Chapter 38: Determination

Greg told Jason a lot of information about the Vanguard affiliated schools.

The Vanguard school itself was a huge school that accepted the best students from all over Astrix.

It was seen as one of the three best schools on the Island and every student aspired to get admitted there. However, the school only allowed the best of the best to receive this chance.

One would need to have a high mana core rank, exceptional theoretical knowledge, and a high rating in one's soul awakening.

Malia was also a student of the Vanguard school.

She was currently at home due to the summer vacations and Greg´s soul-awakening.

While Greg´s mana core rank and theoretical knowledge exam results were not up to the mark, his four-star soul-awakening gave him some extra points balancing his lack of theoretical knowledge and lower mana core rank.

Four-star soul awakenings were extremely rare and each year there would only be around 10 four-star soul awakenings on Astrix, which would already be considered a fortunate year.

The Vanguard school accepted more than 10,000 students each year and it was only normal for Greg to be accepted.

Nevertheless, it surprised Jason that Greg´s mana core rank did not meet the requirement which meant that he could only get admitted to the school because of his high star-soul awakening.

To enroll in one of the affiliated schools one had to reach the 3rd Adept rank, have extremely high scores in exam results, at least a 2 1/2 star soul-awakening, or a two-star soul-awakening. Additionally, it needed to have at least one extraordinarily good characteristic in one's soul awakening that was either soul energy or a unique soul.

Jason wasn't even close to meeting one of these requirements except his soul awakening as his soul was the most unique soul to have ever been awoken in his opinion.

Even so, he didn't want to expose that which meant Jason did not meet even a single requirement.

His exam result score was extremely bad because of his non-existent combat prowess at that time while his mana core rank would be called garbage compared to the requirement.

Jason was a little frustrated and even if he was allowed to attend one of the affiliated schools because of the nobility rights Greg's family obtained, he would be the weakest and there would be a large divide between him and the second-worst student.

He was grateful that the Fler family allowed him to study there but he felt too weak and pitiful at the moment.

Jason left the shuttle he didn't even remember entering after he walked out of the mansion, continuing to brood over all kinds of things.

He wasn't even scared of being bullied, rather it was more likely that he would be thrown out of the school at the end of the first year because of his grades, which hurt his almost non-existent pride.

If one couldn't accomplish the given assignments or get enough merit points by the end of the year one would be kicked out of the school which was Jason's biggest worry.

These assignments ranged from killing late Awakened beasts as one of the easier assignments to gathering herbs in three or four-star wild zones that have Evolved- and Unblemished ranked beasts.

Jason couldn't even think about killing the weakest awakened beasts as they were even stronger than the strongest five-star wild beast.

Assassinating an awakened beast would also be difficult as its instincts and reflexes were much stronger compared to wild beasts.

`Something has to change!` He told himself with a newfound determination...

Once he reached his apartment, Jason practiced the Heaven's Hell technique before he came to a decision.

He had to lessen the divide between him and the other students as fast as possible and Jason had two ways to accomplish this.

One way was that he had to increase his mana core rank with the support of mana stones which would hasten up his advancement speed by a few times, and stabilize the core afterward through certain medical solutions.

Another path could be to increase Artemis rank in order to improve their combat prowess as Jason would receive 30% from Artemis' strength amplification.

Jason had another way to improve his strength but the chances of success were too minuscule.

He could form contracts with a few one-star wild beasts with at least some potential and force their evolution. However, he stood a risk of hurting his soul world core if a soulbond were to reject him or break out of the contract once the particular beast's soul energy became higher than that of the contractors.

It would be better for him to gradually increase his soul energy for the time being while relying on Artemis whom he trusted.

Once he had enough space for another soulbond, he would search for one with a higher potential.

The problem for the first two solutions however was what Jason didn't have at the moment!

Credits!

With enough credits, Jason could purchase all necessary resources including beast cores for Artemis but unfortunately, he had only 20,000 credits left.

Greg had lessened his worries considerably when he had stated that Jason wouldn't have to bear tuition fees or accommodation as he would live with them.

And their house was supposed to be close to both schools while the nobility rights had waived off the tuition fees for him.

As such, Jason didn't have to pay anything to get educated and to furthermore stay alive.

Nobles could normally only use their nobility rights for their own child but the rule was changed since many nobles had complained about it.

One could use the nobility rule just once for every child they had, not a single time more.

The Fler family haven't used any of their nobility rights for schooling as their children were blessed with high talent.

Jason wasn't sure why this nobility rule was like that, but he didn't mind it as he received benefits from it.

One shouldn't complain while receiving benefits!

There was a way for Jason to earn many credits but this would mean he had to expose his secret which he didn't want to.

At least, in his opinion, not many people should know about it!

Making up his mind, he purchased a few things through his quantum bracelet emptying his whole fortune.

There was only a big '12' left behind in his bank account and he was forced to smile.

The parcel would arrive the next morning.

Jason washed and changed his clothes before feeding Artemis a few beast cores.

Lying in the bed Jason was still thinking about some possibilities before the darkness swallowed him and he drifted off to sleep.

---

Artemis woke Jason up as soon as she digested the beast cores which was earlier than he had expected.

Frustrated by the loss of precious sleeping time, Jason figured out that he had to give her a lot more cores if he wished to receive at least a few hours of sleep every day.

It was only 2 am but Artemis was wide awake and Jason didn't feel like sleeping anymore, so he practiced the Heaven's Hell technique.

He noticed that the more he used this technique the faster he became in utilising it.

Everything went on smoothly and the pain he had to endure decreased over time.

What astonished him the most was that the speed with which his soul energy replenished as it changed to a minuscule, almost unnoticeable degree.

At least, that was what Jason felt but he wasn't really sure about that.

However, he noticed that the moment his soul energy increased or rather the moment his soul world core generated more soul energy, his soul world also changed slightly.

It was only minuscule and probably less than 0.0001% but he still felt it and the change also took place in the shared amount of energy provided by Artemis and their soul connection.

This made him happy but he cleared his mind and opened the holographic screen of his quantum bracelet.

He placed a request for his parcel to be delivered to his apartment directly. Thus, a drone arrived only 20 minutes later with a big parcel.

As Jason hastily opened the parcel, he saw many items that made him grin.