After he had tended his soulbonds' wounds to a certain degree, Jason wanted to rest after the last few, long days were finally over.

He was still in the gigantic forest's outskirts close to the mountain range next to it.

Nevertheless, his distance to the area with the massacred putrefaction rats was quite a distance away.

As such he climbed up a large tree and decided to rest for the next few hours.

There was no other beast in his surroundings and even if there were, he was able to conceal his mana core continuously by now, which was extremely beneficial.

Thanks to that, other beasts wouldn't be able to detect him easily.

This allowed him to fall asleep without any worries.

**

Several hours passed before Jason was awoken by his soulbonds that demanded to eat something.

He felt that his mana core was already completely replenished thanks to his passive mana gathering and his tiredness was washed away.

As such he climbed down the tree he was on to summon Artemis and Scorpio who looked like they were had been badly beaten up.

Nevertheless, their appearance was already much better compared to a few hours ago.

With that in mind, Jason couldn't help but smile lightly as he took out his soulbonds' food from his spatial ring.

After that he caressed them a lot, thanking them for their hard work which caused the black origin flame to emerge from his soul world as it transmitted a thought that was supposed to mean something like 'What about me then???'

Grinning lightly Jason thought that caressing the black origin flame was not really possible because it didn't possess a body and he could only stare at the compressed fist-sized flame which floated in front of him.

"You did a good job too!" Jason said to the black origin flame, while Artemis and Scorpio eyed the flame with suspicion.

Artemis hadn't been on good terms with the black origin flame but that was solely because of the instinctive repulsive feelings it got from everything that had to do with flames.

It terrified her, and she was not sure why this was the case.

However, Artemis also knew that the black origin flame saved Jason's life multiple times.

As such she forced herself to suppress the feelings she had towards the black flame as she noticed the golden traces within the flame.

Scorpio seemed to notice the same and both began to transmit Jason several thoughts in succession, causing a slight headache.

They asked why the black flame suddenly had golden traces within them, and how it became so much stronger.

The former was something he was unable to answered too but the latter was interesting.

'The black origin flame's mana fluctuations are restricted right now and the origin flame doesn't show any signs of being stronger from its outer appearance...so how exactly are Artemis and Scorpio able to determine that the black origin flame became stronger?'

It was obvious that the liquefied drop of mana inside its mana core was a major factor in their statement, but Jason was wondering if there was another reason for them to act like they were currently doing.

After asking them about that, Jason found out that they sensed that the black origin flame's aura changed substantially.

This was something he had overlooked.

After he took a proper look at the black origin flame's aura, Jason had to acknowledge that it had definitely changed a little bit!

Nobody knew why the black flame had traces of a golden color within them and he could only assume that it had something to do with his soul world.

Jason was unsure if that was the case but it was definitely possible!

After he had fed Artemis and Scorpio he requested them to remain inside his soul world until they fully recuperated as the soul world's healing ability was superb.

The black origin flame followed Artemis and Scorpio, leaving Jason who was already in his own train of thoughts.

Now that he had received his baptism and that the black origin flame evolved into a Tier-1 origin flame, Jason's strength skyrocketed immediately.

After the baptism, his mana core size and physical strength increased to that of an average 1st to 2nd level Master rank, while his mana core rank was only that of a 5th Expert.

This was already extremely beneficial because the baptism enlarged and strengthened his vessel instead of burdening it.

As such his vessel received a major upgrade thanks to the baptism.

With his soulbonds' amplification of 33% which he received due to his soul world's superiority, Jason's mana core size and physical strength increased to that of a 7th Master rank!

However, that was not everything because Jason was sure that his vessel could cope with the burden he would receive if one of his soulbonds, other than the black origin flame that didn't amplify anything, were to enter his mana core.

The fortified soul conjunction would allow him to reach the innate phase of the Lique-state or also close to that of a Magus rank if Artemis or Scorpio were to unleash their whole strength amplification after entering his mana core.

It was still June and Jason's combat prowess had already reached that of a newly advanced Magus rank, and it would have been a lie if he were to say that it was not shocking.

'With that kind of upgrade in my combat prowess, the Mythic Garden won't be as dangerous as it had been before.at least I won't be a pushover!'

Adding the fact that the Tier-1 origin flame's mana nullifying ability had become much stronger, Jason couldn't help but be satisfied with his current combat prowess.

He was still unsure how high the black origin flame's limits as a Tier-1 origin flame were, but it was evident that its ability to nullify mana was extraordinary.

Furthermore, Jason felt that its other ability to purify things was also upgraded as it should have been!

From what he perceived, Jason could tell that the purification ability's might, doubled at the bare minimum.

With that in mind, he wanted to purify a grade-1 Jade-Iron ore and take a look if he could expel more impurities from living beings which it could apparently already do before it evolved!

That was if his eyes were not playing tricks to him during the time he had expelled the poison from the small group of young men and women he had saved a few days prior.

There were so many mysterious things about the black origin flame that Jason couldn't help but ask himself once again how such a precious treasure appeared on Astrix.

Now that he rested enough, he wanted to continue searching for a suitable cursed soulbond.

Jason recalled the reclusive area the woman, who he had rescued, told him and he thought that it was worth a try.

The area she was walking about had also been marked as extremely dangerous from the handwritten book about the Mythic Garden which indicated to Jason that he might be able to find what he was searching for there!

Due to Artemis' injury, he couldn't ask her to enter his mana core to manifest her wings which forced him to remain on the ground.

This was not necessarily something bad but Jason knew that he would have to take many detours to enter the reclusive area with all kinds of cursed beings inside because he was restricted to take one of the few existing paths to enter it!