God's Eyes

Jason arrived at home, still disturbed by the thoughts rummaging in his mind.

Too much happened during the last few days and Jason was barely able to concentrate enough to practice the Heaven's Hell technique within the shuttle.

But it was necessary because the time when Artemis´ evolution finished was approaching.

Arriving at the Fler´s home late at night he silently entered the house only to be greeted by a bulldozer hugging him while slender arms squeezing through the thick arms, that enveloped his whole body.

Greg and Malia were hugging him and behind them, Jason could see Gabriella and Mark.

Gabriella looked at him worried but seeing that he was fine her tension eased up.

Mark also sighed in relief when he saw that Jason was fine. He had been away for three days in a row without sending a single message, which was not normal for him.

His teacher called them saying Jason was in an important breakthrough but it seemed weird to them as the timing was unfitting.

What kind of breakthrough would take 3 days, at Jason´s mana core rank at that.

Maybe if one wanted to break into the Magus rank a breakthrough could take so long, but that was definitely not something Jason could achieve soon.

It took Jason more than three minutes until he was able to escape the siblings' grasp and they began to calm down.

"Where have you been for the last few days and what kind of breakthrough took you three days?" Greg asked curiously and Jason wondered what he meant.

'Did Till tell them that I had some kind of breakthrough?… What should I tell them?` Jason wasn´t sure what to do and he decided to hide the truth in a small lie.

"Rather than a breakthrough, I had some complications with my third soulbond. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, there was a mutated fire elemental hatchling, that was about to die and I formed a contract with it to prevent that… Unfortunately, I underestimated the consumption of soul energy, caused by this mutated fire elemental, causing it to go overboard and almost out of control...The last few days were extremely exhausting but everything is fine now"

Jason tried to explain without telling anything about his Origin Flame because Shane told him, that he should hide the Origin Flame´s existence as a secret.

At least as long as it was possible.

Shane said that he should just explain that he had a mutated fire elemental as soulbond if someone asked, as this was a possibility to gain a mutated fire elemental with a black flame as soulbond, even though it was rare.

Releasing a small black flame on his hand, everyone looked at it with astonishment.

Even Gabriella and Mark had never seen a black flame and it was bewitching to look into.

A moment later, Jason closed his fist and the flame vanished into thin air.

Gabriella came back to her senses and asked slightly worried, once she finished scanning Jason about his well-being.

"But you are definitely okay, right? There is no internal injury within your body or soul??"

To which Jason nodded.

All of the Fler´s were nice and kind to him and Jason was happy to have met them and he felt bad lying to them.

They talked for some time and Jason received a lot of information about the Goblin tide and where the Fler´s were during that time.

Apparently, the Fler´s were at home sleeping or absorbing mana and they had only heard the beast tide alarm sound through the whole city and reports about a beast tide later.

But only a few hours later everything was over and they hadn't seen a single Goblin close to them.

Nevertheless, there seemed to be more than 1 million victims from the ghettos or rather poorer districts where the Magus and Grandmagus rank fought their battle.

After they finished talking, Jason went into his bed, which seemed to devour him, sending him into a deep sleep.

***

It was 6 am when Jason felt stingers attacking him and it was Scorpio waking him up.

Over the last few days, Scorpio was forced to stay inside the soul world against its will, which was mainly because Jason hunted Goblins that could kill Scorpio without any effort.

After the Goblin tide and with his Baptism, Jason had no chance to do something for Scorpio and it could be said that it was lucky that soulbonds subsisted, while feeding on the contractor's mana.

It was less efficient than high-nutrition food with a large amount of mana but it was still enough to survive.

Jason took out a lot of dried mana flies at the awakened stage and fed them to Scorpio.

It seemed as if his second soulbond would soon reach the five-star wild rank and Jason hoped that this would happen after Artemis finished her evolution because the amount Artemis required was much more compared to Scorpio.

Nevertheless, Jason had to increase his soul energy for all of his soulbonds, which included his Origin Flame, which still annexed only 0.01 units.

*

After doing his morning workout with some extra reps, Jason washed up, changed into his school uniform, and went down to eat breakfast, before he called his shuttle.

Practicing the Heaven's Hell technique inside the shuttle, Jason estimated that his soul energy reached 15.2 units and he was still some units away from the minimum required soul energy needed, even though he would receive some shared soul energy from Artemis.

In the end, playing safe was important in this matter.

His new masters, also called Deuce-Masters, told him that he should stay in school and continue to study as if nothing happened.

Over the next month, he should read all books they sent him while he should at least understand the basics.

Shane and Dalia knew about him attending the Basic-Artisan exams and this could be said to be a small mission from them.

Thanks to his mana eyes, Jason was confident to pass these practical exams with flying colors.

There was no reward or punishment at the moment but it was obvious that Jason would lose some of his master's favor if he failed the first small mission.

Arriving at school, Jason entered Class number 54 as he saw his classmates already sitting there.

Looking at Jason, some of them were stupefied…

'Has he done some plastic surgery over the weekend?'

'Was he not in school because of his pain after the surgery?'

Were some thoughts of jealous youths, while the girls looked at Jason´s broad shoulders and his chiseled face as they could hardly contain themselves.

They wanted to approach him and make him theirs.

Right as the first girl was about to give it a try, Till entered the room causing the girl that took the first step to turn around with lightning speed before she sat down.

Till noticed Jason´s attendance and was astonished

'How has his appearance changed so much over the last three days? His body seemed to be much more muscular and well versed for all types of movements...'

Enveloping Jason with his mana, Till figured out that his body seemed to be perfect for all kinds of landscapes, his muscles seemed flexible, strong, and tenacious.

However, Till's who already predicted something over the last few days could only sigh in regret.

'He really took him in as a disciple?' Was his thoughts and he could only lament. Jason was really a promising child but having Shane as his master was definitely a double-edged sword.

On one side, Shane could teach him his vast knowledge and piles of martial art techniques he knew, while on the other side, Jason could die faster than someone counting down from 3, once it was found out that he was Shane´s disciple.

But there was nothing he could do as he started his lessons.

After the mana breakout school was divided into theoretical and practical lessons.

While theory subjects were taught in the morning the afternoon was filled with practical lessons like combat.

Jason completely disregarded the theoretical subjects because he already knew everything that Till taught them at the moment, which was somehow disappointing.

As such he opened the smallest file he received from Shane as he began to read it.

Shane´s books were mostly about runes and Blacksmithing.

Each Book contained knowledge about one particular processing step which had to be perfected

While reading, Jason completely forgot that he was in school and he felt like he entered an extremely focused state.

Time passed without him being aware of it and only when he sensed a strong mana fluctuation enveloping him, Jason looked up to see that he was still in school.

Looking up, Jason noticed many of his classmates eyeing him while Till looked at him intently.

"Mr. Stella, is my lesson boring for you?"

Jason looked at Till slightly confused and only now did he understand that he undermined his teachers' authority.

"Mr. Greil your lesson is not boring, but I already know everything important for the next few months" Jason stated

Eying Jason once again, Till had an idea as he retorted.

"If my lesson is boring and you already know so much, please tell me what an Origin flame is including its advantages and disadvantages"

'Origin flame? Why that one…' Jason thought and he began to sweat lightly, thinking that his teacher might have found out his secret,

But his worry was without reason and Jason could calm down after a few seconds.

"Origin Flames are flames that gain sentience deep inside volcanoes with concentrated mana around. They're extremely rare and after gaining sentience, they create a crystal layer to not get washed away by the forceful energy in its surrounding[...]

The price for an unawakened Origin flame is extremely expensive because one can form a soulbond with them before they awaken and in exchange for soul energy, initiating a baptism that will cleanse the body from impurities and increase one´s lifespan[...]

There are two disadvantages for Origin Flames, one is that it uses up a spot within the soul world, which not many humans have once they find an unawakened origin flame.

Another disadvantage is at the same time an advantage.

One has to nurture the Origin Flame with soul energy by letting it occupy more units[...]

Once an Origin Flame reaches a certain threshold, it will evolve into a higher Tier, providing the contractor with another baptism, which will cleanse another round of impurities and strengthen the body."

Jason finished his long speech, while Till looked at Jason as if he was a monster.

'How can a high schooler answer this question? How does he know about Origin Flames?!'

Till was frustrated as he had thought that he could trick Jason out.

However, it seemed as if it was the other way around and they looked at each other, and Till made a decision that caused an uproar in the whole classroom.

"Jason, you don't have to attend early classes anymore. Just read through all mandatory books and come to the afternoon classes. I don´t think it's necessary for you to waste any time here with my theoretical lessons...Leave!"

Till said with some might behind his words and Jason only smiled lightly as he bowed to his teacher before leaving the class while being eyed by 200+ pairs of eyes.