Jason was still not sure how Pera and Jen hadn't been able to figure out that he had been a halfling without him exposing his identity.
However, what he didn't know was the simple fact that all kinds of races existed and that it was quite common to come across extraordinary-looking beings.
There were also those that looked like humans, only to be different, owing to different body parts of unique traits.
As such, nobody could truly figure out that one was a halfling, except if one was able to use repulsive energies or affinities at the same time.
This indicated that one possessed a unique constitution that allowed the wielder to use these energies and affinities at the same time.
In the end, there were also other possibilities to be able to use multiple energies or repulsive affinities at once, and Jason just didn't know about it yet.
His mind and behavior had been conditioned according to the surroundings on Argos, where every race including the infiltrating races were well known.
Jason had yet to understand that it was completely different on Manyr, where everything, including one's race, was much more difficult to determine.
Nevertheless, his initial assumption about Jennifer being a halfling had been correct, and his revelation about being a halfling himself eased the tension she had been feeling before.
With his golden-silverish eyes, and his aura and stigma fully unleashed, Jason's demeanor had changed completely, and Jen recalled the short moment she had been distracted by the young man, several months ago.
However, instead of mentioning it, she preferred to remain silent about her identity and thanked Pera for the potions before she bid them farewell.
Seeing Jason's innocent smile and his kind aura, Jen felt bad about the fact that he would be punished for entering the City lord's abode.
'Should I make a short detour and see my Master for a moment?'
While Jen asked the doubt to herself, Pera averted her attention from the young woman who left through the halfway, which connected the auxiliary tower with the main building.
Looking at Jason, she smiled craftily.
The moment he saw this, Jason couldn't help but take a step back, only to bump into the table behind him as he heard Pera ask,
"From the looks of it and your 'situation', I doubt that your punishment will be severe. As such, you can calm down and distract yourself.
Do you want to forge a little bit? The cold-looking Aeus you met earlier told me that you made an inscription solution and that you wanted to forge a weapon. Can I see what you made?"
Considering that Pera was called a crazy woman, she was able to easily adapt to the situation without sounding crazy at all.
Rather, Jason found that she was quite normal if one were to exclude the comment she made earlier.
With that in mind, he took the bright red dagger out of his spatial ring.
The dagger had slightly darker red runes inscribed on the bright red blade, which made them barely visible.
However, that was not an important aspect of the dagger. Its appearance was far from perfect, but Jason was fully aware of the same.
The more interesting aspect of the dagger was the fact that the main ingredients to forge the weapon were fire-attributed!
With the fire elemental crystal as the main ingredient of the inscription solution, and the fire element ore as the only metal used to forge the blade, the dagger had become a tool that was fully focused on enhancing the fire attribute.
Because of that, Jason released a faint trace of mana into the dagger which heated it up as a rune ignited.
A moment later, sparks flew and a flame erupted from the dagger's tip before the entire weapon was enveloped in a thin membrane of flames.
Seeing this, Pera was immediately interested but also confused because Jason was obviously much younger to achieve this feat than one would normally be.
She had long since released her mana currents to investigate Jason so that nothing unexpected could happen.
He had noticed her move, but he didn't feel the need to waste his energy to prevent someone who was merely two stages above him, from figuring out who he was and how old he was according to his bone age.
Even if Jason wanted to exert his energy in putting up a defense, the mana currents of someone at the Ascendion stage could simply squash him, if Pera wanted to.
Thus, he remained silent as Pera asked in confusion,
"You were able to forge a weapon out of fire attributed Tanadan ore? And you are yet to turn 20. That's uncommon, to put it in extremely simple terms"
Jason only smiled at this before he replied,
"One could say that I emerged inside a cave that had this ore, and elemental crystals all at one place. I have some with better quality, and at the Prismar rank too!"
Instead of lying, Jason decided to be honest with the people inside the City lord's abode. There was no proper reason for him to do so, except his gut feeling guiding his actions to avoid receiving a painful punishment.
Honesty should still hold some value, even more so in an era that was filled with lies, greed, and self-centered beings.
Pera just nodded her head when she heard Jason, only to tilt her head a moment later.
"I guess you don't know the Tanadan ore or, you wouldn't tell me about the cave.
To put it nicely, this ore is extremely important to forge certain weapons similar to the one you did.
Because the cultivation paths of Pryr and Spiral are unable to use affinities, beings with those cultivation paths are always searching for ways to utilise their cultivation energy to the limit of their capabilities.
With your little weapon, even said beings could manifest a flame, and with enough practice maybe learn to conjure a fireball or other more dangerous things."
After Pera said this, she extended her hand with her palm wide open, indicating Jason that he should hand over the dagger to her for a moment.
He did as requested, and only a moment later she released some spiritual force, before inserting it into the dagger that began to heat up before a faint flame emerged from it.
Detaching it from the dagger-blade, Pera conjured an extremely small fireball before it dispersed.
A moment later, Pera's face turned pale, draining her of all the color, which caused him to instinctively take a step forward.
However, only a moment later, Pera's expression returned to normal as she mumbled,
"I really shouldn't use spiritual force anymore"
Jason had found her spiritual force weird since he'd seen her wield it with his Emperor Eyes. At the same time, he could tell that her cultivation was at the Ascendion stage, but only in the path of Maest.
Meanwhile, Pera's awakened Spiral cultivation vein seemed to be damaged or malfunctioning because she hadn't cultivated in the Spiral path!
In the end, this was not something Jason should be bothered about, but somehow he felt sorry.
'She definitely didn't receive a blessing in disguise...that's more like bad luck in disguise!'
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