Almost nobody was satisfied with their own class-ranking, even the top because they wanted to enter the higher classes.

Thinking about fighting each other in their own class was satisfying for them as they were itchy to release their tension.

"Because everyone's mana consumption will be huge. I'll limit the battles to two. Everyone can choose one opponent while the same goes for inquiries.

This is to prevent a group from fighting a single individual a few times in succession.

Please choose your opponent now...first comes, first serves.`

In front of everyone appeared a holographic screen with a name lif.

While everyone was astonished, Jason immediately scanned through the list as he picked one name, after a moment.

He didn´t want to compete against the top ranks of his class right now.

It was still way to early for now, as such he picked number 224, who sat next to him with a mana core rank of a 1st Adept.

There was nothing special about this youth and  Jason thought that this would be the most likely opponent for him to beat.

It was the most rational way for him to get out of this competition without getting beaten up too harshly.

While he hoped that the boy next to him also picked him, a certain name with the corresponding number appeared next to Jason´s name…

`Nr.4 Leo Heart Mana core: 5th- Adept`

Jason´s eyes widened and he was about to jump up, thinking it might be a mistake, when he saw a muscular boy looking at him with a sly smile, causing him to frown.

Bullying?? Ok… let's play this game then…

Calming down everyone with a finger snap, Till Greil started, a timer in order to let everyone increase their combat capabilities to their limit. 

The time would be count down in four hours and it was an extremely long time to prepare for a fight.

Jason knew that he was picked on by some musclebrain who wanted to mess with him and he jumped up from his chair to rush out of the classroom, drawing a lot of attention on him.

"HAHAHA, does he think he can run away? If he doesn't even dare to spar with his classmates, why is he even coming to this school" Leo Heart said while laughing heartily.

The small group that gathered around him like hyenas was cackling, calling Jason "Coward", "Idiot", "Scaredy-cat", "Mud-head" and much more.

Even Mr. Greil was confused about the sudden sprint Jason put off.

He was about to become disappointed about the black-haired boy,  thinking he might give up on the spar due to a small hurdle when his released mana sensed something in particular.

"Disperse" the teacher just said, when he vanished from their sight.

Mr. Greil followed Jason, who seemed to follow something until he entered the forest within the school grounds, that belonged to the third-grade students.

Normally Jason wouldn't be allowed to enter it but with Mr.Greil around, there wasn't anyone obstructing him.

Entering the forest, Jason followed solely where his eyes lead him to. as he rushed through the forest for almost ten minutes straight until he saw a small blue shining lake surrounded by lush trees.

Above the lake was a thick exotic-looking stone arch, where dense and thick mana streamed through.

Even Cyro City´s mana was at least 6 times denser compared to Artes city, but the whole lake in front of him looked like it had double the density.

As if that wasn´t enough, Jason noticed a few things on top of the stone arch, that attracted his attention.

The stone arch´s top was at least 30 meters in height and it looked massive, when Jason stood in front of it.

However due to his curisocity, he decided to climb it up, even if it would take some time.

Almost 30 minutes later, Jason somehow ended up at the top of the arch and the amount of mana he sensed there was even more than than at the bottom.

Jason was happy to have climbed up the stone arch, as the mana density satisfied his demand.

The closer he came to the thing that attracted his attention, the denser the amount of mana became, when he squeezed himself through some bushes.

He entered a small biotop with many kinds of fruits that smelled aromatic with mana radiating from them.

Through his manay eyes, Jason could even see colors enmantling these fruits!

And not only black, but also some faint light-gray colors could be seen, shocking him extremely.

Unbeknownst to himself, he turned extremely greedy, only to collect his thoughts after a moment.

`Can I just harvest these fruits or do they belong to someone?` Jason thought as he was tempted to just pick them up, before running away.

Thinking for a moment he considered that his mana fluctuations could be found here, turning him into the main-suspect, which wouldn´t be helpful.

He would be kicked out of the school in the best case scenarios, so Jason used the quantum bracelet to write to his teacher..

`I found some magical fruits on top of a stone arch… Can I pick them up or not?` He asked straightforward without writing anything else.

"You may pick one…" A voice behind him suddenly said and Jason turned around slightly frightened, only to see his teacher with an odd expression.

Jason was shocked to see his teacher behind him, but he only nodded his head as he looked at the fruits in front of him.

Scanning through all of them, Jason picked the fruit with the thickest light-gray color.

This was also the best fruit present and Mr.Greil noticed that with a deep frown.

"Ughh….This will be annoying to explain..` Mr.Greil lamented in his mind before he vanished again.

Jason didn´t noticed him vanishing, because he took out his perennial neoxid box, where the holy white bacuri fruit was already inside.

Squeezing in the "Siphon-agnus-castus flower" he picked up, the whole box was completely filled.

Now, he was somewhat worried, that the magical effect of both plants might reduce like that, as they were squeezed slightly within the boxk, but this had to wait for now.

Even if they were squeezed together, their effect wouldn´t decrease by much.

Jason had still 3 ½ hours left and he still had to run to the arena.

As such 3 hours would be the limit, Jason could use to strengthen himself.

Sitting down right above the thick mana stream between the flowers, he didn´t mind their existence.

Jason took out a few mana stones, which he laid down in front of him in order to supply his mana absoption even more if necessary.

Closing his eyes, he activated his mana sensibility to the limited capabilities.

Jason could feel the whole wildlife around him with his senses alone which was amazing.

It felt like his mana core was screaming for more mana as all his pores opened up, releasing excessive oils, before it began absorbing the mana in his surrounding under Jason´s lead.

His control and mana sensitive were exceptional high and the mana streamed into his mana channels, filling them up within seconds.

Jason made huge circles through his mana channels with the foreign mana before he injected it into his mana core.

Asking himself why he even took out the mana stones, Jason felt weird as the mana from his surroundings was vast enough to overwhelm him, when all of his mana channels were flooded by mana.

He almost lost his focus because of the overwhelmed quantity of mana but Jason could fix his focus after a moment, before he greedily circled the mana within him only to inject it into his mana core afterward.

Previously, Jason thought he would need a few days before he would be able to break into the 6th Novice rank, but now he was confident in achieving this in an extremely short amount of time.

Unbeknownst to himself, a translucent mana cocoon surrounded him, as Jason entered a state of complete focus.

The mana in his surrounding was absorbed greedily while seconds...minutes...and a whole hour passed.

Cracks could be heard within the cocoon and Jason opened his golden shining eyes, when he woke up from from his focuse state.

Looking around, he noticed the dense mana cocoon around him as he decided to consolidate his newly advanced 6th Novice mana core immediately. before he would meassure the increasement of strenght. 

Mr. Greil´s task was to look after all students, however, seeing what Jason did right now, he even forgot that he was a teacher as he stared at the worst student in awe.

`Who was this idiot, thinking that his mana control was bad?? … Why the hell is he only at the Novice rank????????`

Till was even more confused than before.. With the abilities he saw, there was no way for Jason to be only at the novice rank… He should be atl least at the expert stage with such capabilities...

One could only see a handsome looking teacher with blond hair standing on a tree, looking dumbfounded at a mana cocoon for two more hours.

*2 hours later*

Jason secreted tons of a black smelly liquid as he took off his reeking clothes.

Unfortunately that wasn´t enough for him to smell good once again, when Jason remembered that there was a lake below him.

He was 30 meters above it but that wasn´t something to care about, as he glanced at the time.

There were 20 minutes left to cleanse himself and arrive at the arena which was definitely not enough for him.

Jumping down the stone arch naked, he was fortunate that nobody saw him.

He landed with a loud smash and his back hurt as he landed in an uncomfortable position.

Rushing out of the water, changing into a new set of clothes and running back to the arena, Jason didn't even notice a small group of third-graders who noticed Jason´s whole incident.

"Everyone saw that, right?" A small blue-haired girl asked with red cheeks.

"Yep" A red-haired girl with a voluptuous chest said next to her, smiling weirdly

"Me too me too" A small brown-haired youth said happily, as he jumped around amused.