Jason didn't expect the curses, which the unhatched petrification serpent inherited to him would take effect almost immediately. 

This was unpredicted but at the same time good to occur right now instead of an even worse timing, like in front of the woman from the Jual clan! 

If that were to happen, Jason would need to have a huge amount of luck or the best acting he could deliver to anyone doubting him.

Initially, he had planned to investigate the things he could see within the rift itself, like the large green planet or the curse enveloping it, but that became insignificant.

Right now, he had to endure the race specific weakening curse transforming his soul world core while the petrification curse wreaked havoc within his mana eyes, trying to change something too.

Jason knew that the petrification curse he inherits from the unhatched petrification serpent would be advantageous.

Thus he could easily endure the pain, but Jason was unsure if his soul world core was strong enough to overcome the weakening curse.

Something changed about the soul world core and Jason only felt that it had absorbed 10,000 soul energy units to do something, yet, he was unable to figure out what exactly it was.

This was not only annoying but the pain in his eyes prevented him from doing anything further.

An unknown amount of time passed before Jason had been expelled from the rift while the pain in his eyes had intensified.

Meanwhile, his soul world core transmitted illusionary pain towards him which was spread through his entire body.

When he left the rift, Jason had to rely on the mana fluctuations to scan everything in his surrounding.

His strength was still unrestrained and comparable to someone who had barely advanced to the Lowest Lique stage.

From his mana fluctuations, Jason perceived that there were many shocked and shivering young prodigies next to him which allowed him to comprehend that they had escaped death closer than initially expected.

However, Jason didn't think that it was as close as the others thought. The situation was not desperate enough to shiver and behave like pushovers.

At least not if one was arrogant enough to call themselves prodigies.

Walking around the young men and women that laid on the ground, gasping for air, happy to have survived, he could hear a familiar voice echoing through the whole underground island.

"What the hell is our family doing? MOM!! Explain to me what I've heard about the slave market and don't even try to fool me!!" 

It was Milan and from his voice, one could tell that he was furious.

On one side,  Jason was happy to see this, but on the other hand, he found this act extremely foolish and naive.

Yet, what astonished him was the other familiar voice he heard. 

"Calm down Milan! Let's wait for Suo and then I'll bring you away!! You don't even know what happened here during the last six months...I will explain everything later, alright? Just calm down!"  It was the voice of the woman, who he assumed to be the vice-head or matriarch of the Jual Clan, the person that had called him out for having a fortified soul conjunction!

"HOW can I calm down right now? Not only did nobody in our clan tell me what was going on but I had to hear this from someone I just got to know? If he didn't ask something about the slave marked by accident, I would have never heard anything about it! When would you have told me about it?? WHEN?" 

Suddenly, right about the time he wanted to advance the discussion with his mother that everyone on the island could hear through the sheer volume he spoke out of anger, Milan sensed that his legs gave in.

A moment later, he felt a hand around his shoulder holding him with force which would have been uncomfortable if he didn't felt the overly familiar mana fluctuations of Jason.

Looking towards Jason whose eyes were closed, thick drops of blood leaking from them, he could only exclaim 

"Jason! What the hell happened with you?" 

Holding his ear with the free hand, Jason couldn't help but say in a quieter voice

"Hey Milan...I think you shouldn't be so loud right now" 

Smiling lightly he whispered

"At least not if you don't want to humiliate your mother in front of a hundred descendants from all kinds of influential families and clans."

Jason went all-in right now!

Instead of running away from the Jual-clan, acting as if he had something to hide, he had chosen the exact opposite path that should work out too.

He might have something against the Jual clan's attitude towards their weaker citizens and the fact that they enslaved humans, but that was something Jason had to set aside for now!

When he heard that the woman who had called him out before was Milan's mother, Jason couldn't help but rejoice.

If everything worked out, he would be able to come out of the underground island unscathed!

Turning towards the woman with two solidified and a third, almost constructed prismarine crystal within her mana core, Jason bowed lightly before introducing himself.

"Hello, my name is Jason and I was the person who accidentally revealed the slave market to Milan while I was with him and Isga inside the Mythic Garden. I'm sorry, but I guess it's better that he knows now, right?" 

Jason was unable to see the woman, who Milan quietly introduced as Yvonne Jual, because his eyes were still aching as if they were burning in hell's fire.

The only advantage that prevented him from screaming out in pain was his high resistance to pain and the fact that Solaris, the Tier-1 black origin flame enveloped his eyeballs with its flames, soothing the pain.

It was an uncomfortable feeling but seemed to help a little bit.

From the outside, it looked weird too because the dried blood around his eyes highlighted the black flames that could be seen through Jason's eyelids.

However, instead of showing interested in this, Yvonne Jual size-up Jason as she said

"Weren't you the young man with the fortified soul conjunction? In 6 months...you increase your mana core rank from the 4th Expert rank to the 2nd Master rank...not bad...but not something someone with a superior talent should be proud about.

At least not if you are the one who actively absorbed mana with Milan and Isga at one branch of the exposed mana vein…" 

When Jason heard this, he thought that Milan had told his mother everything.

As such he couldn't help but turn around to Milan as he quietly mumbled to himself

"Are you a mama's boy?"

Shaking his head, Jason was glad that Milan didn't say anything about his age, when he heard him retorting his mother

"What are you saying mom? His mana absorption rate is amazing, it's just that---...." 

Before Milan could even finish his sentence he saw a fist, he hadn't seen coming, emerged right before his eyes as Jason lightly said with a faint smile on his face

"Do you want to pick a fight?"

He was obviously joking but Milan was shocked that he was unable to see the fist that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

Meanwhile, Yvonne who saw everything much slower could tell that Jason's physical strength was already on par with her son who had said that he advanced to the Magus rank.

That meant Jason's mana core rank was not his entire strength. As such she scanned his mana fluctuations, only to sense that they were also on par with her son's.

"Soul amplification?" She just mumbled which caused Jason to stiffen.

The pain in his eyes increased and Jason could also feel that the soul world core was about to merge with the curse it inherited after the soulbond contract with the petrification serpent egg had been completed.

If his strength were to suddenly plummet in front of Yvonne Jual and Milan at that, he would have lots of things to explain or quite a few problems at hand.

As such he straightened his back as he said

"I need to go back now. I need to report my arrival!" 

This was neither entirely true nor false but he had to say it like this to tell Yvonne that someone was waiting for him, most likely a big family or hidden, ancient clan.

At least that was the most logical explanation for Jason's high strength.

Yvonne who thought exactly what Jason wanted her to think pondered for a moment as she said

"Just tell me where you have to go...If you're a friend of Milan, I shouldn't allow you to leave alone...at least not right now!"

This confused both Jason and Milan

"What is that about 'right now'? Did something happen?"

"Jason, if you're in a hurry you can leave, just go to Louis and tell him where you want to go, but it would be best for you to stay here for the next few days and leave with all of us at once…

I don't want to scare you, but it looks like we are facing an infiltration of foreign races right now!!"

"WHAT?!" Jason shouted out loud which attracted the attention of the surrounding young men and women that tried to get the hang of themselves.

He quieted down in an instant  and could only think about the Shadow walkers as Yvonne sighed

"It's pretty obvious for all clans that foreign races collude every clan to have a stable supply of humans which they want to turn into some sort of super humans or experiment with them.

At least that is what we have been doing, but if I were to be honest, I'm not sure what they're doing with the people we are sending over.

In the end, we are insignificant and if we can become a little bit more important by colluding with the foreign races to stand up against them in the future, some people have to be sacrificed too!" 

'And those people are the weak, right?.... But...does she truly understand how insignificant our race...or even Argos is?'

Jason didn't say anything but he was able to understand how Yvonne thought according to her attitude and how she acted which included the fact that she was not even a little bit suspicious about his identity.

She was probably even aware that his identity for Terebrean as "Jason Laere" was faked, but that didn't seem to bother her.

Instead, she explained and proved several things he and his masters only assumed to be correct.

However, the thought that they could defeat those foreign races that supplied them with a minuscule part of their own resources, was absurd, if one were to put it nicely.

"Unfortunately, some foreign race's tactics seemed to have changed and several races, that mainly included the alliance around the Shadow walkers. We have already encountered more than a hundred Shadow walkers and every single one of them is as strong as I am, if not stronger...The worst, however, is the fact that they don't seem to care about maintaining a good relationship with us anymore because they started to abduct prodigies from big clans too!!

This has never happened and mankind is about to establish a large alliance and wage war to protect our offsprings!"

When Jason heard this, he couldn't help but blurt out

"What bullshit...wage war against those who see our race as mere toys...great idea!" 

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