by William Hill
After walking for a few minutes the butler stopped in front of a door with dense mana radiating out of it.
In front of the door stood a few people and Jason detected Greg's mana signature among them and a few stronger mana sources.
Especially the two mana signatures next to Greg were special.
He had never seen such a huge amount of mana anywhere and he opened his mouth slightly in shock.
Seeing Jason with an open jaw in his direction Greg's theory about Jason's sensitivity for mana was answered.
While stepping forward he greeted Jason who came closer.
"Jason you're here. How are you?....since when do you have new clothes and a new haircut?"
Greg was a little bit astonished about Jason's handsome look as he had never expected that a good-looking boy was behind such trashy clothes.
He would never say this out loud but he looked after Jason many times in the past because he found Jason was nice and didn't care about other people's background.
What Jason had long since forgotten was that he had helped Greg sometimes out with some remarks on how to learn certain things better.
Greg wasn't sociable and quite naive but he was sure Jason was a good guy which was also the reason he wanted to help him slightly with his soul awakening.
Jason greeted Greg back and turned his head slightly in the direction of his presumed parents.
"Hello, my name is Jason Stella.
Am I right with my presumption that you are Mr. and Mrs. Fle?" Jason bowed lightly.
Even before the mana outbreak, respectful greetings and manners were only important in some regions of Argos but they got more and more essential after the mana outbreak occurred with the coming rules of the jungle.
Strong people could almost kill whoever they wanted outside the cities while the government protected the weak with their best efforts, even murder and rape happened inside the cities once in a while.
Sometimes big families took care of the matter like it was the case with Jason´s mother and most weak people tended to be as respectful as possible and avoided the strong.
As long as the government was weaker than these big families and clans, they had to partly rely on them to protect the majority against the wildlife and intelligent invading races.
Fortunately, not many big families were of evil from their core and only a few members in some families were driven by their desire and bloodlust.
It wasn´t that difficult to keep them under their control normally but once they fight against their control, some uncontrollable things are bound to happen.
Greg however was slightly stunned
"How do you know where my parents stand?!"
Greg's parents were curious about the boy in front of them.
They saw a blind boy but they felt something strange about the area around his eyes.
Nevertheless what surprised them the most was that Greg brought a friend over to his soul awakening.
Greg was more of a troublemaker since elementary school than someone who made friends, so they have never seen one of his friends.
Being curious, the 30 years old looking woman with a small build and silky brown hair stepped forward.
"Hello Jason, my name is Gabriella Fler and I'm indeed Greg's mother.
I have never seen one of Greg's friends so It's nice to meet you."
She said before chuckling.
Jason found himself in a weird situation
`Is Greg my friend?`
But there was no time to think about that
Greg's father was apparently embarrassed and he pulled his wife back before introducing himself shortly.
"Hello, my name is Mark Fler, Greg's Father. Nice to meet you."
His father's introduction was slightly cold. Maybe he thought Jason wanted to befriend his son because of their money or Jason's blindness could be the reason but he didn´t mind it.
Jason felt a threatening stare and noticed that it was the outlines of an almost mature girl standing close to Greg but sensing her mana core he was slightly shocked.
Remembering the mana core rank from the adults in front of the school grounds a day before, he noticed that this girl´s strength was one of the best.
'Greg has a sister? Or is that his girlfriend? Nevermind that, but why is she glaring at me like that??'
Before the conversation went further, the door with dense mana enveloping it opened slowly.
Chapter 11: Heaven´s will soul awakening
An old and haggard voice resounded "The next one can go inside."
Jason didn't even sense any mana radiating from the presumed old man, only a slight amount of mana could be detected by him.
There was an eerie feeling and it was like a dragon was suppressed inside and his face paled slightly.
A single thought appeared in his mind
'Wolf in sheep's skin'
Greg entered the room behind the door first followed by his parents and his presumed sister.
Jason was the last one to enter the room which's mana density was incredible.
Not only that was incredible, rather the size of the room couldn't be described as huge because that would be too much of an underestimation.
Jason couldn´t see anything through the bandage, except the radiating mana from the materials but even then he was unable to figure out the size.
Estimating the height to be more than 30 meters Jason felt uncomfortable and tiny.
A high-graded mana gathering formation was inscribed inside the room and Jason detected ten orbs on top of altars fitting in one's hand attracting mana greedily.
The presumed old man led Greg to one of the altars in the middle.
His family and Jason stayed at the bottom of the altar while Greg was told to cut his hand slightly.
Afterward, he placed the injured hand on top of the orb to activate the soul awakening.
The moment Greg's blood dripped on the orb Jason felt like he was on ecstasy as huge streams of multicolored mana gathered inside the orb.
It didn't stop as the mana continued to steam into the orb for a few minutes until the orb was filled to a certain degree.
Thereafter the orb began to shine red in color and it projected a small white world with a size of 10 meters in diameter.
Next to the white world another world suddenly appeared and this soul world looked completely different.
While the white world had two huge mana streams in two different colors floating around, the other projected world was slightly bigger, had a thick red hue around it without any colorful mana streams floating within.
Jason could feel these two worlds and he instantly understood that this was a double awakening.
Two souls inside a single individual was a rare occurrence and even if the 10 diameters indicated that only a smaller number of soulbond contracts were possible, it was still above average.
Next to Jason stood Greg's parents while father mumbled
"Hahaha my son as expected"
His mother was teary. "Our family has good children"
She began to cry and Jason thought it was a bit too much as he heard a sobbing next to him.
The girl sobbed "Good job brother, you did it.."
Jason was way too astonished to understand the situation and he took out a handkerchief he purchased previously as he went closer to the girl.
She looked up to see the youth with bandaged eyes handing her a handkerchief.
Accepting the handkerchief she wondered who this youth was as he had bandaged eyes while walking freely without his cane.
She stopped sobbing and dried her wet cheeks.
Jason turned back to the altar where Greg was still standing.
He knew roughly how the ranking would look like for Greg´s case.
The ranking was divided into zero to five stars while zero stars was the worst and five stars the best.
Having zero stars means one is worse than the common folk and probably only able to form a single sou
lbond contract with a wild beast or maybe with some luck an awakened beast.
While wild beasts are comparable to ancient animals and only slightly stronger, awakened beasts have the possibility to possess an ability like elemental affinities or body traits.
Getting a one-star result in one's soul-awakening means one is almost worthless to high-schools and one is only able to form a contract with probably one beast while this beast can´t be really strong.
Two stars mean one is around the average and on average able to form a contract with at least two beasts more likely three beasts and a low- awakened beast as the first soulbond.
Three stars were already a rare occurrences among soul awakening, while three and a half stars are called extraordinary.
Most three stars are able to form at least 4 soulbonds, maybe even 5 while they´re more likely to form a late-awakened beast cub as the first soulbond.
Four and five-star rankings are even rarer while four stars are called Heaven´s will and five stars are called God's Child.
Both of these soul rankings are exceptional and very few are able to awaken such souls because everything about them has to be exceptional including soul size, soul energy, and the type of soul.
The old man lost focus for a quarter second before gathering his thoughts.
He announced.
"Greg Fler 14 years old 2nd Adept rank has successfully awoken a double soul.
One soul has a diameter of 10 meters while the other one is 12 meters in diameter.
Both souls can form three soul bounds while the physical soul might even be able to form a contract with a fourth weak beast.
Adding both numbers together Greg is able to form a contract with 6 to 7 beasts.
While the elements wind and thunder are drawn to one soul world the other soul world is a physical one that allows non-elemental monsters with strength, speed, tenacity, and so on as their forte to form a contract with Greg.
This physical soul world would increase the shared amount from the soulbond to the master with the larger part focusing on the physique.
Being able to form a contract with 6 to 7 beats is more than extraordinary while a double awakening is also rarely seen.
But the most important factor is that your soul energy has already reached the red color, close to the light red color which means you can form a soulbond with a late evolved ranked beast.
Adding every aspect together your potential are four stars which is also called Heaven's will"
The elder stated relatively calm. Among the few hundred thousand kids he had accompanied during his long life Greg could be placed among the top 1%.
More than satisfied with his result Greg went down to his family which greeted him cheerfully.
Everyone was relieved that Greg got a very good soul awakening and after getting a hug from his family Greg turned to Jason who gave him a thumbs up.
Jason thought that it was the right thing to do and it made him more comfortable
Greg suddenly asked "Jason, when is your soul awakening? Can I also watch it?"
One's soul was normally kept as a secret as it was one of the most important information about one.
Greg would have four stars as his exam remark for his soul-awakening, nothing more or less but even that was already seen as a breach of privacy by most people.
Jason thought for a second before replying while smiling lightly.
"My soul awakening is on the 2. August at 10:25 am, you're free to come.
You also trusted me with that so it's only fair."
The old man who previously didn't care about the examinee's company saw Jason as he looked down from the altar and the man's eyes widened in astonishment because he could see something through the bandages.
Coming back to his senses he said out loud.
"Brat if you want to have your soul awakening right now, you can come up."
"Can I really?" Jason said impatiently while Greg smiled.
However, Greg's parents and his sister felt slightly confused as they knew how extremely difficult it was for them to have the old man supervising a soul awakening.
It was only because Greg was among the best of the best with his exam results and a few months of persuasion until the old man gave in.
Now this greedy and stubborn man let an unknown youth perform his soul awakening in front of him nonchalantly which was weird in their opinion.
"Of course that's okay. Come up!"
After the old man said that Jason stepped up the stairs quickly to the others' surprise.
A blindfolded youth rushed up the stairs without tripping or even faltering straightforward with fast steps.
Arriving before the cleaned orb the old man handed Jason a small knife which he would have to use to cut his hand slightly.
But before Jason could cut himself the old man stopped him with his hands.
He whispered in a quiet voice only both of them could understand
"Brat, why are you hiding your eyes?"
Chapter 12: Devastating Soul awakening!
The old man´s voice was monotone and calm but Jason felt a slight threat within the voice and he instantly began to sweat.
Jason didn´t know how this old man found out but he understood that his secret was exposed.
Stuttering something "I-I was b-blind until last weak….b-but I awoke my eyes by gathering mana over a long time inside my eyes….I-I kept this a secret to be able to w-w-write my theoretical exam with the VR appliance b-because I can't write technical language well. "
There was no way for Jason to resist the pressure of the old man as he was only 13 years old so it wasn´t that difficult to intimidate him with the small mana fluctuations.
Listening to Jason's explanation the old man understood his situation even if Jason overexaggerated the fact.
But the old man noticed that Jason didn´t have a decent background otherwise this would not have been a problem.
Nodding the old man said "Okay. It's fine… I will keep this a secret, but you have to do me a favor in return"
Jason felt relieved and also slightly scared because owning a favor was always bad in his opinion.
Continuing the old man said "You have to give me your contact information"
"HMPPF?" Jason almost shouted out loud before quickly placing his empty hand above his mouth.
"Don´t get me wrong, I don´t have any ulterior motives but now it's your turn to have your soul awakening. Keep in mind that you can reveal your eyes soon but it would be better for you to have a talk with me before that's going to happen, okay?"
Jason could only nod still sweating but he had to focus on his soul-awakening right now so he cleared his mind as fast as possible.
Greg´s family could only see the old man and Jason talking to each other and a minute passed until Jason moved again.
Jason cut his hand lightly and blood ran down his arm while the injured hand slowly went closer to the orb which looked dangerous to him.
Forgetting his anxiety he put the hand slowly on the orb which began to glow lightly as blood dripped on it.
Inside him, he felt like something changed as his pores opened and within his mind, a small and colorful world began to construct around a grain-sized golden marble with mysterious inscriptions on it.
First, the world was as small as a peanut but it began to grow bigger and bigger until his whole mind was filled with the world.
Jason suddenly felt an aching in his head as the world inside his mind tried to grow even bigger while hitting the limits of his mind.
The pain didn't lessen; rather it increased and Jason began to cry out in pain as his bandage began to turn bloody red because his eyes began shedding blood.
Jason´s hand didn't lose grip on the soul-awakening orb but his legs gave in while Jason´s cry reached Greg's family which was more than confused.
Even the old man couldn´t understand the situation as the orb was still gathering mana from its surroundings.
Greg
was worried and he wanted to go up but he was held back by his father with a firm grip.
Jason´s mind was in chaos as the small world broke through the limits of his mind while continuing to increase without meeting any obstacles.
The orb finished gathering mana and its color changed before it began projecting Jason´s soul.
First, the color of the orb was golden but the time was too short for anyone to notice it before it changed to green, which was the highest ever recorded color, indicating a vast amount of soul energy, then it changed to yellow, orange, light red, red, dark red and finally it ended at pitch black.
While the colors changed Jason´s head felt as if it would explode any second but the changing color from green to yellow and further down the road lessened the pain while the world inside his mind expanded more and more.
Jason wasn't even able to figure out the size of the world as he had to focus on not losing his consciousness.
After the color of the orb turned pitch black the world inside his mind stopped expanding but Jason felt its ambition to grow even more.
Jason felt the frustration of his soul world and its incomplete status.
The orb which was pitch-black left the audience speechless as they had never seen such a black color and finally the orb began to project Jason´s soul while Jason began to stabilize himself.
Projecting Jason´s soul, another spectacle appeared in front of the audience as an unknown number of different kinds of colors filled the room with their bright shining color.
The soul itself was apparently bigger than the whole room and only the old man could see its outer lines as he could see through the whole building.
Flabbergasted the old man noticed that the whole Beast Pagoda area was shrouded in Jason´s soul world projection.
But the most important fact about Jason´s soul was that it radiated a thick and dense golden hue overshadowing Greg´s red hue by worlds.
Jason whose head was still hurting let go of the pitch-black orb before his legs gave in again.
Because he stuttered "Is this pain normal?" the old man was thrown out of his thoughts.