Chapter 101 - Bilateral Progression

Jason was astonished seeing that Malia had reached the 2nd Master rank which was definitely not something commonly seen at the young age of 16.

Thinking about Malia's feat, Jason scanned his own mana from the inside and found out that the passive mana gathering and absorbing technique was definitely working well as he would probably be able to break into the Adept rank in two weeks at most.

He knew that the passive mana gathering technique he used was only a basic technique because everyone with enough credits would be able to purchase it.

There were probably much better mana gathering and absorbing techniques out there but he just didn't know of them.

However, he didn't mind that.

Everything would come with time and Jason had more than enough time to nurture himself into someone nobody would dare look down on him if nothing huge happened before that.

It didn't take them long until both Jason and Greg stood inside the combat area and he quickly went into the small changing room with a shower inside in order to change his clothes.

He decided to wear comfortable training clothes because he knew that his spar with Greg would stake some time.

Furthermore, if he wanted to practice his newly acquired movement skill, the whole spar would be more taxing than normally.

"I've learned a new combat technique during the last few days. Keep your guard up, Jason!"

Greg said and Jason found it quite interesting that both of them would practice their newly acquired technique in this spar.

While he would use his full strength, Greg restricted his strength to the 9th Novice rank while his soulbond was not suppressed.

Both stood opposite each other with a 30-meter distance when their eyes suddenly met, which indicated the start of their battle.

They sparred so many times with each other and there were no words needed to start their fight.

Circulating his mana according to the 'Weightless Steps' description, he could almost instantly feel that his body seemed lighter.

It was relatively uncomfortable in the beginning but he was able to adjust to it pretty fast.

As such Jason was the first one to take a step and it felt like his speed could increase by around 20% if he achieved the basic mastery of this technique.

Jason´s increase of speed right off the bat was only around 10% when he rushed at Greg, who observed him carefully.

Greg´s newly acquired technique was similar to Jason´s Weaponry Knight skill but more advanced while he used his technique in addition to the gloves he was familiar with.

While Jason charged at Greg, both circulated their mana according to their peculiar technique.

Jason´s increase in speed was not kept unnoticed by Greg and he was astonished by this fact.

However, there was no time for him to admire Jason´s speed as a dagger was thrust to his right site.

It was only a dulled dagger but it would still hurt, when Greg deflected the dagger thrust with a solid punch, while Jason felt the strong impact passing through the dagger.

He was aware that it was bad to fight a glove-user with his daggers because his weapon could be more easily destroyed during the fight and Jason had to enhance his dagger with a small membrane of mama in order to prevent such an accident.

But that wouldn't stop him from practicing daggers as his main weapons for the moment, as he felt the most comfortable with them right now.

Greg immediately went into a counteroffensive, using the short moment Jason was not guarded to deliver a straight punch.

Jason predicted that and jumped to the site where he landed with a smooth roll.

Not a single second was wasted as Jason immediately stood up.

Greg and Jason knew each other's combat style as Greg stood already behind Jason with another punch ready.

It was obvious that both knew each other´s combat style and only new techniques or a complete change in one´s combat style could change this situation, as Jason used his Weightless Steps skill to the limits, without considering any possible issues.

To evade Greg's punch, he stepped forward with his body leaned closer to the ground.

Greg was astonished that Jason took a step towards him instead of away when his other fist was already approaching Jason due to his instinctive way of acting when Jason´s dagger already touched Greg´s abdomen.

The fight was instantly over and Greg stopped his fist mid-air before he stepped back a few meters.

Both of them had a tacit agreement that once one was hit, the other one won the round.

Jason was overjoyed that his speed was comparable to Greg´s speed, probably even better if he injected his whole mana pool into the technique as he grinned craftily at Greg, saying

"1:0"

Hearing this was extremely frustrating to Greg as he underestimated Jason´s speed.

Furthermore, he was unaware that Jason learned a new movement technique, which astonished him a little bit.

Jason had acquired two-tiered skills in such a short time, which was kinda uncommon even for the main Vanguard school as he wondered how Jason did that when he thought about his own achievements.

But Greg wasn´t really displeased, he only lost because of the surprise attack and the next rounds would prove him!!

"Again!!" Greg said confidently before both distanced themself until they reached a certain distance.

"Go!" Both said at the same time and one could see a bright shining light in both youths eyes with a foolish smile blossomed on their faces.

The spar between the two youths was becoming more and more violent as they adjusted their newly acquired technique to the combat style of their respective opponent.

Each round was taking longer and longer to end, while they adjusted their combat style each fight in order to surprise attack each other.

Hours passed and it was lunchtime when both were lying on the ground, panting heavily but still foolishly smiling.

Both were proud due to the same reason.

Previously both of their new techniques proficiency was horrible and comparable to non-existent, but right now it seemed that they were already nearing basic mastery, which was an astonishing feat.

"10:6 …. Hahaha, I won!!" Greg said with an exaggerated proud face, while Jason remained silent thinking, that Greg was not looking at the big picture.

Previously Jason was unable to defeat Greg a single time, which changed now.

After sparring with Seron and in addition to the newly acquired movement technique, Jason was able to overcome Greg´s overwhelming fighting style better than before.

Jason was infinitely close to the basic mastery of the weightless step technique, as it neared an acceleration of 20%.

After both washed up and changed into a clean set of clothes, 1 pm had already passed, when they sprinted to the dining table, where everyone was already waiting for them.

Malia had seen them sparring with each other and didn´t want to disturb them as it looked like both of them were fighting with all their might, while trying to adjust their combat style to land a surprise attack.

Furthermore, she noticed that both youths used new martial art techniques.

Gaining insights was extremely difficult and she would rather let them starve instead of disrupting their enlightenment.

Gabriella looked at them with a smile and gestured them to sit down, while Mark was looking at them without showing many emotions.

Greg and Jason had used up too much energy during their fight which caused them to gobble down their lunch, a second fill before a third fill was eaten within a record-like speed.

Looking at the two gluttons made the others smile weirdly, even Mark couldn´t cover his smile for a second before his emotions were hidden once again.

After they finished their meal, Jason washed the dishes before he went into his room to practice the Heaven's Hell technique with the five-braided helix again.

This time it took only 85 minutes and nothing major happened.

Jason was confident that he could reduce the Heaven's Hell second level refining time to 60 minutes or probably even less as long as he practiced enough.

It would give him more time to practice his martial art skills or read more books, which could be helpful in the future.

Jason felt like a bookworm because he liked to read more and more after getting to know, that there were so many different types of magical plants, beasts, habitats, important characteristics, mutations of beasts caused by selection pressure, genetic mutations, rare ores, soul and Mana weapons, foreign intelligent races, information about souls in general and so many more things.

His thirst for knowledge was almost limitless and he would spend at least six hours a day reading alone.

This caused his knowledge to surpass his peers by a huge margin because they were mostly training their body, mana core, soulbonds or even playing around with their friends.

However, that was only the case with average families, as superior and big families, clans, companies and so did not prioritize sole strength, because intelligence, craftiness, and other characteristics were at least as important as strength to them.

While reading many books, Jason often read about Alchemist, Blacksmith, and Runemaster, and he found all three lifestyles-occupations extremely interesting.

One could say that these lifestyle-occupations were almost as important as Beast creators.

Unfortunately for Jason however was, that there was not much information about Beast creators in the book, he had access to, which caused him to be slightly dejected.

Jason wondered, how it would be to have a lifestyle occupation like being a blacksmith, alchemists, runemaster, or even a Beast Creators.

They were said to be some of the most profitable occupations, while their requirements were also extremely high in order to reach higher ranks.

It was a long dream of his and reading through the School´s forum, he read a particular thread that interested him extremely.