Cheng wasn't sure what to think about Jason anymore, as the abilities he showcased couldn′t come from a normal 14-years-old youth that only began to learn any lifestyle occupation a few months ago.
At least that's what Antalia, his daughter told him when he asked her about Jason some time ago.
This was because Jason′s knowledge he used to answer the artisan exam question were from the books about the basic lifestyle occupations the Artisan tower provided.
Jason's answers were almost solely from these books without any additional knowledge.
As such, Cheng had to conclude that Jason′s knowledge was either only recently acquired or he intentionally tricked his daughter during the exam, which was more likely.
`How long is he already learning the path of a blacksmith? And he is even an upcoming runemaster…. This youth is a Monster!!` Cheng looked at Jason slightly frightened, yet more jealous, as the capabilities of the youth in front of him were so much higher than his own, which was too shocking.
However, Jason didn't stop after the quasi-mana grade-1 dagger was finished, but rather than that, he took out another batch of jade iron ore, as he ignited his black origin flame once again.
Forging another dagger, that was slightly curved and only 28 centimeters long for his sub-hand, he inscribed the same runes into it as he did with the first one.
Holding up the finished product, Jason was perfectly satisfied with his result, even though his ambition told him to try forging a real mana weapon.
However, to do so, Jason would have to mix certain ores with the perfectly purified Jade-iron and he wasn′t proficient in mixing an alloy while maintaining a high mana conductivity.
The mana conductivity of real mana weapons had to be multiple times higher than the current daggers he crafted.
However, even if that was the case, his quasi mana daggers were already able to pierce through evolved staged beast hide, which was more than enough for the moment.
Maybe he could even inflict an injury through an unblemished beast hide as long as he injected enough mana, but it was unlikely.
Having finished his hidden task, Jason wanted to go home, as he noticed Cheng looking at him almost lifelessly.
Smiling lightly, Jason could only apologize for having wasted the artisan-tower president's time, as he walked out of the forging room, after reminding Cheng about the soul contract once again.
Cheng couldn′t even hear Jason, who already left the forging room silently, as he was lost in thoughts, thinking about this youngster's capabilities.
Regaining his senses after a long time, he only began to notice that there was nobody left with him, which left him a little bit disappointed, as he wanted to ask Jason way too many questions, which left him curious.
Jason already sat within the shuttle practicing the Heaven's Hell technique on his way to the Fler′s house.
His soul energy felt energized and vigorous, which caused Jason to smile lightly, as he stepped out of the shuttle to enter the Fler′s house quietly because it was already past midnight.
Everyone was either sleeping or absorbing mana and Jason didn't want to bother anyone.
As such, he went to his room with Artemis, who was squeezed on his shoulder.
Jason wasn't even aware of Artemis' existence for the whole period since he arrived within the Artisan tower until he entered the shuttle and he had to listen to her complaining screeches for several dozen minutes until she finally calmed down.
Washing up and changing his clothes, Jason slept soundly until he was woken up by Artemis quarreling about food the next morning.
Jason already provided her unblemished and magical ranked mana cores which she digested extremely fast.
This was rather bad news for his finances, as Jason wasn't exactly sure how long he could hold out with the funds he received from the cloud titanium anvil he sold to Cheng.
Most of the mana stones were already used up for Scorpio and the star notes were about to diminish slowly with his expenditures thanks to Artemis, even if it was barely noticeable.
But even so, Jason shouldn't have to worry about that too much, as he could sell perfectly purified ingots of all kinds of ores for multiple times the purchase price if he really were to go bankrupt.
It was Monday morning and he practiced his Heaven′s Hell technique once again within the shuttle, as he arrived in front of the school gate.
Even though Jason wasn't sure if Dalia was fine or not, he wanted to look for her as he felt somewhat guilty because of what happened the day before.
Arriving in front of the blue shining lake, Jason activated the covered rune, only to see the spatial portal appear at the same position as a day before.
Artemis on his shoulder screeched out as he stepped through the portal into Shane and Dalia′s hideout.
Seeing Shane in front of him with Dalia next to him, supported through Shane′s shoulder, Jason was immediately worried.
Running towards them, he even forgot to greet them, as he blurred out
"Master, how are you? Is everything okay? I′m so sorry about what happened...If I knew Scorpio would evolve during the mana core cleansing and cause such a chaotic and dangerous situation, I would have never asked you to help me out.."
Jason sounded worried and continued to question her about her health, which caused her to smile weakly as she ruffled his hair.
"Why are you so weak-willed? I offered my help and it's not your fault. Rather than seeing it as something bad, shouldn't we try to figure out what exactly happened? Isn't it interesting that Scorpio began evolving without any materials which could help to initiate an evolution except the thick, condensed mana?
Let′s both just take it as a lesson to prepare better for the next mana core cleansing.
However, before that happens, Shane told me that Scorpio underwent an incomplete evolution!
We have to evolve Scorpio in order to prevent possbile permanent injuries with the unknown possibility of a second evolution that could happen during the second cleansing.
Scorpio has to finish his first evolution, which should be our first task for the next few days."
Trying to stand firmly, she wavered for a moment, causing Shane to continue supporting Dalia as she continued
"I heard you transferred the pain Scorpio had to endure to yourself, which saved its life. This was brave but also stupid. Please protect your own life before anyone else…. But Shane also told me you formed a fortified soul conjunction with your second soulbond because of that, which is an extremely rare opportunity.
This can be considered a blessing in disguise, don't you think so? " Dalia asked, but she didn't even wait for Jason's answer as she said
"Can you please summon Scorpio? I want to figure out which evolution path he took or if it's a new one?"
Dalia′s voice sounded extremely curious and impatient, which wondered Jason slightly, while Shane sighed deeply.
She was extremely excited, even though she felt weak, as Scorpio could have evolved into an unknown race as Artemis did.
Seeing Artemis once again, her eyes glowed too, but unfortunately, she wouldn't let Dalia come too close to her in order to test her throughout.
It seemed as if Dalia could be compared to a sponge, as long as it had something to do with beasts, their habits, way of living, evolution paths, mutations, ingredients that could help beasts to evolve, their potential and so much more.
Each theme was more interesting than another and Dalia′s knowledge about beasts was much higher than anything else, caused by her thirst to know everything about beasts.
Neither Jason nor Shane knew where this thirst came from and both asked themselves if the true meaning of a beast creator was this incomprehensible thirst to understand more every cell within beasts.