More than half an hour passed before Jason decided to stand up.

The special combat class started a few minutes ago, but Jason straightened his back in a nonchalant manner before he turned into the combat arena's direction.

Artemis with her large body was squeezing herself on Jason´s shoulder and he tried to take a good look at her.

Her plumage was pure white and, while the horns on her forehead were pitch-black in contrast.

Considering her previous black eyes, Artemis had now blue eyes and the infused mana in her blood was much higher in purity compared to before.

But her mana core was odd and Jason only knew that Artemis was at the peak-awakened rank while her soul energy requirement was at 90 units.

From Artemis pure combat prowess, Jason thought she might be able to defeat low-evolved beasts thanks to her affinity in addition to the constant supply of mana that was infused into her blood.

It was only weird, that Jason had never heard of a one-meter long owl race with blue piercing eyes and black horns.

As such he didn´t really know anything about Artemis' racial limits, except the things she transmitted him.

From her ice affinity, Jason could tell that it was at least at the peak-awakened stage, which caused him to wonder if the ice affinity would grow with Artemis, or if that was the peak of her racial limit.

The latter was rather unlikely and Jason smiled, feeling Artemis' weight on his shoulder, while he walked towards the combat arena.

Jason was more than half an hour late for the special combat class, which attracted some attention because he was the highlight of the first huge special combat class sparring.

With his low mana core rank, he 'easily' defeated the 6th affiliated Vanguard school top 2 first-graders, using his special trait eyes with the support of Seron Gier, who was also seen as a mystery by everyone.

Seeing Jason walking into the combat arena with Artemis on his shoulder, everyone looked at him with variations of different expressions.

Astonishment, anger, ambition, determination, fear, and multiple more.

They were astonished to see Artemis on his should because they never saw such an owl race.

Furthermore, it was normally forbidden to summon one´s soulbond out of the soul world during lessons, once they reached a certain height.

Small soulbonds would not attract the attention of others or hinder them in any way but Artemis radiated a noble and elegant aura which attracted the attention of her surrounding subconsciously.

Traces of anger could only be seen in the top students' eyes and they couldn't accept that the student with the weakest mana core rank of their special combat class was able to defeat their best student.

This was unacceptable for them but even if that was the case, fear made up the majority of their emotions, causing them to not challenge Jason or Seron needlessly.

They were scared to end like Milo and Bella.

The slightly weaker special combat class students that would most likely be replaced in a month remembered Jason´s fight against someone seven levels above his own rank, motivating them while ambition and determination slowly accumulated within them.

Without ambition and determination, they wouldn't be able to reach higher mana core realms, as such they had to find someone they could look up to.

Jason's spar the day before was charismatic and dominating, causing them to feel a certain reverence towards Jason, filling them with their ambition and determination.

When he walked down to the combat arena, he tried to test out his newly obtained ice affinity, but it was much harder than he expected.

Nothing really worked the way he wanted and he could only lament that his fire origin flame affinity was much easier to handle.

This was probably because the black Origin flame soulbond was at the same time his affinity, which would listen to his transmitted thought, while Jason had to learn more about the ice affinity he received from Artemis by himself.

It seemed logical and Jason decided to train his ice and fire ability more in the future, as he could still see many areas of improvement everywhere.

His affinities were strong enough for him to defeat someone with higher mana core ranks and his ice affinity was at the peak of the awakened rank, while his black fire affinity was at the mid/late-evolved rank.

With that, he might even be able to defeat someone at the later adept ranks, as long as his proficiency with his affinities heightened, even though his mana core rank and physique were much weaker.

Not everything depends on one's physique and mana core rank, otherwise one wouldn't learn tactics, knowledge about landscapes, weaknesses, and strengths of one's enemies, and contracting soulbonds with strong affinities would become useless.

Till noticed Jason being late, but he didn't consider that as important after seeing Artemis on his shoulder.

`What owl-beast is that?` He wondered because he had never seen an owl-like Jason´s soulbond, turning him curious.

Jason walked towards him before he said

"Mr. Greil, I´m sorry for being late, Artemis' evolution finished this morning, and adjusting to her amplification turned out to take longer than expected." 

But instead of caring about that, Till noticed something else which astonished him.

"You already broke into the second Adept rank?" he asked bewildered, clearly remembering that Jason broke into the Adept rank only a week ago.

Nodding faintly, the surrounding students began to gossip, but it wasn't even closely comparable to their teacher's astonished face in addition to Seron who heard what his master asked.

Scanning Jason´s mana core Seron´s eyes widened as he asked himself in shock, what kind of beast Jason was.

`I need to work harder!` Seron thought, clearly remembering that Jason only broke into the Adept rank a week ago.

The difference between the first and the second Adept rank was always seen as the first step into cultivation, as the difference between the Adept ranks began to widen, in addition to the soulbonds amplification.

One could say that everyone followed a different path, considering what kind of beast they could contract and if they wanted to follow the path of a larger mana core size or a stronger physique. 

Some tried to maintain a sole mana core size increase with small physique enhancements from their soulbonds to use their affinity in a larger variation, while others focused more on their physique with all of their different paths, like agility, endurance, strength, and so on.

Most parents told their children stories about wizards ruling the elements, warriors destroying mountains, and many more different paths one could take, as the number of soulbonds one could contract was numbered.

Being an allrounder was extremely difficult with a low amount of space for soulbonds within one's soul, as such it was better to be the best in a single field in order to defeat beasts and enemies in this way, while the soul-awakening could also prevent certain paths, by awakening a physical soul without being compatible with any element.

There were always people following multiple strengthening paths thanks to their high soul energy and soulbond space, but Jason could be considered as an exception.

If his soul energy was also vast in addition to his current soul, Jason would probably be the top of the Vanguard school of all grades, without even the need for anyone to reconsider it. 

After Jason finished talking to Till, who looked a little bit complicated at him, he saw Seron.

Greeting each other, Jason introduced his first soulbond Artemis to Seron, who could only weirdly greet her back.

'Why is there a need to introduce his soulbond?'  Seron thought in his mind but he didn't say it out loud, because some connections between soulbonds and their contractor were special, causing them to be like Jason.

Challenging Seron to a fight, Jason wanted to figure out more about his ice affinity.

Walking towards the combat area, Jason and Seron attracted a lot of unwanted attention, but there wasn't much for them to do against it, as they were seen as the most threatening opponents in this whole special combat class, even though Jason was only at the 2nd Adept rank while Seron was at the 3rd Adept rank.

Their physique and mana core size was roughly the same, with Jason being only slightly stronger after he received the amplification provided by Artemis.

Jason was already halfway through towards the 6th Adept rank, while Seron was on point at the 5th Adept rank in both mana core size and physique, which wondered Jason.

His soulbond was a slime without any enhancement in physique normally, but somehow he still increased his physique. 

But it didn´t really matter and Jason stood opposite Seron, who radiated a distinct fighting spirit.

Waiting for the AI to start the spar, Jason already circulated mana within him, in order to test out his ice affinity, while Artemis sat on the bench, looking around with curiosity.

When the signal rang out, Seron exerted his floating sky technique to the fullest as his speed accelerated from zero to 100% within a moment.

This move was something Seron had thought of and previously his speed would only slowly increase but now with his explosive increase of speed, he would be able to overwhelm Jason.

His eyesight was extraordinary and he could easily follow Seron's path but the problem he had to face right now was different.

'How do I erect an ice wall or something like that?' He asked himself with an odd expression as Seron appeared in front of him with his sword thrust forward.

Releasing his ice affinity with all his might, the only thing that happened, was a large mass of crackling ice particles spreading out from his hand preventing anyone from seeing both Jason and Seron clashing with each other.

Suddenly, the surrounding turned silent and the only thing that could be heard was the AI announcing.

[Winner: Seron Gier] 

Everyone could only look at the ice mist in front of them weirdly.

'Why was Jason defeated so quickly? Why is he so weak?  Was something wrong?'

Nobody could understand anything at all and even Seron who´s sword almost pierced Jason looked at him dumbfounded with question marks in his eyes.

"Ups," Jason said with a childish smile as he looked at Seron "that was my fault!"