Almost a whole day had passed since Jason had run away from Mythic Garden's center but he was not even remotely close to the rift or surrounding area of it.

Owing to the fact that Artemis' wings were badly injured and recuperating slowly, he had to remain on the ground, where many obstacles and strong beasts forced him to take long detours.

Adding that the unhatched petrification serpent was releasing its frustration, sadness, and agony with its aura throughout those 24 hours, many beasts had been attracted to him.

This forced Jason to fight or run away before those stronger beasts were unable to find him anymore.

In the end, he was not even sure what he should do with the petrification serpent egg which he embraced.

It would be the biggest lie he ever told anyone, if he were to say that he didn't want to contract the petrification serpent as his soulbond, however, Jason was unsure if this was something it would even accept willingly.

He could also force it but that was not something Jason wanted to do as he wanted to create a fortified soul conjunction with every beast he was to bind.

After he had witnessed how powerful a fortified soul conjunction was, Jason couldn't help but think that he had to have one for every beast he bound to his soul world.

Furthermore, he couldn't help but be curious how exactly curses would be affected by a fortified soul conjunction.

However, in the end, this was not important to the petrification serpent egg.

If it wanted to take revenge on the other beasts, Jason would most likely be unable to bind it as his soulbond. He was not even sure whether he would become too strong in the next six months or if the Jual clan would change something in their assessment, preventing strangers from entering the Mythic Garden ever again.

As such, he wouldn't be able to promise the unmatched petrification serpent to take revenge on its mother for its entire life! Binding a beast that would regret not being able to take revenge on its mother's murderer would be bad, to put it simply.

At least if that was what the petrification serpent planned!

There was also the possibility that beasts like the petrification serpent thought differently about revenge because it was normal for beasts to prey on each other.

With that in mind, Jason couldn't help but feel a small ray of hope emerging within him.

It might be weird to feel like this, shortly after an unhatched beast lost its mother, but Jason's own situation was not great either.

He had at most one week left before the Mythic Garden rift would close for six months and Jason didn't want to stay inside the rift any longer.

That was if he were to be honest with himself.

If possible, he would bind a suitably cursed beast and rush back to the underground island.

Jason was seriously pondering whether the Mythic Garden or the Jual clan was more dangerous to him, and in the end, he decided that he should try to find a way outside the underground island as quietly as possible.

He remembered which teleportation circle the sovereign-ranked guardian had used and his mana eyes perceived also the 'secret' passcode that was intertwined into the magic circle.

As such, he was confident in leaving the underground island secretly as long as the remaining mana inside the magic sphere was enough to empower the transportation circle.

However, this was not something Jason should be bothered about right now. There was a large horde of cursed Mid-unblemished beasts in front of him, staring at the petrification serpent egg inside his left hand.

This caused him to frown, as he began to wonder if the egg in his hand was valuable to those Longhorn jackals that attacked and cursed him with a weak destructive curse.

This curse was a weaker version of the Demonic Three-eyed wolf's horrific destructive curse, however, instead of being able to injure someone badly, it created illusionary pain if the opponent was stronger than the Longhorn jackals.

After being targeted by around 100 of those weak, destructive curses, his entire being was overwhelmed by illusionary pain.

Gritting his teeth he unsheathed the light longsword with his free hand as he charged towards the Longhorn jackals.

His lips curled upwards as he manifested two large liquefied balls of poison which he threw towards the center of the longhorn Jackal's horde.

However, instead of maintaining the shape of a ball, Jason forced them to burst open in the most crowded area.

The corrosive poison splattered everywhere, hitting several dozen longhorn jackals that cried out in pain, as Jason emerged in front of the first opponent.

He had yet to dissolve Scorpio's exoskeleton and his stinger, which he did not do because he wanted to increase his pace with Scorpio's entire soul amplification.

Using the stinger as a third means to attack next to his elemental attacks and the light longsword he pierced through the first longhorn jackal's head, everything went much smoother than he expected.

The only issue was that he had to pay attention to the petrification serpent egg in his hand as he was shaken wildly.

He twisted his body several times, evading the longhorn Jackals' longhorns that were almost half a meter long.

In the end, the Jackals had the size of a horse foal, were black in color with white-yellowish longhorns on their forehead.

It looked ridiculous but Jason took them seriously even if their strength was only comparable to Mid-Unblemished beasts. He was much stronger but he shouldn't take the large horde in front of him lightly which might kill him if he were to do a wrong move.

Then minutes later,  Jason stood in a field of sizzling soil and corpses while the manifested stinger and his light longsword were drenched in crimson-colored blood.

The petrification serpent egg was releasing emotions, Jason couldn't decipher.

However, instead of thinking too much about it, he continued to walk towards the direction he presumed the rift to be located.

Three hours later his mana eyes were able to perceive the outlines of the big, complex rune that created the rift.

Nevertheless, he didn't rush towards the rift which he wanted to do in order to leave the Mythic Garden.

Instead, he looked at the petrification serpent as he said 

"I will leave this place soon and it's unlikely that I can come back in the future. If you want, you can come with me as one of my companions! I won't force you but your chances to survive inside the Mythic Garden without being nurtured and protected by your mother are small. Furthermore, you won't be able to become strong enough to take revenge on your mother's murderer because they might hunt you down once you're expose …"

Jason said nothing but the harsh truth. It might be harmful to the petrification serpent if it was able to understand his words, but in the end, it was better to know the truth than living oblivious to it.

Noticing that the petrification serpent didn't understand anything, Jason pondered what could have been different to the time it was able to comprehend his words, which caused him to speak in the universal language out of instinct.

After that, the petrification serpent released several complex emotions within its aura, which Jason could hardly separate.

They were so complex intertwined with each other and overlapping that he decided to not mind it for the time being.

Instead, he walked towards the rift that was still quite a distance away from him.

When he entered the plain are around the rift he was able to see many young human prodigies talking to each other which caused him to cover his face because he didn't want to be seen by the wind affinity used from which he stole the egg.

As such he turned around to distance himself a little bit again when he remembered that the young man from the Wirad family shouldn't have seen his face.

However, in that case, there was still the egg in his hand which was something he shouldn't openly show someone else in order to prevent greed from igniting within them.

When he saw that the unhatched petrification serpent retraced its complex emotion, indicating to Jason that it calmed down, he couldn't help but ask hopefully.

"What's your choice, little one? Will you come with me?"

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