Looking at the beings, whose appearance resembled that of humans, Jason was confused.
Their entire body was composed of energy that was comparable to Spyro's, yet also different.
As such, Jason had no idea what exactly the beings were, and without his Emperor Eyes he would probably have been tricked into believing that the beings were humans.
Because of that, he remained vigilant and didn't approach them first.
In the end, he had yet to receive the mission for the 2nd trial, which was something that should have already happened.
Just at that moment, the robotic voice resounded in his mind.
[Teleportation towards the 2nd Trial has been completed. Protect the Villages!]
Other than these simple words, Jason didn't receive any further information, and he couldn't help but feel like complaining.
There was not even a specific time he had to protect the village.
Instead, the given task was just to protect it, nothing else.
This was frustrating because he would rather have a countdown, and specific requirements he had to meet, instead of not knowing anything.
Jason didn't even know the necessary threshold to pass the trial, what would be counted as a failure to protect the village, or how he could increase his score.
Having received nothing except the task, Jason first decided to observe the surroundings in order to figure out the possible dangers or problems the village could be facing in the future.
Based on the surrounding energy waves, he sensed that mana was the scarcest among the three cultivation energies, which was contrary to how it had been in the first trial.
Jason was not sure if that was connected to each other, but he simply assumed that this was not the case.
His opinion about this may change according to the information he procured, but for now, Jason decided to separate the trials from each other.
After taking a look at the village, and perceiving the scarce mana around him, it was not difficult to tell that there was already a problem.
The beings were composed of mana, and mana was what the entire surrounding area lacked the most.
As such, they were either about to starve, or using their last mana reserves to maintain their lifeform.
This clearly showed Jason the first problem he had to solve- mana scarcity.
Fortunately, the village was small, and the amount of mana required to maintain the lifeforms seemed to be extremely small, but that was not exactly helpful.
Jason assumed that he could shift the village to someplace else, but in order to do this, the mana wisps, which he simply called them, would think of him as someone who wants to harm and exploit them.
Even if that was not the case, they would be suspicious of him, and gaining their trust was an important factor he had to pay attention to.
While maintaining a far enough distance to the village, he began to investigate the surrounding environment.
There was not much for him to see except the flourishing nature that inhabited all kinds of beasts at the Prismar stage.
But Jason was not worried about them, and the only slightly dangerous beasts would be those that had already fully manifested the dome crystal.
Even with his extremely high strength, Jason knew that the Peak Prismar stage was too high for him.
At least, if he didn't want to endanger his life, and use the entire Chaos attribute while breaking multiple more seals.
That was not something he should be doing right now because his body was already having a hard time adjusting to his rapid progress, only to add his soulbonds' rapid cultivation speed and their shared strength.
Because of that, Jason had even thought of using the race specific weakening curse on himself again, lowering the amplification his soul world transferred to him from his soulbonds' strength.
However, not knowing what kind of dangers he would have to face in the future, Jason couldn't simply do that, at least not in the dungeon!
In the end, a detailed inspection of the surrounding area allowed him to see and sense his surroundings properly.
Mana was consistently scarce all around while some areas even had a higher concentration of the other energies.
However, weirdly enough, Jason began to think that the existing mana should be enough for the mana wisps as long as they were the only existences cultivated in the path of Maest.
Luckily, there was no other beast that cultivated with mana.
At least, he was unable to see any since he had emerged in the second trial.
This made Jason doubt that the mana wisps were having issues with mana scarcity, which was something that seemed to be the case nonetheless.
Squinting his eyes, he felt a little overwhelmed by the thought of not knowing what the issue with mana scarcity truly was.
There were not even plants that required mana to grow, or thrive, so the demand and supply of mana should be balanced, at the bare minimum.
While the surroundings were flourishing, he also spotted a large river not far from the village's location.
Approaching it to wash his face, Jason noticed that he was covered in dirt. It was only at that moment when he noticed how smelly he was.
His lips twitched in disgust at the sight of himself and even the length of his hair astonished him.
He realised that two years had truly passed and that it was not just an illusion. He quickly looked around the river before he took off his clothes and stored them inside his spatial ring.
Jumping into the ice-cold water, Jason felt refreshed, yet he didn't allow himself to be completely distracted.
His Emperor Eyes were not perfect, and it was possible for them to not perceive specific things.
Thus, he first looked underwater to check if there was any kind of beast he just hadn't seen beforehand.
Fortunately, that was not the case, and he could take a bath without an issue.
Afterward, he left the riverside before drying himself as Solaris' flame enveloped his entire body for a short moment.
Jason knew that he could have cleaned himself by simply burning all the dirt on his body. It might even clean his body to a much higher extent than bathing because Solaris burned impurities too.
That was also how he had survived without a shower or bath for the last two years.
Nevertheless, bathing with cold water was refreshing and something Jason had missed a lot.
Afterward, he had to take care of his hair that had almost reached his shoulders.
He had cut them just once during the last two years but forgotten about them later.
Instead, he had used Solaris and a small piece of metal, to make a hairpin while conquering one of the lower floors.
The hairpin looked exquisite, and was sharp enough to be used as a weapon to kill, which was another reason for Jason to make it, hiding it in his hair as a secret weapon!
Yet, just as he was putting on a fresh set of clothes, goosebumps sprang over his body, and Byakur manifested in his hand.
"Who are you, and what are you doing in our territory?!"
Jason didn't even get time to put on his clothes properly as he heard the voice of a young man. Armed with Byakur in his hand, he turned around in the direction of the voice, ready to attack any moment.
There, he saw humans, or to be precise mana wisps, which caused him to smile dryly as he ignored their question for a short moment in order to put on his clothes.
Seemingly nonchalant, he combed his hair into a bun, which was the only thing he was able to do without a sense of fashion, except cutting them off.
The mana wisps saw what he did and couldn't help but feel odd that he was not intimidated by their large number.
Yet, what they didn't know was that Jason was fully aware of their cultivation base, and the fact that their numerical and cultivation advantage was insignificant in front of him!
"Hello there, I'm adventurer Jason Stella, who do I have the pleasure of talking to?"
Jason knew that he was being over the top right now, but his bright smile and Celestia aura that radiated kindness had never been an issue creating an amiable connection with other races.
That was under the assumption that they weren't hostile towards him from the beginning, which didn't seem to be the case..or so he hoped!
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