Chapter 149 - Progress

Waking up early in the morning by a sharp stung in addition to suffocating within fluffy plumage could already be considered a part of Jason´s life as he opened his eyes slowly.

Looking at Scorpio´s 30-centimeter long body while Artemis stood next to him, Jason smiled brightly.

Not only increased Scorpio in size, but his exoskeleton's blue stitch got deeper, while he already broke into the awakened rank it longed for tens of days.

Artemis in front of Jason also increased slightly in size and was now 1.1 meters long while her wingspan reached a whooping length of 3.3 meters.

But even more shocking was that she already broke into the early evolved rank a few days ago, shocking the Fler's, Till, Seron, and even Jason himself.

It has already been a whole month since Artemis finished her evolution and fortunately enough, there was not a single accident during that time.

The only thing that Jason did was follow his strict schedule while accepting a few challenges from pseudo-powerful schoolmates of him within the special combat class lessons.

It was more like practice for Jason, but even that was helpful, as such he couldn't complain about receiving a few challenges.

Nevertheless, rumors about his strength went viral and everyone in school knew about his feat, causing them to disregard the idea of challenging him, exactly like Jason planned.

He prevented a huge hassle and could silently digest everything slowly.

From honing skills, to increasing his proficiency with his affinities in addition to practicing Heaven's Hell, everything went smoothly, which satisfied him.

Jason was happy over the last 30 days as he could silently read all books about smithing, alchemy, runemaster and so on which was the goal he desired.

But that wasn´t everything that happened.

Jason never forgot to practice the Heaven's Hell technique for a single time over the last 30 days, causing his soul energy to increase by leaps and bounds.

But this was also thanks to Scorpio breaking into the awakened rank 10 days after Artemis finished her evolution.

Scorpio reached its limit a few days later with 15 soul energy units, causing Jason to be even more motivated to meet Dalia once again.

He wanted to increase Scorpio´s limit in order for it to evolve or breakthrough without an evolution if that was even possible.

The most important reason for Jason to increase his soul energy by a few times was however, Artemis who provided him with a large increase in soul energy thanks to the amplification he received from his soul world.

On the 20th day after Artemis finished her evolution, she broke suddenly into the low evolved rank after digesting dozens of beast mana cores Jason provided.

With that, Artemis' soul energy increased to 130 units, which once again increased Jason´s soul energy

It was only on the 25th day that Jason´s soul world began to shake, for a while because it increased in size by a small margin, before he noticed that his bond with Artemis and Scorpio was strengthened as it seemed to be more solid.

Trying to figure out the cause of it, the most simple answer could have been Jason´s soul energy reaching 100 units, which was a small threshold for one's soul energy.

Jason would have never thought that he would reach 100 soul energy units so soon and it was mostly thanks to Artemis that he achieved this feat.

Nevertheless, he was still more than glad to have reached this threshold and multiple days passed.

28 days after he broke into the 2nd Adept rank, Jason broke silently into the 3rd Adept rank, without the need of absorbing mana by himself.

It was solely thanks to the passive mana gathering and absorbing, that made it possible for him to achieve that, as Jason didn't use a single second to absorb mana from mana stones.

He had too many things to do at once and his mana core rank was the only thing he could passively increase without caring about it.

As such Jason neglected it and only when he broke through, he noticed that 28 days passed.

Breaking into the 3rd Adept rank without wasting a single second on gathering and refining mana after 28 days was extremely fast, even though it was rather slow for him if he actively absorbed it with more time.

Nevertheless, Jason could do so much in the meantime, that his combat prowess increased by a huge margin, while his soul energy reached 116.2 units.

Compared to before, this amount was extremely vast but it was still not enough for Artemis to fit in, as her required soul energy increased to 130 units, while Scorpio occupied 15 soul energy units.

Without having nurtured the black origin flame with a single soul energy unit, it was still at 0.01 soul energy units.

In total, Jason would need 145.01 soul energy units for Artemis to fit inside and it would still take some time for him to reach this threshold.

But even so, he was already much closer to his desired goal.

While most students with a high aptitude towards mana increased their mana core rank by at least one, some prodigious increased their rank by two ranks within a month due to their desire to become stronger, like Seron and even Greg, which was astonishing.

These two individuals were so shocked about Jason's achievements, that they could only work harder and strive for more in order to not get overrun by Jason who wasn´t aware of their competitive spirit against him.

Jason was rather satisfied with Greg reaching the 6th Adept rank, which was an incredible accomplishment, considering that he broke into the 4th Adept rank around the corner when Jason broke into the 2nd Adept rank.

As such he barely needed one month to break through two ranks, which was only possible thanks to him absorbing nature's mana in addition to high-quality mana stones, day and night, without pausing for a long duration.

Jason gifted Greg a few high-graded mana stones, as he had more than enough for them at the moment thanks to Chen Sharon visiting him one morning unannounced.

This shocked the Fler´s and even more so after they found out that he broke into the 6th Blacksmith rank, which was also called Grandmaster Blacksmith as the first human on Astrix.

When Chen came over to Jason´s house in order to give him all required materials he exchanged for the cloud titanium anvil which was a pseudo-magic grade-3 item previously.

He was shocked to see that Jason lived in such a small house with a minor noble family and there wasn't even the faintest smell of a smithy, telling Chen that Jason required the ore and other items he required for something else.

But it wasn´t for Chen to doubt Jason's behavior, as such, he went home after a short chat with Jason, without wasting too much of his time

The black-haired youth with golden eyes was still a whole mystery for him and he would rather be careful instead of doing something stupid.

After Jason received everything he asked Chen for, he wanted to gift all of the Fler´s a bunch of grade-3 mana stones because he was still in their debt but Gabriella and Mark declined shocked, saying that the three of them would need them more than them, as they doubted that they would be able to increase their mana core rank by a lot.

And even if they could, the days with their best years with the highest potential were already over and it was better for the younger generation to use the limited amount of resources for themselves.

As such Greg and Malia reluctantly accepted Jason´s gift.

Malia reached the 2nd master rank, while Greg reached the 6th Adept rank and it was also because of his gift, that it was possible but more important was their desire to get stronger, as they noticed that Jason seemed to have met someone powerful that could nurture him.

Otherwise, why would Jason have so many grade-3 mana stones spare?

This shocked them and they could only frustratingly absorb mana day in and out, trying their best that Jason wouldn't be able to overrun them someday.

Greg's physique was even tougher than Jason´s due to his physical soul amplification in addition to his mid-evolved soulbond Taurus.

Even though Greg´s physique was stronger and tougher than Jason´s, he was faster and could use three affinities, thanks to Scorpio producing an awakened poison affinity, that was rather useless for right now.

Nevertheless having an affinity was better than not having one and Jason was glad that Scorpio worked hard in order for him to receive more possibilities to fight against opponents.

Unfortunately, an awakened poison affinity was rather useless for him at the moment, as his other two affinities were both at the evolved rank, causing much more lethal damage.

With Jason advancing to the 3rd Adept rank in addition to Artemis and Scorpio´s breakthrough, Jason´s physique and mana core size reached the 7th Adept rank, turning him into a beast among the 3rd Adept ranks within the 6th affiliated school.

It was still morning but today was very important as one month passed since the special combat class was established, allowing all affiliated schools and even the main school to challenge everyone within the special combat classes.

Jason knew that the 6th affiliated school would most likely be seen as parasites from some nobles as he made himself ready to go to school earlier than he would normally go.