It was already afternoon when Jason found a decent spot with a high mana flow within the forest.

He wasn't sure if he would be able to break through until the next day but Jason wanted to give it a try.

The only thing he wanted to do in between was practicing the Heaven's Hell technique.

Taking out a bunch of grade-1 mana stones, Scorpio jumped around happily on his shoulder, before he leaped on his lap.

Without delaying any further, Scorpio curled up and began absorbing the released mana.

Looking at this, Jason smiled joyously and began to lose countless threads from the mana stones around him at the same time.

Leading the mana within towards him in addition to the mana in his surrounding, a huge mass of foreign mana invaded his mana channels.

Circulating the mana within his cleansed channels was much easier after undergoing the baptism but the sheer amount of mana that invaded him was also higher forcing him to focus completely on circulating the mana within him before he injected into his mana core to annex it.

The feeling of circulating mana and annexing it into his mana core made Jason ecstasy and it was even better compared to the day.

Sitting between trees within nature, absorbing nature's mana besides the compressed mana within mana stones was refreshing and Jason felt immediately much more vigorous than before.

Jason didn´t even know how much time passed and he only subconsciously noticed the sun going under.

His initial plan was to practice the heaven´s hell technique now, but that was unimportant for Jason right now, as he felt his body being slowly filled up with the mana in his surroundings and the addicting feeling enveloping him, filling his eyes with desire. 

Instead of annexing the whole mana into his mana core, Jason also decided to fill up his mana eyes more, which he previously neglected.

But that would change now.

With his thousands of mana stones inside his spatial store, he had more than enough mana to fill his mana core and at the same time his eyes to a certain extent.

Furthermore, it had only been a week since he entered the Adept rank and with his cleansed mana channels, his passive mana gathering technique caused his mana core to be filled extremely fast.

It only took him a week to reach the barrier between the 1st and the 2nd Adept rank, which was extremely fast.

Normally one would need roughly a few months to reach each of the first three Adept ranks, considering that one possessed an average mana aptitude.

There were always differences between each individual and sometimes it would take longer or shorter.

In addition to the mana aptitude, the amplification from beasts was also an important factor as one had to fill a much larger mana core caused by the soul world´s amplification increasing its size.

The average of youths in mana core ranks was that one needed slightly more than three to four years from the novice to the adept rank as the beginning was the most difficult with exploring the meaning of mana, how it worked, and how to circulate it without damaging the mana channels, while the average age for children to sense mana was 10. 

Most children couldn´t understand the importance of mana, as such, they were rather lazy with their mana absorption until they regretted it someday.

After one had entered the Adept rank, someone with an average mana aptitude would need roughly five years to enter the Expert rank.

From then on their range of an average mana aptitude changed and it was unknown how long one would need.

The amplification of soulbonds made exact researches almost impossible but it wondered Jason, that he only needed a week to almost completely fill his mana core at the 1st Adept rank with a size of a 4th Adept rank.

Maybe it was only thanks to baptism, but Jason estimated that his next breakthrough would take much longer, considering that not only his mana core would increase in size thanks to him entering the 2nd Adept rank soon, but Artemis evolution also played a big role.

Artemis' evolution was still a mystery for Jason but he was already excitedly waiting for her to come back to him.

Jason was still carefully circulating the mana within his mana channels and injected it into his mana core while time passed without him noticing that it was already dark outside.

Only when the mana he absorbed from the outside lessened, Jason opened his eyes once again.

The mana stones around him turned gray and couldn´t be differentiated from normal stones anymore.

Looking around Jason´s perplexed expression told more than a thousand words as he had no idea that it was already dark outside.

Messaging the Fler´s, he notified them, that he wouldn't come back today because he believed that he would be able to break through into the 2nd Adept rank if he worked hard enough for the next few hours.

Taking a glance at Scorpio, Jason saw with astonishment, that Scorpio´s exoskeletons gleamed faintly, and activating his mana eyes, he was taken aback to see an almost invisible small affinity seed being constructed

'This small fella is working hard, let´s also work hard!!' Jason thought while he glanced at Scorpio.

Taking out double the amount of grade-1 mana stones than before, Jason once again loosened up mana threads, leading them right into him.

Groaning from the sudden surge of mana, he immediately began to sweat but with the help of his passive mana gathering and refining technique, actively absorbing the mana was much easier.

As such he could take the sheer amount of mana rather after adjusting for a short moment before Jason once again lost track of time.

Without him knowing, he had even completely forgotten to practice the Heaven's Hell technique which was rather important.

Overflowing with mana, his determination to absorb it increased even more, and Jason smoothly absorbed it into his mana core after he circulated it carefully through his mana veins.

It was almost a single movement, without much time wasted and the suction force of Jason slowly accelerated.

The mana in his surroundings began to enveloped him, separating him from the outside.

Compressing around Jason, the mana looked like a cocoon upon closer inspection.

While the cocoon grew in size, Jason greedily absorbed the mana from within, without feeling even a tiny bit tired.

Hours passed and the sun began to ascend, shining on a paper-thin cocoon, which enveloped Jason.

An even thinner membrane of impurities stuck to Jason's clothes and it was mostly the impurities his body generated after the baptism.

Opening his eyes slowly, Jason´s golden eyes flicked vigorously with a tiny black flame shimmering far in the back, demanding to grow stronger as it sensed more and more soul energy within Jason´s soul world core.

Standing up, he noticed the thin film of impurities enveloping him.

He didn´t take off his clothes but turned into a black burning torch in order to ignite the impurities on him which immediately incinerated like his clothes.

With this, he wouldn't have to wash up immediately. 

Looking at the quantum watch, he noticed a few messages and also the time.

It was 5 am and Jason nodded his head.

Inspecting his own body, he could only laugh out loud, still naked.

He had reached the 2nd Adept rank only one week after he had entered the 1st Adept rank which could only be described as fast.

Even though he noticed that his mana core wouldn't be able to keep up with this speed, he was still extremely proud of his achievement.

Inspecting the size of his mana core, Jason knew that he was infinitely close to the 5th Adept rank, while his physique was also extremely close to the 5th Adept rank.

Scorpio woke up from its affinity seed construction because Jason threw him from his lap unconsciously.

Seeing its master laughing while being naked was a funny sight and Scorpio transmitted what it saw to Jason.

Struck by a lightning, he immediately stopped moving.

Clothes appeared out of his spatial ring and he wore them, without caring about Scorpio´s weird sounds, trying to imitate a laugher in his mind.

Ignoring Scorpio, Jason entered the soul world as nonchalant as possible.

Around Artemis there was only a thin sheet of mana and snowflakes and Jason could faintly see Artemis´ outlines which didn't seem to have changed that much.

'Soon!' Jason thought happily, as he went closer to his soul world core, which increased by one unit thanks to him breaking into the 2nd Adept rank.

With a soul energy of 18.2 units, Jason practiced the Heaven's Hell technique within 84 minutes, increasing it once again by 0.1 units.

It was already 6:30 am and before Jason did anything else, he replied to the messages from the Fler´s group chat.

Everyone asked him why he stayed outside and only now did he reply that he cultivated through the night which eased the others' worries a lot.

It was not as if Jason was a relative of them but to the Fler´s he felt comfortable, even though he knew almost nothing about them.

Jason knew that it might be foolish but his heart warmed up because they worried about him.

Even Mark was worried since the incident about last time's unannounced stay out was imprinted in his mind.

After the incident happened, Mark researched about the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit and the extremely shallow information was devastating, causing him to feel sorry for Jason, who had to endure such a terrible thing.

Mark also felt that Jason´s ambition and determination were incomparable with anyone he knew, even his daughter who was a genius, wasn't that ambition to grow strong as Jason.

As such, each unannounced stay out would worry not only Mark but all family members, even though they didn't know what was going on.

They tried to distract themselves by reading books, absorbing mana, and sparring with each other but it was only partially helpful.

Sensing the Fler´s genuine love and caring for him, he felt honored and warm around his heart.

He swore himself, that he would tell them more information the next time he would stay out, even though he couldn't tell them everything as he would probably stay with Shane and Dalia sometimes.

As such a slight tinge of guilt built up within Jason, before anything even happened.

Suddenly Jason´s whole body cooled down and he shivered while his temperature decreased, visibly changing his appearance.

The surroundings temperature plummed by a few degrees and a confused expression appeared on Jason´s face, as his soul world began to shake violently.

"Little Princess, are you already done?"  Jason thought with a bright smile on his ice-cold face.