Five days passed with a new week starting when the Big-Three school's announced that they would continue with their lessons, while they also reassured that the Big-Three tournament would start one month from the new week on.

However, Jason didn't care about anything like this at all, because the only thing he spent the last five days on was trying to understand the two blessed, or rather Terra graded techniques, which included the 'casual' information in the introduction part of what exactly the technique could do.

While the Netherworld's fort technique he read at first was a Terra-Intermediate technique, the other technique, which came probably from Shane's family clan, was called Darkness proselytism and was a Terra-Basic technique.

With this, Jason's assumption about the further grading of techniques was proven, but this didn't help him much, because the combined information of both techniques were still too shocking for him.

Other than reading and trying to understand both techniques for five days straight, Jason barely ate and slept, and he only practiced the Heaven's Hell technique in order to distract him slightly.

His soul energy reached 636 units which was his sole reason to be slightly joyous, while the intel he gathered was a complete contrast.

Not only was it apparently true that Argos was a lower planet, due to its recent awakening of Mana, but there was an unimaginable number of such planets, which indicated that humans were not only extremely weak but nothing special at all like they always imagined...

With this knowledge, it was obvious that there must also be a gigantic number of foreign races, that humanity was unaware of.

But even worse was that the known foreign races were barely either the younger generation or seen as average subordinates, comparable to a butler or slaves from mankind's perspective.

Among the lower planets, Argos was also called an Infant, because the planet core re-awoke its dead mana heart due to the unknown meteorites that entered their stellar system.

Unfortunately, there were no further information about something like this which Jason found frustrating because he was curious how Argos awoke its natural mana, which changed everything for humanity.

However, this didn't change the fact that mankind would have some problems if they became too strong because the foreign races from the higher planets or even the older, lower planets would try to restrict humanity's growth in order to maintain their livestock for possible strong soldiers.

After figuring out that it was possible for the foreign races to strengthen their body in order to fight beasts head-on, without the need for strong affinities or even soul beasts, which was the way how humanity survived the last three centuries, he could only estimate how strong a human would become if they practiced a body refining technique  in addition to being able to contract beasts that would amplify both physique and the mana core size to a certain degree.

'Is that humanity's real strength?'

Suddenly goosebumps covered his whole body at this thought, and initially, he wanted to message Dalia and Shane about this, when he remembered that the messenger crystal had only a few calls left, which had to be used for emergencies.

He was unsure how many calls in total he had, so it was better to restrain himself from calling his masters.

One could say that his gathered intel was important, but comparing it to a life and death situation, it might be better to put it back in his priorities, without harming anyone.

In the end, humanity didn't know the information he acquired for over three centuries without going extinct, which was already more than enough to tell him that he could wait another month.

While the Netherworld's fort was a body refining technique, the eradicated Blair family clan's technique, Darkness proselytism was used by a race with a strong darkness affinity in order to transmute neutral mana into darkness mana.

However, the density described was extremely thick and distinct, not comparable to the transmuted mana humans received by contracting a soulbond with an affinity.

There was only one problem, which was only described in a few sentences, because it was unimportant for most foreign races, with the most important information being.

[This technique is unusable for races with one or multiple additional affinities other than a darkness affinity!!]

After reading this, Jason felt sad for a moment, because he was unable to use it either way, until he noticed that he didn't even have a darkness affinity, which caused him to smile lightly about his own stupidity.

'Well, it doesn't matter then, huh?' Jason thought because he already possessed three different affinities when he was reminded about the Drake family patriarch's transmuted mana

'Was that another reason for him to kill his soulbonds? That he only possesses a single affinity in order to practice a Terra ranked technique?'

The more Jason thought about it the more likely it became, causing him to frown.

'So the Drake family either colluded with foreign races or made a deal with them?'  He imagined because it was unlikely that the Drake family found an Ice-Dragon egg and coincidentally their blessed technique was compatible with the ice-affinity…

It could have been a fortunate coincidence, but after Old Drake's behavior, Jason decided to not trust anyone from the Drake family anymore, while at the same time thinking the worst-case scenario about them.

Like this, he wouldn't be shocked if anything special happened, or if something unpredictable would be revealed.

Nodding his head, Jason took another glance at the Netherworld's fort body refining technique, pondering if he should practice the technique or not.

The requirements were 'simple', because there were two paths with the advanced path for bipedal races like he himself was as a human, which fitted perfectly, while the other requirements were a large mana supply, nutrition, and a high-quality fire affinity.

Unsure what exactly a high-quality fire affinity was, Jason, estimated that his Origin flame could be considered one, or at the least, it should be extremely close to one.

However, there was one thing, Jason was unsure of.

Inside the Terra-Intermediate technique, there was written that the body refining technique would not only refine his body but also renew his cells, adjusting them to adapt to extremely high temperatures.

In the end, Jason never heard of a human using a body refining technique which was quite problematic, because he had three different affinities from three different soulbonds, and if his refined physique would clash when he wanted to use other affinities, it would be extremely bad.

There was no remark about the Netherworld's forte technique being unable to practice if one possessed multiple affinities at once, as it was the case with the Darkness proselytism technique.

But the biggest contrast between the two techniques, Jason noticed, was that the Darkness proselytism technique seemed to be used by multiple races, at least according to the introduction part, while the Netherworld's forte was customized for the Calydar race.

This was a huge difference and it could mean that he might even be unable to practice the Netherworld's forte technique, without obstructing other paths, as he thought about what Dalia told him about the technique, which was not really much.

She only told him that his black origin flame might be helpful, but the most important fact was that she didn't warn him about any possible danger.

This couldn't be taken as evidence or something similar to that, but it at least hinted to him, that the translations which were practiced by the eradicated Shore clan didn't create any disadvantages.

Pondering for some time, Jason felt somewhat bewitched by the possible advantage a refined physique could bring him, compared to other humans and even foreign races.

In the end, humanity seemed to be stronger than most other races, as long as they had good soul-awakening with a decent body refining technique, which was an essential difference compared to what mankind thought about themselves.

They might even be able to fight against the foreign races if more humans learned about body refining.

Unfortunately, it would be counterproductive for Jason if he were to write down the whole Netherworld's forte technique, because once humanity started to learn it, other foreign races would notice this and eradicate any kind of possible threats, before anything worse happens.

As such, he had to remain calm and stay low profile in order to prevent foreign races from finding him.

'So…there is now another reason for foreign races to pursue me? Quite ridiculous, if someone were to ask me…'

Still staring at the body refining manual in front of him, Jason decided to give the Netherworld's forte a try, because the Shore family also survived, even if they were annihilated by his master…

'In the end, I can test my affinities after every single refining session…!' He thought, trying to reassure himself that he could just stop practicing the technique, once a marginal amount of discomfort would emerge when using a different affinity.

Taking a look at the time, he opened his quantum bracelet and used some of his remaining star notes in order to purchase medical solutions with a high amount of nutrition.

Even if they were extremely expensive and normally only used by old or extremely sick people, Jason needed a large quantity of nutrition.

Unfortunately, humanity was not prepared for a body refining technique that demanded high nutrition, while the only technique that required nutrition was the Heaven's Hell technique.

However, the difference between the two techniques was that the Heaven's Hell technique could be supplemented after practicing, if necessary, while body refining required a constant supply of nutrition, at least during the whole practice session.

In the end, the required nutrition was also much larger if one were to compare both techniques.

It was as if one tried to compare a small sea with an ocean, and Jason felt already the huge burden he had to face once again, even after he accumulated a vast fortune thanks to the elemental crystals.

'I need to improve my basic lifestyle occupations to earn more money….otherwise, I will be poor, before the Big-Three tournament even finishes!!'