jason, it felt like he had no emotions left in his body, whether they were good or bad. This was something uncommon for him because he had always revealed his happiness and positivity Only his anger, wrath, and agony had been suppressed most of the time, but now, his entire being felt uncomfortable and weird as if he was nothing but an empty shell. There was only his current task at hand, and once he found the first remnant of Solaris'' flames that were covered within the drained body of the deceased it had absorbed, Jason summoned it. Solaris was originally not even a large flame and had only the size of his palm within its normal state. However, this could change in a single moment, and one could say that it was disguising itself. A few moments after Solaris had been summoned it began to create a faint suctioning force that attracted and absorb every flame in the radius of a few dozen meters. It was also possible to increase this radius, but this would attract too much unwanted attention. Instead, Jason was crossing the battlefield to reach Solaris flame''s remnants which replenished his used-up mana, the moment he used it up to kill dozens of opponents on his way. Kumo trigger was pulled at a rapid pace, and every time an opponent was killed, Solaris absorbed the remaining life force and mana. Its abilities were truly frightening and Jason didn''t wish to ever encounter someone with a similar affinity as he had. As such, he could only be grateful to have Solaris by his side. It was feeding Petri with life force while absorbing Jason''s soul energy the moment its nurtured state allowed this without burning a single soul energy unit. Owing to this, Solaris had already annexed around 830,000 soul energy units, while Artemis had merely annexed 10,000 units, and Petri was only around 3,000 soul energy units. In the end, Artemis would become Jason''s weakest soulbond if Petri''s evolution was successful, and this bothered him! She had already felt useless for a long time, but now that Solaris was becoming even stronger, while the newest member of their family was about to finish evolving, this intensified. With that being said, Artemis demanded to leave the soul world, which Jason prevented by sealing his soul world. As such, she was complaining the whole time Jason was fighting with his life on the line, until he had to agree to give her as many mana stones and mana cores as she wanted after the Great Argos war would end. This was not disadvantageous towards him at all, and Jason could hardly complain, even more so after Artemis had quieted down! Time passed slowly, and Jason''s contribution in the Great Argos war increased, the higher his proficiency and accuracy with Kumo became. Before, replacing an empty magazine took almost two seconds, but now the last bullet barely left the barrel before he had already started to replace the empty magazine. Nevertheless, the more opponents he killed, the more attention he attracted. This was the downside he had to face, and stronger foes had begun to attack him. Yet, at the same time, a small group from the Argos alliance with a mana core at the Prismar stage had noticed Jason''s high contribution and efficiency which caused them to protect him subconsciously. They were aware of what the young man had done earlier. Thus, even if it was not possible to recreate such a miracle, Jason''s weapons were extremely fast and most opponents were not strong enough to protect themselves from the mana-burning ability of the black bullets seemed to have. Thus, with time passing slowly, the surrounding area of Jason became less frequent with opponents at the Lique stage. "I''ll go alone. Thanks for protecting me but you guys attract too much attention. Even more than the gun does. Stay alive!" With that being said, Jason used the weightless steps technique at the perfect mastery before he released dense mist from his body. It expanded at a rapid pace, and without anyone knowing, Jason utilized the disguise ability Solaris had learned from devoured the silver origin flame to alter his facial features. His eye color was still the same as well as his body, however, to disguise himself he took out a robe that covered his body and the simplest tool to disguise himself in order to make his appearance less suspicious. What others looked at to distinguish Jason from others were not his eyes because other big clans had members with similar eyes due to specific traits, but his stigma! By taking out the miraculous tool he had procured earlier this could have been hidden to and it was called camouflage makeup! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 483 - Back To Old Times The camouflage makeup he applied on his stigma was nothing special, yet it worked wonders! In a matter of seconds, his golden-silverfish-colored stigma had vanished, covered by makeup. Jason never thought that he would have to make use of makeup, but considering that he had just altered his facial features, it might be better for his current situation. The moment he emerged outside the mist that enveloped several dozen opponents and allies, Jason had already picked up a set of daggers that laid next to an Ifrytor''s carcass. He was ready to fight, and except his eyes, nothing resembled his old self! Jasons'' facial features had changed, his stigma was covered and he had fully retracted both his aura and the stigma''s glow, while his physique was hidden underneath the robe he had put on. With Artemis occupying his mana core, Jason''s combat prowess increased drastically, even if he were to utilize nothing but his brute force. Yet, instead of overestimating himself, he decided to make use of his mana eyes and the fact that he could release dense mist explosively. Being able to see, while others weren''t was a huge advantage, yet, at the same time, it could obstruct his own allies. As such, Jason had to be careful about how he attacked others. Thus, instead of releasing dense mist, he made use of his high dagger proficiency, and his martial art techniques to emerge in front of his first opponent at the Low Lique stage. First, Jason pierced the dagger in his left hand towards his opponent''s thigh before he averted its trajectory to pull the dagger upwards. In a smooth motion, his opponent''s entire tight up to his chest had been sliced open, revealing an ugly sight. The sight might have been ugly, but Jason couldn''t help but think that the Ifrytors'' daggers were extremely sharp and at least on par with Tier-3 weapons, if not common Mana weapons! Thus, he injected more mana into the daggers and the runes inscribed on them began to glow faintly, releasing a faint membrane around them. At this sight, Jason smiled, but instead of wasting any more time, he took a deep breath before he exerted the weightless steps technique at the perfect mastery in addition to the single sequence of the Floating Sky technique, he had copied from Seron Gier a long time ago! He had yet to meet his old friend, and Jason was eager to do so now that the anger and wrath within him were not devouring him anymore. With that thought in his mind, he became a little bit excited to witness the end of the Great Argos war. The future was a white piece of paper, not predestined and unknown. Everything could be changed or end differently than one thought. Some may say that this was not true and that everything was fated to happen, however, Jason was not one of them! In Jason''s opinion, his mother''s, Scorpio''s, and his masters'' fate could have been different, if certain things had only changed, but it had already happened, and the past was something that couldn''t be changed. While the future was blank, the past had already occurred and been written down. As such, instead of lingering about the past for too long, Jason felt that he was finally able to release the tension he had accumulated for months. The emotions that had corrupted him were released, even if it might only be a temporary solution. Nevertheless, the tension within Jason was something completely different! This was another reason for him to disguise himself, and pick up the daggers from one of the Ifrytors. Daggers were the weapons he had learned first, and Jason felt like he was walking back in time. His life had been peaceful, and despite being weaker than anyone else, he couldn''t help but think that it was much better than fighting with his life on the line. With every second passing, dozens were killed on the battlefield, and Jason contributed to this number. Owing to the sequence of the floating sky movement technique he had learned, his limit of the weightless step technique at the perfect mastery increased, which allowed his speed to accelerate further. Jason''s robe fluttered in the wind, while his daggers had been thrust out and retracted every now and then. From slashing, stabbing, to piercing out, Jason''s pace never decelerated and he was rushing through the rows of his opponents as if they were not noteworthy. Since the last battle of the Great Argos war had started and after Jason''s crescent blade beam had killed 200,000 members of the Drake alliance, a total of three large battlefields had been established. Because it was too dangerous to allow someone at the Prismar stage to remain nearby those at the Lique stage, one battlefield was consistent of all those at the Prismar stage. On the other hand, there were two battlefields with individuals at the Lique stage. One for those at the late and Peak Lique stage and another one for everyone at the Low and Mid Lique stage! A single being at the Prismar stage could annihilate everyone at the Lique stage battlefield and both the Drake and Argos alliance didn''t want that such an accident occurred on their sides. It would be devastating if that happened after all! In the end, attacking someone at a lower stage was considered a universal and unwritten rule during war, accepted by every race. The reason for this was simple; breaking this rule would cause chaos because both sides would start to attack each other''s weak forces with their more powerful individuals! Only when war came to end, the losing side would start ignoring this unofficial rule in their last attempt to turn the tides of war and take down as many foes as possible! Both the Ariyor and Elvyr race had explained everyone the unofficial rules of war, and nobody would dare to create chaos by breaking them as it would cause too many needless casualties on both sides. With that being said, Jason, who was wreaking havoc in the Low and Mid Lique stage battlefield was able to do almost everything he wanted. Once an opponent was too strong, he would use his curses to gain enough time to react by taking out Degar to shoot armor-piercing bullets at them. Someone at the peak of the Mid-Lique stage had around 3,000 drops of mana, thus, Jason''s life was only threatened by them. Nevertheless, mankind''s strength was not enough to face the sheer mass of opponents at the Lique stage that seemed to be a few times higher compared to the Argos alliance. As such, both battlefields at the Lique stages were dominated by the Drake alliance that mainly consisted of foreign races. Despite their weak combat experiences, mankind''s weaker physique that had yet to be refined properly, and the fact that the density and purity of mana on Canir prevented humans to reach a high mana core rank at a young age, made up for this disadvantage. All-in-all, only mankind''s talents and real prodigies were able to make a real difference because their soulbonds and fortified soul conjunctions allowed them to fight multiple common soldiers from the foreign races at once! Jason was not sure how the situation on the Prismar stage battlefield looked like, but he believed that the Elvyr and Ariyor race were doing their best to make up for the numerical disadvantage! The Elvyr race embassy had a higher mana core rank after all! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 484 - Safety It was already the second day of the huge battle to determine Argos'' supremacy and the fights were still ongoing. Contrary to everyone''s expectations there had yet to be someone who was able to dominate the other on all three battlefields. Even Jason hadn''t expected this, as he was resting for half an hour, replenishing his mana, while altering his facial features once again. At the same time, he picked up a different weapon, only to see that a huge wave of Doom Crawls was rushing towards their camp that accommodated heavily injured soldiers. Thus, Jason unholstered Kumo and Degar as he stood up to continue his killing spree. His mind was clear since he had released his negative emotions, but Jason knew that this was mainly due to the last traces of the silver, divine aura that lingered within him. This aura that originated from his father had already become weaker through time, while it had already been weak from having been forcefully transferred to Jason, which shouldn''t have been an easy task to accomplish for his father. Owing to the divine aura, Jason was able to grasp the Celestia race''s combat prowess for the first time. Despite it being weakened, the divine, silver aura was definitely not something that should exist on Argos! It was much mightier than he could have imagined and it brought up even more confusion and questions than Jason could solve. The wave of Doom Crawls was large in number, yet, Jason''s high accuracy and guns that worked in perfect unison with Solaris made up for the numerical disadvantage. In the end, he couldn''t defeat the entire wave alone, but his contribution had been enough so that many people had begun to praise him highly. Since the Great Argos war had begun, the human race had received most casualties, and this did not only include the current battle! However, even worse than the casualties the Argos'' alliance had to face was that the three battlefields were being pulled apart! This was not necessarily bad, in the first place, but the place all the three battlefields were approach was definitely not the place the Argos alliance wanted to fight! Each of the battlefields was slowly being drawn to the different capitals of the three kingdoms on which borders the last battle of the Great Argos had started! Even if Jason wanted to, he couldn''t prevent this from happening. Rather, he had decided to report what he perceived to the big clans'' powerhouses that were currently resting. Yet, instead of planning to send a scout towards the capitals in order to warn them, nobody seemed to care, or to be precise, nobody had the energy to do anything. Their pressure was already high as it was, and it was difficult to even survive the torments of elemental attacks that had been unleashed. The mana within the area the three battlefields were situated was unstable and more difficult to control than normally. Furthermore, elemental attacks that flew straight and those who fought in the outer area of their battlefield were likely to encounter scouts that would have been sentout. This was not a problem with the Lique stage battlefields, but it would turn into a problem once one had to fly past the battlefield with all beings at the Prismar stage! ''Until the battlefields reach the capitals more than two days should pass, if not more¡­'' Jason didn''t think much of himself, but he recalled Shane''s words and that he should protect the weak because they were unable to protect themselves. As such, he could only try his best! He walked away from the middle-aged man he had been talking to as Artemis'' wings sprouted out of his back. "If the others don''t want to save the weak, I should at least give my best to prevent the worst from occurring, right?" Jason didn''t want to see that the three capitals that had accepted millions of refugees from the surrounding, smaller cities, were to be destroyed! His assumption that the battlefields were slowly drifting towards the three capitals might as well be wrong because their current location was still far away, but that was not what mattered! Two days was what Jason assumed to be the shortest possible time at which the Prismar stage battlefield could reach the closest capital it seemed to be heading to. Inwardly Jason was just shouting ''Fuck it!" but on the outside, his expression was emotionless as he circulated some of his replenished mana through Artemis'' wings. ''To think that I will have to fly through the Prismar stage battlefield while being at the Low Lique stage¡­.'' This thought was ridiculous and Jason knew how dangerous it was. However, he hoped that concealing his mana core was enough to pass the Prismar stage battlefield without anyone noticing. With that being said, an hour passed in which Jason tried to reach the highest possible altitude so that nobody would notice him, and he only concealed his mana once he saw the mana fluctuations of the first few beings at the Prismar stage fighting against each other. This was possible due to his mana eyes, and Jason was glad to see that he was able to pass everyone without any obstructions. Suddenly, without any warning, Jason''s eyes began to burn and it was as if his entire being had been struck by lightning. His body stiffened, and his wings stopped in their tracks when he sensed that something appeared behind him. It was an ominous feeling, but a heat Jason had never felt before seemed to envelop him. He inserted more mana into his eyes and turned around by instinct, however, there was nothing, no beast, no human or other being! Not even after he looked above him, where nothing should be, in the first place, Jason couldn''t see anything. Only a moment later, the uncomfortable feeling and stiffness disappeared and he was able to continue flying to the closest capital without anything having changed. A few hours had passed since then, but Jason''s mind was still unable to comprehend what had happened. His gut feeling told him that there was something wrong, but it was different compared to when he received the warning about the incident of the Yasl?rn caves and the Blood eclipse! It was as if he was unable to determine whether his gut feeling was trying to warn him from something bad or give him a heads up for something good that was about to happen. This made Jason even more uncomfortable than he had already been before Only when he reached the first capital Jason could take a deep breath as he had rushed himself. Without further ado, he had reported what was going on, which made the City lord and management of the city panic. Jason calmed them down by releasing his Celestia aura which worked better than he had expected before asking them to send a notification to the other capitals. Normal quantum bracelets had lost their connection to the network that connected them with Skynet. Thus, Jason wanted to use the old means to convey messages! That was if it was still possible after more than 200 years have passed since they''ve been actively used¡­. Jason wanted the capitals, which were in fact the fundamentals remnants of the old-time before the mana breakout, to send each other messages through messenger crystals which they should have from each other for emergencies. Unfortunately, this was not possible because the capital didn''t seem to have the messenger crystal of the other capitals! This caused Jason to curse out, thinking that it was the most stupid thing he had heard for a long time. As his mood plummeted, he had already turned around to leave for the other capitals which he would have to personally visit too. "These fucking idiots don''t even have the basic necessities to message each other during emergencies...how the hell did nothing happen until now??" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 485 - Real Overlords Over 24 hours had passed since Jason had arrived in the first capital and he was overly exhausted as he had finally reached the last capital that was at the most rural. The capital he had visited prior was near the coast, while the first one he had visited was partially surrounded by a huge mountain. Yet, every single time, Jason flew to a capital, his eyes were burning, while his gut feeling was chaotic, seemingly trying to tell him that something was going to happen. But nothing occurred all three times he felt something, and Jason began to wonder if his gut feeling was wrong. This would be the first time that would have happened which caused him to believe that it was unlikely for his gut feeling to be mistaken about something. It was only when Jason left the rurally located capital that the mana stored in his mana eyes'' storage was rapidly consumed without him doing something. His golden-silverish eyes began to glow brightly, enhancing his eyesight and perception of mana fluctuations drastically. Even if his eyesight had already been exceptional, allowing him to see something more than a kilometer away with great details, right now, his current state allowed him to see much farther than he ever did before. He was able to see the outlines of the Low- and Mid Lique stage battlefield too! However, contrary to his expectations that the current state was stagnating as it did before, Jason''s eyes widened in terror. A moment later Artemis'' wings in the largest form of more than a dozen meters spread out from his back, consuming a large amount of nutrition as he soared into the sky with a breathtaking speed. Within the next few seconds, the unstable and chaotic mana that was caused by several million living beings passively replenishing their mana while releasing huge amounts of transmuted mana at the same moment came to a halt. The stored mana within Jason''s eyes had been consumed giving him the ability to see a tremendous amount of mana fluctuations gathering in three different places that were in fact the three battlefields of the Great Argos war''s last battle! Under normal circumstances, the huge accumulated amount of dense and pure mana nearby the battlefields wouldn''t worry Jason, but there was something worrisome about it! The entire stream of mana belonged to only three beings that didn''t belong to either of the two fighting alliances! Furthermore, two out of three mana fluctuations his mana eyes perceived were unfamiliar, yet, Jason could tell who, or rather what the last, familiar mana fluctuations were. Right in front of him, on the Low- and Mid- Lique stage battlefield, the Owl-bear, he had encountered during his primal bloodline awakening, was wreaking havoc, destroying both fighting sites mercilessly. Jason could tell that it would only be a matter of time before the battlefield would turn into a puddle of blood, organs, and dead carcasses, which caused him to stiffen. His mana eyes also perceived that huge torrents of water transmuted mana were released at the Late- and Peak Lique stage battlefield, while the same occurred on the Prismar stage battlefield, only that the mana there belonged to a searing hot fire affinity, burning the cloud above the battlefield. "The beast at the peak Lique stage battlefield...could it be the beast in the ocean?? Did we enrage, or wake them up from hibernating...That can''t be it, the Owl-bear was not hibernating anymore after all!" He had no idea what was going on, but it was obvious that something huge was bound to happen. At that moment, Jason saw that the mana fluctuations from both beasts on the two battlefields that were further away had been compressed, which made it possible for Jason to see their outlines. ''A crow...and a whale...no that''s not a whale...what kind of beasts are they?'' He didn''t know the other beasts'' mana core ranks and how strong they truly were. But considering that the Owl-bear had already created one large, rotating crystal around three out of the nine solidified prismarine crystals it had created, the other two beasts should be even stronger! The mana fluctuation and transmuted mana overflowing the area far in the distance was also an indicator for this assumption. "Are those the strongest beasts of Argos?... Argos'' real overlords?" This was not a certain fact, but it was not unlikely to be the case and Jason couldn''t help but gulp before he bit his lower lip nervously. Right now, what he witnessed meant that all three battlefields, both the Argos- and Drake alliance would be annihilated, if nothing were to change!! This was something that shouldn''t happen, and Jason began to worry about the situation that unfolded far away from him. Yet, before he could see what was going on, his eyesight worsened as the entire mana inserted into his mana eyes had been consumed. Right now, Jason could not even see something properly because his eyesight was blurry, which was something that hadn''t happened for a long time. ''Since when do I have to rely on mana to see something?'' He thought inwardly, yet, before he continued with his train of thoughts, his eyesight returned as his passive mana gathering had replenished a fraction of the used up mana. It was also at that moment that a searing hot heatwave reached Jason, while small streams of water began to cover the ground in front of him. The heat increased at a steady pace, while the small water streams began to turn into rivers. Suddenly, Jason saw humans being swept away by the floods of water, pushed under which caused him to frown deeply. However, at the same time, a huge tempest manifested in front of him, at the exact location at which the Low and Mid Lique stage battlefield should be. At this moment, his worry about the possible outcome of the Great Argos had been washed away. Instead, Jason was not even sure whether a single being that had participated in the war would be able to survive this day, let alone months, or he coming years! The current situation seemed to be extremely bad, yet, without any warnings, the flood of water, the heatwave, and the tempest vanished into thin air. Yet, instead of being able to relax, Jason tensed up as the Owl-bear seemed to turn in his direction! Only a moment later a spatial portal manifested next to him out of which the large Owl-bear emerged. It looked exactly as it did before, with the physique of a bear and the appearance of an owl. There was only one thing that had changed, with was the Owl-bear''s aura! Jason didn''t even have time to think about what he should do, and it was only his stigma and the Celestia aura he had instinctively released as the Owl-bear released a thin thread of mana that shot towards him. Instincitvely, Jason accepted the thread of mana because he felt that the Owl-bear didn''t release any killing intent anymore. It was still angry about something, but that was everything Jason could feel. After the mana thread had reached Jason, he sensed several emotions, pictures, and other means to describe something. This allowed Jason to understand the current situation better than before, even if it was extremely confusing. Just like that, the Owl-bear vanished and everything seemed to come to a standstill. "Is that how the Great Argos war ends? Without a winning side, at a tie?" He mumbled while looking at the chaos of the closest battlefield. Apparently, the three beasts that were in fact the Owl-bear, a Crimson three-legged crow, and a Niuy mosasaurs gave the Argos and Drake alliance a simple, yet, impactful warning. Jason was unable to comprehend what had enraged the three Overlords, but there seemed to be something important on Argos that had to be protected. Something that was worth intervening in a war of common and higher races that might return in the future, to take revenge. As such, the three Overlords intervened in the Great Argos war, forcefully ending it as it disrupted their own interests. Their warning killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions of living beings, but the final message was clear. [Stop the war, or there will be no tomorrow for anyone!] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 486 - True Nature Demonstrating supremacy was an efficient and easy way to achieve certain goals, and the three Overlords seemed to be aware of this fact. As such, they had revealed their strength before vanishing, leaving behind millions of beings that had been scared witless, unable to grasp how fortunate they had been to survive the ''simple'' warning. Jason couldn''t believe what had happened either. What happened a few moments earlier was the most unlikely and dissatisfying way in which war could end. Not only was it a tie, but the reason the Great Argos war had been halted was still not solved either! Despite being weakened, Jason assumed that some of the sent troops of the foreign races were still present, and he assumed that the forcefully ended war would bring forth more problems than the three Overlords had tried to end. Out of the information he had received from the Owl-bear, that hadn''t killed him because it owed him a favor for helping it to breakthrough, Jason was able to comprehend something important that caused him to have a set of complex emotions. "If the Overlords won''t allow the Great Argos war to be continued, or they annihilate both sides...the future might not look as bleak as I assumed...I guess? The soldiers from the foreign races should be called back, now that it will be impossible to conquer Argos until the world bridges are more stable, allowing stronger beings to pass through them. That''s great...but the big and ancient clans and sects from both sides will be left alone. Will this cause a small-scale war, or persecution?" There were countless paths Argos'' future could take now, but the Great Argos war had changed everything substantially! Not only did the mindset of most humans change drastically, but the big clans had also been split into groups that were likely to become each other''s nemesis, causing many conflicts in the future. At the same time, it was questionable whether everything destroyed could be rebuilt just like that. Would the citizens start to retaliate against the way in which the big clans rule their kingdom and how they treat the islands they govern? There were too many questions, but Jason knew that some races would attempt to support certain humans clans, even if it were to be in the shadows. ''Will we be able to regain peace again?'' Jason was not sure what the future would bring, but he knew that giving his best was the only way he could fulfill his masters'' wishes. As such, he dived towards the rivers of water that were left behind by the mosasaurus overlord, where he tried to rescue as many people from drowning as possible. The water conjured by the mosasaurus overlord seemed to be special. He might not be able to tell what exactly was special about the water but it released faint mana currents that were intertwined with something he was not familiar with. It was not directly harmful, but it was difficult to circulate mana within the water! Nevertheless, Jason could take many beings outside the water without any issues. There was no need to distinguish between friends and foes because the Great Argos war was already over, but that didn''t mean that Jason saved anyone from the Ifrytor, Burane, or My?ldra race! They were exceptions and the root cause of all problems that didn''t deserve his kindness. He had even saved the drowning members from the Drake family because Jason knew more than anyone else that most members of the Drake family and clan had been forced into a soul contract! As such, it was not their fault for standing on the Drake alliance''s side during the Great Argos war. In the end, Jason was still unable to believe how the Great Argos war ended after a duration of more than 2 years! It was a weird feeling, and he was unsure whether to be glad about it or not. However, it had already happened and only the final result counted! With that being said, Jason wanted to search for Fasro, Lusran and Merl Arths to find more about their current situation. That was if after he couldn''t find anymore drowning people. Flying through the air, an astonishing, but even more disgusting sight about the most treacherous side that both humans and foreign races seemed to have in common; Greed! While Jason flew past the area that had been the Low- and Mid-Lique stage battlefield, he witnessed humans and foreign races plundering the deceaseds'' spatial rings and everything valuable at a rapid pace. Despite being worn out by the two days long battle, everyone seemed to have enough energy left to greedily skim through dead corpses, trying to collect as many goods as possible. This disgusted Jason because he could see hundreds of heavily injured humans and beings from foreign races, fighting against the Grim reaper, whose scythe was already tightly put against their neck. Nobody paid attention, let alone helped them, and Jason saw how they died while hoping that anyone would help them. The true colors of the present races were revealed, and despite not fighting against each other anymore, Jason could already see that conflicts had started to occur. Everyone wanted to reap the most benefits, and Jason couldn''t help but be glad that the fear of the three Overlords was greater than everyone''s greed. Otherwise, more than half of the humans and other foreign races he saw would have started to fight already. Jason could only shake his head, thinking that the morals of the vast majority of humans and other foreign races had been flushed down the toilets. While flying towards the center of the three battlefields, where everything had started, Jason saw and rescued many injured and drowning beings. He did so instinctively and didn''t care about the potions he handed out to everyone who required them. Jason didn''t know how it could come to that, but he seemed to have lost faith in the foreign races and mankind being able to halt waging war. This was because he couldn''t believe to what extent everyone''s greed was, and it was only when he saw the first few individuals from foreign races and humans saving others that he could sigh in relief. ''At least it''s not helpless¡­'' He said inwardly as he heard someone, on the ground, shouting something that caused Jason to divert his direction to the capital in the coastal area, only to blurt out a "F*ck you, mosasaurus overlord!" Apparently, the flood manifested by the mosasaurus overlord had not only been a warning towards the two forces that were fighting against each other, but it had also flooded the coastal capital, sweeping away buildings and the innocent citizens within. The situation was grave and even without having seen it yet, Jason could imagine how terrific it should be for the weak. Thus, he used his fastest speed to rush to help, hoping that he could help the weak as Shane and Dalia had wished for. It was not only their wish that caused Jason to act, but he would have behaved like this without his masters that had hoped for him to protect the weak. He had always been like this. Despite not being a saint, he had been weak and powerless before. As such Jason knew what he had needed the most at that time; someone strong who was selfless enough to help the weak! Even if it was not much for someone stronger to help others, the opposite side''s entire life was on the line! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 487 - Baby Girl When Jason arrived above the flooded capital, that was called Kadran, Artemis left his mana core to let Solaris occupy it. Artemis'' wings disappeared before they were replaced by Solaris'' replica made out of black flames as Artemis manifested right next to him. At the same time, Jason reverted the changes of his facial features before he and Artemis dived towards the districts that were the most affected by the flood of water. Most of the water was already flowing back slowly, but it was way too slow for Jason to remain idle. Diving into the water, it began to evaporate due to Solaris'' highly compressed flames that had a high temperature. Grasping the arm of the man whose weak mana fluctuations Jason had perceived through his mana eyes, he turned around and shot out of the water once again, bringing the man with him. He looked fine, and his biggest issue should be the water he had gulped down. With his mana eyes, Jason perceived that it was not a life-threatening amount of water and that the man had only been petrified because of his shook. Thus, everything was fine after he brought the man into one of the higher floors of the building complex that stood firmly on the ground. Artemis had followed him with two teenage girls she had tightly grasped in her talons. They were screaming in fright, but Jason thought that they couldn''t be heavily injured if they had enough energy to scream so loudly. He simply sized them up with his mana eyes before he rushed out of the building once again. Time went by and it felt like an eternity as both Jason and Artemis had manifested several ice shells all over the flooded streets, allowing those that passed them to save themselves. Right now their focus was on the weakest of the weakest that were unable to save themselves. The old, ill, and youngest humans were those that couldn''t save themselves, and both Jason and Artemis worked ceaselessly to save everyone with their utmost efforts. They didn''t even notice that several hours had passed as Jason''s mana eyes were subconsciously drawn to the largest building that had collapsed. Before, he couldn''t perceive the mana fluctuations of anyone alive inside the building anymore, but just now his eyes were drawn to a specific place that radiated faint mana fluctuations. There was something weird about the mana fluctuations because they seemed to belong to two different individuals, yet, he could only see the outlines of one small child! Shaking his head, Jason thought that he was probably too tired. Nevertheless, he couldn''t stop now, and instead of questioning his ability, Jason decided that it was most important to pay attention to saving everyone, which included the young child in the collapsed building! Flying through the destroyed window and hallways, he quickly appeared in front of a middle-aged couple that laid on top of the young child he had seen with his mana eyes. The ceiling fell on the couple as the building had collapsed, and iron bars had pierced through the middle-aged man''s chest who had tried to protect both, his wife and child, only to lose both. At least that was what Jason would have thought if his mana eyes didn''t tell him that the child was still alive! This was weird, but he carefully lifted the large pieces of rubble and other objects that fell on the couple. He perceived that the children''s two mana fluctuations were slowly merging with each other which was extremely weird, yet, Jason''s hands never stopped to move, not a single moment! Only a short amount of time later, he saw the young child, who was at most one year old, for the first time. It was a girl with black hair whose fair skin was smudged by the dirt and rubble. Her clothes were drenched in blood, but she didn''t seem to be in pain, let alone cry! This confused Jason as he had expected the complete opposite to happen. The little girl was just staring at Jason with her distinct purple eyes that had a glint of confusion, shock, and intelligence within them. From the time he had seen that she had two different mana fluctuations, Jason found the young baby girl to be extremely weird, and now that she stared at him without any signs of crying, he subconsciously blurted out. "Who the hell are you??" The mana fluctuations he perceived were still merging together, but Jason noticed that the small girl couldn''t understand him, which was quite normal for a one-year-old baby. Yet, contrary to the norms, she opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something before a small scream escaped her tiny mouth. After that, the baby''s purple eyes widened in shock before her small head turned down, looking at her hands in astonishment. Jason frowned at that, but he had no time to waste anymore. There were too many people that required help after all! Thus, he picked up the girl before he flew outside the collapsed building ''I can take care of the girl later...there is something weird about her! Furthermore, her eyes are also a trait!'' Every living being had absorbed mana fluctuations, even if one had never actively absorbed or sensed mana! Mana was subconsciously being absorbed into one''s body after all! This subconscious absorption was not enough to strengthen one''s mana core rank, but it was enough to adapt someone to mana in order to unleash one''s mana perception. That was exactly why it took average talented humans 10 years before they were able to sense mana, while other races had it much easier. The mana on their planet was much denser and purer compared to that on Argos! Even on Argos, the difference of mana purity and density in some areas was vast, let alone Canir and the Archipelago. On Canir, the average to start sensing mana was slightly below 10 years. Yet, the young girl that was barely one year old had already two mana fluctuations that were not identical? One could only have one type of mana fluctuations because they were one''s means of identification and everyone''s mana fluctuations were one of a kind. Sometimes one''s mana fluctuations were being altered through external factors or something that had changed within one''s body as it had been the case with Jason when he had unsealed his Celestia bloodline. Thus, having two types meant that one had two different identities which was something that shouldn''t exist. Jason''s mind was rattling, and he didn''t even notice that the baby girl was trying to grasp Jason tightly in order to attract his attention. The young girl herself was not aware of what was going on, yet, she knew that it had died only a few moments earlier. At the same time, the girl knew that she had not died in a collapsed building in the middle of a natural catastrophe, but that she had been murdered by those who she had held dearly! After that, she had woken up with heavy weights pressing on her and a puddle of blood forming below her. She had been unable to move or do anything as her body was much weaker than it had even been since she could remember. Everything was confusing until memories of a one-year-old baby girl had resurfaced in her mind. Only a moment later a young man with golden-silverish eyes had lifted the weights and picked her up. ''Why is he so big? Or am I small¡­? Are the memories I saw just now...reality?'' After that, the young man had brought her outside the collapsed building, where a large white owl with black horns that had a stigma embedded onto one was waiting for them. The young man had placed her on the back of the owl that had screamed out in disagreement as Jason released his soothing aura towards her. At that moment, the baby girl''s purple eyes widened in shock as she saw Jason''s eyes and stigma that glowed faintly before the aura enveloped her. ''What...kind of race is he? I can''t sense anything yet...It''s not enough that I''ve been killed by my loved ones but why did I have to reincarnate in the body of a one-year-old child too as a race that has to hide from an invasion?!?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 488 - Reincarnation? Transmigration Anna Ynal had been a renowned cultivator from the Yadras race that reigned several planets while it had even been able to establish a small empire on the universe''s planet This was something she was proud of, and it had only been possible because of their ancestor''s magnificent achievements. However, now that she had been killed, reincarnated in a child''s body of a race that looked similar to the Yadras race, Anna''s dream to become someone her race can be proud of had shattered! Anna was not even sure how she could reincarnate, and neither did she know what exactly the young man was saying to her. It was also a mystery to her, where they were, how much time had passed since she had been killed, or what exactly was going on. The only clues she had were some of her old memories, useless memories of a one-year-old child, and the young man in front of her. Having a stigma indicated that he belonged to a different race than the relatives of the one-year-old child! Yet, everything was much more complicated than she thought, and Anna did try to absorb mana, only to notice that she was not even able to sense it yet! ''The mana here should be extremely scarce¡­.'' While Anna Ynal was occupied with sorting her thoughts, Jason could only see that the baby girl was instinctively stroking Artemis'' feathers while they were flying around. It was not long before Jason had brought the baby girl to one of the camps that were constructed outside the city. He picked up the girl, and carefully handed her to the nurses and other staff that had already escaped the flood, helping out wherever they could. This made Jason happy, and his Celestia aura began to expand the happier he became. ''Maybe...mankind is worth being saved? Is that what you two wanted me to see...Shane...Dalia?'' Jason smiled despite feeling melancholic, and it was only when he saw that the baby girl began to cry as she helplessly tried to reach him with her tiny arms that he was drawn out of his train of thoughts. He shook his head before he said "I''ll be back soon. Please take good care of that girl. She already lost her family, physical pain is what she needs the least." After that, he shot into the air again before he returned to Kadran''s center, where most people required help. Many humans were helping out, and Jason could even see a few Ariyor helping out, which caused Jason''s heart to make a leap. Even if nobody demanded their help, they simply did so. The Ariyor race had only been supporting the Shiabi clan because of the curse cleansing beast, and Jason couldn''t help but feel that their reasoning had changed a little bit after being with mankind during the entire Great Argos war. This was great, but rather than focusing on the Ariyor race''s help to rescue Kadran''s citizens, Jason thought about the baby girl and the weird way she had behaved. At the same time, the two different mana fluctuations that had already merged into one were suspicious too. It was as if she was not a one-year-old baby, but how did that make sense any sense? Hours passed and with the help of tens of thousands of helpers, the majority of citizens had been brought outside the dangerous areas or the capital if they were heavily injured and in dire need of help. During these hours, Jason had made up several possibilities about the baby girl''s weird behavior, but one was absurder than another. In the end, there was no way that the majority of them were true either! From traveling back in time to being born with two souls imprisoned into one body, Jason thought of almost everything, and he couldn''t get his hand on it. If she didn''t have two mana fluctuations at that time, he wouldn''t have bothered about her, but one of the mana fluctuations had traces of something mythical, and extremely old. As if it were the last remains of something mighty! Jason would have loved to ignore the baby girl and leave because he had more than enough things to pay attention to, but he was unable to do so. Even if one of his absurd theories were to be true, it was a fact that the baby had lost her parents and that she was alone in a world that was as dangerous as it had ever been. He assumed that Argos was more dangerous than for those below the Lique stage than it had ever been. Even more dangerous than it had been during the mana outbreak! There were many things Jason wanted to take care of, but the baby girl had jumped into his list of priorities without him realizing it. He was just too intrigued by what his mana eyes had perceived. Thus, after the rescue works were done, he returned to the camp where he had left the young baby girl. From far away, he could already hear a baby crying. Owing to his mana eyes, he appeared in front of the little girl within a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, Artemis, who was jealous which she was clearly showing, had turned into her small form to squeeze on Jason''s broad shoulder. However, when she and the baby girls locked eyes, Artemis could tell that something was off. She transmitted Jason her confusion and everything else she was perceiving. Unfortunately, he was as clueless about the girl as Artemis was. Thus he could only look at the small girl that had stopped crying. She lifted her tiny arms and pointed towards Jason, who stood behind the nurses that had given their utmost efforts to figure out the baby''s issue. They turned around, only to see a young man with handsome, but also gorgeous facial features, beautiful eyes, and a toned body standing there. He smiled lightly before asking "Can I?" The nurses were speechless by Jason''s appearance and the charismatic and relaxing aura he subconsciously released. As such, they could barely nod their head without knowing what Jason wanted to do. Seeing that it was fine, Jason took a few steps forward before he stood right in front of the table on which the baby girl was lying. She was still pointing towards him, but her fingers had moved a little bit, while her tears had ceased. Jason noticed that she was staring at his eyes, or rather his right eye, only to realize a moment later that the baby girl pointed at his stigma! He lifted her up in a careful manner, and the nurses that had been starstruck regained their senses as they approached him and the baby. ''She cried for several hours and stopped right after the young man came back??'' The young nurse that had taken the baby from Jason a few hours early, thought in confusion. She felt that Jason had a calming aura, but it was still a wonder that the baby girl had suddenly stopped crying. Rather than that, the baby girl was suddenly laughing out as Jason had lifted her in his right arm. She was on the height of his neck and still pointing at something and Jason, intrigued by her persistency, lowered his head, allowing the baby girl to touch his stigma. Suddenly, Jason''s head began to ache as his stigma''s glow intensified, enveloping the small girl''s head. Only a moment later the glow dispersed, releasing the young baby that was astonished, but also overjoyed about the beauty it could see as Jason''s headache was substituted by astonishment and shock. He tried to digest the sudden memories and picture streaming into his head as Anna Ynal exclaimed inwardly. ''He really belongs to one of the more powerful races!'' However, before she could continue thinking about that, her mind was overwhelmed by the thoughts of the one-year-old child that had fully merged with Anna. ''How is it possible that I''m too weak to take full control over the body of a formerly dead baby? Is that the disadvantage of my reincarnating? That I''m forced to merge with this useless child?'' Anna was annoyed, but how could she have known that her transmigration with all memories intact was nothing but a fluke. It was not a common reincarnation but the transmigration of a soul that had been shattered into millions of pieces at that! Only one, minuscule part of Anna''s soul had survived, and nobody was able to tell how it had reached Argos, let alone it''s way to the baby Jason saved! Suddenly, Jason, who was still trying to digest all information mumbled something incomprehensible for the nurses, and it was only the small baby that screamed out in joy "Have you reincarnated?... Or was it an transmigration??" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 489 - Disgrace "Have you reincarnated?... Or is it more like an transmigration??" He had spoken in the universal language and Anna had been able to understand him without issues since the memories about her past life were still intact. Thus she had accidentally screamed out in joy, which was partially responsible for the old owner of the baby''s body. She tried to nod her head, but it was extremely difficult to control her little body. However, when Jason saw her efforts, he couldn''t help but sigh. ''Someone else''s soul entered the body of a dead baby? Is that why there were two mana fluctuations my mana eyes had perceived? What kind of bullshit did I encounter this time??'' Jason was utterly confused, wondering how something like this was even possible. He was not even sure how the baby had died, in the first place because she seemed to be perfectly fine. The nurses were also of the opinion that she was unscathed, and it was only when Jason injected more mana into his mana eyes that he perceived something. There was a small scar on the baby''s neck and faint, almost invisible remnants of the mysterious mana fluctuations he couldn''t decipher earlier. ''Wait? Did the reincarnated soul heal the injury of the baby too? In that case...is it even dead, or did they merge together?'' His head was aching and he could only smile drily at the small girl in front of him before he turned towards the nurses. "If she has no relatives left, I will take care of the child for now. Orphanages should be overflowing right now. That is if they have enough funds to feed everyone." Jason was not sure what he was doing right now, but he could tell that it was important. The reincarnated being inside the small baby girl should have been extremely powerful in her previous life. As such, her knowledge should be wide too! Other than that, the baby has lost everyone around it, and without any help, Jason doubted that it would be easy for her to live on Argos as it was right now. Jason was not sure what exactly the other races were about to do, but he was able to see a few members of big clans they had fought against, helping others. They were also smiling and talking with other big clans they''ve fought earlier which gave him the impression that the foreign races had stopped in their approach to suppress the big clans. Rather, it looked like most races that had been overwhelmed and annexed into the Drake alliance''s army had used the chance and fled! This included the Ifrytor race, and Jason could only shake his head when he had heard about that. He wanted to take revenge and annihilate the entire army of the Ifrytor race, but that had not been possible. Nevertheless, he was more than fine with how the current situation was because he could always take his revenge later! There were many things to take care of, but the biggest problems seemed to have vanished into thin air. While discussing with the nurses and the Kadran''s authorities Jason had to search in order to be allowed to take care of the little baby girl, he was hearing lots of gossip from the surrounding. Most of the gossip were just rumors, but there were still true facts Jason heard. One of the rumors that was deemed a lie was in fact true. This rumor was about how Jason summoned the replicas of the Gates of Hell, and the silver, divine aura that was said to have emerged a moment later. When he heard this, Jason couldn''t help but smile a little bit, only to hear other rumors that caused him to halt in his tracks. "One of the enslaved members of the Drake clan has told me that the My?ldra race will continue backing them. They might have to leave, but they seem to want to continue with their soul contract and human trafficking! Other races will leave Canir, but from what another friend of mine told me, there are many other races that have sought refuge on the other continents on Argos since the mana outbreak happened at that!! Can you believe that? Will we have another war soon?..." It was not surprising that the My?ldra race didn''t want to give up on Argos after they had almost achieved what they had planned. Furthermore, the resources they had used up in order to nurture the Drake family were vast, to put it simply. Jason assumed that the M?yldra race planned on turning the Drake clan into the most powerful entity before they would return once the world bridges allowed stronger beings to emerge on Argos! After that, they would enslave the Drake family, and reign over everyone on Argos. At least that was what Jason expected. This would probably take a few years, which was more than enough for Jason to change Argos in its essence! He was confident that he could achieve everything he wanted to as long as he was working hard enough! That was the least he was supposed to do in order to repay his masters'' kindness!! The remaining information he had eavesdropped on was also interesting. ''To think that there are other races that have immigrated on Argos even before the Great Argos war... I doubt that they''ll attack us, but it might be a little bit annoying for the future once their race''s strength and population overwhelm the human race''s... However, that is not something we have to pay attention to now!'' Given the fact that world bridges prevented foreign races above the Prismar stage with 6 solidified prismarine crystals in their mana core to enter Argos, and that mankind had never heard about refugee-seeking races before, there shouldn''t be a lot of them. As such, there shouldn''t be much of a problem for now, and probably even the future. If Jason were to know the truth about everything concerning Argos, the other continents and just how oblivious he was to everything outside the human race''s territory, the last thing he would be was calm! However, mankind had suffered a lot, and it wouldn''t be a surprise to Jason if mankind''s population had drastically decreased! It was unknown how many humans were left alive, but it was a fact that billions had died! If every Island on the Archipelago looked like Astrix, even if it was only a small degree, the number of casualties there must have reached a few billion, let alone Canir. It was frustrating but a simple fact one had to acknowledge as the bitter truth. The foreign races didn''t even focus on destroying the surrounding cities because they wanted to preserve the resource ''human''. Nevertheless, attacking, driving away, or even annihilating big clans was already enough to cause a chain reaction. After the big clans'' protection had disappeared, laws lost their value and outlaws had started to behave however they wanted to, as long as they had some sort of strength. At the same time, stronger beasts started to re-emerge, unrestrained from prior restrictions the big clans had forced upon them in exchange for not being killed. What happened afterward could be compared to carnage, and one had yet to figure out how many smaller cities with weaker defenses had fallen to beast hordes! This was shocking, and Jason could only shake his head with a glint of sadness in his eyes, only to feel that something was hitting him. It was Anna Ynal whom he was holding during the whole time! It looked like she wanted to say him something, but neither could she speak nor did Jason understand what she wanted from him. Thus, he ignored her for a moment until he received permission to take her with him until a relative would come and search for her. It was only then that he figured out the little girl''s name that was Anna, which was quite a coincidence. However, instead of wasting more time, Jason decided that it was time to leave Kadran. There was nothing that held him here, and he had to meet Fasro and Lusan before doing anything else. Jason assumed that they would leave soon because another war was unlikely to break out if one were to disregard a possible civil war which was something Jason expected to happen sooner or later! This was not something that should concern the other foreign races, and he should give his utmost efforts to become stronger as soon as possible, preventing the worst from happening. Taking care of the baby that had a reincarnated being inside shouldn''t be much of a problem in Jason''s opinion because she was listening pretty well. After he had told her to learn how to sense mana in her new body and wait until she was able to speak properly, Anna had turned quiet. Only when she felt hungry, tired or her diapers were filled did she voice out her discomfort. The latter seemed to be the most uncomfortable for Anna, and at the same time disgraceful because she cried the loudest there, and Jason couldn''t help but smile drily "It''s good that the nurses gave me the necessities to take care of a baby...but somehow, I feel weird changing the diapers of a transmigrated person¡­" These words caused Anna to cry even louder, embarrassed about being dependant on the young man in front of her ''How disgraceful¡­Can''t I just wipe out his memories??'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 490 - Its Not Yours, Right? Jason had never changed diapers, but it was less problematic than he thought, and he got the hang of it pretty quickly. Other than that, feeding her was pretty easy as she was already able to eat solid food. Thus, after she ate something and Jason had changed her diapers, Anna fell into a deep slumber despite her efforts to fight against the sudden drowsiness that overwhelmed her. Meanwhile, Jason flew back to the center of all three capitals where he assumed Fasro and Lusan would be. He was not sure about that, but it was highly likely that he would find them there. His mind was still trying to comprehend how transmigration was possible, but he simply had no idea what kind of existence was strong enough to accomplish something like this! ''The Celestia race should be strong enough to allow someone to transmigrate...I think? Maybe there are some techniques mighty beings have developed? Who knows?... It''s not like my current knowledge is helpful...in any way!'' While Artemis was as confused as Jason, Solaris didn''t have any thoughts about the transmigrator who had entered the small girl''s body. Other than that, there was still Petri, but he was still evolving. From the looks of it, Solaris had absorbed and transferred enough life force to him, allowing Petri to complete his evolution in the next few months. This was great and Jason couldn''t help but anticipate how strong Petri would become. The petrification serpent was a physically attributed beast and didn''t rely much on mana. Jason assumed that Petri''s focus would remain on this aspect during his evolution too, so he was a little bit excited to see the final result. Additionally, some curses were likely to receive an amplification from the evolution as well, but, if Jason were to be honest, he had no idea what was going on. Mankind had yet to fully explore the different ways of evolving their soulbonds, and he doubted that many foreign races bothered paying attention to evolving beasts either. Given their circumstances, it would just be a nuisance, and based on what they''d heard from other foreign races as well as the information they''d gathered so far, only humans had a soul word. Anna Ynal, who had been disappointed about the place and body she had been transmigrated to, had changed her opinion drastically during the last few hours. Considering that she had seen beasts supporting humans in rescuing others, and was surprised that Jason could manifest the wings of the owl that had followed him, she could comprehend that her new life might not become as miserable as she had assumed. She was still trying to come to terms with the way she had died, but there were too many things she couldn''t understand. ''Why did they betray me? Did I do something wrong? How did they even follow me into the secret realm I had entered? Did someone back them up? Were only those close to me involved or did other races have a hand in my death as well?'' Jason didn''t know what Anna was dreaming about but she wriggled in his arms during her sleep and her little baby face looked nervous. Thus, he released his aura to envelop her while releasing a minuscule amount of mana which he spread through Anna''s small body to release her tension. The amount of mana was not even enough to be labeled a drop in the ocean, but it was more than enough to pacify the restless baby, while his aura seemed to soothe and help her dream about something better. She finally stopped squirming and nuzzled her face against his chest, returning to blissful sleep. Only a few hours had passed since he left Kadran that he perceived familiar mana fluctuations. There were a few heads of big clans who he had encountered earlier, and they seemed to be talking about something. Jason hoped that their discussion would revolve around helping humans and not twist the situation and turn it into an opportunity to reign over mankind. Fortunately, the latter didn''t seem to be the case and they greeted him in an extremely polite manner when his feet touched the ground. This made him uncomfortable, but after he heard that they seemed to have spoken about him, Jason understood that they''d seen him summon the replicas of the Gates of Hell. He was not really worried about that because the human race was not aware of what they''d seen! Even Jason didn''t know the entire truth, but what he knew was that the big clans'' assumptions were pretty simple! They were under the impression that his rage had manifested an illusion of something grand in order to intimidate the other races. In the end, the Gates of Hell had only released their intimidating and ominous aura, and the real thread was yet to be unlocked. However, what made everyone praise and even revere him a little bit was the fact that he had been able to summon a terrifyingly strong and massive crescent blade beam! So far, no human had been capable of absorbing the required mana to manifest an attack like the crescent blade beam. This elevated Jason''s status, because he was barely at the Low Lique stage yet, had achieved such a tremendous feat! Only when Haepha, who had also joined the Great Argos war after the Blood eclipse, defended Jason, had the suspicion about him begun to die down. Haepha had told everyone that Jason had a soul weapon with a few particular one-time-usage runes that allowed him to launch lethal attacks that destroyed the core of his weapon. Nobody remembered what his weapon looked like either way, thus he had no problem lying about Byakur''s core being broken as it was not true. The heads of the big clans were astonished about the one-year-old baby in his arms, and curiosity filled their minds with many questions. Was the baby his child? Or was there something else, something more mysterious about the baby?? However, seeing that Jason was in a hurry to find the Ariyor and Elvyr race, they didn''t bother him and instead answered the question about the two race''s whereabouts. Only half an hour later, he found Fasro and Lusan who were tending to the injuries of their comrades. They were inside the camp Jason had rested before, and only when they saw him did they tell the others to pay attention to their injured comrades. Similar to the big clan heads that had survived the Great Argos war, Fasro and Lusan were astonished about the baby girl in Jason''s arms. Seeing their surprised faces, he could only smile, yet, he didn''t immediately reveal what kind of special existence Anna was. Instead, Jason decided to figure out something else first! "I''m glad to see that you guys are fine. My next questions might seem out of the blue, but how long are you planning to stay? Will you depart immediately or stay for a few months before the other races leave through the world bridges they''d emerged from?" Jason seemed to be a little bit distressed which was not unnatural given the current situation. Nothing was set in stone and chaos had descended on Argos, anything and everything could happen in the next few months, and that simple thought was scary enough. Even the Elvyr and Ariyor race felt that the next few years would be difficult for the human race, but their own race also had pressing matters to solve! As such, Lusan could only scratch the back of his head as he answered, "To be honest with you, now that the Great Argos war has ended, we don''t want to stay here anymore. You are alive and from the looks of it, you won''t turn into an Infernal Celestia either! We will probably depart in one...at most two months!" Jason just nodded his head and looked at Fasro whose thoughts were aligned with that of Lusan''s. This meant that the humans were on their own to solve their issues. The big clan heads he had met earlier had told Jason that most of them had lost more than 60% of their members in the last battle. It was said that the area of the battlefield where everyone at the Prismar stage had been fighting had received the brunt of the attack leading to heavy casualties and an alarmingly high death toll! Losing so many highly talented individuals was not really advantageous, and there were hundreds of thoughts swirling through Jason''s mind. He was deep in thought when Lusan asked after hesitating for a moment. "Ehm...I don''t want to be rude, but that little girl is not your daughter, right? I can''t sense a Celestia aura from her...It''s not that I want to interfere in your personal matters...but I was just curious." While Jason had expected them to be curious, he did not think that Lusan, who was from the Elvyr race that was supposed to have a great mana perception would ask him such a question. "No, she is obviously not my daughter¡­" Jason laughed for a short moment before he continued, "To be honest, I saved her in the capital that had been flooded¡­.what made me curious about her was that she had two different mana fluctuations and understood the universal language. It looks like the soul of a mighty, deceased being has entered the body of an almost dead baby. At least, that''s what I understand from the memories I''ve received¡­.To put it simply, she is a reincarnat¨¨, or more like someone who had undergone transmigration if you want to put it like that!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 491 - Yadras Initially, they believed that Jason was joking at first, but one look at his face told them that he was serious. "That is not a joke, right? You don''t look like you''re joking at all!" Fasro was utterly dumbfounded, but even after scanning the baby girl with his mana fluctuations, he couldn''t see that anything was off. Lusan did the same, but instead of staring at the girl, he looked at Jason in confusion, who asked, "Have you guys heard of the Yadras race? The memories I saw mentioned that race quite often, and I think she had been one of them before...but I''m not sure.." Confused, Lusran was about to scratch the back of his head in confusion, when he heard ''Yadras race'' His eyes widened as his gaze flicked from Jason to the baby in his arms. "The..Yadras race is one of the races you can''t put into a normal racial ranking¡­.It''s difficult to explain and I doubt that you will understand it right now, but being talented to cultivate is even more important for them because they''re born with three different cultivation veins!" "Three cultivation veins?" Jason stared at Lusan dumbfoundedly, not quite believing his ears. However, Lusan was not sure how to explain it either because his knowledge was not exactly profound. He was only 25 years old and still learning after all! "Eh¡­.to put it simply, other than mana, there are two more energies a planet can awaken. On Argos, there is only mana, but I''ve visited a place with spiritual force, which is one of the other existing energies. Other than that, there is supposed to be an energy called primordial energy too, but I''ve never been to a place with that type of energy. Either way, while everyone belonging to the Elvyr race is able to cultivate with mana, the Yadras race can awaken one of the three cultivation veins. If it awakens none, they''re incapable of absorbing any energy. Thus, they have to be fortunate to awaken a single, or even multiple cultivation veins at once! Even then they''re not powerful because their innate talent plays a huge role too!" Jason''s head was already struggling to come to terms with everything that had happened during the Great Argos war and that mankind was insignificant, but now there were multiple cultivation energies too? It made his head spin. What kind of stupid bullshit was that? Fortunately, Fasro intervened as he said, "Jason, you don''t have to worry about that for now. The most common energy that exists is mana, and none of the three cultivation energy is superior to another. It will only be slightly more complicated if one is able to cultivate multiple energies, but to figure that out one will have to be tested first! That''s not possible here, nor on a normal planet as all three energies have to be present and channeled into the necessary tools to test one''s cultivation veins and if they accept multiple energies!" In the beginning, Jason was glad that Fasro had intervened, but after listening to the young Ariyor, he couldn''t help but feel the urge to strangle him. As such, Jason decided to let the topic about three cultivation energies rest, and instead, he simply asked, "So, the Yadras race cannot be ranked because of their unique constitution, and they might be the strongest, or even weaker than us as they can''t cultivate at all?" Lusan nodded his head, and Fasro was about to say something when Jason raised his hand. "I don''t think more information will help me in my current circumstances! It will only confuse and distract me. The most important right now is Argos and how I can help protect as many people as possible!" Fasro was grumbling about being denied the chance to provide his insights as he mumbled, "I just wanted to say that they look exactly like you humans...there are quite a few races that look similar to humans, to be honest¡­" When Jason heard this, he rolled his eyes as he faked a faint smile before he teased, "Being considerate is not one of your strengths, right? That is exactly the confusion and distraction I wanted to avoid¡­" After that, Jason could only sigh as he asked with a trace of curiosity, "Alright, now that you''ve already said it, do you know why there are many races that look identical?" However, instead of providing him with a satisfactory answer, both Fasro and Lusan only stared at him dumbfoundedly which left Jason with more questions than answers. After talking to them for a few minutes about topics like how the Ariyor and Elvyr race could help the best, they decided to stay on Canir, patrol throughout the kingdoms, prevent fights and help if required. There were not enough members of the Ariyor and Elvyr race to look after the Archipelago too, thus, Jason could only hope that the big clans that had survived would pay attention to it, now that the Great Argos war was over. He was only hoping that someone would help him venture to Astrix and take care of the matters there, and Jason pondered if he should just go there and try to placate the situation. Yet, after reconsidering the high possibility that the Drake clan would just reclaim Astrix city because of the large mana vein, Jason had to dismiss this idea. At the thought of the Drake clan, he was reminded about Greg, Malia, Mr. and Mrs. Fler, who were probably somewhere inside the Drake Kingdom, enslaved by the Drake family. It caused Jason''s mood to plummet and he decided to pay the Drake Kingdom a visit as soon as possible. With his current capabilities, he was confident to disguise himself, and only his eyes would remain the same! However, he had to ensure that nobody of the Drake clan and family would be able to associate his golden-silver eyes that had crimson outlines with young Jason and his distinct golden eyes! Thus, as long as he was paying attention to maintaining a low profile, he should be fine! In that case, he might as well be able to take Anna with him. He could turn into a refugee, at the Lowest Lique stage, who had saved her after her parents had been killed. The more he thought about it, the more he believed that it was not a bad idea, and hiding both his stigma and aura should allow him to be seen as less powerful than he originally was! Even though Petri would complete his evolution soon, Jason did not think that it would increase his strength enough to allow him to fight at par with a Prismar stage. As such, he would have to pay attention to not offend them, yet. Jason would''ve loved to beat up a few people to a pulp, like the entire blood sect, but finding the Flers was his priority right now! The murderer of his mother wouldn''t run away, and if he''d died during the last battle of the Great Argos war, it would be disappointing, but exactly what he deserved. He felt that the murderer was still alive, and in such cases fortune was on his side! Other than looking for the Flers, he also planned to look out for Seron, whom he hadn''t seen for more than two years. This was astonishing, and Jason hoped that Seron was becoming a great leader after witnessing how devastating a soul contract with foreign races could be! There was something else both Fasro and Lusran had told him with a tinge of pride in their voices. "Almost all soul contracts made by common races had been terminated after we pressured them a little bit. The punishments were not really harsh on the human race, to begin with, and only the My?ldra race seems to be a greater problem...well...and those humans who made a personal contract with the foreign races to become stronger. I think those races with personal contracts will continue luring other humans into their traps, but if your race should have learned something from the Great Argos war, it would be that being cautious of soul contracts and strangers is important." Jason just nodded his head with a shrug that seemed to say "I sincerely hope so", but he couldn''t suppress his worry. It was not difficult to perceive how self-centered most races were, and as long as they didn''t exploit other races, making an individual soul contract without too many restrictions might as well prove to be beneficial. In Jason''s opinion, this didn''t even have to necessarily be a downside if one were to look at it rationally. Not all races were shrewd and some contracts wouldn''t force anyone to do something against their will. Everything boiled down to the clauses stated in the respective soul contracts! As such, stereotyping others was not how mankind was supposed to interact with other races or even humans who had accepted soul contracts. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 492 - You....are? Just staying vigilant and paying attention was enough; there was no need to hate all foreign races because only a few had attacked Argos. Even then, Jason had started to realize that not every single of the foreign races was the same, and they were divided into different factions too! This made it more difficult for him to figure out who initiated the Blood eclipse, and which faction or authorities of the My?ldra race had coaxed the Drake family to initiate the Great Argos war. The same applied for the Ifrytor race, and Jason began to wonder how to exact revenge on them. Since the silver divine light had forcefully ejected his hatred and anger, Jason had learned to control his emotions much better than before, and it was easier to stay level-headed too. ''The Ifrytor race should have sent a small part of their newly established army to Argos...that means their highest authorities were the culprits...but how do I find the proof for that? Mindlessly killing everyone would make me no better than them!'' Jason''s mindset was slowly adapting to everything that had happened to him during the last few years, and everything was finding the place it belonged to. Whether it were memories, emotions, ethics, morale, his innate characteristics, and how everyone around him influenced him, all of it culminated into whether it transformed Jason into a better or worse person. With that altered mindset, he couldn''t help but sigh and think that it would be easier to simply wipe out entire races instead of bothering to separate the wheat from the chaff. However, at that thought, he shook his head as he mumbled, horrified with himself. "Did I really think that this is the best solution, right now?... How disgusting!" Fasro and Lusan had already left Jason on his own as they had more pressing matters to attend to. Thus, Jason shot up through the air and looked at Anna who was still sleeping soundly. ''Yadras race¡­.three cultivation veins, and two more energies to cultivate that I have no idea about¡­ Do I really want to find out everything right now? A little bit of peace would work wonders for me right now¡­'' He was tired of fighting and keeping his identity of being a halfling from the Celestia race, a secret from others. Instead, he would rather openly reveal himself and absorb mana to his heart''s content because that was what made him feel alive. Unfortunately, it was easier said than done, and Jason knew that he would be looked at with a certain degree of wariness, and most citizens wouldn''t trust him either. Thus, he would have to hide some things that made him appear similar to those who had undergone a transmutation after accepting the soul contract of other races. Ifrys were a good example, and Jason hoped that his stigma would be seen as a similar transformation which most people would remember to determine who was in a soul contract with other races and who was not. It was annoying, but Jason had no way to solve this issue right now and time wasn''t exactly on his side. Everyone had suffered a heavy setback due to the Great Argos war, not just physically but also mentally. There was no other option for Jason except to give his utmost efforts to ease everyone''s anxious mind. After the storm had calmed, it would be possible to initiate the next step of his plan to reconcile foreign races with humans. At least, Jason would assess the mindset of the races that had sought refuge on the other continents before determining whether it was a good time to bring them together. His current strength might not be enough to bring them together forcefully or prevent anyone from fighting against each other, but it was more than enough to survive and help others. Because of that, he flew towards the Kingdom of the Gier family that was directly next to the one he was currently inside! Jason had lost count of the names of countries and kingdoms he had visited, but he knew that most would have undergone a drastic change either way. Thus, there was no point in remembering the names of most countries. More than 10 big families, ancient clans, and sects had been annihilated, and the remaining ones had lost a large number of their strongest forces. It was not unlikely that new alliances would be forged or that other big clans would use the chance to annex certain lands. This might come across as being exploitative and cruel, but the strongest were those who used the opportunity to turn the tide in their favor. Survival and becoming stronger had never been more imperative than now even if it was at the expense of others.. Jason didn''t support this kind of behavior, even less after the Greater Argos war had been concluded and the big clans and ancient sects would have to slowly rebuild everything whether it were the cities, islands, or entire kingdoms, let alone the trust of the citizens that had been broken by their own government! When he entered the Kingdom of the Gier family, Jason was glad to see that the situation seemed to be under much better control than he had expected. Apparently, the Gier family hadn''t sent out every single member of their Clan, leaving the entire kingdom defenseless, which according to Jason, had been a strategic and well-thought move. Rather Jason had seen quite a few people at the Late Lique stage. When they had seen him flying through the air with a baby in his hand, they had been momentarily confused, but Jason hadn''t released any hostility, and neither did he look like a foreign race member or a transformed human. Thus, they didn''t bother to pay him attention anymore, because they had their hands full! As such, Jason continued to fly towards the plain area of the kingdom where the capital was located and landed on the ground. ''Till said that I''ll find him somewhere around here...I guess?'' It would be easy to find Seron by enhancing his mana eyes further, but the mana left in his second storage was minuscule and barely replenishing as it is! Due to this Jason was simply strolling through the streets with Anna, who had woken up in his arms. Flying through an entire country would have taken him longer than two weeks under normal circumstances, however, being able to enhance his pace by circulating mana through his wings had been extremely helpful. Other than that, he had already been close to the borders, to begin with, and the plains area was not that far either. As such, the entire journey had taken him less than two days. The duration was much longer than the time he had taken to fly towards the three capitals that were extremely close to each other. This fact led Jason to the assumption that the three countries they''d fought the final battle of the Great Argos war with, had been in an alliance or something similar to that before. Most capitals were rebuilt on the remains of once flourishing cities before the mana outbreak had occurred, and it was only because of this, that some capitals were extremely close to each other and some far away. There had been several hundred countries before the mana outbreak after all! Jason was not sure how long it would take him to fly through Canir, but considering that he was already faster than most vehicles that mankind used, it should take him less than 2 months with resting periods! Searching for Seron took him longer than expected, and Jason was not sure what he should say to his old friend, or if he would even remember him. However, when he perceived Seron''s familiar mana fluctuations who was walking through a crowded alley all by himself, Jason approached him with a smile on his face. "Hey, Seron, how''s your earth dragon doing?" Hearing those words, caused Seron Gier, who had been minding his own business, to be dragged out of his thoughts as a tall, muscular young man with black hair and silver strands within looked at him. His smile was vibrant, yet the most interesting feature about him were his golden-silverish eyes that were somewhat familiar to Seron. "Who..are you?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 493 - War Matures "Who..are you?" The unexpected reaction caused Jason to feel embarrassed, but then it hit him. The possible reason for Seron''s confusion could be his appearance that had undergone a major transformation during the last few years. However, before he could answer, Anna suddenly chuckled, which made Jason glare at her. Yet, in a fraction of a second, Jason could see that her eyes had begun to turn teary. "Please don''t cry" He had never looked after a baby, except his newly hatched soulbonds, thus he was not really great at what he was doing. Nevertheless, he looked at Seron after a short time before he replied, "You don''t remember me? What a shame!! I thought our time on Astrix was valuable enough to be remembered!" Hearing this, Seron''s eyes grew wide as saucers before he released his mana fluctuations to scan Jason''s as he blurted out. "J-Jason? Is that really you???" While Seron was concealing his mana core, Jason''s was revealed to everyone who wanted to see how many drops of mana he had already liquefied. This caused Seron to look at his old friend in disbelief. During the last two years, Seron had worked hard on improving his strength to the highest possible degree, but he had yet to liquefy his first drop of mana! He was only 17, and had a late start to sense mana due to his malfunctioned mana veins after all! Otherwise, he was pretty confident that he would have liquefied one if not two drops of mana already. However, seeing that Jason had liquefied almost 40 drops of mana was more than shocking for him. Other than that, his eye color had changed from his distinct gold to a gold-silverish, and there was a baby girl in his arms. After the initial shock of seeing his long-lost friend had worn off, Seron could focus on the finer details about the person greeting him. Though, he was still astonished and blurted out. "...What the hell has happened to you??" Jason just smiled, happy to see Seron again as he answered, "Quite a few things actually, but I guess your question was rhetorical." He chuckled and his laughter sounded alien to his own ears, old memories of their spars back at the Vanguard school flashed before his eyes. It had been...what...four years?. It felt as if an eternity had passed since their last meeting but now was not the time to take a trip down the memory lane. As such, he continued, "I think you''ve already heard it. The Great Argos war is over, it was concluded by the three beasts that suddenly appeared on the battlefield, preventing the war from advancing further. However, the situation is quite bad. You might not like what you hear next, but I''m not here just because of you! The Gier family''s patriarch is said to have returned from the battlefield as one of the first because of a grave injury. Has he already arrived? If so, I would like to meet him!" While the death toll was alarmingly high, there were also lots of heavily injured humans! They would either die from the aftermath of their injuries or receive permanent injuries. In the end, the Gier family patriarch was said to be the latter and Jason knew that Seron was his direct heir. Thus, the patriarch who had vanished without a trace would have most likely returned to his direct heir, whom he doted the most! Jason couldn''t be sure of this, but it was worth a try. The Gier clan and the kingdom they governed had received the lowest possible casualties during the entire Greater Argos war. Though it had been a favorable outcome for them, it had worried the other nearby kingdoms a lot. Earlier, they had submitted to the Gier alliance, scampering towards them to let them stay safe under the Gier alliance''s wing. These kingdoms had clearly been able to withstand, let alone brave the foreign races'' attacks, however, now that the war was over, they wanted to reclaim their old territory and return to the old ruling system. Jason was not fond of this, but the old system was necessary to regain control over everything. According to him, it was more of a necessary nuisance, before a better system was introduced, or someone took over the reins and became the strongest, suppressing everyone else. The latter was definitely not something to look forward to and Jason was planning to follow the first option he had in mind. There were many ways to introduce a better system, and a democratic system was one way he hoped would ensure that things went as he planned, at least in his mind. Other than that there were multiple different ways, but fighting for oneself was definitely not the way to go! Now, they were not alone on Argos anymore! Seron, who was glad to meet his old friend once again, turned suddenly serious as he asked, "Why do you want to meet my father, and how do you know that he left the battlefield once the Greater Argos war was concluded? That was a highly confidential piece of information that shouldn''t be known by anyone...no offense!" Jason was glad that his friend had become more mature and rational, despite appearing the same naive kid as before. On the other hand, Seron had become more vigilant against others, and Jason thought that the Great Argos war had caused this transformation within Seron. There could also be different reasons, but it was most likely the gruesome war, and witnessing millions of desperate humans trying to survive, just one more day! Everyone had been terrified of losing their lives, even those from the big clans that could outwardly project a facade of being fearless. The future had turned from something that was bound to happen given the course of events, to a blank sheet that was waiting to be filled with all types of possible scenarios. Nothing was set in stone and this was something humans were afraid of, as the thought was clearly unnerving! They wanted to be led by others, to sleep peacefully in the night knowing that everything was under control, but that was not something anyone could promise anymore! "I fought in the Great Argos war. Obviously, I know about that piece of information. Your father knows me as well. Just inform him that I''ve arrived, and he will tell you that it''s fine for me to meet him!" Somehow, Seron found this even more suspicious than before, but he just nodded his head and took out his quantum bracelet. At that moment, Jason couldn''t help but look at his own quantum bracelet that was barely held together by a single steel wire. Jason traced a finger over his bracelet and it caused him to smile foolishly. Seron''s eyes traveled from Jason''s face to the bracelet, and when he saw the damage sustained by the bracelet, he couldn''t help but halt in his tracks. ''Not even common beasts with liquefied mana drops can destroy a quantum bracelet to make it look..like that...Don''t tell me..Did he really fight in the Greater Argos war??'' However, the more he thought about it, the less sense it made, and it was only when Seron reached his father that he explained the situation. "Do you remember the friend I made on Astrix?...Jason Stella, yes! He is here and says that you know him¡­.yep golden-silverish eyes...Really?? NOW?" Jason was unable to hear Seron''s father''s reply, but based on Seron''s words, Jason was able to comprehend what was going on. After Seron had finished the call Jason smiled understandingly as he said "He''ll meet me, right? Where shall we go?" Seron was still trying to comprehend the situation. He had never seen his father so eager to see someone! Not only did he ask Seron if they were really friends, but his father, the Gier clan''s patriarch was overjoyed to hear that Jason was fine and that he had survived the Great Argos war. However, that was not everything because the most astonishing takeaway for Seron had been hearing his father mumbling. "He is a monstrous genius and not someone anyone should offend¡­" Seron was not sure why his father said something like that, but if he were to know what Jason had done during the Great Argos war, and what kind of powerful beings one of his best friends had morphed into, he wouldn''t have acted like this. "Just...follow me Jason.." They walked in silence for a few minutes, Seron was unable to hold himself back anymore because his curiosity was eating him up from the inside. "I don''t know what has happened to you, but why did you join the Great Argos war and how did you survive with your strength?? You''ve less than 40 drops of liquefied mana in your mana core after all!" Yet, instead of answering, Jason just smiled before he replied, "Let''s talk later. There are too many people here!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 494 - Favor It didn''t take them long before they reached their final destination, which was a small pagoda in the center of the capital. Jason didn''t expect it to be their destination, and it was only thanks to his mana eyes that he could determine that the pagoda was just a facade to hide something grander. If Jason had to call it something, the entire pagoda was probably a hidden base of the Gier clan. He found this to be a little bit over the top because they were literally in the capital of the kingdom governed by the Gier clan itself. In his opinion, building a hidden base in the center was somewhat of an overkill. However, who was he to complain? It was always better to be safe than sorry. Surviving should be everyone''s number one priority and Jason understood this quite well! There were many things he had to pay attention to right now, but Seron, who was staring at him and the baby in his arms, distracted him with a bombardment of questions. Years before, Seron hadn''t been much of a talker, but that seemed to have changed a little bit. They hadn''t seen each other for a year after all, and Jason seemed to have transformed into something unbelievable! However, thinking that Jason had cut him in between, Seron had turned quiet at the end of their walk. An awkward silence had fallen around them which caused Jason to start talking about Seron''s soulbond; the Earth dragon. Apparently, it had hatched only a year ago, but its growth rate was still slower than expected. It had barely liquefied its first drop of mana! Nevertheless, this was only the beginning and the earth dragon''s growth would accelerate after now that the first mana drop had been liquefied Seron had been lost in thoughts and hadn''t realised that they had already reached the pagoda, and upon entering it, Jason was baffled by the interior. The interior of the pagoda was every bit modernized and equipped with all possible advanced gadgets, complete with an elevator at the end of the large hall. It was a stark contrast to the exterior view that looked traditional, old, and bland. To say that the pagoda''s exterior paled beyond comparison would be a gross understatement. There was just no scale of comparison and it made Jason marvel at the clan''s ingenuity. Jason had already perceived the Gier clan patriarch''s mana fluctuations that seemed to radiate on the higher floor, so he quickly entered the elevator, as he was eager to meet the patriarch. When he walked out of the elevator, Jason recalled the time he had encountered the Drake clan''s patriarch for the first time in his life. It had been inside one of the Cyro-City''s towers a few years ago, and the recollection brought back an unpleasant memory which was not at all comparable to the current situation! Right now, he could see the Gier clan patriarch sitting on a chair with thick bandages wrapped around his entire body. His hair seemed to be burned, and he was missing an arm, while his face bore expressions of excruciating pain that he had to endure due to his severe injuries. The potions he was required to take to reduce his pain and heal him had probably lost some of their efficiency, and Jason pitied him. From what he''d heard, the Gier clan patriarch might be among the harshest but he was known to be fair. That was the other second reason for Jason to visit him, while the first was that the Gier clan''s combat strength was among the strongest of all big clans right now! "Hello Jason, how come you visit me so soon? The Great Argos war has just ended!" The Gier clan patriarch''s voice was full of vigor despite his weak appearance and caused Jason to smile lightly. "Greetings esteemed patriarch. I have multiple reasons to visit you, and one of them was to see Seron. The Great Argos war has brought many casualties and I felt like I had to make sure that everyone I care about is fine!" While Jason stood opposite Marx Gier, the Gier clan''s patriarch, Seron sat down on the king-sized bed, while listening carefully. Apparently, they were inside Marx''s bedroom, but that didn''t bother Jason a tiny bit. "It is great to hear that you share a strong bond of friendship with my son. I hope you won''t forget him and give him a helping hand once I''m not there anymore. *Cough* *Cough* I am not in the best of my health, but I won''t die from it. However, I''m still missing an arm and my mana veins have been damaged, which will prevent me from absorbing mana for the time being. But let''s not talk too much about me. I don''t think you came here to listen to my complaints! Please tell me, how may I help you?. " Jason liked how straightforward patriarch Marx was, and he nodded his head to know that there was no need for small talk. He was about to speak when he felt a faint sting in his finger It was Anna, who had bitten into the finger with which he had been trying to keep her occupied so that he could talk uninterrupted. Looking down at her, their eyes met and Jason could only faintly realise that she was a transmigrator, and not an ordinary one-year-old baby, despite behaving like one! It seemed as if the transmigrator had to mould her behavior to that of a baby, or even a part of the deceased''s child''s soul, traits, and attitude! Taking out some solid food he had received from the nurses, he fed that to Anna who was nibbling his finger before stating his reason for visiting the capital. "As you might know, the Gier clan is currently amongst the strongest big clans, if one were to look at the combat strength. Your clan''s soldiers received the least number of casualties and the entire kingdom shouldn''t have had too many issues with foreign races. This seems to be the case if we compare the kingdom''s situation to every single other kingdom and country! I have a favor to ask for and a deal I want to offer the Gier clan!" Because of Jason''s earlier words, Marx Gier could already imagine what his request would be. However, before he could interrupt, Jason continued to speak. "I know it might be too much to ask for, but I hope that the Gier clan can build an alliance with other big clans in order to restore Canir to its former glory. Most big clans around the adjacent kingdoms have suffered a lot and might have been conquered by other big clans, ancient sects, or even other new forces, and I don''t think something like this should happen. Especially not right now! I might not have much I can give in return, but I believe that conquering the other countries is one of your plans, patriarch Marx. It doesn''t seem to be...for now at least. In exchange, I would like to propose my deal. You might not be aware of this, but I am the person who translated the neutral body refinement techniques of the Doom Crawls. I can do the same with the Floating sky movement technique¡­" Marx Gier hadn''t planned to conquer the surrounding countries yet, but there was no reason for Jason to know this. Nevertheless, when he heard about Jason offering to translate the entire Floating sky movement technique, he almost jumped up, only to be held back by the pain he was feeling. "You translated it? How...Shane shouldn''t have been able to teach you the universal language! I cannot even speak it correctly, let alone write or read because it''s too difficult¡­" Jason was confused that the Gier family patriarch didn''t know the reason behind this as he had thought that it was already a well-known fact. Thus, he said something he hadn''t openly acknowledged before. "Oh, I''m a halfling hailing from another race, you didn''t know that..I forgot!" Others would have called this move of Jason stupid, but there was a proper reason behind his revelation, and he wanted to use it efficiently! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 495 - Thought Through Scheming "Oh, I''m a halfling hailing from another race, you didn''t know that... I forgot!" While Seron choked on his saliva, Marx Gier''s entire attitude transformed from that of an injured, almost dead man to that of someone who would fight against the foreign races with his life on the line. When Jason saw this, he released his Celestia aura, while his stigma began to glow brightly. His golden-silverish eyes began to release a calming, yet radiant glow, and it only took a few seconds before the three traits began to merge. Jason''s body was enveloped in a golden-silverish hue, and his entire demeanor changed in a matter of seconds as he asked with an ice-cold voice. "Did I fight with or against the Argos alliance?" There was no need for him to mention that the Elvyr race had only come to take him with them, or what race his father belonged to. If Jason had to be honest, he was not even sure what kind of existence his father was because both Fasro and Lusan didn''t know the exact answer either. They had only told him that the Celestia race was like gods to them, but how should Jason know, what exactly that meant? There were many unknown things he had yet to figure out, and even more that attracted his interest. Nevertheless, now that mankind had to face one of its biggest crises, there were other things to pay attention to. Marx Gier was too injured to fight against Jason and he was fully aware of this. If he wanted to, he would have to simply take out Degar and shoot one of the blazing bullets. It would be enough to end the patriarch''s life! He might have to overexert his mana and fill it with every single trace of mana he could absorb and Solaris'' fire affinity had to be strained too, but it was evident how unstable the Gier patriarch''s current condition was. One wrong move and he might die. Because of that, Marx Gier had to calm himself, while Seron had already jumped up to soothe his father''s anger before he averted his attention to Jason. "So¡­.you are a halfling? How...and why and ...I don''t understand anything¡­!" Jason could fully understand Seron''s confusion because he was as helpless as his friend. Smiling ruefully, he retracted his aura that had enveloped Anna, who was still in his arms. He put her on the ground before carefully holding her arms to pull her up in a standing position in order to help her adjust to her new body. At the same time, Jason wanted to ease the tension that permeated through the entire room. Nobody could escape the cute antics of a baby, even less if it was a beautiful baby girl! It was still unclear what he should do with the baby girl who had a transmigrated soul in her body, but it was evident that he couldn''t leave her alone. The world was way too dangerous and Jason was not sure where a baby, and an orphan at that, would be sent to! She might be in constant danger while being with him, but that was the case everywhere around Canir, and Jason thought that it was safer to keep her with him than someone else. He was at least trying to help, in his own small way. Marx Gier had calmed down after hearing Jason''s words because they were certainly true. After that, he recalled the other foreign races that had fought with the Argos alliance. With that in mind, it was difficult to stereotype Jason as someone dishonest, and the Gier patriarch began to see Jason''s honesty as an attempt to receive his trust! This certainly worked because nobody with the slightest trace of sanity left within them would openly reveal that they were a halfling belonging to the human and another race! Even less in times where everyone loathed foreign races and those that colluded with them. There were certain exceptions and quite a lot of them at that, but the vast majority of humans wanted to live a quiet and peaceful life and be left alone. Human minds were simple. Their greed knew no bounds but letting others, those that were stronger control them was no problem as long as nothing interfered in their daily life! Unfortunately, this was exactly what had happened through the Great Argos war and Jason assumed that Marx Gier and his entire clan was his best bet to calm down everyone, and retain harmony. In the end, it was not the most important to avoid the big clans from clashing with each other, but more to prevent the enraged citizens from starting a civil war. There might not be many strong powerhouses amongst ordinary citizens, but from what Jason understood, Mike was not the only weapon manufacturer, and neither the best! Those were his own words, and Jason knew that everything would become even more chaotic than it had been during the Great Argos war if other weapon manufacturers were to sell their guns and ammo for a cheap price. "If the Gier clan won''t cooperate it''s more difficult to reestablish peace, that''s for sure. However, at the same time, I can already tell you that the Nil, Unda, Olia, and Melar clans are willing to form an alliance too¡­.I wonder who will become the most likely threat to them? That is if they''re trying to annex other big clans, which nobody can say for sure in the current state of anarchy!" The information about the four big clans was news to him, which Jason had learned about by accidentally eavesdropping on them. However, it was also known that all four clans had suffered huge losses which made it unlikely for them to attack the Gier clan that had the lowest number of casualties. Despite it not being dangerous, knowing that four big clans were willing to form an alliance meant that the other, weakened big clans would follow suit, in fear of being annexed. As such, Jason''s argument to form an alliance before anyone else held some merit. There was no need to conquer other lands, and simply restoring the lands while clearing the regions around cities of beasts at the peak Lique stage would be enough to avoid the biggest issues. Other than that, the Great Argos war had also brought lots of new manuals and books from all kinds of foreign races to the forefront! All that was required now was a skilled translator, and it might be possible to mass-produce body refinement manuals, exactly like Jason had already done before. "I understand...I''m sorry if I don''t know how to treat you right now, but at least your reasoning is right...My current position as patriarch is endangered due to my injury, and every move of mine will be observed carefully. One mistake and others might drive me out from my current position¡­ Is that why you want to translate the Floating Sky movement technique in exchange for establishing an alliance with the surrounding kingdoms?" Marx Gier was definitely worthy of the patriarch''s position because he''d gauged Jason''s reason to offer to translate the Floating sky movement technique within minutes. To put it simply, distributing the fully translated floating sky technique to the key members of the Gier clan would lessen the pressure on patriarch Marx, which was exactly what Jason had planned to do. However, instead of acknowledging that Marx Gier had been able to figure out his reason, Jason smiled as he shrugged his shoulders while playing with the little girl who was trying to wriggle around with all her efforts. "Maybe, I just want to imprint the translated version of the floating sky movement technique and use it for myself, who knows!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 496 - Disguised Under normal circumstances, big clans wouldn''t allow translators from other clans to look at the techniques and manuals one had received from foreign races. However, so far nobody had been able to translate the techniques they had received completely, which meant that the Floating Sky technique''s full potential had yet to be unlocked! Marx Gier was fully aware of this, and he could already tell that the translated Floating sky technique would not only allow every member who practices it to become much faster, but also increase their entire combat prowess. This increase of strength would prevent other clans from trying to conquer them as well as nullify the threat of getting conquered by the other kingdoms that would join the alliance Jason had proposed. Other than that, it would allow him to have an additional safety net and the members of his clan would no more try to take over his position as patriarch. The neutral body refinement technique Jason had translated and sold to other big clans before selling it to Merl Arths was already an indicator that he was capable of achieving everything previously stated. As the realization hit them, goosebumps spread over both Seron and Marx Gier''s body as they stared at the young man, who was playing with the little girl. He seemed inconspicuous right now as Jason''s stigma was hidden by some makeup, but they recalled how Jason had acted only a minute earlier. Suddenly patriarch Marx averted his gaze to Seron as he mumbled, "Are you sure that he was weaker than you before?... Even I feel weird looking at him as if a ferocious monster is lurking behind that outwardly gentle appearance!" After that, he continued hastily, "To think that he was able to comprehend the most efficient way to retain a balanced state on Canir in such a short time. There will be lots of problems, but his plan should prevent the worst-case scenario¡­ That is, if the Drake clan and other greedy clans can be restrained, while the citizens have to calm down too¡­" Jason hadn''t overheard their conversation, and it was only when Seron approached him with a tattered manual in his hand that he diverted his attention from the baby girl in his arms to look up at him. Seron seemed to be looking at Jason with vigilance, but at the same time, he remembered the time they had spent together. It was not that Jason had changed but it was more that time had changed him! From what his father had told him, the Great Argos war had been utterly devastating, and many had died, turned into cripples, or suffered from mental issues. There were also stories his father had told about a golden-silverish-eyed young man, but Seron could have never have imagined in his wildest dreams that this man had been Jason. ''So...the story of the incident in the Yasl?rn caves and the Blood eclipse caused him to change?'' Seron could not easily trust someone, however, Jason was one of the few people he did trust. Despite him having changed, Seron felt that beneath the outward serious and powerful personality, his heart had still retained the kindness Seron had associated him with. The fact that he cared about the Gier clan, or the weakened big clans was a testament to his reasoning His father had given him the floating sky original text a few seconds earlier which he was now handing to Jason. However, contrary to patriarch Marx and Seron''s expectations, Jason didn''t stop playing with the little girl who was laughing out in joy, while being torn inwardly. On one hand, she felt like a small child right now, happy to be playing around, but on the other hand, she was cursing herself for behaving like a little baby. Even if she felt weird, Fortuna had to be on her side, because Anna couldn''t fathom how else she could have encountered Jason at such a time. He was definitely someone from a race that was at a high rank, but without being able to sense mana, there was no way for her to figure out the truth. While taking the Floating Sky manual from Seron, which was in fact a Terra-Advanced technique with the correct translated name, Jason continued to distract Anna. Reading through the first few pages, Jason was able to employ his knowledge about the weightless steps movement technique that was a sub technique of the translated part of the floating sky technique. Afterward, his reading speed slowed down. It was still fast owing to his refined brain, and mana eyes that perceived everything neatly, but it took him around four hours to finish everything. "I got it." Jason simply said as he looked at Anna, who was now sleeping in his lap, her head resting on his leg after he had decided to sit more comfortably on the ground. Turning his head to Seron and the patriarch who had been talking with each other and sending messages through their quantum bracelets, Jason said, "Seron, can you write fast? I can do two different translations! One word-to-word translation, or the version I''ve comprehended. It''s based on the weightless steps technique and the movement sequence that I copied from you. Which one do you want to do first? Or do I just need to translate the former?" Seron was staring at him in confusion, not sure what Jason wanted from him. Thus, he slowly turned his head towards his father for an answer. "I think both versions would be better¡­.but SON..I think you''ve forgotten to explain something to me! What about the copied sequence of the floating sky technique?" While trying to ignore the latter part, Seron took out a bunch of papers and a pen. "Let''s do both." Using paper and a pen was much better than saving everything on the quantum bracelet that may as well be hacked by others. This was also the reason why most big clans liked to use hand-written manuals without worrying about even a single word about their unique techniques getting leaked over Skynet or anywhere else. Jason found this logical and didn''t expect Seron to utilize the quantum bracelet to write down the translations, to begin with. The entire day had passed until they had finally finished everything, and Jason sighed in relief when they were done. It was more annoying to explain certain things, that required basic common sense according to him, but it was better to be meticulous in some explanations than being too hasty and undetailed. If the techniques were not explained in a clear and precise language, the reader ran a high risk of injuring himself or herself in an attempt to practice such martial art techniques by following the instructions of the manual. As the translated part of the Floating Sky technique was imprinted into his mind, he could try practicing it without any issues. However, in order to master it correctly, he required lots of time, which he didn''t have right now. In the end, there were many things he had to do, but the most important for Jason was something different than maintaining peace! After ensuring Seron''s well-being, while completing some important missions on the way, Jason decided to infiltrate the Drake kingdom. He was uncomfortable carrying Anna with him everywhere he went, but there was nobody he trusted enough, except Fasro and Lusan, who had lots of things to do as it is. Till Greil was busy too, and he couldn''t leave a transmigrator inside a small child with Emily alone! That might even be worse than handing over Anna to the government, who had more than enough to do with different tasks. Jason was already hopeful to hear Anna talking for the first time, and despite not knowing how long it would take, he couldn''t help but hope that her being a transmigrator might help. Not only would it be possible for him to alter his plans with possible information from her, but he might as well leave her on her own once she was able to talk. At least, Artemis could look after her too instead of him doing everything alone. It had been unlike Jason to randomly pick up a baby on a whim but after seeing the baby all alone, defenseless, and with an interesting former life, he had failed to muster the courage to leave her to her fate. He just couldn''t bring himself to leave her alone! Something had prevented him from doing so! Once everything was concluded, Jason spent another day in the capital of the Gier clan''s kingdom before he left Seron once again. While flying to the kingdom for almost two weeks, he had altered his facial features with Solaris'' new ability, while covering his stigma and retracting his aura. Other than that, Anna was his final means to disguise himself! Nobody would expect someone infiltrating a hostile kingdom with a baby after all! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 497 - Observance Stepping through the borders of the Drake kingdom had been a piece of cake, to put it simply. There were not many members of the Drake clan patrolling the borders. It almost looked like Jael Drake had regained his senses because the main focus was on controlling the higher-ranked beasts that had left their habitat to wreak havoc. Protecting the cities seemed to have the highest importance for every country and kingdom Jason had passed through, which was a good sign because the population was more important to protect than the surrounding lands! Yet, contrary to what he had expected, most citizens didn''t riot. They were only voicing out their complaints, but that was already everything. This was weird and something Jason couldn''t understand. During the entire Great Argos war, citizens had been the least priority to the big clans, yet, they had easily reclaimed their position as governor of their lands. Even if they had been forced to abandon their lands before, the vast majority of citizens seemed to act as if they were glad to see the big clans returning. In the end, this was only because ordinary citizens had been unable to solve the issues with the surrounding beasts at the Lique stage! As such, it looked like the citizens were glad that the big clans had returned, however, they continued to harbor their hatred of the big clans deep within them, which was as distinct, if not firmer than that to the foreign races. The latter had always been enemies of normal citizens, but that was not the case with the big clans. Earlier they had been naive enough to believe that the big clans were safeguarding and protecting them, but now, everyone knew the truth. Once something were to happen, there was nobody they could rely on. With that thought seeping into the mind of every citizen, their behavior seemed to change slowly. During the few days Jason spent in all kinds of cities inside the Drake kingdom, he noticed these subtle changes which caused him to feel uncomfortable. His disguise was well thought out and nobody would dare to assume that the youth with a baby in his arms was a spy or something similar. Even if citizens were to know that, they would rather reveal some secrets pertaining to the Drake family to him rather than blow his cover. While most big clans were already deemed as evil by most citizens, this was even worse when it came to the Drake kingdom. Most of the citizens wouldn''t hesitate to murder Jael Drake with their own hands if they ever got the chance to lay their hands on him but that was not possible. Instead, it was almost as if the Drake clan patriarch''s strength had increased by a large margin during the last few months. Nobody knew for sure whether this was because his soulbond had matured, or if there was another reason. There were rumors about his cultivation technique having allowed Jael to increase his combat prowess to the extremes, and Jason thought that this was likely. If Jael Drake''s ice transmutation had reached a higher degree, his ice affinity must be on a whole new level compared to what one would normally be capable of. Jason was also interested in cultivation techniques because he was still using a basic mana absorption technique! Even his passive mana gathering technique required a complete renewal because he had already reached the highest possible absorption rate with it! After his primal Celestia bloodline awakening, his passive mana gathering technique had even broken through its limitation, which was something unheard of. However, this was still not enough. It was unfortunate, but most higher-ranked mana gathering and absorption techniques required certain affinities, while similarly restricting other affinities. The same applied for cultivation techniques as it was the case with body refinement techniques! In the end, Jason had many ways to improve his combat prowess, but there was no need for him to actively search for a mana gathering and passive mana gathering technique! The surrounding mana was too shallow after all. Jason''s absorption rate had increased exponentially, comparable to that of ordinary individuals of higher races, and there was not even the need for him to activate his stigma. Even if others were confident about the mana permeating the air on Canir, Jason had to use a huge bulk of mana stones in order to reach his limit. The costs were exorbitant and the efficiency that he received in return was less than what he had hoped for. Nevertheless, it was good that he had been unable to practice a cultivation technique until now as it would have changed his mana fluctuations faintly, refining them. If the higher authorities of the Drake clan were to perceive this, not even Anna as his perfect cover would be enough anymore. Anna, who was forced to stay with Jason for the entire time, was already trying hard to say even a single word. However, her body had yet to be developed enough to share the transmigrated soul''s thoughts and desires with him. Jason had helped her learn to walk a little bit, and despite her weak and frail legs, the willpower of an old transmigrator was on a completely different level than that of a small baby without any goals or desires. He didn''t think that it would take long for Anna to start speaking. Thus, he had already revealed all kinds of things she should be unaware of. Anna had transmigrated to a different race after all! Their race''s appearance might be similar, or maybe even the same, but that should have been the only similarity. It was still difficult to comprehend the existence of three different energies, with mana being only one, but that was something Jason could learn and digest slowly. Meanwhile, Anna required more information about Argos'' current state, what exactly had happened, and the perks of being a human. In the end, she had voiced her astonishment with a loud squeal while Jason had carried her through the crowded street. A soul world was just too much of an advantage to ignore, and Anna''s initial dejection of being born into a weak and suppressed race was slowly subsiding. Jason was still not sure how she had reincarnated, but his gut feeling told him that she was neither a bad person nor someone who would hurt those around her. Other than that, she seemed to be foolish and naive because it looked like she was trusting him too much, considering that they had just met. There was no way for her to understand whether he wanted to help her or use her knowledge for his own selfish interests, yet, instead of showing any reluctance while interacting with him, Anna behaved as if she was just waiting to start speaking and reveal everything to him. In the end, that was exactly what she would do, and Anna knew that this might be seen as foolish. However, at the same time, it was evident that Jason had rescued her, while his persona radiated a certain enigma that made her feel that he wasn''t supposed to exist on such a small planet. Normally she wouldn''t know anything about Jason yet, but after he had told her about him being a halfling from the human and Celestia race, the little girl''s excitement knew no bounds. Both Jason and Anna seemed to have forged a thin bond with each other, and Jason didn''t feel the need to hold back information from her. Jason wanted Anna to tell him as much information as possible, while Anna had yet to figure out what she wanted to do with the second chance she had received! Goin back, staying on Argos, taking revenge? Everything was possible, but it was evident that her current strength was insignificant to even start thinking about something like that! After spending an entire week in detailed observance of all kinds of cities within the Drake kingdom in absolute dedication, Jason had heard countless rumors. While most were exaggerated or simply baseless, there were multiple rumors that relayed the same message. The Drake clan had reaped benefits from the Great Argos war instead of losses. While many of their powerhouses had died, the My?ldra race had already sent them cultivation resources, body refinement manuals, and even shallow translated combat techniques! Adding the loot from the opponents they had defeated to their wealth of resources, the Drake family had constructed a large nurturing field for all talented youths they had forced under a soul contract! Jason had figured out the rough location of this training ground which he had approached during the last few days of his observance. It was only a matter of time before it would be possible for him to find a good opportunity to enter the fortress-like academy! ''My strength has increased during the last three weeks despite not being able to actively absorb a lot of mana. Presenting myself as a challenger to the Drake clan''s younger generation won''t work¡­ What else is there that I can use as a means to enter the academy?'' As he mulled over the possible options, he suddenly felt Anna was tugging at his sleeves. His eyes traveled from one of her little hands seeking his attention to the other pointing out in a certain direction. Jason suppressed his excitement but he couldn''t help but exclaim. "You...You''re a little genius!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 498 - Simple Is Best Anna was pointing towards a small building complex with a golden dragon embedded in its sign. It was a trading company, and Jason didn''t take long before he comprehended what Anna wanted to tell him. She might have a different idea than what Jason''s mind was forming, but he couldn''t help but grin at the thought. Without wasting any time, he cooked up a plan to be able to enter the fortress-like nurturing grounds. Taking out the translated version of the neutral body refinement technique that had once belonged to the Doom Crawls, Jason smiled lightly. In a shrewd move, he deliberately altered the content of a few paragraphs so as to prevent others from refining their physique further than a certain threshold without causing any issues to the practitioners future body refinement This threshold would allow the user to barely reach the first stage, but wouldn''t allow advancing any further. The Drake family shouldn''t have obtained the translated neutral body refinement technique yet because the big clans had been careful in storing them away. They had been extremely expensive to procure due to the ginormous price Jason had set up for his manuals, and it looked like this decision had opened a great opportunity for him. Walking inside the golden-dragon trading firm, he noticed a young saleswoman approaching him with a bright smile. "Good morning Sir, how may I help you?" Jason smiled back before he took out the manual he had translated. "I heard that there is a nurturing ground for young prodigies of the Drake clan nearby. While fleeing from the last battle of the Great Argos war, I had many near-death experiences. Even so, I was able to procure something valuable! What I''m holding is one of the legendary neutral body refinement techniques that had been used by the Argos alliance!" The saleswoman looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and frustration as she calmly replied, "We have encountered many people trying to sell fake body refinement techniques to our trading firm. With that being said, you will have to prove that it''s genuine!" She awaited Jason to panic, but contrary to her expectations he just nodded his head and suggested, "Copy the first five pages and practice it if you want. There shouldn''t be much improvement in your physical strength with only one body refinement session, but you should be able to tell that this manual is not a fake copy" Handing the dumbfounded woman the technique he added, "Even if I sell the neutral body refinement technique, I have a condition. There are two members of the Drake alliance that I want to meet! They seem to have recently joined the Drake clan, but I can''t simply show up and enter the fortress¡­even less with my little girl!" As long as the neutral body refinement manual was original, paying whatever price demanded wouldn''t be a problem. It was possible to copy translated body refinement techniques after all! There was no imprint of one''s soul required to open the manual or any other restriction! However, when the saleswoman heard the condition, she was shocked for the second time since meeting him. "I''m sorry sir...but I can''t really do anything about the Drake clan''s policy¡­" Jason just looked at the saleswoman as if he had expected her reply and said, "Just relay my condition to someone who has enough authority to approve of my condition after evaluating the body refining manual. The Drake clan should be able to fulfill such a small favor, otherwise, I won''t sell the neutral body refinement technique. There is no loss for them, and I only want to see how my family is doing." Before the saleswoman could reply, Jason heard the doorbell behind him ring as the automatic door opened behind him. The saleswoman bowed deeply to the person who had just entered the golden dragon trading company. Turning around, Jason, who was holding Anna in his arms, saw a middle-aged man with the Drake clan''s emblem embedded in the uniform he was wearing. Scanning through the middle-aged man''s mana core, Jason noticed that there were only 2,000 liquefied drops of mana inside. As such, he could maintain his composure in front of the man, while bowing lightly, but was completely ignored by him. "Did you acquire the information I wanted?" He asked the saleswoman who was still holding the translated manual of the Doom Crawls in her hand. Nodding her head, she put the manual on the table in front of her before taking out several hand-written files. There had to be important information, but Jason was not interested in it. The middle-aged man seemed to be relatively young because he had the Drake clan''s elite emblem instead of an ordinary emblem on his uniform. When Jason noticed this, he figured out that this was probably the best chance he would''ve received. "Do you really think that it will be impossible for me to meet my younger cousins in the nurturing fortress? I haven''t seen them in years, and I doubt that the possibility of obtaining a fully translated neutral body refinement manual would be enough for you to permit me!" He could have come across as rude due to his sudden interruption, but Jason didn''t bother about that right now. Instead, his eyes were trained on the middle-aged man, who had just noticed him before his eyes flicked towards the body refinement manual on the table. Picking it up, he read through the first few pages, without being able to stop for a single second. Only after 20 minutes had passed did he lift his head to take a good look at Jason. "Slightly more than 40 drops of liquefied mana...not bad. How old are you and where did you find this manual?" Jason was overjoyed on the inside, but on the outside, he remained calm as he answered, "Despite looking young, I''m already in my mid-20s. Before the Great Argos war, I used to live on Astrix, and my talented cousins were allowed to enter the Drake clan. Unfortunately, my low-star soul awakening prevented me from following them. As for the manual, I found it on a dead body of a powerhouse from the Argos alliance while fleeing from the last battle of the Great Argos war. I couldn''t actively participate in the battle because I''m responsible for someone after all!" Only now did the middle-aged man take a proper look at the little girl in Jason''s hand before he nodded his head. After that, his attention diverted to the neutral body refinement technique before he scratched the back of his head. There were many things he had to pay attention to, but the most important was that the higher-ups had told him to nurture the new generation with his fullest capabilities. The body refinement manual in his hand was one means to accomplish this, and Paul, the middle-aged man, asked himself whether he could trust the words of a stranger or not. However, after considering that the young man had barely 42 drops of liquefied mana in his core and a baby girl in his hands, that was happily playing with him, he fell for Jason''s trap. Anna didn''t show any signs of being abducted and Jason''s technique looked genuine enough to him. Thus, he couldn''t pin Jason to the act of wanting to infiltrate the nurturing fortress, hence, Paul nodded his head in affirmation. "I think that''s not too much to ask for...All of us suffered because of the Great Argos war after all. Even if it might not look like that, not everyone wanted war¡­" Despite looking cold, Jason thought that the middle-aged man was warm and kind. In the end, he was just someone who had suffered as much as others, being used by the stronger. Pain and agony were something everyone had witnessed through the Great Argos war as billions of beings had been victims of it! Now, after the Great Argos war, they were even labeled as devils. Sadly, they couldn''t retort anything to that accusation because it was nothing but the truth! ''How did the Drake clan only end up like that...it had been magnificent and a place one could be proud of¡­'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 499 - Reunited Jason was nervous to meet his old friends once again. It had been more than two years, and he couldn''t help but feel worried and apprehensive. ''I hope they don''t think that I''ve abandoned them!'' He doubted that they had much time to think about this, but Jason was more worried about how their behavior and attitude might have changed than other, more necessary stuff. The Drake clan could have manipulated them which was something that had to be expected. As such, the nearer he, Paul, and Anna, who was in his arms, came to the fortress that was used to nurture the Drake clan''s new generation, the more nervous he became. He was feeling guilty to have left them abruptly, while Shane''s thoughtless act of bringing the Ice Dragon towards Canir had resulted in the chain reaction that had led Jael Drake to lose his sanity. At least, that was what Jason thought, and he couldn''t help but feel sorry. If possible he would take care of the issues his master had caused, but that was hardly possible right now. Jason just hoped that the Flers and everyone else who had been forced into a soul contract were treated well, and not tortured. Otherwise, he wouldn''t know how to bear the responsibility his master had given to him. ''Considering that Paul is willing to let me see Greg and Malia, there shouldn''t be much of an issue! Calm down!!'' He cursed himself in his mind, and it was only when they found themselves standing in front of the gigantic gate of the metal forest that Jason''s mind that had been filled with worry was cleansed. It was as if he had switched off his mind, preventing useless thoughts from distracting him. Thus, Jason was able to observe everything down to the finest detail. His mana eyes had been very helpful to accomplish this feat, but he didn''t dare to insert too much mana into them, for fear that he might be exposed. This would not be problematic for him, but the Flers. Because he had to tell Paul who he wanted to specifically meet, a connection between him and the Flers was evident. As such, he was walking on eggshells at the moment. Even a single mistake of his, or his identity being exposed might cause lots of issues for those he loved. The Flers were not related to him by blood, but without their help, he wouldn''t have been able to come this far. If he could call anyone his family apart from his soulbonds, it would be the Flers and his later masters. This was something Jason knew for sure. With that in mind, he acted like everything around him was astonishing and extremely interesting to him, putting on a good show of how he was bewitched by the scene in front of him. It was imperative that nothing about Jason should attract someone''s suspicion, and he was of the opinion that his acting was pretty good. Paul, who was one of the instructors of the new generation, seemed to be gentle and kind. He spoke a lot to him and explained many things, such as the living conditions of the students who attended the academy, that had been in fact the nurturing ground. Other than that, he mentioned their training program, what they usually ate, the cultivation resources they received, and much more. Jason was astonished about Paul''s behavior because the young man seemed to trust him a lot. This could have been due to him having a child in his arms, or that Jason seemed to love his family enough to visit them in exchange for handing out a fully translated neutral body refinement technique. Despite their agreement, Paul told Jason that he would still receive a large fortune in exchange. However, instead of accepting it, Jason just told the young man to redirect the funds to Greg, Malia, and their parents as they were in more need of resources than he was. All-in-all together, Paul noticed how much Jason cared about his family, and he told himself that in no way could such a doting young man with a child be devious or a trickster. Thus, Jason was not considered a spy! His sole purpose was to meet Greg and Malia, at least for now! After they entered the fortress, it didn''t take long before he was led into a small, yet comfortable office. Jason sat down on the small couch before he began to play with Anna as Artemis, whose jealousy had shot through the roof, stared daggers at him. She had squeezed her way between Jason and Anna which caused both of them to laugh out loud. Meanwhile, Paul, along with a young, bulky man with short brown hair and a young woman with long, silky brown hair that cascaded down her back, entered the office. Artemis was annoyed with the way Jason paid attention to Anna. She meant to glare at Anna but failed to do so as the baby looked at her with innocence and curiosity. Anna blocked most of her appearance to the new entrants in the room as they could only see white feathers. Jason smiled at Greg and Malia, who were unable to identify Jason and clueless as to why a stranger was smiling at them. His smile and eyes were somewhat familiar, but his facial features had been altered through Solaris'' new ability. As such, there was no way they could detect Jason without scanning his mana fluctuations. However, their gut feeling told them to not do it as it would attract unwanted attention and suspicion. Thus, they resisted the urge to do so. Jason''s smile reached his eyes when he saw his old friends and a single tear streamed down his cheeks as he asked "How have you two been?" This confused Greg and Malia even more, and they exchanged puzzled glances with each other. When they returned their gazes back to Jason, they could see Artemis'' head peeking out from behind the baby girl. When Artemis felt Jason''s emotions and saw the cause of it, she screamed out before flapping with her wings as she jumped out of Anna''s embrace. Anna''s one-year-old part of the soul felt sad to see Artemis leave her side and she was about to cry, but Jason managed to calm her down. He stood up, holding her in his arms as he approached the siblings who were more than familiar with Artemis'' appearance. "Artemis!!" Malia screamed out as she hugged the little owl that was shooting towards them. Artemis was still in her small form, and it was only when they realised who the owl was that they understood who was the person standing in front of them. Their responses were inarticulate in the beginning, their brains too tired and exhausted to process what they were witnessing in front of them. They couldn''t issue a word first, as tears streamed down Malia''s eyes before Greg mumbled in a small voice, "I''m sorry¡­" Jason stole a quick glance at Paul, hoping that the young man would leave. However, that was apparently not the case and it made things a little bit more difficult than Jason had hoped for. Nevertheless, he was glad to see that both Malia and Greg seemed to be fine. There was nothing more he could have wished for at the moment, and he hugged Greg firmly while asking, "What are you sorry for? It''s not like there was anything we could do!" Patting Greg''s broad back reassuringly, Jason released two paper-thin threads of mana from his body which he shot towards the two siblings. They were overjoyed to reunite with their old friend, whom they had thought to have lost through the Great Argos war as devastating news continued to pour in through all parts of the planet, making them feel less and less hopeful of him being safe and sound with each passing day. Despite that, they still noticed something connecting them, as Jason transmitted a single thought to them. [Don''t be astonished, it''s just me. With your instructor around, I can''t talk freely, just behave as if you don''t notice anything] Because Malia was hugging Artemis, and Greg was being hugged by Jason, Paul, the instructor didn''t notice them stiffening for a short moment. It didn''t take long for them to regain their composure and Jason didn''t waste any time either. He hugged Malia as well and heard Greg muttering under his breath in a teasing voice. "Since when do you have a daughter?? We haven''t seen each other for a few years and you''ve already settled down?" Greg was trying to hide how emotional he was right now, but it was hardly possible. Jason just smiled as he said, "This little girl is called Anna, and she is not my blood-related daughter. To put it simply, her parents died and I didn''t want the government to take her in. They''re already overflowing with orphans, and a one-year-old child would definitely be neglected." [There are other reasons too, but I can''t explain them without enough time] He didn''t like lying to his close friends, thus Jason tried to stay as honest as possible with Paul watching them. Paul, the instructor had already expected the little girl to not be Jason''s child, because their facial features and other characteristics were different. However, to hear what Jason had done was remarkable and it restored his faith in humanity. "How have you two been? After the Drake family took you in, many things must have happened!" [I know roughly what should have happened, if possible, provide me with as much information about the soul contract clauses as possible! I''ll find a way to take you two out of this mess!] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 500 - Dont Dare To The three friends ignored the instructor''s presence completely, but that was not something he minded. Instead, he was listening carefully to Greg and Malia''s words that were expected of him as a part of his employment with the Drake clan. He was duty-bound to follow their rules. Jason, Malia, and Greg had decided to sit down before telling their story. Many things had indeed happened since their last meeting, and Greg explained everything slowly, while Jason instructed Malia and showed her how to transmit her thoughts to him. This was easier said than done, and it was only after 20 minutes that she got the hang of it. In the end, this was faster than Jason expected, and he was glad that Greg''s storytelling was as slow as it had been years before. This worked in his favor as Jason was able to multitask, and he didn''t show any outward signs of doing something other than listening intently to Greg''s recitation of the things they had faced since their last meeting. Apparently, they had been treated well, and there were not many accidents that had happened after they had voluntarily decided to join the Drake family''s clan. The resources they received were not bad, and Malia had already broken into the Lique stage, while Greg estimated that he wouldn''t need more than a year to achieve the same. This was great to hear, and from his friend''s body language, Jason was able to tell that everything except ''voluntarily decided'' had been the truth! Everyone knew about the truth, and the instructor was also aware of the fact that Jason would know what had really happened. Nevertheless, it was also evident that the young man with a child in his arms couldn''t just say, "Please take me to those your clan has forced into submission. With a soul contract that is no better than enslavement!" Paul was similarly disgusted by what the Drake family had turned into, and his soul contract was less demanding and its clauses less exploitative than that of those the new generation had to sign. Nevertheless, his contract had still been harsh, and he had been forced to sign it at a young age because his family situation had demanded it. Otherwise, Paul wouldn''t have become who he was! After Malia had comprehended what to do in order to transmit thoughts to Jason without letting others notice, she released a thin thread of mana that was unstable and crude, yet enough to do what it should. It was slowly moving towards Jason as Greg finished his story-telling. There were many things both the siblings and Jason were curious about, but Greg knew that asking Jason with Paul hovering around them would be disadvantageous and risky. Thus, he asked simple questions Jason could answer by cooking up a story. Only a few minutes had passed when Jason thought that it was time for him to ask another question. "I would like to meet Aunt and Uncle too, how have they been? Do you know where I can meet them later?" Hearing his question made Malia stop transmitting her thoughts midway, but it took her only a short moment before she continued to explain every single clause the Drake clan''s soul contract had stated. [I know the contract is harsh and nobody would sign it under normal circumstances, but they had killed several families to demonstrate what will happen if we disobey!] Malia''s thoughts sounded enraged and frustrated at the same which was completely understandable. Nevertheless, she returned to state the other, more unique clauses only talented youths had to do. Apparently, exactly as Jason had expected, both Greg and Malia were forced to obey everyone in the Drake family, and even the higher authorities from the Drake clan. There were only a few things they didn''t have to obey, which was the only thing that prevented the young prodigies from killing themselves. As a matter of fact, nobody was forced to satisfy the sexual desires of the clan members, which was something Jason had been worried about. If Malia had been violated throughout the last two years, her will to live would have been completely shattered by now. Fortunately, the Drake family was more focused on nurturing a combat force and not interested in raising slaves to satiate carnal desires. Meanwhile, Greg told Jason that their parents were able to roam through the Drake kingdom freely after he and his sister entered the nurturing grounds. Apparently, this was some sort of reward the youngest generation had received, and it was already fortunate that they hadn''t been killed after the enslavement-like soul contract had been signed and put into effect. It was similar to encouraging the young prodigies to become stronger in order to protect their families that seemed to be scattered throughout the entire kingdom. As such, defending the entire kingdom had become a necessity. Jason couldn''t help but think that it was an extremely clever tactic employed by the Drake clan. The young generation had a reason to become stronger; to protect their family, which meant that they had to protect the Drake clan and kingdom! After Malia had finished explaining every clause of their soul contract, she also told him where exactly their parents had gone. Their location could have changed, but Malia doubted it. Jason was glad to hear that they were alive and not restrained in any way, but he didn''t dare to meet Mark and Gabriella right now. Somehow, he felt too guilty about the entire mess that had been created because of his master, and himself. There were multiple ways to opt out of a soul contract, but most of them were not feasible for the soul contract Greg and Malia had been forced to sign. ''Terminating the contract is not possible, dying is not an option either!... But annihilating the entire Drake family and clan is not something I could have done either...even if I were strong enough.'' In the end, there were more humans who had been forced to obey the Drake clan than those who had followed Jael Drake of their own will. Thus, the three options Jason had in mind were not feasible. He had a few other ideas in his mind, but he couldn''t just test them right now. If something were to go wrong, it would be devastating and would blow his cover. As such, both Greg and Malia would have to endure everything a little bit longer. This wouldn''t be a problem as long as they were not sent to participate in a civil war or somewhere dangerous, where it was likely for them to sustain injuries or even die! Fortunately, both Greg and Malia were too weak to attend dangerous missions, and it would probably take a few years before the first really dangerous missions would be allocated to them. Knowing this, Jason was able to retain his composure for now. A few years were more than enough for him to figure out a solution and save his friends. ''If the simple ways don''t work, I''ll have to experiment with solutions to overthrow the Drake family''s soul contract!'' The options were endless and he was in no rush to test their efficiency. As long as the Drake kingdom wouldn''t cease to exist by getting attacked and conquered by others, the Flers would be fine too! This complicated lots of things, but Jason knew what he had to do. Canir had to exit this state of anarchy and enter a state of complete power balance without him intervening too much, allowing Jason to become stronger, as fast as possible! Unfortunately, Jason knew that this was a far-fetched dream, and for now he could only enjoy the time he could spend with his friends for as long as possible. The Great Argos war might be over, but that didn''t mean the dangers had ceased to exist! Everybody was oblivious to the fact that the enemies lurking in the shadows had started to move, and nobody knew who was going to make the first move. Was the Great Argos war only the starting line of Argos'' doom, or the beginning of something new, something beautiful that brought forth a bright future everyone could look forward to? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 501 - Nonsense Parting with Greg and Malia after they had reunited was not easy for both the siblings and Jason. However, it was necessary to prevent any untoward incident from occurring that could jeopardize the siblings'' life. The siblings had given up all former hopes and ambitions and had accepted the disheartening fact that their future would be destined by the Drake family and clan. But after Jason had returned to them, this had changed. A feeble ray of hope named Jason had appeared on the horizon. They weren''t aware of what had happened to Jason during the past few years, but it was evident that he had become more mature, and even stronger than they were despite their access to powerful people all along. Both Greg and Malia had received lots of cultivation resources from the Drake clan. This allowed Malia to break into the Lique stage before the age of 19, while Greg would be able to achieve the same feat! Nevertheless, in comparison to Jason, their achievement was insignificant. When they had sensed that their friend had liquefied more than 40 drops of mana, they had been hardly able to contain their excitement or surprise. It was great to hear how fast he was becoming stronger and the ray of hope within them began to glimmer brightly. Jason noticed this only before he had been told to leave the fortress, as he transmitted an encouraging thought to them. [As long as both of you are able to endure the Drake clan''s schemings for a few more years, I will be able to take care of everything. You guys can do it, and don''t let me come back to retrieve two corpses. Neither I nor your parents would want that! All of us will be able to meet up together in the future without anyone oppressing us!] After that, he carefully picked up Anna who was sleeping next to him, with Artemis in her arms. Artemis may have liked Anna, but she was sometimes a nuisance to the little owl. Stepping out of the office, he threw one last glance at his friends and smiled ruefully before he left the fortress. Paul, the instructor bid him farewell after telling him that the mana stones for the neutral body refinement manual would be fairly distributed amongst his cousins. Jason just nodded his head before he walked further away. He didn''t stop and could only feel helpless as Artemis, who had perched herself on his shoulder, issued a faint noise. Caressing her with his free hand, Jason could only sigh. "We have a lot to do if we don''t want to disappoint the Flers, don''t we?" Once they left the city from the opposite side they had entered, Solaris'' black flames covered his face for a moment before his facial features had reverted to his original appearance. The camouflage makeup was slowly wearing off, but Jason was not bothered about it anymore. Artemis entered his mana core and her wings manifested on Jason''s back. Holding Anna in his arms, he flew back to the place the Ariyor and Elvyr race were supposed to stay. It had taken him a total of three weeks to return to the place where the big gathering of the Argos alliance had taken place. Jason hadn''t been in a hurry and instead of flying straight ahead, he decided to make stopovers and visited a few cities of the different kingdoms to help him evaluate the situation all around Canir. Rumors spread like wildfire, and Jason was glad that he hadn''t heard anything about a civil war, or even worse, other big clans or ancient sects conquering the big clans and kingdoms that had been hit the worst. He had assumed that the situation would be much worse and was happy to have been proven wrong. Fortunately, both the Ariyor and Elvyr race were still around and had yet to leave. They had helped everywhere possible and their presence had prevented other big clans from attacking each other. It was not known whether some would have attacked others, but Jason assumed that nobody was even thinking about conquering each other. Otherwise, a single individual of the Elvyr race would have taken matters into his own hands. They had announced that nobody was to attack each other for now, or they would attack and crush the offending force. The announcement had been made nonchalantly, but everyone knew that the Elvyr race was every bit serious about it! Now that he had returned to the Ariyo and Elvyr race, he wanted to attend the meeting they had with more than three dozen highly influential families, ancient sects, and big clans. Every big family head was allowed to join them because the gathering''s goal was to figure out a good solution to take care of mankind and participation was not only restricted to a few big clans. During the Greater Argos war, surviving had been the most important, but now, building a big, connected unit where everyone gelled together was supposed to be the main objective. Other big clans were not of the same opinion because they wanted to stay independent, thus they recommended doing something else. Even after weeks had passed, they hadn''t arrived at a common consensus, and the most efficient one they had been able to come up with was to create a loose alliance with everyone willing to extend the olive branch. It was nothing but a simple treaty that was supposed to prevent war from breaking out while establishing a trading relationship. If everyone was dependent on the resources provided by another big clan, it would possibly prevent big conflicts from breaking out. Unfortunately, every big clan was able to take care of themselves, and the goods they required were only the rarest that everyone demanded. Now, as Jason entered the big hall with a baby girl in his arms he met some curious gazes. However, almost nobody recalled him as the individual who had manifested the replica of the gates of hell, or the one who had reaped a couple of hundred thousand lives with a single massive crescent sword beam. He had restricted his aura and his stigma looked like a simple tattoo after all making him look exceptionally ordinary! Only a few were astonished about him appearing at the gathering, thinking that he would vanish for some time to prevent the Drake clan from hunting him. The My?dlra and Burane race had received the intel that the Elvyr race had only appeared because of a descendant of a high-ranked race. In the end, the events that had occurred around and because of Jason made it obvious that he was the said descendant, which was relayed to the Drake clan. As such, he was wanted by one clan, while others were likely to fear him and his capabilities. Only Fasro and Lusan who were also present knew who, or rather what kind of existence the baby in his arms was. Others only saw a little girl without anything impressive about her. After the leaders of the respective clans and sects had spared him a short glance, they''d returned to their debate, seemingly unaffected by his presence. This was exactly what Jason had hoped to achieve so he listened attentively. Not long after, he heard something interesting, yet extremely annoying, and was somewhat stupefied. "The citizens are tense because of what happened during the last few years. We are evidently too weak to fight against other races without a numerical advantage or other means to strengthen ourselves. However, on the other hand, we do have a great number of translated body refinement manuals and other techniques that could be translated too! How about we duplicate them, hand them out and demonstrate to the tense citizens how strong our new generation can become? We have many young prodigies below the age of 50. How about we set up a large-scale tournament for the following years, which we stream throughout Canir?" While others were mulling over this proposal, Jason could only look at the gathered humans in astonishment. His eyes were squinted, and his golden-silverish eyes were almost not visible as he wondered what was going on with the old powerhouses, and if they had some loose screws. ''What kind of bullshit is that now??'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 502 - What Do You Want? While looking at the people around him in an exasperated manner, Jason noticed that the majority of them were seriously pondering about the idea presented by the middle-aged man he had never seen before. ''It would definitely be an entertaining and reassuring factor for the citizens to watch a tournament and see how much stronger one can become by using the techniques from foreign races, but aren''t they missing the important part?'' "Nial, this is not a bad plan, but it would be better if we were to do something like this further in the future. Right now, we have to pay attention to other things such as rebuilding the Archipelago, our cities, and nursing the injured back to health while nurturing the weak. There are millions that have been disabled, deprived of their home, and relatives. Some have even lost everything they had." When Jason heard this he nodded his head and without waiting for someone else to add something, he supplied, "The little girl in my arms is a good example for this state. Her parents were killed due to the aftermath of the flood caused by the Overlord mosasaurs in the Hina capital. She is an orphan and I decided to take care of her for some time. Hearing that you guys want to invest in your new generation so that they can improve their strength and learn the technique from the foreign races faster is almost an insult to me and everyone who gave up something in order to help others! Don''t get me wrong, a tournament is a good plan to calm down the citizens, but that is only a temporary solution and not something we should dedicate our time and energy to! The most important are humans and finding ways to protect them. Does anyone here think that I am wrong??" Jason was annoyed at some big clan heads who were selfishly trying to avoid taking responsibility for their citizens. Just as Nial, who had proposed the tournament wanted to say something, Merl Arths, Fasro and Lusan called him in unison. "Jason, come and sit down!" This caused him to calm down as he smiled at the three who were seated next to each other. While the two foreign races didn''t intervene or raise their concern with anything that was being discussed in the gathering, the intimidating aura they were releasing was nothing to scoff at. Instead, it was highly likely that their presence was solely to prevent dumb and selfish proposals from being voiced out. Meanwhile, Merl Arths might not be the strongest human on the planet, but his tactics and knowledge were what made him well known. The fact that the members of the two foreign races and Merl had specifically called Jason, made it pretty clear that he was someone important. Thus, even the big clan heads and representatives that didn''t know him had held back from lashing out at him for speaking amidst higher authorities. They were forced to calm down and look at the situation with rationality instead of their instinctive behavior. "I think this young man is correct. Recuperating from the Great Argos war might be more important for the weakened clans, but there are others that rely on us to protect them because they''re too weak to do that by themselves. There are not many big clans that ever paid attention to the island they were governing to begin with...does everyone even know what the situation on the Archipelago looks like? I know it and the majority of governing clans should be embarrassed about their behavior. Why did you even accept the responsibility of governing an island if you can''t think rationally and employ a few powerhouses during the Great Argos war? One human at the Lord stage wouldn''t have been enough to change the outcome of the Great Argos war, let alone be enough to annihilate entire races. However, it would have been enough to protect an island from any beast with their habitat there!" While walking towards Fasro, Lusan, and Merl Arths, Jason nodded his head in agreement. He agreed to the old woman that had spoken. She was one of the present Old ones which made Jason recall that had also seen Haepha, but she seemed to have aged by several decades since they had first met. Somehow, he felt bad for her, even if he was not sure for what exactly. Almost everyone had lost someone important during the Great Argos war, and Jason knew that he was not the only one who had to suffer. Sitting down on the chair he had been given, Jason was calmly observing the entire gathering that went on for several hours, while Anna was sleeping soundly. She had already tried to speak with him, but so far she had only been able to utter gibberish, making it difficult for Jason to find the meaning behind those words if he could call them that. Thus he could only tell her to calm down and try it every now and then. After the first time she had transmitted her memories to him, Anna had been unable to do the same again. Jason assumed that she must have used up the last remnants of her strength at that time. He was curious about the race she had belonged to, what kind of other human-like races existed, and to find out more about all kinds of worlds that existed as well. However, before he would be able to pay more attention to the other worlds, the world or rather the planet he inhabited in this life that is Argos required some time, and most importantly peace. The current state was much better than expected, and by intently observing the entire gathering, Jason was able to witness that the hostility between most clans seemed to be superficial, and not noteworthy. Either, the hostility originated from the fact that some big clans had been forced to collude with the Drake alliance, or that some other big clans had been on bad terms for decades. Jason was not interested in finding out the reason, but more concerned about the attitude everyone showed in solving the current issues. It was important that everyone gave their utmost efforts to help the weak, but this was easier said than done. As long as they received benefits, the big clans were eager to help, but other than that, they saw the gathering as a means of increasing their strength once again which made them join the gathering. The initial direction was already acceptable, and something Jason supported. Despite the hidden motives some big clans had, it was a good start. Thus, he decided to say something that caused every big clan to listen intently. "Some of you might not know about this, but I translated the neutral body refinement technique from the Doom Crawls. I assume everyone has already procured a fully translated part and is eagerly duplicating it. Maybe some big clans have noticed it, but the translations are missing everything past stage two. Without having practiced the technique, I can''t fully comprehend the translations which is the reason I didn''t write them down. However, what would the big clans think if I were to trade the technique''s second part that is a word-to-word translation? What about other techniques the big clans have procured, does anyone have a translator? I doubt that the Elvyr or Ariyor race, let alone other races, are willing to let a complete stranger translate entire manuals, for them!" Jason''s entire demeanor showed how confident he was. This was not even underwhelmed by the fact that he was holding Anna in his arms. Merl Arths proved Jason''s words to be correct, saying that he''d procured the neutral body refinement technique from him. This caused everyone to mull over Jason''s words. Jason had a reason to reveal his ability as someone who was able to translate the foreign race''s texts into the human language, and now everyone was fully aware of this. As such, several possible reasons were being constructed in everyone''s mind, before one of the middle-aged men Jason was not acquainted with asked him. "If we were to ask for a fully translated version of the manuals we have procured¡­.what would we have to do in exchange? What is it that you want?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 503 - Clue To... Jason had just said the first thing that came to his mind, without thinking further ahead. There was not really something he needed right now. He had enough mana stones, the amount of nutrition serums he had obtained from the foreign race''s spatial rings was not few either, and his equipment was perfectly fine. ''While translating the foreign race''s cultivation, body refinement, and martial art techniques, I can simply create a copy for myself or imprint everything in my mind. The Floating Sky technique should already be the best movement technique anyone could have here, and I doubt that there is a better fire body refinement technique for now.'' Jason only required three things. A proper cultivation technique for the future, and a strong martial art technique with which he could execute his entire strength. The Devious Swordmaster technique he had practiced for some time might be strong, but it held him back. At least, that was how he felt. Other than that, the most important thing he required was time! It might sound simple, but the thing he really needed to become stronger was something he didn''t have- time. There was no way for him to liquefy thousands of mana drops in a matter of weeks, that was simply not how it worked. At least not in the environment he lived in, Argos was just unsuitable for such a feat! Though his speed of doing so was pretty decent, Jason felt that there was room for improvement. He was sure that he could accelerate the pace at which he liquefied his mana, but the scarcity of mana coupled with the fact that it was not even pure prevented him from achieving this. For now, Jason had no other option but to stay on Argos and without being able to enter a different world that had a higher quantity and quality of mana, Jason was not sure how long it would take for him to reach a threshold of accelerating his pace. As such, Jason pondered for a moment on how to articulate his requirements and club them together in one simple condition for translating the big clans'' manuals. "To put it simply, I can translate every manual completely. However, instead of handing out everything at once, I will hand over the first pages of the manual I translate! In exchange for more pages, I want the big clans to support the citizens, help in the rehabilitation of the archipelago without waging another war or conquering other lands. It might sound ridiculous to some of you, but mankind needs every bit of help they can get right now. If I can motivate all of you to work hard towards a common goal in exchange for the translated version of the foreign race''s manuals, that should be perfectly fine with everyone!" Upon hearing him, Nathan Silver, the patriarch of the Heaven''s Eyes sect got up from his seat and asked, "That means in exchange for maintaining peace, you will hand out a few translated pages of the technique we want, correct? That will probably be done once every few months until every big clan has regained some of their former strength to harbor peaceful relations with each other without you forcefully attempting to do the same. Once that is done, the entire translated versions will be revealed to the big clans that gave you the manuals of the foreign races, am I right?" Jason stared into Nathan Silver''s silver eyes before he released faint traces of mana into his own, golden-silverish eyes that had begun to glow faintly. "Correct" he stated matter of factly as he released his mana eyes'' abyssal effect. He was not sure what was going on, but Nathan''s aura felt similar to that of a ferocious beast that was about to pounce at him and rip him apart. Thus, he had activated his mana eyes'' abyssal effect. However, only a moment later, Nathan''s silver eyes were enveloped in a faint purple hue as he activated his psychokinesis affinity. Under normal circumstances, a simple psychokinesis affinity wouldn''t have been enough to deflect Jason''s abyssal ability, but Nathan''s affinity had unique properties. This allowed him to erect a wall around his mind that safeguarded him from external factors affecting his mind. Jason assumed it to be similar to his mana eyes'' natural passive ability which caused him to nod his head faintly as a means to apologize. But, just as he was about to sit down, he heard Nathan asking, "Is your family name Stella??" It was as if Nathan was astonished, and almost utterly dumbfounded by the assumption he had in mind. When Jason heard this question, he stiffened before he looked up again as he answered in a straightforward manner. "Yes! And I guess my mother had once belonged to your sect, is that correct?" Since the day he had heard about the heaven''s eyes sect, Jason had assumed that his mother had once been a part of the sect. Seeing Nathan''s reaction to Jason''s words, made it apparent that something Jason didn''t know had happened in the past. Though he had assumed Jason to reaffirm his doubt, he was astonished nonetheless. The patriarch of the heaven''s eyes sect was able to regain his composure only a few seconds later as he cleared his throat before stating, "If we''re talking about the same person...yes. But Mina and her parents left us several decades ago!" Jason''s expression didn''t change a tiny bit, but his soulbonds and even Anna, who was quietly lying inside his arm were able to feel the emotions churning within him. ''They left the sect? But why are you so nervous then?'' Owing to his mana eyes, he could clearly see how flustered Nathan Silver was. Despite Nathan restricting his mana fluctuations, Jason perceived how unstable they were. This was one sign of being extremely nervous about something. If someone were to simply leave a sect, one wouldn''t be flustered, but sad, or maybe even relieved. There might have been a reason for his mother and grandparents to leave, but the patriarch of the heaven''s eyes sect behaved oddly. Jason''s calm demeanor surprised Nathan a lot, but instead of causing a ruckus and questioning him about what he knew, or trying to explain everything by cooking up a lie, he resumed his seat. Jason did the same, but instead of bothering to think about Nathan and his behavior, he was curious to know more about his grandparents as he had heard something about them for the first time. ''Are they still alive?'' He wondered before his eyes locked with Nathan Silver''s once again. Smiling lightly as if nothing had happened, Jason made up his mind. Several hours passed before everyone agreed to the proposal Jason had put forth. They created a loose alliance with every big clan and sect in attendance while keeping the doors open for others to join. Teaming up with others meant that everyone would be forced to help others to a certain degree while establishing trading agreements to become more resourceful! Every big clan could live independently, but the resources some had to use in order to grow plants or raise cattle were higher in mountainous areas which also held deposits of more ores and other resources. As such, one could save on lots of expenses, which were previously ignored. Fortunately, even the otherwise hostile big clans decided to join the loose alliance to reap the benefits. After that, everyone handed over the manuals they wanted to have translated by Jason. Jason saw reluctance and doubt in their eyes, which showed that they knew that it was possible for the young man to betray all of them. However, the faintly released aura enveloping Jason made this reluctance vanish into thin air. Once he got his hands on every manual, Jason decided to translate them completely before handing out the first few pages during the next few days. At the same time, his mind was lingering on the fact that Nathan Silver had known his mother and grandparents. ''Even if something is suspicious, it looks like I need to have a good talk with the Heaven''s Eyes patriarch! It''s the first time I''ve heard something about my grandparents after all!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 504 - Emperor Eyes Four days had passed since Jason had attended the gathering that resulted in the loose alliance. This might have been partially due to his proposal of translating the foreign race''s manuals the big clans had collected after the Great Argos war had ended, but that was not important. There were multiple other, stronger techniques most big clans had already translated to some extent. Nevertheless, Jason''s offer had been just too good to ignore. Thinking that their technique was the best, everyone agreed to let Jason translate it. During the last four days, he hadn''t slept much, and it was fortunate that Artemis was able to look after Anna to some extent. Playing around and feeding her was possible for Artemis, only changing her diapers was something Jason had to do. Anna was trying to speak proper words and sentences every day, but she was only a year old. Thus it would take some time before her vocal cords would be properly developed, allowing her to speak smoothly. As long as there was nothing extremely important she wished to communicate, she would remain silent. It was not like Anna had any other choice either way. From the looks of it, Anna was playful at some times and serious at others. Thus, Jason had problems figuring out what was going on with the little baby girl. Treating her like a normal baby was not possible for him but neither was acting like she was a fully grown adult. Sometimes he thought that forcing the big clans into a loose alliance was easier than trying to foster Anna, which was ridiculous in his opinion. However, now that he had finished the last translation of the three dozen manuals he had received, everything would be fine. It astonished him that no two manuals had been the same, but Jason knew that nobody had wanted to waste the time to talk with each other in order to collude and try to make the best use of his proposal. All of them had just hastily scampered towards him to ensure that they got their manuals translated. Other than that, they hadn''t transmitted their thoughts to others by using a paper-thin thread of mana. Because of that, he was astonished by the final result. Translating the books hadn''t been an issue for Jason and he had kept his end of the bargain by delivering the first few pages after the fourth day had passed. Once that was completed, Jason had finally time for himself, and what he''d wanted to do. He rested for the rest of the day while trying to process the information he had received from the manuals, and more importantly from the day of the gathering wherein Nathan Silver, the patriarch of the heaven''s eyes sect had acted weirdly. ''Father had said that some race had sacrificed mother by offering her to the Celestia race as a tribute? He hadn''t mentioned a word about my grandparents, but Nathan''s behavior was weird...he was just too flustered and uncomfortable. Did he have something to do with my mother being sacrificed to the Celestia race, or did something else happen?'' There were too many things he didn''t know, hence Jason decided to figure out the answer by confronting the person involved! It was one day later that Jason made an appointment with Nathan Silver. The next day, he found himself in a simple room, without too much grandeur or luxurious furniture. Nathan Silver hadn''t bothered about decorating the room he had been temporarily assigned for the time the gathering of big clans and sects would be held. However, right now he felt uncomfortable while being eyed intently by Jason, who was in fact Mina''s son! ''What kind of karma is that?'' He lamented in his mind, trying to continue looking at Jason impassively. "I can guess why you wanted to meet me! Feel free to ask me anything. I will do my best to answer thoroughly...if I know the answer that is! There is nothing I can tell you about the time after Mina and her parents, Joel and Nina Stella left us!" Jason was surprised to hear the name of his grandparents for the first time, but instead of showing that, he simply nodded his head. ''He has already built up a defense!'' "I had already expected that, but that''s not something that concerns me. If possible, I would like to know more about my mother''s past, her mana eyes, and that of my grandparents too. I never met my grandparents, but if they were members of the heaven''s eyes sect, they should have had mana eyes too!" Nathan almost sighed in relief, barely holding himself back from acting as if he was not glad that Jason didn''t want to probe further about the reason his mother and grandparents left the Heaven eyes sect. However, at that moment, a sudden thought emerged in his mind. ''Why am I even nervous? It''s not like Jason can do anything to me, even if he were to find out the truth. Furthermore, Jason is obviously alive despite what I have done...WAIT...HOW is Jason here? He is less than 20 years old¡­ That doesn''t...fit¡­'' Nathan''s body was suddenly covered in goosebumps, trying to make sense of what he was missing out on. Looking straight into Jason''s golden-silverish eyes that didn''t reflect any emotions, Nathan suppressed his desire to flinch as he took a deep breath. "To be honest, your entire family was blessed with the most powerful mana eyes I''ve ever seen. It is a secret, not many humans know of. Despite being a mutation, mana eyes are unique. There are not only multiple stages mana eyes can have by luck, but they can undergo several mutations, and be enhanced through several other means such as unique soulbonds too! My mana eyes are natural mutations that I received upon birth and my soulbond''s affinity and other characteristics mutated them, protecting me from external harm. It''s not a strong protection layer, but you must have noticed it already! Your mother and grandparents are different from me! Both generations received their mana eyes from the earlier generation that had awoken them naturally." Nathan had to stop for a moment to take a deep breath. He was trying to provide as much information as possible to Jason, so as to distract him from noticing his own shocked expression, let alone ask about the reason for them to leave the heaven''s eyes sect. ''Jason''s birth should have happened after I sold off Mina and her parents to the Heva race! How can he possibly be here?? Despite Nathan''s efforts to conceal his nervousness, Jason noticed it. Yet, instead of probing into it further, he remained calm and waited for Nathan to continue speaking. "Your great grandfather from one side and great grandmother from the other side married someone without mana eyes, both your grandfather and grandmother inherited them! Unexpectedly, your great grandfather had been trying to strengthen his weak mana eyes by binding certain soulbonds to him. This worked, but unfortunately in an opposite way, causing his mana eyes to degenerate. Your grandfather inherited the degenerated mana eyes that underwent a mutation! The degenerated mana eyes turned into mutated mana eyes that were golden, and stronger than every kind of mana eyes we had seen until your mother had been born. Meanwhile, your grandmother had unique mana eyes too, but they didn''t mutate and she had simply bound a special beast that she had rescued. This had allowed her eyes to be enhanced to a similar degree as your grandfather had. Everyone was jealous of them. Yet, when your mother was born, we weren''t even able to measure what kind of stage her mana eyes had reached. As she belonged to the third generation of a family with mana eyes that had received several enhancements from different soulbonds and one mutation, Mina had inherited the genes of both sides of her family. As such, her mana eyes had become much stronger than her parents, let alone grandparents! In the end, we couldn''t call them mana eyes anymore because it was not as simple as that. Thus, your mother had called them ''Emperor eyes'', and it looks like you''ve received them too!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 505 - I Found Him Even though Jason could gauge why Nathan was trying to fill his mind with information, he couldn''t help but be astonished by what he had heard. ''I''m the fourth generation that inherited mana eyes? Both sides of my family were blessed with mana eyes since my great grandfather and great grandmother!'' Jason was aware that traits were likely to be inherited, but this was not for every trait. Mana eyes were rare to inherit, yet his grandmother, grandfather, and mother not only had mana eyes but their eyes had been mutated and enhanced at that. Not only Jason but his entire family had been an anomaly which shocked Jason greatly, his interest was piqued upon hearing about Emperor eyes. In the end, this could even be the explanation why the Celestia race was jealous of his mother''s eyes! He was not sure about it, but the Celestia race seemed to be a race that had superior characteristics in every aspect. Despite that, their eyes were probably similar to superior mana eyes or something even higher than that, yet, at a lower league than the Emperor Eyes Nathan was talking about. Thinking about it, Jason figured out that the passive blockade his mana eyes had against any external factor that could influence him negatively, and the auras and colored hues he could see were the most unique traits of his mana eyes. Other than that, he had the abyssal effect, and all of them might have a connection with his mother''s Emperor Eyes. ''But my mother had silver eyes? Apparently, only my grandfather had golden eyes...the Celestia race has silver eyes too¡­'' It was confusing and that was exactly what Nathan had tried to achieve. Unfortunately, Jason had noticed how flustered he had been in the beginning. Recalling his nervous behavior wouldn''t be a problem for Jason! Knowing that his mana eyes were not only that powerful because of his Celestia bloodline was somewhat reassuring, but his mind was already drifting towards a different subject. "I have Emperor Eyes? But, in that case¡­why did my family leave the Heaven''s Eyes sect? Wouldn''t it have been better for them to stay in a big sect that could nurture them¡­" Jason already had a rough idea of what had happened to his mother, and what circumstances would have brought her in front of his father. However, there was something else he had to figure out! Were his grandparents still alive? If that was the case, where were they? However, Nathan''s answer was less than satisfying, and Jason had decided to leave shortly afterward. [I don''t know where your family has gone. One day, they simply decided to leave the sect. They didn''t even bid farewell, and just vanished. Since then, I have never heard of them!] Jason couldn''t help but ridicule this answer inwardly as he left the room with Anna in his arms. He knew a part of the truth through his father, which was the fact that his mother had been in the hands of a different foreign race! ''Suddenly vanishing'' was definitely not a correct answer, and from the mana fluctuations Jason had perceived, he could tell that it had been a lie. Nathan was not even able to hide his mana fluctuations properly, and Jason could only shake his head at this. There was no problem with his emotions and they were perfectly under control. Nothing escaped out of his grasp which caused Jason to think that his father''s divine silver aura might have been more efficient than he had estimated. The information about his mana eyes was not necessarily important for Jason. At least, not at this point. It might be useful later, but the more important fact right now was that he had received more information about his entire family, and a possible reason for Nathan to act against them. ''If my family was full of mana eyes that had slowly nurtured their eyes'' ability, it is not unlikely that Nathan and others were afraid of being overthrown. The Heaven''s Eyes sect might have been taken over by my grandparents, or even my mother, once she had been fully nurtured. Who knows?...'' Thinking about his mother was still painful, but he had long since accepted that she was dead. It was tragic and he didn''t want to think too much about her, but he wanted to hold on to her even if the thought brought pain. A part of him he feared that if he stopped thinking about her, she would slowly wither away in his memories. Jason had already forgotten her face and her voice, he didn''t want to forget the rest of her too. The pain of her loss was what had kept him alive, telling him to strive for more and to live without regrets. At that moment, he walked past a young man with blood-red hair and crimson-colored eyes. Currents of a bloody aura leaked from his body, and his lips were curled upwards in a smirk. He had a few hundred liquefied drops of mana inside his mana core, and blood affinity transmuted mana was swirling through his body. Additionally, the young man had a huge amount of blood mist inside his body, strengthening him further. However, what caused Jason to flinch when the young man had brushed past him was that it looked like he had seen the young man before! Not during the Great Argos war, but much earlier than that. ''Before the Minotaur accident in Jiro-City...on Astrix!'' Owing to his memory, and the fact that the young man looked unique, Jason had been able to recall him. ''Didn''t he have only 50 drops of liquefied mana at that time?... He is progressing so fast!'' Jason was astonished about the young man''s cultivation speed that was much faster than anyone else he had seen. At the same time, he understood that this was probably because of the blood sect''s unique way to cultivate. They could drain mana and blood from their opponents after all. Jason assumed that the Blood sect had colluded with the Virady race that was similar to the Vampires in fairy tales! Nevertheless, something about the young man was urging Jason to interrogate, torture, and beat him up. His entire being was heating up when he noticed something about the blood mist inside the young man''s body. He was barely able to control his Celestia aura and the stigma that began to glow lightly. Jason''s eyes widened and before anyone could notice anything he said, "Anna, did you just dirty your diapers?? It''s already smelling...ugh! Let''s change them quickly!!" After that, he rushed off as fast as possible without being too suspicious. Leaving the entire building complex, he quickly summoned Artemis'' wings before he mumbled, "Sorry Anna¡­!" His expression worsened, as his eyes turned ice cold. "I found him!" The blood mist was a unique characteristic only the blood sect seemed to have. However, what they didn''t seem to be aware of was the fact that remnants of their victims'' mana fluctuations lingered within it! Because of that Jason could not only see how much blood essence of humans and beasts the young man had absorbed but also determine whether someone he knew had been killed by the young man or not! In the beginning, he hadn''t focused on the young man''s blood mist, but his gut feeling had drawn his attention to it. Within only a few seconds, one particular remnant of mana fluctuations from someone, he had loved, but lost more than 10 years ago was inside the youth''s body! ''He killed my mother!!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 506 - You Reap What You Sow Jason had shot up to a higher altitude, far away from the building complex at which the gathering had been held. Millions of thoughts were raking his mind, but Jason''s mood had plummeted. He felt sad, hurtful, and murderously angry. "I can''t kill him with all kinds of big clan heads around¡­can I?'' Jason had already imprinted the young man''s mana fluctuations inside his mind. Never would he ever forget them in his entire life! It was possible for him to ignore the young man for now and return to him later, but was that really what he wanted? Taking a deep breath he tried to calm his jittery nerves. He was seething in a mad rage and the only thought in his mind right now was to end the young man''s life. But, he knew now was not the time to do so, he would have to be patient. He had to control his emotions. Releasing his pent-up frustration was not wrong, but maintaining control over himself was important. He promised himself that he would have his revenge one day when the time was right. Anna was patting his arm, trying to calm Jason. In the beginning, she didn''t bother much about the young man, but he had helped her without demanding anything in return. It might have been embarrassing for her, but she knew that the current situation on Argos was dangerous. Nobody had the time and energy to foster a baby! She was only a year old and unable to take care of herself, despite her soul being mature and older than anyone on Argos was! Jason had explained almost everything about Argos to her, right from its past, its heritage, to the advantageous traits they had. A human''s soul world was the most important aspect of a human''s strength. It was even more important than one''s mana aptitude, and Anna knew that nobody would have thought her to be unique, and labeled her as a normal baby, if not for Jason! Thus, they had built some sort of bond with each other! While Anna was patting his arm, Jason''s mind was trying to come up with possible solutions to think of a plan on what to do. ''The young man has killed more than ten thousand humans...who know how many he will continue to kill...and what about the other members of the blood sect? They should have murdered hundreds, thousands, if not millions of people together!!'' Since his masters'' death, Jason''s mindset had been following a different path than before. He cared more about other humans, especially those that were weaker. Instead of rushing everything, Jason wanted to pay attention to the needs of others. This included the behavior of other big clans too. Forecasting those big clans would continue being hostile to each other, he had first convinced the Gier patriarch and then the other big clans to form an alliance. It forced him to translate manuals of foreign races for everyone, but the price was definitely worth it. The big clans would become stronger, but Jason didn''t forget the weaker citizens either! He had something planned, but before he would be able to initiate this plan, that could lead the other big clans to hate him, Jason had to become much stronger than he currently was. Other than that, his mind was working furiously to finish off the person he hated the most, and ignite hate in the minds of people against those who had forced him to resort to such means. ''I might as well prevent possible ties of those clans and sects that could initiate another war to happen, so they will never be able to form an alliance!'' A cruel smile emerged on Jason''s face as a plan was slowly forming in his mind. A whole week had passed and Jason bid farewell to Fasro, Lusan, and the others. However, this farewell had been a farce. Nobody had seen him since then, but Jason was still there. He had hidden from everyone''s sight and was waiting for his opportunity. Jason couldn''t allow anyone to suspect him for what was about to happen. Four days earlier, he had entered a faraway city, where he''d left Anna and Solaris, who was supposed to take care of her. Other than that, he had hired a maid to look after her for the next few days. The prices for everything had skyrocketed but Jason was wealthy enough to afford it. Now that he had returned with Artemis, who resided in his mana core, while Solaris was faraway, his soul world issued the desire to let Solaris return to him. This was something he had never felt before, but that was most likely because neither of his soulbonds had been farther than a few kilometers from him. Now, hundreds, if not more than a few thousand kilometers, separated Solaris and him. Nevertheless, Jason ignored this sensation, knowing that every single movement could expose him. His current strength was equal to several hundred drops of liquefied mana. He was unable to control his trembling hand while concealing everything that would give him away- his mana fluctuations, mana core, his Celestia aura and the stigma. Nobody was aware that he was there, and it was already past midnight when Jason decided to put his plan to action. He was holding the daggers he had found inside the Burane assassin''s spatial ring. There was a reason he had chosen them, which was the ice element runes inscribed on them. With them, Artemis'' ice affinity could be further enhanced, and his entire plan was based on that foundation. To a passerby, the mana fluctuations belonging to the young red-haired man would appear to be stable and it would look like he was cultivating inside his room. The rooms beside his were currently empty, which caused him to approach the building complex stealthily. His steps were silent, and his appearance was well hidden by the darkness. Fully dressed in black clothes and a black mask covering him from head to toe, he was ready to take the life of the man who had murdered his mother. At the same time, he wanted to destroy every possible relationship between the Drake family and the Blood sect. Jason had a plan for this and was ready to serve vengeance. He was only a few meters away from the building complex, and the young man who was cultivating on the second floor! His mind was calm as he circulated a large amount of mana into his lower body in order to jump into the air while summoning Artemis'' wings. Several huge ice spears manifested next to him, piercing through the wall that crumbled as he flew through it without hesitation. The room exploded with rubble and debris, and Jason noticed how the young man instinctively opened his blood-red eyes. With his primal instincts, the man finished his mana absorption forcefully as he circulated every ounce of mana through his body. However, before the young man could have done anything else, his mind seemed to have entered a bottomless abyss. His body stiffened and Jason''s eyes that had flared in a blinding fire and glowed as bright as the sun for a moment dimmed down. Jason had utilized both the petrification curse and his emperor eyes'' abyssal effect with the vast majority of his mana. "Too late, bitch!" A moment later, he pierced both daggers into the young man''s chest while looking at him straight in the eye. He had wanted the young man to remember the face that had killed him and Jason hadn''t wanted to miss even a single expression of shock, fear, and worry appearing on the young man''s face. As the young man watched in horror, Jason used every little trace of mana inside his mana core to release his ice affinity into the daggers that began to shine brightly. The ice elemental runes on the daggers were activated, and the temperature around him went below zero degrees. Within an instant, the entire room had become freezing cold, while the young man had been turned into a sculpture of ice. His mana fluctuations were weak, but still present. ''He is still alive?'' Jason was astonished about this, but instead of thinking any further, he twisted the sky blue daggers inside the young man''s chest, sending them all the way inside his body, before brutally tearing them out. Blood poured out of the young man''s body in rivulets, whose body spasmed and twitched before he collapsed to the ground. Jason stared coldly at the dying man before he stabbed one of the daggers into the man''s nearly frozen neck. His eyes glimmered in a predatory rage as he twisted and pulled the dagger out, and felt his prey''s mana fluctuations dim at a rapid pace. The crimson-colored magic circle that was in fact the summoning process of the young man''s soulbond sputtered like a dying fire before it vanished into thin air, and Jason knew that it was over. He knew that it would take less than a minute before someone would arrive because his entry to the room had been both spectacular and noisy. However, instead of hurriedly disappearing, Jason decided to leave a message. As such he used his gloved hand to reach inside the corpse, tearing the muscles further apart that had already been severed due to his dagger''s assault. When he pulled his hand out of the corpse, it came out bloody. Satisfied with it, Jason approached one of the frozen walls before he began to write something down. "You have chosen the wrong side!" It was written in the universal language, and the main point of his entire assassination was to incriminate the Burane race, making it look like they had sent an assassin to eliminate the young heir of the Blood sect. . He looked at the now dead man and snarled "You reap what you sow, asshole!" After that was done, Jason turned towards the destroyed wall and looked at the message, and the blood dripped down the wall before he vanished into the darkness. Despite having killed the young man, Jason was everything, but satisfied. His mind and heart were empty as a phrase jumped at him. ''An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Your life for my mother''s!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 507 - Journey Three days had passed since the assassination of the young heir of the Blood sect, at the place wherein the big races had gathered. His untimely and unexpected homicide had caused a huge turmoil, yet, nobody knew who had killed the young heir! There had only been a message in the universal language scribbled on the wall at the crime scene, and the blood sect patriarch had almost declared war against the Drake clan in a fit! Who else could have done something like that?? There was no race that used the ice affinity that was also confident to vanish after an assassination! In the end, there were two higher races and three dozen big clans under a roof. It could only have been the Burane race that was colluding with the Drake family! Some big clans were having other thoughts about this, but the message written in the universal language was evidence enough that it couldn''t have been a human. That sounded just too implausible to everyone present! After partially blowing off the wall and releasing huge streams of mana were released during the young blood sect heir''s assassination, Jason had only been left with half a minute time to write a message. If one was not proficient in the language, it would have been impossible to write it down that quickly, without a mistake, and in a beautiful handwriting at that! Even studying a simple sentence wouldn''t be easy to write down in a matter of a few seconds. There were too many points to pay attention to. In the end, the sentence Jason had written was in a perfect universal language, with words that were not commonly used either. Nobody had been able to detect Jason''s mana fluctuations either because the icicles he had summoned were conjured by Artemis'' mana, while he had frozen the room by activating the runes engraved in the Burane race''s dagger that was typically used by their assassins. The entire situation had turned awry, and Jason couldn''t help but worry a little bit. He was not sure if he had done the right thing, but allowing his mother''s murderer to live even a second longer was not something Jason could agree with. If he were to be honest, the young heir from the blood sect had been killed way too easily without feeling much pain. Jason was not a fan of torturing, and despite him having killed his mother, he didn''t feel the desire to degrade himself to become like others. Despite having killed the young heir, Jason didn''t feel any satisfaction. His mother was still dead, and he had only given her soul her final rest. Nevertheless, when he thought about the Blood sect, and how many humans they had killed, Jason''s anger flared. He was not adamant about killing all of them, but it was evident that they were a menace to mankind. In the end, Jason had finally completed everything he''d wanted to achieve for the time being. Mankind was in some sort of a tacit agreement and wouldn''t attack each other for the time being, and he had also exacted his revenge. Despite that, the tasks at hand were too many to count, but the biggest problem was something else! It might have been only Jason, who was worried about that, but there were other races that had sought asylum on Argos! He was not sure how many there were and neither what kind of strength they had reached. Nevertheless, they should have a much wider knowledge and grander capabilities compared to the human race. Jason didn''t think that they would suddenly attack Canir owing to the fact that the other continents were said to have a slightly higher mana density and purity, but the situation was unpredictable right now! Because of that, he decided to take a look at the other continents and figure out what kinds of races inhabited there in addition to their combat strength, how advanced they were, and how dangerous they might be. Hopefully, there wasn''t a grand war brewing on the other continents, otherwise, the three Overlords would have intervened. When Jason had thought about that, he abruptly halted mid-air. "Would they have intervened? Was there even a reason strong enough for them to intervene in the Great Argos war, to begin with??" He had already known that there was something unique about Argos, which had led the three Overlords to intervene. ''Come to think of it, there is no reason for Canir to have less mana than the rest of the world. It is normal for certain environments to have more or less mana due to natural generated treasures, but Canir''s mana is less than I thought it would be.'' His Emperor Eyes hadn''t detected anything special about Canir, but that didn''t mean there was nothing. There had already been quite a few incidents where he had been unable to see something special through his Emperor Eyes, and completely missed a fully concealed beast, manaless poisonous fog, or the black origin flame crystal! As such, there could have been something unique on Canir, Jason was unaware of! This was interesting to know but didn''t help him determine whether there could have been a war on the other continent or not. Jason was not even sure how many continents there were right now, but there was more than enough land for him to adventure through! More than three centuries had passed since the mana outbreak, and it was not unlikely that certain events like large-scale wars and shifting tectonic plates could have caused the separation of continents. Thus, after he had picked up Anna, and Solaris, who had immediately entered his soul world, Jason wanted to depart. However, before doing anything wrong, he had already given Mike, the weapon manufacturer, the copies of all translated manuals of the foreign races. After that, they had signed a soul contract stating that Mike was not allowed to hand out the manuals to the public. Only the big clans were allowed to receive a few pages every month, and Jason decided to trust Mike, as a neutral party to do what he couldn''t! Jason knew that he didn''t have the time to distribute the translated manuals as promised, thus Mike was his last resort. He had already informed Lusan and Fasro too that he would depart, and it was only Anna, who he had to ask whether she wanted to stay with him during the next few months or not. She was a baby and defenseless after all! Taking her with him everywhere was extremely dangerous and she was likely to turn into a huge burden for him. Despite happily agreeing, Jason couldn''t help but feel uncomfortable. It was only when he heard that Mike''s sister had lost her baby before the Great Argos war had started, that Jason got an idea. Mike told him a lot about his sister and her depressed state, thus giving her a reason to live and work might as well be the best for both Mike''s sister and Anna. Because of that, he decided to ask Mike if it would be fine for his sister to take care of Anna for the time being. Even though Mike didn''t know what had caused Jason to be so careful and gentle with the baby of someone he shouldn''t have been acquainted with, he agreed the moment his eyes locked with Anna''s. Anna didn''t want to part ways with Jason. There were many things she had wanted to ask, and only he knew about her being a transmigrator! Revealing this fact to the outside world could end up disastrous, which had been the reason for her to rely on Jason. Now that he was about to leave, she might understand his reasoning, but couldn''t accept it. This might have been her selfishness, but Jason was simply the best solution to all of her problems. Nevertheless, after thinking about it, Jason decided to leave Anna with Mike''s sister as he told the little baby, "I will definitely return, and when it''s time for our reunion we might as well be able to properly speak with each other!" Every word he had said to Anna was spoken in the universal language, and Jason couldn''t help but smile bitterly while the little baby cried to see him go. He turned away from Mike, and his sister, whose eyes were glimmering brightly with the baby girl, Anna in her arms. Unfolding Artemis'' wings, Jason flapped them once, catapulting himself into the air, as he flew straight ahead, without a set destination. Despite being unsure of where to land, Jason couldn''t help but feel excited. Something new was about to be revealed in front of him after all! During the last few years, he had used almost every single second of his life to become stronger and achieve things nobody thought to be possible, and now that he had some time for himself, Jason couldn''t help but smile in relief. Jason might have had an important task to fulfill, but was it really as important or urgent as he had said? In the end, he could have asked the Ariyor or Elvyr race to make a quick trip to the other continents and take a look at the immigrant races, their strength, and how threatening their existence could turn to mankind! However, instead of doing that, now he decided to have some time for himself that was free of mankind''s greed and stupidity! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 508 - Paths Of Cultivation *[Several months later]* Inside a gigantic city constructed by the federation of a couple of migrated, almost annihilated races, one could see a young man with broad shoulders, black hair that had silver strands, and golden-silverish eyes. His aura was unrestrained while the stigma above his right eye that looked like a reversed wing was glowing faintly. Dense currents of mana were passively attracted to the young man. It was Jason who walked nonchalantly through the crowded streets of Janur, the biggest city of the continent, they had named Manla. This was not the name mankind had given to the continent in the past, but that was what it was now- the past. Jason had no qualms adjusting himself because he was already accustomed to change. Right from the cultivation system to figure out that there was more than one energy with which one could cultivate, everything existed and he had adapted to all the changes pretty well. Accepting that he was not a pure human had been the most difficult for him, but other than that, nothing seemed to be a problem. Not even the fact that his grandparents might still be alive, just somewhere else and not on Argos! Jason had even accepted the fact that Petri''s evolution that had been completed months earlier had changed everything about him! This had been literal, and Jason was glad that the soul connection with Petri was still strong, if not stronger than it had ever been. It was difficult to believe what had happened, but not only had Petri shed his skin, which was nothing unique, but at the same time, he had expelled his mana core! Unbeknownst to everyone, Petri had turned into a beast that was unable to absorb mana anymore! His physical strength had increased tremendously, and the shared strength Jason had received almost broke his vessel apart! He had been able to barely bear it owing to the Celestia bloodline that had strengthened his physical attributes by several notches! Digesting that Petri had become unable to absorb mana was something Jason couldn''t comprehend. It was only when he recalled the memories Anna had transmitted to him, that he remembered that cultivating with mana was only one of three possible main paths to cultivate! Accepting this was difficult, but Petri had never been a beast that had relied on mana, to begin with. His forte had always been physical strength and the two curses he harbored. However, now that everything had changed about Petri, right from his length that had increased to more than 50 meters, to his pupils that had turned entirely golden, up to the pitch-black scales with golden veins spreading through them, Jason couldn''t help but feel overwhelmed. On one hand, it might not be bad that Petri was unable to cultivate in the path of mana anymore, but on the other hand, Jason had to figure out a proper way to increase his soulbond''s strength! This was not necessarily the case for now because Jason could barely bear with a physical increment comparable to 1,500 drops of liquefied mana, but it was important for later. Despite his body almost breaking apart when Petri had finished his evolution, Jason couldn''t help but feel that his soulbonds were striving to become stronger. His youngest soulbond had become the strongest after evolving, but Jason had no idea what kind of race it had turned into! From legends, he had heard that calling it a basilisk would be the easiest answer, which was exactly what Jason decided to call Petri''s race. It might have been wrong, but there was nobody who corrected him either way. Rejecting mana as his path to cultivate, Petri had turned into a beast that cultivated on the path of strength, Pryr. The path of mystic energy, Maest, was the one everyone called the path of mana, and Jason could only know these things because of the memories Anna had transmitted to him. It was still confusing, and he decided to simply take the different energies as a means to determine what path one had chosen. As such, the path of strength was called the path of primordial energy by Jason! This was the path Petri had taken, to reinforce his life force and every cell in his body. Jason was not sure what exactly primordial energy was, but he decided to not worry about it for now. Argos didn''t have a different energy than mana either way! It had been an interesting experience to travel through Manla for several months, and Jason had already spent a few weeks inside Janur, which was called the most populated city on all continents. At least, that was what he''d heard by eavesdropping on the conversation of others. Despite being able to socialize quickly, Jason''s aura and stigma caused others to revere him. However, he didn''t want to restrict his aura, and stigma because it was comfortable to be himself. Furthermore, he could passively absorb mana too! His thoughts had been lingering on the other path of cultivation, but the only one he had yet to encounter was the path of wisdom. Known as Spiral, it was the path where one absorbed spiritual force to refine one''s mind and create a vessel that could be used to store the energy and enhance it. While Petri had changed substantially, Jason didn''t pay as much attention to absorbing and liquefying mana as he should have. However, by freely releasing his aura and stigma that accelerated his passive mana absorption by a large margin, the number of highly compressed liquefied drops had increased to 134. He would have reached double the number by focusing on cultivating, but Artemis had been devouring his mana stones at such a rapid pace, that Jason had been unable to cultivate actively either way. The surrounding mana was denser on Manla than it was on Canir, but the passive mana gathering with his aura and stigma were already exceeding the naturally generated mana. As such, he would have to use mana stones to increase his pace, which was not possible as Artemis had devoured everything, only to demand more. In the end, she hadn''t cared about holding back anymore, and almost imploded by eating too many mana stones. The number of liquefied mana drops in her core had increased to a shocking amount of 600, but it had taken a toll on her body that was now utterly exhausted. Liquefying 100 drops of mana every month had been too taxing and being tired and fatigued was already a light punishment Artemis'' body had given her. This prevented her from moving around, but it was better than being seriously injured! Now that half a year had passed since he had left Canir, he had found his inner peace after working relentlessly for four years. Even if he hadn''t done much during the last six months, his strength had increased substantially which was owing to his soul world''s high amplification of 40%, and his soulbonds'' sincere efforts in becoming stronger. However, now it was time for him to start acting. He had observed more than enough to determine what was going on and which race he had to pay attention to. From the looks of it, only Petri had become a being that cultivated using the path of primordial energy, and every migrating race had been a race that absorbed and cultivated with mana! As such, they could progress without any issues which was interesting to know as he had expected to see races with all kinds of cultivation paths. However, when he had begun approaching the other races that were extremely friendly to him, he figured out that the cultivation paths were determined by one''s cultivation veins! What this meant for Petri was that he had either transformed his mana veins to primordial energy veins or that he had expelled his mana veins during his evolution. Yet, other races had told Jason that it was impossible to change one''s cultivation veins because one was born with them. Jason doubted this because Petri had changed his cultivation veins¡­.or had he not?? His mind had been rattling at this thought, and it was only when he remembered that every neutral beast without affinity could only be bound to a certain soul world that shock spread through him. ''Is the physical soul world related to the cultivation path of primordial energy???'' If that were to be the case, every physically attributed beast would be walking on the path of primordial energy...by absorbing mana!! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 509 - I Can Do It! "Cultivating life force and strengthening one''s cells with mana as a substitute for primordial energy¡­.?" Jason felt overwhelmed with the information he had yet to process, and his mind had begun churning theories he couldn''t comprehend right now. The human race had been able to awaken two different kinds of soul worlds so far, namely physical and elemental soul worlds. Thus, Jason came to the theory that the path of primordial energy might have something to do with the physical soul world. However, his theory that physically attributed beasts on Argos were cultivating their life force and cells with mana as a substitute for the lacking primordial energy was a little over the top. Despite that, the more he thought about it, the more his theory made sense to him. His knowledge was still not vast in comparison to most other foreign races, but Jason wanted to work hard to change this as fast as possible. There were many things that interested him, and one new thing that piqued his curiosity was the question as to why the human race had two possible soul worlds, and not one, or in fact three. In the end, there were three possible cultivation paths, and if the physical soul world was correlated to the path of primordial energy, there had to be another one for the path of spiritual force! Jason''s head was aching a lot, and he decided to find a library instead of wasting his time eavesdropping on others. Since Petri had evolved, which seemed to have changed his cultivation veins, the strength he could exhibit was entirely different compared to before. It was as if Petri''s cells and life force were more vigorous than before. ''Could this mean that physically attributed beasts convert mana into primordial energy but with a reduced efficiency??'' For this scenario, Jason had developed many theories too, but spending time in a library to figure out more was what he was supposed to do. However, when he entered the Janur''s library, which was a huge building complex with handwritten books, Jason couldn''t help but frown. The librarian asked him to pay upfront if he wanted to stay in the library, only for Jason to realize that he didn''t have any mana stones to pay with. Artemis had eaten all of them. "Can I pay with weapons or the body refinement manuals of other races?" He thus asked simply. The librarian from the Hran race, that was in fact a human-like race with pitch-black arms that had golden vein-like strands spreading through them, looked at him almost disgusted as he scowled, "I don''t care what race you are, but don''t be under the impression that you will receive a special service. Entering the library once will cost you 10 Prismar mana stones, or 1 Prismar pryr stone. We don''t accept spirit stones, so don''t even try!" Jason could only stare at the librarian, who was a head taller than he was, in astonishment as he mumbled, "Pryr stone...is that a stone filled with primordial energy? And spirit stones should be filled with spiritual force...I see! INTERESTING!" His eyes were gleaming in interest, and Jason simply ignored the librarian''s rude behavior as he turned around to rush off. There was no need to offend anyone by throwing a tantrum. Instead, Jason thought that the librarian was indiscriminately rude or rather direct to everyone he met. As such, he was able to remain calm as excitement spread through his entire body. Jason''s knowledge about the three existing main paths of cultivation might be shallow, or almost non-existent, but his desire to quench his thirst for knowledge was almost impossible once it had been awoken. He wanted to find out everything, and the gigantic library was his way to do so! Spending time reading books might be uninteresting for others, but this was Jason''s forte! Reading for days, weeks, or even months was no problem for him, as long as the knowledge he would receive was interesting and could be properly used! In the end, no information could be labeled as entirely useless, and Jason never knew when something deemed worthless might save his neck in a sticky situation! Thus, he rushed towards a weapon workshop, trying to sell some weapons he had gathered from burglars that had tried to overwhelm him, thinking that he belonged to a grand race and wanted to gain experience by entering the planet Argos, which was said to be at the infant-phase. Other than that, he had many more weapons, which he had received in return to his contribution during the Great Argos war. As such, selling them for mana or pryr stones at the Prismar stage wouldn''t be much of a problem. Jason was not really interested in the mana stones, because he wouldn''t be able to cultivate with them for the time being. Meanwhile, Artemis was not able to touch a single mana stone for the time being owing to her earlier greed that had caused her to be extremely exhausted. Only Petri could advance if he had the required energy to cultivate! Thus, after selling a huge bulk of weapons at the Lique stage and some that were at the Prismar stage, he was able to retrieve several dozen Prismar stage pryr stones. They were 10 times more expensive than mana stones due to the scarcity of world bridges connecting to planes that had reserves of pryr stones and naturally generated primordial energy. When Jason received the stones from a bulky bipedal blacksmith that looked like a crimson-colored boar, he could immediately tell the vast difference between the mana stones and pryr stones. His Emperor Eyes were able to perceive everything about the primordial energy residing inside the pryr stones, which astonished Jason for a short moment, only to calm down after a few seconds. Because of the Celestia bloodline within him, Jason wouldn''t be overly shocked if he were suddenly able to cultivate with all three kinds of energies. After thinking about this for a while he felt that it was highly likely too! The Celestia race was deemed as overly powerful after all! Thus, owing to the fact that his Emperor Eyes were possibly enhanced, or a mutated version of the eyes his mother had due to his bloodline, he shouldn''t have been as astonished about his ability to see the flow of primordial energy as he was. Shaking his head, Jason simply rushed back to the librarian whom he handed one of the Prismar stage pryr stones before he entered the library. Once entered, he could stay inside as long as he wanted, and only by leaving the library would his access permission be null and void. This was great for Jason, but instead of shouting out in joy, he decided to observe and study the pryr stone in his hand. "It''s like the Ascron''s life force Solaris devoured from within the Ifry''s body!" The Ifrytor race and Ifrys didn''t have a high physical advancement, but the Creato flame had been able to devour the Ascron''s life force! With that being said, the Creato flame was created through the combination of both life force and mana, which was initiating the process of its growth according to the manual Jason had read once. Taking out the Creato hellflame manual once again, he skimmed through it and found the solution to one of his theories. "So...in order to adjust to their environment some physically attributed races and beasts learned how to convert mana into primordial energy which allows them to nurture their life force and cells." Other than that, there was also the possibility of awakening two cultivation veins at once, but such beasts and races were extremely rare and mostly seen as superior. An ordinary race wouldn''t have that ability, and only mutations or those who evolved over hundreds, if not thousands of generations were able to achieve that. When Jason thought about the answer he had figured out, everything made more sense than it did before. Most physically attributed beasts used mana to cultivate in the path of primordial energy, which reduced the potency of the entire cultivation process. This was also why Petri had expelled his mana veins that were in fact not awakened and had only been utilized in order to absorb mana to convert it into primordial energy before. The mana core and liquefied mana were a byproduct of this process, and decreased the pace at which every physically attributed beast could advance! It was possible for them to utilize mana, but the use of it was minuscule in comparison to cultivating with primordial energy that nurtured their life force and every single cell in their body. After Jason tried to make sense of everything, he tried to control the primordial energy and absorb it, but realised that his body was heating up at a rapid pace. By forcefully leading the primordial energy out of one of the pryr stones he had received, Jason circulated it through his cultivation vein that was heating up. It hurt a little, which mainly stemmed from the unknown energy invading an area that had been solely used by mana up until now. At that moment, he noticed that his assumption had been correct, and he would be able to cultivate in the path of primordial energy too. However, all of a sudden, the primordial energy Jason had circulated through his body was churning up, wreaking havoc in his one and only cultivation vein! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 510 - Plan Of Revelation The primordial energy circulating through Jason''s body was harmful, and he immediately disregarded his previous assumption. On a whim, he conjured a large magic circle on the ground. It belonged to Petri through which Jason could summon his soulbond. However, instead of doing that, his stigma began to glow brightly as he bent forward to press his hand on the magic circle, expelling every trace of primordial energy out of his body. The primordial energy seeped into the magic circle through his hand, and Jason could only hear Petri roaring out in delight. His soulbond''s joy knew no bounds as he was supplied with primordial energy which he annexed and devoured in an instant. Jason noticed this and he could only smile lightly as his face turned pale to hear footsteps rushing towards him. Turning around he saw that the librarian of the Hran race had appeared behind him, with an angry expression. "It is forbidden to cultivate within the library, let alone inscribe a magic circle on the ground!!" However, only a moment later, when Jason straightened before terminating the magic circle, the librarian noticed something odd and he couldn''t help but squint his eyes. "You tried to absorb primordial energy and it backlashed? Don''t overestimate yourself. There are only a few races that are capable of cultivating with multiple energies. Just focus on absorbing and liquefying mana, OUTSIDE the library!" Jason could only nod his head meekly before he searched for a place to sit down. ''Why can''t I cultivate with primordial energy? In the beginning, it looked fine, but after a few moments, it was as if my veins noticed that the primordial energy was not mana!'' This was one of the questions he wanted to find an answer to. As such, he started to search for suitable books to read through. They were all written in the universal language, and Jason didn''t waste any more time as he started to study. ** Almost a month had passed and Jason was still sitting over a huge pile of books he wanted to read. The librarian, who didn''t like him from the beginning, was slowly starting to grow fond of the tenacious Jason. From the looks of it, Jason was just a young man who was probably in his early 20s if not late teens. However, more important was the aura he was releasing and the stigma he had. This labeled him as a being from a grand race owing to the fact that Jason had only reached the Low Lique stage! When he had read through the books that included lots of information about cultivation, Jason was astonished to figure out that the cultivation system was not as simple as he had estimated it to be. The nomenclature of some ranks at the Lique stage, namely Lowest, Low, Mid, Late, and Peak was different! Instead of Lowest, one would enter the 1st Lique stage by creating one drop of liquefied mana. However, one would only enter the 2nd Lique stage with the 1001st liquefied drop of mana. This was a vast difference, and only by adding the previous prefix, Jason knew that the cultivation system was finally completed. As such, the lowest 1st Lique stage was in fact the liquefaction of the first few dozen drops of mana. After that came the low, mid, late, peak 1st Lique stage before one entered the 2nd Lique stage. This was less confusing in Jason''s opinion, but another change, he would have to accept in his mind. Nevertheless, the other information he had procured during the last month was equally important. However, before he could make use of it, Jason had to process it well. There were too many things he had yet to understand, and the complete cultivation system was among the easiest. More difficult, for example, was the knowledge that cultivating in multiple paths requires one to have awakened multiple cultivation veins that were either merged or did not repel each other due to the different characteristics every energy had. This was said to be possible with a suitable cultivation technique, but Jason was not sure about that. He simply assumed that the one cultivation vein he had was still sealed as his Celestia bloodline was! His strength was still too weak to unseal more of his bloodline after all! Jason, who had unique liquefied drops of mana and a huge soul world with a high amplification of 40% was still at the low 1st Lique stage as he had only 137 drops of liquefied mana! Meanwhile, his entire combat prowess that he had increased by using every means possible was already at the mid 2nd Lique stage! This was owing to Petri''s physical amplification that had almost caused his body to be ripped apart. In the end, his strength sounded extremely weak in the new, completed cultivation system he had learned about, but his strength was in fact enough to face someone at the 2nd Lord rank, without the need to unholster his guns! Now that a month had passed, he finally left the library as he mumbled "Even if mankind were to be at their peak state, fighting against the federation of foreign races would be stupid...Is it time to reveal everything I know about the foreign races right from what I had already figured out earlier up to the things I got to know in the library?" Jason knew that the Ariyor and Elvyr race had already departed, and Emily should have gone with them too. As such, he didn''t have anyone to back him up, but also nobody he had to protect, except the Flers and Anna. However, his connections to the Flers were not publicly known, while Anna was well hidden. Thus, exposing everything wouldn''t be much of an issue. If he were to expose certain things, he wouldn''t be able to hide the fact that he was a halfling from another race after all. This might be disadvantageous, but hiding it forever was not something he had planned to do either way. His only task was to protect and help the weaker humans. Other than that, Shane hadn''t asked for anything from him. In order to achieve this, maintaining harmony between the other big clans and foreign races that had immigrated was the most important task. Considering the same, Jason took the simplest path. He decided to write a book about the foreign races, and include detailed information of what mankind didn''t know about the races and anything else he thought might come in handy. He supported his words by saying that he belonged to a human, yet also a different human-like race. Jason knew that this would put him in the spotlight as the attention would be drawn towards him. Some might try to sully his reputation and start spreading rumors, but Jason was not afraid of it. In the end, he had given his utmost efforts to protect mankind from being conquered and enslaved during the Great Argos war, and there was nothing more he could do. Just giving his best and having faith in humanity was everything Jason could do for now, and that was more than enough. He hadn''t abandoned the human race that had treated him, a presumed, blind orphan like trash after all! There were certain things he had planned, such as staying lowkey once he was to release the book in a printed and written version after procuring a new quantum bracelet. Other than that he wanted to expose his true identity to his friends first, personally because there were already too many clues about him being a halfling and it was likely that they would find out about it sooner or later Being prepared for the grand revelation was the most important, and Jason couldn''t allow himself to make any mistakes. It had been peaceful on Canir for seven months thanks to his hard work to motivate the big clans and sects to work together against each other, and Jason didn''t want this effort to be for naught. He was still not confident to face the big clan heads or anyone at the Prismar stage, but he was on a time crunch and didn''t have a few years'' time to confront mankind with the bitter truth of their insignificance! Divulging all his well-kept secrets might as well help him establish a firm connection between the big clans, sects, and more importantly, mankind as a whole! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 511 - Trust Writing a book with all the necessary information mankind required was difficult, even more so, if he had to make everything sound reasonable. Jason knew that the humans didn''t trust other races except for the Ariyor and Elvyr race anymore, and it was even difficult for the big clans to maintain peaceful relations with each other. There were many conflicts that had occurred, but everyone was forced to remain calm because they wanted to obtain the completed version of the translated manual they had received from different foreign races. Reading the information on the first few pages and putting it into practice had already increased their combat prowess by a large margin, and Jason, who hadn''t seen any human during the last seven months, was still able to accurately predict the events unfolding on Canir, despite being tens of thousand miles away from the continent. Jason knew about the vast difference between human-made combat techniques and those put together by foreign races over centuries better than anyone. He had translated them after all! Furthermore, he had practiced the Floating Sky technique during the last seven months. This had allowed him to see the vast difference between the Weightless steps technique that was created by humans and the Floating Sky movement technique that was created by a foreign race. As such, Jason understood the human mind better than anyone else right now! It was as if mankind had become an open book to him, and now Jason wanted to reveal to them everything they had been missing out on. This included the existence of countless planets, races, the renewed, completed cultivation ranking, Jason had just gotten to know, and much more. He even added the ranking for races and three different main cultivation paths, that was something Jason had yet to figure out thoroughly. On one hand, Jason was not sure what would happen with mankind if they were to find out the entire truth, but on the other hand, he was able to let the readers of his book slowly understand their insignificance. As long as mankind didn''t give up, they were everything but weak! The human race''s soul world was something great enough to overcome the obstacle of multiple rankings the other races had. With that being mentioned often enough, Jason was sure that mankind wouldn''t end up in a depressed state. This was one of the most important tasks he had at hand, and when he returned to Canir, Jason had first gathered his friends, Mike, his sister, and Anna. He felt it was important that they got to know the information he would release on Skynet a few days later, from him in person first. He had already purchased a simple quantum watch with access to Skynet and he could simply release his book, and purchase enough advertisement to let every single human on Canir find it in an instant. His mana stones might have been used up but Jason had killed a few beasts on his way back to Canir, which were worth quite a lot. Initially, he had just wanted to test his combat prowess. But after encountering a few Mid 1st Lique stage beasts that were wreaking havoc inside a human city, Jason couldn''t stop himself from massacring the beasts and saving the lives of the helpless humans. The beasts had been on the verge of overtaking a small island that belonged to one of the big clans that had been weakened the most and they would have succeeded, had Jason not interfered. Selling the corpses would bring him a small fortune that would be more than enough to pay for the advertisement expense. Thus, everything was prepared and Jason was ready for the revelation. All of them gathered at an inconspicuous tavern inside a small city. Nobody knew why Jason would choose such a place to meet, but when he had begun to reveal everything, everyone stared at him in shock. Mike''s sister had already begun to shiver in fright. She didn''t know Jason personally and it was only because of Anna''s pleading that she and the little baby girl that had just learned how to speak were attending the meeting. While Mike''s sister was shivering, Jason''s friends looked at him as if he was a complete stranger. Suspicion, anger, and fear could be seen in her eyes, and Jason could fully understand that. However, what had astonished him was Mike''s reaction. Jason couldn''t remember having told Mike about his origin, but the middle-aged man behaved as if he had already been aware of this. This could be attributed to Mike''s great observation and judgment skills. Mike was one of the few who had personally witnessed Jason''s quick advancement, his way of thinking, his rapid translation of the foreign race''s manuals, and much more. Furthermore, it would have been weird for an ordinary human to enter different continents and the cities of other foreign races without being able to speak and understand the universal language perfectly. As such, Mike had been able to comprehend that Jason, whose aura and stigma had been suspicious from the beginning, was not an ordinary human! Other than that, there was Anna, who was unfazed by everything he had revealed so far and was instead eager to talk to him. She wanted to ask lots of questions about everything involving the human race, their traits, how to awaken a large soul world, and so on. At the same time, she wanted to tell Jason about her past life too. However, with other people around, revealing the secret about having transmigrated was nothing Anna should, or would do! It was simply too dangerous, and she was just glad that Jason had returned. Anna knew that he wouldn''t stay for long after she had heard that he had revealed his origin and lots of other information that could turn him into the enemy of everyone who hated foreign races to the core. Jason was likely to be labeled a monster, someone who didn''t belong to the human race. From the looks of it, he was fully aware of this, but instead of bothering about something so trivial, Jason had just smiled at his friends. "So that''s why your mana absorption rate is so high! I almost thought you were taking the last few stocks from our clan''s cultivation drugs! Everything makes much more sense now!!" Milan commented, who was the first one to recover from the shock and seemed to be the most unfazed by Jason''s revelation. He was even teasing Jason, and a faint smile lingered on his face. Jason had been nice to him, and knowing the secret of his origin wouldn''t make any difference to Milan. Jason was still the same as before to him! He might have matured a lot because of the pain he had to endure by losing a soulbond and his masters, but that was normal! Isga and Yune required a little bit more time to digest the information, and their reaction had been similar to that of Seron, who had received a message from Jason about the other information he had forgotten to reveal a few months earlier. There was a trace of fear within their eyes, which was understandable, thinking that their friend had deceived them for the whole time. However, by thinking about the time they had spent together in the Mythic Garden, Isga couldn''t help but ignore the fear within him. Jason had always been sincere with them, and it was obvious how afraid he must have been to tell them his secret! Yune was a little awkward around Jason because he and Jason hadn''t spent as much time together, but that was not important. He had seen how hard Jason had worked in order to help the human race. If Jason had harbored ill intentions, he could have just abandoned mankind, when they had been in dire need of his help. In the end, the Great Argos war had only ended because of Jason as he had been the sole reason for the Elvyr race embassy to arrive, allowing the last battle to end up chaotic enough for the three Overlords to emerge! At the same time, he had prevented the worst-case scenario to happen as an aftermath of the war; a civil war. The big clans and sects were helping each other, and most importantly, the weak too! As such, nobody with enough knowledge would''ve ever imagined that Jason was a monster. Nevertheless, it was obvious that he would be called exactly that! Jason was glad about the trust everyone was giving him unconditionally, and he felt reassured that at least his friends believed him. Even if others were to call him a monster, Jason knew that he was not one. As long as he and his friends were aware of that, this was more than enough. Furthermore, he could change the public opinion of him, after releasing the book he called [Argos'' Insignificance] This shouldn''t be difficult, and Jason was confident to achieve that. But, was that even necessary? Would that help Jason fulfill his masters'' last wish? Not even the opinion the big clans had about him was important to Jason! Why should he start bothering about the opinion of ignorant citizens? All he did was to take care of his masters'' last wishes before leaving Argos. At least, that was what Jason had expected to do, only to change his plans when he had his first talk with Anna! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 512 - Outbreak It was weird to be in serious discussion with a young girl that was less than two years old. However, now that Anna was able to talk with someone normally, she was unstoppable. Holding herself back with Mike and his sister around during the last 8 months had been arduous, but Anna had tried to pay attention to the surrounding mana. As she was very young, she was unable to sense it, thus was trying her best in order to perceive it as fast as possible. This shouldn''t have been a problem because her entire being knew how mana felt like owing to her past life''s experience. Nevertheless, Argos'' mana was much scarcer and impure than Anna had been accustomed to. As such, it was not as easy as she had expected. While the others had left with only Mike and his sister staying behind, Anna had demanded to talk with Jason alone. Her voice had been cute and sluggish at that time, as if an ordinary young girl was talking, only for Jason to realise that she had been acting all this time. Anna''s voice was still cute, and she was able to talk freely without any issues. Her command over the universal language was perfect, and Jason couldn''t help but feel dumbfounded by the information she provided. There were so many things she talked about, and memorizing all of it was already proving to be extremely tedious. Thus, Jason asked her to skip the cultivation stages and related information because it was simply not necessary for him to know more about it right now. Instead, he told her to reveal things about other foreign races. Several hours had passed and both Jason and Anna had switched between asking and answering questions. From what Jason got to know, Anna had been more than a millennia-old. She didn''t want to tell him her exact age, but it was not difficult to comprehend that she had not only been strong but also old! The information both of them exchanged was vast, and extremely helpful for the future. However, other than exchanging information, there was a lot they had to do right now. There were other things to pay attention to after all. They had established a bond with each other, but they also knew that now was not the time to speak with each other about all kinds of topics because this would take several days, if not longer. Anna''s knowledge was just too vast, one that she had accumulated over centuries. With that being said, Jason ruffled the little girl''s hair before he lifted her one more time, and handed her to Mike''s sister, who was still unsure of how to act in front of Jason. "Please take good care of her. I will come back in the future, once I''m strong enough, or when society accepts me!" The last few words he had said were to lighten the mood, which was not really helpful. Nevertheless, Jason bid them goodbye after a short discussion with Mike. He was still responsible for manufacturing bullets. At the same time, he distributed the translated versions of the foreign race''s manuals to the big clans. "You can start selling the copied versions of the neutral body refinement technique from the Doom Crawls for a low price!" By low price, Jason was talking about a price that was low enough so that ordinary families could purchase them as long as they were willing to save up a little bit. The main purpose for this was to distract the citizens from the uproar that was destined to happen because of the book he was about to release while mentioning his name inside the extremely cheap body refinement manual! This would allow his reputation to increase, despite some people that may call him a monster. While he was telling Mike this, he had already used the Star notes he had received in exchange for selling the beasts he had killed to print his book and sell it. At the same time, he had used an AI to release his book on every online website on Skynet for free, while advertising it heavily. It was impossible to not see his book because the exposure was so grand that it stirred up an uproar in a matter of hours. Nobody had read through it, but the first two paragraphs of the book were already grand enough to let everyone experience shock, and goosebumps that appeared on their entire body. [What would happen if a being neither belonging to the human, or any foreign race, were to tell you the truth about Argos'' insignificance and secrets nobody dared to talk about? Where are the foreign races coming from? What is their goal? What exactly are rifts, and how is it possible to prevent another war like the Great Argos war from happening EVER again? Every question will be answered in this book...] ** Since that day, a month had passed, and nobody had heard or seen Jason Stella, who had revealed the fact that he was a halfling to humanity. Everyone had read the book he had written, but nobody could comprehend everything written within. Neither was the information they comprehended accepted by everyone easily nor did they want to believe it because what Jason had stated inside the book was simply too terrifying. This caused them to shun Jason''s book, whatever he had stated, and some even denied his existence. Other than that, there were those who said that Jason was simply a transformed human, and not a halfling, who was trying to gain everyone''s attention by instilling fear. Thus they called him names, with ''monster'' being one of the less harsh ones. However, there were also those that believed some words stated by him. These people were those that had witnessed the Great Argos war, whether they had been supporters of the Argos alliance or the Drake alliance! It was not difficult to perceive that Jason was special and anything but ordinary. His combat prowess, his aura, the stigma, and most importantly, the appearance of the gates of hell, and a silver-colored divine aura during the last battle of the Great Argos war, spoke volumes about his persona and accomplishments. Thus, they accepted Jason''s words to some extent. The big clans were a part of those people, and slowly everything began to make sense to them. Jason had been a cut above the rest since the beginning, and they had always been suspicious about him. However, they hadn''t expected him to be a halfling of a human and an unknown foreign race. Nevertheless, instead of offending him in any way, they had decided to stay silent for the time being. They wanted to receive the rest of the translated manuals after all! Even if that was the case, some big clans had started to spread rumors through their subordinates, undermining Jason''s sincerity to support mankind. Almost every big clan was afraid of Jason, whether it was because of his cultivation talent, or combat prowess that was rapidly increasing. Knowing that he was from a foreign race made them assume that Jason was no better than the other foreign races, who were just trying to annex Argos. Yet, what they heard about the other continents on Argos, which Jason had also written about in his book, the big clans couldn''t help but acknowledge that they had to be more careful. If they were to conquer each others'' lands for a century or longer only to gain more resources, the immigrated foreign races might as well start conquering Canir and the archipelago. This was unlikely but still a possibility, the big clans had to include it into their calculations. While everything had turned upside down from the moment Jason had released his book, a month had passed. It was only then that the first news about his reappearance spread throughout the planet like wildfire. He didn''t know that his popularity had increased so much. Whether it was positive or negative, was not important, and everything that mattered to Jason was to become stronger, help mankind to survive on Argos before he could finally start his own journey without anyone holding him back! It didn''t influence Jason, but when he stood right in front of a world bridge that had just finished manifesting, he couldn''t help but hope that nobody was recording him. Otherwise, one might think that he had summoned the world bridge that was changing from its stable blue liquefied state into an unstable state as its color turned crimson! This was a bad sign and Jason could only flap Artemis'' wings several times in order to retreat, as multiple heads that belonged to one beast emerged from the world bridge. After the first beast, hundreds followed suit, causing Jason''s face to pale. "F*ck!! Are those Chimeras?? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 513 - Isnt That...? Jason had felt and heard rumors about Argos undergoing drastic changes. There had also been the news about several temporary world bridges that had manifested out of nowhere, only to suddenly appear, throwing several hundred thousand beasts on Argos in short succession. This had caused devastating damages to the already weakened big clans. However, Jason hadn''t believed some rumors because it was unlikely for an entire large group of beasts to immigrate to another planet all of a sudden, with countless beasts at that. Yet, now that he saw how a temporary world bridge had just manifested in front of him within a few hours, only to break out, allowing numerous beasts to emerge on Argos, Jason couldn''t help but feel baffled. Not only was he on a small island, which the governing big clan had been unable to fully reclaim due to their weakened state, but the rift was right above one of the only cities that was almost unscathed. It inhabited the majority of humans that had sought refuge there, only to face a dungeon breakout. The chimeras were four-legged beasts that looked similar to griffons. The three heads along with scales covering their entire body were the only indicator of them being chimeras. In the end, their exact race was not really important because the real issue was something else. Every single chimera that had emerged from the world bridge was at the Lique stage! Most of them had even liquefied around 1000 drops of mana, which was the biggest issue Jason perceived. ''There are only three humans at the low 2nd Lique stage inside the city¡­'' His emperor eyes had become strong enough to sense and distinguish the mana fluctuations, mana cores, and the number of liquefied drops of mana they had, within a minute. Unfortunately, Jason lamented about his eyes'' ability for the first time in a long time, thinking that they should have shown him something more promising. The only two positive points he could assess from the current situation were that the chimeras didn''t seem to have any affinity other than the fire affinity seed in the central lizard head that was between the two other heads. Other than that, there had yet to be a Chimera at the 4th Lique stage or higher. This was extremely beneficial because Jason was confident enough to finish off the rest. Even tackling higher-ranked chimera might not be an issue, but facing a huge number of them at once would be cumbersome for him. Despite his confidence, that was not unfounded, Jason was not sure whether he could protect the city or not. The three humans at the 2nd Lique stage had already emerged above the city with wings protruding out of their back. ''At least they have a fortified soul conjunction. Otherwise, they would have to wait until the chimeras were to descend to the ground, dangerously close to them at that.'' Jason tried to make the best out of the current situation as he let Solaris occupy his mana core. His white wings that belonged to Artemis were replaced by an identical replica that consisted of black flames. Byakur was already tightly grasped in his hand that was as calm as if he was about to do nothing special at all. Right now, Jason was not even a little bit worried about his own life, and his only thoughts revolved around safeguarding the other citizens, and the reason for the sudden appearance of multiple unstable world bridges that had appeared out of nowhere, only to disappear. If they had been constructed by other races, it would have made more sense, but Jason was able to see that they were naturally generated by Argos and the corresponding world on the other side of the world bridge. This was confusing, and Jason wanted to investigate more about the temporary world bridge that could dissipate any moment. As such, he released Solaris'' entire strength at once, with ginormous flames erupting from his body. In an instant, Jason was enveloped in a thick layer of flames that were accurately controlled, while Byakur''s runes were activated as a thick stream of mana was led towards it. At the same time, Byakur''s size continued to increase as Solaris'' black flames began enveloping it. Since the last seven months, Jason''s mana soul energy had crossed 50 million units multiple times, only for him to notice that it was extremely difficult to increase the number of soul energy units after crossing it. From a daily increase of his soul energy of 1.5% which he had attained after his Celestia bloodline had been unsealed to a small degree, it had decreased drastically to less than 0.5%. However, instead of nurturing Solaris directly with every single spare soul energy unit, he had made use of the difference in his daily increment in order to feed him slowly. After seven months had passed, Solaris had finally reached a bottleneck to increasing its strength once again. Jason was sure that it was not the bottleneck of Solaris as a Tier-1 origin flame, but more that it lacked something to create the first solidified prismarine-crystal. He had already made several assumptions, but the most likely was that Solaris was required to devour another origin flame. At least, that was what Jason predicted after he perceived Solaris'' train of thoughts! Because of that issue, Solaris could only annex 10 million soul energy units, without it being able to make use of soul crystals. Every soulbond that reached the Prismar stage required soul crystals in order to be controlled properly. One soul crystal was equivalent to 10 million soul energy units, which would be taken out of the passive soul energy increment cycle forever! However, despite the restrictions that prevented Solaris from entering the 1st Prismar stage, Jason could hardly complain. The little origin flame that was devouring and burning three soul energy units only to annex one single unit had become his strongest soulbond all of a sudden. It had attained the combat strength of a Peak 10th Lique stage!! This was shocking, but unfortunately enough, Jason''s mana was not enough to make use of Solaris in his strongest state. In the end, this was only temporary, but Jason couldn''t help but be dissatisfied with himself! Maybe, he could execute a single attack with Solaris'' strongest flame, but that would strain his mana veins, and mana core, if not damage both! When Jason had released Solaris'' black flames, he could faintly hear the three protectors of the city mumbling, and gossiping about him. They realized that he was the halfling everyone had been talking bad about on the Skynet forum. Because of that, they immediately assumed that Jason had summoned the world bridges. However, they realised just how grossly wrong one''s assumptions could be as Jason released his Celestia aura, and stigma before he shot towards the first chimera that was only a few meters away from him. With a swift set of movements from the Floating Sky technique he had been learning, Jason had emerged in front of the chimera as Byakur swung around at a terrific speed. Not even a whole second had passed as the chimera had been beheaded, and all of its three heads fell to the ground with a sickening thud. With no time to spare one more glance, Jason passed by it, ignoring the limp body that followed the heads to crash into the ground without a single trace of life left within. After witnessing the chimera''s death in front of them, the three protectors of the city could only stare at Jason in shock. "Doesn''t he have only around 150 liquefied drops of mana in his mana core??" That was already shocking, but more astonishing was as the younger protector suddenly exclaimed, "Is...he really a monster and the cause of the world bridges'' emergence?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 514 - Protect At All Costs "Doesn''t it look like he is helping us, and protecting the city? Why else would he risk his life to kill the chimeras...he doesn''t even know what kind of powerhouse might suddenly emerge from the world bridge. The halfl...no..Jason Stella won''t be able to flee if a chimera at a much higher mana core stage might appear either!" The young protector''s words made sense, and the other two could only stare at Jason dumbfoundedly. They had blindly trusted the rumors spread on the Skynet forum, without questioning their credibility. However, what they saw in front of them was the exact opposite of what they had heard. Was that Jason''s manipulative tricks or had every forum thread they read about Jason been nothing but a lie? It was one thing that some people were writing bad about a person they may not like, but the number of people defending Jason, who was labeled as a monster and a bad person, was insignificant. Furthermore, everyone who tried to defend Jason online had been insulted and attacked with hateful messages almost instantly. As such, the three protectors, who could only read the forum threads that were filled with hateful things about Jason, were having a hard time distinguishing the truth from baseless rumors. This was something Jason had already expected, and it was not like he felt anything due to those idiotic keyboard warriors that were confident behind their screen, spewing hate and chaos from the comfort of their homes without coming out in the open. If they were to stand in front of him, releasing his Celestia aura would be more than enough for Jason to quiet them down in an instant. Meanwhile, most powerhouses didn''t bother actively trashing Jason or creating rumors. That was the task they could delegate to their subordinates, but even then it was also not something every big clan would do. As long as they could, maintaining a good relationship with Jason was the best for them. Some big clans might not have noticed it, but his superior mana aptitude and other advantageous characteristics of foreign races had made him stand out from the rest. However, in addition to possessing mana eyes, Jason had something extraordinary, something only the human race had, which was at the same time the reason for the entire race to be so valuable for everyone else! Jason had a soul world too! He had never actively released his soulbonds while fighting because Artemis and Petri had simply been too weak, but most people knew about him having soulbonds. Artemis'' wings were an indicator for this, but it could have also been seen as a trait owing to him being from another race. There were few times he had released Artemis, but other than that, Petri was never seen by anyone. Jason didn''t do so intentionally, but it was because Petri had already started to evolve when Solaris had absorbed the first liquefied drop of the Ascron''s lifeforce from the body of the suicidal Ifry. If he were to fight against other beasts, Petri could have defeated them easily. However, fighting against numerous winged beasts was not something Petri, a beast without wings and following the path of strength, could do easily. Hence, instead of relying on his soulbonds completely, Jason focused on fighting against everyone combining his own combat prowess with their shared strength. By executing the Floating Sky movement technique, his movement speed had almost doubled. In addition, Solaris'' flames gave him a huge boost in his strength, and even speed! Boosting his acceleration with outbursts of tiny explosions and eruptions of its flames, Jason turned the dangerous situation he had to face, into something that looked like a child''s play. The three protectors of the city could only stare at Jason''s black outlines in awe, while one chimera after another fell to the ground, beheaded, halved, or simply killed with a thrust, straight into their heart. Several minutes passed and Jason had to decrease the amount of mana he inserted into both Solaris and the Floating Sky movement technique. His mana consumption was simply too high, and the number of chimeras arriving through the world bridge didn''t seem to cease. Instead, Jason assumed that the number was increasing. This astonished him a little bit, and he began to wonder just how many chimeras were there on the other side of the world bridge. Did the world bridges appear in the lair of the chimeras or was there something else that caused them to appear on Argos? Jason didn''t know the answer, but the more time passed, the more interesting the whole situation seemed to become! Despite his huge mana consumption, Solaris'' ability to drain the life force of other beasts regenerated its mana by only a minuscule degree. At the same time, it was as if Petri was leeching on the wastes Solaris was expelling. Jason found it very weird, but Solaris'' wastes that were transferred right into the soul world, were able to nurture Petri! It was incomparable to primordial energy and insignificant, but the quantity of wastes Solaris was receiving from every single chimera were shockingly high! As such, it was still helpful for Petri, and Jason couldn''t help but feel that they were a perfect team. The wastes were instantly recycled leaving a cleansed soul world without any residual waste. It could be described as a parasitic relationship, only that Petri didn''t harm Solaris in any way. While investigating the situation inside his soul world, Jason had been distracted for a short moment, missing dozens of chimeras that were driving towards the city. It was only the three protectors now that were standing between the chimeras'' and the city, and there was no way for them to evade them anymore. At that moment, the chimeras spit out huge deep red flames, aiming towards the three protectors whom they considered as nothing but ants. Jason was much more dangerous, and someone they had to avoid by all costs. Trying to take Jason''s brethren as hostages would cause him to make mistakes. At least, that was what they expected as they rushed towards the city with their highest possible speed. The three protectors would have been ignored or also taken as hostages, but their combined strength might''ve been enough to kill a few of the chimera if they were to be too careless. In the beginning, Jason had assumed the chimeras to be beasts that had more muscle than brain, who only knew to mindlessly destroy rather than use strategy or tactics. However, that didn''t seem to be the case, and Jason was forced to execute the Floating Sky movement technique at the currently highest possible degree. His mana was rapidly drained, but it didn''t even take him two seconds to cross the distance between himself and the three protectors. He suddenly emerged in front of them, shocking the already flabbergasted protectors, as his eyes shone brightly. When he activated the abyssal effect of his emperor eyes, the petrification curse, and releasing killing intent to merge everything together, it caused the chimeras'' bodies to stiffen for a moment. This short timespan gave Jason enough time to react to the dozen-meter-long flames the lizard head spewed out. At that moment, he released several black, compressed spearlike flames that shot straight towards the Chimeras that stared at him in fear. While Jason''s mana core and veins were issuing loud noises as if they were just a second away from tearing his body apart. Gritting his teeth, he killed the chimeras that had almost obliterated the existence of the three protectors that stared at Jason in shock. ''He...protected us??'' Jason''s mana had been used up, and his body couldn''t take it anymore. However, there was no way that he could give up now. Even without mana, he was strong enough! There was no need for him to rely on Solaris'' strength either. Mana was not everything after all! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 515 - Are You An Idiot? Even without Solaris, or the ability to use mana, Jason was still not powerless. He had terrifically high physical strength! Jason had no mana left which he could only circulate through his body once replenished. Because of that, he switched Solaris with Artemis, allowing her to occupy his mana core, further enhancing his strength, while being able to manifest her wings. Jason''s veins bulged as he cleaved at the chimera in front of him. Owing to the high speed at which Byakur was swung, faint gusts of winds swept against the chimera that was in front of him. Suddenly, blood spurted out of its body as it was sliced into two parts. Flapping Artemis'' wings that were fully merged with Jason''s body, he enhanced his speed tremendously and appeared in front of the next chimera. He didn''t even bother to look at the beast as he thrust Byakur with one hand, aiming for its heart. Jason flew away from the chimera after pulling Byakur out of its body that came out slick with blood and passed the dying chimera without another glance. A moment later, he emerged next to the group of chimera that had attacked the three protectors of the city that was below them. By subtly controlling his wings, Jason was able to move around with the most difficult movements, evading several flames that had been spit out by the chimeras. They were trying to avoid him by all means, but Jason''s predictions of where the chimeras would spit fire were too precise to distract and flee from his sight. His cold eyes were trained on them, not missing even a single opportunity to inflict deep cuts every single time he came closer to the chimeras. Despite their numerical advantage, they were finding it extremely tough to outmaneuver him, let alone launch a counterattack. The kill count continued to increase as one dead corpse after another crashed to the ground, with a sickening crunch, the sound of breaking bones intermingling with their last cries. Every single citizen inside the city had noticed that something was going on above them. First, only a few were worried about their well-being, while the majority believed that the three protectors were strong enough to take care of the dangers. Yet, the more chimeras emerged from the red world bridge, the more frightening the situation became. At the same time, everyone could see that the protectors they had relied on were frozen in fear, clearly showing that their strength was not at par with the chimeras! Only a young human, the citizens were unable to decipher the identity of, was able to fight against the chimeras that tried to avoid him by all means. In the beginning, most citizens were oblivious to the young man''s identity, and they only knew that he was fighting with his life on the line. It was only when a group of young men and women exclaimed in the excitement that they realised who was giving his utmost efforts to keep them alive. "Isn''t that Jason Stella, the presumed halfling? I think he had mentioned that he had a unique black flame. At least, if the text written in his book is correct." "His aura is truly something special...did he write the truth about him being a halfling from another race??" Suddenly another young man shouted "This Jason Stella is not even 18 years old yet!! His pure physical strength can''t be superior to the chimeras! They''re at the Lord stage after all!!" Only a moment later, the young man was pushed away by a young woman whose sight was obstructed by the young man as she reprimanded him, "Are you an idiot? Haven''t you read the book he had published? It states something about other cultivation paths! One of them was the path of strength whose sole purpose is to increase one''s life force and to strengthen every cell in the body. I don''t know if he is cultivating in that path, but it might as well be something else that increases his physical strength so much! His aura, the golden-silverish light enveloping the young man in the air, and the black flame we had seen earlier are more than enough evidence to conclude that this young man can be no one else but Jason Stella!!" The young woman was one of the minorities, who believed the words Jason had written were true. To her, Argos'' situation had always been weird, and the same applied to the behavior of the foreign races. It hadn''t made sense for one particular race to force their way to Argos to conquer and enslave them, because there were too many races that preyed on mankind. Other than that, neutral, physically attributed beasts required a different soul world than beasts with elements which was also something mankind had never understood. Furthermore, if she were to start thinking about the renewed cultivation system and the logical statements about the foreign races'' strength, which was said to be much higher than everyone had known before, everything was starting to make more sense. She could go on for hours, and her final conclusion was that Jason Stella''s book was representing nothing but the devastating truth. It had been hard to digest and accept the truth, but this was a necessary means to advance further ahead. In the end, this was not only how she thought, but many other people too! There was no need to deny the truth and regress. Instead, advancing ahead and becoming more knowledgeable was the most efficient way in order to become stronger. "He is clearly protecting us and the city''s protectors...why is everyone labeling him as a monster¡­. I don''t think he had any choice in deciding who his parents could be, or what kind of being he was born as¡­ Isn''t it more important that he is trying his best to support us?" Initially, the young woman had only mumbled those words to herself, but unbeknownst to her, she had raised her voice as she spoke about him fervently. They could be heard throughout the entire street that was eerily silent, with the only noises coming from above. Roars resounded through the entire surroundings, but Jason couldn''t care less about them. While every single citizen on the ground was starting to doubt what was going on above them, and if the forum threads on Skynet were telling anything but the truth, Jason was fighting for his and every single citizen''s survival. He had been interested in the temporary rift, but right now, he couldn''t divert his focus to anything but the chimeras that he continued to stab, butcher, and kill. Due to this, Jason didn''t even realize how Solaris had split itself into several hundred smaller flames before leaving the soul world and emerging next to him. Only a moment later, the split origin flames slowly descended on the chimeras corpses which they infiltrated and feasted on. At the same time, a faint layer of black flames enveloped Jason''s upper body. It was solely conjured by Solaris, who was slowly absorbing mana that was being expelled by the smaller flames as they devoured the chimeras along with the dead bodies that lay scattered all around the city. Owing to the faint protections layer the flame armor gave him, Jason could move around a little bit more recklessly. However, instead of acting too rash, he decided to pay attention to the chimeras that were slowly approaching the city. He was pushed back by the sheer number of chimeras flowing in and couldn''t control everything at once because it was simply impossible under his current circumstances. This would only be possible if he were to actively use Solaris'' fire affinity right now, after all! Unfortunately, this was not possible, as it would lead to him being gravely injured and likely ending up as a cripple. As such, Jason had to forcefully accelerate his speed by another notch. However, just as he was about to initiate his next attack, Jason sensed death approaching him at a rapid pace. Goosebumps covered his body, and time seemed to slow down as his eyes widened. Turning around, Jason could barely see a glaive, enveloped in a compressed current of electricity shooting towards him at a terrific velocity. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 516 - On Deaths Door The glaive crossed a huge distance within a single moment, proving to Jason that its velocity was extraordinarily high. Instinctively, Jason''s body began to move, despite his mana veins having already taken a huge toll. His Celestia aura and stigma were fully unleashed, shining brightly while overwhelming the surrounding with all their might. A moment later the glow and aura shot back towards Jason infiltrating him, enveloping his veins as huge streams of mana, provided by Artemis spread through his body. Initially, this was deemed as impossible because Artemis'' mana was different to his, but under certain circumstances, it was unavoidable for someone to use their soulbond''s mana. This was exactly the case right now! Jason and Artemis'' stigma were glowing brightly and it was only a moment later that Jason had converted every trace of Artemis'' mana into his body. After he exerted the Floating sky movement technique to the highest possible degree, Jason''s speed increased drastically. Meanwhile, his mana veins that were enveloped by his Celestia aura, screamed. However, they sustained no major injury and the damages were drastically reduced. Despite that, Jason didn''t feel a tiny bit relieved. Rather, he stared at the thunder-enveloped glaive that was only a meter away from him as he twisted his body while trying to move back with all his might. The glaive''s speed and force were several times stronger than Jason''s, and it was only fortunate that he had sensed it early enough. Through his eyes, he was able to see everything down to the finest detail. By knowing the exact trajectory of the glaive, and the amount of mana used for the thunder that enveloped it, Jason had a huge advantage which he employed. Time seemed to move at a slower pace, and Jason moved to the side while the glaive shot towards him, grazed his arm before it advanced further, narrowly missing his wings. The cut on his arm ruptured, and the thunder enveloping the glaive invaded Jason, paralyzing him for a moment. Only his eyes were able to overcome the paralyzed state by using some of the mana stored within the mana storage that was behind his eyeballs. His eyes traced back the direction from which the glaive had shot at him, and he saw a group of five men and three women. One of the men seemed to have shot the thunder enveloped glaive towards him, while the others had used their affinities in order to eradicate the chimeras within the following minute. Meanwhile, Jason was able to slowly regain control over his body within a few seconds. Not knowing whether the newly arrived humans wanted to attack him or not, he decided to retreat. However, even before he was able to do anything, Jason noticed that his body was screaming in pain, and every effort to move resulted in excruciating agony raging through every nerve in his body. Just a few seconds later, the middle-aged man who had attacked him emerged in front of Jason, with another weapon in his hand, ready to kill Jason at any moment. He glared at Jason and asked while gnashing his teeth, "You''re that monster, right?? What are you scheming?? Did you open the rift, to make everyone think that you are a samaritan??" His voice caused chills to spread over Jason''s body, and he felt like it was impossible to talk to the man. Nevertheless, he couldn''t let just him assume the worst of him. As such, he tried to open his mouth, only for the middle-aged man to interrupt him once again before he could finish his sentence, "I¡­" Jason''s words trailed off as the man barked at him, "Don''t even try to fool me! We won''t believe you, not even one bit!!!" Despite fear enveloping Jason, he couldn''t help but roll his eyes. ''Why the hell are you even asking then?'' Knowing that he would be able to clear the air without the need to speak, Jason could only do his best in order to survive. Solaris had absorbed some of the energy and mana from the dead corpses in their proximity. As such, it was able to manifest two large fireballs below Jason''s feet. They exploded, and Jason was catapulted higher into the air. Just like that, another batch of small fireballs manifested right above him. Turning his entire body in a sudden movement, he did a half roll. His feet came in touch with the flames as they exploded once again. The explosion propelled Jason toward the ground as he passed the middle-aged man who was at the 7th Lique stage! It was fortunate that he was able to take the man by surprise, but Jason also knew that it would be extremely difficult to survive the next few seconds. The moment he thought of it, a huge mass of compressed earth was thrown towards him from above. While his own speed was already fast, the mountain-like mass of earth rushing towards him was even faster. This forced Jason to divert his trajectory. Through this, he avoided the mass of earth by a hair''s breadth, only to notice that a different man had appeared next to him. The man was only at the 6th Lique stage, but his physical enhancement was terrific! He was holding a huge hammer, and Jason could only see that it swung down on him with a shocking velocity. Just as he thought everything in his body would break apart, Jason heard Artemis screaming in fright. Suddenly, she was pulled out of Jason''s mana core, weakening him for a quarter of a second, as his physical strength skyrocketed. Black scales containing golden threads, manifested on his body, enveloping him completely, taking most of the brunt of the impact caused by the warhammer that struck his abdomen. The sheer force of the attack flung him straight into the city, tearing through a building apart, as he smashed into the street, which cracked due to the huge impact. Coughing out blood, Jason gasped for air. He hadn''t realised that Petri had finally completed the fortified soul conjunction which he had been working on for months, coming to his aid at the very moment he''d needed saving. His stigma had released strong signals to both Artemis and Petri, forcefully completing the fortified soul conjunction to help Jason when he was in dire need of reinforcements. Petri had entered Jason''s mana core, enhancing his body physically that was equivalent to 3000 drops of mana, if not more! Nevertheless, the bulky man who had attacked him with a warhammer was still much stronger, and though Jason was still breathing he had been severely injured. He had already been incapable of moving smoothly after saving the three city protectors, but now, it looked like his end was near. Unable to even move a single inch, Jason, who was enveloped in a thick layer of Petri''s scales, could only stare at the group of eight that was moving towards him slowly. One woman was at the Prismar stage with one solidified prismarine crystal, while the others were at the Lique stage. However, Jason couldn''t care less because he was trying to think of a way to save his neck at the moment. He wanted to survive after all! Jason was able to see events of his life flashing past him, and the more memories resurfaced, the less he was willing to accept other humans killing him. Having given his best to save them, Jason didn''t want to accept that he had made a mistake by trusting them unconditionally. ''Was everything a mistake?'' A moment later, he saw how the woman at the Prismar stage nocked an arrow on her bow, before she lifted it, aiming at Jason. However, just as she was about to say something, they heard an unknown voice. "STOP!!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 517 - Faith "STOP!! Aren''t we all on the same side??? Why are you attacking someone who protected all of us?" It was the young woman who had defended Jason against the other citizens earlier, staunchly supporting him when the others had doubted his intentions despite clearly seeing his efforts to save them. When she had seen that Jason had been attacked by other humans that were also known as guardians who protected the weak, it was impossible for her to stay put. Other citizens followed suit, but it was more because they were curious about what would happen. Despite their earlier thoughts and worries about Jason''s true intentions, it was unlikely that he had planned everything beforehand. There were even a few citizens that had noticed the construction of the world bridge, and Jason hadn''t been there at that time. As such, their opinion of Jason was slowly changing after almost the entire population had witnessed him nearly sacrifice his life to protect them. Because of that, they couldn''t believe what they were seeing right now! The guardians who were known for protecting the weak were attacking Jason, the same person who had single-handedly fought against a continued influx of chimeras for more than an hour! He had used every means to prevent the chimeras from attacking them, only to be attacked, and was on the verge of being killed by fellow humans. "Don''t intervene. We cannot trust him! There is the possibility of him plotting against the entire human race! He is only a halfling after all...and that is only if this is the truth! Who knows, maybe all of it was a lie? Maybe, he staged this attack to be revered as our savior, and betray us later?" The woman at the Prismar stage looked at the young woman coldly, who was about to release the arrow from her bow as something unexpected happened. First, the young woman rushed towards Jason, in order to lift her arm to shield him from the attack, and stared at the group of middle-aged men and women who had descended to the ground. Their fortified soul conjunction was dissolved and Jason had returned to his usual self, yet, they looked as frightening as before. Mona, the young woman, who was acting as his human shield planted her feet firmly on the ground and tried her best to remain calm, only to see that they seemed to be unbothered. However, just at that moment, more and more citizens, who knew that Jason had protected them, rushed forward. A small group of people now surrounded Jason, astonishing the guardians, who could only stare at the citizens, unsure of what was going on. A few seconds later, the city protectors arrived in front of the crowd with an apprehensive but resolute expression. Jason had saved their life and if they were to allow the guardians to kill him, they would be nothing but cowards who didn''t deserve to be saved. Repaying the debt was the least they could do! "Please.. Ms. Flora, can''t we talk about it calmly? He saved our lives and protected the city by endangering himself! The rumors on Skynet shouldn''t be the truth and have most likely been falsified!" It was the youngest protector who spoke. Not only did he realise that Jason had helped them, but it was also evident that he had no ill intentions. Fortunately, the citizens had noticed this too, otherwise, the other two city protectors wouldn''t have spoken in Jason''s defense. At least, if the youngest of them didn''t misinterpret the reluctance that glimmered in their eyes. Daphne Flora looked straight into the young city protector''s eyes that were filled with determination. Sighing deeply, she slowly retracted the bowstring and unfastened the arrow, before her weapons disappeared inside the spatial ring she wore. The two other women followed suit, while the men looked at the entire crowd threateningly. However, after Daphne glared at them once, they stopped glaring and mellowed down. Daphne was still not sure what to think about the entire situation. She had been told to protect the city. Yet, at the same time, there were also several orders about the individual ''Jason Stella'', requesting his death. Even if they hadn''t read the rumors about Jason on Skynet, which was evidently the case, hunting him dead or alive was a mission with a huge reward. The same could be said about multiple missions declared by different big clans ordering his death. Only a few wanted him captured and brought to them alive. In the end, the rewards were generous enough to allow someone to cultivate at a high level for decades. If Jason were to know this, he would have lost his entire trust in the big clans. They hadn''t even received the entire translated version of the foreign races manuals and were already eager to kill him? Did their fear strike them so deep? Jason couldn''t fully realise what had happened because his head was still ringing, while his sight was blurry. Every cell in his body was aching, and the pain worsened as Petri, who had entered his mana core fully integrated his strength with Jason''s. On one hand, this had allowed Jason to survive the Warhammer''s strike, without breaking every single bone inside his body. However, on the other hand, he knew that Petri''s physical strength was too much for his body to handle. As such, he expelled Petri from his mana core, in fear that it would tear him apart. Blood was already oozing out of his pores, and it only lessened when Petri appeared inside his Soul world. Solaris had already replenished a large amount of mana which allowed it to emerge within Jason, spreading through his body to ease the tension. The fire soothed the pain as it coursed through his veins, and every cell of his body, dousing the ache and uncoiling his tense muscles. Jason was glad to have such loyal soulbonds that protected him fiercely. It was even better that Petri''s fortified soul conjunction had been fully established, which was much faster than he had expected. He was not sure how much time had passed before he could finally move his sore muscles once again. As Solaris eradicated the pain to some extent, he mustered some energy that slowly flowed from his fingers to his hand, arm, shoulder, and finally his entire body. Shaking a little, he regained his senses and was slowly able to move again. Taking a deep breath, Jason looked around and couldn''t help but feel shocked as he saw a large crowd of humans, or to be precise, citizens surrounding him, protecting him. After he had crashed into the streets, Jason hadn''t seen or heard anything at all. As such, it was not weird for him to feel astounded that there were suddenly more than a hundred citizens around him. ''Maybe I wasn''t wrong?'' A faint smile appeared on his lips and Jason''s faith in humanity seemed to be restored. There was at least some hope! Using his utmost efforts he put all his energy in his legs and bit his tongue as he struggled to get back on his feet. Meanwhile, the citizens directly around him took a step back, astonished that Jason was able to stand up. His entire body looked broken, smeared with blood and dust, yet Jason was able to move. He squeezed his way through the crowd. There was no need to use much force and he came to the front only a minute later. Looking at the woman at the Prismar stage, Jason''s eyes remained stoic. There was no change in his emotions as he asked straightforwardly, "Is it really necessary to kill me? Do you really think you''ll get the rewards for hunting me down? Would the big clans bother about that or simply kill your entire group too?" Despite not knowing the truth about what had happened, Jason''s assumption about a few big clans had hit the bulls-eye, making everyone believe that he knew about the kill orders. Chapter 518 - Acceptance Upon hearing what Jason had said, Daphne couldn''t help throw him a piercing gaze. It was already astonishing that Jason could manage to keep himself up on his feet , but from the looks of it, he was also trying to put on a facade. His acting thought was important to show that he was not a pushover, but it made the fine lines appearing on his face even more apparent as it took every ounce of his energy to keep standing. The struggle between his body that was sending red signals to his brain, that it couldn''t keep up anymore and his mind and willpower that made his body obey his commands was quite visible. Nevertheless, the words he said made sense. Since the Great Argos war, more than 8 months had passed, and the big clans and sects had changed substantially. Not only had they become much stricter with accepting new disciples under their wing, in fear that they might be betrayed, but their combat prowess had increased drastically as well. This was due to the resources they had obtained from the foreign races'' spatial rings they had collected after the Great Argos war, and the translated manuals Jason had provided. Other than that, the big clans seemed to have become less trustworthy of mercenaries, while the same could be said to be the other way around. There were many other factors one had to include, but Daphne had been of the opinion that the missions related to Jason were guaranteed to provide rewards. A total of more than a dozen missions had been issued revolving around him alone, and it was only now that she realized the reason for this. ''How can he defeat large numbers of chimera at the 2nd and 3rd Lique stage while having less than 200 liquefied drops of mana inside his mana core?'' This was not only shocking but also exciting. It was obvious that the big clans feared Jason''s talent and huge combat prowess. The speed at which he''d advanced was terrific too. However, because of that, Daphne didn''t think that the big clans would be so frugal to not reward those who killed Jason. As such, her reason was ungrounded, or was it not? Thinking about the fact that Jason was said to have played a huge role in the last battle of the Great Argos war, Daphne found it unlikely for the other clans to actively pursue him. This was also the reason for the missions to be accepted by people who had no connections with the big clans. At least, it seemed like that to everyone. In the end, nobody except big clans had a proper reason to kill Jason, and clans and sects had indirectly revealed what they had done. The guardian group was not close to any of the big clans, and the only reason for them to hunt Jason was the rewards. However, their group''s motto was to protect the weak, and seeing how many citizens had built a human wall to protect Jason, with several more that were coming over, Daphne couldn''t do anything. Otherwise, she would break her own ideals too. Looking at the woman beside her, Daphne asked, "Can you tell whether the citizens and city protectors have been hypnotized or manipulated?" However, seeing that the young woman shook her head while saying that everything was fine, Daphne could only squint her eyes in doubt before she averted her attention back to Jason. "If you didn''t summon the world bridges, do you, at least, know where they come from? And why did you release the book about Argos'' insignificance? Wasn''t that a little bit stupid? You can''t even walk around without being looked down upon." Jason was glad that the situation seemed to have calmed down. His life was not on the line anymore and he breathed a sigh of relief. Nevertheless, answering Daphne''s questions was not easy. "I don''t know why so many world bridges emerged suddenly. They''re always on the verge of breaking out too. As for my stupidity, I don''t really think that it was stupid to release the book about Argos'' insignificance. Maybe you wonder why, but isn''t it important for the human race to know everything? The big clans kept a lot of information secret from the general public and it''s never bad to know more than too little. For example, didn''t you think you were extremely powerful with only one solidified prismarine crystal? In that case, my book taught you that the other continents have races with many more Cultivators at the Prismar stage. Furthermore, if you understood the theory about the world bridges'' stability, you may have comprehended that the foreign races might return once they''re able to send stronger individuals over. The only reason for the big Argos war to end had been the three Overlords after all! I don''t care about being hated by others because it is their decision to hate me for who I am. However, I have to repay my debt and protect the ones who are important to me! It''s up to you to decide, whether I''m a menace to humanity or a friend who is trying to help." The guardian group looked at Jason with conflicted expressions. Before, they hadn''t really cared if Jason wanted to help humanity or not. He hadn''t been important enough for them to bother. However, in the end, everyone had their own issues with either of the big clans, which allowed the guardian group to understand what Jason was implying. Was Jason really trying to help as he said, or did he have some hidden agenda and was disguising his true motives under the veil of being a savior? Were they missing seeing the big picture? It was only after a few minutes of eerie silence that Daphne sighed deeply as she asked, unsure about what to think. "So, everything you said is nothing but the truth? Including the entire content of the book you''ve written?" Killing Jason was already something Daphne had disregarded, but she had trouble accepting the fact that Jason''s book could be nothing but the truth. The tensions dispersed and the citizens who had been frightened in the thought that the guardian group might attack them couldn''t stop shivering as their legs gave in. Even the three city protectors couldn''t help but sigh in relief while Jason stared at Daphne with a faint smile. "I think almost everyone has read the book you''ve released, but there are still too many questions we are yet to hear an answer about. For example, how is it possible for you to be alive? If you are a halfling, there should be more than one, but we are yet to come across a second individual like you!! If possible I would like to hear more about everything because I can''t really get myself to accept all that information written in your book!" Despite the pain he was feeling, Jason took a step forward as he smiled lightly. Somehow, it felt like he was taking the first step towards being accepted by humanity. The citizens behind him, the city protectors next to him, and the guardian group in front of him seemed to have accepted that he didn''t want to kill them and was no threat or enemy to them. Instead, they now knew that Jason wanted to help and protect them! Previously, he hadn''t realized how important their acceptance had been to him, telling himself that he didn''t care. However, now that this was exactly the case, and that the weaker had tried to defend him for giving his utmost efforts to protect them, Jason couldn''t help but feel a small seed of happiness sprout within him. Taking a deep breath that hurt his lungs, he replied, "Of course I can explain everything...but I would prefer to postpone this for a little bit...I''m just at the 1st Lique stage, and not strong enough to sustain the blows. If someone at the 6th and 7th Lique stage attacks me in my current state in my already injured state I don''t think I could take it." With that lengthy monologue, Jason''s eyes dimmed and darkness flashed in front of his eyes before he collapsed on the ground, shocking everyone around him. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 519 - Share Abilities As exhaustion had crept into his muscles and seeped into his bones, he had been pulled in a deep slumber, finally giving in to the pleading cries of his body to give it some rest. A few days had passed before Jason regained his consciousness. In his dream, he had found himself inside the soul world, which was probably the place his mind had escaped to find solace and comfort. Because of that, Jason had been able to learn more about the fortified soul conjunction he had with his three soulbonds. The stronger Jason''s connection with his soulbonds became, the greater and more efficient was their telepathy and shared capabilities such as strength, intelligence, and affinity. Furthermore, they were able to read each other''s mind even at a greater distance! Other than that, there was also the stigma they had. Apparently, the effects it provided became stronger in accordance with both Jason and the soulbond in his mana core. Every single time a soulbond entered his mana core, Jason felt like he was fusing together to become a single entity. This was something he had never heard of, and it had to do with the stigma his primal bloodline awakening inherited from him and his soulbonds. Unfortunately, there were too many things Jason didn''t know about his stigma, and he doubted that anyone could explain to him what any stigma had to do with his soulbonds. Only the human race was able to make use of soulbonds because they had a soul world to bind and tame beasts. Owing to this, Jason would have to figure out everything by himself. It wouldn''t be much of a problem as long as the stigma didn''t give him any negative effects owing to the possible aftermath of the forceful prevention of his metamorphosis into an Infernal Celestia. Preventing negative effects was the most important while utilizing every single advantage followed next. Jason was not sure where exactly he was, but when he had opened his eyes and got up, he couldn''t find anyone around him. His body still felt sore and lifting his arms that were painful and heavy was an exercise in itself. Jason was surprised to see that his wrists weren''t handcuffed so he was able to move freely. There were no external restrictions, save his body that groaned and creaked like a rusted machine with every step he took. Scanning through his body, Jason was relieved to find that there was no trace of a serious injury, and it wouldn''t take long for him to recover completely. Solaris was still inside his body, soothing the pain and relieving him of the tension coiled in his muscles, which Jason realised. He transmitted his gratitude towards Solaris, who responded with similar emotions. After that, Jason''s emperor eyes investigated his entire surroundings. From the looks of it, he was still inside the city as before, while the same applied to the guardian group. Jason was not exactly sure if his recollection of the events before unconsciousness took hold of him was accurate, but he believed that they wouldn''t kill him, or even attack. At least, Jason sincerely hoped so. Taking a deep breath, he got out of the bed, taking careful steps and ignoring the pain. No sooner had he attempted to walk that Artemis appeared in front of him before she perched herself on her usual spot on his shoulder. Shockingly enough, Petri wanted to follow suit, but before he could do so Jason showed him the size of the room through his own eyes. Yet, contrary to his expectations, Artemis and Petri''s stigma along with his own glowed brightly as a two-meter-long snake appeared in front of Jason. While rapidly blinking his eyes several times in half a minute, Jason could only stare at Petri, visibly dumbfounded. However, just as he was about to transmit a thought to his soulbond, or to be more precise, a question that might have solved his confusion, memories flooded his mind. While he was unconscious, Jason had learned lots of things inside the soul world, however, they had slipped from his mind the moment he had woken up. Fortunately, they resurfaced once again, allowing Jason to comprehend what was going on. "So...the stigma allows certain abilities to be used by those who are eligible? The ability to adjust one''s size can be used by Solaris, which is obvious, and Petri too? Only I can''t use it¡­" Somehow, he was more confused than before. But there was nothing to complain about. Rather than that, Jason couldn''t help but smile as Petri climbed up his body, in order to rest his head on Jason''s shoulder. The rest of his body was coiled around Jason''s chest down to his waist. It was not exactly comfortable, but they were connected to each other. As such, Petri''s body didn''t really feel as if it was something that didn''t belong to Jason. Due to that, Petri was able to adjust his position so as to prevent hurting Jason, who couldn''t help but feel that he must look ridiculous right now. The origin flame inside him continued to soothe his pain, while Artemis claimed his left shoulder, leaving the rest of his body to be occupied by Petri. Shaking his head, Jason overcame his embarrassment and caressed his soulbonds for a minute before brushing them off. He had to shower and put on a new set of clothes. The tattered and soiled clothes that were reduced to mere rags after the battle were even worse than Petri and Artemis highlighting his bedraggled appearance. After getting ready, both of his soulbonds returned to claim their spots on either of his shoulders causing Jason to frown before he left the room. Through his emperor eyes he could see everyone perfectly fine. The five men and three women from the guardian group were with the city protectors and a few citizens that had spoken for him, preventing his death. At least, that was what Jason could tell based on the mana fluctuations he perceived. It didn''t take him long to find the way towards the room in which everyone was gathered. Jason entered it without any hesitation, and all the gazes fell upon him, staring at him with a mixture of curiosity and awe. "Sorry for the interruption, but I thought It would be best to come over." Though he put on a smile, one could see that Jason was not very comfortable being stared at as if he was a weirdo. Unfortunately, this was not something he could prevent, and the only thing Jason could do was to explain why his soul bonds were being so possessive and protective of him, not willing to leave him even for a second. "My soulbonds thought that I would die, and we had some sort of accident almost a year ago...That''s why they''ve become even clingier than before. Please don''t mind them." Memories of Scorpio resurfaced and the raw agony of losing his beloved soulbond that had turned into a dull ache hurt his tender heart. No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to suppress his expression from showing what Scorpio''s loss did to him. As such, everyone could see that the young man was not much different than them. Rather, it seemed that his soulbonds loved him more than any other soulbond loved their master, a rare bond of affection and trust that they hadn''t seen before. At least, that was what everyone inside the room could tell from the looks of it. They had been talking about Jason, his contribution to the Great Argos war, what else he had done for mankind, the content of the book he had released, and his strength. Other than that, the most important point was the question about Jason''s background and what his true intentions were. Suddenly, two middle-aged men approached Jason in two large strides and stared at him with conflicting expressions. On one hand, they seemed to be hesitant and embarrassed, but on the other side, Jason was able to see their stubbornness. Looking at them, Jason realised that it was the two men who had almost killed him. Yet, instead of loathing them, he gave them a ghost of a smile as he saw their expressions. They fumbled to find the right words, and Daphne was about to shout at them when Jason took a step forward, lifting his hand to slap on their shoulders. "There is no need to look like that. I think I understand what you guys want to say. My name is Jason Stella, what about you guys?" His Celestia aura was naturally released, along with his stigma, allowing everyone enveloped by the aura to feel more relaxed. The two men''s tension dispersed slowly, as they overcame their earlier hesitation and introduced themselves. "My name is Lektar, 7th Lique stage, and I was the one who attacked you with the thunder glaive¡­.sorry¡­" Jason just smiled at the middle-aged man, with a trace of happiness glimmering in his eyes because Lektar had used the cultivation system he had introduced! Averting his attention to the bulky man, who had brutally attacked him with his warhammer, Jason could only remember the pain he had felt! "Everyone calls me Jon, you can do the same. Fortunately, I held back a little bit, but I am sorry nonetheless. Oh, and I am at the 6th Lique stage!" Somehow, Jason could only frown lightly, thinking that the bulky man must have a physical soul to say that he''d held back with the level of terrific strength he had utilized to swing the hammer on him. Jason thanked his soulbond, Petri, for ensuring that his ribs and bones were intact right now. However, the bulky man had an earth affinity, telling Jason that this was not possible under normal means. ''Does he have a double soul awakening?'' This was possible, but before he was able to think about it more, the woman at the prismar stage introduced herself as well. "My name is Daphne Flora, nice meeting you. I hope you won''t hold our first encounter against me¡­" Jason just nodded his head, thinking that it was better for everyone to introduce themselves. As such, he turned towards the young woman, who had thrown herself in front of Jason, protecting him. He patiently awaited her introduction. "I''m called Inja, and I wanted to thank you for protecting the city¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 520 - Foolishly Risking Everything After everyone had introduced themselves, there was a short awkward silence, and it was Jason''s turn to fill it with his words. The situation was still calm, and he couldn''t pick any signs of hostility from those around him which was advantageous. As such, he had no problems leading the conversation. Turning towards Daphne, he tried to recall what she had asked him right before he had collapsed. "If I remember correctly, you asked me how I''m alive, or if more halflings exist. To be honest, I''m not sure about that either. According to the foreign races I''ve encountered, this should be impossible, but evidently, that''s wrong. Otherwise, I wouldn''t be standing in front of you in the first place. In the end, there are many things neither I nor other races know, and we can only grow more knowledgeable with time." His eyes swept through the room, he noticed that the majority of them were still looking at him doubtfully. This caused him to ponder about a solution to negate the apprehension and gain their unwavering trust. The guardian group was still unsure if they should trust Jason unconditionally, but they were unable to figure out a possible reason for him to sacrifice his life more than a dozen times, if not solely to save mankind, specifically the city from total annihilation. Nevertheless, they couldn''t overcome their hidden demons to give him a minimalistic amount of trust. Everyone could decide for themselves whether they would trust him or not, but completely denying every single word of Jason was similar to disregarding the truth. A few specific details written in the book Jason had publicized were certainly true and already proven to be right. With that in mind, Jason thought about something he could show to everyone present. Taking out a Prismar stage Pryr stone consisting of primordial energy inside, he handed it over to the others. Seeing the Pryr stone made Petri hiss in joy, which was audible enough to be noticed, while everyone who came in touch with the stone felt as if an electric current surged through their body. They were able to circulate the energy through the stone, but it was extremely difficult. Some even tried to transfer a minuscule amount of primordial energy inside their body, only to notice that their cultivation veins couldn''t handle it. Thus they expelled the primordial energy forcefully, and Petri released a suctioning force, attracting every single trace of the primordial energy that permeated the air towards himself. Taking all of that as another evidence that Jason''s words were true, goosebumps erupted on almost everyone''s body. "So...there are really multiple cultivation energies??" Daphne mumbled, slowly accepting the truth. In her group, she was one of those who tried to figure out the truth rather than accepting or denying something others said. As such, Jason''s proof did wonders, and it made her and the others begin to digest everything and accept most of it as ''possibly correct''. This was already a great beginning and Jason couldn''t help but smile. Petri''s move to absorb the energy nobody else was able to cultivate with was perfectly utilised too, showing that the little Basilisk was different from every soulbond the others had seen before. Now that the others were listening intently without the previous prejudice of labeling every word spoken by him as a possible lie, a fresh wave of energy surged through him as he started to explain. Unbeknownst to everyone, several hours had passed as the only voice echoing through the room was Jason''s. Everybody listened to him intently, absorbing his words like a sponge and though he liked the undivided attention, Jason''s throat was sore from speaking so much. He hadn''t expected the guardian group and others to be so interested in finding out more from him. However, after thinking about it for a moment, he understood their concerns. Being aware of the devastating truth was better than walking around in ignorance. What would happen if they were to encounter a seemingly unsolvable situation that would''ve been easily solved, had they paid heed to Jason''s words and the necessary knowledge he had already provided for free? After several hours had passed, everyone came to the conclusion that the young man in front of them was a samaritan. They couldn''t understand his reasoning to help the human race that had wanted to see him dead. Suddenly, the young woman, Inja, who was a reporter asked a question that had been lingering on everyone''s mind. "Why are you even helping us? From what you''ve explained, mankind was not nice to you. And that was even before anyone knew about your origin...It hurts to say this, but I doubt we deserve your help¡­" Jason pondered for a moment whether he should tell his reason too, but in the end, he figured out that there was no reason to not share it. There was no harm in stating his intentions so he smiled faintly as sadness flickered in his eyes. "To be honest, I had never planned to save mankind. Before, I would have rather left through any world bridge, but I just couldn''t bring myself to do it. But now, my motivation has changed. My late masters had a dream, and the last wish to escape their lips had been of me to help the weak, to protect them. That''s exactly what I''m doing right now...well, maybe it''s more like I''m trying my best." To think that Jason''s reason behind risking his life had been to fulfill someone''s last wish was difficult to comprehend for some, who were self-centered and didn''t share a strong bond with their late masters. Even if their relationship with the master that had once taught them a lot had been good enough, most wouldn''t have resorted to suicidal plans to save people that might not even deserve this saving. Somehow, Jason''s words hit everyone deep, and their perception of him that had already changed substantially compared to a few hours before began to take on a new form. Now, they were of the opinion that Jason was trustworthy, loyal, and someone to rely on. Inja had secretly installed a camera in the room before anyone had entered it. She had just wanted to record everything to help Jason a little bit, but once Inja had sensed his Celestia aura, her fingers had subconsciously started to stream everything live. The channel on which she streamed everything was rather unknown, but a few viewers were able to tell that it was a livestream of Jason Stella! As such, the Skynet forum was immediately filled with threads speaking about the livestream, and the corresponding link to the platform on which everything was broadcasted. Within several hours, the streaming platform was filled with several million viewers that had heard everything! The reporter''s ingenious idea had spread Jason''s word through every nook and corner and made him reach millions in an instant. It was a great way to save Jason''s reputation, and to negate his image as a monster. Unfortunately, it was not as easy as that, and there were still citizens and even members of big clans labeling the stream as fake. Some said that the stream was recorded earlier, altered, and the completed video was streamed afterward. Other than that, Inja was risking her own life and that of the others that were completely unaware of what was happening. Once the big clans got to know that the guardian group and others had been in contact with Jason, they would also be hunted and pursued in order to figure out his current location. It hadn''t been difficult for Jason to detect the camera that was supplied with pebble-sized mana stones, but he didn''t even think of doing anything against it. On the contrary, he thought that it might as well come in handy and he was willing to accept all the help he could receive. There was no need for him to be overly worried as nobody could say for sure that the people who were supporting him currently would be definitely hunted. He would just let slip of him being at a fake location at which he would hide, and ask the guardian group to be careful. The rest was on them. Nevertheless, Jason had intentionally released certain information including that about the temporary world bridges that suddenly appear only to break out before once again. There was not much he knew about it because he had only seen a few rifts in total, but there was one particular rune that made him ponder about everything. ''Are the world bridges intentionally established between Argos and the other world? But they''re definitely not man-made¡­they''re surely not created BY Argos and the other world¡­.right??'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 521 - Cause Jason was not sure what was the logic behind Argos wanting to create a world bridge that might endanger the entire planet. This was nothing but illogical. However, thinking that the world bridges had only appeared a few months before the Great Argos war had ended, there were only a few incidents that could have been the cause for the planet to take such a weird decision. ''Is Argos trying to balance out the creation of the permanent world bridge that allowed the Elvyr race to emerge on Argos??'' Somehow this was illogical, yet weirdly logical at the same time, and Jason''s thoughts began to churn in his head once again. However, before he could think about anything, Jason was interrupted by Daphne who continued to ask him questions. It had already grown dark and it was late at night before they finished their Question & Answer session, leaving Jason extremely tired and weary. Fortunately, he was able to passively gather and absorb mana. This allowed him to recuperate even faster. It was not long after Jason went into the room he had been lying unconscious for several days that he looked at the quantum bracelet which he had used to release his book about Argos'' insignificance. The entire Skynet forum was filled with threads about Inja''s livestream and Jason was glad to see that nobody was attacking or trolling Inja and the guardian group. There were those that hated Jason because he was a halfling from another race, another group of those that simply disliked Jason because mankind''s attention was drawn towards him, making them feel jealous of his achievements. Other than that there were those who feared him for his strength and a minority who had begun to think about his words and everything he had stated inside his book thoroughly. In the end, the idea of a livestream had been much better than he could have hoped for. After everything was over, Inja explained what she had done. Despite the astonishment and anger, the response to the livestream allowed the young reporter to come out unscathed. Jason didn''t even want to think about what would have happened if the guardian group had been against the livestream. Now that the livestream was over, it was likely for others to figure out his exact location. As such, Jason had no other choice but to leave the city. Thus, he silently left the city without informing anyone about his departure. However, instead of letting him summon her wings, Artemis told him that she didn''t want to be inside the mana core or soul world for now. Because of that, Jason had to fly on Artemis'' back after she had changed to her large form that was 6 meters long and had a wingspan of 20 meters. Jason was not sure how much Artemis would grow, but that was fortunately not important owing to her size adjusting ability. Meanwhile, Petri was still coiled around his body. He seemed to have become as clingy as his other soulbonds, and it was only Solaris, who showed his affection in a different way. Instead of clinging to Jason, it had simply entered his body to soothe Jason''s pain and to stay close to him. Despite the little inconveniences, Jason liked their clinginess. It was much better than being distant to his soulbonds and allowed him to feel as if he had a real family. If he were to be honest, Jason had considered them as his family for a long time which was nothing uncommon for soulbonds. Their next destination was somewhere Jason had never been before. He was not even sure where exactly he was because he had simply followed the direction given by the Elvyr embassy in which the permanent rift was situated. He was not sure if his assumption was correct, but Jason assumed the forcefully activated world bridge between the Elvyr race''s world and Argos to be one issue allowing temporary rifts between one particular world and Argos to manifest. Jason was not sure if the specific world was the same as the Elvyr race''s planet, but it was highly likely. As such, closing the world bridge that caused the imbalance on Argos would most likely solve the issues. Fasro might have said that he was too weak to close even the weakest world bridge. This might be the case, but Jason didn''t really bother about that. He wanted to assess the entire situation through his Emperor Eyes. If the runes he saw on the temporarily established world bridge that had released the chimeras were the same as on the one his father had forcefully created, Jason would have found the problem. He could only take one step after another, and the first step was to determine the problem. The second logical step would be to figure out a solution for the problem, while the third was the experimental phase if one was unable to find a certain answer! Because Artemis was flying, Jason could focus on absorbing the surroundings mana for the time being. Unfortunately, the world bridge that led towards the Elvyr race was far away, and it took Artemis two weeks before she finally reached their destination. Nevertheless, she was happy to be able to exhaust herself that way. Not only had the journey made it possible for her to absorb the surrounding mana, but she had been able to freely fly through all kinds of colorful landscapes. Jason knew that his soul world was way too plain, without anything special around to keep his soulbonds engaged. Thus, he could only be apologetic to his soulbonds and cooperate whenever it was possible. Now, they had arrived above the barren region in which the world bridge of the Elvyr race had been manifested. He had already completed his mana absorption and was staring at the exact location of the world bridge that was still further away. By utilizing his emperor eyes, Jason could see everything perfectly fine. This was extremely beneficial, but instead of being happy, Jason''s expression stiffened. Artemis and Petri sensed that something was wrong, but instead of explaining what was going on, he simply asked Artemis to continue to advance further ahead. Jason''s soulbonds felt uncomfortable due to the internal turmoil going through Jason''s mind that they were able to perceive. As such, they tried out something new! Thus, his soulbonds activated their stigma, and Jason''s stigma began to glow faintly as all three soulbonds requested access to see through his eyes. Jason accepted it because it was not something he could hide either way. Owing to the stigma, there were three different beings that could see the same thing Jason was currently seeing. The mana streams around the barren lands were extremely dense and much higher than it was in different regions. However, that was not what astonished everyone. Suddenly, Artemis uttered a shriek, while Petri hissed out, apparently baffled by something. Jason could only nod his head, thinking that their reaction was still somewhat calm. From the looks of it, the world bridge seemed to be actively draining Argos of its naturally generated mana! The amount of mana being drained was not small, and Jason couldn''t help but think that it was even higher than the compressed amount of mana inside the large mana vein where he had liquefied his first drop of mana! Yet, worse was the reason for this to happen. His Emperor Eyes could clearly see a divine, silver aura, forcefully holding together the world bridge that would have long since dispersed. Apparently, it was not only a temporarily constructed rift, but his father''s aura was the reason for both Argos'' mana being drained at a rapid speed, and it is perceived as a permanent world bridge! ''Why is father''s divine aura still there? Is that also the reason for the new naturally generated temporary world bridges to suddenly appear out of nowhere?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 522 - Destroying The World Bridge Jason was not sure if his father thought that he would jump through the world bridge and emerge on the Elvyr race''s planet once he had completed his tasks on Argos. However, that was not what he had planned, since the beginning. As such, Jason couldn''t help but think that the silver, divine aura should disappear as soon as possible. If it was the reason for the other world bridges to be unstable, or Argos possibly being unable to prevent certain naturally generated world bridges from manifesting, Jason had to change it as soon as possible. There was not a single beast in the barren region, which mainly stemmed from the divine aura that was intimidating. Only Jason and his soulbonds were perfectly fine owing to their stigma that seemed to satiate itself on divine and pure Celestia aura. Jason''s Celestia aura was drawn towards the purer aura, and he couldn''t help but feel that the silver divine aura was much denser compared to what his father had been able to transfer through the last remnants of his imprint. It was not harmful to him, but instead, it could be beneficial.. However, this didn''t help Jason because his emperor eyes could clearly perceive that the required mana to maintain the world bridge was way too high. The dense mana currents that seemed to overflow through the entire barren region became scarcer the closer Artemis flew towards the world bridge. In the end, there was not a single trace of mana left as everything was greedily absorbed by the silver divine aura that seemed to be sentient. Apparently, even his father had been unable to create a permanent and stable world bridge between Argos and another planet, that would allow beings above a certain stage to venture through it. That was probably why he had to retort to establishing a temporary world bridge that had only faint unstable fluctuations, empowering and forcefully stabilizing it with his divine aura. Jason would have been lying if he were to say that this was stupid. However, his father was obviously not aware of how scarce Argos'' mana truly was! Otherwise, he wouldn''t have used so much of his divine aura to stabilize the world bridge. How could Jason know that his father had already used the smallest possible amount of his aura and that there was no way for him to separate less from his divine body! Jason was still unaware of the true strength of his father, and he was merely complaining on a groundless basis. In the end, the situation was not as grave as he had assumed it to be. There had only been a few unfortunate incidents that had overlapped causing the misfortunate end Jason was perceiving. To be precise, the temporarily manifesting world bridges that were breaking out after being formed did not directly have something to do with the divine aura. However, on the other hand, the divine aura was absorbing a vast amount of the naturally generated mana. This mana was normally utilized by Argos to prevent planet-threatening world bridges from manifesting in the first place. Thus, due to the mana scarcity, Argos had been forced to accept certain world bridges to naturally form, which were in fact the temporary outbreak of world bridges all of which came from a specific place! Jason''s mind was coming to a similar conclusion, but he was not even sure whether this was logical or not. Nevertheless, the important factor was that his father''s divine aura was messing with Argos, even if it may only be indirectly. When Artemis had finally arrived right in front of the world bridge, Jason could see everything down to the finest detail. His emperor eyes were much stronger than he had expected, and every little stroke made inside the tiny runes that were in the millions was perceived by him. Scratching the back of his head, Jason tried to imprint every rune into his mind, while giving his best to comprehend the use of every single one in front of him. Most world bridges had certain runes that were similar, as they had to connect a path from one planet to another. This included the coordinates of Argos too. Meanwhile, other runes acted like stabilizers, ensuring the pathway from one planet to another stays intact. Those stabilizers were in fact the cause for restrictions of world bridges to exist, and they were necessary. Otherwise, certain pathways would simply crush every living being while jumping through space. The distance between the two planets that established a world bridge was important too as the number of restrictions was fewer at a shorter distance. If Argos were to be a planet with more mana, the amount of restrictions would be less, or not as harsh as they were currently. However, that was a fortunate factor for mankind that was way too weak to fight against any foreign race head-on. Nevertheless, the human race was also unable to cope with the dangers presented by the steady outpour of temporary world bridges that were naturally generated by Argos and another specific planet. If Jason''s assumption was not wrong, both planets were having problems, only for the opposite world to have a much higher amount of mana. Otherwise, the number of beasts emerging on Argos wouldn''t be so many, or all at once, and only temporary on their own side. His eyes were trained on the runes, while his mind was seemingly smoking due to the sheer mass of information and thoughts swirling through it. As such, Jason could barely continue with his train of thoughts as he saw something in front of him that he had seen earlier in a particular book he had read inside Janur''s library! "Did father plan to inscribe this rune into this world bridge specifically or is that a mandatory rune for every world bridge?" The rune Jason was currently looking at could be said to have a specific purpose. Jason called it the ''disintegration'' rune because it forcefully terminated the world bridge''s connection with the other planet''s world bridge. He had never seen this rune on different world bridges before, which was why Jason couldn''t help but be suspicious about it. However, after giving it some more thought, he couldn''t help but hope that it had been his father''s plan to provide him a way out of a possibly tricky situation that could occur. "Doesn''t that mean that my father knew about the issues the world bridge he constructed could have? Otherwise, he wouldn''t have added the rune intentionally¡­" All kinds of thoughts were running through his mind wildly, but there was only one issue, preventing him from destroying the disintegration rune. Jason had literally no idea how the hell he could do that! Suddenly, just as he thought about this, his Celestia aura came in contact with the divine aura which it had been trying for the whole time while Jason had been observing the runes. Out of nowhere, his Celestia aura was fully released while Jason''s and his soulbonds'' stigma began to glow brightly. Unable to control his aura or stigma, Jason could only stare at the silver divine aura that had stopped moving, the moment his own aura had come in contact with it. Jason felt that the divine aura was trying to figure out what was happening which told him that there was sentience inside the aura. Fortunately, the sentience seemed to notice that he was not a foe which it had to obliterate. Rather, the divine aura seemed to be overjoyed, and Jason couldn''t help but think that it might be possible for him to solve the biggest problem on Argos easier than initially expected! ''Maybe I can destroy the world bridge!!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 523 - Annex Being able to connect himself to the silver divine aura was something Jason hadn''t expected to be possible. It opened many paths for him to exploit. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn''t have been able to create a new world bridge, alter an existing one, or even terminate the connection between two world bridges. However, this had changed now! Goosebumps erupted all over his body and Jason had to take a deep breath in order to calm down. Suddenly, the desire to devour the silver, divine Celestia aura ignited within him, forcefully trying to divert his attention from the destruction of the world bridge towards the pure Celestia aura. Yet, instead of giving in to the temptation, Jason made use of everything he had comprehended as he actively supported unleashing his Celestia aura. In the beginning, the pure aura that had once belonged to his father retaliated against the golden-silverish aura Jason was releasing. The divine aura''s sentience''s mission was to maintain the world bridge, and it would do nothing but that unless it received a different order. It was only when Jason''s aura was slowly starting to devour it, that the silver divine aura sensed who Jason was. Owing to its sentience, the divine aura became placid within a moment, accepting everything Jason was about to do. This shocked him a little bit, and he couldn''t help but wonder where this sentience came from and what exactly it was. He doubted that his father had been able to tell the sentience in his aura that it should accept everything Jason was doing. As such, Jason could only assume that the sentience accepted every Celestia as its authority. This was not exactly the case, and if Jason were to know the truth, he would blame that his knowledge was too shallow. In the end, knowing the truth wouldn''t have really made a difference to Jason''s current situation. His aura was slowly growing as it was being nurtured by the divine, silver aura it continued to absorb. At the same time, the stigma above Jason''s right eye, and on his soulbonds was enlarging. Suddenly, Jason''s eyes widened as his golden-silverish eyes glowed brightly, further brightening the surroundings. It was long ago that his emperor eyes had shown signs of disclosing different abilities like showing hues that revealed certain emotions other individuals had towards him. As such, Jason could only smile through the pain he began to feel like a part of the silver divine aura was suctioned inside his eye. Large streams of blood poured out of his eyes that were slowly changing again. Without a warning, Petri, who was next to him, also hissed painfully. Jason had known that something was wrong with Petri since his evolution. Though it didn''t seem to be anything major that obstructed anything, according to his youngest soulbond, his curses should have become stronger. This hadn''t happened during the evolution, and according to Petri something had been missing. Neither Jason nor Petri could have imagined that divine aura was what had been missing this entire time. Suddenly, Petri enlarged himself while slowly releasing Jason from his grasp. At the same time, Artemis descended to the ground, allowing Jason to sit down as he folded his legs. But Jason didn''t even notice anything anymore because his eyes were metamorphosing due to multiple factors. Because of that, he had been blinded once again. Unbeknownst to Jason, his soulbonds were surrounding him, in order to absorb the silver divine aura that was drawn towards him. His suction force was the strongest, and the three soulbonds only received a minuscule part of what Jason was greedily devouring. Meanwhile, Jason felt as if he had entered some sort of trance, allowing him to annex and devour the silver divine aura rapidly. His own aura was growing at a terrific speed which allowed him to envelop the entire world bridge within half an hour with it. Only when the silver divine aura was completely enveloped and annexed did this change. While the disintegration rune had been fully revealed and was now free for Jason to use, he couldn''t even bother to do anything like that. The amount of mana stored inside the silver divine aura was shockingly high. Because of that, Jason began to realize that maintaining the silver aura had required much more mana than supplying enough mana to empower the world bridge itself! Now that he was annexing and absorbing the silver divine aura, Jason was also absorbing the mana stored inside it. Every single ounce of mana stored inside was highly compressed and more than enough to liquefy one drop of mana. Shocked by this revelation, Jason couldn''t help but take a moment and calm down the excitement that was about to be instilled within him. While Solaris had long since left his body in order to devour traces of the divine aura, Artemis and Petri were fully focused on the same. The only difference between his three soulbonds was that while Artemis and Solaris were merely absorbing it greedily, Petri used the divine aura to complete his evolution that had been lacking before. He expelled the mana that was directly absorbed by Artemis, who enhanced every single trait of hers with the divine aura and the mana inside it. At the same time, Solaris was slowly nurturing his abilities with divine energy. Jason''s eyes were transforming owing to the petrification curse that seemed to change due to Petri completing his evolution, in addition to the new ability that seemed to fully merge with his Emperor Eyes. Other than that, Jason felt as if every cell inside his body was receiving a divine blessing, enhancing him substantially. He was unsure whether this was something that was supposed to happen or not because it seemed to be an uncommon case. However, rather than wondering about the logic behind what happened, Jason prepared himself to devour the divine rune with the destruction of the world bridge. According to what he felt, the disintegration rune would not only destroy the world bridge but also release the overflowing mana. As such, there would be more mana in his surroundings than it had ever been before. Jason didn''t want to waste this opportunity. Because of that, he had to calm himself before he would try to focus on his task. Once he was close to entering the fully concentrated state that would allow him to absorb the surrounding energies at a terrifyingly high speed, Jason followed his instincts to access the disintegration rune without even knowing what he was really doing. Earlier, Jason hadn''t known the exact way to do something like that, but now that a part of the silver divine aura had merged with him, remnants of memories filled his mind. He was not sure whether they were his father''s memories or just knowledge on how to do certain things, but that was not important. Knowing how to destroy the world bridge in front of him and merging with the silver divine aura, were two things that should have never occurred on Argos in the first place. Solely by using his mind, Jason controlled a trace of the annexed silver divine aura to lash out at the disintegration rune that shattered without showing any signs of resistance. A few seconds later, nothing seemed to happen causing Jason, who was unable to see anything as of now, to gulp nervously. He forcefully calmed down the sliver of worry that was beginning to root itself in his mind. Devouring the silver divine aura was more important right now, and the release of the surrounding mana could either increase slowly, or be expelled explosively, and he had no control over it. Somehow, Jason hoped that it would be the former, but this hope was shattered only a moment later. Chapter 524 - Drastic Change Huge streams of torment mana were released at once as a chain reaction was caused by the destruction of the disintegration rune. Jason who was just about to enter the fully concentrated state was forcefully pulled out of it as huge streams of mana enveloped his entire being, suffocating him. Not even the surrounding air was able to persist, and everyone including Jason and his three soulbonds were suffocating on the scarcity of air. It was only when Jason''s Celestia aura erupted, manifesting a small pillar of golden-silverish light that oxygen was able to make its way, tearing through the streams to reach the four. The seemingly small golden-silverish pillar shot through the sky, as it expanded at a terrifying pace and soared upwards reaching the height of several hundred meters. The entire mana inside his surroundings was drawn towards them. If Jason had been able to open his eyes, he would have felt as if he had been imprisoned, which was the exact same thought his soulbonds would have. Fortunately, this was not the case, and everyone could only feel the distinct divine aura that had been annexed by Jason. It was ready to be devoured by each of the four, in addition to the terrifically high amount of mana.. He was unsure of the amount of mana in his proximity, but the divine aura had already more than enough to persist for a very long time. Yet, instead of feeling overwhelmed about not being able to grasp the opportunity, Jason smiled with his eyes closed. "I think it''s time to accelerate our cultivation progress!!" His stigma that hadn''t been fully released before was activated, increasing Jason''s mana absorption, circulation, and liquefaction speed. At the same time, his three soulbonds stigmas had also been activated, turning into four brightly glowing stigmas. They were amplifying and increasing the capabilities of each other. Making use of the divine aura they had savored, the stigmas had become much stronger than before as well. This allowed Jason to reach a mana absorption rate he never had before, while the same applied to Artemis and Solaris. Jason had already fully recuperated from the injuries he had sustained two weeks earlier. Due to that, his mana veins didn''t obstruct the mana that surged through them even the slightest. His entire body shouldn''t have many impurities since he had already undergone a total of two baptisms owing to Solaris, further increasing his mana absorption speed compared to others! Time passed slowly and Jason absorbed the surrounding mana and divine aura greedily. He didn''t even realise when he had entered the fully concentrated state, or that the overflowing mana in his surroundings was slowly decreasing as he liquefied one drop of mana after another. ** Three months passed and Jason finally turned 18 as he opened his golden-silverish eyes that glimmered brightly. The golden-silverish pillar had already dissipated, and taking a look around he noticed that the amount of mana in his surroundings had entered a normal range. There was no sight of the world bridge that made Jason sighed in relief. Suddenly he noticed that his entire body was enveloped by his old skin and a black reeking mass. While cultivating and absorbing the divine aura, his body had released a large amount of impurities. This was extremely great and Jason was satisfied, despite being astonished about the sheer mass of impurities Turning towards his soulbonds, he noticed that not much seemed to have changed about Solaris''s appearance. It was still the same origin flame as before, and only its abilities had changed. Because of that, the Solaris'' strength had increased once again. Meanwhile, Petri''s appearance hadn''t changed much either. It was only that his demeanor and aura had become deadlier as if one had to be careful to not look into his eyes, for the fear that something bad might happen. This was exactly the case, and Jason could only tell this because he sensed the changes in his eyes! Not only was he sure that his emperor eyes were able to see certain emotions in the form of colored hues around other people, but also that he didn''t even have to activate his emperor eyes in order to petrify others! On one hand, this could be helpful, but on the other hand, Jason knew that he would have to find a way to deactivate this ability! Otherwise, he might as well be attacked by others, solely for looking at them. Though this situation looked outright ridiculous, it seemed highly feasible. Other than the petrification curse, the race specific weakening curse seemed to have received an enhancement too. Jason was not sure how much stronger it was because he was not utilizing the curse right now, but his gut feeling told him that he could weaken others drastically! Artemis seemed to have changed the most. Not only did the number of liquefied drops of mana in her mana core increase to a total of 1500, but something else about her seemed to have changed too. Before, only one horn had been enveloped by his stigma, but now both of her horns were wrapped around with the golden-silverish stigma. However, even weirder to Jason was that Artemis'' plumage seemed to take over a tinge of a silver color, while the same happened to her sky-blue eyes. ''Will she evolve again? Her behavior is a little bit off¡­'' He was not sure why he was feeling like this, but somehow, it felt like she would evolve soon! Her ice affinity had increased tremendously after the enhancement, while the same applied to the amount of mana that had intertwined with her blood. Nevertheless, the biggest enhancement Jason had obtained was through his own terrifically high mana absorption and rapid liquefaction process. From the initial quantity of almost 160 drops of mana inside his mana core, three months had been enough to increase the number of highly compressed liquefied drops of mana to 834! Throughout these three months, Jason had liquefied seven to eight drops of highly compressed mana diligently, every single day. Every drop of mana liquified by him had been worth three common drops of mana, which meant that he had the capabilities to create a total of two dozen liquefied drops of mana in a single day! Jason''s physical strength had been enhanced substantially and the size of his mana core had enlarged as well. All in all, Jason had become extremely strong. Even without the use of any affinity, he was confident of fighting opponents at the peak 5th Lique stage. This was three ranks higher than his rank three months ago, and enough to shock everyone. By utilizing his affinities, and every other means, which included his curses and Emperor Eyes'' abilities, even those at the 6th or 7th Lique stage would have issues fighting against him. And that was without him breaking out of the limiter his body had naturally formed to prevent himself from breaking apart! Jason had only once released this limiter, and that was to kill the murderer of his masters! He didn''t know how he could actively release the limiter because it had been a subconscious act of his body the first time, but Jason was just hoping that he would never have to make use of it ever again! Right now, Jason was only short of one thing for his body to be at its peak. Jason had to refine his body! He was still at the starting steps of the Netherworld''s fort body refinement technique''s first stage, and his physical body refinement with mana was barely equivalent to 31 drops of mana. Somehow, Jason felt that this was useless! Once he was able to use primordial energy, he could refine his body with a proper body refinement technique. This might seem out of the ordinary, but Jason was confident to achieve it in the future. A part of him belonged to the Celestia race after all! Other than that, he felt like the human race was not as shallow as it might seem sometimes. They were insignificant, but there was still a mystery due to the soul world. What made Jason the most suspicious was the reason for some humans'' ability to awaken two different soul worlds, but not a third which would be correlated to the three existing cultivation paths and energies! While he was organizing his thoughts about that, he didn''t even realise the uproar he had caused during the last three months. This not only involved Canir, but the entire planet. Everyone had been able to see the gigantic golden-silverish pillar he had instinctively erected that seemed to touch the sky. Yet, instead of daring to take a look at what was going on, everybody had been afraid of Jason''s Celestia aura that had prevented any living being from approaching them. With this he had accidentally set the ball rolling, allowing the first encounter of the federation of immigrated races and the human race! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 525 - Invitation Jason didn''t even know what was going on after he had fully absorbed the divine aura. Instead of returning to the other big clans, he planned to do something different. Now that his strength had increased substantially, Jason wanted to test different things with his abilities and how high his combat prowess was by leaving no stone unturned. Yet, instead of directly searching for anyone to fight against, there was something else he had to solve first. He returned to Anna, who was still with Mike and his sister. Upon meeting them, he learned about manufacturing guns, bullets, and the different kinds of materials required for certain characteristics of a weapon. Other than that, he practiced forging, which allowed him to notice that his capabilities had increased significantly. The same applied to concocting potions.. Jason was able to control Solaris'' flame perfectly without a single fluctuation in its temperature, while the number of flames he could control at once had increased to several dozen. This was not only because of his and Solaris'' increased capabilities but also owing to the stigma and their firm fortified soul conjunction. There was only one auxiliary occupation he had slight problems with as his knowledge was too shallow! One had to be very careful while inscribing runes because even a single wrong stroke would create a wrong rune turning all the previous efforts into a waste of time. As such, he had to imprint every rune in his mind first. Fortunately, this was not really problematic after having to refine his mind not once but several times, undergoing two baptisms, the primal Celestia bloodline awakening, and annexing and absorbing divine aura! Only one month had passed before Jason had devoured every piece of information. Mike was shocked about how fast he could digest information and understand it. It was nothing more than child''s play to him. In Jason''s view, this was not really an issue, and Mike seemed to have forgotten that he was not a full human. However, contrary to Jason''s expectations, Mike simply didn''t care about anyone''s background. Jason had helped him, or to be more precise the entire human race. As such, he was honor bound to return the favor. Other than that, Mike liked Jason a lot while the same applied to Anna. The little girl was a prodigy among prodigies because despite being just two years old she had just learned how to sense mana. As if that wasn''t enough, her mana absorption rate was shockingly high which caused not only Mike and his sister to be flabbergasted, but also Jason. It was evident that she used a unique cultivation technique, and Jason wanted to ask her about it. However, instead of doing so directly, he was using the time they were together to teach her a lot about the soul awakening and all kinds of things she had to pay attention to. "I''ve already explained to you the basics of soul awakenings, the two types of possible soul worlds you can awaken, and everything you should know in the beginning. As such, I can tell you a little bit about my case because it has to do with beasts at the Prismar stage, and what you will have to pay attention to once you want to bind a beast at the Prismar stage. It''s evident that a solidified prismarine crystal is the starting line of the Prismar stage, and it''s also the restriction for normal soul energy to bind those beasts! To put it simply, you need to advance your soul energy. Humans have experimented over a duration of three centuries on finding ways of creating advanced soul energy. This was not easy, and in the end, by compressing 10 million units of soul energy, you receive one soul crystal! With that soul crystal, you can bind a beast that has just entered the Prismar stage. However, the downside is that you can''t use the 10 million compressed units of soul energy anymore. Increasing your soul energy will become more difficult again. That is also the reason why most humans increase their soul energy to more than 50 million units before compressing their first soul crystal. Why 50 million soul energy units? Because that is considered a threshold at which the soul energy increment slows down drastically! Other than that it is important for you to pay attention to[...]" Jason''s lecture was extremely long, and Anna realized that the human race was not as simple as she had assumed. At the same time, Jason bombarded her with questions of specific things he had to pay attention to when entering a different planet with more mana. According to her, the biggest issue would be the difference in density, purity, and the amount of mana and other energies, in addition to the gravitational force. The latter was only a problem for Cultivators that had yet to reach the Ascension stage, but Anna was fully aware of Jason''s future plan. He had shared them with her after all. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Anna asked Jason something he had never expected to hear. "By the way, can you adopt me?" Jason squinted his eyes, wondering why Anna was asking him, and not Mike or his sister. However, before he could even answer, or ponder about her words, Anna, with her young and childish voice, had already started to explain what exactly she wanted. "I heard that the big clans have rebuilt almost everything that had been destroyed through the Great Argos war. The orphanages are said to open soon, and both Mike and his sister are trying to find a way to adopt me without creating trouble. I can''t conceal my mana yet, and it will be weird if a two-year-old child can suddenly absorb mana, right? Because of that, I need you to adopt me, as nobody will ask any questions! Right now, you''re seen as the most talented being on Argos. Furthermore, your image has changed once again, for the better of course. The big clans have even retracted their kill missions¡­.well at least it looks like that on the outside. As such, I need your name to gain bonus points and avoid attracting unnecessary attention! Apart from the adoption matter, it seems that an invitation to all human prodigies from the federation of immigrated races was sent out. Apparently, they''ve become interested in the human race after the small show you created. This is not correlated to adoption, but you could offer the big clans to represent the human race. I guess the federation wants to figure out the human race''s strength in lieu of the phenomena that was created by you!" Jason hadn''t really paid much attention to Canir and the Archipelago since he had to take care of his own matters during the last few months. He only knew that Mike had already handed out the last pages of the foreign races manuals Jason had translated. In the end, this was earlier than expected, but Mike''s gut feeling to hand out the entire translated technique had been perfect. They were released right before the invitation of the Immigrated races'' federations invitation. The federation was called Olynadra Mpa Usdran federation, the name of which was an acronym created by using certain letters of the federation''s races. However, instead of using the rather difficult pronounced name, everyone called it the Olympus federation. Though he had expected to attract some attention to Canir by absorbing the divine energy, Jason hadn''t really given it much thought. To think that he had caused a chain reaction to such a great extent!! He could only shake his head when he reflected back on it As for adopting Anna, Jason didn''t even know what to think of her proposal. Was he supposed to do something, or would she be fine with just his name? Nevertheless, the little girl''s words made sense and Jason had known from the beginning that he would have to be responsible for her since the day he had saved the little baby''s life. Because of that, he could only nod his head as he answered, "I can adopt you, but I have no idea what I''m supposed to do. Talking to the government will probably be the easiest...let''s hope they won''t try to kill me.." Jason knew that his reputation had considerably improved since the accident with the world bridge that had revealed all kinds of chimeras during the beast breakout. As such, it wouldn''t be much of an issue to walk into any governmental building to enquire about the process to adopt Anna. At the same time, he had to figure out more about the invitation of the Olympus federation. There were certain things Jason found suspicious about the invitation, but at the same time, it was a great opportunity to finish what he had promised to his masters! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 526 - Adoption Three days had passed since Anna had given him lots of information about Argos'' latest news in addition to her adoption request. Jason had never expected to become a father at the tender age of 18, but there was not even the slightest issue in the entire adoption process! Without any hesitation, Jason had visited the government office inside Ilan city, they were currently in. Instead of being rejected, or even threatened by the government, he was asked multiple questions that had literally nothing to do with the adoption. Everyone wanted to figure out more about him, and it was as if he had turned into a celebrity. Their fear seemed to have been replaced by curiosity which was something Jason had never expected. Somehow, humans seemed to be extremely naive and easily manipulative right now. At least that was how he, and even Anna witnessed everything. Anna knew that Jason''s reputation had improved a lot, but the fact that it had changed so drastically was still surprising.. Nevertheless, it was an advantage for her because almost nobody bothered about her, let alone scanned through her body to determine whether she had started to absorb mana or not. She was sincerely thankful for everything Jason did to help her. He didn''t have to do any of that after all! As such, she was trying to think of a proper way to return the favor. Both had their own plans to become stronger, and Jason''s plan was slightly interrupting her own. This was solely because only a part of her memories had merged with the body Anna owned. In the end, the memories she had retained from her past life were too much for an ordinary child to handle. Because of that, Anna would require nothing but time to grow and unseal the memories within her. The best way would be to enter a planet with dense and pure mana, allowing her to break through multiple ranks at a rapid pace. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done because most world bridges to planets with a higher mana density and purity were guarded by other races. Without enough mana and the necessary resources, she was not able to create her own world bridge either. As such, Anna had to stay calm and patient for now. It was annoying, but waiting for the right time was the only option she had. Due to that, she had accepted the fact that her family name wouldn''t remain blank as she had initially wanted to, and that the blank row against her last name had been replaced with [Stella]. There were only bad memories about her former family, but Jason seemed to be different. He was straightforward, blunt, and thus honest. Thanks to that, she did not feel the need to lie about her own ideas and emotions as it was extremely hard to do so with the mind of a two-year-old child that had merged with hers. In the end, it was obvious that Jason would be leaving before her. He was only staying due to his masters'' wish, to begin with. ''Maybe I should help him fulfill his masters'' wish after he leaves?'' This was one of the thoughts she had of finding a way of repaying Jason, but it was not really important for now. She assumed that Jason would only stay around for one year at the maximum. After that, her own combat prowess wouldn''t be strong enough to make much of a difference, let alone fulfill his masters'' wish. Only time could tell what would happen to her and mankind. If Anna were to know that her dream of becoming unparalleled within the universe, and to leave Argos as soon as possible were to be shattered by nothing but a normal human youth, she would be flabbergasted and aggressively deny the possibility! However, how could she know just how strong love was without having felt it in her past? Was love strong enough to make people give up on everything they had dreamed about, to accept colonizing a planet that had yet to awaken any cultivation energy instead of returning to the world of cultivation, to live the life of an immortal she had been? Meanwhile, Jason was procuring as much information about the invitation of the Olympus federation, but the news seemed to be restricted. Only the big clans, ancient sects, and other powerhouse families seemed to know more about it. Mike was an exception because he had eavesdropped on the gossip of the descendants and postmen employed to transport the translated manuals provided by Jason to and fro. Because of that, Jason messaged the few patriarchs he was still in contact with. Other than those, there were also Seron, Milan, and his other friends who were likely to know more about the invitation than he did. After the adoption was completed, Anna received a new ID card, making everything easier for her. Jason held Anna in one of his arms while using his free hand to utilise the holographic screen in front of him. Jason couldn''t help but feel restless because he had missed a lot of important information. There were things he should have known earlier, and it was only fortunate that Anna had told him a few things before. It looked weird to talk to a two-year-old child as if the kid was a mature adult, but Jason knew that Anna had been more than a few thousand years old in her past life. As such, he could learn a lot from her. That was only if she were to unseal all of her memories, which required time. This was something he required the most, only to have too few of it. Because of the scarcity of time he had, Jason had to act fast now. The invitation of the Olympus federation was in fact an invitation to a tournament the federation held every 50 years in commemoration to escape the clutches of their enemies and migration to Argos. This was already astonishing, but what caused Jason''s eyes to widen and exclaim in astonishment were the rewards!! Not only did the invitation mention the details of the rewards in the human language, but every single reward the top 10 would receive was extravagant. "Origin flame¡­" In the end, the first place would receive the unawakened crystal of a ''Lesser'' origin flame that was labeled as deep orange. Jason might be unaware of the exact grade the origin flame had or what difference saying that it was a deep orange origin flame made, but that was not important. ''Maybe I can break Solaris'' shackles with another origin flame!!'' He was not sure where exactly the Olympus federation received the origin flame crystal and all kinds of other rewards from, but it was definitely suspicious. Jason had already spent a lot of time with the foreign races and on the other continents. As such, he knew that the number of world bridges leading to reclusive areas and split dimensions was much higher compared to Canir and the Archipelago. Because of that, he concluded that it was more than feasible to give out extravagant rewards during a tournament that was held only once every 50 years. Taking a deep breath, Jason figured out what he had to do. "I have to participate in the tournament...and win!!!" ''With the origin flame crystal, I might be one step closer to free Greg, Malia, and the Flers!!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 527 - Hidden Meaning Jason hadn''t forgotten about the first family that had taken him in after his mother''s untimely death. They were still alive and he was confident to save them as long as he figured out a way to destroy a soul contract. There should be at least some way that prevented them from dying or receiving permanent injuries, let alone their soul worlds'' destruction. The only thing he had to do now found this one way, no matter what! Unfortunately, this was easier said than done, and the books about soul contracts he had read inside Janur''s library hadn''t been a great help. There was one piece of information Jason had found useful, but he had yet to figure out how to employ it properly. ''Overwrite a soul contract¡­'' This could have been easy if a soul contract could simply overwrite a new one, but that was not the case. The oldest soul contract was always the most dominant and valid one, no matter how many followed next. Nevertheless, Jason could swear that overwriting was the solution he had been looking for. Suddenly, while he was deep in thoughts, Anna tugged at his sleeves signaling him to leave. The crowd around him was growing with time and it was getting uncomfortable to speak without others eavesdropping. Furthermore, thinking with a hundred voices gossiping next to each other was only possible if one was able to be fully concentrated on something. That was exactly how Jason''s deep thoughts looked like and he hadn''t noticed anything of what happened in his surroundings. Anna had brought him out of his reverie and he nodded his head in response before he summoned Artemis'' wings and spread them lightly. The white wings with faint star-like silver dots spread through her feathers were opened lightly before he used them as a means to make some room for himself. It made the crowd step back as his wings stretched to the entire length of their wingspan. After that, he walked out of the building before he flew into the air. Returning to Mike and his sister was easier said than done. However, once everything was concluded, Anna returned to the two of them. Jason had dinner with the siblings before he explained his plan of leaving and participating in the liberation tournament. Apparently one could participate in the tournament as long as one was below the age of 50 years and passed a simple test to conclude one''s combat prowess. The age restriction might seem large, but the biggest advantage other races had in comparison to humans was drastically reduced in the Olympus federation! This advantage was the dense amount of mana the foreign races normally had on their origin planet. As a matter of fact, the Olympus federation had only slightly more mana on their planets leaking from the world bridges, while there were only a few world bridges that led to high mana density places! At least, that was what Jason had heard and read. Nevertheless, there shouldn''t be many individuals from foreign races that had solidified their first prismarine crystals at such a young age. Only the cream of the crop that should be a handful, probably even less should have achieved this feat. However, even that was already a disadvantage for humanity, and there were not many young prodigies of the human race that were strong enough to face the prodigies of the Olympus federation. In the liberation tournament, only the elite of the elite would participate, and the invitation given by the Olympus federation was a clear statement for several reasons. If they accepted the invitation but lost miserably, the Olympus federation knew that mankind was not a threat and even a possible target to conquer, which would help them gain more lands for themselves. On the other hand, there were two more main paths the human race could choose. One was to stay mysterious and reject the invitation, making it impossible for the foreign races to determine mankind''s exact strength. Meanwhile, the last path in Jason''s opinion was to reveal their race''s cream of the crop. Jason knew that there were quite a few hidden gems nobody knew about. They were the real talents of humanity because of their five-star soul awakenings. Even though he assumed that their soul world was worse than his, while the same applied to their mana mastery, they were older and likely to have more soulbonds than he had. If Jason were to make an assumption, there would be a handful of humans that could be considered to be the prodigies among prodigies with a combat prowess close to, if not at the Prismar stage...and that too at the age of 50. There was the possibility that all his assumptions were wrong, but that didn''t really matter. The rewards of the liberation tournament were tempting, and the Olympus federation''s challenge had to be accepted. In the end, the tournament was an opportunity for the human race to gain a foothold in the other continents. As long as they won, or their prodigies exhibited superior combat prowess, it might be possible for humanity to gain the rights to enter certain world bridges. This would be extremely good, and Jason knew that the government would accept the invitation. That was not even questionable because it was obvious how greedy mankind was, while the opportunity was extremely great to usher the human race to a state they had never been before. In Jason''s opinion, the government would start forming a business relationship with the Olympus federation, once they realized just how much more resources they had! But that was only because waging war was not a possibility they could choose. If that was possible, Jason doubted that the big clans and ancient sects would hesitate for a single moment to start a war for more resources instead of trading them peacefully. Maybe that was only a few big clans, but from the way he had been introduced to them, this end-scenario was not even unlikely. Fortunately, some big clans had learned from their mistakes. The best example was the Jual clan. Before it had used a slave market to trade criminals and weaker citizens nobody would suspect to have gone missing with a foreign race to receive more resources. At the same time, they had given their utmost efforts to concoct a cultivation drug. However, now that the Great Argos war had ended, they had changed drastically. Everyone was now allowed to enter the Mythic Garden that had been hidden before, and the Jual clan was working with most of the other clans in order to bring the human race glory. To put it simply, Jason had already fulfilled his masters'' last wish. The weak were protected, and the issue on Canir and the Archipelago seemed to be solved. From his perspective, the citizens that had survived were now safe and only a few were complaining or having problems living a comfortable life. The terrifying Great Argos war had inflicted a big scar on everyone''s mind, but Jason believed that time was the best medicine and that every wound would heal slowly. Now, he had only two tasks left. The first was to figure out a way to protect Argos and mankind long term without the need to be present all the time, and to rescue every single member of the Flers! Jason knew that the government needed someone strong to represent them in the liberation tournament. Other than the strongest prodigies mankind possessed there was only Jason, and he was the only one who was likely to fight for the entire race, instead of himself as would be the case for the strongest prodigies! They were nurtured to be the strongest, to reign above everyone else, and told that they were superior. In stark contrast, only Jason was humble enough to protect the weak even if that meant he had to set his life on the line! As such, Jason was not even required to search for the government, because the government was already looking for him to make a request! After having participated in the last battle of the Great Argos war, the majority of big clans had witnessed his strength, and it was evident how useful it could be to use him properly. Unfortunately, Jason was fully aware of this! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 528 - Gods Children The government was fully aware of why the Olympus federation was suddenly inviting them to participate in the liberation tournament. This was a great opportunity, but also a great burden that caused every big clan and the ancient sects to gather to brainstorm about utilizing the opportunity to its fullest. In comparison to the Great Argos war, this seemed to be equally important if not even more. Those who had fought against each other in the war were now sitting across a huge table, discussing the options they had. Unfortunately, their options were limited, and even less than a handful allowed them to come out of the situation without any disadvantages, let alone profits. Everyone was aware that the invitation was a challenge and at the same time a means for other races to get to know the human race. They also realised that the only thing that caused several dozen races to come to the mana scarce planet like Argos was the soul world! "We need to participate, that''s already given. There is no way around it! Our God''s children should be strong enough to handle the situation well.. It might not be perfect but better than nothing!" One middle-aged man said while trying to figure out the best solution for their issue. Suddenly out of nowhere, Heapha, who hadn''t said much during the last few minutes, stood up from her chair. "Let''s invite Jason Stella too. He is also a human and the reason for the Olympus federation to invite us, to begin with!" Since Shane and Dalia''s death, she seemed to have changed. Instead of living in seclusion, Haepha had started to come forward and speak more, and give her best to change mankind in its entirety! There was not much she could do, but her capabilities in forging were great, and her strength more than enough to become a part of the gathering. At that moment, Jael Drake, who was also present due to the necessity, lifted his head. His eyes were gleaming in interest. "Did you just say Jason Stella? You mean the young man with golden eyes, who has released the book titled Argos'' insignificance, stating that he is a halfling?" His voice was emotionless while he recalled the young 14-year-old child without any talent. ''Are those two Jason''s the same, or am I mistaken?'' Had they been the same, Jael Drake would have been deceived. ''His mana aptitude had been too low and his soul-awakening had barely met the average range¡­'' This was confusing, but instead of focusing too much on those aspects, the Drake family patriarch began to wonder whether Jason wanted to kill him or not. It was likely to be the case because he had heard that Shane and Dalia had been Jason''s masters. However, in the end, Jason was said to help mankind with all his might, which meant that killing the patriarch of a big clan was the least he had on his mind right now. To put it simply, the young man was not even strong enough to face Jael Drake with his current strength. If Jason were to hear the Drake family patriarch''s words, he would probably try to twist the old man''s neck. Nevertheless, he couldn''t kill Jael, and Jason was fully aware of that. He was too weak and had to save the Flers before doing anything reckless. "Let''s invite him. Even if we might not need his help, it is always better to have one more hand to support us. To be honest, I doubt that he would want to miss participating in the liberation tournament. It might be as someone without an affiliation, but that wouldn''t be required. Just by looking at the rewards, I can tell that it''s tempting for Jason Stella. He already has an origin flame and knows how valuable they''re!" It was Merl Arths who had said this, and nobody raised their voice against him. There was the undeniable fact that having Jason on their own side was better than fighting against him in the tournament. As such, they sent someone to look for Jason, whose current location was not a secret anymore. Anyone who had taken a look at the Skynet forum threads during the last half an hour knew where to find him. Thanks to that it was not difficult to locate and meet him. Jason couldn''t help but agree to their request for him to participate in the liberation tournament because this was exactly what he had planned and wanted to do in the first place. Only a few days later he had joined the grand gathering with the main attention on three women and two men. They were at the 2nd to 4th Lique stage according to the number of liquefied drops of mana inside their mana core. However, their mana core''s size and the amplifications Jason was able to perceive through his emperor eyes were grand, to say the least. From the looks of it, each of them had around four soulbonds and every single one of them was not only strong but also of a different element, strengthening the five God''s children further. The percentage of their amplification was strong too, and it was no wonder that they were considered the strongest of the strong. "At least the 7th Lique stage??" He blurted quietly, though Haepha had heard him who had offered Jason a seat next to her. She wanted to continue what Shane and Dalia were unable to finish. Jason''s strength might be terrifically high, but his mental state was still showing signs of being unstable and volatile. As such, Haepha thought that it was necessary to help him a little. It was not needed to become Jason''s new master or anything like that. Right now, he just needed someone next to him, someone who would provide him some support or guidance! In the end, it was not difficult to understand that Jason didn''t want to let other people become as important as his masters had become to him. From the outside, it might have looked like he''d quickly overcome everything without any issues, but that was not the case! He was still hurting from both Scorpio and his masters'' death! Right now, Jason''s mind was calm and he seemingly ignored the Drake family patriarch''s entire existence, which included his frown. The patriarch understood that he had been deceived because Jason''s mana fluctuations were still the same as before. There was only a minuscule change, which was the terrifying Celestia aura and his stigma that were not suppressed. Jason wouldn''t disguise himself anymore and instead preferred to show others who he truly was. If they didn''t like this, they could try to kill him, but that was not something he was afraid of. Having killed thousands of beings, Jason knew how quickly one could die, and that only the loved ones of the deceased that were left behind would suffer. The people that died, would merely feel some pain before everything would end. While the main attention was on the five God''s children, a large part of the crowd couldn''t help but flick their gazes towards Jason every now and then. The tournament was said to start only on new year''s eve which was less than four months from now. During that time, the big clan heads wanted to allow the five God''s children to learn every martial art technique they wanted to. In addition to that, they were to receive the best possible cultivation resources and so on. Jason wasn''t even mentioned, but he simply ignored this. He hadn''t expected to be treated well, to begin with. Through his Emperor Eyes that had received a substantial enhancement, Jason was able to see one particular hue enveloping almost everyone tightly after all. Since he had absorbed the divine aura, he could see the emotions of other beings in the form of hues that enveloped them. These emotions were only targeted to him, which allowed Jason to figure out whether others were afraid, angry or even happy about his arrival. Even though he had yet to figure out what some hues looked like, Jason knew that most big clan heads were afraid of him. The hues he perceived were distinct enough to figure that out. Only the hues of the five God''s Children and a few other big clans and ancient sect heads were different as well as Haepha''s. Three out of five God''s Children were curious about him, while one seemed to be angry. However, one of the women was staring at him intently, without any hue enveloping her. This caused him to feel uncomfortable, and Jason assumed that she was able to see that he was trying to infiltrate her privacy through his Emperor Eyes'' ability. However, instead of nodding apologetically, he simply stared back at her defiantly without saying anything for a long time. He was still listening intently to the discussion when an unexpected question was hurled towards him. "Jason Stella, I heard that one of your soulbond died during the Great Argos war. How about you search for another soulbond? Your soul world should have enough space for at least one, maybe even more soulbonds!" The middle-aged man who was talking to Jason was someone he had never seen or heard of before. As such, Jason concluded that it was a new patriarch who had replaced one of the heads who had died during the Great Argos war. Even though he had told himself to stay calm and not attract any attention, Jason didn''t like the way the middle-aged man was talking. Instead of someone with great strength or combat prowess, the middle-aged man simply appeared to be someone with two solidified prismarine crystals. He didn''t even have great amplifications from his soul world or soulbond. Literally nothing about the man was unique, and it was only after a few seconds that he turned his head towards the man. His golden-silverish eyes were ice-cold and stared straight into the dark-brown eyes of the middle-aged man. "How about I teach you a precious lesson? This will be my one and only warning!" With that being said, Jason unleashed his Celestia aura at once, oppressing everyone seated in the large hall, making them gasp for air. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 529 - Culture Jason''s eyes brightened the entire room with an almost blinding light. There was no need for him to hold back anymore. He had done so way too often during the last few years, trying to avoid conflict and taking a step back while the big clans had done however they pleased. For a long time, he had only sat back and watched them. Not now! Not anymore! As such, Jason utilized everything he had. Releasing Petris'' enhanced petrification curse, the race specific weakening curse, his Emperor Eyes'' abyssal effect, and his distinct killing intent all at once, they fused, turning the multi-layered attack into one lethal attack, targeting the middle-aged man. Time seemed to have slowed down as Jason lifted his hand slowly while his aura enveloped him. His stigma began to glow brightly, dazzling everyone. Only his cold voice echoed through the surroundings, bouncing off the walls that amplified it further. "SLEEP!" He uttered just one word and nothing more but that word held the anger and fury of a thousand worlds. The moment Jason said this he snapped his fingers as the entire light around him vanished in an instant, seemingly devoured by something grand, something the human race couldn''t grasp. A second later, time returned to normal again, and nobody could help but take a deep breath as they turned their head from Jason to the middle-aged man. There was a tinge of fear in their heart that told them to not look at the patriarch, that they wouldn''t like what they would see. However, contrary to their expectations, the middle-aged man was still seated on the chair as if nothing had happened. Only his eyes were void of any color. His eyelids drooped and his eyes closed slowly as the middle-aged man''s head crashed into the large table in front of him. A loud bang echoed through the tightly packed room, and the tension intensified to a whole new level. It was as if everyone had been momentarily rendered speechless, nobody said anything for several seconds. The only sounds in the room were gasps and sharp intake of breath. Jason swept his eyes across the room before he stated, "As previously mentioned, this is just a warning. I might still look like a pushover to all of you, but don''t try to be funny with me or lecture me in any way. There is nothing I can learn from the big clans anymore." A chill ran down everyone''s spine as young or old, rich or poor, all of them heard Jason''s cold voice that spoke nothing but the truth. It was evident that the young man must have used the vast majority of his mana, but thinking that someone at the late 1st Lique stage was able to knock out one of the big clans'' patriarchs was still shocking. The middle-aged man might be a newly appointed patriarch, but he was still at the first threshold of the Prismar stage with two solidified prismarine crystals! That meant his strength shouldn''t be underestimated. Yet, Jason had barely flicked a finger and easily sent him to sleep, which meant it wouldn''t take him much effort to kill him afterward. Jason hadn''t expected his intimidation to have such a nerve-wracking impact on the audience. Post his little power play, everything went smoothly, and he realized only now how strong the divine aura he had absorbed and merged with was. Every cell inside his body had been strengthened by the divine aura, but that was not all. His abilities had received a substantial increase too! The abyssal effect had barely been strong enough to defeat those at the same rank, at most, but that had changed. Jason was still not sure how strong the lethal power of his multitude of overlapping effects was working, but it was mighty! After he had made his stance clear, the other big clan heads ignored the patriarch. He was simply sleeping, exactly as Jason had ordered him to. Through his Emperor Eyes, he perceived that the present powerhouses were more afraid of him than they were before. This was only logical and Jason wouldn''t have a different reaction if he were to swap places with them. Because the entire gathering had been brought to a standstill, Jason knew that he had to do something. He cleared his throat before he addressed the large group, "To be honest, I have already visited the other continents during the last few months. Only the most knowledgeable individuals of the Olympus federation know the human tongue, and most of them speak in the universal language. If nobody can speak the universal language fluently, I will have to translate everything, which will be annoying and cumbersome. As such, I propose that the big clans learn to speak the universal language, otherwise, it will be an embarrassment when we will meet the Olympus federation''s authorities. Other than that, does anyone know what races are included in the federation, how strong they are, what kind of special features, strengths, or weaknesses they have? I doubt it, and if I were to speak bluntly, what is the use of learning multiple manuals of the foreign races, if they''re more proficient in them? Just practice one and get to know your opponents. We don''t need to become their enemies after all!" Somehow, Jason''s words eased the tension while doing the exact opposite only a few seconds later. Nobody was sure what his plan was, or if he was just lecturing the present powerhouses. Contrary to the outrage he had expected, everyone was silently mulling over Jason''s words. They couldn''t take him lightly anymore. If the final battle of the Great Argos war had not been enough to show them that Jason was not ordinary, the golden-silverish pillar he had erected and the fact that his strength was enough to force someone at the Prismar stage to fall asleep was more than enough to make them take him seriously. His growth had been exponential, and the rumors that Jason had defeated one of the Burance race''s assassins during the Blood Eclipse was now turning into a serious question. HadJason already been strong enough to defeat his opponent at the Prismar stage with six solidified prismarine crystals several months ago? It was unlikely, but nobody knew about the true extent of Jason''s bloodline. As such, instead of killing him, the big clans began to change their tactics as if they had a tacit agreement. "So...we should learn more about the universal language, and the God''s children should...get to know their opponents?" Only one person dared to speak right now, and it was no other than Merl Arths. Jason just nodded his head as he responded, "Exactly. You will have to learn their language either way. Otherwise, it will be difficult to make agreements with the Olympus federation, or other races...whatever you guys are planning. In my opinion, mankind should focus on advancing by establishing firm connections with other races, WITHOUT using citizens as resources to trade-off. This will be much better than stagnating our progress by waging another useless war. Because of that, you need to learn their culture, strengths, weaknesses, and so on. If that''s not tempting enough, there are many world bridges leading to resourceful areas, lots of knowledge mankind has yet to procure, and much more. Let''s just go to Janur, which is the biggest city of the Olympus federation. I guess the liberation tournament will be held there too! We can only gain something by going¡­" Somehow, Jason sensed that the present powerhouses didn''t like the authoritative way in which he spoke, but they remained silent. He was glad to have demonstrated his strength while hiding his exhaustion almost perfectly. Only the woman from the God''s Children was still staring at him. Fortunately, she wouldn''t be able to see anything about him, but he couldn''t help but be suspicious about her. There was something that made him worry, but at the same time, his gut feeling told him that he was overreacting. His gut feeling had bever been wrong so far. Suddenly, the woman with whom he had had a short staring match spoke, "I like the idea. Let''s go to Janur, and get to know the culture of the Olympus federation!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 530 - Embassy Once the first God''s child accepted Jason''s proposal, the others followed suit. Their opinion about Jason had changed in the last few minutes. Earlier, they had been under the impression that their parents and the other powerhouses had been exaggerating Jason''s strength, but that was evidently not the case. Rather, it seemed that they had grossly underestimated his strength! Anger was the last emotion they felt right now, instead, it was curiosity, and distinct fear of encountering Jason as an opponent. Despite the fear he instilled, everyone thought about his proposal thoroughly, and it was definitely a good strategy to learn more about their opponents before encountering them. Furthermore, it was evident how shallow everyone''s knowledge about the universal language was. One should at least make some effort to forge ties with other races, and it seemed that the previous efforts to make soul contracts and trades before the Great Argos war had happened, originated from the foreign races. If Jason were to know that this was also the reason why most big clans had been able to terminate their soul contract with the foreign races so easily, he would''ve probably thrown a fit, wondering whether mankind was extremely clever, just lucky or oblivious to the dangers they had escaped.. Fortunately, he didn''t know that and seeing how eager the young woman who had stared at him was, Jason couldn''t help but feel weird. Through his Emperor Eyes, he could tell that the young woman was likely to be the youngest because she had the lowest mana core rank. She was at the Peak 2nd Lique stage who was just about to enter the 3rd Lique stage. However, what made her interesting was that she already had four soulbonds, and every single one of them was extremely strong. With four different affinities, it was easy to attack and defend herself with a wide variety of moves. Suddenly, the young woman stood up as she walked towards him. She held her hand out and smiled brightly at him, "My name is Betty, glad to have you with us. Please guide us!" Jason hadn''t expected that to happen, and he needed a second to regain his composure before he stared straight into her eyes. The young woman, called Betty, didn''t flinch, or showed any signs of hesitance to face him and extended her hand to greet him. This was rare to see, even less after having shown what his eyes are capable of. Smiling lightly, he stood up, shaking her hand as he said, "Jason Stella, nice meeting you. I''ll give my best to help!" With that, Jason loosened his hold, only to notice that Betty was not letting go of his hand. Only a few seconds later did Betty notice what she had been doing. Turning around, she returned to her seat under the pointed looks of everyone around them. At that moment, the remaining God''s Children noticed Betty''s embarrassment which caused them to jump up from their seats and approach Jason. They introduced themselves to make it look like they had planned this from the beginning, to make up for Betty''s weird behavior. Fortunately, the other God''s Children knew about the odd behavior she revealed sometimes. Only Jason noticed that something had been wrong since the beginning, and it was as if Betty could stare inside his soul. It was said that one staring into someone''s eyes led to their soul, but he had never believed it. Furthermore, there didn''t seem to be anything special about Betty. At least, Jason couldn''t see anything with his Emperor Eyes. Maybe it was just the youngest of the God children''s gut feeling, or something similar. However, instead of asking her straightforwardly, Jason decided to give them the benefit of doubt. Right now, they had given their best to cover up Betty''s weird behavior. As such, it would be a slap on their face, if not worse to voice out what he had on his mind. It only took a few hours before every other issue was finally solved. The God''s children received a large amount of resources, a copy of the martial art technique they wanted to train with and Jason decided to note down the most basic sentences and their translations. Even with that, one would still be unable to hold a proper conversation, but it was more than enough to start with. Other than Jason and the five God''s Children, a total of six powerhouses would follow them on their journey. They were the ancestors of the God''s children, along with Merl Arths, who was the most fluent in the universal language. Three days of preparations followed before they departed to the biggest city of the Olympus federation, Janur. While the others manifested wings on their back with the help of the fortified soul conjunction, Jason had to fly on Artemis'' back. For the last several months, she had been reluctant to enter the soul world because she had wanted to stay with him. Jason found this a little bit weird as it was a drastic change from her prior behavior, however, when she explained that her body felt as heavy as it had been before her first evolution, Jason could only nod. If she were to evolve once again, that would mean they wouldn''t see each other for several months. Thus, Artemis, who was the clingiest of his soulbonds, didn''t want to part ways with him right now. The others just saw that Jason was sitting on the large owl''s back, with a two-meter-long snake coiled around him. Normally, one would comment, thinking that it would be much more convenient to use the fortified soul conjunction to manifest his owl''s wings. Yet, everyone refrained from commenting and preferred to stay silent, ignoring that they would need longer to travel to Janur. Nobody dared to say anything against Jason since he had silenced the newly appointed patriarch effortlessly. His small act of powerplay had helped him gain lots of respect from everyone, and there were only a few who were aware of Jason''s utter exhaustion. It had taken him two days to recuperate from the toll his short, yet magnificent act had caused. ** 30 days later one could see the human race''s embassy walking through Janur''s streets. A few days had already passed since their arrival, but it was difficult for them to adjust their mindset to the fact that more than a dozen races were living peacefully with each other. "And you are sure that we''re still on Argos?" Ben, one of the God''s Children with a mana core at the 4th Lique stage asked hesitantly. It was just too difficult to comprehend that a short trip over the ocean was all that was required to enter a different continent now. Before the Great Argos war, this had been impossible because the hostile, foreign races had prevented mankind from leaving Canir and the Archipelago. This had restricted mankind''s advancement the most, forcing them to venture through the different world bridges instead of visiting the different continents on Argos. Now that most foreign races had left Argos, leaving behind mankind and the Olympus federation, many new opportunities had emerged, which they had to seize before it was too late. The citizens of the Olympus federation noticed that humans had entered their lands, but they were greeted politely and welcomed instead of somebody raising weapons against them. Humans had grown used to being shown weapons and threatened by the foreign races hence this experience was fairly surprising for them. Because of that, the mindset of those who had been against the foreign races was forced to change completely. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 531 - Colosseum Not every change was bad, and it not only applied to different situations but also races! This was something mankind had to accept before they would be able to make a treaty with the Olympus federation. At least, if that was something they were sincerely trying to achieve. Even Jason had been forced to understand, digest, and accept this fact. He didn''t want to, but this was an undeniable fact and nothing but the truth. In the end, it would be impossible for him to kill every race, just because a few specific individuals had been responsible for the deaths of someone he had loved. Rather, targeting specific individuals was the way to go. Jason didn''t want the entire human race to be annihilated, as a consequence of a few human powerhouses'' reckless actions. The first step was always the hardest, but those that followed were much easier to take.. With three months left to strengthen themselves and get to know their opponents, it would be the easiest to enter the library in Janur. Unfortunately, the universal language was not something one could learn within the blink of an eye. Jason''s situation had been different, and he didn''t understand how he was able to do half the things he could, if he were to be honest, but others would need to study everything. If his assumption was correct, it would take around two months for the others to learn the most basic alphabet of the universal language, while constructing simple sentences for verbal or written communication wouldn''t be much of an issue. Forcing everyone to speak with the vendors of other races would further accelerate this, and Jason assumed that this was the easiest way to get to know others. Unfortunately, studying was not the talent the God''s children, or human powerhouses had. Because of that, the plan he had created during traveling to Janur was blown into smithereens. In the end, Jason had overestimated their capabilities, while comparing their memory, thinking ability, and all the other traits to his own. They were at a higher rank than him and should have a sharper mind, but Jason recalled that he belonged to a different race, at least half of himself. Furthermore, his brain had received two baptisms, the primal awakening of the Celestia bloodline, and an additional enhancement from the divine aura he had devoured and digested. While thinking about the divine aura, Jason''s train of thoughts was diverted to his soulbonds. Solaris was still at his limit, unable to advance further, while Artemis was happily absorbing and digesting the mana in her surroundings. She was currently perched on his shoulder like usual, while Petri had coiled himself around his waist. Looking at Petri, Jason saw once again that he was still undergoing transformation. His youngest soulbond might have expelled his mana core and the liquefied mana drops, but something else was slowly forming within him. Now that Petri was only cultivating on the path of primordial energy, he had strengthened every cell inside his body to the limits. All of that was thanks to Solaris who had shared every little trace of life force it had absorbed, allowing Petri to advance instead of stagnating. As such, Petri was able to liquefy his first, highly compressed drop of life force. It looked similar to the compressed lifeforce of the Ascron race, but mightier and intertwined with the two curses Petri harbored. Every cultivation path was different, and Jason couldn''t just take the path of primordial energy similar to that of the mana. This was unfortunate, but the energy within the compressed drop of lifeforce was hundreds of times higher compared to a simple liquefied drop of mana! Because of that, he would have to study more about the cultivation path Petri was taking. From the looks of it, his physique had been strengthened to an equivalent of 3,000 drops of mana. However, that was only from the outside, and Jason knew that his little soulbond was still lacking in the internal refinement of his body. ''Maybe he will have to liquefy 3,000 drops of primordial energy? No...probably not...maybe life force drops? Just...less?'' While Jason was trying to make sense of his thoughts, the others were trying to digest every little information they understood. Even then this was not much, and only Merl Arths was somewhat capable of conversing in the universal language. Jason had been astonished about his fast learning speed, and it was only now that the old man revealed his full potential. While speaking to the vendor while translating most things he had understood, they learned about all kinds of things. This also included the existence of certain highly technological objects they had never seen before. In the end, there were not many devices superior to mankind''s technology, but the mana consumption and other aspects had been drastically reduced, rendering the man-made devices obsolete and useless. However, instead of focusing on the devices that were mostly empowered by mana, he realised that the auxiliary occupation''s skills were much higher inside the Olympus federation in comparison to mankind''s. Not only were weapons with elemental runes sold at every store, but the extent to which most weapons had been forged was extraordinary. Even Jason, whose forging skills were unparalleled in the entire human race, couldn''t help but wonder what kind of ores and technique had been utilized to forge certain weapons. They were not only sharp, durable, and flexible but they didn''t have a single rune inscribed on them. Jason hadn''t paid much attention to these details the last time he had been in Janur. Instead, he had spent most of his time inside the library, improving his knowledge. Yet, now that he saw the weapons, armory, accessories, all kinds of mythic potions, and unknown runes, Jason could only stare at them. He wanted to learn how to forge, concoct and inscribe those products too! The characteristics of the products he perceived through the Emperor Eyes were refined and much better concocted than every single potion Jason had ever held in his hand. Unfortunately, before he could even think about asking where the vendor obtained his goods from, Betty exclaimed like a little schoolgirl. "There is an arena!! Wouldn''t that be perfect for us??" It was nothing uncommon to have an arena inside a ginormous city that was governed by multiple races at once. Minor disputes and scuffles were bound to occur once in a while, and it was a common practice to solve most issues by fighting against each other. This was the simplest solution, and Jason found it better than simply killing the others mindlessly. Once the battle was over, the dispute ended in favor of the winning side. As such, strength was deemed to be an extremely important and deciding factor. Being clever but weak wouldn''t bring anything except pain and an early death if one was naive. When Jason looked in the direction Betty had pointed, he couldn''t help but smile. "That''s the colosseum, not the arena. There is a little difference!" Even though Jason said so, nobody understood the meaning of his words. Thus, Jason explained it in simple terms. "The arena is used for spars and to clear disputes. Apparently, seriously injuring and killing each other is forbidden. Meanwhile, the Colosseum is different, and the activities held inside it focus on entertaining the viewers. There aren''t any rules preventing you from killing either. You can also place your bet on the assumed winning side, how high someone''s streak will be and so on! Most strong cultivators hone their techniques and combat experience inside the colosseum while trying to earn a fortune." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 532 - Broken World The God''s Children seemed excited about the possibility of making a fortune while fighting against others. Jason had always wondered why mankind hadn''t developed a similar system. The big clans had been too full of themselves, while the same could be said about the other human powerhouses. As such, it would have been a great solution to let powerhouses, and descendants fight against each other. This was not really important for Jason because he wouldn''t have participated in something like that either way. However, with time, his mindset had changed a lot.. As such, he couldn''t help but smile craftily. "You may not be aware of this, but the reward for achieving a winning streak of 50 is pretty good! I''m quite tempted to participate." Every victory would reward cultivation resources, and it was only the winning streaks with 20, 50, 100 wins that would result in different rewards. As a matter of fact, the reward for a winning streak of 20 wins was uninteresting for Jason, but the 50th was quite beneficial for everyone! Betty stared at Jason, not sure what to think about his words. He was hinting something, and evidently advertising the Colosseum. It was only when Merl Arths took a step forward that she averted her attention from Jason. "I guess you want everyone to join the Colosseum and enter the 50th round. How can you be so confident that nobody will fail, or even worse, die? And what is the reward, to begin with?" Jason had waited for her to ask these questions, and he couldn''t suppress a smile. Everyone could see a faint glint of determination in his eyes as he cleared his throat. "If the God''s Children can''t even beat someone two or to be more precise three ranks above their mana core rank, we should just give up on participating in the liberation tournament. Otherwise, it will be embarrassing¡­ The reward is pretty simple. We receive the permission to enter a dimension or to be more precise the part of a destroyed world that sustains itself with mana. There is a world bridge leading to that place, and the mana density and purity are said to be a few times higher in comparison to what we find here! Gaining combat experience, and knowledge of our opponents before increasing our strength and cultivation base for the remaining two months would be perfect, or not?" He knew that he hadn''t really explained how the Colosseum worked, but it was pretty simple. In the first 10 rounds, one would fight against opponents at the same mana core rank as their own. After that, post every 10 victories the difficulty would increase by one level. The dangers of a level were correlated to the bet one had made. Without placing a bet, one wouldn''t receive lots of rewards from the colosseum. However, at the same time, a ''level'' increment was only equal to around half a rank. With 1000 liquefied drops of mana, the opponents in the 1st-9th fight would have roughly the same strength, while the opponents in the 10th to 19th fight would have around 1500 liquefied drops of mana. In the end, this meant that Jason wanted the God''s Children to attain a winning streak of 50, meaning that their final opponent would normally be 2 and a half rank above their own mana core rank. However, this was not the case due to the special reward one would receive with a winning streak of 50. The difficulty would increase a little bit, making it a total of 3 ranks above their own mana core rank! Jason didn''t want to reveal this to the God''s Children because they would be able to comprehend that the colosseum was nothing but a child''s play to them! Their mana core rank was not high, but the same couldn''t be said about their combat prowess! For example, Betty, the youngest among the God''s Children, was only at the Peak of the 2nd Lique stage. Yet, her strength was already comparable to that of an average 8th Lique stage! All of that was because of her terrific soul-awakening, and the soul amplification of 25% she received. Jason''s Emperor Eyes could clearly see that her body was on the brink of tearing apart, but it seemed as if the Nature affinity was the only factor holding everything in place. This was only a temporary solution, but more than enough for their current circumstances. As long as Betty didn''t bind another soulbond or allowed her soulbonds to improve their strength, there wouldn''t be a problem. From the looks of it, the other God''s Children were facing similar problems, and all of them were using one soulbond to forcefully hold their vessel together. In the end, this was a clever tactic, but also unhealthy for their body as it would have to endure breaking apart and being tied together. He was still wondering if that soulbond was also helping them to ease the pain they should have felt, but Jason''s queries about the same had always been ignored. As such, he tried to conduct his own investigation, with the use of his Emperor Eyes. However, right now, they had to solve something else. Jason was only smiling at the God''s Children, while hinting at a few things about the colosseum. "As long as you don''t place your bets on anything, I''m confident that everyone will be able to attain a winning streak of 50!" The human race''s soul world was just too much of an advantage in the colosseum, and Jason assumed that they would quickly try to find a solution to eradicate the loophole in their system, once a human was to exploit it. Who would have known that Jason was planning to do exactly the same? Unfortunately, for that to happen, the God''s Children had to achieve their winning streak of 50 first. Otherwise, he might accidentally encounter them, which would obstruct the plan Jason had in mind. Looking at Merl Arths, he just smiled a little as he shared his final hint, "Don''t forget what sets humans apart from other races! Facing opponents at the same rank is not what God''s Children are afraid of, right?" After he uttered those motivating words, realization dawned upon Merl and even Betty who finally understood what he was talking about. This caused Betty to exclaim. "Do we have to fight opponents at the same mana core rank?? That would be perfect!!" Jason just smiled as he nodded his head, "The opponent''s increase of strength every 10 fights is not too high either. At least if you don''t want to place your bet on anything. I propose to achieve a winning streak of 50 during the next few days. After that, spending around two months inside the broken world dimension should be the best to improve our strength before we return to hone our techniques. Is everyone fine with that?" Somehow, Jason had turned into the leader of the entire group. It hadn''t been a planned move, but he was evidently the only person who could fluently speak, read and write the universal language. Furthermore, his knowledge was vast in comparison to the others. It might seem like a disgrace to the human powerhouses that were at least two centuries old, but Merl Arths, one of the old ones, begged to differ. Rather, it felt like a refreshing change and Merl approved of Jason''s plan that seemed to be well thought of. However, when he heard Jason''s next words, Merl couldn''t help but frown. "Let''s go shopping!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 533 - Wrong Perception "We can''t enter the colosseum looking like our true selves. It would be best to hide our identity too. There are many humanoid races. Simple masks shall serve the purpose!" Jason wanted them to refrain from exposing themselves before the liberation tournament. If he were to be honest, it would be best if they could hide most of their affinities too, and only fight with one, imitating one of the other races. By using several affinities that were normally not compatible with each other, they would only attract suspicion, which was something they had to avoid at all costs. His own situation was slightly different because he had a stigma, and the Celestia aura, making it ''impossible'' for him to pass on as an ordinary human. Rather, others would suspect him to be a spy or a troublemaker if he were to enter the colosseum. As such, hiding his stigma was the bare minimum he ought to do.. Staying lowkey was what they had planned in the beginning. Because of that, hiding their identity was only logical. At the same time, the God''s Children had also been told that they shouldn''t summon their soulbonds during the liberation tournament. Nobody knew how the Olympus federation might react. As such, using their fortified soul conjunction would be their last resort, if things came down to it. The sole reason for this might have been the Olympus federation, but Jason found this fact to be a little bit exaggerated. It might be safer, but both Petri and Artemis were able to stay by his side. They might be in their smaller forms, but there were more than enough other beasts that had been tamed by other foreign races, used as means of transport or as pets. However, Jason also understood that it might be too much of a shock to allow several soulbonds to suddenly appear out of nowhere. The battles that would be held in the combat arena were likely to be observed by all kinds of unknown races all of whom had varying temperaments. The liberation tournament was important for everyone. As such, the tension and the excitement would be palpable. In the end, they bought simple masks, other weapons, and clothes suitable to the Olympus federation''s richly diverse culture. As such, only their mana fluctuations were seen as quite problematic. Hiding them was possible under normal circumstances, but not during a fight, which meant that at least their opponents would be able to remember them. That was only if they had enough time to take a proper look at their mana fluctuations. Normally one wouldn''t scan and memorize someone else''s mana fluctuations, and it required a huge amount of concentration to do that. Only beings like Jason, or every member of the Heaven''s Eyes sect had it much easier to tell apart mana fluctuations and see easier whether they knew someone or not. His Emperor Eyes saw everyone''s mana fluctuations even if he didn''t want to. This was annoying in some cases but was the easiest way for Jason to tell whether he knew someone or not. Thanks to that, others were unable to disguise themselves in front of him without completely concealing their entire mana core. His eyes were just too powerful. In the end, the other God''s Children didn''t say much after they had comprehended what Jason was trying to achieve. Nothing serious had happened during the few weeks they had known him. On the contrary, they had observed him and seen how kind Jason was to others, and that he didn''t have any prejudice against other foreign races. There were only a few times he had heard citizens of the Olympus federation gossip about the foreign races that had suddenly invaded Argos, only to disappear two years later. Some individuals seemed to have stayed back on Argos because of different reasons, and it was only when Jason heard something about the Ifrytor, My?ldra, and Burane race that a tinge of hatred flashed in his eyes. It was similar to when their small group had been talking about Argos'' situation, and how to prevent the Drake family from doing something stupid. In the end, Jason didn''t have to hide anything because it was already a well-known fact that he had lost Scorpio, his dear soulbond, along with his masters during the Great Argos war. This had made the five God''s Children have a soft corner for him and they had taken a liking for Jason. He was extremely strong despite his young age. Because of that, the other God''s Children who had only been competing against each other, trying to be stronger than each other, had found a new rival, a new opponent to overcome. Jason might have been the youngest amongst them, but his talent and combat prowess were unparalleled, otherwise, he wouldn''t have been able to send someone, who was a stage higher than he was, to sleep! His uniqueness was obvious, and also the fact that he was not an ordinary human, but that was not something they worried about anymore. Knowing how Jason''s mind worked was extremely difficult, yet in some subjects easy to figure out. He wanted to leave Argos once he fulfilled his masters'' wish. At the same time, it was not difficult to perceive that something else was holding him back from leaving. Everyone assumed the reason for him staying behind was to take revenge and to take care of the promise he wanted to fulfill by all means. However, that was not exactly the case because there was more behind it! Avenging the death of his masters and serving vengeance to those who deserved it was important to Jason, but nobody knew that he had to rescue an entire family of four, from the Drake clan''s clutches. ''After the liberation tournament, I will come and rescue all of you!! Even if I have to force a way through the entire Drake clan!'' His plan was simple, but he needed strength to see it through, and right now, the opportunities were flooding him at the most perfect time. It was not necessary for him to be afraid of the big clans, or ancient sects anymore. Their era was over and it was his turn to take over the reins and show them who the strongest was. There was no need to hold back either, and Jason couldn''t help but smile radiantly. The God''s Children were nicer than he had expected, and they were only lacking in combat experience as they had mostly been sheltered and asked to cultivate, get to know their soulbonds to form a fortified soul conjunction and practice their body refinement technique. Only when the Great Argos war had started, had it been impossible for them to practice in their safety nets. They could no longer avoid fighting, out in the real world and they had gained their first combat experience. It seemed cruel, but had been beneficial for their personal growth and shaping them both as an individual and as a warrior. Everyone had changed due to the Great Argos war, and there was hardly anyone who hadn''t been affected by the war even remotely. Whether it was for the better or worse, change was the only constant, and being prepared for the worst-case scenario was what made Jason strive for more and more, every single day. He had to protect himself, his soulbonds, and those important to him! Taking a deep breath, Jason looked at the others with ambition flickering in his eyes. "Let''s go, we have to beat up some arrogant folks and earn a fortune!!" As they entered the colosseum that was ginormous, spanning over several dozen building complexes, Jason could only smile brightly. His golden-silverish eyes reflected his unwavering confidence that shone brightly from behind the silver dragon mask he was wearing. Within seconds, every being''s strength was perceived and evaluated by Jason and his emperor eyes! Turning his head towards the reception, where they had to register themselves, Jason smiled deviously. The others would have noticed that he was planning something stupid and reckless, had they been able to see his expression behind the mask. ''Let''s make it big. Shall I become Janur''s gossip and a legend of the colosseum?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 534 - Insane ''Let''s make it big. Shall I become Janur''s gossip and a legend of the colosseum?'' He was just talking to himself. But that was the best way to pacify the old human powerhouses'' hearts. They might have traveled with Jason and the God''s Children, and expected to encounter new things, however, one didn''t have to be over the top. Otherwise, they might as well die because of a heart stroke! The furniture inside the colosseum was suitable for its outer appearance, traditional and old. Yet, at the same time, it had a touch of modern times to it which made an interesting contrast in Jason''s opinion. As such, they approached the counter with a few receptionists responsible for the challengers'' bets, the registration, possible problems, concerns, and much more. Jason took care of the God''s Children registration which was not difficult.. He was only required to write down the name they had chosen, and the rest would be completed by the receptionist. They used certain devices that looked similar to the soul-awakening orb and the mana mastery orb in order to determine the exact mana core rank. This was extremely interesting for everyone, and would accurately determine their prowess. Owing to that, all of the God''s Children got to know each other''s mana core rank, with the exact number of liquefied drops of mana. The letters that emerged on the orb Jason touched to determine his rank showed the sign for the Lique rank in addition to the number [853] which was the number of his liquefied mana drops. Jason had been wondering whether the orb would detect how compressed his mana drops were, which might alter the exact count. That didn''t seem to be the case. It was fortunate, but also disappointing because he had hoped so. His interest outweighed the benefits he received from a low number of mana drops. After everything was concluded, Jason explained what kind of words they had to know in order to request fighting another battle, how to forfeit, and so on. Fortunately, the God''s Children had yet to encounter issues due to their lack of fluency in the universal language but they could run into one soon enough. Hence, it was always better to be safe than sorry. As such, Jason explained everything to them multiple times until he felt that they had understood him. It had been a little annoying to repeat things over and over again, but he would prefer that to see them getting seriously injured, or worse, their deaths any day! He had also explained that they shouldn''t bet on themselves because it could increase the difficulty, and they listened to his advice without any ifs and buts. An apologetic smile appeared on his face because he was about to do the very thing he had told the others not to do. The rewards for every victory would increase consistently even without making a bet, but by betting, the rewards would increase several times. In the end, the exact increment was determined by the ''possibility'' to win the bet. One could bet on every victory, on a winning streak of 10, and so on. The first wouldn''t make a huge difference to the standard rewards, but that was not what Jason had planned to begin with! After the God''s Children had requested permission to enter the queue for their first battle, they had left to prepare themselves. At the same time, Merl and the others went on to search for a good place to observe arenas inside the colosseum. Only Jason was left at the counter, and he turned back to the receptionist who had already averted her attention back to the stack of files she had to take care of. Clearing his throat, he tried to get her attention and asked, "Is it true that the colosseum rules prevent the difficulty from increasing by more than one cultivation rank at every 10th winning streak Irrespective of the kind of bet placed?" The receptionist was not astonished by this question as she had heard it hundreds of times. As such, she answered him without taking her eyes off from the work at hand, "The Olympus federation governs every colosseum and supports them financially too. That is not necessary in most cases, but there are still certain rules the Olympus federation has implemented. The one you are talking about is one of them, and it''s true. There will ''only'' be an increase of one cultivation rank every 10th round you win in a row. Are you interested in placing a bet, Sir?" In the end, the receptionist could only ask the question she was ordered to ask, every single time she heard this question. It was annoying, and she didn''t want to exploit the challengers, but the Olympus federation''s biggest source of income came from cultivators who were too full of themselves. The standard rewards were laughable in face of the profit every single fight procured due to the betting addict cultivators and citizens who liked the entertainment provided by the colosseum. As such, it wouldn''t even matter if someone were to make a huge bet and win it. However, for a cultivator who fought with their life on the line, the standard rewards wouldn''t increase by much or be huge, and instead add the terrifying risk factor to the equation. The first bet worth the effort was to win 10 rounds in a row. Nevertheless, even the receptionist thought that this was not exactly ''worth'' it. Only their most terrific prodigies should dare to make a bet, and at best hope for a win-streak of 20, or if possible win 30 rounds in a row. Yet, those prodigies already had more than enough resources which they were provided by the federation and their families. Thus, there had yet to be someone to win a bet with a winning streak of 30 rounds, if one were to exclude the bored prodigies. What the receptionist hadn''t expected to see was Jason''s overjoyed expression. She could only feel his aura that fluctuated tremendously, causing her to sigh, thinking that he was another cultivator who overestimated his strength. Even if it was only an increase of one rank, the young man in front of her would have to fight against someone at the peak 2nd Lique stage in his 10th round! If he wanted to make a risky bet, which was what the receptionist assumed Jason to do, he would have to fight someone with several thousand more liquefied drops of mana in their mana core! This was not something one could easily overcome. However, even worse than she had expected, the man with the silver dragon mask seemed to have lost sanity as a faint golden gleaming shone through the small slit that allowed Jason to see. "I bet everything inside the three spatial rings. There should be a few thousand Lique and about a hundred Prismar stage weapons inside, a huge bulk of nutrition supplements, several hundred manuals at the Terra Intermediate rank, and lots of materials and tools from the three basic auxiliary occupations!" The receptionist could only stare at Jason in bewilderment, as he took off his necklace and bracelet. "This bracelet can store a huge amount of mana, and the necklace is in fact a conservatory, in which you can grow all kinds of plants! Please include them in the bet!" In the end, Jason had bet everything he had, except the clothes he wore, the weapon he had sheathed inside the scabbard that hung down his waist, and Byakur that was safely stored inside his soul world. Because of that move, which others would see as nothing but sheer insanity, the receptionist couldn''t help but stammer. "S-s-SIR!! Are you sure?? We won''t give anything back, If an heirloom or anything important is inside, please take it back!!" However, all hopes of him regaining his supposedly lost sanity seemed to shatter when he merrily added,, "Ah..I forgot to mention. My bet is for a winning streak of 50!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 535 - Clowns Children Jason left the reception only five minutes later with a ticket and the three spatial rings he was not allowed to bet according to the receptionist''s words. The content of the rings was already more than enough to rob the colosseum if he were to win 50 rounds in a row. She didn''t expect that to happen, but it was possible. Because of Jason''s ridiculously high-stakes bet, she informed her superior too, but instead of taking her seriously, the superior didn''t bother about the bet, thinking that it was impossible for the young man to win. Somehow, despite thinking the same in the beginning, the receptionist felt that Jason had been too calm as if he had already calculated everything through before placing the bet. "Insane people wouldn''t ask about the colosseum''s rules¡­" She was just mumbling to herself, but her colleagues heard her which made them wonder what was going on.. However, instead of giving them an answer, the weary receptionist merely gaped at the things Jason had handed over to her. "Where did he even get so many weapons from...the techniques employed to forge them are different as well as the inscribed runes and elements that look unique too¡­" This could have multiple meanings, but the forging techniques were unknown to her while the same applied to the martial art techniques the silver dragon masked man had given to her. Everything pointed out that Jason had fought against multiple different races that did not belong to the Olympus federation. ''Had he joined the war on the human race''s side?'' She was extremely close to the truth, but did not realize that Jason, and the others, in fact, belonged to the human race! It was only because of this that Jason and the rest could remain hidden from the federation''s eagle eyes. If the Olympus federation were to know that the human participants of the liberation tournament had already arrived in Janur, with a great plan to exploit the colosseum and reap the benefits provided by the broken world they wanted to enter, they wouldn''t be as calm as they were right now. Based on the detailed inquiries and research, it was evident that mankind''s world bridges were more dangerous and less beneficial than the ones the Olympus federation had found. Other than that, their talent was said to be much worse, and it was only their soul world that could be said to be an uncertain factor. However, most importantly, the reason for them to invite the human race to the liberation tournament was Jason and the golden-silverish pillar he had summoned before! This pillar had been intertwined with a faint, almost untraceable divine aura, only a few individuals had been able to sense! Jason had been oblivious to it, and even if he would have known the same, he would have been unruffled by the revelation. There were certain things that couldn''t be avoided, and instead of retreating in fright, facing them head-on was the only way one could keep living without regret. While the others had already queued up to find an opponent to fight, Jason decided to wait for some time. Not only his first few, if not dozen opponents would be defeated without an issue, but the same could be said about the opponents of the God''s Children. Jason was confident that the five God''s Children were much stronger than the Ariyor race had assumed a high-quality soul world could become. As such, those five could be compared to individuals of higher races! He wasn''t aware of any grand races yet and knew that his father''s race was much more than that. Because of that, he couldn''t decide whether the God''s Children were comparable to the younger generation of the grand race or not. It was obvious that not a single human could compare to the other races'' high mana core rank, but that was mainly because they had a better environment, more resources, and cultivation techniques! Mankind didn''t even have a proper cultivation technique everyone could use, let alone a good environment to cultivate in. Jason knew that these reasons were not the only ways to determine someone''s strength, but the external factors were as important as an individual''s innate talent. Otherwise, poor prodigies would have never accepted signing a soul contract with big clans or ancient sects that had much more resources, martial art techniques, and connections. This was how the laws of the jungle worked. The weak had to obey the strong, or die! Several hours passed and Jason was still seated as if he was a curious spectator. He did only look at his new friends'' fights, trying to figure out how high their combat experience and proficiency with their martial art technique was. Other than that, the accuracy of the sole affinity they used was also important. The latter was much better than Jason had expected, but the God''s Children''s combat experience was lower than everything he had imagined. It might be because the cultivators from the foreign races were strong, experienced, and tactically versatile, exploiting every single weakness they could find, but even Merl and the other old powerhouses couldn''t help but sigh. Jason stared at the masked old men without saying anything. They felt his stare through the silver dragon mask as a faint golden light shone through it. "Please don''t tell me that you guys had planned to enter the liberation tournament with these clowns who have NO experience whatsoever in fighting against combat veterans, or me as a means to support everyone not only in translating but also pushing them forward?!? Would anyone have even thought about entering the colosseum, let alone force them to get to a winning streak of 50 rounds?" He couldn''t help but feel as if mankind had wanted to make a fool of themselves. Thankfully, he had decided to join their small group, otherwise, there was no way to figure out what would have happened at the liberation tournament. If Merl were to be honest, he had never seen the God''s Children before and had only heard news about them. Their mana core rank was extremely high for humanity''s standards, and there was no need to even mention their high combat prowess. It was no problem for them to defeat someone several ranks higher than their own mana core rank after all! However, after standing on the outer ring of the colosseum''s spectator platform, Merl learned the bitter truth. "They can''t even use half of their strength properly...." Even if one had an extremely bad physique, executing 70% of one''s strength was still possible. However, the five God''s Children, Jason would now love to call ''Clown''s children'', were not even able to do that. Their physique could be said to be perfect, and there was nothing wrong about their mana circulation, their affinities, and so on. The problem they had was something else and obvious for everyone to see. ''We would have been humiliated if these five were to execute the exact same strength!'' Everyone thought the same, and it was the most shocking for the five ancestors who had followed their descendants. According to what they''d seen so far, they hoped it wouldn''t be that bad! They knew that their descendants weren''t the most versatile in their combat style, let alone experience, but it had never been that bad. It got even worse, when half a day had passed, and everyone fought the battle for their 20th winning streak. Obviously, they won, because their soul world allowed them to have the strength comparable to several ranks higher than their own mana core rank, but it was embarrassing. "They''re really the Clown''s Children¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 536 - How Its Done Everyone heard Jason''s statement that was filled with disappointment, but the so-called prodigies'' performance had left no room for anyone to retaliate. It might have come off as a snide remark, but even to the ancestors, the five God''s Children, seemed to be more like pushovers that were only strong due to their soul world, soulbonds and affinities. However, at the same time, they began to wonder how much experience the Cultivators who fought in the colosseum had gathered. "Now that everyone has noticed how versatile the combat styles of the colosseum''s participants are, figure out your problem and make up for the flaws. We won''t go into the Broken world before this bullshit is solved!!" Jason knew that he was needlessly annoyed, or even pushing it too far, but the God''s Children''s confidence was slowly crumbling. They were starting to wonder whether their entire strength originated from their soul world, or if they had a say in that too. In Jason''s opinion, the God''s Children were not weak, but that they were just oblivious to their opponents'' versatile tactics, variety of combat styles, and ability to adjust fast enough. Despite that, they were unlikely to lose before making a winning streak of 50. Betty''s opponent in the 50th round would only be at the peak of the 5th Lique stage. Meanwhile, her soul world allowed Betty to fight against common opponents at the 8th Lique stage! In comparison to Jason, the God''s Children had already bound four strong soulbonds that were on average at the 7th Lique stage. With a total of four soulbonds that everyone roughly had, they were at an advantage in comparison to Jason. At least, that was what it should be like. By using their fortified soul conjunction, everything should be fine with the God''s Children achieving their previous goal of winning 50 rounds in a row. However, that goal was now changed! At that moment Merl stepped forward as he proposed something. "First, we should gain permission to enter the broken world. After that, we can stay in Janur for another week to improve everyone''s combat experience and learn to study our opponents before entering the world bridge. If I heard correctly, the broken world is a place that is connected to a permanent world bridge, right?" Merl was not sure if he understood everything correctly, but he hoped so. It would solve many problems if the God''s Children were to improve their combat experience before cultivating for two months, only to further train in becoming stronger and more versatile. Jason wouldn''t interfere in anyone''s decision, but one thing was sure! He wouldn''t waste his time staying one week in Janur, if he could enter the broken world before that! Right now, his mana core rank was the lowest by at least 1000 drops of mana. At the same time, his soulbonds'' amplification was lower than the others too because only two out of his three soulbonds shared their strength with him. Meanwhile, only Artemis enlarged his mana core as Petri increased his physical strength! He and Artemis could improve a lot inside the broken world in addition to the resources the colosseum would have to give him for winning the bet. Furthermore, he could trade mana stones with pryr stones, allowing Petri to cultivate too! "I think that is the best path for you guys. However, I have a different plan. Right now, my biggest weakness is my low mana core rank as well as that of my soulbonds." Merl and the other human powerhouses looked at Jason, and it seemed as if they wanted to say something. But instead of pretending to be oblivious to their dependence on someone who could translate and help them overcome the struggle of a language barrier, they realized that they couldn''t rely on Jason every single time. He had his own plans, and it was already more than enough that he''d taught them for the last few weeks. Furthermore, Jason wouldn''t stay with mankind forever. This was something he had already announced more than once! Their knowledge about the Olympus federation and the universal language had improved tremendously, and it was possible for them to communicate while using the simplest sentences. As such, Merl just nodded his head as Jason turned towards the stairs that led him to the reception where he could queue up for his first fight. "Combat experience might not be everything, but being able to know what your opponent will do, or how much strength you have to employ to overwhelm them is important. Right now, experience is what you guys are lacking the most, followed by your proficiency with the martial art techniques I''ve translated. The next few weeks will be the most important to fix the flaws, otherwise, the liberation tournament will end for the God''s Children before it even starts." He was crude, but Jason''s plan seemed to be working out perfectly fine. The five young prodigies'' mana fluctuations grew unstable due to his statement and they were clearly annoyed and hurt by the way he spoke. However, now that he''d said everything necessary, it was time to show the God''s Children what true dominance truly was! With that thought in mind, he left them to request his first battle. There were many young men and women at the 1st Lique stage, and Jason didn''t even have to wait before his name was announced for his first battle. Coincidentally it was to be fought right in front of the elevation where the God''s Children and human powerhouses were still standing. This was great, and Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly. He was not even considered to have entered the peak of the 1st Lique stage as he had less than 900 drops of liquefied mana, yet his drops were compressed and equal to thrice the common liquefied mana drops. Because of that, it was not even necessary for Jason to take the first 20 rounds he would fight seriously. The others didn''t know that he had made a bet, increasing his difficulty further, but that was something they would notice soon enough. Jason''s first opponent was a Klarir, a race with a humanoid body, a long lizard tail, razor-sharp claws, and eyes that were dark green. There was not even a trace of white left in those deep emerald eyes, and Jason couldn''t help but feel that the young man in front of him looked interesting. ''Humans with a fortified soul conjunction could look similar, if not exactly the same as this man!'' He had a poison affinity and the razor-sharp claws seemed to release some type of poison too. Despite thinking that this was interesting, Jason couldn''t help but be bored with everything else. His opponent was only at the peak of the 1st Lique stage, what was he supposed to do? Twiddle with his thumbs? It was not even necessary to be arrogant to tell that his strength was poles apart from the Klarir. As such, he could only sigh deeply as the battle began. Nevertheless, instead of playing around, Jason went all in, demonstrating what it meant to fight seriously and to give his best in every single battle! Showing mercy was not one of his strengths, and it was already lenient enough that he''d refrained from using a weapon! The Klarir saw this as an opportunity to use his razor-sharp claws as a superior weapon, only to notice that everything was futile! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 537 - Dominance Cracks spread through the combat grounds like vines, created by the force Jason had used to catapult himself towards the Klarir. His Celestia aura and stigma were fully utilized, increasing his strength in addition to the acceleration he received by exerting the Floating sky movement technique. At the same time, Petri had already entered his mana core since the beginning, enhancing his physique tremendously. Because of that, his pure physical strength increased to the standards of a common 7th Lique stage. Within the blink of an eye, Jason emerged right in front of the Klarir, who could see Jason''s eyes piercing through the small slit in his silver dragon mask. The young man, who had just planned to increase his combat experience while gaining some pocket money, could see his entire life flash before his eyes. Only for a moment, he noticed that it was difficult, and something made it almost impossible for him to breathe as the dragon-masked man seemed to distance himself at a rapid pace. ''No...it''s not he who distanced himself...but I??'' This was the last thought the young Klarir had as he was flung into the area that was a couple dozen meters away from his initial position. Jason had simply used his flat hand to push his opponent away with every ounce of strength he could utilize. He didn''t want to kill the Klarir because they had no enmity with each other, but teaching him a lesson was a great way to demonstrate that death was always around the corner if one wasn''t careful. If Jason had used his fist to punch the Klarir, he could have accidentally damaged several organs, which was why he had used his flat hand. Having utilized Petri''s strength felt amazing, but at the same time, Jason couldn''t help but lament that his vessel was still not strong enough. It felt as if his body was tearing apart every single time he utilized Petri, however, it was necessary to adjust his body to this feeling. He couldn''t always injure himself severely while utilizing every means to defeat his opponents. That was simply not feasible and even more dangerous than others might think. Slowly adjusting himself to the overlapping curses and the abyssal effect of his emperor eyes had already been difficult. Yet, slowly but steadily, it had been possible to control the lethal attack that could be used versatilely. He knew that his control was not perfect, but far from that. Nevertheless, it was better than nothing. Thus, Jason wanted to learn how to use his fortified soul conjunction with Petri without injuring himself. He didn''t manifest his armor or any other body part yet, but that was not necessary, to begin with. In the end, the strongest opponent he would have to face was likely to be at the 7th Lique stage, and that was only in the 50th round. As such, there was no need for him to worry about anything. Rather, Jason wanted to showcase his strength in order to scare the colosseum''s operators. Without being able to fight against strong opponents, he wouldn''t be able to give his best. In return, this would mean that he couldn''t work on one of the three reasons he wanted to join the colosseum. The other two reasons were well known and in fact the bet he had made and to gain permission to enter the broken world. While the young Klarir was taken away by a medic team that was always on stand-by, Jason was thinking about ways to improve the others'' combat experience. The affinities the God''s Children had released were easy to control, and it seemed to be second nature to them. Because of that, Jason could tell that they had utilized them quite often. Unfortunately, that was everything they were extremely good at. Suddenly with that thought in mind, he got an idea. Using a faint mana thread to shoot it towards Merl, Jason used voice transmission to tell him what he wanted the others to do. [Tell the others that they''re not allowed to use any affinity. Furthermore, the mana they use is to be restricted to empower their martial art techniques and nothing else. Not even their fortified soul conjunction! If you think that''s too harsh, it''s fine with me too. Just go with whatever you think is the best for the God''s Children!] In the beginning, Merl didn''t know who had been speaking to him but realized a moment later that it was Jason. He had yet to learn voice transmission which was something the Ariyor race had told them to learn as soon as possible as it was extremely helpful. It was unsurprising that Jason was proficient in using it which allowed Merl to remain calm. The idea Jason proposed was certainly good and Merl told the God''s Children what they had to do. However, instead of fully restricting everything, Merl explained that they were allowed to use their fortified soul conjunction, if something were to happen. Even though it was important to learn to fight while risking their life, dying was still forbidden. The powerhouses were not allowed to intervene in the colosseum''s battle, and would be punished severely, with the possibility of being beheaded if they were to do something. As such, the God''s Children had to protect themselves. This wouldn''t be much of a problem, but it was always better to be on the safe side! Meanwhile, Jason had remained inside the combat arena, which automatically added him to the queue. There was no need for him to rest after every battle. Instead, his sub-area that passively absorbed mana from the surrounding was more than enough to replenish the mana he had utilized within a minute. While Jason had forbidden the God''s Children to use their fortified soul conjunction, he was continuously switching Artemis and Petri inside his mana core, testing several things. Though Artemis'' amplification was much lower due to her weaker cultivation base, she amplified both his physique and mana core! However, by comparing the physical enhancement he received, he realised that their quality was entirely different. Jason didn''t even have to take a look at the quantity, as it was obvious that Artemis'' physical enhancement would be lower than Petri''s solely due to their different cultivation paths. This was exactly what caused Jason to be so interested in the difference between his two soulbond''s physical amplification. It should be a ginormous difference, and as a matter of fact, this was the case! Unfortunately, Petri had explained that he will have to rebuild his entire foundation as it had been constructed with mana. This was also the reason he had only constructed a single compressed drop of life force! Petri''s foundation was extremely shabby in comparison to what it should be, but Jason was already shocked about the physical enhancement he received. This showed him how strong the path of primordial energy was, and that every cultivation path had its own perks. In the end, this made him only more curious about the path of spiritual force! Unfortunately, he had yet to encounter someone, who had practiced in this cultivation path, and it only motivated him to leave Argos once he had completed every necessary step to ensure that mankind would stay safe for a very long time! Jason was not sure how much time had passed, but the next few battles were quickly completed without the need to utilize much mana. He was still in his form and as calm as before when his Emperor Eyes detected the receptionist staring at him from the elevation. There was a holographic image in front of her, and a middle-aged man from another race seemed to be looking at her through the screen. ''Is that a Video call?'' Jason wondered. However, instead of minding that, he smiled lightly. His face was covered by the silver dragon mask he was wearing but Jason couldn''t help but feel that his aura was exposing his teasing smile. As such, he raised his hand and showed the receptionist the peace sign which caused her to flinch. She had been extremely careful in her attempt to take a proper look at him. Not only had he defeated a total of 15 cultivators without any issue, but even the highly experienced warriors trained by the colosseum to forcefully end someone''s streak were failing miserably. "He is definitely not someone ordinary! Use the alpha unit to fight him. If he continues to win, switch to the Olympians in the 30th round!" Jason was unable to understand anything the middle-aged man was saying, but from the shocked expression the receptionist showed, it had to be something interesting. As such, he couldn''t help but reveal more of his aura to show his spirit to continue fighting! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 538 - Olympian It didn''t take Jason long to notice that the subsequent rounds were becoming more dangerous, but that couldn''t be considered a problem. Even after a total of 25 wins in a row, Jason had yet to break a sweat. His mana consumption was as low as before, while he was still fighting with his bare hands. The receptionist had been told to continue watching Jason''s battle, but what she saw was something she couldn''t comprehend. After receiving the orders, she had used the alpha unit to ensure that Jason had a hard time. Compared to normal cultivators, their combat prowess, experience, and techniques were at a much higher level. To put it simply, a member of the Alpha unit at the peak 1st Lique stage was strong enough to defeat those common cultivators at the 2nd Lique stage! Unfortunately, that was not enough to defeat Jason, who could do this with a flick of his finger. With a winning streak in the 20s, he had to fight opponents at the 3rd Lique stage, with a combat prowess of the 4th Lique stage. The game had just turned interesting, but Jason was still only using his physical strength. Because of that, the receptionist had been deceived to believe that he belonged to a race that didn''t have an affinity and was solely focusing on their physical strength. As such, she could sigh in relief, thinking that it wouldn''t take long before Jason would lose. It was not that she wanted to take everything from the silver dragon masked man, but it was her job to follow the instructions she had received. Furthermore, the young man had been too confident in his abilities to bet everything he owned on the 50th round! Now, as she watched his combat prowess she believed that the silver dragon masked man was strong enough to make it to the 30th, maybe even 40th round if he were to use his utmost efforts. However, fighting in the 50th round meant that his opponent was at the peak of the 6th Lique stage, in addition to an Olympian! Comparing an Olympian with ordinary participants of the colosseum was taking it too far, and even the members of the alpha unit would only retreat in fear if they had to face one of them. When Jason had his 30th fight in a row, his Emperor Eyes immediately detected the difference in his opponent''s strength. There was not even the need for someone to announce that the 30th opponent was extremely strong or that he belonged to a different unit because it was evident! Despite that, Jason just smiled as he looked around. The others had long since returned to fight against other colosseum participants. They had noticed that Jason''s opponents were much stronger than their own and that the experience they showcased was different. Because of that, they could only think that Jason had done something that caused the Colosseum to assign more experienced and dangerous opponents to fight him. This assumption was proven correct as they noticed the receptionist who had registered them. She had been staring at the combat arena in which Jason fought for the entire time. Intrigued and at the same time frustrated by the thought that Jason was casually defeating opponents they would take more than a minute to knock out, the God''s Children had returned to the arena. Without using their affinity, let alone fortified soul conjunction, they used their physical strength to suppress their opponents. At the same time, they observed the subtle movements of every foe they were fighting. It was important to figure out what they were lacking, otherwise, it would become more difficult to improve. Paying attention to their opponents, learning their fight stance, and devising ways to defeat them was one way to achieve that. Another way would be that someone would teach them directly. However, this would only mean that they had to rely on someone else to become stronger. At the end of the day, it was important for the God''s Children to learn that they had to become independent and that it was necessary to create their own way. The God''s children had always received help or guidance from their ancestors so now they were struggling much more than anyone had expected, and even their ancestors had to acknowledge that. Only by learning from mistakes was it possible to fix them and improve, which would help them attain perfection. Nobody was perfect but there were those who tried to become a better version of themselves. Even if it was only a minuscule, almost intractable improvement every single day, or even week, the final result was worth every single ounce of effort! This was what made standing up after every fall and never giving up so important and the difference between real prodigies and those that inherited talent! All of them were hard-working in their incessant efforts to find flaws in their own techniques, mindset and to fix them. The Olympian in front of Jason noticed his nonchalant behavior which enraged him. This forced Jason to return his attention to the young man who had been standing in front of him. It was a Dragonewt with traces of dragon blood in his veins. Jason had heard about them, and interestingly many different types of Dragonnewts existed. Apparently, dragons could change their form, and turn into bipedal beings once their cultivation base reached a certain standard. Jason found this interesting, but even more so was the fact that dragons could procreate with many more races than one could have ever expected. When he had read about that a few months ago in Janur''s library, Jason had been astonished, wondering if dragonewts that shared a bloodline with the human race existed. If his own existence was possible, so could be that of a human blood dragonewt. Because of that, he had asked himself whether they would awaken a soul world because of their human bloodline, or if they would simply receive the awakening of an affinity according to their dragon bloodline. Maybe it was also a soul world with the affinity from the dragon bloodline''s side, but that was uncertain. Jason found this very interesting, and the same could be applied to his own soul world. He had always wondered why he had awoken all affinities within his soul world. The only logical explanation was that the Celestia bloodline had been the cause for this ability. This would however mean that the Celestia race was able to make use of every existing element, which was unlikely. At least, Jason assumed this to be unlikely, yet, at the same time, it was more logical than a human awakening hundreds of different elemental affinities! Nevertheless, the dragonewt in front of him had just a fire affinity and a slightly enlarged mana core. The Olympian was at the peak of the 4th Lique stage, but Jason assumed his strength to be at par with the peak of the 5th Lique stage, notwithstanding his combat experience. Adding his affinity''s strength that seemed to be exceptional too, Jason could only nod his head, approving that the young dragonewt was strong. Unfortunately, he encountered the wrong person. Even without using Solaris to dominate his opponent''s fire affinity, Jason''s fire resistance was superior. Other than that, he had yet to figure out Petri''s defensive capabilities after his scales were manifested! In Jason''s opinion, it was finally time to test his newest soulbond''s strength, originating from the path of primordial energy! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 539 - Worthy Opponent Jason had his feet firmly planted on the ground, unmoving, and looked at the dragonewt that belonged to the Olympians without a trace of fear. Meanwhile, the dragonewt was rushing towards Jason with extremely fast strides. His wings were tightly pressed on his scaly back as he smiled lightly. Despite having observed Jason''s earlier battles, the dragonewt assumed that Jason''s sole perk was his terrific, high physical strength. As such, he wanted to approach Jason''s while summoning two highly compressed balls of fire into his hand. They would explode upon contact and were considered one of the secret weapons the dragonewt had created. By throwing them towards Jason, the dragonewt hoped that it would most certainly end his life or turn him into a cripple. However, Jason''s unruffled expressions and his cool demeanor visibly enraged his opponent who had expected him to show signs of nervousness. As such, he manifested a dozen of those highly compressed, explosive balls of fire. This drained lots of mana out of him, but he couldn''t care less. If Jason were to survive the barrage of explosive fireballs with severe injuries, he would have learned his lesson; to never underestimate an Olympian. Upon coming in contact with Jason, the multitude of fireballs exploded, creating a huge cloud of smoke that enveloped the entire arena. Nobody could see what happened, or what was going on inside the thick smoke. Suddenly, without any warning, a huge, red body was catapulted out of the arena and crashed into the wall. It already bore numerous cracks and holes due to the opponents Jason had defeated earlier by flinging them towards the same wall. It was slowly starting to crumble, as rubble rained down upon the being that had been thrown out of the arena. Jason had never faced an issue with figuring out what kinds of attacks were to hit him, and the dragonewts attack was nothing noteworthy. Under normal circumstances it might have been enough to make him feel pain, but not after he had summoned Petri''s armor! His entire body was covered in black scales that had golden, vein-like patterns engraved within. Jason had even manifested a small tail that had grown out of his coccyx. There were many things he wanted to try, and he had hoped that the dragonewt was more than just empty air! Unfortunately, the compressed explosive balls of fire were equivalent to light scratches, while its physical strength was incomparable to the drastic enhancement provided by Petri. After the smoke cleared, Jason could only stare at the receptionist before he sighed deeply. She seemed to be utterly shocked and turned to the device that had been used to call the old dragonewt before. Jason assumed that the old dragonewt was in charge of the colosseum. This might have been interesting for others, but Jason just wanted to fight. His physical strength might be high, but he had yet to fight someone who would draw out more than the brute force from him. Even for his physical strength, Jason had yet to find someone he could learn something from. He had wanted to give himself the same requirements as the God''s Children had. However, his final goals were different! His fortified soul conjunction with Petri was still new, and there were many things both had yet to learn from each other. Furthermore, he had yet to perfect the Floating sky movement technique! This was essential and something Jason wanted to achieve before the liberation tournament would begin. As such, Jason had told himself that he would only focus on his physical strength, Petri''s fortified soul conjunction, and the martial art techniques he wanted to learn. Using Solaris'' fire ability might have been advantageous to defeat every single one of his opponents, but taking the easy way was not the correct path for him if he wanted to improve. In the end, an easier path would only make him rusty, and be less helpful to improve himself. Nevertheless, the 30th opponent was not yet enough for him to practice his martial art techniques! The pressure was not yet high enough! Time passed slowly and Jason had yet to find a worthy opponent. After the 30th battle, it took much longer for Jason to be matched against others, even though he knew that they were just waiting to fight him. Jason could tell this because there were more than two dozen people standing around the receptionist, seemingly waiting for their chance to fight him. All of them were staring at him like hyenas, but Jason could only stare back. The golden light originating from his eyes swept through the slit of his silver-dragon mask, turning his appearance more intimidating than it already was. Slowly, but steadily, the news about the Olympians fighting against a single individual and getting defeated spread through the city, attracting new onlookers that were rapidly filling the colosseum. More and more spectators entered the colosseum, starting to make bets on the Olympians that had a great reputation for their superior strength. Nobody had ever heard of the silver-masked man, and even though his appearance was scary, everyone was certain of the fact that he wouldn''t be able to defeat his 50th opponent. Even if they acknowledged that he was stronger than most common Olympians after a few battles, the most important fact according to them was that Jason would be unable to win his bet. That was what the spectators had betted for; Jason''s defeat, and what the manager of the colosseum wanted to see as well. Jason had already tarnished the Olympians'' image by defeating 9 of them in a row. He was just about to make the 40th challenge in a row when he noticed that his body was slowly heating up. One of the God''s Children was currently challenging his 50th opponent, but Jason couldn''t help but stare at his opponent. Somehow, Jason felt pity for Ben, the God''s Child, who would lose the battle against the purple-skinned, humanoid race with two pitch-black horns that protruded out of his forehead. The race, he assumed the young man with a trained body to be called, was Ilians. Not only was their flexibility superior, as well as their highly trained body, thanks to their excellent metabolism, but there were other perks. These perks were a high mana conductivity that was a great combination to the terrifying thunder affinity Illians had. Jason had always been interested in getting another lethal affinity he could use to increase his combat prowess. However, after being injured way too often and losing those close to him, Jason thought that it might be best to wait until he could find a soulbond with extraordinary healing capabilities. Nevertheless, before a new soulbond would enter Jason''s family, lots of time had to pass! He and the others had to prepare themselves mentally. Yet, instead of focusing on that fact, right now it was important to focus on the opponent Ben was fighting against. The Ilians were one of the Olympians who didn''t want to wait for Jason any longer. As such, he wanted to fight those that were deemed as the next strongest. Unfortunately, Ben was only at the 4th Lique stage and had the weakest soul amplification boost from his soulbonds. Furthermore, he was eager to become stronger and ignored the threat in front of him. Because of that Ben avoided using his affinity, let alone fortified soul conjunction, against the opponent who was more than just one rank stronger than his mana core rank indicated! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 540 - You Are Strong Jason could only look at Ben with pity. He had been hardly beaten up by the Ilian, who was named Jarid. However, while Ben was being beaten, every member of the human group noticed that the young member of the God''s Children had to control himself to not use his affinities, fortified soul conjunction, or too much mana. He wanted to defeat the Olympian Jarid by only using his physique and the martial art techniques he had learned. If Ben would have achieved this, nobody would question his combat experience ever again. Unfortunately, he had overestimated his capabilities, turning him into a living punching bag to Jarid, who was using his thunder affinity to play around. At the end of the battle, Jason could only shake his head, thinking that Ben was still oblivious to the dangers lurking inside the colosseum. Fortunately enough the Olympian Jarid didn''t kill Ben even after he had been defeated. Jarid had simply thrown Ben out of the combat arena once the battle was over. However, shockingly enough for the God''s Children, Jason and the human powerhouses, the spectators all around them, began to cheer loudly demanding blood. "FINISH HIM OFF!!" "Jarid, since when did you become so soft-hearted???" "KILL HIM!!!" "We want to see blood!!" Jason couldn''t help but frown when he heard all of that, but it seemed to be common for the spectators of the colosseum''s fight to behave like that. They sought the entertainment provided by the colosseum as a means to relax after spending a stressful day at work. Watching the glorious life-and-death battles seemed to be enough to release their tension. If that didn''t work, causing a commotion would do the job, which was exactly what was happening. However, instead of listening to the spectators'' words, Olympian Jarid just turned to Jason, who''s next fight was just about to begin. He stayed quiet and only his mouth twitched a little as if he wanted to say something. Jason understood the message he had wanted to convey and just nodded his head. [Remember, I didn''t kill him!] Whether this was a threat or a statement didn''t matter to Jason. In the end, it was clear that Olympian Jarid wanted to tell him that he wouldn''t kill his companions as long as Jason didn''t kill the other Olympians! At least, that was what Jason assumed Jarid wanted to convey. It was not difficult to figure out that he and the God''s Children belonged to one group. This interested the receptionist and even the colosseum''s manager grew curious about Jason''s group. Four out of five had reached the 50th round without many problems, and they simply continued to advance. Even though they had obtained permission to enter the broken world, it was as if the four masked men and women were the least bothered by it. Since Jason had given them the restrictions to fight with, the God''s Children had to cope with much more pressure than before. However, instead of being discouraged by that, they were slowly getting excited as the adrenaline was kicking in. This, in return, excited Jason too as his emperor eyes had perceived the joyous hue around them. He hadn''t planned to kill anyone inside the colosseum, to begin with, but that was not something others had to know. Only winning the bet, and fighting against worthy opponents was important right now! Nobody at his mana core rank was strong enough to fight at par with Jason which was a little discouraging. However, at the same time, the number of opponents he could fight on Argos was becoming fewer with each passing day. It was simply demotivating, and frustrating. His opponent had already arrived, but Jason didn''t pay much attention to the young Olympian, who hailed from the Klarir race. Jarid was holding a Warhammer in his hands and rushed towards Jason the moment the battle had started, only to see him simply stare at him. This enraged the Klarir as Jason was noticeably ignoring his existence. The silver-dragon masked man was just at the peak of the 1st Lique stage in comparison to him, who had a mana core rank of the peak of the 5th Lique stage. With his martial art techniques, equipment, distinctly refined body, and strong affinity, even ordinary opponents at the 7th Lique stage were weaker than him. Unfortunately for the young Olympian, Jason was everything but normal, and his physical strength alone was already at par with an ordinary being at the Mid-7th Lique stage. Though Jarid was charging at him, Jason simply stared at the Olympian whom he found to be more interesting than the Klarir who had emerged in front of him. Staring straight into the green eyes of the Klarir, Jason smiled lightly as the golden glow radiating from his eyes shot forward through the silver dragon mask''s slit. Followed by the golden glow, Jason released the petrification curse his Emperor Eyes were harboring. The Klarir was oblivious to the terror Jason was about to unleash upon him and he simply brandished the Warhammer at the unmoving Jason as something eerie enveloped him. Suddenly, without a warning, the silver dragon mask''s slits seemed to bore into him, freezing the Klarir in place. Jason was not strong enough to petrify his opponent, but that was not what he had wanted to achieve, to begin with. The Klarir in front of him was paralyzed, and the gravitational force did its job, forcing the young Olympian to be pushed to the ground. A moment later, Jason picked up the Warhammer before he threw it out of the arena as if it was a simple toy. "You''re certainly strong and much better than the previous group I fought against. I''m just a little bit special, don''t be discouraged to use your potential!" Somehow, Jason felt bad when he saw the desperation in the Klarir''s eyes. Because of that he felt obliged to grant him his wish and Jason effortlessly pushed him out of the arena. Everyone observing the battle felt weird to see that the Olympian they had betted for had just been turned into a statue. This was something new, nobody had ever seen before. At least, not to that extent. Jason was only at the peak of the 1st Lique stage after all! Not minding the spectator''s opinion about Jason, he turned towards his friends and could only see that they were staring at him as if they knew what was going on. Despite their faces and expressions being concealed by the masks, Jason could tell what they were thinking because it was evident from their body language, as all of them were squirming in their seats restlessly. Having seen him defeat a powerhouse at the Initial Prismar stage with similar means was enough to make them believe that they knew what Jason did. This was, in fact, not the case because they were oblivious to his abilities, but making them feel like they knew something was an interesting sight. When Jason defeated the Klarir Olympian, the other Olympians could only frown. Jason was being way too nonchalant, making everyone believe that he was simply playing around. "Is he really only at the 1st Lique stage¡­? How is that even possible?!?" Even the Olympians couldn''t believe it, let alone the receptionist, who was just about to make another call as she saw that Jarid had returned. "He is definitely at the 1st Lique stage. I scanned his mana core...well it was more like he allowed me to scan through it¡­" ''He allowed it??'' The same question echoed in everybody''s mind before their thoughts went blank at Jarid''s next question. "Can I go all in?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 541 - I Dont Want To Regret "Can I go all in?" This question caused the surroundings to suddenly turn quiet, and it was only a minute later that the receptionist hesitantly asked. "Does that mean you want to crush him...or that you can''t defeat him without using everything?" Under normal circumstances, she would have not even considered the second possibility, and simply rejected Jarid''s request. However, after what she had witnessed, she couldn''t help but feel a little bit worried. Though the Colosseum wouldn''t make many losses if Jason were to win the bet thanks to the number of spectators and bets that had increased during the last few hours, the Olympians'' reputation was on the line. It was already shocking that Jason could effortlessly defeat the Olympians, but if the same were to happen to Jarid, who was by far the most talented and known Olympian, it would be devastating. Nevertheless, exposing everything Jarid had learned during the last few years in order to prepare himself for the liberation tournament was also not what anyone wanted! In the end, it was Jarid''s decision, but the receptionist couldn''t help but feel that both decisions were not satisfying. Jason had driven them into a corner, and now they couldn''t escape without sacrificing something! Unfortunately, the worst had yet to come, and the receptionist stiffened when she saw that Jarid pondered about something. ''Is he trying to figure out whether he can crush Jason by giving his best...or if he can defeat him without doing so?..." Neither was correct and what Jarid was thinking about was something completely different. "If I go all out, I should be able to defeat him...I think." The Olympians and receptionist were staring at Jarid as if he had just lost his sanity. Suddenly one of the youngest Olympians, who had always seen Jarid as her idol, stepped forward. "You can''t be serious?!? The silver-dragon masked man is just at the peak of the 1st Lique stage!! How can he be strong enough to face you if you utilize your full potential?? Even those at the 9th Lique stage have problems fighting you for more than five minutes!!" The others couldn''t help but nod their heads. Their youngest member had spoken the doubt that had been lingering on everybody else''s mind, but Jarid could only shake his head. "And who says that the man behind the silver dragon mask can''t do the same?" With that being said, Jarid took a step forward before he grabbed the railing in front of him. A mysterious smile appeared on his face and it was the first time for the Olympians, let alone the receptionist to see Jarid being excited. The words he had just said rattled everyone, but instead of saying anything, they decided to be quiet. Only a few hours passed before Jason had finally defeated the 49th opponent. He had received many lengthy breaks which was unexpected. Not only his 49th victory increased the spectators'' tension, but also stalled time for more spectators, or to be more precise, bets to be made. Ben seemed to be fine which caused Jason to sigh in relief, while the others were struggling to continue fighting. They had reached the 60th round, which meant that their opponents were three ranks above their cultivation base. This was still not enough to be at par with most of the God''s Children but more than needed to pressure them. Jason watched their battle, and couldn''t suppress a faint smile. ''They''re improving extremely fast. The pressure is exactly what they need!'' At the same time, Jason was also thinking about Jarid and everything he had perceived through his Emperor Eyes. There were several reasons why the Ilian was so strong, but only one specific factor combined every single advantage he had. Not only was his thunder affinity unique and even rare among his race, but Jarid had also a highly ranked Terra body refinement and cultivation technique. Both techniques focused on increasing every possible characteristic of his thunder affinity, increasing his combat prowess further. This would already be enough to allow Jarid to fight against an average being at the 8th Lique stage despite being at the peak of the 6th Lique stage. However, that was not everything Jarid had! Throughout the last few years, Jason had been unable to see many individuals with a special constitution. Max Drake and his late master Dalia had been two such examples, and Jarid had become another being with a special constitution, according to Jason''s Emperor Eyes. Unexpectedly, Jarid''s special constitution enhanced certain aspects of his thunder affinity. Jason was not sure which that was, but during Jarid''s short fight with Ben, he had been able to see something. Jarid''s constitution had been intentionally sealed! This made it nearly impossible for others to perceive his physique. Unfortunately, Jason was excluded and he sensed everything. There were some details he had never seen before, but Jason was sure of one fact! ''His constitution was still growing, and too strong for him to handle!'' Even though Jason knew that Jarid was evidently unable to handle his constitution yet, he could sense the Olympian''s excitement to fight him. Because of that, Jason was sure that Jarid would unleash his constitution during their fight that was about to occur any moment. They were only a few meters away from the arena in which their fight would be held. Excitement radiated from both of them when they took the first step into the arena as their mana fluctuated wildly. "Did you want to disguise your thunder body constitution to act like an underdog in the liberation tournament?" Jason couldn''t be sure about what he had just assumed, but from Jarid''s behavior and that of the other Olympians in addition to the young receptionist, there were many things that made him believe that his assumptions had been correct. He had also heard rumors about the Olympian Jarid that stated the same, and it was also said that the Olympians were using more resources than they had in the last couple of decades. Combining everything known, the only logical solution was that the most talented Olympians wanted to increase their group''s reputation and image. Unfortunately, Jason had come into their way, tarnishing the Olympians'' reputation just a few months before the liberation tournament was about to start. Jarid was simply staring at Jason as if his exposed secret didn''t bother him. "Well, that was my plan, and I assume that you, or to be precise the entire group following you will participate in the tournament too? I''m sorry to say this, but the mask is useless and your identity has already been exposed to the colosseum. Talking in the human language during a fight is not really the smartest move if one wants to hide their identity!" It was annoying to hear that their identity had been exposed, but that was not something Jason or the others should be surprised about. They had been talking in the human language on the elevation, right in front of hundreds of spectators, without even bothering about speaking quietly. In the end, this was not really important for Jason anymore. He would get the fight he had been waiting for, and the colosseum couldn''t immediately change their rules to assign opponents! Their knowledge about soul worlds was too shallow for that! While Jason just shrugged his shoulders, Jarid turned serious. "Furthermore, if I were to be honest, I''m not confident that I will defeat you in three months. At least, if I trust what my gut feeling tells me right now... My only chance is today, and I don''t want to look back and regret not giving my best!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 542 - Thunder Legacy Jason was astonished that Jarid nonchalantly accepted that he was not confident of defeating him in three months. At the same time, he assumed that the young Olympian''s gut feeling was telling him that his opponent was not to be taken lightly. If Jason were, to be honest, he felt exactly the same, and a certain excitement he hadn''t felt in a very long time ignited within him. Both felt that they should fight without holding back, but Jason remembered that he hadn''t planned on using Solaris'' fire affinity! Using a fire affinity that was strong enough to injure newly advanced beings at the Prismar stage owing to the mana nullification and life force draining ability, was not how he wanted to fight. As such, Jason decided that he would use everything but the fire affinity before he was sure that Jarid would be able to fight him head-on even if Solaris'' flame were to be utilized. Thus a minute later, they were standing opposite each other inside the combat arena. Jarid seemed to smile in excitement, while Jason''s smile was covered by the silver dragon mask. However, through the slits in the mask, a faint golden light could be seen, telling Jarid that he was not the only one who was excited to fight! Just as the fight was about to start, both turned serious and the atmosphere in the entire colosseum tensed up. At that moment, everyone realized that something great was about to happen. Never had the spectators seen Olympian Jarid so seriously. Normally he would be cold, and rational, finishing off his opponents as fast as possible. But right now, despite the serious aura that was something new to see, the guard he had put on was enough to astonish everyone. Jason had already taken off the robe he was wearing, knowing that it would only become a hindrance during the fight. Through this he exposed his skin, and the fortified soul conjunction he would utilize in a moment, but that was the last thing Jason was currently thinking about. His entire mind was focused on Jarid, and it was the moment their fight began, that Jason realized something with a radiant smile. ''Finally!'' When their fight started, Jarid didn''t waste any time as he unleashed his thunder constitution. At the same time, he exerted the special technique he had learned for several years and had been waiting to showcase exactly for that moment. Jarid''s body refinement and cultivation technique were both at the advanced terra grade, enhancing only one affinity; the thunder affinity he possessed! While this increased his strength by another notch, Jarid''s unique constitution allowed him to increase the benefits received by both techniques drastically, while the special technique he had practiced painstakingly with, combined everything at once. A moment after the fight had started, Jarid''s entire body was enveloped in a dense thunder armor whose currents crackled around him like a livewire. The torment energies revolving around him destroyed everything in Jarid''s proximity, tearing apart the arena around him. Only a moment later he catapulted himself towards the front, creating a cavity at the position his feet had pushed himself from. Not a single spectator below the Prismar stage could keep up with his speed properly, and the only thing everyone was able to perceive was a huge bolt of thunder strike shooting towards Jason, who had yet to move. Despite his earlier worry if he should use his black fire affinity or not, Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly. Within an instant, his entire body was enveloped in thick, black scales that were intertwined with a golden vein-like pattern. At the same time, a three-meter-long tail grew out of his coccyx while Byakur manifested in his hand. Jason didn''t even think about using the other weapon that had remained unused inside its scabbard during the last several dozen battles he had fought. Right now, Jason wanted to test Petri''s defensive capabilities, but at the same time, he felt like using Solaris'' flames to overwhelm his opponent. In the end, curiosity got the better of him, and he couldn''t help but disregard using Solaris for the moment. Instead, he wanted to see how far he could go by using everything but his strongest soulbond! As such, he stared at Jarid, whose entire being had transformed into a thunder enveloped monster. Jarid''s mind was calm and he noticed how unruffled Jason was. At the same time, it was evident that his defensive capabilities had increased drastically as the familiar currents of primordial energy enveloped the armor he was suddenly wearing. He might have been oblivious to mankind''s unique traits, but seeing how an entire armor and a three-meter-long tail grew out of Jason was more than enough to tell Jarid that something was about to happen. Nevertheless, backing off after having utilized every means to strengthen himself for a total of 10 minutes, was not what Jarid would ever do. What he demonstrated to everyone proudly was his Thunder legacy, something he had painstakingly worked on for his entire life. It had been a culmination of years of sweat, blood, pain, and efforts that had made him who he was coupled with the will to strive for more; to become someone the Olympus federation could rely on! They were just a bunch of races that had been forced to immigrate to a planet with a scarcity of mana. They hadn''t had much time to grab necessary equipment or weapons before hastily scurrying away to the nearest possible planet while running for their lives. The races had built everything from scratch and wanted nothing but to return to their former glory, and Jarid wanted to become the person who could lead them to that goal. All of that belonged to the Thunder legacy and Jason could feel the emotions radiated by Jarid. At the same time, his eyes could follow every single of Jarid''s moves as he was still not strong enough to overwhelm his eyes. Though Petri''s scales and only a part of his tail had been constructed when Jarid had merely been three meters away from him, Jason was still able to remain calm. Everyone, even the God''s Children, including Merl and the other human powerhouses thought that Jason was about to lose right now. He had yet to make his move and was already in a pinch. At least, that was what they saw. Suddenly, without a warning, huge streams of mana that had been gathered in Jason''s eyes shot out. Jason ignored the fact that he was unable to tell how strong his Emperor Eyes'' abyssal effect had become after absorbing the divine aura, let alone the enhanced versions of the petrification and race specific weakening curse, as he released everything at once. Only a small margin of mana that he didn''t use for the abyssal effect remained unused inside his mana core, preventing the possibility of killing Jarid or destroying himself by straining his eyes and mana veins. Jarid, who had been focused on attacking Jason, without holding back even if he were to stay unmoving, suddenly felt as if his entire body was becoming heavier. As he stared straight into the golden eyes, his body felt heavier as something eerie seemed to envelop his entire body. He was unable to control the thunder that enveloped his body like an armor, and it was as if his affinity was struggling against something dark, and oppressive, reducing its lethality drastically! Using his utmost efforts to control his heavy body, and the thunder armor, Jarid didn''t even notice that his sight blurred as his mind had already entered a place full of nothing but eternal darkness. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 543 - My Turn The abyssal ability Jason had utilized with only a small margin of mana had dragged Jarid''s distracted mind into a bottomless pit of pitch-black darkness. At least, that''s what it looked like to Jarid and everyone else who had entered this place. Time seemed to continue to pass, but somehow it felt different, and Jarid was unable to tell whether seconds, minutes, months, or even years had passed. Suddenly after a moment that felt like an eternity, the outlines of something gigantic, eerie, and terrifying appeared in front of him. Just as the huge hands of the ominous being were about to grasp him Jarid was released from that queasy feeling, only to find himself in the arena. All of this had happened so quickly that he felt as if he had been dragged out of that abyss and thrown back into the arena at the exact same moment he had left. His mind was seemingly blank, and the distraction caused by the abyssal ability completely deteriorated Jarid''s control over his thunder ability as Jason appeared in front of him. Ignoring the torment energies caused by the thunder that began to spread through the entire arena, Jason slashed out with Byakur.. The Floating Sky movement technique was activated, increasing his speed starkly, but that was still not enough to pierce Byakur mercilessly through Jarid, who had instinctively moved. Owing to the combat experience he had attained over years, evading Jason''s simple slash was not a problem. However, what the visibly confused Olympian hadn''t realised was that Jason''s three-meter long tail had already been coiled around one of his ankles. Shock could be seen on Jarid''s face as Jason used the three-meter-long tail to lift the young olympian once before the tail whipped on the ground, crushing him into the floor as a gaping hole and several cracks appeared on it. Jarid''s physical strength was not lowered despite the first throw, making it impossible to injure him heavily with such a move. As such, Jason had simply flung Jarid further away, yet again. Yet, instead of throwing Jarid out of the combat ring and ending the battle once and for all, Jason let the Olympian take a deep breath as he wanted the fight to continue. He could now roughly gauge how powerful his Emperor Eyes'' ability was. At least, if he were to ignore using the two curses and his eyes'' ability in one lethal attack, and instead use them in quick succession by making use of every little distraction! While Jarid was flung to the other side of the arena, Jason unleashed his entire Celestia aura and stigma, before he began to absorb the surrounding mana rapidly. There was still more than enough mana left in his mana core, but he didn''t want to end the fight so soon. Jason had yet to get his turn to release his strength and actively attack the Olympian, who was struggling to regain his senses. It didn''t take him long to get back on his feet, but his mind had been consumed by the eternal darkness his mind had been dragged to. The expressions of terror and worry chased his facial features and he had difficulty coming to terms with the eerie sensation he had just experienced. Other than that, Jarid''s confidence to defeat Jason had crumbled as he was unable to even utilize his Thunder legacy properly. Meanwhile, Jason absorbed mana without minding that Jarid was standing inside the arena ring as if his fighting spirit had left him for good. There was no pity in Jason''s eyes and he left the choice to Jarid whether a single exchange of blows was enough for him to give up his goals and desires. If that was it, he would be disappointed, but everyone was free to make their own choice! Due to his passive mana gathering technique exerted by his sub-area combined with his active mana absorption, Jason''s mana replenish speed was terrifically high. Both the active and passive mana absorption was further accelerated through his stigma and Celestia aura that had been reinforced by the divine aura he had annexed and absorbed months earlier. Their fight had come to a momentary standstill and the entire atmosphere of the colosseum had changed the moment Jarid had lost control over his body. Some spectators were voicing out their complaints, saying that the fight had been rigged. Almost everyone had betted on Jirad, and except Jason himself, a handful of gamblers and opportunists, nobody betted on him. The complaints quickly dispersed when the short clip of the fight had immediately been processed and projected on the large screen that was suspended from the center of the colosseum. In the end, the clip had to be replayed several times, every single replay at a lower speed, only to allow everyone to realize that Jarid had jumped straight into Jason''s trap. There was a moment Jarid''s eyes had turned black, while the silver-dragon mask had been dyed in a golden hue, only for both to disperse a moment later. This had left behind a terrified Olympian and Jason, who had used the opportunity in his favor. Moments later after Jason thought that he had given Jarid enough time to recuperate from his shock, he stopped absorbing mana. Averting his gaze towards the young Ilian, Jason couldn''t help as he sighed. "How is it possible for you to be discouraged by that already? Will you ever be able to face someone from a stronger race with that attitude? Your will was too easily shaken. Talent is worthless if you can''t even stand up after a single failure. If you''re not dead, stand up after falling down, learn from it and improve, become better than the past you! I doubt it...how could I even remotely think that this fight will be worthwhile...How disappointing¡­" Jason was fully aware that he''d exaggerated a few facts, but that was not what he was bothered about right now. He was simply disappointed while using his last effort to turn the fight that seemed to have lost all its meaning into something glorious. There was no need for his excitement to completely die and there was only a last ray of hope left within Jason. Somehow it seemed as if Jarid was trying to progress everything, trying to overcome the terror he had witnessed. However, at the same time, Jason could tell that Jarid''s pride had been shattered into smithereens. Fortunately, there was no need for Jason to stay disappointed. His words elicited the reaction he had been expecting from Jarid. Previously, Jarid had thought that his fight against the silver-dragon masked man would be epic, turning into a glorious legend about his first revelation. Unfortunately, now it felt like Jason had pulled a tight slap across his face even though his hand hadn''t even come anywhere near him. His dream, his pride, and the expectations others had about him had been blown to dust. Despite all of that, Jarid couldn''t help but hear two sentences Jason had said, ringing through his head countless times. [Talent is worthless if you can''t even stand up after a single failure. If you''re not dead, stand up after falling down, learn from it and improve, become better than the past you!] Clenching his fists, Jarid couldn''t help but feel ridiculous. After a single failure, he had been already on the verge of giving up on himself, his entire race, and the Olympus federation that was in a dire need of strong and talented warriors? From the beginning, he had known that the silver masked man was an opponent he couldn''t face, but his pride and arrogance had blinded his eyes, preventing him from accepting the bitter truth. Gritting his teeth, he finally regained his composure as he stared straight at Jason, who felt the determination glimmering in Jarid''s eyes. However, just a moment later Jason heard something he hadn''t expected to hear at all. "Use all your strength...please!!" While this had been unexpected, Jason just nodded his head while an uproar swept through the entire colosseum. "The silver masked man hasn''t used his entire strength yet? How can that be?" "This is ridiculous! Nobody with a cultivation base at the peak of the 1st Lique stage can reach such a high combat prowess!!" "How can this not be rigged!! I demand an explanation!" Despite the complaints ringing through the colosseum, neither Jason nor Jarid heard any of it. They were focussed on each other and Jason cautioned, "Alright, be careful, I won''t hold back! It''s my turn now!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 544 - Face Off Despite saying that he wouldn''t hold back, Jason wanted Jarid to see what was about to happen. As such, he decided to ignore using the abyssal ability for the rest of the fight. Jarid was already enveloped in a thick layer of thunder that swirled around his body like snakes, ready to lunge at every opponent in their range. His eyes had regained some of their vigor and will to fight, and to give his best while facing the silver-dragon masked man. He was ready to collide with Jason once again. This caused Jason to smile behind the silver-dragon mask as he took a deep breath. Thanks to the terrific high mana absorption rate he had attained by using every means to enhance it for a short time, Jason had been able to fully replenish his mana core. Thus, holding back because he lacked mana was out of question! Suddenly, the three-meter-long tail and black scales with the golden vein pattern spreading through it dispersed as if they had never existed causing an uproar among the spectators. They had assumed that the scales and tail were something that belonged to the silver masked man''s body, which he could simply retract and extract. However, now that it simply dispersed, their assumption was proven to be wrong! If everyone knew that Jason could manifest and disperse his soulbonds body parts as long as they occupied his body, Yet, even more, astonishing to everyone was that a set of wings had manifested out of black flames sprouting out of his back. Only a moment later, highly compressed flames emerged from his skin, enveloping Jason tightly. Everything was pitch-black, except the golden shimmer that shone through the masked slit and the black flames that seemed to crave something. From an indomitable force of physical strength, Jason had turned into the epitome of a black fire god. There were many races with a fire affinity, including mutated fire affinities that were extremely powerful and deemed as extraordinarily strong, however, Solaris was on a completely different level. The black flames were unfathomable, yet, they caused everyone nearby, Jason, to feel the intense pressure released by every single flame. Solaris was at the peak of the 10th Lique stage and on the verge of breaking into the Prismar stage. It was only lacking the ability to create a solidified prismarine crystal which was something Jason had yet to figure out. Nevertheless, as long as Jason had enough mana, he could use the black flames to his heart''s content which included the utility of the abilities Solaris had! Jason''s appearance of a pitch-black being that radiated an unbearable heat, and increasing the temperature inside the entire colosseum was a stark contrast to Jarid''s. He still looked like his usual self, despite the thunder armor which was not the case with Jason. If one had no idea about his actual appearance, humans who had listened to all kinds of fairy tales and nightmares would compare him to a devilish existence! Even worse than the pressure he released were the piercing, golden-silverish eyes that were clearly visible. All of that together was almost enough to crumble the confidence Jarid had painstakingly gathered during the last few minutes. From one of the most talented and self-confident citizens of the Olympus federation, he had turned into a pushover; a weakling. In front of thousands of spectators, and a youth who was barely at the peak of the 1st Lique stage at that!! To Jarid, it was obvious that Jason would participate in the liberation tournament, and he couldn''t help but feel excited when he would encounter the other true prodigies that were older than him! "ARRGHH!" Screaming out, Jarid gave himself a last push. He used every single trace of mana inside his mana core, and the courage left within him to charge towards Jason. His speed had been as terrific as before, but Jason remained rooted to the spot, similar to what he did in their first clash. This time, however, Jason lifted Byakur, which he was holding with a firm grip. "Be careful!" He cautioned as he transferred the vast majority of his mana into his longsword. At the same time, the tormenting black flames around Jarid swirled violently before they shot towards Byakur. Every single rune on Byakur was glowing up and it grew in size at a rapid pace. It had been a long time since Jason had used the enlargement rune, but somehow, it felt like every rune had become a part of his body. As such, Jason could freely activate every rune he found usable in the current situation. While huge black flames were tightly woven around Byakur, the armor that enveloped Jason thinned. Jason brandished his longsword at Jarid who had almost reached him, only to smile lightly as he exerted the Floating sky movement technique to the highest possible degree. At the exact same time, the Emperor Eyes began to glow brightly as Jason released the petrification curse. It was just then that Jason noticed that the petrification curse was blocked by Jarid, who seemed to be using a special technique to prevent his entire physique from being affected by the paralyzation. Unfortunately, this didn''t apply to the race specific weakening curse Jason exerted only a moment later. Jarid, who had assumed that it was the exact same curse he had faced before, hadn''t dared to lower his guard because of the uncomfortable feeling he''d received. Despite that, it was still not possible for him to cope with the sudden weakening his thunder affinity had received. He was giving his best, but it was exceedingly difficult to overcome the sudden, yet drastic deterioration of a certain trait one had painstakingly trained. Even worse was that Jarid relied on his thunder affinity more than anything which was noticeable by looking at his physique, the cultivation technique, and other types of techniques he used. Everything had to do with his affinity, and Jarid was unable to fight without it! As such, the effect of a decrease of his thunder affinity by a total of 20% was tremendous. Jason hadn''t perceived the exact potency of the enhanced race specific weakening curse before. Because of that, he could only smile bitterly as Byakur was right by Jarid''s side. The soul weapon had grown to more than ten meters and there was still quite some distance between Jarid and Jason. Taking into account the decrease of speed the Olympian had to face right now, it was impossible for them to collide in a close combat attack. He now had to face Byakur first! Thus, Jarid was forced to face the weapon that was enveloped in black flames head-on. Evading it was impossible as it was already too late for him to swiftly change his trajectory and Jarid could already perceive how the flames would lunge after him. Just as the razor-sharp blade was about to hit Jarid, and cut him in half, Jason shortened Byakur''s length, barely enough to brandish past the young Olympian. Byakur''s tip grazed Jarid''s chest before Jason allowed Solaris to wreak havoc! The black flames that thirsted for mana pounced on the thunder armor that enveloped Jarid, enveloping and devouring anything through the mana nullification ability the black origin flame possessed. A moment later Jarid was completely enveloped in black flames and it was only when the young Olympian stopped in his tracks that Jason snapped his fingers extinguishing the flames in an instant. "I guess I won!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 545 - Loot "I guess I won!" Jason was simply stating what had happened even though the result was obvious. If he''d wanted to kill Jarid, he wouldn''t have reduced Byakur''s length at the crucial moment, let alone extinguished Solaris'' flames that would have burned through Jarid. Despite his skin being covered in burns and boils all over, Jarid could only grit his teeth and accept the bitter truth. "I think I have to thank you for not killing me...you had three chances to take my life but you decided to hold yourself back every single time...Thank you, I will remember that!" Instead of replying verbally, Jason simply shrugged his shoulders.. He was about to leave when he remembered something he had wanted to say. "Even though you lost today, do not be disheartened. My situation is quite unique which made my victory possible. Your talent is enormous. I''ve already said it before, but you should believe in yourself and stand up after being defeated. Today, I didn''t kill you in our first clash let alone the second encounter we had, but others won''t show any mercy. It is good to focus on your thunder affinity, but you should learn to be able to fight without it too, otherwise you will always have a disadvantage if someone with a weakening curse is around you!" After that, Jason simply left. He had many things to do, and his muscles were sore. Having fought a total of 50 battles within two days had paid off because he had won his bet. Not only that, but a winning streak of 50 rounds rewarded him with the permission ticket to enter the world bridge that would lead him towards the broken world. This was what he''d aimed for all along, and there was no way that he would waste this opportunity. Ignoring the commotion he had caused with the fight, Jason glanced at the receptionist who was still standing on the elevation. She was frozen in place, staring blankly at the young man whom she and the colosseum''s manager had grossly underestimated. Earlier, both had assumed that the Olympians were more than enough to handle Jason. However after the 40th round it had been quite obvious that the man behind the silver dragon mask was exceedingly powerful! Nevertheless, the chances that Jarid would lose were still low as per everybody else including the receptionist and the manager. He was the most talented Olympian after all and only a few members of the younger generation were as talented, or even more talented than him. Most of them were also older to him and had already unleashed their entire potential which was not the case for Jarid. Never had there been a need for him to use every single trick to fight someone because he hadn''t met a being as strong as Jason. His body was still not strong enough to fully endure the unique thunder constitution he had been gifted with at birth. Because of that his potential had forcefully been reduced by sealing his constitution with a multitude of seals. In the end, Jarid could only break through one of them without tearing himself apart. Though Jason could see a lot through his Emperor Eyes, not everything was clear enough to be perceived perfectly. As such, he could only tell that Jarid had been unable to use the unique constitution in its entirety. Once he had exited the arena, he walked towards the reception where only a small number of the initial staff members had stayed back. They had been watching his battle, and were just about to return when they saw the man with the silver dragon mask requesting to retrieve his equipment in addition to his rewards. "I-I''m sorry sir, I have yet to receive the official notification of your victory in the 50th battle...p-p-please wait a moment!" Jason noticed that the young woman he had asked for his stuff had a pale face, and she was seemingly afraid to talk to him. This caused Jason to take a look at himself but he noticed that nothing had changed about his appearance. Everything was as it had been before and he had even placed Byakur back in his bracelet. Thus, he could only scratch the back of his head, not knowing about what was going on. "Alright!" Waiting for a few minutes wouldn''t make a drastic difference, and the only reason he had wanted to leave the combat arena was to avoid being bothered by others. If Jason were to know that the colosseum''s staff had assumed that he would be killed by Olympian Jarid or at least heavily injured, he would have understood the reason behind their terrified looks instantly. Not only had almost everyone witnessed his fight with Jarid had already started, but also seen that he was completely unscathed and didn''t even have a minor scratch. As such, something must have happened, and if the young receptionist''s assumption was not completely wrong, the man in front of her must be extremely powerful and more talented than anyone she had ever seen! She now feared that antagonizing him could very well mean endangering her life. As such, the young receptionist realised that she had to be exceedingly careful because her life was something she held dearly. The more time passed, the more nervous she became, while Jason merely drummed his fingers on the reception counter with a bored expression. Wanting to do something productive, Jason entered his soul world through his mind to take a look at his soulbonds. This had become some sort of ritual for him since a few months already. Not only were his soulbonds a part of himself, and his family, but also extremely important to increase his strength further. Either of these reasons was already enough for Jason to pay attention to his soulbonds, but the fact that he saw them as his family was the most important which was directly connected to the last point! The stronger his bond with each soulbond was, the better was Jason''s ability to manifest their body parts, and move them around in his mana core. Likewise, he also improved the speed and accuracy of utilising their affinity. As such, with a firm soul bond it was less likely for his family to be injured or die as long as he was around to protect them! ** When the female receptionist, who had been in charge of Jason since the beginning regained her senses, she noted that Jason was not in the arena anymore. Perplexed that she might have offended him in some way, she quickly asked the olympians around her, who had been busy staring at their idol, Jarid, in shock. "Huh, the man with the silver dragon mask? He went inside, and is probably currently retrieving the equipment he had betted in addition to getting the rewards he was promised." This worsened her dread and the young female receptionist rushed back to the reception without being able to digest what exactly had happened during the last few minutes. The entire battle had been chaotic to look at, but at the same time the fact that the man with the silver dragon mask was just at the peak of the 1st Lique stage was terrifying. Jarid might have lost, but it looked like he had gained a lot from the final clash. Turning around, she rushed towards the reception, where she saw that Jason was standing around, patiently waiting for someone to acknowledge that he had defeated Jarid. It took much longer than Jason expected, but when he sensed the mana fluctuations of the female receptionist who had taken care of his bet two days ago, he turned towards her. She seemed to be distressed and quickly rushed towards him, "Sir, I''m so sorry for making you wait! We will immediately return your goods and the promised rewards. The reward we hand out will consist of all kinds of items, and we won''t barter. Thus, if Sir wants to exchange goods, the trading market right next to the colosseum will be the perfect place! As for the permission ticket for the broken world, I will immediately take care of that!!" Jason didn''t even have to say anything because the female receptionist was blurting out everything at once. He had been a little bit annoyed to have been kept waiting for more than ten minutes as more and more people were approaching him, but Jason couldn''t help but laugh when he saw how flustered the receptionist was. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 546 - Powerful Shop Owner Ignoring everyone else, Jason looked at the goods he had received instead. His spatial rings had been filled to the brim, and the inner storage area of his spatial rings was quite an interesting sight to look at. There were different types of items in it, including the permission ticket to the broken world and another ticket stating that the vendors had to trade fairly with him. The latter was interesting and apparently another perk of having defeated Jarid. It could also have another reason, but that was not really important. Jason couldn''t help but feel satisfied with having fought for 2 days straight and gained treasures. If his assumption was not wrong, the goods he had received would be worth more than ten times the value he had betted. This was exactly what it should have been, to begin with, but Jason was still glad that the colosseum didn''t seem to be stingy with their rewards.. ''Well, they shouldn''t have made a loss considering that everyone must have betted on Jarid.'' From a logical point of view, it was clear that Jarid would win the fight. He was not only the most talented Olympian but a total of five ranks above Jason. Thus they had been under the impression that Jason would lose 100%. Unfortunately, the human race, or to be precise those with a five-star soul-awakening were unlikely to bother about the common cultivation ranking. It didn''t even matter which kind of cultivation ranking one used because God''s Children were usually several times stronger than their mana core suggested. The same could be said about Jason, but that was not only because of his soul world. His drops of mana were compressed and a single mana drop was equivalent to three common mana drops! There were several more factors, and in the end, Jason was simply too strong to be assessed on a simple cultivation ranking without placing him a few ranks higher than his current to signify his true strength. After he had received his reward, he walked outside the colosseum ignoring the angry gazes of those who had bet against him. However, this didn''t matter to him. He hadn''t bet his lifesaving, and if others did, it was their fault for not betting on him! Meanwhile, Jarid had already left the arena while trying to control his hands that were trembling in excitement. Despite feeling that he would be unable to defeat the man behind the silver dragon mask three months from now during the liberation tournament, Jarid couldn''t help but feel eager to meet him again. There was still something he could use to become stronger in the next few months! "Maybe, I should work on unveiling the second seal...and I need another martial art technique¡­!" The other Olympians had followed Jarid to figure out if he was doing fine or if his will to fight had been destroyed. He had lost against someone at a much lower cultivation rank after all! Yet, after they saw the determination in his eyes, the Olympians'' worry dispersed, as their behind confusion cleared. It was normal to feel discouraged after having been overwhelmed by an opponent everyone deemed weak. As such, Jarid''s reaction was uncommon, but everyone could only feel glad about that! ''He hasn''t given up!'' Meanwhile, Jason had entered the trading market, where he exchanged the goods he had obtained with all kinds of materials to forge, concoct, inscribe runes, and most importantly resources to cultivate with. Other than mana stones, and nutrition solutions, Jason had exchanged his goods with pryr stones too! Petri had to continue advancing and become stronger by cultivation with primordial energy after all! The trading market was an interesting place, and his eyes fell upon the different kinds of goods on display that made him curious. One of the most intriguing items Jason came across was inside a small bookstore he had entered on a whim. In comparison to Janur''s library, the bookstore was small, but the books he found were at least as valuable or even more valuable than those inside the library. While he looked around in awe glancing through the titles of all the different books, what truly surprised him was the old shop owner''s mana core. ''Eight solidified prismarine crystals!!!'' His eyes widened in astonishment. Jason had assumed that not a single intelligent being on Argos had yet to reach the peak of the first threshold of the Prismar stage. At least, not if the world bridges worked as he had known until now. ''Did I miss something?'' The bookstore owner noticed his gaze and only gave him a faint smile without saying much. Based on the name of the shop that was called ''Old Sadran''s treasury'' Jason assumed that the Old man of the Ilian race wanted to be called Old Sadran. ''Maybe he entered Argos as one of the first immigrants. If he was at the 6th Prismar stage and came from one of the stabler world bridges then it might be possible.'' For most of the foreign race immigrants, it was different from the three beast Overlords that had already reached the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage! They had been much stronger than any being on Argos the moment they had emerged from the temporary world bridges that had only been stable for a short time. This was something Jason had found out based on the information he had gained from Janur''s library several months ago. Jason hadn''t encountered many beings of the Ilian race yet; Jarid was the first and Old Sadran was the second. That meant their race was a minority, or that they simply didn''t like to live in the Olympus federation''s capital. Nevertheless, this was not as important as the books he had found inside the bookstore. The books were a treasure trove that could provide him with knowledge about the past of all immigrant races, but also about all kinds of forging, concocting, and rune inscribing techniques that were employed by different races. Though the explanations weren''t exhaustive, he could understand that all races used their affinity to enhance the manufacturing process of goods. That was extremely interesting, and Jason couldn''t help but purchase one of the thick volumes he had found after sifting through a lot of books in the bookstore for an hour. Just as he was about to go to the shop owner to pay for the heavy tome, Jason noticed that the old man was still staring at him intently. The old man had released his mana since the beginning, scanning through him as if he was an object, which Jason had simply ignored. As he placed the thick tome and the colosseum''s ticket on the counter, Old Sadran knew that he had to give Jason a fair price. However, at the same time it told the old man something else, he had only been suspicious about before. Olympian Jarid''s mana fluctuations were still lingering on Jason! "You...fought against Olympian Jarid? How come you look perfectly fine??" The last sentence sounded more like an insult, but Jason could only smile lightly at the old man''s question. There was something Jason had been suspicious about before, but now that the shop owner had asked him directly, his assumption was proven to be correct. The old man and Jarid knew each other, and mostly had a great bond, maybe they were even related to each other! As such, Jason knew that he had to give the old man a reassuring answer, otherwise, it might end up being unfortunate on his side. That was what Jason perceived because he got the gist of something interesting. "We fought, and he is perfectly fine. There is no need to worry about him!" ''HE is perfectly fine? I asked why you''re fine and not if he is¡­.fi--nee?!! WAIT?!'' Jason was still wearing his mask, but his mana core rank was evident. As such, Old Sadran had never imagined that his grandson could have been defeated by the man in front of him. However, the more he looked at Jason, the more dangerous he seemed to become. "Ah, so he is fine... great¡­" After that, the shop suddenly turned silent and nobody said anything and a few minutes had to pass before Jason tapped on the tome in front of him. "How much is the tome for?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 547 - So Close, Yet So Far When Jason left Old Sadron''s shop, he felt much better. He had purchased the tome and got to know one of the most powerful citizens inside the Olympus federation. There shouldn''t be a single being at the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage in the Olympus federation because it would indicate that one had created one rotating crystal enveloping three small solidified prismarine crystals. Through the rotating crystal, the mana stored inside the mana core would be consistently moved, circulated through the mana core, reinforcing it. At the same time, the mana strengthened the entire body as well as the mana core''s capabilities. Jason assumed that there were only the three Overlords and at most one or two more beasts with that kind of strength. But that was not something he could say for sure. Furthermore, there was the possibility of a temporary world bridge manifesting every once in a while. As such, new, stronger beasts could emerge at any time. Jason would love to change this because it could endanger mankind and the Olympus federation which might come into contact with each other soon. However, in order to prevent world bridges from emerging, Argos'' protection wall had to be fortified, which was something that had to be done manually, and at the planet core, in the worst-case scenario. His knowledge had yet to reach the basics and Jason had to figure out how to destroy the world bridges without allowing them to be reconstructed once again. The best scenario would be to terminate all world bridges, except one that would allow anyone on Argos to leave and enter the planet to one particular place that might be some sort of intersection with other world bridges. That was the best possible scenario Jason had in mind, and something he hoped to make possible in the future. Unfortunately, this goal was still well beyond his reach at the moment, and Jason assumed that he would have to reach the peak of the Lique stage to make something like that possible. Due to his unique condition, he shouldn''t need to be at the Prismar stage, and one would only be required to look at his Emperor Eyes. Every single rune was visible to his eyes, and he had already been able to destroy one world bridge! Though the reason for this had been a different matter altogether, in the end, only the result counted! Several days passed as he flew in the direction at which the world bridge leading to the broken world was located. He had more than enough time before New Year''s eve when the liberation tournament would start, and Jason was already eager to fight against those prodigies at the 10th Lique stage! Jarid had already aroused his interest, and he assumed that the young Ilian would grow much stronger too, but Jason was not sure whether or not they would be able to fight again. Fighting against the God''s Children was not really something Jason was interested in because he wanted to represent mankind as a unit, and not fight with others needlessly. However, if he were to be matched against the God''s Children, Jason wouldn''t hold back. He wanted to obtain the lesser origin flame crystal after all! Advancing Solaris was amongst the most important tasks he had right now, and if the lesser origin flame was what he needed, Jason would get it by all means. It might not seem important to others, but Jason knew that he couldn''t make the Flers wait any longer! There were too many uncertain factors he had to take into account and he felt bad about them being enslaved, while he was becoming stronger. The only reassuring fact for him was that they were being treated relatively well. Jason was inching closer to the solution on how to destroy a simple soul contract, but he was missing the final piece. Unbeknownst to himself, he had already found the answer he had been looking for. It was directly in front of him, and something Jason was consistently using; the most obvious answer to everything. At the same time, it was veiled and an answer that was too easy to be the answer to his problems! That was also the reason why Jason couldn''t comprehend and grasp it. His mind was still preoccupied with the thought of rescuing the Flers and he didn''t even realise that he had already emerged in the proximity of the world bridge. Precisely, at the same moment, a voice transmission shook him out of his train of thoughts. [I''m sorry for intruding on Sir''s thoughts, but it is forbidden to fly in the surrounding area. If Sir wants to enter the broken world, please descend and follow the given instructions. Alternately, either descend or follow the signs on the ground and take a detour.] He chose the latter option and descended to the ground. Using his Emperor Eyes, he scanned the surrounding two kilometers and the mana fluctuations of every living being in that radius. As such, he could tell that the fortress that had suddenly emerged in front of him was not only veiled by illusionary magic circles but also protected by a huge garrison at the Prismar stage. There were several hundred guards and Jason couldn''t help but think that they were taking the defensive mechanism on the broken world bridge to a completely new level. Jason found this great because it told him that the broken world might even be better than he had expected it to be! The world bridge itself looked similar to the others he had seen through his Emperor Eyes before, and it were only the runes he assumed to be the destination coordinates that were interesting because they were changing every moment. It was as if the destination was moving around, or to be precise the place they would land. Apparently, the broken world was said to be exactly that, a broken piece of a world that had ceased to exist. Nobody knew how this had happened, or why this particular piece was still able to sustain itself, but it was flying through space. At least, that was what others said. However, according to the information Jason had obtained, it was different! He didn''t know if it was correct or not, but the broken world could also be a dimension constructed by someone else in order to accomplish something. Everything was possible with enough strength and energy. As such, it was not unlikely that the existence of dimensions, created by other beings, was possible. Despite taking interest in the moving coordinates, and wanting to know how it was possible for Argos to have naturally constructed a world bridge with the broken world, Jason just wanted to cultivate and train. He had to become much stronger and the same applied to his soulbonds that were as eager as he was! As such, Jason followed the instructions he received through the transmitted voice before it suddenly vanished and he spotted a tightly armored man from a winged race. His visor was closed, and Jason could only see his green feathered wings without actively using his Emperor Eyes. Unfortunately for the young man in front of him, Jason could see everything owing to the fact that the basic function of the emperor eyes was always activated! The armor he wore had a concealment effect, but that didn''t hinder Jason''s sight. The winged man approached him and Jason tried to appear unruffled as he took out the permission ticket he had obtained from the colosseum. "Oh? It has been a long time since we had someone from the colosseum. That''s quite interesting!...You must be quite strong." The man who guarded the gates alone seemed to be in a dire need of talking to someone. However, Jason didn''t want to waste his time in chit-chat. As such, he simply nodded his head which was noticed by the winged man, who could only sigh. "Please don''t create any trouble and follow the instructions, otherwise, we will use force to throw you out of the broken world, if necessary!" This caused Jason to look at the winged man in doubt. "You guys protect the inner part of the broken world too?" At that moment, the man blurted out. "Of course we do! Don''t you know how many basic races at the 1st threshold of the Prismar stage enter the broken world through their world bridge, only to cultivate?" This was something Jason hadn''t known and it was fortunate that he was still wearing the silver mask. ''There are multiple world bridges? How many races are actually cultivating inside the broken world then??'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 548 - Within Space Jason thought that the broken world was just connected to Argos, but that didn''t seem to be the case. According to the winged man he had enquired with, there were more than a dozen world bridges inside the broken world. Despite that, it was relatively peaceful because the space inside the broken world was vast, and there were not many resources except the ginormous amount of naturally generated mana one could make use of. In the end, peace could only be maintained because the world bridges leading towards the broken world prevented anyone above the peak of the 1st threshold of the Prismar stage from entering it. Jason already knew this, and he was also aware of the extreme stability the world bridge had which astonished him. The broken world was moving, and despite that, there was not a single sign of instability of the world bridge''s mana fluctuations. All of this was interesting to Jason, but at the same time, it wouldn''t change a lot for him. He just wanted to cultivate for the next two months and improve his martial art techniques afterward.. Thus, he walked through the fortress, and his Emperor Eyes perceived that there weren''t many people who had entered the broken world at that time. This surprised Jason because it looked like they were wasting the chance to obtain precious resources. Not fully utilizing the broken world would end up in a loss of time for some prodigies who had to cultivate much longer without mana inside the broken world. What Jason didn''t know was that the broken world had a schedule according to the agreement all races that could enter the broken world had made unanimously. Thus, it had a total of 10 slots with an exception to the colosseum and other organizations that rewarded an entry to the broken world to someone who had achieved an extraordinary feat. By showing the ticket he had obtained from the colosseum, he obtained a swift entry to the world bridge. The total time for which he could stay inside the broken world was three months. This was more than enough for Jason. Excitement and apprehension filled his mind as he couldn''t help but wonder what kind of sight would manifest in front of him! While taking his first step through the world bridge, he felt a familiar blindfold covering his eyes, making it impossible for him to see anything. This was something Jason had expected, so only a moment later, he released his stigma and injected a faint trace of mana into his eyes before the blindfold slowly dispersed. Looking around, he saw the overly familiar stars surrounding him and noticed that several of them were shining brighter than others. Suddenly, Jason''s eyes widened and he couldn''t help but smile as he saw three different types of energy swirling within the large space. It was only after he had undergone the primal awakening of his bloodline that several new changes had occurred and it was the first time since then that he had entered a world bridge. Two among the three energies looked familiar to him and he realised that they were in fact mana and primordial energy. Jason assumed the last, unknown energy to be the spiritual force that was, in fact, used to cultivate in the path of wisdom. It was also called Spiral and was used to strengthen one''s mind for various purposes. However, what caught Jason by surprise was that when he turned around, Argos was releasing dense mana currents, enveloping it in a faint membrane. This membrane should be the world''s protection layer that safeguards the planet from outside invaders and at the same time prevents too many strong world bridges from manifesting. At least, that was what Jason had learned from the books he had read inside Janur''s library. It could be wrong, but it was unlikely because the Elvyr race''s world bridge had drained lots of mana that had probably thinned the world''s protection layer which in return allowed more world bridges to manifest. That was interesting, but at the same time made Jason feel like he was missing something. ''If the space is filled with all three energies, why is there no primordial energy or spiritual force on Argos?'' This could have many answers, but Jason did not think further about it. Instead, he turned his head back to the front, where a huge floating island, enveloped by a dome could be seen. The sight in front of him was interesting and the broken world''s appearance was truly similar to that of a piece belonging to a destroyed world! Jason smiled lightly at the sight of the broken world and the dense mana currents that enveloped the dome before filling it to the brim. If he had to estimate the mana density and also purity based on his sight alone, the mana vein below Cyro City, which was the mana densest place Jason had been to, he might consider Argos to have one third in both mana density and purity. This was shocking, but at the same time, it told Jason that Argos was a planet that was scarce of places with dense mana!! He had heard that the broken world had characteristics comparable to the planet of some immigrant races who had found themselves a new home because of external factors most didn''t want to speak about. Even those that had fled were accustomed to a mana density several times higher than Argos. They had to overcome many trials other than building everything from scratch in a world that was not only unfamiliar to them but also lacking what they needed the most; cultivation resources. Despite the loss they had to overcome, the Olympus federation was going strong. However, at the same time, those immigrants who had come to Argos could have only been the youngest generation because those who were older, shouldn''t have been able to step through the world bridges due to the strict restrictions. All of this information helped Jason to construct a big picture of common races, the Olympus federation, and the importance of the broken world in his mind. ''If mankind were to make a treaty with the Olympus federation, the broken world will become a blessing and a curse at the same time!'' Even though that was the case, Jason''s mind was fixated on the several channels his Emperor Eyes perceived all around the broken world. They were likely to be the other world bridges, but before he could think about anything, he was drawn outside the world bridge. A moment later he emerged from the world bridge and stepped into the broken world filled with dense mana and a flourishing environment. The moment Jason took the first step he was enveloped in dense mana that swept through his body, invigorating him. It was an addictive sensation and Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly. He was still wearing the mask, but it didn''t hinder him in any way. As such, he had decided to continue wearing it until he would leave the broken world again. There was no way for him to know what kind of races he would encounter after all, and Jason wanted to avoid attracting too much attention. This didn''t include his enormous mana absorption, which he wouldn''t restrict while having extremely dense and pure mana all around him. A guard who noticed him looked at his permission ticket before leading him to a place where he could rest. After that Jason was led to a guide who would explain everything to him in detail. He had been under the impression that there would be nothing special he had to pay attention to, but he had just been proven wrong. There was a war zone in the center of the broken world, allowing the cultivators to fight each other! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 549 - Center Though killing may not be forbidden inside the war zone, it was certainly frowned upon! There was no need to needlessly kill because it was important to maintain a good relationship with all the races. This would prevent multiple races from establishing an alliance to overthrow the other races and annex the broken world. In the end, this was not needed by most common races because they had several areas with a similarly dense amount of mana, and it was only the war zone and other similar facilities that drew their younger generation to the broken world. It was rare for some races to encounter other races as some liked to keep to themselves. For such races, the broken world was exactly what they needed to get to know the strength of other races, and their prodigies! Jason understood this too, and it was only unfortunate races and entire worlds that had to rely on the broken world to cultivate similar to that of Argos and the Olympus federation. He was not sure if the other races that had a world bridge connected to the broken world knew this, but it didn''t really matter. The Olympus federation had already overcome so much blame and humiliation that being ridiculed by more races wouldn''t make it any worse.. In the future; the time when the Olympus federation would make their move, they would start reclaiming their old lands one after another. This may need time and a proper strategy, but Jason assumed that something similar to that was the federation''s ultimate goal. As long as they reclaimed the weakest planet, it might even work, but only if the older generation of the immigrating races was still alive. Fighting others while being at the Prismar stage was not really worth it, and Jason could tell that the Olympus federation was making plans for the future, plans that they would enact in the coming centuries, if not millennia later! Jason found this extremely interesting, and if possible he would tell the human race to establish a close relationship with the Olympus federation. This might as well help both parties to get what they always wanted while reducing his burden! Unfortunately, this was something for the future, and Jason was still forced to maintain peace among the different power-hungry clans of mankind on Argos. Because of that, winning the liberation tournament was even more important as his strength would increase further if Solaris was to devour the lesser origin flame. Other than that, the broken world was another opportunity he and his soulbonds had to use. From the information, the guide had given him Jason knew that the war zone was not the only important place inside the broken world. As such, he manifested Artemis'' wings before flying towards the center of the broken world. By exerting the Floating sky technique at the highest mastery he had achieved until now, his speed increased. Meanwhile, his stigma and the Celestia aura further enhanced his mana circulation, thus also the highest pace at which he could exert the Floating sky movement technique, increasing his speed. Equipped with the speed of someone at the latter ranks of the Lique stage, Jason reached the broken world''s center only a day later. There, he could see a gigantic area that was enveloped in a faint mana membrane, indicating the outlines of the war zone. However, that was not what Jason wanted to look at. He was more interested in the large market right next to the war zone. Almost every race had established a small district that had different kinds of goods on display. Through certain channels, one could even find cheap substitutes for pryr stones. At least, that was what Jason had heard which was the reason for him to exchange only a few pryr stones with the equipment he had received from the colosseum''s bet. On Argos, one pryr stone was worth two, if not three times more valuable than mana stones. But that was not the case for other races, let alone the broken world where everyone was competing with each other on offering the best selling prices. Because of that, he wanted to take a look at the goods'' prices inside the broken world. Maybe he could make use of the races'' competitiveness, and exchange the materials he had in addition to the high-grade mana stones. Unfortunately, the trade market in Janur didn''t have what he had wanted. There were certain things he was looking for, and Jason hoped to find them inside the broken world. When he had reached the proximity of the market, Jason descended to the ground. After that, he stepped through the paved streets and switched on his Emperor Eyes ability. There was no need to waste any time on unnecessary shops where he wouldn''t find what he was looking for either way. Thus, he continued to scan the shops around him before his eyes fell on something. Turning to his left, he decided to enter an inconspicuous shop. Jason couldn''t help but smile when he took a proper look at the items exhibited inside the small shop that was right in front of a large blacksmith shop. Even though the items were mostly at the Lique stage, the color Jason perceived showed that it had a high quality. The same could be said about the entire smithy, with every single tool and material that had been refined to an extremely high extent. ''The weapons have less than 1% impurities! Have they been forged with an origin flame or a particular forging technique that involved purifying metals?'' Jason was curious about forging, concocting, and most importantly, rune inscribing techniques. This had multiple reasons, but one was that Jason wanted to learn more about the three basic auxiliary occupations as it could help him advance further. Learning more about runes and how to inscribe them in the best possible way was extremely beneficial for the termination of world bridges. The same applied to the enhancement process of certain characteristics from forged goods, devices and to accomplish other specific things. Other than that, the concocting process was connected to inscribing runes too. The better the inscription solution, the more potent would be the inscribed rune. As such, a technique on how to concoct more efficiently with higher potency was essential too! This was also connected to the forging techniques as the best-inscribed runes on the most powerful weapons would not only allow the wielder to exhibit more of his strength but also to defend properly without the need to fear that the weapon would break at first contact. Jason walked through the small shop, inspecting every single weapon through his Emperor Eyes. At the same time, it was not too difficult for him to pay attention to the shop''s blacksmith, who looked like a fire giant. In fact, Jason had almost thought that the race the blacksmith belonged to was the Ganasia race that had attacked Cyro City. However, this was not the case because of the distinct mana fluctuations and affinities the blacksmith in front of him had. He might not be sure what race the man in front of him belonged to, but it was definitely among the stronger races in the field of blacksmithing! By simply observing the blacksmith''s strokes on the searing hot ingot, Jason could tell that the hammer was not only heavy but also amplified by mana that was intertwined in a complex manner, creating small dents into the metal. ''Is that some sort of forging technique?'' Jason wondered and he seemed to have lost track of time as he was fully fixated on the forging process in front of him. He tried to imprint every single movement in his mind while doing the same with the mana circulation of the fire giant who released fire from his arm, enveloping the heavy hammer with which he struck the metal. Jason didn''t even realize when the blacksmith had stopped forging, as he had been mesmerized watching him work. The blacksmith noticed a man wearing a silver dragon mask standing a few meters next to him, staring at him and his forge, and asked in a gruff tone, "Hey brat, do you have any business with me??" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 550 - Deal With The Devil When Jason regained his senses, he could only look at the fire giant while hiding his dry smile behind the mask. "I was just looking at the exhibited goods when I saw you forging with that mysterious technique. Is that why every weapon has less than 1% impurities?" Instead of beating around the bush, Jason decided to get straight to the point. There was no need to hold back, to begin with. He was in a neutral zone and if someone wanted to attack him defending himself was not really a problem. Either way, Jason didn''t sense any hostility from the fire giant. Instead, he seemed to be somewhat curious. "You''re a blacksmith too, am I right? It''s not easy to figure out the difference between highly purified and almost perfectly refined weapons! Some people are too ignorant to notice whether a weapon has been purified or not....those fools!! They''re just complaining about the prices without caring about the effort we have to put in!" When he heard this, Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly. The fire giant was more sympathetic than he had expected, and it looked like he needed someone to talk to. As such, Jason continued speaking to him for quite some time. In that time, he figured out that the blacksmiths'' name was Jlarn and that his race was in fact the Lesser Fyr giants that were also called Fyrlg race! Jlarn was very talkative despite his outer appearance that radiated a grumpy attitude along with the response to the earlier question that had sounded harsher than he had wanted it to sound. Apparently, he was using the traditional blacksmithing technique of the Fyrlg race, called [Hammer of Fire; K?yldram] that was in fact a Terra-Advanced forging technique! The technique sounded more like a weapon to Jason, but he had simply nodded his head, interested to know more about every detail of the technique. He had seen quite a lot about the technique thanks to his observance of the entire forging process through his Emperor Eyes. As such, he knew how the movement of the basic hammer strikes worked. Unfortunately, after Jason got to know that it was a traditional technique of their race he couldn''t simply ask Jlarn to sell him a copy of it. This would be extremely rude, and instead of being hasty in wanting to lay his hands on the technique, Jason changed the topic. Jason accessed his spatial ring and took out certain ores he had perfectly purified when he had learned about manufacturing guns and other weapons at Mike''s house. When he placed the small metal bars on the counter in front of Jason and Jlarn, the blacksmith who was at the peak of the Lique stage couldn''t help but instinctively inspect them. The mana they released was extremely pure and he couldn''t sense any impurities within them. Thus, Jason could visibly see how Jlarn''s eyes widened more and more in shock upon seeing the thing that he held in his hand. It took him a few minutes until he had evaluated all the different types of perfectly purified metals Jason had laid on the counter one after another. He had a huge mountain of unrefined ores which he had exchanged at the trading market on Janur a few days ago, and wanted to test a few things. Nevertheless, the perfectly purified goods in front of him were the best of the best of what mankind could provide. They were rare materials at the Lique rank that were strong enough to be forged into good weapons without the need to purify them. However, being perfectly purified changed everything about such materials, turning simple metal ingots into finished products that were several times more expensive than the raw material used and had less than one percentage of impurities. Jlarn was fully aware of the value the perfectly purified ingots in front of him had as forging one was something he had achieved only once in his life as a blacksmith, and that had been an ingot at a much lower rank! Turning towards Jason, he couldn''t help but feel threatened as an uncomfortable feeling emerged within him. "Did you forge them? What do you want?!" The blacksmith''s mind was running wild and the worst-case scenario flashed through his mind. As such, he was already expecting Jason to ask for his forging technique in exchange for a certain number of perfectly purified goods. Jason was a little bit astonished about the blacksmith''s behavior, but it seemed like Jlarn could read his body language perfectly well. ''He is more perceptive than I thought!'' He thought before he simply asked. "Are you up for a deal?" This caused the blacksmith to squint his eyes, only to size up Jason once again. His talk with the man behind the silver dragon mask had been refreshing, but he couldn''t help but feel that the man at the peak of the 1st Lique stage was more capable than he was. Even more so if he didn''t lie about forging the perfectly purified Lique rank ingots himself! However, he couldn''t help but feel intrigued about what kind of deal someone at Jason''s caliber could have. Instead of looking at Jason like someone who was below him due to his mana core rank, the blacksmith had long since noticed that he was no match against him. Jlarn had never focused on increasing his combat prowess, let alone learning many martial art techniques to a high degree. As such, he had asked almost immediately, "What deal?" At that moment, Jason knew that he had caught Jlarn''s interest, and once he heard of the deal, the blacksmith wouldn''t be able to reject his offer! Nevertheless, Jason remained silent for a minute as if he was pondering about something before he answered, "I was inspired by your forging process and felt like I had received enlightenment. Unfortunately, the feeling dispersed when you stopped forging. How about I give you one perfectly purified Lique rank ingot in exchange for observing your forging process from the beginning? Well, at least if you are allowed to have visitors who look at your forging process while you exert the Hammer of Fire forging technique!" This deal astonished Jlarn because it was something he hadn''t expected. Hearing that Jason was enlightened while observing his forging process only for a short time sounded nice and made him feel a little proud of himself. However, even then, the price Jason wanted to pay for looking at a forging process that took less than four hours was too high. Because of that Jlarn hesitated only to recall what Jason''s last sentence had been. ''There is no problem if someone wants to look at our race''s forging technique...if he comprehends something by himself there shouldn''t be a problem at all!!'' With that thought in mind, Jlarn accepted Jason''s offer, unaware that he had just made a deal with the devil. If the blacksmith were to know that Jason could see and imprint every single move, mana circulation, and the exact amount of mana that had been utilized by every person in his proximity, he wouldn''t have accepted the deal so easily. In the end, Jlarn had accidentally taught Jason the entire Hammer of Fire forging technique in just a day! Jlarn had even exposed several different ways to use the Hammer of Fire technique, thinking that he had to show off and that he should allow Jason to make full use of the price he had paid to observe his forging process. Meanwhile, Jason''s cost to learn the technique was only a few perfectly purified Lique rank ingots, and not even close to the information he had imprinted in his mind! After he left the forging shop, only slightly more than one day had passed, and he had more than enough time to do different things. However, now that he had truly used his Emperor Eyes to learn a technique focused on auxiliary occupations, Jason couldn''t help but feel exhilarated! With that in mind, he accessed his spatial rings to take a proper look at the goods he had still left, as his eyes fell on a bunch of potions Dalia had concocted for him months ago. They were perfectly purified due to the silver origin flame she had, and Jason couldn''t help but grow sad as he thought about his deceased master. Nevertheless, he couldn''t allow sadness to engulf him. Instead, he had to think of a way to exploit a runemaster in the same way he planned to take care of the alchemist. At that moment, he recalled the numerous runes his Emperor Eyes had imprinted into his mind every single time he had looked at a world bridge and how they were composed! A bright smile emerged on his lips as he paved his way through the crowded street. ''I guess it''s finally time to learn a concocting- and rune inscribing technique!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 551 - Auxillary Techniques Five days had passed and Jason had utilized every means in order to learn two more auxiliary-based techniques! One was a Terra-Intermediate technique called [Concoctia medra] that improved his efficiency to concoct huge quantities of potions several times, while simultaneously purifying the mass-produced goods by a large margin. Despite being mass-produced, it was not difficult to concoct with the Concoctia medra technique, let alone to purify every single potion. This would become even easier if Jason were to utilize Solaris. Meanwhile, the second technique he had learned was another Terra-Advanced technique called [Perfect runes; Volume I] This was a technique he could simply purchase almost everywhere as long as he was wealthy enough. Even the Olympus federation should have this technique! Despite that, Jason had been adamant in learning everything through his Emperor Eyes, simply because it was much easier to learn the techniques like that along with the added advantage that it was much cheaper. Jason was generous in the deals he made, making the Alchemist and runemaster think that he was one of the wealthy prodigies who just wanted to be entertained. Doing nothing but cultivating for several months was boring, and they would receive a request by a curious spectator to allow him or her to observe them during their concoction or rune inscribing process every once in a while. That was because almost everyone learned an auxiliary occupation instead of solely focusing on their combat prowess. The reason behind this mentality was that auxiliary occupations could always become important in dangerous times. Not only the procured knowledge was considered essential, but the ability to forge and repair equipment in dangerous areas held significant importance too. The same applied to concocting several types of potions that were used to heal, replenish energy and other things, or inscribing runes that could protect an entire team during a crisis. It was only inside the broken world that Jason figured out more about the dangers of the world, and that there were more planets ruled by beasts than other intelligent races! At least, that was if he understood everything correctly. Because of the need for resources every race had, they entered areas that were yet to be deprived of their natural resources. These areas were in fact the planets ruled by beasts! Other than that, he heard many things about a planet called Shima, which made him recall the memories Anna had transmitted to him. Unfortunately, Jason was unable to make sense of the information he received about Shima as everyone said different things. According to Anna''s information, it was a planet nobody reigned over as it was simply too vast. Meanwhile, others said that it belonged to certain races, only for a third party to counter that beasts reigned Shima. There were only two points at which all three parties reached a common consensus. Shima had the most precious resources one could wish for. At the same time, it also had the densest and purest cultivation energies one had ever sensed, and in fact, it had all three at once! Other than that, there were said to be beings that were able to mix certain energies, mutating them into new types of energy that had devastating capabilities. These mutated energies were mostly the most terrific for the beings that cultivated in them as their own destruction could occur at any time! It was extremely interesting, but to enter Shima through certain world bridges, it was said that one would have to reach a certain cultivation base that was way above the Ascendion stage! There hadn''t been a specific reason for the three parties he had acquired information from to believe this theory, but time would allow him to understand everything! Jason was still unable to grasp everything yet because he was still learning and even the Ascendion stage was far away from him. Other than the three auxiliary occupations he had learned, Jason had also rented a small room in which he could test the techniques. He forged several perfectly purified ingots, but the first few dozen turned into failures, while the same happened during the concoction and rune inscribing process. Techniques for auxiliary occupations were similar to common techniques and the higher his proficiency, the better the final results. As such, Jason would have to practice hard, and it was only fortunate that he could make use of Solaris'' highly strengthened purification ability, in combination with his high comprehension and the stigma that enhanced the entire process further. Other than those advantages, Jason''s most powerful asset, his Emperor Eyes allowed him to find even the tiniest traces of impurities. This was mainly because his Emperor Eyes had been strengthened after the primal bloodline awakening in addition to the divine aura he had absorbed. Thus, there were not many problems Jason had to face while forging, and concocting the inscription serum of runes. The one thing he lacked was mastery. After he had tested the three techniques and gained an acceptable level of proficiency, Jason had exchanged the goods he''d made using the pryr stones. It was only after he had finished everything that he returned to the Olympus federation''s part of the broken world in order to cultivate freely. Jason assumed that the other God''s Children had also entered the broken world, and he hoped that they would make use of the next two months and improve their strength and enable their soulbonds to reach their racial limit before all of them would leave once again. Focussing solely on cultivation was bad, and it was important to adapt according to the need of the hour. Thus, sparring, practicing weaponry and the old technique, or even learning new martial art techniques was the best to do every few months. Before the liberation tournament would start they would have to dedicate enough time to hone their skills in all the above as well. They couldn''t simply ignore adjusting their improved cultivation base and be considered as weaklings by their opponents who could take them lightly. Jason was not sure how much the others'' combat prowess had improved, but even he couldn''t be sure ofto simply fighting every participant of the liberation tournament without enough preparations. After having focused on cultivating for two months while being inside the broken world, Artemis and Petri''s strength was bound to increase by leaps and bounds! That was mostly because of the extraordinary density of mana the broken world had. He had to adapt himself to changes too, and couldn''t simply take everything for granted. In the end, Jason had to focus on himself which was the reason for him to search for a reclusive place where he could cultivate in peace. Summoning Petri and Artemis followed by Solaris who didn''t want to be left alone, Jason accessed his spatial rings before he emptied a huge pile of mana and pryr stones on the floor. "It''s finally time to show everyone how much potential we have, am I right?" In response, Artemis screamed out and Petri issued a roar, while Solaris flickered violently. Sitting down, he closed his eyes calmly and focused on absorbing the surrounding mana. His soulbonds were doing the same and soon enough everyone''s stigma began to glow faintly, continuing to brighten up by the second. Their stigmas enhanced each other seemingly like an overlapping loop and merged with the Celestia aura Jason released subconsciously. His aura was slowly growing while his mana absorption rate skyrocketed, reaching a state similar to a few months ago when they had absorbed the divine aura that had been overflowing with mana! Somehow, Jason felt as if everything was slowly starting to become better and that he would fulfill his masters'' wish soon! ** While Jason had been able to change mankind''s future, rewriting history, he could have never expected what kind of responsibility he would have to shoulder in the future! The human race had been protected from being enslaved, but were the Drake family, the Ifrytor, Burane and My?ldra race the biggest problem Jason had to face in the near future, or were they just the preliminary steps to something grand, something more terrifying? Unbeknownst to Jason, his short revelation as half Infernal Celestia during the Great Argos war, and his father''s intervention had caused more chaos than he could have ever imagined! ** __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 552 - Connected Worlds Two months passed and before Jason realized it, the entire mountain of mana and pryr stones had been drained off. Not even a single stone with primordial energy or mana was left and they had been wrung dry of every last particle. Because of that Jason could already hear Artemis'' complaints about not having something to eat for the next few days. This caused him to sigh deeply and Jason knew that he had to earn some money before he could do anything else. He had just finished cultivating, and had to adjust himself to the vast number of mana drops he had liquefied in addition to his soulbonds'' shared strength that had increased substantially! Petri had started to cultivate with primordial energy, re-refining his entire body that had only been refined by mana before. Thus, he didn''t exactly enhance Jason''s strength and only enhanced the foundation he already had before. Even then, Jason received a high increase in his physical strength which was everything that mattered. Meanwhile, Artemis was only slowly becoming stronger, and Jason felt that something weird was going on within her body. She was seemingly storing mana inside her body and intertwining the vast majority with her blood. It was almost as if Artemis was trying out something. Only when she had transmitted the thought that she felt something peculiar about her blood, something that wanted to change, that Jason just nodded his head, accepting everything she said. Artemis was a mutated snowflake owl, and everything about her, right from her existence to the way she had evolved up to now in addition to the fact that she didn''t want to stop but continue to evolve was a mystery in itself. There were certain things neither of them understood about her mutation, and Artemis had to figure them out on her own. Jason could only tell that Artemis would undergo a metamorphosis soon as her plumage was slowly turning silver. Maybe she would even evolve into something unheard of, but that was not something Jason could figure out right now. Even though her cultivation base didn''t skyrocket, the mana-infused blood increased Artemis'' strength drastically. As such, even beasts a rank or two above hers might be defeated by Artemis. Her affinity was also changing and Jason couldn''t help but be proud of his two soulbonds. At the same time, he had just entered the second rank of the Lique stage with more than 1000 drops of liquefied mana! Despite having liquefied more than a hundred drops of mana in mere two months, Jason was still not satisfied. He knew that his body could have liquefied more, and that mana was the only thing he lacked. Unfortunately, it was not healthy for the body to solely rely on absorbing mana from the stones. Otherwise, he would have just become a frantic blacksmith, forging hundreds or more mana weapons at the Lique stage before exchanging them with mana stones to cultivate. Thinking about exchanging goods with mana weapons made him want to return to the broken world''s center. He wished to enter a forging room to quickly purify a few ores to barter them with mana stones. This would also help him quiet down Artemis. At the same time, he thought about Petri, and recalled that his youngest soulbond had already absorbed the mountain of pryr stones at the lique stage! Thus, he ignored his previous plan and used the next two days to solely earn money. Forging allowed Jason to adjust his body, the strength he used for every single stroke, and the amount of mana he circulated through his mana veins perfectly. At the same time, he could control Solaris exceptionally well which was helpful to gauge how much his strength had truly increased. After two entire days had passed, Jason had exchanged the perfectly purified Lique rank ingots he had quickly forged with two huge piles of peak Lique rank mana and pryr stones. Once that was done, he had to quickly leave the broken world and return to Janur, where he was supposed to gather with the God''s Children and the other human powerhouses! It was merely two days before New Year''s eve that Jason had arrived in Janur. He had tested his fortified soul conjunction with all three of his soulbonds during his journey back to Janur. At the same time, it had been an interesting experience to exert the Floating sky movement technique with different movements. The technique could be used with wings and without, which allowed Jason to test out versatile movements he had never used before. Jason had also been playing around with his black flame and the ice affinity while trying to use both in one hand that resulted in him maintaining different temperatures in addition to his other abilities at the exact same moment. This was something he wanted to test out due to different reasons, and he could only look at the others in an apologetic manner when they reunited. Right now, they weren''t wearing the masks anymore because they had officially registered at the liberation tournament. Other than that, the God''s Children, Merl, and the other human powerhouses had been designated as the human race''s embassy that had been welcomed by Janur''s city lord. Jason was glad that he hadn''t been present at that time. His only desire was to be left alone so that he could think about certain things while practicing his weaponry before the liberation tournament began, and nothing else. His mind was at a completely different place, oblivious to the liberation tournament that had been the topmost priority to Jason before. However, after he had left the broken world, this had changed, because there was something else that had distracted him, something that may be interesting under normal circumstances if it were not extremely dangerous! When he had emerged from the broken world, he had encountered the talkative guard once again. Yet, instead of ignoring him, Jason felt like he should listen to the green-winged man. What he heard was astonishing, and led Jason to change his trajectory. He had left the continent with the strongest pace he could achieve, only to land on a small island in the middle of the ocean, without anything, but a single, gigantic, newly emerged world bridge! The world bridge was what the green feathered guard had told him about. Normally, a new permanent world bridge wouldn''t be worth mentioning to anyone, but the one Jason was looking at was definitely worth being mentioned. While others found only one fact about it interesting and at the same time somewhat frightening, his Emperor Eyes detected multiple interesting yet also confusing factors. What everyone could perceive were the world bridge''s fluctuations and their stability, meaning that it was a permanent world bridge. However, the more important factor was that the permanent world bridge had lower restrictions than any other world bridge Jason had ever seen before. ''The 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage??'' It was a permanent world bridge that allowed beings at the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage to enter and leave Argos unhindered! This was shocking, and would have caused a mass panic in the Olympus federation, let alone on Canir and the Archipelago. However, the more astonishing thing was that there had yet to emerge a single being from the other side! This could indicate that the area at which the counterpart of the world bridge in front of Jason had emerged, was located somewhere in a desolate area that had no living being for miles on end. Because of that, nobody seemed to be alarmed until now, and it was impossible for anyone on Argos to properly destroy the naturally generated world bridge either way. Their strength had to reach at least that of the restriction, if possible above in order to accomplish such a feat after all! Despite the thoughts others had, Jason was unable to forget what his Emperor Eyes had seen. Even several days later when he had reunited with the others, he couldn''t help but think about the world bridge that had not only naturally generated on Argos and the other planet, but also that the world bridge would lead him to the world Argos had previously rejected by all means! It was the world that had forced several world bridges that brought forth hordes of beasts to Argos. The exact same world Jason had already seen several temporary world bridges earlier before the bridges had disintegrated and vanished into thin air. Jason had assumed that he had solved all problems by annexing and devouring his father''s divine aura, but had this really changed anything? In the end, Jason and his father''s existence on Argos had caused a tremendous chain reaction that could have likely ushered a prosperous era for the entire planet or its doom! However, what Jason didn''t know was that this time it was not his fault for something to happen, because it was the other, unknown planet that had to face fateful changes. "Is Argos and that other planet connected?...But why and HOW?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 553 - Fusion The only reason for Jason to stay calm was that there had yet to emerge a terrifying beast at the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage from the other side. If that were to occur, he couldn''t even be sure what would happen to the entire planet. There were three overlords with the exact same cultivation base on Argos, but who could say whether the emerging beast had manifested only one rotating crystal or more? In the end, there would only be a total of three rotating crystals at the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage, and every single one of them indicated a tremendous difference in one''s combat prowess. A single beast could be enough to defeat all three Overlords as easily as they had ended the entire Great Argos war, without any effort! This would certainly be devastating, but as long as nothing emerged from the said world bridge, Jason decided to not mind it. Even if he thought about it, what was there for him to do? He was too weak to defeat beings at the Prismar stage''s second threshold, let alone destroy the naturally generated world bridge. Jason was not even sure if that would be useful, or destroy even more! Thankfully, the incidents about the temporary world bridges that had appeared out of nowhere, only to spit out thousands of beasts before the world bridge disappeared once again, didn''t occur again. As such, Jason decided that this problem was solved. Now, the next priority would be to win the liberation tournament before giving his best to foster a connection between mankind and the Olympus federation slowly. It was not necessary for them to merge, let alone love each other out of a sudden, but a simple peace treaty and a basic understanding of and respect towards each other was all that he hoped for. That was everything Jason wanted. After that, he would rescue the Flers before hopefully leaving Argos behind. There might be people he would miss, but he had decided that Argos was not the place for him to stay. In the end, the universe was vast and there were too many things he had yet to figure out. One of them was to meet his father at least once and search for his maternal grandparents. Jason couldn''t be certain that they were still alive, but somehow, he felt like they were still alive, and doing well. Until now his gut feeling had hardly been wrong, thus he believed in it this time as well. As such, he had to figure out where they had disappeared too! Because of that, he had a total of three priorities. Those priorities were; to win the liberation tournament to procure the lesser origin flame, to save the Flers by overwriting their soul contract after figuring out how to do so, and last but not least to investigate what had truly happened to his mother and grandparents. It was a priority list correlated to the time they should be completed. The last point was something the Heaven''s Eyes sect patriarch could achieve because Jason knew that Nathan had lied to him before! In the end, as long as nothing happened to the newly emerged permanent rift, Jason''s priority list would remain the same. With only two days left before New Year''s eve, Jason didn''t even think about slacking off. Instead, he wanted to fight against the other God''s Children who had increased their total strength by around 200 drops of liquefied mana. This was mostly because they had been able to cultivate unhindered while their soulbonds continued to advance. By allowing the strongest soulbond to enter their mana core, the advancement would be even greater. As such, there was no need for them to be worried about their cultivation base. Rather, they had to further improve their combat experience, martial art proficiency, and so on. This was something they had already started since their return to Janur, which was more than a week before Jason had finally returned. Thus, only when Jason had been back did they finally start to fight him seriously. While trying to improve, he wanted to pressurize himself. Because of that, he had asked two God''s Children to attack him at once while also telling them to utilize their fortified soul conjunction. Due to this, Jason had been unable to overwhelm them, even if he gave his best in terms of brute force. Instead, he allowed Artemis to enter his mana core while trying out several new combat styles he had thought about. While residing inside his mana core, Artemis could control his flow of mana to a certain extent. At the same time, she could insert her own mana inside Jason''s mana flow without hurting his veins! This was something that hadn''t worked before and would have proved detrimental to his body under normal circumstances. They hadn''t realized any of that while fighting against the two God''s Children and Jason could only feel that his body was becoming lighter by the second, while his blood felt more vigorous than ever. Because of that he and Artemis could utilize the ice affinity within them at the same time, conjuring several hundred ice spears at once. Controlling the ice affinity had become second nature to Jason as if he had been born with it. While fighting against the two Gold''s Children who pressured him, making it impossible for Jason to retaliate and counterattack, he couldn''t help but smile brightly. The longer the fight took, the less pressure Jason felt, and the upper hand they had was slowly changing in his favor. His fight caused a huge commotion in the small arena they had been assigned by the City lord to train or rest until the liberation tournament would start. Not only the human powerhouses averted their attention from the other fighting God''s Children to him, but even the other battles suddenly came to a halt as a huge, unknown pressure radiated from Jason. It was similar to his Celestia aura, but also something that did not belong to the Celestia bloodline. It was similarly oppressive but wilder and more dangerous! "What the hell is that? Is that really Jason?!" Ben suddenly exclaimed, and the others could only nod, without knowing what was going on. Jason hadn''t even noticed that he was being looked at weirdly. He and Artemis had only been excited to fight, to use their soulbond connection that was extremely firm and glimmering brightly. Unbeknownst to him, a second stigma had manifested above the reversed wing stigma and glowed faintly. It did not belong to Jason, and was only a manifestation that would soon disappear! However, even more shocking was that Jason''s hair was slowly turning white-silver while two black bulges protruded out of his head. Artemis'' wings had already manifested on his back and it looked like Jason and Artemis were slowly fusing together! Time passed slowly, and Jason''s appearance didn''t change any further than Artemis'' black horns protruding out of his forehead. The two God''s Children he had fought were overwhelmed by Jason''s strength that had increased with the seconds, and it was only when they slumped to the ground, overwhelmed by Jason that the fight had ended. Only a moment later, Jason''s oppressive aura was slowly receding, and exhaustion began to overwhelm him as he returned Byakur inside the soul world. It was only then that Jason noticed the other gazes that were trained on him. "What''s wrong?" This question broke the ice and Merl Arths could only take a deep breath to calm his mind, thinking that Jason was a halfling and that he would be nothing but abnormal; an anomaly. "Look at the hair on your arms and then touch your forehead¡­" Confused by what Merl meant Jason simply followed the instructions, only to widen his eyes in astonishment. "My hair is white-silverish?" Only then did he touch his forehead. Feeling restless, he took out one of the perfectly purified ingots he had still inside his spatial ring. They were polished enough to see his reflection, which caused Jason to exclaim. "What the hell happened to me?!" Not sure what exactly his current state was, he had to ask Artemis. However, at that moment, he noticed that Artemis'' eyes were closed and that a single thread connected Artemis and the mana core she had occupied. ??? Jason was not worried because he felt that Artemis was still fine, but it made him uncomfortable to see her in a state he knew nothing about. As such, he disregarded everything as he severed his connection between his mana core and her. This could have damaged his mana core, had his gut feeling not told him that it was nothing worrisome. The moment he had severed the thin thread, Artemis'' wings, horns, and stigma dispersed while his hair returned to its previous black color. In the end, even after several minutes had passed, and Artemis had awoken, Jason couldn''t figure out a proper reason for what had happened to occur, while Artemis had only said that she had felt a deeper connection to him. Even if that was better than knowing nothing, it was weird, and the others next to him were as oblivious as Jason. It was only when Betty made an assumption that was meant to be a joke that Jason couldn''t help but look at her in shock. "Maybe you''re fusing with your beast? Hahaha." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 554 - So Its Like This "If the fortified soul conjunction allows you to manifest your soulbonds'' body parts, why shouldn''t a fusion be possible!?" Jason was just blurting out things, while Betty looked at him in confusion. "I...was just joking¡­" However, Jason couldn''t even hear her anymore as his mind had already secluded itself, trying to make sense of what had just happened. The sensation of the fusion had been unique and his entire aura had changed due to Artemis'' influence. Exactly the same could be said about his demeanor and combat style during the fight against the two God''s Children. ''Why did I suddenly merge with Artemis? Did something change about our connection, or did an external factor allow this?'' Jason was not sure what exactly it was, but his strength had increased tremendously after merging with Artemis.. The fusion was definitely something special, and worth researching. He would have done it if he just had enough time. Figuring it out right off the bat was not possible, and the only thing Jason knew was that both he and Artemis had wanted to become stronger, to defeat their opponents that had somehow culminated into the temporary fusion. Because there was still some time left before the liberation tournament would start, he thought that it was best to continue practicing fighting techniques. Artemis occupied his mana core, thereby increasing his strength and the sparrings began once again after everyone had calmed down. Jason knew that the others wanted to hear an explanation from him, but he was unable to give them one. As such, he told them the truth before a misunderstanding would occur. Taking one last glance inside his soul world, he compared the three fortified soul conjunctions with each other. His attention returned back to the two God''s Children who had decided to use all their strength instead of holding back. Initially, they didn''t want to harm Jason because they were already fighting two against one, but that was not something they could pay attention to anymore. Otherwise, they would only embarrass themselves by showing how weak they were! Seeing the determination in the two God''s Children, Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly. It had been a long time since he had felt so free, without any burdens weighing him down. The first spar had already allowed him to release his tension, however, it was only now that he decided to not bother about the new ability he and Artemis seemed to have obtained. Rather, Jason wanted to focus on the fight in front of him. Artemis'' felt the same and with the exact same mindset, they were about to join the fight when without a prior warning, something inside the soul world changed. Both Jason and Artemis didn''t realize it, but Petri and Solaris felt that Artemis'' soul connection that was by far the strongest, began to gleam lightly. It was becoming firmer and slowly changed its color into that of Artemis'' plumage, mixed with the stigma''s colors. Petri and Solaris immediately notified Jason about the same, momentarily distracting him from what was happening in front of him. The God''s Children appeared in front of him a moment later, while Artemis'' soul connection was reverting back to its normal state. This information was also immediately relayed to Jason, who could only lament about his soulbonds'' impatience while trying to shift his focus back on facing two fully empowered attacks of his friends. Gritting his teeth, Jason realised that they weren''t holding back anymore. Under normal circumstances, Jason would have been happy about this, but unfortunately, his distraction had caused him to miss the perfect timing, let alone unintentionally merge with Artemis once again! Thus, he had to unleash his entire Celestia aura, his stigma, while exerting the Floating Sky movement technique to the highest proficiency he was currently able to execute. At the same time, he slashed out with Byakur which he was holding with one hand while lifting his other hand that held a highly compressed, explosive black fireball. His moves were lightning fast due to the Floating Sky movement technique that was further enhanced by the sheer mass of mana that circulated through his body, followed by the Celestia aura and stigma that were slowly merging with each other. Nevertheless, the force he could release with one arm was not enough to fend off the God''s Child called Tom! Tom''s cultivation base was at the 5th Lique stage but was physically enhanced to the 8th Lique stage. Additionally, the fortified soul conjunction boosted his strength that was comparable to an average Cultivator at the peak of the 9th Lique stage! With Artemis occupying his mana core, Jason''s physical strength had reached the mid of the 8th Lique stage, but even such a devastating strength was unable to overcome Tom''s dominating physique. Byakur collided with Tom''s Warhammer but was pushed back without any resistance, only for Jason to resort to Petri''s curses that he hadn''t planned on using before. By utilizing the race specific weakening curse that was immediately followed by the petrification curse, Jason regained the upper hand. He had been too focussed on Tom and only now was he forced to avert his attention to Xenia, his second opponent from the God''s Children. She focused on using her elemental affinities and a spear with a cultivation base that was also at the 5th Lique stage. Her physical enhancement was weaker, but she was also at par with a normal Cultivator at the 8th Lique stage. Contrary to Tom, her mana core was further amplified by her soulbonds, which allowed her to unleash a devastating amount of mana at once. Unfortunately, she had to fight Jason, who had just thrown the small, highly compressed ball of fire towards her. Knowing that she had to evade it, her attack was forcefully halted. Despite that, Xenia could continue to advance once the ball of fire brushed past her. Jason saw this and a smile emerged on his face as the faint image of a black flame could be seen inside his bright golden-silverish eyes. The highly compressed black ball of fire exploded, unleashing its might of a flame comparable to the peak of the 10th Lique stage. Because of the explosion that occurred right behind her, she was pushed forward, missing Jason with her spear by a hair''s breadth, and fell on the ground. At that moment, Artemis circulated her mana towards Jason, only to utilize it in order to envelop Xenia in a tight ice-cage. This gave Jason more than enough time to turn his head towards Tom, who had lifted one of his hands from his weapon in an attempt to punch Jason. Unfortunately, he was a quarter of a second too slow because Jason was already moving. Suddenly, he and Artemis sensed the same feeling as before overwhelming them as the desire to defeat both Xenia and Tom ignited within them. As their wavelengths matched and they were consumed by a single goal, they slowly merged as a faint thread loosened itself from Jason''s mana core. Artemis accepted it willingly, and Jason received an image from both Solaris and Petri similar to what he had received before. His soul connection with Artemis was transforming once again, but this time, he had expected it! Jason was not astonished or distracted by it. Instead, his mind digested everything at once as a radiant smile appeared on his lips. "So, that''s how it works?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 555 - New Year Banquet While his hair turned white-silverish, black horns protruded out of his forehead and Artemis'' wings sprouted out of his back. They unfolded at once, revealing a magnificent wingspan of more than 15 meters. Only a moment later, Artemis'' stigma manifested above Jason''s, as his entire demeanor changed once again. The increasing pressure and Jason''s laser focus coupled with his bright smile had been a sign, telling Tom that something was going on, but the poor youth couldn''t understand it. Meanwhile, Xenia was only overwhelmed by the sheer pressure Jason''s aura released after she broke out of the ice cage. The Celestia aura that had merged with the stigma''s bright glow was transformed by Artemis'' influence, allowing Jason to feel a sudden surge of adrenaline that swept through his body. His entire being had turned more ferocious, but the merging process seemed to be cleaner than it had been before. It didn''t take Jason and Artemis long to merge together, and the main reason was that both weren''t rejecting each other. Jason''s physical strength didn''t increase directly, but the mana intertwined blood that Artemis seemed to combine with him, reinforced every single move he did with mana. This strengthened him and allowed Jason to overwhelm Tom who had barely overcome the petrification that had forced him to halt in his tracks for a quarter of a second. Only the race specific weakening curse lingered on him, weakening and preventing him from beating Jason in a physical fight. At that moment Tom''s eyes turned red as he activated one of his soulbonds'' inherited abilities, enlarging his body. Yet, before anything could happen, Jason''s surroundings turned ice cold as he pushed away Tom''s free arm to grasp his neck. Coldness spread through Tom and everything seemed to slow down. Kicking out, Jason hit Tom''s hand that was holding the war axe, which allowed Jason to use his now free arm to slash at him with Byakur. With that, he defeated Tom before he could even make use of his trump card as Jason had already ducked and leaned back. Several dozen thunderbolts shot past him, only to hit Tom, who was flung away. At that moment, Jason used Artemis'' wings to push himself up from the ground his back had almost touched a moment ago. Xenia was still able to fight, but once she made eye contact with Jason who had smoothly evaded her surprise attack and jumped back on his feet in the blink of an eye, her will to fight was crushed. Jason''s eyes looked extremely scary right now, and the aura emanating from him was not the seemingly kind and simple Celestia aura but something wild, telling Xenia that he wouldn''t hold back anymore. Even Merl and the other powerhouses couldn''t help but grow alarmed and were ready to intervene any moment. However, contrary to everyone''s expectations, no such thing happened. Jason, who had realized that Xenia had given up, simply retracted his aura, while Artemis remained merged with him. This was unexpected but both he and Artemis were currently feeling and acting as one being, meaning that both had no intention to continue fighting! When the fight ended with his victory, Jason couldn''t help but inspect his body more intently. There were no feathers growing out of him, and only his hair had turned white silverish. Other than that, the aura he had unleashed and Artemis'' stigma seemed to be the only things that were different from a normal fortified soul conjunction. At least, that was what one could perceive from the outside. Jason felt everything to be different and better on the inside and it was as if he could exert even more strength. At that moment, he released Solaris'' black flame affinity because he felt as if his connection with the flame wanted to tell him something. Weirdly enough, it was exactly as he had expected! As he looked at the black flame that had golden strands within, faint blue cobweb-like strands spread through the flame. The heat it gave off was not searing hot that would increase the training hall''s temperature, on the contrary, it was ice cold! "That''s interesting!" Jason just mumbled looking at the ice-cold flame that had been transmuted because he had merged with Artemis! The others were just looking at Jason as if he was insane to accept the sudden change so easily while testing out all kinds of things without bothering to wait before the fight had truly ended. He had just retracted his aura the moment Xenia had revealed that her will to fight had dispersed. Jason had sensed this immediately, which was something the others didn''t know, and it was only when she stored her spear inside her spatial ring that everyone noticed that the fight had ended. After having been able to merge with Artemis two times, many things were clearer than before. As such, the last two days before the liberation tournament passed in the blink of an eye. Everyone had given their best to reach the highest possible combat prowess during the last two days and set aside New Year''s eve to recuperate. The tournament would start in the afternoon, and there was more than enough time to let the shallow injuries the God''s Children and Jason had sustained heal. They were excited about the liberation tournament and they had somehow forgotten the real reason for them to come to the Olympus federation. Jason noticed this too, and he couldn''t help but feel that this was not a bad way to enter the liberation tournament. If they gave their best without thinking about the responsibility they had been entrusted with, it would be much better than always worrying about embarrassing themselves and the entire human race. Earlier, Jason hadn''t expected that the God''s Children would be able to increase their combat experience and proficiency with their martial art techniques in such a short time, but they were extremely talented and had proved him wrong. This caused him to wonder, what the human race''s fate would be if they could leave Argos and enter other planets with more mana. Were they only an ordinary race, or was the human race comparable to higher-ranked races? Even if someone''s potential was bad in both soul-awakening and control over mana, they could bind strong monsters to their soul world as long as their vessel was strong enough and they had accumulated enough soul energy units despite taking longer than usual. Because of that Jason found that the human race''s overall potential was at least at par with higher races and that their biggest restriction was none other than Argos. With that thought in mind, Jason was sure that the human race had an interesting future in front of them, as long as they weren''t destroyed by others who feared their talent. Now that New Year''s eve was upon them, the human race''s embassy couldn''t spend it alone. They had to follow their responsibilities too. In order to establish ties with the Olympus federation, they had to meet the senior authorities and get to know each other. In the end, members of the human race embassy had different opinions on how exactly these ties should look like. Some only wanted to be on friendly terms with the Olympus federations, while others wanted to merge with them. Meanwhile, the majority just wanted to have a peace treaty with trading agreements which was something Jason supported. As such with a goal in front of them, they had to attend the Olympus federations'' annual new year''s banquet. How could Jason have known that he would be degraded to become nothing but a mere translator, the moment they would arrive in front of a large mansion?! Chapter 556 - Liberation Tournament The mansion was filled with higher-ups of the Olympus federation and their children who were extremely talented according to their own beliefs. However, Jason couldn''t even focus on anyone with his Emperor Eyes because the human powerhouses, including Merl Arths had turned him into an unofficial interpreter and were asking him to translate everything to help them converse with the foreign races. ''That''s why I told you guys to learn the universal language!!'' He shouted inwardly, only to glare at Merl, who was laughing after Jason had translated what the dragonewt in front of them had said. Taking a deep breath, Jason realised that he had to give his best to help mankind to strengthen ties with the Olympus federation, and the best way to do so was to help them communicate with each other well. It was annoying to translate but he could de-escalate situations by conveying the proper message instead of allowing Merl or the others to use their broken universal language skills to say something they didn''t mean. Jason had not even realized that a few hours had passed in which he had acted as an interpreter and helped the human embassy members interact with all kinds of higher-ups of the Olympus federations by negating the language barrier. This was looked at weirdly by the foreign races that clearly understood the meaning of Jason''s faintly glowing stigma and the aura radiating from him. He had also heard many groups gossiping about him because seeing him mediate conversations between two different races had made them curious about him.. Unfortunately, it was difficult to approach him at the moment because he was acting as the human race''s interpreter. It was important to make a good first impression on the other races and he couldn''t neglect the responsibility. Only somewhat later did a middle-aged dragonewt arrive who was surprisingly able to converse in the human language quite well. The man was able to speak in several dozen languages because learning them was his interest and the hobby that allowed him to relax the most. To Jason''s surprise, the old man offered to take over Jason''s role which the human embassy accepted. Despite that, Jason remained with his group in order to see whether the dragonewt was doing his job well or not. Fortunately, that was the case, and seeing him free of his temporary interpreter duties emboldened others to try to approach him, trying to figure out who he was and why he was with the human race. Even though his appearance was that of a human, the stigma and aura said otherwise. As such, some races assumed that Jason belonged to some sort of a grand, or superior race that was able to transform into different lifeforms. Less than an hour after the dragonewt had replaced him as an interpreter, Jason had been surrounded by a few higher-ups of the Olympus race who tried to approach him with ulterior motives. It was uncomfortable, and Jason tried to find a way out without coming across as rude. His eyes lit up when he spotted a group of young men and women from different types of races. He separated from his old group and approached the Ilian he had gotten to know during his last battle in the colosseum; Jarid. Through his Emperor Eyes, Jason knew that Jarid had gotten the hang of efficiently utilizing his thunder constitution with one seal unlocked. This was great and allowed him to exert much more strength, while Jason could only hope that their next fight would become much more exciting than their last. While walking towards Jarid, Jason passed by the Olympian group from the colosseum, but they didn''t seem to remember him. Jason had been surprised a little, only to remember that nobody should have been able to imprint his mana fluctuations into their mind, let alone see his face as he had worn a mask inside the colosseum the entire time. Thus, he released some mana into his eyes while lifting his hand to envelop it in black flames for a second. Jarid, who had fought against Jason for the longest duration amongst all other opponents, had already assumed the young man in front of them to be the silver-dragon masked man. It was simply too obvious. He knew that the man behind the silver dragon mask had been a human due to several factors, while Jason''s golden-silverish eyes, aura, and stigma had been extremely familiar to Jarid. As such, the black flames had only been the last hint that had caused Jarid to be certain about his assumption. Because of that, he couldn''t help but smile lightly. They didn''t know each other very well, but both felt as if they were acquaintances, almost like friends, owing to the fight they had in the colosseum. Understanding each other''s mindset and the fact that neither liked holding back was enough to make two prodigies respect each other. This was something only true competitors could understand in the face of rivals that were worthy of each other''s attention. Thus, they shared a bond of understanding between them. When Jason reached the group, he introduced himself once again before they started to talk with each other. Knowing that Jarid could have easily deciphered who he was, exposing his identity as the silver-dragon masked man was nothing he should be cautious about. Even if everyone were to know his identity, it wouldn''t make a difference because he had grown a lot as almost three months had passed since his winning streak of 50 at the colosseum. Other than the Olympians, there were more prodigies who were as talented as Jarid, but none of them caught Jason''s interest. Since not only his individual strength but that of his soulbonds had increased as well, Jason knew that his physical strength was exceptional as long as Petri occupied his mana core. His youngest soulbond might have only been at the 5th Lique stage, but he had cultivated in the path of primordial energy. Because of that, one couldn''t underestimate the 100% amplification of a beast at the 5th Lique stage as it increased his physical strength drastically, adding to Jason''s already powerful physique. In the end, even those at the 9th Lique stage would be wary of his physical appearance! The New Year''s Eve banquet was wrapped up not long after Jason had encountered Jarid, and they had mostly spoken about the liberation tournament that was about to start in a few hours. Through that, Jason got to know the most commonly used structure of the tournament with a few tips that only a few knew about. Furthermore, Jarid and the other Olympians who thought highly of Jason''s combat prowess had praised many talented prodigies who had barely made the cut that allowed them to participate in the liberation tournament. They were almost too old but had managed to tick all the boxes while being as talented as Jarid. As such, it was obvious how strong they were, and only Jarid''s unique constitution made the young Olympian even more talented than the others, whom barely a few had known until three months ago. Apparently, the strongest participants had the combat prowess that barely reached the Prismar stage, and even that was already said to be exaggerated. However, instead of thinking that the rumors were exaggerated, Jason took them at face value. It was not unlikely for a few individuals to have reached a high cultivation base as long as they had been provided with enough resources along with the broken world as an environment to cultivate in. However, their cultivation base was probably not everything because one required exceptional combat prowess that was based on great martial art techniques with high proficiency, high combat experience, and the possibility of possessing unique traits in addition to inborn talent to fight while being pressured! Jason, for example, could advance while being under tremendous pressure. It helped his brain to process information and arrive at decisions at a rapid pace, breaking through tricky situations while certain abilities might even improve under the pressure that would normally weigh him down. Thus, Jason looked forward to fight against opponents who were said to be as strong as an average individual at the Prismar stage, and the few hours before the liberation tournament started passed quickly! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 557 - Brute Force It was afternoon when Jason entered the colosseum in which the liberation tournament would be held. The interior had been transformed a little bit and was now equipped with a raised podium which allowed more spectators to watch the tournament. Meanwhile, the combat rings inside the colosseum had been reorganized with a specific mechanism. Because of that, there was more than enough space for several thousand participants to stay inside the colosseum''s arena section at once. Unfortunately, the wide-area still fell short to fit in every participant. In the end, there had been tens of million applications of confident citizens of the Olympus federation, but only 100,000 had been accepted to participate. There were certain requirements one had to fulfill to participate in the tournament that were tweaked after every single battle. With the consistent increase of mana Argos generated naturally, the newer generations were bound to become stronger than the older ones.. That was if one disregarded one''s attitude towards cultivation and the provided talent. As such, only the individuals who were evidently talented in one or multiple aspects, owners of special traits, or known for their role model-like attitude towards certain situations had been accepted. Despite that 100,000 participants were still too much, which didn''t even include the descendants of higher-ups, or the human embassy. Owing to the large number of participants, the first two tournament rounds were known as the decimator rounds, in which the true talents were separated from those who were unable to hold a candle to the others. The exams changed for every liberation tournament, but most true talents were confident in their overall strength. Thanks to this, they could calmly listen to the newly appointed Olympus federation''s representative, who was in fact also the manager of the colosseum. The dragonewt Jason had already seen an image of, floating in the air, right in the center of the colosseum. He hovered at a height where he could be visible to everyone and amplified his voice before he began his short introductory speech. "Hello dear participants, citizens of the Olympus federation, and our esteemed guests from the human race, it''s that time again, the liberation tournament has finally returned, and we can celebrate ten years of having survived the great calamity. We survived dark times, overcame the obstacles that had been thrown into our ways, and found shelter on this infant-phase planet. Some may be dissatisfied, and we are fully aware of this, but staying alive is the most important factor in order to achieve the following goals, am I right? As a matter of fact, we have invited new friends to participate in the liberation tournament with us to prevent a repetition of past incidents. The human race has been attacked by other ordinary and even higher races, but we have also suffered due to them. They had been arrogant and disregarded us, but we couldn''t do much against them, in fear that they might return with stronger forces once the world bridges were to become stabler. As such, we will have to build one strong force on Argos and come up with a solution. In order to achieve this, befriending the human race is the easiest solution. By now, everyone should have heard about the rumors that they have gained the ability to bind beasts and use their strength, and even inherit their affinities! Either way, back to the main topic¡­.without further ado, I would like to introduce the first round of the liberation tournament.." After saying this, the dragonewt paused to take a deep breath. He then took out a large machine that looked similar to a punching arcade machine in addition to an orb Jason and the other God''s Children were already familiar with. Understanding the rules was not difficult, thus Jason didn''t intend to listen to the dragonewts next words. Rather, he felt a complex mix of emotions surging up within him as he repeated the dragonewt''s words inside his head and understood the true meaning behind them. "They invited us, not to test how weak we were...but how strong our most powerful soul-awakenings truly are? That''s...unexpected¡­" Jason assumed that the Olympus federation was aware of how strong the human race was on average. As such, it was obvious that mankind''s cultivation base was lower in comparison to the Olympus federation that had many connections to procure cultivation resources in addition to a great place to nurture their most talented youths. Thus, the only plausible answer Jason could come up with his current intel was that the Olympus federation was gauging whether the strongest humans of the youngest generation were valuable enough to consider the whole race as a potential alliance partner. Not sure what to make of it, Jason couldn''t help but think that it was both good and bad at the same time. The God''s Children heard what Jason said, but had been distracted because they had to listen intently to the Olympus federation''s representative who was currently explaining everything about the first round and what one had to pay attention to in the universal language. After that, he demonstrated everything so that even those who were unable to understand him earlier, got what had been said, which was evidently in favor of the God''s Children. While Jason was deep in thoughts more than a hundred punching machines were placed in a row on either side of the arena. Several meters in front of them, a mana mastery orb had been placed with thousands of intertwined threads that were knotted together at countless intervals. However, what astonished Jason was that he could see through the mana mastery orb, which allowed him to see them before anyone else. Through this, he could tell that all mana mastery orbs had been calibrated with the exact same difficulty. This may be interesting under normal circumstances, but Jason hadn''t known that his Emperor Eyes had already advanced so much! ''Since when can I see through mana mastery orbs?'' Scratching the back of his head, he decided to avert his attention to the other participants who had already gone towards the open field, queuing up to show their might, mana mastery which included mana perception, sensitivity, accurate control, and so on. The difficulty could be said to be on a high level as the mana mastery orb was already tricky. However, the punching machine''s requirement to advance was nothing in comparison. At least, Jason didn''t think highly of the requirement they had to meet in order to advance to the next round. As a participant one had only to punch the punching machine with a single hit whose force would equal to two ranks above one''s cultivation base. That being said, one could use all means to increase their combat prowess because there were no restrictions. Because of that, using one''s trump card, certain martial art techniques that accumulated one''s strength, mana, or affinity at one singular point to explosively release it, or other means to increase their strength temporarily was more than enough. In Jason''s opinion, everyone with a decent body refinement manual that has been trained to the peak of one''s cultivation base should be able to have learned how to control their strength. Furthermore, their strength should have increased too, allowing them to exhibit more combat prowess than their cultivation base revealed. Using a common Terra-Intermediate martial art technique would already be more than enough to cross the gap of two ranks! How could Jason have known that the combination of the mana mastery orb and the punching machine was more lethal than any other decimator round of the liberation tournament ever was? For the God''s Children, the punching machine was literally child''s play, but for others, it was more dangerous than one could expect. The pressure weighing on every participant was extreme and a single mistake in either of the first two tasks meant that one wouldn''t be able to advance to the second round, thereby disqualifying one from the possibility of winning a lesser origin flame! As everyone had practiced and toiled for years to build up their foundation and trumps for the liberation tournament, it was essentially different from how the God''s Children saw the tasks. They were only worried about the mana mastery orb, but Jason managed to calm them down. He didn''t tell them anything about the orbs but simply said that they were just like the ones mankind used, only with a higher difficulty calibrated. This was logical, but enough to calm down the five God''s Children who waited for half an hour before it was their turn. The results of those who had been tested before had been rather disappointing to look at. The majority failed the mana mastery orb task, without even meeting the lowest required threshold, and a large part of the minority failed miserably in the second task. Those who had already entered the 9th Lique stage didn''t have to reach the combat prowess at the Prismar stage, and an increase in their punch''s strength equal to 2000 drops of liquefied mana was more than enough. In the end, Jason was mildly interested in others'' physical strength, only to find out that some individuals he had assumed to pass with flying colors were holding back, trying to fulfill the promise they had made to their families. This promise was to hold back and only reveal their hidden trumps and secret techniques once it was necessary. They had been unnecessarily proud and confident about their innate strength. This resulted in a lousy performance and they embarrassed themselves and their family by failing in the first round. Only those who had realized that the first round of the liberation tournament was not to be taken lightly had been really able to pass the test. The others failed miserably despite some of them having the necessary strength to cross the punching machine''s threshold. In the end, it didn''t really matter what the others did as long as he and the God''s Children gave their best without holding back too much. Once the God''s Childrens'' turn was over, it would be his batch''s turn to be tested, and Jason could only hope that everyone would pass the first round. ''Their mana perception should be good enough...at least if I were to consider their affinity control¡­'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 558 - Decimator Rounds Fortunately, the God''s Children lived up to Jason''s expectations as they met the basic requirements of the mana mastery orb''s exam without any issues. This caused him to sigh in relief as he watched them punch the punching machine. They used their raw strength without utilizing a martial art technique, let alone taking a soulbond into their mana core to strengthen themselves further. Despite using no affinity or mana their punch still met the required strength, and the first of the decimator rounds ended without an issue for them. As such, everything went according to plan, and the spectators, who had observed the God''s Children performance with keen eyes clearly understood that the strength they had displayed was nothing but brute force. Thus everyone began to slowly understand why the human race was seemingly more interesting than previously expected. Their real strength had yet to be explored but it was obvious that their soul world was profound! Not long after the God''s Children had advanced to the second round, the others in the same batch had finished their exam too. As such, it was finally Jason''s turn. He was not worried at all and went towards the set of mana mastery orb and punching machine he had been assigned to. Because there was someone he found interesting in his batch, Jason wanted to finish the round quickly. He wished to take a look at a young woman''s mana mastery talent and strength. She belonged to a sub-race of those that were called Demi-humans, named Tigron. She was half human and half tiger which was interesting to look at because Jason had heard many stories about Demi-humans. He had wanted to meet one of them before as they were said to be able to morph between their human and animal appearance. This gave them many advantages, but at the same time, they were frowned upon because of this. The female Tigron, Jason found so interesting was at the 9th Lique stage and had a Light affinity. As such, the moment his exam started, Jason utilized the information he had received from his Emperor Eyes to quickly unknot the intertwined and tangled mana threads inside mana mastery orb. His mana fluctuations pierced into the orb, finishing everything in a matter of half a minute, as a droplet of sweat trickled down his forehead before he approached the punching machine. Without holding back, he used his brute strength to cross the required threshold easily before turning towards the woman. Jason knew that he had wasted too much time with the mana mastery orb, but he couldn''t help himself because he had almost completely untangled the mana threads in the orb before. Unfortunately, this was the reason he couldn''t see the light affinity awakened Tigron anymore. He could only see her punching bag with the number 11,500 written on it, meaning that her punch had the force of someone at the peak of the 10th Lique stage with some extra strength. Even though Jason didn''t know whether the Tigron had used her whole strength, he couldn''t help but smile. ''She will be interesting to fight against!!'' He thought before walking out of the arena towards his friends, unbothered by the result of his exam. Jason was confident enough to pass the first round despite not having refined his body for a long time, thus he simply returned to the God''s Children, who gave him a cheeky smile. "Executing the strength of an average being at the mid of the 7th Lique stage while being at the Low 2nd Lique stage is not holding back, you know?" Betty commented, teasing Jason. Ignoring her remark, he just turned around to see the number of liquefied mana drops his quick punch was worth. "6,451 drops? I guess that''s not so bad." He muttered with a faint smile, knowing that this was not the only trick up his sleeve. He had yet to use an affinity, martial art technique, let alone his fortified soul conjunctions, or the newfound fusion to increase his strength. Other than that, Jason had many more ways to increase his strength, or even to distract and decrease his opponent''s strength! The God''s Children knew this, and couldn''t help but involuntarily rub their arms and abdomen while trying to cover up their painful memories that had resurfaced with a forced smile. Even though they were confident in their own strength, Jason was on a completely different level. He might be from a different race, but that didn''t matter to them as they wanted to be as strong as other races, which included Jason''s mysterious Celestia bloodline! In comparison to everyone else, Jason was the most talented and powerful because despite just being 18, he was already stronger than the majority of the population on Argos. Nevertheless, he helped them to improve and remained humble, if one were to leave out how nonchalantly he did certain things that others required double or more time to do. This was frowned upon by the God''s Children, and they had to let go of their jealousy to prevent themselves from turning too greedy or petty. The spectators looked at Jason''s score with astonishment, finding it hard to believe that he was only at the low 2nd Lique stage. "Maybe he is using an extremely strong body refinement manual? According to the stigma he has and everything else, his origin shouldn''t be the human race, but his mana fluctuations are partially the same as that of the human race¡­" It was the voice of the manager of the colosseum who was speaking with a few higher authorities who were seated next to him, looking towards the colosseum with a glint of interest in their eyes. "I guess that he is the halfling the Shadow walkers had been talking about two years ago...That being said, he is a human to some extent¡­But even if he has a soul world, his physical strength is extremely high, so his body should be refined to a high degree, that''s certain!" There were many rumors about the human race, and one of them had been the existence of a halfling. The Olympus federation had ignored this rumor because it was deemed as impossible. It had mainly originated from the Shadow walkers that had swept through the federation without showing a tinge of respect towards the federation. However, from the looks of it, the rumors might as well be true. "What kind of race could this young man belong to? His aura seems familiar and is profound, but I just can''t think of the race it belongs to!" Unbeknownst to Jason, his Celestia aura had already been altered several times. The first time it had been because he had accepted both his human and Celestia race''s heritage, while the second time had been when he had almost turned into an Infernal Celestia. Fortunately, the anger, wrath, and agony had been cleansed from his mind at that time, altering his aura for the third time. Meanwhile, the fourth time had been after he''d annexed his father''s divine aura, bringing it closer to the Celestia aura once again. It was only because of his altered aura that nobody was able to figure out which race he hailed from, but that was exactly his great advantage. At the same time, the higher-ups'' assumption about his strength was only partially true as only the physical strength equal to 31 mana drops hailed from his body refinement! In comparison to the strength his punch had exerted, this was nothing, and Jason knew that his current body refinement manual was unable to cope with the efficiency his cultivation speed had. This meant that he could increase his strength faster by absorbing mana instead of refining his physique. This rendered the Netherworld''s fort technique useless for Jason! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 559 - Oppressive From the initial 100,000 participants who had been accepted to take part in the liberation tournament because of their strength, unique traits and other advantages that made them more powerful than others, only 10,000 were barely able to pass the exam. Those who were tested after the first few batches realised that the difficulty level of the exam was something they should take seriously. Thus, they concentrated on breaking through the basic requirements of the exam, only to witness that the human race''s embassy members had passed everything without any issues. Jason had even completely solved the mana mastery orb exam task and executed a simple punch worth several times his cultivation base. After digesting this, nobody dared to hold back and utilised every single trump they had. Instead, paying attention to the first round and passing the exam had become the most important task to keep their family''s reputation and glory intact. Once that was done, they would think about what the next round of the liberation tournament would bring. During the last liberation tournament, the number of participants who advanced through both the decimator rounds had been 10,000 but now that number barely made it to the second decimator round.. As such, it was evident how high the difficulty level was. At the same time, Jason could clearly tell that the number of real prodigies was much higher than he had initially expected. Even if the second round would decimate the number of participants by another 90%, the remaining 1,000 participants would be the cream of the crop on the whole planet. This was definitely interesting, and what Jason found even better was that the majority of participants had a high cultivation base or the capabilities to surpass the strength of several ranks. Thus, he looked forward to the next round and those that would follow suit. When the second round started, the arena was cleared of the punching machines and mana mastery orbs. While the spectators were gossiping about who could possibly win the liberation tournament, an enormous rune emerged on the ground of the arena as several dozen pillars shot out of the ground. It happened silently, but the more time passed, the more spectators noticed the change of the arena''s interior. An individual at the Prismar stage with his hand on top of the pillar stood behind each of them. A batch of high-ranked mana stones at the Prismar stage surrounded the higher-ups who released strong currents. Jason knew that the Olympus federation was more versatile with runes and mechanics, but he hadn''t expected to see a gigantic magic circle appearing out of nowhere. His Emperor Eyes hadn''t noticed anything which meant that either it had just been engraved, or that it had been carefully sealed somewhere to prevent releasing even a single trace of mana as it was doing now. To Jason, this felt similar to the time he had encountered the untraceable drakes as they had been able to hide from him despite his eyes'' great ability to perceive mana. This was intriguing and he couldn''t help but insert more mana into his Emperor Eyes before he scanned every small detail of the magic circle. The magic circle was multi-layered with all kinds of large runes that connected with each other in the first layer, only for the smaller runes in the second layer to be put tightly above, slowly intertwining with each other. Like that, an extremely complex magic circle had been constructed, connecting every single rune with each other. ''If even a single rune is wrongly inscribed, nothing works...but they''re also amplifying each other and the mana consumption to activate the multitude of different difficulties shouldn''t be too high'' Jason was still not exactly sure what the next task would be, but he still turned towards his friends and warned them. His voice was not low, and the others around them heard him telling the God''s Children what they were supposed to do. Thus, one young man from the Klarir race couldn''t help but chuckle, which was frowned upon by the other participants. "What? Can''t I even laugh when I see something funny? Even though this human''s aura is unique, his strength is still barely at par with those at the 7th Lique stage! Isn''t it funny that he is giving tips to those who are stronger than him? This bulky human''s punch was at the 10th Lique stage!" When Jason heard this, he couldn''t help but smile, while looking at Tom. "You wanted to brag with your punch, huh? The Klarir behind you is trying to embarrass me because I am giving you tips!" He had to speak with the God''s Children in the human language, thus nobody was able to hear his exact words and only heard him say something. Jason found this language barrier quite interesting because it allowed him to play around a little bit. Ignoring the provocative taunts of the young Klarir who was at the 7th Lique stage, Jason continued explaining a few things he had perceived to the others. In the end, the Klarir had to give up, as not only Jason but also everyone else began to ignore him. His complaint had been useless, and inappropriate because everyone who had seen Jason''s punch at the punching machine knew that he hadn''t used anything but his physical strength! It was only when Jarid appeared behind the young Klarir out of a sudden that the atmosphere tensed up. On behalf of Jason, Jarid commented with an overly cheerful smile. "In your favor, I hope that the liberation tournament will prevent intentional crippling or killing, otherwise, you might either end up bedridden or buried under the ground." Hearing Jarid made the young Klarir frown as he looked at Jarid in confusion. "Olympian Jarid!.. Do you want to say that this clown is stronger than I am??" Jarid had passed by the oblivious Klarir after speaking his mind when his next words made Jarid halt in his steps for a moment. "Stronger?.. It''s already quite ignorant of you to believe that you even have a chance against him. Dream on kiddo!" After that, he walked towards Jason leaving the baffled Klarir alone. Jason noticed this but instead of saying anything, he simply nodded his head at Jarid. The preparations for the second round were soon finished and the participants were ordered to enter the magic circle. Less than half an hour later every single participant was standing inside the magic circle. It was a little bit crowded but nobody said anything as they waited for the Olympus federation''s representative to announce the rules of the second round. However, contrary to everyone''s expectations the rules were quite simple. "For the second round, the only task is to stay inside the magic circle. Attacking each other is forbidden, and only those that can remain on their feet after 30 minutes will advance to the next round! A word of caution from my side; The longer you stay inside the magic circle, the more difficult it will become...good luck!" Exactly when the representative had said "good luck", the higher-ups that stood behind the pillars released their mana, inserting it inside the pillars that began to glow in a faint blue light. Once every pillar had begun to glow, the magic circle was slowly activating, enveloping everyone in a faint hue. Just a moment later Jason mumbled "attention!" as he realized what exactly the magic circle''s purpose was! Tremendous pressure weighed down on everybody, forcing a few participants to their knees, while the vast majority of other participants paled at once! At that moment, a faint smile emerged on Jason''s face as everyone around him was forced to reveal what they had tried to hide; the extent of their willpower and determination to win the liberation tournament! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 560 - Seal Jason stood calmly in the center of the magic circle, looking at the God''s Children who had begun to sweat buckets due to the tremendous pressure weighing down on them. Almost everyone seemed to be having the same issue, and there were already a few who had collapsed barely a few moments after the magic circle had been activated. Meanwhile, Jason was enveloped by his Celestia aura, while his eyes were glowing faintly. He was still feeling some of the pressure, but it didn''t really affect him. Furthermore, Jason knew that he could completely diffuse the pressure if he were to unleash and enhance his stigma by merging it with his Celestia aura. At the same time, it was possible for him to insert more mana into his Emperor Eyes that were likely to diffuse the pressure that weighed on his mind. Apparently, the magic circle was releasing pressure in three different ways. First, it attacked the body, then the mind, and last but not least the mana core and mana veins. Jason''s Emperor Eyes prevented his mind from being influenced by most external factors as long as he inserted enough mana into them. At the same time, the Celestia aura and his stigma completely fended off the pressure on everything that had to do with mana as it instinctively protected his mana core and mana veins. The same applied to his soul world that seemed to have been targeted by the mind-boggling pressure but was perfectly shielded as well. Barely some of the oppression managed to touch his physique though it had failed to penetrate his defense and affect even a single cell inside his body. Jason''s body had already been refined by the divine aura that had released a tremendous pressure that was much more distinct and scarier. Time passed slowly, and Jason looked around, sizing up his competitors and gauging who was likely to pass the second round and turn into his opponent in the combat rounds that would likely follow. As such, he had lots of things to do, while trying to assess whether there were hidden races he hadn''t seen or encountered in Janur before. "Klarir, Dragonewts, Ilians, and a total of four Demi-humans, Tigrons, Hamaa, Fyrmn, and Lizr..." Jason was just mumbling the names of all the races he saw in front of him while walking through the crowd seemingly unaffected. There were several participants that were holding their ground like Jason, but they couldn''t move as freely as he did. Earlier, Jason didn''t want to encounter other races he had never seen before because it would force him to adjust his combat style to the specific trait they had but now this had changed. Despite his opponents revealing tremendous strength, Jason felt as if he was holding himself back. Something hindered him from advancing further and he had yet to figure out what exactly it was. When he had fused with Artemis, this sensation had temporarily dissipated but Jason was still unable to comprehend what exactly it was that had happened. The fusion process seemed easy but it was more complex than one could have imagined. Every cell inside his body was slowly merging with Artemis in the fusion process, and it had only been possible for them to achieve this because their soulbond was extraordinarily strong. However, that was not everything as Jason''s body had slowly been altered by his soulbond''s influence, which was in fact the amplification he had received. This was extremely interesting, and one could say that humans with dozens of soulbonds would lose the traits that made them human over time! Initially, this had only been a theory made by a Professor called James Gray, who had lived in Astrix inside a small c-grade city for his entire life until the Great Argos war had begun. However, this theory had been proven partially correct as the DNA tests of thousands of citizens reflected small evolutionary changes that occurred over time. Because Jason had known James Gray, he had read through his publications from time to time. The fusion process was one of the possible theories put forward by Professor Gray after studying the relationship between humans and their soulbonds along with a fortified soul conjunction that had been established long back. And this was a theory he had released years ago! There were several other theories but most of them were uninteresting to Jason because they named advantageous or disadvantageous factors that came with the change of the humans'' DNA. It was possible for the entire human race to be slowly torn apart, and be rendered unable to procreate with other humans if their genetic model underwent a drastic transformation. However, what Jason could only perceive from such theories was an exaggeration. Since the mana awakening, it was obvious that mutations could prevent one from procreating with others, and the last three centuries since mankind had found out about the soul worlds, nothing had changed. Furthermore, being unable to procreate with the human race was probably one sign of these particular individuals being able to procreate with other races! The very same reason made him assume that his mother''s Emperor Eyes were the reason why she had been able to give birth to a halfling aka Jason! This was only a theory he had made up in his head, but Jason didn''t think that it was unlikely. But even then, his existence should have been a miracle because a woman belonging to a race that had yet to be even considered a common race had been able to give birth to a Celestia race halfling. His father was a divine being like every other Celestia, and Jason was not sure how the human side of his bloodline had been able to stay dominant against the influential and extremely powerful Celestia bloodline. What Jason didn''t know was that his entire Celestia bloodline had been sealed even before he had been born, just to allow his body to stay intact, and enter Argos without tearing the world bridges and the planet itself apart! However, even more interesting was that it was not his father who had sealed his bloodline, but something that even his father was afraid of. His father had been oblivious to Jason''s existence until years ago so there was no way he could have done it. It was something Celestia Yaldra was unaware of. A being had wanted to protect Mina and her unborn child, that is Jason, in return for having been saved, tended to, and protected by a mere mortal being. And that is how the being had returned the favor, by sealing Jason''s bloodline!! If Jason were to know any of that, everything about his existence would make more sense, yet, turning everything he knew about his mother and grandparents upside down. Their tale hadn''t ended with Argos, but it had only begun and Jason had yet to find out anything really important about his family! Oblivious to his true lineage, Jason was roaming through the magic circle that had become less crowded with more and more participants collapsing on the ground. Despite that, there were a few of them who used their entire willpower to push themselves and overcome their limits. They were trying hard to turn the obstacles they had to face into an opportunity to become even stronger by strengthening their mind and body. At the same time, the pressure allowed some particular participants who had intentionally not used any technique to diffuse the oppression to comprehend something important. When Jason noticed this, he couldn''t help but feel intrigued as he understood what they were trying. "Should I also..? Why not?!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 561 - Will "Should I also..? Why not?!" Jason had seen how the other participants were trying to comprehend the pressure weighing on them in order to enter an enlightened state. Some of them were trying to understand how the higher-ups had constructed the complex magic circle with its three-layered pressure and how to employ it in different layers. This also meant that they wanted to understand how to do it by themselves, and how to release only two particular layers of pressure, or what exactly was required to release their own specific pressure in addition to a standardized kind. It was possible to learn how to regulate the pressure one released to a certain extent by simply observing, but comprehending through direct experience was still much better. As such, Jason decided that it was time to stop sizing up his opponent''s strength and to take care of his own matters. After slowly retracting his Celestial aura and the stigma''s glow, Jason stopped inserting mana inside his eyes. His protection layers were slowly dispersing and he even had to actively suppress the instinctive protection mechanism, his Emperor Eyes, and Celestia aura so as to feel the same pressure everyone else was feeling. It was only when he felt the oppression everyone else had been trying to withstand for the last 10 minutes that Jason smiled as his eyes gleamed in determination. A moment later, he closed his eyes while trying to focus on nothing else but the pressure in his surroundings. Droplets of sweat formed on his forehead, slowly trickling down his face, as he absorbed every little piece of information his senses perceived. Similar to the other participants, he tried to understand how the pressure came to be, what were its prerequisites, and how the runes tied everything together. The sheer mass of information he had to absorb and digest overwhelmed Jason more than the pressure weighing him down. His body had no issues with the pressure at all, while his mind had been refined and baptized twice that helped him stay unfazed! As for his mana veins and mana core, they had been baptized twice, refined several times, and received an amplification from Artemis. Thus, he could digest the information easier than everyone else, allowing him to comprehend the oppression at a rapid pace. His mind was working tirelessly and Jason sat down on the ground, cross-legged to focus better. In the blink of an eye, 15 minutes had passed and only five minutes were left before the second decimator round would end. There were still around 2,000 participants left which were more than the liberation tournament organizers had expected. They wanted to further decrease the total count of participants who would make it through round two. Thus, they instructed the higher-ups who controlled the overlapping pressure on the magic circle to crank it up further. However, Jason didn''t even notice anything around him. His entire mind seemed to have entered a state in which he only perceived the things he was fully focused on, a state where everything around him turned insignificant. Jason''s comprehension intensified as he entered an enlightened state in which his mind was able to work at more than double its usual speed. In his mind, the entire oppression had been separated into their individual pieces that were in fact the different kinds of pressures. These had been combined and merged together in order to release a more terrifying effect. They were multiplying each other, boosting one after another, and received a shared strengthening that increased the pressure in the last crucial minutes of the round to another level. The amount of mana that was supplied in addition to a few particular runes within the magic circle were only released in order to further enhance the oppression, increasing it exponentially. Jason had already imprinted every single rune in his mind as they were fortunately not as complex as the world bridges'' runes. That was if one looked at the runes individually which was what Jason had been forced to do in order to comprehend everything at such a rapid speed. The second round had almost ended, and the number of participants who were fainting continued to increase. Those lying on the floor were carefully picked up by the medic team that had to be at the Prismar stage to enter and leave the magic circle unhindered. Jason was the only participant who was sitting on the ground with ease, meditating as if he was cultivating, but compared to before, when he''d walked through the crowded magic circle, he didn''t radiate any aura. Meanwhile, his stigma was deactivated, and his eyes were closed without the faintest trace of a golden-silverish aura being released. Not even mana fluctuations radiated from Jason, clearly showing that he was enduring the pressure like some of them did! Nevertheless, the mana currents around Jason were swirling wildly as if they were suffocating, subconsciously enlarging the sensation he was feeling while amplifying the effect and area he affected. What radiated from Jason was neither anything he had actively amplified or empowered by mana nor did it belong to his Celestia bloodline. It was something completely new he had comprehended out of the pressure radiating from the magic circle around him. However, that had not been all because Jason used his memories about the oppressive divine aura, how he had felt every single time he had released the abyssal effect that had a high degree of intimidation and oppressive aura. It was only then that his mind began to start to put together the million-piece puzzle of digested information, memories, and what Jason had wanted to create and achieve! Unbeknownst to Jason, the sealed Celestia aura was seemingly screaming out, only to be held together by the illusionary locks that created a ginormous pattern of something unfathomable, something that could change the fate and predetermined future! His entire being was releasing a suffocating pressure that was seemingly chaotic, yet organized. It enlarged slowly, forcing the weakest of the remaining participants to retreat as the oppression caused by Jason intensified further. Forced to retreat to the outer layers of the magic circle by an unadulterated pressure radiated by someone at the 2nd Lique stage made the participants feel ashamed of themselves. They had already embarrassed their family, which caused them to grit their teeth and endure the humiliation as the pressure enveloped the entire magic circle. Nobody dared to leave the magic circle now as only a few seconds were left before the second round would conclude. Those last few seconds felt like an eternity and once the test was completed, and the magic circle deactivated, everyone who could flee out of the magic circle shot outside, leaving Jason and his chaotic, yet suppressive pressure alone. This excluded those who had fainted just before the test had finished, and the medic team rushed to help them, piercing through Jason''s pressure. Initially, the medics at the Prismar stage expected that the magic circle in addition to the youth''s chaotic pressure had caused a chain reaction forcefully oppressing the weakest remaining participants. However, after they had entered the pressure released by Jason, their mind turned dizzy as Jason''s entire being seemed to change. It was as if something dark was deep within him, hidden, and in a deep state of hibernation, enveloping Jason''s deepest secrets. The pressure released by Jason caused the medic team to stumble for a moment before they regained their senses. They enveloped their body with a thick membrane of mana, preventing their mind from being deceived once again. The citizens saw everything, but most didn''t know that Jason was doing something extraordinary. Yet, those who realized what he was doing couldn''t help but feel a tiny spark of jealousy igniting within them. "I wonder what kind of race he belongs to except the human bloodline...to comprehend how to radiate such a terrific pressure without using a single trace of mana¡­" The Old Ilian, Jason had already encountered before, said to his guest who had come to Argos just to attend the liberation tournament. The guest had already solidified nine prismarine crystals and had barely been able to use the necessary world bridges as a means of transport to arrive in Argos. It was only a tradition to attend the liberation tournament and he had only done so because his master had asked him to. Fortunately, it would be the first and last time he would have to watch the tournament before breaking into the second threshold of the Prismar stage that would prevent him from returning for the time being. The guest had already heard about Jason, the being labeled as a halfling, but he had thought that all of this was nothing but gibberish spewed by a drunkard. This wouldn''t be the first time he had heard a baseless rumor in one of the lowest worlds that were known for being nothing but empty talk. Yet, what he had witnessed for the first time since he had hatched, was more than a little bit shocking, even for a being as he was. "How can his natural pressure release faint remnants of the chaos attribute???" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 562 - Debt "Is something wrong Wisse?" While the guest on the elevation stared at Jason in shock, the medics were observing the young man in the center of the arena, trying to assess whether he was fine or not. Even after a few minutes had passed, Jason showed no signs of moving or getting up. The higher-ups were getting impatient and didn''t want to wait any longer. As such, they planned to carry him away to continue preparing for the first combat round of the liberation tournament. However, at that moment Wisse jumped up from his seat, almost tearing it out of the podium it was built in. His lengthy red tail that had a few sky blue scales, shone lightly as it swished in excitement. "Tell them to take a break until this young man finishes his comprehension!!" Though he spoke in a low voice, Old Sadran could gauge from his tone that it was not a request, but more of an order. As such, he followed the order and told the Olympus federation''s representative to stop his people from disturbing Jason and instead announce a short break.. The old dragonewt could only look at Old Sadran for a moment before his gaze averted to the young man who stood next to him. His eyes glimmered with a trace of fear and reverence before he used voice transmission to instruct the medic team at the ground to stop paying attention to Jason. At the same time, he cleared his throat and amplified it by mana in order to gain everyone''s attention. "We will take a short break to let the participants recover and enter their peak state. The first combat round will start in...one...no two hours from now!" Two hours should be more than enough in the old dragonewts opinion, however, the piercing gaze of the young man''s yellow snake-like eyes caused him to shiver. ''This time, they have sent an extremely terrifying one...'' Most citizens of the Olympus federation were not aware of this, but there was a particular tradition to be followed every time the liberation tournament was held. There was always one of the descendants, disciples, or representatives of a certain race, the Olympus federation''s ancestors were said to have been rescued in the past. At least, that''s what the higher-ups knew about. They were too young to know the entire truth, but the oldest beings of the Olympus federation knew about the fairy tales their parents had told them about before the catastrophic conquest had begun. It had been the culprit in separating most families due to their high difference in cultivation base that prevented them from fleeing through the same world bridge! Only the young and weak had been forced to immigrate to Argos, while the vast majority of most races the Olympus federation consisted of, had either been killed or found shelter in a different world they had been able to retreat to. Yet, when the young and weak beings of the Olympus federation had appeared on Argos, they had almost been killed by a ferocious beast. It had been a ruthless beast that roamed through the surrounding areas, pouncing on anything that dared to venture into his territory. Luckily, the weaklings had been rescued by a young human-like being that had more blood of a dragon than any dragonewt had ever seen. In fact, the being that had saved them was a young dragon that was able to transform into a seemingly human form. This dragon had helped them to recuperate from their losses and build the basic foundation of the entire Olympus federation and achieve its present day glory. Nobody had been able to figure out why the dragon had helped them, and she vanished with the words that someone would return every 10 years and that she would repay the debt she owed! Since then, centuries had passed and every dragonoid, which was how the race called themselves, visited them at the exact time the woman had told them. If they were to know that the woman that had rescued them had only been a newborn dragon that had just hatched a few days ago, the Olympus federation would have been utterly dumbfounded and confused. Fortunately, nothing about that had been mentioned, and the female dragon''s debt was something nobody had ever heard about. It was her own personal secret, but also something she couldn''t pay alone as she had been unable to enter Argos with her cultivation that rose rapidly. Since then, various dragonoids had appeared on Argos, one every ten years, but this time it was an anomaly for an existence like Wisse to appear. He was a cut above the rest, and the sheer might sealed within him was more than enough to defeat the three Overlords of Argos without any issues. Yet, what nobody knew was that even such a terrific existence had to pay attention to its cultivation as the foundation was what mattered the most. Certain races were born with a distinct foundation, allowing them to increase their strength rapidly. Dragons with a distinct and pure bloodline were one of such rare breeds, allowing them to reach the Ascendion stage in their first few years after being born. Wisse''s master was one of the extreme examples as she was the strongest being he had ever encountered. However, even then, the young man in the center of the arena, who was said to be a halfling, caused Wisse''s scales to crawl upwards! ''He doesn''t even release any mana, let alone his aura and yet he can radiate a chaos attributed pressure...how?!?'' Wisse was not a pureblooded dragon like his master which raised numerous obstacles in front of him as he had to cope with repulsive energies of the ice and fire affinity. Thus he was forced to cultivate with a particular technique that slowly altered his cultivation veins as well as his physique to accept both the extremely strong affinities he had inherited. This may have taken a long time as he was already 20 years old and just about to enter the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage, yet what he witnessed in front of him, made him forget everything about his slow cultivation speed. His eyes were fixated on Jason, trying to comprehend who, or rather what kind of existence he was because the chaos attribute was not something even his master could handle in the beginning, despite being born and nurtured by it! It had taken her a long time, yet what Wisse witnessed was something unexpected, yet oddly exciting! ''I have to tell my master about it...immediately!!'' With that in mind, Wisse disappeared from his position as he rushed out of the colosseum, only to fly further away as huge dragon wings sprouted out of his back. They were fiery red and intertwined with the sky blue color of his mother, a dragonoid with a dense ice-dragon bloodline. A single flap of his huge wings was enough to propel him in the air before he disappeared from everyone''s sight, only to take out some sort of device nobody on Argos had ever seen before. It was a complex version of the messenger crystal everyone was using and could be compared to a technologically advanced quantum bracelet. This made it possible for him to message his master, who was countless lightyears away from Wisse''s current location. Upon activating it, numerous runes began to manifest around the device, and it was only some time later that a faint signal had reached his master, who had answered in confusion. "Wisse, why are you messaging me? Did something happen on Argos? Don''t tell me the Olympus federation has been annihilated¡­no that shouldn''t have happened, otherwise, I would have noticed it! Is it about the divine aura I sensed on Argos some time ago?....Hello, Wisse? Are you still there?" Wisse had taken some time to think about what he should respond while waiting for his master to finish speaking. "There is nothing wrong with Argos, but I found something, or rather someone you might be interested in!" Unaware of the aftermath the revelation brought, Wisse explained everything to his master as quickly as possible, only to hear utter silence from the other side the moment he had finished his words. Minutes passed and not even the slightest noise could be heard. Wisse grew worried and wanted to ask his master whether everything was fine with her or not. He was about to speak when his ears picked a barely audible whisper. "Such a being is on Argos? How is that possible...even I could only stay on Argos because I had barely been born at that time, and you''re unable to unseal your power because you ca-¡­.WAIT!!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 563 - Chaos Attribute Jason was oblivious to the conversation that happened far away from him and was simply focused on his own situation. He was not exactly sure what was going on, but the pressure he released felt weird, similar to the time when he had received the Celestia aura without having accepted it then. However, contrary to that time, there was something in the pressure he was releasing, which shouldn''t be inside. Time had passed slowly and it was only when he opened his eyes that Jason realized that the second round was long since over. Being the only one left inside the deactivated magic circle, he stood up before walking in the direction in which he sensed the God''s Children to be. It was only then that they noticed the eerie silence around him as everyone was staring at him. Whether it were the spectators, the other participants, or the Olympus federation''s higher-ups, he was the center of attention. This was uncomfortable for him and Jason took some time to realize that he was still subconsciously releasing the chaos attributed pressure.. It drained him of his energy and Jason couldn''t help but feel hungry as the pressure was pulled back into his body. Taking out a few preservable dishes, he devoured them hungrily while ignoring the surrounding stares. His train of thoughts lingered around the sensation he had felt earlier because it was something new, and extremely dangerous. Jason knew that he couldn''t control any of it yet. The pressure itself was not the problem and Jason realized that he would be able to control it once he had digested the absorbed information. It shouldn''t be that problematic to radiate faint pressure without the use of mana, but it was a different matter altogether for distinct and attributed pressure! Jason hadn''t even learned anything detailed about normal pressure that was intertwined with mana. Currently, his memories and what he had sensed was not enough to suddenly release something with an attribute he had never encountered, to begin with. In fact, it was only because Jason had heard someone talking about his pressure being intertwined with the chaos attribute that he knew what attributes his body had released. The unknown made Jason more uncomfortable than knowing that something with his body might be wrong that could turn terrifying and might as well mean his death sentence. At least, he would know that something was going on, and could search for a solution! However, nothing seemed to be wrong with his body, and the Chaos attribute neither harmed him nor was it something that felt as if it belonged to him. After he had stopped releasing the pressure that had been easy to control, Jason felt how his body was slowly more exhausted and tiredness overwhelmed him. Unfortunately, he couldn''t simply sleep right now because Betty, who had been the first to recover from the shock of seeing Jason achieve yet another spectacular feat, had told him that the first combat rounds would start soon. As such, he would have to fight at least one opponent before he could rest for a few hours. The liberation tournament was not only held to determine the strongest prodigy of the new generation, but also to entertain the citizens of the Olympus federation. This was also the reason why everything had been recorded with the help of a recording device that streamed it on the small crystalline devices every citizen of the Olympus federation had. Because of that, Jason got an idea. ''If everything was recorded, I should be able to rewatch what happened after I focused on comprehending the surrounding pressure!'' With that thought in mind, he looked out for Jarid as he was one of the few people he knew out of the small batch of remaining participants. That was if he were to leave out the God''s Children because they didn''t have the device he was looking for! What Jason hadn''t realized until now was that every single member of the God''s Children had passed the second round while the total number of participants who had made it through was now just 1200! This was extremely good, and even if they were to be defeated in the first combat round by being matched against the strongest combatants, it shouldn''t be that bad. There were several thousand participants hailed as prodigies who had failed in the second wound miserably. Contrary to them, the human race''s embassy had fared well so they had gained some attention from the surrounding. Overcoming the first round was something the human race was ought to pass owing to their soul worlds and the intel the Olympus federation had known about. However, the second round was solely based on one''s determination and will to advance further in the liberation tournament and to face stronger opponents. Fortunately, the God''s Children had received lessons not just focussing on the body but also the mind since a young age. This was something almost every prodigy who had awoken their mana senses at a young age had received, as they were likely to become future prodigies as long as their soul-awakening was not catastrophic! Jason hadn''t received these lessons, but his obstacles had been different as well as his path had been unique. Because of that, neither the God''s Children nor the human powerhouses had doubted that Jason would advance to the third round. Nevertheless, the pressure he had released without utilizing a single trace of mana was something that had caused them to feel suspicious. ''Is that something he learned from his other race, or he already knew how to release pressure without mana? But then...why is there the chaos attribute? Is he hiding another soulbond from us?'' All kinds of questions raked through the minds of humans around him, but even Jason wouldn''t be able to answer their unspoken questions as he himself had no idea as to what had been going on! It was time for the first combat round to begin, and they were only waiting for one specific person to return, which caused Jason to look in the direction in which Wisse had been seated before. Since the beginning, Jason had known that Wisse was special and definitely not someone who should have been on Argos. Yet, because nobody else seemed to bother about it, he decided to remain silent about it too. Apparently, he was the liberation tournament''s guest and when Jason had finally found Jarid, he wanted to ask him about that as well. That was after he received the card-shaped device to figure out something! "You need my Hologra because you want to watch the second decimator round?...Fine, but to be honest, did you hold back during our fight?" Jarid had been as astonished as everyone else when Jason had suddenly begun to radiate a distinct pressure. However, he had been able to stay relatively calm while facing Jason, only to look at him with disappointment, thinking that he had been too weak to force Jason to give his all. "That''s not it. I have simply no idea what this pressure was. By the way, who is that guest? Nobody seems to care about him!" Jason saw that Wisse had returned, and seated himself on his chair. Thus, he had asked the question while pointed towards him, making Jarid turn around. At that moment, Jason and Wisse''s eyes met which greatly shocked Jarid as his eyes grew wide as saucers. "Don''t look into his eyes!!" Jarid exclaimed as he turned Jason''s head around to face himself. Then, he quietly added, "This time the dragonoid guest is quite unique, and he has a big temper!!" Jason didn''t understand what Jarid wanted to say, but he could only respond, "What kind of bulllshit are you talking about? He is more of a true dragon than anything else, what dragonoid?!?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 564 - Lesson Wisse had heard Jason''s words which caused him to be astonished. He hadn''t expected that someone else would figure out what exactly he was. His existence as a Dragonoid was known by almost everyone who was well-versed with the Olympus federation''s past as there was only one race that traditionally visited the liberation tournament. However, Jason had exposed his identity! Wisse was a halfling of a true red dragon and an ice Dragonoid with a high blue dragon bloodline, turning him into a red and blue dragon with both affinities. Thus, he was bestowed with certain characteristics and abilities only Dragonoids have. The repulsive energies of his fire and ice affinity prevented him from advancing at a rapid pace as his lineage would normally suggest. But even then, his cultivation speed was everything but slow, and it was rapidly increasing! Once he entered the Ascendion stage everything would change either way, and he had already been looking forward to that time.. Because of this, his mood had been extremely bad as his master had told him to waste his precious time and attend the Liberation tournament. She hadn''t even given him a proper reason and had just said something about divine aura and that he should look out for anomalies. Earlier, he hadn''t believed that the mana scarce planet called Argos was worth anything, but the human race that lived on Argos was more interesting than it initially seemed, while Jason''s existence was even more so. His scales were still crawling up, and despite being at a much higher cultivation base, he sensed that Jason was not someone he should take lightly. Even his master had told him to be careful after she had heard the entire story Wisse had recited. While on one hand, she had been happy of her assumptions being correct, on the other hand, she had been shocked about the Chaos attribute in the natural oppression Jason had learned to radiate. Even more astonishing was the fact that he was a halfling, from a visibly strong race as he had already created a natural stigma. If the human race''s soul awakening were to be considered interesting, Jason was Wisse''s main attraction. Even for others, Jason was a topic of interest, yet also someone they should either become friendly with or stay away from. Old Sadran remained silent when he had heard Jason and only looked at Wisse''s face to see if he gave any reaction. However, Wisse gave away nothing, thus he told the Olympus federation''s representative to continue with the tournament. Meanwhile, Jason was becoming more tired with every second, barely listening to Jarid''s explanation of the Olympus federation''s past in addition to the reason a Dragonoid was present. Had Jarid known that Jason didn''t even know the difference between a dragonewt and a Dragonoid, he would probably want to strangle Jason. As such, he remained silent, simply making up some sort of explanation for himself. ''Let''s just say that a dragonewt has a little bit of dragon blood in their veins, while Dragonoids are dragon-like existences with a higher bloodline!'' The arena had already been moved around with the help of the mechanism installed in the colosseum, allowing the arena rings to be installed again. There were only around 10 arenas that were used at a time to allow the spectators to pay attention to one of the ten fights without being forced to divert their attention to a total of 50 arenas which was the maximum capacity limit the Colosseum had! When Jason saw the 10 arenas, he couldn''t help but feel enlightened. "With the remaining 1200 participants, I should be able to take a good rest before it''s my turn! Hopefully, the fights would take some time to be completed." Jason was simply using the 60 rounds the 10 arenas had to be used, taking an average of five minutes for every round to roughly calculate the time for which he could rest. Because of that, he was ready to lean his body against the pillar that lifted the elevation while telling the five God''s Children and Jarid to wake him up once it was his turn. Yet, contrary to his expectations, the first rounds were just about to start and as the first set of participants were called, Jarid said, "You''re matched!" This caused Jason to frown because he had just wanted to take some good rest. However, the moment he saw the Klarir he was about to fight, his exhaustion was washed away as a bright smile emerged on his face. "How can my luck be so good?" Jason was matched against the Klarir who had tried to embarrass him before, and he entered the assigned arena without wasting any time, brightly smiling at his opponent. He could tell that this was a perfect opportunity to show the Klarir that he was not someone who fought with words, but his strength, that it was not necessary for him to show off to others as his every action along with his performance spoke for him! Meanwhile, the Klarir who made fun of Jason before, couldn''t help but feel that he should have kept silent. What he had sensed during the second round was more than enough to tell him that Jason''s will and determination were not only much stronger but that his overall talent was incomparable to his. The chaos attributed pressure Jason had radiated would already be enough to decrease his combat prowess by a large margin. Because of those thoughts, the Klarir was turning less determined to fight Jason as he assumed his own life to be on the line. Nevertheless, he had to fight, otherwise, his family would deem him as a useless coward who didn''t even dare to fight a human. As such, the Klarir could only gnaw his teeth and give his best. The moment the battle began, he enveloped himself in a thick layer of highly corrosive poison that clung tightly to his body. A faint membrane of poison transmuted mana was put above the thin poison, turning it into a double-layered poison armor that was further strengthened with the faintly released mana. Only a moment later, the young Klarir had been able to avert his focus and exert his martial art technique, allowing him to push towards Jason with a combat prowess comparable to a 9th Lique stage! This was something he could be proud of, and more than most of the prodigies would be able to make use of under normal circumstances. The Klarir''s defensive capabilities were extremely strong, as they corroded everything that was weaker than the utilized mana! At the same time, it allowed the Klarir to enhance the strength of every attack he launched as he was a close combat fighter that used his razor-sharp claws. Unfortunately, Jason was not an ordinary opponent, and he could have just used Byakur and Solaris to severe through the double-layered poison armor, cutting through the Kalrir too, but that was not something he wanted to do. Showing how mercilessly he could destroy the possible relationship between the Olympus federation and mankind was out of question. As such, he couldn''t simply kill everyone as he pleased. Furthermore, humiliating his opponent after he tried to humiliate him was something that was even better to look at than an unnecessary death! As such, Jason had allowed Petri to enter his mana core while manifesting his golden scales that were intertwined in a vein-like pattern of golden stripes as a three-meter long tail grew out of his coccyx His entire body was covered in scales, including his head that turned more snakelike than it was before. Many spectators exclaimed to witness his transformation and most of them belonged to the Demi-humans, or to be precise the Lizr race! They were comparable to human-like lizards and sensed that they would witness something grand about Jason. Out of instinct, their entire focus was trained on Jason, who began to sense something that was similar yet different as it had been with Artemis. ''It is not the time yet¡­? I see!'' Jason had wanted to advance his and Petri''s progress allowing them to fuse together. Unfortunately, this didn''t work and it would probably take some time before their fortified soul conjunction would be ripe. With Petri occupying his mana core, Jason''s physical strength increased to the peak of the 8th Lique stage. This meant that he should be weaker than the Klarir who had attacked him. Unfortunately, Jason also had other means to defeat his opponent, and he had yet to teach the young arrogant Kalrir a lesson! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 565 - Chaotic Void Of Darkness Even without using any mana to circulate through his body or the exertion of a single martial art technique, his strength rivaled that of an average being at the peak of the 8th Lique stage. This was an amazing feat, but instead of doing exactly the things he was supposed to do, like using a martial art technique to defend himself against the young Klarir who had already neared him, Jason simply stared at him. His bright and glowing golden eyes were fully trained on his opponent as he spoke in a faint voice. "Back off!" At that moment, Jason released the race specific weakening curse in order to decrease the Klarir''s combat prowess, distracting him for a moment only to initiate the second wave of attacks. As such, he released the petrification curse through the Emperor Eyes, only to further paralyze the Klarir in his place before Jason used the last step of his three-layered attack by utilizing the remaining mana he had stored within his mana core. The abyssal ability of his mana eyes had been released at once, sweeping through the Klarir who had barely been able to keep himself from panicking! The poor Klarir was caught off guard, and fell right into Jason''s trap, sealing the Klarir into a prison of endless darkness. Trying to understand where he was, the Klarir looked around but it was like he had been transported to an eternal void of nothing save empty darkness.. That eerily silent darkness made a chill run down his spine while time continued to run ceaselessly, brushing past the imprisoned. He was alone and helpless, trapped in that suffocating space. At least he assumed so, only for an unfathomable being to manifest at the end of the horizon, radiating an ominous, and horrifying aura, paralyzing the poor Klarir with numbing fear. This was something that happened every single time Jason used his abyssal ability. However, this time something was different than usual! There was no escape, and the gigantic being''s grasps enveloped the young Klarir. The form of the gigantic being was revealed, yet, it changed every moment making it impossible for the Klarir to make sense of anything at all. A few seconds passed and Jason was already fully prepared to punch the young Klarir out of the arena, only to notice that something was wrong. The Klarir''s mana had begun to recede and everything crumbled in front of him as his eyes turned pitch-black just like the endless darkness his mind had entered. "Fuck...I overdid it!" Jason exclaimed in a voice loud enough to resound through the entire colosseum. He was not sure what was going on, but it was definitely something bad, and Jason could only turn towards the medics as he shouted. "He needs help!!" The last thing Jason wanted was to let the young Klarir die, but the medic team didn''t move a single inch. Instead, they looked at the Olympus federation''s representative who seemed to be unbothered. "If you call for the medics it will be your loss!" That was the answer Jason received, and he couldn''t help but frown and was about to curse at this stupid rule as he looked at the young Klarir. Approaching him, he touched him lightly with his hand. Based on what his Emperor Eyes perceived and what he sensed about the Klarir''s body, his mind was currently sealed in a separate space, leaving his body alone. This was something that had never happened before so Jason was clueless as to what could be the reason for the sudden occurrence or how to pull the Klarir out of that zone. ''Nothing about me changed, did it?'' Jason tried to think of the solution as he remembered something he had heard from the Livestream about the liberation tournament he had looked at with Jarid''s Hologra! [Is that a Chaos attributed oppression?] Even though Jason was not sure who was the owner of that voice, it was evident that the speaker had been astonished. Despite having barely been able to hear it, Jason could tell that it was something from a higher up, or even the guest who was looking at him with a glint of interest. Jason knew that he had to figure out what had gone wrong, or rather what had changed. As such, he decided to not use the Abyssal ability again, at least not with the vast majority of his mana! Instead, he would have to choose his other trumps to overwhelm strong opponents. There were more than enough weapons in his arsenal Jason could choose from after all. Nevertheless, as of now, he had to fix something. Touching the Klarir he activated his stigma that glowed lightly before releasing the Celestia aura. The stigma and the aura merged together while Jason could only try to infiltrate the young Klarir with it. He tried his best to break the shallow membrane that enveloped the Klarir''s mind, preventing it from returning to the dark place he was caught at. Even though Jason could have thrown the young Klarir out of the arena, it was as if he could feel that the others wouldn''t be able to help. There was only the dragon who might know a solution to the problem that had just occurred, but Jason could tell that the guest was not inclined to help either way. This was only something Jason could assume from the way the dragon looked at him instead of the Klarir. He had only thrown a single glance at the Klarir before his gaze had returned to Jason with the glint of interest intensifying several times. Because of that Jason knew that the dragon-like existence could help, but simply chose not to for reasons unknown to him. Meanwhile, the Olympus federation''s representative was bombarded by several Klarirs who requested for the battle to be ended. Yet, instead of doing anything, the dragonewt remained silent, turning a blind eye to the complaints and pleadings as if they didn''t exist, in the first place. He was simply following the rules which made him recall a certain painful scenario which he voiced out. "Did you guys forget what happened in the liberation tournament 50 years ago? If not, let me help you recall it. Your prodigy killed a dragonewt who had already been lying on the ground, incapable to continue fighting, but the fight continued. Why? Because of the tournament''s rules!! The dragonewt was unable to lose his consciousness and the Klarir prodigy didn''t even think about throwing him out of the arena, ending the battle! As such, we will follow the rules, UNDERSTOOD?" When the old man belonging to the Klarir race heard this, they recalled the incident that had almost caused a civil war to occur, only to remember something else. ''The dragonewt that was killed 50 years ago was the representative''s only son!!'' Thus, gritting their teeth, they could only turn away, trying to think of a way to save their prodigious descendant from dying a painful death. "Is it really necessary for the youth to do something like that? Was it not an accident..? Can''t the human throw out Yhas so that we can help him?? Were the human''s words a lie?" It was one of the Klarir race''s higher ups who complained, as a familiar voice resounded behind him. "It''s not that he can''t, but you guys are incapable of helping your descendant!" Turning around, they saw Old Sadran who stared at them with an apologetic smile. "The young man is already trying to calm the situation, it''s just extremely unlucky what happens right now!" At that moment, Wisse, who had been focused on Jason remarked, "It''s not unlucky, but more that the youth is unaware about his own power, where it came from, what it does, and how to restrict it. It''s almost as if he never noticed anything about it!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 566 - Secrets It didn''t take Jason long before he had been able to break through the darkness seal he had accidentally constructed within the Klarir''s mind. The moment the darkness had cleared, the Klarir had momentarily stiffened before his body had loosened up. The pain and the pressure had been overwhelming for him and he began to cry out loudly. Foam dripped out of his mouth, and Jason could only hope that the aftereffects wouldn''t kill him. The ominous aura around the Klarir had dispersed and Jason could finally drag him out of the arena, ending the battle. After that Jason simply left the arena while trying to figure out what was going on with his body. While the Klarir was surrounded by the Medics, he was stared at by thousands of spectators that couldn''t comprehend what they had just witnessed. When even Jason was unable to understand anything, how should the others comprehend what exactly had occurred in their fight? Wisse, who had observed everything intently had already noticed that Jason''s control over his own strength was extremely high if he were to exclude everything about the chaos attribute. With that thought in his mind, Wisse could comprehend several scenarios which led him to tell Jason something through voice transmission. [Hey Halfling, what the hell are you doing with the chaos attribute within you?! Don''t you realise that you''d almost killed your opponent because you couldn''t control your power?] Through the Emperor Eyes, Jason was able to see the faint mana thread Wisse had released. As such, he stared into his eyes with confusion apparent in his own. Exhaustion overwhelmed Jason, but he ignored it while connecting himself to Wisse''s mana thread as he also used voice transmission. [Sorry if I come across as rude, but who are you? Throwing insults at me is not really helpful if I don''t understand them either.] Stifling a yawn, Jason could barely keep his eyes open to look at Wisse, who just sighed before he introduced himself. [My name is Wisse, and let''s just say that I''m a dragon who can transform into a humanlike form too, alright? That''s not important either way. More important is that you can''t control the chaos attribute within you. To be honest, I have no idea what kind of race you are, or what is going on with your body. However, you radiated the chaos attribute while comprehending and releasing your manaless oppression! Just what are you?! And don''t give me a tight-lipped answer of ''I''m a human''] Jason was not sure what Wisse was playing at, let alone if he could trust him. However, on the other hand, everyone knew that Jason was a halfling as it was evident. Furthermore, the dragon didn''t seem to give off any bad vibe. Instead, it was the pure thirst for knowledge and Wisse''s curiosity that seemed to radiate from him. [My name is Jason Stella and I''m a halfling, belonging to the human race and another race of which I don''t know a lot about myself. Without knowing whether you''re my friend or foe, I won''t tell you everything, which you can probably understand. At least, I hope so. Unfortunately, I have no idea what this chaos attribute is and I can just tell you that it feels like I''m subconsciously lending someone''s power without being aware of it!] Even though he had wanted to refrain from telling Wisse too much, Jason knew that he was the being that would be the most knowledgeable about the chaos attribute that he was struggling to understand. Jarid had told him that the traditional guests that come to take a look at the liberation tournament originated from a place far away from Argos. Apparently, they had to use several world bridges to arrive inside the Broken world that could be used as some sort of intersection to a dozen or more worlds with common races! This was interesting, but something Jason could pay attention to later! Right now, his exhaustion, which stemmed from accidentally utilizing the mysterious chaos attribute was draining him from focusing on the fact that he had unlocked a new attribute he knew nothing about! ''Does the Celestia race have something like a chaos attribute??'' Jason didn''t know, and he could only try to appraise his own body with the last traces of energy that prevented him from falling into a deep slumber. Wisse, who initially wanted to convince Jason to tell him more about his other heritage, perceived his current condition and held back from probing further. As such, he made a mental note before saying, [Let''s talk after the tournament is over, but if you don''t want to kill anyone, try to prevent the reckless release of your chaos attribute!] Somehow, he felt ridiculous telling someone else what he was supposed to do or not while knowing that his knowledge was far from that of his master. He was only 20 years old after all. Fortunately, his teacher had told him a few things he had to pay attention to with Jason, which allowed him to give him a few tips about how to control his chaos attribute despite being able to actively sense it. Jason could barely hear the tips Wisse gave him before his mind that had appraised his body, sensed something extremely faint in the deepest pits of his stomach, enveloping the Celestia race''s seals he hadn''t been able to see before! It was something dark that made him assume that it was the darkness affinity. Yet, when he focussed all of his mind on gauging it, he realised that it didn''t belong to the darkness affinity but was something new and alien to him. Unable to understand what it was, Jason only knew that it had prevented him from perceiving the Celestia race''s bloodline within him earlier. He had only been able to faintly perceive the Celestia race''s seals when he had liquefied his first drop of mana in a desperate attempt to save his masters and when he had wanted to take revenge on the races that had caused his pain and losses. It had been his desperateness that had led him to unleash his shackles! Other than that, they had never been perceptible, but this veil was seemingly lifting as he was drawn into a deep slumber, by something that was hidden deep within him. The moment Jason closed his eyes, he found himself in an endless darkness, void of anything. At least, that was what he had presumed. While in the real world only a few seconds had passed before he fell asleep, eons passed inside the darkness as he found himself in front of a massive structure. It was shaped like a helix, two massive strands with different colors were intertwined with each other, connected at countless positions. This caused Jason to believe that the object he was looking at was a replica of his DNA! Somehow, this made sense as thousands of locks could be seen suppressing the DNA strand he presumed to be his Celestia heritage. A few locks had already been broken open, telling Jason that the seals he had broken were more than one. However, it was only the interlink that had been unlocked too, merging the two strands together. The strand representing the human race was filled with all kinds of weakly glowing colors, showing the awoken affinities of his soul world that was in fact the versatility the human race had. Merging together, the Celestia''s strand that was brightly glowing in a divine silver-white color, both strand''s foundation had changed, accepting each other. This was something Jason had expected to be the case as he had already accepted belonging to both the Celestia and the human race. He didn''t abandon any heritage and stuck with both as they were both important fragments that made him whole. Despite the interest Jason had in the massive strand that was erected right within him, he wondered how his mind had entered the deepest part of his conscience. Normally this shouldn''t be possible, and would only be possible if one was strong enough to control every cell in one''s body. However, Jason was far from having attained the cultivation base that was required to make such a feat possible! As such, he could only think of the Chaos attribute and the feeling that had drawn him inside a deep slumber. Out of a sudden, a moment after he had thought about this, Jason heard a faint noise from the depth of his conscience, ringing throughout his entire being. [How come you''ve already awoken me, brat? Couldn''t you''ve waited for a few more centuries....how can you be as impatient as Mina...Like mother like son *sigh*] It was a voice Jason had never heard before. It was definitely not of his father''s and felt different too. However, the being that had spoken to him just now didn''t radiate any hostility, and he had spoken about his mother too!! Despite these facts, Jason couldn''t help but feel worried about the voice as it radiated exactly the chaos attribute he seemed to have used earlier!! ''Just what is going on?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 567 - Lifes Debt Jason''s frustration was visible, and he turned in all directions to see if the being that spoke was within his body, or if it was something like the mana imprint he had from his father. As if on cue, the voice answered tonelessly. [Below the structure.] It had become monotonous, but that was not what caused Jason to feel affected. What affected him was the fact that he found a huge imprint of something extremely profound that caused Jason to gulp nervously. Under the profound imprint, or whatever it was, Jason was able to see crimson eyes piercing into his being. Behind the crimson color was a lattice composed of faint strands of gold, Jason found extremely familiar, but he couldn''t focus on that as he stumbled backward. [What are you afraid of? Don''t you belong to the mighty Celestia race? If you''re already afraid of a soul''s fraction, you shouldn''t even think of leaving Argos!] Jason calmed himself, noticing that there was no hostility radiating from the being that spoke to him.. His curiosity and thirst for knowledge overwhelmed him as he blurted out "Soul''s fraction? So...there is a fraction of your soul within me?!? How does that make sense? Why??" If Jason had been just confused earlier on hearing the voice for the first time, now he was thoroughly rattled to hear the voice. It was evident that he didn''t understand everything that just happened. [Didn''t Mina inform you about everything? She is always impatient, how can she not have told you about everything yet?? Maybe she changed while I was hibernating..?] Through these words, Jason realised that the being whose fraction of a soul was sealed inside his body was on friendly terms with his mother!! The memory of his mother brought forth mixed emotions; a dry smile along with a tinge of sadness. "My mother died more than 10 years ago, murdered by a descendant of one of the big families on Argos...." Jason didn''t like mentioning it, but he knew that staying secretive about this was not what he was supposed to do. He was still overwhelmed with what was going on and understood less than before as everything turned even more complex for him. Out of a sudden, the profound imprint that gleamed in a black light expanded as a terrific pressure was released. It oppressed Jason, making it almost impossible for him to breathe. While he gasped for air, he noticed that his entire surrounding turned into a torment stream of dark blue energy that spread through the endless void. A thunderous roar resounded within Jason. At that moment, the torment energies within Jason broke through the endless void, seeping out of his body, tearing open his skin. Terrific pressure filled the entire colosseum, incomparable with the shallow oppression Jason had released earlier. Nobody was able to breathe properly, and it felt like a monstrous being had emerged from within the shadows. Even Wisse was unable to move his body, let alone breathe properly as his mind was running wild. ''Who the hell is this youth?!?!'' Only a few seconds later the pressure disappeared, releasing everyone, and returning to Jason as if it had never existed in the first place. The same occurred within Jason''s deepest part of the conscience as he was still asleep, unaware of the chaos he had created outside. Somehow, the being had calmed down, or at least it seemed so as it asked him. [So...Mina is really dead?] The voice sounded pained which caused Jason''s pain to resurface. He just nodded his head unsure what to say as he couldn''t just question the mysterious soul''s fraction about everything while it was processing the death of someone it had held dearly! Jason knew how it felt to lose someone you wanted to hold close, and it was a hard process to get back on your feet and continue, but a necessary step to overcome the pain. At that moment, Jason heard something that caused him to squint his eyes in confusion. [Maybe she knew it from the beginning, from the time she had to sever the connection with her soulbonds, and destroy her cultivation to return to Argos¡­] If the being''s words were to be true, it would mean that his mother had been extremely strong. It also meant that she had been forced to use every means to decrease her strength, only to use the world bridge...to safely bring him to Argos! But why? Was there an important reason to do this, or was it just that his mother had wanted him to live in peace without anyone reducing him to the halfling he was? The being could perceive the thoughts Jason had as its soul''s fraction had merged with the young Jason, allowing it to understand certain things. Thus, it decided that it was time to explain a few things to Jason, instead of dragging everything for longer. It didn''t have much time to converse with Jason anymore as they had wasted enough time already. [To put it simply, your mother was hunted due to certain circumstances, and even your father couldn''t do anything about it. This was mostly because he was the only Celestia who accepted your mother into their rows, while the others tried to shun her. The details would take too long to explain. To put it simply, when your mother noticed that she was pregnant with you, she searched for me and requested my help. She just wanted to return to Argos, where you could grow up without any problems. Apparently, this seemed to have worked partially because you are still alive which is the good news...I guess. As for the soul''s fraction within you¡­.I''m only here to repay my Life''s debt because your mother''s eyes helped me when I had been in a perilous situation. Nevertheless, she was a good woman, and someone who didn''t deserve dying like that...the time I spent with her and her parents was truly something I will never forget¡­] The mention of his grandparents made a thousand questions swirl through his mind once again. Unfortunately, he was unable to find the right words as he sensed the soul''s fraction piercing him with its gaze. [Brat, my debt is also the reason I used a small fraction of my soul to save hers! How do you think a human with the bloodline of a Celestia was able to be birthed by an ordinary woman? A mere mortal whose strength had aggravated to that of the Mortal stage at that! Don''t underestimate your own race, and believe me if I say that you shouldn''t forcefully remove more seals than you can handle!! I was only slowly awoken from my hibernation because I noticed that the Soul fraction''s power was drained when you had almost turned into an Infernal Celestia! Fortunately, your father was not completely helpless and assisted you, otherwise, it would have become ugly to save you while ensuring that the seals stayed intact!!] ''You''ve sealed my power?'' Jason wanted to blurt out, but at that moment, he noticed that he was drawn out of the depths of his body as his eyes flew open to see the God''s Children looking at him curiously. There were only a few last words that resounded in his mind. [Don''t even dare to use more of my power if it''s not necessary!! I''ll return to my slumber, and don''t think about touching my imprint either!! Just behave, will you?!?] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 568 - Power Is Everything Jason was not sure what exactly the being inside his body was, but it seemed to not have lied about his mother having asked for its help to enter Argos. There was no reason, let alone evidence for Jason to believe the mysterious being, but Jason''s memories clearly recalled how sickly his mother had always been. Furthermore, she had never told him anything about her past, her soulbonds or anything else. The soul''s fraction within him didn''t bother Jason much, rather it was helpful as it sealed the Celestia bloodline. At least, if the being had been true to its words. Since he had found out about the seals inside his body that were different from the awakening of his bloodline, he had always wondered how it had even been possible for him to be born in the first place. At the same time, Jason wondered when the first seal had been removed. ''Was the start of everything, when I began to sense mana, or when I gained my eyesight?'' Somehow, Jason felt as if it was the latter because he found it weird that one accident after another happened from that time onwards. Maybe it had been his misfortune or something else that made him attract others, irrespective of whether they were friends or foes. In the end, Jason had just accepted the fact that he was not a complete human, and that his other half hailed from the Celestia race, but now his body harbored another secret, while his mother''s past was something mysterious and unknown. ''What about my grandparents then? Are they still alive?'' There were more questions Jason had in mind than he could answer, and his only hope was that the future could tell him answers to the questions that continued to torment him. Suddenly, Betty, who had been standing in front of him, grasped his shoulders and shook him violently. She continued to shout his name, which made him regain his senses. "Sorry, what happened? Is it my turn to fight again?" He stood up nonchalantly, only to notice that he was bleeding from several spots at which his skin had burst open. Taking out a purified potion, he gulped it down as he noticed that everyone stared at him in shock. "What happened? You almost killed all of us with the pressure you released in your sleep!! Fortunately, you didn''t radiate it for long, and it dispersed as suddenly as it had emerged!" It was Jarid, who said this and he had just approached Jason with a tinge of reverence and fear in his eyes. Jason seemed to have grown much more than he had expected. At the same time, it looked like he had more secrets that even he didn''t know himself. At least, that was what Jarid could comprehend by looking at Jason''s confused expression. Meanwhile, Jason only knew that he had regained full control over his body once again. Other than that, he was also able to perceive his seals better than before. By simply entering the depths of his conscience with his mind, he could clearly see the two strands that were intertwined with each other, forming a helix. The lowest part of it was already fused together and had the same color, while the locks on the strand belonging to the Celestia race prevented the complete fusion. Apparently, the primal awakening of one''s blood unsealed shackles that every pure-breed would naturally generate upon birth, and the seals created by the unknown being whose soul fraction was inside his body had been artificially created. This suppressed the Celestia bloodline, allowing Mina Stella to give birth to Jason without dying from the sheer mass of nutrition and mana a common Celestia newborn required. Jason recalled that the being had said that he shouldn''t underestimate the Celestia race, but he was not sure what exactly this meant. Did this only include their strength, mana mastery talent, or everything else too? ''Just how did Mom encounter the Celestia race?!'' Jason wondered, unsure what kind of obstacles his mother, and grandparents had overcome! They were said to have disappeared according to Nathan, the Heaven Eyes sect''s patriarch, while his father had told him that his mother had been sacrificed by some race as a tribute to the Celestia race. As he trusted his father more than Nathan, who had evidently lied to him when they had talked with each other. Some part of him believed that Nathan had caught, or even sold his family to the race his father had been talking about. Nathan''s motives to do this would probably have been his greed and fear of being overthrown as the Heaven eyes sect''s patriarch, but even then the final result made no sense. ''If mom and my grandparents had been sold to another race, most probably a higher race, but even then they shouldn''t have been able to meet the Celestia race!'' Everything kept becoming more confusing, and Jason could only give his best to calm down as he stood up. What Jarid had probably meant was the mysterious being''s pressure that had suppressed him within his own body too. As such, he simply smiled at Jarid as he said, "Well, to be honest, there are things I don''t understand about myself either, but I''ve regained control over my body again. How far have we made it into the combat rounds?" Jarid understood that Jason didn''t want to continue speaking about what had happened. Thus, he turned away and said, "Once everyone has calmed down, we''re continuing, but it will take some time before the second round will start." When Jason heard this, he just nodded his head before turning towards Wisse who stared at him with even more interest than before which caused him to sigh deeply. "This will be a hassle." He mumbled, only to be heard by Jarid who smiled drily. The God''s Children were still shocked about what had happened to Jason, while the other participants stared at him with a mix of curiosity and apprehension. Initially, they had assumed Jason to be strong and talented, but unfortunately as he was extremely young in comparison to the other participants. However, this had now changed and everyone took him seriously! Due to this, Jason wanted to focus on the liberation tournament because this had been his highest priority since the beginning, only to hear a voice resounding in his head. [Did you figure out your issue?] Wisse, who had also been suppressed by the aura Jason had radiated for a short moment, asked while looking at the young man, who was even younger than him! He was merely curious and didn''t have any hidden selfish motives in being friendly with Jason who was hands down the most interesting young man he had encountered in a long time. However, seeing that Jason wanted to ignore him, Wisse was slowly growing agitated, doubting whether he was being too nice to the young man, who was barely at the 2nd Lique stage! [I don''t even know if it''s an issue] Jason answered, as an idea struck him! The Dragon had just begun to talk to him, questioning him about his origin and other personal things. Though Jason had no intention of doing the same, he realised that he could also figure out something else he was even more interested in. He had yet to find out how to override a soul contract after all! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 569 - Soul Pacts Solutions If Jason were to be honest, he didn''t really care about the dragon''s origin or the exact reason why Dragonoids, dragons, or whatever race had implemented the tradition to spectate the liberation tournament. There could be countless reasons, but as long as it didn''t turn into an obstacle to his own path, Jason would let the others live peacefully! Nevertheless, now that the dragon, Wisse, had questioned him quite a lot, showing his interest in the specific things Jason had revealed, he thought that it was possible to ask questions in return. As such, he decided to lure the dragon into his trap before turning the tides! [It may not be an issue, but more like something I have yet to figure out about my origin. I know almost nothing about my other race! But there is something else I''m interested in. Do you know a way to override an advanced soul contract? I need to figure out how this is possible for something. It''s very important to me.] Wisse knew that he had yet to gain Jason''s trust as he was always talking around the bush, never directly answering the questions he had asked. Despite that, Wisse could tell what the young man was doing.. Both he and Jason may be young but they were equally crafty which was the reason Wisse decided to accept the unconventional approach Jason seemed to offer. ''If I answer your questions you''ll trust me a little bit more which will in return make you answer truthfully? Is that so?'' Thus, he decided to answer some of Jason''s questions before he hoped to receive some more details about Jason in order to relay the acquired information to his master. She seemed to be very interested in Jason, or to be precise in the fact that he had been able to release pressure intertwined with the attribute of Chaos! That was extremely difficult and rare to see, and as such even more interesting to sense in a mana scarce world like Argos where beings like Jason shouldn''t even exist, to begin with. Jason had hoped that Wisse did exactly as he hoped, and it was evident that both had reached a compromise in order to gain more information. Torturing Jason was not really the way forward for Wisse as he was not sure what exactly the young man was hiding. That was even more dangerous because his distinct dragon senses told Wisse to be careful of Jason, and that it would be better to stay on friendly terms than the other way around. If other Dragonoid, let alone dragons were to hear that he had to act nicely in front of a being at the 2nd Lique stage, they would ridicule him as the way of the dragons was dominance and pure strength. Normally, he would overwhelm Jason and force him to reveal everything, but that was something even his master had told him not to do. In the end, Wisse didn''t care how others perceived him, but if his master said that the young golden-silverish eyes youth was someone he had to be careful of, this was most certainly the truth! As such, he thought about the question Jason had asked him before he answered. [If this concerns you, or someone close to you, I guess you are not talking about an advanced soul contract. There are several types of soul contracts, but beings below the Ascendion stage can only manifest the lowest type of soul contract. This can be done by loosening a thread from their soul to manifest a pact that involves only those beings connected to the soul threads. I''ve heard a little bit about the tumults that seemed to have happened during the last few years, and if rumors are to be believed, there shouldn''t even be an existence close to the capabilities to manifest an advanced soul contract, let alone the necessary materials. The most someone could create is a soul pact, which is what the lowest type of soul contract is called. Through this, one can add several clauses and include the oppressed individuals that have already formed a soul pact with one of the two parties to create another soul pact. However, in order to add the submissive parties, their prior soul pact must have already turned them into slaves, or subordinates that have to pay heed to the orders they receive without fail. As such, an entire clan could be forced into a single soul pact, turning everything a little bit complex. Now, how do you overwhelm, or overwrite a soul pact? This differentiates according to the given clauses, but the easiest would be to kill the beings in control of the said soul pact. Based on your expression, I believe this won''t be very helpful, as such you probably need a way to figure out a solution to let someone walk free out of a complex soul pact, unscathed if possible. If you don''t care about them being unscathed, shatter the majority of your soul and piece it together by utilizing heavenly resources¡­ Despite requiring lots of resources, which you can''t find on a planet that is even remotely similar to Argos, that would be the easier solution if I were to be honest. The last solution I can think of right now would be to simply overwrite the soul pact. This may be painful for both sides, but it could be possible if certain small points may have not been clearly mentioned. If that is the case, it would be possible for beings at the Ascendion stage to make use of this, and write a true soul contract because their soul is simply stronger! But even that might not necessarily help you to help someone out of enslavement, if the clauses state even one of the points that you believe might not have been mentioned...] Jason listened intently, but all of the information didn''t seem to truly help. The information was interesting and he could use it in the future. But it wouldn''t help him to figure out more about how he could rescue Greg and Malia, who had been enslaved, in addition to Gabriella and Mark, who might have been forced into a similar soul pact! ''Shattering soul¡­.would kill their soulbonds¡­.and even putting it together might not repair their soul world¡­.Ascendion stage..strengthened soul? That''s too long¡­ overwhelming..how to overwhelm a soul pact else...soul....soul...'' At that moment, Jason felt something within his soul world that distracted him. All three of his soulbonds, Artemis, Petri, and Solaris were behaving oddly, as if they wanted to tell him something he was missing out on; something extremely simple, yet too simple that it couldn''t be the solution he was seeking. His soulbond''s fortified soul conjunction was gleaming lightly and it was almost as if their connection that connected both Jason and his soulbonds with each other was screaming "Idiot" at him. Jason was so deep in thoughts that he didn''t even realise that his mind was slowly finding its way towards the right answer. Suddenly as if a bolt of lightning had struck his head, Jason''s eyes widened as he exclaimed, "I''m so stupid!!" Turning towards Wisse, the dragon, he asked for a voice transmission that would change the lives of many humans on Argos. [Have you heard about our race''s soul-awakening? Could you evaluate how strong the soul connection of soulbonds is in comparison to an enslavement soul pact??] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 570 - True Dragon Manifestation While Jason was talking to Wisse, the tournament continued, and it didn''t take long before the second round started and his name was announced. Wisse was knowledgeable but even he didn''t know anything about the depth and all complexities of a soul contract. Because of that Jason would have to test out several different situations. There were multiple approaches to do so, and the easiest would be to try binding a slave of the Olympus federation to his soul world! If it was possible to bind someone to his soul, despite him or her being under an enslavement soul pact, Jason could test terminating the enslavement soul pact before dissolving the soulbond with the said slave. Dissolving a soul connection was only possible in the first 24 hours because the binding process would mostly take longer. Despite that, there were several things Jason didn''t know like how much soul energy he would require to bind and control an intelligent foreign race, if it was higher than normal beasts, and if a human with a soul world could even be bound to another soul world! Soul energy was what Jason had altogether and it would be the smallest issue, and only the latter part about the human race''s soul world worried him. Nevertheless, he had finally found the first clue to rescue the Flers which was everything he wanted to achieve, followed by finding out more about the past of his family.. There were several other things he had to figure out yet, but Jason couldn''t focus on everything at once. Inside the arena ring, he faced a dragonewt with a unique innate fire affinity that seemed to have mutated. As such, the female dragonewt''s strength increased substantially as she enveloped herself in a crimson-red armor of flames. ''Is everyone trying to turn into an armored warlord or what?'' This was the only thing Jason could ask himself as he allowed Solaris to enter his mana core. Despite not gaining any advantage in terms of physical strength or mana core enlargement by letting Solaris occupy his mana core, Jason''s control over the fire affinity as well as the pace at which he could circulate mana through his body increased. At the same time, his mana consumption by utilizing the black flame affinity decreased drastically while the flames'' lethality increased in proportion! All-in-all, Solaris allowed him to turn into a humanoid flamethrower. That was exactly what he did and conjured more than a hundred spears of black flames. They were compressed and Jason threw them at the dragonewt who was at the 6th Lique stage. She had reached the peak of the 9th Lique stage thanks to her unique affinity, the body refinement technique she had used, and the cultivation technique the young woman had exerted every single day! Unfortunately for her, Solaris'' strength was at par with a flame at the 10th Lique stage, in addition to owning a mana nullification ability! Thus, Solaris burned through the crimson flames that spread through the entire arena. While most black spear flames prevented the dragonewt from evading, only a small number of the flames pierced through her arms, legs, and small wings that were tightly folded on her back. Jason had avoided targeting her vital spots which was noticeable, and the fight seemed to end before it had even truly begun. Yet, what Jason hadn''t expected was that the female dragonewt wouldn''t give up even after having been pierced by more than 10 black flame spears. This caused him to nod his head in acknowledgment, only to hope that his opponent realised that she was burned from the inside. Weirdly enough, the dragonewt acted as if she was unbothered by that fact, which made Jason recall the Klarir. ''I cannot let another opponent barely escape death¡­.'' His thoughts were mostly focused on the future relationship he wanted the human race to establish with the Olympus federation. As such, black flames spurted out of Jason''s back, creating wings and he simply ascended into the air while looking at the girl who was about to advance towards him as he said. "Just surrender, you won''t be able to defeat me with the injuries you''ve already sustained, let alone the flames that burn through your insides right now!" Despite his warning, the dragonewt ignored him. Instead, she glared at him in anger as if he was oblivious to the importance the liberation tournament held to the participants. Seeking to vent out her frustration, she released her entire mana at once. The dragonewt had been forced to use the technique she had honed for several years much earlier than she had wanted to. She had wanted to save it as a last resort and use it to win the liberation tournament in the final round but somehow Jason had made her reveal her trump card sooner.. Unfortunately, this was unavoidable as she had been matched against Jason, who had already been an ominous opponent since he had completed the second round. Nevertheless, according to the dragonewts'' estimations, Jason should have used up a vast majority of his mana in order to conjure over one hundred compressed black flame spears! As such, she sensed her chance to retaliate. Utilizing her entire mana, she manifested a ginormous head of a dragon around herself as a thunderous roar resounded in the colosseum, shaking the concrete and spectators. "Is that the secret technique [True Dragon manifestation]??" One of the higher-ups asked the old dragonewts who was seated close to him. It was another higher-up of the Olympus federation, but the old woman laughed lightly. Before she could answer his question with a bright smile, they heard another laugh next to them. "True Dragon manifestation??? You don''t even know what kind of existence a True dragon is! If this young dragonewt would be able to manifest the replica of a true dragon in the form of her fire affinity, I would personally send her to a true fire dragon! But don''t be fooled, this is nothing but a scam, and even half-fledged dragons are more powerful than what you can possibly imagine. Just look at the fight!" Wisse felt ridiculous that the female dragonewt had planned to affirm the old Klarir''s assumption which was evident from the expression she had revealed. As such, he had felt forced to intervene as the pride of dragons was on the line! However, his words were true. If the young female dragonewt was able to manifest the replica of a true dragon, he would have taken her to a true fire dragon to train her as well! She was only at the 8th Lique stage, and would need to be extremely talented to show something as mighty as a true dragon! The old dragonewt wanted to throw a fit at the young voice that had interrupted them but noticed that it was the Olympus federation''s guest and the representative of the dragonoids. As such, she gulped down her anger and simply nodded her head before turning around. Taking a deep breath, she ignored the Klarir''s ridiculing smile as she focused on the fight right in front of her. Meanwhile, Jason was astonished by the sheer mass of compressed mana and crimson flames that created the replica of a dragon head. It looked similar to the picture he had seen of the Ice Dragon which Jael Drake had defeated years ago. Throwing Wisse a short glance while using his memories, Jason could roughly understand what the female dragonewt had tried to do. Despite that, it was impossible for Jason to not give a light smile as he had already scanned through the dragonewts attack. At that moment, Solaris seemed to erupt inside his mana core, trying to tell him that it was ready to steal the girl''s show! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 571 - Let Me Show You Even though he had only seen through the mana circulation and necessary amount of mana required by the girl to manifest the dragon head, Jason felt intrigued. This was mainly because Solaris transmitted to him that it wanted to test doing the same thing the female dragonewt was doing. As such, he decided to agree to his soulbond''s wish and used most of his mana to release into the small black flame that Solaris had manifested on his hand. The small black flame was transformed into a tiny dragon head, the size of Jason''s thumb before it received the first batch of mana, allowing it to grow substantially. It took much longer to control and form the black flame dragon head than Jason assumed, but that didn''t matter because the female dragonewt had to fight with the injuries she had sustained. Meanwhile, she was also trying to control the secret technique she was using to an extent she had never tested out before! Because the dragonewt had to focus on two things instead of one, Jason had the advantage that he had more than enough time to focus on his own attack. He could have thrown the dragonewt out of the arena ring already, but he could feel Solaris'' excitement and couldn''t help but smile brightly. The black flame dragon head had already reached the size of his hands as Jason noticed that the golden strands had accumulated at the area where the eyeballs of the dragon should normally be. Through this, the replica of a black flame dragon with golden eyes had been born, before the vast majority of Jason''s mana shot into the hand-sized flame that erupted, inflating at a rapid pace. At the same time, a thunderous roar, amplified by Solaris'' abilities, resounded throughout the colosseum. The golden-eyed black dragon replica had roared against the heavens, spewing out mighty flames that licked the air. Jason''s excitement caused his Celestia aura and stigma to ignite, merging with Solaris'' stigma that had also begun to shine in a bright golden-silverish light. Both Jason and the black dragon''s golden eyes began to glow and Jason cast a fleeting glance at the old female dragonewt who had wanted to brag about her descendant earlier before he turned his head back to the young dragonewt in front of him. "Evade it, or someone else will have to grieve your death!" Jason knew that he sounded arrogant, but the sheer might he sensed in his arm was more than enough to burn the young dragonewt and reduce her into a pile of ashes! Furthermore, he was one of the people that liked showing off their strength, preventing others from needlessly offending him. He felt like showing what he was capable off in small batches was the best to achieve this, which was something he had learned in the Vanguard school. It might not be suitable while facing other races but this was only something he could figure out by experimenting! After he had said what was necessary, Jason waited another three seconds, allowing everyone to understand that he had issued a warning and that he wouldn''t be at fault for the repercussions that would follow. That was also the reason he had looked at the old female dragonewt, who had turned eerily silent. Since Jason had released his replica of the true dragon manifestation, she knew that something was wrong. As such, she was about to rescue her youngest descendant, only to be held back by the Klarir next to her. "Didn''t you hear what our representative said? NOBODY is allowed to intervene in the fights and Olivia seems to be doing fine for now, doesn''t she?!" At that moment, the old dragonewt felt like killing the Klarir next to her. In an effort to calm herself down from attacking him she gritted her teeth and instead shot up from her seat. Then she released a strand of mana which she threw towards Olivia, who still harbored the will to continue fighting! "Leave the arena, you idiot!! If you die, I will never forgive you!! The liberation tournament is not worth receiving a permanent injury, let alone dying for!!!" Olivia had only heard the second dragon roar, without knowing what exactly it was as her eyes had been closed. She had to temporarily close her eyes in order to concentrate. All her focus had been directed to manifest a replica of a dragon head with the true dragon manifestation technique. As such, she could only now see the golden-eyed black flame dragon head that was double the size of the crimson red dragon head she had manifested. Nervous, the dragonewt gulped down her saliva as a sliver of fear instilled within her, igniting in a mere moment as she lifted her hands to shoot the crimson red dragon head towards Jason. Aiming to distract him with the dragon head, she rushed towards her right side which was the nearest way to leave the arena! ''Why did I even try to continue fighting?!'' She lamented while trying to fight the sensation that made her feel as if she was burning on the inside. Gritting her teeth, Olivia could only blame herself for being overconfident in the face of someone, who was by all means, superior to her! It was evident that Jason''s attack would be stronger because he could use more mana due to the lower mana consumption of his black flame affinity. Additionally, his black flames'' maximum output was at the peak of the 10th Lique black flame without the use of Solaris'' abilities! Thanks to that, Jason knew that he would be able to easily overpower the young woman. At the same time, he also noticed that his control over the massive amount of mana and Solaris'' flame compressed into the form of a Dragon head was more difficult than expected. Through the Emperor Eyes he had only seen how the true dragon manifestation worked, one single time, and it was Solaris that had been confident to replicate the same attack. However, now that the dragon head was fully formed with the vast majority of his mana, Jason could tell that he shouldn''t play around with techniques he hadn''t trained with before, and at least had read the technique''s manual beforehand. This was also the reason why he had looked at the dragonewt elder, hoping that she would take care of her descendant because Jason assumed Olivia to be as confident in emerging victorious as he had been about himself. The only difference was that Jason''s Emperor Eyes could tell the difference between his attack and Olivia''s, in addition to their corresponding strength. Olivia was already injured and Jason was perfectly fine, thus he hoped that she would leave the arena. Fortunately, she had done exactly the same after the dragonewt elder had used voice transmission to tell her something. She had hastily thrown the Crimson red dragon head towards Jason and rushed towards the exit. "Alright, let''s show what a dragon replica could look like!" Jason said with a bright smile on his face as he lifted both of his hands before he gave the golden-eyed black dragon head a nudge. Jason''s hands itched to let off some steam ever since he had encountered the soul fraction of a mysterious being within his body. It made him feel uncomfortable as if a ticking time bomb had been implanted into his body. However, at the same time, he could tell that the being didn''t want to harm him and that it was sincerely helping Jason to seal his bloodline which seemed to have saved his and his mother''s life, allowing him to arrive in the world. Nevertheless, this didn''t change anything because the unknown made him feel even worse, while every passing day made him feel like he knew nothing about his mother, let alone his maternal grandparents. Everything seemed to have become messier than it was before, and Jason had decided to let go of his emotions as fast as possible instead of bottling them up. He didn''t want to leave a single chance to fate to transform into an Infernal Celestia after all! Seeing the golden-eyed black dragon fly through the air, devouring the crimson red flame dragon, Jason felt as if his mind was freed and a faint smile emerged on his face. ''I guess it''s time to finish the liberation tournament as soon as possible, Greg..Malia..I''m coming and Nathan¡­.you''ll tell me everything!!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 572 - Interesting Change The golden-eyed black flame dragon head Jason had fired in Olivia''s direction devoured the crimson red dragon head she had thrown at him before fleeing from the arena ring. Despite that, her life as well as that of the other spectators with a lower cultivation base was in danger as the entire colosseum was heating up at a rapid pace. Instead of becoming weaker, the golden-eyed black dragon Solaris and Jason had manifested seemed to become stronger by devouring the true dragon manifestation the female dragonewt had tried to create. From a strength that was already reaching the threshold of a 1st Prismar stage attack, Jason''s copy of the true dragon manifestation became even stronger as it brushed past Olivia at a rapid pace. The black flame dragon head broke through the defensive layers each combat ring had installed, forcing the guards at the Primsar stage, that had been employed to protect the spectators, to act. There was always the possibility of a stray attack breaking through the protection mechanism, and it was a rather common occurrence in the liberation tournament. However, under normal circumstances the attack would have weakened due to the force that had to be utilized in piercing the multitude of protection layers. Unfortunately, this was not the case with Jason''s attack because Solaris'' mana nullification ability had received a severe amplification when it had devoured the crimson red dragon head.. As such, the guards that were merely at the Low rank of the Prismar stage''s first threshold, could only grit their teeth and use their own attack to destroy that of Jason''s. This was not the best solution as the released mana fluctuations might accidentally injure spectators. In order to avoid such a scenario, it was necessary to defend against the attack, by letting several guards receive the brunt of the impact and protect the spectators. At that moment, Jason could only apologize in his mind as he had channelised his discomfort and anger towards the unknown into the attack he had just now utilized. Even though he could accept that his mother seemed to have requested the unknown being to help her in rescuing both of them, Jason still felt uncomfortable knowing that a fraction of the soul of an alien being was inside him. On the other hand, it might have been the only way for him to be born and his mother to survive giving birth to him because Jason didn''t know anything about the Celestia race! However, that was exactly what caused Jason to feel so miserable! He had already more than enough unknown things to figure out such as the question of what exactly the Celestia race was, what had happened to his mother in the past, who his grandparents were, or maybe finding out if they were still alive! But now the existence of an unknown being inside his body made everything even more annoying because Jason was able to utilize the chaos attribute the being had. However, using it without proper training could prove harmful for his body. As such, the soul fraction tried to prevent him from using the chaos attribute for his own good, leaving Jason both frustrated and confused. It was great to know that his mother had loved him dearly, and put his life over her own cultivation base that she destroyed willingly. Additionally, she had also severed her soulbond connection, only to return to Argos, but had all of that been really necessary? While there was not even a shred of doubt in his mind whether his mother had loved him or not he wasn''t too sure if everything she had done had been really worth it. Had there been no other solution to the predicament she had faced at that time? Had it been an unnecessary pain and grief she had to overcome? With all of these thoughts in his mind, he had created the golden-eyed black flame dragon and attacked with it. Unfortunately, the attack had been a little bit over the top because Jason hadn''t expected that the technique utilized by the female dragonewt would amplify the flame''s strength to such an extent, while Solaris'' excitement to test something new had a similar effect. Owing to all these factors, Jason''s current attack was stronger than he had wanted it to become, and it was fortunate for the dragonewt to have successfully evaded, otherwise, he might have killed her! ''Won''t the government of the Olympus federation think that I''m doing all of this intentionally? We are barely in the second combat round of the liberation tournament after all!'' While Jason was deep in thoughts, thinking that he might have created a tricky situation that could affect the future relationship of mankind and the Olympus federation, Wisse had already moved. He didn''t really care about the spectators, instead, he wanted to see to what extent the golden eyes black flame dragon head had been constructed. Wisse had only once seen a true black dragon with crimson eyes, and this existence was already fearsome enough. Jason''s manifestation might''ve looked profound to everyone else, but Wisse found it rather crude, but even then he couldn''t help but feel astonished. ''Did he copy the technique from the little girl during their small battle or had he known it beforehand?'' At the same time, he was confused about the black flame itself. The fluctuations radiating from it were unique and Wisse could tell that it was a higher existence and something that shouldn''t exist on Argos either! Knowing that it was something at par with a medium grade origin flame or even stronger, such as a higher grade origin flame, Wisse acted on instinct as he appeared right in front of the golden-eyed black flame dragon head. He simply ignored the Low 1st threshold Prismar stage guards while completely unfurling his wings that had already grown to a wingspan of more than 100 meters in total. At that moment, everyone realized that Wisse was definitely not a normal Dragonoid and watched in awe as a huge fiery red flame manifested in Wisse''s palm. After inserting a large amount of mana into the flame, he simply threw it toward the dragon head that roared out, seemingly in rage as it tried to devour the other dragon head. What happened afterward caused Wisse''s eyes to gleam brightly as he exclaimed just one word "Interesting." He then instructed the highly compressed ball of fire to explode in the black dragon head''s maw, forcefully separating the mana that was crudely put together. Wisse had been forced to do this, instead of letting the fireball pierce through the dragon head which was what he had planned to achieve in the beginning. This was because Solaris drained the fire ball''s mana slowly! The shocking sight of the dragon head dispersed in a fraction of time, before Wisse returned to his place without saying anything. His dragon wings were once again retracted and he behaved as if nothing had happened. However, the spectator''s dropped jaws, as well as the Olympus federation''s higher-ups'' expression, told a different story. With the second incident Jason had caused, the liberation tournament was halted because the elders had to speak with each other about Jason, and the danger he brought to their descendants. Meanwhile, Jason could only look at the commotion he had caused once again as he took a deep breath. His mind had been freed of the tension and he was able to think clearly about everything he had to do now. It was not much, but with Wisse''s knowledge, he had a small thread to hold on to. Nodding his head towards Wisse, who had prevented the worst-case from occurring, he averted his attention to Merl Arths and the other human powerhouses. At that moment, the Olympus federation''s representative stepped forward, clearing his throat while amplifying the sound with mana as he announced something nobody had expected! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 573 - Battle Royale With everyone''s attention on the Olympus federation''s representative, he made a simple announcement that caused everyone to look at the old dragonewt in astonishment. "Now that we had two severe incidents during the first two combat rounds of the liberation tournament, we want to implement two changes! The first and also most important rule we want to add is that the ancestors of the fighting participants are now allowed to end the fight by making their descendants give up. We don''t want to have any casualties and the old rules of the liberation tournament are not something we can use right now...not if we want to prevent any deaths from happening!" This was interesting because it changed a rule that had been implemented 300 years ago, but everyone understood the cause. It was evident that Jason didn''t want to kill anyone because he could have done so otherwise, and in order to prevent more similar accidents from occurring, the government''s higher-ups had implemented a new rule. The old female dragonewt had already taken Olivia to the medic team that tended to the burns she had received. At the same time, Jason had already extinguished Solaris'' flame within the dragonewt''s body, preventing her from burning alive. With the things both mankind and the Olympus federation had perceived during the last few hours, they realised that it would be best for them to work together. At least if they were to try to elevate their respective status in the face of other races, preventing scenarios like the Great Argos war, even if the world bridges were becoming stabler with time! At the same time, the combat prowess of the strongest individuals was evident and could be reinforced on both sides if their ties allowed them to trade resources, military forces, and so on. The opportunities were endless, and there were more than enough world bridges that led to places with lots of resources that had yet to be conquered! Thus they were happy about the newly implemented rule, and Jason was amongst the happiest. ''Good insights!'' He thought while letting it slide that such a rule should have already been enforced. The fact that the rule didn''t exist was weird, but Jason ignored it as he heard the second statement made by the Olympus federation''s representative. "Other than that, we want to change the combat rounds and implement a battle royale system! 50 participants will fight against each other at the same time, and only the last one standing will reach the quarterfinals!" This was the announcement that astonished everyone because the combat rounds system had never been changed before. As such, an uproar swept through the entire colosseum while Jason could only smile dryly as he returned to his friends. They weren''t even astonished and simply said "Good Job" without feeling any excitement. Seeing this, Jason''s smile widened as he remarked, "The battle royal will probably split us apart. There should be around 300 participants left in the 3rd round, and we''re a team of six." Jason was not sure if his assumption was correct, but he thought that the reason for implementing a battle royale was not only because of the incidents he had caused. They might be a part of the reason, but Jason knew how shrewd people could be. As such, he assumed the worst while secretly hoping for the best. Most spectators couldn''t understand the reason for the sudden change and thought that this was simply not fair. In order to calm them down, the Olympus federation representative added that the races would be equally split into groups, making everything fair. With that, Jason knew that he and the others would be split, turning the entire tournament against them. From what he could tell, the Olympus federation was willing to establish a bond with them. However, this didn''t mean that they would allow the God''s Children, let alone Jason to be rewarded with anything valuable. The newest generation of the Olympus federation was the most talented which was the reason for the liberation tournament rewards to be so great, including the lower origin flame. This was not difficult to understand, and Jason simply accepted the changed rules, while transmitting his voice to Merl Arths, explaining everything. At the same time, he told the God''s Children what was going on, and it was evident how displeased they were. Nevertheless, because they had come to Janur with an official mission as mankind''s embassy, they had to hold back and act accordingly. Accepting the changes, the God''s Children couldn''t help but feel that their chances to emerge victorious in the liberation tournament hadn''t changed. They were still extremely low, and they had to be more focused now! This should only be subtle and nothing evident as the Olympus federation seemed to be eager to turn the human race into their allies. Jason found this great, and simply ignored the fact that he had to fight a total of 49 people in the next round at a time. Wisse was still eying him but Jason decided to ignore this for now. There were more important things for him, and if the young dragon wanted something from him, he should wait until everything was completed. Knowing that the next few weeks would be full of work, Jason could only hope that Wisse wouldn''t try to kidnap him or anything like that. That was a viable option for the dragon because he was stronger and his eyes seemed to eye Jason weirdly. As such, his mind was bringing forth the worst-case scenarios. ''Maybe I can make use of that? I could tell him to follow me if he wants to hear answers, while I solve my problems¡­.at the same time I wouldn''t have to fight against the human powerhouses. Is Wisse even strong and knowledgeable enough to close some unstable world bridges?'' Jason''s mind was already running wild, in hopes of leaving Argos very soon because he wanted to adventure to other planets and leave the planet that had caused him more pain than anything else. There were only a few people he would miss, and the Flers topped the list. His masters were dead and the most important family he was left with was always with him; his loyal soulbonds! Time passed slowly, and the first day of the liberation tournament ended with the conclusion of the second round and the announcement about who would fight in which of the 6 Battle royales the day after. Unsurprisingly Jason was put into the group with the strongest opponents, and he could only sigh deeply, thinking that the Olympus federation was just too scheming. However, at the same time, excitement ignited within him, and Jason simply told himself that he wouldn''t allow anyone to take away the rewards he wanted to obtain. He wanted the origin flame crystals for Solaris to allow its advancement and even the Olympus federation was not allowed to take this away from him. A sly smile emerged on his face as he said, "If they''re going to play dirty, I won''t hold back either." Turning to Jarid, who looked at him with a dry smile, Jason added. "If you don''t want to join hands with me tomorrow, that''s fine with me but I won''t hold back, and can''t promise anything!" Jarid was not sure why Jason said this, but seeing that Jason''s golden-silverish eyes stared behind him, he followed his gaze to see him looking straight at Old Sadran. The young Ilian immediately understood what Jason had meant. "You knew?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 574 - Experiment Jason had assumed that Jarid was related to Old Sadran, who was among the strongest beings in the Olympus federation, but he couldn''t be sure about that before. Now he knew, but instead of saying too much, Jason brushed off Jarid''s question before he turned away. He was about to walk to the others when he heard Jarid/Jason ask a question. "It''s not as if it changes anything, right?" Jason''s words could be interpreted in many ways, but Jarid simply smiled before he nodded his head. "That''s good! I might not be able to fight with you against the others but I can give you one tip. Pay attention to the dragonewts and Klarir, they''re likely to focus on you tomorrow!" Nodding his head, Jason walked back to the God''s children who were currently talking about the opponents they would have to fight the day after. Apparently, every group had a few strong individuals, but almost every member of Jason''s battle royale group was a prodigy. It was as if the Olympus federation wanted to focus on him while allowing the other prodigies to fight with each other, pre-determining the winner of the liberation tournament. If his perception was not wrong, his group''s battle royale should be the deciding factor on who would win the tournament as the most prodigious participants were gathered in one group. This was annoying and at the same time, extremely exciting for Jason, who was eager to fight strong opponents. He knew that tomorrow''s battle royale was the most important as the other opponents that would come out victorious of the remaining battle royales were unlikely to turn into a challenge which was somewhat ridiculous. ''To think that Olympus federation ignores the liberation tournaments'' rules just to throw all prodigies at me...if that''s really the case, they''re definitely afraid of me!'' Jason was not sure if he was overestimating himself to think that the government cared about him so much, or his guess was spot-on. In the end, it didn''t matter and he and the God''s children returned to Merl Arths and the other human powerhouses before they left the colosseum. Returning to the training hall that also had a dorm where they could rest, Jason went to sleep, not wasting anymore time that would prevent him from recuperating from his exhaustion. The day had been long and it was finally time for him to rest, without anyone bothering him. His mind was at peace and he slept for half a day before he woke up. Jason was fully energized and his mana core filled to the brim as he got out of the bed. He didn''t even think about the soul fraction within his body, because his mind was occupied with the facts that it might be possible for him to terminate the Flers'' soul contract, Wisse''s interest in him, or the way the Olympus federation tweaked the tournament rules to out him and the God''s children at a huge disadvantage! After washing up, Jason went inside the kitchen to look if there was something to eat but noticed that they hadn''t been provided with food. As such, he had to take out dishes from his spatial ring which he ate without any complaints. Through the Emperor Eyes Jason noticed that the others were already awake and he walked towards them, only to see that they were analyzing all kinds of information they had obtained from the tournament management. Unfortunately, they had been unable to read much as their universal language skills were still not up to the mark. Because of that, they had been eagerly waiting for Jason to wake up and help them understand. Hence, they almost pounced upon him when he entered the training hall. There were still a few hours left before the first battle royale would start and Jason wanted to test out a few things with his soul world and the soulbond contract, but he was interrupted by the God''s children pleading with him to help them. Initially, he''d wanted to reject them, but then an idea flashed into his mind! Clearing his throat, he gave them a sly smile before putting on a serious expression and telling the God''s children that something bad was about to happen. Their eyes went wide at his words and a few of them gulped nervously, wanting to retreat and leave Jason alone. However, his next words made them feel like beating Jason into a pulp, ignoring the fact that he had become stronger than any of them! That was how ridiculous Jason''s words sounded. "I can help you guys, but I need your help too! Can one of you guys make an enslavement soul pact with anyone, except me? I want to test if it''s possible to terminate an enslavement contract by binding the enslaved being with a soulbond contract! I will terminate the soulbond contract the moment I figure out the truth!" Jason knew that it sounded ridiculous, but he wanted to figure out if his approach to save the Flers was correct. As such, he was straightforward with his friends who looked at him as if he was insane. "Jason..are you sure you''re fine? We should probably search for Merl...maybe he can take Jason to the medics¡­" It was Tom who said this worriedly. Meanwhile, Betty stared at Jason with squinted eyes. She was sure that Jason was not playing around, but that made everything even more ridiculous. This was also the reason why Tom thought Jason was suffering from some mental health issues due to the day before where many unbelievable things had happened. However, Jason was adamant in his request. "Don''t you guys trust each other? I doubt anyone here would accept being someone else''s slave under normal conditions and that''s not what I want either. I just need to test something out..it''s very important to me...but if you guys feel uncomfortable with that, it''s fine too. I can just wait before we return where I can test this out with some humans who are still enslaved. Obviously, I can still help you guys with the translations." The God''s children didn''t know a lot about Jason, and they could tell that he himself was unsure about his identity, at least to some extent. However, hearing that there was something extremely important Jason had to figure out made the others feel intrigued. Because of that Betty said "If you tell me the reason why you want to test...this weird experiment without beating around the bush, or at least provide a short summary, I might help you." She didn''t promise anything because it was evident how dangerous it could be to enter an enslavement soul pact, let alone turn into someone else''s soulbond. The latter was something that had already been tested out sparingly before, simply because it was too disadvantageous. Binding another human with a soul world to one''s own soul could lead to repulsive reactions, destroying both souls, and this could work only if the soul contractor had a dominant soul world. In the end, the benefits of binding another human were negligible too, because they didn''t amplify the soul contractor''s strength which could be used as a means to find a loophole within the soul world. Jason was likely to have a dominant soul world and none of the God''s Children doubted this because Jason had once shown a part of his soul world to them. As such, they knew what kind of miraculous existence Jason''s soul world was. Though this did not completely negate all the dangers, as long as Jason terminated the soulbond contract after terminating the enslavement soul pact everything should be fine. Somehow, Betty felt intrigued about this and the others couldn''t help but feel that the insane idea held some merit. Seeing this, Jason decided to tell his friends everything about the Flers, in addition to what had happened on Astrix after he had left the place. The God''s children were independent forces and had no ties to the Drake clan which was the reason Jason spoke freely. He knew that his chances of receiving their help would increase after telling them the entire truth without holding anything back. Because of that, he felt even better. As he narrated his story, the others listened intently while Betty revealed her anger towards the Drake clan as she jumped up and cursed, "This son of a b*tch!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 575 - Supremacy If Jason''s experiment worked, normal enslavement soul pacts would lose their worth, turning into nothing but scrap as long as someone with a dominant soul world was eager to rescue everyone. "Even though the Great Argos war has ended, the situation is still tense. As the My?ldra race continues to be the Drake clan''s staunch supporter, nobody can attack them. At least, not without them waging another war against us. It would cause a chain reaction and we wouldn''t be able to survive this time¡­. Another attack of the Overlord beasts is not something we would want at any cost!! As such you..or even we might be able to lower the Drake clan''s combat strength by a vast amount. Most of their powerhouses, let alone newer generations of the clan members, are in an enslavement soul pact after all!" Jason was no samaritan, and he had only planned to help the Flers, but when he heard what Ben said right after Betty had calmed down from her rant, caused him to think about everything more thoroughly. Hearing what Ben said, Jason couldn''t help but feel that the young man was more righteous than he was. Thus, he smiled lightly while the others seemed to be convinced about trying out Jason''s insane idea. Only Xenia was somewhat reluctant but both Ben and Betty volunteered to sign an enslavement soul pact with any of the God''s Children. As such, Tom made the soul pact, and enslaved Ben, while the rest of them observed everything precisely. After that, they had to test if everything was working which caused Tom to ask Ben several questions. Wanting to test the pact as well as know something he had assumed for a long time he said, "If you''re in love with anyone tell me the name!" Tom''s last question was mean because he had already sensed something about Ben''s love interest. However, looking at Ben''s face, he seemed to have never told the truth to anyone but was now forced to speak. Yet, before anything could happen Tom added in a demanding tone. "Whisper the name into my ear!" Ben was one of Tom''s best friends. As such, he didn''t want to throw him into the pit of fire. Apparently, Ben was still uncomfortable and wanted to leave, but was forced to answer due to the enslavement soul pact. "I knew it!!" Tom exclaimed before Ben retreated with an ashen-white face. He seemed to be lost and seeing his dejected expression, Xenia intervened. "Wasn''t that a little bit too much Tom? We just wanted to figure out whether the soul pact works or not. There was no need to peek into his personal life!!" Jason nodded his head when he heard this, but Tom''s smile as an answer caused Jason''s interest to skyrocket. ''So it works like that?'' He thought inwardly before he clasped his hands, attracting the others'' attention. "Now that we''ve figured out that the enslavement soul pact is working properly, I will bind you with my soul, alright? I have more than enough soul crystals, and a high amount of soul energy, so there shouldn''t be anything wrong with that!" With that being said, Jason and the God''s children completed their preparations while Merl and the other human powerhouses were oblivious to the revolutionary occurrence happening right under their noses. If they were to know what the six young men and women were doing, they would have prevented them from going ahead because there had been many things that had already been tested out with the soul world. Unfortunately, there had been more accidents than one could think of, and it couldn''t be considered the best move to test out the supremacy of a certain soul with a God''s child''s soul. It was already superior to every other soul world existing in mankind''s history except Jason''s. There was a reason the human prodigies were referred to as ''The God''s children'', and it was only fortunate that it was Jason who tried to subdue Ben with his soul world and not one of the other God''s children. While the others looked at Jason with tense expressions, he took a deep breath to calm down. Slowly, he loosened a thread of his soul which he shot towards Ben, who was two meters in front of him, without hesitation. At that moment a faint shockwave of mysterious energies swept through the training hall, attracting the human powerhouses'' attention. A moment later they had appeared in the training hall, only to see four God''s children standing around Jason and Ben, who were doing something. While Ben had to grit his teeth in pain, Jason released more and more of his soul thread, intertwined with huge amounts of soul energy. Right now, Jason''s soul energy had no use because his soulbonds were growing at a rate slower than the soul energy replenishment rate. Jason had no intention to contract another soulbond for the time being either because his vessel had to be further reinforced while the wound left behind after Scorpio''s death in his heart had yet to heal. If he were to bind another beast to his soul, the decision would be irrevocable, turning the new soulbond into his family instantly, and Jason would never allow them to be severely injured! Due to his Emperor Eyes Jason could see every detail about what was happening right now. As such, he perceived how Ben''s soul was trying to fight off Jason''s soul thread, only to be overpowered and slowly forced into submission. Jason''s soul thread was mostly white with golden and silver strands intertwined with each other that were the colors representing Jason as an individual. The more soul energy he used to oppress, the weaker Ben''s defenses became as he accepted being turned into a soulbond of Jason. Under normal circumstances, one would actively fight against this kind of submission, but the current situation was different. They were just testing if it was possible to terminate an enslavement soul pact without the enslaved party''s resistance. If that worked with Ben, whose soul world was extremely strong, everything else should work too. Time passed slowly, and Merl had already appeared next to the other God''s children in order to observe what they had been up to. It was interesting, but Merl as well as the other human powerhouses couldn''t help but feel as if the young generation was too hasty. Had they known that Jason was extremely confident that his assumption would work as well as his gut-feeling that told him everything was doing fine, Merl would''ve probably called him an idiot. One might think that they were foolish, but the excitement originating from the possibility of being able to terminate certain enslavement soul pacts was too interesting. While Jason''s soul had already overwhelmed Ben''s he had accidentally forced it out, leading to a gigantic soul world behind Jason that was continuously enlarging. The surrounding was lit up, and everyone could see the multitude of affinity wisps levitating through his soul world, making them witness a shocking sight. When he noticed this, Jason retracted it within a moment, only to be caught before he said. "I''m done with the soulbound contract!" The connection between Jason''s soul world core and Ben''s was only faint, but it was evident that Jason had become the dominant force because he was completely unfazed while Ben grit his teeth in an effort to survive the pressure. "It feels way more uncomfortable than expected...the enslavement soul pact is trying to tear me apart for becoming the subordinate of someone else, but the soulbound contract prevents this from occurring!" With that knowledge, Jason couldn''t help but feel as if he had taken a major step in figuring out a solution as he said, "Now let''s destroy the enslavement soul pact!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 576 - Alone Destroying the soul pact was not as difficult as Jason expected it to be and was quite easily done. After he had overwhelmed Ben''s soul, and become his soulbond contractor, the enslavement soul pact lost some of its potency. This prevented Tom, who had become Ben''s master owing to the enslavement soul pact''s regulations, to order Ben to kill himself, or Jason. Even though that was interesting, it was more important for Jason to figure out the exact procedure of destroying an enslavement soul pact. Thus, Jason used his Emperor Eyes to perceive everything about Ben, his new soulbond''s soul and state. A few minutes passed and it was only then that Jason started moving. Using the soul connection he and Ben had, Jason transferred some of his aura to Ben in order to envelop the imprint on his youngest soulbond''s soul. This imprint was in fact the enslavement soul pact. Once the soul pact was enveloped, it began to squirm violently, which caused Ben to feel unbearable pain. As such, Jason stopped a moment later, before he started to ponder once again. A few seconds later he released his soul world, increasing the transferred soul energy as well as his dominance over the soul connection. With that, Jason started to use his own soul to nearly annex Ben''s, before he began to push the soul imprint made by the enslaving soul pact out. This was only possible because Jason''s soul thread had entered the inner parts of Ben''s soul, allowing him to slowly push the foreign imprint out of Ben''s soul that was oblivious to everything that was happening. Because it was not Ben who actively pushed out the soul imprint, the enslavement soul pact didn''t activate itself, and Jason could remove it as if it was a small foreign object inside one''s body. No scar was left behind on Ben''s soul, and the soul imprint that required energy to be empowered started to disintegrate. In the end, it had only been possible to remove the enslavement soul pact because Jason''s soul was superior to Ben''s and that the young God''s child''s soul had been slightly altered the moment he had been bound to Jason''s soul! This slight alteration made a huge difference to the soul pact, making everything in the following steps possible. The entire procedure took less than ten minutes and Jason retracted his aura, the overflowing soul energy, and the soul thread that had entered Ben''s soul. It had been a painful experience for Ben causing an uncomfortable feeling within the young man. Nevertheless, it was a necessary step and it was not long after that Jason terminated the soulbond contract with Ben, releasing him from his forced state of submission. The termination didn''t hurt their souls, as the connection between them had not yet stabilized and everyone was able to return to their routine life as if nothing had happened. This was the most important, and the only downside was that Ben was currently feeling exhausted. A few hours of rest would be more than enough, and he would be ready to fight in the sixth group of the battle royale without any issues. Meanwhile, Jason was already deep in thoughts, with a vibrant smile on his face as began to visualize how to make use of the knowledge they had acquired. It was only when Merl Arths grasped his shoulders while saying his name several times that Jason regained his senses, returning to the training hall. "Jason! Finally, you''re back. Tell me, how did you destroy the enslavement soul pact on Ben?!?" Merl''s eyes were gleaming brightly and he had never seen so much vigor and determination in the old man''s eyes which caused Jason to look at him in confusion. However, instead of holding anything back, Jason looked around, trying to perceive the human powerhouse''s facial expressions and emotional hue that enveloped them before he explained everything in a detailed manner. Because Jason was not sure which clan was working with which, he could only trust the minute details his Emperor Eyes could perceive, hoping that the God''s Children and six powerhouses wouldn''t misuse the knowledge they acquired from him. If an enslavement soul pact could be destroyed as easily as Jason described it, the God''s Children should be able to do the same with all kinds of soul pacts as long as their soul was stronger than both sides who had signed the soul pact! There were all kinds of clauses that could be added, preventing the removal of a soul pact, and one simple clause would be that an enslaved being has to prevent being soulbond contracted by all means possible. Jason had already figured this out which could be annoying for the future. Thankfully, it didn''t involve Jason and his mission to save the Flers! That was something he knew for sure as both Greg and Malia had already told him what kind of clauses their soul pact had! After Jason had explained everything in a detailed manner, he couldn''t help but add that it was only his experience and that it could work differently for others. There were too many unknown factors, and everyone else agreed to this. However, what Jason didn''t tell anyone was that he had sensed something deep within his soul world. To be precise, it had been within his soul world core, something he couldn''t comprehend yet. Despite the mysterious unknown, Jason was not scared at all. Instead, he felt an overly familiar sensation brushing past his soul, touching it lightly, only to seemingly disperse. He couldn''t describe the feeling, but he could barely calm down himself as he left the soul world, without realising that the golden scorpion on his soul world was gleaming faintly. Once Jason was done reporting his experience, Merl and the other human powerhouses began to lecture Jason and the God''s children because they had been doing something that could have gone horribly wrong. Jason was aware of this and the others too, but they simply heard their scolding, knowing that Merl and the rest had just been worried. Hours passed by and Ben had recuperated from his exhaustion just before the first battle royale was about to start. They had already entered the colosseum and Jason had finished his preparations before he walked inside the arena, where the other prodigies were already waiting. Being stared at by 49 glaring pairs of eyes was not really comfortable, and Jason noticed that even Jarid was glaring at him while smiling inwardly at the same time. This looked somewhat grotesque but instead of saying anything, he retained his calm and serious attitude. The tension within the arena was apparent but that was not only caused because of Jason. Even though the Olympus federation was one organization consisting of multiple migrating races, every race had its own origin and they had been forced to collude with each other in order to survive. Combining their forces had been the best move they could have done. However, this didn''t mean that any of the migrating races wanted another one from procuring more resources than they could obtain. As such, the liberation tournament was not only a celebration to have migrated to Argos but also a competition for every race to show that they were stronger than the remaining races within the Olympus federation! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 577 - Aerial The average cultivation base of the opponents he would have to face at once was at the mid 7th Lique stage. This may not seem like much, considering how strong Jason was, but every single of the 49 opponents in the first round of the battle royale was extremely strong, allowing them to reach an average combat prowess of the 10th Lique stage!! If every single one of them would attack him at once, Jason wouldn''t have a way to emerge victoriously. However, he had already set up a plan, which allowed him to make use of the large number of different races that should have been told to attack him first! Unfortunately, attacking someone with a total of 48 other individuals couldn''t be described as the most intelligent move, which was what Jason wanted to make use of. The races inside the arena were the Hrans, Klarirs, Dragonewts, IIlians, and the demi-human races called Tigron, Hamaa, Fyrmn, and Lizr. Thus, with a total of 8 races that were also preying on each other, it would be quite difficult to overwhelm Jason, even more so with the different combat styles and ways they would approach him. It didn''t take long before everyone had gathered and the spectators were already eager to witness how the first round of the new tournament called battle royale would start! Everyone knew that the first round was the most important because the strongest prodigies of all races were present. Whether this was intentional or not, nobody cared as it was exciting to look at! The fighting ground was the entire interior space of the colosseum which was more than enough place for a total of 50 participants to fight against each other at a time. Jason didn''t really care where he should position himself before the battle royale started because it wouldn''t matter much either way. However, instead of eyeing everyone at once, Jason only looked at the buff Dragonewt, who was the strongest amongst his peers. Smiling lightly, he couldn''t help but feel that he and the dragonewts had one particular trait that made them the best target for the first step in his plan. With that thought in mind, he smiled lightly as the start of the first battle royale was initiated. While the others utilized their affinity by throwing an elemental attack at him, ginormous black flame wings sprouted out of his back before he catapulted himself several meters in the air. Flapping the black flame wings, he continued to ascend before he reached an altitude of 50 meters. It was still possible for him to reach a higher altitude because the colosseum had no ceiling, but instead of doing something unnecessarily, he smiled at the dragonewt prodigy. "Karn, how about a small fight in the sky?" Karn was the name of the dragonewt''s most talented youngest prodigy, who had a cultivation base at the Low 8th Lique stage. His dragon bloodline was said to be higher than other dragonewts, while his family made it possible for him to stay in the Broken world for a longer time than others. There, he was rumored to have increased his cultivation base at a rapid pace, while focusing on his combat training! As such, everything Jason could see thanks to his Emperor Eyes was the basic foundation of his opponent and not his entire combat prowess. Karn didn''t have a special constitution like Jarid, but based on the dragonewt''s aura that Jason perceived, he could tell that Karn was an even more dangerous opponent. Thus, he wanted to fight him first in order to be able to move in the air to recuperate from possible injuries or exhaustion without the fear of someone strong pursuing him. To defeat Karn, allowing Solaris to enter Jason''s mana core was the best option due to the black origin flame''s superiority. At least, Jason hoped his flame to be superior and hoped that it would enable him to take advantage of the dragonewt prodigy. In the end, the first step of his plan worked as expected and the dragonewts including Karn used their wings to ascend into the sky. There had yet to be a prodigy below the age of 50 who was able to solidify their first prismarine crystal, allowing them to break into the Prismar stage. As such, nobody except the dragonewts and those that were able to manifest elemental wings on their back could fly. If another prodigy were to follow him and the dragonewts, this wouldn''t be a problem for him because he didn''t have to focus on his black flame wings as Solaris was shaping them, lifting a huge burden from Jason''s shoulders. The other prodigies without wings would have to use their concentration to shape and sustain elemental wings. Because of that, there were only five dragonewts with an average cultivation base at the 7th Lique stage and Karn in the front, smiling arrogantly at him. "You shouldn''t have done that! Escaping into the sky might seem like a smart strategy, but you just gave up on creating chaos on the ground! Forcing them to fight each other might be logical, but you will never be able to defeat them, let alone escape me and the others behind me!" Though Karn was arrogant, he was rational enough to tell the other dragonewts to join the fight and help him defeat Jason. This was something logical, but he had seen idiots that gave up on their advantages because of their pride, more often than he wanted to acknowledge. "How about we fight instead of talking rubbish?" Jason asked with a sly smile before he manifested a dozen black flame spears. He could control them as if it didn''t take him any effort and the large black flame wings behind him flapped twice, catapulting him to the front. Jason didn''t hesitate to confront Karn directly despite his high cultivation base. As such, the young dragonewt prodigy couldn''t help but feel excitement igniting within him as his entire body released bright red flames. "Nobody shall hold back!! Attack!" Upon hearing Karn the five dragonewts behind him unleashed their flames that enveloped them slowly which was entirely different to Karn, whose control over his affinity was exceptional in comparison. Karn had already manifested multiple fireballs which he shot towards Jason, without needlessly moving them around to show off his control. At least that was what Karn had assumed about Jason''s trick, only to see a bright smile on his face. Even though Karn was at the 8th Lique stage, his affinity was only slightly stronger. He was not a dragon whose affinity was stronger than their cultivation base, and neither had he inherited someone''s affinity as Jason had! Thus, Solaris'' black flames were innately stronger than Karn''s! While Jason was still moving around the spears of black flames, he was already planning something in advance. Thus, he threw a few of them towards the fireballs that approached him with a rapid pace, destroying them easily. This caused a thin smokescreen to form temporarily, preventing anyone from seeing the other side. At least that was what Karn expected as he shot through the smokescreen appearing right in front of Jason, who was empty-handed, while he had already manifested a gigantic broadsword out of his affinity! This was extremely difficult and Jason would have acknowledged this feat, if not for the waste of precious mana. As such, instead of doing the same, Jason simply summoned Byakur which he enveloped in a thin layer of Solaris'' black flames before he made use of the biggest advantage both of them had! Even though Solaris and Jason were considered one entity, their minds worked separately. Thanks to that, it was possible for multiple complex tasks to occur at the exact same time! While Jason clashed with Karn, who saw an opportunity for his subordinates to finish off the young human, Jason just smiled as a glint of slyness could be seen in his eyes that seemed to say, ''Thanks for walking right into my trap!'' At that moment, Karn wanted to warn the other dragonewts, telling them to stay away from Jason, only to realise that it was already too late. The five dragonewts had already gathered around Jason in a loose circle and were ready to severely injure him with the shortswords they had manifested out of the fire they controlled. While they brandished their swords at Jason, his smile only widened, which told them something was wrong. It took the five dragonewts a moment to realise that time seemed to have slowed down as they realised that they had missed something essential! ''How could it be so easy for us to appear next to him??'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 578 - Control To the five dragonewts, who were just realising that something was wrong, it seemed as if time had slowed down. Everything in front of them began to change and terror unfolded right in front of their eyes. Considering that the human in front of them was considered to be extremely terrifying and the things he had done in both the decimator rounds and the combat rounds, it had been too easy for them to approach and attack him! However, that was only something they had realised a moment too late. Jason had planned to release the race specific weakening curse but figured out that this was not even required in order to take out the first bunch of opponents. Karn could be taken care of later, but the five dragonewts were more like pestering fleas, distracting him with their annoying buzz. However, he didn''t mind them and it was part of his plan, the reason he had summoned large black flame wings instead of small ones with which he could change his trajectory more easily. With a crafty smile on Jason''s face, the black flame wings stiffened mid-air as he stopped flapping them abruptly. A quarter of a second later their shape changed and the huge black wings split up into a hundred blazing spikes that were controlled by both Jason and Solaris at the same time! Both of them worked in perfect sync to slowly avert their trajectory and turned the spikes towards the five attacking dragonewts before they sent them shooting straight at their opponents without any further delay. Each of the five dragonewts was bombarded with several black blazing spikes, searing through their flesh. Tiny fragments of Solaris'' flames embedded themselves within their bodies, burning them from the inside out. All of this took a mere second and the moment the black wings dispersed, the gravitational force started to work, pulling Jason towards the ground. Yet, instead of falling down and leaving the aerial battlefield, tiny black flames manifested a few centimeters below Jason''s feet, only to explode a second later. The explosion propelled Jason a few meters higher into the air, which gave Solaris enough time to manifest another batch of black flame wings. While the five dragonewts had been pierced by several black blazing spears and were burning from the inside; the fire draining them of their mana and life force, Karn didn''t hesitate to attack Jason. His eyesight and reflexes were exceptional, allowing Karn to perceive what the exploding black fireball allowed Jason to do. Even though it elevated Jason''s position, he was also forced to divert his focus on his wings for a moment that didn''t leave him any scope to change his position. This short moment was more than enough for Karn to manifest another flaming broadsword into his free hand. While brandishing both flaming broadswords, Karn could only see a distinct gleam in Jason''s eyes as he perceived tremendous changes all around both of them. Earlier, Jason hadn''t utilized his Celestia aura and stigma properly, and he had yet to use any of his other abilities. As such, Karn was astonished to see that his body instinctively flinched when Jason released the petrification curse. However, its potency had reduced drastically due to Karn''s innate defenses, only to face the full brunt of the race specific weakening curse. Jason refrained himself from using the abyssal ability because he felt as if the ability was something he should test out before using it once again. The last time he had used it, he hadn''t been able to control it Thus, he decided to not use it right now. Despite that, the two curses he had activated were already more than enough to give him a quarter of a second which he used to envelop Byakur with a thin membrane of Solaris'' flames in addition to another layer of his own mana. With a swift swing, accelerated through the Floating sky movement technique he could barely utilize, Byakur sliced through the wind, only to cut through the flaming broadswords. It was fortunate for Jason that the flaming swords hadn''t enveloped any swords made out of high-grade materials, otherwise, the difficulty to cut through the natural resistance of dense metals might have turned into a problem. Because this was not the case, Jason had been able to deflect Karn''s broadswords and prevent him from inflicting an injury. They were still fighting in the air, but Jason''s position was more than half a meter above Karn. From the outside, it looked like they were on equal footing which meant that their fight would only drain each other''s mana reserves, however reality spoke otherwise. By using a large amount of mana, Jason could end the fight against Karn, the dragonewt, however, that was not something he should do if he wanted to prevent being surprise attacked in a weakened state. In the end, there were still more than 40 opponents on the ground, and they had just started fighting against each other. Yet, based on a single glance towards the ground, Jason''s Emperor Eyes perceived that their fights were rather boring. He found that a majority of them were reluctant to fight against each other seriously in order to prevent utilizing too much mana at once. As such, Jason couldn''t just use a majority of mana to subdue Karn, just to defeat him. He had to plan several situations at once, including the aftermath of defeating someone. Because of that, Jason made a risky decision which caused a smile to emerge on his face that caused Karn to realise that something was wrong. Trying to leave, Karn flapped his wings hastily, only to feel Jason''s tight grasp around his shoulders. Jason had retracted Byakur into the soul world while increasing his physical strength by allowing Petri to occupy his mana core. This caused his control over the black flame wings to decrease rapidly. However, that was not worrisome because Jason had already retracted the flames on his back. There was only one large black fireball behind his back while the remaining flames had been absorbed by Solaris, converted into the mana it had been. Karn was astonished by the sudden increase in Jason''s strength. ''How can his physical strength increase so suddenly?! It''s at par with mine even without the use of any mana...at the middle of the 8th Lique stage?!?'' Earlier, he had assumed that Jason''s strength was high, which made him order the other dragonewts to join his attack but to think that he had been hiding even more secrets was unbelievable. At that moment, Karn''s eyes widened as black scales, with patterns of golden veins spreading through them, grew on Jason''s body, with a three-meter-long tail growing out of his coccyx. Only then did he hear a faint voice. "Watch out!" By the time Karn heard these two simple words of a warning, it was already too late and the large black fireball behind Jason''s back exploded, catapulting the two young prodigies towards the ground. The gravitational force did its job as Jason''s weight had increased to over 100 kg with Petri''s manifested body parts, pulling them towards the ground. After the explosion behind Jason occurred, Karn realised the young man''s plan which forced him to react in haste. Out of instinct, he released every ounce of mana within him, only to envelop his body and brace for impact. ''Fuck!! As if I would give up now!!!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 579 - King Reluctant to lose the fight against Jason, Karn glared right into Jason''s eyes before he tried to lift his arms. It took him a second in order to move them while he was tightly held by Jason. However, when he was finally ready, Karn used some of the mana he had released and traces from his surroundings to exert the secret technique he''d learned at a young age, manifesting a sky blue flame around his body. They were searing hot and burned through everything they touched, matching the deadly effects of Solaris, astonishing Jason for a moment before he closed his eyes as his entire head was enveloped in thick, black scales. The moment Jason was fully enveloped and protected by Petri''s black scales, both Jason and Karn crashed right into the center of the arena, causing thunderous noises as the ground cracked, pushing Karn into the ground. Dirt, sand, and debris were stirred up, blocking everyone''s sight, as an eerie silence filled the colosseum once again. Everyone thought Karn had died as the blue flames disappeared a moment after he was catapulted into the ground with such a high speed that most spectators weren''t even able to perceive what exactly had happened. To them, Jason''s appearance had changed midair, while the black flame wings had turned into a large black fireball. They had watched in fascination as the fireball''s explosion catapulted both Jason and Karn towards the ground, only for a blue flame to manifest around them a moment before the impact occurred. Not only the spectators but even the higher-ups stiffened upon sensing how dangerous Jason''s attack that drained only a small amount of mana truly was. Fearing that Karn had met his demise, the dragonewts echelons released their mana fluctuations in fear. However, they took a collective breath of relief to notice that he had only lost consciousness while sustaining external injuries. As such, they averted their attention towards Jason for a short moment and were shocked to realise that he was completely fine. His mana fluctuations weren''t even disrupted which caused them to stiffen as one of the elders rushed towards the arena to carry Karn, their strongest prodigy, out of the arena, and take him to the infirmary. This didn''t attract any attention because the dust, debris, and sand were still covering everyone''s sight. It took a few seconds before the commotion caused by Jason died down, while the young man scratched his back that was singed and had a few missing black scales. ''Sorry Petri!'' He transmitted his apologies to his youngest soulbond who could only complain, before transferring his pain to Jason. Smiling lightly, Jason assisted the regrowth of the burned scales by using the nutrition within him. His eyes were covered by a thin golden membrane that was connected to the scales, turning Petri''s scales into full-scale armor. This was interesting and Jason couldn''t help but feel excited as he had never really used his soulbonds'' fortified soul conjunction in such a way. They were much more versatile than he had thought in the beginning, and even the God''s children thought that Jason was using his soulbonds pretty well. In the end, they had learned everything about the beasts they were told to form a soulbond contract with, long before the binding process was even initiated. As such, they knew everything about their soulbonds, at least, that was what they had assumed. However, Jason had taught them that this was not the case because he had shown them something they had never thought to be possible- a proper fusion of a soulbond and its contractor. Jason had himself found this out recently, but Artemis and his fusion amplified their strength which made it possible for them to elevate their combat prowess. Owing to that, every battle Jason fought was extremely interesting to the God''s children because they hoped to comprehend something they hadn''t realised before! Taking a deep breath, Jason felt exhilarated to achieve his first victory. He had noticed that Karn had been taken away and by using his Emperor Eyes properly, Jason could tell how the situation on the ground looked like. His physical strength was at par with someone with a cultivation base at the mid of the 8th Lique stage, only to further increase by utilizing the Floating sky movement technique in addition to circulating mana through his body. As such, Jason didn''t fear anyone right now, as his heart thundered loudly, in sync with Petri, who was eager to fight as it roared out within the mana core. When Jason heard this roar, he felt something deep within him that caused him to instinctively release his Celestia aura and stigma at once. Petri''s stigma ignited, enlightening the mana core as a faint thread was released from it, making its way towards the young soulbond. At that moment, the roar Petri had issued was amplified from the depths of Jason''s body as he released it. The thunderous roar reverberated throughout the entire colosseum, shaking its foundation, while the authorities at the Prismar stage released their mana to keep the colosseum intact, preventing it from cracking. While the roar shocked everyone the faint image of a second reversed wing manifested above his stigma, Jason''s eyes turned into golden-silverish slits, subconsciously releasing the curses Petri harbored. But that was not all because the black scaled, golden veined armor was slowly merging with Jason''s skin, enlarging further. The scale armor was slowly turning into Jason''s skin as his hands began to transform too. Razor-sharp blades seemed to grow out of the tip of his finger forcing Jason to endure unbearable pain, as he felt an uncomfortable itch all over his body. Petri had formed a faint connection with Jason''s mana core, causing his body to enlarge by 20 centimeters as the serpent tail enlarged to a length of five meters before it stopped growing. It was only then that Jason felt the urge to lift it before swinging it onto the ground of the arena that cracked a little due to the impact. Through this, Jason could tell that his strength had increased drastically as he took a quick glance at his mana core. ''Are we ready for that? You were eager to fuse with me too, huh?'' He thought, only to sense that the connection with Solaris wouldn''t be able to be maintained for long. This seemed to be a restriction of having a weaker soul connection than Jason had with Artemis. Nevertheless, it was more than enough to show everyone that he, and his soulbond, the basilisk Petri, were not to be taken lightly! There was a reason why the basilisk was called the king of serpents! Their roar was only a warning, and a sign they gave to their opponents that they wouldn''t show any mercy to the others if someone were to cross the line. While Jason was overly excited, the colosseum stopped shaking while the spectators were able to finally see something, as the smoke cleared, revealing Jason and the remaining participants. Yet, before anyone could say something, the ground below Jason began to crack as he pushed himself towards the closest opponent. With a natural physical strength at the mid 8th Lique stage in addition to the fusion''s drastic enhancement, Jason''s speed was terrifying. Only those that had unique movement techniques and an extremely high cultivation base were barely able to face him. Jason activated the floating sky movement technique while circulating a large amount of mana through his body. In an instant, he could cross the distance of 100 meters which was the shortest distance to his closest opponent. The Klarir, Jason faced, could barely realise that he was about to be attacked, only to look straight into Jason''s golden-silverish serpent eyes that temporarily paralyzed and weakened him. Before he had time to react, Jason''s flat hand pushed against his chest, breaking several bones, and ribs. He was flung towards the arena''s wall where he slumped to the ground, losing consciousness before he could even curse at Jason. With this action, Jason showed everyone that it was the time to fight for their lives, to give their utmost efforts to overcome the threat coming from him, a halfling, who released the aura of a real King! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 580 - 3 Minutes Jason assumed that his fusion with Petri would only sustain for around three minutes. As such, he didn''t hesitate and attacked the closest opponent without wasting any time. The Floating sky technique was fully utilized, and his speed reached a horrifying degree, while his physical strength was more than enough to finish off the opponents in front of him. Taking a deep breath, Jason could only smile lightly as he looked at the Klarir whom he had punched into the wall. While looking at his hand that had fused into a reptile-like claw, the excitement within him ignited. Jason had always thought that the human race was weak, that the only advantage was their soul world and the amplification they received. However, that was wrong because he had just begun to realise that mankind had yet to figure out how profound the soul world truly was. He knew that his connection with his soulbonds was becoming stronger at a rapid pace, which was mainly owing to the Celestia race''s innate amity with all kinds of beasts. As such, he assumed that he was the first one to figure out that the soul world was so profound. This was exhilarating, not only for Jason, but also for the human powerhouses and even more so for the God''s children, who realised what Jason was doing! "Another fusion!" Betty mumbled, only for the others to nod their head. Their eyes were glimmering in excitement and it was almost as if Jason was setting a path for them to walk upon. It looked like he was paving the way forward while showing what the human race was capable of! Since the foreign races had attacked, and almost enslaved the human race, the citizens and even some members of big clans had lost their spark and will to get back on their feet. They lived in constant fear thinking that it wouldn''t take long before the foreign races would return. At the same time, everyone realised that they were too weak, which was mostly owing to the book Jason had released. In the beginning, only a few people had believed his words, but that had changed with time because it was evident that Jason didn''t lie to them. As such, upon realising the truth, most citizens began to fear the future. Because of this, the things Jason did right now were more important to God''s children, the present human powerhouses, and entire mankind! Their future was not bleak and they had many things to discover, allowing them to become much stronger than they were used to be! Jason''s Celestia aura that had merged with the stigmas was visible above his right eye and was slowly changing, taking on the aura of a wild beast, as he turned towards the next opponent. The wild aura he released radiated a distinct suppression, it was completely different to the one Jason had comprehended by himself. Owing to this aura, the participants, let alone the spectators, couldn''t believe that the being in front of them was a mere human and not an ancient being that had awoken from its hibernation. Petri was a basilisk in Jason''s opinion, and the aura of the serpent king seeped into the wild aura, slowly changing it, allowing Jason to dominate everything in his surrounding, reigning supreme in his proximity. Not wasting his precious time, Jason pushed his feet from the ground as he appeared in front of the second opponent. It was one of the strongest prodigies from the Lizr race that were also called Lizardman and was at the 9th Lique stage. Yet, instead of paying any attention to the Lizr''s cultivation base, Jason stared into the young man''s reptilian eyes, which held traces of reverence before the petrification curse and race specific weakening curse kicked in. This distracted the Lizr further, giving Jason more than enough time to slash out with his razor-sharp claw-like hands, inflicting severe injuries as they cut through the thick scales covering the Lizr''s body. They were not lethal, but strong enough to weaken his opponent''s combat prowess which was more than enough for Jason, who spun around, using his five-meter-long tail to lash at the Lizr race''s prodigy. He was still able to fight, but Jason hadn''t planned to render his opponent weak and powerless either way. In the next three minutes he had to decrease his opponents'' combat prowess as much as possible, preventing them from gaining an advantage over each other, or even himself once the fusion would wear off! Jason was not even sure how exhausted he would be once the fusion with Petri were to end. As such, he could only give his best while barely stopping Petri''s primal instincts from killing everyone who blocked his path. This was more difficult than Jason had expected as Petri''s fusion felt a lot different than Artemis'', who was rather gentle and not driven by her wild instincts. In Jason''s opinion, Artemis may be a predator, but her nature was incomparable to Petri, who seemed to be more of an emotionless killing machine than Jason had expected his youngest soulbond to become. Nevertheless, this was something one required sometimes and it was perfectly suitable for Jason as he was required to kill mercilessly in certain situations. By binding a soulbond to the soul world, not only did one receive an amplification in strength, inherit someone''s affinity, but in Jason''s case, his instincts, reflexes, and behavior were also influenced. The same applied the other way around and the stigma was one sign of this as well as the deep connection. While Jason used his unparalleled speed, the others didn''t remain idle. The seven races that were left in the arena gathered together in their own groups, preparing against the bull-like charge of Jason. Yet, the moment Jason charged into the groups of participants, they realised that his charge was even more horrific than expected. He had just entered the Klarir''s small group of prodigies, where he wreaked havoc, not minding the highly corrosive poison that was flung at him. His entire black body that was covered with golden vein-like threads was crumbling apart, as the corrosion took effect, but Jason seemed to completely ignore it. With the subconsciously released curses Petri harbored, he weakened his opponents, only to use his superior strength to inflict severe, yet not lethal injuries, weakening the Klarir''s strongest prodigies while taking out the weaker ones. Only half a minute passed before Jason emerged out of the group of injured Klarirs who had no energy to fight back. He calmly advanced to the next group acting as if nothing happened. It was only when he entered the next group of opponents, made up of the Lizr that a few higher ups couldn''t help but squint their eyes as they looked intently at Jason. Everyone watched the entire battle royale that was filled with more tension and excitement than the spectators had expected to witness after the changes had been implemented. Even Wisse, who had been lamenting about his precious time being wasted to watch the tournament as per his master''s wish, couldn''t help but feel that he was witnessing a miracle! His focus was solely on Jason, and he told himself that he had to do something about this youth. He was way too talented to let his natural combat awareness, unique traits, let alone the origin flame, and the ability to use the chaos attribute, go to waste. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 581 - Focused While Jason had tried ignoring the effects of the poison thrown at him as much as possible, the corrosion had spread through the scales, entering his body as an itchy sensation overcame him. This forced him to burn the poison with Solaris'' help, utilizing some of the mana he was painstakingly stockpiling for the next step of his plan to dominate the rest of the tournament! The first battle royale would determine the final winner of the tournament as the true prodigies were fighting against each other, while the remaining rounds had only consisted of a handful of strong opponents. Despite that, Jason was confident that they would be less of a problem than facing several dozen opponents at once. Thus, the battle royale was the biggest problem, which caused him to use every ounce of strength within his body to win. Since he had found a way to rescue the Flers Jason''s worries about the future had dispersed and his mind was not subconsciously thinking of ways to help those that were important to him. As such, he could fight however he wanted with the sole restriction Jason had put against himself; not to kill anyone! It was difficult to use Solaris while maintaining the fusion with Petri, but it worked perfectly fine which was slightly different from Artemis'' fusion. This could have multiple reasons, but Jason had no time to think about that. Instead, he just began to use Solaris'' flame to envelop his razor-sharp claws with them, minimizing the mana consumption while receiving the most benefits! Appearing in between the rows of the Lizr, Jason slashed out with the black flame enveloped claws that released faint fragments of Solaris'' flame the moment he pierced through his opponents'' flesh. Thus, the fragments of Solaris flames burned the Lizr from the inside, weakening them further. However, just at that moment, several dozen spears conjured out of light affinity shot towards him, forcing Jason to twist his body in an uncomfortable angle, only to barely avoid the high-velocity light spears. Without wasting any time, he straightened himself and left the center of the Lizr race''s group before he had finished his job. They were not important anymore, because his eyes were trained on the opponent who had attacked him. It was the young female Tigron with the light affinity, the one who he had seen in the decimator rounds with a shocking combat prowess! Her combat strength was the closest to the Prismar stage in the entire batch of youngest prodigies who had participated in the liberation tournament, and she was also the opponent he was the most vigilant of! She hadn''t revealed much of her strength before, but her rank was already more than enough for most people to avoid her. Yet, instead of doing exactly that, Jason hatched a different plan to take care of the female Tigron. He didn''t want to face her right now because there was still some time left for him to fight the final boss. Instead, he wanted to take care of the weakest among the strongest prodigies. There were less than 30 participants left in the battle royale and Jason had defeated most opponents, while attracting the attention of everyone else. Most may say that this was foolish, but Jason felt extremely happy right now. This was visible to everyone because the ferocious aura he had manifested by merging with Petri was becoming stronger by the second. The excitement that swept the entire arena was even more apparent, while Petri, who occupied his mana core was continuously roaring out in delight. Jason didn''t amplify these roars, let alone release them outside his body. Despite that, the roars seemed to increase his morale as the adrenaline in his body received a spike. As a reaction to the multitude of changes within his body, the black scales on his body grew while his claws enlarged. At the same time, the corroded scales regrew, exhausting a massive amount of nutrition from his body. Jason was not sure how much he would have to eat later, only to barely make up for the nutrition he was using in the battle royale, but it didn''t matter right now. Everything was worth the efforts he had to take into account as he was able to push his feet from the ground, only to rush straight towards Jarid and the other Ilians who were participating in the liberation tournament. Apparently, there were only a few Ilians in the Olympus federation and both Jarid, and his brother who stood next to him were extremely talented. Despite that, Jarid''s brother could only stare at Jason with a trace of fear in his eyes as Jarid unleashed two seals of his thunder constitution at once. His entire body was enveloped in dark purple thunder currents as he released his battle intent. Instead of a spear or other weapons that Jarid was proficient in he used unique-looking daggers to fight, and Jason could only circulate more mana through his body as he sensed how eager Jarid was to encounter him once again. The young Ilian was not afraid to face Jason like the other participants, rather, he was eager to show how much he had improved as he accelerated his pace. Jarid''s speed was terrific and at par with Jason''s, if not higher, which allowed both of them to collide a moment after they had reached the pinnacle of their speed. While Jarid used his daggers to fight, it looked like Jason was about to use his claws once again. He was unable to hold a sword properly after all. Yet, instead of doing what everyone expected, Jason retracted his claws that seemed to vanish, only to reveal a black scaled hand. At the exact same moment, a long black colored sword manifested in the black scaled hand, that began to glow in a faint silver light as small traces of mana was injected into it. Certain runes were activated that enlarged Byakur''s size as he encountered Jarid. When the two opponents collided with each other, both realised how strong the other party had become in the three months that had passed since their last battle. Jason''s passively released petrification- and race specific weakening curse were still working perfectly fine, but they were almost immune to Jarid, who had trained in a rare technique his grandfather had given him after he had been defeated by Jason. It was only then that Jarid had found out that Jason had come to his grandfather''s shop, which seemed to have caused Old Sadran''s interest in the young man. Jarid didn''t really care about any of that because he wanted to become stronger, by all means, to show Jason that he was not someone to be taken lightly! As such, he had trained relentlessly, allowing him to be immune to the petrification curse. The race specific weakening curse was a different matter because it spread through the target''s entire being, before weakening a specific characteristic related to its race. Thus, Jarid''s thunder affinity was weakened, but the effect was lower than he had expected. If Jarid were to know that these were only the subconsciously released curses that didn''t even drain any mana from Jason, he would have thrown a fit. However, right now Jarid felt exhilarated as he brandished the daggers he wielded towards Jason. Despite being excited to encounter Jarid, he couldn''t help but stay vigilant of every opponent around him. This allowed him to perceive that the light Tigron was already gathering mana to initiate another attack, ignoring the fact that Jarid and Jason were currently facing off against each other. ''So, we are behaving like this now?'' Grumbling didn''t help and Jason couldn''t help but avoid Jarid''s first dagger strike while brandishing Byakur to deflect the other dagger''s strike too. Only a moment later, Jason used his five-meter-long tail that whipped in the air before coiling it around Jarid''s waist. This was extremely painful because the thunder currents spread through the tail, reaching Jason, who could only tolerate it as he threw Jarid towards the light Tigron who had just conjured a multitude of light spears. Thanks to that, he could prevent fighting against Jarid while being attacked from the back. Now he only had to face Jarid''s brother, who was less optimistic in fighting Jason than Jarid himself. As such, Jason had fewer problems facing the brother whom he defeated in a few moves. However, at that moment, he sensed that the thread with which his mana core had connected to Petri was loosening which caused Jason to sigh. "It''s already over?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 582 - Lets End It Here! Jason felt that Petri''s connection was slowly dispersing, dissolving the entire fortified soul conjunction as the black scales, tail, and claws disappeared, revealing his fair skin. Exhaustion overcame him the moment the connection was fully severed. Through blurry eyes he saw that the light Tigron called Xyna had used her physical strength to punch Jarid, who had been thrown towards her, away. After that, the light spears she had manifested shot towards Jason, who had reverted to his normal appearance. The exhaustion prevented him from reacting immediately, but fortunately enough, he was not alone! Instinctively, Petri and Artemis exchanged their places in occupying Jason''s mana core before Artemis forcefully manifested her wings on Jason''s back. This drained his nutrition but it was not as severe as the nutrition consumed for the regrowth of Petri''s black scales. Artemis'' wings flapped without Jason making a move which allowed him to evade the dozens of light spears by a hair''s breadth. Only then did Jason react on his own as he shot higher into the sky, reaching an altitude of more than 50 meters before he could finally take a deep breath. "You guys can fight now. I''ll take a short break!" He said in between two deep breaths. His voice had been low but clear enough. As such, everybody had heard it, which caused a small commotion within the rows of spectators. All of them had expected that Jason would continue beating up the prodigies of the Olympus federation''s races, and some spectators had even looked forward to that! However, Jason couldn''t care less about that because the exhaustion he was feeling right now was incomparable to what he sensed from fusing with Artemis. ''Does it feel more exhausting because we were not ready to fuse yet? Could it be that, or is it simply because my connection with Artemis is both stronger and stabler?'' Jason didn''t know the answer, but what he knew was that his mana core rejected fusing with Artemis! Apparently, the mana core required a certain period of time before it could initiate another fusion. That was interesting and extremely important to know, but unfortunately not very helpful for Jason''s current situation. Despite that, he had already defeated the dragonewts rendering them incapable of flying for some time due to the injuries. As such, he could take a short break which he had already announced. The cooldown wouldn''t take too long and by absorbing the surrounding mana, he might as well replenish some of the nutrition he had used up. Not only food and other supplements had nutrition but also mana and even more so the life force Solaris could drain from its opponents was enriching. There were still several fragments of Solaris'' flame inside the participants of the first battle royale while some life force from the dragonewts he had previously pierced with black blazing spikes had entered his body. Jason had never tried to absorb life force, and he had grown even more apprehensive after what had happened when he''d tried to absorb primordial energy out of a pryr stone. But absorbing life force was also not something he wanted to do. In the end, Jason just wanted to figure out a way to replenish his nutrition, which was why he tapped the life force Solaris had sealed within it, trying to test a few things. He didn''t have anything to do either way because his task had been completed. The first task had been to show how strong he was and that mankind was not to be taken lightly. At the same time, he hadn''t killed anyone despite his evident strength and capabilities to easily kill most prodigies. This goodwill gesture would most likely award him brownie points resulting in a few credits from the Olympus federation. These credits should be advantageous for mankind which was another reason for him to participate in the liberation tournament. The wish his masters had spoken of would soon be fulfilled, and the Flers would be rescued as well. Nevertheless, Jason felt that he required the lesser origin flame, which was the reward for the first place of the liberation tournament, in order to upgrade Solaris'' strength and advancement limitations. As such, Jason decided to ignore the surroundings'' opinion, with his focus trained on winning the tournament. While he was deep in thoughts, the other participants looked into the sky, trying to figure out what the young human was planning. However, not much time passed before the first, mostly unscathed participants started to attack those that were severely injured, trying to gain an advantage for their own race. Jason had been unable to injure every single racial group because he had been interrupted by his time limit with Petri as well as the light Tigron, Xyna''s attack! Despite that, the most talented prodigies'' power was displayed and perfectly shown as the groups began to fight against each other in a serious manner. The existence of someone, who was recuperating his energy while levitating in the air was slowly pushed into the back of their mind as the fights were becoming more and more dangerous. Elemental attacks were thrown around with dozens of beings enveloped in dense streams of mana could be seen fighting against each other as if their life was on the line. Each race was fighting in their group against the other races, and the bias against certain races was slowly surfacing as the Lizr, and Klarir race''s group was targeted first. They were the most injured and only their strongest fighters could turn into a lethal threat later. As such, it was best to defeat them as early as possible before they even had the chance to breathe. A few participants tried to attack Jason in the air, but Artemis, who could see everything through Jason''s eyes, controlled her wings perfectly. Meanwhile, Jason focused on absorbing the surroundings'' mana while trying to pay attention to the time it required for his mana core''s cooldown to wear off. Thus, he didn''t even focus on the fight on the ground that took a total of ten minutes before it reached the climax. Despite not being the strongest, Jarid had used his utmost efforts to stay up on his feet for as long as possible. In the end, there were only a small bunch of participants left standing, amongst which the Tigron race had the most members. Xyna had protected her group as the strongest member, but even then three of the weaker Tigrons had been defeated! This only showed that the other prodigies were not to be taken lightly either. In total, there were only 8 participants left, including Jason, Jarid, and Xyna. The remaining five consisted of two Tigrons and the strongest prodigy from the young generation of the Fyrmn, Hran, and Hamaa race. While the Hran race was similar to humans, they had pitch-black arms and golden veins spreading through them. Not only did this make them appear magnificent, but their darkness affinity was extremely strong too! As for the Fyrmn prodigy, she was a young female, whose resemblance was strikingly similar to the mythological beast called Gumiho, a fox in the appearance of a human. Thus, the Fyrmn race were also demi-humans that were part foxes, while the Hamaa race could be easily described as a mixture of humans and rabbits. The Fyrmn prodigy had a psychokinesis affinity which was something Jason had always found interesting, while the Hamaa prodigy did not have an innate affinity. He was more of a close combat fighter with an extremely strong physical advantage, that could be further enhanced by the particular mana he had. As a matter of fact, Jason had assumed the Hamaa race to cultivate in the path of primordial energy, but that didn''t seem to be the case. Their mana was transmuted in an extraordinary way, amplifying their physique drastically by circulating mana through their body! Not only their body''s defenses but also the weapons they enveloped with their mana would receive a drastic enhancement. Despite all the advantages the other races had, the Tigron race currently held the biggest advantage. They had Xyna, who was by far the strongest prodigy and also the oldest participant, in addition to having a total of three members out of the last eight participants. Jason had already sensed that the fight was coming to an end, which was coincidentally the exact time his mana core''s cooldown had run out. The fusion with Petri hadn''t lasted long, thus the cooldown before another fusion could be initiated was not long either. Having fully recuperated his nutrition and mana core that was now overflowing with mana, Jason opened his eyes that were gleaming in a bright golden-silverish color while releasing his Celestia aura and stigma. ''I think it''s time to join the fray once again...let''s end it here!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 583 - Winter Is Coming! Taking a deep breath, Jason and Artemis tried to synchronize their emotions which were easier than expected as both were eager to fight against the seven remaining participants on the ground. Their excitement had been accumulated throughout the last few minutes in which they had observed the battle royale while evaluating everyone''s strength precisely. This was not exactly problematic owing to the Emperor Eyes Jason could use to perceive everyone''s cultivation base, their unique traits, what kind of affinity they had, and even which cultivation techniques they had practiced in. As such, both he and Artemis were perfectly prepared to join the fray as a faint thread loosened from Jason''s mana core, slowly approaching Artemis, who accepted the connection willingly. While they had decided to join the fray, the others had already begun to fight against each other. Weirdly enough, three groups seem to have been formed which was something Jason hadn''t expected. The Tigron was evidently one group and one would normally suspect that everybody else would make a tacit agreement to deal with the biggest threat first. However, instead of doing so, the Hran, Hamaa and Fyrmn prodigy formed the second group, leaving Jarid alone. The Ilian had to stay vigilant against two groups of powerful prodigies at once, which was extremely odd to look at. In Jason''s opinion, there was no reason to shun Jarid like an outcast because it would be better for everyone if he were to join the fight against the Tigron group. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t help but think that he might as well turn Jarid into his ally then! As such, he slowly descended while releasing his Celestia aura and stigma that merged, only to slowly transform due to Artemis'' influence. Jason''s hair had already turned white-silverish, and his wings had enlarged. Pitch-black horns grew out of his head and the aura that was created under Artemis'' wild influence had a distinct cold in it that seeped through the air within the arena. There was no suppressing pressure or a thunderous roar that reverberated through the arena, but only the distinct cold. At that moment, Jason summoned Byakur that vibrated the moment ice-cold mana was inserted into it. Turning his head toward the Olympus federations'' authorities, his eyes that had turned ice-blue pierced through them, as he mumbled in a barely audible whisper. "Nobody expects me to hold back against real prodigies, right?" In the end, the ancestors were allowed to intervene, and Jason thought that everyone was fully aware that he couldn''t hold back if he were to fight against someone whose combat prowess was above the norms of an ordinary being at the peak of the 10th Lique stage! With that being said, he turned his head back to the battlefield that looked like a trainwreck. Everything was destroyed and the surrounding mana was unstable and chaotic. Because of that, Jason increased his mana absorption rate, absorbing the chaotic mana. Under normal circumstances this was dangerous, but he had fused with Artemis right now! She was not only a mutant but could devour almost everything that consisted of mana. At least that was what Jason had learned during the last few years they had been fighting together. Artemis could eat impure mana cores, mana stones, and even transmuted mana. As such, he followed his primal instincts that were under Artemis'' influence as he absorbed the surroundings'' mana. His mana core was already overflowing with mana, and Jason simply used it in order to manifest three huge, yet highly compressed icicles. Aiming at Xyna''s group, he threw the sky blue colored icicles at them. The icicles shot towards her at a rapid pace, only for her to manifest three lances out of light as a counterattack. Yet, the moment she shot the lances towards the icicles, they had already exploded, releasing dense mist, blocking the Tigron''s sight from what was happening. Meanwhile, Jason flew towards Jarid and had already appeared next to him who was breathing heavily and bleeding out of several cuts he had sustained. Upon taking a closer look with his Emperor Eyes, Jason could tell that his friend was only putting up a show which caused him to smile. "Are you really sure that you''re taking this seriously?" He asked with a smile, only to see that Jarid''s eyes had turned purple, and glowed brightly. "Alright, calm down, I''ll take it back." Jason added before he landed in front of him. While approaching Jarid, he had subconsciously utilized Artemis'' ice affinity that had become much stronger during the last few months. It had further enhanced owing to their fusion that increased every superior trait Jason and Artemis had respectively. As such, the entire mist enveloped the arena shrouding the spectacle of several hundred small icicles that had freezing characteristics intertwined into it. This was a new property Artemis had comprehended and Jason had wanted to test it out for quite some time. Unfortunately, he had never found the right opportunity. But now he felt that it was time. After Jason was certain that Jarid would team up with him, he turned around, releasing an extreme cold from his body that permeated the surrounding area, freezing the ground as his sky blue eyes gleamed, radiating a distinct blue hue that tightly enveloped the young human. If Jason had already looked less like a human being when he was fused with Petri, he didn''t behave like himself while being connected with Artemis either! His demeanor and unique traits seemed to have succumbed to Artemis, and as everybody watched the fight in rapt attention, a few powerhouses from the Olympus federation noticed something as Wisse mumbled. "Does he have the bloodline of a beast in his body?" Everyone knew that mankind was able to bind beasts to their soul owing to the soul world they''d awakened at a young age. However, nobody from the Olympus federation had truly realised how beneficial such a soulbond can truly be. The amplification of strength was already strong as well as the affinities they inherited, but in the end, one couldn''t train those affinities however one wanted, and beasts had a racial limit too. Other than that, there was also the fact that soul worlds that could bind beings at the Prismar stage or higher were not common and already perceived as rare. As such, Jason was not only deemed as an anomaly but even looked at weirdly by Wisse, the being who was the most knowledgeable, despite his young age! However, Jason couldn''t care less about that, as he and Artemis were in control of several hundred freezing icicles that were slowly unveiled as the mist swept over the entire colosseum. Suddenly, right at the moment, he wanted to release his attack, Artemis transmitted him a thought, which caused him to smile before his expression turned serious once again as he said. "Freeze!" With that single word, Jason released a tremendous amount of mana while using his freezing aura to annex the unstable mana in the surrounding, expanding the freezy cold. At the same time, the hundreds of controlled freezing icicles averted their trajectory towards the Tigrons who had already noticed that something was about to happen. As such, they had entered a defensive stance while exerting the special martial art techniques to protect themselves from the extraordinarily strong attacks. They didn''t underestimate Jason even a tiny bit and expected his attacks to be at par with Xyna''s strongest possible attack. Despite that, the sight of several hundred icicles that were fired towards them shocked the two Tigrons, while Xyna''s eyes gleamed in a bright white glow! "Winter is coming!" Jason suddenly mumbled as he looked around and found that his surroundings were completely frozen. The unstable mana around him had turned into ice transmuted mana that seemed to be under Jason''s control. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 584 - White Tiger Seeing hundreds of freezing icicles shot towards the three Tigron was a petrifying sight to the spectators who couldn''t stop shivering as their teeth chattered due to the sudden cold. The surrounding temperature had plummeted, but the enthusiasm within the spectators increased as they witnessed how the first battle royale that seemed to have already reached its pinnacle became even more intense. Everyone looked at the group of Tigrons with tense expressions when suddenly a white flash shot out of the higher up''s rows, straight into the arena. An elder of the Tigron re-appeared with two prodigies of the Tigron race outside the arena. They were drained of their mana as they had used every single trace of the stored energy within their body to exert their defensive martial art technique. However, even that hadn''t been enough, and only Xyna had been able to defend against the onslaught of the massive number of freezing icicles that had filled the entire sky. Despite that, even Xyna''s defenses hadn''t been strong enough to deflect everything, and her arms were bleeding with faint frost marks spreading over her body. The Tigron elder laid down the two prodigies he had carried out of the arena, only to sigh in relief. "That was close¡­" He blurted out before taking away the strongest prodigies of their race''s youngest generation if one didn''t count Xyna. They were brought to the infirmary to prevent their health from deteriorating further. The elder was not a medic and couldn''t exactly tell what was going on with the two prodigies of his race, but he was glad that they were still alive. Initially, he assumed that they could easily defend themselves against the onslaught of freezing icicles, but the moment they collided with the thick shield of transmuted mana they had erected, this thought had been shattered. The two young men were bleeding out of several wounds that thankfully didn''t look severe. Nevertheless, the freezing icicles, as the name suggested, could freeze them to death so it was better to let a medic check them. Meanwhile, Jason had already turned away from the Tigron''s group as he averted his attention to the other group. At the same time, he spoke with the same serious voice "Jarid, stall Xyna for some time. Her mana is unstable right now, so you won''t be defeated immediately!" Jason''s voice didn''t leave any leeway for Jarid, who could only look at Jason as if he had turned insane. The moment he heard Jason''s words, Jarid felt like punching him. However, Jason''s attitude showed that he did not request Jarid to do what he was told, rather ordered him to follow his instructions! The arrogance and confidence Jason showed made Jarid furious, but he had already perceived that Jason''s attitude had changed both times he had transformed. However, this time it was a little bit different than before. Right now Jason seemed to be extremely calm and rational, while he had been aggressive and impatient when he had looked like the form of a grand transformed Lizr. A Lizr, yet stronger, wilder, and majestic, with the demeanor of a king! Because of the difference Jarid perceived, he believed that Jason would attack him if he were to disregard his orders. Furthermore, his advice seemed to be correct. Xyna had been hidden by the mist that emerged when the icicles collided with the light shield which was a special technique the Tigron race had. As such, Jarid could only sense her mana fluctuations that were unstable. Yet, before he attacked her, the mist dispersed, revealing Xyna, who had been pierced by several freezing icicles. This surprising sight caused Jarid to wonder what exactly Jason''s strongest affinity was. His wide range of attacks was just too versatile, and Jarid had never felt as glad to have befriended Jason as today. "Don''t order me!" He snarled, only to see Jason smirk without saying anything. Jarid was still feeling an itch in his hand, and he wanted to throw a fist at his friend, but that could wait for later. Right now, he decided to trust Jason and stall for him to defeat the three strongest prodigies of the youngest generation belonging to the Hran, Hamaa, and Fyrmn race. As such, Jarid released his thunder affinity and constitution at the same time which was enough to erupt huge thunder currents that enveloped him tightly, turning into his armor. At the same time the third seal on Jarid''s thunder constitution was about to break, revealing the distinct purple glow that radiated from his eyes. Jarid pressed his feet against the ground, and it cracked under the pressure as Jarid leaned his body forward to catapult himself towards Xyna, who was breathing heavily. She had never expected that Jason''s attack would affect her so much. Just a single freezing icicle had the strength comparable to that of an 8th Lique stage, but she had underestimated two things. First, she had underestimated the massive number of freezing icicles, and second, which was even more important was the fact that Xyna hadn''t expected the freezing properties to be so potent that they would freeze her defense attributed martial art technique! This increased her mana consumption exceptionally with every single icicle that pierced into the light shield she had erected, forcing her to endure the steadily increasing mana consumption or the onslaught of freezing icicles. As such, while taking a deep breath, she appraised her condition and saw Jarid from the corner of her eye. His speed was terrific, and she knew that his pace was at least at par with her own, that was if she were to emerge unscathed from a fight! The more she thought of Jason and his weird attacks, the more her head hurt. Thus, Xyna''s focus subconsciously changed to Jarid. He appeared right next to her only a moment later, leaning further down, barely reaching the ground as he slashed upwards with his daggers. At the same time, he lifted his body, using the momentum to increase the lethality of his attacks. As Jarid had expected, Xyna''s extraordinary reflexes allowed her to evade his attack by a hair''s breadth. However, because he had already expected this move, Jarid didn''t waste any time adjusting his stance as he followed up with several more attacks. Xyna was barely able to start circulating mana through her body as Jarid''s onslaught of rapid attacks consisting of strikes, slashes, and thrusts rained down upon her. She had fought against Jarid several times in the past but never had the young Ilian been that strong before. During the first minute they had encountered each other, Xyna was forced to retreat and evade every attack by a hair''s breadth which was uncommon for her. Under normal circumstances, she was the dominant force, and the current situation that was caused by Jason''s attack enraged her. As such, Xyna decided to change the tides as she unleashed a treasured technique her ancestor had taught her. The image of a white tiger manifested behind her for a few seconds, releasing a tremendous pressure that caused Jarid to stiffen for a moment. This was more than enough for the image of the white tiger to merge with Xyna, as her eyes seemed to transform. At the same time, she released her mana, manifesting huge tiger prawns on top of her hands as she drew out razor-sharp claws that shined in a faint white light. "Now we can fight!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 585 - Frozen Flame While Jarid was having the time of his life, being bashed by the strongest and also the oldest prodigy of the youngest generation, Jason''s fight against the three of the strongest prodigies of the Olympus federation had reached its climax too! Jason threw a glance at Xyna when he sensed the appearance of something grand, only to realise that it was merely an illusion that signified the activation of a special technique. This attracted Jason''s attention, but he had by no means, time to waste to think about Xyna, let alone Jarid. The prodigies belonging to the Hran, Hamaa, and Fyrmn race were more than enough trouble he had to take care of. His fusion with Artemis was still fully utilized and Jason knew that it would hold for more than ten minutes. As such, he had more than enough time to face his opponents. There was no need to hold back for either of them, and the Fyrmn prodigy had already utilized her psychokinesis ability as she controlled a bunch of daggers she had taken out of her spatial ring. However, instead of firing them at Jason, the Hamaa enveloped the daggers with his unique mana, further strengthening them while the Hran did the same, giving the daggers a darkness property. This was extremely interesting and it had been a long time since Jason had seen members of different races work together in order to increase their combat capabilities. Utilizing only a small amount of mana, the daggers turned into lethal weapons that were strong enough to injure opponents at the 10th Lique stage! Even if Solaris could do the same, it was exceptional because the three prodigies had barely used any mana. Nobody knew for sure just how long they could attack him with the bunch of daggers the female Fyrmn was controlling. Despite that, Jason was extremely calm as he exerted his black fire affinity. When he had learned about his ability to fuse with Artemis for the first time, he had noticed something weird about his fire affinity, and it didn''t take him long to figure out what exactly it was. Influenced by Artemis, and the bond of unconditional trust between all of his soulbonds, the black flames were transmuted during the fusion process of Jason with Artemis! Not only had Jason''s eyes and hair changed their color, but the same also applied to his fire affinity! Despite being an origin flame, Solaris was his soulbond, and at the same time his affinity seed. It had multiple tasks, but the most important was to obey Jason''s demands. As such, the searing hot flame that could burn through everything had slowly turned into an extremely cold flame that froze everything around it. Upon releasing the frozen flame, a faint blue hue enveloped Jason, further increasing the oppressive pressure everyone felt by simply looking at him. Nobody was sure what kind of existence Jason looked like, but the pitch-black horns that grew out of his forehead and the two stigmas that shone in a bright golden-silverish light caused everyone to feel like a superior race had descended on Argos. Ideally, it was impossible, but the same applied to individuals of grand races. Yet, Jason''s naturally awakened stigma told everyone that he was either the descendant of a being hailing from a grand or even higher ranked race! Other than that, there could only be a secret about mankind, nobody knew of, but that was not something anyone was concerned about right now. Wisse, who had a high control over both fire and ice, couldn''t help but stare at Jason as he subconsciously blurted out. "My prey! I''ll definitely be the one to take him down!" Old Sadran, who sat next to Wisse could only glance at him with an uncomfortable gaze. The tension was slowly escalating, and the Olympus federation had shot itself in the foot by inviting mankind to this year''s liberation tournament. In the end, the invitation had caused the encounter between Jason and Wisse, which was something that could lead to unimaginable consequences. ''Will he take away the young man by force?... If that''s so, we will be considered accomplices and it won''t be possible, or make it extremely difficult for us to forge ties with the human race¡­'' Old Sadran''s mind was rattling with thoughts as he tried to predict Wisse''s next move while his gaze had returned to the battlefield where he continued to look at his descendants'' fight. However, his mind was not in place and he bit his lips trying to figure out what the Dragonoid wanted from Jason! ''He is definitely a prodigy, one of a kind at that, but is that really enough for the Dragonoid to be so interested in him? Wisse''s bloodline is extremely strong, and from the aura he had radiated earlier, it''s possible that his ancestors are true and pureblooded dragons!'' Scratching his short beard, he tried to think of a solution about how he could maintain a good relationship with both the Dragonoids that visited them once in a while, and mankind. An entire minute passed, in which Jason had conjured freezing fire needles that precisely targeted the daggers controlled by the female Fyrmn prodigy. It was only then that Old Sadran got an idea. "Mr. Wisse, how about you talk with Jason, once the liberation tournament is over? Because of the changed rules, the tournament will end tomorrow instead of a week later, and the young man should have more than enough time for you!" Old Sadran sounded optimistic on the outside, but his inner thoughts were not that confident as he was not sure what exactly he was currently doing. His mind was fuzzy and he could only hope that the Dragonoid''s bad temper wouldn''t cause any misunderstandings or accidents. ''I hope this didn''t make it worse!'' Meanwhile, Jason had already scrapped the entire batch of daggers the female Fyrmn had been controlling. Owing to Solaris, who hadn''t lost any of its affinities despite having turned into a freezing fire, the mana nullification ability it had, made several things more difficult for his opponents. Not only was it extremely difficult to control other objects that were frozen due to the freezing fire needles, but the multiple layers of enhancements were slowly disintegrating too! Jason was still learning all kinds of things about the fusion, let alone the frozen fire affinity that came bundled with Artemis'' fusion. This learning process was exciting, but Jason also noticed the mana fluctuations vibrating violently behind him, causing a commotion in the spectators. Their attention had been drawn to Jarid and Xyna''s fight that had turned out to be much more exciting than anyone could have imagined. Initially, Xyna had expected to defeat Jarid within a few seconds after activating the White tiger spiritual descension technique. However, it was much more difficult, which was not only because of her injuries or the freezing cold around and within her. Jarid''s strength increased consistently, while his eyes seemed to have turned into an incarnation of thunder itself, creating faint currents as his affinity''s capacities heightened. This was all due to the third seal that barely weighed on his thunder constitution anymore. He had loosened it lightly, allowing the thunder his body created naturally to escape. Unfortunately, Jarid was still unable to control everything perfectly, and he played with fire by unlocking his third seal. Nevertheless, he wanted to show everyone that the human race wasn''t the only one that could defeat those who were deemed as stronger because of their age, cultivation base, and so-called talent. The determination to go beyond the limits was equally important and Jarid wanted to show this to everyone, knowing that Jason was willing to break through his own limitations over and over again if necessary! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 586 - Frozen Palace Jarid had no idea whether Jason was winning his fight or not. He was not even sure if it was possible for him to emerge victorious against Xyna either. Nevertheless, the strength coursing through his veins right now made him feel exhilarated as he had never been as strong as he was right now. Dense thunder currents spread through his entire body, and only a fraction of them were released. Despite that, the thunder currents Xyna could see were already more than enough for her to be forced to enter a defensive stance. Even though she had beaten up Jarid just a moment before, his demeanor had changed within a single moment. As one of the strongest prodigies, she had her connections to figure out the secrets of the other potentially dangerous participants of the liberation tournament. Jarid was one of them which allowed Xyna to learn about Jarid''s unique constitution. She also knew that his constitution was too strong for his body to handle and that it had to be sealed with multiple seals. Because of that, Xyna was not only able to figure out that Jarid''s current strength was something he could barely handle, but also that it was much stronger than she had initially estimated. As such, she set aside devising strategies to fight Jason for now because Jarid had become an opponent worthy of her attention! With the White tiger spirit descension, her strength had increased exponentially, allowing her to fight everyone below the Prismar stage without sustaining too many injuries. However, the thunder currents released from Jarid''s body had already reached the Prismar stage, and he had barely unlocked a total of three seals right now. Both Xyna and Jarid released their strongest technique while their body reached the peak of their current limitation, but Jarid went one step further and broke through his limits to be at par with Xyna. Turning into an existence that looked like a humanoid thunder elemental, Jarid''s speed and lethality increased while his mana consumption decreased to the bare minimum. Meanwhile, Xyna''s body was slowly transforming as her lean body frame turned bulkier. By replicating the spirit of the white tiger, the lethality of Xyna''s light affinity increased while her mana consumption decreased, as the technique absorbed her life force, draining it slowly. As she used a secret technique, she had to supply it with her own life force and nutrition. Jason''s fusion and fortified soul conjunction could be considered as a state similar to a secret technique, the only difference being that he didn''t have to activate anything. While Xyna and Jarid approached each other at a rapid speed, devastating the surrounding area, Jason was occupied with the small group of three prodigies who were trying to fight against the frozen fire that froze everything in its wake. Jason had more than enough time to test out Solaris'' strength in his new form, which was even more interesting than he could have expected. Who would have thought that Artemis and Solaris, who had incompatible elements as their affinity, were working together in such a weird way? Jason was definitely not one of them, but he felt that it was extremely beneficial for his soulbonds to support and amplify each other. He trusted his soulbonds with his life and it made Jason happy to see that his polar opposite soulbonds were now working in perfect sync and shared a bond of trust. The Hran, Hamaa, and Fyrmn team had tried to attack him several times with the exact same tactic, only to realise that Jason''s mana consumption was as low, or even lower than the mana required for their combined, multi-layered attack. That was only logical in Jason''s opinion because he only had to summon a small flame to deflect each attack. Despite that, he acted as if it was draining him in order to stall for some time to test the waters about several things. There were too many things he was curious about, but Jason wanted to fight his opponents in close combat right now. As such, he didn''t want to continue fighting as they were currently doing. At the same time, the fight that occurred behind him was extremely interesting, wanting him to leave his own and watch it instead of trying to make sense of what was happening from far away. Jarid released dense thunder currents like never before, and his combat strength seemed to be at par with Xyna''s despite her higher cultivation base! Her secret technique was also extremely interesting, and the two behind him generated way more curiosity in his mind than the group of three in front of him. All of them may have a cultivation base at the 8th and 9th Lique stage, but that was just equivalent to what Jason could reach owing to his fusion with Artemis. Even without the fusion, his standard strength wouldn''t be much worse as long as Artemis or Petri occupied his mana core! With Byakur in his hand, Jason decided to test out how strong his opponents were in close combat, which was something he looked forward to. Based on his observation, the Hamaa prodigy was the strongest, followed by the Hran while the female Fyrmn prodigy had to deal with several problems while facing him! This was mostly because the prodigy of the Fyrmn race had tried to manipulate his mind with her affinity, only to notice that Jason was immune to her mind attacks. Until now, mind attacks had never worked on Jason, but that was mostly because of his Emperor Eyes that had supported him ceaselessly. They had never really betrayed him in dangerous situations, but Jason knew that he was once again too dependent on his eyes'' unique ability. It was the same situation he had been in several years ago, the only difference was that he had learned from the mistake of trusting that his eyes were able to perceive everything, which was not the fact. Otherwise, they might have been omnipotent, which was certainly not the case! Jarid used his unique daggers that increased the lethality of thunder attributed mana that had been inserted into it. He slashed at Xyna''s hands that seemed to take the form of real paws as she deflected them with the razor-sharp claws she had released. Several minutes had already passed since they started fighting and both were worn out, covered in bruises and small cuts that tore open due to the rapid movements they had to make in order to evade their opponent''s attack. Xyna had already used up a large amount of mana even before her fight against Jarid had begun, and she could only curse at Jason''s freezing icicle attack while staring at Jarid, who was breathing heavily. Jarid''s body was aching heavily, and he could barely move, and his only hope was that Xyna was in the same state, worn out and extremely tired. However, this thought drove Jarid with the necessary momentum to continue fighting, while it was exactly the same with Xyna, who hoped that Jarid would collapse first. At the same time, Jason was full of energy, and his entire mana core was overflowing with mana as his eyes gleamed in excitement. Fighting against the group of three had been extremely exciting, despite his earlier disappointment. Unfortunately, it was almost time for his fusion to end. Recalling the exhaustion that had overcome him after Petri''s fusion had been completed, Jason knew that he wouldn''t be able to overcome the next wave of exhaustion. Jason was aware of the fact that he wouldn''t be able to fight directly afterward. As such, he had to end the first battle royale right now! There was only one minute left before his fusion would end but that was more than enough time for him to complete everything he had planned in his mind. With both Solaris and Artemis'' help his plan should work out. Because of that, he retreated from the group of three prodigies he was currently fighting, only to soar a few meters high into the air. Initially, the Hran, Hamaa, and Fyrmn prodigies wanted to follow him, only to notice that he was still full of vigor, while they were already exhausted. Yet, the moment Jason halted in the air, and turned around, their faces paled. Without any prior warning, Jason released his frozen fire by supplying every ounce of his overflowing mana into it. The cold air that permeated the entire colosseum made the mercury drop several degrees further, only for the entire arena to come to a standstill. Some were unable to move, others didn''t want to move, and it was only Jason''s hand, which was holding a sky-blue flame, that pointed towards the ground. Only a moment later he let go of the flame, allowing it to wreak havoc. Jason''s sight blurred for a moment and a headache overcame him which caused his senses to be distorted. He could only feel the surrounding cold, and the moment he reopened his eyes, the entire arena had turned into a blue palace; a Frozen palace! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 587 - Eagerness Because everyone had already been exhausted, the participants had been unable to save themselves. It was only due to the elders of the Olympus federation that they were able to survive the icy cold that permeated the air and seemed to seep through their bones. The elders had saved them from the dangers before anything worse could happen, which was their death. The grim reaper had already knocked on their doors and was about to reap their souls, and every single member of the remaining participants knew that they had just escaped death. "Just how could he have that much mana left!!" Xyna mumbled in astonishment while gritting her teeth. She had wanted to win the liberation tournament by all means in order to show everyone that she was different from her older sister and that she was the strongest prodigy! However, not only Jason, who was extremely young, but from a mysterious race, but also Jarid, who was also much younger than her, had been able to fight against her. And that was after Xyna had used every single trick up her sleeve. It hurt her pride deeply, and despite knowing that it was already over, she couldn''t accept the result. Even after looking at the gigantic frozen palace-like structure, Jason had created within a moment, Xyna didn''t want to acknowledge the truth! Jarid felt a similar sting of hurt, but he was able to acknowledge that Jason was stronger than him. Despite honing his skills and growing several times stronger than his earlier form, Jarid was still weaker than Jason, whose progress was unparalleled. This was shocking, but it also told Jarid that he had yet to unlock his true potential and that the Olympus federation and Argos were just the tip of the iceberg! They might have had a slower start than others, but it was evident that they had the potential to become someone renowned in the whole wide world as long as they could reach places with enough energy for them to grow stronger. Being restricted by something as simple as the lack of abundant and dense mana was ridiculous, and Jarid knew that there were several candidates who wouldn''t stay behind on Argos for long. Even the old men of the Olympus federation were urging the others to leave, to find their own path, and to not be restricted by other races that thought too highly of themselves, because the representatives of other races in the Olympus federation had been exactly the same, condescending and snobbish. Most of the younger generation didn''t know about the entire truth of the Olympus federation''s origin, but every race was eager to let their prodigies grow while giving them possible places of where their ancestors could be. Having been separated due to the world bridges restrictions, it was unknown whether the rest of their race had been annihilated, or if they found a place to live, to prosper, to rebuild their combat strength in order to fight back! As such, the older authorities could only give their best to provide cultivation resources and every little help they could in order to allow their descendants to grow and regain their race''s honor. However, in the end, Jason, someone from a newly emerged race, called human, had defeated every single one of the carefully nurtured prodigies of the youngest generation, shattering their prideful egos made of brittle glass. Yet, instead of feeling angry or hurt, everyone''s gaze that was fixated on the young man who slowly descended to the ground of the arena was filled with reverence and excitement. ''If the human race has only a few individuals of similar caliber...we might be able to fight back much sooner than expected!!'' The Olympus federation knew about the world bridges all around Canir and the Archipelago. As such, they were also fully aware that there was not a single similar world bridge that would lead them to a cultivation paradise similar to the broken world. For others, it wouldn''t be a paradise to cultivate, but for everyone living on Argos, it certainly was! Because of that though, the Olympus federation authorities'' attention was slowly drawn towards the other humans that were called God''s children. Unfortunately, their expression made it look as if they were even more shocked about everything that had happened due to Jason, than the authorities themselves were. This caused their initial excitement to die down a little bit as one of the dragonewt elders said. "If the God''s children are even half as strong as the halfling, we should definitely form an alliance with them...their resources are not even half as much as ours after all.." It was the voice of the same female elder dragonewt, who had rescued her granddaughter from being burned alive by Jason''s golden-eyed black flame dragon replica. She didn''t seem to hold any resentment towards Jason who had almost killed her daughter, but instead, she could only look at the young man and the God''s children as if they were a huge opportunity for the Olympus federation. The others felt similar, and it was the first instance in a very long time that their opinion had been the exact same. Meanwhile, Wisse had never looked away from Jason, and it was only when the fight stopped that he stood up from his chair. Floating through the air, Jason looked like a flash of lightning and his appearance was only noticeable when he appeared right in front of Jarid, whose transformation had already reverted back to reveal his usual self. His stigma was barely glowing, and it was evident how exhausted the young man was. "Not bad, brat, not bad!" Wisse said with a small smirk as he released his crimson fire that devoured the frozen palace in no time. The temperature that had gone down rapidly spiked like crazy, leading to the formation of cracks in the colosseum due to the temperature''s sudden change. Picking up Jason, who barely realised what was going on, Wisse took him to the small space that was designated to the human powerhouses, whom the dragon simply ignored. Merl was still staring at Jason in shock and confusion and it took him a second to register his faint mana fluctuations and his severe exhaustion. As such, he instinctively took out several potions which he wanted to give Jason, only to hear the robed man who''d brought Jason to them saying something in the universal language. His voice sounded rough, and out of the corner of his eye, Merl could only see the serpent-like pupils that glared at him with killing intent. This caused Merl to stiffen for a moment, only to sag in relief when he saw Wisse take out a transparent vial with purple colored liquid from his spatial ring. Opening the cork, Wisse ignored everyone''s shocked expression as he forced the contents of the vial down Jason''s throat, who was oblivious to what happened. A moment later, Jason felt the surge of an enormous amount of mana and energy spreading through his entire body, re-energizing him. Opening his eyes, he could only see Wisse''s arms holding his shoulder as the dragon said. "Brat, let''s talk after the tournament!" Jason was still extremely exhausted, but the bone-weary exhaustion seemed to have been replaced by tiredness that was no different than what one would feel from not having slept for a few weeks. ''Just what kind of potion did he give me?'' The human powerhouses were staring at the transparent vial in awe that had still one drop of liquid left within it. Looking at it, his Emperor Eyes allowed Jason to realise that the potion was not even remotely comparable to the potions concocted by anyone on Argos, or even the professional alchemists inside the broken world! As such, driven by his interest, Jason answered Wisse with a clear voice that didn''t show a trace of hesitation. "Yes, let''s talk!" This caused Wisse''s smirk to widen, only to hear Jason adding another sentence to his clear answer. "But once I obtained the lesser origin flame, I will have to travel through Argos to solve certain problems, so we might have to talk directly after the tournament before I''ll get my reward...and now I''m too sleepy!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 588 - Lost Lover ''Who the hell does this youth think he is?!? I''m a dragon, hello?!!'' Wisse had never felt so humiliated, but he had gulped down his anger and agreed to let Jason sleep for the time being. Frustrated, he just mimicked Jason''s tired expression in his head. ''After the tournament but before I get my reward...he knows that I''m a dragon and much stronger than him, but he doesn''t really seem to care about a dragon''s temper?!? What''s wrong with this lad?'' Wisse had already forgotten that he was less than two years older than Jason because he categorized everyone according to their cultivation base and combat strength. Thus, he felt as if he was much older than the young man whom he had given a high-graded potion so as to enable the drowsy Jason to talk to him. And that brat had gone ahead and preferred to sleep anyways!! The dragon only shook his head, after Jason had given his answer, and closed his eyes to enter a deep slumber. This allowed his body to replenish the used up energy at a rapid pace, which was mostly owing to the potion Wisse had given him. Letting go of Jason, Wisse stepped aside as he slumped to the ground, without waking up despite the fall. Merl Arths picked up Jason while looking at Wissen who sighed deeply before disappearing. ''I will definitely lecture this lad once the tournament is over!!!'' Wisse told himself before recalling everything Jason had been able to comprehend and do during the last few days. The tournament had only started a short while ago, but the young halfling had surprised him over and over again. ''Maybe I''ll just lecture him if I don''t like the results of our talk¡­'' The anger that had sparked within him owing to his hurt pride had died down as fast as it had flared, allowing Wisse to calm down. He might be a fiery dragon, but his mother''s heritage of a Dragonoid with a high true ice dragon bloodline allowed him to stay level-headed when necessary. Otherwise, Wisse would have already destroyed the Colosseum, if not Janur in its entirety. Fortunately, this didn''t happen, and he returned to his seat as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, Jason continued to sleep soundly which caused him to miss the remaining battle royales! They might have been less exciting to the spectators than the first battle royale, but it was still interesting enough for the Olympus federation''s authorities. "Their talent is lower than the halfling''s, but the fact that they were able to face the federation''s prodigies with less than half of our resources speaks volumes about their soul-awakening, right?" It was the representative of the Olympus federation who said this, and the other authorities agreed in unison once again, as the elder of the Klarir race remarked. "Now the biggest question is whether we want the human race to merge with the Olympus federation, or if we want a treaty and support agreement? The former might be better for us in the initial phase, but if the human race''s soul worlds are really as strong as I imagine, it might be counterproductive if we were to look at it in the long term. It could very well morph into another era of suppression¡­" Once again the Olympus federation''s authorities nodded their heads as they continued to talk with each other. Right now, they had already accepted that Jason was bound to bag first place in the liberation tournament. It was obvious by looking at the other five tournament participants. All of them were strong, but none was at par with Xyna. As such, they simply accepted their fate and the fact that Jason would receive the unawakened lesser origin flame. In the end, they hoped to receive more profits out of the loss of an origin flame, and the federation''s authorities were of the opinion that it was impossible to make losses. That was at least as long as the agreements they made with the human race were neat. Owing to that, they had invited Merl and the remaining human powerhouses that were sent to represent their race to a large gathering. Jason was still sleeping, and the God''s children that had been defeated because they had been targeted by most of the other participants could only carry Jason back to their lodgings. While Xenia complained about Jason''s decision to have unleashed his entire strength to fight against his opponents, which made everything more difficult for them, Betty and Ben defended his move. "Haven''t you noticed that Jason had been targeted from the beginning? He had to use every trump to win against his opponents. I believe it is only because of him that our strength increased exponentially during the last few months, and it might be possible that we were only invited to the gathering because of him, to begin with!" Betty''s words made sense and Ben nodded, only to add in a voice note as he smiled slightly at Xenia. "We should be proud of him and ourselves, and not blame one another. That''s not how we have been brought up, right Xen?" Despite feeling like punching Ben for backstabbing her, she could only stare daggers at him before turning around in order to retreat to her own room. At that moment, Tom sighed, before he turned to Ben. "If you act like that, you will stay single forever." After that, he laughed for some time before noticing that nobody laughed with him. "You guys are so boring." He said, as his expression turned into disappointment before departing to his own room too. Ben was lost as his gaze followed his friend, only for Betty to interrupt his thoughts. "Well, you can do it! Just believe in yourself¡­.and now help me drag this heavy piece of trouble into his room!" The piece of trouble was in fact Jason, who had done many irksome things he had promised not to do. He had almost killed every participant and the spectators multiple times, and the danger radiating from him had been unfathomable. One could say that Jason was a magnet for trouble, and if someone were to say this out loud, only Jason himself might disagree with this! However, in the end, he had helped everyone a lot, and it was impossible to say how the entire liberation tournament would have progressed without Jason. Not only had he been their interpreter until recently, but it was only due to Jason, that they had entered the colosseum to receive permission to enter the broken world. The broken world had only been a prerequisite for them to increase their combat experience and weaponry, and Betty couldn''t help but think that Jason may have planned everything beforehand. If she were to know that he had simply proposed to use the Colosseum to increase their combat strength only to bet his entire fortune, she would have slapped her forehead. Fortunately, she didn''t know that and left Jason''s room with Ben after they had thrown him into the bed. The final battle of the liberation tournament would be the day after, but only the oblivious and ignorant didn''t know who was going to be the final winner! Betty and the other God''s children would rather fight against a bunch of prodigies from the Olympus federation, instead of Jason after he utilized his fusion with Artemis. Even without the fusion, he was frightening enough, and his combat prowess was on a completely different level than what they had sensed from those who had overwhelmed them with their numbers! They would bet their life on Jason''s win if need be. This was the level of confidence they had in his victory! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 589 - Offer Jason didn''t know how much time had passed since he''d fallen into a deep slumber. The last words he recalled were him agreeing to talk with Wisse after the tournament was over. However, that was easier said than done because the bulk of information thrown at him the moment he left his room was enormous. While Merl told him to act as an interpreter so that they could set up a proper contract without anyone being able to deceive them, Betty and Ben bombarded him with other information about the tournament. Apparently, the rewards would be given out right after the final winner was decided, followed by a banquet, and the signature process of the ceremonial peace treaty would conclude the event. Only then did Jason realise how illogical it was for him to tell Wisse that they should talk to each other during the time frame that was somewhere between the end of the liberation tournament and the start of the celebration process where he would receive the reward. This made everything even worse because Jason wanted to leave the human embassy the moment everything was concluded in order to rescue the Flers. "Wisse will definitely kill me¡­" Shaking his head, Jason muttered to himself while trying to think of a solution. Unsure of what to do, Jason decided to advance straightforwardly instead of hiding somewhere. Wearing simple clothes that could be used for formal procedures, Jason rushed out of the training hall towards the federation''s official building complex for guests. The human embassy had rejected staying there because Jason and the God''s children had to train in the training hall before the liberation tournament had started, and now they didn''t want to move to the official building because they were comfortable in the lodging of the training hall. Despite that, Jason was able to make his way through the guards in front of the building complex he wanted to enter. Everyone knew of Jason and that he was an official guest of the Olympus federation. As such, there was no need for anyone to block him. Thanks to the Emperor Eyes, Jason could immediately tell where Wisse was. Thus, using the elevator, he reached the highest floor in no time before he knocked on the door to the dragon''s room. "Who''s there?" Wisse asked, knowing that it was the young man whose mana fluctuation he had sensed the moment Jason had passed the guards. "I doubt you know my name, so why are you even asking?" Jason countered, knowing that most of the Olympus federation knew that his first name was Jason. However, saying that ''Jason'' is here wouldn''t make a difference be like saying any name because there were simply too many with the same name! Wisse smiled lightly before he opened the door. "It looks like you''ve already forgotten that you introduced yourself to me, Jason Stella!" This caused Jason to just stare at him as he tried to recall their discussion, only to remember that Wisse was right. "Oh..my bad!" Acknowledging his fault, Jason felt only embarrassed for a moment before he entered the room. "I found the solution to overwhelm an enslaving soul pact. Thanks for your help!" Wisse might not have found the solution by himself, but he had helped Jason to find it out. As such, he was thankful for the dragon''s help. Hearing him speak confidently piqued the dragon''s curiosity hence he asked Jason straightforwardly. "So what did you do with your soul world to terminate an enslavement soul pact?" Even though Jason could have remained silent, he didn''t feel the need to hide anything from Wisse. If the dragon were to make a soul pact with someone, even Jason was not sure whether his soul world was strong enough to overwhelm the strength of a true dragon''s soul. At least not now, and Jason had already considered the fact that Wisse was not a pureblooded dragon too. Whether this was an advantage or not was something Jason didn''t know, but he was the last one to discriminate against someone because of their bloodline. After he had explained to Wisse everything about how it was possible for him to destroy a soul pact, the dragon turned quiet for some time, only to say. "That''s a pretty crude and inefficient way, but as long as it works for you, I guess it''s fine. But don''t expect it to work every single time, let alone after you leave Argos. What you''re currently doing is playing with fire, and not something someone at the Lique stage should do, to begin with!" Jason nodded his head without any angry retort Wisse because he was fully aware of this. Despite lecturing Jason, Wisse was intrigued that the young man had found a way to terminate a soul pact so easily. There was no need for him to use a technique at all, and one could say that Jason used the supremacy of his soul to overwhelm the enslaved being before forcing it to expel and disintegrate the soul pact! If Wisse were to tell this to his master, she would probably look at him as if he had gone insane during the time he''d spent on Argos. Even he couldn''t really believe what Jason and probably other humans too, were able to do, but it cemented his resolve to take the young halfling in front of him to visit his master! "Lad, how about you follow me to Tagran? The cultivation energies there are incomparable to the scarce mana on Argos, and I can ask my master to teach you more about the chaos attribute!" Jason had been unaware of Wisse''s exact plan, but he had already expected him to say something similar to what he was listening to right now. However, in the end, Jason could only shake his head as he replied, "I have too many things to do on Argos right now, and it might take a few months before I''ll be able to leave the planet. Right now, I''m strong enough to face a few powerhouses, but there are too many to handle at once. I don''t wanna leave the human race while they''re still torn apart, and I''m not as strong as you after all! Furthermore, I want to destroy a few world bridges, at least those that are directly connected to higher races, and some connected to stronger, and hostile basic races. There are also world bridges that have extremely low restrictions allowing strong beings to emerge from them once they stabilize. Those have to be destroyed too! These two steps will take a little bit of effort and time, so I cannot just leave. Please don''t try to force me, because it won''t do either of us any good...You would have to kill me in order to drag me away right now." Wisse noticed that Jason had seen through his plan, but instead of showing his temper, he was able to stay extremely calm as his mind searched for solutions on how he could make the meeting between Jason and his master happen. Others might have thought that this was unnecessary and counterproductive for his own teachings as he was wasting his precious time while reducing his master''s time, but Wisse knew how much his master appreciated talents. This also included those that brought talents to her, which was exactly what Wisse planned in the hope to receive more benefits. He knew that this move would bring more profits than the effort he would have to put in. Even lesser or low origin flames were not worthy of being a reward in the eye of the Chaos Dragon, Wisse''s master! As such, Wisse had thought of a simple solution, that prevented him from spending too much time on Argos, while being able to take Jason to his master! "How about I help you solve your problems after you get your reward? As a true dragon, I can easily destroy world bridges as long as they don''t have any profound protection mechanisms! As for your problems with the human powerhouses, nobody is stronger than me on your planet. Even those puny insects you call Overlords would wag their tail in front of me If I unleash my true form! In exchange, you will meet my master, is that fair?" Jason tried to process Wisse''s words, and he couldn''t help but feel that something was off about the young dragon. However, instead of rejecting his offer, Jason accepted it only to add a certain clause. "I can come with you, because I wanted to leave Argos either way, but I want to know why you want to take me to your master!" This was something Wisse had expected because it was only logical to ask the reason behind a true dragon''s offer of help in exchange for a request of something as simple as meeting the master! Smiling lightly, Wisse decided to answer honestly, "There are two reasons for me to take you to my master. First, I can receive heavenly treasures that would help me adjust to my physique. It will bring me closer to the Ascension stage before I finally start to truly cultivate. As for the other reason, I want to see your growth, and figure out whether you can fight against me in the future, or if I will remain stronger than you. Your demonstrations during the last two days were more than enough to make me believe that you are the true dark horse that not many races know of!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 590 - Chaos There was no real reason for Jason to decline Wisse''s offer, and he was quite interested in meeting his master too. However, he pondered about the latter reason Wisse had given him. ''True dark horse that not many races know of¡­.even I don''t know what makes me a dark horse!!'' Jason could only curse inwardly, and think that he still had a long way to go. Yet, considering Wisse''s offer to help him with mankind, the treaty of the Olympus federation and his own race as well as destroying several world bridges, Jason couldn''t help but think that Wisse''s biggest motive to help him was the first one. ''I wonder what rewards he gets for bringing me to his master. Is his master some sort of a talent scout or is it because of the chaos attribute of the mysterious being that left its soul fraction within me?'' Clearing his throat, Jason revealed the truth. "To be honest, I have no idea what the chaos attribute is and how I was able to release it for a short amount of time. It is still a riddle for me too. So please don''t expect too much from me. Is your master searching for talent, or is it some sort of a trap to devour me and absorb my energy?" He sounded calm, but his eyes pierced through Wisse, making him realise that Jason was not blindly following him, despite the great offer he had given to the young halfling. Taking a deep breath, Wisse calmed down his impatient self as he said. "If you want, we can form a soul pact that prevents us from lying to each other for the next hour. Every lie will cause unbearable pain to the soul of the person who spoke it. Nothing will be destroyed, and we can simply choose not to answer if we don''t want to. Is that fair enough?" Wisse didn''t not only plan to earn Jason''s trust but he was also eager to figure out several things about the young halfling! Amongst the most important questions, he had in mind was Jason''s origin, and this didn''t mean his human bloodline. In the end, Wisse was the most curious about the other bloodline Jason had within him. How could the young dragon have known that his entire perspective of the way he viewed the world and the things around him would be shaken in the following hour? Jason agreed to the idea because it would solve his trust issues in the easiest possible way. His gut feeling told him that he could trust Wisse, which was the biggest reason for Jason to even consider traveling with him to Tagran, but his gut feeling was not everything. The alarm clocks in his body were ringing wildly, and it was obvious that he had to pay attention to the next steps he was taking. It wouldn''t be long before the liberation tournament would resume, but they were able to set up the soul pact of truth, and spend one hour talking to each other freely before Jason left Wisse''s apartment. The young dragon''s eyes were foggy, and he held the long-distance messenger crystal in his trembling hand as he sighed deeply. "Master will never believe me when I tell her everything¡­" Despite this though, Wisse knew that he had to tell his master about the information he had just obtained. He was not sure if his heart could handle another shock after what he had found out about Jason, and Wisse could only hope that his master wouldn''t lecture him, or call him a fool for believing every single word Jason had said. Who would believe that the descendant of the Celestia race had been born on Argos, in the body of a normal mortal?! Only fools would, but Wisse was one of those fools who believed every word Jason uttered. It was not only caused by the soul pact of truth but also owing to the other factors and detailed descriptions of a Celestia shared by Jason . Even if Jason''s words about his bloodline being sealed by something powerful were true, there was no way that a baby of a mere human and a divine Celestia could be born. It shouldn''t even be possible for a Celestia and a human to encounter each other, to begin with! While Wisse was doubting his entire existence and everything he had learned until now, his grasp on the long-distance messenger crystal loosened before it fell to the ground. "Was Master correct when she said that the chaos within the universe is increasing? But...that can''t be because of Jason only, right?" Wisse was just blurting out things he could recall from his master''s teachings while trying to make sense of everything. It was only half an hour after Jason had left his apartment that Wisse regained his senses once again. Picking up the long-distance messenger crystal that had only two uses left, he decided that the information he had procured was of extraordinary importance. After being contacted for the second time in a short period, the Chaos dragon couldn''t help but wonder what was going on with her youngest disciple. ''Even if the young halfling is interesting, with Wisse''s intellect and pride, it shouldn''t be necessary to call me again.'' Her thoughts were logical, but never could she have imagined the first words her talented disciple said next. "Liea, the halfling I was talking about... is a fucking Celestia!!" The last two words that left Wisse''s mouth were filled with every possible emotion he could have inserted in them, emotions that he had accumulated throughout the last half an hour. He was not even sure how he should feel right now, and the young dragon only knew that his commentary about ''seeing who will be stronger'' was rendered insignificant. Even if he was a true dragon, his bloodline was not pure, and the existence he had challenged was not a mere human with the bloodline of a grand or superior race, but the Celestia race!! Goosebumps sprang upon his entire body as he waited for his master and the Chaos Dragon, Liea''s answer. However, even after a minute passed, there was no answer from her. Wisse was beginning to feel restless when he heard a surprised whisper. "Are you sure?" Initially, Wisse was not sure what to answer, but in the end, he decided to reveal all the thoughts that were on his mind. "I''m afraid that he is not lying...we made a soul pact of truth, and even if it''s possible to find loopholes to prevent sharing the entire truth, Jason didn''t hesitate to answer even the most complex questions I asked. At least, if he knew the answers, he didn''t hold back. His description of the Celestia race''s beings was extremely detailed too. It might as well be more detailed than the description of the Celestia race in the ancient tomes...but that''s not even the weirdest part¡­" Liea, the Chaos Dragon, had already disregarded the fact that Wisse had called her through the emergency messenger crystal that was supposed to only be used in life-threatening situations. Intrigued, she asked her disciple, "What is the weirdest part?" Since she, the Chaos Dragon, was born in the increasing chaos of the universe, many things had changed. This may be an ill-founded assumption, but the fluctuating chaos had started to intensify for more than a century. Owing to that, Liea had become much stronger, and at a rapid pace, but that was exactly why she was able to tell that something huge was about to happen. Too many wars had started, and the large planets reigned by a multitude of races had suddenly been conquered by stronger races that had always been neutral. Chaos seemed to have descended, and the most important reason for this was the appearance of children with the blood of several races! Under normal circumstances, this wouldn''t have been a huge problem because halflings and mutants had existed since the era of the beginning.. However, what changed everything was the fact that halflings that shouldn''t have been able to exist were birthed and raised up, and there were more than one could expect! Amongst them, were the offsprings of races with repulsive energies that destroyed each other. This would normally tear apart the child''s body, but some miraculous children like Wisse were still born. He was the child of a true fire dragon and a Dragonoid with a high true ice dragon bloodline. As such, he should have never been able to survive his birth, let alone childhood, but against all odds he did! Yet, this was only because of Liea''s ceaseless efforts to provide him with the best support and care she could bestow. Existences like Wisse were rare, but their strength was unfathomable and incomparable to that of their parents. The very same reason had made races ranked with higher mana to try procreating with other strong races in order to give birth to halflings. This included even the Ancient races that wanted to fight against the supremacy of the Primordial races that noticed this behavior. In the end, it didn''t work out as planned and the majority of offsprings were stillborns with the chances of a healthy halfling being born decreasing with the strength of a race; the stronger the race the lower were the chances. The torment energies within the unborn offspring were just too strong, and only a few miraculous halflings were born in the rows of the higher-ranked races, bringing forth even more chaos. Yet, Wisse wanted to tell her that there was something even weirder than the birth of Jason, a halfling from a race that had yet to reach the threshold to be called common race, and a Celestia? Was that even possible? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 591 - End "Something within Jason seals his bloodline, and he has no idea what exactly it is. Apparently, it has to do with his mother, but that doesn''t make sense to me¡­. He doesn''t even know what kind of race the Celestias are either..." Wisse simply exposed everything Jason had told him in secret without caring about anything, but that was exactly what Jason had expected. Since Wisse had mentioned his master, Jason was fully aware that Wisse didn''t have the authority to make his own decision. This was only logical because every being below the age of 50 was seen as a youngling, and that was according to the common race''s perspective. Higher ranked races had probably an ever higher age limit to decide whether someone was still a child or had already matured. In the end, this didn''t matter, and it was only Wisse''s helplessness that had caused Jason to smile when he had left the apartment. Wisse was not sure what he should do with the halfling, but somehow he''d felt obliged to help, now that Jason had revealed his secrets to him. ''Just what kind of mess have I jumped into?'' He cursed himself inwardly, only to hear that his master had forcefully suppressed her shock. "If possible, bring him to me¡­ According to what you said, he never left Argos. As such, he doesn''t know what kind of trouble it will cause if he tells other races that he is a halfling of the Celestia race¡­ Either they will revere him, or they will try to dissect him...maybe they would even sell him to other races as a slave, who knows? Maybe, we will be able to calm down the chaos if we help Jason to grow...or we might somehow intensify it¡­nobody knows¡­" After that, Liea turned serious as she added. "If you think that we cannot trust Jason, kill him... Right now you can still stop him, and if you don''t trust him, or think that he is evil, don''t hesitate!" Even though his master told him that, Wisse couldn''t help but smile dryly. "Evil...this naive youth? Master...let me be honest...if Jason is evil, I wouldn''t know if there are any kind beings in the universe¡­" Wisse was exaggerating right now, but his opinion about Jason''s ideals was extremely high. He had heard some rumors about Jason, the halfling, even before he had encountered him! As such, Wisse was fully aware of what Jason had to face and overcome the moment his existence had been exposed to the world. Wisse''s life hadn''t been easy either, and it was only because of his master that he had become the person he was now. However, Jason had achieved everything on his own. Having asked the young man many questions, Wisse had been able to comprehend how Jason''s life must have been. Yet, at the question of whether his identity had already been exposed before the liberation tournament, Jason had only smiled lightly while revealing that he had indeed exposed himself. This had a deeper meaning as he had been lecturing the human race about the entire truth of Argos and the insignificance of their race. Because of all the information Wisse received, he couldn''t believe that Jason was still determined to protect the race that had wanted his death, and that he wouldn''t change his mind, even if he would attempt to persuade him. In the end, their opinion had changed about Jason, but Wisse was still astonished about the young halfling. "Even after what he has overcome, Jason wants to prevent another infiltration of other races in Argos, while helping the Olympus federation to make ties with the human race that had abandoned him when he needed their trust the most. So..yes, I think we can trust him." Even though Wisse couldn''t be certain of Jason''s trust this was not problematic yet. Furthermore, his master would still be stronger than Jason once they encountered each other. At least it was unlikely for Jason to suddenly become much stronger, allowing him to break through several stages at once! The possibility was even less in the short time it took to use the multitude of world bridges to emerge on Tagran! At that moment, the connection of the emergency long-distance messenger crystal started to dim, indicating that the time for which they could talk was coming to an end. As such, Liea made her final decision, while avoiding revealing that she was both afraid and curious about Jason, the halfling of the human and Celestia race! "According to your words, I can be relatively reassured that there won''t be an issue for the time being. That means as long as he doesn''t turn into an Infernal Celestia, everything should be fine... All right, help him as quickly as possible and return to Tagran with him. I feel like a storm is brewing up, and I don''t want something to happen to you!" Wisse nodded his head before he bid farewell to his master as the connection with her was cut off. Only a moment later, the tension in Wisse''s body was released at once as he looked at his trembling hands. "Aren''t I a true dragon? How come I''m so afraid of the future? Shouldn''t I be hopeful?" While Wisse was trying to return to his old, confident and prideful self, ignoring the devastating facts Jason had revealed to him without batting an eye, the liberation tournament had already continued. There were only six participants left, and Jason was one of them. His cultivation base was the weakest, but that was not important as his strength was the highest. Yet, instead of focusing on the last two fights he would have to win in order to be rewarded the lesser origin flame crystal, Jason''s mind was somewhere else, far away from his physical being. Jason was currently thinking about Wisse''s reaction after he had revealed the fact that he originated from the Celestia race, at least, he owed half of his origin to it. While trying to make sense of the reaction and the answer Wisse had given to the questions he had asked, Jason didn''t even notice that everyone was called into the arena. The first fight would start soon, and now only one fight would be held at a time, allowing the spectators to focus on each fight. Normally the liberation tournament''s final fights would be recorded and analysed. However, that had already happened with the first battle royale Jason had fought in. His fight had been the most interesting to analyse for the Olympus federation''s academies because it had been the most exciting part of the entire battle royale. The other rounds of the battle royale had also been recorded, and they would most likely be used in order to evaluate the God''s children''s strengths and weaknesses. Jason would normally be interested about how exactly the Olympus federation would evaluate and analyse everything, but that was not something he could be bothered about right now. "Chaos dragon...Tagran....takes care of halflings with talent and repulsive energies...Wisse''s reaction when I told him about my origin¡­ Celestia race...soul fraction of a mysterious beast with the chaos attribute within me¡­" Blurting everything that was on his mind helped Jason to momentarily ease his troubled mind, but it was extremely confusing. As such, he tried to distract himself by fighting against his opponent with all his might. Fusing with Petri, Jason simply utilized everything except the abyssal effect of his Emperor Eyes in order to strengthen himself, while weakening his opponent. Unfortunately, fusing with Petri and using his curses to the fullest while exerting Solaris'' flame without restraint helped him defeat the dragonewt he had been paired to fight against in their first clash. Karn had been much stronger than the dragonewt he was matched against, and Jason could only sigh, thinking that he should have been paired against someone like Xyna. With that, he would be able to distract himself, and have no time to think about the bulk of information Jason had yet to digest. Despite his hope, Jason had been betrayed by the last fight of the liberation tournament. His opponent was a Hran at the 9th Lique stage, which was extremely high for a descendant of a common race, on the mana scarce planet Argos. This caused Jason to be slightly happy which made him use the exact same tactic he had utilized in the fight before. A fusion with Petri, his curses fully utilized, and Solaris'' unrestrained flames enveloping the black scales that had a golden veinlike pattern on them. Without holding back, Jason had exerted the Floating Sky movement technique, which caused his terrifyingly high speed to increase further, only to reach the Hran a moment after the final battle had started. After that Solaris flame devoured the prodigy of the Hran race, and slowly burned him, only for an elder to intervene. If not for the elder Hran who had prevented Jason, who was eager to fight someone strong, his descendant would have met his death at Jason''s hands. As such, the final ended before it even began, with an extremely disappointing result for the spectators, and even more so Jason. Dejected that the fight ended so soon, he could only dissolve Petri''s fusion as he looked at Jarid and Xyna who stared at him in shock. ''Maybe it is really time to think about leaving Argos¡­'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 592 - Formalities Even if his cultivation base was low, his combat strength was almost at par with someone at the Prismar stage. Using his curses, the Emperor Eyes'' abyssal effect, and killing intent to merge everything together, even those at the lower ranks of the Prismar stage''s first threshold wouldn''t pose him much of a problem as long as it remains a one on one battle! Thus, Jason thought that he should no longer be restricted by Argos'' scarce mana. ''I only have to save the Flers, question Nathan about what happened to my family, and then I''ll destroy a few world bridges before bidding farewell to everything¡­ Anna should be able to take care of herself, right? She has a new family after all!'' What Jason perceived as ''only'' would cause a headache to others, but he could only smile lightly. He had won the last two rounds of the liberation tournament much more easily than he had expected. As such, he would receive the crystal of a lesser origin flame soon, and it was possible for him and Wisse to leave after the celebration was over. Now that everything was over, Jason was told to change into formal clothes instead of the combat suit he had been wearing during the last few days. After only a short lunch break, the human embassy and the authorities of the Olympus federation started a meeting to discuss the exact clauses of their agreements. In the end, the most important was the peace agreement and the sharing and distribution of world bridges. Mankind might be weaker right now, but they could be nurtured quickly and turned into a batch of helping hands that would allow the Olympus federation to increase the resources they could procure from other world bridges. As such, there shouldn''t be many problems. At least, that was Jason''s opinion as he put on the clothes he had been given by Merl. It was a seemingly ordinary black suit with a long jacket that was embroidered with several badges, giving Jason the status of a temporary higher echelon of the human race''s government. This was pretty interesting, but not enough to bother him anymore as his mind was already fully set on his adventure to other planets! There was so much he could see, and according to Wisse, the Ascendion stage was considered to be a stage every common race could reach. Only then it would become slightly more difficult for the races with a weak mana aptitude to increase their rank and stage. It would serve as the starting line to differentiate the races according to the ranking Jason had heard of. Initially, he thought that the ranking was mostly based on the ranks the different manuals a race possessed. However, that was obviously not the case because a race''s mana aptitude, overall strength, the amount of land they had claimed, and so on were other important factors that contributed to the deciding factors too. Jason''s knowledge was limited because mankind couldn''t teach him a lot about the vast universe. Rather, Jason had taught them everything he knew instead! Other than that, the only vast stream of information he had received came from the library in Janur, where he''d spent more than a month, reading and absorbing knowledge like a sponge. This had allowed Jason to learn a bunch of interesting facts that made him more knowledgeable than mankind. Unfortunately, this was not enough to be even close to the knowledge of beings like Wisse, who were taught since their youth; knowledge Jason could only dream of. The lack of knowledge might bother others, but Jason saw this as an opportunity to bridge the knowledge gap and procure everything others had already learned. Acquiring knowledge was something Jason liked to do, thus, instead of feeling discouraged, Jason''s determination grew stronger. As such, he was deep in thought and didn''t even bother that Merl Arths was ascending in the air, pulling him with them, where they approached a small, yet extremely exquisite looking building. Only when Jason looked at it did he regain his senses as he blurted out. "An underground shelter?" His Emperor Eyes perceived everything through energy fluctuations and the mana radiating from the surrounding building complex was negligible in comparison to what he saw under the ground. Along with the authorities of the Olympus federation, his eyes scanned the surroundings to take in the view greeting him. Jason couldn''t help but feel astonished after estimating the defensive capabilities of the materials used to build the underground shelter in addition to the profound runes that had been inscribed. ''The Overlords at the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage would have problems breaking through these walls...Maybe, even Wisse with his dragon fire!'' After this, his mind went on alert mode, and they entered the exquisite building that was protected by tens of Prismar stage guardians, in addition to traps that would be activated if invaders were to infiltrate the building. ''Aren''t they a little bit too scared of being attacked?'' Jason wondered, only to remind himself that the majority of races belonging to the Olympus federation had been migrating races and that they had fled from something. As such, the wounds of their past might have healed but left behind ugly scars as memories. Thus, he refrained from commenting anything for the fear of coming across as an impolite brat. Passing the guards, the human embassy, including the God''s children, and Jason entered the elevator that was the only object inside the entire building complex. The elevator descended into the ground and it took them less than half a minute before the elevator''s doors opened once again, revealing a ginormous shelter, filled with the Olympus federation''s government. This astonished the others, while Jason, who had been aware of this was able to retain his calm. Looking around, he scanned the mana cores of everyone around him thoroughly before he turned towards the secretary who rushed towards them. ''A secretary at the peak of the Lique stage...not bad!'' "Esteemed human embassy, I''m sorry for being late. I was told that your group would arrive later. I''m your assigned guide, and I am responsible for explaining the most important aspects about the universal mannerisms and code of conduct one has to follow in order to not be rude!" When Jason heard this, he was immediately interested, only for Betty to tuck on his jacket. "Translate please!" Only then did Jason look up to notice that the others looked at him with a confused expression, which caused him to smile dryly as he translated everything perfectly. Because the universal language had many words that could be interpreted in several ways depending on the situation, Jason only translated the context without bothering about a word-to-word translation. This made everything easier for both sides, and the guide turned around once he had explained the basic etiquettes the human embassy had to pay attention to in order to not come across as rude. With the basics having been explained, the guide walked towards the direction in which Jason perceived hundreds of mana cores, including the mana cores of the higher echelons of the Olympus federation. At that moment, Jason had a premonition, making him pray in his mind. ''Please don''t let it be boring¡­'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 593 - First Approach After they had entered the banquet hall, Jason''s premonition had been found to turn out to be correct. It was annoying, but Jason had to translate everything spoken by both the human embassy and Olympus federation, without making any mistakes. Though he had gotten used to his temporary translation facilitator role, he wondered why the old dragonewt that was also able to speak in the human tongue didn''t turn into their translator. Little did Jason know that the old dragonewt was doing exactly that, proving that Jason was not deceiving them by sharing wrong information. He was a neutral individual as a halfling of the human race and another race, and thus the best person to become a translator in the current situation. However, at the same time, Jason could deceive either side if he wanted to, which was something they had to prevent. Setting up a wrong soul pact could bring forth devastating consequences. As such, there were always two translators, one from each side. Nevertheless, Jason was extremely bored, because the God''s children and other prodigies were able to talk to each other, while he was forced to stay with the old people. Fortunately, his soulbonds were still there and Jason could see them playing around inside his soul world. This made him relax a little bit, preventing Jason, who was known for his impatience, from going insane. However, what astonished Jason, was the fact that the God''s children had grown more proficient in the universal language than he had previously estimated! It might only be a few simple sentences, but it was more than enough to start a simple conversation. In the end, creating the clauses for the first fundamental soul pact was not exactly difficult. They were making a peace treaty while setting up a business plan on how to strengthen Argos'' defenses from invaders. This business plan included the distribution of seats to enter the broken world. Everything had to be properly set up, and a short discussion was not enough. As such, only a few clauses with the basic necessities that had been voted for unanimously, in the beginning, had been added into the contract. After the contract was roughly set up and every party had been able to add the points they found important, the official document was created. This was important in order to officially sign the proper documents at the celebration event that would be considered the end of this year''s liberation tournament. At the same time, it would show every citizen of the Olympus federation that the human race was now in a treaty, preventing both sides from attacking each other. For the human race, it was only a tournament and the embassy wanted to take their leave in order to spread the news on Canir and the Archipelago, but that was not the case for the Olympus federation. As such, the human embassy couldn''t simply leave, otherwise, they would come across as arrogant and rude. It was something extremely important to them, and the Olympus federation wanted to celebrate their freedom, otherwise, their ancestors would probably be disappointed in them. Honoring those that had sacrificed their lives for their continued survival was only obvious, and even if the liberation tournament was held only once every 50 years, this was only considered a short time for those proficient in cultivating! Neither Jason nor the human race knew how long one could live by solely cultivating, but even the limits of the Lique stage were something that was far above 400, which was the uppermost age of the old ones of the human race who were still alive. In comparison to other races, the longevity may be short, but for the human race itself, staying alive for 400 years was a very long time. As such, 50 years were like a lifetime to them while it was only considered a short amount for everyone else. While this fact was intriguing, Jason was more interested in the fact that he could talk with his friends before the celebration event would start. There were many things he wanted to do, but the most important was in fact, explaining to the God''s children what he was planning to do. By that, Jason didn''t mean freeing the Flers, or anything similar, but more that he wanted to destroy several world bridges before leaving Argos for good! Jason had thought about everything for a very long time, and he felt that it was finally time for him to take his leave. As such, he approached the God''s children where Jarid and a few other Olympians were also standing. Thus, he switched to the human language to talk to his friends. Jason didn''t hold back in stating his opinion, and it was only 10 minutes later that he had finally stopped speaking. "So¡­you want to leave soon?" Betty asked, unsure of how exactly she should feel right now. On one side, she barely knew Jason, but on the other hand, it was sad to know that a good friend would leave soon. However, it was evident that Jason was held back by the density, purity, and amount of mana on Argos as it was simply insufficient in comparison to what the God''s children had heard from the other young prodigies. Despite not being able to speak many sentences in the universal language, their understanding of it was pretty good after having spent a total of 3 months inside the Olympus federation. As such, everyone was aware that Argos was not only scarce of mana but also resources, with the most valuable resource being the living beings on the planet. Amongst them, the human race was probably the most valuable, simply because of their soul awakening that made most common, and even higher races jealous! Thus, the God''s children supported Jason''s opinion about the destruction of certain world bridges, while agreeing to leave those that lead to the broken world and other intersections of multiple races, open. As for the world bridge to the My?ldra, Burane, and Ifrytor race, Jason hadn''t told the God''s children that he would imprint them into his mind. Once the time was right, he would return to their planet and find the culprits that caused his pain and agony of losing those that had been important to him! It was his personal vendetta!! It might not be helpful, but at least he would be able to prevent history from repeating itself as long as he decimated those that had caused his sorrow. Even though Jarid couldn''t understand Jason, he knew that the young human would leave Argos soon. He, Xyna, and a few other prodigies had also been told to leave Argos, but they had other preparations to do. Jason, someone at the Initial rank of the 2nd Lique stage, had defeated them easily. Because of that, not only was their pride shattered into smithereens but their mind had been cleared of pride. ''If I were to encounter a being with the same combat prowess as Jason, only at a higher cultivation base, my life would end before I can even think about running away!!'' Jason could have easily killed every single opponent he had faced in the Olympus federation, but he didn''t do so. Instead, he had revealed his strength in order to clearly demonstrate that one''s cultivation base was only the foundation of strength. He was a living testament to the fact that it could be further increased with martial art techniques, one''s affinity, and many other factors that couldn''t be figured out by solely looking at the cultivation base! After the official gathering had concluded, it was time to switch to the more important point of the entire day- the start of the celebration by handing out the rewards on the terrace of the federation''s building that could in fact be modified into a gigantic podium! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 594 - Second Jason had no intention to waste more time, but he had to deal with it for now. Being disrespectful was not what he could afford directly after they had set up an agreement, and neither did he want to miss out on his reward! As such, he had to attend the celebration event that was held throughout the city. The highlight of the event was its starting point, wherein the rewards would be handed out to the first, second, and third rank holders. Jason didn''t even know who the second or third rank holders were, but he followed the secretary who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, only to tell him that he should come with him. Apparently, they were already a little bit late to start the celebration, hence the preparations had to be quickly rushed through. Under normal circumstances, the liberation tournament would''ve taken a few days longer, but because the authorities had changed the combat rounds into a battle royale, the entire plan had been discarded. It was only afternoon, and a few hours after the official meeting between the Olympus federation and human embassy had started, yet Jason found himself in front of a huge crowd of citizens while standing on top of the small exquisite building complex where he was visible to everyone. Even though he felt that his surroundings had changed due to the crowd of people and the decorations that had appeared out of nowhere, Jason could only shake his head and try to look amused. Calmly waiting for the celebration event to start, Jason didn''t even realise that Wisse had appeared near the old dragonewt who could speak in the human tongue. As such, he didn''t know that Wisse was talking to the old man, telling him to translate something for the human embassy. The content of the translation astonished Merl and the human powerhouse, while the God''s children looked at him in confusion. "He might have told us that he wants to destroy several world bridges, but to think that he he has his hands on the support of the Olympus federation''s guest...not bad!" Betty was only mumbling quietly, but Merl glared at her before he averted his attention to the other God''s children. "You guys knew that Jason wants to destroy the world bridges?! And you didn''t think about informing us??" Merl''s reaction was obvious, considering that mankind would lose world bridges to several resourceful territories if Jason were to destroy them. However, that was not something Jason was bothered about because protecting mankind from the infiltration of hostile common and higher races was more important. He wouldn''t be there next time, and instead of worrying about a few resources, Jason would focus on protecting the weak as per the promise to his master. Evidently, after looking at the state of things resulting due to the aftermath of the Great Argos war, the big families and clans couldn''t protect the weaker citizens. As such, Jason decided to behave however he wanted. Nevertheless, what astonished almost everyone was the fact that Jason didn''t want to do anything against the Drake clan. They had been equally bad to mankind as the My?ldra and Burane race, which made Merl and the other big clan''s powerhouses believe that Jason would hate them. Yet, what these old men and women didn''t know was the fact that both Jason and the God''s children had found a way to terminate enslavement soul pacts! Jason may not like the Drake clan, but most of their powerhouses had been enslaved when they were young. As such, destroying, or weakening their soul pact by force would weaken the Drake family''s combat prowess to a large extent. As for the rest, Jason decided to allow mankind to reign over themselves. He didn''t believe that he could reign over the human race, and neither did he want to remain on Argos. Giving his best was, in fact, the only thing Jason could do for now, and Wisse simply informed the human embassy about his decision to support the young halfling. Through this, he paved a way for Jason to leave Argos in the fastest possible time without creating too much of a commotion. ''One week should be more than enough...with my authority as a dragon and the correct technique, I should be able to destroy unstable world bridges, let alone the lowest-ranked ones!'' Wisse had enough time to make up his mind. His master''s words were still ringing in his ears, and if he were to be honest, he was unsure whether Jason would remain as innocent and naive as he was right now. While fighting, Jason''s entire demeanor was different, and Wisse knew that the young man could kill without mercy. Yet, he had held back his urge to kill the young prodigies of the Olympus federation, which meant that his mind was still stronger than his emotions. Thus, instead of wasting more time on Argos, he wanted Jason to meet his master, otherwise, he would have to bear responsibility for the young halfling''s mistakes. This was the last thing Wisse wanted to do because he had to focus on cultivating, which made him act directly against the human embassy. "I hope the human race won''t interfere in my business...Jason is now also considered to be my business! As such, tell the echelons of your race to stay out of our way during the short time we will stay here!" These were the last words he wanted the old dragonewt, who was in fact a higher-up of the Olympus federation, to translate. The dragonewt could only follow Wisse''s order and sigh before he translated the last sentence. At that moment, Wisse released some of his true dragon aura, highlighting the seriousness of his words before he left the dumbfounded human embassy alone. Merl was still staring at the God''s children, his disappointment apparent, only to sigh deeply. ''Shane...Dalia, just what kind of monster did you two raise up? How can he worry about Argos, and the protection of the citizens who had never done him anything good, when he got the opportunity to leave with a true dragon?'' In the end, Merl could only assume that Wisse was a true dragon because Jason had said so once. Meanwhile, another clue pointing towards this was the fact that the released dragon aura that was only a fraction of Wisse''s true power had already been denser and purer than the dragons Merl had seen! While Wisse had clearly stated his point, Jason stared at the representative of the Olympus federation, who was standing in front of him and the other winner of the liberation tournament. They had gathered on top of the building complex, and everyone was cheering for them. Or, at least, for the other two winners. Jason was not sure what the Olympus federation''s citizens thought about him, but at least, they didn''t insult him loud enough to be heard. Ignoring the long speech of the representative, he could only stare at the large table with several small and larger parcels lying on top of them. Through his Emperor Eyes he could clearly see that the object he had fought for in the liberation tournament was in the smallest parcel- the lesser origin flame crystal. While Jason was already excited, Solaris, who was still inside his body, could barely contain its excitement. ''Soon...just wait a little bit!'' Solaris wanted to devour the lesser origin flame crystal right off the bat, but doing so right now could turn the entire celebration into an embarrassing event for the Olympus federation as it was not yet the time for Solaris to act. As such, Jason waited patiently, while repetitively instructing Solaris to calm down. Controlling the black origin flame, he only noticed that the other two had already received a magnificent-looking badge in addition to their reward, and he was the last one. ''Finally!'' He thought while accepting the badge and the small parcel that had been given to him. At that moment, a firework set off, and Jason couldn''t help but smile as he opened the parcel as he threw the orange crystal that felt warm in his hand, into the air. "Go for it!" Jason said in a quiet voice, before a huge maw of black flames and golden strands emerged from his body, issuing a thunderous roar. The maw turned into a gigantic dragon head as Solaris fused with it. The flames intensified as they enveloped the orange origin flame crystals that shattered with a loud crack. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 595 - Peace Solaris erupted in an outburst of orange flames and had morphed into the shape of the golden-eyed black flame dragon. Seeing this, Jason couldn''t help but smile, thinking that his soulbond was being extremely childish and a show-off. In fact, Solaris had taken a liking to the shape of beasts and loved imitating them. The golden-eyed black flame dragon was the most complex beast it had taken the form of so far. Knowing that the celebration event was something special, Solaris thought that putting up a grand performance and starting the event with a bang would be great. Jason''s soulbond wanted his reputation to soar even further by making it seem as if a dragon was sealed inside his body, even if it was only the little black origin flame that devoured the unawakened lesser origin flame! Not only was its own reputation important for Solaris, but it valued Jason''s even more, which was quite a ridiculous thought. However, the origin flame''s demonstration worked wonders as everyone cheered, with the young citizens screaming out in joy as they witnessed the fireworks and the appearance of the golden-eyed black flame dragon they had only seen through the holographic screen before. The representative of the Olympus federation, who barely retreated a few steps after giving Jason his reward, was looking at the young man while shaking his head. ''He just feeds his origin flame with another one...why not awaken both and merge them¡­?'' The old dragonewt had already been jealous of Jason because he had yet to advance his fire affinity to the extent of a common origin flame. Yet, Jason, who was way younger than him, not only had the black origin flame that was extraordinary, but he had also received his origin flame; the reward they had specially procured for the liberation tournament. It was the most expensive reward they had ever given out, and it was estimated to cost around the price of the first few liberation tournament rewards, added up! As such, it was only obvious that the old dragonewt''s heart was hurting, and he was obviously not the only one. Almost everyone, who was not overwhelmed by the sudden emergence of the golden-eyed black flame dragon replica, had seen what Jason had done. Even Wisse had found it intriguing, but instead of thinking that it was foolish, the young dragon stared intently at Solaris. ''Is its strength continuously increasing??'' However, before he could see the extent to which the black origin flame''s strength had increased, Jason raised his hand. He called back Solaris, whose dragon head turned around, only to dive towards him, merging with the young halfling as if it was a daily chore. Yet, the commotion this caused couldn''t be neglected, which made Jason smile lightly before he returned to the human embassy. While Merl was not sure if it was possible or even necessary for him to convince Jason in changing his plan about the world bridges he wanted to destroy, Betty and the other God''s children huddled around Jason, asking him all the different questions. This made Jason happy, and he decided to enjoy the celebration event for the next few hours. Nobody could tell when he would be able to have so much time to spend with friends and relax a little, he was going to enter different worlds after all! As such, while Jason had the best few hours in years, Solaris was continuing to devour the orange origin flame crystal. It had already made the first step, and the following procedure was simple, yet cruel for the unawakened origin flame. Devouring every trace of energy that was stored in the orange crystal, Solaris was slowly enlarging, breaking through its shackles, while consistently devouring the soul energy Jason had accumulated. A transformation was happening within Solaris'' mana core, as the liquefied mana it had stored was slowly being compressed. The black origin flame had still a long time in front of it before it was even close to evolving into a Tier-2 origin flame, but that didn''t mean it couldn''t become stronger. Breaking through the shackles on it, Solaris'' need for mana and soul energy increased drastically. It was about to create its first prismarine crystal within the mana core, but at the same time, it was annexing several soul crystals Jason''s soul world had subconsciously created. The least Jason lacked right now was soul energy, and it had only increased further during the last few months. With tens of million soul energy units, in addition to a dozen soul crystals with each of them having used up 10 million soul energy units, there was no need to prevent Solaris in devouring as much soul energy as he required. In fact, Jason didn''t even realise that Solaris was devouring his soul energy because he was too occupied in spending time with the God''s children. Merl had taken him away from the celebration for a short moment, asking him about his plan, which caused Jason to turn serious for a moment as he repeated his views about the world bridges. His stance was clear, and Merl noticed that it was not possible to change Jason''s opinion anymore. As such, he nodded his head before returning to the other human powerhouses. They had to set up a plan in order to cope with the changes that were bound to occur due to Jason, but instead of being depressed about Jason''s opinion, they felt that it was better this way. It was still possible for them to enter different world bridges, and their connection to the other continents and even more world bridges was established by Jason. With that in mind, there was no reason for the powerhouses to thwart Jason, which was not even possible anymore, to begin with. When the celebration event neared its end, Jason decided that it was time for him to bid farewell to everyone. Even if there was no need for him to rush anything, their separation was unavoidable. As such, he didn''t want to forget anyone and regret not having bid farewell to someone. Jason felt at peace for the first time in a long time, and it was not necessary for him to fight anyone right now. The only tasks left were to procure information, save those that were important to him, and protect them by destroying all necessary world bridges. It might sound like a lot, but the things Jason had achieved during the last few years were even more, and each task had brought him further ahead. If he were to tell someone that he had barely begun cultivating five years ago, as well as received his vision, others would have called him a freak, and that was exactly what Jason was. In fact, he didn''t believe that only five years had passed either! Initially, Jason expected the tasks at hand to be even more difficult than winning the liberation tournament, but after he had received Wisse''s offer, this worry had dispersed in the darkness of the night. At that moment, as if on cue, Wisse appeared behind him as he looked at Jason impatiently. "Are you ready to go now? Let''s destroy the necessary World bridges on the other continents first before you''ll solve your other problems on Canir, or whatever the tiny continent is called!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 596 - Overwhelmed Closing the world bridges with Wisse''s help was much easier than Jason could have ever expected, and their pace was terrifically high owing to Wisse, who dragged him along. Using his dragon authority and shockingly high mana mastery, everything he did seemed like child''s play, and Jason couldn''t help but be jealous of Wisse, only to realise that he was the last one to be jealous about someone like the dragon! Only five days had passed since the celebration event that honored the Olympus federation''s ancestors, but they had already fixed everything on the federation''s territory. This meant destroying the dangerous world bridges that were unstable and continued to gather mana before they reached their restriction limit, as well as those that had aggressive, hostile foreign races. The restriction limit was the biggest problem, and Jason thought that the world bridges that had a limit at the peak of the Prismar stage''s first threshold, as well as some unknown world bridges with a growing restriction limit at the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage, were still fine. In the end, Wisse had only destroyed a few world bridges as he thought that the unused mana could lead to a backlash on Argos, creating even more dangerous world bridges. Jason didn''t want that, and it was only obvious that he had to prevent it at all costs. As such, instead of acting foolishly, Wisse, who was not only more knowledgeable than Jason, but also more proficient in the necessary techniques to destroy low-ranked world bridges, took the lead. With the authority of a true dragon, combined with the correct techniques and perfectly applied knowledge, Wisse had indirectly explained to Jason how he could destroy world bridges. Even though the young dragon was not fully aware of this, Jason had eyes that could see everything with the slightest trace of a cultivation energy. Wisse only knew that Jason saw more than others because it was evident, however, nobody except Jason knew the true strength of his eyes. Now that five days had passed, it was time for Jason to return to Canir. Astonishingly enough, it took them only five more days to reach Jason''s home continent, only for Wisse to be displeased about their pace. However, that was not something Jason could change, he had already been using his fastest pace! There, he met Seron as well as Mike, his sister, and Anna. His encounter with each of them was brief because Jason felt as if he should hurry up in order to free Greg and Malia from their enslavement soul pact. As such, he did not have much time to talk with them, and only a few hours after he met Seron, he had already bid a final goodbye to his first friend from the big families. As for Anna, she seemed to accept his departure easier than expected. Instead of crying, the transmigrator had begun to take control of the toddler''s body. Owing to that, she could act rationally, and had in fact, already started to cultivate. This caused Jason to wonder whether he and Anna would ever come across each other in the vast world. It was unlikely, but the thought of a chance encounter alone made him feel a little bit better. In the end, before destroying certain world bridges on Canir and the Archipelago, Jason returned to the Drake clan''s fortress that inhabited the entire regime of young potential powerhouses. Contrary to his earlier visit, he didn''t disguise himself or act like someone he was not. Instead, with Artemis'' wings manifested on his back, he entered the fortress along with Wisse, who had already released his dragon aura, as well as the mana fluctuations of a being at the peak rank of the Prismar stage''s 1st threshold. There was no need for Jason to hold back anymore, and instead of playing around, his Emperor Eyes sighted the two Fler siblings in an instant. They were currently training in the combat arena, and both Jason and Wisse appeared above the combat arena. With a flick of his wrist, Wisse destroyed the ceiling after manifesting a huge claw shaped flame. Causing a commotion was exactly what they''d aimed for, but instead of attracting too much attention, Wisse grasped both Greg and Malia after Jason pointed towards them before disappearing from their sight once again. A few seconds later, Jason had exerted the Floating sky movement technique as well as his high physical strength that amplified Artemis'' wings in order to reach a terrific speed. After flying for a few kilometers, they landed on the ground as Artemis, in her largest form, manifested in front of Jason. At the same time, his wings dispersed as Jason remarked, "We should continue flying. Artemis'' back is large enough to carry all of us at once!" There was no time to waste on small talk right now because Jason was not sure whether the enslavement soul pact would be activated soon. Thus, Malia and Greg, who were astonished to see Jason right next to a being that radiated a domineering, and dreadful aura, couldn''t help but feel confused. Yet, they followed Jason''s order before Artemis ascended into the air once again. Wisse was flying next to them, and with the siblings and Jason on Artemis'' back, they increased their distance from the Drake clan''s fortress. Meanwhile, Jason was explaining the situation as well as the way he had found to destroy the enslavement soul pact. Greeting them properly and asking about their wellbeing was the second priority and they could celebrate their reunion after everything had been successfully accomplished! This was more important to Jason because he was extremely nervous right now. He didn''t want to make a mistake and cause an accident. Greg and Malia noticed how nervous he was. Due to this, they stayed calm as well. However, after hearing Jason, it became increasingly impossible to stay quiet. Greg blurted out his obvious astonishment, "You want to turn us into soulbonds so that you can order us to expel the engraved enslavement soul pact from our soul?!" Greg had never been the smartest, but even he found this task to be unreasonable. Meanwhile, Malia looked at Jason in confusion. "And you''ve tested this, with a God''s child''s soul at that? Just what kind of soul do you have?!?" Malia was happy to see Jason, and hearing that he had found a way to successfully terminate the enslavement soul pact gave her a ray of hope. As such, she readily accepted becoming Jason''s soulbond for some time, thinking that they had no other way out of their misery either way. She missed her parents and was eager to see them once again. This hadn''t been possible for the last few years, owing to her restricted freedom. With that being said, Malia had been trying to find a way to retrieve her freedom for a long time, which was possible with Jason''s help now. Greg was still not sure what was going on. They had just been practicing a new martial art technique, and suddenly the ceiling above them was torn apart. Only a few minutes later, he found himself in front of his best friend, who asked him and his sister to become his soulbonds. Nevertheless, in order to protect his sister from harm, Greg was willing to be the test object to see whether Jason''s intel was correct or not. Jason''s aura was different compared to before, and many things seemed to have changed. Otherwise, there wouldn''t be a dragon-like human flying right next to Artemis! With the siblings'' permission, Jason didn''t waste any time as he released two dense threads from his souls which he led through each of his arms. Holding out his hands, he told Greg and Malia to place their hand on either of his while accepting his soul thread into their body. Because Jason had already once overwhelmed the soul of a God''s child that was at a higher cultivation base, Greg and Malia were child''s play to him. They were not only at a much lower cultivation base but also had a weaker soul than Ben. Thus, only two hours passed in which Jason was slowly exerting his soul''s supremacy over his best friend''s soul. Jason found out that it would hurt them less if he was annexing them slowly, and the fact that it worked perfectly fine was an extraordinary find. ''If the God''s children were to know this, it would be easier for them to terminate more soul pacts of the Drake clan, right?'' Yet, while thinking about that, Jason was not sure how many of the powerhouses that had been enslaved by the Drake clan would trust the God''s children to annex their souls. Who knew what they would do once humans became the soulbonds of other humans! Under normal circumstances, this was not beneficial because the soul amplification didn''t work with other humans, but for God''s children with a huge soul, it might be possible to create an entire army of human soulbonds. Jason found this thought quite funny, but his mind was wired differently and he didn''t need something like that. He would only accept beings that wanted to stay with him due to their own free will, simply because it was much more beneficial than the other way around. As for Greg and Malia, they had their own life, and Jason decided that they should live on Argos, and make their own decisions because they were competent enough to do so. Not long after Jason had established a connection with the siblings'' soul world core, the link was strong enough for him to order his friends. With that being said, he took a deep breath as he smiled lightly before he released his Celestia aura and stigma as he amplified his voice, only to give his new soulbonds their first and last order. "Destroy the enslavement soul pacts engraved on your soul!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 597 - Last Days Several hours passed before the Fler siblings had expelled the imprints of multiple soul pacts from their souls. It was an arduous task, and it was only then that Jason realised that the Drake clan used several soul pacts in order to ensure the slave''s obedience! This was something he hadn''t known beforehand, so he was astonished about it. Jason found this to be an extremely cunning tactic, but it perfectly suited the Drake clan''s behavior. Nevertheless, it didn''t really bother Jason anymore after the Fler siblings had been freed of the soul pacts that enslaved them. Their souls had been much weaker than the God''s Children which made it easier for Jason to control his two new, temporary soulbonds, forcing them to expel their soul pacts in a slow manner. However, at the same time, he had to be careful so that he wouldn''t accidentally injure their souls, which would be devastating. During the last few hours they had been flying in a specific direction, and Jason was growing nervous by the second. He was only glad that Greg and Malia were finally unrestrained, which allowed them to greet each other properly at last. Their second reunion was successful and Jason was proud of having saved the siblings. Now, they were about to return to Gabriella and Mark, who were said to be living an ordinary life in a small city. Both the siblings and Jason hadn''t seen the two in a long time, which was the reason for Jason to be so nervous. It was to some extent his fault for the Flers'' suffering. Despite that, he knew that he had to meet all of the Flers because it would be the last time for him to be able to do something like that. There wouldn''t be a next time and Jason was fully aware of this. While Greg and Malia were looking at Jason as if he was an otherworldly being, despite knowing that he had changed during the last few years, they could hardly believe that their cultivation base and strength had been higher than him long ago. Jason''s Celestia aura alone was already more than enough to suppress theirs if their friend desired to do this. Meanwhile, Artemis had also become much stronger, and every flap of her wings was filled with a distinct force as well as faint mana currents. Because of this shock, in addition to the book about Argos'' insignificance which they had been reading only to figure out that it had been about Jason, they had been silent and reluctant to speak to him in the beginning. However, after Jason had revealed that he would soon leave Argos, both Greg and Malia were shocked. "We''ve just reunited, how can you leave already? Where are you going? When are you coming back? How can we meet each other again?!" Malia seemed hurt as she bombarded Jason with questions, only to receive a dry smile from him. Jason didn''t want to answer those questions, but looking at Wisse, he knew that the young dragon was definitely not the patient type of dragon, if something like that existed, to begin with. He had received Wisse''s help and letting him wait too long wouldn''t do them any good. However, after he released a faint mana thread towards Wisse with a simple question, Jason received an answer that was to his liking. [If you really want to stay longer with your friends, I can destroy the four world bridges you''ve been talking about before we meet each other again...but I won''t wait any longer and there is no room for compromises! Try to reject my proposal a few days later, and I will forcefully drag you through the world bridges!!!] Wisse''s answer sounded a little bit harsh, but the most important point was that Jason could stay with the Flers for at least a day. That was if Gabriella and Mark still accepted him under their roof. Jason didn''t think that they would hate him, but it was possible for them to feel uncomfortable with a halfling around them. As such, Jason prepared himself for every possible scenario, only to be interrupted by Wisse once again. [By the way, I won''t destroy the newly emerged world bridge you were talking about. Maybe we can take a shortcut, if the world bridge leads us to the world I think it is!] This astonished Jason a little bit because a world that Wisse remembered had to have something special about it. Intrigued, he could only stare at the young dragon, but instead of receiving an answer to any of the questions he asked afterward, Jason''s connection was forcefully cut off by Wisse. Jason averted his attention after that and he wanted to tell the Fler siblings what had happened to him during the last few years, only to halt in his tracks They had already summarized their experience in the past years and shared it, and then heard him speak in rapt attention. When they had met the last time, there hadn''t been enough time to tell them everything in a detailed manner, which was now possible. However, before Jason would have to repeat himself several times, Malia had proposed to wait before they had reunited with their parents. As they reached a small city, Artemis landed on the ground, only to change into her small form. At the same time, she returned to Jason''s shoulder, and Petri, who had been digesting the information of the fusion he had undergone with Jason during the liberation tournament, appeared too. He was in his small form as well and had coiled himself around Jason''s waist which caused Malia and Greg to smile lightly. They felt a lot better since the soul pact imprints on them had been expelled. Jason had also terminated their soulbond contract, which had stung a little bit, but there were no major damages to their souls. Entering the city, Jason was eyed weirdly which was nothing uncommon owing to two exotic beasts clinging to him as well as the Celestia aura and stigma. He didn''t care about restricting them anymore, and this didn''t seem to be necessary, to begin with. Wisse had already left before Artemis had dived back to the ground, and it was evident how impatient he was. As such, Jason felt the pressure from the young dragon, thinking that he did not have much time to spend with the Flers. Thus, without bothering about the glances lingering on him, Jason released a large margin of mana into the Emperor Eyes while fully unleashing his stigma. A bright golden-silverish glow radiated from Jason as he searched through the entire city, focusing on the mana fluctuations he was familiar with. It took him only a few minutes to find what he had been looking for, making him sport a radiant smile. "I found them!" With that being said, he set off and started to run over the sidewalk, with Malia and Greg following him, using their movement techniques to the fullest extent as well as the majority of mana they circulated through their bodies. Just like that, a few minutes passed, and Jason halted in front of a little house that resembled the house he and the Flers had been living in Cyro City. Jason abruptly halted in his tracks with the Fler siblings close on his heels while taking lungfuls of air. Panting heavily, they asked in unison, "Couldn''t you wait for us?" However, before they could continue to complain, they noticed that Jason smiled lightly in a particular direction as both Malia and Greg followed his gaze. Looking in the same direction as Jason, they saw a middle-aged woman, whose face was streaked with tears. "MOM!" With that simple word, the Fler siblings rushed towards Gabriella, who couldn''t contain herself anymore as she began to cry bitterly. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 598 - Reunion And Farewell Jason felt a little bit weird seeing Gabriella once again, and he didn''t dare approach them. Maybe they hated him for being the reason for their pain and agony. As such, he stayed rooted to the sidewalk, standing stiffly, while looking at the reuniting family. A faint smile could be seen on his lips, while his eyes revealed his insecurity that held a tinge of jealousy. It had been a long time since he''d felt insecure about something, and Jason couldn''t help but feel uncomfortable right now. Only a minute later Mark appeared, and at the sight of his children, the usually emotionless middle-aged man began to sob like a three-year-old as he hugged his two children tightly. More than 10 minutes passed before the Flers let go of each other, and Gabriella finally saw Jason as she lifted her head. He simply looked at her with a nervous smile without saying anything. Jason didn''t expect Gabriella to be able to tell who he was because he had undergone a drastic transformation during the last few years. Yet, contrary to his expectation, Gabriella began to cry once again as she beckoned him. "Jason, why are you standing so far away? Come here!" Somehow, Jason felt as if a train had hit him when he heard Gabriella''s words that were filled with love and care. His eyes turned wet and a few tears trickled down his cheek as he answered. "I''m coming!" It was only then that Mark noticed Jason, which caused his eyes to widen. He could sense Jason''s mana fluctuations, the Celestia aura, and stigma. Everything about Jason was different, but Mark could clearly tell that it was the same Jason, who had been living with them for a long time, several years ago. ''Was the book really about the Jason I know?'' At that moment, Jason appeared right in front of Gabriella, who brushed her hair back. The speed at which he had rushed towards her astonished everyone, as they hadn''t seen his full speed yet. Jason''s aura enveloped the Flers subconsciously radiating the joy Jason felt. As such, instead of feeling intimidated by his aura, everyone realised that he was still the same Jason they had known from before, only that the dangers of the last few years had forced him to mature. Only a moment later Gabriella embraced Jason tightly while patting his back. "You did a good job, you''re strong now!" Without realising it, more tears trickled down his cheeks, and Jason could only hug back Gabriella as Mark patted his back, looking at him fondly. "You''re a fine man now!" Jason was not sure how much time had passed but his tears had ceased when he loosened his grasp around Gabriella as Mark, who had regained his composure, said. "We should talk inside, I think everyone has lots of things to say!" With that being said Gabriella let go of Jason too before smiling at him. At that moment, Greg and Malia grasped one of Jason''s arms before they dragged him inside which caused him to smile despite the tears. Hours flew by and it was already late at night when everyone finished telling what happened to them during the last few years. Jason was not looked at weirdly because he was a halfling even once, and he felt as if everything was the same as years ago when he had first met the loving family. Because he told them that he didn''t know how long he could stay with them, the Flers decided that going to sleep was not necessary. As such, they continued to celebrate their reunion as well as their farewell. The latter made everyone sad because they had just reunited, but instead of seeing everything from the pessimistic side, the Flers decided to cherish the time they would spend together and were sure that Jason might even be able to meet his grandparents. Jason had told the Flers almost everything without leaving out a lot. As such, they now had a fair understanding of his family''s situation as well as the possibility of his grandparents being alive, while his father was some sort of a divine being. This was shocking, but the same could be said about the soul fraction of a mysterious, yet mighty being, sealing his bloodline. "After you''ve met the master of the man who helped you take us with you, will you search for your father and your maternal grandparents? Do you have any clues about their whereabouts?" Malia had matured a lot during the last few years, and she could think rationally without letting emotions cloud her judgment. She was sad that Jason would leave them forever, but it was only logical for him to leave. He was held back due to the low quality of mana on Argos and would soon become the strongest being on the planet, which was evident if Jason hadn''t exaggerated the things he had told them. When Jason heard Malia''s question, he pondered about it for a moment before he mumbled. "I almost forgot that I have to meet Nathan¡­" Since their last meeting where Nathan had fumbled a little when Jason had questioned him about his mother and grandparents, Jason had always thought that Nathan had done something to his family, making them leave, or worse hurting them before selling them to other foreign races. Because of their mana and Emperor Eyes in addition to the soul worlds they had, his family should have been worth quite a lot. As such, Jason simply assumed that a foreign race got their hands on his family. This was bad, but based on the words said by the mysterious being''s soul fraction, his grandparents should still be alive. At least, that was the last thing it knew, which was reassuring. ''As long as I know which race my family was sold to, I can start investigating properly¡­but why do I feel like this is useless?'' Jason was not sure why, but he felt as if his family having been sold to some foreign race was definitely true, yet, at the same time, it was as if this knowledge wouldn''t help him. The reason for this was extremely simple too! ''Why the hell should a common, or a higher race be able to make a tribute to the Celestia race? Even Lusan said that a grand race had ordered the Elvyr race to rescue me...And even that grand race was said to have received the order from father''s secretary, or something like that.'' Owing to this thought, Jason was utterly confused, and he could only assume that his family had been sold to another race as slaves or something similar, or that they had escaped from their clutches, fighting their way through the world! ''Either way, I''ll just tell Wisse that I need an hour...no¡­ a few minutes with Nathan in order to find out the truth!'' After arriving at a decision, Jason''s focus returned to the Flers, who were eager to find out more about him, which was only logical. Knowing that Jason would leave, they didn''t hold back at all, and even Mark was interested to talk to him, contrary to how it had been in the past. At the same time, Artemis was perched on his shoulder shrieking, voicing out her joy, while Petri was coiled around his waist, hissing out in joy. Weirdly enough, even Solaris had decided to leave the soul world, despite still being in the process of devouring the lesser origin flame that was less interesting than Jason had expected. He had hoped for something special to happen, but there was nothing. It had taken the shape of a miniature dragon with golden eyes, which looked magnificent, yet Jason couldn''t help but smile helplessly. The Flers hadn''t summoned any of their soulbonds, while his three soulbonds were clinging to Jason as if was going to abandon them too. However, when the Flers saw this, they couldn''t help but smile, only for Malia and Greg''s expression to change, knowing that one soulbond was missing. They had heard about Scorpio''s death but seeing all of Jason''s soulbonds made them realise that it had been the harsh truth. ''How come he suffered more than we did, despite not being enslaved?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 599 - Submission Unbeknownst to the Flers and Jason, the night had passed as they had spent their time talking and catching up with each other. Time had passed in the blink of an eye, and Jason didn''t want his time with the Flers to end. At least, not that quickly. However, just at that moment, Wisse''s voice resounded in his mind. [I''m done, come out!] Sighing deeply, Jason stood up with a twisted expression. This made the Flers understand that it was time for Jason''s departure. As such, the mood plummeted, only for everyone, including Mark to hug Jason tightly. "Maybe, we will be able to meet again...it''s possible that we will also leave Argos in the future!" It was Greg who said this, but Jason knew that both Gabriella and Mark were not talented enough to survive outside Argos, while both Greg and Malia might have a talent strong enough to make everything possible. Jason just nodded his head, only to access his spatial rings where he transferred several items into a fourth spatial ring he was holding in his hand. The fourth spatial ring held the last remains of mana stones and other, high-ranked equipment in addition to body refinement and cultivation techniques that could be used by everyone. They were fully translated, and Jason hoped that it would be useful to the Flers as he laid down the spatial ring on the table that stood in front of him. Leaving the house, he looked back once before forcing a smile on his face as he waved at them. Artemis enlarged her form once they left the room, while Petri and Solaris remained by his side. Only a moment later Jason got on Artemis'' back like she was demanding, only for her to ascend into the air. Jason continued to look back, only to see the Flers waving at him with tears in their eyes. Through his Emperor Eyes, he could see them for quite a while, and only when he was too far apart from them did he turn around to look at Wisse who hadn''t said anything yet. Jason hadn''t even noticed Wisse all this while because he was too distracted. As such, Wisse remarked, "I have yet to take a look at the permanent world bridge at the 2nd Prismar stage, you''ve talked about. So we have to take a short detour." Hearing this, Jason got distracted from his train of thoughts as he replied, "If we''re taking a detour, let me talk to someone...for a few minutes! I have only one...or maybe two questions someone has to answer!" Wisse halted mid-air when he heard this, and Jason''s Emperor Eyes perceived the surge of emotions within the young dragon as small flames erupted from his body, burning through the robe he was wearing. Jason gulped down his saliva nervously at that sight, only for Wisse to take a deep breath before he retracted everything. ''Calm down...just think about the rewards¡­after we leave Argos, it won''t take long before we arrive on Tagran and I can beat Jason up for every single time he annoys me thereafter!!!'' Regulating his emotions by using a specific breathing technique, Wisse spoke with a forced calm. "I''ll give you three questions, but after that, I''ll drag you away!! Who the hell do you even want to talk to now?" Jason was glad about Wisse''s reaction as the young dragon would have probably already returned to Tagran if it were not for him. As such, he didn''t lie to Wisse as he answered honestly. "I want to talk to the person, who probably sold my entire family to a foreign race several decades ago. As such, he could be said to be partially responsible for my existence¡­ I guess?" Jason tried to joke around with the last sentence, but after thinking about it for a short moment, he realised that this might as well be the truth. If his family hadn''t been forced to settle in Argos after being sold or exiled, his mother would have never met his father, or at least it was highly unlikely. As such, Jason decided that he would ask Nathan a few questions without doing anything else to him. Interrogating him could already be tortuous enough as long as Jason used every means he had! Intrigued by his words, Wisse nodded his head as he made a decision. "Alright, I''ll come with you then. One day more or less makes no difference anymore!" Jason was glad that Wisse supported his decision after hearing the reason, and it took only a few hours before they reached the headquarters of the Heaven''s Eyes sect. It was not even considered a detour because the sect''s headquarters had been on their way to the new and permanent world bridge. Because of that Wisse felt even better which made him release his dragon authority and aura as well as a huge amount of mana with which he simply destroyed the entrance. At the same time, he and Jason entered the sect nonchalantly, alarming the surrounding guards who couldn''t move owing to the high pressure exerted by Wisse. This was something Jason found quite funny to look at because he would have been forced to knock out everyone before he could meet Nathan. At least, that would have been the case under normal circumstances but they didn''t apply to the current situation because of Wisse. Nathan sensed Wisse''s aura as well as the impact of the attack on the entrance that serves as a warning, as well as Jason''s mana fluctuations. Because of that, Nathan knew that the liberation tournament had already ended and that Jason seemed to have made a new friend. This was bad because Nathan had hoped that he would have more time to work everything out. Taking a deep breath, he took a look at the file that was lying in front of him with a single word written on the front page- Stella. Knowing that Jason was a halfling, who was strong enough to put a powerhouse at the Prismar stage to sleep, as well as the fact that he was not allowed to kill him due to the public view of Jason, Nathan was forced to act differently than his usual self. As such, he had already prepared a file about everything that happened for Jason, out of fear to be annihilated in the future. It was his fortune that he had already done everything he could, and the only task he was now left with was to remain calm and level-headed in front of Jason and his new friend. Only a short time after they had entered the Heaven''s Eyes sect, Jason and Wisse appeared in front of Nathan, but the moment his eyes fell on the dragon, all the calmness flew out of the window as Wisse''s authority enveloped him. Yet, at the same time, Jason''s appearance was even more horrifying because he was using Petri''s full fusion that amplified the lethality of the petrification and race specific weakening curse. Other than that, Solaris was still in his small dragon form, which the little origin flame seemed to adore, only to hiss at Nathan who was trying to not cower in front of them. Jason''s wild aura enveloped Nathan, and despite being at a much higher cultivation base, Nathan couldn''t help but retreat, submitting to Jason and the terrific strong friend he had brought along with him. ''Thankfully, I didn''t kill them...with this monstrous partner he brought in my sect, I can only hope that he won''t destroy my sect, or kill me!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 600 - Anomaly Even though Jason was currently fused with Petri, he didn''t cover his head with scales, and instead, revealed his bright golden-silverish eyes. They were consistently releasing the curses both he and Petri had, but Jason couldn''t help but feel that this was not even necessary. Nathan was staring at him and Wisse with a sliver of fear in his eyes and the faint hue enveloping the Heaven''s Eyes sect patriarch was also filled with fear. As such, there was no need for Jason to worry so he said with a smirk, "Hello Nathan, long time no see. I hope I didn''t interrupt your business!" Hearing this, Nathan could only clench his fist while forcing a faint smile on his face. "Of course not, but how come you and your¡­.friend entered my sect in such an unordinary way. Is there a reason for this?" Despite knowing what Jason wanted from him, Nathan couldn''t just show his fear and hand him the file in a submissive manner. As such, he tried to retain the last traces of his pride, while Jason came straight to the point. "My reason to come here is pretty simple, and I''m quite sure that you know why I came. How about you tell me what really happened to my mother and grandparents? I don''t believe that they simply left the Heaven''s Eyes sect, otherwise, my existence would be hard to explain, wouldn''t it? Don''t even try to lie, otherwise, it will be painful, both for you, and everyone around! As long as you remain truthful, nobody will be hurt either. That should be something to be happy about!" Jason spoke in a barely controlled voice, not caring if Nathan''s pride was tossed in the bin. All he cared about was knowing what had truly happened to his family. However, what Jason expected the least was that Nathan sighed before he handed Jason the file he had already prepared beforehand. "It''s not much, but the most important point is...that I sold your mother and grandparents to the Heva race...but that was already long ago, decades before you should have been born¡­" Hearing the truth about his family''s sale like a herd of goats caused Jason to involuntarily release his killing intent for a short moment, only to retract it immediately afterward. He had already guessed that something like that must have happened, and while skimming through the file, Jason noticed that the information was not really useful. "Sold to the Heva race..?" While repeating Nathan''s words in the universal language, he tried to recall the appearance of the Heva race, or to be precise, if he had ever heard of them. Unfortunately, this didn''t seem to be the case and Jason looked to Wisse for help who simply said. "They''re just a common race with slightly stronger eyes. The Heva race is unworthy to come even close to the Celestia race." Wisse was disappointed with the information he received because he could only understand what Jason said in the universal language. Despite that, the information that Jason''s family had been sold to the Heva race was not exactly helpful either. This was because the Heva race had either sold off Jason''s family to a third party, or they had somehow managed to flee from the Heva race''s grasp and the planet. In the end, the information could be considered a clue, but at the same time, it could be compared to searching for a needle in a stack of hay. While Wisse was disappointed, Jason just nodded his head before he turned around to leave. There was no need for him to ask another question because the file in his hand told him everything about his family''s background, and there were even pictures inside. However, instead of leaving directly, Jason turned his head once more as he reprimanded Nathan, forcing his hands to stay on the sides and not punch him square in the jaw. "If you and the other human powerhouses are the reason for mankind to fall, I will send over people to decimate you, and everyone responsible for making a mess!" It was not necessary for him to mention the names of the other human powerhouses, because it was evident that he meant the Drake clan and the Blood sect. He might be able to destroy them right now, but mankind would have to do certain things for themselves. Jason had just wanted to build a foundation for them so that they could work on their own to sow the seeds for a prosperous future. Because of that thought, Jason decided to leave for good. He had already wasted more than enough time on Argos, restricting his growth to a large degree. Nevertheless, Jason found that this wasted time only included his growth in terms of his cultivation base. If he had left Argos earlier, he wouldn''t have been able to figure out about the ability to fuse with his soulbonds so early. Furthermore, it was unknown how long it would take to find an unawakened lesser origin flame in order to break Solaris'' shackles. There were several other things such as encountering Anna, and finding out many important things about life as well as meeting Wisse, who would bring him to his master, the Chaos Dragon that had all been worthwhile to the time he had spent on Argos! Leaving the Heaven''s Eyes sect''s headquarters, Jason smiled lightly as he asked Petri to leave his mana core. Artemis'' wings manifested on his wings the moment she replaced Petri inside his mana core as he shot up into the sky. "I''m ready to leave now!" He said, only to throw one last glance in the direction in which the Flers were now living. ''I hope they can live a long life filled with joy!'' Jason mumbled before he noticed that Wisse had already left his side. Sighing, Jason exerted the Floating sky technique before he rushed after Wisse. Only a few hours later, they arrived above the tiny island where the gigantic world bridge was situated. "The world bridge really leads to Manyr...It has many world bridges leading to planets that are also connected with Tagran, but are you sure that a beast hasn''t already appeared from it?" Jason didn''t say anything because he was not exactly sure about that, but from what he knew no beast had emerged from it so far. However, while staring at the world bridge, Jason''s mind was recalling the coordinates to the planets of the My?ldra, Ifrytor, and Burane race. He had watched Wisse destroy them as they were amongst the first few world bridges on their list, and even if the world bridges had only led them to a planet close to the said races'' planets, or territory, Jason would never forget their coordinates. There were things he had to accomplish there after all! Because Jason was deep in thoughts, he didn''t notice that Wisse was mumbling to himself while using his mana fluctuations to test out a few things. "If not a single beast emerged from it yet, its location should be extremely bad, or simply unsuitable for living beings to survive...If that''s the case, it will be extremely dangerous to use the world bridge, and we won''t be able to take a shortcut, but it will become a detour!" Wisse tried to tweak the runes a little bit, trying to change the coordinates into those he was familiar with; to change the destination where the bridge would lead them if they were to walk through it. That was not possible with stable world bridges, but the one in front of them was still growing and extremely unstable. However, the moment Wisse''s dragon aura came in touch with the world bridge, something unexpected happened. "Fuck!! Jason leave!!" World bridges were still a mystery to most races, and those that knew about the truth behind them didn''t reveal it owing to specific reasons. Yet, Wisse knew that there were several types and grades of world bridges. Despite that, his eyes widened in shock as he witnessed what was happening in front of them. ''Was my aura already enough to cause an anomaly?! Or was it just the spark igniting everything¡­?'' Wisse was not sure about the right answer, and he rushed back from the world bridge using his terrific speed. Only a moment after he had cursed, Wisse perceived how the entire world bridge was slowly changing its dark blue color to a deep, crimson red. With the change of its color, the required mana to maintain the world bridge increased gradually, and Jason, who witnessed everything through his Emperor Eyes could only gulp down his saliva as he flew back. Or at least he tried to! Flapping his wings wildly, he rushed back several meters, only to be pulled towards the world bridge as a ginormous suction force was released by it. At that moment, Jason''s Emperor Eyes perceived drastic changes in the world bridge''s runes, and he could only grit his teeth as he cursed. "Shit!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 601 - Choice Jason was not sure what Wisse had done because he had been distracted for a short moment, but it was evident that the scene unfolding in front of him was dangerous. Not knowing what would happen if he were to be forced to enter the world bridge, Jason didn''t want to risk his life to find it out. As such, he cursed once again, while fusing with Artemis to increase his strength drastically while exerting the Floating Sky technique to the highest proficiency he could. Following that, Jason circulated a large amount of mana through his body, increasing his strength further. Yet, everything was for naught against the suctioning force that was growing stronger by the second. ''What can I do?'' Jason thought while trying to evaluate the world bridge''s dangers with a single glance. This was easier said than done, and the only positive point Jason was able to think of could be said to be the fact that the coordinates of the world bridge stayed the same. However, the only positive point might as well turn into the cause for his death if he were to be suctioned into the world bridge right now! The coordinates could lead him straight into a mountain, leaving him no room to breathe, let alone move. This would be his death sentence and Jason could imagine thousands of similar scenarios of his painful death which was the cause of his fear to heighten drastically. In the end, this was not even the worst, because even Wisse was struggling to fight the strong pulling force that sucked anything and everything in its wake. At least, that was what Jason could see at the first glance, only to witness how Wisse transformed into a ginormous dragon with a length of more than 100 meters. This was astonishing, but Jason couldn''t care less about that right now. With a terrific roar that reverberated through the entire surrounding, Wisse, the dragon in its true form, was able to gain enough strength to escape the world bridge''s clutches. Unfortunately, the same couldn''t be said about Jason as he sensed how the entire surrounding was void of mana, forcing the world bridge to utilise its last efforts to draw out more mana. Jason saw this as a chance for him to retreat further, only to sense that the suctioning force increased manifolds. The unstable world bridge was unable to procure the necessary energy it required to maintain itself, while Jason struggled to not be drawn into it. Time seemed to slow down, but Jason''s mind turned blank as he released his entire Celestia aura and stigma at once, giving him a little bit more strength. By using every trace of mana left within his body, Jason released everything as blood oozed out of his pores. Through this, Jason perceived something familiar, as his mind entered the deepest part of his conscience. There, he could see the image of himself, in front of the helix representing his two bloodlines. Yet, there was a huge difference in both his image and the helix in front of him. The Celestia bloodline was glowing in a bright silver light and was releasing a faint divine aura. It was completely different to that of his father''s and intertwined with a faint trace of a crimson color. At the same time, Jason''s image had enlarged, releasing the divine aura, while a faint halo emerged behind him. The golden-silverish aura had merged with the divine aura, only for Jason to realise one thing ''I can unleash the Celestia bloodline again!'' However, the moment he thought this, Jason recalled the soul fraction''s words, telling him that he shouldn''t release more seals if it was not necessary because his body was not yet ready for the burden! Unleashing his Celestia aura was something he had already done once, and it destroyed several seals at once. As such, Jason had to make a decision right now, in a matter of seconds. Should he release his Celestia bloodline, tearing apart his body, similar to, but even more life-threatening than what he had done during the Blood Eclipse, or should he enter the world bridge, risking his life in the unknown? His first reaction was to unleash the Celestia bloodline, unsealing several minor threshold seals at once, but Jason refrained himself from doing it, thinking that his body wouldn''t be able to cope with the aftermath. ''If I have to take a path of pain, and possibly also death, I''ll take the one with the highest survival rate.'' With that thought in his mind, time seemed to return to its normal pace as Jason turned around to look at Wisse. Smiling lightly, he gathered all the energy left within him, only to shout. "Let''s meet on Tagran!" The world bridge would soon cease to exist, but Wisse was barely strong enough to keep himself from falling apart. If he were to move a single inch, he knew that his body would be pulled into the world bridge. However, upon hearing Jason, the young dragon couldn''t help but grit his teeth as his mind was rattling. ''Should I jump after him...or report everything to my master..? No...Liea will definitely punish me if I don''t even try to help Jason¡­fuck this shit!!'' Roaring out, Wisse ignored Jason''s statement about meeting on Tagran, as he flapped his enormous wings to approach the world bridge that was clearly mutating, and an anomaly. Through the pulling force on him and the movement technique he had activated, Wisse''s speed increased drastically, and it was only a moment later that he was barely a few meters away from Jason. However, these few meters felt like an insurmountable distance to Wisse as the world bridge that had gradually changed released two different forces at once. Jason, who was still using his entire strength to fight against the pulling force, didn''t want to give up without having tried. There was a big difference between saving himself by unleashing the Celestia bloodline that would severely injure, if not kill him, and giving up on trying his best to escape the world bridge that was about to collapse any moment. Seeing that Wisse wanted to rescue him made Jason happy, but it didn''t help him escape the world bridge''s grasp as its pulling force increased, drawing him into it. At the same time, Jason could barely perceive that Wisse was being pushed back by something. In fact, this force was the world bridge that had suddenly reverted its force from pulling to pushing, the moment Jason had entered it, making it impossible for Wisse to reach Jason, who was only smiling. "Remember my words, we will meet again!" Despite not being able to be confident about the words he was shouting, Jason felt like his entire life was changing in ways he had never expected. Only a moment later, the world bridge on Argos disappeared, releasing Wisse from the pushing force as he was hurled straight through empty air. "Fuck!!" Wisse roared out, which reverberated in the surroundings, waking up every living being in vicinity. ''Manyr...how the hell am I supposed to find him there?!? The world bridge might have led to a dead-end too¡­How the hell could that even happen?!? I barely touched the world bridge with my aura!!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 602 - Unknown Jason''s surroundings were veiled in darkness, which would normally generate fear in others. However, it gave Jason the time to calm down before he blurted out. "What the hell just happened?" He knew that he was alone, but that was not the issue because his entire body was drained of mana, making it impossible for him to see anything. His eyes were veiled as it was normally the case within world bridges, and Jason could barely sense his surroundings. Realising that it was no different from the times he had used a world bridge before calmed him further. As such, Jason was able to start absorbing tiny traces of the surrounding mana before leading it to his Emperor Eyes. Through this, his Emperor Eyes'' natural protection was directly utilized and the veil around his eyes quickly dispersed. However, what he saw in front of him was an all too familiar scene, something he had seen multiple times whenever he used a world bridge. The surroundings were filled with the three cultivation energies, and millions of stars could be seen in the vast expanse of darkness. Jason had already found out that the stars were in fact other planets, stellar systems, and so on, but instead of being focused on that, he decided to avert his attention to the small planet he could see far in the distance. He felt a tug, as if he was being pulled towards exactly the same distant planet, only to figure out that his earlier assumption was completely wrong. The planet was by no means small, and the nearer Jason was pulled to it through the world bridge''s pathway, the bigger it appeared to him. ''Just...what kind of existence is this planet....? In comparison to it, Argos...is tiny!!'' If the planet''s size was not surprising enough, Jason was truly shocked the moment he sensed dense mana and other energies radiating from the planet. It made him smile lightly, only to remember that he was not sure what place exactly he would be dumped into. ''I hope I won''t be flung deep in the ocean¡­.I think¡­ maybe, I will be thrown straight into a volcano, or suffocate by being thrown straight into nothing but stone¡­'' In the end, the world bridge he had been pulled into had been an anomaly, which Jason could by no means take lightly. Furthermore, not a single beast had emerged from the large world bridge, when it had been active on Argos. This could have many reasons, but Jason was not sure if any of the ones he had in his mind made sense. As such, he could only hope that the place he would be thrown into was not a dead-end. A dead-end would be the worst-case scenario, and Jason would rather fall into an active volcano or be thrown into a deep ocean because he would have, at least, a small chance to survive. Even if he had accepted the fact that he was forcefully pulled into the world bridge without Wisse, who was much stronger than he was, Jason felt that fate was playing around with him. He knew that he could have escaped the world bridge''s suction force by simply unsealing his Celestia bloodline, but consequently, he would have been severely injured while several seals on his bloodline would have been irreparably destroyed. Through this, his situation would only have worsened because his body had yet to get fully accustomed to the divine aura he had annexed and devoured! His body couldn''t withstand the vast pressure of a true Celestia yet, and there had been countless times that it had been on the brink of being torn apart. It was only because of this that Jason had decided to choose to enter the world bridge without further unleashing his bloodline further even for a short moment. This could have been a mistake, but it was an instinctive decision Jason took, in the single second wherein he had to make his choice. Without complaining, Jason accepted his current situation. He was unable to change it, either way. As such, making the best out of the situation was the only option in front of him. Even if he was not sure if it was something one could do or not, Jason had to replenish his mana. Thus, he absorbed the surrounding mana, hoping that he wouldn''t alter anything, or too much about the world bridge''s final destination. However, it was necessary for Jason to fill his mana core to the brim as he wasn''t sure what horrors would await him after he emerged from the world bridge. It was always better to be safe than sorry. At that moment, a shocking thought appeared in his mind. ''What if the place I emerge happens to be the territory of beasts with a higher cultivation base than the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage?... Without a single beast at a lower cultivation stage¡­.'' Shaking his head, Jason reminded himself that he shouldn''t be a pessimist. Trying to think of a solution, he put himself in Wisse''s shoes. Jason tried to imagine what the young dragon would have done, had he been in his place. It was likely that he was already on his way back to Tagran, but Jason couldn''t know that for sure. He was not even sure how much time had passed since he had been pulled into the world bridge. With that thought in mind, he realised that Wisse might already be back on Tagran, or still be on Argos. ''I think Manyr...was it...right? Either way, the planet''s size is several times larger than Argos, and I''m not even sure if I can truly measure it only using my eyes...Even if Wisse would be searching for me, how should he know where to start?'' Smiling dryly, Jason could only shake his head and absorb some of the surrounding mana until his mana core was filled to the brim. After that, he would have loved to start cultivating, but that was not possible right now. Jason knew that he had to be vigilant and fully prepared for the moment when he would emerge on the other side, and that was not possible while cultivating. Time seemed to pass extremely slowly, and the planet in front of him was still increasing in size. However, that only allowed Jason to make use of his Emperor Eyes as he inserted a faint amount of mana into them, reinforcing his eyesight. Thanks to the enhanced eyesight, Jason was able to see more details about Manyr than before. Yet, at the same time, he noticed the direction in which the world bridge''s pathway was leading him. The planet had many beautiful sceneries, and a spark of excitement ignited within Jason, only to die down the moment he saw the place he was likely to enter. ''If you force me into the world bridge, at least give me some nice scenery to look at...and not barren lands¡­'' Sighing deeply, Jason felt as if he had been betrayed by the world bridge. Chuckling to himself, he realised that it was a ridiculous thought which allowed him to get a hang of himself only a few seconds later. "It is about time!" He mumbled, turning serious as he told his three soulbonds to be ready to enter his mana core. Not knowing where he would land, all three of his soulbonds prepared themselves for the worst. Because of that, everyone was becoming tenser the closer they approached the vast planet called Manyr. The most annoying thing however was that Jason''s assumption about his final destination had been accurate, and the vast barren lands were dotted with green, blue, and brown spots denoting sparse vegetation and oases. As for the rest, it looked similar to mud but was more black than anything else, in addition to purple spots that didn''t look welcoming either. The sight alone was already more than enough for Jason to be frustrated about, but he tried to remain calm as he focused on the moment his entire body shook as he was rapidly pulled through the end of the world bridge''s pathway. The moment he emerged somewhere, Jason and his soulbonds were ready. However, instead of springing up into action, he looked around and saw a glimpse of something thanks to the world bridge''s faint shining light it radiated, before it disappeared forever, leaving him in utter darkness. His feet touched solid ground, and Jason was able to breathe properly, however, what he saw through his mana eyes was still enough for him to be worried about. ''Just where the hell am I?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 603 - Massive Through his Emperor Eyes, he could basically see everything, which allowed Jason to understand that he was completely alone. At least his proximity was void of beasts, but because he couldn''t fully rely on his Emperor Eyes, Jason had to use Solaris'' flame to better see the surroundings. The black glow was not perfect to see something but the faint orange color within Solaris allowed him to see much more. Apparently, the lesser origin flame was still not completely devoured, but that played into Jason''s cards right now. Despite the faint light, Jason found that it was not enough to see everything clearly. Because of that, he accessed his spatial ring, trying to take out a staff that was engraved with many runes, completely covering the metal''s dark blue tone. However, Jason noticed that his entire body had suddenly become heavier and that he couldn''t even move a single inch. ''Is that the gravitational force?'' He wondered while circulating mana through his body, to force himself to move slightly. It was difficult but easier than expected. ''The gravitational force is not as burdening as I expected from a planet several times larger than Argos...just where did I land?!'' Once he was able to move, Jason inserted a faint trace of mana into the staff he had taken out, while leading the faint black flame he had conjured, to its tip. No sooner had he done this, a bright shining light emerged. Jason could have also used a normal lamp, but with the staff in his hand, he could also attack and defend himself if the need arose. In fact, the staff was probably one of the strongest weapons at the Lique stage that Jason had procured from winning the bet inside the colosseum. Despite having sold most items he had procured, he had kept the staff for himself because it had certain characteristics that were similar to a wand, only to be slightly different. However, this slight difference made it much easier to produce the staff than a common wand as long as one had the necessary knowledge. With a bright light that lit the surrounding, Jason was now sure that he was inside a cave. Adding what he could see through his Emperor Eyes that were empowered with a vast amount of mana, it was easy to tell that the cave was deep under the surface, and not even a single living being was nearby. On one hand, this was annoying because he had to find a way to the surface, but on the other hand, Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly. He was ignoring the fact that he had been forcefully pulled into the world bridge because his mind was already somewhere else. ''Thankfully, I didn''t destroy my body only to escape the world bridge¡­'' Jason sighed in relief as he sensed the density, purity, and vast amount of mana in his surroundings. Even with his passive mana gathering technique active, he could easily replenish the mana he was using for his Emperor Eyes right now. The broken world, let alone the mana vein in Cyro City were child''s play against the mana he was sensing right now, which made Jason realise just how scarce the mana on Argos had been. ''As long as I can breathe, I''ll be able to find a way out. There is enough food and water inside my spatial ring too, so I won''t dehydrate or starve either!'' With that thought, Jason could only count a handful of disadvantages that his arrival in an unknown area on Manyr had brought forth. The surrounding beasts could be extremely strong, even stronger than Wisse or anything Jason had ever seen in his short, yet adventurous life. While this put him in a high-risk state, he could only be glad that there was not a single beast around him for now. However, this reassuring thought actually made him wonder- just why there was no beast in his surroundings? At the same time, Jason his mind kept drifting to his meeting with the Chaos dragon! He had too many questions to ask her. It was not even unlikely that she might have answers to the questions that had been haunting him, namely what kind of existence had sealed the Celestia bloodline while imprinting a fraction of its soul into his body! With that knowledge, Jason could start to search for the mysterious beast in order to find clues about his grandparent''s location. Even if it was a little bit frustrating that this would have to wait, at least, Jason didn''t have to waste time searching for Wisse''s master, he knew that the Chaos dragon lived on Tagran. According to Wisse, there should also be a world bridge on Manyr leading to Tagran, which meant that there might be people who knew about the location of said world bridge. For now, his encounter with the Chaos dragon was only postponed. He wasn''t sure how long it would take before he finally met her, but that might not be a disadvantage either. The Chaos dragon could have ill intentions about him, and with his low cultivation base and strength, it shouldn''t be difficult to manipulate him. This was unlikely to be the case, but Jason was still of the opinion that it was much better to meet Wisse''s master later when he would be much stronger than now! ''With the surrounding mana, I should be able to liquefy several drops of mana every day, that''s quite good!'' Even though his mana drops were unique, and required triple the amount of mana to be compressed in comparison to normal liquefied mana drops, Jason couldn''t help but feel that his calculation may be a little bit off. The surrounding mana was rich in both quality and quantity on a level he had never felt before. As such, he couldn''t clearly estimate how high his cultivation speed could increase. ''Maybe, I should start learning a cultivation technique? Is it finally time?'' Jason had never required a cultivation technique because his mana absorption rate, as well as the liquefaction process, had been too fast and high for Argos'' mana scarcity to cope with. However, this seemed to have changed now which made Jason believe that he should start skimming through his spatial ring and look for a neutral cultivation technique. There were many techniques Jason had, and he wanted to sell them if his funds were scarce, thus he stored almost all of them instead of burning them as he had previously planned. This was a lucky happenstance that made him smile. Nevertheless, Jason first had to figure out whether his current surroundings were safe or not. His memories about the untraceable Drakes and the manaless poison were still clear as day in his mind, and he didn''t want to face a near-death situation once again. As such, he walked through the large cavern hall in which he was mercilessly dumped by the world bridge while doing two things. The most important thing was to trace the energies in the surroundings and figure out if there were possible dangers from beings he could see with his Emperor Eyes. After that, he observed everything he could see through the bright light that radiated from his staff. Through this, he could be assured that there were no dangers in the surrounding, yet, Jason couldn''t help but sense another disadvantage he had yet to balance out. ''I should definitely search for ways to see in the darkness...using Solaris as bright light would become more exhausting the stronger he grows. Holding the staff as a means to cast a bright light, while having a tool to attack and defend myself is not the best idea either...'' Despite this though, Jason''s first solution was to search for a beast that had good eyesight and could see well in little to no light. He planned to find such a beast and bind it to his soul. However, Jason was not sure if he was ready to bind a new beast to his soul, and he had yet to find a beast that suited him as well. Sighing, he continued to investigate the cavern hall, only to notice that there was nothing special, except the high amount of different energies around him. Yet, at the same time, there was only a single tunnel leading somewhere which caused Jason to frown. ''Is that really the only way out?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 604 - Maze Even after walking through the cavern hall one more time with his senses sharpened, Jason could only find one way out of the hall. This was not exactly what he had been hoping for because the dangers in the tunnel or following cavern halls could be extremely high. Simply put, he was not confident to fight strong beasts because it was evident that his cultivation stage was low. ''There is no way that I will encounter beasts below the Prismar stage in an area that is overflowing with mana¡­'' Right now his surroundings were void of beasts but that was bound to change quickly. This was because the world bridge he had emerged from had disappeared. Without the necessary knowledge about world bridges, Jason would have just started to cultivate, thinking that the cavern hall gave him the best opportunity to do exactly that. Everyone would think so, but not Jason, who knew for a fact that the world bridge''s disappearance would cause a chain reaction, and in fact, lead to the very thing he didn''t want; attract beasts. The world bridge''s disappearance was important because naturally generated world bridges were, in fact, the planet''s reaction to their planetary core overflowing with energy. Wisse had explained it to him several times, which was also the reason for him to destroy only a few world bridges instead of all. Argos might face a shortage of mana, but at the same time, its planetary core was overflowing with mana owing to the fact that adapting to the sudden mana awakening more than three centuries ago had been extremely difficult. As such, while the mana on Argos increased, the planetary core was adjusting to its own production speed of mana. In the end, it was unlikely for the planetary core to be able to cope with the sheer amount of mana right off the bat. It wouldn''t happen even after thousands of years have passed either. Thus, naturally generated world bridges were created by worlds, preventing the planetary core from getting damaged due to the overflowing mana. At the same time, the naturally created world bridges and the mana that was required to maintain them made it possible for the planetary core to adjust to the generated mana that was consistently increasing until it reached its limit. Artificially created world bridges were a different matter altogether, and they could bring forth chaos to the two planets that were forcefully connected. This was exactly what had happened when his father had created a world bridge between the Elvyr race''s origin planet and Argos, while forcefully holding it together, turning it into a permanent world bridge. In the end, artificial world bridges were not important to Jason right now, and it was more of the fact that the surrounding mana had increased in density, purity, and quantity owing to the disappearance of the world bridge he had emerged from. Jason knew that this would attract other beasts, and they were certainly much stronger than him. It was not a given that they would attack him for sure, but taking the risk of being eaten alive was not something Jason wanted to do right now. As such, while his sub-area was passively absorbing tremendous amounts of mana, Jason was inserting a large portion of the same into his Emperor Eyes, increasing the ability to see energy streams around him. This made it much easier for him to enter the only cavern tunnel he could find. It led downwards, which was annoying, but considering that he was able to breathe inside the cave, there should be a way to the surface, somewhere. Carefully walking through the wide tunnel, while holding the dark blue staff that glowed brightly, Jason had to ignore Petri and Solaris'' plea to let them emerge from the soul world. Only Artemis remained quiet because she didn''t want to stay in places where she couldn''t fly around whenever she wanted. The Cave was too narrow, and the sky too far away for her. Even with his Emperor Eyes, Jason was not sure how deep into the ground they were because the mana intertwined soul was something he couldn''t see through completely. Only extremely strong mana fluctuations could be sensed by Jason, which was, however, more than enough for now. ''I will have to adjust to the new mana flow a lot faster, otherwise, it could end in a disaster!'' Thus, while the sub-area in his mind was passively absorbing mana, Jason was doing the same actively, increasing the mana flow. At the same time, he released the entire capabilities of his stigma and aura, increasing his mana mastery tremendously. The Celestia race was simply more affine with mana and Jason made use of that as much as possible. Releasing his aura and stigma could attract other beasts, but without being able to see anything through his Emperor Eyes gave him enough reassurance to think that it was fine to release everything. Only when he perceived mana fluctuations of strong beasts did Jason retract everything at once while concealing his mana core. Jason even canceled his sub-area''s passive mana absorption, once he saw the terrific dense energy fluctuations of a beast moving forward in his direction. What he perceived was already more than enough for him to tremble in fear, but instead of behaving like a coward, it would make much more sense to look for a way out of the tunnel. The first few beasts that passed him in the following hours didn''t use the wide tunnel Jason was in. This was extremely beneficial, and it indicated that there were several more tunnels all around him. It could also mean that there were beasts like moles or earthworms digging their way inside, but that did not matter right now. What mattered was the obvious fact that he was still alive, and was about to reach the second cavern hall. Normally, he would have extinguished the bright light, but Jason knew that his current position was several hundred feet deeper than he had been before. As such, a bright light was likely to dazzle and scare other beasts, preventing them from approaching a being with extremely weak mana fluctuations. On the other hand, it could also prove to be counterproductive and anger the beasts, making them lunge at him for encroaching their territory. As such, Jason decided to dim down the light, so that he could still see the immediate surroundings. After stepping into the second cavern hall, the first thing Jason noticed was a pungent scent that swept through the entire hall. It was extremely foul and strong enough to make his eyes tear up. Because of that, Jason summoned Solaris'' flame that turned into his mask after being forcefully shaped into a suitable form. Being able to breathe properly was already great and more than he could have hoped for in the second cavern hall that looked more like a dumpster than anything else. There was a small underground lake right in front of him, but instead of being blue, or having a light touch of green, it was dark green, purplish, with small air bubbles all over the surface of the lake. The moment the air bubbles burst open, hot steam was released, creating the pungent smell. ''At least, I now know what those weird energy ripples were¡­'' He thought while trying to rid of his annoyance. Scanning through the cavern hall with his Emperor Eyes, Jason perceived that there were several beasts inside the lake. However, their strength was something he could barely face, but he need not worry for now because they seemed to be sound asleep! After his Emperor Eyes had perceived everything, he took a detailed look at everything with his normal eyes. This took him a few hours as the second cavern hall was much larger than the first one. Nevertheless, Jason was quite glad because there were a total of six tunnels that led him to a different location, and at least one of them should lead towards the surface! Despite this, he now had to figure out the fastest way to either reach the surface or to further distance himself from the cavern hall he had emerged in while searching for a place without any beasts to cultivate. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 605 - Treasure Trove Jason was not sure whether it would be better to enter the depths of the cave or to leave as soon as possible. Both decisions could bring doom to him, and each had their own advantages and disadvantages. As such, he could only look at the six tunnels, while using his Emperor Eyes to roughly gauge where they would lead to. In the end, Jason decided to let fate take its course and that he would simply enter the tunnels that had the weakest and fewest beasts of whom he could see the mana fluctuations. This could be a mistake but avoiding death and ensuring his survival was the highest priority for Jason. It was obvious, and because of that, it didn''t really matter whether he remained inside the cave or made his way to the surface as long as he was alive. Thus he slowly inched his way towards the narrow tunnel where he could perceive the weakest mana fluctuations and time seemed to drag for eternity. Once he thought that he was in a relatively secure location, Jason started to absorb mana from the surrounding once again. His mind was fully focused on his surroundings and the passive mana absorption which he used to slowly liquefy drops of mana. Doing so while walking around was arduous and took him more time than necessary, but Jason didn''t really have much to do except observing the surroundings and slowly walking through the long tunnel, to begin with. Jason was not sure where the tunnel was leading him because there were times he seemed to be walking upstairs, only to walk downstairs once again. The number of beasts around him was low as well as their strength, but the surrounding mana was still extremely dense. It was only a little bit less compared to before, which caused Jason to wonder whether Wisse had exaggerated with his statement about world bridges and their task to drain energy from the overflowing planetary core. However, there was a huge difference between Argos and Manyr''s situation, size, amount of mana, and even more importantly, the number and capacities of world bridges that should be much higher Hence, sustaining a single permanent world bridge with the limit at the 2nd Prismar stage should be nothing for Manyr. As such, Jason realised that he had overestimated the severity of mana released by the now disappeared world bridge. With that thought in mind, Jason could only sigh. In the end, it wouldn''t have changed much either because there had still been a few beasts that were attracted to the increasing mana. Thus, there hadn''t been a real possibility for him to cultivate in the small cavern hall, to begin with. Because of that, Jason realised that the beasts below the surface were probably more sensitive to changes underground. Furthermore, the beasts underground were a lot faster than he had initially expected which made him believe that it may be better to look for the surface. While doing so, he could cultivate once in a while because Jason had the premonition that it would take a while to find a way out of the maze-like cave. ''As long as I''m alive, not heavily injured, pursued, it should be fine..I guess?'' Jason''s attempts to lift his mood worked only partially, but that was only for a short time as he remembered that the entire area he should be in was nothing but barren lands. Sighing deeply, Jason continued to walk through the stupidious long tunnel, awaiting the next cavern hall or signs of something that could cheer him up. It could be anything ranging from rare ores, signs of him coming closer to the surface, or a place where he could cultivate, to make use of the extremely dense amount of pure mana. Despite that, he was unfortunate enough to be forced to walk through the tunnel for the time required to liquefy three highly compressed drops of mana. During that time, Jason had begun to ignore the dangers of the beasts all around him as they didn''t seem to mind him cultivating and left him on his own. He was only absorbing a small amount of mana in the surroundings passively, and only his Celestia aura seemed to be of tiny interest. As such, Jason had retracted his Celestia aura while his stigma was still fully unleashed. The outline of some beings with strong energy fluctuations he had seen were mostly that of extremely large beasts and the majority of them were in fact centipedes, earthworms, and huge insects, Jason wanted to avoid at all costs. Even if not all beasts were extremely strong in comparison to the amount of mana and other energies that swept through the area, their cultivation base was at the first threshold of the Prismar stage, or higher! Jason had only seen a few beasts at the Lique stage and the majority of them had been inside the poisonous underground lake. As such, he was definitely at the bottom of the food pyramid, even if he were to reveal his entire combat prowess. That thought was disturbing, but at the same time, it caused an unknown excitement to ignite within him. Right now, he was too weak and got ignored by those that had better things to do than killing an insignificant fry. Only if Jason was stronger, would others start minding if he were to enter their territory. The moment he had liquefied the third drop of mana, Jason saw a bright light ahead of him. However, instead of being astonished, he had already been aware of this. His Emperor Eyes had allowed Jason to see the bright glow of the mana currents radiating from all kinds of unmoving objects. It was truly a blessing that his Emperor Eyes allowed him to see through the mana enriched soil, otherwise, he would have many issues. The mana current was what he was seeing through his bare eyes right now, and he was only able to avoid being dazzled owing to the faint layer of mana he had covered his eyes with. Entering the third cavern hall, Jason took a look around which was only possible because everything was lit up. A bright light shone through the entire hall, turning the staff in his hand useless. It was different than he had expected but incomparable to the first cavern hall in which he had emerged, let alone the second one with the smelly sea. Everything radiated elemental transmuted mana, and Jason was extremely familiar with the majority of objects that caused the phenomenon of multicolored mana streams that were all around the room. These mana streams were attracted by the suctioning force he released, but instead of absorbing the elemental transmuted streams of mana around him, Jason decided to block out everything. Artemis could devour everything, while Solaris could burn through the transmutation, forcefully neutralizing the transmuted mana. But that was not what he wanted right now because his eyes were glued to the ores and crystals he could see all around him. "High grade elemental crystals? Oh, and ores releasing elemental mana currents too?" Jason was not sure about the ores'' names but that did not really matter because he knew that they were extremely valuable. At least, that was what his Emperor Eyes told him owing to the specific hue around items that allowed him to determine their quality. During the last few years, he had neglected this ability of his eyes because it had been less important. But seeing the bright hues around the elemental crystals and ores, Jason''s eyes couldn''t help but gleam brightly. The hue around the ores wasn''t usually that interesting in comparison to the hue determining the potential of beasts. However, right now, this was different, because the ores were at least at the low Prismar grade without a higher quality. This was something Jason could determine because there were certain ores without a hue, and even they were exceptional. ''Did I just find a treasure trove?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 606 - Cave Of Elements Jason was astonished about the sheer quantity and quality of the ores and crystal the third cavern hall harbored. However, it felt somewhat weird to him. Every single cavern hall had something unique about it, and none of them was the same. Even if that may happen coincidentally, Jason couldn''t help but look at everything with doubtful eyes. ''I must have been inside this maze-like cave for at least two days, if not longer, but I have yet to face a beast head-on, let alone find a way out of the cave...just where did I land?!'' Despite the treasure trove he had just found, Jason couldn''t really be happy about it. Rather than finding the elemental ores and crystals, he would be more pleased with a cavern tunnel that led him upwards. It was not even important to reach the surface right now, just a single sign of him making some headway would be enough for him. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done, and Jason began to take a look at the third cavern hall. He appraised everything and looked for other tunnels that may lead him somewhere else. As long as he was not at a dead-end it was already fine, and Jason could only hope against hope that he wouldn''t be stuck there forever. That was not too much to ask for after having been forced to enter a world he didn''t even want to be right now. Even if Manyr had many world bridges with Argos, Jason would rather be somewhere else. In his opinion, every place with a society where he could procure information, without being forced to stay underground was much better than this situation. At least, knowing a way out of the cave would be quite helpful. Jason was slowly noticing that his bad mood was further plummeting and that he had to do something against it. Because of that, he took Byakur out of the soul world before inserting a little mana into it. Adjusting its length, he turned Byakur into a broad dagger before he used it to dig out one of the high-quality crystals. After enveloping it with his mana, Jason took a proper look at it. Using his senses and Emperor Eyes, he could perceive everything about it, which made him smile. ''At least I won''t have to forge a new pickaxe for now¡­'' He thought before storing the crystal away. Then, he took a look at the elemental ores. Slowly, he inserted a large amount of mana into Byakur, and it vibrated lightly. Making use of this, Jason cut out a small piece of one of the ores. With a few kilograms of the element ore in his hand, he repeated the same procedure as he had already done with the elemental crystal. Nodding to himself, he stored the ore away too. Reaffirmed about his earlier thought, he accessed his spatial ring to take out a pickaxe made out of green metal. It had multiple runes inscribed on the tip, and by inserting mana into the pickaxe he was holding, it glowed lightly. Using his physical strength, Jason first lifted the pickaxe over his head before he struck the element ore in front of him. Though he could pack a punch, it was impossible to destroy the ore with a single strike. However, he was happy to note that a large crack had appeared on it. ''If I can''t cultivate properly, and I''m stuck in this stupid place, let me at least reap some benefits!'' Knowing that his situation was only temporary, Jason wanted to gain a fortune in order to make use of it once he encountered other beings. There had to be a society somewhere, and they would most certainly use currencies to trade with each other. Thus, he required something to barter with, in order to obtain what he might need in the future. Other than that, he could sell the high-ranked crystals and ores in order to earn the new currency. With that in mind, Jason started to mine, ignoring the fact that the high-ranked crystals were, in fact, materials at the peak Lique and low Prismar rank. They had been rare on Argos, but that was unlikely to be the case on Manyr, where he had already perceived the outlines of horrifying beasts he wanted to avoid encountering at all costs. Despite the possibility of the crystals and ores not being rare, their quality would increase their worth, nonetheless. Furthermore, Jason had to release his stress and frustration right now. As such, he couldn''t help but feel glad to have found the third cavern hall. However, what astonished Jason a little bit, was the fact that it looked like the third cavern hall was the beginning of a new part of the cave. Through his Emperor Eyes, he could see a total of three cavern tunnels, and all of them had the same element transmuted mana currents as well as the unmoving outlines of the transmutation process''s origin. As such, the entire part of the cave he had entered was filled with elemental crystals and element ores. This was interesting to know but also told him that there were no intelligent races that had harvested these materials. Not even beasts that normally devoured those crystals to cultivate could find them, which made Jason both happy and sad. After several hours of mining, Jason slumped to the ground with a faint smile on his face. Even if he was still frustrated, the tension weighing on him had subsided through the arduous physical task. His entire body felt sore, but it was a feeling that calmed him down. ''Not a single beast attacked me while I was mining, and the noises I made were by no means low. Does that mean the surrounding beasts simply don''t care about me and what I do, or is there a different reason?'' Jason was not sure about the final answer, but that was not something he could influence either way. Because he hadn''t been attacked even after the clang and clamor of his pickaxe that had echoed through the cavern hall, and in turn the entire cave, Jason decided to release the restriction on his soul world. Thus, only a moment later, Petri and Solaris appeared next to him. Petri was in one of the smaller forms he could take thanks to use Artemis'' size-altering ability, while Solaris had taken a liking to use the miniature form of the golden-eyed black flame dragon. Smiling lightly when he felt their overjoyed emotions, the frustration within him slowly dispersed. Astonishingly enough, Artemis had also decided to leave the soul world. She had sensed Jason''s joy and that the reasons for his happiness were Petri and Solaris. Thus, driven by jealousy, Artemis ignored her discomfort of narrow places as she squeezed herself on Jason''s shoulder. Through this, she wanted to clearly show who Jason belonged to. Yet, contrary to her expectations that Petri and Solaris would accept this, they began to cling to Jason as well. In the end, Jason''s shoulders were occupied by Solaris and Artemis, while Petri had coiled himself around his entire abdomen. ''I''m pretty sure that I can''t continue mining like this,'' Jason thought with a faint smile on his face. He had to change his plan now, but that was not a problem because there was something else he had wanted to do! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 607 - Possessive Jason hadn''t been sure how safe the cave he was inside truly was. However, it had been possible for him to mine element ores and elemental crystals for several hours without a single passing beast minding what Jason was doing. As such, he was relieved and thought that he could actively cultivate for some time. Yet, before Jason could do that properly, he had to do something else which only became a necessity after his arrival on Manyr. Jason had yet to read through a cultivation manual, and he wanted to choose one to cultivate with first! There was a wide variety of manuals inside his spatial rings. Most of them were something he received as a reward after winning the bet inside the colosseum in Janur. Other than that, there was a large number of foreign race beings he had killed and deprived of their spatial ring during the Great Argos war. Thus their cultivation, body refining, and martial art technique manuals were still with him! ''A neutral cultivation technique would be the best. I can''t afford to injure myself by practicing an element oriented cultivation technique. After all, I have two repulsive affinities already!'' With that thought, Jason ignored the fire and ice cultivation techniques, which he could have used owing to the affinities he had. As for the techniques he didn''t want to use or couldn''t, they were simply left inside his spatial ring to collect dust. In the end, only a small batch of three cultivation techniques made it out of his spatial ring. Amongst them, one was at the Terra-Advanced rank and the other two were Terra-Intermediate rank cultivation techniques. Because of the ranking, it was obvious that Jason chose the Terra-Advanced cultivation technique first which he picked up without hesitation. While reading through it, Jason''s eyes gleamed in interest, but it was only an hour later that he sighed deeply before throwing the cultivation technique back into the spatial ring. ''It really doesn''t work¡­'' be sighed deeply, before frustration overcame him. "What kind of bullshit is that?" He sounded indignant as he read through the pages and repeated the words in his head, ''You cannot change the cultivation technique after practicing it one time!''. Slamming the technique on the ground, he muttered to himself, "As if, I would want to permanently use a Terra-Advanced technique!" Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down before he picked up the other two techniques. ''At least give me the chance to switch to a better cultivation technique in the future!'' Jason was not sure whether he had been unlucky with the Terra-Advanced technique, or if it was common to be only able to cultivate with one cultivation technique. He hoped that this was not the case because it would be quite annoying otherwise. In the worst-case scenario, he would have to reject using a cultivation technique for the time being. Fortunately, the worst-case scenario didn''t occur, and he simply discarded the second technique that warned him about being unable to change the technique after the first cultivation session. Disappointed with the first two techniques, he picked the last manual but found the first words in the introduction to be quite reassuring. [The technique ''Balance of the Universe'' does not restrict the user in cultivating with other manuals!] Happy about the last technique he had found, Jason decided to study the technique before starting to cultivate it. As such, several hours passed with Jason sitting cross-legged on the floor, reading intently, and it was only when his three soulbonds were annoyed at his ignorance that they started to pester him. Never in his life could he have thought that his own soulbonds would initiate an attack, throwing away the cultivation manual he was reading for the second time. "What are you three doing?!" Jason shouted, only to realise that they were glaring at him. Sighing deeply, he stood up to pick the cultivation manual lying on the ground before he stored it away. "If you guys are bored...let''s go!" Jason had already imprinted the most basic steps to cultivate using the ''Balance of the Universe'' cultivation technique. It was not exactly difficult, and neither did it require extreme focus. Rather, his mind had to tranquil any disturbing thoughts while his body would follow the motions detailed in the technique''s descriptions. The movements sounded rather weird, and the pictures that demonstrated the movements were not better either. However, that was just his opinion, and it shouldn''t matter how ridiculous he looked as long as it was possible for him to cultivate at a much faster pace. There were several types of cultivation poses, and amongst the best was to sit down and enter a meditative stance. Jason had often heard of such positions, like the lotus stance, but he never believed that it was truly necessary to enter such a position. ''Fortunately, I can cultivate while walking around...they would really kill me if I were to stay rooted to a spot like a statue, only to cultivate for days¡­'' Looking at Petri, who hissed at him in joy, while Solaris spit out small flames, only for Artemis to issue a faint squeal, Jason knew that his assumption was definitely correct. His soulbonds may look and act as if they were cute, but they were possessive, and each of them demanded Jason all for themselves. ''Maybe they will also attempt to assassinate me if I show signs of binding another beast to my soul?'' Somehow, Jason felt like the possibility for this to happen was not negligible, and even if they wouldn''t really kill him, he assumed that his soulbonds would take revenge on him. That was if he would do something the three of them didn''t like. Sighing deeply, Jason could only walk through the cave of elements, which was the name he had given to this part of the cave while choosing one of the three tunnels to walk through. Even if he had yet to find a way out, his mind had been calmed down due to his soulbonds'' interference, the stress relief mining crystals and ores gave him, in addition to the cultivation technique he was about to try testing out. Unfortunately while testing how exactly the cultivation technique worked, he couldn''t pay much attention to his surroundings. This mostly included his Emperor Eyes ability to see the energy flow of objects and other beings through the walls. As such, he told his soulbonds to act as his eyes and ears, which they reluctantly agreed to. In the end, Jason was their master, and their attacks on him had been more like pokes and pecks without any intent to hurt or kill him. If that were to be the case, the soulbond would severely injure them, and in the worst case, if their wrath towards Jason was overflowing, they might as well die owing to the continuous punishment they would receive over and over again. But that was extremely unlikely, even if a soulbond was treated badly. In mankind''s history, this happened only a few times, and those soulbonds had been treated far worse than one would wish their worst enemy to be treated! Even if the incidents were numerous, Jason knew that he could trust his soulbonds with his life. There was nothing that could tear them apart and both parties were fully aware of this, with the only issue being that Artemis and the rest knew that Jason would have to bind more soulbonds. This was unavoidable if they wanted Jason to become stronger, and it gave the three soulbonds even more reason to become as strong as possible, in the shortest amount of time. With that plan, Jason would need much longer before it was feasible for him to consider binding a new beast to his soul! Jason was completely oblivious to his soulbonds'' thoughts and he simply focused on the cultivation manual with a faint smile on his lips. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 608 - Balance In order to cultivate properly with the Balance of the Universe cultivation technique, Jason had to use a particular set of movements that changed the way he walked tremendously. Through this, his pores would open wider as long as Jason used a specific way to circulate mana through his body. After that was done, Jason could use the large amount of mana he absorbed to replace his own mana in order to circulate it in the same specific way through his mana veins. This was more difficult than he had expected, but this was only obvious. He was using a cultivation technique for the first time in his life and wanted to walk around while cultivating right off the bat. Difficulties were bound to happen because of that, but it made Jason excited. It had been quite some time since he had run into trouble mastering something because his capabilities had overwhelmed everyone around his age a long time ago. Argos had become the place he grew up, giving him the time to figure out who he was and what he wanted to achieve in the future. There were several things he had planned, but for everything, strength was a basic necessity. Several hours passed in which Jason was slowly adjusting himself to the sensation of cultivating with the Balance of the Universe cultivation technique. He had yet to make any remarkable progress and his cultivation speed was currently several times slower than it was under normal circumstances, but that was not something Jason was concerned about. Slowly moving through the cave of elements in the described movements he was supposed to use, Jason felt that his suction force was fluctuating a lot. This meant that certain movements of his were easier to execute for him than others. Because of that, Jason couldn''t help but wonder if the cultivation technique he practiced was also something he could use to stretch his body. There were several muscle groups he had to move which he''d never known to even exist earlier. This was extremely interesting, and Jason felt happy to have chosen the Balance of the Universe technique to cultivate. Using the vast majority of muscle groups, his body loosened up. However, at the same time, the unused muscles were quickly becoming sore because Jason forced himself to use them for several hours which was only possible owing to his high physical condition! As such, after testing out the cultivation technique for quite some time, Jason stopped. "That should be enough for today. Maybe I can practice more tomorrow!" He mumbled to himself, only to shift his focus from using the cultivation technique to passively absorbing mana with the help of his mind''s sub-area and his active efforts. There was no need to waste his precious time and halt to cultivate just because he couldn''t use the cultivation technique right now. Looking around, Jason had no idea where he was, but thankfully he received a total of three transmitted thoughts and memories, given by his soulbonds. ''So I''m still in the tunnel and we walked upwards? That''s great!'' Jason was quite happy due to the information shared by his soulbonds, and a faint smile emerged on his face. The tunnel was still leading upwards, and Jason felt as if he would be able to see the surface through his Emperor Eyes soon. Even if he couldn''t be sure what exactly he was seeing through his eyes, as long as he didn''t see any outlines, it was possible to perceive a wide-open space. This was because mana streams could move unhindered through the surrounding soil. As such, every single time he might see a wide-open space through the Emperor Eyes, it was either a gigantic cavern or the surface! Because of that, Jason was consistently inserting large amounts of mana into his eyes, enabling him to maintain a heightened eyesight. It allowed him to perceive specific objects and beasts through the mana enriched soil. This sight was restricted to a radius of slightly more than one kilometer but that should be more than enough. Right now, his eyes perceived nothing but beasts, elemental crystals, element ores, other kinds of ores, and another gigantic underground lake whose water molecules were similarly intertwined with mana. He had yet to see the surface or clues hinting at the fact that he was slowly approaching the surface, but that was not something that concerned Jason anymore. It was possible for him to walk through the cavern tunnels and halls without any issues, and had more than enough time to learn how to use a proper cultivation technique. Even if its grade was not high, that didn''t concern Jason because his Celestia aura, stigma and innate mana mastery would boost the cultivation technique''s speed to its limits. At least, he hoped that would happen once he had mastered the Balance of the Universe technique to some extent! ** Days passed and Jason felt like the tunnel was never-ending. He had yet to perceive the surface too. This shocked him a little bit, and Jason was unable to determine just how deep underground he had been the whole time. Walking upwards for days, there should have at least been some clues about the surface such as a simple gust of wind. However, there was nothing but the elemental crystals and element ores, which Jason had decided to mine a few hours every single day. He required a small fortune to barter or sell, to begin with, and mining cleared his mind and helped him keep negativity at bay. Nevertheless, Jason''s entire body was sore, and instead of doing nothing, he had decided to practice the Netherworld''s fort body refining technique once again. Solaris'' flame soothed his sore muscles while the nutrition solutions he had obtained from the foreign races'' spatial rings which he had killed during the Great Argos war revitalized him. The nutrition solutions were extremely helpful to refine his body, but also to provide it with energy. This allowed Jason to dull the ache of his sore muscles, only to continue testing the Balance of the Universe cultivation technique. He was slowly finding the perfect balance between using the described movements while circulating the absorbed mana through his body. Because of that, his cultivation speed was slowly increasing, brushing past the passive cultivation speed Jason could reach without the use of a cultivation technique. In the end, Jason didn''t even sleep since the time he had emerged on Manyr because it was simply not necessary yet, and he wanted to see the first signs of the surface before he would even think of sleeping. Not wanting fatigue to consume him, he constantly replenished the energy that invigorated him consistently. Due to this, Jason felt as if he could stay awake for months. This was exactly what his premonition told him- that it would be necessary for him to stay awake for months before he would see the surface through the ground. Even if Jason hoped this to not be the case, it was almost as if the world bridge had brought him to the deepest possible part of the ginormous planet. Though he couldn''t be sure of the fact, Jason knew that he would have long since reached the surface if he were to still be on Argos. More than 10 days had passed since his arrival on Manyr and many things had changed. The most evident of all was that Jason and his soulbonds'' joy about the dense energy in the surroundings had dimmed down. Even Petri, who was able to feel the primordial energy in the surroundings, couldn''t be happy about their current situation anymore. He wanted to return to his old size without being forced to enter the soul world. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done because the tunnel he was currently in was narrow and filled with spiked crystals at the Prismar grade. Those crystals were definitely sharp enough to pierce through Petri''s tough scales, and Jason didn''t want to see his youngest soulbond get injured needlessly. Meanwhile, Jason''s only joy was that he''d earned quite a fortune and that his strength was slowly progressing through his own cultivation as well as that of his soulbonds! This was great, and even more so, because all three of his soulbonds were advancing with time, including Solaris who wasn''t restricted by the shackles that had held it down. Having absorbed the orange lesser origin flame crystal had made this possible for Solaris, and Jason was glad that he had stayed on Argos even more than before. Staying longer on Argos had helped him mature further, help those who were weaker than him, and he had even gained benefits from it! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 609 - Finally Jason was ready to throw fists at any hostile being in his surroundings. Despite having earned a huge fortune Jason felt the urge to let off some steam by fighting. His soulbonds'' strength had increased drastically and he had been able to cultivate properly too. Using the Balance of the Universe technique for half a day was no problem anymore, and the cultivation speed was several times higher than actively cultivating without a technique. This included the ability to cultivate extremely fast while walking around. Having imprinted the necessary movements into his mind, Jason was able to liquefy 5 drops of mana per day, while being able to continue walking around at the same time! And this excluded the enhancement received from releasing the Celestia aura! Jason could still improve his cultivation speed, but he was already shocked about the fast progress he had made. But that was only logical because his progress was the only thing that kept Jason from going insane. Three more weeks had passed and he had already been underground for longer than a month, and he had yet to see signs of the surface. After walking upwards for almost two weeks, he had entered a small cavern hall, with several tunnels leading in all kinds of directions. Taking the tunnel that led upwards, Jason noticed too late that he had been deceived by his own senses as the tunnel was slowly turning flat, and stayed on the same level for the next weeks. Artemis, Petri, and Solaris were also slowly starting to be annoyed at the surroundings that looked exactly the same since the last few weeks, with Artemis being the noisiest about their circumstances. She was able to absorb the transmuted mana in the surrounding without any issues, but that didn''t make anything better for her because the area around her restricted the little owl tremendously. She felt claustrophobic in the underground cave and missed flying in the sky, soaring through the heights in the open. Despite that, she had been diligently liquefying her mana, allowing her to create her 1900th drops of mana without any issues. Her cultivation speed was even faster than Jason''s which was still somewhat restricted owing to the fact that the vast majority of mana in his surroundings was transmuted. Meanwhile, Petri had been able to learn to absorb Primordial energy instead of life force, which was a new experience for the Basilisk. It was interesting, but only for a few initial weeks. Doing the same week after week, for more than ten hours a day was depressing, and Petri was eager to fight someone, using his normal form. Nevertheless, he had been able to compress his fourth drop of lifeforce, which was equivalent to having 4000 drops of liquefied mana, with the sole focus on enhancing the physique! Solaris'' tasks were different compared to the other two soulbonds because it had to properly annex one of Jason''s soul crystals first. Devouring the lesser origin flame had been less of a problem than Jason had initially expected but that was definitely an advantage. Thanks to the second origin flame it had absorbed, Solaris had not only broken through its shackles, but it had also been possible for it to enhance its abilities. Despite not gaining a new ability, it didn''t create any major issue as long as the existing abilities would be strengthened. After Solaris had finally annexed one of Jason''s soul crystals, it had begun to use tiny traces of Jason''s mana in addition to the fire transmuted mana in the surroundings to absorb it into its mana core. With the absorbed mana, Solaris wanted to create its first solidified prismarine crystal. In the end, Jason couldn''t complain about his own, let alone his soulbonds'' progress, because he would earn a huge fortune by selling the elemental crystals and element ores at the peak Lique and Low Prismar grade that he had mined from the cave. Doing so for several hours a day slowly filled his spatial rings, and Jason also knew that it wouldn''t take long before they would overflow. Never could he have imagined that this could happen, yet, his spatial rings were already filled to the brim. Without being able to calm himself by letting off steam through mining, Jason was not sure how long he could control himself anymore. He was very impatient since the beginning, and there was no way that he could stay underground for a few more months. ''Why did I even question myself whether I should cultivate underground or search for a way to the surface when I just entered Manyr¡­'' Jason knew if he had stayed even deeper underground to cultivate for a few months, he would have turned insane just by looking for a way out. Now that a month had passed, he was already at his wit''s end, but there was a ray of hope Jason perceived. This ray of hope was in fact the fifth cavern hall he found, and one particular tunnel that had an extremely steep ascent! Driven by his impatience, Jason had told his soulbonds to return to the soul world. They could be injured if he was not careful, because Jason wanted to use Solaris'' flames to manifest wings on his back with which he wanted to fly up the steep tunnel. It could be a trap, but even his Emperor Eyes clearly showed that the tunnel would go almost straight upwards for as far as he could see through the soil. As such, Jason became a little bit excited, feeling that he would soon reach the surface which made his hands itch to touch the surface. With Solaris'' flames spurting out of his shoulder blades, Jason flew up the tunnel, precisely evading the long crystals that protruded out of the walls. His bright golden-silverish eyes radiated a distinct glow in the same color, seeing everything more than a kilometer ahead of him as he continued to fly higher. This caused a bright smile to emerge on Jason''s face because the tunnel he was flying up didn''t suddenly twist in a random direction! It felt as if he was slowly being rescued, and he could tell that it wouldn''t be long before he would reach the surface. At least, that was the only thing that made sense to Jason because he knew that he had already traveled several kilometers in height just in the last few weeks. As such, considering the fast pace at which he ascended the tunnel, Jason knew that he had easily passed the 10-kilometer threshold, but the tunnel had yet to end. ''Just how deep underground am I?!'' He thought in frustration, visibly confused about the area he had been forcefully teleported to by the world bridge. Jason''s confusion deepened because several minutes passed, and there was still no change in his surroundings. Unable to see anything other than elemental crystals, element ores, beasts that were mostly at the Prismar stages and a cavern hall or underground lake once in a while, nothing around him seemed to change. However, suddenly, 15 minutes after his ascent, his Emperor Eyes sighted what he had been looking for, for a very long time. "Finally!!!" Jason shouted, seeing a bright light at the end of the tunnel and the unrestricted energy currents swirling through the empty space he''d seen through the soil! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 610 - Outside Breaking through the faint membrane of energies that sealed the tunnel from the scorching heat, Jason exclaimed in joy as he emerged on the surface. A faint gust of cool wind brushed against his face that made him smile in relief. He was beyond happy to have finally left the cave. Never could he have expected that his entire journey through the cave of elements would end so suddenly. It was truly a miracle and taking in a deep breath of air, Jason expected a fresh scent to enter his nostrils. However, contrary to his expectations, what he smelled was a reeking stench that almost caused him to vomit. Instinctively, black flames emerged from his body, enveloping Jason''s mouth, and nose, protecting him from the pungent smell as he forced his eyes to adjust to the bright sun rays. Comparing the sunlight with Argos, he found it to be much brighter, but at the same time, it was more like a soothing feeling instead of a burning hot sensation. As such, Jason felt rather good right now. His body had long since adjusted to the higher gravitational force that had consistently increased the further he ascended. This was scientifically wrong, at least, if he had learned everything on Argos correctly, but Jason could only shrug his shoulders, thinking that mankind had never been able to truly enter other planets with a higher gravitational force. ''Maybe mana has something to do with the similar gravitational force...under normal circumstances, I would have been mashed into a pulp of flesh the moment I emerged on Manyr, its gravitational force must be more than ten times higher than on Argos after all¡­'' As such, Jason was not sure how exactly gravitational force worked owing to the three cultivation energies that were present on Manyr. The weight of his body had only increased by a small margin after he had arrived on the surface, but that was not really worrisome because his strength had increased much more. Thus, he could easily handle the gravitational force, while the mana consumption of Solaris'' black flame wings and mask were almost negligible. Because of that, he could easily take a look around, trying to figure out his surroundings, what kind of beasts the surface harbored, and even more importantly, if there were societies of other races around. Even if entering an unknown society could be dangerous for him as a foreign being, Jason had to figure out where he was, and what the entire situation in his surroundings looked like. Knowing the basic information would only take him further ahead which was exactly what he was supposed to do right now! However, to his dismay, Jason saw nothing but barren lands and poisonous lakes, which caused his earlier excitement to die down real quick. While taking a deep breath of the filtered air Solaris'' black flame mask produced, he scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out the direction in which he should fly. However, before that, he let Artemis occupy his mana core by manifesting her white wings, while his physical strength increased further. If a beast were to attack him, Jason wanted to be prepared to fuse with Artemis, and thereby increase his combat prowess as high as possible. Despite Jason''s assumptions, he didn''t really think that there were many beasts on the surface. Even underground he hadn''t come across many beasts, and those he encountered were probably like cockroaches, surviving on everything thrown at them. As such, the number of beasts above the surface was bound to be less owing to the poisonous gas. Thus, those that managed to survive the dangers were likely to be the most annoying for him to face. Looking at the sky, Jason thought of flying at a high altitude, but that was likely to be an even worse choice because he might encounter more beasts there. Sighing deeply, he inserted a large amount of mana into his Emperor Eyes, allowing him to see at a distance spanning several kilometers. It was just clear and open sky all around and there was nothing to obstruct his sight such as the mana enriched soil underground, thus he could see everything down to the finest detail. "There is literally nothing¡­" Scanning his surroundings proved to be a futile effort, and Jason could either waste his time debating with himself or get going. Thus, he decided to let his instincts guide him, which made him choose a direction before he took off. He chose to fly at a low altitude because there were more flying beasts he had sighted than those living on the ground. It was a vast expanse of barren plain stretched across the ground for as far as his eyes could see. In a way, this helped him, because he could see the terrestrial beasts from a safe distance, up in the air without the worry of bumping into them. At least, if one were to ignore beings with a high cultivation base whose eyesight was naturally better than Jason''s. However, if he were to be attacked by such beings, he could only curse his misfortune because it was extremely unlikely for individuals at the peak Prismar stage with good eyesight, or maybe even those at the Ascendion stage, to attack him. Jason was unable to come up with a valid reason for such beings to attack him as long as he didn''t release a tiny trace of his stigma or Celestia aura. Even hunger shouldn''t drive them to attack him because he was most likely just a small snack and not nutritious enough to be worth the effort to hunt him! With that in mind, Jason still decided to maintain a safe distance from beasts at the Prismar stage that had at least a few prismarine crystals in their mana core. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done, because he had been oblivious to the fact that there were two more cultivation paths his Emperor Eyes had yet to investigate and evaluate properly. Jason''s knowledge about the path of strength; Pryr, was much higher than the path of wisdom; Spiral, but that didn''t mean he knew how to differentiate the cultivation base of beasts at the Pryr stage. ''Spiral path beasts have a physical strength that is slightly weaker than common Maest path beasts, while Pryr beasts like Petri are obviously physically affine. However, Spiral path beasts are much more intelligent, and they seem to be able to survive every kind of scenario. From the looks of it, all Spiral cultivators have some sort of psychokinetic ability that increases with their cultivation base, while their vessel is in their mind. As for Pryr beasts, they solely rely on their physical strength, and their vessel seems to be their entire body. As such, it is extremely difficult to determine their strength based on what I can see with my Emperor Eyes. Only the fluctuations of their primordial energy are a rough indicator, while their life force drops are extremely weird to count¡­ The energy fluctuations are something others can perceive too. Furthermore, I cannot be sure whether it''s their entire strength or not because they might be holding back, or concealing some of their primordial energy¡­ To think that my eyes are still lacking¡­'' If Jason hadn''t been acquiring wrong intel for the last month, the path of Spiral cultivated in a similar way to the path of Maest, which was the path of mythic energy, and the one that used mana. The path of Spiral was just that one path focused on strengthening the mind, while the other path strengthened the mana one absorbed, allowing one to wield elements and be versatile. The spiritual force, absorbed by those that cultivated in the path of wisdom would be absorbed, until a certain extent before it would be liquefied too, only to be further compressed into crystals. Thus, Jason, who could see the spirit pool of Spiral beasts, was able to roughly gauge their strength. It was by no means perfect, but definitely much easier than trying to figure out the strength of a Pryr beast according to its drops of life force or primordial energy fluctuations. In the end, the liquefied life force might be a good indicator of a Pryr beast''s strength, but Jason had yet to figure out the ratio of proportion in which the size of a liquefied life force could be related to its strength. ''If one drop of life force is equivalent to 1000 drops of liquefied mana, a Pryr beast with 10 life force drops should be at the peak of the Lique stage...but why are there so many?... Are they not further compressing their life force, or is life force not directly correlated to the cultivation path Pryr with primordial energy as the cultivation energy?'' Jason knew that he required much more information to survive in a world with three different cultivation energies and many more mysteries. However, in the end, he simply decided to avoid all Pryr beasts with more than 10 life force drops because it might be a beast he wouldn''t be able to cope with! Weirdly enough, the unknown should be something that would instill fear, but Jason felt his entire body thrumming in excitement. ''Maybe it was not that bad to have been pulled into the world bridge, and underground for a month...it might as well be beneficial to me!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 611 - Angels&Devils Minutes turned into hours as Jason continued to fly through the sky, but he was not bored at all. He was happy to feel the bright sun rays on his fair skin while looking out for lush green areas where societies were most likely to habituate. This was easier said than done, and Jason saw nothing but the same arid land in the range of several kilometers around him. Nevertheless, he was not bothered by that at all and rather happy because it gave him more time to find a concrete concept to determine a Pryr being''s strength. Jason began to add the cultivation path others cultivated as a prefix because it made everything much easier for him. It sounded weird to him, but when he thought about Pryr beasts, it was evident that their physical strength was their biggest unique selling point. The same applied to the other two cultivation paths, but they were not as important for Jason as the Pryr path. With time passing at a slow pace, he got enough time to think about everything clearly, and it was only later that he understood something important. "The path of primordial energy and its cultivation base are not necessarily correlated to the number of life force drops!" Jason had figured this out when he had seen a Pryr beast with only three life force drops, tearing apart a Maest beast at the Prismar stage on the ground below him. Because he witnessed this, Jason was finally able to figure out that both life force drops and a Pryr being''s cultivation base were not linked to each other. At least, that was what he first thought. ''But if that''s true, why did my physical strength increase after Petri liquefied more drops of life force?'' Jason had witnessed the amplification of his physical strength after Petri had liquefied more life force drops for the first time. As such, he knew that life force drops were able to enhance the strength of beings. This, however, didn''t mean that the life force was connected to the cultivation stage of Petri. ''Maybe the life force drops have an enhancement effect? With enough overflowing energy, Petri might have produced them thinking that it was useful, owing to the life force drops he had already absorbed once!'' Jason thought that it was possible for life force drops to enhance the physique similar to how mana, or spirit drops could do the same. As such, he had to discard his earlier thought of evaluating Pryr beasts according to the number of liquefied drops of life force in them. Even if it was rather annoying, Jason couldn''t simply ignore this fact as it might save his life in the future. ''So that means, I can only gauge the strength of Pryr beasts according to the fluctuations they release¡­at least it is possible for my Emperor Eyes to determine how much primordial energy Pryr beings have stored in their body.'' Knowing how much primordial energy was stored in the body of other beings allowed Jason to determine whether he would have to face unexpected surprises such as a sudden, yet the drastic increase of his opponent''s strength, or be prepared for other things he couldn''t even think of right now. This made Jason feel a little better, but it was not really helpful to make him feel extremely comfortable around Pryr beings. Jason was not sure how much time had passed, but the sun had been replaced by utter darkness, with the gigantic moon he could see up in the air, radiating a bright glow. It looked like dawn was approaching and it was almost time for sunrise. With the first rays of the sun brightening the barren plains, Jason''s eyes widened in joy as he saw a large lush field of verdant grass in the horizon! This made him circulate mana through his body as he exerted the Floating sky technique to further increase his speed. He wanted to reach the verdant grass as quickly as possible. However, before he could even reach its proximity, Jason decreased his pace, making it look like he was gliding just a few meters above the surface. With the Emperor Eyes, he could see several tens of thousand unstable energy fluctuations, separated into two large groups. They were evidently fighting against each other, but that was not what had caused Jason to slow down. Every single being in front of one group was humanoid, and seemed to be cultivating in the path of mythic power; Maest. This was interesting because it told Jason that the other race probably cultivated mana. Under normal circumstances, this would have made him happy, but not now. At first glance, there was only one race fighting the other, but that was not the case! The closer he came, the more details he could see, including the beings that flew through the sky. "There are Angels and Devils fighting each other in the sky?! Just what kind of fairy tale did I enter?!" Jason couldn''t believe his eyes, but even after rubbing them, he could hardly contain himself. There were a total of three races fighting against each other, and two of them were definitely Angels and Devils respectively. At least, if he were to name them solely based on their appearance and the fairy tales his mother had told him when he was young. As a matter of fact, the Angels didn''t look much different than Jason right now because of Artemis'' wings. Only the milky aura around the Angels made them different to him in addition to the faint halo that surrounded their head. As for the Devils, their skin had varying shades of black, purple, dark blue while some even had a mixture of all these colors. But, that was not what made Jason believe that they were the devils belonging to the fairy tales he had heard. Rather, it were the completely crimson-colored eyes in addition to the eerie blackish hue enveloping them that made him believe so. They were utilising various affinities such as poison, darkness, blood, shadow and multiple other affinities that could be labeled to be stereotypical abilities Devils would use in fairy tales. Meanwhile, the Angels he saw were exactly the same, using bright affinities that would make Jason believe that they were good, and Devils were bad. However, Jason had long since decided to ignore stereotypes and prejudices one would normally have against certain beings. It was impossible for anyone to be completely good, or bad, and within everyone, there was an evil and good person at the same time. In the end, some traits were just difficult to perceive! As such, Jason could only observe the battle that seemed to be reaching its climax soon. Even at a distance of more than ten kilometers, he could feel the shockwaves of certain beings fighting each other, carried by the air currents towards him with a rippling force. This made his heart thump wildly, but he managed to calm down a moment later. Through the shockwave, Jason felt as if something deep within him was moving. It were the locks of the Celestia bloodline that were rattling wildly, showing signs of wanting to be unlocked. However, Jason could only ignore it for a moment as he sensed the energies within the shockwaves. ''Wait...weren''t the Angels and Devils cultivating with mana...how come I sense spiritual force and primordial energy from some of them too?!'' Sensing this, Jason, who had calmed down from his earlier shock, couldn''t help but insert even more mana than usual into his Emperor Eyes. Ignoring the high mana consumption, he forced his eyes to work at a rapid pace, only to release a tiny fraction of his Celestia aura and stigma, further enhancing the abilities of the Emperor Eyes. ''All of them are definitely cultivating in the path of Maest...no wait, that''s wrong!...the warriors on the ground don''t have a mana core...did I see wrong..but wait! Do the Angels and Devils have two cultivation paths?!? Is that really possible..?'' Jason couldn''t believe his eyes at first, but the Angels had certainly two places to store their energies. One was a mana core and they also had a spirit sea! Meanwhile, the Devils he sighted in the air had a mana core, which was something he already knew, but they also had primordial energy stored in their body and some of them even had liquefied life force drops!! If that wasn''t enough, more surprises awaited him! Because he had been interested in the Angel and Devil race that fought against each other, he hadn''t even paid any attention to the third race. However, this was the case because Jason was overly familiar with them! "What the hell is going on...those are...humans..or not?! And why are they fighting each other...Just what is wrong with this planet?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 612 - Cultivation Veins Jason was utterly dumbfounded at the sight in front of him. Not only were a few Angels and Devils able to cultivate in two cultivation paths, but there were also beings that looked just like him. The humans, or what he presumed to be humans, were fighting each other under the banner of the respective races he simply called Angels and Devils. However, what caused Jason to squint his eyes in doubt was the fact that the humans were either cultivating with primordial energy or spiritual force. Thus their cultivation paths were that of Pryr and Spiral, and that was exactly how they were separated under the banner of the Angel and Devil race. Those cultivating with primordial energy were following the Devils while the other humans who had awoken the cultivation path of spiritual force were following the Angels. Seeing and processing this information was extremely confusing, and even more so was the fact that both sides were releasing a distinct hue that was strikingly similar to that of the Angels and Devils. ''Is the hue created by some sort of cultivation or martial art technique?'' Jason wondered as he continued to watch the fight from far away. While the Angels and Devils were fighting against each other in the air, the throng of humans was clashing on the ground. Most Spiral humans were working together, using their spiritual force to do all kinds of things to distract their opponents, and humans following the path of primordial energy were relying on their physical strength to fight. The entire battlefield appeared to be much worse than the entire Great Argos war, but Jason''s mind was void of pity for any of them. He was simply analysing the situation while calming down his erratic heart and trying to control the seals on his bloodline that wanted to be unleashed. Being able to see distinct details, Jason was able to perceive that every human had two specific cultivation veins in their body. This was something he could only see with a tremendous amount of mana he consistently supplied to his Emperor Eyes, unleashing details he had never seen before. On Argos, this would be impossible, but Jason was not on the mana scarce planet anymore. Instead, he was on a planet that had all three cultivation energies, in a density and purity he could have only dreamed of on Argos. ''The humans or whatever they are have two cultivation veins, but only one seems to awaken under normal circumstances. That means both the Pryr and Spiral cultivation veins are within a human''s body with only one of them that is activated¡­ This might be the deciding factor to determine which side they will be standing on, otherwise, there would be humans with primordial energy under the banner of the Angels, or am I wrong?!'' Observing the situation was interesting, but at the same time, it cleared his mind of some of his doubts. Jason was cultivating with mana, and thus following the path of Maest which was something no other human was doing, at least, on Manyr. As such, he couldn''t act like he was a human in order to gain easy entry into a foreign society. However, Jason was already thinking of something else he could do, which caused a faint smile to emerge on his face. ''My Celestia aura, despite not having the divine pressure and radiation, should be more than enough to show that I might even be superior to the Angels. So, I might be able to enter the Angels'' society? With Artemis'' wings, it could be even easier!'' Jason tried to formulate a plan while observing the entire battle through the Emperor Eyes that were supplied with the large amount of mana his sub-area was passively absorbing. Everything looked interesting, but the most impressive were the few particular Devils and Angels that cultivated in two cultivation paths at once. Jason was still not sure why he thought that everyone had a mana core when he saw the humans first, but he just told himself that it was an illusion because he was reminded of the human race on Argos. In the end, they were two completely different races because the humans on Argos could only cultivate with mana. Meanwhile, the ones he was looking at were able to cultivate with primordial energy, or spiritual force, depending upon the kind of cultivation vein they activated. That was not everything, and there were several other aspects of the human-like race in front of him that were different from humans on Argos and Manyr such as the appearance. Men on Manyr had a bulkier physique and they looked more refined than men on Argos. At the same time, their demeanor was completely different and it looked like they were fighting with their life on the line without showing any mercy. Yet, at the same time, they seemed to respect their opponents and would rather die while playing a fair game than using petty tricks. This was dumb in Jason''s opinion, but it was not like he would bother about that. As for women, those on Manyr looked much more beautiful, and he could only assume that this was because of the purer energies they were absorbing, contrary to the impure mana on Argos. In the end, Jason was not sure about that, but the Angels were still the most beautiful with their flawless skin and near-perfect facial features. Even he was not sure whether some of them were more beautiful or handsome than he was. All of this was extremely intriguing and piqued his curiosity, but at the same time, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit shocked by the strength everyone was exerting. There was not a single being weaker than him, and this made him be prepared for the worst. Jason had yet to come across a single being at the Mortal stage, and he was either in one of the regions he should rather not be, or his timing was simply unfortunate. He was not sure how long the battle would last, and instead of being dragged into it, Jason decided that it was time to leave, now that he had seen everything important. Being able to perceive the strength of individuals that belonged to an society, made it obvious how careful he had to be upon entering one. A single mistake could lead to his execution because Jason had yet to figure out the culture and mannerisms of the other races. There were several things he didn''t know, and the most confusing was the fact that the human race was being led by two different races, seemingly forced to fight each other because of the cultivation veins they had awakened. Despite that, Jason decided that it would be best to leave now because the entire battlefield seemed to be slowly moving towards him. Thus, he wanted to fly towards his right side in order to make a huge detour. However, it was exactly at that moment, that his Emperor Eyes perceived something with tremendous energy currents charging straight towards him. Jason''s eyes widened, yet, he was unable to determine what exactly the being that was approaching him with a terrific speed was. The only thing Jason could tell was that it was a humanoid being with white wings and a halo around her head. The very signs of the Angels from earlier versus the one he saw charging towards him confused Jason! That was owing to the fact that his Emperor Eyes sighted the existence of primordial energy and the darkness affinity within the body of the being that looked like an angel on the outside. The closer it came, the more details could be determined, and it was only when she was less than a kilometer away from him, that Jason noticed the reason for all of this! "She has three cultivation veins¡­.and all of them have been awoken?!?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 613 - Encounter The Angel, or whatever he was seeing was in fact, a young-looking woman who had awoken all three cultivation veins! Having mastered cultivation with all three energies would normally mean that her cultivation speed had slowed down as she would have to put in thrice the effort, but clearly, that was not the case. Rather, the woman he saw was extremely powerful. Her mana core was filled with nine small prismarine crystals. There were three large rotating crystals and each of them consisted of three of the small prismarine crystals, and one single crystal enveloping the entire inner part of the mana core! This meant that she had reached the peak of the Prismar stage according to her Maest cultivation base. However, that was not everything, and Jason could clearly tell that her strength was by no means superior to all the Angels and Devils he had seen earlier. Even those whose mana core had looked different as if it had been transformed paled in comparison to hers. This was probably what happened once one broke into the Ascendion stage. By breaking into the Ascendion stage, the traits awoken through the soul-awakening such as affinities and abilities were said to merge with the vessel one had, enhancing each other tremendously. Jason found this interesting, but he had no idea how this was supposed to work with several vessels one created if one had awoken more than one cultivation vein. Right now, this was not important because Jason had to protect himself from getting squashed by the pressure released by the golden-haired woman. She looked exactly like an angel to him with her fair skin, flawless facial features, long golden hair floating through the wind, and long, slender legs. Under normal circumstances, Jason would simply ignore others, even if their physical appearance was otherworldly, but somehow with that angel of a woman in front of him, his body seemed to momentarily forget basic coordination. He was hovering on the spot and even forgot to move away as he noticed that the woman was staring at him, his eyes glued to her face. She had long eyelashes and her beautiful eyes that were silver in color caused him to freeze in place. Awestruck, he simply watched as a crimson ring formed around her pupils causing Jason''s eyes to widen. Ever since he had received his father''s help to prevent himself from turning into an Infernal Celestia, he had acquired a faint, almost untraceable crimson-colored ring, outlining his pupils. However, owing to his mostly golden-colored iris that had traces of a silver color, the crimson color got shadowed, which was completely different from the woman he saw. She continued to stare straight into his eyes, causing her to be bewitched the moment her eyes met his. Never in her entire life had she seen eyes like Jason''s because the distinct golden color intertwined with faint silver traces was mesmerizing. Yet, even worse and the reason for her to be bewitched were the emotions that were seemingly radiating from the golden eyes. They didn''t release a single trace of the lustful gazes she always received, let alone the intent to attack her, which was something she had to face almost every day. The eyes of the young, winged being in front of him were just radiating kindness and a little surprise as a faint smile emerged on Jason''s face. Jason was not sure why he smiled, but he found the young woman to be extremely interesting. Words failed to describe her ethereal beauty, and it would be a disgrace to compare her to women on Argos. Her appearance outshined all the other women he''d seen earlier on the battlefield. However, what made Jason the most interested in the woman who had almost brushed past him was the fact that she had multiple repulsive affinities in her body in addition to not one but three awakened cultivation veins. There was more to her than what meets the eye, and Jason had yet to decipher everything that she had cleverly concealed. But from what he could sense and see, she was exactly the same as he, and Wisse were! "A halfling?" He blurted out, unsure whether he was perceiving everything correctly. With the holy, light, darkness, and shadow affinity in her body, Jason was relatively sure of his assumption to be correct. But that didn''t mean it had to be true because there were too many things he had yet to figure out. In the end, Jason could only decide to ignore his assumption for now as he shook his head, breaking the eye contact he and the mysterious young woman had maintained all this while. This freed the young woman of her bewitched state, and she blinked rapidly to get her bearings. Under normal circumstances, she would have killed the being that affected her mind, but that was not what she did right now. Acting against her usual self, Jennifer, the young woman couldn''t help but feel interested in the being, whom she passed by with a terrific speed. While brushing past him, she sensed the faintly released Celestia aura, Jason''s stigma, and the bright golden glow around his eyes. Perceiving all of this, in addition to the earlier sensation, made it impossible to suppress her emotions like usual. Before she knew it, a faint smile escaped her lips, adorning her usually neutral and emotionless face. But she quickly realised this and only a moment later she put on the mask of a stoic, emotionless woman before she shot past Jason, advancing to the battlefield, without another backward glance. Meanwhile, Jason couldn''t help but feel goosebumps erupting all over his skin when he saw the genuine, enchanting smile on the young woman''s face that merely lasted a few seconds. It was as if he had been hit by his own petrification curse, seemingly turning him into a stone statue that levitated in the air. Jason was not sure how much time had passed, but when he regained his senses, he couldn''t help but blurt out. "What the hell just happened?!" Confused about the torrent of emotions that had hit him, Jason turned towards the battlefield, only to see the exact woman he had just faced a moment earlier massacring her way through the battlefield. However, instead of siding with the Angels or Devils, she simply massacred every single being in her way without holding back. This was even more confusing than their earlier encounter that caused various emotions within Jason to emerge, emotions he never knew existed before. He had never felt like that, which made him interested in finding out whether this was because of the uniqueness that radiated from the woman, the fact that she cultivated in three cultivation paths, or just her magnificent appearance. In the end, everything about her made Jason curious, including the question of why she killed both Angels, Devils, and the humans who were brave or stupid enough to come in her way. Not knowing what her plan was, the entire scene unfolding in front of him looked like sheer madness to Jason, who had completely forgotten that he had planned to leave the battlefield. His eyes were fixated on the woman who had the outer appearance of an angel, only that she didn''t release any hue around her. Initially, he assumed that her situation was not problematic, only to realise that she had to face several beings at the Ascendion stage at the same time. This made Jason grow worried, which was something he didn''t expect to feel for someone he had never even talked to before. Suddenly, he noticed something he had failed to see before. Apparently, the young woman had put on a mask before she had entered the battlefield, and Jason hadn''t realised this because he had been mesmerized by her smile. ''Just what is she planning to do?'' Jason wondered, only for his eyes to widen once again as he blurted out. "That''s possible?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 614 - Interest The mask made him wonder what was going on, only to see a new pair of wings sprouting out of the young woman''s back as she released two repulsive affinities in the form of a hue, at once. With a holy, yet sinister hue enveloping the young woman, her entire demeanor changed, making Jason wonder whether the beautiful woman and the one he was seeing right now were the same. While one pair of her wings was pure and milky white, devoid of even the slightest taint caused by another color; the second pair was pitch-black in color, and created a stark contrast to the spotless white. In addition to the hue she radiated, the young woman released all three types of energies she had stored within her body at the same time, in addition to her holy and darkness affinity. Due to this, everything changed in a moment, and the young woman managed to turn the tide in her favor, making her combat prowess skyrocket. Even the beings at the Ascendion stage couldn''t help but retreat a few meters after seeing her transform. At that moment, two swords manifested in the woman''s hands. One of them glowed in a bright white light while the other one radiated an ominous dark aura. Both swords were inserted with the respective transmuted mana that activated several runes, only to adjust their size similar to Byakur. From the looks of it, the young woman could wield and control her weapons much better than Jason could. At least, if one solely looked at the adjustment of the weapons'' size which was something he had not used often enough. It was only a few times that he had adjusted Byakur''s size, which made Jason wonder if he should have used it frequently. He was still at the battlefield instead of flying away as he had initially planned. Somehow, Jason looked intently at the fight that had started kilometers away from his location. The rush of the battle that seemed to sweep through the warriors was contagious. Before he knew it, adrenaline surged through his entire body, despite being a mere bystander and not being the one who was actively fighting. His mind was fully focused on those beings that had awoken at least two cultivation veins. As such, there were only a few Devils and Angels amongst them, including the young woman he had encountered earlier, and a total of three humans. He was still not sure what their race was called, and whether he and the other humans were, in fact, of the same race, or just had a similar appearance. However, what Jason knew was the fact that two young women and one man had awoken both the Pryr and Spiral cultivation vein. Yet, at the same time, they were fighting for one side, only actively cultivating in one path, and Jason''s Emperor Eyes perceived a distinct fear radiating from them. This made their stance clear, showing that the Angel and Devil race had something against humans that could cultivate in both paths. Even if Jason had yet to get to know the three races'' culture, relationship, and much more, it was evident that the cultivation veins of the human race determined their affiliation. ''Did she enter the battlefield because of them?'' A sudden doubt struck him, and he couldn''t help but look more intently at the battlefield. The Angels and Devils at the Prismar stage retreated back from the young woman, who was evidently a halfling of the Devil and the Angel race, clearly showing that they were, by no means, friends. As such, Jason could only conclude that the halfling had no reason not to kill anyone as the Ascendion stage Devils and Angels were trying to do exactly that; kill her. Despite seeing this, the young woman didn''t kill anyone at the Ascendion stage, and only heavily injured those who had awoken the Maest cultivation vein. Through this, Jason was able to determine that beings who had two awakened cultivation veins were not only rare talents belonging to the Devil and Angel race, but that the young woman didn''t want to offend the races by killing their talents. ''So, there are even stronger beings backing their race?...Not like I could have expected that...'' Jason scratched the back of his head, wondering how strong the powerhouses of the Devil and Angel race were. Knowing it might be important for the future because he didn''t want to be restricted, let alone enslaved like last time when years ago, he had caught the Drake clan''s patriarch''s interest. The strong and powerful would always try to get their hands on the talented, but on Manyr, or to be precise with the three races in front of him, this seemed to be a little bit different! Tremendous shockwaves rippled through the surrounding caused due to the young woman who used all of the three cultivation energies at once in addition to her holy and darkness affinity. None of her opponents stood a chance against her might and she got rid of them without a hassle. However, that was only the first step of her plan, and Jason got a premonition that she was up to something. Because of that, he circulated a tremendous amount of mana through his body while exerting the Floating sky movement technique. Flying around the battlefield in a big detour, Jason took more than 10 minutes to reach the thriving verdant plains, but his eyes never left the battlefield. The young woman who had been fighting against humans, Angels, and Devils had sustained shallow injuries, but she was mostly fine. Her only issue was the high energy consumption coupled with the equally high focus she had to steadily maintain in order to release three cultivation energies and control it properly while using two repulsive affinities. Jason was not sure if he could do something like that for more than 10 minutes, but that was not important right now. Rather, he was astonished that the young woman had a firm grasp on all the three humans who had awoken two cultivation veins. They had been visibly trying to conceal that fact, and Jason assumed that only beings like him, with mana eyes, could determine whether someone had awoken one or multiple cultivation veins. Even then, Jason was not sure what kinds of traits allowed one to see the depths of someone else''s body as his Emperor Eyes did. This made him curious about how exactly the young woman had been able to determine that the three humans she was carrying through the air before zooming out of the battlefield had awoken both cultivation veins in their body! ''She could have a similar trait as my Emperor Eyes...or she just got her intel from someone else.'' Smiling dryly, Jason wondered why he was so curious about the mysterious woman, but in the end, he just shook his head, before looking in the direction she had departed. It was exactly the direction she had come from, making him believe that he would have gotten into huge trouble if he had remained there. As such, he could only thank his gut feeling as he turned around, entering the flourishing plains which lifted his mood as he didn''t have to see the boring, barren lands with their pungent smell again! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 615 - Vassal Jason was really interested to find out if it was possible for him to cultivate with multiple energies too. For now, this was impossible because his very first attempt to absorb primordial energy had almost damaged his cultivation vein. But now that the seals on his Celestia bloodline were trembling violently, seemingly trying to unleash something that was locked from him, Jason realised that it was not unlikely for his secondary or tertiary bloodline awakening to transform his cultivation vein too. This was not something he could be sure about, but it wouldn''t make sense for humans to be able to cultivate in several paths at once, only for him, the descendant of a Celestia, to be unable to do the same. However, there was also the possibility that the Celestia race were simply beings unparalleled in the field of Maest and control over mana! In the end, Jason''s knowledge about his heritage was too shallow to satiate his curiosity, but there was nothing he could do to change it right now. What he could be absolutely certain of was, that binding beasts of other cultivation paths to his soul was possible. As such, despite the possibility of not being able to cultivate in the path of Pryr and Spiral, Jason was bound to receive benefits from soulbonds like Petri, who increased his physical strength tremendously. With that thought in mind, Jason realised that it was not the most important to be able to cultivate in other paths, but that he and his soulbonds just had to be the best in their respective field. While that applied the most to his soulbonds, it was slightly different for Jason because of said amplification he received from each of his soulbonds. His overall strength was the accumulated strength of his beasts that was added to his own strength. This was what essentially made the soul-awakening of the human race on Argos so powerful, which paved the path for mankind to become a strong race. Jason was sure of this fact, and only being enslaved, suppressed, or being annihilated before their true potential was reached could probably hinder humans on Argos from becoming powerful. Smiling lightly at the thought of his vast soul world, he entered the depths of the flourishing plains. After entering the plains, Jason encountered an unusually higher number of beasts than before, but none of them attacked him directly. Most of them were content with showing their energy fluctuations the moment he brushed past them, indicating that they would fight for their territory if needed. When he perceived this, Jason couldn''t help but feel amused, thinking that the beasts on Manyr were less aggressive than those on Argos. These beasts mostly focused on their territory, the available resources, and growing stronger. ''The beasts on Manyr are definitely more intelligent than those on Argos...maybe the Overlords are an exception...still, to think that their behavior is just like that of foreign races...it feels odd.'' Even if he was intrigued, Jason''s mind was focused on trying to find a place where he could rest. He had been awake for longer than a month and had initially planned to rest and catch up on some sleep once he saw the signs of the surface. Little did he know that a simple, almost vertical tunnel would lead him directly to the surface. After that, he didn''t feel like sleeping because the surrounding made him feel uncomfortable This had now changed, and Jason decided to look out for a territory of an extremely strong beast that wouldn''t bother about a lowly 2nd Lique stage sleeping in the outskirts. Many weaker beasts slept, ate, and lived in the territory of stronger beasts. On one hand, this was not exactly weird as long as they didn''t seize the cultivation resources of the stronger beast, but on the other hand, Jason wondered if that was even impossible to avoid. ''Maybe the stronger beasts start killing other beasts once the energy currents around it are not dense enough to satisfy it anymore?'' Jason thought that this made sense because the surrounding beasts were also cultivating, and only with enough energy would they progress further. As such, once too many beasts were cultivating in a particular region, the amount of mana available would be less than that without cultivating beasts. In the end, this was also the reason for Jason to decide that it was best to stay on the outskirts. He was not sure how much mana he had absorbed in a short period in comparison to other beasts, but it was definitely not little. Thus, he had to avoid becoming the target of the strongest beast in the territory, which was the easiest by staying at the outskirts, or possibly even at the shared border of another territory. With that, Jason would rather try to make it look like the adjacent territory was absorbing too much mana, influencing the other territory. This was a mind game, but he had to resort to such tactics because his cultivation base was one of the lowest. Even if that thought was frustrating, he had to cope with the new circumstances and the fact that even the Ascendion stage might not be enough to become something better than a leader of a few soldiers. At least, that''s what Jason concluded from the battlefield he had seen before, in addition to the fact that only double cultivation vein awakened beings were special. ''They were probably younger and fighting one of their first few battles against each other?'' Jason assumed while questioning himself if there were more races other than the Devils, Angels, and humans. He didn''t think that this was likely, however, that was only his gut feeling because he had only seen the three races until now. There were no other soldiers fighting alongside members of these three races that would hint at an alliance, or a federation of multiple races. This might as well be wrong, but not something Jason had to be concerned about right now. Rather, he was more interested in the combat prowess of the double cultivation vein awakened beings. While the young woman had looked like a combat veteran despite being young, the others were still not as skilled in releasing two energies at once as she had been. Combining the intel he had acquired, Jason could also roughly predict that beasts at the Ascendion stage looked like they were controlling lands, only to be considered as something similar to a vassal. The strongest beings in the areas should be above the Ascendion stage. Despite that, Jason was not even sure whether the surrounding region was reigned by beasts, or separated into the Devil and Angel race territory. He simply ignored the possibility of humans reigning the lands because they fought under the banner of the other races while revealing their fear. In the end, this was extremely important to know for the future, and even now it could become a deciding factor where he should cultivate and where he shouldn''t. Unfortunately, owing to the fact that he didn''t know the answer, Jason could only follow his instincts while looking for a place with some, but not too less a number of beasts roaming around. Too few beasts meant that the area was likely to be dangerous and too many were an indicator that chaos would break out soon. As such, after flying for a whole day, distancing himself from the battlefield, hopefully preventing anyone from finding him, he finally sighed in relief. It was only when Jason felt safe that he decided to use a field with thousands of large stones protruding out of the ground in order to hide his presence from other beasts. They couldn''t even perceive his aura, stigma, or mana currents because Jason had concealed all of that, to have some peace and sleep soundly. ''Cultivating with a rested mind will be much better!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 616 - Worth Of A Cultivation Technique After spending most of the following day sleeping, Jason had regained his vigor, and he was able to start cultivating with a rested mind. Because of that, he was able to evaluate his situation clearly, which in turn allowed him to determine that he should start learning how to cultivate the Balance of the Universe technique while sitting cross-legged. There were several types of difficulties in front of him, with the harder ones allowing a higher cultivation speed, but Jason thought that the simplest method was already more than enough for him to use. That was mostly because the more difficult cultivation stances demanded an extremely high amount of mana to be utilised at once, and Jason was not sure if his body could hold so much mana for now. He was only at the 2nd Lique stage after all! In the end, starting from the easiest and slowly advancing to the next, more difficult level of the Balance of the Universe cultivation technique was the best he could do. As such, Jason began to practice the technique without seriously cultivating it for now, testing out all kinds of possibilities, restrictions he had and things he had to pay attention to! Meanwhile, Petri, Artemis and Solaris were outside the soul world, with both Petri and Artemis were in their largest form to rest next to Jason. This may be dangerous, but Jason cultivating alone was far riskier. At least his three soulbonds could pay attention to the surroundings while he cultivated after sitting cross-legged. An entire day passed in which Jason familiarised himself with the Balance of the Universe technique''s first level before he finally began to cultivate. With his own mana, he initiated the cultivation process, starting the complex circulation set of his mana, opening his pores while creating a strong suction force. Only a moment later, Jason absorbed faint streams of mana from his surroundings that gradually increased. Using the absorbed mana to continue with the mana circulation, he created an endless cycle of absorbing mana, circulating it through his body before it was annexed. The annexed mana that was stored inside his mana core was slowly liquefied, without affecting his mana absorption. This was the most important part of the cultivation technique he used. Not only could he absorb huge streams of mana much more than what he could without a cultivation technique, but it was also possible to liquefy his mana at the same time. Jason couldn''t do that without the cultivation technique earlier because he hadn''t learned how this was possible before. Knowing it now was nice, but it took him quite a while before becoming proficient with the Balance of the Universe''s technique! The first level was already extremely difficult and complex despite being the simplest, but that only told Jason that he had a long way ahead of him before he could reach the peak. By releasing his stigma and the Celestia aura without holding back, Jason could accelerate the entire cultivation process, only for his soulbonds'' stigma to glow brightly next to his. Jason had already noticed it a few times, but only now could he clearly distinguish between them. With several stigma that emitted the same glow, Jason and his soulbonds'' could accelerate their energy circulation speed, energy output, and even mastery over their respective cultivation energy! This was great, and something extremely helpful as it allowed him to liquefy 10 drops of mana every day, for the first few days. After the 10th day of cultivating, he was able to almost double this amount because his proficiency with the cultivation had increased drastically, and after a total of 2 months Jason reached the highest proficiency of the first level. Through this, he could liquefy 25 drops of mana every single day! That was under the condition that he was in a fully focused state and cultivated for the entire day, which was something he was now able to do. In the beginning, his mind had been preoccupied with the possibility of him being attacked by other beasts, but that didn''t happen even once. He found it to be weird, considering that his Celestia aura should pique the curiosity of some beasts. However, even curious beasts were something he hadn''t sensed a lot. Not many beasts were roaming around freely through the entire field of stones; a fact that had made him feel both curious and slightly worried. Fortunately, there were at least a handful of beasts, and by looking at their cultivation base, affinities, and other traits, Jason assumed that they were extremely strong, and rare to spot. He had yet to come across beasts with double awakened cultivation veins, but hopefully, one of them could be found at the stone field. After spending some time scouting for such beasts, he spotted a small fox that had awoken the path of Maest and Spiral. It was as sly as one expected from the folklore he had been told by his mother. Nevertheless, the fox didn''t attack him, and Jason even assumed that it was the reason for the small number of beasts around the area. This was advantageous as it allowed him to cultivate properly, without being interrupted for a total of four months. He would have loved to cultivate longer, but something interrupted him, making it impossible for Jason to continue with what he had planned. After four months of tireless cultivation, he had liquefied a total of around 3500 mana drops. This increased his strength tremendously as each drop required three times the amount of mana a normal liquefied mana drop would require! That alone was already enough to elevate his strength to the peak of the 10th Lique stage, but that was not everything that had happened. While he cultivated tirelessly, Artemis, Petri, and Solaris increased their strength too. However, as they couldn''t cultivate in a fully focused state they were unable to reach a state similar to Jason. Nevertheless, it was still enough for Artemis to liquefy a total of 720 mana drops in four months, while Petri was able to cultivate at an extremely fast pace too! He had reached the 6th Lique stage with primordial energy, and thus was Jason''s second strongest soulbond. As for his strongest soulbond, it was Solaris, with strength that none of his other soulbonds could even come close to. During the four months, everyone had cultivated, Solaris had enough time to compress its first solidified prismarine crystal, allowing it to reach the Prismar stage! As such, Solaris had officially broken into the Prismar stage, increasing its flame''s lethality several times! There was a huge gap between beings at the Prismar stage and those at the Lique stage that led to the corresponding difference in one''s combat prowess increasing several times over. In the past, Jason''s abyssal effect and other means to forcefully put a human at the Prismar stage to sleep had only been possible because said powerhouse had put his guard down. Additionally, the powerhouse had solidified prismarine crystals that had been crudely manifested, preventing an efficient enhancement and future cultivation progress. As such, despite having seemingly defeated someone at the Prismar stage, he was only a human, who hadn''t cultivated with cultivation manuals, didn''t practice any body refining technique, let alone learn a Terra martial art technique! Because of that, even his combat prowess of around 15,000 drops of liquefied mana that was in fact one and a half solidified prismarine crystal didn''t even graze the combat prowess of someone at the 1st threshold of the Prismar stage, with one solidified prismarine crystal! Jason was aware of this, but there was no need for him to be worried because brute force was not everything he had! There was still Solaris, his two other soulbonds with which he could form a fusion, his Emperor Eyes, and his Celestia bloodline! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 617 - Humans Jason didn''t have much to do, and he had planned to cultivate until his combat prowess alone would be enough to overwhelm a beast at the 1st threshold of the Prismar stage. Unfortunately, he had been interrupted after almost four months of peaceful cultivation. Artemis warned him about the appearance of humans who had entered the stone field area. This was interesting because Jason didn''t expect a human city to be nearby. Because of that, he had decided to stop cultivating while his three soulbonds returned to the soul world that had grown gradually with his cultivation progress. Jason hadn''t even noticed it, but the number of soul crystals he had created had almost reached 50 which was much more than he required for now. According to other human powerhouses, a beast with a single solidified prismarine crystal required around 11 soul crystals, meaning that a beast at the peak of the first threshold of the Prismar stage required roughly 100 soul crystals. This had made Jason wonder how exactly the future progress with his soul world was going to be. It was not unlikely for him to require thousands of soul crystals once his soulbond reached the peak of the Prismar stage. Hence, Jason couldn''t help but feel that the Ascendion stage would bring forth huge changes. This was pure speculation as it was unlikely for him to require millions of soul crystals to make a beast reach the Ascendion stage. His soul-awakened soul world would merge with his vessel that was in fact his mana core. As such, many changes would happen at that time, and Jason was curious to know what exactly would change. Unfortunately, it would still require some time before he would reach the Ascendion stage, let alone the Prismar stage. Taking his current situation into account, it would take him nine months until he would reach the peak of the Lique stage with a total of 10,000 liquefied mana drops. This duration was by no means long and extremely short, but it required him to be fully focused, cultivate while being seated at a place, and fully unleash his Celestia aura in addition to the stigma. Because it was unlikely that he could stay unnoticed for nine more months, Jason estimated that he would enter the Prismar stage at the age of 20 or 21. Right now he was still 18 and was only two months away from turning 19 even if he felt much older after the numerous events and incidents he had already witnessed and overcome. The short trip down the memory lane made him smile lightly, thinking that he was quite fast to cultivate, despite his late start and the mana scarce planet he had been raised on. On average, even members of grand races were 35 years old before they solidified their first prismarine crystal. This may include the untalented, but also exceptional prodigies who were able to attain the feat of solidifying their first prismarine crystal at the age of 14. To Jason, the age of 14 was the time he had been at the Mortal stage, fighting against weak beasts that had almost killed him, but that didn''t matter. What mattered was that the tides had changed, and even after a late start, he could take over everyone. Nobody would care about his age once he defeated them, and it was only important for him to pay attention to those stronger as well as the being with connections or traits he couldn''t evaluate yet. Thinking about prodigies, and traits he had yet to learn the importance of, Jason''s mind was subconsciously drawn to the young woman who had been at the peak of the three cultivation paths she had awoken. This was what one could call the cream of the crop, and Jason wondered how old she was, and if it was possible to cultivate with three repulsive cultivation energies at the same time. However, before he could continue with his train of thoughts, he was distracted by Artemis who lectured him about paying attention to the surroundings. There were humans and Jason had told them to enter the soul world to be careful, only to stay in the open and do nothing but think about things that were useless for now? Artemis found this callous attitude of his to be annoying and reprimanded him, until Jason apologised to her, several times, calming the little owl down. Sometimes Artemis was extremely bossy, like a little child, only to turn serious, cold, merciless, and so on if required. She could easily adjust her mindset which was interesting but also dangerous for those who dared annoy her! Now he grew vigilant and used his Emperor Eyes in order to scan through the surrounding area while his mana fluctuations, Celestia aura, and stigma had been retracted. Only the bare amount of mana fluctuations were released, supplying his Emperor Eyes with the necessary mana. It didn''t take him long before he saw a small group of humans, and it only took him a moment to figure out which banner they belonged to. They were cultivating in the path of Spiral, and had a faint white hue that intertwined with their spiritual force. This was probably caused by their cultivation technique, making Jason happy. He was glad to encounter humans under the banner of the Angel race first. It was not because Angels were deemed as good, and Devils as bad, but rather because his chances to enter a settlement of the Angel race should be much higher. He could manifest Artemis'' wings and had the aura that should even be superior to the Angels themselves. His bloodline was that of the Celestia race after all! As such, with a faint smile, Jason decided to observe the group of humans, for the time being, waiting for an opportunity to either approach them or figure out which direction they were headed to. Knowing the direction from which they came from was already good, and allowed him to figure out the likely direction of the Angel settlement. However, they could also be returning from a mission or something like that. Owing to that, he had to know where they were heading as it might be the path he had to take! Scanning their cultivation base was not exactly difficult, but it caused Jason to realise that his own cultivation stage was still too shallow. Sighing deeply, he peeked from behind one of the stones, trying to see the humans, and realised that they were not much older than him. Even if cultivating prolonged one''s lifespan, Jason was good at guessing other beings'' age. He did not know if it was something his Emperor Eyes caused, or if they were able to see something his mind processed, giving him information he didn''t even realise. Nevertheless, he had figured that the humans in front of him were probably youngsters at the age of 30, or younger. In the end, they still belonged to the younger generation which was below the age of 50 according to the Olympus federation''s standards, with one older human he presumed to be a teacher or something similar, but Jason couldn''t be sure whether the same standard applied to beings on Manyr too, or not. The young ones had solidified two or more prismarine crystals while the older human was at the peak of the Prismar stage. Despite not knowing what exactly they were doing, Jason figured that it was unlikely to be an escort mission, and more probably a training for the younger youths. The group of humans was walking around without being too vigilant and it was almost as if they didn''t care about possible attacks of beings at the Ascendion stage. However, that was not important as the more interesting factor was that the double cultivation vein awakened fox seemed to be the group''s final goal. This was something Jason figured out as he saw the fox that was at the first threshold of the Prismar stage, facing them head-on, ignoring the existence of the peak Prismar powerhouse completely. Jason found this to be a stupid move but none of them seemed to mind that the fox attacked the human group as if it was at an advantage. ''Did they form an agreement before attacking? Just why is the fox so sure that the human powerhouse won''t attack?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 618 - Training Jason was dumbfounded while looking at the fox that had simply decided to attack the group of humans, without bothering to pay attention to the powerhouse at the peak of the Prismar stage. The man didn''t even budge, and it looked like he was just there to protect the young humans that were probably trying to defeat the powerful fox. In some way, it even looked like the young group of six humans were familiar with the fox that had a wind and fire affinity seed in his mana core. At the same time, it was able to use psychokinesis and some sort of illusion with which it was creating replicas of itself. This was possible by using spiritual force and Jason found it extremely interesting because his knowledge about the Spiral cultivation path was shallow. He didn''t know what perks this cultivation path had, and was glad to be able to figure out more right now. The six younger humans were cultivating in the same path, and Jason observed them intently. While unsheathing their weapons, they circulated spiritual force through their body and inserting it into their respective weapons, thereby enhancing them in a way similar to mana. After that, the group of humans charged at the fox whose fur had distinct green streaks intertwined through the fiery red color in stark contrast. It was only one meter tall, but it would be utterly foolish to assume that its small build meant that it was harmless. While the small group of humans charged at it, the fox used its foxfire to conjure several fireballs which it threw towards the group, only to enveloped its body with the wind affinity. A moment later, a strong gust of wind manifested around the fox, further accelerating its speed that was already much higher than that of the humans. Suddenly, the six humans were utilising the technique which Jason had already seen a few months earlier, in the battlefield of the Devils and Angels. As such by using the particular technique, a white hue enveloped them, giving him the chance to evaluate its strength for the first time. Last time, he had been too far away, and only now could he properly look at the hue. While gazing intently, Jason noticed that it was a weaker version of a normal aura. As a human, he didn''t really have an aura, and the reason for that was probably that he had yet to comprehend any. In the end, his Celestia aura was naturally created when he unsealed his bloodline for the first time, undergoing the primal awakening. Because of that, he never had any problems with comprehending an aura, but Jason also never got to know how great his aura was. That was also the reason he wanted to perceive the aura of others, only to figure out that the white hue that radiated from the young men and women was a basic or unrefined version of an aura. Nevertheless, it was interesting to figure out that a technique allowing one to comprehend how to manifest a hue existed. A requirement for this was probably the cultivation path one cultivated in or something else Jason had yet to figure out. However, what caused Jason''s interest to increase exponentially were the benefits of the white hue. Not only did the hue allow the young humans to increase their energy circulation speed, but it also reinforced their body to a certain extent, making them less prone to attacks on their mind. Jason''s aura worked similarly, yet, was a completely different league as it protected him from the attacks of others too. Its protection was only to a minuscule degree, but it was one reason for him to be still alive. Furthermore, the Celestia aura made others believe he was friendly and approachable more than it should be in case of their first encounter. It was weird, and just a fraction of what his naturally generated aura could do. Even if that was the case, Jason had received his aura by a stroke of luck, and it was not comprehended or taught in a manual, which he would have loved to read. Jason even assumed that his aura could be strengthened as long as his comprehension allowed him to realise what exactly the aura was and how to improve it. There might as well be several stages of an aura, with the hue being the first one. However, this could also be wrong, thus Jason decided to watch the battle first before anything else. While he had been deep in thoughts, the fight of the fox and the six humans had become more intense. The mana around the seven beings was becoming unstable as they used up much more than Jason could even store. By employing the ability of his Emperor Eyes to the highest degree that he was able to maintain for a few minutes, he observed everything without many difficulties. While observing the battle that was evidently not a life-and-death fight, Jason was becoming more interested in the fox than the humans with their hues, and complex utilisation of their spiritual force. Neither the fox nor the humans put their utmost efforts or fought desperately to survive, giving him the reason to think that the fox and humans were familiar with each other and not arch-enemies that were hellbent to kill each other. That was not necessarily important but Jason was disappointed because he had hoped to see something magnificent if everyone were to fight with their life on the line. Nevertheless, the complex utilisation of spiritual force was completely different than how mana was utilised. In Jason''s opinion, mana was relatively simple to use. Circulating it through his body enhanced him from the inside, and enveloping himself with it strengthened his defenses. It was only becoming more difficult with affinities one could utilise because they were versatile with countless ways to be utilised. However, even then, most were using their affinities to the bare minimum which was only obvious. The less taxing it was to use an affinity, the more often one could use it. Other than that, Jason also knew that most humans on Argos would rather use multiple affinities, each for their respective quality instead of altering one affinity in order to fit into the task another affinity was much better at. This was caused by the comfort a soul world gave, and the exact thing Jason didn''t want to happen. Since he had received an affinity, Jason liked to test his affinities, which was the reason for him to create the ice mist, the poisonous mist, blazing icicles, and so on. In the end, they had been extremely useful in connection with his Emperor Eyes, but by observing the humans in front of him, he found that his mind was still working at a basic level. ''They''re refining their mind as a way to cultivate, which allows them to use their spiritual force in a much more complex way. This, in turn, makes them stronger...that''s interesting!'' Intrigued by the humans, and the fox that were using their spiritual force to create illusions, attack with psychokinesis, and other means, Jason didn''t even care about the fact that they were fighting as if this was a training course! ''If I could refine my brain like them, would I be able to use my affinities in a similarly complex way?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 619 - Found All three cultivation paths Jason got to know over the recent years were interesting, with each having its own distinct advantage. This was also the reason why Jason wanted to practice all of them at once, like the young woman, who was a halfling, could do. If that was not possible, he wanted to look for a Spiral beast as his next soulbond. Even if the memory of Scorpio''s death was still painful, Jason didn''t think that the pain would ever vanish. His body was ready to cope with the burden of another soulbond, and Jason felt that it was time for him to increase his strength by taking in another soulbond. Thus, he decided that it was best for him to look out for a new soulbond while adventuring through Manyr, a world Jason had yet to truly understand. The entire training battle between the fox and the human group took a few hours, which Jason didn''t expect. However, after the fight had ended, Jason squinted his eyes because the human powerhouses emerged in front of the fox before one of them took out some fruits, a mountain of spirit stones that were equivalent to mana stones at the Prismar stage, mana stones, and some material he had no idea about. Seeing this, he felt confused, and couldn''t help but feel as if the fox had become a paid coach to the young humans and that the humans had given it a small offering. This was extremely weird because the benefits of receiving coaching lessons by the double awakened fox shouldn''t be that much better than the powerhouse''s teachings, according to Jason. The only plausible reason Jason could tell for the humans to do so was the fact that the fox had double awakened cultivation veins, which made it possible for the young men and women to realise how strong someone with two awakened cultivation veins was. It was important to know the difference between having a single awakened cultivation vein and a double awakening. Jason had already noticed the vast difference of having a double, or even triple awakening because he had seen the Angel and Devil race''s prodigies fighting against each other. There was also the mysterious young woman he had seen, who clearly showed that the difference of a cultivation stage was nothing to her. Because of that, Jason had decided to stay lowkey for the time being and to nurture himself until he would reach a suitable cultivation base so as to roam through the area freely without feeling like a thief, who had to be careful of every single step he took. Unfortunately, his plan was shattered to smithereens before he could even start with it as he heard someone''s voice resounding through the stone field. "Little brat, I already noticed you earlier. Why are you observing my students'' fight? Come out!" It was the old man who spoke in the universal language, and Jason knew that he was talking about him. Because of that, he could only curse inwardly thinking that it was useless to hide and hope for a miracle to happen. As such, he decided that it would be the best solution to face the situation head-on. Emerging from behind the large stone he was hiding, Jason chose to make the best out of his circumstances. He manifested Artemis'' wings on his back before he released his Celestia aura. After that, Jason simply jumped, catapulting him several meters into the air before adjusting his wings. Gliding towards the group of humans and the fox, who looked at Jason as if he was an old acquaintance and an overly familiar face, Jason could only suppress a sigh. Landing a few meters in front of the group gently, he smiled as if he hadn''t been observing them for the past several hours. Wanting to strike a conversation, he began to speak in the universal language. "I''m sorry for the inconvenience. I thought the occurring battle would be interesting to look at. If it was rude of me to watch the battle, I''d like to apologise!" Jason had chosen to talk politely so as to prevent the possibility of irking the humans, or even the fox further. The fox was only looking at him from a safe distance as it diverted its attention to the mountains of equipment. Using spiritual force and mana at once, the fox''s next move caused Jason''s eyes to bulge because everything enveloped by the mixture of two energies suddenly disappeared. With the help of his Emperor Eyes, Jason was able to ''see'' more than anyone else, which made it possible for him to witness that the fox had created a small space within its mind to compress items and store them away. It was as if it had created a small storage space in its body, without the need of a spatial affinity or anything like that. Jason was not sure how difficult it was, but for a beast to be able to do something complex like that meant that the fox had to be extremely intelligent. The human powerhouse was able to see Jason''s reaction, which gave him a hint about the being''s origin, or rather what he was unlikely to be. However, at the same time, the teacher couldn''t help but feel odd. He had been unsure of the young being who looked like one of his own, but at the same time, had several differences that made no sense to him. Puzzled by this, he decided to inquire, "You are definitely not a Devir, someone of our race...or an Aeus, am I right?" He asked Jason straightforwardly, without caring about the fact that Jason''s aura was that of a being similar to an Angel like his wings. Other than that, there was an even and golden-colored stigma above his right eye, while his mana fluctuations were much stronger than what the high cultivation base indicated. Under normal circumstances, this would be more than enough for the human powerhouse to be forced to show his respect to the young being, but he had only a mana core, without another cultivation energy. Suffice to say, Jason thoroughly confused the man at the peak of the Prismar stage who followed his instincts rather than needlessly showing respect to someone else. Meanwhile, Jason could barely control his facial expression as he heard the name Aeus, realising that it was the race he formerly referred to as Aeus, while Devir was likely to be the Devil race he had in mind before. At the same time, he was glad that the human was speaking in the universal language. This told him that it was not necessary for him to learn a new language. Instead of answering the man''s question honestly, he pondered about it for a moment, trying to understand what exactly the powerhouse was trying to figure out. Looking straight into the middle-aged man''s eyes, Jason didn''t back off as his golden eyes gleamed brightly. He didn''t fear being attacked by any of the beings around him because the particular hue he could see through his Emperor Eyes showed that they didn''t have any intention of hurting him. Rather, Jason saw that curiosity was reflecting from them according to their hues. The hue his Emperor Eyes saw, and the one actively released were slightly different, and easy to differentiate, allowing Jason to know certain things he had to be aware of. As such, he also noticed the young men and women''s stare lingering on him, or to be precise, on the fact that he was cultivating in the path of Maest! After Jason had made up his mind, he was ready to answer the middle-aged man''s question. Thus, he looked at him seriously, without the need to seriously try to hide, who or what he was. "I''m not an Aeus, and I doubt that my origin is the same as your race''s as well. But, to be honest, I''m a little bit special, and the race I come from looks similar to yours, and is called ''human''!" When Jason finished speaking, he noticed the entire atmosphere change around him as the middle-aged man suddenly asked. "You said humans? Are you sure about that name? You don''t come from Karna, do you?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 620 - Primal Human "You said humans? Are you sure about that name? You don''t come from Karna, do you?" Jason was confused to hear these questions. This was only obvious because the human at the peak of the Prismar stage seemed to be confused, shocked, and at the same time interested in what Jason had said earlier. "I''m not from Karna¡­ and neither do I know anything about this place or planet! We call ourselves humans on the planet I come from, but I don''t know where the name comes from¡­." The earlier excitement of the middle-aged man died down after hearing Jason''s words. As such, he was able to stay level-headed as he spoke. "Hm...that''s a shame. Either way, my name is Alf Nas, just call me Nas. Those little brats behind me are my students, and the fox¡­.well it''s a Di Skalyr Fox¡­" Jason just smiled before he introduced himself. After that, the other students introduced themselves one by one. Even though his mana core rank clearly showed that he was at a much lower cultivation base than the others, they seemed to be kind to him. This was nice to see, and much better than he could have hoped for. ''Did I worry too much about unfounded issues?'' Jason wondered before he retracted Artemis'' wings. His curiosity about the place called Karna was piqued, which made him want to know more about it. As such, he asked straightforwardly. "If it''s not too much to ask for as a stranger, what exactly is this place called Karna, and what is so special about my race calling themselves humans? Aren''t you all humans too, or are we all a different race?" With the multitude of questions, everyone eyed Jason weirdly for a moment, thinking that these were questions everyone should know the answer to. Meanwhile, the Di Skalyr Fox simply turned around and left. Suddenly, Nan, the oldest of the students, couldn''t help but blurt out. "How come you don''t know about the origin of humans, if you call yourself one? That''s weird¡­" The others had the same question in mind, but they had refrained from voicing their opinion for the fear of coming across as rude. However, Jason didn''t mind the question and pondered about it for a moment before answering. "Our planet is still in the infant phase and had awoken its mana heart just a little bit over 300 years ago. Because of that, our knowledge is still relatively shallow, let alone the average of our cultivation rank and so on¡­" Sighing deeply, Jason felt depressed while comparing the resources on Manyr with those on Argos. Yet, only a moment later, Nas, who was curious about the existence of a human-like race that cultivated in the cultivation path of Maest, asked, "If your planet is only at the infant phase, you should be considered to be one of their strongest prodigies, or am I wrong? You should be in your 20s, but your mana core has already reached the mid of the 4th Lique stage. That''s almost comparable to the youths that were raised on Manyr! From your mana fluctuations, I can tell that your combat prowess should be much higher than that as well! That''s not bad at all!" While asking a question with an obvious answer, Alf Nas observed Jason''s body language, trying to figure out if there were any signs of hostility displayed by the young man. Except for the bare minimum movements Jason did, showing how great his control over his body was, Alf Nas didn''t detect anything. As such, he calmed down, thinking that the young man in front of him was probably not dangerous to them. Despite that, he stayed vigilant because body language was not everything that counted when encountering a stranger. Mishaps were likely to occur when meeting a trespasser and being responsible for his students'' safety, he couldn''t allow anyone to endanger them! Jason knew that Nas didn''t want to receive an answer because it was obvious what the answer to the question was. As such, he repeated his question about Karna and the human race that seemed to be special. After Alf Nas had observed Jason enough, he decided that he could answer the young man''s question. Jason was extremely interesting, and the fact that he called his race human, while having wings he could retract, a stigma and an aura that radiated more holiness than the Aeus he encountered, fueled his curiosity further, increasing it exponentially. "According to the ancestry tomes, most human-like races have evolved from the so-called Primal humans. They''re said to be among the first intelligent life forms in the Universe, but that is something nobody was ever able to substantiate! The primal humans had been exposed to the first tidal waves of the raw energies we are now using to cultivate our strength. Adjusting and evolving through the torment energies, the primal humans that had been living on the planet Karna slowly transformed, turning into the first beings of new races. Over eons, many races were created through this phenomenon, and only a few particular individuals retained their old looks as Primal humans. For example, the majority of your appearance resembles that of a human, if we were to leave out your stigma, golden eyes, and the wings on your back. We are the same, and most of us call ourselves Hyuman, or Manyrs, simply after the name of the planet. This method of nomenclature is what most human-like races with a close relation to the old Primal human race follow. Your race might do the same in the future after they acquire the necessary knowledge to know that they''re not Primal humans and that their race''s name could be misleading!" Jason just nodded his head, trying to make sense of what Alf Nas had just said. ''So, the Primal humans can be said to be the origin of many races that look like humans¡­.is that why there are so many human-like races, even on Argos? Just how much time must have passed to create countless races through evolution?!?'' Somehow, it made sense to adapt by adjusting to the environment and external pressure, but not enough to create billions of races¡­ ''Maybe from those that had changed, they continued to evolve, turning into beings further away from their origin?'' "So...simply put, all human-like races could...hypothetically call themselves humans?" He wanted to make sure that his assumption was correct and thus asked straightforwardly. "No, only your race, the Manyrs and others that have the same appearance and possibly, also the same genetic pool as the old primal humans, can call themselves ''Humans''. This is mostly because the ancestry tomes say that you should only call those beings as humans that can procreate with each other! However, even that is a little bit too open-minded in my opinion because Aeus and Devir can also procreate with each other, and nobody would dare to put them under one umbrella!!" Jason nodded his head once again, his eyes gleaming lightly as he thought about the young woman he had encountered four months earlier. At the same time, the thought of his father flashed through his mind, making him wonder whether the Celestia race was also some sort of human race that had evolved from the Primal human race. This seemed unlikely, and Jason could only take the last sentence said by Nas as an answer. ''I cannot put everything under an umbrella¡­what kind of stupid saying is that?!?'' Shaking his head, Jason looked at the group of Manyrs as he wondered. ''Just how many human races are out in the universe? Have all of them evolved, turning into other races, or have they retained their appearance?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 621 - Neutral City A distinct glow in Jason''s eyes was proof enough of his interest in the topic of the human race. This was something most Manyrs and even other races were not really interested in. Others would mostly use their eyes to determine the race of those they were seeing, which meant that Jason could be called a Manyrs as long as he retracted his wings and aura. A stigma was still something everyone could create artificially, but that didn''t seem to be the case with Jason at all. As such, Alf Nas decided to ignore his doubts about the young man as he asked. "Brat, do you want to come with us? We are going back to Lanro. It is one of the closest cities nearby, just a month''s travel away from here!" Hearing this, Jason''s eyes widened as he blurted out. "One month? So long¡­but why were the Devir, Aeus, and Manyrs under their banner fighting so far away from the city then¡­.?!" He didn''t even think while saying everything that was on his mind, knowing that there was nothing special he exposed. Deep in thought, he didn''t even realize that one of the other young men had answered his doubt. "We are currently in a warzone between the Devir and Aeus territory. Most Manyrs reside in this territory, which is the major reason for the Aeus and Devir to invade it. In the end, they''re fighting each other because they want to claim the territory to gain more benefits over the other! As you might have seen, the Aeus and Devir are¡­ not exactly on good terms, so there are quite a few difficulties, and even more so because we, Manyrs, have the suitable cultivation veins for becoming a follower of Devir and Aeus alike¡­ Maybe, you can already figure out the biggest problem here." The young man, who had been the quietest before, had just given him a lengthy explanation, which caused Jason to smile oddly, only to carefully think about his words. ''If the Aeus and Devir want to reap more benefits for themselves, they''re probably targeting the Manyrs with their respective awoken cultivation vein of the Spiral or Pryr path. That should also mean that the Aeus would have to decimate those that awaken the Pryr cultivation path, preventing them from turning against them, while the Devir is probably doing the same, only the other way around¡­ But, would they be cruel enough to really do that?'' Jason was confused because he doubted that his assumption made sense, but looking at the Manyrs, their frustrated expression clearly showed that they were not fully supportive of what the two races were doing. ''Doesn''t that also mean that the Manyrs are much weaker than the Aeus and Devir?!'' He felt as if everything was becoming more troublesome than he had expected, and his earlier relief dispersed. At that moment, his eyes fell on Nan who appeared nervous. She forced a smile on her face as she remarked, "If you ever come across the name Karna, or Earth, you might be able to figure out more about the ancestry of the main human race!" She interrupted everyone''s train of thoughts, and Jason just smiled lightly, nodding his head before changing the topic once again. "I will remember that. Nas, I will gladly travel with you, but I hope that this won''t create any problems for you or the others. If I interpreted the faint holy hue earlier correctly, you guys are following the Aeus, and my aura might attract envy." There was no need to make trouble for others, even less for Alf Nas and his students who were much nicer than he could have thought. As such, he wanted to ask for a rough direction to find his way to Lanro, otherwise, he might waste time wandering while searching for the city. However, contrary to Jason''s expectations, Alf Nas shook his head as he explained, "The situation between the Aeus and Devir is quite complex, but to put it simply, Lanro is a neutral city neither we nor the Devir and the Aeus are in control of. The Devir and Aeus are not fighting against each other because the city lord of Lanro is someone, they cannot dare offend. Because of that, they only recruit Manyrs that accept them voluntarily by promising the most prodigious talents in exchange for more resources. That is also why we accepted the Aeus race as our leader, otherwise, we wouldn''t have been able to get our hands on the first volume of the Shanira aura, which is probably the hue you were talking about." Jason found everything extremely interesting, only to hear envy in Alf Nas''s voice as he continued, "You are quite lucky because there are not many existences the Devir and Aeus are not supposed to kill, and the City lord, and her disciple are two of them. Maybe you will even attract their interest because of your aura, cultivation talent, or maybe only because of your appearance and eyes!" Not sure what exactly Nas meant, Jason wondered who the City lord and disciple, who he was talking about, were. ''Could it be the young female halfling?..Probably not, right? The Aeus and Devir would probably try to exterminate every possible threat before it could become too dangerous, and that girl had three awakened cultivation veins¡­'' Shaking his head, Jason realised that it shouldn''t matter too much to him whether the young woman was persecuted, or whatever would happen to her. As such, taking a deep breath he chose to travel with the others. There were many things Jason wanted to figure out, and amongst the most important was the relationship between the Devir and Aeus race, in addition to the exact situation in which the human race on Manyr was. He didn''t bother whether they called themselves Manyrs or humans because it was essentially the same. More important was knowing whether he would have problems in Lanro or not, owing to the fact that he had a stigma, a unique aura, and a mana core, which was by far the thing that could create the most issues. Cultivating in the path of Maest while having a high mana aptitude meant that he should be interesting to both Aeus and Devir. There were so many ways it could go wrong that even the slightest mistake would land him in hot water, attracting the wrath of either race. In addition to them, there were the Manyrs and the unknown City lord, who seemed to be a female, and her disciple whose gender was unknown for now. On one hand, he was relieved to know that Lanro was a neutral city, but that was also what made Jason believe that his own situation could become quite tricky. Nevertheless, he smiled, ignoring his worries as he decided to cultivate throughout the month they would travel! ''Even if I cannot reach the Prismar stage, I can at least increase my combat experience, combat prowess, knowledge, and cultivation stage by traveling with the others.'' Jason hoped that the others would spar with him from time to time because it would allow him to increase his knowledge about the Spiral path while honing his skills. With that in mind, Jason and the others talked about all kinds of things in order to get to know each other as their short journey towards Lanro began. Chapter 622 - Specta Contrary to Alf Nas'' statement, their journey took almost two months before they had reached Lanro. This was mainly because Jason and his students had spent most of their time sparring with each other, with a result that was more shocking than initially expected. By letting Petri or Artemis enter his mana core, Jason''s strength increased drastically, allowing him to make use of his ice affinity, and mana eyes to defeat his opponents. It was not difficult for others to determine that his eyes were a special trait, but that was something nobody really bothered about. Apparently, special traits were not as exotic and super rare as they had been on Argos, which was interesting to know. They were still rare, and it was only mana eyes, or other unique traits that could be said to be extraordinarily rare. Despite that, there were also races with unique eyes, which could be the race Jason hailed from. As such, nobody asked him about his Emperor Eyes, let alone his soulbonds as he never showed them, to begin with. In the end, Jason refrained from exposing too many of his abilities. He gave his new comrades the bare minimum amount of trust, but Jason had learned that being overly trustworthy from the beginning might be the wrong way to approach a balanced partnership. Without revealing his soulbonds, he let them enter his body to enhance his physical strength or mana core size, while only his ice affinity was revealed to the others. There was something Jason wanted to test out, and the others had already seen Artemis'' wings when he had approached them. Because of that, there was no need for him to hide certain things about Artemis, thus he could experiment with the fusion process right away. Controlling this procedure was extremely difficult, and Jason wanted to see whether it was possible to only advance his ice affinity by merging Artemis'' ice affinity''s proficiency with his. But, it seemed to be harder than expected. Using his ice affinity as he had been able to during the liberation tournament was something Jason wanted to achieve in these two months. At the same time, he cultivated a lot, while transferring some of his absorbed mana to Artemis to allow her to cultivate too. Jason even forcefully absorbed primordial energy to transfer it into his soul world, giving it to Petri in order to make it possible for his youngest soulbond to advance too. The others frowned upon Jason when they noticed that he was trying to absorb and cultivate with primordial energy, but seeing that nothing went wrong, they simply ignored it. Initially, they assumed that Argos, the planet he came from, had awoken all three cultivation energies, and that it might even be a larger place than Manyr because Jason''s combat prowess wouldn''t make sense otherwise. However, that was not the case at all, and by trying to use Artemis'' fusion to enhance specific characteristics, Jason was even able to fight head-on against the weakest of Alf Nas'' students. This was a great achievement for Jason, and even the others couldn''t help but praise him. Jason had only reached the late 4th Lique stage, but his brute force was already approaching the Prismar stage! If that was not shocking, the others weren''t sure what exactly could be labeled a shock anymore. How could they know that Jason had yet to reveal his strongest soulbond, the full fusion with his soulbonds, or the abyssal effect of his Emperor Eyes? Despite his earlier caution, he had decided to reveal his petrification curse. Jason had even decided to test how powerful the race specific weakening curse was on the Manyrs as it could differentiate between the different cultivation veins one awoke. This was interesting, and Jason had to acknowledge that spending two months with humans that were not pushovers like almost everyone on Argos, felt great. Comparing Argos with Manyr was simply not possible, and Jason smiled at the huge difference the two human races on the respective planet had. During the last two months, he had asked many questions, concerning the Devir and Aeus race, the human race''s stance in the territory that was formerly ruled by beasts, and even more importantly, what kind of cultivation stage the strongest beings on Manyr had. Unfortunately, even Alf Nas was not sure of the last question''s answer because he had only seen and heard of beings at the Specta stage that followed after the Ascendion stage. Apparently, the city lord of Lanro was at the Specta stage, and nobody dared to offend her. As such, she was simply a mighty force to reckon with. Other than that, Jason found it even more interesting, that most beings were unable to enter the Ascendion stage because their soul was too weak! Merging the soul including every trait that had been awakened with the soul-awakening of the body''s vessel created a perfect resonance. However, at the same time, it was an extremely painful process with the final result of the soul and vessel becoming one, leading to the origin of the Sona seed! Jason had yet to understand everything about the Ascendion and Specta cultivation stage, but what he''d understood so far was truly shocking. Not only was it said to take an eternity to advance in the Ascendion stage, but the Specta stage was something only heavenly prodigies of common races could reach with one being in 100,000 years. For higher races, this requirement was a little bit lower due to their innate higher talent, but even heavenly prodigies of higher races were unable to simply nurture a Specta stage prodigy! Through this knowledge, Jason knew what stage, or rather combat prowess he had to reach before he could take revenge on the Ifrytor, Burane, and My?ldra race! Even if it would take hundreds or thousands of years, Jason had finally found a goal to achieve. This was by far the best news he had heard during the last few months, making him extremely happy. The others had already noticed that Jason was a weird fellow, but that was exactly what made them like him. He was genuine and even if it was obvious that he was hiding things from them, they couldn''t hold it against him. They were doing the same after all, without an ulterior motive exactly like Jason. Trust was hard to acquire, and even more so in the world of Manyr, where humans were forced to turn against their own brethren the moment their cultivation vein awakened. Three sides were erected for everyone to choose one from. Those that awoke the Pryr cultivation vein could become followers of the Devir, while those who had awakened the Spiral cultivation vein were supposed to become followers of the Aeus. Both sides were at war against each other, however, at the same time, they were facing a third opponent that acted in the shadows. In the end, there were humans that awoke both cultivation veins, which was an extremely rare sight and beneficial for both Devir and Aeus. On the flipside, it was a bad sign for the race the double awakened wouldn''t choose. Due to this, double awakened humans were often hunted, and there were only rare circumstances in which that didn''t happen. Fortunately, there was a hidden, third party that intervened in the persecution of the talented beings that were hunted just because of a double awakening! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 623 - Training The third group that had to face the wrath of both Aeus and Devir, was called Tritans because of the three cultivation veins, paths, and energies that existed on Manyr. There were other organizations that existed in the surrounding territories, but the largest was the Tritans that protected and nurtured those that were persecuted because of their awoken cultivation vein. Jason found this extremely interesting because he recalled the young female halfling with three cultivation paths, who had caused a massacre in order to rescue three double awakened humans that had been too afraid to cultivate in a second cultivation path. Only then did Jason truly understand the reason for this to happen because he hadn''t known that double awakened were persecuted. This was good to know, even if it was not important for Jason as he had only one cultivation vein. However, he was determined to change this and was eager to be able to cultivate in more than one cultivation path. At least, that was what Jason hoped because he felt that his Celestia bloodline was eager to be unlocked since he had entered Manyr. Manyr was filled with dense, pure and a high quantity of the three cultivation energies, and Jason thought that his sealed bloodline was acting up because of the dense mana, or other two energies. Maybe it was even because of all three energies, but that was not something he could figure out right now. Right now, Jason felt as if he could unleash one, or maybe even two more, lesser threshold seals on his bloodline, but that was not something he was confident of. There was the high possibility that multiple seals would break by the sudden outburst of energy the moment he unlocked one seal. As such, Jason felt like he should enter the Prismar stage before it was safe to unleash more seals that laid on his bloodline. Even after entering the Prismar stage, it was unlikely for him to be able to undergo his secondary Celestial bloodline awakening! Deep inside his conscience, Jason was able to see the helix, representing his two bloodlines. Looking at the several links between the two strands of both the human and the Celestia bloodline, he wondered how many awakenings it would take him to completely unseal his bloodline, altering the gene pool of two races that were polar opposites of each other. Jason had been cultivating while being deep in thoughts, which was something he had started to comprehend during his two month long travel with the others. They were able to cultivate while running too, and Jason had felt challenged and the need to up his game because of that. Thankfully, his comprehension was extremely high, making it possible for him to learn thinking, talking, and even running with a movement technique activated while cultivating the Balance of the Universe technique! This was exceptional, but at the same time, Jason had begun to wonder how useful his body refinement technique was! While the others had already reached the peak of their body refinement technique owing to their cultivation base that was only slowly progressing, Jason was the complete opposite. The Netherworld''s fort technique was still at the beginning of the first stage, but Jason didn''t feel like refining his body with it anymore! Jason''s reason behind this decision was simple. ''I should start looking for a better body refinement technique...the Netherworld''s fort technique is not suitable anymore...cultivating gives me more benefits than refining my body¡­'' Since learning the cultivation technique, Balance of the Universe, Jason had been thinking about this. His earlier opinion of the Netherworld''s fort technique''s importance changed the higher his proficiency of the cultivation technique became. As such, he had decided to not refine his body with the Netherworld''s fort technique anymore! It was simply a waste of his precious time because he would rather liquefy tens of mana drops instead of using a few days to refine his body, giving him a physical strength enhancement equal to a few drops of mana. While Jason''s cultivation base progressed rapidly during the last few months, the others had already reached the Prismar stage. Thus, their progress was much slower than Jason''s because every single step was equivalent to the effort worth years of tireless work for them! Owing to this, it was possible for Jason to not only increase his combat prowess with every single spar he fought against the others, but he was slowly becoming stronger, making it more difficult for the others to hold back their strength. When they fought their first battle, Nan wanted to spar against him as the first opponent. Confident about her own combat prowess, she suppressed her strength to the 5th Lique stage, reaching the strength that was slightly above Jason''s cultivation base. Jason didn''t mind this, and instead, he had asked her if she was fine with suppressing her strength to such a great extent because she was not accustomed to fighting in that state anymore. WIth a lower physical strength and less spiritual force to use, her suppressed strength would be gradually reduced, reaching Jason''s cultivation base. Despite Jason''s effort to convince her to suppress her strength just a little and not to match his cultivation base, Nan didn''t listen, and she even ignored Alf Nas'' words of caution. Because of that Alf Nas decided that it was time for his oldest student to learn it the hard way, and Jason seemed to be the ideal person to make her see the truth. Releasing a strand of his spiritual force, he transmitted his voice to Jason as he said, [Please don''t hold back too much. For her age and cultivation base, Nan is too childish and proud, and I know that your strength is, at least, comparable to that of someone, who has reached the peak of the Lique stage! Just don''t kill her, or seriously injure her!] Jason could have never expected that he was supposed to be responsible to make Nan, who had five prismarine crystals in her spirit sea, swallow her pride. Fortunately, this was not as difficult as he had expected, because it was his first spar, and only Alf Nas seemed to take him seriously. As such, Jason did exactly what Nas had told him, outplay Nan, without holding back. At that time, he had only used his ice affinity, physical strength, and mana to further enhance everything to defeat Nan. She had been overwhelmed by Jason''s speed that had been several times higher than her restricted strength and speed. Because of that, she had been forced to immediately release the majority of her restrictions, reaching the Initial phase of the Prismar stage. However, even then, Jason didn''t hold back as he appeared right in front of Nan, who had just unsheathed her longsword, only to feel her sight blur as dizziness overcame her. Jason had instinctively used the petrification curse, allowing him to grasp Nan''s sword arm, disarming her with a swift moment. She fell to the ground before he threw her over his shoulder. Only a moment later, he was holding the tip of her sword against her neck with a light smile on his face. "Your weapon is really good. You have to tell me who forged it!" It was only after the first spar that everyone began to see Jason as a strong contender because his combat prowess was by no means to be taken lightly. Thus, instead of thinking of Jason as some ordinary person at the Lique stage, the others simply imprinted his combat prowess of an Initial phase Prismar stage. He might have overwhelmed Nan, but everyone who had observed the short battle that had lasted for less than 10 seconds, knew that Jason had held back. The amount of mana he utilised at that time had been minuscule, and his eyes had gleamed in a faint light, indicating that the sudden dizziness Nan had experienced was something Jason''s eyes could do! Other than that, Jason hadn''t used his stigma or aura at all, let alone the ice affinity that had only served as a short surprise attack at the start of the spar. After the first spar, everyone had fought against Jason, which had turned into an experience they couldn''t forget. In the end, they hadn''t fought against any Devir, or Aeus that had a mana core, and only a few beasts following the path of Maest existed in the surrounding area. As such, Jason was a perfect opponent to train to fight against other intelligent races with a mana core, and affinities. Jason knew this too, but he gladly helped, happy about being able to learn more about spiritual force in return. His combat prowess increased rapidly, and he wouldn''t want to change anything about the last two months. The time he had spent with Alf Nas and his students had been fruitful. It had been interesting and extremely helpful because Jason could now enter Lanro city without having a bad feeling about anything. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 624 - Lanro The City was completely different than Jason had initially expected. There were no high-rise skyscrapers as was the case on Argos, and the biggest buildings were the City lord''s abode in the center and several pagodas that seemed to belong to certain organisations or families. Jason had yet to fully analyse the city''s infrastructure, but with the help of his Emperor Eyes, this was not difficult. While flying through the sky, they encountered thousands of humans who looked at him oddly because he could fly just by using Artemis'' wings. He simply ignored their gazes and stared at the different districts of the city that were clearly divided, and easy to differentiate according to the distinct buildings all around. The Devir race seemed to be using darker materials imbued with primordial energy to construct their large mansions, houses, and small, apartment-like buildings, while dense spiritual force reflected in the Aeus buildings. Exactly the same could be seen on the Manyrs side because they would move to places that had more of the cultivation energy they were cultivating in. Only one difference was interesting to see in specific buildings of the Devir- and Aeus race as they had been constructed of materials that had several cultivation energies intertwined. This was an interesting sight, and Jason observed the energy fluctuations of the beings inside said buildings for a few seconds longer than the rest. Overall, the situation in Lanro seemed interesting, yet, the tension he sensed was evident. ''I wonder if the City Lord is the only reason, a carnage hasn''t ensued inside the city walls yet¡­'' Considering the city''s structure, it was as if the city lord was the only being that maintained the equilibrium, but he might as well be wrong. While flying towards a district that was located on the outskirts of the city, passing by humans that cultivated either in the path of Pryr or Spiral, Jason was certain that his assumption about Alf Nas and his students had been correct. ''As expected, they''re not fond of choosing any side. They would probably rather stay with the human race, and choose the Aeus because of their awakened Spiral cultivation vein!'' The benefits of choosing the Devir or Aeus race as their leader were simply too good, and without the means to obtain a suitable cultivation, martial art, body refining or even Aura construction technique, it would be much more difficult to stay strong. Despite that, one could opt to retain their freedom, without choosing anyone to follow by using the Mission hall in Lanro. The Mission hall gave out missions, and in exchange for solving them, one would receive bountiful rewards according to the level of difficulties surpassed while completing a mission. Through this, one could earn a fortune, and even purchase suitable techniques one required to remain strong, decreasing the benefits of choosing the Devir or Aeus race as their lords! Unfortunately, the benefits of the Mission hall were only useful for those that were talented enough to make a huge fortune in a short amount of time. This was important because the techniques were distributed free of charge by the Aeus and Devir amongst the followers once they were accepted as their leaders. They would be referred to as Lords, and the techniques might only be at the Terra-Advanced grade, but were perfectly suitable for anyone having the right cultivation veins to use! Jason was not sure how the pricing system worked on Manyr, but from what he had heard, most humans would take several years, if not longer, only to save enough funds to purchase a perfectly suitable Terra- Intermediate technique. And this required a prerequisite of having reached the Prismar stage! ''If someone decides to follow either the Aeus or Devir after they awaken their cultivation vein, the benefits they could reap are probably worth decades of time saved in comparison to slowly increasing one''s strength, only to not choose a side¡­'' The entire situation was a little fucked up in Jason''s opinion, but he didn''t say anything about it. In the end, there were also organisations that didn''t force anyone to do something, lending out certain techniques in exchange for a loan that could be paid once they were strong enough. The Tritans organisation was doing exactly the same, and had just tweaked the price of owing, minor, major, and huge favors! These favors were made in the form of soul pacts and higher ranked soul contracts which made everything a little bit more dangerous. However, at the same time, the contracts were extremely detailed, clearly showing what the Tritans were allowed to request and what was off-limits. As such, Jason liked this system more, even if it could be more expensive than paying a huge debt that could lead to severe issues if not paid back within time. Inside the huge place that looked like an Inn, Alf Nas offered Jason the choice of staying with them for some time so that he could learn more about Lanro without getting lost. This offer was politely declined by Jason, as he said, "I will stay in this Inn, and we can meet each other later. However, I think it would be best for me to figure everything out by myself. Walking around with you and the others would attract too much attention, and I want to be considered a Variant of the human race, if possible! This would attract a little bit of attention from those who are more curious about my existence, but that''s fine!" Variants, also called Mutants, were anomalies of a race, who are different from the norm since birth. While his eyes were already an interesting sight, his stigma, if concealed, could pass as a simple tattoo, or a unique birthmark. As such, while hiding his Celestia aura, the only thing that would be perceived from the outside were the mana fluctuations that radiated from him. Concealing them would mean he wanted to hide something. Because of that, Jason would rather be a Mutant of the Manyrs, who was born with the cultivation vein of the Maest path instead of the normal unawakened Pryr and Spiral cultivation veins, than a being from another race. This would make things much easier for him too! His only task was to not reveal his entire combat prowess, and everything would be fine as mutants were considered unique existences that were likely to have firmer energy fluctuations and a higher combat prowess than others! Some feared them, but that shouldn''t be the case in Lanro city, and with his low combat prowess the probability would be even less. ''Will others remember that I flew into the city with Artemis'' wings? Probably¡­.right?'' There was only one problem Jason had in his mind, which was his arrival in the city and that there were many who had seen him with white wings spreading out from his back. However, while he was focused on this problem, Alf Nas mentioned another issue. "Do you even have enough spirit, Pryr, or mana stones to lodge a room? If not, I can lend you some!" Jason was hit off guard by that question, only to recall that he had long since used up all his cultivation resources. But that was not a problem in his opinion because there had been a good reason for him to stay in the underground cave for an entire month, instead of rushing to find a way out! Taking out one of the hueless Lique rank elemental crystals, the absence of hue indicating its superior quality, Jason smiled at Alf Nas as he replied, "I think I have enough to barter a little bit!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 625 - Abode Showing Alf Nas an elemental crystal was Jason''s way to figure out if they were rare. As such, seeing the faint glint of interest in Nas'' eyes made it clear to Jason that Lique ranked elemental crystals were a rare sight, but nothing to be shocked about. This may be different with high-quality Prismar ranked elemental crystals, or the element ores he had mined for a long time, but that did not matter right now. After Alf said that he could rent a room for at least one week with a single elemental crystal, Jason nodded his head, thanking him for letting him accompany their group throughout the journey before he walked out of the Inn once again. Despite being able to lodge a room, this was not something he wanted to do right now. There were too many things he had to figure out, and finding ways to increase his wealth was a high priority. Jason wanted to read the aura technique provided by the City lord at least once or twice. To do this, he wouldn''t have to purchase the complete technique, but to rent it for half a month or longer. The rent was pricey enough, and Jason figured that he should do the best out of his current situation. Because of that, he decided to use the three auxiliary techniques he hadn''t been using for quite some time! Forging a weapon out of the element ores should give him a profit worth several times that of a normal weapon, while the potions he could concoct with the elemental crystals were extremely rare. He only had to figure out what kinds of potions and types of weapons were high in demand. After that, he could try producing them. Jason knew that the number of rare potions and unique runes he had was small, but that was something he could build up with the fortune he would receive by selling his manufactured goods! Excited to forge, concoct and inscribe runes once again, Jason immediately started to search for a small hall to rent. It was also possible for him to enter a weapon shop, and ask whether they would allow him to use their smithy to forge. But, Jason wanted to use his own forge, to begin with, and running from a smithy to an alchemy room was even more annoying. In a hall, he could simply place things however he wanted, using the space he had efficiently. With that in mind, Jason passed by the several Blacksmith, Alchemy, and Inscriber- halls and organisations, without another backward glance. He only had one goal in his mind, yet, the moment he passed a huge pagoda, Jason instinctively stopped. Through his mana eyes, he could see the energy fluctuations of more than a thousand unique objects. Raising his head he saw the signboard of the pagoda which was simple, yet impactful because the pagoda he was looking at, was in fact, the City''s auction house! This was interesting, and Jason made a mental note of the fact. The auction house could come in handy, but after observing the unique objects that were in the pagoda, Jason decided that it would be best to divert his focus on the task he had given himself. Even after roaming through the city that seemed to be endless to run through by foot, Jason didn''t feel impatient or that he had to rush everything. Rather, he felt extremely relaxed right now, thinking that there was no reason for him to be impatient or overly tensed up. Right now, everything was still calm, and the problems of the humans on Manyr, or that of the Devir and Aeus were not his, to begin with. Nevertheless, Jason was not someone who slacked off. Instead, it was possible for him to be even better at doing everything because he was relaxed and quite happy with his soulbonds around. Artemis, Petri, and Solaris wanted to leave the soul world right now, but Jason had to deny them permission to do so until he had found a place to rent a hall. This was another reason for him to ignore going to one of the three Auxiliary occupation halls, or similar organisations- they had no place for his soulbonds. Other than that, Jason wanted his soulbonds and the fact that he had a soul world, to be a secret for now. He wasn''t sure how long he could keep it a secret, but for now, this was important to him. Upon reaching a place with many similar-looking halls that had the outer appearance of old traditional buildings, Jason entered the large lands that were encircled by a thin stone wall. The wall appeared to be ordinary from the outside, but Jason knew that this was by no means the case. As such, seeing the distinct energy fluctuations and hue radiating from the stone wall, he knew that he had reached the right place. Looking for the person in charge, Jason had to insert more mana in his Emperor Eyes, allowing him to see further. The entire territory encircled by the stone walls was extremely large, and could roughly be the size of entire cities on Argos. However, instead of being shocked about the size, Jason found it rather inconvenient to see everything with his eyes. Walking on the plastered path, he looked at everything with newfound interest. The halls he saw were built of rare materials, releasing strong energy currents that were even denser than most of the buildings belonging to the Aeus and Devir race. This astonished Jason a little bit, and the further he advanced, the denser the energy currents around him became as the entire environment seemed to change. As he continued to walk ahead, the buildings began to thin, while the mana in his surrounding became denser. Even after having spent around ten minutes wandering through the stone encircled territory, he came across no one. Hence, Jason couldn''t help but question if there was even a living being inside this encirclement to begin with. He had to find at least one with whom he could talk to ask whether he could rent one of the halls. He didn''t need the high-energy-dense buildings that could be used to cultivate at a rapid speed, and the first one he saw would be more than enough. However, Jason figured out that everything was definitely more complicated than he had assumed. ''I should have purchased a city guide script¡­ Why do I feel like I entered a Lion''s lair?!'' This thought intensified even further when he noticed that the entire surrounding had an overgrowth of trees, bushes, and Jason could even see beasts all around! Because of that, his discomfort only increased because the beasts he saw were all at the Ascendion stage, at the bare minimum. Nevertheless, with no single individual from an intelligent race around, Jason''s belief that the service of the lodging place was bad, dispersed. Now, it was replaced by the question of whether he had inadvertently intruded someone''s home. ''What the hell am I even doing right now?!'' Worried of having trespassed someone''s territory, he only shook his head while trying to find a solution to his predicament Suddenly, just at that moment, Jason felt a strong gust of wind hit his face, forcing him to close his eyes as his other senses perceived the appearance of more than three beings at the Ascendion stage. A moment later three razor-sharp blades touched his neck, as a cold voice asked him. "Variant, what is the reason for your intrusion into the City lord''s abode??" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 626 - Credibility Jason felt as if his luck had left him for good, and threw him into a pit of fire as he heard the cold voice behind him once again. "Variant, I asked you a question?! What is the reason for your intrusion into the City lord''s abode???" Even though he had heard the question both times, how should he be able to answer the question with three razor-sharp blades at his neck? One was slightly below his Adam''s apple, which prevented him from gulping down his saliva, let alone saying anything. When Jason didn''t answer, the female warrior''s energy fluctuations began to radiate anger which he sensed clearly. As such, he had to act quickly so he did the only thing he could think of. Releasing a thread of mana from his body, he shot it towards the female warrior who spoke coldly to him. This alarmed the three women around him, only for Jason to transmit his voice quickly. [I can''t speak, the blades!!] After that, he sensed the blades stopped digging into his flesh, only to hear a whisper, "Oh.." Fortunately, this was followed by the female warrior retracting her weapon as she ordered, "Retract your weapons!" The other two followed suit and distanced their weapons from Jason a moment later, which gave him the opportunity to breathe properly. Touching his neck, he felt three gashes, and the tip of his fingers was smeared with red which made him shake his head. In order to stop the bleeding, Jason quickly circulated mana through his neck before the cold voice resounded behind him once again. "You can talk now, so give me a proper reason for appearing in a forbidden area, or you will be punished for intruding into the City Lord''s abode!!" Jason began to sweat slightly when he heard this because there was no proper reason, to begin with. Nervous, his eyes widened again, and only did he take a glance at the three women, only to notice that there was something special about all of them. ''A human with mana veins, a Devir with a holy affinity instead of darkness, and an Aeus with the blood affinity¡­are all of them Variants?'' From their outer appearance, the three women looked like what members of their race typically looked like, without a single noticeable trait to differentiate them from the rest. However, their innermost foundation was different, which would have interested Jason under normal circumstances because Variants of a race didn''t simply show up out of nowhere. Unfortunately, he had, by no means, a chance to question the three women. On the contrary, he was struggling to come up with an acceptable answer that wouldn''t make them stab him for good this time. In the end, he decided to answer honestly, because lying was not useful right now. Thus, he revealed his intention. "I...just entered Lanro today, and I wanted to rent a hall to stay in so as to forge weapons, concoct potions and inscribe runes...As such, I was searching for a large place to lodge for a few weeks¡­ When I found the numerous halls inside the encirclement of the stone wall, I decided to search for the owner of the lands because there was no sign forbidding me to enter it¡­ I guess I should have purchased a city guide¡­ I guess it''s too late to apologise for my blunder" Jason tried to ease the tension with a faint smile, but the expression of the female Aeus was the same as her voice- ice cold. As such, he tried to find a way out of his situation, only to blurt out an apology before he ended his short explanation. Despite that, it didn''t seem to help a lot, as the Manyr with a mana vein suddenly said, "He doesn''t release any ill-intentions and according to his Cultivation base, it''s unlikely for him to be a spy, let alone an assassin¡­Should we question him some more, or do you really intend to punish him? You could say that he is one of us, you called him Variant too, didn''t you?" Hearing that he was about to be rescued, Jason felt immense gratitude towards the female human, only to hear the Devir speaking, "We have been told to punish intruders, even if they accidentally enter our territory. At least, we shouldn''t severely injure him, or do anything like that. From the looks of it, he doesn''t seem to lie either. In the worst case, we can simply ask him to show his capabilities in the three basic auxiliary occupations, and if he lies, we can torture him a little bit. That would serve as a lifelong lesson which he will never forget, that''s fair, isn''t it?" The last few words were directed at Jason, and despite feeling that the female Devir wanted to torture him secretly, without being deemed as cruel, he nodded his head! Showing his capabilities in the three basic auxiliary occupations was the best way to express his credibility and that he was unlikely to have lied. He was not sure what kind of punishment his accidental intrusion deserved, but not being killed was already a good start, with preventing being severely injured turning into a nice bonus. ''How the hell am I always finding the worst kind of places to enter at the stupidest time¡­?'' Jason didn''t like the fact that he seemed to be looked down upon by the three women who were simply talking to each other as if he didn''t exist. However, he was also aware that their cultivation base was strong enough to smash him into a pulp without moving a single finger. Their aura should be more than enough to do that! As such, fleeing was no solution at all. This was sad, but Jason could accept this relatively easily because it felt like he wouldn''t get injured. Rather, it was as if he might be able to change the tides, turning the misfortune into an opportunity. It was only a thought that followed his gut feeling, but the more he thought about it, the clearer Jason''s mind became. As such, Jason''s mood heightened a lot, and his worries dispersed as he asked, "Should I start forging here, or is there a specific place I should go to forge?" This question made the ice-cold Aeus throw an angry retort at him while continuing to stare daggers at him. "Didn''t you want to show all three basic auxiliary occupations? Did you lie to us earlier?" Jason was taken off-guard by this because the Aeus''s question was extremely stupid. He felt like punching her but knew that she was just testing his patience. At least he hoped so, otherwise, he was not sure how he should cope with someone like her. ''How should I answer that now?!'' Trying to come up with a response, he pondered for a moment as he answered, "I wanted to forge a weapon while using my own concocted inscription solution to inscribe runes onto it¡­" This answer caused the human and Devir to look at the ice-cold Aeus with a smirk, only for her to turn away. Cursing herself inwardly at the stupidity of her question, she shook her head and regained her composure a moment later to order coldly, "Just follow us. We will bring you to a place!" With that, she soared into the sky followed by the female human, only for the Devir to look at them as she mumbled with a sigh, "Girls...you know that you are leaving a potential intruder alone, and he cannot even fly¡­.he is at the Prismar stage!" Despite mumbling, the Devir''s voice was clearly heard by the two other women, who froze mid-air, only to turn around with red cheeks. However, only a moment later, black flames spurted out of Jason''s back as he shot into the air, dumbfounding the three women. ''He definitely has great control over his affinity!'' The three women thought, giving Jason''s earlier statement a little bit more credibility. Initially, Jason didn''t want to show Solaris to others, but that had changed now that he was forced to forge in front of the three female Variants. As such, he might as well reveal his great affinity control a few minutes before they would have figured it out, either way! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 627 - Joy Two hours later, one could see Jason, surrounded by three different workplaces consisting of the necessary tools and devices he required to forge. His back was drenched in sweat from the hard work of concocting one of the best inscription solutions he had ever produced. It had been manufactured from an elemental crystal at the peak Lique rank as main ingredients in addition to several other ingredients he had found inside his spatial ring. It was only when Jason started to look for ingredients inside his spatial ring that he realised he was lacking many necessary ingredients, which forced him to improvise in order to not be punished for lying to the three female Variants. He didn''t really understand why they were wasting their time with him, or if they were just using him to kill their boredom. However, in the end, Jason could only accept his fate and try forging the best weapon he was currently capable of Having used the Terra-Intermediate technique Concoctia medra, Jason''s inscription solution turned into a success. It was not as difficult as expected to use other ingredients than he was supposed to either because only the medical effects were what mattered the most. Through his Emperor Eyes, Jason could see almost everything concerning the energy flow within objects and beings. As such, it was possible for him to make use of that ability to determine what kind of ingredient was the most compatible as a substitute. Owing to this, his Emperor Eyes saved his pride, and possibly even his life. Using Solaris'' flame as if he had been born with it, Jason could easily concoct everything, altering the flames'' temperature as and when he wanted. This made everything much easier and even allowed him to separate the impurities from the herbs that were slowly draining off their life essence which had the energy and nutrition that were reacting with the mana-infused water Jason had produced in his first step. Following all the necessary steps, the best inscription solution he had ever made was completed after only one hour. Unfortunately, he could still see impurities in it, and Jason knew that he could make something better. He hadn''t concocted something in a long time, while his cultivation base, control over mana and other capabilities had increased drastically. As such, Jason was confident that he could recreate the same, if not a better inscription solution as long as he practiced a little bit! After the inscription solution was completed, he took a short break before he divided the inscription solution into several vials. ''This should be enough for 10 weapons...that''s great!'' Jason was happy about his first concoction process in a long time, and even if the pressure around him seemed to be extremely high, his mind had already expelled the thoughts about the three women who were staring at him. Only after he had finished splitting the content of the inscription solution did he hand one vial to each of them while saying with a faint smile. "The inscription solution is normally ranked at the Mid Lique rank, but due to the small amount of impurities, it might as well be ranked higher. But I''m not an appraiser, so I don''t know much about that." He did not mind their expressions, which was as if they wanted to ask what they were supposed to do with the vials, because he was just happy to be able to concoct once again. Since the Great Argos war, his life had been too busy to do anything about his auxiliary occupations except learning a few basics of how to manufacture parts of guns. However, even that was not something he had been able to do for a long time, and it only increased his eagerness to forge, concoct and inscribe. Everything about the auxiliary occupations was interesting, and one of the biggest mysteries Jason had yet to solve was the creation of world bridges! There were three particular world bridges he wanted to create in the future, leading him to those who had caused his sorrow and pain when he was still on Argos. Nevertheless, before he could create a world bridge, his strength would have to increase by leaps and bounds, while his proficiency in inscribing runes had to skyrocket. Almost half an hour had passed since he had completed the inscription solution, and after taking out several element ores to test their near molten state by slowly heating them up, he noticed that the ice-cold-looking Aeus had disappeared. Out of the corner of his eyes, he had seen how the three female Variants had been talking to each other with the inscription solution vial in their hands. As such, Jason simply assumed that the Aeus had brought the vial to someone professional, who could determine the rank and potency of his inscription solution. This was fine with him, and even if he had something to complain about, Jason couldn''t challenge their decision, to begin with. Because of that, he ignored whatever they were doing, while focusing on getting to know the element ores right in front of them. They came in various sizes and it was only fortunate that his Emperor Eyes could perceive the cultivation veins within them. Due to this, he was not forced to know the characteristics of the element ores beforehand but could figure them out right now. The temperature the black flame in his hand had to reach before the element ores reached a near molten state was extremely high, yet, at the same time, the cultivation vein''s deteriorating process started much earlier. Noticing this, he had to change his plan accordingly, slowly approaching the temperature at which the deterioration process of the cultivation veins inside the element ores would start before using his blacksmithing technique. This forced him to maintain a steady flame and a constant heat to the ore because it was cooling down too fast to shape it properly if he were to extinguish the flame even for just a few seconds. It was an annoying process but by using the anvil right in front of him, with four small black flames surrounding the heated up ingot, Jason could start shaping it. There was no need to craft something special, and without further ado, Jason decided to forge a dagger. The entire process of using the element ore was difficult, but by using the fiery red elements ore it became much easier as the ore was affine to the fire, accepting it readily. Jason didn''t even want to know how frustrating the forging process would be with other elements ores, which was fortunately not required right now. While shaping the daggers for more than two hours, Jason felt as if the process was taking longer than he had expected. But instead of being impatient, and frustrated about that, he smiled lightly while sweat pearls trickled down his cheek as he took a look at the raw blade that shimmered in a light red glow. His smile widened as he mumbled, "The Hammer of Fire, Ky?ldrama forging technique is really good...I should really become more proficient with it!" Unbeknownst to Jason, who was in his own world,, he was eyed with newfound interest. He was too busy thinking about the forging process and had completely forgotten the place he was in. "Is his fire a source flame, or an origin flame? He is pretty good at all three basic auxiliary occupations too¡­ I guess he didn''t lie then?" It was the female Devir who said this to the ice-cold looking Aeus, whose expression had eased a little bit as she mumbled, "I guess so? Either way, Tarra wants to see him after I gave her the inscription solution to appraise. I''ve never seen her being so interested in someone, let alone a man. Fortunately, I didn''t explain to her that he is only a young lad at most in his early 20s, otherwise, she might have rushed here to meet him by now. Crazy woman¡­" The other two women didn''t say anything and simply nodded their heads, while questioning themselves and the fact as to how a youngster was able to handle three auxiliary occupations at once. He was proficient in all of them, which was evident after he finished forging the dagger, only to inscribe runes into the wide side of the blade before it was cooled down. After that, he sharpened the blade without touching the runes at all as Jason inserted mana into it. A large flame emerged from the dagger before it tightly wrapped itself around the weapon, which caused Jason to smile vibrantly at the blade. "It''s done!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 628 - Crazy Women It took him several hours to finish the entire process of manufacturing the dagger he was now holding in his hand. It could have taken much less but considering his current proficiency in the three auxiliary techniques he had used, it was already a good feat. Storing away the smithy, beakers, and other equipment that belonged to him, Jason was done after a short while before he approached the three female Variants. They looked at him with more interest than before, and even the ice-cold Aeus'' expression had changed a little bit. Earlier, she didn''t really believe his words, thinking that he was just spewing nonsense to not get punished, but that had changed now. Despite being in his early 20s or younger, he was already able to manufacture a late Lique rank weapon. This was interesting, and even more so the joy that radiated from the young man was infectious. He had handed the weapon manufactured out of an extremely complex ore as the main ingredient for the dagger''s blade and fire elemental crystals for the inscription solution. Handing the dagger over to the ice-cold-looking Aeus because she was standing in the center of the three Variants, Jason smiled lightly before he relaxed his muscles. Inspecting the weapon, it was extremely hard to describe whether the blacksmith did an excellent job, or if it was a failure. Just by looking at Jason''s entire production process, the three female Variants were not sure if Jason was simply fortunate to have produced something that worked. Since the beginning, the three women had noticed that the materials Jason used to concoct the inscription solution and to forge the blade, were something he shouldn''t even have heard of, let alone possess them. The ingredients utilised were not exactly rare, but uncommon to use, even more so as clumsily as Jason did. However, that was not all because Jason seemed to be proficient in the forging process, yet it looked as if he was tipsy because the techniques he had exerted were not utilized professionally. Rather, it looked like Jason was an amateur in using the techniques he had used to prove that he was not an intruder but a blacksmith, alchemist, and inscriber at once. The female human found this sight quite funny to look at during the previous few hours, but the final result astonished her a little bit. It was difficult to expect someone, who used his auxiliary techniques clumsily enough to look like he was tipsy, to produce a good weapon. Nevertheless, in the end, everything looked fine and seemingly like Jason had planned to forge the dagger in this way. Because of that, the female human and Devir shook their heads, while the ice-cold looking Aeus replied, "Follow us, we will bring you to someone. She will often be called ''Crazy woman'', but you shouldn''t attempt the same, at least, not if you want to prevent being tortured." Jason was not sure why he was brought somewhere else again, he just wanted to avoid being punished, and leave as quickly as possible. Sighing inwardly, Jason got the feeling that this was not as easy as he assumed. As such, he could only nod his head, before they left the building and flew through the air once again. The dagger Jason had manufactured was returned to him, and not even a minute seemed to have passed before they reached the center of the stone wall encircled territory. There, he could see one of the largest buildings of the entire city, and it was built out of materials, whose ranking Jason was unable to tell. Even with his Emperor Eyes, it was extremely difficult to evaluate the entire situation properly. However, instead of making him worry, Jason''s eyes gleamed brightly because he saw the energy currents of the strongest being he had ever seen in his entire life. It was a being following the path of Maest, but her mana core was extremely weird. Jason was not even able to see everything properly, because the mana currents surrounding the being, he presumed to be the City Lord, obscured his vision. This was exciting because the energy currents enveloped almost the entire building, without the being actively moving around. What Jason perceived was the calm state of the City Lord! Excitement coursed through him, causing goosebumps to appear all over his skin that could be seen by the three female Variants. "Is that your first time sensing the might of a powerhouse at the Specta stage?" It was the female human who asked this in a seemingly nonchalant way, however, Jason''s answer astonished them a little bit. "That too, yes, but today is also the first time I was able to sense the energy fluctuations of someone at the Ascendion stage, up close...and there were directly three strong Variants at that!" Smiling brightly, he didn''t even care about holding back the truth which he had exposed without batting an eyelid. In his opinion, it was nothing special, but that was not the case for the others. "You said that you just arrived in Lanro today, right? Where do you come from then? Miar, Inman, or Oeri?" The cold-looking Aeus asked this question while staring in a visibly confused way at Jason. She had trouble wrapping her head around the fact that someone who seemed pretty talented in both cultivation and the auxiliary occupation, had never seen someone from the Ascendion stage up close. However, that was the truth, because seeing an Ascendion stage from several kilometers away was not exactly close. Thus, he smiled lightly as he replied, "I don''t come from Manyr, I was pulled inside a world bridge some time ago, and Lanro is the first city I''ve entered!" It wasn''t special to come from a world bridge, or at least Jason hoped so because he had already seen a total of three world bridges since he had emerged on Manyr. As such, there shouldn''t be a problem exposing his situation, making it clear that he was not a spy and that he had simply no idea that he''d entered the City Lord''s abode. However, the three Variants remained silent after hearing what Jason had said, only to land in front of one of the smaller buildings that were directly connected to the main manor. Through his Emperor Eyes, Jason was able to tell that the building he was told to enter had all kinds of tools, materials, and devices to forge, concoct, and inscribe runes with. With that information, he could determine that the Crazy woman, the cold-looking Aeus had been talking about, was someone proficient in an auxiliary occupation. ''Is this woman interested in me because of the inscription solution I produced?... If she asks how I produced the solution, I shouldn''t tell her that I improvised!'' Chuckling to himself that his ingenious idea of improvisation had met a stroke of luck, Jason was still not sure if he should believe that it had truly worked. "We will leave you for now. After we discuss your punishment with the captain of our unit, we will return." With that being said, the three simply ignored him only to fly towards the main building. ''They really don''t care about what I do, at all? Wow¡­'' "Calling someone else crazy, while behaving exactly the same way...just why did I have to enter this abode full of crazy women?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 629 - Second Time No sooner had Jason entered the small building, Jason''s nostrils flared as a pungent smell hit him, almost making him gag. Out of reflex, he manifested a mask made of black flames around his nose and chin, allowing him to breathe freely once again. Jason was not sure how exactly he should feel right now because he was seemingly imprisoned, yet nobody cared about him! This situation was weird as he wasn''t supposed to leave the building and instead wait for the others to return just to punish him. Shaking his head at the situation he had to face right now, Jason couldn''t help but chuckle, thinking that everything was a little bit weird. He was already confused that he had only seen women, and even the outlines of energy fluctuations of the servant he had perceived inside the buildings were females. Other than that, the Crazy woman, the three female Variants had been talking about was a female, as well as the City Lord and her disciple. Because of that, Jason assumed that the City Lord had something against men, which was extremely bad for him as he was evidently male! Sighing deeply, he walked through the small building, whose interior looked much larger than he initially expected. Taking a look around the first floor, Jason didn''t expect to encounter someone and was sad to be proven correct. He knew that someone was on the first floor, but knowing that he was imprisoned, there was no need to rush to the second floor. Instead, he wanted to take his time to look at everything on the first floor because it was extremely interesting! Almost every single object had a hue around it, indicating their high quality that stemmed from the manufacturers'' skills or the raw material''s quality. Even the beakers he saw had a faint black hue enveloping them, which caused Jason to wonder what exactly the benefits of a high-quality beaker were. There shouldn''t be much of a difference, and he wanted to appraise the equipment by seeing with his eyes, touching it, and enveloping it with his mana. Unfortunately, this was something he shouldn''t do as a stranger, let alone a person under temporary house arrest of sorts that too in the City lord''s place while waiting for his punishment to be inflicted. However, when he stopped right in front of a bunch of inscribing pens, Jason couldn''t help but halt in his tracks and approach the small table. Stooping down, he keenly observed the pens from a distance of fewer than 10 centimeters in order to see the finest details of the runes that had been engraved into the pen. "That''s some amazing work." Jason exclaimed under his breath while trying to decipher the meaning of every rune. Even though he didn''t know a single rune inscribed onto the inscription pen as they were several times more complex than every single rune mankind had ever produced, there were a few he found somewhat familiar. "Did I see some of those runes on the man-made world bridges?" Right now, Jason didn''t even notice that he was speaking his thoughts out loud. His entire mind was focused on the inscription pens that were one of the most exotic objects on the entire first floor. At the same time, Jason, who was oblivious to everything in his surroundings, didn''t notice that a woman had appeared on the stairway that led towards the second floor. White feathered wings with several black feathers were folded behind her back, while her eyes were filled with excitement as she had heard the words spoken by Jason. Everything Mara, the ice-cold-looking Aeus told her seemed to be true, and even better, the young man''s eye trait seemed to be even better than initially expected. Because of that, Pera couldn''t help herself as she interrupted Jason''s train of thoughts. "Brat...can you see the runes inscribed on activated world bridges?" This question came out of nowhere, and Jason jumped up in astonishment. Turning around, he faced the woman who was called crazy. Taking a deep breath to overcome the short, yet impactful fright that had spread through his entire body, Jason introduced himself properly once he was done. "Hello, my name is Jason Stella, and I''m the person who accidentally entered the City lord''s abode¡­" After saying this, Jason scratched the back of his head before smiling drily, cursing himself for various reasons, including the fact that he seemed to have spoken his thoughts out loud before! "Since you ask this question, I guess, you heard me mumble... Yes, I can see certain runes of an activated world bridge, but the number of world bridges I have seen is restricted to a few, and all of them were low-ranked." Instead of hiding the partially exposed fact, Jason revealed a few more, preventing the barrage of certain questions that could force him to lie or expose other secrets. This worked to some extent, because the woman, who introduced herself as Pera, simply nodded her head before changing the topic. "It''s quite brave of you to enter the CIty lord''s abode, which only men with permission can enter. You may be a Variant..or not, but it was definitely not the best move for you to come here!" Hearing this Jason could only sigh, wondering what exactly had he done that even the crazy woman said that he was brave, only to indirectly hint that he was stupid. "It''s not like I want anything except a place to forge, concoct, and inscribe so that I can make some money...." Pera wanted to say something, but she heard an overly familiar voice running out from the direction of the main building''s connecting hallway. "Pera, do you have more invigorating potions? Calming potions wouldn''t be bad either! This batch of dual awakened Manyrs I saved are truly below average this time!!" Hearing the sonorous voice of a young woman, Jason turned around, only to squint his eyes. The young woman had fair skin, flawless facial features, and long eyelashes that highlighted her deep, dark brown eyes. Her physique looked gorgeous with her long and slender legs while her long hair cascaded down her back. However, it wasn''t her beauty that caused Jason to squint his eyes. While he simply stared at the young woman, Pera was oblivious to this as she looked for some potions in the storage. Smiling lightly, he couldn''t help but feel that him being inside the City lord''s abode might be more interesting than he initially thought. "So it''s like that!" Jason mumbled before he released his stigma and Celestia aura while increasing the amount of mana he inserted into his Emperor Eyes. With this, he exposed himself, but that was not important because the young woman in front of him seemed overly familiar to him despite having never seen her before. At least, that was what he had assumed, only to notice that his Emperor Eyes had been rendered useless. There was a faint membrane, concealing the woman''s identity, which was the reason for Jason to reveal his stigma and Celestia aura. This attracted Pera''s attention, and the young woman, who only now noticed Jason because he had been standing in the corner of the room. ''Isn''t that¡­?'' The young woman thought, barely avoiding looking straight into Jason''s eyes as he spoke, "Oh¡­? Isn''t that the second time we meet? You look different now...not that it looks worse¡­" These simple words caused the young woman to stiffen for a short moment as Pera, who had heard Jason returned with a few potions in her hand. "You know Jen? Are you sure? She almost never leaves the City lord''s abode...only¡­" Just at that moment, Pera bit her tongue realising that she had said a lot, which made her quiet down really quick as she approached Jennifer, the young female, Pera liked to call Jen. Handing her the potions, Pera felt that it was the best for Jen to leave as quickly as possible, only to hear her say, "What do you mean, the second time? I have never seen you before!" Hearing this, Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly, as he nonchalantly replied, "Ok, must have been someone else with three activated cultivation veins, and a darkness and holy affinity then. I apologize!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 630 - High-teen Romance Drama Bowing slightly, Jason greeted her politely and couldn''t help but feel that fate was playing around with him. The young female halfling he had encountered a few months earlier was now standing right in front of him once again. However, now, both the color of her eyes and that of her hair had changed. Nevertheless, this didn''t make a big difference to Jason, who could simply scan her energy fluctuations, even if they had been concealed with some sort of unique device preventing those at a higher cultivation base to figure out what, or who she was. In the end, his Emperor Eyes were too strong, and as long as he used his Celestia aura, stigma, and enough mana, he could see and notice most of the things others couldn''t. Because he had been too curious if his instincts had been correct, Jason had to reveal his aura and stigma, but that was not much of a problem. At least, he didn''t think it was, and instead of worrying too much, he simply looked at the young female halfling, who was still giving her best to act as unruffled as before. "I don''t know what you are talking about!" This only made Jason smile brighter thinking that it was funny to see how hard she was trying to appear unperturbed. There should be a proper reason for the young female halfling to do this, he now knew was called Jen. As such, Jason didn''t stretch the topic further and looked straight into her eyes, only to nod his head. But, a second later, he got an idea, which made him smile slyly. "Who knows, maybe I was wrong. I just thought that you look similar to the powerful young woman I encountered a few months ago. It''s not often that I see someone with a pretty face, so I might have mistaken you for her." Jason''s sudden change of attitude caused even Pera to look at the young man weirdly. Looking back and forth from Jason to Jen, she couldn''t help but feel that the atmosphere was turning weird. As such, she decided to intervene which made her spout utter nonsense that made even herself cringe. "You seem to have good eyes. Our little Jen is truly beautiful, but you are handsome as well. So let''s not talk about the appearance of others, at least, not as long as I''m here and forced to listen to you! Rather, how about you tell me how you created an artificial stigma at your age? And your aura is extremely distinct too. Was it reinforced by a divine being, or is that something your mutation did?" Jason looked at Pera, slowly understanding why others labeled her crazy. Her assumptions of how he had constructed his aura were interesting, but at the same time, weird. However, they were not impossible, which made him wonder if it was not possible for Pera to determine the difference between an artificial stigma and a naturally created one. Despite his interest in answering Pera, Jason''s eyes were still glued on Jen. She was just about to turn around, trying to avoid her identity being exposed when she heard Jason''s answer. "I don''t really think that I''m a Variant, and both my stigma and aura are natural products of my bloodline. Can''t you tell that I am a Halfling?" The last sentence struck Pera and Jen even more so, like a bolt of lightning as she turned around with wide eyes, stunned by the revelation. Yet, before she could ask anything Jason continued, "With my aura and stigma concealed, others would think that I''m just a Variant of the human race on Manyr which is quite refreshing too. But I guess people tend to forget that there are quite a few world bridges all around Manyr." What Jason revealed was not important to him anymore. His biggest secrets would still remain safely hidden with him. Revealing his true identity of a halfling, and that he was misunderstood as a Variant of the Manyrs could clear the air of mystery around him. Jen, who was still trying to hide her identity, should have seen his Celestia aura, Artemis'' wings, and his fully unleashed stigma already. As such, she could convey this information to the City Lord, only to be deemed a liar too, if he were to hide it in the City lord''s presence. Adding this to the fact that the City lord seemed to adore women while hating men could only fuel the fire which was definitely not something Jason wanted to achieve! Because of that, Jason decided to be straightforward, revealing certain things, while keeping certain things under wraps. He was not sure if Jen would be speaking to the City lord, or maybe those responsible for delivering his punishment, but more important right now was that his connections with the City lord wouldn''t be completely severed. There were various reasons for that, and three of them were around him! The first reason was the entire content of the building he was currently inside as it was extremely interesting and would help him forge, concoct, and inscribe runes he should have never known about let alone be able to inscribe. In fact, the basement was filled with a library, or at least, that was what Jason assumed to have seen through his Emperor Eyes. Every single book was intertwined with mana, primordial energy, spiritual force, or all three cultivation energies together. Thus, he was interested in taking a closer look. As for the second reason, it was the crazy woman, called Pera, who was at the Ascendion stage, and, in fact, in charge of the entire building. This was something Jason figured out pretty easily because the building''s third floor had chambers, and only one of it was in use. Thanks to his Emperor Eyes, he could see the lingering traces of Pera''s mana there, indicating that she didn''t leave the small tower-like building, even to rest or sleep. In the end, the last reason was even more important to Jason because it was Jen, the female halfling of the Aeus and Devir race, who had awoken all three cultivation veins. He was not sure what exactly made him pay attention to her, but what had ignited his interest had been her silver-colored eyes with crimson rings around her pupils. After that, he had been intrigued by her cultivation veins, and combat prowess that broke through an entire stage. There were several other things he found interesting about the young woman, but even without her, Jason wouldn''t want to be on bad terms with a being at the Specta stage, right after he entered the city. Right now, Jason was not sure whether his accidental intrusion into the City lord''s abode was something he should be worried about, or actually happy about having happened! It could turn into a great, bountiful opportunity, or into a situation that could escalate against him real quick. There was still a punishment he had yet to receive for trespassing, even worse, the City lord''s, but somehow, Jason was relatively unruffled. Having revealed some details of his own identity, both Pera and Jen were looking at him as if he was the dumbest person they had encountered in a long time. However, only a moment later, Jen smiled at Jason, thinking that he was a bit foolish because he believed that he was forced to reveal his identity as a halfling in front of them. Only under life-threatening or dire circumstances should someone reveal their true identity was what she believed and Jason had done just the opposite! This was the reason she thought that Jason was a little fool. Covering her mouth while staring at him, she took a moment before she regained her composure, only to be looked at weirdly by Pera. ''What the hell is going on with these youngsters? Am I in a high-teen romance show or what?'' She wondered before she saw that Jen turned serious. "It''s good that you think exposing your identity is for your best, but don''t do that too lightly. While Mutants and Variants are already frowned upon because they''re different, Halflings are feared¡­.and being feared is not something you should be happy about because fear will bring people together...to hunt you down!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 631 - Tanadan Jason was still not sure how Pera and Jen hadn''t been able to figure out that he had been a halfling without him exposing his identity. However, what he didn''t know was the simple fact that all kinds of races existed and that it was quite common to come across extraordinary-looking beings. There were also those that looked like humans, only to be different, owing to different body parts of unique traits. As such, nobody could truly figure out that one was a halfling, except if one was able to use repulsive energies or affinities at the same time. This indicated that one possessed a unique constitution that allowed the wielder to use these energies and affinities at the same time. In the end, there were also other possibilities to be able to use multiple energies or repulsive affinities at once, and Jason just didn''t know about it yet. His mind and behavior had been conditioned according to the surroundings on Argos, where every race including the infiltrating races were well known. Jason had yet to understand that it was completely different on Manyr, where everything, including one''s race, was much more difficult to determine. Nevertheless, his initial assumption about Jennifer being a halfling had been correct, and his revelation about being a halfling himself eased the tension she had been feeling before. With his golden-silverish eyes, and his aura and stigma fully unleashed, Jason''s demeanor had changed completely, and Jen recalled the short moment she had been distracted by the young man, several months ago. However, instead of mentioning it, she preferred to remain silent about her identity and thanked Pera for the potions before she bid them farewell. Seeing Jason''s innocent smile and his kind aura, Jen felt bad about the fact that he would be punished for entering the City lord''s abode. ''Should I make a short detour and see my Master for a moment?'' While Jen asked the doubt to herself, Pera averted her attention from the young woman who left through the halfway, which connected the auxiliary tower with the main building. Looking at Jason, she smiled craftily. The moment he saw this, Jason couldn''t help but take a step back, only to bump into the table behind him as he heard Pera ask, "From the looks of it and your ''situation'', I doubt that your punishment will be severe. As such, you can calm down and distract yourself. Do you want to forge a little bit? The cold-looking Aeus you met earlier told me that you made an inscription solution and that you wanted to forge a weapon. Can I see what you made?" Considering that Pera was called a crazy woman, she was able to easily adapt to the situation without sounding crazy at all. Rather, Jason found that she was quite normal if one were to exclude the comment she made earlier. With that in mind, he took the bright red dagger out of his spatial ring. The dagger had slightly darker red runes inscribed on the bright red blade, which made them barely visible. However, that was not an important aspect of the dagger. Its appearance was far from perfect, but Jason was fully aware of the same. The more interesting aspect of the dagger was the fact that the main ingredients to forge the weapon were fire-attributed! With the fire elemental crystal as the main ingredient of the inscription solution, and the fire element ore as the only metal used to forge the blade, the dagger had become a tool that was fully focused on enhancing the fire attribute. Because of that, Jason released a faint trace of mana into the dagger which heated it up as a rune ignited. A moment later, sparks flew and a flame erupted from the dagger''s tip before the entire weapon was enveloped in a thin membrane of flames. Seeing this, Pera was immediately interested but also confused because Jason was obviously much younger to achieve this feat than one would normally be. She had long since released her mana currents to investigate Jason so that nothing unexpected could happen. He had noticed her move, but he didn''t feel the need to waste his energy to prevent someone who was merely two stages above him, from figuring out who he was and how old he was according to his bone age. Even if Jason wanted to exert his energy in putting up a defense, the mana currents of someone at the Ascendion stage could simply squash him, if Pera wanted to. Thus, he remained silent as Pera asked in confusion, "You were able to forge a weapon out of fire attributed Tanadan ore? And you are yet to turn 20. That''s¡­ uncommon, to put it in extremely simple terms¡­" Jason only smiled at this before he replied, "One could say that I emerged inside a cave that had this ore, and elemental crystals all at one place. I have some with better quality, and at the Prismar rank too!" Instead of lying, Jason decided to be honest with the people inside the City lord''s abode. There was no proper reason for him to do so, except his gut feeling guiding his actions to avoid receiving a painful punishment. Honesty should still hold some value, even more so in an era that was filled with lies, greed, and self-centered beings. Pera just nodded her head when she heard Jason, only to tilt her head a moment later. "I guess you don''t know the Tanadan ore or, you wouldn''t tell me about the cave. To put it nicely, this ore is extremely important to forge certain weapons similar to the one you did. Because the cultivation paths of Pryr and Spiral are unable to use affinities, beings with those cultivation paths are always searching for ways to utilise their cultivation energy to the limit of their capabilities. With your little weapon, even said beings could manifest a flame, and with enough practice maybe learn to conjure a fireball or other more dangerous things." After Pera said this, she extended her hand with her palm wide open, indicating Jason that he should hand over the dagger to her for a moment. He did as requested, and only a moment later she released some spiritual force, before inserting it into the dagger that began to heat up before a faint flame emerged from it. Detaching it from the dagger-blade, Pera conjured an extremely small fireball before it dispersed. A moment later, Pera''s face turned pale, draining her of all the color, which caused him to instinctively take a step forward. However, only a moment later, Pera''s expression returned to normal as she mumbled, "I really shouldn''t use spiritual force anymore¡­" Jason had found her spiritual force weird since he''d seen her wield it with his Emperor Eyes. At the same time, he could tell that her cultivation was at the Ascendion stage, but only in the path of Maest. Meanwhile, Pera''s awakened Spiral cultivation vein seemed to be damaged or malfunctioning because she hadn''t cultivated in the Spiral path! In the end, this was not something Jason should be bothered about, but somehow he felt sorry. ''She definitely didn''t receive a blessing in disguise...that''s more like bad luck in disguise!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 632 - Luna Having awakened two cultivation veins should be something extremely good and praise-worthy, but to see that one of the two awakened veins was not working could only be described as shattering of a dream. Because of that Jason felt a little bad for Pera but then reminded himself that it would do him no good to poke his nose in others'' business. While he was deep in thoughts, Jason was interrupted by Pera, who suddenly began to explain something to him. "You saw that, right? Even without using mana, let alone a fire affinity, I could manifest a small flame. The strength and versatility at which someone without a fire affinity can use the dagger made out of fire attributed Tanadan metal is restricted, but the higher the ore''s rank and quality, the smaller the restriction will become!" Jason felt that this new information was extremely beneficial for him because the vast majority of his spatial rings were filled with elemental crystals and the Tanadan ore of multiple affinities. With this newfound information, he now felt that he should have stayed in the cave of elements for a little longer. Returning now would be a waste of time as his spatial rings were filled to the brim from his last excavation! As such, he had more than enough Tanadan ore and elemental crystals. Forging a proper weapon using each of the ores and crystals in his spatial ring would probably take years, but that did not matter because he would trade a few things, either way. Right now, he just wanted to forge, and improve his overall capabilities in all three auxiliary occupations. Unfortunately, Jason was required to purchase lots of ingredients to achieve this, and he was not allowed to leave right now. Thus, even forging weapons with anything else except the remaining vials of the fire attributed inscription solution was not possible right now. This made him sigh, and when Pera asked him what was going on, Jason explained his situation. "Right now, my stock of materials has dwindled drastically. I only have Tanadan ores and elemental crystals stockpiled. As for the other ores I have, they''re not exactly rare or difficult to forge with. I guess, that means I''ll have to continue using the fire attributed Tanadan ore until I receive my punishment, so that I can leave to find a shop where I can look for the necessary ingredients." Jason sounded genuinely sad, which was apparent in his aura that turned gloomy, releasing a trace of sadness instead of the earlier kind and happy emotions. This caused Pera to smile lightly, thinking that Jason''s aura was well connected to his range of emotions. She wanted to say that Jason could use her warehouse but suddenly remembered something. ''Before I can offer something, I should tell Luna that this youth is too talented to be punished severely¡­ It would be a shame, even if he is only whipped fifty times or so with the energy sealing whip....'' With that thought in mind, Pera couldn''t help but think that she should try to prevent the City lord from using her common prejudice against men to punish Jason. Trying to think of a solution for this issue, Pera got an idea not long after which made her look at Jason for a moment. "I will have to go somewhere for a little while. Please do not hesitate to use anything you see here, but don''t leave the auxiliary tower if possible, otherwise not only you will be punished but also I!" Despite not being acquainted with Jason for a long time, the sincerity reflecting from him was crystal clear for Pera to see. It showed that he had not intentionally entered the City lord''s abode, let alone harbored any ill intention to assassinate her. He was way too weak for that and didn''t have enough knowledge about too many things to see such a big task to its end. The things he had explained, his obvious confusion about the most basic things, and so on made it clear that he was not educated about Manyr, let alone one of the other older planets. Even on other planets, his knowledge would be deemed as below average, and only Jason''s forging, alchemy, and inscription knowledge, or rather, innate talent was balancing out this lack of knowledge! Because of that, and the fact that Jason seemed to be a nice youth who was eager to find out more about the things he didn''t know, Pera decided to pay a visit to the City Lord, Luna! Even if she was not sure if this would help, trying was not too much to ask for as Luna''s punishment was severe and extremely painful to endure! While Pera left to meet Luna, Jason found himself all alone in the entire tower with tools and materials whose value he couldn''t determine. However, that was not important to him because his eyes were glued to the floor, where his Emperor Eyes perceived the large library. ''She said I can use everything, right?'' He asked himself, with a faint smile on his face. Nodding faintly, he reassured himself. As such, Jason decided that it would be fine for him to enter the library, at least, he hoped so. With that in mind, he approached the stairway that led downwards only to arrive in front of a large, locked door. Under normal circumstances, Jason would have to know the exact configuration of the lock in order to open or the same energy fluctuations of those who had received permission to enter the library. This was extremely interesting, but not enough for him to stop in his tracks and take a proper look. He just wanted to read a few books and improve his knowledge. As such, using his Emperor Eyes, he made use of the mana remnants of Pera''s mana to unlock the door relatively easily. There was no concealment of the complex set of runes, and they were only hidden from the public eye, which, however, didn''t include Jason''s unique eyes and the ability to see energy fluctuations. As such, it was possible for him to open the door, and enter the library that was much larger than he had expected. It was extremely clean and small crystals lit up the inner chamber, the scent of old leather and paper, wafting through the air. This caused goosebumps to erupt all over his skin as the scent hit his nostrils the moment he stepped inside, invigorating him. He had always loved reading books and the library appeared to be no less than a treasure trove to him. After slipping inside, he quickly closed the door behind him, to preserve the books. The library had dense energy fluctuations that served as an additional factor to preserve the books, preventing them from decaying. They already had runes inscribed on them to prevent this, but it was always better to have an additional protection layer. Picking the first book that attracted his interest, Jason touched it gently before he opened it carefully. Even if Pera had allowed him free reign inside the auxiliary tower, he didn''t want to damage anything. As such, after selecting a book, he looked around for a table and chair, to sit back and read comfortably. Only a moment later, sheets of paper and a pencil appeared in front of him. Jason knew that he wouldn''t understand everything he read. As such, he wanted to jot down questions which he could ask Pera later. He knew that his punishment would be dealt with soon, but Jason wanted to make the punishment count. He wanted to take away something even if it was knowledge instead of simply getting beaten to a pulp for naught. Thus, he hoped that Pera would answer his questions. With that in mind, some time passed, in which Jason was able to read the first book while scribbling down a few questions on the piece of paper. He had been so engrossed in the act that he was alarmed to be suddenly interrupted by the dense mana currents of the being at the Specta stage, he had perceived before. ''The City lord is coming over, and her mana currents are...volatile...that''s bad¡­'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 633 - Caugh Red-handed The moment Pera had left Jason, she began to look out for Luna, the City lord. However, what she didn''t expect to see the moment he found her in the main hall was that there were already four women speaking to her. It was Jen, and the three guards who had brought Jason to the auxiliary tower, and their reason to be there seemed to be the exact same as Pera''s. This caused her to smile oddly, wondering how the young man had been able to convince all of them to help him, without doing anything at all. From the looks of it, Jason had simply accepted the punishment, even without knowing what it was. However, this was exactly the weird point that caused the others to be confused because it was an unordinary reaction. Under normal circumstances, one would give their best to prove their innocence or create a ruckus, but Jason was different. He simply accepted that he had erred, and instead of complaining, he simply awaited his fate at the hands of Luna while diverting his attention elsewhere. While any other person would have been sweating buckets and worried sick about the misery that would befall them, he focussed on learning more about the auxiliary occupations, which was essentially the reason for Pera to approach the City lord right now. The moment Pera entered the main hall, Luna, who had long since noticed her mana fluctuations couldn''t help but sigh. "Please don''t tell me that you are also here to request that the intruder get a light punishment¡­" This caused Pera to halt in her tracks as she smiled drily before she cleared her throat. "I...don''t really think he is an intruder...but if you want to punish him as an intruder, then yes, I am here to ask for a lighter punishment for Jason¡­" Sighing deeply, the City lord looked at her disciple, who returned her gaze with a firm expression as if she wanted to say ''trust me'' before her attention returned to Pera. "So, in order to tell me that the youth did not intrude my territory intentionally, you leave him alone in the auxiliary tower that is filled with the majority of the treasures we have acquired through centuries of hard work and sacrifice ¡­.are you serious right now?" Luna''s voice was turning bitter with each spoken word which made an involuntary chill run down Pera''s spine. She couldn''t help but feel goosebumps covering her body, while the feathers of her wings stiffened. "Well...to put it simply, yes...but instead of pointing that out, look at that dagger! It''s forged pretty well, and the young man used Tanadan ore for the first time in his life!" Pera was holding out the dagger Jason had forged. She hadn''t returned it to Jason, who was oblivious to the fact that she wanted to keep it for herself. Rather, he didn''t care about it as he was already in the library at that time! Inspecting the weapon, Luna sighed once again as she said. "So, you think he is talented just because he forged such a weapon? Have your standards decreased, Pera? Don''t tell me you want to take him in as an apprentice? Didn''t you dislike the thought of having one after what had happened earlier?!" Luna was slowly starting to become agitated about the young intruder, because everyone was turning against her, requesting to give the intruder, called Jason, a lighter punishment. However, Pera''s next words caused Luna to calm down a little bit, allowing her to set aside her prejudice against men and not let her emotions affect her rational thinking too much. "I think the youth is really talented. His knowledge is not that vast, but his talent in all three basic auxiliary occupations should be extremely high. He is still in his teenage years meaning he is still in his prime to learn...I didn''t think of taking him in as an apprentice, but now that you say it, he is interesting and seems¡­.different to him¡­" Hearing Pera''s words, Luna''s interest in figuring out who the young man was had increased further. Yet, this interest was more inclined towards how she could prove to the others that the intruder was just like every other man; a liar and vile! As such, she wanted to nitpick and find even the tiniest flaw so that she could punish him without restraint. Nobody knew what had really happened to Luna to hate men so much. Even small boys were not left out of her hatred, and the only exception were the double awakened male Manyrs, Jen would save once in a while, who would escape her wrath. However, their existence was only accepted as long as they followed Jen''s orders, and would never even dare to approach the City lord! They were far enough from her reach, to never encounter her, either. Thus, driven by the thought of revealing Jason''s evil nature, the City lord actively released her mana currents, only to jump up from her seat, the moment she sensed where Jason was! Rage flared up within her as she growled. "He is inside the Library!" Hearing this, Pera''s eyes widened, and even the others couldn''t help but feel astonished as they were already enveloped in Luna''s mana. Only a moment later, they appeared within the first floor of the auxiliary tower as they rushed down into the basement. There, she saw that Jason was already standing, having noticed the arrival of the City lord as he bowed to her. "Hello esteemed City lord, my name is Jason, and I''m sorry for the intrusion, it was not intentionally done¡­" This simple sentence and the Celestia aura Jason released while smiling innocently at Luna were already enough to extinguish the flame of wrath within the City lord. Taking a deep breath, the City lord had the urge to squash Jason into a pulp, but at the same time, she didn''t want to stain the books and the spotlessly clean floor of the library with his blood. Because of that, she decided to voice out the question lingering on everybody''s mind. "How did you find and enter the library and what did you plan to do?!" Her voice was ice-cold and filled with anger, which was completely different in comparison to the icy-looking Aeus, whose personality was cold, but rather emotionless. The question caused Jason to feel a little bit confused, wondering why the City lord was so adamant to pin him to wrong-doing and think that there were certain things he shouldn''t know yet. "I was told that I can use everything the way I want¡­ so I entered the library and started reading a book...was that not included? I wrote down a few questions too if that helps to show that I didn''t plan to steal anything..." This caused the tall blond-haired woman to look oddly at Pera, with a faint trace of anger visible on her face. "So, you didn''t lock the library again, and now the intruder was able to enter it?!?" Hearing this, Pera stiffened before looking pitifully at Luna and was about to say that she had locked the door when Jason intervened. "The doors were locked, but I could easily open it...and I''m not an intruder...more like a victim of my own stubbornness against purchasing a city guide, I guess?" Averting her attention to Jason once again, her eyes bore into him and the disgust and anger in the City lord''s eyes caused him to flinch. Instinctively, he looked to the ground, trying to prevent the woman from killing him in the blink of an eye. ''Maybe I should just learn how to shut my mouth when it''s necessary¡­'' He thought, only to feel that the piece of paper on which he had written down his questions had been snatched out of his hand. Taking a glimpse, Jason noticed that the City Lord read his first question, only to stop right after that. "Are you serious with such a question? Either you really don''t know the answer, you are stupid, or you lied to us beforehand!! How can someone, who has been praised by Pera as having the potential to become a good blacksmith, ask such a stupid question?!?!" Jason gulped down his saliva as he saw the anger in the City lord''s eyes, making him wonder if she was normally like that, or if she was simply having a bad day. However, in the end, this didn''t matter because the wrath radiating towards him was scary enough for Jason to be afraid. It was the first instance in a long time that he had felt fear, and he couldn''t help but think that the situation was slowly escalating! And all of that seemed to have ignited after the City lord had read his first question. ''I should have written the follow-up question in the same line¡­'' Cursing himself in his head, Jason wanted to say something to justify his first question, only to notice that his lips had just been sealed by mana as the City lord began to read his first question out loud. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 634 - Theory As Luna read through the first question Jason had written down, she felt a surge of anger erupt from within her, which she could barely control. It took all her self-control to not get up from her seat and hit Jason then and there. [If fire and ice attributed Tanadan ores of the exact same quality, grade and quantity are used to forge, will the weapon have the ability to manifest both affinities, or will the repulsive affinities and properties not allow the formation of an alloy between these two ores? If they reject each other, what can be added into the alloy to allow a successful amalgamation?] The final answer was obvious because it was simply not possible to create an alloy out of the two Tanadan ores if they had opposite attributed affinities. Staring daggers at Pera, who was not sure what had happened in the time she had left Jason alone, Luna''s anger was slowly transferred to Jason. She was fuming and spoke through gritted teeth, "To think that I really wanted to lower your punishment...I don''t care whether you are a God, Variant, or Halfling, wasting my time and enraging me is not something anyone should do!!" The rage infused into the tall woman''s voice and mana currents was slowly seeping towards Jason, who could barely breathe. Even if the woman in front of him seemed to be exaggerating, he knew that it would be worse to add more fuel to the fire. As such, he could barely release a thread of his mana to transmit his voice. [Second questi-,.n] The voice transmission didn''t even go through fully because Luna terminated Jason''s connection, only to look straight into his eyes. There was not even the slightest trace of fear in his eyes which was odd, considering that he had enraged a being at the Specta stage. As such, Luna decided to read further and her eyes flitted to the paper in her hand again but this time she read it in her head instead of reading it out loud. She was not sure why she did so, but something was odd about the youth, whether it was his aura or stigma she couldn''t tell. [Will adding a Lanar orb be enough to negate the repulsive properties and affinities of the fire, and ice attributed Tanadan ore, which is exactly the same in rank, quality, and quantity, or will it only change the properties, creating a water attributed weapon?] After reading the second question, Luna''s anger slowly receded, and she retracted some of her mana. He had made her curious and now she wanted to know more about him. As such, she unsealed his mouth to let him answer her doubt. "Why should the Lanar orb be suitable to negate the repulsive energies of an alloy created by the fusion of a fire and ice attributed Tanadan ore?" The City lord didn''t even look at Jason anymore as she handed Pera the piece of paper on which he had written down his questions. He was not sure about the exact answer, but considering that the City lord gave him a chance to speak, Jason decided that he had to give his best effort. "I read that the Lanar orb can absorb the energy released by transmuted energy fluctuations. As such, I thought it would absorb the fire and ice properties that are naturally released by the fire and ice Tanadan ore. After that, it should slowly help them to adjust to each other¡­ so I thought, it might serve as a catalyst to create an alloy with which you can use both the fire and ice affinity without any interference. It might be a little tricky, and require the support of runes that consistently improve the durability of the ore, but...I do not know that¡­" Despite not being a high-ranked blacksmith, Jason''s knowledge and understanding about the subject was anything but shallow. Luna could tell that Jason was interested in the topic. This was not difficult to tell, but when her eyes flicked at Pera, she saw him stare weirdly at Jason and didn''t know what was going on. "Is he talking utter garbage, or is his theory plausible?" Hearing this question made Pera fumble as she was not sure of the answer herself. However, to her relief, she had noticed that Luna had calmed down a little. Even though she didn''t trust Jason, this was different in the case of Pera and the other women. "From the logical point of view, the theory Jason has in mind shouldn''t be possible...but if we were to be honest, it shouldn''t be possible to have a holy and darkness affinity seed within the mana core either¡­ and we have multiple such cases here¡­" With the last few words, Pera hinted towards Jen, who had the holy and darkness affinity within her body, but she was also hinting towards the City Lord, who seemed to have a darkness and fire affinity too. As such, there were not one but two examples of repulsive affinity beings around her which she mentioned indirectly. Earlier, Jason hadn''t dared to take a proper look at the City lord, and it was only now that he stole a glance at her. She was tall, had long blond hair, and was gorgeous. However, what Jason was unable to tell was whether the City lord was a human, or belonged to another race. One of her eyes was silver-white in color, while the other was a dark brown, while she had both a holy and a darkness affinity within her mana core. Thus, he couldn''t help but feel that the City lord was more of a human than anything else because she simply looked like one according to her appearance. Carefully listening to Pera''s words, the City lord nodded her head, and before she could even avert her attention back to Jason, he had already mustered the courage to say something. "If I''m allowed, I would like to demonstrate something. It''s about the fire and ice theory I mentioned...only if that is fine¡­" He was still not sure how to talk to the City lord or the others who were quietly standing behind her. However, seeing the spark of anger suddenly flare in Luna''s eyes, Jason realised that he shouldn''t have spoken right now. "Did I allow you to speak?" She asked coldly, to which Jason replied by shaking his head. It was annoying to be treated like a school kid, but he had to follow the City lord''s rules right now. He didn''t want to offend her yet again after she seemed to have calmed down a little bit. Jason tried to look anywhere but in the direction of Luna, and simply waited for the City lord to say something, only for several minutes to pass without anything happening. An awkward silence filled the library and the women behind Luna only exchanged glances when Jen slowly mumbled, "Master...just let him show you what he wants to show¡­you can still decide what you want to do afterward¡­ it''s not like someone at the Lique stage can run away from a powerhouse at the Specta stage." Turning her gaze Jennifer, Luna saw her disciple smiling dryly at her as Pera added, "If he''d wanted to harm us, the entire library would''ve probably been on fire by now¡­" No sooner had the words left Pera''s mouth, she noticed how stupid she had been to remind Luna of her big mistake. As expected, Luna''s anger was unleashed once again as her voice rang through the library loud and clear. "And WHOSE fault would it be?!" Taking a step back, Pera bowed lightly, apologising before giving Luna a hesitant smile, knowing that she had messed up. "Alright...just show me what you want!" When the City lord finally paid heed to his request, Jason felt a heavy weight lifting off his chest as he sighed in relief. Yet, just as he was about to open his mouth to say something he shut it again, recalling the City lord''s earlier anger when he had spoken without permission. "Just speak, it''s not like you cared about that before¡­" Hearing this, Jason couldn''t help but blink his eyes as he stared at the City lord for a moment. ''She is quite a diva, ain''t she?'' This was something he had to remember, but instead of thinking about it any further, Jason spoke, "It would be best if we leave the Library for this...I don''t plan to burn down this place like Pera said¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 635 - Approach There were many things Jason could have wanted to demonstrate, but it was relatively easy to determine what exactly he aimed for. At least, that was what he assumed. After all of them had walked outside the library, the City lord looked at him with a stoic expression that looked like she was not certain about Jason''s intentional intrusion anymore. Seeing this, Jason smiled, thinking that he might have a good shot at avoiding being punished. However, rather than being focused on that, he couldn''t help but think that it was more important to make his demonstration as neat and clean as he could. "Because I couldn''t read much about the Lanar orb, given the short amount of time I was inside the Library, I''m not exactly sure if it would work as I assumed. Nevertheless, I hope I can show that my theory works. In total, I want to show three things. First and foremost, I want to know if it might be possible to use the Lanar orb, to create something like this¡­" Saying this, Jason created an icicle in one hand and a black colored fireball in the other. They were moving around his hand and arm independently, without obstructing each other, even if he were to use more mana for one of the two manifested affinities. The mana that circulated through his veins, transmuted by the activated affinities could pass each other, which Jen noticed with a faint nod, as she could do the same, while the City lord could now be certain about Jason being unique. As such, he was either from an extremely unique race, a Variant, or a Halfling. In the end, they knew that he was a halfling, but that was not the reason for him to be able to manifest a fireball and an icicle at the same time. Rather, it was his soul world and the fact that it had allowed him to bind Artemis and Solaris to his soul, transferring him their affinities. Now that he had revealed his ice affinity that seemed much worse in comparison to the extraordinary black flame, the City lord only focused on Solaris, wondering what kind of flame it was. There were multiple possibilities, but the most likely was that it was a higher origin flame, which caused the City lord to look at Jason in a new light. ''How was he able to procure this flame? If he never encountered someone at the Ascendion, or Specta stage before, this should be something impossible to procure! Did he lie?'' Questioning Jason once again, the City lord''s expression hardened but before she could say anything Jason quickly revealed the second thing he had wanted to demonstrate. Terminating his connection with both the conjured fireball and icicles, he took only a moment before a few blazing icicles manifested between his hands. Despite a low-temperature flame inside each of the icicles, they didn''t melt owing to the faint amount of mana Jason consistently inserted into them. Seeing what Jason was doing, the others grew interested and focussed all his attention on him. While observing him intently, they understood that his mind was not only focused on using two affinities at the same time, independently, but also together, to amplify each other. Shooting the blazing icicles into the air, he ordered some of them to explode, releasing thousands of ice shards, while the rest was instructed to shatter the icicle''s mantle, revealing the flame itself. The latter was something Jason had already done years ago because he had wanted the flame to fly in a straight line for a slightly longer time, without being influenced by the wind currents that would slow down and extinguish a normal fireball. Witnessing Jason''s demonstration, the City lord''s anger slowly dispersed because she realised that the answer to the simple question she had read, was more complex than one would think. For the last demonstration, Jason had to concentrate a little bit more as he had to use his fusion with Artemis. However, in order to not reveal the fusion at all, Jason retracted his stigma and aura completely, while preventing even a single body part of Artemis from manifesting on his body. This was harder than he had expected, and he noticed that controlling the fusion by only allowing it to change specific things was difficult to achieve. Fortunately, after a few minutes, only parts of his hair were dyed in a silver, almost white color, while Solaris accepted the change that came forth with his and Artemis'' fusion. Turning sky blue, the black fire affinity turned into the Frozen fire which he summoned without hesitationReleasing it in one hand, the surrounding temperature decreased within moments. The others had noticed that parts of his hair changed their color, while the image of a second stigma had manifested above his naturally formed stigma. This had already caused them to look at Jason in curiosity, only to see and feel the frozen flame. Looking into the sky blue flame, they were not sure if Jason was playing with their mind. While they were still confused by his ability, he further elaborated, "From the logical point of view, the frozen flame shouldn''t exist, but you could, in fact, call it a fusion between two of my affinities. It can only be conjured by doing something rather special, and I wondered if the Lanar orb allows two repulsive affinities to work similarly. If I understand the few pages I read correctly, the third demonstration might be a little difficult for it to achieve, but it''s not impossible. Meanwhile, the first and second demonstration I did, should be capable of creating a weapon that was forged with an alloy of two repulsive attributed ores!" While Jason finished his demonstration with a short statement, the others only looked at him with conflicted expressions. Releasing Artemis from his mana core''s thread that had initiated the fusion, he also allowed her to leave the mana core, making her return to the soul world. Thus, he returned to his former self, only for Jen to blurt out. "That''s crazy¡­." After that, she averted her attention to her master, only to see that she was looking at Jason as if she was feeling the same as Jen. "Master, do you think it''s even possible for us to control our affinities to the extent at which the holy, or darkness affinity accept each other similar to how Jason''s ice affinity was accepted by his black flame?" This was an important question, but Luna didn''t answer her disciple because she couldn''t hear Jen. Her entire focus was on Jason, and the sky blue flame that was slowly reverting to the black flame it had been before. Only after a few minutes and Jen tugging at her master''s clothes did the City lord move, looking around at what was going on. This caused the others to smile faintly while feeling as overwhelmed about Jason''s frozen fire as Luna did. However, Jen was more interested in the answer to her question which she repeated a second time, only to hear an answer she didn''t want to listen to. "Forcefully initiating an acceptance of two repulsive affinities should be close to impossible, if I were to speak about it in logical terms, but there are so many things I do not seem to know that you might have to try for yourself. Your body is different from mine, and it should be easier for you to achieve such a feat. It might take a few years, but, maybe, it''s possible for you to make your affinities accept each other wholeheartedly. As for me...I think my affinities are already too strong to let them get to know each other by manifesting them at the same time, together, while testing out all kinds of things. If I were to try it now, the entire manor would probably explode¡­ While you can test it out, you should experiment carefully with someone else around to help you if something goes wrong. I doubt it is as easy as Jason makes it look like." Jen was disappointed with this answer, but Pera heard something interesting, so she quickly intervened. "Luna, did you just call him Jason, instead of an intruder? You don''t think that he intentionally intruded your abode anymore?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 636 - Punishment "Luna, did you just call him Jason, instead of intruder? You don''t think that he intentionally intruded your abode anymore?" The moment the City lord heard this, she regretted her choice of words and bit her tongue. Glaring at Pera, who smiled lightly, Luna only said. "You shouldn''t be concerned about this youth''s punishment anymore. Rather, be prepared for yourself!! Who allowed you to leave a stranger alone...in the auxiliary tower at that?" Luna was enraged, but that was only obvious because many things could have gone wrong due to Pera''s carelessness of leaving Jason alone in the auxiliary tower. As such, Pera''s smile was washed away as she paled, however, knowing that she had done something wrong, she could only nod her head meekly, accepting her fate without complaining. Meanwhile, the City lord turned to Jason, only to look into his golden-silverish eyes as she sighed. "He is way too foolish to be an intruder, how can he easily expose his secrets to complete strangers?!? These words caused a faint smile to emerge on the other women''s faces, only for Jason to feel slightly offended. Despite that, it was great that the City Lord didn''t think of him as an intruder anymore. Thus, he simply ignored Luna''s comment and smiled at her. "As for your punishment...there shouldn''t be a need for that. You exposed your secrets, and you didn''t really do anything bad, to begin with. However, if you want to leave my abode, you will have to make a soul pact that will prevent you from exposing the existence of Jen, whose identity you seem to have learned with your unique eyes, as well as the other things you have heard!" What Luna said was reasonable and Jason nodded his head, happy about what he heard only for the City lord to continue speaking. "If, and only if you want to stay a little bit longer in my abode, you will have to make a soul contract, which prevents you from lying to us. That shouldn''t be much of a problem, and if you don''t want to say something, you can simply state that instead of answering forcefully. By staying here, you could become Pera''s apprentice for the time being. Her appraisal of your talent should be correct, and it shouldn''t be disadvantageous if we nurture you a bit!" Jason''s eyes grew wide to hear the City lord because he didn''t expect to receive such a grand opportunity. It was much better than he could have hoped for in the beginning, where he had to fear being executed on the spot. From fearing for his life, he was now suddenly being welcomed under their wing where he could grow and learn. The City lord''s sudden change in behavior was weird, but at the same time, not that unordinary because Jason was sincere with everything he had been saying or doing for the entire time. In the end, it would have been weirder, if Luna hadn''t noticed his sincerity, because that would mean she truly hated men, without differentiating between them, at all! Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t help but ask. "If I were to stay and become Pera''s apprentice, am I allowed to leave the auxiliary tower, or do I need to avoid encountering you¡­ It doesn''t look like you adore the sight of men...that''s why I''m asking¡­" He hoped that his words didn''t offend the City lord, but instead of the expected rage, she almost chuckled before she replied, "I think it''s fine if you walk around my abode, there is no need to confine you to the auxiliary tower, you are just a brat and not a man, after all!" Jason stiffened when he heard this, and he could only question himself why the City lord was suddenly trying to attack him with words instead of her strength. Nevertheless, he decided to remain silent for a moment, overcoming the painful words of the City lord that hurt his pride a little, only to look her straight into the eyes. "If that''s the case, I would be honored to learn new things from Pera, and if possible, improve my knowledge in other fields too. Maybe, I can even spar with the other cadets, I heard about too? I don''t want to neglect my cultivation progress, and combat training either!" He knew that he had yet to acquire a suitable martial art technique to improve his combat prowess once again, but that was not as important as constantly fighting against others, possibly stronger opponents, to prevent becoming outdated. If possible, Jason would prefer improving his knowledge and proficiency with the three basic auxiliary occupations a few days in the week, while cultivating late at night, only to use the remaining days to rest and hone his combat skills. This should be feasible, considering that he was allowed to walk around, and from the looks of it, the City Lord didn''t seem to have something against it. "As long as you sign the soul pact that prevents you from lying to me, Jen, Pera, and a few more I trust, you can do whatever you want!" Luna''s attitude towards Jason had completely changed, which was nice to see. However, at the same time, it was a little bit weird, and he couldn''t help but feel odd, only to see that the others'' reactions were not any different either. Jen looked at Luna as if she was doing something shocking, while the three guards couldn''t help but furrow their eyebrows to hear the decision. Meanwhile, Pera was rather happy about the outcome of the entire situation, except for the fact that she had made a big mistake. ''She won''t reduce the funds for the auxiliary tower...right?'' Pera suddenly questioned herself, with a shock, only for her to quickly put on a neutral expression, in an attempt to prevent Luna from noticing what she was thinking. A few moments of silence passed because nobody was sure what to say as Luna chose to sort out the mess once and for all. "Pera will explain everything necessary to you, and she can also set up the soul pact. There is no need for me to do that as long as the content of the soul pact is correct. Jennifer is in control of the cadets you were talking about, so you will have to ask her for permission to spar with others there. I also heard that Lanro is the first city you entered after leaving your origin planet. As such, you shouldn''t have a messenger emblem yet, Pera will take care of that too!" Taking a glance at Pera, Luna only saw Pera nodding her head before swiftly dragging Jason back into the auxiliary tower. "Let''s go into the tower, I can explain everything to you there. It''s much quieter too!" Using Jason as a means to avoid being punished, Pera quickly disappeared, leaving behind the City lord, who was smiling faintly, only to hear Jen ask. "Master, are you sure that it''s fine for Jason to be here? Don''t you dislike all males, whether young or old?..Maybe I''m mistaken¡­" However, seeing how Luna shook her head to come up with a proper answer, Jen was even more confused, only to hear the answer she hadn''t expected. "He is interesting, whether it''s his capabilities, cultivation stage, the strength of his mana fluctuations that are several times stronger than his cultivation rank, or his proficiency in the auxiliary occupation. In the end, his entire existence makes me feel as if we should try to either kill him right now, thereby preventing him from growing further, or be on friendly terms with him!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 637 - Thirsty Establishing the soul pacts that prevented him from lying to certain individuals as well as exposing Jen''s identity was not difficult and quickly completed. Jason didn''t even know much about Jennifer, to begin with. As such, it was pretty difficult to expose something he didn''t completely know himself. However, what he knew was already more than enough to make the Aeus and Devir race act against the City lord, despite her extremely strong cultivation base. At least that was what Pera said, only to explain everything about the three races'' culture, tradition, why there were so many Variants and talents in the City lord''s abode, without a single ordinary servant, and much more Jason was just beginning to know. In the end, the seemingly simple explanations took several hours, which was totally unexpected for Jason. Even Pera hadn''t expected this, but Jason''s list of questions seemed to be never-ending and the more she explained the more doubts he had. While being curious was a good thing, it prevented her from neatly summarising everything. Under normal circumstances, this would have been enough, yet, with Jason''s endless thirst for more knowledge, she was forced to provide exhaustive explanations to even the less important things. Owing to that, Jason understood almost everything clearly, which wouldn''t have been the case with a short summary. It was the first time for him to enter another planet with intelligent races if one were to exclude the broken world that was only a part of a destroyed world. Knowing very well that his fundamental knowledge of Manyr and its inhabitants was shallow, Jason wanted to get a refresher course. He wished to expand his knowledge while getting to know the basics which he hadn''t asked Als Nas and his students when they were traveling together. After a few hours of explanations, Jason received a small dark green-colored card with a unique-looking emblem engraved on it. Using his Emperor Eyes, he noticed that there were thousands upon thousands of runes, inscribed into the few millimeter thick card. There were several layers of sheets put together with each of them overflowing with runes. This was extremely interesting, and according to the information he had received, the emblem was that of the City lord. It was a crescent moon, while the card itself was the commonly used messenger with which one could communicate with others who knew the necessary contact information to call each other. Jason felt that this card was comparable to a highly upgraded version of the quantum bracelets, which allowed him to be able to quickly learn how to use it properly. A few contacts were already saved in the messenger card, which was also called Lunarium by those around the City lord. These contacts were necessary for Jason to know if he wanted to get around the city without being forced to rely on others, and they included everything Luna found important to have saved in the standard version of her people''s messenger card. She had included everyone with enough authority to decide something when she herself wasn''t around, and contacts like merchants, shops, and other necessities he would most likely require. Thus, to put it simply, the messenger card was like a small heaven to Jason, who could simply call a merchant to bring him the materials he required. This made Jason happy and it prevented him from going out to shop, allowing him to forge, concoct and inscribe runes until he was sick of it. Pera noticed his joy, which made her forget about the City lord''s inordinately favorable behavior towards Jason. Instead, she simply continued to explain all kinds of things, while stating a few rules he had to pay attention to. The rules weren''t hard to remember because one who had some basic etiquette and common sense would fare pretty well in abiding by them. As such, Jason felt weird hearing rules that warned him to not peek into the rooms of others, or even near the small hot spring the City lord''s manor had. Despite the weirdness, Jason couldn''t deny that it was also funny to hear such rules before he turned serious again. After the basic rules, Pera switched to the explanation of the dangers he had to face, now that he accepted staying inside the City lord''s abode. "Because you are one of the weakest individuals inside the manor, you might be attacked by Aeus, Devir or even humans the moment you leave the abode! Luna might be the City lord, but that doesn''t mean everyone respects her. Rather, the Aeus and Devir race are trying to shackle her down by making her the city lord, pinning her to the administrative affairs, and not letting her leave the city without anyone noticing so that they can wreak havoc on the barren lands, fighting for sovereignty. You''ve heard about the cadets before, and there are also some who are weaker than you, but you won''t find them in the manor, neither are they connected to Luna nor inside the Lanro city, at all! As such, be careful of where you go, and what you do. Others might not directly find out about your existence and connection with Luna because you are a male, but that will change once someone sees you leaving the abode, alive and uninjured!" Initially, Jason was under the impression that Pera was exaggerating, however, seeing how serious she sounded, he couldn''t help but gulp down his saliva. ''Great opportunities are definitely not something I would receive without having to face dangers...it''s not like I didn''t know that¡­'' With that thought in mind, Jason accepted everything rather easily. Digesting all information, his mind that had already been refined several times was rattling, only for him to look at Pera, the moment she was done explaining something for the nth time. She was parched after hours of speaking yet Jason was far from done. "Nobody answered the possibility of my earlier theory of utilising the Lanar orb, with a certain answer. Does that mean it could theoretically work out, or was I too far-fetched?" As Jason effortlessly switched between listening to the necessary explanations right to asking Pera questions related to the three basic auxiliary occupations, the young-looking woman who had already lived for hundreds of years couldn''t help but stare at Jason. ''Will he always be like that...filled with questions to the brim?....Maybe...that is the punishment given by Luna?!? No¡­.that can''t be, or can it?'' Whether it was intentional or not, Pera felt obliged to answer Jason''s question, only to realise that she had never thought of using the Lanar orb for something as extraordinary as combining two repulsive attributed Tanadan ores with each other and creating an alloy. As such, she couldn''t answer the question with certainty herself and fumbled saying that it could work if they were to experiment with it. "Unfortunately, Tanadan ore is expensive, and finding a fire and ice attributed Tanadan ore with the exact same quality, quantity and amount should not be worth the effort to search, let alone the high price for such a unique order to purchase them. Furthermore, the price of a single Lanar orb is not cheap either. Maybe we should start with the basic training and slowly advance ahead before starting with experiments like the one you mentioned. That''s fine, right?" Pera tried to minimise the wastage of funds as much as possible, and Jason, who was just about to take out the Tanadan ores and elemental crystals he had acquired to state that he had more than enough funds and ores to experiment with, halted in his tracks. ''Maybe, I shouldn''t be too wasteful with the materials I acquired in a duration of more than a month either¡­'' Even if he thought so, Jason''s thirst for knowledge and his desire to find out if his theory held any ground seemed endless. Nevertheless, Pera''s words were certainly true, and it was best to freshen up his skills and proficiency with the three basic auxiliary occupations first. After that, he could acquire wealth with which he could fund his own experiments. He didn''t want to use the City lord''s funds that were spent in the upkeep of the auxiliary tower for personal use after all! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 638 - Customisation Plan After Jason had walked out of the City lord''s grasp relatively unharmed, more than a week had flown by without any unique happenings. The library below the auxiliary tower had become a haven for Jason who hadn''t left it since entering. Determined to increase his knowledge, he had used the messenger card several times a day to ask Pera questions about something that flashed through his mind, or if he didn''t understand something. Pera, who had her own set of responsibilities to look after, was unable to do so properly as she received a call every few hours. Thus, she had been forced to do something that didn''t demand too much attention from her, making it possible for Pera to answer Jason''s questions without any hindrance. Jason didn''t know that he was distracting Pera to such an extent, but at the same time, he knew that he would ask her these questions even if he was aware of her busy schedule. In the end, Jason was even allowed to cultivate inside the library, which came as a pleasant surprise. With the energy density within the room, he had assumed that it was necessary to preserve the old books and tomes, but that was not the entire truth. Apparently, every subordinate of the City lord had learned how to read in full focus while cultivating. It was imperative to use every second in one''s life to the fullest extent, which was why Jason also tried to make it possible. Actively cultivating in the Balance of the Universe cultivation technique while reading was difficult, but now that a week had passed, he was slowly getting the hang of it. However, now that he had been inside the auxiliary tower for an entire week, Jason was eager to figure out more about the City lord''s abode, its unique places, and even more importantly, where he could spar against the other cadets. Jason felt the itch to fight, and with the three soulbonds idling around him during a whole week of silent reading and learning, they had been visibly annoyed at him. In the beginning, Jason had been a little bit worried that Solaris would accidentally set the entire library on fire, but after he controlled the temperature of its flame, the little origin flame couldn''t even heat up the wooden table that had only been a few centimeters away. Meanwhile, Artemis and Petri in their small form had nagged at Jason, pulling at his clothes, telling him to go out and fight others so that they would have more fun too. At the same time, Artemis reminded Jason that he had promised to revamp the interior of his soul world, once he had enough soul energy. This threshold had long since passed, and Jason felt a sudden urge to customise his soul world as he recalled his promise. ''I completely forgot about it!'' Jason could only think apologetically, transmitting it to his soulbonds while stating that he would soon change everything. There was not much for him to do right now, except becoming stronger, increasing his proficiency with all three basic auxiliary occupations, and so on. As such, he could easily spend a day or two, customising the ginormous soul world. Jason was not sure how exactly it would work, but with what he remembered about it, he had to bind everything to his soul, even the smallest molecule of soil, pebble, and water as long as he wanted it to be part of his soul world. This was interesting and gave him a huge variety of possibilities to change the entire soul world into a small world in which his soulbonds could be happy. In the end, they were bored quite often, which was given considering the fact that they were three completely different types of beings and not compatible to play with each other very well as they would do with other beasts or even brethren. Thus, without being able to permit unbound beings inside his soul world, Jason knew that his soul world needed a major overhaul. He even asked himself if he should bind a few low-ranked beasts just to make his world a bit more entertaining, but that brought forth disadvantages he didn''t want to bother about. As long as he didn''t have the intention to bind soulbonds to make them his family, Jason didn''t think that it would be wise to waste his precious soul threads. If he wouldn''t care about binding huge numbers of soulbonds, how should he pay attention to them without accidentally turning his soul world into a field of predators hunting the prey? God forbid, if his soulbonds were to ever start killing each other, his entire soul would turn into a bloody mess. Never let such a ghastly phenomenon occur was a taboo so he had to pay attention to his soulbonds existing in harmony. Another challenge he would face was feeding thousands of beasts every now and then if he were to follow the path of mass binding beasts. It would be too annoying and cumbersome as he couldn''t simply throw the food into the soul world without binding it to his soul. There might be a few changes in his soul world once it merged with his vessel at the Ascendion stage, but until then, Jason couldn''t know what exactly it would entail. At the same time, he would have to use the information at hand to make the best out of his current situation because he couldn''t waste his time worrying about the future every single time. This was only logical because the present was a prerequisite to living in the future. With that thought in mind, Jason left the library with his three soulbounds clinging to him. While Artemis and Petri went to their usual places on his shoulders, Solaris had once again changed its shape, trying to perfect the golden-eyed black flame dragon it had often shaped its flame into. However, now, the flames were at an extremely low temperature and it almost looked like Solaris had become a miniature dragon because one could barely see the flames flickering! Walking around the City lord''s abode, he didn''t immediately enter the manor as he wanted to familiarize himself with the other places first. At the same time, he had to call the security to announce that he was now walking around with three beasts and that they were neither intruders nor hostile. He should have done this earlier, but the library had specific runes that prevented the security team, or to be precise, the energy radar from perceiving beings inside it. Thus, he had only now revealed his soulbonds without saying anything specific about them. Even if someone asked, Jason would just say that they were his companions and that he could send them away owing to his soul awakening. Other than that, there was not much he would have to explain because the City lord told him that he could remain silent if he didn''t want to answer something. As such, Jason didn''t worry about it right now. Minutes morphed into hours and before he knew it, it was already dark when he completed his short tour around the City lord''s abode. Now that it was dark, Jason didn''t feel like searching for or calling Jen, only to find the cadet, which he incidentally hadn''t found, exactly as Pera had told him. Instead, he took out one of the few books Pera had given him, in which Jason could find a list of all kinds of merchants and items they were known for selling. In addition to that, there were a few common things every merchant sold, which made him take a proper look at every single item, including the prices that were the most frightening. ''Even the mana-infused soil is expensive...do I even need that?'' He suddenly wondered, only to realise that he had never tested how it might work if he were to bind certain plants that created mana or other energies to his soul. Through this, his soulbonds might even be able to cultivate inside the soul world, which would increase the efficiency at which he and his soulbonds could work by leaps and bounds. With that in mind, Jason could tell that purchasing mana-infused soil might as well be a good idea in addition to a few other seemingly ordinary items, only to recall something. ''I don''t have any funds¡­'' With that thought in mind, Jason could only smile lightly, thinking that his customisation plan had already failed for now. Meanwhile, his conscience accessed his spatial rings where he took a look at the elemental crystals and Tanadan ores. ''I should call the assistant of a merchant, to sell a few products soon¡­.after I make them with the remaining inscription solutions¡­'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 639 - First Step With his mindset on his first proper task, and excitement coursing through his veins, Jason felt fully energised. He didn''t want to return to the library or search for the cadets to spar against them at all anymore. Instead, Jason wanted to create strong weapons with which he could earn a fortune, before using it to customise his soul world. The thought that it was possible to allow his soulbonds to be entertained inside the boring soul world while being able to cultivate too, made Jason happy. This was mostly because his soulbonds transmitted their joy to him, making him determined to start working immediately. As long as his soulbonds were happy, he would feel the same. Furthermore, with the possibility to create a place for his soulbonds to cultivate, their strength would increase at a rapid pace, which would in return, enhance his own strength too. As such, he had even more reason to figure out whether his assumption was utter stupidity, or if it held some ground. Thus, after he returned to the auxiliary tower, he entered the second floor where most tools to forge were situated. The basement had one more room other than the library, but Jason was not really interested in exploring it, while the first floor was relatively simple and jam-packed with stuff Pera didn''t utilize often. Meanwhile, the second floor was the workplace for someone who wanted to practice any or all the three basic auxiliary occupations, while the topmost floor had multiple rooms to rest. Jason had visited the room allocated to him only once, but instead of sitting idle in his room, he would rather focus on other things. He had never really liked sleeping a lot, and being able to cultivate every minute allowed him to stay energised almost 24/7. Nobody could say for certain how much sleep someone at his cultivation rank required, but Jason simply assumed that once a week was already a lot. Personally, he didn''t feel like sleeping for more than two weeks in most cases. Furthermore, with his interest rekindled, there was even less need to even think about sleep as he took out the preserved inscription solution, in addition to his inscribing pen which was formerly used by Dalia. Jason thought of it as her heirloom and he wanted to try using it as long as he could until it would finally dull rendering it useless. The potency of high-graded inscription solution would slowly corrode the inscription pen from the inside. Only a good inscription pen that had specific runes engraved on it while having been manufactured out of highly resistant materials would enable Jason to inscribe using specific solutions. Fortunately, the pale golden inscription pen of Dalia was perfectly suited for his needs at the moment. Unfortunately, that was not the case with Shane''s forging equipment that paled in comparison to the smithy, anvil, and other tools he saw on the second floor of the auxiliary tower. Pera had explained their perks and what he had to pay attention to while using them, some time ago, and it was evident that their value was tens, if not hundreds of times higher than Shane''s equipment. This was sad, but Jason could only acknowledge this fact. Memories of his masters made him feel a little sad but he only smiled ruefully before entering the auxiliary tower''s warehouse, where he searched for a small box in which he could preserve the inscription solution much better than the spatial ring could. Jason didn''t need anything else from the warehouse, and instead of wasting more time than necessary, he took out a few Tanadan ores that had the fire attribute within them. They were the only ones he could use with the similar fire attributed inscription solution having a similar fire attribute which he had already prepared. As such, he only had to forge the Tanadan ore into a suitable weapon into which he could inscribe the inscription solution. With this, he could increase his forging proficiency, as well as the accuracy with which he could inscribe runes. Before starting the forging process, Jason evaluated the forging equipment first, including the weight of the hammers, whether they had a unique effect, and what special features the anvil and chimney itself had. The chimney appeared to be ordinary at first glance and Jason immediately compared it to Solaris'' flame. However, after placing the black flame into the chimney, this changed drastically as Solaris'' abilities were seemingly enhanced to a certain extent. This was great and allowed Jason to speed up the forging process by a large margin. Heating up and expelling the impurities usually took the longest, but these processes were now accelerated. This caused Jason to be happy, only for Artemis and Petri to transmit their joy that was seemingly fake. Noticing this, Jason ordered the two soulbonds to enter the soul world, or he would postpone customising it. Saying this worked wonders and they immediately left, while transmitting to him that he should stay true to his word. Chuckling, he finally was ready for a long day of work. Starting to forge, Jason decided to create a longsword which required one of the large batches of fire attributed Tanadan ores he had at hand. Heating it up took a while but the reduction process of the oxygen within the ore occurred faster than he could blink, leaving the raw metal behind. Seeing this, Jason smiled lightly, only to shake his head afterward. It seemed to be way easier than usual, but that was not problematic at all. Instead, it was extremely helpful and Jason felt at ease as he took out the heated-up Tanadan metal. Using the medium-sized hammer he had found in the smithy, Jason used it while exerting the Hammer of Fire, Ky?ldram forging technique he had copied some time ago. He was far from perfect at utilising it, and had at most learned the basics, but he was gradually improving. It was only a matter of time before he would become good enough to swiftly forge a great weapon that was further reinforced by the technique''s uniqueness. Thus he enveloped the medium-sized hammer with a faint layer of black flames, in addition to the neutral mana that was consistently released by the hammer itself due to the runes inscribed on it. In the end, the runes inscribed on the hammer allowed Jason to put in less effort while exerting the same strength as if he was using a higher amount of physical force. This decreased the brute force he would need to utilise, but at the same time, it caused him to be more careful about the amount of strength he applied. He didn''t want to destroy the mana veins that were intertwined with the other two veins, otherwise, he would have no option but to throw away the scrapped metal. While slowly shaping the blazing hot metal into a lengthy rectangular bar, Jason was already focusing on expelling as many impurities as possible as it would take the longest to cleanse the whole Tanadan metal of every single impurity. From the looks of it, there were more impurities in the ores with lower quality, and even worse, the positioning of the impurities within low-quality ores was extremely bad too. As such, Jason figured out that higher-quality ores were simply better and convenient to forge and purify. Despite that information, Jason figured that he could simply sell high-quality ores, or barter them with the same ore of a lower quality, only to get more in return. Even if he thought like that, it was easier for him to say that he could easily purify the ores than actually do it. The entire process was more arduous than Jason expected, and it took him three hours before he decided to stop. He hadn''t been able to purify the Tanadan metal perfectly, but it was already much better than his first attempt. Thus, having progressed, made him feel relieved but Jason didn''t want to be too full of himself. As such, he stopped purifying before focusing on completing the forging progress of the fire attributed ore to the longsword. This took three more hours, and painstaking effort, but the final result was worth it. The bright red weapon was gleaming faintly as Jason inserted a faint trace of mana to test its capabilities. While the mana conductivity was great, the amount of mana necessary to manifest a red flame that instinctively enveloped the sword was low. It was greater than the amount of mana necessary with an innate affinity seed but definitely not too taxing for anyone to use. This made Jason happy as he figured that he had forged a good weapon at the peak of the Lique stage! Suddenly, as he was about to store away the longsword to make space for a new forging procedure, he saw something out of the corner of his eye that made him stop in his tracks. ''Did I just forget that I have a huge fortune sitting right in front of me?'' He thought while cursing himself as he looked at the bulk of manuals inside his spatial ring. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 640 - Mythical Grade Seeing the small pile of manuals inside his spatial ring, Jason could only shake his head as his next thought was to immediately lament at his stupidity. ''I could have sold them already to gain a fortune to customise my soul world before starting to forge!... But will the merchant give me the correct price, or should I test the auction house for this?'' After his first thought, he immediately questioned whether the merchant would bring him the biggest profit, which was unlikely to be the case. Nevertheless, knowing that quick cash was more important right now, Jason decided to sell the worst techniques he had at hand to the merchant, while leaving the Terra, Intermediate, and Advanced techniques inside his spatial ring. Rather than worrying about losing out on too much profit, Jason wanted to sell them at the auction house, where many Manyrs without an affiliation were searching for suitable techniques with which they could cultivate, refine their body, or increase their combat prowess through martial art techniques. Apparently, even those with an affiliation were often seen browsing through the auctioned items in order to not miss the possible chance of finding an even more suitable martial art technique, or similar technique they could use. Thus, with his mind set in stone, Jason called the merchant assistant, who greeted him politely, without asking who Jason was. As such, his messenger card''s contact details had already been saved, only for an awkward moment of silence to occur as the assistant heard Jason''s voice. The merchant''s assistant had been frozen for a second, only to take a second look at the contact information. He was astonished to hear a male voice through the call of a messenger card that clearly belonged to the City Lord and her subordinates! This was shocking, but keeping up with his professionalism, the merchant''s assistant tried to retain a calm mind. "How may I help you Sir? Is there something Sir wants to purchase, barter or sell?" Jason noticed the confusion in the assistant''s voice, but instead of bothering about that, Jason simply stated the reason for his call. "I want to sell several martial art, cultivation, and body refinement techniques at the Terra-Basic grade, in addition to a peak Lique stage weapon with the fire attribute that can be manifested by all three cultivation veins!" Jason forgot the names of the weapons that could be used by all three cultivation paths, and it was evidently not the prefix Mana-, or soul. Thus, he could only state what his weapon could do, while making a mental note of asking Pera about the basic nomenclature for certain things. While Jason was in his thoughts, the merchant''s assistant was already asking a few things, trying to figure out which appraiser they had to send out to evaluate Jason''s goods and set the price they would pay. "How many manuals does Sir want to sell, and is the weapon Sir mentions a special-grade weapon or a mythical-grade? It''s not clear through the stated description!" Not knowing what exactly those two grades meant, Jason just answered the first question while trying to talk around the second one. "There are less than 100 manuals I would like to sell, and the weapon I mentioned is probably something between the special and mythical grade. Unfortunately, I''m not exactly sure about the precise evaluation." The merchant''s assistant went silent for a while before replying, "I just sent someone over to the City lord''s abode. She will arrive in the manor and appraise everything. I hope this is fine with Sir." After Jason stated his approval the call ended. In the end, the entire call was completed in less than three minutes, but Jason could only exhale deeply once the assistant had hung up. With the messenger card in his hand, he called Pera, who was not inside the auxiliary tower anymore, asking her what the special and mythical-grade the merchant''s assistant had been talking about was. "The merchant assistant I called earlier said something about special and mythical grades, but I haven''t read anything about that in the library books in the entire week. Just what are those grades?" Pera had already been confused about why Jason hadn''t called in the last few hours, but instead of complaining, she had just continued with her task, only to receive a call just when she had finished. "I assumed that you''re already aware of the grading system of unique weapons. In the end, it''s quite simple, and mostly one word as a prefix is added before the exact rank of the weapon is shared. As a matter of fact, the grading system just adds a little bit more details to the ranking. For example, a Mid Lique ranked weapon might be well forged, and extremely powerful owing to specific characteristics such as the fire attribute of the dagger you forged when you arrived. However, on the other hand, it''s also possible for a mid Lique ranked weapon to be ordinary, with nothing great about it except the material it had been forged with. Such weapons don''t get a prefix, because they''re deemed ''common.'' Special grade weapons are weapons that have, at least, one unique characteristic such as extraordinary endurance, sharpness, or other means that enhance the weapon above the standards of an ordinary mid Lique ranked weapon. Unique traits of a weapon are mostly gained through runes that have been inscribed, but that is not a trait the weapon gained innately. As such, they''re called half-step special grade. By undergoing purification, metals change innately and become more endurable, while the blades made out of highly purified materials are much sharper. To put it simply, all weapons and tools made out of highly purified weapons are special grade because they gain at least one unique characteristic. As for perfectly purified goods, they''re almost always called Mythical graded ones, but that comes with the requirement that all three cultivation veins can use the weapon. In your case, with the elemental attributed Tanadan ore you''ve mined as well as your ability to purify them greatly through the Origin flame you own, the final result will most likely be half step at the Mythical grade, or already considered a Mythical grade. This is, however, mostly owing to the unique trait the Tanadan ore has, which is its external usage of attributes, even if one cultivates in another cultivation path. The three cultivation veins inside the Tanadan ore are interlinked after all!" Jason found Pera''s explanation to be extremely helpful, and he thanked her before hanging up as he mumbled. "So every weapon I forge will at least be a Special-grade, if not Mythical grade? That sounds quite good!" Meanwhile, his Emperor Eyes perceived the arrival of someone at the Peak Prismar stage. The woman he saw was about to reach the manor so Jason quickly left the auxiliary tower while releasing his mana to show where the woman had to fly to. She was an Aeus, which made Jason wonder if it was a problem that he''d exposed himself to her. With that, he clearly showed that the City lord accepted his existence in her proximity as well as the fact that he was considered to be affiliated with her. Thus, he should be worried about his own safety, which was however not the case, because he could clearly see that there was no hue indicating danger around the Aeus. The moment the woman saw him, she arrived in front of him, flapping her large white wings before she halted. "Hello Sir, my name is Jule, and I''m here to appraise the manuals and peak Lique stage weapon whose grade is still unknown." She retained her professional attitude, and Jason simply nodded his head before entering the manor where they used one of the smaller rooms to appraise everything. Jason didn''t even bother taking a look at Jule, the Aeus, and without wasting any time, he took out a total of around 100 Terra-Basic grade manuals that had a wide variety of uses. Most of them belonged to the Ifrytor race, and wouldn''t be worth a lot, but instead of worrying about the exact price he would receive for the low-ranked techniques, his focus was on the longsword which he took out as the last object. ''It should be at the Mythical grade, or is it just a half step Mythical grade because it''s not perfectly purified?'' The grading system was extremely interesting because the price of a higher-ranked weapon was evidently a huge difference. If Jason were to compare it to ordinary Mana and Soul weapons, the difference in price should be even higher than that. As such, he couldn''t help but look at the light red blade of the longsword before he handed it to the appraiser, who looked at the weapon with interest. A few minutes passed in which she appraised the weapon, testing out all kinds of things, only for her eyes to widen in astonishment. "The weapon is not perfectly refined, and neither forged perfectly, but the forging process utilised seems to be close to perfection, and the forging technique used is interesting too. As for the inscribed runes, they''re perfectly placed, amplifying their potency drastically. At the same time, they''re suitable to enhance the fire attributed Tanadan metal''s fire, decreasing the consumption. To put it simply, the weapon is not yet perfect, but with a little bit of work, the person who forged this weapon can create a perfect Mythical grade weapon. All-in-all, it''s already a Mythical grade weapon even without being perfectly forged, It will be quite valuable for younger prodigies of the Devir and Aeus race who have yet to awaken an affinity, and are trying to learn how to use one!" Hearing the evaluation, Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly, which was seen by the appraiser, who eyed him for a moment. ''Did he forge it by himself? His cultivation rank is low, but his mana fluctuations are quite high...still, it takes years to learn how to purify a simple ore to the extent to which the Tanadan ore, which is extremely complex, has been purified. This youth is way too young to have done that!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 641 - Customisation Start Appraising the fire attributed Tanadan longsword and the small pile of manuals didn''t take long as Jule, the Aeus, was looking at each manual with a swift yet experienced eyes. Most techniques'' value was determined by the effect they had after entering the first stage, or second level of proficiency. For someone who had a slow start but an extreme amplification in the late stage of practice, this would change if they utilised unique techniques. Because this was not the case with the Tera-Basic techniques Jason sold, what took the longest to appraise had been the longsword that was a Mythical grade owing to its high purity factor and the combination of fire attributed Tanadan metal with a fire attributed inscription solution. Thus, after only half an hour, the Appraiser was done, stating a price for everything. "As you may already know, the techniques are not exactly powerful or have an extreme effect, increasing one''s power by leaps and bounds after practicing. Nevertheless, they have been written with an intent and energy imprint which means only someone with a high proficiency at said techniques can copy them. With that in mind, the price for each Terra-Basic technique would be five small, Ascendion rank cultivation stones. You can freely decide if you want Mana, Pryr, or Spirit stones because all of them have an equal demand in Lanro city. As for the fire attributed Tanadan longsword at the Mythical grade, the price would be three small-sized Ascendion stage cultivation stones!" Listening carefully to the proposed price, Jason nodded his head without hesitation, as he was happy about the evaluation. Cultivation resources were the currency that was mostly used on Manyr because everyone demanded them, and they were goods that would never lose their value. In some areas, certain resources would have a higher, or a lower value, but that was simply because the demand was not high, or the supply simply too large. Despite that, Jason was delighted about the three small Ascendion stage cultivation stones he received in exchange for his newly forged weapon. It was much more than he had expected because he could forge it in a matter of several hours. Thus, his funding issue should be solved rather easily. Looking at Jule, the Appraiser, Jason smiled lightly before he asked hurriedly. "That means, I have around 500 small Ascendion stage cultivation stones, right? Can I ask you to hand the Merchant a list of things I need or do I have to call the assistant again?" Jason didn''t waste any time and straightforwardly asked the Aeus if she could help him out. It was not much and she would be on her way back to the merchant, either way. Because of that, he thought that it was useless to call the merchant again, and it would save time if he were to simply hand the Appraiser a list of everything he needed. To start customising his soul world, Jason wouldn''t purchase too many things, and simply change the interior of a small space near the soul world core. A proper stone cave for Petri, a large tree with some greenery for Artemis, and a fireplace or something similar that Solaris liked wouldn''t be too expensive, leaving enough to test around with mana and primordial energy-generating plants. Jason had already jotted down quite a few, and the Appraiser looked at him, not sure whether he was making fun of her or not. However, seeing the list in his hands, Jule could only smile dryly as she said. "I can take the list with me, but you can use the messenger card to write a message to someone too. If you don''t know how it works, let your conscience enter the messenger card, target the specific contact information you want to write a message to. After that, a small field that looks similar to a piece of paper should appear in your conscience, and you should be able to write to the targeted party. Once you receive a notification, the messenger crystal glows faintly in the upper right corner. There is also the possibility that someone has deactivated the message function, but you will notice that then." Hearing this, Jason was astonished because he didn''t know about such a function. Pera had probably missed explaining the function to him, but that was not a problem. Thanking Jule for helping him, he handed her a list consisting of mostly ordinary materials such a mana-infused soil, small and large bushes, a large Unra tree, primordial energy intertwined stones in various sizes, and so on. These things were not hard to find and cheap, only for the more expensive items to be written at the end of the list. ''Maloeran flowers? Hucarda bush...and a Paern tree? Does he want to create a cultivation environment?'' Despite her curiosity, the Appraiser didn''t quiz him for the fear of coming across as rude and nodded her head before she bid farewell to Jason. "I will take my leave now. We should have most materials on the list in our warehouse, but some of them may not be there. It will probably take a day or two until everything is prepared, I hope that is fine with Sir!" Jason simply nodded his head because there was nothing wrong with waiting for a few days which was something he had expected. Nevertheless, he couldn''t help but say, "If possible, send the soil, and stones immediately. Thank you!" With that being said, the Aeus took a note of Jason''s wish before departing. After everything had been deducted, he still had more than 300 Ascendion stage cultivation stones left, but instead of keeping them for himself, Jason wanted the merchant to take them as credit, preventing unnecessarily annoying situations from occurring. Having a credit of 300 Ascendion stage cultivation stones, he could purchase quite a few things, but at the same time, he could accelerate his cultivation pace drastically. This was something he wanted to do, but at the same time, Jason required the funds, which was the reason for him to tell the Aeus to give him a credit for the sold goods instead of the physical cultivation stones. Interestingly enough, it took only two hours before another woman arrived in front of the manor, as Jason received a message from the merchant assistant that the stones, soil, and a few other commonly found items he had purchased were delivered. Thus, he left the library where he had decided to spend the wait time, only to tell the woman that ran errands to release the items right in front of him. "Sir, I can also transfer them from my spatial ring to yours¡­" Jason found it amusing how excessively the young woman tried to politely tell him that she didn''t need to drop everything out of the spatial ring, straight on the ground, possibly damaging some materials. Nevertheless, Jason was not interested in that because his spatial ring was still overflowing with things, while the materials he had purchased were not important enough to bother about being slightly damaged. The mana and primordial energy generating plants were not in this batch of delivered items after all. Thus, after Jason told the young woman to take out the items once again, she followed suit before taking his leave. Several small piles were created right in front of him, with one consisting of soil, another one of stones, and one more with all kinds of recently uprooted plants. There was even a tree, and Jason nodded his head, approving the goods as he smiled lightly. "Finally it''s time for the customisation to start!" He mumbled as he released several soul threads from his body, shooting towards the materials in front of him. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 642 - Possibility Enveloping the small piles of soil and stones with his soul threads at once, he also enveloped the bushes and the tree individually with his soul threads. With the excitement humming through him, he couldn''t wait to start the customization. More than ten soul threads were simultaneously led out of his body, controlled by him with ease, however, he noticed that binding everything to his soul at once might be a little annoying. Nevertheless, it was already too late and Jason didn''t want to sever his connection to some soul threads because it was a minor inconvenience. As such, he released the soul energy that levitated around his soul world core, leading them through the soul threads toward their designated goal. Even though the soil and stones were at the lowest grade, and had only been purchased in order to figure out if it was possible to create a cultivation environment without energy generating objects, Jason had to use most of the soul energy for these two ingredients. The sheer amount of soil and stones were overwhelming the demand for soul energy that was much lower with higher graded bushes and trees that were bound to his soul, individually. Jason was astonished about the amount of soul energy that was required to bind simple materials to his soul, but at the same time, he had had an inkling about the high demand. Thus, after having used up one million soul energy units and spending three hours, everything had been completely bound to his soul. Contrary to his expectations, he didn''t face any issues with the soul binding process, but that was a relief, and nothing to start complaining about. With everything having been bound, Jason was able to manifest a pentagram below the small pile of materials, moving everything to his soul world at once, where he began to test out all kinds of things. As he was able to control his soul world to some extent, it was possible for him to evenly distribute the soil to a certain extent, while planting the tree and bushes in it. Landscaping wasn''t his forte so it looked kind of messy, but it was better than nothing. Jason was still trying to improve his control over the soul world, and using soul threads instead of his hands helped him move everything a little bit easier. It was still not perfect, but when Artemis, Solaris, and Petri noticed what was happening, they rushed towards the small environment he was trying to create. Seeing that Jason had already bound everything, they began to help. Petri used his large body to even out the soil on the ground by bulldozing, while Artemis dug holes in her large form. After that, Petri coiled his long tail around the bushes in order to lift and then accurately plant them down. With the remaining soil, they sprinkled it around the stem and covered the roots, allowing the bushes and the tree to stand tall and the roots to have a firm grip. Meanwhile, Solaris had changed his form, taking on a large humanoid form with which it moved the stones in an orderly manner, placing them to form a cave as per Petri''s instructions. Several hours passed but by working together as a team, everything seemed to work out. His two soulbonds finally had a new home to rest, and the things Jason purchased for Solaris were sent over later. It shouldn''t take long anymore, and rather than going over to the next step of what he wanted to do, Jason began to cultivate while telling his soulbonds to try doing the same inside the soul world. With mana and primordial energy intertwined objects inside his soul world, this seemed to be possible, but the amount of energy they released was minuscule, and not even close enough to cultivate properly. Nevertheless, Jason figured out that it was possible to cultivate, and that the only issue was the scarcity of energy! That was extremely important and a crucial piece of information that caused him to be overjoyed. Now, he was able to customise his soul world, using high-graded materials to allow his soulbonds to cultivate at a rapid pace. With cultivation energy generating objects and high-grade common materials like soil, stones which were intertwined with a large quantity and high quality of mana and primordial energy, his plan of transforming his soul world into a cultivation ground, hopefully wouldn''t face a problem at all! ''Maybe it''s even possible to change a small part of the soul world into an area that has more mana and primordial energy than I can find on Manyr? With that it would be extremely beneficial to let my soulbonds cultivate there instead of Manyr or other planets that have denser, purer, and more cultivation energies, making it more pleasant to cultivate there¡­'' Thus, Jason was happy as he allowed his soulbonds to leave the soul world to cultivate with him in the open space until the next woman transporting parcels to the City lord''s abode would arrive. Having this in mind, Jason and his soulbonds began to cultivate behind the manor, so as to avoid others that have nothing to do with the City lord from seeing his soulbonds. Despite the plan, if someone like the City lord, Pera, or Jennifer would see his soulbonds, Jason was still not sure what exactly he would say to explain the situation. In the end, this was not something worrisome and he had already come up with an explanation, stating that they were his companions and that his soul awakening made it necessary for him to provide them with shelter and care. Owing to this, the non-existent issue had been solved, and the four of them were able to focus on cultivation. While the three of them were able to cultivate properly, Solaris was still struggling with his urge to speed up its cultivation progress. It was devouring as many soul crystals as possible in order to create more solidified prismarine crystals. Unfortunately, this was not what Solaris was supposed to do. The right course of action for it would be to use its own efforts to solidify a prismarine crystal while slowly absorbing the soul crystals when it was required. After spending three days of cultivation in a fully focused manner, Jason felt fully refreshed as he was notified about the arrival of his parcel. The mana generating plants had arrived, and Jason didn''t even waste time speaking with the delivery woman as he enveloped everything with his mana before rushing back to the manor''s backyard. Nobody annoyed him there, and even after the City lord had seen him with his three soulbonds, she made no comment. She was of the opinion that certain things shouldn''t be forcefully asked, and it would be better to figure out more gradually, without making Jason uncomfortable. The young man was too mysterious, but at the same time, too talented to make him uncomfortable because of something like the existence of three low-ranked beasts around him. Thus, Luna decided that he should feel safe and comfortable so that he would protect all of them, rather than fleeing at the first sight of danger. Protecting him was unnecessary right now, but everyone could tell that he was talented, despite only being at the late 4th Lique stage at the age of 19. This was what their instincts told them, and their gut feeling had yet to fail them. How could they have known that their instincts were not only true but that the question of whether Jason would protect them or flee at the sight of danger would arrive much sooner than anyone could have ever expected? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 643 - Portal After binding the mana and primordial energy creating plants, he planted them into his soul world, drastically increasing the amount of generated energy in his soul world. It was still incomparable to his surroundings, but better than nothing. Furthermore, the more nutrition he gave the plants, the more energy he would receive in return. This was interesting as they were currently working on the lowest possible level, barely consuming any nutrition from the soil around them. ''Will they wither once the nutrition inside the soil has been fully consumed, or will the plants start to drain nutrition out of my soul world, or rather, myself?'' Finding an answer to this question was important to figure out because he would have to pay more attention to his soul world than before if his assumption was correct. In the end, this meant that he would either need something that actively replenished the nutrition, replace the soil, or get his hands on something that passively refilled the nutrition in the soil in exchange for absorbing mana, or another cultivation energy, just like a treant of nature spirit. The latter would probably be the best as long as the mana consumption was lower so as to refill the nutrition in the soil than the mana generated by the plants. This was important if he didn''t want to suffer a loss. But that was something Jason couldn''t pay attention to right now because he had yet to figure out the answer to his previous question. Only then could he start thinking of what he should do, rather than possibly wasting his time. Now, Jason wanted to finally start looking for Jen, or to be more precise, the cadets. He was eager to fight using his full strength if possible in order to loosen his muscles, the tension in his body, and to empty his mind of all the thoughts that swirled within. Taking out the messenger card he called Jennifer, and it didn''t take long before she answered the call. "Hello Jason, did you finally decide to search for the cadets?" Somehow, Jason felt that Jen sounded extremely happy to receive his call, which was something he couldn''t really understand. ''Did something good happen to her?'' He was confused for a few seconds and didn''t catch half the words she said, only to regain his senses when he heard her yell his name followed by a quiet mumbling. "Did he call me by mistake? And here I thought he wanted to spar with the cadets to show his combat prowess¡­" After having encountered Jason the first time, Jen had been curious about him because he was different from any being she had seen before. Now that she knew that he was a halfling, just like her, only to be possibly from a race that was high in the rankings, Jen felt more excited to speak to him than before. For two whole weeks that he had been in the abode, he hadn''t shown signs of being interested in fighting, let alone searching where the cadets or Jen was. As such, she couldn''t help but feel happy that he had called, only to wonder if he called her by accident. Fortunately, her worry was quickly dispersed as Jason answered her. "I didn''t call accidentally. I wanted to know where you and the cadets are. It cannot be the City lord''s abode because I searched everything already." Jason had yet to understand why Jen was so excited to encounter another halfling, one who was as interesting as he was, with all kinds of mysterious secrets around him that she wanted to unveil slowly. Knowing everything about specific people would make them boring, but also interesting because they had opened their hearts to others, revealing their deepest secrets. However, to Jen, who had many secrets herself, with the biggest being that she was hiding her true identity from almost everyone, Jason was more interesting than anyone else. Not only was he able to figure out her identity right off the bat, but also almost every secret of hers within the blink of an eye. This had shocked her more than Jennifer wanted to acknowledge, but instead of being reluctant to speak to Jason, her curiosity was piqued further. Talking to a fellow halfling was a breath of fresh air, and the fact that Jason was not much younger than her made it easier for her to talk to him than those that were hundreds of years older. The comfort radiating from Jason was not only owing to his young age, but also his kind expression in addition to the Celestia aura that gave the last push. To top it all, he was one of the first male she was able to speak to at the same level owing to her master''s unique attitude towards men. As such, it was only obvious for her to be curious about speaking with Jason as he wasn''t shunned by her master like the other male cadets she had rescued so far. Meanwhile, Jason was oblivious to Jen''s train of thoughts and her opinion about him but it would be a lie if he were to say that he was not intrigued by Jen, owing to her uniqueness. She was beautiful in appearance, no doubt, but that was only one of the traits that made her special in his eyes. Despite having a devastating talent in the three cultivation veins she had awakened, Jen was down to earth, and quite easy to talk to. It was almost as if she was just a normal girl, which made Jason more comfortable around her as he didn''t have to be overly polite or pay attention to what he said. Nevertheless, he knew that she was similar to him in certain characteristics as she could turn serious within a moment, changing her entire demeanor and surrounding atmosphere. He awaited her answer on where she and the cadets were, which didn''t take long as she simply told him to enter the manor and go to the basement. "In the basement, you will find a large octagram inscribed in multiple layers of countless runes, with a simple looking gate in the center of it. It''s a portal, and you only have to choose your destination, which is the cadets training camp, and it will connect to the portal inside the barren lands, where I am. In the beginning, it might look complex, but it isn''t all that hard. Just experiment a little bit with it, but don''t even think about touching the runes on the first layer. The first layer conceals the portal, preventing others from figuring out what we are doing. Once the Devirs or Aeus find out what we have been doing, it will be a little bit difficult to retain the peace we have right now!" Jason was confused to hear the last few sentences, but he just nodded his head saying that he would do as instructed before he ended the call. Jen wanted to talk a little bit more, but when Jason hung up, she figured that it was also possible to speak to him when he would reach the training ground. Not wanting to stay idle, Jason told his soulbonds to enter the soul world once again before he entered the Manor. "So the multiple layers of runes I could see with my Emperor Eyes were for a long-distance portal? From the looks of it and the runes utilized, it''s similar to a world bridge. The only difference is that it is used to teleport someone to a different place on the same planet!" Muttering to himself, he entered the basement, only to wonder what exactly the City lord and Jennifer have been doing, to possibly enrage the Aeus and Devirs. ''Is building up an army enough to enrage the Aeus and Devir race¡­.I don''t think so...What else could it be? They''re not planning to use the Manyrs that awakened two cultivation veins to fight against the Aeus and Devirs, right? Wouldn''t that be a little bit foolish, considering that attacking one race would probably lead to waging war with both? They would never accept each other''s destruction in the face of a possibly more dangerous opponent!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 644 - Eagerness Standing in front of the portal, Jason felt the dense energy currents swirling inside the room subconsciously enter his body. Feeling the pure mana enter his body, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit astonished, only to come back to his senses a moment later. ''Why is the energy in this room so pure and both high in quality and quantity?'' He wondered while trying to figure out the solution without wasting any time with what he was supposed to do right now. While activating the runes, and choosing one of the few possible destinations which were shown via images that manifested above a set of runes, Jason''s Emperor Eyes found something that was extremely interesting. Through the layers of countless runes that created an octagram, a particular interconnection of a bunch of runes was pulling the three cultivation energies out of the depths of the ground. This empowered the portal while filling every inch of space within the entire room with the purest mana, which Jason found to be extremely interesting. Creating the portal must have been extremely difficult and Jason began to question himself whether Pera had created the portal, or someone else. He was not sure how high her proficiency and talent with runes was, but considering that every single rune in the layers of octagrams was inscribed perfectly, he couldn''t help but applaud the mysterious Inscriber. Instead of hurrying through the gate, he kept gazing at the smoothly connected layers that wasted not even a single centimeter of space, and it was obvious that the Inscriber was extremely talented and knowledgeable. The Inscriber knew what he, or she, was doing! Despite his interest in the overlapping octagrams, he couldn''t afford to waste any more time and soon chose the destination Jen mentioned. After that, the gate began to glow in a faint blue color as liquid manifested within it. The liquid had a dark blue color, and held all the three cultivation energies in their compressed form, intertwined with the spatial affinity, allowing the teleportation, in the first place. Taking a deep breath, Jason took one last look at the octagram before he entered the portal. Only a few seconds later, he emerged in an open, barren area, where he was unable to see anything for some time, only to blurt out what was on his mind. "That was¡­.boring¡­" While Jason expressed his opinion about the teleportation process, he couldn''t help but feel disappointed, thinking that it was just normal teleportation, and not even close to the thrill he experienced upon entering a world bridge. If one were to compare the feeling, it was as if one watched an extremely short, but also bad movie right after having watched a three hour blockbuster. During the teleportation process, Jason hadn''t even been able to see Manyr''s environment. It was more like he didn''t see anything because it was over before it had even started. It was not like the stars and world which he had always seen in the tunnels through which one was pulled inside a world bridge. Thus, it was only obvious because of the difference of time it took to be teleported and to enter a new world, and Jason could only grumble because he had been too excited. Smiling lightly, he stood up, only to see that Jennifer was standing right in front of him. "You''re finally here! Was about time¡­ What took you so long?" She looked at him without disappointment, anger, or any negative emotions, which would have been suitable to the words she hurled at him that sounded more like an accusation. Instead, it was more like she was impatient, yet smiling, glad that he had really come to the cadets camp which made Jason believe that Jennifer was either extremely bored or that she just wanted to strike a normal conversation with him. He hoped it was the latter because the first would mean that the cadets were not talented, or strong enough to make Jennifer excited about training them. Jason assumed that Jennifer was similar to him in multiple ways, and he also thought that she would be excited to fight or spar with someone strong. That was why he could only hope that she wanted to start a conversation with him as his own excitement to fight began to increase. It had been quite a while since a good fight, and the last spars he had were with the students of Alf Nas, where he had been forced to use much of his strength, but not all as he was forced to refrain from revealing his secrets. This was not exactly different with Jennifer, or the cadets he would face soon, but somehow, Jason didn''t feel like hiding anything anymore, not from her at least. He knew Jennifer''s secrets even without anyone telling him, and after being accepted by the City Lord, he was not sure if it was even necessary to hide the fact that his soul awakening was different from others, more unique and extraordinarily strong. In the end, the others knew that he was a halfling, and even that he had three beasts which they believed to be tamed. Other than that, his eyes'' trait was obvious, and it was only the extent of the special trait his eyes had, which was unknown. Thus, the others already knew most of his secrets which made him smile at Jennifer as he asked, "I took a look at the countless runes around the portal. They''re quite interesting. Did Pera inscribe them?" Jennifer had already heard that Jason was easily fascinated by almost everything concerning the auxiliary occupations. As such, she hoped the same would happen in the cadets'' camp! This was important to her because she felt as if Jason was spending too much time within the auxiliary tower, instead of focusing on increasing his cultivation base, combat prowess, and so on. He was already at a relatively low cultivation stage, considering his age and the mana mastery he had showcased by easily unlocking the library door''s extremely complex lock. Even if being able to see the connections of runes, and paper-thin energy threads that were intertwined with each other was uncommon, unlocking the library was something, a being without an extremely high mastery of the cultivated energy would be unable to do. Nevertheless, lying to Jason would be useless, thus she was straightforward in her answer. "Pera did, indeed, inscribe the portal runes, but she won''t be able to teach you for the time being, because my master gave her a few tasks to do as punishment for leaving you alone on the day of your arrival. But, let''s change the topic...how about you fight with my cadets? This will help you figure out how strong you are in the face of those with double awakened cultivation veins! If your combat prowess is high enough, I might even consider sparring with you!" Smiling at the last sentence, Jennifer indirectly hinted that she was eager to see Jason''s fight against others while revealing that she herself was hoping to fight him too. This made Jason smile too as he couldn''t help but feel that his assumption about their similarities was on point. Thus, being equally eager to fight Jennifer, Jason''s eyes began to gleam brightly as he looked straight into her silver-colored eyes that had crimson ringed pupils. It was only then that Jason realised that Jennifer wasn''t using her disguised identity anymore which made him laugh as he couldn''t believe his stupidity. ''How did I not notice that?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 645 - Battle Maniac Jennifer was not sure why Jason was suddenly bursting into laughter, but when he had calmed down, she understood it as he asked her something. "It''s quite interesting to see that you hide your identity from the cadets, while you use your disguised identity when you are in Lanro. Is that because the Aeus and Devir race are not allowed to find you, or has this something to do with the cadets and the fact that you saved them while not being disguised?" Only now did she understand that Jason laughed out because he had realised that Jennifer was currently in her normal, undisguised appearance, which meant that she revealed herself in front of him and the cadets. Thus, it was only logical for him to be confused, even if she didn''t really understand what made him laugh. ''Do I look funny?'' She wondered while looking at herself in confusion. But when her eyes flitted back to Jason, Jennifer felt as if he didn''t laugh at her, but something else, which was even more confusing. Seeing this, Jason hurriedly cleared the misunderstanding. "I didn''t laugh at your appearance, but more at the fact that I didn''t notice the change in your appearance before!" "Ohh", Jennifer now understood what he meant, and looked at him with a faint smile. ''Weirdo!'' After a short moment of silence, Jennifer decided to answer Jason''s earlier question. "I don''t disguise myself in front of my cadets because I saved them in my normal appearance and the revelation of three cultivation energies, to begin with. It''s exactly as you said, but there is also a difference. You could say I use two identities, for multiple purposes. For example, my disguised form is to be used when I''m in Lanro, because I can conceal my cultivation energies with a specific device too. This didn''t work in your case, so it might have to be upgraded soon. By using my disguised form in Lanro, or to be precise outside the cadet camp, the cadets won''t be able to tell that it''s me, which is another reason for me to reveal my identity to them, but hide it outside. Another reason for hiding are the Aeus and Devir race who want to kill me by all means, but that is something I don''t want to tell you right now!" When Jennifer said the last sentence, her eyes turned somewhat sad and were filled with all kinds of other, complex emotions which made Jason feel weird, only for her to regain her composure as she said. "Either way, you can think of other reasons for revealing myself to the cadets while hiding my appearance and cultivation energies from others for yourself, but the ones I mentioned were the most important!" After that, she turned quiet for a moment, only to quickly add, Follow me, we already wasted too much time, I want to see you fight!" With that being said, she unfurled her white Aeus wings before flying towards a specific direction in which Jason saw a small hill. Artemis entered his mana core and Jason followed after Jennifer as Artemis'' wing manifested on his back. Jennifer had already seen his wings, so she was not astonished to see him fly. Rather than being curious about his wings, she was more interested in his frozen flame and other unique things Jennifer hoped to learn more about from him. Thus, she flew straight towards the hill, only to travel through the solid stone wall as if it was made of thin air. Under normal circumstances, this would have shocked Jason, but he had already inserted a lot of mana into his Emperor Eyes, allowing him to see the profound illusion runes, concealing the entrance to the hill. As such, without slowing down, Jason entered the cave, passing the illusion rune without any hesitation. Only then did he notice that the entire surrounding had been concealed to such a great extent that his Emperor Eyes hadn''t even been able to perceive anything. Suddenly, he sensed the energy fluctuations of several thousand human-like beings. This astonished him because he''d never seen a concealment that worked against his Emperor Eyes, which told him that the place they had entered was more unique than he initially assumed. ''They''re really building a small army of double awakened, Variants, and Mutants?'' Less than a minute passed before Jennifer and Jason entered a ginormous hall that was bright enough to make him believe that the sun was shining through the hill they had entered. Looking around, Jason noticed several things that attracted his interest, but the most important was that all the thousands of cadets belonged to the Aeus, Devir, and human race without a single one that could possibly be called normal. There were Devirs with a water affinity, Aeus with a poison affinity, and humans with all kinds of unique mutations. Because of their variations, Jason assumed that they had been exiled from their race, or they had received a death sentence before Jennifer or luck saved them from imminent death. Evidently, they had been able to flee from the grasp of others, or they were rescued by someone like Jennifer, who seemed to understand what being an anomaly felt like more than anyone else. Jason had already noticed that her behavior towards him had been weird, and he could only assume that it was because he was a halfling, just like her. In the end, this was not the entire truth, but Jason believed this to be the case. Thus, he didn''t even realise that Jennifer was not only interested in him as a halfling, but also because everything about him made her curious. She didn''t know the reason for that herself, but somehow she couldn''t wait to unravel the mystery named Jason. If she had to state a moment in which her curiosity had sparked, it was probably their first encounter which was similar to how Jason felt. He was also curious about her but didn''t know to what extent this was the case. Because of that, he could only get his act together as he looked at the cadets that were trained for a specific purpose which Jason had yet to figure out. Landing on the ground, their arrival attracted some attention as Jason didn''t hide his Stigma or Celestia aura. Artemis'' wings dispersed, and only a moment later, he took a look around, trying to figure out the average strength of everyone. This was easier said than done because the cadets'' strength ranged from the Mortal stage up to the Initial stage of the Ascendion stage. At the same time, some Manyrs seemed to have only cultivated in one of the two cultivation paths they had awakened, making it difficult for the uncultivated dormant path to catch up to the other one. Jason found this interesting, but when he saw that Jennifer was walking in a specific direction, he quickly followed her. He didn''t know what she had planned, but he was interested in figuring out more about the situation with the cadets than fighting them. Despite that, his eagerness to fight was tremendous, which was noticeable in his aura that flickered wildly. The cadets were astonished about his aura that seemed different than the Aeus or Devirs, which made them believe that Jason had gotten his hands on a different, stronger technique than they had. Even though they were curious, Jason was currently not approachable to the cadets, who knew that a true battle maniac could be found behind the beautiful face of the young woman. Just thinking about Jennifer''s expression when she fought seriously made them shiver in fright, and they didn''t even want to remember the spars they had fought against her because they had been beaten up, even after she restricted her strength to a large extent. At that moment, Jason asked Jennifer the question that had been lingering on his mind for quite some time, not sure whether he should ask or not. "What is the exact reason for you to train this entire group of people? From the looks of it, all of them have something that makes them different, so I guess you either rescued them like the three people you saved upon our first encounter, or they were exiled. Just what are you and Luna planning?" Hearing this question, Jennifer halted in her tracks, before she turned around to smile at him. However, instead of smiling nicely, her expression seemed a little bit grim, which turned her entire smile into something eerie as she answered, "This is one of the training camps for the Tritans, and I obviously train them so as to make them capable enough to protect themselves and fight against those that brought them pain, agony, and fear!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 646 - Teasing "This is one of the training camps for the Tritans, and I obviously train them so as to make them capable enough to protect themselves and fight against those that brought them pain, agony, and fear!" After repeating Jennifer''s words in his mind, Jason was not sure what to make of it. Learning to protect themselves was good, but fighting against those who brought them pain, agony, and fear was no different than the path he was about to take for himself. He wanted to take revenge on the My?ldra, Burane and Ifrytor races, and initially, his plan was to completely eradicate the three races. Fortunately, he had already realised that this was not the right course of action. Instead, it was much better for him to weed out the perpetrators, and not to lash on innocent people. Otherwise, he wouldn''t be any better than those he took revenge on, maybe he would become even worse! Despite all the deaths at his hand, he still could not think of himself as a mindless executioner. Thus, he couldn''t help but look carefully at Jennifer, whose expression made him worry a little bit. From the looks of it, Jennifer was unable to think rationally when talking about fighting against those that brought ''pain, agony and fear'', as such, Jason assumed that she was personally involved in this. The determination with which she spoke those words could only mean that she had suffered and now sought vengeance. It may not be his business, but looking at Jennifer, Jason could somehow see himself after having lost Scorpio, and his masters. At one point, he had been just like her, wanting to annihilate and reduce everything to smoke and ashes. It was only because of his father''s intervention, that he had been able to return to the right path and look at everything through a rational lens. His situation had been a little bit different because of the Infernal Celestia issue he had to face, but that made it only more important for Jason to interfere in Jennifer''s personal business. To him, it didn''t matter that he was just getting to know her, but realizing that she was a nice young woman who rescued others from the grasp of the old-fashioned Aeus and Devirs made him believe that she was innately kind, and not as cruel as her expression indicated. Ignoring the eerie atmosphere, he released his Celestia aura, amplified by his Stigma that began to shine brightly. Enlarging the aura that seemingly pushed away from the eerie sensation, he said. "Taking revenge is not bad, but don''t hurt innocent people!" His serious tone showed that he didn''t think of her words lightly, and only a moment later, Jennifer nodded her head. "Yes, of course, we are different from them!!" Hearing this made Jason smile lightly before he asked something he was curious about. "You said this is only one training camp. Does that mean Luna controls multiple training camps? I guess there are more beings at Luna''s cultivation stage who create the foundation of the Tritans, otherwise, the Devirs and Aeus would have already decimated them, right?" Jennifer just nodded her head again, before she changed the topic. "I don''t know much about the Tritans either, but master told me that they''re trustworthy. So, I trust them too, and it''s good that I can help Variants, Mutants, and double awakened Manyrs! But all of that is not important right now! I want to see you fight with all your strength!!!" After that, she wanted to tease him a little so she added. "Or, are you trying to evade fighting because you are too weak!?" Even though he sensed that she was teasing him, Jason decided to join her, acting as if his pride was hurt. Sounding indignant, he replied, "Weak? I''m everything but weak! Restrict your strength to my cultivation base, and I will show you who is weaker among us!" Smiling proudly, Jason had to suppress a chuckle, only for Jennifer to eye him. However, instead of rising to the bait, she simply said with a flick of her hair. "If you defeat two cadets, I''ll allow you to fight me!" With this, Jason realised that Jennifer was extremely proud of her strength, which was something that was ought to happen. While she had every right to be proud, it was also something that could become a hindrance for her in the future. Jason had seen too many instances of things going awry with prideful people. ''She is probably known for defeating those stronger than her because of her three cultivated paths, and young age.'' This was only logical, but at the same time, Jason wanted to show her what defeat tasted like if she were to underestimate him. Despite that, he accepted her condition as he nodded his head, only to smile confidently as he added. "Please choose the cadets I will have to defeat before I''m allowed to fight you!" A ghost of a smile appeared on her face on hearing him that vanished as quickly as it had appeared. In a matter of minutes, one double awakened human and a Devir with only one awakened cultivation vein and a water affinity seed inside his mana core stood in front of Jason. "Zar, and Eran, please fight Jason!" The Devir and human nodded their heads before they asked in unison. "Who should fight him first?" Excitement could be heard in their voice, and Jason assumed that they were sensing their chance to receive some brownie points, and get in Jennifer''s good books if they were to defeat him. As such, both wanted to fight Jason first, yet, at the same time, he could also sense a faint trace of fear radiating from them, which made Jason wonder. ''Are they afraid of her?'' He suddenly asked himself, only to hear Jen saying, "First? Don''t be ridiculous...I want you two to fight Jason together!" This caused Jason to look at Jennifer for a moment before the corner of his lips curled upwards. ''She noticed it?'' He assumed, thinking that she realised that he was not all that worried after seeing the Zar, the Devir, and Eran, the human with two awakened cultivation veins While Eran was at the peak of the Lique stage in both the path of Pryr and Spiral, and would soon solidify his first prismarine crystal in his spirit sea; Zar had already solidified a prismarine crystal in his mana core, turning him into a being at the Initial stage of the Prismar stage. Because of that, both were confused as they heard Jennifer''s words, only to see Jason''s smirk. "Why should we team up to fight against this weakling? He is barely at the late 4th Lique stage?!" Zar was unable to control his emotions and felt ridiculed by Jennifer''s opinion of his strength. This made her team''s two beings with a combat prowess at the Prismar stage against Jason, the so-called weakling feel indignant. Hearing Zar''s outburst had no effect on Jason save his smile that only widened further. "If you want, you can fight against me first, alone. I have no problem with that." Saying that he turned towards Jennifer only to add, "You can choose another cadet for the second fight if you want!" Confident in his own capabilities, there was no need for Jason to hold back. If someone was strong, but not confident in their strength to overwhelm others, the exhibited combat prowess would be reduced drastically. Thus, even if Jason would truly be weaker than his opponent, he wouldn''t back off as long as he sensed even the slightest probability of overpowering his opponents by using his combat experience and special traits. However, right now, this slightest probability had morphed into a huge chance, and Jason didn''t even feel the pressure radiating from the Devir, who was able to wield water, even if the young man was trying his best. The Devir didn''t even look as hideous as the Devirs he had seen before, and except his skin color, the leather-like skin, his horns, and wings, there was not much of a difference to a normal human. Yet, with that thought, Jason wondered what normal humans even were, which made him smile. Noticing that smile, Zar, who felt that it was directed at him, was immediately provoked. "Let''s spar, right now!!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 647 - Not Yet Even though the Devir, Zar, sounded enraged about being underestimated, his instincts told him that Jason was a little bit dangerous. The young human in front of him didn''t even budge, but the aura and Stigma he saw and sensed were already enough to make him pay a tad more attention to Jason. Other than that, his mana fluctuations were firmer than they should be at his cultivation base, which indicated that he was stronger than one would think at first glance. Nevertheless, Zar didn''t even think about backing off as he entered one of the combat rings, followed by Jason, who was looking around as if he was in search of something specific. ''The body refinement and cultivation techniques used by the Tritans don''t look bad...at least if I see the results properly! In that case, they should have good martial art techniques too¡­.I wonder if I can learn one of them¡­'' Using his Emperor Eyes, Jason scanned every single of the cadet''s body, trying to figure out what kind of Body refinement, and Cultivation technique they were using, in order to perceive the rough level of progress. With Terra-Advanced, or Peak techniques as strongest techniques, the humans on Manyr, and both the Aeus and Devirs were simply at the level of common races. However, Jason didn''t think that the Devirs and Aeus were common races, and the same applied to the Manyrs. All three races had an equal chance to undergo a double awakening and met multiple more requirements to be considered a higher race. As such, it was not unlikely that a few Heaven grade manuals were in the possession of existences like Luna, and other powerhouses of the respective races. This was interesting, but at the same time, Jason couldn''t even be sure whether Luna was a human of the Manyr race, or if like him, she belonged to another planet. In the end, this didn''t matter, and the only important factor he had wanted to figure out was the rough ranking of the three races because it was highly possible that he would create many issues for them. At least, that was what Jason felt. With that in mind, he entered the combat arena, facing Zar, who looked at him with a glare that caused Jason to smile bitterly. It made him wonder how some people could have such low self-esteem that they would get enraged at the slightest provocation. Shaking his head, he approached the opposite end of the gigantic combat ring that had more than enough space to let dozens of people fight against each other. Yet, right now, it was completely empty, and the gazes of the multitude of cadets lingered on him. Jennifer was hovering above the center of the arena, ready to start the countdown once Zar and Jason were ready. Only three seconds later, the spar had already started, and Zar didn''t waste any time, as he shot forward, unsheathing two daggers. Crossing the distance of a hundred meters in a matter of seconds, he emerged in front of Jason, who hadn''t moved a single inch. ''Is he afraid?'' Zar wondered with a sly smile on his face as he stabbed the dagger in his left hand past Jason, only to twist it, aiming at his side. Before the dagger could make contact with Jason''s skin, he took half a step backward as he twisted his body to the right. Jason''s reflexes were lightning quick and predictably, Zar''s attack missed its target, causing him to stumble forward as he suddenly felt something rough around the ankle of his right foot. A premonition flashed through his mind, and he wanted to break out of the sudden entrapment, as he looked straight into Jason''s eyes. His eyes were sparkling but shockingly, their property had changed to that of a reptile, with golden-silverish eyes. Unbeknownst to Zar, a second Stigma had manifested above Jason''s already existing stigma, and the young arrogant Devir could only sense deep shock sweeping through his body. He flinched owing to the Petrification curse that affected his entire body. Only a moment later, the race specific weakening curse began to act, infiltrating the Devirs'' entire being, weakening his physical strength only slightly. Because Jason''s cultivation base was too weak and the gap between his opponent''s cultivation stage to that of his own was high, the petrification curse and the race specific weakening curse''s effect were not that great. Nevertheless, it was more than enough after receiving Petri''s amplification to occupy his mana core and fuse with his youngest soulbond which increased the effects of his curses. Other than that, Jason could sense how his body was strengthened to an extent he had never felt before, making him believe that he might be able to reach the physical condition of a being at the Prismar stage soon enough. This was great news, but at the same time, it made Jason wonder just how strong he would become while being at the Lique stage. Nevertheless, this thought dispersed as quickly as it had emerged, only to be replaced by the sole desire to defeat Zar. Having used Petri and his fusion, Jason revealed his secret, but that did not matter because he would rather fight by using a little bit more of his strength while being in a relatively safe position, than being forced to reveal himself only when it came to life-and-death battles. With Petri''s tail and eyes as the only body parts he allowed to be manifested, the five-meter-long tail was everything that could be perceived by the others. They didn''t see the reptilian eyes, but noticing that the long tail was coiled around Zar''s leg, the moment Jason evaded him with a subtle movement, everyone expected to see something grand from their comrade, the Devir with the water affinity. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done, as Zar had been interrupted for a total of two seconds owing to Jason''s curses, which was more than enough time for him to finish off the arrogant Devir. He didn''t summon any weapon, but instead, Jason simply manifested scales on top of his knuckles. The scales he manifested were extremely sharp, and could also help him pierce into his opponent''s flesh it hit hard enough with. With the scales he also received the bare minimum amount of protection, allowing him to launch a counter-attack with a multitude of high velocity, and powerful punches that aimed at the most vulnerable parts of the Devir''s body. One punch after another was initiated, but Zar was unable to move as he was pinned to the ground, held by the tail that was coiled around his entire right leg. Because of that, Zar used his water affinity for the first time in the entire fight that had started less than a minute ago. Enveloping his right leg with a layer of water, he didn''t hesitate a single second, as the water shot outwards with a terrific speed as it seemingly turned into a blast. This was unnoticed by the others, but Jason felt that his five-meter-long tail was suddenly pierced through by several water beams that felt like solid spikes. Uncoiling the tail, Jason hurled Zar away as blood splattered from the tail that was pierced several times while Zar''s leg was fully enveloped in a layer of water that had turned into spikes. From the looks of it, Zar''s condition was much worse than Jason''s which was mainly owing to the accurately targeted areas at which Jason had driven his punches. Nevertheless, the young Devir was still relatively fine on the outside. At least, that was what most thought, only for Jason to smile brightly as he commented, "If I were you, I would give up now, otherwise it will be a little painful!" What neither the spectators nor Zar had realised because they had been distracted was that Jason had inflicted several scratches every single time he had hit Zar with his razor-sharp knuckles. In each of these scratches, Jason had shot a fraction of Solaris'' flame at the same temperature as Zar''s body, preventing him from noticing anything. After entering the young Devir''s body, the flames simply stayed put, and thus were unnoticed by Zar who had been too distracted in getting out of the entrapment of his legs. It was exactly because of this that Zar didn''t even think about giving up as he shouted out, "I''m not defeated yet!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 648 - Acknowledgement Hearing Zar, Jason could only shake his head, while Jennifer, who had watched every single movement of Jason, couldn''t help but shake her head at the cadet''s answer. Meanwhile, the other spectators were astonished by Jason''s combat prowess, while his ability to manifest a tail was simply ignored. There were quite a few beings with unique abilities, and a transformation ability was amongst the most ordinary ones. Furthermore, each of the cadets was special with something or the other being out of the norm in everybody''s case, which turned Jason into one of the ''normal'' people, only that his combat prowess was higher than everyone expected to be. Nevertheless, Jason''s confidence and the fact that he advised Zar to give up was something that made the other cadets angry. It had taken them a long time to achieve their sense of pride after having been shunned by their own kind and thrown to streets with nowhere to go.. For some, it took a few years, but for the beings whose will had been destroyed, it had taken several decades. As such, they didn''t like Jason''s statement, and were fuming. However, Jason gave them both a reality check and a wake-up call, making them realise just a few moments later that Zar should have listened to Jason by all means. "If you''re still willing to fight, don''t hold a grudge against me for what happens next!" Jason simply said as he snapped his fingers, while similarly unleashing the minuscule fractions of Solaris'' flame that had embedded themselves inside the young Devir''s body. On cue the black flames flared and erupted with no delay, burning through the hide-like skin of the Devir as he cried out in pain. Nurtured by the mana they devoured, the flames increased in size, enveloping Zar''s entire body within seconds throwing the crowd into a frenzy as nobody could believe, let alone understand what was happening right now. Only Jason and Jennifer were silent and unfazed as if they had expected this outcome. The young woman simply looked at Jason, thinking that he was playing around too much with the Origin flame and the weird transformation he could attain. Jennifer was not sure what exactly this transformation was, because the scales looked exactly like those on the snake she had seen in the manor''s backyard, a few days ago. As such, she was able to come up with her own reasoning, only to realise that Jason might be even more interesting than she had initially assumed. Smiling lightly, her desire to fight Jason increased as she comprehended that Jason was able to fuse with the beasts that had been next to him, and was probably stored somewhere in his body. This was the only thing she was relatively sure of, and it would also explain the sudden increase in Jason''s physical strength as the beast he had fused with probably enhanced it a lot. It was a Pryr beast after all! While Zar was using his utmost efforts to extinguish the flames that had enveloped and infiltrated his body, the water he conjured dispersed before he could make use of it. Because of that, and the fact that Jennifer wanted to avoid anyone being seriously injured, she raised her hand. "Stopp! The fight is over!!" Jason was just waiting for the sign, and immediately summoned Solaris, who created a suction force, pulling all flames out of Zar, who slumped to the ground, excessively exhausted. He could only stare at Jason, who had used him as a means to nurture Solaris, allowing it to advance slightly faster. Under normal circumstances, Jason would have simply extinguished the flames within his opponent, but now he had wanted to help Solaris a little bit. The fusion with Petri was dissolved the moment he had snapped his fingers, which had, in fact, ended the battle in Jason''s opinion. As such, the spiked tail had already dispersed while Jason''s eyes had reverted to their normal appearance as well. Walking towards Zar, he held out his hand only to say, "Good fight, and sorry if it was painful, I didn''t know how strong you were so I released the majority of my flames'' strength!" Initially, Zar was enraged by Jason''s confidence, but now that he had fought him, the Devir knew that it wasn''t unfounded. His pride was hurt now that he had been so easily defeated, but he acknowledged Jason for being stronger than he was. Despite that, it hurt to hear the words ''the majority of my flame''s strength,'' because it was almost as if Jason was trying to console him. Nevertheless, with a deep sigh, Zar had to accept his loss, and instead of being discouraged, he acknowledged the chance of having fought a beast. During the fight, he had noticed that Jason was still extremely young, and now Zar assumed that the young golden-eyed man was not even a human from Manyr, but somewhere else. Thus, his situation was probably different from the other humans on Manyr. Grasping Jason''s hand, Zar smiled lightly before he got up and seriously asked. "Be honest, how much of your strength did you hold back??" Even if he felt that this question would only hurt his pride, Zar couldn''t help himself. He simply had to ask, and looking at Jason, who was contemplating the answer, it looked like he would have to swallow the last remnants of his pride. If Jason had to be honest, he was not sure about the answer. Right now, he didn''t want to utilise the abyssal effect of his Emperor Eyes because he was still unsure if the Chaos attribute inside his body would suddenly be released. At the same time, Solaris'' full power had yet to be unleashed while the Frozen flame that seemed to be his strongest attack and affinity, right now, was something Jason couldn''t comprehend yet. There were also all kinds of other things he had to pay attention to because he didn''t use the Floating Sky movement technique during the fight, neither the pressure he had learned to comprehend, nor any mana to circulate through his body! In the end, there were too many factors he hadn''t used, but at the same time, some of them didn''t gel together either way. As such, Jason could only look at Zar apologetically as he said, "I should...probably be strong enough to defeat Eran, and the other cadet Jennifer will choose at the same time?" Without knowing the exact combat prowess of Eran, and the unknown partner, Jason decided that he should hold back, and not act too arrogantly. However, his statement alone was proof enough that he had been holding back a lot, which caused Zar to look at Jason dejectedly, only to get himself together as he mumbled, "I will definitely become stronger...much stronger, and then, I will defeat you!" After having mumbled these words of encouragement for himself, Zar left the combat ring, where he saw his comrades that looked at him with a thumbs up. "You didn''t back off, buddy, good job to hold out against such a monster-like existence!" "His fire affinity is way too strong, you tried your best, that''s all we can hope for!" "..." ".." Seeing how everyone encouraged Zar, Jason couldn''t help but smile, thinking that it was great to have motivating comrades who didn''t laugh at someone for facing defeat. Everyone''s circumstances were different, and for people like Jason, their cultivation base was just the basic foundation of their strength, to begin with. The other cadets and even Jennifer were now beginning to understand this, and his strong mana fluctuations were now making sense to them. Jason was out of the ordinary, and comparing him to others at the same cultivation rank and stage simply didn''t make sense, and neither would it do right with any of them. This was exactly why Jennifer had thought of making Jason spar against beings at the Prismar stage because she had already sensed that the young man with golden eyes was different than anyone else she had ever met. Her desire to fight him only increased, but instead of actively showing this, she simply ordered Eran and Lilya, one of the Variant Aeus, who was born with awakened cultivation veins of Maest and Pryr, to enter the combat ring. Jennifer knew that Jason hadn''t used much mana, and instead of giving him more to recuperate, she wanted to see how he would react under pressure. ''Show me some more, Jason!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 649 - Two Double Awakened With eyes that flickered with interest, Jennifer''s mind and focus was solely trained on Jason. The slight change in her body language was noticed by the other cadets, who couldn''t help but stare at their Instructor as if they didn''t know who she was anymore. "Why does Coach Jennifer look like she will pounce at the newcomer at any moment?" "You saw that too, right? I feel some sort of tension between the two of them...maybe they will also fight?" "Or...maybe, there is something more between them? He arrived with her, and they seem oddly close...but maybe, it''s just my imagination?" Suddenly, the voice of a young man resounded behind the gossipers, who turned around, only to see one of the few cadets that were considered real prodigies. It was Rex, a human of the Manyr race. Considered to be a mutation, he had awoken the Maest cultivation vein, and was thus cultivating with mana, just like Jason did! "Why would Jennifer pounce on that young man? He cannot even be considered a prodigy, and is nothing but a show-off! He probably won''t even be able to defeat Eran and Lilya...Jennifer won''t look at him after he has been defeated!" Staring at the three gossipers in anger, Rex said in a dominating voice and the others quickly retreated, leaving Rex alone as they merged with the crowd of other cadets that wanted to spectate the battle. Averting his gaze to Jennifer, who he eyed with fervor as he licked his lips, he just noticed that her eyes were truly trained on none other than Jason. This caused him to grit his teeth, while his fists were clenched. Rex''s nails pierced into his palm, and were digging into his skin as his thoughts were going wild. ''Why is she staring at the newcomer like that? I''ve been here for years, trained by her personally, but she never looked at me as she looks at this youngling?'' Unable to understand what made Jason so special except his combat prowess that made him barely as strong as some prodigies that were considered average, Rex couldn''t help but feel that the world was unfair. While Rex was practically seething in rage, the other cadets noticed his expression, which made them increase their distance further, as an ominous aura was radiated from him. Having reached the Ascendion stage, Rex was a strong contender, and his aura and mana fluctuations were not to be taken lightly. Thus, even Jennifer realised that something was going on behind her back, only to ignore it like she had grown accustomed to ignoring the lustful gazes of others. It was not a rare occasion for someone to look at her lustfully, but as long as they didn''t dare do anything, she would leave them alone. Ignoring those gazes was easier than attacking every single one of her admirers. This was something her master had advised Jennifer too, and only when someone was starting to be too pushy, should she set an example, the crueler, the better. Ignoring what went on behind her, Jennifer continued to stare at Jason, whose golden eyes were glowing brightly. Knowing that he was appraising the strength, affinities, other unique characteristics, and possible combat prowess of his opponents, Jennifer couldn''t help but think that Jason''s special eyes were extremely useful. Being able to determine whether he was strong enough to face someone, or not was crucial, while perceiving unique characteristics of certain opponents was similarly important. It was exactly because of this that Jason was able to perceive that Lilya, who looked like a perfectly normal Aeus, was, in fact, a mutant who had awoken the Path of Pryr and Maest. Jason could tell that most cadets had either double awakened cultivation paths or that one of the paths were extremely strong. Thus, he couldn''t take them lightly as he himself pursued only one cultivation path. In the end, he didn''t think that it was normal for so many double awakened individuals to be found in such a small space like the cadets training camp, but at the same time, Jason assumed the circumstances to be slightly unique. ''Tritans...just what kind of organisation is that really...Are they really as good as the City Lord and Jennifer think, or do they harbor ill intentions about the territory enveloping the Devir, Aeus, and Human race?'' Jason didn''t trust strangers anymore as he had to get to know them to a certain extent to make up his mind about who they were, what their plan might be, how sincere they were in whatever they did and said, and most importantly, how they treated others. Owing to this, he trusted Jennifer the most out of the people he got to know during the last few months as she was honest, sincere in her approach to rescue those who were likely to be executed by the Devirs and Aeus, and Jason''s gut feeling told him that she was trustworthy. Other than that, the City Lord was nice, even though she seemed to have been hurt, while Pera was a good person, just a little bit naive for her age that was likely to have reached a few hundred years. However, that was exactly what made Pera genuine which Jason liked. Thus, trusting these three women, for now, was more than enough for him to hope that the Tritans'' organisation pursued a path that resulted in everyone''s freedom, and not in being oppressed. This was something he was genuinely hoping for. Nevertheless, right now, he had to avert his attention from the Tritans to the two double awakened individuals in front of him as both of them were about to break into the Prismar stage with their cultivation rank. Having two vessels within them, they were cultivating in both at the same time, using specific cultivation techniques that required an enormous amount of cultivation energies to be absorbed. Owing to that, their progress was much slower than anyone else''s, but at the same time, their prowess increased much more. This was exactly what Jason had undergone by being required to use three times the amount of mana to liquefy a single drop of mana. It required more time to absorb the necessary mana and liquefy it into a single drop, but at the same time, it made him much stronger than anyone else at his cultivation base! Jason assumed this to be one of the strong, yet hidden perks of the Celestia race! Adjusting his stance, Jason didn''t even think of holding back against the opponents in front of him. Eran was at the peak of the Lique stage, while Lilya could already be considered to have progressed halfway into the Prismar stage with one half of the first solidified prismarine crystal having been constructed. Thus, Jason had to be careful which was the reason for him to allow Artemis to enter his mana core without any delay. The cooldown on the fusion lasted only moments as he and Petri had barely used any energy to manifest a five-meter-long tail in addition to fusing their eyes. Nevertheless, Jason knew that he was unable to directly fuse with Artemis. However, that was not even what he had planned, from the beginning. His plan was different because his liquified mana drops were already enough to consider him as a being at the peak of the Lique stage, as each of his mana drops was comparable to three normal mana drops. With that in mind, Jason couldn''t help but smile, thinking that fighting Eran and Lilya will be extremely interesting. They were both double awakened, and strong enough to destroy him without any problems if he were to have nothing else except his cultivation base to increase his combat prowess with. However, that wasn''t the case, and with a bright smile on his face, he eagerly awaited the spar to start. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 650 - Realisation The moment Jennifer initiated the fight, Jason circulated a large amount of mana through his body, while exerting the Floating sky movement technique at the highest mastery he had comprehended until now. This more than doubled his speed right off the bat, allowing him to cross the distance between him and his opponents in no time. Both Eran and Lilya had an extremely strong physique as they cultivated in the path of Pryr and another one, however, Jason''s speed was still much faster than theirs. Emerging in front of Eran, who had just swung back his spear to start running, Jason smiled cruelly, as Byakur manifested in his hand. Ready to slash out, he didn''t even hesitate to insert a huge amount of mana into it. Leaning forward, his face almost touched the ground as Artemis'' wings spurted out of his back. Only a fraction of a second was required for the wings with a wingspan of more than 10 meters to unfold as Jason pushed himself up from the ground with every ounce of strength inside his body. Catapulting himself into the air he saw many things happening at the same moment. Jason exerted both the petrification and race specific weakening curse with a large amount of mana that interfered with Eran''s capabilities to retaliate as he was stuck in his place for a quarter of a second. This quarter of a second was enough to envelop Byakur with a layer of black flames that erupted from within the weapon. Jason slashed out from the ground vertically, using his own force and the momentum of being pulled high in the air. The move he had just initiated had been complex, but seeing blood splattering on the ground from Eran''s body, Jason nodded his head proudly. However, his pride lasted only for a second when he realised that there were suddenly two Erans, instead of one. The second one was standing right behind the Eran he had just seriously injured. It was only then that his Emperor Eyes perceived a subtle difference between the two bodies which caused him to blurt out uncontrollably. "Decoy?!" Eran was shell-shocked by Jason''s merciless attack, but his instincts had allowed him to react early enough, using almost all of his spiritual force to create his doppelganger, protecting him from being heavily injured. Jason realised that Eran didn''t have any spiritual force left in his spirit sea, but had more than enough primordial energy within his body, while Lilya was still completely fine. She had already predicted Jason''s move, so she quickly circulated both primordial energy and mana through her cultivation veins. This increased her speed and strength exceptionally. With this, Lilya grew confident that she was stronger and faster than Jason, which caused her to flap her wings as she pushed herself from the ground, pursuing the young man, who had already reached an altitude of more than 10 meters. Even if he was unable to defeat Eran right off the bat, he was not severely restricted and did not have much difference from a normal cultivator with a single cultivation vein. Thus, his combat strength shouldn''t be much different to someone at the peak of the Lique stage, and, at most, it was strengthened through his physique, the result of his cultivation, and possible martial art techniques. Nevertheless, this didn''t make up a difference of strength one received from more than 5000 drops of liquefied mana. With Artemis occupying his mana core, Jason''s strength was already close to reaching 18,000 drops of liquefied mana even without utilising an affinity, one of his abilities, or his Celestia aura and Stigma. By using only one or two extra abilities, he was already close to reaching the Prismar stage, which was evident as he had just defeated Zar, the Devir, who was in fact, at the Prismar stage. Thus, Lilya''s seemingly confident approach towards him was nothing but a charade Jason had purposefully instigated after he had noticed that Eran had protected himself. If he were to be honest, Zar had felt like a stronger opponent than Eran because the Devir hadn''t given Jason an opportunity to attack him right off the bat. On the other hand, Eran had made this big mistake in giving Jason the opportunity to attack, which resulted in Eran having to create a doppelganger which was something he was only learning to do right now. Because of that, the spiritual force he had to consume to achieve this feat was much higher than usual, but that was not something Jason could be bothered about. He had slowed down his pace after propelling himself into the air, luring Lilya to follow him into the sky, where Eran couldn''t reach them easily. Lilya should''ve known better than to leave behind her partner, but she did so nevertheless thinking that Jason was not much of a threat. Despite seeing what he had done to Zar and just a second ago, to Eran, she felt that she could take him down. Thus, she made the big mistake of pursuing him into the sky, only to see him suddenly turn around. Through this sudden change in movement, Lilya didn''t even think of halting in her tracks as she wanted to use her momentum to injure Jason heavily. As such, she was fully prepared to pierce her thin longsword right into him, the moment they would clash. Unfortunately, Lilya was still underestimating Jason, only to realise how wrong she was as he erupted with his Stigma and Celestia aura that had been idle for some time. Increasing the pace at which he could circulate mana through his body, the speed at which he could exert the Floating sky movement technique increased consequently, while the potency of every particle of mana was enhanced. Thus, with his Stigma and Celestia aura activated, Jason once again exerted the petrification and race specific weakening curse, only with a much higher amount of mana that caused Lilya to stiffen mid-air, taking away the upper hand she had gained over him. At the same time, Jason had already begun to dive towards Lilya, who could only watch in horror as he slashed at her with the same mercilessness as he had done with Eran. Taken off-guard, she could barely lift her thin longsword, only to finally realise that even Jason''s raw strength was much higher than what she had assumed. Her eyes widened in shock and she was about to explain something, but the words died on her tongue as she coincidentally stared into Jason''s golden-silverish eyes that radiated nothing but the pure desire to win against her. This moment allowed Lilya to understand that there were huge differences between Jason, and the opponents he was sparring against. While she, Eran, and even Zar weren''t fighting with their life on the line, considering him as an insignificant being, Jason was fighting seriously, trying to win by all means. He might have been experimenting a lot, but even that was done genuinely without a single trace of indifference while heading towards his opponents. Somehow, this shocked Lilya more than she could have ever thought as even Jason''s high combat prowess was less impressive in comparison. ''Just what kind of monster did Instructor Jennifer pick up?!'' Lilya wondered as she tried to retaliate against Jason''s force, only to stare in astonishment at how Artemis'' wings were retracted as black flames manifested behind him. "Fuck!" Lilya swore under her breath as she noticed what was about to happen, barely perceiving the sly smile on Jason''s face. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 651 - Testing Lilya attempted to protect herself the moment she noticed the black flames behind Jason''s back in addition to his scheming smile. Using a vast majority of her primordial energy and mana, she inserted it into her strongest defensive technique which she exerted, the moment the black flames behind Jason''s back erupted. The sudden heat, and the gravitational force that had done its work for the entire time... Meanwhile, Jason, who was hovering above Lilya, still clashing with her, was propelled towards the ground of the arena, where they crashed into. Only a moment later, an explosion occurred as cracks appeared on the ground where Lilya had been catapulted into and saw herself spit out blood. Just at that moment, Jason, who was completely unscathed, began to release dense mist that enveloped him and Lilya while the mist began to enlarge at a rapid pace. Being able to see clearly through the mist owing to his Emperor Eyes, Jason let Byakur vanish into the soul world, only to lash out with his empty hand, knocking out Lilya, who was still wriggling, trying to defeat Jason. In the end, Jason had to acknowledge that the cadets were somehow, both stronger and weaker than he had expected. Under normal circumstances, he would have an easier time against opponents with the same combat prowess as the cadets, but at the same time, their will to fight was a little bit low, decreasing the strength they utilised at a time. This was somewhat disappointing. Nevertheless, Jason was glad to have fought against the last three opponents that were all different, and unique in their own way, only to recall that Eran was still standing in the arena. ''Right...I just hit his doppelganger!'' It was interesting how the Cultivation path of Spiral could be used, and Jason assumed that the doppelganger was just one of many tricks one could use to play with someone''s mind. Eran''s instinctive behavior had caused him to protect himself in the safest way, which was to create a doppelganger. Unfortunately, this used his entire stored spiritual force, preventing him from combining his spiritual force with mana, decreasing his strength tremendously. Thus, after having knocked out Lilya, Jason continued to release the icy mist, only to completely retract his Celestia aura and Stigma, making himself almost invisible. Only his mana fluctuations that were also restricted to the extent at which he could barely release enough mist with the use of his ice affinity, were an indicator of where he was standing. Unfortunately, this forced Eran to rely on his mana perception, and not on his eyes, while Jason could see everything clearly. Trying to figure out how high the mana perception of the cadet Jennifer had chosen for him to fight was, Jason didn''t even think of entering close combat with Eran for the time being. Instead, he waited for some time, trying to figure out a few things about the cadets, only to feel the eyes of someone on his back; eyes that were boring down into him with their anger. It was a human at the Ascendion stage, following the path of Maest, and his mana core seemed extremely interesting. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t be bothered about all of that because the anger targeted at him by this individual was not good. It felt like a special kind of hatred, reserved only for him. ''Did I kill his entire family, or is he enraged because it looks like I''m playing around? What else could I have done to him?...'' In the end, he had no idea what he had done to the young man to incite his rage. Thus, Jason simply decided that said cadet had an anger management issue, which was the most likely reason in his opinion. Despite that, Jason couldn''t help but think that it was better to finally end the battle, now that he had given Eran some time to find him. As such, he released everything at once, only to push himself towards Eran, and arrived in front of him a moment later. Because Eran couldn''t see anything, he reacted a fraction of a second too late. He could barely perceive that Jason was exerting his movement technique, while circulating mana through his entire body, only for everything to be further enhanced owing to the fully unleashed Stigma and Aura. However, that was not all as Jason had propelled himself towards Eran, the moment he pushed himself from the ground, accelerating the speed he could reach even more. Thus, the moment Jason appeared in front of Eran, it was already over for the cadet as he moved his hands towards Eran''s abdomen to reveal a compressed, black flame that emerged within it. Shooting out one of Solaris'' compressed flames, Jason saw Eran get flung more than a dozen meters away, who felt something burning through his abdomen. A moment later, this sensation dispersed as the compressed black flame dissipated into thin air. Only a moment later, he had appeared at the position Eran had landed, only to smile faintly as he apologised. "Sorry, I went a little bit over the top with the last attack!" Eran looked at Jason as if he was a monster, only to shake his head. ''He almost killed me, huh?'' Accepting his defeat far more easily than the others, Eran stood up with a sigh before he replied, "No problem¡­ thanks for not killing me, I guess¡­" Jason wanted to say something, but before he could, he noticed that Eran had already turned around, leaving the arena and him behind. This caused him to smile dryly, only to turn around himself, where he saw that a few people had rushed to look after Lilya. His ice fog had dispersed the moment he had begun to utilise his fire affinity, and it was only then that Jason could see the appearance of the man glaring at him. It was a muscular human, with a height of more than 1.9 meters. His expression was full of scorn and hatred could be felt a mile away from him which confused Jason, only to see his eyes flitting to Jennifer once in a while. However, Jennifer was only looking at Jason with a radiant smile that could have multiple meanings. After connecting the dots, Jason slowly began to understand what was going on! ''This guy is plain jealous that I get all of her attention! Doesn''t look like he is confident with his own charm...'' Turning away, he could barely avoid the guy, whose name was Rex, from seeing his smile. Jason found it ridiculous to see that he had managed to irk someone at the Ascendion stage just because of Jennifer. However, somehow, he found it quite funny, and without even considering that Rex would attack him out of the blue, Jason approached Jennifer. Even if he would attract the rage of Rex, or even more cadets, he was eager to fight Jennifer. Ever since he had seen her, he had been trying to figure out how much of a difference it would be to fight someone with three awakened cultivation veins, and several more unique characteristics. One could say that Jennifer was his first opponent with multiple traits, or special characteristics such as being a Halfling with repulsive elemental affinity seeds in her mana core, or her three cultivation veins. As such, his battle intent was noticeable, which caused Jennifer to smile from ear to ear as she said. "Rest until your mana is replenished, I want you to unleash your full potential when we fight!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 652 - Two Monsters Only two hours passed after Jennifer had advised him to rest a little bit. In that short period, she trained the other cadets, awaiting Jason to fully recuperate. She eyed him once in a while, and during one such stolen glance, he sensed someone''s rage lingering around him. It was Rex, and Jason couldn''t help but feel odd to be eyed as the love rival of someone at the Ascendion stage, without having done anything. Jennifer was beautiful, kind, and extremely interesting, but Jason had never really thought of the possibility of being in a relationship or falling in love. These things were something he had never had enough free time on his hands to figure out by himself because his time had always been scarce or the opportunity to even think about. As such, before he even thought about finding a partner, Jason wanted to figure out what his plans for the future were, and if it was even possible to fall in love without endangering his loved ones. He had already lost his masters and Scorpio, and without the necessary strength, falling in love was a luxury. He didn''t think he could stomach the loss of someone as close as them again. However, at the same time, Jason didn''t realise that emotions were harder to control than he could have ever thought. Love wasn''t a choice, a decision that you made after weighing the pros and cons; it was something that just happened, even if the timing couldn''t be worse! Unbeknownst to himself, his heart that had been closed for anyone except his soulbonds, was slowly opening up to this mysterious girl. After having lost those he had loved in the Great Argos war, his heart had been locked, but with a new chapter of his life manifesting the moment he emerged on Manyr, its shackles were shaking. Thus, meeting Jennifer, someone who made him curious, was different than it had been during his puberty when he met someone who was beautiful or strong. It was also different from encountering someone during or immediately after the Great Argos war, it was just something new and something that made Jason comfortable. In the end, Jennifer was just like him which was, in fact, the reason that made them comfortable with each other, and equally eager to fight each other right now. Thus, the moment Jason had fully recuperated, his mana entirely replenished, he got up from the ground where he had been cultivating to accelerate his mana replenishing process. Jennifer noticed this immediately, and halted her lessons, telling the other cadets to simply continue with whatever they were doing before ignoring them completely. This caused a commotion in the rows of cadets as they stared at Jennifer with a scheming smile. "Is it what I think it is?" One of the Devirs said with a devilish grimace on his face, only for an Aeus to blush as she said, "Maybe...it is?? Is she finally...That''s something new!" However, just as the female Aeus said this, Rex, who was standing close to the Aeus growled. "Shut it, bitch!" Releasing the intent to kill, Rex looked at them furiously and the cadets who were gossiping about Jennifer''s behavior with bright expressions on their faces, quieted down. They hadn''t noticed Rex, and could only apologise multiple times before they retreated as far as possible from him. Since their arrival to the cadet training camp that was hidden inside the hill on the barren lands, they had never witnessed Rex behaving like that. Under normal circumstances, he would just eye Jennifer from a distance, ignoring the others who stared at her, sometimes even lustfully, however that had now changed. Rex couldn''t even approach Jennifer as he had been doing occasionally during the last few years because she had already rushed towards Jason the moment he had completely recuperated from the exhaustion of his earlier two fights. Even if Rex acknowledged that he had underestimated Jason, it didn''t mean he would let a newbie take Jennifer away from him. Jason''s combat prowess barely reached the Prismar stage, while his own was at the Ascendion stage! He might be older than Jennifer, but what was the difference of a few decades, if the lifespan of Cultivators having reached the Prismar stage was well beyond thousand years? It was negligible, and Rex as well as everyone else was aware of this. Only talent and true strength mattered in the era of cultivation where the strong reigned and the weak were exploited and devoured. However, in order to release one''s full potential and strength, one had to reach a certain age, a fact every living being knew very well. Even with unlimited talent, being very young, their inability to make full use of their potential made some prodigies succumb to their arrogance or to the fact that they had attracted the anger of someone they shouldn''t have offended. This was exactly what was happening with Rex, whose entire being was filled with anger and jealously, and poor Jason right now, who was completely ignorant to what he was doing. In the end, it was not his fault, and neither was Jennifer''s for being interested in Jason, the specific things about him, and most importantly to fight him, even if she had to restrict her strength. Rather, it was Rex, whose uncontrollable emotions were causing chaos, as he watched Jason and Jennifer enter the combat ring. Both the young halflings were oblivious to the fact that Rex was eying them, trying to suppress his emotions, waiting for the finale. Jason eyed Jennifer intently, ignoring Rex''s gaze that lingered on him. Rather, he focused on Jennifer and the words she had said earlier that he should unleash his full potential. He could do so, but initially, he was not sure if that was the best to do because his abyssal effect was still something he had no control over. The control over the Chaos attribute in his body evaded him, and the mysterious being had returned to its slumber. At least, that was what Jason assumed because even if he wanted to, there was no way for him to talk to it at all. Thus, he was reluctant to use his abyssal effect or the natural pressure he had comprehended to release because it was intertwined with his chaos attribute. However, this reluctance dispersed into thin air, the moment he noticed that Jennifer barely restricted her strength to the peak of the Lique stage in all three cultivation bases only to release all three cultivation energies at once. They merged together, amplifying each other several times instead of deteriorating or negating each other as it would normally be the case for the three repulsive energies. Jason had seen this once from far away, several months ago when Jennifer had fought against the army of the Aeus and Devir race in the barren lands while rescuing some humans from Manyr. However, what he hadn''t felt at that time was the overwhelming pressure that radiated from Jennifer, originating from the merging energies and a specific technique she was utilising. With her aura, she enveloped the entire arena with its size of more than 100 meters in radius, causing the energies within her aura to vibrate wildly as if they were oppressed, and couldn''t move at all. Seeing this through the Emperor Eyes, Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly as goosebumps appeared on his body. "Why the hell did I even consider holding back? I need to be careful about not being beaten into a pulp¡­." As such, Jason instinctively released his entire Stigma, in addition to his Celestia aura, while instructing Artemis to occupy his mana core once again. Yet, instead of waiting, he immediately began the fusion process with Artemis that transformed his entire appearance in a matter of seconds. The spar had yet to start, but both Jennifer, with her restricted strength, and Jason, who was preparing to use every trick up his sleeves, were ready to give their best! Both smiled at each other, and they could feel the other''s excitement to fight as the battle''s countdown was initiated by one of the cadets who had been ordered to act as a referee. "Just what kind of Monsters are they?! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 653 - All Out Everyone watching the battle couldn''t help but feel astonished about the extent at which Jennifer was releasing her strength. She might have restricted her cultivation base to the peak Lique stage, but using all three cultivation energies at once, and intertwining them with each other was already more than enough to make her extremely strong. The pressure she released was overwhelming, but Jason could only smile as his entire being was transforming. Fusing with Artemis, he was ready to go all out, ignoring his earlier reluctance to use the Abyssal effect. While white wings with silver strands spread out of his back, his hair changed into the same color, only for pitch-black horns to protrude from his forehead. A second Stigma manifested above his first one, while Jason''s entire aura transformed from the pure, almost divine Celestia aura he normally had, into a wild aura that radiated cold and his sheer desire to fight to his heart''s content. Jason looked like he had turned into a beast, only to release the pressure he had comprehended during the liberation tournament. Yet, instead of the chaos attribute that had been intertwined with the Abyssal effect before, an icy cold was mixed into the pressure which Jason amplified by inserting mana into the pressure creation process. This resulted in the pressure exerted by him becoming more overbearing and denser, while his frosty aura enlarged, pushing back Jennifer''s. At that moment, the battle was initiated with both sides already having unleashed one of their strongest forms. In the end, Jason was not sure whether Jennifer was giving her all or not, but he definitely was. Even if Petri''s fusion increased his strength to a higher extent, the fact that he could use the Frozen flame with a minuscule consumption of his mana, balanced out the small lack of strength. Furthermore, Artemis'' bond with him was much firmer, allowing the fusion to last longer. Thus, Jason had chosen Artemis over Petri this time and summoned Byakur, which he enveloped in a thick layer of freezing flames. Sky blue flames flickered around Byakur mirroring the color of his eyes after Jason accepted the entire fusion. Exerting the Floating Sky movement technique at the highest mastery, his speed more than doubled as he pushed his left foot from the ground. Small cracks appeared on the ground as he shot towards Jennifer, who had already manifested both of the swords he had seen a few months ago. Smiling brightly, Jennifer took a deep breath before she used all of her three cultivation energies to exert some sort of technique as she disappeared from Jason''s sight. Even after his speed had more than doubled, he was almost unable to follow Jennifer''s trajectory and caught off guard when she had already appeared, right next to him. She slashed out, knowing that her speed was something Jason couldn''t reach his current cultivation stage. Yet, she was in for a surprise when she saw that Jason''s eyes had already flitted towards the position at which she appeared a second later. Gleaming brightly, it was as if they were saying, ''I got you!'' This caused Jennifer to feel a sudden sense of being overwhelmed, only to instinctively step away. A moment later, sky blue flames with the height of several meters erupted from the exact position Jennifer had been standing a moment before. Even if Jason was unable to cope with Jennifer''s pace, the moment she slashed out, he was able to make his move as she had to slow down by a small margin. This was more than enough time for him to react as he was able to partially keep track of her movements. Jason was only capable of this because of his Emperor Eyes into which he had released a large amount of mana, but that was perfectly fine because his sub-area was rattling due to the influx of surrounding mana that it absorbed at a rapid pace. Owing to the two Stigmas fully released at the same time coupled with the sheer force radiated by the combination of aura and pressure Jason released independently, his mana replenishing pace accelerated to an extent he had never expected. Thus, the amount of mana he used to insert into his Emperor Eyes was balanced out, leaving enough for Jason to manifest the Frozen Flame that drained a negligible amount of mana. Only through additional techniques that used mana, was Jason slowly using up his mana as it replenished too fast otherwise. Nevertheless, his consumption was much lower than Jennifer''s as she was using all three techniques at once, at a much higher extent, increasing her speed several times, which had allowed her to disappear from Jason''s sight. Not sure if Jason''s reaction was a fluke, Jennifer initiated another attack, but this time, she wouldn''t back off, if something were to happen. Telling this to herself, she would rather evade it and attack backhanded instead of retreating instinctively as before. Jason noticed a glint of determination in Jennifer''s eyes that had only become firmer. As such, he knew that another clash, but only at a much higher altitude was bound to occur. Thus, without any hesitation, he began to use up the mana inside his Emperor Eyes'' specific energy storage space, which was, in fact, the marble within his eyes. He hadn''t used this storage space for months because he had other things to pay attention to. However, the amount of mana inside the small marble had reached a terrifying level, causing even Jason to be astonished. As long as he didn''t use up the entire mana inside the marble, it would be fine, as he didn''t want his sight to go blurry again. Yet, after thinking for a moment, he realised that this would only be a small sacrifice to win the fight of his life, against a being he was never ought to defeat, to begin with! Using some of the stored mana inside the marble, he slowly nurtured the Petrification curse, the race specific weakening curse, and the Abyssal effect, trying to attain the highest potency of all three abilities. The sudden surge of mana within Jason caused Jennifer to act immediately. With the unique movement technique that required all three cultivation energies to be circulated through her body in a complex manner simultaneously, she disappeared once again from the sight of most cadets. At this moment, Jason''s eyes moved at a slow, yet steady pace, following the rough path Jennifer was taking, only to sense that something had changed. ''She is using spiritual force to trick me!'' He realised a moment later as his Emperor Eyes sensed nothing but Spiritual Force within the body, whose pathway he was following. It was extremely terrifying to him that his eyes couldn''t sense the obvious trap right away. However, even more horrible was that he couldn''t find Jennifer, even after the doppelganger dispersed into thin air. Jason was able to sense her energy fluctuations but oddly enough, they were spread over the entire arena, which caused him to frown. ''It''s the aura¡­.'' He could only think before he suddenly perceived that something had entered the range of his aura. Having enlarged it as much as possible without using too much mana, Jason was able to figure that Jennifer was in the air and behind him, diving towards his direction at a shocking pace. Realising how fast Jennifer had suddenly become, Jason felt that he wouldn''t be able to turn around fully, let alone evade the oncoming attack. Thus, he could already see how he was losing the fight right in front of his eyes, only to grit his teeth as he mumbled, "As if I would give up now!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 654 - Thats Cheating Even if they were sometimes not seriously sparring, Jason was, in most cases, going all in, using his utmost efforts to win. Without using everything one had up to their sleeves, they would never know how strong they were, and if it might be a stupid idea to fight specific opponents. Furthermore, Jason hated losing, and even more so after not giving everything he could. With that thought in mind, Jason''s will to continue fighting, and to defeat Jennifer increased substantially, intensifying the ferocious, wild aura he released. Merged with icy coldness, both his aura and the pressure he was releasing could be controlled freely, which allowed Jason to realise something he had never noticed before. Normally, the Celestia aura was neutral, and without an affinity, but now while being fused this had changed. Now, he could use the Frozen Flame and his ice affinity, without an insignificant mana consumption. This free usage included the entire range at which his aura and pressure were released. Thus, Jason let out a sudden roar that shook the surroundings as he released a terrifying cold, enveloping his entire body with a pale sky blue hue. His eyes with the exact same color were glowing brightly, but it was only when Jason''s head was halfway turned, that Jennifer perceived this. She had almost reached him, and there was a gap of fewer than 20 meters between them. However, this distance suddenly felt as if it were kilometers to her as Jason''s eyes brightened up. Out of nowhere, a gigantic glacier of ice emerged between the two of them, creating a huge ice wall that she had to cross in order to reach Jason. The glacier kept enlarging, pushing towards Jennifer. She was forced to slow herself down while slashing at the terrifyingly huge mass of ice in front of her. The cold radiating from the ice had unique freezing properties within it, and Jennifer realised that if she were to maintain contact with it using her bare hands, she would slowly start to freeze. And this included the time she would use the energy within her body to try expelling the freezing property. This didn''t shock her, but it was astonishing as she was forced to use her own affinities to a certain degree, enlarging the darkness and light blade within her hand. Only then was she able to hack and slash at the glacier to reveal what ought to be behind it. Yet, what she saw was not Jason, but only a sculpture with his mana intertwined, causing her to look around in shock. Instinctively, Jennifer looked upwards, expecting that Jason would attack from the air, just like she did. However, instead of doing the obvious, she realised too late that Jason was not afraid of facing her head-on without the need to play tricks. Jason wouldn''t say out loud because his entire childhood had forced him to use tricks to win against his opponents in fights he was not ought to win. In that period, Jason noticed that most people with a higher cultivation base, and even combat prowess, expected their opponents to surprise attack them from behind or at an unexpected angle. It was exactly because of this that Jason was using his utmost efforts to not do the obvious as it was in most cases not even assumed. Because of that, the moment he had manifested the glacier, he had created a sculpture of himself, using a fraction of his mana, only to exert the Floating Sky movement technique to quickly move around the glacier. Thanks to this high speed, and Jennifer''s distraction, he was able to appear below her only moments after she had destroyed the glacier. Appearing below her, Jason immediately pushed himself from the ground, trying to approach Jennifer, who was still in the air, without the need to use his wings. Ready to brandish Byakur that was seemingly craving for blood, Jason used every ounce of strength within his body to push himself from the ground. It was exactly at that moment when Jennifer looked down, only to see him rushing straight towards her with an excited smile on his face. Unable to evade him as she was mid-air, in addition to the extremely high pace at which he was approaching her, Jennifer could only turn to the side, preventing the most dangerous outcome, while using her two swords to deflect the attack. However, instead of being worried about the clash, Jennifer was confident in her capabilities which made her release both her holy and darkness affinity at the same time, enveloping her body tightly, increasing every aspect of her. Without her realising, the two repulsively affinities that had been released were working together, amplifying Jennifer''s mixture of three cultivation energies. Thus, her strength increased once again, giving Jason a hard time as their eyes locked. When this happened, a radiant smile emerged on Jason''s face, which made Jennifer extremely uncomfortable. Had they not been fighting, this would have been different, but because they were currently in a fight, his smile worried her. Unfortunately, her worry was already too late, as Jason released the combined force of his Petrification curse, the race specific weakening curse that both hailed from Petri, and the Abyssal effect, which was something Jason had for a long time. Combining the attack of his curses and abilities by using his sheer will to battle, he saw them amplify each other, working together as a single attack that infiltrated Jennifer''s mind and entire being in an instant. Breaking through the protection mechanisms of her mind, which should have been extremely strong owing to her cultivating her mind in the path of Spiral, the attack spread through Jennifer like a wildfire. Even though Jason wanted to emerge victoriously, he had instinctively restricted the power used into the Abyssal effect, fearing that something might go wrong, once again. He didn''t want another incident to happen as the last one had already been shocking enough. Nevertheless, the sheer power behind his fully empowered curses, amplified by the Abyssal effect, were strong enough to hit Jennifer to the core. First, she stiffened, only to realise that her entire body had undergone a weakening before her mind blanked out for a moment as she was thrown into an endless darkness. Owing to her cultivation in the path of Spiral and Jennifer''s unrestricted cultivation base at the peak of the Prismar stage, her mind was protected in multiple layers. As such, she was only inside the endless darkness for less than a quarter of a second.. Despite that, Jennifer felt like dozens of years had passed, barely realising that she was still fighting with Jason, the moment he had appeared right in front of her. Yet, even the millisecond of imprisonment in the endless darkness made her feel thoroughly confused which caused her to instinctively release the restriction on her cultivation base. Thus, before Jason was even able to brandish Byakur, Jennifer accidentally unleashed the entire power of a being with three vessels at the peak of the Prismar stage, targeting him for a quarter of a second. The pressure around him increased, and only a moment later, he was flung back to the ground where he came from. However, as opposed to earlier, his speed increased several times as he crashed right into the battle arena, which caused him to spit out blood as his sight blurred. "That''s cheating!" He barely voiced out, only for Jennifer to regain her senses as she looked at Jason in astonishment. "Huh, what?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 655 - Recognition In the beginning, Jennifer didn''t even realise that she had released the restriction on her strength. It was only when she saw that Jason was unable to get out of the depths of the arena he had been bashed into, let alone move, that she understood what had happened. This caused her to quickly retract the three fused cultivation energies as she dived towards the ground, to help Jason get up. A worried expression appeared on her face, showing Jason that she hadn''t done it intentionally. Thus, he didn''t say anything, and realised that Artemis'' fusion had been severed. Because of that, his strength receded, just like his appearance that returned to his usual self. His entire body was sore, and he felt as if he wouldn''t be able to move around properly for the next few hours. In order to avoid this, he let Solaris enter his mana core, before manifesting its flames inside his body, soothing the pain and soreness within him. This allowed Jason to turn towards his right side, where he found Byakur. Releasing a faint thread of mana, he enveloped Byakur with it, allowing his soul weapon to return to the soul world. Despite having mana within his mana core, the fight had evidently ended, even if it was different than both Jason and Jennifer could have hoped for. Nevertheless, it had been exciting, and Jason couldn''t help but smile, ignoring the pain within his body as he said, "That was fun and extremely helpful! Let''s spar more often from now on!" Jennifer had been worried that she hurt him, but seeing that he was alright, she couldn''t help but return him a smile too as she nodded her head. "It''s really interesting to fight you. Let''s definitely repeat it!" With that agreement both of them decided to fight more often against each other, thereby increasing their combat experience, combat awareness, polishing their instincts, reflexes, and most importantly, the bond that had just been established between the two of them. The easiest way to get to know someone else was to fight them because one would get to know how others behaved, how they fought, and what kind of personality one had according to the subtle movements, and specific traits one perceived during a fight. While it was easy to deceive someone under normal circumstances, acting sincere while, in reality, being someone else than one showed, this was something completely different during a fight. It was not difficult to perceive if someone was holding back or forcefully adjusting their combat style in order to please others or even to do things one would never do under normal circumstances. However, by using his whole capabilities, Jason had revealed everything in front of Jennifer, which allowed her to understand what type of individual the young halfling in front of her was. What she comprehended about Jason was by no means bad, rather, it made him even more interesting than he had initially been to Jennifer. Even if Jason couldn''t truly figure out Jennifer because she had restricted her strength, including specific techniques, the full capabilities of her affinities and other special traits she might have, he was still able to roughly gauge what kind of a person she was. And this was satisfying enough to make him think that Jennifer was a strong yet kind woman, who he could trust to a certain extent. She was interesting and by fighting her more often, it should be possible for him to get to know her better, which was something he wanted to do. It was odd, but both felt that a bond had been created between the two of them during the fight, and both interpreted the bond in the same way. They thought it was a simple bond of friendship and camaraderie. Little did they know that they were simply unable to realise its true meaning! While Jason''s sore body was slowly recuperating, the process accelerated owing to Solaris'' unique characteristics. Jennifer couldn''t help but think that Jason was extremely powerful, and that it wouldn''t take long for him to reach her combat prowess. ''He will be much stronger than I am right now when he reaches my age¡­'' She thought, realising that Jason was already that strong when he had barely been on Manyr for a few months. In the end, Jason was more than five years younger than Jennifer, and despite her requiring thrice the time and energy to cultivate, she had reached the peak of the Prismar stage in all three paths in her mid-20s. This was shocking enough, but considering that Jason, who was only cultivating in one path, was likely to be stronger than that at this age, it was even scarier than Jennifer could imagine. ''I wonder from which races he hails¡­'' Simple questions like this were just the beginning of the pile of doubts that further ignited Jennifer''s curiosity in Jason. He was already deep in thought, thinking about the fight against Jennifer, and what he could have done better. ''Even if I don''t have a martial art technique, the Floating Sky technique and my knowledge of the most basic techniques should be enough...or should I try to focus on learning a neutral martial art technique with which I can use Byakur and all kinds of affinities?'' In the end, a martial art technique improved one''s combat prowess by leaps and bounds. However, at the same time, it restricted one in the versatility with which said technique could be used, until one had a perfect mastery allowing the user to change the necessary movement sequence at will. It was even possible to make specific techniques stronger by changing the order of movements, but for that, one would have to know the technique like the back of their hand. In the end, this was not something Jason was fond of because most techniques he could obtain were, at most, at the Terra grade, which might sound extremely strong in comparison to fighting without a specific technique. Yet, at the same time, his goals were already too high, and he would rather learn a Heaven''s grade technique than any other. It would make sense to use his utmost efforts to learn such a technique as if he had been born with its knowledge. While being deep in thought, he also tried to recall how he had used the wild, ferocious aura as well as the pressure in combination with his ice affinity as it was something he hadn''t been able to pull off before. This was interesting and gave him more than enough information and knowledge he had to process. ''If I merge the pressure into my aura just like Jennifer, it should become even more terrifying, right?'' He thought, only to notice that Jennifer was speaking to him. "Jason...Jason!!!" Shaking his head, he was brought out of his meditative thinking, as he looked straight into Jennifer''s silver eyes whose highlights were the crimson outlined pupils. "Yes?" "We should leave the arena, so as to get it repaired and let the other cadets continue training!" Nodding his head, Jason just recalled that there had been others except them, which made him take a look around. The wrath in Rex''s eyes was still apparent, but there was also something else gleaming in his eyes, which made Jason even more uncomfortable. ''Does he really consider me as a rival?'' He wondered while trying to make sense of the weird feeling he got. It was almost as if Rex had acknowledged him as a rival in multiple fields, only for Jason to be oblivious to what was going on. Even if he was uncomfortable with that, Jason couldn''t help but think that this might as well turn into something good. As long as Rex didn''t kill him everything would be fine, and from what he understood, the cadet at the Ascendion stage was even someone with an extremely high combat experience. As such, it might as well help him to spar against Rex, under the condition that he survived. ''I should become a little bit stronger first...My combat prowess needs to reach the Prismar stage as quickly as possible!'' Right now, even if Jason didn''t know about it, the need to become stronger at the fastest possible pace was even more urgent than anyone could ever expect! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 656 - Perfectionated Now that Jason had fought against Jennifer with his entire combat prowess, he knew what he had to improve on first. He hadn''t used the chaos attribute while fighting but that was because his control over it was simply non-existent. Using something one couldn''t control was not what Jason liked to do as it might end up in a disaster under any given circumstances. As such, adapting to the subtle released chaos attribute inside his body had become an important priority for Jason. Other than that, he wanted to perfectionate his mastery over the Floating Sky movement technique just like the three auxiliary techniques he had learned. This would require lots of his time, and dividing his daily schedule in proper segments had now become important. Using four days of the week for blacksmithing, concocting, and inscribing runes, Jason spent the remaining three days improving his combat prowess, whether it was sparring with other cadets or trying to comprehend something. At the same time, he set aside several hours of each day to cultivate at a rapid pace, using the best suitable places in the surroundings to make use of Jason''s high mana absorption. He could further amplify this by unleashing his Stigma and Celestia aura in an unrestrained manner. It was necessary for Jason to purchase certain things in order to produce goods with his auxiliary occupations which he would sell to gain a huge fortune and utilize it in several ways. First of all, he felt the need for improving the mana and primordial energy supply within his soul world. Through this, his soulbonds could cultivate without leaving the safest place he knew of. Jason also wanted to try looking for certain martial art techniques; better cultivation and body refinement techniques that would allow him to become much stronger in a relatively shorter period of time. Unfortunately, every single technique was extremely expensive, and the more interesting the technique he came across was, the more unique, rare, and thus more expensive it was priced! Even if Jason were to save up all the funds he would earn through an entire year, he was not sure how close he would come to even one of the unique technique''s price. Thus, he had tweaked his strategy early on, knowing that the auction house of Lanro city was something one had to make use of. Exploiting the need for not only strong but also different techniques, Jason could tell that most of the manuals that were simply lying inside his spatial ring and collecting dust were useful to achieve this. Nevertheless, he couldn''t sell all techniques at once, and had to make use of the high demand, low supply effect that led to skyrocketing the price for Terra- Intermediate and Terra- Advanced manuals he possessed! In the end, Jason was not interested enough in the auction house to be present every single time he auctioned a Terra- Intermediate manual. Rather, he scheduled all the Terra- Intermediate manuals to be sold once every day for the first two weeks, only to slowly increase the gap in time in which they were sold. Thus, spanning over more than four months, the vast majority of manuals would be sold, leaving him with a total of 10 Terra- advanced techniques which he would sell at the auction house''s bi-annual event auction. Jason assumed that he would be able to make the biggest fortune out of his Advanced manuals by auctioning them off at the bi-annual event, instead of the common auction that was held every single day. With that thought in mind, he had already ordered someone to evaluate it, and help him figure out whether the techniques were suitable to be sold at that event or not. To his dismay, there were only three techniques that were eligible to be auctioned off at the semi-annual event. This was not what Jason had expected, but after giving it some more thought he realised that the situation might turn out to be better than expected. With all techniques being sold off in four months'' time, the fortune he should have acquired was supposed to reach the requirement to purchase one good technique. At least he hoped so because there was no way that he would continue to use Terra Advanced ranked techniques as it was the highest he had while even the cadets of the Tritans organisation seemed to be using stronger techniques! Jennifer had offered to ask Luna, her master, about getting him a technique on his behalf, but without having ever done something for Lanro''s city lord, Jason felt that it was wrong to simply ask for a strong technique. However, this was mainly because he could tell that his greed would overwhelm him. As such, he would probably ask for a Heaven ranked technique which was his final goal to attain during the next few months. With everything prepared, Jason used the next four months to reach his highest possible combat prowess without neglecting a single trait of his, improving his overall capabilities tremendously. Being considered highly talented in the means of cultivation, the technique he utilised may only be at the Terra- Intermediate rank, but that was not important. If Jason were to cultivate while being seated, fully focused on the mana absorption and liquefying process, creating more than two dozen mana drops was no problem. This was something Jason made use of, and he cultivated without holding back. This increased his combat prowess by sparring and comprehending important things while improving knowledge and proficiency in the three auxiliary occupations. After four months, he had reached the perfect mastery of the Floating Sky movement technique, allowing Jason to move around at a rapid pace without consuming too much mana. At the same time, his own cultivation speed progressed as well as that of his soulbonds. He cultivated for several hours, every single day without fail, and because of that, in a matter of four months, he reached the peak of the 5th Lique stage. Now he had more than 4700 liquefied drops of mana inside his mana core. Adding the factor that he required thrice the amount of mana than one would usually require to liquefy a single mana drop, Jason was more than satisfied with this outcome. Meanwhile, Artemis entered the mid 4th Lique stage but Petri was even stronger than her as he entered the early 7th Lique stage! However, that was not everything Petri had achieved. He had liquefied a total of three more Life force drops, increasing the total number of Life force drops to seven which enhanced Petri''s physical strength further, only for Jason''s to be amplified too! Solaris, on the other hand, was not improving by leaps and bounds as he and his soulbonds were. Nevertheless, it had already reached the Prismar stage, in which it was more difficult to improve the cultivation base by a large margin, using only four months. Thus, Jason did not bother much about the invisible progress Solaris had. Rather than focusing on the negative points, he was more interested in the pace at which Solaris was gathering mana and soul energy to continue advancing. Even if Jason was satisfied with his own cultivation progress and that of his soulbonds too, there was something else that made him much happier. Finally, after a total of four months, he was able to tell the cultivation base of a being that had cultivated in the path of Pryr, almost perfectly! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 657 - Auction Using his Emperor Eyes to tell the difference of the degree to which a Pryr individual had refined their body and cells was extremely difficult. Nevertheless, Jason had been able to achieve this, while procuring and digesting all kinds of information from the cadets he had fought during the last four months. Owing to that, not only his combat experience increased but also his knowledge about the three cultivation paths, the special traits each of the paths had, and their respective shortcomings. In the end, it was not correct to speak about weaknesses of a path, and rather than the said shortcomings it was more about the uniqueness of each paths'' advantage that made it difficult for some to properly use it. With that in mind, Jason was sure that certain cadets would have been better off if they had awakened a different cultivation vein. Unfortunately, fate dealt an upper hand and said cadets had to adjust themselves to the given situation. They might not even know that their talent was seemingly wasted with the cultivation path they were fated to follow, and Jason couldn''t help but think that it was better that way. Otherwise, it might as well lead to a wound in their heart, preventing them from being fully focused on cultivating until both the injury and mentality would be fully tended to. Jason also thought that his own situation might be similar, even if he was not exactly sure about that. If he had been fated to awaken a different cultivation vein, would this have changed something for him or not? Questions and doubts swirled through his mind once in a while, and they distracted him more from what happened in his surroundings than anything else. Thus, only now did he notice that it was almost time for the bi-annual auction event as four months had already passed, while the fortune he had acquired during the last few months had increased substantially. Jason had lost the count of Ascendion ranked cultivation resources he had obtained because he had tested giving mana stones of the same rank to Artemis. With this, he wanted to accelerate her cultivation speed, which worked perfectly fine, had they not encountered the problem wherein Artemis almost exploded owing to the tremendous mass of mana that was sealed within the mana stone at the lowest quality. Nevertheless, it worked, and except for the feeling of being torn apart, Artemis liked the fact that she could hasten up her cultivation speed, doubling it. If her body would be able to fully cope with the Ascendion rank mana stone, her normal cultivation speed might even quadruple. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done, and by feeding Artemis with mana stones at the Prismar rank, Jason could see the progress in which her cultivation speed was already doubling. This seemed to be her current limit, but Jason was already extremely fond of that, thinking that she was truly his most talented Soulbond. Even if she was the weakest as of now, this wouldn''t be the case forever, even less after Artemis would finally undergo her second evolution. Jason was not sure what exactly Artemis'' racial limit was because even as a snowflake owl she could easily break through her racial limit. Despite that, Jason felt like Artemis had already reached this form''s racial limit, which made it more difficult for him to believe that she wouldn''t evolve soon. She was ready to evolve too, and both Jason and Artemis believed that she was only missing a small push, which could probably be done with an item she required. Hence, Jason had started to research all kinds of peak Prismar, and normal Ascendion stage items that had an ice attribute or unique characteristics with which Artemis might be able to initiate her evolution. In the end, finding a suitable item was easier said than done because Jason didn''t think that most of the ingredients and materials which he found were what he was looking for. Something or the other was always missing, but instead of being discouraged by this, Jason felt that the more exotic the item he was looking for was, the better. The rarer an item, the better its effect. This was something Jason had realised since he was young, and oddly enough, he was still confident to find what he was looking for soon, even if the item he required was extremely rare. Jason hoped that the auction house would become the treasure trove where his search would finally come to an end. However, at the same time, this made him worry that he might not have enough funds to purchase an item if he were to find what Artemis required. Even if purchasing said items might require every single mana crystal he had, Jason would gladly use them because it would benefit him far more than a rare technique for the same price. Finding a specific item had much lower chances than a suitable manual for him to use, thus, he knew his priorities. What came in as a pleasant surprise was the information that Jennifer was attending the bi-annual auction too. She was going there in place of the City lord to purchase specific things they required, and Jason didn''t hesitate to ask her if she wanted to accompany him. During the last few months, their bond had strengthened, and they felt comfortable around each other, even if they didn''t say anything. The sole fact that they were together was enough to make them be at ease, which was something the cadets, Jennifer was training, had noticed too. Even Rex couldn''t help but realise that his chances were dwindling because the attitude with which Jennifer interacted with him was worlds apart from how she treated Jason. He found it ridiculous and it made him furious, but without the authority to lecture Jason, let alone the fact that he didn''t have enough strength to make Jennifer his, Rex shut himself off from worldly matters. Instead, he started to cultivate as if he was possessed. Through this, he wanted to become stronger at a rapid pace, in order to defeat Jennifer at least once, while clearly showing that he was much better than Jason. One could say that it was his last resort, but the desperate attempt made everything only worse for him because he didn''t intervene in the progression of Jennifer and Jason''s bond. Thus, the two of them went together to the bi-annual auction. In front of the auction house, they were able to see a huge crowd of people that wanted to enter the large entrance of the building in order to spectate the auction and bid on it. Jason had already estimated that they would have to queue up and wait for several hours, only to see Jennifer smiling brightly at him as she took out two golden tickets with four big written letters on it. [VVIP] This caused Jason to only stare at Jennifer for a moment while she dragged him along, ignoring the hesitance in his eyes. "Why are you suddenly so hesitant? I obviously would take you with me. Who else am I going to the auction with?" Teasing him, she smiled, only to pass by the queue of people all of whom looked at Jennifer for a moment, only to turn back as they realized that it was the City lord''s disciple. However, just a moment later, their gaze returned to Jennifer and noticed the young man, who she was dragging along with her. Jennifer''s appearance was already superior, even after her cover up. Yet, Jason''s broad body that could be described to be athletic, with a surplus of muscles, gave him the vibe of someone who cultivated in the path of Pryr. To top it all, his flawless facial features and charming golden eyes made him look exotic. Thus, he was even more unique than Jennifer in the onlookers'' opinion. Despite giving off the vibe of cultivating in the path of Pryr, Jason was obviously cultivating with mana which was noticeable through his mana fluctuations, but that was not important right now. The City Lord was known for loathing men, which was the reason for everyone to believe that the same applied to everyone else under her banner. Evidently, this was not the case, otherwise, Jennifer wouldn''t smile brightly while pulling Jason along, only to disappear from the queued up people''s sight, the moment they entered the auction house with their [VVIP] tickets. If the sight of Jason, right next to Jennifer was already shocking to these citizens, how would they react, if the news that he lived in the City lord''s abode, freeloading on the City lord''s kindness, reached them? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 658 - Path Of Wealth Initially, Jason had been under the impression that the entire city would already know about his existence and the fact that he lived in the City lord''s manor. However, to his astonishment, the merchant''s appraisers he had encountered during the last few months, were more professional than he''d thought. They had not disclosed any of his information to others. They might have been astonished that a man lives in the City lord''s abode, where men were forbidden and severely punished under normal means, but keeping their public image clean was more important. It was simply not worth revealing Jason''s information in exchange for tarnishing their reputation and incurring Luna''s wrath! When Jason entered the auction house for the second time to hand out all manuals he had wanted to schedule to be auctioned off, he immediately realised how much the interior had changed. From looking relatively plain, Jason could now see all kinds of items that were exhibited behind glass showcases. These were a few items that were auctioned off, and the three Terra Advanced techniques that were considered unique were amongst them. Their price was extremely high, to begin with, in Jason''s opinion, and he couldn''t help but feel glad about having made a deal with the auction house the first time he had entered it. Even if it had been a little bit problematic, Jason was able to pull off a little trick. He had only three rare cultivation techniques to sell, however, based on their rarity, they would be overly expensive which made it impossible for ordinary citizens or small income families to purchase them. As such, Jason had simply told the manager who had coincidentally appraised his items, that it might be a good idea to please the smaller or medium-sized income families during the bi-annual auction event too. Thus, it would be good to use the remaining seven manuals to start off the auction as some sort of an appetizer and bring forth the main course immediately afterward. Even if the manager knew what Jason was trying to pull off, he thought that it was a good idea, considering that the remaining seven manuals were still quite rare, just barely not within the standards of the bi-annual auction event. Considering the idea Jason had proposed, the manager had called the City Lord to seek her permission. She was the one governing everything and in charge of the given rules after all. Luna had accepted Jason''s proposal without hesitation because the manuals were still rare, just barely below the standards. But that was not the main reason for her grant permission. Rather, it was the fact that Jason was the one to have made this proposal. In the end, she may be in charge of the Auction house, but it didn''t necessarily belong to her. A neutral organisation had wanted to build the auction house, and in exchange for her approval, conferred her with the bare minimum rights to change the rules to a certain extent. Because of that, Jason was able to get rid of all his manuals, only to see that the price for the non-exotic manuals was already priced at 5 large-sized cultivation stones at the Ascendion rank. A single medium-sized cultivation stone at the Ascendion rank was the price at which merchants purchased the Terra- Intermediate manuals, only to sell them for at least ten times that price once again. While a single medium-sized cultivation stone had 50 times the amount of energy sealed within itself than a small-sized cultivation stone, the same difference applied to large- and medium-sized cultivation stones. They had 50 times the amount of energy sealed within, coupled with an even higher mana purity! Thus, even a single large-sized cultivation stone was extremely valuable, and each of the seven Terra- Advanced techniques was priced at 5 large-sized cultivation stones. Merchants would sell them for at least 15-20 too, or maybe even at a higher price, which made Jason realise that the fortune he had procured from his relentless work and selling of Terra-Intermediate technique was less useful than expected. Fortunately, his cultivation manuals were unique in the sense that they didn''t exist on Manyr. This made every single technique he sold much more expensive than its usual price, which was now, at the latest, noticeably higher. While he had procured around seven large-sized stones at the Ascendion rank, if he converted everything he had earned, this fortune would be earned several times today with the sale of each technique. This caused Jason''s mood to brighten up further, even if he would lose 20% of his profit to the auction house as its fee. Their cut would eat a sizable chunk of his income, but Jason assumed that he would earn much more from the auction house than the merchant would give him. Thus, he began to ponder if it was possible for him to copy a technique to earn an even higher fortune. Unfortunately, this was not as easy as it had been on Argos, with the neutral body refinement manual or the translations of other manuals because copying didn''t work that way. In order to properly copy a technique, he had to be able to use it at the perfect mastery, giving him the chance to imprint his knowledge directly onto the technique. In the end, this would mean that he had to learn all techniques at the perfect mastery before copying them, which would require a great deal of effort. ''Maybe, I should make a few copies of the Floating Sky movement techniques and stockpile it so as to use them when I am in dire need of some funds¡­'' Handing out the technique he was using was not necessarily the best he could do because others might be able to figure out its weak points after reading the manual. As such, he would only copy and sell the FLoating sky movement technique if he was in a desperate need of funds! With that in mind, Jason was able to retain his calm as he began to look at the other exhibited items, trying to evaluate what made them special without reading the description. This was something he had always wanted to perfect- the utilisation of his Emperor Eyes in order to use them in the wilderness without the need to know every single herb, tree, plant, ore, and other things that might be valuable, or possibly even dangerous! If he were to be able to do that, many possible issues could be prevented while not a single opportunity would slip through his hands. With his mind fully occupied in trying to appraise items with his Emperor Eyes, Jason didn''t even realise that he was subconsciously walking next to Jennifer, who stared at him, trying to figure out what exactly he was doing. Jason had inserted a tremendous amount of mana into his eyes, and without knowing what exactly his special trait was, Jennifer could only think that he was trying to perceive the energy fluctuations from the items that had been exhibited. Just at this moment, Jason stiffened as he halted in his tracks, looking like he had been petrified which made Jennifer squint her eyes, wondering what happened. What she didn''t know was that Jason''s soul world had begun to shake violently out of nowhere, causing him to freeze in his tracks, as Artemis screamed out from the depth of his soul world. She released her excitement, transmitting it to Jason the moment she felt the aura of a specific item that was exhibited. ''Is...that item that she needs to evolve¡­.really¡­.just why?!?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 659 - Frozen Lunarium The exhibited item that attracted Artemis'' attention looked ordinary but through the Emperor Eyes, Jason was able to see the truth behind the seemingly ordinary appearance. In the end, it was just a head-sized orb that was white, half-transparent with a silverish, liquefied core inside. Taking a look at the name and description, Jason figured out that the orb was called Frozen Lunarium, an item at the Ascendion rank that could be used to enhance one''s ice affinity if channeled through the orb. For people that had an ice affinity, and didn''t use any close-range weapons, but relied on a wand, this would come in handy and was extremely strong. However, considering that the Devirs couldn''t awaken an ice affinity, while the humans on Manyr didn''t even have a mana core, Jason could tell that its price wouldn''t be too high. Only a small number of Aeus should be able to use the orb in front of him. Amongst that little group, even less would use a wand, or weapons that solely focused on increasing their ice affinity. Because of that, Jason was confident that he could purchase the Frozen Lunarium, only to see that its price was 10 large-sized cultivation stones at the Ascendion rank. Other than that there was the possibility to purchase it directly for 100 large-sized Ascendion rank cultivation stones, which caused Jason to halt in his tracks. ''Artemis definitely needs this to evolve...otherwise, she wouldn''t react as she did¡­'' The instant purchase price was exorbitant for him, but the starting price was already high too. This made Jason believe that the Frozen Lunarium''s use was more than just the effects he had read about. Because of this, Jason turned to Jennifer, who was still looking at him as he asked, "Is this ingredient even useful for anyone here? The description is not really special, let alone of any use to the three races that live in Lanro." Jennifer noticed that Jason was interested in the Frozen Lunarium which made her believe that he had sensed something about it that might help his ice affinity grow. It could also be something similar, but that was not important. If he perceived an opportunity, it would be something good, and thus she averted her gaze to the Frozen Lunarium to take a look at its price before she commented, "Frozen Lunarium has many uses. Not only does it have the obvious effect of strengthening the output of the ice affinity once channeled through it, but in most cases, it''s used differently for potions! Said potions are extremely difficult to concoct and if I remember correctly, two of the most important potions are the ''Rejuvenilizing'' potion and the ''Frozen disease'' potion. The Rejuvenilizing potion is just what its name suggests, while the Frozen disease potion freezes all kinds of disease, even the most lethal ones, destroying them without leaving behind any lingering traces of harmful aftereffects to the body! In the end, these potions require other items that are even more difficult to procure, but the Frozen Lunarium is still one of the more expensive ingredients. As such, if you really need it, just purchase the Frozen Lunarium instantly. It might seem more expensive at the first glance, but there are two families, one of the Devir and one of the Aeus race that require the Frozen Lunarium for their own plans. Because of that, the price will definitely cross 100 large-sized Ascendion rank cultivation stones!" Jason had listened intently, and after Jennifer finished her short speech, he looked at the Frozen Lunarium for a moment before he pondered on the ways he could utilise to procure the necessary funds. Right now, he was still too poor, and only after the sale of ten manuals would his fortune be at an acceptable degree to let him have the luxury of buying something. However, with that in mind, he knew that his fortune wouldn''t be enough to purchase another treasure from the bi-annual auction. Weighing the choices at hand, Jason pondered about it for a moment. Artemis was not exactly helpful because she was voicing out her eagerness to devour the Frozen Lunarium, like a child nagging for a toy. She was even starting to demand it, which caused Jason to frown lightly, only to make up his mind as he transmitted his thoughts to Artemis. [If you don''t evolve after this, I will restrict our communication channel, Artemis! Then, you won''t be able to manipulate me like now, because I very well know that you''re doing this intentionally!!] A moment later, Jason turned towards Jennifer, as he shamelessly asked. "Jen, can you lend me enough funds to purchase the Frozen Lunarium immediately? I need it for something, but I won''t have enough funds before the auction ends¡­" Jennifer knew that Jason had auctioned multiple things in the auction house in the last four months, but what she didn''t know was that he would have gathered enough funds to purchase the Frozen Lunarium after the bi-annual event! ''He is auctioning something off in the bi-annual event? And it gives him enough funds to purchase the Frozen Lunarium?'' Staring straight at Jason, Jennifer was both confused and curious, only to ponder about Jason''s question for just a few seconds before she nodded her head, ready to answer him. "I can purchase everything in the name of the City lord. So it shouldn''t be a problem to purchase the Frozen Lunarium. I planned to do that, either way... Just pay her back whenever you can. If you plan to run away, just let me tell you that Luna does not like it when people deceive her¡­" This astonished Jason, and at the same time, the latter part of the sentence that felt like an accusatory warning caused him to frown. However, a moment later, he saw a sly smile on Jennifer''s face, which told him that she was teasing him. Jason realised that Jennifer trusted him to some extent because only she could purchase something in the name of the City Lord, making a credit if necessary. Thus, he was thankful for her trust, which made him smile brightly as he replied, "If that''s the case, I should thank you! And, I want to instant-purchase the Frozen Lunarium. There is no need to wait for the Frozen Lunarium to reach a much higher price during the auction!" With that being said, Jennifer immediately purchased the Frozen Lunarium, which was taken off the auction and away from the exhibition, attracting the surrounding Aeus'' and Devirs'' attention. Their first thought was that the City lord purchased the Frozen Lunarium, in order to offend the two affluent families that had been troubling Luna for the last few years. As such, taking away the Frozen Lunarium that both families required from right under their noses could be considered as delivering a tight slap on their faces. It might enrage the families, but they were too weak to directly offend someone at the Specta stage, let alone injuring Jennifer before snatching the Frozen Lunarium from her. Nevertheless, the moment the authorities of both families got to know what happened, they turned furious. Without being able to actively do something against them, they simply decided to create trouble for Jennifer. She was most likely at the auction to purchase more than one good, and being unable to purchase even one more item would mean that she would enrage the City lord! Thus, the two families had just decided to form a temporary alliance against Jennifer in order to deprive her of the goods she wanted to purchase or increase the price she would have to pay, manifold! However, how could they know that the City Lord had sent Jennifer to the auction house''s event because of a specific reason, and not only because she trusted her disciple? Unbeknownst to the authorities of the two families, Jennifer was completely unbothered after knowingly offending them. Rather than being worried, or oblivious to what she had done, Jennifer was smiling lightly, secretly thanking Jason for giving her a challenge during this year''s event of the auction house. She was happy and Jason noticed this, which was extremely confusing. ''Is she still sane, or did someone hit her on the head?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 660 - Counter After she received the Frozen Lunarium from the manager, Jennifer took Jason to the VVIP lounge of the auction house. Only then did she give Jason the Frozen Lunarium and spoke in a conspiratorial tone. "Because of this purchase, I probably offended the two families I mentioned earlier. So...you owe me a favor now!" Even though she wanted to sound serious, in the end, she could only smile, expressing her joy about what had happened. This caused Jason to frown at her, only to notice that a few more people were entering the VVIP lounge. The VVIP lounge they were inside, was in fact, a huge hall that was separated from the rest of the auction house. In front of Jason was a huge transparent glass wall on the first floor through which he could see everything. It gave him the chance to look at the hundreds of people who were already seated in the lengthy rows of seats on the ground floor. Meanwhile, in the center was a simple stage, which was empty as of now. Behind Jason, there was a bar the newcomers immediately rushed to as he heard them gossip. "Do you think the City lord wanted to offend the Jul and Ori family? After everything they had done to provoke her, it should only be obvious that she delivers a befitting retort. Still, I didn''t expect her disciple to nonchalantly instant-purchase the item they need¡­.it''s not like they''re too poor to do the same but the Jul and Ori family made an agreement to bet for the Frozen Lunarium to play it fair!" This caused Jason to turn around, where he looked at two Aeus who were having their fun with the situation he seemed to have created. "Either way, it was about time for the Jul and Ori family to get to know what happens if they continue provoking the City lord. I always thought that she was taking them too lightly, ignoring them which gave them the necessary time to strengthen their connections to the outside world!" While the two Aeus were continuing to talk, Jason could only turn around, to look at Jennifer with doubtful eyes. ''Was it really okay for her to purchase the Frozen Lunarium?'' However, just as he thought that Jason imagined how it would have been if he''d purchased the Frozen Lunarium instead of Jennifer. A simple visualization was enough to make him understand that he would have probably been killed and deprived of the Frozen Lunarium because he would be considered a nobody who had dared to offend not one but two influential families. "Don''t worry too much. My master ordered me to provoke and offend a few families that wanted to purchase certain items from the beginning. Initially, I wanted to purchase the Frozen Lunarium later, even if it would have increased the price by a few times. You know, some families still don''t understand what they should do in the face of a powerhouse at the Specta stage, and some are not as oblivious and know their place. Master finally decided to make it clear that she is not to be taken lightly, and that others should be put in their place every once in a while so that they pay attention to how they behave!" Jason didn''t expect that Luna would do something like this because he knew that the City Lord had been silent for decades, ignoring every single provocation that had happened until then. It was exactly because of this information which he had procured while reading books in the auxiliary tower''s library in addition to eavesdropping on others'' conversation that Jason was so confused right now. This made him ask Jennifer straightforwardly. "Is there a reason for the City lord to react all of a sudden? I thought all of you have more than enough to do with the ''special'' training in the barren lands¡­" Jason didn''t mention the cadets or the Tritans organisation. Instead, he talked around it, though Jennifer still understood it. She pondered for a moment before answering, "To put it simply, the reason is that the Devir and Aeus race have begun to cross their limits and master''s patience is wearing off. They''ve started to force Manyrs to choose one of the two sides, and if someone wants to stay neutral, they''re treated harshly by both sides. That''s not all, and it wouldn''t be enough to make my master act, but the families and clans of the three races seem to provoke Master more and more. From the way I see it, the situation is not grave yet, but everyone is trying to find out what they''re allowed to do in Lanro, and what is too much. However, because the Master doesn''t want to give them the chance to find out either, she wants to use the bi-annual event of the auction house to give everyone a warning!" Initially, Jason had felt bad for giving Jennifer and the City lord a hard time, only because he needed the Frozen Lunarium, but that had changed now. He was of the opinion that Luna''s warning was still relatively light in comparison to what she wanted to show, but that was probably fine. ''Giving a light warning before the heavy punishment, huh?'' Jason wondered before Jennifer took out a small book which she handed him. "Take a look inside this book. The items that were auctioned off today are listed down. Everything we want to purchase as well as the things we want to bait the other families with is marked down in addition to extra information. A few of our people also wrote down the normal price for all items, in addition to the assumed price at the auction house." This interested Jason a lot, which made him open the thin book. It didn''t take him long before he was fully immersed in the heavy information that was written down in the book, and time flew by. He didn''t even realise that two hours had already passed as his immersion was only increasing with time. The auction was just starting with an ''appetizer serving'' according to Jason, where he wanted to sell off his less unique manuals at the Terra Advanced rank. This was ought to make a small fortune that should end up with an equal sum than he had already accumulated during the last few months. As such, it was a great deal he made there. Every single seat was occupied in the non-VIP area, and the first few items, which were, in fact, Jason''s manuals, were quickly auctioned off. Jason, who had been deep in thoughts, only regained his senses when he heard a small commotion in the rows of people in front of him. He had been standing at the glass wall that was tinted on the outside, preventing others from seeing Jason on the other side. Thus, he immediately heard when people began to talk about the seven manuals that were displayed at the same time, only for the beautiful auctioneer to describe each technique in a detailed manner, highlighting their advantages, what they could do, and their requirements. In the end, Jason knew that the techniques he sold were not overly powerful, but they were different, which made them unique to some extent. Because of that, he wanted to know how many cultivation stones he would receive in exchange for them. They were sold one at a time, but given the fact that all of them were put up for auction at the same time, Jason assumed that the manager was trying to pull everyone interested in a specific field of manual to the one they needed. Thus, the first technique that was auctioned off had become the least attractive, which seemed to be the auction house manager''s plan. Even if Jason was not sure what the manager was pulling off, it looked like he was good at his job because the final result after all seven manuals had been sold was shocking. "He really knows what he is doing. That''s definitely a good profit margin!" Jennifer mumbled, which caused Jason to suddenly cough up as he realised how much he had earned in a matter of a few minutes. ''I''m not dreaming, right?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 661 - Main Attraction Jennifer nodded in approval about the profit the manager had earned, acknowledging his capabilities as she mumbled "But where did they get these unique techniques from? They''re definitely not from around here!" All of the techniques sold by Jason were unique and different in comparison to most techniques the three races in Lanro had seen, and a few specific individuals would be able to make use of the techniques that had been auctioned off. Some were born different than the norm and they were highly likely to be able to reap many benefits from techniques that were different than those anyone else was practicing. Because of that, Jennifer had purchased three techniques, knowing that some of her cadets required techniques that were more suitable for them. They were Variants, born with different cultivation veins than the usual ones, which made it more difficult for them to move specific parts of their body that were innately connected to different veins. As such, some humans born on Manyr faced difficulties coping with mana cultivation veins because their bodies had been accustomed to being highly physical, or wisdom oriented. Mystic energy, also called mana, focused on the energy field, and its cultivation, in addition to elemental affinities that could be comprehended and awakened. The Tritans organisation had more than enough techniques, but all of them were similar, and not like Jason''s that were different in their essence. All seven techniques had been compiled by different races, and each of them focused on the special trait of their own race, instead of the certain norms as it was the case with the Devirs and Aeus. They tried to construct every technique and make it usable for the Manyrs, despite not knowing what exactly they had to pay attention to. Even if one of the cultivation veins within the Manyrs were in most cases not activated, they were still affecting them indirectly. Thus, the techniques shared by the Devirs and Aeus were sometimes not as potent as they ought to be. What Jason had only found out recently, was that a few techniques he sold off, could also be used by individuals that cultivated with other energies than mana without being affected by unawakened cultivation veins. This was interesting, and also the reason why the final price for the seven seemingly normal cultivation manuals was so high. "210 large-sized Ascendion rank cultivation stones...that''s...definitely not bad.'' Deducting the 20% fee, and the fact that he had already lent 100 cultivation stones from Jennifer, or to be precise the City lord, his profit decreased rapidly. Nevertheless, he would still have a total of more than 70 large-scaled Ascendion rank cultivation stones left if he were to include his own funds. That was more than he could have hoped for because he expected the average for the rather normal manuals to be at around 10 cultivation stones. Yet, in the end, with several larger families and clans betting, the prices for all techniques had skyrocketed with a particular technique reaching the price of 55 large-sized Ascendion rank cultivation stones. When Jason had heard this for the first time, he was shocked, but Jennifer, who had purchased the technique, was extremely overjoyed which was confusing. "Just what is so special about that technique? Isn''t it just a martial art technique that uses both the cultivated energy and life force¡­?" Initially, Jason had wanted to purchase and learn the martial art technique himself, but the downside of it had been too big to ignore. He never wanted to learn a technique that used up his life force because it was simply too risky. A single mistake could deprive him of his entire Life force, ending in a disastrous situation. There were too many things he could make use of. Thus Jason didn''t even think about it. At the same time, another problem was that most people considered it extremely difficult to replenish their Life force. However, Jennifer''s commentary made Jason believe that he might have been wrong, which attracted his interest as it was simply logical. "Even if you don''t like techniques that use Life force, being able to defeat your opponent with a temporary improvement in your combat strength is nothing in comparison to being drained a little bit of Life force. Furthermore, it''s not difficult to replenish your life force, if you know-how, and it''s even less problematic for those that cultivate in the path of Pryr!" Nodding his head, Jason didn''t say anything further. Instead, he silently watched the auction that continued without any issues. After comparing the assumed final price written inside the small book Jennifer had given him with the real final price, Jason couldn''t help but look at Jennifer with gleaming eyes. As she had previously mentioned, Jennifer purchased all kinds of goods that were in high demand by other big families. At the same time, she played around with those that wanted to seek revenge by preventing her from purchasing certain items. Instead, Jennifer used the very same items as bait, making others purchase them for an excessive price as she backed off at the perfect timing. Amongst these baits were two of the exotic manuals he sold, which made Jason even wealthier than before. One of the manuals was a body refinement manual that could be used by both Spiral and Maest Cultivators. Jason had only found it out when the Appraiser had evaluated his manuals. Because of that, he now had a huge fortune with which he could purchase other things, even after the price for the Frozen Lunarium was deducted. This made him happy, but on the other hand, Jason couldn''t find anything suitable for his needs right now. Even after reading through the tome, he was unable to find something he truly needed because he had everything! Because of that, several hours had elapsed in which Artemis continued to nag him to give her the Frozen Lunarium, as she was desperate to consume it and didn''t want to prevent wasting more time. However, Jason didn''t even move a single inch. He was not even thinking about giving Artemis the Frozen Lunarium right now because they were within a room full of Lanro city''s elite prodigies. There were even powerhouses from other cities who had paid a visit to the auction house just for today''s event. As such, it was not feasible for him to allow Artemis to emerge in front of him, just to devour the Frozen Lunarium before disappearing once again, returning to the soul world. Thus, Artemis had to wait patiently, a thing she wasn''t very good at. In the end, Jason was able to calm down Artemis saying that it wouldn''t take much longer, only to hear the beautiful auctioneer say something that confused him. "My dear guests, now that we''ve reached the climax of today''s event, I would like to show all of you the main attraction and highlight of the auction that everyone has been eagerly waiting for!" While the others exclaimed loudly, cheering happily, Jason was oblivious to the main attraction because it was not mentioned in the book Jennifer had given him. As such, he could only look at the stage, with confusion which was noticed by Jennifer, who smiled lightly. "The auction house''s main attraction is different every time an event is held and nobody knows what exactly the main attraction will be. Even my master doesn''t know it and she was only told that the main attraction would be extraordinary. That''s probably also the reason for so many affluent individuals from other cities to come over to Lanro city today!" Jason just nodded his head before his attention returned back to the stage, where a covered glass box was brought up. It was a big, long box and the moment he used his Emperor Eyes to take a glimpse at what was hidden within the seemingly normal glass box, a heavy headache overcame him. ''This concealment is tough,'' Jason immediately thought, realising that even the glass box that held the main attraction was something he couldn''t take lightly. This caused him to smile, which only increased after he forcefully broke through the glass box''s concealment by inserting a tremendous amount of mana into his eyes as faint droplets of blood trickled out of them. "That''s interesting!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 662 - Spirit Kingdom With glowing, golden-silverish eyes and crimson-colored blood trickling down his cheeks, Jason attracted some attention from the surrounding that saw his bright smile and heard him say. "That''s interesting!" This made most powerhouses understand that the seemingly weak Manyr had a special trait that allowed his eyes to see what lay behind the glass box. However, this was seemingly useless as the lid of the box was taken off the moment everything had been prepared. Even under pain, Jason couldn''t help but smile at his impatience as he simply continued to use the vast amount of energy within his Emperor Eyes. Seeing everything down to the finest detail, he sensed that there were a total of 14 objects that seemed to be in a liquefied stage, yet held together to maintain the shape of an egg. This was already intriguing, but Jason was not interested in the appearance of the main attraction, but more about the fact that he sensed the pulse of life within each of the objects! Astonished about this, he took a closer look, which allowed him to realise that 13 of the unique-looking eggs had the basic elemental affinities, thus following the path of Maest. Meanwhile, the 14th egg was more exotic because it was smaller in size, silver in color, which made it look more graceful than the others, and it was swept through by spirit force! He was just about to come up with his own conclusion when he heard the female auctioneer begin to describe and explain the main attraction and what made it so unique. "Esteemed guests, this year''s main attraction is something the auction house never had before. It is so unique that we weren''t even sure if it could be the truth, or just our mind playing tricks. However, fortunately enough, it was not an illusion, and we are overjoyed to reveal a total of 13 Eggs of Grand Spirits that followed the elemental path of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water!" Saying this the auctioneer took a pause, giving everyone time to digest what happened, only to hear a murmur echoing through the gigantic hall as everyone began to gossip with the people beside them. Even the VVIP lounge was slowly becoming louder with a glint of joy and excitement within the eyes of all who were present. "I thought Spirits were extinct in the Julandra region? Didn''t they build their own kingdom thousands of years ago? How is it possible that the auction house obtained 13 Eggs...of Grand Spirits at that?! Don''t tell me, they invaded the Spirit kingdom¡­ are they insane???" Hearing an elderly voice, Jason couldn''t help but turn around to his right side, where an extremely old man was standing with anger and shock in his eyes. The Julandra region was the region that included the entire territory of hundreds of powerful beasts, the Aues, Devir, and Manyr races, and Jason knew that this region alone was larger than Argos, by several times. As such, he couldn''t really imagine just how vast the region, let alone Manyr was. Nevertheless, he had heard of the Spirit kingdom as it was one of the Legends written in the books he read inside the auxiliary tower''s library. It was unknown how many types of Spirits existed, because some were formless, while others took the form of human-like beings, or animals according to their preferences. However, that was not the important point, let alone the reason for the old man who stood less than ten meters away from him to be fuming in rage. What made Spirits unique was their ability to purify and enrich their surrounding mana by simply being around. Jason was not sure how it worked, but he was sure that their innate trait was that of purification and nourishment of mana, which was the cultivation path they followed. Other than that, he had heard that the water, which was transmuted or generated by Water Spirits had unique traits, making it useful for other beings'' health, allowing them to release their tension. At the same time, the water was said to be extremely good to concoct unique potions. This was also why Jason was interested in Spirits because all basic elements had unique traits making them extremely beneficial to have around. While Water spirits were already good, the fire of Fire spirits could purify a body, releasing their impurities in the process, while Earth spirits were good at nurturing the ground around them, enriching it with mana. As for Wind Spirits, they could control the energy currents in the surrounding, and move them at their will. Through this, one could construct an extremely powerful and potent cultivation place, which made it easier for them to cultivate. Unfortunately, all of that was reason enough for them to be hunted down, caught, and sealed in certain places to act as mere tools to nourish other beings that wanted to exploit the Spirits'' unique abilities. Owing to this, they formed an alliance of sorts and that is how the Spirit kingdom came into existence. It served as a retaliatory force where only Spirits and normal beasts were allowed to live. Every remotely intelligent race that gathered in societies was immediately hunted down, without any questions. Jason had initially thought that this was a sick joke, but seeing the old man''s expression, followed by the expressions of the other people that turned solemn after their initial joy, he couldn''t help but take it seriously. ''If these Eggs come from the Spirit kingdom, someone must have taken them away without permission. That won''t start a sudden war, right?'' He suddenly wondered, only to hear the female auctioneer explaining the situation. "I believe, the esteemed guests have already realised the uniqueness of the Grand Spirit eggs. But nobody needs to worry about the place of their origin. They don''t stem from the Spirit kingdom, but from a unique place that ought to remain a secret. Even the auction house doesn''t know where the source of these treasures but the individual that brought all 14 Eggs formed a truth soul contract with us, stating that the eggs don''t originate from the Spirit kingdom. With that being said, there are no problems, and everyone is allowed to bid freely, without restraint or the need to fear being attacked by the Spirit kingdom. If anyone ever wanted to create a place to purify their body, improve their cultivation speed, or release the tension accumulated within their bodies after several days of arduous practice, the Grand Spirits in front of you are the best way to make all of this possible!" With the given explanation, the powerhouses inside the VVIP lounge took a collective breath of relief and a faint smile emerged on everyone''s face, only to be replaced by their greed as they subconsciously began devising tricks to claim the eggs for themselves. This made Jason uncomfortable, and even the thought of trying to bid for a single Egg made him nervous. He was most interested in the silver liquid Spirit egg because it was evidently a Mutation that made it follow the path of Spiral instead of Maest. Never having heard something like this of a spirit before, Jason couldn''t help but feel that he should try bidding for the Spiral Spirit egg. Unfortunately, there were too many powerhouses eying the Grand Spirit Eggs, making him uncomfortable as he could already perceive the tension between the parties that were eager to procure a Spirit egg, even if it would mean that they had to offend each other. ''This won''t end in a carnage, right?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 663 - Half-mutation? Seeing the expression of the powerhouses, Jason didn''t feel like bidding anymore. This feeling only intensified when he heard the price at which the bidding of the Grand Spirit eggs began. "10 superior cultivation stones at the Ascendion rank...that''s..everything I have¡­!" He blurted out without realising, which caused Jennifer to look at Jason in astonishment as she mumbled, "Where the hell did you suddenly obtain such wealth from!? Didn''t you ask me to lend you 100 large-sized Ascendion rank cultivation stones? That''s equal to just one superior cultivation stone!!" Jason barely heard this and turning his head, he smiled teasingly at her. Trying to ease himself of the pressure around him he answered her, "Well, to be precise, most of it is from you, or the City Lord!" The answer only confused Jennifer further which made Jason grin again. He was beginning to grow fond of their playful banter. "You purchased a few manuals, right? Those were mine, and the others were also mine!" The moment he said this, Jason''s chest swelled with pride, only to see Jennifer''s flabbergasted expression which made him add, "But, those were also the last manuals I brought from my old planet!" However, even after hearing that, Jennifer continued to wonder hence she asked, "Didn''t you say that your planet is barely considered to have entered the Innate phase and that it awoke its mana heart 350 years ago, or so?!" Jason had opened up to Jennifer about his childhood on Argos, and many other things. Thus, she knew a bit about his past, including the fact that his old planet was scarce of mana. "You seem to have forgotten that there were Higher races who fought in the Grand Argos war, as well!" He simply replied helping Jeniffer recollect the same as Jason had talked about it a lot. "Ah...yes, sorry Jason!" Jennifer spoke in a low voice, realising that she had made him revisit the very memories he would like to forget. Despite Jennifer''s small mistake, Jason''s smile didn''t vanish as he shook his head. "It''s okay. It is a thing of the past, and I have to cope with everything. But, let''s get back to the topic. I have around 10 superior Ascendion rank cultivation stones, so...I won''t be able to participate in the betting for the main attraction¡­ What a shame!" Jennifer nodded her head, gauging what Jason hoped to achieve by purchasing one of the Grand Spirit Eggs, which would be extremely beneficial. However, even she was not sure whether it was stupid to bid for the Grand Spirit Eggs, or not because their funds might not be enough, considering that there were more than a few dozen VVIPs from large cities inside the VVIP lounge who could spend money like water. "I think so too..maybe even Specta rank cultivation stones might be used to purchase just one egg¡­" Jason was not sure how valuable a Specta rank cultivation stone was. Yet, after considering that a simple, and small Ascendion rank mana stone was enough for him to cultivate at a rapid pace for more than a week, Jason couldn''t even gauge what the superior cultivation stones, let alone Specta ranked stones might be capable of!! Despite that, Jason didn''t feel the need to purchase more cultivation resources right now and only Artemis required some to accelerate her cultivation. His own pace couldn''t be increased much right now, as he used the Balance of the Universe''s first stage. Jason first had to familiarise himself with the second stage''s main criterias before he would try to practice it, in order to further accelerate his cultivation speed. Thus, he had felt the need to purchase the Spiral Spirit egg, and thereby bind a new, and unique soulbond. It was his gut feeling that told him to bind it, but without the necessary funds, it was impossible to do that. He couldn''t ask the City Lord for more financial aid either because he was not sure how long it would take for him to repay everything. There were several other factors he had to take into consideration, and being indebted to someone was not something Jason liked to be. Thus, he simply smiled sillily at Jennifer, who made a quick call to the City Lord, using the messenger card. Even Luna seemed to be unsure whether they should use their precious funds to purchase a Spirit Egg. As such, Jason realised that it was even less feasible to loan funds for such a reason. The auction had halted for a few minutes, giving everyone enough time to acquire more funds or make deals with other powerhouses to possibly purchase a Spirit egg together, and share the benefits. Seeing this, Jason felt overwhelmed, only to suddenly hear an old woman''s voice reverberating through the entire auction hall. "Miss auctioneer, if I''m not mistaken, you mentioned 13 Eggs before, but it seems that there are 14, would you explain the reason for this? The 14th Grand Spirit egg seems to be a mutation, or from a more advanced elemental Spirit. At least, that''s what I believed, but from the intel I acquired, there shouldn''t be a silver Spirit in the family of Grand Spirits!" In the end, the question was something everyone had on their mind, but nobody had asked it out loud because they had been focusing on procuring funds or gossiping amongst each other. As such, the question had moved to the backburner, only to reappear now that it had been asked. The entire auction hall was filled with murmurs once again, and Jason suddenly tensed up, feeling that the following explanation might play into his hands. Even if he had already given up, deep in his heart, he hoped for a specific scenario to occur. It was selfish, but Jason couldn''t care less about that right now. Clearing her throat, the female auctioneer couldn''t help but smile forcibly, only to explain what had happened. "According to the appraisal and several examinations the auction house colluded, the 14th Grand Spirit Egg is slightly unique. Because we hold our reputation dear, we won''t lie to our esteemed guests. Initially, we planned to explain the heritage of the last egg after the other eggs had been auctioned off, but we should have come clean right from the beginning. I sincerely apologise for this!" Bowing deeply, the beautiful auctioneer caused an excited chatter to break into the rows of ordinary people who participated in the auction. Never had they seen the auctioneer bowing down and apologising, let alone for something that they found trivial. However, for the VVIP''s, every single egg of Grand Spirits was very important. As such, it was only fitting that they wanted to know what was the issue in the last one. Thus, they awaited the auctioneer to explain what the problem was! "In fact, the 14th Grand Spirit Egg has undergone a mutation, changing its mana veins into Spiral cultivation veins. This may not seem like a problem, but everyone can see the Spiral Spirit Egg''s size. Maybe, some of you can even sense that the spirit force inside the egg is extremely weak. As such, we presume that the 14th Grand Spirit egg underwent an adverse mutation that might cause further problems. The auction house can''t guarantee anything, but after multiple examinations, we determined that it might be impossible for the Spiral Spirit egg to hatch, in the first place!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 664 - Fools After the auctioneer said that the Spiral Spirit egg might as well not hatch, a wave of anger swept through the entire auction hall, with most powerhouses complaining about the insincerity of the auction house. Furious of being kept in the dark, several powerhouses released their cultivation strength of a Specta as the old woman that had asked the question about the 14th Grand Spirit egg ordered in a commanding tone, "Quiet down, trash!" This would have caused another commotion, but the moment they sensed the energy currents of the old woman, even the other powerhouses quieted down. Jason had already perceived the existence of a few extremely old powerhouses that had accumulated their strength over a timespan of thousands of years. Thus, he was not even astonished about the sheer energy currents that rippled through the auction hall. Yet, what caused him to raise his eyebrow was the fact that the old woman was standing next to a young Aues, who looked down at everything as if it didn''t matter to him and everything was a waste of time. Comparing the old woman at the Specta stage to the young man who was still at the Ascendion stage, Jason couldn''t help but feel more curious about the young, seemingly nonchalant Aues. However, instead of staring at the young Aues, who had noticed that Jason''s eyes were glued on him, Jason averted his attention back to the auctioneer. Yet, before the bidding could resume, an old man from the other side of the VVIP lounge suddenly asked, "Is that everything the auction house has to say about the Spiral Spirit egg or is there more to know? The Auction house should reveal everything if they don''t want to offend the big clans and families that specially came to attend today''s event because they trust the reputation of Lanro''s auction house!!" Next to the old man, who was also a powerhouse at the Specta stage stood a young-looking girl, and Jason presumed her to be even younger than himself. This was already astonishing, but what made him lift his eyebrow once again was the fact that she was a human who had mana veins, instead of a Spiral or Pryr cultivation vein as it was usually the case with Manyrs. In the end, this meant that she was either a mutant just like people such as Rex or other cadets of the Tritans, or she was from a different planet, just like him. Yet, what caused Jason''s Emperor Eyes to gleam up was the fact that the young woman had already entered the peak of the Prismar stage. She had one enormous, dome crystal enveloping the three large, rotating crystals, that contained three small prismarine crystals each causing Jason to nod his head in acknowledgment. However, instead of giving her any more of his attention, he awaited the female auctioneer''s answer. Sweating profusely due to the sheer pressure she had to endure owing to the powerhouses comments, the auctioneer quickly explained. "As I mentioned, it is not certain that the Spiral Spirit egg won''t hatch, but the chances of it not hatching is high because the egg didn''t receive the necessary nutrition when it was constructed in the body of its parent. There are further problems with the Spiral veins, and the examinations concluded that the Spiral Spirit egg underwent a half mutation, transforming only a part of the mana veins into Spiral veins. Thus, it is a gamble to purchase the Spiral Spirit Egg, while seriously thinking that one can hatch it. In the end, the Auction house didn''t want to auction it off, but the anonymous seller of the other Grand Spirit eggs demanded that we auction off the mutated 14th egg too! Because of that condition, we can only reveal it to everyone, even if we didn''t plan to make a fuss out of it!" The last sentence caused Jason to smile lightly because it was something the female auctioneer blurted out in fear of receiving another surprise attack owing to the distinct pressure that was already radiated by the Specta stage powerhouses. However, none of that happened, and everyone quieted down. From the looks of it, the auction house couldn''t ignore the seller''s demands, which forced them to reveal all 14 Grand Spirit Eggs, even if they only wanted to sell 13. Despite that, the information of the 14th egg was interesting, at least to Jason, who was one of the only people who retained his smile. Even Jennifer and the other powerhouse frowned when they heard the details about the Spiral Spirit egg. Initially, they had planned to bid for it, but even if they were powerhouses, what all of them hated the most was to waste precious resources. Thus, they dropped their previous idea of bidding for it, even if the price was not extremely high for them. Wasting their time and resources was not something they wanted to do, for something that was deemed as useless. As such, there were a few impatient powerhouses that voiced out their opinion without thinking about holding back, let alone the common rules of the auction house, which stated that it was forbidden to intervene in the auction. "If the half mutated Spiral Spirit egg is so useless, just auction it off to anyone, before we move to the true main event, which is the auction of the unscathed Spirit eggs!" "I agree to this! Auction off the mutated egg first, and if someone wants to bid for it, it''s fine...but why are we wasting our time with such useless talk about trash!" While more and more people agreed to this, Jason could only eye everyone weirdly, thinking that all of them were stupid. ''Why do they trust the words of the auction house to such a degree? Shouldn''t at least a few show interest in bidding for the Spiral Spirit egg?'' He wondered, utterly dumbfounded. Meanwhile, the auctioneer kept her cool and accepted the bidder''s opinion without complaint. "As the esteemed guest in the VVIP lounge suggested, I shall start the auction for the half-mutated Spiral Spirit egg right away! The starting price to bid shall still be 10 superior Ascendion rank cultivation stones!" With that being said, the auctioneer awaited a bid as she forced a smile on her face, thinking that the end of the auction had become utterly chaotic. However, instead of receiving even a single bid, she saw that the entire auction house had gone silent, turning the entire situation extremely awkward. Even after two minutes passed, nobody bid, thinking that the price was way too high. As such, the auctioneer was about to lower the price at any second, which caused Jason to frown because his opinion about the mutated Spirit egg was completely different than that of the others! ''Their thoughts are somewhat logical, but what makes them trust the auction house to that degree? Furthermore, what the hell did the Auction house use to examine the mutated egg? A rock?! How else could they be so wrong? The Spiral Spirit egg is neither injured nor trash, it simply underwent a partial mutation.. The mana veins have been completely extinguished, and replaced by Spiral cultivation veins. In the end, the only issue is the dead mana veins that haven''t been expelled from the mutated Spiral Spirit, which must be malnourished!'' Thinking that the Spiral Spirit egg didn''t receive enough spirit force in the initial stages of its construction, Jason could only conclude that it lacked spirit force. As such, unable to expel the dead mana veins, the egg''s problems were increasing further to the point that they began to overlap, causing the problems mentioned by the auction house. Because of the evaluation, Jason could conclude thanks to his Emperor Eyes, he couldn''t help but feel that everyone was doing a big mistake in not bidding for the Spiral Spirit egg. However, at the same time, he was barely able to contain himself from exclaiming as he took a deep breath to calm his jittery nerves. Awaiting the moment in which the auctioneer was just about to open her mouth to lower the price, he amplified his voice and said, "I bid 10 superior cultivation stones at the Ascendion rank!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 665 - Acquired In Jason''s opinion, the others, who didn''t bid for the Spiral Spirit Egg, were fools. Thus, he couldn''t prevent smiling proudly as he was suddenly eyed by a majority of the powerhouses at the same time. Jason merely gazed at the stage, where the astonished auctioneer was standing, momentarily forgetting to do what she was supposed to. His demeanor was nonchalant as if he didn''t do anything special, only for the other powerhouses to question his reason for bidding. However, even after wondering about it for some time, they couldn''t help but think that Jason was just gambling, trying to grasp a huge opportunity, even if it was unlikely to happen. Jason''s bet caused a commotion in the rows of non-VIPs which made the auctioneer regain her composure as she announced, "10 superior cultivation stones at the Ascendion stage have been bid! Does someone want to bid 11 superior cultivation stones?" While the auctioneer waited for a few seconds to receive another bid, many things happened at the same time. First, Jason had to control his emotions, and appear unruffled, while he was eyed and even swept through by tens of energy currents, investigating his cultivation base. ''5th Lique stage¡­ I doubt he procured it by himself. Did he receive some funds from the City lord''s disciple? Are they close friends?'' One of the Aeus family patriarchs living in Lanro thought, just realising that Jennifer, the City Lord''s disciple was standing next to a man. However, only a moment later, the Aeus sensed that he was unable to scan through Jason''s body as more than six beings at the Specta stage were trying to evaluate Jason by themselves. This was uncomfortable, but Jason simply endured it, knowing that he couldn''t do anything against it, either way. ''Is that an inactive stigma? And how does he have such distinct mana fluctuations despite only being at the 5th Lique stage¡­.interesting!'' The old man, who was standing next to the human prodigy, though. The prodigy looked younger than Jason. He immediately shared his findings with his disciple whose eyes twinkled with interest. "Are you sure about the stigma? That means he has someone strong backing him up...otherwise, he wouldn''t be able to possess an artificial stigma!" The young woman stated her assumptions, without even considering that Jason might have naturally created the Stigma. "Doesn''t that mean, his backing is stronger than that provided by my father? It''s impossible for me to deactivate the stigma he engraved into my back, after all!" These words caused the old man to glare at the little girl as he admonished her, "Quiet down, if you don''t want to expose your secrets to others! And, don''t bother about this young man. He is already older than you, and his cultivation base is leagues apart from yours! From the looks of it, he is nothing special, just let him waste his fortune on the Spiral Spirit egg. We will procure an unscathed one!" Nodding her head reluctantly, the young woman fell silent but her eyes were trained on Jason. She noticed that there was something odd in Jason''s facial expression and her gut feeling told her to bid for the half mutated egg as well. Unfortunately, she was forbidden to ''waste'' any precious resources, thus she remained silent as she heard the final words of the female auctioneer. "Sold!" How could the young woman understand that she not only felt uncomfortable about Jason''s stigma, but also the fact that he nonchalantly used his entire fortune on an egg that was deemed useless? In fact, the young, seemingly calm Aeus felt like he should have bid for the Spiral Spirit egg too, only to be forbidden to do anything, just like the young woman. Little did Jason know that he had only been a hair''s breadth away from losing the Spiral Spirit egg, forever. Fortunately, this didn''t happen, and he had successfully procured the egg. After he heard the auctioneer''s words, Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly, happy that nobody else bid for the Spiral Spirit egg. The sudden change in Jason''s demeanor astonished everyone, and they couldn''t help but label him a freak, or eye him with more interest. They were curious to know the reason behind him being so glad about having purchased the half-mutated egg. ''Did I make a mistake?...No, I shouldn''t!! He couldn''t have sensed something we haven''t, right?!'' The old woman suddenly asked herself, only to shake her head, rejecting this possibility, before throwing a faint glimpse towards her disciple, the young Aeus, who looked at her as if he wanted to say. ''I told you!'' Seeing how happy Jason was with his purchase, Jennifer couldn''t help but look at him with a mixture of confusion and interest. She wanted to know why he had purchased the Spiral Spirit egg too, and if Jason had been able to see something owing to his eyes'' trait. Despite that, she would have to wait for some time because the 13 Grand Spirit Eggs were now about to be auctioned off. Jason had to wait until the entire event ended before he would receive his purchase which was different from the Frozen Lunarium Jennifer had bought before the auction had started. Thus, after he calmed down, Jason focused on the auction, trying to figure out how great his purchase was. Comparing what the others would bid for the Grand Spirit Eggs to what he had paid, Jason was bound to be happy because he heard dozens of voices issuing bids the moment the auctioneer had opened the bidding for the first egg. It was completely different from the bidding of the Spiral Spirit Egg, but this was exactly why Jason was confused. He never expected that nobody would bid for the Spiral Spirit egg because he assumed that even the mutated form should have its worth. Nevertheless, Jason wouldn''t complain about it. Instead, he was thankful for their generosity of not bidding for the Spiral Spirit egg. In the end, some might have wanted to bid for the egg, but instead of wasting their resources, they were ready to use the 10 superior Ascendion rank cultivation stones, which they had saved from not purchasing the half mutated egg, to raise the bidding amount of the other eggs! However, what Jason didn''t expect to happen only a few moments after the bidding of the first Grand Spirit egg began was someone raising the bid to an extraordinary level. "1000 superior cultivation stones at the Ascendion rank!" A moment before, the bidding price had just reached 100, but now it increased tenfold with a single bid causing a commotion within the rows of non-VIPs. At the same time, the other VVIPs turned their heads towards the old woman who made the bid, glaring at her for a moment before returning their attention back to the stage. Suddenly a second voice rang out, shocking the non-VIPs even more. "1500 superior cultivation stones at the Ascendion rank!" Jason''s eyes widened at this bid, but the old man, who stood next to the young prodigious woman he had seen earlier, didn''t seem to be bothered about the price he had just voiced out. Despite the price Jason found to be already astronomical, the bidding continued, and only now did he truly find out that it was his pure stroke of luck that awarded him the chance to acquire the Spiral Spirit egg. However, the powerhouses'' interest was simply somewhere else, trained on the Grand Spirit eggs that were unscathed! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 666 - Obstacles Not believing his eyes, Jason looked at Jennifer in doubt, questioning himself if his ears were ringing. The auction had just ended with the 13th Grand Spirit Egg and not a single one was auctioned off below 10000 superior cultivation stones at the Ascendion stage. This fortune was enough to nurture hundreds of people, and it was barely the minimum amount spent for one of the Grand Spirit eggs. Most of them were sold for an even higher price, which caused Jason to be even more confused about everything that had happened. "Why did nobody bid for the half-mutated Spiral Spirit egg?" He blurted out, not sure what he had expected to happen. In the end, the 13 Grand Spirit eggs had been 1000 times more expensive than the one Spiral Spirit egg he had purchased, which showed that the powerhouses had more than enough resources to purchase it. It was only when Jennifer explained the situation that he understood it to a certain extent. "Jason, there is a big difference between an investment with a fixed return rate and an investment into something that is bound to cost a fortune without knowing whether it is a treasure or simply trash. While your Spiral Spirit egg has many issues, it was already examined beforehand and even the auction house didn''t bother about it, at all. As such, it is almost certain that the chance to find a solution to solve the egg''s problems will be slim. To put it simply, you will have to invest a fortune to have it examined again and procure information about the Spiral Spirit egg''s issues before you start searching for a suitable solution. This investment is not worth it, and everything combined might even be more expensive than what the other 13 Grand Spirit Eggs were priced at! As for the unscathed and normal Grand Spirit Eggs, they can be hatched and sealed within a specific environment with the right tools, changing the surrounding area completely so as to provide them nourishment. It might cost a small fortune to construct everything that will be close to perfect and efficient enough to use properly, but the long-term return is terrifyingly high once the preparations have been completed. Thus, you will certainly get something in return, and it''s worth more than the wealth that was initially invested to purchase them. In the end, it will only need a few years, or more likely decades to make up for the total costs of everything you invested. However, after that, you will only receive profit from the Spirits which is the reason for them to be auctioned off that high, in comparison to the Spiral Spirit egg you''ve purchased!" Jennifer''s tone was serious, and at the end, she even sounded as if she wanted to lecture him. Despite that, Jason just nodded his head, understanding that it would be quite difficult to figure out that it were the dead mana veins that clogged up the Spiral cultivation veins in a complex manner. This was essentially the reason for the auction house to call the Spiral Spirit egg a half mutation, and his fortune! They were assuming that the dead mana veins were in fact, an unmutated part of the spirits cultivation veins, which would cripple it permanently. Other than that, there was also the fact that nobody would know how to expel the dead mana veins without damaging the Spiral Spirit egg. At least, Jason assumed that nobody would know, or be competent enough of doing something like this because a single mistake could damage the Spiral cultivation veins that were clogged up. In order to achieve what he wanted to make possible, eyes like his were required in addition to a special means to expel the dead mana veins. As such, Jason had many advantages because he met one of the requirements while he had already crafted a plan for the second one. Solaris was his final solution to expel the dead mana veins, just like it expelled impurities from the ores he forged. Jason knew that he had to tweak a little bit on the way he would have to use Solaris because he didn''t want to hurt the Spiral Spirit egg, let alone injure it severely. Thus, Jason planned to bind it to his soul, allowing him to feel his Spiral Spirit egg''s pain. Through this, he wouldn''t have to rely on his instincts, but could clearly figure out when Solaris'' flame was too strong, and when he could increase the temperature in order to reach the necessary heat to unclog the veins while not damaging the egg. With that in mind, Jason eagerly awaited the moment at which he would finally lay his hands on the Spiral Spirit egg, only to realise that he and Jennifer were still waiting inside the VVIP lounge with a few more powerhouses. Looking around, he noticed that the remaining powerhouses had successfully won bids for something. Because of that, they waited in the lounge while everyone else had already left. Many powerhouses were disappointed because they hadn''t been able to procure the Grand Spirit eggs, and according to their expression and the glint of greed within their eyes, Jason could easily decipher that they had ill intentions. ''Fortunately, the City Lord didn''t ask Jennifer to bid for a Grand Spirit egg! Otherwise, some of the greedier powerhouses would''ve possibly pursued us and stolen the items we procured!'' He thought, only to see the faint smile on the faces of the other powerhouses as they stared mockingly into the eyes of the other powerhouses that left the lounge empty-handed. Seeing this, Jason couldn''t help but feel weird. It was as if some powerhouses were trying to provoke the other side, initiating a large-scale battle. This was not even unlikely because most powerhouses were Aeus and Devirs that had been glaring at each other with killing intent the entire time. A neutral city like Lanro was rare, and in most cases, the cities of the Julandra region were divided into the Aeus and Devir territory with only a few human settlements. In the end, Manyrs were considered weaker than Aeus and Devirs, but that was majorly the reason for the fact that the Manyrs didn''t have customised Aura techniques and other unique manuals! Because they were forced to use the martial art, cultivation, body refinement and aura techniques of the Aeus and Devir race, the Manyrs were always held back to a certain extent, even if they only awakened a single cultivation vein. Every race had slight differences in their physique, and this difference was not made up for in the techniques which the Aeus and Devir races distributed. As such, Jason knew from the beginning that most Manyrs had more obstacles in their path to become just as strong as the two winged races. However, instead of trying to become independent or creating their own, customised techniques, most Manyrs voluntarily submitted to the Aeus and Devir race. Even Jason''s progress was slightly restricted owing to the fact that the techniques he used were customised to a particular race. Only the Balance of the Universe cultivation technique could be considered as a neutral technique, allowing most races with mana veins to practice it. Nevertheless, even the Floating Sky technique was something Jason had to alter while exerting it in order to generate the most potential out of it. As such, the obstacles in front of him were decreasing. Now, he had more than enough means to become stronger with every single day that passed. Exactly this was what Jason required to be because the dangers looming around him and those that had just become important to him were increasing just as fast, if not faster! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 667 - Encounter While everyone who won something at the auction waited for their purchase to be delivered to the lounge, Jason inspected everyone with the Emperor Eyes. He had already done so beforehand, but somehow he felt that he should take a good look again, nonetheless. This time, Jason looked at everyone carefully, trying to pick up even the most subtle traits hidden inside the powerhouses'' bodies. Meanwhile, Jennifer was soon occupied as two female powerhouses approached her to speak about something important. Thus, he was simply standing by himself, without anyone else next to him. Most people would feel uncomfortable in a room full of powerhouses, without anyone next to them for moral support, but Jason didn''t even notice that Jennifer had left his side. His focus was trained on evaluating others so he barely realised that two people had suddenly appeared next to him. Those two looked at each other in confusion, realising that they had approached Jason with the same intention, only to nod to each other as if they were acquaintances. Now that they were in front of him it would be awkward to walk away, so they simply stared straight at Jason. "Do you like what you see?" the young woman suddenly asked, dragging Jason out of his fully focused inspection. Trying to remain calm, he turned towards the young woman, only to squint his eyes. ''Do I know her? I don''t think so...'' Seeing his confused expression, the calm woman answered his unspoken question. "I''m Miranda Parin, and I asked if you like what you are seeing!" He had already heard her correctly the first time she had asked this question, but Jason was not sure what he was supposed to answer. She could mean multiple things, such as the fact that his eyes were unique. However, instead of going that way, he shrugged his shoulders and asked her in a clear voice. "Yes, I do! But why are you asking?" When Miranda had asked him this question, his eyes had automatically flitted in Jennifer''s direction and the two female powerhouses she was talking to. With Jennifer''s back facing him, Jason decided to answer the foolish question in the exact same way. Miranda didn''t expect such an answer because she wanted to hint at Jason''s golden eyes that glowed brightly. Unfortunately, her plan backfired, and it caused even the young Aeus, who was standing opposite her, to laugh out loud. His nonchalant expression soured, and when he had regained his composure, the young Aeus turned towards Jason as he introduced himself. "My name is Leo Nard, nice meeting you!" Extending his hand, Jason didn''t think long before he shook it, which was frowned at by both Miranda and Leo. "Nice meeting you Leo, my name is Jason Stella!" After the brief introduction, he wanted to let go of Leo''s hand, only to sense that the young Aeus was still holding his hand in a firm grasp. This caused him to look at Leo, whose expressions changed in an instant. In a lowkey voice, he heard Leo growl at him, "How dare you touch my hand with your filthy hands!!" When Jason heard this, he almost instinctively shouted ''You are the one holding me!!'' but he remained silent, thinking that he might have done something stupid. The sudden change in Leo''s demeanor and expression caused Jason to raise his right eyebrow, making him wonder what was going on as a sudden transmitted thought emerged in his mind. [If you didn''t know, Leo is a noble of the Aeus race. You were supposed to kiss his hand, not shake it¡­ Well, he is a little bit difficult...and he thinks Manyrs are unworthy of him, even the prodigies¡­ Either endure the treatment or if you are special, prove it to him! In that case, he will probably accept the handshake because it was made between equal parties!] The voice transmission came from Miranda, and Jason could only look at her in confusion as he sensed how Leo was increasing the pressure around his arm as if he wanted to break it. From the looks of it, Leo wanted to make him suffer by slowly increasing the pressure on his hand, squashing it as a final result. This wouldn''t be a problem for a being at the Ascendion stage to do to Jason, a mere existence at the Mid ranks of the Lique stage! Because of that, he followed Miranda''s advice and quickly revealed his Celestia aura in order to show that he was not a common human. Yet, just at that moment, he got a glimpse of Leo''s eyes, which caused Jason to halt. He simply stared at him for a moment, to be sure if his mind was playing tricks with him as he thought ''You are just trying to intimidate me right now? Just because I look weak...are you serious?!?'' When Jason realised what Leo was doing, he averted his gaze and stared staring straight into Miranda''s eyes, only to see that she was not worried at all. Rather, a tinge of excitement could be seen within her eyes, which was similar to Leo''s. This made it clear that they were working together. ''Do they think I''m a pushover, or are they expecting to find out that the exact opposite is the case?! There were certain things Jason hated, and amongst the most loathed were two particular behaviors of powerhouses or prodigies. The first thing he hated was to see the strong treat their subordinates, and weak citizens as if they were mere tools, devoid of self-worth, free will, or permission to do anything except the things the powerhouses allowed them to do. As for the second behavior he loathed, it was simple, yet something Jason had witnessed way too often on Argos. It was to be treated as a pushover and be played around by the strong that had backings and great talent, thinking that they could do however they pleased just because of their uniqueness. Both might sound similar, but there was a specific difference in them, able to be figured out by everyone, who understood what small detail it was to be enslaved and to have a different, a better starting point than others. During the last few months, his life had been easy without anyone trying to suppress him, and he had almost forgotten how it felt to be played around by others. However, experiencing how it was to be on the weaker side once again, Jason''s entire being retaliated, rejecting the act of the two prodigies in front of him. Recalling the humiliating scenes on Argos where he had been forced to step back, to submit to others, where his family and friends had been forced into enslavement just because they had yet to be nurtured into powerhouses, anger surged up from the depths of his conscience as his eyes turned ice-cold. Staring straight into Leo''s eyes, who maintained his steady gaze, Jason didn''t even do much as he spoke in a seemingly quiet, yet authoritative tone. "Let go!" The moment Jason said this, the seals within the depth of his conscience shrieked, trying to break out, to be unleashed, and give Jason enough strength, allowing him to overpower the foe he was facing. Tremendous energy waves surged through Jason as one of the minor seals that had already sustained cracks from previous encounters broke apart. It was only then that Miranda noticed something which caused her eyes to widen as she shouted, "Wait, stop!!" However, it was already too late because Jason just released his entire Celestia aura at once, filling the entire lounge, as a bright golden light permeated through it while the outline of his pupils turned crimson in anger. Never, ever would he allow someone else to play around with him just because they were stronger. The period in which he had accepted this had long since passed, and shall never return! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 668 - Prince With one minor seal unleashed, Jason felt a sudden surge of energy spreading through his body. At the same time, faint traces of the chaos attribute that had been used to maintain the seal were released. Jason didn''t even notice this, and with his eyes boring down on Leo he repeated his words once again, extremely slowly. "Let...go!" Leo hadn''t been impressed on hearing Jason the first time, but looking into his eyes for the second time, his behavior changed completely. ''''Fuck!'''' He swore under his breath as he felt multiple things happening at the same time. Jason didn''t hold back at all as he released his Celestia aura to the highest possible extent he could right now. In addition to that, his Stigma was glowing in a bright golden light as it was fully released too, only for a second one to manifest out of nowhere. Unbeknownst to Jason, Petri had entered his mana core, fusing with him, amplifying the already existing stigma and the curses that were just about to be unleashed. Other than that, Petri restrained himself because it was already more than enough for what he wanted to achieve. With a straight back, Jason stared straight into Leo''s eyes that seemed to lose their confidence when the Petrification curse, the race specific weakening curse, and his Emperor Eyes'' abyssal effect were released at once. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn''t be enough to intimidate, let alone scare a being at the Ascendion stage, such a Leo. However, right now, Jason''s curses were amplified, and the Abyssal effect he had released was swept through with the Chaos attribute that had been unleashed when the minor seal broke apart! All of the sudden attacks, intertwined with Jason''s bloodlust that emerged from the depths of his conscience, erupted at once, caused by his humane emotions that didn''t accept being suppressed and humiliated anymore. Thus, Jason''s simple words were laced with such a sheer power that Leo felt an itch in his hand, only to sense how the golden aura was slowly swept through with bloodlust and ferocity that he couldn''t associate with Jason. The sensation caused him to feel as if he had entered the lair of bloodthirsty beasts that wanted to tear him apart and feast on him. If that wasn''t enough, the outline of Jason''s pupils was turning crimson. Glowing lightly, his eyes continued to stare at him. Leo had been distracted for a mere fraction of a second, only to be drawn into Jason''s Abyssal effect that was enhanced by the other curses, the two fully unleashed Stigmas, his ferocious aura, and most importantly, the last traces of the released Chaos attribute. Despite the vast difference in their Cultivation base, Leo felt how his mind was slowly enveloped by the devastating power of the Chaos attribute which penetrated his defenses. Through this, the remaining attack force would have advanced further the moment the defenses were shattered, but before that could happen Leo instinctively let go of Jason''s hand as he retreated several steps. His eyes widened, realising that he had just been overwhelmed by a being that was merely at the Mid ranks of the Lique stage. However, that was not important to him right now, because he realised with a jolt that his mind, which was refined using the cultivation path of Spiral, had almost been infiltrated by Jason. This shocked Leo the most because he was confident in his cultivation base and mental strength, or at least, he had been confident before Jason''s little act. Just as he wanted to ask Jason what the hell happened, several auras of beings at the Specta stage were released, shackling down Jason, who was slowly reverting to his usual self. In the end, his encounter with Leo merely lasted for a few seconds, yet, those seconds were important for Jason owing to multiple factors. He didn''t want to back off against someone just because they were stronger, thinking that they could toy around with him. By letting Leo catch a faint glimpse of what he truly could do if he wanted to, Jason showed that he was not to be taken lightly, turning it into a warning cum lesson for the others. With this example, he could clearly show that even beings at the Ascendion stage would back off against him. Jason knew that he had been fortunate with a surprise attack on the consciousness of Leo, but at the same time, he was also aware of the fact that all of his remaining energy, except one minor seal, had been fully released. The Chaos attribute had been fully used up, and it would already be a wonder if he could intimidate a being at the Mid-Prismar stage now. Almost everything, or rather the majority of his small face-off was due to the Chaos attribute and Jason was aware of this. This was also the reason why he went all in, only to realise that his anger was much more intense than he expected. Only a few years ago, he had been of the opinion that pride was something useless, but the pride and confidence he had painstakingly built up in recent years were exactly the cause of this anger. Otherwise, he wouldn''t feel that enraged if someone else were to try playing tricks with him. In the end, Jason assumed that Leo and Miranda didn''t really plan anything bad, otherwise, Leo would have broken his arm, the moment he came in touch with him. Jason was sure that Leo wouldn''t have been punished, but rather he himself would be punished for mistreating a noble. At least, that was what he assumed of the place he was in and the races he had encountered until now. Even after having been shackled down by the aura of multiple Specta stage powerhouses, Jason''s mind worked relentlessly. Petri was still occupying his mana core, but they weren''t fused anymore. Furthermore, Jason had retracted his entire aura in addition to canceling the released curses and abyssal effect. Thus, from the short moment Leo thought that Jason had turned into an existence that was as strong as his father, the young man with golden eyes returned to being an ordinary youth just a moment later. Due to this, Leo almost doubted his sanity, thinking that he had been caught in an illusion. However, before this doubt could grow, Leo realised that the situation had become much more serious than he could have expected. His master suddenly appeared next to him, taking a look at Leo, only to turn around to Jason a moment later with anger gleaming in her eyes. Jason knew that he lost a little bit of control over himself, but only now did he understand that it would have been better to have held back. Sometimes it made sense to flaunt his prowess, and put annoying people in their place, but in other situations, one should rather refrain from doing something stupid. "How dare you try to attack my disciple, the 21st Prince of the Aeus race?!" Hearing this, Jason squinted his eyes, as he sighed inwardly, regretting having retaliated against Leo. In the end, it was a stupid idea, but even then, Jason felt that he would have done so again if he were to choose once more. There were certain things he had to keep up and protect, otherwise, it would be pointless to even bother about cultivating, to begin with! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 669 - We Just Wanted To A moment after the old woman had revealed Leo''s identity, the old man, Jason had seen standing next to Miranda earlier, appeared next to the old woman with a similarly angry expression. However, his gaze was not focused on Jason, but it looked like he was eyeing Miranda, who bit her lower lip the moment she noticed her master''s stare. Through this, Jason realised that similar situations to this had already happened in the past. As such, Jason wanted to clarify that he didn''t have the intention to attack anyone. Instead, he just wanted to free his hand from Leo''s overbearing grasp. Unfortunately, he couldn''t even speak owing to the powerhouses suppression that weighed him down. Furthermore, who would bother about his reasoning, if he had offended a Prince of an entire race? Thus, he couldn''t even rely on Jennifer, who was looking at him in confusion. ''Can''t he even take care of himself for a few minutes?'' At the same time, she was intrigued about the weird pressure she had felt coming from Jason''s direction the moment he had released his curses and the Abyssal effect, amplified with every possible means he had up his sleeves. The Chaos attribute was something she hadn''t sensed from him before. Because of that she couldn''t help but stare at Jason with even more interest than before. Maintaining her cool was something she had learned early in her life. Even now, Jennifer was still learning more about certain situations in which she had to hold back, to refrain herself from doing something stupid. In her past, she had witnessed how double-awakened Manyrs were executed because either the Aeus or the Devir race had labeled them as spies for the other side, even if they had no evidence. There was one time, she had wanted to rescue those that were on the death list without any fault of theirs and just because someone said something wrong. If something like this were to happen in Lanro, Luna would simply intervene, just as she did when Jennifer had almost been captured and killed by the guards of those who paid attention to the people on the death-list. Unfortunately, Lanro, the Neutral city, was only one of a few cities in the large cluster of Aeus and Devir cities that did horrible things to the human children who awakened the wrong cultivation veins. There were also human cities but they were in the minority. Some of them were even on the verge of being conquered, and there were only a few Cities that were able to protect every single citizen. In the end, despite being a powerhouse, Luna had been appointed as the City Lord, owing to the consensus of the three races living within it. Initially, she didn''t want to accept this position, but despite the severe restrictions, Luna had realised that there were certain advantages of being a City Lord. She was more than strong enough for this position and could protect everyone. Furthermore, she gained more benefits as a City Lord than disadvantages, even if it constrained her from leaving Lanro for longer periods! Otherwise, not only the Aeus and Devirs were likely to intervene in the governmental affairs in an attempt to decrease the Manyrs power and that of their arch-enemy, but another problem were the powerful beasts that roamed through the surrounding areas. There were several things Jason didn''t know yet, but the larger the territory of a beast, the more weaker beasts could live in that area. With that in mind, beasts at the Specta stage would demand a tribute in form of precious treasures and cultivation resources from every beast that wanted to live longer in a specific area. In exchange, they were allowed to reside in their territory, and use the natural resources. In the end, Luna had her own plan for the future, and to make use of this, she had grabbed the opportunity to become City Lord, a long time ago. With this, she had set off a plan that required lots of time, resources, and connections to the outside. Jason didn''t know all of that, and he couldn''t care less about it as he looked at Leo. If the young Aeus Prince wouldn''t do anything, his situation would only turn for the worse, even if he would say nothing but the truth. As such, Jason was already glad when Jennifer intervened as she calmly said. "I think there was a misunderstanding. Why should someone try to attack another in the VVIP lounge of the auction house, with several Specta stage powerhouses right next to them? It''s not like Jason is suicidal, otherwise, he would have already died at the hands of my master¡­" Initially, Jason was thankful for Jennifer''s words, but the last few words made him furrow his eyebrows, not quite sure what she wanted to point out. He couldn''t imagine that she was teasing him in such a perilous situation, thus, he simply nodded his head. This was only possible because he could finally move again after the pressure released by the Specta stage powerhouses had been retracted. They recalled that Jason had been standing next to Jennifer for the entire time the auction was held. Due to this, at least, they knew he was associated with the City Lord and her disciple in some way, and him fleeing while being surrounded by several Specta stage powerhouses could extinguish his life at any moment was nearly impossible. After Jennifer had voiced her opinion, Miranda suddenly blurted out. "He didn''t want to attack Leo...It really is a misunderstanding!" Miranda couldn''t believe how the situation could have escalated to such an extent. Initially, they had planned to simply test how strong Jason truly was and what kind of special traits, and attributes he had. Unfortunately, it ended in a rather disastrous situation, and Miranda felt responsible for everything. She wanted to test Jason''s capabilities, increasing Leo''s curiosity about Jason with certain hints such as saying that he had an artificial stigma. Other than that, the fact that a male was next to Jennifer, and that they appeared to be close was something not even Miranda could understand. Because Jennifer was a prodigy just like her, Miranda knew many rumors about her and her master, the City Lord of Lanro. The City Lord was known for her misandry; hatred and contempt against men and she would prevent Jennifer from encountering any male with all her might. As such, it was even more mysterious that Jason was allowed to stay close to her. With these simple things, Miranda had manipulated Leo''s interest in Jason, which made her propose the small trick they had implemented immediately. In the end, Miranda didn''t think that Jason would react the way he had, seemingly as if he would give his all to overpower Leo, even if it was only for a single second. ''Did he notice what we tried to do, or was he just following my advice? It cannot be the latter, right?'' Even if it was the latter, Miranda felt the most responsible for what had just happened. Thus she quickly added. "It was all my idea! I wanted to test his capabilities because I was interested in why he was so eager to purchase the Spiral Spirit egg. Furthermore, I saw his artificial stigma, and that he was close to Jennifer, which shouldn''t be easily possible as a man. Thus, I convinced Leo to provoke him, forcing him to retaliate...I didn''t expect it to escalate to such an extent¡­ How could I predict that he is so terrifying?!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 670 - Escaped Even after Miranda had revealed the truth, she tried to put some blame on others. Jason couldn''t help but frown seeing this, but on the other hand, it was probably a shocking surprise for her to realise how strong he truly was. As such, he didn''t think much about Miranda''s last statement, even less after seeing her master''s expression. The old man seemed to be staring deep into her soul which caused Jason to nod inwardly, glad about the fact that Karma still existed. However, only a moment later, Jason turned serious once again, hoping that the old woman, who had been the most furious, wouldn''t do anything to him. After intently listening to Miranda''s words, the old woman tried to calm down by taking a deep breath but it was more difficult than she expected. Initially, she assumed that Jason was the main culprit, but not only did it look like he was the victim of the old man''s disciple, but the Prince, her own disciple was a perpetrator too! As such, she averted her attention from Jason to Leo as she stared at him in fury. With a forced calm, she asked. "And¡­ What does our honorable Prince think about this?" Even though her voice was calm, her entire being was furious, and Leo clearly knew that he made a big mistake based on the way she laced her tone with contempt. Thus, he could only answer meekly, "Miri is right...we were at fault. We planned to test him, but it escalated a little bit¡­" At that moment, the old woman straightened her back as she reprimanded him. "A little bit you say? As if it wouldn''t be enough if you were to tarnish your own reputation, you do know what you did might have offended the auction house''s higher-ups! Would you like to see yourself blacklisted from all auction houses in the Julandra region? And this is the lightest punishment you could get. What if the entire Aeus race were to be punished because of your foolish act? I told you often enough that thinking before acting is the most important, even more so in your position as a Prince!!" Quieting down, Leo couldn''t even think about saying anything that could be counted as throwing a fit against his master. He knew that he made a mistake and it was not like he didn''t realise it before his master began scolding him either. In the end Leo had simply underestimated Jason, thinking that everything would be fine with a little trick that forced the young golden-eyed man to expose some of his strength. Small conflicts happen every now and then. Thus, even a little brawl between two youngsters was nothing odd. However, the situation quickly escalated, and even Specta stage powerhouses intervened. While the others were being lectured, Jason quietly retreated, approaching Jennifer, who looked at him with a small grin. "Ms Jennifer, is there an issue?" He thus asked, noticeably exaggerating the tone of his voice and the way he used formalities. At the same time, Jason was rubbing his hand that had slightly turned blue due to Leo''s firm grip. Manifesting a small flame within the injured hand, he got rid of the ache as the flame''s soothing effect dispersed the pain he felt to a certain extent. When Jennifer heard Jason''s playful tone, she knew that he was fine. Shaking her head, she could only mutter, "Troublemaker", before focusing on the situation that unfolded in front of them. Even though Jason was not the perpetrator anymore, the fact that he had released bloodlust was evident. Because of that, it would become slightly difficult to avoid Jason from being punished. Fortunately, Jennifer''s worry was unfounded because the old woman was fully occupied with lecturing Leo, while the old man was already punishing Miranda with the silent treatment and a gaze that stared into her soul. As such, there was nobody to blame Jason, except the authorities of the auction house, amongst whom one was present in Lanro today. This was because of the bi-annual event of the auction house that had seen him in attendance. Exactly when Jennifer hoped that the issue was solved, the doors of the VVIP lounge opened, revealing a middle-aged Devir, whose appearance resembled more to a human than his own race. Only the dark purplish-black skin color and his wings indicated that the middle-aged Devir belonged to said race. His expression was calm, and there was not even a single indicator to signify that he had sensed what had happened. However, the moment the Devir''s eyes swept through the room, only to halt at Jason for a millisecond longer than anyone else, did everyone understand that he was fully aware of what had happened. Despite that, he didn''t say anything about the incident and went about his business as several workers of the auction house walked into the VVIP lounge. Each of them was holding one object, and it was not difficult to determine that the objects were the items the VVIPs had procured. Thus, trying to distract himself from the worry of the middle-aged Devir commenting on the incident, Jason used his Emperor Eyes. Within a few seconds, he had already located a young man, who was holding the Spiral Spirit egg. It didn''t take the young man long before he found Jason, and the closer the Spiral Spirit egg came, the brighter Jason''s expression turned. As such, he was already holding out his hands wide open to receive the egg, only to hear the young man say, "Please verify your identity first, Sir. After that, Sir can receive his purchase against the bidden price! Jason would have been lost if not for Jennifer who had told him why this was required. He had been wondering why it was necessary when he hadn''t done anything to reveal his identity during the purchase. Fortunately, he knew what he was supposed to do. As such, he revealed his mana fluctuations which made the young worker nod his head while waiting to receive the full price for the Spiral Spirit egg. "Here is my part," Jason quickly said, taking out all of his wealth only to add, "The rest should still be with the auction house. I have yet to receive the profit margin from the items I sold today!" Hearing this caused the young man to halt in his tracks, and he didn''t hand over the Spiral Spirit egg immediately. With doubt in his eyes, he stared at Jason, who was not sure what was going on. Ye, instead of saying anything, he looked at the Devir with a confused expression, only to see that he nodded his head, indicating that everything was fine. Apparently, it was not allowed to use cultivation stones that were not in one''s possession for bidding because one had to pay up front, and a lump sum to receive the item one bid for. Only hours after the auction was held would everyone who auctioned off an item, receive the remaining profit. Even Jennifer didn''t know that because such a predicament had never occurred in front of her. But that was only the case as she had enough funds with her. Because of that, Jason was confused why the young man hesitated, thinking that he should know about the small fortune he had yet to gain. However, after being handed the Spiral Spirit egg, he immediately forgot the confusion, and even the incident that had happened became less significant in his mind. ''Finally!'' Jason thought as he looked at the egg, oblivious to what today''s incident had caused and whose interest he had attracted. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 671 - Reconciliation It was not difficult for Jennifer to note that Jason had caught the eyes of the authority of the auction house. She also realised that the Devir knew what Jason had done before.. Thus, she couldn''t help but feel uncomfortable about how things progressed. Yet, looking at him, she was unable to process how he, someone with such a foolish smile, could be terrifying enough to make a Ascendion stage prodigy retreat! ''How can someone be as weird as him?'' She thought only to shake her head as her focus returned back to the Devir. ''He won''t do anything to Jason, I hope.'' It was already weird that the Devir refrained from commenting about the incident, but eyeing Jason made Jennifer even more uncomfortable. Jason''s aura couldn''t have attracted the Devir because it was similar to the Aeus'' aura technique. Rather, his Stigma, the curses, and the Chaos attribute were most likely what caused the Devir''s to be suddenly interested in Jason. Even if the Devir didn''t say a word, Jennifer could read the Devir''s gaze as his eyes had that excited look which most powerhouses got on seeing potential disciples. Because of that, she didn''t hesitate to take a step closer to Jason as she said in a loud and clear voice. "Let''s return to our Master. She must be waiting for us!" Using the City Lord''s name was Jennifer''s way of sending a message to the Devir, that Jason was Luna''s disciple and was clearly ''off limits'' to the Devir. The small trick seemed to work extremely well. Yet, what Jennifer didn''t notice, was something Jason didn''t miss out on due to his Emperor Eyes that were still utilised- an extremely weird reaction. Instead of reacting to Jennifer''s words that clearly astonished him, his eyes had been drawn to the Devir, whose entire body had radiated with a sudden surge of interest and died down, only to be replaced with an equally sudden sensation of disappointment. This was what the Emperor Eyes clearly showed, making him feel as if something was off. He was overjoyed with the Spiral Spirit Egg in his hand, but the Devir''s reaction and his gut feeling were telling him that something was off. Nevertheless, he had to put on a charade. Thus, he turned towards Leo and Miranda as he tried to make amends. "I''m sorry for my earlier behavior. I noticed what you two did, but I hated it to the core, which is why I lost control over my emotions and actions. I hope we can forgive each other and have no bad blood!" That being said, Jason hoped that the situation wouldn''t escalate further, and both Leo and Mirana, who were lectured by their masters in their own respective way, nodded their heads without hesitation. "Yes, let''s forget it. I''m sorry too!" Miranda said, approaching him quickly. "Let''s exchange our contact details as well! We might encounter each other sooner than expected, considering that your combat strength is already so high." Jason was not sure what exactly Miranda meant by that, but Leo came forward too, trying to escape his master as he said, "I sincerely apologise for making trouble too. Miranda is right, we might encounter each other in the future, so we should exchange our contact information!" Nodding his head without knowing what exactly they wanted his contact details for, he simply handed them his messenger card, only for them to lay their own messenger card on top of his. Through this, exchanging contact information was easily done, and when Jason got his card back, he had two new contacts. He was not sure if that was really the correct way to handle the situation, but it was clearly better than ending the bi-annual auction event with bad relationships of prodigies. As such, avoiding problems was the best for him to do. Furthermore, Jason had yet to understand Leo because he had been acting nicely in the beginning, only to turn serious and angry the moment he touched him. This had been a little act of show-off, but Jason was still not sure about the Aeus Prince''s true behavior. Because of that, he didn''t say anything after their contact details were exchanged, which gave him the chance to revert his entire focus back to the Spiral Spirit Egg. Both Leo and Miranda had been interested in knowing the reason behind his purchase of the Spiral Spirit Egg, but Jason didn''t answer that question. Instead, it was fortunate that he was able to avoid this question because he had no satisfying answer to give them except the truth. Even though he wanted to, saying ''I just felt like it'' was not an answer Jason could state because it would sound stupid to use his entire fortune on something ''he felt like owning''. The truth was something completely different, but he didn''t want to tell it to anyone who was around him. Jennifer was the only exception but she had already comprehended the majority of his abilities and race''s traits. That was because they were often together, and owing to the fact that Artemis, Petri, and even Solaris loved to cling to Jason. As such, despite liking the customised soul world much better than the previous version that had nothing but barren lands, they would rather spend time with Jason outside it. He knew about this, but unfortunately, it was not exactly safe for them to be outside the soul world at all times. Not only did it attract the attention of others, but it was simply an inconvenience for both him and the soulbonds to be close to each other in specific situations, such as sparring, his practice in the three auxiliary occupations, and much more. After exchanging contacts, Jennifer bid farewell to the other powerhouses before leaving while dragging Jason outside, who was holding the Spiral Spirit Egg with his other hand. While leaving, almost all powerhouses looked at them as the old woman squinted her eyes. "His stigma is definitely not artificial¡­" She said, having realised the crux about Jason''s secret identity, while the old man, who was standing next to her, could only nod his head. "Not only that, but he didn''t even try to control his aura, which adjusted to his emotions. So, he has a natural manifested aura too!" In the end, there were many more things that made the powerhouses feel curious and interested in Jason, but Leo, who had heard his master''s comment, couldn''t help but add, "His eyes were the most terrifying...If I sensed it correctly, he harbors curses which he can use through his eyes...He almost broke through my mind''s protection barrier!" This seemingly simple statement caused the old woman to look at Leo, all the traces of the previous fury wiped off of her face as she remarked, "Maybe...it was better that you two tried forcing him to reveal his hidden traits¡­ we have to be careful about his future growth¡­ It''s good that you got his contact information as well. If you ever want to become the Crown Prince and change your race''s behavior and mindset with respect to other races, you need strength...and strong comrades!" Hearing his master''s rational tone, and the fact that it might not have been a mistake to figure out who Jason was, and what made him so unique, Leo couldn''t help but feel weird. He had just been lectured, but now that his master had calmed down, she was very rational with her thought process. In the end, she could calm down mostly because the authorities responsible for the bi-annual event of the auction house didn''t seem to bother about the incident that had happened. As such, it had become much easier for her to calm down, and analyse the situation along with Jason''s combat prowess, his aura, eyes, the stigma, and so on, with a rational mind. The final conclusion was obvious- Jason was extremely talented, and blessed to be born with such magnificent traits. Owing to that, it was better to befriend someone of that caliber instead of ruining all possible relationships! The old man had the same opinion as Leo''s master, and he also nodded his head, only to add, "He is probably not even from Manyr¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 672 - Premonition While the powerhouses were talking about Jason, the person they spoke about was minding his own business, inspecting the Spiral Spirit egg from up close. Examining the egg''s interior thoroughly by using the Emperor Eyes with a large amount of mana, gave him an extraordinary advantage. He had already forgotten about the earlier incident, and there was only his premonition and the Devir''s weird behavior that lingered in his mind. As such, it was not long before Jason raised his head, averting it from the Spiral Spirit egg as he remarked, "After you indirectly announced that I''m the City Lord''s disciple, which is, by the way, a big lie, the Devir, who was responsible for the bi-annual event of the auction house, became very disappointed all of a sudden. It was almost as if he felt bad that I''m the City Lord''s disciple. I have a feeling as if something bad will happen in the next few days¡­ Please inform the City Lord about it. She is more likely to listen to you than me¡­" Before, Jason had expected that Jennifer would never lie, except about the identity, but it was a surprise for him to see her blatantly lie to several Specta powerhouses, dragging him and the City lord into an awkward situation. However, this lie had allowed him to witness the Devir''s expression. When Jennifer heard Jason''s comment about the Devir, she wanted to shake it off, thinking that he was just exaggerating things after the small incident had happened. Yet, the moment she saw the expression on his face, Jennifer couldn''t help but think that Jason was more serious about this than she had expected. There were many things she didn''t know about Jason, but the trace of sadness that could be seen deep within his eyes, was an indicator that she should listen to his words. In the end, it was always better to be safe than sorry as it would ensure that they would be alive and not run into unnecessary troubles that can be easily avoided. Thus, Jennifer didn''t even waste any time. Taking out the messenger card, she called her master, who answered her only a short while later. "Jen, is the event at the auction house already over? I hope you showed everyone clearly that we are not to be taken lightly! Did you find something for yourself too, or were all purchases you did for the cadets and others, again?" Jason didn''t expect the City Lord to be so talkative, but instead of saying anything he remained silent as Jennifer answered her question, "The event is over, and it was a success! There was a small incident because Miranda and the Aeus'' 21st Prince tried to play around with Jason, but I will report everything to you later in detail, Master. The reason I gave you a call right now is that we should take some pre-measurements to defend against a possible attack. After the incident occurred, we encountered the person in charge of the auction house, and the Devir was overly interested in Jason, exactly because of the said incident. As such, I simply said that you are waiting for us, so we could leave quietly. The important point here is that the auction house authority''s reaction was extremely weird after I said this! It was almost as if he was disappointed!" Jennifer explained everything important in a short moment before she quieted down, awaiting her master''s reply. However, nothing happened, and it was only after a minute that Jennifer and Jason heard a sigh as Luna said, "You said that I''m waiting for Jason? That rumor will be a hassle to get rid of¡­" Jason couldn''t help but frown when he heard this and he almost slapped his forehead, only to lament in his mind. ''If that''s her issue, she is either too confident, or I shouldn''t have worried about them, at all¡­'' Yet, a moment after he thought that, Jennifer''s reaction clearly showed that she didn''t think that the situation was funny at all. The more she thought about what Jason had said, the more reasonable it sounded. Not only had the Devir eyed him the entire time he had been around, but he hadn''t even received a warning, let alone a punishment by the auction house for releasing bloodlust. This should have happened under normal circumstances, yet, in the end, it didn''t! As such, given the interest of the Devir, he would have talked to Jason, and tried to lure him over, even if Jennifer said that her master was waiting for him. ''Something is definitely off!'' She thought. Unfortunately, the City Lord didn''t seem to take the situation seriously. However, this was proven wrong as Luna suddenly cautioned them. "You two should just come back, the faster the better. Let''s not talk over the messenger card!" She sounded more serious than before, but at the same time, it felt like she was already aware of something they didn''t know. As such, Jennifer sprouted her white wings before she soared into the air, followed by Jason, who manifested Artemis'' wings. The little owl was already nagging him to hand over the Frozen Lunarium to her. But, instead of doing so, Jason wanted to wait a little bit, until they would find out what was going on in Lanro. It didn''t take long before they arrived inside the City Lord''s manor and approached the main hall, where Luna was already waiting for them. There were a few more people, and all of them were responsible for matters related to the house, or city. Jason was the only male and the odd man out but that didn''t matter right now because it looked like every single responsible authority had gathered. It was unexpected, but Jason felt that it was an extremely good sign to see everyone. However, at the same time, it made him feel like the City Lord was already aware of everything that might happen. He and Jennifer were the last to arrive, and with everyone important present, Luna made a seemingly nonchalant announcement that caused everyone to feel uncomfortable, angry and frustrated. "A few days ago, the old Monarch of the Aeus race made a proposal to the Devir race, stating that they should form a temporary truce because of the dangers that are looming around and within the Julandra region. Apparently, there are a few other races that try to infiltrate resourceful areas on the outskirts of the Julandra region. However, that is most likely not the main reason for the Aeus race to propose a temporary truce. This morning, I heard that three of the Tritans'' hidden training camps had been raided, and there is not even a single survivor from any of the three camps! From the mana fluctuations and other clues we found, we could conclude that the perpetrators belonged to both the Aeus and Devirs. It almost looks like the Devirs accepted the truce because they found out the Tritans'' secrets, which makes them more dangerous to both races than each other''s existence. Nothing has been proven yet but even if it might be wrong, it is a fact that two cadet training camps were raided!" After the City lord said this, a murmur resounded through the main hall, however, the City Lord wasn''t done yet so she continued, "If I''m not completely wrong, we have a traitor in the rows of the Tritans, and they exposed that we are supporting the Tritans! Without evidence, the Aeus and Devirs shouldn''t be able to do anything to us, but that is only officially. We should prepare for the Aeus and Devirs'' unofficial means to get back at us and take care of the issue¡­ Let''s prepare to be assassinated!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 673 - Truth It took more than half an hour before the meeting in the main hall was over, and Jason wanted to leave with Pera, who he had seen after a long time. Unfortunately, the City Lord asked him and Jennifer to stay behind. Luna only threw him a short glance before, but that was already more than enough to see his hand, and the silver egg he was holding. At first glance, she didn''t realise what it was, but it took her only a moment to realise it. Because of that, Luna requested Jason to stay behind too. However, she didn''t look at him, but her attention was on Jennifer as she said, "Now that you are here, tell me what happened at the auction house event, right from the beginning! I need to know every detail, about what you purchased, who we severed our ties with in today''s event, and what happened that both the Aeus race''s 21st Prince and Miranda felt like playing around with Jason!" Jennifer listened to her master''s words, and without any delay, she began explaining everything that had happened during the last few hours, from the moment they had entered the auction house. It took her more than 20 minutes in which the City Lord heard her in rapt attention, and only after Jennifer finished speaking, did the City Lord move. "To put it simply, we gave a good warning of what will happen if the other families and clans that live in Lanro continue provoking us. We didn''t use any force and instead only funds, but the result is satisfying!" The City Lord was calm but a faint smile caused her lips to curl upwards. Yet, only a few seconds later, she turned serious once again. "The main attraction was Eggs of Spirits, and the fact that Jason purchased a mutated spirit egg made the two young prodigies curious, creating the incident you mentioned?" The City Lord asked again, just to be certain. Jennifer nodded her head without much delay, only to ponder for a second before answering, "The fact that he bid for the egg is probably the main reason for the two to be curious about Jason. However, there are also other unique traits about him, which one can easily perceive, even without him actively showing them!" That being said, she pointed at the portion above her right eye, before moving to the eyes. It was obvious what Jennifer wanted to point out, and the City Lord gave a barely perceptible nod before she turned towards Jason. "Now the biggest question is why you purchased the half-mutated Spiral Spirit egg? It''s already a wonder that you were able to procure a fortune of 10 superior Ascendion rank cultivation stones. You probably used the fortune obtained by selling all manuals you amassed from your home planet. Using your entire wealth like that...is either utterly foolish or very brilliant, so please enlighten me about your reasoning!" Jason was astonished that the City Lord didn''t force him to answer because he''d caused quite some problems to her. Neither did she ask anything about the Chaos attribute he had released from his eyes, or anything else about his reaction when Leo had tried to bully him. As such, he felt grateful to the City Lord for not asking too many questions because Jason wasn''t sure about certain things for himself. His entire body felt lighter than before too. However, this was because Jason had unintentionally broken one of the minor seals, the mysterious being whose fraction of soul was imprinted into the depths of his consciousness, had created. In the end, he was already able to break through multiple minor seals, but mindlessly releasing them was stupid. As such, Jason wanted to have a safety net to protect himself while simultaneously having the means to increase his combat prowess drastically. Using the exposed Chaos attribute that would come forth with the release of his seals, Jason had even been able to intimidate someone who was two stages above him. If that was not enough to clearly show how terrifying the Chaos attribute that was only meant to seal his bloodline was, Jason didn''t know what else would be. He was not even sure how many minor seals the Celestia bloodline had, but there had to be thousands! Furthermore, every single consecutive one had slightly more of the Chaos attribute intertwined within owing to the increase of strength they had to seal. Jason was still far away from the secondary bloodline awakening, and there were dozens of seals he had to break first before he could be considered to approach the threshold to initiate it. Shaking his head, Jason forced himself to stop daydreaming as he answered the City Lord''s question without any further delay. "I don''t think it''s necessary for me to hide why I bid for the Spiral Spirit egg. Through my eyes, I saw something that interested me, and I will bind it to my soul because I''m confident that it will benefit me!" Jason had yet to explain the Argos'' human race''s soul awakening in a detailed manner, but before he could add anything to what he had already said, Jennifer intervened. "You mean, the Spiral Spirit will become like the other beasts, and merge it with your body as you did with...the owl? And you are confident enough to hatch it, really?" Jason wanted to clear her doubt but it was not exactly easy to do so. Thus, he elaborated further in simple words when he saw that the City Lord was also intrigued. "While most races awaken affinities, abilities, or possibly even a second or third cultivation vein during their soul awakening, the human part of origin is slightly unique in this regard. We awaken a soul world with which we can bind a certain number of beasts to our soul as long as they are compatible with us. Through this, we enhance their intelligence, and they reinforce our strength. That''s also part of the reason why I''m stronger than I ought to be. The fusion you mentioned can only happen when the soul bound is extremely strong! In the end, my soul awakening is probably the best among my race but that is most likely because it was strengthened through the origin of my other bloodline!" Even if it was dangerous to expose the secret of his race, Jason couldn''t care less about it. He didn''t like living with secrets of which he had more than enough. As such, he would rather say the truth to those he liked, while being nonchalant about others. This might be foolish, thus Jason''s subconscious mind was still trying to hide as many secrets of his as possible! Nevertheless, Luna had accepted him despite being male, and both she and Jennifer didn''t seem to be bad people. Rather, Jason was sure that they were kind, and he liked them a lot despite the issues he had faced with the City Lord upon their first encounter. It had been chaotic, but everything had changed for the better now. At that moment, he felt his mind was bombarded with an onslaught of emotions and transmitted desires into his head. This made him clench his fist as he ignored Jennifer and the City Lord, who were looking at him in interest. His soul awakening was simply too unique, but at the same time, his second origin was still relatively unknown which made the others similarly curious. Yet, Jason didn''t comment, as he was occupied by his nagging soulbond. Artemis was still eager to devour the Frozen Lunarium, despite the prickly situation. As such, Jason couldn''t help but feel betrayed by his oldest soulbond. However, it seemed like Artemis was not going to be convinced despite his premonition because she was confident that her evolution would help him more than the little strength difference he could release with her fusion. Petri''s fusion was even stronger if one were to exclude the Frozen Flame''s unique traits! As such, Artemis felt that there was no need to postpone her evolution which would only waste precious time. In the end, annoyed by Artemis'' relentless pleading, Jason took out the Frozen Lunarium just as the little owl manifested in front of him. "Stop nagging at me¡­ Here it is!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 674 - Evolution Jason held the Frozen Lunarium right in front of Artemis, who immediately lunged at it, devouring the orb without a single moment of hesitation. After she gulped it down, nothing happened for several seconds, until the energies within the Frozen Lunarium were finally released. Artemis'' stomach first disintegrated the outermost layer of the Frozen Lunarium only for her to shriek loudly as the unleashed energies began to merge with her body. Through his Emperor Eyes, Jason was able to see everything that was happening, and he couldn''t help but feel that it looked unique and completely different from what he expected. Even if he was not sure what he thought was what he was supposed to see, it was what he saw right now. The properties within the Frozen Lunarium spread through Artemis'' entire body and it didn''t take long before everything seemed to change. While Artemis released her own mana, the Frozen Lunarium began to sweep through her mana core, forcing it to transform. At the same time, the remaining energy swept through her cells, invigorating and preparing her for the evolution process that had just been initiated. With every single cell in her body being oversaturated, Artemis was overflowing with energy, which caused white strands of energy to emerge from her body. They radiated from around the mana core that seemed to crumble due to the terrific energy waves the Frozen Lunarium was unleashing. Yet, the moment the mana core even cracked a little, it was repaired, reinforced, and further enhanced through the nourishment of the Frozen Lunarium. Because he was able to see all of this happen in a short period, Jason couldn''t help but feel astonished. His entire focus was trained on Artemis. Thus, he didn''t even notice that Jennifer and the City Lord were also eyeing the situation but with an utterly dumbfounded expression. They were rendered speechless for some time, and it was only when Jennifer mumbled something that the City Lord regained her senses while Jason lifted his head to look at them. "That owl ate the unrefined Frozen Lunarium...it''s raw, how the hell did it not die?!" Seeing the two women''s expressions, Jason couldn''t help but be reminded of how the Flers had reacted when he had given Artemis a Lique rank mana core. At that time, they had looked at him with the same bewildered expression. However, now there was an extraordinary prodigy and powerhouses looking at him in the same way as the Flers. This caused him to smile faintly as he cleared the air before the situation could escalate. "Artemis is a mutated beast. If I''m not wrong she can devour almost everything. Mana cores, mana stones, and even transmuted energies are no problem for her. Unfortunately, I don''t know the limits of her evolution, but Artemis wanted the Frozen Lunarium because she was confident to evolve through it. That''s why I bought it¡­." While he explained Artemis'' condition to a certain extent, he couldn''t help but justify his reasoning through it. Despite that, both Jennifer and the City Lord were still staring at him, dumbfounded that he retorted to such a barbaric tactic to hasten his soulbond''s evolution. Under normal circumstances, one would have extracted the necessary main ingredient''s essence, refined it with other ingredients that unleashed the main ingredient''s full potential before creating a serum for the beast to eat. This serum had to meet certain requirements such as slowly releasing its effects, preventing the beast from tearing apart by initiating the evolution too hastily. Furthermore, one would normally know what kind of an existence a beast was supposed to evolve into, so that the evolution serum would be altered to suit the evolved beast''s state perfectly. However, in Jason and Artemis'' situation, this was completely different! Not only was Artemis demanding the raw and unrefined energies from the Frozen Lunarium as it is, but from the looks of it, it didn''t seem like she was bothered about the toxicity in the outer layers of the orb she was slowly disintegrating. Meanwhile, Jason didn''t even know what kind of beast Artemis would evolve in. As such, the City Lord couldn''t help but feel like dismissing Jason as she replied, "Just do...whatever you''re doing...but as mentioned earlier, follow the plan I have set up. It''s important to do that so that you''re prepared to be assassinated!" It sounded weird to hear that one should be prepared to be assassinated, but Jason understood what the City Lord meant by that. As such, he looked at Artemis, whose entire body was about to be enveloped in a white shroud, one more time before bringing her back to the soul world. Afterward, he simply said, "I will be in my room and bind the Spiral Spirit egg to me. It''s possible that I will visit the auxiliary tower from time to time during the next few days, but other than that, I will stay inside the manor. That should be more than enough to follow the plan as of now, right?" The City Lord nodded her head, before dismissing him with a wave of her hand. Because of that, Jason quietly left, while looking at the Spiral Spirit Egg, whose hue was a mixture of all potential hues he had seen, in addition to a silver and golden hue. In the end, all of these hues were enveloped by the semi-translucent color his other soulbonds also had. Because of that, he couldn''t help but feel that the dead mana veins were the restriction that was put on the Spiral Spirit Egg. Owing to the mixture of all potential hues which was something his eyes could perceive since the moment he gained his eyesight, Jason knew that the Spiral Spirit Egg was something unique, which was, in fact, not difficult to figure out. The other Grand Spirit Eggs had only released the semi-translucent hue, which was what Jason assumed made them have limitless potential. However, that was also not completely correct, as Jason had only realised this after spending several months on Manyr. Apart from the translucent potential hue that was supposed to indicate not being restricted by potential, Jason knew that there were racial limits, along with other restrictions such as impurities, disease, and mutations. Despite the other restrictions, the first indicator of someone''s potential was the most important. Yet, it was completely useless to have limitless potential if a beast''s race prevented one from increasing one''s strength further. As such, after reaching the racial limit, a beast either had to break through said limit, and slowly increase its strength just as Artemis was doing, or one had to evolve. Through an evolution, all attributes of a beast were bound to be enhanced, including the racial limit that could be said to reset after an evolution. That was why evolutions were so important, and the reason for Jason to give his soulbonds the best possible nourishment to evolve. Owing to the potential he could see in beasts, Jason would bind them to his soul because there were several things a beast was unable to do without the necessary potential, even if it might be trivial things it was missing out on. However, that was not the case every single time because he would rather follow his instincts and gut feeling than the logical way of explaining specific things. This was the reason why Jason had decided to purchase the Spiral Spirit egg, and why he would bind it to his soul too! Following his gut feeling had always proven to be the correct choice so far, and every single time something bad had happened, his instincts had clearly warned him. Whether this was a premonition, or something similar to being able to foretell events, Jason didn''t care because the most important was that his premonition had never proven to be wrong! It was the exact same reason for why things were going to unfold the way they would because the premonition that clung to him was the most distinct and worst he had ever felt before! There was not a single event, but a chain of events that were bound to change the lives of every single being living in the Julandra region! Jason was unable to decipher the premonition, let alone when the devastating events would actually kickstart. However, if Jason would have known that everything was bound to happen much sooner than expected, he wouldn''t have held back in his pursuit of binding a small number of soulbonds with high potential. Instead, he would have bound as many soulbonds as his physique and vessel could take, just to prevent the worst possible outcome of the events that approached them slowly! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 675 - Rejection Now that Artemis was evolving, he couldn''t use her to occupy his mana core anymore. Thus, she was unable to fuse with him. That was sad as it restricted his ability to fly too, but in the worst-case scenario, Jason could make use of Solaris, who was able to replicate Artemis'' wings. Because of that, there shouldn''t be any big problems for him. Instead of focusing on these issues, Jason would rather do something that would help him to become much stronger. Even if he didn''t know about the events that were bound to occur, he knew that something bad was going on in the Julandra region. Awaiting the attempt to be assassinated, Jason would stay inside the City Lord''s manor for the time being. As such, he had more than enough time to cultivate, to learn the second stage of the Balance of the Universe cultivation technique, and most importantly, to bind the Spiral Spirit egg, and solve its issue with the dead mana veins that were clogging up the Spiral cultivation veins. Of all these tasks, he wanted to make use of the opportunity and take care of the Spiral Spirit egg first. Before he could do that, he had to bind it to his soul. Having been told to move from his room inside the auxiliary tower to one of the free rooms inside the manor, Jason randomly chose one before he went inside. Upon entering his new room he saw that it was almost spacious enough to fit Petri in his normal form. His eyes flitted to the king-sized bed on which he sat before putting the egg in front of him. Only a moment later, Petri and Solaris appeared next to him, intrigued by the soon-to-be member of their family. Yet, their curiosity died down just in a few minutes in which they had gazed at the egg for some time, before both of them huddled near Jason, clinging to him, a thing they loved to do. Petri, in his smallest form, was coiled around Jason''s torso several times while Solaris had taken the shape of a miniature human. This was something the origin flame had tried to shape itself into for several weeks but had never worked out the way it wanted. In the end, it was a refreshing change to switch from cultivating 24/7 without any break to developing a better proficiency with its own body and fire affinity. Solaris'' situation as a sentient flame was unique. As such, there were several things it could do to further increase its strength. For example, it could change its shape, temperature, density, and other properties to become more or less dangerous. This was exactly what Jason needed right now, something that didn''t hurt at all as the Spiral Spirit egg should be extremely sensitive to any infiltrators. With his two soulbonds next to him, Jason couldn''t help but feel the pressure lifting off his chest and he was able to keep calm. Because of that, Jason was able to easily separate a single soul thread from his soul world core, which he led through his body. Afterward, he released the soul thread from his right hand which was already holding in front of the Spiral Spirit egg. A simple touch on the cold shell of the egg was thus enough for his soul thread to slowly envelop the egg before penetrating through the outer shell and breaking in. Because the Spiral Spirit egg had yet to hatch, let alone absorb enough spirit force to grow properly, it was already a wonder that it had managed to keep the life form within it intact. Jason, who had already realised this, thus would have no problem binding the Spiral Spirit egg to his soul. There was no energy left within it, to retaliate against the soul thread, after all! However, due to the very same reason, Jason didn''t force a soulbond with the Spiral Spirit egg. Instead, by enveloping the egg first, he tried to establish amity before letting his soul thread break in through the outer shell. The latter was only initiated after his arrival was accepted. In the end, the Spiral Spirit was not even developed enough to understand what was about to happen. It only sensed Jason''s Celestia aura and the kindness radiating from it, followed by the soul thread that was swept through with soul energy, invigorating the Spiral Spirit even without having been bound yet. Through this, the undeveloped Spiral Spirit grasped the first chance that would grant its survival, which was in fact, Jason''s soul thread. Once the soul thread was accepted by the Spiral Spirit, Jason inserted more soul energy into it, energising the undeveloped egg before slowly binding it to his soul. However, out of a sudden, the soul world retaliated against the binding process of the Spiral Spirit, which caused the soul energy to stop moving. At the same time, the soul thread wanted to instinctively retreat from the seemingly dangerous being it was about to bind. Despite this, Jason used his sheer willpower to prevent the soul thread from doing anything that could possibly injure the Spirit Soul. As such, while maintaining the soul thread, Jason had to figure out what the problem was. The soul world continued to shake, refusing to accept binding the Spiral Spirit. This caused Jason to wonder if the soul world was not compatible with the Spiral Spirit. ''Am I really unable to bind it?'' He suddenly wondered, gritting his teeth. Initially, his instincts had made him purchase and bind the Spiral Spirit, which was the reason for him to do everything. As such, he couldn''t understand why it was not working anymore. ''I might have only awoken a single soul world, which is different to Greg''s double soul awakening...but, I was able to bind Petri too, and he had been a physically attributed beast since the beginning!'' Pondering about the possibility of his soul world''s rejection of the Spiral Spirit, he could think of several reasons, and Jason could count all of them up. The most plausible would be that his soul world was not compatible with Spiral beasts. However, that was something Jason didn''t believe to be the case because Petri was also accepted by his soul world, and it was a Pryr beast with curses at that! Because of that, the next reason he had in mind, appeared to be more feasible. ''Does my soul world reject the Spiral Spirit because of its mutation and the issues that come with it? Is it like an instinctive repulsive behavior towards the Spiral Spirit?'' The more he thought about it, the more logical it sounded. His soul world had always been unique, and it had even accepted Petri, the being with two curses, where one of it cursed the soul world core itself. However, instead of rejecting Petri, his soul world had accepted the beast without a single complaint. Afterward, the soul world even created a possibility to make use of the curse, actively activating and deactivating it. Right now, Jason might not be using the curse in that way, but he had required it for some time, otherwise, his body would have been torn apart. Furthermore, there was always the possibility of a beast of his evolving into an overpowered beast, giving him such a high amplification in strength that he required the curse. As such, it was an exceptional feat to have this ability, which the soul world had created for him. Thus, the Spiral Spirit was likely to be rejected by his soul world owing to the possible disadvantages it would bring forth. Because it was not a sentient being, the soul world couldn''t comprehend that Jason wanted to use Solaris to expel, or if necessary, burn the dead mana veins that clogged up the Spiral veins. With that in mind, Jason ignored his strongly vibrating soul world that shook his entire being as he used his willpower to actively lead soul energy through the soul thread, binding the Spiral Spirit despite the soul world''s repeated protests. One could say that he was being reckless, but after considering it for a moment his soul world wouldn''t have allowed him to even break in the Spiral Spirit egg''s shell if it was not compatible with Spiral beasts! Owing to this, he ignored the Soul world''s disapproval of the Spiral Spirit as he finished binding it in a single hour. Even if he was not aware of this, the decision to ignore his soul world would go on to become one of the best decisions he could have made in his entire life, being the reason for him to overcome the events that were bound to happen, soon. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 676 - Cold Burn Upon feeling the vibrant connection with the Spiral Spirit egg, Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly. Nothing had happened after binding the Spiral Spirit, and his soul world had slowly calmed down, seemingly accepting the fact that Jason made a decision. Testing if his new soulbond was restricted in doing anything, Jason let it enter the soul world before taking it out a few moments later. There were many things for him to do, but testing the bare minimum functionalities that the Spiral Spirit could or couldn''t access was still important. With his soul connection, Jason tried to decipher the entire situation of the Spiral Spirit. This was not difficult, and using both his senses and Emperor Eyes, he clearly understood that the soul energy he provided had nurtured it, giving the Spirit more energy than it had ever absorbed until now. Jason found this to be a little bit sad, but faintly touching the Spiral Spirit with his hand, he didn''t hesitate for a single moment as he used a fraction of Solaris'' flame to let it enter the egg''s innermost parts. Without burning its way through the shell, it was extremely difficult for Solaris to enter the egg, let alone maintain a steady flame with the accurate amount of heat. Nevertheless, by using all kinds of means in addition to the fully released Celestia aura and the additional amplification of all activated Stigmas, whose effects were overlapping, this was possible. Even if he had to burn the shell, Jason was sure that repairing the shell was much better than allowing the spirit to never hatch, and die before it was truly born. In the end, the egg''s of spirits were not made out of chalk or similar materials, but in fact, they were the bodies of the Spirit itself. It was the solidified mass of the Spirit, and Solaris liquefied it to a certain extent, allowing itself to emerge inside the fully liquefied part of the body. While Solaris was searching its way through the chaos of a Spirit''s insides without injuring anything, Jason was feeling the Spiral Spirit''s pain and emotions. The degree of pain the Spirit felt in comparison to before, increased only slightly. Yet, at the same time, it was releasing a distinct sensation of joy, feeling that its body was slowly heating up. Solaris was causing this subconsciously, but instead of burning anything, it soothed the tension coiled up Spiral veins that were malnourished and too thin to allow a large amount of spirit force to circulate through it. At the same time, the Spiral veins were already overflowing with spirit force, but it was unable to move a single inch. Under normal circumstances, this was not problematic, but if unannexed energies remained at the same location for a long period, imprisoned, and were rendered incapable of movement, they would become more destructive, slowly damaging the surroundings. As such, the small amount of spirit force within the Spiral vein was not advantageous to the Spiral Spirit, but instead, were damaging because the clogged-up mana veins were preventing it from moving. ''Is the deteriorated and damaged Spiral vein the reason for all kinds of potential hues I can see?'' Jason suddenly wondered, only to shake his head. The reason for him to see all kinds of potential hues around the Spiral Spirit was not important. Important, was in fact, the joy radiating from his newest soulbond that was slowly being nurtured by the soul energy Jason provided. A Spirit would hatch once it was able to liquefy its entire body, and from Jason''s point of view, this would take an eternity to happen naturally. The Spiral Spirit had barely liquefied the most basic functions, allowing them to work. However, they were already liquefied the moment it was detached from the mother Spirit''s body. As such, it hadn''t been able to liquefy anything on its own. But that was nothing out of the ordinary in Jason''s opinion. He hadn''t expected anything else, to begin with. There had been a reason for the other powerhouses to not even bother reconsidering to bid for the Spiral Spirit egg. Meanwhile, Jason, who was now fully aware of the Spiral Spirit egg''s condition, couldn''t help but label them foolish. With enough time, the Grand Spirit he had purchased would become stronger than each of the other Spirit eggs that had been auctioned! That was something Jason was confident about. However, rather than focusing on competing against the other Grand Spirits, he wanted to give more attention to the Spiral Spirit''s well-being and nurturing it properly. Rushing its growth process would only injure it. As such, he would have to expel the mana from the veins slowly so as to prevent an overflow of spirit force within the Spiral Spirit egg. If too much spirit force were to circulate through the deteriorated Spiral veins, they might rupture. This was something nobody would want to happen. With that possibility in mind, using more time to allow the Spirit to gain the ability to cultivate and hatch properly was the most important. While Jason thought about that, Solaris had already arrived in the center of the Spiral Spirit, where the rotten, dead mana veins were located. Through his Emperor Eyes, he could see that they were nasty, but feeling them through both Solaris and the Spiral Spirit caused goosebumps to erupt all over his body. Despite that, Jason smiled lightly as he allowed Solaris to increase its temperature by 0.1 degrees. Not knowing how sensitive the body of a Spirit was, he could only act carefully as he didn''t want to hurt, let alone injure his newest soulbond. It was rather easy for even the slightest contact with a flame to lead to deep and permanent injuries, and Jason wouldn''t be able to forgive himself if a mistake were to occur. Taking a deep breath, he adjusted the position in which he sat in front of the egg before fully focusing on Solaris, the dead mana veins, and the Spiral Spirit''s pain sensors. After he slowly increased the flame''s temperature that had been extremely low from the start, Jason''s Emperor Eyes detected every single change within the egg. Because of that, it didn''t take long before he was able to see something that caused his eyes to gleam lightly. It made him believe that only a minute increase in the flame''s temperature was required to untangle the messed-up chaos of the dead mana veins. However, at the same time, Jason sensed that he couldn''t increase the temperature of Solaris'' flame anymore. As such, the first plan he had in mind was immediately rendered useless, which forced him to resort to his second plan. Slowly splitting up the finger-tip-sized flame within the Spirit''s body, Jason spread all of them along the dead mana veins, evenly heating up everything, and using the highest possible temperature without injuring the Spirit. This caused a multitude of emotions to radiate from the Spirit because it sensed that faint traces of spirit force were able to circulate through the places that were not clogged up anymore. Simultaneously, Jason noticed that the parts of the Spirit vein that had been clogged up were in a bad condition. Even though he was frustrated about this, there was nothing for him to do against it. Nurturing the Spiral Spirit with his utmost efforts would probably solve this issue, and he would only be required to put in a lot more time and funds to make it happen. With that in mind, Jason began to insert his own mana into the small Spiral Spirit egg. He led it through the tangled up chaos of the Spiral veins before it arrived in front of the dead mana vein as he mumbled. "So...now the ''fun'' will finally begin! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 677 - Expelled Little did Jason know that the ''fun'' he had mentioned was anything but that. Extinguishing the mana vein was not possible because the required heat was too high. As such, he was forced to expel the mana vein which was more difficult than he could have expected. On one hand, the clogged state of the Spiral veins had marginally improved when Solaris had cranked up the flame to a certain degree. However, it was only afterward that the true challenge began which was directly noticeable as Jason inserted his mana, or to be precise a thread of mana into the Spiral Spirit egg. Not only was this alone already dangerous because it could lead to a complex chain reaction that could be caused by the repulsive energies of spirit force within the Spirit, and his Mana. Nevertheless, he did what he had to do in order to pull out the dead mana vein. Because of that, Jason also had to cut the dead mana vein as it was too long, thick and filled with offshoots, preventing him from working on the whole vein at once. This was, in fact, the most difficult task, and only by being patient and acting slowly, he was able to overcome everything. Without injuring the Spiral Spirit, Jason used the inserted mana thread to coil around a small part of the mana vein, constricting it before cutting it off with the tip of the same mana thread. The tip was sharp, and it hurt the Spiral Spirit just a little, but it was not lethal, let alone capable of inflicting a permanent injury. As such, his new soulbond had to bear with it until Jason was done with the entire procedure that felt like a surgery. After a fraction of the dead mana vein had been cut off, Jason pulled it out of the Spiral Spirit. This seemingly simple process took him more than ten minutes because the dead mana vein was not supposed to touch anything. If it were to come in touch with the deteriorated Spiral cultivation vein, it could scratch through the vein while being pulled outside. The result would be that the already fragile yet intact vein in the vicinity might rip apart, damaging the Soul Spirit. Cold sweat trickled down Jason''s back, plastering his clothes to his skin, which made Petri grumble as he didn''t want the sweat of Jason to pass on to him. Despite that, he couldn''t care less about Petri''s opinion right now as a part of the dead mana vein had been expelled out of the Spiral Spirit. When that happened, a reeking stench permeated the entire room. Because of that, Jason burned that strand of the vein without a second of hesitation before averting his attention back to the Spiral Spirit egg. Hours flew by, and more than a day had passed when Jason decided to take a break. His entire concentration had been used up, and his head was aching as if it would blow apart at any moment. Nevertheless, a faint smile emerged on his exhausted face. Taking his time to inspect the Spiral Spirit egg, Jason clearly knew that he had barely expelled a part of the mana vein. However, that was already enough for him to feel great because it wouldn''t take much longer before the entire dead mana vein was to be fully expelled. His goal was at most a few days away from him, which made him want to quickly finish the procedure without taking a break. Unfortunately, this was not something he could negotiate and a necessity if he didn''t want to make any mistakes. As such, he decided to take a quick shower, and ease his mind by eating something nutritious. It had been a long time since Jason was able to savor the food. Thus, he took his time relishing in the taste without thinking about the Spiral Spirit. There were many things that had changed about the malnourished beast, but the most important was that the provided soul energy helped improve its condition by a large margin. Now, it wasn''t malnourished anymore and appeared to be rather well-nourished. Because of that, the Spiral vein, which had been freed from the clogged upstate to a certain extent, was being nurtured. This helped the Spiral vein swiftly recuperate and now was also able to circulate a small amount of spirit force through its body. Through that, it was possible for it to finally annex the spirit force that had long since rested within its Spiral vein. After that, the Spiral Spirit began to absorb some of the surrounding spirit force before focusing on using the cultivation energy to nurture its body. Even if it was not well nourished, the provided soul energy was not a permanent measure. Thus, Jason was glad that the Spiral Spirit finally started to cultivate properly, increasing the egg''s size by producing more liquid. When it would have attained the size it required to hatch, the Spirit would slowly liquefy the solidified parts of its body before finally hatching. When it hatched, a certain shape would be revealed, becoming the true form of the spirit. Jason had already heard many things about the true form of spirits. During the bi-annual auction house event, he had listened intently to the pieces of information that were revealed by the powerhouses in the VVIP lounge. As such, it was most likely true owing to the fact that a powerhouse that lived for millennia was unlikely to have acquired wrong intel, even less about something shallow such as the most basic information about Spirits. Thus, the true form of a Spirit was what it could maintain instinctively, without the need to focus on anything. Meanwhile, it was still possible for the Spirit to change into all kinds of forms, with the only condition that it required extreme focus to make it happen. The complexer the shape, the more focus was required. Because of that, the final form of a Spirit was essential to determine its ability to fight! Some forms were simply unsuitable for combat because they might look like a Wolf, only to lack an entire leg, fangs, and so on. For such a Spirit, it would be difficult to fight. Fortunately, it was rare to encounter such Spirits, and Jason hoped that his soulbond wouldn''t be among the unfortunate ones. In the end, even if his soulbond''s form would be completely unsuitable for combat, it was still possible for Jason to reap the benefits of having bound a Spiral beast. Other than that, adjusting its form by adding a single limb, fangs, or claws wouldn''t be much of an issue, and require only a small amount of focus to be maintained. Thus, Jason was not worried at all, thinking that the Spiral Spirit should be able to do anything as long as it had enough time. And time was exactly what Jason wanted to give his soulbonds as much as possible, allowing them to grow at a steady pace. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done because the first of the many series of events was about to occur. The Grim Reaper was already lurking around the City Lord''s abode, which was about to turn into a place where hundreds of beings would meet their final end. However, the final outcome of the soon-to-occur event would shock both the perpetrator and everyone around the City Lord. Even Luna herself would be shocked to the core despite having prepared for seemingly every scenario that could occur! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 678 - Discovered In the end, Jason knew that it was impossible to be fully prepared for all kinds of scenarios, which was only logical. Despite that, the City Lord''s plan to protect all of them was simple, yet efficient. With several mana fluctuation radars that scanned through the entire abode including every nook and cranny, evading them was nearly impossible. These radars were a great way of nabbing concealed beings who would try to sneak inside the Manor by evading the naked eye. As such, Jason was confident that nothing extremely bad would happen. The long-distance radars were weaker, but the closer the range was, the stronger and better they became. Even Jennifer''s unique concealment device at the peak of the Ascendion rank was useless in face of the best radar the City Lord had. Thus, instead of worrying about the highly possible assassination attempt on their lives, Jason wanted to focus on the Spiral spirit for the next few days. After a part of the dead mana vein had been expelled, the potential hue around it began to change. While the black and light-grey hue that represented the two lowest possible potentials disappeared, the other hues were shining more distinctly. Through this, the Spiral Spirit was able to enter the Mid Mortal stage without any issues. However, this was by far not enough, and his greed was only increasing, thinking that the Spiral Spirit had to hatch soon and become much stronger in order to help him improve further. With the amplification he was bound to receive, Jason''s brain functions would be enhanced. This would allow him to learn things at a much faster pace as well as use more complex ways to apply his affinities, techniques, and abilities. This sole thought was enough for Jason''s greed to soar, and he couldn''t be held back anymore. As such, he was just about to start the second session of the mana vein cleansing for the Spiral Spirit egg as faint mana currents swept through the entire manor. A moment later, he was able to hear the City Lord''s voice that sounded rather frustrated. [More than 300 Infiltrators entered about half a minute ago. They''ve only been discovered after crossing half the distance towards the Manor. There are two Specta stage powerhouses amongst them and their average cultivation stage is extremely high! Everyone, follow my plan, and survive, by all means! And...Kill those bastards!!!] The moment Jason heard this, he leaped from the bed, leaving the room within a moment while Petri, Solaris, and Spyro, which was what he named the Spiral Spirit, returned to the soul world. Listening to the short message made it clear that the situation was extremely perilous. As such, he rushed towards Jennifer''s room, only to see the door opening right in front of him. There, Jason almost collided with Jennifer, who looked at him with a serious expression, nodding her head. Entering the room, he didn''t even look around but instead, Jason accessed his spatial ring and took out his leather armor, a set of daggers, and several flying knives. Putting on the armor, he secured the daggers and knives to the belt before summoning Byakur into his hand. It was vibrating lightly after sensing Jason''s emotions but turned steady a moment later. Armed to the teeth, Jason was fully prepared to fight, and even Petri and Solaris were ready to enter his mana core at a moment''s notice. He could allow Petri to enter his mana core immediately but without knowing what opponents he would have to face, Jason could only think that it might be better to not hurry. Replacing a soulbond with another inside his mana core took slightly longer than simply telling them to enter the mana core. As such, it was best to wait patiently! When Jason was finally done with everything, he first looked at Jennifer, who was eerily calm, before examining the room for a short moment. Jennifer noticed this, but she remained silent as she heard him mumble. "Will it be fine for everything to burn down?" This rather weird question caused her to raise her right eyebrow and she couldn''t help but smile lightly as she countered, "You know that the entire room will be destroyed, right?" Despite the highly durable material the entire manor was constructed of, beings with the combat prowess of the Ascendion stage would be able to damage the building. It might sustain a few hits before it would be completely destroyed, but the City Lord also mentioned the presence of two Specta stage powerhouses and 300 Assassins. As such, Jason''s question was a little bit foolish. However, it was exactly this that allowed Jennifer to release the tension within her. ''He is really a weirdo!'' She thought with a smile on her lips before averting her attention back to the fact that the Assassins could arrive within the manor at any moment. According to the City Lord''s plan, everyone was gathered in pairs or small groups in order to be able to work in a team. The groups were made by simply putting those that were often together. Through this, the assassins were unlikely to notice that anything was off. All groups had roughly the same combat prowess, with the sole exception being Jason and Jennifer, whose combat prowess was extremely different. Nevertheless, the City Lord was not worried about this because Jennifer''s true identity shouldn''t have been exposed yet. Because of that, Jennifer was instructed to not let her true prowess be exposed or kill all opponents before they had a chance to inform their superiors about the same. That shouldn''t be a problem as long as the Assassins weren''t too strong for her to finish everyone before anything could happen. "They''ll probably be separated into groups that have been customised to defeat us. As such, there should be assassins that will try to hinder you from using your affinity, if they''re unable to kill you directly!" Jennifer suddenly said, trying to regain her previous calm composure. Somehow, she felt restless and there was one thing that bothered her. ''Why are the Aeus and Devirs not searching for pieces of evidence to prove our support to the Tritans organization? That''s weird....'' The nobles of the royalty of the Aeus and Devirs could easily request to search through the City Lord''s manor, and it wouldn''t be much of a difficulty to find the portal that led to the Barren Lands. It was locked, and there were multiple other things with which they could be distracted, but the fact that the royalty didn''t say anything spoke volumes. At least to Jennifer, who had already thought of multiple reasons to answer her doubts. Amongst the reasons, the most likely was that the royalty didn''t know anything about the attack on the Tritans'' cadet camps, and the assassination attempt that was about to happen within the following minutes. However, the treaty and the subsequent attack of the combined forces of the Aeus and Devirs was too much of a coincidence. This made Jennifer believe that a few members of the royalty might be up to something, while the others were simply focused on different tasks. ''So...they''re scheming again¡­'' She could only think as rage ignited within her, as memories of her childhood resurfaced, with the death of her mother being the most prominent. The memory of her wings being torn out one after another, before she was killed in a slow, torturous manner were imprinted in her mind. Not a single day went by when Jennifer didn''t think of her mother or her gruesome death which led to a volcano of wrath and fury bubbling inside her wanting to unleash on those that had caused her mother to suffer, burning them down. She was deep in thoughts, and it was only when she heard Jason''s next words that Jennifer regained her senses. "I see them!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 679 - Assassination Begins! Through his Emperor Eyes, Jason could see the energy fluctuations of more than 300 assassins which caused him to tap on Jennifer''s shoulder. She had been deep in thoughts, and only through Jason''s tap did she regain her senses. With her attention back on the current situation, she was able to fully focus on everything that was happening around her once again. As such, she could sense the energy fluctuations of the presumed assassins only a few moments later as they released their concealment. Jason was able to see everything much earlier than she could perceive it, thus they were fully prepared even before the Assassins would storm inside the Manor. However, that was not exactly what happened as Jason suddenly shouted out. "Fuck!" At that moment, the two assassins at the Specta stage released their energy before utilising their respective affinity to conjure hundreds of huge light and darkness spears. It took them only a few seconds to prepare themselves and once everything was completed, they were just about to attack, when a huge stream of energy was unleashed from the inside of the Manor. Luna had noticed what the Specta stage assassins were about to do, and she launched a counterattack immediately. She activated the building''s defensive mechanism, erecting a huge shield that was strong enough to deflect the spears that were thrown towards the Manor. The shield had barely been constructed as the attacks were launched, which caused Jason to sigh in relief. A moment later, the City Lord left the Manor, using both of her affinities to initiate a large-scale attack on the weaker assassins. This was something the perpetrators had already expected which made both the Aeus and Devir powerhouses act even before Luna was able to eliminate the threat of the 300 assassins. While the Devir powerhouse attacked Luna, pressuring her, the Aeus powerhouse protected the remaining Assassins from Luna''s attacks that went astray. Due to this, the City Lord realised that it was not possible for her to protect Jennifer and the rest from the other assassins. As such, the least she could do was to force the other two powerhouses away from the manor, preventing them from oppressing or possibly even killing the others inside the building. This was extremely important because even a single attack that went astray could decimate anyone inside the Manor, killing the defenseless victim on the spot. In a single glance, the City Lord had been able to determine the strength of her opponents which made her believe that the other side had planned to take her away from the Manor, since the beginning. Separating her from her stronghold appeared to be the assassin''s strategy. Additionally, it also looked like the assassins had been assigned specific opponents, with roughly the same cultivation base of those they would have to attack. The City Lord had predicted this already and a small part of her was relieved to think that her subordinates were not in a dire need of her help, they could fight opponents of roughly the same strength. Hence, she decided to take her fight away from the Manor, thinking that her decision was the best to secure everyone inside the Manor. Being forced to fight against more than 10 opponents at once was already a hassle, but knowing that their presumed strength was at par with the others made her feel better than thinking that the assassins would certainly kill everyone owing to their high strength. As such, the biggest external threat would be her attacks going astray because of the other two Specta stage powerhouses. With that in mind, the three beings at the Specta stage left the manor, giving the assassins, Jason, Jennifer, and the rest a free reign to start a carnage. The only issue the City Lord had was Jason, and the amount of recently advanced Prismar stage beings, which made her throw a single glance at him before leaving. ''I hope I don''t think too highly of him¡­.otherwise, I will have to listen to some complaints if something were to happen to Jason...What a nuisance¡­'' In the short time that had passed in which the City Lord and the other two Specta stage powerhouses had attacked their respective targeted opponents, Jason had already investigated the exact strength of all the infiltrators. With them making no efforts to conceal their power, it was much easier for him to evaluate their exact cultivation base, special traits, and other unique features properly. There were only a few things he was unable to see, but those couldn''t be considered as indicators of his opponents'' strength. As such, everything in his sight could be used properly, giving him the chance to simultaneously report everything to Jennifer. While Jason had been evaluating the opponents'' strength, Jennifer had listened to his words, before reporting every extraordinary trait of specific individuals to the others. In the end, Jason''s evaluation that happened in an extremely short amount of time could be properly utilized in order to give everyone a rough understanding of the situation. During the short period in which Jason completed his evaluation, the assassins that included only Aeus and Devirs, without a single Manyr in sight, had attacked the shield. Weakened by the onslaught of attacks by the Specta stage assassins, the shield''s energy was quickly depleted. Cracks began to appear in it and the shield fell apart the moment Jason finished his evaluation. During the following seconds, Jennifer had also completed relaying everything Jason had figured out to the others, barely giving her enough time to focus on the few hundred assassins. Finally being able to storm through the Manor, their battle intent was perceivable even though the building''s thick walls. They released their respective energy currents and rushed through the Manor without fearing the presence of any possible traps. At that moment, the manor''s first trap was about to go off, only for the frontmost Aeus and Devirs to activate some devices. When Shane saw this, he raised his right eyebrow, only to turn towards Jennifer as he remarked, "They can block the usage of runes using some devices!" His voice was tinged with a little worry. However, that was mostly because he was concerned about the safety of the others. Jason was confident in his own abilities, and even after he had clearly seen the number of newly advanced Prismar stage beings, he didn''t show any signs of being concerned about himself. That was simply because he didn''t feel the same as Jennifer when she heard him. "Wait...so that means we cannot even use one-time protection equipment or attack items?" She immediately asked, fully understanding Jason''s concern. Jennifer assumed that he was concerned about his safety, but even if that was not the case, her worry for the safety of the others caused her to turn in the direction of her opponents. "I will go! The others don''t know that their protective equipment is not working!!" Jason found this reasonable to a certain extent, but instead of allowing her to leave recklessly, he suggested an alternate way. "The Assassins are already about to enter the second floor. Send a voice transmission and defeat your opponents before doing anything else!" Halting in her tracks, she realised that her worry almost made her act recklessly. Following Jason''s advice, Jennifer quickly informed everyone about what Jason had just reported to her, only to instinctively jump backward the moment she felt something. It was at that moment, that the reinforced wooden door was dislodged out of its frame and blown to pieces as several pairs of eyes stared at both Jason and Jennifer. Seeing this, they immediately knew that their worry about the others had to be moved to the back of their priority list because their own survival was the most important! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 680 - Horror Jennifer''s room was large, but it was not enough to accommodate tens of people that were supposed to fight against each other. It was exactly because of this reason that they had decided to fight inside the highly reinforced rooms. Before the walls would break down, and finally crumble under the intense force of the released attacks, some time would have to pass. In that duration, Luna wanted everyone to kill, or at least, severely injure as many assassins as possible. With only a small door to allow the assassins through, the groups that had been formed earlier could work together to defeat their opponents. While this scenario appeared to be good on paper, but practically, it didn''t work in Jason and Jennifer''s case. Jennifer was much stronger than Jason, and so were her opponents. Now, it was too late to form a new plan so they could only brace themselves as the assassins rushed through the door. In the end, the first ones to arrive inside through the door frame were at the Ascendion stage, evidently Jennifer''s opponents. Because of their high cultivation base, Jason was unable to help Jennifer. Fortunately, that was not required because Jennifer had the unique advantage to strike with extremely compressed attacks using her mana, and enhanced mind to create complex affinity attacks. Initially, she had wanted to hold back, but after Jason had told her that they had a device preventing the usage of items with runes, she changed her tactic. Owing to this information, Jennifer immediately released her three cultivation energies, with which she was able to increase her basic strength to a higher state than the opponent in front of her. Adding to that, she merged the three energies together, before using her affinity to conjure an attack with a terrifying degree of lethality. The door frame was blasted apart, as an unstable, gigantic spike of light was shot towards the oblivious assassin. With no room to move backward because the other assassins were pushing him forward, the foremost assassin had no choice but to release his entire energy, and deflect the attack with all his might. Despite that, his efforts were futile as the merged energies pierced through the Devir''s defenses, while the light spike penetrated right through his body, obliterating him completely. Witnessing everything with a shocked expression, Jason couldn''t help but feel dumbfounded. He had never seen Jennifer use an attack like that, and looking at the wooden floor that was torn open without having been touched, he felt as if he had grossly underestimated Jennifer''s strength. ''She was still holding back...or is she still?'' He asked himself before staring straight at the door frame that had been replaced with a large, gaping hole. Now, two assassins were able to fit through the opening at the same time, but that didn''t make much of a difference to Jennifer, who was not even panting. It was as if the attack she had just thrown at her opponents was nothing but child''s play. Not knowing whether he should laugh or cry, Jason could see the horror in the eyes of the other assassins as he saw them cowering behind the wall. They were waiting for a better opportunity to attack, but even after several moments had passed, nobody moved, ignoring the fact that there had already been multiple opportunities. While the newly advanced Prismar stage beings had arrived behind the Ascendion stage assassins, they were already showing signs of reluctance to continue attacking. Seeing this through his Emperor Eyes, Jason felt certain that they were not professional assassins. Had they been true to their profession, death, or a powerful opponent, wouldn''t deter them. Jason found this interesting, but it was not enough to make him waste time. Instead, he did something else that could hopefully lessen their trouble as he used voice transmission to communicate with Jennifer. [The strongest assassin is four meters to the left of the door frame, and the biggest crowd of assassins has gathered around seven meters from the right side of the door frame!] Despite being in a hurry, Jennifer listened to what Jason said before using the intel to initiate two more attacks. Like before, she conjured a total of four attacks that were similar to the first one. Throwing two on each side keeping in mind the distance conveyed by Jason, the first attack broke through the room''s walls, before the second attack pierced through the crumbling wall, hitting the targeted assassins. When the other assassins saw how their comrades were being killed through the walls, they instinctively realised that there was no time to waste. Otherwise, they might become Jennifer''s next target. Even if they didn''t know how she was able to decipher where the strongest of their group had been, it was clear that they had to act, the faster the better. Thus, after the first one rushed through the doors, the others followed suit, barging through the wide opening without any hesitation. After having fired a total of five attacks with the usage of a vast amount of energy, Jennifer was beginning to show the first signs of exhaustion. This was only logical, and Jason expected this to be the case, either way. As such, she was fortunate that there were only a total of seven unscathed beings at the Ascendion stage that were left. Within the biggest crowd of assassins, there had been two assassins at the Ascendion stage. They were now heavily injured, while the strongest among all assassins were already dead, owing to the surprise attack. It had been foolish of the strongest assassin to act so recklessly, but at the same time, nobody would''ve expected the walls that were constructed out of material at the Ascendion rank to crumble as if it was made of sand The walls were supposed to be strong enough to endure the tireless attacks of an Ascendion stage being, for at least a minute, after all! While Jennifer was relatively fortunate with the number of opponents she had to defeat, Jason''s situation looked a little bit different. Owing to the entire wall that was crumbling, he would have to face the vast majority of his opponents at once. The room was large, but that was still not enough to give sufficient space for all assassins that had been ordered to target Jason, to enter the room. There had been far more than 30 newly advanced Prisma stage beings Jason had counted in the beginning, and even after Jennifer had wreaked havoc, the number didn''t seem to decline. Because of that, Jason would have to face tens of opponents that were not only at the Prisma stage but also able to use their surroundings to their advantage. ''Am I really supposed to face a total of 30 opponents at once, in that small room?!'' Before he had already been doubtful if that was feasible, but now he couldn''t help but sigh deeply, not sure whether Jennifer''s attack had eased his situation, or not. She had been able to defeat many annoying opponents with a seemingly simple surprise attack, but the crumbling wall annoyed him. However, Jason couldn''t help but think that the small room might not be a nuisance, but actually turn out to be helpful. He only thought like this because there were several things he had to pay attention to. Initially, he had wanted to fight using Byakur and Petri''s fusion, giving him an enhancement that elevated his innate strength to be at par with the assassins in front of him. Yet, after thinking about it for a moment, he realised that physical strength was not the only thing he had. Solaris'' fire was much stronger than most would expect when seeing him, a being at the Mid- Lique stage. As such, with a faint smile on his lips, Jason stepped forward as he let Solaris enter his mana core. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 681 - Influence Solaris was still unable to fuse with him as Artemis and Petri, and if Jason were, to be honest, he was unsure why. Petri''s soul connection was not as firm as Solaris'' after all! Nevertheless, the strong soul conjunction of Solaris gave him several advantageous effects even without fusing together. With an extremely low mana consumption, and the ability to control its flames however he wanted, Solaris was able to turn Jason into a glass cannon-like being, with strong attacks, yet weak endurance. There was just one important factor that made him different from a normal glass cannon while allowing Solaris to occupy his mana core- he was not restricted physically. His physique was still strong enough to be at par with Prisma stage beings as long as he used other amplifying factors, which meant that Jason was, in fact, able to deal significant damage to others while having high defensive capabilities! Given the long-range attack of Solaris'' black flames that were on the Prisma rank and their unique property to burn through cultivation energies if wanted, the origin flame was extremely powerful and was perfectly suited for the current situation. Facing massive numbers of opponents while being in a confined space brought back painful memories of the Yasl?rn cave incident, in which Scorpio died. Through this, frustration, sadness, and anger which Jason had thought to have been long since released, resurfaced. This was a perfectly natural behavior, but according to what he knew, acting as he was currently doing was not what he was ought to do as a Celestia. It would just increase the possibility of him becoming an Infernal Celestia, which was why the Celestia race had most likely evolved towards a direction in which they were unable to accumulate and maintain their hatred. At least, Jason assumed it to be like that or similar, because he couldn''t know the exact answer solely based on the intel he had acquired until now. Nevertheless, given that he was both a human and a Celestia, Jason had to find a way to make both sides cooperate instead of letting them influence each other negatively. The latter would be the worst, and it was something he had to prevent by all means. As such, he had to release his emotions without giving them too much time to accumulate within him. With that in mind, Jason''s Stigma and his Aura flared up, as black flames erupted from his entire body. Taking a single glance at Jennifer, who already knew about all important properties Solaris had, he saw her manifest a thin membrane of her merged energies, enveloping her body with it. Through this, Jason understood that Jennifer realised what he was about to do, which was not exactly difficult to achieve. This helped a lot, and with a thick layer of Solaris'' fire enveloping him tightly, Jason took another step forward as Byakur manifested in his hand, vibrating, seemingly in joy. After enveloping it with Solaris'' flames, in addition to using a large amount of mana which he inserted into it, the majority of runes began to shine brightly, piercing through the black layer of flames. The moment Jason summoned Byakur while activating its runes, the assassins instinctively halted in their tracks. They could already perceive the threat emanating from the black flames, but that was already something they had expected. However, what they didn''t expect to occur was that their rune disrupting device had been rendered useless. In a last-ditch effort, they tried to utilise the runes on their own weapons but noticed that it was still not working. Thus, they couldn''t help but look at the weapon in Jason''s hand, visibly shocked as one of the assassins blurted out. "Impossible!" When Jason saw their reaction, he couldn''t hide his smile anymore, and it was only because of the black flames that enveloped his entire body like a tight armor that nobody was able to see him. Before, he had been unsure whether everything would work according to his plan or not, but his worries had disappeared in thin air. Byakur was his soul weapon, thus the engraved runes were different from normal ones, changed by the influence of his soul imprints. It might have been forged on Argos, by someone, whose blacksmithing knowledge couldn''t even remotely be compared to that of Pera or anyone else. Nevertheless, Byakur was something unique, bound to his soul and extremely strong despite all the concerning factors that should have worried him a lot. Probably owing to his soul, and the massive changes the runes on Byakur had undergone as it had been forged, they had become different compared to normal runes. Jason was not sure what exactly could have happened, but it didn''t matter right now. What mattered right now was defeating the assassins, as quickly as possible, while being unscathed if feasible, was the most important! As such, he let out his frustration, anger, and sadness, changing the Celestia aura that was directly connected to the range of emotions he released. Through this, the amplifications his aura released were further enhanced, only to overlap with the Stigma''s effects, further reinforcing each other. Owing to that, Jason''s energy circulation increased drastically, while the same applied to his mana replenishing pace that accelerated. Releasing more and more flames, Jason filled the entire room behind him with thousands of fire needles. Each of them had a tiny fraction of Solaris'' essence, which meant that only a single needle had to scratch an assassin before their bodies would be invaded by Solaris! After that, the assassins would be burned from the inside while their life force would be deprived of them. This was another of Solaris'' unique properties which it had acquired during the Great Argos war. It was an exceptional ability, and useful for many things, increasing the variety of attacks Jason could employ by several times. With everything he had been given in the current situation, he could face a huge crowd of opponents as long as the tiny needles were strong enough to pierce through their defenses. However, that was exactly the problem Jason had before, his lack of mana. Yet, with the low mana consumption Solaris required to use its flames, the problem about his lack of mana was not concerning, not even to the slightest. This was even less the case owing to the Celestia aura that had been affected by his emotions, further decreasing the mana consumption he had. As such, he didn''t hesitate a single moment as he erupted in ravaging flames that manifested from his body, filling the entire room in mere seconds. The flames'' searing heat increased the room''s temperature instantly, only to increase further the more mana Jason injected into Solaris. With the increased mana consumption, the other properties Solaris had were also enhanced, further reinforcing the ability to burn energy as well as the defenses of the assassins that were rushing towards him. The closest assassins that had advanced to the Prisma stage were already defenseless causing Jason to smile as he thought. ''Let the show begin!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 682 - Thanks With the entire room enveloped in black flames, the furniture began to burn while the energy membrane of the assassins at the Prismar stage was slowly evaporating. Meanwhile, the fastest Prismar stage assassins had already emerged in front of him owing to their high speed. There were burns on his face, but ignoring this, the Devir, whose wings were melting, lashed out with the long spear he was tightly holding, targeting Jason''s chest. Because the flames Jason released were searing hot with numerous tiny black fire needles behind the young man, the Devir expected Jason''s entire focus to be on his affinity. Thus, he had been confident to finish off Jason, clearly overestimating his own capabilities. Unfortunately, that was not the case for the Devir assassin. Jason''s eyes gleamed lightly before he muttered, "I can still move, idiot!" When Jason said this, he exerted the Floating Sky movement technique at the perfect mastery before leaning forward, while twisting his body to an uncomfortable degree. Simultaneously, he swung Byakur, only to enlarge the blade with the required rune which glowed brightly. After the enlargement, Byakur was long enough to reach the Devir, who hadn''t expected Jason to act that quickly. It hadn''t been a problem for Jason to evade the spear, which was already a great feat while maintaining the majority of his focus on the black flames. However, Jason''s ability to easily initiate a counterattack as he just did, was difficult to accept for the Devir. He was further shocked when Byakur''s razor-sharp blade continued to expand, reaching the Devir''s neck before he had time to react. ''Is he really at the Lique stage?!?'' This was the last thought of the Devir before his head flew through the air, after being severed cleanly from the neck, astonishing the other assassins. Nobody had expected that Jason could kill a Prismar stage being so easy, and this was after they had read the report about the young man with golden eyes. They had even heard about the news of him being able to intimidate the 21st Prince of the Aeus race, Leonardo, but it was exactly because of this reason that so many assassins were targeting Jason. If there hadn''t been the issue with the City Lord, or rather the fact that they had to drag Luna away by all means, much stronger assassins would have been chosen to attack Jason. Nevertheless, it was difficult to accept that Jason, a being at the Mid-Lique stage, was able to easily overwhelm and kill a single Devir, while simultaneously imbuing fear in the minds of every single other assassin. Unfortunately, the continued exertion was beginning to take its toll on his body and mind! Jason had a hard time fighting without restrictions, as well as continuing to maintain both the searing flame''s heat inside the room and the countless black flame needles, which were still floating behind him. It was only due to Solaris that this was possible. As such, he had it much easier than others would have under normal circumstances. However, that didn''t give him more time to react because the situation was already on the verge of ending in chaos as he had been forced to fight close combat in addition to the flames'' maintenance. Because of that, Jason decided that the timing was right, making him release the countless black flame needles. As such, with shocking velocity, they shot towards the other side of the room, closing the distance between the assassins who were already inside the room, or just about to enter it. In the restricted room, it was nearly impossible to evade the black flame needles, and the vast majority of people were affected by his attack. After this, Solaris'' essence entered their body and devoured their life force. Unfortunately, Jason didn''t have any time to witness all of this because Jennifer and the Ascendion stage assassins were already wreaking havoc inside the room, mindlessly destroying everything. At the same time, Jason realised that some of the strong assassins were trying to target him with a seemingly unfocused attack, only for Jennifer to intervene, finishing off everyone, the second their attention was distracted. Owing to that, Jennifer could protect him while simultaneously defeating her opponents. Meanwhile, Solaris'' flames were burning through the body of more than 20 assassins, only for the remaining ones to charge at him, still thinking that their comrades would follow suit. However, this was more difficult than they could assume. As such, with only ten almost unscathed assassins at the Prismar stage left behind, Jason retracted the flames that had occupied the entire room. Instead of letting the flames burn through the energy of everyone, he wanted to enhance himself further which made him envelop his body with a thick layer of highly compressed flames. With this, the flames turned into his armor, which could be released at once. Other than that, these flames could boost him, pushing him ahead several meters in an instant by explosively releasing bursts of flames behind him. Owing to the high amount of mana he had already consumed, Jason couldn''t help but restrict the usage of Solaris to a certain extent. In the end, the mana consumption to materialise the black flames was not a lot. Nevertheless, the quantity he had summed made all the difference to Jason. As such, by restricting the flames, he was able to replenish mana instead of using it up. This was owing to the mana replenishing technique the first sub-area in his mind was making use of. With that in mind, Jason began to actively attack his opponents using Byakur. Having exerted the Floating Sky movement technique, his speed was higher than that of the assassins in front of him, giving him the chance to balance out the disadvantage of fighting multiple opponents at once. However, this advantage didn''t last long as the other assassins began to also use their unique movement technique. Earlier, this hadn''t been possible because the space was not enough for them to move. Unfortunately, with their comrades'' weird state of being seemingly fine on the outside, only to be forced to bear the tremendous pain that swept through their entire body, it was possible to exert the unique movement technique. While observing Jason intently, the remaining assassins realised that Jason''s flame had been the main root cause of all problems. As such, they didn''t hesitate to take a step back the moment the black flame armor that was tightly enveloping his body, began to move. Jason realised this quickly, but without being able to reach his opponents anymore, it was difficult to attack them and not get stabbed in the process. The last ten assassins were fighting with great teamwork while using the fact that the fighting space was little to their advantage. Because of that, Jason wanted to replace Solaris inside his mana core, and allow Petri to occupy it. However, that didn''t seem to be necessary because the little trick he had in mind was working much better than he expected. This was fortunate because Jason couldn''t have been sure if the thing he had wanted to destroy was something his limited strength could even affect let alone damage. Nevertheless, he had Solaris, whose tiny flame had been relentlessly working on burning through a specific device that hung around the dead corpse of the strongest assassin which attacked them! "You guys should really have paid more attention to your equipment! Why leave the only rune-disrupting device by someone who died?" He simply questioned before a blazing red desert eagle manifested in his hand. "It looks like I have no choice...now, please die for me!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 683 - Technology It had been a long time since he''d used Degar, but holding the blazing red desert eagle in his hand, Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly. Because cultivating allowed people to increase their lifespan, bend nature''s law, and survive something normal beings would never be able to, technology advanced mostly in one direction- comfort. As such, it was a rare sight for the Aeus and Devirs to see the desert eagle Jason was holding. There were societies or even entire planets that were fully focused on advancing their technology, but in most cases, World bridges or other means were much more convenient for such things. Thus, Jason hadn''t even heard anything about spaceships so far. He found this to be a little bit sad because on Argos everyone wanted to advance in technology, and had been trying to enter space, only to make no headway. Meanwhile, the beings that were able to do so didn''t even care about it. It was evident that most guns were of little use in the face of cultivators at a much higher stage, but that didn''t mean they were entirely useless. At least, not if one had a weapon that was able to kill beings at the Prisma stage, as Jason had. However, this was only possible with enough supply of mana, and a flame that was as strong as or even more powerful than Solaris. To put it simply, it was difficult to find something like that for a being that was at a lower stage than the one he had reached. There might be some exceptions to this case, but the chances were slim. Due to this, Jason also believed that most guns were rather useless in the face of stronger beings. He himself would rather use a bow, arrows, or his affinity to fight long-range than using the desert eagle. It was also much more exciting to only fight using one''s own capabilities without making use of guns or other similar means to kill others. In the end, there were only a few exceptions, in which Jason would use a gun. One of them had been the Great Argos war, where he had been forced to resort to means that would kill a large number of opponents as quickly as possible. At the same time, Solaris'' flame could burn through his opponent, turning even seemingly useless weapons into something extraordinary as long as it was used with Solaris. Lifting the hand holding Degar, Jason saw a small flame ignite at the tip of the barrel after which he filled the blazing bullets that were loaded into Degar''s magazine. Until then, the assassins didn''t expect the desert eagle to cause any real damage because the amount of mana that was inserted into the gun was not much. Little did they know that it wasn''t the blazing bullets, but mostly Solaris'' flames that needed mana! Compressing the flames within the bullet, they were becoming stronger by the second. Unable to suppress his smile, Jason stared at the closest assassin, who stared back at him in confusion. He was not sure why Jason had retracted his Celestia aura out of a sudden, while the black flame armor that was enveloping his body was slowly consumed as it entered the desert eagle through the gun''s grip. Nevertheless, Jason''s combat prowess had decreased rapidly, and it was only his smile that would have caused the others to hesitate. Sighing visibly, he held it before pulling the trigger. A moment later, a thunderous *bang* resounded through the entire room as a pitch-black bullet soared through it with a terrifying velocity that was much faster than any newly advanced Prismar stage being could reach. Thus, a fraction of a second later, the bullet pierced into the assassin''s leather armor only to penetrate it without much resistance as it burned through the Devir''s skin and flesh. Screaming in pain, the Devir was flung away due to the impact, only to start burning much faster than the speed in which other assassins were being deprived of their energy. Minutes into the fight, more than 20 assassins were already burning and about to succumb to their injuries. Having no means to extinguish the flames within them, they were unable to do anything due to the low cultivation base they had reached. This was exactly the reason why Jason was not bothered by them. Instead, he was more focused on the unscathed assassins whose entire combat prowess was relatively unused. Nevertheless, the other assassins were also able to use the runes on their weapons in the absence of the rune disrupting device. Unfortunately, this was something they noticed too late because Jason emptied his magazine within a single second. During the Great Argos war this would have been unthinkable, however, now his physique was able to handle the Degar''s impact without much trouble. It was still somewhat strong, but that was only obvious because the weapon had been constructed using the best materials one could find on Argos. This meant that Degar was made of Prismar ranked materials, which might that it was not the best if he were to compare it with Manyrs'' resources. As such, it was completely different in comparison to Argos, where Prismar stage beings had been the strongest, while Degar was strong enough to kill every being as long as one had enough mana. Nevertheless, Degar was still more than enough to kill everyone at the Low Prisma stage. That was, if he had enough time to refill the gun''s magazine with bullets, mana, and Solaris'' blazing hot fire. With seven bullets hitting and severely injuring seven assassins, there were only a handful of the assassins left who had just entered the room, eying him with a glint of multiple mixed emotions in their eyes. As such, Jason couldn''t help but smile as he flared up with his Celestia aura once again, before replacing Degar''s magazine with another one that was filled with armor-piercing bullets. A moment later, he was exerting the Floating Sky movement technique, before appearing next to the closest opponent. With Degar''s barrel pointed at the oblivious Aeus'' head, Jason didn''t hesitate to pull the trigger. The young Aeus'' head exploded and the insides of his brain scattered through the air, only for Jason to move ahead as if nothing had happened. Right now he couldn''t show any mercy, or afford to slow down. Jennifer was fighting with her life on the line to protect him, thus, wasting more time meant that he would endanger her. This was something he wanted to prevent by all means. With that in mind, he summoned Solaris into his hand, before telling it to accelerate the devouring process of its essence flames. After giving the command, Jason saw that the already tormented assassins were screaming in pain once again. Seeing this, Jason''s eyes remained cold as he finished off the last few opponents without further delay. They were staring at him in fear and were paralysed with fear as Jason had already targeted them with his curses and the abyssal effect. His mana was almost fully consumed because of this, but that didn''t matter anymore. The armor-piercing bullets had been fully empowered and using the remaining six bullets, he put the last few opponents to death. Though it appeared to be an easy victory for him, Jason''s mind felt as if it had been mashed, and thrown into a mixer afterward. Multitasking had never been his forte and only after his brain had been refined multiple times owing to Solaris'' baptisms, the bloodline awakening, and the refinements his brain had to undergo when he split his mind to create the sub-areas that he had reached his current state. Fortunately, he wouldn''t have too many problems when Spyro, the Spiral Spirit, would finally hatch, enhancing his mind and brain, instead of his physique or mana core. Jason was already awaiting this day with high expectations, but for now, he could only turn around to see that Jennifer was finally able to focus on fighting against the last few assassins that were still standing. ''How long will it take before I overwhelm her?'' He suddenly wondered, seeing how powerful she truly was, causing him to shake his head. ''I am too greedy...forget it!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 684 - Seeking Truth Jason was still astonished that none of the assassins had realised the threat of his desert eagle because it was a relatively simple weapon. The bullets weren''t special either, and it was only his flame that made everything a little bit more complex, and lethal for others. As such, the assassins grew wary of the Degar the moment a black flame manifested on the tip of the barrel. Nevertheless, Jason was quite happy about the change of expressions on the assassins faces, the more they were apprehensive, the less effort he would have to put in. Thus, he used Byakur to finish off the remaining, heavily injured assassins that were still burning from the inside out. Despite them attacking the manor and making the first move, Jason felt that something was off about the assassins. If he didn''t perceive it wrongly, they seemed too reluctant to attack him. That was not the case with everyone, but some of them had conflicted expressions as if they were doing something against their will. Owing to this, he was not even sure whether the attack on the manor was as simple as he assumed before. ''The expression of the auction house''s higher-ups was...weird, but that didn''t necessarily mean that he, or someone from the auction house, was involved in the attack on the manor¡­ But, it''s still possible!'' Sighing deeply, Jason had almost forgotten that he was dead tired which caused him to almost slump to the ground. Fortunately, he didn''t. Instead, Jason focused on allowing Solaris to absorb the essence from the inside of the dead assassins. After that, he collected their spatial rings in order to earn a small fortune, while simultaneously trying to find out the origin of the assassins. With a total of more than 30 spatial rings gathered, Jason had one of his eyes trained on Jennifer, who was almost done with her battle too. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn''t be so calm because other women under the City Lord were unable to use the equipment that allowed them to strike others with lethal attacks, or protect themselves. As such, many problems were bound to occur in the other rooms of the Manor owing to the rune disrupting device. Unfortunately, Jason was not strong enough to help because he knew that all the newly advanced Prismar stage assassins were focused on him. Thus, there was not even a single assassin he could defeat anymore. With that in mind, Jason focused on finding more about the attack, instead of doing something that would cost him his life. Furthermore, even if he were to rush to the others'' aid, Jason was either bound to reach too late or even distract other women whom he wanted to help. Jennifer was much better at helping others because she was strong enough to do so! Jason was not sure how high her combat prowess was, but even the Initial rank Ascendion stage assassins were not strong enough to face her alone! The strongest assassin which Jennifer had assassinated by shooting through the wall, had even been at the Low rank of the Ascendion stage! After Solaris'' had absorbed its essence, and Jason had collected most of the spatial rings, he glanced in Jennifer''s direction before searching through the spatial rings for a moment. Though the spatial rings weren''t filled to the brim, a fact Jason had expected already, what confused him were the things he found inside. ''Each spatial ring has the exact same size, two manuals, the exact same amount of cultivation stones, a photo of their target...that''s it?'' The Ascendion stage assassins'' spatial rings Jason had collected looked similar, just that the rewards were much higher, along with a picture of Jennifer''s disguised form in it. However, Jason found this extremely confusing. ''Did they hire all of these people? But...that makes no sense in accordance with the emotions which I sensed and even saw through the Emperor Eyes'' emotion hues¡­'' It was weird, and Jason couldn''t help but feel suspicious about everything. Unfortunately, before he was able to proceed questioning about the attack, Jennifer rushed past him, while saying, "I''m done, you take care of the rest!" With that, she disappeared through the door, rushing towards the closest ally that required her help. In the end, not many were able to defeat opponents with a higher cultivation base, let alone a higher stage. Jason and Jennifer were exceptions to this, which was, however, not the case with the others. Fortunately, they didn''t have to fight opponents at a higher cultivation stage, as they had already advanced to the Ascendion stage. Thus, they were able to fight with a few opponents head-on. Despite all of that, the biggest disadvantage was the fact that nobody could use equipment with runes. As such, the enemy''s numerical advantage couldn''t be balanced out with better equipment. In the end, even the City Lord didn''t expect the perpetrators to possess more than a dozen rune disrupting devices. They were extremely expensive, difficult to produce and procure, and normally only renowned powerhouses could purchase them. Jason had also learned some things about unique items when he was in the auxiliary tower''s library. Because of that, he was able to roughly understand that everything was slightly more difficult than he''d initially assumed. ''Did the royalty really initiate a strike against the Tritans and us because we are supporting them? But...does that even make sense given the recent commotion at the borders of the Julandra region¡­ Aren''t there enough problems already...why suddenly attack? And what was wrong with these Aeus and Devirs that attacked us? Their expression and attitude were not that of assassins, or at least, they weren''t eager to kill me and Jennifer¡­'' Scratching the back of his head, Jason was so lost in thoughts that he didn''t even realise that the entire room and hallway had been completely destroyed. In fact, the entire building was about to collapse, and Jason was still simply staring at the Aeus and Devirs corpses. They didn''t look like assassins, had flawless skin without scars or marks on their body to prove that they were used to fighting, let alone display the mercilessness of a true assassin during their fight. Jason found that he himself was a much better assassin if they were truly what he thought they had been. At that moment, he realised something, which caused his eyes to widen, only for him to shake his head. Yet, a moment later, Jason halted in his tracks as he mumbled, "Why would the Aeus and Devirs hire members of their own race to attack someone else. If it were the royalty, they could simply order them and pay later¡­ It couldn''t have been the Manyrs'' doing, right? Or is that also a devious plan of the royalty belonging to both races in order to divert our attention from them to the Manyrs. But...in that case, it wouldn''t make sense to send some half-cooked fighters that were afraid to fight me¡­'' Jason was still confused, and not exactly sure what was going on. Unfortunately, he was unable to be inside the Manor for long to study the corpses because it was crumbling. Its main foundation had suddenly been damaged because a tremendous amount of energy had been released. Averting his gaze to the direction in which the energy originated, Jason couldn''t help but bite his lower lip. He was able to see several things through his Emperor Eyes, and they were not something he was glad to see, not one bit! Jennifer had released the tremendous energy that shook the entire manor and consequently damaged its foundation. She was under the influence of wrath and agony, the purest bloodlust he had ever seen through his eyes. Meanwhile, two women that belonged to the City Lord, were lying on the ground devoid of even a single energy fluctuation. They were dead, killed by the assassins because they had been too weak and unable to defend themselves properly, and Jennifer had just found them. This caused the rational part of her mind to be momentarily switched off as she let go of all the emotions she was currently feeling. Seeing Jennifer in pain made Jason feel a profound sadness he hadn''t sensed in a long time. It was different compared to his masters'' death, and he was not close to the two women who had died, but it was still sad because everyone inside the City Lord''s abode had been nice to him. ''Just...what is happening?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 685 - At What Costs Quickly escaping the Manor that was collapsing, Jason rushed past the room Jennifer was still inside. Jennifer was still releasing the tremendous pressure and energy currents that were filled with her wrath, frustration and agony, and Jason couldn''t help but feel odd and helpless. He wanted to stop and help her, but there was nothing he could do right now. As such, Jason decided that it would be better to pay more attention to his own safety as he rushed outside the manor. Taking a deep breath, he turned around to scan the manor and assess the entire situation with his Emperor Eyes. The attack of the assassins, or whatever they truly were, had just begun a few minutes before. As such, many were still fighting, ignoring the collapsing house. Instead of leaving, they were trying to make use of the sudden change to surprise attack each other. This worked only partially, and in most of the cases, in favor of the assassins. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t help but feel astonished that they had lost only two of the City Lord''s people yet. That was an impressive feat, even if it was sad for the two that succumbed to their grave injuries. Jennifer was still filled with the ravaging emotions that were dominating her. As such, Jason didn''t think that anyone close to her would die, not anymore. At least, that was what he comprehended by looking at the situation in front of him. There were more than a hundred assassins left, fighting more than ten of the City Lord''s closest subordinates, before Jennifer jumped in the melee, intervening in their fight. Using the three cultivation energies that were intertwined with her emotions and both of her affinities at the same time, she was able to reach an extremely strong combat prowess. Jason was already aware of the same, but from the looks of it, Jennifer was not using anything additional to increase her strength further! Her speed rivaled that of a lightning bolt after she had stored the bodies of the two deceased friends, reaching the next opponents in no time. While he and Jennifer had it quite easy to defeat their opponents, this was not the case for the others. For most of them, it was already a challenge to evade their attacks and stall for more time, let alone defeat a single assassin they were facing. Their combat prowess was not high enough to overcome several ranks of their own cultivation base. This was perfectly normal, and anomalies like Jason and Jennifer were simply too rare to come across. Furthermore, the foundation of their high strength was based on a combination of their genetics, soul awakening, and the influence exerted by the races they originated from. Jason was not sure how much time had passed as multiple things happened at the same time. First, he saw that Jennifer finished off the remaining opponents with terrific speed, shocking the others who also belonged to the City Lord. Most of them struggled to fight, were already severely injured, and were unable to continue fighting against the opponents that were mostly at the Ascendion stage. Meanwhile, the City Lord, who seemed to have sustained several injuries that looked severe and life-threatening returned to the manor which she quickly inspected. At that moment, Luna already noticed that something was off, and the moment she flew above Jason, not noticing that he was below her, she received a voice transmission. [They used rune disrupting devices!] According to the emotion hue around her, Luna seemed to be confused and worried. Because of that, he thought that it was best to tell her the most important fact instead of launching a tirade so he mentioned the rune disrupting devices. They were the culprits of everything, and when the City Lord looked down at Jason, there was no hesitation in her eyes as she rushed towards the ruins of the Manor. There were only a few opponents left, but the moment Luna appeared above the Manor, they were killed by her without much effort. In the end, there was no other Specta stage powerhouse that could defend the weaker ranked assassins anymore. The City Lord defeated them, launching a suicidal attack on the unfortunate ones who were still alive as she had a premonition about what must have happened inside the Manor. Nevertheless, she had been forced to leave with the other two powerhouses before, otherwise, the situation might have escalated in an even worse way. Despite that, the City Lord only now understood Jennifer''s state. Not knowing what happened, it took her a few moments before realisation struck her like a bolt of lightning. "Where are Hina and Nua??" Her voice echoed through the manor, awakening those that were on the brink of collapsing, as they instinctively released their energy currents to inspect the surroundings. Unfortunately, they didn''t find the two missing people but came across Jennifer''s released energy that transformed further. The fight was already over and everyone was exhausted, yet, Jennifer was still enraged and filled with agony. As such, she could barely control herself before she left the Manor''s ruins to lay the two corpses onto the verdant grass. When everyone saw or sensed the two corpses, a deadly silence permeated the surroundings, and even Jason couldn''t help but hold his breath in anticipation, feeling the tension around him. Time seemed to have stopped and nobody moved a muscle before the City Lord slowly flew towards the two corpses. Bending down, she reached for their faces before closing their eyes. "May your next life be a glorious one!" Luna murmured in a choked voice as a single tear trickled down her cheeks. Afterward, she lifted her body, diverting her attention from the two corpses to Jennifer, embracing her in a tight hug, ignoring the ravaging energies. The moment the City Lord hugged her tightly, Jennifer screamed loudly, letting go of the pent-up frustration and sorrow. This helped her release the pressure and energies that dispersed into thin air. They had emerged victorious, but at what costs? Jason knew that the death of only two people was nothing, given the tricky situation they had been in. Nevertheless, every loss was a tragic one, and Jason could clearly understand how the others must be feeling. One after the other, the survivors found their way out of the collapsed Manor before tears began to stream down their cheeks, the moment they saw the corpses of their close friends. Ignoring their severe injuries, they rushed towards their friend''s bodies in disbelief not wanting to accept that they had truly died. Meanwhile, Jason looked at everything from further away, feeling conflicted emotions surging within him. It was still unknown who had attacked them, and even if they knew, there was no way that they could simply counterattack the perpetrators. Nevertheless, Jason felt that knowing your opponent was the bare minimum of information you should have in order to be prepared for another attack. The fact that the assassins had been using the rune disruptive devices in such a huge quantity indicated that they had received them from the person who hired them. At the same time, Jason was not sure why they had even been hired because some of the assassins had still been reluctant to fight him. Due to this, he was not sure if the perpetrator truly belonged to the royalty of the Aeus and Devir race, because there might have been other forces that tried to disrupt the future actions of the Tritans'' organisations. However, this was just an assumption and nothing else, which caused Jason to sigh deeply, as he waited to see what was about to happen now. ''We won''t initiate a counterattack, right?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 686 - Commotion It took several hours before everyone had regained some of their calm. The entire situation was still not fixed, given the tears that were still streaming down most of the women''s faces, but the City Lord had ordered everyone to gather. Apparently, there was something she wanted to announce, which caused Jason to follow them slowly. Meanwhile, the two corpses had already been transferred to coffins and they would be buried soon. Standing in front of the City Lord, Jason simply looked at her waiting for her to say something which didn''t take long to happen. "I know most of you, including myself, are still in pain because of today''s loss. Hina and Nua were good women, and I was, and still am proud to have accepted them into my rows. Nevertheless, I''m glad that everyone else survived, even if the injuries almost everyone had sustained are severe, and need time to be healed. Many of you may question who attacked us, and I cannot answer this for sure. The Specta stage powerhouses were unknown to me, and the content of their spatial rings was nothing special. However, given the high cost of rune disruptive devices, we can safely say that someone with high authority purchased them! Given the fact that the Aeus and Devir race entered a truce, only for both of them to attack the Tritans'' cadet camps and the manor with combined forces, it looks like their royalty is behind everything. However, that is not something I can be certain about for now! Even if it''s hard for all of you, please tend to your wounds and focus on recuperating for the next few days. Getting adequate rest will be the most important for all of you because we never know what may happen in the future!" With a grim expression, she stated everything that was on her mind, only to sigh in the end. After she was done speaking, Jason opened his mouth to say something only to close it again thinking that it could wait. Luna noticed this which caused her to look straight at him. It was only then that she truly realised that he was completely unscathed, which was majorly the case because Jason had already changed into a fresh set of clothes, discarding the burned and soiled ones. "What is it, Jason? Just speak what''s on your mind." The City Lord was not even thinking about being harsh to Jason, just because he was a male. Her injuries were aching hellishly, and she was just dead-tired, feeling like she could fall asleep right on the spot she was standing at the moment. "If the Aeus and Devirs really attacked us, why were a few assassins reluctant to fight against us? It might have only been in my fight, but despite everybody receiving a uniform payment stored inside their spatial ring, indicating them to be assassins or mercenaries, they didn''t seem to be either of that. It might be wrong to say this right now because everyone is exhausted and injured, but I just wanted to ask, is there any chance that the Manyrs might be behind this? There might be a human, who can produce the rune disruptive devices, and even if there is not, a black market should still have such devices! I don''t want to ignore the possibility that the royalty of the Aeus and Devir race could have attacked us, but I think it''s weird that there was not even a single human amongst the few hundred assassins!" Initially, Jason would have waited a few more days before revealing his assumption because by then everyone would have calmed down. However, now that he had already revealed it, Jason noticed that he was eyed by almost everyone suspiciously. Several seconds of silence passed before the City Lord shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that could be the case, but let''s not jump to half-baked conclusions. It might be the Manyrs that are trying to start a war between the Tritans, Aeus and Devirs, but everything could also be an elaborate scheming of the Devir and Aeus'' royalty, who knows?" Jason just nodded his head, knowing that the City Lord''s words were certainly true. Afterward, without wasting any more time, Luna said. "For now, let''s focus on recuperating!" With that being said, the City Lord took out her messenger card before she called someone. Only half an hour later, everyone who had been working in the Manor returned to the collapsed ruins. Several days before the assassination occurred, most of the people had been sent away in order to prevent the deaths of those who weren''t even targeted by the perpetrators. As such, when they returned, they were shocked to find corpses littering the ground, in addition to the magnificent Manor that was now reduced to ruins. However, the most shocking thing for them was the fact that the City Lord had sustained multiple severe injuries. This terrified the workers, who couldn''t remotely comprehend what had happened when they had been away. Not much after the workers had arrived, a team of construction workers that didn''t belong to the City Lord, arrived as well. Seeing the corpses, they were terrified, but soon after they had been told to focus on reconstructing the Manor. This was easier said than done and would take them several weeks if not months, but time was what they had the most. At least they thought that they had more than enough time, only to realise soon enough that this was not the case. ** Two weeks flew by, and many things had happened after the attack on the Manor. While Jason had cultivated a few hours every single day, the vast majority of his day focused on expelling the dead mana vein out of Spyro. It was taking much longer than Jason expected and became only more difficult because the little Spiral Spirit began to grow at a rapid pace. The small egg had already attained the same size as regular eggs, and Jason was glad to see that its Spiral cultivation veins seemed to be recuperating well too. Happy to see this, Jason almost forgot about the incident that had happened two weeks earlier. Despite that, the others were unable to forget it, and with the news of the City Lord''s manor having been destroyed, and Luna''s severe injuries, rumors about her supposed incompetence had spread through the entire city like a wildfire. Most citizens were not sure if Luna should remain the City Lord because she had failed to protect her own Manor, let alone her subordinates or herself. The critique of the oblivious citizens was harsh, but Luna didn''t mind them. Rather, she focussed on finding the culprit that had caused everything. Whether it was for taking revenge, or simply to know who wanted to create trouble, Jason didn''t know the reason. However, what he knew for sure was that the entire situation inside the Julandra region was escalating because one specific event was about to happen. It was the resurfacing of Kinra Island, the land of the legacies! Jason did not know what kind of Island it was, but according to the information Jennifer shared with him, it had to be extraordinary. The island was said to resurface every few centuries, at an unknown date, and year. However, when it emerged out of the water, it would remain above the surface for a specific period between six months to an entire year. Somehow, Jason felt odd with the provided information, but after intently listening to the benefits one could obtain from entering Kinra Island, he realised why so many things were suddenly occurring in succession. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 687 - Kinra Island There were only rumors about the event, but owing to the fact that the information hailed from beings at the Specta stage, most people around the Julandra region were inclined to think that it was anything but a rumor. However, even the races outside the Julandra region seemed to be excited about the event because the warfares on the adjacent borders were becoming fiercer by the day. Jason hadn''t heard a lot about the races that tried to infiltrate the Julandra region, but there were quite a few. This indicated that the Julandra region had to have something unique like special treasures or areas with extremely high amounts of natural cultivation energies. If Jason were honest, he had yet to read more information about the region he was inside, let alone the adjacent regions. Nevertheless, the information about Kinra island was interesting, and he was eager to find out more about it. As such, Jason wanted to search for information inside the auxiliary tower''s library. The auxiliary tower appeared to be relatively unscathed, a fact which had astonished him, but at the same time, it shouldn''t have been a surprise because the materials it was made of were stronger and sturdier than those used to construct the rest of the Manor. However, before he was even able to enter the auxiliary tower, he had already received a message from Jennifer. Apparently, the City Lord sought him, and with that in mind, Jason decided that he might as well ask Luna about information pertaining to Kinra island. Inside the main hall, which was still under the reconstruction process, he saw Jennifer, the City Lord, and a few beings at the Prismar stage. Jason was familiar with some of them, which allowed him to realise that they were cadets of the Tritans'' hidden training camp. He nodded his head, greeting them before directing his attention to the City Lord, who began to explain why had called upon them. "Today, I asked a few of you to gather because I have both a request and an opportunity to give you all. I want you guys to enter Kinra island after it finally resurfaces! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I can provide you. However, in exchange, I want you to search for a specific item. If you can provide it, the finder will be rewarded very well. Sadly, if nobody manages to procure the item, I would only complain about my misfortune¡­.so what do you all think about my offer?" While the others'' eyes twinkled with excitement and joy, Jason couldn''t help but be confused. Jennifer had provided him with some information about Kinra island, but he was still lacking the most basic things. As such, he couldn''t help but ask, "I don''t want to sound rude, but why do you want us to enter Kinra Island? Wouldn''t others at the Ascendion stage, or you be a better choice to procure that item?" Unaware of the questioning gazes he was thrown, Jason simply looked at the City Lord, without any ill intentions. ''Does he not know about Kinra island?'' The City Lord asked herself, only to recall that Jason didn''t belong to Manyr, let alone the Julandra region. Because of that, she accessed her spatial ring. Taking out a document, she used her mana to make it fly towards Jason as she said, "The file is filled with information about Kinra island. However, to put it into simple terms, there is a barrier, preventing everyone with a cultivation base at or above the Initial rank of the Ascendion stage from entering Kinra island! It should have been constructed in order to prevent those who were not eligible to receive an inheritance from entering it. Furthermore, one has to be younger than half a century, which means that the barrier restricts both high age and cultivation base. Rumors say that the barrier also restricts someone''s talent, but that is something I cannot say for certain. A long time ago, it was said that someone at the peak of the Specta stage wanted to enter Kinra island, but before he was even able to break through the barrier, the island began to move, vanishing in the depths of the ocean! With that being said, it''s not that others are unable to enter it, but the moment the island moves underwater we are unable to pursue it. Maritime beasts are simply too ferocious and there are too many of them with a high cultivation base!" Jason just nodded his head, without saying anything, before he heard the eligibility criteria to enter Kinra island. This made him squint his eyes before he asked, "So...people like Jennifer will be able to enter Kinra Island...in that case, am I not too weak to enter the Land of Inheritances, if we compare my strength to Jennifer''s??" Jason definitely wanted to enter the Island after hearing all the treasures he could find there, even more so after he learned that there was not one but multiple Ancient ruins and Inheritance sites on it. Each of them was said to have been constructed by a being above the Specta stage, which made him curious about them. Nevertheless, he was too weak, if people like Jennifer with combat prowess at the Ascendion stage were able to enter it. Furthermore, the competition would definitely be fierce, which made it more unlikely for him to survive the trip, let alone receive an inheritance. Inheritances would change the entire future of those who obtained them, possibly changing their constitution or other specific traits. Seeing Jason''s visible dismay, the City Lord smiled slyly, knowing what Jason had on his mind as she took out several manuals that released a faint aura. ''Heaven-ranked techniques!'' Jason thought immediately, which caused him to look at Luna in confusion. "Because I am aware of the dangers of Kinra island having once entered it myself, I shall give all of you one Heaven''s ranked technique. According to the provided information, it will take two months for the Island to resurface. Until that time, I want everyone to work hard and increase their strength as much as possible! Afterward, I want my technique back, and you may retrieve it once you return from Kinra Island!" When he heard the City Lord, Jason couldn''t help but feel enlightened, only to realise that she was trying to use the technique to bait them. Even if they started practicing it from today, they would still not be proficient enough in it two months later. Thus, they wouldn''t require it anymore. As such, after coming back from Kinra, they would have to return to the City Lord''s manor, under the premise that they wanted to have the technique returned. Owing to that, it was only obvious that some cadets doubted the City Lord''s decision. "I hope City Lord doesn''t find this question rude...but what kind of item are we even supposed to search, and what can it be used for?" One of the other cadets suddenly asked, looking skeptically at the levitating Heaven''s ranked technique. It was odd for her to award such a valuable technique so easily. As such, the item which the City Lord was looking for, had to be extremely valuable! Luna had already expected such a question, and without thinking too much about the suitable answer she said. "The item I''m looking for is called Divine, or rather an Immortal Eye. In fact, it''s an orb, which you can find in every single Inheritance site, but the number of people who have acquired one of the Immortal Eyes was scarce. As for the reason why I need the Immortal eye, I do not want to tell you. Either accept that or I won''t take you to Kinra island. Without the help of a being at the Specta stage, you won''t be able to come even close to the island!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 688 - Whats Wrong With You Two? Apparently, Kinra Island would always resurface in an extremely dangerous territory filled with many ferocious beasts that even some beings at the Specta stage feared. As such, it was required to have someone strong enough nearby, who could protect them if something were to occur. Jason had already realised it the moment the City Lord had said that she would take them with her. Because it was necessary to be guided to the entrance of the Island by a being at the Specta stage, only a small number of mostly powerful individuals would be able to enter it. Amongst those individuals, the majority were likely to be the Specta stage powerhouses'' disciples, which was what everyone clearly understood. Owing to that, Jason was not sure if it was really logical for him to accept the City Lord''s proposal, even if she were to hand out a Heaven-ranked manual. Meanwhile, the others had heard of the Immortal Eye before, which made them frown as they were unsure of what to say. Within the last millennia, there had only been a few individuals who were able to procure the Immortal Eye, and because of that, the cadets knew that the City Lord was playing with fire. However, this shouldn''t matter for the cadets because if they were able to receive the opportunity to enter an Inheritance site, they may as well try looking out for an Immortal eye. That shouldn''t be much of a problem as they could at least give it a try. As such, they were willing to accept the City Lord''s proposal. The opportunity to enter Kinra island was already great enough for them to ignore such a minor inconvenience, and the fact that they received additional support in form of techniques spoke volumes about Luna''s need for the said item. Yet, the very same reason made Jason feel confused. ''Why does she need the Immortal Eye, right now, right after we have been attacked? What''s even the use of this object?'' Jason doubted that the Immortal Eye had nothing to do with the attack on the manor, but he didn''t say anything. Instead, he waited for the other cadets to agree to the City Lord''s proposal. After that, they were able to choose one of the Heaven-ranked techniques. Picking the right one was not difficult because most of the cadets already had a permanent cultivation technique, which forced them to continue using it. If they wanted to change the cultivation technique, they would have to destroy their entire cultivation, and start from scratch. This was not something they would want to do, not when their cultivation base had allowed them to receive the opportunity to be able to enter Kinra island in the first place After the other cadets were done, they looked at Jason, who was yet to make his decision. However, rather than saying something, he remained silent as he contemplated his options. In the past, he had acted recklessly, and if he were to have the same mindset, Jason would immediately accept the City Lord''s proposal. There was not much for him to lose if he were to increase his strength in the next two months. Yet, that was exactly what caused Jason to halt in his tracks. ''How much can I improve my strength in just two months?'' Jason was confident that his combat prowess would improve a lot, but the difference between owning one prismarine crystal vs. two was already extremely vast. With that in mind, Jason had realised that a single solidified prismarine crystal was roughly equal to owning anywhere between 20,000 to 25,000 liquefied mana drops. This was something Jason could attain without too many difficulties, but twice, or triple that amount was not something he could easily achieve. Doubling his strength in two months was already close to impossible, but reaching the peak Low stage of the Prismar stage''s first threshold with three solidified prismarine crystals was not only impossible without a miracle, but it also wouldn''t help Jason. Everyone would be stronger than him, even if he could make the impossible possible, and there was only one state in which he would be able to defeat someone with a much higher rank. Either, he would have to actively use external means like the Chaos attribute that didn''t belong to him, or he would have to forcefully unseal his bloodline until it would almost tear his body apart! Both the options were extremely bad because he didn''t want to harm his body. As such, he was about to reject the City Lord''s proposal in order to walk the safe path, for the first time in a very long period, before Luna suddenly added something, out of the blue. "Why are you already thinking of rejecting my proposal before even looking at the technique?" This made Jason lift his head, only to look straight into the City Lord''s eyes as two manuals appeared in front of him. They were both Heaven-ranked cultivation manuals! Jason didn''t expect that the others would not choose the cultivation manuals, but after thinking about it again, that made sense to some extent. ''I guess they never hoped to get a Heaven rank technique, and thus chose a permanent Terra-Peak, or even -Superior cultivation technique?'' With his eyes glued on the manuals, he picked one to lightly skim through it. However, not even ten minutes passed before he closed it once again with a frown on his face. Picking the second manual suspended in the air, Jason read it as well, and similar to the first time, he closed it, barely within ten minutes. With a deep sigh, he returned both manuals to the City Lord, only to state, "I''m sorry, but it looks like I have to reject your proposal. With these cultivation techniques, I would be restricted to use only those two on a permanent basis... I want to be able to switch my techniques later! Without a suitable technique, I won''t be able to reach the combat prowess I have to achieve in order to survive on Kinra Island, even if I give my best..." This caused the City Lord to stare at him in disbelief as she blurted out, "Now you are picky too?! What is wrong with you and Jennifer, do you guys think we are at a charity event? How can you two be so weird? As if you would easily find a Lunar ranked cultivation technique!!" Looking at Jennifer, she simply grinned lightly, for the first time since the incident. Noticing the grin, Jason decided to reply with a smirk "I''m pretty sure that even the Lunar ranked cultivation techniques won''t limit me...I''m greedy you know!" ''And I know just how powerful my father''s race is!!'' He left the line unspoken while continuing to look at the City Lord as if he had nothing else to say. Yet, only a moment later, Luna tried to calm herself as she turned towards the cadets. "You guys can start preparing yourself! Jennifer will take you back to the hidden mountain. She will also accompany you guys in two months when it''s time to depart!" With that being said, Jennifer and the cadets were excused as they walked out of the main hall. Jennifer was confused, but she had to train the cadets that were impatiently waiting to practice in their new techniques. As such, she threw a concerned gaze at Jason before she finally left the hall. ''Nothing bad will happen, right?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 689 - Scheming Once Jennifer and the cadets had left the main hall, the City Lord turned towards Jason, staring daggers at him. "Just what''s wrong with you? Where do you get the confidence to be able to procure a Lunar technique in the future?" She sounded really annoyed which caused Jason to raise his right eyebrow as he didn''t expect her to react like that. ''Why should she bother about the decision I make? It''s not like I''m likely to procure an Immortal Eye, or whatever¡­ Rather, I''ll just die on Kinra island!'' His thoughts were quite straightforward, but instead of stating his thoughts out loud, he remained quiet. "Why don''t you think that I can obtain a cultivation manual at the Lunar rank? Those techniques might be mostly for Grand and Superior races to use, but why shouldn''t I be able to procure a cultivation manual at that rank?" His overly nonchalant tone caused the City Lord to look at him with squinted eyes. A few minutes passed in silence, and Jason was starting to feel uncomfortable under her gaze, only to hear a deep sigh. "You''re the same as Jennifer, stubbornly rejecting permanent techniques...are you really confident in finding a Lunar technique? How?" Earlier, he had heard that Jennifer denied a high-graded Lunar rank cultivation technique because it would force her to permanently use it. As such, Jason knew that Jennifer was also looking for even better techniques, even if the requirements her body needed were much higher. If she wanted, Jennifer could cultivate in three different cultivation paths, each for one cultivation energy. However, that would mean that she had to cultivate one technique after another. Thus, Jennifer, or to be precise, the City Lord had to search for a suitable cultivation technique for her disciple, allowing her to cultivate in all three techniques at once. Yet, to everyone''s astonishment, Jennifer had denied accepting this technique because it would permanently restrict her from using any other cultivation technique. This simple rejection had dumbfounded the City Lord, and those around, knowing that it was extremely difficult to find whatever Jennifer was looking for. Fortunately enough, a Heaven-Intermediate cultivation technique with the suitable requirements had been found only a few years later, giving Jennifer the ability to skyrocketed her cultivation base to the stage she was now at. For Jason, it would be less problematic to find a temporary cultivation manual because he only cultivated in one path. Nevertheless, the City Lord was not Jason''s master. As such, she was not obliged to do anything for him. Despite that, Luna decided that she would listen to his answer, before thinking of a solution because there was something that made her believe that it was essential to bring Jason to Kinra Island. She was not sure about the reasoning, but it felt important for him, Jennifer, and even her own plan! Thus, she calmed herself before staring at Jason, with all the impatience she could accumulate. "I never know what my future will bring, but I''m not willing to accept a permanent cultivation technique at the Lunar rank! I don''t really care what others think about it, but owing to my heritage, I would probably be laughed at if I were to tell someone that I cultivate with a permanent Heaven-ranked cultivation technique. To be honest, I don''t think that it would be any different with a permanent Lunar ranked cultivation technique either, but I do not know that for sure!" Jason''s statement caused the City Lord to frown, but instead of complaining about his stubborn decision, she stopped for a moment, recalling the words he''d spoken. ''My heritage...laughed at...Wait!'' Staring at Jason, Luna suddenly asked with a slight hesitation. "I think you once mentioned that your Aura and Stigma are natural...and also that your human heritage was enhanced due to your other bloodline, or am I wrong?" Jason didn''t move while looking at the City Lord but the words he said afterward caused her to feel a spark of excitement igniting within her. "Everything you said is correct!" At that moment, the City Lord''s eyes went wide in shock. ''How did I never realise the treasure in front of me?!'' Her mind was rattling, and she forgot everything in her surroundings as she solely focused on Jason, who stood in front of her. Suddenly an idea flashed through her mind, which caused her to take a deep breath as she released her mana in a specific direction. This attracted Jason''s interest, and he watched her curiously as she was accessing a storage device before he got distracted by the City Lord''s following question. "If I have a Heaven-ranked cultivation technique that wouldn''t bind you to use it permanently, would you, first, enter Kinra Island, and second, answer me one question honestly?" Jason was unable to comprehend why the City Lord was so desperate in trying to make him enter Kinra Island. Because of that, he became suspicious of her intentions. Despite that, Jason could clearly tell that she was not evil, otherwise, she would have subdued or even killed him the moment he arrived. However, not knowing what she was scheming, he could only say, "Even with a Heaven-ranked cultivation technique, would I be able to survive on Kinra Island? Let''s be honest with each other, I am reckless and would normally enter any place that gives me specific opportunities. Nevertheless, the land of Inheritances is something I won''t be able to survive if other prodigies were to target me, which is not unlikely to happen. One less competitor is what everyone wants after all! I don''t know what question you want to ask, but why should I risk my life for some unknown inheritance, if I have yet to fully unleash my bloodline, who knows if these inheritances are even suitable for me? If you''re serious, and you want me to go to Kinra Island, you will have to be honest with me, and even then I won''t promise anything!!" Right now, Jason wasn''t going to be intimidated due to the fact that the City Lord was a powerhouse, or that she hated men because he wanted to make his stance clear. She could force him to enter Kinra Island, but once he passed through the barrier, the City Lord would be unable to do anything to him, until the Island submerged once again. As such, he remained honest, even if it could worsen his relationship with the City Lord. However, that did not happen, and Luna could only look at Jason as a manual flew through the air, straight into his hands, before it stopped moving. "Just take a look at it. Afterward, I''ll tell you what I want from you, as well as some information about the inheritances. I know you are weak in terms of cultivation base but I''m not oblivious to the extraordinary capabilities you have. Even if we ignore everything else, your eyes alone are unique enough to make me voice out a request. You would be able to help Jennifer a lot, after all! But now...read the technique first, afterward, I''ll tell you what I truly want from you, okay?" Jason just nodded his head, not even realising that he had already opened the manual. Driven by his curiosity about the faintly glowing manual, Jason started to read, oblivious to the fact that his eyes were glued to the magical words written inside the technique. Hours flew by, and it was only then that he lifted his head before he looked at the City Lord. "This technique is...amazing!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 690 - Mythic Essence Almost everything about the technique that lay inside his hands was amazing, but the most impressive things were in fact two particular remarks. [Remark: Mythic Essence Volume I can always be exchanged with other cultivation techniques.] [Cautionary Warning: Mythic Essence Volume 1 requires an extreme degree of control over mythic energy; mana, superior Maest cultivation veins, very high pain tolerance, and free will.] Jason found all of this already extremely interesting, however, there was also something else that piqued his curiosity. [If two or three cultivation veins exist within the body, the practitioner is bound to sustain heavy injuries!] Even if the other cultivation veins were not awakened, one would be unable to properly cultivate with the cultivation technique [Mythic Essence Vol. I]. As such, the technique was perfectly suited for Jason''s current condition! Because of that, he continued to read through the technique''s first stage, only to lift his head when he realised just how strong the technique was. Earlier, Jason thought that the difference between Heaven and Terra ranked techniques were little, but now, he couldn''t help but ridicule himself to even think like that. Shaking his head, Jason couldn''t help but smile as he thought. ''As long as enough mana is in the surrounding area, It would be possible for me to accelerate my cultivation speed by multiple times¡­'' The requirements were harsh, and Jason knew that only races with extremely strong cultivation veins would be able to cultivate in it, without injuring themselves. This should be intimidating, but instead, Jason couldn''t help but feel that the technique was perfect for him. Unfortunately, he couldn''t openly show the City Lord how he felt because she would only continue to nudge him, trying to convince him to enter Kinra Island. The technique was the best one he had seen in his entire life, and it didn''t even force him to continue cultivating using the technique permanently. As such, he was obviously interested in it, even more so after he realised that it was one of the unique Heaven-Intermediate ranked techniques. In fact, the prefix ''Unique'' was added because the effects it had were comparable to a technique at a higher rank, only for specific factors to degrade it to the Intermediate grade. Thus, the manual Jason was holding had to be at the Heaven-Advanced rank at the bare minimum! It was odd for the City Lord to own such a technique that was solely focused on mana, so Jason couldn''t help but eye her for a moment. "Are you cultivating in the Mythic Essence cultivation technique?" Because there was no need to hide it, the City Lord nodded her head as she nonchalantly answered, "It''s one of the strongest techniques I acquired in my entire life. You may have to endure unbearable pain, but the speed at which you can cultivate is extreme. The first stage is just the beginning, and once you become immune to pain, you should try cultivating in the second stage. Not only will the Mythic Essence technique allow you to cultivate at a rapid pace but your mana will also be purified while your Maest cultivation veins will be strengthened because they will be pulled to the extent that they almost tear apart! The technique is dangerous, but also the reason for how I was able to reach my current cultivation base, despite being a mutant, with only a Maest cultivation path!" When Jason heard this he almost exclaimed, only to think inwardly, ''I thought she was not from Manyr?!'' Apparently, that was wrong, which made it even weirder for her eyes to appear as they did. Furthermore, Jason would have expected that humans that had awoken the Maest cultivation path would be treated well. However, according to her eyes that had a faint trace of sadness lingering within them, this had to be wrong. ''Maybe their traditions have now changed compared to a few millennia ago?'' He wondered, not sure how old Luna was, let alone what the Aeus, Devirs, or Manyrs'' tradition had looked like during that time. When Jason had been inside the Neutral city, he had not been able to see the true potential of their tradition as it was restricted. Other than that, he didn''t even leave the manor most of the time because he had more than enough things to pay attention to. The fact that she was willing to hand over the cultivation technique she was using for herself, indicated that she would give up a lot as long as he would come with Jennifer and the other cadets to Kinra island. As such, he decided that it was only fair to listen intently to what the City Lord was about to say. While waiting for her to voice out the reason she wanted him to enter Kinra island expressly, and what kind of inheritances existed on it, Jason tried to comprehend the facts he had already acquired. ''With that technique, I might be able to enter the peak of the Lique stage in a mere two months, while focusing on other things simultaneously¡­'' This realisation was shocking, but at the same time, it clearly showed the City Lord''s determination. It didn''t take long for Luna to start her explanation that was short but with everything Jason had to know for now. "To be precise, I want you to follow Jennifer, and warn her about all kinds of dangers. There are hidden dangers inside the Inheritance sites, and someone who can see energy fluctuations should be able to detect most of them easily. Your eyes are more important in places like inheritance sites than you might imagine, and your ability will come in handy if Jennifer has to face other opponents. If you were to provide her with the necessary information, Jennifer will be able to know everything about her opponent, allowing her to create countermeasures before the opponent unveiled their trump card. Other than that, I feel as if it''s only possible to procure the Immortal Eye with your help. As such, I''m willing to lend you the technique I use, under the condition that you answer me one question!" She didn''t say anything about the inheritance sites, but instead, she handed him another file that looked similar to the first one. However, this time it was thicker. As such, with two files about Kinra Island Jason would have enough intel to make his final decision soon. Considering that the City Lord asked him to follow Jennifer, he would be much safer than going alone. She was amongst the strongest individuals that were allowed to enter Kinra Island, after all. Thus, his reluctance dwindled to a certain extent. Nevertheless, Jason didn''t forget the fact that he and Jennifer could get separated on the island. ''With enough time before and while being at Kinra island while cultivating with the Mythic Essence technique, I should be able to increase my strength to a certain extent. My solidified prismarine crystals should also be stronger than commonly found ones. I use unique mana drops to solidify them, after all!'' His reasoning was logical and quite simple at that. As such, Jason knew that if he were to enter the Prismar stage, with a single solidified prismarine crystal, he would be able to reach a much higher combat prowess than anyone else. Additionally, the faster he was able to cultivate, the more minor seals he would be able to break, which was quite advantageous. In the end, he had already found his answer, but with the imminent dangers of having a majority of peak Prismar stage beings in a land where everyone wanted to obtain an Inheritance for themselves, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit off. Yet, just a moment later, Jason slapped his forehead as he called himself stupid. ''Since when did I start backing off in face of dangers...Aren''t dangers the perfect place to overcome one''s boundaries?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 691 - Revealed The more Jason thought about refusing to enter Kinra Island, the less likely he was to overcome the dangers that were bound to occur at any moment. It was because the lands of Inheritances was a great opportunity for him, and evidently also for others. There were dangers on Kinra Island too, but that was only obvious because nobody would give up on their chance to enter the Inheritance sites, while it was likely to be even more difficult to overcome the trials to obtain an inheritance. However, with the Mythic Essence cultivation technique, Jason knew that his combat prowess could increase tremendously, even if he wouldn''t find or search for an inheritance. With that in mind, he knew that it shouldn''t be too much of a difficulty to cultivate while simultaneously walking around with Jennifer, who could protect him. As such, rather than thinking about rejecting the City Lord''s offer, Jason was slowly growing convinced that it was best to enter Kinra Island owing to the opportunities it presented, the fact that Jennifer would protect him, and that the Mythic Essence technique''s worth was tremendous. Without dangers, there wouldn''t be benefits because nothing was given to someone without expecting something in return. That was how a trade-off worked, and there were exceptions, but not many if one were to exclude master-disciple relationships where the master was nurturing the disciple without receiving anything particular in return. There may be some advantages one could make use of by having a disciple, but in the end, it was more of a burden to teach a disciple than anything else. Now, while staring straight into the City Lord''s eyes, Jason felt that her earlier answer was genuine. As such, given the information and the fact that he shouldn''t back off from doing something he wanted to, just because there were some dangers involved, Jason agreed to the City Lord''s proposal only to ask. "You said, I have to answer one question if I want to use the Mythic Essence cultivation technique? Do you really think one question is worth lending me the strongest technique you have?" Jason''s agreement caused the City Lord to sigh in relief, which was odd to see, only for her to come back to her senses a moment later before simply stating, "If it''s possible for us to obtain an Immortal Eye, and for Jennifer to receive an Inheritance, everything is worth it. I have already memorised everything about the Mythic Essence technique, so the manual itself doesn''t hold the same importance to me as before. As for the question I have in mind, consider it as a bonus to my request to obtain the Immortal eye, and the help you''re supposed to provide Jennifer with!" After saying this, the City Lord halted for a moment, only to finally ask the question she had on her mind for a long time. "Before leaving to cultivate, please answer the following questions- I know you have the human race''s bloodline within you, but what race does the other bloodline within you belong to?" Hearing the question, Jason nodded his head. He had expected to hear this question or a similar one with the same answer sooner or later. As such, he was unfazed by the question and answered in all honesty. "My second bloodline is that of the Celestia race!" The moment he said this, Luna''s eyes widened before they turned angry as she asked disbelievingly "Don''t joke with me! How is that possible?!" This was a reaction he didn''t expect. Because of that, he could only look at the City Lord in confusion. "It''s true though." He wanted to explain further, but before Jason could speak another word, the City Lord had already lifted her hand stopping him. "Instead of lying, you can simply say that you don''t want to reveal your secret. I understand the dangers of unveiling the seemingly inconspicuous bloodline as it is the case for Jennifer, who also happens to be a halfling, but don''t lie to me! Do you even know what you are saying right now?? The Celestia race is not something you should mention so casually. You might think it is funny and just joke around right now, but if they were to hear what you were saying right now, your life would end faster than you think!! If someone ever asks you what race you hail from, never say the same! The Celestia race is known for their purity, and they would eliminate everyone who tarnished their reputation, purity, and so on. A halfling of their race would be killed before he or she was even born!" What the City Lord said caused goosebumps to erupt all over his body as he looked at her in doubt. ''If what the City Lord says is really the case, did my father try to protect me without letting even a single individual of the Celestia race know? And...why did Wisse believe me when I said I''m a Celestia if the City Lord''s words are really true?'' More and more confusion spread through Jason''s mind as he subconsciously mumbled his next thought out loud. "Just what is the Celestia race?... Will they really kill me once I encounter one of them?... And, can I even survive encountering them?" Many thoughts rattled his brain as he began to ask himself about his heritage. The Celestia bloodline was extremely powerful, but it had created more problems for him than he could imagine. At the same time, the thought of venturing into Kinra Island became more exciting by the moment as Jason realised that he had to become much stronger, the faster, the better. While thousands of thoughts were flashing through Jason''s mind, the City Lord looked at his expressions and his body language that depicted his confusion. She was angered that he''d lied to her without batting an eye, but after looking at the young man in front of her for some time, she felt that his reaction to her words was shocking. The way he reacted was not something one could easily face, even less because it seemed that Jason had no idea what or who the Celestia race truly was. Because of that, she couldn''t help but calm down as a single, seemingly impossible thought manifested in her mind. ''Is it possible...that he didn''t lie?'' Only a moment after she thought this, Jason seemed to have regained his cool to some extent. "I''m sorry to ask this, but where can I procure more information about the Celestia race? I encountered a few beings but their knowledge about this race was shallow, and nobody was able to tell me more about them. What you said was the most I figured out until now, other than the fact that one can turn into an Infernal Celestia if the emotions within them take over the rational Celestia''s mind, controlling them, and corroding their mind." This question only caused Luna to be even more confused as she assumed that Jason never encountered his father. ''Maybe he really thinks that he is a Celestia, and doesn''t know his real race?'' That assumption was the most likely thing to have happened in Luna''s opinion. Thus, she took a deep breath before starting to explain to Jason everything she knew about the Celestia race. It was not much, but Jason listened intently to every word Luna spoke. She had calmed down and genuinely believed that Jason merely thought that he was a Celestia but in reality, he wasn''t. As such, she just told him everything she had heard about them, a long time ago. Less than 10 minutes passed before she was done because she didn''t know much about them. But, Jason''s expression had brightened as he mumbled. "Shima again...just what kind of planet is that?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 692 - Next Goal "Just what kind of planet is that?" He mumbled, only to hear the City Lord''s prompt answer. "Shima is an infinitely large planet that is said to have been birthed by devouring an entire universe! Don''t ask me how that works, I don''t know that either¡­" After that she halted for a moment, only to say. "I can tell that you want to find out more about the Celestia race, but that''s not useful for now....cultivate and become strong enough to find out more about your true heritage. If you have more questions about the Celestia race, look for someone who has researched races, or someone who might know them!" Jason noticed the way the City Lord said ''true heritage'' but he dropped the topic, not understanding why Luna didn''t believe him. Little did he know that it was a perfectly normal reaction of her to act as she did, and it was more of Jason''s obliviousness that was the issue. ''If someone asks me about my heritage, should I name a different race for the time being?'' He thus wondered, only to be unable to think of a race to mention. At that moment, Jason truly realised that his knowledge was very shallow about many things and he still had a lot to learn. However, without being able to fill the gaps in his knowledge right off the bat, Jason rather focused on increasing his strength. That was the most important for now, followed by procuring knowledge. Simultaneously, he would have to finish cleansing the dead mana vein in Spyro, preferably before it hatched. However, that was not much of an issue, and rather easy in comparison to increasing his strength to the extent he wanted it to reach. As such, he bid farewell to the City Lord, tightly grasping the Mythic Essence cultivation manual before leaving the main hall. In the past hour or so, many things had occurred, and he had learned and obtained many things. ''So...Kinra Island is...my next goal!'' Jason was still oblivious to the City Lord''s true goal, but instead of focusing on that, he decided to focus on himself, and the minuscule possibility that he might be able to procure an inheritance if he were to be extremely fortunate! The chance was small, but even if he wouldn''t be fortunate enough it didn''t matter. To put it simply, Jason was already satisfied with the Mythic Essence technique, and very excited about the chance to procure smaller rewards if he were to enter an Inheritance site with Jennifer, which would certainly happen. Because of that, he had to increase his strength to the highest possible degree, using every single second to cultivate efficiently. However, first of all, he had to fully memorise the first stage of the Mythic Essence technique. This took almost two weeks, but at the same time, Jason was able to take care of Spyro''s dead mana veins, which were now fully expelled. As such, the Spiral Spirit was now using its fullest potential, even if its body had yet to recuperate from the damages it had obtained earlier. With six weeks left before they would depart, Jason could finally start cultivating with the Mythic Essence technique. Circulating a tremendous amount of mana through his mana vein as described, he started to cultivate and it felt as if they were on fire, but Jason endured everything without letting the slightest gasp escape his lips. Meanwhile, Petri and Solaris were using their own means to cultivate, trying not to fall behind Jason, whose cultivation speed accelerated drastically. Overcoming the pain, Jason''s cultivation speed increased by more than four times, only for his proficiency in the first stage to increase slowly. He was still far away from reaching the peak of the first stage, but the results he''d already obtained were more than satisfying. As such, Jason grew immune to the pain as his mana core began to heat up owing to the rapid pace at which mana was circulated through his body. His entire mana had been divided into six streams that had to be controlled at the same time, while more and more mana was absorbed from the surrounding. With Petri, Solaris, and his own Stigma fully unleashed, their effects increased as they overlapped, only for the Celestia aura to merge with the Stigmas'' capacities, further elevating the mana circulation speed. Thus, Jason''s cultivation speed was much higher compared to others at the same proficiency of the Mythic Essence technique. Nevertheless, he never slacked off and was fully focused on cultivating as if his life was on the line. That was, in fact, exactly the case because Jason knew that he had to reach the highest possible strength in order to survive on Kinra Island and not become a burden on Jennifer! Because of that, he couldn''t reveal his entire joy when he attained the peak of the Lique stage, liquefying the 10,000 highly compressed mana drops. Jason was happy, but at the same time, he knew that he shouldn''t compare his present achievement to the standards of Argos anymore. Right now, he was on Manyr, and according to his age,, he should have reached the peak of the Prismar stage already if one were to consider the cultivation technique he used and his talent. That was if he had been born on Manyr, which was, however, not the case. Considering that it had been around a year since he arrived on Manyr, Jason felt that he had achieved a lot. As such, there was no need for him to compare himself to others. Everyone had their own talent and prowess that gave them specific advantages or disadvantages. With that in mind, Jason focused solely on himself and his soulbonds that were working relentlessly, just like him. Spyro had hatched shortly before Jason had been able to reach the peak of the Lique stage, which was great because the little Spiral Spirit could finally start absorbing spirit force without any issue, while simultaneously enhancing Jason''s mind. The amplification from a Spiral beast was different compared to the other two enhancements he received because only his brain and mind were affected. His mind felt as if it was on fire and then beaten to a pulp, the first time he received Spyro''s enhancement. Afterward, the pain had drastically reduced, and it was negligible in face of the Mythic Essence cultivation technique''s pain. However, what was definitely not negligible was Spyro''s form! This was something that had overjoyed Jason because Spyro''s true form was anything but a disadvantage, it was a formless Spirit! As such, every form and shape could be used at any time, as if it was Spyro''s true form. Jason found this to be exceptional, and the only slight disadvantage was that Spyro''s cultivation base had to be high enough for it to make complex shapes. But that was only logical in Jason''s opinion. While Spyro had finally hatched, Artemis was still evolving, and Petri had increased its physical strength at a rapid pace. Even if the basilisk was unable to use any technique, with enough pure and highly qualitative primordial energy around, it was impossible not to accelerate his cultivation speed. Jason didn''t have any cultivation stones left to use, but oddly enough, both Jennifer and the City Lord had offered some extremely high-quality cultivation stones in all three varieties to him. Each was for one of his soulbonds, and Artemis was eager to devour the mana stones that could accelerate her evolution to a certain degree. Despite that, it would still take a long time for the evolution to be completed. Thus, Solaris was using the majority of mana stones, in order to accumulate enough mana to create the second solidified prismarine crystal. This was easier said than done because one had to accumulate energy, liquefy mana once again and then start the compression process. Despite the difficulties, nobody complained because the arduous part of cultivating would just start in the Prismar stage. With every cultivation stage, the complexity of work and the efforts one had to put in increased, and Jason was already eager to see how his future path would be, and where it would lead him. Two months had passed, and they were about to depart to Kinra Island, which made Jason clench his fists as he felt his strength, glad about having accepted the City Lord''s offer. ''Let''s go!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 693 - Liveform Emerging from a gigantic portal, Jason and the others arrived in the center of a bustling city. The smell of the ocean permeated the air, and Jason couldn''t help but smile as he took in a deep breath. After he, Jennifer, and the cadets had gathered in the main hall, on the day of their departure, Luna brought them to the portal hall, where they selected one of the public open portals. As such, they emerged in the closest city to the area in which Kinra island had emerged. Normally, the city wasn''t as crowded as in recent days, which was all thanks to the news about the resurfaced lands of Inheritances that turned it into a sort of tourist attraction in a matter of days. However, what Jason noticed almost immediately was the fact that there were not only Aeus, Devirs, and Manyrs, but also individuals from other races, and quite a few of them. Unable to hold back all powerhouses of other races, the three races that reigned Julandra region came to the consensus that it was best to allow a specific number of Specta powerhouses to enter the region. They were labeled Embassy, but in fact, their only task was to bring a few prodigies of their race to Kinra island. In order to prevent a war from breaking out, this had been a necessity otherwise they would have faced a backlash and anger of more than ten races who would have voiced out their disappointment. Due to the limited number of people allowed inside, Jason was not able to see many new races that were living on Manyr. Upon investigating their cultivation base, their unique traits, and whether they even had the possibility to awaken more than one cultivation vein, he swiftly determined the race''s strength. It was just a rough guess about the entire race''s strength, but he realised yet again that having more than one cultivation vein was rare. This cemented his initial assumption of their might since he had encountered the three races of the Julandra region. This was completely different to the Aeus, Devirs, and Manyrs all of which had two cultivation veins, even if it was normal to awaken only one of them. As such, Jason could tell that the other races were taking these three races as a threat, even if the Manyrs were deemed as less significant than the Aeus and Devirs. Nevertheless, there were more than enough human powerhouses on Manyr, and it was only the majority of Manyrs that were too weak. At least, that was what they assumed to be, even if it was not the case. Jason knew that the Manyrs were extremely strong as long as they would try to adjust to their uniqueness while also switching the techniques they used because the Devir and Aeus races'' techniques were not quite suitable for humans. Because of that, Jason thought that it might turn into an opportunity for the oppressed Manyrs to change their fate if they were to collide with other races from outside the Julandra region. It was not unlikely and after giving it some more thought, Jason even felt that it had already happened. With that possibility in mind, the attack on the manor made both more and less sense than before. Jason was unable to comprehend the scheming behind the attack, but the same applied to what Luna was planning. He had been unable to figure out the use of the Immortal eye in correlation with something that could help Luna achieve whatever she wanted to do with it. Even if he knew the answer, it wouldn''t help him procure an Immortal eye, because it was extremely difficult given his current strength. As such, Jason had begun to create a small priority list in his mind that had their survival as the first and foremost priority. This was only obvious, and the second was to remain unscathed. Following that there were all kinds of things Jason wanted to achieve during the following months, but most of them were logical such as advancing to the Prismar stage. He was not sure how long this would take with the Mythic Essence cultivation technique after it was enhanced with the usage of three Stigmas and his Celestia aura, but it shouldn''t be too long. If he were to solely focus on solidifying his first prismarine crystal, Jason assumed that it wouldn''t even take an entire month. However, given his situation, Jason would be happy if he were to advance to the Prismar stage in three months. Nonetheless, their first task was now to leave the bustling city and travel through the ocean for several days straight. This was not a problem for Prismar stage beings, let alone everyone with wings, but Artemis was evolving, and he had yet to procure the capabilities to learn flying without wings. As such, he had to resort to using Solaris, with which Jason summoned seemingly ordinary wings. The flames he manifested were rigid, unmoving and they looked exactly like black feathered wings. Solaris'' control over its flame had increased tremendously, and as long as the wings didn''t have a specific purpose such as attaining the highest possible speed, excluding flying, the little black origin flame was able to do everything. There were many things Jason would love to test out with Solaris, but as always, time was ticking, and he didn''t have enough of it to do everything he wanted to. As such, Jason remained silent as he focused on everything he could while following Luna, Jennifer and the other cadets through the air. His flying speed was amongst the lowest, but Luna was not in a hurry. Instead, she wanted everyone to continue to try comprehending more about the techniques they were learning before she would take them back. This was not necessary for Jason because he had fully memorised the first stage of the Mythic Essence, and it would take him a long time to even come close to the second stage. Thus, Jason decided to use the following days to study the files about Kinra Island, the inheritances on top of it, before passively cultivating while moving around. Every cultivation technique could be utilised while being on the move, and in full concentration when one was seated on the ground. As such, Jason had also learned to use the Mythic Essence cultivation technique while moving around. This was a necessity, and extremely helpful to come one step closer to his target of advancing to the Prismar stage in a fully focused stage ignoring all the noises or movements that would unnecessarily distract him as he followed Luna, who had erected a protective dome around everyone. The protection dome was a necessity because merely three days after they had departed from the bustling city, ravaging storms had begun to appear out of nowhere. These storms were by no means something beings below the Ascendion stage would survive. Even they would have difficulties in keeping themselves secure and not get torn apart, yet, Jason didn''t notice any of that. Only when they arrived in the center of all the storms, did he regain his senses when he bumped into Jennifer, who had halted in her tracks, the moment they arrived in the calm center of the storm. Completing his cultivation, Jason rubbed his dry eyes before he began to look around, trying to evaluate the strength of the other beings that were filling the sky above Kinra Island. There was nothing special about most powerhouses, and even the prodigies were just stronger than ordinary beings but didn''t have any unique traits to differentiate them from the others. At least Jason was unable to see them, but that was mostly the case owing to the concealment device they were using. It was similar to the one Jennifer was also using, and only if he were to insert more mana into his eyes, or approach the prodigies, would he be able to figure out more about their secret. However, he did no such thing because Jason was distracted the moment he looked at the ginormous island that was more like a small country. Yet, the size was not what distracted Jason, but something completely different, and he could barely stop himself from shouting out loud. ''What the hell...is the island alive?!?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 694 - Open Staring in confusion at the gigantic island, Jason couldn''t believe what his Emperor Eyes were indicating to him. Thinking that he was hallucinating, he rubbed them, expecting to see something different once he opened them once again. However, that didn''t happen, and everything was exactly the same which caused Jason to be utterly dumbfounded. Because of that, he didn''t even notice that Jennifer and the others had already moved ahead, increasing the gap between him and themselves. Apparently, Kinra island''s barrier was still fully activated, preventing entry to anybody who tried to venture inside it. Thus, this time could be used to cultivate as one remained in the sky. Without realising that the others had already gone farther ahead, Jason''s entire mind was solely focused on the island as he subconsciously blurted out. "Is that...a fucking Tortoise?" Through the Emperor Eyes, Jason was able to see many things, including energy currents, and the island in front of him was overflowing with it. However, this also included everything below the surface, which he was able to see clearly. As such, he saw a ginormous head of a Tortoise more than a hundred meters below the water surface, cultivation veins, and a large vessel that was visible to no one else. His accidental discovery caused Jason to be utterly dumbfounded, but before could continue looking at everything, he heard unfamiliar voices behind him. Turning around, he saw that Jennifer and the rest were not there anymore. Instead, there were powerhouses of a race he didn''t know with their disciples that were talking to each other while throwing furtive glances at him once in a while. Their eyes appeared to mock him, and it was not difficult for Jason to visualise what they had been talking about. Nevertheless, he simply ignored it. Rather than taking their provocation to heart, Jason searched for his group and joined them. When Jennifer saw him, she couldn''t help herself as she smiled lightly. "If you don''t like being with our group you can search for a new one!" Her expression turned serious, but the tone suggested that she was teasing him. As such, Jason could only sigh, not sure what she intended to say. "Don''t play around with me..." After that, they continued to talk with each other, only for the cadets to join their conversation. They were tense, and upon seeing that both Jason and Jennifer were extremely calm, they relaxed visibly. None of them was sure how much time had passed, but it was nearing sunset when strong energy currents were released from Kinra Island. Following that, the barrier, which one could see through a partially transparent glamor, began to shine brighter, which made the prodigies scamper to hastily enter Kinra Island as quickly as possible. Jennifer and the other cadets were among them, and they began to approach the island the moment Luna wished them good luck, bidding them farewell. At that moment, Jason was instinctively dragged by Jennifer, only for her to notice what she was doing. Thus, she let go of his arm before acting as if nothing happened as she continued to walk towards the island. However, Jason''s mind was elsewhere and not focused on the land of the inheritances, but on the being that carried the entire, gigantic island on its back. He was not even sure what kind of cultivation base the Tortoise had because it was not possible for him to peer inside its vessel. Many things were concealed from him, including most of the things except the mammoth of the being he was diving towards. In fact, he was not even able to see the entire Island because it was too gigantic, and it was fortunate that they had been in front of the unmoving Tortoise. Jason was not sure whether it was hibernating, cultivating, or doing something else, but there should be a reason for it to emerge in the same area every few centuries. At that moment, he noticed something, which caused him to halt in his tracks for a moment. ''Oh...I forgot to tell them that Kinra Island is a living being!'' Jason thought when he noticed that he could have told Luna, or Jennifer about what he had figured out. Unfortunately, it was already too late, but at the same time, it didn''t make a huge difference whether someone knew about the identity of the island, or not to begin with. As such, he could only shrug his shoulders before he followed Jennifer and the cadets towards the Island. The barrier that had opened a small pathway was exactly located above the Tortoise''s head. It slowly opened up like curtains that parted aside, increasing the space for the masses of people to squeeze through. However, that was exactly what caused the entire situation to become even more chaotic because everyone wanted to be the first to enter the Lands of inheritances. He feared that a stampede would break out with the way people rushed forward thinking that they would be one step closer to procuring an Inheritance because of that. Unfortunately, Jason knew better that it was not easy to procure an inheritance because he had studied the files he had received, to perfection. As such, the moment he appeared next to Jennifer, he suggested, "Once we''re inside, let''s spend a few days to figure out the location of all exposed Inheritance sites! It''s useless to try entering just any of the structures without knowing whether the inheritance is suitable for us or not. It doesn''t make a difference whether we enter the Inheritance site earlier or later, to begin with. Everyone''s starting point is the same." While Jennifer nodded her head, calming down from her earlier excitement, the cadets'' opinion was different. They rushed inside the crowd of beings that wanted to enter Kinra Island quickly, ignoring Jason''s comment. Unbothered by this, Jason was glad that at least Jennifer listened to him because he would be forced to follow her, otherwise. He wanted to ensure a certain degree of safety from being around her, after all! In the end, he was still too weak, which was obvious because his cultivation base had yet to advance to the Prismar stage. It wouldn''t take long, and just several weeks but he had to patiently wait for it to happen. However, even then, Jason knew that the average strength of those that entered Kinra Island was at the peak of the Prismar stage. At the same time, it was the limit at which beings could enter the gigantic island Nevertheless, owing to the dangers looming inside the island, in addition to the fact that others were likely to attack each other, Jason was in need of Jennifer. At least for now, even if he didn''t like it! Suddenly, just as the first beings had entered Kinra Island, he heard a familiar voice from behind, calling out his name. "Jason! You are here too?" Turning around he saw a group of more than ten Manyrs, with Miranda, the young woman who had tricked him with the Aeus race''s 21st Prince, standing in front of them, greeting him with a bright smile. Even if Jason had already forgiven the two for their prank at the bi-annual auction event in Lanro, he didn''t like the fact that Miranda and the Prince had tried to play around with him. As such, he greeted her unwillingly before showing signs of turning back towards the island''s entrance. This was noticed by the Manrys behind Miranda, who couldn''t help but feel offended because Jason didn''t pay any attention to them, treating them as if they were worthless. Because of that, one of the women amongst their group was about to lecture Jason, only to be held back by Miranda as she said, "Don''t even try...it would be quite embarrassing to report to your family how a being at the Peak Lique stage was able to kill you¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 695 - Dangers "Don''t even try...it would be quite embarrassing to report to your family of how a being at the Peak Lique stage was able to kill you¡­" These words caused the woman to halt in her tracks as she stared at Miranda in confusion. "My lady, please don''t joke with me like that. His mana fluctuations may be a little bit stronger than a being at the Lique stage, but I''m at the Peak of the Prismar stage! Please don''t underestimate me¡­" However, Miranda didn''t seem bothered by that as she replied, "I want to build a good relationship with him. I feel like he will be able to gain something huge inside the lands of Inheritances! If you attack him, don''t even try to seek protection if he is more powerful than you imagine either. Hearing the seriousness in Miranda''s voice, even the others who were similarly annoyed by Jason''s arrogance couldn''t help but look at their leader in doubt. ''Why is she thinking so highly of him?'' They wondered, not sure of what made Jason so unique. His looks were leagues above their own, and his combat prowess seemed to be higher than his cultivation base. Nevertheless, the only truly unique feature about the young man, whose back was facing them, was probably his golden eyes. His stigma and aura could not be detected by them because the stigma was deactivated while the Celestia aura was retracted. As such, Jason''s true capabilities were hidden from oblivious beings, even if he didn''t actively conceal his mana fluctuations. Because of that, the other Manyrs were unable to understand why Miranda was exaggerating. However, Jason, who had heard her, only nodded his head, which was noticed by Miranda, before he and Jennifer approached the entrance of the island. They were flying slowly, without rushing to get inside. Instead, they were already looking at the large building through the barrier, trying to figure out which inheritance site they could start searching. Some buildings were just ruins without anything inside, while the Inheritance sites were clear for them to see. At least, that was what everyone had initially thought. Little did they know that the desolate and destroyed remains of the buildings that looked like ruins were Inheritance sites as well. Yet, entering them wasn''t as easy as it looked like and there were certain requirements one had to meet. Other than those ruins that had specific criteria to make someone eligible to enter them, there were also places one could only enter with a specific personality, which was interesting. At the same time, the latter requirement caused some beings to be enraged because there was a specific inheritance site that could only be entered by those who displayed chivalry. Said inheritance site gave extraordinary rewards, even if one were to be unable to obtain the entire inheritance. As such, everyone was eager to venture inside it, only to be unable to. Despite that, there was something else Jason and Jennifer were looking for. There were many unknown inheritances that had been untouched and hidden from the naked eye, but specific clues hinted at the requirements one had to meet. Because of that, Jennifer hoped that there was an inheritance that allowed her to make use of the three cultivation energies within her body. A specific inheritance site for beings that awoke all three cultivation paths would be the best, but neither Jason nor Jennifer had heard of such a place inside Kinra Island. Meanwhile, Jason was trying to help Jennifer figure out which inheritance sites they could see. However, he was distracted by the gigantic head of the Tortoise which made him look at it every now and then. ''When will I be able to bind a beast like that?'' He could only ask himself, with a glint of excitement in his eyes. Right now, Jason was not even able to figure out what kind of existence the Tortoise truly was, let alone its cultivation base. Nevertheless, considering that not even the powerhouses at the Specta stage didn''t know that Kinra island was, in fact, a living being, it had to be one of the strongest beings on Manyr. At least, that was what Jason assumed because beings at the Specta stage were reigning small territories, while those ranked above, should reign the lands. In the end, he could also be wrong, but that didn''t really matter to Jason because his eyes were glued to the tremendous streams of mana that swept through the Tortoise. It caused his entire body to be covered with goosebumps, which Jennifer noticed, only to follow his gaze. "Why are you looking at the water? Is there something that excites you?" She asked innocently, only to feel astonished about the bright smile on his face. Jason was visualising how it would be to bind the Gigantic Island Tortoise, but at the same time, he knew that his soul energy and soul crystal were too low, to even dream of something like that. Furthermore, his body would be torn apart, the moment he bound a being such as the Tortoise below them. Hearing Jennifer''s question, Jason regained his senses to some extent which caused him to answer her honestly, "It''s the Tortoise." His voice sounded exciting, but Jennifer couldn''t help but be confused. ''Is he ill?'' She asked herself, lifting her hand to touch his forehead, out of instinct. This move caused both of them to stiffen for a moment as Jason looked at Jennifer. The two couldn''t help but stare into each other''s eyes for a few moments before Jennifer retracted her hand quickly as she cleared her throat in embarrassment. "We should enter Kinra Island now!" She thus said before flying closer to the entrance, where the initial crowd of beings had thinned with the majority having entered the island. Jason just nodded his head and followed Jennifer with emotions surging within him which he had never felt before. ''Am I becoming ill?'' After reaching the entrance, it took them only half an hour before they were able to pass through the barrier. At that moment, dense energy currents swept through their body, invigorating them, and both couldn''t help but feel excited. ''Even without focusing on cultivating, I can enter the Prismar stage in no time owing to the density and purity of mana!'' While Jason prepared himself to enter the Prismar stage, Jennifer wanted to complete the preparations to be ready to advance to the Ascendion stage at any moment. She was unable to enter the Ascendion stage while being on Kinra Island, but it was still possible for her to prepare everything beforehand. Afterward, the advancement procedure would be less burdensome for her. As such, by simply entering Kinra Island, many things would become easier. Owing to the excitement they felt just by sensing the energy waves, both forgot about the incident that had happened only half an hour before. However, their excitement quickly evaporated because it was only two minutes later that they flew past the first inheritance site, which was in fact a large tower. Jason recalled the tower from the file Luna had given him, but that was not what caused both Jennifer and Jason to grow serious. In fact, what caused them to be alert was that they were able to see hundreds of Peak Prismar stage beings fighting against each other. Not even an hour had passed since the barrier that led towards Kinra Island had opened, but the corpses of more than 10 beings were already lying on the ground. This clearly showed how dangerous Kinra Island was, and that was not because of the inheritance site''s dangers, but other beings'' greed! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 696 - Pulled With dozens of beings fighting against each other right in front of the closest inheritance site, Jason couldn''t help but shake his head. There were multiple inheritance sites in the vicinity, and it was said that there were a total of more than 100 Inheritance sites in total. As such, Jason had no clue why they were already fighting. Instead of arguing and starting a blood bath, they could have just chosen a different Inheritance. It was not even as if the tower was the only inheritance site on the entire island and there had to be many more extraordinary places waiting to be discovered. "I guess that''s the issue with inheritance sites that allow only a limited number of people inside¡­" Jennifer said before turning away from the tower, looking out for other structures. Unfortunately, as expected, every inheritance site in the vicinity was besieged by dozens, if not more than a hundred beings that wanted to enter them. This was perfectly normal in Jason''s opinion, and Jennifer didn''t seem to be shocked about it either. However, Jason was now even happier to have entered the island with Jennifer because he could determine that most beings that had succumbed to their ill fate, were below the Peak Prismar stage, or simply unfortunate. "Can we look for a suitable inheritance site for me for a while and enter a different one if we don''t find one that is perfectly compatible with me?" Jennifer asked, to which Jason nodded. It was not like he had a choice, to begin with, but at the same time, he wanted to find an inheritance that was suitable for him too. From his understanding, the City Lord had received an inheritance, which had caused her eye color to change. He was not sure what the use of this was because Jason was unable to perceive anything special about her eyes. Nevertheless, he could tell that she had obtained the Mythic Essence technique from Kinra Island too. At least, that was what Jason comprehended after everything he had heard from Luna, in addition to the information written in the two files about the island. If that was not intriguing enough, Luna had also mentioned that she had been unable to procure an entire Inheritance and that what she had received was just a fraction of it. As such, the rewards she had gained were not the best among the best! With that in mind, it was difficult for Jason to not be excited. Despite that, he tried to not be overly excited. Instead, he and Jennifer flew through the sky, looking around for all kinds of buildings and structures before approaching them. After that, they tried to figure out which inheritance it was and whether it was worth exploring further. Then they left quickly before anyone could follow and attack them. Even if Jennifer was confident in her strength, it was not necessary to offend anyone, and fight every single person who tried to provoke them. Instead, it was best to hold back their strength and reveal it only when necessary. Through this, they had an additional surprise factor which was what they should make use of to avoid conflicts to the max. Their well thought strategy seemed to work as more than three days passed without anything special happening. While flying around, Jason focussed on absorbing pure mana, while compressing the first few drops of liquefied mana. With a total of 10,000 drops of mana, the foundation to build the first solidified prismarine crystal was the most important. As such, the small crystal he started to construct had to be perfect. He didn''t want to make a single mistake, which was the reason for him to take his time. Even if it was important to improve his strength quickly, creating a flawed crystal would only make everything worse. However, nothing would happen to his solidified prismarine crystal, because Jason was actively using his stigma, while summoning both Petri and Solaris, only to activate their stigma too. This allowed him to control his mana to an even higher extent, giving him an additional boost in accuracy, only to intertwine the Celestia aura within the depths of the prismarine crystal. Jason knew that this was not required, but his entire being told him that it would assist the creation process, further strengthening the degree to which the prismarine crystal would be solidified. Furthermore, he hoped that there would be an additional supportive factor, but that was not something Jason could be sure about. Due to the multiple supporting factors, Jason was able to prevent making rookie mistakes that were likely to happen during the solidification process. Hence, he was considered to be extremely fast at creating the outlines of the prismarine crystal, despite it being his first time doing something so complex. Yet, what Jason didn''t realise was that the activated stigmas and his aura were influencing the solidified prismarine crystal. While his liquefied mana was already much denser, and complex than ordinary mana, the influence of Jason''s entire being that had an almost intractable sense of divinity was tremendous. Jason knew that the three activated stigmas were extremely helpful, and thus, he was using his soulbonds to their fullest extent, even if that meant they had to be outside the soul world. In his smallest form, Petri was still only three meters long and Solaris could take the size of his pinky fingertip. Only Spyro was not summoned, but that was because the little spirit was cultivating inside the soul world that had further been customised. At the same time, the Spiral Spirit didn''t have a stigma, even if it looked like this would change soon. Jason was not sure how exactly stigmas worked, let alone his aura, but after Spyro had formed a connection to his soul, it was slowly changing. The provided soul energy and spirit force were merging together, changing something about the Spiral Spirit. Because of that, Jason assumed that it was the creation process of its stigma. Other than that, he was not sure what else was happening to Spyro right now. Meanwhile, as Jason cultivated, oblivious to the change he caused in the foundation of the prismarine crystal, Jennifer was focused on their surroundings, taking a look at all kinds of inheritances around them. Most of them were unknown to her, but before entering any of them, she wanted to figure out everything necessary about the Island. This was because, entering them in most cases, would transport the entrant to a separate dimension where the trials would be held. The number of beings that had entered Kinra Island was in thousands, and it was gradually increasing. Now that three days had passed, the majority of beings had already entered their first inheritance site, but there were many like Jason and her, trying to find a perfect inheritance for their unique situation and constitution. As such, they had often encountered others that were looking at them, or to be precise at Jason, because a black snake was coiled around his chest. Simultaneously, the activated stigmas and the fully unleashed Celestia aura also attracted some attention before they left Jennifer and Jason on their own. They might be interested in Jason, but that didn''t mean that they would waste their precious time observing him. Suddenly, she felt something weird around her, which caused Jennifer to slow down. Because of that, Jason bumped into her, only to lift his head, where he saw that she was looking straight in a specific direction as she mumbled, "That way?" She hadn''t even realised that Jason had bumped into her, and began flying in the direction in which she sensed something. It made her feel like she was pulled towards the direction of an invisible magnet, and another day passed before they had crossed a large distance. Only then did Jennifer stop, looking at a small temple below them that looked like plants had overtaken it, sprouting through every nook and cranny, nearly making it invisible to be spotted from afar. This caused Jason to look at the ruins, where he could see faint currents of all the cultivation energies. Lifting his head, once again, he looked at Jennifer, whose eyes were glued to the temple as he mumbled. "Is that it?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 697 - Prismar Drawn towards the temple that was overgrown with the surrounding plants, Jennifer approached it slowly without even realising the same. The closer she came, the stronger the pull became, and it was the moment she was right above the temple that she noticed a portal close to the entrance. This made her turn towards Jason, who had followed her quietly. "I think that''s the inheritance site I want to enter. There is only one problem¡­" She had been excited about the inheritance site, only to realise that Jason was still with her. She had to protect him, but that wouldn''t work if her instincts about only those with three cultivation energies being able to enter the temple including her were to be true. The moment Jason saw the temple, he realised that it hadn''t been used for a very long time, which meant that not many beings had managed to enter it. At the same time, the fact that Jennifer was pulled towards it, indicated that she was perfectly suitable for the inheritance. If one was pulled towards a specific inheritance site, it was said that one was not only perfectly suitable for the final inheritance but also highly likely to pass all trials, as long as no unforeseen event happened. There were many beings that were suitable for specific inheritances, but in the end, most wouldn''t survive the trial''s dangers. As such, Jason knew that Jennifer had to enter the Temple Inheritance site. "I won''t be able to enter it with you, I think" He simply guessed, to which Jennifer nodded her head in uncertainty. Initially, Jason would have found this annoying, but instead of acting up, he just nodded his head "I will be fine. If I cannot follow you, I should just cultivate, and advance to the Prismar stage. Afterward, I will be able to take care of myself!" Jason was not sure how true this was, but he didn''t want to hold Jennifer back. As such, he just said that he would be fine without her around him. That didn''t have to be true, but there was something he had up his sleeves, allowing him to take care of a few nuisances. Due to this, he was prepared to venture out alone, at least to a certain extent. Jennifer noticed that Jason was confident in himself, which eased her mind as she spoke in a faint voice. "Thank you!" Afterward, she slowly approached the portal, and reached for it, brushing her fingers across it without showing any hesitation. ''She is really restless about the Inheritance...that''s something new.'' Jason thought as he saw how Jennifer reacted and disappeared inside the portal before he could even wish her good luck. She didn''t even take a single backward glance which caused Jason to sigh before he approached the portal as well. Yet, the moment he touched it, the portal repelled him as he had already expected. This caused him to issue another sigh before he took a look at the temple''s inside. ''There is a concealment, that''s great!'' The entire temple was concealed, which originated from the material out of which it was constructed. Jason had never seen stones like that before but they allowed the three cultivation energies to enter the temple even through them, which was strictly one way, the walls prevented them from leaving. This was interesting and extremely useful for Jason, who wanted to stay inside the temple, so as to conceal his energy ripples and avoid unnecessary conflicts if someone were to find him all by himself. He might be unable to enter the inheritance site inside the temple, but the temple itself was accessible! Thankful for the opportunity, he momentarily even forgot that he was now alone if one were to exclude his soulbonds. Petri and Solaris were still clinging to his body, while Spyro was cultivating inside the soul world. Artemis evolution was also progressing, at a slow, yet steady pace. Jason was not sure how many months it would take her to finish the entire evolution, but it would be great if it would be over before his time inside Kinra Island would end. That had many reasons, but the most important one was that his gut feeling told him that he would be in a dire need of her by then. He was also not sure how long the Tortoise would hibernate, but Luna had told him that the Island would remain at the same location for a duration between six months and an entire year. As such, he had quite some time to cultivate and possibly even to find his own inheritance. Because he was weaker than Jennifer, his main focus wouldn''t be the Immortal eye. Instead, Jennifer could look for it. After all, she was her disciple. He might have received an extremely powerful cultivation technique, but that didn''t mean he would have to act even more reckless than he already did by entering Kinra Island while being at the Lique stage. In the end, that could already be considered a life-threatening action, with an extremely high death rate. It was almost suicidal, if Jason were to be honest to himself! Fortunately, this would change soon because Jason focused on cultivating the moment he entered the basement of the temple. Seated on the ground, Jason greedily absorbed the mana that was unable to escape the temple and used it to empower the creation of the first solidified prismarine crystal. There were not many things he had to do in order to solidify a prismarine crystal, but it was deemed as extremely complex. However, using the three Stigma and his Celestia aura to support the solidification process, the complex mechanisms seemed to vanish. Everything went smoothly, and there was not even a single issue Jason encountered. Normally, it was said that the creation of the first solidified prismarine crystal was the most difficult because many made small rookie mistakes, forcing them to disintegrate the flawed product once again. This would force them to stay at the peak of the Lique stage before they had replenished the used up mana drops. Fortunately, nothing of that happened to Jason, and he was able to create his first prismarine crystal, only one month later. He did everything slowly, focusing on the smallest details, while his Stigma and aura were intertwining with the final product, seemingly strengthening it. The faint traces of his father''s divinity that had been annexed and merged with his own body influenced the creation of the solidified prismarine crystal. Through this, it became firmer, and he was able to further increase the circulation speed of mana. But most importantly, it was more effective and stronger than a normal prismarine crystal by around four times!! When Jason noticed this, he was shocked because he had expected the solidified prismarine crystal to be only three times stronger than the norm. That was solely based on the strength of his unique mana drops that required thrice the mana to be compressed into a single drop. Never could he have imagined that the divinity that swept through his body, which Jason had never really noticed, was the cause of all of this. Meanwhile, Solaris was about to create its second prismarine crystal, and Petri had entered the 9th Lique stage. During the last month, even Spyro had almost created its stigma, using enormous amounts of soul energy and spirit force. Meanwhile, what Jason didn''t realise either, was that many things happened on the outside of the temple, and even inside! He had been in a fully focused state, and owing to that, he hadn''t even noticed the temple''s reaction to his advancement to the Prismar stage. To Jason, the advancement hadn''t been anything special, and only the end result shocked him extremely. Because of his ignorance, he couldn''t even understand that he was the reason for what was about to happen at any moment. As if on cue, the entire temple began to shake, the moment Jason advanced to the Prismar stage. His Celestia aura was fully unleashed, enveloping him tightly, indicating the emergence of a new being at the Prismar stage. Just as the temple shook, Jason released something that caused his vibrant eyes to bulge as he lifted his head, facing the Temple inheritance''s portal. "Am I...being pulled towards it?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 698 - Threat "Am I...being pulled towards it?" Jason mumbled the moment he felt a strong suction force from the portal that was less than 50 meters above him. However, only a moment later, Jason noticed that his assumption was not exactly correct. He was pulled towards the portal right in front of him, but at the same time, Jason felt that his body was drawn in every single direction. Because of that, he couldn''t help but feel astonished as he wondered whether his mind was playing tricks on him, or if his thought was correct. ''Am I being pulled towards all inheritances and not just one?'' This shouldn''t be the case because the majority of inheritances were not suitable to him, and Jason was completely aware of this. Nevertheless, what he felt was neither an illusion nor a trick. As such, instead of wondering if he was truly pulled towards all inheritances, Jason asked himself why this should be the case. ''Is it because of my aura or the fact that I advanced to the Prismar stage?'' The latter seemed to be wrong, but the former was not exactly a reason that should allow him to enter all kinds of inheritance sites either. Unfortunately, the two reasons he had named were the only things that had happened during the entire month that had been deadly silent in all other respects. In the end, the Celestia aura was the most reasonable answer he could come up with, and Jason began to wonder how his presence had been noticed. ''During my advancement, the Celestia aura shouldn''t have been strong enough to envelop the entire island. That would be madness. Does that mean that all Inheritances are somehow connected and that my aura reaches every single inheritance site?'' Right now, Jason was simply trying to join the dots, but nothing really made sense. As such, he could only stop making assumptions for now. Instead, Jason approached the surface, as the bright sun shone on his fair skin. Looking around, he saw that not a single living being was in the vicinity, which was more confusing than reassuring. However, instead of worrying about it, Jason grew eager to test how it was possible to fly at the Prismar stage, without the use of wings! That was a privilege of beings at the Prismar stage, and Jason wanted to make use of it. With that thought in mind, he didn''t use his wings and tried to follow the instructions he had been given some time ago. ''Jennifer said that the solidified prismarine crystal can be utilised to negate the gravitational force to some extent, so how am I going to do that?'' Thanks to the information he had been provided by Jennifer during the last few days before she entered the portal, it didn''t take long for Jason to figure out how flying without wings worked. His speed was not extraordinarily fast, but much faster than others who had the same cultivation base as him. That was owing to his unique prismarine crystal that was intertwined with golden and silver strands. Nevertheless, he was still slower than with the use of Artemis or Solaris'' wings. As such, he returned to the temple before looking at the portal. "If I''m drawn towards the portal, I should be able to enter it...but is that really what I want to do?" Jason mumbled quietly while staring at the portal. Once he entered, there was no way that he would be able to return easily. As such, it was necessary for him to pass a few trials beforehand. Thus, he would have to make a thorough decision because it was possible that some trials would take up too much of his time. Even if he had told Luna that he would follow Jennifer, he was also slightly egoistic and wanted to find an inheritance for himself too. Nevertheless, he could tell that Jennifer was more important to him than just any inheritance. This realisation caused Jason to ask himself since when had his thoughts about the young woman changed to this. ''Is she already as important as my late masters had been to me?'' He wondered, only to smile sadly at the thought of Shane and Dalia. Nevertheless, he noticed that he couldn''t answer the question because he was not sure how much he cared about Jennifer. Such thoughts were never something he had bothered about before. As such, they were new and completely unfamiliar to him. However, before he was able to continue thinking about Jennifer, or the fact that it might be safer for him to follow her, multiple things happened at the same time. First, at the thought of Jennifer, he got a bad feeling, and sensing something behind him, he instinctively turned around, only to see a total of four individuals that approached the Temple inheritance. ''What the hell are those?!'' Jason almost exclaimed as he saw four humanoid beings that had all awakened three cultivation veins. Seeing this, he felt jealous for a short moment, only to realise that he had no time to waste. Never in his life would he ignore a premonition, and both the thought of Jennifer and the four individuals he saw through the walls owing to his Emperor Eyes, made him have a premonition. Despite that, he didn''t immediately enter the portal of the Temple inheritance. Instead, he retracted his mana fluctuations, the Celestia aura, and Stigma, while Petri and Solaris were forced to return to the soul world. Sensing Jason''s emotional chaos they didn''t even try to resist knowing that it would only enrage Jason. With his entire being concealed, Jason couldn''t be found if nobody was actively searching for him. However, his assumption was proved incorrect as the four individuals who were all at the peak of the Prismar stage had just entered the Temple, the moment Jason hid behind a big pillar. A hue filled with a raging fury could be seen around all four beings, which told Jason that he shouldn''t offend them if possible. They were noticeably enraged, which he could not only see according to the hue but also their conversation that reverberated through the entire Temple. "It took quite a while before this fucking Tortoise resurfaced...but why does it have to be in such a weird area? Without the help of our Ancestors, we would have never found it¡­" One of the beings said, using a unique sound in between his speech. "Don''t complain, idiot. Let''s retrieve everything traitor Kairn stole and return to our origin planet. This place is not good for us. It''s just a waste of time!!" A second voice said, only for the third being to nod his head. "I agree, let''s finish everything as quickly as possible. If we wouldn''t have been punished for accidentally killing a few ''prodigies'' at the Mikalda gathering, there is no way we would be here, right?" Sighing deeply, the third being seemed to feel as if they had been punished for no credible reason. However, a fourth voice that sounded extremely arrogant resounded in the temple as he remarked, "Who told these idiots to be so weak? They should have known that offending us won''t do them any good! That''s what they get for underestimating us, Preactors!" When Jason heard all of this, he was confused, but at the same time, he knew that Jennifer was in danger, which caused him to nervously bite his lower lip. Chapter 699 - First Trial The Preactor race, which was the name Jason assumed them to have, was extremely weird. What he was able to see through the pillar using his Emperor Eyes was more than enough for him to be astonished, but that only increased as he took a peek, the moment they entered the portal. All four of them had greyish skin, necks that were more than 30 centimeters long, sharp teeth, a flat nose, their back was covered with scales, but the most important aspect was their seemingly endless anger, and three activated cultivation veins. Based on what he had overheard, Jason was able to figure out that the Inheritance came from the Preactor race, or to be precise someone who had betrayed them. At the same time, it hadn''t been difficult to tell that the four Preactors were prodigies, and underestimated because of their age. Adding it to the fact that they didn''t seem to like Manyr, or Kinra Island, he concluded that their race must be extremely strong. They had been talking about their origin planet and how it was better to stay there. As such, Jason comprehended that their home planet was better for them to cultivate. A punishment of entering an Inheritance site was something Jason had never heard, but based on the Preactors'' confidence, he could easily tell that they didn''t consider anything about the inheritance site as dangerous. This was not good, and Jason became only more worried about Jennifer. Unfortunately, he didn''t know whether the first trial inside the Inheritance site threw all participants in one area, or if it was a trial one had to solve alone. With that unknown factor in mind, Jason had to wait for some time before he rushed to the portal, ignoring the minuscule possibility that the pulling force he felt was just an illusion. Believing his body, Jason rushed through the portal, only to feel the familiar sensation of being teleported to a different location. Surrounded by darkness that was pierced through by bright shining stars, Jason could only hope that Jennifer had already passed a few trials, otherwise, everything would become extremely burdensome. Suddenly, he heard a robotic voice inside his head, originating from the trials. [Welcome to the Legacy trials of the Supreme Magician.] [Requirement of owning all three cultivation veins has not been met! Instead, Unique requirement has been met. [Welcome youngling of the Primordials!] [Prismar stage- One small (highly compressed) prismarine crystal detected! Level of Difficulty, adjusted!] The multitude of messages overlapped inside his mind, and Jason could barely decipher them by guessing what he was supposed to make of it. He didn''t know what Primordials had to do with him, but Jason simply wanted to connect that with the fact that he was half Celestia. However, it could also have something to do with Primal humans. Because of that, he was not sure where to put Primordial in the evolutionary cycle of humans. In the end, what was more important was that he was able to enter the Inheritance site, or Legacy trials, which was the name the robotic voice gave to the place he was just about to enter. The difficulty of his missions was tweaked, which was good to know. As such, he might be able to use his high strength to pass the trials in a flash. Unfortunately, it was not as easy as he was hoping for. In fact, Jason had yet to realise that certain trials were bound to be more difficult than he could have ever expected. He was not sure how much time had passed, but when he emerged on the other side of the portal, Jason found himself in the middle of a lush forest that had dense vegetation consisting of a variety of plants. [Trial-1: Defeat all beasts below the ''Mid-1st threshold of the Prismar stage'' - 72 hours left!] The robotic voice resounded in his mind again, but instead of thinking about the mission, Jason wondered where the voice came from. There was no thread of energy that led towards him or anything like that, and it was just the voice inside his head. It felt weird, but Jason could tell that the voice meant him no harm. Because of that, he was able to calm down really quickly. Taking a look around, the Emperor Eyes inspected his entire surroundings at a glance. This gave him the opportunity to figure out whether there were any dangers around him or not. Fortunately, there was no strong beast in his immediate surroundings giving Jason some time to figure out what he had to do. ''I have three days to kill every beast with less than four solidified prismarine crystals. However, this also means that there are stronger beasts!'' Jason quickly concluded the mission''s details, with the most important aspect being that there were stronger beasts in his surroundings. As such, he had to pay attention to the beasts he encountered. Nevertheless, he didn''t even think of taking it slow because he had to meet Jennifer as quickly as possible. She had a head start of an entire month, which was good because it would take some time before Jennifer would encounter the Preactors, but at the same time, it was annoying because Jason had to charge up to her. ''First, I shall find out what and how many beasts are there in my surroundings, and how large the space around me is!'' Jason didn''t believe that he was on an ordinary planet right now, otherwise, it wouldn''t make sense for him to be asked to defeat all beasts. As such, he had to be in a secret realm or a restricted zone in which he had to defeat the beasts. Thus, Jason exerted the Floating Sky technique before he rushed through the lush forest, which had dense foliage that didn''t even let sun rays pass through it and touch the ground. It was only at the moment he began to run that he noticed how much stronger he had become. Before, he hadn''t felt a big difference, but through the solidified prismarine crystal, many things about his mana control, and circulation had changed, let alone the fact that his entire being had been enhanced. Earlier, the 10,000 highly compressed liquefied drops of mana were equal to 30,000 common liquefied drops of mana. Meanwhile, a normal solidified prismarine crystal was equivalent to 25,000 drops of liquefied mana. However, now after Jason had advanced to the Prismar stage, solidifying his highly compressed liquefied drops of mana, the special prismarine crystal he had was equivalent to the strength of more than 100,000 drops of normal compressed liquefied mana drops! Adding his soulbond''s amplification that was almost negligible in face of the insanely high amount of strength he had acquired, Jason couldn''t help but feel amazing as he rushed through the forest. Ignoring the beasts he passed, Jason simply tried to increase his speed to the highest possible as he released his Celestia aura and Stigma, improving the Floating Sky movement technique''s efficiency. Through this, only a few hours passed before he was done inspecting the entire dome-like space he had entered. ''So...it''s like that!'' Jason thought with a scheming smile on his face as he returned to the center of the dome. Without truly caring about the dangers he brought forward, he set the entire forest on fire as he threw fingertip-sized flames in all directions. He knew the position of all beasts that had four or even five prismarine crystals, but Jason was not really fazed by them. As long as he gave his utmost efforts, he was confident of being able to defeat them. Thus, no beast inside the restricted space was strong enough to face him head-on. At least that was what he expected, ignoring the important factor that beasts were also beings that could have unique traits and abilities! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 700 - Fused Beast Burning down the forest was only a good decision as long as he was confident in defeating all kinds of opponents inside the small space he found himself in. Fortunately, that was the case, and Jason was eager to finish the first trial quickly. Using his Emperor Eyes, he had been able to figure out the vast majority of the inhabiting beast''s strong traits, even without intently looking at them. Thus, only a few hours had passed before the vast majority of the forest was reduced to ashes. Yet, at the same time, Jason hadn''t remained idle. Rather, he had already initiated his attack, killing hundreds of beasts. With his extraordinary strength, he looked unstoppable, and he didn''t face many issues with his prismarine crystal, his soulbond''s amplification, and multiple more factors that increased his strength further. Every single cell in his body was surging with seemingly endless power, and Jason didn''t even notice that he was tirelessly attacking the beasts, without paying any attention whatsoever to the kind of beast he was fighting. Adrenaline was kicking in coupled with the addicting sensation of being able to overwhelm opponents he had been unable to kill, or even injure before. Thus, the more he fought, the broader his smile became. At least until he reached a cavern entrance, from which a purple winged wolf emerged followed by two more wolves that looked exactly the same. Three meters tall, purple feathered wings, and lightning spreading through their fur. Yet, the moment they saw Jason, whose Celestia aura and Stigma were already fully unleashed, every single strand of their hair erected. Before, Jason would have just attacked them recklessly, but he got a bad feeling about the Winged lightning wolves. The largest one amongst them was four meters in height, and through the Emperor Eyes, Jason could clearly determine that it was a mutation. Owing to this mutation, it was innately stronger than the rest, but at the same time, he was able to clearly see something unique within the mutated wolf. Its constitution was different compared to the other two wolves, but it was quite different to his late masters, or anyone else he had encountered with unique constitutions. Rather, it was something that seemed to be connected to the other two wolves. The moment the large wolf saw Jason, it howled out, while releasing strong mana currents. All three wolves had three prismarine crystals within their mana core. As such, they were weaker than him, because his prismarine crystal had the strength of four normal ones. Nevertheless, he didn''t attack immediately because the mutation his eyes perceived caused him to halt in his tracks. However, this brief pause led him to lose his upper hand! Unfortunately, Jason noticed this too late, and the moment the mutated wolf''s body began to glow in a faint light, he saw something that shocked him greatly. At the same time, it made him act instinctively as he summoned Byakur and Solaris. Simultaneously, Petri entered his mana core, before his reptilian eyes and stigma were fused with Jason. What Jason saw, was in fact, a fusion between the winged lightning wolves! The moment the other wolf touched the body of the mutated wolf, they began to merge, enlarging in size while the head and tails grew out of the mutated wolf''s body. That was shocking because Jason had never expected something like that to happen, even less because the fused wolf now had two pairs of heads, tails, wings, and mana cores!! While the fusion between the two wolves had started, the third wolf was just about to join the fray. However, Jason, who had already acted instinctively, had emerged in front of it, slashing out with Byakur that was enveloped in a thick layer of Solaris'' flames. The moment Jason acted, his own fusion that took less than a second had been completed, allowing him to activate two Stigmas at the same time. Other than that, he had fully released the Celestia aura further increasing his mana circulation speed. As such, after activating the perfect mastery Floating Sky movement technique, Jason didn''t even need a full second to reach the lone wolf that didn''t expect the young human to react so quickly. Jason''s speed was a shocker owing to which the third wolf was unable to erect its defenses properly. Thus, Jason could easily slash at the winged lightning wolf forcing it to retreat. It had to release a tremendous amount of mana which it used to conjure lightning around it. With that, it could accelerate faster and to a much higher limit. Unfortunately, Jason was still faster than the wolf, and the race specific weakening curse followed by the petrification and abyssal curse were all much stronger than they had been before he advanced to the Prismar stage. As such he weakened and paralysed the retreating beast easily with the help of the three curses. Thus, his overall might had increased to a high level and his agility helped him end the third winged lightning wolf''s miserable life without hesitation, beheading it mercilessly. A fountain of blood gushed out of the severed neck, giving him the chance to turn around, finally facing the fused beast whose fusion was probably still underway. However, contrary to his expectations it had just finished fusing, only to realise that its brethren had been killed. Enraged by this, it had already appeared in front of Jason, with a much higher velocity than he expected. There were only two mana cores with each having three solidified crystals inside, but Jason felt that they were not added together, but it was as if they were multiplied with each other. Shocked by the beast''s pace, he could barely lift Byakur in order to deflect the claw that was ripping through the air, intending to kill him. When they collided, Jason was not even able to continue standing and was swept off his feet. As such, he was flung through the air, where he crashed into the ground more than a dozen meters away. However, instead of lying on the ground, Jason had already manifested Petri''s tail through which he had pushed himself up from the ground without the need to use his hands to get back on his feet. This allowed him to witness the winged two-headed lightning wolf''s pace with which it appeared in front of him. ''It is slower than I first thought!'' Jason suddenly noticed, giving him the chance to use Solaris in addition to the previous factors in order to increase his speed once again. With flames bursting out from behind Jason, he was propelled forward, allowing him to evade the wolf''s subsequent attacks by a hair''s breadth before he had finally adjusted to the weird sensation. His body was still not accustomed to being several times stronger than before. Even the last dozens of fights hadn''t been enough to help him adapt. As such, he was overjoyed to fight a powerful opponent against which he had to give his utmost efforts to even survive. It was insane, but that was exactly the thought that flashed through Jason''s mind as a bright smile emerged on his face the moment he used the combination of his curses and the abyssal effect to target the wolf with it! Through this, the dance of life and death of two powerful, fused beings had begun, shaking the small space in which they wreaked havoc. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 701 - Fight Of The Fused With a massive mana consumption, Jason stood facing the winged two-headed lightning wolf, who towered over him with a height of more than four meters. It was extremely fast and agile, but so was Jason! Using all means he had, he sent the combination of his curses and the abyssal effect at the wolf that hit it with full force, weakening it much more than he could have hoped for. As such, Jason couldn''t help but feel glad that his attack worked because he would have been much slower than it otherwise. The two mana cores within the fused wolf''s body were releasing a tremendous amount of mana, creating short bursts of lightning that targeted Jason like small snakes that were lunging after their prey. Though these attacks weren''t as lethal as the wolf hoped for owing to its drastically reduced strength hence, Jason was at least able to evade most attacks that would have injured him. A protective armor was created around him by Petri''s due to which Jason was almost completely unaffected by the lightning that lunged after him. Thus, he could easily pay more attention to launching attacks instead of acting defensively. It was more complex than he had initially expected, but while adjusting to his enhanced body, Jason couldn''t help but be glad that he had already fought against a few beasts before. They hadn''t been a challenge, but that was not important at the moment. Rather, the current situation forced Jason to overcome his physical strength that was still not perfect. This helped him even out everything, easing the entire tension that had been accumulated within Jason''s body in the time he had cultivated. Under normal circumstances, cultivating was not burdensome. Instead, it was a soothing feeling that helped the practitioner stay relaxed. Unfortunately, this was not the case for the Mythic Essence technique that caused unbearable pain, the entire time one cultivated it. As such, Jason was tense for the whole time, and only due to Solaris'' soothing flames that were often spread through his body was he yet to encounter issues. Despite that, fighting against an opponent that allowed Jason to go all out was even better to ease his tension, making him feel as if he had regained his freedom. Owing to this sensation, Jason didn''t even notice that the Celestia aura, which had been transmuted through the fusion with Petri, was enlarging while being swept through with his battle intent. With a radiant smile on his face that was hidden by the scaled armor that covered his entire body, Jason twisted himself the moment he saw compressed lightning currents that shot towards him. While he tried evading them, the lightning currents devastated the surroundings, stirring up the soil that flew through the air. At that moment, Jason got an idea. Being unable to directly attack the winged two-headed lightning wolf, despite the fact that the race specific weakening curse was up and running, Jason didn''t hesitate to test out new things. Owing to this free spirit of experimenting with all kinds of things, Jason manifested Solaris'' wings while being fused with Petri, only to conjure both icicles and fireballs which he threw towards the wolf, who didn''t even bother to deflect the attacks. Instead, it enveloped itself in small lightning bolts that crackled and lunged at everything that entered their range. This was something Jason had already seen before. Thus, he had already expected this defense technique of his opponent. Little did the wolf know that this move had been exactly what Jason had wanted to see. Amongst the icicles and fireballs, there were unique blazing icicles whose tip was extremely sharp and thick. Ordering the flames inside some of the icicles to explode the moment the lightning hit them, he saw the heavy tip shatter into thousands of shards, distracting the lightning wolf. This happened to owe to the lightning bolts that were attacking every single ice shard that flew through the air. Taking advantage of its distraction, Jason appeared in front of the wolf only a moment later, looking up to it before he slashed out at its front legs. Brandishing the weapon horizontally, he planned to pack a punch with his slash, which was created by using Solaris'' flames. At the same time, Jason enlarged Byakur at the last possible moment, creating an unforeseen situation, which the wolf had to face. Occupied with deflecting the countless ice shards, the majority of lightning currents were currently shooting out towards the top, leaving the wolf''s lower body unguarded. Despite that, the wolf''s reflexes were fast enough to notice Jason, making it flap its wings before it would be too late. Unfortunately, Jason had already taken this possibility into consideration. As such, his horizontal slash was altered as he jumped towards the wolf, ignoring the lightning currents that burned through his scaled armor. Searing through the wolf''s chest, Solaris'' flames charred its fur, only for a fraction of its essence to enter the wolf''s body. The moment it realised this, blood had already begun to splurt out of the large wound. Nonetheless, the severe injury it had sustained only enraged the winged two-headed lightning wolf that shot forward with the entire mana that was left in one of the two mana cores. The mana was more than enough to flood the surrounding three meters with lightning currents that hit every single scale on his body to no avail. Gritting his teeth, Jason was glad that Petri''s scales were much more powerful than he could have expected, which was extremely beneficial for every kind of situation. They seemed to have an elemental resistance too, which he had never noticed, otherwise, the scales of a Pryr beast at the 9th Lique stage would have never been strong enough to overcome the attack of a Low 1st threshold Prismar stage beast. Nevertheless, the elemental resistance was not perfect. That would be too advantageous, and fortunate on his side, allowing him to become omnipotent. Despite not being omnipotent, by fusing both Jason and Petri''s capabilities were enhanced which meant that every single body part that Petri manifested had the combined strength of both fused individuals, namely him and his soulbond. This included the strength of even the smallest capability which was the sole reason for Jason to be alive, as the race specific weakening curse had been enhanced to a much higher degree than usual. This was the essential difference between a common body part manifestation that was possible with a simple fortified soul conjunction and a true fusion of two beings. With his scale armor being burned, Jason had to give his utmost efforts to leave the wolf''s range, escaping the range of the lightning currents. Only then was he finally able to take a deep breath before a faint smile emerged on his face. His scales might have been burned, but that was not an injury worth mentioning. Instead, the wolf''s injury was much worse because it was a severe wound that worsened owing to Solaris'' essence flame that was burning the wolf from the inside. It took some time, but Jason was able to evade the wolf, whose speed was slowing down with time. As such, once Solaris had devoured the wolf''s lifeforce, while burning it from the inside, it succumbed to its injuries, leaving the severely burned Jason behind. However, just a moment before the wolf died, Jason''s charred scales fell to the ground, revealing his unscathed skin. ** After facing the winged two-headed lightning wolf, Jason had become more careful about the opponents he had to face. Luckily, he didn''t have to face another beast, which allowed him to finish the first trial in merely half the given time. This was mostly owing to the fact that he had burned the forest, while simultaneously avoiding the strongest beasts inside it. It hadn''t been necessary because the mutated wolf had been the strongest beast of the entire forest. It wasn''t fearsome owing to its sole strength, but the extraordinarily strong and unique ability to fuse with its brethren was what made it a powerful opponent. Because of that, Jason was glad that there hadn''t been more beasts with a mutation, even less, a dangerous one like the winged lightning wolf had. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 702 - Infinite Maze Jason was not sure if the Preactors had to finish the same Trials as him, but he assumed that they would pass them much more quickly than him. That would, at least, make some sense owing to the fact that they had been so confident in their own capabilities. Nevertheless, Jason was not sure how advantageous it would be if the three Preactors would be faster or slower than him. As such, he could only continue advancing through the trials. After Jason passed the first trial, the immediate surroundings around him twisted and he was teleported somewhere else as the familiar robotic voice resounded in his head. [First trial successfully completed. Required time [36H:42M:04S]! Good achievement. All beasts inside the dome have been defeated. Excellent achievement.] [Merit points according to efficiency and speed have been added to merit bank.] [Second Trial starts. Pass through the Infinite Maze. Allotted time [30 Days]] When Jason appeared in the area where the second trial was held, he saw nothing but grey stone walls. Standing in the center of a place with more than ten paths that led to different directions, Jason turned in all of the directions, trying to make sense of what was going on. ''I''m in the middle of a maze? That''s great!!'' He thought, with a bright smile one his face. Making use of his Emperor Eyes, Jason was able to see a rough blueprint of the Maze consisting of the stone walls in a radius of more than 50 meters around him. This was owing to the difference between energy fluctuations released by materials in comparison to the freely moving cultivation energies. Jason found this to be useful enough, but owing to his Emperor Eyes, he could clearly see all kinds of traps that had been placed inside the Maze. At the same time, there were beasts roaming in the Maze, increasing the difficulty to venture through it even more. Nevertheless, Jason was not worried because the beasts'' strength didn''t seem to be high enough to kill him in the blink of an eye. As such, he couldn''t help but feel his confidence increasing. ''I can definitely be faster than everyone else in this trial!!'' With the advantage he had received, Jason wanted to charge up to Jennifer as quickly as possible. In his opinion, this would be the best because his gut feeling told him so. The preactors wrathful hue worried Jason. And even without their unique hue, their combined strength, and what they had been saying to each other before entering the Inheritance site, was definitely worrisome. However, at the same time, the fact that the Preactors came from far away, just to retrieve something, spoke volumes about the value of the things they were supposed to take back. Because of that, Jason believed that Jennifer should definitely try to obtain said item, even if it meant that she would have to fight against the four Preactors! Unfortunately, without additional help, Jennifer would die in that fight, which was the reason Jason wanted to inform her about everything. Maybe, she would attempt to assassinate them, and defeat an opponent before they could even react. In the end, this was just something Jason imagined. It was unlikely that the Preactors would get assassinated so easily. They held themselves in high regard as they were considered to be prodigies of their race, which meant that they had some treasures that would protect their lives if their reflexes were too slow. With that in mind, passing the Inheritance trial as quickly as possible before leaving the Preactors behind would probably be the best. Unfortunately, Jason felt that this was not as easy as it sounded. Nevertheless, he could and would try his best as always! Now that his mind had been set in stone, Jason chose one of the many paths before he began to rush through the vast space that had nothing but walls, traps, and beasts. At the same time, he marked every path he took, trying to create a rough understanding of the maze in order to leave as quickly as possible. Once he found a dead-end, Jason would simply leave a different symbol to mark the path at the last intersection. Simultaneously, he would always take the left path in order to know where he had been and where he had yet to go. This would make everything much easier, and it should allow him to rush through the Maze without any delay. In the end, he was even able to find out whether some paths were dead-ends before he even entered them, owing to the Emperor Eyes that were currently utilised with a vast, yet, replenishable amount of mana. Thus, adding the other factors, Jason was able to advance through the Maze without any delay. Despite running through it for several days, he didn''t feel bored at all. There were all kinds of things he had to pay attention to and thus he was always alert. Yet, he could simply bypass all kinds of traps that had been laid out. Because of that, his advancement speed was terrifyingly high. He felt that the maze was perfectly suitable for him, which meant that he was likely to pass it with lots of time on hand. Unfortunately, that was not exactly useful because he didn''t really need to gain the approval of the inheritance site in order to receive the main reward. This was simply not needed because he didn''t have three cultivation veins to make use of the possible reward, to begin with. Nevertheless, Jason could also hand over whatever he might be rewarded with to Jennifer, if she required it. Nonetheless, he had yet to receive anything, and Jason hadn''t even completed the maze either. As such, he should first pass all trials before doing other stupid things. Unfortunately, it was only ten days after the second trial had started that Jason noticed something odd. He had already passed by many large intersections with constructions in them. Within these structures, he found all kinds of things, which Jason simply picked on a whim, not minding what exactly they were. It didn''t look any special, but according to his understanding of Inheritance sites, these may contain clues to help him pass the trials. Because of that, he studied the things he had picked up from the structures. There were photographs, books, and all kinds of objects, but nothing seemed to be extremely helpful. Only the seemingly logical fact that the maze was infinite just as the trial had said. Initially, Jason had believed that this statement was an exaggeration, but that didn''t seem to be the case at all. Instead, it was probably exactly as the trial said, just that the word ''infinite'' was misused. In the end, there had been all kinds of clues showing him something Jason had to pay attention to. However, it was only until he figured out that he had misunderstood the entire situation. There were specific things one couldn''t control in the Infinite maze, and one of those was the fact that everything looked the same adding to the confusion. The only difference was the buildings and structures that had slight dissimilarities making them look almost identical. And this was exactly what had allowed Jason to realise what had been wrong because he compared the items he had picked up inside all the constructions "All items are the same... is the maze resetting itself?!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 703 - Pass "All items are the same... is the maze resetting itself?!" Jason was not sure if his assumption was correct, but if the maze was resetting itself, he would only go around in circles, there wouldn''t be an end. Even years could pass without him passing the trials. As such, the second trial was not only designed to test one''s ability to survive inside the maze, but also rational thinking, as well as the ability to tell glamour apart from reality. It made one look at all kinds of things in detail, questioning if what was in front of them was real or an illusion. This impressed Jason, but at the same time, he was annoyed because he had wasted too much time. Yet, one could say that he had figured out everything much faster than others would probably be able to. However, that did little to ease his mind because he now had to figure out how to pass the Infinite maze trial. ''If it''s always resetting itself, there shouldn''t be a destination I can reach just like that. Rather, it''s probably more like I have to fulfill certain requirements for something to change. Either, the final destination is a physical place or just a portal...if it''s the latter, the portal I''m looking for should be manifested through runes, in some way. So...should I start looking for specific runes now?'' Jason tried to make up his mind, before acting. Even if he had wasted some time, his Emperor Eyes would help him catch up soon. That was because he didn''t have to search for any clues to pass the trials but specific runes that could create portals. His confidence grew a little because Jason had seen countless runes thousands of times during the last few months while reading many books stored in his spatial ring. World bridges interested him the most, which was partially the case because he had yet to take revenge on certain individuals of races that had made his life miserable! The coordinates of the planets they came from were imprinted on his mind, and even if it might just be an intermediate stop, Jason knew that he could easily find out more information in those places. However, in order to achieve this, he required more strength. Reaching the Specta stage would already be a great achievement because Jason assumed that the strongest beings of common races like the Ifrytor race would probably have at least one powerhouse at that stage. As for higher races, they would have more powerhouses at that stage. Yet, Jason was not sure how the numbers of powerhouses were at a higher stage, but it would simply take too long for most common and higher races to reach the stage after the Specta stage. Nevertheless, the My?ldra and Burane race were strong, and Jason knew that his revenge required lots of patience and extreme strength! Thus, it was even more important to finish the trials with the best possible result, even if the final inheritance was not suitable to him. Other rewards were still great enough to make him work even harder, while he also had other tasks to complete. With that in mind, Jason began examining all runes he could find with a distinct look in his eyes. Because there were thousands of runes, and he had to pay attention to each of them, it took Jason more than three days before the Infinite maze seemed to reset once again. However, in the meantime, Jason had found the answer to what he had been looking for. ''Each trap is connected to the other, and the building construction has one particular rune which activates a portal with the energy supplied by the traps?'' He asked himself, not sure if that made sense. Triggering traps would lose all of the mana that had been used to empower them. As such, if neither he nor any other beast would trigger even a single trap, the supply of energy would be more than enough to activate the rune inside the building construction. That had to be the case, otherwise, Jason was not sure why every single trap would be connected to the unique-looking house. Thus, he rushed towards it, the moment the Infinite maze reset, without triggering even a single trap before he activated the well-hidden rune. Somehow, it was as easy as that, which caused Jason to wonder whether he had just wasted his time, or if everything was different than it seemed. But that didn''t seem to be the case because every single trace of energy gathered inside the house, only to fully activate the rune. Through this, the traps were now void of energy while a small blue shining portal appeared in front of Jason. He was not sure how others were supposed to find the rune inside the small house, let alone find out that every single trap was connected to it, providing the necessary energy to create the portal. However, that was not his problem, rather, it was his fortune because it was clear that the others would take longer to finish the same trial. With that in mind, he leaped through the portal, entering the third trial without any hesitation. [Second trial successfully passed. Time required [14D:2H:15M:59S]. Extraordinary achievement! 150% necessary energy supplied/No trap triggered. Excellent achievement!] [Merit points according to efficiency and speed have been added to merit bank] Hearing the voice inside his head, Jason didn''t even feel uncomfortable anymore. Instead, he grew accustomed to it, listening to everything intently, while eagerly awaiting the next message about the third trial. Yet, he was surprised to receive the next message. [Third trial will start soon. Teleportation towards the gathering point was delayed due to unforeseen circumstances in the trials of other participants!] Jason was not pleased to hear this. Instead, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit worried. From the looks of it, the Preactors had either done something they shouldn''t, without caring about the aftermath, or they had passed specific trials by unfair means. The trials were supposed to test someone according to their suitability to specific inheritances. However, at the same time, most inheritances were simply testing the overall capabilities of certain individuals, and as long as they crossed the threshold, they passed. Jason didn''t know the exact requirements, but he knew that passing the trials with a better score was logically considered to be better than passing it by narrowly crossing the threshold. As such, it might even be better to do their best if one wanted to receive the final inheritance. However, this was exactly what confused Jason because the Preactors were obviously trying to retrieve what seemed to have been taken away from them. As such, they were likely to try to pass the trials with the highest possible score. In the end, Jason didn''t know what had caused the delay, and he could only wait. He was not sure how much time had passed, but it didn''t feel long as he received another notification into his mind as the robotic voice rang through his head. [Third trial has started. Demonstrate your talent and unique features within the following hours. After everything is shown, the third trial will be concluded!] Jason was not sure what exactly he had expected for the third trial, but he hadn''t expected to hear something so vague. As such, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit astonished as he summarised the requirements to pass the trials until now. ''First combat strength, and survivability, then logical thinking, and perception, and now talent and trust to reveal my secrets? What else will this inheritance test me...my honesty or what?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 704 - Superior Jason felt uncomfortable with the choice of words the robotic voice had used to announce the third trial''s task. ''After everything is shown'' implied that he had to reveal all of his hidden traits, which was definitely not what he wanted, even to pass the trial. However, this was only a small issue in face of the multitude of hand-sized spheres that were levitating inside the room he had been teleported to. The three orbs in the center stood out from the rest and one of them looked eerily familiar to Jason. "Mana mastery orb!" he blurted out only to realise what the orbs right next to it were. ''Don''t tell me I need to insert spirit force and primordial energy into the orbs to let my mastery in those two cultivation veins be tested?'' With ''everything is shown'' it was given that he had to reveal his talent in all three cultivation paths because to enter the Inheritance site, he was required to have all three veins. However, in his case, this had been different because Jason was able to enter the Inheritance site just because of his heritage, or at least that was what he understood based on the first messages he had received from the robotic voice. There were all kinds of other things he had to pay attention to right now, but revealing all of his secrets wouldn''t be a child''s play in comparison to showing something he didn''t even possess! For a short moment, Jason felt desperate, asking himself how he was supposed to leave the Inheritance site if he could not even pass the third trial. There was also no countdown which meant that he wouldn''t be thrown out if he failed the trial because there was no indicator of what a failure in this trial even was! This was bad, to put it simply, and Jason couldn''t help but acknowledge that he felt a little bit anxious. However, just a moment later, the thought of Spyro and Petri came into his mind, which made him smile lightly. Wasting no time, he quickly summoned his soulbonds who looked at him in confusion before Jason explained the entire situation neatly. Afterward, Jason approached the orbs, whose content was clearly visible to him due to his Emperor Eyes. Sharing his sight with both, he enabled them to see everything about their own mastery orb clearly. Through this, they could think of an approach to pass their mastery orb, and Jason did the same. That was important because the mastery orb in front of him was extremely difficult to solve owing to the countless knots it had. He had never seen something as complex if he were to exclude world bridges. As such, he realised that he had to pay more attention to passing the test. That was, even more, the case because Jason couldn''t rely on Petri, let alone Spyro to pass the test, even if they had enough time. Because of that, Jason was the first to begin, showing his soulbonds how it had to be done as he shared every single experience and detail he perceived and saw! In the end, it took him more than two hours to finish the test, and it was only then that he noticed that both his soulbonds had already started with their own mastery test. A few more hours passed in which Jason continued to share the inside of both orbs while guiding Spyro, who was struggling the most. It was a newborn Spirit, after all, and Jason couldn''t simply expect it to be perfect from the day it was born. As such, once all three mastery tests were completed, he was not astonished about Spyro''s Spirit mastery result. [Mana mastery- Superior; passed!] [Spirit mastery- average; failed!] [Primordial energy mastery- above-average - passed!] Both of his soulbonds had still not matured and were growing. This meant that their control over Spirit force and Primordial energy was still improving. He might have failed one test, but even if that was already enough to make him fail everything, he would have at least found a way out of the third trial! Nevertheless, the fact that Petri passed the test was already shocking to Jason because the Basilisk had perfectly employed the information he had been provided with. As such, it had been possible for Petri to reach an above-average mastery in an extremely difficult test. In the end, the three tests had evaluated the time required to fully untie the knots of intertwined strands of energy. With that in mind, Petri might have finished the task barely sometime before he reached the maximum time limit, but that did not matter, having passed the test was the essential point! Even Jason couldn''t help but feel that it was tens of times more difficult than the most difficult mana mastery orb he had solved. However, that was not exactly impossible to happen because the last time he had tested his mana mastery was on Argos at the liberation tournament! As such, it was surprising that he received a Superior mana mastery at a test that was supposed to be extremely difficult to pass. In the end, it would be frustrating to leave the Inheritance site right now without having met and reported everything to Jennifer. But, the worst-case scenario at least gave him the opportunity to leave, which was better than being imprisoned forever! Because of that, he couldn''t complain as he continued to reveal his Celestia aura and Stigma, unleashing them to the fullest extent. Following that, he used the curses and his abyssal ability, only to add their combined force. Even after doing all of the above the third trial was still requesting him to reveal more. This was annoying, thus Jason simply revealed all his remaining capabilities. Fusing with Petri, he simultaneously summoned Solaris, and Byakur, only to release his entire mana that was not only much stronger than others but also four times more in quantity. Yet, despite having shown everything, the trial was still not done and the robotic voice didn''t resound in his mind. Thus, he summoned Artemis, who was in her cocoon, followed by his entire soul world which he manifested inside the space around him. Right now, he just wanted to pass the exam and leave. As such, he revealed his soul world that had reached a size Jason didn''t even know. Jason only knew that it was gigantic, and still growing, which was why he had never bothered about figuring out the exact size. Its size had never mattered to him, after all! After the soul world had been summoned, the entire space around him twisted, because the small dome he was in was too small to accommodate the soul world in its entirety. Because of that, Jason had to retract it a moment later, followed by allowing his soulbonds to leave with the soul world, where they returned to. However, even after all of this, the trial was still not completed, which made him angry and confused at the same time. "What else is there for me to show? It''s not like I concealed anything...My eyes, the soul world, my soulbonds, the Celestia aura, all Stimas, my highly compressed prismarine crystal, the curses, what else is unique about me?!" Utterly confused, Jason required almost a whole hour before he realised that he had forgotten something he had learned a long time ago. ''Don''t tell me it''s the pressure I comprehended??'' This shouldn''t be the case, but Jason nonetheless released his pressure without using a single mana particle. Yet, this didn''t seem to be the right answer, only to give Jason a hint that caused him to frown. "It cannot be the chaos attribute, or the soul fraction of the mysterious beast, right? The chaos attribute shouldn''t be counted as my unique feature¡­." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 705 - Back Together I don''t believe that it really was the chaos attribute that I had to reveal...how the hell is that supposed to be my own trait?! After revealing the chaos attribute, Jason had exposed every single secret, or at least the Inheritance site accepted that he did so. As such, he was once again enveloped in white light as the space around him twisted. Only a moment later, the already familiar robotic voice returned. [3rd trial has been completed successfully. The number of unique traits exceeded the highest threshold. Congratulations; Superior achievement attained!] [Teleportation to the 4th, and second last trial, has been initiated.] [Fourth trial; Endure the ever-increasing pressure until you lose consciousness!] The message of the fourth trial astonished Jason a lot because he didn''t expect the trial to have anything to do with Pressure. ''Pressure again? Why are so many trials even focusing on this?...it''s not like I can use it well in order to fight stronger opponents... But this time it probably includes all three energies releasing pressure¡­could this be a technique handed out to those that pass the trials as a reward?'' This would make sense, but at the same time, it was not worth being the main Inheritance. At least, Jason was pretty sure that a technique on how to release pressure was worth being the most valuable reward in an Inheritance site, yet not the main inheritance! For the main reward in an inheritance, there were only a few things worth enough to be mentioned, including the forceful alteration of one''s body structure! As such, those Inheritances were one-of-a-kind, or at least very close to that! However, in the end, none of that should be an issue for Jason, because his Celestia aura and Emperor Eyes were proficient in dispersing pressure around him as long as he wanted that to happen! He was not sure how well this would work for all three energies, but he was not worried about it at all. Yet, what made him feel a little bit iffy was the fact that the Fourth trial would only end when one lost consciousness. With that in mind, Jason couldn''t help but feel that something bad was about to happen. His eyes fell on Jennifer''s silhouette further away from him, the moment he appeared at the location where the fourth trial was held. No sooner had he appeared, the pressure of three intertwined energies enveloped Jason, forcing him to his knees before he could even react. His muscles groaned and his joints creaked, and it was only when Jason was finally able to release the Celestia aura, followed by inserting mana into the Emperor Eyes that the pressure dispersed. He knew that this was only a temporary solution, but it would definitely help him stay conscious for more than a week. That should be enough to pass and enter the last trial. Yet, this was not why he had entered the Inheritance site of the three energies, to begin with. His reason had been Jennifer and given that she was endangered due to the sudden appearance of the Preactors. As such, he had to report everything to her. He knew he wouldn''t be a match for their strength but he at least hoped to stay by her side and possibly help her figure out how they could defeat the Preactors. What he lacked in muscle he made up with strategic thinking so he hoped he could find a way out without being heavily injured, let alone dying in the same attempt. Because of that, Jason got up from the ground, only to notice that the pressure on him was not completely dispersed. However, it was not high enough to make him feel like he was suffocating. Thus, he didn''t bother to insert more mana into his Emperor Eyes. Instead, Jason quickly approached Jennifer, who was fully concentrated while trying to endure and simultaneously comprehend the three merged pressures that filled the area around her. Jason felt that the pressure in Jennifer''s immediate surroundings was extremely strong, which was a bad sign, considering that she was likely to be facing four opponents that had similar combat prowess to her, soon. The moment Jason appeared around Jennifer, her silver eyes opened instinctively as her reflexes took over. Within an instant, her fingers curled around the two daggers in her hand, as she got up from the ground. She released all three of her energies and disappeared from his sight. A quarter of a second later, Jason felt a cold blade graze his neck as he heard a question. "Who are you, and why are you taking on the appearance of my friend!?" At first, Jason didn''t understand what Jennifer was doing. However, after a few seconds, he realised that she didn''t believe that he could enter the Inheritance site owing to its requirement, which was logical. Yet, it made the current situation a little bit more difficult to solve. As such, he tried to speak, which was hardly possible owing to the blade that cut into his neck, causing a few droplets of blood to trickle down. "Jen¡­.mana fluctuations¡­" Not being able to say anymore, Jason hoped that Jen would at least stop exerting pressure on the blade she held against his neck. Jason knew it pretty well that the strength she used was not something he could easily endure, let alone block. He might have advanced to the Prismar stage, but he had a long way to go to reach her strength! Hearing Jason''s voice and his words, she couldn''t help but look at his mana fluctuations. However, that made her only more suspicious because Jason''s mana fluctuations were truly exactly the same as she recalled. Despite that, he shouldn''t have been able to enter the Inheritance site, to begin with! Yet, somehow, she felt that it was odd, and she retracted her dagger a little bit as she asked. "If you are really Jason, how did you even enter the Inheritance site? This was impossible for you earlier!!" Jason had expected her to ask a different question that only he could know the answer to in order to verify his identity, but that was not what Jennifer asked. Because of that, Jason didn''t answer for a moment only to blurt out, "After advancing to the Prismar stage, the Celestia aura swept through the temple and I felt the same suction force you felt. However, that was not enough reason for me to enter the temple inheritance because I don''t have the innate talent of possessing three cultivation veins. As such, I had planned to leave and search for my own inheritance, until four Preactors arrived, entering temple owing to their three cultivation energies!" Being able to speak properly once again, Jason made proper use of this opportunity, giving her a brief summary that caused Jennifer to halt in her tracks. ''Celestia aura? Preactors¡­.three cultivation energies?'' In the end, Jennifer was utterly confused, but it was only now that she sensed his aura once again, and a moment later, Jennifer''s eyes locked with Jason''s as he turned his head towards her. They were glowing in the overly familiar colors, and deep within them, Jennifer could detect kindness and all other emotions that had been hidden in the depth of his soul. In her entire life, she had only come across a few people in her life whose eyes were the entrance to their soul, hiding or revealing certain emotions, and Jason was one of those few. Adding his dense mana fluctuations, the unique aura he released, and the golden glow, she couldn''t believe that he was not an illusion, let alone someone from a different race trying to mimic his appearance and every single characteristic. No matter how proficient one was, it was simply not possible to do something like this to near perfection. As such, Jennifer completely retracted her daggers, giving Jason some space to breathe, only to hear him complain. "Do I have to endure something like that every single time, I want to save you from a miserable death?!" Jason''s complaint confused her, but at the same time, she recalled what he had said earlier. "What did you mean with the Celestia aura? That''s not your aura, right? And who or what exactly are the Preactors? Did you see them, and how are you so sure that they will pass all the trials up to the fourth? The first three trials were already difficult, and I almost didn''t make it out of the maze!" Listening to her, he couldn''t help but feel confused because she didn''t even wonder how he had passed the trials while saying that the others wouldn''t pass them easily. Either she didn''t notice that he had passed the same trials, or took him to be much stronger than he had believed Jennifer would. In the end, this was not the important factor, and he also ignored the question about his aura, as he explained everything he had noticed about the Preactors. This took him less than 10 minutes, and when he was done, Jennifer looked at him in doubt. "So...you want to tell me that four Preactors at the peak Prismar stage, with three awakened cultivation veins, entered the Inheritance site that was created by one of their traitors, who stole something. Other than that, it was just their punishment which forced them to obey their superior, who sent them to the Inheritance site to take their treasures back to their home planet that is also much better than Manyr? ...That sounds...very unique¡­" Jennifer didn''t even question whether he was stating the truth or not, and simply accepted everything Jason had said. "Yes, and they''re extremely dangerous because they seem to be filled with wrath, and act impulsive, otherwise, they wouldn''t have attacked and killed prodigies at a gathering event¡­. That is under the assumption that what I heard was true!" Jason felt like adding this because it was the major reason for him to follow Jennifer into the Inheritance site. He didn''t want her to be injured, let alone die because of the Preactors. As such, he had planned to finish the trials and leave them as quickly as possible. However, from the looks of it, the fourth trial was shattering his plan because they were unable to leave without losing their consciousness. At that moment, Jennifer smiled schemingly as she said, "If that''s the case, let''s kick their butts. If we cannot kill them, let''s force them to lose their consciousness the moment they arrive...that is, if they''re really as confident as you said!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 706 - Seals Jennifer''s confidence caused Jason to look at her in doubt. Even though she was strong, they were talking about knocking out four beings that originated from an even greater planet, with roughly the same combat prowess as Jennifer! That was not something they could do just because Jennifer deemed it easy, and Jason couldn''t help but think that she was underestimating the threat. However, her next words were not something Jason expected to hear. "If you use your chaos attribute just like last time, you should be able to release a similar effect as you did with Prince Leo, right? Considering that you are much stronger now, even I shouldn''t be unfazed by the combined attack of your curses, the abyssal effect you told me about, and the chaos attribute!" These words caused Jason to stiffen because he didn''t expect that Jennifer was seriously considering his participation in this fray. However, that was not all because it looked like she wanted to gamble on him and see whether he would be able to achieve the same feat as before. Seeing the dumbfounded look on his face, Jennifer couldn''t help but smile weirdly as she asked, "Can you not do that?" She didn''t sound mad or annoyed at all. It was more like Jennifer knew that the chaos attribute was not exactly his own, just a weird additional trait that he had within him, and could control it to a certain extent. Because of that, she had secretly hoped that Jason could do the same feat over and over again, as long as he met certain requirements. Yet, from the look on his face, it seemed to be a little bit more complicated. This caused her to feel that executing her earlier plan was more difficult than expected. Thus she had already begun to think of other solutions to stay inside the Inheritance site without being killed or losing on the merit points she had accumulated. However, it was not necessary to completely scrap her earlier plan because Jennifer''s idea had been decent! "I can use the chaos attribute, but I''m not exactly sure whether or not this will be enough. I don''t feel as angry or emotionally affected as I was feeling at that time¡­" It was already a good sign that Jason was confident to use the chaos attribute once again, but the second half of his line pertaining to his emotions was rather disadvantageous. Not knowing how strong his attack truly was, it could either be enough or a complete disaster. This uncertainty was not good, but Jennifer thought that it was better than nothing. As such, she would be the last one to complain, owing to the fact that she was the reason Jason even entered the Inheritance site. Despite him being evidently weaker than the four Preactors, he wanted to help. This seemingly simple gesture made Jennifer feel warm in her heart which made her smile vibrantly. Jason, who didn''t realise what Jennifer was thinking about, could only look at her in doubt, wondering what made her smile in a tricky situation like the one they were in. Thinking about his own capabilities, Jason realised that there were many minor seals he could destroy. Before, his cultivation speed had been too slow to even consider breaking one minor seal without possibly endangering him. However, that wasn''t the case anymore. Rather than cultivating too slowly, the number of seals on him seemed to be too much. What this meant was that Jason had never truly thought that he would be able to increase his cultivation speed to the extent that allowed him to break multiple seals at once. But that was now happening, and the thought that he would never be able to break all seals that were put on his bloodline disappeared too! Yet, it was exactly this that caused Jason to feel that the Celestia bloodline was even more dangerous to a human halfling like him than he had initially thought. There were thousands of minor seals on his body, some were bigger, some smaller, and Jason could faintly tell that those that were deeper within his bloodline were stronger. However, right now, he had only destroyed a few of them. This hadn''t bothered him before because he had never put much thought on the seals, but after clearly inspecting the helix in the depths of his conscience, Jason felt that Luna''s reaction about his revelation of being a Celestia was suitable. ''Every single seal I release will strengthen my Celestia aura, the Stigma, possibly even my soul world, my sensitivity towards mana, and much more!'' Jason realised. His mind subconsciously began pondering over the question of who the mysterious being that had sealed his bloodline truly was. The being, whose soul fraction was imprinted into his mind, had to be an existence whose power is either on par with the Celestias, or its power was simply perfectly suitable to seal Jason''s bloodline. In the end, the answer remained hidden, and Jason''s mind returned to the more important question. "How many seals can I break, and how long will I be able to lock the four Preactors in their place, giving Jennifer the necessary time to act?" Jason voiced out his concern loudly without noticing. This caused Jennifer to look at him in confusion. Yet, before she could even say something, Jason averted his gaze, locking his eyes with her as he asked, "If they cannot move, how much time do you need to knock them out?" Jason didn''t even try to think about killing them because they were likely to have automatic protective mechanisms, like specific medallions that would protect them if they were about to die. As such, knocking them out would be the easiest way to force them outside the Inheritance trials. Afterward, the Preactors might wait outside the temple in order to ambush them, but during that time Jennifer could receive the inheritance, and become much stronger that would help her in defeating the four Preactors. At least, that was the plan Jason had put together within a few moments. There was nothing special about his plan, but he felt that it was the most suitable. "If they''re rendered incapable of defending themselves, let alone move from their place, I need two seconds, at most three, and that is already the maximum!!" Jennifer answered reluctantly, not sure if she was demanding too much, but seeing Jason simply nod his head made her worries disperse in thin air. "I don''t know if I can shackle them down for three seconds, but two seconds are feasible! They won''t be able to budge, so kick their butts and knock them out once they arrive." In the end, neither Jason nor Jennifer were sure if the four Preactors would arrive at the exact same time or the same location, or if all of them would even make it through the first few trials! Jason didn''t think that they would face all the trials in a group, but the possibility was still there. As such, enduring the pressure around them, both Jennifer and Jason created multiple plans. Several days passed, and they had already started to focus on their other task, which was to endure the pressure. At the same time, Jason was cultivating, trying to make use of the extremely dense, pure, and high quantity of mana around him. If he wanted to be on par with Jennifer, he was required to cultivate more, longer, and faster than she was doing. His cultivation speed might be faster than hers, but Jennifer would soon undergo her first bloodline awakening, of both bloodlines, at the same time. If she were to overcome this painful experience, her strength would skyrocket, and reach a level that was similar to her cultivation speed. As such, Jason wanted to reduce the gap between his strength and hers as much as possible before Jennifer advanced to the Ascension stage. He was also not sure what kind of Aeus and Devir her parents were, but according to her cultivation speed, they had been extremely talented. This made him wonder what exactly Jennifer''s story was because she seemed to hate both the Aeus and Devir race equally which was weird. ''Just what happened to you, Jennifer?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 707 - Theyre Here The pressure enveloping both Jennifer and Jason had increased substantially. Apparently, Jennifer had also entered the fourth trial only a week before he did, which was interesting. As such, he had been much faster than expected, giving them one, possibly two more weeks until the others would arrive. However, this calculation was slightly off because the worst-case scenario Jason had imagined, truly happened. To their great misfortune, the four Preactors had been thrown into the exact same trials with each other by their side. This gave them the chance to fight much stronger opponents owing to their numerical advantage. Because of that, their first trial had been a joke, and the second trial was something they quickly got the hang of as well. They weren''t as fast as Jason had been, but still faster than Jennifer, who had to comprehend the essence of the maze all by herself. Yet, what took the four Preactors the longest was to reveal all of their hidden cards. Apparently, they hadn''t wanted to disclose everything, and the four of them forgot a simple, yet strong point about themselves, which they didn''t show either- their Wrath. Under normal circumstances, wrath was an extremely bad trait to possess. However, that was not exactly the case for the Preactors, who were strengthened the more they released their accumulated wrath. This was extremely terrifying, and one of the most basic traits Preactors had, but in their haste to complete the trials as quickly as possible they forgot to showcase it to the Inheritance site. Thus, it took them several days before they passed the third trial, only to emerge in the fourth trial, a few days after Jason had. Without the delay, they would have finished everything before Jason''s time, but the two young halflings'' fortune was simply too great in this regard. Jason had already accumulated lots of mana, and hundreds of liquefied mana drops had been gathered within his body. There were multiple ways to cultivate while being at the Prismar stage. Either, one gathered mana, liquefied it before compressing it directly, or one waited before compressing the entire required amount of liquefied mana drops. This was what Jason tried to do, knowing that he couldn''t completely focus on creating the foundation of his second solidified prismarine crystal. Right now, he had to also focus on his surroundings, and be ready to react the moment the Preactors arrived. As such, his attention had to be split which was not feasible during the solidifying process of prismarine crystals. Rather, it would harm him if a mistake were to occur. Meanwhile, Jennifer was trying to comprehend the pressure of the three energies, as it was something that could help her in the future. She was extremely interested in it, and only when both felt something weird, they stopped whatever they were doing. Getting up from the ground, Jason and Jennifer walked towards each other with serious expressions as they nodded their heads. Both knew that the Preactors were about to arrive, and oddly enough, Jason felt that he knew where exactly they would appear. Owing to this prediction, he turned to face a particular direction, which Jennifer noticed. Even she felt a sensation to what Jason suddenly felt, as faint energy currents manifested on the exact spot Jason was eyeing. ''How did he know?'' Jennifer wondered, but there was no time to ask. As such, she readied herself to fight once she saw the gray skin of the first Preactor that emerged, followed by the other two. They were exceedingly calm, and looked around confidently, only for their eyes to widen the moment they encountered both Jennifer and Jason. Not expecting to see someone else in the Inheritance site, they were taken off-guard and Jennifer used the moment to appear in front of them. Before they had time to know who was in front of them or what was happening, Jennifer lifted her right leg, kicking out at the neck of the closest Preactor, whose reflexes took over his body. He wished to evade the kick before initiating a counter attack on the young woman who released tremendous energy currents of three intertwined energies and the repulsive darkness and light affinity. Yet, before he could even take a single step or twist his body, the Preactor saw a bright golden light shining from behind the young woman. Instinctively, his eyes were drawn to Jason, who seemed to devour the oblivious Preactor''s entire being. The moment Jason realised that all four Preactors were teleported at the same time, and in the same spot, he couldn''t help but smile lightly. It might have been a one-sided fight had he not sensed anything, but owing to his Emperor Eyes and distinct senses, Jason had foreseen where the teleportation would occur before anyone else. As such, he didn''t hesitate even for a single moment as he opened all the loose seals that were put on the Celestia bloodline. Jason didn''t count them, but there had to be over 20 seals that were broken at the same time. Through this, an enormous amount of energy was released, followed by the remnants of the chaos attribute that had maintained the seals for a long time. His body began to bulge owing to the energy that swirled through him. Yet, instead of being released outside, it remained inside his body, sweeping through every single cell within him, only to strengthen them. At that moment, Jason unleashed his Celestia aura that began to flare up, enveloping a huge radius spanning several meters around him. Following that, his Stigma was fully unleashed even without him actively doing something. Through this, Jason felt how his entire body began to itch due to the ginormous energy waves as he led them towards his eyes. Inserting every trace of excessive mana, the chaos attribute, and other remnants of whatever had been used to seal his bloodline, Jason''s eyes began to glow in a vibrant golden color. Yet, the more energy filled his eyes, the higher the pressure he felt became, and he noticed that blood leaked from his eyes. However, instead of minding this, he simply ignored the pain that began to suddenly spread through his body. Having released every single seal until his body couldn''t take it anymore, Jason''s strength skyrocketed as his physique was refined over and over again, only for the distinct aura to envelop his entire body. Through this, Jason looked like a being entirely clad in a golden color with silver, divine streams radiating from him. These streams gathered above his forehead as a faint halo emerged. At that moment, he released the entire stored energy as he exerted the petrification, and race specific weakening curse, in addition to the abyssal curse that was overflowing with the chaos attribute. All of this was released in one massive attack that ravaged every single being he targeted, affecting them immediately. Jennifer had only felt the sudden surge of energy behind her, which had shocked her greatly. However, knowing that it was Jason''s doing, she didn''t mind it. Yet, the moment she wanted to kick out at the Preactors, a shocking scenario occurred. ...How?... __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 708 - Overbearing Just as Jennifer was about to kick out at the first of the four Preactors their body appeared to petrify before their eyes turned black as they disintegrated into countless manifested energy particles. They hadn''t been killed, but forcefully expelled from the Inheritance site, yet, she hadn''t done anything to achieve this. As such, Jennifer couldn''t help but feel odd. At that moment, a thunderous roar reverberated in the entire space around them, as the ground began to violently shake, which caused her to turn around to Jason. ''Did...Jason deprive them of their consciousness??'' She assumed in shock, only to see that his appearance had drastically transformed. "Just what did I request him to do?!" Jennifer blurted out subconsciously, her eyes trained on Jason. His aura enveloped him tightly, merging with Jason, and making it seem as if his skin turned partially golden-silverish. Blood leaked from his eyes that had turned pitch-black, while the chaos attribute swept over, creating torment waves of energy that pushed Jennifer, forcing her to take a few steps back. Never had she sensed such terrifying energy, even less from someone with a much lower cultivation base than hers. Because of that she was already shocked, yet that was not everything about Jason''s appearance that had changed. While his Celestia aura had become even stronger, materializing in a distinct golden color that had silverish strands, his Stigma seemed to have enlarged too. However, that was not all because the most apparent change in Jason''s appearance was the halo that had manifested slightly above his forehead. It released unfamiliar energy waves which Jennifer could only faintly recall from somewhen in her past. Despite that, she was not sure if her memory was even correct. ''Is that...divine energy?'' Confused about everything she could see in front of her, Jennifer''s only thought was that Jason must be bearing a huge burden, just to defeat the four Preactors. This was not an easy feat, and considering that he looked like he had just ascended to God-hood, only to bleed profusely out of his pitch-black eyes, the situation seemed to be not as great as one could hope for. The Preactors may have been defeated, but the energy leaking from Jason didn''t subside. As such, Jennifer wanted to help Jason by all means. She was not sure why exactly she wanted to help him by all means possible, but her head and heart told her to do so. Unfortunately, just as she took a few steps to approach Jason once again, she made the mistake of lifting her head and looked straight into the pitch-black eyes. Somehow, she was transfixed to the spot as his eyes seemed to devour her. Only a moment later, which had felt like an eternity, Jennifer was released from this sensation. It was then that she noticed that her legs had given in, causing her to slump to the ground without being able to resist it. She hadn''t even been the target of Jason''s attack but had almost lost her consciousness, just like the four Preactors. As such, Jennifer realised that not only was Jason''s strength much higher than she had assumed before, but also the burden of unleashing this strength was too much to handle. In the end, Jason had to face the consequences for acting the way he did. This was something he had been fully aware of, thus, he gave his utmost efforts to endure and overcome the destructive effect of the suddenly released energy. While distributing the attack on all of his four targets uniformly, Jason realised that the chaos attribute that had been used to maintain a few seals was not enough to defeat all four Preactors. At the same time, Jennifer''s strength was too unreliable so if he had been unable to shackle down all four of them, the results would have been devastating for them. As such, he had given it his all, ignoring everything else, to protect himself, and Jennifer, who he had grown fond of. If Jennifer wouldn''t have been close to him, Jason wouldn''t even have bothered to rescue her, let alone enter the Inheritance site. But, despite knowing that there were four opponents, who were likely to kill them, if they were to encounter each other he took the risk. It was just that both Jason and Jennifer didn''t realise how important they had become to each other. As such, while Jason had used every single trait of his to protect the two of them, Jennifer now wanted to help Jason by all means, knowing that he was under tremendous pain. Approaching him slowly, Jennifer realised that the energy released by Jason was slowly being regulated. Or, at least, that was what it seemed like because Jason didn''t expel the energy anymore. Instead, he did something crazy the moment he noticed that Jennifer was affected and almost thrown out of the Inheritance trials due to him. Using his energy to strengthen every single cell inside his body once again, Jason forced the remaining chaos attribute under his control as he enveloped it with the Celestia aura. Jason didn''t care whether the chaos attribute belonged to the mysterious being whose soul''s fraction was imprinted into the deepest part of his consciousness, or someone else; the moment it was released into his body, he should have taken it as his. This should have been obvious, but Jason hadn''t done so. Instead, he had pushed away from the chaos attribute, only using it to enhance the abyssal effect of his Emperor Eyes. Yet, Jason''s opinion had changed, and he would annex every ounce of the remaining chaos attribute that was uncontrollably leaking through his Emperor Eyes, without an exception. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on doing so and the uncomfortable and eerie sensation around Jennifer vanished, only to leak around the area of Jason''s head, or to be precise his eyes. Forcing it to stay inside his eyes, the Celestia aura started to annex the Chaos attribute by using the overwhelming characteristics of a true Celestia, and a small margin of the remaining energy. At the same time, the other part of the remaining energy was still utilised to be circulated through his body, invigorating Jason, while simultaneously causing him unbearable pain. By unleashing more than 20 minor seals that had been put on his body, the energy that would normally be used to maintain the seals, and the Bloodline had been released at once. As such, it was already a wonder that Jason was able to control everything freely as if he was not even noticing the pain as his insides were being torn and twisted. In the end, he felt it, but that didn''t mean he had the time to pay anymore attention to it. Instead, using every trace of energy to annex the remaining chaos attribute, while further strengthening his entire being, Jason was slowly growing stronger. He was also growing accustomed to both, the overbearing energy and the chaos attribute that was slowly intertwined with paper-thin golden threads. He was not sure how much time had passed, but what Jason realised was that the golden halo made out of the purest energy didn''t disintegrate. As such, he wanted to actively destroy it in order to use the energy to further strengthen his body. Jason knew that it was not yet time for him to receive his first halo, thus he had to wait a little bit longer until he was truly ready for it. Just as his hand reached out for the halo, Jason noticed that someone was extremely close to him, giving him warmth and making him feel safe and secure, reassuring him that everything was fine. This was something he hadn''t felt in a long time, and it caused a faint smile to emerge on his face, as he recalled a memory which he had thought to have long since forgotten. It was the memory of the person he had loved the most, hugging him tightly- his mother''s tight embrace. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 709 - Young Girl At Heart Despite not knowing what exactly it could do, Jason knew that he was not ready to possess a halo yet. As such, he grasped it tightly before shattering it to pieces, while feeling the warmth of another person whose embrace reassured him that everything was fine. He wanted to know what was going on, but after he shattered the halo, the purest energy was released. Jason had to absorb it before it would dissipate. This took quite a while in which Jason also continued to strengthen his entire body. Afterward, he adjusted himself to his seemingly new physique that was now more refined and better equipped to fight than it had been before. The strength that coursed through his entire being had received a vast increment, and if Jason had to provide a rough estimate of his current strength, it would be on par with a being that had solidified a total of five prismarine crystals. And, this would be after excluding the soul world''s amplification, or other unique characteristics. Due to this, Jason was satisfied with the result of having released more than two dozen seals, even if his body was still aching. However, just at that moment, Jason felt a sudden weakness spread through his entire body as he became more exhausted. His entire head felt like a mashed pulp, and he knew that he would fall to the ground, or possibly even collapse. Fortunately, none of the above happened, and Jason only felt that the warmth around him increased, giving him the necessary strength to open his eyes. What he saw astonished him greatly, and a faint rosy color crept up his cheeks. "Jen? What are you doing?" He suddenly exclaimed, causing Jennifer, who had hugged him while releasing her three cultivation energies, to retreat at a rapid pace. His question alarmed her and she stuttered while trying to answer him but it sounded like a mix of incomprehensible words. "I..j-just wanted to..to help!! You seemed to be in pain...a-and my mother always s-said that hugging someone while releasing the three cultivation energies in a gentle manner will have soothing and minor healing properties!" While saying this, she saw him slump to the ground as Jason''s legs were unable to hold his weight and buckled in. Thus, Jason looked at Jennifer while lying on the ground, with his tired, golden-silverish eyes. They had returned to their usual color, just like everything else, and it was just the Stigma and Celestia aura that were stronger than before, owing to the unsealed bloodline. Jason could also tell that his soul world had enlarged but that was not something he could be bothered about. His cheeks were burning, and he couldn''t help but shake his head while trying to make sense of what had happened. He continued to stare at Jennifer, who seemed to be extremely embarrassed about the situation. However, that didn''t really make him feel any better. ''Am I really a loser? Can''t I get hugged by someone without feeling embarrassed?!'' Jason felt that he was being ridiculous, but at the same time, it was Jennifer they were talking about. As such, he sighed deeply before trying to focus on the more important things. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done, and Jason had momentarily forgotten about their entire situation, the fact that they were inside an Inheritance trial, where the pressure around him increased consistently, let alone know where exactly they were. ''Just what is this weird feeling?'' He wondered as he touched the left side of his chest, where his heart was palpitating wildly, thinking that it was different from how he had admired Malia A moment later, he recalled that Jennifer had said something about her mother, but from the looks on her face, it wasn''t hard for him to know that it was a slip of the tongue and she hadn''t meant to say it out loud. Even now, she was flustered about her behavior because it was different from how she acted under normal circumstances. As such, she was blabbering things that Jason could neither make head nor tail of. However, somehow, he felt like smiling as he continued to see Jennifer acting girly, instead of her usual seriousness. It was a sight he would remember for a long time, and unknowingly a word slipped off his tongue. "Cute.." Jennifer heard this, but before she could even react, her expression stiffened, while the same occurred to Jason as the robotic voice resounded in their heads. [Unique situation detected and evaluated. The fourth Trial will be canceled, and each participant will automatically be awarded with the highest score!] [Fifth Trial will be initiated, Honesty! Stay honest to yourself!] This was confusing, but instead of complaining, Jason was just relieved that he didn''t have to continue enduring the pressure of the three merged cultivation energies. It would have torn him apart, and, in the end, thrown him outside the Inheritance site in the next few days. At that time, the Preactors would have still been inside the temple, awaiting them, filled with wrath and the desire to kill both him and Jennifer. As such, passing the fourth trial was a fortunate event, causing Jason to smile as he was teleported away. The last thing he could see was Jennifer''s expression that had turned serious once again. There was no sight of the flustered girl he had seen only a moment before. However, that was exactly what made Jason believe that Jennifer was both a young girl at heart and a powerful warrior. Now that the fourth trial was completed, they were seperated once again. Jason was not sure if the four Preactors had been able to travel through the trials because they had entered the portal together, or if there was a different reason, like an specific item their race had created to overwhelm the Inheritance site of the traitor. In the end, this was not exactly important, to begin with. Yet, what Jason found important was that he and Jennifer should be able to leave together because it could become dangerous for either of them. Not being able to break any more seals without seriously damaging his body, left Jason with too little strength to kill the Preactors. He might have annexed the remaining chaos attribute, but it was not enough to knock out the four of them. As such, he had to rely on Jennifer, even if he didn''t like that. It was annoying, but even Jennifer required his help to defeat the fourth Preactors, and even then it was unlikely for them to survive. Thus, they had yet to find a different way to leave the Inheritance trials once everything was completed. However, for now, the fifth, but also last trial was the first thing Jason and Jennifer had to complete. Five trials were not considered a lot, and Jason felt that it didn''t even take long to complete everything. Yet, at the same time, the dangers had been extremely high, while the requirement to even enter the trial was not easy to meet either. With that in mind, Jason was eager to figure out what exactly the honesty, the fifth trial required was! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 710 - Honesty "That''s it?" Jason subconsciously blurted out, the moment he appeared in a new room that looked just like a classroom. He was completely alone, without anything but a chair, a huge stash of files in front of him, and a seemingly ordinary pen right next to it. This felt weird, and after reading the first two questions, Jason couldn''t help but feel odd. [What type of cultivation vein did you awaken, and at what age?] [Where were you born?] If the demanded honesty only included questions about himself, it would be extremely easy, and not a challenge at all. Yet, the third and fourth questions were already something more personal that allowed Jason to understand that the questions would become more difficult to answer with a guilt-free conscience. [Who are your parents?] [What do you regret the most?] [How many innocent beings did you kill?] [Why did you kill innocent beings?] [Describe yourself in three words!] The questions about his regret and the deaths of innocent beings at his hand were supposed to increase his guilt about something he couldn''t change. There were many things he regretted, but in the end, there was no way he could go back in time and correct his mistakes. This was the bitter truth, but Jason nonetheless wrote his biggest regret on the answer sheet. [My biggest regret was not being able to see my mother even one last time!] Writing it down made him feel sad and a little bit depressed, but the next question was similar, and Jason struggled to find a proper answer. He had already forgotten about the incident with Jennifer, and even if it would have bothered him, the questions in front of him were enough to drive all those thoughts out of his mind. ''How many innocent beings did I kill? Foreign races...none! All of them attacked us on Argos, or inside the Mansion, so none of them was innocent!...Beasts? ¡­. thousands? More? Less? I don''t know¡­'' In the end, he had no answer, but instead of writing down just any number, he decided to remain honest, as requested. [Too many to count¡­] Somehow, this question was even more depressing than the rest because he hadn''t really thought about the number of beasts he killed before. Whether they were innocent or not, he did not know, but he had only killed most of them because of a monetary gain. Jason knew that it was wrong, but at the same time, it was the only way to become stronger, to survive, and to prevent those close to him from being injured, crippled, or possibly even killed. Even though he didn''t want innocent beings to die, if they had something he required to save those he loved, he would kill them mercilessly. That was something he had learned during the last few years- The strong keep becoming stronger while the weak suffer. As such, he had to become one of the strong, to at least protect his soulbonds from being forced to sacrifice themselves, just to save him. This was the bare minimum amount of strength he was required to have, and not even a minuscule degree less! Jason knew that this thought could turn him into a vile being in the face of others, but that was not something he could care about anymore. When he had entered Manyr, only his soulbonds had been important to him, however, with time he had encountered other humans who were suffering, but learned to ignore their plight. Being too weak, there was no way that he could change anything, and even if he could have, there was no need for him to do anything because none of the humans on Manyr were close to him. They were not even trying to escape the clutches of the Aeus and Devirs either. Because of that, he didn''t even think about helping them. Instead, he had encountered Jennifer, a halfling, just like he was, who he got attached to. She was honest but never revealed her true emotions. Only on rare occasions would she show how she was truly feeling. Just as it had been a few moments before. In the end, Jason didn''t even realise when she had become so important to him, and the same applied to a few people around her. They were not as important as Jennifer, but still enough for him to care about them to a certain extent. He may seem merciless sometimes, even more so by relentlessly trying to improve his strength by fighting because he very well knew what it meant to be on the losing side. As such, he was sometimes deemed as cold despite his kindness that even swept through his aura. Thinking about the people he had learned to care about, Jason''s earlier thoughts about his crude behavior towards the weak dispersed. Everyone was greedy to a certain extent, and it was only fortunate that the beasts on Manyr didn''t seem to be as wild as those on Argos. Otherwise, there would be much more violence than there was already. Shaking his head, Jason tried to regain his composure, and avert his attention back to the files in front of him. With the criteria that he should remain honest, the entire fifth trial shouldn''t be too difficult. At least, as long as one was able to cope with the consequences of one''s own thought, or if one had to lie to oneself. There were many occasions in which one would say, "I would definitely help", only to deny the moment the given scenario occurs. As such, Jason knew that even the easiest questions had to be carefully thought through. Thus, the last trial was seemingly easy, yet extremely difficult at the same time. Sometimes one''s heart tells one to do something, only for the rational part of the mind to stop them from doing exactly that. Hence, one had to be absolutely certain about oneself before answering all those questions. Jason was not sure if he knew himself perfectly, because that was simply too difficult. He couldn''t even describe himself properly, without feeling like he was exaggerating. Who was he even, to begin with? Did he have heroic traits, or was he more like a misunderstood villain? Maybe both, or possibly even none of them. Was he kind, or cruel? In the end, he could be everything, and it was just that the correct questions had to be asked to get the desired answer. Answering the question was not difficult, but being 100% honest to oneself was. Jason never expected this to be the case, and he had to skip dozens, if not more than a hundred questions first because he had to think about them in-depth. Mindlessly scribbling anything that came to his mind was not the best idea, and he didn''t have a specific timeframe in which he had to answer the questions either. As such, given that he had more than enough time, there was no need to stress himself. He hoped that Jennifer was doing the same because it was important for her to pass the trial, just like it was for him. Jason didn''t need the main inheritance, but he just wanted to survive first, and get a reward later. In order to ensure their survival the moment they stepped out of the Inheritance site, they had to be prepared for everything, including the onslaught of four peak Prismar Preactors that had all three main cultivation veins awakened! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 711 - Legacy Trial Unsure of how much time had passed since the fifth trial started, Jason finally answered the last question. The questions had been extremely difficult to answer despite the fact that they were simply asking for one''s honesty. However, that was the essential point- to remain honest. Jason had to face many moments in which he wanted to answer specific questions with a slightly tweaked answer instead of stating everything honestly. Once he was done, he was immediately enveloped in a white shroud before the familiar robotic voice resounded in his mind. [Fifth trial completed. 99% Honest. Extraordinary achievement. Passed!] [All trials have been successfully passed. Teleportation to Legacy hall will be initiated!] With these notifications resounding in his head, the white shroud took him away, before releasing him in front of a gigantic mansion. It was constructed out of black stones called basalt and all kinds of other unique materials which made the huge mansion look magnificent. There were also other buildings around, but Jason was only focused on the mansion because he could see Jennifer''s energy fluctuations from within. It looked like she was resting which astonished Jason, but the robotic voice that appeared in his head once again explained the situation. [All participants have completed the Trials of Strength, Intelligence, Talent, Pressure, and Honesty! Ranking will be created, and Merit points will be distributed!] [Both Finalists have earned enough Merit points to face the Legacy Trial to receive the Main Inheritance! Only one individual will be able to procure it!] [After procuring the Inheritance, an adjustment period of 3 Months will be initiated, and the Inheritor will be released outside Kinra Island to prevent accidents from occurring!] Jason didn''t expect to receive so much information, even less because the robotic voice had always been reticent. However, now this seemed to have changed, which was quite advantageous. Knowing the necessary Intel was important, and given the fact that both he and Jennifer were eligible to procure the main inheritance made him feel Jason reassured. ''I wonder what kind of reward I can choose from¡­'' The adjustment period of 3 months was extremely helpful for Jennifer, but Jason couldn''t help but wonder when he will have to leave the Inheritance site. It would be disadvantageous to leave the Inheritance site alone, but Jason didn''t believe that he would be allowed to leave with Jennifer in a few months after she procured the entire Legacy. ''If I can choose to be teleported to a different location of the Island as a reward, I should probably pick that. The Preactors will definitely try to kill me for destroying their plan, and as a punishment for procuring the items that had been stolen by the Traitor of their race¡­ '' It was annoying, but Jason was also fully aware that kicking them out of the Inheritance site had been the only way of ensuring that they stayed alive! The wrath of each Preactor was nothing to be taken lightly, after all! Looking around the new place he had entered, Jason saw all kinds of buildings and constructions. Yet, instead of being distracted from his path towards Jennifer, he took one step after another to the mansion. Nevertheless, he wanted to make full use of his Emperor Eyes, which made him watch everyone thoroughly. Because of that, it took him a while before he entered the mansion, where Jennifer was already waiting for him, pacing impatiently. "Jason, you are finally here!" Jennifer exclaimed in relief, the moment Jason opened the large door to enter the mansion. "Why finally? I shouldn''t have taken much longer than you? Or did you rush through the questions?" His voice was not supposed to sound offensive, but Jennifer could only smile dryly when she heard him. "Well...I might have answered the questions a little bit too hurriedly. My passing score for the last round was the lowest amongst all trials. It was even worse than the second trial about the Maze¡­*Sigh*" Jason nodded his head, his lips curling upwards slightly as he replied, "Well, that''s fine, I guess. You were also able to reach the threshold to enter the Legacy trial!" Reassuring her, Jason''s words allowed Jennifer to feel less embarrassed as she voiced her opinion, "That''s true. But if I''m able to procure the main Inheritance, It will take a few months to adjust, and I doubt that you can stay that long inside the Inheritance site...before I enter the Legacy trial, we will have to find a way for you to leave safely without encountering the Preactors. What''s the use, if I can obtain the main inheritance, but you die. That would be a loss in every possible way!!" Jennifer sounded determined to find a solution for Jason, and somehow, it felt as if she was even more eager to find a solution to his issue than anything else. Jason was not sure what had happened in the fourth trial, but it looked like he wasn''t the only one who felt that something about him had changed. Ever since he had felt Jennifer''s warmth and the security she wanted to provide him with, Jason couldn''t help but feel weird...different, everytime he looked at her. Never having felt like this, Jason had yet to figure out what exactly it was, but he had one specific assumption. It would make sense, but at the same time, he didn''t think that he had time for this, and Jennifer probably felt the exact same. In the end, both of them were extremely busy, and in the Era of cultivation, it was unlikely to be together all the time. As such, it was almost impossible for Cultivators in a relationship to spend all day around each other. There was no time if one pursued strength and different goals. Yet, Jason felt that he was starting to like Jennifer! Scratching the back of his head, he couldn''t help but sigh when he realised that this might be the case only to try changing his train of thoughts. "The rewards that I receive from the Inheritance site should be able to help me out with this. I doubt that any Inheritance site would forget to create a specific mechanism to avoid its former participants from being killed and robbed while they wait at the portal entrance. An alliance of greedy participants who planned to attack those who had successfully reaped the rewards should have existed a long time ago already. As such, I don''t think you should worry too much. Rather, you can search for the portal that leads towards the Legacy trial!" Jennifer couldn''t help but frown when she heard how nonchalant Jason was. At the same time, she felt as if he was avoiding spending some more time with her, which didn''t make her feel any better. Thus, Jennifer glared at him with piercing eyes. Seeing this, Jason had to try hard not to smile childishly before he suggested, "Before entering new dangers one should always rest a little bit. So, how about we take a look at the rewards? I have no idea how the reward system works here, have you heard something about it from Luna?" Right now, Jason didn''t even know how many merit points he had, which was something he should figure out first. Fortunately, he had Jennifer by his side, and she knew almost everything that he required to know. First, she pointed towards a wall where the ranking was displayed including the merit points. "Oh? I didn''t expect to have so many merit points...that''s quite a surprise, isn''t it?" Jason said, with a teasing tone in his voice. This caused Jennifer to roll her eyes, knowing that he wanted to provoke her for earning more merit points than she had. Yet, despite knowing this, she fell right into his trap which Jason found amusing. "Yes...you are sooo great¡­ Do you want to spar a little bit?!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 712 - Repaying Debt Jason politely rejected the spar, with a vibrant smile on his face that caused Jennifer to feel even more provoked. However, after forcing herself to calm down, she dropped the topic before explaining to Jason everything she knew. While listening to her intently, Jason noticed in no time that Jennifer''s information was not exactly unique. It just included the basics which he could have figured out on his own too. ''Next time, I''ll read the basic information about Inheritance sites too¡­'' After getting to know the amount of merit points he had procured, the reward system explained itself quite easily. By touching something, one could find out how many merit points one had to pay in order to purchase it. That was interesting and well thought of, considering that there was also the possibility of being rewarded with just anything, instead of being able to choose. Being able to choose one big, or multiple small rewards that were suitable to the given situation to the respective individual, was extremely important. As such, Jason couldn''t help but feel satisfied with everything about the space that was more like a gigantic warehouse with a small town, of magnificent building structures inside it. Walking around the town with Jennifer next to him, they were able to release the tension that had accumulated within them throughout the last few weeks. Cultivating and becoming stronger was important, but without some time off, they wouldn''t be able to live properly. Spending time with others, and doing seemingly unimportant things was a necessity to relax even if Jason had never thought of it that way. In the end, it worked wonders and walking around the small town as if they were casually strolling through a market, gave them the opportunity to talk a lot. Both felt that their friendship was transforming into something new and different, but neither wanted to acknowledge it, feeling nervous and unsure of the unknown. Feeling a little bit awkward in the beginning, they had overcome it and begun to speak about the items they found, and what the best rewards would be for Jason and Jennifer. At the same time, they searched for the Immortal Eye, which Luna required for something Jason had yet to figure out. In order to thank Luna for the Mythic Essence cultivation technique, procuring the Immortal Eye was the bare minimum he could do. At least that was what Jason believed because the Mythic Essence technique was worth much more than the Immortal Eye. Jason was of that opinion, and even if it was true, Luna required the Immortal Eye much more than the Mythic Essence technique that had lost some of its earlier importance to her because she had studied it for decades already. As such, she knew every single word on each page of the book by heart. Owing to this, the technique was less valuable to her than an Immortal Eye, in addition to Jason protecting Jennifer by all means. Luna''s assumption that Jason would prove to be a valuable ally to Jeniffer at the Inheritance site was spot on because he had protected her from the Preactors that would have killed her otherwise. Thus, her investment in Jason was worth it, as he had lived to her expectations and saved Jennifer. However, her investment was even more worthwhile, when they found a translucent orb that was the size of a small child''s head. While the first layer was translucent, the inner parts were silver with a pitch-black emblem of an eye visible through the translucent membrane. Looking at the eye, Jason felt as if he was drawn towards it, and only by inserting some mana into the Emperor Eyes, was he finally able to avert his attention. After that, he was able to see the price of the Immortal Eye for the first time which astonished Jason. "The Immortal Eye...is quite cheap, isn''t it? Why did Luna make such a fuss about it?" Right now, they were standing in the middle of an ancient-looking accessory shop, and Jason couldn''t help but feel that the other items on display were more impressive, similar to their prices. This caused Jennifer to look at Jason dumbfoundedly as if she wanted to ask, ''Are you stupid?'' Fortunately, she held back thinking that he was just too naive, and dazzled by his own strength and talent, making him forget how others would struggle to even finish the first trial. "Those that choose to enter the Legacy trial, are unable to use their merit points because they''re utilised to increase the time one has to finish the given trial. That''s why Luna never procured the Immortal eye...furthermore, it was quite rare to get as many merit points as I, let alone you have. Don''t think that the other trials are easy like this one. We were just fortunate because the trial was never used. It''s possible that the artificial intelligence of the trial lowered the requirements to find a new successor!" Nodding his head, Jason understood what she said to some extent. There were some things he was not sure of such as questioning the reason for the artificial intelligence, which was probably the robotic voice, to decrease the trials'' difficulty. If someone was searching for a suitable inheritor, one wouldn''t want to find someone worse, but the best of the best. As such, the time required to find an Inheritor shouldn''t matter. Yet, that was exactly what seemed to have happened. ''Is that why I received 1111 Merit points?'' He wondered while looking at the relatively cheap price of 100 merit points for the Immortal Eye. Pondering about it, Jason sensed that his performance in the five trials was exceptional. That was if one excluded the talent trial because Petri and Spyro had been forced to solve the Pryr- and Spiral mastery orbs. However, taking the help of his soulbonds didn''t seem to have deducted his points. Rather, revealing every single trait of his without shying away might have been the reason for him to receive that many Merit points, to begin with. At the same time, Jennifer might be mistaken that everything was easy because she struggled in the maze trial, and the fourth trial was probably the most difficult for her. It was just that the fourth trial ended abruptly without a given reason. As such, Jason believed that Jennifer underestimated the mission, while he had only underestimated the prices, as he expected the Immortal Eye to be priced at 500 or even 1000 Merit points. Grasping the Immortal Eye, Jason stored it inside his spatial ring without bothering about it further. He knew a few characteristics of the Immortal Eye, and it was because of this that he believed that Luna wanted to create an indestructible weapon. However, that was not something he could be certain of, yet. Now, with the Immortal Eye procured, Jason tried to find something useful for 1000 Merit points. In the end, with that many merit points left, he could choose nearly everything he wanted, but that was exactly the problem. The wide variety of items he could choose from confused him. Yet, just as they were about to continue walking through the small town, the robotic voice resounded in their head once again. [The Portal to the Legacy trial will close in 10 minutes!] Upon hearing the announcement, Jennifer bid farewell to Jason without having found a solution to the issue he might face once he left the Inheritance site. Yet, that was not something Jason found to be problematic as he had already seen something that could help him. As such, he waved at Jennifer with a bright smile, only to see concern in her eyes, which warmed Jason''s heart. ''She is a nice girl.'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 713 - Garden Jason''s eyes were gleaming brightly, and his joy was noticeable even from thousands of meters away. His aura was flickering wildly too, and all of this was just because he found a huge garden! It had been hidden from his sight before, but now that he found a garden, Jason couldn''t help but forget the items he had seen before. There had been dozens of extremely rare items that had attracted his interest, but all of them were insignificant compared to what was in front of him at the moment. His hands reached for the plants, as he brushed his fingers through the leaves and his brain received an influx of information that streamed into his mind, including the price of the plants. This was an exceptional help, and Jason''s bright smile widened even further. After spending a few hours inside the garden, Jason became even more excited. His brain was processing everything and Jason was already trying to put a plan together for what he was trying to get his hand on. "The Pryr-/ Maest- or Spiral cricula Minatra flowers are exceptional...but quite expensive...does their scent really allow beasts of the respective cultivation path to circulate their cultivating energy through their body? Isn''t that like a drug, and harmful over a long duration, too?" The cricula Minatra flower was what attracted Jason''s attention the most. Through the scent it released, beasts were said to be able to cultivate faster. At least that was what the information he received stated. Furthermore, a maximum of three Minatra flowers of the same kind could work in sync to create overlapping effects and amplify each other. Thus, Jason knew that he would have to purchase three cricula Minatra flowers of all three cultivation paths. According to the information he was provided, each of them was priced at 33 merit points, but that shouldn''t be too high, considering that they had already been on the brink of extinction when the Inheritance site had been constructed. At least that was what the provided information stated. Through this, Jason realised that they should have gone extinct by now, making him feel more inclined to purchase them. However, Jason also knew that his soul world did not have a high amount of the three cultivating energies. Everything came from the plants and inanimate objects that were intertwined with the energy after all. As such, Jason had to actively increase the number or quality of plants that could release the energies, otherwise, the soul world''s energies would just remain stagnant. This was not necessarily bad, but rather counterproductive because Jason wanted his soulbonds to progress even faster than he could. That was at least what he hoped would happen because he had seen it occur in the past. Unfortunately, for such a scenario to occur once again, Artemis, Petri, and Spyro would have to be at the Prismar stage armed with several solidified prismarine crystals at that! It would take some time, but Jason was sure that if he were to consistently customise and improve his soul world, his soulbonds would at least be able to keep up with him. This was also the reason for him to purchase the cricula Minatra flowers despite deducting 30% of his merit points for barely 9 flowers. However, what followed suit caused even Jason to feel a little bit sorry. After binding the flowers to his soul and planting them with the help of Spyro who could transform its body into all kinds of shapes, Jason used his Emperor Eyes once again. Through this, he was able to find the most suitable young plants, including those with higher quality, or extremely cheap ones that generated a tremendous amount of Mana, Spirit force, or Primordial energy. Jason was excited, and his plan was to use the remaining 700 Merit points to purchase all kinds of plants. In his excitement, he had forgotten to even look at other objects he might require later. Instead, he simply continued to customise his soul world, turning it into the best place to cultivate, he had ever seen. Never could he have expected that the Inheritance site would be of such great help to customise his ginormous soul world. Thus, he was delighted to learn that even a single Merit Point was already enough to purchase a huge bush that radiated tremendous amounts of mana. The purchases he made might not be enough to allow hundreds of beings to cultivate, but right now, he had only four soulbonds, one of each cultivation path, and Artemis, who was occupied with her evolution. As such, each energy could be used by one soulbond alone!! With that knowledge, Jason knew that he could stop with his shopping after spending a few dozen Merit points in total. However, after realising that the cricula Minatra flowers'' scent was even more potent than he had expected, his expenses skyrocketed as he bought more than intended. Turning the soul world into a holy land for his soulbonds was the most important, and he wanted their strength to soar just like his own! Given the extremely cheap prices the ancient plants had, how could Jason now know that he was making a huge bargain? It allowed him to receive something that would change everything about his soulbond''s cultivation speed, after all! He was not sure how much time had passed, but given his exhaustion and heavily aching head, Jason knew that he needed a break. In the end, he had purchased more than a hundred plants, leaving him with just 10 Merit points. It was an exceptional purchase, and Jason couldn''t help but smile looking at the dozens of plants that were just waiting for him to plant them into the soul world. The first thing he did after purchasing them was to bind them to his soul. This had proved to be an extremely arduous task, exhausting him a lot, but owing to his soulbonds'' demands, he was further forced to design the space according to their wishes. Jason didn''t dislike this, but it was a little bit of a hassle, considering that he was already exhausted. Nevertheless, he paid heed to his soulbonds'' wishes, only to slump to the ground when he couldn''t move anymore. Taking a break, he lay on the ground as his soulbonds reported the potency of the cricula Minatra flowers'' scent to him. Hearing the report was extremely motivating because Petri assumed that his cultivation speed would increase by at least three times, if not more. Calling this exceptional was an understatement, and Jason couldn''t help but feel overjoyed about his decision of purchasing the flowers that were the most expensive plants in the entire garden. After what felt like an eternity, Jason had finally finished everything necessary, and the plants were all planted in the soul world. The amount of cultivation energies exceeded the amount of energy required by his soulbonds overall, but that was no problem because his soulbonds would continue to grow, and require more and more energy to keep getting stronger. As such, Jason was glad to have an excessive amount of generated energy, which meant that he wouldn''t have to improve his soul world''s state for quite some time. After resting a little, he got up from the ground, as he mumbled, "Now I should use the remaining coins to let myself be teleported as far from the Portal as possible...I don''t want to encounter these annoying Preactors, after all." With a faint smile on his face, Jason mumbled, only to approach the mansion, where he had seen a simple sign with [Teleportation(Min 1 MP)] on it. Jennifer didn''t seem to have seen this sign before, but Jason''s Emperor Eyes fortunately had. Because of that, he hadn''t been worried about anything at all, and the ''Min 1 MP'' indicated that he could freely choose how many merit points he wanted to use. As such, worry about his departure was the last thing on his mind. Rather, it was the only joy because of the massive purchase he made today, helping the cultivation speed of his soulbonds improve to a whole new level! Through this, he allowed his soulbonds to catch up to his progress, or at least he thought so, and this was more than necessary because the dangers looming around him were much more than he could ever imagine! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 714 - Time When Jason had accessed the reward to be teleported away, he could choose any destination inside Kinra Island that cost only 10 merit points. This was more than enough to allow him to enter the center of the Island that was quite far away. With this knowledge, Jason could have left immediately. However, after giving it another thought he realised that the artificial intelligence had yet to throw him out of the Inheritance site. As such, he was not forced to leave. It didn''t mean that he had to stay either, but the cultivation energies in his surroundings were much denser than anywhere else. Because of that, it wouldn''t be bad to spend some time cultivating in the garden. Without Jennifer around, he was too weak on his own, and his combat prowess was supposed to be much higher than it was currently. The best for him would be to reach a level similar to someone on the Peak of the Lique stage. Unfortunately, this was unlikely to happen during the next few months, even with the use of his extraordinary prismarine crystals. ''Maybe... I should just spend a month or two inside the Inheritance site...that is, if it''s possible.'' He was not sure when he would be thrown out, but that was not exactly bothersome. If his assumption was correct, the AI would expel him from the inheritance site once Jennifer finished the Legacy trial. Afterward, Jennifer would receive the main inheritance to which she would have to adjust herself in three months. It was only Jason''s assumption, but in the end, it didn''t matter when exactly he would have to leave the Inheritance site. For now, he could cultivate, while the same applied to his soulbonds. While Spyr, Petri, and Solaris were using the overflowing energies to strengthen themselves, Artemis was already absorbing large amounts of mana to accelerate her evolution. This was good news for Jason, who estimated that it would take less than four months for her to finish the second evolution. With that in mind, he sat down next to the sign of the teleportation reward before starting to cultivate with the Mythic Essence technique utilised. Using the technique was still extremely painful, but it had slowly begun to become less burdensome. As such, Jason was finally able to cultivate and felt less pain, followed by accelerated progress, owing to the Stigma and his Celestia aura that had been enhanced by the unsealed Celestia bloodline. But that was not all because Jason''s mana mastery had increased tremendously, which was also an effect of breaking many of the minor seals that protected him from his own bloodline. Because of that, his cultivation speed accelerated further, allowing Jason to liquefy much more than 100 drops of mana in a single day! Thus, in a span of less than two months, he was able to liquefy a total of 10,000 mana drops, before Jason started the solidification process of the accumulated mana drops in order to create the second prismarine crystal. This would take at least two months, but Jason felt that it was still extremely fast. Being able to create one solidified prismarine crystal in four months was exceptional, yet, Jason was not the only one who advanced so rapidly. Petri had only been at the 9th Lique stage when they had entered the Inheritance trial, but that had changed too! Owing to the cricula Minatra flowers, Petri''s cultivation speed increased rapidly. And by activating their Stigma inside the soul world, his soulbonds further accelerated every process about their respective cultivation energy. Even Spyro, who had taken a long time to construct the Celestia race''s stigma could activate it, owing to the firm connection it had with Jason, thereby overlapping its effect with the other Stigmas. Because of the three Stigmas that were activated inside the soul world, they could cultivate much faster than Jason had expected, giving him a huge surprise as Petri was already halfway through the construction of his first prismarine crystal. Initially, Jason thought that Pryr beings were different from Spiral and Maest beings, but what he hadn''t known was that their liquefied primordial energy was stored within their cells. However, the moment they reached the Prismar stage, their liquefied primordial energy would also be solidified. The sole difference would be that it was a little bit more burdensome to accumulate the liquefied primordial energy from all corners of the body. Nevertheless, the cultivation process was similar, if not identical with all three main cultivation paths, if one were to ignore the location where the process was initiated. This was quite intriguing but also something Jason had to figure out later. While Petri was halfway through the Prismar stage, Solaris had finally created its second prismarine crystal, increasing its strength tremendously. Other than that, it seemed as if Solaris had already gathered enough liquefied mana during the last few months in order to create the 3rd prismarine crystal. This had astonished Jason because he hadn''t expected Solaris to accumulate mana while simultaneously constructing a prismarine crystal. Such a feat was exceptional, and Jason was proud of the black origin flame. The only issue was that it devoured more soul energy and crystals than any kind of beast he had bound to his soul. Adding the high consumption of his soulbonds to binding all kinds of plants to his soul world, the number of soul crystals and soul energy he had was dwindling at a rapid pace. This was bad because Artemis would soon complete her evolution, and she was bound to become much stronger, consequently demanding more resources from him. The 1st threshold of the Prismar stage with the creation of nine small solidified crystals was only the beginning, and Jason hoped that she wouldn''t advance too far, otherwise, a seemingly familiar scenario would repeat itself. After Artemis'' first evolution, she required a lot more soul energy too and was thus forced to remain outside the soul world. Jason didn''t want this to happen again, even less inside the Inheritance site, where exotic beasts might be captured or even hunted. The thought alone was scary enough, and Jason''s entire body trembled because of that. As such, Jason finally decided to improve the repetitive cycle of soul energy that was situated within his second sub-area. His brain had been enhanced following the advancement in cultivation, which was only increased further by Spyro''s tremendous advancement to the 5th Lique stage in just a few months. Its talent was exceptional, and Jason had yet to figure out more about his newest soulbond. However, what he knew was that the soul world''s amplification of 40% further enhanced Jason''s brain functions by a lot. Spyro was a spiral beast, and even without the need for Jason to cultivate in the Spiral path, he could receive its amplification, just like it was the case with Petri! Because of the tremendous enhancements Jason underwent, he was confident to leave the Inheritance site, even if he was not yet thrown out of it. He was bothered by the thought that being expelled would teleport him straight to the temple, and that was the last place he wanted to be the moment he emerged on Kinra Island once again. As such, Jason decided to use the teleportation reward and the remaining 10 merit points to be teleported to the center of the Island, where he hoped to get some time to create the advanced soul energy cycle. How could Jason have known that this decision was a big mistake because the center of Kinra Island was not as safe as it had been the first time he flew past it with Jennifer by his side? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 715 - Hunters After being teleported to the center of Kinra Island, Jason had the urge to take in a deep breath of fresh air. However, the moment he did this, it was as if the air got stuck in his throat as he saw the crowd of several hundred beings roaming around. This caused him to freeze in place before he took a look around to see thousands of mansion-sized tents, and even some newly built buildings and other complexes. ''Shock'' was too light of a word to describe what Jason was feeling, and it was more like he was utterly dumbfounded. He had assumed to encounter a few individuals in the Island''s center, but to think that a large town of countless tents had been constructed, was extremely weird. Jason couldn''t believe it at first, and it took him some time to accept reality and the fact that more than a dozen races had met up as if they were just on Kinra island to have a gathering. Initially, he believed Luna, who had told him that everyone would try to tear each other apart. However, that didn''t seem to be the case at all. Whether it was because of the other races that had forcefully entered Kinra Island, or because of a different reason, Jason didn''t know. However, what he knew was that there were a few races he already knew of. Amongst them were the Aeus, Devir, and humans of Manyr, but that was not all! "Shadow walkers?" Jason mumbled, not sure if his eyes were deceiving him. Yet, even after rubbing his eyes multiple times, he could see the bipedal race in front of him quite clearly. They were shrouded in darkness, except for their glowing, ruby-like eyes to pierce through it. Seeing several Shadow walkers stroll around the area was a huge surprise to Jason, who recalled everything about them and what they had done to Argos. They were just a common race, but that didn''t make a huge difference because they were simply vile. He was not sure about one of the Shadow walker in particular whom he still owed a favor for sparing his late master, but Jason knew one thing for certain. ''It was because of them that the Great Argos war started!'' This was not exactly the case, but one could say that it was only because one prodigious Shadow walker had seen him; a halfling after which they had begun to kidnap hundreds of humans, along with other races. Through this, a chain reaction had been initiated, and somehow, the other races must have taken the Shadow walkers'' actions as an offense, causing them to retaliate. In the end, this had caused the Great Argos war. Thinking about the Great Argos war, Jason felt anger flare up within him, which was immediately visible in his Celestia aura that began to fluctuate wildly. The joy and kindness that was normally intertwined with it had momentarily vanished. Only a few moments after his sudden angry outburst, he calmed down before telling himself that he shouldn''t mindlessly attack everyone just because they could be responsible for something that caused him great suffering and agony. That was because he himself was not without fault. He should have never existed, in the first place. As such, he had taken responsibility for the world that had never given him anything good. Instead, Argos had become the place he hated the most because he had lost so much on it. Shaking his head, Jason finally calmed down as he distracted himself, averting his attention to something else. Sensing strong energy fluctuations that were also intertwined with emotions like greed and anger, Jason turned in the direction, only to see that a large crowd of people was fighting against each other. This astonished him a little bit because the majority of people were trying to beat a single individual, in order to obtain something. The being had just emerged in the center of the island, thinking that he would be safe here. Just like Jason, he too received a surprise when he saw everybody had the same thought and teleported to the center after receiving rewards. This was the reason why tents had sprung up like mushrooms, because those who had completed the trials successfully had hoped to be secure in the center, which sadly, wasn''t the case. Jason was one of those beings who had thought the same, yet, he was glad to have altered his decision a little bit. He didn''t want to be teleported to the exact center. Instead, he was somewhere around the outskirts of the center, where only a few tents were located. In the end, this was his fortune, otherwise, he would have been attacked and deprived of everything he had obtained. That was, if they could even do that in the first place because the rewards Jason had obtained were majorly bound to his soul! Despite his altered destination, a few beings had seen him appear out of nowhere, probably teleported from an Inheritance site. However, even after seeing this, those few beings didn''t attack him, which was something Jason noticed with a faint smile. It was confusing because he didn''t know why they hesitated to attack and rob him, but that was not something he was going to complain about. Nevertheless, he was still intrigued about their reason to leave him alone. Driven by his curiosity, he had almost approached one of the few beings that stared at him but stopped himself. Had he done this, the subconscious cover Jason had built up would have vanished. That was because Jason didn''t realise something extremely important. Others might not have bothered about his Stigma and Celestia Aura for a very long time, but everything about the young man had changed after he had broken more than 20 of his minor seals! Not only was it easily perceptible now that Jason''s aura and Stigma were not artificial or created through a technique, but natural manifestations of his bloodline, they also indicated that Jason was a being of much higher origin than anyone else. Jason didn''t even realise that his Celestia aura radiated in a radius of more than 50 meters around him. Meanwhile, his fully activated Stigma, was further intensifying his aura''s density, the natural suppression effect, and other characteristics of the Celestia aura. All of it prevented most beings from attacking him, knowing that there were witnesses who would most likely report to their Ancestors that one of the descendants of a Grand race had been killed. Through this, a war could break out, and the common lower, as well as higher races, didn''t want to offend a Grand race. As such, the most sensible individuals knew that they should back off from Jason, who belonged to a race that was at least considered a Grand race! Meanwhile, even the less sensible beings realised that Jason was not to be taken lightly, even if they were to ignore his Stigma and Aura. That was because Jason''s mana fluctuations were on par with beings that had created 8 prismarine crystals, while he, in fact, possessed only a single solidified prismarine crystal! If that was not enough to clearly demonstrate that he was superior to those at the same rank as he was, Jason''s eyes were more than enough to make them fall into a trance for a second, without being able to move or do anything. This sensation was created through the Chaos energy that swirled through the Emperor Eyes. After annexing the chaos attribute, the best place to store it was the marble behind his eyes, which could store mana, and fortunately, the chaos attribute as well. Thus, the chaos attribute was constantly enhancing his eyes without being used up, creating a gleam within them that was filled with mystery; something that was dark, and dangerous. In the end, Jason''s earlier worry about being attacked disappeared, and even if he didn''t know why exactly this was the case, he was happy about it. Not being attacked, Jason grabbed the opportunity to take a look at the other races. He was interested to see if there were other races like the Preactors that had entered Kinra Island to retrieve something. However, before he could even start his research, Jason''s eyes widened in shock as he looked at someone. "Don''t tell me...is that?! How...can she be there?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 716 - 1 And 1 Equals 11 Rubbing his eyes to get a better look, Jason saw a familiar face of a human that was further ahead of him. It was a beautiful woman, and after inserting more mana into his Emperor Eyes, he realised that his assumption had been correct. ''It really is the woman, who had been beside Lux, when the three race''s embassies had appeared on Argos!'' Recalling the event of the past, in which his late master had almost been killed, and the secret bloodline of his body revealed, Jason couldn''t help but feel even more dumbfounded than before. It had already been a few years, but Jason clearly remembered the time in which Lux had attacked and almost killed him. Thinking about the Necromant, which was the name he gave Lux as someone with a soul world that only accepted undead beings, Jason instinctively looked out for him. However, he was nowhere to be found, which was a relief. Wherever Lux went, problems occurred, and Jason didn''t want to deal with more problems caused by him. The Preactors were already more than enough trouble! However, seeing the young woman, who had been at the peak of the Mortal stage when he had last seen her, Jason couldn''t help but feel astonished. ''Good Cultivation and body refinement techniques really work wonders, especially for those with soul worlds!'' From the peak of the Mortal stage, the young woman had reached the first threshold of the Prismar stage. And that too in only five years! Considering that the talent of humans on Argos was said to be extremely bad, this feat was more than a little bit astonishing. However, after considering the effect of a great environment with lots of mana in the surrounding, along with all kinds of cultivation resources, and strong techniques, this achievement seemed lackluster. It just showed that humans were not useless and untalented as others said. It was the techniques and surroundings that lacked something! In the end, Jason was not fond of the woman in front of him, but at the same time, she had never done anything against him. His ties to the humans on Argos were also limited because he only cared about the Flers and some of his friends. But even then, he had left them to find out more about himself, and his heritage to become stronger, and many more reasons. Unbeknownst to himself, his eyes were glued to the woman from Argos, and it was only when she stared straight at him that he turned his head. Her eyes were poisonous green, and something about them seemed to be different compared to a few years ago. Unfortunately, Jason couldn''t remember everything perfectly, but that didn''t matter because everything his Emperor Eyes had seen was now imprinted into his mind. The past didn''t matter, only the present did. And now, it revealed the young woman as a strong combatant with a high amplification which she received from her soul world. Despite him not exactly caring about the woman herself, Jason couldn''t help but feel oddly relieved to see someone with a soul world after such a long time. In fact, Jason had already forgotten how much time had passed, but it had to be over a year since he had arrived on Manyr. Realising that years felt like hours to him, Jason couldn''t help but smile, thinking that the life of a cultivator was slowly rubbing off on him. This was not bad per se, but Jason also knew that he had to pay attention to himself, and not go into seclusive cultivation for several decades, which seemed to be normal for people at a higher cultivation base. Jason felt that a few months'' time was already extremely long to cultivate at once, and he didn''t really like it. As such, he hoped that he would always stay busy enough so that it was impossible for him to even consider cultivating for a long period. However, Jason also realised that if he wanted to become much stronger, a long seclusive cultivation period was a must. It was annoying, and the sole thought of it made him visualise this unappealing scenario, only to shake his head. Ignoring the gaze of the woman from Argos, Jason decided to distract himself as he approached the small market set up by the gathered races. Rather than solely entering Kinra Island to enter the Inheritance sites, it also seemed to be a good place to socialise with other prodigies and make beneficial business deals. Every region had specific resources en masse. As such, they could be sold with profit to those regions that were in a dire need of said resources. The same also applied the other way around, and with the correct deal, both sides could rake in huge profits. Because Jason realised this as well, he couldn''t help but feel astonished that the prodigies were putting one and one together in order to receive 11. In the end, there were several more advantages to setting up a market in the center of Kinra island, such as giving the young prodigies the opportunity to independently use their knowledge to purchase and sell goods. As such, the market was extremely beneficial for anyone who wanted to make use of it. Jason was neither, so instead of making use of the market to sell or buy, he just wanted to see what kind of prodigies he would encounter. To a certain extent, Jason wanted to meet Lux too, because he had yet to find the time to give him a thorough lecture about teamwork, using violence, and what would happen if one betrayed their team. Despite that, he couldn''t find Lux, but that was fine because Jason believed that fate would bring them in front of each other once again, even if it might take a while to happen. In the end, Jason thought that he had more than enough time, and it was exactly because of this that he left the market. Wasting time was something he hated, and without wealth he could not procure anything, to begin with. Right now, he was poor, if one were to solely look at the number of cultivation stones he possessed. Because of that, it was useless to stay in the market because he didn''t think it necessary to socialise with others. Instead, he wanted to enter another inheritance side, where he could possibly acquire something useful. His need for ordinary things was negligible, and it was more of his need for something unique, something that made him much more powerful in a short amount of time that attracted his curiosity. As such, he wanted to enter an inheritance site that was perfectly suited to him. Receiving the main inheritance that was perfectly suitable would increase his strength, thus it was the best he could try to achieve during the next few months. However, before he could leave the center of Kinra Island, he was once again disturbed which began to frustrate Jason as he heard the familiar voice of a female. "Jason? Is that you?!? What are you doing here in Kinra island...alone at that??" Turning around, he saw Miranda with a crowd of people behind her which almost caused Jason to curse under his breath. ''Can I not have my peace?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 717 - Dungeon Jason really wanted to have some peace for himself, and he didn''t really believe that it was a good sign to encounter Miranda and the people behind her. They looked at him weirdly, unsure whether they should look at him in anger for wasting their time, or with interest because he might be able to help them. In the end, some chose one reaction while the others took the latter. Yet, Jason could only look at Miranda before he simply asked her. "Am I not allowed to be on Kinra island, Miranda?" He had a faint smile on his face, but it was not difficult to understand that Jason was in no mood to spend more time with them. The tone of his voice suggested this as it sounded slightly off, and annoyed. This caused Miranda to feel a little bit odd, and she recalled the prank she and Leo had played. As such, she couldn''t help but think that he acted like this because of the incident. Thus, Miranda didn''t mind it that much. Rather, it was better to make up for her mistake while simultaneously reaping as many benefits as possible. Thinking of a way to make amends, Miranda made an offer. "Do you want to enter one of the hidden dungeons with us? We were able to find clues to the location of one and need one more member, and you seem to be suitable!" Jason frowned a little on hearing this, knowing that his cultivation base was much weaker than the rest. Miranda was probably the strongest and also youngest of her group, but the others were also at the peak of the Prismar stage. As such, Jason was, by far, the weakest. Through the Emperor Eyes, he could see the emotional hue around Miranda and the rest, but that was, unfortunately, not very helpful as the other group member''s emotions were fluctuating a lot. That was neither good nor bad, and Jason couldn''t be sure how they would react once they found a treasure inside the dungeon. In the end, a dungeon could be like an Inheritance trial, a tower with stronger opponents on the higher floors, or completely different. There was no set rule on how a dungeon should look like. However, dungeons were in almost every case, constructed by multiple powerful beings that wanted to gather their own Inheritance in one place. This was either done to save time, funds, or simply the time to search for numerous suitable candidates. Most people liked to enter dungeons much more than normal Inheritance sites because both the participant and the artificial intelligence of the respective inheritance could figure out if they were a match for each other. While the inheritance could be given to those that solve even the most challenging task, the participants had the chance to receive more rewards, and find out what exactly is suitable to them. With multiple Inheritances put together in a single building, even Jason became interested because he had yet to find out what kind of inheritance was the most suitable for him. However, at the same time, he recalled that Luna told him about two particular inheritances about eyes. One required the participant to already possess special trait eyes, while the inheritance, which was also the one Luna had passed, had enhanced and altered her eyes. Apparently, that was also why her eyes looked different. In the end, Jason was more interested in the Inheritance site that demanded him to possess any kind of special trait eyes because it was likely to strengthen his powerful eyes even further. Unfortunately, with Miranda''s invitation, he would have to think of a solution first. Given his interest in dungeons, it was not like he wanted to refuse her entirely. As such, Jason approached the situation tactfully. "Do you know what kind of inheritances have been put together inside the dungeon?" His question was normal to ask because it would take months before one would be able to pass through all trials. Because of that, Jason knew that he was likely to enter only one more Inheritance site without the need to rush through it to get some rewards. Advancing through an Inheritance site was not what Jason planned to do. As such, he told himself that he would only enter one more place, and only if he had a few more months left would he consider another Inheritance site to be feasible to enter. But that was only under the assumption that the second Inheritance one didn''t give him any rewards he could make use of, thus giving him reason to enter another inheritance site! At the same time, Jason found it extremely weird that Miranda asked him, a being at the first threshold of the Prismar stage, to enter a dungeon with them. Either they didn''t trust others, were simply inviting people to achieve the necessary numbers, or they wanted to exploit him. Those were the most likely reasons for Miranda and her group to have, according to Jason. As such, he waited for Miranda''s answer, only to see her shrug her shoulders. "It is a hidden dungeon, so I have no idea what kind of Inheritances we can procure there. There are only a few clues, but they''re not necessarily true, and might have been falsified by the creators of the dungeon. I have heard some rumors about such things happening before!" Miranda didn''t seem to hesitate while answering him, which was a good sign indicating that she didn''t hold back any information. It was not certain, but Jason felt that Miranda was sincere in her approach to ask him if he wanted to join them. Nodding his head, he partially agreed and had only two more questions before he would answer Miranda''s request. "I don''t quite understand why you would ask me to enter the dungeon with you guys? There are hundreds of beings with a much higher cultivation base, and I''m not strong enough to fight beings at the peak Prismar stage. And, what were those clues? I don''t want to sound rude, but it''s unlikely that I can enter another Inheritance site after this one, and if the inheritances are not suitable for me, I would rather not join you guys¡­" Jason sounded apologetic, but the follow-up questions were slowly starting to annoy the group members behind Miranda. He noticed this, yet, ignored it for the time being. It was not good to have group members that couldn''t even control their facial expressions for a short time. Thus, a few scenarios about things that could happen were already playing out in Jason''s head. However, he didn''t say anything else and waited for Miranda''s answer. "If I''m not wrong, you should be able to fight against those at the peak of the 1st threshold of the Prismar stage, right? That''s already amazing with your cultivation base. But, that''s not exactly the reason why I wanted you to enter the dungeon with us. One of the clues stating the possible inheritance you can find within it are rainbow colored eyes, and when I saw you, I remembered that you have unique eyes too, so I kind of instinctively asked you!" Her reason was not really convincing but Jason was intrigued. "Eyes?" The fact that the dungeon''s clues were eyes was interesting, but the weird change in Miranda''s teammates'' behavior caused him to feel a little queasy. They were quickly annoyed, and it was almost as if they were putting on a facade. As such, he made his decision based on his gut feeling. "Miranda, I have to thank you for inviting me to such a great opportunity, but I will have to decline your offer!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 718 - Pulled Jason''s refusal was not something Miranda had expected to happen. As such, she stared at him with a baffled expression, only to regain her composure a moment later. She wanted to ask him the reason for his denial, but before Miranda could even say something, her group members were already voicing their anger out loud. "What a coward. Running away from a great opportunity, how foolish!" "Why did we even waste our time with such an idiot? Who cares whether he is the descendant of a Grand race or not, he is just a terrified chicken!" "How can someone as cowardly as this youth, be born in a Grand race, with special trait eyes?...The universe is truly not fair!" Jason lifted his right eyebrow when he heard the angered voices of three group members, and the fourth was already about to say something when Miranda lifted her hand. She glared at her group members in anger and was about to say something, but held herself back. Shaking her head while sighing, it was obvious how difficult it was for Miranda to make them see things from her point of view. Because of her reaction that was entirely different from what he had expected, Jason concluded that Miranda didn''t want to spend more than the necessary time with them. That caused him to conclude that she had either been requested to stay with them, or possibly even forced by her master. All of them were humans from Manyr, after all. Thus, the possibility of them hailing from the same place was high. Ignoring their comments, Jason only looked at Miranda before he gave her a faint smile as he used voice transmission to say one last thing. [I don''t know your relationship with the others, but they seem impulsive. Pay attention to what happens behind your back, I wouldn''t trust them a lot!] Had Jason not felt uncomfortable about Miranda''s group members, he would have entered the dungeon with her. But their dislike for him was clear as day so he would rather travel alone. This might be more dangerous if he were to be attacked, but from the insult one of the group members had thrown at him, Jason was able to comprehend something he had missed out on before. ''My Stigma and Aura probably prevent others from attacking me, in fear of the punishment...or something like that!'' In the end, this was the only reason he could think of for not being attacked, but at the same time, this reason was only valid if there was a large crowd of people. Without a witness, it was likely for him to get attacked any moment. As such, he decided that the center of Kinra island was relatively safe for him to be right now. He was still not sure what path he would take, but before making up his mind, Jason bid Miranda farewell, while continuing to ignore the others. After that, he left them for good. ''Has it been four months already since I entered Kinra Island?'' He suddenly asked himself, trying to calculate the exact time he had spent on the island. Unfortunately, this was not as easy as he hoped because it was quite difficult to tell if the time inside the Inheritance site elapsed as it should. Sometimes, dungeons, Inheritance sites, or Secret realms tweaked time, slowing or accelerating its speed within a specific area. This was extremely difficult to achieve, and Jason had heard some time ago that one required tremendous amounts of energy to change the flow of time inside a small room. As such, it was unlikely for extremely old inheritances to have such a place. But at the same time, it didn''t really matter as long as the gigantic Tortoise Island didn''t submerge, giving him enough time to spend it however he liked to. First of all, Jason still felt too weak. As such, he wanted to finish constructing the second prismarine crystal. However, that was also something he could do while trying to pass the trials of another Inheritance site. It was not like he would be occupied with doing something arduously during his entire advance through trials. With that in mind, Jason subconsciously nodded his head. He also knew that the seemingly endless and invisible strings that were trying to lure him towards them were influencing his mind, affecting him tremendously. All of the invisible strings were pulling him towards different Inheritance sites, and probably also belonged to dungeons that were trying to attract his attention. Jason was not sure why they were interested in him, but it had been the case since he had advanced to the Prismar stage. In the end, the feeling of being pulled in all directions only increased after he unsealed more of his Celestia bloodline. Because of that, he believed that the artificial intelligence determined him as a suitable Inheritor for their inheritance, just because he had the Celestia bloodline. But that might not necessarily be the cause. This was because, when he advanced to the Prismar stage, a part of his soul world had been released too. As such, the Temple inheritance had sensed the racial trait of his human bloodline too. Jason believed that the Inheritances were connected to each other and that they were trying to help one another in finding a suitable inheritor. This was only an assumption, but from the intel he had procured from all possible sources in addition to his own observation, it was not unlikely. There were many Inheritance sites that had vanished over the course of time, and the reason for this was that their Inheritor had been found. The remaining energy and rewards were probably distributed amongst the channels the other inheritance sites were connected to. Jason didn''t really have proof to confirm these thoughts he had in mind, but that was the only reason why the dungeon made sense in his opinion. They had many rewards to hand out, but in the end, he hadn''t heard about people receiving a main inheritance from there. Only heavenly treasures and all kinds of other rewards had been found but never was a fate-changing inheritance that altered the constitution of someone discovered. Even Luna didn''t receive a full inheritance, but only a fraction of it because she was not suitable for the inheritance. Yet, her eyesight had been enhanced and she had received a ''Heaven'' ranked cultivation manual! Adding all the facts together, Jason slowly began to understand Kinra island''s structure. However, it was still a little bit odd that all inheritances had been situated on a single island, or to be precise a living being at that. What would have happened if the Gigantic Tortoise Island had been killed by a stronger powerhouse? Intrigued by all of this, Jason couldn''t help but smile as his hunger to understand the situation fully, had been ignited. Because of that, he decided to follow his gut feeling which made him follow the strongest force that was pulling him towards a site. It was not difficult to figure out which one that was, amongst the seemingly countless invisible threads that attracted him because Jason had to use his entire focus to avoid subconsciously approaching a specific site. Following the pulling force, Jason flew through the air, and he was not sure how long it took him exactly, but after some time he found a pitch-black obelisk that was erected more than a hundred meters above the ground. However, Jason was utterly confused¡­ "That was not here before!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 719 - [Dungeon Of The Primordial Descendant] Jason hadn''t expected the surroundings to change, let alone a pitch-black obelisk to emerge out of nowhere. It hadn''t been there when he and Jennifer traveled through the entire Island before, and it shouldn''t have been constructed by any of the other present prodigies either. Tremendous energy waves were being released by the obelisk which was too frightening to see. Thus, it couldn''t have been the deed of any of the prodigies. They were even more intense than the energy currents of powerhouses at the Specta stage. This clearly showed that Jason was just about to enter the most dangerous Inheritance site. The strong pulling force, followed by the energy currents and his gut feeling reaffirmed this. But that also meant that it presented the best opportunities and rewards for him to grow stronger, much stronger than he was right now! Approaching the pitch-black obelisk, Jason already figured that it was the place he was pulled to. With that knowledge, he was not even surprised as he saw a bright blue gleaming portal on one side of it, looking like an entrance. However, what astonished Jason were the engraved words on the obelisk above the portal. Those words glowed in a blue light that contrasted against the pitch-black color of the obelisk, making it easy for him to read. [Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant] Countless symbols of all body parts surrounded these words followed by the three different cultivation veins symbols that were swept through the purest energy and many more signs. "Just...what the hell is that?" He blurted out as his Celestia aura touched the portal. All of a sudden, he felt a sharp pull that intensified, but Jason was rooted to the spot, unmoving like an ancient tree. His golden eyes gleamed brightly while looking into the portal, only for Jason to ask himself. ''Primordial...where did I hear that?'' Somehow, Jason felt like he knew something, but no matter how hard he racked his brains, he just couldn''t recall it anymore. Whether he had heard or read it, his memory was hazy and his mind didn''t allow Jason to remember anything. This felt weird, and the uneasiness increased as he subconsciously took a step forward while his mind wandered off. Forcing himself to stay in front of the portal, Jason wanted to take a good look at all emblems because they released strong energy currents. Jason felt like this was a sign of whether the main inheritance for the specific body part was still present or not. In the end, he was not sure what kind of dungeon had emerged in front of him, but just a few moments later, he heard voices from around him. Because of that, he forcefully moved away, trying to see what others would do, first! Oddly enough, it was Miranda and her group members that appeared in front of the Obelisk. They didn''t notice him because he concealed himself to the best of his capabilities. Landing in front of the Portal, Miranda seemed a little bit concerned, while the other group members were smiling brightly. "Let''s enter the dungeon right now before anyone else finds it!" "Yes, we shouldn''t waste anymore time!!" "We have made adequate preparations, nothing bad should happen as long as we work together!" "Exactly, we don''t need someone with a special eye trait. They''re overrated, either way!" "That''s right. We are definitely strong enough to pass all trials, alone! Let''s get the inheritance for all the pictured symbols! Afterward, we can show our masters that we are much better than anyone else. If we find a strong inheritance, we might even be able to defeat our seniors, and show them how humiliating it is to be easily defeated in front of everyone!! Nobody will ever dare to offend us again!!" When Jason heard all of this, he couldn''t help but think that they were a little bit full of themselves. However, he didn''t move a single inch or showed signs of being anywhere around. Instead, his gaze was fixated on Miranda, who sighed deeply as she suggested, "Let''s just enter the dungeon, we should only be happy once we find something...what''s the use of imagining all kinds of scenarios before anything happens?" Her voice was filled with annoyance, and the other group members noticed this. "Mira, why are you so frustrated? Is it because of that youngster? Just ignore him, we don''t need him to pass the trials and be rewarded with treasures!!" One of the young men in their group said, only for one of the older women to stare daggers at Miranda. "Or do you think that we are too weak without that young boy? Did you really become that weak, or did you fall in love with him just because of his good looks?" Ignoring their words, Miranda didn''t take the bait, and she simply approached the portal while shaking her head as she asked. "Is everyone ready, or do you want to waste more time?....it''s not like I''m allowed to leave you guys behind...but can you guys please be less enthusiastic when facing dangers? It''s like you guys want to die...rational minds will always find more rewards!" Voicing out her frustration, she turned back to the portal, and jumped through it, leaving her group behind. They could only stare at the portal for a second before rushing after Miranda, without saying anything else. A moment later, Jason came out of his hiding spot, confused about the weird encounter. "Just what happened right now? Miranda is really weird too...but those group members are truly...a disadvantage." Jason was not sure why Miranda was with them, but there had to be a reason. As such, he didn''t think about it any longer. Instead, he felt the strong pull around him and decided to enter the dungeon, following the others who had already disappeared into it. However, just as he approached the portal, and was about to step through it, a robotic voice resounded in his mind. [New Participant detected. Evaluation begins] The voice sounded feminine to him and just after the initial words had been spoken, a mass of energy swept through Jason as he completely entered the portal. [0%...10%..32%...65%..84%...100%. Scan Completed!] [Poor Primal human bloodline detected! Celestia bloodline detected! Alteration of Cells detected, caused by-- Spiral Spirit, Pryr Cursed Basilisk, True Origin Flame, evolving Maest all-devouring Moon Glacier Owl!] [Cultivation base- Primal stage, one unique solidified prismarine crystal equal to four common solidified prismarine crystals! Further amplifications through Primal human''s innate trait- World of Souls]] [Unique traits- All-seeing eyes(deteriorated)- Emperor Eyes; Soul fraction of Chaos Emperor] [Restrictions detected- Celestia bloodline 97% sealed through Chaos Emperor and natural seals! Primary bloodline awakening completed, Stigma and Aura have been created naturally!] [Difficulty determined- Calamity(Highest)!] [First Candidate of the Primordials'' Descendants has been found, difficulty increased!] [Limitation of highest difficulty has been crossed due to participants'' capabilities. New difficulty [Void] has been created] With the sudden stream of information blasting in his mind, Jason had problems staying level-headed as he unintentionally cursed out. "What the actual fuck...can I leave, please?!" He didn''t want to enter the Dungeon anymore, even less after the last three messages that rang through his mind. ''That''s it...didn''t I want to have a relaxing time to cultivate while advancing through the trials of an Inheritance site?!'' Unable to move a single inch, he was forced to look ahead, where he suddenly saw a ginormous tower that probably touched the sky, while its width was similarly shocking. This caused goosebumps to appear all over his body when he realised that he was just about to enter the most dangerous dungeon at the highest possible difficulty. However, how could he have known that his encounter with the dungeon was predetermined since ancient times and that his arrival had been awaited for eons, changing the fate of countless beings that would be saved by his grace and mercy. A golden light emerged in front of Jason''s eyes, dazzling him, only to appear right in front of the hundred-meter-tall gate that was actually the location for his first trial. [First trial. Conquer the tower! Time left to advance to the first floor <15 Days>] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 720 - Jursassic Park Upon seeing the countdown, Jason had a premonition, which only increased when he began to calculate the numbers of floors. Looking upwards, he tried to gauge its height but he couldn''t see the tip of the tower, not even with the use of his Emperor Eyes. This caused him to gulp nervously as he muttered in frustration. "Just how long will it take until I pass the first trial?!? Months...years?" How could he know that the joke he told to calm himself was, in fact, not far from the truth? Conquering the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant was not to be taken lightly, and the dangers involved were extremely high. As such, Jason had to be careful with every step he took. Initially, he had hoped to be able to alter the soul energy cycle in his sub-area before solidifying his second prismarine crystal, but that didn''t seem to be as easy as he had expected. Jason was also not sure where the other dungeon conquerors were because it was unlikely that they had to conquer the same tower as him. Yet, he doubted that they would be too far away because they were likely to be able to procure the same inheritance as him...or so he thought. ''Descendant of the Primordial...just what exactly is the Primordial?'' Jason wondered, not exactly sure if the name had something to do with his Celestia bloodline, or something else. Being a candidate of the Primordial Descendant sounded intriguing, but at the same time, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit worried. This was because the difficulty of his trials would exceed the limits which the artificial intelligence had, forcing it to create a new one. That was bad, to put it simply, and he became extremely vigilant as he opened the gigantic gate. Stepping through it, he entered the tower while his mind eased up with a single thought. ''If I cannot pass it, and am about to die, I can still give up and let the time run out!'' Jason was not someone who gave up easily, and he would rather accept severe injuries, but he could tell if he would succumb to his injuries or survive. Fighting against several dozen beings at the Peak Prismar stage, for example, would be his death sentence, and Jason would rather survive than obtain any kind of inheritance. Yet, at the same time, Jason was intrigued by the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant, which was also the reason for him to feel like trying it out, even if it could take years to advance through the trials. He was not bothered by this, rather, it made everything even more interesting than before. Kinra island might submerge any time in the following months, but somehow, Jason didn''t think that it would affect him. As such, he decided to give his utmost effort to pass the trials, starting with the tower! Taking a deep breath, Jason saw Byakur emerge in his hand, while Petri entered his mana core, amplifying his strength further. Yet, what he saw once the gate closed behind him, was bright light that dazzled him for a moment, followed by the scent of lush grass and the flourishing nature that hit his nostrils. This astonished Jason, and the moment his eyes adjusted to the bright light that slowly dimmed down, he couldn''t help but feel as if he had entered an entirely new dimension. What he saw was an entire plain full of verdant grass with nature at its finest. The most impressive thing was that he couldn''t even see the walls encircling the tower! Even after he inserted mana into the Emperor Eyes which solely enhanced his eyesight, seeing everything in a radius of more than two kilometers in detail, he couldn''t get a clear view. The plain didn''t have many elevations, and Jason was able to see even further without the detailed view, but even after that, the tower''s walls were still not visible to his eyes. Turning around, he wanted to walk along the walls that should have been behind him, trying to gauge the first floor''s size, only to see that both the gate and wall had vanished. ''Was I teleported away without even noticing it?!'' Jason almost exclaimed, barely holding back from creating loud noises that would attract others. Shocked about the realisation that he had been teleported away without realising it, goosebumps sprang up on his entire skin. Yet, a moment later, he had been forced to accept reality because he saw a group of more than dozens of beasts approaching him. Through the Emperor Eyes, he could immediately detect that they were Pryr beasts at the Prismar stage''s first threshold. This was a good sign, and from the outlines of the primordial energy they released, he could clearly see their appearance. However, only a moment later, he saw them properly with his bare eyes too, allowing him to witness the batch of 10 Velociraptors that had between one to six solidified prismarine crystals each. Jason was confident of defeating them in a fight, but there was one thing that bothered him. "My first trial is to conquer the tower...and I just need to advance to the first floor...doesn''t that mean I have completed this task already? Or is this floor just the tutorial...or ground floor?" It was confusing, but the same count as the question, whether he was supposed to conquer the tower by killing beasts or just by finding the portal that leads towards the first floor. There were too many questions and not a single answer Jason could come up with. As such, he was a little bit helpless which made him make an important decision. ''Once I have to kill in order to advance, I will do it, otherwise, I will just kill those that desire to do the same to me first!'' He didn''t like to be ordered to do anything, but Jason was too selfish to care about the lives of beasts in his current situation. Because of that, he could only make a compromise he had in mind- killing those that wanted to kill him. As long as that was fine, Jason would be too. Weirdly enough, the Velociraptors saw him, but instead of being bothered by his presence, they ran past him, minding their own business. Only a few moments later, he heard them issuing unique noises which caused Jason to turn around as he saw a family of Triceratops that seemed to have been attacked. "I''m...not in Jurassic Park, right?!" Recalling the scenes from ancient movies that replicated the world before the mana outbreak and world bridge''s emergence, on Argos, Jason couldn''t help but smile. He didn''t have his vision at that time, but his mother had used mana to make him visualise the prehistoric animals that had reemerged on Argos with the appearance of the world bridges. Jason had already seen many prehistoric beasts during the last few years, but witnessing how the group of Velociraptors was hunting their prey made him feel odd. They were tactically attacking the triceratops, slowly injuring them, before letting them succumb to their fate. ''Did they ignore me because I can''t feed them, or because they''re afraid of me?'' He suddenly asked himself. However, it was just a moment later that he shook his head. ''I should search for the portal towards the first floor...otherwise, I will be expelled from the dungeon before I can even enter it officially.'' He may already be inside the dungeon, but one could also say that he was just in the tutorial and that this didn''t count. For Jason, this was the case, and looking at the surrounding beast''s strength, he didn''t feel that intimidated anymore. Confident about his own capabilities, he turned around. There was one particular hope in his mind, and if that was truly the case, many things would change!! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 721 - Chaos Obelisk "Are the beasts in the basement of the same strength as the beasts I''ll have to face in the next floors, or will the difficulty increase drastically from the first floor onwards?" Jason muttered out loud, hoping for the former to be the case. He dearly hoped that the artificial intelligence had somehow missed evaluating his strength accurately. But that was unlikely, considering that it had known much more about him, and his soulbonds than Jason himself! Nevertheless, he hoped that the artificial intelligence''s data about his human bloodline was not up to the mark, which should be the case, owing to the fact that all kinds of Primal humans with a low purity should exist. As such, the soul world should be one of a kind. At least, that was what Jason understood from all the information he had acquired during the last few years. There might be another race with a similar soul awakening, maybe even the Primal humans themselves, but over the course of time, they must have evolved. Because of that, Jason figured out that it was not even unlikely for specific information about his human bloodline to be missing. Thus, Jason hoped that the fortified soul conjunction, the 100% amplification from soulbonds that occupied his mana core, and the fusion were unknown to the artificial intelligence. If that was the case, he would have much fewer problems to advance through the trials, and even less to survive! With a total of 15 days left, Jason had many things to do. Amongst them, he wanted his soulbonds to continue cultivating inside the soul world. They should advance even if he was unable to. As if on cue, Petri left his mana core and returned to the soul world, where they continued to cultivate. Right now, none of his soulbonds was fully mature, which meant that their cultivation advancement speed was still accelerating. This was exceptional in Jason''s opinion, and the effects which the cricula Minatra flowers had on beasts proved to be icing on the cake. They were ancient flowers that were said to be extinct, yet Jason had been able to procure them, which was extremely helpful. Now that his soul world was also overflowing with the three cultivation energies, his soulbonds could cultivate at a rapid speed, increasing their own, and Jason''s strength tremendously. While the flowers were no doubt a blessing, Jason could only perceive one downside of this seemingly perfect tactic of allowing his soulbonds to cultivate- the lack of soul energy. Right now, he had more than enough soul energy and crystals, but once his soulbonds would reach the higher ranks of the Prismar stage, providing enough soul crystals would become hectic. As such, he had to alter the soul energy cycle within the sub-area of his mind. It was simply too slow, and Jason had already thought of several plans to improve his soul energy cycle. One of them was to divide the single cycle of soul energy into two streams. This required double the amount of soul energy, but Jason had more than enough to achieve this for now. In the end, it was even possible to create multiple cycles because his soul world core had reached a size large enough to allow this feat. The only issue was that he didn''t know for certain if his sub area supported the maintenance of multiple soul energy cycles. Jason was not sure if his sub area could maintain dozens of soul energy cycles, but his mind had been refined several times, he had undergone his bloodline awakening, and many of his minor seals had been released. Adding his cultivation stage that had advanced tremendously, and the fact that his mind was further amplified by Spyro, his Spiral Spirit to it, Jason was confident in his sub-area being able to control four soul energy cycles at once. That was just an assumption, but owing to the understanding of his own body, Jason could be relatively sure that he was not being overly ambitious. Now, he only had to find the time to properly divide the soul energy cycle and adjust the smaller streams of soul energy in order to achieve what he wanted. This sounded easier than it truly was, and would take him quite some time. As such, giving himself a challenge added to the task he had already received, Jason wanted to complete the alteration of his soul energy cycle before advancing to the first floor of the tower. That meant he had 15 days in order to find the portal, gate, stairs, or whatever would lead him to the first floor while simultaneously adjusting his sub-area. It was not impossible to achieve this, but Jason didn''t even know how vast the ground floor was. As such, he first determined the side of the place he was in. After exerting the Floating Sky movement technique at the perfect mastery, Jason additionally circulated mana through his body, while his Celestia Aura and Stigma were fully unleashed. Afterward, he began to run in a direction using his full speed, while ignoring the beasts he passed. Jason barely made note of their cultivation base that was also within the Prismar stage''s first threshold. Through this, Jason could tell that he would be able to defeat all those beasts, even if some would drain him of more energy to fight than others. Fortunately, he was not actively attacked by any of the beast groups he passed. Instead, they only looked at him in vigilance and interest as if he was an existence they had never seen. This was, in fact, the case because Jason was the individual that activated one of the Pitch-black Obelisk that spread through all kinds of gathered Inheritance sites that could be found on multiple planets. It had a specific requirement to be awakened out of a state that was similar to hibernation, and one of it was the aura of a Primordial being or their descendants! Awoken by Jason''s advancement to the Prismar stage, the pitch-black obelisk had emerged on Kinra Island, as the first Obelisk that had been placed all over the world, especially for those young Primordials who lost the goal in front of their eyes. Yet, Jason was not one of them. He was different, and the fact that he awoke the Obelisk was something that would change his fate, turning the chaotic tides of the universe for the better or worse. Whether Jason was the universe''s doom or its salvation was unknown, and only time could tell the answer. However, what nobody knew was that the dangers lurking inside the endless universe were not everything that endangered countless beings. There was something much bigger, and more dangerous that could obliterate everything and everyone that was hidden from plain sight. While Jason tried to pass the tutorial of the first trial, he didn''t know what kind of shockwaves the awakening of the pitch-black obelisk had sent through the vast Universe, with five particular places being the gathering point of the commotion. ** [One of the five places, inside a gigantic palace, surrounded by searing hot magma] Sweating profusely, a fiery red human-like being rushed through the hallways, entering the main gathering hall of the palace, as he exclaimed in between deep breaths. "Someone...awoke one of the Chaos Obelisks¡­.and that being exceeded the difficulty threshold forcing the sentience within the Obelisk to create a higher difficulty!!" Facing a being of enormous height that sat on a large throne made out of the bones of the opponents it had defeated through the course of time, the messenger could barely lift his head, realising that he had lost his cool in his excitement. Kneeling down, he didn''t even notice how the gigantic being turned his head to face him. His deep crimson-colored eyes stared into the soul of the messenger, who had come rushing to him with the news of the Chaos Obelisk''s awakening, as he asked. "Where?" This seemingly simple question caused the entire palace to shake, and the ground around them fissured as cracks appeared out of nowhere. The messenger, who was at the peak of the Specta stage, could barely move his lips to answer. "Manyr...the Obelisk on Manyr was awakened!!" Lifting his hand in an extremely slow manner, the being that was overflowing with the purest energy, and unfathomable strength, touched his chin as if he was in deep thought about something. "Whose descendant is it?" What the being wanted to know was if the descendant who had awoken the Chaos Obelisk was one of their own race, or hailed from the others. In response, the messenger could only quiver in fear as he said in a nervous voice, "I...do not know that sir...the transmitted information...is defective¡­" The messenger said this and instinctively closed his eyes awaiting an unbearable punishment, but instead, nothing happened. It was only a minute later that he lifted his head to look up, to see the corner of the unfathomable being''s lips rise a little. ''Interesting!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 722 - [Bonus ] Endless Tower [Author note: Thank you very much @Sonya. Your ko-fi donation and comment meant a lot to me. Because of that, I want to return the favor by releasing a bonus chapter :D. I hope you''ll like it :3] Jason didn''t have the slightest idea of what commotion he had caused, and his mind was solely focused on finding a way to the first floor as well as the alteration process of his second sub area. Unfortunately, the former was easier said than done, while the alteration process of his second sub area was much easier than Jason had estimated. Instead of taking two weeks, Jason had easily separated his soul energy cycle into four strands, much earlier without burdening his mind too much. This was exceptional, and he could tell that another strand could possibly be created. However, instead of five, Jason felt that four were more than enough for now because it felt as if everything would become more burdensome once the four strands had been fully integrated into the subconscious processes in his sub area. Despite that, he was still able to increase his soul energy production by four times, which was an exceptional feat. In the future, this could be further increased, but Jason was unable to even calculate how many soul crystals it would require to bind a single being at the Ascendion stage. Earlier, he had a premonition that this might not work, but the sole thought of his late mother, who seemed to have been much stronger than he had initially expected made him change his opinion. Thinking about his mother, he wondered how strong she must have been to be forced to shatter her cultivation just to return to Argos. ''She shouldn''t have had enough time to enter the Specta stage...As such, she should have been at the Ascendion stage¡­'' This was much weaker than Jason had previously expected, but at the same time, the Chaos Emperor, or whatever kind of mythical being''s soul fraction was imprinted into his body, had to be much stronger. He had only heard from the mythical being that his mother had helped it with something, and in return for the favor, it had sealed a portion of its soul within Jason. With that in mind, Jason understood that his mother might not have been strong based on her cultivation stage, but she had definitely been a strong woman. Thinking about his mother in that way made him proud, and even if she was dead, he wanted to make her proud in any way possible. Clenching his fist in determination, Jason spent the remaining days on finding the path to the next floor. Oddly enough, he didn''t have to fight a single beast, which was quite satisfying because Jason had some time to sort his mind. Every single notification of the robotic voice was still ringing through his head, and to make sense of all of this, Jason truly required time to concentrate without worrying about anything else. Three days before the countdown would end, Jason finally found what he had been looking for. It was a large gate in the middle of nowhere, and he wondered how he hadn''t been able to perceive it before. However, it was only then that realisation struck Jason because the gate was perfectly concealed, and not a single bit of energy was radiating from it. This shocked him a little bit because every material, object, and living being that was exposed to mana, primordial energy, or spirit force would be swept through by the respective energy after some time, even if it was only faint. That meant the gate''s concealment was perfect, which Jason had never seen before. Even with his Emperor Eyes, he was unable to see through the concealment, and for a moment he believed that the gate was just an ordinary gate, made out of material that repelled the three energies. Yet, only a moment after he thought this, the gate opened magically, releasing tremendous amounts of energy. Jason''s Emperor Eyes could almost immediately tell that the mana intertwined in the blue liquid that manifested within the gate''s frame was transmuted by spatial energy. Under normal circumstances, one would simply want to walk through the gate, thinking that it was the path towards the first floor, but Jason did no such thing. Entering a defensive stance, his eyes turned serious while Petri entered his mana core, amplifying his physical strength tremendously. Without Jason realising, Petri had just completed the construction of his first solidified prismarine crystal, indicating his advancement to the Prismar stage! Feeling his soulbond''s energy surging through his body, Jason felt eerily calm as the muscular body of a five-meter tall beast emerged from the portal. Its fur was brown and the hooves of the half-bull half-human beast caused the ground to tremble, as the beast roared out loudly. "A Minotaur...is that supposed to be the guardian?" Jason mumbled while staring at the Minotaur that was the strongest beast he had seen on the ground floor, until now. Its cultivation base was still at the Prismar stage''s first threshold, but it had seven prismarine crystals solidified within its body. At the same time, its physique seemed to have received an additional enhancement. As such, Jason could tell that it was a mutated Minotaur, with an advantageous physical mutation. Yet, instead of being flustered, Jason simply smiled as his golden eyes gleamed brightly. "Maybe it''s finally time to have some fun once again?" Despite having only one prismarine crystal, Jason didn''t think that he was at a disadvantage. Rather, looking at Byakur, before taking a glance at the extremely heavy longsword which the minotaur was holding, Jason couldn''t help but think that Byakur was still much better. While his soul weapon lost in terms of quality, the soul connection still allowed Jason to have the upper hand in terms of overall capabilities as it gained many benefits. Unfortunately, he was still aware of the fact that he would have to improve Byakur''s efficiency soon or exchange it with a better weapon. His speed of improvement was simply too fast, after all! However, for now, this could be ignored. Instead, Jason didn''t hesitate a single moment as he faced the Minotaur, telling Petri to fuse with him. This was not necessary for his opinion, but there was something he wanted to test out- how high his pure, physical strength could become by utilising all means to enhance it! Thus, a black armor of scales that had a golden vein-like pattern all over it, grew on his skin, while a seven-meter-long tail grew from his coccyx. Clenching his fist, he heard faint noises, and Jason couldn''t help but smile vibrantly behind the mask of scales that covered his entire body. He didn''t even think about using his curses, or anything else than his physical strength, as he rushed towards the Minotaur, as small cracks appeared on the ground below him. Through his unique prismarine crystal, the tremendous advancement his physique underwent by unsealing more than 20 minor seals, Petri''s physical enhancement and fusion, Jason''s strength and speed overwhelmed that of the Minotaur as he emerged in front of it. The Minotaur had already charged towards Jason, yet, it didn''t expect Jason''s entire being to turn so terrifying the moment it rushed in his direction. As such, the moment it slashed out with its heavy longsword, it had already lost the fight, owing to the velocity at which Jason swung Byakur. In the end, Jason''s choice of weapon, speed, and strength had been enough to inflict several lethal injuries before the longsword brushed past him, missing Jason by a hair''s breadth. It took the Minotaur a few seconds to realise what had just happened, as its body began to bleed, slowly depriving it of the life force within. The moment the Minotaur collapsed, Byakur returned to the soul world, while Jason''s fusion with Petri started to dissolve. "That was short, but still a good way to know how strong I am¡­" Jason mumbled with a satisfied smile, only to add to his mind. ''I hope the difficulty of the following floors won''t have much difference to that of the ground floor¡­'' With that thought, Jason used the remaining days that were left to pass the first task, to cultivate and finish sorting his thoughts. He entered the gate on the 14th day, advancing to the tower''s first floor. Only a moment later, the much-awaited robotic voice announced in his head. [Congratulations on passing the ground level of the Endless Tower. Good luck in the following Floors-1] [Time left to advance the floors of the Endless Tower [1Y:364D:23H:59M:59S] [Remark: Placid behavior of beasts has been removed!] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 723 - Surrounded "What the...Why do I get so much time to pass the first trial?! Are you fucking kidding me...two years?! So I either advance floors during that time or do whatever I want?! Is that how it is?" Jason couldn''t believe himself as the robotic voice resounded in his mind. Having entered the first floor, the voice disappeared, and Jason realised this soon after. As such, he forced himself to calm down, before he made sense of the situation. ''I really won''t be able to leave the dungeon anytime soon, even if I advance through the floors with a breathtaking speed. Is that how it is?'' Jason wondered, and even if he wanted to fail the first trial, it would take him two years to get out of it. This period was too long to waste doing nothing, and Jason understood this quickly. At the same time, it was also obvious that the Immortal eye he had purchased for Luna, wouldn''t be handed out in the next few years. ''If the first trial already takes two years...won''t the other trials take similarly long?!'' Jason only got 20 years recently, but now he was supposed to stay inside a dungeon, for years at that. It felt weird, but he was not exactly displeased. There was only one thing that bothered him, which Jason didn''t expect. It was not the fact that Luna wouldn''t receive the Immortal eye from him because that was something the others could fulfill too. Instead, Jason was sad about not seeing Jennifer for such a long time. ''I hope I can reach her through the messenger card, or she will be in Lanro when I return...otherwise, it will be difficult to meet her again!'' He was still not sure what the emotions within him exactly were, but Jason had to be stupid to not understand that Jennifer had become extremely important to him. While he didn''t know when exactly this had happened, Jason could only shake his head before sighing deeply as he emerged on the first floor. The information about the negation of the placid behavior of the beasts inside the dungeon bothered Jason, but he didn''t think too much of it first. Unfortunately, it was exactly the placid behavior of beasts that had allowed Jason to pass through the ground floor without much resistance. Upon emerging on the first floor, Jason first noticed that the environment was extremely similar to that of the previous floor. As such, he was already familiar with it and didn''t require too much time to understand everything clearly. However, the biggest change that differentiated the ground and the first floor was something that Jason had to face only moments after he emerged on it. A small group of three Triceratops that followed the path of Pryr was suddenly charging at him, making the ground tremble due to their tremendous weight. They rushed towards him with the speed of a high-velocity train. Turning around, Jason saw the three Pryr beasts, whose eyes had a slight tinge of a crimson color. This made him doubt the situation, but without further hesitation, Jason exerted the Floating Sky movement technique before circulating large amounts of mana through his body. Catapulting himself towards the Triceratops, Jason summoned Byakur, which he enveloped in Solaris flame only a moment later. Afterward, he used a small amount of mana to use his two curses, and even the abyssal effect, with which he targeted the closest Triceratops that was also the strongest one. Weakening it with a subtle paralyzation made it almost stumble as it lost its balance. At that moment, Jason emerged below its head as his body leaned forward, almost reaching the ground. This was already a risky position, considering that the front legs of the Triceratops were only a few centimeters away from his head. Yet, without a single trace of fear, Jason twisted his body, while swinging Byakur around in a smooth arc, targeting the unprotected parts of the Triceratops'' head- the lower part of its neck! Because he made use of many unique properties of his at once, Jason had been able to behead the Triceratops without encountering a single issue. Meanwhile, the other two Triceratops witnessed what Jason did, only to attack him even more fiercely that gleamed in their eyes. Unfortunately, it was exactly this behavior that caused them to be reckless, and they ended just like their brethren a few moments later. Jason took a deep breath when he finished off the third and last Pryr Triceratops before looking at their corpses. ''If the dungeon expects me to store away tens of thousand beasts, it is truly stupid...but I cannot simply waste the corpses¡­'' He thought, realising that the next two years would be filled with blood and death. Sighing deeply, Jason stored away from the first corpse, and he was just about to store the rest, only to witness them disintegrate into countless particles. This shocked him greatly, but only a moment later, he smiled lightly. ''The corpse I stored away is still there, so the dungeon just doesn''t want to see the corpses being wasted either, I suppose.'' Jason was not sure if his assumption was correct, but in the end, it didn''t really matter. More important was the fact that the Triceratops had been ferocious, even though they were known for being calm and friendly as long as one didn''t bother them. Thus, Jason didn''t need much to comprehend that the negated placid behavior was not everything that seemed to have been tweaked to increase the difficulty level. Instead of becoming neutral, the placid behavior of the herbivores seemed to have been replaced with a ferociousness, Jason didn''t expect. Yet, this didn''t seem to be bad. At least, Jason felt as if the Triceratops hadn''t been able to fight properly owing to the forced change in their natural behavior. At the same time, they had been unable to think calmly, let alone use their entire strength which was likely to be based on the recklessness with which they fought. Because of that, Jason thought that the removal of placid behavior might not be as bad as he had first imagined. However, it was exactly this assumption that was completely wrong, and while Jason had been deep in his own world of thoughts, many things were happening inside the first floor. Only a few minutes had passed since Jason emerged on the first floor, but a second, and third group of beasts was already approaching him. They ignored each other, despite being predator and prey, solely focussing on Jason as if he was the only existence they saw. It was at this moment that Jason understood something. ''Not only their behavior changed, but I was also turned into the sole target of their ferociousness??'' With his new understanding, Jason was able to reevaluate the dangers of the first floor, and everything became clear to his mind. The cultivation base of the beasts inside the first floor was not different compared to the basement. Yet, at the same time, their strength had changed tremendously, while the same occurred to the dangers within the first floor. Fighting the groups of beasts one after another could not be considered to be an issue. Rather, it was relatively easily done owing to Jason''s current strength. However, the biggest problem was the fact that his fight was attracting the attention of other beast groups that would attack him, and no one else. The Velociraptors and Parasaur did not even realise that the other group had appeared in front of Jason, who had just finished the fight against the Triceratops group. ''So...it''s like that?'' He thought and his lip curled upwards, forgetting about the time he would have to spend inside the first trials. ''This will be interesting!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 724 - Ferocious First Trail Defeating the two beast groups that rushed at him with a fast speed was not problematic, and Jason killed them with smooth slashes and thrusts of his sword. However, he noticed that the commotion he created was beginning to attract a horde of beasts, increasing his problems much more than initially expected. As such, the moment he defeated the last beasts, Jason fled from the battlefield, in an attempt to escape the clutches of even more beasts lunging at him. A quick backward glance made him see four small beast groups charging at the spot he had previously been, proving his previous assumption to be correct. ''They really got attracted to the loud commotion, but only focused on fighting me. These four groups of beasts don''t even think about killing each other!'' Seeing how the beasts were looking around, trying to find him, Jason just shook his head before he continued to run further away from them. It was not a cowardly act of turning his back to danger, but there was no need to be reckless. He could, of course, defeat them but that would require careful planning and strategy. Mindlessly diving in the melee would do him little good and only increase the risk of getting killed or heavily injured. During the fight, he would create a loud commotion, and even more beast groups would get attracted to the noise to charge at him. If that were to happen, Jason would slowly end up in an encirclement of beasts that would only continue to grow until every beast of the first floor would have surrounded him. That was something Jason didn''t want to happen, so his mind worked furiously to create a small, yet efficient plan. Being able to fight one beast group before leaving would be the best scenario, but Jason was not sure how feasible it was if another group of beasts were to be nearby. In that case, they might as well pursue him, creating an even louder commotion than a normal fight would. That was not unlikely to happen, and Jason tried to make up his mind and put together the best possible plan that allowed him to clear the first floor. Yet, at the same time, he thought of a plan B that would allow him to advance through the floors without worrying about the surrounding beasts. However, after thinking about the second plan, Jason shook his head because even though it would be the most secure plan to initiate, it felt wrong and cowardly. Torn between the two plans, Jason couldn''t help but sigh. His first plan was to rush through the floors by solely focussing on killing the Guardian before advancing to the next floor. The first plan could turn extremely dangerous, which was not something Jason wanted to occur. Unfortunately, something about his second plan seemed to be wrong too, except the fact that it was cowardly, yet the most logical. He wanted to extinguish every single beast on the first floor before cultivating for several months, only to advance afterward. This was logical, but at the same time, Jason felt that something was odd. Nevertheless, he had to avert his attention to his surroundings in order to prevent being found and attacked by other beasts. Instead of being attacked, Jason wanted to be the aggressor because it gave him a great advantage that might even allow him to silently kill an entire group of beasts before continuing to advance. Given the time limit of two years to advance through the tower''s floors, Jason didn''t want to be too hurried, but he also didn''t want to waste his precious time. If he used his time well, he should also be rewarded accordingly. Thus, with that in mind, Jason let Petri occupy his mana core, preventing the Cursed Basilisk from continuing his cultivation progress. Nonetheless, Petri had enough time to finish the cultivation procedure without receiving an injury as it would normally be the case if one were to forcefully interrupt one''s cultivation. With his physical strength that advanced tremendously, Jason rushed through the first floor, attacking all kinds of beasts ruthlessly, killing them without showing any mercy. Several days passed like this and his fights seemed to go on for hours at a time, blurring the difference between day and night. Before he knew it, he had killed all of the beasts. This was easier than he had expected, but Jason also knew that the first floor was the easiest of all. At least, that was what common sense told him, and once the floor had been cleared of all beasts, Jason approached the seemingly ordinary gate. Just like the ground floor, the gate opened when Jason was barely a few meters away from it, revealing a portal with a beast emerging from it. This time, it was a flying beast that followed the path of Maest. It had a Light affinity and looked like a gigantic, white eagle that had a wingspan of more than twenty meters. Jason was not really shocked about the beast in front of him as it only had seven solidified prismarine crystals. This was not a worrisome fact for him, and the only thing he had to pay attention to was the light affinity. Every other characteristic of Jason was much stronger than the Gigantic Light eagle. Solaris gave Jason his strongest affinity, the black flame, but even that was at most comparable to a common affinity whose capabilities were strengthened owing to three, at most four solidified prismarine crystals. Fortunately, this disadvantage didn''t seem to be that much of a problem because his physique was strong enough to balance it out. At the same time, Solaris'' flames had unique effects that only required to inflict a small injury on his opponent, which would render the opponent unable to do anything else as the flames burned through every kind of being that was unable to extinguish flames within their body. Exerting the Floating Sky movement technique, Jason emerged in front of the Gigantic Light eagle, the moment it emerged out of the portal. Brandishing Byakur that had just manifested in his hand, Jason quickly thrust it forward, not giving it enough time to react and evade the attack. As such, his eyes fused with Petri''s, increasing the effect of the race specific weakening- and petrification curse that forcefully subdued the eagle for a fraction of a second. This fraction of a second was more than enough for Jason''s slash to hit the Gigantic Light eagle. Yet, instead of being able to end the eagle''s life with a single strike, Jason was barely able to inflict a severe injury in its right wing as it suddenly released a large margin of its light affinity, the moment it could move again. Jason had already expected the Gigantic Light eagle to retaliate, but he had expected to create a shield of light, not that it would forcefully change his slashe''s trajectory with its affinity. Additionally, Jason was dazzled by the bright light of the beast''s affinity, forcing him to switch his position instantaneously because he predicted to be attacked a moment later. Thus, he jumped into the air, which he shouldn''t have done. Oddly enough, the Gigantic Light eagle seemed to have predicted his prediction as light spears shot towards Jason just a quarter of a second after he had jumped into the air. From the looks of it, the Gigantic Light eagle had no similarity whatsoever to both the Minotaur he fought earlier, and all the ferocious beasts that fought without using their mind, recklessly attacking him. The eagle''s constitution seemed to be enhanced, just like the Minotaur''s, but in the eagle''s situation, it was the intelligence or foretelling ability that was exceptional. As such, Jason had much more issues in fighting the eagle than previously assumed. Nevertheless, it was already severely injured, and unable to fly because one of its wings had been rendered useless after Jason''s attack. Unfortunately, Jason hadn''t enveloped Byakur in Solaris'' black flame at that time, otherwise, Jason would have been more confident in defeating the Gigantic Light eagle in a short amount of time. Yet, the injury it had sustained was enough for Jason to believe that it wouldn''t take him long to defeat it, as long as he evaded all of the attacks by predicting their trajectory. This was crucial because it was impossible for him to be faster than the light spears that were being shot towards him. "So...is that how the entire first trial will look like?" Jason mumbled, breathing heavily the moment he had evaded the light spears in the air, using a vast majority of his mana. He had underestimated his opponent while overestimating himself, which made him end up in the current situation. As such, he told him that he will completely fuse with Petri before fighting the guardian on any of the following floors. At the same time, Jason finished his fusion with Petri midair. This transformed his appearance entirely as he unleashed his Celestia aura that was intertwined with Petri''s wildness and his unrestricted desire to eradicate the Gigantic Light eagle. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 725 - Bonus Merits? With black scales growing on his skin, and his pupils transforming into slits like that of reptiles, Jason''s entire being turned more ferocious. The same applied to his aura that was eager to devour the Gigantic Light eagle and feast on its blood. Petri''s stigma had manifested above Jason''s, increasing its effects by a large margin. Through this, the mana that coursed through Jason enhanced his speed further, giving him the ability to evade the second batch of light spears that were thrown at him. In the end, the Gigantic Light eagle''s strongest ability was not that it could fly, but its great control over its own light affinity. Even Jason had to acknowledge that. However, this didn''t mean that he would sit idle and let the eagle harm or even kill him. Rather, it caused his aura to flare up as he received an adrenaline rush, increasing his excitement to fight further. His life was not yet under great risk, and the foes he had fought in the past had been much more dangerous than the Gigantic Light eagle. As such, Jason could take the fight lightly if he wanted to. Yet, that was not how he would choose to fight. Instead, he would give his best to defeat his opponent as quickly as possible, avoiding unnecessary trouble that could occur by wasting too much time. With a large amount of mana inserted into his Emperor Eyes, he could clearly detect the light spears'' trajectory, evading them easily owing to the physical strength and flexibility he attained by fusing with Petri. Afterward, he pushed his feet and the long tail that had grown out of his coccyx from the ground the moment he landed on it. Through this, he catapulted himself towards the Gigantic Light eagle that had already conjured more than a dozen new light spears and shot all of them towards Jason. In an attempt to evade them to avoid being pushed backward, or possibly injured, Jason leaned his body forward, twisting his body at an odd angle. Jason even used his tail to bash it into the ground, forcefully propelling himself into the air. This helped him evade three light spears that had almost hit him. his body leaned forward, and almost touched the ground, evading the spears that had predicted his movement. The eagle was taken aback to see Jason deftly evade all of its attacks, thus it was not prepared for his counterattack, let alone the fact that his entire being was suddenly clad in an additional layer of a black armor. Solaris had emerged from the soul world, tightly enveloping his entire body along with Byakur that had enlarged to three meters. The moment Jason brandished Byakur at the eagle, it prepared to retaliate using the same tactic as before, only to witness something it hadn''t in their first clash. Jason had used a much larger amount of mana to activate the abyssal effect of his Emperor Eyes, in addition to the passive enhancement of the Chaos attribute he had just annexed. There was not much of it left, but the Chaos attribute was still potent enough to enhance his abyssal effect tremendously, even without being used up, simply by remaining stored. As such, the eagle entered the seemingly endless darkness his abyssal effect could create. Even if it was only for half a second, it was enough to give Jason the momentum to pierce Byakur through the eagle''s chest. A moment later, Solaris'' flame flared up, burning the eagle from inside out, slowly depriving it of its life force, ending its life even faster than the lethal injury. It didn''t take long for the Gigantic light eagle to die, as it succumbed to the injuries caused by Jason''s flames searing through its bone and flesh, screeching in pain in a last ditch effort to survive. In the end, it was for naught, but that was how nature worked, and Jason understood this. However, at the same time, he couldn''t do anything against the fact that he wanted to advance the tower in order to not waste his time. And in order to advance through the tower''s floors, he had to kill the beasts that attacked him. Hiding away was not something he would do if it was avoidable, and the rewards he was likely to receive were most certainly good enough to make up for the dangers he had to face. In the end, every single being strived for power, and Jason was just like them. In order to protect himself and everyone who was close to him, he had to be stronger than those trying to harm him. Furthermore, Jason had yet to figure out if his grandparents were alive, let alone find them. As such, he would have to search through multiple worlds, with the biggest clue being the mysterious Chaos Emperor whose soul fraction was imprinted within him. There were too many mysteries around Jason, and he had yet to find out the truth about most. However, at the same time, he wouldn''t be able to do that without the necessary strength, which forced him to find more treasures, including conquering the dungeon, and reap all possible benefits! Shaking his head, Jason tried to change his train of thoughts as he mumbled to himself. "I''m still thinking too much about killing...is that what makes me human, and stronger, or is it a weakness?" Jason was not sure of the answer but he tried to distract himself by focusing on dissolving the fusion with Petri and retracting the Celestia aura and Stigma. Afterward, the eagle corpse disintegrated into countless particles which Jason saw owing to the Emperor Eyes, only to witness that the particles were pulled into the gate that began to glow faintly. The engravings on the gate were silver in color, but Jason could also see a sliver of faint blue in it. He had no idea what this could mean and could only make assumptions. Yet, all of them were proven wrong only a day later. Because he had been fighting for days on end, Jason recuperated his strength during the following hours, only to rest a little bit after his mana core was filled and his tension finally released. This allowed him to see minute changes in the engravings on the gate, which made him curious. The silver color was slowly fading, being replaced by the blue hue. At the same time, he got the feeling that it would be better to enter the gate before the engravings turned completely blue. There was no reason for this, but Jason just followed his instincts, and the moment he entered the portal, he understood that his instincts had been proven correct. [First floor has been successfully cleared. 1 Merit point has been rewarded.] [Two bonus merit points have been rewarded. 100% Bonus of reward for being unscathed. 100% Bonus of reward for clearing speed.] ''So...the color of the engravings indicate how much time I have left to receive the speed bonuses?'' Jason asked himself while waiting to emerge on the second floor. At the same time, he was confused about the ''being unscathed'' bonus. In fact, he had been hit by quite a few attacks, and even if they had barely grazed him, he had a few scratches on his arms and legs. As such, the Unscathed bonus shouldn''t have been given to him. Except if the meaning of being unscathed was different than Jason assumed it to be. How could Jason know that Primordials interpreted the word unscathed completely differently than he did, and that their meaning was much more horrifying than he could yet imagine? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 726 - Rushed After emerging on the second floor, Jason stretched his body, while trying to put together the intel he received just a few moments ago. The number of Merit points he received was more important than one thought, and Jason had learned of their use after being rewarded with lots of them when he had been inside the temple Inheritance site. As such, he wanted to maximize the number of merit points he could get inside the first trial. ''Passing gives me one and being unscathed, and fast enough gives me a bonus of 100% each...that means if I pass the exam just before the gate turns blue, I should still be within the time limit for the bonus'' WIth that in mind, Jason wanted to put together the best possible plan in order to advance through the tower''s floor, without the need to neglect his cultivation or other things. Thus, he had to acquire more intel first. Because of that, Jason''s first task was to find the gate leading towards the second floor. He had to figure out the requirements to open the gate, in the first place, and there might be other requirements too. Thinking about that, Jason spent five days adventuring through the second floor, while trying to avoid being attacked by ferocious beasts. The first trial was filled with beasts that were thirsting for his blood, but Jason felt that the second floor had roughly the same difficulty as the first one. This intel was also important, and it gave him a lot to think about, in order to tweak his plan if required. Thus, he could think about adjusting the time he spent somewhere and the time he required to pass a floor. With a marginal increase in the floor''s difficulty, spending a week to advance might be enough for his soulbonds to balance out the increase of difficulty in the following floors. However, that was just a naive thought and Jason knew it quite well. From his point of view, the difficulty would increase by a minuscule amount on every normal floor, only to increase drastically every fifth or tenth floor. That was, at least, what Jason thought to be logical. However, instead of speculating, he had to figure out the truth beforehand. As such, when Jason found the closed gate that led towards the third floor, he approached it immediately. To his astonishment, the gate didn''t behave as Jason had assumed, and instead of remaining closed with specific requirements that had to be fulfilled, it instantly opened. A sky blue wolf was revealed that had a height of five meters. It was a Maest beast once again and had a strong ice affinity that seemed to have enhanced freezing properties. Jason could tell this because he had seen the same through his Emperor Eyes a few times before when he and Artemis had been fused. As such, he knew that the enhanced freezing property was extremely powerful and that it was not to be underestimated. Yet, before the sky blue wolf was even able to fully emerge from the portal that had manifested only a few moments after the gate had revealed itself, Jason had already slid below it with a complete change in his entire demeanor and appearance. The moment the gate opened, Jason didn''t even want to give the opponent enough time to take a single breath, let alone take a good look around. As such, the moment the gate opened, he had acted instinctively. Fusing with Petri, Jason shot towards the gate while black scales with golden vein-like patterns grew on his entire body. At the same time, his Celestia aura turned more ferocious, while a second Stigma manifested on top of his own Stigma. The Floating Sky movement technique was fully exerted and Byakur had already manifested in his hand. Just as Petri''s scales covered his entire body, Jason''s reptilian eyes changed and a tail grew out of his coccyx. Meanwhile, Solaris manifested itself around the black scales armor, and Byakur. Through this, Jason received a double-layered protection armor that was highly resistant to physical and elemental attacks, with additional destructive properties owing to the searing hot flames of Solaris. However, his defenses were not important right now, rather his attack would make him win the battle. With that in mind, he had already emerged in front of the sky blue wolf the moment it had just emerged, oblivious to the position of its opponent. Thus, Jason, who had the time on his side, utilized his battle intent that intertwined the race specific weakening curse, the petrification curse, and the abyssal effect which he released at once. Subduing the oblivious sky blue wolf, Jason didn''t hesitate a single moment before he propelled himself into the air, beheading the beast before it could even react. He didn''t hesitate a single second and seeing the blood splurting through the air, a faint gleam emerged in his golden eyes, only to disappear a moment later. His plan had worked perfectly and the guardian of the second floor didn''t even notice that anything had gone wrong as it met its death. Moments later, Jason returned to his normal appearance before taking a deep breath. "Unfortunately, I don''t feel like it will be that easy every time!" In the end, the fight might have looked extremely easy to win, but the amount of mana Jason had used was three-quarters of his entire stored mana! That might seem feasible for most, but Jason was also aware that his victory had been possible because he had taken the sky blue wolf by surprise. As such, the moment he attacked another guardian in the same way without the surprise effect, it would probably fail. There were too many unknown variables Jason had to pay attention to, and he only attacked the sky blue wolf because of one particular reason- information. Without wasting his time, Jason had wanted to procure more information about the tower, the floors, and to be precise, the entire first trial. After the sky blue wolf had been killed, it dispersed into countless particles that were absorbed by the gate that began to glow brightly. The silver color of the engravings was extremely vibrant, and Jason could already figure out the first piece of information he had been curious about. ''If I''m not wrong, there is no reward above the 100% bonus for speed. That''s good to know!'' Because there didn''t seem to be a greater reward for speed, Jason was able to spend more time clearing the dungeon before starting to peacefully cultivate for a few days. This would be extremely helpful in order to become stronger, balancing out the steadily increasing difficulty levels with each subsequent floor that were bound to occur. Jason''s mind was already rattling wildly, and he tried to make a rough estimate on how much time he had to finish each floor. Yet, what confused him was that the silver color seemed to be fading much faster than it did before. Just at that moment, Jason was forcefully dragged out of his thoughts as Petri, Spyro and Solaris issued a loud warning. Within a split second, he turned around as black wings sprouted out of his back. Jason pushed himself instinctively into the air away from the gate. Through this, he evaded the attack of a pack of Netherworld sabertooth tigers that had attempted to assassinate him. For a short moment, Jason had forgotten that there were other beasts that would attack him the moment they saw him. Luckily, he had saved himself from the ambush owing to his soulbonds'' warning. His expression turned serious and he decimated the group of sabertooth tigers within the following five minutes. This caused a loud commotion once again, and Jason couldn''t help but get a little frustrated because he could already tell that the next batch of beasts was about to come. Yet, a moment later, the beast corpses disintegrated into countless particles that were also drawn towards the gate. Like before, it began to glow lightly as the blue color was retracted, replaced by a silver touch. ''Is¡­the silver color maybe a timer? And the particles increase the time I have? Does that mean by killing beasts I can increase the time in order to receive the speed bonus!?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 727 - 10th Floor With the new information in hand, Jason used the next three days to clear the beasts from the second floor before he spent an entire week cultivating. This was not enough to construct the second solidified prismarine crystal, and it would take at least three more weeks of fully focused cultivation. Because of that, Jason advanced to the third and fourth floor, killing all beasts first before doing the same to the guardians. Afterward, he would only enter the next floor, just before he would stop receiving the speed bonus. Through this, Jason could cultivate while receiving all possible bonuses, which was exactly what he wanted. In the end, entering the fifth floor took him an entire month, but it was definitely worth it because the second solidified prismarine crystal was finally created! With that, Jason''s combat prowess almost doubled in an instant, and he knew that he could further increase the speed at which he enhanced. However, that was only something Jason realised after advancing to the fifth floor. The increase in difficulty he had expected turned out to be minuscule, and it was mostly the Guardian that had become stronger. Yet, Jason''s increase in strength was much higher than that of the Guardian''s because not only his own strength had been enhanced, but that of his soulbonds received a boost too. Spyro''s spirit veins had fully recuperated, and owing to the enormous amount of spirit force and the spiral cricula Minatra flowers that had been planted inside his soul world, it had already reached the 8th Lique stage. Meanwhile, Petri was relentlessly absorbing primordial energy in order to liquefy and solidify it afterward. Artemis would still need some time to evolve, but Jason was already awaiting it eagerly. He assumed that his soul energy and the number of soul crystals he would have accumulated until then would be enough. As such, they would be able to advance through the tower at a much faster pace after her evolution was completed. Jason could wait for her to finish evolving while cultivating, but that wouldn''t be interesting because the opponents from the 5th to the 9th floor were not really a threat. In a single month, Jason had cleared these five floors, only to realise that he had been too excited to fight again. Thus, he had forgotten to focus on cultivating in the time he had in hand before the speed bonus would have worn off. Nevertheless, Jason couldn''t complain. From the fifth floor onwards, the base reward increased to 1.5 merit points, which meant that he received a total of 4.5 Merit points for every floor he cleared. This was exceptional, but before Jason realised it, he was already standing in front of the gate that had faint silver engravings all around it. Yet, at the same time, there was something that bothered him a little bit. Before, there were no clues about the next floor''s dangers, but now there was the skull of a human-like being engraved in the center of the gate. If that was not a warning, Jason was not sure what else he was supposed to think. As such, he realised that he had to pay attention to what he was doing on the 10th floor. However, instead of being frightened, Jason realised that the dangers of the tower had gradually decreased with each subsequent floor. That was not how it was ought to be according to the danger level which the artificial intelligence had assigned beforehand. Not only was he facing the highest difficulty level of the entire dungeon, but, in fact, the dungeon had created a new difficulty level just for him. Because of that, Jason had been worried beforehand, only to overcome the basement level and the first nine floors of the tower without any real issues. In the end, he had spent more than two months inside the dungeon, yet, it felt as if he had just entered it. At the same time, he was yet to witness the overwhelming strength of his opponents that the artificial intelligence had mentioned. Instead, the common beasts he faced were weaker than him, while the Guardian had barely been on par with his prowess. And that was before he solidified his second prismarine crystal! As such, the skull on the 10th floor should either be an exaggeration or a symbol of true dangers, which was the way Jason perceived it. It should be dangerous, but owing to his combat prowess that exceeded the peak of the Prismar stage''s first threshold, he was confident of defeating the Guardian on the 10th Floor. And even if he was too weak to defeat the Guardian, the common beasts shouldn''t be strong enough to survive his onslaught. His combat prowess was too high, after all! It was unlikely that the common beasts had reached the peak of the Prismar stage''s first threshold, while the possibility of them advancing to the Initial stage of the second threshold was infinitely small, but not zero. As such, Jason couldn''t help but feel his hands tremble in excitement as he entered the portal that led him to the 10th Floor. Within no time, he emerged on a plain with blueish flourishing grass and extremely dense mana that permeated the surrounding area. Meanwhile, the primordial energy and spiral force were much lower in comparison, which astonished Jason a little bit. Before there had never been a difference between the amount, purity, and density of the three energies, but that seemed to have changed now! ''With that amount of mana, I wouldn''t even need a single cultivation stone to reach my highest cultivation speed!'' Jason thought, only to sense something from the corner of his eye. It was only a moment later that a barrage of icicles shot towards him, almost killing him the moment he emerged out of the portal. Fortunately, his Emperor Eyes had sensed the mana fluctuations from more than a kilometer away, giving him the required time to duck and lay flat on the ground before constructing a gigantic wall of ice himself. The last time he used his ice affinity was quite some time ago, and he couldn''t help notice that it had become much weaker than it had been before. Yet, what Jason had to understand was that his affinities were not becoming weaker, but that his strength and the opponents he faced were becoming too strong. Every few months, Jason could solidify one prismarine crystal that had the same potency as four common solidified crystals. That was simply an insane feat and not something others were able to achieve under normal circumstances. In the end, it was something that belonged to the Celestia race''s innate traits, which Jason didn''t know for sure. He simply believed that all stronger races could do what he did, but that was not the case, at all! Some had unique cultivation techniques with which they could compress and liquefy their mana to a much higher extent. Yet, Jason didn''t even require such a cultivation technique, because his bloodline was forcing him to liquefy mana to a much higher extent, while the solidification process was intertwined with the faint traces of the divine energy he used. However, right now, this didn''t matter because Jason understood that he had underestimated the 10th Floor''s dangers. That was not difficult to realise when he saw a total of more than 10 Jackals that had each eight solidified prismarine crystals within their mana core! This astonished Jason because the jackals'' strength was on par with the Guardian of the previous floor. With that intel, Jason realised that the dangers of the 10th floor were obviously much higher, and he was eager to encounter the Guardian. However, first, he had to defeat the jackals that had almost killed him the moment he emerged from the portal! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 728 - Greed A slow smile crept up his face when he saw the 10 jackals facing him. His combat prowess was further enhanced by Petri, who occupied his mana core, and his own physique was equivalent to the strength received by the reinforcement of a solidified prismarine crystal. As such, Jason was powerful enough to overwhelm the jackals without any issues. There was not even the need for him to use his Emperor Eyes, the curses he harbored, or anything else to defeat the jackals that were astonished by Jason''s strength. They had underestimated him and hadn''t expected him to be stronger than they could handle. Yet, before they could even realise what was going on, he had emerged in front of them, killing them without showing any mercy. During the last two months alone, Jason had killed much more than a thousand beasts at the Prismar stage. Previously, he had felt some remorse after killing them, but this sensation had slowly dispersed, replaced by the thought that the beasts inside the tower would attack him even if he wouldn''t, either way. His mindset slowly adjusted to feeling anything except the determination to advance through the tower, and Jason began to understand that the numbness with which he killed was slowly taking him over. That was bad, at least, if he didn''t want to become completely numb to the sensation of killing. He didn''t want to transform into a mindless killing machine. Becoming numb to killing was one of the worst things that could happen because emotions like guilt, frustration, sadness, wrath, agony, and so on were extremely important in a fight, and even more emotions were what made him ''human''. Without these emotions, Jason knew that he would become a ruthless executioner, without any thought or logic, which was something he wanted to avoid by all means. Nevertheless, given the dungeon''s dangers, he couldn''t allow the beasts to survive as the fight against the floor''s Guardian might turn out to be extremely fierce. Owing to this, the fight against the Guardian would take longer, which would in return mean that a loud commotion would ensue, attracting the attention of other beast groups. In the end, this meant that Jason either had to defeat the Guardian quickly or the other ferocious beasts that roamed the floor. With that in mind, Jason started to clear the floor of every single group of beasts, which gave him a rough estimation of their overall strength that had increased tremendously. He already assumed that the difficulty of the 10th floor would increase substantially, but to think that there would be multiple beast groups with each beast having nine solidified prismarine crystals was beyond Jason''s expectations. ''If the 10th Floor already has beasts at the Peak of the Prismar stage''s first threshold, won''t the 20th Floor be full of beasts at the 2nd threshold?!'' That was something that bothered Jason because he knew the exact and vast difference between the first and second threshold of the Prismar stage. In the end, the difference in terms of cultivation was only the creation of a large rotating crystal that enveloped three small prismarine crystals. Nevertheless, the enhancements of these single rotating crystals were something Jason didn''t know yet. He knew that they required several times the mana required by a single prismarine crystal only to be constructed, but that was all he was aware of. Others didn''t compare small solidified crystals with the larger rotating crystals, because it was evident who was stronger, and that it was not even questionable. However, these beings didn''t have the advantage of a higher compressed, and unique cultivation base like Jason, giving him the ability to fight against beings that were much stronger than he was. Thus, he had to find his match soon enough. The 10th floor was much wider than the ones before, and it took Jason almost ten days just to find and defeat all groups of beasts. Some fights had been easier, some more difficult because more and more beast groups had been attracted by the commotion he created, but in the end, he was still unscathed. Nevertheless, he didn''t immediately approach the gate he had found relatively early. Instead, he used his Emperor Eyes to take a look at the color of the engravings. On one hand, Jason wanted to receive the speed bonus, but on the other hand, he wanted to be fully prepared for the worst-case scenario. However, if he acted like this every single time dangers loomed around him, he might as well hide like a coward and only face opponents that were weaker than him. Reflecting on his battles so far, he realised that he had fought many stronger opponents than those that were weaker than him in terms of his cultivation base. Yet, this didn''t have much of a meaning, if he were to be honest. His peers had never really been a huge threat to him, and he quickly bridged the gap between them after he had been able to cultivate. There might be prodigies of high-ranked races which he didn''t encounter until now, but most beings he had faced so far were much older than him. Even Jennifer was several years older than him, and it was only a difference for beasts, who grew up while simultaneously becoming stronger. For them, their age didn''t matter, and it was more of their degree of maturity that made a difference in their strength, turning them stronger or weaker. Afterward, it was their racial limit that prevented them from reaching certain thresholds. This restriction didn''t seem to exist in the intelligent races because they only required time, the only difference being the duration of time required to cultivate. For some, it would take millennia to reach a certain cultivation stage, while others were faster owing to their talent, background, and opportunities. Yet, in the end, only strength mattered, and Jason had long since realised this even before he left Argos. Because of that, he didn''t care about others'' age, and was more concerned about the strength others could exhibit. Jason also knew that the thought that had coincidentally flashed through his mind had nothing to do with his current situation...or so he thought. With his talent, he could cultivate at a rapid speed, and his strength could increase tremendously, just in a matter of a few days as long as he and his soulbonds cultivated relentlessly! Due to this unique situation, the dangers of the tower trial could lessen, the more he cultivated, or higher, the more he rushed through the tower. As such, with that thought in mind, Jason was forced to use his brain to figure out the best solution in terms of earning as many merit points as possible. Knowing their value, and given the fact that the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant was something unique, along with the fact that he would probably never be able to enter it again, Jason had to use this one chance to the fullest. Even if he might be unable to reach the required threshold to receive the Main inheritance, this wouldn''t matter as long as he was able to use the earned merit points efficiently. Owing to this thought, his mind was running wild, and he spent the following days cultivating as if his life depended on it! How could Jason realise that he opted for the right choice, only to be too full of himself, and greedy because he wanted to receive the speed bonus by all means? As such, before the entire silver engravings were replaced by a blue color, Jason approached the gate, ready to attack the emerging beast at any moment. He had already utilised all means and rushed ahead the moment the gate opened, revealing the portal that was just manifesting, only to emerge in front of the beast that appeared a moment later. Yet, what Jason didn''t expect was that the beast seemed to be waiting for him as it stared downwards at him. It was as if it pierced into his soul and without a moment of hesitation, it brandished a huge longsword with a terrifying speed that shocked Jason to the core. Trying to block the attack with all his might, Jason''s eyes widened in shock, realising that the beast he was facing cultivated in all the three main paths! Merging the three cultivations'' energies, its strength exceeded that of Jason''s by a large margin, and it was only a moment later that a sting coursed through his soul world. The impact of the sting was so huge that it was immediately transferred to his mind as a faint crack resounded through his head. This sound flashed through his mind and it took Jason a moment to realise what was going on as he cursed out with a single, shocking thought in his mind. ''Byakur...is breaking?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 729 - Overwhelming Opponent Jason was shocked. Never in his life would he have imagined that the opponent he had to face had such a devastating strength. He had failed to realise the first telltale signs of his trusted weapon, Byakur receiving its very first cracks. This was an unbelievable sight, which caused Jason to widen his eyes in shock. Instinctively, he retracted his weapon, allowing it to return to the soul world. This gave the one-eyed giant, the Cyclops, to continue the sword slash with an unfathomable force. Knowing the trajectory, Jason evaded it by a hair''s breadth, but before he realised it, the Cyclops landed a solid kick into the abdomen. Flung away, Jason crashed into the ground, more than a dozen meters away from his previous position, only to continue to roll. Gasping for air, Jason felt as if his entire body was shaking, yet, before he could even think, his body reacted instinctively. Pushing himself up from the ground, Solaris'' wings manifested on his back, and he soared into the air, giving him some time to breathe, just as the Cyclops appeared below him. Its speed was terrifying, and Jason had barely evaded it, which was his fortune. If it had reached him in time, he would have been in a completely different situation by now. ''Three cultivation energies and it reached the 2nd threshold? What the fuck?!'' Jason thought the moment he got the time to make an evaluation of his opponent''s strength. It was devastating, and it was only a moment after his initial evaluation that he was able to calm down to some extent. ''No...it''s still in the 1st threshold...and has just started to create the first of three large rotating crystals!'' This find was reassuring, but the rest was definitely not. Byakur was only slowly recuperating within his soul world, which was one of the advantages of a Soul weapon- its regeneration ability. Yet, before the faint cracks on it would be completely healed, at least half a day or, probably more had to pass. That was not something Jason could afford to give Byakur to heal right now. To put it bluntly, Jason had a marginal upper hand due to Solaris'' wings that enabled him to fly around the Cyclops, however, this advantage was short-lived because the Cyclops was preparing something. Jason had a premonition about it, and without hesitation, he manifested several hundred fire needles. He just wanted to target the Cyclops'' sole eye and render it blinding, but the moment the fire needles were shot out, Jason understood that it was useless. Solaris might be on the way to create its third solidified prismarine crystal, but there was still a big difference between possessing the strength of three prismarine crystals and nine. Furthermore, the Cyclops had the advantage of cultivating in all three main paths. Thus, its strength must already be at the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage. With that in mind, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit odd because the opponent on the 10th Floor shouldn''t already be that strong! It simply made no sense considering that he began ascending the floor with a single solidified prismarine crystal! Even if he was a halfling of the Celestia and human race, that didn''t mean he was able to do everything! Right now, his chances to win a battle against the Cyclops were close to zero. As such, Jason didn''t even feel like attacking the Cyclops, to begin with. There had to be a different way of tackling the beast, and figuring it out was what he had to do right now. Jason was able to come up with several plans owing to the Spiral Spirit being his soulbond that enhanced his mind. Most of them had to be discarded because they were too dangerous, but one particular plan was stuck in his mind. ''The gate is open...so I should be able to enter the 11th floor, right? If I manage to leave, I can cultivate before encountering the other guardians!'' In the end, the plan was simple, and Jason wanted to employ it without hesitation. Yet, he also knew that his speed was too slow. Nevertheless, with the ability to fly, Jason planned to approach the gate slowly. Thus, he released his entire mana at once while flying towards the gate carefully in an attempt to speed through the portal. Unfortunately, his plan shattered into smithereens, the moment he realised that the Cyclops didn''t remain idle. Instead, its eyes were fixated on Jason from the beginning of the battle, but it was only now that it began to act. Huge streams of energy enveloped the Cyclops, only to gather around its eye that began to release a unique kind of merged energy. At this moment, Jason understood that the Cyclops was using a weird type of special technique. Yet, before Jason could do anything, whether it was desperately attacking, or fleeing, his surroundings seemed to twist as the gravitational force increased by several times. Unsure whether it was just his mind that assumed the gravitational force was increasing, or if the Cyclops was pulling him towards it, Jason could only stare at the Cyclops for a confused minute. However, it was crystal clear that he wouldn''t be able to continue flying anymore. He was only a few meters away from the portal, but at the same time, this small distance suddenly became too vast to cross for him! Looking down, he noticed that the Cyclops was merely inches away from him, and both the joy and killing intent inside its eyes caused Jason to feel that he couldn''t hold back anything anymore. Otherwise, he might die! At that moment, Jason did something he had wanted to prevent at all costs because he could tell that his body was not ready yet! Earlier, he had already unsealed many minor seals, and if it was possible to do that again, he would do it by all means. However, this time it was different. Forcefully releasing another seal, Jason grit his teeth, knowing that this seal was different compared to the ones before! It was not a minor seal, but one of the few bigger seals the Chaos Emperor had put on him. This seal had multiple purposes, but among the most important was the fact that the major seals of the Chaos Emperor prevented the Celestia bloodline from directly merging with and overwhelming Jason''s human bloodline! Only because of that, Jason was able to awaken the soul world, in the first place, and it was similar to his humane emotions that wouldn''t have existed without the human blood coursing through his veins! As such, the moment Jason broke his seal, the energy that was released almost tore his body apart, as the Celestia bloodline tried to suppress the human bloodline. Yet, before anything like that could happen, the Cyclops seemed to have noticed that something was odd, which caused it to react instinctively. Only a fraction of a second later, Jason''s eyes were sprayed with hot blood- his blood! Instinctively looking down, Jason realised that the Cyclops had chopped off his leg using a vast amount of energy to sever through the tidal waves of energy Jason suddenly released. Realising this, Jason roared out, as his eyes and Celestia aura turned bloody while his mind went blank. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 730 - Fight Of Instincts His brain abandoned all of the rational thoughts, as he was consumed with nothing but the thought of killing the peasant that had dared to cut off his leg. Jason had yet to truly realise what had happened, but his mind had shut off before the pain could course through his entire body. That was why he had suddenly entered a state that was solely operated by his primal instincts, and nothing else. Crimson red eyes and a bloody red aura that held faint strands of a golden-silverish color replaced his earlier calm personality. Jason''s entire demeanor and appearance had radically transformed within the blink of an eye. The transformation was still underway as Petri''s fusion, which Jason had activated since the beginning of the battle, began to intensify. Amplified by Petri''s ferocious nature, and the fact that the basilisk was the king of serpents, who couldn''t stomach accepting defeat by any being, let alone the Cyclops in front of them, their rages fueled each other. Through this, their connection intensified, and the armor of scales was growing thicker and bigger. At the same time, Jason''s reptilian eyes were piercing through the Cyclops whose face was also splattered with Jason''s blood. Seeing his own blood, Jason, who was already filled with wrath, couldn''t help but switch off the logical part of his brain as the tremendous tidal waves of energy swept through his body. After releasing one of the major seals, which the Chaos Emperor had laid on his Celestia bloodline, Jason''s human blood was slowly being overpowered by the Celestia bloodline. Yet, owing to his rage and wrath, his human half was feeling murderously angry and it only intensified further to see that the Cyclops was still alive and breathing. Wanting to end its life as soon as possible his aura flared up, sweeping through his body before being released, followed up by the activated stigma which forced the released energy to be overwhelmed and subdued in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile, the released chaos energy was forcefully restricted, prevented from leaving his body, and channelised towards his eyes, where it was annexed without Jason realising. Before Jason had hoped that the chaos energy, which he had absorbed after the short encounter with the Preactors, would be enough to defeat the Cyclops, but unfortunately, it hadn''t been enough! That was not because it had been too little, but rather because the Cyclops had been enveloped by a thin energy layer that didn''t seem to belong to it, in the first place. It prevented Jason from making use of his chaos attribute, and Emperor Eyes like usual, severely restricting his capabilities! Nevertheless, now that the chaos energy he had was manifold higher, even the thin, protective energy layer around the cyclops crumbled in front of Jason''s wrath. This combined the chaos energy with his abyssal effect, creating a much stronger force than Jason had ever released. It used up the entire chaos energy Jason had just released, but before the Cyclops was able to make a single move, it had already entered the depths of the endless void of darkness. In the end, the abyssal effect only worked for a very short moment, but that was because the Cyclops'' Spiral cultivation was also at the Peak of the first threshold of the Prismar stage. At the same time, the thin energy layer had been stronger than Jason estimated before his mind had gone blank. Nevertheless, the short moment had been more than enough for Jason, whose body was tearing apart due to the tremendous tidal waves of energy, to appear in front of the Cyclops, barely a moment later. It was as if he had been magically teleported before he emerged in front of the seven-meter-tall opponent, only for half a meter long claws to grow out of his knuckles, with a rapid speed almost as if they had already been prepared within his forearm. Without thinking twice, Jason allowed Petri''s fangs to grow out of his knuckles. This was painful, but so was every single movement he made under the pressure of the enormous energy he was forced to release, in order to survive. He had already lost a leg and Jason wanted to do nothing but kill the Cyclops, filling his entire being with rage. The thought of turning into an Infernal Celestia didn''t even cross his mind, and Jason simply let go of his emotions, releasing everything at once. This enlarged the aura he was already releasing while his stigma began to glow in an even brighter light as the energy coursing through his body was slowly forced to obey his instructions. His body was being invigorated by the unsealed Celestia bloodline through the sheer mass of divine energy provided which was still slowly spreading through his body. It was strengthening Jason''s physique, and the amount was so high and the energy so rich that the surplus was free for Jason to dispose of. As such, he inserted every single trace of energy that had been used to maintain the major seal into Petri''s fangs that had grown out of the knuckles on the back of his hands. All of this happened while the Cyclops was still reeling from the after-effects of his abyssal effect. It had barely begun to regain its senses, only to see that Jason, or rather, the being it assumed to have been Jason, pierced both of its hands in its one and only eye. Unable to move fast enough, the Cyclops could only release the remaining reserves of its three energies at once. Yet, contrary to its belief that Jason was still too weak to break through its defenses, the Cyclops comprehended that Jason''s attack was completely different than before but it was too late. The energy of the Chaos emperor got intertwined with the chaos attribute, slowly weakening the Cyclops'' defenses. Piercing Petri''s fangs deep into the Cyclops'' eye, Jason roared out, over-exerting his aura that had turned completely crimson in color while his eyes were slowly starting to glow in a blood-red hue. Meanwhile, his entire wrath was channelized in his attack, through which it became stronger and stronger, only for Jason''s body to become weaker by the second. The blood loss he suffered was tremendous, yet, Jason didn''t even realise anything because the adrenaline that spread through his body was numbing everything else. Only when Petri''s claws pierced through the Cyclops'' eye did he slowly realise that something was off because his body was faltering all of a sudden. Looking down, he immediately realised what was going on, which made him force the calmed down energy that coursed through his body, to seal off the bleeding from his leg, without a second of hesitation. Somehow, Jason should have been devastated right now, but after the initial rage, he had become eerily calm as if he knew something others were oblivious to. His entire body ached due to the tidal waves of energy that had almost torn him apart before, yet he had no time to think about the pain as he had to take care of his opponent. With his hands deep inside the head of the Cyclops, Jason didn''t even have to think about what he was going to do next. A searing hot flame emerged around his arms and Petri''s claws, rapidly spreading through the Cyclops'' head. Yet, instead of waiting for everything to end naturally, Jason released a tremendous amount of mana, to flare up Solaris'' flame. This caused the Cyclops to succumb to its inevitable fate as its head exploded, brain matter splattering through the surroundings. With the death of the Cyclops the fight was over, and only a moment after, Jason fell to the ground, where he collapsed, deprived of the energy to continue fighting as his wrath was used up completely. His aura and everything that had forcefully changed retracted, while the deep cut on leg continued bleeding. Jason could only see how the part of his body that had been cut off disintegrated into countless particles before he fainted, falling right into the portal that was next to them, only to hear the artificial intelligence''s voice faintly. [10th floor successfully passed. 3 Merit points (100% speed bonus!)] [Healing process has been initiated, Unscathed bonus deducted.] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 731 - Unique Regulation Upon waking up, the first thing Jason noticed was that he was still able to feel both of his legs. This shocked him because he could swear that the last thing he fully recalled was his leg being cut off. Recalling the memories of the fight, he began to understand what was going on. "That''s what the dungeon sees as an injury?! A leg or rather a body part being cut off???" The pain he had felt was still imprinted deep in his mind, but that didn''t prevent him from being able to think rationally. His uncontrollable wrath about the loss of his leg had vanished, and he began to understand what was going on. ''I was clearly being overwhelmed, which forced me to unseal one of the major seals the Chaos Emperor had put on me...SO...afterward, the abyssal effect seemed to work, and now I''m...stronger, but on the verge of breaking apart because the Celestia bloodline is too potent?!'' Jason comprehended that the ''Unscathed'' bonus was, in fact, the bonus he received by not losing any body part before entering the portal that led him towards the next floor. Somehow, this was ridiculous, but Jason would be the last to complain about being able to retain his limbs. He was glad that he wasn''t a cripple anymore. It felt as if it had never been cut off, and it was because of this that he was quite happy and relieved about what happened. The memory was gruesome but he had learned a valuable lesson. ''Even if my body is not on the verge of breaking apart...I should really spend a few months cultivating!! The dungeon is...so much more dangerous than I expected!'' Earlier, he had been overconfident and complained that the dungeon was not representing the difficulty he had been given. However, this idiotic thought had now disappeared, vanished into thin air, and Jason couldn''t help but feel that he would be happy to have it easy in his advancement through the dungeon! Unfortunately, that was evidently not feasible anymore. As such, he had to find other ways to figure out a solution to his advancement through the dungeon, without being forced to loosen seals on his bloodline, let alone lose a limb. His opinion about the dungeon was slowly changing, and Jason began to take it more seriously than before. It was not that he was taking the dungeon lightly earlier, but he had found it to be nothing special either. Shaking his head, when getting up from the ground, Jason felt his entire body break apart. Clenching his fist he tried to steady himself while his skin immediately burst open, which was a bad sign. Nevertheless, Jason was glad that his mana veins and mana core seemed to be fine. What was even better was that they had been reinforced, while the same applied to his soul world that seemed to have enlarged too! The divine energy that had been released from the portion of his unsealed bloodline had caused this change, and Jason began to slowly understand the meaning of the minor and major seals which the Chaos Emperor had put on his bloodline. ''The minor seals restrict the Celestia race''s pure energy to sweep through my body, while the major seals restrict racial traits, divine energy, and similar things from overwhelming my human bloodline¡­'' With the first major seal, everything seemed to have gone well, which was probably owing to his enraged human bloodline that had been caused by the emotional chaos of the loss of his leg. Yet, at the same time, Petri''s emotions had affected him the most, causing him to feel as if nobody was allowed to even touch him, let alone hurt him, creating an even more powerful impact on his emotions the moment he lost his leg. In the end, he only won because of the major seal he released, and the aftermath was something he had to accept. He was still alive and that was everything that mattered! Obviously he was not well because the energy that had surged through his body had exceeded his body''s limits, trying to break it apart into two, but Jason was confident that he could solve this issue now that the amount of energy within his body had been released to a certain extent. Unfortunately, he had entered the 11th floor, which meant that he should be prepared to be attacked by other beast groups. That had not happened when he was unconscious, or he would be dead by now, but through the Emperor Eyes, Jason could clearly see the numerous beasts around him. Right now, he was on top of a mountain, and the temperature was well below zero degrees celsius. Only with Solaris'' help was Jason able to prevent freezing himself to death, while other beasts didn''t seem to be able to reach him. There was no flying beast, he had spotted until now. Because of that, Jason felt reassured that it was feasible to start cultivating. At least to the extent at which he would be able to move and fight freely without thinking that his body would tear apart at any moment. With that in mind, Jason cultivated for an entire month to strengthen his vessel, and physique, while Petri, Spyro, and Solaris didn''t stop cultivating on their own, either. Despite cultivating relentlessly for a month straight, Jason''s vessel had yet to be able to endure the multitude of amplifications he received. As such, he was forced to continue cultivating until he could start solidifying his third prismarine crystal. Yet, before he would be able to finish solidifying the third prismarine crystal, Jason realised that the divine energy within his body had finally been stabilised, with a small portion of it transferred to every single cell of his body. This allowed his body to be much lighter, and after a few tests, Jason slowly comprehended that his divine energy was passively amplifying his entire being. Understanding this was important, but also extremely interesting to figure out more about his bloodline. There were many things he had yet to get the hang of, and the mystery about the Celestia race, his body and everything about his family continued to plague him. In the end, it felt as if he knew nothing about himself, which was weird, but, in fact, the case. Time would slowly help him get the hang of everything and unravel all the mysteries around him. That, Jason was absolutely certain of. Thus, he was able to remain calm even though the mysteries of his body were sometimes frightening. Thinking that he would figure out everything at the right time, Jason got up from the ground, the moment he finished cultivating, only to stare straight into the eyes of a fiery red tiger that had climbed up the mountain he was standing on. For a fraction of a second, he flinched, only to realise that there was nothing to be afraid of. There was a blizzard on top of the mountain, but instead of being utterly dumbfounded by the sudden sight of the beast, Jason smiled before he took control over his body as he kicked out with all his strength. Mana coursed through his body, and his entire being was amplified by the divine energy within him, only to flung the tiger away that had given its all to climb up over the course of weeks. Looking down through the mountain, Jason noticed that there were crowds of hundreds of beasts, and all of them had between seven to nine prismarine crystals. Yet, none of them dared to approach him during his cultivation, which was weird. But at the same time, Jason was glad about this because he didn''t have to fight while being unable to control the energy surging within his body. This had now changed, and he was more than ready to fight the crowd of beasts. Taking a dive from the mountain with Solaris'' wings spread out, Jason couldn''t help but feel glad about the regeneration function of the dungeon, only to avert his attention to the beasts right in front of him. Staring down, he started the fight against hundreds of beasts, with his soulbonds'' support, and his own devastating strength. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 732 - Moonlight After fighting for several hours using his entire strength, Jason was exhausted, but the crowd of beasts had been obliterated. Lying on the ground that was void of any beast, he couldn''t help but feel like he had simply imagined the entire battle. That was fortunately not the case, and he had finally adjusted himself to the advancement of strength he underwent during the last few weeks. Jason was still not satisfied with his strength because it was not necessarily enough to pass the next few floors according to his plan. In the end, he thought that it was best to advance to a specific rank instead of advancing through the floors in a mad rush. Through this, his passive mana absorption could absorb mana in the time he rushed through the floors that could be liquefied until he reached the desired floor. Afterward, it would become much easier to solidify the liquefied mana without being forced to spend additional time liquefying and absorbing mana. With that in mind, Jason used the next four days to clear the 11th floor of all beasts, except the Guardian that had yet to emerge. However, before clashing with the Guardian that was likely to be slightly stronger than the Cyclops, Jason wanted to solidify his third prismarine crystal. Furthermore, he was waiting for something else to happen, thus he would rather spend his time on different things than fighting with his life on the line. Thus, two more weeks passed, and it was only then, that Jason completed solidifying his 3rd prismarine crystal, increasing his strength by leaps and bounds! At the same time, Petri had solidified his second prismarine crystal, and even Spyro had entered the Prismar stage! This was an exceptional speed at which they cultivated, yet, the most shocking thing that occurred the moment Jason finished the solidification of his third prismarine crystal, was completely unexpected! Instead of being able to finish the solidification process as it normally occured without a commotion, he faced an entirely different scenario this time. All of a sudden, the moment Jason finished the 3rd solidified prismarine crystal, everything about his surroundings seemed to change. Yet, the oddest was that a strange type of mana began to leak from his body that he had never felt before in his entire life! This was simply weird, but he couldn''t feel his body draining of any mana despite more of this unique mana leaking from his body. Because of that, Jason began to slowly realise that it was not him that the transmuted mana was leaking from, but rather one of his soulbonds! In fact, it was Artemis, who had just finished her evolution! Only a paper-thin layer of the white shroud enveloped her, but that didn''t hinder the uniquely transmuted mana from leaking from her body. Through their firm soulbond connection, it was channelised to Jason, before it began leaking from his body as well. Escaping from his body, it slowly ascended into the air, to an extremely high altitude before it suddenly halted. Using his Emperor Eyes, Jason tried to figure out what kind of transmutation the mana underwent, but what he knew for sure was that he had never seen such a unique transmutation before. Despite that, he could tell that it belonged to Artemis, and an added advantage was that Jason finally understood that it was an affinity his closest soulbond had to comprehend and attain. This was perfect, but contrary to his expectations, the affinity was different from the ice and fire affinity he already had. It was not a normal affinity, but something that had unique effects. As such, it was a highly rare affinity that was close to extinction. At least, Jason assumed this based on the fact that he had never seen one of such affinities. Yet, the moment the bright afternoon sky was replaced by a large full moon that had been conjured by the leaking mana, Jason couldn''t help but smile. "Moonlight affinity...I wonder what it can do." He was extremely interested in what Artemis had comprehended during her evolution, but Jason was even happier to think that Artemis'' evolution was finally over. He wanted to meet her again because he missed the clingy owl. At the same time, he was curious to know just how strong she had become. Unfortunately, his earlier excitement took a hit, the moment he sensed Artemis'' strength within his soul world. ''She...is still at the exact same cultivation base? It didn''t change at all?'' This confused Jason because Artemis had taken several months, just to evolve. As such, she should have become a terrifying existence. However, before he could spend another second blindly thinking about the intel he procured, Artemis cried out within his soul world. She was eager to spread her wings after initiating the completion of her evolution so she emerged from Jason''s body, ascending into the sky. She reached the conjured moon within no time and halted right below it before letting out a loud screech while releasing both her ice and moonlight affinity at once. Only a moment later, Shane''s eyes widened in astonishment at the sight that was revealed in front of him. The ice Artemis had released was freezing cold, freezing the surrounding the moment it made contact with the ice. That was already astonishing enough, considering that Artemis was still at the 4th Lique stage, but that was not what shocked him! Earlier, the ice had a sky blue color which was now almost completely silver, intertwined with the moonlight affinity Artemis had comprehended. This changed everything about the ice affinity''s properties, enhancing it tremendously. The freezing property became several times stronger, and so was the ice''s resistance, and other characteristics received an upgrade too. Through his Emperor Eyes, Jason could quickly evaluate that Artemis'' ice affinity was strengthened by around 30%, which was an extreme enhancement. After realising this, he couldn''t help but take a second look at Artemis, whose size had decreased tremendously. She was not a gigantic owl anymore but was twice the size of an ordinary eagle. This was less than a fifth of her previous size, and the moment she stared at him, Jason couldn''t help but smile vibrantly. Her white wings now held traces of a faint silver color, while her sky blue eyes were now even more vibrant with a light glint of moonlight that was constantly reflected within them. Meanwhile, the pitch-black horns on her forehead were slowly turning silver. Seeing Artemis once again made Jason extremely happy, and even if her cultivation base didn''t increase in the last few months, her strength more than made up for it. Through the moonlight affinity, many opportunities had been unveiled, but that was not everything. With the extremely firm connection of their soul, Jason was able to clearly sense that the majority of changes Artemis had undergone were on the inside. Her appearance had changed quite a bit, but the time in which she had completed her evolution was more than enough for Jason to understand that her cultivation speed had increased by more than ten times. At least, that was if the tremendous amount of mana Artemis pulled towards her, was the highest she could absorb at a time! In the end, Jason couldn''t help but think that Artemis'' cultivation speed had even crossed Petri and Spyro''s current speed, after the huge acceleration the cricula Minatra flowers brought forth. Sensing this, Jason knew that Artemis would soon become his strongest soulbond once again, overshadowing the others, if they wouldn''t be able to keep up with her! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 733 - Quarrel After Artemis evolved, Jason got a clear picture of her capabilities. As he was thinking about her abilities, she dove towards him, clinging to Jason, as if she hadn''t met him for centuries. She wrapped her wings around him, not letting him even move for a single moment. Thus, he had to wait for quite some time before he was free again. However, she didn''t leave his side. Instead, Artemis took her usual spot on his shoulder and began using her newly attained affinity in all kinds of ways. Testing the moonlight affinity, and what exactly it was capable of, Jason learned many new things, including that the moonlight affinity had properties related to healing, as well as enhancement of the body and affinities, which Jason had already felt before. Through the test results, Jason got to know a lot, and he was eager to use the moonlight affinity for himself. Unfortunately, this would take some time because the affinity seed had yet to be fully constructed in Jason''s mana core. Because of that, he had to think of a different way to approach the situation, and came up with a solution in no time! "Let''s test our fusion too!" Jason suggested, as he approached the gate that led towards the 12th Floor. He knew that Artemis'' strength was not extremely high yet, but with her fusion, he could test the moonlight affinity. Thus he was impatiently waiting as it was currently being transferred to Jason''s mana core in order to let him use it actively. However, without the comprehension and understanding of the moonlight affinity, he had to take Artemis'' guidance in order to properly use it. Excited about being able to use a new affinity after such a long time, he couldn''t help but be restless as the gate opened itself. Yet, before a beast emerged from it, Jason heard a complaint from one of his soulbonds who felt neglected because Jason was excited about Artemis'' moonlight affinity. It was Spyro, who Jason had never actively made use of before. He spent considerable time with all of his soulbonds, but, in the end, he had no idea what Spyro could even do. Earlier, even the Spiral Spirit had been oblivious to its capabilities, but it began grumbling the moment Jason''s attention was fully focused on Artemis and her new affinity. While Jason tried to calm down Spyro, Artemis decided to join the fray as she started to almost scream at Spyro, who couldn''t help but feel offended the moment she appeared inside the soul world, proactively leaving the mana core to lecture it. A fight was about to break out in his soul world, and Jason felt as if he was a grown-up trying to resolve a kid fight as he pulled Artemis back to his mana core, while reassuring Spyro that they would try to figure out its capabilities together. Fortunately, the fight ended with his intervention, but Jason realised that the more soulbonds he had, the less he would use some of them actively. For example, on Argos, he had mostly used Solaris in order to fight his opponents. Meanwhile, right now, Solaris'' flame was simply too weak to even cope with Jason''s advancement speed that was tremendously high. Even after enhancing the soul world to the highest possible capabilities, his soulbonds were unable to solidify four prismarine crystals in the time Jason solidified one unique prismarine crystal. As such, Jason would always be faster and much stronger than them! This was the biggest change Jason underwent since he could actively use his extremely high mana mastery to cultivate, with a strong cultivation technique by his side. It was devastating for his soulbonds but Jason had no other choice but to continue cultivating with such a rapid speed because his strength was not even remotely close to what he wanted to reach in the near future. There were too many powerhouses who were much stronger than he was, and even if his cultivation speed was terrifyingly high, he was already 20 years old! If he were to face higher races, he wouldn''t even be considered a prodigy to have 3 solidified prismarine crystals at the age of 20. As such, he couldn''t even remotely compare himself to his prodigious peers, if he were to encounter them. At least if one would only judge someone''s prowess from a cultivation base alone. There were other things one had to pay attention to as well, such as the foundation of one''s cultivation, and other traits, but Jason knew that he was not strong enough yet! Because of that, he didn''t want to slow down his cultivation speed, which made his soulbonds uncomfortable. Every single loosened seal made Jason stronger and consequently turned them less useful to him. And now that he had a combat prowess comparable to someone with more than 14 solidified prismarine crystals even without their enhancement, Jason was like a monstrous existence in the wild! In the end, his soul energy was not a problem at all, and there was only one fear his soulbonds had, which Jason began to realise once again- their anxiety of becoming useless and unimportant to him. This made him recall Scorpio, who had sacrificed himself, thinking that he was of no use to Jason, and had sacrificed his life to protect Jason, one last time. Shaking his head, Jason realised that he had to find a way to allow his soulbonds to increase their strength even faster than their current speed. Artemis'' speed to cultivate should now be on par with his, possibly even higher, but that was exactly how it was ought to be. He didn''t care about binding hundreds of beasts to his soul. Rather he wanted every single beast to be able to reveal its highest capabilities and support him in achieving his goals. At the same time, he wanted them to feel comfortable with each other, and not like any of them was stealing a spot in Jason''s heart which made him love the others less, a thing that was never going to happen. All of his soulbonds were important to him, and his decision to bind a new soulbond was always well thought, and accompanied by a good gut feeling! Because of that, Jason didn''t like the way both Spyro and Artemis were trying to be possessive, while Solaris and Petri were merely observing the scuffle in excitement as if it had nothing to do with them. It was a ridiculous sight, but Jason couldn''t feel like laughing, at all. As such, he had to think of a solution to prevent such a scenario in the near future, but before that, Jason wanted to figure out the true capabilities of Artemis'' evolution. With that thought in mind, he initiated the fusion with her just as the Guardian of the 11th Floor emerged from the gate. Weirdly enough, it was another Cyclops that had the exact same cultivation base as the one he killed before. This confused Jason, and if there hadn''t been a slight alteration in the Cyclops'' energy fluctuations, Jason would have believed that it was the exact same opponent. However, only a moment later, Jason realised that the energy fluctuations were not the only thing that had changed. Rather, it was the only thing he could directly perceive, only for Jason to feel targeted by a strong killing intent. Afterward, the gravitational force around him increased a moment later, and it was then that his Emperor Eyes perceived the highly concealed affinity of the Cyclops. ''Gravitation!'' He realised with a start, only to finalise his fusion with Artemis. Black and silver-colored horns grew out of his forehead, the hair all over his body turned silver, and majestic wings sprouted out of his back. At the same time, the Celestia aura turned icy cold, altered by Artemis'' fusion. A second stigma manifested upon Jason''s first stigma, and his golden-silverish eyes turned sky-blue with a distinct silver glint in them. The Cyclops noticed every single change that occurred within Jason, but ignoring all of it, the Cyclops emerged in front of Jason. It increased the gravitational force further, before slashing out without any mercy. Yet, just at the same moment, Jason moved as tremendous surges of energy were released by him. The entire surrounding froze in an instant and his eyes stared right into the Cyclops'' soul as Jason said one simple word. "Freeze!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 734 - Advancing Even without the fusion with Artemis, Jason''s strength had increased by leaps and bounds. As such, the Cyclops was unable to endure the freezing cold that had been further enhanced by Jason''s aura, the fully activated stigmas, the fusion, and the moonlight affinity. Dying a painless death of being frozen alive within seconds, the Cyclops'' gravitation affinity was terminated only a moment later, allowing Jason to cross the hurdle much more easily than before. The increased gravitational force hadn''t really bothered him, as he didn''t even have to move after using the ice affinity that had been highly strengthened through the fusion, and the moonlight affinity. In the end, the Guardian of the 11th floor had just died without giving Jason a proper fight, which was a stark difference to the Guardian on the 10th floor. Through this, it was evident how much Jason''s strength had increased in a span of a few months. Given that Artemis and his other soulbonds would still increase their strength while Jason could advance through the following floors, he simply entered the 12th floor. Now that he added the additional support of Artemis, he wasn''t too bothered about the slight increase in difficulty he would have to face. While Artemis returned to the soul world, Jason forced her to befriend Spyro, with a warning that if she didn''t listen, he wouldn''t fuse with her anymore. When Artemis heard this, she felt she was being bullied, and it was, in fact, exactly what Jason did. Nevertheless, he couldn''t be bothered because he needed his soulbonds to be on friendly terms with each other. They didn''t need to sacrifice their life for each other, but in order to co-exist until death, accepting each other was the bare minimum. Jason wanted his soulbonds to be like a close family, but he couldn''t force them to like each other. As such, he would accept occasional scuffles to a certain extent before intervening. Seeing them quarrel was not a problem, but the worse it got, the more issues would occur in the future. It took Spyro and Artemis a while to calm down, but after the initial reason for their dislike of each other was taken away, they accepted each other and even became friendlier. Meanwhile, Jason had already emerged on the 12th Floor and began hunting all kinds of beasts. Until the entire floor was cleared another 10 days passed, and Jason felt like clearing the floors of all beasts took the longest. Yet, it also gave him the time to passively cultivate and comprehend the moonlight affinity, as well as the time to adjust to his constant increase in strength, while his soulbonds could focus on cultivating. Even if it was not necessary right now, he would require their strength latest by the 20th Floor, and considering all of their advancement, Jason was sure that the period he spent in the previous floors would be put to good use. Improving his combat prowess while advancing his strength was the best he could do, after all! Using all kinds of tactics to pressurise himself, Jason advanced through the 12th Floor and found it to be much easier than the 11th. However, this was only the case because Artemis'' cultivation speed exceeded Jason''s expectations. He was not sure what exactly her evolution had caused because Artemis was essentially the same, but her cultivation speed caused even Jason to feel that his advancement was slow in comparison! In fact, Artemis could absorb and liquefy between 500-1000 drops of mana every single day! Thus, she was able to liquefy enough mana to reach the peak of the Lique stage in a week before she would start solidifying her first prismarine crystal! This process would take her just a week, and Jason couldn''t help but feel flabbergasted because it felt like Artemis was still adjusting herself to the evolution process. As such, she had yet to understand her capabilities to the fullest and make use of them, causing her to have a lower mana absorption rate than her limit. After defeating the 12th Guardian by fusing with Petri, Jason had no problems in advancing further. His earlier worry about the Guardians'' strength vanished and Jason became more concerned about the fact that his vessel might be unable to cope with Artemis'' advancement if she would overtake him! The Celestia bloodline was already bothering Jason, but now Artemis'' speed forced Jason to adjust his approach towards passive cultivation. ''I should start actively cultivating while running through the floors, and I can clear the beasts off the floor in between¡­'' Scratching the back of his head, Jason advanced to the 13th floor, followed by the 14th, 15th, all the way to the 19th floor. Almost three and a half months had passed since Artemis evolved, and everyone was improving at a rapid pace. Jason had solidified the fourth prismarine crystal despite being occupied with clearing the floors of all beasts while continuing to receive the speed and unscathed bonus for advancing the floors. The Guardians from the 15th floor up had yet to reach the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage, but their progression rate of solidifying the large rotating crystal increased exponentially with each floor. As such, Jason knew that the Guardian of the 20th Floor was a being at the 2nd threshold. Before, this would be something to be afraid of, but that was not the case anymore! Artemis'' tremendous cultivation speed shocked the other soulbonds, because she had not only advanced to the Prsima stage during the last 100 days but, in fact, she had been able to solidify a total of three prismarine crystals! Jason was not sure where her sudden increment in potential came from, but the Frozen Lunarium she had devoured couldn''t have been the sole reason. In the end, he wondered if she had just compressed her body without any alteration in her potential, squeezing out every little bit, which decreased her form, but that didn''t sound reasonable. At least, Jason couldn''t imagine her doing it. However, other than that, he had no idea how evolution could make Artemis so strong. She was a Mana eater according to the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant, but how that trait influenced her evolution was something Jason didn''t know. Yet, rather than seeing her advancement as a disadvantage, he realised that it was obviously something good. Not only did Jason receive a tremendous increase in his strength owing to the 40% amplification of his soul world, but his other soulbonds were determined to not lose out to her! Artemis inspired Jason to focus even more on cultivation, which was the reason he decided to alter his first sub-area! Spyro''s amplification enhanced Jason''s brain functions by a large margin. Thus, he began to modify his first sub area that was constantly absorbing mana. This took a while and hindered him from cultivating actively with the Mythic essence technique version that allowed him to move around. However, the results were extremely shocking because Jason was able to generate a miniature version of the Mythic essence cultivation technique within his sub-area. As such, even without actively cultivating, his cultivation would slowly improve, and liquefied mana drops were constantly created. To put it simply, this was extravagant, but at the same time, it was what he required to cope with Artemis'' speed because she could cultivate continuously inside the soul world after he had customised it. This hadn''t been possible before her evolution, but now, after evolving, everything has changed! As such, with a combined combat prowess that was comparable to owing more than 16 solidified prismarine crystals, without considering additional factors like the possible fusion with his soulbonds, his Emperor Eyes, and so on, Jason was finally ready to face the Guardian of the 20th Floor! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 735 - Duration When Jason emerged on the 20th floor, he felt a little bit weird. The beasts'' strength was much higher than that of the beast only one floor before, but even then he had no problem defeating them. Instead, it was rather easy for him, and the amount of strength he had to use was low in comparison to before, which caused him to feel a little bit dumbfounded. ''I thought the cultivation base would increase drastically every 10th floor...did I expect too much, or did I increase my strength to a very high degree?'' The latter was not possible because one could never be too strong. Furthermore, Jason had yet to reach the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage. Each of his characteristics might be exceeding the 1st threshold of the Prismar stage, but, in the end, he had only solidified four prismarine crystals so far! However, even after defeating the ferocious beasts on the 20th floor rather easily, Jason required almost an entire month just to wipe off every single beast from the floor. It hadn''t been necessary for him to do so, but in the end, even after the entire floor was cleared of beasts, Jason had yet to find the gate that led him towards the floor''s Guardian and the 21st floor. Owing to this, he launched a few more days of a detailed search without being interrupted by any kind of beasts, in which he combed through the floor, inspecting every nook and cranny. Fortunately, it didn''t take him long and the moment Jason sighted the gate, he approached it with a rapid pace. The Guardian emerged out of the opening gate, just as he crossed the required threshold. It was a gigantic Behemoth with a height of more than 6 meters, a length of more than 20 meters, long gleaming tusks, a bulky physique, and four sturdy legs that could crush all kinds of existences under them. However, the appearance of beasts was not something that shocked him anymore. Rather, Jason would immediately investigate their cultivation path, cultivation base, unique traits, and other possible enhancements that were visible to his eyes. His Emperor Eyes were constantly improving and were in sync with his advance in the cultivation ranks. As such, he faced no issues in quickly telling what kind of advantages most beasts had. The only issue was the concealed amplifications that the tower seemed to provide their Guardians with. For example, the last Cyclops he fought had an extremely strong gravitation affinity that had been further enhanced through external means, while the first Cyclops had specific means to block his chaos attribute and abyssal effect to a certain extent. Owing to these observations, he knew that the tower, or to be precise, the entire dungeon was trying to increase the difficulty to an extreme level. However, it was exactly this scenario that caused confusion in Jason''s mind because the tower''s difficulty didn''t seem to have increased that much from the 19th to the 20th floor. In comparison to the difference between the 9th and 10th floor, the difference between the latter floors was not as shocking as expected. Jason could also tell that his active cultivation and that of his soulbonds must be the reason for him to feel this. Previously, he rushed through a few floors, but that was not the case anymore. Rather, he had cultivated for quite some time on the 11th floor, only to cultivate consistently on the following floors. Because of that, Jason''s current strength was comparable to an existence that possessed more than 20 solidified prismarine crystals! He had yet to come across a being at the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage, but looking deep into the Behemoth''s eyes, Jason could tell that it was not as strong as he had expected it to be. ''Maybe, one of the large rotating crystals is equal to 10 solidified prismarine crystals? That''s...much higher, yet lower than expected¡­'' Considering that one would only break through a simple threshold in the Prismar stage, a single large rotating crystal would more than double one''s entire combat strength. That was an extremely shocking boost, but Jason already possessed a combat prowess that was more than double the strength of a normal being with nine prismarine crystals. Thus, he couldn''t help but smile dryly, looking at the Behemoth that had just entered the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage. ''Maybe I''ll be able to advance a few more floors than expected?'' Jason thought as he fused with Artemis, further enhancing his mana core size, and physique. Upon receiving an amplification of 100% from Artemis'' cultivation, their fusion further enhanced their strength, giving them additional enhancement as Jason''s appearance began to change. His Celestia aura was fully released before it slowly transmuted into an ice-cold aura that froze the surroundings even without supplying a single trace of mana. Only a moment later, the two golden stigma above Jason''s right eye began to glow brightly, allowing the icy cold aura to enlarge, reaching the Behemoth that did not hesitate to attack Jason. Feeling tremendous strength radiating from Jason the moment his aura touched it, the Behemoth knew that it would die if it wouldn''t do anything right now. Thus, it charged towards Jason, causing the ground below its feet to shake violently as Byakur manifested in Jason''s hand. Making eye contact with the Behemoth, Jason''s sky blue eyes seemed to rake through the Behemoth''s soul. Meanwhile, Byakur was suddenly enveloped in an icy cold flame that flared up in a pale blue color with silver strands glittering on its blade. Through the fusion with Artemis, Jason made use of the freezing flame that was forcefully transmuted from Solaris, the black origin flame, and the moonlight ability. There was no exact degree to which the moonlight ability could enhance specific properties, but the more mana Jason inserted into it, the stronger it would become. This was extremely beneficial, but also drained a lot of mana. As such, Jason mostly used the moonlight ability''s basic configurations because every single unique affinity, ability, and trait of his required tremendous amounts of mana. Even after possessing four times more mana than anyone else at his cultivation base, Jason felt that he was always short of mana. With an infinite supply of it, beasts like the Behemoth wouldn''t even be able to come close to him, but unfortunately, this was not the case. Because of that, Jason had to use Byakur to counterattack the Behemoth, whose head was lowered in an attempt to pierce its large tusks through Jason''s abdomen. Byakur had enlarged to the size of a ten-meter-long blade, and Jason didn''t hesitate for a second as he thrust it at the Behemoth. The flames followed every single movement of Byakur and the moment it collided with the Behemoth''s tusks, Jason noticed that there was something he had missed out on. "Byakur has become too weak¡­" Hearing and seeing cracks sweeping over Byakur like multiple cobwebs, Jason couldn''t help but sigh deeply. He had wanted to use Byakur for a little bit longer, but that didn''t seem to be possible anymore. With that in mind, Jason realised that he would have to forge a new weapon, which was quite disappointing. Yet, just at that moment, Byakur vibrated in reluctance as it sensed Jason''s thoughts through their soul connection. It began to glow lightly, and the cracks were forcefully halted from spreading further as if Byakur wanted to demonstrate that nothing was wrong. Seeing this, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit odd. However, instead of retracting Byakur into the soul world, he exerted the Floating Sky movement technique before flapping his wings as he disappeared from his previous spot. A moment later he emerged right below the Behemoth''s head to release a tremendous amount of mana before slashing at the Guardian''s head, severing it. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 736 - Byakurs Value After the Guardian of the 20th Floor was defeated, Jason noticed that there was still some time before the speed bonus would run out. At the same time, Byakur was reluctant to enter the soul world, fearing that Jason would never use it again and simply dump him inside if it were to disappear. This caused Jason to smile dryly, wondering to what extent his soul imprint had allowed Byakur to obtain sentience. It was an interesting sight, and Jason also realised that he couldn''t simply abandon Byakur. That wouldn''t be right, even less because Byakur was a craftwork of his late master, Shane. Furthermore, he didn''t think that he could easily repeat forging a soul weapon without having refined materials for the process. Right now, he would only be able to forge some strong weapon, but they wouldn''t give him the same feeling of being an extension of his arm, let alone the same runes. His knowledge of the three basic occupations had increased a lot since he entered Manyr, but that didn''t mean that he was knowledgeable enough to create a masterpiece. Purifying metals was an easy task for Jason because he had his eyes, Solaris and an extremely high control of mana. As such, his weapons would always be at the Mythical grade, but that didn''t mean they were as useful as Byakur! With that in mind, Jason knew that he had to think of a solution on how he could continue to wield Byakur, without breaking it apart. He believed that enhancing Byakur would directly transform it into a weapon that was unbreakable. However, an unbreakable weapon was something Jason had never encountered, let alone heard of. There were also other things he had to consider, and in the end, it was simply too frustrating to find the perfect way to retain his dagger''s strength. Byakur had to remain sharp enough to pierce through the defenses of opponents, its unique abilities had to stay more effective than that of other weapons, and much more. Because there was more than enough time before the speed bonus would wear off, Jason began to think about what he should do. At the same time, he was simply staring at Byakur, trying to figure out a way to restore it. If he remembered correctly, a soul weapon could be enhanced, but in order to do that, one would have to dismantle the entire weapon, and forcefully extract the soul imprints before injecting them into a different weapon. This would be even more difficult than forging an entirely new soul weapon, with a much higher number of materials at that! Thus, this possibility was immediately crossed out by Jason, only to recall that there was another way. With the use of specific items, one could enhance the entire weapon. However, Jason was not sure what kind of items they were because nobody ever mentioned them on Argos. The fact that Manyr didn''t have soul weapons made it quite difficult for him to figure out more. Thinking about possible items that could be forged into Byakur, without the need to dismantle it, or worse damage the soul imprints or runes on it, Jason realised that the requirements narrowed down the range of available choices by a large margin. In the end, there was only one item Jason could think of within a short period of time- the Immortal eye. If the intel he had about the Immortal eye was true, it was a nearly indestructible item that was used for various things owing to its wide range of characteristics. Yet, most of the uses had to do with the forging process of extremely strong weapons, armors, or items that required tremendous energy storage space to be even used. To put it simply, it was a versatile item that every blacksmith knew and desired to forge with. Unfortunately, Jason had never used an Immortal eye. Thus, he couldn''t be sure what he had to pay attention to if he were to forge with it, let alone if it was even possible to connect it with Byakur. Initially, he took the Immortal eye with him because he was going to hand it over to Luna, who required it for something. However, after giving it a second thought he realised that his current situation was more important than saving something for a person he might never see again. In the end, Jason was still in the first trial of the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant. Furthermore, the first trial was going to last for more than a year. Adding the subsequent trials, Jason was sure that a few more years would pass. It was annoying, and he couldn''t help but feel a little bit frustrated because there were too many things he had planned to do, such as receiving the Mythic Essence cultivation technique from Luna, as well as training and spending time with Jennifer. The last thought astonished Jason for a moment, only to shake his head. ''I will definitely see them again, but someone else will probably take care of the Immortal eye, right? Even if that''s not the case, Byakur will break if I continue using it without any enhancements!'' Byakur was not only his soul weapon, but its entire existence had a special place in his heart because it was one of the last things that was left of his late masters. Because of that, Jason would love to continue using it, even if it meant that he would have to break his promise with Luna. In the end, Jason was still unsure what Luna would be doing with the Immortal eye, to begin with, because her expression while talking about it was not good. Recalling the glint of pure wrath within the depths of her eyes, Jason made up his mind, telling himself that it was more important to ensure his survival, and Byakur was the best means to allow him to execute the strongest possible combat prowess. He could change its length as per his wish and it had all kinds of useful abilities. Additionally, his soulbonds could easily access Byakur too because everything was connected to his soul. Thus, amplifying Byakur with their affinities was extremely easy. The more Jason thought about Byakur''s value, the less was his desire to simply replace it with another, possibly stronger weapon. After coming to a conclusion, Jason decided to break his promise to Luna. If possible, he would simply take another Immortal eye as his reward once the dungeon trials were over. This made him feel less guilty, and he thus accessed his spatial ring before taking out the Immortal eye. Before, he hadn''t even given it a second glance because the Immortal eye had been useless to him. However, now the situation had changed drastically. Inserting a large amount of mana in his Emperor eyes, he looked at the Immortal eye closely, holding it straight in front of his eye. This allowed him to see inside the Immortal eye''s in an extremely detailed manner. What he saw astonished him greatly because the overly compressed things he could see inside the Immortal eye were on a completely different level than materials at the Prismar, or even Ascendion stage. Yet, instead of feeling that this was great, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit concerned. ''Will I even be able to reach a high enough temperature to melt the Immortal eye?!'' However, fortunately, this thought was proven to be groundless the moment he took out the portable smithy, in addition to every single tool he required to hopefully improve Byakur''s strength! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 737 - Change After Jason figured out that it was possible to use Solaris to melt the Immortal eye, he was overjoyed. However, this joy only lasted a moment because the temperature he had to maintain was extremely high. Even the slightest increase in the required temperature would burn everything inside the Immortal eye. Fortunately, Jason could prevent this as his Emperor Eyes perceived that the melting point was also the highest temperature he was able to use. With that in mind, he only had to maintain the perfect temperature to melt it. Despite this though, it was not as easy as it seemed because the molten part of the Immortal eye was extremely fluidic. It almost dropped out of his hand, but thankfully, he used his mana to hold it together. But doing this was not feasible with the other tasks at hand. Thus, Jason took out a flask in which he filled the liquefied Immortal eye before it would cool down. Through the Emperor Eyes, he realised that if the liquefied Immortal eye would cool down, he could never melt it again, so he had just one chance to do it right! This was annoying for Jason because it forced him to divide his attention between the liquefied portion of the Immortal eye, while the temperature of the Immortal eye''s solid part had to be adjusted quite often. Nevertheless, in the end, somehow everything worked out, and he faced no issue in the melting process. A few hours had passed while Jason completed the arduous task of melting the Immortal eye, which was much longer than Jason had expected. However, it didn''t worry him because the time he still had to leave the 20th floor, while receiving the speed bonus, amounted to a few days. Thus, there was no need to stress himself. Now that the Immortal eye had been liquefied, Jason could simply envelope Byakur with it..or so he thought. However, it was not that easy, and rather difficult because Jason had no idea if he was doing everything correctly. As such, he had to test every possible way to properly merge the Immortal eye with Byakur, while simultaneously maintaining a soul imprint on everything. With that in mind, Jason released a thread of his soul, with which he enveloped the liquefied Immortal eye that was still inside the beaker. Binding the liquefied Immortal eye to his soul utilised almost his entire soul energy and soul crystals. This was unexpected, but not something he was worried about. Rather, he was happy that he had enough soul energy to fully bind the Immortal eye. Now that the liquefied Immortal eye was bound to his soul, the possibility of lacking a soul connection could be excluded. That was great, and the next step was to connect the two individual soul connections of the Immortal eye and Byakur. Jason simply twirled the soul threads inside his soul world together, ignoring anything that could go wrong. There were all kinds of issues that could occur, but Jason''s reckless action was the best way to forcefully acquaint themselves with each other. Afterward, Jason felt a slight attraction between the liquefied Immortal eye and Byakur, who noticed that the Immortal eye was exactly what it required to stay by Jason''s side. Though Byakur was sentient, it wasn''t necessarily intelligent, but the natural instincts of a sentient being had been awoken within it. As such, noticing that the Immortal eye was something that could strengthen it extremely, Byakur attempted to annex it inside the soul world, merging the soul threads. Meanwhile, the Immortal eye had a faint repellent force, but Jason initiated the merging process in the real world, giving Byakur some much-needed relief! And in order to achieve this, the cracks that spread through the soul weapon appeared to be a blessing in disguise, preventing him from running into lots of unnecessary trouble! Thinking about it, Jason couldn''t help but shake his head because it was ridiculous. However, he couldn''t deny that the cracks within Byakur were the perfect means to allow the liquefied Immortal eye to spread through the entire soul weapon. As such, Jason used his mana to control the liquefied Immortal eye before slowly filling Byakur with it. At the same time, he had to maintain the high heat around the Immortal eye, which was becoming more and more difficult as the liquid-filled into every single crack on his weapon only a few moments later. Afterward, Jason used the remaining liquid of the Immortal eye to envelop Byakur''s blade with it. Yet, owing to the fact that the merging process of the Immortal eye and Byakur was still in process, Jason had to continue maintaining a high heat all over the entire weapon. Fortunately, it didn''t damage the runes on Byakur, otherwise, there would be many more complications, Jason would have to take into account! In the end, the Immortal eye''s repellent force gradually became weaker, and after an entire day Byakur had finally merged with the Immortal eye''s liquid. This allowed Jason to stop using Solaris'' flames as they disappeared, leaving behind a profusely sweating Jason, and his soul weapon. After that, Byakur began to change as the liquefied Immortal eye began to spread through the entire soul weapon, affecting it gradually. Mystical changes happened right in front of Jason''s eyes, but before he could really see anything, Byakur vanished into thin air, only to reappear inside the soul world. Jason hadn''t forced his weapon but this time Byakur actively entered the soul world on its own, and it was not even possible for Jason to do anything against it! That was an unexpected reaction, and it made him forget his exhaustion because he wanted to see what was happening to his soul weapon. Unfortunately, his curiosity was ignored and Jason was just able to feel the changes that happened within Byakur through the soul connection. It was dissatisfying but after he averted his attention, Jason quickly calmed down. Resting for some time, he only entered the 21st floor when the speed bonus was almost taken away from him two days later. With renewed energy, Jason swept through the next floor spending weeks defeating beasts without weapons. It was only three weeks after the merging process had been concluded that Byakur''s transformation was finally completed and took effect. Yet, the moment Jason took it out from the soul world, he couldn''t help but feel odd. "Did¡­ something change?" He couldn''t see a single change, and even the silver color of the Immortal eye seemed to have disappeared completely. As such, Byakur looked exactly like before to him, and it didn''t radiate any energy waves that screamed ''I''m powerful!'' either. However, Jason realised that something had changed the moment he was unable to see the inside of Byakur. ''It is concealed? Even from my sight?'' This made Jason curious, and the moment he released mana into Byakur, he realised that his soul weapon had changed tremendously! Slowly changing into a distinct silver color, the black soul weapon seemed to have been replaced entirely. The transformation process looked interesting, but that was not all as Jason could feel that Byakur''s sharpness and endurance had increased like never before. Even without using more mana than he was already utilizing, it should be sharp enough to cut through the hide of all kinds of Prismar stage beings. This was exactly what he had hoped for, but in the end, Byakur''s overall change exceeded his expectations. ''The Immortal eye is really useful. Even with materials at the Prismar stage, Byakur should not be able to compete with Ascendion rank weapons!'' With that information in mind, Jason had no problems advancing through the next floors as he finally got to use his main and trusted weapon once again. For the next fifteen months, Jason just kept striving to become stronger, advance to the next floor, and never let another beast injure him or his soulbonds like the Cyclops on the 10th floor. Because of that, he didn''t rush through the floor in the first few months, but he was slowly clearing the floors before advancing. Even if he had wanted to advance through the floors at a faster pace, each floor after the 20th was much larger than the one before. Due to this, it took him extremely long to find the perfectly concealed mana gate, slowing down his advancement speed, from the get-go. Thus, Jason''s strength increased tremendously while his opponents'' cultivation base seemed to have stagnated, turning the first trial into a frustrating task, instead of a difficult, and deadly one! ''When will I finally leave this God-forsaken place?!?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 738 - First Trials End After 15 months had passed since Byakur underwent a radical transformation, almost gaining a second life, Jason and his soulbonds'' strength had increased tremendously, and the first trial of the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant was nearing its end. While Artemis was by far the strongest soulbond now, the others were feeling intimidated by her speed, which made them exceed their own limits too. This was a great sight, and despite the boredom he had to face while fighting the seemingly weak opponents, that were in fact, extremely strong, Jason couldn''t complain at all. If he were to be somewhere else, neither his own nor his soulbonds'' cultivation would have progressed at such a tremendous rate. He was able to procure most of the plants that either helped produce cultivation energy or accelerated its speed from the previous Inheritance site, after all. Thus, Jason was happy, even though Artemis was trying to overwhelm him with her rapid advancement speed. While Artemis could liquefy between 500-1000 mana drops a day, Jason was unable to reach such a high number, even after the first major seal of the Chaos Emperor had been removed. This was because Jason had to move around, clear the floors, and stay vigilant of other beasts attacking him while she could solely focus on cultivating. It didn''t require his entire focus and allowed him to cultivate, but the extent at which he could cultivate was halved. Yet, even at his full speed, Jason was sure that Artemis was currently much faster than he could be. That was owing to her evolution and her mutation that influenced her evolution tremendously. If not for her mutation, Jason had no clue how else a being at the Prismar stage was able to liquefy so much mana in a single day. Furthermore, that didn''t seem to be her maximum limit, adding to his surprise. Because of her tremendously high cultivation pace, Jason was not even shocked that Artemis entered the second threshold of the Prismar stage in the span of 15th months. With the ability to solidify a single small prismarine crystal every month, she had only required five months to enter the Peak of the Prismar stage''s first threshold. Afterward, she took a total of 10 months to gather enough liquefied mana to start the creation process of the first large rotating crystal that enveloped three small prismarine crystals. Not knowing what exactly she was supposed to do, Artemis had no other choice but to follow her instincts, which forced her cultivation progress to slow down. This was also the reason why the took a total of 10 months until the first of three large rotating crystals was finally created. The creation of the next two rotating crystals wouldn''t take that long, and Jason was fully aware of this. As such, he also knew that he would either have to advance to the 2nd threshold soon too, or his vessel''s progress would slowly lose out against Artemis'' tremendously high pace of advancement. However, if not for Artemis'' tremendously high advancement pace, Jason would be more satisfied with his own advancement, because it had only taken him 15 months to solidify four more prismarine crystals! That was one crystal in slightly less than four months, which was less than what Jason was able to attain under normal circumstances. While his achievements were noteworthy, this thought made him remember that he was far from being in a normal situation, and he had several tasks in front of him which distracted him from solely focusing on the cultivation progress. Fortunately, this was not the case for his other soulbonds, and they had already caught up to him. Only Spyro was a little behind, having solidified seven prismarine crystals, while Petri had already solidified eight. On the other hand, Solaris was already gathering mana for the first large rotating crystal as it had solidified the ninth prismarine crystal some time ago. In the end, Jason had lost track of how strong he had become after advancing because even his sub-areas that had been adjusted some time ago, were once again underperforming. This gave Jason the opportunity to divide the threads of the soul energy cycle once again. He was thankful for this opportunity, Spyro gave him the largest amplification to his brain owing to the soul amplification which he received from each of his soulbonds. By enhancing his mind, it was possible for him to meet the demand for soul crystals, even though it was barely enough. That was fortunate, otherwise his soulbonds wouldn''t be able to be inside the soul world, but they would probably be right next to him, unable to cultivate owing to the lack of cultivation energies. Smiling dryly at this thought, Jason approached the gate of the 35th floor. On average, Jason advanced one floor every month, which was much slower than his expectations. Nevertheless, finding the gates took a major chunk of his time, so increasing his advancement speed was not something he was able to achieve. Despite that, Jason could kill all his opponents with a single attack, because his strength had long since crossed the requirements of the first trial. This was something he didn''t expect to happen, certainly not in the most difficult challenge of the dungeon. The Guardian on the 30th Floor had already solidified two large rotating crystals, which allowed it to have an estimated strength of 30 solidified prismarine crystals. Yet, by the time Jason entered the 30th Floor, he was already on the way to solidifying his 7th prismarine crystal, while his soulbonds had amplified his strength by an average of three more prismarine crystals! If he were to add his other characteristics that increased his combat prowess, the only thing the Guardian had was a high cultivation base! In the end, the strength of the Guardians was exceptionally high, considering that it went from owning 6 prismarine crystals which they had on the lower floors, to possessing two large rotating crystals. Fortunately, Jason''s strength increased much faster, otherwise, the 30th Floor would have been his place of burial! Shaking his head, Jason faced the Guardian of the 35th floor, not holding back his strength even the slightest. Right now, he had around two weeks left to advance further, and that was not something he would give away. As such, after letting Artemis enter his mana core, Jason''s strength increased by 100% of Artemis'' strength, while white silverish wings sprouted out of his back. Charging towards the oblivious Hellbound Tigress, Jason exerted the Floating Sky movement technique, the two curses he harbored and the Abyssal effect as Byakur manifested in his hand. Enlarging to a longsword with a length of more than seven meters, it turned silver owing to the mana Jason injected, vibrating lightly. With swift steps, Jason emerged below the Hellbound tigress, only to swiftly behead it with one quick strike of Byakur, which he wielded his enhanced weapon effortlessly. Its head fell to the ground with a large thump, while Jason smiled lightly. "I wonder what my strength''s limitations are!" This was an extremely interesting topic because his own strength was already equivalent to a being with two large rotating crystals! After adding Artemis'' strength the moment she occupied his mana core, his strength reached a level comparable to a being owning four large rotating crystals. Afterward, his other soulbonds'' amplification would be added and all other means to increase his strength turning him almost invincible. Thus, Jason was extremely confident that even some ordinary beings at the Initial phase of the dome''s solidification process would be no match for him. This realisation was shocking, and the next two weeks proved to be extremely fortunate because he was able to find the next two gates. It gave him the opportunity to advance to the 38th floor, passing a total of 37 floors just before the first trial ended. Two years had passed, but to Jason, it felt like it had only been a month. He didn''t even realise how much time had passed because everything had been the same to him. Yet, thinking about a few particular individuals, Jason couldn''t help but be worried about. ''Is Jennifer in trouble?'' He wondered, not sure why exactly his mind wouldn''t stop thinking about her. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 739 - Odd The moment the first trial of the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant ended, he was enveloped in a bright white shroud. Only a moment later, the overly familiar robotic voice resounded in his mind. [Congratulations! First Trial successfully completed! 37 Floors passed with ''Void'' difficulty, Good achievement attained!] Jason grew confused as he listened to the voice. He thought that his achievement would be much higher than great, possibly even extraordinary, not just ''good.'' It had not even reached close to extraordinary, let alone superior or any possible higher achievement. Yet, that was not the case, and he barely received a good achievement, causing him to critically evaluate himself and do a self-analysis. ''Maybe, I was not as good as I expected? Was I really too slow in advancing?!? Just what kind of advancement speed does the Dungeon have as its prerequisite to deem someone''s achievement extraordinary, let alone superior. He couldn''t help but be astonished, but after giving it a deep thought, Jason realised that he had been overestimating himself too much. The Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant knew everything about him, and it had labeled him as the first Candidate of the Primordials'' Descendant to ever enter it. As such, he had assumed that he was special, yet, now that realization hit him, it was obvious that some other unfathomable strong beings had created the dungeon, with the passing standard of Primordials. Jason assumed this because it wouldn''t make any sense otherwise, at least to him! Flabbergasted about the situation, Jason could only shake his head, dissatisfied with the achievement he had attained, after two years of hard work. The only reassuring thing about his achievement were the Merit points he had obtained during the last two years and if his calculations were correct, he had earned close to 400 in total! While the points would appear less compared to the rewards received from the first Inheritance site he had entered, obtaining a single Merit point in the Dungeon was much more difficult than earning tens of merit points in the previous Inheritance site. Because of that, he assumed that a single merit point would be worth multiple times higher in comparison to the temple inheritance site, and the rewards should be even rare too. At least that was what he expected, which made him smile subtly. Thus, Jason couldn''t stay dissatisfied with his final result for a long time. Instead, he began to think about the things that should have happened outside the Dungeon, if the Gigantic Island Tortoise had already submerged, returning to the depths of the ocean, and if Jennifer''s situation was as bad as he imagined. There was no reason, let alone evidence for his mind to keep worrying about the possible dangers around Jennifer, but there was also nothing he could do against it. All he could do was hope for the best and try to leave the dungeon as soon as possible. As such, Jason hoped for the best, thinking that Luna would protect Jennifer. However, how could Jason know that his gut feeling was not only true but also that Jennifer''s beloved master, Luna, had been the reason for everything Jennifer went through as well as the things that were happening in the present and would happen in the far future! Never could he imagine that Luna might abandon Jennifer. Yet, reality was different, and everything was caused by the fact that the City Lord was able to procure a total of two Immortal eyes, one more than she initially required for the plan nobody had known anything about. Jason had realised that something was fishy the moment he had seen a wicked emotion flicker in Luna''s eyes when she talked about the Immortal eye. Though she had not given anything away through words, and it was gone in an instant, Jason''s sharp eyes had noticed it. Ever since that day, he had been trying hard to devise a plan. And, in the end, every single comprehension he made, led to the fact that something bad would happen. Despite the warning bells, he would have never thought that Luna would cause distress to Jennifer, let alone be the cause for something bad to happen to her beloved disciple...however, he was soon going to be proved wrong. As he was under the false impression that Luna would protect Jennifer, Jason felt reassured that Jennifer would be safe, that nothing would happen to her, and that everything could return to normal after his return. However, this would never happen, not before everything in the Julandra region had drastically changed, leaving not even a single stone in its previous location. Chaos had descended on the region, Archenemies turned into allies, while countless new enemies had emerged out of the shadows they''d been lurking. They had gotten the chance to enter Kinra Island and the Inheritance sites. This opportunity paved the way for them to obtain endless unparalleled treasures, improve their race''s foundation, and become strong enough to defeat everyone around them as long as they would be able to get their hands on Kinra island, once it would re-emerge! Unfortunately, this was not as easy as it seemed because the island was submerging, and would now be untouchable for hundreds of years. Thus, all of the races were in a race to make adequate preparations in order to claim Kinra island for themselves, and the Julandra region that enveloped Kinra Island like a half-moon had become the ideal location to start preparing. Being in control of the Julandra region would allow any race to have a better stance in the next period at which the Land of Inheritances would emerge! Defenses could be built to be prepared against any kind of attack, and even traps that were strong enough to defeat Specta stage powerhouses could be set up as long as one had control of the Julandra region As such, it was not even necessary to claim Kinra island as long as one had the sole or shared control of the Julandra region along with trusted allies. Jason didn''t know anything that had happened and was about to happen in the Julandra region, and had he known that all of it had happened only because the seemingly secretive information about Kinra Island had been released, he would have killed the perpetrator. Kinra Island was a treasure trove like no other around and its news had ignited the greed of many races that were striving to become the sovereign of the surrounding areas. Patience was important to achieve this, but what was enticing about the island was the massive possibility to have fortunate encounters that allowed one to reap benefits one could never imagine. For Jason, time passed slowly, and he didn''t know when, but suddenly he realised that the white shroud enveloping him had disappeared, revealing a gigantic valley. He was in the center of it, surrounded by big trees, and there were mountains as far as his eyes could see, their peaks touching the clouds, creating a border to the outside world. Yet, before Jason could even take a proper look at his surroundings, he caught a glimpse of one particular place- it had...an open field, many buildings...and humans?! However, it was just a moment later that Jason perceived something different. "No..those things are just made of amassed energy that turn into the beings I want to see...is that it?" What he saw through the Emperor Eyes confused him, but considering that he was inside a dungeon, the village he was in couldn''t have appeared suddenly, let alone be maintained if there were normal living beings inside it. However, this thought made Jason think about the Tower trial because there, he fought against beings made out of flesh. Or so he thought until now. Thinking back to the time when his leg was cut off, he recalled how it had healed the moment he entered a new floor. This was also odd, but Jason had just ignored it, thinking that it was not problematic if he were to just forget about it. Yet, in the end, it was odd, and Jason thought that there was more behind the living beings inside the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant than he imagined. ''Just what is this place?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 740 - Mana Wisps Looking at the beings, whose appearance resembled that of humans, Jason was confused. Their entire body was composed of energy that was comparable to Spyro''s, yet also different. As such, Jason had no idea what exactly the beings were, and without his Emperor Eyes he would probably have been tricked into believing that the beings were humans. Because of that, he remained vigilant and didn''t approach them first. In the end, he had yet to receive the mission for the 2nd trial, which was something that should have already happened. Just at that moment, the robotic voice resounded in his mind. [Teleportation towards the 2nd Trial has been completed. Protect the Villages!] Other than these simple words, Jason didn''t receive any further information, and he couldn''t help but feel like complaining. There was not even a specific time he had to protect the village. Instead, the given task was just to protect it, nothing else. This was frustrating because he would rather have a countdown, and specific requirements he had to meet, instead of not knowing anything. Jason didn''t even know the necessary threshold to pass the trial, what would be counted as a failure to protect the village, or how he could increase his score. Having received nothing except the task, Jason first decided to observe the surroundings in order to figure out the possible dangers or problems the village could be facing in the future. Based on the surrounding energy waves, he sensed that mana was the scarcest among the three cultivation energies, which was contrary to how it had been in the first trial. Jason was not sure if that was connected to each other, but he simply assumed that this was not the case. His opinion about this may change according to the information he procured, but for now, Jason decided to separate the trials from each other. After taking a look at the village, and perceiving the scarce mana around him, it was not difficult to tell that there was already a problem. The beings were composed of mana, and mana was what the entire surrounding area lacked the most. As such, they were either about to starve, or using their last mana reserves to maintain their lifeform. This clearly showed Jason the first problem he had to solve- mana scarcity. Fortunately, the village was small, and the amount of mana required to maintain the lifeforms seemed to be extremely small, but that was not exactly helpful. Jason assumed that he could shift the village to someplace else, but in order to do this, the mana wisps, which he simply called them, would think of him as someone who wants to harm and exploit them. Even if that was not the case, they would be suspicious of him, and gaining their trust was an important factor he had to pay attention to. While maintaining a far enough distance to the village, he began to investigate the surrounding environment. There was not much for him to see except the flourishing nature that inhabited all kinds of beasts at the Prismar stage. But Jason was not worried about them, and the only slightly dangerous beasts would be those that had already fully manifested the dome crystal. Even with his extremely high strength, Jason knew that the Peak Prismar stage was too high for him. At least, if he didn''t want to endanger his life, and use the entire Chaos attribute while breaking multiple more seals. That was not something he should be doing right now because his body was already having a hard time adjusting to his rapid progress, only to add his soulbonds'' rapid cultivation speed and their shared strength. Because of that, Jason had even thought of using the race specific weakening curse on himself again, lowering the amplification his soul world transferred to him from his soulbonds'' strength. However, not knowing what kind of dangers he would have to face in the future, Jason couldn''t simply do that, at least not in the dungeon! In the end, a detailed inspection of the surrounding area allowed him to see and sense his surroundings properly. Mana was consistently scarce all around while some areas even had a higher concentration of the other energies. However, weirdly enough, Jason began to think that the existing mana should be enough for the mana wisps as long as they were the only existences cultivated in the path of Maest. Luckily, there was no other beast that cultivated with mana. At least, he was unable to see any since he had emerged in the second trial. This made Jason doubt that the mana wisps were having issues with mana scarcity, which was something that seemed to be the case nonetheless. Squinting his eyes, he felt a little overwhelmed by the thought of not knowing what the issue with mana scarcity truly was. There were not even plants that required mana to grow, or thrive, so the demand and supply of mana should be balanced, at the bare minimum. While the surroundings were flourishing, he also spotted a large river not far from the village''s location. Approaching it to wash his face, Jason noticed that he was covered in dirt. It was only at that moment when he noticed how smelly he was. His lips twitched in disgust at the sight of himself and even the length of his hair astonished him. He realised that two years had truly passed and that it was not just an illusion. He quickly looked around the river before he took off his clothes and stored them inside his spatial ring. Jumping into the ice-cold water, Jason felt refreshed, yet he didn''t allow himself to be completely distracted. His Emperor Eyes were not perfect, and it was possible for them to not perceive specific things. Thus, he first looked underwater to check if there was any kind of beast he just hadn''t seen beforehand. Fortunately, that was not the case, and he could take a bath without an issue. Afterward, he left the riverside before drying himself as Solaris'' flame enveloped his entire body for a short moment. Jason knew that he could have cleaned himself by simply burning all the dirt on his body. It might even clean his body to a much higher extent than bathing because Solaris burned impurities too. That was also how he had survived without a shower or bath for the last two years. Nevertheless, bathing with cold water was refreshing and something Jason had missed a lot. Afterward, he had to take care of his hair that had almost reached his shoulders. He had cut them just once during the last two years but forgotten about them later. Instead, he had used Solaris and a small piece of metal, to make a hairpin while conquering one of the lower floors. The hairpin looked exquisite, and was sharp enough to be used as a weapon to kill, which was another reason for Jason to make it, hiding it in his hair as a secret weapon! Yet, just as he was putting on a fresh set of clothes, goosebumps sprang over his body, and Byakur manifested in his hand. "Who are you, and what are you doing in our territory?!" Jason didn''t even get time to put on his clothes properly as he heard the voice of a young man. Armed with Byakur in his hand, he turned around in the direction of the voice, ready to attack any moment. There, he saw humans, or to be precise mana wisps, which caused him to smile dryly as he ignored their question for a short moment in order to put on his clothes. Seemingly nonchalant, he combed his hair into a bun, which was the only thing he was able to do without a sense of fashion, except cutting them off. The mana wisps saw what he did and couldn''t help but feel odd that he was not intimidated by their large number. Yet, what they didn''t know was that Jason was fully aware of their cultivation base, and the fact that their numerical and cultivation advantage was insignificant in front of him! "Hello there, I''m adventurer Jason Stella, who do I have the pleasure of talking to?" Jason knew that he was being over the top right now, but his bright smile and Celestia aura that radiated kindness had never been an issue creating an amiable connection with other races. That was under the assumption that they weren''t hostile towards him from the beginning, which didn''t seem to be the case..or so he hoped! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 741 - Kill With a smile on his face, Jason looked at the mana wisps that were all at the Prismar stage. Not a single trace of fear could be seen within his eyes, even after they were pointing their weapons at him, which made the mana wisps in human shape feel uncomfortable. Jason had planned to postpone his meeting with them, and to research a little bit more about the surroundings in order to be fully prepared for all possible problems the mana wisps had and could sustain in the near future. This was important, but his plan seemed to be forcefully altered, which caused him to sigh inwardly. Nevertheless, he tried to maintain a warm smile on his face in an attempt to look friendly and approachable. Yet, contrary to the norm, the mana wisps didn''t answer his earlier question about who he should be talking to. Even after waiting for a few minutes in awkward silence, he didn''t receive an answer, and Jason couldn''t help but ask again. "I''m sorry to ask this again, but with whom am I supposed to talk? I am not familiar with the customs or traditions of your race, so I apologise in advance if this is a mistake!" Jason felt a little bit odd for not being able to speak straightforwardly, because he was never a fan of needless formalities, and would rather directly ask about the issues of their village. Unfortunately, this could possibly bring forth more issues than it might solve. Thus, Jason waited once again, as he could understand the reason for the quiet and awkward atmosphere. ''They''re communicating via telepathy?'' Earlier, he hadn''t focused on their mana fluctuations, but in the last few minutes, everything began to make sense to him. With that in mind, he stayed quiet, and patiently awaited their answer, without interrupting their discussion. Instead, he adjusted his clothes after Byakur was sent back to the soul world. Only Artemis remained inside his mana core ready to rush to his aid at a moment''s notice for the small chance that something could go wrong. The moment he noticed something odd he could manifest Artemis'' wings and distance himself from the wisps in the blink of an eye. Now that he was unarmed, Jason showed that he had no ill intentions. With this, the mana wisps were not sure what they should think of the beast in front of him. It was weird for an adventurer to be amidst them, but they also noticed that Jason was extremely calm, telling them that he was not afraid of them, even if they were to attack him. Thus, a few more minutes passed in which they spoke with each other through telepathy before one of the mana wisps, in the form of a well-built middle-aged man stepped forward. "Greetings, adventurer Jason Stella. We are the Mewi, and we would like to invite you to our village! You may please follow us inside, or respectfully leave our territory so as to avoid creating more problems for us!" Jason was not sure what the meaning of ''creating more problems'' was, because he was pretty sure that he had yet to start doing anything. Yet, instead of an angry retort, Jason just nodded his head, slowly approaching them as the middle-aged man turned around. Afterward, nobody seemed to be bothered about him anymore as all of them simply turned in the direction of the village before starting to walk. This could be seen as a sign of trust, but Jason knew that their shape didn''t indicate where their eyes were. In fact, it didn''t seem like the Mewi were seeing through their normal eyes. Rather, Jason believed that they visualised everything in their surroundings through the mana fluctuations they naturally radiated. Jason found this interesting, but rather than being ignorant and asking them all of the questions he had in mind, he knew that they didn''t trust him at all, while questions could further degrade their current opinion of him. What the middle-aged Mewi had wanted from him might sound like a pleasant visit to their village, but that didn''t seem to be the entire truth. Rather, Jason felt that there was more behind this, and it was only with the use of his Emperor Eyes that he was able to perceive the Mewi''s emotional hue that clearly indicated their fright. This was something Jason didn''t expect to perceive. Instead, he had expected cautiousness or a similar emotion that indicated their wariness of him. The fright that his Emperor Eyes visualised in a hue was distinct, and because Jason hadn''t tried to figure out their previous emotional hues, he only had the latest information about their state of mind. Because of that, he was not sure if they had been frightened of him since the beginning or even before sighting him. It was a little bit sad, but not further problematic. Jason was not sure how long it took before they reached the village, but the moment he entered it, his train of thoughts was disrupted as he sensed more than a hundred pairs of eyes, or to be precise mana fluctuations. All of them were enveloped with the same hue as the other Mewis. This caused him to become more vigilant about his surroundings, but at the same time, he didn''t show anything on the outside and acted as if he didn''t notice anything. Smiling lightly, he continued to follow the middle-aged Mewis, who led him into a small hut. "If it is not too much to ask for, can Sir please enter the hut for the time being? I''ll have to make a report to the Village chief!" Jason was not sure why the Mewi was speaking so formally with him because they had no connections, and his cultivation stage was lower too. As such, the Mewi shouldn''t feel the need to be formal, which was the case! Nodding his head, Jason indicated that he had no problem staying inside the small hut. Yet, instead of remaining idle, he did something he had never done before. After two years, Spyro had finally formed a fortified soul conjunction with him. As such, after letting the formless Spiral Spirit occupy his mana core, his brain functions increased drastically. However, this was more than necessary because Jason was actively trying to split up Spyro into a main body and more than a dozen droplets of Spiral Spirit subsidiary bodies. It was not that Spyro required this, but more like Jason wanted to eavesdrop on every single being in the village. Because of that, Jason released the dozen droplets of Spiral Spirit subsidiary bodies as all of them spread on the ground with the intention to listen to what they were hearing. Owing to their minimalistic size, they didn''t release any Spirit force because every single trace of Spirit force had to be used to maintain the small droplets'' form. After that, Jason entered the hut before sitting down and closing his eyes, to focus on controlling the droplets. Combining their strength, Spyro and Jason were able to focus on all 12 droplets that were slowly rolling over the ground. At the same time, they transmitted all sounds they could hear to each other, causing him a headache, only for him to adjust to the influx of voices after a few minutes as he filtered the important ones and discarded the rest. In the end, Jason already knew that the Mewi were talking through telepathy, but if he hadn''t perceived wrongly, this was an arduous task that consumed mana. As such, considering that they were facing mana scarcity according to the amount of mana they had within them, Jason could tell that they wouldn''t needlessly waste their mana. It was exactly because of this thought that Jason was able to eavesdrop on the discussion of the middle-aged Mewi and the tribe chief. Yet, what he heard made Jason frown almost immediately. "We have to kill him!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 742 - Farce "I don''t care if he is a good guy or not, either he leaves the entire valley, or we will have to kill him! Can you not sense that he is already gathering the surrounding mana? Even if this being is not cultivating yet, he is attracting enough mana that would otherwise keep the entire village alive, and that too for multiple days at the bare minimum!" Hearing this, Jason instinctively deactivated his sub-area''s passive mana gathering process. Afterward, he continued to listen to the discussion of the village''s tribe chief and the other Mewi that were huddled around him. Unfortunately, deactivating turned to be of no use, and even after halting his passive mana gathering, the tribe chief couldn''t help but be firm on his opinion of ridding the village of Jason. "But Sir!! He is not absorbing mana anymore...and I feel like he might be able to help us. Even if we drive him away, who knows if he will really leave the valley, or if he hides somewhere to cultivate, draining us of the rest of our mana! Furthermore, we have even bigger problems than the momentary mana scarcity, don''t we? If we attempt to kill the adventurer I brought in, he will definitely not remain idle and fight back, killing a dozen of us, at the bare minimum! His cultivation might seem low, but the others can prove that his mana fluctuations are even stronger than mine! Shouldn''t we try to ask him to help us, instead of driving him away, or trying to kill him?" Astonished about what he heard, Jason couldn''t help but thank the Mewi inwardly. Even without him actively doing anything, he had already received help from someone he didn''t even know. At that moment, a thought flashed through his mind. ''Is he a supporter sent by the Dungeon for me, providing the bare minimum amount of help?'' He suddenly wondered while listening to the middle-aged Mewi, who was in favor of letting him stay inside the small village of a few hundred Mewi. His reasons were feasible, and there was nothing the others could say. At least if they wanted to be reasonable, which didn''t seem to be the case. In the end, Jason couldn''t help but sigh listening to the discussion that looked like it would go on for quite some time. As such, he wondered what else he could do inside the hut, except eavesdropping. There was not much, considering that he didn''t want to offend anyone right now. It was frustrating, but at the same time, Jason couldn''t complain because there was, at least, one Mewi supporting him. This was more than he could have hoped for, and the middle-aged Mewi''s words were not less interesting than the information Jason procured by himself. ''First of all, the mana scarcity seems to be a temporary issue, and not something that has been bothering them for the entire time. That''s good to know, but in that case, why are they not trying to change the situation by themselves? If the change happened just a few years, or even decades ago, it should be possible to return to the old situation. So...my first task should be figuring out what exactly had changed to create a mana scarcity, or should I first try to figure out what the other problems are? The Mewi said that the mana scarcity is just one of many problems that are possibly even more threatening to their livelihood¡­'' Trying to make sense of everything, he spent some time mulling over the things he had learned so far, and Jason was relatively sure that he understood everything properly. Despite that, the discussion was still in process, which made Jason take out Byakur to practice martial arts without consuming a single trace of mana. At the same time, Spyro was controlling and listening to the information provided by the Spiral Spirit subsidiary bodies. However, it was not really interesting and Jason couldn''t help but feel that the tribe chief was doing whatever he pleased. In the end, it looked as if he had called every single villager for the meeting, cramming everyone into his house that barely fit all of them. This was simply madness, because it was not something a tribe chief had to do in order to achieve what he wanted. Nevertheless, he did so in order to feel more powerful...or so Jason assumed. He didn''t feel like his life was on the line because he was confident of fleeing from the village, if their final decision would be to really kill him. That was not something Jason hoped for, but in the worst-case scenario, he wouldn''t be able to avoid being pursued for some time if they really were to decide to kill him. But that was not something he was concerned about right now. Rather, just as he was practicing his martial arts, Spyro transferred him a weird mix of voices that caused him to stiffen the moment he heard it. Barely a fraction of a second later, Jason ignored the fact that he was supposed to stay inside the hut. While telling Spyro to retract the small subsidiary bodies, he replaced the Spiral Spirit with Artemis, who entered his mana core without a second of hesitation. Just a moment later, Jason was already exerting the Floating Sky movement technique while circulating a tremendous amount of mana through his body, increasing his speed further. This attracted the attention of the Mewi that were either in their homes, or all around the tribe chief''s house. "See! I said we should kill him. He is too impatient and will now act against us!! His mana consumption alone will change our situation tremendously!" It was the tribe chief, who said this, just to order everyone to rush to pursue Jason. Meanwhile, Jason couldn''t care about the consequences of his action because his life was more important to him. With the strength of someone that was about to solidify their dome crystal, Jason left the village in the blink of an eye, only to appear right in front of the forest. Spyro had informed him about the beasts that were roaming around the village based on the sounds it could hear. This wouldn''t have been enough to make Jason act, but there was something else that made him instinctively act. Right in the center of a bunch of Jaguars at the Prismar stage, he spotted a Mewi, whose appearance was that of a young girl less than 10 years old. She was quivering, and instead of hesitating, Jason simply picked up the girl the moment he reached her, barely preventing her from being torn apart by the Bullhorn Jaguar that had pounced at her. Because of the fear the little Mewi felt, she didn''t even notice anything odd about Jason, and she was simply glad that someone had rescued her as she began to sob clutching Jason''s shirt. This didn''t really help Jason in defeating the remaining Bullhorn Jaguars because they were not holding back in their advances. Rather, Jason felt severely restricted with a shivering girl in one of his arms, while wielding Byakur with another. Yet, without any hesitation, he decimated the group of Jaguars, slicing them apart as well as using his ice affinity without restraint. Simultaneously, he protected the girl by shielding her with one of his wings. Unfortunately, the moment he defeated the Bullhorn Jaguars, Jason retracted his wings as he could hear a multitude of footsteps from behind him. "Let go of that girl, immediately!! What are you scheming...you fiend?!" Jason could only hear, knowing who said this as he turned around with a deep sigh. ''What the hell is wrong with this idiot?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 743 - Rebellion Defeating the Bullhorn Jaguars hadn''t been a problem for Jason. They might have been at the first and second threshold of the Prismar stage, but his strength already exceeded theirs. Even without using Byakur, by solely relying on his ice affinity, they would have been defeated without a further issue. Yet, owing to the squirming girl that cried her eyes out in his arms, Jason had been severely restricted, which increased the difficulty he had to face. Nevertheless, there hadn''t been a problem, and Jason was more confused at how a Mewi was able to cry than anything else. However, other than that, he felt a surge of anger within him. He couldn''t help himself but feel angry at the tribe chief and others because the girl had almost entered the forest, and nobody had realised this. How was that even possible? But that was not what caused his frustration to flare up because it was the tribe chief''s words and reaction to his rescue. It honestly made Jason question whether the Dungeon was testing his ability to help others to survive, or his patience. Unfortunately, he was unable to hold back anymore just as the tribe chief was about to order everyone to attack, which Jason could clearly sense according to the hue that enveloped the tribe chief. "What the hell! Get your life together and don''t blame others for being too incompetent to take care of your problems! Why are you discussing what you want to do with me, if you gather all your men, just to neglect the entire village''s protection? Is that really worth it? IS IT?!" Jason was furious because the entire discussion the tribe chief had initiated was nothing but a mere play to show off his strength. He didn''t care about the weird mix of emotions that were represented in the hue that enveloped the tribe chief, but even the other Mewi were acting as if they were disappointed. If not for the Trial''s mission, he would have definitely beaten up the tribe chief by now. Being forced to keep a calm was even worse as his Celestia aura mirrored his anger which was directly connected to his range of emotions. It didn''t look like the tribe chief was about to accept the well-meant advice. He had issues, and it was only the other Mewi that seemed to be shaken. That was mostly the case because they saw the little Mewi in Jason''s arm, playing around with his hair, with a faint smile on her face. It was a sharp contrast to the tears that trickled down her cheeks, while a bunch of dead Darkness Jaguars were lying behind them. In the end, the Mewi did something they had never done in their entire life- they ignored the hierarchy of the village and the tribe chief''s order to hunt and kill Jason! Just at that moment a female Mewi rushed towards Jason, or to be precise, the little girl in his arm, tears trickling down her eyes as she shouted out while sobbing. "My baby!! Why did you leave the village?! Are you okay Lilia? Does anything hurt?" Appearing in front of the little girl, the Mewi Jason presumed to be Lilia''s mother, wanted to take her child, only for her to be rejected. "Noo! I don''t want to go... I want to play with him!!" This caused the mother to look at her little child in dumbfoundment, and even Jason couldn''t help but look weirdly at Lilia. In order to prevent any further issues, he gently transferred her to his other hand holding Byakur before carefully handing her over to the mother. "It''s probably hard to be a parent, but please don''t let your child play around like that, not in a dangerous area as we are in." Earlier, Jason didn''t want to say anything about it, but the situation had been too dangerous to let it pass by as if nothing had happened. Thus, he decided to give the mother some advice, and she nodded her head agreeing to his statement as words she hadn''t meant to speak tumbled out of her mouth. "I lost her because the tribe chief wanted everyone to gather¡­" No sooner had she said this, she realised her mistake, which made her quiet down real quick. After that, she quickly left the group with Lilia in her arms, who was reluctant to leave and wanted to play with Jason. Jason smiled lightly, only to turn serious as he noticed that the tribe chief was approaching him with a grim expression. This caused him to feel like punching him even more, but at the same time, Jason knew that he was not strong enough to do so...at least under normal means. Trying to calm himself as much as possible, he even retracted his Celestia aura to a certain extent. Yet, at the same time, Jason was ready to burst out with everything he had at hand, awaiting one wrong movement of the tribe chief that indicated an attack from the Mewi''s side. Jason was, by no means, worried about the other Mewi and it was only the tribe chief that made him feel odd. Something about him confused Jason, and it was infuriating. In the end, the tribe chief didn''t stop, and he was rushing at Jason with an angry expression that was filled with wrath. That didn''t make any sense after what he had done to rescue the little Mewi, and the other men, and even women that had witnessed the commotion Lilia had caused by being missing, started to act up. But they didn''t do anything against Jason, rather they were starting to complain about the tribe chief, how he could act hostile against someone who had just rescued one of their people, and everything else they had to complain about. Today''s event didn''t seem to be the first time something bad had happened. Whether it had to do with strangers and the tribe chiefs hate against them, or that something occurred because of his desperate need to boost his ego depicting that he was the strongest with all the power. In the end, it was only now that Jason procured information he didn''t expect to learn about right now! As such, Jason felt like he had been the cause of a rebellion, which was both good and also bad because he was supposed to protect the village, not tear it apart! Most of the information was interesting and important enough to be remembered, and Jason decided to think about it later. However, for now, he first had to overcome the issue known as the tribe chief! He was a being at the Peak of the Prismar stage, and Jason knew that he needed him to protect the Village. As such, Jason had to be careful. Despite that, receiving backing from the sudden rebellion that was caused by him saving the little girl, only to be called fiend, and about to be attacked, Jason felt that the tables had turned! Nevertheless, it was important to stay calm, and not to overreact, because every single move of his had to be perfectly executed. Otherwise, the villagers that were slowly converting to his side, would abandon him once again, thinking that he was a stranger, which was the crucial point. He was a stranger who was about to be killed, despite rescuing one of their people! This caused a huge impact on the minds of the Mewi, changing everything! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 744 - Gossip Standing in front of the majority of Mewi that lived inside the village, Jason felt oddly calm. The tribe chief was currently getting bombarded with complaints by them. However, instead of doing anything against it, or even paying attention to the complaints, he seemed to be focused on Jason alone. This was the only thing that bothered Jason a little bit- the way the tribe chief acted! Fortunately, it was impossible for the tribe chief to continue approaching him, otherwise, there would have been no way for Jason to escape or survive without the utilisation of his abilities and an enormous amount of mana. Yet, the middle-aged Mewi who had been on his side since the beginning was holding the tribe chief back, talking calmingly to him. Jason thought that it wouldn''t be to any use, but oddly enough it worked wonders because the tribe chief''s wrath disappeared within a moment. Owing to the unexpected change, Jason couldn''t help but eye both the tribe chief and middle-aged Mewi oddly. However, only a moment later, he got the hang of himself, which made him introduce himself. "Hello dear Mewi, nice meeting all of you. I''m adventurer Jason Stella!" Bowing lightly, he completed his introduction, only to see the other Mewi bowing back at him. Even the tribe chief bowed a little, astonishing Jason a little bit. Despite that, the tribe chief was still angered, even if his wrath seemed to have dissipated. While the other Mewi seemed to be rather simple, the tribe chief and the middle-aged Mewi were definitely more difficult to tackle than the rest! That was not difficult to perceive, and rather obvious. Because of that, Jason told himself to figure out more about the two of them. Yet, before anything like that could happen, first he had to ensure not getting kicked out of the village. As such, he straightforwardly asked him. "Esteemed tribe chief, I can tell that my presence is not welcome in the village, but is it possible for you to let me stay for a few days? I want to rest before I continue with my adventure journey." Initially, the tribe chief wanted to flatly deny his request, but the more the middle-aged man was whispering into the chief''s ears, the more his expression softened. "Adventurer Jason Stella, for returning the favor of saving a child of our village from the Darkness Jaguars, I will allow you a week''s stay in our village. Afterward, you shall go!" Even if Jason was sure that he couldn''t solve all problems in a week, it was better than nothing, and there was no way he would start negotiating with the tribe chief. This could make him suspicious, after all! Rather, Jason simply nodded his head before bowing lightly once again. Nevertheless, the tribe chief didn''t hesitate to add another condition. "But if you want to stay, you''re not allowed to absorb too much mana! Refrain yourself, otherwise face the consequences!!" The tribe chief''s voice rang through the air and Jason couldn''t help but eye the old man, who turned around to walk back, ignoring the complaints he was bombarded with. In the end, the rescue of the small girl, and the tribe chief''s first reaction to the crucial role Jason had played to protect someone from their village had caused a tidal wave of emotions making all of the villagers release their pent-up frustration and anger. As such, they were still complaining, and demanding things, even if it was not about Jason anymore. Through this, Jason could tell that the villagers were long since fed up with the way the chief was acting. It made no sense why a village had a tribe chief as the Mewi were interpreting the title, to begin with, as a tribe and village were two different things, but somehow he couldn''t help but believe that the things were not as easy as they seemed to be. On one hand, the mana scarcity shouldn''t affect the Mewi with the existing amount of mana. They should at least be able to survive with the surrounding mana. Because of that, there may be other problems that exist, such as the constant attacks or threat from the wild. He had sensed that there were no defensive barriers or other means to protect the village. Whether this was because of the mana scarcity, the laziness of the villagers, or simply because most of the villagers didn''t dare to venture into the woods, Jason couldn''t tell. However, it was evident that there were even more problems, otherwise, the tribe chief wouldn''t have been able to calm down. While the middle-aged man had been talking to the tribe chief, he had been shooting glances at the corpses of the Darkness Jaguars once in a while. With that in mind, Jason could tell that the tribe chief had been informed about his strength, which was now reaffirmed by the evidence he had provided by killing the Darkness Jaguars. In the end, this was what had changed the tribe chief''s opinion about him to some extent, but that didn''t mean that he had been accepted. Jason assumed that the tribe chief had plans for him, or that he was hoping Jason to do something in particular. Yet, not knowing what the tribe chief wanted from him, it was impossible for Jason to understand everything clearly. The scheming of the tribe chief was still unfathomable to Jason, but it was crystal clear that he was not allowed to stay inside the village without returning something else in exchange. At least, that was what he assumed to perceive to be the case according to the way in which the tribe chief acted. At first glance, the tribe chief seemed to be a show-off, who wanted everyone to know how great he is. But he was also hot-tempered and easily filled with wrath, the moment something didn''t work the way he wanted to. Yet, the more one looked at the tribe chief in-depth, the less one would understand about him. The fact that he was easily able to disperse his wrath as if it had never existed, in the first place, was a direct hint to two things. The tribe chief was either acting in a despicable way in order to achieve everything he wanted to, or there was something Jason had yet to figure out. In the end, it didn''t really matter what exactly the tribe chief was trying to point out. Instead, It was more important to figure out the issues the village was facing. Because of that, Jason had decided to approach the other Mewi that were still complaining about the tribe chief. Thus, the moment he stood in front of them, he tried to join their gossip, knowing that gossiping was something many intelligent races loved to do! "Hello, I wanted to formally introduce myself to everyone once again, my name is Jason Stella. I hope we will have a good time!" Introducing himself a second time, he wanted to build up a stronger relationship with the others. This was quickly done by simply standing closer to them while smiling brightly with his Celestia aura released. The Mewi villagers already had a good opinion of Jason, but because he approached them instead of going back to the hut, they felt that Jason was even better than they thought. Having saved one of their children, by entering an extremely dangerous battle, he had turned into their unexpected savior. Now, the men of the villages wanted to find out his true strength, while the women were simply thankful. As such, they all introduced themselves to Jason, before he was able to ask the most important question! "I''m sorry to ask something this personal, but did I do something wrong to enrage the tribe chief, or did I just get in his bad books? Maybe he had a bad day or something like that¡­" Jason tried to sound naive, which was not exactly difficult to achieve, and he maintained a mixture of a confused and slightly sad expression. This might have been over the top, but the other Mewi didn''t notice anything off about him. Instead, they could clearly understand how Jason must be feeling right now because he hadn''t done anything wrong. As such, they began to include him in their discussion, explaining everything that had happened in their small village, down to the smallest detail. Through this, Jason was not only able to figure out the tale of the tribe chief, but also how most of the Mewi had established the small village together. At the same time, their gossiping allowed him to find out more about the issues the village was facing, and multiple more shocking facts. And it was exactly because of one of the facts that Jason looked down, only for him to feel a sharp pain in his eyes. Pressing his lips together, he barely prevented himself from crying out in pain, as a single droplet of blood trickled out of his eye. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 745 - Blocked Mana Vein Even though he wasn''t using a single mana particle to enhance his Emperor Eyes'' sight, it was not difficult for Jason to see something particular in the depths of the ground. ''A mana vein?'' Jason thought the moment the droplet of blood fell to the ground. Seeing this, the Mewi were shocked and quickly asked him if everything was okay, but Jason simply nodded his head, his eyes trained on the mana vein. With a mana vein right below the village, the villagers should have never faced a mana scarcity. Instead, there should be a mana overflow, which was however, not the case. As such, Jason was momentarily confused, even more so because he hadn''t seen the mana vein before. In the end, it didn''t take long for him to find out why he hadn''t perceived the mana vein, let alone the mana overflow. In fact, there was no overflow of mana, but that was only the case because it looked like the mana vein was either damaged by something, or blocked. According to the condition put forth by the village chief, he wasn''t allowed to absorb mana, hence Jason didn''t want to use up the remaining mana that was stored within him. At least, not right now. Because of that, he could only roughly gauge where the damaged or blocked part of the mana vein was. It was quite far away, and Jason could tell that he and the Mewi would be able to cultivate properly the moment the mana vein was fixed. Even if Jason was not sure how exactly he could make that happen, it was not something that should be impossible. He was in the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendants'' trial, and not reality, after all! With a total of seven days left before he would have to leave the village, Jason had many things to do because his primary task was to protect the village with his utmost efforts. There were several problems the village was facing, and mana scarcity was just one of them. Mana was the primary and only source of energy for the Mewi that kept them alive. Thus, the damaged mana vein had become the biggest problem of all, even though there were more than enough other issues they were currently facing. Amongst these issues were not only the dangers of wildlife as Jason had already figured out, but also that of the oceanfolk! Jason thought that he had heard wrongly, but that was not the case. Oceanfolks were infiltrating the valley, which was something he couldn''t understand at all. They were in a valley that was surrounded by a mountain range, so Jason obviously doubted that oceanfolk could suddenly infiltrate and attack the valley. Yet, when he heard that the river he had bathed in before had its origin in the ocean, he was even more confused. That was because Jason had assumed that it originated from the mountains themselves. However, now that Jason was slowly getting to know the truth, he also knew that the true dangers might come from behind the mountain range, and not from within. Despite that, it was now even more incomprehensible for him to understand why the Mewi, which didn''t require even a single drop of water to survive, wouldn''t relocate their village. This task wouldn''t even be a difficult one to achieve. Unfortunately, this was where the true issues lay and Jason was finally beginning to understand the severity of the second trial''s difficulty which he had grossly underestimated! "The village is already located at the position with the highest density of mana...at least, based on the proofs left behind by the other villages that were on the lookout for the best locations in terms of mana density, how easy it is to defend that spot, and so on." One of the older Mewi said with a deep sigh, and when Jason heard this, he couldn''t help but be confused for a moment. ''Multiple villages? I thought there was only one¡­'' In the end, Jason didn''t even realise that he hadn''t clearly understood the artificial intelligence when it had announced the second trial, owing to his focus that had been elsewhere at that time. Yet, his subconscious was reminding him what he had to pay attention to, and that everything was more complex than he thought it to be. Not only was this village forced to face the dangers of the oceanfolk and the wildlife, but the others too. As such, it was only when one of the worried women of the village said something that realisation struck Jason. "The next attack of the oceanfolk should be soon. That is probably also why the tribe chief allowed you to stay. The more people protect the village, the better! I''m sorry to say this, but even with your strength it might be difficult to protect the village in the next wave¡­." Saying so, the woman began to cry, and Jason couldn''t help but feel as if his subconscious was slowly emerging, repeatedly hinting at him that he was missing something important. "Our defenses were destroyed during the last wave of attacks, and the strongest of us were searching for proper materials to build a defensive wall! We have some things in the warehouse but it''s not even close to enough to build the entire wall! Unfortunately, the other villages aren''t inclined to help us because they themselves are struggling with similar problems and seem to be targeted by the waves of the Oceanfolk''s attacks! Just at that moment, Jason''s head began to ache as he recalled the exact words of the artificial intelligence that had clearly said "villages". This was when it finally dawned on him. ''Wait?! The trial said that I should protect the Villages...do I have to protect them all?! Fuck, how could I interpret the entire trial so wrongly?'' Knowing that the oceanfolk would soon attack, Jason couldn''t help but start sweating profusely. Even if he was only allowed to stay for seven more days inside the village, that didn''t mean he could help defend against the attack of the oceanfolk properly. At the same time, Jason realised that he would only protect one of many villages, which was apparently not what he was supposed to do in the second trial. He was not sure how many villages existed, but starting a search through the entire valley, right now, was not something he was ought to do. Rather, Jason wanted to find a different way to help because it seemed that everything was multiple times more complicated than he thought before. Despite that, he remained calm, unbothered by the fact that the villagers were not confident of surviving the next attack of the oceanfolk. This astonished the Mewi that were further flustered to hear Jason asking a multitude of questions to them. "How strong are the average beings of the oceanfolk? What were their numbers during the last wave of attack, and how long will it take before they launch their next attack? I just need a rough number to calculate everything. By the way, how strong are the villagers here, and those residing in the other villages? Can you guys fight beings that have the same cultivation base, or will it deprive you of your mana? What kinds of materials do you guys use? The trees from before or other, more unique materials?" Somehow, Jason looked insane, yet, at the same time, the villagers couldn''t help but feel like he was a samaritan too. ''Why would he ask that multitude of questions, if he didn''t plan to help us defend against the wave of the oceanfolk?'' That was what everyone had on their mind, and unbeknownst to them, Jason was giving them a faint trace of hope to survive the next attack and fight instead of cowering in their homes. Even though Jason was not the strongest, or one of their people, the calmness with which he approached the issue he had just gotten to know, made them feel that he had faced a similar situation several times in the past. At the same time, his confidence was easily perceptible through the Celestia aura that flared up, fanning their determination, as they began to answer the questions Jason asked with as much details as possible. They were not even aware that they were not as helpless as before anymore, and instead willing to brave the dangers they had to face. At that moment, the tribe chief, who was observing them from further away without any emotion within his eyes, mumbled, "Looks like I approached the wrong path to convince these idiots¡­well, what does it matter?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 746 - Set In Stone Now that the situation regarding Jason''s mission had become more complicated, and even more difficult to accomplish, he had to change his tactic to approach the situation. After learning that Jason was going to help the Mewi, they seemed to become confident in facing the attack waves of the oceanfolk. However, based on the intel he received from them, there were many things he had to pay attention to. First of all, the Mewi were incapable of fighting properly without the use of mana because it was their means to live! Unfortunately, the mana scarcity was now not only an issue that would slowly wear them out, but it became a short-term issue because it made the Mewi unable to use the mana they had to fight, or they would endanger their life. In the end, the oceanfolk were not exactly powerful, or at least, the waves of beings that attacked them was something the Mewi could defeat until now. And that was possible even after the surrounding mana had become scarcer, deteriorating the Mewi''s combat prowess. With that in mind, Jason could clearly tell that the momentary shortage of mana had to do with the oceanfolk. Otherwise, it wouldn''t make any sense that a mana vein was suddenly either damaged, blocked, or completely destroyed. Thus, Jason thought of taking a closer look at the mana vein in order to see if it could be fixed, or if there was a way to increase the surrounding mana, at least, to a small margin. Jason had even thought about releasing some of the excessive mana from the inside of his soul world. However, if he were to start doing this, not only would Artemis and Solaris be forced to slow down their cultivation progress, but the Mewi would become dependent on him. At the same time, distinct greed would overwhelm them only to become more intense, and Jason could already visualise them preventing him from attempting to leave the village ever again. Even the faintest possibility of this was already frustrating enough. As such, Jason didn''t even think of releasing some of the mana from his soul world. There had to be a different way to help, and he would figure it out. Unfortunately, it was not possible for him to leave the village to fend for its own just after he had boosted their morale and shown them a ray of hope. If he were to do that, it would simply crumble their newfound confidence. He was responsible for his actions, and he wasn''t supposed to run away from them. Furthermore, there was the important factor about the completion rate of the dungeon''s second trial. Now that he knew that he had to protect all villages, Jason knew that it was not exactly possible to be around to protect all the villages simultaneously. This was simply impossible for him as a single individual. As such, he had to help them to be prepared for the worst attack waves of the oceanfolk, so that they would be strong enough to defend themselves without his support or guidance. If that was not something he could accomplish, he might as well just give up on completing the entire trial. But that was not something Jason would ever do, even less so because he had already spent two years of his precious time inside the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant. Even if it were only for this, he wanted to be properly rewarded. However, in the end, it was his own greed for becoming much stronger than he currently was that made him want to give his best in all trials. He knew that he had to become much stronger, just to start searching for his grandparents, let alone his father. There was the possibility that his father would simply accept him even without becoming stronger, but would the others of the Celestia race truly accept him? Jason doubted this, though it was not like he wanted their approval, to begin with. In the end, being able to survive and live his life on his own terms without anybody''s interference was already more than enough for Jason. Unfortunately, he would never be able to be at peace without taking revenge on those who were the cause of the death of his loved ones. Thus, he had another reason to become strong, much stronger, the quicker the better! Nevertheless, he couldn''t neglect his foundation, and that was exactly why Jason was looking for the best cultivation techniques as well as a proper body refinement technique. He needed one that could refine his physique that was already enhanced by the bloodline of the Celestia race as well as their divine energy. Given all the reasons to pass the trials, there was only the added factor that Jason didn''t want to abandon the Mewi race either. They may not be truly alive because the dungeon was probably safekeeping them somehow so that they could be employed by the dungeon for other participants. Despite that, Jason wanted to help, even if it wouldn''t have been for the mission. With that in mind, he put together a plan with which they could protect the village from the next attack wave that would happen in the following days. Afterward, Jason decided to leave in order to take a look at the mana vein because he had to figure out the issue it was facing. Without enough mana, the Mewi were unable to protect their village properly. While looking for the mana vein''s issue, Jason could also start looking out for the other villages, and see how they were faring with the oceanfolk''s attack waves. This would help him a lot and save some time to figure out if all villages were inhabited by Mewi, or if there were specific beings just like them with the sole difference of their cultivation energy. It was not unlikely, but the Mewi said that they had never encountered other beings. But that was not important because many things could have changed in the duration of a century in which the mana vein seemed to have been damaged according to the slowly deteriorating mana which he subtly noticed and analyzed, gauging the rough number of years in which the mana vein had been damaged. Jason was not sure why nobody had tried to fix the mana vein by themselves, but apparently, there was no way of reaching the mana vein, and the majority of Mewi inside the small village didn''t even know what a mana vein was. This was rather a disadvantage, but their lack of knowledge didn''t really matter. Instead, Jason wanted to focus on building up defensive measures that would prevent the oceanfolk from doing anything to the villagers. It was next to impossible to prevent a few casualties but Jason was eager to give his best. As such, he didn''t even bother to conceal his soulbonds as Petri and Artemis manifested next to him, the moment they had finalised their plan. Their emergence shocked the Mewi because Artemis was using her largest possible form, while Petri had grown to a serpent with a length of more than 150 meters! That was even shocking for Jason because Petri was always using his small form to coil himself around Jason''s body. Because of that, it had been a long time since Jason had seen the Cursed Basilisk in his true glory wherein he had almost doubled in length and width. However, this was perfect for the task he wanted to assign to him and Artemis, whose size was also relatively large. Yet, just as he was telling his soulbonds what tasks they had to accomplish, Solaris appeared out of his soul world, taking on the shape of the golden-eyed black dragon it was fond of. Flying around in the shape of a miniature dragon, Solaris seemed happy while a gigantic serpent and majestic looking owl were next to them, looking happy as well, despite the tasks they had been given. Seeing his soulbonds, Jason couldn''t help but be delighted as the formless Spyro manifested in his hand, unsure of what it was supposed to do. However, rather than giving all his soulbonds the same type of task, Jason wanted Spyro to do something extremely important! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 747 - Plan Jason could have made use of various plans in order to achieve what he wanted inside the second trial. However, there were too many unknown factors which Jason was unable to find out right now. Amongst them was the exact strength of the oceanfolk attack wave that was bound to hit them soon. Other than that, he was also in the dark regarding the combat prowess of the other villages. This made Jason uncomfortable, but there was not much for him to do about that. At least, not for now. He would have to leave the small village in order to find the answers, and this was exactly what he couldn''t do without feeling that he would be making a huge mistake. Thus, Jason decided to follow the easiest plan, which was to only protect the village he was currently in. There was something else he planned to do as well, but protecting the small Mewi village was his highest priority right now. Because of that, Jason had already planned on how to create a proper defensive wall, or to be precise, two walls in order to defend the village. This required lots of materials, but that was not something they were lacking in. They had Petri, Artemis, and Solaris as their workforce, after all! However, even with the three soulbonds, Jason felt that Spyro''s task was even more important. It was not necessarily the most important task, but Jason wanted Spyro to act as a mode of communication, even if it was a one-sided one. Being formless, Spyro could split up itself relatively easily, and it didn''t even require much spirit force to be maintained. Before, Jason had wanted to stay unnoticed while using Spyro to eavesdrop on the Mewi which was the reason he and Spyro had to co-focused in order to control the small droplets of the Spiral Spirit. Now that this was not required anymore, Spyro could be more generous while splitting up before spreading the droplets across the village. Through Spyro, Jason wanted to set up a warning system around the river by using Spyro''s subsidiary bodies. Unfortunately, the range at which Spyro could control its subsidiary bodies was not wide enough. As such, they had been forced to change their plan a little bit. Because of that, they had decided to turn Spyro into a radar with the village as its center. This was extremely important because Spyro could warn Jason about the sudden appearance of uninvited guests before they would even think of coming closer. Through this, it would be possible for the village to alert every single of the Mewi guards, and those that were able to fight to rush towards their direction. Splitting up their entire combat force to spread across the two walls that they wanted to create, would be inefficient. Thus, with Spyro''s radar, it would help them make use of their defenses while having the biggest combat force at the locations that were most likely to be attacked. With that plan in mind, everyone was at much more ease when they thought about the attack of the Oceanfolk. Nobody really knew why they would even attack the valley because the entire territory was far from being the natural environment which they would inhabit. It was illogical for them to consider inhabiting the valley, even more so considering that the ocean was vast, with much more space than the valley could provide even if it was fairly huge. This very same reason made Jason feel unsure if it was really the Oceanfolk who was behind the attacks. Apparently, they were simply trying to overwhelm their opponents with numbers too, so that most of the attacking force would die in a single attack wave. There were only a few existences that would survive the battle, but after a specific period, they would also return to the river they had emerged from. Afterward, everything would be as if nothing had ever happened. This was odd, to put it simply, and something Jason had decided to pay attention to while his soulbonds were working relentlessly to procure more materials to construct seemingly simple walls with it. The Mewi were still utterly dumbfounded about the beasts Jason could call forth from his body, and they had feared this ability for some time. Yet, after seeing how Petri uprooted gigantic trees, while Solaris neatly cut them with the use of its flames that could even penetrate through energy, they couldn''t help but feel shocked about the efficiency and teamwork of the two beasts. The transportation process was partially Artemis'' doing because she was neatly picking up the properly cut trees before stacking them on each other. In addition to that, she added a thick layer of ice below the trees for something Jason wanted to test. This consumed some of her mana, but it didn''t matter as long as they were working efficiently enough to construct everything they had planned to in the next few days. Initially, Jason''s help was gladly accepted, but after some time the Mewi villagers began to wonder why an adventurer was going to such lengths to protect them. Despite that, they knew that it would be the dumbest thing if they were to complain about Jason''s help. Even the tribe chief agreed to that after seeing how the 150-meter-long Petri pushed the stacked logs of wood over a path of ice, allowing them to slither without too many issues. When Jason first saw the way in which Petri and Artemis were moving the logs, he could barely hold himself from laughing out loud. Yet, the more he looked at the situation, the more interesting it seemed because his idea of using ice was working, and that was what mattered in the end. Nobody would care about the way one achieved something as only the result mattered. After the first batches of logs had been moved towards the Mewi, they started to use a unique type of cement that they had already created, in order to start building the first defensive wall. Once that was done, the second wall would be constructed. However, these were not ordinary walls because their normal defensive capabilities were on par with being at the peak of the Prismar stage. Those at a lower rank would require some time to break through the walls, or entrance gate as long as they''re unable to fly or jump above the walls. In the end, Jason and the others created and set quite a few traps too. Most of them were holes with spikes several meters deeper in the ground. It may not be the best way to defend others, let alone the best type of trap, but it took minimal effort and time and was covered with a thin layer of Artemis'' ice. This drained some of her mana, but it was a necessity to hide it with leaves so that nobody would ever suspect that there was anything hidden beneath the leaves. If someone were to even lightly touch the leaves, the paper-thin ice layer would break apart, and one would fall into it. Considering that most beings among the Oceanfolk were unintelligent according to the Mewi''s intel, Jason didn''t think that many would be able to react fast enough to save themselves. Five days passed in the blink of an eye as the Mewi along with Jason and his soulbonds continued with the construction of the defensive walls and traps. In the end, Jason felt that the walls were not perfect, but it was too late to make any changes as he received a report from Spyro''s subsidiary bodies. The oceanfolk had launched their first attack wave which Spyro''s subsidiary bodies had sensed by picking up the movements on the river bank. "So it has already begun!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 748 - Masses After Spyro informed him about the appearance of hundreds of beings from the river''s direction, Jason didn''t think much as he amplified his voice with a little bit of mana and announced. "The Oceanfolk is attacking! Prepare yourself, and don''t falter. Nobody but the oceanfolk shall die today!" Jason knew that it was unlikely for them to achieve a perfect victory without sustaining casualties, but he was eagerly hoping that this would be the case. As such, he would give his best to help as much as he could to make the unlikely scenario possible. A moment later, Jason began to fly over the walls in the direction of the river. He didn''t want to face his opponents near the walls because this would only restrict him. Even if there were many beings that were able to fly at the Prismar stage, it required a tremendous amount of focus, and also a certain degree of intelligence, which was not something every single being possessed from the beginning. Because of that, most beasts would only learn to fly upon reaching the Ascendion stage, which was exactly why it had been so important for Jason to construct the two layers of walls! In the end, not many of the Oceanfolk must be able to fly because their natural habitat required them to be proficient in swimming. Not only was everything above the water surface relatively unknown to them, but they were surely unable to fly. That was something Jason was almost 100% certain about. Furthermore, the Oceanfolk''s strength should decrease with the time they spend on lands as most of them required water to survive, to begin with. Even if that was something Jason couldn''t be sure of, he calculated it into the possibilities of attaining an advantage. In the end, the Mewi required mana to stay alive, and it was because of this that they couldn''t afford to waste even a single trace of mana within them, which in turn marred their proficiency in fighting properly because of the mana scarcity. However, Jason was different, and he wanted to make use of his mana. Nevertheless, this didn''t mean that he would simply waste the surrounding mana, and Jason had already decided that it would be best to simply use his mana to circulate it through the entire body while exerting the Floating sky movement technique. There weren''t any problems Jason could think of, and even if he were to allow Artemis to occupy his mana core, there shouldn''t be much of an issue with that. In the end, saving the Mewi village was more important than using up some of the already scarce mana. Jason wanted to figure out the issue with the mana vein either way because the other two veins he was able to see deep underground were doing fine. The Spiral and Pryr vein underground were much smaller than the mana vein, but that was exactly what caused Jason to feel as if it would be a waste to let the Mewi villagers die, or be heavily injured just because he was not supposed to use any mana. ''I''ll just kill the oceanfolk and tend to the mana vein! After that, everything will be much better!!'' That was, at least, what Jason was planning to do, but the moment he saw the devastatingly huge crowd of beings rushing through the part of the forest he and his soulbonds had cut down, Jason couldn''t help but smile dryly. ''Maybe, I underestimated the situation a little bit.'' Jason simply thought as his Emperor Eyes could see the thousands of beings that were hidden behind the treetops. Yet, just as he thought this, the seemingly countless beings that emerged on both riverbanks began splitting up as if they knew where they had to go to reach the respective villages. In the end, the longer Jason looked at the river, the more unease crept up his spine because it seemed to him that the river was a bottomless pit, as more and more beasts were emerging from it. However, even after more beasts had emerged from the river, the inside of it didn''t seem to have changed at all. Rather, there seemed to be even more beasts inside than before. This made Jason uncomfortable because the number of beings emerging from the Oceanfolk exceeded his expectations by a large number and it wasn''t a welcome scenario. Thus, he could barely keep his calm and retreated a little bit to only face the beasts that would attack the village he came from. Before protecting others, Jason knew that he had to protect himself and the small village he had been to first. Neglecting the other villages was definitely not something he wanted to do, but his highest priority was to figure out how strong the Oceanfolk truly were and if it was possible for him to face a numerical disadvantage of several thousand against him, all alone. Thus, he started by fighting several hundred opponents at once as he dived towards the location that was slightly behind the position at which the Oceanfolk separated. With this, he could immediately advance the moment he was confident about defeating more beings of the Oceanfolk than the village behind him could face easily. Even if it was impossible for him to take responsibility for all villages right now, he wanted to do his best to protect as many as possible. This was not only because he wanted to fulfill the task given by the dungeon, but also because he followed his heart. Jason knew that he acted foolishly sometimes, and was also naive, however, that was who he was, and his emotions were what made him the person he had become. Even if it was not something a being of the Celestia race should feel, Jason was not only a descendant of the Celestia, but also humans that were known for their wide range of emotions and irrational way of acting. Because of that, Jason was not worried about himself right now. Instead, he felt obliged to risk his life to protect everyone, even if they might only be existences the dungeon had created to test him. That was a possibility Jason had thought of during the last few days, but it didn''t really matter. Right now, his heart was telling him to go all-in and not hold himself back. In that way, he wouldn''t regret anything if he were to ever look back on this day. With that in mind, he let Petri occupy his mana core, increasing his strength by a large margin compared to before. Without fusing directly, Jason simply manifested Petri''s scales upon his body, followed by a seven-meter-long tail that grew out of his coccyx. The manifestation of body parts felt a lot different to the entire fusion, and the entire amplification Jason received was more like he was able to borrow power, instead of possessing it directly as it was the case with the fusion. In the end, the fusion with his soulbonds was something miraculous, but even more powerful than one could think. As such, Jason had to find ways in order to increase the time he could stay fused with his soulbonds because he felt restless not being able to fuse right from the start of the battle. Going all-in was good and all, but doing so would wear him out faster, which would in return, force him to exceed his limitations. And, once a powerful opponent were to appear after the duration of his fusion with his soulbonds were to be over, he would be in huge trouble. With that in mind, Jason first utilised the body part manifestation as he plunged into the center of action with hundreds of opponents. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 749 - Fire Of The Black Dragon Jason didn''t know most beings amongst the masses of the Oceanfolk, but there were some he knew. Among them were the reptile beings like Murlocs that were known for building huge societies in order to defeat their opponents with numbers instead of individual strength. However, there were also beasts called Corallemasse that were large beasts, whose appearance was that of big, intertwined corals. Other than that, there seemed to be some sort of Lizardmen, and even beings that looked similar to the Deepsea scion race he had encountered on Argos. Despite their similar appearance, they were not the same, and the moment Jason crashed into the ground, right next to one of the Deepsea scion lookalikes, he beheaded it with Byakur, who had manifested in his hand. A moment later, Jason used his seven-meter-long tail to lash out with it, flinging away several of the Murlocs that were less than one meter tall. Circulating mana through his body, while exerting the Floating Sky movement technique, Jason''s speed increased further as he catapulted himself forward, breaking the ground open. Slashing, thrusting and piercing Byakur, the death toll kept on increasing with every passing second as he continued to kill several beasts. At the same time, he was attacked by more than a dozen opponents at once. Yet, instead of evading all of them, Jason trusted the scaled armor and focused more on attacks than adopting a defensive strategy. As such, he only had to evade the attacks that would certainly hit his vital spots, or those attacks that were issued by beings whose strength exceeded the defensive capabilities provided by Petri through a simple body part manifestation. Because of that, Jason had to twist his body in uncomfortable angles more than once, but that was fine because everything was under his control. His Celestia aura was fully unleashed, followed by the Stigma above his right eye that began to glow brightly. Additionally, Jason''s mana circulation speed increased tremendously, allowing him to move much faster, while the same applied to his reaction speed. Through this, evading most powerful attacks was not an issue, while the others were easily defended by him. Yet, instead of just focussing on defensive tactics, Jason made good use of his tail. Thus, several attackers fell to the ground or were flung away before they even realised, only to be run over by their own allies. One of the biggest disadvantages of being in an extremely huge group was the loss of control. It almost led to a stampede while charging forward as one was forced to run over their brethren, just to not die oneself. This was extremely frightening, but at the same time helpful for Jason because he could issue simple attacks to kill most opponents rather easily. There was not a single Murloc at the second threshold of the Prismar stage, and only beings like the Deepse Scia, which was the name Jason gave them nonchalantly based on their appearance that resembled the Deepsea Scion, as well as the Corallemasse, were more dangerous. Some of them were either at the peak of the Prismar stage''s second threshold, or they were already gathering mana to construct their dome crystal. However, Jason didn''t think that this was worrisome. Rather, he was astonished that he had yet to see a single being at the Peak of the Prismar stage, with a completed dome crystal. He had expected to see at least a few of such existences in the entire mass of beings the Oceanfolk was consistent of, but oddly enough there was not a single one. ''Is that some sort of restriction the Dungeon created?'' Jason wondered while slicing apart several Murlocs at once. They were not really strong, and thus, Jason killed only a few of them, while reluctantly letting a minority through to the village. He was not able to defeat every single opponent, and focusing on the large mass was more important than the minority of beings that were able to slip past him. In the end, pursuing them would waste more time, and create even more chaos, which was much worse than fighting from where he was, acting as a major defensive shield for the village. Because of that, Jason did plan on focusing on everything in front of him, while allowing the beings behind him to advance towards the village, where many surprises were waiting for them. These surprises were not something they would have to encounter, but that was not something to be bothered about. Rather, Jason began to smile lightly in face of the horde of opponents that were emerging in front of him. Knowing that it would be impossible to protect everyone if he were to further restrict himself, there was no way that Jason could continue holding back that much anymore. With that thought in mind, he simply activated the enhanced version of his sub area''s passive mana gathering, once again. This caused a sudden suctioning force to emerge from within Jason and almost the entire mana in his surrounding was pulled towards him. Owing to his stigma and the Celestia aura, this force was further enhanced, and the surrounding Maest beast that was also passively absorbing mana owing to their racial characteristics, couldn''t help but stare at Jason in fright. There were only a few beings with a stronger suction force than them, and each of these beings was several times more powerful than them. Because of that, the Deepsea Scia that was one of such powerful beings, couldn''t help but stare at Jason, reluctant to attack or rush past him. Nevertheless, they felt a force from behind pushing them forward, only to see a black flame sprouting from Jason''s body, enveloping his entire being, and Byakur tightly. Golden eyes pierced through the black flames and it was at this exact moment that most beings realised that something was off. Yet, instead of being able to do something, they were forced ahead, which gave Jason the opportunity to test out something Solaris had wanted to show him. As such, his entire being was enveloped by Solaris'' flames, which gathered a tremendous amount of mana, draining the entire surrounding of it, only to manifest in the center of Byakur''s blade. This made Jason hold Byakur horizontal in front of his chest with his hand stretched out, one hand holding Byakur''s tip while the other held the handle. Taking a deep breath, Jason knew that something big was about to happen because it had been a long time since he was able to use Solaris properly. Even though he had been using the origin flame for a very long time as his highest priority owing to its high strength, Jason''s current strength exceeded Solaris'' capabilities by far. At least, that was what Jason had assumed. However, what he didn''t know was that Solaris had long since tried and tested different ways in which it could attack its opponents in order to become stronger without necessarily increasing its cultivation. As such, what Solaris had been trying to achieve was to create something like a martial art technique that allowed it to reach the highest possible lethality with a fairly low amount of strength. Or in Solaris'' case, the most devastating attack with the given amount of firepower! If they were already able to fuse with each other, the firepower of Solaris'' flame would increase drastically, but that was not the case, even if Jason hoped that their time would come soon. Nevertheless, given the abilities Solaris had, and the fact that it had already created a total of nine prismarine crystals, it was ready to release everything at once. And this was something Jason supported wholeheartedly because he was also eager to see what his soulbonds could do. "Release everything Solaris! Use it, the Fire of the Black Dragon!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 750 - Hellish Even though ''Fire of the Black Dragon'' was just a name given by Jason to the move the origin flame had created, Solaris had once seen the flame of a true dragon. This memory had been imprinted into Solaris'' mana core, and since then, it had been trying hard to replicate the flame! The flame itself was devastating enough to eradicate all opponents in front of it. With that in mind, Jason supported his soulbond completely, transferring a large chunk of his mana to the center of Byakur where Solaris was manifesting. Absorbing tremendous amounts of mana, Solaris didn''t emerge in the shape of a miniature black dragon with golden eyes like usual. Instead, the seemingly tiny origin flame morphed into a gigantic head of a true dragon that was entirely black, with golden eyes that caused the surrounding Oceanfolk to shiver in fright. As the oceanfolk stared at the sight in front of them with an aghast look, Solaris emerged completely and opened its gigantic maw in which every single trace of mana had been stored. Accumulating within Solaris'' mouth, the mana was slowly turning black in color, morphing into flames that were forcefully compressed and suppressed, preventing it from being used to attack right off the bat. Instead, magical changes were occurring within the compressed mana in Solaris mouth, and it was just a moment later that Jason felt as if his arms would break any moment. Oblivious to Solaris'' plan, he didn''t realise that his soulbond had already converted every trace of mana into the uniquely developed flames it had learned to create. As such, Jason was overwhelmed when Solaris spit out a ginormous black flame, enveloped by golden strands that seemed to further enhance the flame''s temperature and other properties. Being pushed backward, Jason had to give his utmost efforts to control his body from falling to the ground or be further pushed back. Enduring the impact on his arms, Jason thus barely noticed that the ginormous flame crossed the distance of over a hundred meters, burning everything in its wake. Only the cries of unbearable pain echoed through the surroundings, hinting at Jason as to what was going on. In the end, Solaris'' Fire of the Black Dragon, was a technique it could only use for a second, and the moment it was over, Solaris disappeared, returning back to the Soul world. Because of that, the scene in front of Jason was partly clear again, as he tried to see amidst the cloud of smoke while the heavy burden on his arms was lifted. This gave him the first chance to see what was going on. It was only then that Jason truly realised how strong Solaris still was. Never had Solaris given up from advancing, yet Jason had thought that his own prowess was exceeding Solaris'' capabilities by far. However, only now did he realise that he had been under the wrong impression all along. Having burned through hundreds of beings at once, Solaris had only left the beings at the peak of the Prismar stage''s second threshold in front of Jason. And even they were on fire as they were unable to extinguish Solaris'' flame that burned through their skin, flesh, and organs. It was a slow and torturous process, but that was exactly what caused the beings in front of Jason to turn insane as they attacked him, in hopes of extinguishing the flame by killing its supposed wielder. Some races could create inextinguishable flames, and the only way the flames would die were if the wielder died himself. However, that was not the case with Jason''s flame because he didn''t even try to control the flames all around him. Instead, his mind was free of any burden as it was like the flames had acquired a mind of their own. There was only the body part manifestation of Petri that was initiated, but it didn''t require Jason''s complete concentration. Seeing the area in front of him, Jason couldn''t help but think that he had entered hell, as thousands of corpses littered the ground, only for Solaris'' flames to continue to burn, extracting every single trace of life force from their body, including nutrition and remaining cultivation energy. Jason didn''t know that Solaris'' abilities had developed to such a high extent, but he couldn''t complain because the moment these flames were to return into the soul world, Solaris would expel the things it didn''t require. Through this, it provided the purest form of life force for Petri, who could accelerate his cultivation progress using the same. All of this was great, but Jason knew that the dangers of the entire Oceanfolk attack wave was not over yet. Rather, it seemed to have just begun. Nevertheless, Jason had a big advantage now that Solaris'' had imbued fear within every single being that witnessed Solaris'' action. This was great, but at the same time burdensome, because there was not a single being that decided to rush towards him, or in the direction of the village behind him. Thus, Jason had to change his tactic, and attack the intersection at which the mass of the Oceanfolk split up! Jason was aware of the dangers of this move, but there was nothing else he could do right now. Using his high passive mana absorption, Jason didn''t even have to face a lack of mana. Instead, he could use his mana rather freely, once the surrounding mana was replenished to some extent. This would take some time, and instead of waiting, Jason wanted to move in a direction where the surrounding mana hadn''t been completely absorbed yet. With that in mind, Jason circulated mana through his body, while exerting the Floating sky technique. After enhancing it further, the Celestia aura and Stigma were fully unleashed. Ready to depart, he catapulted himself towards the remaining burning Oceanfolk people, which Jason killed without any remorse. Afterward, he advanced towards the intersection where the really big masses of the Oceanfolk attack wave were present. The moment he saw just how many beings were still left, Jason felt that he had wasted Solaris'' Fire of the Black Dragon. It could have increased the impact of the effect several times than before if he could only use it right now. Unfortunately, that was not feasible because Solaris was utterly exhausted, barely keeping itself away from entering hibernation. This was something his origin flame had never done before, and it was a sign that clearly demonstrated just how terrifying the Fire of the Black Dragon move must have been to make Solaris enter such an over-exhausted state. Without reflecting on what he could have done better, Jason shook his head once, setting everything else aside. Right now, there was something more important to solve, which was to overcome the Oceanfolk attack wave without giving up on the other villages. This was amongst the most important tasks, right after ensuring his own survival and that of his soulbonds. As such, after taking a deep breath, Jason was ready to enter the fray of tens of thousand beings that were ready to decimate the villagers and claim the village for themselves. Even though he had yet to find out why they wanted the valley for themselves, it didn''t really matter because his trial simply asked him to protect the villages. Thus, not waiting to think of the ulterior motives of the Oceanfolk, he tightly enveloped himself with Petri''s scales before slashing Byakur at the closest opponent. The quick move beheaded his opponent without giving it even a fraction of a second to react. With that, several hours of endless slaughter began, turning the entire surrounding into a hellish path of dangers for the Oceanfolk. They could either die or continue their advancement, hoping to pass through Jason with all of their limbs attached! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 751 - Moonlight "Do you even know why we are attacking the valley right now? Isn''t our Lord just sacrificing our lives with this charade? It''s not like we can take over the entire valley in the next half a year or so until the army is ready!" A being near the riverbank remarked looking at someone next to it. "Are you sure you mean ''our lives''? We are just here to observe and leave once it is done. It''s not like we are going to die, to begin with. So stop complaining, and investigate the combat prowess of the villages!" The Deepsea Scia with golden scales around its ear scowled in return, looking at his brethren with disgust. His brethren''s statement was utter bullshit because the small attack waves were necessary in order to evaluate the combat prowess of the villages. However, the small attack waves were important to make the villages believe that they would face the small waves every single time the oceanfolk attacked and that those waves wouldn''t suddenly change into armies of more than a million beings charging at them at once. This was something their Lord had thought of, but it would take some time to gather the attack force of more than a million units from all over their territory, which was a gigantic expanse across the vast ocean. Thus, the Deepsea Scia couldn''t help but feel that his comrade was utterly dumb, and it was only his talent that allowed him to become one of their elite. However, the Deepsea Scia believed that this was an insult to their elite to even have someone like his comrade in their rows. Unfortunately, they needed him because he would morph into a true monster once he was aggravated. With that in mind, the Deepsea Scia could endure his comrade''s words to a certain extent and felt relieved to leave in order to fulfill the task he had received from their Lord. His task included investigating the situation, combat prowess, and other extraordinary incidents before reporting them to the Lord. That was their mission, and nobody was supposed to know it. However, how could they know that a tiny droplet of a Spiral Spirit was eavesdropping on their discussion, transmitting everything they had spoken to Jason who was faraway, and delighted to see the tides turn in his favor! Jason knew that the information he had received was highly one-sided, and just from one perspective, which was definitely not what he wanted. As such, when Jason had moved towards the river bank he had actively released some of Spyro''s subsidiary bodies, trying to acquire some information. Despite that, he never assumed that he would be able to get his hands on so much information in a short amount of time. A few hours might have already passed since he started to fight, and he was utterly exhausted, but a faint smile emerged on Jason''s lips. The majority of beings had already been killed or severely injured, hence, Jason decided to retreat without hesitation. He wasn''t aware of the combat prowess of the two beings that had spoken with each other. However, in order to be able to strategize leading the ''small'' attack wave, they had to be amongst the strongest. This indicated that they were at the Peak of the Prismar stage, and Jason knew that he was not strong enough to defeat them! Because of that, Jason retreated with the information he had been able to acquire. At the same time, he gathered all of Spyro''s subsidiary bodies before initiating a killing spree while advancing towards a different village. Earlier, Jason didn''t know the exact location of where the other villages were situated, but with the path thousands of beings had created, this was not a problem anymore. Rather, he could easily find his way to all the villages as long as the signs of the Oceanfolk people having advanced to a specific direction were visible. Thus, he approached the second village, without thinking about returning to the previous one. He was only allowed to stay there for two more days, either way, and there was nothing left for Jason to do for them. Having protected the village with his utmost efforts, now he was free to leave as they were now supposed to protect themselves. He had shown them a way to fight and instilled some confidence in the fearful Mewi, but now it was upon them to safeguard their lives. However, that was not something the other villages could do yet. As such, Jason massacred all the beings he came across on his way to the second village and reached it less than an hour later. It was on the verge of collapsing, and Jason thought that he was already too late, only to perceive the mana fluctuations of more than two hundred Mewi that made him sigh in relief. Most of the Mewi were hiding within a cave, whose entrance was nearby the village, and only a few were left inside the village. From what his Emperor Eyes perceived, these Mewi were trying to fight against the attack of hundreds of beings of the Oceanfolk. Unfortunately, according to the remaining reserves of those Mewi, they were on the verge of death from exhaustion. Sacrificing their life for their people was not something they were afraid of, as they continued to fight the onslaught of the oceanfolk. This was not difficult to perceive, and when Jason noticed how many beings of the Oceanfolk had been killed by those Mewi, he felt that it would be a waste to let such brave warriors die. Their combat prowess was much higher than that of the Mewi he had seen in the first village. Thus, allowing Artemis to enter his mana core instead of Petri, he rushed to their aid as white-silverish wings manifested on his back. Flapping them while exerting the Floating Sky movement technique, Jason was ready to catapult himself forward, which happened just a fraction of a second later. Increasing his speed by fully unleashing the Celestia aura and the golden glowing Stigma, Jason crossed the distance of several hundred meters in seconds. Following that, he arrived in front of the desperately fighting Mewi less than half a minute later, just when they were about to be annihilated. Enveloping the Mewi in a dome of thick ice, he shielded them against the dozens of attacks before the ice dome crumbled to pieces. These dozen attacks were, however, the last set of attacks the opponent could launch because Jason slaughtered every single one of them just a few moments later. Using more than a thousand small, yet razor-sharp icicles that were further enhanced by the moonlight affinity Artemis had comprehended after her evolution, he killed them mercilessly. Afterward, he turned around to take a look at the several Mewi who were staring at him as if he was a ghost. This was confusing, but realising that his abrupt arrival might have been more shocking than he had expected, Jason simply gave them time to digest the fact. Instead of being bothered by their gazes, he looked at their condition. ''I cannot heal them, their mana is too shallow...and potions don''t work either¡­'' A few Mewi had been injured while working on constructing the walls and defensive traps, and even after he had handed them potions, they hadn''t completely healed of their injuries. Only mana helped them to recuperate faster, but accepting mana of someone other than their family was forbidden. Because of that, Jason couldn''t heal them, which was frustrating. As such, he even thought about taking them into the cave to force their family to transfer some of their mana and help speed up the recovery process. However, that wouldn''t really change anything because the scarcity of mana might kill both parties. Jason didn''t have such a problem and he could absorb the mana from the surrounding further away, without affecting the mana reserve available to the villages. It was at this moment that Artemis transferred him a specific thought before she reminded him of something that he had already forgotten. "How could I forget that! The moonlight affinity has a healing property!! Artemis, you are the best!" Proud of being praised, she made various noises within the mana core, only to calm down when she noticed that Jason was fully concentrating on the task ahead of him. Approaching the severely injured Mewi, he ignored their frightened gazes only to exert the moonlight affinity. Through this, a milky hue that glittered faintly, manifested in his hand just before Jason pressed the same hand onto the chest of the Mewi. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 752 - Detected Using the moonlight affinity Artemis transferred to him, Jason was able to heal the Mewi, while additionally transferring a slight amount of mana without telling them. This was extremely good and allowed him to tend to their injuries without going against their tradition and culture. After he was done healing the few Mewi, he looked around using his Emperor Eyes, trying to see whether there were others who were in need of his help. Fortunately, that was not the case, and he was able to leave the second Mewi village without further ado. He disappeared as suddenly as he had emerged out of nowhere, making the Mewi believe that he was truly a ghost, or possibly even a holy spirit that had been sent to their rescue. His aura and appearance were enough evidence to make them believe that the latter might be the case! Yet, what they didn''t know was that Jason was just leaving for the other villages in order to provide them a helping hand and alleviate their pain too. He was already exhausted, but that didn''t stop Jason from fulfilling the responsibility the dungeon had handed over to him by giving Jason the task to protect the villages. Some may think that he didn''t take the mission seriously, but with the given amount of time he had before the mission started, Jason tried to make the most out of it! As such he didn''t regret anything even after seeing the sad reality as many Mewi died in the Oceanfolk attack wave, which the Deepsea Scia labeled as a ''small attack''. A gigantic wave awaited them in the near future, and Jason knew that he had to do much more in order to survive and help the villages do the same too. The casualties consisted largely of beings that couldn''t properly defend themselves. Thus, Jason didn''t think that he was majorly responsible for their death. He couldn''t cut himself to be present everywhere at once, and he always gave his utmost effort to do everything. As such, there was no need to feel anything but sadness for the death of the Mewi. Nevertheless, instead of being discouraged, Jason''s determination increased exponentially, knowing that he had to increase the combat prowess of the villagers, while somehow attempting to relocate a few villages. This was important because all of them were nestled farther from each other, which Jason realised because it took him an entire week to find every single village inside the valley. Most of them had Mewi that followed the path of Maest, but interestingly, there were also some that followed the path of Pryr and Spiral. They had mutated and were deemed an outcast by their old village, forcing them to build their own home. However, this differential treatment allowed them to become much stronger, even more so in the last few decades since the mana in the entire valley had begun to rapidly deteriorate. These particular villages had been able to defend against the attack of the Oceanfolk without too many issues, but Jason still warned them of further dangers before bidding them farewell. He didn''t really care if those villagers accepted him or not because it was their decision, and he wouldn''t force them. In the end, he knew that they required his help in order to survive against the ginormous attack wave of an entire army. That was everything he had to know in order to be confident that they would ask for his help soon enough. Even if they wouldn''t ask, Jason had figured out that he didn''t have to rescue every single village because there was a small one that seemed to have been destroyed in the last wave. It was only a small one with a population of less than 50 Mewi, and among them, more than 40 had been able to flee. As such, Jason had given them a helping hand by pointing them on the way towards the next village before departing to the said village and informing them about the incoming refugees. Fortunately, the villagers accepted the refugees without any issue, otherwise, Jason would have been forced to think of a way to solve the issues at hand. After spending seven days searching for villages, slaughtering the remaining forces of the Oceanfolk, and so on, Jason noticed that he had been able to procure lots of information. Yet, at the same time, it was weird because the Elite units of the Oceanfolk and he never encountered each other, not directly, at least. Whether this was fate, or someone was controlling their encounter, Jason didn''t know, but it didn''t really matter for now. He believed that they could roughly figure out that there was a variable at work because their people were slaughtered like flies at a rapid pace. Other than that, there was the fact that a small village had suddenly erected two gigantic walls out of nowhere, in addition to laying dozens of traps. Thus, it was crystal clear that something had changed, which was Jason, the unknown variable, which the Elite was unable to properly identify. However, Jason didn''t believe that they were not aware of his combat prowess and gauging it was not exactly an issue. Only being able to figure out how fast he would progress was probably an issue, and Jason wanted to make use of this. Entering the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage was a target he had set for himself during the next few months, but at the same time, it was even more important to solve the issues created by the mana vein. After that, it would be possible for him to divert his attention to the villages in order to bring them together if possible. Even if it was just for one battle, fighting together was much better than fighting in dozens of small groups, trying to protect a village. While moving around, Jason was fine with small groups of a hundred beings fighting together, but that was a huge difference because they were not stagnant, trying to defend something without any value. At least, that was what Jason thought. He was unable to think of any value the villages had, other than giving them a roof to sleep soundly. However, the shelter would be useless if they were to be dead, and Jason could only shake his head after he had asked affable village tribe chiefs about their opinion of relocating the village elsewhere. Even the most gentle and level-headed tribe chief thought of his question as an insult. Thus, Jason had only been able to leave without doing anything other than healing the heavily injured Mewi. This was annoying, but not something he could change. Because of that, he decided to take a look at the mana vein''s issue. With seven days have passed since the attack wave of the Oceanfolk, everything had calmed down. As such, only a few more days had to pass before Jason reached the area above the mana vein, or to be precise the place at which the mana vein''s problem was located. Using his Emperor Eyes with a large amount of mana, Jason completely ignored the warning every Mewi had given him- to not use too much mana. Rather than not using mana, he had to figure out the issue of the mana vein. Thus, he would use as much of it as he found necessary. However, he couldn''t help but feel odd when he arrived at the location of the mana vein''s issue. "A...sea? An extremely deep one at that¡­ does it reach the mana vein?" His confusion was noticeable, and Jason was just taking a look, trying to figure out if he could approach the mana vein in a different way. Unfortunately, this didn''t seem possible. Thus the only way to get close to the mana vein''s most problematic area was through the sea that was filled with all kinds of beasts. There were even a few remaining beasts of the Oceanfolk he fought on land had returned to the water However, not only was his strength much lower underwater, but the Oceanfolk had an advantage of fighting him on their home ground! Nevertheless, Jason knew that he had to fix the mana vein. Thus, he got his act together and decided to fix everything as quickly as possible. Mustering all the courage he could find, he thus jumped into the ice-cold sea. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 753 - Underwater Entering the depths of the sea, Jason quickly realised that he was unable to see everything with his naked eyes. Thus, he instantly activated his Emperor Eyes to see everything properly. The darkness that slowly permeated the surroundings the deeper he got, prevented him from being able to see any other colors except occasional bright lights that flashed past him. Having enveloped his entire body with a membrane of mana, while circulating some of it through his body, Jason gauged that he would be able to stay underwater for far longer than 20 minutes. This should be more than enough to reach the bottom of the sea in addition to being able to find his way towards the mana vein. Unfortunately, he forgot to consider one important factor in his calculations- attacks of marine beasts! Jason should have expected attacks of marine beasts other than the beings from the Oceanfolk, but somehow, he had hoped that they were as placid as the beasts on land. Because of that, Jason had attempted to avoid encountering the remaining beings of the Oceanfolk''s attack wave, failing to understand that the marine beasts were highly territorial. In the end, he quickly realised his mistake as a gigantic Eel of a length of more than 20 meters appeared behind him, trying to eat him alive. This would definitely not be a nice way to die, and Jason, who had already entered a deep enough part of the sea that rendered him capable of seeing anything with his normal eyes, could only perceive the Eel''s energy fluctuations. As he thought of a way to defend himself, the Eel released a dense electric current as it appeared right in front of him. It was not the Eel''s affinity, but simply a body function of it, and Jason was so astonished about the sudden attack that he subconsciously exclaimed something. Yet, it was at that moment when Jason noticed that he made a big mistake as water entered his mouth and nostrils, breaking through the mana membrane that was supposed to prevent things like that. To his dismay, the mana membrane got hit by the electric currents just as Jason exclaimed unintentionally. Thus, many things happened at once, but the most important was that he was unable to hold his breath for much longer. The moment Jason noticed this, he fully unleashed his Celestia aura and Stigma before Petri''s tail grew out of his back. Swinging it around, while moving his arms and legs almost in sync, Jason simply ignored the Eel, after shooting a few icicles that were enhanced by the moonlight affinity. This was a means to distract the Eel long enough to allow Jason to swim back to the surface as fast as he could. Breaking through the surface for only a minute, he gasped for breath before stifling the urge to vomit because he had inadvertently swallowed a mouthful of water. However, what astonished him was that the water hadn''t been freshwater. It was filled with salt which was the reason for Jason to feel so disgusted. Owing to the protective mana membrane around him, he hadn''t noticed anything, but the moment it got torn just a little, his eyes began to ache. Meanwhile, the mouthful of water was more than enough to make Jason regret having exclaimed. Despite that, it gave him important information, which was crucial to know. ''This sea is completely different from the river!'' While the river was a freshwater body which was something commonly found in a mountain range, the sea was not. Jason had already been confused as to why the Oceanfolk emerged from the river because it was consistent with freshwater. This would indicate that the Oceanfolk came from somewhere else only to use the river as a means of transport. This was something Jason didn''t take seriously before. However, now he thought hard about it after realising that the sea and possibly other existing seas or water sources originated from the ocean despite the mountain range being directly around. He was not someone well-versed with topography, which meant that Jason was not sure how exactly everything around the environment and their physical features worked in a specific territory, but the more he thought about it, the weirder it got. Still trying to gasp for more air, his mind seemed to have entered a completely different dimension as his train of thoughts forced him to comprehend the situation at hand. ''Considering that the sea in front of me is so small, it should be comparable to a hole...is it even a naturally created sea?'' This question flashed through Jason''s mind, and the thought of it being artificially created made more and more sense. As such, he couldn''t help but feel that the Oceanfolk might have started the preparations of their conquest months ago before actually attacking the villages. Considering that the sea was likely to be artificially created, only for the mana vein directly below it to have been heavily damaged by clogging it up with something, the Oceanfolk''s doings were probably much more in-depth than he initially thought. Without knowing what that other thing was, he had to be close to it and see everything for himself. The smallest details could be important, and Jason had to know them in order to fix the issues the mana vein was facing. With that in mind, he reached a conclusion before looking at the seven-meter-long tail behind him. Using Petri''s tail as a means to dive faster, and evade specific attacks should work like before when he had wanted to escape the Eel as quickly as possible. Yet, at the same time, Jason was not sure if it could turn into a hindrance. However, after giving it a second thought, Jason noticed that he was overthinking once again. Thus, he enveloped himself with a membrane of mana yet again before he took a deep breath. Jumping into the air, he made a dive into the sea before starting to move his arms, legs and swung his tail in sync to propel himself towards the deepest possible part of the sea in a matter of seconds. His speed had thus increased by a lot, and if Jason were to be able to use the Floating Sky movement technique to increase his speed inside the water, he would have exerted it too. Unfortunately, this was not possible, and Jason had to make do with the speed at which he was currently diving into the depths of the sea. Just at that moment, the electric Eel he had encountered before, shot towards him once again. Yet, this time, Jason was ready with a counterattack unlike before when he had simply endured the hit of the weak electric currents. Instead, he first manifested several icicles within the water before shooting them towards the Eel, but their speed was too slow to achieve anything great. Afterward, just as the Eel was about to reach him, Jason''s eyes began to glow in a bright golden color, while his Celestia aura and Stigma were fully utilized. Jason solely exerted the Petrification curse, because he knew that it was more than enough. After being hit by the curse, the Eel petrified right in front of him as he raised his hand to touch the Eel without hesitation. ''Die please, will you!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 754 - Struggle A moment later, his hand began to release a searing heat that burned through the Eel, only for Solaris'' black flame to enter the insides of the Eel''s body. Using Solaris underwater was not exactly easy, but Jason also knew that if he had enough mana, he would have no trouble evaporating the entire sea. Thus, the only thing he had to pay attention to right now was to regulate his mana consumption while diving further into the sea. The marine beasts were not exactly strong, and their only advantage was the all too familiar environment they were in, and possibly their big size. Marine beasts'' size was far from the average beasts found on the ground, and they were known for being much larger than other beasts. As such, Jason was not really intimidated when he sensed strong ripples within the mana, indicating a beast swimming past him. If not for his Emperor Eyes that gave him the reassurance to know what cultivation base the maritime beasts had in addition to their exact position, the entire situation would have been much different. Jason knew that he wouldn''t be as calm as he was right now because even if he was strong the fear of the unknown in an equally unfamiliar territory wasn''t supposed to be overlooked by a sensible warrior. Thus, jumping into the sea, only to be surrounded by darkness and an unknown beast would have been extremely terrifying without the Emperor Eyes. Fortunately, he possessed them, and given his calmness, he didn''t face any further problems in reaching the bottom of the sea. There were only a few scenarios in which even the Emperor Eyes didn''t help him to retain his calm so far. The maritime beasts simply looked too grotesque, but fortunately, their cultivation was not as strong as their looks that were fearsome. This would have been truly terrifying, but thankfully he could avoid that by swiftly deflecting the attacks through moving around in a small radius. It was probably his fortune that he had entered the territory of a beast that didn''t mind him infiltrating the area it had claimed. However, at the same time, Jason noticed something else that caused him to be confused. The marine beasts inside the sea were attacking the remaining forces of the Oceanfolk! Earlier, Jason had assumed that the Oceanfolk would attack him, and try to obliterate his existence, but they didn''t even have time to think about him. Rather, they were fighting the marine beasts to barely survive inside the sea. This was something Jason found to be extremely interesting, but unfortunately, the beasts inside the sea were not strong enough to be of any help if he wanted to make use of the marine beast''s hatred against the Oceanfolk. If some of the beasts would have been at the Peak of the Prismar stage, or even the Ascendion stage, this would have been much better! Nevertheless, the procured information about the marine beasts was interesting enough to take note of as Jason reached the seabed within 10 minutes. Now, he had around ten more minutes left to search for a way towards the mana vein that seemed to be buried a little bit deeper. Despite that, he could already feel that the mana was much denser around the area he had entered. However, even then, Jason was also able to sense that something else was intermixed with the released mana, transmuting and weakening it tremendously. He had yet to find out what it was but owing to what he perceived through his Emperor Eyes, the mana vein seemed to be in a much worse state than he first expected. That was not something he could be happy about, and instead of becoming frustrated, Jason swam around the seabed looking for ways to reach the mana vein. This took him a total of five minutes, and Jason knew that he had to swim upwards soon, otherwise, the remaining air in his lungs wouldn''t be enough to allow him to reach the surface. With that in mind, he decided to remember all the tunnels that seemed to exist at the bottom of the sea, in addition to all the information he had found out so far. Some of the tunnels were simply habitats of large beasts, while other tunnels seemed to lead somewhere far away. However, there were a few more paths that seemed to lead him even deeper. Yet, without knowing if there was even a single spot in the vast sea where he could breathe properly, Jason couldn''t just jump anywhere and do however he pleased. Because of that, Jason suddenly felt extremely useless. He recalled the time on Argos when he had promised himself to bind specific beasts according to the special abilities they would transfer to him. ''I should definitely start searching for beasts with nightsight, and underwater breathing abilities¡­'' Even if he wouldn''t know when they need to use these abilities would arise, having them was better than being in the same situation as he was right now. Jason was forced to waste crucial time swimming to the surface and back, just because he was not able to breathe underwater. His cultivation base might be at the Prismar stage, but only at a higher cultivation base would he not have the need to rely on either breathing or oxygen to survive. As such, for now, he was restrained by his body that required him to breathe once in a while. He knew that the 20 minutes he gave himself to stay underwater were not his limit. If necessary, it would be possible for him to use mana to replace oxygen to sustain himself underwater for at least an hour. However, Jason was not sure if this could lead to some problems with his body. As such, he wanted to avoid doing something unnecessarily as long as it was possible. Nevertheless, Jason knew that he wouldn''t be required to eat, sleep or even breathe a lot once he reached a higher cultivation stage. At least, that was what everyone was always saying. He recalled that even Jennifer said that the lowered demand for basic necessities was the reason cultivators were able to enter a much longer solitary cultivation period with a higher cultivation base! In the end, after going back and forth, Jason slowly found a perfect path to take in order to prevent being attacked or bothered by marine beasts. This was a great advantage and gave him enough time to figure out more about the tunnels that were not used as a habitat by beasts. Owing to the extra time, he got the opportunity to enter some of the tunnels, but unfortunately enough, none of them was really useful. He required only a small area without water and a little bit of air to breathe. However, this was already too much to demand, and Jason began to wonder if it wouldn''t be better to dig his own tunnel towards the mana vein from the ground, only avoiding the tunnels that were filled with water. To his misfortune, even that was not feasible, because the Emperor Eyes allowed him to see that the location at which the mana vein was damaged seemed to be in a different spot too. Yet, Jason was not sure if this spot was filled with water or not, that was something he had no idea about. ''If I could only create an oxygen mask without too much mana consumption¡­'' Jason thought at that moment, only to recall the mask Solaris was able to create, purifying the air by discarding anything that was harmful. Unfortunately, being underwater, Solaris wouldn''t be able to sustain itself without consuming a high quantity of mana. However, it was at that moment when Jason got an idea that sounded extremely stupid, yet, also intelligent enough to give it a try. ''I might as well attempt it, otherwise, I will never reach the mana vein, let alone fix it!!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 755 - Corrupted With a new idea in his mind, Jason''s thoughts began to torment him, because he was eager to give it a try. At a slightly higher altitude than the bottom of the sea, Jason had seen a small tunnel that had a dead end just a few dozen meters after one entered it. As such it was similar to a small room, and he assumed that a beast had inhabited this place before. Approaching the room, Jason first inspected it in order to figure out if there was something his Emperor Eyes had failed to perceive. The higher his cultivation base became, the stronger the Emperor Eyes were growing too. As such, the number of things he couldn''t perceive with them was small, but not zero. Thus, he was careful in his inspection but fortunately, he didn''t find any beast lurking in the corners and Jason figured that the habitat had been abandoned for quite some time. This was good and prevented him from running into unnecessary trouble. Initiating the plan he had in mind, Jason approached the entrance of the tunnel before doing something extremely simple. Exerting the ice affinity, he shut off the entire tunnel by sealing it with a wall of ice that was several meters thick. Through this, the entire tunnel was sealed off, creating an ice-enclosed space that was filled with nothing but salty water. Because of that, Jason slowly used his remaining mana before he transferred it towards the black origin flame affinity he had received from Solaris. Manifesting a flame in his other hand while continuing to release the ice affinity, Jason released his Celestia aura and Stigma, followed by the moonlight affinity. However, instead of targeting the ice affinity with the moonlight affinity, Jason decided to strengthen Solaris'' flame that began to burn through the water. As there was no influx of water, he only had to evaporate the amount present inside the room that decreasing Solaris'' consumption by a lot. Thus, Solaris evaporated it in no time, only to be cooled down at a rapid pace. The water droplets fell to the ground as faint ice crystals which Jason stored away. Under normal circumstances, this simple action of sealing off the tunnel, before evaporating the water inside the tunnel would be something only a lunatic would do. However, taking a deep breath after everything was done, Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly. According to physics, he would be unable to breathe because Solaris would have burned away all the oxygen in the room under normal circumstances. But that was not the case! That was only feasible because of one particular characteristic Solaris had that differentiated it from every other flame. It didn''t need any oxygen to be manifested, only mana! Because Jason had recalled this ability of Solaris, he had initiated the plan to create a room filled with oxygen, to begin with. Evaporating water before freezing the hydrogen freed the oxygen atoms, which was something that astonished Jason. Even the salt within the water had burned, and only oxygen remained, but that was not something Jason should be worried about. Rather, Jason could tell that Solaris'' flame would be extremely useful the moment he would fight against someone who wanted to deprive him of his oxygen, thinking that it would render Solaris useless. In that case, his opponent would be shocked to realize that he was able to use Solaris without oxygen too. However, Jason also noticed that Solaris required more mana if no oxygen was present, or if he didn''t want Solaris to use any oxygen. This was not exactly a downside, but simply a prerequisite to replace oxygen as fuel with mana. In the end, everything worked according to Jason''s plan, and the only issue was the mana consumption he had to figure out. Looking at the several meters thick layer of ice, he figured that there wouldn''t be an issue to burn through it before sealing it off right behind him. Through this, he could prevent water from entering the empty room, which was extremely useful. Testing it out a few times, Jason could tell that Solaris'' flame had to be spread all over the layer of ice and that he had to use the ice affinity constantly to keep the ice behind him solid enough while leaving. In the end, it required lots of focus and mana, but the time he required to reach below the seabed decreased by several minutes. Making the flame burn through the layer of ice while manifesting it took the most time, and once he got the hang of it, even this would be less problematic. Having created a safe shelter, Jason felt more reassured and less stressed to swim back and forth. Because of that, he could finally avert his attention to the more important things, which were the mana vein, its problems, and the fact that he had yet to find a path that led towards it. Hours passed, and Jason started to become annoyed because he couldn''t find the correct path towards the mana vein. However, just when he thought of resting a little bit, he found what he had been searching for. Happy to have finally found what he had been looking for the entire time, Jason quickly left the tunnel, only to enter a gigantic room that was filled with nothing but water. At least, Jason couldn''t see anything but the distinct mana from the mana vein, followed by the Pryr and Spiral vein that were, however, farther away from him. Unfortunately, when he arrived near the mana vein, Jason noticed that his focus was disrupted owing to the extremely dense transmuted mana currents that seemed to corrupt his mind. It felt weird, and Jason had problems maintaining the mana membrane around him while actively inspecting everything. Thus, he got another idea that would help him save even more time than the shelter did. With that in mind, Jason decided to build a second shelter near the mana vein, just like the one he had constructed with the use of Solaris ability and his ice affinity. In the end, Jason just wanted to save more time, even if the first few hours of digging demanded laborious work from him as he was often out of breath. It was arduous work to create a tunnel by himself, but with the help of the body part manifestation of his soulbonds it somehow worked. Nevertheless, after several hours of hard and detail, the shelter was finally constructed. Only after that, Jason was able to get more than enough time to take a proper look at the mana vein. Wiping the sweat with the back of his hand, he noticed that the vein''s condition became worse the closer and more intently he looked at it. Staring at the brightly glowing mana vein, he couldn''t help but frown, feeling as if the mana vein had been maltreated by the Oceanfolk that wanted to go to extreme lengths to weaken the Mewi, even if that meant they had to wait for a long time to deteriorate the mana around them. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 756 - Mass Of ... Reaching inside the second shelter that was extremely close to the damaged spot on the mana vein, Jason was able to start investigating further without any hindrances. First of all, he had to figure out what exactly the transmuted mana, the mana vein released, was. At the same time, it was important to get to know all possible problems the damaged mana vein caused, and what kinds of problems existed, in the first place. What he had already found out was that the damages on the mana vein were not only caused by one phenomenon, but multiple overlapping causes. From the looks of it, someone, most likely the Oceanfolk, had aimed to weaken the combat prowess of the Mewi by damaging the mana vein by simply clogging it up. That was, hands down, the easiest way to drastically reduce the amount of mana that could be naturally released by the vein. However, this bottleneck caused a few more issues such as the overflow of mana in one direction, with a lack of mana on the other side of the clogged spot. As such, the mana on one side was being held back from flowing freely by a mass of corals, algae and all kinds of other materials, or whatever else the perpetrator found suitable to clog the mana vein. The mana kept on pressing on this obstruction, pushing it deeper inside the mana vein. The resultant mix slowly turned more solid, blocking off even more mana to pass through. Seeing this, Jason began to wonder how he should remove this mass because it was lodged deep inside and it was imperative to remove the culprit of the mana shortage and transmuted mana. In the end, the mass of ocean materials used to create a blockage was also not as simple as one might think at first glance. Rather, it was extremely complicated because it seemed to have corroded the mana vein, which was also the reason for faint green threads to spread through the mana vein. They originated from the mass of ocean materials, and Jason could tell that this was also the reason for such a limited quantity of mana to be released from the gigantic mana vein, to deteriorate over time. The amount of mana that was released was still much more than Jason had expected, but the quality of the released mana was simply too bad. Because of that, not much mana reached the valley, to begin with, which was probably also the biggest issue the Mewi had. The mana that reached the surface was not deteriorating anymore because its quality seemed to be the worst possible, and Jason had to think hard to find a proper solution. In the end, the mana directly next to the mana vein was extremely strong, but that was not something he was surprised about because it was still the weakened form. Furthermore, there was a reason why the mana vein was seen as a threat by the Oceanfolk, to block it off more than a century ago! After freeing the mana vein of the blockage, it would be able to heal itself over time, slowly recuperating and negating the corrosive side effects the mass of ocean material had caused. This would take time, and Jason knew that the required period was much longer than what he was awarded to stay inside the second trial, but that was not important. The clogged-up mana would gush out of the vein and be extremely strong, once the ocean materials were to be removed. There was only one big issue! How would he protect himself from the outburst of mana when he would successfully remove the mass of ocean materials clogging it? Being squashed by mana that was suddenly freed of the blockade was not something Jason wanted to feel! Obviously, he liked mana and wanted to improve his cultivation rank, but that was everything mana should do to him right now! He had no idea how to remove the mass of ocean material either, and the most logical solution was to use Solaris, just like every single time something had to be removed from somewhere. Jason didn''t even doubt that it would be a problem to use Solaris for all of this, but the bigger issue was that he couldn''t control Solaris'' flame from a long distance. At least, not with seemingly endless mana around it that would distract Solaris from its task. It was eager to become stronger, and Jason knew that. As such, the mana vein would be the best possible source to absorb tremendous amounts of mana. Thus, the moment Jason would be unable to control Solaris'' flame, it would spread out and devour everything in its wake. That was definitely not what he wanted to witness because it would be even worse than the aftermath of the removal of the mass of ocean material caused. Devouring the entire mana vein was unlikely for Solaris to achieve over a short period, but Jason knew that he wouldn''t be able to control his little black origin flame once it got free reign to greedily absorb the mana released by the mana vein. Because of that, Jason had to find a different approach to remove the mass of ocean materials from the mana vein, or he would have to restrict Solaris'' instincts. To him, both finding a different approach and restricting Solaris seemed difficult, but in the end, Jason decided to use the tried and tested method of using Solaris. Now that he had perceived and deciphered the issues the mass of ocean material had caused and that he had found a way to remove it through Solaris, Jason tried finding a way to approach the mana vein, without entering the stream of mana by himself. This was difficult and close to impossible. Thus, Jason simply ignored his doubts as he dug his way towards the mana vein. Even if that could be deemed as insane, Jason had almost reached the spot at which the mass of ocean materials was located. As such, it would be too much of a hassle to leave the shelter and return to the underwater cave in which he had to pay attention to not breathe, which was simply not possible. With that in mind, Jason dug his way through the ground, approaching the mana vein. This took a few hours because Jason was careful in not injuring the structure that radiated a bright light, dazzling him the moment he reached the seemingly faint membrane of mana that held everything together. In the end, Jason had no idea what the mana vein had been made of, and it was extremely interesting because the mana stream was held together, and it could be damaged by materials, but grasping it with his hand as possible. There was a small hole in the mana vein, created by the mass of ocean material that had been pushed deep into the vein. However, to Jason''s fortune, the entire mass of ocean material was still connected to the tiny opening the Oceanfolk had somehow created. Because of that, Jason thought of using Solaris to use the crevice in order to properly remove the harmful substance from the mana vein. With that in mind, he smiled lightly, trying to give himself more determination, only to release a tiny black flame that he inserted into the gap. Yet, just a moment later, Solaris'' flame flared up, as it spread through the vein, devouring the mana as well as the blockade while barely being restricted by both Jason and Solaris itself. Foreseeing this possibility well in advance, Jason had warned Solaris to control its flame properly, otherwise, they would face a disastrous consequence. Unfortunately, it seemed like the surrounding mana was actively surging into the tiny black flame, nurturing it. Through this, it was growing stronger and bigger, and Jason, who racked his brains to think of a proper solution for this issue, had only one idea. Because he had been unable to trust the corroded mana, Jason had already thought of a solution before. Thus, he released a long thread that was made out of Solaris'' black flames. Connecting it to the enlarged black flame, Jason controlled it in order to lead the mana it was naturally absorbing, right into his body through the black flame thread. There, he absorbed the mana that had been expelled from its corrosion owing to the purification effect Solaris had. Owing to this, Jason was able to annex the neutral mana, and he began to use it in order to cultivate, which was quite beneficial. However, not everything was advantageous, and the fact that he had to absorb the mana from the black flame thread was quite a big hindrance! But, that was something Jason noticed later. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 757 - Removed Even though it was quite advantageous to be able to cultivate while finishing an annoying task, not everything was great. In the end, cultivating with the mana that was led through the black flame thread caused his progress in removing the mass of ocean materials to slow down tremendously. He had to split between keeping an eye on the black flame thread and the fact that he had to annex the neutral mana. Furthermore, it was important to not let the black flame thread touch the mana vein. Even the slightest contact could damage it, or worse, the black flame thread could get out of control because of the mana that would surge into it. As such, everything took much longer than Jason could hope for. Even his previous estimate of taking only two days, at most, was not even close to the time he had truly required. This was owing to the careful work he had to undertake as the entire compressed ocean material spanned over more than 40 meters, which was crazy if one thought about it. Earlier, Jason was not exactly sure how broad the mana vein truly was, but now that he was close, he realised that it was a ginormous construct. He didn''t even want to imagine how powerful the Mewi would have become had the Oceanfolk not damaged the mana vein because it would only annoy him further. However, without the damaged mana vein, his mission would be too easy, and even if Jason was just about to fully remove the ocean material, there was no way to figure out whether the Mewi would be able to make proper use of the extra mana or not. There were less than six months left before the large-scale attack was said to happen, but Jason couldn''t trust the words of the Deepsea Scia, which was why he decided to think of the worst-case scenario. This scenario was that the army of the Oceanfolk would gather soon and that they would attack in the next few months. Jason doubted that it would happen in the next two months, but that was not something he could be sure of. Nevertheless, he had to get his work done, which took a total of two weeks because it was extremely difficult to not injure the mana vein. He had to be extremely slow and careful as even the slightest single touch of the black flame thread might be the cause of eradication of the entire mana vein. In the end, Jason didn''t know much about Solaris, whether it was truly just an origin flame or something different. It would make sense for it to be something else because Solaris was sentient, and exhibited more intelligence than Spyro in specific situations. As such, Jason was astonished that Solaris was unable to control its flames within the mana vein. However, only later did Jason find out that Solaris was preventing itself from actively lunging out towards the mana. It managed to overcome its deepest desires in order to prevent Jason from failing the trial he was working so hard for. Preventing itself from doing something which was a natural behavior was extremely difficult for the black origin flame, and Jason was thankful for this. Unfortunately, it didn''t make things much easier for him because there were still too many things he had to pay attention to that he couldn''t even appreciate Solaris'' efforts. In the end, removing, or precisely, burning the Ocean materials was completed only two weeks after he had begun to work on the mana vein. This took longer than expected, but at the same time, Jason was sure that the dungeon never expected him to remove the ocean material from the mana vein. The task itself had simply taken extremely long, and without Solaris, he would have never been able to remove it by only using his hands or other tools. Even with other origin flames, the task would have been too difficult. Who would be confident enough to repair a mana vein, to begin with? Definitely not someone weak as even existences like Luna wouldn''t be able to achieve such a feat. Damaging something was not difficult, but repairing it was certainly tiring and burdensome. That was also the reason why every single energy vein would be protected if it was used by a sect, kingdom, or any kind of organisation. With even a single scratch in an energy vein, one could severely lower the nurturing capabilities of these organizations, thus, safeguarding and protecting them was extremely important. Whether the Mewi knew that the damaged mana vein had been an issue, or not, Jason wasn''t too sure. However, what he realised was that the Mewi might not even be aware that they had a mana vein, to begin with. Otherwise, they would have acted differently from the beginning, trying to protect, or repair it with all their might. As such, Jason could only think that it had been an extremely good achievement to repair the mana vein. Now that he had cleared their problem of mana scarcity and they still had a few months left, the Mewi should be able to start practicing their martial art techniques once again. Furthermore, they were supposed to start cultivating too, which was something Jason hoped for them to start doing soon. If they wouldn''t start cultivating and practicing in order to prepare for the next attack wave of the Oceanfolk, he would actively force them to do something because their survival was on the line. He wouldn''t accept looking at them dying like idiotic moths that flew towards the flame, not after everything he had done for them!! Even if it was not for the trials, solving the issue with the mana vein had been extremely uncomfortable because he was not exactly someone affine to water. The only time he had been forced to swim was on Argos, or to be precise Cyro City when he had jumped inside the lake his late masters had been hiding in. Nevertheless, he had still done everything to complete the mission of removing even the smallest particles of the Ocean materials, preventing them from regrowing in any way. Thus, he retracted the black flame thread without touching the mana vein''s borders that had been created by the Ocean materials. Yet, the more he retracted the black flame thread, the more Jason noticed a problem he hadn''t hoped to occur. Now that the small gap which had been sealed owing to the mass of ocean material was free, mana was suddenly released from it, and Jason''s eyes widened. However, there was neither shock nor certainty in his eyes about the things that were just happening before him. In the end, the Ocean material had been pressed inside the mana vein owing to the strong force the stream of mana had created. Thus, now that the Ocean materials had been removed, there was only a small hole left from which the purest mana leaked. Because of that, the entire shelter was suddenly overflowing with mana, but fortunately, it didn''t hurt him in any way because he had sealed off his pores early enough. Despite that, he was unable to see anything properly because the bright light radiating from the enormous amount of mana dazzled him, even more so owing to his Emperor Eyes that were permanently active while he was underwater. He couldn''t simply switch off his eyesight, which was the reason he had to close his eyes. Thus, he could barely sense his surroundings through his mana perception that was also interrupted by the overflowing mana which steadily increased, creating a formidable pressure that weighed Jason down. Because of that, Jason was also only barely able to perceive that the mana vein was already starting to recuperate as it was actively sealing off the damaged part, but the progress was extremely slow, and Jason was unable to move properly. ''So...am I supposed to endure the highly purified mana? Absorb it and wait for the mana vein to seal off the damaged part?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 758 - Trance Suddenly being overwhelmed by dense mana currents, Jason couldn''t help but feel that the mana vein was at a much higher quality than he first thought. Even the broad width it had didn''t immediately mean that its quality was exceptional, which was however the case. As such, Jason was unable to understand how the Mewi had lived inside the valley all this while and been oblivious to the existence of the mana vein. However, in the end, it didn''t really matter because everything seemed to be fixed now, or rather, it was about to be fixed as the recuperation progress of the mana vein had already started. The surrounding mana was much denser, and Jason assumed that the Mewi wouldn''t take long before they would notice that the mana was about to become denser. Because of that, he could focus on himself. The entire shelter was overflowing with mana, and by opening his pores to a marginal degree, the mana entered his body at a rapid pace. It was an uncomfortable sensation because he didn''t have to actively absorb in order to be swept through by mana. Nevertheless, it was also something that could be exploited if used properly. After releasing both Artemis and Solaris, while unveiling his Celestia aura as well as his own Stigma that simultaneously activated his soubonds'' Stigmas, the three of them were able to accelerate their mana circulation speed, as well as the entire cultivation speed by a large amount. Through this, Jason would be able to enter the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage in no time. He had already begun to solidify his ninth prismarine crystal during the last two weeks in which he had to absorb the excessive mana from the black flame threads. That was advantageous, and the only task he had to complete was to finish the solidification process. Afterward, he could start liquefying a total of 100,000 drops of mana in order to create his first large rotating crystal. Once that was done, he would be able to rival opponents at the Peak of the Prismar stage. Unfortunately, Jason doubted that the period before the mana vein had sealed off its injury was enough for him to enter the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage. However, that didn''t mean he shouldn''t give it a try! Furthermore, he was not alone, and all of his soulbonds would continue to advance, with Artemis receiving the biggest advantage of them all. Yet, contrary to his expectations, Solaris was even more eager to cultivate than Artemis. After realising that it was allowed to absorb and use the entire mana in its surroundings, as long as it didn''t enter the mana vein, it wanted to rival and beat Artemis. Having been restricted from actively cultivating for the last two weeks, Solaris behaved like a caged bird that was suddenly freed. It didn''t hesitate for a single moment as it released its entire suction force that was much stronger than Jason could remember. When Artemis noticed that Solaris was trying to claim every single trace of mana for itself, she retaliated and decided to fight for the mana as she released her own suction force. Weirdly enough, this didn''t disrupt either of their cultivation because it only increased the influx of mana in the shelter. This competition caused Jason to smile lightly as he sensed the density of the surrounding mana increase. As such, he was slowly starting to get motivated to cultivate too. Upon exerting the Mythic Essence technique, his body began to ache heavily which was something Jason was already familiar with. Yet, instead of receiving less mana to absorb, there was even more mana present in his surroundings, and he began to greedily absorb every little bit of it. Because his eyes were closed and his entire focus was on absorbing and annexing mana, Jason didn''t even notice that his suction force was stronger than that of Artemis and Solaris. Seeing him take away their share, both his soulbonds were forced to focus even more to prevent Jason from snatching all of their mana. Through this, their cultivation speed increased and the two soulbonds were oblivious to the same. Meanwhile, Petri and Spyro felt neglected by Jason despite knowing that they were near a mana vein, and not in a universal energy vein, or even close to the Pryr and Spiral vein. However, they also sensed how much mana Jason, Artemis, and Solaris were actively absorbing, which caused them to feel intimidated as even they shifted their focus on their own cultivation progress. Through this, the five of them were relentlessly cultivating for the following two months until the mana vein had sealed off its injury, and completely recovered. In these two months, Jason and his soulbonds had turned into wax statues, unmoving, and solely cultivating as if their life depended on it. And it was only when the purest form of the mana that had originated from the mana vein was slowly becoming less that Jason, Artemis, and Solaris were regaining their senses. Their surrounding was still filled with the densest mana, but Jason quickly recalled that he couldn''t just cultivate and that he had other responsibilities to take care of. Because of that, he was unable to stubbornly cultivate, even if he would love to continue cultivating so close to the mana vein, where the purest and densest mana could be found. He had yet to try relocating the Mewi villages to a different location, bringing all the Mewi together from all the different places. This was unfortunately not as easy as one could hope, and rather difficult to achieve, which was why Jason required strength, and the intact mana vein. Releasing his purest Celestia aura, in addition to his Stigma, followed by a fusion with Artemis, his strength would elevate up to multiple ranks, allowing him to become strong enough to overwhelm almost every Mewi. If that was not enough to convince them, subtly releasing the faint traces of his divine energy should be possible, even if he had never done it before. Jason knew that it would exhaust him severely, but at the same time, he knew that it was possible to release his divine energy, which was certainly advantageous in certain circumstances. In the end, Jason was sure that it would be at least possible for him to convince the Mewi to form connections with each other and work as a group in order to be prepared for the battle. Furthermore, it shouldn''t be too difficult to bring every willful person on his side to fight together against Oceanfolk''s army. ''Maybe, I can even transmit my knowledge of the Mythic Essence technique to the Mewi...wouldn''t that allow them to grow stronger too?'' That was another thought Jason had in his mind. However, knowing how difficult the technique was to master, and the pain one had to endure while cultivating with the Mythic Essence technique, Jason was not sure if he would be labeled as a fraud or even worse, be hunted. As such, he decided to postpone the idea of handing out the information of the Mythic essence technique. Only if all Mewi would trust him enough to the extent that they knew he wanted to help them and had no hidden motives, he would share the technique. With that in mind, Jason was sure that everything would work out as long as the Mewi did not underestimate the threat of the Oceanfolk. Now that the mana vein had been repaired that would slowly release more and more mana in order to help them return to the old, glorious times, he hoped that they wouldn''t slack off. ''I hope everything will work out,'' Jason could only hope for the best, not knowing what kind of aftermath the repair of the mana vein was causing. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 759 - Grand Tribe Chief In two months, Jason had been able to become much stronger than before. Not only did he finally solidify his ninth prismarine crystal, but he had liquefied more than half of the mana drops he required to enter the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage. This was much faster than he expected, and Jason was sure that the next few months would allow him to enter the 2nd threshold. Unfortunately, he couldn''t tell if it would be before the grand attack wave of the Oceanfolk. He sincerely hoped so, but it was something Jason had no idea about. Fortunately, his passive mana gathering technique that had been implanted into the first sub-area was doing its work, absorbing tremendous amounts of mana before liquefying it. Due to this, he didn''t have to be worried about the number of liquefied drops he had. Rather, he wanted to pay more attention towards convincing the Mewi that were scattered across the different villages to join forces in order to prepare for the Oceanfolk''s attack wave. He assumed that they would be extremely stubborn because each of the tribe chiefs was most likely eager to lead their respective village into war. However, that was not something Jason could say for sure. As such, instead of making assumptions, Jason decided to spend the next few days in order to visit all villages once again, seeing how they were faring. Now that the mana scarcity issue was solved he wished to know if all of them were against the idea of relocating elsewhere or even gathering the strongest force to face the Oceanfolk''s army head-on. This was important to do because it was crystal clear that there were more than a few issues the village tribe chiefs created. From what Jason had perceived, the tribe chiefs were somewhat possessive, territorial, and hard to please. As such, only rescuing one of their own would allow Jason to be accepted into their tribe like the little girl he had saved earlier in the first village. Fortunately, that was not something he wanted. In the end, he simply released his Celestia aura as much as possible with a faint trace of the divine energy that was stored within his body. At the same time, Artemis'' wings manifested on his back and spread wide open, and Jason radiated the moonlight affinity around him. As such, with the Stigma additionally activated, there was no problem at all. Rather, the tribe chiefs were too easily convinced that Jason was a godsend who had arrived to rescue them. They believed that Jason had also somehow fixed the issue with the deteriorated mana. It couldn''t be a coincidence that the mana in the entire valley was becoming stronger, only a few days after he had first appeared. The scarcity had disappeared with the available mana reaching the old maximum capacity during the last few days. This was great, but if they knew that the issue had been the mana vein''s damaged state, they would probably be confused, not knowing that a mana vein even existed in the valley. Because of that, Jason decided that it was simply the best to remain quiet about the mana vein. At least, for now. Instead, Jason wanted to focus on gathering forces, but even after he had been accepted, doing this was much more difficult than he could have hoped for. Exhausting himself by releasing the faint trace of divine energy from the inside of his body was not exactly something Jason found comfortable. Nonetheless, he did everything in order to pass the trial with a high score and to make the best out of the Mewi race''s rejection. However, first, Jason wanted to see if all of the villages would deny joining forces in order to face the Oceanfolk. If they did as Jason expected, the entire trial would be easier to complete or turn it into a terrifying situation where he had no way but to do everything by himself, just like always. He sincerely hoped that it would not be the latter, but he had a premonition. As such, Jason tried his best to show himself in the most harmless and approachable way before he flew to the next village in order to do the same. Before leaving, he always asked the same batch of questions, trying to convince each village to help themselves and indirectly help him. Unfortunately, all of the tribe chiefs were stubborn, but that was not an issue because Jason noticed something else, something that would make everything much easier. While the tribe chiefs were outright rejecting his proposal, Jason realised that the villagers were eager to help him with every village that he paid a visit to. The ordinary villagers were eager to fight against the Oceanfolk, along with the other villages, even those that inhabited the mutated Mewi. Jason hadn''t expected this first, but it made many things much easier because the only issue was now to convince all of the tribe chiefs. Seven days had passed since he began to travel through the valley in order to find all villages and convince them that he could help them, and getting rid of the oceanfolk once and for all was possible. Alas, not a single tribe chief wanted to receive his help. That was because they thought that he could be betraying them, disguised as the Oceanfolk''s spy, which was something Jason found to be extremely ridiculous. Nevertheless, that was how the tribe chief acted. Fortunately, Jason had not only spent the last seven days in order to speak to the tribe chiefs, but he was also paying attention to the reaction of the other Mewi inside the village, in addition to the surrounding environment. There was something that bothered him extremely, but he had yet to figure out what exactly the solution to his worry was. ''What exactly is the Oceanfolk interested in?'' Jason kept asking himself the entire time, but despite seeing the valley''s treasures with his Emperor Eyes, he didn''t feel that could be the reason. The said treasures were not really something extremely special that would be worthwhile to initiate a war that would lead to the death of hundreds of beings of the Oceanfolk. Maye, the death toll had already surpassed that number, and Jason was simply oblivious to that! At least, Jason didn''t think that the Lord of the Ocean territory that was adjacent to the valley required something that would lose its worth inside water, such as specific herbs that would simply drown or lose their potency underwater. Of course, the entire valley was filled with many great things, and even the trees Jason had chopped in order to build the walls around the first Mewi village he had been to were rare and of exceptional worth. However, for marine beings, there shouldn''t be anything worthwhile on the land. Yet, owing to his incapability to see everything through his Emperor Eyes clearly, some areas were either blurred or simply invisible owing to a perfect concealment, which even his Emperor Eyes couldn''t see through. Not yet at least! With that in mind, he knew that something was well hidden in these specific areas and that he had yet to figure out what it was. Nevertheless, Jason returned to the first village he had ever been to, where he was greeted with overly joyous Mewi. They had not faced even a single casualty, and also clearly understood that Jason was the reason for the return of the dense and pure mana that permeated their surroundings. As such, the Mewi villagers could tell that Jason was there to help, and when he tried to convince the villagers about joining forces to fight against the Oceanfolk, they could also easily comprehend what kind of issues Jason was probably facing with the other villages. "You want to convince the tribe chief''s to join you, right? If that''s the case, it would be much easier to become a tribe chief yourself and forcefully convince the other tribe chiefs in the meeting that will be held soon!" It was the mother of Lilia, the young Mewi he had saved before, who said this, and turning towards her, he couldn''t help but stare at her while considering her idea. Yes, out of a sudden, he heard another familiar voice, and the content of his words astonished Jason greatly. "Yes, fight me as a member of our village, and after defeating me you should become a Grand tribe chief, and challenge everyone else too!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 760 - Gathering Under normal circumstances, tribe chiefs could only be challenged by villagers that had been living in the village for more than five years. However, it seemed that the tribe chief of the first village wanted to make an exception. Yet, instead of being overjoyed, Jason could only stare at the tribe chief in doubt, not sure what exactly he was scheming. Earlier, the tribe chief of the first village was the person who hated him the most, but now not only had his behavior changed, but the emotional hue that enveloped the tribe chief was also completely different. If Jason hadn''t seen it for himself, he would have thought that the amicable hue was a farce! That was something Jason found weird, but there was no way he would complain about that. "Adventurer Jason, I''m glad you are back. I heard from other tribe chiefs that you are trying to gather an army to face the Oceanfolk. Unfortunately, the other tribe chiefs don''t believe that you want to help them. Instead, they think that you want their power, and wish to become the next Overlord of the valley. They are under the impression that you''re just exaggerating the dangers of the Oceanfolk. But that''s not what I think...anymore...it looks like I misunderstood you, and I want to apologise for this. If you challenge and defeat me, you can become the tribe chief of this small village. Through this, you will be able to join the tribe chief gathering in which you can defeat the other tribe chiefs. Becoming the Grand tribe chief should be your goal if you want to gather all Mewi villages under one banner. Even if it will only be for a short period. I do hope that you will leave once you protect the village." Listening to the tribe chief''s words carefully, Jason believed that he had turned a new leaf. This amazed him, but the last two sentences the tribe chief said, caused him to stare at the old Mewi in astonishment. ''Does he know about the trials? How? Is the dungeon not connected with its own dimensions that are artificially created in order to test specific characteristics of their participants?'' Confusion spread through Jason''s mind, but he didn''t receive an answer to any of his questions that flashed through his mind. Instead, there was only the unknown, and an air of mystery around the dungeon of the Primordial descendant. Jason was still not sure what exactly dungeons were, except the merged form of many inheritance sites, but this didn''t seem to be the case for the Dungeon of the Primordial descendant. There seemed to be more to it, and Jason wanted to find out what it was because he felt that it had to do with his own heritage. Not knowing much about the Celestia race was annoying, but the same could be said about the Primal humans. Jason was still under the impression that the human race on Argos was closer to the Primal humans than other races. At least, he believed that the Soul-awakening of humans on Argos was something that common, higher, or even grand races could have, and this belief only increased because not a single race had a unique soul awakening on Manyr. It was possible that Jason had simply not seen those races, but if that was the case, they were extremely rare. They could possibly belong to one of the three lowest possible ranked race types, which was also a clue, hinting at him that his doubt might be reasonable. Nonetheless, for now, Jason had to solve a different issue, which was to defeat the tribe chief in front of him. "When will the next tribe chief gathering be held? I want to rest a little bit before fighting you because I''m currently extremely exhausted!" After giving it some thought, Jason accepted the proposal, but instead of storming to the tribe chief, he wanted to rest first. That was important because releasing and retracting the divine energy dozens of times during the last few days had taken its toll on his body. It was not something Jason was supposed to do at his cultivation base, but he had been accepted more easily by the Mewi owing to it. As such, he couldn''t complain about the burden he had to shoulder. Instead, he gladly accepted it as long as it was somewhat helpful. Unfortunately, resting was hardly possible because the tribe chief''s next sentence brought him back to reality. "I''m sorry to say this, kiddo, but the next tribe chief gathering will be held in three days, and they''re only held once a month¡­So, if you don''t want to wait an entire month to become the Grand tribe chief, and gather the strongest Mewi around you to train them, you shouldn''t rest too long before fighting me. If you want to fight me tomorrow, you''ll have two more days to think of a proper way to approach the tribe chief gathering. Entering the fray without a plan would be...quite naive and reckless, wouldn''t it?" Somehow, Jason felt as if the tribe chief was guiding him through the trial, but at the same time, it was weird. Not only had the tribe chief''s behavior changed entirely, but he seemed to have grown younger too. This was something Jason noticed only now, which he felt to be a little bit late. Fortunately, it was only how he felt and not the case. Thus, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit confused before realisation struck him. ''Maybe the scarcity of mana had been stressful for the tribe chief, and he was finally able to loosen up now that mana scarcity is not a problem anymore?'' Jason felt that his thoughts were reasonable, but it didn''t really help him to fight the tribe chief. Instead, with enough mana for him to use, the tribe chief''s combat prowess would be several times stronger than before. This was bad, relatively speaking because Jason had to fight him. But on the other hand, the tribe chief''s combat prowess was a necessity for the Mewi to fight against the Oceanfolk. As such, Jason thought that he was fine with how everything was currently going on. Using the tactic the tribe chief had proposed, Jason rested for an entire day before he met the tribe chief the next day, ready to fight him. Knowing that the tribe chief was at the Peak of the Prismar stage was not exactly reassuring, but there was nothing Jason could do about that. Instead, he would finally be able to learn how big the gap between his strength and that of the tribe chief was. With that thought in mind, Jason entered the open field where the tribe chief and other Mewi villagers were already waiting for him. They seemed to have made some preparations for their battle such as building a gigantic circle which the combatants were not allowed to leave. This was to prevent anyone from stalling the fight which seemed to be a tactic some Mewi with an extremely high mana replenishing speed had tried to make use of before. Jason had no problem fighting directly using his entire strength because he was about to fuse with Artemis. This would restrict the time in which he could release his highest possible combat prowess either way. Thus, when the battle started, he was fully prepared to give his all, only to notice something that astonished him greatly. His eyes went wide as he saw the tribe chief''s mana circulation and movement. ''After not being able to wield mana properly for an entire century, he seems...to be rusty? That''s great!'' With that in mind, all of the tribe chiefs'' felt less overwhelming to Jason, whose combat experience was recent, and not centuries-old like theirs was. That was because the tribe chiefs had not only been unable to wield mana for a century but they weren''t even able to utilise their martial art techniques during that time. Because of that, Jason began to fight more confidently against the tribe chief of the first village, who began to notice that Jason''s entire appearance was slowly changing, turning him into a ferocious, beastlike human. ''Just who is this youth?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 761 - Fight For The Title Even though it was great that the tribe chief''s mana circulation speed and accuracy along with the execution of his martial art techniques were currently crude, Jason couldn''t help but feel that this was bad when he had to face the Oceanfolk. Nevertheless, for now, it was exceptionally great because the tribe chief was not able to release his entire combat prowess. As such, his strength was not that of a normal Peak Prismar stage Cultivator, but severely restricted. If Jason were to fight against the tribe chief a month later, the odds would be in his favor, but less than two weeks had passed since the surrounding mana had normalised. During that period, the Mewi first had to nurture themselves. Afterward, they had gathered as much mana as possible in order to hoard it within their body so as to be prepared for a possible repeat of the gruesome attack by the Oceanfolk that could happen at any moment. Because of that, Jason felt that he was fighting someone who had yet to fully construct their dome crystal. With that in mind, Jason fused with Artemis completely, increasing his strength drastically, reaching the Late Prismar stage without any additional factor. His divine energy was further strengthening his entire being, while Artemis amplified Jason''s strength with 100% of her own strength. Adding everything to the fusion that gave them a bonus, Jason''s overall strength increased even further. In the end, Artemis was already at the Mid rank of the Prisma stage''s second threshold because she had solidified the majority of her second large rotating crystal! Meanwhile, Jason had yet to gather enough mana drops to create his first large rotating crystal. This was annoying because he had hoped that everything would be completed much faster. Yet, in comparison to others, his speed was exceptional and not something he should complain about. Thus, after fusing with Artemis, his hair turned whitish silver, while two horns that were half silver, half black grew out of his forehead. Majestic wings sprouted out of his back and a second stigma manifested above his previous one. After completely unleashing everything, the stigmas glowed in a golden light that was fusing with the Celestia aura that had turned sky blue with a touch of silver. Having activated the moonlight affinity, Jason coursed the transmuted mana through his body, in order to attempt to further strengthen himself. Contrary to his expectations, it seemed to work and the transmuted mana was almost one-third more potent than the neutral mana Jason was normally using for everything. Because of that, his speed reached an all-time high the moment he executed the Floating Sky movement technique. Without holding back, Jason charged up to the tribe chief, who was also rushing towards him, ignoring the slight hesitation he had owing to Jason''s change in appearance. Holding a longsword in his hand, the tribe chief clashed with Jason. Just before their encounter, Byakur manifested in Jason''s hand and enlarged, only to be enveloped by an ice-cold blue flame that had faint silver strands glittering within it. The Frozen flame''s freezing property and other effects had been enhanced by the moonlight affinity, and Jason couldn''t help but smile upon clashing with the tribe chief. He noticed that he was at a disadvantage which was only obvious because the dome crystal was what gave the highest amplification in strength at the Prismar stage. As such, Jason was being pushed back, but that was not a problem for him. Rather, he would feel sad if the tribe chief were to be too weak to hold up against his first slash. This would have been truly disappointing, but because that was not the case, Jason felt somewhat relieved, knowing that the current fight wouldn''t be boring, but instead, extremely satisfying. At least, that was what Jason hoped for as he was pushed back despite using almost every single muscle in his body to go up against the tribe chief, who seemed to struggle a little. Previously, the tribe chief didn''t think that Jason would be a worthy opponent. Because of that, he was not really worried that his obsolete combat prowess would turn into an issue. However, now he realised that it was not the case at all, and his ineptitude seemed to have turned into the biggest issue the tribe chief had to face. Jason''s freezing flame was only adding to his problems because Byakur was actively trying to support the freezing flame in transferring its freezing property to the longsword it clashed with. Unable to do anything like that, the tribe chief had hastily enveloped his sword with a membrane of mana. Sensing how slow the tribe chief was with his moves, Jason felt oddly reassured, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the mana freezing effect of the origin flame would get through the mana membrane, freezing the longsword. Thus, he smiled brightly, as the ice-cold aura transformed from the Celestia aura, owing to his fusion with Artemis. Initially, Jason was not sure how exactly he could make use of the Arctic aura, which was the name he gave it. However, after testing it out a little, the Arctic aura seemed to be much more profound than Jason first thought. Whether this was because of Artemis'' evolution that had strengthened the aura tremendously, or the fact that Artemis'' comprehension of her ice affinity had increased, Jason didn''t care. Adding the moonlight affinity to the naturally generated Arctic aura, it began to freeze the surrounding, spreading even over the enclosed circle they had used to fight. This forced the spectators to step back to prevent turning into an ice sculpture on the spot. By overwhelming and enveloping the tribe chief, he was forced to envelop himself with a thick layer of mana too, because the freezing property of the Arctic aura seemed to be even stronger than that of the Frozen flame. However, that was only an illusion, and not reality as the Arctic aura had a uniform degree of coldness spreading all over the place while the Freezing flame was directed at one point, with an intensified freezing temperature. As such, spreading all over the body of the tribe chief, he sensed the icy coldness of the Arctic aura all over him. Meanwhile, Byakur and the frozen flame were mostly fending off the longsword that seemed to be an exceptional weapon too. Earlier, Jason hadn''t noticed it, but the tribe chief seemed to have been an exceptional fighter in the past. As such, owing to his experience, it was possible for him to become stronger with time. This was a bad sign, and Jason wanted to end the battle against him as quickly as possible. In the end, this was the way in which he would receive the best possible outcome, but unfortunately, that was not something Jason could simply decide. Both of them were fighting against each other with their utmost efforts to win. It was obvious that the tribe chief wanted Jason to win because he wanted him to gather all tribes under his banner in order to fight against the Oceanfolk''s army. However, at the same time, he couldn''t allow Jason to simply snatch his title as well as the responsibility of the entire village. He was still a stranger to them and someone who they didn''t know well. Thus, the tribe chief did not only fight against him in order to defend his title, but also to learn more about Jason''s personality, and how determined he was to protect the villages, including their residents. Because of this, the fight was slowly turning more intense with time, as both parties were slowly adjusting to their opponent''s fighting style. Jason had to adjust to his increment in strength, while the tribe chief had to overcome the rustiness he was feeling. Due to that, the circle that enclosed them was slowly turning into a battlefield where everything was devastated, only for the two fighting forces to use their strongest moves. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 762 - Clash Of Secret Techniques The fight between Jason and the tribe chief was slowly growing intense, and both knew that they wouldn''t be able to win against their opponent easily. Or at least it seemed like this, in the beginning. Yet, contrary to the tribe chief''s expectations that Jason wouldn''t be strong enough to keep fighting with him, and that the fight would be heavily one-sided, Jason was giving him a really tough time. In the end, the tribe chief wanted Jason to win, but earlier, he hadn''t expected the young man to stand a chance against the other tribe chiefs. It was because of this that the tribe chief had to figure out Jason''s strengths and weaknesses. Jason may have a good heart and a distinct determination that astonished the tribe chief. However, even that shouldn''t be able to bridge the vast gap of strength between a Cultivator of the Peak Prismar stage and a Cultivator with a cultivation base at the peak of the Prismar stage''s first threshold. As such, the tribe chief had already come up with multiple ideas in his mind to turn Jason into someone who could defeat the rusty tribe chiefs. He knew that like him, even they would be unable to fight properly owing to their lack of ambition, determination, and non-existent natural combat talent. For that Jason would only need time¡­ or so the tribe chief thought before the fight had started. Because the tribe chief was not able to become the Grand tribe chief owing to multiple factors, he had to trust someone else with a good heart and the necessary talent. Yet, encountering Jason caused the tribe chief to feel a multitude of emotions ravaging his mind. It was simply beyond his understanding as to how Jason had already become so strong. It made the tribe chief wonder if Jason was already strong enough to defeat the others, even without his help. ''Maybe he can already attend the gathering in two days with his current strength?'' The tribe chief thus wondered, only to shake his head, returning his attention to the fight that was slowly becoming a burden for him. His abdomen twitched, and several spots on his body began to ache heavily, indicating to the tribe chief that he would be unable to continue fighting for long. With that in mind, he began to increase the amount of mana which he circulated through his body as he started to exert one of the few secret techniques the Mewi had comprehended. At that moment, Jason clearly perceived that the tribe chief''s entire being was becoming stronger as every single mana particle seemed to become much stronger. The density and purity of the mana particles increase exponentially, all of a sudden. This surprised Jason as his Emperor Eyes perceived multiple things at once. ''He is still in pain from an old injury, and exceeds his limits...that should be the last attack!'' Before, the multitude of injuries that were oddly connected hadn''t been visible to the Emperor Eyes, and it was only now when the tribe chief seemed to use the uppermost layer of his mana body to attack, that Jason could see the injury. Yet, even after being able to see it, he was unable to make use of that information. As such, Jason averted his attention to the mana currents that became denser and purer. Perceiving that the tribe chief''s strength was increasing, it would soon reach the same prowess as that of a true Peak Prismar stage being. Jason didn''t want to wait until that would happen, knowing that he would be unable to defeat the tribe chief if his combat prowess were to increase further. Thus, he began his own preparations to execute a technique only Jason and his soulbonds knew of! Holding Byakur in front of his body with his arms stretched out, one hand was holding Byakur''s tip while the other one tightly grasped the handle horizontally. Only a moment later, tremendous streams of mana were pulled towards Jason, as his Arctic aura was fully released with both Stigmas glowing in a bright golden color. However, it was just a second later that his Stigma and the rest of his body were enveloped in sky blue flames that had faintly glimmering silver strands intertwined within them. Every trace of mana that was pulled towards him was absorbed by the sky blue flames before everything was drawn towards the center of Byakur, where Solaris emerged in a sky blue color. The black origin flame was still confused about how Jason and Artemis'' fusion were able to change its colors, but in the end, it simply assumed that it had something to do with their connected souls and that everything was connected to Jason. As such, if Jason were to undergo a drastic change, his soulbonds would most likely too. Thus, being compatible with an extremely low temperature, Solaris was the first one to change after Artemis fused with Jason. Petri however didn''t undergo a change, but that was owing to his compatibility with a searing hot flame. Yet, in the end, everything was much more complex than the soulbonds, let alone Jason could think of. They didn''t know the entire truth and were only making assumptions that were likely to be the case for everything around the Soul world, the soulbond contracts, and their connected souls. Too many things were unknown to them, and Jason was fully aware of this. Fortunately, he had more than enough time to slowly get to know everything about himself, for which he was thankful. However, instead of seeing this as a burdensome task, Jason found it interesting because it meant that there were many things he had yet to learn about the vast universe. Taking a deep breath, Jason''s mind was cleared in an instant, and he could only see the tribe chief in front of him. Circulating his mana through his body, the vast majority was led through Byakur, empowering Solaris, whose flame had already taken the shape of a silver-eyed arctic dragon. Sensing how the mana within the miniature silver-eyed arctic dragon, Solaris had turned into, was accumulating, Jason smiled lightly. He simply waited for the tribe chief''s attack as mana seemed to gather inside his blade that turned into a bright white glowing mass. Without moving an inch, both opponents were prepared to unleash their strongest attack, which they could do any moment. This happened only a few seconds later as the tribe chief gathered enough mana to reach the strongest prowess he could attain with his current proficiency that had drastically decreased as well as his injury that restricted him a bit. He was not satisfied, but it was better than what he had initially expected. As such, the tribe chief brandished his longsword horizontally, releasing a sword beam that cuts through the air before arriving in front of Jason just a moment later. Under normal circumstances, this would kill any being below the Peak of the Prismar stage, but Jason was eerily calm. Despite knowing that the tribe chief''s attack was extremely strong, Jason didn''t even consider inserting some of his divine energy into the attack he was about to release. That would be too dangerous because he had yet to figure out what exactly his divine energy could do and how potent it was. Jason didn''t plan to kill any Mewi so he had to hold back. However, looking at the attack he was just about to face he couldn''t believe that he had felt so. ''Maybe, I''m a little bit crazy¡­?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 763 - Former Strongest? Even after he decided to not use his divine energy, Jason knew that Solaris was much more powerful than any kind of possible attack the tribe chief could possibly utilize. With that in mind, he released his entire mana into Solaris, who suddenly expanded, turning into a gigantic silver-eyed arctic dragon head. Running short on the time to roar out, it could only release its terrifying pressure, just as Solaris fired a ginormous frozen flame that was enveloped in a silver hue towards the tribe chief. Yet, before the flame could hit the tribe chief, it first had to overcome the sword beam the tribe chief had fired before. Clashing upon each other, the Frozen Dragon flame and the sword blade beam began to shake violently, creating a small shockwave that blasted the weaker spectators away, hurling them several meters into the air before they fell to the ground. Meanwhile, the other Mewi simply stared at the battle, knowing that they would have long since died if they were to face either of the two combatants in the combat ring. With that knowledge, they knew that both opponents were extremely strong, yet, somehow they couldn''t help but feel that the tribe chief was using everything he could, while Jason, the mysterious being, was still holding back. It was just a weird feeling, but knowing what had happened to their tribe chief in the past, it was evident that he was exceeding his limits with the sword beam that required tremendous amounts of mana to be gathered within the practitioner. Staring expectantly at the battle that was just a step away from nearing its end, once one of the attacks were to overwhelm the other one, the Mewi didn''t even notice that the battle, had in fact, already ended. Completely exhausted, the tribe chief was panting heavily and hoped that Jason would have used up everything just as he did. Unfortunately, this was not the case, and Jason, who did not have to rely on mana, detached Solaris, who was shaped into the silver-eyed arctic dragon from Byakur before forcing himself to exert the Floating Sky movement technique. Just a moment later, he ignored the clash of the two attacks that seemed to take much longer than expected to end. Emerging next to the tribe chief shortly after he had catapulted himself towards the side, taking a small detour to avoid getting hit by the energy currents that might go astray, Jason lashed out with Byakur. Yet, instead of killing the tribe chief which would not only be an overkill, and entirely useless, but also disadvantageous for the goal he had in mind, Jason simply held Baykur''s blade against the tribe chief''s neck. This was more than enough to end the battle, and as if on cue, Solaris used up the entire mana it had accumulated, turning it back into a small flame that levitated in the air just like a wisp. Moving slowly towards Jason, Solaris'' appearance looked eerie, even if nothing special was happening anymore. However, transforming from a terrifying head of a silver-eyed arctic dragon that had frozen the sword beam as if it had been nothing exceptional, Solaris was no more a tiny, palm-sized flame that levitated slowly towards Jason before it merged with his body. This was something that frightened the spectating Mewi more than anything else, and even the tribe chief couldn''t help but feel odd. Despite giving his best, he had lost, and he accepted his loss gracefully after Jason retracted Byakur. There was nothing the former tribe chief could do about that, to begin with, but somehow he felt annoyed. Jason''s combat prowess was simply too confusing, making him even more mysterious than what he appeared to be at first glance. This feeling was only intensified when Solaris merged with Jason, whose appearance was reverting to his old self. Artemis left his mana core and returned to the soul world, where she continued to cultivate as if nothing had happened. This nonchalant behavior of his first soulbond caused even Jason to feel a little bit odd because he was unable to move without being affected by the changes he was undergoing after every fusion. Maybe this was something that affected only him, but he didn''t know for sure. As such, Jason remained quiet, thinking about the fusion process he could achieve with his soulbonds, while his body slowly reverted to his usual self. The Arctic aura turned back into his Celestia aura, and the second stigma slowly dispersed. After a short while, he looked at the tribe chief, who had conflicted emotions visible on his face. There was doubt, confusion, but also hope, and determination in the Mewi''s eyes. "You''re stronger than I expected¡­ Congratulations on defeating me, and also for becoming the new tribe chief!" Jason nodded his head faintly, not sure if it was really worth being congratulated for. In the end, the position just added more responsibilities to his head, which he didn''t even want to have, to begin with. However, in order to successfully pass the trial, Jason was forced to do things he didn''t even want to. Not wanting to give any outward sign of what was going on in his mind, he tried to smile lightly and feel happy about it, but the former tribe chief noticed his worries and discomfort. "Don''t feel too burdened, brat. I know that you are trying to help, so I can give you the information about the other tribe chiefs. With that, you will be fully prepared for everything!!" Upon hearing this, Jason could only stare at the former tribe, unsure of what to say because there were too many tasks he had to pay attention to. The number of problems was also vast, and there was no time to rest, even if Jason felt exhausted after releasing all of his mana at once. Fortunately, his passive mana gathering speed was extremely fast, which meant that he wouldn''t feel deprived of mana for a long time. This was extremely helpful and different to the tribe chief, who had used the vast majority of mana that was stored in his entire body, not just the mana core, in order to attack Jason. In the end, Solaris'' Frozen Dragon Flame attack was the reason for Jason''s victory as the freezing and mana burning effects had overlapped, creating a strong combined attack! Earlier, Jason had assumed that he would have to use his Emperor Eyes'' abyssal effect in addition to his curses simply to overwhelm the former tribe chief, but there were too many negative factors weighing down the old Mewi. Furthermore, having underestimated his own strength, or to be precise the combined attack of the Frozen Dragon Flame, and still winning by a huge difference gave Jason much-needed confidence to defeat the other tribe chiefs. Additionally, there was also the fact that the former tribe chief had been partially restricted owing to a former injury. Thus, Jason was sure that defeating the other tribe chiefs would be easy, even if he had to fight them in a row, which was required to become Grand tribe chief. While he was deep in thoughts, Jason didn''t even notice that the former tribe chief was talking to him, and it was only when his shoulders were lightly shaken that he regained his senses. "What? Where? Who?" He instinctively blurted out, only to be frowned at by the former tribe chief. "Pay attention to me when I explain to you the personality, combat prowess, and the strength and weaknesses of the other tribe chiefs, alright? You have a good chance at becoming Grand tribe chief if you pay attention to what I say. I was the strongest tribe chief before I was injured, so the others will be vigilant of you during the tribe chief gathering." After the tribe chief said this, with a tinge of pride in his voice, he explained how the other tribe chiefs were exceptionally skilled at combat, what fighting style each of them were good at, what they were lacking, and much more information such as their personality, and what annoyed them. Other than that, Jason paid attention to the explanations of the Mewi race''s secret techniques that used a large amount of mana from their entire body, and not only the mana that was stored in their mana core. Due to this, they were able to release much more mana than anyone else as mana was the essence of their life, and they were nurtured a bit differently than others. Owing to that, most Mewi were reluctant to use the secret techniques which marred their proficiency turning them into below-average combatants in that aspect. As such, the former tribe chief clearly told him that it would be best to prevent them from utilising this technique in a last-ditch attempt to gain an upper hand. Thus, he was supposed to not give them any chance of initiating a counterattack once the tribe chiefs were exhausted. With that, there shouldn''t be too many issues, even if he had to fight more than a dozen fights in a row. However, at the same time, Jason had to understand that the tribe chiefs wouldn''t simply accept him as Grand tribe chief and that they would have no qualms employing deceit and trickery to prevent him from defeating all of them. Yet, what the former tribe chief didn''t know was that the other tribe chiefs were already trying to figure out a solution on how they could defeat the Oceanfolk, and that they were also planning to overthrow him by replacing him with a new Grand tribe chief. And the only issue in this scenario was that Jason was not the candidate the others had in mind for the position of the Grand tribe chief, but someone entirely different. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 764 - Tribe Chief Gathering Making good use of the timespan of two days, Jason''s knowledge about the Mewi, their strength, weaknesses, unique racial traits, and many more things increase drastically. Getting to know every single tribe chief within the valley, Jason was slowly being taught the ways on how to deal with them to either earn their trust or to provoke them so that they would make more mistakes once he challenged them. Jason realised that the former tribe chief of the first village he had encountered was extremely knowledgeable, and after some time he even figured out that he was the closest to ever becoming the Grand tribe chief. Nonetheless, before the former tribe chief was able to attain this feat, he had been injured by the attack of a marine beast that seemed to be living somewhere in the sea. This confused Jason because the valley didn''t have many locations with large water bodies. As far as he knew, there was one above the mana vein, in addition to two more of them in the valley, while one was in an area his Emperor Eyes couldn''t clearly detect. Jason assumed that this was the location that the former tribe chief had tried entering in the past in order to procure something that would allow him to become strong enough to defeat the other tribe chiefs. Unfortunately, his plan had backfired because the beast living inside the pond was something the tribe chief had been unable to defeat. This had been his misfortune, but nothing he could change now. In the end, he realised that fate worked in strange ways, and only because of the events of the past he had encountered Jason, whom he had misunderstood earlier. However, after everything he did in order to help them protect the village, the former tribe chief''s opinion of Jason had changed for the better. Because of that, he had offered Jason the option to challenge him, which was something only villagers could do, under normal circumstances. Afterward, he wanted to help Jason to protect the village, and becoming the Grand tribe chief was the best way to achieve this. Only when he was certain that Jason was trustworthy did he unveil the Mewi race''s secret, knowing that this could turn extremely dangerous if Jason were to betray him. However, that was not something the former tribe chief was worried about because the young man didn''t even have the time to think about anything properly. That might be strange, but Jason was simply too occupied with digesting the provided information and doing all kinds of things in order to defeat every single chief at the tribe chief gathering. As such, even after it was the evening of the second day, Jason continued to plan everything ahead, while moving towards the center of the valley. In fact, the center of the valley was relatively close to the broadest part of the river bank which was something that made Jason uncomfortable. But that was only the case because he expected the attack of the Oceanfolk any moment. Not knowing the exact day or time at which the attack would be initiated, Jason could only be vigilant at every single moment. The worst possible timing for the Oceanfolk to attack would be at the tribe chief gathering because everybody would be occupied in the meeting, leaving the villages relatively unguarded and defenseless. The tribe chiefs were the strongest individuals in a village so while they were all attending the gathering, the villages wouldn''t be protected by their strongest force at that time. Yet, oddly enough, Jason didn''t think that anyone would attack during that time. Whether this was his gut feeling or something he made up owing to the provided information he had, didn''t really matter. Flying towards the center, he saw that there was a unique-looking foundation made of stone with a gigantic table on top of it. More than two dozen chairs were placed around the table in a huge circle.. Most of them were already occupied, and when Jason landed on the stone platform, he simply sat on the chair with the number the former tribe chief had told him. Afterward, he placed the medallion that indicated him to be the tribe chief on the stone platform, preventing the tribe chiefs from creating a ruckus, saying that he was not a tribe chief, or whatever. Seeing the medallion made them stop from opening their mouths to argue though the feeling of surprise and disdain was plastered across their faces. As Jason swept his gaze across the gathering, he recalled the crucial facts about the things the other tribe chiefs had already spoken about. Jason knew that all of them knew him, and they were also aware that he was not a Mewi, which was not difficult to figure out. However, all of that only turned him into an object of their scorn since now he was the tribe chief of the small village he had first encountered inside the valley. Nobody spoke to him, and neither did Jason attempt to establish a connection with others. Instead, he tried to connect the information the former tribe chief had provided him with the things he was able to see through his Emperor Eyes. This was not further difficult, and to Jason''s fortune, the tribe chiefs seemed to be even rustier than he first expected. That was something that played directly into his hands. At least, he hoped so, only for his entire plan to be shattered into smithereens the moment the tribe chiefs had gathered. There was one particular Mewi who stood out from the rest, and from what Jason perceived, he was the strongest of all. His presence was exceptional, and Jason doubted that he was one of the rusty tribe chiefs. Instead, the Mewi looked like he had just walked out of a slaughter after defeating thousands of powerful opponents. Clearly perceiving this, he knew that his own strength was not comparable to the bulky Mewi who sat opposite him. Yet, what Jason heard from the first tribe chief, who seemed to initiate the discussion and mark the start of the entire tribe chief gathering, caused Jason to look at him. His attention was quickly drawn away from the bulky Mewi, who seemed to be more powerful and ferocious than everyone else put together. "Today, we have gathered in order to thank the Gods for listening to our prayers. Not only did they resurrect the mana within the valley, but they also brought back Brell, my son, and the strongest warrior of our race! During the last few days, I already spoke to many of you, but now I want to make an official proposal- If everyone accepts Brell as the Grand tribe chief, we will be able to help our race reach its former glory that had been painstakingly achieved by our ancestors. The Oceanfolk won''t be an issue, and we will be able to claim the entire valley for ourselves, without the need to bother about any kind of beast!" Jason wanted to interrupt the moment the tribe chief said ''thank the gods for listening to our prayers'' followed by ''resurrect the mana within the valley'' because that was his doing, and not the feat of some imaginary god. However, he refrained from correcting him and stayed quiet while hearing the tribe chief''s request attentively. ''Maybe, I don''t have to become the Grand tribe chief? But...is he even trying to achieve the same as I do? What will his plan be?'' With those questions tormenting Jason''s mind, he had no other way of finding out the answers than to seek answers from Brell himself. Thus, he looked at Brell with a stern expression as he ignored the other tribe chiefs in order to ask him straightforwardly. "I don''t want to be rude, but what are your thoughts about the Oceanfolk? Do you think they''re competent enough to conquer the entire valley? Would you believe me if I were to tell you that a huge army of Oceanfolk will arrive soon? If you do, what will be your countermeasures to tackle them?" With those questions, Jason wanted to find out Brell''s true nature and temperament, and everything that was in his mind. Yet, the moment their eyes came into contact, both noticed the same thing about each other. ''He is strong!'' ''He is strong!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 765 - Creating Trouble Both Brell and Jason understood that the person sitting opposite them was strong. Despite that, there was a difference in the strength they could see. While Jason was only thinking about Brell''s mana fluctuations and physical strength that seemed to have been refined, Brell felt that Jason''s combat prowess was lower than his own. However, at the same time, there was something about Jason that made Brell believe he might even be stronger than him if they were to fight a life-and-death battle. Thus, even without having had a real conversation the two of them were already looking at each other with respect. Mewi were a prideful race and rarely acknowledged someone as an equal or stronger than them. That was extremely difficult to achieve with the Mewi, who were more known for holding back. As such, seeing that Brell seemed to have accepted him as a strong combatant was already a good sign. Yet, the moment Brell answered his questions, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit odd. "I don''t have to think much about the Oceanfolk. They''re at a disadvantage on land, and won''t be able to run past me! Once I become the Grand tribe chief, the villages shall focus on preparing their defenses, while I will fight against the Oceanfolk alone! Whether there are a few hundred, thousands or even far more than that, I can defeat them all! Mark my words¡­ I will defeat the entire Oceanfolk army if one were to arrive. My countermeasures are the defenses of the villages, nothing else!!" Jason felt odd and he was not even sure what to make of Brell''s words. It was evident that Brell was not taking him seriously, and the fact that he was exaggerating his own strength while underestimating the numerical advantage the Oceanfolk had, in addition to the few individuals that are extremely powerful. Because of that, Jason stared at Brell for some time, which the bulky Mewi returned without hesitation. Unfortunately, just before he opened his mouth to say something, the tribe chiefs intervened. "I agree to Old Masr''s request. Brell is the perfect Mewi for the position of Grand tribe chief. We will be able to trust and rely on him!" "I second that! Being the strongest, Brell will be able to take our race back to the once flourishing era of our ancestors!" After that, several more tribe chiefs stated their opinions, mostly agreeing to the request made by Brell''s father. Additionally, they were trying to suck up to the father-son duo, in hopes of increasing the benefits they may reap. However, both Jason and Brell didn''t even realise this because they seemed to be engaged in a conversation of their own, just that neither uttered a single word. They were not even conversing through a voice transmission, and the means they used to talk was through their eyes. Jason''s serious expression, followed by a frown caused Brell to feel a bit offended, even if he was not sure why this was the case. Under normal circumstances, he would have simply ignored it but after thinking about the previous questions again, Brell realised that he might have been a little bit too confident. However, realisation struck him in the depths of his conscience only after Jason had been forced to shoot out a thread of mana, that was filled with pictures of the last Oceanfolk wave. It showed how the Oceanfolk emerged from the riverbank, with a length of more than just a few kilometers, and on either side of the river. After Jason showed Brell pictures of the Oceanfolk, he said the first few words through voice transmission. [I overheard some of the stronger Oceanfolk individuals'' conversation, and they said that this was a ''small'' attack wave. Their army will have more than ten times the number of individuals you saw just now. Even if you would be fighting inside the river, are you really confident to defeat the entire army of the Oceanfolk before they can approach the villages? Can you vouch for your prowess and strength with absolute certainty] Jason wanted to say much more, but he also understood that an entire monologue of half an hour would be too long and time-consuming. As such, he held back, while continuing to stare at Brell, whose expression clearly showed that he was slowly comprehending what was going on. During the last few years, or decades, he hadn''t been inside the valley, which meant that he was training somewhere else, away from the valley and the dangers hovering around the villages. Because of that, the small attack wave was probably what Brell assumed to be the size of the entire army. Other than that, he hadn''t really paid attention to their way of attack. With this new information, Jason was slowly changing his opinion as the bulky Brell understood how useful it was to have Jason nearby. The other tribe chiefs didn''t even bother to apprise him of the situation, and they were merely competing with each other to receive some benefits and get in his good books. While all the other chiefs were blindly trying to please him, Jason was different. He was still holding back in voicing out his opinion, but that was only the case because it would take too long to speak otherwise. Never having been the smartest of the lot, he knew that he lacked in certain fields that were important for a Grand tribe chief to be proficient in. Thus, Brell voiced out the idea that flashed through his mind, understanding that someone like Jason had to be by his side! "If I were to become the Grand tribe chief, I would like to appoint a Vice Grand tribe chief too! That will be this man who sits opposite me! Does anyone have a problem with that?" Not even knowing Jason''s name, Brell had made a decision to trust him based on the vital information he had provided within the first few minutes of meeting him. Despite that, he felt that a few tribe chiefs would have a problem with Jason being appointed as the vice grand tribe chief. Other than trusting him, Brell also wanted to see how strong Jason truly was, and if his evaluation of Jason''s intelligence and knowledge was correct. There were several other factors he wanted to learn about, but he wished to save that for later after enjoying the chaotic scene that unfolded in front of him. "I don''t agree with this!! Why should an outsider become the vice grand tribe chief?! Brell, please think about it. The vice grand tribe chief will have almost as much power as you have!!" "Don''t do this to us, Brell! He doesn''t even know our race properly! He just arrived here a few months ago and doesn''t seem to want to leave! Don''t you think this is weird? Why would he stay inside the valley that had such a low mana density before? It reverted to its former glory not long ago, so he shouldn''t have a reason to stay before that!" "...." ".." Hearing all the complaints, Jason couldn''t help but smile. He thought that the tribe chiefs were good at arguing, but that didn''t really help them in any way. Brell was just staring at them with lacklustre eyes as their words had no meaning to him. He had hoped for something else to happen, but nobody seemed to dare challenge Jason, which he found weird. Yet, suddenly a voice rang out from outside the gathering, interrupting the other tribe chiefs. "Well...I vote in favor of appointing Jason as the Vice Grand tribe chief. Didn''t he help all of us during and after the last Oceanfolk attack wave? The surrounding mana became denser after he saved all the villages! You guys are just way too greedy! Why should it be an issue whether he becomes Vice Grand tribe chief or the personal strategist of Brell?" Turning around, everyone looked at the former tribe chief, who Jason had defeated just two days ago. This astonished Jason because he hadn''t expected him to come over, yet, what he found to be even more confusing were Brell''s next words as he shouted out in surprise. "Master!! You''re still alive!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 766 - Battle Intent Jason didn''t expect Brell and the former tribe chief to have a master-disciple relationship. Thus, he couldn''t help but stare at them even after the former tribe chief seated himself on Brell''s chair, while Brell accessed his spatial ring to retrieve another chair to sit a little bit behind his master. This clearly showed how highly Brell regarded his master. Jason felt that this was a great advantage, and the fact that he had been able to defeat the former tribe chief, whose name was still a mystery to him, played into his hands. Yet, contrary to his expectations, the other tribe chiefs didn''t seem pleased about the arrival of Brell''s master. Rather, they were staring daggers at him, which Jason didn''t expect to happen. Because of that, he was unable to make an assumption about what would happen during the next few minutes. Luckily, he heard the former tribe chief talking to Brell, and Jason was able to hear his name too. As he overheard their conversation, he understood that the former tribe chief was explaining what he had done to the village. Other than that, there were probably many things about him that had to be revealed first. A few minutes passed in which the tribe chiefs were gossiping with each other, only for Jason to feel intense pressure that was directed towards him. It was Brell who was trying to pressurize him but that was quickly retracted after the former tribe chief gently slapped his disciple on the head. ''They''re probably talking about my victory against the former tribe chief, I guess?'' Jason thought, confused about the fact that the other tribe chiefs were quietly gossiping amongst each other, leaving Brell and the former tribe chief alone to talk to each other. Nobody seemed to show signs of wanting to interrupt their discussion, which was something Jason had expected to happen. As such, he was a little bit astonished, and without anyone to talk to, his current task was to remain quiet and wait for the others to finish their discussion. Yet, that was not something he was very good at. Fortunately, he didn''t have to wait too long because the other tribe chiefs were slowly starting to become restless. Thus, Brell and the former tribe chief hurriedly wrapped up their discussion, postponing it to a later moment before averting their attention to the tribe chief gathering. "As I already said before, I want Jason to become the Vice Grand tribe chief. If someone has a problem with that, just challenge him in a battle!" Brell said this with such high confidence as if he knew that Jason would win against everyone if he were to be challenged. Yet, before anyone could comment on his announcement he simply added, "By the way, if some of you might have missed it, I would like to bring to your notice that he defeated my Master which is proven by the fact that he has the village medallion of my master''s village with him!" Those words carried even fewer emotions and sounded almost like a robot had explained it in a dry, monotonous voice. Yet, these emotionless words caused the tribe chiefs to be struck by a bolt of lightning as only now did they realize that Jason didn''t receive the village medaillon but had earned it. He had truly defeated the strongest tribe chief amongst them! First, they didn''t want to believe it, but after thinking about it for some time, confusion spread through their mind. It seemed to be impossible for Jason to defeat the former tribe chief because his cultivation base was extremely low. However, the more they looked at Jason, the more frightening his entire demeanor became to them. It was weird because most of them hadn''t seen Jason fighting in his true glory. At most, they had seen him clearing up the small batch of the Oceanfolk''s attack wave when he was tending to the Mewi villagers'' injuries and paying attention to their security. Afterward, they had seen him flying around with majestic white-silverish wings that sprouted out of his back, confusing them further. Yet, they had quickly forgotten all of it because they had been overjoyed owing to the return of the strong mana currents in their surroundings. Because of that, they regarded Jason as someone who had bothered them about the attack of the Oceanfolk without giving them any evidence or something that could be used as proof. Owing to that, the tribe chiefs hadn''t paid much attention to Jason, even after he had arrived at the tribe chief gathering, thinking that one of them had given in to his endless nagging. Thus, only now did they realize what was going on, and who exactly had given up his title as tribe chief in order to hand it over to Jason. After that, they began to use their mana fluctuations to scan through Jason, attempting to figure out who exactly he was. This caused some of them to be reluctant to challenge the young man, who seemed eerily calm, despite the fact that more than two dozen tribe chiefs at the Peak Prismar stage could challenge him one after another. Rather, owing to the possibility of strong cultivators attacking him, Jason made use of the information provided by the former tribe chief. While the tribe chiefs looked at him warily, he unleashed his Celestia aura to the fullest while intertwining his will to fight against everyone into it. On one hand, this provoked the Mewi tribe chiefs, but at the same time, Jason''s action made it clear that he didn''t fear them at all. Their higher cultivation base was not enough to make Jason retreat, instead, it seemed to be the reason for him to be exhilarated. His actions made them recall a similar scenario of how Brell was just before he left the valley. The youth used to be too eager to barge into every fight possible in an attempt to overcome his limitations by fighting and defeating opponents that were supposed to be much stronger. As such, only a few tribe chiefs were left with the determination to teach Jason a lesson, and prove to everyone that he was nothing but a snobbish show-off. Thus, one of the tribe chiefs Jason had wanted to provoke was lured into his trap exactly like he had planned. "I challenge you, outsider! Don''t complain if I injure you. If you want to become the Vice Grand tribe chief, defeating me should be no issue for you, right?!?" Looking at the tribe chief, who was standing farther away to his left, Jason''s smile only brightened. This annoyed the said tribe chief even more as he jumped up from his chair, repeating his demand to fight against Jason. Seeing this, Jason decided to add another provocation, in order to ensure that his plan would work efficiently and without any hindrance. "Don''t worry about me, dear tribe chief. If I were you, I would pay more attention to my own health because it will be a little bit frosty soon. Please give your best to prevent dying. It would be a shame to lose one of our strong combatants! We need you to fight, even if you don''t want to believe that! Grinning after he finished his provocation, Jason kept eyeing the tribe chief mockingly, and all of a sudden, everyone turned quiet. He knew that he went over the top, but seeing how red the tribe chief''s face turned, as well as his insatiable mana fluctuations that caused his entire body to tremble, Jason could tell that he did the correct thing. Turning his head towards the former tribe chief for a moment, he saw him smiling lightly, which meant that Jason had perfectly baited his opponent and that his exaggeration had been perfectly on point. Brell saw that Jason looked at his master, and also realized that they had schemed something, which made him even more intrigued about the mysterious being called Jason. ''This should be interesting.'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 767 - Shaken Mind Preparing the battle arena didn''t take long because there was an open field not far from the stone foundation. Their entire discussion was postponed because of the battle, which Jason found a little bit useless, but he simply accepted the fact. If he were to decide what was going to happen, he would have finished the important points that had to be talked about first before moving to the other things that were less important. However, from the Mewi race''s point of view, deciding who was to become the Vice Grand tribe chief was probably more important than anything else. As such, Jason simply accepted whatever they wanted to do. Facing the tribe chief who was standing at a distance of a few hundred meters away from him Jason could easily determine that the tribe chief''s entire being was shaking in anger. This was not something that should be the case, but owing to the fact that Mewi were an oddly compressed mass of mana, with specific organs that made use of their mana body in order to strengthen them, they oddly resembled humans. Thus, being enraged made the Mewi tribe chief''s entire body vibrate, and Jason felt exhilarated to fight again. However, he had to keep in mind the tips provided by the former tribe chief if he didn''t want to end this quickly. In the end, Jason was acting, however, he pleased because he knew that the provoked tribe chief was not as strong as Brell''s master. With that in mind, everything seemed to be much easier than he first expected, and Jason was able to keep his calm, while his body language showed that he was unbothered by his opponent. Seeing his casual attitude was making the tribe chief in front of him seethe in anger as he slowly began to lose his rationality. Jason had hoped this would happen, but he didn''t believe that the tribe chief would fall for his trick so easily. It clearly showed Jason that Brell''s master knew much more about the other tribe chiefs than he had first expected. Furthermore, the other information he had received was probably several times more valuable than he initially thought. Upon realizing this, he decided to thank the former tribe chief later, after the fight was over. His train of thoughts averted to other things than the tribe chief in front of him, and Jason only worsened the anger within the tribe chief. Furious that the youth was treating him like a pushover, he was determined to teach him a lesson, and even the other tribe chiefs were slowly starting to get annoyed at Jason''s attitude. Meanwhile, Brell was averting his gaze from Jason to his master, only to mumble. "Master, did you tell him to act like that? Can''t he defeat Karet without the provocations, or is there a more profound reason why Jason is doing so? Please enlighten me, master!" Brell asked his master in a formal tone as he was supposed to, yet, his overly polite attitude caused the tribe chiefs that were standing next to the master-disciple duo to look at them in confusion. Even though Brell''s extreme behavior intrigued and confused them, they didn''t ask anything, and after looking at them for a few moments they reverted their attention back to the fight. It was just about to begin, and they quickly lost interest in Brell and his master''s conversation. "He is just testing the waters to see how much pressure Karet can handle once he is enraged. You might not believe it yet, but I do think that Jason''s concerns about the Oceanfolk are correct. When they appeared first, the surrounding mana started to deteriorate. Yet, only months after Jason appeared, everything was fixed... Do you think that was the doing of our gods, or someone else? There might be a different reason for this youngster to help us, other than his generosity and possible mindset of a Samaritan, but everything he did until now has helped us, for which we should be truly grateful. With that in mind...try to think¡­why would Jason warn us about the attack of an army of the Oceanfolk, what kind of reason could that have after everything he did?" Even though he knew that he could say much more in order to explain the situation to his student in a proper manner, that was not something the former tribe chief wanted to do. Instead, Brell should learn to put two and two together and use his head more often. This was the biggest issue of his student- he had all muscle power but lacked in making good use of his brain. He was a natural fighter, with tremendous potential to become a powerhouse their race had never seen before, but in order to achieve this, Brell had to condition his brain and learn to think rationally. To his master, sometimes it felt like he was fighting with energy save mode activated, preventing him from fighting properly or using his mind to come up with a tactic. Because of that, Jason, who was overthinking everything, was the perfect opposite. He may think too much, but once he entered a fight, Jason became a monstrous existence comparable if not even more frightening than Brell. Thus, he wanted his disciple to see what happened when one used their brain to outwit their opponent even before the fight would start. As the two combatants stood opposite each other, Jason was eerily calm. His will to fight was leaking through his Celestia aura that flickered wildly, in stark contrast to his unruffled demeanor. Meanwhile, the tribe chief he was fighting could barely control himself, clenching his fists in an attempt to hold himself back from rushing towards Jason to beat him into a pulp right off the bat. Having to wait for just one more second was already unbearable for him, and Brell, who noticed this kind of impatience, realised that the tribe chief was bound to make a dumb mistake. Brell was impatient himself, but he was able to stay rational in face of unknown opponents. And Jason was not just unknown, but his calmness, mana fluctuations, and aura were plenty of red flags to indicate that he was not to be taken lightly. Because of that, Brell could only shake his head, when he saw how Karet didn''t hesitate a single second as he rushed towards Jason like a mad bull. The only thing Karet could barely pay attention to was Jason''s warning about being frozen. Somehow, that odd piece of advice was stuck in his mind, and Karet awaited a strong attack utilizing Jason''s ice affinity. Yet, instead of staying true to his earlier words about freezing his opponent, Jason decided to do something completely different. Following that, his pupils turned into reptilian slits, a second Stigma manifested over his first one, illuminating in a faint golden light. Having planned out the entire fight, he fused with Petri instead of Artemis in order to enhance the petrification- and race specific weakening curse. By fusing with Petri, the curses'' lethality increased by more than half which was exceptional and the reason for Jason to execute the plan he had set up earlier. Other than the reptile eyes, the second stigma and the fact that his aura was slowly turning into something extremely ferocious, something that executed the unbreakable will to defeat everyone obstructing his path, as well as the pressure of a king, the king of Serpents, nothing seemed to have changed. However, that was already more than enough to make every single tribe chief who spectated the battle understand that Jason was doing something different than he had first announced! Despite that, the person who should be the most concerned about the fact that Jason had all of them wrapped around his little finger, didn''t notice that anything was off. Instead, the enraged tribe chief was still charging towards Jason, barely noticing that anything was off owing to the deep sense of anger and his wildly fluctuating mana that made him abandon common sense. At that moment, everyone realized that Jason had planned everything beforehand, which caused Brell to stare at the scene that unfolded in front of him in shock. Yet, what happened just a moment later caused even Brell''s master to stare at the battlefield in doubt. "He was able to do that all along?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 768 - Vice With his reptilian eyes glowing in a bright golden color, Jason''s appearance turned extremely eerie. This eerie sensation intensified further when he used up some of the chaos attribute within him in order to strengthen the Abyssal effect which he activated without hesitation. Releasing the two curses while simultaneously using the Abyssal effect, the ferocious aura enveloping him engulfed the multitude of attacks, turning them into a single, powerful attack. Simultaneously, his aura and the Stigmas enhanced the attack''s reach and might drastically, turning it into an lethal attack. Yet, it wasn''t enough to reach the tribe chief, who was less than 100 meters away from him. Crossing the distance between them at an extremely fast speed, the tribe chief thought that he would be able to overwhelm Jason, whose cultivation base and strength was much lower than his. However, what he didn''t expect was to find Jason staring at him with his bright golden, reptilian eyes. At first glance, it seemed that nothing happened, but it was at that moment when the enraged tribe chief realized that he was unable to tear his gaze away from Jason. Even though he wanted to look somewhere else, he just noticed that his eyes were somehow glued to his. While he seemed to lose control over his mind and body, his mana circulation had drastically decreased, followed by a sudden stiffness that spread through his body. Those were the effects of Petri''s curses that were slowly creeping up on the enraged tribe chief, who was still unaware of what was going to happen. Yet, the moment faint traces of the stored chaos attribute were released by Jason, the tribe chief began to slowly comprehend what he had missed out on earlier. "F...Fuck!!" Cursing out, he noticed that his speech was slurring, and despite trying to forcefully stop himself, his body had already emerged in front of Jason, barely 10 meters away from him. He had been too fast to suddenly change his trajectory, let alone stop in his tracks the moment he wanted to. Because of that, the space left between Jason and him was not extremely small. In fact, it was more than enough for the young man to use the vast majority of his mana to increase the lethality of his Abyssal effect that began to turn Jason''s eyes black. The golden glow was still being released from his eyes, enveloping him tightly, yet, for a few seconds, Jason''s eyes had turned black. In those seconds, the tribe chief''s expression stiffened before slowly turning into horror and the speed at which he rushed towards Jason slowed down drastically. Owing to this decrease in speed, Jason could simply catch the tribe chief as if he was a small child who was tired from playing around too much. It looked ridiculous, but not a single soul was able to laugh. Shock was apparent on everyone''s face as Jason gently placed the tribe chief on the ground. Lying on the ground, the previously enraged tribe chief suddenly started to scream out, his voice filled with desperation and a type of fear that was entwined with the belief that he would die! Seeing the tribe chief, in addition to hearing his voice, and perceiving his mana fluctuations that were not only weakened but also so volatile that the Mewi''s body structure seemed to dissolve, brought forth fear within the eyes of the spectators. How could they know that the enraged tribe chief was just going through eons of being imprisoned by the empty void of darkness, only to be forced to face an unfathomable being that emerged out of nowhere, within the seemingly endless darkness? Only a few seconds passed in reality, but time had slowed down within the tribe chief''s mind as the true torture only started after eons within the darkness had begun. The gigantic being towering over hundreds of meters had enveloped the tribe chief with its cultivation energy that seemed to have been empowered by Chaos itself. This simple envelopment of energy started to tear apart and disintegrate the tribe chief''s body, only for it to be repaired before anything worse could happen. Undergoing the process of being disintegrated under tremendous pain that reached the Mewi''s synapses before being fully restored as if nothing had happened repeatedly was terrifying, yet, nobody knew what exactly was happening to the tribe chief except he himself. Thus, after going through the cycle in a loop that seemed to go on forever, the faint traces of chaos attribute which Jason had intertwined with his Abyssal effect had been used up. This allowed the tribe chief to finally wake up. His eyes shot open and his upper body stiffened as he quickly lifted himself, ready to run away at any moment, only to realize that he was surrounded by the tribe chiefs, who were trying to figure out what was going on with him. A sudden chill overcame him and the previously enraged tribe chief slowly turned his head, stopping his search the moment he saw Jason standing a few meters away. Fear and nervousness was clearly visible in his obvious body language and his eyes that were staring into Jason''s eyes. They had reverted to their golden-silverish color, yet the tribe chief was dragging his body over the ground, away from Jason. This looked rather pathetic, but oddly enough Jason didn''t think that the tribe chief was pathetic at all. Rather, he felt a little bit guilty. He didn''t say a word, but to the others, it was clear that he was afraid of Jason, which was a terrifying contrast to how they had usually seen the tribe chief, all confident and full of vigor. At that moment, some of the other tribe chief''s were able to hear Jason''s mumbling voice. "His mind was already in an unstable stage due to his uncontrolled rage...maybe using the chaos attribute was not necessary¡­" Shaking his head, Jason realized that he could not have been sure of that before. Thus, it had been the best decision to use some of the chaos attributes in order to defeat the tribe chief. As such, he didn''t feel any guilt. Rather, the tribe chief should be thankful that only a trace of the chaos attribute within him had been used. Had Jason unleashed all of it in addition to some of the divine energy he had stored in his body, the tribe chief would have been dead long ago. Until now, Jason had never really made use of his divine energy, and the only time he released it was recently in order to show the other tribe chiefs that he was not hostile or unfriendly. Unfortunately, that hadn''t helped him much because the tribe chiefs had still been suspicious of him, and nobody had trusted his words about the Oceanfolk. That had been annoying, but now that the other tribe chiefs had seen a short demo of his strength, they should understand that he could have simply overwhelmed and killed them if he wanted to. Everyone, except Brell was flabbergasted about the way Jason had defeated his opponent, and even the former tribe chief couldn''t help but feel a little bit astonished. He didn''t expect the young man to have another trick up his sleeve. This was truly unexpected, and a nice surprise because Jason didn''t have to move even a finger in order to defeat the enraged tribe chief, who was also one of the strongest combatants. His only downside had been his rage, which fueled his recklessness and not thinking of his actions thoroughly. As such, the former tribe chief knew what exactly Jason had been trying to achieve by provoking Karet. Nevertheless, the final result clearly showed how domineering Jason could be. This was exactly what he had not clearly displayed before. Now his worth and determination to become the Vice Grand tribe chiefs to the other tribe chiefs was unchallenged. Thus, now that the fight was over, Brell once again announced. "Now that we figured out Jason''s strength, nobody should have anything against my proposal, right? If nobody has an objection, I will become the Grand tribe chief of all Mewi villages, and Jason shall become the Vice Grand tribe chief!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 769 - Sacred Beast Even though some tribe chiefs were against the idea of Jason becoming the Vice Grand tribe chief, there was nothing they could do anymore. Brell had officially accepted Jason, and the young man, himself, was much stronger than they had initially assumed. Because of that, even challenging him might be a huge mistake, if they didn''t want to end up lying unconscious on the ground like Karet, or possibly even worse. All of them shivered involuntarily as the worst-case scenario played in their head while looking after Karet, who was still trembling in fear. Meanwhile, Jason approached Brell casually, not even breaking a sweat and looking like he was just strolling through a park and hadn''t fought just a moment ago. Brell couldn''t help but praise him in his mind as Jason said, "Grand tribe chief, I hope we can have a good talk about the villages'' situation, their location, combat strength, and what we should do in order to prepare for the Oceanfolk''s attack that could start at any time!" In Jason''s opinion, not knowing the exact time of the attack at which the Oceanfolk''s army could arrive was the most threatening factor. If they were in the middle of their preparations a sudden attack could send their forces in a disarray, while the same applied to the start of their preparation or any kind of unsuitable timing. As such, Jason was already deep in thoughts, even before he was able to brainstorm with Brell, which was noticed by Brell''s master and Brell himself. The former tribe chief knew every little piece of information Jason had procured during the last few weeks. Thus, he explained the situation to his disciple, even though he knew that Brell would still be in the delusion that he could defeat everyone by himself. While it could be possible, risking the lives of all the villagers on this possibility was laughable. Because of that, the former tribe chief dragged Jason out of his thoughts before they sat on the chairs at the stone foundation before starting their discussion. All the other tribe chiefs were free to join, or stay close to Karet. However, if they didn''t say anything now, their opinion would be neglected later as they had preferred to stay quiet when they had the chance. With that in mind, the tribe chiefs quickly returned to their seats before demanding to receive the same information as everyone else. After everyone had settled, Jason revealed everything he knew, including the fact that the Oceanfolk had blocked the mana vein. "We have a mana vein inside the valley? And you repaired it?! Don''t you dare to fool us! It was because the Gods answered our prayers! Only because of that the mana we need to survive returned to the valley!!" From the looks of it, his information was doing him more harm than good. And, he could only roll his eyes while listening to the crap uttered by one of the tribe chiefs. "Whatever...You can simply decide not to trust my words, I don''t really care as long as you don''t try to hinder me from protecting the villages...Either way, the mana vein is not important right now. More important is the fact that the artificially created sea is probably the location from which a large number of the Oceanfolk will emerge. If my guess is correct, they must have created multiple artificial pathways and locations at which their army can emerge which bothers me a little bit. We will have to create an army of our own and train every single individual as long as they''re confident in fighting. Furthermore, we will have to relocate the villages, or at least create a temporary base for hiding all villagers, who cannot or do not want to fight! It should be a well-hidden area that the enemy cannot reach easily. Defending it shouldn''t be too difficult either..." Jason continued to list all kinds of requirements their base, or more precisely, shelter should have in order to serve as a secure refuge area to hide from the Oceanfolk''s army. Initially, the tribe chiefs simply wanted to brutally thrash his opinions by causing a ruckus and peer-pressuring him into giving up his ideas. However, the more they thought about his words, the quieter they became as his words started to make sense to them. Thus, they let go of their initial prejudice as his plan seemed to be feasible. With a Grand tribe chief, they were likely to merge their villages under one umbrella either way. Because of that, they had already been mentally prepared for this scenario. Yet, hearing all of this from an outsider, who had suddenly been appointed as their Vice Grand tribe chief, was difficult for them to accept. But as they tried to think more rationally, they realized that Jason''s only goal seemed to be to help them. He may or may not have ulterior motives, but owing to the facts he had shared so far, it wasn''t likely to be something that would severely harm them. Thus, with a rational mindset, they approached the entire situation that unfolded in front of them, given that all information Jason had provided was true. Yet, just at that moment one of the rather reserved tribe chiefs pointed out something the others hadn''t thought of. "If our only problems are to find the best location to build our base and defenses as well as the time at which we''re likely to be attacked, why are we not looking out for the Sacred beast? The valley''s Sacred beast should be able to help us just like in the past, or am I wrong?" Jason looked at the tribe chief who had just stated his point in confusion, making it clear that he had no idea what the Valley''s Sacred beast was. However, even though he didn''t know anything about it, hearing the words ''sacred beats'' made him curious about this existence. Yet, instead of exclaiming in joy, all the other tribe chiefs looked at their fellow Mewi in doubt. "Do you even know if the last Sacred beast is still alive, if a new Sacred beast was born through our Gods'' blessings or if they''re still searching for a suitable vessel that can withstand their blessings?!" Listening to the tribe chiefs that were starting a discussion about the Sacred beast and all kinds of other information that had to do with the mysterious being, Jason fell silent as he began listening to them intently. He was trying to figure out what kind of existence the Sacred beast they were talking about was, and the more he heard, the clearer his understanding became. ''They are talking about a blessed beast...that transfers its blessing to other beasts before dying...I guess?'' Jason was not sure if his assumption was correct, but from what he had heard so far, a blessed beast had been dwelling inside the valley since ancient times. And, a new Sacred beast was appointed whenever the former beast died of old age, or by being hunted. However, this appointment was not in the hands of the Mewi, but it seemed to be done by the Mewi''s Gods. Whether they existed or not was really important for Jason, because the intriguing point was that the newly appointed Sacred beast had the exact same blessings as the former Sacred beast. This was something Jason found to be extremely interesting, even more so because the sacred beast could also be a seemingly simple tree. Apparently, this had already occurred a few times, but under normal circumstances strong beasts with a sturdy physique were appointed to become the vessel of the Mewi Gods'' blessings. Even if Jason didn''t believe that their Gods were really watching over them, as they were inside the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendants, it wasn''t rare for God-like existences to be strong enough to bless beings. This could give them the opportunity to become much stronger, more intelligent and other benefits that they wouldn''t be able to procure under normal means. The beings that created the dungeon should have been behind this, and Jason knew this very well. However, he didn''t plan to shatter everyone''s belief and love of their respective gods. Thus, he remained quiet and simply tried to figure out more about the Sacred beast that seemed to have more helpful capabilities than he initially thought. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 770 - End Of The Meeting At least half an hour passed before the tribe chiefs had finally completed their discussion about the Sacred beast. Some said that the old Sacred beast had died, and others were of the opinion that the new Sacred beast had not yet been appointed, which is also the reason the surrounding mana had lessened. However, all of these were just assumptions because nobody had any evidence to support their claims. As such, Jason was unable to trust their words as he would like to. Nevertheless, even when he had combed through the villages twice, his Emperor Eyes hadn''t spotted a single blessed beast. This was unfortunate because the Sacred beast''s capabilities and powers were apparently extremely strong. Jason was not sure if the tribe chiefs were exaggerating, but if they weren''t, the Sacred beast had the ability to foretell the future to a certain extent. At the same time, it seemed to be extremely powerful in finding specific places, hidden injuries and damages on inanimate and animate things. He was not sure how exactly the tribe chiefs had procured this information, but Jason simply accepted them as half true and half wrong. In that way, he wouldn''t be too astonished, if something about their words were to be true, or false. Nonetheless, the ability to possibly foretell the future to a certain extent sounded extremely powerful. Jason yearned to learn more about the blessed beast as he would have loved to bind a blessed beast with a foretelling ability to his soul. Rather than the beast itself, he was far more interested in the fact that the Sacred beast should be able to foretell the date at which the Oceanfolk would initiate a large-scale attack! That was the most important information they required, followed by the best location to ensure the safety of the other elder, sick or young villagers. Jason believed that finding a proper location to hide without the Sacred beast was possible, while finding out the date at which the Oceanfolk would attack them was nearly impossible. It was because of this fact that Jason would love to search for the Sacred beast. Unfortunately, nobody had any intel about what kind of beast they were looking for, or if it was even alive. Furthermore, Jason knew that if he were to witness the Sacred beast''s abilities, nothing could hold him back in trying to bind it to his soul. That was under the assumption that the Sacred beast''s abilities were as strong as everyone described them to be. He knew that this was wrong, but at the same time, his mindset had always been a mess when it came to soulbonds. When his soulbonds noticed that Jason was interested in the Sacred beast, they immediately voiced out their jealous complaints, which was something he had to bear with. They didn''t want to share Jason with one more soulbond, and Jason could understand this. However, at the same time, he had to become much stronger in order to protect himself and all of his soulbonds from being injured, or worse, getting killed. Thus, his mind was always fixated on searching for new soulbonds, even if he had yet to figure out the true combat prowess of some soulbonds. For example, Spyro, the Spiral Spirit would most likely be deemed as a failure, just because one couldn''t directly see anything at which Spyro excelled. Until now, the Spiral Spirit had not displayed exceptional prowess in any trait. While other Spiral beasts were able to create illusions, use psychokinesis, or possibly even turn into psychometrics with the use of specific techniques they already knew of since their birth, Spyro had nothing. Those techniques were called Innate abilities of Spiral beasts, and because Spyro was a mutated Mana Spirit, it didn''t have such techniques. This was rather problematic owing to the fact that Spyr would have to learn everything from scratch if Jason was unable to procure a special technique that beings following the path of Spiral could use. There were infinite possibilities to make use of spirit force, and a distinctly refined brain. Jason had already figured out the use of the latter because Spyro amplified his strength by sharing over 40% of its own, owing to their soul connection that had long since turned into a soul conjunction. Since the day Jason had picked it, Spyro had become Jason''s asset. While no one had wanted it, Jason had not only accepted it but also healed it of the seemingly incurable condition it faced. It would do everything Jason said, and even if it felt useless right now, Jason always reassured Spyro that the path it took was the best for now. Without a suitable spiral path technique Spyro might seem useless but Jason knew the Spiral Spirit''s true value, and that was enough. Meanwhile, he spent more than an hour racking his brains in order to think of a solution to find out the time of the Oceanfolk''s surprise attack. Yet, instead of solely paying attention to the time at which the Oceanfolk attacked, Jason also had to convince the Mewi to come up with a strategy to tackle the immense threat of the Oceanfolk''s army. If they were to participate in their tasks half-heartedly in the tasks he and Brell were to give them, they might as well give up before starting their preparations to establish their own small army, let alone to move everyone. They had to believe his words, and owing to their faith in their Gods, Jason thought that using the Sacred beast might be the fastest way to make every single Mewi work as if their life depended on it, which was essentially the case! Because he wanted everything to go as smoothly as possible, he felt like searching for the Sacred beast as it would help him in various ways, but the time he would require was at least two weeks. Not knowing if he had even two weeks in hand, Jason felt a little bit reluctant, even more so because the relocation of the villages had yet to start. Thus, sharing his personal goals with the other tribe chiefs, Jason wanted to come up with a proper plan that could be executed without him. Brell was not the smartest, but he was also not dumb, which was something that could be seen in the way he handled the other tribe chiefs. He remained calm, and the tone of his voice faintly changed according to the person he was talking to. This was extremely helpful in order to control the group of tribe chiefs that were still reluctant to abandon their village after they had found a proper location to hide. Jason could tell that it would take a while before they would finally find a good place to build a shelter that could be defended in the best possible way. As such, while some would search for the best location to stay, the tribe chiefs were requested to start practicing martial arts once again. At the same time, they were told to train the other Mewi that were ready to fight in order to protect their family, and race. WIth that, the race gathering concluded a few hours later with a satisfying result that allowed Jason to return to the plan he had in mind before. ''So...shall I start my search for the Sacred beast?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 771 - Found Around three weeks passed while everybody was actively searching for the best location to build their shelter in addition to all the necessary defensive mechanisms. During that time, Jason and the others not only searched for a suitable location to build the shelter, but also to find the Sacred beast. That was even more important after he had been informed about the reluctance of the Mewi villagers to leave their old homes once a good location to hide was found. They didn''t trust his words about the Oceanfolk, even after the tribe chiefs were trying their best to convince them. Contrary to Jason''s expectations the tribe chiefs seemed to be more helpful than expected. Thus, after the option of shifting their entire village to a secure location had been rejected by the Mewi villagers, they switched to start an arduous training that every single Mewi had to undergo. This included the young Mewi too, though Jason was unsure of how much it would help. However, at the same time, it was not entirely useless either because the young Mewi would become a little bit stronger to face the worst possible scenario of them being attacked. The rigorous training would make them bone-tired which would leave them with no energy to argue over the topic of relocation! As such, Jason didn''t say anything about the way the tribe chiefs acted, because he was pleased about that. Rather, he felt that finding the Sacred beast was much more important than he initially thought because the Mewi seemed to be more religious and trusting towards their Gods than first expected. With that in mind, he had searched for the Sacred beast while finding a suitable location to build their shelter. Because of that, three weeks passed before he toured through the entire valley. It took much longer than expected, but Jason was glad that the Oceanfolk had yet to attack. That relief allowed him to continue searching for the Sacred beast, even if he was not sure that it was even alive, let alone what kind of existence the Sacred beast was. Using his Emperor Eyes, he was able to see all kinds of beasts during the last few weeks and Jason hoped that the Sacred beast would be some kind of strong existence. Apparently, that was important because the stronger the vessel, the stronger the Gods'' blessings, according to the tribe chiefs. Initially, Jason didn''t bother about the Sacred beast''s strength as long as it was able to tell him the date of the Oceanfolk''s attack. Yet, if it wasn''t strong, it would quickly be killed by other beasts that sensed the gains they could receive from killing and devouring the Sacred beasts. After three weeks of having found nothing, Jason was glad that some of the villagers, who had been sent out to find a proper place to build a shelter, returned with good news! This was great and made many things easier for Jason, who didn''t have to search for a good location anymore. Unfortunately, before he could even express his happiness, he was dragged out of his thoughts as he heard a loud screeching from above him. Raising his head, he placed a hand on his eyes to get a better look yet could barely see the outlines of a three-headed vulture. What was worse is that it wasn''t alone and several other one or two-headed vultures were diving down towards him. Releasing strong wind, and thunder currents, along with hot searing flames, the deadly beasts were making a beeline for Jason who couldn''t help but stare at them in shock. It had been a long time since he saw a beast with three elemental affinities. Yet, instead of putting up his defenses, Jason simply moved aside, feeling that they wouldn''t attack him. As expected they didn''t really care about him and their gaze was glued to a particular location not far from them. Somehow, this made Jason curious, which caused him to look in the same direction. After he inserted faint traces of mana in his Emperor Eyes, they began to gleam lightly, allowing Jason to see something deep inside a tree that shocked him. ''A blessed beast!!'' Glowing in a bright light, a small beast was inside the tree. He was staring at the beast whose light was strong enough to make others believe that the blessed beast wanted to be found. Yet, Jason knew that the blessed beast was simply unable to cope with the blessings it seemed to have received not too long ago. With that in mind, Jason couldn''t help but let Solaris enter his body. A moment later, black flames enveloped his body, and he began to dive towards the Vultures, whose target was the Mewi''s Sacred beast. Having found the beast he was looking for, Jason wouldn''t let it die. It had only weak energy fluctuations but that was not something he could be bothered about right now. If the Sacred beast died, everything would be several times more difficult than it already was, and Jason didn''t want to add more to his pile of issues. As such, he ignored everything else as the sole of his boots were tightly enveloped by Solaris'' flames that flared up in an instant. By being boosted in the direction of the Vultures, he accelerated to a speed that was higher than theirs. Because of that, he reached the slowest Vulture within an instant, which allowed him to grasp it. Yet, instead of taking out Byakur or any other weapon, Jason used his physical strength and Solaris'' flames in order to burn through the Vulture while breaking its neck. The feeling was disgusting, but he hadn''t killed a beast for the first time. This was something that had already happened years ago. As such, Jason was easily able to avert his focus and approach the next Vulture. Reaching it, he killed it without any hesitation, while ignoring the electric currents and wind that were used to increase the Vulture''s speed. Solaris'' flames tore through their flesh and bones before Jason broke their necks using his high physical strength. Unfortunately, after killing the second Vulture, Jason noticed that it was not possible to kill all Vultures before they would reach the trees in which the Sacred beast was hiding. Thus, Jason had to face all the Vultures at the same time, or so he thought. A sudden idea manifested in his mind, and without hesitation, Jason created two large fireballs below his boots. They exploded with a loud crack, further propelling Jason towards the ground, which was only 50 meters away. Meanwhile, the three-headed Vulture was already a little bit closer. Yet, instead of retreating back, Jason replaced Solaris with Artemis inside his mana core, before fusing with her. At the same time, he activated the petrification curse with which he targeted all Vultures but used the race specific weakening curse on the three-headed Vulture. This slowed them down, while severely weakening Jason, who had used up a large margin of the mana he had stored. While they were slowed down, his fusion with Artemis was completed, allowing Jason to make proper use of the moonlight affinity which he used to activate with the rest of his mana. Circulating the moonlight affinity transmuted mana through his body, while exerting the Floating Sky movement technique, Jason reached the ground within a moment. Swiftly changing his direction, he didn''t even have to think twice about what he would do. Instead, he pushed himself from the ground using his entire physical strength in order to reach the tree that was near him. Due to this, the ground below him burst open, but Jason couldn''t care less about that. Rather, he overexerted his mana core and forcefully used the surroundings mana in order to erect a wall of ice between the Vultures and the tree the Sacred beast was in. This made his mana veins and mana core ache as it was not healthy for them to utilize unannexed and unrestrained mana with an affinity. However, ignoring the pain, Jason appeared right in front of the tree he had targeted, only to forcefully halt for a second as he grasped the small, squirming beast. "Sorry for the inconvenience!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 772 - Blessed Energy With the small Sacred beast in his hand, Jason continued to exert the Floating Sky movement technique. Increasing the amount of mana he circulated into the Floating sky technique the moment his passive mana gathering had annexed some of it, Jason''s speed increased exponentially. Trying to increase the distance between himself and the Vultures that were confused about the sudden wall that had emerged out of nowhere as well as the fact that the Sacred beast had suddenly been grasped by another being, they were enraged and wanted to pursue Jason. However, that was easier said than done because the Sacred beast''s blessings didn''t permeate the air anymore, while Jason didn''t seem to have a scent. In the end, Jason''s scent was masked by the Arctic aura he released while being fused with Artemis, which was a great effect he didn''t know beforehand. Instead of his smell, or the radiations of the blessings that allowed the Vultures to track him, the devastated surrounding was what they were able to smell. Just at that moment, they spotted Jason, whose Arctic aura was, in fact, enveloping the Sacred beast, concealing the radiation of its blessings efficiently. This only fueled their anger, but at the same time, the three-headed Vulture noticed that its own mana fluctuations were thinner than Jason''s. This was something that shouldn''t be the case, but considering that Artemis had already solidified her second large rotating crystal, their fused state was now much more powerful than before. Because of that, the vultures that had yet to reach the peak of the Prismar stage retreated a little, knowing that they would die needlessly, without gaining any benefits. To them, it looked like the Sacred beast had already been devoured by Jason. As such, they let out their anger by releasing their affinities in order to attack Jason by bombarding all three affinities before flying away from him unwillingly. Their minds were tormented by the great opportunity they had missed out on but for now, they had to save their skin. When Jason realized that the Vultures left after throwing a fit, he looked at the Sacred beast in his hand. Taking a proper glance he realized that it looked like a frightened squirrel that was squirming a lot. Its fur was white in color, but there was a silver emblem on the top of its head that had outlines of thin golden fur. It looked extremely exquisite and resembled an artificially made crown. Jason didn''t believe that a beast could be born with such an emblem that was glowing faintly. From the looks of it, the Squirrel hadn''t been born too long ago, and oddly enough, Jason couldn''t detect what kind of energy it was cultivating with. This astonished him greatly, but, in fact, he was not the most shocked of the two. In the end, it was the squirrel that was shocked about its sudden abduction and thought that Jason wanted to eat it alive. Fortunately, it took the intelligent beast only a short moment to realize that Jason did not intend to harm let alone eat it. In fact, Jason had been evading the Vultures'' onslaught of wind blades, bolts of thunder that almost hit them, ravaging their immediate surroundings, as well as the fireballs that started a massive forest fire. Thus, the Sacred Squirrel calmed down relatively quickly, which was a good sign. It stopped moving around restlessly and made no attempts to run away from Jason, feeling the warmth in Jason''s hands. Halting in his tracks, Jason took a look around in order to see if there were any beasts that might be attracted to the Sacred beast''s blessings. Fortunately, that was not the case and Jason could retract the Arctic aura that had enveloped the Sacred Squirrel. Only when he released it could the natural radiation of the Squirrel''s blessings permeate the air once again. This was pretty annoying, considering that Jason wanted to take it with him and show it in the next tribe chief gathering that would be attended by all tribe chiefs in addition to their villagers. He would be attacked several times if the blessings'' natural radiation would continue to radiate freely. Hence, Jason decided that he would envelop it with his aura once beasts were to come too close. With that in mind, he dissolved the fusion with Artemis, who left his mana core in order to return to the soul world once again. Through this, Jason''s appearance and demeanor reverted to his usual self. His Celestia aura was now freed of the forced transmutation Artemis had caused as well, and the kind and gentle aura surrounded the Sacred Squirrel that stared at Jason in doubt and with worried eyes. The Celestia aura was something that attracted the Squirrel, and feeling as if it was at its rightful place, it snuggled into his hand before falling asleep. Jason was confused, but he didn''t mind the little Squirrel''s behavior. However, it was just a second later as he was about to turn around in order to approach the first village, that he stopped in his tracks again. He wanted to meet up with Brell and the former tribe chief but he sensed something weird. Staring at the Sacred Squirrel in doubt, he mumbled. "Little one...you are already absorbing three cultivation energies...why are you trying to do the same with my Celestia aura? Even if it looks delicious to you, I cannot let you devour my Celestia aura¡­" Not only did the Sacred Squirrel follow a unique kind of cultivation path that was different to the three normal paths, it absorbed the three cultivation energies in order to create a type of energy that was similar yet different to the divine energy. However, at the same time, it was stronger than holy energy, which was something that astonished him a little bit. Using his Emperor Eyes in order to figure out more about the Sacred Squirrel, Jason didn''t even notice that his mana core was already filled and several hours had passed. There were several things he didn''t understand, but from what he could comprehend, the Sacred Squirrel seemed to have undergone massive changes through a total of four blessings. This was a lot, and probably also the cause for the Squirrel''s unusual appearance, the fact that it could absorb all three paths in order to cultivate. Its rare ability made it beneficial for all kinds of beasts and thus it was widely hunted. Yet, the interesting point was that the Sacred Squirrel cultivated its blessings instead of a vessel which seemed to be the reason for it to be so weak. Probably, that was also the reason why the tribe chiefs had assumed that the Sacred beast was already dead, or had died once again. The more he found out about the Sacred beast, the more interesting it became. However, the most important factor was that it should be able to tell them more about the attack of the Oceanfolk, solving all of Jason''s current problems. These problems were mostly caused by oblivious and ignorant Mewi, but all of that was now a thing of the past. Thus, he was quite happy and satisfied as he anticipated the next tribe chief gathering, in which he would dumbfound everyone. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 773 - Silver Moon [Author note- My new novel ''Spirit Soul'' is out-take a look and don''t miss it!] Another week had passed before it was finally time for the tribe chief gathering. Having met Brell and the former tribe chief beforehand, they were shocked to see that the Sacred beast was, in fact, a small squirrel that slept in Jason''s palm without any worry. Initially, the former tribe chief had wanted to take it away from Jason and lay it on a cushion in order to give the squirrel more comfort. Yet, the moment the squirrel noticed that someone other than Jason was approaching it, it woke up and decided to move up Jason''s sleeves. This confused not only the former tribe chief and Brell, but also Jason, who didn''t expect the squirrel to think of him as its protector. Even after several attempts of coaxing it out, the squirrel stayed where it was, though he was not really bothered by it, either way. Only the former tribe chief''s composure seemed to be affected by the fact that the squirrel didn''t want to leave Jason''s side. Fortunately, when Jason tried to distract the former tribe chief by telling them how he found it, and what happened, it worked and he calmed down. It was still shocking that Jason had found the Sacred beast they had been looking for for years, but instead of feeling betrayed by their Gods, the former tribe chief saw this as a sign from them. The sign clearly showed that Jason was on their side, and not their enemy. Seeing the way the Sacred beast trusted Jason, and vice versa, even the tribe chiefs that liked him the least were now forced a little to accept him. That was great and extremely helpful for Jason. Because there was still a week left before the next tribe chief gathering would be held, the former tribe chief, Brell and Jason were able to prepare the perfect plan in order to shock the tribe chiefs, and villagers that would be present. Once they saw the Sacred beast, everyone would finally believe Jason, even more so after the squirrel were to foretell the attack of the Oceanfolk''s army. All three of them were satisfied by this, yet, oddly enough, the squirrel was just sleeping and absorbing the surrounding energies. After facing a near-death experience, it seemed like the Sacred Squirrel just wanted to rest and not bother answering the most important question they had in mind- the date of the Oceanfolk army''s attack! Jason felt a little bit restless, but telling himself that the Sacred Squirrel would give them an answer soon, he decided to be patient. Unfortunately, even after the gathering had started, the Sacred Squirrel continued to sleep. As such, Jason fell flat on his face as their grand plan of exhibiting the Sacred beast to an awestruck audience vanished into thin air. Nevertheless, it was still extremely shocking, and the moment Jason wanted to remove the Sacred Squirrel from his palm, owing to several voices that were cursing at him for touching their Sacred beast, it woke up. Squealing out towards Jason, it rushed back into his palm before staring intently at him. This caused the tribe chiefs, and other spectating villagers to exclaim in utter dumbfoundedness, not quite believing their eyes. Even rubbing their eyes didn''t help dispel the illusion they thought to see, and when Jason retracted the Celestia aura that was enveloping the Sacred Squirrel, everyone exclaimed once again. Loud gasps echoed through the crowd, and some were about to faint at the sight presented in front of them. There was not a single Mewi that doubted that the existence in front of them was the Sacred beast their ancestors had been talking about. Nevertheless, the Mewi were displeased when they saw that the Sacred beast didn''t want to leave Jason''s side. It was almost as if the squirrel chose Jason over them because they were not worthy of it. This thought tormented their mind, only for many Mewi to start gossiping amongst each other. Jason didn''t even pay attention to their gossip, but he noticed that everybody''s opinion of him was slowly changing. Instead of keeping their prejudice against him, it looked like they were beginning to accept him. However, the way they accepted him was different than normal Mewi because the villagers were slowly comprehending that Jason was not a normal being and that everything changed after his arrival. Afterward, they recalled his Celestia aura, the divine energy he had once released, his glowing stigma, and now the fact that the Sacred Squirrel acted like it would never want to part ways with Jason. This made them comprehend the situation in an entirely wrong way, and Jason felt a little bit bothered by this. Fortunately, it didn''t matter how they saw him because the most important fact was whether they paid heed to his warnings, or if they would still try to ignore them. Half an hour had passed before everyone quieted down, which was mostly owing to the tribe chief''s hard work to calm everyone down. It was at that moment when Jason was finally ready to do something he had been waiting for. Looking at the Squirrel that was still staring at him as if it was in a trance, he asked, "Can you tell us when the Ocenfolk''s army will attack?" Jason was not sure if the Sacred Squirrel could understand him properly, but considering that it was extremely strong for its low cultivation base, he hoped for the best. Only a few moments later, a faint smile emerged on Jason''s face as he sensed that the Sacred Squirrel was using up some of the blessed energy it had painstakingly accumulated during the last week. Its eyes turned milky white, and Jason was able to faintly perceive something in the depths of the squirrel''s irises. Yet before Jason could take a proper look at what the Sacred Squirrel wanted him to see, a weird feeling swept through his entire body causing him to stiffen for a moment. The feeling was not burdensome or something that forcefully wanted to enter his body. Instead, it was as if the Sacred Squirrel wanted to temporarily attach its blessing to his Emperor Eyes! The sensation was weird, but Jason readily accepted it and was flooded with information that caused him to have a splitting headache. However, he refrained from closing his eyes, because he felt as if it was necessary to keep them open. His eyes turned milky white, with golden and silverish strands, only to project something directly above the stone table. While Jason had no idea of what he was doing subconsciously, his mind was actively living through the moments the Sacred Squirrel was sharing with him. As such, he was completely distracted and didn''t even hear the exclamations around him as the Mewi were able to see what Jason sensed, felt, and saw. "That''s the silver moon!" One of the tribe chiefs exclaimed only for Brell''s master to think for a moment before he uttered, "That''s a full silver moon, not a normal one...It should occur in...three months, I think?" Just as the former tribe chief finished his words, the projection dispersed, and Jason''s eyes returned to their former color. Meanwhile, the same occurred with the Sacred Squirrel that slumped in Jason''s hand and closed its eyes to sleep again. The little beast was overly exhausted, and Jason felt the same. Earlier, he hadn''t expected that being able to see a possible path of the future would be so burdensome, but after experiencing it he realized how difficult it was. "We saw what you projected to us¡­ the full silver moon will shine over the valley in three months!" It was Brell who told this to Jason, who didn''t understand what the Mewi meant with the first part of his sentence. It was great that the Oceanfolk would attack in three months, but Jason couldn''t even think about that right now because he was utterly dumbfounded by the sensation that had swept through him when the Sacred Squirrel had shared its vision with him. His hand was trembling, and other than the single blessing, he had been able to sense the other three blessings too. ''Just what kind of existence is that squirrel?'' He thought as goosebumps appeared all over his body. He couldn''t help but think about the creator of the dungeon, questioning their reason to create the Sacred beast of the valley. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 774 - Clinging After witnessing the Sacred Squirrel''s behavior and unwavering trust in Jason, the tribe chiefs and the remaining villagers finally believed Jason''s warnings about the Oceanfolk army''s attack. Because of that, many things got much easier to accomplish. In a matter of seconds, every Mewi decided to help build the shelter at the location they had found earlier. It was a partially hidden place in the depths of the forest, enclosed by large stones that surrounded almost the entire designated place. That was extremely helpful because it meant that they didn''t have to build many walls. Instead, they could focus on cultivating in order to learn how to properly wield mana once again. This was one of the biggest hurdles in front of the Mewi owing to the fact that they had been forced to slow down their cultivation and mana utilization for almost an entire century. Thus, their martial art proficiency had suffered too, while none of them had achieved a great mastery over their Secret techniques, because it was simply impossible. Now that the surrounding mana was dense and extremely pure, the Mewi could finally start learning the Secret techniques they were unable to learn and use before. Seeing that the Mewi villagers and tribe chiefs had shed their earlier laziness and were working relentlessly in order to become stronger, Jason couldn''t help but feel satisfied. Before, he had assumed that they would still need a nudge in the correct direction to start working. However, that didn''t seem to be necessary, which was something Jason was glad about because it allowed him to pay more attention to himself. The Oceanfolk still had the element of surprise as many facts about them such as their combat prowess and the exact number of combatants in their army was unknown. The only thing Jason and the Mewi knew was the time of their arrival. Three months was a long time, but for a cultivator, it was akin to a second that would be over in a blink. After regaining their old combat prowess the Mewi wouldn''t be able to increase their cultivation base overnight, and the same applied to everyone else. Yet, Jason felt that he might be able to achieve something if he were to cultivate close to the mana vein once again. He had progressed a lot in the two months in which he had been exposed to the released mana of the leaking mana vein. Now that he had convinced the Mewi to increase their combat prowess and work together, the biggest part of his mission was already solved. Standing around while observing the Mewi and doing nothing was not something he would, or should do. Instead, he felt that increasing his combat prowess was essential in order to survive and overcome the Oceanfolk''s attack wave! Because of that, he went to meet up with Brell and Brell''s master in order to set up a plan that allowed him to leave shortly before the full silver moon would shine over the valley. Drastically increasing his combat prowess in three months was difficult, but not impossible, and because he had multiple soulbonds that shared a big percentage of their strength with him, it looked doable. However, even then, Jason didn''t simply leave the Mewi and rush towards the vein. He first shared some important techniques for them to learn while he was away. Thus, he transmitted his knowledge about the Floating Sky movement technique as well as the Mythic Essence cultivation technique to Brell and the former tribe chief and asked them to share it with everyone they found suitable. Under normal circumstances, Jason wouldn''t share his techniques with others, but they were in the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendants. As such, he doubted that anyone would be able to share his secrets with the outside world. The possibility was close to nil, but not zero. Thus, he had been reluctant before, but his worries had been for naught because it was much more important to defeat the Oceanfolk once and for all. They should never set foot again in the villages, and Jason wanted to support the Mewi in achieving this. Hence, he thought that a powerful cultivation technique should be one way to allow Jason to finish the task he had been given by the trials. It was also possible to destroy the paths the Oceanfolk had created in order to enter the valley. However, if they had created the tunnels once, what would prevent them from doing it another time? With that in mind, Jason felt the need to strengthen the Mewi who were able to cope with the burden and pain of the Mythic Essence technique. He knew that his task to protect the villages would be solved once the Oceanfolk''s army was defeated. Finally, after everything was settled with the Mewi, Jason could leave. Yet, the moment he wanted to leave behind the Sacred Squirrel, it vehemently rejected any of his requests along with that of Brell and the former tribe chief''s to let them pick it up from his palm. It squeezed its tiny body into Jason''s sleeves before moving upwards and settled on his shoulder, and Jason let go of his attempts. Even if he was not someone who found things cute easily, Jason couldn''t help but feel that it was nice to have someone like the little playful beast next to him. Unfortunately, carrying it around everywhere especially in the artificially created sea of ocean water would be difficult. Now, he was in a dilemma of how to approach the shelter he had built next to the mana vein with the Sacred Squirrel. Thinking about it for some time, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit baffled because not a single attempt from the three of them seemed to work. That was annoying, but also somewhat interesting because the Sacred Squirrel did not show any signs of leaving him to live in the forest, let alone to stay with the Mewi. It simply wanted to stay with Jason, whose thoughts began to change slowly. ''If it doesn''t want to leave me later, I''ll simply bind it to my soul! In that case, it will have to make a decision whether it wants to stay with me or not, and there will be no turning back from that decision!'' In the end, it would be an advantage for him because nobody would really reject binding a beast with four blessings to one''s soul. As long as the binding process went on smoothly, he would be able to actively use the four blessings if he had the necessary energy. Whether this required blessed energy or not was something Jason didn''t know for sure. However, that was not important right now because he didn''t think that binding the Sacred Squirrel to his soul would be helpful right now. At least, it was not as helpful as allowing it to stay outside his body in order to reassure the Mewi about everything. If the Mewi were to hear that he would have bound the Sacred Squirrel, who knew what they would think of him. Maybe they would start questioning every single thing they had seen through the Sacred Squirrel''s foretelling blessing? Jason couldn''t be certain that this wouldn''t happen. As such, he had to be careful of every single step he took. Yet, instead of being reluctant to do certain things, Jason focused on approaching the artificially created sea in which he wanted to start cultivating. Enveloping himself and the Sacred Squirrel with a dense mana membrane, Jason simultaneously manifested Petri''s tail. Diving into the water, he quickly swam through the water by evading all the marine beasts and reached the mana vein. This allowed him to reach the shelter close to the mana vein in less than ten minutes. Given the fact that he had enveloped some oxygen within his mana membrane, the Sacred Squirrel had no issues surviving these ten minutes, even if it had been scared witless to be plunged into the sea. However, all of that was not a problem anymore as they entered the shelter that had more than enough oxygen left to allow all of them to cultivate. Thus, he started by summoning Artemis and Solaris, who could make use of the high purity of dense mana that was released from the mana vein. "Don''t eat or burn the squirrel, and focus on cultivating, alright?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 775 - Reversed His words fell on deaf ears because both Artemis and Solaris were staring daggers at the little beast as if they wanted to kill the Sacred Squirrel. Being able to see and feel everything Jason was seeing and feeling, they could tell what he was thinking even if they were not able to sense his interest in the squirrel''s behavior and four blessings. Thus, they were displeased about the Sacred Squirrel, feeling as if one more opponent had entered the ring, competing to get Jason''s attention. Jason found this ridiculous but instead of doing anything that could be misunderstood, he started to cultivate after saying one simple sentence again. "Don''t eat or burn the squirrel, and focus on cultivating, alright?" After that, it was time for him and his soulbonds to activate their stigma, whose effects were overlapping, amplifying each other. Once that was done, Jason''s Celestia aura permeated through the entire space he had built as a shelter, and without wasting any time, he started to cultivate in the Mythic Essence technique that had stopped hurting him some time ago. This meant that he had reached the peak of the first stage, and that he met the requirements to start cultivating in the second stage of the Mythic Essence technique. Unfortunately, he didn''t have the manual, and he had only memorized the first stage, which meant that Jason was forced to continue cultivating with the Mythic Essence technique''s first stage until he would return to Luna. However, it was exactly this thought that made Jason feel a little uncomfortable. He was not sure why, but something bothered him about the City Lord, which only happened after he had perceived her change in expression when she had been talking about the Immortal Eye. Because of that, he was not sure what awaited him once he returned from the dungeon, which was likely to be the reason for him to feel this discomfort. Trying to come up with a conclusion about the changes the Julandra region would have undergone was also not useful, and he could only hope for Jennifer to be fine. In the end, the halfling had become much more important to him than he would accept. Initially, talking to her and sparring with her had been fun, but that was everything. He could have never thought that they would grow so close, which was quite frustrating, considering that they had been away from each other for more than two years already. Time ran differently for Cultivators, but considering that he was only 22 years old, two years were a long time to spend on a mission. The same was the case for Jennifer, who was only a few years older than him. ''Well...I will see how everything goes once I return...I guess?'' He thought before shaking his head, averting his attention back to the cultivation process. Yet, before he started cultivating, he took a glance at his soulbonds and the Sacred Squirrel that had snuggled itself into Artemis'' feathers, annoying her. Nonetheless, she seemed to have warmed up to the Sacred Squirrel and allowed it to rest in her plumage after grumbling about it for some time. Smiling lightly, Jason started to cultivate thinking that the Squirrel had noticed who amongst all of his soulbonds would it have to appease, if it wanted to stay with him. Moments later, he had already entered a state in which he was able to cultivate using his complete focus on the process at hand. Greedily absorbing the mana from the surrounding, both Artemis and Solaris were forced to use their utmost efforts in order to prevent Jason from snatching away the mana they were pulling to themselves. Thus, everyone reached the limits of their current capabilities, allowing them to cultivate at a rapid pace for the next 10 weeks. Instead of using every single second in order to solely cultivate, adjusting to the increase in strength, doing a little exercise, and practicing one''s martial art techniques as well as sparring with others in order to stay fit was equally important. Because of that, Jason planned to never cultivate until the last possible second. As such, with almost two more weeks left in which he should be able to reach his best form, Jason decided to leave the mana vein''s surroundings. He had liquefied a total of 100,000 mana droplets and the basic structure of the first large rotating crystal was already created. Now it would take at least one month until the large rotating crystal was completely constructed. This was the fastest pace he could reach, and also something he could barely do if he were to be fully focused, and close to a mana-rich environment like the immediate surrounding of a mana vein. Cultivating so close to the mana vein was comparable to being in a heavenly place to cultivate, and both Artemis and Solaris thought the same. Artemis had already liquefied 70,000 mana droplets, just after she finished the creation of her second large rotating crystal. This was exceptional but also something Jason had expected from Artemis, whose liquefaction pace exceeded his own. She was also faster in constructing the large rotating crystals, thus giving her another advantage. In the end, Jason could also increase his cultivation speed, but in order to achieve this, he would have to use up the painstakingly accumulated divine energy which he couldn''t reproduce as of now. He had yet to find a way to do so, and the divine energy he had came solely from his Celestia bloodline and the fact that he had broken many seals that had been restricting the abilities granted by his bloodline heavily. Knowing that his cultivation pace could further increase was nice, but also bothersome because it made unsealing the remaining seals even more interesting than they already were. If he were to unseal more of the Chaos Emperor''s seals, the moment to do this had to be justified, which either meant that his entire being was ready for the additional burden, or that his life was on the line. Because the latter was not the case, and a huge battle would start shortly, Jason didn''t want to waste his time in unsealing more seals for now. Instead, his entire attention was occupied by something else that astonished him greatly. Under normal circumstances, only beings that had a soul world within their body should be able to initiate a soulbond contract with other beings. At least, that was what Jason had known for his whole life. Humans on Argos had always initiated a soulbond contract to bind the beasts they were interested in. After that, the beast would respond and either accept the soulbond contract in order to form a soulbond, or reject it. In that case, one would have to accept the rejection or force the beast to become one''s soulbond. For Jason, it had always been the same, even if he tried to build a connection with his soulbonds beforehand, he had told himself to always accept their decision even if they would reject them. Yet, what was currently happening caused great confusion within him. That was the case because the Sacred Squirrel was actively releasing a thread of its soul, trying to find a way towards Jason''s soul world. He was not sure how the Sacred Squirrel knew that he had a soul world, if it could see or feel his connection with Artemis and Solaris, or if it was something else. Despite all the possibilities, it was a fact that the Sacred Squirrel was trying to initiate a soulbond contract with Jason. This astonished him greatly because the being with the stronger soul was always the construct''s master, also called dominator. Thus, Jason knew that he would become the dominant force in their soulbond contract, which made him feel a little bit weird. ''First of all, how the hell is it initiating the soulbond contract....and why?!'' Chapter 776 - Excuse Confused about the Sacred Squirrel''s sudden action, even Artemis and Solaris, who had just finished their cultivation, couldn''t help but stare at the blessed beast. None of them uttered a sound, and from the looks of it, Artemis had already accepted the Sacred Squirrel, which was something neither Jason nor the other soulbonds had expected because she had vehemently denied letting him have them as soulbonds earlier. In contrast to that behavior, now she was calm and wasn''t even whisking the blessed beast away from herself Jason could only scratch his head at this thought not knowing why this was the case, but it was quite helpful as Artemis was normally the soulbond that hated it the most when he was binding another new soulbond. Thus, receiving her acceptance was quite unique, and he didn''t even have to think about what he should do right now. Hence, before she would change her mind he released a thread of his soul world and led it through his arm before it left his body through the tip of his index finger. Normally, he would now insert the soul thread into the beast he wanted to bind, before waiting for its response. However, because the Sacred Squirrel was already accepting him, their soul threads collided with each other before the binding process was initiated. The entire process didn''t take long as both sides were willingly accepting the soulbond contract, thus turning it into the fastest binding process Jason had undergone until now. In the end, he was still baffled why the Sacred Squirrel would want to become one of his soulbonds, but after giving it some thought he realized that the valley was extremely dangerous for the sacred beast. Though the beast was blessed with not one but four blessings, it was innately weak and didn''t have any combat capabilities. Thus, it was bound to die in the near future, and without Jason, it would have already died by now. Considering that his Celestia aura also played a big role in the Sacred Squirrel''s decision, Jason just accepted the fact that the sacred beast had made up its mind. He had wanted to ask it if it wanted to follow him on his journey, but only after the Oceanfolk''s army had been obliterated. That was now too late, and Jason clearly understood that he had to think of a distraction so that the Mewi would either not find out about him binding the Sacred Squirrel, or if they did, make them see that everything had a reason. The former was much easier to be executed, and thus Jason chose to work on it. Yet, before he could think of something he could say to the Mewi, he had to leave the underground shelter in order to stop wasting more of his precious time! Unfortunately, this was not possible, because tremendous changes were occurring in Jason''s body, causing it to ache heavily. His entire being began to glow and he felt a total of four blessings that were trying to alter his body, turning him into a vessel to hold them. To their misfortune, this was easier said than done, owing to the fact that Jason''s body was already harboring a total of two curses that were repelling the four blessings that tried to inhabit his body. This retaliation of both sides, which were like nemesis'' fighting against each other, trying to become the only party that was allowed to stay within Jason, were also the reason for the majority of the pain he was feeling. It was quite annoying, but Jason was already familiar with pain, lots of pain at that. As such, he manifested Solaris within his body as its flames spread through every nerve of his body. The pain-soothing heat of Solaris'' flame made him forget about the pain for a moment, leaving behind itchy eyes and his mind that was flooded with information. In the end, the massive amount of pieces of information caused him to frown, because they were the memories of the Sacred Squirrel and what it knew about its four blessings. It was not much, but more than enough to make Jason dizzy as he mumbled in confusion. "Foretelling, search, weakness detector, and foresight?" While foretelling and foresight sounded similar, they were, in fact, completely different blessings, which astonished Jason a little bit. Apparently, the foretelling ability used up a massive amount of blessed energy in order to take a short peek into one single possible path of the future. Meanwhile, the foresight ability used up little blessed energy in order to take a fraction of a second''s look into the future. However, this was only applicable for things that could happen in the near future, such as what would happen a moment later, and it was restricted to what one saw in their immediate surroundings. This restriction was not the case with the foretelling ability, that could look at any moment in the future, with the sole requirement to demand more energy the further ahead it lay in the future. These two blessings were exceptional, and something that caused goosebumps to appear all over his body. Yet, he found the weakness detector ability to be okayish because it could detect weaknesses in beasts, and only required quite a lot of blessed energy, On the other hand, the search blessing was somewhat mysterious. Nonetheless, it seemed to be a blessing that gave him the ability to search for specific items, which was quite useful if he was searching for something in particular! All of the blessings were of great use, but Jason did not have a single trace of blessed energy in himself, and he couldn''t activate any of the blessings even if they were trying to inhabit his body, which was somewhat counter-effective. He hoped that the blessings would adjust themselves to his condition, but Jason doubted that this would happen. Meanwhile, owing to the Sacred Squirrel''s cultivation, all of the four blessings were extremely weak, and it would probably take a long time for them to be of any real use to him. At least, if they didn''t want to drain the entire accumulated energy of the Sacred Squirrel. As such, transferring some blessed energy from the Sacred Squirrel into his own body was not useful either, even if it would allow him to use some abilities. This was unfortunate, and several days passed in which the curses harboring in his body, and the blessings found a consensus, were finally able to cohabit peacefully. Thus, his body was now the vessel for two curses, four blessings, two bloodlines, a fraction of the Chaos Emperor''s soul, a soul world with five soulbonds, one soul weapon, and his Emperor Eyes. Jason was not sure how his body was coping with all of this, but somehow it seemed to work. In the end, he may not be able to use the four blessings, but they were still altering his body, including his Emperor Eyes that were still itching and aching, even after his remaining body was freed of the pain of being altered. Because of that, Jason knew that something was changing about his eyes. Yet, instead of giving it more thought, Jason decided to leave because he was already too late. He had wanted to return to the shelter a week ago, but the Sacred Squirrel''s soulbond contract and the changes in his body had forced him to stay inside the underground shelter for a little bit longer. As such, he hurried up and moved his soulbonds to his soul world before returning to the surface and the Mewi shelter. However, on entering the place, Jason was flabbergasted because the entire shelter''s look had changed. It was almost unrecognizable, which was great owing to the fact that there were a total of three defensive walls, hundreds of pits, and all kinds of other traps that had been installed within the forest. Without using his Emperor Eyes, Jason would have almost run into a few of them as some of them aimed to take down aerial opponents. As such, he felt overwhelmed by the fact that so much had changed, feeling as if the Mewi would be able to overcome the Oceanfolk army''s threat without him. This would be great, and if he were just a means to support them that would be even greater. It made him truly happy to see the progress and he almost ran into Brell, who was training hundreds of Mewi at the same time. Seeing Jason, Brell''s expression brightened as he said. "Jason, here you are. We were looking for you. Is the Sacred beast still with you? We wanted to take a look into the future to tell us how good our chances to win are! The Grand tribe chief''s words almost made Jason twitch. "Oh...the Sacred Squirrel left me to live on its own inside the valley¡­." Jason just said, knowing that he was lying. However, in order to prevent the Mewi from misunderstanding the situation, he hastily cooked up a lie. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 777 - I See "The Sacred beast really left us?...That''s a shame, we wanted to ask it a few more questions, but I guess it doesn''t want to stay with us...Well, that''s fine too, I guess." First, it looked like Brell was sad, but after a few seconds, his opinion began to change. The Sacred beast was not known for conversing with the Mewi, and it had only been a few rare times during the last few centuries that it had helped them, giving them a warning of something before disappearing. Thus, Brell quickly switched his attention from the Sacred beast to Jason, who was still there. "Are you ready to fight? The full silver moon is in a few days and you didn''t return early as promised. In fact, you''re quite late!" Scratching the back of his head, Jason smiled dryly trying to think of a proper excuse, but, in the end, there was no reason for that as he simply replied, "I was occupied with adjusting my body to the increase in my strength!" This was not necessarily the entire truth, but he was not required to share everything with Brell because it was his business what he did with his time and nobody else''s. With that in mind, he continued to look at him with a calm and confident expression, which the Grand tribe chief noticed. As such, he smiled too as he said. "If you''re ready, let''s spar with each other in order to test our combat prowess. During the next few days, we can continue to spar, and come up with an improved tactic on how we should defend, or possibly counter-attack the Oceanfolk." What Brell said sounded reasonable, and Jason didn''t have to think about the answer. Turning his head towards a free place in the open training field, he approached it, while Brell ended his training session with the other Mewi that had been listening to their conversation intently. It didn''t sound like their Grand tribe chief and his representative were talking, but two colleagues who knew each other for quite some time. This was not possible and confused the Mewi, but nobody dared to say anything. They simply looked at each other in doubt, not sure what to think. While Brell had finished the training session, Jason had been trying to sense what kind of changes his eyes were still undergoing. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done because his eyes were itching from the inside out, and something was definitely being transformed. Despite that, he had no idea what exactly it was, and even the Sacred Squirrel, who was resting inside his soul world, was clueless. In the end, the Sacred Squirrel went to sleep once again, inside Artemis'' plumage, without bothering about the world around it. It simply absorbed some of the surrounding energies, transforming them before cultivating the blessings it harbored. This was not exactly helpful, and even if Jason knew what the blessings he had inherited from the Sacred Squirrel were, they had only altered his body a little bit before. Once Brell approached him, Jason stopped thinking about his newest soulbond, telling himself that he would have to figure out what use the blessings had. It took him a lot of time to stop pondering if there was something like a passive effect they could create, or if he required blessed energy for every single function of them. Turning to the Grand tribe chief, he heard him saying something, "In our spar, let''s start off slowly without using our cultivation energies. After some time we can increase the pace and intensity of our spar, alright? In that way, we will be able to focus on finding our flaws before we fix them under ever-increasing pressure!" Jason liked Brell''s idea, and he nodded his head without hesitation as Byakur manifested in his hand. Without wasting any more time, Jason distanced himself from the Grand tribe chief, who had manifested a spear in his hand. Ready to fight by simply using brute force, Jason didn''t even think about allowing Artemis or one of his other soulbonds to enter his mana core. Instead, he wanted to figure out how big the gap between his own physical strength, and that of Brell''s was. If his guess was correct, it wasn''t small, and Jason could already see himself being overwhelmed, but that was not something he was bothered about. His forte was not his physical strength, to begin with. As such, he was fine with receiving helpful inputs by looking at his opponent''s posture, and movements. In the end, it had been a long time since he learned a martial art technique, and the only techniques he had used were auxiliary occupational techniques, the Floating Sky movement technique that was already slightly outdated, and the Mythic Essence cultivation technique. His last martial art technique, excluding the movement technique, had been one of the techniques humans on Argos had created. With that in mind, Jason knew that his movements were still not perfect and that he had to fix lots of things, such as avoiding too many unnecessary movements. Fortunately, this was not a big problem because his innate talent allowed him to naturally reduce the mistakes he was making. Nonetheless, while facing Brell, Jason felt that he would learn a lot, even more so without a soulbond entering his mana core, or the use of even a fraction of mana. With that in mind, Jason charged towards Brell, the moment they started the battle. Brell followed suit, and he realized almost immediately that his speed was 50% higher than Jason''s. It was probably even more than 50%, but that shocked Brell, who had seen Jason fighting before, a lot. ''Is that his entire physical strength? That''s...weird¡­'' Somehow, Brell felt like Jason''s strength was too low, but considering that the young man, who was charging up to him, had barely solidified a total of nine small prismarine crystals in addition to a basic construction of his first large rotating crystal, that was not the case. Based on his cultivation alone, Jason shouldn''t even be able to reach anything close to half his speed! Even beings with a total of three large rotating crystals were unable to attain half the speed of someone who had completed the construction of his dome crystal! That was in fact the case because the dome crystal increased a Cultivator''s strength ten times more than a single large rotating crystal did. Adding the factor that beings at the Peak of the Prismar stage had not only a Dome crystal but also three large rotating crystals as well as a total of nine solidified prismarine crystals, they should be able to defeat anyone without a dome crystal. Yet, somehow, Brell couldn''t help but feel that Jason should be able to achieve this, even if his cultivation base seemed to be too low. While Jason''s sword clashed with the spear Brell had thrust out, both of them noticed that Jason was unable to perfectly deflect the attack. Despite that, nobody was injured owing to the fact that Jason made a subtle movement to evade the attack by a hair''s breadth. This could have been a coincidence, but Brell didn''t believe that. The astonishment in Jason''s eyes suggested the opposite, but Brell''s gut feeling had never betrayed him. Because of that, he began to attack Jason with a fast series of spear thrusts that were all evaded by Jason. It was always a near miss, or Jason''s sword got in the way, faintly averting the trajectory of the spear''s blade. Nevertheless, Jason was never hit! The astonishment in Jason''s eyes disappeared, replaced by a bright expression with a single thought in his mind. ''I can see it!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 778 - Foresight What Jason could see was not only the trajectory Brell''s spear was currently following but also where exactly it would be a fraction of a second later. Years before, Jason had already learned to foresee someone''s attack owing to the way they struck him, and picking up the subtle movements made by them that he would miss when he was still a rookie. However, over time passing and a significant increase in their cultivation, his opponents were becoming more ruthless. They were now attacking him deceitfully, with attacks that didn''t follow the subtle movements they revealed. This was, in fact, a tactic utilized by some soldiers in order to confuse their opponents. Brell seemed to utilize the same tactic but to his bad luck, he could see a faint white glint could be seen in Jason''s eyes as he evaded every single attack of him. Currently, they were not in a serious fight, and Brell was holding back, but so was Jason. He didn''t even insert any mana into his eyes in order to allow his Emperor Eyes to see everything down to the finest detail. Yet, he was still able to foresee the attacks a minuscule moment before they happened. Even a moment''s prior notice of knowing where, how, and when he would be attacked, could be described as a God-given ability, and it looked like the Sacred Squirrel had transferred it to him, just like that! The foresight ability itself was not very powerful because it required the constant supply of blessed energy according to the information the Sacred Squirrel had transmitted to him upon binding it. However, it seemed to be a little bit different after the blessing had fused with his Emperor Eyes, just like the petrification curse. From the looks of it, the foresight ability, which was one of the most difficult blessings to cultivate for the Sacred Squirrel, was activated once Jason focused on his eyes, granting him to see every little detail of his surroundings and his opponents'' moves. That was something Jason always did because he fought stronger opponents with a higher cultivation base every single time. He was not even sure when was the last time he had fought someone at his cultivation base, but it must have been an eternity. As such, Jason paid attention to his opponent''s movements in every fight in order to be prepared. ''So...the foresight blessing will be activated every single time I fight someone? That''s...amazing!'' In the end, he still required the necessary physical strength in order to evade Brell''s attack, but given the fact that he had learned a lot about movements and that he was able to see them just before they happened, it was possible for him to evade them. Brell was shocked about the fact that someone with less than two-third of his speed was able to deflect his spear thrusts that were known for being extremely fast. He might not be a being that had cultivated in the path of Pryr just like a few of their mutated brethren, but that did not matter as they were sometimes too slow to follow suit either. With that in mind, Brell increased his speed before he began to actively approach Jason, intensifying the seemingly relaxed battle within an instant. Circulating the stagnated mana through his body, Brell''s entire body inflated for a moment, giving Jason the illusion that the grand tribe chief had turned into a gigantic human-like mass of mana. Brandishing the spear before thrusting it once again, Brell''s movements became lightning-quick, forcing Jason to exert the Floating Sky movement technique. Yet, instead of allowing Artemis or Petri to occupy his mana core, Jason felt that he had to test the new ability of his eyes a little bit more. Knowing where exactly Brell would step just a fraction of a second before it truly happened, Jason summoned a black flame next to him before he shot it at that exact spot. Enhanced by the moonlight affinity, the black flame caught Brell off-guard. The flame was currently weaker than it would be at night when moonlight was shining on Jason but it was enough to surprise and distract Brell. He didn''t expect that Jason would be able to predict his next move, dodge it as well as come up with a counterattack. Thus, given that he had no time, he had to supply more mana to the membrane that shielded the foot that had been hit. Yet, instead of getting extinguished or expelled, the black flame was clinging to Brell''s foot like a leech, sucking him dry. The moment Brell noticed that the black flame wouldn''t extinguish, he understood that Jason was still supplying mana to it. However, that was not the entire truth which Brell realized a moment later as the flame burned right through his mana membrane before his mana body was slowly being absorbed by the flame that increased in size. The flame was only the size of a thumb before, but it didn''t take long to increase in size, strength and intensity. ''You are not the typical close combat fighter, are you, Jason?'' Brell thought, perceiving that Jason had already prepared a new attack. Attacking Brell with Byakur, he released a large amount of mana into his Emperor Eyes in order to see if the foresight ability would be strengthened through it. Fortunately enough, this seemed to work, but the efficiency of mana in comparison to the Sacred Squirrel''s blessed energy was bad, to put it nicely. Even after using a large amount of mana, the fraction of a second''s time in which he could foresee Brell''s movements was prolonged by another minuscule fraction. Thus, it gave him barely any additional time to come up with an outstanding move, which was simply not possible. Because of that, Jason used the most basic attacks that didn''t require any preparations such as throwing a single fireball after Brell, or manifesting a small pillar of ice on the spot Brell would set his feet on. Through this, Jason could distract Brell, attack him the moment he was distracted, and once Brell was pressured enough, it was even possible to use the basic affinity attacks to throw him off his balance, initiating a finishing blow. Unfortunately, before he could deliver the last blow, Brell, who had had enough of his small tricks, used a secret technique to change the form of his feet. This was annoying, even more so, because Brell''s speed increased further. Yet, it gave Jason enough information to know that the foresight blessing was extremely powerful as long as he knew how to use it properly! He would have to learn how to use it properly, but that was something time, his analytical skills, and relentless practice would allow him to achieve. This, Jason was confident of. With unwavering determination, Jason continued to fight, giving his best, but owing to his inexperience of the foresight blessing, he was losing his upper hand the moment Brell had gotten the hang of what Jason was doing. Their first spar ended shortly after, and Brell couldn''t help but stare at Jason in doubt, questioning how Jason''s every move seemed to be a reaction to the movements he did a moment later. ''Is that his secret, his eyes? But then, he does have his tamed beasts...and this weird fusion ability...Just what kind of being is he?'' While Brell was confused, Jason was deep in thoughts, only to announce something that astonished Brell. "I want to be part of the assassination group!" /earlier, they had divided their fighters into different groups, including assassins that were supposed to attack the Oceanfolk army in the open field, instead of acting defensively like the others. Most of the assassins were Mewi that were able to use the same secret technique as he had just used, allowing him to change his shape however he pleased. Thus, Jason was not exactly someone who suited the assassins. Seeing doubt in Brell''s eyes, Jason quickly added. "Only a few members of the Oceanfolk should be able to fly. As such, I want to use my affinities to attack them from the air. This will force the stronger individuals of marine beasts that can fly to pursue me. A small team of the strongest combatants would be more than enough to finish them off. However, in that case, we will have to pay more attention to the time we require to finish them off because the Oceanfolk''s army will be ginormous, which you should have seen in the projected vision, right?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 779 - Start Jason''s idea was reasonable, and the next few days were spent on preparing suitable tactics to make use of all kinds of feasible ideas. In the end, most tactics remained relatively simple. First, the tribe chiefs became the commanders of their own unit that, in fact, consisted of their former village''s villagers. This was something that had been decided mutually between the villagers and the chief based on the compatibility and trust they had with each other. Throwing all combatants into one army without a combatant, all of a sudden would only worsen their combat prowess because everyone had to get to know each other first, otherwise, their teamwork would be horrendous. With that in mind, Brell had decided that the tribe chiefs would lead their tribe into battle, allowing them to focus on attack strategies and combat training instead of other distracting factors. Afterward, a few promising combatants out of each village were put together to form units that solely focussed on long-range attacks, assassination or supporting others. Furthermore, there was a unit that was supposed to overwhelm the powerhouses Jason would try to pick out of the entire army of the Oceanfolk before provoking them. Owing to this, they would be inclined to pursue him, which was exactly what Jason wanted. Taking out the strongest foes, in the beginning, was the most feasible because the other Mewi were strong enough to face their opponents. At least that was the case after he had freed the mana vein of the ocean materials that had blocked and corroded the vein, deteriorating the mana it could release. Because of that, Jason was sure that there wouldn''t be any issues if the Mewi had to face multiple opponents at the same cultivation base. If that were to be a problem after everything he did, nothing could save the Mewi anymore. The days quickly passed and by sparring with Brell, and groups of Mewi alone, Jason was improving his control over the foresight blessing that was even weirder than he first assumed. There were things he didn''t understand about it, but he was glad that the blessing seemed to work without any issues. Improving his control over the foresight blessing was extremely arduous, and his head was aching more often than before. Nevertheless, this was a sacrifice he had to make in order to improve, which was what Jason desperately wanted. In the end, there were things he couldn''t control, and that was exactly what he found to be fucked up. Thinking that he had finally understood the profoundness with which the Chaos obelisk was constructed, Jason was sure that the creator, or creators of the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant were beings comparable to Gods. If he was assuming correctly, beings like his father from the Celestia race were comparable to the creators, or Gods. Thus, if one race like that existed, how high was the chance that multiple races that solely consisted of Gods could exist? The sole thought about the possibility of the existence of multiple God races overwhelmed Jason. However, at the same time, most beings had a different interpretation of God. When was the time one would break through the threshold of a mortal existence and ascend to becoming a God? Would one require a specific amount of strength, a cultivation base, affinities? Abilities? What even was a God, to begin with? Jason was not sure of that himself, but he felt that the Primordial beings were something that would be considered Gods, in any kind of possible interpretation of this seemingly simple word. They were able to create life, control everything, and they could end everything. That was at least what Jason imagined when he thought about Primordial beings, and he couldn''t help but feel a little bit flabbergasted. Feeling chills spreading all over his body, Jason shook his head, averting his attention back to the gathering that was being held. Looking into the sky, Jason stared right into the silver moon that was clearly visible. The moonlight was bright enough to light up the entire valley, which was unexpected. Yet, considering that the moon was extremely close to them, Jason thought that this was the reason behind the brightness surrounding him. As he was gazing at the silver moon, Artemis, who was inside his soul world, was excited and wanted to emerge in front of everyone, and decrease the distance to the moon by flying towards it. Her instincts told her that she would become much stronger the closer she was to the moon, and Jason felt that he should let her. That was because the moonlight affinity became stronger at night, even more so once moonlight shone on him. This only increased the brighter the moonlight was. As such, given that it was the first full silver moon in ages, tonight the moonlight affinity would be the strongest. Because of that, Jason was extremely calm and ready to fight the entire army of the Oceanfolk, alone, if necessary. However, this feeling was something that would vanish once he would encounter the Elite Deepsea Scia, and Jason was fully aware of this. The Elite of the Oceanfolk army were the worst opponents he had to face, and that was exactly the reason why he wanted Brell''s help and that of the other strongest combatants of the Mewi race. Separating the powerhouses from the main unit of the army before they could devastate the defenses of the shelter was the most logical thing to do, even at the risk of facing instant death. But that was unlikely to happen, considering that the second trial of the Dungeon wouldn''t be easier than the first one! With that in mind, Jason was preparing himself mentally, only to hear someone shouting something from the wall''s direction. "THEY''RE HERE!!" One of the Soldiers standing on top of the walls shouted, amplifying his voice through mana. The amplified voice reverberated through the entire shelter, causing many Mewi to stiffen. Fortunately, everyone calmed down shortly after, understanding that it would take a bit until the Oceanfolk would reach them. In fact, it wouldn''t be the entire Oceanfolk army that would reach them at once, which was quite an advantage because they would first have to realize that their villages were emptied and that all of the villagers had moved to a single shelter. By the time the Oceanfolk would realize that the assassins would already start wreaking havoc. Now, the Oceanfolk were just emerging from the ponds they had artificially created as well as the river, and the soldier who was standing on top of the wall had just relayed the message given by the chain of scouts that had been in the open, observing everything. After everyone was informed that the army of the Oceanfolk arrived, exactly as the Sacred Squirrel had foretold them, Brell got up from his chair. Taking a deep breath, he looked around and his serious expression caused everyone to momentarily stiffen before they listened intently, awaiting a motivational speech. Yet, what followed after was not a simple speech, but Brell''s amplified voice that reverberated through the entire shelter, shaking every Mewi, causing their mana body to tremble in excitement. "Let me say one thing to all of you; We will never give up, and will get up the moment we fall down. Everyone has loved ones to protect, and in order to survive, we shall make the Oceanfolk bleed! BRAVE MEWI, LET''S SHOW THE OCEANFOLK THAT WE ARE NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY!!" Even Jason couldn''t help but feel his body shake when Brell shouted out the last sentence, only for thunderous voices of tens of thousand Mewi to bellow in unison. "Let there be carnage!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 780 - Clash After they got informed about the appearance of the Oceanfolk army, everyone headed towards their designated group before they prepared themselves mentally for the final clash. Their weapons were cleaned and sharpened and the armors were tightly enveloping their bodies. Seeing that everyone was following the stated guidelines, Jason turned towards Brell, who nodded his head, indicating to him that he could leave. In the end, Jason had to observe the army first before he could provoke and lure the strongest units of the Oceanfolk army away from the rest of them. It was likely that they were spread through the entire army, and defeating all of them at once was nearly impossible. With that in mind, Jason manifested Artemis'' wings before he ascended into the air. Circulating mana through his entire body, he exerted the Floating sky movement technique. Using up some mana to do so was now as effortless as breathing owing to the strong passive mana gathering cycle that had been set up in his first sub-area. The amount of mana he absorbed passively was multiple times what he was currently using. Thus, his plan to lure out the Oceanfolk Elite wouldn''t make him lose any mana. At least, if their plan worked as they thought it would because it was still unknown how large the entire army of the Oceanfolk would be. Flying at a high altitude, he inserted some mana into his Emperor Eyes, which allowed him to see nearly everything around him, even if the distance was more. ''They''re spreading out more than expected¡­ Should I be happy about that or not?'' The entire army of the Oceanfolk was spreading out from the riverbank, and the artificially created ponds that were connected to the Ocean. At first glance, the army looked unorganized because all kinds of marine beasts were moving together, but Jason could clearly see that the Oceanfolk were swarming out in all directions at the same time, with almost the same numbers in each direction. That was astonishing, but not something Jason should be bothered about. However, the annoying factor was that the stronger marine beasts were covering a large distance with every step that was only increasing as they spread apart the more they went ahead. An endless stream of beings continued to emerge from the Ocean inside the valley every second, and Jason knew that he had to act now, or it would already be too late. Focusing on provoking the Elite that were marching towards the shelter, and the surrounding, Jason didn''t hesitate to approach the army. Clashing with it would be interesting, and extremely dangerous, but Jason was flying, which was not something any of the present beasts of the Oceanfolk army was doing. Thus, he could simply manifest hundreds of small and thin icicles that were enhanced by the moonlight ability that was at its peak owing to the full silver moon. His mana consumption was minuscule, and he shot the hundreds of icicles towards the army of the Oceanfolk without hesitation. In the end, Jason didn''t even have to aim because he knew that his icicles would hit dozens if not more than hundreds of marine beasts. The crowd of beings was simply too dense and overflowing with beasts that were not even able to evade or do anything else than advancing if they didn''t want to be run over by their own. Because of that Jason''s simple attack turned into a mass murder tool that faintly injured their opponents before freezing them. The attack he had initiated could only injure beings at the Low Prismar stage, but that didn''t worry him owing to the fact that the vast majority of the Oceanfolk''s army was at that rank. He also spotted beings at the Lique stage, but Jason didn''t even pay them any attention. Instead, he was staring at the beings at the Peak Prismar stage, and nobody else! They were the only opponents he would have to truly fight because everyone else would succumb to his blade within a single strike. Nevertheless, Jason was glad that he had yet to see a beast at the Ascendion stage which told him that it was unlikely for such a being to appear out of nowhere. That was, however, under the assumption that he correctly interpreted the difficulty of the second trial. Maybe in the following trials, such an existence would appear, but the chances of that happening now were slim. With that in mind, Jason didn''t need to be alarmed, which gave him the necessary focus to pay attention to the Oceanfolk''s army that noticed him after his first attack. After his first batch of icicles, a second one followed suit, killing dozens of beasts in the blink of an eye. However, even that was not enough to provoke the Elite of the Oceanfolk, which astonished Jason. Right now, he was still trying to save his mana which was why he attacked with means that didn''t require too much mana. As such, he attacked the Oceanfolk''s army with a few more volleys of hundreds of icicles. Yet, the Elite seemed to be unbothered because only their weak units were dying. Or that was at least what Jason assumed to be the Elite''s reasoning to not counterattack. Even he knew that it was not difficult to identify that his attacks were not strong enough to injure anyone at and above the Mid Prismar stage. Owing to this, Jason switched his strategy from attacking the masses to attacking individual beasts. First, he didn''t do much, and simply created single icicles, and cranked up their freezing property to the peak. Other than that, the icicles'' sharpness was increased, while their sturdiness was barely enough to break apart only after they had pierced through their target''s hide or skin. With that Jason attacked the marine beasts at the Mid Prismar stage, using the freezing icicles that tore through their skin before slowly freezing them, reaching the deepest parts of their bodies. Shooting out ten of such icicles had the same mana consumption as the volley of hundreds of icicles. Thus, Jason was still able to save his mana, which was quite advantageous for the following hours, and the next step on his new plan. After attacking a total of ten marine beasts at the Mid Prismar stage, he was finally able to gain the Elite''s attention. Whether they saw him as an ant, a nuisance, or a real threat didn''t matter, but when the first Elite of the Ocenfolk ascended into the air in order to approach him, Jason knew that he had to hasten his plan''s progress. With that in mind, Jason used a little bit more mana than he initially wanted to in order to manifest fireballs made of black flames which he threw in the direction of all the other Oceanfolk Elite, he could reach for now. The number was relatively small and only aimed at a total of 10 Elites, but after seeing his attack, all of them turned towards him in rage. This was great, and Jason ascended higher in the air before he began to retreat slowly. Brell and the others were probably already waiting for him and the first batch of Elite that they had to fight. Thus, Jason continued to attack them, using fireballs that required less mana as he continued to retreat. After firing the third volley of fireballs towards the Elite, they were finally provoked to the point that they were unable to hold back anymore. Catapulting themselves into the air, they clumsily flew towards him. Their experience in flying in the air was visible to Jason''s eye, and he was relatively sure that he was strong enough to defeat the Elite by himself as long as they would fight in the air. However, owing to the fact that he had no time to waste, Jason flew towards the small open field Brell and the others had prepared. This wouldn''t take much time under normal circumstances, and Jason would have loved to not waste his time by continuing to provoke the Oceanfolk Elite while flying towards the open field where he could already see Brell. Unfortunately, the Mewi were unable to fly, which made it extremely difficult for them to pick out the strongest opponents without being overrun by the army of the Oceanfolk. Thus, it had become Jason''s mission to split up the Ocenafolk''s elite before bringing them to Brell, which was exactly what he had just done. Afterward, he could leave as the Mewi kept the Peak Prismar stage marine beasts occupied. Because of his brilliant tactic, the first clash between the Mewi and the Oceanfolk''s army had been initiated. Yet, Jason was not satisfied because the Mewi were already struggling a lot even while facing less than 1/10th of the Oceanfolk army''s Elite. With that realization, Jason knew that he had to do something. As such, he smiled lightly as he mumbled, "Maybe, it''s time to hasten up?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 781 - Descension Of A God! By the time he returned to the mass of the Oceanfolk''s army, they had already advanced quite a bit. Nevertheless, they were much slower than he had first assumed. That was great and it gave Jason the necessary intel to understand that the army''s speed adjusted to match that of the slowest units. In the end, the marine beasts at the Lique stage might be deemed as useless but the strategist of the army wouldn''t let them enter the army if he were to allow his other units to run them over. This was not how one waged war, and Jason couldn''t help but feel thankful that the Lique stage beasts spread through the entire army of the Oceanfolk. Nonetheless, that didn''t mean he would show mercy once he faced them because even the Lique stage marine beasts had their orders- to kill the Mewi. There was something in the valley that attracted their attention and the Mewi were in the Oceanfolk Lord''s way. As such, they had to be removed, which would have happened long ago if he hadn''t been present to warn and fight them last time. Bringing the Mewi together was the best thing he could have done because the small fraction of the Oceanfolk army that had already emerged outside the artificially created ponds and riverbank appeared to be in the tens of thousands. Jason was not sure how large the entire army was, but he wouldn''t hesitate to destroy the entire army if it was necessary. With that in mind, he resumed using his moonlight affinity followed by sending out the volley of hundreds of icicles in order to kill as many opponents as possible. It was a simple tactic but attracted the attention of many beasts while killing even more. Some Elite noticed that Jason was being pursued by other Elite units, and they had assumed that the nuisance, that is Jason, would soon disappear. Yet, only a few minutes had passed before Jason returned, and there was no sight of their comrades. Because of that, the Elite units became more vigilant with Jason, thinking that he had a plan on how to overcome the threat of their Elite who were at the Peak of the Prismar stage. Thus, they decided to attack him with other means such as conjuring water jets using some of their Elite''s water affinity. Shooting them after Jason, some of the Elite were precisely targeting him, while others tried to predict his next step after evading the first attack. Because of that, a total of 30 Water jets shot towards him from multiple directions. Their velocity was shocking considering that some of the water jets were shot from two kilometers away. Yet, Jason couldn''t help but frown after recalling that marine beasts had to fight inside the sea where the water pressure drastically reduced the speed at which they could attack using water jets. ''I forgot to consider this variable into my plan¡­'' Sighing inwardly, Jason evaded the water jets by inserting more mana into his Emperor Eyes. At the same time, he increased the pace at which he exerted the Floating Sky movement technique. Owing to this, and the foresight blessing that allowed him to roughly gauge the moment the water jets would reach him, Jason began to move. Flapping his wings, he evaded the attacks as he reached a higher altitude before moving one meter to the front. After they had followed these two simple movements, Jason averted his attention back to the Oceanfolk Elite who were befuddled to witness how each of their attacks missed the young man, who had nonchalantly avoided the water jets. This caused them to become even more nervous and vigilant around Jason, and the number of water jets they fired increased substantially. Jason realized this quickly, and he knew that if the number of water jets shot by Peak Prismar beings was to increase further, he wouldn''t be able to avoid them all while reserving his mana. With that in mind, Jason told himself that it might have been long enough for him to preserve his mana. The Elite of the Ocenfolk didn''t ascend into the air anymore, and instead fired water jets which shattered their entire plan. In retaliation, Jason first fired a large black fireball into the air that exploded dozens of meters above him. Through the sound and the sight of black tiny flames covering a part of the sky, Brell, and the other Elite Mewi, who had just defeated their opponents, realized that their plan had already been interfered with. Because of that, they returned to the shelter, knowing that the fight that followed would be far more dangerous than what they had just gone through to defeat a few Elite. ''They''re much stronger than we expected...the Elite is truly fearsome...fortunately we don''t have to fight them in the water, otherwise, we could just give up¡­'' Even if he was reluctant, Brell had to acknowledge that the Oceanfolk army''s Elite was extremely powerful, despite fighting in a territory and environment they were unfamiliar with. Under normal circumstances, Brell would be flabbergasted, and excited about this, but not if they possibly had to defeat hundreds of Elite just like the ones they had fought. Trying to come up with a new plan, Brell''s mind was rattling, only to realize that someone was missing when they had returned to the shelter. "Where is Jason? Our plan B was to return to the shelter and fight from there if the Oceanfolk''s Elite wouldn''t act as we wanted them to...What the hell is he planning?!" Meanwhile, Jason, who had gone against their initial plan, was currently greedily absorbing the moonlight that shone onto his white-silverish hair. His golden eyes had turned sky-blue owing to the fusion he had entered with Artemis, yet, just at that moment, a silvery tone was spreading through his eyes, replacing the sky blue color. Having activated the moonlight ability, Jason felt an unknown strength coursing through his entire body that began to shine in a bright silver color. Even the Arctic aura that was normally glowing in a sky blue tone had transformed into a silvery hue. At first, this had astonished Jason, but considering that his strength was increasing, there was nothing to complain about. Rather, he wanted to absorb even more of the moonlight that shone on his entire being. Only now could he truly understand what Artemis had felt for the entire time since the full silver moon had emerged. Jason''s strength was increasing with every single moment that he was exposed to the moonlight of the full silver moon, without affecting his vessel. This was something that had never happened. Before, Jason had already been confident to defeat individuals of the Oceanfolk''s Elite, but this had changed completely. Right now, he was confident of fighting against the entire army of the Oceanfolk. Upon raising his arm he was able to see tiny runes enveloping his mana vein, enhancing it in every possible way. Yet, the further the moonlight affected him, the lower his control over the degree at which he fused with Artemis became. Jason noticed that the black horns that protruded out of his forehead had already turned silver in color, and the itchy sensation above his right eye made him feel like the outlines of his stigma were currently changing too. At the same time, his fingers were slowly turning into razor-sharp claws, while his white-silverish hair turned into something that looked similar to plumage. The plumage only appeared on the back of his hand, with a single feather tightly holding onto him before the transmutation process was finally completed. Thus, when he cracked his fingers, the sound followed by a shockwave resounded through the surrounding, attracting the attention of every single marine beast that heard him. Taking a deep breath, Jason smiled brightly before he began to activate his moonlight affinity that was already eagerly awaiting to be used with the strongest form of the ice affinity. Yet, instead of randomly throwing around icicles, Jason disappeared from his previous spot, before he landed on the ground only a moment later. Without wasting any time on the beasts in his surroundings, he unleashed his transmuted Arctic aura, followed by his stigmas that glowed up, intensifying the Arctic aura that froze the surrounding beasts without distinguishing between strong, weak, friends or foes. Thus, it was great that every single being around him was his opponent, giving Jason no reason to be worried about hurting innocent people. Instead, he released a large amount of mana into his Arctic aura followed by the ice affinity, which he released in front of him where the majority of the Oceanfolk army was situated. It was God who had descended in the valley of the Mewi race, protecting them from the evil beings that planned to deprive them of their lives and home that day! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 782 - [Bonus ]Moonlight God! [Author note--This is an extra chapter for reaching 300 PS on my new novel [Spirit Soul]. Thanks guys ;D] Feeling endless power surging through his entire body, Jason didn''t even realize that the moonlight shining on his body was replenishing the mana he was using up, at a tremendous velocity. Yet, what he noticed was that he could use even more mana into the ice affinity he had targeted in the front where the majority of the Oceanfolk''s army was currently located. There were hundreds of beasts behind and next to him, but Jason didn''t even have to pay any attention to them in order to obliterate them! His Arctic aura that had attained an unfathomable lethality froze every single living being in its wake. Following that, Jason focused on the things happening in front of him with an eerily calm mind as he froze the ground more than a hundred meters in front of him. A moment later, countless spikes of varying sizes shot out of the frozen ground, piercing through the bodies of thousands of beasts at the Lique and Prismar stage. Even the Elite beasts at the Peak Prismar stage were unable to evade the attacks, and walk out of the situation unscathed. Instead, their punctured and sliced feet were starting to freeze, drastically reducing their strength and speed. However, that was not everything that happened, and it was just the beginning of their doom as they saw that Jason was already gearing up for another attack. Shockingly enough, half silver, half sky blue flames manifested all around Jason before he spread them out at a distance of more than fifty meters on either side. Thus, he covered a total length of hundred meters, which was the biggest range Jason could control for what he had planned. Under normal circumstances what he wanted to do would be too reckless because it required a very high amount of mana, and both his body and mind wouldn''t be able to handle it. However, right now, he felt unparalleled, similar to that one time he had unleashed his Celestia blood in a desperate effort to rescue his late masters. Yet, instead of a golden flame, or forcefully unleashed power that would break him apart, Jason realized that the power he was currently utilizing was not borrowed at all. Instead, it had something to do with Artemis'' evolution and her true strength. Jason had already been confused when Artemis'' appearance had not changed after her evolution. Only the color of her plumage had changed slightly, followed by one of her horns that had turned silverish. However, it was only now that Jason understood that Artemis'' change would only occur when the full moon was shining on her, giving her the ability to exert strength that would normally be sealed. During the night, the moonlight ability was already strong, but during a full moon, especially the silver full moon, the moonlight ability''s true potential was unlocked, while the same applied to Artemis'' entire being. Thus, Jason was able to perfectly control the black flame affinity that had turned into a mixture of silver and sky blue owing to his fusion with Artemis. There was no restriction he felt, and with that in mind, he used up the entire amount of mana that was stored inside his body in order to turn the silver-sky blue flames into miniature dragon heads. At that moment, realization struck the Oceanfolk army''s Elite, and distinct fear coursed through their body, with their sole desire being to flee as far as possible, to never return, and to escape Jason by all means. All of their efforts to leave turned futile as Jason''s aura enlarged and his eyes seemed to turn ginormous to his opponents as he said, "Die!" When he spoke this simple word each of the miniature dragon heads spit out ginormous flames that were a mixture of silver and sky blue in color, killing everyone in their sight. However, it was not over...not yet! Lifting both of his arms, Jason was directly controlling the miniature dragon heads which he shot towards the Oceanfolk without showing any mercy. Their flames were still active and the miniature dragon head''s angle was slightly adjusted in order to shoot the flames as far as possible to burn his opponents with the frozen moonlight flame. The second part of Jason''s attack took only a moment before the dragon heads dispersed as Jason groaned out in pain. His entire body was drained of mana, and even the rapid replenishing speed the moonlight provided him was not enough to refill enough mana. Because of that, he was forced to temporarily stop his attack that would have been able to annihilate the Oceanfolk''s entire army. Coughing out blood, Jason couldn''t help but smile dryly. ''Was that a little bit over the top?...Either way, let''s clear up the mess!'' Ignoring the pain that coursed through his body because he was just a fraction of a second late in terminating the earlier attack, Jason was forced to accept it. Nothing major would happen to him, and instead of wasting precious time checking for injuries, Jason knew that there was a long way to go as he had only defeated a part of the Oceanfolk''s army. This was already a great achievement, but he had been forced to use his fusion with Artemis to achieve this. That meant he was taking a great risk, which was something he had wanted to avoid at all costs. Despite that, Artemis had nearly forced him to fuse with her because she was confident in defeating everyone as long as they would fuse during the silver full moon. That was probably the case and not something Jason doubted after sensing how powerful the fusion under the silver moon was. Thus, he wanted to make use of it, only to recall that the army of the Oceanfolk had not yet fully emerged and that the real opponents had yet to arrive as well. There was a huge difference in the strength of the Oceanfolk''s Elite and the Deepsea Scia that he had heard communicating with each other before. Because of that, he couldn''t help but curse lightly before he terminated the fusion with Artemis the moment his mana core was fully replenished with mana. He didn''t dissolve the body part manifestation, but the Arctic aura was slowly changing back to the Celestia aura, while the forced changes were also returning to the usual. This was frustrating because the power coursing through his body had allowed him to feel undefeatable. Nevertheless, the current time limitation of his fusion with Artemis had reached the length of a single hour. As such, he had to pay attention to how he utilized her fusion with him for the next few hours in which the silver full moon would shine on the valley. Even if he was annoyed, Jason was eager to feel Artemis'' power coursing through his body once again. With that in mind, he ascended into the air and activated his moonlight ability before he returned to attack the Oceanfolk army with icicles. He was eagerly awaiting to be attacked by dozens of water jets because that was the threshold he had given himself to fuse with Artemis once again. Having her inside his mana core was already a great advantage because his strength rivaled that of a being at the Peak of the Prismar stage, but his fusion with her during the silver full moon was on another level. The fusion allowed him to feel like a God who was unfathomable, untouchable, and unparalleled, but at the same time, it was a great risk because he tended to overestimate his mortal body once he turned into the Moonlight God. It was like the transformation was not perfect because it relied on the fact that the silver full moon had to empower him. Thus, he was nothing but a fraud, but that was maybe what made him the Moonlight God- a God with mortal restrictions! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 783 - Its The Small Things In Combat That Matter After making use of the fact that he could activate and terminate the fusion with Artemis whenever he wanted, Jason felt that being able to do something one time for a long period and being able to fuse however often he wanted with a specific period were a huge difference. In his third fusion with Artemis, Jason''s entire body felt as if it had been sucked dry of nutrition, and while fighting he had to start eating the heaviest food in order to keep himself energized. Not only was the fusion devouring an enormous amount of energy, but every single time he initiated the fusion, his entire body would start changing, followed by his aura, in addition to a second stigma that would emerge and so on. All changes required nutrition to be initiated and completed. Because of that, the amount of nutrition he had wasted by dissolving and fusing with Artemis, and a total of three body part manifestations, were equivalent to the nutrition stored in their bodies by three cultivators at the Peak of the Prismar stage Jason had always required a lot of nutrition, but today was different- today he was wasting his nutrition. With that in mind, he kept eating dishes he took out of his spatial ring, before thinking of a better way to defeat the Elite units without being forced to use his energy reserves. Once he ascended into the air, water jets would follow suit, and the number would increase to dozens of water jets in a single second. This was not something Jason was happy about, but with a new plan in mind, he was sure that the Elite Oceanfolk beasts would have to heavily alter their battle strategy. Because of that, Jason had decided to enter close combat, attacking one Oceanfolk Elite after another. In the end, this was easier said than done because the surrounding beasts would certainly retaliate, but as long as there was no group of Peak Prismar stage Cultivators attacking him in a surprise move, this should be fine. And, given the possibility that some Elite beasts would continue to use their water jets to restrict his movements, they would have to sacrifice their own army to do this. The battlefield was overcrowded and even in close combat, he might not be able to fight due to the restrictions caused by the crowd of the Ocenfolk army. However, the same applied to the beasts he would fight. Rather, if he stood in front of them, the army would unintentionally push him back, while a small gap would be created if the Oceanfolk Elite would pressure the beings behind him to not bump into him. This would distract the Oceanfolk Elite, which was something Jason hoped would happen once he initiated a fight. As such, with his plan set in stone, he finished three more plates of food that were stuffed into his mouth before he flew towards his opponent in a vertical line. Manifesting Byakur in his hand, he didn''t release any affinity immediately. Instead, he simply focused on circulating mana through his body while exerting the Floating Sky movement technique. At the same time, he enhanced his mana circulation speed that increased the potency of his movement technique as he released his Celestia aura while activating the Stigma above his right eye. With an enhanced mana circulation speed his physique was thoroughly strengthened the moment he circulated mana through his body, only for his speed to increase drastically owing to the Floating Sky movement technique. Through this, Jason''s physical attributes reached the highest possible degree without the use of his fusion with Petri. Thus, without attracting too much attention, he swiftly told Petri to occupy his mana core, which the Cursed Basilisk did in a moment. Only a fraction of a second later, a tail began to grow out of his coccyx, and Jason landed on the ground with a deafening thud that stirred up the loose soil below him. A cloud of dust rose around him and he tried his best to not cough. Using this moment in which he landed on the ground as the perfect distraction, he grabbed two Murlocs using his tail and threw them at one of the Oceanfolk Elite who was standing right in front of him. With this tactic, Jason wanted to distract the Oceanfolk Elite, who erupted with his own mana, as he leaned forward while a huge battleaxe manifested in his hand. Brandishing the battleaxe, the Oceanfolk Elite simply ignored the fact that two members of his army were just thrown towards him. Unbothered by that, he brandished the battleaxe at the Murlocs that were torn apart in pieces as blood, flesh and guts splattered onto the Oceanfolk Elite as an evil smirk began to form on his face. Just a fraction of a second later, the exhilarated Elite turned around in order to spin his entire body, further increasing his momentum in order to launch an attack with the strongest possible impact with the least amount of effort. No technique was required, and neither a single special tactic, all he required was brute force, and the efficient use of momentum. Jason may not be aware of what kind of being he was fighting because it looked like some dark-green scaled, hideous ocean monster that oddly resembled a Kappa, but what he clearly knew was that his battle instincts were not to be taken lightly. Before, he had been able to defeat his opponents without much of a hassle, but that was not the case anymore because fusing with his soulbonds was not something he could do to fight against every single opponent. Even if he could, what would that make of him, if he were only able to defeat his opponents while having a higher combat prowess? With that in mind, Jason gauged the battleaxe''s trajectory using the foresight blessing as well as the subtle movements of the Oceanfolk Elite. After that, he shot a pillar of mana out of the ground that sliced the battleaxe into two right from the hilt to the tip of the blade. Through this, without the use of much mana, he was able to throw his opponent out of balance without using much mana. This forced the hideous looking being to gather his strength for a moment in order to halt the heavy battleaxe that swung in the wrong direction. Using this moment, Jason didn''t hesitate to approach his opponent as a thin black layer of a slightly fluctuating flame enveloped Byakur which he thrust out. Taking the shortest possible path, he killed the Oceanfolk Elite mercilessly, as warm blood splattered his face. The foresight blessing made everything easier to be carried out, giving him the chance to save a tremendous amount of mana, which he could use to kill other Oceanfolk Elite. Other than that, there was still the huge army of the Oceanfolk that ran over their Elite the moment he fell to the ground, burning alive while being trampled over by his own people. They abandoned their own people quite easily, and Jason felt that he might be able to make use of this once the fights were to become a little bit more dangerous. With that in mind, his eyes began to gleam as numerous ideas popped up with which he wanted to fight against his opponents. Yet, instead of doing anything rashly, he analyzed the situation, while slowly going with the flow, walking backwards facing his opponents, while the entire army of the Oceanfolk moved ahead. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 784 - Calcule While retreating and analyzing the situation, he clearly understood that the Oceanfolk''s biggest strength was their numerical advantage. Earlier, he had also feared their combat prowess, because the Mewi had been unable to fight against a single being at the same cultivation rank. Fortunately, this was not the case anymore, and they were probably strong enough to face several beings at the same rank, at once. Meanwhile, Jason felt that the Oceanfolk Elite was also divided into multiple units. Otherwise, it made no sense to him that the Peak Prismar stage beings were placed right in the center of the entire army, only to get slaughtered. Either there was something wrong, or he was completely misinterpreting the situation. For now, he had no issues defeating the Oceanfolk Elite that may be much stronger than he thought. However, their experience fighting on the lands was abysmally low, and the air seemed to be their nemesis. With that in mind, Jason used his tail to grab more Oceanfolk beings that were passing him by before throwing them right in front of the Oceanfolk army. Through this, he hoped to create a hindrance, and a means to kill some beasts that would be taken off-guard due to the unexpected attack. This was cruel, but so was life, and he wouldn''t hold back to defeat his opponents, even if that meant he would have to fight dirty. While using Byakur to tear apart the opponents in front of him with just one hand, he used his tail to grapple beings with a lower cultivation base. Using these beings as a substitute for ammunition, he kept throwing them at the Oceanfolk army. Meanwhile, Jason''s free hand moved subtly, allowing him to freeze everything in front of him. Most Cultivators were of the opinion that one didn''t have to do anything in order to use an affinity. But Jason was pretty sure that there were even more Cultivators who moved their hands in order to strengthen their control to manifest what they visualized This made many things much easier, and instead of bothering about what others would do, Jason simply did what he found to be the most efficient. Thus, freezing the ground in front of him caused a thin layer of ice to form on the ground. This resulted in the beings of the Oceanfolk that were in front of him succumbing to Byakur''s razor-sharp blade as they slipped over the smooth ice. Jason lost track of time as he decided to release his tension by killing the lower-ranked beings of the Oceanfolk. They were in fact mostly on par with his cultivation base. Yet, he hardly faced any struggle against them and defeated almost every single opponent in a single strike. Despite being equally strong, they could not keep up with his speed, strength, use of his affinity, and so on. Due to this, Jason felt a little bit bored, but at the same time, he got enough time to analyze and further strategize his next steps. He had yet to see the Mewi race''s shelter that they had built when he was away. It was great news, but owing to the fact that the entire valley was likely to be flooded by the beings of the Oceanfolk, Jason had no reason to be reassured. Instead, he was worried that the entire shelter could get surrounded, and overwhelmed in a matter of minutes. That would be difficult to achieve for the Oceanfolk, but by no means impossible. As such, Jason couldn''t help but feel that he would have to hasten up a little bit. With that in mind, he fought his way through the army, approaching the next Oceanfolk Elite with slow but steady steps. The army of the Oceanfolk was a tightly packed unit that would have made it difficult to move forward under normal circumstances. Luckily, he could envelop his body in a layer of Solaris'' flames which would allow him to move without much resistance. Thus, he allowed Solaris to occupy his mana core, decreasing his mana consumption once he used the black origin flame by more than three-quarters. If he could manage to completely fuse with Solaris, his mana consumption would probably be close to nil, and Jason was already awaiting this day. Unfortunately, it seemed like Solaris had different requirements to fuse with him than Petri and Artemis, as his soulbond with Solaris was much thicker than that with Petri. Owing to this, Jason could only use the fortified soul conjunction to gain an advantage. However, that was already more than enough because the low mana consumption allowed him to release gigantic flames. These would use the mana that his passive mana gathering technique in the sub-area would replenish only a moment later. Fortunately, creating just a single humongous flame was not something Jason wanted to do. Instead, he enveloped his body with Solaris'' flames before allowing it to lunge at each opponent around him. Through this, he wanted to allow Solaris to burn and absorb mana before depriving the Oceanfolk beings of their life force. Even if Solaris couldn''t make use of their life force, Petri was able to recycle and use it for his cultivation. And by depriving its opponents of their life force, Solaris was able to kill them much faster. Thus, Jason transformed into a living torch that was completely enveloped in black flames. His golden eyes were piercing out of the black layer, staring deep into the eyes of the Oceanfolk Elite. He reached them not long after he began to make his way through the army. In the end, Jason kept marching forward, leaving behind painful cries and shrieks of the Oceanfolk, as they succumbed to their deaths by being burned alive. Showing no mercy, Jason fought as if his life depended on it, which was, in fact, the case. He was well aware that a single mistake could lead to his doom, and that was not something Jason wanted to happen. As such, even if the battle were to last for days on end, Jason was ready. He was preparing fractions of Solaris'' flames that nurtured themselves in the body of others. This allowed him to reserve more than enough mana and energy to keep fighting longer! Upon reaching the next Oceanfolk Elite, he didn''t hesitate and attacked the being that wielded a spear. Throwing a fireball that was roughly the size of a large football towards it, Jason didn''t wait to let the Elite''s spear destroy it. Instead, the compressed black fireball exploded the moment the Elite''s spear reached it as per Jason''s instructions. The foresight blessing was no less than a boon for him on a battlefield. It allowed him to perfectly time the moment of the explosion which was less difficult than he expected. It helped him a lot and made many things much easier, such as overwhelming the spear wielder in front of him. Through the explosion of the compressed fireball, the spear''s trajectory changed. It gave Jason the required moment to attack through the faint cloud of smoke that had emerged in between them. After killing the spear wielder just like the previous Oceanfolk, Jason suddenly felt a premonition, which made him retreat. By absorbing each of Solaris'' subsidiary bodies that had separated from the main body in order to devour the mana and life force of their opponents, Jason was strengthened. Yet, that did little to hide his astonishment the moment he saw a total of 50 Elite of the Oceanfolk flying past him, on top of a ginormous flying whale! ''Is that their plan?'' Jason wondered, astonished about the whale''s speed. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 785 - Return Comprehending what was going on by looking at the whale was not exactly difficult. The flying whale was extremely fast, and by flying over the entire valley, they could quickly locate the Mewi and other powerful opponents who were hindering their advancement. Defeating these annoying opponents by overwhelming the rather annoying opponents with a numerical advantage, they wouldn''t have any issues once they reached the Mewi''s shelter. Jason realized this quickly, and without any hesitation, he replaced Solaris, who was still in his mana core, with Artemis before he initiated their fusion. The silver full moon was not yet completely over, so Jason quickly catapulted himself in the air while the fusion was underway. Meanwhile, Solaris was splitting up its life force and excessive mana which it released. Absorbing the mana, Jason inserted every bit of it into the moonlight affinity before he exerted the Floating Sky movement technique once again. Owing to the silver moonlight and the fact that his moonlight ability was still at its peak, Jason''s speed increased further, reaching what ought to be his highest speed. Not wasting any time, Jason unleashed the power of his own Stigma and the second one that was shining above the first. Through this his speed increased further, allowing him to reach under the whale a moment later. Mumbling, "sorry, but you are in the way!" Jason enveloped Byakur in the Frozen flame. It had already completely transmuted from its black color into a mixture of sky blue and silver color. This was due to the moonlight affinity that strengthened everything by more than 70% owing to the silver full moon. A moment later, Jason enlarged Baykur, before he pierced the longsword, severing through the flying whale''s abdomen. Hearing a painful cry, Jason felt sorry for a moment, but he had no time to dwell over the fact. The whale was currently the most threatening factor in the entire Oceanfolk army because it could transport the Oceanfolk Elite in the air that could not fly. Furthermore, the whale''s speed had simply been too fast, and Jason had taken some time to catch up to the beast. It was only because he was fused with Artemis and the fact that he had just enough time before it flew above him that he had been able to deliver a fatal blow. As such, the severe injury he inflicted on the flying whale was followed by a tremendous amount of mana. He released it into the Frozen moonlight flame that erupted within the whale, freezing it at a tremendous pace. Not even a handful of seconds had passed before Jason retracted Byakur as he sensed how the flying whale''s speed drastically reduced, followed up by its forced descent to the ground. Initially, the Oceanfolk Elite that had been riding on the whale''s back didn''t notice anything. As such, it was only the moment Jason released the tremendous amount of mana, followed by his Arctic aura that they realized what had just happened. His aura seemed to acquire a mind of its own and enveloped a radius of more than 100 meters, that shocked the Elite. Feeling the freezing cold that originated from Jason''s Arctic aura, the Oceanfolk Elite looked at each other for a moment before nodding their heads in realization. They had possibly just found the biggest threat in the entire valley and they were fully aware of the fact that they had to defeat him as soon as possible. Before, they had already been confused as to why the area on this side of the valley looked so devastated, and it didn''t take long to understand that everything had been Jason''s doing. As such, they wanted to act immediately before anything worse happened. However, they realized a bit late that they were quickly descending to the ground. At the same time, the flying whale''s agonized cries boomed through the surroundings, indicating that it was about to succumb to its injuries. This was bad because their Lord had given them the Juvenile Titan Wyhle in order to make them complete their mission in no time. Yet, seeing its death, the Oceanfolk Elite knew that they would have to pay a hefty price, even if their mission would be a success. With that in mind, they couldn''t help but feel angry. This anger was solely directed towards Jason, who was able to feel as well as see hues of hatred, and endless wrath from above the whale. Being able to see it was one thing, and being afraid of it was another. Thus, without hesitation, he retreated further away from the whale and saw it crash into the ground, right into the Oceanfolk''s army, killing thousands of beings at once. However, neither Jason nor the 50 Oceanfolk Elite cared about this as they circulated their respective energy through their body. Looking up in the sky for a moment, Jason frowned lightly as he clearly saw that the silver full moon would soon be eclipsed behind the mountain range. Furthermore, there were many clouds in that area, which meant that he might run into more issues if he were to be unlucky. With that in mind, Jason told himself that he had to hasten up, and defeat his opponents before anything could happen. Time was ticking and he knew that he had to gain an upper hand before sunrise. Thus, Jason manifested over a hundred sky-bluish- silver flames around him, which he threw towards the ground, targeting a wide area around the Oceanfolk Elite. His attacks didn''t hit a single Elite because they easily evaded them. But Jason was relentless as he launched an attack with three more batches of over a hundred of Solaris'' tremendously transmuted flames. This drained him of a lot of his mana, but instead of being too stingy with it, a plan had already formed in his mind. Because of his plan, Jason didn''t even think of allowing Solaris'' flames to extinguish. Instead, they clung to the ground, and the Titan Whyle''s body, where they continued to burn in the form of extremely small flames. Their size had decreased to that of a thumb, which was necessary to make them save the reserve of mana within them. Seeing that everything worked, Jason smiled faintly before he descended to the ground. He was approaching the Oceanfolk Elite, while he kept conjuring and throwing sky bluish-silver flames towards his opponents. They weren''t sure what exactly Jason was planning because the flames extinguished only a moment later...or that was what it looked like to the Oceanfolk Elite. From their point of view, it was as if the flames were becoming smaller in size and the mana leaking from them was decreasing too. With a total of around 1000 small, almost untraceable flames covering a large area around him, Jason couldn''t help but feel satisfied. He was truly delighted owing to the fact that the mana consumption was much smaller than he expected. Solaris'' ability to change its form and requirements in accordance with the wielder, that is, Jason was a big advantage to him. It was weird considering that Solaris was supposed to be a simple origin flame, but in the end, Jason knew nothing about Solaris'' origin, in the first place. As such, it was considered a mystery similar to Artemis, whose mutation was something Jason had yet to completely figure out. However, all of this could wait, and he was not under pressure to figure out anything in the next few years. Instead, he was now fighting a total of 50 opponents that had fortunately not seen the field of almost intractable flames he had created. Because of that, he was more confident in his victory. All he needed was a single mistake from the Oceanfolk Elite''s side, and see their defenses start to crumble. However, in order to reach that state, Jason first had to enter close combat. But, doing that was extremely dangerous because he didn''t know how much time he was left within the powerful form he was currently in. The silver full moon could be overshadowed by the clouds or the mountains at any moment which would drastically decrease his strength. Yet, instead of worrying too much, he had to make haste and fight with his life on the line, in order to quickly destroy his opponents. Protecting the villagers was the most important task which included defeating his opponents! With that in mind, he readied himself, tightly gripping Byakur that began to vibrate lightly in response to his action as he charged forward. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 786 - Over Catapulting himself into the crowd of 50 opponents, Jason''s eyes gleamed brightly as he continued to shoot out sky-bluish silver colored flames, without paying attention to his mana consumption. Owing to the silver full moon, and the unknown trait Artemis seemed to have received after her evolution, they were replenishing the used-up mana in no time. Taking a deep breath before plunging himself right into the fray, Jason pulled back Byakur. Afterward, he manifested a thick and tall wall of ice that split up the group of the 50 Oceanfolk elite. This unexpected obstacle distracted them for a fraction of a second. It took them some time to find a way to destroy the wall. They managed to do so after a while and it collapsed, sending bits of ice that sprayed all over the battlefield. Jason had created the icewall in order to face only one opponent first. His trick had worked as that was exactly what happened as he emerged in front of his opponent. Yet, instead of wasting any time in fighting fairly, Jason unleashed his petrification curse, followed by the race specific weakening curse. The combined attack weakened the Oceanfolk Elite''s combat prowess drastically, all of a sudden. However, that was not all because Jason followed up with the abyssal effect which he empowered with faint traces of his mana. He didn''t use too much, but it was still enough to allow Jason to use a special technique. With this, he was able to see the subtle movements his opponent was doing in order to build up a protective layer of dense mana around himself. This protection layer looked like it was strong enough to shield the Oceanfolk Elite against Jason''s lethal attacks. What they didn''t know was that Jason had Emperor Eyes and the foresight blessing that allowed him to see the protection layer before it had even been manifested. Thus, he simply avoided the Oceanfolk Elite''s front side which was fully covered in the protection layer. Instead, Jason attacked his opponent from behind back that was left unguarded. Owing to the stance he ended up in, Jason was unable to kill his opponent in an instant. Nonetheless, using the frozen moonlight flame that enveloped Byakur, the serious injury he inflicted turned into a lethal one that would kill his opponent in a few seconds. With that in mind, Jason propelled himself into the air a split second after he had inflicted the injury, knowing that the other remaining crowd of the Oceanfolk Elite would come for him any moment. As such, not giving them the time to reach him, Jason jumped into the air, where he continued to cover the ground with Solaris'' heavily transmuted flames. On the ground, they seemed harmless and nothing more than tiny sparks. But once Jason would use them properly, even the remaining Oceanfolk Elite would scream in fear and pain. Despite that, Jason felt that the threat of his opponent was increasing further because there were a total of three Deepsea Scia that worried him extremely. Not only did they have unique body constitutions that were different from each other, but their energy fluctuations were more distinct in comparison to the others. To add to his worry, there was one Deepsea Scia that seemed to be restricting itself. In the end, Jason was able to see that the said Deepsea Scia''s appearance was only an illusion and a means to hide its true form. Thinking about it, Jason realized that it was probably the being who he had seen half a year ago, the being that had observed everything with the other Deepsea Scia. Thus, he couldn''t help but feel glad that they hadn''t attacked 6 months earlier, otherwise, they wouldn''t even have lasted minutes against Jason. However, the current situation was far from ideal for them. Jason was confident to fight and kill everyone in front of them as long as the silver full moon wouldn''t betray him, and leave his sight before the fight ended. In the end, this was the biggest issue and something he had to be careful of. Every second was precious and so wasting any more time was a luxury he couldn''t afford. As such, Jason circulated a big amount of moonlight transmuted mana through his veins, giving his physical strength a much-needed boost. After he released the Arctic aura, the Oceanfolks'' Elite were covered in chills. They shivered due to the cold and somehow managed to cover their body with an energy layer, shielding them from the bitter cold. To their misfortune that was exactly what Jason had planned. Only a few minutes passed, in which Jason had never stopped throwing Solaris'' heavily transmuted flames towards the ground, without allowing them to extinguish. Thus, the entire ground was now covered, and the Oceanfolk Elite was slowly realizing that something was wrong. Nevertheless, they had no time to care about that because Jason was charging towards them while continuing to throw fireballs at them. Because they had to evade Jason''s razor-sharp blade and the fireballs, they had to crane their necks to get a good look at him. Meanwhile, Jason was hovering above them and his feet didn''t touch the ground even a single time. Thus, the Oceanfolk''s Elite only fully comprehended that they had walked right into his trap when they felt the cold on their feet spreading through their body. Initially, they had believed that the cold on their feet originated from the Arctic aura that had frozen the ground. As such, even after taking a glance towards the ground, they could only see the white, unmoving and frozen moonlight flames that were extremely small in size, resembling frozen strands of grass. Owing to the misconception the few Elite of the Oceanfolk had, Jason was finally able to initiate the grand attack he had planned. It made him use a tremendous amount of mana as the field of small, frozen moonlight flames erupted. This led them to unleash the entire mana that was stored within them followed by Jason''s mana. Due to this, the mass of flames erupted, their heights reaching a few meters. However, it didn''t last long, and in only a few seconds before everything was already over. The flames extinguished, leaving behind an overly exhausted Jason, and a harrowing sight of burning marine beasts in front of him. The frozen moonlight flames that had seared through the Oceanfolk''s Elite continued to burn, solely absorbing the mana and life force of the beings they were burning through. Yet, in a major turn of events, the majority of the Oceanfolk''s Elite were suddenly shedding their skin. This caused Jason''s eyes to widen because he didn''t expect them to be able to think on their feet, much less have such an ability to fight the frozen moonlight flames. Shedding their skin allowed them to expel the frozen moonlight flame, greatly astonishing Jason. Meanwhile, the other Oceanfolk Elite that were unable to shed their skin began to rip out their own skin, and the flesh below in order to survive the flames which they knew were life-threatening. Thus, the attack Jason had planned wasn''t a total failure. However, even if his initial attack had not been as lethal as he hoped to, shedding their skin, and tearing out large chunks of flesh weakened the strength of the Oceanfolk''s Elite considerably. With that in mind, Jason emerged in front of the closest Elite, who had just finished shedding its skin. But it was in vain as it was beheaded by Byakur''s razor-sharp blade in the next instant. His dagger didn''t distinguish between an opponent who was prepared for the attack and someone who was just reeling from the effects of his first blow. Continuing his attack, he felt that the next few seconds would be the most important, which made Jason increase his speed further as he left no stone unturned to defeat his opponents. Right now, he didn''t even have to look into the sky to know that the silver full moon was about to vanish from his sight for a very long time. He could immediately feel that the moonlight affinity which had allowed him to fight 50 Oceanfolk Elite at the same time, began to weaken. Thus, he had to make use of the last few seconds, killing as many of his opponents as possible! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 787 - Our Turn! If his assumption was correct, he had between 10 to 30 seconds left in the strong form of his fusion with Artemis. After that, his strength would decrease by more than 30%. This was still more than enough to fight against one, or even multiple Oceanfolk Elite, but not beings like the monster that was the furthest away from him. The Deepsea Scia which looked like a monster to him was just shedding its skin. It revealed its true appearance that was several times larger than its previous form. Jason didn''t know how it had fit into the previous form, but that did not matter right now because he had too many opponents to finish. Unleashing his curses without restraint, Jason corrupted his opponent''s mind using the abyssal effect followed by the race specific weakening curse and the petrification curse. This combination of an attack required a large amount of mana, but his current mana replenishing interval was short and refilled his entire mana core in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, these seconds were too long, and Jason had to restrict himself a little bit in order to not overexert his mana. Instead, he balanced everything out in order to have more than enough mana left once the amplification radiating from the silver full moon would vanish. To his fortune, even after balancing out his mana, there was more than enough of it left which he could use in order to defeat his opponents. With the use of his Emperor Eyes and the foresight ability, he could gauge the precise movements of his opponents before they made it. Following that, he used small attacks like a fireball or a pillar of ice, in order to restrict or distract his opponents. This confused the Oceanfolk Elite because they began to realize that Jason was attacking them in ways they were unable to comprehend. It was almost as if he was able to foretell their attacks, which should be impossible. Yet, that was exactly what Jason was able to do, even if it gave him only a fraction of a second''s advantage. His foresight blessing was not strong, and under normal circumstances, one wouldn''t be able to do a lot with it. Yet, his reaction speed, along with his Emperor Eyes, helped him predict the attacks. Owing to his eyes that could clearly perceive everything that happened in the fraction of a second he could foresee, Jason was able to foretell the whole attack his opponents were planning. That was only possible with opponents that used a simple attack pattern, one that he had already seen hundreds of times. Some of the Oceanfolk''s Elite were relatively simple-minded and Jason made use of that in order to kill them. He employed a single strike to finish them off after trapping them using a pillar of ice. It shot out of the ground, the moment his opponents stepped on that position. This was a petty trick, but it didn''t consume much mana and was extremely powerful as it allowed him to kill his opponents without delay. Owing to a small mana consumption, and the ability to kill the simple-minded opponents within a fraction of a second helped Jason preserve his strength by a lot. Using this saved energy, he jumped in the center of his opponents to face them at once. Initially, the Oceanfolk''s Elite wanted to attack him at the same time, but everything about Jason made them feel worried and terrified of him. The Arctic aura, the curses, his weird attacks, his eyes, followed by the weird and ominous pressure he released, was more than enough to force them to retreat, to run away as long as it was possible. Despite that, the rational part of the Oceanfolk Elite''s mind could clearly tell that Jason''s cultivation was at the Peak of the Prismar stage''s first threshold. This clearly showed that Jason''s true combat prowess was not what he was currently showing. He might be about to enter the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage, but even then, his combat prowess shouldn''t be so much stronger than that of a Peak Prissar stage Cultivator. Thus, the Oceanfolk slowly began to comprehend that Jason was lending the power from his surroundings in order to strengthen himself significantly. Because of that, they comprehended that Jason''s strength would decrease soon enough, once his body was unable to hold this power anymore. As such, they were just waiting for it to happen at any moment. This was not exactly wrong, but at the same time, it was not completely right either because the Oceanfolk''s Elite was misinterpreting the situation. Neither was Jason lending any power as he was fusing with Artemis nor was his true strength much lower than what he was revealing right now! Fusing with Artemis allowed her to exhibit her racial trait that was in fact the absorption and conversion of moonlight into mana. In fact, the moonlight affinity was the only difference the silver full moon had given to him. This might have enhanced his strength by around 70%, owing to the perfect timing, however, even without the silver full moon, the moonlight ability enhanced his mana circulation speed and affinities'' strength by 30%. As such, Artemis'' ability to convert moonlight into energy had made the biggest difference in Jason''s combat prowess, allowing him to kill countless opponents in no time. Because of that, the moment the silver full moon vanished, Jason''s strength decreased by a considerable amount. This forced him to adjust to the little passive mana gathering cycle of his sub-area that replenished his mana. It was not even close to being compared to the moonlight''s mana replenishment, but that did not matter right now. What mattered was the fact that his entire strength had decreased, including his speed that was one of the biggest advantages when he made use of his opponent''s predictions. Knowing where his opponents would move in order to take him by surprise and kill him this way, was great. But being unable to react and move in the fraction of a second he had received to initiate a counterattack, turned his foresight close to useless. Thus, his combat prowess decreased, while there were still around 30 Elite of the Ocenfolk left, followed by thousands of beings of the Oceanfolk. However, they had already run past him and the Oceanfolk''s Elite, avoiding joining their fight by all means. Jason had been unable to focus on his surroundings, and even though he hoped that the Village was fine, his current situation was not exactly one in which he was able to think about the others'' safety! That was, even more, the case when the Oceanfolk''s Elite realized that his strength had decreased, while his foresight ability weakened further. He was not weak by any means, but the difference in strength to before allowed the Oceanfolk to use their numerical advantage for the first time. Seeing this, the Ginormous Deepsea Scia that had held back for the entire time was finally free to join the fight. The remaining Oceanfolk Elite was ready to give their life as long as they were able to defeat the anomaly in their path called Jason. With that in mind, they charged towards him, only to perceive that the Ginormous Deepsea Scia had already passed by them. It had emerged in front of Jason, its fist cutting through the air as it smiled hideously. ''Now it''s our turn!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 788 - Reinforcement Seeing the large fist that was soaring towards him at a rapid speed, Jason knew that he was unable to evade it completely. For that, he would have to be fully adjusted to the weaker version of Artemis'' fusion. Unfortunately, that was not feasible because his entire mind and body were still fully focused on being able to do things that were now impossible to accomplish. Thus, Jason could only force his body to twist at an uncomfortable angle before he pierced out with Byakur. Yet, instead of aiming towards the Deepsea Scia''s fist, Jason had targeted its abdomen that was comparatively far from him to be hit under normal circumstances. Fortunately, Byakur was not an ordinary weapon by any means, and it had never been Jason''s plan to injure the Deepsea Scia with his attack, to begin with. Enlarging Byakur while piercing out, he used the Ginormous Deepsea Scia''s abdomen as a means to push himself away from it. This worked only because he actively dulled Byakur''s blade for the time being. This prevented the blade from completely piercing into the Deepsea Scia''s skin, and allowed him to push his body further away. Owing to the unique tactic he had used to increase his distance from the Deepsea Scia, he was able to evade its punch by a few centimeters. Quickly retracting Byakur, Jason used his ice affinity to shoot out a large pillar of ice from below him. This allowed him to catapult himself into the air without being grabbed by any of his opponents. It was not the best way to escape, but Jason first had to make sure that his body and mind wouldn''t betray him just like before. He was fully aware that the attack of the Deepsea Scia was dangerous, but at the same time, Jason believed in himself. He knew that his fusion with Artemis followed by the Floating Sky movement technique being executed at the maximum possible output was more than enough to attack and defend against the Oceanfolk''s Elite! This included the Ginormous Deepsea Scia''s attacks that were easier to predict than that of the others. As such, he shouldn''t have any problems, but unfortunately, not everything was as easy as it was supposed to be. Owing to the constant release of tremendous amounts of mana over the course of several hours, his mana veins and mana core were strained. Additionally, the constant manifestation of Artemis'' body parts, only to switch them with Petri, once it looked that it was better to allow Petri to occupy his mana core put a strain on his entire body. While his nutrition was completely dried, even after replenishing them by eating loads of food, his mana veins, and mana core were sore, and more difficult to use. To his misfortune, Jason realized this too late, which made him finally understand why he was unable to evade the Ginormous Deepsea Scia''s attack as he wanted. It was frustrating, but without being able to use mana the way he wanted, not even his foresight ability, and Emperor Eyes were as potent as before. Their efficiency had decreased drastically, and without being able to do anything against it, he could only adjust himself to the given situation. This forced him to block more attacks, which he would normally evade without putting too much effort. As a result, he received more injuries owing to the heavy impact of some moves the Oceanfolk''s Elite were utilizing to injure Jason. Not only was this frustrating, but holding Byakur was becoming more difficult owing to the impact that was constantly coursing through his sword arm. Using his ice and fire affinity that were enhanced by the moonlight affinity, Jason could barely prevent the remaining Oceanfolk Elite from killing him. In the end, this could already be considered a great achievement as the three extremely strong Deepsea Scias had become the main attack force that was supported by the remaining Elite of the Oceanfolk. Several minutes had passed since the full silver moon had vanished, and Jason knew that his fusion with Artemis would end soon too. Thus, his strength would further decrease, preventing him from using the Frozen Flame, as well as Artemis'' wings to the extent he would like to. This was something that bothered him tremendously. Even without the moonlight affinity, he could still use Artemis'' manifestation of body parts in a fused condition that were as strong as that of a Peak Prismar stage flying beast''s. In the end, this was something that originated from the fact that their fusion merged their strength, which was different from the normal amplification that stemmed from his soul world. Because of that, Jason didn''t want to drag the fight any further, and he began to consider a tactical retreat. Thus, he took a quick glance at his surroundings in order to figure out what the current situation around the Mewi race''s shelter looked like. Yet, the moment he looked towards his right, the Oceanfolk''s Elite initiated a large-scale attack, with every single one of them attacking him, using all kinds of means. Thus, Jason was forced to turn his head back, averting his attention to the Elite of the Oceanfolk. However, instead of being shocked, or anything like that, he had already expected an attack. Nonetheless, this was not the reason why Jason had just begun to smile, confusing the foes he was fighting with. Jason''s situation was far from better, and he looked worse because of the dozens of deep cuts covering his entire body! Owing to the sudden smile on Jason''s face, the Elite of the Oceanfolk couldn''t help but slow down their attack, while some of them looked towards their left side, where Jason had previously looked. "His reinforcement is coming!!" One of the Deepsea Scia shouted out, warning the others, just before a faintly glowing Mewi shouted out in rage. In a matter of minutes, the Mewi transformed their shapes enabling them to change the shape of their lower body. This, in turn, accelerated the speed at which they were able to massacre their opponents, approaching Jason with a much faster pace. Using the tiny fraction of a second in which even the Ginormous Deepsea Scia was surprised about the appearance of the Mewi, Jason tended to his deep cuts. The Ginormous Deepsea Scia thought that the Mewi seemed to be much stronger than the reports had stated. Meanwhile, Jason was able to use the moonlight affinity''s healing property to tend to his injuries before he used Artemis'' wings to catapult himself towards the Mewi. In the group of Mewi, Jason spotted Brell who had lifted his heavy broadsword, indicating Jason to hurry up and retreat. Yet, instead of following the signs of the Grand tribe chief, Jason stopped the moment he reached Brell before he shared his report of what had happened. This was not a necessity, but instead of allowing the Mewi to misinterpret the situation, Jason hastily summarized the key points. After he said this, Brell and the other Mewi tried to convince him to retreat because they had already realized that he was in a bad shape. However, Jason didn''t want to leave, and his eyes fixated on the Ginormous Deepsea Scia as he said, "If I''m fighting it alone, I can definitely defeat it, trust me! I''ll have to show someone what it means to be overpowered!" Jason said with determination gleaming in his eyes. Thus, Brell could only shrug his shoulders before ordering the rest of his people to attack the remaining Elite of the Oceanfolk, giving Jason the trust he wanted. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 789 - [Bonus ]Ginormous Deepsea Scia [Author note: Thank you guys so much for 600PS for my new novel [Spirit Soul] this is the second extra chapter. I hope you guys like it. Love the support I receive <3 Thanks again :d] While Jason eyed the Ginormous Deepsea Scia, the Mewi reinforcements were currently assessing the situation and strength of the opponents. They were already facing one opponent each, and it was only now that Jason noticed that the Mewi were way more in number than the Oceanfolk Elite, almost double them! Taking a deep breath, Jason couldn''t help but sigh in relief because the Mewi didn''t have to face a numerical disadvantage in this battle that was likely to decide their race''s survival or extinction. With that in mind, they weren''t pressured owing to the advantages they had, and even Jason could calmly face the Ginormous Deepsea Scia. However, at the same time, his entire body was currently injured, and it felt like every single inch of it was hurting. Even his mana veins and mana core were sore and felt like they were burning. Fortunately, by manifesting Solaris in his body, he could lessen the pain. The black flame released a cooling sensation owing to the transmutation it underwent due to the fusion he and Artemis were still having. As such, his body was cooling down while recuperating slowly. Using the moonlight affinity to cover his entire body with it, Jason felt that the deep cuts on his body were quickly healing, and even his mana veins and core were slowly but steadily healing. This was great, but before he knew it, the Ginormous Deepsea Scia had already begun to move. In minutes, it appeared in front of him, using a kind of speed it hadn''t reached before. Because its speed was higher than before, Jason could barely react as his Emperor Eyes and foresight blessing had perceived the Ginormous Deepsea Scia''s movement the moment it happened! Through this, he realized early enough that it was going to attack him, giving him the necessary time to think of a counterattack. Yet, given the fact that his speed was slower since the silver full moon disappeared, Jason could barely exert the Floating Sky movement technique at the Perfect mastery. Additionally, he released a large amount of excessive mana coursing through his body, further increasing his body''s strength and movement speed. After that, he was able to reach a decent speed, allowing him to move nearly as fast as the Ginormous Deepsea Scia. Fortunately, its movements were quite simple, giving Jason the opportunity to evade the attacks it issued even though it was faster. The simplicity of its movements was caused by its bulky, rigid body that prevented the Ginormous Deepsea Scia from using any complex movements that required great agility and flexibility. Thus, Jason had a great advantage over the Oceanfolk Elite he was facing, his flexibility, agility, and the fact that he could foretell his opponent''s simple attacks. Given the advantages, he had a good chance of defeating the Ginormous Deepsea Scia, but it was not as easy as it looked. Though he appeared to be perfectly fine on the outside, using the Floating Sky movement technique while circulating mana through his body was already enough to cause him to feel extreme pain. This was not something he could take lightly, even less because he felt that his body began to cramp the moment he wanted to use more mana. Inserting faint traces of mana into his eyes was still fine, but that was only because he was constantly using mana in his eyes that were much more refined and in a sense, stronger than his remaining body. In the end, this also included a part of the mana veins that were directly connected to his Emperor Eyes. It allowed him to continue circulating mana into his eyes, while the rest of his body groaned just at the thought of circulating more mana through it. Unfortunately, Jason couldn''t really listen to his body''s pleas to rest because the Ginormous Deepsea Scia was a beast that even Brell would be unable to defeat. At least that was Jason''s opinion of their combat prowess, even after a fleeting glance towards Brell showed him how the Grand tribe chief was overwhelming the Oceanfolk Elite. Right now, he was just trying to stall in order to allow the Mewi to defeat the Oceanfolk Elite using their numerical advantage. However, that didn''t seem to be as easy as Jason had hoped for. Instead, the two Elite were much stronger than the rest and didn''t have any issues fighting and even overwhelming their opponents. The three Mewi were struggling against the Elite whose strength seemed to be almost on par with the Ginormous Deepsea Scia. Thus, Jason knew that he couldn''t rely on the combat prowess of the Mewi because only Brell seemed to be extraordinarily strong amongst the present fighters of the Mewi race. However, this didn''t mean that the others were weak because that was definitely not the case! With that in mind, he forced himself to focus on supplying his Emperor Eyes with more mana so that he could initiate a killing blow without the need to damage, or even worse, destroy his mana veins. He often had to focus on not overdoing it, and there had already been quite a few occasions in which his mana veins had been on the brink of destruction. Because of that, he knew when he should be careful and when he could fight without restricting himself. Unfortunately, his current situation demanded from him to be careful. It was mostly owing to the fact that he had fused with Artemis too often today. Additionally, he had also frequently switched between Artemis and then Petri to occupy his mana core too often in short intervals. This had been a necessity in order to release the highest combat prowess during each situation, but at the same time, frequent switches with his soulbonds occupying his mana core had taken a toll on his body. Manifesting a few body parts before his soulbond was suddenly replaced with a different one, only for the same procedure to repeat itself multiple times had left him exhausted. Owing to this, Jason had to be careful right now, even more so because the Ginormous Deepsea Scia was trying to overwhelm and quickly defeat him, thereby ending his life. However, Jason wouldn''t allow this, which made him exceed his limits to a degree to which he was still able to avoid sustaining serious injuries. Thus, he used small means to attack such as a thin layer of a frozen flame enveloping Byakur, strengthening the sword tremendously. It was followed by two pillars of ice that were erected out of the ground without prior warning. Their position was perfectly calculated to target the spot at which the Ginormous Deepsea Scia was landing. Considering the fact that its skin should be the strongest too, Jason had used a large amount of mana to erect the spiked ice pillars that were further strengthened by the moonlight affinity. Owing to the enhancements, the ice pillars became strong enough to endure the weight of more than a ton. This strength was more than enough to keep the pillars firm and steady. Thus, the moment the Ginormous Deepsea Scia''s feet stepped on them, its feet were pierced by the pillars it stepped on. A moment later, the freezing property of his ice affinity that was further strengthened by the moonlight affinity began to work. Yet, Jason was not done because he brandished Byakur towards the Ginormous Deepsea Scia the moment it stepped on the ice pillars. At first, the Deepsea Scia was not affected by the ice pillars, but the moment Byakur was only half a meter away from it, this changed. However, even more important than that was the fact that Jason noticed that his fusion with Artemis would end at any moment! As such, he used his remaining mana in two ways. First, the frozen flame enveloping Byakur erupted, increasing in size while the ice pillars that were splattered with fresh, warm blood, continued to grow, enlarging the wound in the Ginormous Deepsea Scia''s feet. While the ice pillars distracted the Deepsea Scia that was trying to save its feet from getting sliced, Jason used the opportunity to strike. As such, Byakur sliced through the Ginormous Deepsea Scia''s chest only for Solaris'' to enter its body, devouring it from the inside! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 790 - No Sleep A thunderous roar reverberated through the surrounding area, which made the entire battlefield go silent for a second. Everybody turned around to see the source of the painful scream. The other Oceanfolk Elite were staring wide-eyed at the Ginormous Deepsea Scia that had realized it was about to die. Even the thousands of other marine beasts that belonged to the army of the Oceanfolk stopped for a second to turn towards their strongest combatant. It felt as if the scene in front of them was playing in slow motion as shock spread through their body. They had realized that there was someone from the opposite party who was stronger than their strongest Elite member. It clearly meant that their chances to win were rapidly decreasing. This realization only deepened further the moment the Ginormous Deepsea Scia collapsed on the ground. Sky blue flames enveloped its dead body, devouring it as it slid down the Titan Whyle''s corpse. When the Ginormous Deepsea Scia died, Jason''s sight blurred, and a moment later his fusion with Artemis was dissolved. Afterward, Jason didn''t think much as he told Artemis to return to the soul world while asking Solaris to enter the mana core. Using an insignificant amount of mana that his mana core had already replenished, Solaris began to heal him. The flame''s soothing sensation within his body began to tend to his aching muscles and mana veins that were on the verge of tearing apart. It had been a long time since he felt as powerless as right now, and Jason felt as if all of the energy had seeped out of him. His knees gave in as he slumped to the ground. He didn''t even realize that he was lying on the Titan Whyle''s corpse. Gravity did its work and pulled him towards the ground, as he landed next to the burning corpse of the Ginormous Deepsea Scia. The flames enveloping it were still sky blue, but when a trace of Solaris'' black flame took control over the flames, they slowly started to turn black. This caused Jason to smile lightly, even more so when he felt that the life force Solaris had absorbed from the Deepsea Scia was invigorating him. Under normal circumstances, this was not possible, but owing to the fact that Jason''s entire body was sucked dry of his nutrition followed by the scarcity of mana, a fraction of the devoured life force was transferred to his body. As for the remaining life force, it was released within the soul world, where Petri devoured it without a second of hesitation. The Cursed Basilisk wanted to become stronger, and life force was even more potent than primordial energy. Thus, absorbing it would help accelerate the cultivation speed of beings that followed the cultivation path of Pryr. That was something Jason had already noticed beforehand, but he had never truly comprehended how potent the life force of beings at a higher cultivation base was. Petri''s cultivation speed accelerated by at least 30%, which was a decent feat. The Cursed Basilisk was able to cultivate as fast as Spyro, whose cultivation speed was much higher than Jason had first expected. In the end, each of his soulbonds had a high cultivation speed that was probably on par with that of higher races. Unfortunately, Jason was not able to see if any of his soulbonds had a specific racial limit or not. It would be quite a disadvantage if that were to be the case considering that his soulbonds wanted to be of use for him. Thus, they would be depressed once they would become too weak to help him. This, in fact, could be quite dangerous because his soulbonds may act like Scorpio, sacrificing themselves, thinking that it was their final task to die for him. Jason didn''t want a repeat of the incident of the Yasl?rn caves to ever happen again. As such, he would rather bind more soulbonds, and become strong enough to overcome all obstacles, instead of allowing them to sacrifice their lives just because he was too weak to protect all of them. With that in mind, he had also bound the Sacred Squirrel, just a short while after he bound Spyro to his Soul. In fact, the Sacred Squirrel was completely different from his other soulbonds because it was cultivated with blessed energy, and only its blessings at that. Because of that, its strength would already be lacking, and Jason was not even sure if the Sacred Squirrel was able to become stronger, at all. Once all of its blessings were stronger, it might be able to cultivate, but that was not something he could know, and the only thing he could do was to make assumptions that revolved around the Sacred Squirrel. While his body was currently too weak to move even a single inch, his mind was rattling wildly. In the end, he required a short break before he could start annihilating the rest of the Oceanfolk''s army, and he hoped that the Mewi would be fine until then. His current strength was simply too weak to protect the Mewi that were still fighting behind him. Yet, since he had defeated the Ginormous Deepsea Scia, their morale had received a huge boost, while the exact opposite could be said about the Oceanfolk Elites. They would have rushed back into the ocean if not for the fact that Jason had collapsed to the ground. That was the only thing that prevented them from giving up. Fighting with a desperation that was flaring up from the depths of their conscience, they still thought that they had a chance. However, their bubble burst when they saw that the bodies of the Mewi were suddenly enlarging. Their skin color changed into a faintly glowing blue, representing the purest form of mana. This allowed the Mewi to use the mana that was stored in their body, representing their life force, to exceed their limits. Initially, they hadn''t planned to resort to using this technique, but after seeing Jason,,, it was impossible for them to do nothing. He was a complete stranger yet he was fighting with his utmost efforts in order to protect the shelter and the people inside. Thus, his actions motivated them to fight like never before. The technique they used might drain some of their painstakingly accumulated life force but that was not something they could be bothered about. If they were to lose against the Elite of the Oceanfolk right now, their entire race would be annihilated, after all! With a deep sigh, Brell wanted to demonstrate to Jason that he wouldn''t have to injure himself just to protect them once again. They were already doing much better than before, solely owing to the fact that the mana density of the valley had returned to its former peak. Yet, the moment Jason slid from the Titan Whyle''s corpse, he knew that it was time for them to quickly end the battle. As such, with the simple thought of using all of his strength, Brell had ordered the Mewi to do the same before he mumbled in the direction of the Oceanfolk''s Elite. "You should never underestimate someone if you don''t know their true strength¡­and form!" Saying that, he unleashed the unsealed and purest form of mana he possessed before he disappeared from the spot he had been standing a moment ago. It was just a blink of an eye later that he appeared behind the opponent that was the furthest away from them, as he pierced out with his arm that had turned into a two-meter-long blade. Piercing through the chest of the oblivious Elite of the Oceanfolk, Brell continued his onslaught, motivating the other Mewi to defeat their opponents as quickly as possible too. Through the numerical advantage and the higher combat prowess the Mewi had now attained, there were no issues in defeating their opponents. Even the two Deepsea Scia that were much stronger than the rest were unable to face the onslaught of transformed Mewi. As such, the fight ended rather quickly after Jason had defeated the Ginormous Deepsea Scia. Reverting to their old form the moment the fight was over, the Mewi breathed heavily while Brell had already appeared next to Jason with a faint smile on his face. "Oi, it''s not yet time to sleep!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 791 - Less Is More Unable to move properly, Jason could barely fly through the sky, which slowed down the other Mewi that wanted to return to the shelter as quickly as possible. Thus, Solaris, who was still occupying his mana core utilized its own mana in order to manifest black wings on Jason''s back before it controlled them. Through this, their flying speed increased by several times, allowing them to return to the shelter in less than two hours. However, what they saw next caused the Mewi and even Jason to frown. The entire shelter was surrounded by numerous marine beasts, and there were multiple, gaping holes in the outermost shelter wall, while the second wall had only a total of two holes. Fortunately, the innermost wall was still safe, but from what Jason was able to perceive, the wall wouldn''t hold out for long either. This was a bad sign and clearly showed how dangerous the overwhelming number of marine beasts truly was. Jason and the others had assumed that the biggest threat of the entire Oceanfolk army was their Elite, but that didn''t seem to be the case. Contrarily, it was the huge number of opponents that were using their affinities, and physical strength to devastating the walls in their entirety. This would allow them to slowly approach the shelter from all directions. There was only one advantage Jason and the others perceived- the marine beasts that were able to fly had already been killed! In the end, there had only been a few marine beasts that had been able to fly, and even that could at most be called hovering in the air, not flying properly. It was what Jason had expected, only with fewer issues originating from the numbers of the Oceanfolk. However, in the end, strength was everything that counted, and with the strongest Mewi that had returned as reinforcements to the shelter, Jason was sure that they wouldn''t have a problem. He wanted to help too, but Brell told him to rest for a little, otherwise, he would simply get in the way. That comment was hurtful, but Jason understood what the Grand tribe chief wanted to imply. As such, he simply nodded his head before taking out one of the few potions he had in his spatial ring. Jason didn''t have many potions because he only wanted to drink potions that were perfectly purified. The higher one''s ranking the higher was the difficulty to find them and it was because of this fact that Jason had wanted to concoct potions by himself. Unfortunately, most materials inside his spatial ring were to be used for forging purposes, which was what he was the most proficient in. Given the scarcity of potions, Jason had initially planned to hold back from using them because he might need them in an emergency. However, even if the situation didn''t look that dangerous, Jason realized that it was a much bigger threat than most Mewi realized. To their fortune, they were oblivious to the dangers, which gave the Mewi the necessary motivation to fight with increased morale. Only a birds'' eye view would make the dangers clear, which meant that Jason and the strongest Mewi understood the situation properly. Nevertheless, Brell was adamant in making Jason rest for a little bit until he could move freely once again. However, had the Grand tribe chief known that this would take several days, Brell''s reaction would be a different one. Jason had exceeded his limits the moment he had utilized the moonlight affinity and Artemis'' racial trait of transforming during the full moon that had left him severely exhausted. Thus, Jason just nodded before resting for a few minutes. The perfectly purified potion at the low Prismar rank began to take effect as it spread through his body, soothing his pain. Even though the pain and fatigue didn''t completely recede, both the potion and Solaris'' flames that spread through his entire body were helping him to calm down his sore mana vein and mana core. Despite that, Jason knew that this was temporary because he would have to return to the fight. With that in mind, Solaris flames'' sprouted out of his back once he was ready, turning into wings before he reached the outermost layer of the walls. There, he saw that almost everything had been destroyed but that was fine as he found a spot, in particular, that was almost unscathed. Standing on top of the wall, he lowered the supply of mana to the wings on his back. Afterward, he manifested dozens of small black flames that turned into spikes before Jason shot them out. By carefully testing the limits of his body in the current situation, he started off with a dozen black flame spikes. He then slowly increased the number of spikes he could manifest at a time without further worsening the pain his mana veins and core were already transmitting to him. In the end, the number of black flame spikes he could manifest at a time was around 50, which was more than expected, but at the same time, it was less than he had hoped to need. However, that was fine because the low number of black flame spikes he could manifest at a time without the need to endure more pain allowed him to focus more on his surroundings and the places that required most of his attention. At the same time, it was interesting to see how the foresight blessing worked with thousands of opponents that were in his sight. Seeing the future movements of a dozen opponents was already a great burden to his mind. Thus, when he applied his foresight ability to thousands of marine beasts that were moving differently, Jason felt like his head would split into two. Because of that, he had to try regulating the foresight blessing, which was easier said than done. Fortunately, with time passing, he slowly learned how to make use of the foresight blessing, at least if it revolved around the topic of how to restrict it. As for the other blessings, they were just harbored inside his body, doing nothing great to support him. Even then, Jason knew that they would help him in the future, or so he believed owing to the fact that the Sacred Squirrel hadn''t been bound to him for a long time. It hadn''t been less than three weeks, and the Sacred Squirrel had yet to wake up and do something else than sleep peacefully. For now, this was fine, but Jason wanted to see how powerful a blessed beast with four blessings truly was. Even if the Squirrel''s combat prowess was bound to be low, strength didn''t always have to be the deciding factor to fight strong opponents! With that in mind, he tried to actively adjust the foresight blessing in order to suit the given situation all the time. It would take time before this would be something he could do instinctively, but Jason couldn''t help but smile to see that almost each of his black flame spike attacks hit bull''s eye. Being able to gauge where someone would place their next step was simply too powerful. It was only possible with the powerful combination of the foresight blessing that gave the necessary information to the Emperor Eyes which it had been lacking to make a proper assessment. Because of that, Jason turned into the epitome of a killing machine that was powerful enough to kill more than 40 opponents every few seconds! Through this, Jason realized that sometimes, less was more. He realized this when he saw that the manifestation of 50 black flame spikes allowed him to kill opponents faster and with a higher precision than it was the case with several hundred black flame spikes! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 792 - Portal Hours flew by, in which Jason had turned into the main focus of the entire army of the Oceanfolk because they noticed the dangers looming around him. Jason''s movements might have looked sluggish and restricted, but his black flame spikes were deadly with four of five hitting their target. This didn''t necessarily mean that they were immediately killed but owing to Solaris'' unique abilities, they would certainly die after they had been hit once. Some marine beasts tore out their own flesh and skin in order to prevent the flames from spreading, but the majority of his attacks cut deeper into the skin. This would mean that they had to almost kill themselves only to prevent the black flames from spreading further. Seeing how thousands of marine beings died by burning, only for fractions of Solaris'' flame to continue burning at the location where their brethren had succumbed to their ill fate, the army of the Oceanfolk began to attack him desperately. This averted their attention from the destruction of the shelters towards him. Thus the pressure on the Mewi decreased drastically, allowing them a breather before Brell and the others continued to storm into the army, starting a killing spree. In the end, the entire Army of the Oceanfolk was defeated, and the last shelter wall was still standing firmly. It was damaged but not completely destroyed! Many Mewi had died, but in comparison to the countless numbers of the Oceanfolk''s army, this number was significantly less than anything Jason had expected. Once all marine beings had been eradicated, Jason was able to take a deep breath for the first time since the start of the battle. Yet, the only thing he smelled was blood and charred bodies of the marine beasts instead of fresh air he had wanted to breathe in. Sighing deeply, he slumped to the ground. He stayed back on the shelter wall while staring at the shelter, where he heard that everyone was celebrating. The Mewi were exhausted but that didn''t hold them back from being happy, which made him smile lightly. It was exactly at this moment, when he looked at the shelter with a faint smile, thinking that it was worth the effort to protect them, even if it was not for the trial''s task. He was bone tired and just wished to sleep when his eyes perceived the emergence of a large gate in the center of the shelter. This astonished the Mewi who were standing nearby, causing them to cry out in fright, but Jason almost immediately realized what the gate was. ''So¡­that''s already it? I thought I should find the treasure the Oceanfolk was searching for in order to meet the requirements to pass the trial¡­'' In fact, the gate that just emerged looked similar to the portals he had to pass through in order to advance through the floors in the tower that was his first trial. Thinking about the trials, Jason couldn''t help but feel odd, considering that more than two and a half years had already passed since he entered the dungeon. Never could he have imagined that so much time would have already passed because it felt like a few days, at most a month to him since he had entered the dungeon. He had just been too busy cultivating and doing other stuff to keep track of time, but even then, he couldn''t help but feel weird. His combat strength had increased drastically in that short amount of time, and since he had entered Kinra island, he had progressed a lot. Not only had he entered the Prismar stage, but right now, he could already defeat beings at the Peak of the Prismar stage! His progress finally allowed him to fight head-on with beings that were several times stronger than him. To top it all, he had achieved this miraculous feat in only two and a half years. Most beings required dozens of years to cultivate from the Initial Prismar stage to the Peak, and then there were beings like Jennifer, who were able to reach the Peak of the Prismar stage in all three cultivation paths, at the age of 25. Thinking about it, some great prodigies were just overly talented and blessed with strong cultivation veins. Yet, Jason knew that Jennifer had her own problems that might not have to do with her cultivation but control over her body that was constantly exposed to two repulsive energies. She had solved her issue quite well, but Jason knew that losing control over the affinities would end up in a disaster. While his mind was occupied with Jennifer, where she might be right now, and how strong she had become after passing through the last trial where they had parted their ways, the Mewi had already stopped celebrating and were now mourning their deceased. Clearing the shelter, the deceased Mewi were moved to the wide center of the arena that was more like an open patch of grass, where only the portal that would transport Jason to the third trial had emerged. Seeing this, Jason forced his body to move as he decided to help. His mind and body were overly exhausted and he felt as if he was more asleep and injured than alive and kicking. Nevertheless, he helped in finding the deceased which was not difficult owing to the Emperor Eyes that allowed him to sense even the slowly deteriorating mana fluctuations of the deceased Mewi. The way Mewi died was completely different than other beings, if one were to look solely at their mana fluctuations because their body was solely made of mana, to begin with. As such, Jason couldn''t help but stare at the deceased Mewi in astonishment, only to shake his head, cursing himself for being intrigued by something as horrifying as the death of Mewi before he approached the Mewi''s corpse that was the closest to him. Carefully picking him up, Jason flew towards the center of the shelter, with a solemn expression before he put him down in a row which consisted of other dead bodies. The other Mewi saw him helping out and were staring at him for a moment. They were speechless to see their brethren die hence they only thanked him with a simple nod, showing that Jason''s seemingly simple task meant a lot to them. Thus, more than an hour passed in which Jason was flying around, moving the dead corpses towards the center of the shelter before the mourning ceremony started, without further delay. In the end, this was something that belonged to their culture. Jason watched with a heavy heart as he shockingly saw the body of the deceased Mewi simply disintegrate, before turning into the purest mana that merged with the surrounding mana. This caused Jason''s eyes to widen, but the other Mewi didn''t seem to be shocked about it. Rather, their eyes were silently following the path the countless particles of their deceased brethren took. A sadness was weighing them down and the Mewi were still gloomy, but instead of allowing themselves to let sadness consume them, they began to work with a determination that made Jason frown. ''They won''t mourn for a few days¡­they are done already?'' He was confused about their customs, but instead of commenting on it, Jason simply accepted it. He rested for a few hours before burning the countless corpses of the Oceanfolk''s army. This took much longer than Jason wanted to acknowledge, but he didn''t want to be rude and simply get up to leave. He should give them at least the bare minimum help in order to remove the marine beasts'' corpses. However, even after that was done, Jason didn''t leave., Jason further helped them remove the rubble of the destroyed shelter walls, and it was only after this that he was finally ready to leave. Bidding the Mewi farewell, after telling them to find what the Oceanfolk were looking for and use it themselves, he received a heart-warming farewell gesture. Each Mewi released their true form for a moment while wishing him a glorious and wonderful life. After that, Jason stepped through the portal, finishing the second trial. [Congratulations! The second Trial has been completed successfully! Time required 196 days, ''Void'' difficulty, ¡­ Good+ achievement attained!] ''Wait¡­only good?!?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 793 - 2nd Threshold The moment Jason passed through the gate he received multiple notifications from the dungeon''s artificial intelligence and one of them was that he had passed the trial successfully. That could be described as a great achievement, but he couldn''t believe that his passing score was still so bad. Because of that, the notification resounded in his head several times as if his mind wanted to tease him. It caused Jason to frown deeply. [Congratulations! The second Trial has been passed successfully! Time required 196 days, ''Void'' difficulty, Good+ achievement attained!] The achievement he had attained was better than last time, where he had only received ''Good'', without the ''+''. Sadly, that was not enough to make Jason happy, or even close to that. Right now, he was just frustrated and wanted to have a lengthy discussion with the creators of the dungeon, and how they could give him such a bad score. It was even more frustrating because he had spent years completing the second trial. And the fact that he might not be able to receive the rewards he wanted, once he were to pass all trials annoyed him to no end. However, that thought was quite naive because he was not even sure what exactly the rewards would be, and how great a ''good'' passing score was. In the end, he had passed the trial which was the only thing that should be counted as important. Yet, Jason was still not happy with his score because it hurt his pride to be only labeled as good, and not extraordinary after giving his best to ace the trial. Nonetheless, the passing grade gave him a rough idea of how exceptional the descendants of Primordials should be. Unfortunately, this made him reconsider how powerful Primordials might be. This realization made him suddenly question how he was even able to pass both the tower and the valley trial with such a high grade. From being annoyed and frustrated about his low score despite his utmost efforts, Jason began to see it in a new light. His mindset began to change thinking that the Celestia race belonged to the Primordials. This meant that he had just received a good passing grade according to the standards of pureblood Primordials! And that was including the fact that his bloodline was partially sealed, and that he was a halfling! The more he thought about it, the more amazing he felt about himself. His previous bad mood dispersed into thin air, as he allowed the other messages of the artificial intelligence to reach his mind, where they were conveyed. [Dungeon Challenger repaired the mana vein, used the valley''s sacred beast, lost 1 village and 1583 Mewi, distributed techniques to strengthen the Mewi, and supported the villages, allowing individual ''Brell'' to become the Grand tribe chief, instead of using dominance to rule over everything!] The message was crammed with every single detail that counted as a positive or possibly negative thing he had caused while attempting to pass the second trial. This caused him to feel a little bit odd because the positives overshadowed the negatives by a lot. Hence, he was unable to understand what else he was supposed to do in order to pass the trial with a higher passing grade. Even if he had already accepted that he was rivaling the standards of true Primordials, something felt off. Jason felt weird because even higher ranked races had to unseal their bloodline slowly, which meant that the Primordials were at the same cultivation stage as him. In the end, the Primordials would have only undergone the primary bloodline awakening, which was the same with him¡­ Yet, when Jason thought about this, he forgot to add one of the simplest factors to the equation- the age of Primordials at his cultivation rank! Unable to comprehend the shocking truth, Jason''s ignorance allowed him to keep a calm head. He had no idea that the difficulty had been tweaked to suit his age. Jason had received only a ''good +'' passing grade because the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendants'' difficulty had been changed in order to be suitable for the cultivation stage of small children! Oblivious to this fact, he was clearing his mind of his initial worries while he passed through the portal that led him towards the third trial. Jason couldn''t help but feel that traveling from the second to the third trial was taking much longer than the first time he had completed a trial. Nonetheless, the time he had been given allowed Jason to think about many things. Yet, before he could unravel the jumbled knot of thoughts in his head, the surrounding environment changed. He saw himself walking towards a vast expanse of a plain where he couldn''t see even a single tree or a beast for miles on end. This confused him, and he believed that it was too good to be true. But even after turning in all directions, he found no living being. It was a simple plain with lush grass for as far as his eyes could travel, but that was already it. Not even the sun was brightly shining on him, and Jason couldn''t even see it when he looked towards the sky. It was as if the entire place was just lit by some dazzling source of light that he couldn''t spot. Wondering what he was supposed to do, Jason waited to receive the task of his third trial. Thus, he simply moved through the empty plain, trying to figure out whether there was something somewhere, or if the entire enclosed area was truly empty. In the end, several hours passed, but he found nothing, which should normally frustrate him. However, instead of feeling annoyed, Jason''s mind was clear and he felt safe and reassured. It was a refreshing change to not jump into fighting beasts every single time a new trial started. Because of that, he decided to cultivate a little bit, given the fact that he hadn''t felt as comfortable as right now, for a very long time. Right now, cultivating meant that he could construct his first, large rotating crystal. The outlines had already been completed, and only the rest of it was missing. Knowing what he had to do owing to the Mythic Essence''s teachings, he didn''t have as many problems as Artemis had with the construction of her first large rotating crystal. On her first attempt, Artemis had almost made a big mistake owing to her inexperience, but fortunately, nothing serious had happened. As for Jason, his control over mana was precise, and he knew every single step of the construction process of the large rotating crystal by heart. Because of that, the only thing he had been missing for so long was time. In the end, what cultivation required the most was not only time or the perfect environment, but a perfect balance of both, sprinkled with determination, patience, mana mastery, and other ingredients. Having the necessary talent to excel in it was just a cherry on the cake. Fortunately, Jason currently had everything he required, even more so because the third trial had yet to start. With that in mind, time passed slowly, and Jason cultivated for a total of two months before the first of three large rotating crystals was successfully constructed. It took longer than he had expected, but if someone else were to hear him saying this, they would start puking blood. Even though it took longer than he had expected, the next time would become much easier because now he had both theoretical knowledge and practical experience to do the same. Thus, he was now in the need of another 100,000 liquefied drops of mana, but that could wait for some time. While he had been cultivating, and entering the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage, his soulbonds hadn''t stayed idle. Artemis was already halfway through the construction of her third large rotating crystal. Solaris wasn''t far behind and had created its second large rotating crystal as well. This was owing to the tremendous amount of mana Solaris had absorbed during the grand battle against the Oceanfolk''s army, followed by liquefying a total of 40,000 mana drops. As for Petri and Spyro, both had constructed their first large rotating crystal, while the Sacred Squirrel was still sleeping as if it was in hibernation. Through his own cultivation speed and that of his soulbonds accelerated further by the cricula Minatra flowers, Jason''s combat prowess skyrocketed, increasing much more. As such, he was confident in defeating beings at the Peak Prismar stage, solely with his own strength, without the need of letting one of his soulbonds occupy his mana core! That was a great achievement, but his happiness didn''t last long and it vanished when he received a new notification from the artificial intelligence. [Third trial will now be initiated! ''Chase the Cheetah'' has been selected as the third trial! Challenger has one week to catch the Cheetah of the Golden Sun!] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 794 - Cheetah Of The Golden Sun [Third trial will now be initiated! ''Chase the Cheetah'' has been selected as the third trial! Challenger has one week to touch the Cheetah of the Golden Sun once!] The moment the message of the artificial intelligence resounded in his mind, a golden furred Cheetah emerged out of a spatial portal that had appeared out of nowhere. Staring at him, the Cheetah growled at him before it jumped through a new spatial portal it had manifested, only to appear behind him. There, it touched his shoulder before disappearing once again, emerging more than a hundred meters away. It was almost as if the Cheetah was playing with him. However, owing to the fact that it didn''t kill him the moment it appeared behind him, Jason realized that it was not supposed to attack him. This was great because Jason knew that his strength was not high enough to cope with the attacks of a being at the Initial Ascendion stage. Evaluating the strength, speed, and spatial affinity of the Cheetah of the Golden Sun, he couldn''t help but frown, thinking that it would be quite difficult to pass the trial in merely seven days! Focusing on the carefully moving Cheetah that had its eyes trained on him, Jason wanted to experiment a little bit. Because of that, he first exerted the Floating Sky movement technique followed by circulating mana through his body. Only then did he charge towards the Cheetah of the Golden Sun, without using any other means to further enhance his speed, or to slow down his opponent. In the end, the trial''s task sounded quite easy because he only had to touch the Cheetah once, but that was quite big of an issue because he was unable to even get near it. Whether it was its speed, reflexes, and unique running pattern that even his foresight blessing was having problems to keep up with, the Cheetah was clearly far better in every aspect. It might only be at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage, but that didn''t matter. Its racial traits were fully focused on increasing its speed, even more so because it had two cultivation veins. This allowed the beast to cultivate in the path of Pryr and Maest. Thus, its physical condition was extremely strong only to be further enhanced with the use of mana and its spatial affinity. Because of that, Jason was not astonished when the Cheetah of the Golden Sun evaded him the moment he rushed towards it. It was not even its full speed and simply ran away from Jason. Yet, instead of allowing the Cheetah to get away, Jason threw fireballs towards it, attempting to distract it while manifesting walls of ice simultaneously. Unfortunately, the Cheetah evaded the fireballs easily before it simply advanced through the thick layer of ice as if it was made of paper. This destroyed the majority of plans Jason had already begun to formulate in his mind. Not knowing what to do next, he started to experiment using the different affinities, and how great certain abilities went along with it. With his strength, the petrification curse was almost completely useless against the Cheetah, while the race specific weakening curse had some use, but its efficiency was rather counter-effective. Meanwhile, the abyssal effect with just a little boost of mana inserted proved to be the most efficient in slowing down the Cheetah of the Golden Sun for a moment. He didn''t even have to try using the chaos attribute for the time being. Through this, Jason had been able to erect several layers of ice in order to see the exact number of walls he would require to force the Cheetah to use its affinity to escape being touched by him. Unfortunately, it simply continued to storm through the ice walls by barely enveloping its body with a faint membrane of mana. Other than that nothing happened, and Jason couldn''t help but frown. He was getting a feeling that the Cheetah was truly playing around with him. It may have been a little bit confused when the abyssal effect had affected it, but apart from that, it didn''t really slow it down. In the end, Jason knew that all of his abilities were not in their strongest form because Jason had retracted his aura completely while the Stigma above his right eye was not activated. Other than that, he hadn''t allowed his soulbonds to enter his mana core right now. Instead, Jason wanted to devise a proper plan before he would initiate it. There were multiple ideas coursing through his mind, and thinking of the best plan was not as easy as it seemed. The Cheetah of the Golden Sun had yet to show its full speed, let alone how quickly it could react and manifest a spatial portal. The speed at which it could manifest a spatial portal was one of its key strengths because Jason was unable to prevent the Cheetah from manifesting a portal. He had no technique or tool that could seal the space around him, after all. Because of that, he simply continued to test all kinds of things. As Jason kept using a trial and test method to see what would work and what wouldn''t, an entire day had passed before he had finally completed his experiments. After that, he took the simplest plan and initiated it. Thus, Petri entered his mana core, enhancing his physical strength by a large margin. Afterward, he began to rush after the Cheetah, using his strongest speed, while utilizing the curses once in a while to distract the cheetah. At the same time, Jason laid out hundreds of tiny black flames that belonged to Solaris. Wherever Jason went, tiny black flames were planted in the lush grass below him. Yet, oddly enough they were not spreading. Instead, they remained at the exact same spot they had fallen to. Following that, hours passed in which the entire enclosed area was filled with tiny black flames, obstructing the Cheetah''s path. From the beginning, it had noticed that the black flames were dangerous because a simple brush of its fur had been enough to burn a layer of its mana membrane. Thus it was avoiding the flames that were sustained through Jason''s mana, restricting him severely. The Cheetah of the Golden Sun was confident that Jason wouldn''t be able to sustain thousands of flames for a long time, and when his speed slowed down, the Cheetah''s assumption was proved to be correct¡­or so it thought. However what it didn''t know was that Jason had simply replaced Petri, who had occupied his mana core before, with Solaris, drastically reducing the mana consumption of the black flames it could create, consumed. His speed had decreased owing to the non-existent physical enhancement he received through Solaris, but that didn''t matter because everything he had secretly prepared was already completed. In fact, the second phase of his plan was not something Jason was sure would work as he had planned. With thousands of black flames scattered across the ground, he would be unable to sustain them for a long time once Solaris were to be replaced by another soulbond in his mana core. However, that was the only way in which he would even remotely reach the Cheetah of the Golden Sun, using his fusion with Petri or Artemis. Thus, the moment he replaced Solaris in his mana core with another soulbond everything had to be perfect, and there was no room for error! Owing to that he prepared everything thoroughly and awaited the perfect timing to grab the chance of touching the Cheetah of the Golden Sun only once. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 795 - Divine Energy Right now, Solaris was still occupying Jason''s mana core, but Petri was already fully prepared to replace Solaris once the time was ripe. By actively replenishing his mana, he was able to have a full mana core for the entire time, which made it much easier to initiate his plan that was rather simple. The Cheetah of the Golden Sun was trying to extinguish the black flames that were scattered all over the ground. They were spaced in a way that at least one of them occupied every square meter of space, however, that was easier said than done. In the end, the Cheetah had to envelop the entire flame with its spatial affinity before transporting it to a faraway place where Jason could hardly reach it. Other than that, the black flame could sustain itself as long as enough mana was around. It was just the flame''s strength that would adjust according to the environment and Jason''s will. As such, the flames were currently the size of tiny sparks so they didn''t demand much. Yet, instead of trying to make them flare up all of a sudden as huge flames, and possibly injure the Cheetah, Jason had a much better plan. Because of that, he finished the remaining steps of his plan with no hesitation while trying to stall for some time. Meanwhile, the Cheetah had begun to use its spatial affinity to prevent accidentally stepping over the black flames on the ground while running away. This may be advantageous, but it simultaneously told Jason that it was afraid of the flames. As such, they were useful against it as well as most of the Cheetah''s spatial affinity''s characteristics! In fact, there was not much to know because the reaction speed of the Cheetah was lightning fast. The time it required to create a normal spatial portal was not important, only the accuracy of where they opened mattered for Jason''s plan. As such, while the last few minutes before everything had been put into the correct location passed, Jason focused on the spatial affinity''s accuracy. He intently observed to what extent the accuracy at which the portal was placed prolonged the manifestation procedure. In the end, he figured out that it was not much but Jason didn''t really expect anything great, to begin with. Because of that, he smiled lightly, thinking that it was barely enough for him to act. Thus, he couldn''t help but smile foolishly, while staring at the Cheetah of the Golden Sun that seemed to have entered the Ascendion stage just a few days or weeks ago. This meant that it was not in full control of its strength yet, that it had to adjust itself to the changes first, which made things much easier for Jason. Nevertheless, he was at a disadvantage if one were to look at him and the Cheetah individually. Fortunately, Jason was not alone, and he had more than enough soulbonds to rely on for the current mission. With that in mind, he made use of his Emperor Eyes that detected the creation of a spatial portal just a second before it happened. He then turned around to see where the portal''s counterpart would emerge. This was much easier than expected owing to the mana fluctuations as well as the fraction of a second Jason was able to see in the future owing to the foresight ability. Owing to that, he had a slight upper hand using which he was able to charge at the Cheetah before it had even emerged at its targeted spot. With that advantage, Jason wanted to overwhelm the Cheetah of the Golden Sun, forcing it to make a silly mistake. It would likely prevent the beast from leaving without rushing to use the spatial affinity in an inaccurate manner in order to teleport itself farther from Jason. That was his hope, and also something that was not further problematic to achieve if everything went according to his plan. Thus, the moment he perceived his opportunity and gauged that the spatial portal would emerge only a hundred meters away from him, he smiled brightly. A quick swap replaced Solaris with Artemis, who occupied his mana core before instantaneously starting the fusion process. Jason''s demeanor changed in an instant, as his hair turned silverish-white, two horns grew out of his forehead, a second stigma emerged above the first one, and his aura that was suddenly unleashed, transformed. By circulating a huge amount of moonlight transmuted mana through his body, his physical capabilities were momentarily enhanced. It was followed by the exertion of the Floating Sky movement technique that allowed Jason''s speed to double his current speed. Only a fraction of a second later, he catapulted himself ahead with his aura that was fully released. The two stigmas on his body were activated, further increasing the speed at which he could circulate mana through his body. This allowed him to increase the effects of the Floating Sky movement technique and his normal mana circulation effects that were already enhanced by the moonlight affinity. Even with all of this, Jason knew that he would still lose out against the Cheetah of the Sun, who had just emerged from the Spatial portal. It would require a quarter of a second to realize that Jason had left no stone unturned to attack with full power, or possibly less. But, in order to evaluate the situation, a fraction of a second would pass. As such, Jason knew that he had half a second to initiate his attack from a distance that had decreased to less than 90 meters in an instant. Because of that, Jason did something for the first time in his life. He actively inserted the painstakingly accumulated divine energy into his eyes! Even though he had never used the divine energy in order to actively fight before, there was a huge difference between it and the chaos energy. While the chaos energy belonged to the Chaos Emperor and not to him, the divine energy originated from his body and belonged to him and nobody else. After slowly circulating the divine energy into his eyes, Jason felt them ignite with distinct and vibrant energy that flared through every millimeter of his eyeball. Thus, given the terrifying amount of energy, he didn''t hesitate to exert the abyssal effect, the petrification curse, and the race specific weakening curse. While the curses were enhanced and slightly altered owing to the different energy that had been supplied into the curses, the abyssal effect was relatively unaffected by the divine energy. However, what Jason didn''t know was that the divine energy was actually changing the entire abyssal effect, replacing the endless void of darkness with a bright shining light. This dazzling light swept through the Cheetah of the Golden momentarily blinding it. Following that, something else that was extremely huge was about to grasp the Cheetah, only for its mind to be released from the abyssal curse''s effect. At that moment, it realized that Jason had disappeared from his spot that was 90 meters away, and had emerged in front of it. Before it could react, he released icicles that had been manifested out of moonlight transmuted mana. Shooting it towards the Cheetah, it evaded them, only to realize that Jason was closing the distance between the two of them way too fast. Thus, it tried to move backward, but before it could do so, the black flames behind it erupted, turning into a huge wall of fire. Attempting to avoid the black fire, the Cheetah of the Golden Sun quickly utilized its spatial affinity. Yet, before it could jump through it, realization struck the Cheetah as it noted that it took a quarter of a second longer for it to manifest the spatial portal. Owing to that, it had to choose between jumping through the black flame wall, being touched by Jason, who was not far away anymore or swiftly manifesting an inaccurately placed spatial portal. As such, it chose the latter, thinking that it was the best choice. Thus, it jumped through the portal that emerged in front of it. However, what awaited the Cheetah of the Golden Sun on the other side was not something it would have ever expected! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 796 - Tricked Jason began to smile brightly when he realized that everything was going according to his plan. Because of that, he turned towards the direction in which the spatial portal manifested. Wasting no further time, he terminated the fusion, while allowing Solaris to replace Artemis inside the mana core. Due to this, his mana consumption while controlling the black flames decreased rapidly. It gave him the opportunity to accurately control the flames around the Cheetah that had just emerged from the spatial portal. Allowing them to flare up, he connected several of them. As a result, several walls of fire were created, turning running away from Jason into an obstacle course. The Cheetah of the Golden Sun reacted instinctively as it wanted to create another spatial portal. However, before it could even terminate the mana supply to the previous portal that had to disintegrate before a new portal could emerge, several small silver droplets jumped towards the large Cheetah, who hadn''t sensed them at all. They didn''t release any killing intent, and as they were disguised to be harmless the Cheetah had simply been unable to sense them. The spirit force in their body had been sealed, waiting for the perfect moment to be utilized at once. As such, the fractions of Spyro that were sealed and disguised as harmless bodies used their spirit force and jumped towards the Cheetah. It had wanted to jump towards the sky before manifesting another spatial portal, only to see that a black flame suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Jason had shot out a long flame that had rapidly drained him of his mana, but that was more than worth it. His entire plan relied on the small silver droplets that were in fact subsidiary bodies of Spyro! Since he had begun to lay out Solaris'' black flames through the field, Jason had also told Spyro to divide itself into as many droplets as possible which it could control. To his astonishment, there were many more than he had first expected, tens of times more than what he had assumed! When Jason noticed this, he realized that Spyro might have yet to learn a proper technique to make use of its soul force. It could possibly learn how to create illusions or something similar, but that didn''t mean that the Spiral Spirit was weak. Contrary to that, Spirits were sometimes called Master of energy and control, yet, Jason had underestimated his dear soulbond. Thus he had felt a little bit guilty and decided that he would make proper use of Spyro and his more than a thousand subsidiary bodies that were about the size of a simple droplet of water. Spreading them in the surroundings as far as he could, Jason wanted them to focus on a small radius of five hundred meters. With that, he was confident in being able to move the Cheetah of the Golden Sun to the place at which Spyro''s subsidiary bodies would eagerly wait for their first opportunity to prove their worth to Jason. This was, by far, the best wait to complete the current trial, and it was also the fastest, which was great, considering that Jason had already spend lots of time during the former trials. Given the circumstances of the current situation, everything had worked perfectly and owing to the restricted movement of the Cheetah, Spyro''s droplets came in touch with a strand of its fur as it was trying to avoid every single droplet''s action. Only a fraction of a second later, Jason bit his lower lip, hoping that he had interpreted the task and the rules correctly, and it was just a moment later that a pleasing message resounded in his mind. [Congratulations! The third Trial has been passed successfully! Time remaining [5D:20H:05M:09S], ''Void'' difficulty, Extraordinary achievement!] "I knew it!" He shouted out with a bright smile on his face upon hearing the message. In the end, Jason had been told to touch the Cheetah of the Golden Sun, and there was not a single word that he couldn''t use his soulbonds. However, in fact, the soulbonds were a part of his body according to the alterations the Dungeon of the Primordial descendants had detected when he had entered the dungeon. As such, owing to their souls being connected and his body being altered through his soulbonds, they belonged to him, and he belonged to them. They were one entity and that was what Jason took for granted in this trial, which allowed him to complete it much faster than initially expected. It was only because of this that he was able to think of using Spyro''s subsidiary bodies to touch the Cheetah of the Golden Sun that disappeared inside a spatial portal, leaving Jason and his soulbonds alone. While Jason was feeling exhilarated about the first time he had been able to pass a trial of the dungeon with an extraordinary passing score, Spyro was gathering its subsidiary bodies. After it was done, his soulbond turned into a human-like silver-colored mass that ran towards him. Seeing that, he couldn''t help but smile and without hesitation, Jason picked Spyro, who had taken the shape of a unique type of human-like being he had never seen before. However, its size was that of a four-year-old child, allowing Jason to carry it around quite well. "Good Job, Spyro. You did really well! Now, Artemis won''t bully you, right?" Teasing both Artemis and Spyro at the same time, Jason felt great. Relieved of finishing the trial so soon, he was waiting for the portal to the next floor to appear, while allowing all of his soulbonds to emerge from the soul world. In no time, his surroundings were filled with all of his soulbonds in their different forms. Artemis and Petri were in their normal form, while Solaris had taken the form of the miniature dragon with golden eyes. It was followed by Spyro in the small humanoid form, and the Sacred Squirrel that was stretching its little body, feeling too tired to do anything. Seeing his five soulbonds, Jason felt happy, only to notice something odd. They were looking at each other knowingly and before he knew both Artemis and Petri were shrinking in their forms, taking on the smallest form they could while Spyro''s form began to change. Landing on his left shoulder, Artemis claimed it as hers, while Petri coiled around Jason''s upper body, leaving his right shoulder for Solaris, who had already occupied it. Following that, Jason felt that he was already fully occupied, but that was not the case because his soulbonds had already come up with a solution. While Petri used his tail to carefully pick up the Sacred Squirrel that was staggering around, the Cursed Basilisk placed the Squirrel on top of Jason''s head, where it could rest. However, that was not all because Spyro had yet to fully change its form. It also shrunk in size, only to envelop Jason''s head before it continued to change, turning into a heading! Once everyone had found their place, Jason felt a sudden surge of joy spreading through the soul connection of all soulbonds, which made him equally happy. Nevertheless, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit odd which made him say. "So¡­that is what you guys came up with? Sharing me like that?" Even though he was teasing them, Jason knew that there was not really much space for anymore soulbonds. As such, his future soulbonds should either not be clingy, or they would have to start occupying his legs, or simply stay close by his side. Sighing deeply, Jason felt as if the most complicated thing in binding a new soulbond would be to not anger his already existing soulbonds. With that in mind, it was impossible not to smile because he was simply ridiculous at the moment. It made him forget to further celebrate his extraordinary passing score as he shook his head in disbelief about his soulbonds'' possessiveness. ''They didn''t learn that from me¡­.right?'' However, just when he thought about this, a gate manifested next to him. But instead of opening, it remained closed for the next five days, in which Jason and his soulbonds had decided to rest for the first time in years! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 797 - Playing To Get Stronger! You can read the novel fast updates at novelhall.com or NovelTeam.Net Playing around with his soulbonds for the past few days released the entire tension that had accumulated within Jason. Becoming stronger might be important, but what use did strength have if he couldn''t enjoy his life even a little bit. Solely pursuing strength had never been his goal, in the first place, and it was just a means to achieve what he wanted to do. In the end, his priority had always been to protect those he loved and owing to unfortunate encounters he had been unable to do that in the past. Thus, he was becoming stronger, using the vast majority of his time and focusing on this. Other than protecting those he loved, Jason wanted to find out more about himself. This included his heritage, what was the connection between his mother and the Chaos Emperor, who that truly was, and much more. His father was still someone mysterious and unknown to him, but that was, even more, the case for his maternal grandparents, who he had never met. This was something he also wanted to do, search and meet his grandparents, which meant that they had to be alive, which Jason was oddly certain to be the case. All of this required strength, and even more so for something he was currently working on- taking revenge against those that were responsible for the death of Scorpio and his masters! This meant that not only would he visit the Ifrytor race in the future, but also the My?ldra and Burane race because they were the main culprits of the entire mess they had turned his life into. Being impatient, he wanted to exact revenge on the responsible authorities as quickly as possible which would certainly ease his mind. This would give him the peace he required to search for the Chaos Emperor, who would hopefully give him some intel about his grandparents. His father could wait for the time being and the same could be said about Wisse, the halfling dragon, who he had almost forgotten about. Jason was not sure if it would be useful for him, but meeting up with Wisse''s master might help him somehow. As such, he tried to remember the dragon, even more so because Wisse''s master seemed to know something about Chaos energy. It might be advantageous if he were to be clueless about where to start searching for clues regarding the whereabouts of the Chaos Emperor! With the realization of his priorities, strength might not be his main goal, but it was the means that allowed him to achieve all goals he had in mind. Thus, paying attention to his advancement progress was important, but not in an obsessive manner. For now, he decided to play with his soulbonds. If one were to be observant, it wouldn''t even be difficult to figure out that his bond with his soulbonds became much stronger, the more time he spent with them. With that in mind, spending time with his soulbonds could also be counted as a means to become stronger! It sounded ridiculous, but it was exactly what he meant. The firmer his connection with all soulbonds became, the stronger he would become, including the wide range of means he could use to fight against opponents. Being able to let each of his soulbonds occupy his mana core would be a good start, and the next task would be to be able to fuse with any of his soulbonds. Unfortunately, the fusion process was not something all soulbonds could do with him just like that. Solaris'' soul connection with him was much firmer than his soul connection with Petri was. Yet, Petri could fuse with him, but Solaris was unable to do so. Jason was not sure why this was the case, and figuring it out would help him to establish a fortified soul conjunction and find the requirements for a fusion much faster. While playing with his soulbonds, his mind was overflowing with tasks he had to pay attention to. One of these things was to try his utmost efforts to attain the highest possible ranking in the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant''s trials. That was what his gut feeling told him clearly, and even without his gut feeling, Jason was clearly aware of the opportunity the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant had. If it was truly created by Primordials, and he belonged to the Celestia race, not only was it likely for him to be able to procure extraordinary treasures but also to find out more about the Celestia race. On the other hand, there were also other Primordials that should be like him, belonging to one of the most powerful existences. However, in that sense, it might not even be the case that the Celestia race was one of the most powerful races as he had presumed earlier. In the end, he didn''t know much about the Celestia race, and everyone''s fear and respect for them indicated to him that they were extremely powerful and amongst the strongest existing races! Nevertheless, that might also be wrong, and Jason thought that he shouldn''t be too focused on the strength of the Celestia race. What he needed to work on was achieving a high completion rating so that he could receive the best possible rewards once he had passed all trials. That was the most important right now, followed by his survival and that of his soulbonds. Even if he were to fail, that wouldn''t be problematic as long as all of them survived because in that case, he would be at least able to complain. It was far better than being dead or tormented by the thought that he should have been stronger. Shaking his head, Jason came to a conclusion, and entered the portal, once the gate had opened, emerging inside the fourth trial. [Fourth trial will be initiated. ''Personality'' has been chosen as the fourth trial. Write down your honest answers about the given questions!] Just as he emerged on the other side of the portal, Jason was ready to fight possible opponents after having rested well. He was prepared to possibly even test his limits to strengthen himself, only to notice two things! First, the trial''s task was confusing because he had never expected that he would be requested to do such a mundane task as answering questions. He assumed that the dungeon should have figured out everything when it had evaluated him. Despite this, his confusion was even more apparent as he realized the second thing when he had utilized every means to strengthen himself to encounter possible dangers. In fact, he had sensed that his divine energy had already replenished to a certain extent! Apparently, used up divine energy could slowly replenish, which was something Jason didn''t expect because he was not even sure what this divine energy truly was or what it was made of. However, sensing that it was possible, made him smile. He assumed that this was another difference between the limited chaos attribute and the divine energy that originated from his body. ''That''s great!'' he thought, only to be pulled towards a wooden desk where huge stashes of files were spread out, waiting for him to start working on! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ You can read the novel fast updates at novelhall.com or NovelTeam.Net Chapter 798 - Unique Questions Read novel online free fast updates at novelhall.com or NovelTeam.Net Looking down at the desk that was filled with the overflowing stashes of files, Jason couldn''t help but feel weird. ''So¡­I''m supposed to answer the questions in each of the files?'' He wondered as he picked up the first file. Turning over the first page, Jason began to read the questions, and the more he read, the deeper his confusion became. ''Those¡­are the questions I have to answer??'' Reading the entire file took him half an hour, and Jason had yet to think of an answer for even a single question that was written on it. Taking a glance at the other files, he calculated that there were at least 20 files in total, which was quite a lot for a trial that was called ''Personality''. Earlier, he believed that he would have to answer a few questions at most. But, seeing that a total of 20 files were required to figure out his personality, he felt it was definitely too much. Reading them would already take 10 hours, let alone thinking of an answer, or writing something on the files. Despite that, Jason knew that he had to answer the questions in order to advance. This meant that he had no other choice than to cooperate and answer everything if he wanted to finish it quickly. Thus picking up the pen that was lying on the desk, he couldn''t help but sigh because there was one thing he had already figured out by reading the first file- the questions were extremely weird, and in some cases even ironic! Jason had no idea if this had a deeper meaning or not,, but while reading through the first few questions that asked for his personal information, he simply answered them. The Dungeon was probably better informed about the secrets of his body, but that didn''t seem to include his mindset, personality traits, and so on. As such, he answered all questions truthfully, only to come across the first sections of questions that asked him stuff that had nothing to do with his personal information. Yet, the first question was also the one that he felt was truly ironic. [Who should be hit by a shuttle given a choice between an elderly woman and a pregnant woman?] First, Jason had assumed that he was requested to decide which one of them was supposed to be hit by the shuttle. However, in that case, he would have to choose who was more important for society, without disregarding the fact that every life was equally important. Despite this earlier thought, Jason soon realized that this question was nothing but a petty trick. As such, he could only shake his head and write down the only suitable answer he could think of. [The shuttle should hit the break!] After he answered the first question of the new section, Jason felt that every following question had similar vibes, making him feel like they were testing him. That not only included his ability to figure out whether the question was trying to find out a hidden answer but also to clearly determine how he was feeling every single second that he spent reading the questions. Jason clearly sensed this owing to the unique energy currents that permeated the entire room. It was almost as if they were analyzing everything inside the room, which was something Jason had never sensed or seen before. Using his Emperor Eyes was also not very useful because he had no idea what exactly the energy in the room was. In the end, he was only sure that it was neither Mana, Primordial energy, nor Spirit force! However, after getting to know the Sacred Squirrel, Jason realized that there were more energies that were constructed with the help of more than one of the main cultivation energies. That being said, he might not know the new, analytical type of energy, but it was crystal clear that his reaction to the questions was important. Despite that, Jason didn''t even think of altering his reaction just because he was being evaluated by the energy. Instead, he had always been someone who couldn''t hide his emotions. No matter how much he tried to hide it, his Celestia aura was betraying him. His emotions were connected to it, causing the aura to change accordingly. Additionally, his expressions were also clearly showing how he was feeling. Thus, he decided to stay true to himself, and not to disguise anything. With that in mind, he continued to answer the questions that were more annoying and frustrating to read than anything else. Finding a suitable answer took almost five minutes on average, while most of them took far longer. As such, Jason couldn''t help but feel that he might be forced to stay close to the desk, answering questions for more than a month! This was much shorter than the second, let alone the first trial took him, and he had only finished the third trial quickly. Nevertheless, the given task was completely different and a single hour of answering questions felt like a full day of the previous trials. The only thing that allowed him to stay calm and not to despair in boredom, were his soulbonds, their cultivation progress, and the fact that he was able to passively cultivate too. His mind had been strengthened to the extent at which he could cultivate without the need to neglect his train of thoughts upon encountering something complex. As a matter of fact, the questions couldn''t be counted as something complex, just a little bit intensive to think about. Nevertheless, they were different from really complex things like the creation process of a world bridge, and so on. In a way, they were simple but judged him on how he processed the questions and if he used his heart or mind to answer them. Because of that, he could cultivate while answering the questions which was quite an advantage, allowing him to become stronger which he felt was required for the next trial! Even though he had no idea about what would happen in the next trial, Jason felt that it was something grand, something that was completely different from the first four trials, something that would change the way he viewed the Primordials. Owing to this premonition, Jason decided to focus on becoming stronger while telling his soulbonds to do the same. He even forced the Sacred Squirrel to take the situation seriously, which the little girl decided to do. Having spent a few days with the other soulbonds and Jason playing around, the Sacred Squirrel felt much more connected to all of them. The soul connection was gradually becoming stronger with each passing day, even more so during the days they had played with each other. Thus, he felt that it was only a matter of time before the fortified soul conjunction would be initiated with his newest soulbond. Jason awaited the day of the Sacred Squirrel''s fortified conjunction because he wanted to find out how exactly the other blessings worked. One might think that they were useless, but that was not Jason''s opinion. According to him, every single blessing, and even curse had its own unique points, whether it was a strength or weakness. With the soul conjunction of the Sacred Squirrel in mind, an entire month passed until he had finally answered the majority of questions present in all files. They had become weirder the longer he looked at them, and Jason couldn''t help but feel that his head was burning. Having been forced to answer all kinds of seemingly stupid questions only to figure out that they were not even as stupid as he thought they were, Jason had begun to question himself about the answer he had given to every single question. Thus, he had reviewed them once again, depriving him of sleep as his mind was working relentlessly. Nevertheless, he was able to answer the questions after a month that felt like an eternity! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Best novel online free at novelhall.com or NovelTeam.Net Chapter 799 - Puppet Fight Stretching his body, Jason felt his entire back was hurting. He had been seated on the wooden chair for almost an entire month, with only a few breaks to eat something and to move around. After being stuck with answering questions that felt like an eternity, he had the urge to fight, move around, and do something other than sit. Knowing that his body wanted to move but that it was unable to do so if he wanted to pass the trial at the quickest pace was horrific and so he hurried up and began to rush the answers. Yet, before he knew it, Jason found himself reviewing and modifying the hastily scribbled answers while cursing himself. In the end, he wanted to receive the best possible score and highest amount of merit points. This meant that he had to finish the trial quickly, but also with thorough answers. Because of that, he was unable to randomly scribble anything if he didn''t believe in the answer. His honesty was being tested, as well as his personality. As such, rushing things, while answering without having thought about the answer was not helpful, and might as well lead to him failing the trial. With that in mind, he had finished answering every single question thoroughly. After that, he decided to circulate mana through his body while exerting the FLoating sky technique to move around, releasing the tension in his body. He even ignored the notification of the artificial intelligence as he began to imagine an opponent, and started fighting him. Shadow fighting was useful in specific circumstances, and Jason''s situation was the prime example of releasing his tension by imagining an overly powerful opponent who could overwhelm him. Despite that, not much time passed before he was finally able to calm down as his tensed body was finally freed. This allowed him to finally hear the notification of the artificial intelligence that repeated the same message over and over again. [Congratulations! The fourth Trial has been passed successfully! Time required [39D:23H:59M:01S] , ''Void'' difficulty, Extraordinary achievement!] [97% Honest answers, authentic reactions, no secrets, attempted to satisfy his desire to save as many individuals as possible through his succinct answers.] Somehow, Jason liked the second message the most because he felt as if his personality was rewarded with an extraordinary passing score. This made him feel reassured that his mindset was correct and that there was nothing wrong with it. With that in mind, he couldn''t hide his smile anymore as he turned towards the opened gate that revealed the portal towards the fifth trial. Taking a deep breath, he approached the gate without any hesitation as Byakur manifested in his hand. Emerging through it, he revealed his strongest combat prowess, excluding his fusion with any soulbond. Nonetheless, he was ready to allow Petri to occupy his body, and fuse with him at any moment. Thus, he was fully prepared for a sudden attack that he would try to evade, block, or accept with Petri''s scale armour. Yet, instead of being forced to fight, he emerged in a seemingly inconspicuous room. It looked just like a large combat arena that had a vibe similar to the Colosseum on Argos. Because of that, Jason understood that he would have to fight once again, which was reassuring. Everything other than answering questions while being forced to sit on a chair for almost 40 days was great. With that in mind, he tried to see if there were any opponents nearby but was forced to wait for the artificial intelligence to report to him. [Fifth trial will be initiated! ''Puppet fight'' has been chosen. Fight against one puppet using everything! After 180 days the fight will be repeated, and the progress evaluated!] [Remark: Not giving everything in the first fight will decrease the possible rewards and completion score of the trial, and every previous trial the challenger has already completed!] Listening to the artificial voice, Jason just nodded his head and accepted his mission. The remark might be annoying for some, but it was obvious that one would be punished if they were to try finding a loophole and exploiting it. With that in mind, Jason wanted to start, eager to figure out what exactly made the puppet so special. Yet, contrary to his expectations of finding just one puppet, he found himself staring at five puppets. Each of these was made of silver-colored material and emerged out of the five portals that appeared out of nowhere. Their appearance was exactly the same, but it didn''t take much for Jason to realize that each of the puppets was completely different. If Jason had to describe the five puppets in extremely simple terms, he would describe them as extremely terrifying. Their cultivation base was exactly the same as his, which was probably supposed to be the case owing to the dungeon''s regulations. However, Jason quickly realized that their aura, energy fluctuations, and every other possible characteristic were on par with his, or even higher. This caused him to become nervous because there was one particular puppet that had the same aura as him, just that it was several times more distinct. It was similar to his Celestia aura, but there was not even the need to compare the two because the answer to which one was stronger was obvious. Meanwhile, the auras of the other four puppets were equally terrifying, suppressing Jason just by being released. He was not sure if that was something the puppets were ought to do in order to intimidate him, but it was not working. Instead, Jason''s heart was thumping wildly, excited about the possibility of figuring out the combat prowess of a puppet. Even though it was not a real person made of blood and flesh, it was probably constructed after the model of a true Celestia being, and adjusted to his cultivation base! That might as well be wrong, but it didn''t matter because Jason knew that each of the five puppets was much stronger than him, while having the exact same cultivation base! With that in mind, he took a proper look at them, trying to figure out their strongest and weakest characteristics, when suddenly he heard the artificial voice resounding in his mind. [Please challenge one of the puppets. After the fight is over, the challenger is allowed to continue to challenge the other puppets. Once the challenger is assumed to have reached the highest possible combat prowess in a fight against one of the puppets, please report so after the fight is concluded. The cultivation environment will then open, allowing the challenger to gain the dungeon''s best environment. He will have the opportunity to become stronger for the next 180 days before the fight against one, or possibly, multiple puppets will be repeated! Good luck!] Jason felt odd because the artificial intelligence''s message was extremely long, and the way it was conveyed sounded less robotic and more humane than before. This was weird, but instead of minding it too much, he repeated the message in his mind. In the end, the entire message he had received allowed him to know what exactly he was supposed to do. There was nothing he could misunderstand, and everything was clear to his mind. Because of that, he averted his attention from the message to the puppets as he investigated them once again. They were extremely interesting to inspect, and there was no need to hide his interest in them. Yet, what astonished Jason the most was the fact that the puppet he presumed to have been fashioned after a model of a being of the Celestia race, was not the most intriguing to him. Instead, the puppet that was on the far right was the most intriguing, while the remaining four puppets seemed to be oddly similar, yet completely different. This intrigued him, and he began to note down the characteristics of every single puppet. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 800 - True Dragon Soul While there was one puppet that possessed all three cultivation veins that were intertwined with each other,, the other four puppets were not less impressive. The first puppet''s cultivation veins were strengthening each other, becoming overly powerful, which Jason could clearly feel according to the released energy. Three of the remaining four puppets seemed to have the supremacy of one cultivation vein each, such as the Celestia puppet being the strongest in the path of Maest. It was intriguing, and even more so because the three puppets seemed to have more than one cultivation vein, at least some of them. For example, there was the puppet that had supremacy over the Pryr path. Yet it also had a mana core and Maest cultivation vein in order to control the flame that was also responsible for its fiery aura..or so Jason assumed. In the end, the four puppets he had just inspected were extremely interesting. Three of them had the strongest cultivation vein in one of the main cultivation paths, with the Celestia being the strongest in the path of Maest. Meanwhile, the fourth puppet had all three cultivation veins, which were extremely powerful, but weaker than that of the three other puppets. As such, the fifth puppet ought to be something special too. But, he was stumped to see that the fifth puppet had all three cultivation veins, but also none. In fact, it had one cultivation vein that felt like all three veins had been combined into it. Yet, the energy it radiated was something Jason had never felt before. Because of that, he was oblivious to what kind of existence the fifth Primordial was, yet it felt as if he should know it. This was weird, and even after he thought about it really hard, Jason was unable to find an answer to the mystery of the fifth puppet. Owing to that, he couldn''t help but feel that he should challenge this puppet first, even if he had planned to challenge the Celestia puppet first earlier. Driven by curiosity, he approached the mysterious puppet first before issuing a simple challenge. "I want to fight you first!" After he said this, the puppet seemed to transform as eyes manifested on its head, only to make its first move. Smoothly approaching the combat arena that was not far away, the mysterious puppet stood on one side, while Jason was requested to stand opposite it. Meanwhile, the remaining four puppets continued to reveal their energy fluctuation and aura, standing where they were like unmoving statues. However, before Jason was able to avert his attention, he was distracted by the sudden interference of a robotic voice that initiated the countdown from three. "3¡­2¡­1¡­Fight!" The moment the robotic voice initiated the fight, Jason charged towards the mysterious puppet, allowing Petri to occupy his mana core and fuse with him. At the same time, he circulated mana through his body and exerted the Floating Sky movement technique. Additionally, he also fully unleashed the two stigmas that were above his right eye, and the Celestia aura that was transforming, owing to Petri''s fusion. Right now, he didn''t use his Emperor Eyes'' abyssal effect or Petri''s curses because he wanted to wait for the perfect timing. As such, he shot towards the mysterious puppet with excitement gleaming in his golden eyes. As he neared it, he saw something dumbfounding just as Petri''s scales began to grow out of his body. While he had been moving with his fastest pace, the mysterious puppet didn''t even move for the first second. Instead, it gathered energy inside its body, only to release everything at once. However, this didn''t mean that it lost control over the mana, which was everything but the truth. As he watched with wide eyes, the ginormous shape of a dragon emerged out of the puppet''s body, roaring towards Jason. Except for Wisse, he had never seen a true dragon in his life. Furthermore, Wisse was a halfling, yet the dragon shape that emerged in front of him shook the entire colosseum, followed by his entire being, forcefully halting his mana circulation that was momentarily sealed. This seal broke a second later, but at that moment, the mysterious puppet had already emerged out of the dragon''s cover. Meanwhile, the dragon returned to the puppet''s interior. Because of that, the puppet was able to use the energy that should have been used to manifest the dragon and attack Jason mercilessly instead, which just happened. Having been rendered incapable of using his mana, his speed decreased drastically. Even his fusion with Petri didn''t allow him to evade the high-velocity punch of the puppet that suddenly emerged in front of him as if it had teleported itself. As such, the moment the punch hit him, Jason felt some of his ribs crack at the impact. A terrifying realization hit him which he had only been able to figure out owing to his Emperor Eyes'' and the foresight blessing. ''The Dragon it manifested¡­is an independent individual, and not something the puppet created?!?'' Just as he realized this, his body was flung several dozen meters into the air, before he crashed into the ground. The spot that took the impact was where Petri''s scales were torn apart as if he was hit by a rocket launcher. Yet, he had no time to mind this or the terrifying pain that coursed through his entire body like a shockwave. Jason''s mind was somewhere completely else, thinking about what he had just seen. Thus, lying on the ground, while barely being able to breathe, he dissolved his fusion with Petri. The moonlight affinity enveloped his entire body as he processed what his Emperor Eyes had just seen. ''That¡­was the soul of a deceased true dragon¡­wasn''t it?'' Even if he gave the best effort to make sense of the situation, Jason was unable to do so. This was because he had clearly seen that the true dragon''s energy fluctuations were different from that of the puppet. Yet, at the same time, they seemed to have been altered, adjusted to each other in order to allow the puppet to make use of the dragon without wasting any mana. However, in that case, it made no sense how the soul of a true dragon was stored within the puppet. ''Is¡­it is able to store souls of deceased beings, and use them?'' Jason suddenly wondered. He got busy trying to figure out the innate trait of the fifth puppet that was the replica of a race just like the Celestia puppet and the other three puppets. Right now, Jason was a little bit annoyed because he had been defeated so easily, without being able to put up a defense let alone launch an attack. But at the same time, it was not like he had used every single bit of his strength to fight against the puppet. Nevertheless, the dragon''s ability to momentarily block his mana circulation was fearsome, and Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit¡­refreshed! Until now, he had overcome numerous challenges, but that didn''t include having to fight against five puppets that replicated the model of five Primordial races. Owing to that, the true dragon''s roar should be the tip of the iceberg of the mysterious puppet''s combat prowess. It had yet to unleash a single martial art technique, its aura, or some sort of stigma it might possess owing to it being a replica of an overly powerful race! However, the same could also be said about the other puppets, whose combat prowess should at least be on par with the mysterious puppet''s, otherwise, the trial as a whole wouldn''t make any sense. How could Jason know that the puppets in their entirety were just the tip of the iceberg of the true strength the beings he called Primordial gained once they reached the 2nd threshold of the Prismar stage? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 801 - Analyzed Staring at the other puppets, Jason tried to figure out which one he should fight now. However, after thinking about it for a moment, he realized that the choice wasn''t so complicated after all, to begin with. It would be the most logical for him to fight all of the puppets one after another. That way he could figure out how strong they were before deciding which of them he could fight a second time in the easiest manner in order to reveal his whole combat prowess. The five puppets couldn''t have the same combat prowess, and the difference in the main cultivation paths, as well as their uniqueness, was both an advantage and a disadvantage. It made them stronger to fight against specific opponents, but also weaker against some other opponents. With that in mind, Jason fought the remaining four puppets but was defeated in no time as he was blasted outside the combat arena. In the end, he had only used Petri''s fusion to grow the Cursed Basilisk''s scales, and not to utilize his curses and the Emperor Eyes'' abyssal effect. Other than that, he didn''t use his affinities to attack, further decreasing his strength. As such, Jason was far from exposing his true combat prowess, which was something he was fully aware of. Nonetheless, he showed the same combat prowess to each of the five puppets that used all kinds of different means in order to defeat him. The Celestia puppet had simply overwhelmed him with its aura, before using mana in order to create a neutral mana blast. Jason had no other option than to simply accept this while noting down that the Celestia race''s aura seemed to cause most restrictions. Meanwhile, the puppet with the fiery aura and the supremacy of the Pryr path enveloped itself with the fire affinity it had before executing a unique type of affinity. Through this, the fire affinity''s characteristics changed slightly as the flame turned into a ginormous warrior that seemed to be hovering behind the puppet. This particular puppet wanted to leave no stone unturned in order to overwhelm Jason. Hence, just a moment later, it exerted another technique at the same time, as it appeared in front of Jason. Wasting no time, it initiated an onslaught of punches, while the ginormous warrior slashed at him with the long broadsword it simply manifested in its hand. To his fortune, the sword of fire didn''t cut through him and simply disappeared when it was about to hit him. Nevertheless, it was shocking for Jason to realize that he had been unable to evade the fiery aura puppet''s attack. But the truly unnerving fact was that the flames were burning through his mana, showing the same energy burning characteristic Solaris had. This happened solely because the puppet had used its entire mana core to exert the flame transformation technique, a name Jason gave it, after allowing the flame to envelop its body. The technique might not leave the flame with any mana later, but that didn''t matter. The sole use of mana for the fiery aura puppet was exactly that, using its flame affinity. Other than that, it could easily exceed Jason''s speed, strength and endurance by simply attacking him as if he was an amateur fighter. However, the fiery aura puppet was not yet the worst opponent he had encountered. He still had to fight the Spiral path puppet that revealed its strength not only to Jason but also to Spyro, who saw everything Jason could see. First, the Spiral path puppet used some of its spirit force in order to envelop its body. Then it cranked up the consumption as it began to duplicate itself at an alarming pace. This wouldn''t have been a problem if the duplication process had some flaws, which he would certainly be able to see owing to his Emperor Eyes. Yet, shockingly enough, there was nothing for him to help him differentiate between the two. The puppet had created a spitting image of itself, whether it was from the inside or outside! If something had even the faintest energy streams, Jason was always able to figure out what the issues were. His Emperor Eyes were strong enough to do so, but right now they were failing him. In the end, this was the most shocking discovery for him and while he was trying to digest the revelation, he was simultaneously forced to endure the attack of more than a dozen Spiral path puppets. The main body was somewhere within, and it was barely when he endured the attack of 8 doppelgangers that Jason noticed something very subtly. ''The more the puppet duplicates, the weaker the subsequent duplicate will be?'' He was not sure if that was correct, but in comparison to fighting the other three puppets, the Spiral path puppet seemed to be holding back the most. It was barely using the duplication in order to defeat him using a numerical advantage. Against his current combat prowess, the tricks used by the puppet were more than sufficient. And, there was no problem owing to the fact that the duplicate''s strength was on par with his own. And that was after considering that the duplicates were not as strong as the main body! Taking everything into account, Jason felt that the Spiral path puppet might be the easiest to fight, but at the same time, he got a bad feeling about it. Because of that, he tried to use his Emperor Eyes to memorize the way in which the Spiral path puppet was utilizing its spirit force. It was attempting to help Spyro, the Spiral Spirit, to learn how to make use of its spirit force. In fact, Spyro had already created a fortified soul conjunction with him, and it was only a matter of time before they would be able to fuse. Once that was possible, Jason wanted to be able to duplicate his body, or do something similar that allowed his combat prowess to skyrocket. Unfortunately, the Spiral path puppet''s spirit force circulation was too complex to memorize after only seeing it once. Thus, he decided to fight it a few more times to understand better. However, before doing so, Jason first had to finish his preliminary analysis by fighting against the last puppet. It possessed all cultivation paths that were only slightly weaker than the other puppets! Nevertheless, the cultivation veins were intertwined with each other and naturally released the fused energy. This was a sharp contrast to others that possessed all the cultivation veins but had to actively release the fused energy. Owing to that, the last puppet''s strength was not to be underestimated, and Jason knew that he couldn''t afford to be distracted. If he wanted to find a way to allow Spyro to use its cultivation path in a different way, this was his best chance. If he succeeded, he could help Spyro to solely amplify his brain''s functions owing to the soul amplification. As such, he faced the Three paths puppet that didn''t hesitate to envelop itself with its intertwined energy before he created more than a thousand tiny needles composed out of the same energy. Rotating at a rapid pace, the needles turned into small drills, before they were shot in large batches at Jason. Yet, instead of hitting Jason directly, the intertwined energy accurately controlled the rotating needles. These needles also had the traits of spirit force within, which allowed them to surround Jason, who was more than 100 meters away from the Three paths puppet. Thus, before he was even able to attack, thousands of needles shot towards him, advancing towards him from every possible direction except the ground! Force to coil up with Petri''s scaled armor, Jason was able to protect himself to some extent. Unfortunately, the rotating needles drilled into his scales, and flesh before they stopped their attack, ending the fight before something worse could happen. After the fight was over the Three path puppet returned to the other four puppets that were unmoving, as Jason was left alone, defeated by mere puppets. As he sighed deeply, a plan formed in his mind. ''If I cannot defeat them now, I shall learn from them!" With that in mind, he shot up from the ground, ignoring the pain that was coursing through his body. He was bruised and injured but he merely circulated mana through his body to stop the bleeding. "Let''s try copying the Spiral path puppet''s techniques!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 802 - Learning Even though Jason said that he wanted to copy the Spiral path puppet''s techniques, this was easier said than done. Not only was the way in which it used its spirit force extremely accurate, and in a detailed manner, but it was far more complex and also quickly utilized. Through the speed with which the puppet circulated spirit force through its body, it did something complex, and overlapped it with more spirit force, before multiple more layers followed suit. Meanwhile, the old layers of its circulation were replaced, creating something within the puppet''s body that Jason could only describe as chaos. But at the same time, Jason realized that each layer of the spirit force it used turned into an exquisite piece of art that was required to complete the exerted technique. Because he understood this quite fast, both Jason and Spyro were trying to figure out a starting point, from which they would be able to start copying the technique. Once they were to start, and slowly get the hang of everything, it was only a matter of time before he would be able to adjust the copied technique in order to move freely. Every single movement led to enormous changes inside the body, which was also something Jason knew owing to his perfect mastery over the Floating Sky movement technique. Under normal circumstances, he could start altering the Floating Sky movement technique, but in order to achieve this, it was necessary to know his body perfectly. This included the necessary changes in his mana circulation once he made a particular move. It was not impossible for him to alter a movement technique after having used it for several years. But Jason found it a waste of time to alter the Floating Sky movement technique and it was more convenient and hassle-free to replace it with a different technique once he found one. In the end, it was just a Terra ranked technique, and even with alterations, it was unlikely for this technique to reach the standards of a Heaven ranked technique. Testing its potential for months would thus be useless for him. However, that couldn''t be said for Spyro, who was currently solely focused on cultivating and did nothing else. This was boring, and once cultivating lost its appeal, one''s concentration decreased drastically. Because of that, Jason had always tried to switch between cultivating for a few months and fighting. Sometimes he was both impatient, yet at the same time patient, and his mindset was difficult to explain to others. In the past, he thought that his soulbonds were the cause for his mindset to be like that. To some extent, it might not even be wrong, but Jason was not bothered by that. Instead, it allowed him to be closer to his soulbonds, which was quite advantageous. Nevertheless, Jason didn''t even realize how time flew by while he focussed on the Spiral path puppet''s spirit force circulation, while it duplicated its body. The puppet kept charging towards him, and beating Jason up, before returning to stand beside the other puppets. Beaten and bruised, Jason would approach it repeatedly, requesting a new spar. As this endless cycle continued¡­hours¡­.days¡­..and weeks flew by. After almost four weeks, Spyro and Jason were finally able to memorize the most basic way in which the Spiral path puppet duplicated its body. Happy to have finally found the method, Spyro repeated that process, and its entire spirit force was immediately used up. As the two watched in awe, an unmoving Spiral Spirit appeared next to it. Despite the fact that the seemingly useless Spiral Spirit duplicate was unable to move, both Jason and Spyro were exhilarated. All their efforts had finally bore fruit as they finally achieved something they had hoped for. Spyro learned his first technique which he could continue learning and improving in order for Jason to reconsider using it in fights. This made the two of them happy, and even the other soulbonds were overjoyed, thinking that an advancement in Jason''s strength would be a great reinforcement. Yet, before Spyro would be able to make proper use of the technique, it first had to learn how to move and control its duplicates, which was not easy. There were all kinds of tricks it could make use of, and without hesitation, Spyro returned to the soul world. It started to train relentlessly, owing to the next goal it aimed to fulfill- learning the technique as quickly as possible without neglecting its cultivation. This was probably impossible to do because the cultivation progress would decrease, but that was fine with Jason as long as his soulbond learned a great technique that it could use to make him stronger. At the same time, Jason began to wonder if Artemis or Petri could also learn some sort of technique. Solaris had already been testing and experimenting to increase its strength since his days on Argos, and the black Dragon flame, as well as the Frozen moonlight flame of the Glacier Dragon were the results provided by the black origin flame. Meanwhile, Petri had never even tried to learn any kind of technique because it was a physically attributed beast with curses. Yet, those curses could probably be enhanced in a way Jason enhanced them using his mana to crudely increase their strength. It should definitely be possible to find a more exquisite, detailed, and less energy-consuming way to enhance the curses. Thus, he and Petri, both had been racking their brains to figure it out. As for Artemis, she was by far his strongest soulbond, but since her evolution, she hadn''t even bothered to think about comprehending the true use of the moonlight affinity. Additionally, she had also ignored it to further improve her understanding of the ice affinity. She was only focusing on strengthening everything innately in order to achieve the highest possible strength without the necessity to reinforce her affinities'' potential. Thus, she completely ignored trying to figure out a way to enhance the freezing property of her ice, or how to use her affinities. Jason had been bothered about this a lot, but he had refrained from saying anything to her. He knew that Artemis was focusing on cultivating in order to strengthen him, which was why he remained silent. However, now that he witnessed how powerful those at the same cultivation base as him could be, his mindset was slowly changing. But that wasn''t the case with Artemis who was completely unbothered. She had simply cultivated for the entire time, focusing on the creation of her third large rotating crystal before she continued to accumulate the necessary mana in order to create the dome crystal. Yet, in order to reach the necessary number of accumulating a million liquefied mana drops, Artemis would require at least two years, which was already extremely fast. Unfortunately, she stubbornly continued to cultivate without trying to improve her control over her affinities or create new attacks that would allow him to reach a higher combat prowess. Thus, Jason decided to focus on Petri for the moment and tried to increase his prowess along with his own. There was no need for him to waste any time doing all of this because he just had to show his current highest combat prowess. Nevertheless, before the cultivation environment would be unlocked to him, Jason felt that using the five puppets to increase his own strength and that of his soulbonds was the best he could do. Even if it was not the best to finish the trials soon, did it really matter? He had entered the dungeon to increase his strength, and the five puppets were by far, the best teachers he had come across in the dungeon. They were the strongest opponents he had fought until now, and their cultivation base was on par with his own. In fact, their liquefied mana was probably even stronger than his, while the same could be said about their crystals. If that wasn''t the case, it would make no sense for the puppets to be innately stronger than he was, even after his soulbonds enhanced his strength. However, what Jason didn''t know was that their cultivation was exactly the same as Jason''s. Their liquefied energy was compressed with three times more energy than one would usually require, while one of their prismarine crystals had the same potency as four common prismarine crystals! Yet, there were not only cultivation techniques, but also other means to strengthen one''s entire being, which was something Jason had yet to recall and make use of once again! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 803 - Still? Spending a few more weeks while fighting the other puppets, Jason tried to analyze their fighting style in-depth without releasing his entire combat prowess. He simply increased the amount of effort, and strength he utilized in each new round while trying to fight against the puppets head-on. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done, which Jason realized painfully. He got injured a lot but using the moonlight affinity, everything was rather easily solved because he was never severely injured. As such, he fought against each puppet several times a day, closing the gap between them as his combat awareness was gradually increasing. At the same time, Petri seemed to have been trying to study his curses, wondering about ways of enhancing them. Ever since he had seen Spyro''s relentless efforts to learn the duplication technique Jason liked to call [Mirrored Image] technique, Petri wanted to make Jason proud too. It was a pain not knowing where to start, or what to do, and Petri had to start from scrap which was different from Spyro, who just copied the mirrored image technique. Jason wanted to help the Cursed Basilisk, but he was as clueless as to his soulbond on where to start. Because of that, he allowed Petri to find his own way to improve. As such, it was only after a total of eight weeks had passed since the start of the fifth trial that he recalled something. ''Wasn''t it my plan to leave the dungeon soon? It''s not even a task to improve my strength right now..the dungeon only expects me to show the highest level of combat prowess that I can reach¡­'' This was his task, but he hadn''t bothered about it, and it was only after eight weeks that he felt it was time to start sparring with one of the puppets, revealing his highest combat prowess. Despite that, he didn''t plan on using Artemis because she ignored his well-meant advice to stop cultivating and start trying to learn how to use her affinities and racial traits in a better way. Instead, Jason wanted to fuse with Petri owing to the fact that he was working hard and that he was the only other soulbond he could fuse with. With that in mind, he decided to allow Petri, who was about to solidify his second large rotating crystal, to occupy his mana core. During the last few weeks, his combat prowess was slowly increasing and nearing that of the five puppets. But, he couldn''t take the sole credit of the increase because his soul bonds were also becoming stronger, and not just him. His cultivation was slowed down by the constant battles, while his soulbonds switched between actively cultivating and learning new techniques. Thus, with his enhanced strength, he seemed to be slowly closing the gap between their physical strength and the strength of their cultivation energy. Because of that, only their technique, the distinct auras, special traits, combat awareness, talent, and the endless will to emerge victorious were deciding factors, and not that one party was stronger in terms of cultivated energy. With that in mind, Jason chose the opponent he was the most confident in defeating, after carefully analyzing its basic tactic which he had seen hundreds of times. As such, his final opponent would be the Spiral path puppet, which he assumed to be the weakest amongst the five puppets. Or at least its duplication technique was utilized in a way that allowed Jason to understand that the Spiral path puppet wanted to defeat him as harshly as possible. Following that, it had always summoned 12 duplicates with which it attacked, utilizing a tremendous amount of spirit force, with an additional supply in order to maintain the solid shape of its duplicates. That was something Jason had figured out owing to Spyro''s comprehension which was quite helpful, even more so because he wanted to defeat the Spiral path puppet. Showing his strongest prowess was not enough, and he became ambitious, thinking that he had to defeat one of the puppets to clearly tell the dungeon that he was not to be taken lightly! With the intent to win the fight, Jason entered the combat arena, where the Spiral path puppet was already waiting for him. As always, a huge stream of spirit force enveloped the Spiral path puppet before a total of 12 duplicates manifested around it. Each of them was weaker than the one before, and the last few were certainly too weak to defeat Jason, even if they were to fight together. Jason believed that his current state was a major improvement over his strength at the start of the trial. After all, he had attained it after working relentlessly on improving his combat strength, while learning more about the five mysterious puppets. While the Spiral path puppet had manifested its duplicates, Jason didn''t remain idle. Instead, Jason had already fused with Petri, manifesting his tail that grew out of his coccyx, followed by his entire body that was enveloped by Scales. After that, Jason''s eyes turned into reptilian slits, while his aura turned wild. Unleashing it to the fullest, the wild, ferocious aura swept through the combat arena, only to face off the Spiral path puppet''s aura that Jason was clueless about. Following that, Jason''s aura was pushed back, but it was just a fraction of a second later that the two stigmas above Jason''s right eye began to shine brightly. They were fully utilized, and reinforced the aura, along with his mana circulation. Through this, his aura was finally on par with that of the Spiral path puppet''s, which meant that neither party had an advantage by utilizing their aura. This was great, but not yet everything Jason had to use. Instead, he manifested Byakur which he enveloped with a thin layer of Solaris'' flames before traces of mana were inserted into Byakur itself. In the end, this strengthened his soul weapon to the extent that he could defeat all duplicates and even the main body of the Spiral path puppet without an issue. As such, he advanced towards the closest duplicate that reached him, before unleashing his petrification and race specific weakening curse followed by the abyssal effect. This decreased the duplicate''s strength tremendously as it was defenseless against the slew of attacks. By fully facing the decrease duplicates, Jason was able to make use of the Emperor Eyes and foresight blessing in order to predict the duplicate''s movement. Instead of being predictable, he reacted in an unexpected and directly opposite way. In a single swipe, he cut through the duplicate''s arm, only to split a part of Solaris'' flame that continued to burn through his opponent''s body. Without another backward glance at his defeated opponent, Jason focused on his front because there were 11 more duplicates which he had to defeat. Leaving no stone unturned, he creatively utilized his tail to make the weakest duplicate trip. Seizing his chance, Jason cut through it, while evading the attack of another duplicate. Several minutes passed, and finally, he had defeated all 12 duplicates, only to notice that the main body was still standing at the exact same position as before. Yet, it had been far from idle. The Spiral path puppet had accumulated its entire energy in the center of its forehead, only to release it at once, shooting towards Jason in the form of a beam. At that moment, Jason noticed that he had made a big mistake. He had allowed the duplicates to keep him occupied so that the main body could do whatever it wanted. "Fuck!" Jason cursed as he suddenly felt dizzy, followed by him being forced to face a world that was literally turned upside down. However, that was not even the worst because his Emperor Eyes began to glow brightly. His eyes were trying to dispel the illusion that corroded his mind, only for Jason to realize that it was impossible for his Emperor Eyes to do so. They had just gotten a taste of failure in a very long time, and it was only a moment later that the main body of the Spiral path puppet emerged in front of him. He was blasted out of the combat arena with a seemingly simple punch that reverberated through his entire being, shaking his insides. ''I¡­still lost?'' He thought before losing his consciousness. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 804 - Mysterious Puppet While lying on the ground, Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly. He realized that he had lost miserably. In fact, the Spiral path puppet hadn''t even moved to defeat him! This caused Jason to feel embarrassed because he had been confident in defeating the puppet, but instead had to taste failure. Sighing deeply, he lifted his upper body, while remaining seated on the ground. Staring at the Spiral path puppet that walked away from him effortlessly, he scratched the back of his head. Jason was unsure of what he should do right now. Petri''s fusion was already terminated, and he began to estimate how much of his combat prowess he had been able to display. In order to achieve the best results, he had to show how strong he was in his best condition. As such, the last fight was not exactly something he was supposed to choose in order to demonstrate how strong he was. With that in mind, he sighed deeply before trying to think of a solution on how he could show his combat prowess. Defeating a total of 12 duplicates was not feasible while simultaneously paying constant attention to the main body. Thus, Jason began to think that it may be better to change his target. ''Even if I were to be defeated, showing my combat prowess will be enough to allow me to get the highest possible ranking. Because this was more important than before owing to the fifth trial''s remark, Jason had to be careful. Otherwise, his efforts of the last three years would be quickly destroyed. And that was not something Jason wanted to face. With that in mind, he thought of something before choosing his next opponent to fight. By deciding to fight the puppet that had defeated him with the use of the true dragon roar, Jason was confident that he had found a way to counter this attack. Afterward, he should be able to at least reach the puppet. Trying to defeat the puppet might be unreasonable, but that didn''t mean he shouldn''t attempt to reach and clash with it! Taking this into consideration, Jason was confident of fighting. Thus, once his short break was over, and his mana core refilled, he challenged the mysterious puppet to a spar. Standing opposite each other at a distance of more than one hundred meters, both parties were ready to fight. Hence, the moment the artificial intelligence counted down from three, initiating the start of the battle, they began to move. While Jason grew a little nervous, the mysterious puppet moved slowly and appeared to be unbothered at the prospect of facing Jason. It circulated the mysterious energy through its body, while Jason''s entire appearance changed once again, as soon as he fused with Petri. By activating the stigmas, the wild and ferocious aura was fully unleashed, as Jason circulated the moonlight transmuted mana through his body. Additionally, he also used it to exert the Floating Sky movement technique. It took only a moment for Byakur to manifest in his hand, and at the same time, Petri''s scale grew out of Jason''s body, while his pupils were turned into reptilian slits. Without wasting a fraction of a second to hesitate, Jason immediately initiated the race specific weakening curse. It was followed by the petrification curse that were both strengthened by the fusion, the ferocious aura, and the stigmas. This forced the mysterious puppet to slow down its circulation tremendously. On the other hand, Jason used his Emperor Eyes'' abyssal effect in order to further decrease his opponent''s speed. He left no stone unturned to prevent the mysterious puppet from summoning the soul of the true dragon, but Jason realized only a second later that this was simply not possible. Even without the use of the mysterious puppet''s energy, the soul of the true dragon was able to emerge from its body. A mighty roar escaped its mouth that shook the entire arena once again, almost throwing Jason off his balance. Yet, just at this moment, Jason couldn''t help but smile because he realized two things that were closely tied to each other. First- without the unique energy the true dragon''s roar was much weaker than before, and it wouldn''t have affected him as much as it had in their first battle. Nevertheless, using the ferocious aura to tightly envelop his body followed by a thick layer of Solaris'' flames was enough to block the attack initiated by the dragon roar. Jason hoped to burn the mysterious energy using Solaris'' flames. It was still strong enough to blast Jason a meter away owing to the shockwave the roar created, but that didn''t deter Jason. He used his entire strength to appear right in front of the mysterious puppet. Byakur had already appeared in his hand and Jason looked at his opponent with a bright smile on his face. He felt exhilarated that everything had worked according to his plan. Now wasn''t the time to back off, and Jason knew that he just had this last chance to make his efforts count. His entire body was already screaming, begging him to leave his current position as quickly as possible. This was caused by the fact that the true dragon had simply dispersed, returning to the mysterious puppet in a completely different way than it had done in the fights before. Following that the puppet had already gathered some of its mysterious energy within its body, and was ready to release it. Noticing this, Jason sensed that something was off. Thus, he immediately released his entire divine energy, circulating the purest form of energy he had in his body through it. This caused his mana veins to make faint cracking sounds as they were being strained. Unbearable pain coursed through every single cell of his body that groaned under the pressure it felt as the pure divine energy circulated through them. In the end, the divine energy in its purest form was not something Jason could simply circulate through his body. He had ordinary mana veins, and even if the Celestia race should be able to use divine energy, he was severely restricted in this aspect. As such, while enduring the pain caused by the purest divine energy that was not even intertwined with mana to make circulating it easier, Jason''s entire being seemed to enlarge. His aura became several times denser all of a sudden, followed by his glowing stigmas. A golden light surrounded his entire head like a halo making him look like an otherworldly being. Following that, his strength and speed increased too. Yet, instead of allowing the mysterious puppet to retaliate, Jason used the seven-meter-long tail that had grown out of his coccyx in order to pull the puppet''s leg away. Through this sudden attack, the puppet was pulled to the ground, and Jason was just about to cut it in half, by swinging Byakur as something unimaginable happened. "Fuck!" Jason suddenly cursed out, dragging himself backward. He was forced to change his direction midway which caused the bones in his ankles to crack faintly. This caused Jason to frown, but he couldn''t pay any attention to this. His eyes were trained on the mysterious puppet that was lying on the ground. With wide eyes he saw its appearance drastically change. Yet, instead of moving, it simply remained on the ground, barely lifting its hand in the air where a small dot manifested. Increasing in size, the black dot turned into a ginormous black mass. It resembled a black hole but had a completely different task at hand. Instead of pulling everything into it, an enormous black tortoise manifested from within, that had a lengthy tail with a snakehead at its tip. Roaring out, both the tortoise head and that of the snake manifested pitch-black balls of energy which they threw towards Jason showing no signs of hesitation. At this moment, Jason realized that they were ready to kill him. While he was distracted in evading the attacks, the mysterious puppet that had been lying on the ground just a moment ago, appeared right next to him, as if it had materialized out of thin air. This caused Jason''s eyes to widen, only for a high-velocity punch to hit him at the exact same spot as it was the case two months ago. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 805 - Loyal Seeing himself lying on the ground again, Jason felt the desire to punch someone igniting within him. It was extremely annoying to be defeated over and over for the past two months, and Jason couldn''t help but clench his fists. He had given his utmost efforts to defeat his opponent in the last battle with the mysterious puppet, but it looked like his instincts had just saved his life. Even though the black mass out of which the black tortoise with a snake for a tail had emerged seemed harmless, Jason knew that it would have disintegrated his body in no time. This might sound like an exaggeration, but Jason was sure that he wouldn''t have retreated. With that in mind, his body staggered once, before he raised his head to take another look at the black tortoise that left through the portal as if nothing had happened. Thinking about it, Jason realized that he might have made a big mistake! He could have inflicted a light cut into the mysterious puppet, transferring Solaris'' flame into it, before tactically retreating. This would have saved him from exerting efforts and energy as the flames would have done their job. Unfortunately, his mind had blanked out the moment his entire being sensed that something had gone wrong. Because of that, he couldn''t help but sigh, thinking that he should have kept his calm. But there was use crying over spilled milk so he had to accept his failure and move on. On the positive side, Jason felt that he had revealed his entire combat prowess in the current fight. This meant that he had solved the task he had been given, even if he made a tiny mistake at the end of the battle. Owing to his assumptions, he was just about to announce that he had finished his spars, and notify the artificial intelligence that he was finally done, when a jolt of realization hit him. For a second, he just couldn''t understand how he had missed noticing it earlier. "Wait!... Did the mysterious puppet just summon a living beast? And it certainly obeyed the puppet as if it was the beast''s master!" Somehow, Jason felt that this was oddly similar to something he was familiar with, but at the same time, it was completely different. He was not sure what to make of it, and in the end, he simply gave up. There was still a huge difference between the soul awakening of humans on Argos and the mysterious puppet''s traits. On one hand, it looked like the mysterious puppet was much stronger owing to a true dragon''s soul being bound to it. But on the other hand, the time it took to manifest the portal and allow a living being to emerge near it was extremely long. That was the case if one were to compare it to the time it took to manifest a soulbond. Yet, the more he thought about it, the weirder it became. Confused about what was going on, Jason couldn''t help but halt in his tracks, trying to process this information before summoning the artificial intelligence. ''Even if their abilities are not the same, they''re oddly similar¡­ Still, the mysterious puppet''s abilities are stronger even if it took longer to manifest the snaketail tortoise, or whatever it is called¡­'' Despite believing so, Jason felt that the puppet required a fairly large amount of time to manifest the tortoise due to multiple reasons. One such reason was that he was fighting a puppet and not a living being which the tortoise could truly be bound with. This was truly odd, and the more Jason thought about it, the more confusing the entire scenario became. It made him feel uncomfortable, and to prevent being dragged deeper into a jumbled tangle of thoughts, Jason couldn''t help but slap his own cheeks. His body shook once, and he had to instruct Solaris to spread its flames through his body. He had to calm himself because it felt like he had made an accidental discovery just now. Nevertheless, his assumption made no sense because there were too many things that didn''t add up, which caused Jason to convince himself with some simple words. "The humans on Argos must have undergone an advantageous evolution to gain their soul awakening ability¡­" Shaking his head once again, he entered his soul world through his conscience and gave a fleeting glance to his soulbonds before he averted his attention back to reality. "I''m done with the first phase of the trial, and also displayed my highest combat prowess. Please open the cultivation environment for me!" Without directing his voice to anyone in particular, Jason announced in a loud and clear voice. His words resounded through the entire colosseum, but nothing happened for the first few seconds. This was more than enough for his train of thoughts to revert back to all kinds of possibilities that the fight against the mysterious puppet had planted in his mind! Fortunately, it didn''t take long for the artificial intelligence to respond as several portals manifested inside the colosseum. They emerged behind the puppets, with each portal radiating the respective energy and presence of the puppet''s cultivation paths. This confused Jason at first, but sensing the portal behind the Celestia puppet, Jason clearly understood that all of the portals had different targets to cultivate. As such, the portal behind the Celestia puppet released the strongest mana currents, but only a fraction of the other cultivation energies. Meanwhile, the fiery aura puppet had a portal behind it that released the strongest primordial energy currents, while the same applied to the spiral path puppet that had a portal behind it, releasing spirit force. On the contrary, there were two seemingly similar, yet slightly different portals behind the Three paths puppet and the mysterious puppet. But they were less interesting for Jason because he had already come up with a great plan. Summoning all of his soulbonds at once, he smiled lightly as he asked them, "How about you guys enter the portal that suits you the most? Didn''t you guys want to start a competition, to begin with? All of you wanted to know who is the strongest in cultivation, and who is the most beneficial to fuse with me, and so on, right? I noticed what you guys were scheming, and now I''m giving all of you the opportunity to show who the fastest in cultivating, and learning new techniques is! But¡­are you guys willing to leave my side to cultivate and show each other who is the strongest amongst you all?" With the way he asked the question, Jason wanted to figure out how determined his soulbonds were to become stronger. It would be best if their determination would allow them to leave his side for half a year, but at the same time, Jason wanted to witness what would they choose between him and growing stronger. if they were to be torn apart between staying by his side to show their loyalty, or if their desire to become stronger, and more useful to him, in the long run, would overwhelm them. This was something he was extremely interested in finding out, but what happened only a moment later caused him to feel a little bit dumbfounded. Just as he finished speaking, his soulbonds began to move, occupying his entire body in the same arrangement as weeks before. They didn''t even have to think about what they should do because their mind was already set in stone. Staying by Jason''s side was the best option according to them, and he could only scratch the back of his head, thinking that this was quite disadvantageous. However, it was just at this moment that he sensed something that made him change his mind entirely. ''With mine¡­I can sense six stigmas¡­if they''re all activated, will that mean¡­?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 806 - Cultivation Environment When realization struck him, a bright smile emerged on his face. Jason felt like he should take a small risk that could lead to a minor loss or tremendous benefits. With that in mind and the gut feeling he had, Jason chose the portal that was located behind the Three paths puppet, without the slightest hesitation left in his movements. Instead, he was confident that a great opportunity was laid out in front of him. Thus, emerging on the other side of the portal, without another backward glance, Jason was ready to give his utmost efforts in order to become stronger. However, this not only included his cultivation but also his combat prowess because the five puppets were stronger than him despite being at the same cultivation base. Yet, Jason had also realized that their bloodline should be much more distinct than it was the case with him owing to the fact that he was not a pure-blooded Celestia. Despite that, he had other advantages than the distinctly strengthened mana or pure aura. But, his biggest advantage had always been the combination of his soul world and his Celestia bloodline. With that in mind, Jason wanted to strengthen both aspects; enhancing his human bloodline''s traits as well as his Celestia bloodline. And what other way could he use than unleashing more seals that had been laid upon his Celestia bloodline? Under normal circumstances, he would calmly wait for multiple seals to be ready to be unleashed in order to use the released energy and chaos attribute to defeat his opponents quickly. However, right now, the five puppets were annoying him, and once he unsealed his bloodline, his cultivation speed would accelerate. This would allow him to unleash more seals that would simultaneously strengthen his entire body, provide him with divine energy, and most importantly with a strengthened aura and stigma. With that in mind, Jason was ready to go all-in and fully prepared to feel the endless pain of almost breaking his vessel. He knew that his body was still too weak to accept the enormous strength and overcome every challenge that was unveiled in front of him. After stepping outside the portal, with his five soulbonds tightly clinging to him, Jason wanted to take a deep breath. Yet, before he could do so, he and his soulbonds were overwhelmed by a unique fragrance. This caused the pores all over his body to open, allowing tremendous amounts of mana to enter his body. Only a moment later, when mana entered his body, he felt that something was weird about it. A bright smile appeared on his face as he mumbled. "So¡­that was what they meant with the most suitable cultivation environment?" Just at that moment, he felt his mana veins pulsating as it felt like they had been strengthened. Owing to an increased potency, the mana veins were able to circulate more mana through his body, and at a much faster speed than before. Through this, his cultivation speed could accelerate by at least three times. However, that was not everything because his soulbonds felt the exact same way about their cultivation speed. Even the Sacred Squirrel had decided to stay awake and focus on cultivating and strengthening its blessings. Yet, before any of his five soulbonds could start cultivating, Jason told them to stay by his side. Staring at the Sacred Squirrel, he looked at its golden stigma. He smiled to realize that it had emerged not long ago, and asked curiously, "Can you try to activate your search blessing to find the best possible place to cultivate?" Jason was not sure how exactly the blessings of the Sacred Squirrel worked because even the foresight ability felt somewhat weird to him. Despite that, the Sacred Squirrel should be able to know what they could do, and how exactly they worked. Thus, he wanted to figure out if his assumption was correct, and if he could find what he was asking for. Nodding its head, the Sacred Squirrel jumped on the open palm of Jason''s hand before it began to release its blessing. This caused the Sacred Squirrel to shine in a bright glow before it looked in a particular direction. Following this, Jason walked into the direction he was told to, adjusting himself every single time his youngest soulbond was turning her head in a particular direction. Several hours passed by, and Jason couldn''t help but feel that the space they had entered was much bigger than initially expected. There were no beasts or anything like that around, yet, the flourishing nature that surrounded him could be described as dense and thriving. In the end, there was not even a single sign of a beast quarrel or anything to denote the influence of artificial interjection. Everything was the same as nature had created it. At least that was the case until Jason emerged inside the densely packed forest. Using Byakur to move forward, he cut through branches, paving his way in the direction the Sacred Squirrel told him. After walking for a while, he finally found the desired place he wanted to reach. Thus, he cast a good look around while retracting Byakur back into the soul world. After that was done, Jason''s eyes began to gleam brightly, feeling the effect of the surrounding scent and environment. ''That is how it should be!'' He could only think knowing that his cultivation speed would be around five times higher than usual. And that was solely due to the cultivation environment the dungeon provided him! It neither included his Celestia aura and stigma, nor the overlapping effect of multiple stigmas that were utilized at the same time. However, even then, Jason knew that unleashing his bloodline''s seals would allow him to further increase his cultivation speed. This realization caused his eyes to brighten up even further as the determination to make the best use of the next 6 months could be seen within them. His mind was set in stone, as he sat down before telling his soulbonds to take the most comfortable shape and position. Thus, Petri and Artemis reverted to their original size, bulldozing trees and bushes freely, while Spyro turned into a small human-like being. Afterward, it sat down on the ground, right next to Solaris who took the shape of a miniature-sized black dragon with golden eyes. Meanwhile, only the Sacred Squirrel didn''t change anything about her shape, and she simply jumped into Artemis'' plumage. Once his soulbonds found a comfortable position to cultivate, Jason closed his eyes. before completely releasing his Celestia aura, post which he activated the stigma above his right eye. Following that, his soulbonds activated their stigma too, filling the entire surrounding with a bright golden light that merged with the Celestia aura. At that moment, endless streams of the three cultivation energies began to flood the group of six, and Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly as he mumbled, "Now¡­give me another boost!" That being said, he unleashed several seals that were put on his Celestia bloodline, forcing his body to stiffen. A torrent of tremendous energy waves flooded his body that was already filled with mana. Yet, instead of backing away from the chaos inside his body, Jason used the fact that six stigmas were overlapping each other. They were amplifying his Celestia aura that forcefully suppressed the raw energy inside his body from going wild. Thus, he was finally able to cultivate to his heart''s content, which Jason did for the following six months, increasing his strength by leaps and bounds! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 807 - Stronger Than ... Using every possible means to accelerate their cultivation speed, Jason and his soulbonds cultivated for a total of 6 months, until the day they were expelled from the place they had been relentlessly cultivating. Never in his life had Jason felt so comfortable after cultivating for such a long time. If he could choose, he would never leave the cultivation environment. Unfortunately, the dungeon had already expelled him the moment six months passed. He was teleported back to the colosseum, where he found the same and all too familiar puppets once again. The only difference was that their cultivation base had increased considerably than before. Now, it was at the peak of the 2nd threshold with 400,000 drops of liquefied mana stored inside the mana core. That was exactly what Jason''s cultivation base looked like. This meant neither he nor the puppets had to circulate any energy through their body to defeat beings at the Peak of the Prismar stage. This was great, but not something he or the puppets couldn''t do earlier, even if it was through the use of some cultivated energy. In the end, each of his soulbonds, except the Sacred Squirrel, reached the peak of the Prismar stage''s 2nd threshold. His first soulbond, Artemis, had the most mana drops while the blessed squirrel was unable to do this owing to its unique type of cultivation. She was only lacking 100,000 droplets before she would be able to start the creation process of the dome crystal, which was much faster than Jason initially expected. However, that was solely the case owing to the great cultivation environment they had been expelled from. Adding the soulbonds'' soul amplification to his strength made Jason feel confident about himself. He was thankful to his soulbonds who had relentlessly cultivated by his side throughout the past six months. He had even unleashed his Celestia bloodline to an extent he shouldn''t have as it was simply too dangerous. Nevertheless, he simply took the risk and endured endless pain, in order to increase his aura''s strength followed by his stigmas, mana veins, and mana core. If that was not everything, he went a step ahead and strengthened his human bloodline by unleashing his Celestia bloodline. This increased the percentage of his soul amplification by one percent. This had been unexpected but was happy to receive all the help he could get. An increase of one percent might appear insignificant, but it was exceptionally helpful to Jason. Unfortunately, he now had to fight against the five puppets once again, making him feel a little uncomfortable. It was crystal clear that their strength had increased, but the same was the case for him. As such, the only thing Jason had to be careful of, was to prevent making mistakes while fighting. That was the case because he could clearly feel that the puppets'' strength was not above his own anymore! Instead, Jason felt that he might be able to reach a higher prowess of brute strength and accumulated cultivated energy with a fusion with either Petri or Artemis. With that in mind, many things changed, and the only thing that was slightly bothersome was the extraordinary technique used by the puppets. They were extremely proficient in the techniques they used and were fearless fighters. Thus, when Jason recalled the fight against the mysterious puppet, he knew that they would give their utmost efforts to overcome any hurdles once they were about to lose. These utmost efforts meant that they wouldn''t even hold back from killing him! Because of that, Jason had to be careful in his fight against the puppets. Nonetheless, he was somewhat excited to figure out how strong his aura had become. He had taken a bold risk and unsealed several seals until his vessel could barely cope with the power coursing through his body. Owing to that, he was not in his strongest possible state as his body was still struggling to efficiently use the power Jason clearly sensed that there was only a single seal left that he could only break after the dome crystal had been created. Afterward, his secondary bloodline awakening would be held when he would advance to the Ascendion stage! Even if that was exciting to get to know, Jason was fully aware that he required tremendous amounts of resources to undergo the secondary bloodline awakening. Furthermore, he also knew that he would turn into a magnet for many beasts and other beings that were likely to be attracted to the energy and aura he would release at that time. During his primary Celestia bloodline awakening, he had already consumed lots of mana and a beast that wanted to reap benefits from his awakening had even teleported him away from his late masters. Fortunately, nothing happened afterward, but on Manyr Jason couldn''t be confident of anything. There might as well be beings on Manyr too that would like to devour him to reap all kinds of benefits. This was a simple assumption owing to the fact that he harbored the bloodline of the Celestia race, followed by divine energy, four blessings, two curses, and his unique eyes. Each of these could be a reason for certain beings to want to eat him. That was definitely not something Jason wanted. Thus, he had to be careful when to advance to the Ascendion stage, and with what kind of people around him. However, this was something that made Jason even more uncomfortable, because there was only one person he trusted on Manyr, and that was Jennifer. While the City Lord, Luna, was too secretive and focused on her own hidden goals, her subordinates might have been nice to him, but that didn''t mean he could trust them wholeheartedly. This was different with Jennifer, but even then, Jason felt that something odd had happened to her. He was not sure what exactly his gut feeling was trying to tell him, but the things that were currently happening in the Julandra region were definitely more devastating than he could expect. In the end, Jason had never really bothered much about it and focussed on completing the trials. But the moment he stood in front of the puppets, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit odd, questioning how much of a treasure land Kinra Island was. If several races felt that the island that would surface for a few months every few hundred years was worth waging war against each other, the entire Julandra region would have been turned upside down already. And that was something Jason assumed to be the case, even if he had yet to figure out what exactly the rewards of some main inheritances were. The rewards he had obtained were already worth a fortune. They were comparable to ancient goods that were worth more than the wealth some races could accumulate in years. With that in mind, there were several things he had to be careful of when he would emerge in the Julandra region. Yet, the moment he thought about walking out of the dungeon, he halted in his tracks. He was standing less than five meters away from the puppets he wanted to challenge when a simple, yet disastrous thought manifested in his mind. ''Will¡­I be teleported to the outside of the Chaos Obelisk, to the surface of the ocean that is surrounded by all kinds of disastrous storms¡­or will I be able to choose the place I want to emerge in to a certain extent?....'' The more he thought about it, the less likely it was the last option. Because of that, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit frightened, only to slap his cheeks before he averted his attention back to his opponents. "I hope, there will certainly be a teleportation reward.. otherwise I''ll swim with some Ascerta stage beasts, or I''ll simply cling to the gigantic tortoise island!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 808 - Head-on Trying to ease his mind by thinking that he could remain close to the tortoise that was in fact the Kinra Island, Jason felt much better. It was odd, but he couldn''t help but feel reassured by this thought. He was still hoping that nothing serious would happen and that he would face no issues in leaving the dungeon once he was done. However, that was also something he could think of later once he had conquered the dungeon. Right now, he had many other things to pay attention to, like defeating the five puppets. Even if it was not his task, he wanted to defeat all five of the puppets. Earlier he hadn''t been confident of this but now owing to his higher average strength without the use of one''s cultivation energy, aura or unique techniques, he felt that his victory was certain. It might take a while until he would actually emerge victorious as he hadn''t fought for six months. But, he believed that adjusting to his increase in strength wouldn''t take as long as he was under tremendous pressure. With that in mind, he chose the fiery puppet as his opponent because he wanted to make use of the fact that it would attack him with its fire affinity and physical strength. Fire was Jason''s forte, and he would never accept anyone being stronger than him in a competition whose fire affinity was the strongest. He had Solaris, the strongest flame Jason had seen until now, after all! Even a technique that would enhance the fiery puppet''s fire affinity shouldn''t be able to make up for the huge difference between the black origin flame and the fiery puppet''s fire affinity''s strength! That being said, Jason didn''t hide his confidence in defeating the fiery puppet, as he allowed Solaris to enter his mana core who swiftly did as asked. This wouldn''t increase his physical strength, but with the shared mana core, he had more mana and a much lower mana consumption the moment he wanted to use Solaris'' flame. Unfortunately, they were still unable to fuse together, which was bothersome. It restricted the strength Jason was able to reach with Solaris in his mana core, but that was something he had to reluctantly accept. Despite the restriction, he didn''t seem to be all that bothered by the temporary inability. Instead, Jason smiled at the fiery puppet, and the moment the fight started, he transmuted his entire mana with the moonlight affinity. Through this, he was able to increase his mana''s strength by almost a third. Following that, Jason circulated it through his body, exerting the Floating Sky movement technique at the perfect mastery. This enabled him to envelop his entire body in a tight layer of black flames that had faint silver strands within them. They were transmuted by the moonlight affinity, strengthening their lethality and the effect Solaris'' flames harbored However, that was not all because Solaris'' flames turned into a fiery inferno as his entire back released tremendous flames, pushing him further ahead. By carefully controlling them, he was able to reach a shocking speed without sacrificing his balance. Yet, instead of being bothered by the being clad in black flames that shot towards it with a shocking speed, the fiery puppet seemed calm and composed. It simply manifested the same flame warrior on its back like before. Slashing at Jason with its main body, the flame warrior followed suit, doing the same with the flame broad sword that manifested in its hand. Unfortunately, that was something Jason had already expected because it was the exact same attack the fiery puppet had initiated in their previous battles. The only difference was the amount of used energy to initiate the attacks. If the puppet used more mana to summon the flame warrior, it would naturally be much stronger. Meanwhile, using more primordial energy, allowed the fiery puppet to increase its strength to a much higher extent. Simultaneously, its aura began to envelop the entire combat arena, overwhelming every being in the surroundings. This was owing to the searing flames that burned through everything. To the fiery puppet''s misfortune, this would happen under normal circumstances, but the black origin flame, Solaris, was by no means ordinary. That was something the puppet began to realize when Jason released his own aura which he forcefully intertwined with Solaris'' flames. Right now, he might not be able to fuse with Solaris or create a customized aura, but what he could do was to merge Solaris'' flames with his Celestia aura! The Celestia aura alone was already more than enough to fend off the fiery aura of the fiery puppet. But, Jason wasn''t going to be satisfied with just ''enough.'' He wanted to have a glorious victory hence he fused Solaris'' flames with the Celestia aura. Upon fusing, it began to release faint flames that reached every nook and cranny. Due to this, the Celestia aura, and Solaris'' flame clashed with the fiery aura that was slowly being pushed backward. However, that was not only owing to the Celestia aura that had become strong enough to face the other auras without being overwhelmed, but also because Solaris'' instincts had suddenly begun to act up. Through this, it began to instinctively spread further, and move towards the fiery aura. Upon contact, his aura began to slowly devour and annex it! Jason would have never expected that Solaris could devour the aura of other beings, and, in fact, that was something an origin flame should never be able to do. Nevertheless, there were many things Solaris was not supposed to be able to do, but somehow, still did it, defying all known norms pertaining to a flame. As such, Jason had always thought that Solaris was something unique, and most likely was a mutation amongst the origin flames. This fact made it even more exotic than the black origin flame already was. Yet, that was not something he could pay anymore attention to because he felt something change in his mana core. This feeling increased the further Solaris was annexing and devouring the fiery aura. Solaris was trying its best to retaliate and fight against the Celestia aura that began to transform Solaris'' flames in a white color. Each time Jason witnessed how easily Solaris'' flames were changing their color, he wondered how that was possible, and if the change in color had a special meaning. Unfortunately, he had yet to come up with a logical explanation for anything Solaris could do. Thus, instead of being too bothered about it, Jason supplied even more mana to the Celestia aura and Solaris'' flames. While they were greedily absorbing the supplied mana, neither Jason nor the fiery puppet had remained idle and witnessed the face-off between their auras in order to see who would be stronger. Instead, they were currently fighting against each other in a close combat battle in which the fiery puppet''s primordial energy was the biggest hurdle Jason had to overcome. Not only did it increase the fiery puppet''s strength to exceed Jason''s, but it also had an armor-piercing property that was far more dangerous to face when their swords were colliding. That was the case because the primordial energy used by the fiery puppet was capable of changing its properties to adjust to the weapons it was used with. Following that, there were many issues Jason had to face. Yet, that did little to deter Jason who came up with another plan instantly; a plan that would allow him to exceed his opponent''s strength. And this plan was something his Celestia aura and Solaris'' flames were currently executing. Working in perfect coordination, they were slowly wearing out the fiery aura, followed by strengthening themselves with the aura Solaris devoured and annexed! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 809 - Change Right now, Jason felt that something within his mana core was changing, and all of the changes were caused due to Solaris. His soulbond was still devouring and annexing the fiery aura that was unable to cope with the combined pressure of the fully unleashed Celestia aura Solaris was intertwined with. Furthermore, his stigma was further enhancing everything, strengthening the merging between the aura and Solaris'' flames. This slowly changed the color of the flames into a whitish-silver tone that was further deepened owing to the moonlight transmutation. The more the fiery aura was annexed by Solaris, the more changes were occurring inside the mana core. A faint thread was loosening from the mana core, slowly approaching the core of Solaris'' body, trying to find a way to fuse with the black origin flame. In the end, this was the first time his mana core showed signs of trying to fuse with Solaris. The possibility excited Jason even though he knew that they were not yet ready to fuse. It was just his premonition that told him they were not ready to fuse yet, but that was not something his mana core could be bothered about. Instead, it tried to find a way to advance through the searing flames and reach Solaris'' core. Yet, it couldn''t find a way, and the efforts proved to be futile. However, that was not something Jason was bothered about. Rather, he was already overjoyed about the fact that his mana core was showing signs of attempting to fuse with Solaris. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, Jason had begun to assume that it was simply not possible to fuse with beings that were not in a solid form. This would have included Spyro, the Spiral Spirit, with whom Jason wanted to fuse as soon as possible in order to try out the duplication technique it had learned. Nevertheless, before he could divert his attention from the current fight, he first had to emerge victoriously. That was the most important thing right now! As such, by fully focusing on deflecting the earth-shattering attacks the fiery puppet had initiated, Jason attempted to wear his opponent out. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done. Jason had to give his utmost efforts, and even then it didn''t look all that great. He lashed out with Byakur, and the impact nearly broke his arms when the puppet''s broadsword collided with Byakur. He didn''t have to win fair and square by openly fighting, that was something only fools would do if they wanted to wear themselves out. Thus, Jason used his divine energy in an combined attack of his abyssal effect, the petrification curse, and the race specific weakening curse in order to cause great damage to the fiery puppet. In fact, this attack of the mind was meant to distract the fiery puppet, and simultaneously allow Solaris to devour a large portion of the fiery aura in the time frame the puppet was obstructed. It had to endure the attacks of Jason''s broadsword after being affected by the combination of attacks that had been merged and strengthened with the use of his divine energy. In the end, his divine energy had received the biggest enhancement with each broken seal of the Chaos Emperor. As such, a small portion of it was already enough to merge and enhance his attacks by a large margin. That being said, Jason increased the speed and intensity with which he attacked the fiery puppet. He wanted to give no chance to the puppet to retaliate let alone regain its composure. Aiming to overwhelm his opponent, Jason kept raining blow after blow that interrupted the puppet''s smooth primordial energy circulation. Meanwhile, his mana core''s desire to fuse with Solaris was increased as the black origin flame had devoured more than half of the released fiery aura. Owing to this, it was severely weakened, and the fiery puppet was forced to endure the onslaught in two different ways. One of the attacks was from the entire surrounding that was the Celestia aura, pressuring the fiery puppet a lot. On the other hand, the second attack was, in fact, Jason, who had begun to circulate his moonlight transmuted mana through his body, followed by traces of divine energy. It almost looked like the divine energy was merging with the mana Jason released. It was exactly how his mana veins accepted the divine energy that was previously taken as foreign mass that was ought to be expelled from his mana veins. Thus, the strengthening Jason was currently receiving, allowed him to fight almost on par with a being that focused on increasing its physical strength to the maximum, in a close combat fight at that. From the beginning, he had a great advantage, and by continuously making use of it, he could slowly wear off the flame warrior. Its fierce attacks had become weaker with time, almost as if it was intimidated by Solaris'' flames that began to devour the flame warrior. Because of that, it looked like he had no issues in wearing his opponent out, making it incapable of fighting back. Yet, Jason''s Emperor Eyes were able to perceive the truth. And the truth couldn''t be further away from what one would normally be able to sense. In fact, the amount of the fiery aura Solaris had absorbed was barely a tiny portion of the entire fiery aura that was accumulated within the fiery puppet''s body. Other than that, the amount of primordial energy it used was much lower than he had hoped for. It almost looked like the fiery puppet was barely using any of its energy and fighting effortlessly. This was quite annoying to Jason who was using his utmost efforts to defeat it. However, just as the flame warrior was supposed to disappear owing to the lack of mana, something extraordinary happened. Instead of using mana, which the fiery puppet had nothing left of, it supplied the flame warrior with primordial energy! This caused Jason''s eyes to widen because he was sure that replacing the mana with primordial energy was not something one could easily do. At least not, if the fiery puppet wanted to maintain the flame affinity! Nevertheless, it continued to supply primordial energy, filling the entire body of the flame warrior that began to expand. At the same time, its form began to take on a solid shape, with flames enveloping the flame warrior like an armor instead of being the entire body itself. Through this, Jason could clearly see that the fiery puppet was trying to create a second combatant which he would have to face. Seeing this, Jason couldn''t help but frown. Following that, he did something he hadn''t done for a long time- he released his soulbonds to support him while fighting. Under normal circumstances, he would be too afraid to let his soulbonds fight with him, thinking that they would die, just like Scorpio. However, right now, he was way too annoyed, causing him to act reckless, as he summoned a more than 130-meter-long Cursed Basilisk. Wanting to help Jason, he used his strongest possible attack to put both curses on the fiery puppet and the Flame warrior. Meanwhile, Artemis emerged above him, manifesting a storm of ice that was supposed to weaken the flames of the flame warrior slightly. In the end, his soulbonds were at the same cultivation base as he was, but they didn''t have the same unique prismarine crystal let alone highly compressed mana. Owing to that, they were much weaker than the fiery puppet. Nevertheless, taking advantage of the fact that the fiery puppet had already been weakened, as well as cursed, both Artemis and Petri were doing their part. Their combined efforts allowed Jason to await the perfect timing before he slashed through the flame warrior''s body, severing it before Solaris reached through it. As such, the fiery puppet was completely alone, and even if it wanted to retaliate, it had already lost, despite the remaining aura and energy it had inside its body. But it was only when Byakur slashed through the puppet''s neck, decapitating the puppet, that the fight was officially over. Jason barely won the fight just before the puppet launched a counterattack in a last-ditch effort to save itself from failure! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 810 - Spiral Path Puppet After he defeated the fiery puppet, Jason took a deep breath. He was trying to calm himself by retracting the energies he had used up while fighting. Following that, Petri and Artemis returned to the soul world while Solaris left his mana core. As such, Jason was left alone inside the combat arena because the fiery puppet suddenly disintegrated. At the same time, a new portal manifested further away from the other remaining puppets. This portal was likely the way to reach the place that would be important for the next trial. However, instead of moving forward towards the portal, Jason stayed where he was. He didn''t even think about entering it because he felt as if he had to defeat the other four puppets too! With that in mind, he replenished his used up energy before approaching the next puppet, not wanting to waste more time than truly necessary. The next puppet Jason chose as his opponent was the Spiral path puppet. He made this decision based on the fact that he was already well-versed with a majority of attacks it could initiate. Furthermore, because he possessed a higher physical strength as well as more mana than the Spiral path puppet, Jason''s fusion would allow him to defeat the duplicates without too many difficulties. There might be some tricks that the puppet had saved for the last, but when the battle started, Jason could quickly take out the duplicate that had been summoned by the Spiral path puppet. Owing to his fusion with Petri, and summoned his scales, tail, and reptilian eyes, Jason won easily. Afterward, the fight became more interesting because he was able to witness how spirit force was truly used, even if there was no technique to exert it with. In fact, there were quite a few ways to use spirit force, such as the ability to control other objects, and even living beings. One could almost say that it was like an innate psychokinesis ability, which was quite interesting considering that Jason had seen such an affinity only a few times in the path of Maest. And that included beings on Argos, where one had to bind a beast to their body. Thus, Jason was slowly beginning to understand that the beast on Argos with a psychokinesis affinity, was either a mutation or some unique type of beast that could use psychokinesis with mana! In the end, mutations and evolutions made almost everything possible, which was intriguing but also extremely scary to witness. If a single mistake happened, the future of a beast could be destroyed. With that in mind, Jason felt that he grew excited to use the psychokinesis ability of Spyro. Once it learned to transmute its spirit force to control other objects by itself, Jason thought he could use it to subdue and overwhelm his opponents easily. Meanwhile, the Spiral path puppet was struggling very hard to use its psychokinesis ability on Jason. The protective armor around his entire body in the form of Solaris'' flame repelled the puppet''s attack, the moment it sensed that the puppet was trying to harm him. Thus, to counter Solaris'' energy-burning flame, one would have to use much more of a particular type of energy in order to do something to his body, and seriously injure him. Because of that, the Spiral path puppet had to think of a different way to attack him. Thus, it changed its tactic and began to control the surrounding objects, turning them into an onslaught of attacks as a means to counter Solaris'' flames. The seemingly slow build-up of its attacks turned into a tornado of all kinds of objects that were thrown together to be controlled. When Jason saw this, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit flabbergasted. He was astonished because the amount of spirit force it required in order to attack him was much lower than he assumed. Thus, even if the spirit force consumption increased with every single object that the puppet controlled, it was not to the extent that it would start bothering the puppet. Rather, it wanted to add more and more objects to the melee from its surroundings trying to defeat Jason by all means. Because of its determination, the psychokinesis ability was not everything it used. Instead, it seemed like it was just a warm-up followed by the real deal. Wasting no time, the puppet quickly released its aura. This allowed the already low spirit force consumption to be further decreased, while the puppet''s control over the items it moved through the arena increased. Unfortunately, the storm of flying objects was not the only thing he had to pay attention to. It wasn''t the first time he was being distracted after all. Rather, it was the first thing he noticed, only to recall the distraction in the last fight against the Spiral path puppet before he cultivated for six months. Clearly recalling what had happened, Jason inserted more mana into his mind, and his eyes were swiftly turned towards the Spiral path puppet. It was already accumulating a tremendous amount of spirit force in the center of its mind when Jason noticed it. At the same time, it could easily control the surrounding objects, which was one of the fearsome capabilities almost every spiral being had- multitasking. Their mind was refined to an extreme extent, which Jason had often felt by comparing the difference in the amplifications he received from his other soulbonds and Spyro. In comparison to his drastic mind refining he underwent on a close to daily basis when Spyro improved its cultivation base, it was fairly low with his other soulbonds. Thus, Jason was ready to fight the Spiral path puppet head-on. He saved nothing for later and used his divine energy, the petrification curse, the race specific weakening curse, and the abyssal effect by inserting a large amount of mana to further enhance it. He had also annexed the chaos attribute that was unleashed when he broke the seals in order to free his Celestia bloodline from some of the restrictions. Yet, instead of using it, Jason felt that he would require the annexed chaos attributed later, in the future. With that in mind, he didn''t use it, but that was not necessary, either way. Owing to the high potency his divine energy had, it was enough to distract the Spiral path spirit for a moment. Thus, it was forced to start over the accumulation process of the spirit force that dispersed in the puppet''s body. In the end, Jason might only be a halfling with a much weaker mana control, who also lacked other unique traits the pureblood Celestias had, but that did not matter. He had his own advantages, and amongst this was the soul world that allowed him to balance out the shortage of physical strength. Additionally, his Emperor Eyes were considered to be a trait that belonged to only him, or to be precise, his family he inherited them from. Enhanced by his soulbonds and bloodline, his Emperor Eyes were improving on a daily basis, and this was clearly visible right now as even the storm of objects was disrupted for a quarter of a second. This quarter of a second was more than enough for Jason to emerge in front of the spiral path puppet that could barely react in time, preventing Byakur from slashing through its body. Yet, it was only a moment later that Jason''s tail curled around the leg of the Spiral path puppet, Solaris'' flames followed suit. Through this, the Spiral path puppet was bound to be defeated, and it was only a matter of time before the fight was over. As such, Jason quickly finished the battle with a vibrant smile on his face he mumbled, "That''s easier than I thought! My traits as a halfling are simply¡­too powerful, I guess!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 811 - Mysterious Puppet Confident about his current capabilities, Jason knew that the next fights wouldn''t be so exhausting. The fact that the other puppets were weaker than him owing to the additional traits he had boosted his confidence to another level. Thus, Jason barely waited until the faint traces of divine energy he had used before, were replenished. Afterward, he challenged the mysterious puppet with which he had yet to fight once again. He still wanted to take revenge on it for defeating him harshly when they had fought six months earlier. Jason could swear that it had cheated on that day, doing something it was not supposed to be capable of, but crying over spilled milk was useless. With that in mind, he was eager to defeat the mysterious puppet fair and square, while staying fully focused on the possible emergence of the tortoise with the snakehead tail. Somehow, he wanted to see the beast once again because the black mass portal had been intriguing. But at the same time, it was quite dangerous for him to face this existence, even more so because he had no idea what exactly it was. Owing to that, it seemed to become more dangerous than the mysterious puppet itself, even if it looked like the puppet had complete control over the beast. In the end, this was something Jason doubted and it was more like the mysterious puppet had conjured the beast out of thin air, putting it in a specific state in which the beast had to obey its commands. However, that was not something Jason could be sure of. As such, he decided that it was better not to create any kind of theory or solution to a possibility that could turn into baseless assumptions. With this thought flashing through his mind, he focused on reaching his highest combat prowess the moment the fight started. Anticipating the arrival of the true dragon image that would roar out in order to render him incapable to continue fighting, he kept his eyes and ears open. In fact, all puppets'' first attack would always be the same, which was probably something they were ordered to do. If one was able to overcome the first attack, those who had successfully deflected the attack had supposedly crossed a certain threshold. This would then allow the puppets to release more of their strength. It may sound ridiculous, but Jason knew that the puppets were no living beings. Instead, they were just tools that had been programmed by some kind of existence that were strong enough to turn them into replicas of the Celestia race and four other races. As such, Jason could not even be sure if the five races were truly as strong as the puppets were, or if their strength varied a lot. That was something Jason had wondered since the beginning of the fifth trial because it had been confusing. Yet, even after he thought about it thoroughly, it wouldn''t really make any difference if the puppets were stronger, weaker, or equally strong in comparison to the races that had been taken as a role model to create them. He would have to fight and defeat them if possible, either way, and Jason thought that if they were stronger than true Celestias, it might as well be an advantage. However, deep inside him, Jason was fully aware of the fact that they were either the weakest possible Celestia image or just a watered-down version of the true beings. In the end, acknowledging this would allow him to fight with much more ease in the current battles, but it was because he wanted to force himself to fight and defeat everyone, becoming the strongest in his cultivation stage and rank that many difficulties were created. Doing something forcibly would decrease one''s strength because the mind wouldn''t be clear enough to fight. It would be tormented or even corroded by the thought of having to defeat a specific opponent. Unfortunately, this was exactly what was happening, making it impossible for Jason to reveal his true potential. Currently, his mind was corroded by the thought that he had to defeat the remaining three puppets. Despite that mindset, which decreased his combat prowess by a small margin, he had always fought against powerful opponents, and he always wanted to win against them. As such, his mind was already programmed to think that he had to defeat everyone else. Because of that, the issues a distracted mind normally caused didn''t affect Jason to the extent that it would normally be. That being said, he reached the highest possible combat prowess by fusing with Petri, summoning his body parts, and unleashing the two Stigmas. Additionally, his Celestia aura was slowly transforming, while circulating moonlight transmuted mana with traces of divine energy through his body. Following that the potency of the Floating Sky movement technique which he exerted only a moment later, increased by a large margin. This allowed Jason to cross half the distance between him and the mysterious puppet as the true dragon soul manifested. Yet, instead of doing the same as before, and trying to affect the mysterious puppet with his curses and abyssal effect, Jason averted his attention to the true dragon that was just about to roar out. However, instead of being able to do this, the true dragon''s soul began to shake violently as its head turned towards Jason. His Celestia aura was intertwined with the rest of his divine energy, ordering it to look at him. In the end, the Celestia aura was something Jason had yet to fully understand, but even then, he was fully aware of one particular ability it had. All kinds of living beings felt a special connection to him, even if they didn''t notice this earlier, and Jason assumed that this originated from the Celestia aura. As such, he used his divine energy to shoot out the Celestia aura that enveloped the entire true dragon. His attack forced it to turn towards Jason, who released his abyssal effect, in combination with his two curses. This caused a drastic reaction in which the true dragon''s soul began to shake, and it almost looked like it would disintegrate. Thus, reacting quickly the mysterious puppet had to actively retract the soul of the true dragon, which distracted it for a quarter of a second. Using that time to his benefit, Jason made use of the highest speed he was able to reach so far in order to appear in front of the mysterious puppet that began to manifest a tiny black mass in its hand. Because of that, Jason''s entire body began to sense distinct danger once again. Yet, instead of backing away, he stood his ground and the thought of the black tortoise with its snakehead tail appearing in the combat arena didn''t deter him. Thus, he slashed at the arm that manifested the black mass that required a tremendous amount of the mysterious energy, severing it with the use of Solaris'' flame. However, it was exactly at this moment that Jason felt the mysterious puppet''s other hand pushing out towards him. It hit him on his right side, knocking him out of breath. A shockwave reverberated through his body, yet he didn''t allow himself to slow down, let alone be flung away! With that in mind, his tail instinctively coiled around the mysterious puppet''s leg, dragging the puppet with him as he was flung through the air. Through this, either both of them would lose and the fight would end in a tie or the being that first touched the ground would be defeated. Unfortunately, Jason was unable to assess which one was the most likely scenario, and it was because of this that his instincts allowed him to do whatever he pleased. His tail moved towards the ground, bashing the mysterious puppet into the ground outside the combat arena. Following that, his body crashed into the ground, and the puppet''s body followed suit as he rolled over the ground. With that, the fight against the third puppet ended. He was only injured by a seemingly simple punch that caused a shockwave which had affected his insides. In the end, he had managed to defeat the puppet using his instincts¡­or had it been Petri''s instincts? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 812 - The Stronger Celestia Now that he had already defeated three out of five puppets, Jason''s confidence to defeat the remaining two was shot up like never before. Not only was his physical strength higher, but he felt that his reaction speed and unique traits were much more advanced. He also had more unique traits to make use of, which was why he could distract his opponents relatively easily. Despite that, he couldn''t help but feel exhilarated when he arrived in front of the Celestia puppet, at which he smiled brightly, challenging it. Even though he had never personally met someone from the Celestia race, Jason couldn''t help but feel that fighting the Celestia puppet might allow him to make a rough measurement of how strong the paternal side of his bloodline truly was. Jason was aware of the fact that the Celestia puppet was not necessarily as strong as a true Celestia, but that didn''t matter right now. The only important thing was the fact that he wanted to win against the Celestia puppet. It gave him the much-needed reassurance in order to confidently advance through the cultivation ranks, knowing that he wasn''t making any mistakes. Once he was confident enough, he might even be able to release more seals as long as he didn''t pressurize himself too much. Feeling weak and powerless was the one of the biggest reasons most cultivators died. Their haste made their attempt to rush through the cultivation ranks, without the necessary resources or foundation. Other than that, there were more than enough Cultivators who desperately tried to gather specific items that were said to help in breaking through a cultivation rank. However, most restless Cultivators died in their efforts of finding such items. What good would resources be, if you weren''t even alive to make use of them? Death wasn''t a way to taste success, not as a Cultivator, let alone be strong as an ordinary being. Thus, Jason had required the reassurance that his current path was the correct one. And the Celestia puppet was a means of ensuring the same. At least that was what his mind was telling him because he felt drawn towards the Celestia puppet. In the end, his entire being released its instinctive desire to defeat the Celestia puppet, fueling him with determination. Defeating the Celestia puppet was the most important right now, and when he stood facing it, the two of them released their aura the moment the battle started. During the first few seconds of their battle, neither moved, and both the parties tested out the strength of their opponent''s aura that clashed with their own. Watching the face-off it became apparent that none of the auras seemed to be stronger than the other, which caused a faint smile to emerge on Jason''s face. He had known that his aura was weaker than that of the Celestia puppet''s. Because of that, he had intertwined Solaris'' flames into the Celestia aura, strengthening it to the extent it could compete with the Celestia puppet''s aura. At the same time, Solaris could finally show what it had comprehended by devouring and annexing the fiery aura of the fiery puppet. By releasing strong streams of searing heat, Solaris'' flames weakened the Celestia puppet''s aura. It was slowly pushed back, and Jason had planned to use Solaris in order to devour more of the puppet''s aura. Yet, shockingly enough, Solaris informed him that this was not possible without sacrificing its own flames. As such, Solaris had to suffer a little in order to deteriorate the Celestia puppet''s aura by a slight margin. This was not worth it, and Jason believed that it was already more than enough if Solaris and his Celestia aura could compete against the aura of the Celestia puppet. When he witnessed that his aura was strong enough to compete against his opponent, Jason was finally able to switch his entire tactic, to what he had initially planned to do. Repeating the same procedure as in the fights before, he increased his strength to an extent which exceeded that of the other puppets''. By completing his fusion with Petri, he was finally already fully prepared to clash with the Celestia puppet head-on, but only now did he realize that he had missed an important factor. Seeing how the Celestia puppet manifested the transmuted energy of several different affinities, namely wind, ice, water, fire, earth, and light, Jason almost forgot that the Celestia puppet was able to transmute its mana into any kind of element. Through this it could perfectly imitate an affinity, creating powerful attacks with all kinds of affinities. However, there were still exceptions such as the darkness, shadow, poison, blood, and other affinities which the Celestia puppet hadn''t made use of. This was something that intrigued Jason and he assumed that only Infernal Celestias were able to use these affinities¡­and halflings as he was one of them. Otherwise, he might already be considered an Infernal Celestia because Scorpio had been his soulbond, and thus, he could use the poison affinity. Despite this though, Jason knew that his capabilities were different compared to that of the Celestia puppet. A major difference between them was that it could change its transmuted mana at will, while Jason was unable to do that. Instead, he required the affinity and necessary understanding of said affinity. Without it, he would be unable to use them! As such, the Celestia puppet''s unique trait was quite advantageous to fight with a wide range of attacks. Nevertheless, Jason was not all that worried, even if the Celestia''s elemental attacks were extremely powerful. He might not be able to fight them directly under normal means, but Petri''s scales followed by a thick layer of Solaris'' flames enveloping him was already enough to block some attack, without the need for him to do anything. Yet, instead of remaining idle, Jason swiftly made use of Byakur in order to cut through the attacks that were shot towards him. Some attacks were partially deflected, and other attacks were evaded completely, without restricting him too much. However, just as he thought that he would be able to reach the Celestia puppet, it began to use several different affinities at once. This change of events restricted Jason''s advance severely and even pushed him back a little. In only a minute, he was pushed back to the spot he had been standing on before. This was not only annoying but extremely disadvantageous considering that the Celestia puppet''s mana consumption seemed to be negligible. It was almost as if it could continue fighting him all day, which was something Jason couldn''t imagine to be the case. Sighing deeply, he could only change his entire tactic, realizing that he had been too foolish to attack the Celestia puppet head-on, trying to force it to a close combat battle. As such, the battle to decide who the stronger Celestia was changed as Jason replaced Petri with Artemis, and fused with her. This changed the surrounding environment completely as everything froze in an instant. Following it, a bright smile emerged on Jason''s face owing to the mana that surged into his body. "So¡­now let''s see if multiple strong affinities or one overpowered ability will emerge victorious today!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 813 - Manipulated Mind After being fused with Artemis, his moonlight and ice affinity became the strongest. They were enhanced by the Arctic aura and stigmas that were fully unleashed. Furthermore, Solaris had turned into a sky blue frozen flame that had the strongest properties of the black origin flame. It was strengthened by the ice affinity and additional traits such as an enhanced freezing property. Through this, Jason was confident that the combination of Solaris turning into a frozen flame, followed by all enhancing factors in addition to the divine energy were more than enough to defeat the Celestia puppet. Despite that, it was easier to say that one could defeat the Celestia puppet than it was truly the case. That was, in fact, because Jason had previously been able to use his physical strength to an advantage followed by his curses and the abyssal effect. Unfortunately, these means had failed the Celestia puppet. Because of that, he had been forced to change his entire combat style that was initially geared towards strengthening his curses to the highest degree as well as enhancing his physical strength. Now instead of fusing with Petri to do the above, he started competing with the Celestia puppet in terms of elemental attacks. With that in mind, Jason felt that he had a slight advantage over the Celestia puppet. His opponent had to transmute its mana to a specific element before it could use this as an affinity. On the other hand, Jason''s mana was already transmuted to the ice and moonlight affinity. This was possible only owing to the fusion, otherwise, his mana would also be neutral. Under normal circumstances, his mana would be transmuted naturally owing to the multiple affinities he had. Despite the norm, Jason hadn''t awoken these affinities innately, and he only owned them as long as his soulbonds were bound to his soul world, and alive. As such, his mana was not transmuted¡­or at least he assumed that to be the case. Yet, in the end, he knew that this was not the truth because on Argos, the humans with a soul world and soulbonds that had an affinity owed transmuted mana. That would mean that Jason''s mana was unique and that it was more likely for his Celestia bloodline to prevent his mana from being transmuted. This was interesting but at the same time shocking because it would mean that his bloodline had been meddling in his life without his knowledge. Ironically, his Celestia bloodline that had been sealed completely was the reason for him being exceptionally strong yet restricted in some aspects since his birth. However, the more he thought about it, the more reasonable this seemed to be. A faint smile appeared on Jason''s face because it was advantageous for him to have neutral mana. If it were to be transmuted, the black fire and ice affinity would repulse each other, creating more issues in the past. According to Jennifer, who had two differently transmuted affinities in her body, allowing her affinities to get to know each other was much more difficult than one could think. It was an arduous task that took a long time, even for someone who had reached the Peak of the Prismar stage at the age of 25! If not for her repulsive mana, Jennifer would have reached this stage much earlier. While thinking about this, Jason couldn''t help but be a little bit flabbergasted to compare himself to her. She was currently 23 years old, and still absorbing the necessary mana in order to solidify the dome crystal. Meanwhile, Jennifer, who was 25, had already constructed her dome crystal. Considering his talent, he should have been much faster. This was apparent when he compared himself to someone who had three cultivation paths that demanded her to solidify a dome crystal. Yet, Jennifer''s talent seemed to be more terrifying the more he thought about it, making him believe that she was even more talented than prodigies of higher races. To him, she seemed to be a cut above the rest and Jason grew excited to see her once again. He believed that the inheritance she received would have allowed her strength to skyrocket. Nevertheless, before he would meet her again, it was important for him to increase his strength too! He had his own set of difficulties while cultivating owing to the many things he had to pay attention to, including the fact that he required three times more mana to do the same as someone who normally cultivated. With that in mind, Jason faced the Celestia puppet head-on, determined to become much stronger than he currently was in order to face Jennifer. Yet, at that moment, he also wondered if she would even remember him because they had hardly spent weeks with each other. On top of it, and it had already been a few years since they had not even seen each other. Unfortunately, while he was distracted by the various thoughts that appeared in his mind, the Celestia puppet began to attack him with numerous elemental attacks in a surprise move. It was only at that moment when he was dragged out of his train of thoughts that his Emperor Eyes perceived something that caused Jason to curse under his breath. ''The¡­Celestia puppet used some affinity to force me to enter a¡­trance? Is that it?'' Jason was momentarily confused, but it made sense because it was unlikely for the Celestia race to only use Elemental attacks. Nevertheless, Jason hadn''t expected that the Celestia puppet could make him think about certain things without making him realize. There hadn''t been a single sign that his mind had been influenced by something. It was because of this that he turned more vigilant, and made use of his Emperor Eyes that had turned sky blue owing to his fusion with Artemis. While staring at the Celestia puppet, he evaded all the attacks with swift movements. Merging Artemis'' wings, with his physical strength and flexibility, allowed him to remain unscathed. Afterward, Jason began to retaliate by manifesting all kinds of ice attacks without hesitation. He had yet to use the Frozen flame but that was something he wanted to save for the moment the Celestia puppet would show its weakness to him. In fact, Jason had already noticed one of its weaknesses, which was its physical strength that was lower than his own. Unfortunately, it was not easy to make use of this because the elemental attacks the puppet created became fiercer and more precise the closer he reached it. With that in mind, he simply created icicles that shot towards the Celestia puppet. Yet, at the same time, he also shot icicles in a completely different direction to that of his opponent, but that was not something the Celestia puppet noticed. In the end, these icicles he threw in a different direction harbored a trace of the frozen flame that glued to the ground once they came in touch with it. Through this, Jason aimed to change the Celestia puppet''s surroundings completely, wearing it down the moment he would create a counteroffensive that could defeat it directly. Like this, he would be able to fight the last puppet and end the trial with a clean winning streak. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 814 - Strongest Initially, the Celestia puppet was oblivious to the frozen flames that began to fill the ground, slowly spreading through the combat arena that was covered in red sand. But the more time passed, the easier it was for the puppet to defend against the storm of icicles that shot towards it. Once that was the case, it could perceive its surroundings much better, allowing it to understand that Jason was planning something grand to take it out directly. Unfortunately, Jason used the precious seconds which the Celestia puppet''s spent in confusion before it realized that it was being distracted. Jason used this chance to initiate the attack at that exact moment. Making use of the surprise factor as his advantage, he controlled the Frozen flames that flared up according to his demands. At the same time, Jason advanced towards the Celestia puppet, catapulting himself in its direction. Through this, the Frozen flames began to burn in an even fierce light owing to the Arctic aura that enveloped them, freezing everything in its wake. Followed by that, the activated Stigma were doing their job, and it was at this moment that the Celestia puppet realized that it had been trapped by Jason. Yet, the puppet didn''t panic because it was, after all, a puppet. Thus emotions like fear were unknown to it, but that was something Jason was fully aware of. He had already fought against the five puppets a few hundred times, after all. With that in mind, the puppet didn''t let the flames distract itself from his target, that was, Jason. It utilized all kinds of affinities to protect itself from the freezing flames that lunged at it before attacking Jason once again. To its misfortune, Jason was already overwhelming the surrounding area to the extent at which even the Celestia aura of the puppet was struggling to fight Jason''s Arctic aura. Through this, the freezing properties were slowly approaching the Celestia puppet that clearly understood how much room it had to evade Jason''s attack, the Arctic aura, and the frozen flames on the ground that lunged at it. Unfortunately, it also noted that Jason kept a steady stream of flames pouring on the ground while attacking it. That was because every single frozen flame he used to attack the puppet was either directly destroyed, which ended the attack, or the Celestia puppet evaded the flames, allowing them to fall to the ground where they were glued to. And that was the case with hundreds of flames Jason manifested at the same time. In the end, he was not someone who liked to manifest one overpowered attack. On the contrary, he was confident that many small attacks were, in most cases, much better to wear his opponents down. In fact, there were many more opponents that were able to evade a single powerful attack, allowing them to retaliate with the deadliest attack they could manifest. While at least one out of the thousands of small attacks would hit his opponent. With that in mind, Jason had often thought about how he could make the most use of the small attacks that his opponents evaded. And it hadn''t been long since he tried to use the tactic of covering the ground with small flames, which allowed Jason to make proper use of everything. The only downside was the high mana consumption that he could perceive as of now. To his misfortune, this downside was pretty big, and not something Jason could ignore. He would have to make many more experiments to overcome it. However, for now, it was more than enough before he just noticed that the first frozen flame brushed past the Celestia puppet, touching its mana membrane. Under normal circumstances, the puppet was confident that nothing would happen to owe to this faint touch, and at most, there would be a tiny hole in the membrane at the spot it was touched. Contrary to its expectations, the moment the frozen flame touched it, everything changed. Jason merely released a minuscule flame to stick to the mana membrane, and in no time the flame increased in size. It slowly began to spread, burning through the entire mana membrane. The moment the Celestia puppet noticed that the flames were devouring its membrane, it expelled the entire mana membrane and created a new one. Yet, it was at this moment that a new volley of Frozen fireballs reached it, one of it cleanly hitting the Celestia puppet, initiating a cycle of expelling the mana membrane and creating a new one again. However, it was at this moment that Jason appeared in front of the Celestia puppet, owing to the minuscule distraction that had prevented it from using as many elemental attacks as before. Thus, Jason reached the puppet, allowing him to manifest dozens of Frozen flames right in front of it. The flames reached the Celestia puppet before it burned through its mana membrane, reaching the puppet''s body. After that, the fight could already be considered to have ended because the Frozen flames were burning through its entire body. Not able to figure out what it could do to extinguish the flames, its configurations made it attack Jason with even more fervor than before. Yet, this did little to help the Celestia puppet gain an upper hand. Jason simply ascended high into the air, awaiting the Celestia puppet''s death. This happened only ten minutes later, and Jason began to smile brightly, glad that he had been able to defeat the Celestia puppet without the use of his entire divine energy. In the end, this could be considered a great achievement, and he was even proud of himself. But, rather than being overjoyed, Jason was intrigued about the weird ability the Celestia puppet had used to manipulate his mind earlier. It was something he had never sensed before, and from the looks of it, the Celestia puppet that had the same cultivation base as him was unable to use it to a great extent. That should indicate the difficulty of the specific affinity as it was possibly restricted owing to the cultivation base, or the comprehension that was required in order to wield the affinity properly. Yet, at the same time, he was intrigued about the unique affinity or ability to manipulate his mind. Thus, he began to wonder what exactly the neutral mana he had could do. Considering that he had the Celestia race''s bloodline, he should owe the ability to transmute his mana and use affinities he had never been able to use before. Unfortunately, he had no idea whether this was something his bloodline could innately do or if it was some sort of unique technique. As such, he could only remind himself to take it slow and not jump to conclusions. He decided to think about it later, knowing that there was no way for him to find out an answer right off the bat. Rather than bothering about something he couldn''t find an answer to, Jason turned towards the last puppet; the Three paths puppet. Initially, he had wanted to defeat it first even if it would take him hours. But somehow Jason believed that he would be able to defeat it the quickest. This was mostly owing to the fact that he received the same benefits as someone who cultivated in three paths, while only possessing the Maest cultivation vein! With that in mind, he confidently approached the last puppet he had to fight as he said, "I challenge you!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 815 - End Of The Trials Jason found himself lying on the ground with the Three paths puppet right next to him. Its body had been cut into two and it had burn marks all over its body. It looked like he had defeated the Three paths puppet, but he was not exactly sure how he had done so. By fusing with Petri, his physical strength exceeded that of his opponent, allowing him to easily subdue it at the beginning of their battle. Yet, he quickly lost his upper hand when he sensed that the Three paths puppet had the ability to grow stronger the longer their fight progressed. It was able to retaliate, and Jason had to think of ways to defeat it, the sooner the better. With that in mind, he had taken the shortest and simplest way. Using his divine energy and moonlight transmuted mana at the same time, he coursed it through his body to enhance his strength. Meanwhile, he accumulated several portions of the energy in his fingers doing something he hadn''t done for a long time. Rather than using Degar, the desert eagle he had, Jason felt that taking out a weapon other than Byakur might cause the Three paths puppet to become suspicious of him. Because of that, Jason had once again begun to shoot blasts of black flame bullets out of his fingers, but now included Solaris'' flames in addition to divine energy and the moonlight transmuted mana. As such, it was no wonder that his fingers looked like they had been torn apart as if they had been through a shredder. Only the tip of his fingers had burst open but were already healing owing to the moonlight affinity''s healing properties that were enhanced by the last remnants of divine energy. After he had fired the black flame bullets, they had pierced through the Three paths puppet that hadn''t expected a sudden attack from Jason. Thus, it was burning from the inside since the early stage of the fight, giving Jason a great advantage, which he had used properly. That being said, he could easily finish off the last opponent he had to defeat, finally ending the last battle of the fifth trial. Now, he was lying on the ground and the Three paths puppet was disintegrating into countless particles. These particles were floating towards the last portal. Like earlier, the particles began to merge with the portal that was not far away from him. Yet, instead of entering it, Jason decided to keep lying on the ground, healing his wounds while savoring the calmness around him. The tension that had been weighing him down for the last few months was finally released from his body. For the time being, he felt that everything else could wait and that he had no other thing to do except rest. Unfortunately, before he could close his eyes and sleep, the artificial intelligence sent a notification that he had passed the fifth trial. [Congratulations! The fifth trial has been solved successfully! ''Void'' difficulty, ¡­ Good+ achievement attained!] Listening to the notification, Jason was about to jump up and complain because he was confident of achieving a better completion score than ''Good+''! However, after giving it another thought, he decided to keep lying on the ground, waiting for the second message that should arrive at any moment. True to his assumptions, it happened exactly five minutes later. [The Challenger didn''t fight with his whole combat prowess during the first phase of the fight trial. Only 80% of his whole prowess was utilized. This would have been lower if the challenger''s condition wouldn''t be unique owing to the sealed bloodline and other factors! The Challenger''s combat prowess increased drastically after cultivating for 180 days, and it was possible for him to exert 87% of his whole combat prowess! Congratulations! Furthermore, the Challenger defeated each of the five lesser puppets modeled after the five Primordial races, gaining him extra points! Last Trial has thus been completed, the Challenger is free to enter the portal to choose his rewards.] Jason was still not comfortable with the fact that the voice of the artificial intelligence began to sound more human-like the more trials he passed. However, that was not important as the content of the message was Jason''s priority. From the looks of it, his completion rate that was on average ''good+'' was already considered to be great because his difficulty had been at the highest level. With that in mind, either the trial itself had to be difficult, or the requirements to pass were higher. Considering that he was one of the Primordial descendants who belonged to one of the races that were called ''Primordial races'' Jason thought that his difficulty level was what the Primordial races would have to face as the most common difficulty. At least, that was what he assumed because he had no idea whether it was the case or not. Unable to tell something like that, Jason could already be glad that he had passed the exams, even if he was not exactly sure what the percentages of his combat prowess truly indicated. Whether it was his current combat prowess or the true limit of his combat prowess, the percentages made no sense to him, and it was more confusing than anything else. Yet, instead of trying to come up with a logical theory which he could use as an equation to figure out the strength of the pureblooded descendants of Primordial races, Jason didn''t bother about it. He would rather sleep, which was exactly what he did, seemingly unbothered by the fact that he fought against lesser puppets that were weaker than normal Primordial descendants. If they had been stronger, or equally strong, his passing score would have been much lower, after all! With that in mind, he closed his eyes, giving himself the rest he didn''t get during the last few months. Only when he woke up did Jason realize that the artificial voice had said that he had completed the last trial. This astonished him because he had been eager to enter the legacy trial. The announcement made him question whether his passing score had been too low to be eligible to enter the legacy trial, or if he was just missing something. Jennifer hadn''t received a notification about the legacy trials, and in her case, the portal leading to the legacy trail had just appeared out of thin air and that handed out the rewards without further ado. Because of that, Jason was not yet concerned about anything, and even if he were not able to enter the legacy trail, it wouldn''t mean that the last few years were wasted. Rather, he would have to make the best out of his situation and use the merit points he would receive as efficiently as possible. Maybe it would even be possible to earn more by choosing his own rewards. But that was only under the condition that the legacy trial''s reward was not far better than everything he might be rewarded. That being said, he was currently not worried, and upon entering the portal after he had completely recuperated, he was ready to face whatever the dungeon would throw at him! [Void difficulty has been detected, Candidate of the Primordial Descendant has been detected, Legacy Trial can be chosen. Does the Challenger want to be teleported towards the Legacy trial, or reward hall?] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 816 - Legacy Trials When Jason learned that he could choose where he wanted to land, Jason''s first reaction was to exclaim in joy. Initially, he had assumed that his passing score was too low for him to receive the opportunity to enter the Legacy trial, but that was fortunately not the case. Instead, he could choose where he wanted to emerge. As such, Jason ignored the fact that he could immediately emerge in the reward hall. Without any hesitation, he thus, announced in a clear and confident voice. "I want to take the Legacy trial!" The dungeon obliged, and not much time passed before he was teleported to an inconspicuous hall that was built out of marble. Four giant pillars stood on the corners of the hall, supporting it. At first glance, it seemed to be an ordinary hall but it didn''t take him long to notice the portals that began to emerge near him. This was nothing new, as the former trials had already been more than enough to familiarize himself with everything. Because of that, it was not too difficult to figure out that the five portals were not only releasing the same energy fluctuations as the five primordial races, and puppets he had fought, but there was much more veiled behind everything than what one could see at first glance. In fact, the mysteries that were previously veiled had now been unraveled, and Jason was able to see that three of the five portals were inaccessible for him. Seeing this, he couldn''t help but be a bit astonished because they were the portals to the path of Pryr, Spiral, and three paths. This meant that only the mysterious energy portal and the portal of the Celestia mana fluctuations were left behind. Thus, it looked like he could now choose between the two portals to initiate his Legacy trial¡­or so Jason assumed. However, before he was even able to think about what he wanted to do, everything began to change. First, the three inaccessible portals disintegrated into countless particles, nurturing the other two portals that were pulled towards each other. While Jason found this to be already weird, what astonished him was the fact that the three portals had been inaccessible to him. The only exception was the portal about the mysterious energy which he could enter as long as he wanted. In the end, he had a weird theory about the mysterious energy that was further strengthened the more he recalled the mysterious puppet''s fighting style. Nonetheless, Jason didn''t mull over it further because it wouldn''t make a single difference if his theory was correct or not. That was even less the case when he saw that the portal of the Celestia and the mysterious energy were merging together. It was almost as if the two portals were trying to customize a legacy trial that was perfectly suited to him, but Jason was not exactly sure what they wanted from him! While recalling the last five trials, he thought that not just the artificial intelligence, but the whole dungeon should have already figured out if he was suitable for the Legacy trial or not. As such, he was not sure what exactly he would be asked to do in the Legacy trial. He could only hope that it was nothing too difficult, or something that would take several years to complete. However, what he didn''t know was that the reason for the portals to merge together was not to create a more difficult Legacy trial, but to manifest the Inheritance that was the most suitable for him. In fact, the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendants was supposed to be a place for the Primordial Descendants to train, and be competent enough to brave the vast universe''s challenges. Yet, after they had been placed all over the Universe, scattered across dozens of planets for the Primordial Descendants to search and use, many things changed. It had been a slow and steady process and the existence of Primordial races had now turned into rumors because nobody had seen them in person in centuries. Despite all of this, the youngest generation of the Primordial races was still living amongst the other races, hiding in plain view. The vast majority of rumors were also stating that the Primordial races were still as powerful and mighty, if not several times stronger than before. It was only their focus that had shifted. In addition to journeying through the universe to get to know it, now they actively searched for the Chaos Obelisks to claim all the treasures for themselves. But, they had no time to do what they intended. The Primordial races had to face opponents that were more powerful, with devastating powers even they had problems facing without any struggle.. And¡­the worst was that these powers came from the outside, far away from the universe, the very place which the Primordial races called their home and territory! In the end, Jason was oblivious to anything that had happened before his birth. Thus, his knowledge about the Primordial races, his father, or even his entire being, was too shallow to comprehend why the Chaos Obelisks were situated on Kinra island, a gigantic tortoise that lived in Manyr. Manyr was but a small planet in comparison to the prowess of the Primordial races, and none of their Descendants would intentionally enter Manyr if it was avoidable. Because of that, the experiment of the Primordial races to allow their Descendants to get to know the races they reigned, and understand the cause for which they were fighting seemed to have been for naught. Yet, due to Jason''s arrival, the dormant Chaos Obelisk that had never been used by a Primordial Descendant was suddenly used by a descendant of a Primordial race, and a halfling at that! The possible existence of a halfling caused due to the bond between a Primordial race, and another being had been deemed impossible. Yet, defying all the odds, Jason had been born and was slowly progressing to become an existence like no other. Despite having one administrator of the Dungeon''s sentience from each race, the sentience had failed to provide any information about Jason''s existence to them. And that was the case even after the five Primordial races had used their omnipotent control with unanimous voting. The dungeon had simply denied their interference, keeping Jason''s identity a well-guarded secret. Yet there was one being of a Primordial race, who was confident of knowing the identity of the Primordial descendant who had entered the Dungeon! "My son!" Even though he couldn''t be certain that no one else had birthed a halfling, Yaldra was confident that it was Jason, his son, who had found one of the abandoned Chaos Obelisks. He felt proud of his son who had received the possibility to take one step closer to his origin, the Celestia race. However, was that even something Jason wanted? Did he want to take a step closer to the Celestia race, towards the bloodline of his father? In the end, Jason didn''t know if that was something he wanted, but if it meant that he would have to abandon his human bloodline, he would immediately deny it. That was not even something he had to even think about twice. The Celestia bloodline could be omnipotent, but it was the human bloodline that allowed him to bind beasts to his soul. It was his human blood that made turning them into his beloved family members, his soulbonds, possible. His soulbonds played a major role in allowing him to overcome all obstacles without any doubts. As such, Jason was only staring at the two merging portals, while the dungeon administrators were once again informed that the Candidate of the Primordial descendant had reached the final phase. It was the phase at which everyone would be able to see if a halfling hailing from one of the five Primordial races was as powerful as a pureblood Primordial, or if they were too weak to overcome the real soul awakening! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 817 - Customized Inheritance In the end, there were multiple factors the Primordials didn''t know! Hence, it had been a shock for them to receive the information that a halfling entered the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant First, in order to initiate a real soul awakening, one had to be at the Ascendion stage. This meant that one''s soul and energy vessel had to be merged. Without that, it was impossible to truly awaken one''s soul, and shockingly enough Jason had yet to reach that stage. This was something the Primordials took for granted because it was not even necessary to make any effort in order to enter the Ascendion stage, at least for them. As such, they expected something to happen that was impossible to occur, to begin with. Meanwhile, the Dungeon''s sentience was clearly aware of this owing to the evaluations it had done in the times Jason was teleported from one place to another. During the last few months he had been thrown around a lot and every single time had been thoroughly evaluated. It was because of this factor that the dungeon''s sentience had finally gathered the necessary information to provide Jason with what he required the most! In fact, there was the possibility of something unknown, yet powerful to be within Jason, which the dungeon''s sentience had noticed. On the other hand, the dungeon''s administrators were unable to reach that conclusion even after they had received the information that portals of two primordial races were merging together in order to become suitable for Jason''s soul awakening! Oblivious to everything around him, Jason simply entered the merged portal without showing any signs of hesitation. He had no expectations of being rewarded and assumed that he would have to solve a trial as the name Legacy trial suggested. However, that was not the case because he was simply teleported to an open plain with verdant grass sprouting out of the ground. Taking a deep breath, he was able to sense a combination of overly dense mana, and the mysterious energy that permeated the air. If Jason was not completely wrong, the mana in the surroundings was several times denser and purer as it had been the case just a few minutes ago. As such, he would be able to cultivate even faster than was the case with the cultivating environment. It was tempting, but instead of sitting down and cultivating, Jason decided against it. He felt both good and bad about it, and everything felt extremely weird which was also the reason he didn''t do anything reckless. Rather, he remained vigilant of everything in his surroundings as he was walking through the plains. Despite that, Jason didn''t feel tense, while the atmosphere was oddly reassuring, allowing him to lower his guard. However, it was exactly this that made him worry a little bit, causing him to grow alert once again. Though this was hardly necessary. Thus, when his Emperor Eyes perceived something that had been engraved on the ground with the aura and purest energy the Celestia and mysterious puppet had released before, Jason''s pace quickened. Following the directions of the brightly glowing lines that radiated tremendous energy waves, Jason arrived in front of a ginormous area. It was covered in an abundance of runes and lines made out of the exact same materials, energy, and auras. It was not difficult to devise his own theory owing to his Emperor Eyes that were able to see all kinds of things. At the same time, Jason could feel his pores slowly opening due to the unique runic lines that were engraved in the ground, followed by the energy waves that were slowly entering his body. Afterward, they were trying to change something, which he first repelled, only to realize that his body''s cells, bones, mana veins, and even his mana core were slowly being enhanced. It was a minuscule change, but that was happening just by him walking around the runic lines, and doing nothing else. As such, Jason grew more confused by everything that happened. ''Am I not supposed to undergo a trial and be rewarded afterward?'' He wondered, only to hear the artificial intelligence''s voice resounding in his head. [Runic circle of Unlimited enhancement has been manifested! Legacy inheritance'' potency according to the ''Void'' difficulty, and a ''great+'' average completion score has been initiated! The Legacy of the Candidate to become the Primordial Descendant has been adjusted because of the low cultivation realm at the ''Prismar'' stage. Hereby, the customized Legacy Inheritance has been created in order to strengthen the Challenger''s mana veins!] [Remark: Is this truly everything the ''Runic circle of Unlimited enhancement'' can achieve? The Challenger shall make proper use of the circle during the following three months, or waste it!] [Re-Remark: If the Challenger''s body reaches a critical condition, he will be moved towards the reward hall!] Intently listening to what the artificial intelligence said, Jason couldn''t help but feel flabbergasted. Not only did it tell him that he would receive his inheritance right now, which was great to know, but the artificial intelligence had rewarded him while insulting him at the same time. It said that he was too weak to receive the real Inheritance, which was like a slap on his face. However, Jason couldn''t help but feel that the customized reward may even be better. Right now, he didn''t know what the real reward he might have received if he were to be stronger but that didn''t matter right now. He was too busy sensing the numerous changes his body underwent the closer he approached the center of the runic circle. The center was a circle that was wide enough to easily occupy several houses on it comfortably. Yet, instead of thinking like that, Jason couldn''t help but realize what artificial intelligence had meant when it told him that he shouldn''t waste this opportunity. These were not the exact words it had used, but that was how Jason had perceived it! With that in mind, his brain was rattling, trying to make sense of what chance the voice in his head had meant. Thinking that he understood what exactly it wanted him to do, Jason couldn''t help but feel that the customized reward was truly great. And that was considering the fact that he felt how his mana core and mana veins were strengthened to a minuscule extent since he had emerged on the plains. With that in mind, he opened his soul world and released his five soulbonds in the center of the runic circle. All of his soulbonds landed on the ground in their original form without adjusting their shape or size. At first, they were astonished that all of them were summoned at the same time again. But after sensing the effect of the runic circle, they didn''t even have to think twice. Their body was instinctively entering a state where it would readily accept all changes and enhancements that it could receive. By allowing the energies of the runic circle to enter their body, the five soulbonds entered a state of hibernation. It caused Jason to smile dryly, questioning if he was being too doubtful about everything around him. Yet, just as he was about to close his soul world, he sensed something that caused his eyes to gleam brightly. ''So¡­the ''unlimited'' in the name was not just for the enhancement progress¡­but also that?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 818 - Runic Circle Of Unlimited Enhancements Understanding the Runic circle of Unlimited enhancements was not difficult because it enhanced everything the energy it released could reach. In Jason''s case, this even included his soul world as long as he manifested it to a certain extent. Yet, instead of doing anything half-heartedly, he released his entire soul world that had grown with every single droplet of bloodline he awoke. Currently, Jason''s soul world was several times larger than it had been on the first day at which he had awoken it. However, this was normal in his case as his soul world had not been fully awoken during that time due to the lack of soul energy. This was not a problem anymore, and by releasing his soul world in its normal form for the first time in years, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit baffled by its size. Even he was surprised to see how big it had become and he couldn''t help but reflect on his past and the first day of his soul world awakening. Smiling brightly, he could barely avert his attention from his exposed soul world to the other things that were even more important. He thus focussed on accepting the unique energy to enter his body, and actively enhancing it. But even after absorbing the energy in his body, he was not able to cultivate with it, but that was not a problem. Instead of cultivating, Jason decided to use the next three months in order to enhance his entire being. This included his two bloodlines, the Celestia aura he released, his stigma, and even more so his Emperor Eyes that were swept through by the most energy. Following that, his entire body was enhanced, including his mana veins and mana core. The enhancement had reached an extent Jason hadn''t expected. According to his assumptions, he would achieve this only when he would undergo his secondary bloodline awakening leaving just one major seal of the Chaos emperor intact. In the end, every single aspect of his body was strengthened, with the sole restriction being the pain he had to endure. His body was continuously subjected to a variety of changes, followed by the unbearable feeling of it being torn apart and put together. The latter was different from the constant changes because these changes were transforming everything within him while being torn apart and pulled together was limited to parts of his body and soul that were tormented. Overcoming the pain was taxing on Jason''s mind that took a big blow, preventing him from thinking clearly for quite some time. It made it impossible for him to actively circulate the energy to specific areas which he wanted to enhance the most. Only when his mind had adjusted to the increasing pain was it finally possible for him to think calmly. The pain of his entire being, being enhanced was increasing with every passing second, but Jason''s willpower was more than strong enough to endure everything. In his entire life, he had experienced more pain than a majority of beings had felt even after being tortured in the cruelest ways imaginable. As such, he was able to overcome pain as long as he was able to endure it to a specific extent. That was unfortunately not possible, which was the cause for his mind to have received a severe blow initially. A month after the runic circle had been activated, Jason had gained full control over the energy around him. This was quite fast and something only a few beings would be able to accomplish, but there was nothing he actually had to do, other than accepting the energy. Because of that, he was trying to sense if there was anything in his body that was not enhanced, but that was not the case. Happy with that discovery, Jason averted his focus from enhancing everything uniformly to focusing on specific areas and traits that he often used. In the end, it was obvious which trait he made use of the most. Thus, by actively absorbing even more of the runic circle''s energy, Jason led it towards his eyes that were already undergoing an enhancement procedure with a higher potency than the rest of his body. Despite that, he knew that his eyes were his strongest asset that had to be further enhanced, by all means. Other than that, his soul world had to undergo more enhancements, but that was not something he could actively support just because he could control the energy to a certain extent. Hence, Jason had decided to focus on his Emperor Eyes and enhance them as much as possible. Yet, before he began with the extreme enhancing process, he took a quick glance at his soulbonds that were undergoing the same procedure as him. All of his soulbonds were experiencing unbearable pain that felt as if they were being pulled apart in opposite directions. But, at the same time, they could also sense the extraordinary enhancements of their entire body. After one month, Jason noticed that the Sacred Squirrel had matured and its blessings were much stronger than before. Despite that, it almost looked as if it was on the verge of death which caused Jason to instruct his soulbonds to close their pores and repel the energy once they felt overwhelmed by it. Yet, instead of obeying his orders, they gave their utmost efforts and kept advancing, which Jason perceived with a deep frown on his face. However, he didn''t force them to stop, which was possible through their soul connection. His soulbonds had the liberty to decide what they would do for themselves. He had never forced them to do something and he would never do it in the future as well. With that in mind, Jason took a deep breath before he focused on his own enhancements. He used the energy to distribute it throughout his body before using the remainder to further enhance his eyes. Like this, the remaining two months passed, in which the six of them had given their utmost efforts in order to enhance their entire being to the highest possible extent. They were dead-tired and wouldn''t be able to bear the changes the unique energy was causing to their entire being. Thus all of his soulbonds collapsed inside the soul world that was retracted inside Jason, who was teleported away from the plains and the Runic circle of Unlimited enhancements. Right now, Jason was not even able to open his eyes as the enhancements had caused a burning sensation that only increased further with dry eyes. Thus, with his eyes tightly shut, he was teleported away, as he barely prevented himself from collapsing on the ground. Yet, contrary to his expectations of being moved somewhere else, he found himself in a room that had the energies of all five Primordial races. The fact astonished him for a moment as he began to wonder if he was in the personal treasury of the five Primordial races. Before he could further ponder over it, Jason sensed a minuscule portal manifesting in front of his chest. and his hand subconsciously moved as a head-sized orb manifested in it. This confused him for a moment, only to hear the old, familiar voice of the artificial intelligence in his mind. [Acknowledged as the descendant of a Primordial race, the Challenger will now be supplied with all necessary information about the five Primordial races in order to allow the Challenger to understand the necessity of the true soul awakening!] [Remark: With the true soul awakening orb the Challenger received, he will be able to unlock the true potential of both of his bloodlines, as long as he procures the necessary resources each of his bloodlines requires. Additionally, the soul awakening orb requires specific items and tremendous energy to be awakened. The list of required items will also be transmitted to the Challenger''s mind!] This confused Jason, and he couldn''t help but force his eyes to open as he hoped that the Emperor Eyes would be enough to help him somehow. Yet, before he could even think of doing something, the artificial voice resounded in his mind, starting to recite the tale of the five Primordial races. [Everything began with the Primordial descension¡­] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 819 - Planet Of The Universe Jason was not sure how long it took, but the artificial intelligence seemed to go on and on reciting the story about the five Primordial races. As the AI included details of the mighty races'' place of origin, how they came into existence and much more, he felt overwhelmed by the provided pieces of information. It was so much that Jason didn''t even notice that he had long since been teleported to the Primordial races'' reward hall. To digest the information he would require time, quite a lot of it at that, but there was one thing he could be absolutely certain about! "Shima¡­ why do I hear the name of this planet so often? An infinitely large planet that is still enlarging after eons of its birth¡­is something like that even possible?" Scratching the back of his head, Jason tried to make sense of how it was possible for Shima, the planet that was also called, Planet of the Universe, to come into existence. From what the artificial intelligence told him, once there had been an omnipotent being that had pursued only one task- to die in peace. As such, it had created something that would be able to kill it, but for that, it required the energy of the entire universe. Thus, after devouring the universe, the necessary energy was finally gathered, and the omnipotent being could die. However, unexpectedly, something seemed to have gone wrong because the void connecting the adjacent universes had shattered upon its death. Additionally, the once devoured universe used the gathered energy in addition to that of the dead, omnipotent being in order to give birth to Shima. Apparently, that was not all, as the souls of the devoured Universe were still intact. Driven by guilt of killing innocent beings for its selfish interests, the omnipotent being had given them the chance to reincarnate on Shima again. Some of them were said to have gained the ability to choose being reincarnated in a new race. This was owing to the reincarnation trials that were initiated as the last wish of the omnipotent being to seek penance for its motives. Through this, many new and extinct races were reincarnated. Some had received the chance to reincarnate with memories of their old life intact, while others had even gained the opportunity to be reincarnated with unique traits. This allowed them to become stronger than others. Trying to understand all of this took a long time for Jason because it made no sense if he were to put it simply. His head was aching because he was attempting to make sense of everything, which was quite difficult, and there was only one logical point that Jason had grasped without any issues. "So the five Primordial races are considered the strongest races if one were to solely look at their innate traits, and talents, which is the reason they''re in control of certain parts of the universe¡­I mean..merged universes?" Staring into the empty sky, Jason almost felt like his entire body was breaking apart, while his mind felt mashed. Jason required some time to calm down, which allowed him to arrange his thoughts. Forcing himself to think about the truth of the five Primordial races wouldn''t really help him right now. He might know the rough location of the Universes'' parts that were governed by the Primordial races, and also where their home was supposed to be. But being able to see something on a map, and knowing where one was currently located, let alone headed to go was something completely different. In the end, despite being ginormous in his opinion, Manyr was considered a relatively small planet. The Universe was vast, and the Planet of the Universe, Shima, was the biggest planet where the five Primordial races were located, or at least the world bridges leading to them were situated there, and nowhere else. Because of that, Jason knew that even if he were to search for a direct path leading towards his father, it would take a very long time to find him as Shima was simply too big. With that in mind, Jason could only shake his head in disappointment. He was questioning how long it would take him to reach the necessary strength to survive on Shima, and to venture through it before he would be able to meet his father. However, after thinking about it again, he was not even sure if he was ready to meet his father, or if that was something he wanted to do. Rather than searching for his father, who he had never met and who couldn''t even take care of the woman he loved, Jason wanted to search for his grandparents! He was still hopeful that they were alive even if there was no proof for this. But before trying to find his family, there were too many things he had to solve, including taking revenge! And for that Jason required more knowledge and strength. And, the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant''s treasury seemed to be the perfect way to achieve this! At least, he was confident in being able to obtain almost everything in the treasury of the dungeon after what he had heard about the Primordial races. If they weren''t even generous enough to fill the dungeon with ample treasures for their descendants, he was not sure what to think of them anymore. He had realized long ago that the dungeon was a means to train the descendants while rewarding them according to their passing score. Just as he thought about what kinds of rewards he required, the voice of the artificial intelligence resounded in his head once again. [Passing scores and procured merit points have been added up. The Challenger received [4489] Merit points. In the tower trial, the Challenger received 389 Merit points, followed by a ''Good'' achievement, which is worth 100 Merit points at the ''Void'' difficulty. In the second trial, the Challenger received a ''Good+'' achievement, which is worth 500 Merit points at the ''Void'' difficulty. In the third trial, the Challenger received an ''Extraordinary'' achievement, which is worth 2000 Merit points at the ''Void'' difficulty. In the fourth trial, the Challenger¡­worth 2000 Merit¡­ In the fifth trial¡­ Due to the Legacy trial, 1000 Merit points will be deducted!] Jason was initially listening intently to the message he received, but when it began to repeat itself, he ignored everything while fully focusing on the large number of Merit points he received. With almost 4500 merit points, he should be able to procure almost everything he wanted to. Thus, he took a breath of relief thinking that he was done with the dungeon. Yet, just when he regained his senses after thinking about AI''s story in addition to the notification about the number of merit points he received, Jason felt something appear in his hand. It was the true soul awakening orb, that looked extremely simple, yet oddly magnificent owing to the faint silver streams one could see in the semi-translucent orb. At that moment he recalled the information the artificial intelligence had transmitted to him. It had shared a list of the resources he had to procure in order to activate the true soul awakening orb, which did not include the items his bloodline required to be unsealed. The shared information also included his Celestia bloodline, but that was not the case for his human bloodline, which was a little bit frustrating. This was not the case because the items for the true soul awakening of the Celestia bloodline''s part of his soul were not in his possession and rare, but more because he was not sure where to start searching for items that could awaken his soul, to begin with. And this didn''t even include the question on how he was to figure out which specific item was needed to awaken his soul! I have a discord-server, for questions, artworks, giveaways, and much more. Link in my profile! Chapter 820 - Treasury After being teleported to the treasury of the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant, Jason had finally been relieved from the pressure of passing the trials with a high passing score. Now that he had 4489 Merit points too, he couldn''t decide what to keep and what to let go as there were simply too many things he had to procure. With such a high number of Merit points, even if the rewards were to be the same as in the previous inheritance site he had been, Jason wouldn''t complain. It would be a little bit sad, and his hopes were currently high owing to the information he had gotten to know about the Primordial races. Sadly, the rewards and their price were not something Jason could change either way. Keeping that simple mindset, Jason began to walk through the treasury that resembled a gigantic city with various districts. Each of them was dedicated to auxiliary occupations, the three main paths, and gardening, along with all possible unique traits one could awaken. However, Jason couldn''t waste his time marveling over the place. Thus he picked only one thing from the warehouse where all materials were stored- An Immortal eye in exchange for a mere merit point. Considering that the Immortal eye cost him a single merit point, Jason''s rational thinking was paying off. He began to smile brightly, knowing that the treasure was much cheaper than he first imagined. The expensive materials were something one would never find anywhere close to Manyr, and the same could even be said about the items that cost only 100 merit points. Walking towards the large tower that had a huge book as its sign, Jason passed by several large stores that had all kinds of valuable items. In fact, Jason was even able to find orbs with the souls of deceased beasts stored inside. This was somewhat scary, considering that the souls had been stored there since the day the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant had been built. Taking this into consideration, it was impossible not to feel sorry for them. Yet, after looking at the price of most sealed souls, Jason could only frown before he averted his attention from them. They were simply too expensive, and he didn''t have enough merit points to purchase all of them. Even if he were to purchase them, Jason couldn''t be sure what would happen if he were to try binding the manifested soul of a being to his soul world. It might be harmful if he was not strong enough, after all! Sighing deeply upon realizing this, Jason could only keep walking, only to halt in his tracks every few meters. Owing to his eyesight that had improved considerably through the enhancement of his entire body, specifically his eyes, he was able to see everything in the range of several kilometers down to the finest detail. Inserting mana into his eyes would only further sharpen his eyesight, including the details of the energy currents he could perceive. In the end, it was even possible for him to adjust the aspect with which his mana should enhance the Emperor Eyes. This would allow him to nearly have an x-ray vision and see more of the deepest part of things that he was holding in his hands. This was something Jason wished to try by taking a proper look at Solaris or Spyro because they were considered to be exceptional existences, the black origin flame less than the Spiral Spirit. However, carrying an in-depth inspection of Artemis would be great because he wanted to see her mana veins, and get to know the truth behind her mutation. Unfortunately, all of his soulbonds were currently in some sort of hibernation, accepting the tremendous enhancements they had received over the course of the last three months. Jason felt similar to them, but he was currently too excited about the possible rewards he could obtain. Furthermore, his brain was overflowing with the huge bulk of information he had yet to digest. As such, there was no way for him to be able to sleep right now, even if his body was begging him to get a good amount of deep sleep. Ignoring his body''s pleas was possible for the moment, but the longer he forced himself to stay awake the longer he would sleep later. But that was fine and not something he had to be afraid of, even less while being inside the treasury of the five Primordial races the Dungeon architects had created. In fact, the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendants was the first, and also the last project the five Primordial races had completed together because they were said to not be on good terms with each other. Jason was not sure why this was the case as the artificial intelligence hadn''t given him the necessary information to figure this out, but that was more than fine with him. For now, he didn''t have to know why the Primordial races loathed each other to the extent that world-destroying wars had been fought. At the same time, he was curious why these wars had been put to an end because there had to be a reason for both to start a war, and to stop it! Thinking about the five Primordial races, Jason couldn''t help but feel excited about encountering them because they had to be extremely powerful. As such, he walked through the streets of the empty city, that was in fact the treasury, with a vibrant smile on his face. While finding all kinds of treasures, Jason couldn''t help but feel that the Primordial races were even more generous than he could have hoped for. This belief strengthened when he checked the prices they asked for which were extremely low. There were even materials at the Specta rank that cost only 10 merit points, which was an interesting sight. ''And Luna said that I won''t be able to procure cultivation manuals above the Heaven rank¡­if she knew where I am, she would probably faint, right?'' Thinking about the City Lord, Jason wondered how she was doing, and he had the same doubt about Jennifer. Somehow, he had thought about Jennifer more often than he first imagined. It was nothing new for him to be separated from people he liked, but being unable to see Jennifer for a few years was more painful than it had been the case with the Flers, which made him feel bad. Because he felt bad about putting someone before the Flers; for someone he hadn''t even spent a long time with, Jason didn''t pursue this thought any longer. Instead, he halted in his tracks, staring at a store that was filled with all kinds of crystals. Yet, they looked nothing like normal crystals. Jason couldn''t help but feel flabbergasted as he stared at them with his Emperor Eyes fully utilized, while Solaris in its hibernation was starting to flicker wildly. "Are all of them¡­.crystals of unawakened origin flames?!?" Staring at the crystals, Jason was unable to keep his calm. By using his knowledge, he felt that even the weakest origin flame crystal in front of him was stronger than the silver origin flame of his late master. That was madness, and even more shocking when he saw that the weakest origin flame crystals were priced at 50 Merit points. He could purchase almost 90 of the weakest origin flame crystals just from the Merit points he had procured during the last three years. It was only at this moment that Jason truly realized that his score had been much better than he first assumed. Now, it dawned upon him that the Primordial races gave their utmost efforts to provide the best possible rewards to the Primordial Descendants that braved the challenges of the Dungeon! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 821 - Planning While taking a look at the origin flame crystals, Jason noticed that none of them was as unique as it had been the case with Solaris. Because of that, he truly believed that Solaris was a mutation which was quite interesting, considering that it was much stronger than normal origin flames. However, at the same time the strongest origin flame crystals he could see also had their own uniqueness, which made them no worse than Solaris¡­or so Jason thought. With that in mind, he left the store in which he had found the origin flame crystals, expecting to keep looking at the content of the other stores. Thus, he kept strolling through the streets, slowly approaching the library that was his final destination. In fact, there were two different libraries; one that looked like a huge dojo and was probably harboring all kinds of martial art techniques, and possibly even cultivation techniques while the other library stored knowledge. A few hours passed while he paid a lengthy visit to every single shop in order to get to know what kind of items were priced higher or lower. After he was done with his research, Jason finally arrived in front of the library which he entered without hesitation. Without wasting too much time, he grasped the first book of the closest shelf to figure out its price, and halted in his tracks, a little bit dumbfounded. [10 books of the library''s first floor cost 1 Merit point!] This astonished Jason greatly because the price was extremely expensive when compared to that of the Immortal eye. It was an item at, or possibly above the Specta rank yet only cost 1 Merit point too! However, it was also possible that the Immortal eye was not valuable in the five Primordial race''s opinion, but the books inside the library, and other materials that were priced much higher, were more valuable to them. With that in mind, his first thought was to figure out the prices of the books on the different floors before determining their worth for him, as his knowledge was not extensive. In the end, the prices were roughly the same, and only the books on the highest floor were priced at 1 Merit point per book. Given that, Jason first gathered all books he categorized as necessary, important, very important, interesting, and so on. Through this, he would be able to come up with a proper plan to not use too many merit points while being able to procure everything he wanted. Jason assumed that many books would more or less have the same information. That was why he looked at them in a very detailed manner, trying to come up with the most cost-efficient solution. Right now, it might look like he had many merit points, but Jason wanted to procure a great, body refinement technique because he was not even using one anymore. Furthermore, he was in need of a much stronger cultivation technique because he had realized that even though the Mythic Essence technique was strong, in order to advance even faster, he had to be greedy. Thus, he wanted a powerful body refinement technique, a better cultivation technique, and both a movement and a martial art technique. It had been years since he had used a martial art technique, which decreased his possible combat prowess by a large margin. This was also a part of the reason for his passing grade of the fifth trial to be so low. Other than that, the Floating Sky movement technique had long since reached the Perfect mastery, and its use was slowly diminishing with time. /The amount of mana he had was manifold higher than what his movement technique required, and the speed boost which he received was also not as much as it felt before. As such, a new movement technique was also something he required. With that in mind, he wanted to procure four techniques that were, if possible, at a much higher rank than the Heaven rank! Grand races had at least one technique at the rank called Luna, just like the City Lord, but Jason''s goal was much higher, and his greed to become much stronger was only increasing day by day! With that technique, Jason would be able to use them for a long time, with the highest possible potency, which would increase his physical strength, his combat prowess, and the speed at which he cultivated by several times! Right now, he and his soulbonds had to adjust to the enhancement they had undergone during the last three months. However, once the adjustment period was over, he would be able to make use of everything he had learned and received inside the dungeon. That way once he were to leave the dungeon, it would be with a much higher strength than he could have ever dreamed of reaching in such a short period of time! Given everything he needed, and all kinds of other things he wanted to procure to advance even further, Jason knew that he had to spend his merit points carefully. Fortunately, not a single merit point was deducted until he stored it inside his spatial ring which was something Jason realized when he walked around with the immortal eye, only to store it away much later. This was quite advantageous because he could walk around with a variety of books and adjust the rewards he took by leaving certain items behind once he felt that they were less useful than other things he found. Like this he would be able to figure out the best way to use 4489 Merit points! That being said, he collected several books until he had a humongous pile of them, which Jason enveloped with his mana before he left the library. He felt dumb doing something like that because storing them away would be much easier, but that was not something he could do for now. Thus, he entered the second library that looked like a dojo, while being followed by a mountain of books. Not only were there several floors inside the dojo-like library, but also multiple sections. These included a plethora of topics which could be used as a means to organize the special techniques that were either used with one cultivation vein, multiple, with a specific affinity requirement, or even the necessity to possess certain special traits. There were many more books Jason was interested in, and seeing that the price of the books on the first floor was similar to the first library''s with 10 books costing 1 Merit point, he got a good idea. ''I could purchase a few hundred Terra ranked techniques and sell them at an auction house if I were to need money...if Heaven-ranked techniques are similarly cheap, I might as well try the same at a higher scale!'' With that thought, Jason first looked at the prices of all kinds of techniques, including cultivation techniques and body refinement techniques which he found on the different floors. Shockingly enough, a Heaven-ranked technique ranged from 1 Merit point to 50. He also found many more Luna ranked techniques than he could have estimated with the cheapest being priced at 100 merit points. It was a simple martial art technique that seemed to be ordinary, and it was because of this that the price for the highest Luna ranked technique was so much higher than the lowest priced one. In the end, it was priced at 1500 Merit points! However, shockingly enough, Jason understood that he could procure almost three of the most expensive and also strongest Luna ranked techniques with the merit points he had procured. Yet, this didn''t interest him at all because he found two specific things at the highest floor of the dojo! First, he found a gradeless technique at a pedestal, surrounded by several techniques at the rank that was called [Sun], which was the fourth rank of the technique ranking Jason figured out! The Sun-ranked techniques piqued Jason''s interest because he could afford them as the cheapest one cost 3000 Merit points. However, despite being cheaper, the gradeless technique that was lying on a pedestal was what he was fixated on. It was glowing brightly, and it felt like his entire being was attracted to it! Additionally, the technique''s name was also unique, heightening his curiosity as it was called; [Kanadi of a Primordial] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 822 - Kanadi Of A Primordial From what he was able to understand, the [Kanadi of a Primordial] was a gradeless technique that refined one''s body in its entirety. It was similar to the Runic circle of Unlimited enhancements, just that he wasn''t enhanced but thoroughly refined! However, that was only the case if the few words that described the entire technique were true. In the end, the technique was described as gradeless because it would enhance someone''s entire being according to one''s bloodline. This was interesting but Jason''s first impression of the technique was not that great because only a portion of his bloodline was extremely powerful. As such, a [Sun] ranked technique might be better for him to choose even if it was a little bit more expensive. Yet, the more he thought about it, the more impressive the short description he read about the [Kanadi of a Primordial] became. There were specific functions he hadn''t perceived earlier, and it was able to enhance every trait of his body. This included his physique, his mana vein, his mana core, and so on. Thus, it was truly comparable to the Runic circle of Unlimited enhancements. With that in mind, Jason grasped the book that cost 2000 Merit points and put it in his spatial ring. This left him with less than 2500 Merit points left for his remaining purchases. Thus, he could purchase a better cultivation technique, a martial art technique, and a movement technique. However, given the fact that Luna ranked techniques cost between 100 and 1500 Merit points, there shouldn''t be an issue with that. It was sad that he couldn''t hastily purchase the better techniques because he was not even sure if his body would be able to cope with the potency of Sun-ranked techniques right now! That was because only Superior races were able to wield them owing to their innate traits, and even then they had to reach a specific cultivation base first. In the end, Jason had to learn more about the six ranks in which the races were categorized based on their strength, the difference between the races, and if the common race''s strongest individual were truly only at the Specta stage. Only now he begin to wonder about that because he had no idea that reaching Specta stage was considered to be an ordinary task by the Primordial races. By learning about this, he realized that the universe was ginormous. In comparison, Manyr was relatively small, and Jason was slowly comprehending that he had been very callous about everything. Considering that the Elvyr race that had come to their rescue when the Great Argos war had wreaked havoc on Argos was the strongest higher race, Jason had taken everything he had gotten to know for granted. Yet, recalling how most races didn''t even know the Celestia race''s aura or their name, he believed that something with his understanding of the overall situation concerned the race rankings was wrong. This included the ranking of martial art techniques, and it was only now that Jason was slowly understanding why Luna had been so confident that both Jason and Jennifer wouldn''t be able to find Luna-ranked techniques. They were simply too valuable and rare for normal people to procure. Thus, even powerhouses that reigned entire planets were not able to procure such techniques just because they wanted to. Seeing hundreds of Luna ranked techniques in front of him, Jason first doubted if it was an illusion. But if even the five Primordial races were barely able to procure just a few hundred Luna ranked techniques, followed by a handful of Sun ranked techniques, and one gradeless technique, they had to be especially rare. Otherwise, the five races that governed a large part of the Universe would have been able to share more techniques despite the possibility of races other than Primordial Descendants obtaining them. When realization struck him, Jason also understood that the sub-rankings in the technique''s rankings were most likely much vast in the higher ranks than he initially expected. With that in mind, he suddenly wondered how much longer it would take before he would be able to take revenge on the My?ldra, and Burane race. They were the strongest races that had ever offended him, and the Ifrytor race was nothing in comparison. Armed with Solaris'' strength and capabilities that never ceased to increase and become stronger, he could feel that he could easily overwhelm the Ifrytor race. Based on these thoughts, Jason knew that he had to purchase three Luna ranked techniques, even if it meant that he might not be able to wield the techniques to their fullest capabilities yet. In the end, it was smart to purchase the strongest techniques that were the most suitable, instead of just buying something powerful. Because of that, Jason spent more time than he initially wanted to inside the dojo. Yet, instead of spending too many Merit points, he chose a select few items and was happy with his purchase. He chose a cultivation technique that cost him 300 Merit points, a martial art technique that could be used with an enlarging weapon like Byakur which cost him 500 Merit points, followed by a movement technique that cost him 700 Merit points. As such, his purchase ended with the gradeless [Kanadi of a Primordial] technique that cost him 2000 Merit points, the Low Luna ranked cultivation technique [Divine Maestra], the Low Luna ranked martial art technique [Bladed Ruyi Bang] and the Mid Luna ranked movement technique [Hermes Celeration]. All in all, he paid 3500 Merit points, leaving him with 989 Merit points for other purchases. He could choose between 1 Merit point for the Immortal eye or the 100 Merit points for the huge pile of books he was taking with him. Thus, he calculated as if he had only 888 Merit points left while continuing to walk through the treasury of the Five Primordial races. There were all kinds of things he wanted to do, and one of these things was to pay attention to the strength of races. That being said, he returned back to the Library and took one of the unique books that was located on the highest floor. The massive floor had a wide variety of books lined across the shelves, each of the books costing several hundred credits. Before, the price would have been too much for him, even more so because the book he wanted to purchase cost 500 Merit points. However, after giving it another thought, he had no problem purchasing the book he had taken a liking to. That was because the book he was currently holding in his hands was in fact the Logbook about all races. He would only have to open the book and think about the name of a specific race. Within a moment, the book''s content would change, giving him extensively compiled information pertaining to that specific race. What made the book special was the fact that it contained the knowledge and data collected by the Primordial races. It meant that it was likely for this information to be thorough and accurate. Furthermore, before purchasing it, Jason was even allowed to conduct a small trial. This was why he thought about the Ifrytor race because he was the most interested in this ordinary race that was said to be extremely weak. After choosing the Ifrytor race, he would have switched it to the My?ldra race in order to figure out their strength. But, he was positively shocked to go through the information provided of the Ifrytor race. ''So¡­a weak common race like the Ifrytor race has at least one powerhouse at the peak of the Specta stage?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 823 - Restless Jason made huge gains by purchasing the Logbook about all races for 500 Merit points. The moment he knew the name of a race that opposed him, he would be able to find out the strength of their strongest powerhouse. This was extremely useful, and something he should definitely know if he were to offend any race. In the end, the possibility of him offending someone was extremely high, and being a little prepared for every possible scenario was great. With that in mind, he was glad to have purchased the Logbook even if it was extremely expensive. Unfortunately, this meant that he was only left with 388 Merit Points. It was not possible to purchase any kind of great technique with such low points but that was fine. He had purchased what he wanted and didn''t require any more techniques. The four techniques he had just purchased were already more than enough to cope up with, and Jason knew that he would require years to master them. He even believed that he was being a little overconfident with the fact that a few years would be enough to master the technique. Sighing deeply, Jason could only shake his head and leave the Library for good. Now, instead of focusing on purchasing anything, he wanted to figure out something else. Even if he was not sure where he would be teleported to once he left the dungeon, it was unlikely for his teleportation to be at a good spot. Either, he would end up in the middle of the storm where he had entered the Chaos Obelisk, or he might be teleported above the Kinra island. But he had a sinking feeling that it was most likely buried deep underground owing to the movements of the Gigantic Island tortoise. However, there was also the possibility that he might be teleported somewhere completely different, which was not exactly advantageous either. Because of that, Jason was currently looking for a reward that allowed him to be teleported wherever he wanted. Receiving such a reward would be great, and it might even allow him to emerge on Tagran. It was the place where Wisse and his master were probably waiting for him. It was also highly likely that they had forgotten about him after all these years, but that was not something he knew for sure. Jason only knew that Wisse''s master was afine to the Chaos affinity, which meant that he or she should know the Chaos Emperor. As such, Jason could narrow his search for the Chaos Emperor that would most likely be able to tell him more about his grandparents, if they were alive, and much more. Unfortunately, Jason felt that he was too weak to start the search for his grandparents, let alone the Chaos Emperor. His instincts told him that he would die if he were to start searching now. Owing to this instinct, he didn''t grow restless. Instead of rushing things, Jason decided to focus on gaining a proper cultivation foundation as it was the most important. Other than that, he didn''t want to leave Manyr either. Rather than wanting to leave Manyr, he had grown fond of the place much more than was the case with Argos. That was because the beasts and intelligent races could live harmoniously, and some even helped each other. This was something that could have never existed on Argos, which was sad. However, Jason understood why it had been like that on Argos. Both humans and the beasts had been too afraid and wary of each other, leading to them attacking one another. Nevertheless, the fact that beasts and the intelligent races could live next to each other without too many issues was not the only thing Jason liked on Manyr. The real reason for him to want to stay on Manyr was that he wanted to meet Jennifer again. It sounded ridiculous to him because they hadn''t been with each other for long. But it was almost as if she had bewitched him. Ever since they had separated, he thought about her more often than he wanted to acknowledge. With that in mind, he felt that he should search for a reward that would teleport him to a place of his choice. Rather than relying on his luck, or purchasing something else with his last remaining Merit points, he preferred to go someplace he wanted to! Through this, he took a proper look at all stores in the alleys of the city-like treasury. This took quite some time in which he thoroughly observed every possible item. This helped him have a rough estimation of what items he might need if he had some Merit points left after he found the teleportation reward. Fortunately, it didn''t take him long to find the reward he had been looking for. Oddly enough there were more than a dozen different types of teleportation rewards. As such, he took a look at the teleportation reward that allowed him to choose his destination irrespective of the distance. Because of that, he had to pay 100 Merit points, which was clearly written on the reward sign. Even though that was almost a third of what he had with him, Jason felt that it was worth the price. As long as he could avoid the uncertainty of emerging in the middle of nowhere, he would pay the amount. With that in mind, he set aside 100 Merit points before choosing items according to the last 288 Merit points he had. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done because there were simply too many things he wanted to purchase yet too little that he could actually purchase. Thinking about this, he thought that purchasing techniques only for himself might have been a little bit unfair and selfish. Thus, he returned to the dojo, looking for techniques his soulbonds could use. To his misfortune, there was not even a single technique that had been customized for beasts. Additionally, the comprehension required to learn the techniques of intelligent races was extremely high. Despite that, Jason couldn''t help but halt in his tracks for a moment. Smiling faintly, he recalled something that was obvious, yet not easily perceptible. ''Don''t my soulbonds receive an enhancement in their intelligence after they were bound to me? They''re sharing their strength with me, and the soulbond contract allows them to become more intelligent, wasn''t that the case?'' Until now, Solaris was the soulbond that had gained the most intelligence from the soulbond contract. Not only did it gain sentience, but it was also able to learn how to feel emotions, express itself, and much more. With that thought, Jason wondered if he should purchase some Terra ranked techniques for his soulbonds to try and learn, followed by Heaven ranked techniques which they could learn afterward. It might be a waste of merit points if it wouldn''t work properly, but in that case, he could still auction off the techniques that his soulbonds couldn''t use. Through this, he wouldn''t make any losses or minimize them. Instead, his soulbonds gained the chance to show that they were more than normal beasts, that they could also use specific techniques of intelligent races. He knew that it was necessary to pay attention to what kind of techniques he purchased because most required the usage of hands and feet But by spending enough time inside the dojo, it was not a problem to find a few dozen techniques. Thinking about it again, he didn''t want or use all of his remaining Merit points for techniques. Instead, there were also a few extremely rare materials that he wanted to purchase with his Merit points. Even an unlimited fortune wouldn''t allow him to purchase certain things on Manyr. He knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see so many useful things under one roof. It would take an eternity for him to find some of the materials ever again. With that in mind, Jason purchased all kinds of materials he could make use of in the future. The most expensive item cost 50 merit points and with that, the last step of his reward session was completed. The last three years inside the dungeon had been extremely interesting. Yet, at the same time, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit odd because he believed that the Julandra region had changed more than it would normally be the case. A span of three years was nothing for Cultivators and time seemed to move differently for them. However, given the fact that the Inheritance sites had emerged on Kinra that had surfaced years ago, Jason couldn''t help but feel as if it would be Deja-vu once again. It felt similar to the time he awoke his primary Celestia bloodline, after which the Great Argos war had truly started. With that in mind, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little restless when he stared at the teleportation reward. He had already chosen the Julandra region, or to be precise a location close to Luna''s city. Now, the only thing he had to do was to use his merit points to activate the teleportation. But¡­ Why did he feel so restless right now? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 824 - Returned After he had distributed every single Merit point, Jason could teleport to the Julandra region as the reward to do so was already activated. Yet, the first thing he did after activating the reward was to sit down in front of the portal. Crossing his legs, he began reading through the four techniques he had purchased for himself. After purchasing them, they were finally unlocked for him to read beyond the first page that was more like a description. As such, it was only now that Jason got to know what exactly the techniques he chose could do and how powerful they truly were. As for the Divine Maestra cultivation technique, it would allow his cultivation speed to double at the bare minimum without making him feel any pain. Meanwhile, the Bladed Ruyi Bang martial art technique focused on weapons that could enlarge, which were mostly spears. Additionally, there was also a section dedicated to Broadswords and other weapons, as well as a detailed description on how one should use the enlarging function of a weapon. Because of that, Jason was already curious on how he could make use of the technique in order to distract, or possibly outwit his opponent. While the Bladed Ruyi Bang martial art technique was already interesting, this was even more so the case with the [Hermes Celeration] technique. It was the first movement technique he learned other than the Floating Sky and its sub-technique, the Weightless steps movement technique. As such, a Luna ranked technique was extremely exciting, even more so because he was always prone to learning a better movement technique that allowed him to move faster. In fact, he was always trying to increase his speed and turn it into his biggest asset apart from his eyes. Unfortunately, it was never really possible for him to pursue what he wanted. He knew that his eyes and other traits had been stronger, and more important than improving his movement speed. Because of that, he felt like a small child who had received the present he had always wanted, a technique to increase his movement speed even further. In the end, his movement speed was already fast, and by fusing with Petri, Peak Prismar stage cultivators looked like amateurs in comparison to him. Even the Lesser puppets that had been replicas of the five primordial races were nothing in comparison to him. This meant that there weren''t many beings, or races that were on par with him and at the same cultivation base! This would be even less the case once he began to refine his entire being, and strengthen his body. He was excited to figure out what exactly the technique called Kanadi of a Primordial could really do and how useful it was for him to practice the technique. Unfortunately, he would have to procure a few resources to start practicing it like nutrition serums and other necessities. It was also possible to practice without these things but the potency would be extremely low, and lesser than the normal if he were to cultivate. With that in mind, Jason finished reading through the techniques'' first few pages. He got up from the ground and used the teleportation reward to bring him to the Julandra region. Returning was the most important for now, and his body and mind were calm. He was prepared for every possible scenario he might have to face after his return. Jason was anxious as well as excited to leave the dungeon and hopefully meet Jennifer. Because of that, Jason was not even bothered by the fact that the space around him twisted, followed by him being teleported away from the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant. It was only after leaving the dungeon that Jason would understand that everything happened for a reason. The time he spent inside the dungeon to pass the trials with the highest possible score, the Inheritance he received, followed by the rewards he obtained, would turn out to be much more important than he could ever imagine. Oblivious to the importance of the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant and the changes it had caused within his mindset and the rest of his entire being, he was teleported through space. In a blink of an eye, he was transported billions of light years through the vast universe, only to return to the Julandra region where he had been just a few years ago. In the end, Jason didn''t even notice that his appearance in the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant had attracted the attention of the five Primordial races. The only thing they knew about him was that Jason had entered the Chaos Obelisk on Manyr and that he was a halfling. Other than that, they didn''t really know anything because the sentience of the dungeon didn''t expose his identity or his personal information. This protected Jason from the possible attack of the two Primordial races that were on bad terms with the Celestia race. Yet, upon learning of Jason''s existence, all five races had begun their preparations to search for him- the halfling who had received the Inheritance and survived it to tell the tale. Even the Celestia race had launched an extensive research mission as only Yaldra knew of the existence of his son, and nobody else. He never told anyone that he had a son because he hadn''t known about this for a very long time either. However, after he found out about his son and the fact that Jason didn''t want to meet him, it was impossible to share the fact with others. The Celestias were a pure and prideful race, that wouldn''t accept Jason just like that. He was too weak and had tarnished their reputation and blood just by existing. Thus Yaldra remained silent, glad that the Celestia race assumed that the halfling was from one of the other four Primordial races. Yet, in the end, he still sent out his own troupe of trusted soldiers. They were supposed to send out the troops of the races they govern with the final goal to find and capture Jason alive before anyone else could find out about his existence. This confused the soldiers of the Celestia race at first because they thought it was best to simply spy on the halfling before doing anything. It shouldn''t be difficult because there were hundreds of races under their control. But instead of spying, Yaldra wanted to have the halfling in his grasp. His orders astonished many soldiers, but they still obeyed as they were supposed to. Thus, the soldiers began combing through the vast universe while ensuring that they didn''t attract any attention. However, this was easier said than done because all five Primordial races wanted to find Jason! Not attracting any attention and finding someone specific as quickly as possible, before anyone else could were the exact opposites of each other, and that was what the Five Primordial races were fully aware of. As such, they contacted each other for the first time in eons, trying to figure out which of the Primordial races had been able to give birth to a halfling. They wanted to figure out as much information as possible about this mysterious halfling. Yet, contrary to their expectations, all five races were doing the exact same, but without any success! Meanwhile, Jason finally returned to the Julandra region and emerged from the portal, only to look around the familiar place he had emerged. "What is this¡­weird presence?!?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 825 - Changes When he emerged in the air above the plains, Jason first took a deep breath to invigorate himself. Afterward, he tried to figure out in which direction the city governed by Luna was located. Thus, he took a good look around after inserting mana into his eyesight. This allowed him to find what he was looking for just a moment later. The city was far away from his current location, and Jason flew towards it at a slow pace, without trying to attract any attention. That was something he felt to be necessary because the presence that permeated the entire region around him was gloomy, making him feel uncomfortable. Because of that, he first tried to message both Jennifer and the City Lord using the messenger card, but nobody answered. Thus, he entered the city, but instead of approaching the City Lord''s abode, he first walked through the crowded alleys. There, he first ordered food from the busiest stall in order to procure information about what all had occurred after the Kinra Island submerged. Hence, for the remainder of the day, he went from one stall to another, listening to the people eagerly talk amongst each other. Jason didn''t speak with anyone if one excluded the stall owners he talked to for ordering food. In the end, these hours turned out to be a fruitful investment. He had figured out quite a lot about the happenings in the Julandra region, and Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit shocked. Several races had infiltrated the Julandra region, forcing the Devir and Aeus race to join forces just to survive. With that arch-rivals had turned into the closest comrades in order to protect their lands and people from the infiltrators. Yet, humans were still subdued. However, this wasn''t the case for long because a terror attack had killed the majority of the Aeus and Devir race''s nobles. The culprits had ambushed the nobles who had participated in a commemoration ceremony marking the completion of two years of the battle in which the race''s warriors had held back the infiltrators. The ceremony was not only a celebration to honor those who had fought the other races for such a long time, but also to set up new plans to increase their defenses in order to hold back the infiltrators forever, if possible. Unfortunately, the ceremony ended in the worst possible way as a bomb created out of an extremely unique material detonated. The blast was so catastrophic that not even the remains of the people could be found. And that material was none other than the Immortal eye! When Jason heard this, he immediately thought of Luna. He questioned himself if that was the reason for her to request an Immortal eye to be brought to her. ''She¡­asked for an Immortal eye, just to create a bomb¡­killing the Aeus and Devir race''s nobles?'' Jason wondered. He was confused about the reason for her to do something like this and in such a perilous period at that. Scratching the back of his head in confusion, his mind required a few seconds to process the information about the happenings that followed after the terror act had been caused. In fact, Luna''s name was not even mentioned or linked to the attack. What had been mentioned instead was the fact that the perpetrator was already identified and a warrant had been issued. The same applied to the perpetrator''s disciple, which caused Jason to stiffen for a moment. ''Jennifer was already on everybody''s radar in her original form, but now even her disguise should be useless¡­That..is bullshit!'' He had almost cursed out when he heard that Jennifer was being searched by the Devir and Aeus race. However, fortunately enough, the two races had more than enough to do. They had focussed on appointing new, capable individuals as nobles in order to allow them to lead combat units in the war with the other races. Following the explosion and loss of many powerful beings of both the Devir and Aeus race, the Manyrs were starting to riot too. They demanded equal rights as everyone else had or threatened to join the ranks of the infiltrators, and support them by all means. Forced by the threat the Manyrs had issued, the Aeus and Devir race accepted them in their rows. Though they did it reluctantly, it was much better than being attacked by another race from within. Because of that, even the Tritans that had previously been disliked and hated as an organization were accepted by the two races. It clearly showed that they had better things to do than to discriminate against mutants of their own race. Rather than discriminating, they wanted to make use of the mutants that were mostly stronger than anyone else! When Jason heard this, he was not sure if the goal of the Tritans had been achieved, but it was not like he was truly bothered about them, to begin with. He had only heard of the Tritans because Jennifer was with them, and that was just because of her own goals, too! With that in mind, the Tritans organization could be no different than the rest. It could be using Jennifer for its selfish interests which caused Jason to contemplate for a moment. A random thought popped up in his mind making him halt in the middle of the street. ''If Luna initiated the terror act without Jennifer''s knowledge, they might have gone their separate ways by now¡­and the Tritans must have abandoned Jennifer too¡­does that mean she is trying to survive on her own, inside the Julandra region?... Or did she leave because of that?!'' Even if it was possible, Jason didn''t believe that Jennifer had been caught, let alone killed. Because of that, he began to think of all kinds of other possibilities about Jennifer''s current hiding spot, or what could have happened to her. However, standing around idle was not exactly helpful, and he already got an idea to find her. Thus, he was relatively calm and could pay more attention to his surroundings, and listen to the Aeus, Devirs and Manyrs who were filling the streets of the city. If there hadn''t been the constant gloomy presence he was feeling since he had entered the city, Jason would have thought that the only change was the way in which the Manyrs were allowed to act. Despite them being on equal footing with the other two races, they were still frowned upon. Jason noticed this quite easily because he was subjected to far more weird stares than before. In fact, he was presumed to be one of the mutants belonging to the Tritans. It was the sole reason nobody bumped into him or bothered to talk him down for anything he was currently doing. Everyone avoided him owing to his mana fluctuations that were extremely strong. Jason''s persona had changed too due to thousands of fights he had fought in the last few years, followed by the fights against the lesser puppets of the Primordial races. Afterward, he had received his inheritance that only intensified things further. It was because of this that he was ignored by other beasts and both the Devir and Aeus race that would normally try to humiliate the Manyrs and Tritans on every occasion. However, they sensed that Jason would retaliate the moment they did something, which the ordinary citizens could not cope with. This fact made them ignore him. But that was not something Jason noticed because he was already occupied with the plan he had in mind to find out Jennifer''s location! He had the Sacred Squirrel and its blessings, after all! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 826 - Refining Technique After several months had passed since he bound the Sacred Squirrel to his soul world, they had finally created a fortified soul conjunction. In fact, all of his soulbonds had now a fortified soul conjunction with him. All of them had a strong connection to him, and now all of them were a big family with Jason as its core. That was great and allowed them to improve quite a lot. It was mostly based on the fact that the soul conjunction had allowed the Stigma to be engraved on the Sacred Squirrel. He named the Sacred Squirrel, Sira, who was currently in a state similar to hibernation just as it was the case with the other soulbonds. This made it quite difficult for him to use the Foretelling blessing that required the blessed energy which only Sira could produce. Owing to that, Jason had to wait until he could have another foretelling just as it was the case at the Tribe chief gathering. Because of that, he had to wait for a little until he had the necessary information to start searching Jennifer. With that in mind, he searched for a lodging place that he could use for the next few days, or weeks if the hibernation would take longer. There were not many leads to look for Jennifer, to begin with. As such, utilizing his time to become stronger was currently more important because he felt that Jennifer would need the help of someone stronger than her the moment they met. Yet, considering that three years had passed since they had entered the Legacy trial of the inheritance site together, Jason couldn''t help but believe that she should have already been close to entering the Ascendion stage. At least, her strength should have skyrocketed after she left the Inheritance site. In fact, Jason believed that Jennifer had already begun to merge her soul with the vessels of her. Her combat prowess must be just a step away from the Ascendion stage, if that was not something she had long since attained. However, what Jason noticed was that simply thinking about Jennifer wouldn''t bring him or her anything. Right now, he was unable to reach her, and the only thing he could do was to message her a few times, in the hope to reach her. Other than that, searching for someone who was hiding from two races was like searching for a needle in a stack of hay. Thus, after he found a lodging facility for which he paid with some of the cultivation stones he had left, Jason focused on himself. First, he read through one of the brand new cultivation techniques he had purchased, trying to gain a basic understanding of it before he moved on to the Kanadi of a Primordial technique. Instead of starting to practice the techniques right off the bat, Jason wanted to understand the techniques to a certain extent before doing anything else. Thus, two weeks passed in which he learned the first stage of all four techniques he had purchased. After that, there was not much for him to do, and the first thing he did was to purchase all kinds of necessities to practice the Kanadi of a Primordial technique. In fact, the technique seemed extraordinary but the way it was exerted felt extremely easy. At least that''s what Jason figured out by reading the first stage. He had taken a glimpse at the second phase of the technique, which made him realize that the difficulty to practice the technique would increase exponentially with every new phase. However, that was more than fine with him because he simply believed that the more difficult a technique was, the more benefits he would obtain. Thinking back he realized that he never had to face any major issues in learning a new technique as he was eager to learn more. So, the higher the difficulty the greater his motivation to excel at it. This allowed his comprehension to considerably improve even if the difficulty of the technique ought to exceed his capabilities. In the end, he had been conditioned to this mindset since it took almost 10 years to awaken his mana eyes, or to be precise, Emperor Eyes! After purchasing the goods he was required to practice the Kanadi of a Primordial technique, Jason couldn''t help but feel that the most difficult to practice was to have sufficient funds at all times. He barely purchased enough resources for a few practice sessions, and a large margin of the cultivation stones he had preserved from years ago, was exhausted in an instant. Because of that, he felt a little bit bad, but at the same time, Jason knew that it was not difficult to earn a fortune as long as he forged special weapons out of perfectly purified ingots. That hadn''t been a problem before he entered Kinra Island, and now, this should be even less problematic because he and Solaris had improved quite a lot. In the end, the Runic circle of Unlimited enhancements was only a bonus that allowed him to increase his capabilities and that of his soulbonds further. With that in mind, he was confident that the weapons he could forge were even more powerful now. So far, it had been impossible for him to improve his knowledge about runes or special alloys, let alone other means that were important to forge, but that was not an issue. Rather, Jason had purchased several books in the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant''s treasury that would give him the knowledge he was hoping to receive. Thus, the only thing he had to do was to read and comprehend them. Wanting to start reading as quickly as possible, he returned to the lodging and took out the bathtub he had purchased earlier. He then filled it with crystal clear ice before he heated it up. Afterward, he released the suction force of his body, pulling all three cultivation energies in a radius of a kilometer towards him. He then removed his clothes before he entered the bathtub that released a unique scent owing to the nutrition serums he had filled into it. Letting his pores open, Jason absorbed even the smallest trace of nutrition followed by the surroundings mana. The sudden lack of mana which the other citizens noticed caused them to feel frustrated because there were some other Cultivators that had wanted to cultivate. However, owing to the laws employed by the city, the stronger force was allowed to absorb the energies in the surrounding. If someone didn''t like that, they could either change their lodging or rent a cultivation room that was concealed from the outside, actively releasing the respective energy they required to cultivate. That being said, Jason was not bothered about it anymore, and he had more than enough time to follow the descriptions the Kanadi of a Primordial technique gave him. Through this, he knew the proportions of his cultivation energy and nutrition required to create a mixture that would nurture his entire being as long as he used the mixture in the proper circulation movements. Initially, everything seemed simple, but everything was much more difficult than Kyle could have assumed at first. It was mostly based on the fact that the Kanadi of a Primordial enhanced every single trait of one''s entire being simultaneous. In the end, this included his soul world, his Emperor Eyes, his mana core, mana veins, and physique, which were all already enhanced by the Inheritance he had received inside the dungeon. This meant that the enhancements brought forth by the Kanadi of a Primordial would take much longer to show any effects which were something that bothered Jason. However, little did he know that these enhancements were much stronger than he could first assume. Being a halfling of a Primordial race had granted him with the highest possible enhancement from the technique. The said technique had been created by the Primordials that were also known as the Originators! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 827 - Foretelling Exerting the Kanadi of a Primordial technique caused Jason to feel a little bit dissatisfied. Not only were the costs of a single practice extremely high, but the gains he received were not as per his expectations. Instead, given his current situation, Jason knew that his strength had to increase as quickly as possible. Because of that, he switched from practicing the Kanadi of a Primordial that was a technique with long-term gains to the new cultivation technique he had procured. After understanding the first stage of the technique without too many difficulties, Jason could start practicing it. He didn''t waste any time and used his brain that had been refined and enhanced over and over again in order to gain the most benefits. Having a refined and enhanced brain helped him easily cultivate for an entire week. He was slowly getting more comfortable in the way the technique demanded him to circulate the mana inside his body. He was still far away from perfection and his movements were still crude, which was something Jason found to be ridiculous considering that he had always been good at controlling mana. However, with the new cultivation technique, he had to control more than 20 different streams of mana inside his body that had to be circulated through him with extreme precision. As if that wasn''t a daunting task, the technique presented another hurdle in front of him by requiring the amount of mana to be exactly the same in every single mana stream. Through this, the more mana he absorbed the more his cultivation accelerated, moving it through his body. Unfortunately, the speed at which he could cultivate for now was little in comparison to the maximum limit of the Divine Maestra technique''s first stage. Despite that, Jason could increase his cultivation pace exponentially as long as he remained fully focused. As such, at the end of the week, he had almost reached half of the required liquefied mana drops he needed in order to start compressing the dome crystal. Once that was done, it would allow him to be at the Peak of the Prismar stage, solely based on his cultivation base! His strength was much higher than his cultivation base, but Jason knew that both could have been much higher if he were to stop bothering about maintaining a high weaponry, and martial art, or affinity proficiency. But that was important because he had to make use of his strength with proper techniques. Otherwise, his cultivation base and brute strength could be high, but his true strength would reduce drastically over time. With that in mind, Jason stopped cultivating after a week because he sensed that his soulbonds were finally waking up after almost a month had passed. Their hibernation was over and they had finally adjusted to the enhancements they had undergone. In the end, every single trait of their entire being had been enhanced, whether it were their cultivation veins, their vessel, their physique, and much more. Thus, Jason was excited to see them once again, which made him instinctively open his soul world to the outside. It was only a few moments later that Sira, Spyro and Solaris emerged from the soul world, before they clung to Jason, claiming their usual spots as before. Following that Artemis and Petri followed suit in their smallest form and they moved towards their old, familiar position like usual. In the beginning, Jason didn''t notice much of a difference because Spyro and Solaris could change their form whenever they wanted. However, in the case of Artemis and Petri, their appearance looked much more refined, sharp, and deadlier than before. Meanwhile, Sira''s silver emblems with golden outlines on the back had grown a little bit, looking as if it was attached to her Stigma. Despite their outer appearance having changed only a little bit, the outer side of his soulbonds was not as important as their inside! Jason felt tremendous changes within his soulbonds, which made him smile at them proudly. As such, he spent some time with them inside the small room he had lodged before he began to distribute the techniques he had purchased. It was not easy to make his soulbonds read, but he wanted them to use their improved intelligence in order to do something useful with it. He had successfully distracted Artemis with a technique about the ice affinity, and how it could be used properly, keeping her occupied for hours. Meanwhile, Spyro received a few more techniques the Spiral path used, followed by Solaris receiving a fire affinity-based technique that was similar to the Dragon fire, yet more versatile. On the other hand, Petri received a technique that was based on the enhancement of curses which was something that interested Jason too. Only Sira didn''t receive a single technique because techniques with blessings were rare to find, and not that useful for the Sacred Squirrel''s specific blessings. But she wasn''t going to sit idle as Jason had thought of something he wanted her to do. As such, by allowing Sira to enter his mana core for the first time, he wanted to use her blessed energy to activate the foretelling blessing, which worked rather easily. Instead of causing any trouble, the blessed energy was smoothly transferred from the Sacred Squirrel inside his body, before it was used to activate the foretelling blessing. Afterward, he used a single thought to let the foretelling blessing know what he was eager to find out. [Where is Jennifer?] His question was crystal clear, and after a large amount of blessed energy was used up, Jason''s eyes turned milky. Numerous pictures flashed through his mind of something that would occur in the future. The blessing was unable to tell him what was happening right now, which Jason noticed too late. But it was not problematic because he was able to figure out where she was. And oddly enough it was not even that far away! In fact, he knew the place she was hiding in, which confused him a little bit because he didn''t recall telling her where exactly it was located. It was the elemental crystal cave in which he had been teleported when he had emerged on Manyr. According to the foretelling blessing, she was being hunted by strong beings at the Ascendion stage that had found clues of her being near the area. Thus, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit helpless about the situation. Only now did he notice something specific about the foretelling blessing he hadn''t known beforehand. It might also be a coincidence, but it would be an extremely rare one because the pictures that flashed through Jason''s mind were from the next full moon! This felt weird because the next full moon was still three weeks away, and if he was fast enough, it might even be possible for him to reach the location during that period. However, in order to achieve this, he had to start moving. With that in mind, he retracted his soulbonds into his soul world who were intrigued about the techniques they had begun to read, only to be pulled away by Jason. This annoyed them, but instead of being disgruntled, they sensed how serious he was. Thus, they remained quiet, and Sira returned to the soul world. Normally Jason would allow Artemis to enter his mana core now because he would be able to fly much faster using her wings. But instead of doing so, he told her to cultivate as much as possible, knowing that a big battle was going to start in three months. Thus, it would be best if she were to reach the highest possible combat prowess before that. Meanwhile, he told his other soulbonds to do the same, before he left the city. Simultaneously, he kept practicing the movement sequences of the [Hermes Celeration] technique that allowed him to increase his speed by manifold once he mastered it. ''I will be fast enough!!'' He could only think, hoping for the best as he rushed in the direction of the elemental cave! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 828 - Found Her! Flying with the fastest pace Jason could achieve, he reached the area around the elemental crystal cave only three weeks later. It was not yet a full moon, but there was not much time left. He was already close to the spot he had seen in the pictures that had flashed through his mind due to the foretelling ability. Because of that, Jason was still relatively calm, even more so because his proficiency in the Hermes Celeration movement technique had improved quickly. It had yet to reach the basic mastery, and Jason knew that he was quite far away from reaching that level. But that was not important because the speed enhancement he received was already much higher than had been the case with the Floating Sky movement technique. Because of that, Jason had no reason to complain. Rather, he felt that he was doing quite fine. Now, the only issue he was currently facing was the question of whether he would be strong enough to defeat someone at the Ascendion stage. He had never fought someone at the Ascendion stage, but the fact didn''t make him nervous. If he were, to be honest, his enhancements were more than enough to put him on a pedestal, increasing his strength to an extent that was much higher than anyone else could reach. In fact, when he was still inside the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant, Jason had been able to procure information about the unique state of his mana. It required much more mana than one would usually need to liquefy a single drop of mana. In the end, the answer to this was quite simple. It was a racial trait that made him require more mana than others for every single advancement after crossing the Mortal stage. This was quite interesting, but he also got to know that one could imitate this unique trait by using special cultivation techniques. Jason had come across a few of those special cultivation techniques when he had been looking for the Divine Maestra technique, and the finds he made had been quite interesting. Astonishingly, there were even techniques that could create high-quality mana drops from the purest essence of transmuted mana. Through this, one''s affinity would become much stronger, which was quite interesting to know. Jason believed that he would meet much stronger opponents in the future that used similar techniques. Hence, he was hoping to find and practice with some of them. It might not be something that he would encounter on Manyr, but that was perfectly fine with him. He still had a long way to go and his path ahead was riddled with tasks he had yet to accomplish. As such, he calmed down his excitement to fight many opponents with unique cultivation, martial art, movement, and other techniques, while continuing to wait for them in the future. There was less than one day left before the full moon would shine on the barren lands, turning it into a land filled with brightness for one, single night. With a calm mind, Jason waited for time to pass, while flying in the sky at a high altitude. He kept his eyes trained on the landscape below, ready to dive the moment he spotted Jennifer. He was being restless because he believed that the pictures he had seen thanks to the foretelling blessing showed her injured! Even though Jennifer''s appearance had changed a lot if he recalled the pictures correctly, the injuries she had sustained over the course of time were worsening her situation. Based on the picture, she appeared to be more refined, beautiful, and full of vigor. Despite that, the exhaustion, and the fear of the unknown seemed to be overwhelming her. Jason believed that Jennifer was extremely strong, but he didn''t know the entire truth of the situation she was in. In fact, what he knew were just rumors out of which he created his own theory. As such, he was not sure since how long she had been hiding, how many beings were truly looking out for her, let alone how strong the beings that wanted to find her truly were. With that in mind, Jason figured that he would be dragged into Jennifer''s mess the moment he helped her. Yet, that didn''t deter him because he already knew it beforehand. And it was perfectly fine because he would never allow someone he liked to be kidnapped, injured, or possibly even killed, not as long as he was still alive. He had too many regrets about the past and what he could have done. Thus, giving his all to protect Jennifer, who was the only person he truly liked on Manyr, was the bare minimum he could do. Otherwise, what kind of friend would he be? Thinking about being friends with Jennifer made Jason suddenly feel odd because he was not sure how true that was. Were they truly friends, or had there been more when they were together? Jason believed that there had been more to their relationship than friendship, but they had never received a chance to have a talk. It was always a rather serious topic to talk about one''s relationship, even more so as Cultivator. In the end, their schedule was messed up, and the moment he entered the Chaos Obelisk, it had been over either way. Three years had passed, and Jason was not even sure how he felt about anything anymore. He just wanted to help Jennifer, because he believed that she was important enough to be saved from severe injury. Yet, at the same time, Jason clearly felt that he wouldn''t sacrifice his life for her because his soulbonds would die with him. Even if Jennifer was important, his soulbonds were his family, and he would sacrifice himself for their survival if necessary, and possible. As such, Jason knew that his soulbonds were more important to him than Jennifer. And even if he would ever like her more than his soulbonds, which was impossible to ever happen because his soul was not connected to them in a literal sense, he didn''t know what Jennifer thought about him, to begin with. With that in mind, he shook his head, averting his attention to properly observe his surroundings. He was trying to find Jennifer and the beings that pursued her. His previous uncertainty about the question of whether he was able to defeat beings at the Ascendion stage was washed away as if it had never existed. This was the case because he sensed unique changes about Artemis. She seemed to have continued digesting the enhancements the Runic circle of Unlimited enhancements gave her after she had liquefied one million drops of mana. It would take a few months at the bare minimum until the dome crystal would be solidified, and that was more than fine with Jason. Rather, Artemis was exceeding his expectations once again because her cultivation speed had further accelerated. However, that was not only the case with Artemis because his other soulbonds were the same. Like her, they were accelerating their cultivation speed by fully digesting the enhancement the inheritance of the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant brought forth! This made Jason happy because he knew just how mighty the enhancements he had received were. Knowing that his soulbonds received the same enhancements was something he would never complain about. Thus, only when he saw slightly familiar energy fluctuations even if they had changed a lot shooting over the barren lands with a rapid speed, did he avert his attention. Those fluctuations were being followed by more than 10 beings at the Ascendion stage and he shot at them after taking a deep breath. While looking into the sky for a mere moment, he saw the bright full moon. Despite the fact that he would join the fray, Jason was unable to stop himself from smiling as he mumbled. "Artemis, it''s time, let''s clean up a little mess!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 829 - Rescue Initiating the fusion with Artemis, he dove towards Jennifer and the ten beings that pursued her. Without too much of a hassle, he figured out that Jennifer had yet to reach the Ascendion stage. Yet, her speed was on par with the beings at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage, indicating that they had reached it not long ago. It looked like their souls were not fully fused with their vessel. This was quite an advantage for both Artemis and Jason because it meant that their final strength would be much lower than that of a proper Ascendion stage cultivator. In fact, it might be close to that, but Jason''s worry was fueled by the appearance of a Mid rank Ascendion stage cultivator, or even someone stronger. It was clear that the Aeus and Devir race didn''t think too highly of Jennifer, which was great. Jason was glad that the two races hadn''t sent out stronger Cultivators to finish off Jennifer. It was most likely owing to the fact that the Aeus and Devir race including the Manyrs were too focused on fighting against the other races that were infiltrating the Julandra region. Jason didn''t care about that, even a tiny bit, and the races could attack whoever they wanted. He was only interested in figuring out what happened to Jennifer and Luna, followed by one particular race he was eager to find out more about- the Shadow Walkers! The fact that they were on Manyr revealed two possibilities that Jason hadn''t thought of before. First, the Shadow walkers could have entered Argos knowing that there were humans with the Maest cultivation path. They could have a plan of using humans in order to do something on Manyr which might be their home planet. Or, the second possibility was that the Shadow walkers had simply expanded their reach. After they found the human race on Argos, they could have made use of the soul world, and soul awakening, allowing them to become stronger. In the latter possibility, the Shadow Walkers wouldn''t have been on Manyr for a long time, but that was the less likely possibility if Jason were to be honest. Thus, he simply didn''t mind it for now, and he just hoped to encounter Lux, who might be somewhere close¡­closer than Jason might think! Yet, for now, something else was much more important. This caused Jason to use the strengthened moonlight affinity to strengthen his mana tremendously. By circulating the strengthened moonlight transmuted mana through his body, he exerted the Hermes Celeration movement technique, increasing his strength tremendously. He was still flying towards Jennifer and the beings at the Ascendion stage, but despite the strong mana currents he released nobody had noticed him yet. That was owing to the fact that he had been at a comparatively high altitude enabling him to see everyone entering the range of his sight instantaneously. Using his great eyesight that had been further enhanced through the Runic circle of Unlimited enhancements, Jason was able to see everything down to the finest detail. Owing to the long way he had to take in order to arrive near Jennifer, the fusion with Artemis was already completed before he reached them. As such, his Arctic aura along with the two Stigmas on his forehead were fully released, and everything was intertwined in the moonlight affinity. Thus, his overall strength increased by around 70%, making him extremely powerful. However, that was not everything he was using. Instead, it was just the beginning! Releasing the divine energy that had also been strengthened by the dungeon''s inheritance, he intertwined it with his aura and the mana which he circulated through his body. Owing to that, his strength increased further, allowing him to reach a breathtaking speed, making it seem like a sky blueish- silver star was shooting through the cloudless sky. In the end, it was just Jason, but it didn''t take Jennifer and her pursuers a long time to notice him. In fact, the moment he released his divine energy, everything changed because his Arctic aura enlarged several times over, filling a part of the sky. Despite realizing that something was approaching them with a shocking velocity, the beings at the Ascendion stage ignored it. They believed that it was simply an attack shot by a being at the Mid Ascendion stage just because it was boring. Yet, it was only when it was already too late that they were able to perceive that something was wrong, that something in the ginormous hue was moving. There was no attack of a Mid Ascendion stage beast, but only Jason, who reached the Ascendion stage, was the closest to Jennifer. It had almost reached the overly exhausted halfling, but it was just at that moment, when the Ascendion stage being was certain that it had caught Jennifer, that the remaining air left its lungs. Following that, it heard loud cracks, only to realize that it was, in fact, its spine that had issued these sounds. Only a moment later, it was catapulted to the ground due to the impact of Jason''s dive that had attained a terrifying pace. It was halted on the back of the being at the Ascendion stage. After its back or more specifically, its spine was broken, Jason''s dive was halted. But his Arctic aura had yet to cause any effects, which it did without any delay as it spread through the surroundings. The aura reached Jennifer and the 10 beings at the Ascendion stage. They wanted to release their own aura in order to block off Jason''s, but with a shocked expression they realized that this was not possible. Their aura was inferior in front of Jason''s arctic aura that broke their aura apart, before freezing the clothes of the Ascendion stage beings. Following that, it seeped inside their body, freezing the hair, nails, feathers, and skin of the Ascendion stage cultivators. Every cell of the beings was affected by the Arctic aura that restricted their movements instantaneously making them go rigid. Through this, Jason''s speed, which was already higher than that of the beings at the Ascendion stage, received an additional boost, increasing his chances of victory by a huge margin. However, that was not something he required, to begin with. Both the divine energy and moonlight affinity were enhancing Jason to the extent at which the being at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage could only plead with him to let it survive. In fact, Cultivators, at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage would be powerful enough to fight hundreds of beings that were at a slightly lower cultivation base. But in the end, their raw strength was ''only'' three times higher than that of beings at the Peak Prismar stage. This was owed to the fact that one''s vessel and soul hadn''t been fully fused yet, which would take some time for both sides to adjust to each other and become more compatible. Thus, Jason didn''t fear fighting against the Ascendion stage beings in front of him, as their strength was only three times higher than that of a being at the Peak Prismar stage. And, in the end, they didn''t look extremely powerful either, based on the expressions they showcased the moment Jason arrived in the middle of their high-speed chase! Dumbfounded by Jason''s combat prowess whose cultivation base was only between the Mid and Late Prismar stage, they didn''t even realize the vibrant smile that emerged on Jennifer''s dead-tired face the moment she understood who had come to her rescue. ''He¡­ is still alive!!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 830 - Welcome Back After releasing Byakur, Jason didn''t even take a single glance at the being whose spine he had just broken. Instead, he exerted the Hermes Celeration technique with moonlight transmuted mana and the divine energy that was merged within. The combined force allowed him to catapult himself right in front of the closest Ascendion stage cultivator that was in fact an Aeus, whose wings were already about to freeze. Jason''s appearance was similar to that of an Aeus, yet, completely different, which was confusing. Yet, instead of worrying about this, the Aeus lifted the spear it was holding in an attempt to deflect Jason''s attack. It was only then that it noticed that Byakur started to shrink the moment it was supposed to collide with the spear. It was barely a fraction of a second later that Jason thrust out with Byakur that enlarged once again, reaching the size of a normal short sword. Piercing through the neck of the astonished Aeus, Byakur finished it off. The Aeus took its last breath without knowing what or how Jason was able to avoid the spear that was ought to block his attack. Without looking back, Jason simply grasped the dying Aeus before he threw it in the direction of the biggest group of Cultivators that was about to attack him. This allowed him to distract them for a fraction of a second. It was more than enough to enlarge Byakur while manifesting several hundreds of icicles in a radius through which his Arctic aura permeated the surroundings. Following that, the icicles that had been manifested out of divine energy had merged with the moonlight transmuted mana. The use of the drastically enhanced ice affinity of Artemis, pointed towards the group before they were shot out. It was just a moment later that Jason heard several painful cries, only for his eyes that had turned sky blue to perceive something from his right. The foresight blessing that had also received severe enhancements owing to Sira''s cultivation process and the Runic circle''s enhancements allowed him to perceive an attack from his right. Thus, he didn''t pay any more attention to the group of Cultivators he had just attacked with the icicles. Instead, he manifested a sky blueish-silver wall of flames in that direction before he shot upwards into the sky. Afterward, dozens of fireballs of the same color manifested around him before they were thrown in that direction. At the same time, a fireball exploded behind him pushing Jason in the direction of the attack. Flapping his wings to maintain his balance, he smiled lighty. He felt exhilarated at finally being able to control his body and affinities almost perfectly, while he inserted more mana in Byakur simultaneously. Through this, the longsword began to vibrate lightly as he slashed out at the Devir, who had attempted to attack him backhandedly, using his entire strength. With enough mana that was strengthened by divine energy and the moonlight affinity circulating through Byakur, in addition to the extraordinary physical strength of Jason, he was able to overwhelm the Devir when they first clashed upon each other. Forcing the Devir to retreat, Jason''s eyes began to gleam brightly. He instinctively exerted the strengthened version of the petrification curse, which was more than enough to restrict the Devir for a short moment. After all, the curses he harbored had also been enhanced through the customized Inheritance he had received inside the dungeon! Using this momentum to lean his body forward, he thrust Byakur into the Devir''s abdomen, who could only gasp in shock. Simultaneously, he also released the sky blueish-silver flame that began to suddenly envelop its blade. Owing to that, it was only a moment later that the Devir was on the brink of death. As it took its last breaths, the number of opponents Jason had to defeat had decreased by one. However, the fight was far from over, and the opponents that had been hit by the icicles might be injured, but this didn''T mean they were dead. They were visibly affected by the freezing property of his ice affinity that had undergone several amplifications, yet that didn''t mean Jason could lower his guard. Yet, he kept his cool and used a fraction of a second to fill the entire area with his Arctic aura. He enclosed it with icicles and sky blueish-silver fireballs before he shot them out towards the remaining opponents. A moment later, he turned his head to take a quick glance at Jennifer to see how she was faring. Seeing that she was fine, he smiled lightly before he returned his attention to the fight. He might be overwhelming his opponents right now, but Jason knew that he should never underestimate his opponents. There might be existences similar to the Primordial races, whose imitations aka the lesser puppets, had already been more powerful than him! Thus, Jason remained vigilant even after his Emperor Eyes had swept through his opponents. He noticed that not a single sign inside their body indicated that they were powerful, let alone that they possessed any kind of unique cultivation technique. As such, they were just normal cultivators, without anything special about them. Because of that, Jason felt that the fight was not as intense as he had initially presumed it to be. However, that was just another sign that clearly indicated to him how powerful he had become throughout the last three years he spent in the dungeon. Knowing that he didn''t waste his time was great, and even more so was figuring out that he was already able to defeat someone at the Ascendion stage. According to his cultivation base, he should be quite far from reaching that stage after all! Thus, he was overjoyed about his current combat prowess, and couldn''t hold back his excitement anymore. It was clearly visible in the Arctic aura that became even stronger due to his emotions just like it was the case for normal Celestias! Through this, his control of everything that had to do even remotely with the ice affinity became much easier. It allowed Jason to control even more icicles and fireballs with which he attacked the remaining beings at the Ascendion stage. After throwing the icicles and fireballs at his opponents, he heard their pained cries reverberating through the surrounding, but Jason didn''t show any mercy. Instead, he continued to manifest more batches of icicles and fireballs which he once again flung at his opponents. Owing to Artemis'' trait to convert moonlight in mana¡­or what Jason presumed it to be, he could continue to use up tremendous amounts of mana until the full moon would be over, but that was not what he did. Instead, he threw only a few batches of hundreds of icicles and fireballs at his opponents before he began to exert the Hermes Celeration technique. Finishing off the remaining opponents one after another, Jason simultaneously picked up their spatial rings before appearing in front of Jennifer just a moment later. With a bright smile on his face, Jason slowly terminated the fusion he had with Artemis, reverting to his original appearance as his golden eyes stared straight at Jennifer. Unbeknownst to Jennifer, the seemingly simple eye contact she made with Jason brought back vivid memories of her recent horrific past. Every single horrifying incident she had witnessed or been a part of was etched into her memory. Despite that, somehow after seeing Jason, the intensity of those memories visibly decreased. She was not scared of them, not anymore. Instead, Jennifer felt oddly reassured as she returned Jason''s smile, a single tear trickling down her cheek as she said. "Welcome back¡­dummy!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 831 - Crumbling It was as if he and Jennifer had never been separated because they greeted each other like old friends. There was no awkwardness, or discomfort which was a great advantage because both of them had lots of things to say. More than three years had passed since their last meeting, after all! In fact, being able to speak to each other as if they had never separated showed how comfortable the two of them were with each other. As such, Jennifer began to tell Jason what had happened after her Legacy trial had concluded. She had received an Inheritance that was in the form of a cultivation manual for all three cultivation energies followed by her three energies being naturally merged together. This meant that her body''s constitution was altered and modified. It had been tweaked to make it similar to the Three paths puppet Jason had encountered and fought before. To be precise, Jason felt that the merging process of her energies allowed Jennifer to exert much more strength than before. Meanwhile, the cultivation technique she received was at the Initial Luna rank too! This was exceptional considering that her technique did not belong to the Primordial race, but the Preactor race''s traitor. They were a Grand race which indicated that the Luna ranked cultivation technique was the strongest technique they possessed. With that in mind, it was quite obvious why the Preactors wanted to retrieve the Inheritance! Jason was glad that Jennifer had received the cultivation technique and the other part of the Inheritance, but what followed after she left Kinra Island was rather disastrous. In the end, everything was more or less the same as what he had got to know from rumors. By the time Jennifer returned, her master had already received an Immortal eye. One of the other cadets who had been sent out to procure one had successfully done so. This meant that this one cadet was extremely powerful, to the extent that he had passed all trails without too much of a hassle. It was exceptional, but it would have been better if the cadet had never kept his promise of procuring an Immortal Eye. When Jennifer returned from Kinra Island, Luna brought all of them back. She had completely ignored Jason as her objectives were fulfilled. Thus, she had taken the rest of them back home without bothering to wait for Jason, even if it would have been only a few days of wait. Instead, after she had obtained the Immortal Eye, she shut herself in the Auxiliary tower and started to work on something. During the few moments that passed while she was confined to the Auxiliary tower, the races of the adjacent areas had attacked the Julandra region, trying to claim it for themselves. This was not that difficult because the Aeus and Devir race had not joined forces at that time. Only when they created an alliance were they able to prevent the races from continuing with their advance. They had started to hold grand meetings in which they gathered all important individuals that had enough power in their race to change something. And it looked like they had charged straight at Luna''s mansion. Meanwhile, Luna returned from the tower, with a crazed expression, which had already caused a premonition in Jennifer''s mind. In the end, Jason knew the rest of the details- Luna had planned a terror act, killing hundreds of the strongest powerhouses of the Devir and Aeus race. She had made use of a bomb that had been created by using the Immortal Eye as the main ingredient. This type of bomb didn''t radiate any energy fluctuations that would alert people. Only when it exploded would the victims realize that something was wrong, but it would be too late to do anything. As such, it was more like a silent killer that stored enough compressed energy, equivalent to the force of several hundred Peak stage powerhouses! Thus, none of the individuals that had gathered were able to protect themselves. Their chances of survival further deteriorated owing to the unique type of energy Luna had used in order to pierce through her opponents'' energy membranes. Not much time had passed until Luna was found as the culprit, but even then nobody had ever seen her again. Yet, the same couldn''t be said about her disciple, Jennifer. Almost everybody knew that Jennifer was next in command after Luna. This turned her into the second most important target followed by the other subordinates of the City Lord. As such, she was hunted for the last one and a half years, preventing her from advancing in her cultivation as she would have loved to. Other than that many things had happened in the Julandra region in his absence but that was not important to Jason. He only kept listening to Jennifer intently, who couldn''t stop herself from sharing every little detail. Unsure of how much time passed, Jason could only assume that Jennifer was on her own since she was being hunted. It was possible that she was too scared to enter even the smallest cities. If that were to be the case, it would mean that she had no contact with anyone while being on a constant run, scared that someone might find and kill her. Because of that, she was lonely and in a dire need of someone, she could talk to. Hence, upon finding Jason, who was one of the few beings she still trusted, she was beyond relieved. In fact, had Jennifer not known that some of Luna''s subordinates were clueless about her schemings, she would have even doubted them. However, the hardest she had been hit with was certainly by her master, who had simply left her all alone, without saying anything. It was almost as if she was just some toy Luna had played with to waste some time and discarded her when she was of no use. Jennifer couldn''t believe that this was possible. But even if it wasn''t, she had no idea what exactly had truly happened, or if she had done something to betray her master''s trust. Because of that, she was unable to hold back her emotions as her eyes turned moist the more she spoke about the last few years. Unsure what he was supposed to do, Jason followed his instincts as he embraced her, trying to reassure her that everything was fine. Before, he had been worried that he and Jennifer wouldn''t be able to speak comfortably with each other after the huge gap. Many many things could happen in a span of more than three years. However, right now, he felt foolish for this though because in most cases, he had only been wondering if they would be able to return to their younger self and behave like that. While mentally scolding himself for feeling like that, Jason didn''t even notice that Jennifer returned the hug as she began to cry. Her legs gave in owing to the exhaustion of the last years of fighting all alone. Now, she knew that she didn''t have to hold back her emotions anymore, which made her cry until her tears stopped flowing. Even though her tears had dried, she continued to sob while clinging to his shirt which was now soaked wet. Jason couldn''t believe that the powerful woman he had encountered more than four years ago was crumbling right in front of him. Jennifer was done with braving the dangers all alone and trying to hold herself together as the person she trusted the most had betrayed her, followed by a long time of anxiousness of getting caught and killed. Jason might not know much about Jennifer''s past, but he knew that Luna had raised her, which spoke volumes about their relationship. Because of that, even Jason had difficulties believing that Luna would abandon Jennifer. From what he assumed, she must have been like a mother to Jennifer, hence the betrayal stung even more Everything was a little complicated, and Jason couldn''t help but feel odd. But, in an effort to distract Jennifer, he attempted to tell her his story, and what had happened to him. However, that had to wait until Jennifer was done crying. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 832 - Creating False Evidence In the end, Jason didn''t have much to tell her. He simply shared the truth with her that he was pulled towards a specific dungeon, in which he had solved various trials before he received an inheritance and many great rewards. However, the more he spoke about the content of the trials, and what kind of passing score he received for the things he did, the more serious Jennifer''s expression became. Once he concluded his story, she was staring at him in doubt, not sure what to say anymore. She was already doubtful when Jason spoke about the city-like treasury, but the moment he said that there were several [Sun] ranked techniques out of which he had chosen one, Jennifer was utterly dumbfounded. But, her confusion only increased when Jason said that he didn''t take any of such techniques because he was interested in a gradeless technique instead! The moment Jason said this, she felt like punching him, momentarily forgetting that she had cried just a few minutes earlier. Because he noticed that, Jason handed over the Kanadi of a Primordial technique to her without bothering to conceal the truth. He had already told her that he was a Celestia Halfling, but until now, neither Luna nor Jennifer had believed him. As for Luna''s disbelief, Jason couldn''t help but be glad because she wouldn''t be able to tell anyone about him if she didn''t believe in his lineage. Thus, only Jennifer had to believe him, but even that was something Jason had decided not to try anymore- convincing anyone about his origin. Either they believed him when he decided to trust them enough to share the truth, or they could choose to believe that he was lying. It was their free will, and nothing he had to force on someone. Despite not believing Jason beforehand, everything he had said so far made more and more sense. This included how his combat prowess had suddenly increased to the extent that he was able to defeat ten beings at the Ascendion stage while being at the Mid-Late Prismar stage himself. Jennifer had also been able to perceive Jason''s aura several times over and over again. As such, she began to believe him the moment she had read through the introductory part of the Kanadi of a Primordial technique. At first glance, the technique seemed simple, but after reading a few pages, Jennifer realized that one''s full potential was the most important to practice this technique. This included both the released and the potential that was still hidden Thus, Jason had to believe in his potential enough to choose the Kanadi of a Primordial technique over [Sun] ranked techniques! With that in mind, Jennifer forgot all about her worries and was mindlessly staring at Jason, who was staring at the corpses of the Ascendion stage beings. "Do you think they have a device to locate each other? So that one would find them if they were to die or get lost?" With an unsure expression, Jason continued to observe them, only to turn his head towards Jennifer, who was not sure herself. "Just take a look at their spatial rings. If there is something like a tracking device inside, just destroy it or whatever." Nodding his head, Jason did as she said, and as he had presumed there was one tracking device in each of the spatial rings. However, before destroying them, he got an idea as he looked at the elemental crystal cave. "By the way, how about you use your affinities to dig out some elemental crystal and the elemental ore?" This question caused Jennifer to look at him in doubt. However, upon seeing his expression, she quickly figured out that he was teasing her. "That was a joke. Just rest inside the elemental cave. Enter the entrance and descend the vertical tunnel. Afterward, you will enter a small hall. There shouldn''t be any beasts in it." While she continued to look at Jason in doubt, Jennifer''s first thought was that he wanted to abandon her too. But then she realized that Jason wouldn''t tell her if he were to leave her behind which caused her to ask, "And...what are you going to do in the meantime?" Jason had already thought of a plan but before they would be able to do anything, he had to distract the Devir and Aeus. Thus he pointed at the corpses of the few Ascendion stage Cultivators before answering her. "I''ll dispose of them, destroy their tracking devices far from here before returning. After that we will create a proper plan about what we want to do and then¡­ we just act accordingly. And we are mining some of the elemental ore and elemental crystals so we have sufficient funds wherever we want to go!" With that being said, Jason stored away the corpses before he manifested Artemis'' wings. "I''ll be back in three days, and if I don''t find you sound asleep when I return, I''m gonna scold you!" He was still teasing her, and Jason felt that it was easing Jennifer''s tension, which was why he began to tease her, to begin with. After taking her to the entrance of the vertical tunnel that was hidden quite well, Jason bid her farewell. He then exerted the Hermes Celeration technique with some of his divine energy in order to reach a terrifying speed. A total of three days passed in which he spent one and a half days flying in a zig-zag way while trying to throw the corpses as far as possible. However, instead of breaking the tracking devices he laid them down, only to turn the surroundings into a battlefield, and completely destroy it. Afterward, he worsened the wounds on the Ascendion stage beings, using the claws of Artemis which he manifested. It was annoying to do so, but Jason had to give his best to make others believe that a huge battle had happened here, and not that the true crime scene was somewhere else. With that in mind, he spent almost two hours making it as believable as possible before he left the place for good. In the end, it would take a few days until someone noticed that the tracking devices remained on the same spot for days. By then, he would have long since returned to the elemental cave, where he wanted to spend enough time to liquefy sufficient mana drops and solidify the dome crystal, which he also wanted to finish before leaving. As such, when he returned to Jennifer, who was still sleeping, nobody had figured out that Jennifer''s pursuers were already dead. Thus, instead of bothering Jennifer, Jason began to cultivate the Divine Maestra technique. With each day that passed, he was able to improve the speed at which he cultivated. But right now, this was accelerated further because he didn''t have to worry about Jennifer anymore. She was right by his side, and mostly unscathed, which was great. Only her mental state was something he was a little bit bothered about, but other than that, Jason had nothing left to complain about. Thus, a week passed before she woke up, and they began to devise a plan about what they were supposed to do next. In the end, they came to a consensus as Jason got to know something astonishing. "Your¡­parents are still alive?! I thought they were¡­dead!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 833 - Together Initially, Jason''s plan had been simple. He wanted to enter the peak of the Prismar stage before initiating the plan he and Jennifer had set up. At the same time, Jennifer wanted to enter the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage by starting the fusion process of her soul with the three vessels she owned. However, both tasks were something that required much more time than they had initially assumed, even after using Luna ranked techniques. Because of that, they spent an entire year inside the elemental crystal cave, which allowed Jason to solidify the dome crystal. Meanwhile, Jennifer had been able to connect her soul to her vessel and enter the Ascendion stage. This process took her extremely long, and Jason knew that he would require some time to reach that rank too. This was even more evident because his secondary Celestia bloodline awakening would happen. That was something Jason could clearly sense because there was only one seal of the Chaos Emperor on his bloodline left before the second awakening could be initiated. With that in mind, Jason was worried about possible mistakes that could happen. But at the same time, he was excited because he wanted the secondary bloodline awakening to happen as quickly as possible. There was no need to waste any time, after all! Unfortunately, this was easier said than done, before Jason realized that he somehow had to connect his soul world''s core with his mana core. In fact, it was necessary for him to create a thick thread of mana that would be connected to a soul thread before they would slowly come into contact with each other. Because of that, Jason was required to liquefy mana once again. He had hoped that the arduous process of liquefying mana was over, but that was not the case. Rather, he required more and more, which was quite annoying. However, his soulbonds had to do a similar process, but only Artemis and Solaris had created their dome crystal, to begin with. As such, it would take a while before Petri, Spyro, and Sira would reach a state in which they had to connect their soul and vessel. Jason was not sure if the connection he had with his soulbonds would cause any problems in their progress to the Ascendion stage, but he simply hoped that this would not be the case. Otherwise, he might face quite a few issues to which he had no answers. Yet, after considering that the soul connection he had with his soulbonds had never been an issue, Jason was able to keep his calm. While it was important for them to cultivate, Jennifer and Jason never stopped sparring with each other. The two of them had to practice martial art techniques, and cultivating for a year nonstop was not something for them because they didn''t want their muscles to grow numb or rust. Other than that, they had to be in their best form if a monster or other beings were to find them. They might be attacked, which would be annoying, but at least, they would be able to protect themselves. That was even more so the case when Jason broke into the peak of the Prismar stage because his dome crystals were four times stronger than that of the others. Thus, even without his soulbonds'' amplification, he would be strong enough to defeat someone at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage. With that in mind, Jason had no complaints. Now, his brute strength was greater than Jennifer''s which annoyed her because she had three awakened cultivation veins, while Jason had only one. She was supposed to be stronger, but in the end, this was not the case, and made her feel useless and weak. Obviously, she was not weak, and by no means useless, and it was just Jason who was a cut above the rest. However, that was not the case either, because Jason was not simply an exception. He could be called an anomaly, while Jennifer was close behind, in face of the perception of ordinary cultivators at the Ascendion stage! After all, Jennifer could be considered to have entered the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage not once but thrice as she cultivated in all three cultivation paths! Her combat prowess was by no means comparable to a normal Cultivator at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage, and Jason was fully aware of this. Despite that, his last few years were filled with intense fights that advanced his combat awareness, overall proficiency in fighting, and an acute sense of perceiving his opponents much better. Furthermore, he was able to see Jennifer''s attacks before they even happened with the use of his blessing, and by using his curses, and Emperor Eyes, he easily defeated Jennifer. Because of that, she felt weak, and useless, but at the same time, Jason was relentless and never stopped giving his all to fight her. Rather, he restricted his strength in certain ways, such as not using his Emperor Eyes and curses, or deactivating the foresight blessing, while using everything else to the limit. All of this was possible, and it was also important because he required the necessary pressure to comprehend more of the Bladed Ruyi Bang martial art technique. At the same time, he had to figure out more about the enhancements all of his soulbonds had received in order to know their capabilities down to the finest detail. Following that, Jason tested the enhancements and the fusion to figure out how strong he was. However, during these times he defeated Jennifer rather easily which frustrated her more than anything. And in the end, even if it looked like Jason used every means to strengthen himself, some might feel as if he was still holding back. This caused her to feel depressed, and Jason was not sure what he was supposed to do about it. But then it was useless if he and Jennifer were to fight, and neither would feel a sense of pressure. By sparring with Jennifer, he was always taking her seriously, even if it looked like he was holding back, which was not the case. Otherwise, how were they supposed to fulfill the mission they had wanted to achieve? In the end, there were many things they wanted to accomplish, but only a handful had to do with the Julandral region, let alone the Aeus and Devir race. In fact, only Jennifer had some connection to both races because her parents who were still alive hailed from these two races. Her current appearance might not look like that of a halfling, but that didn''t mean she had no family. She looked like a completely different individual owing to the Inheritance that had properly merged her constitution, leaving no space for repulsive acts of her two bloodlines. Rather from what Jason understood, her father, a Devir that looked more like a human than some Manyrs, was a high noble of the Devir race. Meanwhile, her mother had been a commoner born with three pairs of wings, turning her into someone with the looks, and also the talent of the Aeus race''s strongest forces. In fact, there seemed to be something unique about the fact that Jennifer''s mother had six wings. And considering that she had only seen Aeus with two pairs of wings, except her own mother who had three, spoke volumes of her mother''s uniqueness. Despite that, she knew nothing, and it was only when her parents were found out to be together that Jennifer was brought to Luna, one of their closest friends. When Jason heard this, he felt that it was even more unlikely for Luna to simply abandon Jennifer. ''Maybe¡­Luna thought that she could prevent Jennifer from being dragged into her mess? But¡­then that doesn''t really make sense either¡­'' Because of that, he couldn''t help but feel that they had to stay a little bit longer in the Julandra region, even if their plans were not restricted to this region. They had more than enough plans for accomplishing all kinds of things, and even if the Julandra region was not the only important factor, they had also come up with things they could do afterward as long as they stayed together. The two of them didn''t believe that they would separate from each other again, and they didn''t even question this. This was something that spoke volumes about their deepest emotions that had only increased in the time they were separated. However, now that they had spent a year together, even if they focused on cultivating and sparring, it was a happy time, and both were unwilling to let it end. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 834 - Face With many plans in mind, the two of them were almost ready to depart, and there was not much for them to do inside the elemental cave. In fact, they had already mined the elemental crystal and Tanadan ore from all of the elemental caves which was more than enough to act as their fortune. Having amassed enough wealth they could almost see through most of their plans. After sweeping the cave clean, the only thing they could do in the elemental cave was to cultivate. At least, that was what Jennifer thought. She was still unsure of how to feel as she had revealed everything about her family to him. Jason had been the first one she trusted enough to tell everything about her past. But, she had simply poured out her emotions in one go so the content of Jennifer''s words was more than a little bit confusing to him. There was much more to her family than he first imagined. Jennifer''s mother was already more than a little bit unique as per her words. However, adding that her father was a noble was not exactly helpful because it only showed that both of Jennifer''s parents belonged to a unique family. They both seemed to be extremely powerful, and more than enough to make her into a fearsome powerhouse. And now she had inherited an Inheritance from a Grand race, that caused her three awoken cultivation veins to merge together. This had strengthened her drastically and Jennifer had even received a Luna ranked cultivation technique that was perfectly suitable for her. This was simply too advantageous for her, and she knew that if she were to cultivate for a few years, her strength would be even higher. Unfortunately, she was not sure if it would be rational to use these few years to do everything she wanted to. In fact, Jennifer had planned to meet her parents at least once more before asking them why they had given her to Luna. Somehow, Jason had a bad feeling about Jennifer''s plan. Nonetheless, he decided to go with her which was something he had planned to do either way. Both didn''t want to separate from each other for whatever reason the two of them had yet to fully grasp. Thus, they had decided to travel together and solve their problems in the same way- with each other''s help. Jason thought he knew what he was feeling, but he was not sure about Jennifer. Unlike him, she had been extremely lonely, only to add on to her hurt that everyone near and dear seemed to have betrayed her. A And, somehow he came to her rescue at the perfect moment. With that in mind, Jason didn''t think it was the right time to talk about their feelings for each other. Other than that, he had to understand himself first to know what exactly he wanted to do in the future. He was unsure if he would change his future plans for someone, or to be more precise, Jennifer. These thoughts had coursed through Jason''s mind for quite some time, but they didn''t make a difference to their current plan. For now, they wished to leave the elemental cave and travel towards a specific location- the place where Jennifer''s parents were ought to be. Jason was not sure how Jennifer knew about her parents'' location, but he simply accepted it, thinking that it might be something Luna told her. However, this meant that it was not to be blindly trusted with. With that in mind, Jason had chosen to do something he recalled just a few moments before. "Jennifer, if you don''t like your old face that much, why don''t you let me change it?" Jason asked with a scheming smile. This caused Jennifer to look at him in dumbfoundment. But without hesitating a single second, Jason had already summoned a black flame inside his hand. The moment she saw this, Jennifer stepped back and shook her head. She certainly didn''t want her face to be burned just to be able to travel around in disguise and without people trying to kill her. Yet, when Jason saw her reaction, he couldn''t help but laugh for a moment before he explained Solaris'' abilities, and what would happen to her face when he said ''change''. Using Solaris'' ability to change one''s facial features to a certain extent, he could change Jennifer''s facial features to make her look more ordinary. This was something the black origin flame had procured after devouring the Silver origin flame of his late master. This was not a permanent solution, but if she were to wear clothes that were different than what she normally wore, and dyed her hair without relying on the concealment device she owed, it would be harder to spot her. With more ordinary facial features, it would also be easier to walk past Cultivators who would normally be bewitched by Jennifer''s appearance otherwise. There were more than enough Cultivators who were too horny to think straight ahead when they encountered someone as beautiful as Jennifer. As such, she had faced quite a few issues during the last years in which her master''s protection was not there anymore to save her from vile men. Jason had heard more than enough stories from her to make this statement believable, and he didn''t even want to know how disgusting some Cultivators truly were. Fortunately, nothing had happened to Jennifer in these three years. And when she figured that her face wouldn''t be burned but that her facial features would temporarily be changed, she was eager to start with the procedure right off the bat. With that being said, Jason did as Jennifer requested. He slowly released Solaris towards her, who covered her whole face. Afterward, she underwent several minutes of light itches as his soulbond did its work. Thus, when the black origin flame was retracted, Jason took a look at her, only to stare at her for a few minutes. In the end, he had never really looked at Jennifer intently, because he knew that her appearance would distract him a lot. That was not just because she was beautiful to the extent that nobody he had ever encountered looked similar. Rather, it was because when he looked at her before, Jason had been able to see himself in her. Like him, even she gave her whole attention to the individuals she was with at that time. The way she spoke, listened and even walked¡­ everything in her body language always pointed out that she gave her whole attention if she wanted to stay by someone''s side. Initially, he had felt like a weirdo thinking that this was the reason for him to be so attracted to her. But it didn''t take long before Jason realized that everyone wanted someone who would give them their undivided attention. Because of that, Jason felt that he should take a proper look at her right now, which was exactly what he did. However, what he saw astonished him greatly and when Jennifer saw his gaze, she couldn''t help but take out her weapon. She hoped to catch a glimpse of herself in the weapon''s blade. Yet, what she saw caused her to wonder why Jason was staring at her like that. According to her, she looked quite ordinary which was both great and advantageous for their journey! Despite her seemingly ordinary appearance, Jason couldn''t help himself but stare at Jennifer. A simple smile blossomed on his face as he remarked, "You look beautiful!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 835 - City After using Solaris to drastically change their facial features, there was not much for them to do anymore. However, Jason didn''t even think of camouflaging his stigma because it was more than enough to not activate it. Meanwhile, his aura was retracted, yet ready to be fully unleashed at a moment''s notice. This could be compared to a mental attack if used properly. So, Jason was quite intrigued if it would work as he assumed. Jennifer also did her part to ensure that she looked nothing like her usual self. She had even dyed her hair as per Jason''s advice. Thus, she was now black-haired as he was, with quite ordinary facial features. Both of them chose ordinary features so as to not stand apart from the rest. But, Jason had to change his facial feature once again because his golden eyes became too much of a highlight if his other facial features were not equally striking. As such, he didn''t change his original features drastically, but only a little. Meanwhile, Jennifer''s eye color was quite a mystery to Jason from the beginning. Sometimes she had silver pupils with crimson outlines, but other times she was able to change her eye color to a dark brown, just as she had right now. He believed that she was unable to wear contact lenses as her eye color would shine through them, just like the case with him. However, oddly enough, everything seemed to be totally fine with her, and Jason simply accepted it. After all of their changes were finally completed, the two of them left the elemental cave, before traveling towards their first destination. This first destination of theirs was, in fact, the city that had once been governed by Luna. Jennifer was well known inside the small city, even before the incident with her master. Thus, disguising herself was a prerequisite to enter the city and walk through it freely. It also served as a small test. If nobody would be able to identify her, most probably, she could safely travel outside the city as well. With that in mind, they solved two tasks at once. The first was to figure out if someone would be able to identify Jennifer, while the second was to procure all kinds of resources they required. They weren''t in a dire need of cultivation stones or anything like that in order to cultivate. Their goal was to help Jason practice the Kanadi of a Primordial technique for which he not only required high-grade mana stones but also the best possible nutrition solutions. All of this was expensive, and the first thing Jason did was to approach an auction house. He wanted to earn some easy money by selling four of the exotic terra ranked techniques he still had in his spatial ring. By selling them at the next auction that was scheduled to be held at the same evening, they would be able to make the most out of the things they sold. Simultaneously, they would also be able to walk through the city as if everything was perfectly fine. Through this, they were able to procure quite a lot of information. Relieved that they were not under the threat of being identified they roamed around much more effortlessly. Their current location was not that far from the areas where the infiltrating races fought against the Aeus, Devir, and Manyr races'' armies. In fact, even the beasts that were in control of the areas that were used as their battlefield, joined the attacks followed by the adjacent areas'' beasts. They knew that the Aeus and Devir race had given them free rein as long as they steered clear of their cities. But, this was something they couldn''t be sure about with the infiltrating races. Thus, as they were unsure about their future, they would rather side with someone they knew was relatively safe to fight alongside than to regret anything later. Jason found this to be quite interesting but it was perfectly normal for beasts that had attained intelligence to think and make choices for themselves. Having tasted freedom, their first thought was to protect this freedom, which was the reason they chose the Aeus and Devir''s side. This was the only logical solution, and Jason knew that this was the correct one, but he couldn''t help but feel bothered about something. "Aren''t the citizens way¡­too relaxed? It is almost as if they could never imagine that they are safe from the warzone¡­.that they would never feel the heat of the war!" His confused voice reached Jennifer, who was walking right next to him, their shoulders bumping into each other, once in a while. And when she heard his voice that was directed towards her, Jennifer turned towards him. She stared straight into his eyes that were filled with confusion. At this moment, all kinds of thoughts surfaced in her mind, but none of them was anywhere close to being suitable to relieve Jason of his doubts. As such, she shook her head, trying to shake off the sense of bewitchment every time she looked into Jason''s eyes. Trying to clear her mind, she thought of a solution to wipe away his doubts. "If I remember correctly, there had been quite a few invasions before the time¡­around 500 years ago, I think. Before that time, none of the races was able to claim the Julandra region for themselves, except the Aeus and Devir race that brought the Manyrs with them. I don''t know what exactly changed 500 years ago, but since then there hasn''t been a single invasion. It was also around that time that people began to believe that nothing will happen to the Julandra region. Soo¡­there has to be something that made other races believe it wouldn''t be worth the risk of infiltrating the Julandra region. They must have feared having too many casualties, or there might be another reason. However, that is not something I can tell you for sure, because I am not certain about it either¡­I was not even born at that time after all!" Jason nodded his head when Jennifer finished her short speech, understanding what she wanted to say. Even if there was no proper evidence for anything she said, he knew she was not lying, unless she was lied to first. ''So something changed 500 years ago that made everyone confident in the defense of the Julandra region¡­alright¡­'' With that in mind, Jason decided to end the discussion of the topic about the nonchalant behavior of the citizens. Instead of bothering about this, he switched to procuring more information. At the same time, they went to grab a quick meal and entered the auction house once it was time for the auction to begin. There, the two of them met people they were already familiar with. However, oddly enough none of them seemed to recall their energy fluctuations that were the biggest hint to their true identity. In the end, their energy fluctuations had changed four years ago, but that didn''t mean that there were no signs of their old self anymore. Because of that, Jason and Jennifer had been worried a little bit, but that seemed to have been totally unfounded. As such, once the auction was over, Jason received the profit. They immediately purchased the goods he required to practice the Kanadi of a Primordial technique before he suddenly got an idea. "Why don''t you try practicing the technique too?" Jennifer was astonished about this sudden offer, and she looked weirdly at him, only to see that he was serious. "Do you really think this will be more useful for me than the body refining technique I use?" She thus asked, but Jason merely shrugged his shoulders as he countered. "I have no idea, but you should give it a try to figure out if it''s better or not, right?" Smiling at Jennifer, he made her doubts disappear in an instant. She nodded her head without realizing before she answered, "Alright" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 836 - Potential Of An All Refining Technique Before leaving the city, they spent a few more days in it so that Jennifer could learn the first phase of the Kanadi of a Primordial technique. Meanwhile, Jason had already practiced it several times, and each time, he noticed an almost untraceable difference to the day before. He was not quite sure if it was truly better than a body refinement technique, or if it would be more efficient to simply cultivate, but without giving it a proper try there was no way of finding out. And, in fact, just a few sessions of practice was not worth being called ''giving it a try.'' A single session took only a few hours each, and the life of a cultivator was extremely long. However, even if Jason had only practiced the Kanadi of a Primordial a few times, he was already sure that his entire being was strengthened. This meant that the tiny changes he received were doing something. After giving it some thought, he realized that there was something he had disregarded before. ''What if the Kanadi of a Primordial technique is not laid out to be ''powerful'' in its essence? Instead, what if it is supposed to cause an exponential increase in one''s cultivation, combat prowess, innate talent, and so on? The more often I practice the Kanadi of a Primordial technique, the faster I will be able to cultivate, and the stronger I can become. If my current cultivation speed is at 1 unit, through the Kanadi of a Primordial technique it is 1.00001. That means, it''s not noteworthy right now, but in the future, the longer I cultivate, the more obvious the effects will be! And this will only increase if I practice the all-refining technique more often!'' Jason was slowly beginning to understand that the Kanadi of a Primordial technique had to be practiced over a long period of time. An even longer time would be required to show results in terms of an increased cultivation speed, or combat prowess owing to higher comprehension. It was only now that Jason believed he realized the true meaning behind the importance of a higher heritage using this technique. It was just a thought, but he couldn''t help but assume that it was likely for a lower heritage to provide a small increase in the entire being as it was the case with someone having a higher heritage. Thus, the effect of one practice session of the Kanadi of a Primordial could possibly have a huge difference according to one''s heritage. With that in mind, Jason wondered how strong the heritage of halflings would be considered because he didn''t have anyone to compare himself to. Even after Jennifer started to practice the Kanadi of a Primordial technique, he didn''t really have a comparison. Though both of them were halflings, they had no idea how much of an enhancement they received from a single practice session. Because of that, Jason believed that the second stage of the technique would allow them to figure out more. But for that to happen, considerable time would pass before the two of them would be able to attain that stage. After all, they had to build up a foundation with the Kanadi of a Primordial technique, which could take extremely long. With that in mind, the two of them simply shared their experience before doing whatever they pleased. In fact, they were both oddly confident that the technique was extraordinarily powerful, which was saying something. Both Jennifer and Jason were known for being picky with the technique they practiced. After all, they didn''t want to waste their precious time doing something that was useless. Wasting time was a big no for them, and for both to believe that the technique was worth their time indicated a lot. Yet, even after they practiced the technique, they knew that they had to leave the city. Prolonging their stay would make them lose sight of their goals, and focus on practicing the Kanadi of a Primordial even more. However, that was not something they would do right now. The chances decreased even more after they heard the news of another large-scale attack. This was a coordinated act of a few races that seemed to have established an alliance to overwhelm the three races that tried to defend the Julandra region. The Shadow walker race was also in the alliance of races, which was something Jason found quite ridiculous. It seemed like the Shadow walkers create more alliances than actually fighting, which was completely different to how he recalled his first encounter with a Shadow walker. It had been a few years, but his first encounter with a Shadow walker had made him feel that they were more like cowards, clouded in darkness than anything else. Thus, Jason couldn''t help but shake his head with a dry smile on his face when he figured out that their second destination was located at the borders of the Shadow walkers'' territory. This was quite funny in Jason''s opinion, even more so because the small territory the Shadow walkers had, was not worth mentioning. However, this was also a clear sign that the Shadow walkers were either weaker than he expected, or that their territory on Manyr was only a small branch of their actual home which was elsewhere. Yet, after thinking about it for a while, he realized that it didn''t really matter to Jason, to begin with. The only thing he was truly interested in the Shadow walkers was Lux! He couldn''t care less about the others, but Lux was the first person who had betrayed him, so it was only fitting for his revenge outside Argos to start right there. Having seen the woman who was with Yan when the Shadow walker had brought them from Cyro City a few years ago, Jason was certain that he would soon meet Lux. The best way to do that was to stir trouble at the borders, or possibly even inside the Shadow walker''s territory. Unfortunately, before he could start enacting the satisfactory part of their plans, they had to travel towards a particular city, where Jennifer''s father was supposedly residing. Yet, this caused the premonition in Jason''s heart to deepen, and he believed that Jennifer would see something she wouldn''t like at all. Jason couldn''t be sure of that, and he didn''t say anything about his growing unease either as he was not able to clearly tell what would happen. Despite that, he didn''t feel desperation coursing through his body as it had been the case in two of the past incidents when he had lost his loved ones. One was when he had a bad feeling about the cave where Scorpio had sacrificed himself to allow him to survive, and the other was the time his late masters had been assassinated. As such, it couldn''t be a matter of life-and-death, but his mind was still thinking about the things that may happen. With that in mind, they left the city and were on their way towards the second destination that was a trip of more than two months. On their way, they encountered many gruesome things and witnessed the reality about the ''nonchalant'' way that many citizens of the Julandra region had previously acted, including just how wrong their behavior seemed to have been. That was because the Xytra, the city that was, in fact, their destination was currently under the attack of the alliance including the Shadow walkers. Their main force were tens of thousand of beings at the Ascendion stage, attacking the city that was struggling to defend itself. And Jason clearly saw why this was the case- the city''s number of defenders was much smaller than the attacking force¡­ "They''re doomed!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 837 - Xytra Looking at the situation of the city that was attacked by numerous opponents, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit conflicted. Their current location was quite far away from Xytra and nobody would be able to sense them. Despite that, seeing the masses of beings that belonged to the Shadow walker alliance didn''t really make him feel all that good. They had wanted to find Jennifer''s father in Xytra, after all. Because of that, Jennifer wanted to rush towards the army that was attacking the city, the moment she saw what was going on. Fortunately, she was unable to take another step because Jason held on to her wrist with a firm grip. "Are you insane? Why would you enter the fray, right now? Get your act together!" Jason admonished her with a deep frown on his face, staring straight into Jennifer''s eyes. If he were to evaluate the situation Xytra was in, Jason would most likely give the city a 0.1% chance to overcome the threat. After all, he was able to see the cultivation base and mana fluctuations of every single being. This made it easier for him to assess the attacking side''s combat force while the same applied to the defenders of Xytra. With that in mind, he knew that not only the number of Prismar and Ascendion stage Cultivators was much higher on the attacking side, but the number of Specta stage beings was not less either. There were a total of 10 Specta stage cultivators, and from the looks of it, only four with the same cultivation base were present in the entire city. If these four could not simultaneously fight against two or three beings at the same cultivation stage, Jason didn''t know who could defend the city. Instead, they would have to protect their own lives first before extending a helping hand. Fortunately, Jennifer calmed down, realizing that she had been too impulsive. This caused her to take a few deep breaths before she hovered backward, stopping next to Jason. Meanwhile, Jason didn''t let go of Jennifer''s hand, which allowed him to react quickly if she were to act too impulsively once again. Furthermore, Jennifer was much calmer, when he held her. He could feel her pulse that had returned to normal which was another reason for not letting go of her. Yet, instead of focussing too much on the moment, Jason continued to analyze the situation with a more precise assessment. If he was only looking at the cultivation base of everyone before, he wanted to figure out the exact rank in addition to the cultivation stage of his opponents now. That was the bare minimum he could do, given the presence of Specta stage cultivators on both sides. Doing this allowed him to see that the defending side had a higher cultivation base owing to their ranking. Adding this to the fact that the defenders were unable to see any special traits of the attacking side, they presumed that their chances to win were much higher than initially presumed. This was great, but even better was the sudden commotion that ensued behind the attackers. Out of nowhere, several hundred beasts had emerged from the ground, crawling out of the mud and soil. These creatures wreaked havoc as they threw themselves on the Shadow Walkers and other races that attacked the city. First, Jason thought that he was seeing something wrong, but his Emperor Eyes didn''t betray him. Instead, the beasts he saw had tightly concealed cultivation bases, which made it difficult to perceive the beasts underground. This had given them the chance to surprise attack their opponents at the surface. In fact, the enormous Earthworms that were enclosed in a thick layer of mud, made it seem as if they were wearing strong armors that would protect them from most attacks. Thus, it was no wonder how the earthworms had terrified the Shadow walkers, turning the game upside down. They were each more than a hundred meters long followed by a gigantic mouth at the tip of their body, looking like a giant mass of flesh with several hundreds of lengthy needle-like teeth. With a single attack, they killed more than a dozen opponents, leaving behind nothing but droplets of blood that gushed out of the Earthworms'' mouth the moment it closed it. This made it seem as if the devoured opponents were killed in a manner similar to how an iron maiden functioned. The only difference Jason perceived was that dying due to the Earthworm should be even more painful, which caused him to flinch involuntarily. However, instead of averting his attention, he stared at the battlefield. It was then that he spotted one of the enormous Earthworms which was much larger and broader than the rest. It attacked one of the Specta stage powerhouses that was busy fighting one of the Xytra city defenders at the same cultivation base. Yet, while the Devir noticed the attack, allowing him to step back in the last moment, the Shadow Walker at the Specta stage realized this too late, as his entire body had already entered the gigantic mouth of the Earthworm. Only a moment later he released his entire mana, but everything was useless. The Earthworm''s mouth closed, and its teeth punctured the Shadow walker''s body, whose mana had been partially nullified. When Jason saw this, he couldn''t help but feel a little bit disgusted, but instead of holding Jennifer back from attacking, he forced her to regain her senses as he pulled at her. This forced her out of her own train of thought. Looking into her eyes, Jason only offered a simple piece of advice. "Don''t fly too low, otherwise the Earthworms might reach you!" Jason had already figured that the Earthworms were supposed to help Xytra but that didn''t change the fact that they were beasts. Thus, they wouldn''t care if a few allies would be eaten or get buried under their heavy bodies. At least Jason assumed so which made him warn Jennifer before he allowed Solaris to enter his body. Through this, their mana was shared, and the mana consumption while using his fire affinity was much lower. Jason presumed this to be the best way in order to defeat the opponents he had chosen to fight. However, before he could even move, Jennifer had already released her three merged energies as she shot towards the battlefield with a serious expression on her face. Even if she hadn''t seen her father in a very long time, there were too many things she wanted to ask him and talk about. As such, Jennifer would never accept if anything were to happen to him, not until she found the answers to the questions she had. With that in mind, she exerted her movement technique, while releasing her aura that was slowly starting to be constructed. It was composed of her energies and everything she had learned during the last few years. Through this, Jennifer quickly attracted the attention of the attacking force, and a grand battle ensued. The defending side began to initiate a counterattack, revealing themselves by stepping out of the cover provided by the city walls. Seeing this, Jason couldn''t help but smile dryly as he exerted the Hermes Celeration movement technique T the basic mastery. However, that was more than enough to exceed his capabilities of the Floating Sky movement technique at the perfect mastery. Wasting no time, he catapulted himself towards the biggest crowd of Prismar and Initial phase Ascendion stage beings. They were Jason''s target, and the perfect choice to fight for someone like him, whose cultivation base was at the Peak of the Prismar stage, while his true combat prowess was much higher! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 838 - Inconspicious Excluding the amplification of his soulbonds'' strength, he was already much stronger than someone at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage. In fact, if he were to include the amplifications received, he was almost at the same level as someone at the Low Ascendion stage. And if he were to further add the other means at his disposal to increase his strength, Jason was confident in achieving everything he wanted to. This might be a little bit exaggerated, but with Solaris by his side, Jason felt unparalleled. Despite being on the battlefield surrounded by the Prismar stage beings that had many individuals at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage, Jason was calm. Right now, he was relatively safe as he was still unnoticed by stronger individuals. But this would change the moment he revealed his entire strength. As such, Jason held back from manifesting more than a thousand black fireballs which he would want to throw towards the crowd of Prismar stage beings. In fact, he would be able to overwhelm the entire army of Prismar and Initial Ascendion stage beings as long as he was safe from the attack of stronger opponents. Unfortunately, protection was a luxury he could not afford because everyone was struggling. With that in mind, he adjusted his strength by manifesting Byakur in his hand before enveloping it in a thin layer of Solaris'' flames. Afterward, he geared up to enter the fray which he did by mercilessly charging at the biggest crowd of Prismar stage beings he could find. Before averting his attention to the Ascendion stage beings, Jason wanted to have as many backup plans as possible. With that in mind, he severely injured his opponents while transferring a fraction of Solaris'' flame into each of their bodies. Once they were inside the body of his living opponents, Solaris'' flames would be nurtured. They would absorb all of their cultivation energies, and life force, sucking them dry. This was extremely helpful in the worst-case scenario of his mana being drained completely as he would be able to recharge real quick. Jason had utilized this tactic quite often already, and right now it was even more important to be vigilant of his surroundings. Not only the Shadow Walkers were his opponents but the city he wanted to protect owing to Jennifer, might also be considered their opponent! It was weird to protect a place that could become one''s foe, but Jason didn''t care about such trivial things. He was only respecting Jennifer''s wish to speak to her parents, at least once. She hoped to see her parents together, living a good life, but Jason was sure that this was not as easy as Jennifer presumed. Otherwise, if her parents were truly living together, there wouldn''t be a reason to give her away in the first place. Because of that, Jason presumed that Jennifer wouldn''t be able to have a great time in Xytra. But if that allowed her to move on, she should at least get a chance to meet her father, and get to know more about her mother. In this case, the least Jason could do was to help Jennifer meet her father. When she reunited with her family, he would take a backseat. He would only act as her shadow, not bothering her, and only stay by her side when she needed him. There were certain things one had to overcome on their own. The people around them would only serve as a broad shoulder to lean on and cry to their heart''s content. However, the thing they had to do first was to overcome the attack of the alliance of the Shadow Walkers. He wasn''t sure if the alliance even had a name, to begin with. Meanwhile, after surviving the attack the most important task was to prevent the walls from crumbling down. If that wasn''t taken care of, a new attack might follow soon. With that in mind, Jason intertwined traces of his divine energy into his mana, while keeping his aura and stigma hidden. Through the divine energy, his movement speed increased drastically. By adding the moonlight affinity to the mix, his divine moonlight transmuted mana was enough to double his speed. This sudden boost shocked the Prismar stage opponents that were already overwhelmed by the sheer brute force Jason was able to exert at his cultivation base. Not just his strength but his shocking speed was even more fearsome, causing despair in the ranks of the Shadow walker alliance. In fact, Jason had considerably slimmed the size of Byakur, so its current appearance was more of a dagger. Picking up another dagger, he enveloped it with Solaris'' flames, increasing his combat prowess by a large margin. Armed with two daggers, he moved forward while merely inflicting injuries that were not even supposed to kill his opponents. Thus, he didn''t even have to fight with precision because sheer power and speed were more than enough to sweep through the battlefield. Shooting through the rows of foes, Jason left behind nothing but faint injuries. However, these injuries led to a death that slowly crept up to them, devouring the injured foes from the inside out. Almost half an hour passed, in which he was able to stay unscathed and mostly unnoticed by the stronger individuals. There were only a few who noticed his speed, astonishing them greatly. But after seeing him deliver nothing but shallow cuts, they presumed that he wasn''t worth paying any attention to. They believed that he could only move with a high speed but he had no real combat experience or strength. Unfortunately, it was this assumption that caused the death of more than a thousand opponents that were slowly burned from the inside, deprived of their energy, life force, and even the nutrition in their bodies. Devouring the nutrition was something Solaris had only started to do since its entire being had been enhanced by the runic circle. During the three months in which it had been enhanced, Solaris had undergone a drastic change. Not only had every single trait of its flames, and abilities become stronger, but new functions of the already existing abilities were revealed. This also included the nutrition devouring trait that belonged to the life force draining ability! Small droplets of the various nutritions'' essences were created inside its mana core, and Jason knew that he could make use of them in order to practice the Kanadi of a Primordial technique. Because of that, he was quite satisfied with the new function Solaris had acquired. However, Solaris could do little to overcome the newly emerging problems in front of Jason. The first foes he had injured were succumbing to their injuries and dying. One after another, the opponents he had inflicted with injuries were collapsing to the ground and dying. It didn''t take too long for the Ascendion stage beings to connect the dots and understand what was going on. Jason was not weak, or an inexperienced combatant, but he had clearly outwitted them. Their overconfidence and wrong judgment had allowed the seemingly inconspicuous, but fast man to kill many of their good warriors! Thus, it was only obvious for the Ascendion stage beings to be enraged. Fueled by anger, the first few that were able to leave their current position, shot towards Jason, ready to attack him without any mercy. However, was Jason truly someone they could face, just like that? That was of course not the case because Jason had yet to reveal his true combat prowess. As such, after seeing the bunch of beings at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage that shot towards him with great velocity, he couldn''t hide his smile anymore. Despite the opponents charging at him, Jason remained calm. After enveloping his entire body with Solaris'' flames, only his golden eyes pierced through the layer of black flames. Meanwhile, his smile of excitement was hidden from the eyes of the foes that initiated their attack. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 839 - Burn To Ashes Jason''s defenses increased by a large margin after being enveloped by Solaris'' flames. It was not comparable to Petri''s scales, but more than enough to block most elemental attacks that reached him. The elemental attacks that were too strong were simply cut through by the daggers he wielded smoothly. While he was busy hacking and cleaving through the attacks, the remaining Initial phase Ascendion stage beings had arrived in front of him and began attacking him. There were three Shadow walkers that tried to subdue him with the darkness their body suddenly released. Meanwhile, the other races were attacking with their physical strength and the techniques they had learned to use their spirit force with. As such, any other being would have been severely restricted. But, not Jason. He was unruffled by their attacks and simply released his Celestia aura and Stigma at once. Following that, he used his fire affinity with the additional enhancements of his moonlight affinity and traces of his divine energy. Owing to this, his black flames were intertwined by silver strands. Some of the strands were glowing brightly followed by enlarging in size. From the outside, it almost looked like Jason''s body was enlarging, but in the end, it was only the flames enveloping him that flared up. They were thickening before they destroyed the energies that reached them burning through all of it before devouring the remnants. Sensing this, Jason couldn''t help but smile, but instead of remaining idle, or decreasing his pace, he did the opposite. He was still exerting the Hermes Celeration movement technique, allowing him to move much faster than his attacker. If Jason wanted, he would have been able to deflect his opponents'' attack in the first instance. But instead of doing so, he had tested Solaris'' enhanced capabilities after it was enhanced by the moonlight affinity and divine energy. Following that, he deflected the attacks Solaris'' flames couldn''t block off before swiftly moving his daggers, inflicting injuries to the opponents that were too close to him. This allowed him to transfer a fraction of Solaris towards his opponents'' bodies. Some of the beings at the Ascendion stage noticed this immediately. But, before the flames could do their trick, they swiftly expelled the flame, overwhelming it with their affinities and cultivation energy. Too weak to counter this, the tiny flames were extinguished or simply expelled from the body of the Ascendion stage Cultivators. It was one of the first few times that his trick had failed him. Thus, Jason quickly realized that using Solaris'' flames to inflict an injury before waiting until his opponents were to die wouldn''t work anymore. At least not with beings at the Ascendion stage, who noticed if something were to enter their body well before it could cause any real damage. As such, Jason knew that he had to change his tactic, but that was no problem because he was still faster than the others. Meanwhile, his physical strength was on par, if not higher than the Ascendion stage cultivators. And that didn''t include the enhancements his moonlight transmuted mana that was intertwined with traces of divine energy caused. With that in mind, Jason had no problems fighting against several opponents at the Initial Ascendion stage, at the same time. He fought them in a much calmer manner than it had been a year ago when he had rescued Jennifer. In fact, even Jennifer would be able to easily defeat the few opponents he was fighting. But those opponents weren''t worth mentioning because most of the opponents he fought were barely considered talented if that was not exaggerated either. At most, their talent came from the races they belonged to, but that was all. As such, Jason felt that the fight against the opponents without the true talent to be considered fighters, or highly proficient in any kind of martial art technique, was but a facade. Right now, he was simply awaiting that stronger opponents would come over to fight him. However, at the same time, he had to ensure that certain individuals that were too strong for him to handle, wouldn''t see him as a big threat. With that in mind, he was forced to adjust his fighting style once again, revealing how combat afine he was. Through that, Jason didn''t show any mercy as he killed the opponents around him before entering the fray of opponents once again. It was only at this moment that he was finally able to evaluate the current situation of the entire battlefield. In the end, the situation was neither great nor bad either. There were quite a few defenders that were strong enough to face multiple opponents. Furthermore, there were the Earthworms that shot out of the ground, devouring more than a dozen opponents before disappearing. They emerged and left whenever they wanted, throwing the Shadow Walker alliance into a frenzy. This was more than enough for the defenders to make use of it, attacking the distracted opponents with all kinds of methods. Some of the defenders were even using ballistae to launch long-range attacks. This was something that caused Jason to smile dryly because he recalled something that was quite off. ''In terms of technological advancement, we were far ahead on Argos than it is the case on Manyr¡­is that simply because nobody bothers to keep advancing their technological standard as they have cultivation energies, or is it something else?'' As he was not sure about the answer, Jason could only continue wondering as he slashed through numerous opponents, increasing the death toll as he mercilessly killed them. However, at this moment, the first being at the Low Ascendion stage emerged in front of him who had received an order to kill Jason. Yet, instead of retreating in fear, Jason assumed that it was finally time for him to reveal his entire strength. With that in mind, he didn''t think of replacing Solaris with Artemis or Petri. Instead, he chose to fuse with Solaris for the first time in his life. Since the day Solaris had devoured some of the fiery aura of the Lesser puppet that was nothing but a poorly built replica of a Primordial race, it was possible for the black origin flame to fuse with him. That was at least what both Jason and Solaris had presumed to be the case. After attempting to fuse a few times, they realized that it was more difficult than expected. However, right now, with their mindset focused on the exact same thing, they could work in sync. Both of them wanted to defeat their opponents and burn them to ashes. Their minds were in unison, allowing them to meet the final requirement to start the fusion process. That being said, the mantle of Solaris'' flames disappeared as black flames sprouted out of Jason''s body. Meanwhile, his hair released additional flames, turning them a shade darker than they already were. A moment later, the flames flared up, and Jason noticed how the Celestia aura within him was slowly transmuting. His aura wanted to be fully unleashed, and Jason fulfilled its request by not holding back anymore. After unleashing both the two Stigmas above his right eye and the transmuted aura that heated up the surrounding, Jason roared out. The dry and trampled grass began to burn, causing the flames around him to explode that tripled his size for a moment. When Jason roared out, something in the depth of his body was churning, but he didn''t notice anything at all. His mind was too occupied with the growing urge to burn everything around him, including his opponents. The flames were flaring but they were all under the control of Jason. He could command them with a simple thought of his mind. Hearing Jason''s powerful roar made Jennifer, and many other beings turn towards Jason''s direction in shock. The moment they saw Jason''s brightly glowing eyes pierce through the thick black flames, which enveloped him like impenetrable armor, they couldn''t help but gulp nervously. "Is¡­that really Jason?" Jennifer wondered, staring into the depth of Jason''s crimson-colored eyes. Thousands of black flame spears manifested around him making him look like the Grim Reaper. His desire to kill was clearly perceptible and Jennifer could only pity his opponents. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 840 - Aura Of Hell Staring at the Low Ascendion stage Shadow walker, who was only a few dozen meters away from him, Jason made no efforts to hide his smile. He shot more than a hundred black flame spears towards the Shadow walker. By fusing with Solaris, their respective strength turned into one and was reinforced. His special traits, that is the moonlight affinity and divine energy further enhanced it. Owing to that, Jason didn''t have to hesitate in order to attack and kill his opponent who was paralyzed with fear, too afraid to even move. The Shadow walker''s entire body had stiffened, including the darkness that enveloped him like a snake''s coiled body. This was owing to the petrification curse Jason had activated on the Cultivator. Because of that, the black flame spears punctured the Shadow walker, killing him in seconds. His body was covered in spikes similar to that of a porcupine¡­just a dead one! Afterward, Jason felt a weird feeling surging up within him. As he turned around, he was able to see everyone staring at him with uncertainty and fear, unsure of who, or even what he was. This and the sensation that suddenly overwhelmed him, made an extremely distinct feeling of greed ignite within him. However, this greed was not directed at gaining more strength, a fortune, or procuring anything. Instead, it was his greed to kill every single opponent! Consumed by this thought, Jason shot out the thousands of black flame spears without any hesitation. Following that, Jason didn''t even wait to see if he hit someone and manifested another batch of thousands of black flame spears. Like before, he shot them out, killing hundreds of opponents at once. This process repeated itself more than ten times before Jason felt that his mana was a little bit drained. In fact, while being fused with Solaris, the black flame affinity''s mana consumption was negligible. It was almost impossible for him to use enough mana to outweigh the passive mana gathering even if he would transform his entire aura into an Inferno. While attacking recklessly, Jason didn''t even pay attention if he was hurting or even killing the defenders of Xytra. However, that was not necessary, to begin with, because the defenders of the city were not hurt by any of Jason''s attacks. Having been summoned, and shot out within his aura that enveloped a huge area, Jason''s black flame spears were precisely controlled to disintegrate if they came too close to an ally. This was something that was extremely complex and it was difficult to control, but it worked rather easily owing to the emotional range of the beings all around him. Those who were pleased by the change brought forth in the battle by Jason felt great, overjoyed, and maybe a little bit of fear. But, it was completely different from the Cultivators belonging to the Shadow walker alliance. In fact, they felt like tearing him apart, along with a surge of hatred, anger, but also extreme fear, and anxiety within them. Considering these emotions as something only a foe would think of him, the black spear attacks he created would continue their advance. They would kill these opponents as long as they were unable to face his attacks head-on. And that was necessary because evading the volleys of black flame spears was much more difficult than one might believe. Owing to his several volleys of attack, he gathered the vast majority of attention on the entire battlefield. This included the Cultivators with a higher cultivation base, from the Mid Ascendion stage right up to the Specta stage. In the end, this was rather disadvantageous, but Jason was fully aware of what he was doing. It didn''t take the defending side long to understand that Jason was a force to reckon with. Thus protecting him became a high priority and letting him do their work seemed far less risky too. After all, he was able to kill more than ten thousand foes in a matter of seconds. Hence, they had to protect him in order to slim down the number of their own casualties. Because of that, a Specta stage Devir that looked eerily human, and an Aeus with two pairs of wings appeared in front of him before they asked him to continue with whatever he was doing. By only taking a short glance at the two Specta stage beings, Jason didn''t take long to realize that the Devir was the one Jennifer was searching for, while the other Aeus was someone he didn''t know. But it was definitely not Jennifer''s mother! However, instead of making a fuss out of the given situation, Jason simply smiled, glad about the protection he had received out of nowhere. He was ready to initiate another attack, but it was at this moment that the ground several dozen meters below him burst open. An enormous Earthworm emerged from it, making a high-pitched weird sound. Yet, contrary to everyone''s expectation of the beast suddenly attacking him, it remained at its position. Instead of labeling him as an extremely dangerous foe, it stood behind him, acting as the third protector of Jason. This dumbfounded everyone who looked at Jason, whose entire body was clad in an armor of flames that made him look majestic. But at the exact same time, he was someone most beings on the battlefield were afraid of. His eyes that had turned crimson released the purest desire to kill, which many people had never sensed in their entire life. And that was even the case for those Ascendion stage beings that were hundreds of years old! Despite sensing this, Jason couldn''t care less about the feelings others had about him. Currently, he was distracted by a sudden desire Solaris was voicing out, and he almost willingly gave in. But, he held back from the urge to destroy and kill everything around him at the last moment when he realized what exactly Solaris wanted from him. ''You¡­want to manifest the gate? The same one from years ago?? Why would you want to do that, Solaris?'' Several years ago, in a fit of rage, and the desire to kill everyone who had taken something from him, he had manifested the Replicas of the Gates of Hell¡­or at least that was what the Embassy of the Elvir race had said. They had also warned him that the Gates of Hell were extremely dangerous and that he should never summon them intentionally. However, that was something Jason could clearly tell too. It was not exactly difficult because he was able to sense that Solaris'' range of emotions was a chaotic mess. Whether this was because the black origin flame was sensing his emotions for the first time, or something else didn''t matter. He knew that the fusion might be a little bit overwhelming for Solaris. Jason just knew that he shouldn''t manifest the gates as Solaris wanted. Rather, Jason manifested more and more black flame spears and exceeded his limitations. Meanwhile, the Aura of Hell, which was the name Jason gave the transmuted aura, Solaris'' transmutation was causing to his Celestia aura, enlarged further. Through this, his range of attack became bigger too, but instead of staying at the same spot as before, Jason began to move around. He launched a killing spree all over the battlefield, while his three protectors remained by his side, shielding him from all kinds of attacks that were desperately fired at him. Even the Specta stage powerhouses of the Shadow walkers launched an attack, but when they noticed that the protective shield around Jason was close to impregnable, they issued the command to retreat. Owing to this, the defenders of Xytra were able to overcome the numerical disadvantage. They fiercely defended against the Shadow walker alliance and emerged victorious with only a fraction of the casualties they had feared to have. And all of this was thanks to one particular individual- Jason! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 841 - Father-Daughter "Welcome to our small city, Xytra. I''m sorry this is not how we usually welcome our guests. But, I hope Sir can understand our circumstances¡­there are many things we have to pay attention to, and even more we have to repair." A young man said to Jason in an apologetic voice while bowing deeply. Even after the Shadow walker alliance had retreated, Jason''s entire being was struggling to get a grip over himself. He and Solaris seemed to have different opinions of what they were supposed to do. Solaris wanted to pursue and kill every single Cultivator of the Shadow walker alliance. Jason, on the other hand, didn''t want to needlessly pursue them after they fled. All his attention was on how his entire body was out of control. In fact, it was not his body that had a problem, but their fusion which was still incomplete. Jason''s body had begun adjusting to the heat of Solaris'' flames that had fused with every single cell of his body. It was already a wonder that he was still alive considering that his cells must have been damaged or burned. However that was not the case, and it was more likely for the fusion to have prevented these kinds of injuries. Despite that, his mana core and mana veins felt extremely hot which was rather inconvenient in the current circumstances. He was struggling to control the mana that circulated through his body for the first time in decades. Only by averting his focus to the mana circulation process was it possible for his mana fluctuations to come under control. It took him quite a while to do so because the mana circulating through his body uncontrollably had caused them to fluctuate wildly. Because of that, Jason hadn''t even noticed that the Specta stage powerhouses had left his side once the battle ended. They had returned to complete their respective tasks. Meanwhile, the young man, whom one of them had just welcomed, had arrived in front of him. A moment later Jennifer appeared by Jason''s side, instinctively grasping his shoulder, worried whether he was fine or not. Yet, she quickly retracted her hand as Jason''s entire body was releasing an unbearable heat even after his fusion with Solaris was dissolved. "Are you fine, Jason??" She asked worriedly, only to see him give her a light smile. By transmuting the mana that circulated through his body with the moonlight affinity, he was regulating his body temperature. H His body was slowly cooling down, and any kind of injury he might have received was healing simultaneously. However, there were no injuries, to begin with, and Jason simply smiled at Jennifer before telling her that he was fine. Afterward, he turned towards the young man, who was eyeing the two of them. Looking at him, Jason asked the most important question he had on his mind. "I don''t need any kind of grand welcome. Instead, can you tell me where I can find Inadan Sadon?" The question itself had caused Jennifer to stiffen for a moment before she looked at Jason, worry in her eyes. The young man repeated the same movements of Jennifer, only to be confused as he looked at Jason with a question mark seemingly materializing in front of him "Oh¡­Sir, do you know Lord Sadon personally?" He asked, but it was barely a moment later that he saw Jason shaking his head. "I don''t know Lord Sadon, but it would be great if we can meet him once!" This caused the young man to furrow his eyebrows as he blurted out, "Sir, you fought alongside Lord Sadon, and I do not know where he is¡­ he is probably busy taking care of the city¡­I do not know when he''ll have time." The answer of the young man proved Jason''s earlier assumption to be correct, and after thinking about it for a moment he turned towards Jennifer. "I guess we''ll stay here for a few days. You don''t need to rush anything, alright?" Jason calmly spoke to Jennifer, who had planned to leave as soon as possible. She had hoped to spend at most one day in Xytra to meet her father, and try to figure out the truth before leaving. She didn''t want to stay long in Xytra, and neither did she ever want to return. As such, Jennifer was biting on her lower lip, only to nod her head. She reluctantly accepted that they couldn''t do anything else right now. Jason and Jennifer simply told the young man that he should inform someone, who could get in touch with Lord Sadon. They also asked him to state that someone who was well acquainted with Luna, and Jules wanted to speak with him. Both names didn''t ring any bells to the young man, who was slightly confused but he simply nodded his head, accepting the task he had been given by the man who had played a major role in protecting the city. However, before leaving to pursue the given task, he told Jason and Jennifer that a room had been prepared for them and that they could ask for anything they wanted. That was the least the city could provide them with because they didn''t even live in the city, and still, they had fought to protect it. In fact, many people were staring at both Jason and Jennifer with jealousy and wide eyes, unable to grasp how these young people were so powerful. In the end, Jennifer was barely at the Ascendion stage but she was strong enough to fight more than a dozen Initial Ascendion stage powerhouses. And this included talented individuals too. Meanwhile, Jason was on an even more monstrous level because he didn''t enter the Ascendion stage yet, but his combat prowess was fearsome. Nobody was truly able to grasp how powerful he was, but it was definitely worth filling them with dread and apprehension of being on his hit list. Like Jason, even Jennifer had not revealed her entire combat prowess because she was hiding her true appearance with which she could increase her strength even further. It was similar to a button she could press in order to transform to her true form that would allow her to fight mightier opponents. Unfortunately, she had to hold back, otherwise, the elaborate plan she and Jason had come up with would shatter before anything could even start! To Jason, it didn''t matter if someone else was thinking highly of him, or if he was looked at with jealousy. What truly mattered was seeing their plan work and Jennifer meeting her father, even if it was only for a few minutes and the end result to be different than what Jennifer hoped for. Jason didn''t have high hopes about this talk, but he didn''t say anything to Jennifer. Instead, he decided to stay by her side and if it was necessary, he would console her whenever she needed. Through this, she would know that she was not alone. This was the least he could do for her which was better than facing her father while being alone. Yet, to their misfortune, Jennifer was the only one who was invited to the chamber of Lord Sadon, a few days after the attack on Xytra had passed. Jason wanted to disregard this and go with her, but she said that it was fine for her to meet her father alone. As such, she left to talk with her father, and Jason couldn''t help but feel bad about this. It made him nervous, and it was only after several hours passed that Jennifer returned to their room. Her expression seemed oddly fine, and a trace of hope emerged within Jason. But then he frowned to see the complex set of emotional hues that enveloped her tightly. Thus, he stood up to ask how she felt, but before he could even ask she forced a smile on her face as she said, "He told me that he acknowledged me as his daughter¡­only for today¡­so¡­It looks like I don''t even exist in his world." Afterward, she bit on her lower lip, and without holding back, she approached Jason to hug him tightly, hiding the tears that trickled down her cheeks. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 842 - You Are Not Alone Jason was not sure if he understood everything correctly because Jennifer was struggling to speak without letting him know that she was crying bitterly. However, from what he was able to understand, the discussion with her father didn''t seem to go as well as he previously thought. If he were to take a rational look at the situation, Jennifer was a halfling between a noble of the Devir race and an extremely unique commoner of the Aeus race. First of all, even if they belonged to the same race, if a noble married a commoner, they would lose their nobility. That was something the laws of both races stated which was rather idiotic in Jason''s opinion. However, that was only the beginning of a weird story because both Jennifer''s mother and father seemed to have been initially betrothed to someone else. Because Jennifer''s mother was unique in all possible ways, one of the princes of the Aeus race was willing to give up every single right. He wanted to marry her by hook or crook, which was what was ought to happen. Yet, instead of accepting the prince, Jennifer''s mother aka Jules, fled from the prince, and while she was on the run, she encountered the Lord of Xytra aka Jennifer''s father! Lord Sadon was already married, but neither did he love his wife, nor had he willingly accepted the marriage. Instead, he had been forced to marry her in order to protect the rest of his family that had been threatened to be killed. To prevent this, he had reluctantly married the young Duchess, but the moment he encountered Jules, everything changed. He decided to elope with her, and they spent a few years together. It was during this time that they met Luna, and in which Jennifer was born. To their misfortune, their happy days seemed to meet an end when the envoys of the Devir and Aeus race found clues of Jules and Lord Sadon'' whereabouts. When the two were finally found, a war was about to break out. Jason had no idea what exactly had happened, but from the looks of it, Jennifer''s parents decided to hand over the baby to Luna to allow her to grow up into the fine woman she had become. Lord Sadon was not sure what exactly Luna had planned with the terror act, but it was definitely not something he had expected to occur. Despite that, he would never accept Jennifer as his daughter because the Devir Jules had married was already fed up the moment he fled. She had barely held back from killing Lord Sadon''s family because she had fallen in love with everything that belonged to the Lord. Jason considered the Duchess to be some sort of psycho, but in the end, this didn''t matter because it was irrelevant. The most important point was that Jennifer''s mother had been turned into nobility, forced to marry the prince without him losing his rights. Now, both of them were living their own life, forced into a marriage they had never wanted with children they were never supposed to get. Only Jennifer could be said to be a lovechild, but even the little halfling was disowned by her parents. Even if she were to meet her mother, what use would it have if she wasn''t acknowledged, or couldn''t even speak with her mother the way she wanted. As such her existence was denied by her own blood, and Jason had to try very hard to console her, but it was quite difficult to do so. Initially, he had assumed that his situation was similar to Jennifer''s but that was not the case. His mother had raised him for a few years before she was killed, while his father hadn''t even known about his existence until a few years ago. And even after he found out about his existence, he didn''t try to push him away. Instead, he had expressed his desire to meet Jason even if it was not possible for him to expose the existence of a halfling of a Primordial race. This was not possible right now because of many complications, but Celestia Yadras was trying to pave a way for Jason to be accepted even if it was not easy. Thus, Jason knew that his situation was different from Jennifer''s, and all he could do was to stay by her side, embrace her, and give her some much-needed comfort. He was not sure how much time had passed, but their hug lasted much longer than he expected. By the time she had finally stopped speaking and crying, the only thing Jason noticed was that she had fallen asleep, right in his arms. Yet, her grasp on his clothes was still tight, and without using force it would be impossible to get Jennifer off him. As such, he lifted her up before moving towards the bed, where he attempted to lay her down while gently loosening her grasp. However, just when he thought that her hands would finally loosen the grasp on his clothes, Jennifer moved. She clung harder to him, her legs coiling around his waist. Jason was locked in her embrace as a single tear trickled down her cheeks before she mumbled, "Please¡­don''t leave me¡­" Jason knew that Jennifer was rambling in her sleep, and she was hurt but he couldn''t help but swallow nervously as his thoughts began to riot. Shaking his head, he tried to keep calm, telling himself that everything was just happening because Jennifer was emotionally disturbed and that she didn''t want to be alone. But¡­was that really everything? Yet, even if Jason believed that there was more between them than being just friends, or whatever they were right now, he couldn''t take advantage of the situation. There was no need to be impatient or anything like that. Instead, rather than focusing on his hormones that were wreaking havoc in his body, it was more important for him that Jennifer felt comfortable and reassured. This was everything that mattered right now. Thus, Jason forcefully suppressed his emotions and the desires that erupted from the depths of his conscience. Slowly, he laid down on the bed, doing nothing but staying by Jennifer''s side as she continued to cling onto him, fearing that he might leave. He continued to lightly caress her hair, unsure of what he should think of Jennifer''s current state. Since more than three years had passed in which they were separated, many things had changed. Jason felt that he was still the same, but the same couldn''t be said about Jennifer. The confident woman he had met earlier had grown much stronger in a physical sense, while her mental state was extremely fragile. Having been betrayed, abandoned, and disowned by her parents, it was only obvious for her to feel as if her world was breaking apart. And Jason was not sure if Jennifer would be able to overcome all of it. At least that was if she were to be alone. With that in mind, his support became more and more important, but even then Jason couldn''t be certain about the outcome. In the end, Jennifer had to get her act together and understand that no matter how dark the night, the sun always came up in the morning. Life was not only black and white but sorrow and happiness went hand in hand. You wouldn''t feel the importance of happiness without sorrow and vice versa. One''s mindset was the most important to overcome hurdles in order to avoid a mental breakdown. Thus, Jason could only caress her hair as he whispered, "You are not alone, don''t forget that!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 843 - Leaving Behind Jason was not sure when, but even he fell into a deep slumber with Jennifer in his arms after noticing that her tears had ceased. A long time had passed, but when he woke up, Jason noticed that Jennifer was still clinging to him. Her grasp had loosened, but instead of wriggling himself out of her embrace, he thought that he could stay like this for a little bit longer. Focusing on nothing in particular, Jason was just lying in the bed with Jennifer by his side. His body had finally recuperated from the exhausting battle against the Shadow walker alliance and it was soon time for them to leave. Not wanting to postpone their task any longer, Jason was already prepared to leave, and now, only Jennifer would have to wake up. Thus, while he waited for her to wake up, thoughts about all kinds of things began to flash through his mind. There were quite a few things he had to do, but not many of them were something Jason would be able to attain on Manyr. As such, Jason believed that it was soon time for him to leave the large planet, hopefully along with Jennifer and not alone! With that in mind, he took one of the many books he had chosen as his reward from the Primordial races'' treasury. Opening the first page, he started to read it and was quickly immersed into it. He didn''t even realize how much time had passed as the information about advanced forging was simply too interesting for him. Because of that, it took Jason a while before he noticed that Jennifer was stirring. On noticing him by her side, she pulled her legs back followed by her arms that were slowly moving away from him. When she woke up, Jenifer almost screamed out in shock, only to faintly recall what she had done while being half asleep. As such, she tried her best to regain control over her senses before retreating slowly. Afterward, she continued to lay on the bed because Jason had still not shown any signs of noticing her move, giving her the time to calm down before finally getting up. Thus, the moment she got up from the ground, Jason looked at her. Closing the book he had been reading, he smiled at her before he enquired. "Good Morning! How are you feeling?" Nodding her head in embarrassment, she studied the ground which made Jason''s smile widen before he added. "Shall we depart?" Jennifer had assumed that Jason wanted to cultivate for a few more days while recuperating from his earlier state in which he had felt weaker. However, that didn''t seem to be necessary as Jason''s mana fluctuations were as strong as ever. As such, she nodded her head before adding, "Just¡­let me freshen up!" Even Jason felt that a hot shower would do wonders to his soar body and relax his muscles. Thus, they occupied the bathroom one after another and changed into fresh clothes. It was only half an hour later before the two of them were fully prepared, and ready to leave Xytra. Jennifer never wanted to return, ever again, and Jason had no attachment to the entire Julandra region to begin with. As such, there was no need for him to even consider staying. Instead, he wanted to travel towards the borders of the Shadow walkers'' land because he wanted to find Lux. Ever since Jason had seen the woman leave with the Shadow walker who had also taken Lux with him several years ago, his mind had been urging him to take revenge. As such, their next destination were the borders of the Julandra region, where Jason wanted to create chaos. He planned to do so by trying to threaten a few Shadow walkers to the extent that they would expose the location of Lux or others who might know more about his whereabouts. In the end, Lux''s soul world was quite unique, and it was not unlikely for him to have reached a high combat prowess during the last few years. After all, he must have been nurtured well, and receiving a cultivation manual was just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, Jason presumed that the majority of humans who were kidnapped, or those who left voluntarily were mostly nurturing their soul world. This was the most logical way to approach the soul-awakened soul world, after all. If Lux were to reach the limit of his vessel, followed by a great environment and a cultivation technique, it was not unlikely for Lux to have reached a combat prowess similar to Jason. Or at least that was what Jason presumed, considering that more than 10 years had passed since they had last seen each other. With that in mind, he had to try suppressing his excitement to take revenge because it made Jason feel as if he was no better than anyone else. Somehow, it was weird because he was always thinking about revenge, but never had he bothered about trying to come up with a solution in which everything ended peacefully. If he were to go on a killing spree, Jason believed that he would be no better than the mindless creatures that simply killed for their own benefits. This caused him to think a lot about the changes he had undergone in the past few years, and how he had been unwilling to kill when he first gained eyesight. ''Why does it feel as if only a few days have passed since everything began?'' He wondered as they were leaving the city. He was deep in thoughts while they were flying high above the city walls. Meanwhile, Jennifer looked back at the city one more time before turning away. A firm resolve could be seen in her eyes, and Jason felt great to see the change. He was relieved to see that she had overcome the emotional turmoil that was eating at her the previous day. With her emotions in check, they were finally able to fly towards the borders of the Julandra region which was only a three-week travel away from their current location. They had to use their highest speed that was comparable to the peak of Initial Ascendion stage cultivators. But everything was worth it as they reached their destination much faster than initially hoped for. Having left behind all burdens and responsibilities, Jason and Jennifer were ready to embark on their own journey together¡­or so they thought. In the end, it was just Jason''s revenge that he would finally enact one step at a time after years of relentless efforts just to become a little bit stronger. Jennifer was ''just'' accompanying him on the path that Jason was walking on. However, this ''just'' was a lot more valuable to Jason than most things he had left behind. All his life, he had fought alone and never had a companion. It was only now, in the form of Jennifer, that he saw a worthy ally who he could have by his side without any worries of being betrayed. This was an important factor and Jason didn''t want to disregard the importance of Jennifer. However, how should he know that Jennifer''s presence next to him would make his journey both more pleasant and easy to walk on, but at the same time, become something horrifying enough to be imprinted into the depths of his heart? Yet, right now, both didn''t know anything about the fateful encounters they were bound to make. For now, The only thing they could see were the armies of the Aeus and Devir race fighting against the Shadow walker alliance at the borders of the Julandra region! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 844 - Open Kidnapping Jason wasted no time and jumped right into the fray on the battlefield. He targeted the Initial phase Ascendion stage beings and was quickly able to kill many beings belonging to the Shadow walker alliance. It hadn''t been his plan in the beginning, but somehow they had been pulled into the fight. As such, Jason had decided to make use of the chaos to his benefit. Thus, he had picked out the strongest prodigies at the Initial Ascendion stage before fighting them. This was not only to allow himself to fight without holding back but also to knock these particular prodigies out and question them about the location of Lux later. If that was something the prodigies didn''t know, he could interrogate them about many other things that could lead towards the same end result. His ultimate aim was to find out the rough location of Lux and the other humans who betrayed mankind on Argos. Fortunately, it was not necessary for him to make a big detour. After Jason revealed his ability to manifest body parts of his soulbonds and that he could do much more than that, many younger Shadow walkers stared at him in confusion. Owing to the fusion he completed with Artemis, it was even possible for him to hear two prodigies of the Shadow walker race talking to each other. "Isn''t he one of the humans from this little planet? I already forgot its name¡­ either way, I didn''t know that the Aeus and Devir race had a world bridge to that planet too!" Meanwhile, the other Shadow walker stared at Jason from faraway with conflicted emotions that were hidden under the cover of darkness he had created. "It almost looks like his body part manifestation is stronger than that of our people. Maybe even stronger than that of the Lord of Death? And I thought that the Lord of Death was a prodigy from Argos¡­ but this human looks even more frightening!" It was astonishing to hear someone talk about his home planet. But even more so was the fact that he felt as if he had already found what he had been looking for before truly entering the battlefield. That was because the Lord of Death was most likely Lux, which caused Jason to almost laugh out loud. However, instead of making fun of the ridiculous situation after finally connecting the dots, Jason decided that he should imprison the two prodigies of the Shadow walkers before leaving. With that in mind, he told Jennifer that she should stay out of the fight because he would return in a moment. That being said, he made use of the fusion with Artemis and manifested her wings. Only a moment later, Jason released the two Stigmas, his Arctic aura, the Hermes Celeration movement technique, the moonlight affinity, and his divine energy, at once. Through this, he was able to shoot towards the two prodigies of the Shadow walker race with a speed that crossed the threshold of their limits. Yet, despite seeing Jason shooting towards them like a bullet, they had enough time to react¡­or so they thought. As they had been busy talking to each other, they took a second to sense that someone had attacked them. Just a second should have been more than enough for them to react, but Jason didn''t even need a second. I It was a fraction of a second later that both felt incapable of moving, their bodies rigid as stone. Jason''s sky blue eyes were gleaming brightly as he forcefully restricted the movements of one Shadow walker prodigy. The other one''s knees gave in as he collapsed on the ground just a moment later. His eyes were pitch-black which was odd owing to the fact that their eyes were normally¡­.red like a ruby in color. Thus, the paralyzed Shadow walker stared at his friend in shock, believing that his friend had died just like that, only to perceive that the darkness around him was still moving. Yet, before he was even able to do anything, Jason had already appeared behind the Shadow walker as he whispered an order. "Now¡­go to sleep!" Saying so, he used his hand to attack the Shadow walker, hitting the side of his neck in order to knock out the prodigy. If that wouldn''t have worked, Jason was ready to use his divine energy to combine his petrification curse, the race specific weakening curse, and the abyssal effect of his Emperor Eyes. He had done the same with the first Shadow walker prodigy, who had collapsed on the ground already, so he wouldn''t shy away from using it a second time. However, that was not necessary, and both were knocked out. This allowed Jason to pick them up before he shot high in the air, leaving as quickly as possible. This was seen by the majority of other Shadow walkers on the battlefield at the Initial phase Ascendion stage, but considering that Jason had just defeated their two strongest two combatants, they didn''t dare make a move against him. Meanwhile, the other battlefields were relatively oblivious to Jason''s appearance, and even less so when he disappeared with two unconscious Shadow walkers in his arms. When he had left the battlefield, Jason couldn''t help but feel that it had been way too easy. But that was not something he should be complaining about. Instead, he should be glad that it went much easier than he had planned. In the end, he had killed a few Shadow walkers on the battlefield, but the number was not much in comparison to what he would have done if the other Initial Ascendion stage cultivators attacked him. As such, the chaotic situation ended before it truly began. BothJason and Jennifer disappeared, leaving everyone behind without attracting any attention from the stronger beings. This allowed Jason to feel reassured as he and Jennifer had stopped flying almost half a day after they had departed. The distance was more than enough to know if someone was following them or not. Both of them and their imprisoners were hidden by the dense canopy of the treetops of large trees. Additionally, the strong energy currents of other beasts that had been resting at their current location before they arrived, would serve as an additional camouflage to throw their pursuers, if any, off guard. While waiting for another half a day, Jason read a book, while Jennifer was cultivating. It was only when one of the Shadow walker prodigies began to move that they finished everything they had been doing. As he stared at the Shadow walker, who was slowly regaining his consciousness, Jason couldn''t help but feel satisfied. The once ''mighty'' and ''powerful'' Shadow walkers that had terrorized Argos, were now lying in front of them, helpless and tied up. "Who¡­are you guys?!?!" The Shadow walker that had just regained his consciousness asked in an angry voice as he stared at Jason. His voice was filled with a sense of superiority and entitlement which was perfectly normal for a prodigy. But Jason couldn''t help but feel that his smile was widening as he countered, "Do you really think we would tell you our real names? If that''s the case, do you expect to survive if we tell you our real name?" The moment Jason and Jennifer revealed their real names, they would have to kill the Shadow walker prodigy. It would be stupid to give someone important information only to leave them alive. After realizing this, the Shadow walker fell silent for a moment. He looked into Jason''s eyes that were clearly telling him that he was not someone to be taken lightly. Jason had overcome more than enough hurdles to kill without feeling any remorse, and his eyes were the mirrored image of his soul, clearly showing this. As such, the Shadow walker couldn''t help but quietly ask. "What¡­do you want from us?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 845 - Betrayal "What¡­do you want from us?" Jason tried to keep a poker face when he heard this question, and it worked to some extent. Yet, when Jennifer saw how hard he was trying, she couldn''t help but lightly push him as she mumbled, "What are you doing?" Apparently, Jennifer found the situation funnier than it was the case for Jason, which caused him to look at her in confusion. "What? Can''t I find it funny that the so-called prodigies of the Shadow walkers are being entitled in front of us? Their talent is trash in comparison to yours, after all!" It was not like Jennifer was lying, but Jason noticed only now that her sense of humor was¡­unique, to put it plainly. As such, he shook his head before averting his attention back to the awake Shadow walker. "Just tell me where can I find the Lord of Death, and I might consider allowing you to leave safely." Jason asked the question as if he was discussing whether with one of the most talented Ultimate soldiers the Shadow walkers were nurturing. This caused the prodigious Shadow walker to stop trying to free himself for a moment. It was as if his mind turned blank, only for him to ask. "You¡­come from Argos too, right?" There was no need for Jason to answer this question, but he simply nodded his head, not denying the obvious fact. His fusion with Artemis was enough to show that he had a soulbond with which he could combine his strength, after all. After he nodded his head, Jason hoped to receive an answer to his earlier question. But the Shadow walker prodigy was still quiet, thinking a lot about what he should do. His life was on the line, but even if he were to tell everything he knew about the Lord of Death, it didn''t mean that he would necessarily stay alive. "Will you set me free if I tell you his location?" the Shadow walker asked reluctantly. Jason felt that it was obvious that the Shadow walker was afraid of dying. But it was already astonishing enough that he didn''t betray his race to buy his freedom or his life in exchange. That meant the Shadow walker prodigy would most likely return to his people the moment this was possible. Despite that, Jason nodded his head as he answered. "If you want to stay alive, I will set you free. But after that, you should stay here for an entire week. There is no need for me to kill you but the moment I find you annoying, you''ll die, alright? By the way, if I get to know that you returned to your race before a week passed, I''ll torture you in the worst possible way!" Jason hoped that this was enough to prevent the Shadow walker from doing anything, but he knew that this was not the case. The moment he and Jennifer would leave, they would probably leave straight to alert the others. In no time they would report everything he had said, and where he and Jennifer were heading. Despite that, Jason didn''t want to kill the Shadow walker prodigies. It might only be his opinion, but he had no problem killing anyone on the battlefield. However, he was against killing someone who was tied-up, and unarmed. "Why don''t you just use mana sealing handcuffs? With our energy supplying the runes, they should stay active for two weeks¡­I guess. So one week for each of them! Well, that is if you really don''t want to kill them. The handcuffs are quite expensive after all." Jason raised his right eyebrow upon hearing Jennifer''s idea which she simply stated without giving it another thought. Yet, instead of commenting on the fact that Jennifer gave living beings a price tag, he just nodded his head. "If you are fine with giving me the handcuffs, I would be grateful to you!" Jennifer was already moving, but when she heard how polite Jason sounded she stopped in her tracks. "I will make you pay back ten times the price of the handcuffs, so be prepared to slave away for me! And I don''t like that you''re being formal with me¡­" Frowning at her line, Jason was not sure if Jennifer was teasing him or if she was dead serious. As such, he couldn''t help but nod his head before ruffling her hair. However, only a moment later he turned around, looking at the Shadow walker with a serious expression. "I guess you listened. To put it simply, you won''t be killed as long as you tell me all the information I need to know! In the end, Jason knew that he could have used the foretelling ability to figure out Lux''s location. But there were too many downsides that came forth with the use of the blessing. First, it looked like he could only use the foretelling blessing once in a few months, which was perfectly fine. Other than that, even if he were to use the blessing right now, it would only show him images. He would be clueless about where he had to go, how far was it from his current location or the name of the place. This was quite disadvantageous, which was why Jason chose the easier way to figure out the information he wanted to get to know! That way was to use the Shadow walker prodigies who had already exposed the fact that they knew more about the humans on Argos. Their race had been taking humans with them for quite some time already. As such, there shouldn''t be a problem getting to know the information he wanted. At the same time, Jason was extremely good at figuring out if someone was lying. His Emperor Eyes allowed him to perceive everything down to the finest detail after all. Other than that, he was able to perceive energy fluctuations that were the most distinct indicator if someone was lying or not. With that in mind, Jason asked, "Now tell me. Where are the humans on Argos situated, and where can I find the ''Lord of Death''?" The other Shadow walker prodigy had yet to wake up, but Jason didn''t think that he needed any information from him. After all, the Shadow Walker, who was awake, seemed to be willing to provide every single piece of information he required. Hearing the Shadow walker share everything he could think of to save his life made Jason nod his head. He was quite intrigued about what he had heard him blabber. If his words were true, there seemed to be many more humans that had been taken away by the Shadow walker race than he initially expected. To be precise, the Shadow walker prodigy told him about the combined work of dozens of races that were connected to Argos. These races had worked together in order to kidnap as many talented humans as possible. Under normal circumstances, this would enrage Jason, but he was eerily calm and was patiently listening to everything. When the Shadow walker was almost nearing the end of his explanation, Jason noticed that the other prodigy was stirring. Yet, instead of averting his attention to the other prodigy, he kept asking all kinds of things to the one who was already awake. As such, the prodigy who had just woken up could only hear his friend willingly exposing all kinds of secrets, shocking him to the core. Because of that, Jason assumed that a huge fight would break out at any moment, which would be quite interesting to see because the two Shadow walker prodigies were tied up. However, oddly enough, the Shadow walker prodigy who had just awoken remained quiet as if he was okay with whatever his friend was doing. Yet, it was just a moment later that Jason''s foresight blessing noticed something. It caused him to react instinctively as he turned around, before fusing with Petri. Only a fraction of a second later, he grasped Jennifer as he released his entire mana and divine energy. He used these two simultaneously to give his speed a major boost to an extent he had never reached before. With Jennifer in his arms, Jason was quickly transported several hundred meters away from the Shadow walker who had only sensed the wind pressure. He had barely blinked before he noticed that his kidnappers were not in front of him anymore. A moment later, he sensed faint mana fluctuation from his friend, indicating that he had finally awoken. Unfortunately, his joy didn''t stay long as his friend shouted. "TRAITOR, DIE!" The moment he shouted this word, he released his entire energy at once, utilized in the red Miasma that was suddenly released from his body. Just a fraction of a second later, his body exploded like a volcano. It filled the red Miasma with the necessary energy to reach the surroundings in a range of several hundred meters only a second later. The Shadow walker prodigy who had exposed all secrets about the humans on Argos felt incapable of moving. He was paralyzed and his energy was drained, while he was clueless as to what had happened just now. He could only stare at the spot his friend had been only a moment ago where a red crystal lay instead. Looking at the ground with disbelieving eyes, he blurted out, "Shit¡­", before he died. His body began to wither as the energy that had once invigorated him was rapidly draining off his body. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 846 - To The Death Lord Jason had expected a fight to break out between the two Shadow walker prodigies. But, he could have never expected that the second prodigy would sacrifice himself just to prevent his own kind from exposing even more information. That was a drastic measure considering that he didn''t know the situation or why the Shadow walker prodigy who had woken up first, revealed all kinds of secrets. However, fortunately enough, Jason had noticed what would happen early enough. If not for his sharp senses, he and Jennifer would have died too. In fact, it was scary enough to just look at the red Miasma. Yet, after seeing the energy streams through his Emperor Eyes, Jason felt goosebumps spreading over his entire body. He couldn''t even explain what exactly he was seeing, but if he were to describe it, the whole red Miasma felt like a sentient and living being! The moving energy currents were intertwined with some sort of mixture of lifeforce and an unknown type of energy. This made them unique, and oddly intriguing to Jason. Nevertheless, it felt much more dangerous than it was interesting. Trusting his gut feeling, Jason continued to retreat the more the red Miasma expanded. In the end, it dispersed into nothingness. But before that, it drained the life and energy out of everything it touched. Thus, the small area of the forest had withered which the Miasma had touched. It had sucked the vitality and life out of everything, leaving nothing but death behind. Lifeless trees crumbled before they fell over, while the lush grass was now pale yellow in color, dry and perished. Even the soil below had changed in color, causing Jason to be a little bit flabbergasted. However, he quickly got a hold of himself and by taking a look at Jennifer, he saw that she was fine too. He was still holding her in a tight grasp, but when he noticed this, Jason let go of her. While continuing to stare at the once green field that looked no better than a desolate piece of land right now, it was impossible not to be impressed by the ability of the now deceased Shadow walker prodigy. After all, the red Miasma could be turned into a means of mass destruction if used properly. It was almost as if some Shadow walkers were trained to sacrifice themselves if the situation on the battlefield or in some other incident were to become too dangerous. This was most likely exactly what had just happened, and Jason predicted that all Shadow walkers had learned this technique. He had no idea if that was truly the case, but thinking that every single one of them could sacrifice their life force and energy to activate some sort of racial ability, was the best he could come up with. After all, this thought could save him from being overconfident. The belief that the Shadow walker weaker than him would be unable to even hurt him would be his doom. With the red Miasma even the weakest of them could certainly injure and even kill him. As such, Jason had to be careful of advancing further while fighting Shadow walkers. He hadn''t done it earlier owing to the fact that he was alone in the middle of their rows but now he couldn''t risk it. In the end, nobody would intentionally kill their comrades as long as the situation was not against their odds, and impossible to win anymore. Averting his attention from the gloomy field, he looked at Jennifer before he smiled lightly and asked, "How about we go and take a look at the Shiman camp? I heard that there are a few people I know¡­and someone I want to show how it feels to be betrayed by their own people!" When Jason began to speak, it sounded like he was joking, considering the situation to be quite easy. However, when he ended his sentence, Jennifer couldn''t help but feel a little bit confused. "Is..it about the Lord of Death, again?" Until now, Jason had never said much about his past, even less about the things that had happened on Argos. Because of that, Jennifer had always believed that Jason loathed the time he had spent on his home planet. Yet, the more time she spent with him, the less likely it seemed. She had paid attention to his words and could recall that there were quite a few people Jason had mentioned once or twice already. However, knowing that Jason''s only family, that is his mother, was dead, and the fact that his masters on Argos had also died, it was not difficult to imagine what he felt about the place. It was complex and far from easy, just like her emotions concerning her parents and master. Thus, she didn''t want to ask Jason something he didn''t want to answer. But seeing him nodding his head nonchalantly in response emboldened her. Wanting to know more about him, Jennifer couldn''t help but continue asking, "Can you tell me more about your past, and what happened with the Lord of Death, that you are so eager to kill him?" By turning his head a little, he looked directly into the depth of Jennifer''s eyes. She was looking at him with confidence, her interest in his past apparent by the glint in her eyes. Jennifer desperately wanted to know more about him and his life before she had met him. Seeing this, Jason, who hadn''t planned to tell her the boring story of his life, which was filled with more petty emotions and useless grudges than one could think, decided to open up a little. After all, Lux had only shot him in his shoulder, yet, he wanted to kill Lux! Yet, after thinking about it a third time, killing Lux might be the nicer option. Jason had once even considered damaging Lux''s soul world to the extent that he would never be able to use it again. However, that would be worse than killing Lux, which was not exactly what Jason had wanted to do. In fact, Lux had killed and tortured many more people other than him in order to make use of their corpses. As such, Jason wouldn''t feel bad about anything he did to Lux, and it was not like he was a saint, to begin with, either! With that in mind, he would await the moment of his re-encounter with Lux. But for now, it was time for him to tell Jennifer his story! This didn''t take long because he cut to the chase, and told Jennifer only about the important things. Unfortunately, this made his story less interesting than it truly was, but Jennifer realized that Jason left out a lot. He had wrapped the painful experience of the death of his soulbond and masters in a single sentence after all. Owing to this, Jennifer clearly knew that the memories still hurt him like a long-forgotten wound that would hurt when you touched it. Even if did not actively dwell on those memories on a daily basis, the loved ones he had lost held a special place in his heart. His mind was still tormented with guilt, even though he could have done nothing to change their fate. He was young and thus, obviously also weak at that time. Because of that, she didn''t say anything after Jason ended his story but tightly hugged him. This was unexpected, and Jason stiffened for a moment, only to return the hug. Afterward, they decided that it was best to leave the Julandra region for the time being. They wished to take a look at the Shiman camp that was, in fact, a place at which the humans with a soul world were being trained. There was much more information one had to know, but the most important fact for Jason was that they would most likely encounter Lux there! If he was not there, he was probably nearby. He could most likely be in a certain area the Shadow walker prodigy had been unable to mention or hint at because he had never entered it. With that in mind, Jason stated in a confident voice, "Let''s go¡­to the Lord of Death!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 847 - Shiman Camp The place they were looking for was not far from the borders of the Julandra region. In fact, the Shiman camp was relatively close to the borders. However, this was mostly owed to the fact that there was something located on the borders that only the humans of Argos could use. When Jason first heard this, he didn''t believe it, and thought of it as a baseless rumor. B But after Jennifer told him that there were specific realms and other places that could only be entered by races with specific elemental affinities, unique traits, or soul awakenings, he began to believe her. However, Jason didn''t really understand what could be special enough for the Shadow walkers to allow the humans of Argos to enter some sort of secret place. After all, there was a risk of them breaking the soul contracts they made with the Shadow walkers. If the place they couldn''t see or enter were to have something that allowed the humans to free themselves of the soul contracts, no human would think twice about doing it. But, he could know this only after visiting the camp. Now, he could only make assumptions but that wouldn''t take him anywhere. As such, he averted his attention from unnecessary thoughts of things that didn''t matter to him, to the fact that he had to hope for Lux to be outside this unique place. Otherwise, he would have to wait for Lux, or enter the place personally, leaving Jennifer behind. That was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. After the dungeon trials had forcefully separated them, he never wanted to be in a situation to part his ways with Jennifer anywhere. With that in mind, Jason and Jennifer entered the Shadow walker''s territory by making big detours through the battlefield. They circled around the fighting armies of the Shadow walker alliance and the side of the Julandra region to reach their destination. Unfortunately, this took most of their time, which was the reason why almost two weeks passed until they had finally arrived near the Shiman camp. Initially, Jason had expected that the Shadow walker prodigy must have lied to him a few times. This included the number of humans of Argos that had willingly accepted to obey the Shadow walkers and to follow their lead. However, when he could finally take a first glance of the Shiman camp that was more like a huge town, it was impossible for Jason not to be flabbergasted. The sight of several thousand mana fluctuations of humans from Argos caused Jason to feel mixed emotions, including a growing sense of uncertainty. He could have never assumed that thousands of humans would willfully accept being under the reigns of the Shadow walker race. After all, it would mean that more than a few tens of thousand humans had most likely accepted becoming subordinates of the other dozens of races that had a world bridge connecting them with Argos¡­or so it had been before Wisse destroyed the world bridges. This made Jason wonder if just the Shadow walker race had a lot of humans on their side, or if this was the case with every race. But neither of these probabilities felt correct, and Jason could only look at the situation on the ground with confusion. Nurturing the humans of Argos at a single location meant that the Shadow walkers didn''t want them to interact with their people¡­or so Jason thought. However, that was not exactly the case and it took him a while to understand this. But when he perceived that almost every single human of Argos was much stronger than he had first assumed, Jason was astonished. "There are only a few thousand Initial Prismar stage Cultivators on Argos¡­how the hell could they have advanced so fast? It has only been a few years since the other races started to increase their efforts to gather more humans under them¡­ wait¡­that''s not true either¡­" His first thought was that every human of Argos must have left the planet a few years ago, but that was not the case. In fact, since the mana awakening on Argos, humans had begun to vanish. As such, some of the humans with a soul awakening might have left Argos more than 300 years ago. This indicated that they might have already attained a kind of strength even some common races might never reach. After all, the soul awakening of humans on Argos allowed them to break through all kinds of norms. Jason was fully aware of the exceptional potential soul world''s had. He had experienced its strength and might after all. Because of that, he shouldn''t really be shocked about the fact that he was able to see Initial phase Ascendion stage Cultivators that had the strength comparable to Cultivators at the Low Ascendion stage. That shouldn''t be a surprise, but what surprised Jason was the fact that almost every single Cultivator inside the Shiman camp was much stronger than their cultivation base indicated. This meant that all of them had powerful soulbonds which was hard to believe. Every single soul world was unique, and the vast majority of them had a soul amplification below 10% of their soulbound beast''s strength. With that in mind, one had to bind numerous beings that were at the same cultivation base as their own in order to reach the same strength as someone at a higher rank of cultivation. In fact, if one were to compare the strength of someone at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage to someone at the Low rank of the Ascendion stage, the latter was on average two to three times stronger. Taking this into consideration, one had to bind far more than 10 beasts at the Initial Ascendion stage! And that was with an average soul amplification of 10% and under the circumstances that one''s soul world was large enough to hold that many beasts. It was also inclusive of the fact that one''s affinities or other specific traits had to be compatible to bind a beast, to begin with. As such, it was perfectly normal for Jason to be astonished about the sight in front of him. It made him a little reluctant to enter the Shiman camp because he was not sure how safe it was for them to enter this place. Yet, his worries were washed away the moment he felt warmth around his hand. It made him look down, only to see that Jennifer had slid her hand in his palm and intertwined her fingers with his. Lifting his head once again, he saw that Jennifer was looking at him with determination in her eyes as she asked. "Should we enter the camp?" Feeling much more reassured than before, they descended towards the ground before entering the Shiman camp with a calm demeanor. Oddly enough, they met no resistance and didn''t even spot any guards. What was surprising was that nobody seemed to be bothered about their arrival even after they entered the camp. In fact, both Jason and Jennifer resembled the humans from Argos, which was essentially the case for Jason. However, he feared that his golden eyes would still attract some attention. Thankfully, it was not the case, at all. While seeing several humans with all kinds of body parts belonging to different types of beasts, Jason couldn''t help but think about the fusion function of his soul world. This caused him to be curious to know if some humans were already able to fuse with their soulbonds or not. But that question was already affirmed by the sight that unfolded in front of him. Yet, at the same time, he felt that his fusion with Artemis, Petri, and Solaris was different compared to the few he was able to see. While his fusion was naturally evolved, that of a few humans he saw looked forced. This made him eye them weirdly. It was at this moment that a young man spotted them before he saw how Jason was observing the fused humans. This made him misunderstand the situation as he approached Jason and Jennifer, who quickly realized that they were discovered. However, what they didn''t expect was to be greeted in a warm welcome. The young man smiled at them brightly and introduced himself. "Hello there, my name is Linus, and I presume you two are newcomers from the other camps? Are you two here to learn more about the fusion process, and ways to dissolve a forced fusion? Perhaps you wish to cultivate, or to hunt one of the Ninad beasts to bind them to your soul?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 848 - Ninad Beasts Jason''s first reaction on hearing Linus'' short introduction that was quickly followed by multiple questions, was to look at him in dumbfoundment. Yet, when he felt Jennifer''s grasp around his hand tighten, he regained his senses as he used the human language to speak for a moment. "My name is Jason. Nice meeting you. About the camp I come from¡­to be honest, we do not belong to any camp. In fact, I was brought to Manyr when I was very young, and I wasn''t raised in any camp or so, but in the Julandra region. However, when I heard that there are humans from Argos in this camp that can teach me more about soulbonds and help me figure out more about my origin, I quickly left my home." Taking a deep breath, Jason hastily cooked up a story as he added while pointing at Jennifer. "This is my fiance, and she left with me. I hope that is no problem, she is also a human after all¡­" Linus was astonished by what he heard, and looked at them for a moment. But considering that Jason was talking in the human language that was only used on Argos, there was no reason to doubt him. On the contrary, Jason''s small introduction told Linus a lot about him. The fact that he didn''t come from one of the few camps the Shadow walker race had built, but from Julandra, the region the Shadow walkers had recently invaded corroborated his theory. Hence, the possibility that Jason got to know about the existence of other humans from Argos when some of their people attacked the Julandra region was feasible. It had happened quite often in the last two years. As such, Linus believed Jason quite easily. It was even more so because the woman next to him looked confused when Jason spoke in the human language. This meant that she had never heard him speak this language, indicating that he was not lying about what he said earlier. The only aspect that made him slightly suspicious of Jason were his mana fluctuations that were far more powerful than his cultivation base indicated. Because of that, he looked at Jason for a few moments before he asked, "How high is your soul amplification, and how many soulbonds do you have?" It was rude to ask these questions, but Linus knew that he had to be careful of outsiders. A single mistake, and the Shadow walkers might kill him without a second thought. And that was certainly not something he wanted to happen. There might be more than enough powerful humans, but every single one of them was under a soul contract. Thus, their life and survival depended on the graciousness of the Shadow walkers. Until now, this hadn''t caused any problems, and most soul contracts were not exactly restrictive in nature. But all of the contracts had one exact clause in each of them. [Betray the Shadow walkers or the races that are affiliated with them, and you will die the most painful possible death!] This clause prevented the humans from betraying the entire Shadow walker alliance, and Jason was already aware of the existence of such a clause. It had become a norm for stronger races to add clauses like these in a soul contract if one nurtured weaker races. Because of that, and their unique situation, Jason attempted to speak mostly the truth while leaving out specific things as well as lying a little if needed. A good lie always had a little bit of truth in it. Knowing this, he dished out the best possible lies by skillfully hiding that he was an extremely powerful individual. His story made him look like a human who simply wanted to learn more about the soul world. "I don''t know what you mean by soul amplification¡­but if that''s the bond I share with my soulbonds and the increase in strength they provide me, it should be quite high¡­as for soulbonds, I have a total of three¡­" After he said this, Jason looked at Linus as if he was confused. His expressions made him explain the entire situation of soulbonds, their bond with humans, and what exactly the soul amplification was to Jason. Acting as if he didn''t know how high the soul amplification of his soul world truly was, Jason caused Linus to have a great headache. It was even more problematic because their last soul awakening orb that could also be used to test one''s soul world had broken apart. ''This fucking idiot¡­if he hadn''t broken the last soul awakening orb, we could have tested Jason''s soul world now¡­'' With that thought in mind, Linus could only scratch the back of his head, not sure what to do with the pair in front of him. However, rather than sending Jason away, which might be on the safer side, Linus thought of the difference between Jason''s cultivation base and the strength of his mana fluctuations. It was simply too big to be ignored. As such, his soul amplification had to be extremely high, or his soulbonds extremely powerful. That was more than enough reasoning to try his best in order to make Jason stay inside the camp. At least until the Shadow walkers would return to take a look at their progress. Other than that, some Shadow walkers might arrive at any time, giving them commands to join the alliance''s army in order to fight against their foes. In the end, the Ultimate Soldiers, a name given to the well-trained humans of Argos, were considered as the secret weapon of many races mostly because of two reasons. The first reason was the superiority of soul worlds. It was simply much more powerful than any kind of existing soul awakening common, or even higher races could ever achieve. The second reason that made the humans of Argos so powerful was the fact that they could enter the secret realm inside the Shiman camp, and bind Ninad beasts to their souls! Jason had no idea what Linus had meant by ''Ninad beasts'', and even after asking, the answer he received was confusing, at best. That was because Ninad beasts were simply the beasts residing in a place which only humans hailing from Argos could enter¡­or so the Shadow walkers, their affiliated races and many other races that had connections to such places thought. However, Jason felt that this was quite confusing because it was odd that many common races had found places they couldn''t enter, only to coincidentally figure out that humans of Argos could walk through such places quite easily. Furthermore, it looked like one couldn''t speak about the secret realm and Ninad beasts in any language except the universal language. Jason felt that this was even weirder, but instead of commenting or questioning this, he listened intently to the information he received. According to Linus'' intel, Ninad beasts increased the soul amplification it transferred to the binder of its soul. That meant a single Ninad beast at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage might amplify the binder''s strength three times more than an ordinary beast could do. This clearly showed how powerful the secret realm Linus had been talking about truly was. In Jason''s case, a single Ninad beast might amplify its entire strength and transfer it to his soul world without the necessity of it having to enter his mana core. It was normally the only way he could receive a 100% soul amplification from one of his soulbonds. However, all of this didn''t really bother Jason because he was trying to find the familiar mana fluctuations of Lux. Even if they might have been altered with time, their origin was still the same as before. But that was not really helpful. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 849 - Downside It was difficult for Jason to make use of the fact that he could clearly recall Lux''s mana fluctuations. After all, there were thousands of people inside the village. They all hailed from the same race so their basic composition of the mana fluctuations'' structure was more or less the same. There were huge differences, but Jason was still able to perceive the minuscule similarities followed by the alterations their soulbonds caused. Unfortunately, this was not helpful to allow him to find Lux. Even if he managed to find him, there was no way that he could attack him in the open. Jason wanted to be as stealthy as possible because there were more than a few powerful Cultivators inside the camp. Even if he killed Lux, it would probably take him a little bit of time, which was more than enough for the human cultivators to react. In that case, the few people at the Mid or Late Ascendion stage would either capture and torture him to find out why he had attacked Lux, or they would simply kill him. Both scenarios were not something Jason wished to encounter. As such, he had to set up a plan which he could initiate before the Shadow walkers arrived in the camp. That was important because there might be certain individuals who had encountered him before. If that was not the case, the Shadow walkers would try to force a soul contract on him, which was not really any better. Thus, the importance of completing everything he had to do before the Shadow walkers arrived was even more important. However, at the same time, Jason felt like he had to procure more information about the secret realm with the Ninad beasts. He wished to know how many other camps with humans from Argos existed in the Shadow walker''s territory including their numbers. It might not be necessary to do something like the latter, but it was important for Jason to understand how many humans had left Argos. If there were to be tens of thousand humans in the rows of the Shadow walkers, there would be a total of ten times that spread through the other dozens of races that had been on Argos. He could have either hit the bullseye or his assumption was far off from the actual number. This was the very reason that Jason wanted to find out the truth. It would allow him to question if it was feasible to encounter more humans with soulbonds, or not. Like the Shadow walkers, even the Ifrytor race had humans under their control. This meant that it was highly likely for him to encounter them on his search for the Ifrytors'' that commanded the mission on Argos. In the end, taking revenge required patience, and it was important for him to not lose the human side of himself. However, that was something Jason believed himself to be lacking already. What was even considered to be humane? Jason had no idea because he had encountered all kinds of emotionally intelligent races, even if they didn''t even remotely resemble humans. Was one humane if one was generous, kind, or selfless? Then what about the other races whose looks were the exact opposite of a human? Were their emotions labeled humane if they were to be generous, kind, or selfless? Clueless to a definite answer to any of the questions, Jason''s mind was being tormented by his own thoughts. He fell in steps beside Linus, who was very talkative. Meanwhile, Jennifer was not sure what she was supposed to do because Linus was talking in the human language most of the time. As such, she didn''t even understand what the young man who was accompanying them was talking about. This made the situation for her a little bit awkward. So instead of listening to the young man, Jennifer averted her attention to inspect the surroundings. Her gaze flitted to the other people and she began gauging their combat prowess. Through that, Jennifer was able to figure out that many people might be stronger than what their cultivation base indicated. But from the looks of it, controlling their body in a perfect manner was still difficult for them. She felt that this was quite confusing, but the rough translations Jason attempted without mentioning the Ninad beasts and the secret realm helped her to some extent. When Jason had tried to say ''Ninad beasts'' in the universal language, it felt like his entire mouth was sewed. This was quite confusing, but also intriguing. Explaining the situation to a perplexed Jennifer without mentioning a few names through voice transmission was not exactly difficult. But it was neither easy and required a few minutes of his time before Jennifer came to a conclusion based on what she had perceived. [If what you said is true, then it''s possible that these beasts from that place have a disadvantage. They hinder the cultivator from properly merging the amplification with their body. Look at the middle-aged man in front of us, on the right side. His movements are sluggish when compared to the others. It is probably because of the high amplification of his strength, and if I''m not wrong he has lots of combat experience!] Before Jennifer had said this, Jason hadn''t even noticed anything. Rather, he was completely oblivious to the possible disadvantage the Ninad beasts had. As such, it was only now that he perceived what was going on, which astonished him a little bit. Taking a proper look at the respective individuals, Jason couldn''t help but feel more curious. It didn''t take long before he was able to perceive exactly the same as Jennifer. Almost every single human''s movements including Linus'' were slightly sluggish. They weren''t as smooth and flawless as Jason or anybody back on Argos. There was a mechanized feel to it as if they were disjointed and uncoordinated which were tiny and unnecessary. This originated from the fact that they were not able to use all of their strength at will. Due to this, the people inside the camp were forced to spend more time training their body, adjusting it to the higher amplifications they received. It might look like an advantage, but receiving a soul amplification that was equal to binding several soulbonds at the same rank was bound to have downsides. As such, integrating the amplification to the body''s constitution took a while. However this ''while'' could probably take longer or shorter according to the time one spent trying to integrate the amplification to one''s body. With that in mind, Jason felt that binding a Ninad beast might not be the best for him. Rather, given his circumstances, binding multiple beasts that didn''t have a limit, but versatile traits and affinities was certainly the best! With that in mind, his interest in the secret realm decreased tremendously even if it could be considered a great opportunity to get a natural 100% soul amplification of any kind of beast. ''I should focus on Lux¡­and Jennifer for the moment!'' In the end, there was only one reason for him to stay inside the camp which was Lux. Likewise, the only reason to leave the camp once he completed his mission was Jennifer. In fact, Jason felt that he should leave Manyr soon, but at the same time, he was not sure if he was ready to depart to the planet called Tagran, where Wisse''s master was located. He didn''t have the coordinates of the planet, nor the location of the world bridge that connected Manyr to the said planet. But that was not really an issue because procuring this information shouldn''t take long. With that in mind, Jason wondered if he should start his search for the world bridge to Tagran. Who knew how long it would take him to find the answer he was looking for, let alone how long it would take to travel around Manyr? After all, the world bridge he was looking for might be on the other side of the planet! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 850 - Gazes A few hours had passed since Jason and Jennifer had entered the Shiman camp. Linus had shown them everything while explaining the rich heritage of the humans that originated from Argos. At the same time, Linus was trying to convince Jason to stay longer inside the camp because it would be the best for him to advance further. After all, they had the means to accelerate the speed at which a strong soul connection was built! This was interesting, and Jason felt inclined to stay longer inside the camp, but that was exactly what Linus wanted. Other than that, it was not difficult to imagine what kind of techniques could allow the soul connection to become stronger. He could easily gauge why there were so many humans with problems upon fusing with their soulbond for the first time. Artificially increasing the firmness of the soul connection should be possible, but Jason was sure that this was harmful for both the soulbond and the binder. Thus he wanted to steer clear of any possible way which would put him or his soulbonds in harm''s way. As such, he acted as if he was interested in being able to learn how to fuse with his soulbonds. Jason''s great acting skills made Linus believe that he had achieved his goal. Thus, in the end, Jason decided to stay in the Shiman camp, with Jennifer by his side. He had made it look like he was clueless to everything and that Linus had spotted a hidden gem. In a sense, it was true. Linus was convinced about the high soul amplification Jason''s soul was ought to have. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have bent the rules of the Shadow walkers, in order to allow someone else to stay inside the camp. In only a few more weeks the Shadow walkers would return, and if they found Jason to be worthy, they would make a soul contract with him, promising to nurture him well. Maybe the Shadow walkers would even show some leniency and would allow Jennifer to stay by Jason''s side, but that was not something Linus was bothered about. The mission he had given himself was to make Jason stay until the Shadow walkers returned, and the means he utilized didn''t matter to him, at all. As such, Jason and Jennifer were given a room inside his house that looked similar to the traditional building complexes on Argos. In fact, there was a dojo near the room where he was resting and the two took a look at their room. It was almost evening, and the last rays of sunlight had disappeared behind the horizon. Jason was just thinking of ways to kill time when something Jason didn''t expect to happen occurred. "Do you want to participate in the comparison matches we hold on a weekly basis?" It was Linus who had asked Jason this, and he was not sure what exactly the young man meant. Despite that, it sounded interesting. As such, he nodded his head without another thought. He simply pulled Jennifer behind him while following Linus to the dojo. There, Jason was already able to perceive the mana fluctuations of a few dozen younger Cultivators. They were probably below the age of 100, but if Jason were, to be honest, he had no idea how to tell a cultivator''s age anymore. After all, Cultivators at the Ascendion stage were able to live several thousand years as long as they didn''t stop cultivating. The only thing Jason could thus be sure about was the fact that humans on Argos could be around 300 years old. But that was not what Jason believed when he saw the faces of the few dozen humans or more mana cores he had only perceived with his Emperor Eyes beforehand. While his golden eyes and the tattoo above his right eye were special, it was Jennifer, who attracted the attention of everybody around her! However, this was only obvious because Jennifer was not a human from Argos, but evidently someone with three awakened cultivation veins. Her uniqueness was easily perceptible according to the subtle energy waves she released. Thus, everyone stared at her, marveling at her stunning beauty, before Linus intervened. He could very well sense the intentions of men who threw lewd gazes at her, along with the killing intent Jason released without hesitation. "Everyone calm down, please! We don''t want to scare away our newcomers, right?" He quickly announced in a loud voice attracting everyone''s attention, before some of the crowd finally avert their attention from Jennifer to look at Jason. At this moment, they noticed that Jason looked equally stunning, both pretty and handsome at the same time. With disbelieving looks, some of the men rubbed their eyes in confusion, while the women were now gazing at him with a meaningful glint in their eyes. This caused Jennifer to grasp his hand instinctively before she pulled him closer to her. When Jason noticed this, he looked at Jennifer. He believed that she was much more comfortable with holding his hand than before when they had entered the camp. Her protective grip over Jason''s arm made Linus believe that she was his fiance. In fact, Jennifer hadn''t understood what Jason spoke to Linus this time, but considering that he had been holding her hand, it was not difficult to comprehend what her role was. As such, she was able to reveal her true feelings while ''playing'' her role as a fiance, and jealous woman that didn''t like the gazes with which Jason was eyed. Seeing this, a small wave of jealousy hit Linus, who hadn''t doubted that Jennifer and Jason were truly engaged. He couldn''t help but feel sorry for himself for never having found someone to be with yet. Their interactions made him turn envious of the couple. ''Is that really necessary?'' He growled inwardly, only to quickly remark. "Jason, here, is also a human from Argos, but his situation is a little bit different than ours. He was brought to the Manyrs as a small child and was raised in the Julandra region. Meanwhile, Jennifer is his fiance. They fled together when Jason heard about the Shiman camp. He wanted to know more about his heritage, and now they''re here." Following the short summary, the crowd broke into a murmur that resounded through the large dojo. The initial lustful gazes of the young men and women changed to respect for both Jennifer and Jason. Jason''s decision to come to the Shiman camp while they were at war with the three races of the Julandra region could be said to be foolish. But it was also a bold move, clearly showing how sincere he was with the things he wanted to achieve. Meanwhile, Jennifer''s love for Jason was crystal clear to everyone''s eyes because she must have been considered a prodigy in the Julandra region. After all, she had three cultivation veins, was at the Ascendion stage like all of them, and she seemed to be quite young too! As such, it was a ginormous sacrifice to flee with Jason, instead of letting him to leave alone. That was what almost everyone thought about Jason and Jennifer, who looked like a couple in search of help. Little did they know about the truth behind the misunderstanding they had generated owing to their own creativity. In the end, the few dozen people were not even thinking about the possibility that Jason or Jennifer had different intentions than what they we*re showing. It might be weird for a prodigy to leave the Julandra region, but love was unpredictable. Thus, nobody said anything about their doubts and believed them. Now their lewd and lustful gazes were replaced with acceptance and respect for their decisions, with a glint of eagerness in their eyes. If Jason and Jennifer were leaving their home for the Shiman camp, they were honor bound to show them that it was not a mistake! Chapter 851 - Tools? Now that they were accepted by the camp people, both of them were eager to demonstrate how strong they were. Thus, they looked at the weekly comparison event''s meaning changed. Under normal circumstances, the humans were asked to spar with each other to show how much they progressed before pointing out certain mistakes others were making. This would increase peer pressure to improve oneself. If someone was making the exact same mistakes week after week, it would clearly mean that one was slacking off. Being publicly called out for the mistakes was embarrassing, to say the least. With that simple psychological strategy, everyone was indirectly forced to work hard as long as they attended the weekly comparison event. Thus, the number of flaws they had drastically decreased since they had begun to hold these events. Linus''s efforts had paid off and he was proud to be able to show Jason what he had created in only a few years. By now, almost everyone wanted to attend the weekly comparison event, but now Linus had started to limit it to only a specific number of people who were allowed to attend them. This was another factor that forced everyone, who wanted to attend the event, to work even harder. He had turned being accepted into the event as a matter of prestige. The attendees had to be careful to show their utmost efforts and allow none to overtake them. It was a great system to make everyone work hard, and the few dozen people wanted to prove to Jason that there was a reason that they had been rightfully chosen. With that in mind, the first few people began to spar against each other, while the rest were watching intently. Some were even preparing notes in order to point out mistakes in the combatants'' martial art technique, how they could have used their mana circulation better, and so on. Seeing how focused everyone was, reminded Jason of Argos. He couldn''t help but smile at the memory of his school were the most prodigious talents worked hard to become stronger. Unfortunately, Argos had not been a good place to cultivate and become stronger which was evident by looking at the current situation. It was impossible to compare the prodigies of Argos with the people that were currently fighting against each other because their talent was at most above average. Not even a few minutes passed in which Jason observed the fight before he quickly got bored. However, he forced himself to continue watching the battle. Initially, he was excited, but right now he had to avoid his facial expression from openly expressing his disappointment. It was quite obvious that the most prodigious talents on Argos didn''t leave the planet because they could use other means to achieve great things. Furthermore, they were too prideful to accept the fact that they had to submit themselves to other races in order to grow stronger. However, this was perfectly normal for the average talent. There were only a handful of truly talented people that would accept submitting to others after all. Unfortunately, none of the combatants he was watching belonged to this category. If Jason had to pick a positive aspect, it would be the strength of their soulbonds, and the fact that they were able to forcefully create a fusion with the Ninad beasts they had bound. While comparing his smooth fusion in which he could naturally release and manifest all body parts according to his own will, he felt that the forced fusion looked hideous. The fusion with soulbonds was nothing less than sacred for Jason because the feeling of having fused with one of his soulbonds was truly miraculous and great. Yet, the longer he looked at the fights, the more disgusted Jason felt. Jennifer noticed this, and she could partially understand how he was feeling. Though she had never had soulbonds, even she could tell that the combatants in front of them were not only untalented but they also forced their soulbonds to fuse with them. There was no free will of either party in the soulbond, and the unwillingness of the soulbonds to fuse with their binder was evident because the body part manifestation was not working properly. In fact, it looked like the manifested body parts were acting as if they repulsed their binder''s body. This clearly showed that the soulbonds and binder didn''t have a great relationship with each other. Their bond seemed to have been forced, which caused her to frown for a moment before she lowered her head in an effort to hide her emotions. She had seen Jason and the relationship he had with his soulbonds up close. So while comparing that to the other humans, Jennifer couldn''t help but feel that the Shiman camp was barbaric. As she tried to think of ways to stop frowning, her thoughts automatically drifted to Jason. Just the thought of Jason, and his five soulbonds that were clinging to him like glue was more than enough. Reclaiming her poker face, she looked up, where Jennifer was able to continue witnessing the battles of the humans that were using the manifested body parts in a cruel manner. They didn''t even care if the body parts of their soulbonds were being torn out or injured, just because it didn''t harm their combat prowess. This clearly showed how little they cared about their soulbonds'' well-being. Jennifer was now of the belief that the people inside the Shiman camp were treating their soulbonds as mere tools. Looking over to Jason, she saw that he was calmly sitting there, looking at the situation as if it had nothing to do with him. The sight astonished her for a moment because she felt horrible while looking at the situation. As such, Jason''s behavior was odd, but when she looked at him intently, she realized it was a facade. She spotted a faint glint in his eyes, his twitching hand that held hers, and the Stigma above his right eye that was slightly fluctuating. Only now did Jennifer understand that he was holding himself back. When she perceived this, Jennifer told herself that she had to hold back too. Her instincts had almost made her jump up from the seat to see someone tear out the wing of another combatant. The manifested body parts were replicas of the soulbonds'' real bodies, but that didn''t mean they weren''t directly connected to each other. While Jason felt bad for every single scratch that appeared on the body parts of his soulbonds and cared about them more than his own body, the humans around them were the exact opposite. To them, shielding their own body was far more important than the body parts of the soulbonds they neither wanted nor cared about. Thus, they didn''t even attempt to protect the manifested body parts and let it be torn apart to save their necks. As such, the spars that lasted a few hours were testing Jennifer''s patience to the limit. She was forced to keep a poker face while watching the bloody battles that were mostly harming the soulbonds'' manifested body parts. Only when the last spar ended did she finally sigh in relief, glad that the torture was over. Meanwhile, Jason''s expression eased up too, only to hear Linus who was sitting next to them saying something. "Normally we would now start ranking the fights according to the number of mistakes that have been made, followed by the detailed explanation of every single mistake. However, because we have two new guests, how about we allow them to spar against two of our group? They should be able to fight well together, and I don''t believe that fighting them will be boring!" Linus'' idea was quickly accepted by the others with a loud cheer. They were similarly interested to figure out how strong Jason was because his mana fluctuations were extremely dense. Meanwhile, Jennifer''s three energies were similarly strong, giving off a dangerous vibe. Thus, they were eager to see Jason and Jennifer fighting together against two of their camp members. As for Jason and Jennifer, they could only look at each other with a meaningful look. They both nodded their head as they thought of something only to simultaneously mumble, "Don''t overdo it!" "Hold back, okay?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 852 - Two Versus Two It had been quite some time since Jason and Jennifer had fought against someone together. As such, they feared that their teamwork would not be up to the mark. After all, they had never attempted to devise a proper combat style to adjust to each other''s strengths and weaknesses, to begin with. Despite that, they knew each other quite well, including their combat style, affinities, abilities, and special traits. With that in mind, they entered the combat ring before choosing their opponents. There was a large crowd of people they could choose from. The easy and safe bet would be to pick up the two weakest, but when the two of them made their final decision, the others looked at the dumbfoundedly. Contrary to their earlier belief that Jason and Jennifer would choose the weakest of them, it was almost the exact opposite. Both of them chose Linus one of the strongest humans from the rest. Their opponents entered the ring with a confused expression as they looked at each other. They couldn''t understand why they were picked. However, they gave a sly smile to each other which made it clear that the two knew each other, and that they were friends too. But that was what Jennifer and Jason were already aware of. In fact, this was the biggest reason for them to choose these two as their opponents. Having seen their fighting style in addition to their behavior while talking to each other had helped Jason and Jennifer pick them up. They had noted down several things about the two before arriving at a decision. First, Linus'' behavior and fighting style were comparable to parallel lines, but that was not the case for his friend, whose behavior didn''t represent his combat style, at all. Rather, his fighting style was the complete opposite of his rather timid behavior as he fought his opponents rather aggressively. Everyone in the weekly comparison event seemed to know this, which was why they didn''t like fighting the young man. And, from the looks of it, this had also been the case for Linus. Yet, oddly enough, Linus was like a leader to everyone, while his friend was submissive when it was not about fighting. Because of that, Jason and Jennifer believed their choice was the best. If their guess was true, their opponents should have more problems than they were currently thinking about. With that in mind, they smiled at each other before going into their combat stance. Jason circulated mana circulating throughout his body, while the three fused energies were coursing through Jennifer. This increased their strength from the beginning, but Linus and his friend were doing the exact same thing. As such, Linus, and his friend believed that they were at an advantage. Linus was at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage, with a combat prowess of a Low Ascendion stage being. Meanwhile, his friend had the same cultivation base, but an even higher combat prowess. But, it would be only minutes before their confidence would come crashing down. Their false hopes of emerging victorious in the simple spar only increased when they fused with their soulbonds. The transformation saw fur growing out of Linus'' friend, and his body enlarging while his eyes turned pitch black. Simultaneously, feathers sprouted all over Linus''s body and gray wings emerged on his back. His hands were also transforming, and a tail grew out of his coccyx. This confused Jason a little bit because the tail was furry while the rest of Linus'' body was covered in feathers. Despite the confusion, he quickly averted his attention before allowing Petri to enter his mana core. Initially, Jason didn''t plan to fuse with his soulbonds, and even now he was reluctant. Yet, thinking back on the way in which all the humans from Argos treated their soulbonds was more than enough to change his opinion. Fusing with Petri would normally allow Jason to grow scales all over his body followed by the several-meter-long tail. Yet, instead of doing so, Jason decided to grow scales above his right eye, preventing the others from seeing the newly emerging Stigma. Other than that, his eyes turned into reptilian slits, and the ferocious aura of the Basilisk, the king of serpents, leaked from his body. Fueled by the anger he had suppressed within, it was next to impossible to block off the aura of the Serpent King. As such, he released it to a certain extent, and the aura enveloped a part of the combat arena. However, he concealed the rest that would be more than enough to enshroud the entire dojo. Seeing the change in Jason''s eyes that were now golden and reptilian, the black scales above his right eye, and his aura, everyone except Jennifer was baffled. Linus couldn''t help but exclaim, "You¡­have already mastered the fusion with your soulbonds?!?" But only a moment later, Linus saw several more scales forming on Jason''s face, only to fall off. This made Linus assume that Jason was far from mastering the soul fusion. Little did he know that everything was a trick and that the scales that fell off were the loose scales on Petri''s body. Jason cleverly utilized the fact that the Cursed Basilisk would soon shed his skin. Because of his phenomenal track, everyone believed that Jason had been able to create a natural fusion, but that his connection with his soulbond was not yet firm enough to master the fusion process. Despite knowing that their fusion was better, they were astonished about the sudden revelation of Jason''s natural fusion, as it was different from their artificial one. But even then, they were not shocked to the extent that they were unable to fight. Rather, it motivated Linus and his friend to give their utmost efforts as the ferocious and anger-intertwined aura was challenging them for a fight. Thus, the four charged at each other without hesitation the moment the fight started. Linus and his friend shot at them with great speed; Linus from the air and his friend from the ground. Yet, rather than advancing to their opponents, Jennifer and Jason first approached each other. In a swift move, Jason instinctively grasped Jennifer''s waist before he threw her towards Linus, using all his physical strength. This was more than enough to exceed the speed Linus could reach within the short moment that had passed. Jason''s momentum allowed Jennifer to appear right in front of Linus as a longsword manifested in her hand. It was only a moment later that darkness enveloped Jennifer and began expanding explosively. It enshrouded the entire arena within a moment. This required lots of mana, but this was more than fine with her. The only thing she had wanted to do was to distract Linus'' partner, making both of them believe that she was about to attack Linus. However, this was not the case, because she had just wanted to shroud the entire combat arena in darkness, preventing them from seeing anything. Thus, only their other senses worked, which included her own. Merely Jason was able to see everything. Because he could see everything, while the others couldn''t Jason was unable to avoid grinning as he released his petrification and race specific weakening curse, targeting Linus'' partner with it. Through that, Linus was severely restricted, while everyone else could only perceive a tremendous amount of mana being consumed by Jason. Following that, a sword appeared in his hand, and without hesitation, he slashed it at the young man, who sensed everything. Ready to deflect the attack, his entire focus had been on Jason. Thus he was oblivious to Jennifer advancing towards him from above. It was only a split second before Jennifer reached him that the young man''s senses warned him. At that moment, he could see the brightly glowing, golden reptile eyes of Jason that were filled with wrath as the attacks from two sides, and the aura of the Serpent King reached him! Yet, instead of giving up, the young man didn''t accept losing so quickly or easily as if he was nothing but a pushover. Triggered, the bloodline of his soulbond was activated, and surged through the young man, as his entire body enlarged further. His crimson eyes turned blood red while his body released a presence that was more of a beast than a human! ''Now we can fight!'' He could barely think as the wild instincts of his soulbonds began to overwhelm him. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 853 - Secret Roaring out in anger, Linus'' friend lost all his reasoning as his strength steadily increased. He moved with a rapid speed, shooting upwards, straight towards Jennifer. Perceiving this, Jason was about to shout out a warning, only to see that she had instinctively released her two pairs of wings. Flying away at the last possible moment allowed her to narrowly evade the young man, whose looks had changed to that of a mindless beast. Quickly retracting her wings after she had evaded the attack, Jennifer looked upwards, where she saw that her darkness had been dispersed by sheer force. This was not enough to startle her, but when she and Jason saw what happened a moment later, they couldn''t help but stare at the young man and Linus in shock. While Linus had taken a dive down in order to reach Jennifer moments after she had averted her trajectory, the young man had reached Linus. His fingers had curled around Linus'' neck, dragging him with until they reached the ceiling before the beast-like young man bashed Linus into it. Somehow, the spar got out of control after only a few seconds had passed. This was unexpected, and Linus, whose head was bashed into the ceiling, couldn''t help but feel as if the situation had turned against him somehow. It had been years since his friend had lost control owing to his soulbonds misbehavior, after all. Thus, owing to the not so welcome surprise, Linus could only endure a few hits until his friend realized that he was hurting Linus and not an opponent. And this was also something, he just noticed when Jason emerged next to him. Jason was armed with Byakur in his hand while bloodlust was leaking from him and his aura. Meanwhile Jennifer appeared on the other side of the beast-like young man. She held a bright glowing sword enveloped in light in one hand, while there was another sword radiating gloomy darkness in her other hand. Releasing her entire energy at once she moved the swords together to create an intense, repulsive reaction as she slashed out. A sword beam of darkness and light that began to merge into a single source of energy was shot out from her swords that disintegrated. An ear-splitting sound echoed through the dojo as the beam penetrated into the flesh of the ever-enlarging young man, who roared out in pain. Yet, despite the shocking amount of energy that had been released by Jennifer, not even the young man''s shoulder was cut off. His right arm went limp as if it was simply hanging there, causing the young man to be unable to hold onto Linus while maintaining a steady hold of the ceiling too. Thus, he let go of Linus, who fell to the ground, barely strong enough to even move his gray wings. After landing on the ground, he took a few deep breaths, before staring at the ceiling. Panting, he saw that Jason''s sword had begun to enlarge, and pitch-black flames enveloped the blade. At this moment, he noticed dozens of mana fluctuations around him as everyone was shooting towards his friend, who had lost control over himself. However, at this moment, Linus couldn''t help but stare into the flames Jason had manifested as he mumbled, "There is no need for you guys to act¡­" Before, he was fairly certain that Jason had bound powerful beasts to his soul, but after sensing the boost in his physique, he was sure of this fact. Jason had barely taken a second to manifest the black flames that caused Linus'' enhanced senses to tell him that he should leave as quickly as possible. His tail had stiffened, and the same happened to his feathers as he witnessed how Jason exerted some sort of movement technique. Linus had watched in a mixture of awe and jealousy as Jason inflicted more than a dozen cuts into his opponents, while the black flame entered his friend''s body. This shocked Linus for a moment, but even more so was the fact that his friend fell to the ground. It was only a few moments later that the suddenly released bloodline quickly receded as he returned to his original form. His clothes were torn in places, and a huge gash covered half of his upper body. Yet Linus couldn''t look at his friend with sympathy because his head was aching heavily. Blood trickled down the side of his head, and only after taking three potions did the bleeding finally stop. While Linus gulped down a few potions the others rushed to his friend after they had reassured him that nothing could happen anymore. They were acting in a disciplined manner as if they were used to such incidents. This gave Jason and Jennifer the hint that their soulbond contract with the Ninad beasts was possibly not as great as they had imagined. ''So not only is their physique unstable, and not fully compatible, but their control over the fusion is also not perfect?'' It was a simple conclusion based on the current scenario that Jason had made use of. Just by looking at Linus for a few moments, Jason presumed that only a few people that bound Ninad beasts with a big personality, or other problematic characteristics could act like this. However, this was just his assumption, and not proven, yet. Nevertheless, Jason felt reassured that none of the spectators planned to attack them, while Linus approached them with a faint smile. "I could have never expected you two to be so powerful. To think that Max''s Berserker Bear soulbond went out of control because of your combined attack is truly unbelievable. This means that you two would have been strong enough to kill him, not bad! Thank you for not killing him, you have some great soulbonds!" Seeing the glint in Linus'' eyes, Jason realized that he had attracted his attention, which was exactly what he had planned to do. There were many unknown factors, but based on the given situation, Linus seemed to be one of the people with the highest authority in the Shiman camp. And this was the case despite his cultivation base being lower than that of many other humans inside the camp. In the end, this said a lot about Linus'' potential, including his soul world''s size, special traits, and so on. After all, the severe wounds Linus had sustained were already fully healed minutes after their small spar ended. Even with the potions he had gulped down, this shouldn''t have been the case. Making use of his Emperor Eyes, Jason saw a new type of mana coursing through Linus body, gathering around the areas that had been injured. This was interesting, and by inspecting the entire situation thoroughly, including the fact that Linus acted like he was seriously injured and that he had to use potions to heal himself, Jason understood something. ''Either, he wants to hide at least one soulbond, its abilities, and special characteristics, or there is something else, which I cannot comprehend yet!'' Linus'' enhancements were not much different from the others but according to the transmutations of his mana, he had more soulbonds than the rest of his group. As such, he was unlikely to have bound a Ninad beast...or he bound a different one, a unique kind! Even if that was not the case Jason was sure that Linus had a secret. This could prove to be extremely dangerous for his stay inside the camp, and the plan of killing the Lord of Death! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 854 - Natural Soul Fusion Jason couldn''t be sure of the reason for Linus to hide certain things. But given the fact that he was considered one of the higher authorities, it was most likely for safety purposes, or to have a trump card up his sleeves. Even if that was not the case, it was pretty obvious that Linus had held back against his friend, who had mercilessly bashed his head into the ceiling. Not letting rage overwhelm his rational mind was a pretty tough thing to do because it was certainly still painful. After all, Linus was the one bleeding severely while his friend had not even received a single scratch! However, even then, Linus was calm, and Jason couldn''t help but wonder if the young man was stronger than him and Jennifer. As such, it was important to be more careful in the next fight against Linus, if it were to ever occur again! Minutes passed, and the chaos subsided, replaced by everyone returning to their daily routine. Seeing how quickly everything was wrapped up, as well as the urgency with which the young man was taken care of, Jason and Jennifer couldn''t help but be a little bit stupefied. After all, the others had returned to their seats, where they awaited the evaluation of their fights, which included mentioning their mistakes, one by one. From the looks of it, this was far more important to them than Jason first assumed. This was unexpected, even more so because one of them was heavily injured, but it was as if being injured was a routine to them. Because he perceived this, Jason had decided to adapt to their mindset. Thus he returned to his seat with Jennifer by his side. If they had been looked at with mild interest earlier, the others were now even more impressed with them. Jason was not sure how great this was for their plan, but it was early enough that he figured out that it was no problem, at all. After getting just a glimpse of his true combat strength, they might regard him highly, but not to the extent that they feared him. The same was the case with Jennifer, and despite the abrupt end of their small battle, it was pretty great that they were able to spar one time together, without any of them being forced to reveal too much of their true capabilities. With that in mind, there were still many things they could do during emergencies, opening ample opportunities for them. However, this was not important as of now because the others began to point out the mistakes of their friends and colleagues. None of them held back in clearly stating what they had done well, what movements had been wrong, or incomplete, and how they could have used their affinities better. Previously, Jason didn''t think much of this event but seeing that everyone seemed to care about the precision of their comrades'' combat prowess, he was a little bit astonished. He assumed that not a single human at the Mid Ascendion stage or higher attended the weekly comparison events. This clearly indicated that this event couldn''t be taken seriously owing to the fact that not a single professional martial artist was present. Despite that, and the evident fact that the real potential of the present men and women was, at most, above the average, Jason felt that they were meticulous. What they lacked in talent they made up for in hard work and the fact impressed him. However, that was where his appreciation of the humans ended. It was their soulbonds who were probably doing the most work while receiving the least recognition or nourishment, which annoyed Jason, who didn''t comment on the mistakes of the others. Instead, he quietly watched everything, trying to figure out what everyone was truly thinking and if their mindset was aligned with the thought that soulbonds were mere tools. He was not sure how long it took, but it felt like an eternity before the young men and women had finished pointing out the mistakes of each other. After they were done, they turned towards Jason and Jennifer. "How about we assess your fighting style as well? We didn''t see much because of the shroud of darkness, but there are still a few things I could point out!" It was Linus who said this with a small smile on his lips. Jason didn''t have anything to say against this, and neither did Jennifer. As such, they nodded their heads while awaiting the assessment of Linus, who had fought against them, and the others who had watched the spar from the outside. "Because we didn''t see much, we might as well point out the most evident things first. As such, I think we can agree that your naturally formed soul fusion is a great thing, and once you can truly control it, you might be closer to the Lord of Death, but right now, you need to work on it a lot. If my guess is correct, you can fuse with your soulbond''s eyes, and because you''ve already created an aura, your soulbond can also influence your aura. That is an advantage, but it''s sad that you can already manifest an Aura. It looks like you''ll be missing out on the aura technique we, the humans of Argos, are currently creating. As for your combat techniques, I can tell that you rely a lot on your soulbonds, and your movements are extremely smooth, so I think you possess a powerful movement technique, am I right?" Jason just nodded his head when Linus finished his evaluation, only for everyone else to follow suit, adding whatever they liked and disliked. He didn''t really agree to everything, but that was not something he could be bothered about right now. It was a big mess, but Jason simply accepted all the evaluations he had been given, taking them into consideration even if most of them were utter bullshit. This was important in order to understand what the others thought of him, and if necessary to make use of this received intel. With that in mind, Jason was able to stay calm even if the others were saying utter nonsense. But, that was not the case with Jennifer who was shaking uncontrollably, ready to throw fists at everyone who insulted him. Seeing this, he couldn''t help but feel that Jennifer was getting flustered unnecessarily, but instead of minding it, Jason felt that it was nice to watch. Yet, instead of staying focused on Jennifer''s adorable behavior, he averted his attention back to Linus once everyone was done assessing his strong and weak points. "You said that my natural soul fusion is somewhat comparable to that of the Lord of Death but just inferior. But, who is the Lord of Death?" Looking directly into Linus'' eyes, he tried to put on a mask of confusion and curiosity, in order to appear genuinely awed by the person he wanted to kill. These emotions were mostly fake, but that didn''t matter because he was clearly stating what he wanted while showing the most suitable expression to achieve his goal. As such, Linus and the others were not suspicious of him because the name ''Lord of Death'' had been mentioned a few times in context to his natural soul fusion. Thus, it was perfectly normal for Jason to ask who the Lord of Death was. Because of that Linus didn''t hesitate as he answered the question. "To put it simply, the Lord of Death is also a human from Argos, precisely, the human, who gained the most attention from the Shadow walkers. He has both a huge soul world and a high soul amplification. He might only have the ability to form a soulbond with Undead beasts, but the Shadow walkers have their own means to counter this problem! As for why we compared him to you¡­ he can also undergo a natural soul fusion with one of his soulbonds, just that his fusion is far more formidable!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 855 - Horror Of Impatience Getting to know that the Lord of Death was most likely truly Lux, was both truly relieving and frustrating. The additional fact that he was able to fuse with one of his soulbonds made Jason feel conflicted. He was happy to have more intel that confirmed his theory about Lux being the Lord of Death, but the natural soul fusion was something that irked him. And this was even more so the case because he recalled the strongest soulbond of Lux. If his memory wasn''t wrong it was probably the Lich, or whatever the existence that became stronger by devouring the souls of others had been. It was annoying to think that Lux might be able to fuse with this being, and receive a boost in his strength. What worried him was he had no clue how strong they were alone, either. As such, his mission became suddenly more difficult than it had previously been. He felt a little bit frustrated about this predicament, and the increased dangers, but at the same time, Jason was not really scared. After all, Lux had never been a cultivation prodigy, and it had only been around 10 years since he had left with the Shadow walker. Given the wrong information that Lux possessed a high soul amplification, he must have bound many powerful Undeads. But even then, it was important to pay attention to one''s physical limitations. If one was not careful about this, one''s vessel might break owing to the increased strength that couldn''t be held together anymore. With that in mind, the fact that Lux had not yet reached the Lique stage despite having spent around 10 years with Shadow walkers, and the limitations that were brought forth by one''s vessel, it was impossible for Lux to be as strong as Jason. However, even if Lux was as powerful as him, his cultivation base couldn''t be higher, and neither his combat prowess. Jason might have left Argos a few years after Lux, but his cultivation talent was several times better than anyone present. Thus, even Linus, who seemed to have lived on Manyr for his entire life spanning several decades, was not on par with him. This was something Jason was confident in. Because of this, he quickly calmed down his raging thoughts that were making him feel increasingly uneasy. His mind was trying to make him believe that Lux was still stronger than him, just like it was the case 10 years ago. After defeating the demons in his thoughts that were trying to shake his confidence, Jason took a deep breath before he asked, "If the Lord of Death is so formidable, shouldn''t we try to ask him about natural soul fusions? He should know more than I do¡­and maybe he can help all of us to form more natural fusions with our soulbonds!" Jason tweaked his voice to sound excited and eager to get to know more about soul fusions. Not all of this was an act, because he was actually eager to get to know more about the Lord of Death, though he knew more than enough about soul fusions. Yet, after seeing the frown on the faces of the other humans, Jason couldn''t help but feel that he had said something wrong. However, it was at this moment that the injured young man spoke for the first time. "It''s not that we don''t want to form natural fusions, but we feel like it''s impossible to achieve this with the Ninad beasts! As for the Lord of Death, he might reside in the Shiman camp, but he would rather kill you and turn you into one of his soulbonds instead of answering a single question!" The first sentence made a lot of sense because Jason was fully aware of the fact of why the Ninad beasts didn''t like forming a natural soul fusion with their binders. After all, there was no way that any beast would love being treated like replaceable tools! In his opinion, treating one''s soulbonds well was the most important to form a firm, natural soul connection with them. But Jason didn''t think that anyone in the camp would even think of doing the same. And it was not hard to guess why. Nevertheless, he couldn''t watch the innocent beasts being treated worse than garbage, which made him propose something. "Is it truly impossible to gain a strong enough soul connection with Ninad beasts, making it impossible to fuse with them? Are you guys treating your soulbonds well, to the extent that they would voluntarily sacrifice their lives for you?" Even if he was not obliged to do anything, Jason felt that he had to say what he said. However, when he received several weird gazes, he knew that his words were considered the gibberish of a drunkard. With an indignant look, Linus asked him. "Why should we treat our soulbonds well? They''re just the means for us to become stronger, nothing more or less!" Jason bit his lower lip when he heard this before he countered. "I treat my soulbonds like my family, and assumed the same to be the case here. Maybe it''s not necessary to form a strong enough bond with your soulbonds to fuse with them, but I believe it helped me a lot. However, I might as well be wrong, so I hope the lot of you won''t take offense at what I just said." It could have been a futile effort, but at the same time, Jason couldn''t just sit there and stay put. He had to speak his mind and let out his frustration to an extent. Now that he had shared his thoughts, he knew that he had to be careful. After all, he wanted to stay inside the Shiman camp, which was more important than before as Lux was said to live here!! The intel about Lux''s exact whereabouts didn''t matter because he could easily figure it out. For now, it was already more than enough to know that he was inside the Shiman camp. Because of this, he had to hold back his opinion about the way in which everyone seemed to treat their soulbonds. This made him feel guilty, but there was no other way¡­for now! Considering that there were several camps of humans from Argos,, Jason was sure that many treated their soulbonds wrong. The fact that they were solely on the lands of the Shadow walkers, with many more races that might have created similar camps made him worry about all the soulbonds. Jason couldn''t change everyone''s mindset overnight, but if at least a few people were to understand the importance of treating their soulbonds better, he would have won half the battle. When more people would become aware that a happy soulbond was important in order to build up a proper soul connection, everything would become much easier. In fact, Jason knew that the Celestia bloodline was making many things easier for him. He believed it was a major reason for him to be able to form a fortified soul conjunction with his soulbonds in a year from binding them to his soul. However, this didn''t mean that it was impossible for others to do the same, even if it would take a little bit longer. Unfortunately, the fact that it took longer was the biggest issue because most humans Jason knew were extremely impatient. Impatience was the worst foe of Cultivators, and this was the biggest disadvantage humans had to face. In fact, Jason might consider himself to be impatient as well, but this was not necessarily true. Once he found the right time and opportunity, he could cultivate for a very long time when nothing would torment his mind, and distract him from doing whatever he wanted. This was also why he had been able to cultivate for an entire year with Jennifer by his side. Had she been away from him and hunted by other Cultivators, he would have hardly taken a breath of relief. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 856 - Shattered Expectations After the evaluations were completed, Jason thought that the weekly comparison event would be over now, but that was not the case. In fact, it was almost as if it had just started. Only when Linus told them that sometimes the event lasted for three days and two nights did Jason understand that it was more like a weekly trainings camp than anything else. That was the case because people grouped themselves in pairs and began to spar against each other once again. However, this time, nobody was allowed to use any mana or the artificial soul fusion. Jason found this interesting because the restriction forced everyone to solely rely on their combat awareness, physical strength, and combat style. Through this, they were able to comprehend much more than during the times they were forced to rely on other things such as mana circulation, the utilisation of specific martial art techniques, using their soulbonds'' manifested body parts, and much more. With that in mind, Jason decided to join the others, while continuing to emphasize that a natural fusion was much better. At the same time, he clearly demonstrated that his physical strength was far more than that of the others. His movements were smoother too without the problem the others had. As a matter of fact, the issues of the humans around him were solely based on the enhancement they received from the Ninad beasts. This should tell Jason that the humans themselves were at fault for bringing forth these problems. However, he couldn''t think that way after everything that had happened because it was more like the Ninad beasts were more sensitive towards the soul binding process than normal beasts. Their soul amplification was higher, and it looked like they were easier to form an artificial soul fusion with even if that was forced. But that was not helpful considering that the Ninad beasts seemed to be able to retaliate much more than normal soulbonds owing to their sensitivity. As a matter of fact, Jason''s Emperor Eyes were slowly able to comprehend the things he hadn''t been able to perceive clearly only hours before. Through this, he could see that Linus had to keep an eye on his soulbonds, preventing them from doing however they pleased. This decreased his possible combat prowess by a small margin. Jason couldn''t tell for sure whether this was owing to the fact that Linus'' soulbonds were stronger than his or due to the soulbond contract. However what he was sure of was the fact that Linus was not the only one with issues, but everyone with a Ninad beast was struggling to bind with them. Yet, at the same time, nobody seemed to be bothered about it because the advantages of binding a Ninad beast outweighed the disadvantages. Jason felt that this was hypocritical, but he refrained from commenting. He just continued sparring with each of the young men and women, while trying to focus on fighting those with the highest physical strength. That was something he attempted to do because he wanted to subject himself to a lot of pressure, if he wanted to exceed his limitations, to advance his mastery in the Hermes Celeration movement techniques. As for the Bladed Ruyi Bang martial art technique, Jason had many ideas, but until now he had been unable to practice it properly. Because of that, he had yet to reach even the lowest basic mastery. But that was fine with him because the movement technique was more important for now, and he planned to achieve something else with the Bladed Ruyi Bang technique, to begin with! With that in mind, Jason made use of his opponent''s strength to increase his combat prowess in a slow, but steady manner. He even attempted to not use his eyes or the passive effect of the foresight blessing. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done, and Jason was indirectly forced to cheat. The passive effects of his Emperor Eyes and foresight blessing were not something that he could simply ignore. Thus, his perception was enhanced and the ability to tell where he would be attacked next received a boost too. Using this to his advantage, he was able to fight with more precision, allowing him to execute higher combat prowess. Following that, the others were astonished about the way he fought. To them, it was a mystery of how he was able to predict every single move of his opponent in advance. This was madness and his accuracy enraged them to the extent that their strength was increasing as adrenaline pumped into their veins. Yet, instead of defeating Jason easily, they continued to struggle as their movements became even more sluggish due to their loss of concentration. In the end, Jason was sometimes able to defeat his opponents, and sometimes not, but he never lost his focus on the comprehension of the movement technique. Though this was not the case for the others. As a matter of fact, the humans he fought were sweating profusely and were barely able to get their act together. Meanwhile, Jason was using the time in between the spars to focus on his comprehension, if he understood everything properly, and what he could do to fix the mistakes he saw. This difference was what made a true prodigy stand out from someone who was a rookie and an untrained combatant. Given that circumstance, Jason decided that sparring for a few hours was more than enough for him to understand everything he wanted to. His comprehension of the Hermes Celeration movement technique had increased, but that was not the most important fact. Rather, it was interesting and a major achievement for him to have a rough understanding of the combat prowess every participant of the weekly comprehension event had. With that in mind, he left the dojo, along with Jennifer, who was right next to him. Ensuring that nobody else would hear him, he quietly mumbled, "I''m quite disappointed¡­Were my expectations too high about this camp?" Jennifer heard him mumble, but she didn''t comment. In the end, she was not sure what she could do to help him because her mood was as bad as Jason''s. They might have gotten accepted in the camp, and Linus had allowed them to stay inside his large home. But that didn''t change the fact that everyone treated their soulbonds like a use and throw tissue, to put it nicely. She hadn''t seen a single human, who treated their soulbond nicely or anything that could be considered close to affection or love. This made her believe that Jason was an anomaly amongst the humans from Argos but in a good way. Lightly tapping Jason''s back, she tried to distract him from the sorrow engulfing him. Little did she know that Jason''s thoughts were somewhere else, focused on finding Lux, the Lord of Death. The title given to Lux was cringeworthy, but that was not something to be concerned about. Instead, it told Jason that he had to be careful about the abilities of Lux as well as his army of Undeads. He was aware that it should have skyrocketed in number as a decade had passed since their last meeting! Thus, he couldn''t afford to be reckless and plan every move thoughtfully. Hence, instead of wasting his time, he soared into the air before releasing his entire mana and divine energy into the Emperor Eyes in order to see everything around him. By utilising his eyes'' ability, he could finally start searching for Lux, who was said to be nearby. It was only half an hour later that he began to smile brightly as he mumbled, "I found him!! He is¡­at the Peak of the Prismar stage!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 857 - Encounter When he perceived the mana fluctuations of Lux, Jason''s immediate reaction was to sense it again. They were transmuted to an extent that it took him a while to recognize them. Nevertheless, after confirming that they did, in fact, belong to Lux, Jason couldn''t help but have one thought in mind. ''Should I assassinate him right now, and leave directly afterward?'' This would be, by far, the best thing he could do in order to soothe his rage fueled heart. However, at the same time, Jason couldn''t help but feel that this was wrong. There was no reason for him to kill Lux, except the fact that he had shot at him 10 years ago. As such, it was evident to be angry, but was that really enough for Jason to fly towards the Shiman camp, and assassin someone over a decade old trivial conflict? In the end, Jason felt that actively searching for someone to kill at sight, and meeting on a battlefield as foes was a huge difference. From the beginning, Jason was not inclined to kill anyone. That had changed a little bit over the last few years when he was left with no option but to kill when it was necessary, and even if it was just to make an example out of someone. Despite that, his entire being seemed to be screaming to him, telling him not to assassinate Lux right now. This was weird, and something that he hadn''t felt before, whether it was for others he had killed without hesitation or his way to end Lux. As such, Jason starred in the direction of the Lord of Death''s abode, not sure what he should do right now. Before making a move, he had to replenish the used up mana and divine energy, either way, but that was not something that would take an extremely long period. Thus, he thought of making up his mind before doing something that he might regret. He had never had second thoughts of killing Lux so he was not sure why he was hesitating right now. "He is only at the Peak of the Prismar stage? If that''s the case, his vessel shouldn''t be able to allow him to reach the combat prowess of a Cultivator at the Low Ascendion stage. If he did attempt to do that it would break apart, right?" It was Jennifer, who asked this doubt to Jason. She was not sure if she understood the vessel theory that Jason had created in connection to the soul awakenings of the humans from Argos. However, Jason could only nod in response to her. His sight that was still enhanced by mana and divine energy enabled him to perceive that Lux was only at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage, even with his soul amplification. Either he had held back on binding more Undeads, or he was looking for stronger soulbonds to bind. Jason believed that Lux''s body must have reached its limit once he did the soul fusion with the being whose soul connection was firm enough to create a natural fusion. Lux''s soul world was huge, but his soul amplification was extremely low. This meant that the number of soulbonds he had were already in the double-digit, but that was not really a problem in Jason''s opinion. Rather it made things much easier for him after he figured out that there was only one beast he should pay attention to. After all, it was this beast that altered Lux''s mana fluctuations the most, strengthening him substantially. If he was not wrong, this Undead being must be the same as ten years ago, which was intriguing but also quite dangerous. Even a decade ago, the Undead being had been an extremely powerful being that was able to grow stronger by devouring the soul of the deceased. So now, he wasn''t sure what to expect of the Undead being and its strength that must have reached a formidable level. Being an Undead would normally bring forth many problems, but given the fact that it was able to become stronger turned most disadvantages into dust. However, Jason was able to keep calm when he gauged that this being was most likely at the Ascendion stage. He was not sure what rank it was, and could only take a guess. But he knew that the moment Lux were to fuse with this beast, he would certainly reach the combat prowess of a ordinary Low Ascendion stage Cultivator. By adding all kinds of other factors such as his scheming behavior to the mix, Jason was able to figure that Lux''s strength might be on par with his combat prowess. This intrigued Jason to the extent that he was only answering Jennifer''s questions in short sentences before he approached the house of Lux. He had barely been patient enough to replenish his mana and divine energy before marching towards Lux''s house. As he was nearing the house, Jason noticed that the vile energy of the undeads was slowly becoming denser, but that was no surprise to him as he had already expected something similar. The lack of people in the surrounding houses was a great indicator of the possibility of Lux possessing something that made others reluctant to even come close to him. In addition to that, the unique type of energy or Aura that permeated the surroundings were formidable and would have affected Jason if not for his determination to accomplish the task. Jason simply ignored it without doing anything to repel it as his retracted Celestia aura was passively doing this already. His Celestia aura was exceptionally helpful, and Jason couldn''t help but smile faintly before he entered the largest house of the entire Shiman camp. It was no clear indicator but being inside the largest house made him think that Lux probably belonged to the most talented batch of humans inside the Shiman camp. This was weird because he didn''t recall Lux as extremely talented in terms of cultivation or combat prodigy. Yet, instead of dwelling on this thought for too long, Jason approached Lux''s location with determined steps with Jennifer in tow She was not sure what exactly Jason was trying to do, or if he had a plan, but she trusted him wholeheartedly. As such, there was no need for her to ask anything, even after they arrived right in front of the door that was hiding Jason''s target. Strong currents radiated from the door behind which the center of the death energy was located, as well as the person Jason had been looking for. Thus, the moment the door was opened, the distinct and malicious death energy flooded the two of them, but neither of them was forced to retreat owing to it. Rather, the death energy was trying to envelop them before infiltrating their bodies and senses in order to draw out the life force nurturing Jason and Jennifer. However, both of them repelled the death energy, while staring at the skinny young man, who was seated on the ground cross-legged. His looks had changed tremendously in a decade. Had he not been able to sense the familiar facial features and the mana fluctuations, he wasn''t sure if he would have identified Lux correctly.. Jennifer looked at Lux, with an uncertain expression, not sure whether to think that Lux looked disgusting or strong. His frail-looking body rivaled that of a malnourished person and he appeared to have no powers at all. Thus, Jennifer took a moment to think if he was really as strong as she had heard because the sight in front of her confused her tremendously. Not knowing what to make of him, she looked at Jason for help but this didn''t seem to be of any help. He wore identical expressions of confusion and was staring at Lux as if he was a complete stranger. While Jason and Jennifer had barged into Lux''s room, he was still cultivating. Despite sensing the presence of the two young adventurers he stayed seated as he didn''t feel any killing intent radiating from them. He didn''t remember the fluctuations of Jason so it looked like they were probably new faces that were intrigued about him. Little did they know that their mistake to enter his abode in a rude manner would cost them dearly. As such, he quickly completed the cultivation cycle and cleanly finished cultivating for the time being. As he got up from the ground, he wasted no time in releasing strong death energy that pierced through Jason and Jennifer''s body. "Who the hell dared to barge into my home?!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 858 - Alive And Dead "Who the hell dared barge into my home?!" Roaring out in anger, Lux shifted in his seat while his eyes were still closed. His mind was occupied with something else other than the two infiltrators. At this moment he straightened his back, as his bones creaked while death energy kept leaking from his body. The bottom portion of the room turned pitch-black and it was only a fraction of a second later that dozens of Undeads emerged from the darkness. Within moments they surrounded Jason and Jennifer, even before Lux took a single glance at them. Opening his eyes, he looked at Jason and Jennifer with an unruffled expression. While his expression was unbothered, his eyes that were pitch-black just like the lower portion of the room, scanned both of them. After scanning their mana fluctuations, Lux calmed as his lower lip curled upwards. "It looks like I have two esteemed guests¡­and you two are very powerful at that¡­how about you two become my soulbonds?...But for that, you''ll have to DIEE!" From the looks of it, it was impossible to speak with Lux because he summoned his remaining soulbonds. They were large in number and easily filled the entire room with more than a dozen Undeads at the Peak Prismar and Initial phase of the Ascendion stage. Other than that, there were also many Undeads that had a lower cultivation base. But none of that mattered to Jason because he couldn''t help but smile dryly as he was attacked by Lux. Not only did Lux not remember him, but he was also more aggressive than it had been the case ten years ago. This was something Jason presumed to be the case owing to his soulbonds'' influence that was much stronger than he had assumed. He knew that his soulbonds altered his personality to some extent, and their daily comments were not exactly helpful either. But thinking that dozens of Undeads were ravaging in Lux''s mind made Jason flinch. However, instead of wasting his time and not retaliating against the attacks, he decided to act quickly. Yet, before anything else, he grasped Jennifer''s hand before pulling her behind him, clearly showing that he wanted to fight Lux alone. With Jennifer''s light affinity, it wouldn''t be much of a problem to overwhelm the opponents around them. Their strength was not exactly high, but at the same time, it was just a waste of time and energy. As such, Jason allowed Solaris to enter his mana core for a moment but didn''t even think about fusing with the black origin flame. Instead, he made use of the increased mana consumption as he initiated his counterattack. By releasing his Aura, and activating the Stigma, before intertwining the black flame affinity with the moonlight affinity, and divine energy, Jason was able to enhance Solaris'' flames to the max. This spike was more than enough to burn even beings at the Low Ascendion stage if used properly. Solaris'' flames exploded all around him as he released them from his entire body except his back. The searing flames engulfed Lux and his soulbonds that were burned to ashes in an instant. There were no painful screams, owing to the fact that the Undeads didn''t feel any pain. So the only reaction they received was only Lux''s growling that reverberated through the room before he quieted down too. Without a second thought, Jason retracted the flames, storing them inside Solaris for later use. It was impossible to convert the black flames back into mana and divine energy, but Jason had recently found a clever alternative of storing them inside Solaris. He was not sure if his soulbonds could do that before, but it didn''t really matter because he could store up as many flames as he wanted, and release them without restraint. This was interesting because it was possible to store flames for an entire month, or even several years, just to release everything at once. Despite Jason''s interest in this topic, his focus was on Lux, whose appearance had changed once again. Several of his soulbonds at the lower ranks had already turned into cinder. Solaris'' flames had severely damaged Lux''s soul world core owing to the destroyed bond, but that was not something Jason was worried about. Instead, he smiled at Lux, who had retracted the other Undeads inside the soul world, in order to save them from being turned into heaps of ash. Having fused with one of his soulbonds, Lux''s appearance changed from the skinny, almost lifeless-looking young man to a burly man. His skin had turned bluish, while his eyes were now naturally pitch-black. There were also other changes that were happening, but they mostly affected the death energy all around them, followed by his strong presence, the inner structure of Lux''s body, his mana veins, and even more so, his strength. Considering that the strongest soulbond of Lux had been similar to a skeleton, Jason wondered if it had evolved. It should be possible for beings that could continue to grow¡­even if it was an Undead. Despite having undergone a soul fusion, Lux''s appearance was no different to an ordinary human being¡­a dead one, but that was not what mattered, either way. Unable to suppress a subtle smile, Jason said something he had been wanting to say to some other humans on Argos, whom he would love to meet once again. "Long time no see, you piece of shit!" The last part was something Jason added on a whim, but it suited the situation perfectly, and caused Lux to halt in his tracks. Looking at Jason, he tilted his head, wondering what Jason might mean because he didn''t remember him from anywhere. This caused Jason''s smile only to widen because he felt that it was not unlikely for someone, who had spent a decade cooped up in Shadow walker''s den to remember anyone. As such, Jason muttered while looking Lux in the eye. "Argos, 10 years ago, in the four-star rift in Cyro City. You shot me, bastard!" He was not sure why, but Jason felt the urge to curse at Lux, and doing so was extremely pleasing. Lux was still writhing in pain due to the destroyed soulbond connection owing to some of his soulbonds'' death, so there was more than enough time for the two of them to speak. Yet, instead of reacting to the insult, Lux just nodded his head before he mumbled, "Ah, so it''s you¡­I forgot you were alive." Under normal circumstances, Lux''s remark would have hurt his pride. But right now, as he stood staring at Lux, letting the realization of him being alive sink in, he merely shrugged his shoulders. More than being annoyed Jason felt like he should be laughing right now. That was because he felt Lux''s combat prowess that was close to ordinary beings at the Low Ascendion stage. However, that was not what caused Jason to almost laugh out loud. Dozens of people at the weekly comparison event had tried to scare him about Lux''s natural soul fusion for no reason apparently. "I''m still alive, yes, but I don''t think that''s the case for you, is it?" Jason just said the things that were on his mind. There was no reason for him to hold back either, fearing to be killed by Lux as it wouldn''t happen, not now or ever. He presumed that even Jennifer was strong enough to kill Lux, and he would be able to achieve the same, even without using the natural soul fusion. Thus, Jason acted fearlessly as he pointed out that Lux was already dead, which one shouldn''t be able to perceive under normal means. But, before he killed him, he wanted to wipe that smirk off his face. Thus, Jason taunted him further. "Oh¡­ not only are you dead, but you fused with the same blood orb from ten years ago. To think that the Shadow walkers allowed you to do that¡­impressive!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 859 - Unexpected Challenge Lux was looking at Jason in dumbfoundment, not sure how exactly he had been able to figure out his well-guarded secret. Not only was he dead, but he had fused with the same orb that was in his possession for more than ten years. Seeing Lux''s reaction that was the first change in his expression, Jason felt that he had hit the bullseye with both of his statements. He didn''t really remember what kind of orb Lux owned to revive the beings he had killed moments after they died. But what Jason recalled was the fact that Lux could turn living beings into undead by simply killing them. The orb would do the remaining work of turning their soul and mana core into some sort of Undead core. This core harbored the mana that was required to empower the remains of their body. That was also the reason why Lux, the Lord of Death, was mostly in possession of Skeletal soulbonds. Jason assumed that by fusing with this orb, Lux was killed, and revived. This increased his strength, the control over his soulbonds, and it was probably also the origin of the death energy. This was quite intriguing, and oddly enough, Jason had momentarily forgotten about his anger at Lux for nearly killing him. It was almost as if his anger had never existed, which made him wonder why he was even standing in front of Lux, to begin with. However, even if Jason was suddenly feeling like this, he was certainly not wasting his time inside the Shiman camp. There were so many things he had yet to figure out that it felt weird to him to be facing Lux. Now that he was looking at Lux, he seemed less terrifying than years ago, which was most likely owing to the fact that he fought thousands of opponents. Through the decade, Jason had fought opponents whose looks were more hideous, while their strength had been much higher in comparison to Jason''s at the time of their battle. There might also be a trace of inexperience in his first deadly encounter with Lux, but right now Lux was no match for Jason. After retracting the Celestia aura, deactivating his stigma, and no mana circulating through his body, only Jason''s mana fluctuations which he didn''t conceal were a clear indicator for his strength. But that was not enough to scare Lux, which was not what Jason had planned to do, either way. "I''m quite disappointed in you. Didn''t you have a few years of advantage over me? How come you left Argos, and you''re still not at the Ascendion stage?... And here I hoped to encounter someone I might fear to fight a life-and-death battle with. But given your current strength, I''ll simply have to execute you without any real fight. That''s quite boring, isn''t it?" Shaking his head, Jason continued to look at Lux, while exposing his true feelings. In the end, Lux was one of the few humans he had feared in his childhood. Even if he had never shown it to anyone, the ''Lord of Death'' as he was called now, had been someone Jason had feared owing to his merciless behavior and decisive acts. The memories of the rift were still crystal clear in his mind. Yet, right now, Jason knew that he could kill Lux at any moment, which was something everyone inside this room perceived. Lux was not feeling any threats right now, but his entire being screamed at him to leave. Surprisingly, even his soulbonds were telling this to him, which had never happened before. With his intention to kill Lux having died down, Jason felt a little bit depressed. Meanwhile, Jennifer, who was beside him, couldn''t help but speak the harsh truth. "I think you are forgetting that you are different from normal humans. Why are you even trying to compare yourself to someone you might have lost to ten years ago? Wasn''t it obvious that you''re stronger than him by now? It''s impressive that he reached the Peak of the Prismar stage in only ten years, as a being from a planet in the Infant phase, but your heritage is a ''little bit'' stronger, isn''t it?" Jennifer''s words felt like a punch in the guts, yet, unfortunately enough, he couldn''t come up with a retort. Her words were the truth, but she had a weird way of stating the facts. It was truly impressive for Lux to enter the Peak of the Prismar stage after leaving Argos at the peak of the Prismar stage, and only ten years had passed. His own achievements were even more impressive, but they were mostly owed to his Celestia bloodline, innate talent, and hard work. Thus, he couldn''t help but look at Lux with a little bit of astonishment as he mumbled, "I guess he could only cultivate that fast after being nurtured by the Shadow walkers, and reviving himself through the orb he merged with. It should have enhanced the speed at which he can cultivate¡­" After he said so, Jason and Jennifer began to discuss a few things, completely ignoring Lux. He couldn''t believe that they didn''t even spare him another glance and casually talk about other things while he stood stiffly in front of them, expecting to be attacked by a lethal strike at any moment. Yet, nothing happened for several moments and only by listening to the words of Jason and the woman he had brought along, was Lux able to grasp that their thoughts were already worlds apart. They weren''t paying any attention to him anymore, and he began to wonder why they had barged into his new home if they were just going to debate while he watched in confusion. But he couldn''t ask that to them for the fear of being killed, Lux could only quiet down. The fear of being killed was something he hadn''t felt for almost a decade since he left Argos. Even after entering Manyr, a new planet that was filled with ferocious beasts that could tear apart the strongest existence on Argos in a blink, he hadn''t really been afraid. Thus, he felt a little bit weird right now, not believing his eyes that it was truly the little Jason who was standing in front of him. It was a sharp contrast to the terrified Jason he had seen years ago. Now, he was nonchalantly speaking about cultivation, his speed, the fact that he was not comparable to normal humans of Argos, and so on. Slowly overcoming the fear of death, Lux recalled that he was dead himself, the Lord of Death, and the harbinger of it. As such, he didn''t think of backing away as he stared at Jason in hatred, loathing the fact that a nobody had been able to reach the strength that was comparable, or even greater than his. Yet, to Jason''s fortune, Lux didn''t lose all his reasoning, and instead of blindly attacking Jason, who would receive his partner''s support if something were to happen, he cleared his throat before he voiced out a challenge while gritting his teeth. "YOU!! I challenge you to a life-and-death battle!!" It was only when Lux had yelled at him that, Jason turned back to Lux. He blinked his eyes as if he was surprised to see Lux, who was staring at him with hatred. This caused him to feel a little bit confused, and Lux to be furious. He only shook his head because Lux should know that he had no chance against him. "Well, if you are eager to leave to the afterlife, just tell me when and we can fight¡­" The glint in Lux''s pitch-black eyes told Jason that there was a deeper plan Lux had in mind, and it was exactly as he had thought as the sickly-looking man roared again. "In three days we will fight, and you will die at my hands!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 860 - Insanity Jason could already predict what Lux would do in the following three days because it was not really hard to understand. Yet, despite having predicted that Lux would give his utmost efforts to become stronger in these three days, it was still unexpected to hear that the Lord of Death would kill his own people and their soulbonds to do so! Showing no remorse, in the next three days, he killed the strongest opponents he could face and revived them as Undead before binding them to his soul. Through this, Lux''s strength skyrocketed to a whole new level than cultivating would allow him. His strength had reached an extent his vessel was barely able to endure but even then it was not enough for him. As such, for three sleepless days, Lux killed, revived, and bound his own kind and their soulbonds. It was as if he was consumed with the goal of defeating and killing Jason. This clearly showed how serious he was about his battle with Jason as an opponent. In the end, Jason had just let Lux go on a killing spree while observing everything from the sidelines. He was interested to know what the other humans would do against Lux. However, oddly enough, they didn''t do anything, which confused Jason because the other humans from Argos should know that Lux could possibly kill them too. It was way too confusing that they simply accepted everything the Lord of Death did and let him slaughter humans like guinea pigs. Nobody raised their voice let alone retaliate which caused Jason to ask what was going on. Linus had seen the bloodbath, and from what Jason perceived during the last few days in which he had been inside the Shiman camp, he cared the most about the people of the camp. Nevertheless, this was not enough to make Linus act against Lux, clearly showing that there was more behind it. And it was only when Linus gave them a proper answer to the chaos around them that Jason, and also Jennifer understood the situation properly. "It is not that nobody of us wants to do something against the Lord of Death''s barbarism, but neither are we allowed to obstruct him in doing anything he wants nor are we supposed to intervene in any kind of decision he takes. That''s one of the orders we received from the Shadow walkers!" Given the fact that everybody else was powerless against Lux, Jason didn''t have to be the smartest to understand that the Lord of Death was considered to be an extremely important asset to the Shadow walkers. This was quite intriguing, even more so because nobody under the soul contract with the Shadow walkers was allowed to intervene in Lux''s decisions, which played into his hands. "So if he challenged me to a life-and-death battle, and I kill him, you guys are not allowed to intervene, right?" Jason simply asked what had been on his mind since the last three days. But upon hearing Linus exclaim as he turned towards him, it was next to impossible for him to keep a straight face. "So¡­ the rumors are true? How did you even end up offending the Lord of Death, so soon, at that?" Linus was a little bit frustrated that Jason would die because he had planned to present him to the Shadow walkers as his big discovery in order to get promoted. He had not the slightest doubt that Lux would kill him without even batting an eyelid. He had already chalked out a plan wherein Jason would be able to live a good life as long as he followed the clauses provided by the Shadow walkers. However, given the current situation, Linus could only sigh deeply, not understanding why Jason had to offend someone like Lux, and how he was even alive to tell him that. After all, Lux didn''t follow any rules, and proposing a life-and-death challenge was not something he would usually do if someone displeased him to the extreme. "Well, it''s not our problem if you can kill him, but even if you can kill him, the Shadow walkers will either turn you into their slaves or kill you, which would be less torturous. Furthermore, I doubt that you can kill him, and the chances have further decreased after he turned several of our people and their stronger Ninad soulbond into his Undead soulbonds. So¡­good luck, I guess?" It was clear that Linus didn''t like Lux, but even then, he was unable to do something against the Lord of Death. Other than that, Linus only stated the facts as he saw them, clearly expressing his opinion of the situation. Afterward, he wanted to find out more about how Jason found a way to end up in the perilous situation to offend Lux. This was something Jason was not sure about either because he would have spared Lux as long as he didn''t do anything stupid to him or Jennifer. As such, he couldn''t help but be a little bit confused too, which he clearly expressed. With that in mind, Jason decided to reveal a little bit of the truth he had hidden before. "Well, it''s possible that I entered Manyr a little bit later than you guys assumed. When I called myself a ''child'' I was referring to the late teens. Either way, this is not important, but the fact that I know Lux from before the two of us left Argos!" In the end, it didn''t matter how much he revealed to Linus because the fight against Lux was going to start in less than half an hour. Afterward, he would leave, and everything would be fine, even if Linus were to say something to the others. It was a simple plan, and other than tweaking the time period of the story he had told, Jason didn''t do anything. As such, Linus only got to know that Jason knew Lux from Argos, and that they had some bad blood though he didn''t know the details of their past conflicts. When he heard this, the only reaction Linus gave was to nod his head before averting his attention. "Alright¡­In that case, given the minuscule possibility of Lux''s death, it is my duty to inform you that all Shadow walkers in the surrounding area will be informed about his death. By the way, this also includes the death of the other humans Lux killed. The notification the surrounding Shadow walkers will receive is not as intense as it would be with the Lord of Death''s death, but considering that more than five of us died, I believe they''ve sent someone over! Telling you this is the bare minimum I can do, considering that the Lord of Death kills whoever he pleases¡­even a friend of mine wasn''t spared¡­" Jason didn''t know that Linus had also lost someone, but now he understood the reason for Linus to not like Lux. Owing to Linus''s dislike of Lux, he had given him information that was far more useful than what he had acquired until now. It was bad that Shadow walkers were likely to be on their way to the Shiman camp, but that was not really unexpected. Jason had assumed this which was also why he and Jennifer had already taken a proper look at the portal that led to the secret realm the Ninad beasts called their home! Under normal circumstances, taking a look wouldn''t be all that special. But when Jason had tested the portal once in order to see where the portal led to, Jennifer simply followed suit and stepped through it. Being able to enter the portal meant one particular thing which neither the Shadow walkers, nor other races seemed to be aware of- that other races were able to enter the portal, and the place at which the Ninad beasts lived. Jason assumed that either the Aeus race, the three cultivation energies of Jennifer, or maybe even the fact that she was a halfling was an important factor to allow her entry to the portal towards the Ninad beast''s realm. That meant, even if a Shadow walker were to come searching for them, they could flee as long as they were incapable of defeating their opponent! With a backup plan in mind, they were much more confident and unbothered about Linus'' warning. Yet, little did they know that news about something that was about to happen in the Julandra was spreading through the Shiman camp like wildfire and that the news would shock Jennifer greatly! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 861 - Execution In no time, the news about a certain event in the Julandra region spread through the Shiman camp like wildfire. It reached every nook and cranny and soon everyone wanted to watch the spectacle. Meanwhile, Jason was completing his preparations to fight Lux. There was not much for him to do, to begin with. The only thing that could be considered somewhat arduous to achieve was to pay attention to Jennifer, and her extreme behavior. After all, the news was about a traitor of the three races that reigned the Julandra region. This traitor would be executed in two weeks from now at the annual Lotus blooming festival. There would be a public execution in order to make an example of what would happen to the traitors. Under normal circumstances, Jason would think that this was nothing out of the ordinary. In a war-like situation, it was obvious to take extreme measurements. The detailed descriptions of the traitor''s appearance were a clear indicator of who it was. That was also why Jennifer''s mood was becoming worse, while she was having terrible mood swings. Ever since hearing the news, her temper would flare at the slightest issue. The traitor the news spoke about was Luna, after all, Jennifer''s Master! Both Jason and Jennifer knew what Luna had done. Not only had she backstabbed the royalty of the Aeus and Devir race but she had, in fact, abandoned Jennifer. But that didn''t change the fact that she was caught and that she would be executed soon. In only two weeks Luna was supposed to be publicly executed in the capital. Even if Jennifer wanted to rescue her, not only was she way too weak, but they were faraway from the capital. Even after using all of their means, it would still take two months for them to reach the capital. This meant that they would be six weeks late to reach the capital after the event had already been concluded. And even if she somehow managed to reach before the execution, Jennifer was not sure what to say to Luna, if they got the chance to speak with each other. Though Luna had betrayed her, she had been the only person close to her before Jason''s arrival. In the end, everything was rather complicated, and consoling Jennifer had become Jason''s main task for the time being. He didn''t even think about the fight with Lux as he knew it would be over even before it started. All he wanted to do was leave the Shiman camp as quickly as possible because something caused him to have a premonition. It was not as if he was scared of being caught or imprisoned, but with Jennifer''s unstable mental health it was only a matter of time before she would lose her sanity. Her mind was already a mess and a single sentence from someone inside the Shiman camp would certainly be enough to make her throw a fit. After all, trouble in the Julandra region was good for the Shadow walkers, and so was the case with the Shiman camp. Because of that, it was highly likely for them to hear people talking about the execution of the traitor in excitement. Fortunately, by paying attention to Jennifer''s state and body language, Jason was able to take care of her to some extent, preventing an occurrence of any untoward incident. Thus, he wanted to finish the life-and-death battle with Lux as quickly as possible. However, when they stood facing each other in the open field that was their venue for the fight Jason realised that the Lord of Death title was probably something Lux deserved. After all, he had replaced all the Undeads Jason had killed with even stronger Undeads including Ninad beasts! Lux''s physique was still unstable, receiving amplifications that would take time to settle, and he was adjusting to it, but that didn''t seem to be much of a problem. All-in-all the amplification of his physique was extremely important. However, in the current situation, Jason felt that it lost its value as Lux was smiling schemingly, almost like he had planned something huge. Jason''s lips twitched to see that sinister smile, and he momentarily forgot about Jennifer''s disastrous state. No way was he going to accept being defeated by Lux yet again. With that in mind, he stood opposite Lux at a distance of several hundred meters away from him. He was ready to fight as Byakur manifested in his hand. Entering a combat stance, Jason indicated that he was ready. Meanwhile, Lux stood around nonchalantly with an extremely calm demeanor. Both were ready to start the fight, and Linus, who had been tasked with initiating the countdown to start the life-and-death battle, did as he had been instructed. On hearing Linus'' signal, Jason rushed towards Lux as the moonlight transmuted mana intertwined with divine energy coursed through his body. Exerting the Hermes Celeration movement technique accelerated his pace visibly. This allowed him to cross half the distance between him and Lux in no time. While he was rushing towards Lux, the Lord of Death fused with his strongest soulbond. His eyes turned pitch-black, while his fair skin took upon a blueish tint and Lux''s appearance began to change drastically. Distinct death energy with a corrosive property in it that only affected the living leaked from his body. The death energy acted like an aura, tightly enveloping Lux, before spreading out. This made the crowd of onlookers take a collective gasp as they watched the scene unfold in front of them with bated breaths. Residents of the shiman camp were powerless to prevent the life-and-death battle from happening. So if they couldn''t avoid it, they might as well watch the fight. Maybe they could also observe and learn more about the natural soul fusion process from Lux. They might not like Lux that much, but this didn''t change the fact that the Lord of Death was the strongest amongst them in terms of potential, and abilities. He was a cut above the rest because he was able to fuse with his soulbond without receiving artificial help. As such, they decided to watch the fight which they presumed would not end well for the newcomer who dared go against Lux. However, they were in for a surprise as they watched Jason zoom past them and reach a terrifyingly high speed within the blink of an eye. To add to their shock, only Linus and a few others knew that Jason could fuse with one of his soulbonds that enhanced his physical strength even further. This meant that he was yet to reveal his trump card and highest combat prowess! Only time would tell if this was foolish or not. At the moment, Linus couldn''t help but feel that the battle was about to become more exciting than he initially hoped for. Against his expectations, Jason held his ground and appeared confident. His eyes flicked to Jason''s so-called fiancee who was staring at the arena absent-mindedly. Given the fact that Jennifer was lost in thoughts, she didn''t seem all that worried about Jason, and it was because of this that Linus was a little excited. Meanwhile, Jason continued to charge towards Lux, ignoring the death energy with the corrosive property that was a magnet to attention. As the others were distracted, Lux was releasing the darkness that covered the dry soil, allowing more than a hundred Undeads to emerge from the darkness. The sounds of rattling bones reverberated through the entire field where Jason and Lux continued to fight against each other. The battle was growing intense and deadlier with each passing minute. However, nobody was able to feel excited because the majority of spectators were able to perceive the Undead bodies of their comrades and their soulbonds. This soured their mood, and without realising it, everyone began to cheer for Jason in their minds. They desperately hoped that he would kill Lux after releasing the Undeads from the torture of going against nature''s will, of being alive despite being dead! ''Go for it!'' A single thought echoed through every single spectator''s mind but none of them said it out loud. They were too afraid of the Lord of Death. Oblivious to the changing opinion of the crowd, Jason simply gave a subtle grin. He made it clear that the horde of Undeads did little to make him feel nervous. Rather, it almost looked like he felt that it was to his advantage! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 862 - Importance Of Soulbonds In the end, Jason felt that nobody inside the Shiman camp truly understood the importance and value of soulbonds. None of the humans in the camp understood that soulbonds were living breathing beings and not tools; that they were intelligent and could feel emotions too. However, that was not everything because the soul world of humans from Argos was essentially different from every kind of soul awakening Jason and the others had seen until now. As such, everyone should be aware that the soul amplification from soulbonds was only active as long as the soulbonds were still connected with the binder. Upon being killed or destroyed the soul amplification of the said soulbond would cease to exist, meaning that the binder''s strength would decrease by the amplified factor! As such, summoning one''s soulbond into the battle was a risky affair and, something Jason could never do if he was not confident that nothing would happen to his dear soulbonds. However, because Lux, the Lord of Death, had never cared if his soulbonds were getting harmed, this was a different matter for him. Thus, he summoned all of his soulbonds at once! This was also some sort of combat style one could choose to utilise with a large soul world and many soulbonds that one didn''t bother about losing. It would probably be enough to instill fear in many Cultivators as they would be overwhelmed by the masses of strong opponents that appeared out of nowhere. However, Jason was none of them, and exactly like three days ago, he allowed Solaris to enter his mana core. After that he intertwined his mana with divine energy, strengthening it to the extent at which Solaris'' flame could burn through everything it touched. Yet, just before he summoned his first flame, the death energy with the corrosive effect seemed to be at Lux''s mercy because he recalled exactly what had happened the last time. Thus, the death energy quickly spread out, tightly enveloping every single soulbond of Lux. Enveloping their Skeletal bodies, the death energy made Lux''s soulbonds become extremely strong within a moment. This was interesting, and so was the fact that the death energy had strong defensive capabilities. It only took a single throw of a fireball at the Skeleton that was the closest to him to realise the same. While trying to devour the death energy, Solaris'' flame got extinguished instead. Nevertheless, this didn''t mean that the flame was useless. Rather, owing to its ability to burn through the energy Solaris'' flames were slowly devouring the death energy around the Skeleton. The effects were visible as the death energy was slowly losing its luster. Through this, and other things he had noticed when he attacked, Jason got a clear idea of the majority of properties the death energy possessed. Thus, he couldn''t help but smile, thinking that Lux''s efforts were completely wasted. But that would only benefit him in the end. Not wasting further time, he allowed his mana core to release a thread of mana that was attached to Solaris. Slowly merging together, Jason didn''t think that it was necessary to hide anything right now as he sensed the hatred that was directed towards Lux. Releasing the Hell Aura, a name Jason gave to the Celestia aura after Solaris influenced it, he followed it with the release of both the Stigmas. The overall effect was the surrounding temperature increased to the extent that the shadows that covered the ground were repelled. This was something that happened without Jason noticing the same, as he couldn''t bother about the darkness on the ground. Instead, he focused on himself and the fact that he could freely use Solaris'' flames. This was owing to the tremendous amount of mana he replenished, followed by the minuscule mana consumption the black fire affinity required. Because of that, it only took a fraction of a second for Jason to envelop himself in thick black flames. He looked pitch black except for his crimson-red eyes that pierced through the searing hot black flames. His gaze didn''t falter as he stared straight into Lux''s pitch-black eyes. Staring into the depth of Lux''s soul through his crimson-red eyes, a cold and sly smile appeared on his face. Everything around him was engulfed by the black flames that caused the ground around him to burst open. The dry and loose soil squelched under his feet and the low noise could be heard through the entire arena that was watching the battle in pin-drop silence. Neither the spectators, and the Undead Soulbonds, nor the two opponents made any sound. Every single pair of eye was glued to Jason, whose appearance had changed completely. He looked like a being that was fire itself. For the first time, they all believed that Jason might kill them at any moment. That was something they feared would happen if they were to utter a single sound and invite Jason''s wrath. The sudden change in Jason''s demeanor shocked them too much. From being calm and calculative, he had turned into someone who was only able to feel anger, hatred and pursue death. It seemed almost as if he had gained a sudden temper out of nowhere, indicating that he might do something in a fit of rage, the moment anyone would dare step out of line. However, Jason didn''t care about anything like that because his only goal was to turn the Skeletons into cinder, destroying each and every soul amplification Lux received! Consumed by rage and the urge to destroy everything in his wake, he intertwined his aura with Solaris'' flames. This turned the entire area the Hell aura enveloped into a field of brightly lit flames. Having been released in an explosive manner, the flames emerged everywhere the Hell aura had spread through which was the open field they used to fight. Burning through the Death energy, the flames were using up more and more mana in order to sustain themselves. But, given the minuscule mana consumption Solaris'' flames had after fusing with Jason, mana was the least of his worries right now. Rather, Jason had to pay attention to none other than Lux, who was staring at his burning soulbonds in shock. When Lux sensed the first soulbond''s amplification disappear, he tried to retract them. It was then that he first noticed that the shadows on the ground had been repelled by Jason''s Hell aura. This realization hit Lux hard, and it was only now that he grasped Jason''s plan. ''He wants to kill all of my soulbonds to lower the strength I received from the soul amplification!!'' It was not difficult to understand this, but before Lux had been confident in the shadows of his soul world through which his soulbonds were able to enter or leave his soul world. However, now that the shadows weren''t working anymore, and his soulbonds were burning despite the death aura that was supposed to protect them from the black flames, everything seemed to lose its reasoning. In fact, Lux felt the same fear as three days ago emerging within him. He helplessly watched as the strongest of his soulbonds began to burn like tinder, and he was unable to do anything against it. Sensing how the two Low Ascendion stage Skeletons caught flames, Lux was stupefied. Lux was too stunned to even move for a few moments. It was then that he decided to do something nobody had ever been able to force him to do in a serious fight¡­not since his days on Argos. Recalling his past, endless memories of pain and humiliation began to flash past his eyes. He could vividly remember the way he had been treated on Argos, what had happened to his family including his parents and his sister and how the government had turned a deaf eye to their pleas for help. A fresh wave of anger surged through him as wrath began to fill his entire being. Clenching his fists, he took his first step towards Jason as two shortswords manifested in his hand. At that moment, a tiny trace of a red tint emerged in his pitch-black eyes . The blood orb he had fused with began to pulsate, acting as if it was, alive, a beating heart! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 863 - Purged With each pulse, more death energy was released from Lux''s body, enveloping him tightly. This prevented the flames around him from coming uncomfortably close to him. Even the searing heat didn''t reach Lux''s cold body! When he sensed this, Lux didn''t think of holding back anymore. Pushing his feet from the ground he catapulted himself towards Jason, whose crimson eyes were locked on him. Jason quickly realized what was going on because his Emperor Eyes were fully activated. This allowed him to figure out that the blood orb in Lux was releasing the death energy that protected him from being burned. At the same time, it allowed Lux to fight against him head on as the death energy was not just tasked with protecting him. In the end, the death energy that enveloped Lux was also nurturing the natural soul fusion thereby strengthening him and his soulbond. This added one more obstacle in front of Jason making it difficult for him to win. It made Lux''s combat force more lethal in the face of the living. Because of that, Jason had to be careful, under normal circumstances. However, being careful was not something Jason was capable of doing. This was because his soul fusion with Solaris prevented him from feeling fear, worry, and similar emotions that could affect his decision-making skills and restrict him from utilising his highest combat prowess. These negative emotions would be severely restricted, and narrowly perceptible, to the extent in which it was like they didn''t even exist. As such, Jason''s bright crimson eyes glowed further as he increased the amount of moonlight transmuted mana and divine energy which he used to intertwine them with Solaris'' flames. Solaris'' flames had merged with the Hell aura, and by increasing the lethality of the flames, Jason attempted to kill the Undeads before Lux would reach him. Unfortunately, Jason had grossly miscalculated Lux''s moves. Instead of attacking him, Lux shot towards his soulbonds which he retracted into the soul world by touching them. At the same time, it took slightly longer to burn the Skeletons than initially expected. Thus, Jason knew that he had to jump in and curb Lux''s actions, otherwise, the fight would become even more annoying than it was already the case. With that in mind, he shot in Lux''s direction, after lightly pushing Byakur back, as he circulated moonlight mana and divine energy through his body. Only a moment later, his speed accelerated further as he exerted the Hermes Celeration movement technique by pushing himself to the limit. However, Jason was known for exceeding his limitation, and Lux was just about to get a live demonstration of the same. Smiling at his opponent, Jason used strong, explosively released flames that spread over his entire back. Through this, his speed increased further, even if Jason''s balance was not yet perfect. As such, given the imperfect balance that he had yet to get rid of, he wouldn''t be able to reach the combat prowess he wanted. But that was not important because the flames that shot out from his back weren''t released in an explosive manner the moment he emerged in front of Lux. While he had pushed his speed to the limit, Lux had stored away three Ascendion stage Undeads, attempting to save them until the last possible minute. This seemed to work because the lines of worry that had appeared on Lux''s face vanished as he visibly relaxed. But given the fact that Jason was able to see this, the situation escalated into a brawl between the two Cultivators. While Jason''s flames never grew dim and continued to burn through the Undead soulbonds of Lux, his mana consumption was slowly increasing. Similarly, the stored divine energy was being used up. If Jason were to run out of enough mana reserves, the Skeletons might be able to survive. It would automatically force Jason to fight against the strongest form of Lux which was what he was currently doing. Facing his opponents, Jason quickly noticed that the combat prowess of Lux was much higher than he initially expected. As a matter of fact, he had relied too much on the intel that the Lord of Death would never enter a close combat fight, and that he would focus on controlling his army of Undeads. Because this was something Jason had gambled on, he was unable to face the dagger-wielding Lux properly. With two daggers in his hands and quick reflexes, Lux was on par with someone at the Low Ascendion stage putting Jason at a slight disadvantage. His speed could only reach a prowess close to the Low Ascendion stage, owing to the Hermes Celeration movement technique he was using. As such, the moment Lux noticed that Jason emerged in front of him, he exerted his own movement technique, increasing his speed once again. This was extremely bad for Jason because he had to deflect the onslaught of two daggers that flew towards him at the same time. Yet, retreating was not something Jason could think about right now. He was everything but a coward. Hence, he attempted to use the Bladed Ruyi Bang technique, enlarging and shrinking Byakur to the extent to which he would be able to balance out his lower speed. Unfortunately, this was not possible, which forced Jason to use different tactics, such as the utilization of the curses he harbored! Given his Emperor Eyes and the foresight blessing, Lux''s superior speed paled in front of Jason''s traits. Owing to this, he had already lost its great advantage because he was able to evade most attacks even if they were faster. Because of that, there were only a few attacks he could not evade, which forced him to encounter them. That was something Jason could do, even if it was a big burden. Thus, the moment he exerted the race specific weakening curse with some of his moonlight transmuted mana and divine energy, Lux''s soul amplification decreased severely, hitting rock bottom at 0%. Jason had already expected this to happen because he knew the potency of the race specific weakening curse. As such, he didn''t hold back when Lux was shocked about the sudden lack of strength he experienced. Not giving him even a moment to recover from this shock, Jason lashed out with Byakur''s enlarged blade. At this moment, Lux sensed true death looming around him, causing his pitch-black eyes to widen in shock. His survival instincts took over as the blood orb within Lux began to pulsate at a much higher speed. It released more death energy that was ought to protect the being it was bound to. Yet, instead of forming a protective shield around Lux, the death energy stiffened the moment Jason''s eyes began to gleam brightly. He used the petrification curse with a little bit of his moonlight transmuted mana, and divine energy, followed by the abyssal effect! The abyssal effect was empowered with his remaining divine energy, some of the chaos attribute he had annexed, and the remnants of his moonlight transmuted mana. This caused Solaris'' flames to die down owing to the lack of mana that had sustained them. However, this was not necessary anymore because Jason had cut through Lux''s body, splitting it into two. No sooner had he slashed with Byakur, the blood orb, which he had wanted to cut through too, fell to the ground, unscathed. Jason had slashed at the height of the blood orb in order to cut it, but given the fact that it was not in Lux''s body anymore, he didn''t think that it was a problem. Staring at the stiff-looking Lux, whose mind had yet to escape the place the Abyssal effect had transported him to, Jason couldn''t help but shake his head. "Was that really worth it Lux? I didn''t even feel like killing you¡­was your pride really worth dying for?" Only a moment later, Lux''s body fell to the ground with a thump and stayed there, unmoving and dead. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 864 - Leaving Picking up the blood orb, which was a random name he had given to it, Jason stored it away. He didn''t know what exactly this orb was, or even its true name. But, what Jason was sure about was one particular fact. That was his desire to never encounter someone similar to Lux in his life again. Jason had his fill of fighting someone who had fused with the blood orb and did not want a repeat incident. The death energy the blood orb could release was dangerous, to put it simply, Averting his gaze towards the unmoving corpse of Lux, Jason felt disgusted, but at the same time, he felt something weird. He also sensed sadness radiating from the corpse. This caused him to look at it for a few more seconds before he used some of the mana his body had naturally replenished in order to burn Lux''s corpse. Afterward, he turned towards the Undead Skeletons that were now puppets without a master. They were simply roaming around aimlessly not knowing what to do or what was going on. Because the death energy had dispersed in all directions, Jason only used tiny flames to burn them. In a way, he relieved them of the burden of being forced into continuing to live in a world they didn''t belong to anymore. This didn''t take long because the Undeads were not resisting his attack. Instead, they accepted Solaris'' flames, taking it into their body as if it was a holy flame that would purge them from their sins, and the punishment of living while being dead. Once he was done purging the Undeads, Jason allowed Solaris to return back to the soul world. After this, his appearance reverted back to his usual self. Once that was also done, Jason first noticed that the arena had gone eerily silent. Only the faint rustling of leaves and the wind blowing at a distance were slowly reaching his ears which was weird. Turning around, he quickly noticed that his entire body was drained of energy, causing him to stumble. However, it was only a moment later that his exhaustion seemed to have dispelled as thousands of pairs of eyes were staring straight at him. This made Jason uncomfortable, but fortunately enough, none of the gazes were filled with killing intent, the hue of anger, or something similar to that. Because he was able to see this with his Emperor Eyes, and sense killing intent if it was directed at him, he was sure that nobody was going to surprise attack him. With that in mind, the tensed muscles in his body slowly began to relax. His eyes automatically searched for Jennifer, who was still staring at the ground absent-mindedly, thinking about her master. Seeing this, Jason couldn''t help but smile oddly. Jennifer had witnessed enough of Jason''s strength to know that nothing would happen to him. Because of that, her mind had been occupied with thoughts of Luna, if the news was really about her, and what she was supposed to do. Her mind was a tangled mess of thoughts, and she was unsure of what to do. Luna had raised her, but given the fact that she had abandoned her at the worst possible time,, she was not sure if Luna had just raised her because she owed her parents a favor. She had left Jennifer on her own, who had been on the run for months, hiding from the three races that wanted her dead. Before Jason''s arrival, Jennifer was fighting for her life all alone against those who were now reigning the Julandra region The fact that Luna might have never loved her made her feel like somebody had punched her in the gut. If that were to be true, her entire childhood into a lie. But the more she thought about it, the less likely was it for Luna to abandon her after killing dozens of nobles in a terror act. Unable to understand anything, Jennifer only noticed that the fight was over when Jason emerged in front of her. His clothes were mostly charred, and only his leather armor was fine, while exhaustion could be seen deep in his eyes. She was questioning the purpose of her entire life, and what she was supposed to do now. As such, Jennifer could only shake her head. Yet, when she looked into Jason''s eyes, everything else seemed unimportant because she knew for sure that he wouldn''t simply abandon her. Even if he would, Jennifer knew that he would do this in order to protect her from something. This was something she didn''t think that Luna had been doing because the months, or even years before the assassination attempt, her master seemed to have changed a lot. She had become more frantic and devoted to something she had been working on inside the small Auxiliary tower. Thus, the more Jennifer thought about her master, the less she liked what she perceived. It was almost as if her memories made everything worse which she had treasured in her heart. After her parents had abandoned her, it was Luna who had taken her under her wing. Those memories had been close to her heart and she didn''t want to believe that Luna would do what her parents had done to her. It was breaking her heart to think that. Because of that, she grasped Jason''s hand as she forced herself to smile a little. "Are you done now? Shall¡­we go?" With everyone''s eyes being drawn towards the two of them, Jason thought that Linus and the others might want to prevent him from leaving. However, it was just a moment later that the complete opposite occurred. "Yeah, you two should leave as soon as possible, if possible right now!" Linus said this after he had recovered from the shock of witnessing Lux''s death, and many other people nodded their heads before adding all kinds of comments. Most of these comments were praises about his strength, them thanking Jason for killing Lux, and that he should leave to prevent being killed by the Shadow walkers. This astonished Jason slightly because he had not expected everyone to speak for him, let alone the fact that the Shadow walker''s soul contract allowed them to ''help'' him flee. Yet, the biggest question was about where they should run to. Staying would mean that the Shadow walkers would find him, and from the information he had procured, there were quite a few Specta stage powerhouses in the rows of the Shadow walkers. This was quite uncommon for a Common race, and Jason presumed that they were either lacking a Heaven ranked technique, or the Shadow walkers were hiding the fact that they were, in fact, a higher race already. However, in the end, this didn''t matter because the most important thing was to find out where they should head to right now. There were quite a few restrictions, including Jason''s exhaustion, which meant that he could fly fast enough. Thus, he looked at the direction of the portal that would take them to the Ninad realm. Jennifer noticed the direction he was looking to, and without a second thought about staying on Manyr, she nodded her head. "Let''s go to the Ninad realm!" Jason had thought about Jennifer''s situation. This was why he had been reluctant to propose using the portal to flee in order to prevent the Shadow walkers from pursuing them. In the end, only the humans from Argos would be able to follow them, and until that happened, the Shadow walkers would have to give them the necessary commands. This would buy them lots of time. As such, it was not difficult to decide whether he wanted to face humans from Argos that were at the Mid Ascendion stage, at the strongest, or possibly Specta stage powerhouses. Seeing that Jennifer seemed to be fine with leaving Manyr, Jason was not sure if she was faking it in order to help him, or if she was truly fine. Thus, he could only look at her with concern, unsure of what they should do. The Shadow walkers that had been informed about the death of their people three days ago, should reach the camp any minute! Yet, when he heard Jennifer''s answer, while she stared deep into his eyes, Jason''s doubts melted away. Holding his hand tightly she gave him a radiant smile and said in an earnest voice. "I''m fine¡­I really am, as long as I have you by my side!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 865 - Realm Of The Souls, Ninad! Staring at Jennifer and Jason, the others who had been eyeing them couldn''t hold back from blurting out their thoughts. The unexpected confession made everyone comment on them and state their thoughts aloud. They felt that the couple were just indulging in their own world, but when they saw that Jason''s ears turned red all of a sudden, they couldn''t hold back anymore. "Ohh, he is embarrassed, how cutteee!" "They''re looking really good together¡­when will I finally meet my Goddess?" "What Goddess, I think the only suitable partner would be a trash bin if you want to go by looks!" "A love confession, she is soo straightforward and cute. How lucky it must be to have someone like her!" "..." ".." While dozens of voices resounded around Jason and Jennifer, the two of them were just staring into each other''s eyes. First, Jason had been oblivious to what was going on because he had only been focused on finding a way of leaving the Shiman camp without anyone attacking them. Yet, when he heard Jennifer''s sudden and unexpected comment, his heart skipped a beat, while his ears turned red. Following that the comments of the other humans short-circuited his already fuzzy brain was suddenly emptied of all kinds of thoughts. He was mindlessly staring at Jennifer, whose cheeks turned red. Embarrassment made her feel as if they had been set on fire as she hesitantly mumbled, "Is¡­it not fine for you, if I want to stay by your side?" Only Jason was able to hear the question that dragged him out of his absent-minded state. Unable to avert his gaze from Jennifer, who was still looking straight into his eyes despite the embarrassment she felt, Jason could only swallow his saliva as he blurted out. "Of course, you can¡­I would love to have you by my side!" Smiling at her, Jason confessed his deepest desires and felt as if a deadweight had been lifted off his heart. He was not sure why, but the simple sentence he had just said made him feel much lighter. Yet, the gazes of the other people that stared at them with a sly smile were the exact opposite. Somehow, everyone had momentarily forgotten what was going on, that Jason had just killed Lux in an overwhelming manner, and that the Shadow walkers would wreak havoc the moment they were to find out the truth about the life-and-death battle. In fact, nobody knew anything about Jason because the majority of information he had told about himself was wrong. However, all of this was unimportant because Lux was dead, and Jason wanted to leave. This meant that he didn''t plan to overstay his welcome and do anything grand in the Shiman camp. The only issue was the punishment the humans would probably receive for allowing Jason to leave, but that could also be solved quickly. If they were to tell the story about Lux''s life-and-death challenge, they might as well add the false clause that Jason was allowed to leave if he could kill Lux. Given Lux''s self-confidence, the Shadow walkers should realize that Lux would have accepted this without a second thought. Having been commanded to not intervene in Lux''s business, added credibility to their reason for not pursuing Jason, which would in return mean that they did nothing wrong. Unfortunately, thinking with a rational mind was not something many people could do in adverse situations. As such, the Shiman camp''s citizens slowly realized what was bound to happen to them. A painful punishment awaited them, but that was not something they feared. After all, the merciless, and cruel Lord of Death was finally dead, and their friends freed from being forced to stay alive as Undeads, under the control of Lux. Thus, once they had teased Jason and Jennifer enough, Linus was the first to act as he pushed the two of them towards the portal. "I saw what you''ve been doing in the last few days, so I kinda know that even your little girlfriend can enter the portal to the Ninad realm, but let me ask you one thing. Did you only come to the Shiman camp for Lux, or also for the Ninad beast realm?" Linus was definitely not stupid, and it didn''t take much effort to figure out that Jason''s sole intention to approach the Shiman camp had not been making friends with other humans from Argos. As such, Jason didn''t think that he had to hide anything from Linus, even less because he didn''t sense any bad vibes from the young man. "I came for Lux because I had something to figure out. But, to be honest, it ended differently than I expected." There was no need to say more than that, and after hearing Jason''s answer, Linus just nodded his head as he replied, "I guess we can be glad that you arrived here because Lux was turning into a tyrant and a control freak. So his death is definitely a blessing for us¡­even if we would probably be punished for it." Jason didn''t say anything about this. Instead, he tightly held onto Jennifer''s hand as they arrived in front of the portal that led to the Ninad beast realm. Only then did he halt in his tracks because he saw something from far away that caused him to frown deeply. "They''re here." He stated matter-of-factly before turning towards Linus and adding "If you guys want to become stronger, focus on getting to know your soulbonds¡­The way all of you treat them is disgusting, and I felt like beating you guys into a pulp when I saw the spars at the weekly comparison event¡­" Jason''s tone was serious and Linus couldn''t help but feel offended at his words. Yet, recalling Jason''s fight just a few minutes earlier, he was tongue-tied and simply looked at Jason. Before, Linus had never seen his soulbonds as something else than tools to become stronger, but this thought had radically changed after watching Jason fight. Having witnessed the way in which he fused with the flame-type soulbond, it was evident that Jason knew more about the soul fusion process than anyone else. This caused him to nod his head as he remarked, "I''ll give it a try, but don''t expect a lot from everyone." He tried to remain realistic, and Jason noticed this which caused him to nod his head. Looking into the sky with his sight targeting one particular direction, he perceived the subtle mana fluctuations from a being that was far away. The being was advancing towards them with a terrifyingly high speed, clearly indicating that it was at the Specta stage. As such, Jason didn''t waste anymore time as he bid Linus farewell, only to hear him say something as Jason and Jennifer stepped through the portal. "The Realm of the Souls, Ninad, is not a place you should take lightly. Pay attention to the wanderi¨C..." Unable to finish his sentence before Jason and Jennifer disappeared inside the portal, Linus could only shake his head in disappointment. Scratching the back of his head, he felt that the last few days had been too weird, but at the same time, he couldn''t help but feel that his encounter with Jason would only help me progress further. "I hope they won''t have too many problems with the Ninad beasts¡­and the others¡­" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 866 - Alliance After emerging from the portal, Jason and Jennifer found themselves inside a small town. It seemed to be recently built because all the structures shone with the glint that every newly constructed structure has. There were no signs of wear and tear or nature taking over the walls. There were small alleys spreading out like spiderwebs, giving leeway for people to find several possible routes in which one could reach or leave the center of the town in which three portals were located. Having emerged from one of them, the use of the other two portals was clear. Either they led to the Shadow walkers'' other camps, or other races, which was most likely to be the case. There was no clear evidence of other races being in control of the two portals because Jason could only see numerous humans around him. However, upon a closer look, it was possible for him to easily tell that many humans had different cultivation manuals. which were subtly changing the mana fluctuations of the practitioner. Through this, one could easily see that there were a total of three main cultivation techniques that were largely used followed by a few rarer techniques that were probably used by the Cultivators with a higher potential. Other than mana fluctuations, there were a total of three types of Auras around the small town that resembled a village one would spot in the middle ages. It was currently nighttime, but there were numerous brightly ignited flames that had been placed on top of small poles, making it look like a cheap replica of streetlamps. This caused Jason to feel a little bit odd because the white wooden pole and the fiery red flame were a huge contrast to the surrounding, making it seem as if the small construction was out of place. Despite that, it fulfilled the purpose it had been given. With the surroundings lit up, they were at least able to see a little without the need to focus on perceiving their surroundings'' energy fluctuations. Unfortunately, this was not helpful enough for Jason and Jennifer to make an informed decision of quickly leaving the central area of the town. After all, one could say that they were fleeing from the Shadow walkers, knowing that humans from the Shiman camp might be ordered to attack and capture them if possible. Thinking about it, the Shadow walkers might even falsely claim that the two were out to kill the other humans or races. Thus, both of them had to leave the places that were affiliated with the Shadow walkers. Because Jason believed leaving the town to be a necessity, they didn''t enter one of the other two portals either. It might be possible for them to emerge in a great location that allowed them to leave without any hindrance, but the opposite was more likely to be the case. Entering the core area of a hostile race would be amongst the worst possible things for strangers to risk. Thus, the first mission Jason and Jennifer had was to leave the town and the vicinity of the humans all around them. He had not expected to encounter such a large number of people inside the Ninad beast realm, so when he emerged Jason had been stunned for a moment. As such, he required a few seconds to get his act together. Taking the surrounding into consideration, the windy and cold environment, and the fact that nobody seemed to care about the numerous beasts that were flying through the air, Jason predicted that they were on a plateau on top of a mountain. However, this was just something he assumed, and it didn''t make a huge difference for him if his prediction was correct or not, to begin with. Knowing that there were numerous portals through which he and Jennifer could leave the Ninad realm, made them relieved from the tension of finding an escape route. Now, the only thing they had to do was to find a race that accepted humans like ordinary living beings, and not as their tool to fight. Other than that, Jason knew that safeguarding Jennifer was different to handle than other humans because she had three cultivation paths that were merged together. Wanting to protect Jennifer, and possibly himself, he didn''t want to be anywhere close to an alliance that was similar to the Shadow walkers. Even if he had to acknowledge that he wasn''t aware of what the Shadow walkers had been up to during the last few years, what he had seen on Argos, was already more than enough for Jason to determine how little the Shadow walkers valued other beings. And to figure this out, Jason didn''t even have to add the information Linus had shared about the Shadow walkers when he was still inside the Shiman camp. Despite not being able to curse the Shadow walkers or to do something that could harm their reputation, Linus was able to dish out many questionable facts about them. Initially, Jason didn''t understand what Linus had implied with his words but only now did it finally click. ''Did he really want to make me join the Shadow walkers'' rows, or am I misinterpreting the words he had told me? Why does it feel like he wanted me to run away, yet join them at the same time?... Weird!'' Jason thought that his encounter with Linus was weird, and his first impression of him was not great. Like all other humans in the camp, he treated his soulbonds like garbage, but deep inside, Linus was a good guy. As such, Jason was glad that he had conveyed the importance of treating one''s soulbonds well to Linus. Now, he could only hope that the people inside the Shiman camp would listen to him as well. This was something he was hoping for, but it was not highly likely to be the case. Because of that, Jason decided to circle back to find a way of leaving the town unharmed which was way more easily done than he could have hoped for. It might be night but there were still more than enough humans roaming around, but none of them was bothered about Jason and Jennifer. The only thing they might be interested in was their cultivation base and the fact that Jennifer was cultivating in all three paths while this was not the case for humans from Argos. However, even then, nobody seemed to spare them another glance, which was weird. Unfortunately, their fortune didn''t last for long because the first thing they faced upon leaving the town were a total of five beasts. They looked like over-dimensional bison with eyes that were yellow and devoid of pupils. At first glance, it looked creepy, and Jason noticed that his mind was becoming fuzzy the longer he looked into their eyes that were intertwined with Spirit force. It took him mere seconds to deduce that this was one of the tactics the bison were using to weaken their opponents. To their misfortune, they were facing someone whose special traits were his eyes. Jason''s eyes protected him against any kind of hypnosis influenced by such abilities. Similarly, Jennifer''s Spiral cultivation prevented the Bison''s ability to have any severe effects on them. As such, they were able to face the five Bisons without much problems, The only issue would be the fact that they were at the Low rank of the Ascendion stage. Yet, this was not something that would have caused Jason to hold back from attacking! With that in mind, Jason geared up for a counterattack. The fact that they were attacked almost immediately after leaving the town didn''t worry him. Instead, he manifested Byakur in his hand before he catapulted himself towards his opponents. His eyes were gleaming in bright golden light as they radiated joy. ''Finally¡­free!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 867 - Territorial ''Finally¡­free!'' Subconsciously, Jason had felt extremely burdened by being in the Julandra region after leaving the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant. He was not sure why this was the case but this burden made it seem like he was imprisoned. Yet, he had stayed back to find Jennifer and help her out. And after doing both, Jason had already been glad when they traveled through the Julandra region. However, even traveling was not enjoyable anymore because there hadn''t been any dangers. The excitement of possible attacks from strong beasts was close to zero inside the Julandra region. This could be considered to be a plus point, but to Jason it was almost as if his progress was restricted. Coming across placid beasts and the fact that they weren''t able to stay inside a city without being eyed oddly made him feel uneasy. Unfortunately, this didn''t become better when he left the Julandra region only to enter the Shadow walkers'' territory. There, he was even more restricted because the Shadow walkers might have attacked Jennifer at any point, which forced Jason to stay vigilant all the time. Yet, even in the Shadow walker''s territory, not many beasts dared to approach him. Other than that, he was also not able to establish contact with other beings. After spending far more than a year in the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant, he had felt cut off from the outside world while the war that had suddenly emerged on Argos caused a great headache to Jason. The war made him recall Argos, and the Great Argos war where they had been attacked by dozens of races. Even until now, he was not sure how they had survived the Great Argos war, which caused Jason to smile dryly. As he stood on top of the over-dimensional Bisons'' corpses, his mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts. However, instead of wasting his time on thinking further, Jason stored the corpses before they continued advancing through the wilderness. While flying through the mountains, he was momentarily confused how come Bisons had reached high up on a plateau that couldn''t even be reached by foot. But it was only a moment later that he shook his head, thinking that it was not important. Turning his head towards the front, Jason quickly noticed that the beasts in the air were more aggressive. As a reaction to this, they descended to the ground, only to notice that even the ground was filled with aggressive beasts. It was almost as if they were extremely territorial, and trying to protect the small field of lands they had claimed for themselves. This was an interesting sight, and it was only when Jason saw someone flying that he began to understand what was going on. The being was flying through the lands in a zig-zag motion, following a precise path. The paths that the humans flying through the air followed were most likely the borders of the surrounding beasts'' territories. As such, by not trespassing through the territories around, one was avoiding being attacked. In Jason''s opinion, this tactic was rather cowardly, but after giving it another thought, he couldn''t help but feel that it might be better to avoid certain beasts. After all, he was not omnipotent, and Jennifer was still by his side. Acting arrogantly would bring forth death, which was not what he wanted. Avoiding beasts was not important if he wanted to fight all kinds of beasts, and the more the merrier, but there were beasts he shouldn''t attack at all. Some of the beasts were too powerful to slaughter him within moments. Thus, the only way to avoid them while fighting others was to figure out how to determine a territory of beasts. Somehow, the territories must have been marked, even if it was only with urine. Thus, Jason started his research, confusing Jennifer, who was still absent-mindedly thinking about her master. It was not like she wanted to figure out the sad truth because she was sure that it would hurt her. However, Jennifer couldn''t avoid thinking about her master and the fact that she was likely to be executed in a few days. It was sad, and if possible, she would want to talk to Luna just once, but given all the current circumstances, this was simply impossible. Even if it was possible, the effort was most likely not worth the reward she received. Sadly, it was the truth about the fact that Luna had just raised her for her personal gains, whether it was to redeem a favor or to send her to Kinra island. Shaking her head, Jennifer tried to distract herself, which was why she turned to Jason. She decided to ask Jason what he was doing, before helping him out. It was quite common to search for proper signs that marked a territory, but it was very important, even if it might not look like it. After all, if Jason were to encounter someone stronger than him, he might be able to enter the territory of a powerful beast that might help him by killing his pursuer. He might as well make use of the territories for his personal benefit. The strong beasts that were slightly more powerful than him could serve as good ''practice'' for him in order to advance his combat awareness, perception of all kinds of things, proficiency in martial art techniques, and affinities. There was so much he had to do, and the things that flashed through his mind were not even half of what he planned to do. In fact, the most important for him was to practice the Kanadi of a Primordial technique more often which was now possible once again. He might be forced to use a portable bathtub, but he had more than enough nutrition serums and cultivation stones to do everything he wanted for quite some time. Even Jennifer was able to use the Kanadi of a Primordial technique for several months. Together, Jason didn''t think that they would take much longer to travel around and find another settlement. In fact, Jason believed that the Ninad beast realm was huge, but so was most likely the number of humans inside it. He was not sure why, but he believed that every single race that accepted humans in their rows was in possession of at least one portal towards the Ninad beast realm. This was not something he could be sure of, but the thousands of different mana fluctuations inside the settlement were enough to cement his theory. He was becoming increasingly sure that the number of humans inside the Ninad realm exceeded his first impression by far. After all, he had initially believed that there were less than ten thousand humans that had left Argos before he requested Wisse to seal off the world''s bridges. That was completely wrong, and Jason didn''t have a single clue as to how many humans from Argos were inside the Ninad beast realm, or anywhere close by. Because of that, Jason wanted to figure out more about the other humans. He wanted to see if they treated their soulbonds any better, or if they were similar to the humans that were governed by the Shadow walkers. Jason sincerely hoped that this would not be the case, but who knew what other races thought about soulbonds? As for the Shadow walkers, and their alliance that was most likely formed owing to the three portals that were directly next to each other, they could die for all he cared. There was no need to think nicely about them. Thus, instead of bothering about the Shadow walkers, he left with Jennifer as quickly as possible, as a premonition was forming in the depths of his conscience. He had a sinking feeling that everyone inside the town behind him would soon try to hunt him down, even if there was currently no sign of this possibility. Despite that, he quickly grasped Jennifer''s hand before flying over the areas he presumed to be the borders separating the territories. Yet, it was at this moment that something happened, but in front of him instead of behind. The ground in front of him tore open as a thunderous roar resounded through the surrounding causing Jason and Jennifer to stiffen. "That''s¡­ an¡­?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 868 - Territorial Fight Emerging out of the huge hole through which it dug out itself, an enormous earthen scaled lizard head could be seen taking a look left and right. Its yellowish eyes that had slits for pupils perceived everything in its surroundings. Moving slowly, the beast lifted one of its large forelimbs with which it pushed its heavy body out of the hole. After crawling to the surface, the Earthen Lizard''s huge form was revealed. It was towering above Jason and Jennifer, who were staring at the beast in dumbfoundment. Jason believed he knew what he was looking at, which caused his entire body to involuntary shudder as he mumbled, "Is¡­that an Earth Dragon?" Even though the beast didn''t have any wings, it was certainly not just an Earthen Lizard or something similar. The Primordial energy and Mana that coursed through the beast''s body were overwhelmingly strong, and completely different to a normal being at the Specta stage. Interestingly, it was the cultivation stage the Wingless Earth Dragon in front of him had reached. Being at the Specta stage denoted high strength which was evident from the fact the beast seemed to inhabit an area close to the Shadow walker alliance''s town. It was rather unbothered by the fact and seemed to live without any worries of a possible attack. This should be extremely dangerous for such a strong beast. It was even more so because it was a Dragon, and a beast of the Ninad beast realm, which further strengthened the soul amplification one would receive. Being a Mythical beasts, Dragons were known for sharing a strong bond with their binder. Meanwhile, their energy, physical strength, affinity, and other unique traits they may possess were much stronger than their cultivation base. Because of that, they were rather popular for Cultivators with a soul world to bind. There were even some races that would try taming these beasts while they were very young, however, that didn''t work most of the time. Looking at the Earth Dragon, and its huge earthen scales that were larger than his head, Jason swallowed his saliva before he stepped back. Jennifer was pulled back with him because he had grasped her hand out of instinct. But, that was not necessarily helpful because the Earth Dragon turned towards them once they took the first step. Having attracted its attention, the two of them were forced to lock eyes with the ginormous eyes of the Earth Dragon that gazed at them with interest. Both beings in front of it were different to the other humans it had seen. Jason''s scent was giving it mixed signals. The human half of his bloodline caused it to feel an innate hostility towards him, while the other part of his scent was doing the exact opposite. It was dispelling the hostility and causing amity without doing too much. This further increased when Jason released his Celestia aura a little bit, strengthening the amity of the Earth Dragon towards him. Meanwhile, Jennifer mostly received a neutral gaze that was sprinkled with mild interest owing to the fact that she was the first bipedal being that could make use of all three cultivation paths. At least, she was the first of such beings the Earth Dragon had seen since its days inside the Ninad beast realm. Despite the interest, the Earth Dragon could have attacked them, but fortunately, they hadn''t entered its territory, indicating that they respected its boundaries. Owing to this, the Earth Dragon could only continue to look at them with interest gleaming in its large bulbous eyes that were eager to find out more about them. However, this seemed to be impossible because the Dragon could not cross the borders of its territory to inspect the two unusual humans. Doing so would be deemed as an attempt to claim its neighboring lands, even if that was not something the Earth Dragon wanted to do. As such, even its energy fluctuations shouldn''t be sensed at the borders. This was unfortunate because it would have loved to find out more about the two beings in front of it. Yet, the neighbor it had, was an existence which even the Earth Dragon at the Specta stage didn''t dare cross paths with! Jason had noticed something similar because he had already perceived the territorial markings of the surrounding beasts. Because of the said markings, he shouldn''t have been so astonished to see the Earth Dragon as the energy fluctuations of the territorial markings were distinct. Yet, when he realized this, Jason couldn''t help but look towards his left, wondering what kind of existence controlled this part of lands. If the Earth Dragon''s territorial markings were already distinct, and a light warning to other beings that might want to enter the lands, the ones on his left side could be considered as a formidable wall. This was truly unexpected, and something Jason had to be extremely careful about because a single step in the wrong direction might kill them. It was akin to courting death if they were to even think of entering the territory without energy enveloping them. This was truly fearsome, but it was not like Jason or Jenifer had planned to stay there, either way. As such, they wanted to be as far as possible from both the unknown existence and the Earth Dragon. But that was easier said than done because many many unexpected things were occurring at the same time. Amongst these happenings was the fact that ginormous energy currents were suddenly unveiled to their left, and were approaching them at a rapid pace. At the same time, the Earth Dragon let out a terrifying roar that shook Jason and Jennifer to their bones, freezing them on the spot for several seconds. Yet, the moment they were able to move once again, the ground below them tore open, forcing them to move ahead or to turn around. Unfortunately, just as they looked back to see if the distance towards a safe spot to their backside was shorter, Jason''s eyes widened. "There are more than three hundred mana fluctuations¡­they''re from the settlement of the Shadow walker alliance!" Knowing that, the only way they could head to was the front. However, the ground in front of them was tearing open owing to the sheer energies that were released by the unknown existence and the Earth Dragon, whose appearance was transforming. While its scales had been tightly placed on its body, the tapering ends were being pushed outside, revealing its flesh by a small margin. Following that it released a tremendous heat from its entire ginormous body, which caused it to slim down. As the heat inside its body was released, it made more than enough space for the surrounding primordial energy and mana, which it absorbed greedily. With that, it filled its body with as much energy as possible, while Jason and Jennifer were running for their life as they realized what was going on. "A territorial fight!" Jennifer just exclaimed, not sure whether she should be excited to be caught amidst an ensuing battle or not. It had already been weird for the Earth Dragon to emerge near them, but before they had assumed that the beast respected the borders with its neighbor, preventing it from attacking and killing her and Jason. Yet, this didn''t seem to have been the case. Instead, it had started to prepare itself for a life-and-death battle with a formidable force that wanted to take over its territory. Territories were amongst the most important in the Ninad beast realm as one could reap a huge number of benefits with them. Controlling weaker beasts by allowing them to stay inside their territory was also possible, but not something that would make any sense right now. After all, two gigantic powerhouses were bound to fight soon enough. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 869 - Wandering Soul Running straight in the borders between the two territories, Jason and Jennifer didn''t have any time to look back., They had to flee from the fighting beasts as well as the several hundred mana fluctuations that were pursuing them. The bigger problem was definitely the fact that two powerful powerhouses were bound to fight against each other at any moment. Jason had yet to see the beast the Earth Dragon would fight, but there was no way that its opponent was weak. He could deduce this based on the fact that the Earth Dragon seemed to be nervous, owing to its mana and primordial energy fluctuations. Other than that, the energy fluctuations of the beast to his right were extremely powerful and different to the three normal cultivation paths. This meant that the beast used a different type of energy that was most likely merged using at least two of the three existing major cultivation energies. In the end, this was only logical because Jason couldn''t perceive any other type of energy in the surrounding area. However, even though he hadn''t seen the beast yet, or sensed its distinct energy fluctuations, Jason was sure that its energy was somewhat familiar. At least that was what he thought when he halted in his tracks after they had put a distance of more than two kilometers between themselves and the Earth-Dragon. Jason was sure that this was barely any distance to not be embroiled in their battle but he had to ensure something first. By inserting divine energy and moonlight transmuted mana inside his Emperor Eyes, he also released his Celestia aura and activated the Stigma. This allowed his eyesight to be close to perfect to clearly see up to a radius of more than five kilometers. Using his vision allowed him to perceive the hundreds of mana fluctuations from the other side with much higher precision. But that was not all.By sensing the somewhat familiar energy fluctuations of the beast with his eyes that were slowly being unveiled, he recalled something. "The true dragon?" Jason mumbled. His memory told him that the current energy fluctuations were similar to the time he had fought the mysterious puppet that had bound the soul of a true dragon to it. Confused, he continued to stare in the direction of the beast that had finally shown up for the battle. It was enveloped by a distinct semi-translucent membrane that enveloped its body tightly, while the contours of the most important parts took on a partially translucent purplish color. Yet, what confused Jason was that he could see through the translucent mass. It was as if the beast was completely transparent and Jason could clearly see the things that lay behind the beast. As such, by looking at it, Jason was able to see the greenery behind the beast, which caused him to exclaim in great astonishment. "A Soul! It''s a soul¡­how the hell is that possible?!" Seeing how a ginormous, fifteen-meter large four-armed gorilla was running through the dense and tall trees that could barely reach its calves was enough to terrify anyone out of their wits. In fact, the semi-translucent mass was the gorilla itself, while Jason had no idea of the purpose of the contours. Whether they had a specific motive, or only strengthened the four-armed gorilla was unknown. If he were to think of a specific motive, it would probably be making the manifested soul more visible but that was it. It might even be a special trait, but that was definitely not something Jason could know for sure because he had witnessed such a being only once. And that was when he was inside the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant, which was a place that was created by the primordial races for their descendants! With that in mind, the Gorilla that was using the same odd energy as the true dragon soul could be considered as something extraordinary. At this moment, Jason recalled the last words of Linus, which caused him to understand something that was previously hidden from him. "That''s a wandering soul¡­I guess? So, does that mean there are more of them?" He was not sure about his assumption, but seeing how the Four-armed gorilla used the unique energy that enveloped its body,, he couldn''t help but feel intimidated. It had a faint purplish tint and had transformed its appearance by a slight margin Its features became sharper, making the gorilla look more formidable. It was almost as if it was suddenly wearing an armor, and was ready to fight against Gods, but had to face the puny Earth-Dragon. After emerging out of the forest, the four-armed gorilla catapulted itself into the air as four balls of compressed energy manifested in its hands. As the gorilla threw them towards the Earth Dragon, it saw the Earth Dragon''s shrunken body inflate slightly. This allowed it to become the same towering appearance like before. In retaliation to the four compressed balls of energy that flew towards it, the Earth Dragon shot seveal earth spikes towards the incoming attacks. Unfortunately, the properties of the compressed energy balls were too destructive, turning the earth spikes into pieces of loose chunks of soil before anything else could happen. This clearly showed the difference in strength between the two parties. It angered the Earth dragon, forcing it to retaliate as it opened its maw widely. Mana and primordial energy were gathered inside its mouth, taking a brownish color as the Earth Dragon''s affinity transmuted both merging energies. It then fired those towards the compressed energy balls, destroying them with the beam of transmuted earth mana and primordial energy. The two beasts had yet to enter a close combat clash, or each other''s territory, but Jason''s eyes were already aching due to the enormous energy currents that were filling the surroundings. In fact, the distance between the Earth Dragon, and the wandering soul of the four-armed Gorilla was more than two kilometers, yet, they were already fighting fiercely against each other. Utilizing their cultivation energies as some sort of long-range weapons, they devastated the surrounding, causing strong wind currents to brush past Jason''s face. These simple wind currents were almost strong enough to force him to retreat, lose his balance, and fall on the ground. This was shocking, and it didn''t take much effort for him to understand that the battle in front of them was something normal Specta stage powerhouses could accomplish. Because of that, he began to retreat, knowing that the two-kilometer distance from the Earth Dragon was not enough. In fact, it was not even close to enough, which was something they could see clearly. Meanwhile, their pursuers were unable to come close to them, which gave Jason and Jennifer the time to flee. However, at the same time, he didn''t want to leave because his eyes were glued to the wandering soul. Something about it made his soul world core itch, which hadn''t happened since forever. There were times when the soul world core had reacted, and every single time it had told him something special. He could vividly recall the core telling him that the crystal in which Solaris had been stored was something he had to bind to his soul. As such, he didn''t want to run away from the wandering soul, but before he was able to do anything, Jennifer had already dragged him along. She could feel that Jason was reluctant to leave and engrossed in watching the battle, but she couldn''t let him risk their lives, not when there could be astray attacks or their pursuers closing in on them. With that in mind, she ignored Jason''s urge to stay back and flew into the air. Two sets of wings sprouted out of her back as she exerted her movement technique, flying away with the highest speed she could attain. This way they finally left the battlefield behind. Soon enough, Jason was bound to learn many things about his soul world and possibly the truth behind the soul world awakening! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 870 - Desire After leaving the fighting beasts behind, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit weird. First of all, there were too many questions in his mind, including the fact of how wandering souls were birthed, to begin with. However, that was not all because he felt a sharp pull towards the manifested soul. His soul world core was dragging him forward which was great and somewhat bad at the same time. After all, he had no idea how dangerous the four-armed Gorilla truly was. The only thing Jason knew for sure was the fact that the manifested soul of the four-armed Gorilla was using a different kind of energy, and that he could bind it. Rather, it was almost as if the wandering souls were perfect for him to bind to his soul world. However, that was not something he could be sure of because something felt off to him though, he was just not sure what exactly it was. Unfortunately, he was unable to think about it anymore. Jennifer''s strength was much stronger than his resistance. Owing to this, their distance from the devastated battlefield increased at a rapid pace. As their distance increased, Jason felt that the pull he had been feeling earlier was lessening. It was only a slow decrease in the pull his soul world core was feeling, but it was little enough for Jason to ignore it for good. As such, he was able to fly by himself, and not to be dragged behind Jennifer. Seeing that he was no longer in thoughts, Jennifer let go of him. Flying next to her, Jason shook his head, trying to free it from all kinds of weird thoughts before they continued to advance in a specific direction. At the same time, they avoided being attacked by other beasts easily while flying through the borders of the surrounding territories. As they flew through neutral territories, there were no problems at all, and not even the pursuers were able to reach them. After all, there was a fight between two powerhouses going on right in front of them. With that in mind, Jason was able to avert his attention to focus on all kinds of questions he had in mind. Amongst them, most were about the wandering souls, their strengths, weaknesses, how they were created, and so on. However, there were also other questions because he had yet to figure out how many people were nearby, and if they could stay somewhere without attracting unwanted attention. This was definitely a challenge to find out by themselves. Jason could tell that they should pass by the closest shelter to the Shadow walker''s alliance, in order to avoid inviting trouble to descend on them so early. Because of his simple plan to avoid the Shadow walkers, for the time being, Jason proposed to fly for a month or so before they would try to enter a settlement. A month was a long time for them because they were still young, but considering that cultivators lived a very long life this time was nothing. The only thing they had to ensure was their survival and overcoming every threat paved in their way. Jennifer agreed to his suggestion while once again grasping his hand before giving him a vibrant smile. Her thoughts about Luna, her former master, seemed to have disappeared from her mind for the time being. Currently, Jennifer was only able to see Jason, right in front of her. This caused conflicted emotions to arise within him because he had told himself to hold back from doing anything. Yet, as he stared into her eyes, Jason was sure that this was not working anymore. Without even saying anything, they knew what they felt for each other. Everything they were feeling was not one-sided, a fact that was evident based on their eyes that shone with the happiness of having each other around. With that sole thought in his mind, Jason couldn''t help but smile brightly in return. Pulling her closer with the hand that was holding hers, his other hand was slowly reaching for her head. Gently holding the side of her head, Jason''s eyes took in the details of her face, the way her eyes crinkled at the corners when she smiled and a loose strand of her hair that was tickling her cheek. Everything else had become insignificant. Seeing the bright glint in his eyes, and anticipating what he would do next made her heart thud frantically. She knew that the things her wild imagination had visualized thousands of times before were finally about to happen. Before, she had felt a little bit scared about everything that was bound to happen to them. But right now, just like Jason, Jennifer was only able to see him, and everything else in the surrounding area blurred. When he pulled her closer towards him, she couldn''t suppress her urges anymore. The small flame of desire that had been hidden in the depths of her body was finally igniting. Now, it was roaring in her mind, asking her to act on the thoughts she had imagined countless times. Thus she gave in to her desire and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Jason was too slow for her. Thus, she decided to take the initiative and neared his head to the point that their noses touched. They were so close that they could feel each other''s rapid breaths on their skin. Unable to hold himself back anymore, Jason could only feel that his little monster began to twitch in his pants, getting hard. Yet, instead of rushing things, Jason decided to take it slow while telling himself. ''One step at a time¡­'' With that thought in mind, Jason tilted his head a little before his lips curled upwards. Jennifer''s eyes were shining with a distinct gleam, indicating to him that she didn''t want to stop, not right now before anything had happened. His eyes were only focused on Jennifer and nothing else. They slid to her lips that were slightly parted. Unable to hold back anymore, he simply pressed his lips on hers. This sudden move startled Jennifer, but it didn''t feel bad. On the contrary, the kiss they shared was incredibly soft and warm. Despite wanting to devour her, Jason willed himself to be slow and patient. A tingling sensation spread through her entire body as butterflies rioted in her stomach. But after their first hesitant kiss, Jennifer''s initial tension subsided as excitement filled her entire being. Wanting more of him, she pulled him even closer with her arms swung around his neck. Only now did she notice that her wings had stopped moving, and was surprised at herself. The moment Jason noticed this, he slid his hand around her waist and pulled her towards him. At this moment, she felt something hard between her legs, causing her cheeks to flush red. Knowing what was pressing on her soft thighs, she was unable to look down. Her eyes fell shut as she forced herself to keep her hands wound around his neck and not roam around his body. She didn''t want to be pushy and do things she was not yet ready for¡­or maybe she was? All her self-control dissolved to dust when Jason pulled her again and captured her lips in his. He held her close so as to not even leave a single millimeter of space within them. As their bodies collided yet again, Jeniffer returned his kiss. Being inexperienced, both could only do what they thought to be correct, causing them to be a little clumsy. Nevertheless, the kisses they shared were sweet, filled with the desire that had been held back for a long time. Both of them had grown increasingly fond of each other ever since their first meeting. The unexpected turn of events inside Kinra Island had separated them by force, and this separation had made them realize what they meant to each other. Even after reuniting, they were focused on getting stronger and saving Jennifer from the clutches of her pursuers. They had waited for a long time and they were still on the run. But, somehow, they felt that it was the right thing to do. Thus, their suppressed emotions of almost four years were resurfacing, as their kisses grew hungrier and impatient. Unsure of how much time had passed, both of them felt as if every single moment brushed past them like a storm. Jason had lost track of time, and his willpower to take it slow was slowly crumbling. It was as if his hands had acquired a mind of their own and didn''t want to be glued to her waist anymore. After staying idle for the entire time, they were eager to move, just like his little monster that bulged against his pants. Yet, just as his hands dared to dip lower and roam leisurely over her soft curves, an ear-splitting roar resounded through the surrounding area like a thunderstorm. This caused both of them to stiffen, momentarily freezing Jason on the spot. Meanwhile, Jennifer, who was drowning in the sensation of being kissed was a little annoyed at the disturbance. They were not sure what was going on, and, in fact, they didn''t even know where they were anymore. As such, the two of them were forced to separate from each other rather reluctantly. Unfortunately, the surrounding area didn''t give much leeway to continue what they had started. So, staring in the direction of the roar, he couldn''t help but curse inwardly. ''You piece of shit!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 871 - Resolve While Jason was cursing inwardly, Jennifer''s face was flushed. She was embarrassed about what had just happened, not sure what exactly had overcome her to explode like this. In the end, she couldn''t even completely understand her own desires anymore because she had never felt or reacted like this. As such, she didn''t dare to look into Jason''s eyes, feeling that she would start crying out of nowhere. Her emotions were currently a huge tangled mess, and as weird as they had never been before. She was torn between disappearing from his sight owing to her bold moves and pulling him close again to continue feeling the softness of his lips. Jennifer was unsure of what would happen to her the moment she was to take even a single glance at Jason. Yet, when Jason turned around to give her a slow smile, he stiffened for a moment. His Emperor Eyes were able to see the hues of the emotions she was feeling to a certain extent, and the same applied to her energy fluctuations. Because of that, it was not difficult for him to realize that Jennifer was feeling nervous about what had just happened to the extent that she was feeling anxious. Seeing this, Jason was momentarily confused, but instead of doing nothing and staring at her like an idiot, he gently cupped her face and raised her head to look her in the eye. At this moment he saw a single tear in the corners of her eyes. Wanting to comfort her, he softly kissed her lips before whispering against her ear. "Are you okay?" His breath tickled her ear and she felt tingles all over her body again. Her eyes closed again and he could hear her heartbeat that seemed loud enough to be heard from miles away. Feeling her excitement motivated him to keep going. However, Jason was also aware of the fact that their current position was certainly not great, even less if one were to consider that they were fleeing from several hundred pursuers. As such, holding Jennifer''s face in his hands, he smiled, and consoled her, even though he had no idea what was going on in her little head. Seeing that Jason didn''t push her away when she had almost forced herself onto him, Jennifer sighed in relief, as fresh tears trickled down her cheeks. This caused Jason to feel as if he did something wrong, and his excitement died down, replaced by worry. Using the sleeves of his shirt, he tried to wipe away her tears, but he was just clumsy. The fact that she was suddenly sobbing made him feel a little bit uneasy. ''Did I do something wrong? Am I such a bad kisser that I made her cry? Or did she not want to kiss me at all?'' An extremely uncomfortable feeling arose within him, but Jason was unable to do anything against it. This helplessness ate at his heart, which was something that hadn''t ever happened before. Yet, when Jennifer grasped his hand and intertwined her fingers in his, and gave him a radiant smile, he felt that everything was alright in the world. A sudden relief spread through his body, releasing the tension that had shortly accumulated. "I''m fine¡­Or rather, I''m perfectly fine. Shall we go?" Jennifer''s voice was low, and she had begun to stutter a little bit. But seeing that her face was still flushed and red with embarrassment, Jason couldn''t even think of teasing her right now. Instead, he grasped her hand and nodded his head in response. Pulling her along, he flew away with her in the opposite direction of the beast''s roar. Coincidentally, it was the same as the direction from which their pursuers would arrive¡­or maybe it was not a coincidence? Flying side by side, they spent a month traveling through the Ninad beast realm. On their journey, they even passed through three human settlements without stopping even once. They had encountered many humans, whether they were stronger or weaker, but never had anyone stopped to take another look at them, or rather Jennifer. Rather, everyone avoided him and Jennifer as if they had released a repellent. However, being ignored was not something bad, not in their current situation. Instead, it was great because it spared them from focussing on possible attacks and instead getting to know each other even better. This would further help them to cultivate, to spar, and to practice their martial art techniques. Practicing the Kanadi of a Primordial technique was also essential but in order to practice it even once, they were forced to halt for several hours. After all, they had to bathe in a tub that was filled with warm water, a nutrition solution, and many cultivation stones placed around the bathtub. As such, their to-do list was overflowing with all kinds of tasks, and in the month that passed, they were unable to unleash the same desire as on that one day. This didn''t mean that their feelings for each other had died down, or that they didn''t want each other anymore. However, the issues glaring at them needed to be addressed first. Jason couldn''t help but feel uncomfortable knowing that they were in lands Jennifer was not even supposed to be able to enter. Literally, anything could happen if someone were to show even the slightest interest in them. The fact that Jennifer was not a human from Argos was enough to make people look at the pair in suspicion. And, in order to protect her, Jason knew that spending more time on cultivating and practicing the Kanadi of a Primordial technique was imperative. It was the most important to guarantee Jennifer''s safety, which had become his high priority. Apart from his soulbonds that were his family, and also a part of his soul, body, and entire being, Jennifer had become the most important person to him. As he could not protect her by sending her inside his soul world like his other soulbonds, he had no other choice but to become stronger to protect her. It was not difficult for Jennifer to notice what Jason was doing, and she would never hinder him from achieving his goals even if it was for her sake. She didn''t want to distract him just because she wanted to continue to proceed with what they had stopped. After all, they were still spending a lot of time with each other in which lots of unspoken things were happening. It was just not to the same extent as the first time! With that in mind, complaining was a luxury they couldn''t afford right now. Instead of throwing a tantrum, she wanted to become a pillar of support for Jason, and protect him in the moments he was unable to do that by himself. As such, even she wanted to be strong just as was the case for Jason. Becoming stronger as a way to show how much they valued each other¡­or at least for Jennifer, this was the case. Except for her master telling her to become stronger, she never really had a proper reason to do so, but now that wasn''t the case. After having lost her master when Luna abandoned Jennifer, she had lost the motivation to become stronger. In the end, this spark only returned when she reunited with Jason, and the amount of strength she required to stay by Jason''s side was gradually increasing. After all, he was the descendant of a Primordial race! His strength was gradually increasing, and his secondary bloodline awakening would increase his power and cultivation talent by several times once again. Thus, she was bound to become an unnecessary burden to Jason in the future, which was something she couldn''t accept! As such, Jason had turned into her resolve to become stronger. She would do everything required to stay by his side, even if he were to feel like annihilating other races. That¡­was the extent to which her love for Jason had reached! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 872 - Settlement In the month they had spent to increase the distance between the pursuers and themselves, Jennifer and Jason hadn''t slept much. Fortunately, this was not a big problem anymore, and once they were to enter the Ascendion stage, they wouldn''t need to sleep at all. This was, at least what Jason had heard, and seeing how fit Jennifer was by barely having entered the Ascendion stage, he couldn''t help but feel that it was most likely to be the truth. In the end, this was great, but at the same time quite disadvantageous, because every single human who pursued them was most likely also at the Ascendion stage. Nevertheless, Jason was not worried about them being found because the fight between powerful beasts could take minutes, hours, or possibly even days. Additionally, the borders separating two territories were relatively small, and not even a handful of people could fly next to each other. The danger would further intensify when one of the beasts that reigned the territory would feel its land being threatened. Thus, they had to be careful about what they were doing in order to prevent being killed themselves. With that in mind, they continued to fly at their highest speed while partially ignoring some territories that evidently belonged to weaker beasts. Skirting through their borders, they changed their direction slightly. Because of that, they shouldn''t be found out in the next few months. This would be more than enough for him and his soulbonds to become much stronger. It would hopefully be to the extent that Mid Ascendion stage Cultivators wouldn''t pose a threat to him and Jennifer anymore. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done, and it would take longer than a year for him to reach that threshold. After all, it required at least 3 million drops of liquefied mana in order to establish an extremely powerful thread that connected his soul to the vessel he cultivated. To be precise, even if he were to cultivate for five years with his current absorption rate, he wouldn''t reach the three million mana drops. This confused Jason greatly, which caused him to ask Jennifer about the issue he was facing. In the end, she had three vessels that were already forming their connection to her soul. As such, she must have liquefied three million drops of each cultivation energy, or there was something else he had forgotten about. "You want to liquefy three million drops of mana and establish a complete connection between your soul and your mana core from the beginning¡­are you insane?" Being called ''insane'' was something he hadn''t heard for a long time. But upon seeing Jennifer''s expression in addition to hearing her words, Jason couldn''t help but smile foolishly. "So¡­I can start creating the connection between my mana core and soul earlier?" Right now he felt as foolish as his smile was, but fortunately enough, Jennifer noticed that he was asking her in all seriousness. This caused her to be even more dumbfounded than just a moment ago as she blurted out, "You can always start forming the mana thread before testing it. You can form a connection between the mana core''s mana thread and the soul world core''s soul thread. In some cases, this is possible after only 100,000 mana droplets have been used to form a drop. While in other cases, you need more than one million mana droplets to achieve the same result. I don''t know if that has to do with the innate talent of someone or not, but I required around one million droplets each in order to connect my threads to my soul. Apparently, that is already considered to be quite early. But even then it took me two more years to establish a proper connection to be able to break through the barriers of the Ascendion stage. If you have a few hundred thousand mana droplets, just give it a try. Your mana droplets are stronger than that of others, to begin with. Hence, I think you might even be able to form a shallow connection with your soul right off the bat!" For the first time in what felt like an eternity to him, Jennifer felt that she was extremely useful. It was a rare case when she knew something Jason had been oblivious to. As such, she puffed her chest, flinging her hair back, and blowing air on her nails to show a proud expression to Jason. He found her behavior amusing and could only smile at her. During the last month, Jennifer had begun to act a little bit more childish and playful around him. However, that was not something Jason would complain about because he felt that she was adorable. Lovingly patting her hair, he thanked Jennifer before his attention diverted to the information she had shared. Thus, his hand was moving slower, and Jennifer, who had hoped for more appreciation as a reward, couldn''t help but pout. Yet, it was only a minute later that she was confused about her own behavior. ''Am I just demanding too much, or is he just too slow? It''s him¡­right?!'' Taking his hand that had stopped patting her, she just pulled him further ahead alongwith herself, trying to ignore her intent to shout at him for being so slow-witted. Instead of shouting, she was able to control herself. This allowed Jennifer to continue approaching the direction in which Jason had perceived thousands of faint traces of mana fluctuations. Under normal circumstances, this could mean that there were beasts, but Jason was already able to differentiate mana fluctuations with incredible precision. And that was the case even if their distance was more than ten kilometers from the position of the mana fluctuations. With that in mind, Jennifer ignored her slight frustration as she pulled Jason towards the settlement that swam into her view shortly after. Pinching Jason to take a small, but satisfying revenge, Jennifer forced him out of his train of thoughts. He was busy telling Solaris and Artemis about what he had just gotten to know. Following that, both his soulbonds that had already accumulated several hundred thousand mana droplets were attempting to build a connection between their soul and vessel. Only when Jennifer pinched him did he regain his senses, and his conscience leaving the soul world. Before leaving he also noticed that Petri and Spyro were also about to enter the Peak of the Prismar stage. As such, each of his soulbond was already considered to be extremely powerful, but unfortunately, that was not enough yet. Somehow, Jason felt as if his time was running out since he had left the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant. That was mostly the case owing to the opponents he fought, and the rewards he could have chosen from. The rewards he could have picked were certainly grand and what a cultivator dreamt of. But, there were more things he needed than the stuff he didn''t need. Their grading was extremely high too, and realization had struck him about the possible strength the Primordial races might have attained. After all, Jason was sure that the treasury he had entered was only something that had been customized to his current strength! In the end, this was not something Jason could be sure about. But he was relatively confident in his assumption that the treasury had been customized for his sake. This was because it had focused on both of his bloodlines, the things he required to do literally everything he had in mind, and so on. There were even things he might require without having thought about it. Even the seemingly useless things had a specific purpose which Jason only figured out when he had already left the dungeon. With that in mind, he knew that he had yet to see the true power of the Primordial races, which was a little intimidating. And in order to counter them, Jason needed to find something that might help him to become much stronger in a short time. And, the true soul awakening was exactly what this was! The only issue was to find the necessary items for both of his bloodlines so that they could undergo their true soul awakening. Yet, this was much more difficult than he initially assumed. However, oddly enough, Jason was confident that the ginormous settlement in front of them was exactly the place they had been looking for, with everything they needed inside! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 873 - Misunderstanding Relieved that their search had ended, they shot towards the settlement, cutting the distance at a rapid pace. Everything seemed to work perfectly fine and there was not a single issue that they had to face. However, when they were less than five kilometers away from the settlement, many things were starting to change. First, Jason noticed that some sort of silent alarm had been initiated as they had crossed well-concealed runes. Being activated, the runes began to vibrate and the intensity only became stronger the closer they approached the ginormous settlement. This clearly told Jason that the next few minutes would be rather life-threatening for them if nobody was going to listen to him. After all, he might only be seen as a potential infiltrator, but Jennifer was different. She was not even a human and perfectly concealing her three merged energies was not possible either. This meant that she was unable to hide her identity of belonging to a different race, in a perfect manner. As such, Jason believed that a few problems stood in his way. However, it seemed to be a lucky day for him because there were only two humans who flew towards them. Yet, after perceiving their energy fluctuations, Jason''s heart sunk into his stomach with worry gleaming in his eyes as he mumbled, "How can they cultivate in the mysterious energy?" His first thought upon seeing the two human Cultivators was that they were wandering souls but the closer they came, the clearer view Jason got of them. Thus, he quickly realized that the humans who approached him with a rapid speed were not only between the Initial and Low ranked of the Ascendion stage, but that they were made of flesh, and certainly not souls that had materialized out of thin air. Unfortunately, this only worsened the situation for Jason. Both of them cultivated with the mysterious energy both the mysterious puppet and the wandering soul of the Four-armed Gorilla had used. Owing to this, Jason instantaneously knew that the two opponents were dangerous and stronger than normal Cultivators with the exact same cultivation base. This made things a little bit difficult and turned the killing intent that seeped out of their body even more formidable. To him, they looked as if they were ferocious, starved beasts! Jason couldn''t help but feel that this was a huge disadvantage to him. But, when he looked into the air, he was unable to not smile. The sun had just gone up and the bright sunlight shone on his body. However that was not all because the moon was still fully visible, and the faint moonlight spilled on the beings that lived far away from it. Initially, Jason found it a little weird for a realm to possess something like a sun or moon. Despite that, Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly as moonlight transmuted mana coursed through his body. Right now, the moonlight affinity was much stronger than under normal circumstances during a seemingly ordinary morning. Instead of enhancing every single trait of something it intertwined by 30%, which was already an exceptional enhancement for a support affinity, the current enhancement it provided was way higher, at least at 50%! Thus, Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly as he allowed Artemis to enter his mana core owing to her being the strongest soulbonds he possessed. She gave him the highest amplification, but even without an enhancement, Jason would be confident to defeat powerful opponents at the Low Ascendion stage. Owing to her shared strength, he probably wouldn''t run into any problem when he faced the opponents that were still two kilometers away from him. "They''re more dangerous than ordinary humans, try to avoid them." Jason said this to warn Jennifer, but seeing the resolve in her eyes, it seemed to be quite difficult for her to hold back. She had also noticed that something was off the moment she saw Jason staring in one particular direction. Jennifer was only able to see small black dots in her peripheral vision, but they were growing at a rapid pace. It was not long before she was able to see the facial expressions of two young men who were enraged. However, even then, Jason wasn''t the first to attack and make a move. Instead of doing something he would regret later, Jason looked at the humans who were now less than a kilometer away from them as he shouted. "Why the killing intent? Are guests not allowed?" If they didn''t allow guests, leaving would be the easiest and safest option because he wanted to avoid getting into trouble, and not to jump straight into it. Despite that, Jason felt like the settlement in front of him would be quite helpful for his future, which caused him to feel a little confused, asking the two questions he had previously in mind. Yet, after receiving an answer from one of the young men, Jason was not really sure what he should think of the given situation. "OBVIOUSLY we release the killing intent because we want to kill the vixen next to you!! We don''t accept ANY other races than those who are direct descendants of Primal humans! Nobody except the few races of humans are allowed to stay in the Ninad beast realm!" His confusion was clearly visible, and when Jennifer turned towards him, she couldn''t help but shrug her soldiers and smile dryly. "It looks like I''m not really welcome¡­in this entire realm?" Before, she hadn''t been attacked, but Jennifer also noticed that the humans in front of them were cultivating with a different energy. As such, while the humans from Argos had not even spared another glance at Jennifer, the same was not the case for the beings in front of them. Hearing about the ''direct descendants of Primal humans'', Jason thought that he understood what the young man was talking about. After all,, his customized inheritance inside the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant was something of a merged inheritance clubbed together using both his Celestia bloodline and that of his human side. Thus, he had already expected that his ''weaker'' bloodline had something to do with Primal humans as they seemed to have been able to bind the manifested souls. Yet, after sensing that the humans in front of him were circulating the mysterious energy through their bodies, he presumed them to be even closer to the Primal humans'' bloodline than the humans from Argos! There might be something he was missing out on, but Jason could clearly sense that humans from Argos and those who belonged to the same race as the two humans who were charging towards him co-existed in the same settlement. Because he was able to see this through his Emperor Eyes, Jason was clear that he would be accepted in the settlement. But the problematic case was with Jennifer. As such, the safe option for him would be to abandon her, which Jennifer was also clearly noticing. The thought made her feel restless for a moment as her worries about being abandoned, once again, resurfaced. She was breathing irregularly, and it looked like she was entering a shocked state. Jennifer had begun to hyperventilate and was unable to cope with the situation. Even though Jason knew that Jennifer''s mental health was a little bit complicated, he didn''t think it was worrisome. She was a strong girl who had overcome the blows of both her parents as well as her former master abandoning her, in addition to her father telling her that she didn''t exist. Hence, he believed that if the situation demanded him to do so, he would be forced to make her think she would be abandoned once again. Sensing his, he pulled her closer to him and gently rubbed her back before he placed a light kiss on her cheek as he said. "Just wait here, okay? I''ll beat a little sense in them, and then we can look at what we have to do next, alright?" Hearing his reassurance made Jennifer calm down before he turned around to the two young men who were not far away from them anymore. Anger surging up within him, he manifested Artemis'' wings, before he shot towards his opponents. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 874 - Youths? With Artemis'' wings accelerating his speed, Jason appeared in front of the closest human just a few seconds later. He was holding a shortsword, but that didn''t bother Jason. Instead of evading the sword''s slash, Jason accepted it readily as he manifested huge chunks of ice out of his arm and lifted it. Facing the sword with his normal ice affinity would be suicidal, but after intertwining the moonlight affinity with the ice affinity, it was more than enough to face the simple sword slash. The young man opposite him was not even circulating any energy through his sword, evidently reluctant to injure him. But, he didn''t show the same partiality to Jeniffer. After all, it was crystal clear that he had been out to injure Jennifer without any hesitation. And Jason, who knew this, didn''t think of wasting this great opportunity, as he enveloped the young man''s entire sword arm with several layers of ice before launching an attack. Leveraging himself above his opponent using the fact that his own arm was a little stuck in the huge chunk of frozen ice blocking the arm of his opponent, Jason used every inch of strength within his body to kick his opponent in the neck. Even though he was close to killing the young man in a single attack, Jason had intentionally missed his targeted area and broke his collarbone instead of his neck. After this, the impact caused the ice to break, and the young man was flung several meters to the side. Because they were flying in the air, the young man was bashed into the ground like a rock. He was unable to move for a few seconds before he felt insufferable pain coursing through his upper body. Jason might have felt a little bit guilty about this if he were to be only sparring with someone, however, he knew that Jennifer''s life was on the line. As such, he didn''t feel any regret about not having held back in his attack. He then turned his attention to the other man, who had shot towards Jennifer. Perceiving the man''s killing intent, Jason quickly exerted the Hermes Celeration technique with his moonlight transmuted mana, and a portion of his replenished divine energy. Only a moment later, he unleashed his Celestia aura and activated his stigma in order to further accelerate himself. Within the blink of an eye, he had reached a terrifying speed that created faint ripples of air around him as he shot ahead like a comet. His high speed allowed him to emerge next to the opponent who was only a few meters away from Jennifer. She wasn''t waiting for her opponent idly and had also geared up for the fight. But before the human could even raise his hand to attack her, Jason''s fist connected with his side as he punched hard into his waist. The sound of breaking bones could be heard, and Jason was unable to keep himself together either as his fists began to ache heavily. This caused him to feel a little bit odd because he was pretty sure that the second young man was only a little bit stronger than his friend in terms of cultivation base. Yet, a low tingle in his fingers made him look at his hand, where he saw that two bones had cracked a little. Even if he was not in his most powerful form right now, this was still astonishing. And, as he looked at the young man whose waist seemed fine with no visible deformation, he felt a little bit astonished. Nevertheless, instead of looking at the young man he had flung backward, Jason circulated the purest form of his moonlight affinity, and divine energy through his hand in an effort to tend to the broken bones as quickly as possible. As the two bones were cleanly broken into two pieces, it wouldn''t take long to be healed, even less with the capabilities he had. However, this didn''t mean that he could avert his focus from the young man. His opponent''s body was suddenly enveloped in a thick translucent membrane that revealed faint black traces The outlines had an uncanny resemblance to a humanoid Lizard, but from the looks of it, the transformation was still underway. It almost looked like the young man was unable to control himself properly. Having no idea about what was going on, Jason could only look at the young man and the transforming membrane. As he watched in a daze, it slowly took the form of a bipedal being, resembling the earth dragon he had seen before to a great extent. This astonished Jason greatly, and looking at the situation that unfolded in front of him, he could only wonder about one thing. ''Did he bind a wandering soul to himself??'' What he was currently seeing was certainly different from what humans from Argos were capable of doing. Jason presumed that he could also bind the wandering souls owing to his soul world core''s reaction. However, he couldn''t really be sure of that because none of the other humans from Argos had done this before¡­or, if they had, he simply didn''t see it! The fact that he had not come across anyone who had bound a wandering soul didn''t mean that it was not possible at all. But, after thinking about Linus, or the other humans from the settlement, they should have all been eager to bind a wandering soul. Not only were the wandering souls extremely powerful, but their soul amplification should be interesting too. And by looking at the young man, Jason couldn''t help but feel that he knew why his bones gave in so easily. The young man was screaming out in pain, and unable to control what was happening to the wandering soul that began to envelop him. "He bound a beast that was too powerful for him!" Mumbling this to himself, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit odd. Even though the young men had wanted to kill Jennifer, a closer look at them told him and Jennifer that they were not even close to their age. They were at most 16 years old, which was shocking. Yet, instead of dwelling on this, Jason felt that there might have been a misunderstanding between them. As such, without thinking about killing the young man, he shot towards the screaming youth as he offered him some respite from his pain. "Listen carefully! If you don''t want the wandering soul to take over your body, look me into the Eyes, NOW!" After asking Petri to replace Artemis, he had momentarily fused with the Cursed Basilisk, before manifesting his reptilian eyes. Through this, the curses Petri harbored became much stronger, and with the additional use of divine energy and the strengthened moonlight affinity, the two curses, and his abyssal effect were more than enough to take take the young man out. The only issue was that he had to look into Jason''s eyes which he seemed reluctant to do. "LOOK!" Jason thus shouted once again as his aura that had been transmuted by Petri''s fusion pierced through the wandering soul that was being released by the youth. At the moment the King''s aura of Petri pierced into the young man, forcing his eyes to open. With a shocked expression, he faced every single effect or ability Jason had, as the highest enhanced curses and abyssal effect were displayed in their true glory. Within a moment, the youth passed out, and the wandering soul retracted. Jason could barely regain enough strength to break the young man''s fall, who was about to crash into the ground, just like his friend. At his moment, Jason couldn''t help but smile dryly, feeling a little bit weak because forcing the youth to lose his consciousness had been much harder than expected. ''The mysterious energy enhanced his mind far more than it is the case with someone cultivating in the path of Spiral!'' As this realization sunk in, Jason, who was holding the youth, found something even more astonishing. He was wondering what kind of race the youth belonged to. As far as he knew, not a single human from Argos should be able to reach the Ascendion stage¡­at the age of 16! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 875 - Tending To "They''re pretty young, aren''t they? Probably younger than we are!" Jennifer mumbled while looking at the youth Jason was still holding. Jason couldn''t help but feel that this was a little bit shocking, but when he gave it some thought, it was pretty easy to decipher the situation. It was an easy guess if he were to consider the strong cultivation energies inside the Ninad beast realm and the fact that the young man''s combat prowess was not exactly high. Firstly, their race was likely to belong to one of the stronger ones, probably a higher, or even Grand race. This indicated that they had a strong cultivation technique and a high innate talent. At the same time, however, they had been sheltered all their life which made them perceive the silent alarm first. This made the two youths, who didn''t have much combat experience, feel like playing the heroes. Thus, on noticing a likely foe, they hastily jumped to conclusions and made them act recklessly. That was the simplest explanation Jason could figure out by looking at the youth who was sleeping soundly in his arms. He was confused as to why he was not twitching or acting up like almost everyone else he had attacked with the abyssal effect and his two curses. After thinking about it for a while, there were only two assumptions he could come up with. First was that the youth''s mind resisted his mental attacks owing to his cultivation. His second guess was that his own mind didn''t want to hurt the youth, but only send him to sleep to avoid the emergence of the wandering soul. Not sure about the correct answer, he could only continue to look at the young man. Once he descended to the ground, he dispelled Artemis'' wings. A moment later, he arrived next to the other youth that was screaming in pain. Placing the youth he was holding on the ground, he took a look at the other one. "Don''t move so much if you don''t want to feel more pain!" He simply instructed the nervous youth. Then Jason circulated the remains of his divine energy and moonlight transmuted mana through his hand before he held it close to the youth''s broken collarbone. This was already enough to help the youth relax when he realized that Jason wasn''t harming him. It released the tension within the youth as he slowly opened his eyes. "Why¡­are you healing me?" The moment he asked this, he could see his friend''s pale face whose eyes were closed. This caused him to assume that his friend had died, but he sagged in relief when he saw his chest was moving as if he was asleep. With a light frown on his face, the youth returned his attention back to Jason, only to look at Jennifer and her two sets of wings. His curiosity was piqued to notice that one of them was white-feathered, and another one was black in color. It was made of a material that looked like leather, instead of feathers. While trying to size her up, the youth felt momentarily incapable of understanding what was going on. He had heard too many rumors about the world outside the Ninad beast realm. One such rumor was that nobody except descendants of Primal humans, or those with a distinct heritage were able to enter it. However, was that really the truth, or was the young woman who looked at him with conflicted emotions, not an infiltrator of their realm? Before he was even able to answer his question, Jason slapped the youth''s shoulder after he had gotten up from the ground, telling him that he was done before he got up. "You can fly by yourself, right?" Jason asked while picking up the other youth with one arm. Hanging onto Jason''s arm for support, the youth continued to sleep. It caused the other one to look at Jason in confusion. But he nodded his head vigorously the moment the man with the golden eyes made a move towards him. He realized that Jason was about to carry him around like his friend. "I can fly, yes!!" He hastily shouted out before getting up from the ground. Only then did he notice that his collarbone hurt much less, while Jason''s complexion had turned a little bit paler than before. Seeing that the youth was fine, Jason flew into the air, followed by Jennifer. The direction they targeted was the settlement, which they flew towards without any hesitation and the fact astonished the youth. ''Are they not afraid that the others will attack them just like we did?'' Confused, he continued to lay on the ground for a few seconds, only to shake his head when he realized what he was doing right now. Charging up to Jason and Jennifer, he was just about to warn them about the few people who would possibly attack them. This was his way of saying thank you to Jason for not killing him and his friend. But before words left his mouth, the few people he wanted to warn Jason about had emerged in front of them. Jason had perceived that large streams of mana fluctuations had gathered in front of them high in the air, which caused him to halt in his tracks shortly after they had ascended. Jennifer stopped next to him, worried about what might happen, but seeing Jason''s sudden confidence, she was both confused and a little reassured at the same time. Thus, they awaited the appearance of someone, who would emerge out of the spatial portal that had manifested near them. Looking at the portal, Jason saw three humans at the Specta stage emerge from it. Two of them were humans of the new race he had no idea about. Meanwhile, the other one was a human from Argos with the spatial affinity he controlled easily. They directly looked at Jennifer with a faint frown on their face, before they averted their attention to Jason, whose golden eyes and Celestia aura piqued their interest. However, what was more surprising was the fact that he held one of their descendants in one arm, hanging down like a towel on a pole. This caused their frown to deepen, and they were about to react before they heard an overly familiar voice from behind Jason, "Please wait for me!!" It was the youth, whom they had ignored while flying towards the shelter because they knew that he was fine after having been healed by Jason. Hearing the familiar voice, the few young men halted in their tracks as the youth spotted the three of them. This caused him to let out a dissatisfied groan, "Urgh¡­". After this, he emerged next to Jason before bowing politely as he mumbled, "Hello¡­Dad¡­what are you doing here?" Having wanted to warn Jason in order to thank him, it looked like the entire situation would become much more complicated than it had been before. As such, the youth could only scratch the back of his head, only to notice that his collarbone was still hurting. Owing to this, he winced in pain which the youth''s father noticed. He immediately approached his son while ignoring Jason and Jennifer. At the same time, the other man used the mysterious energy to envelop the other youth with it, pulling him away from Jason. Jason made no effort to stop the youth''s father, knowing that he would have to explain a lot, only to hear the human with the spatial affinity ask. "What is a halfling doing here? And why can I sense divine energy radiating from you, and how come that divine energy entered the body of Jan and Niles? You are definitely a human, but I doubt you are from Argos, or a Yinar? The first question was directed at Jennifer, who had already retracted her wings. But that did little to hide her darkness and light affinity which she had released earlier followed by her energy fluctuations. Still, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit stupified, thinking that the middle-aged man with blonde hair and a broad physique was too fast in figuring out everything. After all, the middle-aged man had only released his mana fluctuations to spread it in a small radius of a few meters for a few seconds. "I¡­think I have to explain a lot, right?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 876 - Lecture Jason knew that he didn''t have to reveal everything. Even the few things he was supposed to reveal to the others were not necessarily considered a lot because it was unlikely that they would believe him, to begin with. As such, he first made up his mind and sorted the jumble of thoughts in his head. Through this, he clearly understood that the other human race was called Yinar. It didn''t look like they were bound by a soul contract, but that was not something he could tell for sure! Thus, he might have to be careful, which was easier said than done. Even the human from Argos, who was standing in front of him was at the Specta stage. He was the strongest human with a soul world Jason had ever seen. After all, humans from Argos were at most around 450 years old as the first world bridges appeared only around that time. And, to reach the Specta stage at such a young age could be considered a spectacular feat. And to add on, it was unlikely for the man in front of him to be 450 years old. Rather, he was probably much younger! With that in mind, Jason took a deep breath before he began to explain how they had entered the Ninad beast realm, and what they were doing here. All of this was majorly the truth and relatively easy to understand. Only the explanation about his divine energy was slightly more difficult because the truth in its entirety was not something he wanted to share with strangers. "I''m from Argos, and I have awoken a strong soul world with a high soul amplification. This has allowed me to bind a unique kind of soulbond with which I am able to use some divine energy. Other than that, many things have happened in the last few years, so¡­explaining everything in detail would take too long. And, it''s not something one would tell strangers. I hope this is understandable!" By claiming that he had secrets but would not share them with strangers, everybody was of the opinion that Jason was more trustworthy to the others. This was a neat psychological tactic that would, under normal circumstances, bear different results. However, the more one revealed willingly to strangers one had never met, the more unlikely the words one told others seemed. After all, who would tell everything about one''s life to others in the first meeting? And to strangers at that? When the five humans heard that Jason bound a beast that allowed him to wield divine energy, their eyes shone with jealousy. But it didn''t take much time before everyone was able to calm down, as the voice of one of the older ones rang out behind the youths. As soon as Niles and his friend had woken up from their deep slumber, they were directly interrogated. They were given no time to recover or shown even a little bit of mercy by the three men at the Specta stage. "Sooo¡­Jan, Niles, how about you two explain why you were outside the city directly after the alarm rang out? Don''t tell me you coincidentally encountered the halfling and Jason?!" Not having asked for Jennifer''s name, they simply referred to her as a halfling. This was not very nice of them, but their mind was probably focused on something else. Both the youths began to shiver the moment they were subjected to intense stares. They were so nervous that they couldn''t even think of making up a story. Instead, they revealed everything, which caused Jason to smile lightly. Meanwhile, Jennifer who was still holding his hand, patiently stood right next to him, not sure of what was bound to happen. Considering that she was not yet attacked, or already killed by the three powerhouses, the situation seemed to be under control. However, Jennifer could also vividly recall what the two youths had called her before they had initiated their attack. Thus, she had yet to figure out what was going on, and how safe she was. Meanwhile, Jason was rather calm, and his gut feeling told him that everything was fine. This was the reason he could spare his attention on reassuring Jennifer that everything was fine. "So, you two brats want to tell me that you just attacked randomly a stranger without trying to figure out if they were truly hostile, or possibly even stronger than you!?! That cannot be considered foolish anymore, but it''s plain dumb!" It was Niles'' father who reprimanded his son in an enraged voice, and the moment Niles heard this, he couldn''t help but flinch as he blurted out, "But..he is just at the Peak of the Prismar stage¡­how could we have known that he is so strong?!" The excuse was not exactly great because if Jason had wanted to kill them, he would have done so. After all, he didn''t even have the need to fight with a sword, or fuse with one of his soulbonds. "Even if my cultivation base is low, I still have five soulbonds, and a high soul amplification. So my real combat prowess is different from my cultivation. But that is something one can gauge by sensing my presence and mana fluctuations!" Jason hadn''t been asked to intervene, but the youths didn''t seem to understand what they had missed out on before their attack. As such, he cleared what they hadn''t understood in a few simple sentences! The moment Jason exposed the number of his soulbonds and the fact that he had a high soul amplification, a pair of eyes stared at him. It belonged to one of the middle-aged men from the Yinar race who understood what the ''high'' in his soul amplification truly meant. This caused him to sigh deeply as he remarked, "If you were a Yinar, you might have been able to bind multiple wandering souls¡­*sigh* what a shame!" Jason was glad that they weren''t mad at him for injuring their children, and from the looks of it the youths understood the situation a little bit too. Thus, they didn''t seem to hold any grudges against Jason. Otherwise, the middle-aged men wouldn''t accept Jennifer that easily as the human from Argos even invited the two to join them. His eyes were focused on Jason, who had revealed that he had bound five soulbonds. He had further added that at least one of it was of a unique kind and shared its divine energy with him. If the man were to know the truth, he would probably be a little bit more astonished. But Jason just smiled lightly before he asked one particular question, he was interested in. "Why did Jan and Niles release killing intent after they had sensed Jennifer? Its rumored that someone other than humans from Argos shouldn''t be able to enter the Ninad beast realm, but that is obviously not right. Not only was Jennifer able to enter it, but there is also the Yinar race! Are there maybe even more races, I do not know about?" Jason felt that he had to figure out if it was too dangerous for Jennifer to stay in the settlement, or if she would truly be accepted. He might feel interested in the settlement because it was likely to help him in specific things he had yet to solve. However, at the same time, he was not sure how everything in the Ninad beast realm worked. As such, getting to know the information was amongst the most important things he had to do. With that in mind, he had asked the question, only to receive a rather confusing answer. "Under normal means, only races that directly originated from Primal humans are able to enter the Ninad beast realm. Other than that, halflings can do the same because something about them seems to meet the same requirements as our races. However, we don''t know the exact reason for this, but we believe that the similarities between the Primal humans and halflings should be minuscule. Either way, other races can also enter the Ninad beast realm by altering their portal. This will turn the permanent entry portal with specific conditions into a temporary portal that has close to no requirement. From the looks of it, our kids thought that other races were infiltrating the Ninad beast realm.. Fortunately, that didn''t happen¡­.yet!" Chapter 877 - Yinar Jason was not really sure what to think about the answer he had received, but it was great that everything revolving around Jennifer was a misunderstanding. This relieved Jennifer the most, allowing her to fully release her tension. Not long after, the two youths seemed to receive a lecture, and shortly thereafter they left the open field. When they returned to the settlement through the spatial portal, Jason and Jennifer were allowed to follow them. Thus, they emerged in the center of the settlement only a few moments later. Everything looked rather simple, which astonished Jason a little bit. And he could clearly see the influence of the humans from Argos on the people living here. The specific devices that were utilized as well as the unique kind of constructions that could be seen everywhere could only be built by people from Argos. Jason recalled most of them, and he couldn''t help but smile a little about the reminiscence of his past on Argos. All the others could see was a smile on his face which confused them. Yet, when the middle-aged man with the spatial affinity saw where he was looking, he couldn''t help but understand Jason''s feeling, even if it was only a little. "How long has it been since you left Argos? Or were you taken away by another race, like many of us?" Jason didn''t expect to hear these questions right now. As such, he took a moment to answer these questions. "I left Argos six to seven years ago after we forced most of the hostile foreign races to leave, but they took many humans with them." There was no reason for him to lie but it still astonished the others that he had left the mana scarce planet only a few years ago. Because of that, their initial opinion of him changed by 180 degrees. After all, Jason''s cultivation in comparison to the time he had spent on a planet that was richer in mana was not even a decade. This clearly indicated that Jason''s cultivation talent was extraordinary. Thus, even the youths were astonished while looking at the young man. They had heard more than enough stories about the mana scarce planet from the humans of Argos which made them feel awed about his strength and prowess. Meanwhile, the Yinar never really had problems with the scarcity of the cultivation energies. Their connection to the Ninad beast realm had always been strong, giving them hints to find the portals without many issues. As such, while living inside the Ninad beast realm in large cities, they could still make use of the dense cultivation energies in order to cultivate. In fact, ¨ªt was not difficult to perceive that the surrounding energies were much denser than that on Manyr. It was probably an important factor to understand the high cultivation of some humans from Argos. Because the energies were so dense, Jason wanted to stay in the Ninad beast realm for as long as it was possible. His strength was not enough to undertake specific plans, either way. Additionally, the things he lacked to even start these specific plans could only be solved with time, proper research, rare materials, and wealth. During the last few months, he didn''t really possess any of that, which made the entire situation extremely difficult. Even with the wealth he and Jennifer had procured owing to the Tanadan ore and elemental crystals they had mined, it was unlikely to be enough to complete the first plan he had in mind. This plan was to allow him and Jennifer to undergo their true soul awakening. For that he needed numerous rare ingredients he didn''t even know the names of. Only with the use of the true soul awakening orb was it possible to figure out everything, which included the initiating process of the true soul awakening. As such, he had the necessary tools to do everything, but no idea what exactly he required. But his gut feeling was telling him that the large city, he was currently in, would allow him to find a few items he was looking for. Because of that, he was trying to stay calm, preventing his excitement from overwhelming him. Patience was what he required the most right now. After all, rushing his plans would only worsen everything. With that in mind, Jason knew that even if there were no items he wished to acquire from the city, it wouldn''t be a problem. He still had to practice the Kanadi of a Primordial technique, enter the Ascendion stage, undergo his secondary Celestia bloodline awakening, and figure out more about Primal humans. He was unsure how exactly he was connected to them, or what the wandering souls had to do with Primal humans, but Jason was sure of one fact! The heritage of the Primal humans had something to do with beasts, and the binding process. There were also other factors he was sure about, but the mysterious puppet he had encountered inside the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant was quite similar to the Yinar race. To be precise, the only difference Jason was able to sense between the two of them was the fact that he knew about the mysterious puppet''s restrictions. They were caused by it being a machine and not a living being, followed by the aura it radiated. As for the restriction, Jason couldn''t tell for sure what it meant. Bt he was pretty confident that it had to do with something similar to binding living beings to the body of the mysterious puppet. Though, under normal circumstances it shouldn''t have been possible. Maybe these bonds had grown weak which was why they easily shattered after having waited for thousand years for a participant to find the Chaos Obelisks. But, all of this was not something Jason could know for sure. Thus, his only clue was that the Lesser version of the Primal humans, shown through the mysterious puppet, was comparable to the Yinar race that lived in this city along with the humans from Argos! It was interesting to find out more about the Yinar race because Jason got to know that only they and the Primal humans were able to bind wandering souls. It was a singular feat even if it was only one wandering soul under normal circumstances. Binding a wandering soul, drastically strengthened them. The strength of the soul could range from the Mortal stage up to the highest possible stage. Through this, one could be considered extremely powerful, even if one had just started to cultivate, but bound a Specta stage powerhouse to one''s soul! In the end, only the control over the wandering souls was important. If one was unable to acquire great control over the wandering souls, it was best to not summon them. However, the moment one was unable to control their wandering soul while summoning it, many issues could occur. This was exactly what had happened to Jan when Jason had forced him to summon his bound wandering soul. Otherwise, Jason would have broken his waist! Apparently, there were also unique talents that could bind multiple souls to them, but Jason was not really intrigued by that. Rather, he wanted to know the origin of the wandering souls and how they could even be born. He was extremely curious to know why he sensed that the wandering souls were much more powerful when bound to one of the Yinars! Questions flooded his mind, but the powerhouses that brought them back didn''t have enough time to answer them. As such, after giving their children a punishment, they were forced to answer all of Jason''s questions. Both Jason and Jennifer were taken to the room in which they were allowed to sleep. They were not even sure whose house they had landed in, but suddenly they found themselves in a large room with a king-sized bed. Both of them were supposed to be sleeping in, together. It was not long after that Jan explained to them that they have many guests from outside owing to an upcoming event of humans from Argos. All of the guests were in a soul contract with other races, and the aim of the gathering was to reach a common consensus. Everything was initiated by the foreign races, but nobody could trust each other, which further complicated things. As such, they had to find a neutral ground where nobody had to fear being killed. They needed to feel more secure before stating their opinion of the given problems that were much more than Jason could have ever imagined. In the end, safety was the most important, and Liun, the city they had entered in, was the only place that was neutral. This was mostly owing to the fact that Liun was the only city of the Yinar race in proximity, with dozens of settlements from other races that sent out humans surrounding it. Yet, Jason was not exactly sure what the soul contracted humans of other foreign races were talking about. Were they trying to form an alliance, make a treaty, or was there something else? Could there be something huge in the Ninad beast realm that prevented them from fighting against each other to expand their territory? Jason didn''t know, and he was so deep in thoughts that he didn''t even notice Jennifer''s beet red cheeks as she looked deep into his eyes. ''We¡­are really going to sleep together?!?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 878 - Dont Pressure Yourself Liun could be considered the central area of all human settlements that were in a soul contract with foreign races. As such, during every event, they would enter the city and try to mutually solve their conflicts through a peaceful discussion. This was more important than they initially thought because the Ninad beast realm was far more dangerous than all of them first assumed. The Yinar race knew of the dangers and was not inclined to fight beings of their own race or similar races to death. There were some exceptions in which they revealed their terrifying strength. But the humans from Argos had yet to find out the true strength of the Yinar race! Because of the Yinar race''s refusal to fight similar races, they allowed humans from Argos to live in Liun and to hold a gathering to solve conflicts. They also sent one of their people to the gathering to maintain peace, and to speak up their mind if something was going against the will of the Yinar race. However, they mostly remained quiet because the humans from Argos were having more than enough issues to solve amongst themselves. After all, they were ordered to do things they didn''t want to, which was because of the orders of the foreign races most of them had soul contracts with. Everything was quite difficult if one was not able to do whatever they wanted, and one could say that most of the foreign races were talking through the humans they had a soul contract with. Thus, everything was quite complicated, which the Yinar race understood completely. This was the reason they wanted to help the races that were similar to their kind. Unfortunately, this was easier said than done. Every race was pursuing their own respective goal and benefits making it difficult for the gathering to be a success. After all, most humans couldn''t convince each other if they did not have a firm stand. They could only make promises about things they had been told. Most of them simply acted as messengers and could provide no reassurance or convey how serious the races truly were. When Jason got to know this, he began to wonder how many humans from Argos inside Liun were not under a soul contract with foreign races. This was something that intrigued him, and it allowed him to avert his attention from the fact that he and Jennifer would sleep in one room. It was not as if that had never happened before, but there was no couch in the room. So, he either had to sleep on the ground or the bed with Jennifer! Somehow, this excited him, but at the same time, Jason was fully aware of the fact that Jennifer was unlikely to be ready yet. Thus, he calmed himself down quickly before averting his attention from the bed to Jennifer whose face had gone beet red, causing him to wonder if his assumption was correct. Yet, when they made eye contact, she quickly looked away, leaving behind a confused Jason, who was unsure what exactly was going on. With the uncertainty in mind, he changed the topic as he asked, "Jen, did you notice anything suspicious about Liun or the Yinar race?" His voice sounded serious, and Jennifer''s embarrassment quickly subsided when she realized that he wanted to change the topic. "Aren''t they too nice? Not only to us but also to the messengers of the foreign races. If I were to be surrounded by more than a dozen settlements of humans that were controlled by greed-fueled races, I wouldn''t readily accept them inside my city¡­not if I were to know that they just wanted to expand their reach and exert dominance over the Ninad beast realm in the long run! Right now, the Yinar race is still much stronger than them because they''re amongst the only beings that are powerful inside the Ninad beast realm. After all, they have multiple Cultivators at the Specta stage, which is not something the soul contracted humans from Argos had reached yet¡­I believe!" Jason felt that Jennifer was acting quite cute as she was able to cover her embarrassment of the situation in their room well. Thus, he couldn''t even help himself and hide his smile as he replied to her with his observations. "But do you really know all of that? Maybe everything is a little bit different than you believe. Don''t you think they might need more people, more powerhouses, and combat strength? You must have figured out that the two youths I fought were just 16 or something around that age, right? Their cultivation was extraordinary and the wandering soul of an Earth Dragon was bound to Jan. However, even with all of this, they were not really proficient in fighting. It was almost as if their youngsters had never been forced to fight beasts outside the city. So¡­why could this be the case? Either they''ve given up on expanding their territory because they''re too peaceful, or something more powerful prevents them." In the end, none of the two was able to figure out the truth because there were too many other possibilities for almost every assumption they made. Their intel was too little, and with that in mind, Jason wanted to leave the house and take a look around the city. However, after he had used up his entire mana and divine energy, he wanted to wait until everything was replenished. Complications might occur, and without any means to defend himself properly, he would only die. Thus, he felt that he should rest a bit first. "Is it okay for you if I rest on the bed a little? If not, I''m just taking the floor." Hearing the sudden question, and change of topic, Jennifer was startled before she nodded her head. She was already sitting on the bed and leaning against the wall. She was relatively comfortable if one were to exclude the tension her entire body was overflowing with. Meanwhile, Jason had been standing for the entire time they had been talking. As such, after having received her permission, Jason slowly approached the bed too as the exhaustion of the last several months was slowly coursing through his entire body. Hence, his movements were a little sluggish as he took off the leather armor he was wearing. Meanwhile, Jennifer''s gaze was focused on him, as she awaited him to undress some more. But, only a second later, she realized what she was thinking. Thus, she slapped her cheeks, while trying to regain her senses. Yet, even after that happened, she was tempted to take a peek. Unfortunately, Jason was already wearing comfortable clothes below his leather armor, and changing them took seconds. Feeling shy, she had placed both her hands on her face. Thus, she didn''t say anything as he mumbled. "If you want to take a look, just tell me¡­ hehe." While moving towards the bed, he leaned towards Jennifer. Sensing him approach her, she removed her hands from her face. Her white skin was a stark contrast to her pinkish cheeks and seeing her be shy made him ruffle her hair lightly. "Don''t pressure yourself too much. It''s not as if we are running short of time." Even if Jason didn''t say anything specifically, or what he was talking about, Jennifer understood what he wanted to say. This caused her to feel as if a great weight was lifted off her mind which made her smile lightly. Jason might have a similar feeling of being eager and worried, but he already knew that she would give in today if he asked. However, that was not something he wanted. As such, he closed his eyes while lying on the bed, trying to fall asleep quickly Yet, just before he had managed to clear his mind of all the thoughts and visualizations about what he could do to Jennifer, he felt a cold touch on his cheek as smooth fingers lovingly caressed his hair and cheek. ''Am I really supposed to sleep now?!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 879 - I Want You. Jennifer''s heart was beating rapidly to see how close Jason was to her. They were both just a few inches away, and Jennifer couldn''t help but feel that Jason could clearly hear her heartbeat that was roaring like a thunderstorm in her ears. She was imagining all kinds of things to happen at any moment but nothing occurred, even after half an hour had passed. Yet, she didn''t feel disappointed. Instead, she smiled brightly at Jason, who was having trouble controlling his erratic breathing. Jennifer felt reassured while being next to Jason, knowing that he wouldn''t take any undue advantage of her. Though they had never spoken it out loud, she knew that there was no reason to fear being abandoned by him if she wouldn''t do what he wanted. The only one she was left with was Jason, and she would do everything in order to not lose him. As such, Jennifer would let him have her even if she was unsure if she was ready for that. However, there didn''t even seem to be the slightest possibility of Jason forcing her to do anything. This thought warmed her heart and a tingling sensation overcame her entire body. The longer she looked at Jason, the more intense this feeling became. Hence, it was only a moment later that she was lying next to him with her eyes focused on Jason''s face, wanting to memorize every single detail about him. Slowly and a little hesitantly, she stretched out her hand while lightly touching his Stigma with the tip of her fingers, before moving them along his face. It took every ounce of determination to not grab her hand and pull her close as he felt Jennifer''s smooth hand lightly caressing his cheek, causing him to almost stiffen. Only his sheer willpower prevented him from moving out of a sudden. He didn''t want to show her that he was yet to fall asleep, which was most likely what she assumed to be the case. However, Jennifer didn''t make it easy for Jason because he could sense that she was slowly approaching him. His hands under the blankets were tightly clenched, preventing him from moving, which made him feel like he was trying to imprison herself. It was the first time he was almost unable to control himself, and he never expected that suppressing his desires would be as difficult as it was right now. As such, he was using his utmost to prevent doing anything that he would regret later. For her, it was like she was watching a sleeping beauty in the form of a porcelain sculpture. And, before she knew it, her head was right in front of Jason''s. Her hand gently held up his chin, as she softly pressed her lips on his. It had been so natural for her to kiss him that she took a moment to realize what she was doing. The only thing she knew was that it felt the right thing to do. Her body had moved on her own, but tasting his soft lips didn''t feel bad. On the contrary, she felt a zap of energy coursing through her body that made her entire being feel ecstatic. She felt drawn towards Jason, his soft and warm lips, his embrace¡­and everything about him. This made her move even closer to him. Her lips didn''t want to separate from Jason''s and she was gently trying to open them with her own. Jason''s defenses were slowly crumbling and his body demanded him to give in to his desires. But against her wishes and that of his own, he used his entire willpower to push her away. If she would have continued for even just a second, he wouldn''t be sure if he would be able to hold back. Even his heart was racing as he was trying to get a grip on his roaring emotions. Thus, Jason couldn''t help but blurt out with all his remaining energy. "You know¡­what you are doing is not exactly helping me from holding back?!" Upon opening his eyes, he saw Jennifer right in front of him. Her eyes were still lingering on his lips, while she was slowly approaching him again. Yet, the moment she saw that he had opened his eyes, her entire being froze. She was astonished about the vigorously gleaming golden eyes that seemed to stare into the depth of her soul. However, the astonishment quickly subsided as she smiled subtly, pushing his arm away to move closer to his head. Once she was closer to his ear Jennifer''s desire resurfaced. Even if her mind was telling her to not rush and proceed slowly, her entire being was completely bewitched by Jason. As such, she didn''t want him to hold back anymore either! "Nobody told you to hold back!" Her voice was low, but tempting, as she gave him a sly smile. The words combined with her gaze hit the depth of Jason''s conscience, unleashing the beast within him. Using very little force, Jason grasped her shoulder and turned her over. As she lay on the mattress, Jason was now on top of her. He placed her hands on the sides to avoid falling on her. Slowly, he moved his arms close to her head and prevented Jennifer from averting her gaze. As he looked into her eyes, she felt a sudden burst of embarrassment spreading through her, sending tingles all over her body. Her heart fluttered when she saw Jason''s golden eyes that gleamed brightly along with a vivid smile on his face and his excitement which was evident. "Are you sure that is what you want?" He asked one last time in a slow voice. Though he knew she wanted what he had been waiting for, he wanted to hear from her. He would allow himself to give in to his desires only if she wanted it to. Unable to look into Jason''s eyes that burned with the raw emotion of lust, Jennifer could only try looking to the left. Her cheeks were beet-red, and she felt as if she was on fire as the tingling sensation of her entire body intensified, while her legs were pressed together in embarrassment. Yet, instead of giving in to shyness, Jennifer decided to act on her needs. Her heart was on fire as she accepted everything about Jason. Subtly nodding her head, she answered in a barely audible voice. "Yes" Hearing her answer made Jason feel as if a dam collapsed, breaking into countless pieces, releasing Jason''s suppressed desires. Slowly leaning into Jennifer, he gently moved her head to face him and planted a kiss on her lips. It was a seemingly normal kiss, but for the two of them, it was much more than that. Jennifer had expected Jason to turn into a wild beast after she straightforwardly answered him. Yet, his gentleness overwhelmed her as she returned the kiss before she even knew. Coiling her arms around his neck, Jennifer pulled Jason even closer, causing him to almost lose balance and fall on her. Yet, she showed no signs of slowing down. Instead, she began to kiss him wildly, wanting to get a taste of his sweet lips again. For years, she had wanted to be with him, yet the timing had always been wrong. After having separated on Kinra island, Jennifer had felt as if they would never meet again. However, she had never received enough time to even be really sad about their separation because there was not even a single day in which Jennifer was able to have peace in her mind. Pursued by multiple races that wanted nothing but her death, Jennifer had constantly been on the run. She had been desperate to survive and she had been on her own¡­until she reunited with Jason. He was like a steadfast rock, unmovable, and calm even in the most deadly and chaotic situations. Thus, since they had reunited, Jason had become her pillar of support, and the person she relied the most on¡­he was the only loved one she had in her life. Her love for him was different than it had been for her master. It was stronger, and more intense, causing her body to react in ways she had never felt before. Jennifer felt exhilarated, and her body seemed to have acquired a mind of its own, acting on fulfilling the desires she had shoved in the pits of her heart, carefully hidden for a very long time. While they continued to passionately kiss, they lost themselves in their lust as Jason''s hand was slowly inching towards her loosened blouse, lifting it slowly. This caused Jennifer to let out a gasp to feel his hands gently caressing her naked body. He was being very slow and was leisurely moving her hands on her skin, sending pleasant shivers down her spine. However, when she saw that her hands were lying at her sides limply, she decided to put them to good use. Grasping his collar, she held the material of his shirt tightly, almost tearing it apart. Perceiving the sudden confusion in Jennifer''s eyes, he knew that both of them were inexperienced and a little clumsy in whatever they were doing. Hearing her wildly thumping heart, he knew that she was as nervous as he was, which caused him to stop for a moment, Lifting his upper body, he smiled at Jennifer, before he grasped his shirt, and took it off his head in a single smooth movement. Jennifer had always eyed at his physique in the form of stolen glances whenever she felt that he wasn''t looking. But, seeing him shirtless made her gasp in wonder. His toned upper body that was beaten into the perfect shape after years of fights and intense training was a sight to behold. Seeing him on top of her, she would have been otherwise afraid, even more so if they were in the situation for the first time. Yet, right now, Jennifer was the complete opposite, which she didn''t even realize as she couldn''t help but look at him with the raw emotion of pure, simple need- the need to claim him for herself. The worry and tension she had felt before completely disappeared as she mumbled, "I want you!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 880 - Jealousy Hours passed since they had revealed their true feelings to each other. The gasps and moans that had filled their room had been replaced by silence and heavy breathing. Jennifer lay in the bed, her hand thrown over his chest. She was hugging him tightly, not giving him any room to even move. He was panting a little and sweat shone on his forehead. Like a cat, she had curled her body and was nudging deeper into his embrace, feeling the most secure right there. Meanwhile, Jason was feeling her warmth on his body that helped him feel relaxed. This made it seem as if his worries had dispersed, and almost like he and Jennifer were the last living existences in the entire universe. He was not sure why he was thinking like that, but it was certainly not a bad feeling, which caused Jason to smile vibrantly. Exhausted from the efforts he had made during the last few hours, and the previous arduous weeks and even months, his eyes were slowly falling shut. Falling in a deep slumber without any worries tormenting his mind, he entered a state of deep sleep that hadn''t happened in a very long time. All these past months he had been worried about finding Jennifer, saving her, and then killing Lux. As such, he had never really been at rest. And with her in his embrace, he felt like everything was right with the world for now. It was something Jason deserved after everything he had done. Just like that, an unknown amount of time had passed. So when he finally woke up and drowsily opened his eyes, Jason saw Jennifer look at him. Her eyes shone with happiness he hadn''t seen on her face since reuniting with her. She was still lying in his arms, tightly holding on to him, while her head rested on his bare chest. The moment he moved, Jennifer lifted her head and looked into his eyes lovingly. Jason was still drowsy and meant to rub his eyes when she reached for his face and captured his lips in hers. A moan escaped his lips as she gave him a deep kiss before greeting him in a cheerful voice. "Morning." It was just a single word, but Jason couldn''t help but feel that it was overflowing with Jennifer''s emotions. This caused him to smile brightly as he gently stroked through her silky hair before returning her kiss. "Morning, Jen." After that, Jason sensed his little demon twitch once again. Yet, instead of giving in to his body''s demands to start over the pleasurable, but arduous procedure from the day before, Jason simply embraced her. He was waiting for his drowsiness to disappear, but even after that happened, he didn''t want to let go of her. Everything was so peaceful, and the entire universe seemed to have magically become a place without issues. Unfortunately, this peace stayed only for a short time because Jason had already perceived that someone was approaching one room after another. He was unsure what this could mean, but one possible explanation could be that the Yinar race wanted everyone to gather up, including them. The knocking on his door was the final evidence that his presumption was, at least, partially correct. While Jennifer flinched the moment she heard the knock on the door, Jason just stroked her hair before stepping out of the bed. Picking up the pants he quickly put them on, while smoothly picking up the shirt he had thrown over the floor. Thus, while opening the door, he clothed himself, only to face a young woman who seemed to be around the same age as the other youths he had encountered before. Upon accidentally seeing his muscular upper body for a moment, the young woman''s cheeks turned red, as if they were burning. However, the feeling of her burning cheeks only intensified when she looked into his eyes. His face was not only spotlessly clean but a unique blend between being beautiful yet otherworldly handsome. Yet, all of this was nothing against his powerful presence, causing her to swallow her saliva. Meanwhile, Jason could only smile oddly seeing her reaction before he wanted to figure out the reason for her not-so-nice intrusion. "How can I help you, little girl?" He thus asked with a subtle smile on his face that melted her heart within seconds. "E-h¡­Hello Sir! I..I was told to inform you that everyone belonging to the gathering of the foreign race''s messengers is supposed to have lunch together. This has been a tradition of our small city, and my Master has requested your presence as well. It might interest you, he said, and my master will also be there¡­." With each spoken word, the young girl''s voice grew low, and the last words that were chaotically spoken could barely be heard by Jason. He was not sure what was going on with the girl in front of him, but as he intently listened to her words, Jason couldn''t help but be intrigued. Within moments, he forgot about the interruption of his peace as he returned to reality while nodding his head. "Where are they having lunch, and how can I go there? I don''t know anything about this place yet." The questions he asked were something Jason could answer by himself. If he were to use the Emperor Eyes with a little bit of mana, it would be possible for him to find the dining hall without issues. However, that might have made everybody around him a little suspicious because he had spent all his time inside his room without going out. Thus, he had asked these questions to not attract unwanted attention. "It might be a little bit tricky to find the dining hall, but I can wait for you Sir until you get ready that is no problem at all! I''ll be your guide!!" She said enthusiastically with a vivid smile on her face. Nodding his head, while thanking her, Jason excused himself for a moment. Stepping back, he revealed the interior of his room before the wooden door was closed once again. Yet, the moment the young girl''s eyes fell on the bed inside Jason''s room, she stiffened, standing in the middle of the passageway like a statue. When Jason had stepped back, the young girl had seen Jennifer lying in the bed, hiding under the blankets, and struggling to find her clothes. This caused her earlier bright expression to sour in a moment as she sighed inwardly. ''Oh¡­of course, he has someone¡­'' While the young girl was contemplating the situation in her mind, Jason told Jennifer what they were going to do. For a minute Jason debated if he should wear overly formal clothes or something that was neither too casual nor formal clothes. In the end, he had no idea what kind of gathering this was, and instead of making a big mistake, and spoiling his first impression, Jason decided to wear his combat clothes. If the worst-case scenario were to occur, he could still say that he was always prepared to fight. This was, in fact, something he wanted to convey because, in an unknown place, something could always go wrong. Thus, the moment the two of them wore their clothes, he opened the door towards the hallway. "We are ready, let''s go," Jason said, ignoring the depressed expression on the young girl''s face as she replied with a monotonous answer, "Yes¡­Sir¡­" Meanwhile, Jennifer could barely hold back her smile, feeling that she had won over the girl, even without the need to lift a finger. Her face shone with pride when she saw the girl and her slightly disappointed face. Jason simply ignored that and followed the young girl. His eyes were already focused on the direction of the dining hall, which he could see. There were many lengthy tables with large groups of humans from Argos sitting together, talking about something. Yet, the majority of people were trying to stay close to one particular table. This was the table on which the familiar mysterious energy fluctuations from one of the Specta stage powerhouse they had encountered radiated from. It was Jan''s father, and Jason did not doubt that the young girl''s master was Jan''s father. As such, he followed the young girl closely with a slight trace of interest coursing through his body. Yet, the moment they entered the dining hall, all gazes were slowly drawn towards them, confusing to flash in Jason''s mind. However, this confusion was quickly dispersed when he saw the brightly glowing appearance of Jennifer, which caused him to understand everything. ''Ah, right¡­Jennifer reverted to her original appearance!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 881 - Agran Because they were not persued anymore, there hadn''t been a need for Jennifer to hide her original appearance anymore. However, that was not the only reason for her to revert to her true appearance as she had wanted Jason to see and feel her with her real appearance. This and other reasons that were coursing through her mind caused her to feel better when spending time with him while being her usual self. Weaving her arm around Jason''s, she entered the dining hall, only to be looked at like two exotic beasts. Yet, this was mostly owing to Jason''s Celestia aura that was glowing brightly and brimming with joy. Additionally, Jennifer''s three merged cultivation energies were also fluctuating in excitement. Thus, after the majority of people continued to look at them, their attention quickly changed from admiring their energies and being vigilant, to praise their appearance. Despite their evident joy and strong connection, every single movement they made caused the groups of dining people to swallow their saliva. After all, Jason and Jennifer didn''t only have superior looks, but they were well-versed combatants and a high cultivation stage. This was the case for Jennifer, but even more so for Jason, whose every single movement made the people inside the dining hall more nervous. It was almost as if Jason would lunge at all of them, tearing out their throats at any moment, only to keep his bright smile and aura. As they gulped nervously, everyone wondered who the hell this newcomer was, and what race he was contracted to. Little did they know that Jason was one of the few humans from Argos who didn''t sign a soul contract before leaving Argos. Following the young girl, he and Jennifer approached the Yinar race''s powerhouse, who was feasting like a King. The three of them bowed the moment they were just a few meters away from him. "Master, I brought the two¡­I would like to excuse myself. There is a lot of work I have to do¡­" In a slightly depressed manner, the young girl shared the necessary information. But, even before her master could say anything, she walked away with her head hanging down. This confused her master, who looked at Jason and Jennifer with an expression that demanded them to answer what had happened. Unfortunately, Jason was not sure if his assumption was correct, and even if it was, the dining hall was not the right place to speak about it. "I''m sorry Sir, but I think this is something I don''t know anything about." Jason simply said with a shrug, before looking over to Jennifer, who mumbled, "It''s a girl thing, we understand it¡­" At this moment, the other women who were present in the dining hall kept looking at the young girl who was walking outside. Before exiting the place, she looked back one time, staring straight at Jason and Jennifer, before turning around. Based on her disappointed face, it was clear that they understood what was going on. At this moment, it was as if dozens of light bulbs had lit up in the minds of the women, while the majority of men had no clue of what was going on. Even Jan''s father could only look at his disciple in doubt and confusion before he turned back to the two newcomers. "I think I forgot to introduce myself yesterday. My name is Ben M¨¹ller, one of the Elders in Liun, and the controller of the messenger gathering event if you want to put it like that. Nice meeting the two of you!" After Ben M¨¹ller introduced himself, Jason and Jennifer followed suit, introducing themselves. Once that was done, they were requested to take a seat at the table, right next to Elder M¨¹ller. This annoyed quite a few human messengers of the foreign races as they had been given the command to befriend the Yinar race, but there was nothing they could do against the words of the Yinar Elder. As such, after sitting down next to the Elder, Jason was immediately drawn into a conversation that excited him. After all, he had more than enough questions and objects he was curious about, with one of the most important questions being the existence of the wandering souls. Yet, before he could even say something, Ben M¨¹ller asked him a question that caused Jason to nearly flinch. "I don''t want to be rude with that question, but how did you prevent my son''s wandering soul from going on a rampage when he accidentally released it? Right now, it shouldn''t be possible for him to control it, so I doubt he was able to cope with the pressure!" At first, Jason was caught off-guard, but after thinking about it for a moment, he realized that there was no reason to hide parts of the truth. "That was nothing special. As Elder knows already, I have divine energy, and I think you might have noticed that I have a special trait; my eyes. By inserting divine energy into my eyes, in addition to some mana, I can cause a few specific effects. This is also part of another of my soulbond''s abilities!" Revealing that much was already more than enough, and after hearing him Elder Ben nodded his head. The information Jason supplied piqued his curiosity. He was thoroughly intrigued and wanted to find out more, yet, he knew that prying too much was rude. This was even more so the case because he wanted to find out the secret weapons of the others around him before they could. If he were to expose his secret, it might create many issues the moment his opponents knew about all of his secret means to attack or defend himself. With that in mind, he sincerely thanked Jason for revealing that much before allowing Jason to ask the questions he had been eager to get answers to. Little did he know that Jason had numerous questions in mind with each of them being more profound than the one before. Time seemed to pass slowly as Jason was engrossed in the discussion with Elder Ben. Jennifer managed to eat a little, but Jason didn''t have the time to even look at his plate because his mind was overflowing with information that he had quickly digested. His mind was refined to the extent that he was on par with Spiral path cultivators, allowing him to think faster and digest the provided information at a rapid speed. At the same time, his comprehension was heightened as he used fractions of his divine energy, and moonlight transmuted mana to the course it through his head, accelerating everything to an even higher pace. Through this, he was able to understand even the most complex answers of Elder Ben, which astonished the middle-aged-looking man. But his confusion disappeared when he understood that Jason''s brain was refined through his soulbonds. This was something extremely interesting because Elder Ben believed that he had bound a Spiral path beast to his soul world. This was something that shouldn''t be easy for humans from Argos. That was, at least, under the condition that he understood the Agran, which was what some humans from Argos called themselves. More than an hour passed, and the other Agran was already annoyed that Jason had won over Elder Ben and occupied his interest. The more time he spent with the Yiran powerhouse, the less chance they had to converse with Elder Ben before the gathering would be officially over. However, Jason couldn''t care less because the information he received was extremely important and intriguing! Wandering souls were not as rare as Jason had previously presumed. They could be created relatively easily. There were multiple ways in which they could be manifested. For example, they could emerge in realms just like the Ninad beast realm. It was overflowing with the mysterious energy that was used by the Primal humans, and the Yinar race- called Soul force. However, there were also special devices with which a beast could be turned into a wandering soul. These devices were built out of a compressed energy crystal called Soa. From what Jason had understood, the underground of the Ninad beast realm was filled with these crystals and some areas had a higher concentration of such crystals than others. To naturally become a wandering soul, one had to merge their cultivation and conscience together to manifest their soul. This was only possible with the necessary conductor which was the Soa crystals! In the beginning, Jason couldn''t understand why a beast would abandon their physical body to manifest their soul. But after Elder Ben explained it to him in a thorough manner, he felt that it was a logical step. At least, under the condition that one desired nothing but brute strength, accepting the loss of most emotions. After all, the motive behind many beings becoming wandering souls was to increase their strength by a large margin. This was because Soul force strengthened all three cultivation paths! This was already astonishing and a great advantage of binding a wandering soul to one''s soul. But Jason figured that it was said to be impossible for humans from Argos to bind wandering souls to their soul world. He was not sure if that was the case for him too though. Either way, Jason wanted to find this out soon enough as his soul world reacted to wandering souls, which was an important step he had to pursue. The most shocking characteristic of bound wandering souls was that they could continue to grow as long as enough Soul force was provided to them. But this was not easy as the required amount was tremendous. This was also why binding a wandering soul with a higher potential was important. Such a soul would require less Soul force to grow. This was probably also the reason why Jan had bound the wandering soul of a Specta stage Earth Dragon to his soul. It was dangerous, but having reached the Specta stage, the Earth Dragon wouldn''t have to be nurtured with Spirit force right off the bat. Instead, Jan could slowly nurture it, while requiring far less energy than someone who raised a wandering soul at the Mortal stage! However, the most significant characteristic of the wandering soul''s infinite growth potential was not even something that interested him. Currently, his soulbonds were already growing without showing signs of having a racial limit. Even if they did have one, Solaris had a purification characteristic. He could make use of it to cleanse the bodies of his soulbonds if it was necessary. This had worked once, and it should work now too! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 882 - Dragged Into Trouble Jason had been so engrossed in his discussion with Elder Ben that he didn''t even realize that he was the only person occupying him. It was when he looked around by chance that he realized that the gazes of the surrounding people started to become more hostile. This caused him to smile dryly as he felt that it was a little bit ridiculous how petty the messengers of the foreign races were. However, Jason still decided that he had asked enough questions even if he had numerous things which he wanted to figure out in his mind. Elder Ben noticed that he was holding back from asking more questions, and it didn''t take him much effort to understand what silent message had been conveyed to him through the other''s body language. This caused him to feel as if Jason was more considerate than he looked like, which was great. As such, Elder Ben stood up, followed by everyone else who was eager to walk over to the gathering hall in order to point out their concerns. Calling the attacks of some beasts a concern was a little bit over the top, but it was exactly this reason that brought all of them together. The majority of messengers had been tasked with finding a way to create a temporary treaty with the beasts that reigned the surrounding lands of their settlements. However, that was, by far, not everything, which the messengers had been told to do by their soul contracted race. There were many more reasons for them to attend the gathering. And, the biggest, and most important piece in everyone''s plan was to gain the favor of the Yinar race! This was something Elder Ben had already noticed, and even the two newcomers could comprehend that the messengers didn''t like seeing someone else near Elder Ben. As such, Elder Ben turned around to Jason and Jennifer, who were still seated. Knowing that they wouldn''t be able to join them in the gathering hall, he decided to invite them. "How about you two come with us? It should be interesting to see how the gathering progresses!" Elder Ben made a suggestion without even thinking twice and in a carefree voice. But his words made Jason rapidly turn towards him before squinting his eyes. ''Does he want us to turn us into sacrificial scapegoats for the messengers to take out their anger on us?!'' Jason felt that this was the most logical explanation though it felt a little odd. This caused him to be reluctant about answering Elder Ben who was waiting for an answer. In the end, he could only shake his head, and ignore the commotion the messengers were already causing. "I''m not a messenger of any kind of foreign race, and I believe that my presence will unnecessarily hinder the negotiations! In fact, I''m not really a strategic person. Fighting is something I''m much better at!" Everything Jason said was true, and there was not really any good reason for him to waste his time at the gathering hall, to begin with. Instead of listening to everyone''s forwarded demands and a lengthy discussion he had nothing to do with, he would rather cultivate or study more about the Yinar race and the Ninad beast realm! However, Elder Ben was oddly resilient, which caused Jason to frown lightly, questioning what was on the man''s mind. "Then how about I call some of our elite and ask them to fight you later? However, as they''re still cultivating, they might take a few hours before joining us. In the meantime, you can come with us!" At that moment, Jason thought of something, but it felt extremely unlikely to be the truth. Yet, seeing the glint in Elder Ben''s eyes, he was not sure about that anymore, making him initiate a voice transmission. [I''m sorry to say this, but can I please not be involved in the trouble the messengers create? I have no connections to them¡­ Even if I like fighting, I don''t want to offend dozens of people at once, without actively doing anything at all¡­] Hearing Jason''s voice in his mind, Elder Ben just smiled, ignoring the surrounding voices just as Jason did. He didn''t say anything in response but merely moved his gaze around the room. It made everybody who had been whispering fall silent and stare at the floor uncomfortably. It was evident that the middle-aged man had some sort of plan in mind. But even if Jason didn''t want to be involved, it looked like he had no other choice. Otherwise, he would end up offending Elder Ben, which was certainly worse than offending a handful of messengers from other races. With that in mind, he nodded his head, and got up on his feet, while Jennifer simply followed his steps. She was not sure what kind of unique conversation Jason and the Elder had, but it was clear that Jason was asked to do something he wasn''t inclined to. It didn''t take her long to understand a part of the reason the Elder invited Jason. The soft whispers had now grown into angry murmurs and it was good that Jason was walking out of the dining hall, right next to the Elder, who had grasped his shoulder. Unable to move away, Jason could only accept his fate. While walking alongside Elder Ben he tried to think of, a possible second reason for him to do what he was doing. "The ''invitation'' to fight your elite was also part of your plan, right? You''re trying to understand how strong I truly am, or am I wrong?" Countless thoughts were flashing through Jason''s mind, and he was unable to make sense of all of them. However, when he felt the reassuring touch of someone he had grown extremely fond of, his racing mind seemed to calm down. Jennifer had reached him, and grasped his hand, before falling in step beside him. This made no sense because he was stronger than Jennifer, but the calm was enough to ease his mind, which was exactly what he needed right now. Thus, he smiled at her before he heard the Elder''s short answer. "Well¡­all of what you''ve said is correct, but I think you underestimate just how interesting you are. Your aura, the density of your mana fluctuations, and the fact that you defeated my son and the son of Elder Miliam without breaking a sweat are exceptional. I know that our kids have yet to start gathering proper combat experience, but they''re not as weak as you might think. They told us how you overwhelmed them easily, and I want to figure out if it was just a mere coincidence with my kids or if you are truly powerful..and how high your limit is!" Jason didn''t think that this answered all of his doubts because there was more the Elder had to say. This was something Jason was sure of. And by remaining quiet, he caused the Elder to reveal something he never said owing to his professionalism. "And¡­the messenger gatherings are always boring. Everyone just pursues the goals of their own race, without the necessary jurisdictional power to adjust their plans to start a proper negotiation. You could say that the gathering is just a game where nobody can win, and what everyone loses is¡­time! I feel that you are quite interesting, so if you feel like it ask me questions via voice transmission. That way, the two of us will get what we want!" In the end, Elder Ben was quite the simple man, and once Jason realized this, he couldn''t help but smile oddly. Spending several days, or possibly even weeks with the messengers was time-consuming and extremely burdensome for one''s mind. This was considering the fact that none of the messengers were able to change even the slightest thing they had been told to achieve. Because of that, Jason couldn''t help but feel that the messengers looked quite pitiful and sorry. He got a pretty decent idea that might make everything much easier, except for him or others. However, that was totally fine with Jason. [How about I fight everyone one after another, and only those who defeat me are eligible to attend the gathering?] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 883 - Crafty Plan Jason didn''t plan on offending anyone. However, he didn''t want to waste his time either. Thus, it would be much better if he were able to figure out how strong the messengers of the other races truly were. None of them had an extremely high cultivation base. It only meant that they were not so important individuals in the rows of the foreign races. This indicated that they would simply keep pushing forward the same demands over and over again, without being able to change them in the slightest. Meanwhile, if one had to defeat him or someone from the Yinar race with the same cultivation base, this would change. Being a messenger of the foreign race meant that they were at the mercy of those who had contracted them. They could be forced to defeat someone, meaning that they were required to be the Elite of the humans the foreign races contracted. Even if that was the case, the foreign races would have to think properly about their demands. After all, the other foreign races might send out the strongest soul contracted Agran in order to have ensure victory against the Yinar they would fight. Only later would they be allowed to openly express their will and the demands of their own race. These demands would have to be much smaller too because the times at which one was able to say something in front of others would drastically reduce than it was currently the case. Pressuring the messengers and the foreign races was a way of ensuring that the precious time of the powerhouses of the Yinar race was not wasted. Additionally, it also ensured the progress of bringing together the surrounding settlements of the soul contracted Agrans! Jason knew that his idea was not yet refined, but the essence of his idea was certainly great. Changing the question he had previously asked into a proper idea was not difficult, and when Elder Ben noticed what Jason had in mind, he looked at him for a moment. "Are you sure that you''re not a strategic person? You seem to know how to craft a proper plan considering what you said just a while ago!" Jason understood what Elder Ben wanted to say, but he didn''t feel like that. Rather, he had other things on his mind than to waste his time, which he voiced out without any hesitation. "It''s not like that¡­I just hate wasting my time on unnecessary things. And I know how some of the races that infiltrated Argos acted. They''re stubborn and don''t budge, even in the face of death. It leaves you with no option but to pressure them, or they''ll come back without changing their demands!" Shrugging his shoulders, Jason just felt the need to fight. His hands were itching to attack, even more so because everyone thought that they could throw hostile gazes at him as if they had a chance against him. It had been a long time since Jason felt prideful since he knew he had a long way to go. But, owing to his soulbonds that altered not only his body by being connected with him but also his mind, he was starting to feel more pride about certain things than it was the case before. One of such things was his combat prowess, which was something he was confident about. His confidence was reflected in his body language and behavior as well. Elder Ben made no mistake in realizing that Jason meant what he said. This intrigued the Elder, and the more he thought about it, the better Jason''s idea sounded. And that was not only for today but for all gatherings. After all, it was possible for him to avoid wasting his time, while his race''s elite would be able to learn more about the strength of the Agrans that had been soul contracted by other races. He believed that this was quite important, which made him agree to what Jason had asked. "Alright, I let you fight everyone, and only those messengers that can defeat you will be allowed to join the gathering¡­ I have had enough of them either way, so lecture them properly with a good beating and put some sense into them." While looking at Elder Ben, Jason was unable to hide his smile because it was almost as if he was looking forward to seeing him thrash the messengers black and blue. In the end, the Yinar race was known for being placid, but the messengers'' antics had gotten on Elder Ben''s nerves since the last few weeks. And it was not the first time that the messenger gatherings took that long. Rather, it was normal for them to take a few months and keep going around in circles without finding a proper solution, which was the most annoying. Taking longer to find a great solution was fine, but ending everything after months without one was just a disgrace. It was the most frustrating for Elder Ben, who could have cultivated or done something different in these months. Time was the essence of cultivators, and wasting it was not something any Cultivator wanted to do, even if their long lifespan easily allowed them to live for thousands of years without issue! Somehow, Jason could understand the feelings of Elder Ben, and he didn''t even want to know how often the messenger gathering events had been held, or why they hadn''t done anything against them beforehand. After all, it was not like Elder Ben and the others could obstruct the messengers from holding the gathering in their city. This might cause many bloody discussions, but in the end, it was not really the Yinar race''s responsibility to prevent a fight from occurring. However, Jason was misunderstanding the Yinar race in this aspect. By providing the basic minimum of support to all of the messengers, they not only prevented them from fighting each other until death, but at the same time, they revealed their superior strength to them. This included their resources too as they clearly demonstrated how generous they were by helping a few Agran to quickly become stronger in an extremely short period of time. One of these individuals was the Agran using the spatial affinity, who Jason had encountered in front of the city. He had been at the Specta stage, and was certainly an Agran, probably one of the only ones that were strong enough to reach such a high cultivation base in a short period of a few hundred years. In the end, there were a few more reasons for the Yinar race to support the messengers of the foreign races. But the years they had already wasted with the messenger gathering events were certainly not beneficial for any of them. After all, most gatherings ended in debates or heated discussions without reaching a common consensus. And, even if a proper solution was figured out, nobody was able to abide by it. Because of that, the Yinar race had often planned to do something against the soul contracted Agrans. They were simply too annoying, but unfortunately enough, there were other, far stronger opponents they had to pay attention to. Furthermore, the soul world of the Agran race was simply too useful to leave behind! With that in mind, Elder Ben didn''t hesitate to spend a few minutes to come up with a proper plan before he revealed it to everyone. "Today will be the last day of the normal messenger gathering events. From tomorrow onwards, every gathering event that goes on for longer than one week will have special rules. If nobody wants to start negotiating with the other messengers about their demands and what they can offer others, we will enact one simple rule after the first gathering week is over! Every messenger will be requested to fight against one of the Yinar race''s elite, who is at the same cultivation base as the fighting messenger. If the messenger loses, he will be requested to leave the gathering, and return to his settlement. If he or she comes out victorious, he or she can stay. However, if we see no substantial change after the first week, and we end up wasting another week without the start of proper negotiations, another fight will be initiated! Please inform your masters that we want to help everyone to reach a consensus, but wasting our¡­MY precious time shouldn''t become a habit, RIGHT?! With that in mind please fight against Jason, and only those who can defeat him are allowed to stay. The other will have to leave!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 884 - Impatience In the end, there was no need for Jason to do anything about the messenger gathering. Yet, somehow his entire being told him that it was the best if he were to fight against the other messengers right now. It would be a good way to show his support to the Yinar race, and the city, while setting up an improved method of carrying out the messenger gathering event could only be advantageous. However, that was not all because he could finally figure out how different the cultivation techniques and combat experience of the Agran that were trained by different races were. This was quite interesting, and something Jason looked forward to. At the same time, he was not oblivious to the fact that he would offend everyone except the Yinar race and the Agran that were not bound by soul contracts. ''Well, who cares?'' He thought with a shrug after some time as he got ready to fight anyone, right off the bat. However, the fights would start tomorrow, with today being the last chance for everyone to start negotiating peacefully. This realization jolted the messengers who had slackened a little. Their initial reaction was to complain about the change in the gathering''s rules until they understood that it was useless. Afterward, they kept giving their best to start negotiating, but with the given orders of the foreign races, this was close to impossible. As such, the day was exactly the same as the previous ones- wasted without any tangible results! Thus, everyone was displeased when they returned to their rooms including Jason. He was extremely frustrated. Initially, he had proposed tweaking the gathering''s rule so as to make the messengers be serious about it and give a helping hand to the Yinar race, or to be precise, Elder Ben. However, after Elder Ben had accepted his proposal to change the rules, Jason had gotten excited to fight. The messengers were not at an extremely high cultivation base but that was what made it possible for him to consider fighting them, to begin with. Yet, after he changed his clothes, and fell onto the bed, Jason was unable to not complain while muttering disappointedly, "I wanted to face the Yinar race''s elite." It was like the complaint of a small child, and Jason knew that he was acting a little bit childish right now, but his excitement to fight, using his whole combat prowess had been too high. Jennifer noticed all of this, but instead of consoling Jason straightaway, she couldn''t help but look at him lying on the bed with a slightly frustrated facial expression. Smiling, she couldn''t help but feel that he was unable to hide his true emotions, which was something she liked. After all, it meant that she would notice when he was frustrated, angry, happy, sad and so on. Changing into more comfortable clothes, she laid next to him, and snuggled in his embrace before asking. "We should rest today, right?" Jennifer didn''t even realize that her voice sounded disappointed, because she already knew that Jason had to rest. It had been a tiring day to get answers from Elder Ben. Additionally, he needed to sleep well. Otherwise, how would he be able to fight against a few dozen messengers one after another on the following day? As such, being in his arms, she decided to sleep instead of cultivating. It was not bad to have a break from the pressure of cultivating and becoming stronger, after all. ** On the next day, Jason woke up early, and before doing anything else, he slowly got up from the bed, trying not to wake up Jennifer. Afterward, he stretched his body and did a small work out which was something he hadn''t done for a while. It was demanding but a subtle smile curled his lips upward as he finished his workout. In the end, it was extremely refreshing, and he quickly took a bath before putting on his combat suit. By the time he was ready, Jennifer woke up. Rubbing her drowsy eyes, she saw that Jason was already ready, which caused her to get up before she walked through the room with unsteady steps. Changing into whatever she could lay her hands on, she put on a fresh set of clothes, and she quickly grasped Jason before stifling a yawn. "Let''s go." She was not even fully awake yet, but instead of continuing to sleep, Jennifer wanted to see Jason''s fight. As such, they walked towards the combat arena together, which Jason quickly found with the use of his Emperor Eyes. His eyes swept through the inside of the arena that looked quite ordinary to spot Jan, who was practicing his martial art. A few messengers were spread through the arena, relentlessly trying to improve their combat prowess. When Jason perceived this through his Emperor Eyes, he couldn''t help but smile, thinking that they were not completely ignorant. They might''ve appeared calm the day before, but that didn''t seem to be the case anymore. Their poker face had disappeared and were replaced by nervousness which only increased when they arrived inside the combat arena. They walked in hesitantly where Jan greeted them with a sly smile. The young Yinar had fought against Jason just two days ago, and he was fully aware that Jason hadn''t used his entire combat prowess yet. As such, he knew that the Agran who tried to release their tension and regain some of his martial art proficiency would lose. This was crystal clear to him, and when Jan saw Jason entering the combat arena, he quickly approached him. "Brother Jason, you''re finally here!!" Hearing Jan''s voice, Jason turned towards the youth before smiling lightly, ''Brother?'' It didn''t sound bad to be called brother, but it was also a little bit weird, causing him to look at Jan in confusion. Yet, rather than complaining, he nodded his head while greeting Jan. Jason thought that calling someone around one''s age brother might be a way of acknowledging another, maybe even showing them respect. However, Jason was not familiar with the Yinar race''s tradition yet. As such, he couldn''t know for sure. Nevertheless, right now, Jason was not interested in finding out more about it as the gazes he received were rather distractive. Looking over to the few messengers who were already there, and preparing to fight, he smiled lightly. Then he sat on a bench and cultivated while waiting for the others to arrive. During his cultivation, he was also speaking with his soulbonds, whom he didn''t have much chance to pay attention to the day before. Many things had happened in such a short period, but even if it was just a single day, his soulbonds were clearly showing their discontent with his behavior. It was almost as if his soulbonds felt that he had abandoned and completely neglected them. This was beyond ridiculous, and Jason couldn''t help but smile lightly while speaking with his soulbonds. Jennifer saw this, and even though she knew what he was doing, it was impossible for her to be completely unaffected. ''Does that mean I will have to share him??'' She just realized. Squinting her eyes, she stared daggers at him, but Jason didn''t notice anything because his mind was in the soul world. All of his soulbonds had more or less the same complaints from him, which caused Jason to feel a little bit odd. ''They are truly clingy¡­but why are all of them like that?'' Since he bound Artemis, every single soulbond had become extremely clingy, but Jason was oblivious to the reason for this to be the case. He simply presumed it to be his Celestia bloodline, but that was something he couldn''t know for sure. Yet, before he could continue thinking about his soulbonds, Jason noticed that someone other than Jennifer had appeared before him. Leaving the soul world, he looked upwards and saw one of the few properly trained messengers he had seen the day before. His expression was annoyed and there was a clear sign that told him that he didn''t plan on holding back in anything he was about to do. "I''m not patient. So let''s fight, and then I can finally resume proposing the ignorant bullshit I was told to propose!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 885 - Dominance Seeing the middle-aged man''s expression, Jason couldn''t help but feel irked. However, instead of commenting on the challenge he received, Jason got up from the chair he was seated in before entering the combat arena. A moment later, Byakur manifested in his hand. Tightly grasping it, he swung it around a little before looking at the middle-aged man. He seemed to be seething in anger because Jason didn''t show him any respect. It was considered a tradition to show respect to the elderly on Argos by giving them a light bow, however, Jason couldn''t bother. First of all, they were not on Argos anymore, and second, the middle-aged man was less powerful than he was. As such, Jason would clearly show him that age had nothing to do with gaining respect. It was your persona and your achievements that would command respect from others naturally without the need to actively seek it! After entering the ring of the combat arena, the middle-aged man sent everyone else out, and even before someone started the countdown, the shape of his body was slowly changing. The middle-aged man was undergoing a soul fusion, which was something Jason had expected to happen with every single messenger. However, what astonished him a little bit was the fact that the soul fusion didn''t look completely natural nor was it completely forced. It looked like a mix of both which confused him. This was interesting, but not to the extent that he would be distracted from fighting his opponent. Rather, he looked at the man, who had turned into a being that looked eerily similar to a werewolf as he mumbled. "Be careful, it''s hot!" Saying so, Jason smiled lightly as he allowed Solaris to enter his mana core. Just moments later, hundreds of black flame spears manifested in Jason''s surroundings, heating up the entire combat arena. He threw them towards the middle-aged man, who started to rush after Jason gave him a provocation. And, the black flame spears reached the man in huge batches of attacks. They pierced into his thick fur, slowing him down. Yet, the middle-aged man didn''t even think of doing anything to deflect the attacks. Instead, he threw himself ahead, and leaned forward, increasing the speed at which he shot towards Jason. Seeing his reaction made a sly smile appear on Jason''s lips. The middle-aged man didn''t even realize that he had already fallen into Jason''s trap. After all, he had been pierced with several of Solaris'' black flame spears that burned through the thick wolf fur, reaching his skin within seconds. The number of black flame spears that pierced into the wolf''s fur was gradually increasing. And, it was not long after they began fighting that the middle-aged man was lit up in flames like a living torch. In fact, owing to Jason''s slow retreat and zig-zag motions, his opponent had been unable to get hold of him. An extra layer of hurdle was the protective layer of fur that burned like tinder and reached his skin. WIthin moments, the entire arena was filled with the smell of charred skin, and it was crystal clear where this smell came from. The flames and smoke enveloping the man were hard to miss. The black flames burned the arrogant middle-aged man, who had tried to suppress the other messenger with his overbearing behavior. This was quite normal to happen during the messenger gatherings, but the middle-aged man, who was currently burning, was an extreme case. Because of that, nobody showed him any sign of mercy or felt sorry for him, except Jason. Solaris had burned the majority of mana enveloping the middle-aged man, and by exerting the Hermes Celeration technique followed by replacing Solaris with Petri, he appeared in front of his opponent only a moment later. There was no need for him to use any additional mana, the moonlight affinity, divine energy or any of his special traits. All it took him to defeat the middle-aged man was a powerful punch right in the center of his abdomen. In order to increase the attack''s lethality, he manifested small scales on the back of his knuckles which cut through the wolf''s skin. After all, Jason''s strength was out of the ordinary, which was clearly visible when the middle-aged man was flung out of the arena in just a single punch. ''Did I go over the top?'' Jason suddenly thought while looking at his blood smeared first. He couldn''t believe that he had just hurled a burly middle-aged man through the arena ring. This was weird in his opinion. Yet, considering that Solaris flames had burned through all of his opponent''s defenses, it might not have been that shocking after all. He didn''t expect to have gone overboard with such simple means to attack. But upon looking around, he noticed that only Jan, Jennifer, and Elder Ben, who had just entered the combat arena, were unfazed by his attack. The messengers were staring at him as if he was a monster, but he didn''t even think that he did something grand. His mind was now conditioned to the strength and level of the beings belonging to the Primordial races. His fight with the lesser replications had made him glaringly realize that he was no match to their strength without his soulbonds. Smiling dryly, while thinking about the miraculous racial abilities of the Primordial races, it was impossible for Jason not to think that he was, at most, slightly above average. Yet, in front of the messengers, he had been elevated to being a lethal threat, a prodigy with God-like combat talent and powerful soulbonds. Some even presumed that he had a unique constitution or a soulbond that allowed his physique to grow stronger than the others. There was also the possibility that he had an extremely strong physical soulbond which made the shocking velocity he reached possible, including the powerful punch he had dealt. However, that was only the thought of the messengers, because Jan had already once fought against Jason, while Elder Ben had gauged his strength to be higher than that of every messenger. Thus, he was not surprised by the end result of the battle, which was the only thing he had seen of the entire fight. He had arrived late, but instead of commenting on the fight, Elder Ben allowed Jason to release the frustration of the earlier day, clearly knowing that he had promised him to be able to fight the Elite of the settlement. At this moment, Jason turned towards the rest of the spectators and asked casually, "Who''s next?" This simple question caused the messengers to be pulled out of their stupor as they stared daggers at Jason, wanting to snap his neck like that of a ragdoll. Unfortunately, all of them were aware that Jason''s simple demonstration was more than enough to defeat the majority of them. As such, they were reluctant to fight right now. They felt as if allowing others to wear him out would be the best, and that they might have a better chance if they were the last to fight him. Little did they know that it was more difficult to wear Jason out if nobody wanted to fight him first. In the end, this was also not completely true because there were a few messengers who were confident in defeating Jason in the state he had fought the middle-aged man. Yet, at the same time, they were sure that Jason was still holding back. It made them want to see more of his combat prowess before joining the fray. Thus, everyone waited for someone else to step forward, and ten minutes passed as Jason kept waiting for a response. After ten minutes, Jason felt bored and couldn''t wait any longer. Meanwhile, the used-up mana had long since been replenished as he announced. "If nobody dares fight me, I will consider this as your surrender. That means all of you can go home and tell your lovely masters how great your failure in the messenger gathering was!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 886 - Arrogance Hearing that they would have to go home if they didn''t fight Jason made them display a variety of expressions ranging from shock, anger, nervousness to fear, and a little jealousy. This was a great sight, but what Jason had just declared was something he didn''t even have the jurisdictional power to say. Yet, looking at Elder Ben, Jason felt reassured as the middle-aged man nodded his head, approving his decision. That made many things easier, allowing him to ramble a little bit more as he further added, "5 Minutes¡­if nobody challenges me until then, you guys shall return home with empty hands!" With a prideful smile, he conveyed his superiority to the messengers and that he was fully aware of his high combat prowess. Nevertheless, Jason was not being too arrogant in the face of the stronger opponents because that would be stupid, and almost suicidal. However, in the end, he wanted to provoke the messengers that were at the Ascendion stage. As such, if their combat prowess and combat awareness were to be great, they wouldn''t have any problem fighting him. Unfortunately, this didn''t seem to be the case, which was quite disappointing. Four minutes passed after the first messenger was defeated by him, and there had yet to be someone challenging him. Those who were confident to fight had hoped that someone else would step forward, but that didn''t happen. Thus, now they had no option but to fight him. This caused one of the lean young men to step forward as he bowed lightly to Jason. "I''ll challenge you." His voice was steady and carefully neutral, but the gaze he threw at Jason was overflowing with seriousness. Seeing this, Jason couldn''t help but smile as he returned to his earlier position he had been standing on just before the first battle began. Calmly standing in the combat ring, he was fully prepared to fight his opponent. Through his analytical skills, and most importantly, the Emperor Eyes, he had figured out his opponent''s strength, and the affinities he received from his soulbonds. Only his combat prowess was unknown, but that was not something Jason was worried about. After all, none of the messengers could be considered a prodigy. Rather, they were quite ordinary, which was what he had expected because they were simply carriers of messages of their masters, the races they made a soul contract with. As such, it was not necessary to send out their prodigies because they had better things to do than wasting several weeks, or possibly even months of their precious time, only to return empty-handed. This was bound to change as long as Jason''s ideas would work properly, which made him feel as if he could give his utmost effort. He might not have a real reason to help the Yinar race with anything as he didn''t know them well yet. Yet, being trusted was something that was certainly worth beating a few dozen humans. With that in mind, Jason didn''t even think of playing any tricks as he allowed Artemis to enter his body. At this moment, Elder Ben stepped forward, acting as a referee before he started a countdown. Through this, Jason was able to instantaneously summon Artemis'' wings when the fight started. Additionally, he used a trace of his divine energy and the moonlight transmuted mana to exert the Hermes Celeration movement technique. A moment later, he covered his stigma with two feathers which he manifested from Artemis'' body part manifestation after activating it. This caused a faint golden light to radiate from right next to his right eye. However, nobody seemed to notice this because he fully expanded his Celestia aura that surged towards the young man, whose appearance was changing. Leathery wings of a bat were growing out of his shoulder blades, and his facial features, in addition to his fingers were slowly transforming. In fact, his arms were slowly connecting to the wings, which looked quite odd. Still, Jason couldn''t waste his time watching the transformation in awe as he appeared in front of the young man with a much faster pace than the lean man had predicted. Nevertheless, the lean man was still confident to be able to overwhelm Jason as he gathered his mana in a momentum, ready to release a powerful sonic wave. Unfortunately, the lean man was still not able to calculate Jason''s speed accurately because he disappeared in the time the man used the short momentum he required to gather his mana. A weak gust of wind brushed past his face, and it was only a fraction of a second later that the young man sensed something tremendously huge behind him. He tried to turn around to face Jason, whom he presumed to be behind him. But it was only at this exact moment that he realized his feet had been enveloped in a layer of ice! This astonished the lean man, but before he could do anything, he lost his consciousness as he felt soreness spread out from his neck. In the end, Jason had simply hit the lean man near the neck, targeting a pressure point to force him to lose his consciousness. Afterward, he broke the ice he had manifested around the lean man''s feet that had locked him on the spot. Supporting him, before he brought the man outside the combat ring, where a few medics were already waiting. Elder Ben had ordered medics to be stationed outside the combat arena, knowing that the battle was likely to be more bloody than one would usually expect. It was a great idea to do so as the messenger was in need of medical care. But Elder Ben was unable to pay anymore attention to the medics, let alone the messenger. Instead, his entire focus was on Jason, who retracted his aura, and the unused mana that circulated through his body. He was looking around in a nonchalant manner, and had not even broken a sweat, as he returned to the exact same position he had been standing before. "Next, please! Same rule as before, five minutes¡­no more or less!" By saying so, Jason conveyed his confidence to defeat his next opponent without any issues. It also indicated that he was able to defeat everyone without taking a break that was longer than five minutes. This was quite arrogant, but also exactly what he wanted to convey to the others. He wanted the others to think of him as a highly prideful and arrogant person which would irk the messengers to fight him. However, at the same time, they should be vigilant of each other which was caused by the maximum break of five minutes. After all, the messengers that would fight him right now were bound to lose and most probably the ones to wear Jason out. This should allow the messengers who would fight him at the end to have a higher chance of defeating him. In the end, this was what they expected to happen, but little did they know that Jason had already planned everything. When he told Elder Ben that he was not a strategic person, he had wanted them to think of him as a pushover. Jason didn''t think of himself as a strategic person, and more like a straightforward fighter. Despite the opinion he had of himself, it was near impossible for him to know how one was perceived by the outside world. It was exactly because of this that Elder Ben couldn''t help but smile wryly as he looked at Jason with a faint glint in his eyes. ''Not a strategic person¡­in that case, I don''t wanna encounter those you will call strategic!'' With a faint grin, Elder Ben thought that Jason was a smart but also a nice person. However, he made no mistake in understanding that Jason knew what he wanted, and he would get it by all means. That was what Elder Ben thought of Jason, even though they had barely known each other for less than half a week! In the end, Jason was fully aware that his mindset was quite simple, but it was quite ambitious for others. Yet, what the others would realise only later was that his plans were much grander than they could even think! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 887 - Youthful Elite After facing more than 30 opponents, Jason grew bored. His passive mana gathering could easily replenish the mana he used in a single fight. In fact, the amount of mana he used in every single fight was much less than Jason first assumed. He thought that it would be important to divide his mana into portions to fight against all messengers. However, that was not necessary because defeating them was much easier than he predicted. Not only were they weaker than him in both physical strength and the amount of mana their mana core could contain, but their mindset and control of their body and mana were poles apart. In simple terms, Jason could be compared to a professional, while his opponents were mere amateurs. As such, boredom was bound to overwhelm him, and the messengers were growing visibly angry to see his bored expression. The fact that he didn''t break a sweat even after fighting 30 opponents both scared and angered them. Nonetheless, they were unable to do anything against him because he didn''t seem to grow tired, at all. Instead, the way he fought was growing more aggressive, clearly showing the other messengers that they shouldn''t try challenging him if they valued their lives. Most of the messengers he fought, in the beginning, had just lost their consciousness, but the last few had broken their arms or legs. This was cruel, but Jason wanted to avoid wasting any more of his precious time. After all, Elder Ben had transmitted to him that he would be allowed to fight against some of the city''s Elite combatants. Jason had been eagerly waiting to fight those Elites, and instead of letting this opportunity go as it was the case the day before, he wanted to grasp it. Thus, he was exhilarated, when only five out of the remaining few dozen messengers dared to challenge him. Afterward, the rest rather surrendered and decided to leave unscathed than returning to their masters with a broken arm, leg, or in an even worse state! Because it was not necessary to participate in the fight, they chose the safer option. They would rather get punished by their masters without getting an additional injury from Jason. With that thought in mind, everyone left the combat arena, and subsequently also the mansion and city. All of them formed a beeline towards the exit and rushed outside before they would be asked to stop. Their departure was looked at with little interest and if the other Elders or the Lord of the City weren''t aware of what was happening, they would question Elder Ben now. However, Elder Ben had already predicted that this would be the result of Jason''s little sparring session, which was why he had reported the idea of the young man fighting the messengers to his colleagues and superior. They felt that Jason''s idea was quite violent, but it was a great solution to figure out more about the ways in which the other races trained their prodigies while giving their own elite some much-needed pointers. In the end, many things about the messengers'' gathering event might change, but that was not something anyone was scared of. Instead, almost everyone had grown weary about the messenger gatherings because the solutions they would come up for their issues were idiotic, and bound to have no long-term value. Meanwhile, Jason''s idea would force the foreign races to send messengers that were sensible, and had the necessary knowledge and proper jurisdictional rights to negotiate seriously. And, they were supposed to be powerful enough to overcome weeks of fighting against the Yinar race''s elite. There were more than enough benefits the Yinar race was bound to gain from Jason''s idea. But the only inconvenience was that the City Lord was likely to hand out a formal letter of reasoning about why he had changed the messenger gatherings'' rules! However, that was not difficult, and something he could do in a few minutes. As such, everyone was quite satisfied with Jason''s idea, to the extent that some Elders grew interested in getting to know him. Yet, they would rather help Elder Ben pick some Elite combatants of their city in order to give Jason what he wanted than going out on their own. In fact, some Elders had sent out their own disciples in order to let them evaluate Jason''s combat prowess and check if the rumors about him were true. Because of that, Jason was facing more than ten Elite of Liun, only an hour after the messengers left the city. This was quite fast, and sensing the cultivation base of each of them while gauging their age made it unable for him to hide his smile. The 8 Yinar and 2 Agran he was facing were truly powerful, and Jason would be lying if he were to say that he was slightly astonished to face two humans from Argos. They were quite young too, and according to their cultivation base and the amplification they received from their soulbonds, the two Agran would be considered to be on par or above the talent God''s children had in Argos. As such, Jason couldn''t help but be confused as to why he didn''t know the two young men. Little did he know that the two Agran were born and raised in Liun. This meant that they were aware of the high-density mana of the Ninad beast realm since their birth, which was quite an advantage. With a great cultivation talent, and little issues arising from the surrounding terrain or other beings that attacked their lands, it wouldn''t be impossible to reach the Ascendion stage at a young age. Jason couldn''t be considered as someone talented in a direct sense. That was because the talents of his body were still sealed, and only a small portion of it had been revealed over the course of time. Only when he broke into the Lique stage did his talent begin to show signs of existence owing to the major event of his primary Celestia bloodline awakening! In the end, this could be considered the beginning of his journey as the released talents were something that made him the person he was now! With that in mind, Jason didn''t have to hold back as he smiled in confidence before he introduced himself to the others. "Hello, my name is Jason Stella, and I''m a human, born and raised on Argos!" His introduction made it pretty clear that he was different from the ten Elites of Liun. Everyone in Liun knew what kind of planet Argos was, whether it was hearsay from other Agrans who had lived on Argos, or by directly witnessing it. As such, Jason made it clear that he had a disadvantageous start in comparison to the Elites who were at a higher cultivation base while being slightly younger. Thus, they were confident in themselves, which even Jennifer noticed. During the last few hours, she had only watched the fights, without doing anything else but cultivating. But, her interest vanished soon enough because the fights increasingly became one-sided. They were not exactly entertaining after a while because he overwhelmed everyone easily. Thus, she was trying to strengthen the connection between her soul and her vessels. This was quite difficult owing to the fact that she had three vessels while everyone else had only one. Simultaneously, she would receive a major increase in strength. It was equivalent to more than thrice of what the others would receive the moment she established a firm connection! As such, she didn''t really bother about the youths in front of her considering themselves overly powerful just because they were younger than Jason and her. Their background was completely different, and it had been impossible for her and Jason to cultivate all the time. Meanwhile, she didn''t sense even the slightest killing intent or anything from the young men and women, indicating that they had a high combat experience owing to the life-and-death battles. This was quite disappointing, even for her, and Jennifer assumed that Jason felt the same. However, the moment she looked at him, the only thing Jennifer saw was a bright glint in his golden eyes and a vivid smile that lit up his entire face. "This¡­will be interesting!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 888 - Tension Taking an intent look at the youths in front of him, Jason couldn''t help but be excited. The elites of Liun might not look like they had much combat experience, but that was a farce. Hiding one''s true intentions and experience while making a killer move was difficult. But the moment one perfected concealing these things, the result would speak volumes and take the opponents by surprise. In fact, the youths in front of him were not perfect at hiding their experience and true intentions. Nevertheless, it was good enough to make Jennifer believe otherwise for a while. Only after some time did she find out the truth behind their concealment. Meanwhile, it was extremely difficult for someone to hide their true intentions in front of Jason. His eyes saw more than others, and even the smallest details were not hidden from his sight. As such, he was sure that the 10 Elite of Liun were much more powerful than Jennifer assumed. After a short minute of silence that turned the atmosphere slightly awkward, everyone introduced themselves. That was supposed to help each other to break the ice, yet, Elder Ben noticed that only Jason was behaving calmly. Meanwhile, his Elites seemed to be behaving a little bit weirdly. They were not tense, but it didn''t look like anyone wanted to befriend Jason. This confused him because he always thought that his Elites were open-minded, and believed in welcoming and accepting outsiders as if they were their friends. ''Maybe I''m missing something?'' He wondered, before continuing to look at them. "You guys can decide who wants to spar against whom. Today''s sparring will replace our martial art practice for the next three days. As such, don''t hold back!" The Elder hoped that everyone would be more willing to fight using their entire combat prowess by replacing the martial art practice with today''s spar. This worked partially according to his plan because some of the City''s Elites looked relieved, but the others were slightly displeased. However, their reasoning was that they comprehended something about their martial art technique which they had wanted to ask about. Receiving pointers was sometimes more important than sparring and comprehending everything on their own, after all! Yet, they knew that if Elder Ben decided on something once, everything would be set in stone. "Can we challenge her too?" One of the shorter guys asked while looking at Jason, with a distinct glint in his eyes. He was intently looking at Jennifer, and when Jason noticed this, he gave him a quick once-over to check on the strength of the youth. From the looks of it, he was one of the oldest, despite his short height. His cultivation base was at the Low Ascendion stage, which was higher than Jennifer''s while his cultivation energy was what they called ''Soul force''. It was an merged energy of the three cultivation energies, using the strongest traits of each one of the surrounding energies. Combined together, they made exceptionally powerful cultivation energy from the parts of the existing ones. Jason felt that this was interesting, but he knew that Jennifer was currently creating similar energy. The only difference was that she had three vessels instead of one. To be precise, she was still cultivating with the normal energies, and they would only merge when Jennifer utilized them. As such, she possessed three times more energy than others with only one cultivation path. Meanwhile, the enhancements she received by cultivating were slightly weaker than what the Soul force allowed the Yinar race to receive. With that in mind, Jason was not sure how Jennifer would be able to fight against the young man. Yet, seeing the fighting spirit in her eyes, he didn''t say anything to prevent her from fighting the youth. "I can spar with you!" She thus simply said. Jason was still staring daggers at the youth, who had challenged Jennifer. Surprisingly, he received a challenge shortly after. "I want to fight against you!" It was a lean youth whose height was slightly more than Jason''s. As such, he had to crane his head a little in order to meet the youth''s eyes as he nodded his head. The tall youth appeared to be the friendliest amongst all of them, but the intentions in his eyes were clearly showing that he wouldn''t hold back in the sparring. However, this was something Jason felt great about. As such, he would be the last one to complain. Instead, he entered one of the combat rings, while telling Jennifer to be careful. ''If he injures her, I''ll twist his neck¡­'' Jason thought while clenching his fists. By using his Emperor Eyes, it was not difficult for him to figure out the strength of his opponent, and the affinity he possessed. Even the wandering soul that was stored in the depths of the youth''s soul was partially revealed to him. This was even more interesting because the tall youth''s affinity was connected to the wandering soul. As such, the relation of the wandering soul''s affinity to the inherited one the tall youth received was similar to that of him and his soulbonds'' affinities. That was good to know, but not exactly important for the spar that would soon start. Without the need to answer the youth''s challenge, they stood inside the combat ring, and were ready to fight each other. Both of them were not talkative, and believed that their actions should speak more than words. For them, it was more important to show their capabilities instead of being needlessly arrogant. As such, the moment they started their fight, Jason quickly enhanced his strength by allowing Artemis to enter his mana core. It was only a moment later that the wandering soul of a huge bird emerged from the tall youth, enveloping him tightly. From the outside, it almost looked as if the youth was being embraced by the huge bird. But soon the wandering soul shrunk in size so as to perfectly envelop him tightly, turning into an armor. The outlines of the wandering souls were slightly unique. They were greenish-azure in color, which was completely different to all the wandering souls he had seen until now. However, having no idea if this held any significance, Jason could only use his Emperor Eyes to inspect the cultivation base of the wandering soul. ''Peak Ascendion stage? That''s strong¡­but will all of that enhance the youth, or will he have to adjust the strength of the wandering soul to properly control it?'' Even if he didn''t want to acknowledge it, fighting against a Peak Ascendion stage beast was not something he was capable of. Yet, from the looks of it, the wandering soul was partially retracted. "That''s a Garuda, isn''t it?" Jason''s sudden question that he asked in a calm voice caused the tall youth to halt in his tracks. It took him a moment before he answered, "Well, just calling it a Garuda is a little bit disrespectful, but I guess it''s not bad that you know this rare type of beast!" The voice of the lean youth didn''t seem like he wanted to insult him, but Jason couldn''t help but smile oddly at the answer. "Well, I don''t really care about what type of Garuda it is, but that is a nice wind affinity you have right there!" Upon seeing the youth''s affinity seed, he realized that it was a powerful wind affinity. As such, Jason could also figure out that the youth was likely to rely on his speed. And, a battle testing his speed was something he would gladly join. However, instead of fusing with Artemis, he only allowed her to enter his body. He got the feeling that the fusion was important for a second spar. And, just by looking at the combat ring with Jennifer and the small youth inside, Jason couldn''t help but sigh. ''Just take care of yourself, Jennifer¡­'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 889 - Contest Of Speed While facing the youth whose entire body was enveloped in semi-translucent armor, Jason was not sure what to think of him. The enhancement that the youth received was likely to be equal to his cultivation at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage. As such, Jason could comprehend that controlling the wandering soul was the easiest if it was at the exact same cultivation base as oneself. This was good to know, and he felt oddly reassured, even if it meant that his own strength was lower than that of his opponents. However, this was only the case if one looked at the basic characteristic of one''s strength while ignoring everything else. Fortunately, Jason had never been someone who solely relied on his physical strength or that of mana. Instead, he had many more means to continue becoming stronger, which was quite helpful right now. Thus, he stood facing the youth, whose strength was higher than his, and a small smile appeared on his face. It had been quite some time since someone whose cultivation base was not much higher than his own was able to face him head-on. As such, it was only obvious that Jason was excited to figure out how the fight would proceed. The moment the tall youth, whose name was Lex, began to move, Jason even forgot his worries about Jennifer. He had to focus on the spar that had just begun because the speed at which Lex was able to move overwhelmed him in a moment. Earlier, he had not expected the enhancement received by Soul force to be that strong, but the cultivation path utilized by the Yinar race was certainly powerful. As such, Jason couldn''t help but circulate moonlight transmuted mana and traces of divine energy through his body before he began to move ahead too. Manifesting Artemis'' wings on his back and feathers to cover his stigma, he finished the preparations to go all-in if necessary. Yet, instead of exerting the Hermes Celeration movement technique right off the bat, or doing something else, Jason focused on plainly circulating the two energies through his body. His body was enhanced through this to the extent that he was able to fight against the youth, whose speed was still much faster than his own. However, that was not really a problem, because he realized that Lex''s affinity was not the only thing to focus on speed. Rather, the wandering soul he had bound himself to was the same. His armor enhanced his agility much more than anything else, which was an interesting thing to figure out. As such, Jason wanted to face Lex head-on without doing more than allowing Artemis to enter his mana core. Jason believed it would be enough because his cultivation itself was already much more powerful than that of most people even without adding the natural soul amplification he received from all of his soulbonds. Thus, manifesting Byakur from the soul world, Jason tightly grasped it with his hands before enveloping it with Solaris'' flames, to further strengthen it. A moment later, he shot towards Lex, who had almost reached him. He was wielding two daggers which were the most common weapons used by agility-type fighters. Prepared to face a quick series of attacks, Jason''s eyes were enhanced by a decent amount of moonlight mana and divine energy. It was not too much but neither too little to have any use. As such, his Emperor Eyes and the foresight blessing were showing their true power, allowing Jason to perceive the attacks that were about to come his way a moment later. Having adjusted to the sensation of seeing attacks that would happen in the next second, he could make use of his reflexes to evade the first series of dagger thrusts, slashes, and suddenly emerged wind blades. Lex had yet to use his affinity to boost his already high speed, and from the looks of it, he didn''t really want to do this. Jason didn''t know why this was the case, but what he knew for sure was that he could endure Lex''s attacks. They were extremely fast and normally he wouldn''t be able to evade them. However, it was his fortune to be an extraordinary human, in the first place! With the divine energy of his, the moonlight transmuted mana, his Emperor Eyes, and the foresight blessing, evading the majority of attacks, while blocking the rest with Byakur didn''t seem to be much of a problem. At least, as long as Lex didn''t step up his game, using his wind affinity, or even a movement technique that made use of his wind affinity to reach an even higher acceleration. As if on cue, Lex did the exact same thing while Jason who didn''t expect it to happen was caught off-guard. Whether this was Lex''s plan or not, Jason couldn''t tell. Yet, one point was evident- Lex''s combat experience was even higher than Jason had first predicted. Because he had underestimated his opponent, he had to exert the Hermes Celeration technique, followed by unleashing his Celestia aura and Stigma. Before, Jason had held himself back from using them, but that was not necessary anymore. After all, Lex was exerting a movement technique with the wind attribute as a means to support everything. Not only was wind transmuted mana coursing through his body, but it looked almost as if he was being propelled forward by the faint gusts of wind behind him. They had been manifested by Lex, and Jason quickly realized this. Unfortunately, it didn''t help him to release every means to enhance his speed too, because Lex''s forte was simply agility, while Jason''s was being versatile. As such, he had to make use of his reflexes and strength that seemed to have reached a state at which he was on par with Lex in order to fight against him. All he received from Lex''s attacks were barely a few cuts. And, those were trivial and could be easily ignored. Jason had yet to utilize all of his means to increase his own strength, after all. He could always fuse with Artemis, but that was not something he wanted to do right now. Instead, Jason knew that he could also win by using another means, which were to use one of his curses, the abyssal effect, or everything together. In fact, there were a few more ways, but Jason didn''t even think about that. Rather, he was making use of the fight against an extremely fast opponent in order to forcefully practice the [Bladed Ruyi Bang] technique! He didn''t have much time to practice the martial art technique, even if he was rather impatient to improve his fighting style with Byakur. As such, using the excitement that coursed through his body, and the pressure created by his opponent, Jason forced himself to endure the light cuts as he exerted the Bladed Ruyi Bang technique. Adjusting the size of Byakur, he faced the wind resistance armed with a smaller version of Byakur that seemed to be the most intriguing difference. After all, Lex was attempting to prevent Jason from moving his weapon however he pleased. This led Lex to push strong wind currents against Byakur. Thus, adjusting the length of his weapon, Jason could regain his footing and not be pushed backward while fighting Lex. ''If you''re using your affinity, how about I use some of mine too?'' He thought before deflecting the series of attacks Lex had shot towards him. Forcing him to retreat two steps, Jason used the momentum to manifest hundreds of blazing icicles around himself before he smiled lightly. "Catch!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 890 - Difference In... Lex was slightly astonished about the sudden emergence of hundreds of blazing icicles around Jason. As such, he could hardly do anything against their onslaught as each icicle was thrown towards him one after another. Not only was the outer layer of the icicles enhanced by moonlight mana, but Jason had even used a tiny influx of divine energy to do the same. It was reinforced with the icicles'' freezing properties. Yet, in the end, Jason didn''t even use a tenth of his entire mana or divine energy to attack, clearly showing how much mana and divine energy he had accumulated over time. The first volley of blazing icicles blasted towards Lex, as it exploded in front of him. It created an explosion as the surrounding was enveloped in a cloud of smoke preventing the youth from seeing anything. Thus he used his senses to perceive the following attack while utilizing his powerful wind affinity to dispel the smoke all around him. Following that, he launched a counterattack without hesitation, using his affinity to manifest hundreds of wind blades that shot towards Jason''s blazing icicles. It only took him a minute to clearly perceive this, and Jason began to move using the Hermes Celebration movement technique while simultaneously controlling the blazing icicles in precision. Countering the wind blades of Lex, he used some to attack the youth directly. Some of his blazing icicles were used as a decoy, causing another huge cloud of smoke to appear around them. Meanwhile, some of the others were mainly meant to injure his opponent greatly. He allowed the outer layer of ice to explode, as it turned into countless ice shards that were dangerously cold, freezing their opponent the moment they reached Lex. However, that was not the main issue that occurred after the icy layer of the blazing icicles exploded because Solaris'' flames were the biggest threat Lex had to face now. Nonetheless, not a single means of attack could be underestimated. No matter whether it was a simple distraction, a decoy without a single additional effect, or the blazing icicles with two different means to injure their opponents, Lex had to keep his guard up. Owing to Jason''s variety of skills, even Lex, whose battle experience was much greater than Jason expected it to be, was struggling to come up with a good attack strategy. After all, he didn''t expect Jason to have two elemental affinities, one affinity that seemed to act as a support to everything involving mana, and a perfectly purified type of energy that was several times stronger than Soul force. This was simply madness, causing Lex to lose his upper hand against Jason as he manifested hundreds of wind blades hastily. Thus, they were not stable enough to face the blazing icicles head-on. They barely destroyed some of them, while the remaining ones only lost their outer layer of ice. Taking multiple factors into consideration, Lex was certainly facing a downfall. Everyone who was watching the spar could see that the huge advantage the youth had initially gained was slowly evaporating into thin air. Jason had begun to counterattack for real only now, and Elder Ben couldn''t help but feel delighted. It was the first time for Elder Ben to see Lex in a prickly situation like this, completely overwhelmed after being at an advantage. ''If they continue to spar with Jason, their combat prowess will soar. This young man¡­ his fighting style changes quite fast, and he has yet to initiate a soul fusion with his soulbond too. Jan said something about his eyes, but it doesn''t look like Jason is using his special trait actively right now!'' It was only obvious for Elder Ben to be intrigued about the newcomer. After all, he had to be vigilant of him, so as to prevent spies from entering the city. It may not be forbidden for an Agran who was under a soul contract with other foreign races to live in the city, but they had to be reported. This was important in order to ensure the safety of the city. It would be stupid to reveal secrets to someone, who might betray you anytime, even if this someone did not do it intentionally! With that in mind, Elder Ben should have been vigilant of Jason as per the advice received by the Lord of Liun. However, he had been so engrossed in watching the sparrings intently that he had completely forgotten about the task he was given. Instead, he was trying to figure out how Jason might be helpful to improve the sorry state of his Elites current combat prowess. All of them had great combat experience and high cultivation talent, but they were still missing a little bit when compared to Jason. This little bit was something he hoped to obtain through Jason, who had retracted Artemis'' wings. Byakur was touching Lex''s neck, and a dozen fireballs were hovering close to the vital points of his body. The fireballs were ready to explode and injure Lex the moment he was to do something stupid, but that didn''t happen. Accepting his defeat, Lex took a deep breath the moment Jason lifted Byakur. Smiling lightly, Jason had to agree that Lex was a formidable force. However, he had limited himself to using just one martial art technique, even if it was quite versatile, and changing movement sequences. Jason was similar, but he couldn''t really rely on the Bladed Ruyi Bang technique, to begin with. As such, he was using every single bit of experience and techniques he had learned and seen by others in order to fight in a versatile manner. This was what allowed him to win relatively easily without the need to use his curses, the abyssal effect, or the soul fusion. Nevertheless, it had been a great fight, and by grasping Lux''s hand, he helped the youth to get up. "You did great. I hope we can spare some time again in the future!" By saying this, Jason implied that he wanted to stay in Liun for some time, but that shouldn''t be much of an issue. At least he felt like that. However, when he let go of Lex''s hand,, Jason turned around to look at Jennifer''s spar. He half-heartedly listened to the youth who was thanking him genuinely, before attempting to start a conversation. For a short moment, he had forgotten about her fight because the fight against Lex had made him focus on his opponent. Yet, seeing the spar that didn''t seem to be over yet, Jason couldn''t help but flinch. Jennifer was giving her utmost efforts to fight against Lars, the short youth, who had challenged her earlier. Lars'' overall size seemed to have increased by a lot, and he was enveloped in a tight armor that looked like a bear who was set on fire with dark, blazing flames. However, the flames that seemed to be embedded in the armor were semi-translucent and flickered brightly. But that was something Jason couldn''t care less about right now because Lars was not giving Jennifer a single chance to retreat or to take a breather. She was being forced to fight Lars head-on which was nearly impossible owing to his overbearing strength, and the fact that his wandering soul armor was enhancing his physical strength even more. After all, he was at the Low Ascendion stage, and his wandering soul armor was doubling his strength. Thus, it was only obvious that Jennifer would lose if she didn''t have a trump card that allowed her to do the same, or even more than double her strength. Unfortunately, she didn''t possess such a thing, which Lars couldn''t care less about as he aggressively attacked and injured Jennifer. "Elder, I hope your healers are as good as these youth''s combat experience, otherwise one of your prodigies will be reduced to trash from today onwards." Jason commented without bothering to look at Elder Ben, his eyes flaring in anger. His mood was clearly visible as his Celestia aura was directly representing his mood. Meanwhile, faint reddish threads were changing the pure Celestia aura. Suddenly, just when the battle ended, the entire arena became void of mana. Jennifer landed on the ground, panting and bleeding due to several deep cuts. Not a single mana particle was left behind, as every last particle was pulled by Jason by a suction force. His entire being was glowing in a golden colour that was mixed with a grotesque dark-red color that was also visible in his blazing eyes. Chapter 891 - Destructive After being deprived of mana and the purest form of primordial energy and spirit force, the interior of the arena felt extremely weird. It was almost as if something was missing, which made everyone shudder for a moment. They turned in the direction of the suctioning force that had drained the surrounding of energies. Looking directly at Jason, they instinctively knew that he was the one who had absorbed everything, and when he took his first step, he suddenly vanished from the sight of Liun''s Elite. Only Elder Ben could keep up with his speed, but even he couldn''t help but swallow nervously as he turned his head towards Jennifer. Jason was suddenly standing beside her, and leaned down to the young halfling before his moonlight mana and replenished divine energy were utilized to heal her. By using his moonlight affinity this was possible, even if the affinity''s main property was not healing. Jason slowly relieved her of the pain she felt which made it possible for Jennifer to turn around. Her eyes met his and she saw Jason''s expression that was filled with anger and worry. This caused her to feel like grinning foolishly as she remarked, "Looks like I have a long way to grow¡­heheh-..ouch." Jennifer attempted to laugh, but a sudden pain shot up from her abdomen and spread through her entire body. Only Jason''s healing gave her a little respite. Fortunately, the medics arrived just moments after him, as they started to tend to her outer and inner wounds. This allowed Jason to focus on Jennifer, who was just looking at him with a gentle smile on her face as she mumbled. "Beat him¡­but don''t kill him, alright?" Sensing Jason''s anger was not exactly difficult as one look at his face could tell anyone about the same. And, if Jennifer were to be honest, she had never seen Jason like this. As such, she felt moved, but also slightly worried about what kind of irrational things he would do. Yet, seeing his expression and his crystal clear eyes, whose color was slowly changing to get a touch of darkish-red outlines, she sensed that he couldn''t hear her words. Thus, she grit her teeth before moving her upper body, lifting it in order to reach out for Jason. Grasping his arm, she felt odd, almost as if a monstrum of unparalleled strength was resting within him. ''He really is a Celestia, I guess?'' She suddenly thought, only to repeat her words again. "Don''t kill him!" In the end, Jason''s strength was not supposed to be even close to that of Lars. After all, his combat prowess wouldn''t shoot up by more than ten times, just because he would initiate a soul fusion with Artemis. Despite that, Jennifer didn''t doubt for even a single second that Jason would win against Lars. Because of that, she was relieved when he heard her the second time she said something. Perceiving that Jennifer was fine and that nothing serious had happened to her made him calm down a bit. However, simultaneously, he clearly understood that Lars had tricked and played with Jennifer, giving her too many injuries that could have been avoided. Thus, his mind had gone blank for a moment, only for him to regain some of his senses as he nodded his head. "Don''t worry, I won''t kill him. A broken arm or two are definitely fine though!" With that being said, he gently removed Jennifer''s hand from his own before he got up. "Rest a little bit. I will be back soon!" Jason told her before turning towards Lars. The youth was still standing in the combat ring, fully aware of what was about to happen. However, this was what he had planned from the start. His plan had been to provoke Jason in order to fight and win against him in his strongest form. What he hadn''t expected was for Jason to react the way he was doing. But, that was certainly something advantageous, indicating that the newcomer was not to be taken lightly. Not accepting that his girl was injured showed how much he cared about her, but that could also be used against him as it had happened just now. This told Jason that he had to pay more attention to what he was doing and how much of his thoughts or emotions he revealed. He also realized that his strength was still not enough, even if he could obviously not do something about what had just happened. It irked Jason, and he was blaming himself more than the youth in front of him. Nevertheless, hurting himself for what happened was stupid, and the perpetrator was right in front of him. As such, taking care of the little youth would ease his anger, to some extent. Thus, he didn''t hesitate as he entered the combat ring before he announced, "I want to fight you!" Without using a single second to replenish his mana or divine energy, Jason challenged him. He was oblivious to the fact that this had already happened in the short period between the end of his spar against Lex, and now. Using the purest portion of the three cultivation energies, his divine energy was quickly replenished, while his entire body was overflowing with mana. In no time, every cell of his body was filled to the brim, enhancing his strength to the peak. It was only obvious what Jason was about to do. Because of that, Lars just had to nod his head before they went into their respective defensive stance before Elder Ben started the countdown. Three seconds later their fight started, and Jason quickly fused with Artemis. A fraction of a second later, his appearance changed as Artemis'' wings, horns and feathers started to grow out of Jason. The second stigma manifested above Jason''s eye, and it was not even a second later that he expanded the Artic aura which he enhanced by fully unleashing the two Stigmas to their limit. Enveloping almost the entire arena, Jason started to compress his aura, focusing on the battle ring that began to freeze. After being compressed, the Arctic aura became much more powerful, causing the ground to crack open owing to the freezing cold. Just a moment later, thousands of icicles manifested in the entire arena, shooting towards Lars. While Jason had fused, Lars didn''t remain idle either. He allowed the wandering soul of the Hellfire Werebear he had bound to his soul to emerge partially. It enveloped him in a tightly put-on armor, which doubled Lars'' physical strength. Showing his supremacy, he allowed the icicles to crash onto him without moving a single inch. This was a clear means to show-off and provoke Jason. However, provoking Jason hadn''t been necessary. After all, he was ready to break a few bones of Lars, which was clearly visible on his face as Lars felt a sudden decrease in his strength. The Hellfire Werebear armor around him grew unstable, and it was almost as if his connection to the wandering soul was weakening. This shocked him for a moment, averting his focus from the icicles that had been shot towards him. As such, he didn''t even realize how his armor began to show signs of freezing. Only when he regained control of the wandering soul''s connection did he notice that something was off. Yet, just by looking into the depth of Jason''s eyes, it was clear what was going on, causing him to halt in his tracks. ''Fuck, he played me!'' Glowing in a bright sky blue color, Jason''s eyes were a clear indicator that he was up to something. Jason used the petrification curse the moment Lars looked him into the eyes, paralyzing him for a mere moment. However, that was already more than enough after he had used the race specific weakening curse on Lars first. Thus, even without moving, Jason was instantaneously gaining the upper hand in the fight against Lars, who was struggling to gain control over himself. Not just himself but he lost control over the armor and removing the freezing on it was easier said than done. And, it was just a moment later that Jason had already appeared in front of him. This caused Lars to groan in frustration. Yet, instead of giving up, he released his fire affinity, enveloping his wandering soul armor in brightly lit flames that removed the ice on the armor and the surrounding. Despite being hot enough to achieve this, it was not even close to be strong enough to affect, let alone burn Jason. He possessed the fire resistance of Solaris, after all. And his seemingly little origin flame was powerful enough to endure a searing hot temperature. Thus, instead of bothering about being scorched like tinder, Jason attacked with Byakur, attempting to break through the armor. It had been weakened by the race specific weakening curse, and he could hear the distinct sound of something breaking that reverberated through the entire arena. Faint cracks had appeared on the armor of the wandering soul, astonishing Elder Ben and the others. "Not yet!!!" Lars suddenly shouted. He did not accept to lose just like that. In an attempt to save himself, he released the Hellfire Werebear wandering soul to a higher extent, strengthening the armor, and preventing it from breaking apart. This was extremely dangerous because Lars could barely control the wandering soul to that extent. However, while looking into Jason''s eyes, Lars hoped to see a trace of desperation. Yet, what he saw was nothing but an eerily calm expression as if everything was as per Jason''s calculations. This astonished Lars a little bit, but he was neither flabbergasted, nor affected by Jason''s calm. Instead, Lars smiled brightly as if he had received the world''s best present he could ever get. "Finally!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 892 - Hellfire Werebear Against The Glacier Dragon Jason couldn''t care less about what Lars was thinking. However, seeing the sudden smile emerge on his face caused Jason to feel a little bit confused. ''What is wrong with this dude?'' He wondered. A subtle smile appeared on Lars'' lips as the wandering soul around him began to change its shape. At the same time, the Hellfire Werebear''s soul was released to a higher extent, completely blocking Jason''s attack. Jumping backward, he retreated a few more meters before changing his means of attack. Using the mana that coursed through his body, he inserted small portions of it within Byakur. Tightly enveloping Byakur''s blade with the frozen flames of Solaris, Jason further enhanced his weapon. This allowed Byakur to reach a state close to the prime level that Jason could have possibly hoped for. Thus, after Byakur had reached its prime state, he catapulted himself ahead once again, attempting to break through the defenses of Lars. Meanwhile, the small youth didn''t remain idle either. He was completely in control of the change in the Hellfire Werebear''s shape. Before, it was an armor that had simply enveloped him tightly. However, now this had changed, and the wandering soul returned to its original state, just in a smaller version. More of the wandering soul had been released. As such, Lars was unable to control the Hellfire Werebear armor as proficient as before. Because of that, he had returned his wandering soul to its former state. This way it didn''t require an additional means of control. Instead, he could control it at the bare minimum level, which meant that Lars was able to manifest more of the Hellfire Werebear. Through this, he was able to increase his combat prowess by leaps and bounds. Sensing that Byakur slashed at him, Lars didn''t hesitate to erupt in an inferno of flames around him. The fire immediately spread around, burning away everything in its wake. This caused a fight between fire and ice, cold and heat as the Arctic aura collided with the flames of the Hellfire Werebear. Jason couldn''t pay much attention to this as his entire focus was set on Lars, and his movements. He wanted to know how Lars moved even before he was aware of this, which made it difficult for Jason to avert his attention. After all, he was using his Emperor Eyes and the foresight blessing! It was necessary for him to see every single movement of Lars in order to predict his future moves, but even then it was easier said than done. As such, Jason could only ease his mind by lunging forward with Byakur that was enveloped in the frozen flame of Solaris to collide with the Hellfire Werebear that enveloped Lars tightly. Yet, even after inserting more neutral mana into Byakur, it didn''t seem to have any effect. Thus, Jason took a step closer before using his entire physical strength to fling Lars away with a powerful kick. In the end, this didn''t give him the result he had been hoping for, but it was better than one might think as he pushed himself away. This allowed him to use the little distance he had between himself and Lars, who was occupied with controlling the Hellfire Werebear, in order to initiate one of his strongest, if not THE strongest attack he had. Releasing the Frozen flame to an extreme level at once, both Jason and Solaris were controlling the suddenly erupting flames that were more than ten meters both in height and breadth. They were flickering wildly in front of Jason, and by holding Byakur horizontally, with one of his hands touching the tip of his blade, he allowed Solaris to manifest in the middle of the blade. By controlling the Frozen flames exquisitely, Solaris'' size quickly enlarged. Meanwhile, Jason continued to retreat, giving his soulbond some time to prepare the Breath of the Glacier Dragon. Normally, Jason would use it with Solaris inside his mana core, but while being fused with Artemis, everything was working perfectly fine as well. Thus, after releasing the Frozen flame with moonlight transmuted mana and divine energy, the flames had not only become powerful, but also slightly more difficult to control. However, that was not a problem because Solaris and Jason were working together in sync while receiving subtle support from Artemis, who wanted to help. Wanting to be a part of the fighting squad, she was giving her best to control the coldness of the flames, while Solaris and Jason were shaping them within seconds. Just preparing attacks took much longer, but with the help of two soulbonds, Jason was able to form a ginormous dragon head-shaped from the Frozen flames. It almost looked like it had emerged out of the sky blue flames that had been suctioned towards the center of Byakur, where Solaris was located. Thus, seeing a ginormous sky-blue dragon head with silver glowing eyes emerge suddenly, everyone shuddered for a moment as it issued a thunderous roar. ''Is¡­that a real dragon?!'' A few Elite of Liun thought when they first saw the dragon head. Yet after seeing how calm Elder Ben and Jennifer were when they saw the dragon, they gave it a second try. However, even after realizing that the seemingly real-looking dragon head was just made of compressed flames, they still had a hard time believing it. After all, it almost looked like a real dragon, and their heart began to beat wildly just because of the roar it had issued. Thus, they couldn''t help but feel overwhelmed, only to witness how Lars'' entire body was enveloped in blazing flames. It overshadowed his appearance as the Hellfire Werebear''s wandering soul enlarged. Both sides were giving their utmost efforts, and the huge shape of a claw manifested out of flames was about to come into existence. Yet, instead of letting Lars receive an opportunity to launch a counterattack, Jason compressed the Arctic aura within a moment. He then enveloped the Glacier Dragon head with it before further enhancing the effect of his Stigma. This was possible by inserting pure divine energy into it. Glowing in a bright golden shade, the two Stigmas that were covered by a bunch of feathers pierced through the disguise, highlighting the appearance of Jason. However, that was something Jason couldn''t care less about as he released more divine energy to enhance the Glacier dragon head. This provided him with the final piece of energy that was required to initiate his attack; the Breath of the dragon, or simply put, the dragon flame. Opening its maw widely, he gathered all of its energy in one area which was the center of the Glacier Dragonhead. This took a few moments, giving Lars the necessary time to manifest the majority of the Hellfire Werebear''s fire claw. However, it was yet to be fully completed when suddenly the Glacier Dragon released its destructive dragon breath. The fiercely powerful flames targeted the center of the Hellfire Werebear, wanting to destroy it then and there. The suddenly released dragon flame froze the ground of the entire arena, covering it in a thin sheet of ice. The surrounding temperature quickly dropped by several degrees, even before the flame collided with the Hellfire Werebear that lashed out at the flame with its fire claw. This was a means to protect itself, and its master, Lars, who could only use his entire Soul force to try and stop Jason''s advance. He continued to release more and more flames, in order to fight against the coldness that was slowly seeping inside his body, making his teeth chatter. The fight of the Hellfire Werebear against the Glacier Dragon had just begun. Yet, it would not take a genius to know who the winner of this battle would be as he geared up to defeat his opponent in an overwhelming manner. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 893 - Apology From the outside of the combat ring, it looked like both sides were struggling to control and efficiently utilize the enormous amount of energy that was required to maintain the shape of the Glacier dragon head, and the Hellfire Werebear''s fireclay. However, the first impression of both sides being equally strong was radically transforming as one party took an upper hand no sight anymore as time seemed to pass infinitely slowly. Jason''s victory became even more apparent when he released the divine energy inside the Glacier Dragon, enhancing the dragon breath manifolds. At that moment, a loud crack resounded in the area, and Elder Ben knew that he had to act right now. He had watched the entire spar intently and had known even before Jason had made a move that he would never be at a disadvantage. Yet, he had waited for Jason to prove this fact and was relieved to see him prove his assumptions correct. Jason''s earlier anger should have made him act more reckless, but from the looks of it, his emotions hadn''t affected him as much as expected. This was interesting, but without wasting precious time that could cost the life of his Elite, Elder Ben decided to make a move. Vanishing from his seat, he emerged in front of Lars, who was coughing up blood. He was clearly struggling to reclaim control over the Hellfire Werebear that was completely released in order to survive the attack of the Glacier Dragon. The Elder hadn''t realized that the wandering soul had been fully released before, but after noticing this, he began to wonder just how powerful the dragon breath was. However, he didn''t have to wait for long in order to receive an answer as what occurred in front of him only a moment later made his eyes widen in astonishment. ''The dragon breath has an exceptional freezing property, can burn through energies, and¡­is extraordinarily purified¡­'' It was not surprising to see flames with unique properties, but the purity of the dragon breath astonished Elder Ben. After all, the flame had been manifested out of the surrounding mana that was certainly not in its purest form! Thus, the Elder released his own Soul force to block off the dragon breath, ending the attack within a single moment. Lars stumbled backward as his body went limp, while Elder Ben simply watched the Glacier Dragon head that had been compressed out of frozen flames in stupor. Only after looking at the Glacier Dragon head for a few seconds did he sigh deeply while turning towards Lars. His wandering soul seemed to nod its head at Elder Ben before returning to the body of his master. The Hellfire Werebear was deemed as a beast with a big temper, which often made it difficult for the wandering soul to control its emotions. However, it was evident that it might have died had Elder Ben not intervened. The most it would have sustained a severe undercooling¡­and that too as a beast that could control the flames of hell! This was ridiculous, and after calming down, the Hellfire Werebear returned to its master. It liked Lars, which was the reason it accepted the bond with him, to begin with. Binding with a Yinar was something the majority of wandering souls would never do voluntarily because it would deprive them of their freedom. However, at the same time, after being bound to another being, their racial limitation would completely disappear. This would allow them to become much more powerful, even if they were only White rabbits in the beginning of their journey! Lars was breathing heavily with blood trickling out of the corners of his lips, nose, and even ears. He had been completely overwhelmed by the dragon breath of the Glacier Dragon that was slowly disappearing while being suctioned into the small, palm-sized flame that disappeared within Jason. This caused Lars to take several deep breaths as he realized that everything that had happened just now was the doing of Jason''s soulbond. With trembling legs, he collapsed to the ground, only to see that Jason was sweating profusely. However, considering his own sorry state, sweat was not even worth mentioning. While he had used his own Soul force completely, the energy within and around Jason seemed to be brimming with vigor. This made Lars wonder as to who amongst both of them was at a higher cultivation base. By no means should he have lost against Jason. After all, he was at the Low Ascendion stage, and had a mighty wandering soul bound to his soul. Yet, someone at the Peak of the Prismar stage, with a few soulbonds being strong enough to defeat him, without sustaining any severe injuries. That was shocking, to put it lightly, and Lars felt that he was incapable of understanding what he was supposed to do. At this moment, he felt a broad hand come around his shoulder. Upon lifting his head, he saw Elder Ben, who smiled reassuringly at him before remarking, "It''s weird, isn''t it? Why is he so powerful and able to defeat you, despite the relentless training you''ve undergone? Is it just the energy he owns other than mana, or is there more to it? Is it limited to his soulbonds, his eyes, his aura, or is it everything together? If you want to figure out Jason''s secrets, you know what you''ve got to do!" Elder Ben didn''t plan on telling Lars what he had to do because it was the youth''s decision to figure out what he wanted to do. As such, he was simply stating a few facts while trying to give Lars rough guidance. After understanding what the Elder meant, Lars gaze averted to Jennifer, who was already completely healed. Sighing deeply, he knew that his provocation to Jason had been too harsh on his woman. Thus, Lars decided to let go of his pride as he approached Jennifer. This was seen by Jason, who had already taken a glance at Jennifer after the battle had ended. Realizing that Lars didn''t mean to harm her, he let him approach her. In the end, Jason was not even surprised when he saw that Lars bowed lightly to Jennifer before voicing out a formal apology. Astonished, Jennifer looked at the youth. "It''s fine, don''t worry. I could tell what you were trying to do¡­even if I don''t like how powerless I was." Shrugging her shoulders, she decided to accept his apology before exchanging a few more words. After that, she noticed Jason approach them, which caused her to smile brightly as she quickly told him. "I''ve completely healed already. Their healers are really powerful. They even have wandering souls that can heal severe internal injuries¡­not that I had such injuries, don''t misunderstand!" Smiling to hear Jennifer hastily blaber, he couldn''t help but feel that she was truly fine. This was great, and turning his head towards Lars, who looked dead-tired, Jason was sure that the youth had learned his lesson. "You''re really strong. Let''s spar some more soon!" He nonchalantly commented with a smile, his earlier anger having disappeared. Jennifer accepted Lars'' apology. As such, he had no reason to hold a grudge against the youth. After all, it was acceptable to make mistakes once in a while. As long as nobody was seriously injured, it would be fine. Nothing serious had happened to Jennifer. If something was hurt, it was probably her pride of being defeated by someone powerful with great talent, who was younger than her at that! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 894 - Golden Crystal After he had defeated Lars, the sparring session ended for Jason. The others could continue with their spars, but they were mostly staring at Jason, unsure of what to think about him. His serious expression was replaced by a subtle smile as he looked at Jennifer. This was not really something that was supposed to astonish them, but after taking a second glance at him, it seemed that Jason''s smile had turned brighter. Just a moment later, the presence around him changed, as five beings emerged from his body. Solaris and Artemis simply emerged on either of Jason''s shoulders, while Petri enveloped himself around his waist, reaching up to his chest. Meanwhile, Spyro had turned into a silver head-ring, maintaining the shape while being wrapped around the head of Jason, on which Sira, the sacred Squirrel had emerged and was sleeping peacefully. The sudden appearance of his five soulbonds astonished everyone because it was not common to allow one''s soulbonds to run around freely, to begin with. Yet, Jason didn''t seem to be as strict as others in terms of following such a basic, and unofficial rule. From the looks of it, he was even overjoyed that they had decided to come out. However, when the Elite of Liun, and Elder Ben saw that they were preventing Jennifer from nearing Jason, they could barely hold back their laughter. The situation didn''t look all that serious from their point of view. Rather, it was as if Jason''s soulbonds were trying to claim Jason for themselves, determining Jennifer as a threat who wanted to snatch him away from them. After all, his soulbonds had not really got an opportunity to spend that much time with him since he had left the Dungeon of the Primordial Descendant. Even inside the dungeon, they didn''t have much time to spare as he had been occupied with advancing the trials. But ever since Jennifer and Jason had reunited, everything had changed, even if it were only subtle changes. Oddly enough, Jason didn''t seem all that bothered about this, and instead of doing something he seemed to be enjoying the drama his soulbonds caused. Smiling vividly, he could only shrug his shoulders at Jennifer, who stared daggers at him, trying to keep a poker face, before breaking into laughter too. She had never seen all of his soulbonds at once, and it was only now that she could finally figure out what made all of them so special. Jason had already told her that their size or appearance was normally different, except for Sira''s, but that was not important right now. Taking a step forward, she sized up each of his soulbonds, before stepping back, understanding that his soulbonds required some time with Jason too. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have emerged all at once, just after he had finished fighting. ''They must have waited for a good opportunity, I guess? To think that I have to share Jason with others¡­and they''re even beasts, at that¡­'' Shaking her head, it was close to impossible not to think that the situation was slightly ridiculous. However, it would have bothered her even more if Jason were to bring home all kinds of men and women, asking her to share him with them. As such, she called herself selfish, thinking that his soulbonds were part of his family and an integral part of his existence. Thus, Jennifer had to accept them too if she wanted to accept Jason. With that in mind, everything became much easier for her to digest. While Jennifer was deep in thoughts, Jason caressed his soulbonds, only to approach Elder Ben. The Elder had already evaluated each of Jason''s soulbonds, investigating their strength before attempting to figure out their special traits. "Will it be okay if I walk around the city with my soulbonds right next to me, or is this forbidden by the City''s laws?" Before doing as he pleased, it was better to be informed of the rules of the place he was staying. It might not bother him if the city was not noteworthy to him, but Jason knew that he had to find a few things here. The only issue was that he had yet to figure out what exactly these things were, which was quite disadvantageous. "If you don''t worry about the gazes of others, it will be fine. Soulbonds are allowed inside the city as long as they don''t destroy anything. Still, it will be best for everyone if you tell your soulbonds to stay by your side, just as its the case right now. We have had a few incidents of soulbonds being hunted, unintentionally of course, in the past. Some Yinars and even Agrans thought that there was a ferocious beast that had entered the city unbeknownst to the guards¡­.and everything ended in a rather disastrous way!" Thanking Elder Ben for his warning, Jason told himself to pay attention to his soulbonds, ensuring that nothing would happen to them. "Thank you for your advice. I will remember it. If there is nothing else for me to do, I would like to roam through the city." He had yet to roam the streets and start looking out for what he was searching for, in the first place. As such, he paid more attention to his soulbonds before activating his Emperor Eyes with traces of mana. However, just as he wanted to leave the arena, Elder Ben stopped him. "Our streets are all interconnected, so you might get lost easily. How about I come with the lot of you? I have a few hours left before my next appointment, and I have yet to thank you properly for helping me out with the messenger gathering events!" Normally, Jason would politely reject such an offer, knowing that he wouldn''t get lost, but today, this was not the case. Getting to know more about the Yinar race, the Soa crystals he had heard a few things about, alongwith the wandering souls would be quite interesting. Thus, he didn''t hold back as he nodded his head thankfully. "That would be great, thank you for your generous offer!" Smiling, Jason wanted to walk away with Jennifer and Elder Ben, who had instructed the medics to tend to the kids before he appeared next to Jason. Yet, it was only a moment later that Lars emerged next to them. "Can I come with you all?" From being overly aggressive, and doing whatever he pleased in order to achieve what he wanted, Lars seemed to have turned a new leaf. And that in a matter of minutes! This astonished Jason a little bit, but instead of commenting on the sudden change, or denying the youth, he nodded his head after getting Jennifer''s approval. As long as she was fine with Lars being near them, Jason couldn''t care less. Leaving behind the other Elite of the City, the group around Jason left the combat arena, entering the main streets of the city just a few seconds later. Everything was built with over-dimensional proportions, and initially, Jason wondered what the reason for this was. However, considering that there were many soulbonds living right next to their masters, the answer was quite simple. Building broad streets and having large entrances to houses was done to grant easy access to the larger soulbonds, which was something that Jason didn''t expect to encounter. After all, it was quite considerate, and not even necessary because one could simply retract one''s soulbond into the soul world if the situation demanded them to. As such, his view of the Yinar race changed a little, feeling that they might even be less violent than he first imagined, which was already quite low considering their violent tendencies. ''Was it really right of me to propose fighting if a messenger gathering event would last longer than a week?'' He suddenly thought, not sure if this might tarnish the non-violent morale of the Yinar race. However, thinking that Elder Ben had agreed to his idea helped Jason calm down quickly, allowing him to return his attention to the more important things. This included the sudden vibration in his soul world as his Emperor Eyes perceived something interesting. There was a huge statue in the center of the marketplace they had just entered. A string of yellowish, and almost golden crystals surrounded it. They radiated an extremely similar type of energy the Yinar race and wandering souls cultivated with. Yet, nobody seemed to want to absorb it, which made Jason wonder if the energy was too pure to absorb, or if there was something else. With his mind overflowing with pieces of information he had acquired by observing the crystals and their interior intently Jason subconsciously blurted out. "Are the golden crystals the Soa crystals? If that''s the case, how can I purchase them?" Hearing him ask this question out of nowhere caused both Elder Ben and Lars to halt in their tracks before they stared at him with a cold expression. This clearly indicated to Jennifer that Jason had said something wrong without realizing it. Holding his arm, she held him back from continuing to walk, only to allow Jason from hearing the Elder''s cold voice. "Why would an Agran need Soa crystals?!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 895 - Soa Crystals Jason was astonished by the sudden hostility that was directed towards him. Even Jennifer couldn''t help but raise her right eyebrow as she could almost visualize the daggers Lars and Elder Ben threw at him just with their gazes. It gave her the chills, while Jason''s soulbonds began to emit various voices, preparing themselves to fight for Jason''s safety. They were ready to fight alongside him even if the situation was suicidal! Meanwhile, Jason could roughly gauge what was going on. He concluded that there was something about the Soa crystals that was dangerous and that nobody of the Agran race should need them. That was the most basic thing he could figure out, which was not further difficult. "Are Agrans not allowed to purchase Soa crystals? Why is that so?" Not knowing the entire truth, Jason simply decided to let them know how confused he was about what was going on. Elder Ben saw his expression, before realizing that Jason didn''t even retract his soulbonds inside his soul world. This meant that he was willing to expose them to the possible dangers inside the city. As such, he assumed that Jason was truly oblivious to the issue which caused him to sigh as he tried to clear his confusion. "Only our race is allowed to purchase Soa crystals because we are the only ones that can use them for cultivation purposes. And, to be precise, even that is not to be taken lightly. In most cases, Soa crystals are used to turn normal beasts into wandering souls. But there is one particular function of these crystals that made us forbid selling them to Agrans, especially those that are messengers of other races! The most important effect is that you can strengthen the portals to the Ninad beast realm with Soa crystals, allowing foreign races to emerge through the portal! This is something we want to prevent by all means because our experience with other foreign races so far have been¡­not that great, to put it simply. If you are wondering why I told you about this secret, it is because you would have found out about this sooner or later, either way. As such, there is no need for me to hide it, right?" Perceiving that Elder Ben had changed from being hostile to a carefully neutral behavior, Lars began to hide his hostility. He thought that Jason was quite a nice guy, but having heard about all kinds of tricksters that lied to people for their own benefits, Lars knew that he had to be careful. Yet, when Jason replied, "Oh", as if he had suddenly understood the situation, Lars'' doubts dispersed into thin air. "Elder, does that mean, there is no way I can procure Soa crystals? Not from the city, I mean¡­" It was suspicious for him to continue asking about the Soa crystals, but at the same time, Elder Ben believed that it was what made Jason more trustworthy. The fact that he was speaking to an Elder about something that was forbidden made it clear that he was genuinely curious. Following that, Jason shouldn''t have asked him about the Soa crystals in the first place, if he knew about their secret function and the laws of the city. Meanwhile, asking the second question clearly indicated that he was simply oblivious, and also that he truly needed them for something. In fact, Jason was not even certain if he required them to begin with. However, if he were to take his soul world core''s reaction literally, Jason couldn''t help but think that his Agran bloodline was telling him that he required the Soa crystals for his true soul awakening. Unfortunately, this was not something he could say easily, even after Elder Ben repeated his question. "Why do you need them? Even our race has to meet certain requirements to purchase Soa crystals. Furthermore, procuring them in the wilderness is quite difficult, at least, if we consider your combat prowess!" Through the Elder''s words, Jason understood that it was also not possible for him to procure the Soa crystals in the wilderness. The realization was quite a downer, causing him to frown in disappointment. Answering the given question was not difficult but he didn''t really want to expose everything about himself. He was amongst strangers so he was not sure how valuable the information about a true soul awakening was. Thus, he could only ask. "Can''t I just not answer your question about why I need Soa crystals? Probably not anymore, right?" Smiling foolishly, he looked at them with innocence. And, his behavior eased the tension of the two Yinars, but Elder Ben could only shake his head afterward. "Well, you can, but our trust in you would decrease because we now know that you want to hide something. And that something has to do with procuring Soa crystals¡­.If I were you, I would just state everything I''m comfortable with, while the rest can stay hidden, if its not too dangerous¡­" Elder Ben was increasingly growing fond of Jason. He was certainly a prodigy, and one of the strongest people he had seen in a long time. The wide range of soulbonds he had, was great, and each of his soulbond was more interesting than the one he had sized up before. All of his soulbonds were different, and there were only two that were strictly following the path of Maest. This was quite interesting because he had a soulbond with a different type of cultivation energy than the three major cultivation energies, and one for each of the remaining paths. Even the stronger Agran were not able to bind Spiral beasts, let alone a wandering soul that cultivated with Soul force. Yet, perceiving that Jason had been able to bind soulbonds of all three paths, and even a beast that cultivated in a different path, Elder Ben believed that Jason trusted them enough to expose all of his soulbonds to them. Thus, he didn''t think that there was much of a threat from the golden-eyed youth. Unfortunately, the extent at which some people tried to fraud someone knew no bounds, and one could never know for sure what was going on. With that in mind, the Elder had decided to remain honest, which was evident in the answer he had given. Jason noticed that Elder Ben was conflicted about what to say and how to answer Jason best. As such, he took his answer to heart before he kept being honest too. "Hmm, then let''s say, I want to experiment with something. I sensed something the first time I saw wandering souls. It was as if my soul world core was telling me something, or wanted to. Exactly the same goes for the Soa crystals. I just felt that I need them for something, which is the reason I want to experiment with them!" Believing that he was doing the right thing, Jason didn''t hesitate to speak the truth. He didn''t say anything about the true soul awakening and that he was relatively sure that he required Soa crystals to initiate the true soul awakening, but that was fine. In fact, Jason was pretty sure that the Soa crystals were the main ingredients he required. Yet, all of a sudden he heard a deep sigh of relief followed by the Elder''s voice. "Ahh, you mean that. It looks like my worries were unfounded then. There are some Agran that have a similar reaction to the mention of Soa crystals, as if they need it for something. But, most people say that one was chosen by a Soa crystal. In fact, I forgot to tell you an interesting fact. Most people believe that this tingling feeling determines if you have a strong soul world or not. It''s rare, but nobody really knows for sure why this happens. As nobody could validate it with proof, it turned into a folklore, indicating talent. However, in the end, It''s one of the many mysteries of the Agran race." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 896 - Missions? While continuing to walk through the city, their small group interacted a lot. This allowed Elder Ben to clearly understand that Jason didn''t plan on finding his way back to Manyr. Nor did he hope to procure Soa crystals in order to support other races in any kind of way. That was reassuring, and made him think of a proper solution for Jason''s request. There was something the Elder was interested in as well. As such, they ended touring through the City after a few hours, once they had shown Jason some important places. These included the mission hall, the dojo in which he could procure techniques, the training hall used by cultivators to train using all kinds of weapons, and many more. By the time the tour was concluded, the Elder came up with the solution for Jason''s predicament which he revealed to him. "How about I give you one Soa crystal? Just test whatever you want, and if you feel like you''ve figured something out, you can try accepting missions. I will provide you with a permission certificate so that you can also be rewarded with Soa crystals just as its possible for Yinars. That way you don''t have to purchase them directly, but you help the city by completing missions in exchange for the crystals! " Jason didn''t expect to get that kind of offer, but he liked the idea nonetheless. It might turn him into someone similar to a mercenary, but given the fact that he had control over what missions he wanted to do, it was clearly not that big a disadvantage. However, he couldn''t help but doubt what the Elder wanted to achieve as even Lars looked at Elder Ben in confusion. The Elder''s earlier reaction was just too big of a contrast to the way he reacted now! "Why would you do that? Earlier, you doubted me, but now you want to help me? You don''t know me and you suspected that I would use the Soa crystal for something evil, didn''t you?" Even if it might be deemed as rude to talk back to Elders of the Yinar race, Jason couldn''t help but blurt out his concerns. He had half-expected Elder Ben to reprimand him or not bother answering him at all. But, the answer he received was somewhat unexpected. "Well, to be precise, we need strong people, and I think you know more than what you are letting us know, so my bet is on you. You can also say that I''m gambling on your success, and hope that you don''t betray the trust I place upon you!" All of this sounded nice, but Jason was still feeling a bit odd. Not just him but even Jennifer was beginning to see some red flags which caused her to intervene. "Why would you need strong people? Isn''t the Yinar race far stronger than the Agran? And the territories of most beasts are relatively safe due to the borders they share with stronger beasts. Maybe, I''m wrong, but there shouldn''t really be many issues for the Yinar race¡­" On one hand, Jennifer was correct with the majority of her assumption, but even Lars could only smile dryly when she uttered her last line. He felt uncomfortable and traces of sadness could be seen in his eyes that were clearly visible to everyone. But before anybody could react, the Elder answered her doubts, distracting Jason and Jennifer. "As you have already heard a short while ago, Soa crystals allow beasts at any kind of stage to turn into wandering souls. And, the same goes for intelligent races. They can turn into wandering souls with the use of Soa crystals. What use does this have? To be precise, I have no idea what kind of advantage would the Yinar race possibly receive by abandoning their physical body as we already cultivate with Soul force. Nevertheless, it was not too long ago, when a group of Yinars that became wandering souls used to exist. But after becoming wandering souls everything that made them human disappeared. Their kindness, joy and other emotions seemed to have vanished into thin air as if they had never existed within them. Following that, they left our race, and established a new settlement in the Ninad beast realm. Their strength increased by leaps and bounds, and some of us even suspect that they started to take over many sources of Soa crystals, which they use to cultivate their body. Thus, our researchers think that wandering souls can absorb far more energy that is stored within the Soa crystals than our body can otherwise extract from them. However, after being bound to our body, wandering souls are imposed with a restriction of the energy they can take in. It''s related to our talent, preventing them from becoming stronger just like that. Speaking about the issue of having enemies, the wandering souls formed out of the people from our race¡­seemed to lose their rationality. They started to attack our Soa crystal mines three years ago, and even if I don''t like speaking about it like that, the situation quickly spiraled out of control. It is far more dangerous than anyone could have ever expected!" After being bombarded with a lot of information, Jason tried to digest everything at once. Despite that, it took him a few minutes to get his act together. ''So¡­wandering souls that have been bound are restricted from absorbing too much of energy, while that''s not necessarily the case for wandering souls? But that doesn''t really make any sense. Otherwise, all wandering souls would attack the mines, and not just the wandering souls of the Yinar race! Could becoming a wandering soul as Yinar have more advantages?'' As conflicting thoughts raked his mind, Jason believed that Elder Ben and numerous other Yinar had reached the same conclusion. However, in order to keep this a secret, nobody spoke about it. This was not exactly the best solution, in his opinion, but Jason knew that he shouldn''t poke his nose in others'' business too much. All of them were elderly to him, which meant that their life experience was much higher. Thus, he hoped that they were also intelligent enough to weigh the pros and cons of revealing the truth about their race and not just the advantages, but also the disadvantages of turning into a wandering soul. In the end, Jason was just happy that Elder Ben trusted him enough to reveal bits of the whole truth to him. After all, it indicated that Jason had won the Elder over despite not knowing him for a long time. "In that case, I would like to experiment a little bit with one Soa crystal. How long will it take for me to get the permission to apply for a mission that rewards Soa crystals?" In Jason''s opinion, there was no need for him to waste anymore time. As such, he should just advance ahead, and try procuring a large quantity of Soa crystals which would be enough for him to undergo his true soul awakening with them. Unfortunately, he knew that a true soul awakening required more than just one ingredient. Because of that, Jason could only hope to find a few more ingredients, if not everything he required to undergo his true soul awakening for his Agran bloodline. As for the true soul awakening for the Celestia bloodline, Jason didn''t have the slightest clue of what he required to undergo it. In fact, he was pretty sure that he had yet to undergo even a normal awakening with the Celestia bloodline because it had been sealed when he awoke his soul world core. However, the given situation was something he was completely fine with as he felt that everything might become a bit less rushed. He wanted to stay in one place, for at least a few months, hopefully longer than a year. This was owing to the fact that Jason had yet to enter the Ascendion stage, which was one of his tasks in his never-ending to-do list. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________ Chapter 897 - Experiment Even though Jason wanted to enter the Ascendion stage as quickly as possible, cultivating required time¡­lots of it. As such, he had to stay patient. Thus, efficiently utilizing the time he currently had in order to experiment with a single Soa crystal before enlisting in a mission to procure more of them should be the best. Passively, the mana gathering in his sub-area would generate liquefied mana droplets which he would use later to compress the thread of mana that was ought to connect to his soul thread. In fact, Jason was pretty sure that it wouldn''t be long before he had enough mana droplets to accomplish the task at hand. Thus, he allowed his passive mana gathering to do the cultivation job in the meantime. Meanwhile, Jason focused on the Kanadi of a Primordial technique, as well as the procuring of Soa crystals. Because of that, Jason smiled brightly when Elder Ben was handed over a fist-sized Soa crystal to him in addition to sharing the necessary information he needed to understand. "Our missions are graded into different Tiers. Based on that you can easily figure out what missions you are capable of doing, and which ones are, most likely, too difficult for you. As you have probably seen in the mission hall earlier, there are multiple colors used in order to create subsequent ranks. For example, green Tier-2 missions are more easily solved than yellow Tier-2 missions, which in turn, are easier to solve than red Tier-1 missions. That should be quite easy to understand. However, the mission hall has a specific rule that you should know beforehand. Before you can request any missions that provide Soa crystals as rewards, you will have to complete missions worth ten stars. Tier-1 is equal awards one star, and Tier-3 missions are equal to three stars, so completing three Tier-3 and one Tier-1 mission would be enough. As for your permission, I just have to go to the City Lord to ask for a stamp. After that, everything will be fine. Just accept and complete some other missions first, or rest if you feel like it, and I will have the permission certificate sent to your room!" Jason just nodded his head, feeling as if Elder Ben had prepared everything beforehand. This caused him to feel a little bit confused but also reassured that everything would work to his advantage. It had been quite some time since he had struck luck with anything he did because everything had been rather arduous and hectic in the past few years. As such, he was rather fortunate that he had received the opportunity to rest a little bit, even if it had not been his plan or something. Rather, not being forced to do something didn''t mean that he would rest. But the freedom of finally being able to do whatever he wanted, whether it was to work hard or to rest, was already calming enough for him! Nodding his head to Elder Ben in agreement, Jason saw the Elder leave, while taking Lars with him. There was something he had to do with the youth. As such, Jason, and Jennifer were once again left alone, if they were to ignore the five soulbonds that clinged to Jason as if he was everything they had. This made the two of them smile lightly at each other. Meanwhile, Jason averted his gaze after a short while before he used his Emperor Eyes to see the interior of the Soa crystal he was holding in his hand. Seeing something from up close allowed him to make much better use of his Emperor Eyes, and everything became clearer to his eyes. The distinct energy currents within the Soa crystal were obvious and easily distinguishable. When he could perceive the properties the energy currents had, Jason couldn''t help but feel intrigued. In the end, the energy inside the Soa crystal was similar to Soul force, but it was on a completely different level. If Soul force could be considered to be an advanced type of cultivation energy, then the energy within the Soa crystal was even superior. Comparatively, it would be on a level similar to something that was even higher than the blessed energy! This was quite intriguing and the only energy that was even stronger than the one inside the Soa crystals was Divine energy! However, that was only obvious, otherwise, the energy wandering souls could use for their cultivation was comparable to that of divine beings which were considered to be existences like Gods! Still, it was shocking to figure out how pure the energy within the Soa crystals was, clearly showing why the body of those belonging to Yinar race couldn''t handle it! It was just too potent for their body, which was the main reason that only traces of it could be used to cultivate with. Jason felt that this might even be the reason why wandering souls could digest more of it. Yet, that was not something he could be sure of. He simply stood in the middle of the street, and the citizens made a detour around him owing to the mass of soulbonds that enveloped him tightly. This was quite advantageous, but still not a necessity. Thus, Jennifer grasped Jason''s arm, and meant to drag him with her. But, before she could do so, she received a multitude of hissing, squeals and violently flickering flames as a response. However, instead of allowing this show of dominance to intimidate her, she pulled Jason behind her, leaving the main street. Regaining his senses a few minutes later after his mind had been diverted from the Soa crystal and its uses, he digested the information he received before looking up at Jennifer. "What do you want to do? Rest for a few days, or do you want to immediately start with some missions?" In the end, Jason didn''t really bother about what they would start with because anything was fine with him. His interest in the Soa crystal had only increased, and without letting Jennifer know of what he was doing, he sneakily loosened a trace of the energy that resided within the Soa crystal, to circulate it through his body. Jason had painfully realized that he was unable to cultivate with Primordial energy, and the same applied to Spirit force. However, it was possible for him to make use of blessed energy and Divine energy. Because of that, Jason felt like he had to test all types of energy in order to figure out what exactly he was capable of, and what his body repelled. This was quite important to figure out, and not something he should neglect. With that in mind, he still released a little trace of the energy within the crystal in order to start circulating it through his body. Experimenting was sometimes dangerous, but Jason was not all that worried. His unruffled behavior was clearly noticeable as he continued to smile and listen to Jennifer while simultaneously leading the traces of energy through his body. It wasn''t painful, which was a great start, and there was not a single problem he ran into while doing so. This was exceptional, and contrary to the other commonly found major energies he knew of as he noticed something interesting. ''I can use the energy and some of the purest cultivation energies from the surrounding to replenish my divine energy much faster¡­I see. Annexing this energy doesn''t seem feasible, but I don''t really feel any pain. At most, it''s a faint itch that originates from my soul world core¡­It shouldn''t...oh? What is that?'' Chapter 898 - First Mission Firstly, he was a little bit astonished by the fact that he could circulate the energy of the Soa crystal through his body as if it was his routine. However, what he perceived when he led the energy towards his soul world core was even more exciting! Continuing to experiment, he lead the trace of energy towards his soul world because his gut feeling was telling him that this was the correct move. In the end, this was dangerous, but his gut feeling had never betrayed him so far. With that in mind, Jason circulated the Soa crystal''s energy inside his soul world, where the soul world core was already vibrating brightly. Only a fraction of a second later, the soul world core took the reins of control away from Jason and suctioned the Soa crystal''s energy inside. This astonished him a little bit, only to notice that his passive soul energy increment circle had been accelerated. From the looks of it, the acceleration was more than a third of its normal speed. Jason felt that there was more to it and this could not be the only effect of the Soa crystal''s soul energy, even if it was already extremely interesting. As such, he waited for a few moments before the first soul energy had been manifested. At this moment, Jason clearly understood that the generated soul energy was much purer than the one before. But what followed later as Solaris devoured it, was another interesting thing. Instead of devouring three soul energy units in order to annex one, Solaris didn''t even devour a single soul energy unit. The origin flame annexed the transmuted soul energy as it was and focused on nurturing its mana core instead. This dumbfounded Jason a lot because everything he had figured by now was confusing. It was almost as if the Soa crystal''s energy had something to do with Soul energy. Yet, simultaneously, it was something completely independent that had nothing to do with the Soul energy of Jason''s soul world core. In the end, soul energy was something that would slowly lose its value once he entered the Ascendion stage. That was, if the words of the other Agran that had already entered the Ascendion stage were true. As such, he was not sure of what exactly he would do with the millions of soul energy units that enveloped his soul world core. The other Agran had stated that soul energy could accelerate the fusion between the vessel and soul. This seemed to be a racial trait that gave specific perks to the breakthrough process of cultivation! This meant that he would be able to catch up to Jennifer and be on par with her cultivation base the moment he had enough mana in order to form a firm mana thread. Fortunately, there was no need for him to rush anything as he had more than enough time on his side. The surrounding threats seemed to be pretty tame and as such, he felt no need to force himself to break through into the Ascendion stage. Not having to rush calmed him a lot, and there were only a few things he had to pay attention to. As such, after digesting the information he found out just now, Jason lifted his head, returning his attention to his soulbonds, and even more so, to Jennifer. He had only heard a few of her words as he had been busy with the thoughts. Sensing that he might have ignored her made him feel guilty as he smiled at her apologetically. "I''m sorry Jen, I was a little bit distracted, what do you want to do?" Jennifer had already noticed that Jason''s mind was somewhere else, which had caused her to stop speaking for quite some time while waiting for Jason to stop pondering. However, this took quite a while, which caused her to feel as if he was completely uninterested in her opinion. Yet, seeing that his soulbonds had a similar reaction complete with annoyed faces and a disappointed body language, she understood that this was just Jason''s annoying behavior. She felt a bit better to think that she wasn''t the only one to get ignored. Jason''s beloved soulbonds were ignored just like her, which made it possible for her to keep her calm as she suggested. "Let''s take a look at the missions board inside the mission hall. Tier-3 missions shouldn''t be an issue for us to complete. I believe some Tier-3 Missions with Prismar stage beasts should be quite interesting, even if we''re not allowed to get Soa crystals as a reward. By the way, do you need them for your true soul awakening, or something else?" Because he had already spoken with Jennifer about the true soul awakening, she had an inkling of what had been on his mind. He had told her to pay attention to her surroundings, and update him if she felt the need to have something particular to awaken her true soul. However, until now, neither of them had found anything great..or so they thought. The Soa crystals were the first indicator of the ingredients they had to find without knowing what items they really needed. "I got a weird feeling about the Soa crystals, and I believe that they''re the main ingredients for my true soul awakening, yes!" With a bright smile on his lips, while sharing this, Jason felt extremely happy about his discovery. Seeing him happy made her automatically smile as she began to inquire Jason about what exactly he was feeling and how he figured that the Soa crystals were what he needed as the main ingredient. His answers were vague, but that was only obvious because everything he felt was based ont his gut feeling and intuition. Nevertheless, it was quite informative for Jennifer because she got to know about what she had to be careful of. A rough indicator to know what she was looking for was much better than knowing nothing, after all. With that in mind, they had already returned to the mission hall, which they entered without hesitation. Once again, they were greeted with a few odd gazes because of Jennifer being a halfling in the realm where only humans were supposed to live. Yet, instead of bothering about the gazes of the people around them, they appeared in front of the mission board. Both of them ran their eyes through the entire board and quickly ignored the Tier-1 and Tier-4 missions. After finding details of the missions that were important for Lique and Prismar stage Cultivators, they began to read it. The Elder said that they could take on lower-ranked missions too as long as they accumulated a total of 10 stars. As such, completing two Tier-3 and two Tier-2 would probably be the best. However, this was also only the case if the missions could be connected with each other. Otherwise, completing five Tier-3 would be relatively faster as Lique stage beasts were not even worth mentioning anymore. Looking through the mission board took quite a while because it was filled with all types of Tier-4 and Tier-5 missions, blocking off the papers of other missions that were pinned to the board. This indicated that there were far more troubles with Ascendion and even Specta stage powerhouses than he initially expected. Jason thought that this was unexpected because the Yinar race was certainly much stronger than the Agran race. Unfortunately, this only meant that he and Jennifer shouldn''t grow too relaxed as troubles might reach the city at any moment. Problems were something they had had enough of in the past few years, and by looking at each other, they conversed via voice transmissions. They shared their ideas and opinions, including the things they had figured out so far. [The troublesome missions are quite far away¡­so there shouldn''t be much of a problem for us to stay here and focus on cultivating, and everything else, while taking a few breaks once in a while before we go all-in again, right?] Jennifer''s thoughts were rather simple. She wanted to continue cultivating while resting once in a while. This was something Jason would love to do too, but he thought that their first mission might already be bothersome. After all, most areas they had to enter in order to nearly solve any mission were surrounded by territories of stronger beasts. ''That''s quite bothersome¡­'' Chapter 899 - All At Once! Taking their time to figure out which mission they should solve first, Jason couldn''t help but feel a little bit down. He wanted to pick easy missions which they could solve in a day before returning. However, that was not possible, and by glancing through the missions that rewarded Soa crystals, he felt even more miserable. ''These missions could be simply called suicidal¡­Does that mean, I cannot acquire Soa crystals before entering the Ascendion stage?'' The first missions that rewarded Soa crystals were at the fourth Tier. This meant that there would certainly be Ascendion stage beasts that they would have to kill. If not that then, at least, the mission demanded them to enter the territory of strong Ascendion beasts in order to procure something extremely rare. After figuring this out, Jason couldn''t help but feel that Elder Ben was using them for his selfish interests. But, after he gave it a second thought, this only seemed obvious. If he were to find someone, who wanted something desperately, Jason would do something similar. Nobody was selfless in this world and there were always some hidden intentions behind offering help, that too, to a stranger. Sadly, he was not allowed to purchase the Soa crystals, but that was not the most annoying thing for Jason. He was fine with completing missions to procure them. However, without knowing how many Soa crystals he required for the true soul awakening, the only thing Jason could do, would be to continue completing missions. And this would have to continue until the moment his intuition told him that it was more than enough. Jason hoped that his body would tell him this, because otherwise, he would unnecessarily gather too many crystals. He would just accumulate a larger chunk to be on the safer side and end up wasting time on acquiring more than required. ''When I enter the Ascendion stage, and I undergo the second Celestia bloodline awakening, I should be able to complete the suicidal Tier-4 missions, I hope'' He was not sure if that was how it worked, but being able to defeat those Cultivators at the Low Ascendion stage would automatically elevate his strength manifold by entering the Ascendion stage himself. Following that, his bloodline awakening would increase his strength once again, meaning that he was bound to defeat Mid Ascendion stage cultivators without a problem. At least, that was what Jason assumed to be the case because he had no idea what exactly the second bloodline awakening would do with him. Without a plan in mind, he could only figure out that he had to start doing something before he would die at old age from overthinking. With that in mind, he chose the Tier-2 and Tier-3 missions that appeared to be the best to him. After that, he went to the counter where a receptionist noted down that Jason Stellar, an Agran at the Peak of the Prismar stage, and Jennifer Styx, a halfling at the Lowest Ascendion stage, would complete the four missions they had picked. "If the missions are not completed in the given time span, we will label them as failed, and both of you receive a one star deduction for each failed mission. Are you two still willing to complete four missions at once?" Cultivators would often choose multiple missions at once and it was nothing new. However, when they would attempt to solve all of them together, they would lose track of time. As a result, though they managed to complete the missions, they received less rewards than someone who would focus on one, or at most, two missions at once. Jason had already seen the time limit of each mission, which caused him to nod his head, while Jennifer followed suit, nearly at the same time as his soulbonds. The receptionist saw the soulbonds alongwith their clingy and adorable behaviour which caused him to smile subtly. He couldn''t help but wonder how exactly such cute soulbonds were able to support their binder to gain strength. Fortunately, the receptionist was able to see past their cute appearance as he perceived their strong energy currents. All of Jason''s soulbonds, except the squirrel that laid on top of his head, were at the Peak of the Prismar stage, seemingly awaiting Jason to fuse his soul and vessel. Maybe that was exactly what was the case, but instead of focussing on the four other soulbonds, the young receptionist''s eyes flicked to the top of Jason''s head, roaming through the silver headring. There, he got a glimpse of Sira, the sacred squirrel that didn''t really have a cultivation base, yet, it felt extremely powerful. Sensing that something was dangerous, but being unable to tell how or why it seemed dangerous without a cultivation base, was something one had to be extremely careful of. Knowing that, the receptionist simply accepted that both Jason and Jennifer were nodding their head, understanding the rules of the mission hall. Once the formalities were completed, they decided to leave instead of spending more time thinking needlessly about the possible dangers of the Ninad beast realm. Instead, Jason and Jennifer wanted to get going with their missions, solving all of them at once. This was nearly possible because all of the missions led them towards the east. First, they had to find certain herbs in the territory of a horde of beasts, which they had to decimate to keep their population in check. Those were two missions they had to do, followed by the third and fourth missions that were similar. The only difference was that they had to search for a person in the territory of millions of Lique stage beasts. Jason was not sure why Lique stage beasts had a large enough territory to harbor millions of them, but that was not exactly bothersome for him. Using his Emperor Eyes would eliminate half of the obstacles in finding the exact person. Simultaneously, the last mission was to figure out the issue of the lands that were near a Prismar stage beast territory. All of this was quite simple to solve and achieve. And, Jason believed that the journey towards the territory for the Tier-3 mission would take the longest, which roughly amounted to one day. Considering this, Jason couldn''t help but smile subtly feeling that the four missions would quickly be resolved. In the end, they wouldn''t even reward him a lot, to begin with. As such, he could rush them a little bit, which was exactly what they were doing. Leaving the city hurriedly, they travelled towards the east, ensuring to stick to the borderlines. Knowing where they were allowed to fly and where it was supposed to be a little bit more dangerous helped them accelerate their flying speed. This made it possible for him to reach the designated area for both of the Tier-3 missions. Conquering it was a piece of cake as Jason simply allowed his soulbonds to wreak havoc. All of them charged at the horde of beasts, killing three-quarters of the beasts that dared cross their path. Meanwhile, he kept looking for the herbs he was ought to gather, before collecting the corpses of the Prismar stage beasts his soulbonds left behind. The entire territory looked more like a battlefield, and Jason couldn''t even smile at the sight of his soulbonds massacring the Prismar stage beasts. From the looks of it, they seemed to be way too happy being allowed to slaughter other beasts, which was almost frightening. However, this only told Jason that it had been way too long since he allowed his soulbonds to fight against anyone. ''Am I just too scared to let them fight? In fear of them dying?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xsAY0z [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket] __________________________________