Jason immediately jumped up from his seat, shouting "Yes!!"
Looking astonished at Jason´s enthusiasm, Till recalled a treasure he found a long time ago.
Shuttering in fear, he wouldn´t even wish his arch-enemy to consume it.
"I have a kind of fruit that can protect your life until you finish creating your sub-area.
Unfortunately, it will cause devastating pain and you´ll most likely wish to die to end the torture.
Adding on the pain you´ll have to endure because of the tempering and splitting of your brain, I´m not sure if you should do that in order to stay mentally fit.
It not unlikely that your mental health will suffer if you don't get crazy or similar to braindead."
Now Jason hesitated for a second and he looked at his teacher with fear in his eyes.
Nevertheless, he was resolute in his decision.
Jason didn't want to wait until he reached the Magus rank to establish his first sub-area.
"At least, I now know there is a way to create my first sub-area if you would sell the treasure to me I would be grateful...Unfortunately, It's very likely that I´ll need a long time to gather enough star notes until I´ve everything together in order to repay you."
Till looked at his student and he liked the youth in front of him the most because of his personality and talent.
`Why does he want to create his first sub-area so soon? Is it urgent?` It has been a long since someone awoke his curiosity and he wanted to make a decision only to lay out an bait in order to test Jason.
"What if I provide you with everything you need to create your first sub-area?" He said nonchalantly
Being hit off-guard, Jason was unsure what to say about this offer..
It was definitely tempting..but there were two unknown factors.
1)Why should his teacher do something like that
2)Can I handle the pain right now and are the benefits worth the pain?
The latter factor could be answered with a definite YES… gathering and absorbing mana for 24/7 would increase his cultivation speed multiple times, considering that subconsciously absorbing mana was only slightly less effective than actively doing it.
But he would have more time to practice his martial art techniques in the meantime and could also increase his knowledge instead of absorbing mana for hours.
Normally Jason absorbed mana for at least 3 hours a day and this could be completely discarded, while his cultivation speed would increase at the same time without doing anything at all.
Wasn't it just too beneficial? What was pain in contrast to that… Jason´s will had to be strong enough to endure it to prevent it from going crazy, but that was all.
He was still unsure why his teacher would offer him something like that but over the last two weeks, Jason could roughly form an understanding of his teacher's character.
He was hiding something big but he wasn't hiding in particular, otherwise, he wouldn´t allow his students to learn tier-3 techniques which couldn´t be considered staying lowkey.
The students would tell their parents and friends about it and it was easy to find out if one practiced a high-tiered martial art technique.
Figuring out where they obtained such techniques would only be a matter of time then.
That meant, he was definitely not a criminal.
Till was also kind and patient towards his students and answered every one with great insights.
The only problem was his strict teaching, while it only gave benefits to his students, he sounded rough.
This however couldn´t cover up his generosity, which some couldn´t appreciate, as a few parents from students were complaining about the difficulty of the given assignment.
Mr.Greil ignored them and there was not much one could do against it, but Jason found these students and their parents quite rude.
`Trying to pressure my teacher with empty complaints? Piss off!!!!`
Jason liked his teacher and he was confident in his gut feeling as he opened his mouth while looking at his teacher with determination.
"I can endure it!!!" he shouted loudly.
It was like Till could see through Jason's train of thoughts.
If he had the same chance at such a young age, he would probably do the same as Jason.
He himself only created his first sub-area when he reached the Grandmagus rank and it was a vast difference to passively gather, absorb and transmute mana into liquid without doing anything at all.
It was extremely slow but considering that converting mana into liquid was the taxing procedure, he also did actively, his mana core rank increased much faster than without the sub-area in his mind.
He also liked Jason a lot and wanted to give him the choice to decide whether to give it a chance and risk his life or to wait until he reached the magus rank.
As for getting paid...It was more likely that Jason would reach the magus rank before he would be able to amass the star notes needed for the magical treasure, mana stones, and the cheapest amongst the materials, the non-elemental guardian mana core altogether.
"Okay...I should have everything with me right now, do you want to immediately start or do you want to wait until tomorrow?"
"Right now please.!!" Jason was becoming impatient as he voiced his opinion out without hesitating anymore and he wasn´t sure if he would still do it, if he could reconsider his decision once again.
As such he wanted to begin right now.
"With your current control over mana, the whole process of creating a sub-area will take at least 24 hours, if not more… You can still choose to decline my offer.. If you still want to do it, call your home and say that you´ll stay at school for some days!..
If your done, come to my office."
"I´ll still do it. I call immediately!" Jason said not even thinking about the time his teacher told him.
Even so, he was still shuttering in fright which couldn´t be hidden anymore.
Calling the Flers, saying that he would stay in school for some days, everyone felt a little bit confused, but they wouldn't ask Jason if he didn't want to talk about the reason.
Jason was already mature in their eyes and he knew what he was doing.
Furthermore, they weren´t his real family and couldn´t force him to not stay out if he wanted to.
After he was done, Jason went to his teacher's office, where he suddenly saw an additional room behind the bookshelves, which astonished him slightly.
Walking inside, he could see his teacher gracefully inscribing a 20-meter diameter large magic circle with a head-sized transparent marble floating in the center, 20 centimeters above the ground.
Below it was a jade box with beautiful inscriptions on it and Jason concluded, that it was a box used for magical plants to prevent them from losing their effect upon getting plucked.
The transparent marble had dark blue runes inscribed on it which were shining lightly.
Upon hearing Jason coming inside, Till explained everything calmly.
"Inside the jade box is the Devilish Valkyrie-shield fruit you´ll have to eat before activating the magic circle.
After eating you´ll have to take the Overlord Behemoth mana core inside your hand, which will activate the mana gathering circle with the slightest injection of mana.
You don't have to immediately use up all the mana around you and even if you try, it's impossible.
The mana will stay inside the magic circle and you can slowly use it to refine your brain because the Devilish Valkyrie-shield fruit will protect you life, even if it is hellish painful.
Just endure it and slowly temper your brain and split it after you´ve rechecked that every step was done perfectly.
You are not allowed to make a mistake, okay?! "
Jason´s mind was blank...Devilish Valkyrie-shield fruit, Overlord Behemoth? What?!
"Is the Overlord Behemoth a guardian ranked beast?" was the only thing he could ask, because his mana eyes told him, that the mana inside this core was almost completely liquefied.
"It´s a Lord-ranked beast." was the only thing his teacher said and Jason figured out what the rank above Guardian was, which would normally delight him.
But not now.
Jason grew anxious, looking at the lord-ranked beast core telling himself hundreds of times, that he could endure it, while his whole body trembled.
While being inside the magic circle, he couldn´t take Scorpio with him.
Letting him stay outside, Jason lamented his second soulbonds will, as he was unwilling to enter the soul world with Artemis evolving inside.
While Till was inscribing the Magic circle, Jason decided to feed Scorpio some pieces of the holy white bacuri fruit, because he would probably be unable to do so during the following day.
After Scorpio ate two pieces, he writhed slightly, but it looked like the pain was becoming less, which made Jason happy.
Furthermore, Jason calculated that Scorpio would have his second molting tomorrow while he was creating his sub-area.
After Scorpio´s second molting was done, he would be at the three-star rank, and Jason was already expectant how long it would take for him to break through his racial limit because his potential showed signs of improving.
It was now midnight and Till finished inscribing the magic circle on time, as he placed multiple magic stones at their designated area.
Some magic stones had the size of a football while others were double the size and Jason wondered if that were really only grade-3 magic stones or already grade-4 magic stones due to the vast amount of mana he could see with his eyes, causing them to ache slightly, forcing Jason to close his eyes.
He understood that the amount of mana inside the magic circle was extremely vast and only now was he fully aware of the seriousness of the situation..
But now Jason wouldn´t back out as he slowly walked inside the magic circle.
Sitting down, he immediately began to sweat due to the mana fluctuations that pressured him.
Opening the jade box in front of him, a sweet stench impregnated the whole room and the fruit he saw in front of him was silver in color, looking like a fat miniature shield while the outlines were somewhat blackish.
If one looked closely, one would barely a cruel face behind the facade of the shield and Jason shuttered seeing that.
This was however not the only thing that caused Jason to shudder in fear, but also the dense dark blue color, spreading from the fruit in his hand.
Jason had never seen such a color but he was sure that it was not the color of a guardian rank and his hand holding the fruit began to tremble.
Overcoming his anxiety, Jason put the whole fruit in his mouth before biting on it.
Sweet juice filled his mouth and it was almost addicting to him as he wanted to savor the taste as he forced himself to gulp it down as fast as possible, because his teacher told him that the pain would begin roughly half a minute after taking the first bite.
Taking the Lord-ranked mana core into his hands, Jason immediately activated the magic circle, as bright runes emerged from the magic circle.
A small dome was forming around the magic circle as the mana stones slowly dissolved, creating a thick blue shining fog within.
The fog was transforming in liquid and it seemed like it was raining inside the small dome when Till looked somewhat expectant at the scenario in front of him as he noticed the liquefied mana.
`Did I put in too many grade-4 mana stones?` He wondered slightly worried.