Chapter 39：Determination

Greg told Jason many information about the Vanguard-associated schools.

The Vanguard school itself was a huge school that accepted the best students all over the Astrix.

It was seen as one of the three best schools on the Island and everyone wanted to enter it but only the best out of the best would receive this chance.

One would need to have a high mana core rank, exceptional theoretical knowledge, and a high rating in one's soul awakening.

Malia was also a student in the Vanguard school.

She was at home due to the summer vacations and Greg´s soul-awakening.

While Greg´s mana core rank and theoretical knowledge exam were not up to the requirement, his four-star soul-awakening gave him some extra points causing his lack of theoretical knowledge and lower mana core rank to be neglected.

Four-star soul awakenings were extremely rare and each year there would only be around 10 four-star soul awakenings on Astrix, which would already be considered a fortunate year.

The Vanguard school accepted more than 10.000 Students each year and it was only normal for Greg to be accepted.

Nevertheless, it surprised Jason that Greg´s mana core rank did not meet the requirement which means that he could only enter the school because of his high star-soul awakening.

To enter one of the affiliated schools one had to reach the 3rd Adept rank, have extreme high exam results, at least a 2 1/2 star soul-awakening, or a two-star soul-awakening with at least one extraordinary good characteristic in one's soul-awakening-either soul energy or a unique soul

Jason wasn't even close to meet one of these requirements except his soul awakening as his soul was the most unique soul ever awoken in his opinion.

Even so, he didn't want to expose that which means Jason met not a single requirement.

His exam result was extremely bad because of his non-existent combat prowess at that time while his mana core rank would be called garbage compared to the requirement.

Jason was a little bit frustrated and even if he was allowed to attend one of the affiliated schools because of the nobility rights Greg's family obtained, he would be the weakest with a large gap between him and the second-worst student.

He was grateful that the Fler family allowed him to study there but he felt too weak and pitiful at the moment.

Jason left the shuttle he subconsciously entered after he went out of the mansion, continuing to brood over all kinds of things.

He wasn't even scared about being bullied, rather it was more likely that he would be thrown out of the school after the first year because of his grades, which hurt his almost non-existent pride.

If one couldn't accomplish the given assignments or get enough merit points by the end of the year one would be kicked out of the school which was Jason's biggest problem.

These assignments ranged from killing late awakened beasts as one of the easier assignments to gathering herbs in three- or four-star wild zones that have evolved and unblemished ranked beasts.

Jason couldn't even think about killing the weakest awakened beasts as they were a few times stronger than the strongest five-star wild beast.

Assassinating an awakened beast would also be difficult as its instincts and reaction speed were much stronger compared to wild beasts.

`Something has to change!` He told himself determined...

Inside his apartment, Jason practiced the Heaven's Hell technique before he came to a decision.

He had to close the gap between him and the other students as fast as possible and Jason had two ways to accomplish this.

Either he had to increase his mana core rank with the support of mana stones which would hasten up his advancement speed by a few times and stabilize the core afterward with certain medical solutions.

Another path could be to increase Artemis rank in order to improve their combat prowess as Jason would receive 30% from Artemis strength amplified.

Jason had another way to improve his strength but the chances of success were too minuscule.

He could form contracts with a few one-star wild beasts with at least some potential and force their evolution, but this could hurt his soul world core if a soulbond rejected him or breaks out of the contract once the particular beast's soul energy became higher than the contractors.

It would be better for him to increase his soul energy slowly for the time being, while relying on Artemis who he trusted.

Once he had some space left for another soulbond, he would search for one with high potential.

The problem for the first two solutions however was what Jason didn't have at the moment!

Credits!

With enough credits, Jason could purchase all necessary resources including beast cores for Artemis but unfortunately, he had only 20.000 credits left.

He was already very happy about his current situation because Greg told him that he didn't have to pay a single credit for accommodation or tuition fees as he would live with them.

And their house was supposed to be close to both schools while the nobility rights they used included the tuition fees for him.

As such Jason didn´t have to pay anything to get educated and to furthermore stay alive.

Nobles could normally only use their nobility rights for their own child's but this was changed since many nobles complained about it.

One could use the nobility rule one time for every child they bear, not a single time more. 

Jason wasn't sure why this nobility rule was so like that, but he didn't mind it as he received benefits from it.

One shouldn't complain while receiving benefits!

There was a way for Jason to earn many credits but this would mean he had to expose his secret which he didn't want to do.

At least not too many people should know about it!

Making up his mind, he purchased a few things through his quantum bracelet emptying his whole fortune.

Left behind was only a big `12` in his bank account and he forced to smile.

The parcel would arrive the next morning.

Jason washed and changed his clothes before feeding Artemis a few Beast cores.

Lying inside the bed Jason was still thinking about some possibilities before the darkness swallowed him.

---

Artemis woke up Jason as soon as she digested the beast cores which was earlier than expected.

Frustrated about his loss of precious sleeping time Jason figured out that he had to give her a lot more cores so he could at least sleep a few hours a day.

It was only 2 am but Artemis was awake and Jason didn't want to sleep anymore, so he practiced the Heaven's Hell technique.

He noticed that the more often he used this technique the faster he became with it.

Everything went smoother and the pain he had to endure decreased.

What astonished him the most was that the speed his soul energy replenished as it changed to a minuscule, almost not noticeable degree.

At least that was what Jason felt but he wasn't really sure about that.

However, he noticed that the moment his soul energy increased or rather the moment his soul world core generated more soul energy his soul world also changed slightly.

It was only minuscule and probably less than 0.0001% but he still felt it and the change took also place in the shared amount Artemis gave him and their soul connection.

This made him happy but he cleared his mind and opened the holographic screen of his quantum bracelet.

Requesting his parcel to arrive directly a drone arrived only 20 minutes later with a big parcel below.

Opening the parcel, many items entered his view.