The Last Apostle : Resurrection
Page 14
They hunted four groups over the day all in all 10 two-star wild beasts were killed by him.
Most of his time was used up for searching small beast groups with weak combat prowess.
Artemis was saturated after eating two two-star wild beast cores but she wanted to eat more which Jason interrupted instantly.
He had to maintain the Mana-operated freezer and he wanted Artemis to not eat too much so she wouldn´t leave him for a good nap.
Jason was still unsure how to calculate how much Artemis could digest in a few hours that they could hunt together while Artemis could grow along with Jason.
Still, Jason knew that she could digest around 5 two-star wild beast cores in one night so eating five over the whole day should be fine for now.
He could increase it later on but for now, giving her five two-star wild beast cores was the best solution for Artemis to grow stronger during the night.
She had to accompany Jason during the day while earning combat experience, which led him to his previous solution
He felt lonely since his mother died, even Greg who he hadn't called previously was growing attached to him.
Now with Artemis´ birth, he suffered a little bit, even though he knew she was with him during her slumber but she wasn't really there in a materialistic way.
His hunting skills increased each day and Jason hoped that he would be able to kill five star wild beasts in less than 3 weeks.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to enter an A-grace city let alone a school there.
Jason used the remaining wild beast cores to maintain the Mana-operated freezer and it looked like the freezer could be operated for a day with his remaining five two-star wild beats cores.
The best thing about the freezer was that even if Jason stored it inside his spatial storage, it would still work perfectly.
One could say that the large freezer was comparable to a small integrated cooler and it was definitely cheaper.
Jason practices his martial art under the clear night sky and it felt much better than train in a small apartment.
After that, he took out a basin and poured water inside to wash up.
When Jason finished cleaning himself, he opened the Heaven's Hell manual and read it for a few hours before he went back inside the tent to sleep.
He fell asleep soundly while Artemis digested her incomplete wild beast cores.
---
During the next day, nothing special happened except his tries to hunt slightly bigger groups of at least 3 two-star wild beasts when he came back to his tent.
He saw a few hundred luxurious mansion-sized tents erected and compared to his two-person tent they looked gigantic.
Probably around 20 people could stand in such tents with enough space left to walk around.
Jason wondered what's going on but he hoped that they would train inside the pen star plain wild zone as he had trouble avoiding so many beasts all the time.
The one-star zone Jason entered every day was overpopulated by almost every kind of beast but the main problem was that the beasts gathered up in bigger groups instead of striving around alone.
Jason had to avoid many beast groups and he was often way too close to get detected and attacked by them which was slightly scary.
If these mansion-sized tents had trainees inside, they would most probably hunt huge numbers of wild beasts, decreasing his efforts to walk around inside the wild zone tremendously.
Today he hunted 15 two-star wild beasts and he gave Artemis five of them while another 5 were used for the freezer before eating something and improving his martial arts.
After an hour Jason stopped his practice and he took out the Heaven's Hell manual to read it through.
Another two hours passed and it was already dark while only a few lights and the stars lightened up the surrounding.
Jason remembered now every crucial detail of the manuals first level and he readied himself to use the technique today.
Chapter 29: Heaven´s Hell
The first level of the Heaven's Hell technique was simple compared to the following levels and it only used up a marginal amount of soul energy, even Jason could barely afford.
While the first level indicated that one had around 0.1-9 soul energy units in numbers, the second level would need at least 10-49 soul energy to work properly, with a few additional requirements.
Jason's soul energy was close to non-existent and it was already fortunately that he could form a contract with a one-star wild beast cub.
Now with his increased soul energy due to Artemis's growth, his breakthrough, and the big overall share he received through his unique soul, Jason's soul energy reached finally one unit, which was enough to control Artemis properly as his soulbond.
Having the lowest required soul energy, Jason could only perform the Heaven's Hell technique once before his soul had to replenish the soul energy over time.
As such he had to be careful.
Even if the first level was simple it could be extremely dangerous.
He entered the soul world carefully where Jason met the sleeping Artemis.
Walking around his own soul world was interesting and he hadn't done it before because there were too many things he had to do.
It was the first time for Jason and he looked around with shining eyes.
All kinds of color could be seen floating around his soul world while a dense golden hue accompanied everything inside his soul.
Looking down he could also see the golden hue enveloping him, causing Jason to feel refreshed and calm.
There was not the slightest anxiety seen in his eyes.
Looking around Jason got the feeling of a home.
In this place, he was welcomed, which made him happy as he continued to walk through his soul world until he entered the center of it.
There was a golden unstable liquid in the form of a ball that was floating slightly above Jason´s head.
Everyone who underwent the soul-awakening had the same thing inside their soul, which was a mysterious liquid in various sizes.
Meanwhile, the soul and the size of the liquid, surrounding the weird-looking ball, differentiated for each individual.
The existence of the liquid ball was the same for everyone and it was the soul energy surrounding the so-called soul world core.
Many also called it one's soul but the commonly used name was soul world core.
Around the soul world core was the soul energy attached in form of unstable liquid.
The amount of soul energy within indicated the size of the core because it was normally stored within.
While most cores had at least the size of a ping-pong ball, Jason was glad that he found his grain-sized soul world core within a rather short amount of time.
His core didn´t have a particular form right now and there was only the mysterious liquid floating aimlessly around with the soul world core as the center.
The soul world core was the starting point of each soul world and its life.
Looking at the grain-sized soul world core, Jason was slightly embarrassed about his unique and fabulous soul world but useless soul energy.
The golden hue around him began to shine faintly as he calmed down almost immediately, which Jason didn´t really notice.
Remembering his main purpose to enter the soul world, Jason concentrated on the grain-sized soul world core.
Opening the soul world core slightly Jason wanted to move the soul energy around.
From the formless liquid, he created a wafer-thin thread which most humans wouldn´t even see except someone with his exceptional eyesight.
The more soul energy Jason took out, the smaller the size of the liquid around the soul world core became.
After his whole soul energy was taken from the liquid that enveloped his soul world core, Jason saw a golden-colored marble with an indescribable size as it was almost not visible, even for him.
This almost invisible marble was his real soul world core and it was
almost embarrassing, only to look at.
This golden marble had mysterious inscriptions on it and it was his core while the liquid mass floating around it was unstable soul energy ejected by the core was produced by his first soulbond.
The first step of the Heaven's Hell technique was to draw out the unstable energy around the real soul world core with his mind to form a thread with the energy.
This step wasn't dangerous, instead, one needed to have a sensible and accurate control over soul energy.
His soul energy thread was less than half a meter long and wafer-thin due to the very good innate control he had over mana.
The first step was done in a relatively short time once Jason got the hang of how to handle soul energy.
After that, one could see Jason sweating buckets inside his tent while gasping for air.
He only sat down and nobody could imagine that he entered his soul world except the small golden hue shining around his head as an indicator.
Inside his soul world, Jason made himself ready for the painful part as the unstable soul energy was now formed into a complete thread.
He would have to pierce through the golden marble with his thread to inject the soul energy inside it to force a certain growth.
Without a slight push, Jason's soul energy wouldn't increase and it was necessary for him to force himself through in order to do that.
He had to aim at a certain spot to maximize the effect of the technique and it took him quite a long time to find the right spot as it was already difficult for him to even see the soul world core.
Piercing into the marble with the thread, searing pain spread through his whole body as it felt like hellfire ignited inside him.
It spread from his brain which felt as if it was roasted to his heart where it dispersed into the veins only for Jason to feel a searing pain all over his body.
While he cried out in pain inside the soul world, one could see the liquid thread invading the golden marble blending into it after a certain amount of time.
Jason had never felt such pain before and he continued to cry out loud, but he couldn´t leave the soul world as it could harm or even destroy his soul if he made a single fault.
Until the whole wafer-thin thread completely blended into the golden marble, Jason had to endure the torture.
An hour later the whole process was over and Jason left the soul world with the floating golden marble in the center, only to fall into a deep slumber caused by his exhaustion.
**
Waking up by suffocation early in the morning was as unpleasant as before and Jason pushed the furball, also called Artemis away gently.
Opening his eyes, he could see Artemis who looked at him as if he had betrayed her and Jason felt her range of emotions that were filled of sadness.
Taking her into his embrace, her mood changed quickly.
Looking at her plumage with his mana eye's special ability activated, he saw that she had slightly more mana in her blood than a day before.
If this continued, Artemis´ ability could reach the strength of a two-star wild beast while being a one-star wild beast in the future.
Continuing this mind game Jason was expectant about her future growth and her evolution.
Entering his soul world to look at the golden soul world core Jason noticed something unexpecting.
Injecting the unstable foreign soul energy into his soul world core should only be done once a day because the replenishing effect would take a long time for the soul world core to push out the unstable energy.
However, looking at the still unstable, formless liquid surrounding the marginal small golden marble Jason noticed that his whole soul energy was already replenished and expelled.
A soul world core was like a generator and dialysis at the same time, producing a fixed amount of soul energy until its energy was used up.
Refilling it with the expelled soul energy would activate the generator, cause it to once again expel the injected soul energy after cleansing and purifying it in order to make it more stable.
Once the soul energy reached a certain size, purity, and degree of stability, the real process of the Heaven's Hell technique would begin with the following levels
Jason wasn't even remotely close to meet a single requirement that was previously named but he was still astonished to see that his soul energy was replenished this fast.
With this, he could already practice the Heaven's Hell technique again.
Normally it would take a whole day to have one's soul energy replenished but Jason slept for less than 6 hours and his soul energy was already completely replenished.
Thus Jason set down and repeated the same procedure as the day before.
It took him 90 minutes and instead of less pain, this time it was even more painful but he didn't faint.
Enduring the pain quietly, Jason finished his practice, before he stood up.
Washing up, he washed out of the tent into the open plains where he could see hundreds of youth gathering next to some strong looking middle-aged men and women
Chapter 30: Innate Battle prodigies
The youths, Jason could see in front of the dome looked like they were around twelve years old but the weapons and armor they wore indicated a certain degree of a wealth compared to Jason.
He was poorer than he had ever been before but he didn't mind that at all, as he had a unique soul, special mana eyes, and a beautiful soulbond.
Venturing outside the dome into the one-star wild zone Jason with Artemis circling above him, he instantly met a group of four two-star scaled wolves that attacked Jason and Artemis.
This was bad as one of the scales wolves looked bigger than the others.
Upon activating his [Mana eyes] he saw that its core almost reached the three-star wild beast rank and the Mana it possessed was also slightly larger than the other three scaled wolves.
His mana eyes detected some anomalies within the large wolf and Jason concluded that it might be a mutation or something like that, but he wasn´t sure.
Jason was slightly worried but with Artemis as his support, he went into his fighting stance to welcome his enemies.
Since Artemis grows stronger each day Jason's physique, Mana core, and even his eyesight improved along with her and in this battle, his exceptional eyesight played a big role.
The group of scaled Wolves formed a half circle and tried to surround him while Artemis attacked the scaled Wolves from behind to distract him.
Once a wolf entered a certain range around him Jason attacked it, forming it to step back, while Artemis used this chance to dive down on the retreating wolf to pierce her mana-infused claws into the scaled Wolves back.
Without infusing mana into her claws she wouldn't be able to pierce through the thick scales but with the Mana enhancement, she easily pierced into its back, injuring it lightly.
Crying out in pain the wolf twisted its head to find the culprit but this was a mistake as it was still close to Jason's range.
Jason infused mana into his lower body to increase his speed while pushing himself off to the injured scaled wolf.
The three other wolves didn't mingle around and pounced at Jason but it was already too late as their comrade died with a dagger in its throat, because Jason used the perfect timing as he noticed it was the right moment to attack.
This was because his eyes could tell with minuscule details, that the scaled wolf would turn around to Artemis and Jason used this to finish it off.
After killing the scaled wolf, Jason used its body as a meat shield because the stronger scaled wolf was already behind him in the air, which Jason predicted.
The scaled Wolf corpse was heavy but using a quarter of his mana was enough to enhance himself to throw the dead body at the pouncing wolf.
Artemis was already in the air waiting for her next victim to fall into her trap as she supervised the battle while Jason attacked the bigger scaled wolf which was taken by surprise.
Jason couldn't at
tack its body directly as the dead wolf's corpse was in his way but he pierced out with his dagger to cut through its paw.
Yelping out in pain the bigger scaled wolf was shocked for a second as something white dived down onto its head piercing into the eyes.
Jason and Artemis's teamwork was exceptional and not many were able to build up such teamwork within the short amount of time they were together.
One could say both were innately exceptionally connected and it was rare to see such observance and tacit agreement among each other in a battle four against two while being weaker strength-wise.
There were still two uninjured scaled wolves charging at Jason and both were only around three meters apart from him, when they tried to surround him from two sites.
Thinking that their normal tactic would work against Jason, they missed an important fact.
He wasn't alone!
While both pounced at him at the same time, Artemis cried out, pointing out that the wolf behind Jason was also pouncing at him at the same time.
Jason now knew that both were pouncing at him at the same time.
Thus he ducked down and used another quarter of his mana to increase his speed to the highest he could hold out to jump straight to the front where the blind and injured wolf was still howling in pain, pitying itself without caring about the calamity it would face a second later.
While the two uninjured wolves crashed into each other, Jason finished off the larger scaled wolf with a clean strike.
Over the last few days, Jason discovered his fighting talent which came probably thanks to his good eyesight, while the ability to see the mana flow was relatively good, even if he didn´t have anyone to compare his combat prowess to.
It was also way easier for him to detect where a beast would attack him and what its next move would be thanks to small but important details.
The two remaining scaled wolves shook their heads in pain.
Afterward, they looked at Jason furious, and seeing the dead leader they lost all remaining reasoning.
Both charged straight at him and this was the most threatening thing that could happen to Jason, as he wasn't able to defend against two beasts at the same time with a single dagger.