n

n

nSeeing that Jennifer approached him, Jason turned towards her but he would have never thought that she would barely stop coming closer when their faces were only around 20 centimeters apart from each other.

nBlushing slightly, Jason´s eyes were distracted by the tight combat suit she wore, clearly showing her voluptuous chest.

n'What is wrong with me?!' He thought as he shook his head before clearing his throat in order to stall more time to make up a decent lie.

n

"When I had my soul-awakening, my soul energy was already pure and tough, the more time passed, the purer and endurable it became. I think my soul world core is the reason for this

"

nEven though his lie was not the best he could make up, Jason was still distracted by Jennifer, who looked curiously at him without even thinking to distance herself again.

nTaking a deep breath, Jason noticed Malia next to him glaring at him as if she wanted to murder him any moment.

n

"What?

" he mumbled but Malia only answered him with a

"Hmpff!

" before she turned around.

n'???' He couldn´t understand Malia at all when he heard Jennifer cracking up before she stood to walk back to her brother.

n?!?! Sighing deeply, Jason decided to absorb mana for the rest of the day until it was their group's turn for the night duty.

nHe didn't really like to absorb mana actively because he could do many other things in the meantime but with the surrounding dense mana, Jason couldn´t waste such an opportunity.

n

nSitting down in his tent, he instinctively felt the mana around him before he began to slowly absorb it.

nWith time passing, he increased his absorption speed in order to figure out his current limits with Artemis absorbing the magical ranked mana core while sleeping on his lap.

n**

nJason was unsure how much time passed, but he felt much more vigorous than before, as he noticed that he was already halfway through the 3rd Adept rank, which astonished him.

n'One week?' He guessed when he noticed Theo approaching his tent after he barely finished his Heaven´s Hell technique practice.

nSensing that Jason was already awake, Theo mumbled

"It's your turn

" before he went to Malia´s tent to tell her the same.

nWalking out of the tent, he woke up Artemis, who squeezed herself on his shoulder before rubbing her head at his.

nAfterward, she soared into the sky when he left the tent.

nIt was Saturday, early in the morning with 19 planned days left for their expedition and today was the first day, they would truly begin.

n

nTaking out a huge number of dishes, Jason sat down on a tree trunk, not far away from the tent, as he began to eat.

nNot long after, Malia sat down next to him, while maintaining a certain distance, as she greeted him hesitantly.

nShe was unsure what to say and let it be in order to say nothing wrong, which could have made their relationship even worse.

nEven though Malia told herself that she didn't want to have any romantic feeling for Jason, it was not that easy, because he was good-looking, hard-working, and determined to become stronger while his golden eyes bewitched her additionally.

nBut she knew by looking at Jason, that he regarded her as a good friend or even family, definitely not as love-interest, which hurt her more than she thought and even more when she noticed his behavior when Jennifer approached him.

n

"So annoying…

" She mumbled subconsciously, causing Jason to look at her with a confused expression, causing her to return his gaze slightly taken aback.

n

"Ahh, nothing... I was just thinking about something annoying... Don´t mind me. Let's just do our night duty and wake up the others in a few hours. We have a lot to do in the next few days!

" She hurriedly said, without taking a single breath between her sentences.

nThis led to Jason smiling lightly because he hadn't seen Malia so flabbergasted for some time as he answered with a simple

"Ok

".

nAfter this, Malia began to passively absorb mana while staying vigilant and Jason finished his large breakfast feast before he also actively utilized the passive mana absorption technique.

n

nWith this, his sub-area passive mana absorption efficiency increased and he couldn't help but praise his own mana absorption speed.

nWith his mana eyes still activated, there was almost no way for normal beasts to approach them, as long as they weren't able to completely conceal their mana fluctuations and it was extremely helpful to observe their surroundings, while at the same time utilizing the passive mana absorption technique.

nWith time slowly passing, the first sunray lightened up the valley, as Jason and Malia decided to wake up everyone before they dismantled their tents.

nAfter everyone at breakfast and washed up, the others went back into their tent, while Jason and Malia were already finished with everything.

nWaring their armors and the weapons attached at their proper place, Jason stared at Malia´s wand in order to figure out its composition.

nHe knew that manufacturing wands wasn't done by any basic lifestyle occupation but the requirements for a Wand-maker were all three basic lifestyle occupations at once, even though the proficiency didn't have to be extremely high.

nIn the end, three individuals with each proficient in one field also called forging, concocting, and inscribing would work together to manufacture wands.

nThe only issue was that everything had to be in perfect harmony which was slightly difficult with three different individuals working together.

nEven so, it was still possible and most likely easier than finding a Wand-maker proficient in all three basic occupations.

n

n'Once I know how they're manufactured, I can make them myself... But how long will it take before Shane or Dalia will show me the more advanced occupations?!' Jason wondered when he saw that everyone was already ready to go.

nLeading everyone through the outskirts, their distance to the highland plateau increased further, while Jason perceived larger beast groups and even a few magical ranked beasts than before.

nIt was already afternoon almost evening when Jason noticed something particular that attracted his attention.

nHalting his steps, the others looked at him in confusion as they perceived his mouth curling slightly up.

n

"What's wrong?

" Malia asked, to which Jason answered.

"If I´m not wrong, there is a high-quality plant in front of us which is about to ripen

" but only a moment later, his prior bright expression darkened as he quietly voiced out.

n

"There are two low-Magical ranked beasts lurking around the plant...But if I´m not wrong, they barely entered the magical rank with one or two mana drops at most…

"

nSaying so, everyone's expression darkened similar to Jason´s as they hoped to receive their first treasure to earn more credits.

nOver the last few hours, their small group encountered a bunch of beasts with all kinds of elemental affinities, while physical, non-elemental beast seemed to become a rare sight the further they ventured.

nHowever, the number of treasures Jason perceived was in the single-digit range and they were always protected by a bunch of magical ranked beasts.

n

nSuddenly Lux from behind suggested

n

"You said they barely entered the magical rank, right? Should we give it a try? If we work together we can do it by killing one through an assassination

"

nJennifer´s and Lin´s expression brightened up, while Jason´s dark expression turned odd.

n'Are they really that desperate for credits? We are talking about magical ranked beasts?!'

n