One could see a young man swinging a large, heavy-looking hammer with swift and mighty strikes on a heated up jade-colored ingot that had silver stars shining within it.
Next to the jadetite ingot, a large black flame flickered vigorously, releasing a calming aura, while the young man with golden eyes smiled at the ingot in front of him with a proud expression on his face.
'Finally!' Jason thought as he took a deep breath before he continued with his forging process in order to forge his first perfectly refined mana grade-1 weapon without anyone's help.
Three months passed since he left Astrix to escape from the Drake family, and there were many shocking and horrifying news Jason and his masters heard.
Knowing that Astrix underwent a substantial change, Jason felt uncomfortable during the first month after he left with Shane because he didn't know what happened to Greg and the Fler's.
However, after figuring out that almost all youths with potential were 'invited' to become a part of the Drake clan, he was fully aware what should have happened to Greg, if he didn't decide to choose death over a soul contract.
This caused Jason's wrath towards the Drake family patriarch to increase and he could only hope that the whole Fler family was still alive.
When he got to know this, Jason's concentration and focus on absorbing mana was disrupted and his masters had to help him to get back on the right path as he was slowly drifting away.
Telling him that he could only rescue his friend if he were to become much stronger, Jason's worsening concentration became firmer once again and instead of solely focusing on finding his mother's murderer who most likely hailed from the Blood sect, he might be able Greg and the Fler's alive if he were to become much stronger.
With this thought, Jason's mana absorption heightened because he had a set goal he could follow now and no time to waste.
Now, after three months of hard work, he was finally able to forge his first perfectly purified mana grade-1 weapon which was extremely good in order to build a solid foundation which would also help him to create a good financial basis because mana grade-1 weapons and armors were worth much more than even good grade-2 equipment.
With the perfect basic lifestyle occupation foundation Jason slowly established over the last three months, he was able to perfectly concoct all kinds of grade-1 potions which included potions that had a similar difficulty to the bloodline unsealing solution he concocted for Greg's soulbond.
Furthermore, he was finally able to use several different inscribing solutions which were extremely beneficial in order to build a perfect weapon.
They were still incomparable to his Viridi-Starstream daggers, but time and experience would allow him to create even better weapons than his master.
Jason was confident to achieve this!
Their current location was somewhat dangerous, yet his masters told him that one of the most unlikely places to stay was probably the safest for them to be.
As such, they entered the Lion den as his masters bought a small plot inside a B-Grade city on Terebrean, which was another small Island.
Terebrean was governed by the Jual family and their clan was also one of the big clans that reigned over mankind.
However, it was ridiculous in Jason's opinion that the Jual clan had ties with the Drake family, even after knowing what happened because the Jual clan called themselves righteous and undiscriminating.
This might be true in some cases but only if one possessed talent which was the most important aspect to receive justice and proper treatment from the Jual clan.
They divided their society into untalented people who could at most do labor, work as low salary workers or somewhere else where it was difficult to reach greater wealth, semi-talented people that received better treatment, talented people who were treated like nobles even if they hailed from the poorest possible districts and real prodigies, which was the cream of the crop.
These 'real prodigies' received excellent treatment and were seen as blessed children.
They also received a large number of resources and had everything they needed.
Through this treatment, the talented and prodigious youths were passively tied to the Jual clan, and if they wanted to receive even more benefits they had to enter their clan, which required a soul contract that was not as harsh as the one from the Drake clan.
It would still be extremely difficult to betray the Jual clan which was exactly what the soul contract was important for.
As such, they were discriminating and definitely not righteous.
Nevertheless, Jason was glad that the clan's territory they entered didn't force others to sign harsh soul contracts and it was somewhat reassuring.
However, it was undeniable that they still had some ties with the Drake family which was not great to know.
After Jason arrived at Shane and Dalia's plot with a small house standing firmly on top of it which they purchased, he was astonished that the two didn't bother to hide their appearance when his two masters showed him something special he would have never expected.
Dalia enveloped herself and Shane in her silver origin flame and Jason immediately noticed that something changed about her flame's appearance as it was much more vigorous than before in addition to small stars glimmering within it.
Furthermore, its color intensified and Jason could tell from the enveloping color that her silver origin flame evolved from a Tier-2 flame to a Tier-3 origin flame.
After Dalia retraced her silver-colored origin flame again, Jason was so shocked to see his master's that he almost fell on his butt while retreating.
Their whole facial structure changed and they looked completely different compared to before.
After his masters dyed their hair, even he couldn't say for sure that his masters were in front of him as long as he didn't look at their familiar mana fluctuations.
With this newly acquired ability Dalia's, which allowed her to change the face structure by adjusting their facial features, everything changed and they didn't have to hide anymore.
Jason didn't want to change his facial feature because it wouldn't be really helpful due to several reasons.
From influential families and clans, only Till, Seron, Max, and the Drake family patriarch knew him, while he was not even sure about the latter because he didn't seem to have bothered about Jason's existence that much.
Other than the two youths and Till nobody knew what he looked like and more than that, his most impactful feature were his golden eyes which he couldn't hide even by using contact lenses.
He already tried out multiple different contact lenses but his golden eyes always shone through which was frustrating and interesting to figure out.
However, this was less of a problem because Terebrean was an Island known for their unique eye colors which lessened his eyes' impact.
This was another reason for his masters to decide that they would live on this Island for the time being until Jason was strong enough to enter the real battlefield which was Canir.
If he were to make trouble on Canir now, it would almost be comparable to a death sentence and it was better to be careful than dead.
Without being distracted by school, the Big-Three tournament or anyone like Old Drake bothering him, Jason had much more time to become stronger over the last three month in which he did not only establish a great basic lifestyle occupation foundation.
Many things changed and not only to him but also his soulbonds!