Shane tried his best to not look towards Dalia, who was staring at him intently.

"Are you sure that you don't have them anymore? If I search and find them, they're mine. Don't dare to lie to me!!"

Not only Shane flinched when he heard this but Jason, who had nothing to do with this mess suddenly stiffened as goosebumps covered his body.

"Don't search! I know where they are… What do you want to do with them…?" Shane hurriedly asked, furrowing his brows.

Jason had already a rough understanding of Dalia's behavior and assumed that she wanted to help him with establishing his second sub-area.

He also knew that his masters had more than enough star notes, mana stones, and so on to acquire everything necessary, but that didn't mean he would ask them to get everything without giving them anything in return.

Unfortunately, he had nothing to return, and thus, Jason didn't want to bother to ask his masters to receive even more resources.

Right now, his Golden-Soul shop was doing excellent and earning more than one star-note per day. Once he was able to upgrade his goods to grade-2 potions and perfectly purified bars, his gains would increase manifolds.

Thanks to that, he was confident in acquiring enough resources to build his second sub-area in no time.

There was only one slightly larger problem!

Where to acquire an object similar to the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit?

However, even if Jason was aware of where he could obtain such a brain-protecting object, he also knew that he wouldn't have enough star notes to purchase something like that.

Mana stones were already expensive, however, they were still much cheaper compared to magical treasures.

This was a fact everyone knew and Jason could only sight at this thought.

Dalia was aware that Jason didn't want to receive their help all the time without giving them anything in return which forced her to think of a solution to satisfy everyone equally.

This also included Shane, whose stingy personality was slowly re-emerging.

"Let's just take a look if we can find a magical treasure that protects one's brain...Why are you so nervous Shane? It's not like I will take everything from you as long as you don't lie to me!"

Shane signed in relief and nodded his head before he released his mana to enveloped the whole house.

Only a moment later, three spatial rings and storage devices floated towards the group of three.

He retracted the mana fluctuations after the spatial ring and storage devices landed on the small table that stood in front of them as he said.

"I destroyed the mana fluctuation imprints a while ago but couldn't take a look inside yet."

Fortunately, Shane calmed down again fast and he turned serious after thinking that Jason would definitely need something to protect his brain to establish a second sub-area with the mind-splitting technique.

It was not mandatory but at the same time, it was much better to protect one's brain while doing such a difficult task like splitting one's mind!

'Is it normal for a disciple to be so expensive?' He began to ask himself, sulking inwardly before he looked at Jason and Dalia.

"Let's take a look inside the spatial rings first and check out if there is something Jason could use to protect his brain."

Jason just nodded his head, thinking that he would pay his masters everything back once he was able to when he took one spatial ring and storage device into his hand.

Inserting mana into the spatial ring first, Jason's mind entered its small dimension where he saw a mana-grade-3 longsword, a small mountain of high-grade mana-stones, many sets of clothes, a few miscellaneous items, partially purified grade-3 potions, and a few sealed herbs.

Everything was worth a little fortune, but there was nothing inside the spatial ring Jason needed to establish his second sub-area, except the mana stones.

As such, he laid the spatial ring back before he took one of the storage devices that laid in front of him.

Inserting his mana into it, Jason entered a small dimension with a slightly longer delay.

Unfortunately, he couldn't find what he searched for and exited the small dimension once again.

Laying down the storage device, he sighed as he said

"I would be a lie if I were to say that they're poor and the content inside the spatial ring and storage device is worth more than ten thousand star notes, but I didn't even see one expensive high-grade herb."

This was Jason's conclusion and from the looks of it, Shane and Dalia couldn't find anything either.

As such, Dalia turned to Jason with a firm expression as she said

"We know that you won't be able to acquire a brain-protecting treasure, and we know each other long enough that you don't like things without giving anything in return which already happened before.

However, we have other things to take care of too and you can't just forge or concoct all day long to acquire enough funds for everything during the next two months, right?

How about we take care of the brain-protecting treasure and you try to get enough funds for mana stones.

At the same time, you should focus on all other aspects you want to improve until you enter the Mythic Garden.

If you don't like everything for granted, pay us back in the future! With that, I don't mean that you should give us star notes….Maybe you are bothered that you never did anything good for us, but we...or at least I don't mind that. Just think of it as if you owe us one or multiple favors if you want!"

Before Jason could say anything, Shane erupted as he said

"What do you mean 'at least I don't mind that'?? Being careful with finances is also important and knowing that Jason doesn't like to get everything gifted, I intentionally didn't offer him the same things you did!!!"

Jason smiled when he saw his masters quarreling with each other and thinking about Dalia's offer carefully, he thought that it was definitely beneficial to have such great masters.

"I accept the offer and will pack everything back! Once I'm strong enough I can protect both of you from the big clans and take care of everything!"

He gave his masters a promise to protect them and that he would pay them back everything, once he was able to.

How should he have known that the future would be much more chaotic and difficult to deal with than he expected it to be?

When Shane and Dalia heard that Jason wants to protect them in the future a faint smile emerged on their face, but deep within their eyes, one could also see sadness.

It seemed as if his masters knew something Jason was unaware of.

While he was trying to sound confident as he voiced out his promise, Shane and Dalia looked into each other's eyes while thinking the same about their young disciple.

'He is still too young and naive.... He has yet to see how treacherous mankind really is!'

After living for several centuries, Jason's masters knew that dangerous times approached them at a rapid pace and that it was only a matter of time before mankind's true colors would be revealed.

This premonition Shane and Dalia had only worsened over the last few months with the appearance of a Goblin King that was about to be nurtured by an extremely powerful origin flame, the emergence of a four-star rift inside Cyro-City, the fight of three foreign races, and knowing that the Drake family was not only backed by a foreign race but also oppressing his territory since his clan's headquarter was destroyed.

If that was everything, they would already be worried, but the Jual family seemed to be as malicious as the Drake family.

'How long will it take for mankind's war, led by the foreign races in the shadows, to start?'