by William Hill
There were always a few students disregarding him as an examiner and sometimes a few students would fight each other over minuscule things.
Jason got into the Azure feisty Ape standard position with a smooth movement and began to start his understanding of the first sequence he learned.
He moved around the small amount of mana inside his body following the mana channels close to his veins, enveloping his hands with a fractional film of mana without wasting a second.
This alone was an astonishing feat because a certain accuracy and control over mana were needed to lead the mana to a certain body part and envelope it like a second skin.
Jason meanwhile had to take care of his distribution of mana because the amount of mana he had at the moment was marginal.
If his mana pool was larger, Jason was confident that he wouldn't need to form a paper-thin skin-like membrane to cover his fists which took a decent amount of his focus.
Moving around smoothly with his enveloped fists, following the moves described in the Azure feisty Ape description, Jason began to sweat slowly.
The whole area around Jason was deadly silent except for the sound of his own movements as everyone was astonished by the exquisite sequence of movements Jason demonstrated.
Even if Jason had never seen the sequence of the Azure feisty Ape technique, the first sequence was branded in his mind as he had watched it countless times over the last week.
Almost nobody could understand how Jason was able to do it without seeing anything because it was illogical to know how to move if one didn't see whether the sequence was wrongly applied or not.
One move after another was perfectly executed without any mistakes and the whole show which looked like a mesmerizing dance ended after a single minute.
This minute was over in an instant and still took an eternity.
Jason was sweating buckets and his back was drenched with it but his smile radiated the gym.
Demonstrating the Azure feisty Ape technique felt as if he achieved freedom.
He couldn't see through the bandages but it didn't matter as his accurate and smooth movements made him feel ecstasy.
His stored mana was completely dried up and Jason felt empty but this didn't cover his happiness.
The examiner looked at Jason slightly astonished, his eyes widened.
He had often seen something like that but not from a blind 2nd Novice rank youth with a malnourished body.
'Does this student have an extreme sensitivity for mana?!
Did he feel the mana flow when the instructor teaches his students and this youth remembered everything and executed it like that?
Pretty good.'
He thought but he remained calm and said with a monotone voice
"Exceeding requirements met:120 points"
Everyone heard the sound of a stone dropping inside them as they heard the announcement.
Greg got full marks with 100 points because his martial art technique was perfectly demonstrated but even he felt that Jason's demonstration was slightly better than his own.
At least Jason's accuracy and control over mana were on a different level than his.
Nevertheless, it was only a single sequence and nothing special if one worked hard on it, as the requirements were quite easy to meet.
Jason himself was even more astonished than the others as he didn't know if he did everything correctly.
He had never personally seen the combat technique from the school's instructor and only the outlines were seen by him.
But he was happy that he got more points than he had expected.
Coming back from his happiness he was again reminded that his average score was still bad.
Calculating a bit he came to the result that he achieved 34/100 points on average which was much more than he expected.
Adding the presumably 100/100 points from the theoretical exam his score was circulating around the average middle school graduate.
Unfortunately for Jason, the next test instantly worsened his happiness as the teacher said
"Now that everyone finished the practical exams we will scan your rank and rate you with points"
The examiners stood up from their chair and gathered together while one old man said with a loud voice.
"Everyone stay calm, please. There will be an uncomfortable feeling which will invade you but don´t fight against it. We will scan your mana core for a short moment and give points according to the guidelines."
A weird and chilly pressure radiated out of the examiner and spread out with him as the center.
Invading every student they began to shiver slightly before the chill left them.
"Number 1 Aamin Arion 8th Novice rank - 60 points"
"Number 2 Alina Arte 9th Novice rank- 80 points"
"Number 3…..
"Number 158 Greg Fler- 2nd Adept rank- 140 points"
"Number 2374 Jason Stella 2nd Novice rank….- minus 40 points"
As he heard the examiner's voice he felt a sting in his heart. He knew about deducting points from before but it was more painful than he thought.
His presumably 134/200 points were now 94/300.
The last chance for him to get points was the soul awakening and Jason who was previously relatively happy with his score was now back down to earth.
Everyone was exhausted and the examiner finished his distribution of points.
Afterward, he ended the exams and excused himself without looking back.
Jason meanwhile went back home slowly without caring for anybody around him.
He didn't even notice Greg looking following him with his curiosity shining in his eyes.
It was already evening when Jason arrived at his miniature apartment.
Entering the room he went into the bathroom to shower and then he fell down into his bed falling into a deep sleep due to his exhaustion.
Chapter 9: Shopping tour
It was early in the morning when Jason woke up.
Opening his eyes they shone with vigor as he rubbed them to dispel his tiredness.
Entering the federation network, Jason accessed the middle-grade graduation site where he entered his serial number.
Looking at the score he saw in front of him, Jason was stuck between multiple types of emotions.
Happiness, sadness, and most importantly frustration.
Jason received the score exactly as he thought he would.
'Theoretical Exam 100/100 Points
Practical Exam 34/100 Points
Blood test: Passed, Remark: Blind
Mana Core: 2nd Novice rank -40/100 Points
Soul awakening: ?/★★★★★'
It was annoying but Jason couldn't change it anyway so he entered his mail section and saw a notification about the soul awakening
'Scheduled Soul awakening: Sunday 2. August 10:25 am'
Sighing, Jason noticed that the 2. August was still more than two weeks away and he wasn´t really sure what to do until then.
The only thing he was able to do was gathering mana and integrating it into his mana core to improve his rank, as he wanted to be fully prepared for the day he would enter the beast pagoda.
His theory was still constructing slowly and Jason was expectant to find out if he was correct.
Fortunately, his soul-awakening wasn't today which was a somewhat positive side-effect from his bad exam result, so there was more than enough time for him left.
Jason was expectant but also a little bit scared because of the soul-awakening and the following choosing of his soulbond were the most important things every youth had to go through.
He had enough money to purchase a so-so beast but he didn't know how high his soul energy would be, so Jason stopped thinking about unnecessary things.
Sitting on his bed and gathering mana until lunchtime Jason's mana core was almost replenished.
Somehow Jason felt that the time to replenish his mana was extremely long but he didn't have any good circulation manuals with good explanations t
o speed up the process.
Before he would get his soul-awakening done in two weeks, Jason wanted to change a few things which were previously unnecessary.
He wanted to change into a decent-looking apartment, bought nutritious food, new clothes, and many more things.
As it was still unknown what soulbond he would get, Jason had to wait with the leasing of a new apartment as the soulbond could be gigantic and thus too big for a small apartment.
The possibility was small but still there and he didn´t want to waste time and money.
Jason had a huge amount of Credits left but he wasn't sure for how much most things were sold for as he was provided with his apartment for an extremely cheap price and he bought bread loaves, instant noodles, and snacks at the market with the help of his AI before he gained his eyesight.
He had zero knowledge of how to handle his finances so Jason had to look up some things online.
In the afternoon Jason finished writing a small list of things he wanted to purchase with an approximate price behind the article name on his phone.
Because he didn't want to purchase these things online, he went outside heading straight to the shopping district.
Jason wanted to see everything around him and it was boring to sit inside the small smelly apartment the whole day without anyone's company.
He brought a bandage with him for emergencies, if someone from his class would appear but he believed they had more important things to do, than going on a shopping tour right now.
They were probably thinking about the soul awakening and their future soulbond all the time or lamenting about their low exam scores.
A few minutes after leaving his room, Jason entered a crowded street with many stalls on each side of it.
Many kinds of stalls were there, including food stalls, clothing stalls, magical devices, stalls about mana resources, weapon stalls, alchemy stalls, and so on.
Jason needed many new clothes, food and he wanted to buy a quantum bracelet that would replace his ancient-looking smartphone.
His old phone was already extremely old but that wasn't the reason Jason decided to buy a new one.
The quantum bracelets had a better resistance that could even endure attacks from magical beasts, while his phone would probably be destroyed soon if it fell a few more times out of his pockets, which wasn´t an uncommon occurrence.
Furthermore, during journeys through wild zones, Jason would have to be fast and flexible and his phone was too big and hard to allow such movements.
This was only futuristic thinking but still important to think about.
The quantum bracelet had also another special feature.
Integrated with spatial storage the price skyrocket for quantum watches.
Jason had enough credits left behind from his mother's death insurance, the pay from his mother's murderers, and his allowance from the Cerus family, so he would be able to purchase a quantum bracelet.
Because of the integrated storage space, Jason wanted to purchase the quantum bracelet as the first thing.
Going around for almost half an hour Jason stood in front of a 5 story building with a big quantum bracelet sign.
The shop looked luxurious and Jason entered it through the door.
An attendant greeted him before noticing Jason's worn-off clothes, causing a frown to cover the attendant's expression for a moment.
"Hello Sir, are you here to purchase a quantum watch or bracelet, or did Sir maybe enter the wrong shop?"
Jason felt the attendant's gaze on him and remembered once again that he wore old, worn-off clothes.
He understood the attendant's question and didn't harbor any ill feelings against him as he answered honestly.
"I'm here to purchase a quantum bracelet. Can you recommend one with decent storage space and a high endurance that can handle attacks from magical beasts? You don't have to ask if I have enough credits."
He said the last sentence to avoid getting in an embarrassing or awkward situation and the attendant understood his meaning, even if he couldn't decipher why this youth wore clothes like that if he was able to purchase a quantum bracelet
Taking out a few quantum bracelets the attendant explained their capabilities with a few simple sentences including the price, storage size, and so on.
From 10.000 to millions of credits everything was included and Jason who thought his huge fortune of slightly more than 500.000 credits was enough to purchase one of the best quantum watches, was more than a little bit astonished.
Sensing everything at the cheaper priced quantum watches and bracelets Jason found a black one that met his requirements and seemed to fit well.
The Black demonic bull318 quantum bracelet was made out of black iron and certain other materials.
It could withstand a blow of a Black demonic bull which was a strength-type magical beast enhanced by a demonification and the storage space it had were 2500 cubic meters.
The storage device was the most expensive part of the quantum bracelet as it needed to be made from a blacksmith master with the help of an inscription master and the core of a spatial type mana core.
If Jason wanted he could get his storage space enlarged but that would cost even more and Jason didn´t need it at the moment.
Spatial-type mana cores were rare and thus the storage space made up at least 60% of the price.
Jason had to pay 199.999 credits which caused a sting in his heart but he made a transaction to the shop's bank account before he changed his mind.
The attendant was astonished that such a poor-looking youth had so many credits as his pay wasn't even 1% of the youth's payment.
Most citizens were paid around 1500 Credits a month which was enough to feed the family and their smaller soulbonds with some low-graded food.
They couldn't purchase high nutrition food with this income but being alive in a C-grade city with 1500 Credits a month was almost a wonder.
Jason's expenditure was way lower because he didn't eat much before and he never bought clothes and other things.
He bought necessary things for his hygiene and health and lived in a smelly and hideous-looking room for 100 credits a month.
In addition, he told himself to buy more high-nutrition food to fix his malnourished body and become stronger.
The price was so cheap as the building was about to get demolished in a few years and it was situated in the vilest district inside the whole city.
His expenditure was thus less than 200 Credits a month, so paying almost 200.000 was way too much for his small and tender heart to handle.
Jason thought even if the expenditure hurt, it was required because he wanted to get stronger to adventure the wild-zones in order to gain some credits while thinking about his future.
He would have to decide soon, whether he should attend a trashy school in Artes to learn more about martial arts and knowledge he already knew or gain credits by hunting weak beasts while improving oneself slowly.
Chapter 10: Friend?
After changing the data from his phone to the quantum bracelet, Jason put it on.
It looked quite good and Jason scanned it with his eyes for a moment as it was really beautiful.
Setting off to buy clothes and other necessities 2 hours passed and the sunset indicated the nightfall.
Jason was at a hairdresser and he had already changed into some new clothes so he looked completely different from before.
If someone from his former class walked past him, they wouldn't be able to recognize Jason even if they looked at him throughout.
Suddenly a voice call was transmitted to his quantum bracelet and Jason saw an unknown number.
Slightly curious he accepted the call with a "Hello? Who is this?"
A familiar voice answered him.
"Hey here is Greg. I'm having my soul awakening in half an hour and I wanted to ask you if you want to spectate it.
It might be weird to ask you this but I thought it might be helpful for you to
sense how a soul-awakening works so you understand what you have to do when it's your turn."
Jason was astonished as he was never been called before and thinking that Greg wanted to help him was also slightly difficult for him to comprehend.
But thinking about Greg, Jason noticed that Greg never treated him badly and he himself was also very curious how a soul awakening takes place so he accepted his invitation.
"That would be great. I can be at the Beast Pagoda in less than 30 minutes. Please wait for me."
Jason ended the call and ordered a shuttle which arrived a few minutes later.
Entering the word 'Beast Pagoda' an address appeared and the shuttle went off.
Fifteen minutes later the shuttle arrived in front of the gigantic five-tiered pagoda which looked ancient.
He had never seen a pagoda and didn't know if this size was normal but it looked very expensive as he saw the mana flow radiating from the building materials.
Thinking about the pagoda´s ancient appearance a sudden thought appeared in his mind and he searched through his storage space.
Luckily he found a bandage which he put on before leaving the shuttle.
Jason has almost made a huge mistake but luckily he thought about his eyes which he couldn't reveal at the moment.
He had to wait at least for a week or probably a little bit longer until his soul-awakening was before he could reveal his cured eyes so his theoretical exam would remain valid.
Jason called Greg because he didn´t know where to go and less than two minutes later someone with a strong presence came outside.
" Excuse me are you Mr. Stella? Master Greg is waiting for you" an old voice asked and Jason concluded that it was the butler from Greg
It was quite weird to get called Mr.Stella by someone as he has never been called by his family name.
Following behind the old man he was astonished about the butler's strength.
Comparing the butler's strength to the parents he saw yesterday he concluded that the butler wasn't normal either.
He was questioning himself how rich and powerful Greg's family business was, if their butler had already this kind of strength.
Jason had an easy time following the butler as even stairs weren't a problem because the materials inside this Pagoda radiated a certain amount of mana outlining it.
