Instead of going home, Max followed them towards the combat arena because he was now even more expectant to figure out more about Jason´s capabilities.

Now, he wanted to see his combat prowess, as he wanted to see what a 3rd Adept rank could do against other higher-ranked Adepts with amplifications that could even allow some students to reach the physique of an average Expert rank.

He didn´t know that Jason´s mana core size and physique were already at the 7th Adept stage which would astonish him slightly while Max was also unaware of Jason´s affinities.

The only thing he could estimate was Artemis affinity and Jason´s inherited affinity through that, while he could only tell that Artemis was a low-evolved beast at the moment.

But this wouldn´t mean she was already matured or how strong Jason´s soulbond could still grow.

As such, Max's curiosity was enormous and he wanted to see a satisfying fight.

Otherwise, he wouldn't leave the combat arena or force someone to spar with him in order to feel the excitement within him.

Walking around, Jason pondered who to pick as his prey, as he could roughly estimate the average strength of everyone.

As of now, it seemed as if most seats were occupied by students with a mana core size and physique of an 8th to 9th Adept, which was after their amplification from their soulbonds.

With that in mind, Jason´s 7th Adept rank seemed weaker, but that was not something he was bothered about because he could roughly estimate everyone's affinity rank and rough power outburst due to hundreds of tests with all kinds of students and provided information, he compared.

As such, Jason wanted to try something new when he saw a water affinity user with a 9th Adept mana core size.

His outer appearance was rather feeble and due to his water affinity, he estimated that his soulbond was at the mid-evolved rank, which was slightly higher than his ice affinity and on par with his fire affinity. 

Even so, Jason walked towards the feeble youth, who was weirdly enough avoided by everyone as he noticed three youths with a thick aura walking towards him.

It hadn't been long since he gained his seat and he didn't want to lose it once again.

As such he scanned through Jason and Seron´s mana core, only to notice that they weren't a problem for him to defeat, as his eyes darkened.

`Concealed?` The youth thought which caused him to have a bad premonition, as a concealment technique was either a sign of extreme wealth and power or that someone was at the magus rank, which the 14-year-old youth in front of him couldn´t be.

As such it had to be the first reason and he readied himself to lose his seat, as the black-haired golden-eyed youth in front of the group began to talk.

"I´ll challenge you. That's okay, right?"  Jason asked nonchalantly, which surprised the water affinity user greatly. 

`The 3rd Adept rank wants to challenge me?` Looking dumbfounded at him, Jason took it as a `yes` before he walked past the feeble youth onto the combat platform.

Since the last few weeks, Jason´s confidence soared and he wouldn't accept anyone that disregarded him anymore, which was a rather bad attitude.

As such, he decided to act according to his own desire, doing only what he wanted to.

Figuring out, that Jason walked past the youth, without considering the possibility of him denying his challenge, the student with the water affinity was unsure what to think.

'Am I a pushover or what?!'

If he declined the fight, he would lose, as such, it was only logical that they would fight right now, but his opponent could have at least waited for his answer instead of ignoring him?! 

This frustrated him and he immediately summoned his blue shining spear, as he entered the combat arena.

Right now, Jason was not even thinking about the youth in front of him, as he only gazed at the blue shining spear with a somewhat envious gaze.

All weapons he currently possessed were useless to him but he was too stingy to purchase new ones because he could just forge new weapons for a much cheaper price, while Jason could even assure their quality because he would make them by himself.

As such, his strongest cold weapon was his mid-grade-1 tempered Jade iron dagger, which could pierce through awakened beast hide at most.

It was today that Jason lamented about his non-existent equipment in front of Shane, as he almost begged him to let him forge some weapons out of the dozen perfectly purified jade iron bars he already made by himself.

Unfortunately, Shane was resolute in his decision to build up a perfect foundation for Jason, without accepting a major change in his plan.

Jason meanwhile, felt extremely frustrated because of that, as his daggers were almost worn out and about to shatter, which Shane didn't really care about, as long as he didn't venture outside the dome, where he could be protected.

The water affinity spear wielder noticed that Jason didn't even look at him which infuriated him even more, as Jason heard the AI counting down from which brought him back to reality.

His two daggers appeared within his hands as the AI initiated the start of their spar.

Weirdly enough, Jason noticed a new form of affinity user, as the feeble spear-wielder enveloped himself with a thick armor of firmly compressed water, which astounded him a lot.

Due to his water affinity being around the mid-evolved rank, the most compressed areas of the newly manifested water armor could defend against attacks at the same rank, which was extremely good against other opponents.

Unfortunately, his opponent was none other than Jason, who had his mana eyes activated consistently for a few weeks.

Sensing the mana circulation within the water armor, he could immediately tell, which areas the youth focused on the most and which areas were more unstable.

It was unfortunate for his opponent, but Jason didn´t want to drag the fight longer than necessary, as he summoned ten fist-sized ice needles at once, which he threw towards the charging youth.

WIth ten fist-sized ice needles, Jason targeted ten different areas that were all relatively unstable, as he began his own charge after executing the weightless steps technique in order to increase his speed by roughly 40%.

Thanks to his high mastery at the profound stage, his weightless step movement technique reached an extremely high amplification in speed, causing Jason to be on par with his opponent's speed.

Jason estimated the mana consumption of the spear wielders' water armor to be extremely high, which was also most likely the cause for the multiple unstable parts he perceived.

With this in mind, Jason knew that his opponent would most likely be unable to manifest other techniques or water affinity attacks at the same time.

As such, he obtained the chance to finish off his opponent faster than initially expected, as the spear wielder could barely deflect six ice needles at once while evading the other four.

However, what he hadn't expected was that the remaining ice needles exploded, with shards shooting into the unstable water armor, causing violent ripples to appear.

Unbeknownst to him, Jason already summoned a black fireball, which he shot at the distracted youth, who could barely handle his own water armor at the moment.

With the black fireball in front of him, he couldn't focus too much on the water armor that was still rippling and about to disperse, as he pierced out with his blue shining spear towards the oncoming fireball.

The black fireball exploding when it was split into two, Jason suddenly appeared next to the spear wielder, piercing into an unstable part of his water armor, which immediately dissolved.

Not wasting a millisecond, Jason twisted his body in order to avoid the spear thrust that shot towards him, as he turned his free dagger midair in his hand, before piercing it into the spear wielder's open chest, ending the battle.

[Victory, Jason Stella] the AI declared and Jason´s opponent was fortunate enough that he dulled his daggers with mana before their fight began, otherwise he would be either dead or heavily injured.

The spear wielder´s legs gave in as he collapsed on the ground with a shocked expression, not knowing how his opponent saw through his self-made technique´s flaw.

Meanwhile, Jason left the combat arena after telling his opponent to focus more on quality instead of quantity