Chapter 374: Just like Artemis!
When Jason perceived the two dozen living beings within the petrification serpent's body, he began to wonder if the serpent ate some beasts alive.
However, after Jason saw that the fist-sized beasts' mana fluctuations were similar to the petrification serpent and that he couldn't perceive the most eggs' color that enveloped them, he couldn't help but feel shocked.
'They don't have a color, enveloping them, just like Artemis and the black origin flame!'
While the black origin flame didn't have any potential to start with, Jason was unable to tell what Artemis' potential was as the color enveloping her was something between every color and colorless.
It was as if there were some kinds of fluctuations around her, trying to tell him something, but that was it.
Seeing the same 'color' around the petrification serpent and some of her future offspring, Jason couldn't help but feel excited as he began to walk through the tunnel, ignoring Isga and Milan behind him.
Meanwhile, Suo was able to regain his composure and he had started to convince a few prodigies to approach the mana vein, even though it would be extremely dangerous.
Motivated by the benefits they could obtain, Suo and his group went inside a different tunnel as Jason picked
"Dumb Fool
" Suo just said, loud enough for everyone to hear.
However, Jason who heard Suo too didn't bother about the Jual clan's descendant, thinking that he was way too annoying and immature.
Instead, he inserted more mana into his eyes, thinking that it might be helpful to perceive more from the huge battlefield that occurred around the exposed mana vein.
The path he took might have been the wrong one to enter the cavern hall that led him towards the mana vein, but Jason could tell that this was the dumbest thing one could do right now.
At least if one was not suicidal!
As such, he took a tunnel that led him to the outer branches of the exposed mana vein were only a few, weak beasts tried to gain benefits.
Nevertheless, Jason couldn't even think about absorbing mana right now, because there were too many thoughts rummaging in his head.
'Why is the petrification serpent enveloped by the same mysterious color and why is the same color only around a few of its eggs? Is that some kind of rare occurrence? But then, what does the mysterious color mean? If what I assumed to be was not wrong it would mean having an unlimited potential...but...wait? Milan said that the Mythic Garden restricts one's mana core advancement to a certain extent. This was to prevent every living being inside the Mythic Garden to reach the Guardian rank or rather the state between Low and Mid Lique stage.'
Pondering about all kinds of things, Jason was unsure whether he should be happy or not to have figured out something so precious because his desire to bind the petrification serpent intensified.
'If and only if my assumption is correct with the color indicating a beast to have an unlimited potential, the petrification serpent should be the most suitable soulbond for me...that is if its curse is exactly like Isga has told me.'
Jason knew that there could always be some mistakes and exaggerated facts when one told someone else a story.
From what Jason understood was Isga never directly targeted by the petrification serpent's weakening curse. As such he could only tell what others said.
As such, Jason tried to figure out what exactly the petrification serpent's curse was which led him to turn Suo and his group into the first guinea pigs for his experiment.
From the mana fluctuations and the enlarged mana core size, Jason could easily tell whether Suo and the other members of his group would receive a soul weakening curse or an entire weakening once they were targeted by the petrification serpent.
Isga and Milan followed Jason, worried about his behavior as they saw him staring through the wall with a radiant smile on his face.
This caused Milan to look at Jason with a weird expression when Isga began to comprehend that Jason's easier words didn't hail from what Jason saw but from what his mana eyes perceived.
'He really does have mana eyes...Mana eyes, a great mana attitude, and a terrifyingly strong soul-awakening….Who...or what are you?'
Since he encountered Jason, Isga couldn't help but become more and more curious about the golden-eyed youth. It was already rare for Isga to be curious about someone, but Jason was completely out of the ordinary!
He not only made Isga curious but he was also drawn in by Jason's weird aura which caused him to rub his eyes as he saw his bright shining, golden eyes.
'He is still a human….right?' Isga began to wonder suddenly, without any reason to doubt that Jason was a human.
While Milan tried to make sense out of Jason's behavior, Isga began to wonder what Jason was exactly looking at.
It could have either been the mana vein, the beasts fighting nearby the mana vein, or seeing Suo run into his inevitable death.
Suddenly, Milan made a step forward as he wanted to approach Jason to figure out if there was something where his new friend was looking at when he kicked a small stone.
This distracted Jason lightly as he averted his gaze from the petrification serpent that was exactly like Artemis was.
He couldn't help but feel enlightened and happy, even though his mood plummet at the frustrating thought that he was unable to form a soulbond contract with the petrification serpent.
"How often do cursed magical ranked beasts lay eggs?
" Jason suddenly asked which caused Milan to halt in his tracks.
Looking at Jason in confusion, both Isga and Milan didn't know what they should say to that.
It took them a while before Isga was finally able to say something after he thought about a possible solution
"Probably once every few decades? Maybe only once every century? However, if you add the Mythic Garden's weird restriction into account, it might be even less than that!
'So it's extremely rare….But what about the Crimson-death Hell Spider then? Isn't that too much of a coincidence?' Jason began to wonder, only for Milan to add
"If you're talking about the Mythic Garden, there are certain periods in which most beasts bear offsprings….it should be...in like a dozen years or so? Maybe even longer than that...During that period, even more, prodigies want to enter the Mythic garden! Everyone wants to try catching the offspring of one of the most terrifying beasts...Just imagine...binding one of the strongest blessed beings inside the Mythic Garden...or in your case the petrification serpent!
"
Jason couldn't help but smile at this thought as he said
"Yeah...how lucky that would be, right?
"
After he received the answer he wanted, Jason turned back towards the direction where the mana vein and terrifying battlefield was as he stared at the petrification serpent.
'Even if you bear your offsprings, I won't be able to get one...right?' Jason thought, as he witnessed how the petrification serpent used both curses it harbored to not only weaken its opponents but also curse them with its petrification curse.
This curse paralyzed Lowest Lique stage beasts to a certain degree and turned beasts below the Lowest Lique stage into stone statues.
From what his mana eyes perceived, the petrification serpent's curse was not what he was searching for!
This disappointed Jason for a short moment, even if he was awestruck by its combat prowess until he recalled that Isga told him that the petrification serpent's weakening curse was like the Debilitation Centaur's curse, variating with the different races it cursed.
Suddenly, when he remembered that, Jason couldn't help but think
'Even if humans receive a soul amplification curse...what will happen to me? Am I counted as a human, a mutant, or a Celestia???'
This was something Jason didn't think about in the beginning because he forgot that he was a halfling and only a human to 50%.
He was only able to calm down when he saw Suo and his followers entering the cavern hall, where they almost immediately encountered the petrification serpent close to them.
Staring into each other's eyes, Suo's whole soul world amplification vanished, as the Petrification released its weakening curse before its gold-brownish eyes seemed to envelop Suo's entire being.
He was already at the Lowest Lique stage but he couldn't help but feel that his entire being was paralyzed.
When Jason saw this through the wall, his worries about the fact that he was not an entire human vanished as he mumbled
"It really has a soul world amplification curse...an extremely strong one at that…
"