54 Speed!
The truck was driving slowly, due to the speed limit inside the city, but once they left the city it began to accelerate to a certain extent.
Mark was mindful of his driving speed because he had to be careful of the surrounding humans who could run around inside the dome.
Nevertheless, he maintained a good speed while the kids peered out of the windows.
After a few minutes, one could see the dome as they reached the outskirts of the city. The truck drove through the dome without any further obstacles.
What then happened astonished Jason extremely, because Mark pressed a button on the mainboard causing the truck to ascend slightly.
The advanced anti-gravitational magic-circles were shining brightly and Jason saw that they reached the limit of their ability when the hovering truck reached a height of around 3 meters.
There was a holographic screen next to Mark with a detailed map of Astrix and a few large grey dots could be seen on it.
The whole Island was divided into many different areas which were probably wild-zones.
Each of these areas was marked with a certain amount of black stars. Jason thought that one star was probably the indicator of a one-star wild zone. His assumption was confirmed when the map indicated that their vehicle was moving through an area pinned with a single black star while they drove through the one-star plains.
Jason found it oddly interesting as he keenly observed the whole map which was filled with many different kinds of landscapes.
Mana was capable of many things and since the mana outbreak, mana environments in some areas had undergone a drastic change.
It didn't matter anymore where the equator was or how far away one is from the sun compared to other places, the temperature and environment were almost completely dependent on the surrounding mana and natural-born treasures.
Magical treasures are able to change the whole environment with their radiating mana, even after the treasure was discovered and collected, the remains would cause the environment to continue transforming.
It was still unknown how exactly the environment had changed, but there were a few theories like it was with everything new.
The northern area of Astrix was filled with many white spots while in the center of the island was a huge volcano.
Jason knew that right now their position was relatively close to the ice fields but more towards the east. They would travel closer to the volcano to enter Cyro city which was somehow between the volcano and the northern ice fields.
But Jason was also astonished to see that except for the few empty areas, the strongest area was pinned with a single red star while one to four black stars represented the corresponding wild zone.
He concluded that the strongest zones were thus a magical beast zone.
Thinking about the empty gray areas, Jason concluded that stronger beasts must live there while humans didn't dare or maybe cared to venture through it.
While Jason was in thought about what kinds of beast could be ranked higher than magical beasts, the hovering truck further accelerated and reached an astonishing speed.
Mark revved the engine and cranked the speed to more than 300km/h and once Jason looked through the window, he almost shrieked in shock.
`Isn't that too dangerous?!?!`
But apparently, they flew through a detour and avoided areas with huge hills, big rocks and certain types of trees.
`With this speed, we still need two days until we arrive at Jiro city?? And Mark said they have to drive through the night….`
Malia and Greg didn't mind the hovering trucks' speed and absorbed mana from small mana stones or read some files on their holographic screen.
Jason noticed that and decided to follow suit and absorb mana for himself.
When he retrieved a mana stone Artemis noticed it and she tried to grab it, though Jason prevented it.
Instead, he took out five five-star wild beast cores and told her to eat and digest them.
He would give her an awakened beast core later which would definitely make her happy while he would check if there was a difference in the conversion rate between her digestion because the amount of mana was the same for five five-star wild beast cores and a low-awakened beast core.
Artemis was not satisfied with the wild beast's cores and annoyed Jason, forcing him to give her the mana stone but he was resolute.
A few minutes later Jason finally convinced Artemis and she gulped down the cores before she went into the soul world to digest them.
Meanwhile, Jason readied himself to absorb mana from the mana stones.
He hoped that he would be able to break into the 5th Novice-rank either today or the day after.
Closing his eyes, he loosened up a mana thread from the mana stone in his hand, leading it into him.
After circling it through his mana channels, he inserted them in his mana core.
Hours passed and Jason practiced until it was already lunchtime.
While the landscapes steadily changed, Mark drove through them as he traveled through them every single day.
Not a single beast was in the vicinity nor were there any surprise attacks and this was probably because of the beast repellent used on the truck and its scary appearance.
So far, they had only driven through one three-star wild zone and not a single beast could harm them if some were confident enough to try attacking it
Surprisingly Artemis woke him up at 2 pm and she had already digested five five-star cores which was quite impressive.
He had thought that she would at least need a day to digest them completely but she did not even require half of the estimated time.
Jason's stomach rumbled and he decided to eat something.
Everyone would eat something whenever they felt hungry because the time needed to gather mana was more important and it could be quite harmful to distract someone while absorbing it.
A simple mistake could lead to serious injuries.
This problem wouldn't occur with Artemis because he had already sensed that she was awake before she annoyed him and Jason finished absorbing the mana smoothly.
Jason was really astonished about the increased speed of his mana absorption rate with a mana stone. He felt that even if his mana core increased because of Artemis's sudden rise in her level, he would be able to break through tomorrow.
Before he ate something, he gave Artemis an awakened beast core and she gulped it down greedily.
Jason wondered if Artemis would eat up all his stocks if he did not control her, seeing that she was visibly not satisfied with the single-core.
Artemis entered his soul world in disappointment and Jason followed her to practice the Heaven's Hell technique.
After 20 minutes, he was done and left the soul world once again.
Looking outside, Jason noticed that the scenery changed slightly and to his left, the whole area was filled with lush and blossoming plants and wildlife while the right side was rather scantily planted.
Looking at the map, Jason noticed that there was a three-star wild zone next to a one-star magical winter field zone to his right side while to his left there was a two-star zone next to a large swampland.
He couldn't distinguish many features because of the hovering trucks' extreme speed, but there was no way to miss certain gigantic trees with a height of at least a hundred meters.
