by William Hill
After replenishing his mana he relaxed for a short time before he entered the wild zone again.
It was only 1 pm and he had still roughly 24 hours left to improve his combat skills, experience and to earn a little pocket money, including cores for Artemis.
While supervising the battle of the youth that were at least a year younger than him, Jason noticed that his combat abilities were already on par with them but still not good enough.
His familiarity with the dagger was already decent while his innate combat ability was definitely above average.
However, some things could only be learned through experience.
Jason decided to hunt larger two-star wild beasts groups in order to improve his observance ability by another notch, even if it was already above average.
Fighting against ten two-star wild beasts would be more difficult than fighting a small group of four-star wild beasts or a single five-star wild beast, except for their overwhelming strength.
Jason had to be careful during his fights with either faction.
*
Hours passed and he sustained only some small cuts after being overwhelmed by numerous beasts but he prevented serious injuries by forming small layers of mana around the spot that were attacked.
It was almost dark when he came back to his tent where Jason did his daily routine including the Heaven's Hell technique.
He was quite happy as he had accomplished his designated ytask faster than expected.
After writing a short message to Greg he went into his sleeping bag and fell into a dreamless sleep.
--
Before the first sunlight lightened up the plains, Jason was woken up by an overwhelming feeling of happiness when he felt something fluffy on his face.
Knowing that it was Artemis he immediately opened his eyes and cuddled with her for a few minutes before he stood up.
Her injury was already completely healed which made Jason happy.
Furthermore, sensing the constant increase of mana inside her blood, Jason began to ponder if he should give her some more incomplete beast cores or not.
He had many left but he wasn't sure when he would be able to enter the wild zone again to farm more and there was a small problem.
He had only around 20.000 credits left and many beast corpses to sell but with Artemis' unsatiable hunger, Jason would need to have a talk with Greg later.
Greg told him that school would start in around two weeks and Jason wasn't exactly sure how long their trip to the designated city would take.
Jason knew that they had to travel for quite some time to reach the A-grade city, because they avoided dangerous magic beast zones.
The time they needed to travel from their c-grade city to Cyro would be at least 4 days with a decent vehicle.
Maybe Jason could enter the wild zone for the remaining 10 days to hunt three and four-star beasts for their cores.
Thinking about his shortage of money or more likely lack of incomplete cores, Jason entered the soul world to complete his Heaven's Hell training before he went into the plains wild zone with Artemis circling above him.
When it was 11 am Jason entered the dome again to dismantle his tent and store it away.
Afterward, the previously ordered shuttle arrived, which Jason entered, with its final destination at the Fler family mansion.
It would take around 40 minutes and decided to practice the Heaven's Hell technique again as his soul energy was already replenished.
The pain after practicing the Heaven's Hell technique was still horrifying but somehow Jason grew used to it over the last two weeks.
Arriving at the address Greg told him, Jason noticed that he entered the noble district which was directly next to the center area, where the government, important companies, the Beast Pagoda, and large shopping centers were situated.
He saw huge yards with many exotic plants and flowers all around the district, causing Jason to feel astonished, as he could see mana radiating from some of these plants.
Overall one could say that the yard radiated dense mana that was even better than the mana outside the dome within the one-star wild zone.
The noble district wasn't even remotely comparable to the outer areas of the city, as the Fler family's yard had probably more than enough space to construct a few skyscrapers on it where tens of thousand tenants could live in.
Looking around, Jason saw a three-story tall mansion in the center of the plot, built with white marble and many other exquisite materials.
Calculating the prices of the materials and the cost for the plot including the unknown plants, Jason's heart ached.
For normal people, it wasn't even possible to purchase a plot inside C-grade cities.
One would need to have to be nobility or earned glory points, which were equivalent to humanities achievements in order to receive the permission to purchase land or larger property.
While Jason admired the gigantic yard and the luxurious looking mansion, the doors were opened by a young long brown-haired girl who was probably slightly older than him.
She looked at him with a slightly cold face which surprised Jason a little bit.
Wearing a white summer dress, she looked incredibly beautiful but Jason knew who she was.
It was Greg´s sister Malia and Jason sensed that she didn't like him as she avoided to have eye contact with him while trying to look cool-headed.
He wasn't sure why she avoided him but she came slowly closer, gesturing him to follow her
She didn't even say hello and Jason thought back at the time of Greg's soul-awakening when she had to step back with a terrified expression after looking into his eyes from a very close distance.
`Nevermind...maybe she is shy or something like that.` Jason didn't worry about it and he disregarded any ill-intention, as he wasn't aware of the shock he brought Malia.
Jason's senses didn't betray him as Malia was truly scared to look into his eyes.
She remembered clearly how intimidated she was when she looked into his deep, cold golden eyes and Malia was scared to get devoured if she dared to look into them once again.
But even so, she was too prideful to say something like that out loud, so she had to keep a calm expression in front of him.
Jason followed Malia quietly and both of them didn´t say a single word which caused a awkward atmosphere around them.
However, after entering the mansion, he was way too fascinated about the furniture and interior of the mansion that he completely disregarded the awkward atmosphere and Malia´s fear.
They kept walking for some time until he saw a familiar youth sitting on a couch inside a huge living room.
The whole living room was probably a few times bigger than a basketball field and Jason wondered why someone needed so much space.
Seeing Jason, Greg jumped up as he walked fast but steady towards him.
Jason noticed that Greg´s muscles became more apparent and firmer while he grew at least a few centimeters in size.
One could say that Greg was already a walking bodybuilder and Jason admired his nice body one could see through the clothes.
Greeting each other with a firm handshake Jason also scanned Greg´s mana core, only to get shocked by what he saw.
Not only did his rank increase from the 2nd Adept-rank to the 3rd Adept rank within a few weeks, but his mana core size also grew by a noticeable size.
Greg was still at the lower levels of the Adept rank and not an Intermediate Adept but with his amplification from his soulbond, he would probably be on par with a average 4th Adept rank.
That would be a great achievement and Jason felt happy for Greg.
Calculating that the bull calf grew up to be a low evolved beast until now and shared around 5%-10% of its strength, if not more.
As such it was only natural that Greg´s mana core would also grow.
Evolved ranked beasts were comparable to human expert ranks and 5%-10% was already comparable to at least one more likely
two adept levels.
Taking another glance at Greg´s mana core, it was more likely that Greg received a 10%+ share which caused Jason to nod approving, as Greg´s soul gave him a good quote.
But it was still not comparable to his own 30+% shared amount, he received from his still incomplete soul world.
Greg saw Jason´s golden eyes shining lightly and when Jason said
"Congratulations," he began to smile lightly.
Loosening up their handshake, Greg looked directly into Jason's eyes and Malia who saw this, tensed up subconsciously, thinking about the worst-case scenario which didn´t happen.
Greg noticed a white fluffy ball on Jason's shoulder that suddenly began to move.
Opening her eyes, Artemis´ black button-like eyes gazed at Greg who stepped back surprised.
Chapter 36: Artemis´ Pride
Calming down, Greg seizured Artemis from head to talon, when his gaze returned back to Jason rather confused.
"Jason is this your soulbond? A snowflake owl…? Isn't that a little bit too weak??…" Somehow Greg felt disappointed.
He hoped that Jason would find a good one-star wild beast to form a contract with, but snowflake owls were weak in their overall combat strength, while their speed was exceptional fast.
In comparison to other one-star wild beasts, their strength was way too weak without even considering their non-existent potential.
Jason understood Greg´s concern and he wanted to clarify the situation at least a little bit to him, when Artemis suddenly cried out visibly outraged, flapping her wings violently.
How dared this small fellow antagonize her strength and beauty(?)….
"Calm down Artemis...He doesn't mean it like that." Jason tried to calm Artemis down and it took him a few minutes before she squeezed herself back on his shoulder
Greg didn't care about Artemis' outrage but Malia who was standing quietly behind noticed something, which shocked her.
She couldn't help but ask curiously "Can she understand human language? That's not possible for one-star wild beasts!! Is her brain somehow mutated or something similar like that?"
Coming closer to the two youths she even forgot to be wary of Jason as she had always been curious about beasts.
Her family were well-known beast merchants and they also caught some beasts for other nobles in order to gain their favors, large sums of credits, or rare items, and it was important to know what kind of beasts were rare.
Furthermore, it was necessary to figure how to detect advantageous and adverse mutations of beasts in the wilderness due to minute details.
Potential was everything in this business and catching a beast with more potential would give them more credits, increasing their bounty.
While her parents were really good at finding potential beasts, she wasn't as good as her parents.
Malia was only 16 years old and still learning a lot about beasts.
There was more than enough time for her to catch up with her parent's knowledge and seeing Jason´s soulbond, she had to grow curious.
Jason was astonished and looked at Artemis asking himself if she learned human-language.
But that shouldn't be the case as there weren't enough instances where Jason talked to someone in her presence.
Artemis looked at Jason knowingly as she transmitted through the soulbond that she could understand the rough meaning of everything said because of their connection.
Without Jason hearing the conversation, she wouldn't understand anything at all
Turning his head to Malia he answered her question while looking into her big brown eyes.
"She can't understand human language. Throughout our connection, she can comprehend the meaning of Greg´s word."
Malia tensed up for a second when their eyes met but she noticed that his eyes weren't intimidating this time.
This caused her tension to loosen up slightly and she looked a little bit longer into Jason´s eyes that looked somewhat gentle and full of warmth now.
`Beautiful`
Blushing, she turned away her head slightly and continued questioning somehow shy
"But she is still very intelligent and underwent an advantageous mutation, right?"
Jason was standing between Malia and Greg and both looked at him full of expectations.
Malia was curious and the red color of her cheeks receded slowly to her normally fair skin as she looked expectant at him while Greg also grew curious after listening to their conversation.
Looking at Greg he began to defend Artemis with confidence, saying
"First of all… Greg, you might be right about normal snowflake owls but Artemis is special and not weak, okay?
Your control over mana should be precisive enough to sense the strength of wild beasts and novice ranks,or am I wrong?
Shouldn't that be the first thing to do when you meet someone new?
And with that you should have already known that Artemis is a two-star wild beast!"
Jason felt proud and at the same time like a teacher because neither Malia nor Greg had scanned Artemis mana fluctuations as both were sure about her being a weak one-star wild beast.
Both were instantly embarrassed because their parents lectured them about the same thing before
'Never underestimate anyone… never forget to find out who the person opposite you is and how strong he/she is...knowledge is power….never let your guard down when you are with people you don't trust 100%...and so on.'
But that was not the shocking part.
What confused them the most was the last sentence Jason said and both immediately released some of their mana in order to scan Artemis thoroughly.
"Huh? How?"
"Unbelievable"
Sensing Artemis mana fluctuations at the two-star wild beast rank caused both of them to look at Jason with an open jaw.
In his opinion, both looked extremely foolish, causing him to smile lightly
Jason felt Artemis's confidence soaring and her pride overwhelmed his feeling as his facial features turned slowly into one of pride.
It was the first time for Jason that he was influenced by the emotions of his soulbond.
With pride it was fine, but was If this would happen with bloodlust or Lust?
Jason wasn't sure how he could handle it, while it was definitely something nice to share with positive emotions.
Opening his mouth he turned to Malia.
"Your name was Malia, right? I hope you don't mind me calling you by your name. To get back to your question about her having an advantageous mutation.
It's pretty obvious that she unterwent a mutation or at least that she isn't an ordinary snowflake owl but, to be honest, she was labeled as an adverse mutated snowflake owl with a high chance of being born with a disease like blindness and so on which was the reason she wasn't noticed by others."
"But as you can see she is healthy and even stronger than normal snowflake owls as her problem was fortunately rather easily solved." `Except her Gluttony` Jason sighed inwardly.
Greg listened to Jason quietly thinking about something, while Malia was deep in thoughts scanning through Artemis as if she was a memory stick.
It made Artemis feel uncomfortable and she hid behind Jason.
Malia averted her gaze when she noticed that Jason finished his speech.
Jason called her by her first name which she didn´t notice at first.
During the mana outbreak, many cultures appeared and vanished, while some traditions were mixed with others.
And one of society's unlisted laws was to speak politely to prodigies and nobles, which included calling someone by the Family name.
After she finished her deep thoughts, she only began to truly understand that a man, except her brother and father called her by her first name which hasn't happened since her soul awakening and she was about to get angry when their eyes met.
Her rage subsided and she couldn't even think about becoming angry and she immediately changed the theme bac
k to Artemis as a thought entered her mind.
`Well...it's fine…but wait!.`
"Why did you pick an adverse mutated one-star beast? I saw your soul awakening and your chances to get another beast with your soul energy were minuscule in the short term.
You might be lucky but wasn't that too risky?"
She was way too confused about the weird but good-looking youth in front of her, causing her to ask straightforwardly.
Greg had the same thought and he also exclaimed loud, after hearing his sister talking about that.
"Yeah!! Why did you pick an adverse labeled beast as your soulbond?? Wasn't that too naive??"
He roared out vigorously.
"GREG!! You should be the last person to say something like that! Haven't we already talked about that with you!! You're the most foolish in our whole family…"
The rage just came out of Malia as she noticed his brother talking about naivety while he himself picked a verified weaker beast as his soulbond just because Jason told him so.
Luckily the non-elemental bull calf had a hidden and sealed bloodline of a lesser minotaur race which was a strong bipedal beast.
Malia and her parents didn't believe that Jason knew about that and only thought of this as a lucky encounter, as they scolded Greg a lot.
Greg began to pout which looked extremely ugly and Jason thought that he would begin to sob any moment when Greg suddenly shouted out
"How can you say that?!?!? TAURUS IS MUCH BETTER THAN YOUR FIRST SOULBOND...YOUR JUST JEALOUS!!!!"
"GREG!!!" Malia turned red from rage.
Jason thought it was funny to see the sister pair clashing with each other and it took them quite a while before they calmed down...
Malia and Greg had completely forgotten about Jason´s existence.
When they saw him smiling happily at them they felt embarrassed.
It had been a long time since he had been happy while being with others except for Artemis.
Thinking about the last time he had been with others, Jason noticed that he never had a friend except his mother.
`Are they my friends?`
Scratching his head awkwardly, Jason was also slightly embarrassed.
However, it would be more embarrassing if he asked them if they were his friends now so he avoided this question.