章 31: Ready to rumble
Almost two weeks had passed already and only two days were left from his initial time limit of 3 weeks in order to kill five five-star wild beasts or one awakened beast to fulfill Greg's family's condition.
Nothing special occurred during the last two weeks but most important was that Jason and Artemis' strength increased quite a lot.
To Jason's great surprise, Artemis broke her limit and entered the rank of a two-star wild beast.
The mana she digested every day strengthened her physique, blood, and mana core.
It was only a matter of time until she would reach her racial limit, or was there no limit, to begin with?
He asked himself whether Artemis was able to evolve because it was possible for her to break through her limit owing to her mutation!
Or was that something every beast could do with enough mana? But then...Why would his eyes tell him something about the potential of beasts?
Was Artemis able to break through her shackles because of her superior digestion ability or because of the high amount of mana?
Jason didn't know and he couldn't find an answer because he was also unable to gauge Artemis' potential.
The mutation Jason thought of was a complex one that involved some sort of gluttony and a stomach that could digest huge amounts of mana.
But how could Jason be sure of that, as he had never heard of such a mutation before?
Furthermore, he wasn't even sure if Artemis could eat something else?
She had yet to eat something else other than the cores of wild beasts and mana stones.
Her plumage shimmered more with each passing day and the amount of mana within her blood increased steadily.
Artemis grew in size a little and now had a wingspan of more than a meter while her length was around 35 centimeters but most important was the fact that even her talons were strengthened.
Her fortified talons were now sharp and powerful enough to pierce through the scales of the scaled wolf without enhancing them with mana.
Jason however was still at the 3rd Novice rank while his mastery over the modified Azure feisty Ape technique reached the familiar mastery.
His combat prowess soared and he learned how to use his mana more efficiently.
He was even able to eradicate a small group of three-star wild beasts and lone four-star wild beasts with the help of Artemis.
But that wasn't everything as Jason used the Heaven's Hell technique three times a day instead of one time a day which was pretty nice to increase his soul energy, purify and stabilize it.
Due to the natural breakthrough of Artemis, Jason received more shared soul energy, mana, and his physique increased.
Jason was happy that Artemis grew stronger and his mana core reached the size of a normal 5th Novice rank while his physique reached the 4th Novice rank standard.
However, the soul energy he needed to keep Artemis by his side or rather inside his soul world increased from the initial 1 unit to 2.
Because of Jason's fast soul energy replenishment rate and his utilization of the Heaven's Hell technique thrice a day, which was painful like nothing else he had ever felt, his soul energy reached almost the required amount of two.
It was still enough to take a hold of Artemis but once she reached the three-star wild beast rank, Jason would be in trouble as the soul energy requirement would be around 4.
But there wasn't anything he could do about it.
He had no other choice but to work hard and practice the Heaven's Hell technique as often as possible.
With his increased or rather doubled soul energy amount from one to two, each practice would increase his soul energy double the amount than two weeks before.
And this would only continue on his path.
As long as his soul energy reached four units, the Heaven's Hell technique´s efficiency would result in a doubled increase compared to the time he only had a soul energy of 2 units and a quadruple increase to the initial soul energy of one as everything worked exponentially.
Jason discovered something and he would have loved to test the theory he began to develop but for him to try this he would need quite a bit of soul energy.
Today he would hunt pairs of four-star wild beasts and if he could kill two or three of them without sustaining an injury, he would try assassinating five-star wild beasts.
It was dangerous, but what could he do? With enough safety measures and tactics that involved Artemis, he was confident in not dying while fighting against four-star wild beasts.
There was no way for him to hunt an awakened beast as there was a huge difference in combat strength between wild beasts and awakened beasts.
Once a beast reaches the awakened rank the possibility to awaken an ability appears.
While some beasts don't have a single ability, their physical traits increase a lot once they reach the awakened rank.
If he was completely honest, Jason was extremely horrified to fight five-star wild beasts while being at the lower levels of the novice rank.
In the end, he had to face beasts that had at least double his strength and mana.
Jason was confident in his control over mana, martial art proficiency, intelligence, and ability to marginally foretell his opponent's incoming attack and deflect it.
Throughout the morning he searched for a spot with a few trees and bushes around in order to hide and throw a surprise attack on some small four-star beast groups.
Suddenly he spotted an almost completely green bison walking around with its head held high.
No beast dared to come too close to it as it grazed nonchalantly.
Looking at the beast's mana core, Jason found out something interesting.
The aura around the beast was black which indicated its chances to reach the awakened rank. But, after scanning the mana core, it looked like it was a black horned bison with an elemental mutation as the mana had green-colored traces within.
It was extremely rare to see a wild beast having an elemental ability and the problem with wild beasts having an affinity was simple.
Huge amounts of mana had to be used in order to completely integrate the affinity to a wild stage beast´s body..
This caused the physique of these wild beasts to be weaker than their peers.
Looking at the highly likely wind-elemental mutated black horned bison in front of him, Jason estimated that its physical strength should be around a normal three-star wild beast.
Nevertheless having an elemental affinity caused it to be the strongest in its surroundings.
If a normal five-star wild beast were to attack this bison, Jason wouldn't even have to ponder over who the winner might be. The bison would probably use its element to shoot shards or blades out, easily killing the normal five-star wild beast.
Having a weaker physique wouldn't matter in this case as it was unnecessary to even use the physique to defeat its enemies.
And with such a mutation, once the bison reached higher ranks, the wind affinity would only become stronger while the disadvantage of having a weaker physique would diminish slowly.
Thinking for a while, Jason decided that attacking the mutated bison might be the easiest way to kill a five-star wild beast as its guard was down due to its overconfidence.
Jason sent out Artemis to keep an eye on the mutated bison while he thought of nearing the bison, without drawing too much attention to himself.
He thought of one solution, however, he didn't like this idea because he had to use Artemis as bait.
Calculating a few things he asked Artemis for her opinion, after which she replied confidently.
Though he was still worried, Artemis reassured him that she would be careful so he couldn't do anything about that anymore.
クリエイターの想い 
HideousGrain
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章 32: Assassination
Standing up within the bush, Jason made himself some space to dash out immediately when both Artemis and his prey would appear.
Jason could sense Artemis´ astonishment.
Afterward, he felt that she used large amounts of her mana to enhance her wings in order to accelerate her flying speed.
Jason grew worried but he told himself that he had to remain calm as Artemis plumage could be seen from far away.
She was at least 20 meters high in the sky, while below her, Jason could see the green bison pursuing her from the ground, running in the direction she was flying, which was straight towards Jason's hiding spot.
The bison was enveloped with light green mana and was roaring in rage as it followed her.
It shot out wind-blades towards Artemis, who had to use her utmost efforts to evade them, which was a strenuous activity making it barely possible for her to not get injured.
In retaliation, Artemis threw stones at the bison and made fun of it, which made the bison extremely furious.
Following and attacking the flying beast pleased the bison as it was reassured once again that it was the overlord in this area.
It knew that the small beast could only endure the onslaught of wind blades for a few minutes at most before it would be exhausted.
The small wind blades it used didn't utilise much of its mana because of the bison's mutation, which it instinctively figured out.
Devoid of a single thought of protecting itself, the bison stared at the sky, oblivious to what danger was lurking in front of it as it bypassed a big green bush.
Suddenly, the bison felt a painful sting at its right side as it grew weaker. The bison's legs buckled under its weight before it collapsed to the ground with a loud thud.
Trying to understand what had happened it turned its head and was alarmed to see a long red stripe with white bones sticking out of its body. A Jade green dagger had lodged itself into the bison's hindleg after ripping open its skin and flesh down to its leg from the shoulder.
The bison's whole right side was torn apart, as blood and organs spilled out of the huge laceration caused by the dagger.
It let out a deafening roar as it cried in the searing pain that shot through its body. Its eyes fell on a youth who seemed to appear out of nowhere as he squeezed himself out of the bush. While the bison's expressions had been that of pure agony a moment ago, they were quickly replaced by a maddening urge to kill the youth in front of it.
With its last efforts, it gathered the remaining mana inside it to shoot out a wind blade.
Jason, who had been observing the bison, was still completely on-guard against his first opponent with an elemental affinity.
However, he was still only barely able to evade the wind blade by stepping aside in time. Though, the blade swished past him, as the gust of wind blew away his hair.
Artemis dived down in rage after Jason was attacked, only to pierce into the bison's eyes with her sharp talons.
Immediately afterward, the weight of the white beast vanished, once the bison died without exacting revenge on any of its attackers.
Jason was astonished that his plan had worked out so easily, causing him to sigh in relief.
The only thing that worried him was the fact that the wind blades had been faster than he expected while Artemis was almost hit by some of them.
Still, the bison was way too full of itself as it didn't even notice Jason jumping out of the bush, tearing apart the bison´s whole side with his dagger.
Sometimes even a hunter might be hunted, and one should never feel too safe anywhere.
Jason ran to the dead body, only to see Artemis picking out the slightly green incomplete core which he instantly took out of her talons, causing her to scream out.
The amount of mana inside this core was almost at the awakened rank and he didn't want Artemis to eat this core.
Otherwise, who knows how long he would have to wait for her to wake up.
There was not much time left, as he had to hunt another four five-star wild beasts.
However, he had to rely on Artemis for that.
Artemis' mana replenishing process was relatively fast and she settled on Jason's shoulder once again after proving to be a useful ally.
Meanwhile, Jason surveyed the surroundings carefully to look out for some lone five-star wild beasts.
Luck wasn't on his side as he walked around until afternoon, even neglecting his Heaven's Hell practice, only to find nothing.... not a single solo five-star wild beast was in his sight.
He was beginning to get dejected when he suddenly saw many larger groups of youth at the mid and a few peak Novice ranks fighting a large group of five-star wild beasts.
Finally!! Jason's efforts had paid off.
Jason rejoiced to see a group of youths overwhelming a pack of five-star greater horned wolves.
The group coordinated their attacks by splitting up and Jason watched the battle with interest when he saw that an injured wolf headed his way.
Jason was still approximately 100 meters away from the whole battle.
He was delighted to see that the youths pursued other wolves while the particular wolf who ran towards him was alone. It was as if the opportunity had just fallen in his lap after wasting hours to look for a suitable kill.
Deciding to hide behind a tree, he waited for the perfect moment to ambush the wolf.
Seeing the wolf running past the tree, Jason gathered enough mana in order to push his speed to the limit in the shortest amount of time, thrusting his dagger that cut through the oblivious wolf's neck.
The whole assassination took less than a second and it was only possible because the wolf was foolishly running alongside the bush, being careless about any possible danger.
Not knowing what happened, the wolf collapsed on the ground, as its eyes turned dim in a short amount of time.
Storing the corpse without further delay, Jason vanished from the spot.
Only half a minute later, a few youths found the spot where the greater horned wolf was killed, looking at the green patch of grass that was stained with fresh blood.
These youths were all at least a year younger than Jason, but they were already at the 8th Novice rank which indicated their strength.
One youth, in particular, keenly observed the blood-stained grass patch.
Meanwhile, Jason was running far away from the group with a big, radiant smile on his face.
Only three out of five beasts had to be hunted down now and Jason still had time until two days later, when he would have to meet Greg.
He didn't think that he would find a lone five-star wild beast until the evening which was only around two hours away.
But even so, he continued his journey around the wild zone.
Artemis circles around him in the air, looking out for possible targets.
Suddenly, around half an hour later something that both of them didn't expect happened.
Above Artemis, the sky turned dark as she felt a weird sensation approaching her. She looked above, only to see a huge vulture diving down, straight at her.
Horrified, Artemis let out a shriek and also dived down with a steep ninety-degree angle, only to evade the vultures' talons by a hair's breadth.
Jason sensed her fear and shot a worried look above him when he heard her shriek.
He was shocked to see Artemis diving towards him as the vulture pursued her.
The vulture was heavier and thus way faster with its dive than Artemis. Jason knew that the vulture would catch up to Artemis only a few moments later.
He made up his mind and utilized the only thing he could think of.
Gripping his dagger firmly, Jason pulled his arm back as he aimed with his other hand, following the trajectory with one finger.
Injecting half of his mana into the arm that held the dagger, Jason threw the dagger with a loud shout.
Jason knew he couldn't instantly kill the vulture, causing him to aim at the biggest part of the vulture, which was the abdomen.
But even so, his aim had been slightly off as the dagger pierced into the vulture´s wing.
The impact of the flying dagger changed the course of the vulture's dive.
Noticing that, Artemis felt as if a stone was plucked from her small and tender heart as she continued her dive until she reached Jason.
She was terrified beyond her wits and her heart was thudding loudly inside her small body. Jason had the urge to cuddle her as she tried to hide behind him.
Though he had temporarily deflected the vulture's attack he was now unarmed as his only dagger was well beyond his reach. To add to his misery, the vulture landed barely a few feet apart from them.
After activating his mana eyes, he figured out that the Vulture was a five-star wild beast.
He was also relieved to see the dagger was stuck deep into the vulture's wing. The thought that he had at least injured it slightly made him sigh in relief, causing its best advantage to discard.
It couldn't fly with the dagger that was still firmly lodged in its wing but its razor-sharp beak and talons were still more than threatening to the unarmed Jason.
Both Artemis and Jason were only faster than the injured vulture with some mana as an enhancement but that didn't mean that they shouldn't underestimate their sole opponent. The vulture's physique and strength were still much higher than theirs.
Because he had no weapon to defend himself, Jason had to envelop his hands with a thin layer of mana in order to prevent them from being cut off or seriously injured.
Another major issue was that Artemis was injured!
クリエイターの想い
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