บท 10: Friend?

After transferring the data from his phone to the quantum bracelet, Jason put it on.

It looked quite good and Jason observed it for a moment as it was really beautiful.

He set off to buy clothes and other necessities and 2 hours passed before he bought all the required items. He looked at the sky and the sunset indicated the arrival of nightfall.

Jason then went to a hairdresser to get a haircut. He had never known how unkempt his hair was as he had never seen himself in a mirror. He had already changed into some new clothes so he looked completely different from before.

If someone from his former class walked past him, they wouldn't be able to recognize Jason even if they looked at him from head to toe. His appearance had undergone a drastic transformation and there was no trace of the old Jason visible anymore.

Suddenly a voice call was transmitted to his quantum bracelet and Jason saw an unknown number.

Slightly curious he accepted the call with a "Hello? Who is this?"

A familiar voice answered him.

"Hey, this is Greg. I'm having my soul awakening in half an hour and I wanted to ask you if you would want to watch it.

It might be weird to ask you this, but I thought it might be helpful for you to sense how a soul-awakening works. That way you will understand what you have to do when it's your turn."

Jason was astonished as he had never received a call from his classmates to date. The fact that Greg wanted to help him was also slightly difficult for him to comprehend.

But Greg had never treated him badly. He himself was also very curious as to how a soul awakening takes place so he readily accepted his invitation.

"That would be great. I can be at the Beast Pagoda in less than 30 minutes. Please wait for me."

Jason ended the call and ordered a shuttle which arrived a few minutes later.

He keyed in the word 'Beast Pagoda' in the bracelet's holographic screen. After Jason had confirmed the address, the shuttle went off.

Fifteen minutes later, the shuttle arrived in front of the gigantic five-tiered pagoda which looked ancient.

He had never seen a pagoda and didn't know if this size was normal. But it looked very opulent as he saw the mana flow radiating from the building materials.

Thinking about the pagoda´s ancient appearance a sudden thought appeared in his mind and he searched through his storage space.

Luckily he found a bandage which he put on before leaving the shuttle.

Jason has almost been on the verge of making a huge mistake by stepping into the Pagoda without wearing the bandage and exposing his well-kept secret to his classmates. But, luckily he had realized the blunder and thought about his eyes which he couldn't reveal at the moment.

He had to wait at least for a week or probably a bit longer until his soul-awakening was scheduled before he could reveal his cured eyes so his theoretical exam would remain valid.

Jason called Greg because he didn´t know where to go and waited for him. Less than two minutes later someone with a strong presence came outside.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Stella? Master Greg is waiting for you" an old voice asked and Jason concluded that he was probably Greg's butler.

It was quite weird to get called Mr.Stella by someone as he had never been called by his family name.

Following the old man, he began walking behind him and observed his physique. He was astonished that the butler strength appeared to be more than the parents who had accompanied his classmates for the martial arts demonstration the day before.

He was questioning himself how rich and powerful Greg's family business was if their butler already had this kind of strength.

Jason had an easy time following the butler as he climbed up the stairs. Every single thing in the Pagoda radiated a certain amount of mana that outlined the way ahead for him.

After walking for a few minutes the butler stopped in front of a door with dense mana radiating from it.

A few people had been standing in front of the door. Jason detected Greg's mana signature amongst them along with a few stronger mana sources.

In particular, the two mana signatures next to Greg looked unique.

He had never seen such a huge amount of mana anywhere and stared open-mouthed.

Seeing Jason looking towards him with his mouth agape confirmed Greg's theory about Jason's sensitivity for mana.

While stepping forward he greeted Jason who came closer.

"Jason, you're here. How are you?....since when do you have new clothes and a new haircut?"

Greg was a bit astonished about Jason's handsome look as he had never expected that a good-looking boy could be hidden behind such trashy clothes.

He would never say this out loud. He had looked after Jason many times in the past because he found Jason to be nice and didn't care about his background.

Jason had helped Greg sometimes in studies with some remarks on how to learn certain things better.

Greg wasn't sociable and quite naive but he was sure Jason was a good guy. This was also the reason he wanted to help him slightly with his soul awakening.

Jason greeted Greg back and turned his head slightly in the direction of his presumed parents.

"Hello, my name is Jason Stella. Am I right with my presumption that you are Mr. and Mrs. Fler?" Jason bowed lightly.

Even before the mana outbreak, respectful greetings and manners were only important in some regions of Argos. But, their importance increased monumentally after the mana outbreak occurred. The rules of the jungle came into play and it paved way for the stronger to survive and the weak ones to perish

Strong people could almost kill whoever they wanted outside the cities while the government protected the weak with their best efforts. Crimes such as murder and rape occurred inside the cities once in a while.

Sometimes, big and influential families took care of the weaker members of the society like it had been the case with Jason´s mother. Thus, most weak people tended to be as respectful as possible and avoided the strong.

As long as the government was weaker than the collective power of these big families and clans, they had to partly rely on them to protect the majority against the wildlife and intelligent invading races.

Fortunately, not many big families were necessarily evil and only a few members in some families were driven by their desire for bloodlust.

It wasn't that difficult to keep them under control normally but things used to spiral out of control every once in a while.

Greg however was slightly stunned

"How do you know where my parents are standing at the moment?!"

Greg's parents were curious about the boy in front of them.

They saw a blind boy but they felt something strange about the area around his eyes.

Nevertheless, what surprised them the most was that Greg had brought a friend over to his soul awakening.

Greg had been more of a troublemaker since elementary school than someone who made friends, so they have never seen any of his friends.

Curious, the 30-year-old looking woman with a small build and silky brown hair stepped forward.

"Hello Jason, my name is Gabriella Fler and I'm indeed Greg's mother.

I have never seen one of Greg's friends so it's nice to meet you."

She said before chuckling.

Jason found himself in a weird situation.

`Is Greg my friend?`

But there was no time to think about that.

Greg's father was apparently embarrassed and he pulled his wife back before introducing himself.

"Hello, my name is Mark Fler, Greg's Father. Nice to meet you."

His father's introduction was slightly cold. Maybe, he thought Jason wanted to befriend his son because of their money or Jason's blindness could be the reason but he didn't mind it.

Jason felt a threatening stare and noticed that it was the outline of an almost mature girl. She was standing close to Greg but he was slightly shocked after sensing her mana core.

As he recalled the mana core rank of the adults in front of the school grounds a day before, he noticed that this girl´s strength was one of the best.

'Greg has a sister? Or is that his girlfriend? Nevermind that, but why is she glaring at me like that??'

Before the conversation went further, the door with dense mana enveloping it opened slowly.