Only a few minutes later, Jason stood in front of the familiar lake within the lush forest, when space in front of him twisted. 

He didn't even need to activate the covered rune in order to notify Shane about his arrival, as he was already pulled through the manifesting spatial portal.

Artemis looked after him, diving straight into the portal in order to follow her master.

Looking at Shane and Dalia in confusion, Jason immediately noticed that something was off.

"What's wrong?" was the only thing he could ask, because there was not a single clue on his masters´ faces, telling him anything at all.

Only one particular thing could create such a weird atmosphere.

`Are they already aware of my decision?` Jason asked in his mind when Dalia said

"Nothing special, but maybe you want to tell us something? Like something about the four-star rift and a leave of absence?" 

`How?` Jason´s mouth twitched and he didn't know what exactly he should say, except the truth as he wondered how fast their connections were.

Either Till called or messaged Shane, or they figured out this information from someone else

But even if they already knew about his decision, he had to confront them directly, without any hesitation.

"I wanted to tell you two about this today. I´ll enter the four-star rift with the Fler´s oldest child and her team. Their combat prowess is roughly at the mid-Master rank and with their soulbonds, it shouldn't be difficult to survive against medium-large groups of unblemished ranked beasts.

With my mana eyes, we can even evade perilous areas and beast hordes, right? Everything should be fine, as long as nothing out of the ordinary happens. 

Furthermore, in order to rely on myself slightly, I´ll purchase a mana storage device and a strong gun in addition to other items. "

Jason tried to explain everything as if it was extremely easy and nothing special, but Shane and Dalia knew about rifts' dangers much more than he did.

However, seeing their disciple´s ambition and determination, they were sure of the fact that they couldn't tell him his idea. 

This led them to sigh deeply, as they lamented about their decision to take a hot-headed and stubborn youth as their disciple.

In the end, they had to ensure Jason´s survival, in every case, which was not possible thanks to the four-star rift´s restriction, preventing any of them to follow him secretly.

With this, their options were extremely limited.

The worst issue, however, was that Shane was messaged by Old Drake who wanted to figure out if Shane was insane to let his disciple enter the four-star rift.

Not knowing what was going on, Shane was astonished that the normally calm Old Drake was so enraged until he finally understood what he meant.

Being informed from someone else, that Jason would enter the four-star rift, and not from their own disciple who didn't even consider discussing such an important decision with them, was extremely painful for their old, feeble heart.

Shane and Dalia considered it fortunate that Old Drake was the Vanguard school's principal, while he also governed Astrix island.

If the former was not the case, Old Drake wouldn't know about such a thing, as the destination of the third-year students' expeditions was not something anyone else would get to know.

Not only didn't Jason talk to them about it before, but Shane also had to listen to Old Drake´s complaints about his reckless actions, without him being able to retort anything at all.

After getting to know Jason´s special trait, Old Drake considered the black-haired youth as a prodigy on par with Max´s, and nurturing him would bring shocking benefits to humanity while acting recklessly might, as it seemed to be the case, could even kill him.

If Jason were to die it would be a huge loss to humanity.

From his vast knowledge about the current situation at the archipelago´s and Canir, Old Drake was sure that the newest generation of soul-awakened youths was the most powerful one that ever existed with an unimaginable number of special three-star and many four-star soul-awakenings.

The current soul-awakening star rating was seen as useless by many big clans, with the exception of one and two stars, as they were considered below average or garbage.

Only a few particular two 1/2-star soul-awakenings could be considered extremely outstanding with their vast soul energy but a small soul world or the complete opposite existed.

Ordinary citizens didn't know the devasting difference between two and two and a half star soul-awakening, because every examiner at the Beast Pagoda would label useless awoken souls with average characteristics at two stars, while a single unique and out of ordinary characteristic that might be able to change everything, was sometimes enough to rate a soul-awakening with two and a half stars.

Every rating at three-stars and above would mean that the soul-awakening had either one extremely powerful five-star factor or a decent balance, while four-star soul-awakening indicated one unique factor with the rest being above average and they were called Heaven´s will soul awakenings

As for five-star ratings, also called God´s Childs, their soul world´s size, soul energy, and other aspects had to be superior and extremely high rated.

There were only a few of these individuals over the last 300 years and each of them was a powerhouse that could defeat anyone on their own rank with ease.

Unfortunately, some of them were too full of themselves, causing them to lose their lives too early before humanity could benefit from them.

If they were nurtured under safe proximity, humanity´s stance against the foreign races might have already been much better until now, but apparently, this was not the case.

Old Drake was confident in the new generation but they had to be nurtured in order to fight against the foreign intelligent races.

As for Jason´s irresponsible act to enter a four-star rift while being at the Adept rank, Old Drake could only see this as extremely naive and dumb, which caused him to act up in front of Shane, which he wouldn´t do under normal circumstances, as he was extremely weak thanks to his injury and nothing against Shane if he were to be enraged about his outburst.

In the end, Shane even explained the situation to Old Drake, causing him to curse Jason´s personality.

However, both of them were sure that they couldn't force anything on the youngster if he didn't want to.

Jason was unsure what his masters were thinking of, as he and Artemis who sat on his shoulder stared at them, waiting awkwardly. 

A few minutes passed which felt extremely uncomfortable to him, as Shane sighed once again, before saying.

"I don't think we can prevent you from venturing into the four-star rift, which is definitely not a playground for any humans, but you should already know that...Yesterday Dalia and I prepared a few things for you, that might help you within the rift… We have to upgrade your equipment to the best outcome... Furthermore, with a few tricks, we´ll be able to ensure your safety to a certain degree…" 

Thinking for a moment, Shane took out a large parcel which landed in front of Jason´s feet, as he said "This is a present from both of us. I can explain everything later, take a look first" 

Jason wasn´t even listening to what Shane said, as he saw the different colors radiating from within the parcel, shocking him slightly.

His mana eyes could already detect the outlines of what was inside, as his mind finally comprehended everything Shane said before.

"These are gifts for me?"  Jason exclaimed foolishly, not minding his masters frowning at him, as he estimated the price for everything within, solely by the radiating color he perceived.

Opening the parcel, his eyes widened, and even Artemis was astonished to perceive something in particular