The Last Apostle : Resurrection

by William Hill

  In additon to the throwing knives, Jason also got a mechanical knife holder, which looked like a normal black box with two slits on the sides.

  On the sides, the knives would stick out and they would be replaced once taken out and around 50 knives in total could be inserted.

  Jason wondered how this was possible as 50 knives weren't few and the box was described as 20 centimeters long, 5 centimeters width and 3 centimeters in height…

  Jason admired the sorting skills of this mechanized system as he estimated that not a single millimeter space was left behind.

  After purchasing the throwing knives, Jason decided to continue purchasing weapons and he looked at a graded bow.

  It looked decently and it was a small compact box which would be attached to his lower back without hindering his movements, while a single knife could be taken out from both sides.

  But he was quite shocked to notice the large difference for ungraded and graded bows.

  Considering his strength now and the fast increase in strength he expected, he decided to purchase a mid-grade-1 bow made out of an low-evolved strengthened elemental deer with fortified horns.

  Their tendons and horns were perfect materials to manufacture a bow with it.

  The price was 77.000 Credits and he purchased a bunch of reinforced arrows that would not shatter even upon hitting a steel wall for 27.000 Credits.

  It was astonishing to see that a bow made out of awakened beasts could be sold for so much as the evolved ranked elemental deer was only worth around 5.000 Credits at most.

  Calculating his expenses, Jason was shocked before he was reminded that he wasn't even close to finishing his online shopping tour, but his credits were disappearing without notice.

  He needed some defensive garments and some new paralysis potions, a tranquilizer, a few enlarging miniature beast cages, mountains of beast cores for Artemis, and if there was still something left, he would look out for himself.

  At least a little bit would definitely be left for him as he had to eat and drive around with the shuttle.

  Deducting 1000 Credits for himself would be enough for that so Jason continued his purchase.

  After more than an hour, Jason´s whole fortune of 1.000.000 Credits was used up because the garment he bought was a low-grade-2 hide-armor that could adjust itself slightly to its wearer and defend against the physical attack of each kind of awakened beast and even mid-evolved beasts.

  Its price was horrifying 400.000 Credits but for Jason his life was worth even more.

  Never would Jason imagine that the price was so cheap because it was already worn by someone, fixed a few times and also one of the cheapest grade-2 garments.

  Jason was more than a little bit shocked to see the price tags of most garments and weapons as the rare materials were not even close to the prices most wanted for the finished product.

  He now understood why blacksmiths, runemasters, alchemists, and these other jobs were called rich powerful, and sometimes even greedy.

  But nobody knew that their expenses in their apprenticeship were more than horrifying as most works were failures and it would take a long time until one could call himself a blacksmith for example.

  Furthermore, it wasn't easy to not stabilize the mana conductivity in most materials and use them to complete perfect weapons or garments.

  Comparing the price from his leather armor to the prices of most grade-2 or 3 weapons, Jason felt dizzy.

  While grade-1 weapons were comparable to awakened beasts, grade-2 equipment could already be compared with evolved and even unblemished beasts while grade-3 was something only Magus would be barely able to use and these equipment were manufacturers out of magical beast materials and the following beast ranks.

  Jason didn´t know a single person who owned grade-4 equipment on Astrix but he had heard about a Saint-Blacksmith who forged a grade-4 weapon for someone on Canir and Jason wondered, how many grade-4 weapons and armors existed.

  While normal graded weapons were already frustratingly expensive in Jason´s opinion, he also saw a few offers for magic and soul weapons, and his face couldn´t be described with words as he saw their price tags.

  Jason dreamed about owning a powerful soul weapon as he heard that some extraordinary materials could even enhance the effect of one's soul and help each other symbiotically.

  But those were only legends from Canir and Jason wasn't sure if something like that really existed.

  While he still had 190.000 Credits left but they were used up after he bought three low-grade-1 paralysis potions, a graded tranquilizer with 10 shots, and one big self-driving enlarging miniature beast cages.

  The most expensive was the graded tranquilizer but it was also one of the most important things he needed as it would be quite uncomfortable if a beast woke up while it was thrown over one's shoulder.

  Jason had around 10.000 Credits left from his hunting trip and the canceled apartment but he wouldn't buy Artemis beast cores as he had a few left and Jason wanted to test his new toys out once they arrived.

  It wouldn't take long for his parcel to arrive and he practiced the Heaven's Hell technique to kill time.

  After that Jason made himself some space to practice his modified Azure feisty ape technique before the `long-waited` message came.

  Chapter 46: Unintentionally Domination

  His parcel arrived and Jason sprinted to the door where he saw the drone with his packets below.

  After showing his ID and giving his sign, he took the heavy parcel inside and opened it expectant.

  It didn't take long for Jason to completely change his attire and he wore his black leather garment which adjusted itself perfectly on his small build, while the small black automatic knife holder box was docket at the lower back of his leather garment.

  It was operated by mana but the amount needed was so marginal that Jason could easily fill it.

  Inserting 50 knives, a rattling could be heard with a metal sound before one knife after another vanished inside the small box.

  Filling the knife holder, the handles could be seen pointing out on each side.

  Jason also got some dagger sheats for his purchase and they were also black.

  His new daggers were gleaming with a jade green color and one was slightly curved while the other one was straight.

  The curved one was 28 centimeters in length while the straight one was 30 centimeters long.

  After admiring his new toys for a long time, his shuttle arrived and he went down not forgetting to store everything away.

  The shuttle would bring him to the plain one-star wild zone and Jason was already expectant how everything would take place with his new weapons.

  He was wearing all black while the green color of his daggers drew some attention to them but more importantly Jason's golden eyes were the best attention seeker and he pondered if he should buy contact lenses for the future.

  Inside the shuttle, Jason had already requested to camp close to the plains wild zone again which was accepted immediately, and afterward Jason began playing around with a throwing knife in his hand.

  He had seen many martial arts videos since he had regained his sight and apparently it was good to improve one's hand mobility and flexibility while doing some tricks with a knife.

  Jason was quite clumsy and cut himself a few times but he could avoid more serious injuries as he simultaneously practices his control over mana by forming a small membrane over his hand.

  It was almost lunchtime when Jason arrived at his camping place and he set up his tent before practicing the Heaven's Hell technique.

  He ate something afterward and stood up to enter the one-star wild zone.

  Jason wanted to train his knife throwing, but before that, he had to do something else

  Unknowingly to himself, Jason was still agitated about him crying in front of Greg's mother and he had to let loose but this time in a different way.

  Artemis was circling above him and notified him about lar
ge beast groups.

  A certain large pack of two-star wild fanged coyotes drew his attention and he thought that he might even be able to learn knife throwing while settling his agitation.

  This thought might be cruel, but this world was not different as every individual aspired to get stronger.

  And Jason had to get stronger to survive in this world as even the proclaimed 'safe' cities were also not what they seemed to be as his mother was unjustly killed without anyone getting punished.

  Jason wasn't sure if he wanted revenge or justice, punishing the mysterious heir but he knew that it neither was possible currently except if he would get stronger to force the government to punish his mothers' homicide.

  If nothing worked, Jason would just do it by himself... the government could f**k of in this case.

  While he thought about his mother he took out a knife for each hand and injected a marginal amount of mana in them so that they could fly slightly more straight to withstand the drafts around him.

  One would normally not handle knife throwing like him and adjust the angle so that the knife would use the draft to hit the target with the same amount of force but Jason used his mana to brutely force his way through the slight drafts, even if it was only a small amount of mana.

  There were around 12 fanged coyotes charging at him, but noticing Jason's enraged golden eyes flickering coldly, fear could be seen, filling their eyes as they tried to run away, only to notice that the predator behind them followed with fast strides.

  One coyote after another was attacked by flying knives, even if only half of them hit their target while even less hit vital spots.

  Jason continued running after them and five minutes later blood drenched his knives before he calmed down.

  It may be cruel but Jason's mind relaxed after he had killed these 12 fanged coyotes.

  As every knife was injected with a marginal amount of mana, he could trace all of them.

  After 15 minutes all knives and corpses were picked up and Jason used another five minutes to clean the knives properly.

  Inserting them again, Jason was ready to continue his training. He wasn't agitated anymore and could concentrate much better.

  Scanning each and every beast about their potential Jason couldn't find a single wild beast with potential and he understood again, that wild beasts had the worst out of the worst potential.

  But he had to say his eyes were definitely superior and exceptional as he found Artemis with them and he was still unsure what she was as he couldn't really figure out her color. It seemed blur and was comparable to the color he saw by humans..some kind of transparent color was it but Jason wasn´t sure.

  Hours passed and Jason was getting more and more proficient with throwing knives and after a few hundred throws, his accuracy became better and better.

  He didn't even need to inject mana into them anymore as he could faintly sense how the drafts would adjust the knives during their flight.

  Jason was also getting more proficient with dual-wielding his daggers and the fights against most wild beasts finished rather unspectacular.

  He wasn't fighting any five-star wild beast groups as he was still not completely confident in defeating them but with his good equipment even four-star wild beast groups weren't much of a difference compared to three-star wild beasts.

  Jason made up a small tactic to throw a few knives to injure his opponents before overwhelming them with his speed and dual-wielding.

  It was a rather dull plan but it worked fine.

  Facing five-star wild beasts wasn't as scary as before with his good equipment because he threw knives at them to inflict injuries which would only worsen during the battle while retreating to stall more time.

  Jason was almost playing with these beasts and even five-star wild beasts like the greater horned wolf with their superior speed were no match against him throwing knives while backing off and Artemis´distraction.

  Once he injured a beast, it would only increase his advantage if it moved around without caring about the injury it sustained.

  Because of the low intelligence of most wild beasts that was probably even below children in kindergarten, Jason had a nice time practicing.

  It was relatively relaxing even for Jason who was only at the 4th Novice rank.

  In normal cases it is said that beasts at the same rank and level as a human should be stronger because the increase in one's mana and physique is more present for beasts.

  And normally Jason should only be able to defeat a two-star wild beast according to his mana core rank.

  Including the amplification from Artemis, he would be able to face against a three-star wild beast.

  Considering the fact that the gap between each level or star is not that much at the novice and wild beats rank, it wouldn't be impossible for him to defeat a wild beast at four-stars.

  But Jason could massacre through the groups of beasts as if it was nothing because he had also a weapon advantage and his keen observance made it almost impossible not to evade Beast attacks.

  Including his increasing combat experience, it seemed as if he could reign over the one-star wild zone without further ado.

  A beast had to be extraordinary fast to hit him as Jason's eyes could foretell attacks to a certain extent.

  One could say that Jason learned how to fight extremely fast and his improvement with all kinds of weapons were terrifying as he could notice the flaws during his battle and after each fight he would collect his flaws and fix them during the next fight.

  Was that not possible, Jason would try solving the issue after entering the dome where he had enough time to slowly fix his mistakes with a indestructible determination.

  Chapter 47: Passive mana replenishing

  A day passed and Jason woke up full of energy while Artemis was happily flapping with her wings gazing at Jason with expectations.

  Jason had to feed her more and more incomplete wild beast cores every two to three days and he wondered if she had a limit, otherwise, he would run into bankruptcy once she needed more than Jason could provide.

  And there was also the question, what would happen when she absorbed more Mana than she could digest... Was that even possible? Or would she just digest it with a long hibernation? Would she evolve or just break her limits?

  Too many questions about Artemis were on Jason´s mind but also some questions about himself including his soul and eyes, but there were no answers no matter how hard he thought about it.

  One thing Jason was also very interested in, was answered two days ago when he was at the Fler mansion.

  Jason had a deep thirst for knowledge and he asked Gabriella and Mark Fler many questions about mana, beasts, how mana influences the environment and much more.

  During that, he felt enlightened many times and he found out something particular.

  There were techniques in this world to passively replenish one's mana while breathing, walking, running, and so on.

  While there were multiple stages with the possibility to even gather mana during sleep, it was extremely difficult as one's mind had to divide itself to do multiple jobs at the same time.

  But Jason wanted to try it.

  At least the easiest stage was something Jason was confident to achieve in... somehow..probably?

  Replenishing mana while walking around.

  Greg and Malia could already do it and they were also able to replenish their mana while running.

  They also told him about the difficulties one would have to face during learning how to passively replenish one's mana.

  First, you had to be able to 'split' your mind into different task fields or to say it simpler:

  Multitasking.

  While that alone was already relatively difficult one also had to have a certain degree of control over Mana which an average youth on Astrix would achieve after roughly 6 years.

  This wasn't considered a problem for Jason as he had control over his mana for almost 10 years while his control wa
s extremely sensitive since the beginning.

  He wasn't sure if he could perform multi-tasking right off the bat but he could learn it.

  And his advantage was his eyes.

  Jason wanted to walk right into a mana stream and stroll around inside to practice, walking and replenishing mana at the same time.

  Jason had to acknowledge, that he was definitely expectant about it but his mood was soured as he thought that Greg wasn't considered a prodigy from his mana sensitivity, mana core rank or in Jason's opinion top tier martial arts skills, rather it was that his soul was the most unique about Greg including his soulbond, and he could already replenish his mana even during some small spars.

  `Could everyone do that? Or was Greg underestimating his own sensibility?` Jason thought with a sour facial expression.

  If everyone was able to passively replenish his or her mana while running, Jason had to also do it to decrease his gap to them.

  Jason's practice of the Heaven's Hell technique wasn't neglected and Jason felt that his soul was overjoyed every time he practices this technique as his soul world increased with his soul world core.

  This wasn't a common case but some rare souls had the ability to grow to a certain degree.

  That was because their mind couldn't handle the normal size of their soul world and the world had to adjust itself to prevent permanent injuries.

  Jason's case however was different, but he wasn´t aware of that fact.

  His soul energy was extremely strong at the beginning but it was absorbed by his soul world before anyone could notice it except the old man who thought it was an illusion caused by his ambition.

  Once his soul energy grows stronger, his soul world would also enlarge.

  Jason shuddered as he was reminded about the pain he had to suffer during his soul-awakening.

  Walking around the camping area next to the one-star plains wild zone, Jason had to use up mana, so he could replenish it.

  After throwing a few knives injected with mana into a thick three, Jason tried to feel the mana while walking around.