When he found his masters, who were currently observing Emily's concocting process of a potion, Jason couldn't help but be interested.
It was unsurprising that Dalia taught Emily, whom she treated like a princess, how to concoct, but Jason was curious about how she was faring.
Emily was unable to purify the potions she was currently concocting but there was no mistake, at most something negligible that wouldn't make a difference to the potion's efficiency.
Concocting a grade-1 potion after learning how to concoct for half a year was not bad, considering that Emily didn't have a superior mana mastery, mana eyes to perceive the mana flow perfectly or an origin flame which made everything easier; she was truly fast!
Jason was a unique case with several advantages that made even his masters jealous, thus, Dalia was glad that she was able to teach Emily at a normal pace.
She took Emily in as her second disciple because her ambition and determination to become stronger were truly shocking.
After the Golden-Soul shop reduced their exhibited goods drastically, the number of customers became fewer too.
As such, Emily didn't have to come to the shop, which was something Dalia had decided.
Focusing on becoming stronger, Emily's mana core rank increased to the 7th Expert rank while the emerald-colored egg she had bound finally hatched.
It took a long time, but the hatched beast was a Lesser typhoon Roc, which astonished both Dalia and Shane.
Rocs were seen as extremely powerful beasts, superior to eagles, and labeled as Overlord of the Sky.
Only Dragons and other mythical beings were comparable to a Roc. It was said that only a few Rocs had ever been seen on Argos but when someone saw them demonstrating their strength, it had always been terrifying and devastating to their surroundings.
As such, everyone was overjoyed after the Lesser typhoon Roc hatched, only for Dalia to freak out when she remembered that Emily's vessel would hardly be strong enough to receive the amplification of a mythical beast at the Guardian stage.
In that case, it was a blessing in disguise when Emily told Dalia and Shane how much of a soul amplification she received from the Lesser typhoon Roc.
Emily was unable to tell the exact number, but comparing the increase her mana core size received to the rank the lesser typhoon roc had, they could estimate that Emily's amplification was about 5%.
This was not much, but perfect for Emily, who was unlikely to face any problems with a bursting vessel in the future!
As such, the pressure on her lifted because her mana absorption wouldn't be slowed down like it was the case with Jason. She would have to tell her soulbond to halt its advancement before entering the Lique stage but that was not really an issue.
Furthermore, she would be able to increase her mana core rank quickly once her soulbond halted its own advancement due to the large difference of a 5% soul amplification with a single soulbond to that of a 33% soul amplification with two soulbonds.
**
Less than 20 minutes had passed before Emily finished concocting the potion:
Wiping away the sweat on her forehead, she turned around to Dalia, only to see that Jason stood in the doorframe.
"Jason! You're awake!" She shouted out with a smile on her face, which confused Jason a lot
'Why are you so happy??'
Turning around, Shane and Dalia saw that Jason stood behind them, but instead of being overjoyed, their expression was a little bit sad.
"You...were supposed to lower your soul amplification...not nullify it." Shane said as his lips curled downwards.
Meanwhile, Dalia gave him a hug saying "It was probably hard on you, huh?"
'What the hell is going on with them?' Jason was utterly dumbfounded about their behavior, but thinking about it for a short moment he understood it.
Initially, they wanted to decrease his soul amplification to around 10%-15% and knowing that a curse was stagnant, both Shane and Dalia were sure that Jason did something he shouldn't have.
However, thinking that he would have never bound a cursed beast without proper reasoning, it had probably been a necessity to survive.
Yet, Jason was still happy as he said teasingly "Even if my soul amplification would be nullified, it could be cursed to increase it again, which is however not necessary"
With this Jason was talking about Isga's case. He used the Debilitation Centaur's soul amplification curse to increase his amplification from 0 to 10% as it was impossible to have a negative soul amplification.
At least that was what Isga's father found out.
Jason's soul amplification was a different case and in the beginning, he had even thought that his soul amplification would be decreased by 50% as it was the case with Artemis' 100% soul amplification when she was inside his mana core.
This would, under normal circumstances, mean that his soul amplification should hit 0% from 33% and then 'decreased' to 17% which would have been perfect.
However, it seemed like weakening an existing amplification below 0% was not possible and Isga's case with a soul amplification of 0% was something rarely seen.
Smiling at his masters because they were worried about this, Jason could only wave his hand, indicating that they shouldn't be so worried!
"I think it would be better if I explain what happened inside the Mythic Garden. After that, everything will be much clearer and It will be easier to demonstrate what is going on...After that, I need an explanation about the Shadow Walker's infiltration and what other races I have to pay attention to!"
When they saw how serious and confident Jason was, his masters couldn't help but feel that he had matured a lot during the last six months!
Meanwhile, Emily couldn't help but think that Jason's current combat prowess was probably only a little bit higher than her own, which made her extremely happy.
She worked so hard during the last few months to become stronger with the goal to defeat Jason. Emily was not sure why that was one of her goals when she started to practice mana, but he had saved her and she wanted to repay this debt by all means!
Other than that, Dalia and Shane were praising her a lot, but deep within her, Emily knew that her own talent was nothing compared to Jason's.
Otherwise, Dalia and Shane would be astonished to see her improving so fast, which did not happen.
Through this, she felt the need to become stronger at a rapid pace, increasing manifold, only to see that Jason had already returned.
He had reached the mana core rank of a 2nd Master even though he was barely 15 years old, and this was without adding the high soul amplification he previously had into account.
They entered the living room and sat down.
Dalia took out a few freshly cooked dishes which were left from their lunch and placed them in front of Jason, who eyed them with desire.
Devouring every single dish Dalia took out of her storage ring, the others could only stare at him wondrous as Jason revealed the fact that he didn't eat much throughout the last six months.
There hadn't been enough time or safe places where he could have cooked something, while the other dishes he brought to the Mythic Garden had to be rationed.
But that was not important because the surrounding mana and the nutrition he obtained through the medical solutions were more than enough to stay alive.
Rather than that, he was full of energy within the Mythic Garden, which was the most important point that changed compared to now.
After explaining every little detail to his masters and Emily, three hours had passed.
"That's...Is that good? Or bad?" Dalia mumbled when Shane thought 'Should we lecture him for being too full of himself or praise him for achieving such a great feat?'
Jason could tell that his masters were contemplating about something after they heard his story which caused him to smile drily.
Meanwhile, Emily could only stare at him with doubt
"So...the origin flame evolved and your mana core has the size of an average 4th Master rank even without a single amplification? Now your soul world core can also switch between the percentage your soul world amplification is decreased? That's cheating!!"
Emily had hoped to catch up to Jason, who was even younger than she was...but now this goal moved far into the distance.
This was frustrating and it was difficult not to see how baffled Shane and Dalia were about this revelation.
The pride she had built up in the last six months was instantly shattered, but instead of being discouraged, or holding a grudge against Jason, she couldn't help but feel even more motivated.
Furthermore, from Jason's explanation, she could imagine how hard he had worked and the final results were obvious!
As such, she didn't feel that Jason was more like a role model, who had saved her, than someone she should hold a grudge against.
Suddenly after Jason had explained everything about the curse and his soul world core, that was able to switch between two different settings to curse his amplification, he said
"If possible I want to create my second sub-area with the mind splitting technique as soon as possible. After that, It would be best for me to go into solitary cultivation at a secure place with a huge amount of mana"
It looked like Jason had already made a plan to utilize his current state perfectly when Shane asked
"You want to return to Astrix, or more likely Cyro-City and make use of the huge mana vein?"
With a sly smile on his, Jason gave Shane a thumbs up, showing that this was exactly what he planned to do when Dalia said
"We found a suitable fruit to protect your brain, but are you sure that you want to go to the Drake family's territory after what happened? You haven't heard what happened during the last few months! Everything is in chaos thanks to the Shadow Walker's, their alliance, and how a few big clans started to act suddenly, right?"