Everyone inside the large hall was affected by the emotion disorder curse radiating from the large centipede that almost killed the youth with a lightning affinity.
Yet, Jason was the only one who seemed to be unaffected as his eyes shone in a bright golden color, only to be covered by the mask he wore.
Averting his gaze to take a look around, Jason tried to see if there was someone else who was unaffected, or with a weaker effect.
However, that didn't seem to be the case and one could see crying youths fighting against the centipedes, whose eyes seemed to be completely dead, and gigantic ants in all kinds of colors.
These ants had all types of affinities and didn't harbor a curse. This was different from the centipedes he saw as they were the Dead-eye centipedes he was looking for.
Instead of wasting too much time, Jason decided to intervene in their fight because he wanted to help out.
At the same time, he could find out if the Dead-eye centipede's curse was what he was searching for.
Summoning the pseudo-mana grade-2 light longsword, he inserted enough mana to sharpen it. Exerting the weightless steps technique at the perfect mastery, Jason's speed increased by 60% as he emerged in front of the first Dead-eye centipede that was about to maw at one of the crying prodigies.
'Their willpower is truly the worst' Jason thought, seeing how many prodigies' combat prowess decreased drastically after they had been influenced by the emotion disorder curse.
Only half of the present prodigies were able to retain most of their combat prowess which was definitely not a lot! Considering that they were the cream of the crop from the prodigies that went inside the Mythic Garden this was ridiculous.
'It's not like I should complain about it...I don't even know how potent the curse is..' He told to himself as he pierced out with his light longsword, using the Devious Swordmaster technique.
His attack had a high velocity and was lethal, piercing through the Dead-eye centipede's dead eye, killing the low Unblemished ranked beast without any resistance.
After that he turned around, only to sense that several curses had been directed at him.
Jason's body stiffened for a quarter second before he regained his composure as he jumped back, evading one of the ant's pincers that were about to cut him in half.
'They're only at the low Unblemished rank, but their combined attack is lethal...I didn't expect that the Dead-eye centipedes curse can be overlapped...They should also be able to curse multiple targets, considering that everyone seems to be influenced by several weakening curses!'
While retreating, Jason took a look at the curse he received and what exactly had been cursed several times.
Unfortunately, his entire being had been cursed!
While his soul world amplification was reduced to around 30%, while his other traits had also been reduced by 10%.
Adding several layers at once, Jason noticed that the weakening curse could at most weaken a single individual by slightly less than 30% which was the accumulation of three weakening curses at once.
Sighing deeply, Jason couldn't help but feel sad that the Dead-eye centipedes were not the kind of weakening curse beast he was looking for.
Utilizing the black origin flame that had entered his mana core, Jason ignited his lights longsword as he cut the ants that tried to overwhelm him with their number, in two halves.
Slashing and stabbing, his sword killed every single foe that approached, him without any hesitation.
Around ten minutes passed when Jason's whole body and mask were littered with blood.
Sighing deeply, he manifested a mask made out of the black origin flame around his face before he took off the former pitch-black mask which he stored away.
Revealing his golden eyes that were enveloped by an unmoving black flame, Jason looked like a mixture between a holy and devilish being.
Slashing at the Mid-unblemished ranked beast in front of him, he suddenly perceived a flash of lightning shooting past his head, piercing through several Ants that were about to manifest fireballs in order to shoot them at him.
Turning around, Jason wanted to thank the youth that used the lightning affinity when his eyes widened.
Instinctively he manifested several dozen icicles at once as he shot them towards the athletic build youth who saved him only a moment before.
He was not even able to exclaim as the icicles shot past the youth, killing a large Dead-eyed centipede that shot out of the ground the moment the black-haired youth with purple stripes was distracted.
Only a moment after, the horned lightning panther shot past his master towards the centipede that already died a moment ago before it averted its angle to shoot towards the Lowest Lique stage centipede with multiple drops of mana in its mana core.
Most Lique stage soulbonds focused on the emotional disorder curse centipedes because it was the most dangerous threat for everyone around them, while the young prodigies focused on killing the Dead-eye centipedes that lowered their combat prowess by a large margin.
Subconsciously Jason and the lightning ability user approached each other and Jason couldn't help but shout
"Let's team up for a moment, alright?"
The youth who shouldn't be older than 18 years old nodded his head as he said
"I'm Isga Maldor, thanks for saving me twice, let's keep up our cooperation!"
Smiling lightly at Jason, he couldn't help but feel intimated by the golden-eyed youth's ability to control his black flame.
However that was not everything and it seemed like most beasts at the Low-Unblemished rank tried to avoid fighting against him which was uncommon in the Mythic Garden, where every beast tried to kill humans by all means.
It was as if humans were the common enemy of every single kind of beast within the Mythic Garden which was also the reason for the Dead-eyed centipedes to team up with the gigantic elemental ants.
Jason sized up Isga for the first time as he remembered that the Maldor family was one of the families that had a big clan below them as he saw something wondrous.
'Did he bind a cursed beast?' He was unsure whether Isga was cursed by too many Dead-eye centipedes or if he harbored a curse himself.
However, from what he could tell after having sized up Isga's mana core, was that he had two soulbonds. One of them was the horned lightning panther while the other one was unknown.
His mana core rank was at the Lowest Lique stage and he had just one liquefied drop of mana. Every single new liquefied drop of mana was precious and made a huge difference in one's combat prowess.
That was also why the emotion disorder cursed centipede with multiple drops of liquefied mana was so powerful!
It was able to fight against several soulbonds that had only one drop of liquefied mana within them.
Only the horned lightning panther with three drops of liquefied mana within its mana core was somewhat of a threat.
Adding the advantage of having a lightning ability that could create lightning spears with high speed and damage output, the horned lightning panther was able to change the tides of the battle by supporting the other Lowest Lique stage soulbonds.
Less than 20 minutes later the whole battle was over and both Jason and Isga hadn't sustain any injuries.
They were also the only ones that were unaffected or rather almost completely unaffected by the emotion disorder curse.
After every beast was defeated, the temporary effect of the weakening curse began to diminish and Jason could breathe freely again.
However, he didn't extinguish the black flame that served as a mask to hide his facial features.
Jason only did so because Milan told him that they should team up with Suo's group.
As such it was better to hide his face for now.
At least until he figured out if Suo would throw him out of the group once he were to find out who he was.
Staring at Isga, whom he teamed up with for a short time, Jason couldn't help but feel that he found someone who knew how to fight.
Maybe his standards were too low because he was only accustomed to the standards of Astrix's schools' combat proficiency.
This began to change, now that he had witnessed how Isga fought, and both could tell that it was good to fight with the other person next to him.
Even if they didn't know each other for years, they felt that they could rely on each other during a fight which was a rare occurrence.
"You haven't said your name yet! Isga suddenly said and Jason could only smile oddly as he said
"Ah sorry, my name is Jason!"
However, before he could think anymore, he blurted out what he was curious about
"Are you cursed?"
Isga's eyes widened at this question as he saw Jason's golden eyes that released a faint golden glow 'Are these mana eyes?'
"I'm cursed, yes! I bound a cursed beast and received its curse, but it's more like a blessing to me!"