Greedily devouring the vacant soul energy units inside his soul world, the black origin flame flickered vibrant, as it began to grow in size.
From the small, thin fingertip-sized flame in his soul world, it reached the size of Jason's fist, which caused him to smile weirdly, as it was nothing compared to the flame's size if he supplied it with his whole mana.
However, once the black origin flame annexed his soul energy, it immediately left the soul world on its own as if it wanted to demonstrate to Jason that it would work hard in order to receive more benefits from him.
Wanting to continue, he suddenly noticed that his soul energy neither increased nor that his mana core size nor his physique were amplified in any way.
But being reminded about what Dalia told him, an origin flame was different from other soulbonds because it wouldn't amplify the host's strength in a normal, more common way.
Rather than that, origin flames were known for their baptism, which would increase the physique, enlarge the mana core, while cleansing the body from impurities at the same time.
In the end, such a baptism was worth much more than a simple soulbond, that would amplify one's strength and mana core size once bound.
The only slight downside was, that Jason didn't know when his black origin flame would evolve into a Tier-1 origin flame, after annexing an unknown amount of soul energy units.
It was only fortunate that he received some sort of discount to evolve his origin flame if what Dalia said was true because the required soul energy to initiate an evolution would decrease according to the amplification the host's soul world core provided.
At least that was how it worked for Dalia, even if Jason was unsure how she calculated it.
Deciding to trust Dalia's words, he thought that even if it was wrong, it wouldn't really hurt him, because it was unknown how much soul energy units his black origin flame required to evolve either way.
With his soul world core amplification of ?, Jason could be satisfied either way and there was nothing to complain, as the enlarged black origin flame occupied every single cell in his body, before it churned up, transmitting the thought of determination and ambition towards him.
'It really is a sentient flame...huh?' He began to wonder, and even more so, because Jason never felt so many emotions transmitted from his black origin flame, that was quiet almost all the time.
Exerting the Netherworld's fort technique, his body was overwhelmed by both nutrition and mana once again, forcefully trying to destroy, renew and recuperate his cells, which was extremely painful in the beginning.
However, confusing enough, with his black origin flame increasing its temperature, Jason felt a soothing warmth surging through his body, and the pain was replaced by a peaceful and relaxing feeling, he never felt before.
It was definitely not normal that he didn't feel any pain because his body was being destroyed and repaired all over again, which should hurt in his opinion, but nothing like that was the case.
Instinctively, Jason thought that something was wrong, but he couldn't stop, as he received a reassuring signal transmitted from his origin flame, telling him that he should worry less.
Apparently, it was his black origin flame that prevented him from feeling pain, by soothing the whole body refining process, instead of intensifying the pain, like it was described in the manual.
This ability was apparently something the black origin flame had and Jason was unsure if it was the same ability as the one he got to know within the four-star rift, where his black origin flame helped him out in order to reform the transmuted mana into neutral mana, without any issues.
Either way, it was definitely beneficial and he would never complain about something advantageous, as he opened his eyes, once the supplied nutrition and mana were completely used up.
Standing up within the basin, he tried to feel the changes within his body, only to notice that his physique seemed to be more refined.
If he were to compare his previous physique to the slight changes he underwent, Jason would most likely think of it, as if his prior body was a raw ore, that was slowly heated up, in order to extract the impurities and slug in order to temper and refine it, slowly creating a tougher, more endurable and powerful weapon.
Right now, he was barely in the Initial phase, but he doubted that he could leave this phase before he entered the Lique-state or also called Magus stage for humans, by compressing and liquefying his mana.
Jason was still unsure how to call the stages in his mind, but right now he was in humanity's territory that couldn't understand the revamped cultivation ranks, causing him to utilize the old names, at least for now.
In order to enter the first body refining stage of the Netherworld's fort technique, he would have to build the foundation which was the initial phase, he already started to establish in his body.
However, the manual said that one would have to strengthen the mana core which builds a flawed physique.
This flawed or also 'raw' physique could be refined by a body refining technique.
This told Jason that he had to continue increasing his mana core rank to be barely eligible to refine his physique, even if he was unsure how exactly it would work with the amplified physical strength humans received from their soulbonds.
It was interesting and his curiosity ignited because he wanted to know if he could enter the first body refining stage even before entering the master rank if his soulbonds amplified his physique by such a high degree, which was a possible theory.
Nevertheless, this was something for the future, and rather than thinking too far ahead, Jason decided to think about the present issues.
There were two issues or rather main tasks he had to take care of.
First, he wanted to increase his physique further, while experimenting if it was possible for him to continue practicing the Netherworld's fort without obstructing his other affinities, which still seemed to work perfectly fine.
At least that was the case for now.
Building a strong physique by refining his body would cost a fortune, which he noticed after his first body refining attempt, and he could only frown at this thought.
Fortunately, he still had some funds left, and in the worst-case scenario, he would have to use his lifestyle occupations in order to solve his problem, which was something he wanted to do either way as it led to his second issue.
The second issue was relatively simple, yet complicated because he had to learn how to concoct a bloodline unsealing potion in a month or at most two, without having any prior experience with doing something like this.
It was unfortunate, but he wouldn't be able to accumulate much practical experience about the concocting process for Beast-Creator evolution solutions, due to the high costs of the ingredients.
In the end, the only advantageous fact was that Dalia gave him her personal diary about her experiments and experience in concocting, which she accumulated over two centuries.
Furthermore, she told him that concocting a bloodline unsealing potion was one of the easiest evolution solutions to produce, which was the reason for him to remain calm.
Additionally, Dalia explained that practicing concocting the most difficult grade-1 potions should have roughly the same difficulty.
As such, his goal was to learn to concoct several of the most difficult grade-1 potions perfectly, within a month!
Thinking about his financial problem, Jason was sure that concocting the most difficult grade-1 potions, perfectly without a single trace of impurities left would bring him a fortune, at least he hoped so.
Thanks to the trip to the Goblin settlement and him selling the cloud titanium anvil, Jason already possessed the required ingredients for almost all grade-1 potions, inscribing solutions, and ores to forge weapons, while he also received a large number of grade-2 ingredients which were completely disregarded by him, seen as unimportant for his current circumstances.
Pondering for a moment, where he might receive a discount for a large bulk of mana stones and medical solutions, he immediately disregarded Old Drake as an option, while Till might be suspicious about him, which was also not what he wanted.
Jason was still not sure how to handle TIll, who seemed to hate all foreign races to the core, which was noticeable due to him releasing a faint killing intent with dense wrath intertwined when he talked about foreign races.
Without wanting to risk anything, he suddenly remembered someone who could help him, as he called the Artisan tower president Cheng!
While talking, Cheng seemed to be confused, but in exchange for star notes and also elemental crystals which he revealed, the Rank-6 Blacksmith couldn't help but feel overjoyed, accepting the deal of supplying the youth with all grades of mana stones and medical solutions, in order to receive a fixed ratio of elemental crystals and star notes, that seemed to be less worthy in the artisan's opinion.
Smiling lightly, Jason was glad to have accepted the Artisan tower president's contact details, after he forged with him last time, as it decreased many burdens.
'Now I'll only have to set up my alchemy room, huh?' He thought, wondering how he should explain everything to the Fler's
However, weirdly enough, his request was accepted without him being asked anything.
To the Fler's it seemed that it was the most obvious thing to do, because he had been accepted as a disciple from a Beast-Creator.
Both Beast-Creator's and Alchemist's had to concoct potions, while Alchemy was more focused on quantity, cheaper yet more efficient potions that everyone could purchase and use, Beast Creators focused on quality, complex and expensive potions with prices ranging from several hundred star-notes to millions that would be used for the sole purpose of forcing soulbonds to evolve into higher beings.
Another difference was that Beast Creators were still rarely seen and not many were able to take on this occupation because a single mistake might lead to death, while researches about possible evolution paths and required ingredients could take several decades.
In the end, Beast-Creators were seen as some godlike figures from some humans, because they could change the fate of beasts by evolving them, changing them completely.
Meanwhile, Alchemists were also in high regards, but there were many more of them, at least for the first few ranks, because the required mana sensitivity, accuracy, and control were much lower than a Beast-Creator's, who would have to clash against dangerous transmuted mana particles and almost sentient plants in some cases in order to refine them to concoct an evolution solution.
As such, it was only rational for the Fler's to think that Jason would have to practice concocting cheaper potions first before he would start improving until his master allowed him to create evolution solutions.