After Jason worked out in the morning and washed up, he just ate a small breakfast, before he called the shuttle that drove him to school.

Practicing the Heaven's Hell technique, his soul energy increased almost by a whole unit causing him to grin widely, as he left the shuttle arrived in front of school.

It was still early in the morning and previously he wanted to meet Shane and Dalia now, as he finished all required books, but he received a message from them, saying that he should come the day after, which soured Jason´s mood by a lot.

The only contact he had with the two of them was the exchange of a spatial ring he received from Till with the commission from the goblin basement.

Jason hoped they would talk at least for a few minutes but Shane only appeared in front of him, took the spatial ring, and disappeared, completely disregarding his existence, which frustrated him and made him extremely angry.

And now, they wouldn't even meet up with him? Were they really his masters? Jason was extremely infuriated but he had to calm down as the temperature around him fluctuated by increasing a few degrees before it plumbed almost to zero degrees within a single second.

He forgot that he practiced with his fire and ice affinity by utilizing both of them all day long.

With his outburst of emotions, the control over his affinities became unstable, causing them to be released, but fortunately, Jason was in the open and not somewhere inside.

There was still some time left before the special combat class would start and today, Jason would have to work extremely hard, if he was to be challenged by some students from other affiliated schools.

One couldn't say that he was scared and rather than that, he felt motivated and even excited to show his progress to others. 

Over the last month, Jason´s proficiency with his ice affinity soared and reached the familiar proficiency, while his black origin flame reached the experienced mastery.

With enough mana supplied, Jason was able to do almost everything he wanted with his black origin flame, while the control over his ice affinity was still relatively rough, even more so after Artemis broke into the low-evolved rank, as his ice affinity increased equally.

The affinity seed would change if its strength increased or also decreased which was also possible if the contracted beast shattered its affinity or degenerated it by digesting a magical treasure with the exact opposite elemental affinity, which was a fire affinity in Artemis case, and the proficiency would in return lessen by a certain degree.

As such, Jason would have to work hard to practice with both affinities, because was sure that they would increase in power with him.

The black origin flame would evolve into a tier-1 origin flame somewhen in the future, while Artemis' mana core was increasing steadily with her absorbing magical ranked mana cores.

Artemis was able to digest a whole magical ranked mana core within a week and her strength increased after she digested the third one. 

The difference to before was, however, that Artemis didn´t have to go to sleep in order to digest the violent mana from the magical ranked cores which was a huge benefit.

As such, Jason bought a bulk of magical ranked mana cores to provide enough for Artemis' future development.

The only thing that bothered Jason, was Scorpio´s mood after it noticed that it reached the racial cap in addition to the increased limit it received from eating the holy white bacuri fruit.

This was devastating information for Scorpio and only after reassuring it, that Dalia was able to increase its potential, Scorpio calmed down.

Practicing with the two affinities inside him, Artemis pressured herself a little bit by flying through the forest with a decent speed in order to train her reflexes, movement speed while she adjusted to her strength with every day passing.

When it was lunchtime, Jason practiced the Heaven's Hell technique smoothly in 70 minutes which was insanely fast, considering that his soul energy increased by a few times over the last few weeks.

His soul energy was extremely pure and stable due to its multiple refinings every single day.

Smiling lightly, Jason ate something before he went to the combat arena.

Not even fifteen minutes passed before Jason saw a huge mass of students lingering in front of the combat arena, waiting for something or someone and a bad premonition build-up within Jason.

Walking towards the combat arena, the students in front of the combat arena gazed at him hostile, before they noticed his uniform in addition to his 6th affiliated class 54 emblem.

Seeing the emblem on Jason´s uniform, the surrounding youths stared at him like hyenas and he immediately understood the situation in front of him.

Smiling brightly, he lifted his head and ignored the surrounding youths' whole existence before he walked into the combat arena, through the students' group.

And when Jason finally entered the combat arena, the predicted reaction came into play, as he could hear multiple loud voices complaining, stirring up chaos.

"What an a***ole…" 

"WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?"

"Class 54? Let's beat him up later!!" 

Jason could only smile at their reaction but he was rather disappointed as he hoped for a more chaotic reaction.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen and Jason had to be satisfied with the somewhat slacking reaction.

Nevertheless, while walking through the masses of students, Jason noticed a few things which were interesting and anticlimactic at the same time.

Jason knew that the 6th affiliated Vanguard school was one of the weakest and it was noticeable by comparing the mana core ranks from the other affiliated school to theirs, but somehow the students he saw in front of the combat arena seemed extremely weak? 

If he wasn't wrong, there didn't seem to be any of Vanguard's main school students among them, while multiple other affiliated Vanguard schools could be seen.

Nevertheless, most of them were at the 6th Adept rank, which was only one level above the average of their special combat class.

There were also stronger students at the 7th Adept rank, but the amplification they received from their soul due to the soulbond they contracted seemed lacking, while Jason only saw a few 8th Adept ranks and not a single 9th Adept rank.

Walking into their assigned combat ground, Jason saw Seron as the first one and his mana core at the 5th Adept rank could be seen brimming with energy.

Seron's rank increased by two levels over the past month but he was still at most on par with Jason's combat prowess more likely even weaker as Jason held back with his most lethal affinity attacks while Serons did the same with his mana injections, even though he still used them.

Jason's increase in combat prowess was insane and Seron admired him for his persistence and endurance to hone his skills, train his proficiency and widen his horizon by reading for the whole day, which he couldn't do before.

Only after getting to know Jason, he began to understand what ambition and determination really meant, and seeing Jason´s fast progress, Seron didn't want to be left behind, increasing his aptitude towards mana by a lot, as his ambition heightened.

After greeting each other, Jason looked at Till, who nodded at him as he was the last one to arrive before he turned towards the whole group as he announced.

"STUDENTS! Pay attention to everything in the next few hours... If any of you want to remain on their special combat class spot, be aware that you have to fight with all your might.

A single step might immediately throw you off…."

Turning to the closed combat arena door, he announced

"AI, open the door and let the first wave begin!"  and the doors opened slowly, revealing a group of hungry hyenas, also called students.