บท 30: Refusal
Jason was left in a stupor by her words, they sounded like an offer that would be given to a main protagonist or a part of the main cast. And last he checked he didn't belong to any of those categories.
He was just a boy that happened to fall under the author's cruel, cruel list of people the guy hated the most.
But the thought was appealing... Very, very appealing.
He had just seen the tremendous amount of power the clan guardian had summoned without putting in any effort, she easily manipulated the laws of reality as if she was playing a game in which she was a master at.
To be under her tutelage... Seemed like something out of his reach, something he could only dream about daily without the chance of it actually happening.
But she was offering it, and it sounded suspicious!
"Do I have a choice?" Jason asked, his uncertainty being portrayed in his words.
"You actually do." She affirmed.
Jason's ears pricked up at her words, his mind went through many scenarios as he tried to find out the deeper meaning within her words.
Jason knew the clan guardian was whimsical, she could offer him something and then kill him in the next. In a sense he was essentially gambling with his life – and he hated gambling if the chances of losing were below 95%.
"I'll have to reject your proposal, unfortunately." Jason said, stumbling over the words.
"Hmm..." The clan guardian thoughtfully put a finger on her cheek.
Then, she bust into a fit of laughter, putting both arms on her waist to support herself.
"Hahahahaha... Interesting, if you had agreed your body would have been scattered into a million pieces." She said in between her laughter.
Jason chuckled dryly, his life had just hung in the balance of a whim and the wrong words. If he had uttered I accept or even sweeter words he wouldn't even be a corpse, his body would have suffered a fate worse than death.
"... Or would you actually want that?" She asked.
Jason had a dry look on his face, a smile that seemed troubled and pained. She really liked a good laugh.
"Relax I'm just kidding." She said.
The clan guardian straightened herself up.
Jason watched her with interest as she moved, he was awaiting her next words.
Suddenly her form blitzed through the air, the place she was showing nothing but an afterimage, a testament to her speed.
Jason immediately put his guard up, putting up a useless effort to try and block an impending attack.
But no attack came, after half a second the afterimage blurred away.
Jason relaxed himself.
She had gone, probably to her humble abode where she spent decades watching the irrelevant activities of the humans in the clan.
Just like his...
Or not.
"I thought she was going to attack me." Jason laughed at his former thoughts.
If the clan guardian tried to attack him he wouldn't even be able to put up his defenses on time before being blown to bits, her strength was simply too outrageous this way.
She could destroy him in over a million ways and he wouldn't be able to retaliate.
Jason shrugged as he looked around him, he felt as if an invisible weight had just been lifted from his shoulders. He couldn't tell if the clan guardian's presence was the cause of this or because he had lost his arm off.
"How will I compete with a single arm?" Jason asked himself.
Jason was right-handed, not left. When he used blade strike, a katana, a dagger and even off-hand he always used his right hand.
The only time he didn't use it was when he was sparring with Zane, and even that had gotten his finger gotten cleanly taken off.
He felt like they were specifically aiming to take his body parts off and it wouldn't be long before they started aiming to take his head off.
But they probably would.
In the Clan Trial.
The children from branch families would try to bully him, and when he showed that he didn't give two fucks about their words the next step would be taking it into the dungeon.
After all, there was a popular saying: What happens in a dungeon stays in a dungeon.
Considering the little buggers had bad characters (which they would surely have).
Jason thought of them as more horrible versions of Titania.
"Whatever." Jason said to himself before going to pick Emily up, he would deal with the problem when it came.
"At least, I don't have to worry about who'll protect her when I leave." Jason smiled softly, the clan guardian could take care of Emily and stop any more people who tried to kidnap the girl.
"Wait..." His smile faltered as he realized.
One of the elders wanted to kidnap the Brown girl, what made her so special?
It made sense, the system advised him to take the girl for a reason. If he managed to interrogate the elder he might be able to find out what is so special about her.
But...
It would take him at least four years before he reached the level of an elder, if he and his opponent weren't on the same level – if they were stronger than him, their mana control would obviously be good enough to resist his mana disturbing nature.
His strength wasn't enough, but it would be more than enough in the future.
Jason carried the young girl from the ground, he prepared to make his way into his home when he noticed something.
"The ball!" Jason muttered in surprise.
He was so caught up in the moment that he didn't remember that she had not dispelled the ball that contained the remains of the rank 1 awakened.
He would like to examine the properties of the ball.
The clan guardian radiated three types of energy: Mana, Nature Energy and another unknown one.
He wondered if he would be able to use nature energy to recreate this ball.
"Yeah right." Jason said as jumped into the sky to pick the ball.
As he landed he went into the house and closed the door behind him, he laid Emily down in a corner of the room before putting his attention on the ball.
It was a small dark ball.
It was bouncy.
Jason rolled the ball on his fingers but couldn't find anything.
From first glance this seemed like any ordinary ball. Even after inspecting it for thirty minutes it still didn't change.
If Jason didn't see this same ball contain the pieces of the rank 1 awakened he wouldn't believe it, this seemed too ordinary.
There was practically nothing giving it away as a supernatural object.
"I don't even know how to manipulate nature energy without using a talent, perhaps if I could do it I would have an idea on how this worked."
Jason dropped the ball onto the ground, watching it bounce.
"Tomorrow I'll have to ask Zane for a potion."
Jason gulped.
He realized that doing this would make him come off as dependent on him, but Zane was the older boy. He was also the one with resources like leaves growing from a tree.
Jason wasn't even important in the eyes of the clan elders.
Suddenly the image of his debt flashed in Jason's eyes, he smiled bitterly.
He owed the system quite a bit.
It seemed like it would be a long time before he got a working right arm.
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