Only three hours passed since the exams started and there were still students of the first batch trying to accomplish their task.
Noticing Jason walking up the second floor, the young rank-3 runemaster thought this black-haired youth in front of him was either too late or impatiently worked on the blacksmithing exam.
Either way, it didn't really matter and once Jason arrived in front of him, he could smell a faint smoke from him, answering his question where the youth came from.
Looking at his ID, the runemaster noticed that Jason passed all three exams which caused him to look at the black-haired golden-eyed youth in front of him once again.
Seeing the golden eyes gleaming with mana, the runemaster's gut feeling told him, that it was a special trait, even if he wasn't sure what kind of eye-trait.
The most common special trait for eyes were mana eyes but he had never seen anyone with mana eyes, as such he had no idea what the youth in front of him had as a special trait.
Previously Jason wanted to hide his mana eyes but with time passing, he found it unreasonable, as it would cause a big decrease in his development.
Following that, he sat down on his designated place, where he found dozens of materials and necessities to work with.
Jason was the most confident in rune inscribing due to his mana eyes because he read that the most difficult part in inscribing was sensing the mana around while one had to work with opened eyes.
One would have to mold either an incomplete unblemished mana core or magical ranked mana cores to inscribe runes and the radiating mana from these materials could be labeled as vast, but this was only the case before they mold.
The mana conductivity from mana cores was the most complex in every living being and without destroying that one had to be extremely careful with heating up the mana cores as every mana core had a differing molting temperature.
In front of him were only incomplete unblemished mana cores and it was most likely to save some credits, while it was also the best for beginners to try inscribing.
For this exam the Artisan-tower even provided the names from the beasts where the mana cores came from, to give the students the opportunity to use their knowledge, without the need to figure out the mana core′s origin.
However, looking around, Jason could only smile dryly as he saw many students not knowing what they really did, while some were focused on their task.
It was roughly the same as on the blacksmith exam, as some knew what they were doing, while others only tried out some things that seemed right, but on a completely wrong level, as they ignited the flames too high, used a wrong mixing ratio for the inscription mixture or if the first few steps were done correctly, they messed up with the inscription due to their lack of ability to sense the mana within the inscription solution.
This last step was important as one could adjust the mana stream slightly to combine the inscribed runes with each other in order to create a usable rune. One could say, adjusting the mana flow within the inscription mixture was necessary and without it could only be described as lucky if the rune worked the way one wanted it to do.
Jason smiled hearing small puffs from all around him and smoke clouds rising where the puffs were heard.
It seemed that the tasks were the same for every artisan exam. `Produce something that works` or something like that and Jason had to inscribe whatever rune he wanted on anything he liked.
Taking out the dagger he previously forged, Jason decided to inscribe a rune on it.
Pondering for a moment, Jason decided to go with the most common inscription mixture without adding anything special into it to increase the amplification or duration time after mana was injected.
`Simple is best!` was Jason′s thought for the three exams as he forged, brewed, and inscribed for the first time in his life.
Weighing the ingredients, he placed the rest on the site, before he looked at the burner and the reagents.
Taking the testing tubes, he disregarded the burner as he wanted to try something for himself.
The burner in front of him could hardly maintain a stable temperature and would fluctuate slightly once in a while, which was not something any lifestyle-occupation wanted to work with.
As such he opened his hand with a black flame appearing within.
Seeing that, the runemaster's eyes widened and he wondered how such a young youth found a mutated fire affinity, causing him to feel jealous, as mutated fire affinities were stronger than normal ones with some of them having special abilities.
Jason attracted the runemaster′s attention, but even after noticing that, Jason ignored it and worked hard on his task.
Thanks to the examiner providing him with the name of the beast-race the incomplete mana cores were from, he regulated his flame to the required temperature with tiny fluctuation as he took the incomplete mana core inside his hand while holding the black origin flame below.
Holding both above the test tube, Jason worked rather crude right now, but the result was the only thing that mattered.
Seeing what Jason did, the runemaster frowned and he wanted to lecture this student about aesthetics and the pride of runemasters when he saw that the incomplete unblemished mana core was already melting.
It was faster than he expected and he initially thought the black-haired youth was only here to play Jokester but apparently, he seemed to briefly understand what to do.
The incomplete mana core liquid poured into the test tube and once a certain amount was inside, Jason laid the core aside, before washing his hand that held the core.
It was a little bit hot, but he was immune to his own flame and wouldn′t be burned through it.
The black origin flame was still within his other hand, burning with a slightly lower temperature when he placed the test tube on top of the tripod which had a small hole within, perfectly able to hold it.
Pouring a little bit normal water within the test tube in addition to some Luo-sand inside, Jason heated the test tube up before swirling around the sand within the water.
Gleaming faintly, Jason knew the mana particle within the sand reacted with the water and Jason added three small pieces of lowest grade-1 herbs into the test tube while heating up his flame.
Luo-sand was mostly used to combine the magical effect of certain ingredients together, as long as they were less reactive.
With that, many simple potions and inscription solutions could be made and Jason used it because of that.
Controlling the flame′s heat, Jason carefully inspected the reaction that happened, coloring the water slightly green.
Leading the mana properties slightly, they reacted with each other and the water turned slightly more viscous with a faint aroma spreading out of the test tube.
Extinguishing the flame, Jason sieved out the sand and drained the herbs in order to receive his thick herb solution in addition to his liquefied incomplete mana core in a different test tube.
Right now, Jason was already at the last two steps and he ignited two flames in his hands to place them below the two tripods the test tubes stood within respectively.
Controlling the head at the same temperature, Jason sweated heavily as he had never summoned multiple flames at the same time, neither had he controlled them like that.
Once the content within the test tubes reached a certain temperature, Jason placed a flask in front of him, before he poured the content of both the molten incomplete core and the herb solution within it, creating a small puff as reaction.
'That's unfortunate!' The runemaster sighed deeply in regret, as he thought he had witnessed something special but the smoke that rose in front of the black-haired youth indicated a failure.
`WAIT?!` His eyes widened as he saw that it was not black or grey smoke, rather than that it seemed to be more with ish with impurities inside and it seemed as if an illusion emerged in front of him.
`How did he extract the impurities within the herbs?` He almost shouted but he could barely get a hang of himself, otherwise, his image would crumble to smithereens.
Looking at Jason with widened eyes, only Shane, Dalia, and Jason himself knew what was going on.
Jason's black origin flame was like every origin flame only special in its rank.
As such like every origin flame, it had the ability to cleanse not only the body but also herbs and ores from their impurities, which one could see right now.
The mixture of the molten incomplete mana core and the herb solution mixed together perfectly as the mana particles reacted with each other, creating a purple solution that shone in a faint hue and radiated a calming aroma.
One could think that Jason was brewing potions right now, but rather than that he was only mixing a solution for his inscriptions.
Right now, even Shane′s eyes were widened as he looked at Jason weirdly.
'How can he learn so much without anyone teaching him?...Can I beat him up?' He thought and this caused him to be slightly dejected as he wanted Jason only to learn everything theoretical to give his practical knowledge to him over time…
Looking at Jason, he took out a specially made ballpoint that was completely empty and not filled with anything.
`What should I do with such a prodigy?` Shane sighed as he looked at Jason with envy
The ballpoint′s size was more than 20 centimeters long which was unusual but filling carefully with the inscription solution he finished, Jason′s eyes cleaned
There was still a lot of his inscription solution left which he stored away within the perennial neoxid box.
Looking at his dagger, he pondered what kind of rune he should inscribe when a sudden thought appeared in his mind.
Smiling, Jason thought 'Why not?' before he started to inscribe familiar but also somewhat unfamiliar runes on the dagger′s surface.
While the runemaster looked at the runes with a confused expression, as if he had never seen these runes, Shane was about to give Jason a beating.
'Is this also thanks to his mana eyes?!' Shane lamented as he saw what rune Jason inscribed on his dagger.
The goblin runemaster′s runes mankind had yet to be fully researched!!