Jason looked at Scorpio for a long time with a delighted expression. 

Even if it was not completely sure that his second soulbond could reach the awakened rank with the holy white bacuri fruit, there was at least some progress he was able to perceive.

It was enough for him to say that his experiment was a success.

Yet, he was still shocked about the pain transmitted by Scorpio. 

Nevertheless, Jason could sense Scorpio's desire to get stronger and break out of its shell n order to reach a higher rank. 

Maybe this desire was inspired by Jason who wanted to become stronger by all means without backing down against anyone.

Another reason could have been its innate desire to walk an individual path to the pinnacle without being held down from its racial limits.

Jason wouldn't know but it was definitely something good as he would rather nurture such an attitude than a lazy bun.

Scorpio was only five days old but he already reached the middle realms of a one-star wild beast and Jason asked himself how long it would take it to reach three-stars.

Fortunately, it was not only Scorpio that got stronger over the last five days since it was born but also Jason´s strength increased.

Because of the vast efforts he took, Jason was already halfway through towards the 7th Novice rank.

It would probably only take a week until he would be able to break through once again, which was exceptionally fast, adding the common hurdle between the 6th and 7th level.

A day before, his whole body began to ache and Scorpio´s share was slowly converted towards Jason.

This indicated that his mana core grew in size, his physique increased slightly while his soul energy also increased.

Scorpio was more of a physical beast than a beast with a high amount of mana or an affinity, except its natural poison.

As such Jason´s physique or rather the toughness of his skin, bones, flesh and so were tempered and refined.

While his rank was at the 6th Novice stage, his mana core size which was already at the 7th level was getting closer to the 8th level while his physique reached the 7th level.

Once Scorpio matured, his physique and mana core would be roughly at the same stage because Artemis gave him more mana than a physical enhancement while Scorpio was the complete opposite.

While both his physique and Mana core size were at the 7th level, the biggest change came from his soul energy. 

Scorpio was still at the one-star rank and used up one soul energy while it provided ⅓ point, which would increase with his soulbond maturing. As such, Jason´s soul energy was constantly increasing thanks to his soulbonds and his own efforts to refine his soul energy daily.

Compared to the time he had only one soul energy, Jason´s daily increase in soul energy already surpassed his expectations by a lot due to him practicing the Heaven's Hell technique three times.

From Artemis, he obtains around 1.32 soul energy while Scorpio provides 0.33 right now, and only five days ago, Jason´s innate soul energy was around 5.38, altogether 6.7 without considering Scorpio.

But now, Jason´s overall soul energy crossed already 7 units or more exactly 7.2 units.

For most soul-awakenings, this would be a bad start but comparing 7.2 to his past, almost non-existent soul energy, it was a vast difference and delighted Jason.

It was Sunday and Greg was at home, looking at the exercises they had to do.

Jason wasn't interested in Greg´s homework because he had already done his own homework.

Furthermore, the exercises Greg had to do were not really worth his attention because he knew the answers.

Even though Jason liked to obtain more knowledge, the information provided by his school were not really worth mentioning. 

Jason already knew most things as he had already read through most books before.

Scorpio was playing inside Jason´s hair while Artemis was still evolving inside his soul world.

Normally Scorpio would also be in the soul world but he was like Artemis and liked being physically close with Jason, which was slightly weird for a Scorpion with a venom-injecting barb, but Jason didn't mind it.

He had already been accidentally stung by Scorpio previously and noticed that he was immune to his poison.

The sting itself wasn't that deep because it was only playing with Jason and didn´t hurt much.

Time passed and Jason helped out Greg with his homework only to become a sparring partner with Jason as he wanted to practice the foundational martial arts techniques.

Greg suppressed his strength to one of 6th Novice rank and they began practicing all kinds of basic techniques.

While Jason was nimble and used many different technique sequences, Greg was rather crude and rough as he used his tough physique to crush Jason in the past.

But Jason knew all of that and was using that brute force to practice quick and lethal attacks with a wooden dagger, while Greg could use all kinds of weapons.

And like Leo Heart, Greg used gloves.

Somehow, Jason felt that gloves were popular weapons used by physical fighters.

This however was really good for Jason who wanted to find out his flaws as they fought for 30 minutes until Jason had to give up with many bruises covering his whole body.

Even if Greg suppressed his strength, he was still overwhelmed by his physique and innate battle strength. 

Greg learned better martial art techniques, furthermore, he was more proficient in fighting due to his few years more battle experience.

Jason instead only began to see anything slightly over two months ago, which was his real starting point for the real world.

He was able to perceive each of Greg´s moves but after some time he wasn´t able to evade the attacks anymore, and counterattacking wasn't an option for him at the moment.

He was still not experienced enough but he felt that he was getting closer and closer to Greg at the same rank and level. 

If Jason would learn some more techniques instead of the basics all the time, he might be able to evade Greg´s fast and lethal Tier-1 first martial art technique.

But during the whole week, Jason went to school,  there didn´t seem to be any signs of martial art training or new techniques for the students to learn which disappointed him somewhat, even if he was able to improve his mana absorbing speed by a lot.

What was the use of having a high mana core rank when one couldn´t use the received strength to the fullest potential?

With this thought, Jason continued with his daily workout just like that, before he continued reading the herb and magical plants books until Jason fully memorized them.

Jason never forgot to practice the Heaven's Hell technique three times a day as it was already imprinted in his bones.

**

Entering the classroom the next day, there were already many of his classmates gossiping with each other as Jason heard one of the students saying something about an assignment.

This attracted Jason´s curiosity but he couldn´t ask anyone, as the front door opened.

Mr. Greil entered the room when he dropped the information everyone was waiting for, immediately after they greeted each other.

"Some of you have already heard the news and the first school-assignment is out. Because I could decide which one to take, there will be some fun for everyone.

Because I know everyone is longing to learn a new and mighty martial arts technique, I´ll teach everyone that passes the assignment a martial arts technique for the remaining week.

If someone can't fulfill my demand, there will be no reward and he or she will be punished.

That means the faster one submits the assignment the longer he or she can learn the chosen martial art technique from me. 

After this week is over, I´ll never explain anything about the chosen technique again, except another assignment I gave out was finished and submitted on time"  Mr. Greil said

Somehow this sounded a little bit wishy-washy for everyone and it was difficult to understand their own teacher but the meaning was somewhat understandable.

Submitting the given assignment as fast as possible would give one the chance to learn a new martial art technique from their teacher until this week was over.

`Isn't it the job of our teacher to teach us martial art techniques?!?` That was the thought in almost everyone's mind but the next words struck everyone like a bolt of lightning.

"If someone is wondering, I´m not talking about peak tierless or common tier 1 martial art techniques… You´ll be able to choose any technique I learned during my whole life, which includes some tier-3 techniques, special and unique techniques, also called skills by many.

I think that should be encouraging enough, right?"

The whole classroom was silent until a thunderstorm of roars and cheers resounded through the whole room, while Jason was only silently looking at his teacher

`Tier-3 skills?? Who the f*** are you?? I don´t believe you're a normal teacher…. `

Tier-3 techniques were considered the treasures from Astrix and they were even considered rare on Canir, causing Jason to suspect his teacher.

`Talking about unique or special techniques?? Please... What are you doing on the Archipelagos.. Shouldn´t you be on Canir, leading some sect or staying inside a castle as a prince of one of the kingdoms?` 

Jason was more than dumbfounded and he wanted to question his teacher about it but he remained silent.

The other students were all way too happy to hear something like that, to notice anything amiss.

There were always exceptions, as a few smarter youths understood the meaning of a tier-3 technique.

But their teacher wouldn't just give them such a technique and the next sentence instantly soured the mood.

"The first assignment for everyone will be to kill 10 beasts that are two stages above your rank.

My requirements are simple. You have to do it with your own strength without the usage of mana guns, mana-, soul weapons, other instant killing weapons, or something similar I didn´t name. 

Soulbeats are not allowed for this assignment, so don't use them.

Teaming with other classmates is also forbidden.

You have to hunt these beasts alone!

Other than that you may use everything you want. You can trap beasts or try to assassinate them. I don't care about that.

Another requirement is that you have to record everything with the video braces I´ll hand out.

There is a button on the side and once it starts blinking, it will start recording.

The device is already filled with mana and the battery can hold out for more than a week.

For the first assignment, there won't be a punishment but it will never as easy to receive bountiful rewards like today, EVER again.

As such, give your best!" 

While video braces came flying to all students with the help of their teacher's mana, everyone's face looked sour.

Defeating ten beasts two stages higher than oneself without a team or one's soulbonds? 

Was their teacher kidding them?

Each rank was divided into three stages and the levels 1st to 3rd counted as the beginner stage while 4th to 6th was the intermediate stage and the 7th to 9th was the advanced stage.

That means if one was at the 3rd Adept rank like most students in this class, they would have to defeat a late awakened beast which was a vast difference in strength.

If one could use their soulbond, this wouldn't be considered problematic because most students that were accepted at this school had a late awakened beast as the worst soulbond, without considering Jason´s situation.

Leo Heart for example was at the 5th Adept rank and he would have to defeat a low-Evolved beast… how should he do that.

It was definitely a huge challenge but even after getting to know that it was extremely difficult, the benefits one could receive were huge enough to give it a try.

Without further ado, everyone began to rush out of the classroom after Mr.Greil finished his explanations.

Only Jason was left behind in an empty classroom with his teacher.

Mr.Greil noticed Jason looking at him when Jason asked.

"Is it really okay for me to use everything except the weapons described, and a team?" 

He had a rough idea of what he should do but he wanted to ask before implementing them in his actions.

"Do as you wish" He only said and Jason recorded it as evidence because he didn´t trust his own teacher before he walked out of the school with a faint smile on his face when he entered the online shop.