บท 20: Hatching!

Jason tried to distract himself while reading some news about Astrix island as he wanted to research if he still had a chance to enter a high school with his score.

Thinking about his non-existent combat experience or knowledge, he hesitantly opened the federation network.

Jason searched for martial arts instructors and their fees only to find out that it was extremely expensive.

Enrolling in a high school would be cheaper than receiving a few lessons from these instructors but Jason's final exam performance hadn't been good enough to get admitted to a fairly decent one.

He could apply to the concerned authority to get the blindness remark removed from his mark sheet but that wouldn't solve his problem.

Jason was slightly embarrassed to look at his exam results linked to his profile.

'Theoretical Exam 100/100 Points

Practical Exam 34/100 Points

Blood test: Passed, Remark: Blind

Mana Core rank: 2nd Novice -40/100

Soul awakening: ★★ /★★★★★'

His soul-awakening rating was also a bad joke.

The old man had probably been generous because nobody with his soul energy would receive two stars as a rating.

Or, maybe the old man was too astonished about his soul world which had temporarily blurred his mind.

He had around 130,000 Credits left and he had to survive with this money for a certain amount of time until he could start earning on his own.

Hunters were well paid and even hunting wild beasts helped them earn some credits as such beasts infested the areas around cities and endangered them even with their low rank.

Their population was way too large which was also the reason why one-star wild zones were used as training grounds for middle-school students.

The only good thing about these beasts was that their hide, tendons, claws, meat, and so on could be used by poor people.

Average households would never buy clothes made out of wild-ranked beasts as the beast hide wasn't comfortable to wear and didn't look good enough, to begin with.

There were only a few rare beasts with comfortable fur that humans belonging to wealthier households would purchase, which would in return increase the price of such beasts.

Protective garments made out of wild-ranked beasts were also useless as normal grade-1 weapons could slash through them like a hot knife through butter.

Nevertheless, a wild beast carcass could fetch up to 25 Credits if one was extremely lucky, which was already a decent bounty for such weak beasts. Assuming that normal workers earned 1500 Credits per month on average, even without doing anything extraordinary, the price was a good bargain.

A torrent of various thoughts rattled his mind, while he continued to research Martial arts instructors.

In the end, he found an interesting website named Martial Heaven with many martial arts video clips posted online.

Martial Heaven was an online platform that was even approved by the federation.

The website provided online instructions about all kinds of martial art techniques including martial arts using every kind of element.

After creating an account with his ID and inputting his rank and other information, a selection window popped up, where Jason could select the weapon he wanted to use.

If he wanted to, Jason could even include a type of elemental affinity the martial techniques should focus on.

Furthermore, Jason could also refine his selection through a host of other options and criteria through the drop down menu.

Registering at Martial Heaven cost 100 Credits a month which was a fair price because a few hundred free videos were included in his membership.

As he browsed through the videos Jason found that most of them were like tutorials leading to a playlist of pay to watch Videos.

After that, Jason wanted to throw a fit but he was reminded again that most martial arts were uploaded by commoners trying to make some quick cash while sharing their tips and tricks.

While searching through some free videos Jason stumbled upon a whole free playlist provided by the federation about a technique he was already familiar with.

[Azure feisty Ape]

Looking at the first sequence Jason realized that he had remembered everything correctly, but there was a small problem.

Jason couldn´t clearly see the mana flow through the holographic screen.

It felt somewhat blurred and when he tried focusing his eyes on the mana flow, they began to hurt slightly.

There wasn't anything he could do about it so he just binge-watched the videos one after another without focusing his gaze on the mana flow.

Even then Jason had made huge progress by only viewing the instructions made by the middle-aged instructor in front of the camera.

'Seeing that is definitely better than solely surveying the mana flow' Jason thought time flew by as he observed and tried to incorporate the tips and tricks shown by the instructor.

He was still lying on his bed watching and rewatching the instructions about the Azure feisty ape technique when he heard the sound of a crack next to him.

The mana stones that were previously a deep dark blue color turned into a brighter shade of blue and Jason was astonished to see the sheer amount of mana stored inside them.

More than half of the stored mana had been utilized and the egg began to shake violently, while small cracks started to appear on the shell's surface.

Jason´s mood brightened immediately, as he watched the cracks deepen in nervous anticipation.

The shell burst open, only to reveal a small puffed-up owl chick with small beady and black eyes, looking at Jason curiously.

After shaking off the remaining eggshells it looked at the mana stones before it toddled towards Jason as fast as it could, throwing itself into his embrace.

Jason felt the owl chick´s happiness within himself as they shared each other's emotions, turning him even happier than he had been.

Holding the fist-sized chick, Jason remembered that he had to give it a name.

'Is it a boy or a girl??' Jason wasn't sure which gender the owl cub belonged to as a thought was transmitted into his mind, telling him that the owl chick was a female.

Thinking about a few female names, he shared it with the little owl, but Jason felt that she would reject each of them.

If he had to be honest, his naming sense was horrible, probably even worse than the worst name generator humanity had.

After pondering over the possible names for a long time, Jason's head began to hurt slightly and he subconsciously entered the soul world inside his mind.

He saw a small feeble string struggling to stay strong between the snowflake owl's soul print as Jason saw an illusionary forest, moon, and a cloaked archer hunting something.

Connecting all the images in his head together, a single word appeared in his mind 'Artemis'.

Jason was unsure of what was going on in his small soul world or how he could think of such a name. Though the small owl chick chirped delightedly and Jason felt that she liked this name.

"So, it's Artemis." Jason thought as he smiled lovingly at his soulbond.

The color she radiated was not as feeble as earlier and much stronger which made Jason even happier but he was still unable to decipher the color somehow.

It felt as if it was an alien color, a mixture of every known color to him but also somehow not.

Luckily, Jason found out about the mana deficit and Professor Gray's theory was also valid so Jason had no reason to be sad.

It was only afternoon, but Jason felt extremely exhausted after trying to memorize the techniques in the video. His whole body ached and his eyes began to droop as he drifted towards sleep while holding Artemis in his hand.