Chapter 57：Jiro-City

It was already late at night but Jason was still fully awake eager to absorb more mana.

This condition was one of the advantages one would get by absorbing large amounts of mana.

He decided to make a night shift and solidify his mana core to prevent any flaws in his foundation while waiting for Artemis to finish her digestion.

He wanted to know exactly how much difference there was between five five-star wild beast cores and one of the lowest awakened beast cores.

Maybe it would be helpful for the future.

Furthermore, Jason wanted to practice the Heaven's Hell technique as soon as his soul energy was reproduced.

He continued absorbing mana out of mana stones and it was around 4 am when he was woken up by Artemis.

She had digested the awakened core in slightly more than 13 hours which was around 3 hours longer than she needed for five five-star wild beast cores and Jason took notes about it.

He had already bought many wild-ranked cores and would use them for Artemis, so he wasn't disgruntled or anything like that after finding out that the awakened beast cores were roughly 30% better and the one who had to suffer was Artemis and not him, so he was a little bit sorry for her but that was it.

She had to eat the wild-ranked cores for the time being and he would switch them out when the stock was used up, or the effect almost not strong enough anymore.

Morning came and Jason was still absorbing mana.

He had already used up three small mana stones and thus 150.000 Credits, which shocked him quite a bit.

Jason didn´t know that he would have to use so many mana stones for a breakthrough into the 5th Novice rank and to solidify the foundation…

With the 17 small mana stones he had left, Jason would probably be unable to enter the 7th Novice stage as only using mana stones was unhealthy for the body.

One would have to absorb a certain amount of naturally generated mana and not mana compressed into the stones, transmuted over the course of time.

Jason didn't want to absorb mana from mana stones during the remaining journey and he decided to read the beastarium while trying to improve his proficiency in passively gathering mana.

He was able to do it after almost a week but his reading speed was really slow compared to before and Jason was only able to even read at his current speed because of his extraordinary eyes.

Otherwise, he might even not read because a sloth would be faster.

Every few hours Jason entered his soul world to practice the Heaven's Hell technique and practicing this technique somehow grew to his heart because he could improve his soul energy because of it, even if it was painful.

After practicing the technique three times they arrived at the borders of a large dome which radiated even denser and more formidable mana fluctuations.

Looking through his mana eyes Jason noticed that the density of it was at least threefold the amount and he was astonished to see the walls of a large city.

Normally one would ask why there were walls but Jiro-City was a B-grade City close to a few magical beast zones and the defenses of the dome couldn´t instantly kill batches of magical beasts once they attacked human shelters.

That's why gigantic and stupendous walls were built.

Jiro city was often attacked by beast tides but the walls were always enough to stop these tides with the help of mankind's artillery and other weapons.

One could ask if it was even worthwhile to live in such a threatened city as it could always happen that the defensive measures would collapse but the answer was simple.

YES!

If one wanted to get stronger, one would have to enter more dangerous zones because of the thick mana, higher graded herbs and ores, and the possibility of natural-born treasures.

It was said that even inside Jiro-city the density would be much higher and almost comparable to that of a two or maybe even three-star wild zone.

Jason was already astonished about the mana density of a one-star wild zone and he was expected to visit Jiro-City even if he was slightly frustrated about the situation with the greater storm eagle.

However, there wasn't much he could do about it and he tried to think about the fox cubes which would find their new soul buddies soon.

Mark had already a few people who contacted him about the forum post only high-quality beast merchants had access to and they were reliable sources, so the scaled wolf and more than half of the fox cubs were quasi sold.

They could freely enter the city's dome but there was a fee one had to pay each time one would enter the dome but the price was relatively okay with 500 Credits.

If the same was to happen when he entered the dome of the C-grade City, Jason would cry a river because he didn't have any money previously and it was more likely daylight robbery.

But the dome had to be operated somehow and the fee was likely the main source of income for the operating of it, so nobody objected to the fee.

Unfortunately for Mark was, however, that he had to pay the entrance fee for every unbound beast which was more than 150 beasts.

500 Credits were not much but the quantity made a difference.

Once they entered the dome, the scenario changed slightly and Jason could see that the landscape was lusher and green more apparent than inside the c-grade city but it was still less wild than the zones outside the dome which was typical.

Each magic dome was made out of materials which would absorb mana from its surrounding but that was the only way to provide enough energy to it as the dome was like a glutton.

Entering through a futuristic-looking gate one could instantly see a huge difference compared to Artes city where they previously lived.

The streets had more lanes while even a few flying shuttles could be seen and the skyscrapers were ridiculously high and Jason wondered why they didn't collapse…

There was even a huge stadium-like shopping center with 30 floors which looked magnificent.

Everything looked so expensive and Jason wondered how the poorest districts would look like.

But after asking that, everyone looked at him with a perplexed expression, asking themselves why he would ask something like that.

Compared to C-grade cities, the poorest districts were probably comparable to below-average districts but once one a household was too poor to sustain oneself a living in a B-grade city, one would rather move into a C- or D-grade city as most B-grade cities were used for companies, hunters, the government, above-average families, military training and so on to improve their mana core rank within the city and hunt outside the dome.

Human society nowadays was cruel and once one couldn't afford to live in a city, one would get passively removed with the next migration group...It was cruel but like that society had the thought that it would be easier to work hard.

Once one would be able to reach a certain degree of strength or wealth, one would be able to move into a higher city and the other way around.

Everyone in a B-grade city had a certain standard amount of wealth, strength, or other advantages, most citizens from C-grade cities didn´t have, except they wanted to live in a lower graded city due to personal reasons like it was the case with the Fler´s.

They were wealthy enough to live within Cyro-city but due to Greg, they moved to a faraway C-grade city, in order for Greg to recover from his elementary grade trauma.

Jason wasn't sure what to think about what he heard, but even if he wanted to change something, he wouldn't be able to.